The
best way to deal with excessive thinking is to just listen to it, to
listen to the mind. Listening is much more effective than trying to stop
thought or cut it off.
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Among the EU member states causing major concern are Hungary and Greece. The report notes that the economic crisis in Greece has given a platform to extremist groups, such as the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, who target minority groups including LGBT activists.The co-chair of ILGA-Europe notes: "The Annual Review 2013 uncovers the real situation of LGBTI people beyond laws and gives us the whole picture of what it is like to be an LGBTI person in Europe today. The picture is far from satisfactory." Ratings and graphs for individual nations can be downloaded here.
North Cyprus continues to be the only place on the continent of Europe where homosexuality is a criminal act, while expressions of “overt homophobia and transphobia” by government, religious leaders and extremist groups were “common” in Bulgaria.
Italy is not taking any legislative initiatives despite having a “relatively high level” of violent homophobia and transphobia. Meanwhile in France, despite the recent passing of the country’s same-sex marriage bill, 1,397 cases of hate crime, hate speech and discrimination incidents against sexual minorities were documented last year.
The
process of finding the truth may not be a process by which we feel
increasingly better and better. It may be a process by which we look at
things honestly, sincerely, truthfully, and that may or may not be an
easy thing to do.
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The move by the National Council of Justice, a 15-member panel led by Joaquim Barbosa, the chief justice of the nation’s high court, effectively legalizes gay marriage throughout Brazil, legal scholars here said. The decision follows legislation in two neighboring countries, Argentina and Uruguay, where lawmakers have managed to pass bills authorizing same-sex marriage nationwide in recent years.Same-sex marriage is already legal in 13 Brazilian states and in the capital federal district.
Still, there is some room for judicial appeals of the Brazilian decision, potentially within the high court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, and resistance may emerge in Congress, where gay-marriage legislation has faced opposition from an influential bloc of evangelical Christian lawmakers. Even so, supporters of same-sex marriage described the council’s decision as pioneering.
We
are not called upon as Buddhists to deny the world, and certainly not
to escape from it. We are called to live with it, and to make our peace
with all that is. The world of worries we wish to escape from in the
beginning of Buddhist practice is found to be enlightenment itself in
the end.
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Fifty-three percent of Americans say the law should recognize same-sex marriages, the third consecutive reading of 50% or above in Gallup polling over the past year. The 53% in favor ties the high to this point, also measured last November and in May 2011. Gallup's May 2-7 poll suggests Americans' support for gay marriage is solidifying above the majority level.
Sometimes, supporters groups' tifo displays are designed to look really cool, to recognize a player's career-long contributions to the club or even to intimidate that day's opponent with a massive pregame display that covers the entire end of a 70,000-seat stadium. And other times, the displays transcend the sport of soccer altogether, making a statement about life in general. On the same day a match in Italy – one that happened to involve United States national team midfielder Michael Bradley's club team, AS Roma – had to be momentarily halted because of racist chants aimed at opposing AC Milan players, the Timbers Army chose to spend their Sunday afternoon taking a stand against another sensitive social issue in the sports world: homophobia. The 5,000-person section used roughly 4,500 colored cards to create the display, according to Timbers Army 107 Independent Supporters Trust board member Abram Goldman-Armstrong in an e-mail exchange with MLSsoccer.com on Monday.The article adds: "The Timbers Army will be the first of many independent supporters groups across MLS to lend their support to the 'Pride, Not Prejudice' cause this week." Very, very cool. By the way, the Timbers won their game. (Tipped by JMG reader Lance)
O Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ) aprovou nesta terça-feira (14), por maioria de votos (14 a 1), uma resolução que obriga os cartórios de todo o país a celebrar o casamento civil e converter a união estável homoafetiva em casamento. Os cartórios não poderão rejeitar o pedido, como acontece atualmente em alguns casos. A decisão do CNJ poderá ser questionada no Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF). Segundo o presidente do CNJ e autor da proposta, Joaquim Barbosa, que também é presidente do STF, a resolução visa dar efetividade à decisão tomada em maio de 2011 pelo Supremo, que liberou a união estável homoafetiva.JMG reader Ricardo provides us with a translation:
The Brazilian Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ) decided by 14-1 vote that notary offices (where civil marriages are performed) in ALL 26 Brazilian states and the capital do Brasília have to officiate same sex marriages. Until this past week, the decision was up for local jurisdictions: 12 states and the federal district had already started doing them. Notary offices can't refuse to perform the unions, as it was happening in some places. In 2011, the Brazilian Supreme Court had decided that gay unions were legal, but left the regulation of marriage to Congress, that has never acted on the matter. Civil unions were law nationwide for the past two years. Federal benefits, like pensions and immigration, have been the norm since 2001.I'll have more on this today when it hits the English-language press. Zoom, zoom, zoom!
A top judicial panel cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Brazil on Tuesday, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses. The National Council of Justice, which oversees the Brazilian judicial system and is headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, said government offices that issue marriage licenses had no standing to reject gay couples. The Supreme Court "affirmed that the expression of homosexuality and homosexual affection cannot serve as a basis for discriminatory treatment, which has no support in the Constitution," said Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa on the council's website, referring to a 2011 ruling by the top court.
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Like
a fire, greed is more a process than a thing. It is the state of
combustion, the activity of consumption, the procedure by means of which
organic resources are quickly reduced to a heap of ash. It is
insatiable by nature, since the moment one desire is gratified another
flares up, demanding also to be sated. Greed drives an unquenchable
compulsion to consume, and as the guiding hand of our economic system,
its reach is rapidly becoming global. As it burns it throws off a
compelling light, dazzling us with the pleasure of its shapes and
colors. We delight in playing with this fire.
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Metta
practice is the cultivation of our capacity for lovingkindness. It does
not involve either positive thinking or the imposition of an artificial
positive attitude. There is no need to feel loving or kind during metta
practice. Rather, we meditate on our good intentions, however weak or
strong they may be, and water the seeds of these intentions.
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As
we inhabit our body with increasing sensitivity, we learn its unspoken
language and patterns, which gives us tremendous freedom to make
choices. The practice of cutting thoughts and dispersing negative
repetitive patterns can be simplified by attending to the patterns in
the body first, before they begin to be spun around in the mind.
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Backing is widest and deepest for Collins, with 68 percent of Americans saying they support the NBA center’s decision to announce his sexual orientation. Those who “strongly” support his step outnumber his strong critics by a 3-1 margin.More details here.
A substantial 63 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, also support the Boy Scouts’ plan to begin admitting gay scouts younger than 18, while 56 percent oppose its intention to continue to ban gay adults. Again strength of sentiment favors gay rights, by 16- and 12-point margins, respectively. Both policies go to a vote of the group’s governing council, meeting the week of May 20 in Grapevine, Texas.
Some of these views even overcome political sentiment to some degree. Majorities of Republicans and conservatives, 52 and 54 percent, respectively, support Collins’ step, and 53 percent of Republicans support admitting gay scouts. These groups are much less apt to support admitting gay scout leaders or legalizing gay marriage.
Support’s far higher in other groups. Nearly three-quarters of moderates and independents support Collins, as do more than eight in 10 Democrats and liberals. Than two-thirds or more in each of these groups favor admitting gay scouts, and six in 10 or more oppose continuing to ban gay adults from scouting.
Support for gay marriage, for its part, reaches six in 10 or more in each of these groups, far higher than its support among conservatives and Republicans, 33 percent in both groups.
