Long rant.

[KatetheGreat]

http://hardcorezen .blogspot.com/

I was on one of my bi-weekly visits to Chapters and saw the cover of a Buddhism book that caught my eye. It's by the man in the link above.

Now, I'd had bad luck with buddhism related books before. My brother's studying buddhism and attending the temples up where he lives - he's a proud libertarian and even got an Ayn Rand-themed tattoo devoted to individualism. He's also a fan of Ken Wilbur (A Shambhala Buddhist) who, in the first chapter of his book tears up feminists and comes to the seemingly logical conclusion that the reason why men love violent sex is because their two main evolutionary-instincts are "fuck" or "kill". And NATURALLY the two apparently get mixed sometimes in an oh so charming and erotic way.
I should say Ken Wilbur is an integral philosopher.. which means basically he's "spiritual" but tries to find balance with science etc. So I guess that's his idea of doing that. Not suprisingly one of the guys who works with Wilbur keeps a blog which argues that porn is fantastic.

Anyhow, it struck me how in this Chapters book this man/boy/boyman also talked about how in Buddhism there is no sin, and that as a natural fallout from their more "relaxed" and healthy attitudes about sex, in Japan, rape and violent pornography is right at eye level for children. It's amazing because up until this point he's talked about why drinking isn't good etc. but the one thing he makes an exception for is porn.
Does it really not occur to many people that there are other more practical reasons for opposing porn than hangups on sin?
So let's see.. you want to be in the here and now, rid yourself of ego-related suffering and attatchments to excessive materialism, but read Hustler (and yes he makes many references) all you want? Does anyone see the contradiction?

Suprise suprise, upon visiting his blog I see this guy writes for the Suicide Girls.
I've mentioned spiriuality before but I guess I'm really bothered with the idea because spirituality, the kind I hope people would be investing in, should be about tuning in, being honest and developing real connections with people, and naturally I see porn as being a roadblock in this pursuit. It bothers me to see porn-is-liberating-propaganda being co-opted by those who claim to be on an otherwise high ground.. those people who others will be turning to in order to get advice on how to relate to people more spiritually. I wish people could get some solid advice that took the well-being of women into account. I know I shouldn't be suprised because a great deal of "spirituality" has had many ties to patriarchy. But I'm genuinely interested in some of the stories and the idea of self-improvement/reaching out on a deeper level, it makes me frustrated that it's just as saturated in sexism as the mainstream.


And furthermore, I resent Japan, or any place saturated in misogynistic porn being held up as a sexually healthy place.

I just see this new spirituality as spirituality-lite: Make me feel like I'm dedicating myself to a higher cause, but don't require I put any genuine effort into changing some of the qualities that may be harming other people (for reasons OTHER THAN THINKING SEX IS "DIRTY").

*deep breath*
ok I'm done.
CONCLUSION:
having a Buddhist writer for the coporate based suicide girls was one of the sneakiest and smartest things they've done to convince the girls they're being progressive.