Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Some Light Reading for the Seventh Night of Hanukkah: The Zohar

Rabbi Yitzak said:
The light created by G!d in the act of Creation
flared from one end of the universe to the other
and was hidden away,
reserved for the righteous on the world that is coming,
as it is written —
Light is sown for the righteous (Psalm 97:11)
Then the worlds will be fragrant, and all will be one.
But until the world that is coming arrives,
it is stored and hidden away.
Rabbi Yehudah responded:
If the light were completely hidden,
the world would not exist for even a moment!
Rather, it is hidden and sown like a seed,
giving birth to seeds and fruit.
Thereby is the world sustained.
Every single day, a ray of that light shines into the world,
animating everything;
with that ray G!d feeds the world.
And everywhere Torah is studied at night,
one thread thin ray appears from that hidden light
and flows down upon those absorbed in her.
Since the first day, the light has never been fully revealed,
but is vital to the world,
renewing each day the act of Creation.

Plasticized Bodies, Advertising and the Illegal Trade in Organs

JWT in Shanghai is running some ads to convince the Chinese to donate organs, with a campaign for the Red Cross that shows organs with bodies inside

Am I on drugs or is there something really bizarre and disturbing about an organ donation campaign running in a country where prisoners have their organs removed (sometimes before execution) for sale?

The ad above, one of several, is supposed to be lungs though it looks like kidneys to me (does it remind you of the humans in pods in The Matrix?).  Others show livers and hearts. And it is true that is a shortage of organs for transplant. Only 50 to 60 kidneys are replaced a year in Hong Kong while the waiting list for transplants numbers around 500. But according to Human Rights Watch/Asia, about 2 to 3 thousand organs a year are cut from the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners. This is state sponsored theft (and desecration). I guess the ad campaign is encouraging private citizens to get a piece of the action, since transplant services are readily available to high ranking Party officials and cash-paying foreigners. Of course, there are those unfortunates who have their organs stolen. I seem to recall reading a science fiction novel about this in the 60s. Anyone recall what that might have been?

Here in New York City we have not avoided this controversy. Last year, 20/20 reported that the plasticized bodies in the extremely popular Bodies exhibit at the South Street Seaport were executed Chinese prisoners. The German doctor who invented the process that used to put these human bodies being put on display around the world, says he has stopped using bodies from China because some of them shows signs of torture. The exhibit in NYC now offers refunds after a lawsuit by the state attorney general.

I don’t know how much Chinese citizens know about the Bodies exhibit, but it certainly isn’t news on the street in Shanghai that there’s an illegal traffic in stolen organs. So what they must think when they see these ads? And what was the team at JWT thinking?

Oh yes, the images are striking, and you have to look at them. True. And that’s the first job of advertising — to get you to stop and pay attention. But this doesn’t go on to persuade me of anything other than being certain not to accept drinks from strangers in a Shanghai bar.

That's the advertising exec speaking. Now let's hear from the Jewish Buddhist. One of the many meditations taught by the Buddha was the charnel ground meditation — one was supposed to sit amidst the burned and decomposing bodies to meditate on the impermanence of one's own body. In the Buddha's time, there were places where the remains were left to decompose or be eaten by wild animals. Because there are no charnel grounds in New York City — or much anywhere anymore — Buddhist monks have been going to the Bodies exhibit to take on this meditation. Certainly seeing these bodies is a powerful experience of the fragility and impermanence of our physical nature.

However the Jew in me recoils at this practice — and at the exhibit. Just as a living person is the image of the Divine, so to the remains, which should have its integrity, at least until it naturally decomposes. This very reaction is interesting though. The Buddhist in me says this is about attachment to the body. So I'm going to have to sit with this. Perhaps I will use the JWT ads as a meditation mandala on this subject.

The Plight of the Bumblebee: Viral Ad Campaign That Leaves A Bitter Taste

Häagen Dazs has placed an entertaining if somewhat long video on YouTube to drive viewers to a site about the urgent problem of colony collapse and mass die-offs of bees.

The die off is just another sign that we are destroying our environment, and that the system that supports our own food chain is in serious danger. But that’s not why I bring up the campaign.

As an advertising creative, I get frustrated when an interesting and fun idea to publicize an important issue is ruined by poor user experience. Just another sign that the social network environment is being polluted by poorly thought through work.

At least the video is fun. But if you decide to go to the site, helpthehoneybee.com it’s first and foremost a site for Häagen Dazs, that requires yet another click to if you want to do something to help.  So once you click again, you get another introductory screen, no product this time, but you still have to click again to “join the mission.” To top it off, loading time is for the animation is slow and the show isn't worth the wait. But I waited for two reasons — first because the cause interests me. And of course out of professional intereste.

So finally we get to a page with bees in a field and a hive menu that takes yet another minute to reveal itself. Finally there is a choice that says “How You Can Help.” First time I click on it, all I get is an instruction to explore the meadow. Tells me that different plants and flowers are important. Stop the presses on this news. So I try the “How You Can Help” menu again.

This time it takes me to some copy that offers me a lesson plan (I didn’t see where this was directed to teachers, but okay) and several other paths to take: Plant a Seed, Donate, Help The Beekeepers, and Tell A Friend.

Seems donating might be something to do to help. Click there and you learn Häagen Dazs is giving money to two universities to study the problem. And you can too. Okay, so if you decide to donate to Penn State you’re sent to a Penn page that doesn’t refer to bees at all. You’re just giving money to the university. Not very satisfying. But you’ve taken a lot of time to learn that Häagen Dazs is giving money to solve this problem. They could have told me that at the end of the video. Well. What else?  Okay, if you click back on the main menu to learn what else they are doing they repeat the donation claim, and then mention their new ice cream flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee.

Tell A Friend? Here is at least a fun viral component where you get to design your own cool looking bee and send it to friends so they can learn Häagen Dazs is giving money on a slow and clunky site. Not very original, but cute nonetheless. Why do I feel Ben & Jerry would have done a better job?

Good idea. Lame execution. And I don't feel that I've helped the bees in any way. I feel I've taken a long time for a PR message. Not so sweet guys.

The Divine Androgyne: Sex and Gender on the Gay Brain and the BBC

In many spiritual traditions, the inner union of male and female is one of the ways of knowing the Divine. Jung wrote about this union as a way towards psychological wholeness. For men this does not mean becoming feminized (which is a major fear in the gynophobic American culture) but integrating qualities we label masculine and feminine, such as logic and intuition.

As a gay man with an interest in both spirituality and Jungian psychology this subject has always interested me. In some cultures queer people are said to embody both male and female qualities in a way that brings them closer to the world of spirit. Of course, in our monotheistic culture, born of the Israelite religion that denied the Divine Feminine (Asherah/Shekhina)even while it was worshiped in the Temple, queer people are a threat — thus the spiritual world we are said to connect with is demonic.

In the world of brain science, Time magazine reported recently that Swedish scientists have concluded from brain scans of 90 gay and straight men and women  that “the size of the two symmetrical halves of the brains of gay men more closely resembled those of straight women than they did straight men.”

While I have no idea of the size of my brain I discovered yesterday that the BBC web site that, along with a number of other tests on their site they offer one called Your Sex I.D. It takes about 35 minutes to complete on line. And based on your responses they can tell you where your brain fits on the male/female continuum. Much to my surprise, I was exactly in the middle. Except I can’t say that I am enjoying the spiritual benefits of inner union. The test itself was fascinating though, and I’d be curious to see how large numbers of gay men do on it.

It is true that I find myself attracted to one of the Buddhist saints who is depicted as both male and female (though not at the same time!). Avalokiteshvara is depicted as a young man in India and Nepal — but as Buddhism moved east, in China and Japan he became a she, and is known as Kuan Yin or Kannon.

And of course, in Kabbalistic Judaism, Adam Kadmon, the original created human was an androgyne — based on the phrase in Bereshit translated as “male and female created [he] them.” Diagrams of this first human superimpose the sephirot over the body — sephirot that include Yesod, often connected to the male genitalia, and Malchut, connected to the female genitalia. However this is merely metaphoric externalization of what is really about an inner state.

Brain scientists have investigated how meditation affects communication between the left and right hemispheres.

A research team investigating the effects of meditation on the brain with the collaboration of the Dalai Llama, showed that meditators had a significant increase in activation in the left pre-frontal regions of their brain, associated with a reduction in the amount of anxiety they reported.

So why aren’t gay men more like the Buddha? I would argue that many gay men in fact are — from those who volunteer their time at places like God’s Love We Deliver to those who become church choir directors we bring our gifts of creativity and compassion to society in many ways. However as a minority that has been demonized, in a culture where a man who exhibits qualities that are ascribed to women is denigrated, there is no question that many of us take on the negatives of both genders — an aggressive bitchiness for example, used as a defense.

I pray for a world where all people, male - female - intersexed - trans - are not merely free to develop their gifts, but a world where those gifts are welcomed and nurtured. Keyn Yehi Ratzon. So may it be.

Nerdy Gay Teen Into UFOs

Yep, that's me in the ultra modern sweater on the far left 41 years ago today. I was a member of NICAP — the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena. I'd read Incident At Exeter. And even the insane books by George Adamski that had us actually holding our sides in pain with laughter. I've long been out of touch with the guys I hung out with here (nerdy gay boys ultimately don't mix so well with Italian boys in Canarsie). But I look back on those days with affection and humor. Seven months later I was at my first World Science Fiction Convention. Is it any wonder I was into escapist literature?