For a good time, read “Passionate Enlightenment” by Miranda Shaw.

No, seriously.  I know it sounds a little like something you’d read on the inside of a stall at a public restroom, but after reading it a few times, I still find myself walking away feeling that much more compassionate and empowered.  Shaw not only outlines the Tantric approach to Buddhism, but she does so from historical female scholarship.  I’m not the only person in the world who has noticed that waaaayyyyy too much religious doctrine had been penned by men, and therefore have varying degrees of testosterone filters installed.  “Passionate Enlightenment” offers something quite unique – a gynocentric POV in Tantric Buddhism (what has been criticized as blatantly misogynistic by other scholars).  And to a loud Buddhist feminista like myself, this is music to my ears.

The flow of Shaw’s writings follows women in Tantric theory, to the women adepts in Tantric circles, to the women founders in Tantric history, and what is outlined in the Buddha-Tantras how to treat a woman (she adamently states that intimacy is a path to enlightenment, very Left-Hand Path here where renunciates might be taken aback at first glance).

An excerpt from the book that brilliantly describes the Spontaneous Jewellike Yogini:

Like the jewel that is her namesake, the illustrious yogini has many facets.  She is a visionary revealer of Tantric teachings received in deep meditatitive state.  She is a skilled rhetorician who dazzles her audience with a sensuous and exuberant vision of Tantric sexuality.  She is a homileticist who motivates her audience to religious discipline, exhorting them that worldly pleasures are impermanent and ultimately unsatisfying.  She is a subtle philosopher who spins and unravels the theoretical intricacies of her position…..

See?  How fucking awesome is that?

Anyway, the book is far more worth than the $15.00 or so that I paid for it.  It is exquisite, daring, and illustrious.  For this moment in time, it is my personal Tantric feminist Bible, and it calls me to courageously access the Bodhisattva to help others in my uniquely womanly way.

Happy reading!!

In case one wasn’t aware of what I routinely do at the end of each and every meditation session, puja, offering, mantra, or prayer….I dedicate all the merit acquired to the benefit of all sentient beings.  Such a practice is wonderful for continuing selflessness – and especially so since we tend to view giving with strings attached.  Ultimately, we should give freely without hoping to be paid back or even noticed.  Usually the dedication goes like this:

Due to the merits of the these virtuous actions,

May I quickly attain the state of a guru-buddha

And lead all sentient beings, without exception,

Into that enlightened state.

May the supreme jewel bodhichitta

That has not arisen, arise and grow;

And that which has arisen not diminish

But increase more and more.

___________________________________________

Ultimately, we should not even be patting ourselves on the back for being such a noble and kind person.  This isn’t about us, because the self does not inherently exist on it’s own side.  This is about remembering why we do what we do on the path to enlightenment.

It’s about dancing forever on the bridge between you and me, with my heart open to you.

Let’s have a moment to do a gutcheck.

Just like any intention to pursue any path – including Sacred Whoring – one MUST be sure what one’s motivation is.  If I whore myself out to be a doormat, or to simply get my rocks off, or to validate my own attractiveness, or for competition…..all these examples come from a place of self-cherishing.  And in Tibetan Buddhism, the aim is to be anything BUT self-cherishing.  To have such motivation behind one’s actions results in being unskillful and clumsy to varying degrees.

No, my motivation as a Sacred Whore is as of the Bodhisattva.  I seek nothing for myself, but to liberate you, and to bring you happiness.

To cherish the self, when it is viewed in our tradition that there is no inherent self that exists on it’s own side, is to continue on the hamster wheel of samsara.  We get so attached to the ego, but the realities of our mortal and sexual nature provide us potent (and risky) oppportunities to transcend our ego.  Sex and death, creation and dissolution, merging and liberation – ultimately I contemplate heavily on both in my Whoredom.  But I also seek to contemplate on both with the same courageous selflessness that a mother would have when she must rescue her infant from the inside of a burning house.

THIS is the kind of selflessness that I am talking about.  It is strong, brave, and moral.  I’ve heard of criticism from others about this approach to “self-cherishing”, and that in our culture, seeking to abolish it amounts to reducing our dignity.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Reduing our own dignity or worth is STILL being self-absorbed – albeit it’s being self-absorbed with more angst and tears.

Sacred Whoredom is not your typical street-walker by any means.  It is not even your typical high-priced escort.  These emanations are culturally encapsulated in certain causes and conditions where women are abused and degraded  by society, by pimps, by madams, and by their patrons.  No, a Sacred Whore approaches sex with the highest and most noble motivation without care for self-cherishing concerns like money or status. 

To put it bluntly, a Sacred Whore opens the door to Nirvana for her consorts.

For an amazing transformative experience…….I encourage anyone to download the Sanghata Sutra and to listen to it anytime, anywhere. 

See here:  http://www.sanghatasutra.net/index.html

Wonderful, wonderful stuff.

So today I turned 36.  I’m not ambivalent to announce my age, as it’s just being honest. 

However, I think it’s so important to meditate on how precious my human birth has been, how I’ve been so fortunate to have lived for this amount of time, how many humans have not lived this long, and how I’ve been so fortunate to have the mental and physical capacity to benefit others.  There are commentaries out there for how being born a human is like winning the ultimate cosmic lottery in Tibetan Buddhist cosmology, something along the lines that it is just as likely to be reborn a human as it is for a turtle to peek it’s head through a small ring in an entire ocean.  Personally, I think that analogy plays upon the delusional mind to think that we can forget about past karma……..I am reminded of how karma – good karma – ripens to allow us to benefit others. 

The gods in the heavenly realms are too indulged with perfect health and are given everything they have ever wished for.  The beings in the hell-realms are too frought with suffering and pain to have the peace of mind to benefit others.  Being born a HUMAN is what allows us to do good, to have opportunities in our minds to experience both sides of the spectrum of suffering and blissful happiness.   And to have a human rebirth where one has the clear opportunity to practice a moral and ethical life, and especially to have resources at one’s disposal to help others find happiness…….this is just so precious.

So, my feeling right now is such gratitude that I’m here, I’m alive, and I’m healthy enough to give - offer comforting words, reach my arms out to hug another, have money in my wallet to give to those in need, and a skill at stage performance to help others find their own personal aesthetic.  This is so, so, so precious.  This moment in time and in my spiritual walk.

Here’s to many more years of feeling this thankful and of maintaining an attitude of cherishing others and of service.

OK, so I’ve been a nag with our Center Director.  Sue me.

With new projects, a budget that is analyzed more by our new board, a new website under construction, and a press release (hopefully) coming soon,  I’ve been on the phone more often than usual.  But it’s all good.  Remembering that we’ve got that “girl energy” or “Tara energy” in full view is revitalizing, and so far we’re still enthusiastic about introducing more Dharma, more service, and more generosity to our local community.  Just because I love this bodhisattva so much, I’m going to let the almighty wiki talk about her some more for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Buddhist)

No cushions shall be made tonight.  There has been a sickness going around, and I am celebrating my daughter’s 10th birthday today.  I HAVE been working out the kinks on our zafu cushions, though, and I think I’m getting the technique better.  Hopefully, our members will soon enough have more options for our butts during meditation.

Ciao, y’all.

And it sucks donkey balls, too! 

But, we are done with it, and realize a few mistakes that we made in the cutting, the piecing, and realizing that the zipper in the pattern will simply not accomodate the kind of stuffing we are wishing to use.  Therefore, we’re now just planning on taking the zipper out entirely and planning on using Febreze on the little fucker whenever it starts to smell funny.

Overall the zafu-style cushion feels great.  It just looks a little odd.  The top cover pleats because I think we miscalculated the seam.  It’s a little lumpy, too.  But otherwise, c’est magnifique!!

And, we went through another bottle of wine while gossiping about sex, drugs, and rock and roll again.  Fun, fun, fun!!

Last night I had a blast with two of the women in our Dharma group.  Despite the fact that I volunteer as Spiritual Program Coordinator and stumbling over ways to generate a workable and totally awesome website, I like to put yet another thing on my already busy plate by volunteering in other ways.  This time, it’s making meditation cushions for the Dharma group.

Out of the three women, I was by far the youngest, but I also had the most experience in being a seamstress.  So it was no surprise that my counsel was sought quite a bit.  We had two sewing machines going later on in the evening, but that was after we gossiped, drank some cheap wine that tasted bad (but we didn’t care all that much, I finished my glass), and had some sweet peach dessert goodies.  We talked about sex, drugs, and rock and roll (if I remember correctly, both had seen Janis Joplin live before).  And I felt totally at home with them.  The place we hung out in was a “mother-in-law” suite in the basement of a house, and I swear it has to be the coolest one in the world.  It was a lush Buddhist shrine with a great kitchen and a six-burner gas stovetop, a beautiful and HUGE bathroom, French doors, and a walkout area to the outside where a small Zen garden sat around the corner under the shade.   Needless to say, I was ready to abandon my family and move in, but eventually I came to my senses and decided that the husband and the kids were good enough to let go of that delusion.  LOL

After laughing and hugging and talking and supporting each other all evening, we ALMOST got one cushion completed.  We never expected much out of the time, since we were essentially as a group cushion virgins, so we chalked this night up as training and just becoming accustomed to the patterns and the directions.  We’re thinking that maybe…..just maybe……we’ll be able to whip out a couple cushions a session by the time 2010 rolls around.

But in the meantime, we’re acknowledging that we’re breaking some Precepts with our gossip and our wine-enjoyment, and doing what we can to generate merit for the benefit of all sentient beings.  It was a great time, and I can’t wait to do this again.

Except eventually we actually want to finish a cushion.

Welcome to my adventure.

Let’s take a moment, first, to understand why I chose to consider “Sacred Whore” an adventure. This practicing and stumbling Buddhist desires to share with you her journey into an undefined yoga uniting the mind and the G-spot. We talk about the ideal of the bodhisattva – but who the hell is this consort that always seems to straddle him anyway? It isn’t difficult to find thankgas of varying deities in Tibetan esoteric art in sexual union with a consort riding him like an equestrian gold medalist….

Is she a Sacred Whore?

Seriously, we have this consort, this partner, who is screwing a bodhisattva. She’s a part of the picture, too, so why all the fuss about merely and solely sitting in a full-lotus, counting the breaths, practicing vipassana meditation and contemplation of the concept of emptiness? Can’t we utilize this other half of the image, and make love as well on our way to enlightenment?

This is part of my goal for Sacred Whore…..to explore the imagery and symbolism in that Tantric consort. It’s one thing – and a very good thing at that – to contemplate our Buddha nature as an absolute. I’m wondering and pondering if there is value in contemplating our nature as the consort as well. In other words – I’m embarking on an adventure to discover not only my true nature as a Buddha, but my true nature as a Sacred Whore.

So, again, welcome to my adventure. May this be a blessing and a gift of great fortune upon all who share this journey with me.