Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
The Natural Order of Things | August 6, 2014
While we live, we are able to live.
When it's time to die, we are able to die. This is the natural order of
things, and to the extent that we align ourselves with this, we
experience peace even in the midst of distress.
- Meikyo Robert Rosenbaum, "Breathless"
Flower of the Day: 08/06/14
“The
main aspect of the spiritual journey is creating union. Every river
flows towards the ocean, and the ocean never refuses a river. But, for
the river to approach the ocean, it must have the strength to overcome
all of the challenges along the journey. This strength is gained through
the union of various rivers, because one river alone easily
disappears.”
Sri Prem Baba
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Bliss is a By-Product | August 5, 2014
There may be bliss with awakening,
because it is actually a by-product of awakening, but it is not
awakening itself. As long as we are chasing the byproducts of awakening,
we will miss the real thing.
- Adyashanti, "Bliss is a By-Product"
Flower of the Day: 08/05/14
“Identifying
the negative aspects of the personality is like opening up a window to
brighten a dark room. When you open it, the darkness disappears, but you
see that the room is dirty. The light comes in to illuminate your
perception, but it’s not enough to remove all of the impurities. If the
floor is very dirty, then it might have to be cleaned several times. You
keep cleaning until it is very clean. The same thing happens with the
heart.”
Sri Prem Baba
Monday, August 4, 2014
Flower of the Day - 08/04/14
“Desire
and ambition generate unrest. All anxiety and the compulsion to do are
symptoms of desire and ambition. One only frees oneself of a symptom by
eliminating the cause, which is only eliminated by understanding the
cause. Self-investigation generates this comprehension. By investigating
the causes, one will discover that one is obsessed with success. But I
ask you: what is success for you? Is it reaching a certain level in your
life? And once you reach this level, what do you do? You want more.
This is the nature of desire.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
Self Disappears | August 4, 2014
When we are freed from the reactive
patterns sprung from the boundaries we live by—good and bad; love and
hate—we are not the self we were before. And when the boundaries
themselves dissolve, self as we understand it disappears.
- Anne C. Klein, “The Four Immeasurables”
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Via Bilerico: Nepal Regressing Dangerously on LGBT Rights
Sunil Babu Pant, the first openly gay politician in the mountainous south Asian nation of Nepal and the head of the country's only LGBT rights group, is warning that the country is at risk of a dangerous backslide on LGBT rights inspired by similar reversals in India, Russia, and some African nations.
In an op-ed for the Nepali Times, Pant writes:
The Law Ministry, under the NC's Narhari Acharya, is trying to enact punitive laws that re-criminalise LGBT relationships, completely overturning previous Supreme Court decisions. After the first Constituent Assembly was dissolved in 2012, there is not a single person from the third gender community in the bureaucracy, ministry, parliament or any other decision-making level...Pant tells Gay Star News that the Law Ministry is preparing to push the measures through parliament after an attempt to do so in 2011 failed. The proposed laws would punish gay sex with three years' imprisonment, which is a tougher penalty than the one-year jail sentence attached to gay sex before it was decriminalized in 2007.
This new draft provision of civil and criminal codes prepared by the Law Ministry not only defines homosexuality, but also oral and anal sex among heterosexuals, as 'unnatural' acts. The definition of rape is narrowed only to women. The notion that only men can be rapists and only women can be victims comes from a deep-rooted patriarchal mindset. These notions seem to be inspired by conservative reversals in India, some western and African countries...
All Nepalis who believe in equality and tolerance must raise their voices. The right to justice of all marginalised peoples is under threat from a regressive state. They are going to be excluded, margninalised, discriminated against, criminalised and demonized.
"We are really concerned about this attempt of taking Nepal back to draconian era after so much progress we made. Unbelievable that the government is going all against the Supreme Court decisions on LGBTI rights and other minority and marginalized people's rights in Nepal," he said.
Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2014/08/nepal_regressing_dangerously_on_lgbt_rights.php#DGFS5pAOB6jYbLeu.99
Marriages In California Reach Near Record High w/ Legalization Of Same-Sex Marriages
Looks like same-sex marriage is actually saving the institution of marriage in California! Marriage had been on the decline in the state and now it's on the rise with the legalization of same-sex marriage.
The Sacramento Bee reports:
It was looking like another tough year for the California wedding industry. Through June of 2013, the number of new marriages statewide had fallen by almost 4,000, or 3 percent, from 2012.
Then the Supreme Court overturned Proposition 8 and allowed gay marriages in California.
After that decision, from July to December, the number of weddings grew by 27,000, or almost 25 percent, compared to the same period in 2012.
In Sacramento County, the number of weddings increased by 1,150, or 27 percent, during the last six months of 2013 compared to 2012.
Total weddings statewide for 2013 eclipsed all recent years except 2008 - the last prior time that gays were allowed to marry.
NOM's crying in a corner somewhere.
Via Daily Dharma
Willing to Look | August 3, 2014
If we are willing to look long enough
in the mirror of zazen [seated meditation], past seeing ourselves as
objects, we have the potential to see that we are nature itself—we are
born and will die, just as the trees, flowers, and animals in the wild
do.
- Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, “The Hidden Lamp”
Flower of the Day: 08/03/14
“The
greatest addiction of the human being may be to dream. This addiction
is something truly mysterious, since it is an energy that steals away
one’s awareness, but there is pleasure in this. One feels pleasure in
dreaming, so one wants to continue to dream. But there comes a time when
one finds oneself at a crossroads, because one is walking the path of
enlightenment, and the only way to continue on this journey is to stop
dreaming.”
Sri Prem Baba
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Via JMG: HOUSTON: Activists Say Valid Petition Signatures Fall Short Of Number Needed To Place LGBT Rights Repeal On Ballot
From the Houston Chronicle:
City of Houston officials plan to announce Monday whether a petition submitted by opponents of the city's new nondiscrimination ordinance contains enough valid signatures to force a vote on repealing the measure this November. Opponents claimed to have gathered and verified 31,000 names, but City Attorney David Feldman said Friday many of the more than 5,000 pages fall short of legal requirements set out in the city charter. The final tally likely will be closer than many expected to the minimum threshold of 17,269 signatures, Feldman said. "There's an issue there with respect to the validity of pages," Feldman said. "But right now I don't know what the final count is." Feldman provided no numbers, but said his staff had found many invalid pages, most notably because some of the circulators who collected stacks of signatures were not qualified Houston voters, as required by law. In such cases, all the signatures the circulator gathered would be void, Feldman said. Many names on valid pages also did not belong to registered Houston voters, Feldman said, and some signatures were gathered before June 3, when the ordinance was published and the petition drive could begin.From JMG reader Mike Craig of Out & Equal Houston:
When the Houston Area Pastors Council turned in 7 boxes of petitions to the City on July 3rd, they boasted of gathering more than 31,000 valid signatures. An independent group of concerned citizens has spent the last three weeks independently reviewing each page of that repeal petition in an effort to provide additional accountability to the referendum process. This was a grass-roots effort involving more than 100 volunteers who communicated via social media and participated in a crowd-sourced effort that uncovered fatal flaws with what was turned in. Having finished this exhaustive review, the HERO Petition Review Working Group concluded that the petitioners did not, in fact, turn in enough valid signatures in order to place this issue on the ballot.Houston voters rejected similar LGBT rights bills in 1985 and 2001, but local activists are confident that they will prevail should the issue be forced to a public vote for a third time.
The petition rules are really quite simple:
- Petitions must be properly notarized.
- Petitions must have been signed & notarized between June 3rd and July 3rd.
- Petition signers must be registered City of Houston voters.
- Petition circulators must be identifiable and registered City of Houston voters.
- Petition circulators must have signed the petition, not just the notary affirmation, sometime between June 3rd and July 3rd.
Based on these simple criteria, this independent review showed only 16,499 valid signatures were turned in. Additional scrutiny can only lower that number further. A full report detailing these findings has been provided to the City Secretary, City Attorney and Mayor. While it is our hope that the City’s own determination will come to a similar conclusion, we understand that it is ultimately the legal & statutory responsibility of the City Secretary and we will abide by that office’s findings. Should the city come to the same conclusion that our group did, we fully expect the anti-HERO organizers to sue -- and likely drag us to court as well. If the city does certify the petition effort, I believe that it will be by a razor thin margin -- and as I've said before, HERO supporters will work to make sure that this effort is defeated at the ballot box if and when it gets there.
Flower of the Day: 08/02/14
“At
a certain moment, one’s ability to forgive and love will need to be
illuminated. For this to take place, one must renounce the game of
accusations, because accusations are what keep our hearts closed. If
one’s heart is closed, investigate this, and you will find that there is
an accusation.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
The Vow Behind Generosity | August 2, 2014
Every act of generosity reminds us of
the possibility that we might actually live the bodhisattva's vow, the
vow to engage in everyday life as though the well-being of others is
just as important as our own.
- Dale S. Wright, "The Bodhisattva's Gift"
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