Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Via JMG: Updated Wikipedia Marriage Map




Reposted from Joe Jervis

NASA LGBT Pride Month Profile - Amy Stalker, Glenn Research Center


Rice: LGBT rights among the most challenging global human rights issues

Susan RiceAP
Susan Rice

WASHINGTON — With anti-gay laws taking root in nearly 80 countries, White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Tuesday cast the protection of gays from global discrimination, abuse and even death as one of the most challenging international human rights issue facing the United States.

Rice told a White House forum of gay rights advocates that President Barack Obama has directed that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote the rights of LGBT men and women around the world.

She urged religious, human rights and HIV health care advocates to form a united front to halt global discrimination against the LGBT community.

“To achieve lasting global change, we need everyone’s shoulder at the wheel,” she said. “With more voices to enrich and amplify the message — the message that gay rights are straight-up human rights — we can open more minds.”

Make the jump here to read the full article

Via Daily Dharma


Make the Most of It | June 24, 2014

If you think of the number of people in the world, what percentage of them really devote any substantial amount of time to spiritual practice? What percentage of them are even inclined to do so? And the fact that we are willing and interested in this kind of an approach to life is very rare. And so we are encouraged to make the most of it.
 
—Ken McLeod, "37 Practices of the Bodhisattva, Verse 1"
 

Flower of the Day: 06/24/14

“Our planet is going through a 'dark night.' Some people are already able to receive rays of light from the central sun, which is the divine self, but others are going mad. Some people are killing themselves because they are unable to bear coming in touch with their own shadow. They don’t know that this experience is only a transition and a passage. Spiritual knowledge is the blessing that allows one to make this crossing with tranquility.”
Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


Ethics from the Heart | June 25, 2014

For the Zen Buddhist, an ethical precept is a question to be held up to the light of circumstance, an inquiry rather than an answer. And the nature of this inquiry is not so much the dubious enterprise of trying to figure out the right thing to do as it is an offering of an unaided heart. After all, it’s from this heart of ours that the precepts themselves once arose. At the threshold of choice, the Zen Buddhist trusts this ancient heart above all other authority.
 
—Lin Jensen, "An Ear to the Ground"
 

Flower of the Day: 06/25/14

“Gratitude is a powerful virtue of the soul. When one is able to materialize gratitude through an expression of thanks, this gratitude becomes medicine for the one receiving it. Oftentimes, the simple action of giving thanks to someone is enough to take that person out of the pits.”
Sri Prem Baba