So Simple, So Very Difficult
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I have no doubt about the teachings. To live right here now, moment after moment. So simple, and so very difficult. |
Sunday, September 6, 2015
Today's Daily Dharma: So Simple, So Very Difficult
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 05/09/2015
“Aquilo que chamamos de ‘problemas’ ou ‘provações’ na realidade são
presentes do Universo para que possamos aprender alguma coisa. Neste
plano da existência não há outra maneira de se desenvolver se não
através de erros e acertos. Através deles vamos tomando consciência
daquilo que fecha e daquilo que abre os caminhos para a nossa
realização. Seguimos aprendendo até que possamos escolher somente
pensamentos, palavras e ações que nos libertam.”
“Lo que llamamos "problemas" o "pruebas" en realidad son regalos del
Universo para que podamos aprender algo. En este plano de la existencia
no hay otra manera de desarrollarse que no sea a través de errores y
aciertos. A través de ellos vamos tomando conciencia de aquello que
cierra y de aquello que abre los caminos para nuestra realización.
Seguimos aprendiendo hasta que podamos elegir solamente pensamientos,
palabras y acciones que nos liberan.”
“What we consider to be problems or challenges are in truth gifts from the universe aimed at teaching us specific lessons. In this realm of existence, there is no other way for us to progress other than through trial and error. Through these challenges, we become aware of what closes or opens up the path towards our own self-realization. We continue to learn until we are able to choose only the thoughts, words and actions that liberate us.”
“What we consider to be problems or challenges are in truth gifts from the universe aimed at teaching us specific lessons. In this realm of existence, there is no other way for us to progress other than through trial and error. Through these challenges, we become aware of what closes or opens up the path towards our own self-realization. We continue to learn until we are able to choose only the thoughts, words and actions that liberate us.”
Buddhism Pushes Back
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Buddhism provides us with both the imperative and the tools to challenge the economic structures that are creating and perpetuating suffering. We cannot claim to be Buddhist and simultaneously support structures that are so clearly contrary to Buddha’s teachings, antithetical to life itself. |
Friday, September 4, 2015
Today's Daily Dharma: Got to Have Faith
Got to Have Faith
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Faith in the Buddha’s own awakening is a requisite strength for anyone else who wants to attain awakening. As it fosters persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, this faith can take you all the way to the deathless. |
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Via Leonard Pitts: Jimmy Carter’s faith
‘To want what I have, to take what I’m given with grace … for this, I pray.’
— ‘For My Wedding,’ Don Henley
America is a nation of faith. So it is often said.
In
faith, a baker refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. In
faith, a minister prays for the president to die. In faith, terrorists
plant bombs at the finish line of a marathon. In faith, mosques are
vandalized, shot at and burned. In faith, a televangelist asks his
followers to buy him a $65 million private jet.
And no one is even surprised anymore.
In
America, what we call faith is often loud, often exclusionary,
sometimes violent and too frequently enamored of shiny, expensive
things. In faith, ill-tempered people mob the shopping malls every year
at Christmas to have fistfights and gunfights over hot toys and highend
electronics.
You did not hear much about faith last
week when Jimmy Carter held a news conference to reveal that he has
four spots of cancer on his brain. The 39th president made only a few
references to it in the nearly 40 minutes he spoke, and they were all in
response to reporter’s questions. Yet, you would be hard-pressed to
find a more compelling statement of belief in things not seen.
Unsentimental, poised and lit from within by an amazing grace, Carter
discussed the fight now looming ahead of him, the radiation treatments
he will undergo, the need to finally cut back on his whirlwind schedule.
He
smiled often. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said, in
such a way that you believed him without question. And it was impossible
to feel sorry for him.
Partially, that’s because
we all die and if — still only an if — cancer is what takes James Earl
Carter Jr. away, well, there are worse things than to go having reached
90 years of age, having been president of the United States, having been
married to the love of your life for almost seven decades, having sired
a large and sprawling family and having done significant work toward
the eradication of disease and the spreading of democracy in the
developing world.
But here’s the other reason it
was impossible to feel sorry for him. Feeling sorry would have felt like
an insult, a denial of the virtues he showed and the faith he didn’t
need to speak because it was just … there.
For all
its loudness, all its exclusion, violence and ubiquity, the faith that
is modeled in the public square is often not particularly affecting. It
is hard to imagine someone looking on it from outside and musing to
herself, “I’d like to have some of that.” What Carter showed the world,
though, was different. Who would not want to be able to face the unknown
with such perfect equanimity?
Carter presented an
image of faith we don’t see nearly as often as we should. Which is sad,
because it is also the image truest to what faith is supposed to be —
not a magic lamp you rub in hopes of a private jet, not a license for
our worse impulses, but, rather, an act of surrender to a force greater
than self, a way of being centered enough to tell whatever bleak thing
comes your way, “So be it.” Even fearsome death itself: “So be it.”
The
heat and hubris of human life are such that that state is difficult to
conceive, much less to reach. Our lives are defined by wanting and by
lack — more money, new car, new love — and by the ceaseless hustle to
fill empty spaces within. Media and advertising conspire to make you
feel ever incomplete. So it is hard to feel whole within yourself, at
peace with what is, whatever that turns out to be.
But who, gazing upon the former president, can doubt the result is worth the effort?
In
faith, terrorists kill the innocent. In faith, televangelists swindle
the gullible. In faith, so many of us hate, exclude, hurt, curse and
destroy. And in faith, last week, Jimmy Carter told the world he has
cancer in his brain.
And smiled as he spoke.
Via WGB: Gay Marriage is Legal. Are the Wedding Bells Ringing?
But after the initial flurry of excitement has died down, and the queues for marriages licenses at city hall have subsided, what happens next? How often are same-sex marriages actually performed in these countries? We dug into the numbers, and discovered that in some nations, like Belgium, same-sex marriages have become remarkably commonplace and are warmly accepted by fellow citizens as part of the cultural fabric of the community. On the other hand, in countries like Portugal and Norway, same-sex marriages remain surprisingly uncommon; for Portugal, this is due in part to the powerful influence of the Roman Catholic church in everyday life, while Norway’s low rate is a result of its longstanding (and popular) civil union laws, as well as the still powerful influence of the country’s Lutheran clergy. As recent court cases in the United States involving Christian wedding bakers and florists suggest, just because same-sex marriage is legal, it doesn’t mean that there is an accepting environment for it." Full story here!
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 03/09/2015
“Existe um tipo de ceticismo que pode ajudar na ampliação da
consciência, porque através dele, você busca as respostas e as encontra
através da própria experiência. Eu mesmo já fui um cético. Já fui um
cientista da mente humana que queria encontrar Deus através da lógica e
da matemática. E essa busca me levou à espiritualidade. Porque, quando
você vai fundo na ciência, inevitavelmente ela desemboca na
espiritualidade. E quando vai fundo na
espiritualidade, ela encontra a ciência. Ambas são extremos da mesma
coisa, assim como a meditação e a devoção.”
“Existe un tipo de escepticismo que puede ayudar en la ampliación de la
conciencia, porque a través de él, buscas las respuestas y las
encuentras a través de la propia experiencia. Yo mismo ya fui un
escéptico. Ya fui un científico de la mente humana que quería encontrar a
Dios a través de la lógica y de la matemática. Y esa búsqueda me llevó a
la espiritualidad. Porque cuando te adentras en la ciencia,
inevitablemente ella termina en la espiritualidad. Y cuando te adentras
en la espiritualidad, ella encuentra la ciencia. Ambas son extremos de
la misma cosa, así como la meditación y la devoción.”
“There is a certain type of skepticism that helps to increase awareness. This skepticism incites us to seek out answers through what we've experienced ourselves. I was also once a skeptic. I was a scientist of the human mind and I wanted to find God through logic and mathematics. This search led me to spirituality. When we get to the bottom of science, we eventually end up in spirituality. Simultaneously, at the depths of spirituality, we find science. Both are the extreme opposite of the very same thing, just as it is with meditation and devotion.”
“There is a certain type of skepticism that helps to increase awareness. This skepticism incites us to seek out answers through what we've experienced ourselves. I was also once a skeptic. I was a scientist of the human mind and I wanted to find God through logic and mathematics. This search led me to spirituality. When we get to the bottom of science, we eventually end up in spirituality. Simultaneously, at the depths of spirituality, we find science. Both are the extreme opposite of the very same thing, just as it is with meditation and devotion.”
Today's Daily Dharma: The Benefit of Awareness
The Benefit of Awareness
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The more unified, stable, luminous, and attentive the mind is at this moment, the more profound the experience. |
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Via Huffington: Glitter in the Woods: A Week at 'Camp' Camp
Nestled in the woods alongside a splendid lake, about 45 minutes
outside of Portland, Maine, there emerges once a year the most wonderful
LGBT space in the country. No, Disney World hasn't set up a new outpost
and no, it's not an Indigo Girls theme park. It's called 'Camp' Camp,
a LGBT adult summer camp, and for nineteen years, folks from all over
the world who identify with some color on the LGBT gender and sexuality
rainbow have been flocking to this Brigadoon-like place for a magical
summer experience.
I first heard about 'Camp' Camp five years ago after reading Joel Derfner's wonderful memoir Swish, but the stars didn't align themselves for me to go until this summer. I had never been to overnight camp before and I was hesitant, but from the handful of 'Camp' Camp alumni whom I met over the years, they always spoke about the place as if they had drunk some crazy Kool Aid, returning there summer after summer. Could it really be that good? In the end, I realized, there was only one way to find out, and so, with my single bag packed -- I was a light packer compared to many of the gay men who schlepped two or three suitcases, some with just shoes -- I boarded my flight to Portland, not knowing a single soul and a bit petrified. Would this just be like almost every gay bar experience in my life in which I felt myself standing along the sidelines while cliquely gaggles of gays ignored me?
The answer quickly made itself apparent. As I walked into the lodge at 'Camp' Camp, it was like being welcomed in a big warm embrace, at times, literally so. People couldn't wait to greet me, ask me questions and make me feel right at home. There were over two hundred people there this summer from so many walks of life. Men, women and folks who didn't identify with any one gender category. Folks in their 20s up through those in their 60s and 70s. Teachers, pastors, professional opera singers and retirees. Singles and couples (some with and without their partners present). Urban dwellers and individuals who lived in remote outposts.
As if I had fallen through Alice's looking glass, the week that followed was one of sublime fun and exuberant liberation, coupled with a profound sense of being accepted for who I am as a gay man. 'Camp' Camp has everything you could imagine at a great summer camp: arts and crafts, sports, boating and swimming, plus some delicious food (don't worry, there's no bug juice or chicken nuggets on the menu). But it's at night when 'Camp' Camp really comes into its own. On the night of the first full day, the camp hosts its Barn Dance and campers, many outfitted in cowboy shirts, boots and bandanas, square danced all night to a live band. As I promenaded and dosey-doed around the room to the caller's instructions (all with a handsome boy on my arm), watching the smiling faces of my fellow campers, I felt like I was having a bit of an out-of-body experience. When was the last time I felt so uninhibited and free? Honestly, I couldn't remember. In the evenings that followed with a game show night and karaoke, I found myself laughing and grinning in ways that I hadn't for a long time.
I first heard about 'Camp' Camp five years ago after reading Joel Derfner's wonderful memoir Swish, but the stars didn't align themselves for me to go until this summer. I had never been to overnight camp before and I was hesitant, but from the handful of 'Camp' Camp alumni whom I met over the years, they always spoke about the place as if they had drunk some crazy Kool Aid, returning there summer after summer. Could it really be that good? In the end, I realized, there was only one way to find out, and so, with my single bag packed -- I was a light packer compared to many of the gay men who schlepped two or three suitcases, some with just shoes -- I boarded my flight to Portland, not knowing a single soul and a bit petrified. Would this just be like almost every gay bar experience in my life in which I felt myself standing along the sidelines while cliquely gaggles of gays ignored me?
The answer quickly made itself apparent. As I walked into the lodge at 'Camp' Camp, it was like being welcomed in a big warm embrace, at times, literally so. People couldn't wait to greet me, ask me questions and make me feel right at home. There were over two hundred people there this summer from so many walks of life. Men, women and folks who didn't identify with any one gender category. Folks in their 20s up through those in their 60s and 70s. Teachers, pastors, professional opera singers and retirees. Singles and couples (some with and without their partners present). Urban dwellers and individuals who lived in remote outposts.
As if I had fallen through Alice's looking glass, the week that followed was one of sublime fun and exuberant liberation, coupled with a profound sense of being accepted for who I am as a gay man. 'Camp' Camp has everything you could imagine at a great summer camp: arts and crafts, sports, boating and swimming, plus some delicious food (don't worry, there's no bug juice or chicken nuggets on the menu). But it's at night when 'Camp' Camp really comes into its own. On the night of the first full day, the camp hosts its Barn Dance and campers, many outfitted in cowboy shirts, boots and bandanas, square danced all night to a live band. As I promenaded and dosey-doed around the room to the caller's instructions (all with a handsome boy on my arm), watching the smiling faces of my fellow campers, I felt like I was having a bit of an out-of-body experience. When was the last time I felt so uninhibited and free? Honestly, I couldn't remember. In the evenings that followed with a game show night and karaoke, I found myself laughing and grinning in ways that I hadn't for a long time.
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