The Depths of Our Experience | October 23, 2014
The work of Buddhism is to awaken, to
come out of the sleepy dreams and notions of reality that we hold to be
true and replace them with a direct experience of what is more
accurately occurring. To awaken in this way, we need to become conscious
of what’s actually going on at the very depths of our experience.
- Will Johnson, "Full Body, Empty Mind"
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A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Friday, October 24, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Flower of the Day: 10/23/14
“I
can’t explain what oneness is, I can only show you the path that will
lead you to this experience. Silence is needed for this phenomenon to
take place, even if you are the only one in silence and the whole world
is making noise. If you are in silence, I will be able to guide you
towards this experience. Without silence you will find it difficult to
absorb the teachings that are being transmitted. Most of what is
transmitted is not picked up or received, because of the noise. Great
and rare opportunities for healing are being wasted, and this healing is
what prepares the field for the experience of oneness.”
Sri Prem Baba
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Flower of the Day: 10/21/14
“It
is important to commit to becoming aware of your paradoxes, of your
lack of integrity. When are you dishonest in life? How do you fake love
to sustain the games of your lower nature? A certain kind of courage is
needed in order to love, because you need to be whole and integral. To
love, you need to be aligned with the truth because love is a fragrance
of the truth. I am talking about the truth of the divine self, not the
transitory truth of the small self that is sustained by the mask. The
mask is not at all committed to the truth: it is merely a pretense.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
The Insight of Impermanence | October 22, 2014
To those whose knowledge is developed,
everything within and without oneself, within and without one’s house,
within and without one’s village and town, is an object at the sight of
which the insight of impermanence may spring up and develop.
- Ledi Sayadaw, "Meditation en Masse"
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Flower of the Day: 10/22/14
“It
is necessary to have an ego to live in this realm. This is one of the
laws of this world, just like gravity. We need to have a mediator
between the inner and outer world, and the ego is this mediator. It is
formed from the impressions we receive from the outer world which give
us an idea about who we are. But it has a very important role within the
game, because the ego is the one that makes the journey. The ego
identifies the lower self and becomes identified with the divine self.”
Sri Prem Baba
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
Flower of the Day: 10/20/14
“I
see many spiritual seekers who disregard the possibility of
somatization, developing physical symptoms due to spiritual or emotional
distress. They believe that everything occurs in the subtle bodies, so
they don’t take enough care of their physical bodies. The opposite is
also true: some people are so identified with their bodies that they
fall into despair when they cannot find the causes of their symptoms.
The middle way is of sensibility. When you are on the path to
self-realization, you may have transcendental experiences as well as
challenging ones, but it all depends on the amount of blockages you
carry.”
Sri Prem Baba
Via Daily Dharma
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Via Daily Dharma
Flower of the Day: 10/19/14
“The
denial of our feelings is our main poison. We can only open up to
experiencing all of our feelings once we have understood enough about
ourselves. If we have not yet cognitively understood our inner workings,
we won’t allow ourselves to dive into this experience of our feelings.
We don’t have any control over our feelings because they are completely
protected by fear, arrogance and other aspects of our lower nature.”
Sri Prem Baba
Saturday, October 18, 2014
JMG HomoQuotable - Matt Stolhandske
"As a gay man, I should hate Melissa and Aaron Klein. They’re the Portland-based Christian bakery owners who, in 2013, refused to make a cake for a lesbian couple’s wedding. And despite their insistence that they’re only morally opposed to gay marriage, not gays, they make their disdain for equality quite clear: 'I didn’t want to be a part of her marriage, which I think is wrong,' Aaron Klein recently said of one of the women he rebuked. I’m also an evangelical Christian. I can’t understand why Klein or any other Christians twist the words of Jesus Christ to justify this behavior. To me, it’s a deeply harmful and embarrassing bastardization of our faith. But I don’t hate the Kleins. In fact, I’m raising money to cover the $150,000 punitive fine they received from Oregon. [snip] To them I say: this is what an olive branch looks like. I am not rewarding their behavior, but rather loving them in spite of it. It is time for these two communities, which both cite genuine love as our motivation, to put aside our prejudices and put down our pitchforks to clear the path for progress." - Matt Stolhandske, writing for the Washington Post.
Labels: Christianists, HomoQuotable, LGBT rights, Matt Stolhandske, Oregon, public accommodations, religion, WaPo
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
Via Daily Dharma
Friday, October 17, 2014
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
Thursday, October 16, 2014
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
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.
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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