Steven > Recent Status Updates

On to volume two! Volume one is the hinayana, volume two is the mahayana, and volume three is a guide to mahayana meditation.

This book is (in)famous for suggesting that most, if not all, heterosexual intercourse in our patriarchal society amounts to rape. As a gay man, I'm sympathetic to this view, even though I personally know straight men who do not fit into Andrew Dworkin's maxim. Those men are few and far between--In our Trumpist society, Dworkin's work is a scathing criticism of the status quo

Some of the ways that this author is presenting evidence in this book are bothering me. She mentions that she's a critical theorist, which is not a school of philosophy that I particularly like, and she also mentions that she likes Habermas, who is a philosopher that I disagree with in some pretty major ways.

I saw this audiobook on Spotify and thought it would be interesting, especially since I get strong emotions when talking about politics. They're not as intense as some people's emotions, but I do find that I have trouble convincing others of my positions when we are talking in person. Maybe this book will help!

I have a lot of hope for this book, so hopefully it will be good. My number one challenge in my leftist praxis is dealing with other people. Many people don't seem to care for me all that much--In any case, I don't want to let that stop me. Hopefully this book will offer some helpful suggestions.

The passage I'm reading now has gotten the Dalai Lama in hot water with the queer community at times. Tsongkhapa presents the inappropriate modes of sexual activity, which not only extends to queer sex, but all forms of sodomy, heterosexual or otherwise. The Dalai Lama seems to, at least publicly, interpret this part of the text as referring to only monastic conduct, but this is not stated at all in the text itself.

We're getting into the stuff about Christianity now, and I've enjoyed what I've read so far. I guess my only criticism of the book thus far is that the author could state his thesis a little more clearly. Throughout the book, he makes connections between homophobia and economic instability, so I hope that he will state this thesis outright towards the end of the book

This author clearly knows what he's talking about, but for some reason I'm finding it a little hard to follow his narrative at this point. It might be because he's covering wide swathes of history at one time. Regardless, I'm still enjoying what I'm reading

This is actually a commentary on a commentary, in which Ngulchu Dharmabhadra aligns Tsongkhapa's commentary on the Six Yogas of Naropa with Vajrayogini Practice, which is one of the main practices of Gelug lay people.