Via Daily Dharma: The Best There Is Inbox

In order to learn to be truly content here, you have to practice being truly content here. And that means giving up any notion that there’s something better just around the next bend.

—Brad Warner, “Goalless Practice”

Via Daily Dharma: Freedom from the Mundane

Meditation helps us break free of habitual patterns and unleash the original and creative power of thought.

—Martine Batchelor, “Meditation, Mental Habits, and Creative Imagination”

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Via Daily Dharma: For All Beings

To try earnestly to develop positive qualities through meditation is the best activity you can do for yourself; it is also the best you can do for others.

—An Interview with Matthieu Ricard, “Why Meditate?”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - February 27, 2019 💌

Bearing the unbearable is the deepest root of compassion in the world. When you bear what you think you cannot bear, who you think you are dies. You become compassion. You don't have compassion - you are compassion. True compassion goes beyond empathy to being with the experience of another. You become an instrument of compassion. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Beyond Bliss

There may be bliss with awakening, because it is actually a by-product of awakening, but it is not awakening itself. As long as we are chasing the byproducts of awakening, we will miss the real thing.

—Adyashanti, “Bliss is a By-Product”

Via Daily Dharma: Start Right Here

Without cultivating love for ourselves, regardless of how much discipline we have, regardless of how serious we are about practice, we will still stay stuck in the subtle mercilessness of the mind, listening to the voice that tells us we are basically and fundamentally unworthy.

—Ezra Bayda, “The Three Things We Fear Most”

Via Daily Dharma: The Power of Our Practice

The practice of each one of us, however humble and immature it may be, is seen as something powerful and indispensable for the entire community of awakened ones.

—Kazuaki Tanahashi, “Fundamentals of Dogen’s Thoughts”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - February 24, 2019 💌

I've often been struck by the poignancy of meeting old people of great wealth and power, and seeing how frightened they are of losing what they have. The greater their clinging, the greater their pain, realizing how little use the accoutrements of power and worldly position are in helping them age with wisdom and peace. In truth, the Ego's attachment to power of any kind is linked inextricably to the fear of losing that power, and thus becomes a source of suffering.

There is a kind of power that does not give rise to fear, however. It is spiritual power, the power of the enlightened mind. As we begin to emphasize Soul power over worldly power, our perception of the alterations brought on by aging changes proportionately.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: The Virtuous Circle of Patience

The wonderful thing about patience, unlike commodities, is the more we use it, the more we offer it, the more we have.

—Allan Lokos, “Allan Lokos: Patience With Self”

Via Daily Dharma: Finding Freedom

Learning to let thinking come and go, we can eventually understand a thought as a thought and a word as a word, and with this understanding we can find a measure of freedom from thoughts and words.

—Norman Fischer, “Beyond Language”

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Via Daily Dharma: Bridging the Divide

The reason that remarkable stories of forgiveness take our breath away is that we instantly feel the liberation in the lifting of boundaries, the end of separation, of “inside” and “outside.”

— Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, “The Seventh Zen Precept”

Via Daily Dharma: Going Deeper with Mindfulness

As your mindfulness develops, your resentment for the change, your dislike for the unpleasant experiences, your greed for the pleasant experiences, and the notion of selfhood will be replaced by the deeper awareness of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness.

—Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Sitting Still”

Via Reddit: R/Baha'i - I hate but love the Bahai Faith

Grew up a bahai, felt immense love from the community and loved the teachings. Started having homosexual thoughts at 12 and now 10 years later the still haven’t left me. I have prayed so much that I don’t even know if I want to live anymore. I am clinically depressed and the thought of my family or the community finding out I’m gay would make me want to commit suicide.

 

This is all as a result of the Bahai Faith which is supposed to be a ‘progressive’ and ‘accepting’ religion which teaches about the unity of mankind. I feel isolated and repressing this part of myself is truly AWFUL for gay bahais. I have no one to talk to about this except for my therapist and even telling her has caused me so much pain because I hate associating the Faith with the reason for my depression. It should be a solace and a source of comfort in my life but the past few years has made me doubt everything I truly believed in before. I wonder why I am ‘spiritually diseased’ as Shoghi Effendi wrote. I think about how Bahaullah taught about the harmony between science and religion yet Bahais do not see homosexuality as a natural thing. I just feel like this is too much for me to handle and I am gradually drifting away. I don’t pray anymore, I just go to activities to support my family and friends and for the social interactions because otherwise I would be a disappointment to people. 

I’ve turned to bad coping mechanisms to help escape the reality of who I am. I am so ashamed and feel horrible guilt over the person I am that I wonder how I’d ever be able to overcome this ‘spiritual disease’. Conversion therapy? No thanks. It’s detrimental to anyone who engages with it. I’m so heart broken that I believe in Bahaullah and everything he taught except for this ONE thing which is a part of who I am. I’m sure there are may gay bahais out there like me who also feel the same. We can’t just be expected to stay in the closet and not get married or stay celibate our whole lives. I’d rather die.

Sorry for the rant I’m just super upset and feeling a lot of mixed emotions around the faith.

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