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The Secret of Zen | September 17, 2014
"The secret of Zen is just two words: not always so."
- Shunryu Suzuki, "Mindfulness at Moonshine Hollow"
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Thursday, September 18, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Via Daily Dharma
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Opening to Vulnerability | September 16, 2014
Relationships work to open us up to
ourselves. But first we have to admit how much we don’t want that to
happen, because that means opening ourselves to vulnerability. Only then
will we begin the true practice of letting ourselves experience all
those feelings of vulnerability that we first came to practice to
escape.
- Barry Magid, “No Gain”
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Flower of the Day: 09/15/14
“Don’t
expect the violence out there to cease: that is an illusion. The world
will always invite you to enter into warfare. The question is whether or
not you will accept the invitation. It isn’t always possible to be out
there in the world relating to others without getting identified with
something. When this happens, allow yourself to withdraw from the world;
but know that at some point you will have to go back out there. The key
is to be willing to give of yourself, really wanting to see others
happy. It starts with this higher-level study of acting as a channel for
generosity and sharing your silence and love with others, even if they
don’t know that you are doing it, or if they consciously don’t want you
to – or even worse: if they get angry about it.”
Sri Prem Baba
For Whom Do We Practice? | September 15, 2014
We must ask: for whom do we practice?
We see the paradox of the self in the world, focusing inwardly in order
to manifest outwardly. The inward look is the outward view. Ultimately
we practice for others as our inward polishing manifests itself as good
action in our activities.
- Eido Frances Carney, "The Way of Ryokan"
Via Daily Dharma
More Than Heartfelt | September 14, 2014
The bodhisattva approaches the work of
relieving others’ difficulties with as much ardency as we might pursue
or protect the things that we value most highly and desire most
strongly. His motivation is more than heartfelt; it is urgent,
passionate.
- Manjusra, "An Everyday Aspiration"
Flower of the Day: 09/14/14
“Suffering
catches hold of us through comparison and desire, which drag down our
consciousness. With the slightest lack of care, we begin to compare and
desire things, which places us in the labyrinth of psychological time.
We go from the past to the future, and from the future to the past, but
we are never in the present. When we compare ourselves to others, we
start wanting to be what they are or to have what they have. This is one
of the roots of human misery. When we can observe all that is
transitory without getting identified with it through desire or
comparison, we will have discovered the way out of the labyrinth.”
Sri Prem Baba
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Pure and Bright | September 13, 2014
If you [only] keep away from samsara
and dwell in real permanence, your eternal Light will appear, thereby
causing your organs, sense data, consciousness and [mad] mind to vanish
simultaneously. The objects of your thinking process are [polluting]
dust and the feelings that arise from your consciousness are impurities;
if both are kept away, your Dharma eye will appear pure and bright
instantly.
- The Buddha, "When Rahula Rang the Bell"
Friday, September 12, 2014
International Law and the Uncertainty of Rights for LGBT People
For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
people the law is a paradox. The law can operate as an instrument of
repression and control, but also as a tool for resistance and
liberation. We find fragments of our collective histories in court
records. Here we find a sorry history of people in countries across the
world convicted of loitering, sodomy, cross-dressing or so-called
"crimes against nature."
For a vulnerable minority, and an unpopular one, domestic and international law has proven to be an indispensable tool, sometimes the only tool, for LGBT people to claim a space in the world. Two decades ago in a 1994 case, the UN Human Rights Committee in Toonen v. Australia asserted the right to privacy for same-sex consenting adults under international law. In 1998, South African courts repealed the Immorality Act and five years later, in 2003, Lawrence v. Texas saw the remaining sodomy laws in the US declared unconstitutional.
Yet some 76 countries around the world maintain discriminatory LGBT laws. Britain exported its sodomy laws to the empire, where many remain in force. These laws not only hold the threat of arrest and prosecution, but have other profound implications for LGBT people as well. Even in the many countries where sodomy laws are seldom enforced, such as India and Uganda, they still symbolize national discrimination against LGBT people.
Human Rights Watch has reported these laws are routinely used for blackmail and extortion, in settings as diverse as Kyrgyzstan, Jamaica and Uganda. Such laws contribute to a climate of prejudice and hostility in which violence occurs with impunity. The passage of the anti-propaganda laws in Russia led to a peak in violence against LGBT people. In Nigeria, the immediate effect following the enactment of draconian legislation was mob violence against gay men. The law in these places means that LGBT people must live a shadow existence under the threat of violence.
What seldom gets talked about is the psychological impact on individuals. The archaic language of these laws; "the abominable crime of buggery" as the Jamaican law reads, the more delicate language of "the love that dare not speak its name" or vague reference to "carnal knowledge against the order of nature," casts a shadow over desire and the most personal expression of human intimacy. Read through the judgment of the Indian Supreme Court ruling that upheld the sodomy law: the language of family and kinship is reserved for heterosexual marriage, while for homosexuals the language is one of body parts engaged in sexual acts.
A Nigerian activist in Abuja recently told me a story about how, when she visited London, someone had asked her about the situation back home. She said she instinctively withdrew to a corner and spoke in hushed tones, before thinking, "What am I doing?" She had already internalized a fear of being noticed. What cumulative effect does this have on self-esteem and self-worth?
Sodomy laws have historically been used for political purposes. In France in 1307, King Philip IV brought sodomy accusations against the Order of the Knights Templar and dissolved it. The reason - he was heavily indebted to the Knights at the time. In England, King Henry VIII promulgated the Buggery Act in 1533 then promptly accused Roman Catholic monks of sodomy and used that as an excuse to confiscate their monastic lands. He also disposed of his opponent Lord Hungerford by executing him for sodomy in 1540.
Such tactics are still in use. The progress, passage and fate of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act has as much to do with political intrigue within the ruling party and President Yoweri Museveni's fluctuating popularity as it has to do with homosexuality. Vladimir Putin wears a mantle of traditional and family values as political armor that works for him domestically, and also internationally as he takes the stage on an anti-Western ticket. In Malaysia, the political opposition is kept in check by recurrent accusations of sodomy against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. And in Zimbabwe we can tell an election is coming just by monitoring the level of homophobic rhetoric emanating from the ruling party.
Anti-gay laws are seldom just about homosexuality. Homophobia is both a reality and a ruse. Increasingly it is being used as an instrument of political repression. Laws that ban "propaganda," "promotion," or support of LGBT groups are so vague and sweeping that they threaten fundamental freedoms of association and expression. And it is not only LGBT groups that are at risk. The recent wave of anti-LGBT legislation that seeks to outlaw not only sexual practice but also public expression of identity is almost invariably accompanied by broader attacks on activism, on political opposition and on the ability of local organizations to receive foreign funding.
This is playing itself out at a national level, but it is also evident internationally. At the UN, Russia is leading an aggressive charge against the rights of LGBT people under the rubric of "traditional values." Speaking on the crisis in Ukraine at the UN Human Rights Council in March, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov caricatured recent advances in basic human rights for marginalized people as resulting from "[s]upporters of ultraliberal approaches, supporting all-permissiveness and hedonism, requesting a revision of moral values."
Similarly with a push for more limited language on "the family" and an emphasis on the rights of the family as an entity, rather than the individuals who make up the family, the Russian government and its allies are pushing for a concept of human rights that protects the group over the individual. This rhetoric and practice creates a false dichotomy and pits "tradition" against human rights. LGBT rights are the wedge issue, but at stake are the basic principles of international human rights law: that human rights are universal, inalienable and indivisible.
So we should not fool ourselves into thinking that this is only about the rights claims of a vulnerable minority. The well-known adage that the way a society treats its minorities is a good measure of its democracy rings particularly true. What seems distinct about this particular time in our history is the way in which the rights of LGBT people have become a lightning rod for competing visions of the world.
Using homophobia for political ends is as old as the law itself. What has changed is that this is playing itself out on an international level and is becoming the language for articulating two very different visions of the world, one in which human rights are seen as a value to be cherished and upheld, the other in which human rights are seen as a profound threat.
This article was adapted from a speech at a Wilton Park conference.
For a vulnerable minority, and an unpopular one, domestic and international law has proven to be an indispensable tool, sometimes the only tool, for LGBT people to claim a space in the world. Two decades ago in a 1994 case, the UN Human Rights Committee in Toonen v. Australia asserted the right to privacy for same-sex consenting adults under international law. In 1998, South African courts repealed the Immorality Act and five years later, in 2003, Lawrence v. Texas saw the remaining sodomy laws in the US declared unconstitutional.
Yet some 76 countries around the world maintain discriminatory LGBT laws. Britain exported its sodomy laws to the empire, where many remain in force. These laws not only hold the threat of arrest and prosecution, but have other profound implications for LGBT people as well. Even in the many countries where sodomy laws are seldom enforced, such as India and Uganda, they still symbolize national discrimination against LGBT people.
Human Rights Watch has reported these laws are routinely used for blackmail and extortion, in settings as diverse as Kyrgyzstan, Jamaica and Uganda. Such laws contribute to a climate of prejudice and hostility in which violence occurs with impunity. The passage of the anti-propaganda laws in Russia led to a peak in violence against LGBT people. In Nigeria, the immediate effect following the enactment of draconian legislation was mob violence against gay men. The law in these places means that LGBT people must live a shadow existence under the threat of violence.
What seldom gets talked about is the psychological impact on individuals. The archaic language of these laws; "the abominable crime of buggery" as the Jamaican law reads, the more delicate language of "the love that dare not speak its name" or vague reference to "carnal knowledge against the order of nature," casts a shadow over desire and the most personal expression of human intimacy. Read through the judgment of the Indian Supreme Court ruling that upheld the sodomy law: the language of family and kinship is reserved for heterosexual marriage, while for homosexuals the language is one of body parts engaged in sexual acts.
A Nigerian activist in Abuja recently told me a story about how, when she visited London, someone had asked her about the situation back home. She said she instinctively withdrew to a corner and spoke in hushed tones, before thinking, "What am I doing?" She had already internalized a fear of being noticed. What cumulative effect does this have on self-esteem and self-worth?
Sodomy laws have historically been used for political purposes. In France in 1307, King Philip IV brought sodomy accusations against the Order of the Knights Templar and dissolved it. The reason - he was heavily indebted to the Knights at the time. In England, King Henry VIII promulgated the Buggery Act in 1533 then promptly accused Roman Catholic monks of sodomy and used that as an excuse to confiscate their monastic lands. He also disposed of his opponent Lord Hungerford by executing him for sodomy in 1540.
Such tactics are still in use. The progress, passage and fate of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act has as much to do with political intrigue within the ruling party and President Yoweri Museveni's fluctuating popularity as it has to do with homosexuality. Vladimir Putin wears a mantle of traditional and family values as political armor that works for him domestically, and also internationally as he takes the stage on an anti-Western ticket. In Malaysia, the political opposition is kept in check by recurrent accusations of sodomy against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. And in Zimbabwe we can tell an election is coming just by monitoring the level of homophobic rhetoric emanating from the ruling party.
Anti-gay laws are seldom just about homosexuality. Homophobia is both a reality and a ruse. Increasingly it is being used as an instrument of political repression. Laws that ban "propaganda," "promotion," or support of LGBT groups are so vague and sweeping that they threaten fundamental freedoms of association and expression. And it is not only LGBT groups that are at risk. The recent wave of anti-LGBT legislation that seeks to outlaw not only sexual practice but also public expression of identity is almost invariably accompanied by broader attacks on activism, on political opposition and on the ability of local organizations to receive foreign funding.
This is playing itself out at a national level, but it is also evident internationally. At the UN, Russia is leading an aggressive charge against the rights of LGBT people under the rubric of "traditional values." Speaking on the crisis in Ukraine at the UN Human Rights Council in March, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov caricatured recent advances in basic human rights for marginalized people as resulting from "[s]upporters of ultraliberal approaches, supporting all-permissiveness and hedonism, requesting a revision of moral values."
Similarly with a push for more limited language on "the family" and an emphasis on the rights of the family as an entity, rather than the individuals who make up the family, the Russian government and its allies are pushing for a concept of human rights that protects the group over the individual. This rhetoric and practice creates a false dichotomy and pits "tradition" against human rights. LGBT rights are the wedge issue, but at stake are the basic principles of international human rights law: that human rights are universal, inalienable and indivisible.
So we should not fool ourselves into thinking that this is only about the rights claims of a vulnerable minority. The well-known adage that the way a society treats its minorities is a good measure of its democracy rings particularly true. What seems distinct about this particular time in our history is the way in which the rights of LGBT people have become a lightning rod for competing visions of the world.
Using homophobia for political ends is as old as the law itself. What has changed is that this is playing itself out on an international level and is becoming the language for articulating two very different visions of the world, one in which human rights are seen as a value to be cherished and upheld, the other in which human rights are seen as a profound threat.
This article was adapted from a speech at a Wilton Park conference.
Via Sonja van Kerkhoff / FB:
Brilliantly said TW
"There we have it BP's personal opinion with unconnected quotes from the
writings some out of context in quasi support. We'll done. If this version of
the faith is true then it is one of the reasons that mankind will not accept it.
It's old fashioned, dogmatic and riddled with injustice."
As long as the UHJ follows God's guidance it agrees with B!
BP... I don't expect for a minute for the UHJ to make policy based on popularity, I expect them to be concerned with what fits the Bahai principles and teachings. The UHJ have not ruled on same-sex marriage. Perhaps they will, perhaps they will not. It is a new phenomena but that does not mean that they need to make a ruling. Instead they might allow NSA's to decide what is wisest.
We see above the NSA's letter to Sean asking him to reconsider his marriage. They do not state that he has to leave nor that he has lost his voting rights. This is a step in the right direction. In 2009 Daniel Clark Orey lost his voting rights without consultation nor warning and the only way he could regain them was to divorce his husband. The US Bahai community lost a flower in the garden of humanity because of this action.
The UHJ states that marriage is only between a man and woman but they do not express that as a policy because they think this is expressed in the Bahai writings somewhere. The policy they do make in the 2010 letter on same-sex marriage is that when this is a political matter that Bahai communities are not to take sides. What I am talking now is when same-sex marriage is a law of the land. Both Sean and Daniel's marriage are legal marriages.
As long as the UHJ follows God's guidance it agrees with B!
BP... I don't expect for a minute for the UHJ to make policy based on popularity, I expect them to be concerned with what fits the Bahai principles and teachings. The UHJ have not ruled on same-sex marriage. Perhaps they will, perhaps they will not. It is a new phenomena but that does not mean that they need to make a ruling. Instead they might allow NSA's to decide what is wisest.
We see above the NSA's letter to Sean asking him to reconsider his marriage. They do not state that he has to leave nor that he has lost his voting rights. This is a step in the right direction. In 2009 Daniel Clark Orey lost his voting rights without consultation nor warning and the only way he could regain them was to divorce his husband. The US Bahai community lost a flower in the garden of humanity because of this action.
The UHJ states that marriage is only between a man and woman but they do not express that as a policy because they think this is expressed in the Bahai writings somewhere. The policy they do make in the 2010 letter on same-sex marriage is that when this is a political matter that Bahai communities are not to take sides. What I am talking now is when same-sex marriage is a law of the land. Both Sean and Daniel's marriage are legal marriages.
The 2010 letter does not associate being homosexual as something bad. I am surprised that you keep confusing Shoghi Effendi's name and authority as official interpreter with the lesser authority of letters written on his behalf which is the only place where homosexuality is mentioned although your comment "The interpreter clarified the matter, and the interpretations and applications of this law never mention child molestation" actually refers to Abdul-Baha not Shoghi Effendi.
I end with something Shoghi Effendi did write:
"It should also be borne in mind that the machinery of the Cause has been so fashioned, that whatever is deemed necessary to incorporate 23 into it in order to keep it in the forefront of all progressive movements, can, according to the provisions made by Bahá’u’lláh, be safely embodied therein. To this testify the words of Bahá’u’lláh, as recorded in the Eighth Leaf of the exalted Paradise: “It is incumbent upon the Trustees of the House of Justice to take counsel together regarding those things which have not outwardly been revealed in the Book, and to enforce that which is agreeable to them. God will verily inspire them with whatsoever He willeth, and He, verily, is the Provider, the Omniscient.” Not only has the House of Justice been invested by Bahá’u’lláh with the authority to legislate whatsoever has not been explicitly and outwardly recorded in His holy Writ, upon it has also been conferred by the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá the right and power to abrogate, according to the changes and requirements of the time, whatever has been already enacted and enforced by a preceding House of Justice. In this connection, He revealed the following in His Will: “And inasmuch as the House of Justice hath power to enact laws that are not expressly recorded in the Book and bear upon daily transactions, so also it hath power to repeal the same. Thus for example, the House of Justice enacteth today a certain law and enforceth it, and a hundred years hence, circumstances having profoundly changed and the conditions having altered, another House of Justice will then have power, according to the exigencies of the time, to alter that law. This it can do because that law formeth no part of the divine explicit text. The House of Justice is both the initiator and the abrogator of its own laws.”
Flower of the Day: 09/12/14
“The
process of awakening consciousness brings profound changes throughout
one’s entire system. Purification doesn’t only affect subtle bodies; all
our inner bodies are connected with each other. So when the mental and
emotional bodies are purified, this reflects on the energetic body,
which then affects the physical body. Certain mental and emotional
blockages manifest in the body, so it’s natural to feel strange
sensations in one’s physical body. Some of these symptoms have been
studied and labeled by science, while others have not.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
The So-Called Real World | September 12, 2014
The so-called real world is a perpetual
cycle of suffering and discontent called samsara, in which base
emotions such as hatred, envy, grasping, and ignorance reign. In our own
time the materialistic outlook is completely dominant and almost
impossible to resist. Only by removing our blindfolds and confronting
these forces of negativity can they be overcome.
- Judith L. Lief, "Welcome to the Real World"
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Flower of the Day: 09/11/14
“When I say that the lower self gets dissolved, I am using a metaphor, because in this world, nothing dissolves – everything is transformed. This is one of the laws of this world. The lower self is actually energy that was transformed and ended up manifesting in this way. When the veil of illusion was laid over our eyes, trust turned into fear. We are talking about a distorted energy, and our job is to re-invert it.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
The Origin of Philosophy | September 11, 2014
The origin of philosophy is wonder.
It’s a sense of being astonished, a sense of waking up to the fact that
you’re here rather than not here. And I would take that also to be what
the Buddha was awakened to on seeing a sick person, an old person, a
corpse.
- Stephen Batchelor, "Going Back to the Source"
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Flower of the Day: 09/10/14
“It is only when you become aware of your false faith that you may come to know true faith.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
Chaotic Mind | September 10, 2014
A mind devoid of insight into its own nature is a chaotic mind, a mind of unease.
- Kathleen Dowling Singh, "The Chaos Under the Hood"
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
The Zen You Bring | September 9, 2014
The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
- Robert Pirsig, "The Loneliest Road in America"
Flower of the Day: 09/09/14
“It
is impressive how much power one single minute of silence has. Just one
minute is capable of promoting a major change. Everything can be
transformed in this short moment. That is why I constantly invite you to
perform this practice, and I always remind you of the power of silence.
I encourage you to try it out so that you can discover its worth. After
all, to experience this, you don’t need a lot of time.”
- Sri Prem Baba
Monday, September 8, 2014
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