Via Daily Dharma: Gifts at the End of Life

The end of life often offers rare opportunities to affirm and deepen our highest human values—reconciling conflicts, sharing forgiveness and gratitude, deepening a sense of loving intimacy, and rising above our myopic experience of ourselves, our lives, and the world.

—Joseph Loizzo, “So the Darkness Shall Be the Light”

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Via Daily Dharma: Sitting with Vulnerability

By putting things in a bigger context, [we are] able to enter a whole realm of practice—learning to stay with the rawness or vulnerability of being human.

—Pema Chödrön, “On Not Losing Heart”

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Via Daily Dharma: Offer Yourself a Comfortable Refuge

Any diligent practice of watchfulness, including meditation, requires routine and rhythm. During meditation, when we offer the body a familiar seat and comfortable environment, we create a refuge in which we can better discern and understand what’s going on in our constantly shifting private landscape.

—Lauren Krauze, “A Watchfulness Routine for Writing”

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Via ADAM & ANDY

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Via Daily Dharma: Seeking Wiser Motivation

When we wake up to how human life on this planet actually is, and stop running away or building walls in our heart, then we develop a wiser motivation for our life.

—Ajahn Sucitto, “From Turning the Wheel of Truth: Commentary on the Buddha’s First Teaching”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - October 13, 2019 💌

It’s a little more like the image of a caterpillar - enclosing itself in a cocoon in order to go through the metamorphosis to emerge as a butterfly.

The caterpillar doesn’t say, “Well now. I’m going to climb into this cocoon and come out a butterfly.” It’s just an inevitable process.

It’s inevitable.

It’s just happening.

It’s got to happen that way.

from Be Here Now

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Can You Change Your Relationship to Your Life?

There’s no question that hard and difficult things happen to us. The question is, what is our reaction to it? What is our relationship to what happens? The Buddhist teachings are both revolutionary and simple in that they attempt to change our relationship to our life experience, whatever that is.

—Larry Rosenberg, “The Weather Is Just the Weather”

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Via Daily Dharma: Celebrate Who You Are

Life is given to us for free. How can we repay such a gift except with the fullness of our own life?

—Caitriona Reed, “Coming Out Whole”

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Via Daily Dharma: The Salve of Self-Compassion

Self-blame is an internalized second aggressor that can victimize us long after external damage is done. Self-compassion is like applying first aid to a wound and is the necessary first step to any process of healing.

—Miles Neale, “How to Heal After Your Teacher Crosses the Line”

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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.

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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?

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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 -