Monkey See, Monkey Do

found my new favorite place for tea, the samovar tea lounge on 18th and sanchez. this is where i discovered the joy of monkey-picked tiquanyin tea. there are multiple stories for why this tea is called monkey-picked. the one i’ll pass on is that Buddhist monks high in the mountains had compassion for even the monkeys and fed them when food was scarce during a drought. the next spring, when it was time to venture out and pick tea, the monks found all the tea already picked and left on the steps of the monastery by the monkeys.

found an article which bridges some christian ideas with buddhist. author flint sparks equates the buddhist idea of vast emptiness with the christian idea of complete fullness of spirit. i’d love to hear more bridging between these traditions. the article includes a quote by zen teacher charlotte joko beck which i like:

“The secret of life that we are all looking for is just this: to develop through sitting and daily life practice the power and courage to return to that which we have spent a lifetime hiding from, to rest in the bodily experience of the present moment ? even if it is a feeling of being humiliated, of failing, of abandonment, or unfairness.”

Last night my friend kat danced at the fourth annual naughty nurse fundraiser for the St. James Infirmary. the infirmary provides free health care for san francisco’s sex workers, and the fundraiser had a number of stage performances plus music to dance to. my friend rachel went with me, and i ran into craig and jennifer s. there too.

kat performed with a burlesque troupe called hot pink feathers twice on stage in super cute outfits; they were awesome. a couple bands performed, and fakir the torture king performed on stage in drag (as faqira) by using sun dance hooks in his chest to pull a trapeze rope and elevate a woman high above the stage. That was hard to watch.

The highlight of my night must have been the porn clown posse who showed up though with their grope a clown booth. The booth is a simple wood box with small holes for your arm to fit through. Inside is usually one or two nearly naked clowns, perhaps with clown-nose nipple covers or a strap on dildo, all for your groping pleasure. I’ve seen and appreciated the booth before, this time they had a raffle and each grope cost a dollar raffle ticket. Rachel and I bought a whole roll and groped many a clown. If you reached in and grabbed something special, you’d sometimes hear a clown horn from inside the booth as your reward. I love clowns.

The fundraiser was super fun. But it might have paled in comparison to the “dark night in karny town” event in April. i wish i knew about that one, from the photo gallery it looks like everyone dressed the theme and stayed in character. warning, if you have a fear of evil, sexy, or otherwise disturbing clowns don’t view those photos.

henry was kind this morning, he sat patiently at the side of the bed while i happily slept in. good kitty.

last night i took my folks to see teatro zinzanni, a sort of dinner theater circus. between each dinner course there was much silliness, revelry, performances like trapeze, juggling, and magic. my favorite moment though was when they asked everyone to dance to a slow song and my parents got up and danced between the tables. i could barely watch them it was so cute.

i’m thinking of trading in my laptop for a new, smaller model. easier to carry around or take on the road, with all sorts of little upgrades. if i view my technology as an extension of myself then this would be the equivalent of a nose job. except apple keeps making my nose obsolete every two years…

today the supreme court overturned Texas’ anti-sodomy law, and went further to overturn an earlier court decision which allowed Georgia’s anti-sodomy law and went onto state that all private sexual activities are constitutionally protected which do not harm an individual or institution protected by law. a good summary of statements can be found here. i’m not up on the current law but it feels like a major change, preventing the government from dictating what type of sexual behavior consenting adults can practice in private.

my latest housesitting gig is in belmont, my old stomping ground. i’m feeding henry the cat and this morning he decided 5 am it’s time for breakfast. cute little guy though so it was too hard to refuse the request. later he meowed at me constantly while i took a shower, i’m not sure what had him so concerned - except maybe he already finished all the food i put out for him. little vacuum cleaner.

last night’s meditation class went well, I’ve been exploring the tibetan concept called shenpa more and I shared it in class. I then noticed while meditating that often the little daydreams and story lines I have are classes in the future: imagining them as successful and helpful. These thoughts are like scratching some underlying itch, so I explored what the itch felt like more. It felt like a small node of doubt at the base of my throat. It felt like when you go hiking, and you jump to a rock which looked solid but wobbles a little and for a split second you’re not sure if it’s going to hold you or if you’ll fall. I realized that when teaching something or leading the class, I feel a little like I’ve just jumped onto that kind of rock and the way I deal with the discomfort is to fantasize little imaginary classes going well in my head. That is one of my shenpas.

this last week i’ve been living in the sunset district in SF. normally known for cold, foggy pacific ocean weather i’ve lucked out - it’s just gorgeous. one of my hopes in traveling around was to see more of the area, and today i ventured over to the 9th and Irving area in the city to check it out. Found a cheap, yummy indian place for lunch called “naan and curry”. window shopped, people watched, and caught up on email with hot tea.

yesterday joined a barbeque gathering at a friends house on the peninsula, for even more lounging in the sun and catching up with friends. it was really relaxing watching bocci ball braggards talk up their game, friends meghan and cheryl try out the new vegetarian fake barbeque chicken (includes bbq sauce no less), and get loopy on too many rice crispy treats. the longest day of the year was a good one.

I just read an inciteful, short essay by Pema. it’s all about the way we get ‘hooked’ by experience and react to it. the tibetan word she uses for this ‘hook’ is called shenpa. I recommend this short essay.

t-mobile hotspots: something fishy is afoot. everytime i log in i get only a couple minutes of uninterrupted, high speed internet goodness. but after that i’m dropped. since i’m on a per-minute plan each connection costs me 10 minutes of minimum connect time. must write to t-mobile support to complain, get credit, and get the issue fixed or my plan refunded.

i’m loving pema chodron’s book “the places that scare you” on tape in my car. the long commutes (i’m living in the sunset of SF right now) zip by with such pithy discussions into the nature of mind and neurosis. i also picked up a copy of her book “start where you are” recently and would recommend that to everyone with a curiosity into tibetan mind training.

the thing i like the most about her particular tibetan school of thought is the idea that the muck and difficulty of our everyday existence is the best material for increasing awareness into the cause of human suffering, connecting to community, and as a path of compassion for self and others. other schools tend to reject the messiness of life, but i find that impossible. each moment has some reaction to what’s going on in my day, some knee jerk, and its resulting emotional upheaval. i may look even-keel and centered, but up close it usually feels like rough water.

this weekend my best friend from college came to visit. laura had been to san francisco a couple times over the last few years for work and a wedding, but hadn’t really taken the time to look around. so i was her tour guide. i was hoping to find some unusual things to do but also have some down time. her five year old son ian usually keeps her running around constantly, so some quite time was welcome. her only request was to see alcatraz.

friday night after she arrived we went over to a dive bar named il pirata where my friend rus has a monthly called vision. i introduced many of my friends to laura. she remarked how kindly she was embraced. she was a trooper, and stayed up late even though her clock was set for the east coast.

saturday we got brunch at squat and gobble on haight, spent some time on twin peaks looking over the city on a super clear and sunny day, and then did the requisite walk across the golden gate bridge. we stopped to watch kite surfers from the bridge, and was lucky enough to see one wipe out so we could see how they get back up. Then we hoped the last boat to alcatraz for a night tour, though near the summer solstice the night tour was mostly well lit. It was fun to see the sun set from inside the prison, and ride back with only the city lights as a guide though. Last we caught a late dinner at kan zaman and had two male and one female belly dancer perform for us over spinach pies and hot cider.

sunday was more eclectic and californian. we stopped by the Berkeley Shambhala center for meditation instruction and a lecture about an eighth century lama named padmasambava. we shopped on telegraph ave and drank tea and read the paper at au coquelet cafe. we stopped in union square to get a gift for her son ian. w walked through chinatown, bought cheesy gifts for friends, and ate at house of nanking. last stop was at the tonga room in the fairmont for drinks with little umbrellas in san francisco’s mecca for polynesian island kitch.

tt was really good to catch up and a fun weekend.