Archive for the ‘Eros-Ethics-Meaning’ Category

The Dignity of Desire: Marc Gafni

Posted on: September 2nd, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com ‘Tis Better to Bleed In a dialogue between a well known Buddhist teacher and myself, the teacher challenged me persistently on this issue of desire. “After all,” he said, ...

Detachment is not the Goal: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 31st, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com Detachment for the biblical mystic is a strategy, not a goal. In the end, you must not remain a spectator in the drama of your own existence. Rather, you need to become the lead ...

On the Clarification of Desire: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 31st, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com Desire is Holy. And not always to be acted upon. In fact often not to be acted upon. The biblical mystic lovingly counsels us to be with yourself and gently watch your desires as ...

The Eye of Desire: Alexander the Great: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 30th, 2008 by Marc Gafni 1 Comment

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com shared comments on info@marcgafni.com The Eye of Desire For many of the biblical mystics, the symbol of confused desire was Alexander the Great. He took almost the entire known world of his day. Yet, insisted the ma ...

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Davinci Codes, Templars: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 29th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com The templars. The masons. Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Ark of the Covenant in the Temple. Jerusalem the place of the temple. The eye of the storm and the hope for peace. Davinci ...

The Third Face of Eros: Desire: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 29th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com The Third Face of Eros: Desire Desire has gotten a bad name. Buddhists talk about desire all the time and tell us how bad it is. Christianity and Judaism are big attackers of des ...

Snakes and Scorpions: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 27th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com We have all met snakes and scorpions. The biblical master ask the students. The mantra reads. The pit was empty, it had no water. {This comes from the description of the pit that ...

Life is what you do with your emptiness: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 27th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com Life is what you do with your emptiness. Life is about walking through the void. Every time we walk through and not around the void we come out stronger. Every time we are seduce ...

Echoes of Emptiness; The Erotic and the Ethical: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 26th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com The arena where emptiness- non-erotic living – is most destructive is in the ethical. Every ethical failure comes from the absence of eros. It is the inability to stay in t ...

Stay in the Emptiness: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 26th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com The cherubs once again serve as our guide. Remember that the vortex of Shechina in the biblical myth is no less than “atop the ark in the Holy of Holies, between the cherubs. ...

Aftertaste Part Two: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 25th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com Now here is a wild idea. Biblical myth practice suggests that, just as a fast day is helpful in sensitizing you to distinguish between wholesome and desperate eating, regular sho ...

Aftertaste: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 25th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments on info@marcgafni.com AFTERTASTE: Now if we are courageous enough to walk one step further, we will see that sex follows the same exact formula. Every human being engages in two very different forms o ...

Why Do I Eat Food?: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 24th, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com please share comments at info@marcgafni.com There’s a wonderful short prayer in the Hebrew liturgy which is recited after eating. Strangely the prayer begins with a unique formula which appears nowhere else in the ...

Pseudo Eros and Gossip: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 22nd, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com please share comments on info@marcgafni.com Kabbalah scholars point out that one of the defining characteristic of the Zohar mystics is that illumination happened not in solitary retreat but in groups engaged in sac ...

Pseudo Eros: Chocolate-Covered Raisins: Marc Gafni

Posted on: August 22nd, 2008 by Marc Gafni No Comments

marc gafni posted on marcgafni.com share comments at info@marcgafni.com The same thing happens with food everyday without our realizing it. Our bodies can be our most blatant teachers. Our bodies are talking, but are we listening? On a religious fast ...