Well, it looks like Franco is gearing up to be the turkey that votes for Christmas
This is a photograph of Franco Debono walking into parliament yesterday evening. Like all good boy scouts (and cock-fighters), he has gone prepared for an evening of what he imagined would be tedious speeches, with a book.
And like people whose natural inclinations are towards the Other Side, the book is of course an intellectual cliche, in the sense that only the seriously uneducated or those aged 16 would find it worth showing off rather than reading it in secret embarrassment to find out what the fuss is about.
It’s The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, by Sogyal Rinpoche, an overview of Tibetan Buddhism which “explores the message of impermanence; evolution, karma and rebirth; the nature of mind and how to train the mind through meditation; how to follow a spiritual path in this day and age; the practice of compassion; how to care for and show love to the dying, and spiritual practices for the moment of death.”
The foreword is by the 14th Dalai Lama, who says:
In this timely book, Sogyal Rinpoche focuses on how to understand the true meaning of life, how to accept death, and how to help the dying, and the dead. (…) Death and dying provide a meeting point between the Tibetan Buddhist and modern scientific traditions.
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Franco doesn’t need to read a whole book. This will suffice:
The one who sees the world as a “mirror of himself” (CN, 47) can never fully integrate into it. (Ethan A Bayer)
Ironic, since Buddhism is about the gradual letting go of the “illusory self”. But perhaps Franco hasn’t yet made it past the first chapter.
Franco Debono can judge a book by its cover.
He will soon have loads of time for reading. If Debono’s erratic and incomprehensible behaviour result in early elections, it is not just his political career which will be over.
His legal office will suffer a major setback because PN sympathizers will surely not want to make use of his services. As for Labour sympathizers, they have their own Jose Herrera and Manuel Mallia to go to. Those who are less politically inclined will not trust someone who has betrayed the trust of the people who voted for him.
Bye, bye, Franco Debono.
Does it tell him how to go f*ck himself?
No, but it does tell him that unless he understands that his inflated ego is an illusion, he is basically f*cked.
And so is the rest of humanity, if the teachings of Buddhism are true, because we’d have to bear Franco’s perpetual cycle of rebirths, and hear his complaining, until he lets go of it.
The Dalai Lama says nothing about f*cking oneself (I believe this is not allowed in Buddhism), but Confucius does.
Confucius say: Man who runs too far ahead of himself risk f*cking himself.
Good one, Baxxter.
Why should it (the book)?
Joseph will do it for him.
Franco continues living in a state of levitation, keeping the rest of the country wondering on which side of the House he’s finally going to come down.
I’ve read the book. It’s one-fifth ahimsa (harmlessness) philosophy, and four-fifths pseudo-intellectual mumbo jumbo. I can see why the four-fifths would interest someone like Franco.
[Daphne – Thank you, Kenneth. That sounds better coming from you than it does from me.]
Angus, Daphne did not denigrate people like me who read the book. She only mocked (if even that) adults who show off the book (perhaps to appear “intellectual” or “trendy” in a “new-age” sort of way).
As for the comments about the book itself, if giving an honest personal opinion about the contents of a book qualifies as “throwing dirt”, then, like Daphne, I too have to say that we define “dirt” differently.
But I would welcome your own review of the book. Perhaps you could explain, among other things, and in a simpler way, the process of the transmission of the soul from one body to the next.
Enough of all this “political correctness” bull, Angus. Let’s all be honest for a change. Those with fragile religious sensibilities should grow up and deal with life and its diversity.
Just a few weeks ago there was a motion on a vote of confidence in Parliament. In that vote Franco Debono voted in favour of the motion – by doing so he expressed confidence in the PM and the Cabinet.
It is worth considering the difference between then and now.
He is now considering abstaining or voting against the government (and in favour of the no-confidence motion). What happened between then and now to bring about this change?
The only change was the Cabinet reshuffle. According to him, persons who should have been made to resign were given a promotion. That’s all.
All the other issues he talks about (like for example the financing of political parties) were issues then, just as they are issues now. So they cannot be the reasons for Debono’s change of heart.
Whether that ‘promotion’ was really unjustified or not is irrelevant for the purposes of the no-confidence vote. Let us, for argument’s sake, assume that the ‘promotion’ was not justified.
So this is a question I direct to Debono. Is it worth abstaining or voting against Government just because somebody else got a promotion? How petty can you get?
Here is one of the “Top 10 Dalai Lama tips” for Franco:
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
Tenzin Gyatso, 14th and current Dalai Lama
The sheer idiotic sense of self-importance is overwhelming.
I think I’ll give a press conference on the anthropological interpretation of my choice of underwear colour for today. You know, as one would.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120124/local/i-am-very-different-from-how-people-portray-me-franco-debono.403704
Franco is a Catholic Jesuit Buddhist, don’t you know.
[Daphne – Yes, he did say he scored 100 in religion in Form IIC. Isn’t his behaviour just like that of a disciple of the Dalai Lama.]
More like a disciple of ole’ Tiger Blood Drinking Ninja Vatican Assassin Charlie Sheen who was all over the media with his psychotic rants a year ago.
Now that book in Debono’s hand explains the reason for his behaviour quite well, especially the chapters dealing with how to accept death, and how to help the dying, and the dead.
He must have already read the said chapters since by now he has already accepted his (political) death and made us realize that we must help him with his impending transition to another (politically devoid) world.
It’s one thing to read the book. It’s a totally different matter to prance into parliament while in the limelight holding it up for all to see.
[Daphne – Tonight’s parliamentary sitting: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Tomorrow’s sitting: Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or The Little Prince.]
You would hold the spine of the book in your hand, not its end.
It’s obvious the Franco Debono wants to show off his intellectual prowess.
He’s behaving precisely like the illiterates who go to Court sporting a pen in their jacket pockets.
Ħallina!
If he did that you wouldn’t be able to read the title of the book so easily.
He is not even worth discussing. Igri issir elezzjoni halli ma nisimghux iktar bih.
I trust he’ll spare us the self-immolation.
Franco, Buddhism teaches one to renounce the ego self. Perhaps you should be humble enough to adopt this Buddhist belief.
I have the iBooks app on my iPhone. Just downloaded Gulliver^s Travels. Will forward it to the twit. He’s gonna need it.
Perhaps Franco has realised that the only life for him after Thursday is retiring to a Buddhist monastery in Tibet and he’s preparing himself for it.
After yesterday’s show with The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Franco Debono should seriously consider spending Seven Years in Tibet.
We need the respite.
Respite? He’d make a film of the ruddy thing and try to upstage Mrs Jolie’s husband.
Milli jidher mhux fil-futbol biss influwenzah Roberto Baggio.
Infatti, apparti mir-religjon, anke fil-glied mal-coaches.
Franco needs to go for the Buddhist retreat in the jungle many people do in Thailand.
http://pkglobal.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/how-to-survive-a-10-day-silent-meditation-retreat-at-a-buddhist-monastery-in-the-jungles-of-thailand/