Via Daily Dharma / April 19, 2016: The Happiest Mind

The Buddha discovered that the happiest mind is the nonattached one. This happiness is of a radically different order than what we’re used to.

—Cynthia Thatcher, "What’s So Great About Now?"

Via Thich Nhat Hanh - Pema Chödrön - Dalai Lama / FB:

Spike Lee's "Wake Up" | Bernie Sanders

Via JMG: Ted Cruz Dodges Question From Gay Republican During Good Morning America Town Hall [VIDEO]

ABC News reports:

Sen. Ted Cruz today invoked the protections included in the Constitution when a gay man asked the Republican presidential candidate about his work protecting the rights of gay voters. Responding to a question from Todd Calogne, a married gay man who is a registered Republican and owner of a pizza parlor in New York City, Cruz said the Constitution protects the rights of all citizens equally.

“When it comes to religious liberty, religious liberty is something that protects all of us; it applies to Christians, it applies to Jews, it applies to Muslims, it applies to atheists,” Cruz said during a “Good Morning America” town hall at ABC News’ Times Square studios. “That freedom ultimately protects each and every one of us.”

When asked further about the Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage nationally and what would happen to gay people who are already married, Cruz said marriage laws should be settled on the state level rather than the federal level.

As you’ll see, panel member Robin Roberts points out that Cruz didn’t actually answer the question.

Via Huffington Post Queer Voices: Every LGBTQ+ Person Should Read This

Dearest Queer Person,

Chances are you don’t even know that you are holy, or royal or magic, but you are. You are part of an adoptive family going back through every generation of human existence.

Long before you were born, our people were inventing incredible things. Gifted minds like the inventor of the computer Alan Turing and aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont live on in you. 

The imprint that bold and brilliant individuals like Lynn Conway and Martine Rothblatt (both transgender women alive today) made on modern technology is impossible deny as present-day engineers carry their torch in the creation of robots and microprocessors. More recently speaking, one of the co-founders of Facebook publicly acknowledged his identity as a gay man, as did the current CEO of Apple.

We were so often gods and goddesses over the centuries, like Hermaphrodite (the child of Hermes and Aphrodite), and Athena and Zeus, both of whom had same-sex lovers. In Japan it was said that the male couple Shinu No Hafuri and Ama No Hafuri, “introduced” homosexuality to the world. The ability to change one’s gender or to claim an identity that encompasses two genders is common amongst Hindu deities. The being said to have created the Dahomey (a kingdom in the area now known as Benin) was reportedly formed when a twin brother and sister (the sun and the moon) combined into one being who might now identify as “intersex.” Likewise, the aboriginal Australian rainbow serpent-gods Ungud and Angamunggi possess many characteristics that mirror present-day definitions of transgender identity. 

Our ability to transcend gender binaries and cross gender boundaries was seen as a special gift. We were honored with special cultural roles, often becoming shamans, healers and leaders in societies around the globe. The Native Americans of the Santa Barbara region called us “jewels.” Our records from the Europeans who wrote of their encounters with Two-Spirit people indicates that same-sex sexual activity or non-gender binary identities were part of the culture of eighty-eight different Native American tribes, including the Apache, Aztec, Cheyenne, Crow, Maya and Navajo. Without written records we can’t know the rest, but we know we were a part of most if not all peoples in the Americas.

Your ancestors were royalty like Queen Christina of Sweden, who not only refused to marry a man (thereby giving up her claim to the throne), but adopted a male name and set out on horseback to explore Europe alone. Her tutor once said the queen was “not at all like a female.” Your heritage also includes the ruler Nzinga of the Ndongo and Matamna Kingdoms (now known as Angola), who was perceived to be biologically female but dressed as male, kept a harem of young men dressed in traditionally-female attire and was addressed as “King.” Emperors like Elagalabus are part of your cultural lineage, too. He held marriage ceremonies to both male-identified and female-identified spouses, and was known to proposition men while he was heavily made-up with cosmetics. Caliphs of Cordoba including Hisham II, Abd-ar-Rahman III and Al-Hakam II kept male harems (sometimes in addition to female harems, sometimes in place of them). Emperor Ai of Han Dynasty China was the one whose life gives us the phrase “the passions of the cut sleeve,” because when he was asleep with his beloved, Dong Xian, and awoke to leave, he cut off the sleeve of his robe rather than wake his lover.

You are descended from individuals whose mark on the arts is impossible to ignore. These influential creators include composers like Tchaikovsky, painters like Leonardo da Vinci and actors like Greta Garbo. Your forebears painted the Sistine Chapel, recorded the first blues song and won countless Oscars. They were poets, and dancers and photographers. Queer people have contributed so much to the arts that there’s an entire guided tour dedicated just to these artists at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

You have the blood of great warriors, like the Amazons, those female-bodied people who took on roles of protection and had scarce time or interest between their brave acts to cater to the needs of men. And your heart beats as bravely as the men of the Sacred Band of Thebes, a group of 150 male-male couples who, in the 4th century B.C.E., were known to be especially powerful fighters because each man fought as though he was fighting for the life of his lover (which he was). But your heritage also includes peacemakers, like Bayard Rustin, a non-violent gay architect of the Black civil rights movement in the U.S.

We redefined words like bear, butch, otter, queen and femme, and created new terms like drag queen, twink and genderqueer. But just because the words like homosexual, bisexual, transgender, intersex and asexual, have been created in the relatively recent past doesn’t mean they are anything new. Before we started using today’s terms, we were Winkte to the Ogala, A-go-kwe to the Chippewa, Ko’thlama to the Zuni, Machi to the Mapuchi, Tsecats to the Manghabei, Omasenge to the Ambo and Achnutschik to the Konyaga across the continents. While none of these terms identically mirror their more modern counterparts, all refer to some aspect of, or identity related to, same-gender love, same-sex sex or crossing genders.

You are normal. You are not a creation of the modern age. Your identity is not a “trend” or a “fad.” Almost every country has a recorded history of people whose identities and behaviors bear close resemblance to what we’d today call bisexuality, homosexuality, transgender identity, intersexuality, asexuality and more. Remember: the way Western culture today has constructed gender and sexuality is not the way it’s always been. Many cultures from Papua New Guinea to Peru accepted male-male sex as a part of ritual or routine; some of these societies believed that the transmission of semen from one man to another would make the recipient stronger. In the past, we often didn’t need certain words for the same-sex attracted, those of non-binary gender and others who did not conform to cultural expectations of their biological sex or perceived gender because they were not as unusual as we might today assume they were.

Being so unique and powerful has sometimes made others afraid of us. They arrested and tortured and murdered us. We are still executed by governments and individuals today in societies where we were once accepted us as important and equal members of society. They now tell us “homosexuality is un-African” and “there are no homosexuals in Iran.” You, and we, know that these defensive comments are not true—but they still hurt. So, when others gave us names like queer and dyke, we reclaimed them. When they said we were recruiting children, we said “I’m here to recruit you!” When they put pink and black triangles on our uniforms in the concentration camps, we made them pride symbols.

Those who challenge our unapologetic presence in today’s cultures, who try to deprive us of our rights, who make us targets of violence, remain ignorant of the fact that they, not us, are the historical anomaly. For much of recorded history, persecuting individuals who transgressed their culture’s norms of gender and sexuality was frowned upon at worst and unheard of at best. Today, the people who continue to harass us attempt to justify their cruel campaigns by claiming that they are defending “traditional” values. But nothing could be further from the truth. 

But now you know they are wrong. Just imagine the world without that first computer or the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling, or a huge part of the music you’ve ever heard from classical Appalachian Spring to classic YMCA (I mean, we’ve held titles from the “Mother of Blues” to the “King of Latin Pop!”). How much less colorful would the world be without us? I’m grateful that you’re here to help carry on our traditions. 

So, happy LGBT History Month! I hope to celebrate with you here at Quist. This list of LGBTQ history online resources is a good place to start in exploring more specifics about this heritage.

Lesbianamente*,
 
Sarah Prager

*Actually a term as a way someone signed a letter for a lesbian organization in Mexico decades ago!

This piece was inspired in part by facts and sentiments from Another Mother Tongue by Judy Grahn (published 1984). Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia edited by Gilbert H. Herdt (published 1993) is also referenced. Many of the referenced facts are cited so many places it has become common knowledge. Christianne Gadd contributed significantly to this piece. This post originally appeared in The Advocate.

Read the original and much much more at Huffington Queer Post here

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 18/04/2016

“Nós somos consciência. Mas quando a consciência toma a forma humana através do ego, nossa tendência é nos identificarmos com a forma. A consciência é percepção pura mas, estando em um corpo, nossa percepção é distorcida pelo ego e acabamos nos identificando com uma interpretação da realidade. Passamos a acreditar que somos a forma. A identificação é tão profunda que acabamos deixando de perceber. Isto é o que chamo de ignorância: uma percepção distorcida da realidade.”

“Nosotros somos consciencia. Pero cuando la consciencia toma la forma humana a través del ego, tendemos a identificarnos con la forma. La conciencia es percepción pura pero, al estar en un cuerpo, nuestra percepción es distorsionada por el ego y terminamos identificándonos con una interpretación de la realidad. Pasamos a creer que somos la forma. La identificación es tan profunda que dejamos de percibir. Esto es lo que llamo ignorancia: una percepción distorsionada de la
realidad.

“We are consciousness. But when consciousness takes a human form through the ego, our tendency is to become identified with the form. Consciousness is pure perception, but while we are in a bodily form, our perception is distorted by the ego and we become identified with our own interpretation of reality. We believe that we are this form. This identification is so deep that we end up being unable to perceive the true reality. This is what I call ignorance: our distorted perception of reality.”

Via Daily Dharma / April 18, 2016: Thoughts Are Idiosyncratic Visitors

When you stop to examine your thoughts you start to see that they have a life of their own, they come and go, generally in a random, idiosyncratic way. Recognizing the constancy of our endless thinking process is said to be one of the important early steps we take on the meditation path.

—Bob Sharples, "Do the Thoughts Ever Stop"

Via Ram Dass:

April 17, 2016

If your identification isn’t exclusively with your role, say as parent, your mind doesn’t force the child to be only a child and then the two of you can be God at play. You are just two souls that are meeting in a birth to do some work together.

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 17/04/2016

“Estamos trabalhando para acordar a nossa habilidade de criar união. O vício na desunião está tão arraigado que é preciso rever muitas vezes o mesmo conhecimento até que ele possa ser compreendido, ou seja, até que ele se transforme em sabedoria. Se faz necessário aprofundar no conhecimento, mas também na prática. E prática significa mergulhar em si mesmo a fim de encontrar aquilo que joga contra a união e a felicidade, para finalmente ter a coragem de renunciar isso; coragem para entregar as armas e abrir mão da guerra. Mas, para isso, é preciso abrir mão da ideia de que você tem inimigos e de que é uma vítima. É preciso renunciar as crenças,até que aquilo que está além delas possa se manifestar.”

“Estamos trabajando para despertar nuestra habilidad de crear union. El vicio en la desunión está tan arraigado que es necesario revisar muchas veces el mismo conocimiento hasta que pueda ser comprendido, es decir, hasta que se transforme en sabiduría. Se hace necesario profundizar en el conocimiento, pero también en la práctica. Y práctica significa sumergirse en uno mismo para encontrar aquello que juegaen contra de la unión y de la felicidad, para finalmente tener el coraje de renunciar a ello; coraje para entregar las armas y renunciar a la guerra. Pero para eso, es necesario renunciar a la idea de que tienes enemigos y de que eres una víctima. Es necesario renunciar a las creencias, hasta que aquello que está más allá de ellas,se pueda manifestar.”

“We are working in order to awaken our capacity to create union. The addiction to separation is so ingrained that we need to review it over and over again, and continue to observe it so that it may be understood, until it finally transforms into wisdom. It is necessary to deepen our understanding, but it is also necessary to put our knowledge into practice. By practice, I mean to take a look deep within ourselves until we find the part of ourselves that acts contrary to union and happiness, and to finally have the courage to renounce this part of ourselves. We need to have the courage to put down our weapons, and to let go of conflicts. In order to do this, we need to let go of the idea that we have enemies and that we are a victim. It is necessary to renounce our beliefs, until we are able to manifest that which exists beyond separation and beliefs.”

Via Daily Dharma / April 17, 2016: Reacquainting the Mind and Body

Each activity you perform is an opportunity to observe the ways mind and body can work together and how they can sometimes conflict. The mind can spend hours worrying about a simple task that will take the body only minutes to perform. Although the music may be long, the dance itself is short.

—Gary Thorp, "The Dust Beyond the Cushion"

VIa Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia / Flor del dia / Flower of the Day – 16/04/2016

Às vezes eu chamo o nosso trabalho de “movimento em direção à amizade”, pois compreendo que o maior desafio do ser humano na Terra é criar união. Tudo o que precisamos é nos tornar amigos uns dos outros.”

“A veces llamo nuestro trabajo de "movimiento en dirección a la amistad" porque comprendo que el mayor desafío del ser humano en la Tierra es crearunión. Todo lo que precisamos es volvernos amigos unos de los otros.”

“Sometimes I refer to our work as a 'movement towards friendship’, because I understand that our greatest challenge as human beings here on earth is to create union. This is only possible when we truly become friends with one another.”

Via Daily Dharma / April 16, 2016: Try a New Way of Being

The Buddhists say there are 121 states of consciousness. Of these, only three involve misery or suffering. Most of us spend our time moving back and forth between these three.

—Jenny Offill, "Bits of Poetry That Stick Like Burrs"

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día - Flower of the day 15/04/2016

“A prática constante da auto-observação permite que você identifique padrões de pensamento que se repetem na sua mente, às vezes por horas ou dias; e às vezes por meses ou anos. Esses padrões mentais nascem da sua identificação com o passado e se manifestam na sua vida no presente, causando situações de sofrimento. Mas, ao identificá-los, você tem a chance de fazer a relação de causa e efeito para compreender qual situação do passado está gerando determinada situação negativa no presente.”

“La práctica constante de la auto-observación permite que identifiques patrones de pensamiento que se repiten en tu mente, a veces por horas o días, y a veces por meses o años. Estos patrones mentales nacen de tu identificación con el pasado y se manifiestan en tu vida en el presente, causando situaciones de sufrimiento. Pero al identificarlos, tienes la chance de hacer la relación de causa y efecto para comprender cual situación del pasado está generando determinada situación negativa en el presente.”

“The constant practice of self-observation allows us to identify the thought patterns that are repeating in our minds, which sometimes last hours, days, months or even years. These mental patterns arise from our identification with the past and consequently materialize in our present lives, causing many painful situations. When we are able to identify these patterns, we can seek out their cause and effect relationship to better understand which story from our past is creating a current negative situation in our lives.”

Via Daily Dharma / April 15, 2016: The Energy of Awareness

As I enter into my body, I not only see more clearly the force of my automatic judgments but also become more aware of my seeing and the freedom it brings. There is a kind of emptiness and fluidity in this awareness; that which is seen is transformed, revealing an energetic quality.

—Stuart Smithers, "Losing our Bodies, Losing Our Minds"

Via JMG: John Kasich: Let’s Move On From Gay Marriage [VIDEO]

April 15, 2016 2016 Election, Marriage Equality

Last night John Kasich reaffirmed his earlier statements that same-sex marriage is a settled issue.

“There could be an effort to pass a Constitutional Amendment. I’m not for doing it. I’m for moving on,” the Republican presidential hopeful said Thursday in a town hall airing on MSNBC. “Exactly where it is now, I’m fine with it,” he said when asked if there are any laws that should be changed to address the issue.

In a landmark decision last year, the Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Many in the once crowded Republican presidential field opposed the ruling, and while Kasich affirmed he believes marriage should remain between a man and woman, he told Matthews that everyone should be “a bit more tolerant.”

The Ohio governor often talks about how he recently attended a friend’s same-sex marriage ceremony. “I don’t think it’s right and the wedding that I went to, they know that I don’t agree with them,” Kasich said. Asked by Matthews what gay couples who love each other should do, Kasich said: “They should love one another. That’s the end of it.”

Make the jump here to read this and more at JMG

Via JMG: TEXAS: Centers For Disease Control Identifies First Case Of Male-To-Male Sexually Transmitted Zika Virus

April 14, 2016 LGBT News, Science

STAT News reports:

Men can contract Zika through unprotected sex with other men who are infected with the virus, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, a finding that adds to experts’ understanding of how Zika can be transmitted.

The CDC said a case of sexual transmission that occurred in Dallas in January — and was reported in the mainstream media in early February — involved two men. It was only the second reported case of sexual transmission of Zika ever, and the first in which sexual spread was observed between two men.

While gay men who want to avoid Zika infection should take note, the lesson here applies to both men and women: Zika infection can be contracted through unprotected anal sex.

The Dallas case involved a man who had been infected with the virus while traveling in Venezuela. Two days after he returned home, his symptoms developed. A week after his return, his longtime partner, who had not traveled outside the country, became ill.

The investigators tried to rule out the possibility that the second man might have been infected locally by a mosquito. Mosquito traps set up around the couple’s home collected some Culex mosquitoes, but no Aedes moquitoes, the type believed to be the main culprit in spread of Zika virus.

Wired has details about zika infection:

The effects and symptoms of Zika virus can vary widely from person to person. In most people, the virus causes a mild disease lasting between two and seven days, with key symptoms including fever, rash, aches, conjunctivitis and eye pain.

However, in a minority of people, Zika has been found to cause Guillain-Barré syndrome, an auto-immune disease which makes the immune system attack the body’s nerve cells, resulting in weakness of the muscles and even paralysis. The effects typically last between a few weeks and a few months, but are sometimes permanent. Other neurological and autoimmune diseases, including acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, have also been linked to Zika.

The most notorious effect of the virus is its now-confirmed ability to cause foetal abnormalities if a pregnant woman contracts it. Following a study published by The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that “it is now clear that the virus causes microcephaly.”

(Tipped by JMG reader Michael)

Via Daily Dharma / April 14, 2016: Spiritual Activism

Mahatma Gandhi said that mute prayer was his greatest weapon and that we must ourselves embody the changes we want to see in the world. To me, that means we can work from the inside out to make a better world. I call this spiritual activism.

—Lama Surya Das, "Why Sit?"

More Thoughts On Pie Fights and Politics

Brazilian footballer Gérson

More than a few years ago, a film I dearly love "Moon over Parador" was filmed mostly here in Ouro Preto. It is one of those very silly-everyone-is-in-it over the top films with a message - mostly how the CIA messed up much of Latin America by supporting some very nasty dictatorships. For those of us who have lived and worked in Latin America it is a very poignant parody of the 80’s.

I recently wrote a posting here about the current pie fights and shenanigans in politics  and how I am morphing, spiritually speaking. The political stress here has been giving me not a few nightmares about things that I saw and experienced living under martial law in Guatemala.

Yesterday on our way home from work, M & I stopped off at the farmácia, and with out thinking, stepped into a lively discussion re: the impeachment proceedings going on. One guy in line told me “You know the CIA is behind it.” 

And I thought, with a big sigh, oh no, here we go again... 

Steady as she goes, gringo.

Milton immediately, and very, very calmly began to talk to him… tactfully showing him that he was off by quite a few meters. I finally entered into it, and said, 

"Look, its 2016, not 1980… and unfortunately no one in the States really gives a damn about Brasil… most people I know haven’t even bothered to ask me at all what is going on down here. And most estadounidenses are preoccupied by basketball, ISIS and spring…”

Everyone laughed. And I think it all ended well…

I shared this incident with a colleague and he reminded me of the Lei de Gérson (Gérson's law) which is, and I quote Wikipedia,

In Brazilian culture, Gérson's Law (Portuguese: Lei de Gérson) is an adage which reflects the way Brazilians behave towards themselves, immortalizing concepts such as jeitinho and malandragem. In short, Gérson's Law is taking advantage of every thing and every one and having no concern for ethics. This expression came into use since a TV commercial for the cigarette brand Vila Rica, starring Brazilian footballer Gérson, was aired around 1970. While he is a very well known football player in Brazil and worldwide, Gérson had always been a source for controversy. In the commercial, that particular cigarette brand was portrayed as advantageous for being better and cheaper in comparison to other brands, and at the end of the commercial, Gérson says "I like to get an advantage in everything". Later, the player resented having his image connected to the ad, since all kinds of unethical behaviors were linked to his name with reference to the law. (obrigado Charles for the remind!)

The Vila Rica brand uses the old name for Ouro Preto, btw.

To those of my two deeply beloved and dedicated readers, the Lei de Gérson is a big and very obvious part of Brazilian culture, but to be honest, it applies just about anywhere. But we here have made it a true art form... all the way to the current political scandals happening in Brasília at the moment. Rarely do we want to take responsibility for any of own actions, it is far easier to blame the other… it applies in many of the diverse places I have lived, but I digress.

Yesterday's farmácia incident reminded me as well of living in Guatemala or "Parador" in the 80’s. And how I was often approached by locals in a café or market and was asked something like,

“What do you think of our problem?”

Since it was early 80's Guatemala and we were smack dab in the middle of a very, very violent and often scarry US supported military dictatorship, one never really knew who you were talking to. I soon learned to avert disaster with a,

“You know you don’t really need a foreigner’s opinion about the situation. Guatemalans are clearly able to solve this problem. If you came to my house and told me to move the furniture and paint the room a different color, I’d be offended. This is the same thing.”

I always, I mean always got an offer of a free beer or drink or coffee after this. And I used the  opportunity to  tone up my español around lighter subjects related to art, music or futebol.

So maybe, just maybe its time to dust off that old pre Powerpoint presentation, translate it from español to the world’s most beautiful language aka “português mineiro”… uai!

So I leave you dear ones, with the the Paradorian National Anthem here sung by Sammy Davis Jr. with the over the top ending filmed in our Praça Tiradentes of  "Luar sobre Parador":

Via Ram Dass:

April 13, 2016

Which reality do you dwell in? If you stand anywhere, you’re missing part of the show. Don’t stand anywhere. I have no idea who you are or who I am. Then I am free. The minute I get trapped in a label, I have just imprisoned myself. No matter how well I furnish the prison, it’s still a prison.