Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Frivolous Speech

Frivolous speech is unhealthy. Refraining from frivolous speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning frivolous speech, one refrains from frivolous speech. One speaks at the right time, speaks only what is fact, and speaks about what is good. One speaks what is worthy of being overheard, words that are reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak frivolously, but I shall abstain from frivolous speech.” (MN 8) I assert and proclaim such a teaching that one does not quarrel with anyone in the world. (MN 18)

Reflection

It is entirely natural that people have differences of opinion. It is not entirely necessary that they quarrel about these by getting angry, abusive, or dismissive, or otherwise generating unhealthy and harmful emotions. It is enough to hold and express your own opinions and let others hold and express theirs. You can still encourage them to change their opinions but to do so in discussion and conversation rather than with quarreling.

Daily Practice

See if you can imagine what sort of a teaching you might follow such that you would not be inclined to quarrel with anyone in the world. Do you have to take it personally when someone disagrees with you? Do you need to have other people change their opinions to align with yours? See what it feels like to acknowledge that others have different opinions than yours and to feel at ease with that, with no need to have them change.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Social Action
One week from today: Refraining from False Speech

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: How to Change the World

 The ultimate power to change the world does not reside in technologies. It relies on reverence, respect, and compassion—for ourselves, for all people, and for all life. 

Paul Hawken, “How to Bring Our Planet Back to Life”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // A SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE OF RADICAL FAERIES

Noteworthy

Mud Hug at the First Faerie Gathering (Photo credit: Mark Thompson)

1979 -

The first day of the first Faerie Gathering that called itself "A SPIRITUAL CONFERENCE OF RADICAL FAERIES," was on this date, held in Benson Arizona, on Labor Day Weekend, 1979. Harry Hay, the "father of the gay rights movement" began the Mattachine society in 1950. In 1970, Hay moved to New Mexico in a quest to find a living berdache (a Native American Gay male spirit guide). In 1978, Hay, along with life partner John Burnside, and Don Kilhefner, and Mitch Walker, issued a Call to a group devoted to ecology, spiritual truth and Gay-centeredness. In 1979, the first gathering of Radical Faeries took place in the Arizona desert with over 200 gay men in attendance. Kilhefner continues to make slanderous statements about John Burnside's participation in a vainglorious attempt to claim for himself the title of "Founder of the Radical Faeries". But anyone claiming to have "founded" the Radical Faeries simply doesn't understand the core beliefs of the group. The Radical Faeries was the product of nothing less than a zeitgeist moment in the Gay men's liberation movement. The ideas that are core to the movement had been circulating widely in San Francisco, the Midwest, Los Angeles and no doubt elsewhere for a long time. 

There had been earlier usage of the term "radical faerie" employed in San Francisco by author ("Witchcraft & The Gay Counterculture") and Gay philosopher, Arthur Evans, which a group of men who met regularly including Murray Edelman.  The desert Gathering seemed to create the "tipping point" for the movement which is now spread internationally, with Radical Faerie groups and sanctuaries in Europe, South America, India and Australia.

The text of The Call for the first gathering:

THE FIRST CALL: To share new insights about ourselves; To dance in the moonlight; To renew our oath against patriarchy/corporations/racism; To hold, protect, nurture and caress one another; To talk about the politics of Gay enspiritment/the enspiritment of Gay politics; To find the healing space inside our hearts; To become Inspirer/Listener as we share new breakthroughs in how we perceive Gay consciousness; To soar like an eagle; To re-discover/re-invent our myths; To talk about Gay living/loving alternatives; To experience the groundedness of the calamus root; To share out Gay visions;To sing, sing, sing; TO EVOKE A GREAT FAERIE CIRCLE

---

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

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

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - August 31, 2022 💌

 

When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.

- Ram Dass

Via Facebook // Joni Mitchell

“If you want endless repetition, see a lot of different people. If you want infinite variety, stay with one.” What happens when you date is you run all your best moves and tell all your best stories — and in a way, that routine is a method for falling in love with yourself over and over. You can’t do that with a longtime mate because he knows all that old material. With a long relationship, things die then are rekindled, and that shared process of rebirth deepens the love. It’s hard work, though, and a lot of people run at the first sign of trouble. You’re with this person, and suddenly you look like an asshole to them or they look like an asshole to you — it’s unpleasant, but if you can get through it you get closer and you learn a way of loving that’s different from the neurotic love enshrined in movies. It’s warmer and has more padding to it.”

-  Joni Mitchell