Flower of the Day: 08/08/14

“A lot of light is arriving on this planet, but our bodies are not yet fully attuned to these new frequencies of light. So it is possible that you may enter situations that are a result of this dissonance, but that still serve to move the energy that is stuck in your system. When this happens, be careful not to frighten yourself because that opens a hole that you can be swallowed by. In this case, you enter a spiritual emergency, which some may call an existential crisis, madness, or panic.”

 

Sri Prem Baba

Flower of the Day: 08/07/14

“Surrender is only possible if there is trust, and trust is a blossoming. One can remain cowering at the edge of the abyss of love for months, years, or many lives, too afraid to jump. One may be hearing love’s call asking one to jump, but it’s not possible to determine when one will be ready for this to happen.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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The Long Road to Sitting Still | August 7, 2014

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The Buddha, perhaps, taking the Middle Way and always reminding us that even our destination is unfixed and perhaps illusory, is every walker’s special friend. Those who journey with him know that they may not come to knowledge so much as a deepened sense of their own ignorance.

 

- Pico Iyer, “The Long Road to Sitting Still”

 

Via Occupy Democrats / FB:

Via Unify / FB:

Via Daily Dharma

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The Natural Order of Things | August 6, 2014

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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"

 

The Secret of our Century - Baha'u'llah

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

Via A Revolt - Digital Anarchy / FB:

Via Daily Dharma

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Bliss is a By-Product | August 5, 2014

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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

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

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Self Disappears | August 4, 2014

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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”

 

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...
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.

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.

"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.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10203966223137304&set=a.1168773220877.26138.1274340694&type=1&theater

Via FB:

Via Daily Dharma

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Willing to Look | August 3, 2014

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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

New Civil Marriage Map

 

http://middlingamerica.blogspot.com.br/2014/07/new-civil-marriage-map.html