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.
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - September 16, 2020 💌
Who dwell in the heart cave has no limit. Who dwells in the heart cave is beyond time, beyond space.
Each time you experience yourself as something or somebody, just notice
that it's another thought or sensation drifting across the walls of the
cave, and return to the spacious, formless, timeless essence.
-Ram Dass -
Via Tricycle // Online Meditation Calendar
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Via Daily Dharma: Improve Your Mind
Merit
created through skillful means and wisdom is for more than physical
comfort; it is to improve the conditions for your mind.
—Tsoknyi Rinpoche, “Noble Wishes”
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Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Via FB // Home is not a place
Home is not a place. Home is an architecture of bones and a steadily thumping heart. Home is where dreams are born, and monsters are put to rest. It is where the soul can unfurl like the petals of a flower and find succor in the golden blush of each new day.
The most important point of Buddha's teachings ~ Gyaltsab Rinpoche
The most important point of Buddha's teachings ~ Gyaltsab Rinpoche https://justdharma.com/s/5v6dq When you suffer, if you take that not just as your own suffering but rather as the nature of samsara, then you are understanding the most important point of Buddha's teachings. – Gyaltsab Rinpoche source: https://bit.ly/1jJWC9e
Via Daily Dharma: Go Beyond Good and Bad
Fortune
and misfortune, good and bad—not everything is how it looks to your
eyes. It’s not how you think it is either. We’ve got to go beyond
fortune and misfortune, good and bad.
—Kodo Sawaki Roshi, “To You”
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Monday, September 14, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Change the Direction of Your Thoughts
Mindfulness
allows us to watch our thoughts, see how one thought leads to the next,
decide if we’re heading toward an unhealthy path, and if so, let go and
change directions.
—Sharon Salzberg, “Mindfulness and Difficult Emotions”
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Sunday, September 13, 2020
Via White Crane Institute // ALAIN LOCKE
This Day in Gay History
September 13
ALAIN LOCKE (d: 1954) An American writer, editor, philosopher, educator and patron of the arts was born on this date. He is best known for his writings on and about the Harlem Renaissance. He is unofficially called the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance." His philosophy served as a strong motivating force in keeping the energy and passion of the Movement at the forefront.
In classic same-sex “culture carrier” mode, Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material. Locke edited the March 1925 issue of the periodical Survey Graphic, a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about the flourishing culture there.
Later that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known and seminal works.
His philosophy of the New Negro was grounded in the concept of race-building. Its most important component is overall awareness of the potential black equality; No longer would blacks allow themselves to adjust themselves or comply with unreasonable white requests. This idea was based on self-confidence and political awareness. Although in the past the laws regarding equality had been ignored without consequence, Locke's philosophical idea of The New Negro allowed for real fair treatment. Because this was just an idea and not an actual bylaw, its power was held in the people. If they wanted this idea to flourish, they were the ones who would need to "enforce" it through their actions and overall points of view. Locke has been said to have greatly influenced and encouraged Zora Neale Hurston.
He was also a Bahá'í
Unity Through Diversity: A Bahá’í Principle
Alain Locke: Baha'i Philosopher
Via Daily Dharma: Inner and Outer Practice
Genuine
spiritual practice offers a way to face both our inner and outer worlds
and to bring these two related realms into living, loving dialogue.
—Gaylon Ferguson, “Natural Bravery”
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - September 13, 2020 💌
The Living Spirit, the Beloved, is always right here. It is merely your mind that prevents you from acknowledging its existence. When you quiet your mind or open your heart out so that it draws your mind along with it, only then do you rend the veil to see that the Beloved is right here.
- Ram Dass -
Saturday, September 12, 2020
One of the best posts I've read to describe "white privilege".
Don’t really get all the BLM stuff?
Via Daily Dharma: Receiving What Is Here
The
gate of liberation is always open … if only you could actually
recognize and receive what is here in front of you, rather than what you
wish were here instead.
—Koshin Paley Ellison, “Being Content with What We Have”
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