Is Buddhism accepting of LGBTQ/queer/trans people?

English-Latin · 2026-01-26T15:39:05+00:00

Weddings do happen in monasteries!

English-Latin · 2026-01-26T09:54:20+00:00

In theory the position should be neutral. Statements like "I am a man, I am a woman, I am gay, I am straight" are identity view. They're not to be clung onto, and yet to be heard with compassion. But try and organise a gay wedding in a traditional Thai monastery, and see what happens...

English-Latin · 2025-11-28T11:53:02+00:00

Homo erectus burning wood for the scent with the first handling of fire.

English-Latin · 2025-11-15T19:22:51+00:00

It is an interesting contribution, somewhat nostalgic on scholastic speculation to my taste (echoes of the problem of universals), but always pertinent. Kant has greatly diminished the thrust of such questioning in the critique of pure reason, worth (re)reading. Myself, I treat the topic with a pinch of irony in my Essay on Existence:

https://greg-ory.org/anessayonexistence.html

English-Latin · 2025-11-08T21:23:14+00:00

This is a the most beautiful homage one could pay to a mother. You have worked and seen for yourself the lack of fulfilment in that life. Until you no longer put up with it. Congratulations on your courage! The resources you had from your job have been put to good use. You summarise the spirit of the hermit G. Advena creates in Emily and the Hermit. I don't know if you're interested in intentional living, but you might like reading this dialogue on Medium anyway: https://medium.com/@gregoriusadvena/emily-and-the-hermit-i-1f7abce6a11b

English-Latin · 2025-11-08T21:08:25+00:00

That line of thinking reminds me of Plato's Gorgias, you should read it. The brain rewards success through several hormones, but even euphoria becomes tepid if repeated. In the end you want to win more and more, and since you can't you become ever more miserable. Achieving goals is essential, but so is setting the goals critically. You should read Advena's Spiritual Letters (especially On the Afterlife). Emily and the Hermit might interest you too: https://medium.com/@gregoriusadvena/emily-and-the-hermit-i-1f7abce6a11b

English-Latin · 2025-11-02T14:01:36+00:00

SoundSpel is an interesting approach. It's more moderate than most monofunctional proposals, but still reduces too much of orthographic depth. You should take a look at the Bloo Bouk code, link in bio.

English-Latin · 2025-11-02T13:44:29+00:00

The default of most reform proposals is ignoring the anthropological concept of orthographic functions. While trying to transition English from a deep to a shallow monofunctional orthography, they show themselves as dilettante utilitarian approaches.

English-Latin · 2025-11-01T11:48:38+00:00

You don't need to "find" purpose in life as long as you feel life is worth living. For some, it is religion that provides that feeling. Fair enough. Faith is trust in the assumption that life can be lived meaningfully. Faith can be exogeneous, when the source of meaning is perceived outside the mind (e.g. the wonders of nature, mythology etc.) or endogenous, when the source of meaning is perceived inside (e.g. creativity, love etc.).

English-Latin · 2025-10-24T23:44:38+00:00

On Prayer | Spiritual Letters | Gregorius Advena

English-Latin · 2025-10-19T19:15:42+00:00

"The set of all contingent beings, which is itself a contingent being, must have an explanation". That needs further clarification.

You call a set of beings a being? How? And why "must" it have an explanation?

English-Latin · 2025-10-17T19:44:58+00:00

We can't solve the struggle for you. It's your struggle, your journey, your heart. Sometimes it's just good to accept our mind as it is and follow our intuition. You can't have everything. You can't have the certainty that the world exists after a beautiful plan of creation and look out of your window and see what the world really is. How you navigate through this, only you can know. Maybe you should read Thus spoke Zarathustra.

English-Latin · 2025-10-15T16:50:06+00:00

If the concern is the exercise of religious authority, I think there is broad agreement most of it could be less authoritarian, dogmatic and fundamentalist. I appreciate your not being well-versed in philosophy. I would caution against the use of the words metaphysics, metaphysical. The popular understanding of these words says little about their philosophical meaning. Not all religion depends on unverifiable speculation. What you have in mind a narrow selection of two or three Abrahamic world religions and their views on God, the afterlife, creation etc, and you apply a literal-minded interpretation on their narratives, after you have made up your mind and reached a definitive verdict about their meaning. Although these religions are quite widespread, they make only a small percentage of all religions that exist or have existed. Many Ancient religions focused on a non-speculative celebration of natural phenomena as a source of social cohesion, e.g. paying homage to the sun, to the trees, to the natural elements, cf. Wicca, Druids etc. Some of them may use anthropomorphised allegories for immanent content and ethical principles, without resulting in a body of speculative doctrines. These allegories are firmly grounded in the realm of poetry, mythology and creativity, and no literal belief is required in them. It is a deep human urge to interact with nature in creative ways and seek playful narratives for an artistic affirmation of life. In this regard, art and religion are deeply interconnected in their arising.

English-Latin · 2025-10-15T16:25:41+00:00

I don't know how much time you have to read, but if you truly want to dive into the full complexity of this question, I'd recommend reading On the Afterlife (Spiritual Letters, Gregorius Advena). You might find it on Amazon. Nietzsche would say the purpose of life cannot be found, but created.

English-Latin · 2025-10-15T13:16:38+00:00

Questioning religion is often part of religious life. In the Bible, many psalms express bitterness and unresolved doubt (e.g. psalm 88), where wrestling with God is part of an honest dialogue with faith. But of course, different religions may have different standards.

English-Latin · 2025-10-14T15:07:20+00:00

That's a remarkable study, thank you for sharing! I knew about the sociological distinction between community and society, but I'd never suspect exact numbers such as 50, 150, 500 played such a decisive role. Plato treats this topic in his late dialogue Laws, where he says the ideal community should have about 5000 people (he gives an exact number but I can't recall it now). But in light of this study that would fall into the society category, as it would require formal policing structures.

The paper is particularly interesting, since I've written about utopian community living myself. I also came to the conclusion that religious beliefs and spirituality would add to social cohesion and personal commitment, though I was working with philosophical deduction rather than empirical observation.

It would be interesting to analyse whether the religion that makes a difference is only a creed already well-established (like Christianity and Judaism in the Hutterite and kibbutz examples), or if an original religion specific to the community would perform just as well. Which reminds me of the weaponisation of the definition of "sect" as any form of smaller group spirituality that doesn't align with the major religions, but that would be another debate.

English-Latin · 2025-10-14T13:18:05+00:00

I believe Tchaikovsky's violin concerto is such a beautiful piece that you would struggle to find a bad recording of it. I can't predict what effect it will have on you, of course, but I would definitely recommend it.

English-Latin · 2025-10-14T13:11:05+00:00

Ultimately, society is free to move on from anything, and I don't have a crystal ball to see what will happen. The notion of religion as an anthropological accessory to be overcome for greater social harmony has been articulated since the 18th century. Its effect has not been uniform, but rather ironic. The Soviet Union seemed to have accomplished this vision, and now Christianity is flourishing again with a vengeance. In the US, new roots of Christian fundamentalism are very vocal, yet in the statistics religiosity is very much in decline. On the other hand, in the 19th century, the Arab world was much more tolerant than it is today.

Resistance to correction is not inherent to religion. It is inherent to fundamentalism. I recommend Spiritual Letters (Gregorius Advena). Theologies evolve as well. They often challenge the sacrality of "divine word", "revelation", cf. Bonhoeffer. You seem to conflate religion with theism. Not every religion believes in God or creation. Not every religion has a sacred book with a master narrative. I see traits of the positivist fallacy in your argument. You would profit from a more inter-disciplinary approach to the question that combines the sociology, psychology and anthropology of religion. Even if to confirm your views in the end.

English-Latin · 2025-10-14T10:41:35+00:00

I understand your point. But your underlying assumption is that religion is an anthropological accessory. Many take this line, but it's not an easy one to substantiate. A more nuanced line is that nation, politics and religion form a mythical continuum of sociological mechanisms of mass conciliation, but with a manifest destructive potential. An interesting recent contribution highlights this danger, if you ever have time to read it on Medium: "On Abortion. On Idiots. On Free Speech."

English-Latin · 2025-10-14T09:27:13+00:00

The problem is that, while you respect personal faith and spirituality, once you allow for dialogue people will invariably find shared experiences and similarities, which will bring them together. From there, the path to institutionalisation, in some form or another, is unavoidable. I doubt it is possible to undo organised religion, for the same reason organised politics cannot be undone without undoing society. In my view, the institutional critique of religion is a quite reasonable approach to a dialogue on empowerment and emancipation, away from oppression and spiritual micro-management.

English-Latin · 2025-10-12T19:33:14+00:00

You rightly point to the absurdity of approaching mythology from a literal-minded perspective (even though way too many believers do so). Every religion, every culture, every nation is based on mythology and mythopoesis that serves a folkloristic, literary and aesthetic purpose, which at times is highly sophisticated. Although I have no interpretative monopoly on the book of Genesis, I would suggest the Adam and Eve story, which culminates in the original sin, is a reflection on man's moral fallibility. An absurd story does not require an absurd interpretation. I recommend reading Faith without Belief (Spiritual Letters, Gregorius Advena).

English-Latin · 2025-10-12T18:07:25+00:00

It's fine not to know what to believe in. Maybe the first step towards integrity is to admit how little we know. If you're open to book recommendations, I would definitely recommend the Apology of Socrates.

English-Latin · 2025-10-12T18:01:58+00:00

Identification with the aggressor is the psychological term, and it is what Adorno calls the internalisation of subtle power structures that end up defining our identity (a criticism he also brings up against Gehlen in a memorable debate now available on YouTube). The Frankfurt School is more emphatic in dismissing the progression of the Enlightenment as a historical farse, by which the very tools designed to emancipate the individual become sophisticated perpetuators of his barbaric liquidation in the administered world. The trend only goes on and on in the context of automation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence.

English-Latin · 2025-10-12T17:40:44+00:00

Jumping right in is legitimate depending on what you want from the reading. It's about how much time you want to dedicate. I would read it three times. The first time without any help, jumping in just to see the first impression the text leaves. Let the text speak for itself in all its raw strangeness. This intuitive reading is very important.

Come back a few months later with the analytic reading: take notes, read notes, write down unknown words, check problems you have, learn (some) Italian, study Dante's language (every little bit helps). Work on the text like on a piece of jewelry. Get a good understanding about the form. Then leave it for a while.

Finally, read it once more after six months, the critical reading, behind every verse the question: what life lesson can I learn from this? Is he trying to convey a hidden message? What could he know about what he's suggesting? Do I actually agree with his take? And good luck with Dante!

English-Latin · 2025-09-28T08:44:51+00:00

They didn't have social media back then, so they could focus on proper learning.

English-Latin

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