Today's Daily Dharma: The Aspiration Is What Counts

The Aspiration Is What Counts

“Beginning students commonly ask how they can honestly vow to save all beings. It sounds like missionary arrogance. [7th-century Chan monk] Hui-neng offers a response: "You are saving them in your own mind." It is bodhicitta that you are cultivating—your own aspiration for wisdom and compassion, and your determination to practice it in the world as best you can.”

—Robert Aitken, "The Bodhisattva Vows"

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Via WP: How to communicate like a Buddhist — mindfully and without judgment

(iStock)

There’s a lot that used to frustrate me about communicating. Well, if I’m honest, it was that I didn’t know how to do it. I knew how to speak and string words together, but no one ever sat me down and taught me the purpose of communication or how to effectively express myself so I was heard and how to listen so I could understand. A lot of times it seemed that because I knew how to talk, that automatically meant I should know how to communicate.

Let’s be honest, communicating effectively is hard to do, especially in heated situations. It’s difficult because rarely do we stop to pay attention to what we’re saying or the purpose of our communication.

What I’ve found to help guide me on my quest is the Buddhist practice of mindfulness, specifically mindful communication.

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 17/09/201

Project Everyone - Metas Globais
9.INOVAÇÃO E INFRAESTRUTURA
"Intuição e razão precisam se unir para encontrar criativas e inovadoras soluções para as necessidades de infraestrutura e urbanismo. Por mais que a mente possa engendrar soluções geniais, somente a sabedoria interna, que nasce do coração, pode indicar a melhor direção a seguir. "

Project Everyone - Global Goals
9. INDUSTRY, INNOVATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
"Intuition and reason need to come together to find creative and innovative solutions for the demands of infrastructure and urban planning. As much as the mind can devise ingenious solutions, only inner wisdom that comes from the heart can indicate the best path to follow."

Project Everyone - Metas Globais
9. INDUSTRIA, INNOVACIÓN E INFRAESTRUCTURA
"Intuición y razón precisan unirse para encontrar creativas e innovadoras soluciones para las necesidades de infraestructura y urbanismo. Por más que la mente pueda concebir soluciones geniales, solamente la sabiduría interna, que nace del corazón, puede indicar la mejor dirección a seguir."

Today's Daily Dharma: The Testing Ground for Practice

The Testing Ground for Practice

“Experimental Buddhism returns us not to the meditation hall but to the messy conditions of contemporary social orders. . . . Society, and not the temple or monastery, is becoming the ultimate testing ground and arbiter for what constitutes the viability and effectiveness of a Buddhist practice that 'works.'”

—John Nelson, "Experimental Buddhism"

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Via Advocate: Why Mr. Leather Went to Uganda

When Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2015, Patrick Smith, gave his 90-second speech at the International Mr. Leather contest in Chicago this year, he spoke on something he cared deeply about. 

"The speech celebrated the progress we have made in the Western world, but it also called attention to the fact that things are very difficult for LGBT people in many other areas," Smith tells The Advocate.
The 90-second speech comes on the final day of the contest, which has taken place every year since 1979. At 91 seconds, the microphone shuts off. The speech is followed by a physique show where contestants strut onstage in leather jockstraps and harnesses.

When Smith won, he knew he had to do something important with the platform the title offers. "I wanted to actually walk the walk and not just pay lip service to these issues," he says. "Uganda was a natural choice given all of the attention it's been getting for its recent legislative actions against LGBT people." 

Uganda has a dark history regarding its LGBT citizens. In early 2014, antigay President Yoweri Museveni signed into law the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Act, dubbed the "jail the gays" bill, which was struck down six months later by the nation's high court (because of a procedural issue, not its content). But homophobia still runs rampant in the east African nation. A glaring example of the animus came when Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone published the names of Ugandan LGBT activists with the headline, "Hang Them." Homosexuality remains criminalized in Uganda.

In many ways, Uganda is the antithesis of Smith's leather culture, which celebrates sexuality in open, public ways. "I was actually encouraged not to go [to Uganda] by a good number of people," Smith says. "They were concerned for my safety, which is understandable, but I felt this was something very important for me to do."

Smith, who financed his own trip, met with some of Uganda's most prominent activists to learn about the daily lives of LGBT people there and figure out what more could be done to help. He interviewed Frank Mugisha, who won the JFK Human Rights Award in 2011. 

"He's very warm, open, and candid," Smith says. Mugisha told him about his experience with a suicidal boy who reached out to him. Risking a possible entrapment situation, Mugisha counseled the child.  

"This boy had been told by his friends, in church, and in the media that same-sex attraction was wrong and sinful, and felt he had no other choice than to take his life," Smith says. "Dr. Mugisha talked with him for hours, and over the next several days and weeks, and he didn't kill himself." 

Smith also met Rev. Mark Kiyimba, a Ugandan LGBT activist who leads the Unitarian Universalist Church in the capital city of Kampala. Kiyimba preaches that homosexuality is compatible with Christianity — a bold campaign in a country like Uganda. As The New York Times and others have reported, the fierce wave of antigay sentiment and legislation in Uganda is partly due to the work of American Christian right activists. Some of them spoke at a 2009 Kampala conference that, according to Stephen Langa, the Ugandan organizer of the event, was about "the gay agenda — that whole hidden and dark agenda."

While Smith's interviews and meetings were impactful, what affected him the most was seeing Uganda's antigay laws carried out. "The day I was leaving, news broke that Ugandan football manager Chris Mubiru was convicted under the country's sodomy law, which carries with it an 18-year prison sentence. Actually being there in that country when the story broke felt much different than reading it from afar."

According to Ugandan newspaper The Observer, the state prosecutor asked the court to give Mubiru a sentence of life imprisonment because his actions were "against the cultural norms." Smith says, "It really hit home that this is the reality for thousands of LGBT people in Africa, and it could happen to any one of them." 

Smith isn't the first Mr. L.A. Leather to use the platform for good. One of Smith's best friends, Eric Paul Leue, won Mr. L.A. Leather 2014. Leue has spent the past year educating gay and bi men across the United States and Europe on pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

Leue is the director of sexual health and advocacy at Kink.com, a leather, fetish, and BDSM porn studio based in San Francisco. Leue estimates that he has been to over 70 cities and held more than 55 PrEP panels so far.

"Fighting HIV and AIDS has always come naturally to us, because when you're into stuff like bondage, flogging, extended bondage, S&M, fisting, you have to be comfortable talking about the body and about your limits," Leue says. "So talking about HIV even in the early days of the epidemic came naturally to us."  

Smith agrees, saying the title of International Mr. Leather has "been a service-oriented title for quite some time now. In the beginning — 37 years ago — it was mostly about sex appeal. But once the AIDS crisis hit, you saw a new wave of titleholders who were more dedicated to community service." 
But Marlon Morales, chair of Los Angeles Leather Pride, said the focus on community service is not a feature of the organizations that choose the winners. "We [the L.A. Leather Coalition] never ask the winners to do anything specific," Morales says. "To win, you just have to be approachable, charistmatic, and sexy — we don't shy away from that, we're a very sex-positive community." Morales says that the trend of titleholders giving back is because "that's the people that win. If you go back and see past winners, both of Mr. L.A. Leather and International Mr. Leather, a lot of them come from backgrounds of activism. Some of the greatest activists have come out of the leather and fetish communities." 

Now that he's back in the States, Smith will continue to use his title as International Mr. Leather to raise awareness about the situation of LGBT people in Africa. "I really think we need to become more internationally focused," he says. "While there is always still work to do at home, we have it pretty good in the U.S., and it's time to help the sexual minorities overseas who are really struggling." 

Tags: Love and Sex, Uganda, World

 

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 16/09/201

Project Everyone - Metas Globais
8.BOM TRABALHO E CRESCIMENTO ECONÔMICO
“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.”

Project Everyone - Metas Globais
8.EMPLEO DIGNO Y CRECIMIENTO ECONÓMICO
“Al colocar tus dones y talentos al servicio del bien mayor, te conviertes en un eslabón en la cadena 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 haces esto cuando preguntas: "¿Cómo puedo servir?". Así, te conviertes en un canal de la felicidad.”

Project Everyone - Global Goals
8.DECENT WORK & ECONOMIC GROWTH
"By placing your gifts and talents at service of the greater good, you become a link in the chain of happiness. Joy, prosperity and love pass through you to reach the other. You begin to feel guided and led by something greater than you. But that’s not possible if you remain isolated, wanting to do everything your way. You have to make yourself into a link in the chain, which you do by asking: ‘How can I serve?’ That’s how you become a channel of happiness."
‪#‎FlordoDia‬ ‪#‎GlobalGoals‬ ‪#‎MetasdoMilênio‬ ‪#‎SriPremBaba‬

Today's Daily Dharma: Sticking with Fear

“When I walk into my fear, practice there, sit upright in the middle of it, completely open to the experience, with no expectation of the outcome, anything is possible.”

—Judith Randall, "The Hidden Lamp"

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Thich Nhat Hanh speaks first words after Stroke

The monks and nuns of Thich Nhat Hanh‘s Plum Village community have issued a new statement regarding the Vietnamese Zen master’s ongoing post-stroke therapy. As reported here, Nhat Hanh recently arrived in California’s Bay Area for various forms of treatment. In their letter, the monks and nuns highlight different aspects of said treatment and how Thay, as Nhat Hanh is affectionately called, is responding. He’s even spoken his first post-stroke words, thanks to speech therapy. From the letter:

It has been two months now since Thay arrived in America, with the hope of getting more intensive treatment to recover from his stroke. Thanks to the incredible support of our Beloved Community we have been able to obtain the very best doctors and therapists for Thay, across all treatment modalities. We are happy to be able to share that Thay is benefitting from the best of Western, Eastern, conventional, and alternative medical approaches. Thay is receiving acupuncture every day, as well as physical therapy, speech therapy, osteopathy, and neurofeedback, with the support and oversight of a phenomenal team of doctors at UCSF.

With Thay’s advanced age, the severity of the hemorrhage, as well as various complex health issues, recovery is extremely challenging. When Thay first started physical therapy, Thay was very engaged and enthusiastic with his therapists and the program that they had created for him. Preparing for Thay’s sessions of physical therapy, we could all feel the joyful determination in his body language. We would tell him, “Thay, let’s get ready for physical therapy” and Thay would raise his fist in the air and smile, as if to say “Let’s go!”

However, the level of fatigue and physical discomfort that Thay was experiencing when we first arrived in the US limited his ability to participate in the sessions. With the help of the whole team of doctors and therapists we have been able create an integrated program of treatment which allows Thay to have restful sleep, and more alertness, ease and peace in his body, enabling him to more fully participate in the sessions of therapy.
A recent breakthrough has been that whilst using a partial weight support walking frame, Thay’s right leg has started to make small movements, initiating the stepping motion.
Thay has received training from three different speech therapists over the last two months, one of whom was able to help Thay speak his first words since the stroke. It was a legendary day. We are happy to be able to share his very first words:

In, out (several times)
Happy (several times)
Thank you (several times)
and “Vui quá” (meaning, “So happy,” in Vietnamese)
It was like a guided meditation. Everyone was crying and laughing at the same time, including Thay.

Unfortunately, as the speech therapist who helped him to achieve this breakthrough lives far from San Francisco, she had to go back home after three days and Thay lost some momentum. We have tried a number of other speech therapists but have not been able to maintain Thay’s initial rapid progress. We are still looking for a local speech therapist, ideally fluent in Vietnamese, who would be able to work with Thay several times per week.

The letter goes on to tell more about Nhat Hanh’s time in the Bay Area, as well as the community’s plans for the fall, which include a tour by the monks and nuns. 

Read the complete posting here

Read the whole letter here.

Via Acariya Mahā Boowa

"Instead of trying to rely on ourselves we always put our hopes in other things, other people. We can't stand on own two feet. This is because the heart isn't wise enough to check whether the objects it grasps hold of are right or wrong, good or bad. It doesn't know how to care for itself, how to help itself, because there's no one to teach it. There's nobody to advise on how to know which things are dangerous and which are beneficial, which things should be held on to and which things shouldn't. The heart therefore continues indiscriminately to grasp hold of anything, whether good or bad, as long as it likes the look of it. Even if it isn't gratifying, the heart's characteristic trait is still to keep on grasping and clinging. Why should it be like this?"

-'To the Last Breath Dhamma Talks on Living and Dying'

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 15/09/201

Project Everyone - Metas Globais
7. ENERGIA RENOVÁVEL
"A raça humana tem uma única chance de permanecer existindo: encontrando meios de fazer com a energia renovável se torne sua principal fonte de energia".

Project Everyone - Metas Globais
7.ENERGÍAS RENOVABLES
"La raza humana tiene una única oportunidad de permanecer existiendo: encontrando medios para hacer que la energía renovable se convierta en su principal fuente de energía."

Project Everyone - Global Goals
7. AFFORDABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY
"The human race has one way of remaining alive: to figure out how to make renewable energy into our main energy source."

‪#‎FlordoDia‬ ‪#‎GlobalGoals‬ ‪#‎MetasdoMilênio‬ ‪#‎SriPremBaba‬

Today's Daily Dharma: Present for All of It

“No one really knows what will happen from one moment to the next: who will we be, what will we face, and how will we respond to what we encounter? We don’t know, but there’s a good chance we will encounter some rough, unwanted experiences, some surprises beyond our imaginings, and some expected things, too. And we can decide to stay present for all of it.”

—Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, "Open Stillness"

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Via The Beer Party L.G.B.T.Q. / FB:

Why Does the Supreme Court Get to Decide Marriage Laws?

Today's Daily Dharma: Don't Cling to Passing Moods

“Lust and hate arise but leave no trace, like birds in flight; don't cling to passing moods.”

—Padampa Sangye, "On What Is Most Important"

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New at Tricycle: On What Is Most Important

On What Is Most Important

Contemplative traditions are in steep decline—or so we're told. Nobody meditates anymore. They're too busy playing Candy Crush or writing screeds in the comments section below YouTube videos. As Tricycle readers, you know better. This week we look at how Buddhist teachings and rituals remain vibrant in our time. 

Before we examine the teachings that thrive today, however, we must get a sense of the ones from the past that are worth holding onto. We offer a perfect example in our latest magazine piece, "On What Is Most Important," in which the Tibetan master Kenchen Thrangu elaborates on eight classical Indian verses from the yogi Padampa Sangye. Together they emphasize practicing the dharma in every moment, no matter the circumstance. Then, and only then, they say, can we make the most of our lives. 

In "A Quiet Subversion," we hear from a modern-day Buddhist trying to do just that. By romanticizing the cave-dwelling recluse, says writer Leath Tonino, we perceive his lifestyle as an exotic one far different from our own. In this humorous yet insightful piece, Tonino erases that divide by showing us how a solitary spiritual life is possible even for a young city-dweller with a job, a girlfriend, and an obsession with Seinfeld.

Both of those magazine articles are available to everyone this week, but join as a Supporting or Sustaining member to read the entirety of our latest issue. In it, find out how to escape from jealousy's clutches, feel good about what you've got, and actually celebrate your friends' success with the issue's special section on jealousy and envy. It features a Zen teacher who cops to those green feelings, a writer who says they don't deserve such a bad rap, and a Tibetan Buddhist who offers five steps to free yourself from them for good.

As the Buddhists know, nothing lasts forever. That makes our choices about which teachings to hold onto and which to leave behind all the more important. In a provocative blog interview with longtime Vajryana teacher and practitioner Sangye Khandro, "No Adaptation Required," she speaks candidly about this tension between tradition and renewal. 

Every generation—every person—resolves that tension differently. There's no easy answer. But by virtue of our mere rumination, perhaps we invent the teachings anew.

 Make the jump here to read the original

Was Dr. Smith Gay?...Yep, says Lost in Space's June Lockhart

Via Janis Ian / FB:

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: LGBT Discrimination (HBO)

Via United Americans / FB: