December 25, 2008

281206 flying catfood & rice-eating vehicles

On its way down Phou Si, the cat met locals trying to sell it still fresh & tweeting pre-packaged convenience catfood for lunch...

Many Buddhists believe that one can gain merit through the supposedly compassionate act of releasing flying catfood from cages to the skies & swimming catfood from plastic bags into ponds & rivers. However, merit through 放生 (fang4 sheng4) is supposed to be derived from saving the lives of animals that are facing imminent death (e.g. fish trapped in a pond that is drying up & birds snared for slaughter - see this story - & livestock bound for the abattoir)...rather than animals that have been captured specifically for the purpose of sale & release, leading to the perpetuation of a prolonged cycle of capture-release-capture-release-capture punctuated by spells of imprisonment. See here for a whole debate on the Phou Si catfood sellers.

Vehicles do have sticky rice-chomping ຂວັນ khouan (souls/spirits):

PC280142
PC280143

For man-maid:

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Because the cat has to try every strange flavour of green tea:

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PC280147

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