A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Via Daily Dharma: Making the Journey to Refuge
A spiritual practice can be an island, a place where opening to uncertainty and doubt can lead us to a refuge of truth.
—Joan Halifax, “The Lucky Dark”
—Joan Halifax, “The Lucky Dark”
Via Ram Dass: Words of Wisdom - August 28, 2019 💌
The first step of karma yoga is to get free of the attachments to your own life, to develop a witness. We have thousands of me’s and there is one me that watches all the other me’s, right? That’s the only game.
It’s not trying to change any of the me’s. It’s not the evaluator, and it’s not the judge, it’s not the super ego. It doesn’t care about anything. It just notes, ‘hmmm, there he is doing that.’ That witness, that place inside you, is your centering device. And that begins to be the work one does on oneself.
Once one understands that this place exists, the cultivation of non-attachment can begin.
It’s not trying to change any of the me’s. It’s not the evaluator, and it’s not the judge, it’s not the super ego. It doesn’t care about anything. It just notes, ‘hmmm, there he is doing that.’ That witness, that place inside you, is your centering device. And that begins to be the work one does on oneself.
Once one understands that this place exists, the cultivation of non-attachment can begin.
- Ram Dass -
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Via Daily Dharma: Learning to Look at Our Anger
Anger
limits us. But if we have the courage to look at our anger and its
causes and to learn from it, we can develop an open heart—a heart of
genuine compassion.
—Jules Shuzen Harris, “Uprooting the Seeds of Anger”
—Jules Shuzen Harris, “Uprooting the Seeds of Anger”
Via Compassion for Those Who Harm Us
The
law of karma implies that we must assume our share of responsibility in
what happens to us. This is easier in the case of happiness and when
positive developments occur in our life. But in adversity, I find a
source of deep wisdom. It has allowed me to become friends with what I
would otherwise deem bad and therefore reject.
—Phakyab Rinpoche and Sofia Stril-Rever, “Gratitude for My Torturers”
—Phakyab Rinpoche and Sofia Stril-Rever, “Gratitude for My Torturers”
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 25, 2019 💌
Most means of gaining livelihood do not, in and of themselves, increase
the illusion of separateness. However, the beings who do the work do it,
because of their own level of involvement, in such a way as to increase
the illusion.
When you are involved in such vocations, then it is your work on yourself which makes the particular vocation a vehicle for bringing man out of illusion and into yoga.
When you are involved in such vocations, then it is your work on yourself which makes the particular vocation a vehicle for bringing man out of illusion and into yoga.
- Ram Dass -
Via Fans of John Shelby Spong / FB:
~ ~ ~Bishop John Shelby Spong
Via Daily Dharma: Finding the Sacred in Simplicity
Our
lives, just as they are, plain and simple, are filled with miracles.
Nothing special, nothing holy; or rather, everything special, everything
holy.
—Taylor Plimpton, “Expressing the Inexpressible”
—Taylor Plimpton, “Expressing the Inexpressible”
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Via Daily Dharma: Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Applying
attention to smaller emotions—or simply focusing on form, sound, or
physical sensations—develops your capacity to look at long-term,
overwhelming emotional states.
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Aim of Attention”
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Aim of Attention”
Via Daily Dharma: Stock Your Emotional Toolbox
Applying
attention to smaller emotions—or simply focusing on form, sound, or
physical sensations—develops your capacity to look at long-term,
overwhelming emotional states.
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Aim of Attention”
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Aim of Attention”
Friday, August 23, 2019
#PrayforAmazonia
E agora José?!... E agora Maria?!
Não importa mais agora em quem você votou. Importa, Agora, é a Defesa da Natureza, é a Consciência de que este País, este Planeta é nossa Casa. Você colocaria fogo em tua casa?
E como mudar isso? Cada um saberá como, se compreender a gravidade do que está acontecendo, e quiser, de fato, fazer parte de um Novo Tempo, através do desenvolvimento de uma Nova Consciência.
Quem sou eu pra saber qual o melhor caminho?
Mas tem um jeito, que pode servir para ajudar: reduzir o consumo de produtos industrializados (roupas, acessórios, celulares, eletrodomésticos, carros, comida industrializada... etc) e até eliminar o que possa considerar supérfluos, incluindo aqui a carne.Verduras, Legumes, Raízes, Grãos, Frutas...
SAÚDE! As feiras, mercados e hortas comunitárias oferecem hoje produtos orgânicos.
Já ouviu sobre isto?
Saúde nos Pensamentos, Nos Sentimentos, nas Emoções, nas Ações... E MAIS CONSCIÊNCIA NA HORA DE VOTAR. Faça um favor... a si mesmo, a seus queridos, à humanidade, ao Planeta Terra, nosso Lar.
EU SOU ((Coloque seu nome aqui antes de copiar e encaminhar o texto)), também sou José, também sou Maria, assim como VOCÊ É. SOMOS TODOS UM! Compreenda e Aceite Isto. Uma Rede Única Nos UNE. E cada ação, sentimento, pensamento, energia, reverbera para o Todo.
Que cada labareda do fogo que está queimando a Floresta Amazônica, considerada o pulmão deste planeta, CESSE, e se transmute em espada flamejante de São Miguel Arcanjo para extirpar o mal e restaurar a dignidade, o amor e a paz nos corações. QUE VENHAM AS CHUVAS. E que as águas lavem TUDO o que já é deteriorado. Que o insano seja enfim extinguido. E que só reste a pureza, a mansidão e o amor, no pensar, no sentir, no agir, no falar.
UM SONHO? ... SIM, UM SONHO REAL. UMA ORAÇÃO.
MISERICÓRDIA, MISERICÓRDIA, MISERICÓRDIA PARA ESTE PLANETA.
Façamos cada um a sua parte - ORAR, acessar uma nova consciência e reverberar as melhores energias.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Via Daily Dharma: How to Stop Suffering
Buddhism presents rigorous means of investigating the causes of suffering and happiness. It is intent not only on counteracting suffering once it has arisen, but also on identifying and counteracting the causes of suffering before it arises.
—B. Alan Wallace, “Overlapping Worlds”
—B. Alan Wallace, “Overlapping Worlds”
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 21, 2019 💌
To live consciously you must have the courage to go inside yourself to
find out who you really are, to understand that behind all of the masks
of individual differences you are a being of beauty, of love, of
awareness.
When Christ said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within” he wasn’t just putting you on. When Buddha said, “Each person is the Buddha” he was saying the same thing. Until you can allow your own beauty, your own dignity, your own being, you cannot free another.
So if I were giving people one instruction, I would say work on yourself. Have compassion for yourself. Allow yourself to be beautiful and all the rest will follow.
When Christ said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within” he wasn’t just putting you on. When Buddha said, “Each person is the Buddha” he was saying the same thing. Until you can allow your own beauty, your own dignity, your own being, you cannot free another.
So if I were giving people one instruction, I would say work on yourself. Have compassion for yourself. Allow yourself to be beautiful and all the rest will follow.
- Ram Dass -
Via Daily Dharma: Becoming Honest about Who We Are
Meditation
is a patient process of knowing that gradually over time, habits are
dissolving. We don’t actually get rid of anything. We are just steadfast
with ourselves, developing clearer awareness and becoming honest about
who we are and what we do.
—Pema Chödrön, “Making Friends with Oneself”
—Pema Chödrön, “Making Friends with Oneself”
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Via Daily Dharma: The Fleeting Nature of Sensation
Whether
pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, gross or subtle, every sensation
shares the same characteristic: it arises and passes away, arises and
passes away.
—S. N. Goenka, “Finding Sense in Sensation”
—S. N. Goenka, “Finding Sense in Sensation”
Monday, August 19, 2019
Via Daily Dharma: Take a Second for Gratitude
Every
morning, I say, “I vow to be grateful for the precious opportunity of
human birth.” And I don’t let myself use the excuse that I don’t have
time. It doesn’t take much time to be grateful.
—Susan Moon, “Stop Shopping”
—Susan Moon, “Stop Shopping”
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 18, 2019
The truth is everywhere. Wherever you are, it’s right where you are, when you can see it. And you can see it through whatever vehicle you are working with; you can free yourself from certain attachments that keep you from seeing it.
The scientist doesn’t stop being a scientist, nor anybody stop being anything. You find how to do the things to yourself which allows you to find truth where you are at the moment. I’d say we never find out anything new; we just remember it.
The scientist doesn’t stop being a scientist, nor anybody stop being anything. You find how to do the things to yourself which allows you to find truth where you are at the moment. I’d say we never find out anything new; we just remember it.
- Ram Dass -
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