Friday, April 30, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Keep a Fluid Mind
If
the mind congeals in one place and remains with one thing, it is like
frozen water and is unable to be used freely: ice that can wash neither
hands nor feet. When the mind is melted and is used like water,
extending throughout the body, it can be sent wherever one wants to send
it.
—Takuan Soho, “The Right Mind and the Confused Mind”
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Via White Crane Institute // ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN
1936 -
ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN, English poet died (b. 1859); A. E. Housman's poetry is inextricably rooted in homosexual experience and consciousness and is also a significant reflector of gay history. In 1942 A.E. Houseman’s brother, Laurence Housman, deposited an essay entitled "A. E. Housman's 'De Amicitia'" in the British Library, with the proviso that it was not to be published for 25 years. The essay discussed A. E. Housman's homosexuality and his love for Moses Jackson. Given the conservative nature of the times it is not surprising that there was no unambiguous autobiographical statement about Housman's sexuality during his life.
It is certainly present in A Shropshire Lad, for instance #30 Others, I am not the first / have willed more mischief than they durst', in which 'Fear contended with desire', and in #44, in which he commends the suicide, where 'Yours was not an ill for mending'... for 'Men may come to worse than dust', their 'Souls undone, undoing others': he has died 'Undishonoured, clear of danger, / Clean of guilt..'.
More Poems was more explicit, as in no. 31 about Jackson 'Because I liked you better / Than suits a man to say', in which his feelings of love break his friendship, and must be carried silently to the grave. His poem 'Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?', written after the trial of Oscar Wilde, addressed more general societal injustice towards homosexuality. In the poem the prisoner is suffering 'for the colour of his hair', a natural, given attribute which - in a clearly coded reference to homosexuality - is reviled as 'nameless and abominable' (recalling the legal phrase 'peccatum horribile, inter christianos non nominandum', 'the horrible sin, not to be named amongst Christians').
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Adjust the Description
If
the world is difficult and life is difficult, it may not be that there
is something wrong with life or the world—it may be that there is
something wrong with our descriptions.
—Norman Fischer, “Beyond Language”
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Wednesday, April 28, 2021
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - April 28, 2021 💌
How does one become loving awareness?
If I change my identification from the ego to the soul, then as I look
at people, they all appear like souls to me. I change from my head, the
thought of who I am, to my spiritual heart, which is a different sort of
awareness – feeling directly, intuiting, loving awareness.
It’s changing from a worldly outer identification to a spiritual inner identification.
Concentrate on your spiritual heart, right in the middle of your chest.
Keep repeating the phrase, “I am loving awareness. I am loving
awareness. I am loving awareness.”
The object of our love is love itself. It is the inner light in everyone and everything. Love is a state of being.
You begin to love people because they just are. You see the mystery of
the Divine in form. When you live in love, you see love everywhere you
look. You are literally in love with everyone you look at.
When you and I rest together in loving awareness, we swim together in
the ocean of love. Remember, it’s always right here. Enter into the flow
of love with a quiet mind and see all things with love as part of
yourself.
- Ram Dass -
The LGBTQ National Help Center
The LGBTQ National Help Center is connecting members of the LGBTQ community with local, national, and international resources. You can also connect to hotlines, chatrooms, and peer support groups through them.
Via Daily Dharma: Dwell in the Present
Dwelling
in a time other than the present starts to churn the ego: anxieties
arise, desires become distractions, and to do things well is nearly
impossible. But when there is no idea of time, there are no
expectations, and desires do not become a problem.
—Les Kaye, “The Time Is Now”
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Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Knowing Happiness
When we’re able to move beyond the fear of death, we’re greatly served in our efforts to know happiness in life.
—Peter Doobinin, “Sutta Study: Fearless”
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Monday, April 26, 2021
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