Toby
has four new books out: an updated, revised and expanded edition of
his
classic soft sci fi romance novel
SECRET MATTER
-- with its quirky and mystical spin on what it means to be gay. Click
on the title for info.
An historical novel, written in collaboration with
historian/anthropologist Walter L. Williams,
set in the Old West TWO SPIRITS: A Story
of Life With the Navajo. And a collection of gay positive stories
contributed by more than 30 writers titled CHARMED
LIVES. And his beloved spiritual romance novel
GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE has just
been rereleased by Lethe Press.
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Table of Contents Search Site Home Also on this website: Toby
Johnson's books: TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life with the
Navajo, a collaboration with Walter L. Williams GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe SECRET
MATTER: updated, revised & expanded edtion from Lethe Press
with Afterword by Mark Jordan PLAGUE:
A NOVEL ABOUT HEALING. Books on Gay Spirituality:
Articles
and Excerpts: Read
Toby's review of Samuel Avery's The
Dimensional Structure of
Consciousness Funny Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco" The
Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate A Bifurcation of Gay Spirituality Why gay people should NOT Marry What's ironic Q&A about Jungian ideas in gay consciousness What Jesus said about Gay Rights Interview on the Nature of Homosexuality What the Bible Says about
Homosexuality Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men Waves
of Gay Liberation Activity Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality
as Artistic Medium Easton Mountain Retreat Center Andrew Harvey &
Spiritual Activism "It's Always About You" Joseph Campbell's description of
Avalokiteshvara What is Enlightenment? What is reincarnation? Emptiness & Religious Ideas Experiencing experiencing experiencing Going into the Light Meditations for a Funeral Meditation Practice The way to get to heaven Advice to Travelers to India & Nepal Nate Berkus is a bodhisattva John Boswell was Immanuel Kant The Joseph Campbell Connection Campbell & The Pre/Trans Fallacy Gay Spiritual Functions The Sinfulness of Homosexuality Proposal
for a study of gay nondualism "The Evolution of Gay Identity" "St. John of the
Cross & Religious Articulations of the
Secret Teenage
Prostitution and the Nature of Evil Allah
Hu: "God is present here" The Life is in the Blood What
are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel? The mystical experience at the Servites' Castle in Riverside The
Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis The Techniques Of The World Saviors Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the
Tar-Baby How Gay
Souls Get Reincarnated In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke Toby's friend
and nicknamesake Toby Marotta. Harry Hay, Founder of the gay movement About Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first man to really "come out" About
Michael Talbot, gay mystic Book Reviews Be Done on Earth
by Howard E. Cook
Pay Me What I'm Worth by Souldancer The Way Out by Christopher L Nutter The Gay Disciple by John Henson
Art That Dares by Kittredge Cherry Coming Out, Coming Home by Kennth A. Burr Extinguishing the Light by B. Alan Bougeois Over Coffee: A conversation For Gay Partnership & Conservative Faith by D.a. Thompson Dark Knowledge by Kenneth Low Janet Planet by Eleanor Lerman The Kairos by Paul E. H=rtman Wrestling with Jesus by D.K.Maylor
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It is a familiar theme in religious stories that people fail to see God when he appears to them because he is not what they are expecting. They already have a clear conception of what God is like, and when he or she confronts them directly, they turn away because "that just couldn't be right." The description of the dying process in Tibetan Buddhist myth illustrates this. One summer at the Mann Ranch I was assisting Joseph Campbell at a lecture on the Bardo Thodol, the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead. My job was to operate the slide projector. Campbell had given me a loaded carrousel and asked me to change the slides at his signal. As the lecture began, slides appeared of the Tibetan mountains and countryside, then paintings of Tibetan priests like those who might be attending the dying soul on its afterlife journey, and then finally of the dying person. At Campbell's nod I clicked in the next slide. The screen was flooded with bright white light; no slide had entered the projector. Something's wrong, I thought, and clicked the advance switch again. This time a mandala of the bliss-bestowing buddhas appeared. And even as I was relaxing, Campbell explained my error. I had demonstrated his point.
Afterlife Holding thoughts about dying and afterlife is a meditation practice for rising above ourself. As we meditate about waking up and popping out of our body and floating through a "tunnel of light," we can shift our consciousness beyond our ego. The image of afterlife is a practice of mystical perception. (Read about Why Gay Men Reincarnate.) Realizing we cannot possibly imagine afterlife allows us to understand we cannot tell what is and is not the Clear Light. Once we understand this, we can understand that we see the Clear Light right now. Such a vision, always fleeting and available only in special moments achieved through meditation or psychedelic realization, helps us overcome the limitations of ego. If we think we are our name and looks and body and the history we remember, there is going to be nothing left of us when these things fall away--as they inevitably will. If we understand instead that we are just a point of view of the consciousness of the universe, then even when that particular point of view comes to an end, we go on. When we see beyond ourselves, we can see that everybody else is also just a point of view of consciousness. Then when our ego sees other egos, it can rejoice in their joy, experiencing their joy as its own with no judgment, no disapproval, no jealousy. What a comforting meditation it is to see that the being inside the beautiful young men you see is you! They are not separate, alien entities. You can enjoy their beauty as a sign and manifestation of your own true beauty, their supple bodies as yours. This is, indeed, the meditation that founds a positive experience of pornography. It is the meaning of the story of Avalokiteshvara. The images of the myths--and the exercise of seeing into and through them--are practices in awakening consciousness now. If we have seen heaven during life, we are more apt to recognize it after life. At any rate, if we can manage to experience heaven now, whether there is an afterlife or not, why wait?
Follow Your Bliss Understanding that afterlife myths are about mystical vision suggests to us that we are seeing the Clear Light all the time--right now. Buddhahood/Christhood is available to us at every moment. The Beatific Vision shines forth everywhere around us. But we do not see it because it is not what we were expecting. Our beliefs and opinions, likes and dislikes get in the way. We choose the Beatific Vision by choosing things as they are, being conscious of what is real, not resisting. This is a central teaching of spiritual wisdom. Joseph Campbell said, "Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you never knew there were going to be doors." Bliss is a technical term in Buddhism. It does not mean mere happiness or satisfaction. Rather it means fulfillment of who we really are, realization of buddhahood, accomplishment of the goals that drive us to find meaning in life. To follow our bliss is to disregard all the rules that tell us how we are supposed to behave and to seek our own path. To follow our bliss is to live in such a way that we can always love our experience. It means to make choices and decisions about our life that we will not regret. It means not giving up our dreams and settling for security or acceptability in other people's eyes. Bliss is the experience of knowing--and loving--why you're alive, what you were born for. And what that always is is to be a source of good intention for the evolution of consciousness, i.e. for the growth of God out of the matter and energy of the sun. For, as Carl Jung tells us he discovered, "The Sun is God; everyone can see that!"
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Toby Johnson, PhD is author of eight books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of his teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and religious problems, three gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality. In addition to the novels featured elsewhere in this web site, Johnson is author of IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD and THE MYTH OF THE GREAT SECRET (Revised edition): AN APPRECIATION OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL.
Johnson's Lammy Award winning book
GAY
SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of
Human Consciousness was published in 2000. His Lammy-nominated book GAY
PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature
of God and the Universe was published by Alyson in 2003. Both books are available now from Lethe Press.
