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Tricycle Daily Dharma July 21, 2012

This is Reality

What feature does all experience have in common? All experience is groundless, open, empty. You can say, 'Well, this floor doesn’t feel empty,' and you are right. It feels very solid. But emptiness refers to a way of experiencing things. And when you experience things this way, it is such a powerful experience that you almost always come out of it saying, 'Oh! This is how things really are, this is reality.'

- Ken McLeod, "The Way of Freedom"

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Via JMG: Paul Krugman On Romney's Taxes

"Because the rich are different from you and me, many of them are incredibly self-centered. They don’t even see how funny it is — how ridiculous they look — when they attribute the weakness of a $15 trillion economy to their own hurt feelings. After all, who’s going to tell them? They’re safely ensconced in a bubble of deference and flattery. Unless, that is, they run for public office.

"Like everyone else following the news, I’ve been awe-struck by the way questions about Mr. Romney’s career at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he founded, and his refusal to release tax returns have so obviously caught the Romney campaign off guard. Shouldn’t a very wealthy man running for president — and running specifically on the premise that his business success makes him qualified for office — have expected the nature of that success to become an issue? Shouldn’t it have been obvious that refusing to release tax returns from before 2010 would raise all kinds of suspicions?" - Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times.

Labels: 2012 elections, GOP, Mitt Romney, taxes

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Emmy Nomination For Dan Savage

I didn't even think to check the children's programming category. Congrats to Dan and the It Gets Better team!

Labels: Dan Savage, Emmy Awards, LGBT youth

Reposted from Joe

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 20, 2012

Holding Views Gently

Truth is best served by recognizing a viewpoint as only a viewpoint, and refraining from taking that extra step of regarding it as true to the exclusion of all other views. In other words, all views—even correct views—are best held gently, rather than grasped firmly.

- Andrew Olendzki, "Blinded by Views"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma July 19, 2012

Finding an Authentic Teacher

Just as it is only the real Self that can see the real world behind the appearances, so it may be that it is only the real seeker who can recognize a genuine man or woman of wisdom.

- Jacob Needleman, "Bread and Stone"

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Via GayFamilyValues:

'Sean' posted LGBT project wiki profile on the Baha'i Faith:

Sean says: LGBT project wiki profile on the Baha'i Faith is a bit biased just like the wikipedia page on homosexuality and the Baha'i Faith. What concerns me is that the sources on both sites are dated, and highly sanitized for "public consumption". At the very least the LGBT project wiki profile needs a more balanced approach on homosexuality in the Baha'i Faith. I added a few website links (this site included). Hopefully we can all brainstorm on how we can edit the content. What can we include? , what sources?

http://lgbt.wikia.com/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27%C3%AD_Faith#External_links (http://lgbt.wikia.com/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%27%C3%AD_Faith#External_links)

<http://www.gaybahai.net/discussion/post/1893703>

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma July 18, 2012

Against the Stream

The unflinching light of mindful awareness reveals the extent to which we are tossed along in the stream of past conditioning and habit. The moment we decide to stop and look at what is going on (like a swimmer suddenly changing course to swim upstream instead of downstream), we find ourselves battered by powerful currents we had never even suspected—precisely because until that moment we were largely living at their command.

- Stephen Batchelor, "Foundations of Mindfulness"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma July 17, 2012

Taking Control of Our Karma

When we ask, 'Why did this happen to me?' it is because of our limited view. If we throw a stone up in the air and forget about it, when it falls down on our heads, we shouldn’t complain, although we usually do. We have this notion that what happens to us is somehow independent of our own actions. We can ask, 'why did this happen?' But the more important question is, 'what we are going to do about it?'

- Matthieu Ricard, "Karma Crossroads"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma July 16, 2012

Clear Compassion

One of the things that most nourishes true compassion is clarity—when we know what we are thinking and know what we are feeling. This clarity differentiates compassion from shallow martyrdom, when we are only thinking of others and we are never caring about ourselves.

- Sharon Salzberg, "A Quiver of the Heart"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma July 15, 2012

Enlivening the Ordinary

Through art, a painter can make the ordinary come alive. As Zen students, we try to bring this kind of relevance into each moment of our lives, into this one moment that contains all moments. In this way, we allow the ordinary to enliven us. Sometimes this is successful, sometimes not, but the work itself goes on. Persistence is one of the major virtues in both the artist and the unenlightened.

- Gary Thorp, "The Dust Beyond the Cushion"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma July 14, 2012

Happy Birthday, Pema Chödrön!

The ground of renunciation is realizing that we already have exactly what we need, that what we have already is good.

- Pema Chödrön, "Renunciation: Like a Raven in the Wind"

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Tricycle Daily Dharma July 12, 2012

Memento Mori

To acknowledge that you are dying is to recognize that you are alive.

- Dean Rolston, "Memento Mori: Notes on Buddhism and AIDS"

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Browse|Movies |Upload HARDBALL w. CHRIS MATTHEWS: Alan Chambers Could Not Pray Away His Gay (July 9, 2012)

Via JMG: POLL: 5% Of Canadians Are Gay

The usual caveats about such self-disclosure polls apply. Source.

Labels: Canada, polls, sexuality

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG:

60 House Democrats Fail To Sign On To Court Challenge To Overturn DOMA

Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed:

One third of House Democrats broke with their leaders today and kept their names off a brief urging a federal appeals court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits federal recognition of marriages to those between one man and one woman. The majority of Democrats joined House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's argument, which her office described in a news release as "the Democratic Members' brief," but the break among Democrats offers a glimpse at remaining divisions inside the party. Pelosi, joined by Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and 130 other House Democrats, told the federal appeals court in California that they believe Karen Golinski should succeed in her lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of DOMA's federal definition of "marriage" and "spouse."

Does your rep appear above?

Labels: Democrats, DOMA, LGBT rights, U.S. House

Reposted from Joe

Via Gay Politics Report

• Barney Frank weds
   
• Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., married Jim Ready on Saturday in a ceremony attended by about 300 friends and family members, becoming the first married, openly gay member of Congress in U.S. history. Frank, who will leave Congress after this year, said he wanted to marry while he was still in office in order to set an example. “The kids that are going to see us, and feel strong enough to be able to come out and be who they are. That gives me more encouragement that I’m doing the right thing,” Frank said. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) 

Via AmericaBlogGay:

How would Sup Ct justice John Roberts rule on gay marriage?

Richard Socarides in the New Yorker: Some theorize that Roberts tried to depoliticize the Court with his health-care ruling in order to gain some credibility before even more conservative decisions to come, like overturning affirmative action. Anything is possible, but that is not likely to be the outcome in these gay-rights cases, where Justice Kennedy will probably not be with conservatives....