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.
Sunday, January 12, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Choosing How to Frame Your Life
Every day when we wake up, we have a choice. Will we choose fear or will we choose compassion and love?
—Interview with Ocean Vuong by Raisa Tolchinsky, “What Scares Writer and Zen Buddhist Ocean Vuong”
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—Interview with Ocean Vuong by Raisa Tolchinsky, “What Scares Writer and Zen Buddhist Ocean Vuong”
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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 12, 2020 💌
"For a long time I thought truth had to mean only words, but it doesn’t.
There are truths that are only communicated in silence. And you have to
figure out when to use words and when to use silence, because the
absolute truth is silent.'"
- Ram Dass -
Via Daily Dharma: Examining Reality
If you look close[ly], you’ll see that there are no independent objects or distinctions—there is nothing but this one awareness.
—Haemin Sunim, “Nothing Is Outside of Awareness”
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—Haemin Sunim, “Nothing Is Outside of Awareness”
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Saturday, January 11, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Letting Go of Judgment
The
more we can witness our experiences without judgment, the less
suffering we will experience in our lives. We eventually learn to rest
in the ebb and flow of the present moment, experiencing it as pure,
often pleasant, and ever-changing.
—Ruth King, “Soothing the Hot Coals of Rage”
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—Ruth King, “Soothing the Hot Coals of Rage”
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Vis Daily Dharma: Savor the Present Moment
Chronic
wanting keeps us from ever really arriving in the moment and seeing it
as it is. When we’re always on our way somewhere else, we are not living
the life that is here.
—Tara Brach, “In Brief”
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—Tara Brach, “In Brief”
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Via Daily Dharma: How Can We Stop Suffering?
The Buddha understood that suffering arises from and is fueled by clinging. When the fuel is removed, suffering is extinguished.
—Gil Fronsdal, “Nirvana: Three Takes”
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—Gil Fronsdal, “Nirvana: Three Takes”
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Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Where Can We Find Happiness?
Happiness is right here within us. It is not something on the outside for which we need to search and strive.
—Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, “Opening the Injured Heart”
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—Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, “Opening the Injured Heart”
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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 8, 2020 💌
"You want to get to the place where, when there is depression, instead of running and hiding from the depression by trying to grab at the next high, you turn around and look at the depression as though you were looking the devil in the eye. You say to the depression, 'Come on
depression, do your trip, because you’re just a depression, and here I
am.'"
- Ram Dass -
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Test the Dharma through Action
Don’t give final authority to your own ideas. You have to test the teachings, and your ideas, in the laboratory of your actions.
—Larry Rosenberg, “The Right to Ask Questions”
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—Larry Rosenberg, “The Right to Ask Questions”
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Sunday, January 5, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Discover Your True Nature
We
can’t control [insight]; we can just create conditions in which insight is more likely to happen. We can be curious and open. We can inquire.
And eventually, if we are lucky, the mind will wake up to itself and
know its true nature.
—Teah Strozer, “RAIN”
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—Teah Strozer, “RAIN”
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Via Daily Dharma: Developing Compassion for Our Feelings
As
we become mindful of a feeling that’s driving us, we realize that we don’t have to react to it and be driven by it. Instead, we can simply observe it, recognize that it represents a part of us that is suffering,
and have compassion for that part of us.
—Bodhipaksa, “Digital Detox: Reclaim Your Mind From Social Media Addiction”
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—Bodhipaksa, “Digital Detox: Reclaim Your Mind From Social Media Addiction”
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FULL DHARMA TALK
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 5, 2020 🌈
"When you realize you want to relieve suffering, you realize that you have to become an instrument for the removal of suffering, and that means you have to be free of suffering. Then there is the choice, to
deny suffering or to change yourself inside.
"
- Ram Dass -
Friday, January 3, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Opportunities for Renewal
Wherever there is the death of one state of mind there is the birth of another.
—Francesca Fremantle, “The Luminous Gap in Bardo”
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—Francesca Fremantle, “The Luminous Gap in Bardo”
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Thursday, January 2, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Look Toward What Is Good
A
powerful light can illuminate a cave that had always been dark, and
there are beacons of pure goodness whose luster can sustain us and give
us the strength to carry on.
—Pamela Gayle White, “A New Year’s Wish for Light”
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—Pamela Gayle White, “A New Year’s Wish for Light”
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Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 1, 2020 🌈
"We are on an inevitable course of awakening.
If you understand that message deeply, it allows you to enter into your spiritual practices from a different perspective, one of patience and timelessness. You do your practices not out of a sense of duty or because you think you should, but because you know in your soul there really is nothing else you would rather do.
In Sanskrit, this is called vairagya, a state of weariness with worldly desire where only the desire for spiritual fulfillment is left. The spiritual pull is the last desire, one that really grabs you, but that dissolves on its own because you dissolve in the process. The Tao says, "In the end, you will be like the valley which is the favorite resort of the Way." You become receptive, become soft, become open, become attuned, become quiet. You become the ocean of love."
If you understand that message deeply, it allows you to enter into your spiritual practices from a different perspective, one of patience and timelessness. You do your practices not out of a sense of duty or because you think you should, but because you know in your soul there really is nothing else you would rather do.
In Sanskrit, this is called vairagya, a state of weariness with worldly desire where only the desire for spiritual fulfillment is left. The spiritual pull is the last desire, one that really grabs you, but that dissolves on its own because you dissolve in the process. The Tao says, "In the end, you will be like the valley which is the favorite resort of the Way." You become receptive, become soft, become open, become attuned, become quiet. You become the ocean of love."
- Ram Dass -
Via Daily Dharma: The First Step of Transformation
The
Buddha saw: our thoughts, emotions, and actions are the primary sources of our suffering. Equally, our thoughts, emotions, and actions can be the source of our joy and freedom. Living, as much as possible, with conscious intention is the first step of this transformation.
—Thupten Jinpa, “Two Exercises for Turning Intention into Motivation”
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—Thupten Jinpa, “Two Exercises for Turning Intention into Motivation”
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Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - December 27, 2019 💌
"My route is through the heart, of devotion. That is a path. There are
many pathways through here. One is the path of wisdom, one is the path
of calming the mind, one is the path of opening the heart. My path is
the path of love."
- Ram Dass -
Via Daily Dharma: Move Through Transitions with Care
Do
not think of doors as obstacles to whatever is on the other side.
Practice opening them magnanimously and closing them with care.
—Gary Thorp, “Crossing the Threshold”
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—Gary Thorp, “Crossing the Threshold”
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