“Relationships are crucial for growth, and doing group work helps tremendously. Beyond that, the sangha, or spiritual community, is a sacred jewel, because each person gives strength to the other. Still, the crossing takes place individually, and it’s natural at some point for you to start withdrawing yourself. There comes a moment when some people need this solitude, precisely because the journey is internal. This universe is sustained by lust and attachment, and we spend much of our time on relationships; but even so, at some point it will become necessary to turn within.”
- Sri Prem Baba
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Flower of the Day: 09/27/14
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“This is my prayer: ‘Oh Lord! Come and inhabit my body, inhabit my mind and intellect, inhabit my heart, so that no one may tell us apart. May I be one with you. May every word that comes out of my mouth be an expression of your holy word. May every act that I practice be an expression of your holy will.’
Our prayers should be made towards this direction, because we know there is no other request to be made. Intellectually, we have already understood that we are here to move from a state of separation and isolation to a state of oneness. We are moving from selfishness to altruism, from fear to trust, and from hatred to love.”
- Sri Prem Baba
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Via Daily Dharma
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It's About Being Connected | September 27, 2014
My path to enlightenment will only come from being connected to the world around me. It’s not just about being centered inside; it’s about being connected to your world.
- Njeri Matheu, "People’s Climate March"
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Friday, September 26, 2014
Via JMG: IOC: All Future Olympics Host Cities Must Agree To LGBT Discrimination Protections
The International Olympic Committee today announced that future Olympics host cities must sign a contract with an added clause vowing to protect LGBT participants and attendees from discrimination. Via press release from All Out:
“This is a significant step in ensuring the protection of both citizens and athletes around the world and sends a clear message to future host cities that human rights violations, including those against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, will not be tolerated,” said Andre Banks, co-founder and executive director of All Out, the global movement for love and equality. “This is a particularly important moment for the world’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens who face discrimination and persecution not only in Russia but in countries all over the world. We will continue working to make sure this change is powerfully enforced - these new rules must prevent a replay of Sochi.”RELATED: The 2016 Summer Games will be held in Rio De Janeiro, where robust LGBT protections already exist. The 2018 Winter Games will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where homosexuality is legal, but anti-discrimination laws do not exist.
According to IOC Sports Director, Christopher Dubi, the new clause will include “the prohibition of any form of discrimination, using the wording of Fundamental Principle 6 of the Olympic Charter." This clause will ensure that future host cities must abide by international human rights standards in order to host the games, including the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens and athletes. “By adopting a non-discrimination clause into its host city contracts, the IOC is showcasing its own realization that we must protect the rights of every athlete to live free and openly,” said Hudson Taylor, Executive Director of Athlete Ally. “The Principle 6 campaign sought to shed light on the responsibility of host countries to uphold the olympic values, and this action validates all of the hard work by organizations and individuals across the world who’ve engaged in the fight for LGBT equality.”
Via JMG: HRC Head Chad Griffin: Obama Should Consider LGBT Successor To Eric Holder
Labels: Barack Obama, Chad Griffin, DOJ, Eric Holder, HRC, LGBT rights, Obama administration, Obama cabinet
JMG Headline Of The Day
The Gathering is an annual event at which many of the wealthiest conservative to hard-right evangelical philanthropists in America—representatives of the families DeVos, Coors, Prince, Green, Maclellan, Ahmanson, Friess, plus top leaders of the National Christian Foundation—meet with evangelical innovators with fresh ideas on how to evangelize the globe. The Gathering promotes “family values” agenda: opposition to gay rights and reproductive rights, for example, and also a global vision that involves the eventual eradication of all competing belief systems that might compete with The Gathering’s hard-right version of Christianity. Last year, for example, The Gathering 2013 brought together key funders, litigants, and plaintiffs of the Hobby Lobby case, including three generations of the Green family. The evangelical right financial dynasties and foundations that meet each year at The Gathering dispense upwards of $1 billion a year in grants. But even that is overshadowed by the bigger sums that The Family and The Gathering have managed to route from the federal and state government to fund their movement via the Faith-Based Initiative program, USAID, PEPFAR and other multibillion-dollar programs.Many of the anti-gay hate groups involved will be familiar to you. Definitely hit that link.
Labels: Alliance Defending Freedom, Christianists, Daily Beast, Family Research Council, Focus On The Family, hate groups, religion, The Gathering, Tony Perkins, Truth Wins Out
Via JMG: Christian Group: Homosexuals And Gossips Both Deserve The Death Penalty
"We aren't just defending marriage - whether we call it natural marriage
or traditional marriage or Biblical marriage - because it's the way
we've always done things. We have a much more firm foundation than
tradition. We affirm marriage in the way that God himself intended it.
The church is not a Christian congress or Supreme Court. The laws of God
cannot be overruled or deemed unconstitutional. Of course, we ALL break
those laws and being a homosexual doesn't make a man a sinner any more
or less than being a gossip. Both crimes deserve the death penalty, and
only the one who relies on the righteousness of Christ can escape it." -
Chris Johnson, writing for the American Decency Association, which notes on its Facebook page that it is the former Michigan chapter for the American Family Association.
PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: The American Decency Association declares that while they totally hate that homosexual Michael Sam, they are not the group by the same name that called for protesting Dallas Cowboys games. The American Decency Association calls for a boycott of Target and for Christians to mail their destroyed charge cards to company headquarters. The American Decency Association says the DOMA ruling was as bad as the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Reposted from Joe Jervis
PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: The American Decency Association declares that while they totally hate that homosexual Michael Sam, they are not the group by the same name that called for protesting Dallas Cowboys games. The American Decency Association calls for a boycott of Target and for Christians to mail their destroyed charge cards to company headquarters. The American Decency Association says the DOMA ruling was as bad as the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Via JMG: Hate Groups Launch Joint Campaign: Don't Vote For Pro-Gay GOP Candidates
Posted yesterday on NOM's blog:
Three of the nation's top pro-family groups have announced an unprecedented campaign against three top Republican candidates for federal office because the candidates are supporters of same-sex 'marriage' and abortion. The National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council Action and CitizenLink announced they will urge voters not to support Republican House candidates Carl DeMaio (CA-52) and Richard Tisei (MA-6), and will urge Oregon voters not to support US Senate candidate Monica Wehby. "The Republican Party platform is a 'statement of who we are and what we believe.' Thus, the platform supports the truth of marriage as the union of husband and wife, and recognizes the sanctity and dignity of human life. This is what Republicans believe," said Brian S. Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). "It is extremely disappointing to see Republican leaders in Washington help push the election of candidates who reject the party's principled positions on these and other core issues. We cannot sit by when people calling themselves Republicans seek high office while espousing positions that are antithetical to the overwhelming majority of Republicans."CitizenLink is an arm of Focus On The Family.
Labels: 2014 elections, Brian Brown, Carl DeMaio, Focus On The Family, FRC, GOP, hate groups, marriage equality, Monica Wehby, NOM, religion, Richard Tisei
Flower of the Day: 09/26/14
“Once
we become independent, we may or may not end up helping to sustain our
parents, but we need to observe who in us is doing this. Where does our
sense of responsibility come from: guilt or love? Do we want to help
because our heart is open, or because we feel guilty? Many people help
their parents out of a sense of obligation, but they will later expect
'compensation,' even charging 'interest' and 'inflation adjustments.'
Rather than being monetary, this compensation comes in the form of
emotional pressure. One actually ends up subtly humiliating one’s
parents, taking revenge for having been hurt in the past.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Dialy Dharma
The Things That Matter | September 26, 2014
If you’re not really what you stand
for, then the things that matter the most are always going to be at the
mercy of the things that matter the least.
- Cheri Maples, "She's Got the Beat"
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Flower of the Day: 09/25/14
“Gluttony
is related to sexual repression. There is a subtle channel that
connects the tip of the tongue to the sexual organ. You cannot fulfill
the objective of life without looking at sexuality. Once you are able to
free yourself from repression, your whole body can relax and an
internal space will open up. An awareness springs, which also helps
bring one’s eating habits into balance.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
Hanging Off a Rock | September 25, 2014
Hanging off a rock is an exaggerated
experience of facing the unknown. It is exhilarating, scary, and
completely vibrant. When we can’t find a foothold, the mind falls into
an open stillness—the same brief pause we encounter in any situation
where we lose our familiar reference points. If we have the wherewithal
to relax, we find our way.
- Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, "Open Stillness"
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Via NYT Opinion: ‘I Do’ Means You’re Done
In
and around Rome, the talk is of Pope Francis’ sage acceptance of the
21st century, of his empathy, of his departure from the stern moralizing
on matters of the heart that his predecessors engaged in.
In
Montana, a gay couple who have been together for more than three
decades have been told that they’re no longer really welcome in the
Catholic parish where they’ve been worshiping together for 11 years.
This
happened last month, in the town of Lewistown. By all accounts, these
two men, one of them 73, the other 66, had done no one any harm. They
hadn’t picked a fight. Hadn’t caused any particular stir. Simply went to
Mass, same as always. Prayed. Sang in the church choir, where they were
beloved mainstays.
There
was only this: In May of last year, without any fanfare, the men had
traveled to Seattle, where they had met and lived for many years, to get
married. And while they didn’t do anything after to publicize the civil
ceremony, word eventually leaked out.
So
in early August, a 27-year-old priest who had just begun working at the
parish summoned them to a meeting, according to local news reports. And
at that meeting, he told them that they could no longer be choir
members, perform any other roles like that or, for that matter, receive
communion.
If
they wanted those privileges restored, there was indeed a remedy, which
the priest and other church officials spelled out for them over
subsequent conversations. They would have to divorce. They would have to
stop living together. And they would have to sign a statement that
marriage exists only between a man and a woman.
Translation:
Renounce a love fortified over 30 years. Unravel your lives. And affirm
that you’re a lesser class of people, barred from the rituals in which
others blithely participate.
With those little tweaks, the body of Christ can again be yours.
In
one sense there’s nothing revelatory here. For all the changes afoot in
enlightened countries around the world, the church remains censorious
of same-sex marriage — fervently so, in many instances — and Catholic
teaching still forbids sexually intimate relationships between two men
or two women.
But
there are details to note, rue and reject. One is the hypocrisy (or
whatever you want to call it) of punishing a same-sex couple for
formalizing a relationship that was already obvious, as these men’s
partnership was.
Such punishment has befallen many employees of Catholic schools or congregations since the legalization of same-sex marriage in many states allowed them civil weddings. Teachers long known to be gay are suddenly exiled for being gay and
married, which is apparently too much commitment and accountability for
the church to abide. Honesty equals expulsion. “I do” means you’re
done.
I
reached the Montana couple, Tom Wojtowick and Paul Huff, on the phone
Tuesday, and Wojtowick expressed befuddlement. “We’re just two old men,”
he said, and their relationship was no secret. “We’re only 5,900 people
in this town, and Paul and I are really well known.”
Flower of the Day: 09/24/14
“The
deepening of a loving relationship cannot be forced. At times a person
needs variety, which may even be the remedy for healing their
repression. They may need variety because they aren’t ready to look at
certain pages of the book of their life yet. There is nothing wrong with
this. These are just moments along the journey. We must not fall into
the trap of the idealized self which expects us to give what we don’t
have to give. The idealized self is a cruel tyrant who demands that we
be something we are not. It asks us to surrender ourselves to a
relationship, even if we are not ready for that.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
Addiction to Thoughts | September 24, 2014
When it comes to addiction we’re
usually talking about alcohol or substance abuse, but there can also be
an addictive quality to our thinking.
- Robert Chodo Campbell, "Just Shut Up"
Flower of the Day: 09/23/14
“I
know that many people who are with me are praying for others who are
ready, that they may wake up. This is a spiritual current for awakening.
It is a vigil happening around the globe. This vigil is made up of current of souls that are mature enough to understand that they need to
pray for their brothers and sisters.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
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Touch the Core of Time | September 23, 2014
Through spiritual practice we can go
beyond our egoistic point of view. We can touch the core of time, see
the whole world in a moment, and understand time in deep relationship
with all beings. Then we cannot be isolated and cold people. We become
beautiful and warm people, appreciating and helping all beings.
- Dainin Katagiri, "Time Revisited"
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