With LGBTQ people all over the United States rising
up for love after our losses in the 2008 elections, MyOutSpirit.com decided it was
time to give away the manual for the new LGBT activism, SHIRT OF FLAME,
endorsed by leaders including Arun Gandhi. Here's an excerpt to get you
started, then download
a pdf of the entire book. We hope you find it helpful as you stand up for the equal rights and recognition of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and families.
CHAPTER 1: THE SCHOOL OF FIVE-WEAPONS
Once
upon a time, thousands of years ago, somewhere in Asia, a handsome
young prince had just finished his military studies with a famous
teacher. He received the title “Prince Five-weapons” as a symbol of his
distinction, and accepted the bow and arrows, sword, spear, and club
his teacher gave him. The young prince bowed, and, armed with his
knowledge and new weapons, struck out onto the road leading to the city
of his parents, the queen and king. On the way he came to the edge of a
forest. The villagers that lived nearby warned him, “Beautiful prince,
do not enter this forest! An ogre named Sticky-hair, who kills every
man he sees, lives here.”
But the prince was confident and he fearlessly entered the forest
despite their warning. When he reached the heart of it, the ogre showed
himself. The ogre was gruesome - as tall as a palm tree with a head as big
as a house with a bell-shaped roof, yellow eyes as big as bowls, and two
tusks like a bull elephant; he had the beak of a hawk; his body was covered
with a tangle of moist gray hair, and his hands and feet were stained dark
green. “Where are you going in such a hurry? Won’t you stay for dinner,
dinner?” the ogre demanded in a hungry growl.
Prince Five-weapons answered without fear, for he had great
confidence in the military skills that he had learned. “Ogre,” he said, “You
should be careful about attacking me, for I will shoot you dead with an
arrow steeped in poison!” As the ogre lumbered toward him, the young
prince fitted to his bow an arrow coated with deadly poison and let fly. It
stuck harmlessly right in the ogre’s hair. Then he shot fifty arrows, one
after another. All stuck right to the ogre’s hair without piercing the
fearsome beast. The ogre grinned, shook like a great dog, each one of those
arrows falling right at his feet, and continued toward the young prince.
Prince Five-weapons gave the ogre a second warning, and swinging
his sword, delivered his most powerful stroke, which could have felled a
bodhi tree. The sword stuck right to the ogre’s hair. Then the prince tried
to impale him with the spear. That also stuck right to his impenetrable
tangle of hair. Then the prince smote the ogre with his heavy club. That
also stuck right to the monster’s hair.
When the prince saw that the club had stuck, he said: “Ogre, you have
never heard of me before. I am Prince Five-weapons! But when I entered
this forest you’ve infested, I took no account of bows and such weapons; for
a weapon is only an extension of a warrior. Now I am going to beat you and
pound you into powder and dust!” With a yell he struck the ogre with his
right hand. His hand stuck right to the ogre’s hair. He struck him with his
left hand. That also stuck. He struck him with his right foot. That also
stuck. He struck him with his left foot. That also stuck. He slammed his
bare chest into the sticky ogre’s body. The still-confident prince shouted, “I
will beat you with my head and strike you down!” He butted the ogre with
his head, which also stuck right to the ogre’s hair.
Prince Five-weapons was stuck fast to the ogre’s body in six places!
But for all that, he was unafraid, undaunted. The ogre, surprised,
thought:“This is some lion of a man and no ordinary human! He’s to be
made an ogre’s dinner, but he doesn’t seem afraid! Most people tremble or
quake in my presence! In all the time I have lived in this forest, I have never
seen a human to match him! Why is he unafraid?” Curious, he asked
aloud,“Youth, why are you not afraid? I am going to eat you. Why are you
not terrified with the fear of death?”
“Why should I be afraid, Sticky-hair? In one life, one death is to be
expected. Besides, I have one weapon left—there is a thunderbolt in my
belly. If you eat me, you will not be able to digest that secret weapon. It will
tear your insides into shreds and tatters and will kill you. If you eat me,
we’ll both perish. That’s why I’m not afraid!”
“What this youth says is true!” thought the ogre, terrified with the
fear of death. “My stomach would not be able to digest the thunderbolt of
this lion of a man. I don’t want to die!” And he let Prince Five-weapons go.
The prince sat the rest of the day with the ogre and instructed him in great
spiritual truths. The teaching was so obvious and profound that the ogre
was transformed into a kind and helpful friend to the villagers living near
the forest, who came to trust him to care for their children and defend the
village. The young prince continued whistling through the forest, and
returned safely home.
Most things begin violently, like matter exploding into being at the
beginning of time. Even our lives begin violently, each of us thrust
suddenly, unexpectedly, into the glaring and chill world. From birth on, we
are bound with a thousand million cultural conventions which we are taught
are natural and necessary; we’re given a billion expectations and
requirements to meet, most inherently violent to our essential nature, queer
or not. We are trained to meet aggression with aggression, hate with hate,
and violence with violence. By the time we are capable of changing such
behaviors, many of us are tamed entirely, conditioned to regard the cold
world as if it were Miami.
For too long, many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT
or queer) people have allowed others to dictate not only what their concerns
are but also how those concerns can best be redressed. A lot of us have been
following the ‘party line’ when it comes to LGBT issues instead of deeply
considering our own passions and developing our own informed opinions.
Moreover, we often alienate those who rock the boat by suggesting that
perhaps there could be a more helpful approach to cultural transformation
and the enumeration of LGBT rights and recognition. Even in our queer
communities we meet both critique and leadership with mistrust, as if our
activism cannot withstand scrutiny. The joke “I thought they gave up
cannibalism”—“No, but now they only eat their leaders,” hits close to home.
Sometimes it seems that there is no plum or satsuma—not even the
fruit of freedom—fragrant, moist and sweet enough to tempt
same-gender-loving and Transgender people out of the cage of our
conventional approaches to creating change, though the door is open—and
has always been open, if desperately defended. Avenues to transform
society are available to us that would make the ultimate victory of our
movement for equal rights, respect and recognition more likely, but our
queer communities are like the legendary ostriches that, even when they are
released, will stick their heads in sand rather than venture from cages—even
when the door stands open, they stay.
Like Prince Five-weapons, we have used every one of the weapons at
our disposal to try to defeat our enemies and win our freedom—we have
rallied, railed and wailed, we have marched and voted and debated and
organized and lobbied—only to have each small advance lodge uselessly in
the status quo’s “sticky hair.” We have used every weapon in our arsenal
and now, dangling from the ogre, we are left with only our thunderbolt
untried. The nature of our battle is such that we may choose to continue
our fight with the conventional weapons we know, and we are likely to
succeed within a century or two. At the same time, I believe that the
‘thunderbolt in our belly’ is the only weapon pulsing with enough
alchemical power to achieve true victory in the next ten years.
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