Ben and the Fanatic

from Zen Without Zen Masters
by Camden Benares

In his teachings, Ben stressed that Zen was his path because it allowed him to become himself. All the other routes that allegedly lead to cosmic consciousness seemed to put him in conflict with his own nature. He advised all seekers to examine carefully what each system asked of the potential initiate, keeping in mind three rules:

1. What you are required to believe is what the system cannot prove.
2. Anything that you are asked to keep secret is of more value to the teacher than to the student.
3. Any practice that is forbidden offers something that the system cannot sucessfully replace with an alternative.

One listener asked, "Don't you believe that giving up the pleasures of the senses will produce a different consciousness?" "My personal experience," Ben replied, "was that it produced the consciousness of fanatacism."

The Pleasures of Hating

I just heard this poem read aloud by Garrison Keillor on NPR. It's funny cause it's true. It's also funny (and charming) 'cause it's a "gob of spit" (to borrow Henry Miller's expression) in the face of political correctness and all those who say that a truly "enlightened" or "spiritual" person should never feel hatred, much less its pleasures.

Whenever the word "should" creeps in to the conversation (or the internal dialogue, as the case may be), you can bet that the ego has crept in by the back door, the tricksy little bastard.

Judith Lasater once advised a roomful of yoga teachers to "stop shoulding all over yourselves". I love that. I've endeavoured, ever since, to more or less remove that word from my vocab.

So here's my little fuck-you in the face of all that I supposedly "should" be, as a yogi, as a bodyworker, as a seeker, as a "spiritual person". (What IS a "spiritual person", anyway? That phrase always strikes me as completely redundant. We are spiritual beings by definition. It doesn't make any of us special. Deal with it!)

So without further ado,

The Pleasures of Hating
by Laure-Anne Bosselaar

I hate Mozart. Hate him with that healthy
pleasure one feels when exasperation has

crescendoed, when lungs, heart, throat,
and voice explode at once: I hate that! —

there's bliss in this, rapture. My shrink
tried to disabuse me, convinced I use Amadeus

as a prop: Think further, your father perhaps?
I won't go back, think of the shrink

with a powdered wig, pinched lips, mole:
a transference, he'd say, a relapse: so be it.

I hate broccoli, chain saws, patchouli, bra—
clasps that draw dents in your back, roadblocks,

men in black kneesocks, sandals and shorts—
I love hating that. Loathe stickers on tomatoes,

jerky, deconstruction, nazis, doilies. I delight
in detesting. And love loving so much after that.

"The Pleasures of Hating" by Laure-Anne Bosselaar from Small Gods of Grief. © BOA Editions, 2001.

Reason #101 Why I Love Toronto: Trampoline Hall

A friend recently posted this image on Facebook.

The attribution is to one "Michael Higginson, Trampoline Hall, Feb 9/09, Toronto, Canada".

I thought this was brilliant and hilarious and true, so I worked the Google on the Internet machine and discovered that the image was taken from a lecture given as part of a series called Trampoline Hall, which is held at Sneaky Dee's (in my neighborhood) on College Street in downtown Toronto.

Youtube also has a great clip of a previous Trampoline Hall event. Sadly, nothing is yet posted from Michael Higginson's lecture, "Being In The Way", but I'll be looking for it.

This is exactly the kind of thing that makes me love Toronto so hard and miss it every single day that I'm not living there.

Knotty Pine

by Meredith Broome. See more at her site, Relevant Elephants

Prop 8: The Musical

Marc Shaiman & friends hilarious smackdown of Prop 8 and the religious "logic" behind it:

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

Ten Democrats Who Should Go Away

I thoroughly enjoyed this article by Ben Cohen, originally posted at The Daily Banter. I think it too often goes unspoken that the Democratic Party has sold out the American citizenry at least as often, if not more often, than the Republican Party. It bears mentioning that many Democrats really would do more for their party if they would just go away.

By Ben Cohen
December 02, 2008

On Monday of last week, I published an article '10 Republicans Who Should Go Away'. For some reason, the article went down a storm and received well over 100,000 hits. Reading the comments and emails I received was probably more fun than writing the article (which I enjoyed immensely), but I was a little taken aback at the debate I seemed to have sparked off. A host of conservative bloggers were up in arms, raging about liberal 'hate' I was spewing, and the temerity I was showing for insulting their idols. Neal Boortz called me a 'Moonbat', and Michelle Malkin fans left comments on my site accusing me of being a 'liberal terrorist' and a 'communist'. I did however, receive some intelligent emails asking why I was only focusing on Republicans.

The Democrats have in some ways, been worse than the Republicans. As a party, they've stood idly by as the Bush Administration has literally ransacked the country, trashing the constitution and driving the national debt into unchartered territory.

So in order to show the Right that progressives are not reflexive liberals, I thought I would pen an article listing the top 10 Democrats who should go away. And by 'go away', I don't mean censor, or prevent from speaking. I'm asking that they do it themselves - shut up for the good of the country. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. Joe Lieberman

Lieberman is not a Democrat in any real sense of the word - he is a foreign policy hawk and a fiscal conservative, remaining liberal on only a few token issues (abortion, gay rights etc). Lieberman was a vociferous supporter of the War in Iraq, threatening Democrats if they didn't support it and hyping up the non-existent threat from Iran (a country that spends the same amount in a year on its military as the U.S does in a week in Iraq). Lieberman is the quintessential corporate shill, selling his soul to the pharmaceutical companies and defense contractors while painting himself as a 'moral' Democrat, mostly because he doesn't cheat on his wife (see his outrage over Monica Lewinsky) and believes in blowing up Arabs whenever possible. Supporting John McCain was one thing, but breaking a pledge not to go negative on Obama was completely unforgivable. The only reason Joe is still a Democrat is because his party is almost as spineless as him, and won't throw him out for fear of appearing too liberal.

Read More at The Daily Banter