Tantra-Induced Delusional Syndrome ("TIDS")

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Imbolc (Lisa Thiel - Circle of the Seasons)

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http://to-gulistan.tumblr.com/post/4126 ... one-is-how

the most attractive thing i find in anyone is how secure they are with their self- and community- love. that critical, yet humble and intensely poetic radical love. where they can stand next to you, and you dont feel an ounce of self-doubt of who you and your own people were, are and will be. its the type of love that liberates you without even having an agenda of treating you as an object to be liberated.

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New Age Tantra is to medieval Tantra what finger painting is to fine art, a remarkably unimaginative “series of yogic exercises applied to the sexual act…a coitus reservatus par excellence…a sad attempt to mechanize the mysteries of sexual love.

http://saivatantra.com/2013/01/03/neo-tantra/

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http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2 ... be-silent/

Got a hot date in Oakland tonight…Much of it will be silent
By kloncke on 6.24.2010


The East Bay Meditation Center from East Bay Meditation Center on Vimeo.

(Description and transcript, to the best of my beginner’s ability, below the fold — additions and/or amendments appreciated!)

Friends, I’d like you to meet the East Bay Meditation Center, one of the dopest sanghas (dhammic spiritual communities) I have ever had the good fortune to encounter. For the month of June I’m the open/close volunteer for the Thursday night People of Color sit (terminology that, as Chally and others have pointed out, may be useful in this context but not in all! . So tonight I’ll be setting up the chairs and cushions, the tea (so many kinds of tea — yummm), the sound system, arranging the chairs and cushions, lighting some candles…and then breaking everything down at the end of the night. I’m technically the bottom-liner but there are always other sweetheart regulars who are eager to help out, make the work go faster.

The video pretty much speaks for its own rad self, but basically this tremendously awesome spiritual organization is rooted in values of diversity and justice.* They have been so inspirational for me, not only by offering a space for me to maintain and strengthen my meditation practice, but in presenting that practice in a language I understand and care about. Back in March, I got an email from the listserv advertising a “Beyond Buddhist Patriarchy” 1-day workshop:

Alternating periods of silent meditation with facilitated discussion, we’ll explore what forms of spiritual practice, and both lay and monastic community structures, may arise as we collectively go beyond internal and external patriarchal structures.

Can I tell you how happy it made me to hear that in a spiritual context? Really happy.

I know that not everybody agrees on the utility of POC-only or LGBTQQI-only spaces (of note: only 2 out of 7 days a week at EBMC are caucused in this way), but I for one am a big fan. I am also a big fan of dana (“DAH-nah,” generosity) -based micro-economies, both on a spiritual level (cultivating generosity: helpful) and on a political level (more aligned with the socialist framework, “to each according to need; from each according to ability”).

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"Tradition in India maintains that the gods sent man the Hemp plant so that he might attain delight, courage, and have heightened sexual desires.

--The Nectar of Delight from Plants of the Gods - Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers by Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hoffman.

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"Bring me water for these flowers growin out my mind."

— Erykah Badu

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The Arabian nights (1900)
Illustrations by Soper

The Princess Jehaunara

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The Invisible World

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"Bring me water for these flowers growin out my mind."
— Erykah Badu

“Fires Are Burning” acrylic on canvas by artist Michelle Robinson,
http://www.mistermichellejournal.tumblr.com

Prints available at http://www.create-ture.com/shop

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http://www.buddhistpeacefellowship.org/ ... ely-being/

What With Merely Being



What with red roses
And lilies
As they are
And as they
Will be—
Those damn
Flowers

Merely being;
And what with
Poets left with what
To do about that,

All that language
Flying by
Unthought,
Unthinking.

Or not.

What with poets
Grabbing a hand-
Full and thinking
About it. And then

There’s the flowers.



—–Rev. Dr. David Breeden

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'Kumare': "All is illusion"

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Death of Simon Magus

Simon Magus (early 1st century), he was Samaritan, and a native of Gitta; he was considered a god in Simonianism; he "darkly hinted" that he himself was Christ, calling himself the Standing One.

--List of messiah claimants

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_messiah_claimants

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http://boingboing.net/2013/01/31/van-ca ... again.html

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Big Buddhist Questions