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>I'd heard about the sole of the foot thing but not the table approach. Once made a faux pas when visiting a wat. A friendly young bhuddist monk approached un and chatted to us just as you'd expect a young polite educated man to do so. We had a nice long talk and at least twice I patted his arm in a friendly gesture. I didn't know at the time that you're not supposed to touch them. He never flinched or showed any sign that that was tabu though.
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>Maybe he had to go off and birch himself and ritually cleanse himself for a week after though! :-)
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That's Buddhist for you. They don't tend to take offense when other people from other cultures don't play by the rules. Tend to look a little more at what they perceive to be in one's heart and cut you a lot of slack. They have visceral reactions, of course, but they also place a great premium on jai yen - a cool heart.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
