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.
Friday, January 1, 2021
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Via White Crane Insitute // This Day in Gay History
Via Daily Dharma: What Connects Us All
What really matters is gratitude. That’s the heart of spirituality. And gratitude connects us: it lets us see that we are all connected.
—Kurt Spellmeyer, “Dialogue Across Difference”
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Via One Earth Sangha
Dedication of Merit
A prayer that any goodness generated here be extended out into the world:
May all beings be cherished.
May all injustices of oppression and devaluation
be fully righted, remedied and healed.
May all wounds to forests, rivers, deserts, oceans,
all wounds to Mother Earth be lovingly restored to bountiful health.
May all beings everywhere delight in whale song, birdsong and blue sky.
May all beings abide in peace and well-being, awaken and be free.
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
A little twist ~ Pema Chödron
A little twist ~ Pema Chödron https://justdharma.com/s/wezj2
All of life is interconnected. If something lives, it has life force, the quality of which is energy, a sense of spiritedness. Without that, we can’t lift our arms or open our mouths or open and shut our eyes. If you have ever been with someone who is dying, you know that at one moment, even though it might be quite weak, there’s life force there, and then the next moment there is none. It’s said that when we die, the four elements—earth, air, fire, water—dissolve one by one, each into the other, and finally just dissolve into space. But while we’re living, we share the energy that makes everything, from a blade of grass to an elephant, grow and live and then inevitably wear out and die. This energy, this life force, creates the whole world. It’s very curious that because we as human beings have consciousness, we are also subject to a little twist where we resist life’s energies. –
Pema Chödron from the
book "The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving Kindness" ISBN:
978-1570628726 - https://amzn.to/1eGdDZy Pema Chödron on the web: http://pemachodronfoundation.
Via Lion's Roar // Beginning Anew
Beginning Anew |
Thich Nhat Hanh on how to make the meaningful ceremony of “Beginning Anew” part of your life. |
Via Daily Dharma: The Wisdom of Generosity
The
practice of generosity is a wisdom practice, because it’s aligning you
with the real truth of things: what you think of as yours, as part of
your identity, is only temporary.
—Subhadramati, “Cutting the Threads”
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - December 30, 2020 💌
When you stop living by other people’s judgments or expectations, you start doing what you need to do. In trying to decide what you want to do with your life, listen to your heart. The program is much farther out than you ever thought it was. I never thought I’d be a yogi. Each of us has our unique karmic predicament, our individual work to do. Always choose that which you feel is most in harmony with the way of things.
- Ram Dass -
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Calm Your Breath
If
we examine the body and mind carefully, we notice a connection between
the breath and how we feel. When the breath is calm and relaxed, we
notice that the body’s energy is also calm.
—Anyen Rinpoche and Allison Choying Zangmo, “Tibetan Yoga Techniques for Better Breathing”
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Monday, December 28, 2020
Via Daily Dharma: Staying on the Path
Once
you recognize that everyday reality is merely a reflection of some
deeper truth that’s close at hand but hidden from view, you’ve embarked
on a search that you can never really abandon, no matter how far you
seem to stray.
—Stephan Bodian, “Encountering the Gateless Gate”
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Sunday, December 27, 2020
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - December 27, 2020 💌
Of course, it’s embarrassing not to be infinitely wise, but I feel that what we can offer each other is our truth of the growing process, which means we fall on our faces again and again. Sri Aurobindo says, “You get up, you take a step, you fall on your face, you get up, you look sheepishly at God, you brush yourself off, you take another step, you fall on your face, you get up, you look sheepishly at God, you brush yourself off, you take another step…” That’s the journey of awakening.
If you were awakened already, you wouldn’t do that, so my suggestion is you relax and don’t expect that you will always make the wisest decisions. Realize that sometimes you make a decision and, if it wasn’t the right one, you change it.
- Ram Dass -