Via Tricycle: How to Cultivate an Unshakable Inner Peace

 With so much chaos swirling around our world, many of us are experiencing waves of heightened anxiety, fear, anger, grief, despair, loneliness, and other difficult emotions. 

It’s easy to get swept up in the storm, but the teachings of Buddhism remind us that even in the midst of external chaos we can cultivate an unshakable inner peace. We can’t change what’s happening in the world, but we can choose to stay present no matter what’s going on around us. 

Mindfulness can act as an anchor, helping us to stay steady through these turbulent times. In our August Dharma Talk series, “Overcoming Difficult Emotions in a Chaotic World,” Bhante Buddharakkhita, a Ugandan Buddhist teacher, monk, and author, offers a series of mindfulness practices for navigating whatever emotional states may be arising for you right now.  

Watch the four-part series to better understand the roots of difficult emotions and learn how to apply mindfulness to overcome them.

Watch it now »

Also this week:

• Aging as a Spiritual Practice starts September 14! Join Zen teacher and author Lewis Richmond for a six-week course on finding ease in the process of growing older.
   
• In a new essay for the Fall 2020 issue, Stephen Batchelor considers the benefits of contemplating the extinction of humankind.
   
• Two chief architects of the Paris Climate Agreement say the first step to saving the planet is changing our mindset—and embracing an attitude of “gritty optimism.”
   
• Find instant relief and resilience during difficult moments with the short and sweet practices featured in our new podcast, For the Moment.

Via NPR Story Corps: Falling In Love During The Era Of Don't Ask Don't Tell

 

Mike Rudulph (left) and Neil Rafferty.

Courtesy of Mike Rudulph  

 

Make the Jump here to listen to this sweet story

Via FB // Spinoza Einstein

 

When Einstein was giving lectures at the numerous US universities, the most recurring question that students and scientists asked him was: Do you believe. In God? And he always answered: I believe in the God of Spinoza.

Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the three great rationalists of the 17th century philosophy, along with the French Descartes. This is the God or nature of Spinoza:

God would have said:

Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest!

What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life.

I want you to enjoy, sing,

have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.

Stop going to those dark, cold temples

that you built yourself and say they are my house!

My house is in the mountains,

in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches.

That's where I live and there I express my love for you.

Stop blaming me for your miserable life;

I never told you there was anything wrong with you

or that you were a sinner,

or that your sexuality was a bad thing!

Sex is a gift I have given you

With which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy.

So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.

Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me.

If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape,

in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes...

you will find me in no book!

Trust me and stop asking me. Will you tell me how to do my job?

Stop being so scared of me.

I do not judge you, criticize you,

nor get angry, or bother, or punishment.

I am pure love.

Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive.

If I made you...

I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures,

feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will.

How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you?

How can I punish you for being the way you are,

if I'm the one who made you

Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children

who behave badly for the rest of eternity?

What kind of god can do that?

Forget any kind of commandments, any kind of laws;

those are wiles to manipulate you, to control you,

that only create guilt in you.

Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself.

All I ask is that you pay attention in your life,

that your alert is your guide.

My beloved, this life is not a test,

not a step, not a step in the way, not a rehearsal,

nor a prelude to paradise.

This life is the only thing here and now and all you need.

I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments,

no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.

You are absolutely free to create in your life heaven or hell.

I could tell you if there's anything after this life

but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is no.

As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.

So, if there's nothing,

then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you.

And if there is, rest assured that

I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong,

I'll ask.

Did you like it?

Did you have fun?

What did you enjoy the most?

What did you learn?...

Stop believing in me;

believing is assuming, guessing, imagining.

I don't want you to believe in me,

I want you to feel in you.

I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved,

when you tuck your little girl,

when you caress your dog,

when you bathe in the sea.

Stop praising me,

what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?

I'm bored being praised,

I'm tired of being thanked.

Feeling grateful?

Prove it by taking care of you,

your health, your relationships, the world.

Feeling looked at, shocked?...

Express your joy!

That's the way to praise me.

Stop complicating things and

repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.

The only thing for sure is that you are here,

that you are alive,

that this world is full of wonders.

What do you need more miracles for?

Why so many explanations?

look for me outside, you won't find me.

Find me inside... there I am beating on you.

Spinoza.

Via Daily Dharma: The Power of Forgiveness

 Without forgiveness, we’re forced to carry the sufferings of the past.

—Gina Sharpe, “The Power of Forgiveness”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Happy VERTUMNALIA! via The White Crane Insitute

 

---

Vertumnus by Archimboldo

2017 -

VERTUMNALIA – Roman festival in honor of Vertumnus and Diana, on the Aventine Hill. In Roman mythology, Vertumnus is the god of seasons, change and plant growth, as well as gardens and fruit trees.

He could change form, at will; using this power, according to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, he tricked Pomona into talking to him by disguising himself as an old woman and gaining entry to her orchard, then using a narrative warning of the dangers of rejecting a suitor (the embedded tale of Iphis and Anaxarete) to seduce her. The Ides of August was also sacred to Jupiter and known as the feriae Jovi, or Festival of Jove, and to Diana, the goddess of the moon, and called the Festival of Diana.

Diana was sometimes viewed as Jupiter's female equivalent (not his wife, who was Juno). On this day, Diana's temple on the Aventine Hill was consecrated; today cow horns (symbols of Hercules), were hung in the front of the temple.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - August 12, 2020 💌

 

 "The transformation that comes through meditation is not a straight-line progression. It’s a spiral, a cycle. My own life is very much a series of spirals in which at times I am pulled toward some particular form of sadhana or lifestyle and make a commitment to it for maybe six months or a year.

After this time I assess its effects. At times I work with external methods such as service. At other times the pull is inward, and I retreat from society to spend more time alone. The timing for these phases in the spiral must be in tune with your inner voice and your outer life.

Don’t get too rigidly attached to any one method – turn to others when their time comes, when you are ripe for them."

- Ram Dass -

Via Tumblr

 

My Sacred Dharma Space:

 

Via FB // John Pavlovitz

 Apparently, I’ve been radicalized and I wasn’t aware.

Certain people call me the “radical Left” all the time.

 

I never considered myself radical before. I just thought I was normal, ordinary, usual.I thought equity was important to everyone.I imagined America was filled with people who took that Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness stuff seriously—for all people.I thought the Golden Rule was actually mainstream.

 

Recently I took an inventory of my positions, screening for the extremism:

 

I believe in full LGBTQ rights.

I believe we should protect the planet.

I believe everyone deserves healthcare.

I believe all religions are equally valid.

I believe the world is bigger than America.

I believe to be “pro-life,” means to treasure all of it.I believe women should have autonomy over their own bodies.

I believe whiteness isn’t superior and it is not the baseline of humanity.

I believe we are all one interdependent community.

I believe people and places are made better by diversity.

I believe people shouldn’t be forced to abide by anyone else’s religion.

I believe non-American human beings have as much value as American ones.

 

I believe generosity is greater than greed, compassion better than contempt, and kindness superior to derision.

 

I believe there is enough in this world for everyone: enough food, enough money, enough room, enough care—if we unleash our creativity and unclench our fists.

 

I’m not sure how these ideas became radical, though it seems to have happened in the last few years.

 

I grew up being taught they were just part of being a decent human being.

 

I grew up believing that loving my neighbor as myself, meant that I actually worked for their welfare as much as my own.

 

I was taught that caring for the least in the world, was the measure of my devotion to God.I thought that inalienable rights of other people were supposed to be a priority as a decent participant in the world.

I don’t think I’m alone.

 

In fact, I’m pretty sure that most people reside here in this place alongside me: the desire for compassion and diversity and equality and justice; that these things aren’t fringe ideologies or extremist positions—but simply the best way to be human.

 

I think most people want more humanity, not less.

 

I think the vast middle is exhausted by the cruelty of these days.

 

That these aspirations seem radical to some people, is probably an alarm that they’ve moved so far into the extremes of their fortified ideological bunkers and been so poisoned by the propaganda, that normal now seems excessive, that equality now seems oppressive, that goodness feels reckless.

 

Maybe the problem is, these people are so filled with fear for those who are different, so conditioned to be at war with the world, so indoctrinated into a white nationalistic religion of malice—that they’ve lost sight of what being a human being looks like anymore.

 

I am pretty sure that I don’t represent the “radical Left,” but the vast, disparate, compassionate, humane Middle; people who are not threatened by someone else’s presence, who do not see another person’s gain as their loss, who don’t worship a Caucasian, American god.

 

I suppose humanity feels radical to inhumane people.

In that case, I’ll gladly be here in my extremism.

 

-John Pavlovitz

Via Daily Dharma: Coming to Terms with Reality

 More often than we might think, there is nothing we can do beyond coming to terms with our experience not as we want it to be, but with it as it is.

— Meikyo Robert Rosenbaum, “Breathless”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // Today's Gay Wisdom

 

Achilles and the death of Patroclus

2017 BCE -

TODAY'S GAY WISDOM

Notable ancient Greek warriors who had same-sex love relationships:

ARISTOMENES — Prince of the Messenians and Arcadians

CIMON — leader of the Delian League forces and the Athenian navy, gaining notoriety in the Persian Wars

ASOPHICHUS — great warrior and lover of Epaminondas

CAPHISODORUS — warrior and lover of Epaminondas whom he died with at the battle of Mantineia

CLEOMACHUS — led Chalcis to victory in the Lelantine Warns and introduced pederasty to the area

PAMMENES — general who was supposed to assume leadership after Epaminondas

THERON — warrior from Thessaly

HARMODIUS — credited with bringing about Athenian democracy with Aristogiton

ARISTOGITON — credited with bringing about Athenian democracy with Harmodius

PELOPIDAS — general of the elite Sacred Band of Thebes

EPAMINONDAS — Theban general and commander of the Boeotian army credited with ending Sparta’s dominance  Lover of Asophichus.

GORGIDAS — established the Sacred Band of Thebes selecting male couples within the Theban army

MELEAGER — infantry commander under Alexander

HEPHAESTION — top general and lover of Alexander

Via Daily Dharma: How to Cultivate Generosity

 Like any form of strength, generosity needs to be intentionally cultivated over time, and everyone must begin in whatever state of mind they already happen to be.

—Dale S. Wright, “The Bodhisattva’s Gift”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - August 9, 2020 💌

 

 

 

If you’re involved with relationship with parents or children, instead of saying, "I can’t do spiritual practices because I have children," you say, "My children are my spiritual practice." If you’re traveling a lot, your traveling becomes your yoga.

You start to use your life as your curriculum for coming to God. You use the things that are on your plate, that are presented to you. So that relationships, economics, psychodynamics—all of these become grist for the mill of awakening. They all are part of your curriculum.

 

- Ram Dass

Just Beyond Yourself - David Whyte

Just beyond
yourself.

It’s where
you need
to be.

Half a step
into
self-forgetting
and the rest
restored
by what
you’ll meet.

There is a road
always beckoning.

When you see
the two sides
of it
closing together
at that far horizon
and deep in
the foundations
of your own
heart
at exactly
the same
time,
that’s how
you know
it’s the road
you
have
to follow.

That’s how
you know
it’s where
you
have
to go.

That’s how
you know
you have
to go.

That’s
how you know.

Just beyond
yourself,
it’s
where you
need to be.

 

Make the jump here to read the source and listen to it read 

Via FB:

 

Via Shambal Mountain Center // OM VOTE HUM

 

OM VOTE HUM

Back in May, over 100 Buddhist leaders signed a letter stressing the necessity of voting in the coming US election, and also of working to ensure that as many eligible voters as possible do so as well. In the weeks leading up to November 3, this message is worth repeating like a mantra—so we’re re-publishing the letter in full here, which includes clear steps you can take to help Get Out the Vote. // Read more >>

Via Daily Dharma: Create Space for Your Natural Joy

 Meditation practice allows our natural flow of being to come forth and provides a space for our natural joy to come out.

—Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, “Turn Into the Skid”

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Via Daily Dharma: Learning to Be Happy Here and Now

 The Buddha spoke of learning how to be deeply happy right here and now, no matter what circumstances we are facing. Even the existential challenges of our own impending illness, aging, and death can be encompassed with the wisdom to acknowledge that all things change, to accept that there is no essence underlying it all, and nevertheless to be able to meet each moment without clinging to anything in the world.

—Andrew Olendzki, “A Modest Awakening”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // WITTER BYNNER

 

August 10

Born

Witter Bynner

1881 -

WITTER BYNNER, poet, writer and scholar. Best remembered for his classic translation of The Way of Life, according to Lao Tzu (1944). Initially he pursued a career in journalism at McClure's Magazine, Bynner then turned to writing. He was a charter member of the Poetry Society of America and was influential in getting the work of A.E. Housman and Ezra Pound published. In 1916 Bynner was one of the perpetrators of an elaborate literary hoax. It involved a purported 'Spectrist' school of poets. They published a book called "Spectra" that received accolades from Edgar Lee Masters and William Carlos Williams who were completely taken in by the ruse. Bynner meant it as a critique of the fashion of "ism" schools in poetry that were ruining poetry in his opinion. The incident, while successful, damaged his reputation in certain circles.

Bynner traveled to Japan and China and subsequently produced many translations from Chinese. His verse showed both Japanese and Chinese influences, but the latter were major. After a short time in academia (University of California, Berkeley), Bynner settled down in Santa Fe, in a relationship with Robert Hunt that would last for thirty-four years. Mabel Dodge Luhan, the doyenne of the intellectual community in Santa Fe & Taos at one point accused Bynner of "single-handedly introducing homosexuality into New Mexico." Bynner and Hunt became fixtures in Santa Fe. On January 18, 1965, Bynner had a severe stroke. He never recovered, and required constant care until he died on June 1, 1968. His papers are archived in the New Mexico State University Library. His last words were reported to have been, "Other people die, why can't I?"