“I have three precious things
which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is
frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself
before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be
liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a
leader among men.”
When we question ego-mind directly, it is exposed for what it is: the absence of everything we believe it to be.
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It was June 27th, 1969.
Your
thoughts, your words, and your deeds all create karma. And so through
practice, you learn how to create better karma, and then everything
about your life changes.
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Buddha
is revealed through mountains, valleys, trees, and grasses, through a
multitude of phenomena. The heart that can be revered in whatever form
we see, in whatever direction we look, this is the true heart of
Buddhism, this is Buddha life.
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In what is being touted as a world-first, the province of Quebec has launched an official registry
to track acts of homophobia. With funding from the Quebec Justice
Department, the campaign is being administered by Montreal's gay
helpline, Gai Écoute. Gai Écoute’s anonymous and confidential Registre des actes homophobes will document complaints ranging from name-calling in schools to psychological harassment at work and physical assaults against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. The registry will not be used as a tool for a new homophobia police, McCutcheon said. “We will refer people (who fill out the registry’s forms) to existing resources, like youth protection officials, the human rights commission and the police,” he said. “We do not plan to intervene directly.” Based on the number and type of calls Gai Écoute gets, McCutcheon said he expects there might be hundreds of complaint-worthy cases for the registry. “We notice it especially in calls from outside of Montreal, in smaller communities. Sometimes it’s a student who got mocked at school or a teenager with parents threatening to throw the young person out."After two years, Gai Écoute will analyze its data and make recommendations to the provincial government. Quebec's anti-gay groups are, predictably, screaming.
Georges Buscemi, President of the Montreal-based pro-life and pro-family group Campagne Quebec Vie, told LifeSiteNews he saw the registry as a “means to instill a climate of oppression and fear to anyone who disagrees with any of the opinions of the homosexualist movement in Quebec.” “Anyone who might believe that a homosexual act is unacceptable at a moral level” is being sent a warning “that they will end up on a list,” he said. “A list to be used for a future purpose which in my opinion is to punish.” Buscemi gave examples of possible reprisals being the loss of charitable status for churches or teaching positions for professors. “It’s the beginning of a soft persecution,” he said. “It is really about inciting a climate of fear using the media, especially with the presence of the police. Any criticism will be interpreted as homophobia and eventually down the road there will be consequences.”
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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The
subtle suffering in our lives may seem unimportant. But if we attend to
the small ways that we suffer, we create a context of greater ease,
peace, and responsibility, which can make it easier to deal with the
bigger difficulties when they arise.
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