Flower of the Day: 06/28/14

“Some people believe that they need to use effort to quiet down their minds, but this effort will only further agitate the mind. It is not necessary to do anything other than increase one’s perception by being whole in action and fully present. Then, when the thoughts come, they will simply pop like bubbles in the air. If one is able to develop presence, then the situation or place one finds oneself in doesn’t matter: nothing will shake one’s serenity.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Understand Your Mind | June 28, 2014

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Just understand your mind; how it works, how attachment and desire arise, how ignorance arises, and where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know the nature of all that; that alone can bring you happiness and peace. Thus, your life can change completely; everything turns upside down. What you once interpreted as horrible can become beautiful.

 

—Lama Yeshe, “Your Mind is Your Religion”

 

To Be Takei Official Trailer (2014) George Takei Documentary HD

Via Freedom to Marry / FB:

Via Daily Dharma

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Back to the Fundamentals | June 26, 2014

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People are looking for liberation from their fears, worries, and anxieties; that is, for freedom from the bonds of birth, old age, sickness, and death. Even in our times—where mankind has developed this amazing modern civilization with scientific wonders—people still continue to lead their lives trying to figure out solutions to these fundamental matters. 

 

—Harada Sekkei Roshi, "Zen Basics"

 

Flower of the Day: 06/27/14

“The ABC of Spirituality work of healing the personality and purifying the lower self is vital, but it is still not the most important phase in the evolutionary process. The most important part begins when you make progress in this initial phase of purification and are able to integrate some imprints from the past. Only by progressing in your purification can you honestly surrender yourself to the Supreme. At that point you are no longer bargaining, giving only to receive. Instead, you are now ready to place every molecule of your body at service of the divine will.

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Leave Room for Mystery | June 27, 2014

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Faith must ripen through uncertainty and doubt. It must open us to something larger than our concepts, for these arise from within the limits of the self. Faith must, in the end, leave room for mystery.

 

—Andrew Cooper, “The Transcendent Imperative”

 

Essa Menina de 5 Anos Queria mudar de Sexo. O que seus Pais Fizeram foi Incrível

Essa Menina de 5 Anos Queria mudar de Sexo... por videosvirais

Via JMG: Updated Wikipedia Marriage Map

Labels: maps, marriage equality, United States

Reposted from Joe Jervis

NASA LGBT Pride Month Profile - Amy Stalker, Glenn Research Center

Rice: LGBT rights among the most challenging global human rights issues

AP

Susan Rice

WASHINGTON — With anti-gay laws taking root in nearly 80 countries, White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Tuesday cast the protection of gays from global discrimination, abuse and even death as one of the most challenging international human rights issue facing the United States.

Rice told a White House forum of gay rights advocates that President Barack Obama has directed that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote the rights of LGBT men and women around the world.

She urged religious, human rights and HIV health care advocates to form a united front to halt global discrimination against the LGBT community.

“To achieve lasting global change, we need everyone’s shoulder at the wheel,” she said. “With more voices to enrich and amplify the message — the message that gay rights are straight-up human rights — we can open more minds.”

Make the jump here to read the full article

Via Daily Dharma

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Make the Most of It | June 24, 2014

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If you think of the number of people in the world, what percentage of them really devote any substantial amount of time to spiritual practice? What percentage of them are even inclined to do so? And the fact that we are willing and interested in this kind of an approach to life is very rare. And so we are encouraged to make the most of it.

 

—Ken McLeod, "37 Practices of the Bodhisattva, Verse 1"

 

Flower of the Day: 06/24/14

“Our planet is going through a 'dark night.' Some people are already able to receive rays of light from the central sun, which is the divine self, but others are going mad. Some people are killing themselves because they are unable to bear coming in touch with their own shadow. They don’t know that this experience is only a transition and a passage. Spiritual knowledge is the blessing that allows one to make this crossing with tranquility.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Ethics from the Heart | June 25, 2014

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For the Zen Buddhist, an ethical precept is a question to be held up to the light of circumstance, an inquiry rather than an answer. And the nature of this inquiry is not so much the dubious enterprise of trying to figure out the right thing to do as it is an offering of an unaided heart. After all, it’s from this heart of ours that the precepts themselves once arose. At the threshold of choice, the Zen Buddhist trusts this ancient heart above all other authority.

 

—Lin Jensen, "An Ear to the Ground"

 

Flower of the Day: 06/25/14

“Gratitude is a powerful virtue of the soul. When one is able to materialize gratitude through an expression of thanks, this gratitude becomes medicine for the one receiving it. Oftentimes, the simple action of giving thanks to someone is enough to take that person out of the pits.”

Sri Prem Baba

Love is Strange Official US Release Trailer #1 (2014) - Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei Movie HD

Via The Mind Unleashed:

Via Daily Dharma

Keep It Simple | June 23, 2014 Underneath all the drama, the restlessness, the hopes and fears, behind the narratives we weave about ourselves, and even before we’ve thought of ourselves as ourselves, lies a simple, unadorned awareness. It’s not even a thing—just an event that happens, a little burst of knowing, deep in the center of it all.   —Andrew Olendzki, “Keep It Simple”

Flower of the Day: 06/23/14

"At some point in your journey, you will come face-to-face with your shadow. It is important for you to know that this is only one aspect of your personality, as your shadow is not who you truly are. You are not the lower self, it is only one part of yourself that needs to be understood and integrated. To do so, you must have steadiness and determination, but also a lot of compassion and patience, since these aspects of yourself are also there to teach you something. Everything is sacred: everything is part of the divine play."

Sri Prem Baba