Story Archive

Zen Parking

A witness watched as an SUV drove through a “handicap barricade” and slammed into the Drolma Kadampa Buddhist Center in Oakland Park, Fla. Rosias Octeus, 65, told police a “crazy driver” had run him off the road. “Nothing I can do,” he said over and over, but he wasn’t injured. By chance, the Center’s meditation teacher was out of town. “The chair where he normally sits to pray was thrown across the room — that’s where the car hit,” said Kadampa Buddhist nun Kelsang Deshe. “He would’ve been dead.” Instead, the building was empty. The crash made “a big bang,” said an employee at a nearby business. “It was huge. It sounded like a bomb. It shook the building. It was scary.” (RC/South Florida Sun Sentinel) ...Now we know the answer: When an SUV hits a building and there’s no one inside to hear it, does it make a sound?