Flower of the Day: 11/24/14

“I am working steadily so that you can identify the part of your personality that plays against you and sabotages all of your efforts towards self-realization. I call this aspect negative intentionality. This is your ‘no’ to life, to love, to prosperity and pleasure. If there is constant anguish and negative repetitions happening in your life, identify the voice within you that says, ‘I don’t want everything to work out. I want to be weak; I want to be rejected and humiliated.’ While this may seem absurd, I invite you to put into practice this teaching and discover for yourself what I am saying.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

Developing a Healthy Body Image | November 24, 2014 Because the modern obsession with impossibly perfect body images has taught so many people to hate their bodies to a pathological degree, we’ve come to identify all positive body images as psychologically healthy, and all negative body images as psychologically sick. . .  From the Buddha’s perspective, though, this attitude is radically deluded. - Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "Under Your Skin"

Via Friend of Dorothy Book / FB:

Via Join the Coffee Party Movement / FB:

Flower of the Day: 11/23/14

“The unveiling of love is a phenomenon that occurs on the level of the soul. It is the revelation of the Being. This unveiling of love is only possible when we remove the layers that cover up our hearts. Along the journey, we became attached to these layers, and life’s challenges are here to help us break with these attachments. As we continue revealing ourselves, we find that these resistances are made of attachments to what is transitory: our ideas and beliefs. These are tests that love uses to examine our faith and commitment to the truth. Only when this commitment is truly firm can we reach the sacred dwelling place.”

Sri Prem Baba

Flower of the Day: 11/22/14

“I see this planet as a school of love. When I see a cup of water filled halfway, I see a cup half full – never half empty. I recognize the difficulties of this planet, but my focus remains on the possibility of the human being’s evolution. I have an unbreakable faith in love, because it is the universal solvent for all evil. Through love, we are able to liberate ourselves from all the difficulties that have been placed in our paths. In this way, we enter the frequency that allows us to see this planet from the perspective of light.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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May I Be Worthy | November 22, 2014

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May I be worthy of this meal, I whispered.
The afternoon light was coming through the window.
The universe did a little waltz.
ONE two three. ONE two three.
I let go.

- Bobby Byrd, "Kensho Down on Texas Avenue, El Paso, Texas"

Flower of the Day: 11/21/14

“Everyone wants to live with joy and satisfaction, peace, prosperity and love. And yet, we have not been taught how to do so. When you place your gifts and talents in motion, you put yourself in the universal current of prosperity, so love and peace pass through you to reach the other. Every human being has their own unique gifts and talents to share with the world, but it is important to comprehend that these talents should be put at service of the greater good. This higher purpose is to create the conditions for human beings to experience unity. Peace, prosperity and joy are fragrances of this experience, which is synonymous with selfless love.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

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No Goal | November 21, 2014

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Just as a clay Buddha cannot go through water and a wood Buddha cannot go through fire, a goal-oriented healing practice cannot permeate deeply enough. We must penetrate our pain so thoroughly that illness and health lose their distinction, allowing us just to live our lives.

- Darlene Cohen, "The Practice of Nonpreference"

Via JMG: Montana Joins The Sapphire States

 

Big Sky Country has already turned our favorite shade of blue, thanks to our sort of in-house Wikipedia marriage map monitor. Now we wait for the usual GOP flailing. Is this state #34 or can we not yet fully count Kansas?

Labels: marriage equality, Montana, Wikipedia

Reposted from Joe Jervis

JMG Tweet Of The Day - Ellen DeGeneres

 

Ellen has 34 million Twitter followers.

Labels: Ellen Degeneres, marriage equality, Montana

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Taylor Swift - Out of the Woods (Official Music Video) by Bryan Hawn

Flower of the Day: 11/20/14

“If you have already given five minutes of your day to silence, then maybe it is time to give ten minutes. At the end of each silent period before you open your eyes, affirm to yourself, I am divine light. Observe what you feel when you make this affirmation – do you truly recognize yourself as an embodiment of divine light, or is there still some resistance to affirming this truth? Then, open your eyes, stand up and continue with your journey.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

The Role of Faith | November 20, 2014 As a factor of the Buddhist path, faith (saddha) does not mean blind belief but a willingness to accept on trust certain propositions that we cannot, at our present stage of development, personally verify for ourselves. - Bhikkhu Bodhi, "The Role of Faith"

Tim Hawkins - Atheist Kids' Songs

Bearforce 1 - Action Man. Eurovision Switzerland 2015

Via JMG: Former "Ex-Gay" Leader Marries Man

John Smid, former leader of the "ex-gay" group Love In Action, married a man in Oklahoma on Sunday. Via the Memphis Flyer:

Smid has been living as an out gay man for several years now, and he's been in a relationship with [Larry] McQueen for one year. Gay marriage just became legal in Oklahoma last month. The couple live in Paris, Texas, where Smid moved from his Memphis home in the summer of 2013. Smid's journey from ex-gay leader to happily out gay man has been a long one. He was promoted to the role of executive director of Love in Action in September 1990, and in 1994, the organization moved its ministry to Memphis. Love in Action operated here quietly until 2005, when protests over a youth "straight" camp called Refuge sparked a national media firestorm. Smid met McQueen three years ago, but they were just "acquaintances with common friends," wrote Smid in his Facebook announcement of their marriage Sunday. "I gradually got to know him over time until we reached a place in our lives that we saw we wanted to get to know one another through a dating relationship. As we dated we shared our vision for life, our personal philosophies, and our faith values. We found a compatibility that was comfortable and exciting," Smid said.

In August of this year Smid and eight other former "ex-gay" leaders issued a joint letter denouncing "reparative" torture. Love In Action now operates as Restoration Path. (Tipped by JMG reader Lynda)

Labels: brainwashing, ex-gay, gay weddings, John Smid, LGBT youth, Love In Action, Oklahoma, religion, torture

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: South Carolina Earns Stripes Of Progress

 

Yesterday the Fourth Circuit Court refused South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson's demand to continue the stay on same-sex marriages during his appeal. Almost simultaneously, a separate federal court ruled that South Carolina must recognize out-of-state marriages, prompting Wikipedia's marriage map monitor to apply the above blue stripes of progress. Late last night Wilson took his stay extension demand to SCOTUS. Barring action from that court, marriages will commence at noon tomorrow.

 

Labels: Alan Wilson, Fourth Circuit Court, lawsuits, LGBT rights, marriage equality, SCOTUS, South Carolina, Wikipedia

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via JMG: Procter & Gamble Endorses Gay Marriage

Consumer goods behemoth Procter & Gamble has endorsed marriage equality.

P&G executives say they want to attract top talent from all backgrounds and part of that strategy is providing a welcoming work environment. "We have always supported our employees and fostered a culture of inclusion and respect – this includes the right to marry whomever they choose and to have that union legally recognized," said Deborah P. Majoras, P&G's chief legal officer and executive sponsor to GABLE – the company's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender-allied employee group.

One of the world's largest and most valuable companies, P&G's public stance won't go unnoticed in corporate America. Still, the company says it continues to focus on making consumer products from Pampers diapers, Tide detergent and Head & Shoulders shampoo. "At the heart of it all, P&G is a company heavily dependent on innovation – what's critical are new insights and new ideas," said William Gipson, P&G's chief global diversity officer. "For our company, it's not a political statement, but a statement of support for our employees."

That boycott list just got a few hundred brands longer.

Labels: business, marriage equality, Procter And Gamble

Reposted from Joe Jervis