Tricycle Daily Dharma April 13, 2013
Great Enlightenment
Great enlightenment is the tea and rice of daily activity.
|
- Dogen, “Tea and Rice”
A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Great enlightenment is the tea and rice of daily activity.
|
It’s
definitely the case that we can practice at any given moment. We can
always try a little more to be kind, to be compassionate and be careful
about what we do and say.
|
Daily Buddhist Wisdom | |||
|
Roger Gorley [on the right in this photo] told WDAF that even though he has power of attorney to handle his partner’s affairs, a family member asked him to leave when he visited Research Medical Center in Kansas City on Tuesday. Gorley said he refused to leave his partner Allen’s bedside, and that’s when security put him in handcuffs and escorted him from the building. “I was not recognized as being the husband, I wasn’t recognized as being the partner,” Gorley explained. He said the nurse refused to confirm that the couple shared power of attorney and made medical decision for each other. “She didn’t even bother to look it up, to check in to it,” the Lee’s Summit resident recalled.The arrested man in now under a restraining order and may not enter the hospital grounds at all. A hospital spokesman has issued a statement.
"We believe involving the family is an important part of the patient care process. And, the patient`s needs are always our first priority. When anyone becomes disruptive to providing the necessary patient care, we involve our security team to help calm the situation and to protect our patients and staff. If the situation continues to escalate, we have no choice but to request police assistance."The arrested man says he and his partner were joined in a civil union five years ago. Civil unions, of course, are not legally recognized by the state of Missouri. (Tipped by JMG reader Str8 Grandmother)
It
is very important to see your life not only from the narrow view of
your egoistic telescope but also from the broad view of the universal
telescope called egolessness. This is why we have to practice. Right in
the middle of the stream of time, we have to open our eyes there and see
the total picture of time. Through spiritual practice we can go beyond
our egoistic point of view. We can touch the core of time, see the whole
world in a moment, and understand time in deep relationship with all
beings.
|
We
should be intent on cleansing and polishing our hearts so that they can
gain release from their worries and preoccupations, the source of pain
and discontent. Peace, coolness, and a bright happiness will arise
within us, in the same way as when we unshackle ourselves from our
encumbering burdens and debts. We'll be free—beyond the reach of all
suffering and stress.
|
Daily Buddhist Wisdom | |||
|
Nearly $250 billion in federal contracts given out in the last fiscal year went to contractors operating in states where the companies could fire a worker solely because the person is gay, lesbian or bisexual, a new report has found. A group of organizations that have been urging President Obama to sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers will be releasing the new report Tuesday as a step in increasing pressure on the president to act during tax time.While an executive order would only affect companies that do business with the federal government, it's a start. A start with $250B in federal money attached to it.
The report, a copy of which was provided to BuzzFeed Monday night, also has found that nearly $300 billion in federal contracts were given out in states that have no specific state-level protections against anti-transgender discrimination.
Although federal government employees are protected from anti-LGBT discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, there is currently no protection for employees of federal contractors against sexual orientation discrimination and protections against gender identity discrimination are unclear. And while most of the top federal contractors have policies against LGBT discrimination, the report aims to draw attention to the limits employees would have in states without legal protections.
To
be truly and wholly present even for the briefest moment is to be
vulnerable, for we have arrived at the point where the obstacle that
fear constructs between ourselves and others dissolves. It is here that
the heart is drawn out of hiding and the inherent sympathetic response
called compassion arises.
|
Daily Buddhist Wisdom | |||
|
“We are not expecting LGBT families to be included in the Gang of 8 bill,” she told the Washington Blade during a conference call ahead of a rally in support of comprehensive immigration reform on Wednesday that is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the U.S. Capitol. “That in our minds means that of course the bill is incomplete.” Tiven’s comments come roughly three months after President Obama publicly unveiled an immigration reform proposal that includes bi-national gay couples.Rep. Jerrold Nadler confirmed to the Blade that "LGBT-specific language will likely not appear in the bill. Nadler: "This is disappointing but not particularly surprising."
The attorney general's office on Friday announced its final wording on a ballot title -- and it rejected the legal argument from an attorney for the Oregon Family Council that the title should reflect the notion that the initiative would require every governmental agency in Oregon to issue marriage licenses. Basic Rights Oregon, the gay-rights group sponsoring the initiative, has rejected that argument as absurd. It says county clerks would continue to be the only ones issuing marriage licenses if this initiative is approved by voters.Here is the ballot language approved by the state: "Amends Constitution: Recognizes marriage between couples of same gender; protects clergy/religious institutions' refusal to perform marriages." Basic Rights Oregon has until July 2014 to collect 116,000 petition signatures.
Daily Buddhist Wisdom | |||
|
What
should you do to put your body to good use? Most people have no idea. A
craftsman who borrows some tools will try to make the best possible use
of them while they are available. Your body, too, is actually on loan
to you for the time being, for the brief period left before it is taken
back from you by death. Had you better not use it to practice the dharma
while you can?
|