Revoked

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Today's Daily Dharma: Free to Act Wisely

Free to Act Wisely

Is it possible to imagine that power might be defined by presence of mind; that the more one is no longer controlled by compulsions, addictions, patterns, habits, the more power one has to act in service of wisdom and compassion? What if we said that power is internal freedom, that power is the capacity for choice?

—Helen Tworkov, "Just Power"

Today's Daily Dharma: Living Truths

Living Truths

The ultimate problem in human existence is alienation. The only solution to alienation is to deal with it in wholesome and skillful ways. The teachings of the Buddha seem to be a wholesome model for dealing with alienation. But these teachings cannot be a formula or even a solution. They have to be living truths.

—Mu Soeng, "Dharma for Sale"

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 17/11/2015

“Temos que olhar para o ser humano - não importa o time que ele torce, o partido político que ele prefere ou a religião a qual ele pertence – para ver se existe a disponibilidade de se comprometer com o bem. É preciso compreender o que está se passando dentro. Se dentro existe abertura para a paz, abertura para o amor e para se tornar um instrumento do Eu Maior.”

“Tenemos que mirar hacia el ser humano -no importa a qué equipo aliente, el partido político que prefiera o la religión a la que pertenezca- para ver si existe la disponibilidad de comprometerse con el bien. Es necesario comprender lo que está pasando adentro. Si adentro existe apertura para la paz, apertura para el amor y para convertirse en un instrumento del Yo Mayor.”

“We need to look at the human beings within people, looking for a willingness in them to commit to the greater good. This willingness might exist regardless of one’s favorite team, political party stance, or the religion one belongs to. We must understand what someone is going through internally, looking for any openness for inner peace and love, really wanting to become an instrument of the higher self.”

Today's Daily Dharma: A Tempered Response

A Tempered Response

In Buddhism, we say yes, there is an ocean of suffering. So it’s not bad to show that there’s anger, hatred, delusion, and greed in the world. In a way, the media are presenting some very important facts. Given that, we can look for different emotional responses
in ourselves.

—B. Alan Wallace, "What Is True Happiness?"

by Milo Yiannopoulos16 Nov 20156,704

I’d hate to be thrown off a roof. I mean, imagine if I landed on this face. But that’s the future Europe and even the US are sleepwalking into if we let wacky progressive hand-wringers keep apologising for radical Islam and calling the rest of us racist for expressing our concern at mass immigration from cultures that care nothing for the rights of women and gays.

You want to see a “patriarchy”? Fly to Riyadh or Tehran. In the former, women can’t drive. (Alright, fair enough, they might be on to something there.) In the latter, gays are hanged, often from cranes in public places. ISIS is even more brutal, hurling fags off the roof after ritually humiliating them. In Raqqa you’ll see women and children sold for a few hundred dollars.

These are the attitudes we’re importing by allowing millions of Muslims to settle in western Europe. Sorry if that sounds intolerant, but remember women and gays aren’t just treated like shit by ISIS, but mainstream Muslim culture, too. I can’t remember how many Muslim countries have the death penalty for homosexuality. What is it, ten? Eleven?

We now know that at least one of the Paris terrorists came into Europe posing as a “refugee.” This confirms all the worst fears of progressive commentators who were hoping the political Right was wrong about the security threat mass immigration presented.

But there’s a more general concern for liberal western democracies: it’s not just the jihadis, but the attitudes of ordinary Muslims that are a grave cause for concern, not just for the women being gang-raped in Malmö but homosexuals everywhere in Europe.

So you can accuse me of being “islamophobic” if you want, because no, I don’t want to be shouted at or spat on in the street. Maybe my gayness is standing in the way of a Muslim utopia… but I’m going to be selfish here and say maybe we don’t import all the people who want to murder me.

Read the full article here

Monday, November 16, 2015

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 16/11/2015

“A sua felicidade é de grande valia para a elevação da vibração do planeta e para a resolução da crise planetária. E a felicidade está intimamente relacionada com a manifestação da consciência amorosa. Por isso trabalhe para manifestar essa consciência no seu mundo, no seu universo de relações. Esse é o seu desafio.”

“Tu felicidad es de gran valor para la elevación de la vibración del planeta y para la resolución de la crisis planetaria. Y la felicidad está íntimamente relacionada con la manifestación de la consciencia amorosa. Por eso trabaja para manifestar esa consciencia en tu mundo, en tu universo de relaciones. Este es tu desafío.”

“Our happiness has a great impact on elevating the planet’s vibration and on resolving our planetary crisis. Happiness is intimately relatedto manifesting loving consciousness. This is why we should work for this consciousness to manifest in our world and in our sphere of relationships. It is our challenge.”

Today's Daily Dharma: The Truth about Truth

The Truth about Truth

To be awakened does not mean to understand the truth or nature of reality, which then frees you from ignorance, leaving you awakened. It may be more accurate to think of truth as truthfulness, or living a truthful life. It means to live in a certain way rather than to gain access to a privileged knowledge.

—Stephen Batchelor, "After Buddhism"

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 15/11/2015

“Estamos atravessando um momento difícil. A pobreza, a violência, a corrupção... Tudo isso é um chamado para uma reflexão: onde nós estamos errando? Chegou o momento de assumirmos a nossa responsabilidade. É muito limitado pensar que toda a maldade do mundo está somente no coração dos criminosos e dos terroristas. A verdade é que nós somos co-criadores de tudo o que acontece. Nós criamos essa realidade.”

“Estamos atravesando un momento difícil. La pobreza, la violencia, la corrupción... Todo eso es un llamado para una reflexión: ¿Dónde nos estamos equivocando? Llegó el momento de asumir nuestra responsabilidad. Es muy limitado pensar que toda la maldad del mundo está solamente en el corazón de los criminales y de los terroristas. La verdad es que somos co-creadores de todo lo que sucede. Nosotros creamos esta realidad.”

“We are passing through a very difficult moment. Poverty, violence, and corruption are all calling us to reflect on where we are going wrong. The moment has arrived for us all to take responsibility. It is very limited to think that all the evil in the world only exists in the hearts of criminals and terrorists. The truth is that we are co-creators of everything that happens here on this plane. We create this reality.”

Today's Daily Dharma: How to Negotiate Conflict

How to Negotiate Conflict

Learning how to negotiate conflict demands that we become more present, more fearless. We may need to relinquish the hopeful image of ourselves as remaining serene under all circumstances, like sitting buddhas carved from wood or stone. . . . Whether the results are invigorating or devitalizing depends on how consciously we work with ourselves and our circumstances.

—Diane Musho Hamilton, "Transforming Conflict"

Via back2stonewall: Is This The First “Gay” Movie Ever Made? – Different From Others (1919) – Video

We all know there is a HUGE selection of gay films available to watch. Many are recent while some began to come into mainstream media in the 1990’s. But is it possible that the first film ever to showcase a gay couple was made almost 100 years ago?

A few years ago the UCLA Film and Television Archives discovered a film that was produced in 1919 Germany. During that time in Germany, a Social Democratic government came into power allowing long-standing censorship laws to be lifted.

Acting quickly, filmmaker Richard Oswald joined with psychiatrist and gay-rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld to write and produce the first gay centered film.

Different From The Others was a 90 minute film centered around a famous violinist and his male student. This was a drama that showed a love affair between the two men. Although the film did not show any sex, it is very clear in the film that the two men were in love. Unfortunately, the film suffered many vicious attacks from the right-wing press calling Oswald a “perverted Jew”.

The complete physical copy of the film was lost except for 40 minutes that Hirschfeld edited into a 1926 documentary about tolerance.

As part of the preservation, the gay and lesbian film festival, Outfest, partnered with UCLA Film and Television Archives has reassembled those 40 minutes based on Oswald’s screenplay.

“To use the term ‘restore’ would be wrong,” says Jan-Christopher Horak, director of the archives. “There’s not enough footage for a real restoration. But what we have put together allows people to experience the remarkable culture that existed in Berlin in the 1920s, which was wiped out, of course, by the Nazis. As far as I know, this is the earliest document we have of gays and lesbians being represented on-screen.”

This is an incredible piece of LGBT history. This may be the first example of LGBT people being depicted in film. This also may be one of the first steps towards the fight for LGBT equality.

Released in released in 1919 and starring Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel. You can watch Different From Others below:

Make the jump here to read the full and original here

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 14/11/2015

“O que está por trás de todos esses jogos de acusação, da possessividade, do ciúme e da culpa? É você acreditar que a sua felicidade depende do outro. Essa é a ilusão básica que faz de você um escravo. A felicidade verdadeira é aquela que vem de dentro e não depende de nada nem de ninguém. A liberdade e a felicidade caminham sempre juntas.”

“¿Qué está por detrás de todos esos juegos de acusación, de la posesividad, de los celos y de la culpa? Es creer que tu felicidad depende del otro. Esa es la ilusión básica que hace de ti un esclavo. La felicidad verdadera es aquella que viene de adentro y no depende de nada ni de nadie. La libertad y la felicidad caminan siempre juntas.”

“What is behind all of these games of accusation, possessiveness, jealousy, and guilt? It is the belief that our happiness depends on the other. This is the basic illusion that makes us into a slave. True happiness comes from within, and it doesn’t depend on anything or anyone. Freedom and happiness always walk hand-in-hand.”

Today's Daily Dharma: The Chaos Under the Hood

The Chaos Under the Hood

No matter how savvy and independent and self-controlled we may presume ourselves to be, without mindfulness, chaos is what we discover when we begin to look under the hood.

—Kathleen Dowling Singh, "The Chaos Under the Hood"

Via JMG: Anti-Gay Activist: Candidates Wouldn’t Have Attended “Death To Gays” Event If They’d Known In Advance

Anti-gay activist Michael Brown, who makes a living writing a series of vile anti-LGBT books, says that GOP candidates would never have attended Kevin Swanson’s “death to gays” convention if they’d been warned in advance of Swanson’s views. Of course we know that they WERE warned, over and over, especially Ted Cruz, who was asked about his attendance by CNN’s Jake Tapper on the day before the event began.

Brown’s claims come, rather laughably, via a column on BarbWire, a site best known here for also publishing columns by several advocates of executing homosexuals. His column comes in the form of an open letter to Rachel Maddow:

In light of the extreme rhetoric of that rally, I felt it was important to you remind you of what’s happening in the world that most of us live in. That rhetoric does not represent us in the least. It’s also important that you recognize that the presidential candidates who attended this rally (Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, and Ted Cruz) were there to identify with the cause of religious liberty, and they too would categorically reject some of the words spoken at the conference (as well as reject some of the positions advocated by at least one of the speakers outside of the conference).

I also feel confident that, had they known in advance what Kevin Swanson, the conference’s chief organizer, planned to say, they would not have attended the rally. Rachel, as a conservative moral leader, I’ve sat at behind the scenes meetings of groups like Focus on the Family or the Family Research Council, and I never heard one hostile word spoken about gays or lesbians, let alone a word calling for violence or execution. Perish the thought! That’s because those things violate the very spirit of our faith, and, as I stated earlier, it is that faith that informs us and guides us, a faith that clings tightly to the words and example of Jesus.

NOTE: I don’t link to BarbWire because that site sets off my malware alarms. Feel free to seek out the full column if you are confident that your virus protections are up to date.

PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Michael Brown claims gay activists want Christians thrown into prison. Michael Brown claims that Hillary Clinton is controlled by Satanic homosexuals. Michael Brown claims that the Bible is 100% true except for the parts he doesn’t like. Michael Brown leads a hate march of hundreds of Christians to disrupt Charlotte’s gay pride parade. Michael Brown debuts his book with a video using small children to ridicule gay families.

Via JMG: Michelangelo Signorile Calls Out Media For Ignoring GOP Candidates’ Embrace Of “Death To Gays” Pastor

November 12, 2015 2016 Election, Extremists, Religion

As I noted again in the post below this one, so far only Rachel Maddow has reported on last weekend’s “death to gays” convention, where three GOP presidential candidates were interviewed by Pastor Kevin Swanson in between his calls for the genocide of LGBT Americans. Today Michelangelo Signorile calls out the rest of the mainstream media. He writes:

Where is The New York Times? The Washington Post covered the conference and the candidates’ comments, but didn’t mention the “kill the gays” speech. Not news to them apparently. Several online sources that did focus on the conference placed more attention on Cruz telling Swanson that an atheist shouldn’t be president, or on the unhinged Swanson’s advice to parents that they should drown their children rather than let them read Harry Potter, than on Swanson calling for the extermination of an entire group of people at an event at which presidential candidates spoke.

It’s 2015 and much of the media seem to accept, still, that LGBT people can be talked about this way at an event attended by presidential candidates and that it’s not news. They view it as par for the course, religious conservatives doing what they do. It’s as if they have blinders on. Indeed, if Ted Cruz — or Huckabee or Jindal — attended an event at which the host hinted at mass murder of Jews, African-Americans or any other group it would be a massive media story. He’d be forced to answer questions about it, at debates (and it didn’t come up at the last debate), in press conferences and in interviews non-stop. He’d be pressured to condemn both the comments and the pastor — as when John McCain had to dump Pastor John Hagee in 2008 because of his ugly comments about Catholics — or he’d face the consequences.

Signorile goes on to note that the mainstream media is “running for cover” lately after the ridiculous “gotcha” questions whining made by GOP candidates after a recent debate. Hit the link and read his full piece.

Make the jump here to read the original and more on JMG

Via Religion Poisons Everything / FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 13/11/2015

“Quando a relação amorosa se torna eminentemente destrutiva e não há mais espaço para crescimento, perdão liberdade, é preciso ter coragem de parar e tirar umas férias. É preciso ter coragem para olhar de frente para a situação e assumir que, desse jeito, você está cavando a sua própria cova. Só você pode fazer algo por você. Tenha coragem de ir além do medo da solidão. Você tem pavor de ficar consigo mesmo. Você não se suporta, mas acha que o outro tem obrigação de suportar você. Você não se ama de forma alguma, mas acha que o outro tem obrigação de te amar. Isso não é amor, é carência.”

“Cuando la relación amorosa se torna eminentemente destructiva y no hay más espacio para el crecimiento, perdón y libertad, es necesario tener coraje para parar y tomarse unas vacaciones. Es preciso tener coraje para mirar de frente a la situación y asumir que, de ese modo, estás cavando tu propia fosa. Sólo tú puedes hacer algo por ti. Ten coraje de ir más allá del miedo a la soledad. Tienes pavor de quedarte contigo mismo. No te soportas, pero crees que el otro tiene la obligación de soportarte. No te amas de ningún modo, pero crees que el otro tiene la obligación de amarte. Eso no es amor, es carencia.”

“When loving relationships become highly destructive and there is no more space for growth, forgiveness, and freedom, it is time to have the courage to take a break. We must be brave enough to look at the situation we are in straight on and accept that we are just digging our own graves. We are the only ones who can do something for our own well being. We must find the courage to go beyond the fear of loneliness, as we dread being on our own. On the one hand, we can’t stand ourselves, yet we believe that the other is obliged to withstand us. We do not love ourselves at all, yet we believe the other must love us. This is not love;it’s sheer neediness.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Time with Your Own Mind

Time with Your Own Mind

Spending time with your own mind is humbling and broadening. One finds that there's no one in charge, and is reminded that no thought lasts for long.

—Gary Snyder, "Just One Breath"

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 12/11/2015

“O que te impede de querer ver o outro feliz? Quando falo do ‘outro’ me refiro a todos os seres sencientes, incluindo animais e vegetais. Porque assim como fechamos o coração para o ser humano, também fechamos o coração para a natureza. Assim como nos tornamos amortecidos e insensíveis em relação ao ser humano, nos tornamos insensíveis em relação ao meio ambiente e aos animais. E ao invés de nos tornar canais de amor, nos tornamos canais de destruição. Portanto é de grande valia tomar consciência do que te mantém separado, querendo ver o outro sofrer.”

“¿Qué te impide querer ver al otro feliz? Cuando digo el ‘otro’ me refiero a todos los seres sensibles, incluyendo animales y vegetales. Porque así como cerramos el corazón para el ser humano, también cerramos el corazón para la naturaleza. Así como nos volvemos anestesiados e insensibles en relación al ser humano, nos volvemos insensibles en relación al medio ambiente y a los animales. Y en lugar de volvernos canales de amor, nos volvemos canales de destrucción. Por lo tanto es de gran valor tomar consciencia de lo que te mantiene separado, queriendo ver al otro sufrir.”

“What prevents us from wishing to see the other happy? When I speak of the other, I am referring to all sentient beings, including the animal and plant kingdoms. If we close our hearts to human beings, we also close our hearts to mother nature. As we become numb and insensitive to humans, we become numb towards the environment and to animals. Instead of becoming channels of love, we become channels of destruction. Therefore, it is extremely important that we become aware of what keeps us separate andwanting to see the other suffer.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Relating to Our Emotions

Relating to Our Emotions

When anger arises, or sorrow or love or joy, it is just anger angering, sorrow sorrowing, love loving, joy joying. Different feelings arise and pass, each simply expressing its own nature. The problem arises when we identify with these feelings, or thoughts, or sensations as being self or as belonging to 'me': I’m angry, I'm sad.

—Joseph Goldstein, "If There Is No Self, Who Is Born,
Who Dies, Who Meditates?"