An oldie but a goody from the Horse archives:

And for more Separated at Re-birth from The Worst Horse archives, click here, here, and here. (Links will open in new windows.)

And click here for more about the Marchesa Casati, and here for more about Avalokitesvara.

Have a good, safe Halloween, folks.

Visit the (wonderful!) Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive here.

And for more Separated at Re-birth from The Worst Horse archives, click here, here, and here. (Links will open in new windows.)

If you enjoy this kind of stupidity, you’ll find past Separated at Re-birth installments from The Worst Horse, here, here, and here.

The mighty Danny Fisher sends us this one, writing:

“My friend Kerry Brown, a Buddhologist, brought my attention to what appears to be a double vajra motif on Jay Leno’s new set. Are we seeing things?”

Here ’tis:

It sure looks like a double-vajra:

But I don’t think it is. Maybe I’m just to skeptical.

Still: they do have a Separated-at-Rebirth? kind of feel. What do you think?

Anyway, thanks for sending it, Danny!

(Danny is of course my blogging compadre over on Shambhala SunSpace, and also a buddhoblogospheric friend to us all, with his very own and excellent blog.)

Check this image, and the voice-over from one of the many teaser-trailers that’s running right now:

“On the road to victory, destiny follows one man. On February 22nd, get ready for The Biggest Movie Event of the Year.”

At first, I was sure it was a Buddha-face. But as reader/commenter “Oscar” suggested, it is in fact the face of an Oscar statuette. (Duh! Of course!) See here.

Oscar and Buddha — separated at re-birth?

This one’s just in from friend-of-the-Horse, the mighty Joe E.:

Pretty uncanny. And this isn’t the first time a Buddhist master has been paired with this particular filthy-comedy master. Check out this one from the way-back machine (scroll down five pairings).

Want more Separated at Rebirth? matches? Just click here and/or here.

Thanks again, Joe!

…Kinda weird, huh?

By the way, if you don’t know about Nan Hua, it’s pretty darned cool — built in the 90s in South Africa, it’s the largest temple and monastery in all of the African continent. It’s a temple of Venerable Hsing Yun’s Fo Guang Shan organization, and as such follows the Linji (Chan) and Pure Land schools. Check out their newsletter to see all the good they’re doing.

(And props must go to the photographer who shot the statue.)

If you like this kind of good-natured stupidity, you’ll find more “Separated at Re-birth?” entries here, here, and here.

…You can see more “Separated at Rebirth?” pairings by clicking on that category in the “Browse by Category” drop-down to the side, or in our two archived collections, here, and here.

It was SIX years ago that Buddhadharma magazine, the second mag from the folks behind Shambhala Sun, debuted. Its first cover was a sort of classical affair — a little dry, maybe, but unquestionably dignified:

(Sorry it looks so raggedy-ass; I’ve been carrying and moving that thing with me from apartment to apartment for six years. It’s even been to Ireland and back.)

The mag’s covers have been getting almost imperceptibly more adventurous. But I’ll bet you can immediately perceive that the new, Fall 2008 issue doesn’t look anything like any other Buddhist mag out there, much less like that Fall 2002 issue:

The artwork is by one Mike Holmes, and was created to illustrate the magazine’s cover story, “Practice Like Your Hair’s On Fire,” by Gelek Rinpoche. (I think this is Mike’s MySpace profile, here.) And it’s damned cool.

Great as the art is, I think the silent, hidden hero here is Seth Levinson, Buddhadharma‘s mild-mannered Art Director. Seth has long been perfectly treading the line between respectability/familiarity/reverence and good ol’ envelope-pushing. He art directs like his hair’s on fire.

And THAT is what we’re talkin’ about. (Heck, Seth even dared to cover up a big chunk of the nameplate — that is, the type that says the magazine’s name on the front; that’s a bold move from a “branding” perspective, not least of all when you’re a Buddhist magazine and what you’re covering up is the word “dharma.” But the result is dramatic–and fun. And hey, we’re talking about this cover, aren’t we? Looks like a winning move to me.)

Kudos all around.

Oh, and hey, while we’re talking about Buddhadharma (and by extension, sister mag Shambhala Sun), those of you interested in the future of Buddhist media should really check out Buddhist Geeks’ two-part audio interview with the mags’ Editor-in-Chief (and Kent Brockman lookalike), the mighty Melvin McLeod. Here’s Part One. And here’s Part Two.

Thanks to reader Jaime McLeod, who nominates this pairing for our ongoing “Separated at Re-birth?” matchings:

Not sure I see it, but maybe. Ikkyu sure does look like someone…

Thanks, Jaime!