Donkey Dharma began as part of a spiritual journey, and became part of the realization that the journey is the destination. I was raised in the Byzantine Catholic Church. Its rich, deep, sonorous liturgy evoked awe, joy, and wonder. But, like everyone, as I grew I began to ask questions - typical questions like "What happened to all the people who ate meat on Fridays before the rules were changed?" Neither the Byzantine nor Roman churches had any answers, at least for me. They were the Mitt Romneys of their day, saying only "Trust us; we know what we're doing." That's a naggingly unsatisfying answer. And so my journey began. Ultimately, it took me to Buddhism. Buddhism has been called "a religion without a God". To me, that's an asset. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism seem, at least, to emphasize worship over seeking wisdom; dogma and theology over practice; and the ability to affect positive change residing, not within oneself, but in some great unknown. Buddhism, on the other hand, has little if any dogma; takes a lyrically simple approach to such questions; emphasizes personal responsibility; and offers a set of guidelines that can be applied to every area of life. That spiritual roadmap is called the Noble Eightfold Path. At about the same time that I began to explore Buddhism, I was becoming a political junkie ... The Presidential election of 2000, the completely false underpinnings of the Iraq war; Governor Howard Dean's Presidential campaign in 2004; the election of the first female Speaker of the House in 2006; the election of the first African-American President in 2008; the tsunami that was the Tea Party's takeover of the House of Representatives in 2010; and the bat-merde crazy policies and actions of the "new" AKA far far far right Republican Party, all pushed me toward anger, and activism. My efforts to follow the Path helped me deal with the anger. The Path, and in particular Right Speech and Right Action, helped give my activism focus. Thus was born Donkey Dharma. It began as a blog and then morphed into a sequence of occasional hardcopy newsletters. The essays were eventually gathered into this book. The collection is organized in chronological order, with the first essay dating from 2006, and the last from November 2012. The Table of Contents, however, lists them not by date but by topic.
About the Author: I'm not trained as an academician or author. But, I've been reading and talking and learning since the age of three. My father was a teacher, who, when I was five, enlisted me as his assistant in grading his middle school students' papers and exams. It simply never occurred to me until I was well into adulthood that learning was anything out of the ordinary, or anything one needed to work at. it was something 'neat' that was available to anyone. When I began teaching, it was in a community college. Most of my students were out of work or had never worked, and were attempting not only to gain a certificate or degree but, also, to embark on a new life. To stand in front of a room full of such folks is a humbling experience. It taught me in no uncertain terms the truth of the saying, "A master is someone who started before you." That experience in turn led me to Buddhism, and to the understanding it can provide.