I was looking at the comments section for the last piece I put up here. What a riot! I’m staying on the sidelines till the dust clears. But I did want to clarify one thing. It seems like most readers understood the picture I was trying to paint with my words of what happened on the evening I was describing at the beginning and end of the Suicide Girls piece. But a couple people took things way wrong, and the fault is mine.
Because of the poor way I worded the piece, some readers assumed that I had actually witnessed the woman in question being suspended by fish hooks and getting her labia pierced. Ugh! That’s way too hardcore even for me. Actually she just hung around after the dance and told us about having done that stuff. She also gave us her MySpace address, which had photos to prove it.
I don’t really give two shits what anyone thinks of my going into that club. What you think of what other people do is your problem, and I can’t help you. But I felt like maybe I ought to at least make that clarification.
Here is the first paragraph again with the corrections I added to it today:
I met a stripper with a Three Stooges tattoo the other night at a bar called Tigress. She bitch slapped one of my companions hard while she gave her a ferocious lap dance. Threatened my balls with spike heeled platform shoes. Hissed in my face that she was into edgeplay. She said she got giant fish hooks stuck through her back with which they hung her bleeding body from the ceiling till her screams careened off the hard brick dungeon walls. Said they pierced her labia with five-inch needles. Said she worked for Lloyd Kaufman at Troma Films for years. I’ve heard what that’s like. The lady could take some pain.
As to the issue of the Precepts that some readers have raised, it is very important to remember that the Buddhist Precepts are never, but never, to be used as a weapon. The Precepts are there as guidelines for us as individuals to judge our own behavior, not the behavior of others. When you observe the behavior of another person always bear in mind that you can never know the true circumstances that led that person to behave in some particular fashion. Of course if that behavior is causing harm or danger to you or someone else it may sometimes be proper to intervene. But in most cases it's probably none of your business.
Buddhism is an attitude. It's an approach to life. The Precepts are meant as helpers to guide us in establishing this attitude. They're not a list of rules that we, the Precept Police, are enjoined to enforce. There are many things in this life that are beyond our knowledge or even our capacity to know.
These days I am discovering how much deep and lasting harm has been done in this world by those who appear to society as the upholders of holiness and morality. The stories I could tell you! Maybe some day I will. But each time I hear one my heart feels like its been crushed. It is our duty as Buddhists to refrain from causing more of this kind of pain ourselves. That is our mission.
My friend Rob, who attends my weekly get-togethers at Hill Street Center and often posts here as SmoggyRob, said that his take on the Bodhisattva Vow of saving all beings was that it was his duty to save all beings from himself. We all need to have that attitude.
ANYWAY. Here, again, is the list of upcoming gigs I’ll be doing this year. Over the last couple years, a few readers have made their way to the sesshins at Tokei-in temple. That’s always very touching. If you’re planning to do this in 2008, please write me and I’ll do what I can to make the trip as painless as possible (unless, of course, like my exotic dancer friend you’re actually into pain).
February 29 - March 2 Retreat at the Atlanta Soto Zen Center. I don't have contact info yet. So just check the webpage & see who it says to contact for info.
April 25 - 27 Retreat at Southern Dharma Retreat Center in North Carolina. Again, I don't have contact info, so check the website.
May 4th 0DFX gig at Kent State University (May 4th, 1970 was the day four students were shot by the National Guard at Kent State, the event immortalized in Neil Young's song "Ohio")
August 9-16 I'll be one of the teachers at the Great Sky Sesshin in Southern Minnesota. The webpage is still last year's info. But it's pretty much the same deal each year.
The annual Dogen Sangha Zen Retreat will be held in Shizuoka, Japan in early September and I'm planning to be there as well.
