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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:
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Tricycle Daily Dharma February 21, 2013
Cultivating Relaxed Awareness
When
the thinking mind takes a break for even a few seconds, a kind of
relaxed awareness replaces the usual stream of thoughts. We need to
encourage this and not fill this space with anything else; just let it
be.
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- Tsultrim Allione, "Feeding Your Demons"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 22nd, 2013
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
What do you want to do when you grow up?
Me, Guatemala, During my masters research project in
Patzun, Chimaltengo, Guatemala 1982
When I first traveled to
Latin America, or more specifically, Guatemala, in the early 80’s and when I worked
with kids in schools there, or met in communities I visited, I naively asked them
what they wanted to do when they grew up. The answer was always, a shrug and a “no
se” (I don’t know).
It wasn’t a middle class,
bored USAan[i]
teenager “I don’t know”, it was a literal a not-dreams-were-possible-because-there-was-little-to
any-future-I-don’t-know. Sometimes it was a “I don’t know” that said they were content
to carry on doing the same thing that their parents and grandparents had been
doing for hundreds of years I don’t know.
The “I don’t know” of contentment,
which for me is admirable. I come from a
particular social class and culture of discontentment, and needing and wanting more,
and better and faster and bigger is a genetic flaw that, as a Buddhist, I have
to constantly work to tamp down, to ignore, to send this discontentment away.
So when my husband finished graduate
school, and we decided to move to Brasil, mostly because as you either may or
may not know, the USA does not afford GLBT people equal marriage rights and the ability to sponsor
of their spouses, as striaght people do. We applied for and were awarded positions as faculty members
in small university high in the mountains of Minas Gerais. I retired from California
State University, Sacramento and we are both professors in the Centro de Educação
Aberta e a Distância (the Center of Open and Distance Education) at the Universidade
Federal de Ouro Preto part of UAB (the Open University of Brasil) which provides
higher education opportunities to thousands of Brazilians that traditionally would
never have had access.
I have been teaching K-Univeristy students since
1978. My first teaching job was in a rural school in Oregon. I went to Oregon
State, taught school in Oregon, then Guatemala, after which I went to graduate school in New
Mexico, returned to Guatemala for masters work, and did research in Puebla
Mexico with computers and kids as part of my doctoral research.If I recall, the school there was a test site Apple de México, and they were debugging the very first keyboard that allowed accents and things necessary in Spanish and Portuguese. Before that time you printed out the document, and then drew in the accents and the all important ~ over the letter n. My research replicated what we were doing in Guatemala and New Mexico with LOGO and kids in their math lab.
My first trip to Brasil was
in 1992, and once again I asked kids, “What do you want to do when you grow up?”
And again the answer was, more often than not, “Não se". And for much for the same reason
I found in Guatemala a few years earlier. Yet I began to notice a subtle difference, more and more, the answer began to
change, “Eu quero ser um…” I want to
be a… I began to see dreams. Brasil, like much of South America was awakening, the Green Giant was waking from its slumber, it was moving forward.
In 2005-2006, when my husband
Milton and I realized his visa prospects were wearing thin, and it became to
expensive for us to stay in the United States (over 12 years his visa had cost
us over $30,000.00) I took up an offer as visiting professor on Ouro Preto,
thinking it was time for us to begin moving south. Half way through my stay in
Ouro Preto, the San Juan Unified School District in a suburb of Sacramento, offered to sponsor him for his green
card. Obviously, this changed everything, and his dream, of earning a doctorate, was suddenly
possible. This allowed him to pursue a doctorate degree, and he graduated as
CSU’s first doctoral student! So back I went, all the time our dream was to
return to Brasil, so I continued working at CSUS and visiting, working as a
visiting professor, publishing, and lecturing until the time came for us to pull of stakes.
Our program sends course work to over 5000 students in 30 polos in three states in Brasil. A
few months ago, I represented the university at a graduation of our students in
one of our polos
in the state of Bahia. As is my custom, I asked a 9 year old daughter of one of
our students, “o que você
quer ser quando crescer?”
She looked up at me, pointing
her finger at me and with great confidence said to me, “Vou ser um médico!” (I am going to be an doctor!). It was more than a
dream, it was an expectation, a right, an assertion and knowledge that she
could, no she would do it, because she had seen her Mother study, and now
graduate, and so would she.
Like I said earlier, I have
been teaching since 1978, and rarely if ever have I been privileged to actually
witness the physical difference in what I do makes in the lives of my students and the communities
they came from, at another graduation, in a region of Brasil that made a discovery
of natural gas and oil, the mayor and the school superintendent told me that if
it hadn’t been for UFOP, this tiny town of 7000 people would have lost any hope
of taking part of the wealth. Hundreds of people were expected to move in from outside,
and traditionally when this occurred the locals were relegated to menial jobs,
but because of the student earning business administration, pedagogy and math
degrees via CEAD-UFOP, they had been given their own tools to build their own stores, open their own restaurants,
build their own apartments to rent, even a new hotel. They were creating and achieving opportunities…
dreams. It was then, at the ripe old age of 57, that I realized that I was finally doing what I wanted to
do when I grew up.
So, I ask you, “What do you
want to do when you grow up?”
Me, teaching online CEAD-UFOP, 2012
[i] I use the term USAan, or more
accurately “estadunidense” for my nationality, as America is a continent, we who live in both
North & South America ARE all Americans…
Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma February 20, 2013
Helping All Beings
If
hungry people come, give them food. If thirsty people come, give water.
If suffering people come, help them. That is our job—life after life,
just continue to help all beings. But to do that, you have to have mind
which is clear like space.
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- Seung Sahn, "BOOM!"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 21st, 2013
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma February 19, 2013
Learning to Let Go
Letting
go of fixation is effectively a process of learning to be free, because
every time we let go of something, we become free of it. Whatever we
fixate upon limits us because fixation makes us dependent upon something
other than ourselves. Each time we let go of something, we experience
another level of freedom.
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- Traleg Kyabgon Rinpoche, "Letting Go of Spiritual Experience"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 20th, 2013
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Monday, February 18, 2013
Gay Man Decides to Yell Back at Anti-Gay Subway Preacher, Train Applauds
Standard operating procedure for dealing with subway "preachers,"
whether bigoted or merely insane, is to pretend they don't exist. Don't
argue; don't take their literature. It'll be over soon. Just ignore
them until they move on to the next car and you can hear your podcast
again.
That's not the approach one gay man took two days ago in response to a preacher's homophobic rant, which included gems like "Michael Jackson died because he was gay." Instead, he met the preacher shout-for-shout.
"I'm a man," the gay guy, identifiable in the video by his large fuzzy hat, replies at one point (1:33). "And I'm a good man. And I'm a gay man and Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me!" The train broke out into spontaneous applause.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/02/gay-subway-preacher-video.html
That's not the approach one gay man took two days ago in response to a preacher's homophobic rant, which included gems like "Michael Jackson died because he was gay." Instead, he met the preacher shout-for-shout.
"I'm a man," the gay guy, identifiable in the video by his large fuzzy hat, replies at one point (1:33). "And I'm a good man. And I'm a gay man and Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me!" The train broke out into spontaneous applause.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/02/gay-subway-preacher-video.html
Via Buddhism on Beliefnet:
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Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma February 18, 2013
The Purpose of Mindfulness
Mindfulness
allows us to watch our thoughts, see how one thought leads to the next,
decide if we’re heading toward an unhealthy path, and if so, let go and
change directions.
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- Sharon Salzberg, "Mindfulness and Difficult Emotions"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 19th, 2013
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Sunday, February 17, 2013
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Tricycle Daily Dharma February 17, 2013
A Foundation of Presence
Through
mindfulness, we develop greater composure and a heightened sensitivity
to nonverbal communication. Then, to the extent that we ourselves are
present, we can radiate that same quality outward to the people around
us. It is hard to be generous, disciplined, or patient if we are not
fully present. If we are present and attentive, and our mind is
flexible, we are more receptive to the environment around us.
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- Judy Lief, “On the Contagious Power of Presence”
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 18th, 2013
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Saturday, February 16, 2013
Via JMG: Soccer Stars Rally For Robbie Rogers
RELATED: Some of the messages to Rogers express hope that he returns to professional soccer. Rogers' contract is currently owned by the Chicago Fire and yesterday their head coach issued this statement: "Yesterday I thought he was a very good player and I still think that today. Should Robbie want to return to the game, we would still be open to him being part of the Fire."
Via JMG: Pro Soccer Player Comes Out
Major League Soccer player Robbie Rogers simultaneously came out and resigned from his sport today. Rogers writes on his personal blog:
UPDATE: Athlete Ally founder and former collegiate wrestling champion Hudson Taylor has issued a statement in reaction to Rogers' announcement.
Reposted from Joe
Rogers played several seasons for Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew before joining Britain's Leeds United team last year. In 2007 he played for Team USA in the FIFA World Cup tournament. In 2008 he competed for the United States at the Beijing Olympics.Secrets can cause so much internal damage. People love to preach about honesty, how honesty is so plain and simple. Try explaining to your loved ones after 25 years you are gay. Try convincing yourself that your creator has the most wonderful purpose for you even though you were taught differently.
I always thought I could hide this secret. Football was my escape, my purpose, my identity. Football hid my secret, gave me more joy than I could have ever imagined… I will always be thankful for my career. I will remember Beijing, The MLS Cup, and most of all my teammates. I will never forget the friends I have made a long the way and the friends that supported me once they knew my secret.
Now is my time to step away. It’s time to discover myself away from football. It’s 1 A.M. in London as I write this and I could not be happier with my decision. Life is so full of amazing things. I realized I could only truly enjoy my life once I was honest. Honesty is a bitch but makes life so simple and clear. My secret is gone, I am a free man, I can move on and live my life as my creator intended.
UPDATE: Athlete Ally founder and former collegiate wrestling champion Hudson Taylor has issued a statement in reaction to Rogers' announcement.
"I applaud Rogers’ courage and honesty in what continues to be a struggle for gay and lesbian athletes around the world. With yet another athlete coming out and feeling the need to retire, it is time that we, as an athletic community, realize the responsibility we have in making athletes feel comfortable and confident being themselves. Sports participants and fans are central to the greatest civil rights cause of our time, and I urge all members of the sports community to recognize the important role we play."
Labels: coming out, gay athletes, soccer, sports
Via JMG: Tim Tebow's Hate Date
The wildcat quarterback is slated to speak at the 11,000-member First Baptist Dallas Church’s April 28 Sunday morning service, according to the church’s website. While Tebow is known for wearing his religion on his sleeve and his prayerful onfield gestures have been dubbed “Tebowing,” he’s made a practice of not offending his teammates with his faith. But Tebow’s peace-and-love message could be tested by the megachurch’s evangelical Christian pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress. He once accused gay activists of trying to hide “the link between homosexuality and pedophilia.” In November, the preacher warned his flock that President Obama’s reelection “would lead to a rise of the antiChrist.” While endorsing Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential bid in October 2011, Jeffress bashed Islam, Judaism and Mormonism as heretical religions “from the pit of hell.”After Perry dropped out of the race, Jeffress decided that maybe all Mormons weren't hellbound sinners. He then endorsed Romney. When a New York City newspaper denounces someone like Jeffress as "anti-Jew," one wonders if Tebow even wants to keep playing here.
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma:
Tricycle Daily Dharma February 16, 2013
Practice is Planting Seeds
When
you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see
if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the
weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. Similarly, just do
your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and
instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will
come when they’re ready.
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- Thubten Chodron, “Meditator’s Toolbox”
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through February 17th, 2013
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Via JMG: Gallup Ranks Gayest States
The percentage of U.S. adults who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) ranges from 1.7% in North Dakota to 5.1% in Hawaii and 10% in the District of Columbia, according to Gallup surveys conducted from June-December 2012. Residents in the District of Columbia were most likely to identify as LGBT (10%). Among states, the highest percentage was in Hawaii (5.1%) and the lowest in North Dakota (1.7%), but all states are within two percentage points of the nationwide average of 3.5%.Gallup observers that while the variation between most states is relatively small, their data does support a conclusion that LGBT people are more willing to self-identify in states that provide anti-discrimination protections.
Measuring sexual orientation and gender identity can be challenging because these concepts involve complex social and cultural patterns. There are a number of ways to measure lesbian, gay, and bisexual orientation, and transgender status. Gallup chose a broad measure of personal identification as LGBT because this grouping of four statuses is commonly used in current American discourse, and as a result has important cultural and political significance.
One limitation of this approach is that it is not possible to separately consider differences among lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, or transgender individuals. A second limitation is that this approach measures broad self-identity, and does not measure sexual or other behavior, either past or present.
The states with proportionally larger LGBT populations generally have supportive LGBT legal climates. With the exception of South Dakota, all of the states that have LGBT populations of at least 4% have laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and allow same-sex couples to marry, enter into a civil union, or register as domestic partners. Of the 10 states with the lowest percentage of LGBT adults, only Iowa has such laws.Fascinating stuff. Hit the link for much more and the second half of Gallup's ranking.
Labels: Gallup, LGBT rights, polls, surveys
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