Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Rice: LGBT rights among the most challenging global human rights issues
AP
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
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