Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Just thought I'd drop by

I realize I haven’t posted anything in a while…and I have (good) reason. [You can’t judge whether it’s a good reason once I’m through.]

Books

This morning I realized (and it’s what catapulted this entry), that I’m reading a very odd collection of books right now. First off The Art of Happiness, which is an interview with the Dalai Lama about finding happiness in life (mostly through compassion, so far). Going hand in hand with that is Sex God, which isn’t about sex as much as you’d think, but more about relationships and connecting with people (I’m drawing plenty of parallels between these two books).

Finally, I’m reading Deflowered, which is autobiography of Jon Ginoli (lead singer of Pansy Division), but is really telling about the creation, growth and life story of the band (with sporadic mention of when he gets laid). I’m not normally an autobiography-reading person, but I love PD and my friend said it was worth a gander. I’m just over halfway through (at which point I bought my own copy so I’d stop abusing my friend’s autographed one), and while it’s not good enough that I need to gobble it all up (too much band politics for me sometimes), I’m surprised how much I’m enjoying it.

So, I’m reading a Buddhist book about happiness, a Christian book about sex, and a queer book about music.

Freetime

Some people have mentioned that I seem to be a bit busy and unable to get things done that I should be getting done (like responding to discussion about books). What’s keeping me so darn busy?

First off, with spring comes romance…haha…no, with spring comes more riding time! I try to get out twice during the week and twice during the weekend, so it pretty much doubles the time I spend at the barn during the winter, plus, I’m more likely to hang around and help out, since I’m not cold and miserable.

Second, spring also brings about people wanting to have social lives. Aside from my normal Friday night gathering, my Saturdays are also sometimes filled with people being social.

Finally, words. Although I have three books listed as what I’m reading, that doesn’t count the other books I pick up randomly, the short stories I read online, the not-so-short stories I read online, and my own writing. Maybe not good excuses, but I enjoy participating in those, so :P.

Conclusion

I probably didn’t do a real good job of convincing anyone I’ve been particularly busy. But life just kinda happens, you know?


PS: Buddhism doesn't make comment about homosexuality or anything, just says "To refrain from committing sexual misconduct." So there is some freedom there, on exactly what that means. Of course, sex is a hinderance to enlightenment, so you should be avoiding it anyway...but moving on. The 14th Dalai Lama (current) said in 1997: "even with your own wife, using one's mouth or the other hole is sexual misconduct." Of course, this is just one man's opinion, but he's kinda a big deal. Of course, he says nothing about two guys loving one another (in the piece I found) but just no sex.

4 comments:

  1. I discredited your entire post when I read the quote at the top about getting up 15 minutes early to enjoy the morning.

    I sleep in 15 minutes when I can for the same reason. And I refuse to believe the opposite can be true before say, 10 a.m.

    I was also excited that "sexual misconduct" might mean serious misconduct. Rape, coercion, etc. Very sad to see people imposing their views on others in such a "compassion" based system. I'm actually impressed that Buddhists - hypothetically - should be compassionate about stuff that "icks" them out. So few people are. But that line the DL draws seems entirely arbitrary. Entirely.

    So much for compassion about other people's situations. I guess it only extends so far. I'd love to know the reasoning. And I'm not sold at all that sex is a hinderance to enlightment. I'm not sure it promotes it, but I'm not sure it hinders it either.

    And I know he's kinda a big deal, but seriously, hands off my F'n life. I'm not playing around.

    Power, corruption, and all that.

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  2. It's not that I get up, I just wake up. Then I lay in bed and just relax and enjoy not doing anything. Waking up to the alarm is abrupt and groggy-making.

    I also took "sexual misconduct" to mean bad things like rape, etc, which made me go all "Awesome!" and then I read what the DL said and I was like "dude..not cool".

    Also, I think sex (according to their logic) hinders enlightenment because it is a physical pleasure and enlightenment is releasing the physical aspect of life. I can kinda see where they are coming from.

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  3. Lying in bed awake when I could be asleep is closer to torture than, well, most anything I've experienced. You're doing a piss-poor job of convincing me.

    The arbitrariness of the DL's line on that really mystifies me. I might have to research it a little to see if there is any type of backing for it. Meanwhile, its just another let down.

    dude... not cool. You may be too old to say this. I know, because I'm too old, and I hear myself say it.

    Ok, maybe it hinders enlightenment. What you say makes sense.

    It makes me reconsider how badly I want to reach enlightenment, but whatever.

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  4. I rarely can get back to sleep once I'm awake, especially for 15 minutes. Only in the winter, when it's dark. Also, you may wish to remember I'm a morning person.

    I never say "dude..not cool" aloud. But I thought calling the DL an asshat would be crossing the line.

    Your last line got a shitload of giggles out of me. (And I just realized my language has dropped dramatically to that of a seventh grader. I blame being tired and thinking about brownies.)

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