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A Mirror Reflects Everything | May 18, 2014
This moment is very important—whether the world is empty or not, whether it exists or not, doesn’t matter. Take away your opinion, then what? What is left? That is the point. Take away your opinion—your condition, situation—then your mind is clear like space. Clear like space means clear like a mirror. A mirror reflects everything: the sky is blue, tree is green, sugar is sweet.
—Zen Master Seung Sahn, “Boom!”
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Sunday, May 18, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Via http://www.allegiancemusical.com
THE KISS SEEN ROUND THE WORLDWhy Everyone Should Examine Their Reactions To Men Kissing Men
Much has been said about the moment when Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on national television, as they joyfully and spontaneously celebrated the news of Sam’s drafting by the Rams. They embraced and kissed just like many other happy heterosexual couples do when one of them receives life-changing, great news.
Sadly, many commentators acted with revulsion. Newscasters in Dallas walked off the set in disgust. Conservatives blasted the networks for even airing that moment. And let’s face it, many people cringed in their living rooms. Even some gay people, unused to seeing such affection displayed, worried, perhaps rightfully so, about the backlash.
This much is clear: The world simply is going to have to get used to seeing two men kissing. (The sight of two women kissing unsurprisingly seems to raise fewer hackles among heterosexual men.) The sanitized version of happy gay life shown on popular shows like Modern Family rarely venture into the passionate gay kiss. But it’s naive to believe happy gay couples don’t kiss each other regularly, just like happy straight couples do. To say you stand for equal rights but that you don’t want to ever see or hear about moments of our intimacy is to deny us again a fundamental aspect of our humanity–the expression of that very love. And guess what? Same-sex marriage ceremonies end in a kiss, so if you’re for marriage equality in principle, you’d best be prepared for some homosexual ritual smooching in practice.
If you’re someone who finds yourself repulsed by the idea or the image of two men kissing, ask yourself why that is. Ask how someone else’s love, and how they publicly express it, actually affects your life and the enjoyment of your freedoms and liberty. The visceral negative reaction many experience comes down to what I call the “ick” factor–seeing or thinking about something to which we are unaccustomed, and reacting with an “ick.” There are in fact lots of things in life that make people go “ick.” Broccoli, for example, is simply abhorrent to some. But “ick” is never a sound basis for public policy or law. Your own discomfort is just your own issue, and you can’t and shouldn’t make it other people’s problems.
It wasn’t long ago that the kiss would have been highly controversial if Sam’s boyfriend instead were a white woman. Indeed, the first black/white kiss on network television was on Star Trek between Kirk and Uhura, and it caused quite an uproar. The ick factor then was much higher. Back when I was young, it was illegal for me to marry a white woman, and now I’m married to a white dude. Times change, and so do attitudes. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Sam / boyfriend kiss is that no one complained about it being an interracial one.
I’m fairly sure next time an NFL player kisses his boyfriend on camera, it’s not going to get so many people’s panties in a bunch. Then we can finally start talking about how well they play football, and not whether they happen to be gay. But so long as people think a simple kiss is going to end the world as we know it, we sadly do have to keep talking about it, until we finally kick the “ick” out of our public discourse.
– George Takei
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
JMG Quote Of The Day - President Obama
"This year, the United States celebrates the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, and the 45th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. In doing so, we reflect on lessons learned from our own civil rights struggles and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that the human rights of all people are universally protected.
"At a time when, tragically, we are seeing increased efforts to criminalize or oppress LGBT persons, we call on partners everywhere to join us in defending the equal rights of our LGBT brothers and sisters, and in ensuring they are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve." - President Barack Obama, via press release.
Via JMG: INDIA: Anti-Gay Hindu Nationalist Party Takes Power In Landslide Election
Via the Independent:
India's ruling Congress party admitted defeat this morning as the Narendra Modi wave washed over the country in a scale few had predicted. Initial counting in the country’s general election pointed to a massive victory for his opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the worst ever performance for the Congress. As noisy victory celebrations involving drums and horns broke out outside the BJP’s headquarters in the centre of Delhi where 100,000 traditional Indian sweets had been ordered in preparation, a few streets away at the Congress’s offices, the mood was grey. “We accept defeat. We are ready to sit in the opposition,” Congress party spokesman Rajeev Shukla told reporters. “Modi promised the moon and stars to the people. People bought that dream.”From the Associated Press:
Modi's singular message on the economy has helped him ignore or beat back criticism of his personal life -- including his strong links to a right-wing Hindu nationalist group, as well as his four-decade marriage to a retired school teacher he had never mentioned publicly until last month. Born in 1950, Modi will be India's first prime minister born after the country's violent 1947 partition and independence from imperial Britain. His rise marks a paradigm shift for the secular democracy after decades of welfare policies that have emphasized lifting the country's impoverished. Modi has extolled the merits of trickle-down economics through industrialization. He also has maintained strong links with the conservative, paramilitary Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, which some describe as neo-fascist.From the Voice Of America:
The right-wing Hindu nationalist party will return to its leadership role after 10 years, as the ruling Congress Party conceded defeat Friday. Modi’s critics remain uneasy about how the Hindu nationalist leader will govern a diverse nation with many religious minorities. As governor of Gujarat state, he was criticized for his handling of Hindu-Muslim rioting that killed more than 1,000 people in 2002. India’s Supreme Court cleared Modi of charges that he incited the violence.(Tipped by JMG reader Jamie)
Via JMG: COSTA RICA: Newly Elected President Flies Rainbow Flag Over Casa Presidencial
Just over a week since taking office, President Luis Guillermo Solís made history Friday morning when he became the first Costa Rican leader to raise the rainbow flag of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement on even mast with the Costa Rican red-white-and-blue tricolor on the lawn of the Casa Presidencial. Vice President Ana Helena Chacón hoisted the flag in honor of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, May 17. “This is the house of all Costa Ricans. When we say all Costa Ricans we mean all, without exclusion, without violence, without harassment in absolute respect for the rights of each one,” Solís told a crowd of LGBT leaders and advocates during his brief comments on the lawn.LGBT Costa Ricans enjoy protections in employment, public accommodations, and other areas, but same-sex marriage, gay adoption, and military service remain banned. Perhaps that will change soon.
Via Daily Dharma
The Right Mind | May 16, 2014
If the mind congeals in one place and
remains with one thing, it is like frozen water and is unable to be used
freely: ice that can wash neither hands nor feet. When the mind is
melted and is used like water, extending throughout the body, it can be
sent wherever one wants to send it. This is the Right Mind.
—Takuan Soho, “The Right Mind and the Confused Mind”
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
The Magic of Reflecting | May 15, 2014
Through the magic of reflecting on the
teachings, their force—sometimes clear, sometimes obscure—will cause
ferment in our minds from which we can gradually distill the wisdom of
reflection. This requires discipline, but also bravery—the bravery to
dig deep down to uncover our confusion.
—Lama Jampa Thaye, "How Do We Learn the Dharma?"
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Via JMG: Support Michael Sam: Signorile Launches "The Great Facebook Kiss-In"
Labels: Facebook, gay athletes, Great Facebook Kiss-In, kiss-in, Michael Sam, Michelangelo Signorile, NFL, social media, sports
Via Bilerico: Capehart: Tolerance is Not a Two-Way Street
On Monday night's episode of The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell, Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart emphatically pushed back against the absurd notion that gays and lesbians should be expected to "tolerate" homophobic bigotry.
The person making this claim was New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden, who called Michael Sam's famous on-air kiss a "stunning moment" but then bizarrely expressed a slight discomfort about having seen it in the first place. And then came this desperate attempt at a false equivalency:
I think that to deal with things openly there has to be an open back-and-forth dialogue. Tolerance can't just work one way. You can't just be one way, that anybody who speaks out... this cannot turn into a Gestapo-type situation where if you express discomfort with something, then you're cast as a homophobe and you're fined by the league. I think that there has to be a back-and-forth.
I'll pause briefly to note that, predictably, Rhoden makes no such demand for "tolerance" of other forms of bigotry; as an example, he's been all over cable news (rightfully) condemning Donald Sterling's repugnant racism. Double standard much?
Capehart, to his credit, wasn't having any of it:
So what you're saying is that Michael Sam has to put up with people disrespecting who he is... and he just has to put up with it and take it? ...What you're saying is he's supposed to be silent, that he's supposed to stand silently by and let people disrespect him.
Rhoden resisted Capehart's characterization and doubled down on his homophobia apologism. "This [on-air same-sex kisses] is new," Rhoden said. "It's not like this happens every day."
And then came the smackdown. Capehart:
Hatred's not new, bigotry is not new, ignorance isn't new. And so when someone denigrates somebody else for who they are... I understand you're saying that it has to be a two-way conversation. But tolerance, no, is not -- it should not be a two-way street. It's a one-way street.You cannot say to someone that who you are is wrong, an abomination, is horrible, you know, get a room, and all of those other things that people said about Michael Sam, and not be... made to understand that what you're saying and what you're doing is wrong.
Amen, Jonathan. As I myself have said over and over and over again, calls for people to "tolerate" intolerance are actually demands that we accommodate and legitimize bigotry -- and that's something that we cannot and must not do. Ever.
Watch Capehart demolish the false "intolerance-must-be-tolerated" equivalency, after the jump.
Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2014/05/capehart_tolerance_is_not_a_two-way_street.php#wZzrZt7l3iIReK95.99
Via Daily Dharma
Lacking Nothing | May 14, 2014
You lack nothing of the wisdom and
perfection of the Buddha, right at this moment. Hearing, breathing, you
don’t differ even one drop from hearing, breathing Buddha. Not even a
hair’s breadth. And yet we can be far away.
—Elihu Genmyo Smith, "No Need to Do Zazen, Therefore Must Do Zazen."
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Meditation in Perspective | May 13, 2014
It's one thing to view meditation as a
serious religious discipline that can help overcome craving and
attachment. This approach is perfectly consistent with many Buddhist
teachings. But that is quite different from viewing meditation as the
be-all and end-all of Buddhism, and it is also different from seeing
meditation in utilitarian terms—as a means to bring about an experience,
such as kensho [experience of an enlightened state] or sotapatti ["stream entry"], that will instantly transform the whole of one's existence.
—Robert Sharf, “Losing Our Religion”
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