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.
Renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando brings harmony to the landscape by enclosing a large stone Buddha in a lavender covered hill. Located in the Makomanai Takino Cemetery in Sapporo, Ando was charged with shaping the landscape around the pre-existing sculpture.
For 15 years, the 44-foot-tall Buddha stood alone as a solemn
1,650-ton figure in a field. “Until now, the Buddha statue has stood alone in the field, giving an unrestful impression. The client wanted to give visitors a more serene appreciation of the Buddha,” Ando shared. “Our idea was to cover the Buddha below the head with a hill of lavender plants. We called the idea the ‘head-out Buddha.'”
ARMISTEAD MAUPIN'S serialized epic Tales of the City makes
its debut in The San Francisco Chronicle. That first appearance became a
series of seven novels that were originally serialized in the San
Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. It has since been
transformed into a movie and a musical.
"One day I was sitting in a motel in middle America, and it was one of
those really plastic Holiday Inn type places, and I had arrived and I
went into my room and I sat down and set up my little puja table and you
know, all that stuff. Moving the menu and stuff, and it was kind of
depressing, and I thought, 'Well, a few more weeks and I'll be done with
this tour and I can go home.' And then I saw the pain that that thought
was creating for me.
So I got up and I walked out of the room, closed the door, walked down
the hall, turned around, came back, unlocked the door and yelled, 'I’m
home!' And I came in and I sat down, and I looked and, you know, I
wouldn’t have decorated particularly this way, but what the hell, you
know? I thought, if I’m not at home in the universe, boy, I got a
problem. If I say, 'I can only be home here, not there.'
What is home? Home is where the heart is. Home is the quality of presence. It’s the quality of being wherever you are."
Today marks the first day of the “Saga Dawa” observed during the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar. The Saga Dawa called the “month of
merits” is the month during which five important life events of Lord
Buddha took place. It is believed that Lord Buddha was conceived, born,
defeated evil forces attained enlightenment and passed away into parinirvana on the 15th day of this month. Therefore, this month is one of the most auspicious times for Buddhists. It is said that both
positive and negative deeds during this month is multiplied 100,000
times.
Intelligence
or lack of it does not matter; between the dull and the sharp-witted
there is no distinction. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly,
that in itself is negotiating the Way.
Gay rights pioneer, martyr and San Francisco city supervisor HARVEY MILKwas
born on this date. Milk was an American politician and Gay Rights
activist and the first openly Gay city supervisor of San Francisco,
California. He was often called, "the first openly Gay man elected to
any substantial political office in the history of the planet," though
this slights others who were elected before him in cities not so
associated with Gay life.
What is not as well-remembered was his amazing ability to bring communities and neighborhoods together for progressive ends.
The U.S. Postal
Service officially revealed the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp in 2015. The
stamp’s official first-day-of-issue ceremony took place at the White
House. The public was invited to attend the May 28 Harvey Milk Forever
Stamp special dedication ceremony in San Francisco. Customers may order
the Harvey Milk stamp now through this link for delivery following the
May 22 stamp issuance.
The stamp image
is based on a circa 1977 black and white photograph of Milk in front of
his Castro Street Camera store in San Francisco taken by Danny Nicoletta
of Grants Pass, OR. Antonio Alcalá of Alexandria, VA, was art director
for the stamp.
Buddhism
emphasizes love’s beneficial power. Because its nature is joy and because it always brings about happiness and well-being, to love is the most meritorious action.
—Karma Trinlay Rinpoche, “What We’ve Been All Along”
30-year-old Francisco José Alvarado is a family doctor at Lavapiés Health Center in Madrid. While working tirelessly to help COVID-19
patients back in March, he contracted the virus. After making a full recovery, he returned to work. Now, he’s just been named Mr. Gay World
Pride.
REVEREND ROBERT WOOD, author of historic book Christ and the Homosexual (1960) was born. Wood's book is considered one of the first positive treatments of homosexuality and Christianity.
Wood, himself a
Gay man was ministering at the time in New York City and was well
acquainted with the ostracism experienced by the gay subculture at the
hands of what he saw as “a society which in most cases has not taken the
time to study the facts and to know the individuals involved.”
“Christ and the
Homosexual” was the first book published merging these two subjects, and
groundbreaking in its poignant critique of the Church, and in its
description, support, and affirmation of the Gay community.
All 3,000
hardbound copies sold at a cost of $3.95 each. Copies of the book are extremely scarce today as no further editions were printed.
You
have to get dirty with your emotions. Meditation allows us to feel them, live them, and taste them completely. It gives us a lot of insight into why we do the things we do and why other people do the things they do. Out of this insight, compassion is born.
All
experience arises in the present, does its dance, and disappears.
Experience comes into being only tentatively, for a little time in a
certain form; then that form ends and a new form replaces it moment by
moment.
Sanskrit: Bhaiṣajyaguru (भैषज्यगुरु)
Chinese: Yàoshīfó (藥師佛); Yàoshīrúlái (藥師如來)
Japanese: Yakushi (薬師); Kusurishi Nyorai (薬師如来)
Korean: Yaksayeorae, Yaksabul (약사여래, 약사불)
Mongolian: Оточ Манла
Bhaiṣajyaguru, more formally Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharāja (भैषज्यगुरुवैडूर्यप्रभाराज; "Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light"), is the buddha of healing and medicine in Mahayana Buddhism.
In the English language, he is commonly referred to as the "Medicine Buddha". The use of the analogy of a Buddha being depicted as a doctor who cures the illness of suffering using the medicine of his teachings appears widely in Buddhist scriptures.
In the Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharāja Sūtra, the Medicine Buddha is described as having entered into a state of samadhi called "Eliminating All the Suffering and Afflictions of Sentient Beings." From this samadhi state he spoke the Medicine Buddha Dharani.
Buddhists recite the mantra of the Medicine Buddha to overcome sickness. He is also closely associated with ceremonies for temple donors and for transferring of merit to such donors.
Phật Dược Sư (tiếng Phạn: bhaiṣajyaguru; chữ Hán: 藥師佛; nghĩa là "vị Phật thầy thuốc"), còn gọi là Dược Sư Lưu Li Quang Phật, (bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūrya-prabha-buddha; 藥師琉璃光佛), là vị Phật đại diện cho sự trọn vẹn của Phật quả ngự cõi phía đông (là cõi Tịnh Lưu ly). Tranh tượng của vị Phật này hay được vẽ với tay trái cầm thuốc chữa bệnh và tay mặt giữ Ấn thí nguyện.
Phật Dược Sư thường được thờ chung với Phật Thích Ca Mâu Ni và A Di Đà, trong đó phật Dược Sư đứng bên trái còn Phật A Di Đà đứng bên phải Phật Thích Ca. Trong kinh Dược Sư, hiện nay chỉ còn bản chữ Hán và chữ Tây Tạng, người ta đọc thấy 12 lời nguyện của vị Phật này, thệ cứu độ chúng sinh, với sự giúp đỡ của chư Phật, Bồ Tát và 12 vị Hộ Pháp và Thiên vương.
