Via Lion's Roar / Happiness in Every Breath by Thich Nhat Hanh

When we stop feeding our cravings, says Thich Nhat Hanh, we discover that we already have everything we need to be happy.

The human mind is always searching for possessions and never feels fulfilled. This causes impure actions ever to increase. Bodhisattvas, however, always remember the principle of having few desires. They live a simple life in peace in order to practice the Way and consider the realization of perfect understanding as their only career.
—The Sutra on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings

The Buddha said that craving is like holding a torch against the wind; the fire will burn you. When someone is thirsty and drinks only salty water, the more he drinks, the thirstier he becomes. If we run after money, for example, we think that a certain amount of money will make us happy. But once we have that amount, it’s not enough; we think we need more. There are people who have a lot of money, but they are not happy at all. The Buddha said that the object of our craving is like a bone without flesh. A dog can chew and chew on that bone and never feel satisfied.

We all experience moments when we feel lonely, sad, empty, frustrated, or afraid. We fill up our feelings with a movie or a sandwich. We buy things to suppress our pain, despair, anger, and depression. We find a way to consume, in the hopes that it will obliterate the feelings. Even if a TV show isn’t interesting, we still watch it. We think anything is better than experiencing the malaise, the ill-being in us. We have lost sight of the reality that we already have all the conditions we need for our own happiness.

Each of us has our own idea of happiness. It’s because of this idea that we run after objects we desire. We sacrifice our time and, to a certain extent, destroy our bodies and our minds. According to the Buddha, happiness is simple—if we go home to the present moment, we realize that we have more than enough to be happy right here and now. All the wonders of life are in us and around us. This realization can help us release our craving, anger, and fear.

The more we consume, the more we bring in the toxins that feed our craving, anger, and ignorance. We need to do two things to return to mindful awareness. First, we can look deeply into the nutriment that is feeding our craving, examining the source. No animal or plant can survive without food. Our craving, just like our love or our suffering, also needs food to survive. If our craving refuses to go away, it’s because we keep feeding it daily. Once we have identified what feeds our craving, we can cut off this source of nutriment, and our craving will wither.

The second practice is mindful consumption. When we end our consumption of things that feed our craving, ignorance, and wrong perceptions, we can be nourished by the many wonderful things around us. Understanding and compassion are born. Joy in the present moment becomes possible. We have a chance to transform our own suffering.

The Four Nutriments

The Buddha spoke of four kinds of nutriments, the four kinds of foods that we consume every day. Our happiness and suffering depend very much on whether what we consume is wholesome or unwholesome.

Make the jump here to read the original and more

Via Daily Dharma: Becoming the Stream

Meditation is not just a rest or retreat from the turmoil of the stream or the impurity of the world. It is a way of being the stream, so that one can be at home in both the white water and the eddies.

—Gary Snyder, “Just One Breath”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - October 9, 2019 💌

"If we only work with our intellects and with the emptying of our minds, as in some yogas, and we fail to open our hearts, our journey becomes very dry and brittle. Ultimately, no matter what our methods, we have to find a very even balance between our energy, heart and mind. "

- Ram Dass -

ViaWhite Crane Institute / Today's Gay Wisdom

Reverend Nancy Wilson

"In such a toxic environment, the poor, the minorities, and the politically vulnerable populations will be the first to exhibit signs and symptoms of the deteriorating immunological picture. It is the canary-in-the-mines syndrome. When miners wanted to know if a particular mineshaft was safe from poisonous gases, they sent a canary in first. If the canary returned, the miners felt safe to go in. On our planet today, poor people, people of color, women and children, and gays and lesbians are the canaries (or sitting ducks if you prefer). Those who have any kind of privilege (gender, race, class, sexuality, age) are better able, for a time, to buffer and insulate themselves from the toxic environment — from AIDS, cancer, and other diseases. But not forever.

"There is also a moral and religious toxicity in reaction to so much upheaval, change, and worldwide political challenges. This phenomenon is called in many religions fundamentalism. In a century of increasing relativity in values, morality, and religion, fundamentalism provides absolutes and identifies the enemies. It is a kind of collective mental illness that includes obsessive thinking, tunnel vision, and functions much like other addictions." 

- Rev. Nancy Wilson, Our Tribe: Queer Folks, God, Jesus and the Bible

 

CHOIR sings OM SO HUM Mantra (Must Listen)

OM SO HUM MANTRA with EPIC CHOIR @ 432Hz' Get MP3 of this Track : https://gum.co/HbHsK 

So Hum is derived from Sanskrit and literally means "I am That" . it means identifying oneself with the universe or ultimate reality. As we meditate on this, we realize that we are all one, we have all come from one Infinite Source, and a part (Ansh) of that infinite source is present in all of us. We are all connected. "You are the same as I am" 

OM is the sound of universe. Om Soham ~ I am the universe, I am part of it, I am connected to that Infinite source, Understand ~ Meditate ~ Chant ~ Sing Along this beautiful Mantra

Via Daily Dharma: It’s Okay to Have Faults

There is no need to be afraid of having faults, because knowing we have them can help us to improve. If you considered yourself perfect, would you still want to meditate and cultivate your practice?

—Master Sheng-Yen, “How to Be Faultless”

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Via Tricycle: Architecture of Awakening

“Architecture creates a place to rest. To learn. To think. To grow. To connect,” he wrote. “It nurtures us, helps us to be better people.”

Anthony Poon wasn’t looking for a teacher or a spiritual practice in 2008 when he received a call from an old friend. The Tibetan Buddhist community at the Bodhi Path retreat center in Natural Bridge, Virginia, had some building projects in mind, and she wondered if that would interest him.

Friendship aside, Poon was not an obvious choice. An architect with degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he has over three hundred projects to his name and a slew of prestigious awards, including, in 2018, the American Institute of Architects’ highest accolade, the National Design Award for Best in Housing Design. Poon Design, based in Los Angeles, is known for elegant, modernist designs for luxury residences, upscale restaurants, and cutting-edge commercial, educational, and cultural facilities. Though Poon’s portfolio contains several churches and a chapel for Air Force retirees, at the time of his friend’s phone call he had never been inside a Buddhist center.

To read the full article and more click here

Via Daily Dharma: Making Our Own Peace

Forgiveness is really not about someone’s harmful behavior; it’s about our own relationship with our past. When we begin the work of forgiveness, it is primarily a practice for ourselves.

—Gina Sharpe, “The Power of Forgiveness”

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Via Faithful in America: Father James Martin

Dear Faithful America member,

On Monday, Pope Francis met privately with Father James Martin, an outspoken advocate for pro-LGBTQ ministries within the Catholic Church. The meeting was a clear and welcome papal rebuke of the anti-LGBTQ criticism Martin has received from American bishops.

In September, notorious conservative Archbishop Charles Chaput condemned Martin's work in Philadelphia's diocesan newspaper. Chaput even wrote that Martin should never say "the Church welcomes gay people" without giving a list of conditions.

Jesus did not give conditions when he commanded us to love our neighbors -- but to make matters worse, bishops in Knoxville, TN, and Springfield, IL, piled on, calling Martin's pro-LGBTQ ministry full of "moral errors" and "deeply scandalous."

Not only is Martin's ministry supported by the Vatican, he's doing right by LGBTQ persons whom the church has long treated like outsiders. Each and every human being is created in the image of God, and James Martin needs to know that his work spreading that vital message is appreciated in spite of the bishops' attacks.

Add your name to thank Fr. Jim Martin, SJ, for his support for LGBTQ Christians >>

Thanks for everything you do to love your neighbor and fight discrimination!

In peace,

- Jason, Rev. Nathan, and the Faithful America team

P.S. Faithful America depends on the support of members like you to continue mobilizing Christians to challenge the religious right and its dangerous alliance with Donald Trump. Can you chip in to support this urgent work?

---

Faithful America is the largest online community of Christians putting faith into action for social justice. We can be reached through traditional mail at Faithful America, 206 Elm Street, Box # 202898, New Haven, CT 06520-2898. If you are receiving this message, it is likely because your email address was used either to sign one of our petitions or join via our homepage, faithfulamerica.org. We only want to contact people interested in receiving our emails, so while we hope you'll stick around and take action, you can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time.

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - October 6, 2019 💌

"When somebody is hungry you give them food. As my guru said, 'God comes to the hungry person in the form of food.' You give them food and then when they’ve had their belly filled, then they may be interested in questions about God. "

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Turn Meditation into Action

Don’t confuse training with trying: Meditation to develop compassion is not actually being compassionate to others. If you want to weaken your self-centeredness, go on and meditate, but don’t stop there. Take compassionate action.

—Sallie Tisdale, “Self-Care for Future Corpses”

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Via FB:

Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world."

 - Mark Thompson -

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

Via Daily Dharma: What Is the Nature of Your Mind?

You don’t have to believe anything. Just understand your mind; how it works, how attachment and desire arise, how ignorance arises, and where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know the nature of all that; that alone can bring you happiness and peace.

—Lama Thubten Yeshe, “Your Mind Is Your Religion”

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Via Daily Dharma: How to Appreciate Just Being

It is precisely our recognition of life’s inevitable hardships, along with our uprooting of the attachment that exacerbates them, that allows us to appreciate the mere fact of being.

—Reverend Patti Nakai, “Someone Is Jealous of You”

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Via Daily Dharma: Unclench Your Fist

The cultivation of liberation and compassion go together like the front and back of an open hand. Clinging, attachment and mental bondage are like clenching the hand into a fist. When the fist is opened, liberation and compassion are both there.

—Gil Fronsdal, “Why I Walk Two Paths”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - October 2, 2019 💌

"Don’t get caught in righteousness; don’t get caught in helping somebody. It doesn’t mean don’t help them, just don’t get caught in it… If you really want to help somebody, instead of just ripping off the experience of helping them for yourself, give up helping anybody. And then just be with them and see what happens."

- Ram Dass - 

Via Daily Dharma: Mending the True Problem

If your car is broken, you don’t try to find ways to repaint its chassis; most of our problems—and therefore our solutions, our peace of mind—lie within.

—Pico Iyer, “Adventures in Going Nowhere”

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Via White Crane Insitute / This Day in Gay History: JALAL AL-DIN MUHAMMAD RUMI

JALAL AL-DIN MUHAMMAD RUMI, Persian mystic and poet born (d. 1273) also known as Mawlānā Jalāl-ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, but most famously known to the English-speaking world simply as RUMI.

Rumi was a 13^th century Persian (Tajik) Muslim poet, jurist and theologian. His name literally translates as "Majesty of Religion", Jalal means "majesty" and Din means "religion." Rumi is a descriptive name meaning "the Roman" since he died in Anatolia which was part of the Byzantine Empire two centuries before.

Rumi was born in Balkh (in present-day Afghanistan), then a city of Greater Khorasan in Persia and died in Konya (in present-day Turkey). His birthplace and native language/local dialogue indicates a Persian (Tajik) heritage. His poetry is in Persian and his works are widely read in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and in translation especially in Turkey, Azerbaijan, the US, and South Asia. He lived most of his life in, and produced his works under, the Sejuk Empire. Rumi's importance is considered to transcend national and ethnic borders. Throughout the centuries he has had a significant influence on Persian as well as Urdu and Turkish literature. His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages in various formats. After Rumi's death, his followers founded the Meylevi Order, better known as the "Whirling Dervishes," who believe in performing their worship in the form of dance and music ceremony called the sema.

It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on November 15^th 1244 that changed his life completely. Shams had traveled throughout the Middle East searching and praying for someone who could "endure my company." A voice came, "What will you give in return?" "My head!" "The one you seek is Jalal al-Din of Konya." On the night of December 5, 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. It is believed that he was murdered with the connivance of Rumi's son, 'Ala' ud-Din; if so, Shams indeed gave his head for the privilege of mystical friendship.

Rumi's love and his bereavement for the death of Shams found their expression in an outpouring of music, dance and lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus. There, he realized:

Why should I seek? I am the same as

He. His essence speaks through me.

I have been looking for myself!

For more than ten years after meeting Shams, Mawlana had been spontaneously composing ghazals, and these had been collected in the Divan-i Kabir. Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, the goldsmith. After Salaḥ ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favorite student Hussam-e Chelebi assumed the role. One day, the two of them were wandering through the Meram vineyards outside of Konya when Hussam described an idea he had to Rumi: "If you were to write a book like the Ilāhīnāma of Sanai or the Mantiq ut-Tayr of 'Attar it would become the companion of many troubadours. They would fill their hearts from your work and compose music to accompany it."

Rumi smiled and took out a piece of paper on which were written the opening eighteen lines of his Masnavi, beginning with:

Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,

How it sings of separation...

Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next twelve years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi to Hussam. In December 1273, Rumi fell ill; he predicted his own death and composed the well-known ghazal, which begins with the verse:

How doest thou know what sort of king I have within me as companion?

Do not cast thy glance upon my golden face, for I have iron legs.

He died on December 17, 1273 in Konya; Rumi was laid to rest beside his father, and a splendid shrine, the Yesil Turbe "Green Tomb" (original name:قبه لخزراء), was erected over his tomb. His epitaph reads:

"When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men."