Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most. ― Buddha
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Via JMG: United Methodist Bishop: No More Trials For Pro-Gay Marriage Pastors
At a joint press conference today, United Methodist Bishop Martin McLee and Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree announced that the church was dropping the case against Dr. Ogletree for officiating at his son’s wedding. In a huge victory for the Methodist movement that is organizing ministry to all couples on an equal basis in open defiance of church law, the bishop dropped the case without any conditions. Furthermore, Bishop McLee said in his statement “I call for and commit to cessation of trials,” the first time ever a sitting United Methodist bishop has categorically declared he will not prosecute pastors for ministering to LGBTQ people. “I am grateful that Bishop McLee has withdrawn this case and the church is no longer prosecuting me for an act of pastoral faithfulness and fatherly love,” said Dr. Ogletree. “But I am even more grateful that he is vowing not to prosecute others who have been likewise faithful in ministry to LGBTQ people. May our bishop’s commitment to cease such prosecutions be the beginning of the end of the United Methodist Church’s misguided era of discriminating against LGBTQ people.”There's gonna be a big ole pile of sadz about this.
Via JMG: Forbes: 7 Billionaires Are Openly LGBT
With a combined net worth of nearly $16 billion, the select group of LGBT ten-figure fortunes includes media mogul David Geffen, PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Hyatt hotel beneficiary Jennifer Pritzker, one of the Pritzker family’s 11 billionaires. In August 2013, Jennifer became the first and only transgender billionaire in the world when she announced she would be identifying herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings. A retired army lieutenant colonel, she is CEO of private wealth management firm Tawani Enterprises in Chicago and has a personal net worth of $1.8 billion. “This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly,” a statement in Crain’s Chicago Business explained. Among the openly-gay hyper-wealthy are Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the duo behind fashion power house Dolce & Gabbana. The retail-rich pair are joined by Michael Kors, who became a billionaire this year. Some of these businessmen and women have used their fortunes to advocate for gay rights. Jon Stryker, heir to the Stryker Corp. medical equipment family fortune, is one of the world’s most prolific donors to LGBT charities.The seven listed above represent 0.4% of Forbes' list of 1645 billionaires worldwide.
Labels: David Geffen, Dolce and Gabbana, Forbes, Jennifer Pritzker, Jon Stryker, Michael Kors, Peter Thiel
Via JMG: Bill Donohue Is Very Upset About Cosmos
The propagandists involved in this show, represented most conspicuously by Seth MacFarlane, told viewers last night that “the Roman Catholic Church maintained a system of courts known as the Inquisition and its sole purpose was to investigate and torment anyone who dared voice views that differed from theirs. And it wasn’t long before [Giordano] Bruno fell into the clutches of the thought police.” The ignorance is appalling. “The Catholic Church as an institution had almost nothing to do with [the Inquisition],” writes Dayton historian Thomas Madden. “One of the most enduring myths of the Inquisition,” he says, “is that it was a tool of oppression imposed on unwilling Europeans by a power-hungry Church. Nothing could be more wrong.” Because the Inquisition brought order and justice where there was none, it actually “saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.” (His emphasis.)All that torture and disemboweling? Good thing! Cardinal Fang, fetch the comfy chair for Bill.
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Labels: Bill Donohue, Catholic Church, Catholic League, Cosmos, crackpots, Fox TV, Neil deGrasse Tyson, religion, Seth McFarlane
Reposted from Joe Jervis
Viaq Daily Dharma
Intimate Joy | March 11, 2014
When we are willing to be intimate with
what actually is here now, to look directly at all of our experience,
we might recognize that this is our life, however different from our
thoughts and ideas about it.
—Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, “Simple Joy”
Monday, March 10, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Two Kinds of Suffering | March 10, 2014
The Buddha taught that there are two
kinds of suffering: that which comes from the outside world, and that
which comes from within you. With the latter, only you can do anything
about it. Where does that suffering come from? Emptiness. Examining the
thoughts and feelings that arise from emptiness is one tenet of
Buddhism. Why do we suffer? What is at the root? Where did it begin?
When we see the answers to those questions, our suffering, which has
arisen from emptiness, returns to emptiness.
—Ittetsu Nemoto, “The Counselor”
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma
Tricycle Daily Dharma March 9, 2014
The World Will Break Your Heart
Grief
might be, in some ways, the long aftermath of love, the internal work
of knowing, holding, more fully valuing what we have lost.
|
- Mark Doty, "Don't They Know?"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 10, 2014
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma
Tricycle Daily Dharma March 8, 2014
A Matter of Misdirection
Buddhist practice pulls both ways. From one perspective, it is a discreet activity, something we do.
From another perspective, one which tends to emerge more clearly with
time, it seems less something we do and more something we are;
less a piece of life and more all of life. The good news may be
precisely that our lives will never 'work out,' no matter how well we
arrange the pieces or play the game, whether of career, relationships,
or indeed practice. Buddhist practice is especially recalcitrant; it
just won’t 'do' what we want, at least not for long, because what we
want is the problem.
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- Henry Shukman, "A Matter of Misdirection"
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 9, 2014
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
Friday, March 7, 2014
Via Pema Chodron / FB:
Could
our minds and our hearts be big enough just to hang out in that space
where we’re not entirely certain about who’s right and who’s wrong?
Could we have no agenda when we walk into a room with another person,
not know what to say, not make that person wrong or right? Could we see,
hear, feel other people as they really are? It is powerful to practice
this way, because we’ll find ourselves continually rushing around to try
to feel secure again—to make ourselves or them either right or wrong.
But true communication can happen only in that open space.
- Pema Chödrön
- Pema Chödrön
Via Tricycle Daily Dharma
Tricycle Daily Dharma March 7, 2014
The Vulnerability of Truth
Truth
has no action. Truth is weak. Truth is not utilitarian, truth cannot be
organized. It is like the wind: You cannot catch it, you cannot take
hold of it in your fist and say, ‘I have caught it.’ Therefore it is
tremendously vulnerable, impotent like the blade of grass on the
roadside—you can kill it, you can destroy it. But we want it as a thing
to be used for a better structure of society. And I am afraid you cannot
use it, you cannot—it is like love, love is never potent. It is there
for you, take it or leave it.
|
- Krishnamurti, “A Question of Heart”
Read the entire article in the Wisdom Collection through March 8, 2014
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
For full access at any time, become a Tricycle Community Supporting or Sustaining Member
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Via JMG: IRS Posts Help Video For Married Gays
Via press release from the White House:
The Internal Revenue Service released a new YouTube video designed to provide useful tax tips to married same-sex couples. The new video, less than two minutes long, is available in English, Spanish and American Sign Language and can be accessed via IRS.gov. It joins an array of online products, including answers to frequently-asked questions, designed to help same-sex couples file their federal income tax returns. Following last summer’s Supreme Court decision invalidating a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act, the IRS ruled that same-sex couples, legally married in jurisdictions that recognize their marriages, are now treated as married for federal tax purposes. The ruling applies to all federal tax provisions where marriage is a factor, including filing status, claiming personal and dependency exemptions, taking the standard deduction, employee benefits, contributing to an IRA and claiming the earned income tax credit or child tax credit.
Labels: IRS, marriage equality, taxes, White House
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