Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	There is, O monks, a realm, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind, neither the sphere of boundless consciousness, nor the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, neither this world nor the next world, nor both together, nor moon and sun. This, O monks, I call neither a going, nor a coming, nor a standing, nor dying, nor being born. It is without a foothold, without a beginning, without a foundation. This indeed is the end of suffering. - Udana 8.1 More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 31, 2012

Deeper than Thought

It is undeniable that others and the larger world, so beleaguered at this moment in history, need everything that we have to give. But what to give is the problem. It seems finally clear that we cannot find out what to do simply by thinking about it. We need to gain our inspiration and our direction from much deeper sources.

- Reginald Ray, “Looking Inward, Seeing Outward”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 1st, 2013
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Via AmericaBlog Gay:Interview with the gay military couple whose iconic “kiss” photo went viral this year (video)

You may recall the photo of the gay kiss, showing a Marine jumping into his boyfriend’s arms on coming home from Afghanistan. 

 

Well, DepFox has done a great interview with them, on YouTube. Here’s the description, video is below:

  

Via Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center / FB:

Nalanda LGBT Buddhist Cultural and Resource Center

‎"Buddism is not a spirituality. Buddhism is all about how to balance our social life that comes with a understanding and appreciation to our inner quality." - Kalu Rinpoche

Via JMG: Obama Backs Illinois Marriage

Through his spokesman, President Obama has issued a statement in support of same-sex marriage in his home state of Illinois.

"While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by state legislatures, he believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect," White House spokesman Shin Inouye told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday.
"As he has said, his personal view is that it's wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so. Were the President still in the Illinois State Legislature, he would support this measure that would treat all Illinois couples equally," Inouye said.
The lead sponsors of the "Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act," state Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and state Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), intend to put the measure up for a vote during the upcoming January lame-duck session. The toughest challenge for gay marriage backers will be winning passage in the Illinois House. Prospects for approval in the Illinois Senate--where Obama once served--are brighter.

As noted above, the current bill will be presented during the lame duck session which ends in just a few weeks.  When the new legislature is seated, Democrats will hold a super-majority in both chambers.

Labels: Barack Obama, Illinois, marriage equality

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 30, 2012

Self-arising Happiness

The more clearly we see the lack of worth in mental and physical sensations, the less desire we'll have for them until, thoroughly disenchanted, craving will be snuffed out automatically. As soon as that occurs, pure happiness will arise by itself.

- Cynthia Thatcher, "What's So Great About Now?"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 31st, 2012
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 29, 2012

Do Not Seek Anything Else

There is a simple way to become a buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else.

- Eihei Dogen, “Birth and Death”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 31st, 2012
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Via JMGL Pew Poll Religions Breakdown

Source.

Labels: Pew Project, polls, religion

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Uruguay Postpones Marriage Vote

Uruguay's Senate was widely expected to pass its marriage equality bill today.  No such luck. Via On Top Magazine:

The “Marriage Equality Law” seeks to modify some 20 articles of the Civil Code, including whose surname goes first when children are named. Opponents asked for the bill's vote to be postponed until the Senate's first meeting in April to allow more time to study the proposal. The request received unanimous approval. The bill has already received an initial nod in the Senate and it cleared the nation's lower house earlier this month. President Jose Mujica has said he'll sign the bill into law. Uruguay currently recognizes gay couples with civil unions. After a couple has lived in a “stable relationship” for 5 years, they may petition the government for the recognition.

Another report notes that senators opposed to the bill claimed that the ruling party was trying to rush the bill through without "the normal procedures."

Labels: marriage equality, South America, Uruguay

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Lambda Legal Rated Top LGBT Org

Guidestar, the watchdog site for non-profits, has ranked Lambda Legal as having the best practices among the LGBT rights and progressive organizations it monitors. Lambda Legal reacts via press release:

"I am very proud of the amazing talent and leadership of the Lambda Legal staff, board and volunteers that has resulted in this top ranking from our colleagues and peers," said Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal. "We have been fighting for equality for LGBT people and people with HIV for forty years, and we have many victories and achievements about which we are proud because they have changed people's lives - and our society - for the better. This is a transformational time in our movement for LGBT equality. Lambda Legal will continue to lead the way with all our energy and all our hearts. We are grateful to all our supporters and colleagues around the country, and thank those who have honored us with this top ranking for 2012."

Rounding out Guidestar's top five:
2.  ACLU
3.  GLSEN
4.  NCLR
5.  NGLTF 

See the rest of the list.

Labels: ACLU, GLSEN, Lambda Legal, LGBT rights, NCLR

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: BRITAIN: Marriage Support Surges

 

Public support for same-sex marriage has surged across Britain in just the last few months. The Guardian reports:

The ICM poll conducted just before Christmas found 62% of voters now support the proposals, with half this number – 31% – opposed. Most previous polls have found opinion leaning the same way, although the two-to-one margin revealed on Wednesday is particularly emphatic. An ICM online survey for the Sunday Telegraph in March asked the identical question – which expressly reminds people that the option of civil partnerships already exists for gay couples – and established a 45%-36% lead for the reformers. That significant hardening of opinion during the year will encourage Cameron, whose embrace of gay marriage has proved controversial, not only with religious leaders but also with the Tory backbench. And the new poll reveals a particularly significant swing towards the reform among the Tory base.

Labels: Britain, David Cameron, marriage equality, polls

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Dutch Catholics "Debaptize" Themselves Over Pope's Anti-Gay Comments

Years ago I posted about the "debaptism" movement in which Catholics request that their names formally be stricken from the memberships rolls of their local diocese. This month that (mostly) symbolic move has gained steam in the Netherlands due to Pope Ratzinger's incessant attacks on same-sex marriage.

Tom Roes, whose website allows people to download the documents needed to leave the church, said traffic on ontdopen.nl – "de-baptise.nl" – had soared from about 10 visits a day to more than 10,000 after Pope Benedict's latest denunciation of gay marriage this month. "Of course it's not possible to be 'de-baptized' because a baptism is an event, but this way people can unsubscribe or de-register themselves as Catholics," Roes told Reuters. He said he did not know how many visitors to the site actually go ahead and leave the church. About 28 percent of the population in the Netherlands is Catholic and 18 percent is Protestant, while a much larger proportion – roughly 44 percent – is not religious, according to official statistics. The country is famous for its liberal attitudes, for example to drugs and prostitution, and in April 2001 it was the first nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriages.

RELATED: Early this year a French man successfully sued to have his name removed from the baptismal records of his diocese. He was the first in his nation to be officially debaptized.  In Germany, about 200,000 Catholics have filed the paperwork declaring that they will no longer pay the religion tax which is allocated to the Catholic Church.

NOTE: The above certificate is from Britain's Secular Society.

Labels: Catholic Church, debaptism, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Netherlands, organized crime, pope, religion

Reposted from Joe

Hands off Social Security!

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 28, 2012

The Equality of Praise and Blame

If we really stop to think about praise and criticism, we will see they do not have the least importance. Whether we receive praise or criticism is of no account. The only important thing is that we have a pure motivation, and let the law of cause and effect be our witness.

- H.H. the Dalai Lama, “Bad Reputation”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 30th, 2012
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Hostilities aren't stilled through hostility, regardless. Hostilities are stilled through non-hostility: this, an unending truth. - Dhammapada, 1, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Subhuti asked: "You say, Honored One, that a follower of the way does not need to build up goodness and happiness. Why is that?" The Buddha replied: "Subhuti, a true follower will express goodness and happiness but will not be caught up in the concepts of goodness and happiness. Thats why I say that he does not need to build up goodness and happiness, which would only be concept traps, for goodness and happiness will be there without any idea of them." - Diamond Sutra More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 27, 2012

Confidence in Truth

From the habit of speaking truthfully confidence is acquired, since there is no need then to dissemble or conceal the truth. Moreover, the speaker of truth inspires confidence in others who come to know that they may rely implicitly on his words.

- Hammalawa Saddatissa, “Right Speech”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 29th, 2012
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	He knows his former lives. He sees heavens and states of woe, has attained the ending of birth, is a sage who has mastered full-knowing, his mastery totally mastered: he's what I call a brahmin. - Dhammapada 423, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 26, 2012

Alive and Happy

We cannot enjoy life if we spend our time and energy worrying about what happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow. If we’re afraid all the time, we miss out on the wonderful fact that we’re alive and can be happy right now.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, “Free From Fear”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 28th, 2012
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Don't cling to your own understanding. Even if you do understand something, you should ask yourself if there might be something you have not fully resolved, or if there may be some higher meaning yet. - Dogen More Buddhism Quotes >>

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas

Many people are extending love, the simple wish for us to be happy—and have been since the day we were born. What is remarkable to me is what happens when we are willing to notice it. And even more remarkable is what happens when we are willing to receive it.

- John Makransky, “Love Is All Around”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 27th, 2012
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 24, 2012

Joy in Giving

Because generosity is characterized by the inner quality of letting go or relinquishing, it reverses the forces that create suffering. It is a profound antidote to the strong habits of clinging, grasping, guarding, and attachment that lead to so much pain and suffering. Generosity brings happiness at every stage of its expression: we experience joy in forming the intention to give, we experience joy in the action of giving, and we experience joy in remembering that we have given.

- Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: The Joy of Generosity”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 26th, 2012
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	He has made his way past this hard-going path --samsara, delusion-- has crossed over, has gone beyond, is free from want, from perplexity, absorbed in jhana, through no-clinging Unbound: he's what I call a brahmin. - Dhammapada, 26, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 23, 2012

The Purpose of Precepts

The Buddhist precepts are not intended to force us into a particular way of behaving but to encourage us to reflect on our motivations and actions. Since the aim of a Buddhist life is to diminish suffering, Buddhist ethics are rooted in compassion and wisdom. We attend to our own suffering and the suffering of others, and we understand that our intentions and actions have consequences.

- Martine Batchelor, “The Buddhist Precepts: An Introduction”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 25th, 2012
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Christian fails to convert Buddhist girl

Via Sun Gazing / FB:

Alan Watts: Buddhism And Christianity

The Road to HERE ~ Alan Watts

Alan Watts - How We Define Ourselves

Via Path To Peace & Happiness / FB:

Path To Peace & Happiness

‎"I prefer Buddhism because it gives three principles in combination, which no other religion does. Buddhism teaches prajna (understanding as against superstition and supernaturalism), karuna (loving-kindness), and samata (equality). This is what man wants for a good and happy life. Neither god nor soul can save society."

- Dr B. R. Ambedkar

2012: What Brought Us Together

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 22, 2012

With a Little Help from my Friends

If you really want to become skillful in your thoughts, words, and deeds, you need a trustworthy friend to point out your blind spots. And because those spots are blindest around your unskillful habits, the primary duty of a trustworthy friend is to point out your faults—for only when you see your faults can you correct them; only when you correct them are you benefiting from your friend’s compassion in pointing them out.

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “The Power of Judgment”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 24th, 2012
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Via JMG: Photo Of The Year?

 

Labels: 2012 In Review, DADT, military, photography

Reposted from Joe

JMG Quote Of The Day - Henry Rollins

"Hats off to Washington state where, recently, hundreds of same-sex couples were legally married. I am elated as much as I am frustrated by why this country refuses to wake up and smell the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. I feel for everyone who wanted to get married for so long and were made to feel so bad about who they are. I feel worse for all the Americans in the large number of remaining states still waiting for their turn to enjoy the freedoms and protections bestowed upon them by their very citizenship.

"There is still a long way to go. Marriage equality is a term so ridiculous on its face that when you hear it mentioned, you would think you were in Riyadh. Years from now, perhaps we can lose the equality part, the same-sex part and call it what it is -- marriage. As much as the homophobes, an ever-thinning herd, whines and screeches, the earth is shifting underneath their feet and things are getting better all the time. This is going to be an incredible century. Didn't get off to a very good start but we are making some bold and exciting strides forward." - Henry Rollins, writing for LA Weekly.

Labels: Henry Rollins, hotness, marriage equality, straight allies

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Where Atheism Is Punishable By Death

Source.

Labels: atheism, death penalty, religion, theocracy

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Ill Papa Slams Gay Marriage (AGAIN)

 

"People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves. The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man's fundamental choice where he himself is concerned. When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God" - Emperor Palpatine, in his annual Christmas speech to Vatican bureaucrats.

Labels: bigotry, Catholic Church, marriage equality, organized crime, pope, religion, Vatican

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Vatican: Gay Marriage Is Like Communism

The official Vatican newspaper yesterday compared gay marriage supporters with people who had been "deceived" by communism and socialism.

Faced with recent setbacks in the United States and Europe, the Roman Catholic Church has intensified its increasingly uphill battle against gay marriage. The latest salvo came this week, with a front-page article in the Vatican’s semiofficial newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. Historian Lucetta Scaraffia compared proponents of gay marriage, with their championing of "marriage equality," to 20th-century communists who wooed millions with their promise of perfect social and economical equality. Scaraffia, a 64-year-old former feminist activist who later became a fervent Catholic, has often written in the Vatican newspaper on the issue. For her, the idea of gay marriage is a product of the same "egalitarian utopia that did so much damage during the 20th century ... deceiving humanity as socialism did in the past."

Labels: bigotry, Catholic Church, LGBT rights, marriage equality, organized crime, religion, Vatican

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	Sitting peacefully on a cushion day and night seeking to attain Buddhahood, rejecting life and death in hopes of realizing enlightenment, is all like a monkey grasping at the moon reflected in the water. - Shoitsu More Buddhism Quotes >>

Viva São Paulo!

BRAZIL: São Paulo State Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

 

Brazilian Law Blog reports:

Brazil is about to see something that we only heard about from the United States: a massive movement of people going to one specific State, in order to get married there. This is because São Paulo State (where São Paulo city is located) has updated its registration rules in order to allow the automatic registration of same sex marriages, without the need of a previous court order. This change has followed, with some delay, a decision from the Brazilian Supreme Court regarding same sex marriage.

The state of Sao Paulo has 41 million residents! The city of Sao Paulo is the largest in the southern hemisphere! 

 

Labels: Brazil, marriage equality, Sao Paulo

Reposted from Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	A hundred thousand worlds are flowers in the sky, a single mind and body is moonlight in the water; once the cunning ends and information stops, at that moment there is no place for thought. - Han-Shan Te-Ch'ing in The Clouds Should Know Me By Now More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 20, 2012

Living in a Cosmic Democracy

Living in harmony with all beings is flexibility. It is a kind of cosmic democracy. Each of us has a role in the situation and gets one vote. You cast your vote by being here like a great unmoving mountain. Please cast your vote completely: that is your job. Then listen to all other beings, especially foreigners, especially strangers, and especially enemies.

- Reb Anderson, “In It Together”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 22nd, 2012
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Cheyenne Jackson - DONT WANNA KNOW [Official Music Video]

Via JMG: New Gallup Poll On LGBT Issues

Gallup reports:

While 53% of Americans support legalizing same-sex marriage, significantly higher percentages support the idea of equal rights for partners or spouses of gays or lesbians when it comes to inheritance rights and employee benefits, and making it legal for gays and lesbians to adopt children. Support for all three issues is up at least slightly from three years ago.
Less than half of Americans, however, support the idea of openly gay adults serving as Boy Scout leaders. Given the lack of a trend on this question, it is not clear whether support is higher than in the past, or the degree to which the lack of support may reflect respondents' reluctance to say how a private organization should decide who holds its positions of leadership.

Labels: Boy Scouts, Gallup, gay adoption, insurance, LGBT rights, marriage equality, polls

posted by Joe

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	If those who are like wanton children Are by nature prone to injure others, What point is there in being angry-- Like resenting fire for its heat? - Bodhicaryavatara More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 19, 2012

An Honest Look

Simply doing good deeds, or even being a devoted meditator, doesn’t mean anything without the painful honesty that’s required to look at what we’re doing. We must take our heads out of the ground and look at all of the ways we get in our own way—fooling ourselves and obstructing the possibility of living a more open and genuine life.

- Ezra Bayda, “The ‘Helper’ Syndrome”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 21st, 2012
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Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The one whose mind knows the clarity of perfect wisdom is never afraid or even anxious. Why? Because when being at one with the living power of wisdom, the mother of all the buddhas, that person has the strength to remain in a state of undivided contemplation even while ceaselessly and skillfully engaging in compassionate action. The wise one is enabled to act because of concentration on a single prayer: "May all beings never leave the path of enlightenment, which is their own true nature and is empty of separate self-existence." - Prajnaparamita More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 18, 2012

Letting the Heart Speak

If any preoccupation comes in to bother the mind, just say in your heart, ‘Leave me alone. Don’t bother me. You’re no affair of mine.’ If any critical thoughts come up—fear for your life, fear that you’ll die, thinking of this person, thinking of that person—just say in your heart, ‘Don’t bother me. You’re no affair of mine.’

- Ajahn Chah, “The Last Gift”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 20th, 2012
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JMG HomoQuotable - Andrew Sullivan

"Many evangelicals loathe my use of the word Christianism, rather than Christianity, to describe the fusion of political power and religion to police the moral lives of others. They recoil at the echo of Islamism - although we know many Islamist parties, as in Turkey or Indonesia, that do not engage in terrorism, but merely believe in the fusion of church and state as emphatically as older American evangelicals do.

"That's why it's revealing to see a major figure in the American Christianist movement, Pastor David Dykes, - he opened the 2008 Congress with a prayer - openly advocate the execution of gays, and criminal penalties for exercise of free speech in defense of gays, in Uganda. If these people could, they would do the same here. The constitution protects us - especially our right to speech. But what these theocrats want is as undeniable as it is repellent in a free or humane society.

"More to the point, here is an alleged Christian demanding that those on the margins of society not be embraced, as Jesus practised, but be executed, as Jesus' Roman executioners did. It doesn't get more anti-Christian than that. To even associate the word Christianity with these sentiments is an attack on Jesus Christ." - Andrew Sullivan, reacting to this Box Turtle Bulletin story.

Labels: Africa, Andrew Sullivan, Christian Love, Christianists, David Dykes, gay death penalty, HomoQuotable, religion, Scott Lively, Uganda

posted by Joe