Old Gays Meet Pabllo Vittar

Via NPR /// Pabllo Vittar: The drag queen-superstar fighting for equality in Brazil

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna

 

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Body

A person goes to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and sits down. Having crossed the legs, one sets the body erect. One establishes the presence of mindfulness. (MN 10) One is aware: “Ardent, fully aware, mindful, I am content.” (SN 47.10)   When lying down, one is aware: “I am lying down.”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is body.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

Practicing in a prone position is not essentially different from practicing in the other three primary bodily postures: sitting, standing, and walking. The instruction is simply to be fully aware of all the bodily sensations that arise and pass away in your experience. The most common form of doing this is the body scan, wherein you systematically focus on all bodily sensations from head to toe or from toe to head.

Daily Practice

In addition to practicing while sitting, standing, and walking, become familiar with meditating while lying down. The particular challenge there is to avoid falling asleep. In the other three positions muscle tension helps prevent this, but when you are prone it is very easy to doze off. You will find the ability to practice lying down especially valuable if you are sick and stuck in bed.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna)

Having abandoned the five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of seclusion. (MN 4) One practices: “I shall breathe in experiencing rapture";  one practices: “I shall breathe out experiencing rapture.” This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (SN 54.8)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna

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Via Daily Dharma: Breath of the Universe

 Through consistent meditation practice, we come to realize that, in essence, there exists only the breath. It is the breath of the universe that flows through all. 

Brittany Micek, Radical Imagination: A Teaching for Juneteenth

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Via White Crane Institute // Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day

 

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2018 -

JUNETEENTH, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day; Winston Churchill famously quipped that “America always does the right thing...after it tries everything else. Juneteenth is an American holiday that celebrates our finally getting this part right. It commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the state of Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans throughout the former Confederacy of the southern United States. Its name is a portmanteau of "June" and "nineteenth", the date of its celebration.

 

Juneteenth is only recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in forty-five states, and primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing", and reading of works by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations may include rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, and Miss Juneteenth contests. The Macogos descendants of Black Seminoles of Coahulla, Mexico also celebrate the Juneteenth.

 

In 1996 the first legislation to recognize "Juneteenth Independence Day" was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.J. Res. 195, sponsored by Barbara Rose Collins (D-MI). In 1997 Congress recognized the day through Senate Joint Resolution 11 and House Joint Resolution 56. In 2013 the U.S. Senate passed Senate Resolution 175, acknowledging Lula Briggs Galloway (late president of the National Association of Juneteenth Lineage) who "successfully worked to bring national recognition to Juneteenth Independence Day", and the continued leadership of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. In 2018 Apple added Juneteenth to its calendars in iOS under official US holidays.

 

On June 15, 2021, the Senate unanimously passed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday; it subsequently passed through the House of Representatives by a 415–14 vote on June 16. President Joseph Biden signed the bill on June 17, 2021, making Juneteenth the eleventh American federal holiday and the first to obtain legal observance as a federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated in 1983.

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that—that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and see feeling tone as it actually is, then one is attached to feeling tone. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection

Pleasant and painful sensations come and go constantly in our experience, and it is these and not the emotions to which the Buddhist terms feeling and feeling tone refer. Feelings often carry us along in a flood of craving for pleasure to continue or increase and for pain to stop and go away. Mindfulness is the quality of mind that goes against this stream and allows us to simply be steadily aware of whatever presents itself in our experience.

Daily Practice

Is it always necessary to be attached to pleasant feeling tones and averse to painful ones? Are we compelled to pursue pleasure and avoid pain? Conventional wisdom says of course, while Buddhist teachings say no, we can free ourselves of this compulsion. Practice being aware of both pleasure and pain with an attitude of equanimity rather than one of favoring or opposing. It is a new habit worth cultivating.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Open Yourself to the Living Present

Our mind wanders incessantly, but our body and senses are always in the present. To investigate our embodied experience is to investigate the living present.

Anne C. Klein, “Revisiting Ritual”

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Father Guido Sarducci

 

Via Emergence Magazine