Thich Nhat Hanh: On Homosexuality

Posted on March 29, 2009

Thich Nhat Hanh, the noted Zen monk, poet, teacher who is the inspiration behind Deer Park Monastery and the Plum Village tradition, shares these words about the Buddhadharma’s view of “homosexuality” in the latest book, ANSWERS FROM THE HEART.

Thanks, Julia — for sharing the dharma for us to read!

excerpt from Thay’s new book Answers from the Heart

Q. What is the Buddhist view of homosexuality?

A. The spirit of Buddhism is inclusiveness. Looking deeply into the nature of a cloud, we see the cosmos. A flower is a flower, but if we look deeply into it, we see the cosmos. Everything has a place. The base-the foundation of everything-is the same. When you look at the ocean, you see different kinds of waves, many sizes and shapes, but all the waves have water as their foundation and substance. If you are born gay or lesbian, your ground of being in the same as mine. We are different, but we share the same ground of being. The Protestant theologian Paul Tillich said that God is the ground of being. You should be yourself. If God has created me as a rose, then I should accept myself as a rose. If you are a lesbian, then be a lesbian. Looking deeply into your nature, you will see yourself as you truly are. You will be able to touch the ground of your being and find peace. 

If you’re a victim of discrimination, then your way to emancipation is not simply by crying out against injustice. Injustice cannot be repaired by recognition alone, but by your capacity to touch the ground of your being. Discrimination, intolerance, and suppression stem from lack of knowledge and lack of understanding. If you’re capable of touching the ground of your being, you can be released from the suffering that has been created in you through discrimination and oppression.

Someone who discriminates against you, because of your race or the color of your skin or your sexual orientation, is ignorant. He doesn’t know his own ground of being. He doesn’t realize that we all share the same ground of being; that is why he can discriminate against you.

Someone who discriminates against others and causes them to suffer is someone who is not happy with himself. Once you’ve touched the depth and the nature of your ground of being, you’ll be equipped with the kind of understanding that can give rise to compassion and tolerance, and you will be capable of forgiving even those who discriminate against you. Don’t believe that relief or justice will come through society alone. True emancipation lies in your capacity to look deeply.

When you suffer because of discrimination, there’s always an urge to speak out. But even if you spend a thousand years speaking out, your suffering won’t be relieved. Only through deep understanding and liberation from ignorance can you be liberated from your suffering. 

When you break through to the truth, compassion springs up like a stream of water. With that compassion, you can embrace even the people who have persecuted you. When you’re motivated by desire to help those who are victims of ignorance, only then are you free from your suffering and feelings of violation. Don’t wait for things to change around you. You have to practice liberating yourself. Then you will be equipped with the power of compassion and understanding, the only kind of power that can help transform an environment full of injustice and discrimination. You have to become such a person-one who can embody tolerance, understanding, and compassion. You transform yourself into an instrument for social change and change in the collective consciousness of mankind. 

Thich Nhat Hanh, Answers from the Heart: Practical Responses To Life’s Burning Questions (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 2009), 119-122.

Are Gay Leaders a Threat to Boy Scouts?

Via Shambala: 5 Practices for Nurturing Happiness

The great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh suffered a serious stroke in November. (You can contribute to his relief effort, here.) We join practitioners around the world in sending our prayers and good wishes for his full recovery. Thich Nhat Hanh’s life is inspiring, his benefit great, and his teaching, like the dharma itself, profound and practical.

We all want to be happy and there are many books and teachers in the world that try to help people be happier. Yet we all continue to suffer.

Mindfully make the jump here to read the full article

Via Science and Nonduality Conference / FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 28/07/2015

“Nós somos diferentes somente por fora. Por dentro nós somos iguais. Quando experimenta essa realidade, você se torna o amor. Então não é uma questão de amar, porque o outro te dá alguma coisa; você ama porque você é o amor. Tudo que sai da sua boca torna-se uma prece para o eterno Um. Tudo se torna sagrado e divino.”

“Somos diferentes solamente por fuera. Por dentro somos iguales. Cuando experimentas esta realidad, te vuelves amor. Entonces no es una cuestión de amar porque el otro te da algo, amas porque eres amor. Todo lo que sale de tu boca se vuelve una plegaria para el eterno Uno. Todo se vuelve sagrado y divino.”

“We are only different on the outside. On the inside, we are all one and the same. When you experience this reality, you become love. Then, you no longer love because the other gives you something; you love because you are love. Every word that comes out of your mouth becomes a prayer to the Eternal One. Everything becomes sacred and divine.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Waking up to Racism.

 

Waking up to Racism

I am often asked when talking about racism in Buddhist circles to be specific, give examples. In part, this longing emerges from the reluctance of white people in power to accept, and see clearly by opening their eyes, that white supremacy informs the shaping of Buddhist communities, individual interactions, publications, etc. That reluctance can only be transformed in spiritual practice, not by proof. There is never enough proof.   - bell hooks, "Waking up to Racism"

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Via JMG: Quote Of The Day - Sen. Cory Booker

"Almost 50 years ago, a couple tried to purchase a home in suburban New Jersey in a neighborhood they loved, but found their efforts thwarted when the house they wanted was inexplicably pulled off the market. The couple later learned from fair housing advocates who had investigated on their behalf that the home was made unavailable to them because of their skin color. The couple's names were Cary and Carolyn Booker. They were my parents.

"You'd think this problem is relegated to the history books. But in 2015 — today — a couple can try to purchase a home and in 31 states be told it is not available to them on the basis of their sexual orientation. More than half a century after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal government has yet to pass a large-scale law that protects Americans from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It's time for that to change." - Sen. Cory Booker, writing in support of the Equality Act.

Labels: Congress, Cory Booker, Equality Act, LGBT rights

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Wille Nelson's Gay Cowboy Song

Freeheld - Trailer

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 27/07/2015

“Um passo fundamental para a desconstrução de um padrão negativo é conseguir perceber que existe prazer investido nele. Primeiro você identifica as situações negativas que se repetem e qual o ponto comum entre elas, ou seja, o que causa a repetição. Depois você vai atrás da voz dentro de você que diz: “Eu quero ficar isolado; eu quero do meu jeito ou não quero nada”; “Eu quero fracassar”, ou ainda: “Eu quero ficar doente, não quero mais viver”. Com isso você começa a identificar o prazer que dá sustentação ao sofrimento.”

“Un paso fundamental para la desconstrucción de un patrón negativo es conseguir percibir que existe placer invertido en él. Primero identificas las situaciones negativas que se repiten y cuál es el punto en común entre ellas, es decir, lo que causa la repetición. Después vas en busca de la voz dentro tuyo que dice: “Quiero quedarme aislado, quiero que sea a mi manera o no quiero nada”, “Quiero fracasar”, o aún: “Quiero enfermarme, no quiero vivir más”. Con esto comienzas a identificar el placer que da sustento al sufrimiento.” 

“A fundamental step towards deconstructing a negative pattern is being able to perceive the pleasure we feel in it. First, we identify the negative situations that repeat themselves in our lives and the common denominator between them. This means identifying what causes the repetition. Next, we go after the voices inside of us that may be saying, ‘I want to remain isolated,’ ‘It has to be my way or I don’t want it at all,’ ‘I want to fail,’ or even, ‘I want to get sick: I don’t want to live anymore’. By becoming aware of these aspects within us, we begin to identify the pleasure that sustains the suffering.”

From a FB amiga, soemhwre in Phoenix, AZ:

Today's Daily Dharma: The World Is Made of Stories

The World Is Made of Stories

The stories that make sense of this world are part of this world. It is not by transcending the world that we are transformed but by storying it in a new way.   - David Loy, "The World Is Made of Stories"

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Via Green Renaissance / FB:

Via Mountain Stream Meditation Center / FB:

BREAKING: Despite Threats, President Obama Makes A Case For Gay Rights In Kenya

President Obama is visiting Kenya, the first sitting American president to do so, where he lost no time addressing the subject of gay rights in spite of warnings and threats from some Kenyan lawmakers and demonstrations by Kenyan churches. The president held a joint press conference today with Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta, and "went there" on the very first question.
President Obama: 

"Similarly, with respect to the rights of gays and lesbians, I have been consistent all across Africa on this. I believe in the principle of treating people equally under the law, and that they are deserving of equal protection under the law, and that the state should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, and I say that recognizing there may be people who have different religious or cultural beliefs.
But the issue is, how does the state operate relative to people. If you look at the history of countries around the world, when you start treating people differently, not because of any harm they are doing, but because they are different, that's the path whereby freedoms begin to erode, and bad things happen. And when the government gets in the habit of treating people differently, those habits can spread. And as an African American on the United States, I am painfully aware of what happens when people are treated differently. And there were all sorts of rationalizations by the power structure that were provided for decades in the United States for segregation and Jim Crow and slavery, and they were wrong.
So, I'm not equivocal on this; if somebody is a law abiding citizen, is going about their business and working at a job, obeying the traffic signs and doing all the other things good citizens are supposed to do and not harming anybody, the idea that they are going to be treated differently or abused because of who they love, is wrong. Full stop.
And, you know, the state does not need to weigh in on religious doctrine. The state just has to say, we're going to treat everyone the same under the law. And then everyone else can have their own opinions. Alright?"

Kenyan President Kenyatta then replied to the reporter's question, saying about gay rights:  

"There are some things that we must admit we don't share, our culture, our societies, don't accept. It is very difficult for us to impose upon people what they themselves do not accept. This is why I repeatedly say that for Kenyans today the issue of gay rights is really a non-issue. We want to focus on other issues that are day-to-day living foe our people." 

I would suggest to President Kenyatta that as long as Kenyans can be legally imprisoned for having sex, gay rights are an issue.

We'll let you know what the President says on gay rights when he addresses the Kenyan Parliament, where lawmakers have threatened to walk out and/or have him removed, should he bring up the issue. 

Read the original posting here

Today's Daily Dharma: Chanting for Things

Chanting for Things

In my experience, the activity of chanting for material or spiritual things becomes a process of cleansing one's spirit, not corrupting it; and Buddhists who began by chanting for hotter cars ended up driven to awaken themselves and help others, at times with great energy and joy.    - Sandy McIntosh, "As American as Apple Pie?"

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If Gay Marriage, Why Not Polygamy? - John Corvino

Via WGB:

Via WGB: 9.5M LGBT Adults Nationwide Would Be Protected under New Comprehensive Non-Discrimination Bill

Public opinion polling indicates that 78% of Americans support federal protections from discrimination for LGBT people.
The Equality Act, introduced today in Congress, would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, federal funding and jury service.

About 9.5 million adults in the U.S. identify as LGBT, according to Williams Institute Research Director Gary Gates. Discrimination against LGBT people has been well documented in a variety of sources.

1. In nine surveys conducted in the past 10 years, 19% to 78% of LGBT people reported experiencing discrimination or harassment based on their sexual orientation or gender identity at work.
2. Gay men earn 10 percent to 32 percent less than heterosexual men who have the same productive characteristics, such as experience and level of education.
3. About 83% of American adults report in recent polls that LGBT people face moderate to high levels of discrimination.
4. LGBT workers file complaints under employment non-discrimination laws at comparable rates to female employees and employees who are people of color.
5. Research has demonstrated that LGBT-supportive policies and workplace climates are linked to greater job commitment, improved workplace relationships, increased job satisfaction, and improved health outcomes in LGBT employees. 

(SOURCE)