<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Engage!]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://engagedharma.net]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Shaun Bartone]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://engagedharma.net/author/onestrawrevolution/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[The Art of Life and Politics: Silence =&nbsp;Death]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><img data-attachment-id="10815" data-permalink="https://engagedharma.net/image-1/" data-orig-file="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg?w=1024&#038;h=1024" data-orig-size="1024,1024" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}" data-image-title="Image-1" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg?w=1024&#038;h=1024?w=300" data-large-file="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg?w=1024&#038;h=1024?w=1024" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-10815" src="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg?w=1024&#038;h=1024" alt="Image-1.jpg" width="1024" height="1024" srcset="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg 1024w, https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg?w=150&amp;h=150 150w, https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg?w=300&amp;h=300 300w, https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/image-1.jpg?w=768&amp;h=768 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px"></p>
<h3>or in other words:</h3>
<p><img data-attachment-id="10818" data-permalink="https://engagedharma.net/2017/03/15/the-art-of-life-and-politics-silence-death/silence_equals_death/" data-orig-file="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/silence_equals_death.gif?w=664&#038;h=486" data-orig-size="350,256" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="silence_equals_death" data-image-description="" data-medium-file="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/silence_equals_death.gif?w=664&#038;h=486?w=300" data-large-file="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/silence_equals_death.gif?w=664&#038;h=486?w=350" class="alignnone  wp-image-10818" src="https://egagedbuddhism.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/silence_equals_death.gif?w=664&#038;h=486" alt="silence_equals_death.gif" width="664" height="486"></p>
<p>For those of us who lived our &#8216;coming out&#8217; years in&nbsp;the 80s and 90s, we were faced with a situation of &#8216;vocalization or annihilation&#8217;. While Silence is a privileged&nbsp;modality&nbsp;in contemporary Buddhist circles, for queers like me, Silence =&nbsp;Erasure, Invisibility. Silence = Death, psychic, social and physical. I can sit silently in meditation for my required 20 minutes a day, but otherwise I&#8217;m disposed to being pretty damn Vocal. Loud, motherfucker. Noisy. So when I protest, I&#8217;m not going to &#8220;sit in silence.&#8221; I&#8217;m going to be one loud motherfucker telling people what I really think, calling it like I see it. We&#8217;re here, we Buddhist and Queer. And Noisy. Get Used To It.</p>
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