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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.

(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”).

"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.

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

— Erykah Badu

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

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