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Tricycle Daily Dharma February 4, 2013

What Meditation Tells Us

Meditation practice helps us relinquish old, painful habits; it challenges our assumptions about whether or not we deserve happiness. (We do, it tells us emphatically.) It also ignites a very potent energy in us. With a strong foundation in how to practice meditation, we can begin to live in a way that enables us to respect ourselves, to be calm rather than anxious, and to offer caring attention to others instead of being held back by notions of separation.

- Sharon Salzberg, “Sticking with It”

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Tricycle Daily Dharma February 3, 2013

Developing Determination

When you admit to yourself, 'I must make this change to be more happy'—not because the Buddha said so, but because your heart recognized a deep truth—you must devote all your energy to making the change. You need strong determination to overcome harmful habits. But the payoff is happiness—not just for today but for always.

- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Getting Started”

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Via JMG: Today In NOM Chutzpah

Jeremy Hooper writes: "Important reminder: March 26 is not only the first day of SCOTUS hearings and the day that NOM plans to march against us—it's also the one year anniversary of us all learning their stated intent to 'drive a wedge between gays and blacks' in order to 'provoke the gay base.' The coincidence sure makes those March on Washington parallels all the more ignoble, huh?"

RELATED: Join the Facebook March 4 Marriage page to keep up with all the developments coming next month.

Labels: Catholic Church, hate groups, LGBT rights, NOM, religion, SCOTUS, Vatican

Reposted from Joe
 

Via Progressive Centralists / FB:

Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:

Tricycle Daily Dharma February 2, 2013

Illuminating Your Path

For the dharma to become firsthand knowledge—to feel the ‘ouch’ of it—you have to live intimately with it, hold it up to scrutiny, and let it hold you up to scrutiny. In the end, the ball is always thrown back to you: ‘Be a lamp unto yourself,’ says the Buddha. In other words, you must ultimately find the way on your own, by putting your ideas of the truth to the test. Your questions light the way.

- Larry Rosenberg, “The Right to Ask Questions”

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Via Gay Politics Report: Dream of a “Harvey Milk Airport” takes flight in S.F.

Via JMG: NEW MEXICO: Marriage Bill Advances

By a 5-4 vote, yesterday the New Mexico House Public Affairs Committee narrowly approved a bill to place marriage equality to a public vote.

The bill would let voters decide the issue of same-sex marriage, but it also states churches would not be required to recognize the same-sex marriage bill. After hearing very different opinions and personal experiences, lawmakers decided along party lines to pass the bill, which moves it to the next committee. "We should not discriminate. The state should be doing everything possible to encourage people to enter into committed, long-term relationships, especially when there's children involved," Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, said. "What happens to those kids? Those kids were not created in that relationship," same-sex marriage opponent Jose Vasquez said. Egolf said he's been contacted by hundreds of people who thanked him for sponsoring the bill.

The bill must pass out of another committee before moving to the full House.  If approved by both state chambers and signed by the governor, marriage equality would appear on the November 2014 ballot.  (Tipped by JMG reader Elise)

Labels: 2014 elections, marriage equality, New Mexico

Reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Quote Of The Day: MP Helen Grant

"I am a God-fearing woman. My faith is very fundamental to everything I do and think. I am a member of the Church of England, a Christian, and my faith is very, very important to me. I think [same-sex marriage] is absolutely consistent with my beliefs. For me, as a Christian, I see it as about justice, equality, fairness, ending discrimination and opening up marriage to more people on the basis that marriage is a very special institution." - Conservative MP Helen Grant, speaking in advance of Tuesday's second reading of Britain's marriage equality bill.

Labels: Britain, Conservative Party UK, marriage equality

Reposted from Joe

Via ॐ Blue Buddha Quote Collective / FB:

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The Buddha said: "When a person has thoroughly understood the world, from top to bottom, when there is nothing in the world that agitates him anymore, then he has become somebody who is free from confusion and fears and tremblings and the longings of desire. He has gone beyond getting old and beyond birth and death." - Sutta Nipata More Buddhism Quotes >>

Via Being Liberal / FB:

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Tricycle Daily Dharma February 1, 2013

The Simple Act of Attention

Empathy naturally leads to compassionate action. But simple inattention kills empathy, let alone compassion. So the first step in compassion is to notice the other's need. It all begins with the simple act of attention.

- Daniel Goleman, “I Feel Your Brain”

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Via JMG: Nielsen: Gays Shop & Spend More

Nielsen has come to the shocking conclusion that gay men go shopping a lot.

American same-sex partnered households have significant spending power. In fact, same-sex partnered households make 16 percent more shopping trips than the average U.S. household each year (173 average shopping trips vs. 149 average shopping trips for total U.S. households), according to a recent Nielsen report measuring the shopping habits of U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) households. The additional shopping trips translate into a marked difference in total spending on consumer packaged goods (CPG). Same-sex partnered households spend an average of $8,651 each year on CPG, compared with $6,898 for the average U.S. household. Within the LGBT community, male same-sex partnered households shop more frequently than female same-sex households (182 trips vs. 163 trips), raising male same-sex household annual CPG spending to $8,943—nearly 30 percent higher than the average U.S. household.

But the below chart that compares where gay men and lesbians exceed the national purchasing average is more interesting, yes?  The linked article doesn't make it clear, but one presumes the overall average for each of the below categories is 100.

(Tipped by JMG reader Thomas)

Labels: LGBT culture, Nielsen, retail

Reposted from Joe

Via FB

Via JMG: Syron: Here (Official Music Video)

Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:

	Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	There are thousands upon thousands of students who have practiced meditation and obtained its fruits. Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method. If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it? - The Practice of Meditation, Zen Master Dogen More Buddhism Quotes >>

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Tricycle Daily Dharma January 31, 2013

Mature Wisdom

The test of how far your wisdom has matured lies in the strategic skill with which you can keep yourself from doing things that you like to do but that would cause long-term harm, and the skill with which you can talk yourself into doing things that you don’t like to do but that would lead to long-term well-being and happiness. In other words, mature wisdom requires a mature ego.

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “Hang On to Your Ego”

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Via JMG: Conference Of Catholic Bishops Files SCOTUS Briefs On DOMA & Prop 8

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops today filed Supreme Court briefs against the overturn of DOMA and Proposition 8.
From their DOMA brief:

The USCCB brief in United States v. Windsor says that “there is no fundamental right to marry a person of the same sex.” The brief also states that “as defined by courts ‘sexual orientation’ is not a classification that should trigger heightened scrutiny,” such as race or ethnicity would. It added that “civil recognition of same-sex relationships is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition—quite the opposite is true. Nor can the treatment of such relationships as marriages be said to be implicit in the concept of ordered liberty, such that neither liberty nor justice would exist if they were sacrificed.” USCCB argued that previous Supreme Court decisions “describing marriage as a fundamental right plainly contemplate the union of one man and one woman.” The USCCB also cautioned that a decision invalidating DOMA “would have adverse consequences in other areas of law.”

From their Proposition 8 brief:

“While this Court has held that laws forbidding private, consensual, homosexual conduct between adults lack a rational basis, it does not follow that the government has a constitutional duty to encourage or endorse such conduct. Thus, governments may legitimately decide to further the interests of opposite-sex unions only. Similarly, minimum standards of rationality under the Constitution do not require adopting the lower court’s incoherent definition of ‘marriage’ as merely a ‘committed lifelong relationship,’ which is wildly over-inclusive, empties the term of its meaning, and leads to absurd results.” “Marriage, understood as the union of one man and one woman, is not an historical relic, but a vital and foundational institution of civil society today,” the USCCB brief states.

(Via Zack Ford @ Think Progress)

Labels: Catholic Church, child abuse, cults, DOMA, marriage equality, molestation, Proposition 8, SCOTUS, UCCB, Vatican

Reposted from Joe