Via the Gay Buddhist Fellowship in San Franciso

“The more closely we contemplate our bodies and minds and the world we live in, the more profoundly we become aware of the fragility and instability. When a crisis like this pandemic lays bare the unreliable and uncertain nature of the world, we are unsurprised. We know that what is happening right now is not a deviation from the norm. It is merely that the covers have been dragged away from truths that most people spend their lives trying to ignore. With a daily grounding in the way things are, we can remain free from panic, anxiety, and depression. We can turn our minds to compassion.

Faced with a suffering of this depth and range, we form the heartfelt wish that all people, young and old, in all countries of the world be free from infection. If they have contracted the virus, may they recover. If they do not recover may they be able to endure their pain with patience and acceptance; may they have a refuge in their heart to turn to; and in their final days may they be surrounded by love and kindness.”

~Ajahn Jayasaro

Via Daily Dharma: Diluting Your Ego

Each deepening of refuge is a lessening of ego.

—Dharmavidya David Brazier, “It Needs Saying”

Via One Day More!

Via Daily Dharma: You Are Enough

The ground of renunciation is realizing that we already have exactly what we need, that what we have already is good.

—Pema Chödrön, “Renunciation”

Via Daily Dharma: Reconnect with Interconnection

There is a truth to our lived experience, to our births, to our deaths, to our existence in separate bodies. But that doesn't deny that we are interconnected, that we all originated from the same point.

—Sebene Selassie, “Mindfulness of the Four Elements: Reconnecting with the World”

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - March 22, 2020 💌

"One of the big traps we have in the West is our intelligence because we want to know that we know. Freedom allows you to be wise, but you cannot know wisdom. You must be wisdom. When my guru wanted to put me down, he called me ‘clever.’ When he wanted to reward me, he would call me ‘simple.’ The intellect is a beautiful servant, but a terrible master. Intellect is the power tool of our separateness. The intuitive, compassionate heart is the doorway to our unity. "

- Ram Dass -

Via White Crane Insitute: GAVIN ARTHUR

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
This Day in Gay History
March 21 Born Gavin Arthur 1901 - GAVIN ARTHUR, American writer, grandson of President Chester A. Arthur (d: 1972); Grandson and namesake of U.S. President Chester Alan Arthur, he was Alan Watts' father-in-law. An adventurous soul, he worked his way around the world as a merchant seaman. He has been described as "an Ivy League dropout, an Irish Republican Army activist, an experimental-film actor, a commune leader, a gold prospector, a teacher at San Quentin, and a bisexual sexologist/astrologer. An early Gay Rights activist and a practical prototype for the hippies." In 1962, Arthur published The Circle of Sex, a book that analyzed human sexuality through the lens of astrology. Rather than the linear scale developed by Alfred Kinsey, Arthur envisioned sexuality as a wheel with twelve orientations. The twelve types corresponded to the zodiac and Arthur illustrated each with an historical archetype (e.g., Don Juan, Sappho, Lady C).  He appears in James Broughton's film The Bed as the man receiving last rites from Alan Watts Arthur, bisexual himself, was said to have been intimate with Edward Carpenter and Neal Cassady. Arthur was also a friend to many of the beat generation, including Allen Ginsberg and Alan Watts, and was active in the early Gay Liberation movement movement. Arthur married for the third time in 1965 to Ellen Jansen. He wrote an enlarged edition of The Circle of Sex the following year. He used astrology to determine the date to hold the Human Be-in in 1967. In 1968, he debated fellow astrologer Dane Rudhyar on the topic of the Age of Aquarius. In 1972, Arthur died in San Francisco. Having no children himself, he was the last living descendant of his grandfather, President Chester A. Arthur. His papers, including many family papers, were donated to the Library of Congress.

Via Daily Dharma: Why We Really Practice

We need to lessen our attachment to the cushion and remember meditation’s true purpose: to transform our minds. We can do that anywhere.

—Mindy Newman, “Ask a Teacher”

Via Daily Dharma: Others Have Felt What You’re Feeling

Whatever it is that you’re feeling, recognize it. In that instant of separation and acknowledgment, … use your imagination to recognize that there are other people on the planet at this very moment feeling just like you feel. You are no longer alone.

—Lama Kathy Wesley, “Your Mistakes Are Progress”

Via White Crane Institute / RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
This Day in Gay History
March 19 Born Richard Francis Burton 1821 - RICHARD FRANCIS BURTON, legendary British explorer, diplomat and author was born (d. 1890); an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, linguist, poet, hypnotist, fencer and diplomat. If we left anything out it’s hard to imagine what it might be. Burton was "the most interesting man alive" before there was such a thing. He was known for his far-flung and exotic travels and explorations within Asia and Africa as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages. His best-known achievements include traveling in disguise to Mecca, making an unexpurgated translation of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (the collection is more commonly called The Arabian Nights in English because of Andrew Lang's abridgment) and the Kama Sutra and journeying with John Henning Speke as the first white men guided by the redoubtable Sidi Mubarek Bombay to discover the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Allegations of homosexuality followed Burton throughout most of his life, at a time when it was a criminal offense in the United Kingdom. Biographers disagree on whether or not Burton ever experienced Gay sex (he never directly acknowledges it in his writing). These allegations began in his army days when General Sir Charles James Napier requested that Burton go undercover to investigate a male brothel reputed to be frequented by British soldiers. It has been suggested that Burton's detailed report on the workings of the brothel may have led some to believe he had been a customer. Burton was a party boy and a heavy drinker at various times in his life and also admitted to taking both hemp and opium. Friends of the poet Algernon Swinburne blamed Burton for leading him astray, holding Burton responsible for Swinburne's alcoholism and interest in the works of the Marquis de Sade.

Via Daily Dharma: How to Work with People Who Cause Harm

Instead of giving up on those who cause harm, we need to realize that they are seeking happiness but don’t know how to find it.

—Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, “Putting Down the Arrow”

Buda da Medicina - O buda da cura

“E as pessoas ficaram em casa.
E leram livros, ouviram, descansaram, se exercitaram, fizeram arte, jogaram jogos, aprenderam novas maneiras de existirem e ficaram paradas.
E então ouviram mais profundamente.
Alguns meditavam, outros rezavam, já outros dançavam.
Alguns encontraram as suas próprias sombras.
E o povo começou a pensar de maneira diferente.

O povo foi curado.
E, na ausência de pessoas vivendo na ignorância, perigosas, com a mente e o coração fechados, a Terra começou a se curar.

E, quando o perigo passou, as pessoas se uniram novamente, sofreram com as suas perdas, fizeram novas escolhas, sonharam novas imagens e criaram novas maneiras de se viver e curar a terra completamente, como haviam sido curadas”.

~ Kitty O Meara

*Foto do Buda da Medicina - O buda da cura

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - March 18, 2020 💌

"What does the voice of fear whisper to you? Fear speaks to you in logic and reason. It assumes the language of love itself. Fear says 'I want to make you safe.' Love says, 'You are safe.' Fear says, 'Give me symbols. Give me frozen images. Give me something I can rely on.'

Loving truth says, 'Only give me this moment.' Fear would walk with you on a narrow path promising to take you where you want to go. Love says, 'Open your arms and fly with me.' Every moment of your life you are offered the opportunity to choose - love or fear, to tread the earth or to soar the heavens."

- Emmanuel -

Via Daily Dharma: From Momentary Glimpse to Lasting Illumination

Although initially the clinging to self disappears only when we’re very mindful, those moments free of delusion give deeper insight a chance to arise, and eventually wisdom becomes strong enough to trigger a permanent change of outlook.

—Cynthia Thatcher, “Disconnect the Dots”

Via White Crane Institute / This Day in Gay History: BAYARD RUSTIN

March 17 Born Bayard Rustin 1912 - BAYARD RUSTIN American civil rights activist, born (d: 1987) Largely behind the scenes in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and earlier, and one of the organizers of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, it was Bayard Rustin who counseled Martin Luther King Jr. on the techniques of nonviolent resistance. For much of his career, Rustin lived in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, in the union-funded Penn South complex, from 1978 with his partner Walter Naegle. He became an advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career; however, his sexuality was the reason for attacks from within the civil rights movement as well as from many governmental and other interest groups. A year before his death in 1987, Rustin said: "Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves Gay, homosexual, or Lesbian."

Via Daily Dharma: Where Fear Should Be Felt

We should not be afraid of suffering. We should be afraid of only one thing, and that is not knowing how to deal with our suffering.

—Thich Nhat Hanh, “Why We Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Suffering”

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - March 15, 2020 💌

For many of us, the thought of death, thinking of when we or someone we love is going to die, keeps us from being here now. When will we die? How will we die? What will happen after we die? What will happen to our loved ones? What about all the things we hoped to accomplish? These deep fears and anxieties about our survival keep us from living fully in the present moment.
Most of us are convinced that we are our egos, which is who we think we are. The ego is part of our incarnation. It dies with the body, which is why we are so afraid of death. Death scares the hell out of who you think you are, especially if you think you are this body. Being around death forces you to open to a deeper part of yourself. The shadow, especially the shadow of death, is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light.
When you are fully present in the moment, there is no anticipatory fear, no anxiety, because you are living here and now, not in the future.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Seeing Worth in All Things

The sensitive, mindful heart perceives value and worth in all things. It does not rely upon drama or intensity to feel awake and alive, but draws upon receptivity, stillness, and a present moment wholeheartedness.

—Christina Feldman, “Brief Teachings”

Via Daily Dharma: Be Aware of Becoming Unaware

Every time you recognize that you have lost awareness, be happy. The fact that you have recognized that you lost awareness means that you are now aware.

—Sayadaw U Tejaniya, “The Art of Investigation”