Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 11/02/2015

“Ao entrega-se para a vontade divina, a vontade do seu Eu superior, você se torna uma testemunha silenciosa; um canal puro do amor. Cada ação é como uma prece ao Divino e sua vida se torna devoção. Nada do que você faz é para si mesmo: a graça, a alegria, a cura e o amor passam por você para chegar ao outro, e assim você vai experimentando a plenitude e o contentamento – você vai provando pílulas de samadhi, o êxtase místico. E a cada vislumbre do Eterno, a natureza inferior vai se dissipando, e você vai se aproximando da sua verdadeira essência.”
Acesse ao Satsang Completo: bit.ly/1CviIRC

“Al entregarse a la voluntad divina, la voluntad de tu Yo superior, te vuelves un testigo silencioso, un canal puro del amor. Cada acción es como una plegaria al Divino y tu vida se vuelve devoción. Nada de lo que haces es para ti mismo: la gracia, la alegría, la cura y el amor pasan por ti para llegar al otro, y así vas experimentando la plenitud y el contentamiento – vas probando las píldoras de samadhi, el éxtasis místico. Y a cada vislumbre del Eterno, la naturaleza inferior se va disipando, y vas aproximándote a tu verdadera esencia.”

"When you surrender to the divine will, the will of your higher self, you become a silent witness and a pure channel of love. Each action turns into a prayer to the Divine and your life becomes devotion. Nothing you do is for yourself. Grace, joy, healing and love pass through you to reach the other. In this way, you go on experiencing fulfillment and contentment. You experience samadhi pills: mystical ecstasy. At every glimpse of the Eternal, the lower nature begins to dissipate, and you come closer to your true essence."
- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


Facing Extinction | February 11, 2015


There are a lot of decisions we’re going to be making, consciously or unconsciously, that are going to impact other species, and a lot of choices for us to make that will maximize or minimize that impact. I’m trying to bring those choices into consciousness, because right now we are simply making them unconsciously; we are making them by not making them.

- Elizabeth Kolbert, "No Easy Answers"

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Flower of the Day: 02/10/15

“Different spiritual traditions invoke the Divine in specific ways, but there is a common denominator amongst them. For example, bhajans, devotional chants, evoke the deities of the Hindu tradition. Through their symbolism, these deities, or names and forms of the Divine, represent aspects of the Divine that dwell within us all. Everything is inside of us. The Divine works through each one of us, and that which is not here is nowhere."
Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Kos


Via Daily Dharma


The Four Metaphors | February 10, 2015


Noble one, think of yourself as someone who is sick,
Of the dharma as the remedy,
Of your spiritual teacher as a skillful doctor,
And of diligent practice as the way to recovery.


- Shakyamuni Buddha, "Again 'Common Sense' Buddhism"

Flower of the Day: 02/09/15

"It is true that the spiritual master is One, that the truth is One, and that the path is One. However, it’s necessary to be aware of the importance of focusing and connecting with the channel that represents the bridge to this oneness for us at this precise moment. Compulsion can manifest in different ways in the many areas of life, and if we are in a particular place but cannot relax and surrender to the process, then we won’t be able to benefit from it. In order to benefit from the path we are on, we must enter into communion with it. For this to occur, we need to focus, surrender and relax."

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


The Witness | February 9, 2015


When you sit with the earth, when you make it your witness and when you act as a witness for it—what do you see? What are you compelled to do? These are questions that take us beyond political stances, beyond principles, beyond arguments about engagement or detachment. They are questions, it seems to me, that can never be answered in any way other than the strictly personal. Sitting or acting; engagement or retreat; perhaps there need be no contradiction.

- Paul Kingsnorth, "The Witness"

Via Daily Dharma



Through Every Jewel | February 8, 2015


All day long, creatures are bumping into other creatures, squashing them, killing and eating and drinking them, wearing and using them, walking and lying on them, destroying their homes. There is no personal boundary to this karmic responsibility—it radiates through every jewel in Indra's net. A karmic debt 'owed' by one is owed by all. Vegetarians owe as much as meat eaters, pacifists as much as fighters. There are no personal safe zones, no useful strategies for self-protection.

- John McClellan, "Meat: To Eat It or Not"


Sunday, February 8, 2015

Via Daily Dharma


Wisdom Will Resurface | February 7, 2015


Wisdom does accumulate—not in a linear arithmetic progression but in a complex, dynamic system. Each understanding sheds light upon the others in an interactive living process. Insights that seem unassailable may suddenly meet passionate doubt, all clarity shattered at the very moment it is most needed. Then, just as suddenly, wisdom will resurface, stronger for having vanished, wisdom that now knows of its own disintegration.

- Nina Wise, "Sudden Awakening"

Friday, February 6, 2015

Via JMG: 81% Of College Freshmen Back Marriage


 
In its annual American Freshman Survey, UCLA researchers polled over 150,000 incoming freshmen at 227 colleges and universities. This year's result on marriage:
The survey last asked about same-sex marriage in 2012. In the interim, support for same-sex couples having the legal right to marry has increased 6.5 percentage points to 81.5%. This increase covers a span of time where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s state ban on same-sex marriage. Additionally, since these Supreme Court decisions, state-level same-sex marriage bans have fallen across the country in U.S. Circuit and District courts; as of January 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up four pending cases from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Figure 10 breaks support for same-sex marriage down by political ideology. The findings show that only students who identify as “far right” do not support same-sex marriage. Just 44.3% of students identified as “far right” either “agreed somewhat” or “agreed strongly” that same-sex couples should have the legal right to marry. This figure contrasts with 56.6% of “conservative” students, 84.7% of “middle-of-the-road” students, 93.9% of “liberal” students, and 90.5% of “far left” students. It is clear that same-sex marriage is no longer an issue for the vast majority of entering college freshmen.
We can't wait for Tony Perkins to spin this one.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma


Experiential Ethics | February 5, 2015


The wonderful challenge of Buddhism is that it does not offer any absolute formulas for virtuousness. In the Silabatta Sutta, the Buddha asks Ananda if every precept and practice taught by the dharma is holy. Ananda replies, 'Lord, that is not to be answered with a categorical answer.'

- Hannah Tennant-Moore, "Personal Heaven, Personal Hell"

Flower of the Day: 02/06/15

"By deepening the practice of self-observation, we may reach the surprising conclusion that we feel pleasure through our negative actions in the world. There is a pleasure connected to the negative situation that repeats itself in our lives. Our vital energy is invested into this destructive action. As we deepen even further into this practice of self-observation, we realize that this may be the only way we know how to feel pleasure. Oftentimes, the positive manifestation of pleasure is a threat to the human being. Since we are so identified with this negativity, we suffer the terror of being annihilated in its absence. Unconsciously, we believe that letting go of this negativity would mean death."
- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


You Can't Always Get What You Want | February 6, 2015


The chains of desire pull us into a life of frustration and suffering, while renunciation cuts those chains. Renunciation, though often understood to mean 'giving up,' is, more accurately, the willingness to experience things as they are, not as we want them to be. Here you discover true freedom, the deep, quiet joy that has always been present in you.

- Ken McLeod, "You Can't Always Get What You Want"


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 04/02/2015

“Alguns seres que atingiram a meta da autorrealização enxergam esse planeta como uma prisão. Eu prefiro vê-lo como uma escola, onde a principal matéria é o amor desinteressado. Mas, para amar de forma desinteressada você precisa aprender a perdoar e agradecer, e para perdoar e agradecer, você tem que aprender muitas outras coisas.”

“Algunos seres que han alcanzado la meta de la autorrealización ven este planeta como una prisión. Yo prefiero verlo como una escuela, donde la principal materia es el amor desinteresado. Pero para amar de forma desinteresada, precisas aprender a perdonar y agradecer, y para perdonar y agradecer, tienes que aprender muchas otras cosas.”

"Some beings who have attained the goal of self-realization see this planet as a prison. I prefer to see it as a school, where the main subject matter is selfless love. To be able to love selflessly, we must learn to forgive and give thanks. In order to forgive and thank, we have to learn many more things."
- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


The Enlightened Life | February 4, 2015


When we call forth and base ourselves on the magnificent enlightened life that exists within each of us without exception . . . even the most fundamental, inescapable sufferings of life and death need not be experienced as pain. Rather, they can be transformed into a life embodying the virtues of eternity, joy, true self, and purity.

- Daisaku Ikeda, "Faith in Revolution"


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Via Daily Dharma


Liberation is Already in Effect | February 3, 2015


From the viewpoint of a leap philosophy, there is no causal connection between the liberated and the unliberated state; it is, therefore, impossible to build a bridge between these two wholly incompatible realms. If it is not possible to create a causal chain that will lead one from unliberated to liberated status, and yet, as is claimed, liberation is possible, it must be the case that liberation is already in effect. All we must do as practitioners is allow ourselves to see, and to acknowledge, that fact.

- Jan Nattier, "A Greater Awakening"

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 03/02/2015

“Toda a entidade humana em evolução carrega partes dentro de si mesma com as quais não pôde chegar a um acordo; partes que, de alguma maneira, ela se envergonha ou não compreende, e por isso as mantêm separadas, trancadas em negação. Mas, a negação é o principal obstáculo para a felicidade, pois é somente através da integração dessas partes negadas e separadas que se pode ter um vislumbre da Unidade, e por consequência da paz e do amor.”
Acesse ao Satsang completo: bit.ly/1uTivU9

“Toda la miseria que vemos en este mundo es causada por el olvido de nuestra verdadera naturaleza espiritual. La crisis que vemos en todas las áreas de la sociedad se debe a este olvido. Podemos decir que nuestra sociedad está psicótica, porque existe una profunda identificación con el falso yo. Todos están demasiado ocupados en mantener y embellecer la propia historia, pero no saben que ella no es más que una ficción, una gran mentira; y para sustentarla son capaces de cualquier cosa.”

“All evolving human entities carry parts of themselves that they have not yet come to terms with. They somehow still feel ashamed of these parts within them or have not yet been able to fully understand them, so they keep these feelings separate, locked up in denial. Denial is the main obstacle towards happiness, because only by integrating these denied and separate parts can one have a glimpse of unity and, consequently, of peace and love.”
- Sri Prem Baba