1:16 / 16:22 Don't Move To Canada Just Yet

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Via Daily Dharma / November 14, 2016: A New Consciousness in Every Moment

The mind that sees something quickly dies, and a different consciousness hears a sound. No self or soul carries over from one perceptual act to the next. In truth, your life-span is only one moment long.

—Cynthia Thatcher, "Disconnect the Dots"

Via Ram Dass

 

The game of powers is always very simple: Don’t use them. The minute you get a power and say, “I’ve got this power, I will use it,” you’re stuck again. A new attachment, a new ego trip. Don’t use them, rather let them be used through you.

Purity brings powers. Unfortunately, that’s one of the lions at the gate that brings you incredible powers. The minute you’re a little less attached than everybody else, you have incredible power over everybody, because you don’t want anything that everybody else wants so much. The minute you don’t want so much, suddenly you’re free, in a way that you can’t believe because you’re so used to being trapped in this network of needs and desires.

Via Sri Prem Baba / FB:

Via Daily Dharma / November 13, 2016: A Completely Useless Buddha

In the very act of sitting, we actualize the completeness of the act itself and we actualize our own full completeness as a useless human being, another name for which is Buddha.

—Barry Magid, "Uselessness"

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Via Daily Dharma / November 12, 2016: The Speechless Center

The only parts of the practice that can be described with confidence are the rough, cerebral edges. What happens at the center, when the mind quiets down, is impossible to verbalize.

—Jeff Greenwald, "The Great Indoors"

President Trump. Now What?

Via Sri Prem Baba

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ViaTricycle: Buddhist Teachings for Post-Election Healing

It is not possible To control all external events But, if I simply control my mind, What need is there to control other things? —Shantideva

The anger, fear, and confusion that has rippled through the country for some time came to a head last night when Donald J. Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States. Regardless of your political affiliation, it’s undeniable that the nation has entered uncharted territory. Here in New York City, where Tricycle is headquartered, the tension is palpable.

What do the Buddhist teachings have to offer us in such times of stress, turbulence, and uncertainty? In sum: the radical notion that when we cultivate an equanimous mind, even the most extreme external circumstances do not hold sway. Here are five essays and one video teaching that offer refuge amid great anxiety and change. Consider these pieces a Buddhist “care package” to inspire healing in the often acrimonious and dispiriting atmosphere of the recent political upheaval. May all beings benefit.

Encouragement from 'Abdu'l-Baha:

The darkness of this gloomy night shall pass away. Again the Sun of Reality will dawn from the horizon of the hearts. Have patience, wait but do not sit idle; work while you are waiting; smile when you are wearied with monotony; be firm while everything around you is being shaken; be joyous while the ugly face of despair grins at you; speak aloud while the malevolent forces of the nether world try to crush your mind; be valiant and courageous while men all around you are cringing with fear and cowardice. Do not yield to the overwhelming power of tyranny and despotism. Serve the cause of democracy and freedom. Continue your journey to the end. The bright day is coming. The nucleus of the new race is forming. The harbinger of the new ideals of international justice is appearing. The trees of hope will become verdant; the copper of scorn and derision will be transmuted into the gold of honor and praise; the arid desert of ignorance will be transformed into the luxuriant garden of knowledge; the threatening clouds shall be dispelled and the stars of faith and charity will again twinkle in the clear heaven of consciousness." 

- Abdu'l-Baha , Baha'i Scriptures, p. 547