Blogs and Podcasts
The Manifesto for True Masculinity
We men are troubled by the violence that men have perpetuated against women over millennia, recently brought into the spotlight by #MeToo. What many of us don’t recognize is how much we too are damaged by the harm we’ve inflicted, whether it was against women, our male brothers, or any others. trueMASCULINITY.org wishes to address the enormous challenge of ending this legacy of violence, stopping the suffering, protecting all of us from harm, and helping us open our hearts to love.
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No Shame in Shame: True Masculinity and the Power of Love
Once, after the passing of a well-respected elder in my family, I was told a gut-wrenching rumor about him. The claim was that he had behaved in a sexually inappropriate manner to one of our relatives years ago when she was a teenager. The deceased and I were very close, so it shook me to my core — what harm did he inflict exactly? I sought more information directly from the source, but she wouldn’t elaborate further, finding the experience too painful. I admit, my first impulse was to challenge, deny, or minimize the allegations. If this relative with whom I was so close did in fact cause such injury, what did that say about me? Was I capable of the same?
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Our Original Sin: Modern Psycho-Spiritual Lessons from Adam and Eve on Shame, Gender, and Sex
Growing up in a practicing Jewish family, I often felt overwhelmed observing the vast history of violence and trauma inflicted in the name of Judeo-Christian religions, particularly as it pertained to gender. I viewed Western religions as stringent and outdated and for spiritual nourishment, I turned to the East. Buddhist meditations in mindfulness, kundalini yoga, and non-dualistic teachings like Advaita Vedanta seemed much more appealing to me, their sex-positive philosophies in stark contrast to the repressed, heteronormative views of most religious people in the Western world.
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“In Their Image” We Were Made: The Gender of Our True Nature
What do we mean when we say that humans were created “in God’s image”? The line is one of the most commonly referenced from the Bible, yet there is little knowledge of its full context in Genesis. As I detailed in my previous piece, I set out on a journey to investigate those early passages in the Bible myself, drawing from my knowledge of psychology, my studies of Eastern spiritual traditions, and Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism (as well as my personal experience growing up in a Jewish household with an observant grandfather).
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From Reality to Morality: Spirituality and the Role of Our Superego
Have you ever told yourself, “I shouldn’t have done that”? Have you ever called yourself lazy, stupid, or selfish? If you’re like most, this painful sort of self-criticism is inevitably familiar. So, why do we do this to ourselves? Why can’t we seem to help it? Why do we, despite all intentions of being kinder towards ourselves, cast such harsh judgments on who we are and what we do? This is the expression of our “superego.”
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