Flower of the Day: 10/18/14

“Many of the games of our lower nature which cause destruction in our lives and in the lives of those around us come from our inability to feel gratitude. Ingratitude results from a lack of understanding about the game of life. This feeds the victim within us who sees fault in absolutely everything, not just in difficult unpleasant situations, but also in the good things of life. One of the main characteristics of the victim is complaining and lamenting. This turns into an addiction which is oftentimes more powerful than even the addiction to chemical substances.”

 

Sri Prem Baba

Listen to the audio>

Via Daily Dharma

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Defining Emptiness | October 18, 2014

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Emptiness simply means an absence of reactivity. When you relate to somebody, there's not you and me and your little mind running its little comparisons and judgments. When those are gone, that is emptiness. 

 

- Charlotte Joko Beck, "Life's Not a Problem"

 

Flower of the Day: 10/17/14

“We see reality subjectively, since we look at it through colored lenses that distort our perception. These lenses are our mistaken ideas and false beliefs. For example, say that your mother was betrayed and therefore became resentful. She might have then transmitted her belief to you that ‘men cannot be trusted because they betray you.’ Consequently, you would end up attracting men who cheat on you, because your energy was vibrating at this frequency and these beliefs acted like magnets. When you look at men you always become suspicious, and this activates the worst in them. That’s how we confirm our beliefs and maintain our limited perception of reality.”

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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The Principle of Renunciation | October 17, 2014

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The principle of renunciation is not to encourage a state of lack, but to establish as complete a state of simplicity as possible. 

 

- Ajaan Amaro, "Just Another Thing in the Forest"

 

Flower of the Day: 10/16/14

“Maturity comes from comprehension. Growing spiritually means increasing your understanding of things. A mature person is someone who understands, and this understanding allows him or her to accept the game of life. In this way, they can experience peace and silence, calmness and tranquility.”

Sri Prem Baba

Listen to the audio>

A buddy of mine posted this on another post:

In relation to a discussion about the Catholic Church possibly becoming more tolerant my Gay Baha'i amigo, Gary wrote:

In the end, all the very conservative religions and political parties are going to have to make a decision whether they want to cater to old people who are dying off or young people of the progressive future. The answer is, of course, obvious, but not to them. Because until now, the older fearful bigoted population was larger and more powerful. So they unwisely catered to that group (short term thinking, which also infects western capitalists). For greedy short-term easy gain, they made the worst possible long-term choice, to be conservative rather the progressive (which is what religion is supposed to be). And in doing so, they have made themselves irrelevant. And they may very well go out of business because of their refusal to adapt to an evolving world. Just like the guy who refused to stop betting on buggy whips when the automobile was first introduced. My own life is a perfect example of this huge mistake made by religion. My religion belittled and scorned me, despite my lifelong devotion to it. So I drifted away to be my true self, at a time when most of society also scorned me. And now all these years later, much of society has come around to accept me, but not my religion. In the meantime, my ordeal taught me I actually prefer my life without the religion. My life is actually much better. So now, even if the religion were to catch up with society, I would not go back. I am just one example. I can only imagine how many others have been similarly impacted by this process. It's too bad religions and political conservatives got themselves caught up on the wrong side of history in the gay civil rights movement, but they did, and they did knowing full well what the repercussions would be and they were also sufficiently warned; they did it anyway. They now will pay the price.

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Dazzled by Technology | October 16, 2014

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People today are dazzled by advances in science and technology and take human progress to be identical with scientific discovery. This is the fundamental group stupidity of our modern times. We must clearly distinguish between scientific advancement and human progress. 

 

- Kosho Uchiyama, "The Chimera of Human Advancement"

 

Via Daily Dharma

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Touching Enlightenment | October 15, 2014

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My sense is that there is a very real problem among Western Buddhist practitioners. We are attempting to practice meditation and to follow a spiritual path in a disembodied state, and our practice is therefore doomed to failure. The full benefits and fruition of meditation cannot be experienced or enjoyed when we are not grounded in our bodies. 

 

- "Touching Enlightenment," Reggie Ray

 

Flower of the Day: 10/15/14

"The mantra Prabhu Ap Jago ​​is a ripe fruit from the tree of consciousness. Its power is impressive when it is sung from the heart. It is a fragrance of the Being, imbued with notes of compassion. This is a prayer that comes from the depths of one’s emotional center. It is a request for God to awaken in everyone, everywhere, and to illuminate the game of joy."

 

Sri Prem Baba

A ‘Pastoral Earthquake’: Catholic Church Proposes Extraordinary Shift On Gays And Lesbians

CREDIT: AP

A panel of high-ranking Catholic officials has proposed a dramatic change in the way the church treats gays and lesbians. The group of Cardinals, known as a synod, suggested the church is capable of “valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine.”

The Cardinals stopped well short of endorsing gay marriage, stating “unions between people of the same sex cannot be considered on the same footing as matrimony between man and woman.” But they also acknowledged, in a section called “Welcoming homosexual persons,” there “are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners.” The Cardinals also suggest that same-sex couples should never be discriminated against in ways that could impact their children. 

The document was called a “pastoral eathquake” by John Thavis, a prominent journalist who covers the Vatican. It was produced by Pope Francis’s ongoing extraordinary synod on the family. That group previously polled Catholics about their opinions on issues including same-sex marriage, divorce, and contraception. The document produced by the synod, however, does not represent a formal change in church policy. 

To read the full article make the jump here

Flower of the Day: 10/14/14

"Sanatana dharma is the path to enlightenment, the way of the eternal religion, which leaves us some inheritances. These act like footprints of love that serve as a map, a guide to the path of the heart. All the names and forms of the Divine I allude to refer to the higher self that inhabits each one of us. They’re like frequencies of light. Just as white light is composed of all the colors of the rainbow, the higher self consists of many aspects that act as virtues or qualities of the Being. Such virtues are emanations of the same Being. They are scents of the fragrance of love."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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Discovering Truth | October 14, 2014

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Trees bend and birds are tossed high. Lives are thrown onto new courses by the spiritual tide. In our ordinary struggles with life and our interminable retreat into the compulsiveness of ordinary being, if we can look honestly, we may experience our religious sense as fully as in many high-flown writings. Looking deeply at our foolishness, we discover truth. 

- Caroline Brazier, "Discovering Truth"

Via Daily Dharma

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Not What You Think | October 13, 2014

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The early teachings deconstruct many habitual ways of being and seeing. We think we’re permanent, but we’re not. We think that by craving things we’ll find happiness, but we won’t. One after another the Buddha challenges our established views, our ways of constructing our version of the world, and takes them apart: you think it’s one way but it’s not; you want an answer, but the problem is your very wanting of an answer. 

 

- Henry Shukman, “The Unfamiliar Familiar”

 

Flower of the Day: 10/13/14

"I have called your attention to this cycle of time we are living in. I have almost no words to express the characteristics of this period; suffice it to say that it’s a very strange or different period. We are entering the peak of Parivartan, the great planetary transformation, so fasten your seatbelts, for we are entering turbulence. Tightening one’s seatbelt means becoming steadfast in one’s sadhana, one’s spiritual practice, because everything will shake. At the same time, we are having wonderful opportunities to serve and to grow in all aspects."

Sri Prem Baba

Via JMG: UPDATED: Wikipedia Marriage Map

Labels: Alaska, marriage, United States


Via JMG/ Comments: 

Top 10 schadenfreude marriage equality states (so far):

1. Utah (LDS)
2. Virginia (Matt Barber, Liberty U., so many others)
3. Oklahoma (Sally Kern)
4. California (Frank Schubert, Randy Thomasson, many others, prop 8 voters)
5. Alaska (Palins)
6. Illinois (Peter LaBarbarian)
7. Massachusetts (MassResistance)
8. North Carolina (a whollllle lotta folks)
9. Hawaii (5000 speakers at the House hearings)
10. Colorado (James Dobson)

More to come, including Mississippi & Texas!

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: BREAKING: Alaska! Alaska! Alaska!

 

State number 30!

Labels: Alaska, LGBT rights, marriage equality

Reposted from  Joe Jervis

Why biblical interpretation has no authority on the matter of sexual orientation.

Flower of the Day: 10/12/14

"As you cultivate silence, even if it may be in one-minute intervals, you begin to lord over your mind, until you are able to abandon it and use it only when necessary. You can use the mind to make calculations or plan your day, but should be able to let it rest when it is not needed. This is the key to freedom."

 

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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What to Do When Anger Gets Hot | October 12, 2014

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Americans think it is beneficial to ‘get in touch with’ their anger. That’s just the first step—recognizing your anger. The second step is analyzing and meditating on your anger. 

 

- Ngawang Gelek Demo Rinpoche, “What to Do When the Anger Gets Hot”