Flower of the Day: 08/01/14

“At some point, one tires of walking in the circles of ignorance, because one becomes aware that one’s actions generate more and more suffering each time. One sees oneself stuck in the same place, and feels a sincere willingness to go beyond this place and to free oneself of all lies and self-deceit. So one says: ‘I want to know what my responsibility is in this game. Why do I keep repeating the same negative situations? Why am I always falling in the same hole?’ At this moment, one commits oneself to the truth, as much as it may hurt one’s vanity.”

 

Sri Prem Baba

Walt Disney - Ferdinand The Bull - 1938

Via Daily Dharma

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Ignorance is King | August 1, 2014

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Ignorance is like the king, and clinging attachment and hostility are his ministers. To rid ourselves of the king's minions we must get rid of the king. And so it is of greatest importance to identify ignorance properly.

 

- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "Like a Pig In..." 

Via Blue Nation Review / FB:

Via JMG: CHINA: Man Sues Search Engine For Directing Him To "Ex-Gay" Torture Clinic

 

Via the Associated Press:

A gay Chinese man said Thursday he was suing a psychological clinic for carrying out electric shocks intended to turn him straight, as well as the search engine giant Baidu for advertising the center. The Beijing LGBT Center, which campaigns for gay rights, said it was the first court case involving so-called conversion therapy in China. China declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 2001. The center's executive director, Xin Ying, said some professional hospitals in China, as well as smaller private clinics, still provide conversion therapy and that the group hopes the case at the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing will lead to a ban on the therapy. Yang Teng, 30, told The Associated Press that the therapy given to him included hypnosis and electric shock and he was left physically and mentally hurt. He said he voluntarily underwent the therapy in February following pressure from his parents to get married and have a child.

Local activists demonstrated outside the court today carrying a banner that read: "Homosexuality is not a disease, we don't need to be cured." A judgment in the case is expected by the end of the year.

Labels: advertising, brainwashing, China, electroshock, ex-gay, internet, lawsuits, torture

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via FB:

Flower of the Day: 07/31/14

"When you develop the virtue of trust to the point where you are able to surrender yourself to the flow of life, you become a hollow bamboo flute which God’s melody is played through."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via JMG: UTAH: Language School Fires Teacher For Blog Post Explaining Homophones Because There And Their Is Totally Gay

From the you-can't-make-it-up-department in Provo, Utah:

Homophones, as any English grammarian can tell you, are words that sound the same but have different meanings and often different spellings — such as be and bee, through and threw, which and witch, their and there. This concept is taught early on to foreign students learning English because it can be confusing to someone whose native language does not have that feature. But when the social-media specialist for a private Provo-based English language learning center wrote a blog explaining homophones, he was let go for creating the perception that the school promoted a gay agenda. Tim Torkildson says after he wrote the blog on the website of his employer, Nomen Global Language Center, his boss and Nomen owner Clarke Woodger, called him into his office and told him he was fired. As Torkildson tells it, Woodger said he could not trust him and that the blog about homophones was the last straw. "Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality," Woodger complained, according to Torkildson, who posted the exchange on his Facebook page.

The school has denied the teacher's claim of homophonia - but has also deleted his post from its website. Their clunky mission statement could use some work: "Nomen Global Language Centers substantially helps students from all cultures and walks of life to excel in each aspect of their English acquisition and to obtain their goals for the future. We achieve this goal by means of qualified and experienced faculty, dedicated staff, engaging and challenging curriculum, and professional and ethical student services." (Tipped by JMG reader Joseph)

 

Labels: education, language, Utah, WTF

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Flower of the Day: 07/30/14

"When you fall in love with someone, you project all of your dreams onto them and you start to daydream. The other person does the same thing, and you both go on trying to keep this dream alive while avoiding the truth. You avoid revealing yourself to the other, just as you avoid seeing the other’s revelation because it could be a threat to your dream. Thus, the truth becomes a threat, because you prefer to keep on living in your dreamworld."

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Romantic Love | July 30, 2014

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In Buddhist practice, we discover that mindful attention can reveal a deeper truth in whatever object we are paying attention to. The same is true in romantic love. When we use our attention to touch and open the deeper truth in a person, we not only catalyze the experience of love, we become love. The source of love is revealed to be within us; we no longer have to go looking for it somewhere outside. 

 

- Nicole Daedone, "Love Becomes Her" 

 

Via Daily Dharma

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Blowin' in the Wind | July 29, 2014

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How do we renounce? How do we work with this tendency to block and to freeze and to refuse to take another step toward the unknown? If our edge is like a huge stone wall with a door in it, how do we learn to open the door and step through it again and again, so that life becomes a process of growing up, becoming more and more fearless and flexible, more and more able to play like a raven in the wind? 

 

Pema Chödrön, "Like a Raven in the Wind" 

 

There Goes the Gayborhood? By Amin Ghaziani

Flower of the Day: 07/28/14

"We waste a great part of our journey looking for someone to blame for our unhappiness, and believing that we are not good or worthy enough to be happy. This addiction to accusing others is so deeply rooted and can be so subtle that, when you least expect it, you find yourself accusing the other and believing that you are a helpless victim. But when you can transform this victim within you and free yourself from the lenses that distort your perception, you experience a major change in perspective: you stop seeing the glass half empty and start seeing it as half full."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Heart of Mine | July 28, 2014

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Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there’s no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn’t melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart’s not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You’d get it and be right here. 

 

—Han-Shan and Gary Snyder, "Parting Words Summer 2014"

 

Via Daily Dharma

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Clear Insight | July 27, 2014

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A clear insight into the nature of physical forms and mental events will release you from all suffering and stress. 

 

—Upasika Kee Nanayon, "Tough Teachings to Ease the Mind"

 

Flower of the Day: 07/27/14

~ Worldwide current of Prabhu Ap Jago for peace in the Middle East ~
PRABHU AP JAGO, PARAMATMA JAGO, MERE SARVE JAGO, SARVATRA JAGO
 
“This mantra in itself only has an effect on the body, mind and spirit. But if one is aware of the meaning of the words and sings them with awareness, then this song is transformed into a prayer. It becomes a prayer from God to God. The meaning of this mantra is: ‘God awaken, God awaken in me, God awaken everywhere.’ But we can understand its meaning in other ways as well. Since we know that God is love, we are also saying: ‘May love awaken, may love awaken everywhere’, or still, ‘Open my heart, and with my heart open, I ask you to open the hearts of my brothers and sisters.”

Sri Prem Baba

Flower of the Day: 07/25/14

"Trust and freedom are intimately related to vulnerability. Human beings fear being vulnerable, which is why trust and freedom are rare phenomena. A leaf doesn’t know where the wind is blowing, but that doesn't stop it from going with the wind. If you are a leaf full of expectations, always trying to control the wind's direction, your life will become full of challenges. This controlling self is fear itself trying to make things go the way it imagines they should be. But this approach always ends up creating separation, destruction and suffering."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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A Place for Desire | July 25, 2014

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The ultimate aim of my own Buddhist practice is an indestructibly confident and happy state of life through which I can help suffering people. Finding a balanced place for desire in that pursuit helps keep me motivated to do the hard, personal work demanded of a Buddhist practitioner. 

 

—Jamie Liptan, "Chanting for Stuff" 

 

Flower of the Day: 07/24/14

"The mind tries to understand the truth, as it wants a rational answer to everything, so it actively seeks out these answers. But these answers only arrive when the mind quiets down. This is when you understand the truth, and when knowledge becomes wisdom. Knowledge only transforms into wisdom through experience, not through the mind." Sri Prem Baba