Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / November 20, 2016: Learn to Help without Praise

In being told we’re good when we’re helpful, we receive the praise we crave. Yet once we confuse helpful behavior with our own needs, we’re locked into a pattern that undermines our genuine desire to do good.

—Ezra Bayda, "The 'Helper' Syndrome"

VIa FB:

Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / November 19, 2016: Fostering Empathy, Avoiding Harm

When there are thoughts, speech, and actions strong enough to cause suffering, reflect: Just as I do not wish to suffer, neither do others wish to suffer. As such, one avoids doing harm.

—Sayadaw U Pandita, "The Best Remedy"

Via Sri Prem Baba:

Via Daily Dharma / November 18, 2016: Cutting Through a Clouded Mind

Much of the time our mind is thick, with thoughts and emotions and cognitive content, but when focused on the breath or on some other object it narrows, gets sharper and more precise, and is increasingly capable of becoming aware of just that thin sliver of experience presenting itself in the present moment. —Andrew Olendzki, "Giving Pain the Slip"

Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / November 17, 2016: The Difference Between Wisdom and Goodness

Wisdom inclines toward the good but is not attached to it. It shies away from what is not good, but has no aversion to it. Wisdom recognizes the difference between skillful and unskillful, and it sees the undesirability of the unskillful.

—Sayadaw U Tejaniya, "The Wise Investigator"

Fuck you 2016!

 

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Donald Trump Elected U.S. President

Via JMG: 2016 Presidential Medal Of Freedom Honorees: Ellen DeGeneres, Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, Others

 

Note that two of this year’s honorees, De Niro and Springsteen, are among the loudest Trump critics. CBS News reports:

The White House on Wednesday announced the recipients of the Presidential Medal Of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The prestigious accolade is given to people “who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” This year’s recipients include famous actors (Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford) legendary athletes (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan) and television icons (Ellen DeGeneres, Lorne Michaels).

Here’s what the official White House notice says about Ellen:

Ellen DeGeneres is an award-winning comedian who has hosted her popular daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, since 2003 with her trademarked humor, humility, and optimism. In 2003 Ellen lent her voice to a forgetful but unforgettable little fish named Dory in Finding Nemo. She reprised her role again in 2016 with the hugely successful Finding Dory. Ellen also hosted the Academy Awards twice, in 2007 and 2014. In 1997, after coming out herself, DeGeneres made TV history when her character on Ellen revealed she was a lesbian. In her work and in her life, she has been a passionate advocate for equality and fairness.

See the White House bio for each honoree here. We shudder to think who will be on the 2017 list.

Make the jump here to read the original on JMG and more

Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / November 16, 2016: The Pleasure of Being Foolish

The pleasure of being foolish lies precisely in the freedom it gives from self-importance and social expectations; the freedom from striving, from the pressure to impress others, to do things the way others do them.

—Roger Housden, "A Fool’s Bargain"

Via Ram Dass

 

 

There’s a place that we can be inside of ourselves, inside of the universe, in which which we can appreciate the delight in life. Where we can still have equanimity, and quality of presence, and the quietness of peace.

Just imagine a mandala or a flower and think about the center of the flower and then all the petals that come out from the center and think of the center of the flower as absolutely still, and think of all of the petals as moving, and energy, and change, but the center is still.

Where is your center?

Bright Light Bright Light & Elton John - "I Wish We Were Leaving" OFFICIAL VIDEO

Zero and Jude | Hit The Floor | Whataya Want From Me

Pink - Just give me a reason

Via Daily Dharama / November 15, 2016: Naming Thoughts as Thoughts

If you know a view as a view, you can be free of that view. If you know a thought as a thought, you can be free of that thought. —Norman Fischer, "Beyond Language"

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