Via JMG: OREGON: Democratic Gov. John Kizhaber Resigns In Scandal Over His Fiance, Successor Kate Brown Is Openly Bisexual

 

Via Bloomberg:

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber’s almost four-decade political career fell apart Friday, as he heeded calls from fellow Democrats to resign after a scandal involving his fiancee’s use of his office to generate business for her energy-consulting firm. Kitzhaber, a 67-year-old re-elected to a fourth term in November, announced his departure in a news release. Secretary of State Kate Brown, also a Democrat, will assume the office until 2016.

Oregon's now governor-to-be Kate Brown is married to a man and is openly bisexual, which will make her the first openly LGBT governor in American history. Unless you count former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevy, which you shouldn't.

Labels: Democrats, Kate Brown, Oregon, scandal

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma

Dharma Dating | February 14, 2015 As human beings, we’re hardwired for connection. Of course, our practice helps us dissolve the illusion of a separate self and know that we are supported in every breath by the whole universe. But at the same time, it’s also good to feel supported by a real live person who actually cares that we had a bad day, that the kids were brats, that the boss was a tyrant, that the computer kept crashing, that we failed to solve our koan. - Anne Cushman, "Fifteen Weeks of Dharma Dating" Read More →

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 13/02/2015

“Ao praticar técnicas sexuais com várias pessoas diferentes você acaba criando situações perigosas. Isso porque você amplia seu poder e magnetismo, o que deixa seu ego mais robusto e astuto. E o principal poder que você desenvolve é o poder de manipulação. Mas porque você quer ter esse poder? Você quer manipular o outro para ter domínio sobre ele e para fugir de si mesmo. Ter domínio sobre uma pessoa não é diferente de ter um carro novo ou de ter bastante dinheiro na conta bancária – tudo agrega valor à falsa ideia de quem é você. No mais profundo, você está em busca de uma identidade; está tentando suprir uma carência.” 

Acesse ao Satsang Completo: bit.ly/prembaba01

“Al practicar técnicas sexuales con varias personas diferentes terminas creando situaciones peligrosas. Porque amplías tu poder y magnetismo, lo que deja a tu ego más robusto y astuto. Y el principal poder que desarrollas es el poder de manipulación. ¿Pero porqué quieres tener ese poder? Quieres manipular al otro para tener dominio sobre él y para huir de ti mismo. Tener dominio sobre una persona no es distinto de tener un auto nuevo o de tener bastante dinero en la cuenta bancaria – todo agrega valor a la falsa idea de quien eres tú. En lo más profundo, estás en búsqueda de una identidad, estás intentando suplir una carencia.”

"Practicing sexual techniques with many different people can end up creating dangerous situations. One may increase one’s power and allure, which makes the ego more robust and cunning, but the main power that develops is manipulation. Why would one want to have this power? In order to manipulate the other and dominate them, while avoiding looking at oneself. Having dominion over the other is no different than having a new car, or having a lot of money in one’s bank account. Everything adds value to the false idea of who we are. On a deeper level, one is seeking an identity, and this is an attempt to compensate for a neediness."

- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

Tasting Buddhanature | February 13, 2015 Being told about buddhanature but never really making it our personal experience will not help anything. It's like staying hungry. Once we put the food in our mouth, we discover what the food tastes like. - Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, "As the Clouds Vanish" Read More →

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day -12/02/2015

“Muitas vezes damos passagem para determinados impulsos que não gostamos e não aceitamos, e que gostaríamos que fossem diferentes. O que faz uma pessoa refém do ciúme e da inveja? Refém da insegurança e da vingança? Refém do medo? É a ignorância a respeito da natureza desse impulso. Isso porque tudo o que é negado e relegado ao plano da sombra acaba ganhando força justamente por ficar no inconsciente.”
Acesse ao Satsang Completo: bit.ly/25012015

“Muchas veces damos pasaje a determinados impulsos que no nos gustan y no aceptamos, y que gustaríamos que fuesen diferentes. ¿Qué hace a una persona rehén de los celos, de la envidia? ¿Rehén de la inseguridad y de la venganza? ¿Rehén del miedo? Es la ignorancia al respecto de la naturaleza de ese impulso. Eso porque todo lo que es negado y relegado al plano de la sombra acaba ganando fuerza justamente por estar en el inconsciente.”

"Oftentimes we give way to certain impulses that we do not like nor accept, and that we wish would be different. What makes a person hostage to jealousy and envy? What makes one hostage to insecurity, revenge and fear? It is the ignorance about the nature of this impulse. Everything that is denied and banished to the realms of the shadow ends up gaining strength simply by remaining unconscious."

- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

Democratizing Enlightenment | February 12, 2015 We must take care, in our age of scientific mastery, not to treat enlightenment as the ultimate technological discovery, a state in which everything is understood, a kind of unified field theory of the spirit where only experts reign. This is not the quality of real insight. Real awakening should bring home to us the inexplicability, even unknowability, of our world. - Lewis Richmond, "Enlightenment Needs a Minyan" Read More →

Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 11/02/2015

“Ao entrega-se para a vontade divina, a vontade do seu Eu superior, você se torna uma testemunha silenciosa; um canal puro do amor. Cada ação é como uma prece ao Divino e sua vida se torna devoção. Nada do que você faz é para si mesmo: a graça, a alegria, a cura e o amor passam por você para chegar ao outro, e assim você vai experimentando a plenitude e o contentamento – você vai provando pílulas de samadhi, o êxtase místico. E a cada vislumbre do Eterno, a natureza inferior vai se dissipando, e você vai se aproximando da sua verdadeira essência.”

Acesse ao Satsang Completo: bit.ly/1CviIRC

“Al entregarse a la voluntad divina, la voluntad de tu Yo superior, te vuelves un testigo silencioso, un canal puro del amor. Cada acción es como una plegaria al Divino y tu vida se vuelve devoción. Nada de lo que haces es para ti mismo: la gracia, la alegría, la cura y el amor pasan por ti para llegar al otro, y así vas experimentando la plenitud y el contentamiento – vas probando las píldoras de samadhi, el éxtasis místico. Y a cada vislumbre del Eterno, la naturaleza inferior se va disipando, y vas aproximándote a tu verdadera esencia.”

"When you surrender to the divine will, the will of your higher self, you become a silent witness and a pure channel of love. Each action turns into a prayer to the Divine and your life becomes devotion. Nothing you do is for yourself. Grace, joy, healing and love pass through you to reach the other. In this way, you go on experiencing fulfillment and contentment. You experience samadhi pills: mystical ecstasy. At every glimpse of the Eternal, the lower nature begins to dissipate, and you come closer to your true essence."

- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

Facing Extinction | February 11, 2015 There are a lot of decisions we’re going to be making, consciously or unconsciously, that are going to impact other species, and a lot of choices for us to make that will maximize or minimize that impact. I’m trying to bring those choices into consciousness, because right now we are simply making them unconsciously; we are making them by not making them. - Elizabeth Kolbert, "No Easy Answers" Read More →

Flower of the Day: 02/10/15

“Different spiritual traditions invoke the Divine in specific ways, but there is a common denominator amongst them. For example, bhajans, devotional chants, evoke the deities of the Hindu tradition. Through their symbolism, these deities, or names and forms of the Divine, represent aspects of the Divine that dwell within us all. Everything is inside of us. The Divine works through each one of us, and that which is not here is nowhere."

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Kos

Via Daily Dharma

The Four Metaphors | February 10, 2015 Noble one, think of yourself as someone who is sick, Of the dharma as the remedy, Of your spiritual teacher as a skillful doctor, And of diligent practice as the way to recovery. - Shakyamuni Buddha, "Again 'Common Sense' Buddhism" Read More →

Flower of the Day: 02/09/15

"It is true that the spiritual master is One, that the truth is One, and that the path is One. However, it’s necessary to be aware of the importance of focusing and connecting with the channel that represents the bridge to this oneness for us at this precise moment. Compulsion can manifest in different ways in the many areas of life, and if we are in a particular place but cannot relax and surrender to the process, then we won’t be able to benefit from it. In order to benefit from the path we are on, we must enter into communion with it. For this to occur, we need to focus, surrender and relax."

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

The Witness | February 9, 2015 When you sit with the earth, when you make it your witness and when you act as a witness for it—what do you see? What are you compelled to do? These are questions that take us beyond political stances, beyond principles, beyond arguments about engagement or detachment. They are questions, it seems to me, that can never be answered in any way other than the strictly personal. Sitting or acting; engagement or retreat; perhaps there need be no contradiction. - Paul Kingsnorth, "The Witness" Read More →

Via Daily Dharma

Through Every Jewel | February 8, 2015 All day long, creatures are bumping into other creatures, squashing them, killing and eating and drinking them, wearing and using them, walking and lying on them, destroying their homes. There is no personal boundary to this karmic responsibility—it radiates through every jewel in Indra's net. A karmic debt 'owed' by one is owed by all. Vegetarians owe as much as meat eaters, pacifists as much as fighters. There are no personal safe zones, no useful strategies for self-protection. - John McClellan, "Meat: To Eat It or Not" Read More →

Via Daily Dharma

Wisdom Will Resurface | February 7, 2015 Wisdom does accumulate—not in a linear arithmetic progression but in a complex, dynamic system. Each understanding sheds light upon the others in an interactive living process. Insights that seem unassailable may suddenly meet passionate doubt, all clarity shattered at the very moment it is most needed. Then, just as suddenly, wisdom will resurface, stronger for having vanished, wisdom that now knows of its own disintegration. - Nina Wise, "Sudden Awakening" Read More →

Via JMG: 81% Of College Freshmen Back Marriage

 

In its annual American Freshman Survey, UCLA researchers polled over 150,000 incoming freshmen at 227 colleges and universities. This year's result on marriage:

The survey last asked about same-sex marriage in 2012. In the interim, support for same-sex couples having the legal right to marry has increased 6.5 percentage points to 81.5%. This increase covers a span of time where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s state ban on same-sex marriage. Additionally, since these Supreme Court decisions, state-level same-sex marriage bans have fallen across the country in U.S. Circuit and District courts; as of January 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up four pending cases from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Figure 10 breaks support for same-sex marriage down by political ideology. The findings show that only students who identify as “far right” do not support same-sex marriage. Just 44.3% of students identified as “far right” either “agreed somewhat” or “agreed strongly” that same-sex couples should have the legal right to marry. This figure contrasts with 56.6% of “conservative” students, 84.7% of “middle-of-the-road” students, 93.9% of “liberal” students, and 90.5% of “far left” students. It is clear that same-sex marriage is no longer an issue for the vast majority of entering college freshmen.

We can't wait for Tony Perkins to spin this one.

Labels: education, marriage equality, polls

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma

Experiential Ethics | February 5, 2015 The wonderful challenge of Buddhism is that it does not offer any absolute formulas for virtuousness. In the Silabatta Sutta, the Buddha asks Ananda if every precept and practice taught by the dharma is holy. Ananda replies, 'Lord, that is not to be answered with a categorical answer.' - Hannah Tennant-Moore, "Personal Heaven, Personal Hell" Read More →

Flower of the Day: 02/06/15

"By deepening the practice of self-observation, we may reach the surprising conclusion that we feel pleasure through our negative actions in the world. There is a pleasure connected to the negative situation that repeats itself in our lives. Our vital energy is invested into this destructive action. As we deepen even further into this practice of self-observation, we realize that this may be the only way we know how to feel pleasure. Oftentimes, the positive manifestation of pleasure is a threat to the human being. Since we are so identified with this negativity, we suffer the terror of being annihilated in its absence. Unconsciously, we believe that letting go of this negativity would mean death."

- Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma

You Can't Always Get What You Want | February 6, 2015 The chains of desire pull us into a life of frustration and suffering, while renunciation cuts those chains. Renunciation, though often understood to mean 'giving up,' is, more accurately, the willingness to experience things as they are, not as we want them to be. Here you discover true freedom, the deep, quiet joy that has always been present in you. - Ken McLeod, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" Read More →