Saturday 1 March 2014

J.I.M.

Every year as carnival season gets underway in Brazil and Shrove Tuesday/ Pancake Day marks the last day before lent in the uk, ( in the UK many people eat simple pancakes with just a dash  of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Carnevale is an Italian word derived from the Latin carnem (meat) and levare (remove), corresponding to English "carnival". It is a traditional Christian celebration which marks the beginning of Lent,the period of 40 days before Easter during which no meat is eaten.
 I remember the early 90's  for  ecstacy of my awakening to the "Cult of Lemon Tango" .This was depicted in a seldom remembered series of television adverts that depicted a spoof cult, the members of which had left their mundane 9-5 jobs to wear yellow robes practise rituals including "the cutting of the lemon" , drink lemon tango and follow JIM.
This advert had particular resonance for me because a few years earlier my mother who was devout Catholic/Christian and a member the Charismatic Renewal Movement had told me about J.I.M the acronym meaning "Jesus in Me" this had resonated with my Buddhist leanings and the concept of Christos or Christ Conciousness that I had heard about while travelling in the U.S.A. a few years earlier.
The Cult of yellow Tango became evermore relevant when as chance would have it I moved out of the rather infamous "Clays lane Housing Cooperative" rather suddenly and found my self out of necessity sleeping in the floor of the Buddhist Temple of my Tai Chi Gung Fu Teacher who's school was named in honour of the meeting between Buddhist Monk Yellow Dragon and a Taoist Monk named Loi Dong Bung . (members of this Buddhist Sect have also been known to wear yellow robes just as in the Cult of Yellow Tango ;-) , I lived and slept on the wooden floor in the Temple for just over a year and left almost as suddenly as I moved in. To this day I remember it as a very special time in my life and am grateful to my teacher for his support.

1 comment:

JSteveKane said...

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0ET1zi8kxBtZE1bziV8VY9e95P4hZhxnZESyap6URypKbmkbEXWnrsnUyGG7vsKbZl&id=664322819