The Buddhist Lingo

I hope I got the Buddhist lingo right on Day 33-35, the part where Roger and Otto take the sidetrip to the Grand Canyon. I also hope I got the Buddhist atmosphere right. Since this is a made-up episode, patched together only partially from other trips and experiences I had over the years, I couldn’t rely on direct memory to help me out.  I had to learn what a Buddhist wedding entailed, what words were right for the characters, and to set the mood.  I also needed it to somehow jell and conform (i.e. make it appealing and accepting) to a liberal Christian standpoint as well. Bottom line, I wanted it to be fun and didn’t want to offend anyone. I had to make Norbert and Vanessa’s wedding real, yet a point of distraction to Roger as he considers the awesome backdrop. And then we have the presence of sweet Gwen, who painted the hippie bus with the mantra, “Love All, Hurt None.” The budding friendship between her and Roger had to be as compatible and smooth as the tenants between Buddhism and Christianity; at least that’s what I pushed for. Though Roger and Otto agreed, “It’s all one God anyway,” to Roger, “it still has to square with Jesus Christ.” So there was a lot working out on these pages. One of my favorite parts of the book is on the morning of Day 35, when Roger and Otto are camping the night after the sidetrip and banter back and forth with playfulness: “I got all tuckered out channelin’ my bliss through the abstractions of my mental sphere.” “We purified our formless receptacles, Otto.  We made our material planes immune to delusion.”