Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Via JMG: Kansas Joins The Sapphire States



 
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Reposted from Joe Jervis

Thich Nhat Hanh: On Homosexuality

Posted on March 29, 2009

Thich Nhat Hanh, the noted Zen monk, poet, teacher who is the inspiration behind Deer Park Monastery and the Plum Village tradition, shares these words about the Buddhadharma’s view of “homosexuality” in the latest book, ANSWERS FROM THE HEART.
 
Q. What is the Buddhist view of homosexuality?
 
A. The spirit of Buddhism is inclusiveness. Looking deeply into the nature of a cloud, we see the cosmos. A flower is a flower, but if we look deeply into it, we see the cosmos. Everything has a place. 
The base-the foundation of everything-is the same. When you look at the ocean, you see different kinds of waves, many sizes and shapes, but all the waves have water as their foundation and substance. If you are born gay or lesbian, your ground of being in the same as mine. We are different, but we share the same ground of being. The Protestant theologian Paul Tillich said that God is the ground of being. You should be yourself. If God has created me as a rose, then I should accept myself as a rose. If you are a lesbian, then be a lesbian. Looking deeply into your nature, you will see yourself as you truly are. You will be able to touch the ground of your being and find peace. 
 
If you’re a victim of discrimination, then your way to emancipation is not simply by crying out against injustice. Injustice cannot be repaired by recognition alone, but by your capacity to touch the ground of your being. Discrimination, intolerance, and suppression stem from lack of knowledge and lack of understanding. If you’re capable of touching the ground of your being, you can be released from the suffering that has been created in you through discrimination and oppression.
 
Someone who discriminates against you, because of your race or the color of your skin or your sexual orientation, is ignorant. He doesn’t know his own ground of being. He doesn’t realize that we all share the same ground of being; that is why he can discriminate against you.
 
Someone who discriminates against others and causes them to suffer is someone who is not happy with himself. Once you’ve touched the depth and the nature of your ground of being, you’ll be equipped with the kind of understanding that can give rise to compassion and tolerance, and you will be capable of forgiving even those who discriminate against you. Don’t believe that relief or justice will come through society alone. True emancipation lies in your capacity to look deeply.
 
When you suffer because of discrimination, there’s always an urge to speak out. But even if you spend a thousand years speaking out, your suffering won’t be relieved. Only through deep understanding and liberation from ignorance can you be liberated from your suffering. 
 
When you break through to the truth, compassion springs up like a stream of water. With that compassion, you can embrace even the people who have persecuted you. When you’re motivated by desire to help those who are victims of ignorance, only then are you free from your suffering and feelings of violation. Don’t wait for things to change around you. You have to practice liberating yourself. Then you will be equipped with the power of compassion and understanding, the only kind of power that can help transform an environment full of injustice and discrimination. You have to become such a person-one who can embody tolerance, understanding, and compassion. You transform yourself into an instrument for social change and change in the collective consciousness of mankind. 
 

Thich Nhat Hanh, Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses To Life’s Burning Questions (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2009), 119-122.
 

Via Lions Roar: A Bad Day at the Airport

What better place to work with your mind?

Here is a practice I have been working with for more than a decade. I recite, usually silently, these two sentences:
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
These blessing phrases cultivate and sustain a mind of peace and goodwill. For me, they represent the promise of practice. “May I meet this moment fully” expresses my faith that an alert and balanced mind is a possibility for human beings. “May I meet it as a friend” reminds me that my mind’s natural benevolence is my best refuge. Although most of my daily practice has always been the simple practice of alert attention to changing experience, I often begin periods of simple sitting with some repetitions of this two-phrase mantra as a kind of mood-setter, an incliner of my mind toward relaxing.

In recent years, I find this blessing comes to mind naturally in times of stress as I go about my life. Recently, I decided to track its activity through a particularly stressful day:

I arrive at the airport well in time for my early morning flight to Orange County, where an old friend has taken quite ill. I notice the flight is delayed. I feel myself starting to cry.
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
I realize that I am feeling sad because I love my friend, and am sad to be losing her. I think about how long we’ve been friends. The pleasure of that thought settles my mind.

Then, I hear the announcement that the flight has now been cancelled. I ask about the next available flight and am waved in the direction of a long line, where I’m told I need to wait for the next available agent. “If I wait in that line, it will be too late for the next flight. I already have a boarding pass,” I say. “You need to be in that line,” I’m told again.

I feel mad. I think, “I’ll write that letter on behalf of all passengers who should be treated more respectfully!”
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
I realize that everyone needs to wait and that I feel particularly sensitive because I’m sad. A helpful person standing in line says, “If we phone the airline while we stand here, we can probably get faster service.” I decide to do that. I dial. The phone rings and rings. I am feeling irritable.
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
I am told, electronically, that my call is very important to the airline and that an agent will be with me soon. That message repeats many times. I hear my mind again composing indignant letters to Customer Service.
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
My mind calms down and I realize that I am disappointed with myself because my friend is sick and I am indulging myself in indignation. “Really, Sylvia! What are you thinking?”
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
The line progresses slowly. I repeat my phrases slowly, paying attention to what I am saying. I look around at the other travelers and wonder where they are going. In my mind, I begin blessing them.
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
It is my turn at the ticket counter just at the point that my phone call is answered and so I hang up. I realize I’ve calmed down. The agent is courteous. I learn that all the flights until mid-afternoon have been cancelled because of the thunderstorms. I rebook for the next day.

The airport bus for my trip home arrives just as I emerge from the terminal in time to board it. I’m grateful, and a little bewildered from the morning of hurrying up and waiting and ultimately going back home. But I’m all right. Just a little tired.
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
I travel without difficulty the next day to be with my friend.

Tibetan Healing Sounds #2 - 11 Hours - Tibetan bowls for meditation, healing -Full Album Version


IMG Tweet Of The Day - Sen. Cory Booker


 
Stand by for the outrage.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: South Carolina Turns Cerulean



 
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Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via FB: I no longer...


Flower of the Day: 11/12/14

“The process of unveiling love requires commitment and redirecting the vectors of our willpower. Our will is the greatest power of the soul. Without it, we are unable to cross the sea of illusion because the opposing forces towards unveiling love are so great in this realm. The power of will is built with discipline, dedication, commitment, and comprehension. It will only make sense to direct the vectors of the will in one particular direction when you have gained comprehension of where you are on your path.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


The Two Extremes | November 12, 2014

These are the two extremes, O bhikshus (Religious Wanderers) which the man who has given up the world ought not to follow—the habitual practice, on the one hand, of self-indulgence which is unworthy, vain and fit only for the worldly-minded—and the habitual practice, on the other hand, of self-mortification which is painful, useless and unprofitable.

- The Buddha, "Wake Up, Episode Five"