VLVL2(4)(mm) The Zen of Pizza

[Vincent A. Maeder]

"All the occupants of the place were chanting, something that, with
vibes of trouble to come, he recognized -- not the words, which were in
Tibetan, but the tune, with its bone-stirring bass, to a powerful and
secret spell against invaders and oppressors, heard in particular a bit
later in the year at harvest time, when CAMP helicopters gathered in the
sky and North California, like any other U.S. pot-growing areas, once
again rejoined, operationally speaking, the third world."  (VL, Ch. 4,
p. 49)

Seems these Tibetan chants get around, especially with the Tibetan Monks
showing up at the oddest places and performing chanting ceremonies.
Notice how, in this article, the mandala's circular shape could be taken
as a pizza, or the pizzas of Bodhi Dharma Pizza could be taken as
mandalas.  And the act of constructing the pizza, then chowing down on
it actually has religious connotations.  Especially note the words on p.
51 "He stood beneath a stained-glass window made in the likeness of an
eightfold Pizzic [sic] Mandala." Waitress!  Another sausage, spinach and
Roma tomato pizza! (The V's fav)

http://www.friends-of-tibet.org.nz/news/june_2003_update_15.htm
NEWS UPDATE JUNE 2003
Monks spread word about Chinese cruelties in Tibet
By Susan Harrison Wolffis Chronicle staff writer
Wednesday, April 16, 2003

People bought. They browsed. They took home presents, necessities, sweet
nothings wrapped in bows and jammed into shopping bags.  On Tuesday
morning at The Lakes Mall in Fruitport Township, it simply looked like
business as usual.  But in the mall court bordered by Younkers, Bath &
Body Works and Fred Meyer Jewelers, there was a silent, yet intense,
political protest in process.

There was protest, and there were prayer and sacred art being created -
all in one place.  Seven Tibetan monks from the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery,
dressed in long orange robes and accompanied by an interpreter named
Lobsang Dhondup, took up residence in the middle of the mall.

There, they spoke of the cruelties inflicted on the Tibetan people, and
especially the Buddhist monks and nuns by the Chinese government. "What
can you do to help?" Dhondup said. "It would help to boycott
Chinese-made products ... while shopping here. I know people like to buy
inexpensive things. But do you know why they're inexpensive?  "Because
the products are made by people in prison."

On Sunday afternoon, the seven monks performed a concert of sacred dance
and chant at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, sponsored by
the West Michigan Healers who also brought Deepak Chopra to Muskegon in
2001.  Their message did not go unnoticed.

"You know you're in the presence of something extremely spiritual when
you're with them," said Kathryn Koches, a holistic nurse and member of
the West Michigan Healers who accompanied the seven to the mall Tuesday.

As soon as they arrived in the mall, the seven men began to pray,
chanting, kneeling, keeping a quiet presence amid the crush of shoppers.
Then they began to work on a sacred mandala -- artwork made of colored
sand.  To create a mandala, thousands of grains of sand are laid in
place in a formal geometric pattern that represents the floor plan of a
sacred mansion -- "the perfect residence of Buddha," Dhondup said. They
will work on the mandala, using various sizes of metal funnels, until
suppertime Thursday.

"Then the minute it is done," Dhondup said, they will "immediately"
begin to dismantle it.  "That is because life never remains permanent,"
he said. "It is a symbol of impermanence ... Everything is born out of
nothing."