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FINDING
YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned
from Joseph Campbell: The
Myth
of the
Great Secret
III
GAY
SPIRITUALITY:
The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness
GAY PERSPECTIVE:
Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the
Universe
SECRET MATTER, a sci-fi novel with
wonderful "aliens" with an
Afterword by Mark Jordan
GETTING
LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE:
A
Fantastical Gay Romance set in two different time periods
THE FOURTH QUILL, a
novel about attitudinal healing and the problem of evil
TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life with
the
Navajo, a collaboration with Walter L. Williams
CHARMED
LIVES: Spinning Straw into
Gold: GaySpirit in Storytelling, a collaboration with
Steve Berman and some 30 other writers
THE MYTH OF THE GREAT
SECRET:
An
Appreciation of Joseph Campbell
IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE
SEXUAL UNDERWORLD: A Mystical Journey
Unpublished manuscripts
About ordering
Books on
Gay Spirituality:
White
Crane Gay Spirituality Series
Articles
and Excerpts:
Review of
Samuel
Avery's The
Dimensional Structure of Consciousness
Funny
Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco"
About Liberty Books, the
Lesbian/Gay Bookstore for Austin, 1986-1996
The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate
A
Bifurcation of Gay Spirituality
Why gay people should NOT Marry
The Scriptural Basis for
Same Sex Marriage
Toby and Kip Get Married
Wedding Cake Liberation
Gay Marriage in Texas
What's ironic
Shame on the American People
The "highest form of love"
Gay
Consciousness
Why homosexuality is a sin
The cause of homosexuality
The
origins of homophobia
Advice to
Future Gay
Historians
Q&A
about Jungian ideas in gay consciousness
What
is homosexuality?
What
is Gay Spirituality?
My three
messages
What
Jesus said about Gay
Rights
Queering
religion
Common
Experiences Unique to Gay
Men
Is there a "uniquely gay
perspective"?
The
purpose of homosexuality
Interview on the Nature of
Homosexuality
What the Bible Says about
Homosexuality
Mesosexual
Ideal for Straight Men
Varieties
of Gay Spirituality
Waves
of Gay Liberation Activity
The Gay Succession
Wouldn’t You Like to Be Uranian?
The Reincarnation of
Edward Carpenter
Queer
men, myths and Reincarnation
Was I (or you) at
Stonewall?
Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality
as Artistic Medium
Easton Mountain Retreat Center
Andrew Harvey &
Spiritual Activism
The Mysticism of
Andrew Harvey
The
upsidedown book on MSNBC
Enlightenment
"It's
Always About You"
The myth of the Bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara
Joseph
Campbell's description of
Avalokiteshvara
You're
Not A Wave
Joseph Campbell Talks
about Aging
Toby's Experience of
Zen
What is Enlightenment?
What is reincarnation?
What happens at Death?
How many lifetimes in an
ego?
Emptiness & Religious Ideas
Experiencing experiencing experiencing
Going into the Light
Meditations for a Funeral
Meditation Practice
The way to get to heaven
Buddha's father was right
What Anatman means
Advice to Travelers to India
& Nepal
The Danda Nata
& goddess Kalika
A Funny Story:
The Rug Salesmen of Istanbul
Nate Berkus is a bodhisattva
John Boswell was Immanuel Kant
Cutting
edge realization
The Myth of the
Wanderer
Change: Source of
Suffering & of Bliss
World Navel
What the Vows Really
Mean
Manifesting
from the Subtle Realms
The Three-layer
Cake
& the Multiverse
The
est Training and Personal Intention
Effective
Dreaming in Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven
Drawing a Long Straw:
Ketamine at the Mann Ranch
Alan Watts &
Multiple Solipsism
Gay
Spirituality
Curious
Bodies
What
Toby Johnson Believes
The
Joseph Campbell Connection
The
Mann Ranch (& Rich Gabrielson)
Campbell
& The Pre/Trans Fallacy
The
Two Loves
The
Nature of Religion
What's true about
Religion
Being
Gay is a Blessing
Drawing Long Straws
Freedom
of Religion
The
Gay Agenda
Gay
Saintliness
Gay
Spiritual Functions
The subtle workings of the spirit
in gay men's lives.
The Sinfulness of
Homosexuality
Proposal
for a study of gay nondualism
Priestly Sexuality
Having a Church to
Leave
Harold Cole on Beauty
Marian Doctrines:
Immaculate Conception & Assumption
Not lashed to the
prayer-post
Monastic or Chaste
Homosexuality
The Monastic Schedule: a whimsy
Is It Time to Grow
Up? Confronting
the Aging Process
Notes on Licking
(July, 1984)
Redeem Orlando
Gay Consciousness changing
the
world by Shokti LoveStar
Alexander Renault
interviews Toby
Johnson
Mystical Vision
"The
Evolution of Gay Identity"
"St. John of the
Cross & the Dark Night of
the Soul."
Avalokiteshvara
at the Baths
Eckhart's Eye
Let Me
Tell You a Secret
Religious
Articulations of the
Secret
The
Collective Unconscious
Driving as
Spiritual Practice
Meditation
Historicity
as Myth
Pilgrimage
No
Stealing
Next
Step in Evolution
The
New Myth
The Moulting of the Holy Ghost
Gaia
is a Bodhisattva
Sex with God
Merging Religion and Sex
Revolution
Through
Consciousness Change: GSV 2019
God as Metaphor
More Metaphors for God
A non-personal
metaphor God
The Hero's
Journey
The
Hero's Journey as archetype -- GSV 2016
The Gay Hero Journey
(shortened)
You're
On Your Own
Superheroes
Seeing
Differently
Teenage
Prostitution and the Nature of Evil
Allah
Hu: "God is present here"
Adam
and Steve
The Life is
in the Blood
Gay retirement and the "freelance
monastery"
Seeing with
Different Eyes
Facing
the Edge: AIDS as an occasion for spiritual wisdom
What
are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel?
A Different Take on Leathersex
Seeing
Pornography Differently
The Vision
The
mystical experience at the Servites' Castle in Riverside
A Most Remarkable
Synchronicity in
Riverside
The
Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis
The Techniques Of The
World Saviors
Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the
Tar-Baby
Part 2: The
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara
Part 3: Jesus
and the Resurrection
Part 4: A
Course in Miracles
The
Secret of the Clear Light
Understanding
the Clear Light
Mobius
Strip
Finding
Your
Tiger Face
How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated
Wallwalkers
& Gatekeepers
Jesus and
Avalokiteshvara
Joseph
Campbell, the Hero's Journey, and the modern Gay Hero-- a five part
presentation on YouTube
About Alien Abduction
In
honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke
Karellen was a homosexual
The
D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance
Intersections
with the movie When We Rise
More
about Gay Mental Health
Psych
Tech Training
Toby
at the California Institute
The
Rainbow Flag
Ideas for gay
mythic stories
My first Peace March
People
Kip and Toby,
Activists
Toby's
friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta.
Harry
Hay, Founder of the gay movement
About Hay and The New Myth
About
Karl
Heinrich Ulrichs, the first
man to really "come out"
About Michael Talbot, gay mystic
About Fr. Bernard Lynch
About Richard Baltzell
About Guy Mannheimer
About David Weyrauch
About
Dennis Paddie
About Ask the Fire
About
Arthur Evans
About
Christopher Larkin
About Mark Thompson
About Sterling Houston
About Michael Stevens
The Alamo Business
Council
Our friend Tom Nash
Second March on
Washington
The
Gay
Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the "Statement
of Spirituality"
Book
Reviews
Be Done on Earth by Howard
E. Cook
Pay Me What I'm Worth by
Souldancer
The Way Out by Christopher
L Nutter
The Gay Disciple by John Henson
Art That Dares by Kittredge Cherry
Coming Out, Coming Home by Kennth
A. Burr
Extinguishing
the Light by B. Alan Bourgeois
Over Coffee: A conversation
For Gay
Partnership & Conservative Faith by D.a. Thompson
Dark Knowledge
by
Kenneth Low
Janet Planet by
Eleanor
Lerman
The
Kairos by Paul E. Hartman
Wrestling
with Jesus by D.K.Maylor
Kali Rising by Rudolph
Ballentine
The
Missing Myth by Gilles Herrada
The
Secret of the Second Coming by Howard E. Cook
The Scar Letters: A
Novel
by Richard Alther
The
Future is Queer by Labonte & Schimel
Missing Mary
by Charlene Spretnak
Gay
Spirituality 101 by Joe Perez
Cut Hand: A
Nineteeth Century Love Story on the American Frontier by Mark Wildyr
Radiomen
by Eleanor Lerman
Nights
at
Rizzoli by Felice Picano
The Key
to Unlocking the Closet Door by Chelsea Griffo
The Door
of the Heart by Diana Finfrock Farrar
Occam’s
Razor by David Duncan
Grace
and
Demion by Mel White
Gay Men and The New Way Forward by Raymond L.
Rigoglioso
The
Dimensional Stucture of Consciousness by Samuel Avery
The
Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love by Perry Brass
Love
Together: Longtime Male Couples on Healthy Intimacy and Communication
by Tim Clausen
War
Between Materialism and Spiritual by Jean-Michel Bitar
The
Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion by
Jeffrey J. Kripal
Esalen:
America and the Religion of No Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal
The
Invitation to Love by
Darren Pierre
Brain,
Consciousness, and God: A Lonerganian Integration by Daniel A
Helminiak
A
Walk with Four Spiritual Guides by Andrew Harvey
Can
Christians Be Saved? by Stephenson & Rhodes
The
Lost Secrets of the Ancient Mystery Schools by Stephenson &
Rhodes
Keys to
Spiritual
Being: Energy Meditation and Synchronization Exercises by Adrian
Ravarour
In
Walt We
Trust by John Marsh
Solomon's
Tantric Song by Rollan McCleary
A
Special Illumination by Rollan McCleary
Aelred's
Sin
by Lawrence Scott
Fruit
Basket
by Payam Ghassemlou
Internal
Landscapes by John Ollom
Princes
& Pumpkins by David Hatfield Sparks
Yes by Brad
Boney
Blood
of the Goddess by William Schindler
Roads of Excess,
Palaces of
Wisdom by Jeffrey Kripal
Evolving
Dharma by Jay Michaelson
Jesus
in Salome's Lot by Brett W. Gillette
The
Man Who Loved Birds by Fenton Johnson
The
Vatican Murders by Lucien Gregoire
"Sex Camp"
by
Brian McNaught
Out
& About with Brewer & Berg
Episode
One: Searching for a New Mythology
The
Soul Beneath the Skin by David Nimmons
Out
on
Holy Ground by Donald Boisvert
The
Revotutionary Psychology of Gay-Centeredness by Mitch Walker
Out There
by Perry Brass
The Crucifixion of Hyacinth by Geoff Puterbaugh
The
Silence of Sodom by Mark D Jordan
It's
Never About What It's About by Krandall Kraus and Paul Borja
ReCreations,
edited by Catherine Lake
Gospel: A
Novel
by WIlton Barnhard
Keeping
Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey by Fenton Johnson
Dating
the Greek Gods by Brad Gooch
Telling
Truths in Church by Mark D. Jordan
The
Substance of God by Perry Brass
The
Tomcat Chronicles by Jack Nichols
10
Smart
Things Gay Men Can Do to Improve Their Lives by Joe Kort
Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same Sex Love
by Will Roscoe
The
Third Appearance by Walter Starcke
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann
Surviving
and Thriving After a Life-Threatening Diagnosis by Bev Hall
Men,
Homosexuality, and the Gods by Ronald Long
An Interview
with Ron Long
Queering Creole Spiritual Traditons by Randy
Conner & David Sparks
An Interview with
Randy Conner
Pain,
Sex
and Time by Gerald Heard
Sex
and the Sacred by Daniel Helminiak
Blessing
Same-Sex Unions by Mark Jordan
Rising Up
by
Joe Perez
Soulfully
Gay
by Joe Perez
That
Undeniable Longing by Mark Tedesco
Vintage: A
Ghost
Story by
Steve Berman
Wisdom
for the Soul by Larry Chang
MM4M a DVD
by Bruce Grether
Double
Cross
by David Ranan
The
Transcended Christian by Daniel Helminiak
Jesus
in Love by Kittredge Cherry
In
the Eye of the Storm by Gene Robinson
The
Starry Dynamo by Sven Davisson
Life
in
Paradox by Fr Paul Murray
Spirituality for Our Global Community by Daniel
Helminiak
Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society by Robert A.
Minor
Coming Out: Irish Gay Experiences by Glen O'Brien
Queering
Christ
by Robert Goss
Skipping
Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage
The
Flesh of the Word by Richard A Rosato
Catland by
David Garrett Izzo
Tantra
for Gay Men by Bruce Anderson
Yoga
&
the Path of the Urban Mystic by Darren Main
Simple
Grace
by Malcolm Boyd
Seventy
Times Seven by Salvatore Sapienza
What
Does "Queer" Mean Anyway? by Chris Bartlett
Critique of Patriarchal Reasoning by Arthur Evans
Gift
of
the Soul by Dale Colclasure & David Jensen
Legend of the Raibow Warriors by Steven McFadden
The
Liar's
Prayer by Gregory Flood
Lovely
are the Messengers by Daniel Plasman
The Human Core of Spirituality by Daniel Helminiak
3001:
The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Religion and the Human Sciences by Daniel Helminiak
Only
the
Good Parts by Daniel Curzon
Four
Short
Reviews of Books with a Message
Life
Interrupted by Michael Parise
Confessions of a Murdered Pope by Lucien Gregoire
The
Stargazer's Embassy by Eleanor Lerman
Conscious
Living, Conscious Aging by Ron Pevny
Footprints Through the Desert by Joshua Kauffman
True
Religion by J.L. Weinberg
The Mediterranean Universe by John Newmeyer
Everything
is God by Jay Michaelson
Reflection
by Dennis Merritt
Everywhere
Home by Fenton Johnson
Hard Lesson by James
Gaston
God
vs Gay?
by Jay Michaelson
The
Gate
of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path by Jay Michaelson
Roxie
&
Fred by Richard Alther
Not
the Son He Expected by Tim Clausen
The
9 Realities of Stardust by Bruce P. Grether
The
Afterlife Revolution by Anne & Whitley Strieber
AIDS
Shaman:
Queer Spirit Awakening by Shokti Lovestar
Facing the Truth of Your Life by Merle Yost
The
Super Natural by Whitley Strieber & Jeffrey J Kripal
Secret
Body by
Jeffrey J Kripal
In
Hitler's
House by Jonathan Lane
Walking on Glory by Edward Swift
The
Paradox
of Porn by Don Shewey
Is Heaven for Real? by Lucien Gregoire
In
Search of Lost Lives by Michael Goddart
Queer
Magic by Tomas Prower
God
in Your Body by Jay Michaelson
Science
Whispering Spirit by Gary Preuss
Friends
of Dorothy by Dee Michel
New by
Whitley Strieber
Developing Supersensible Perception by Shelli
Renee Joye
Sage
Sapien by Johnson Chong
Tarot
of the Future by Arthur Rosengarten
Brothers
Across Time by Brad Boney
Impresario
of Castro Street by Marc Huestis
Deathless
by Andrew Ramer
The
Pagan Heart of the West, Vol 1 by
Randy P. Conner
Practical
Tantra by William Schindler
The Flip
by Jeffrey J. Kripal
A New World
by Whitley Strieber
Bernhard
& LightWing by Damien Rowse
The
Mountains of Paris by David Oates
Trust
Truth by Trudie Barreras
How to be an Excellent Human Being by Bill Meacham
The
Deviant's War by Eric Cervini
What
Is the Grass by Mark Doty
Scissors,
Paper, Rock by Fenton Johnson
Toby
Johnson's
Books on Gay Men's Spiritualities:
Gay Perspective
Things Our
[Homo]sexuality
Tells Us
about the
Nature of God and
the Universe
Gay
Perspective is available as an audiobook narrated
by Matthew Whitfield. Click
here
Gay Spirituality
Gay Identity
and
the Transformation
of
Human Consciousness
Gay
Spirituality is now
available as an audiobook, beautifully narrated by John Sipple. Click here
Charmed
Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling
edited by
Toby Johnson
& Steve Berman
Secret
Matter
Lammy Award Winner
for Gay
Science Fiction
updated
Getting Life in
Perspective
A Fantastical
Romance
Getting
Life in Perspective is available as an
audiobook narrated by Alex Beckham. Click
here
The Fourth Quill
originally
published
as
PLAGUE
The Fourth Quill
is
available
as an audiobook, narrated by Jimmie
Moreland. Click here
Two Spirits: A Story of
Life
with the Navajo
with Walter L.
Williams
 Two
Spirits is available as an
audiobook narrated by Arthur Raymond. Click
here
Finding
Your Own True Myth: What I Learned from Joseph
Campbell
The
Myth
of the
Great Secret III
In Search of God in the Sexual Underworld
The Myth of the Great
Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell.
This
was the second edition of this book.
Toby
Johnson's
titles are
available in other ebook formats from Smashwords.
|
The reality of evil and human suffering
The religious myths of the World
Saviors are more abstract and the themes more subtle than the hero
legends of fighting dragons and monsters (like
Grendel in Beowulf). The “monster” World Saviors confront is
the reality of evil and human suffering.
In the religions of the Bible, evil and suffering are explained as
punishment for the offense the first man and woman committed against
Yahweh-God. Human beings had been placed by a loving God in a Garden of
Paradise where everything was given to them. But because they disobeyed
God’s command not to discover (“eat of”) the distinction between good
and evil, they were cast out of the Garden and condemned to suffer. A
World Savior was needed to appease God’s anger.
In Christian mythology, Jesus Christ was that Savior whose bloody
sacrifice on the cross was sufficient appeasement. But actually Jesus’s
message was that the cause of evil and suffering was not God’s anger at
Adam and Eve or his continuing anger at violations of his rules of
cleanliness and ritual purity. The cause was human beings’ failure to
recognize their oneness with each other and to follow the Golden Rule
and love one another. His death was a demonstration of such love, not a
ritual sacrifice in appeasement of divine wrath.
Jesus As Everyman
The story of Jesus is about Everyman. In the
Christian world, Jesus is the image of the Self in every man and woman.
His is the story of the good person who sees through the rules and
conventions of his society to the real meaning beneath. Jesus realized
that the point of belief in God was not to obey rules and taboos about
ritual cleanliness and ownership of property, it was to help people be
kind and loving to one another.
Jesus urged people to let compassion, not obedience to the Law,
determine how they would treat one another. When he revealed his
beliefs, some people rejoiced, others objected. He was set upon by the
powers of Church and State, Temple and Emperor, and killed as a heretic
and a troublemaker. But because of his goodness and his willingness to
accept life as it comes—“not my will, but thine”—he passed through
death and returned bearing the boon of liberation for everybody.
Each of us goes through something of that cycle as we mature from
childhood. As generous, well-meaning innocents, we announce to the
world our discovery of what life is all about and our intention to
change the world for the better. We are immediately beset by the powers
of Church and State. We have to behave ourselves the way other people
expect us to. We have to learn what they say is right, we have to learn
who to mistrust and fear. We have to work, we have to pay taxes.
We have a choice between becoming a hero—like Jesus—or giving in to the
demands of the world. We can choose to be good and compassionate or
become cynical and resigned to being driven by cultural and economic
forces. We can follow our bliss or work for The Man.
The Buddha's Ferryboats
Besides Buddha, there is another world
savior in Buddhism. Connected
with him is the Buddhists’ affirmation of the phenomenal world. The
mythological, non-historical character of the Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara appeared during the time of a reformation in Buddhism
as the religion shifted from a purely monastic practice to a popular
religion.
Early Buddhism taught that escape from suffering and disappointment
could be achieved by living a life of simplicity, moderation and
discipline, in the search for “nirvana,” the extinction of desire and
escape from the cycle of reincarnation. This escape was limited to
males living as monks. The best that women (even Buddhist nuns) and lay
people could hope for was that, by dint of the good karma they incurred
by giving alms to monks, they would be reincarnated in a future life as
a monk. Then they would be able to avail themselves of the Buddha’s
wisdom about achieving enlightenment through their own meditation
practice. This “way of the elders” (Theravada Buddhism) came to be
called “the little ferryboat” (Hinayana) because only a few could cross
over into nirvana.
The popular religion, called Mahayana, “the big ferryboat,” developed
around the same time as Jesus’s reform of Judaism. There are questions
in the study of comparative religion about which might have influenced
which, or whether the two reformations appeared simultaneously because
of a change in the collective unconscious. Just as Jesus taught that
love is the one commandment superseding all the elaborate rules of
ritual cleanliness that comprised the Pharisaic Judaism of his day, so
the Mahayanists taught that compassion for others is the saving
attitude that leads to enlightenment, not solitary meditation on
philosophical abstractions.
The Lord Looking Down In Pity
The Mahayana myth of the
Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is pure metaphor.
There is no suggestion that Avalokiteshvara was a historical figure.
The story was devised by the Mahayana sages to dramatize the message of
compassion.
The story goes that this fellow had worked his way through countless
incarnations to become a bodhisattva, a stage of development just
before becoming a buddha. In what promised to be his final incarnation,
he was the beautiful, kind, gentle, and androgynous Avalokiteshvara,
whose name means “The Lord Looking Down in Pity.”
In a culture that revered age, and out of a mythology that imagined him
to be countless lifetimes old, Avalokiteshvara is usually portrayed as
a youth. Perhaps this was to suggest vitality and a certain sexiness.
Openness to experience, innocence, good will and vivacity—all are
conveyed in the image of being young at heart.
As Avalokiteshvara entered his final meditation and was about to
achieve his goal of lifetimes beyond number, he heard a groan go up
from all around him. He came out of his meditation and asked, “What’s
this about? I was about to achieve nirvana. Why the groan?”
All of nature answered in a single voice, “O Avalokiteshvara, we are
happy for you that you are about to enter nirvana, but we are sad for
ourselves. Life is hard and full of suffering. What’s kept us going was
the thought of you. You are so kind and lovely. You’ve been a source of
strength and inspiration for us. Now you are about to leave us, and so
we groan.”
Rapt with compassion, the saint responded, “Well, then I won’t leave
you, but shall renounce my own nirvana until all sentient beings are
likewise enlightened.” Indeed, he went on to say, “It would be better
for one to suffer than for all. Therefore I vow to take upon myself all
the karma and all the suffering of all sentient beings. I shall remain
in the cycles of reincarnation until the end of time bestowing grace
and mercy for the good of all.”
Avalokiteshvara is one of the most worshipped gods on Earth. All the
prayer flags and prayer wheels throughout the Buddhist world vibrate
with his mantra: Om mani padme hum, “The jewel is in the lotus.” Yet
the name of Avalokiteshvara is little known in America. One artistic
representation of him, however, is strikingly familiar. In the form of
the Goddess of Compassion, Kuan Yin, the “Madonna of the Orient,” his
statue is available in virtually every garden store around the country.
Chinese artists, unfamiliar with the Hindu notion of androgynous,
bisexual gods, mistook his effeminate appearance and reproduced him as
a female goddess.
As Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva is usually standing, clearly a woman,
sometimes holding a water bottle. As Avalokiteshvara, he is usually
sitting in a relaxed pose. Not in the disciplined lotus posture of the
Buddha, Avalokiteshvara sits with his right knee up and his left leg
folded under him or hanging over a wall. His right hand rests languidly
on his knee. Often broad-shouldered and slim-waisted, he is usually
shown bare-chested or, Indian-style, wearing a sarong with a scarf
thrown over his shoulders, and he has flowers in his hair. Sometimes he
wears women’s beads so that he is dressed (like the Native American
berdache/two-spirit medicine men) in sexually ambiguous attire. He always looks to
be in peaceful reverie, as though sitting in a garden enjoying the
quiet of the afternoon, among the lotus blossoms.
The Lord Who Is Seen Within
In institutionalized Buddhism,
this story of Avalokiteshvara’s ongoing
reincarnation is interpreted as explaining the mystical identity of
certain religious leaders. The myth is understood to mean that
somewhere in the world the Bodhisattva is incarnating to do good works.
And that “somewhere” is usually as leader of the particular sect. The
Dalai Lama, for instance, is believed to be a direct incarnation of
this Bodhisattva, and elaborate tests are performed to determine the
lineage of a prospective Dalai Lama to make sure it is the incarnation
of Avalokiteshvara who is given the office.
According to another interpretation of the myth, however, when
Avalokiteshvara made his great vow, all other sentient beings were at
that moment ushered into nirvana, leaving Avalokiteshvara alone behind
to live out their karma for them. This androgynous being then is the
only being who is incarnating.
Though we all think ourselves to be different, separate individuals—all
fighting, struggling, conquering, or succumbing to the demands of our
unique karmas—we are each and all really simultaneous incarnations of
that one being, Avalokiteshvara. We live out the vow, entering all the
doors of incarnation, and discover that nirvana is not the renunciation
of the world, but the loving, compassionate embrace of all possible
human experience. The name Avalokiteshvara can also be interpreted:
“The Lord Who is Seen Within.”
This Buddhist myth from the 1st or 2nd Century is not about
homosexuality and gay identity as we know them in the 20th and 21st
Century. But the character in the myth reminds us of what today are
thought of as gay traits. Avalokiteshvara’s sensitivity and generosity,
his lovableness and sweetness, his blend of masculinity and femininity,
his attractiveness and vitality and pluckiness reflect qualities that
shine forth from many gay men. The appearance of such traits justifies
and honors our speaking about “gay men’s spirituality” in the first
place.
The Bodhisattva Vows, the wording slightly changed for this context,
are: “However countless sentient beings, I vow to save them. However
inexhaustible the resistance, I vow to relinquish it. However many the
doors of incarnation, I vow to enter them all. However incomparable the
highest perspective, I vow to attain it.”
Jesus As Bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara’s mantra, “The
jewel is in the lotus,” means that
enlightenment and salvation are found in the here-and-now, in physical
reality. The lotus is a water-lily that floats on the surface of ponds,
symbolizing the beauty of spiritual unfolding. The plant itself, the
roots and stalk, are under the water. They grow up from the mud and
muck at the bottom of the pond. The meaning of the image is that
spiritual beauty is rooted in the reality of fleshly existence and the
round of birth and death. This is the same meaning as “The Word has
become flesh” or “Jesus is Lord.”
Jesus was a world savior by his willingly dying in expiation for the
sins of the world. He was the perfect human sacrifice and ultimate
scapegoat for the sin Adam committed against Yahweh-God. The Mahayana
character, Avalokiteshvara, was a world savior by his delaying his own
entry into nirvana out of compassion for all sentient beings.
Within the mythic worldview of each, it seems Avalokiteshvara’s saving
act was more effective than Jesus’s. The Christian savior’s
self-sacrifice to appease his Father’s anger did not change anything.
People are still hating. People are still suffering. The Gates of
Heaven have been opened by Jesus’s saving acts, but each individual
still has to face trial before an exacting judge. There is no guarantee
of getting through the gate.
According to Buddhist myth, however, when Avalokiteshvara took upon
himself the suffering of the world, all the sentient beings did indeed
enter nirvana and no one is suffering anymore, just Avalokiteshvara.
Every sentient being went through the gate.
Jesus’s saving act makes more sense in the Buddhist conceit than in the
Hebrew. In the Gnostic-like, mystical images of the Gospel of Saint
John, Jesus declares: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” (John
15:5) He prays, “That they all may be One, as you, Father, in me and I
in you. That they all may be One in us.” (John 17:21) Jesus makes more
sense as savior not as the pleasing sacrifice to appease the
Father-God’s wrath, but as the “Christ-energy” in everybody.
In his resurrection into a glorified body, he transcended death and
individuality. He became one with all his disciples, signified by the
sacramental partaking of his flesh as food. In the story of the
encounter on the Emmaus road (Luke 24: 13-35), two of the disciples
recognize Jesus’s mystical presence in a stranger they met along the
way when they share a meal with him. It is said that the way to follow
Christian ethics is to see Jesus in every person we meet.
In the metaphors discussed above as the new paradigm, we could say the
vibes from Jesus’s death resonated out through the whole complex of
morphogenetic fields, etheric holograms and archetypes of the
collective unconscious that make up the mind of Earth. Clearly that is
so. His life and death changed human consciousness as much as any other
event in human history.
Ripples In The Spirit Field
To address the question of the
simultaneous origins of Christianity and
Mahayana, perhaps it was from the karmic resonances of Jesus that the
pure metaphor of Avalokiteshvara arose in the meditations of the
Mahayana sages who devised the story of the Bodhisattva. Though perhaps
this resonance started even before Jesus or the Mahayana sages.
Modern chaos theory gives us the image of the butterfly in Australia
whose flapping wings start the ripple in the air that becomes a
hurricane in the South Atlantic. Perhaps it was the life and solitary
meditation and deep sensitivity to suffering of some Two-Spirited
shaman somewhere in the world that first started this ripple in the
spirit field that ended up resonating round the world as the message of
love and compassion.
Whatever the original source, this ripple, reinforced by the Christian
and the Mahayana myths, still resonates in our lives today. Most gay
men still live like Jesus: unmarried, without children, striving for
beauty, looking for love and friendship, building community, and
speaking truth. Occasionally we even get crucified. But we always rise
again.
One of the ways homosexuality differs from race is that bigots and
dictators can succeed in annihilating a race by killing all the members
of that race. But even if they manage to kill off all the homosexuals
in the world, in the next generation there will be just as many as
there were before. This surely is resurrection from the dead.
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