George Takei: Why I love a country that once betrayed me

Publicado em 04/07/2014

 

When he was a child, George Takei and his family were forced into an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, as a "security" measure during World War II. 70 years later, Takei looks back at how the camp shaped his surprising, personal definition of patriotism and democracy.

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Via Daily Dharma

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Thinking Like a Mountain | July 7, 2014

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How do you watch a mountain? Nothing’s going to happen in any time frame that you can consider—except the light changes on it. And so that was my mountain watching. The changing light on the mountain was like the changing thoughts in my mind, just these little shifting shadows, that’s all that it is.

 

—Gary Snyder, “Thinking Like a Mountain”

 

Via Daily Dharma

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The Everyday Sublime | July 6, 2014

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To experience the everyday sublime one needs to dismantle piece by piece the perceptual conditioning that insists on seeing oneself and the world as essentially comfortable, permanent, solid, and mine. It means to embrace suffering and conflict, rather than to shy away from them, to cultivate the radical attention (yonisomanasikara) that contemplates the tragic, changing, empty, and impersonal dimensions of life, rather than succumbing to fantasies of self-glorification or self-loathing.

 

—Stephen Batchelor, “The Everyday Sublime”

 

Flower of the Day: 07/06/14

“Gratitude opens the portals to ascension. It has the great power of illuminating your life. When gratitude blossoms, the idea of the victim disappears from one’s system. All complaints, all self-criticisms, and all the games of accusation fall away. Gratitude is an immunizing agent that protects you against evil. It increases trust and opens the paths towards the Infinite. One can seek gratitude, but one cannot create it with the mind. Gratitude blooms when you are mature enough for it.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Lizzy the Lezzy /FB:

Via AUSTRALIA: New Study Says Kids Of Gay Parents FB:

Via ABC News Australia:

Children of same-sex parents enjoy better levels of health and wellbeing than their peers from traditional family units, new Australian research suggests. In what they described as the largest study of its type in the world, University of Melbourne researchers surveyed 315 same-sex parents and 500 children about their physical health and social wellbeing. Lead researcher Doctor Simon Crouch said children raised by same-sex partners scored an average of 6 per cent higher than the general population on measures of general health and family cohesion. "That's really a measure that looks at how well families get along, and it seems that same-sex-parent families and the children in them are getting along well, and this has positive impacts on child health," Dr Crouch said.

Read the full study. (Tipped by JMG readers Alan and Str8 Grandmother)

 

Labels: Australia, gay families, gay parenting

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma

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Forget the Self | July 5, 2014

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To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. Buddhist teaching suggests that the Self is an illusion, and identity is an ongoing confluence of forces. That means that, very literally, our sense of self is shaped by the world around us.

 

—Richard Eskow, "DNA Sutra"

 

Flower of the Day: 07/05/14

“Mental equanimity means placing one’s mind on God. Setting one’s mind on God is like putting down your baggage on the train’s luggage rack and relaxing along the journey. But the mind prefers to carry the burden of the baggage because leaving it on the rack requires trust. At the nucleus of the conditioned mind is fear, and one of the main aspects of fear is control. The ways of God are mysterious, and it’s not always possible to understand what God has planned for you. So one creates many expectations about one’s life and hopes that God will meet them. Yet only God understands our hearts and knows what we really need. This is why we must become aware of our lack of trust that has caused us to carry such a heavy burden.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Being Liberal / FB:

Via Pink News: United Nations to recognise same-sex marriage everywhere

Ban Ki-moon announced the policy shift yesterday

The United Nations has announced that it will globally extend its employee benefits to workers in same-sex marriages or other unions.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced the change yesterday, stating: “Human rights are at the core of the mission of the United Nations.

“I am proud to stand for greater equality for all staff, and I call on all members of our UN family to unite in rejecting homophobia as discrimination that can never be tolerated at our workplace.”

The move will impact the UN’s over 44,000 staff across the globe.

Hyung Hak Nam, of LGBTI group UN-GLOBE, said: “It is with great pleasure that I would like to inform you that, at long last, the UN will begin recognizing staff members’ legal same-sex unions.

Make the jump here to read the full article

Via American Humanist Association / FB:

Via Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian / FB :

An Open Letter to the People who Hate Obama more than they Love America

 I meet you all the time. You hate Obama. You hate gay people. You hate black people, immigrants, Muslims, labor unions, women who want the right to make choices concerning their bodies, you hate em all. You hate being called racist. You hate being called a bigot. Maybe if you talked about creating jobs more than you talk about why you hate gay people we wouldn't call you bigots. Maybe if you talked about black people without automatically assuming they are on food stamps while demanding their birth certificates we wouldn't call you racist. You hate socialism and social justice. You hate regulations and taxes and spending and the Government. You hate. 

     You like war. You like torture. You like Jesus. I don't know how in the hell any of that is compatible, but no one ever accused you haters of being over-committed to ideological consistency. You like people who look like you or at least hate most of the things that you hate. You hate everything else.

Now, I know you profess to love our country and the founding fathers (unless you are reminded that they believed in the separation of church and state), but I need to remind you that America is NOT what Fox News says it is. America is a melting pot, it always has been. We are a multi-cultural amalgamation of all kinds of people, and yet you still demonize everyone who is not a rich, white, heterosexual christian male or his submissive and obedient wife.

You hate liberals, moderates, hell, anyone who disagrees with Conservative dogma as espoused by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. You hate em.

Well, here are the facts, Jack. If you hate the Government then you are unqualified to manage it. If you hate gay people more than you love America than you should take your own advice and get the hell out. There are several countries that are openly hostile to gay people, but they are full of brown people and you don't like them much either from what I understand. It looks like you are screwed, but that's not what I am here to tell you.

More rant below. . .

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/09/1053088/-An-open-letter-to-the-people-who-hate-Obama-more-than-they-love-America?detail=email#

Via Liberal Dragon / FB:

Via Daily Dharma

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Robe of Liberation | July 4, 2014

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Vast is the robe of liberation. A formless field of benefaction. What a generous, comforting image—a robe as limitless as the sky, and at the same time a sense of being covered, held, embraced, protected.

 

—K. D. McLeod, “One Fat Buddha”

 

Flower of the Day: 07/04/14

“Everything that happens in the school of life is meant to teach you how to develop mental equanimity. If you can already be a channel of love and silence to some degree, then it is important to share this with other people, even if you sometimes run the risk of falling, because this fall serves as a sacrifice as well as a lesson. This descent means that you are still not completely immune, so if someone invites you to argue with them, you still accept their invitation. A balanced mind can be in the world relating to others and still refrain from accepting the invitation to enter warfare. Regardless of what is happening, the person always remains the same, simply observing that which is transitory and letting it pass.”

Sri Prem Baba

Flower of the Day: 07/03/14

“Your talents are at the service of humanity’s evolution, since they are the way love expresses itself through you in order to carry out your dharma, your life’s purpose. Your purpose and the gifts that will help you to fulfill it are revealed to you very early on, but they are usually forgotten. Throughout your journey the entire universe encourages you to become aware of them. You are always being inspired to ask: What does God want from me? What do I wake up for in the morning for? This movement leads you towards aligning yourself with your dharma, and when you are aligned with your dharma, you reach the sacred dwelling place.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via The Blue Street Journal / FB:

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