http://www.impawards.com/1960/posters/wasp_woman.jpg

It’s cute, but not something to worship or try and gain wisdom from. Unfortunately buddhism is all honked up like every other religion out there, and some people just seem to have to have something to treat as a diety, and interject mysticism and blind lunacy even into a philosophy that specifically says “look, this stuff is just ideas from a smart guy, much of it seems to be good advice.”

Granted, the social wasps don’t lay their eggs in caterpillars, either (at least not the ones I know about).

Buddhists don’t have much to do with the Bible or God

“I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.” – Charles Darwin, in a letter to Asa Gray

The trick with bald-faced hornets – which are also not bees – is to wait until temperatures drop after sunset, then hit their nest with insecticide from a postion of concealment and easy retreat at least twenty feet away while fully armored, including goggles to protect the eyes, earmuffs over the ears and a mask over the nose and mouth. That’s the way I did it, anyway.

First, the Buddha is not a deity, so this does not really work as a parallel to Christian or Muslim pareidolia.

The Virgin Mary isn’t a deity, either, so I think that the parallels are actually pretty reasonable.

My-Name-is-Kenneth:

Seems like a contradiction to be a WASP and a Buddhist. (Sorry, someone was going to say it.)

As for the mistake for comparing wasps with bees. Well they are in the same Order Hymenoptera of the Class Insecta. So at the very least thats a weeeee bit more accurate than calling then insects Worse thing is that the image could have been on a spider web and then the article cites them as insects

Phil Plait
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Mammalia
Subclass: Theria
Order: Primates
Suborder: Anthropoidea
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Homo
Species: H. sapiens
Subspecies: H. s. sapiens
Subspecies falsus: Homo Sapiens Sapiens Plaitia

Also, Thanny:

Most paper wasp species are not aggressive. They’re *defensive.* But, I lost track of the number of times I’ve walked right up to a paper wasp nest, within a few feet, and just murdered the entire occupying family.

On the other hand, I’ve gotten stung by a yellow jacket simply for moving too quickly when he was foraging for food near me. Ugh, that brings back bad memories… once, while searching for subterranean termites, I dug into the soil with my screwdriver, ripping the top off of an underground yellow jacket nest. Ten stings.

I got sidetracked. Oh well.

First, the Buddha is not a deity, so this does not really work as a parallel to Christian or Muslim pareidolia. Although deities do appear in the mythologies of some Buddhist cultures, and and though these cultures may be rife with superstitions, such deities and superstitions are products of the indigenous culture, not Buddhism, which is practically silent upon the subject of gods.

Second, the statement that bees are sacred to Buddhists is just plain silly, roughly the equivalent of saying that because Italians are so fond of pasta, cavatini is sacred to Catholics.

There’s a FSM joke in there somewhere, but I can’t find it.

Furthermore, paper wasps certainly are aggressive when you get too close to their nest. By way of proof, I suffered four stings within four seconds a couple years back, when I opened a car door that the invasive species Polistes dominula had built a nest on (inside the gap between the door and the rear of the car). That nest was removed soon thereafter following a guilt-free genocide of its inhabitants, along with another one being built on my front door by another colony of the same species.

Though, really, they should get some Raid on that stuff. “If you meet the Buddha on the road…” and all.

I actually think it looks like a stack of New Years mochi left out in the sun too long.