Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 15, 2011

How to Become Generous

The movement from ordinary states of self-concern to selfless giving always involves a gradual transformation of character, not a sudden leap. Like any form of strength, generosity needs to be intentionally cultivated over time, and everyone must begin in whatever state of mind they already happen to be. Understanding and accepting who you really are right now is as important as the commitment to become someone more open and generous. Whatever the quality of motivation, when we intentionally reach out to others in giving, some degree of transformation occurs. We become what we practice and do in daily life.

- Dale Wright, "The Bodhisattva's Gift"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Ellen DeGeneres Talks To Extremely Inspiring 14-Year-Old Graeme Taylor

Via JMG: Eagle Forum: We Hates Gays, Blacks, Mexicans, And Non-Christians

Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum has posted their list of demands on Congressional candidates. I've gone thru the lengthy list and compiled a Top Ten. Unsurprisingly, much of their list is drenched in anti-gay hate, racism, and xenophobia.

1. Will you vote to protect the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)?
 

2. Will you vote for federal school appropriations to require informed, written parental consent for curricula, surveys, classes or books that may be privacy-invading or offensive to religion or conscience?
 

3. Will you support legislation for Congress to use its Article III power vote to deny jurisdiction to the federal courts over areas where we don’t trust them, namely, the definition of marriage, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Ten Commandments, the Cross on veterans’ memorials, and the Boy Scouts?
 

4. Will you vote to prohibit the federal courts from hearing challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) or similar state laws respecting the definition of marriage?
 

5. Will you oppose federal hate crimes laws?
 

6. Will you vote against any legislation to help Puerto Rico to become a state?
 

7. Will you vote against any legislation to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state or entitled to a state’s representation in Congress?
 

8. Will you vote to end federal funding of so-called bilingual education (teaching immigrant children in their native languages) which the voters of CA, AZ, and MA have rejected?
 

9. Will you vote to revoke the citizenship of naturalized citizens who betray their oath of U.S. citizenship by claiming “dual citizenship” with their native country?
 

10. Will you support federal funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of for explicit sex education programs, school-based clinics, and the distribution of contraceptives in schools?

Hit the link if you've got the gut for much more bile.

Labels: bigotry, hate groups, Phyllis Schlafly, racism

reposted from Joe

Via Esteja Aqui e Agora...

Meditação apaga áreas cerebrais

Posted: 13 Dec 2011 05:12 PM PST

 

Pesquisa mostra que praticantes frequentes da meditação têm mais facilidade para excluir o “eu” das suas divagaçõesPesquisadores da Universidade de Yale, nos Estados Unidos, comprovaram, com a ajuda de imagens, que a meditação frequente desconecta as áreas do cérebro relacionadas com o “sonhar acordado” e divagações, assim como as que têm ligação com transtornos psiquiátricos como o autismo e a

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 14, 2011

Evolution's Body

In the Samyutta Nikaya, the Buddha says, “This body is not mine or anyone else’s. It has arisen due to past causes and conditions.” The Buddha intuited some type of evolutionary process that creates our bodies, and his essential point is that they are neither formed nor owned by us. We now have evidence that our bodies arise from the forces and elements that make up the entire universe, through a complex chain of interdependent events. Internalizing this understanding can help liberate us from the powerful sense of ownership and attachment we have to the body, which is a cause of tremendous suffering, especially as the body grows old and we must face its inevitable destiny.

- Wes Nisker, "Evolution's Body"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Bob Garon on Romney

Via AmericaBlogGay: It’s not religious discrimination when you refuse to do your job

The day that a woman working the fitting room at Macy's thinks she can make store policy, in violation of store policy, because of her "religion," she should be fired. This is a rather amazing story, and an amazing assertion. That the rest of us have to do what our bosses say, that the rest of us have to let our bosses set policy for our companies, but if you're a Christian (well, a bigoted religious right Christian), you get to trump all that, and YOU get to decide. 

That's not religious freedom. It's special rights for southern baptists.

Media matters covers the issue of a woman working at Macy's who tried to stop a transgender teenage girl, who appeared to be "a man... wearing lipstick" from entering the ladies' changing room. The woman freaked, thinking some perverted guy was stalking the women's changing rooms. But that's not why she got fired. She got fired because after a manager told her the next day that in fact Macy's policy is to let a customer go into whatever fitting room the customer feels matches their gender identity, she refused. The woman insisted that her religious views trumped Macy's changing room policy.

A manager called Johnson in the next day to explain that Macy's policy permits individuals to go into the changing room of whatever gender they identify with.

"I refuse to comply with this policy," Johnson says she replied. She was then fired.

"I had to either comply with Macy's or comply with God," Johnson told The San Antonio Express-News.

Oh spare me.  What's next? Do we not let Muslims into changing rooms? How about Jews (I hear they killed Christ, you know)? How about socialists? Or Republicans?

This isn't a story about her being fired because she got confused when meeting her first transgender customer.  It's about refusing to obey store policy once the situation was explained to her. You just don't get to overrule your bosses on a public accommodations issue because you don't like someone, or your religion doesn't like someone. Under this theory, she could also turn away lesbians from the women's changing room, because after all her religion doesn't approve of "LGBT people" as she says during the interview. Does the religious right think that's okay too?

This isn't about religion. It's about special rights for one particular fringe American religion that thinks every other American, and every other employer, needs to live by its rules.

Via AmericaBlog Gay: Remember: Romney once said he’d do more for gays than even Ted Kennedy

Never forget who this chameleon really is. From Greg Sargent at the Washington Post:

But back in 1994, he stated that “full equality” for gays and lesbians should be a goal, and even said he’d be a better Senator on gay rights than Ted Kennedy, who he was challenging at the time.

In a 1994 letter to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts that was obtained way back when by the Boston Globe that has been mostly forgotten, then-Senate candidate Romney said:

As a result of our discussions and other interactions with gay and lesbian voters across the state, I am more convinced than ever before that as we seek to establish full equality for America’s gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent.

Romney’s previous quotes and his shifts on the issues are often presented as evidence that he has never had core beliefs and will say and do anything to win. But it seems clear that Romney sincerely held relatively progressive beliefs on issues like gay rights, health care, and climate change, back during his time as a politician in Massachusetts. In other words, he sincerely was a liberal Republican. After all, there were a lot of liberal Republicans in the northeast in those days. He was one of them, before jettisoning those views in service of his national ambitions, and conservatives like Perry are right to scoff at his claim that he’s always been one of them.

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 13, 2011

Sit Down and Settle the Body and Mind

We need to talk about a balance. Frankly, I think Asian monastics probably spend too much time sitting in meditation looking inward, and not enough time outdoors. They have to go out, as Shakyamuni did, and find out how people are living in society. But in the West, it’s the opposite problem. People spend all their time in the outer world. They’ve been successful in business, in their professional lives, but they have no relief from the stress of their lives. They need to sit down and settle the body and mind, instead of always running around feeling agitated inside.

- Samu Sunim, “Buddha in the Market: An Interview with Korean Zen Master Samu Sunim”
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via JMG: Canadians On Marriage Equality

The more yellow an area is, the greater the opposition to same-sex marriage. The reverse is true for gray areas. Keep in mind that some of the huge areas that appear to be largely anti-gay are virtually unpopulated. The real story is told in the areas closest to Canada's southern border, where the three largest metropolitan regions are solidly on the side of the good guys. (Tipped by JMG reader Chris.)

Labels: Canada, maps, marriage equality

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: NOM's 2010 Financials Published

The Washington Independent has published an analysis of NOM's 2010 financial reporting. While no names have been disclosed, NOM's funding comes from just a few persons. That fact has long been predicted here on this blog and elsewhere.

In 2010, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a tax-exempt nonprofit trying to thwart the legalization of same-sex marriage throughout the U.S., reported the highest individual donations it has received since its inception in 2007, according to NOM’s most recent income disclosures to the Internal Revenue Service, recently obtained by The American Independent. Per NOM’s numbers, just two individuals contributed more than $6 million to the organization’s political arm – accounting for about two-thirds of NOM’s 2010 revenue, while single donations below $5,000 covered only 8 percent of reported revenue.

Two-thirds from two persons! And according to the linked report, 92% of NOM's 2010 money came from just 22 donations of $5000 or more. NOM, however, claims to be funded by 50,000 pious Christian households. SNORK!
Who wants to bet that a huge percentage of NOM's donations flow thru the bejeweled hands of "celibate" men in dresses?

Labels: bigotry, hate groups, LGBT rights, NOM

reposted from Joe

Newt Gingrich: Selling Access

Via JMG: Romney Vs. Gay Vietnam Veteran

At a campaign stop in a New Hampshire diner, Mitt Romney slid into a booth to chat with a man wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap. What Romney didn't know is that the man was sitting there with his husband. Things went quickly downhill after the introductions.

Garon challenged Romney, saying, “If two men get married, apparently a veteran’s spouse would not be entitled to any burial benefits or medical benefits or anything that the serviceman has devoted his time and effort to his country, and you just don’t support equality in terms of same-sex marriage?” Romney reiterated his support for the Defense of Marriage Act, and added, “And we apparently disagree.” “It’s good to know how you feel,” Garon said. “That you do not believe that everyone is entitled to their constitutional rights.”

“No, actually, I think at the time the Constitution was written it was pretty clear that marriage is between a man and a woman,” Romney replied. “And I don’t believe the Supreme Court has changed that.” With that, a Romney aide interrupted, saying, “Governor, we’ve got to get on with Fox News right now.” “Oh,” said Garon. “I guess the question was too hot.” “No, I gave you the answer,” Romney said.

Labels: 2012 elections, GOP, marriage equality, Mitt Romney, New Hampshire

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Equality Matters: Why Do Networks Continue To Host Hate Group Leaders?

Equality Matters asks the question we've been asking here for the last year.

In November 2010, the Family Research Council (FRC) was added to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) list of anti-gay hate groups due to its “propagation of known falsehoods” about gays and lesbians. According to an Equality Matters analysis, FRC spokespersons – including Tony Perkins, Peter Sprigg, and Ken Blackwell – have been invited to appear on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News a total of 54 times in the twelve months since Perkins first appeared on MSNBC to discuss being labeled as a hate group. 24 of those appearances were on Fox News, 19 were on MSNBC, and 11 were on CNN:

FRC head Tony Perkins alone constituted 32 of the above appearances. Check out the below Equality Matters recap of just a few of the many, many vicious anti-gay lies spewed by Tony Perkins.
RELATED: I'd also like to know why every single network ignores the scandal that sank Perkins' political career, namely his exposure as having paid KKK Grand Wizard David Duke a whopping $82,500 for access to his mailing list of racists. There's also this: "On May 17th, 2001, Perkins gave a speech to the Louisiana chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a white supremacist group that has described black people as a 'retrograde species of humanity.'"

Labels: CNN, Family Reseach Council, Fox News, hate groups, journalism, MSNBC, racism, Tony Perkins

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: IOWA: Gingrich Signs Anti-Gay Pledge

Newt Gingrich has signed the anti-gay pledge of Iowa hate group Family Leader. But unlike the other GOP candidates who have signed the vow to thwart civil rights for gay Americans, pundits are focusing on the pledge clause that commands "personal fidelity to my spouse."

Gingrich has issued a statement. (My bolding.)

As President, I will vigorously enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, which was enacted under my leadership as Speaker of the House, and ensure compliance with its provisions, especially in the military. I will also aggressively defend the constitutionality of DOMA in federal and state courts. I will support sending a federal constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification. I will also oppose any judicial, bureaucratic, or legislative effort to define marriage in any manner other than as between one man and one woman. I will support all efforts to reform promptly any uneconomic or anti-marriage aspects of welfare and tax policy. I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others.

Labels: adultery, hate groups, hypocrisy, Newt Gingrich

reposted from Joe

Via nomexposed.org:

We’re Run By 2 Wealthy Donors, Says NOM’s 2010 Tax Returns | NOM Exposed

The indefatigable Sophia Resnick of the American Independent does some digging and finds what we found from their '09 returns: NOM is not a grassroots organization. It is funded by a few well-heeled donors.

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma: Intererview with the Karmapa

Last July, several Tricycle editors interviewed Ogyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. During the interview he spoke on his daily life in India, his work as a poet and an artist, how the role of Karmapa has evolved since the Chinese occupation of Tibet, spiritual bypassing, the role of social and environmental activism in Buddhism, and more. 

Watch the interview here.

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma December 12, 2011

Awakening to Ourselves

Buddhism is really about awakening from the illusion about ourselves and the world, and realizing reality—who we are and what is real and how things are interconnected through karma and causation and so on. In a Dzogchen text it says, “From the beginning we are all Buddhas by nature, we only have to realize that fact.” So in Dzogchen the whole practice of what we call the view, meditation, and action is about awakening to—not just our momentary personality—“self” with a small s—but our true Buddha nature, our original nature.

- Lama Surya Das, "Old Wine, New Bottles"
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

Via Hatewatch/SPLC: Anti-Abortion Extremist Now Attacking Gay-Friendly Churches

Posted in Anti-Abortion, Anti-LGBT, Extremist Propaganda by Leah Nelson on December 9, 2011

 

The Rev. Donald Spitz has a message for gay-friendly churches, and the murder-endorsing anti-abortion crusader is not mincing words.

In E-mails sent in recent days to an unknown number of churches listed on GayChurch.org, he wrote: “To accept sexual deviancy as normal is a sin. You put your soul in danger of eternal damnation for welcoming unrepentant homosexuals into God’s house. You blaspheme the Name of God.

Homosexuality should be criminalized. Homosexuals commit crimes against God, against nature, against the Holy Bible and against the human race. ( continue to full post… )