Via White Crane Institute // MLK

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

1968 -

MARTIN LUTHER KING was assassinated by a white Christian terrorist at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee on this date 53 years ago.

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - April 4, 2021 💌

This love is actually part of you; it is always flowing through you. It’s like the subatomic texture of the universe, the dark matter that connects everything. When you tune into that flow, you will feel it in your own heart—not your physical heart or your emotional heart, but your spiritual heart, the place you point to in your chest when you say, "I am."

- Ram Dass -

Jackson Browne - Before The Deluge ( + lyrics 1974)

Photographing "Oregon in Extraordinary Times"

Daily Dharma: More Fully Embed in the World

 I don’t believe meditation exists to help me escape or retreat from the world. I practice meditation because it can more fully embed me in the world and prepare me to act more intentionally within it.

—Lauren Krauze, “The Negative Space of Meditation”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // This Day in Gay History: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

 This Day in Gay History

April 02

Born

Hans Christian Andersen

1805 -

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, born, (d: 1875); Forget the silly Danny Gay, um...er...Kaye movie of yesteryear in which Hans sings to inchworms and measures all the marigolds. Anderson was an odd duck, all right, but odd in ways not even hinted at in that Technicolor monstrosity.

The real story, on the contrary, might actually make a good film. One can already see the scene between his poor parents as they realize something is a little strange about the lad. When the other kids are out doing masculine things, like circle jerks and pulling wings off flies, all he wants to do is sew clothes for his dolls. 

Then we can have the scene where he decides to leave his place as an apprentice to a tailor to try to make it as an opera singer. He’s really torn about leaving, because he just loves being surrounded by all those clothes to sew. Then there’s his time of starvation on the road until he’s taken in by two Gay musicians who see to it that the hunky young man is plenty stuffed.

Passed on to a middle-aged poet, and getting a little wiser, he decides it’s much more fun being kept than taking dancing lessons, as he had originally wanted, in return for services rendered. Eventually he makes it big as the greatest fairy tale writer in Europe, and the entire cast joins in the great production number, “It Takes One to Write One.”

Via Daily Dharma: Notice the Emptiness

 Zen invites us to empty our minds in order to gain insight into the emptiness of self, and through this emptiness into the nature of the world.

—John Kain, “The Beautiful Trap”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via FB // You Might Wanna Learn More About Trans People

You Might Wanna Learn More About Trans People

Learning new vocabulary and identities can be difficult, but many of these words actually apply to you! So for this Trans Day of Visibility, take a little time to acquaint yourself with these terms so that you can be the best, most supportive ally possible.

As we learn more about each other, sometimes it's helpful for us to create new vocabulary to describe ourselves and find other folks who are like us in sexuality, romance, gender, or body.

We're so proud of the community work that went into creating this poster.

You can download all the files for printing in your classroom or office here: https://wannalearnmore.com/poster

If you want to be part of the wonderful community that created this graphic, come visit us

You Might Wanna Learn More About Trans People

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The full text of the poster is below:

--- Full Text ---

Image description and full text transcript of the infographic poster:

Image description: A cartoon human is centered on a poster. The human has a blue cartoon brain in their head, red/yellow flames in their chest, a pink heart in their chest, a green star where their legs meet their torso, and an orange aura surrounding them. There is a thought bubble over the person’s head with a question mark inside. The blue brain points to a blue section titled “Gender Identity”. The green star points to a green section titled “Assigned Gender/Sex At Birth”. The orange aura points to an orange section titled “Gender Expression”. The red/yellow flames points to a yellow section titled “Sexual Orientation”. The pink heart points to a pink section titles “Romantic Orientation”. There is a light purple box with a dark border at the bottom with extra text and a QR Code. Each section title includes a small image of a cartoon human with exclamation points over their head, and the light purple box with extra text and a QR code has a larger version of the same cartoon human with exclamation points on top of the box. The rest of this description is a transcript of the text on the poster.

Gender Identity: A person’s sense of self in relation to gender

Transgender: Person is not the gender assigned at birth

Cisgender: Person is the gender assigned at birth

Metagender: person identifies as neither cisgender nor transgender

Non-Binary: Person is neither exclusively a man nor exclusively a woman. Non-binary people may or may not identify as transgender

Agender: Person does not experience a gender

Gender Fluid: Identity that varies over time (man, woman, or any other identity)

Assigned Gender/Sex At Birth: The gender/sex assigned at birth based on a person’s genitals.

Assigned Male At Birth (AMAB)/Assigned Female At Birth (AFAB): Generally, this assignment is made based on a visual assessment of the baby’s genitalia

Intersex: A naturally occurring variation of sex characteristics, reproductive organs, and/or chromosomes that do not fit the typical definition of male or female (although many intersex people are assigned male or female at birth).

Note: Assigned gender/sex at birth is different than sex, which is based on many variable factors

Gender Expression: How a person presents themself (such as style, actions, demeanor, and more)

Feminine: Expresses qualities and characteristics typically associated with femininity

Masculine: Expresses qualities and characteristics typically associated with masculinity

Androgynous: Expresses both typically feminine and typically masculine qualities ambiguously, or expresses typically neither

Note: Gender expression may change over time or in different situations

Sexual Orientation: Who a person is sexually attracted to

Heterosexual: Sexual attraction to people of a different gender than your own

Homosexual: Sexual attraction to people of a similar gender to your own

Bisexual: Sexual attraction to people of more than one gender
Pansexual: Sexual attraction regardless of gender

Asexual: Experiences little to no sexual attraction

Demisexual: Experiences little to no sexual attraction until a close bond is formed

Romantic Orientation: Who a person is romantically attracted to

Heteroromantic: Romantic attraction to people of a different gender than your own

Homoromantic: Romantic attraction to people of a similar gender to your own

Biromantic: Romantic attraction to people of more than one gender

Panromantic: Romantic attraction regardless of gender

Aromantic: Experiences little to no romantic attraction

Demiromantic: Experiences little to no romantic attraction until a close bond is formed

Light Purple Box with dark border:
These definitions are commonly accepted but not absolute.
Some of these terms have some overlap. That’s okay! Just describe yourself with whatever terms you’re comfortable with, and respect the terms other people use for themselves.
There are so many more identities, orientations, expressions, and definitions that aren’t shown here. Ask your teacher for more resources or visit the link in the QR Code if you have questions!
WannaLearnMore.com

#transdayofvisibility #transweekofvisibility #tdov #TDOV #TDOV2021

 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - March 31, 2021 💌

 

Don't treat yourself so gingerly; you can let go of stuff. Sometimes it takes three breaths instead of two to do it, but you can do it. Be a little tougher and don't cling to stuff. People go around carrying everybody's stuff all of the time. I just pick it up and put it down. Pick it up and put it down.

 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Flourishing Together

Humanity as a whole flourishes best when we all flourish together.

—Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, “An Act of Conscience”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE 

Via Daily Dharma: Distinguish Your Motivation

We do have the potential to awaken, but we must do the hard work of distinguishing when we are motivated by greed, hatred, and delusion, and when we are motivated by their opposites—generosity, kindness, and wisdom.

—Lynn Kelly, “First Thought, Worst Thought”

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Via Daily Dharma: Nothing Is Extraneous

 Call something an obstacle, it is an obstacle. Call it an opportunity, it is an opportunity. Nothing is extraneous to the spiritual life. 

—Interview with Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo by Lucy Powell, “No Excuses”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

VIA Tricycle // Awakening Together

Awakening Together
By Mindy Newman and Kaia Fischer

 

Enlightenment isn’t just for monks. The Hundred Deeds Sutra offers beautiful stories of monastics and ordinary people awakening together.

Read more »

Via Daily Dharma: Mindfully Wise Up

Mindfulness is about understanding. You have to use wise thinking to decide how to handle things; you cannot limit your practice to continuously being aware.

—Sayadaw U Tejaniya, “The Art of Investigation”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Whitye Crane Institute // KATHARINE LEE BATES

 

Katharine Lee Bates

1929 -

KATHARINE LEE BATES, American poet (b. 1859) died on this date; The author of the words to the anthem "America the Beautiful," Bates was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The daughter of a Congregational pastor, she graduated from Wellesley College in 1880 and for many years was a professor of English literature at Wellesley. While teaching there, she was elected a member of the newly formed Pi Gamma Mu honor society for the social sciences because of her interest in history and politics for which she also studied. 

Bates lived at Wellesley with Katharine Coman, who herself was a history and political economy teacher and founder of the Wellesley College Economics department. The pair lived together for twenty-five years until Coman's death in 1915. These arrangements were sometimes called "Boston marriages" or "Wellesley marriages". The 1999 play Boston Marriage by David Mamet depicts such a marriage as having an explicitly sexual component. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state in the U.S. to allow legal same-sex marriages, which made Boston the only major city in the U.S. at the time where a "Boston marriage" could also be a legal marriage, if the couple wished it to be. Now, of course, that’s all history. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - March 28, 2021 💌

 

Bearing the unbearable is the deepest root of compassion in the world. When you bear what you think you cannot bear, who you think you are dies. You become compassion. You don't have compassion - you are compassion. True compassion goes beyond empathy to being with the experience of another. You become an instrument of compassion.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Break the Cycle of Hatred

 It’s simple to say that violence is wrong or that vengeance only begets more vengeance. It’s far harder to break the chains of cause and effect in our own lives that have conditioned so many cycles of oppression and hate.

—Mike Gillis, “Press X to Awaken”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

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