Via Daily Dharma / August 31, 2016: Enlightened Desire

The Buddha teaches that there are many wholesome desires: the desire to serve, the desire to give, the desire to be free, the desire to cultivate qualities of heart that ennoble our lives and lead us to connect with others. It’s desire that causes us to seek depth and understanding. It is desire that brings about wholesome social change and justice.

—Christina Feldman, "Doing, Being, and the Great In-Between"

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día- Flower of the day - 30/08/2016

“A solução para o problema da violência sexual não é fortalecer o sistema carcerário ou punir mais severamente os criminosos envolvidos. A solução para essa questão está no desenvolvimento da consciência amorosa. Mas, essa consciência só poderá despertar na sociedade através da educação. Precisamos refletir sobre o que estamos ensinando para as nossas crianças. Precisamos assumir responsabilidade e entender onde estamos falhando. O fato é que nós estamos criando estupradores e mulheres vulneráveis ao estupro. E não basta enclausurar o estuprador, sem oferecer a ele nenhuma possibilidade de transformação. Isso não resolve e só nos distrai da percepção sobre o causa real do problema.” 

“La solución al problema de la violencia sexual no es fortalecer el sistema penitenciario o castigar más severamente a los criminales implicados. La solución a este problema está en el desarrollo de la conciencia amorosa. Pero esta conciencia sólo podrá despertar en la sociedad a través de la educación. Necesitamos reflexionar sobre lo que estamos enseñando a nuestros niños. Precisamos asumir la responsabilidad y entender dónde estamos fallando. El hecho es que estamos criando violadores y mujeres vulnerables a la violación. Y no basta con encerrar al violador, sin ofrecerle ninguna posibilidad de transformación. Esto no resuelve y sólo nos distrae de la percepción de la causa real del problema.”

“The solution to the problem of sexual violence is not to strengthen our prison system or to punish more severely the criminals involved. The solution to this is the development of a more loving consciousness. This consciousness can only develop in society through education. We need to examine what we are teaching our children. We need to assume responsibility and understand where we are failing. The fact is that we are creating rapists and vulnerable women to be raped. It’s not enough to only incarcerate the rapist without offering any possibility of transformation. This will resolve nothing and only distracts us from understanding the real cause of the problem.”

Via Daily Dharma / August 30, 2016: How to Savor

Since each moment’s meeting of a person or even a flower is precious and fleeting, it is to be savored completely, perhaps best in silence.

—Patricia Donegan, "Silence: Stillness"

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día- Flower of the day - 29/08/2016

“A gula é uma matriz psicológica que se manifesta como voracidade. A pessoa gulosa tenta preencher a carência e o vazio existencial através de compulsões, sendo que a mais básica é a compulsão alimentar. São muitos os tipos de compulsões (por falar, por sexo, pornografia, compras, jogos...), mas todas tem relação com a sexualidade. A gula é um sintoma; ela indica que algo precisa ser curado. Existe um conteúdo relacionado a sexualidade que ainda não foi compreendido e aceito.”

“La gula es una matriz psicológica que se manifiesta como voracidad. La persona golosa intenta llenar la carencia y el vacío existencial a través de compulsiones, siendo que la más básica es la compulsión alimentaria. Son muchos los tipos de compulsiones (por hablar, por sexo, pornografía, compras, juegos de azar...), pero todas tienen que ver con la sexualidad. La gula es un síntoma; indica que algo precisa ser sanado. Hay un contenido relacionado con la sexualidad que todavía no fuecomprendido y aceptado.”

“Gluttony is the psychological matrix that manifests as voracity. A gluttonous person tries to fill neediness and existential emptiness through compulsions, of which the most basic is the compulsion to eat. There are many types of compulsions, the compulsion to speak, to have sex, to watch pornography, shopping, games, and so on. All of them are related to sexuality. Gluttony is only a symptom. It indicates that something needs to be healed. It means that there is some content in relationship to sexuality that still hasn’t been comprehended and accepted.”

Via DailyDharma / August 29, 2016: We Belong to Each Other

After hundreds of thousands of millions of years, every particle of clay has passed through every kind of vessel. Every body has particles that have “belonged” to every other body. The vessel-bodies are so tightly packed that there is no distance between them, one shape curving into the next, a valley in one is a hill in another.

—Jan Chozen Bays, "Embodiment"

Via Ram Dass

August 28, 2016

It’s quite apparent that as you work on yourself, on your consciousness, you continue to do whatever dance you’re doing, the dance evolves. You begin to see how the acts you perform can become more and more optimum to the conditions. For instance, when you’re about to change a law in a country you stand back, and you begin to understand the way the whole system works, and you see what the optimum act you can do is, and you perform it totally, without emotional attachment to that act, and instead an awareness of how that act works in the whole system.

In other words, it’s the ability to sometimes have delay of gratification, the ability to stand back to do what is the more optimum response.

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día- Flower of the day - 28/08/2016

“A purificação é a fase da jornada na qual trabalhamos para nos libertar da falsa identidade, e é nessa fase que surgem os maiores desafios, justamente porque nos apegamos a ela. Existem momentos em que a jornada se torna desértica e passamos muito tempo sem ter um gole de água para beber - nossa fé é testada ao máximo. Essa fase requer paciência e boa vontade, pois é isso que nos dá força para continuar batendo na porta da Verdade. Então nós batemos até que, em algum momento, a porta se abre e a Verdade se revela.” 

“La purificación es la fase del camino en el que trabajamos para liberarnos de la falsa identidad, y es en esta fase donde surgen los mayores desafíos, justamente porque nos apegamos a ella. Hay momentos en que el camino se hace desértico y pasamos mucho tiempo sin tener un sorbo de agua para beber - nuestra fe es probada al máximo. Esta fase requiere paciencia y buena voluntad, porque eso es lo que nos da fuerza para continuar golpeando la puerta de la Verdad. Entonces golpeamos hasta que, en algún momento, la puerta se abre y la Verdad se revela.” 

“Purification is the phase of the journey in which we work to liberate ourselves from false identity. This is where our greatest challenges arise precisely because we are attached to this identity. There are times when the journey becomes a desert and we spend a long time without even a drop of water to drink and our faith is severely tested. This phase requires patience and strong willpower that gives us the force necessary to keep knocking on the door of truth. Then we knock on the door of truth, until at some point, the door opens and the truth is revealed.”

Via Daily Dharma / August 28, 2016: The Myth of the Negative Emotion

There isn’t any such thing as a negative emotion. There are negative things that we do with our emotions, but our emotions themselves are neither negative nor positive. They simply are.

—Robert Augustus Masters, "From Spiritual Bypassing"

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Via Boyfactor: 8 Openly Homophobic Companies To Avoid

If CEOs these days were smart, they would realize that over half of America supports marriage equality. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Google, and many more have famously “gone gay” and come out in support of LGBT rights through monetary donations, employee protection, and publicly promoting equality. It seems like publicly opposing equality would be PR suicide these days, doesn’t it? Surprisingly, this isn’t the case. The Human Rights Campaign conducts an annual Corporate Equality Index and consistently hands out failing grades to companies for either being un-inclusive, or downright homophobic. Some of the following companies might be familiar to you, but you might be surprised by who else made the list.

Chick-Fil-A

Before you “Chow Down at Chick-Fil-A ala Willam Belli, you might want to know that they are famed for their disdain of everything gay.

CEO Dan Cathy believes firmly in the “traditional definition of marriage” to the point that he has donated to Christian Organizations which support the murder of gay individuals in Africa. You know that “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda? That came thanks to organizations that have gotten substantial donation from this fast food chain.

Chick-Fil-A: Serving up nuggets with a side of homophobia.

Purina

For a company that’s devoted to feeding animals, Purina does a good job at being discriminatory to a large group of humans. The pet-chow company offers zero benefits for same-sex partners, and has no anti-discrimination policy in place. They also famously pulled ads from Saturday Night Live because it was “immoral” and promoted an “unclean lifestyle.” Lofty words from a company whose claim to fame is Beggin’ Strips and Sausages.

The Salvation Army

 

Next time you see a friendly bell-ringer at your local grocery store, be advised that your donated money is actually going to a company that wishes death on gay and transgender individuals. According to one higher-up in the corporation, they take the word of the Bible literally and seriously, meaning gay and trans individuals are hell-bound and deserve death. There has also been issues with trans and gay folks being denied access to Salvation Army operated shelters because of their “lifestyle choices.” With opinions like that, it might be time to change the company’s name to the “Selective Salvation Army.”

Dominos

Even pizza companies are getting political these days. Dominos has a founder who is notoriously sexist and homophobic and has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to conservative causes to undercut equality. Evidently Dominos is just too highbrow and classy to allow us queers access to the pizza cutter. Their loss: We’re pros at working with sausage.

Urban Outfitters

This one is a bit more surprising to some people considering Urban has achieved a sort of reverance in the gay community for the clothing it sells. Despite the CEO being an openly gay man, the founder of Urban Outfitters has donated money to the campaigns of politicans such as Rick “can’t hear you over my Bible audiobook” Santorum.

Additionally, Urban has removed Pro-Gay clothing from its shelves in the past while keeping clothing with transphobic, sexist, and racist language out for sale. Keep that in mind next time you’re shooting for Hipster-Chic and Urban comes up as an option.

Cracker Barrel

Color me shocked to hear a restaurant chain famed for Southern influences is homophobic. Cracker Barrel not only does not protect the LGBT individuals from being fired or mistreated, it actively does not hire these individuals because their “lifestyle” is incongruent with Cracker Barrel’s values as well as the values of “the majority of our clientele.” If you find yourself hankering for some chicken and waffles, consider finding a place that doesn’t cater to folks who enjoy good old-fashioned queer-beatings and down-home transphobia.

Wal-Mart

 

Famous for rollback prices and for being a terrible place to work if you want competitive wages, Wal-Mart also has an anti-LGBT streak in it.  Though it is the country’s largest seller of books, Wal-Mart does not have any LGBT-themed pieces of literature for sale in its stores. One book that was famously vended by the retail giant promoted the idea that gay people can overcome their sin and become straight, because if there is one place qualified to offer conversion therapy, it’s Wal-Mart.

Exxon

Here’s the big one. The granddady of homophobic companies. Far and away the record-holder for lowest score on the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index. Exxon Oil come on down, claim your prize! With a Corporate Equity Index score of negative 25 out of 100 Exxon is far and away the worst place to work if you are LGBT.

As is common with the rest of these companies, Exxon refuses to provide benefits for LGBT workers and their partners. However, Exxon enjoys the distinction of having actually revoked these benefits which were present in the past. In addition to just kind of being dicks with regards to the environment, Exxon actively pursues legislation which is designed to keep LGBT folks from receiving equality. Exxon execs firmly opposed ENDA and are adamantly refusing the become the final Fortune 10 company to protect LGBT individuals from unfair workplace treatment. Exxon is the most profitable company in the world, but also holds the title of “Least LGBT Friendly Company.” Just because Exxon is responsible for turning dead dinosaurs into fuel doesn’t mean they need to have prehistoric mindset when it comes to equality.

These are only a few of the unfortunately large list of companies that oppose LGBT equality. Knowing where your money goes when you spend it is important lest it go toward murdering gay people in Uganda as in the case of Chick-Fil-A. The good news is that these companies are offset by an ever-growing number of companies who actively support LGBT rights. For every Wal-Mart there is a Costco, and for every Cracker-Barrel there is a Starbucks which combat the various phobias these companies perpetuate. With the holiday season coming up and shopping about to get hella busy, consider checking out the HRC’s full list of Corporate Equality Index scores so you can spend your money somewhere that doesn’t want you dead.

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do dia - Flor del día- Flower of the day - 27/08/2016

Estamos trabalhando para que haja um despertar da consciência humana. Despertar, nesse contexto, significa ampliar a percepção de forma que possamos ver aquilo que não vemos; significa remover as lentes que distorcem a realidade para que possamos ter acesso a ela. Tais lentes representam os sistemas de crenças que nos fazem interpretar a realidade a partir das nossas feridas infantis. Isso nos impede de evoluir e desenvolver nossos potenciais latentes porque ficamos presos ao passado. Porém, a natureza da vida é movimento e expansão e inevitavelmente chega um momento em que as nossas crenças são questionadas e passamos a perceber a vida de outra maneira. Esse é o início do despertar.”

“Estamos trabajando para que haya un despertar de la conciencia humana. Despertar, en este contexto, significa ampliar la percepción de modo que podamos ver aquello que no vemos; significa remover los lentesque distorsionan la realidad para que podamos tener acceso a ella. Tales lentes representan los sistemas de creencias que nos hacen interpretar la realidad desde nuestras heridas infantiles. Esto nos impide evolucionar y desarrollar nuestros potenciales latentes porque estamos atados al pasado. Sin embargo, la naturaleza de la vida es movimiento y expansión e inevitablemente llega un momento en que nuestras creencias son cuestionadas y pasamos a percibir la vida de otra manera. Este es el inicio del despertar.”

“We are working to awaken human consciousness. ‘To awaken’ in this context means to increase our perception to such a degree that we are able to see that which we were formally unable to. It means to remove the lenses that distort reality so that we are able to access it. These ‘lenses’ are the systems of beliefs that were a result of our childhood wounds that make us interpret reality as we do. This is what prevents us from evolving and developing our hidden talents because we are trapped in the past. However, the nature of life is movement and expansion and inevitably there comes a moment when our beliefs are questioned and we begin to perceive life in another way. This is the beginning of awakening.”

Via Daily Dharma / August 27, 2016: All That Stillness Holds

Being fully in the stillness was not about self-isolation or self-help but about standing in radical relationship with all that stillness holds—all the grief, all the loss, all the loneliness—and standing with it, rather than rushing to reason it away, arrest it, or lock it in a box.

—Jasmine Syedullah, "Radicalizing Dharma Dreams"