Reflections on 2011

I’m thinking back to New Year’s day at my boyfriend’s home. On the television was the customary New-Year’s-Day review of the events of the previous year, leading me to review in my mind what events stood out for me in 2011. The first thing that came to mind was Occupy Wall Street and the whole Occupy Movement inspired by their actions. To me it was a wake-up call. I had been aware of climate change and the depletion of fossil fuel. I had not been aware of the stress which millions of people feel as they wake up to the reality of their democratic heritage, their means of livelihood, and the very planet on which they depend being stolen from them by the greed of people in high places.

This is producing a cultural shift of profound proportions. Whether this will be a shift toward freedom and life or toward slavery and death is yet to be seen.

What is moving us toward life? The Transition Movement, the Occupy Movement, the faction of the Tea Party that is devoted to the Constitution, and those who call us to listen to our inner God. What is moving us toward slavery and death? Corporate controlled media, institutions that would saddle us with limiting and lifeless creeds, politicians who kowtow to corporate interests while ignoring their constituents, the apathy of those who still find their lives comfortable, and those who look for a “me first” solution by hoarding more and more personal wealth as a hedge against economic and social breakdowns.

As a gay man who attempts to walk a spiritual path, I look to my Higher Self for ways that will move our society toward life. My intention is to document my search in this blog.

News from Washington County

We had an interesting political development in the southern part of Washington County, New York. The incumbent major-party candidate for Highway Superintendent was defeated by a man running on a minor-party line that he created. And the incumbent Town Supervisor, also running as a major-party candidate, was almost defeated – and may have been defeated when the absentee ballots are counted – by a woman running on a minor-party line that she created.

When you couple this with “Occupy Wall Street” and “Occupy …” all the other places where demonstrators have set up tent cities, you realize that change is in the air. How will this affect you? How will it affect your neighbors?

Next week I’ll be driving down to the New York City area. If Occupy Wall Street is still demonstrating I intend to talk with people there. I hope that they realize that when the demonstrating is done, they need to go back to their communities and do what the two candidates in Easton did – create a case for their cause that will hold up at the ballot box. To do this, they will need real understanding of the problems facing the country – not the simple slogans of a protest march. They will also need to be able to articulate that understanding and to listen to those who disagree with them.

Real change is coming. A major part of current and future economic problems is not the greed of Wall Street executives, but the fact the the fossil fuel on which our society depends is running out. It’s cost will keep going up, and this will limit economic growth. In other words, economic growth cannot continue to infinity. Those who understand this have the ability to produce real change. 

Filming “Apotheosis”

On Monday of this week, on what may well have been the last good day this year for a film shoot outdoors with naked dancers, I filmed “Apotheosis” in the High Meadow at Easton Mountain. Here are some still pictures from the shoot, which followed the scenario posted on July 16.  

The figure in black takes a strip of greyish white cloth and blindfolds the man, wrapping the ends around his mouth and chin.

The figure in black smears the man's body with paint - a symbolic wounding.

The wounded man

The Higher Self wrestles with the man until the man surrenders.

When the Higher Self removes the blindfold from the man's head, the man sees his Higher Self for the first time.

Now comes the tasks of first finishing the music and then editing all the video. Watch this blog for progress reports.

More on “Apotheosis”

On July 14 I posted something about creating a movement-art video to be called “Apotheosis.” We’ve had two rehearsals since then. Here’s a short video of parts of these rehearsals. The video has some of the music for this piece in it.

I’ll post more as the work progresses.

Examining Beliefs

Last week I wrote, “The only purpose I can see for a creed is as a statement that you must question to grow spiritually. If you or I adhere to a group that has no formal creed, we must still question their basic assumptions.” But spiritual growth requires not just questioning the beliefs of groups but also our individual beliefs.

In 1989 I began publishing a periodical called TOUCHING BODY AND SPIRIT and in my second issue started a series of articles exploring my beliefs. Now it seems good to me to go back and look at the assumptions and beliefs I held then to see how they’ve changed.

While my stated intention for that series was to discuss beliefs, much of that series became a discussion of practice – the practice that has been the core of my spiritual life. So I must look at how that has changed along with my beliefs.

At that time I discussed five aspects of my spiritual path.

1. Opening and balancing the chakras.
2. Study of spirituality in all its manifestations.
3. Contact with nature.
4. Living in the present time.
5. Contact with Higher Wisdom.

Today, I would add a sixth aspect: Living in spiritual community.

I have covered the spiritual practice of opening and balancing the chakras in other postings, so I need not dwell on this topic except to say that a daily practice of opening the chakras is less important for me now. My chakras are now open and integrated.

My intention in future postings is to focus on the remaining five aspects, devoting at least one posting to each. I may, from time to time, digress into other themes relevant to spiritual life from one gay man’s perspective.

Can a Creed Foster a Spiritual Life?

The word “creed” comes from the Latin credo – first word of the Nicene Creed, usually translated “We believe.” A creed is thus a statement of common belief.

Putting aside the question of the truth, I have three objections to creeds:

1. Words only give an incomplete description of reality. No matter how many words you use to describe something, your description is always incomplete.
2. If descriptions of physical reality are always incomplete, how much more incomplete are descriptions of spiritual reality – drawn, of necessity, from an individual’s inner life.
3. Creeds, for people who accept them, divide the world into believers and nonbelievers – negating any attempt to serve the world without discrimination.

In the early twentieth century, Alice Bailey wrote of the development of “A New Group of World Servers.” Men and women “emerging out of every group and church and party, … not from the pull of their own ambition and prideful schemes, but through the very selflessness of their service.” She states that possession of a creed bars a person from this group.

Early in an individual’s spiritual life, a person gravitates to a group that gives easy answers in creeds and doctrine, but such a group keeps an individual at that early stage. The only purpose I can see for a creed is as a statement that you must question to grow spiritually. If you or I adhere to a group that has no formal creed, we must still question their basic assumptions. Then, we might reach a point where we can say with the Sufi poet Hafiz:

I

Have

Learned

So much from God

That I can no longer

Call

Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,

a Buddhist, a Jew.

(From: “The Gift,” Translated by Daniel Ladinsky)

On Introspection

David Bohm, in his essay “On Dialogue“, speaks of thoughts as creating effects, but our minds then deny that thoughts are responsible for these effects. He doesn’t give any illustrations, but I think Marshall Rosenberg gives a clue to what he may mean when he talks about our thoughts being responsible for our feelings – not the action that gives rise to these thoughts. For example, if someone says to me, “You write gibberish in your blog,” I might think, this person is right. Then I would feel depressed. Or I might think that the person who said this is rude. Then I would feel angry. It is not the person’s words that produced my emotion but my thoughts about those words.

Bohm feels that dialogue will bring a person to a place where we recognize the effects of our thoughts. I think we can see that in this instance my emotions might make Bohm dialogue impossible. What is needed, in addition to dialogue. is some type of introspection or meditation. Of course, if I persist in attempting dialogue, introspection may occur spontaneously. Bohm speaks of “proprioception” – meaning “self-perception” – as a product of dialogue. But might not this state pf proprioception come about more easily if there is both dialogue and introspection?

Parker Palmer, in his book A Hidden Wholeness, speaks of “circles of trust,” a process whereby individuals meet in small groups and use open-ended questions to facilitate each other’s introspection. This may be a necessary addition to Bohm dialogue – and Palmer expands on the possibility of using this process in the political sphere in his new book, Healing the Heart of Democracy. He will be presenting a webcast on this on October 11. At Easton Mountain, where I live, we’ll gather to view this webcast.

Still More Thoughts on Bohm Dialogue

In a section of On Dialogue called “The Impulse of Necessity,” Bohm speaks of necessity as a kind of thought that plays “a greater role than other kinds.” “What is necessary cannot be otherwise; it’s just got to be that way.”*

“Need” is a synonym for “necessity.” Marshall Rosenberg, author of Non Violent Communication: A Language of Life, makes a distinction that Bohm does not make – the distinction between needs and strategies for meeting needs. Rosenberg believes, and I think correctly, that needs are never in conflict, but strategies may be in conflict.

If someone asserts that, for the United States, having a nuclear arsenal is a necessity, we might point out that this is not a need. The need is for security, and the arsenal is a strategy for meeting that need. Phrasing the situation in this way gives us room for dialogue. One might argue that a large nuclear arsenal does not increase national security, but only increases tension and hostility – as some countries enter into an arms race to have bigger nuclear arsenals and countries without nuclear weapons turn to the support of terrorism as a way to strike back at the threat that they perceive in the military and nuclear might of the United States.

The examination of what is really a “necessity,” that is “need,” and what is a strategy for meeting a need, thus becomes a critical part of any dialogue that hopes to bring about some kind of workable consensus about how this country and the world should operate. 

I invite further comments on this, and will explore this more in future postings.

 _____________________

*P. 25, David Bohm, On Dialogue, 2004, Rutledge Classics, London and New York

More on Dialogue

In May, I posted something about “transition towns,” a movement to prepare people for the inevitable diminishing of fossil fuel. This movement started in England, where I think that there is a greater sense of community than in the fractured and polarized United States. The recent debacle where the Republican-controlled House of Representatives led the country to the brink of bankruptcy, convinced me that we can never do the work that the transition movement demands without some kind of open sharing that creates, if not consensus, at least a respect for the opinions and actions of everyone.

In a posting earlier this month, I proposed that the dialogue methods presented by David Bohm in his book, On Dialogue, could be a methodology for creating this respect. This led to a friend contacting me about a new book by Parker Palmer, Healing the Heart of Democracy. While I still feel that Bohm dialogue could be helpful, it requires the commitment of a group of twenty to forty persons to meet at least monthly over a period of at least a couple of years.

Parker Palmer will be hosting a webcast entitled “Doing Democracy From the Inside Out” on October 11, 2011 at 8 p.m. Eastern time. I’m both excited and grateful – excited because I believe Parker Palmer will have an approach that is well thought out, practical, and at the same time spiritual (by which I mean relating to our deepest and most authentic selves).

I’ve already ordered his new book, and will be making arrangements for those at Easton Mountain, where I live, to view the webcast. If you live in the greater Albany, NY, area and would like to view this webcast with us, please contact me. 

Phallic Worship

In the High Meadow at Easton Mountain, my friend David Townsend created an altar using a phallic sculpture by Moss Tidd.

 

 

 

 

David’s philosophy behind the altar is reflected in his statement: “The inevitable woundedness of queer male sexuality in a homophobic world needs safe containers where we can affirm our desire and the animal nature that generates it.”

As an affirmation of my own sacred sexuality, I walked down the path to the altar with bare feet. At the end of the path I stripped naked and walked three time around the altar.

David had placed instructions for puja (a Sanskrit word for reverence, honor, adoration, or worship) in front of the altar.

Following these instruction, I took the prayer shawl from the phallus and draped it over my shoulders.

 

Using one of three small clay bowls, I poured water on the phallus.

I caressed my heart with one hand and the phallus with the other.

 

But my soul would not allow me just to worship the creative force of the universe in a wooden phallus. I needed to venerate the creative force within my own being. I lay down in front of the altar and poured water on my cock. I took deep breaths as I caressed my cock and heart. I returned to the phallus. Caressing my body with both hands, I kissed it. I danced – entertaining the possibility of bringing myself to orgasm. Were I a younger man, I would have done so; but for this worship, it was sufficient to raise up erotic energy and send it out with my breath.

The teaching of this day for me is that rituals of phallic worship reclaim the sacredness of sex. I intend to find other ways to incorporate phallic worship in my sexual explorations.