Via Huffington: Hate the Gays? Imagine the World Without Us

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In our current political discourse, right-wing politicians continue to demonize the LGBT community in sad and desperate attempts to rally their base. While, happily, their efforts have not been as effective as in the past, any attempt to make gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender people feel anything less than equal can lead to devastating consequences, as the ongoing string of youth suicides so painfully highlights.

Any preventable loss of dignity and human life must be stopped. The question is, "How?"

While prior efforts have focused on the issue of harassment, it is time for the LGBT community to take the dialogue one step further. When you are a teen, simply waiting for your next birthday can seem like an eternity. Telling our youth that life will indeed get better, some years into the future, is not enough. We must instead create a world in which there is no longer any shame in being gay. We must show that each and every one of us has something of value to contribute to this world, period. 

The first step is creating discussion with the haters around where their anti-gay beliefs come from, and challenging those beliefs with facts. But we then need to take that dialogue even further and examine more closely what they hope that such convictions will ultimately achieve.

Typically, those who hold negativity toward those who are LGBT can be placed into two main camps: those who believe that being gay is unnatural, going against nature, or those who believe it goes against religious teaching. 

With either group, the case can be made to counter such beliefs with facts. For example, those who believe that being gay is unnatural may be surprised to learn that homosexual activity has been observed in close to 1,500 species, and that such scientific certitudes should be spotlighted. For those who believe that homosexuality violates religious principles, pointing to texts such as the Bible as justification, and dialogue around translation issues, intent, and historical context, might be beneficial.

However, in both situations, while factual evidence might change some minds, most will still be unwilling to let go of long-held beliefs. My question to them then becomes, "What do you hope these beliefs will achieve?"

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Via JMG: Feds Appoint First LGBT Rights Envoy

The State Department today appointed the first LGBT rights foreign envoy in US history.

Randy W Berry, who is gay, has been appointed to the senior role within the US State Department by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. He has previously served as Consul General in Amsterdam, and has also had postings for the State Department in Bangladesh, Egypt, Uganda, South Africa, and Washington DC. John Kerry said: “Randy’s a leader, he’s a motivator. But most importantly for this effort, he’s got vision. Wherever he’s served — from Nepal to New Zealand, from Uganda to Bangladesh, from Egypt to South Africa, and most recently as consul general in Amsterdam — Randy has excelled."

The HRC applauds:

“At a moment when many LGBT people around the world are facing persecution and daily violence, this unprecedented appointment shows a historic commitment to the principle that LGBT rights are human rights,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “President Obama and Secretary Kerry have shown tremendous leadership in championing the rights of LGBT people abroad. Now, working closely with this new envoy, we’ve got to work harder than ever to create new allies, push back on human rights violators, and support the brave leaders and organizations that fight for LGBT rights around the world."

IGLHRC does the same:

“The appointment of Randy Berry as a special diplomatic envoy brings to a pinnacle the historic trend, first put in motion by the 2011 Presidential Memorandum, of integrating the rights of LGBT people into U.S. foreign policy. Having long advocated for this step forward, we at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission celebrate its arrival and congratulate Mr. Berry on his new role. The U.S. envoy can contribute to a new era in which the conscience of governments everywhere can be focused on the destabilizing impact of prejudice and abuse that inflicts suffering on millions worldwide. Human rights should be a priority for every government in both domestic and foreign policy.

Hate groups have already denounced the creation of the position as yet another example of the Obama administration imposing its homofascist agenda on foreign countries.

Labels: diplomacy, Obama administration, State Department

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via THE BEER PARTY / FB:

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Elected Judges (HBO)

JMG Quote Of The Day - Graham Moore

"I’m not gay, but I’ve never talked publicly about depression before or any of that and that was so much of what the movie was about and it was one of the things that drew me to Alan Turing so much. I think we all feel like weirdos for different reasons. Alan had his share of them and I had my own and that’s what always moved me so much about his story.” - Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore, speaking to Buzzfeed. Moore's "it gets better" acceptance speech led many (including numerous media outlets) to wrongly assume that he is gay. At this writing #StayWeird remains a top-trending hashtag on Twitter.

Labels: Alan Turing, Graham Moore, movies, Oscars

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Common, John Legend - Glory

Via Tricycle: Nothing Need Be Done

Nothing Need Be Done

A 1988 interview with Gary Snyder, from the newly published anthology Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places

 

A 1988 interview with Gary Snyder, from the newly published anthology Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places

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One morning in 1984, a letter posted on the other side of the world clacked through the flap of my door in Cape Town. It was from the poet, environmental activist, and longtime Buddhist Gary Snyder, a warm response to questions about his writing. I was a graduate student at the time and had been reading his work after a friend gave me a copy of his 1967 collection A Range of Poems. That first letter was the beginning of a long long-distance friendship and an ongoing conversation.

It started as an intellectual exchange and became an exploration of practice. As a young person living in a society demarcated by the paranoid logic of apartheid, I found it refreshing to meet the spaciousness of Gary’s way of seeing. His delight in wildness. Poems that opened up the idea of social justice to include nonhuman beings and the living world. The truly radical realization that things are not things but process, nodes in the jeweled net. And in all this a tendency simply to walk out of the narrow prison of dualistic thought.

Over the years, what has kept on bringing me back to Gary’s writing and to our conversation is his steady articulation of this vision in practice: Buddhist practice, the practice of writing, of being a householder, of living in places.

Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places puts together three interviews and a selection of letters from around 30 years. We recorded the first interview, an adaptation from which follows, in 1988 at Kitkitdizze, Gary’s home on the San Juan Ridge in the Sierra Nevada, where he is also a member of the Ring of Bone Zendo. It was a hot day in late August, and Carole Koda, his new partner, sat listening throughout.

Make the jump here to read the full article

 

Via Daily Dharma

From the Ground Up | February 23, 2015 It would be really easy to live in the city and teach at a Zen center and do nothing but Buddhist teaching. I wouldn’t want to do it that way. I’d rather go out and start working in the neighborhoods as much as I could, because I think you have to work the ground for a Buddhist society first. You can’t just leave your society the way it is and say 'We offer this as one of the teachings.' You’ve got to help the society get its feet on the ground before those teachings can begin to flourish. - Gary Snyder, "Nothing Need Be Done" Read More →

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 22/02/2015

“O que tira a mente do momento presente é o desejar compulsivo. O desejo está intimamente relacionado com a sua história: com o seu passado e com as marcas do seu corpo emocional, que agem como buracos que você tenta preencher através de coisas. Você deseja uma coisa - consegue essa coisa – e se sente preenchido. Porém, esse preenchimento dura muito pouco, porque você tenta preencher um buraco interno com algo de fora. Isso não é possível. O máximo que você consegue é viver a ilusão, por um curto espaço de tempo, de que o seu buraco foi preenchido. Esse buraco só pode ser preenchido de dentro para fora, ou seja, somente quando você se harmoniza com o seu passado.”

“Lo que saca a la mente del momento presente es el desear compulsivo. El deseo está íntimamente relacionado con tu historia: con tu pasado y con las marcas de tu cuerpo emocional, que actúan como agujeros que intentas llenar a través de cosas. Deseas una cosa - consigues esta cosa - y te sientes satisfecho. Sin embargo, este relleno dura muy poco, porque intentas llenar un agujero interno con algo de afuera. Esto no es posible. Lo máximo que consigues es vivir la ilusión, por un corto espacio de tiempo, que tu agujero se llenó. Este agujero sólo puede ser rellenado desde adentro hacia afuera, es decir, sólo cuando te armonizas con tu pasado.”

"What takes the mind away from the present moment is compulsive desire. Desires are closely related to our history, our past, and the imprints on our emotional bodies, which are like holes that we try to fill up with things. We desire something, we get it, and we feel satisfied. However, this satisfaction doesn’t last very long, because we’re trying to fill an internal hole with something external. This is not possible. The most we can achieve is to live in this illusion for a short time, believing that the hole was filled. This hole can only be filled from the inside-out. In other words, it will only be filled when we can be in harmony with our past."

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 21/02/2015

“Shalom, shanti, piece, paz... Conscientes ou não, todos estamos em busca disso, mesmo quando acreditamos estar em busca de realizações materiais, afetivas, sexuais e espirituais. A paz é a mais elevada das virtudes; é o fruto maduro da árvore da consciência. Mas, para realizar a paz se faz necessário chegar a um acordo com o desejo. O desejo é o gerador do apego e do tumulto interno.”

“Shalom, shanti, peace, paz... Conscientes o no, todos estamos en busca de eso, incluso cuando creemos estar en busca de realizaciones materiales, afectivas, sexuales y espirituales. La paz es la más elevada de las virtudes; es el fruto maduro del árbol de la conciencia. Pero para realizar la paz es necesario llegar a un acuerdo con el deseo. El deseo es el generador del apego y del tumulto interno.”

"Shalom, shanti, paz, peace... Whether we’re aware of it or not, we are all in search of peace – even when we believe we’re in search of material, romantic, sexual or spiritual experiences. Peace is the highest virtue: it is the ripe fruit of the tree of consciousness. In order to achieve peace, we must come to an agreement with desire. Desire generates attachments and inner turmoil."

Via Daily Dharma

The Force of Gratitude | February 22, 2015 Gratitude is a way of undercutting your ego—that is, it is a way of being Buddhist. There is an awareness that we get now and then about what we owe to others, and Shinran [the founder of Shin Buddhism] feels that that should become the moving force of one’s life. That awakening, that awareness, transforms your way of dealing with life, with people, and with all things. - Rev. Dr. Alfred Bloom, "Beyond Religion" Read More →

Guy Winch: Why we all need to practice emotional first aid

Gay Marriage, WHAT?!

Review: A Lost History of the Baha’i Faith

Books that simultaneously address family history and religious studies appeal to both of my literary obsessions, and hence tend to be among my favorite reading material. Several years ago Prophet’s Daughter by Erin Prophet told the story of the rise and fall of the Church Universal and Triumphant in a way no one else ever could; the author being the ultimate insider yet also a complete outsider. 

An insider in that she was a participant in all the events she describes, but an outsider in that she entirely rejects the belief system constructed by her parents. The finest book in the literature about Edgar Cayce, in my opinion, is Sidney Kirkpatrick’s biography Edgar Cayce: An American Prophet, because it goes into greater depth about the extended family of Edgar and Gertrude, their parents, siblings, children,and cousins, than any before or since.

It is not unusual for the descendants of a movement founder to find themselves at odds with the authorities who gain control of a religion’s governance. The entire family of Elizabeth Clare Prophet is now in such a position, but far more extensive are the descendants of Joseph Smith, Jr. Although the Utah Mormon church accounts for about 98% of LDS membership worldwide, most of the prophet’s descendants ended up in the Reorganized LDS church, which in 2001 became the Community of Christ. It is far more theologically liberal than the Utah church, for example having ordained women since the 1980s. According to certain traditions, the family of Jesus found themselves alienated from the authorities of the early Christian church. Although the Gospels name four brothers of Jesus and mention unnamed sisters, by the fourth century church authorities decided that he could not possibly have any siblings because Mary was a perpetual virgin, and this remains official church doctrine among Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestant groups. Although earlier historical records indicate that people had been recognized as blood relatives of Jesus in the first century, they were ultimately defined out of existence because they conflicted with a dogma based on metaphysics rather than history. But no case of a split between a prophet’s family and the religious authority structure of a faith community is as extreme and antagonistic as the example of the Baha’is. Eric Stetson has brought to light what he aptly entitles A Lost History of the Baha’i Faith, predominantly the unpublished writings of Shua Ullah Behai, grandson of the Baha’I founder Baha’u’llah. The collection includes the works of a dozen other individuals, almost all descendants of Baha’u’llah who have been not just alienated from, but demonized by the religious authorities who govern the contemporary Baha’i community.

The highest current authority is the Universal House of Justice, an all-male governing body that was first elected in 1963, six years after the death of the only Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi. The office of Guardian was ordained by the Will and Testament of Abdu’l Baha, oldest son of Baha’u'llah and grandfather of Shoghi Effendi, to last in perpetuity. But the Guardian was supposed to be a lineal descendant of Baha’u’llah, appointed by his predecessor; and Shoghi Effendi died without leaving a will and after excommunicating all his relatives, including his parents and siblings. Hence the Guardianship was declared abrogated. In this context as with the previous generation of leadership, excommunication is combined with shunning, and those shunned are called “covenant-breakers” and described as having a contagious spiritual disease. There are now several competing sects based on various claims by non-descendants to inherit the mantle of the Guardianship, but none of these have been supported by any of the Baha’I descendants. The new book now available is the work of an earlier category of “covenant-breakers,” those excommunicated by Abdu’l Baha, including two of his brothers and all their families—one of whom, a nephew, is the primary author of the book.

Stetson’s excellent introduction and conclusion are scholarly rather than polemical in tone, but the notes and comments in the body of the book show his admiration and sympathy for these excommunicated relatives. The surviving descendants who cooperated with Stetson and encouraged publication of the book have a positive message of inclusion and reconciliation. But like the great-great-great-nephews and nieces of Jesus, their very existence is an “inconvenient truth” to the belief system as it evolved under ecclesiastical authority over time.

The forthcoming volume of correspondence of Thomas Moore Johnson reveals a hitherto unsuspected connection between early American Baha’is and the HBofL. The phrase “Religion of the Stars” appeared as a catch-phrase of the astro-Masonic late 19^th century group the Oriental Order othe Magi. The OOM, as it turns out, involved both Ibrahim Kheiralla, the first Baha’I missionary in the US, and some correspondents of Mr. Johnson. Mr. Kheiralla, who died in 1929, is one of the many “covenant-breaker” dissidents whose writings are included in A Lost History of the Baha’i Faith.

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia - Flor del Día - Flower of the Day - 20/02/2015

“O nosso trabalho transita entre a esfera da ativação da consciência maior e a esfera da purificação dos porões do inconsciente. A ativação da consciência maior é quando você tem acesso à lembrança de quem é você; é quando você de alguma maneira entra em contato com expressões do Real, e experimenta fragrâncias da bem aventurança (amor, paz e liberdade). Mas essa experiência só é possível quando você já purificou em algum grau as marcas do passado do seu sistema, pois é justamente isso que te impede de sustentar o êxtase. Esse é o trabalho de cura e transformação do eu inferior, que tenho chamado de “ABC da Espiritualidade”. Essas duas esferas de trabalho precisam ser contempladas simultaneamente.”

“Nuestro trabajo se mueve entre la esfera de la activación de la conciencia mayor y la esfera de la purificación de los sótanos del inconsciente. La activación de la conciencia mayor es cuando tienes acceso a la memoria de quién eres; es cuando de alguna manera entras en contacto con expresiones de lo Real, y experimentas fragancias de la bienaventuranza (amor, paz y libertad). Pero esta experiencia sólo es posible cuando ya purificaste en algún grado las marcas del pasado de tu sistema, porque eso es precisamente lo que te impide sustentar el éxtasis. Este es el trabajo de cura y transformación del yo inferior, que vengo llamando "ABC de la Espiritualidad". Estas dos esferas de trabajo precisan ser contempladas simultáneamente.”

"Our work transitions between the spheres of activating our higher consciousness and purifying the dungeons of the unconscious. When you activate your higher consciousness, you can access the remembrance of who you are. When, in some way, you come into contact with the expressions of what is real, it allows you to experience the bliss of the fragrance of love, peace and freedom. But this experience is only possible when you have purified the marks of the past in your system to some degree, because that is precisely what prevents you from sustaining ecstasy. This is the work of healing and transforming the lower self, which I call the ‘ABC of Spirituality.’ These two spheres of work need to be addressed simultaneously."

Via Daily Dharma

Our Real Home | February 21, 2015 Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught that that is not our real home. Our real home is inner peace. - Ajahn Chah Subatto, "Our Real Home" Read More →

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