September 26, 2007 archive

If they keep handing out tracts like this, I imagine Creationism will be dead in a matter of months.

There Go the Dinosaurs

Cracked my shit up!

I’ve been drawn over here by buhdy’s diary at Daily Kos introducing the Manifesto Project, which is a laudable and long-overdue project.  I look forward to participating in that effort.  But who will the Manifesto address?

The conservative movement, which has been dominant in American politics for almost three decades, is dying before our eyes.  This will create a vacuum in our politics which will be filled, but with what?  Recycled, rancid corporatism from the usual suspects?  Nativist racism and fundamentalist hatred?  Progressivism is the only visible, sane alternative to become the next dominant philosophy of American politics, but we’ll have to be ready or else lose the chance.

So I have another question to raise along similar lines beside the Manifesto Project:  How do we build a progressive movement?  We in the Netroots are but one part of the progressive movement.  Who are the others?  How do we come together to build a coherent, strong, mature movement to inherit politics in the post-Bush era?  Come below the fold if you’re interested in exploring further.

Artist: Nisvan

Since Buddhism has been a topic of discussion here lately (On Religion and Buddhism at Docudharma), I thought I would weigh in from another perspective and talk a little about my experiences with Buddhism and the spiritual realm. 

The title of this essay comes from a book of the same name¹ which discusses the role that mind-altering drugs play in spiritual practice.  The book is a collection of essays written by western Buddhist teachers and religious scholars such as Jack Kornfield, Allan Hunt Badiner, Lama Surya Das, Huston Smith and Stephen Batchelor.  They all relate personal anecdotes of how psychedelics opened the doors to higher consciousness. 

From the Foreword:

It is undeniable that a significant proportion of those drawn to Buddhism and other Eastern traditions in the 1960s (including the present writer) were influenced in their choice of religious orientation by experiences induced by psychoactive substances such as marijuana and LSD.  Despite the fact that experimentation with such drugs was illegal, potentially dangerous, and unmonitored, the startling shift in consciousness it occasionally provoked was considered to be worth the risks involved.  Now, thirty years later, many of these Buddhists are priests, meditation teachers, therapists, college professors, and writers: respected members of the very society against which they rebelled in their youth.  Yet although they often eschew the use of psychedelics themselves and warn others of the dangers of abuse, few would deny the role of these substances in opening their eyes to a life of spiritual and religious meaning.