> To stay within limit I am bundling my response to two posts.
>
> 1. About Michael's question about a google search on homsexuality and
> Buddhism.
>
> It can be a minefield.
That's for sure. As far as the Web is concerned, on a topic as incendiary as this, Googling "Buddhism"+"homosexuality" will probably get one exactly nowhere. For a very thorough scholarly overview, I would recommend Bernard Faure: "The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality" (Princeton Univ. Press, 1998), and for a shorter more popular discussion, John Stevens: "Lust for Enlightenment: Buddhism and Sex" (Shambhala, 1990).
> I have some tentative conclusions: as far as the
> texts go, the Buddha said to avoid sexual misconduct. Now the question
> arises is same-sex sex equal to sexual misconduct? For most Buddhist
> traditions it is not. Not all traditions even required celibacy in
> their
> monks. To most the requirement is that the sexual relation be
> consensual
> and done with mindfulness.
Fair enough. It should be pointed out that the "monk"/"layperson" dichotomy Westerners are familiar with is not quite the same as the "family leaver"/"householder" distinction in Buddhist tradition, so explaining Buddhist moral teachings is a little complicated.
> Personally, I prefer Thich Nhat Hahn and his tradition of Vietnamese
> Buddhism. He is much more radical and much fiercer in his talks with
> Westerners (at least the ones I have attended). Hence he has a much
> lower
> visibility, though he too is an exile from his country and cannot
> return.
Yes, he would appeal a lot more, at least in politics, to members of this list than the DL probably would. He was of course one of the Vietnamese Buddhist "family-leavers" (I don't like the word "monk," with its Christian overtones) who opposed the Saigon government and the US in the Vietnam War.
> Even my own bouncing from a list since I was queer which was
> anti-marxist.
> And yet Lenin got rid of laws criminalizing homosexuality. So I am
> trying
> to figure out how the train leapt the track.
Which train? Which track? It's even more hopeless trying to find a single, consistent "Marxist" position on anything than it is finding a Buddhist one. Just about every idea you can think of has probably been embraced by one "Marxist" group or individual and denounced by another one. Just keep in mind that the master himself made a famous pronouncement: "I am not a Marxist."
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, 'You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk-dancing.' -- Sir Arnold Bax