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Tricycle Daily Dharma January 6, 2014

The Four Reminders

We all know that we’re going to die, but we don’t know it in our guts. If we did, we would practice as if our hair were on fire. One way to swallow the bitter truth of mortality and impermanence—and get it into our guts—is to chew on the four reminders.

- Andrew Holecek, “The Supreme Contemplation”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 7, 2014
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Via JMG: The Man Who Invented San Francisco

The Days Of Anna Madrigal, the ninth and final installment of Armistead Maupin's legendary Tales Of The City series, will be published later this month. Yesterday the Guardian heaped praise upon Maupin. An excerpt:

Quentin Crisp once introduced him with the boast: "This is Mr Maupin. He invented San Francisco." More importantly, Maupin virtually invented the mainstreaming of gay life and helped the world see that "the gay experience" was nothing lesser or greater than human experience. Maupin came to a realisation of his homosexuality relatively late. He was 30 when he came out, the same year he began writing. Taking stock of himself the way he would one of his characters, he once observed: "He had kept his heart (and his libido) under wraps for most of his life, only to discover that the thing he feared the most had actually become a source of great comfort and inspiration." At the time he began writing, he saw gay fiction as both bleak and myopic. This was an era when Truman Capote still equated his homosexuality with his alcoholism and a climate in which Gore Vidal could claim: "There were homosexual acts, but not homosexual people." Maupin, however, had discovered a joyful fraternity and welcoming community in the bath houses and nightclubs of the city and decided, as he put it, to "[allow] a little air into the situation by actually placing gay people in the context of the world at large".

Read the full article. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon.

Labels: Armistead Maupin, gay writers, LGBT History, San Francisco

Reposted from Joe Jervis

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Tricycle Daily Dharma January 4, 2014

Language in Practice

The first three practices of the eightfold path are right view, right intention, and right speech. These make right conduct possible, and when there is right conduct, there can be meditation practice and mindfulness, which lead to wisdom, thereby reinforcing right view. So from the first, the Buddha saw that our language conditions our spirituality through our views, intentions, and uttered words, and that training in an increased awareness of this process has to be the starting point for spiritual practice.

- Zoketsu Norman Fischer, “Beyond Language”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 5, 2014
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Tricycle Daily Dharma January 5, 2014

Walk Like A Buddha

Walking is an important form of Buddhist meditation. It can be a very deep spiritual practice. But when the Buddha walked, he walked without effort. He just enjoyed walking. He didn’t have to strain, because when you walk in the practice mindfulness, you are in touch with the all the wonders of life within you and around you. This is the best way to practice, with the appearance of nonpractice. You don’t make any effort, you don’t struggle, you just enjoy walking, but it’s very deep. ‘My practice,’ the Buddha said, ‘is the nonpractice, the attainment of nonattainment.’

- Thich Nhat Hanh, “Walk Like A Buddha”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 6, 2014
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Tricycle Daily Dharma January 3, 2014

The Cleaning

The very distinguished abbot of a huge Zen monastery wrote this little article that said, ‘In Zen, there are only three things. First, cleaning. Second, chanting. And third, devotion. That’s all.’ Many Americans go to Zen hoping to get enlightened, but they don’t want to do the cleaning.

- Taitetsu Unno, “Even Dewdrops Fall”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 4, 2014
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Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Rose Bowl Parade's Gay Wedding Float Wins Award For "Color And Color Harmony"

 

Well, of course it did. During the 30 seconds that the float was onscreen during NBC's coverage, the two grooms atop the wedding cake waved, beamed, held hands, and generally seemed to be having a wonderful time. Parade host Al Roker: "A sincere shout-out to the newlyweds and the happy couples on the float." It's the end of America, people!

Labels: California, gay weddings, Rose Bowl Parade

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Carl Siciliano On Phil Robertson

 

Via Memeographs.

Labels: Ali Forney Center, Carl Siciliano, Duck Dynasty, homelessness, LGBT youth, NYC, Phil Robertson, religion

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Coulter: I Recommend Capital Punishment For Pro-Gay Television Pundits

"We know A&E is not the government. It may shock your tiny little pea brains, but free speech existed even before we had a Constitution. Free speech is generally considered a desirable goal even apart from its inclusion in the nation's founding document. Suppose TV networks were capitulating to angry Muslims by suspending people for saying they opposed Sharia law? Would that prompt any of you pusillanimous hacks to finally take a position on the state of free speech in America? Or would you demand that we stop the presses so you could roll out your little cliche about a television network not being the government? A&E didn't dare cross the gays, never anticipating that the Robertson family wouldn't back down -- and the rest of the country wouldn't, either. Even non-Christians can have only contempt for the network's utter cravenness in suspending Robertson for stating basic Christian doctrine. The first time someone stands up to a bully and the sky doesn't fall, the tyranny is over. The gay mafia was out of control, drunk with power. This time, they got their wings clipped. Christians, 1; Angry gays: minus 1,000. Cliche-spouting hack TV pundits: I recommend capital punishment." - Ann Coulter, writing for Townhall.

 

Labels: Ann Coulter, assholism, crackpots, Duck Dynasty, Phil Robertson, reality shows, religion, Tea Party, teabaggers, television, Townhall

Reposted from Joe Jervis

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Tricycle Daily Dharma January 2, 2014

Clear Seeing

One of the main pursuits of Buddhism is to bridge the gap between the way things appear and the way things are. That approach does not come just from a curiosity to investigate phenomena. It arises from the understanding that an incorrect perception of reality inevitably leads to suffering.

- Matthieu Ricard, "Why Meditate?"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 3, 2014
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Tricycle Daily Dharma December 31, 2013

Skillful Intention

It’s all about intention. If your intention is skillful, imbued with compassion, the quality of your effort will be skillful. And you can develop skillful intention.

- Peter Doobinin, “Skillful Effort”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through January 1, 2014
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Tricycle Daily Dharma December 25, 2013

Planting the Seeds of Happiness

We spend decades of our lives wanting happiness, peace, and contentment—without sowing the causes for that aspiration. Why did we not plant the seeds of the fruition we aspire to? Buddhist logic says that if you plant a lemon seed and pray for a mango fruit, logically it won’t work. But this is what we do: we wish for happiness without planting the seeds of happiness.

- Khandro Rinpoche, “Planting the Seeds of Happiness”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 26, 2013
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Tricycle Daily Dharma December 24, 2013

True Generosity

The practice of true generosity is rare; it is an exchange in which both giver and receiver are enriched.

- Judy Lief, "The Power of Receiving"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 25, 2013
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Tricycle Daily Dharma December 22, 2013

Starting from Here

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.

- Dale S. Wright, “The Bodhisattva’s Gift”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 23, 2013
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Via JMG: Updated Marriage Map

 

Wikipedia's editors are already on it, even though Utah may not stay blue in the short term. 

Labels: marriage equality, United States, Utah

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: INDIA: Government Asks Supreme Court To Review Anti-Homosexuality Law

The Indian government yesterday petitioned the Supreme Court to review its decision to reinstate the criminalization of homosexuality.

The government asked the court to review its order saying it believed it "violated the principle of equality". There has been outrage over the ruling seen as a huge blow to gay rights. There have been street protests and many activists and even government ministers have criticised it. "The government has filed the review petition on Section 377 in the Supreme Court today. Let's hope the right to personal choices is preserved," Law Minister Kapil Sibal tweeted on Friday. In its petition filed in the Supreme Court, the government says "the position of the central government on this issue has been that the Delhi High Court verdict... is correct". The Supreme Court's earlier order was widely criticised in India. The president of the ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi described it as "an archaic, unjust law" and Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the ruling had taken India "back to 1860".

Very encouraging.

 

Labels: homosexuality, India, LGBT rights

Reposted from Joe Jervis

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Tricycle Daily Dharma December 21, 2013

Basho on Haiku

If you describe a green willow in the spring rain it will be excellent, but haiku needs more homely images, such as a crow picking snails in a rice paddy.

- Basho (trans. Robert Hass), "Swamp Marigold"

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 22, 2013
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Via Wipe Out Homophobia / FB:

 

See / Listen also: 

Henry Rollins - KCRW 89.9 FM | Internet Public Radio Station

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Tricycle Daily Dharma December 19, 2013

Spreading Merit

When a candle is lit in a dark room, it illuminates the room to some extent, but its power is limited. But if you use the same candle to light another candle, the total brightness increases. If you continue to do this, you can fill the room with brilliant illumination. The idea of transferring merit to others is like this. If we keep our own light selfishly hidden, it will only provide a limited amount of illumination.

- Master Sheng Yen, “Rich Generosity”

Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through December 20, 2013
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Via JMG: Married After 60 Years

 

From Oregon Public Radio:

Eric Marcoux and Eugene Woodworth have been together since they the day they met in Chicago in 1953. “I am here today to be legally married to Eugene Woodworth, with whom I have had an intimate deeply committed relationship for a little over sixty years,” Marcoux says. Marcoux is 83 years old and Woodworth is 85. They can’t marry in Oregon, where a constitutional amendment outlaws same-sex marriage. When same-sex marriage was legalized in Washington last year, they didn’t rush across the state line to get married. “No, no, no….” says Woodworth. “We wanted to have it in Oregon,” Marcoux explains.
But Woodworth has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and he’s been given weeks to live. They’re getting married today with the hope that Marcoux might be eligible to receive social security benefits as the surviving spouse. “We’ve observed federal government extending privileges. Then it occurred to us, ‘well, maybe we’ll be able to transfer his social security,’ which is significantly greater than mine, to me. And although it’s a modest one, it will make an enormous difference in the kind of life that I will be able to leave – live! – and leave,” Marcoux says. “He deserves it after living with me for sixty years,” Woodworth laughs.

Hit the link for the rest of the story. Take a tissue. (Tipped by JMG reader Homer)

Labels: gay seniors, marriage equality, Oregon

Reposted from Joe Jervis