Fundamental
darkness, or ignorance, causes us to experience the cycles of birth and
death as suffering. When we call forth and base ourselves on the
magnificent enlightened life that exists within each of us without
exception, however, even the most fundamental, inescapable sufferings of
life and death need not be experienced as pain. Rather, they can be
transformed into a life embodying the virtues of eternity, joy, true
self, and purity.
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Instead
of focusing on some thoughts and feelings and pushing away others, just
look at them as feathers flying in the wind. The wind is your
awareness, your inborn openness and clarity.
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Ugandan
police today raided an international LGBT rights meeting and questioned
the attendees. In addition to local activists, the meeting was attended
by representatives of Canada, Kenya, and Rwanda. The event was
organized by the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project.
(Website)The police forced their way into some of the activists' hotel rooms, the group said. The training workshop was intended to bolster the local gay community's abilities to report rights abuses. Activists condemned the police action and said it represented a growing trend. "This ludicrous and senseless harassment of human rights activists has no basis in law whatsoever and has to stop," Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International's deputy director for Africa, said. "We are seeing a worrying pattern emerging whereby the Ugandan authorities engage in arbitrary activities deliberately designed to intimidate and threaten legitimate human rights work," Ms Kagari said.RELATED: In February Uganda's Minister of Ethics had police raid and shut down a secretly organized LGBT rights meeting. The event's organizer narrowly escaped arrest.
People
are mysterious, unfathomable—like divinities: natural objects for
reverence. But our habits of thought turn the people around us into
objects, the means for our self-protection.
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None of us could believe something like that would pass in California. When it did, I wondered if Jeff and Paul would move from the place they loved and had called home for so long. They didn’t, though. Nor did they accept the new law and try to blend in as I told Jeff to do all those years ago. Instead, they did something that’s made me as proud as I’ve ever been: they fought back. Jeff and Paul and two women challenged the law in court, and in a landmark decision two years later, they won: Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional by a judge in San Francisco. The proponents of Proposition 8 appealed, and Jeff and Paul won that, too.Read the full essay.
The United States Court of Appeals recently declined to take up the case before a larger panel, which opened the door for it to head to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Jeff and Paul still can’t legally marry. As this Father’s Day approached, all I could think about was how much I want my son to experience the joys of being a father, how much I want him to marry the person he loves and to raise a family. For now, he is still waiting, and fighting. I see how much the struggle costs him, how discouraging it is that despite his strength and patience and faith in the system, the ultimate decision rests in the hands of those who have yet to act.
One day soon, though, the powers that be are going to do the right thing. I’m his father, and it’s Father’s Day, so let me believe it. One day soon they’re going to let my brave, beautiful boy walk the same path we all get to take home.
The
Buddha encouraged us to think of the good things done for us by our
parents, by our teachers, friends, whomever; and to do this
intentionally, to cultivate it, rather than just letting it happen
accidentally.
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