Via Daily Dharma

Simple Joy | May 3, 2015 What is it that opens the gate to joy in our ordinary, day-to-day lives? I’ve been calling it awakeness and awareness: the simple practice of sitting quietly, breathing in and out, dropping our obsessive thoughts and resistance to the freshness of the moment that is exactly here. It is amazing, our resistance to tapping into the joy that is like the blue sky surrounding this earth. - Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, "Simple Joy" Read More →

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 02/05/2015

“Ao colocar seus dons e talentos a serviço do bem maior, você se torna um elo na corrente da felicidade. A alegria, a prosperidade e o amor passam por você para chegar ao outro. Você começa a se sentir guiado e levado por algo maior do que você. Mas, enquanto estiver isolado, querendo fazer tudo do seu jeito, isso não é possível. É preciso se colocar na corrente. E você faz isso quando pergunta: “Como posso servir?”. Assim você se torna um canal da felicidade.”

“Al colocar tus dones y talentos al servicio del bien mayor, te conviertes en un eslabón en la corriente de la felicidad. La alegría, la prosperidad y el amor pasan por ti para llegar al otro. Comienzas a sentirte guiado y llevado por algo más grande que tú. Pero mientras estés aislado, queriendo hacer todo a tu manera, esto no es posible. Es preciso colocarse en la corriente. Y lo haces cuando te preguntas: "¿Cómo puedo servir?". Así te conviertes en un canal de la felicidad.”

"By putting our gifts and talents at the service of the greater good, we become a link in the chain of happiness. Joy, prosperity and love pass through us to reach the other. We begin to feel guided and led by something bigger than us. However, if we remain isolated, wanting to do everything our way, then this cannot take place. We need to place ourselves in the current, and we do so by asking: ‘How can I serve?’ This is how we become a channel of happiness."

Via Daily Dharma

The Space in the Mind | May 2, 2015 Most of our suffering comes from habitual thinking. If we try to stop it out of aversion to thinking, we can’t; we just go on and on and on. So the important thing is not to get rid of thought, but to understand it. And we do this by concentrating on the space in the mind, rather than on the thought. - Ajahn Sumedho, "Noticing Space" Read More →

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 01/05/2015

“O mestre é a vida, mas ele também é a morte. Ele representa o fim do ego. Tudo o que é vivo quer continuar vivendo, até mesmo o eu inferior. Os eus psicológicos que te habitam sabem disso, e temem sua aproximação do mestre. Por isso muitas vezes você encontra resistências no caminho da entrega e da confiança. Esses eus se alimentam de pensamentos, maus hábitos e vícios. Com o tempo, eles adquirem inteligência própria e passam a agir como entidades. Eles fazem de tudo para continuar vivendo: inventam histórias, criam dificuldades, criticam e discordam. Isso vai cegando sua percepção e fechando sua visão espiritual.”

"The spiritual master is life, but he is also death. The master represents the end of the ego. The psychological selves inhabiting us know this, and they fear our approaching the master. All that is alive wants to continue living, even the lower self. This is why we often find resistance along the path of surrender and trust. These selves feed on thoughts, bad habits and addictions. Over time, they acquire an intelligence of their own and begin to act as entities. They do everything they can to continue living: they invent stories, create difficulties, criticize and disagree with others. This ends up blinding our perception and closing us off to spiritual sight."

“El maestro es la vida, pero también es la muerte. Él representa el fin del ego. Todo lo que está vivo quiere seguir viviendo, incluso el yo inferior. Los yoes psicológicos que te habitan lo saben, y temen tu aproximación al maestro. Por eso muchas veces encuentras resistencias en el camino de la entrega y de la confianza. Estos yoes se alimentan de pensamientos, malos hábitos y vicios. Con el tiempo, adquieren inteligencia propia y comienzan a actuar como entidades. Ellos hacen de todo para seguir viviendo: inventan historias, crean dificultades, critican y discrepan. Esto va cegando tu percepción y cerrando tu visión espiritual.”

Via Daily Dharma

The Right to Ask Questions | May 1, 2015 Practice makes extraordinary demands of us. It requires that we take nothing for granted, that we accept nothing on faith alone. If we practice with diligence and honesty, then we must question everything about ourselves; we must challenge our most basic beliefs and convictions, even those we may have about the dharma itself. - Larry Rosenberg, "The Right to Ask Questions" Read More →

Teachers for Marriage Equality

Via JMG: Gallup: 780,000 Married Gay Americans

Via Gallup:

Approximately 0.3% of adults in the U.S. are married to a same-sex spouse, and another 0.5% identify as being in a same-sex domestic partnership. In examining the total population of 243 million U.S. adults, these survey estimates suggest nearly 2 million adults are part of a same-sex couple, of whom 780,000 are married. These data are based on 80,568 interviews conducted on Gallup Daily tracking from Jan. 28-April 19, 2015. Overall, approximately 0.3% of all respondents during this time period both identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) and said they were married, and in a follow-up question, they indicated that they were married to a same-sex spouse. An additional 0.5% of adults identified as LGBT and reported being in a same-sex domestic partnership.

The 780,000 American adults who are estimated to be married to a same-sex spouse translates into approximately 390,000 same-sex married couples in the U.S. Similarly, the estimated 1.2 million adults living in a same-sex domestic partnership translates into 600,000 domestic partnership couples. Thus, there is a total of almost a million same-sex couples in the country, of which nearly four in 10 (39%) are married.

At 990,000, Gallup's estimated number of same-sex married or domestic partner couples in the U.S. is significantly higher than past estimates derived from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), which in 2013 put the number of same-sex couples at roughly 727,000. Of this group, more than 250,000 reported they were married. The Census Bureau, however, has cautioned that the ACS estimates of married same-sex couples may not be reliable as they have determined that a large portion of recorded married same-sex couples may actually be married heterosexual couples who miscoded the sex of one of the spouses.

Wingnuts sites are running with the 0.3% number. Of course.

Labels: Gallup, LGBT rights, marriage equality, surveys

Reposted from Joe Jervis

The Daily Show - Rights Courts

Via JMG: Disney Broadway To Host LGBT Families

Via Playbill:

Playbill will celebrate its second annual Playbill Pride initiative with Family Day OUT, a June 13 event that invites LGBT families and allies to attend special performances of Disney's The Lion King and Aladdin on Broadway. A partnership with Disney Theatrical Productions and Family Equality Council, Family Day OUT is sponsored by Amtrak and will bring together LGBT families, friends and allies who believe that all families are equal and deserve the same respect and protections under the law. The event is part of Playbill's second annual Playbill Pride initiative, a month-long celebration of the theatre world's LGBT community, which will return this June.

Family Day OUT kicks off at 11 AM with a pre-matinee party and lunch at Times Square's B.B. King Blues Club & Grill, where families have a chance to meet cast members from Disney’s Broadway productions of Aladdin and The Lion King, participate in hands-on activities hosted by Disney Teaching Artists, and celebrate Family Equality Council — the nation's leading advocacy group committed to securing family equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer parents. Family Day OUT will continue with select seating at the 2 PM matinee performances of Aladdin and The Lion King.

Get tickets here.

Labels: Broadway, Disney, gay families, NYC

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Coffee Party Movement / FB: Traditional marriage

"Traditional marriage" is a crock. The only "tradition" they're screaming about is of oppression, discrimination, misogyny and brutality. And ignorance of history (including same-sex unions sanctioned in the ancient church as well as many Native traditions). May the US Supreme Court succeed in taking a bold step towards "a more perfect union", and greater justice, as the USA purports to foster." - FB amigo RL

By "traditional marriage," do you mean like in 1769, when women were property? ‪#‎marriagequality‬ ‪#‎freedomtomarry‬

Conheça o grupo que promove meditação gratuita nas ruas para resgatar o afeto pela cidade

Conheça o grupo que promove meditação gratuita nas ruas para resgatar o afeto pela cidade <3 http://bit.ly/1dsDz1y

Posted by Catraca Livre on Thursday, April 30, 2015

Via Equality House / FB:

Watch the Dalai Lama break down the illusion behind prejudice

http://www.lionsroar.com/watch-the-dalai-lama-break-down-the-illusion-behind-prejudice/

Via Social Work Helper / FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día- Flower of the day 30/04/2015

“O serviço desinteressado é o amor em movimento. Quando o amor é colocado em movimento ele gera felicidade. Se você é o canal desse amor, a felicidade passa por você para chegar ao outro, e você também se sente feliz. Esse é o poder do serviço: ele faz com que você se torne um elo na corrente da felicidade.”

Para ler o Satsang Completo, acesse: bit.ly/1DKa5Xd

“El servicio desinteresado es el amor en movimiento. Cuando el amor es colocado en movimiento genera felicidad. Si eres un canal de ese amor, la felicidad pasa por ti para llegar al otro, y también te sientes feliz. Este es el poder del servicio: hace que te vuelvas un eslabón en la corriente de la felicidad.”

“Selfless service is love in action. When love is set in motion, it generates happiness. If you are a channel of love, happiness flows through you to reach the other, and you also feel happy. This is the power of service: it makes you become a link in the chain of happiness."

Via Daily Dharma

No Substitute for Wisdom | April 30, 2015 One sign of the moral confusion in our market-driven society is that people have the tendency to elevate consumer and lifestyle choices into matters of high moral drama, leading to overblown talk of 'moral imperatives.' Tortuous analysis of one’s thoughts and actions produces a facsimile of moral seriousness that is pleasing to the ego, but it is no substitute for the wisdom and compassion that arise from the awakened heart. - Randall Ryotan Eiger, "The Slow Burn" Read More →

Via Shift of the Ages / FB:

Via Huffington Post: 7 Things Churches Can Do to Make Queer People Feel Welcome

For as long as I can remember, the church, for me, has been a place characterized by shame and hurt. I remember Christian high school friends telling me that I would go to hell for being Queer. I remember hearing sermons from televangelists about the evils of homosexuality, and church leaders pressuring youth leaders to cast out their Queer members. I've heard more talk of "love the sinner, hate the sin," and "God didn't make gay," than anyone should, and I've even received personalized hate mail declaring that "God hates dykes." 

While I've never believed being Queer automatically counted me out, I've been unable to find a church community that I, as a Trans person, could really call home -- a place I could engage in conversations around faith and sexuality, faith and gender. 

Last fall, a co-worker invited me to meet with a group of leaders from her church who were working to make their community more open and affirming. As the Director of LGBTQA Advocacy and Education at the local college, I suppose I was a logical choice, though this colleague knew nothing of my lifelong struggles with faith. 

Through talking with these people about their desires to be inclusive and their belief in God's love extending to all people, I found my mind re-opening to faith, to God. Because of these conversations, I realized that it is possible for Queer people to feel welcome and safe at church. Ultimately, it begins with education and relationships.

Make the jum here to read the 7 things all churches can do to help make Queer people feel welcome.

Via Lizzy the Lezzy