Best posts made by hervedupont

Nice topic.  I consider myself Buddhist, in part for cultural reasons, and not just because I relate to Buddhist ideas about the nature of reality.

I am also an atheist - and one of the beauties of Zen Buddhism is that it is a spiritual path and philosophy that does not require what I consider to be superstitious beliefs in "god", or a desire for reward in some afterlife.

Buddhism is also inherently friendlier to sexual minorities - unlike the monotheisms, which are the origin of some of the most homophobic ideologies in history.

I sympathize because I'm getting older too and I know I have to adjust to fewer sexual possibilities. The older I get, the more attracted I become to middle-aged and mature men, and the less interested I am in younger men. That process will continue.

So I find that my transition hasn't been too hard. I feel like I was pretty lucky in my younger years so I can't say that I "missed out".

Part of me actually feels relieved that the sexual pressure is receding. I don't feel the same need to impress other people or to "score".

I don't know what the world will be like after this pandemic, but up until this year, in any large city in the West or East Asia, there was no shortage of saunas where older guys have sex with one another and with younger "admirers".  It's just a question of being realistic about our standards.

Bahrain is an interesting place … I visited a few years ago. It feels different from other Gulf countries but I can't explain exactly why.