Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Porn in an Age of slow Internet speeds

Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Matt Groening ("Life in Hell"); Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.) Nirayavagga "Hell" (Dhammapada XXII/ATI)
Porn? I think Eve's QUEST was for knowledge. Are you there, God? It's me, Rebecca (Bex Finch/flickr.com). Who is everyone? Secret: I have tried every religion/spirituality/philosophy/movement in this picture. My faith is, er, interesting. Mother's a Jew, father's an atheist (formerly Episcopalian). I'm Jewish by blood/culture, had a Bat Mitzvah, but once I got to college...well, you know how it is. One existential crisis after another left me an atheist. Then an agnostic -- a very humble position (which is why I love David Hume). Then I "found" God when I ate mushrooms -- not shitake -- and I've been a deist ever since. But by "God," I just mean a "higher power," no identity (no way for us to identify), unable to comprehend, the [Causeless] First Cause, you know? Religion scares me. That's my secret. I remembered Buddhist spirituality! But I'm pissed I forgot to add Kierkegaard philosophy here. Despair, angst, leap of faith...brilliant.
It's always the pool or pizza boy in sordid sunny North Hollywood, U.S. porn capital
 
Failed actress/model Sasha Grey
What is "porn" but torment to the eyes that tears away at the psyche with unrealistic expectations and a figurative hunger for sensual experiences? What is to come of it? What harm (unskillful karma, unwholesome intention and conduct) is to be done to attempt to slake the craving stirred up in the mind/heart?

Some say it would be better to "pluck out one's eye" (Catholic/Christian/Jewish), to "cut off one's hand" (Muslim), to develop insight and root out harmful/painful karma at its root (the Buddhist approach).

Mind is the forerunner. Guard it. (Dhammapada)
And the Buddha even went so far as to say that for a monastic -- one who has renounced worldly pursuits and become dependent on the generosity of donors wishing to help one on one's quest for enlightenment in this very life -- it is positively dreadful to take that help and abuse it. It would be better to eat red hot iron balls than to consume the food offerings of those with confidence in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha wishing to preserve the path to freedom (enlightenment) and the end of all suffering (nirvana) in this world. 

Dhammapada verses
The Dhammapada, Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.) edited by Wisdom Quarterly
306. The perjurer [the utterer of "false speech," which the Buddha defines in detail elsewhere] goes to a state of woe, as does one who, having done (wrong), says, "I did not do it." Persons of base actions both, on departing they share the same destiny in the other world [the world to come, i.e., some future existence, not necessarily the immediately following rebirth destination].
307. There are many unwholesome characters and uncontrolled people wearing the saffron [Buddhist monastic] robes. These unskillful person will be reborn in states of woe because of their unskillful deeds.
308. It would be better to swallow a red-hot iron ball, blazing like glowing fire, than as an immoral and uncontrolled Buddhist monastic to eat the alms offered by people [with faith in the Sangha, the Monastic Order].

Where porn begins: freely viewed billboards and ads from American Apparel
Binky: Porn and the Age of Slow Internet Speeds (Matt Groening/"Life in Hell")
 
309. Four misfortunes befall the reckless person who consorts with another's spouse: acquisition of demerit, disturbed sleep, ill-repute, and (rebirth in) states of woe.
310. Such a person acquires demerit and an unhappy rebirth in the future. Brief is the pleasure of the frightened couple (those engaged in cheating), and the ruler (or judge, civil court) imposes heavy punishment (for adulterous acts). Hence, let no person consort with another's spouse.
311. Just as (double-edged) kusa grass mishandled (or wrongly grasped) cuts the hand, even so, a recluse's life wrongly lived drags one to states of woe. [The best use of life striving for enlightenment most directly, if lived incorrectly, can severely drag one down because of all its powerful karmic potential.]
312. Any loose act, any corrupt observance, any life of questionable celibacy [within the Sangha] -- none of these bear much fruit.
313. If anything is to be done, let one do it with sustained vigor [persistence]. A lax monastic life stirs up the dust of the passions all the more.

Romney Obama Care under attack by partisan Republicans (Tom Tomorrow/TMW)

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White privilege or racism? (JenSorensen.com)
314. An unwholesome deed is better left undone, for such a deed torments one afterwards. But a wholesome deed is better done, the doing of which one does not later regret.
315. Just as a border city is closely guarded both within and without, even so, guard one should guard oneself. Do not let slip this opportunity (for rapid spiritual growth). For those who let slip this [rare]opportunity grieve indeed when consigned to hell[s].
316. Those ashamed of what they should not be ashamed of, or ashamed of what they should be ashamed of -- upholding false views, they go to states of woe.
317. Those who see something to fear where there is nothing to fear, and see nothing to fear where there is indeed something to fear -- upholding false views, they go to states of woe.
318. Those who imagine the unwholesome where there is none, and do not see the unwholesome where it is -- upholding false views, they go to states of woe.
319. Those who discern the wrong as wrong and the right as right -- upholding right views, they go to realms of bliss.
 

Chip off the old --ock: pervert son of a pervert father, circa 1950's Americana.
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