Thursday, May 15, 2014

Via Daily Dharma


The Magic of Reflecting | May 15, 2014

Through the magic of reflecting on the teachings, their force—sometimes clear, sometimes obscure—will cause ferment in our minds from which we can gradually distill the wisdom of reflection. This requires discipline, but also bravery—the bravery to dig deep down to uncover our confusion. 
 
—Lama Jampa Thaye, "How Do We Learn the Dharma?" 
 

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

'I thought the kiss was inappropriate and over the t...

Michael Sam At Rams Press Conference | Speaks About The Draft, the Kiss | FULL


JMG Tweet Of The Day - The Sun


Details.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Support Michael Sam: Signorile Launches "The Great Facebook Kiss-In"


"Gay people need to be kissing more in public. There simply needs to be more queer smooching to desensitize the world. So with that, I hereby launch the Great Facebook Kiss-In, urging everyone -- whether gay, straight or bi --to change their profile pics to two women kissing or two men kissing. Maybe it's you and your husband or wife, or your partner or sweetheart, or you and a friend. Maybe it's your dad and your dad, or your mom and your mom. Maybe it's two other people you just like a lot or you think are hot. Just change your profile pic to a kissing same-sex couple, and urge others to do the same. And for that matter let's do it on Twitter, too. One day in the future we will look back on all this ridiculousness and laugh. But that's only going to happen if we do exactly this kind of thing a lot. So change those profile photos now." - Michelangelo Signorile, writing for the Huffington Post.  Here's the Twitter hashtag link.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: BREAKING: Oregon Judge REJECTS NOM's Motion To Intervene In Marriage Case




Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Lizzy the Lezzy / FB:


Via Bilerico: Capehart: Tolerance is Not a Two-Way Street

On Monday night's episode of The Last Word With Lawrence O'DonnellWashington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart emphatically pushed back against the absurd notion that gays and lesbians should be expected to "tolerate" homophobic bigotry.

The person making this claim was New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden, who called Michael Sam's famous on-air kiss a "stunning moment" but then bizarrely expressed a slight discomfort about having seen it in the first place. And then came this desperate attempt at a false equivalency:
I think that to deal with things openly there has to be an open back-and-forth dialogue. Tolerance can't just work one way. You can't just be one way, that anybody who speaks out... this cannot turn into a Gestapo-type situation where if you express discomfort with something, then you're cast as a homophobe and you're fined by the league. I think that there has to be a back-and-forth.
I'll pause briefly to note that, predictably, Rhoden makes no such demand for "tolerance" of other forms of bigotry; as an example, he's been all over cable news (rightfully) condemning Donald Sterling's repugnant racism. Double standard much?
Capehart, to his credit, wasn't having any of it:
So what you're saying is that Michael Sam has to put up with people disrespecting who he is... and he just has to put up with it and take it? ...What you're saying is he's supposed to be silent, that he's supposed to stand silently by and let people disrespect him.
Rhoden resisted Capehart's characterization and doubled down on his homophobia apologism. "This [on-air same-sex kisses] is new," Rhoden said. "It's not like this happens every day."
And then came the smackdown. Capehart:
Hatred's not new, bigotry is not new, ignorance isn't new. And so when someone denigrates somebody else for who they are... I understand you're saying that it has to be a two-way conversation. But tolerance, no, is not -- it should not be a two-way street. It's a one-way street.
You cannot say to someone that who you are is wrong, an abomination, is horrible, you know, get a room, and all of those other things that people said about Michael Sam, and not be... made to understand that what you're saying and what you're doing is wrong.
Amen, Jonathan. As I myself have said over and over and over again, calls for people to "tolerate" intolerance are actually demands that we accommodate and legitimize bigotry -- and that's something that we cannot and must not do. Ever.
Watch Capehart demolish the false "intolerance-must-be-tolerated" equivalency, after the jump.

Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/capehart_tolerance_is_not_a_two-way_street.php#wZzrZt7l3iIReK95.99

Via Daily Dharma


Lacking Nothing | May 14, 2014

You lack nothing of the wisdom and perfection of the Buddha, right at this moment. Hearing, breathing, you don’t differ even one drop from hearing, breathing Buddha. Not even a hair’s breadth. And yet we can be far away.
—Elihu Genmyo Smith, "No Need to Do Zazen, Therefore Must Do Zazen."

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Via JMG: TRAILER: Upstairs Inferno



Via Daily Dharma


Meditation in Perspective | May 13, 2014

It's one thing to view meditation as a serious religious discipline that can help overcome craving and attachment. This approach is perfectly consistent with many Buddhist teachings. But that is quite different from viewing meditation as the be-all and end-all of Buddhism, and it is also different from seeing meditation in utilitarian terms—as a means to bring about an experience, such as kensho [experience of an enlightened state] or sotapatti ["stream entry"], that will instantly transform the whole of one's existence.
 
—Robert Sharf, “Losing Our Religion”
 

Monday, May 12, 2014

Via JMG: Wikipedia's Updated Marriage Map


 
The map might change today if the Arkansas ruling is stayed.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma


Learning to Control Our Emotions | May 12, 2014

If we want to succeed in life and bring about a more peaceful world, we must learn to control our emotions and not to be affected by a moment of anger.
 
—Master Hsing Yun, "Don't Get Mad, Don't Get Even"
 

Sunday, May 11, 2014

JMG Tweet Of The Day: Dan Savage



Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Obama Congratulates Michael Sam


 
USA Today reports:
President Obama is honoring Michael Sam, who on Saturday became the first openly gay player to be drafted by a pro football team after the St. Louis Rams picked him in the seventh round. "The President congratulates Michael Sam, the Rams and the NFL for taking an important step forward in our Nation's journey," said a White House statement. "From the playing field to the corporate boardroom, LGBT Americans prove everyday that you should be judged by what you do and not who you are," said the White House of Sam, an award-winning defense end who played at the University of Missouri.
The Teabagistanis are not happy about this.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma


Keep a Carefree Heart | May 11, 2014

Just practice according to the methods taught by the Buddha and do not worry about being a success. The Heart Sutra says, ‘there is no wisdom and no attainment.’ Although practice may be trying, even physically painful, if your heart is carefree, nothing will bother you.
 
—Master Sheng-Yen, “Being Natural”
 

Saturday, May 10, 2014

JMG HISTORY: First Same-Sex Couple Legally Marries In Southern State, Witnessed By Lawyer Who Brought Down Arkansas Ban


UPDATE: The Associated Press reports.
An Arkansas clerk issued the state's first gay marriage license on Saturday, breaking a barrier that voters put in place with a constitutional amendment 10 years ago. Carroll County Deputy Clerk Jane Osborn issued a license Saturday morning to Kristin Seaton, 27, and Jennifer Rambo, 26, of Fort Smith. They had slept in a Ford Focus after arriving in Eureka Springs at 2 a.m. Saturday and were the first of about 10 couples to line up outside of the courthouse before it opened. When the license was issued, Rambo said, "Thank God." Seaton and Rambo, who have been together four years, then held a marriage ceremony on the courthouse steps. A woman in a rainbow dress officiated.

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma


The Rope of Mindfulness | May 10, 2014

It is mindfulness that places the mind on the chosen object of meditation and returns the mind to that object when it wanders. As a well-known meditation instruction says, ‘Tie the wild elephant of the mind to the post of the meditation object with the rope of mindfulness.’ Mindfulness prevents distraction.
 
—Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., “Which Mindfulness?”
 

Via AmericaBlog: Anti-gay (former) HGTV stars: “We love homosexuals, Muslims,” hate their “agenda”

The adorably-pastel-shirted Benham brothers, sons of anti-abortion extremist Flip Benham, went on CNN to clarify that they truly love the homosexual and the Muslim. What they hate, however, is the homosexual and Muslim “agenda.”

The Benham boys, David and Jason, are smarting from the cancellation of their new home-flipping show on HGTV, after word leaked out of the Benham’s anti-gay, anti-abortion, and anti-Muslim activism, as first reported by RightWingWatch.

David Benham even compared the fight against gay marriage to the fight against Nazi Germany. (Don’t recall that one in the Bible.) And then invoked the Leviticus passage that calls for gays to be put to death.

The Benham boys, doing heterosexuality proud in their pastel shirts and perfectly coiffed hairdos.
The Benham boys, doing heterosexuality proud in their pastel shirts and perfectly-coiffed matching hairdos.

As is always the case with these folks of late, they’re now claiming that they’re the real victims.  Because their victims stepped up and got to them first.

The Benham’s line, which is typically self-deluded, is that 85% of America is Christian, so how come all these gays and Muslims and pro-choicers keep getting their way?

Um, because 85% of America isn’t YOUR kind of Christian.  This is a common fallacy on the far-right.  They think they speak for God, and all Christianity, without realizing that they’re relative newcomers to the whole Christian game, and that lots of faiths, Christian and otherwise, don’t share their hatred of gays and Muslims, and don’t get terribly involved in the whole abortion debate.
The Benhams also pulled the victim card out, because it’s a terrible thing for freedom when a minority gets in the way of you denying them their freedom.  If this keeps up, everyone is going to want to be free.

Make the jump here to read the full article