Friday, July 14, 2017
By Lama Surya Das: Earth to New York Times: "We Live Here Too."
February 25, 2004
The Media is Leaving America's Eastern Religions — 7% of the Country — Out of an Important Democratic Debate Earth to New York Times: "We Live Here Too."
(Boston) - February 25, 2004 - Lama Surya Das, one of the most senior leaders of the 5 million Buddhists in the United States, announced today his support for the gay and lesbian weddings that have taken place over the past few weeks in San Francisco and his hopes that the state of California and the city of San Francisco will take firm action to guard the legality of those civil marriages and protect the civil rights of gay citizens and their families.
"I've been watching the events unfold in San Francisco and what I have seen is that the joy and love that these people are sharing with each other is amazing and it is right," said the Lama, a best selling author and teacher who is also the most highly trained Buddhist lama in the U.S. and has been called "The Western Lama" by the Dalai Lama himself.
"It's really been a transforming experience for myself and many of those in my religion to see such happiness shine from the West Coast here to the East Coast," the Lama said. "There are over three thousand Buddhist centers in North America, and none have any problem with homosexuality."
Since Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco ordered the city to begin providing civil marriage licenses to all applicants without discrimination on Feb. 13th, over 3000 couples have been married in the city. On Feb. 20, over a dozen more couples were married by a county court in New Mexico.
"It has made my heart glad to see it," said the Lama. "The director of my Dzogchen Retreat Center is gay and in a long-term relationship he would like to sanctify as a marriage."
On May 17th—coincidentally the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education eliminating the "separate but equal" policy for races in America—gay and lesbian civil marriages will begin to take place throughout Massachusetts.
Not a 'Culture War,' a Religious War
Although some have called the battle over gay and lesbian civil marriage equality a "cultural war" in the United States, Lama Das views the dispute as a religious dispute.
"What we're seeing is a religious majority that is trying to take legal rights away from a sexual minority that their religion purportedly doesn't like," he says. "But our nation's laws have always tried to prevent this kind of tyranny of the majority over the minority."
The Lama says that he takes issue with recent statements by President George Bush and his wife Laura Bush saying that Americans ought to vote on whether or not to make a minority within the country a class of second-class citizens as regards to the rights of marriage.
"The idea that we live in a country where a majority can vote on which legal rights they think a minority 'should' have and which rights they 'shouldn't' is a frightening one," he said. "It entirely contradicts what we teach schoolchildren every day in our grade schools, middle schools and high schools. Are the Bushes seriously suggesting that a majority should have the power to 'give' or to 'take away' rights from a group of their fellow citizens on the whim of the majority?"
For the current President to suggest that the Constitution be changed to define marriage in accordance with the definition of his own, personal religion — even if it is the nation's majority religion — shows a shocking lack of understanding of what this country is about and how it was created to protect minority rights, the Lama says. "If our nation were run strictly on a 'majority rules' basis, Mr. Bush wouldn't even be President today. He lost the popular vote in the last election; he wasn't chosen by a majority. Yet we don't hear him saying that the president should be decided by the majority in the next election, do we. That's very ironic."
A Nomination: Laura Bush to Give a "National Civics Lesson"
The Lama suggests that the president's wife, Laura Bush, who has recently spoken out on a trip to California to urge the country to begin a serious discussion on the issue, would as a former schoolteacher be the ideal person to give us all a much-needed National Civics Lesson on what is so wrong about the political processes that are currently going on.
"America has been throughout its glorious history a country of guaranteed human rights and has never been a country of 'majority rule' at the expense of the minority" says the Lama. "Perhaps Laura Bush and Katie Couric could re-read and discuss the Federalist Papers and Tom Paine's classic, 'Common Sense' on 'The Today Show.' Coretta Scott King, a long-time supporter of marriage equality, might also be invited. Throw in Al Roker and Ann Curry and the visual point will be made for certain. Discrimination is not a happy part of our heritage. It has taken much too long to eradicate prejudice in our country, a lingering problem we still have yet to overcome."
The Lama, an American who was raised in the Jewish faith on Long Island and who became a Lama after undergoing decades of monastic and philosophical training in India and the Himalayas and two three-year stints of silent meditation in his teacher's cloistered hermitage retreat, says that both his experience being raised a Jew and his experience as a Buddhist make him wary of attempts by majorities to impose their views on others through the instruments of the state.
History Reminds Us: "No Dogs or Jews"
"In Germany in the 1930s, municipalities using the discriminatory Nuremburg laws posted signs on local swimming pools saying 'No Dogs or Jews'," the Lama said. I'm not sure how the present situation in regards to marriage equality in the United States is any different Why would a country such as the United States, which has been a model of democratic principles to the world for centuries, want to discriminate against some of its citizens. It's bizarre. It's sad. It's frightening."
Events in Tibet, where members of the Buddhist religion have been persecuted since the country was overrun by Communist China in the 1950's, provide further evidence of how important it is to guard the rights of minorities and endangered cultures and peoples. Many Buddhist monks and nuns have been tortured, disrobed, and even murdered by the Communist invaders, and most of Tibet's 6,000 ancient nunneries and monasteries destroyed.
"These were not two of the most admired societies of the last century," says the Lama. "America should take pause before we do anything whatsoever that makes us even a tiny bit like them."
As a resident of Massachusetts, the Lama says he was proud when his state's highest court ruled last fall that the state could not legally make Massachusetts gay and lesbians second-class citizens when it comes to the rights and privileges in marriage.
"The state of Massachusetts has the oldest Constitution on the North American continent," he noted. "And as far as I am concerned, it is also one of the very best." (He is also a Boston Red Sox fan.)
As far as the Buddhist faith in America is concerned, the Lama notes, there is simply nothing wrong with being gay or lesbian. "This is an issue that seems to have been overlooked in this whole high energy debate," he says. "It's just the way some people are created and there's nothing wrong with it.
Every 'Seinfeld' fan knows that! Many highly-respected Buddhist teachers are gay."
The Lama was himself married to his wife Kathy Peterson in 2000.
Neither Buddha Nor Jesus Were Anti-Gay
"Buddha never said anything negative about gays and lesbians," notes the Lama. "Nor did Jesus, for that matter. Both were viewed as social reformers by their contemporaries. They both led their lives promoting love and compassion, and protecting the downtrodden, the underdog, the outcast and the powerless. I think we all could guess what Buddha or Jesus would do in the present situation."
Despite the intense media coverage of the marriage equality debate in Massachusetts and now nationwide, the Lama notes that he has never once seen a member of any minority or Eastern religion quoted on the topic by the mainstream media: "That's puzzling because we live here too." The Lama notes that in our modern day American pluralistic society, at least 7 percent of Americans are of the so-called Eastern faiths. An estimated 30 million Americans practice yoga and mediation.
"It seems as if President Bush is taking a page from the book of Pat Robertson - whenever Robertson attacks gays and lesbians, millions of dollars in contributions flow to his coffers," he says. "For Bush to follow this same path for the same cynical reasons is a mark of shame for the U.S."
Web sites of Lama Surya Das:
Lama Surya Das
Dzogchen Foundation
Read about more Voices of Equality.
Via Daily Dharma: One and the Same
All the traditions in Buddhism have their own unique aspects. But in essence, we are all students of the same teacher.
—The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, “Ethics for a Secular Millennium”
—The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, “Ethics for a Secular Millennium”
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Via Daily Dharma: What We’re Made Of
All that we are is a result of what we have thought; it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.
—The Buddha, in Scott Darnell’s “Dharma in a Broom Closet”
—The Buddha, in Scott Darnell’s “Dharma in a Broom Closet”
Via churchtimes: Steve Chalke unearths ancient erotica to combat a conservative reading of scripture on sexuality
WOLFGANG RIEFER/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Explicit: a fresco of a couple in bed painted onto the wall of a house in Pompeii
EROTIC Roman art recovered from the ruins of Pompeii supports the
view that the New Testament passages about homosexuality do not condemn
modern same-sex relationships, the Revd Steve Chalke has argued.
The leading Evangelical Baptist pastor has released a video in which he suggests that archaeological study of the ancient world gives the proper context to interpret verses which appear to prohibit gay sex.
In the 37-minute talk, Mr Chalke states that the preponderance of carved penises and other explicit imagery found in homes and on the streets from Pompeii underlines how the Greco-Roman world Paul was writing into was utterly saturated with sex.
Mr Chalke’s video talk begins with a “parental advisory — explicit content” warning because it contains images of ancient pornographic material from Pompeii and its sister town of Herculaneum.
“I have not released this out of any desire to provoke or shock for the sake of it,” Mr Chalke said.
“Because of widespread ignorance of the ancient world and Greco-Roman culture in churches across the West, we throw Bible verses around without understanding their context.”
Mr Chalke first spoke openly in support of same-sex relationships in 2013 (News, 18 January 2013).
As a result, his charity Oasis was thrown out of the Evangelical Alliance (News, 2 May 2014). In the new video, he argues that New Testament verses which are used routinely to label same-sex activity as sinful were, in fact, condemning the abusive and exploitative sexual activity common in the world that Paul’s recipients lived in.
OASISScathing: the Revd Steve Chalke, who has criticised his fellow Evangelicals for using New Testament passages to “destroy” LGBT people“Eighty per cent of the artwork recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum is sexually explicit, and also reveals a fascination with the image of the stiff, erect penis — a symbol of power and pleasure,” Mr Chalke said.
“If you were a man in Roman culture, so long as someone was your social inferior — a slave, a gladiator, a woman etc — it was considered socially acceptable and respectable to penetrate them.
“So engrained was this way of thinking and behaving that it became incorporated into religion. Drug- and alcohol-fuelled orgies featuring men sleeping with women, men sleeping with men, and women sleeping with women and men were even classed as acts of worship.”
In this context, Paul’s warnings in the New Testament against having sex with someone of your own gender do not mean that faithful gay relationships are forbidden for Christians, Mr Chalke suggests.
“Every Christian believes God to be a God of love. It is no wonder that these abusive practises are condemned by inspired scripture. But, it is a disingenuous misreading of the text to conclude that what Paul describes in Romans 1 can be used to prevent people forming loving, faithful and nurturing relationships with people of the same-sex.”
Mr Chalke is scathing about the traditional, conservative reading of the key verses on sexuality, saying that some scholarship is driven more by “prejudice” than by any real “grappling with the New Testament passages”.
“In Evangelical circles there has been a lack of intellectualism which has meant that we’ve not dealt with these Biblical passages as we should,” he said. “Some Biblical scholarship just has not kept up with archaeological discovery, it’s not kept up with wider cultural research and understanding.”
Instead, the contentious passages have become “weaponised” and used to “destroy LGBT people and their lives and their credibility and their sense of peace”, he claims.
Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by a sudden volcanic eruption in AD 79. Archaeologists have gained a vivid insight into ancient Roman culture by digging through layers of ash which blanketed the town in hours and protected the city from decay for 1700 years before it was rediscovered.
The leading Evangelical Baptist pastor has released a video in which he suggests that archaeological study of the ancient world gives the proper context to interpret verses which appear to prohibit gay sex.
In the 37-minute talk, Mr Chalke states that the preponderance of carved penises and other explicit imagery found in homes and on the streets from Pompeii underlines how the Greco-Roman world Paul was writing into was utterly saturated with sex.
Mr Chalke’s video talk begins with a “parental advisory — explicit content” warning because it contains images of ancient pornographic material from Pompeii and its sister town of Herculaneum.
“I have not released this out of any desire to provoke or shock for the sake of it,” Mr Chalke said.
“Because of widespread ignorance of the ancient world and Greco-Roman culture in churches across the West, we throw Bible verses around without understanding their context.”
Mr Chalke first spoke openly in support of same-sex relationships in 2013 (News, 18 January 2013).
As a result, his charity Oasis was thrown out of the Evangelical Alliance (News, 2 May 2014). In the new video, he argues that New Testament verses which are used routinely to label same-sex activity as sinful were, in fact, condemning the abusive and exploitative sexual activity common in the world that Paul’s recipients lived in.
OASISScathing: the Revd Steve Chalke, who has criticised his fellow Evangelicals for using New Testament passages to “destroy” LGBT people“Eighty per cent of the artwork recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum is sexually explicit, and also reveals a fascination with the image of the stiff, erect penis — a symbol of power and pleasure,” Mr Chalke said.
“If you were a man in Roman culture, so long as someone was your social inferior — a slave, a gladiator, a woman etc — it was considered socially acceptable and respectable to penetrate them.
“So engrained was this way of thinking and behaving that it became incorporated into religion. Drug- and alcohol-fuelled orgies featuring men sleeping with women, men sleeping with men, and women sleeping with women and men were even classed as acts of worship.”
In this context, Paul’s warnings in the New Testament against having sex with someone of your own gender do not mean that faithful gay relationships are forbidden for Christians, Mr Chalke suggests.
“Every Christian believes God to be a God of love. It is no wonder that these abusive practises are condemned by inspired scripture. But, it is a disingenuous misreading of the text to conclude that what Paul describes in Romans 1 can be used to prevent people forming loving, faithful and nurturing relationships with people of the same-sex.”
Mr Chalke is scathing about the traditional, conservative reading of the key verses on sexuality, saying that some scholarship is driven more by “prejudice” than by any real “grappling with the New Testament passages”.
“In Evangelical circles there has been a lack of intellectualism which has meant that we’ve not dealt with these Biblical passages as we should,” he said. “Some Biblical scholarship just has not kept up with archaeological discovery, it’s not kept up with wider cultural research and understanding.”
Instead, the contentious passages have become “weaponised” and used to “destroy LGBT people and their lives and their credibility and their sense of peace”, he claims.
Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by a sudden volcanic eruption in AD 79. Archaeologists have gained a vivid insight into ancient Roman culture by digging through layers of ash which blanketed the town in hours and protected the city from decay for 1700 years before it was rediscovered.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - July 12, 2017
When we're identified with awareness, we're no longer living in a world of polarities. Everything is present at the same time.
- Ram Dass -
Via Daily Dharma: All You Need To Do
Just
understand your mind: how it works, how attachment and desire arise,
how ignorance arises, where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know
the nature of all that; just that gives so much happiness and peace.
—Lama Thubten Yeshe, “Chocolate Cake”
—Lama Thubten Yeshe, “Chocolate Cake”
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Via 5 of 45 Daily Dharma: Living Love
Although we may not always live in a steady state of loving feeling, through practice we can learn to touch it many times a day.
—Joseph Goldstein, “Triumph of the Heart”
—Joseph Goldstein, “Triumph of the Heart”
Monday, July 10, 2017
Via Daily Dharma: When Your Mind Changes, The World Changes
When your mind changes, the world changes. And when we respond differently to the world, the world responds differently to us.
—David Loy, “Rethinking Karma”
—David Loy, “Rethinking Karma”
Sunday, July 9, 2017
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - July 9, 2017
In
this culture, we are rewarded for knowing we know. It’s only when we
come to the despair of seeing that the rational mind just isn’t going to
be enough – it’s only when you see the assumptions you’ve been working
with are not valid that there is the possibility of change.
Albert Einstein said, “A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels.” And again, “Man must be able to develop a higher form of thought if he’s ever going to be able to use his energy with wisdom.”
Albert Einstein said, “A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels.” And again, “Man must be able to develop a higher form of thought if he’s ever going to be able to use his energy with wisdom.”
-- Ram Dass --
Via 5 of 11 Daily Dharma: Joy in the Process of Awakening
Patience
gives you joy in the process of awakening. Without patience, you may
find yourself at war with your own forgetfulness or reactivity.
—Tara Brach, “Finding True Refuge”
—Tara Brach, “Finding True Refuge”
Saturday, July 8, 2017
Via Daily Dharma: The Sea Within You
Each
of us may be nothing more than a moving wave of change, but we are
waves able to know this fact. We rise and fall in an infinitely deep and
timeless sea, upright and undisturbed.
—Sallie Tisdale, “On Dignity”
—Sallie Tisdale, “On Dignity”
Friday, July 7, 2017
Via Daily Dharma: Alternative Facts, for Buddhists
All things exist. All things do not exist. All things both exist and do not exist. All things neither exist nor do not exist.
—Kenneth Kraft, “Buddhist Political Glossary”
—Kenneth Kraft, “Buddhist Political Glossary”
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