Sacred Part 2

"I certainly agree with you that fundoshi is very dignified. It's something of a paradox, because it at once effectively covers the genitals and anus and brings attentive gaze to those areas. It's both stark in it's austerity and opulent in it's sensuality. It's masculine and feminine at the same time.
  
It's an icon of a very ancient, civilised and spiritual culture. The complete antithesis to that Western icon, the corporate suit.

This, like the culture that spawned it, is paternalistic, restrictive, ego-centric and yet illusory. 

I've attached my take on the illusionary nature of the corporate suit which shrouds the simple truth, which is revealed in the form of a fundoshi.  I prepared it this morning, in one of my more mischievous moods as you will see.....lol. Just a subtle hint of another side of me....." -- Dean 





Here we take the concept of sacred in an entirely different direction. If sacred and profane occupy the same vessel, they could be perceived as two sides of the same thing. If you take out the words "two sides of" you get closer to where my thoughts are headed: that the historical tension between "sacred" and "profane" is bound up not in their duality so much as in their commonality! There are no differences, other than political. We highlight and underscore bits and pieces of sexuality as if off a menu that is half nourishing, half poison; when in reality there is no such distinction. It's all nourishing, it just depends on your body's and your soul's needs. There is no gay or straight sex, just sex. No sexual politics. The issues of sexual politics are about power and violence, not strictly about sex.

Dean got me thinking along these lines, though I'm not positive he'd entirely agree with my conclusions. After a photo series steeped in calm, peace, and reverence, he followed up with something playful, sensual, and by society's standards a little bit naughty.

But from a deeper perspective,  playfulness and reverence are both expressions of mind, of spirit, and of body. There is no naughty, unless there is power imbalance or violence. It's when we try to separate the elements that make up the self into "good" and "bad" that things get troubling and out of sync with each other. It's when we try to parse "good" sex and "bad" sex, "good sexuality" and "bad sexuality," "good spirituality" and "bad spirituality" that we end up in conflict with our self and with others.

Most of the rules we impose are to shore up these political constructs of behavior, rather than to serve in the interest of self-discovery, awareness of others, and pure interactions.

I'd like to thank him for kind permission to share these with you. These images and the film are copywritten and all rights are reserved. Please do not share these images without his prior permission.