Politics and Pleasure!

Politics: the art of "right relationships"; the democratic conscience elevated to civic discourse; and the common means to the pursuit of justice and equality for all... Pleasure: the art of "right relationships; the human desire for a life of harmony and happiness; and the common means to the pursuit of harmony and beauty for all...

Now, of course, these are not the standard-everyday-variety definitions: they are not really meant to be definitions at all. Rather, they are meant as a sort of "map" to the One Place we all really want to get to: and I am not thinking about anyone's particular version of "heaven": but I am thinking of a Paradise of Possibilities...

A parade of candidates for the Presidency of the United States are each attempting to be a primary substance for media attention: a few deserve attention (like Senator Bernie Sanders) and a few do not (like Donald Trump): but who is going to deepen our understanding of the importance of "right relationship"? Some might think that this is a Buddhist concept. It might be. But it is also not a Buddhist concept. It is a primordial yearning that is part and parcel of soul: soul begins in beauty and wonder: and engages (or disengages) with the world around it primarily in response to beauty and wonder...

Religions of the world, generally speaking, represent the inordinate attention that history has given to men who derive satisfaction and domination from the political and privileged division of soul from body: equating pleasure with "sin" and "holiness" with discipline. The need that men have to define and categorize and divide is the root cause of "wrong relationships". While the Divine Universe would have us live in the Unity of Desire and Contemplation and the infinite blessings of kindness, the divisions of the world, especially profiting men, only benefit those with privilege and power: god / devil, good / bad, beautiful / ugly, moral / immoral, saved / unsaved, us / them, male / female, spirit / sex and on and on...

Where are either the politicians or the religionists who have experienced the sublime mystery of "right relationship" with power? In other words, whom does power serve? This is the crux of "right relationship": power exists to manifest all the possibilities of beauty and wonder! Imagine a politics of "building the Earth" for all the peoples of the world to enjoy in peace, justice, equality, and harmony! Imagine a religion of "adoration": "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together: One"! Imagine the Oneness that is our true nature holding sway over every aspect of both politics and pleasure! How would a genuine spirit of "right relationships" change the face of the Earth? And how would a politics of service and kindness, and a spirituality of pleasure, give rise to a "new heavens and a new Earth"?