had a good time at the St. Stan festival tonight. Usually I scope out the scene and bail in about half an hour but tonight I ended up eating dinner with some folks from my parish & hearing a lot of great Catholic Worker & CW-adjacent community organizing and radical hospitality stories.
!["At the height of the Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s, Mao spent his free time surrounded by numerous seventeen and eighteen-year-old girls from time to time, but always spent most of his time with Zhang Yufeng. According to the French sinologist Alain Roux, until 1970, Mao had suspicions of Zhang, as he learned that her real father was supposedly a Japanese dentist and not a Chinese railway worker, and assumed that she could turn out to be a Japanese spy. But in 1970, she was appointed as Mao's secretary of household affairs. From that moment on, she constantly accompanied Mao. Due to her position, she was able to comfortably house her parents in an apartment in Beijing.
Zhang supported Mao Zedong during his historical meeting with U.S. President Richard Nixon. By 1973, Zhang Yufeng had become the main go-between Mao and the rest of the world. Even Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, could not visit her husband without Zhang's permission. There was an instance when Zhang did not let the Premier of China Zhou Enlai see Mao.[9][10]
Mao's health declined in his last years, probably aggravated by his heavy chain-smoking... At this time, the political weight of Zhang especially increased because Mao's speech became completely unintelligible due to illness, and only Zhang understood him well. From 1972, Zhang Yufeng helped Mao Zedong to eat and decided if he was able to receive visitors or not. By the summer of 1974, Mao's state of health had deteriorated so much that Zhang was able to understand him by the movement of his lips and gestures. At the end of 1974, Zhang was formally appointed Mao's secretary for critical and confidential assignments. She strictly controlled and restricted access to Mao. Jiang Qing, who desperately needed Mao's support in the internal party struggle, tried to appease Zhang, but failed.[11]
In 1974, according to the sinologist Jonathan Spence:[12]
She [Zhang] literally becomes Mao's interface with the world, in fact the latter can no longer …](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:okqfvjnwbt5yppm5nuckini4/bafkreibmhu3ett32jkyxrkk3jq7p6a6vlzqossja4ie5csbyfuzxg2nni4)
![Academic article excerpt quoting esoteric Tibetan texts involving Buddha explaining to his followers how to fight off zombies.
"They take him before theBhagavan, who has come there at his pleasure, and who
asks him what suffering he has. Ānanda explains, and Buddha says:) "Oh, Ānanda!
Those very powerful *MahavetalaK who have touched you are very difficult to tame,
and even if they just see you, they have seven injuries (to inflictupon you). If you ask
who these are, theyare called 'Holding a Garland', 4
Holding a Jewel', 'Fierce', Ter-
rible', 'Peacock's Heart', 'Life Consumed', and 'La Bean'.9 These seven Mahavetāla
are great instrength,difficult totame, difficult to propitiate; and, their powers of de-
ception and magic are great. Ānanda, each of these Vétala could, ifhe wished, cast
down even Mount Meru, King of Mountains, with the toe of his leftfoot; itwould be
completely reduced, untilitwas about thesize of a mustard seed. If each looked up-
wards, he could make theearth split open; if each looked inthecardinal directions,
there would be death inthem; ifeach looked intheintermediate directions, they would
be burned by fire.Itis theythathave touched you!"
(The Tathāgata now tells Ānanda that he will be cured by the Tathāgata's power,
by respectfully listening to the Dharma- i.e., learning the dhāraņī which follow-
and by the Tathāgata's blessing. Ānanda now requests the means to deflect their
power, to bind them with mudrãs, and to bind them with threads [skudpa]. The text
now becomes a recitation of dhāraņī for the Vétala, referred to as both Bhūta and
Mahābhūta. The number of magic knots [mdud] which must be cast [ 'bor/ 'dor] to
bind each Vetāla differ, as do the number of recitations of the dhāraņī which must
accompany the binding. The combination of these actions results in the "stiffen-
ing" or "paralyzing" [rengs pa = stabdha or stambhana] of the Vetāla, which is one
way threatening spirits are dealt with.10)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:okqfvjnwbt5yppm5nuckini4/bafkreicge3v6sfmbsbac3woaqcaf2itwu2e4kbcrszo6fhq5ob6z5dulke)
