WOW! Tricycle magazine offers us an archive article for this holiday weekend. It’s longer than normal but there’s so much here from Gloria Watkins aka bell hooks that the entire article is provided should you have the desire and time to read it.
If you’re just looking for highlights here are a few that jumped out at me:
- Our true self transcends gender, race, religion and any other isms in our culture.
- “If you’re attached to being a victim, there is no hope.”
- “Things are always more complex than they seem. That’s more useful and more difficult than the idea that there is a right and wrong, or a good or bad, and you just decide what side you’re on.”
- Every teacher is challenged by their culture and upbringing including Thich Nhat Hanh
- “Yes, I can use my rage, but only if there’s something else there with that rage.”
Agent of Change: An Interview with bell hooks
An interview with bell hooks by Helen Tworkov
.Helen Tworkov is Tricycle‘s founding editor and author of Zen in America: Profiles of Five Teachers (1989). She’s also the co-author of Turning Confusion Into Clarity: A Guide to the Foundation Practices of Tibetan Buddhism (2014) and In Love With the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying (2019), which she wrote with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.
bell hooks (1952–2021) was an acclaimed intellectual, feminist theorist, cultural critic, writer, and Distinguished Professor-in-Residence at Berea College in her native Kentucky, where she also founded the bell hooks Institute.
Life Matters 
Wow, you’re right, Patrick, this was jam-packed! (I did read the whole thing — worth it!) I loved this, among others: “A culture of domination like ours says to people: There is nothing in you that is of value, everything of value is outside you and must be acquired.” This is not something that is commonly recognized, so deeply ingrained into our thinking is the notion of flawed self and the need to “acquire” value. It’s a central dogma of many religious traditions that have shaped our societies and collective world-view. I must say, in keeping with this observation, that I don’t fully comprehend the notion of devotion to a teacher that seems a prevalent feature of Buddhism. I’m sure this can take many forms and means different things to different people, but it strikes me as a kinder, gentler version of intercession.
I do love that someone out there is saying, “there is no change without contemplation”! Thanks for posting this! You always find great stuff!
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Thank you, Camilla, I’m happy you found value in the article too.
I concur with your observation that teacher devotion can be another way of hiding behind an intercessor. Instead of worshiping the teacher’s “finger pointing at the moon,” we have the opportunity to see the “moon” directly. It takes courage to realize the truth of “what is” and then move forward with “what could be” if we share our gifts with others.
Thank you, Camilla, for sharing your writing with all of us. _/_
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Thank you, Patrick! Thanks for sharing the gems you curate!
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