Through generosity, we cultivate a generous spirit. Generosity of spirit will usually lead to generosity of action.
—Gil Fronsdal,“The Joy of Giving”
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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.
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Cultivating a Generous Spirit
Friday, May 21, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Being Present for Our Own Pain
After
recognizing our suffering, we must respond to it with love. This takes
courage and commitment. It means not looking away, not seeking
distractions when offered the opportunity to be present for our own
pain.
—Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: Leaning into Suffering”
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Thursday, May 20, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Just Being Here
Meditation is just to be here. Not over there. Not longing for something else.
—Steve Hagen, “Looking For Meaning”
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Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Via White Crane Institute // Today's Gay Wisdom
TODAY'S GAY WISDOM
From Lorraine Hansberry:
"The oppressed are by their nature ... forever in ferment and agitation against their condition and what they understand to be their oppressors. If not by overt rebellion or revolution, then in the thousand and one ways they will devise with and without consciousness to alter their condition." Lorraine Hansberry
"I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and—I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations."
"We only revert back to mystical ideas - which includes most contemporary orthodox religious views, in my opinion - because we simply are confronted with some things we don't yet understand."
"There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning -- because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is. [from Raisin in the Sun]"
Via GBF // René Rivera - HEARTS
HEARTS –
· Here (present and connected)
· Expressed delight
· Attunement
· Rituals and routines
· Turning towards after conflict
· Secure attachment with self
Via Daily Dharma: Sensations that Arise and Pass Away
If
the mind labels a pain, saying, “I hurt,” you have to examine the label
carefully, contemplate it until you see that it’s wrong: the pain isn’t
really yours. It’s simply a sensation that arises and passes away,
that’s all.
—Upasika Kee Nanayon, “Tough Teachings to Ease the Mind”
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 19, 2021 💌
From the soul’s point of view, you come to appreciate that each one of
us is living out his or her own karma. We interact together, and those
interactions are the grist for each other’s mill of awakening. From a
personality point of view, you develop judgment, but from the soul’s
point of view, you develop appreciation.
This shift from judging to appreciating — to appreciating yourself and
what your karmic predicament is, and who other beings are with their own
karma — brings everything into a simple loving awareness. To be free
means to open your heart and your being to the fullness of who you are
because only when you are resting in the place of unity can you truly
honor and appreciate others and the incredible diversity of the
universe.
- Ram Dass -
Excerpt from Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Seeing the Truth of Each Moment
Mindfulness
practice enables us to go beneath the surface level of our
moment-to-moment life experiences, which are clouded with emotions and
habitual thinking, and allows us to see the truth of what is happening.
—Phillip Moffitt, “The Mindfulness of the Buddha”
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Monday, May 17, 2021
VIa Prefeitura de Ouro Preto // DIGA NÃO A HOMOFOBIA!
Sunday, May 16, 2021
#344 How to Handle Anger, Uncertainty, and Self-Loathing | Mushim Patricia Ikeda
#344: How to Handle Anger, Uncertainty, and Self-Loathing | Mushim Patricia Ikeda
When somebody wrongs you, what is the wise way to handle your anger? Is forgiveness possible? What about friendliness? My guest today has a lot of thoughts about how to handle anger and how to respond to people who mean you harm.
It might surprise you to hear from a Buddhist teacher who actually isn’t utterly disparaging of anger. In fact, she is proud (somewhat facetiously) of having been called “the original Angry Asian Buddhist.” Her name is Mushim Patricia Ikeda, and she is my kind of Buddhist. She self-describes as “snarky,” and, as you will hear, she loves to laugh. She has doable, down-to-earth strategies, and she makes a compelling, if counterintuitive, case for the pragmatism of sending goodwill to people who want to harm you.
Mushim is a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. She is a writer, activist, and diversity consultant. She has trained for decades as both a lay and monastic Buddhist. Aside from anger, we also discuss how to handle uncertainty, and what Mushim calls a “pandemic of self-loathing” in our culture. But we begin with some candid talk about the trauma of being an Asian-American during a time of rising violence against the AAPI community.
This is the second in a two-part series on the uptick in anti-Asian violence -- a trend that should be particularly worrisome for this audience, given the Asian roots of meditation and many of the other happiness-producing modalities we talk about on this show. If you missed it, go check out Monday’s episode, where we explore the history of anti-Buddhist and anti-Asian violence in America (which started decades before the pandemic), and the hurt felt by many Asian-American Buddhists about how they can be overlooked by other American Buddhists, including, sometimes, me.
Two other items of business: first, are you interested in teaching mindfulness to teens? Looking to carve your own path and share this practice in a way that feels real, authentic, and relevant in today’s world? Our friends at iBme are accepting applications for their Mindfulness Teacher Training program - catered towards working with teens and young adults. The last round of applications are due May 15th and scholarships are available. For more information and to apply, check out: https://ibme.com/mindfulness-teacher-training/.
And second, we want to recognize and deeply thank mental health professionals for all you do. For a year's FREE access to the app and hundreds of meditations and resources, visit: https://www.tenpercent.com/mentalhealth.
Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/mushim-patricia-ikeda-344
Via Daily Dharma: Letting Ourselves Rest
In
order to have a clearer sense of what the mind is like, we need to
become comfortable letting ourselves, and our mind, rest with ease.
—Justin von Bujdoss, “Tilopa’s Six Nails”
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 16, 2021 💌
When talking about awareness, most of us identify with our awareness
through the ego, through the mind and senses. But the true self is in
the middle of our chest, in our spiritual heart.
So, to get from ego to the true self I said: “I am loving awareness.”
Loving awareness is the soul. I am loving awareness. I am aware of
everything, I’m aware of my body and my senses and my mind, I’m aware of
all of it, but I notice that I’m loving all of it. I’m loving all of
the world. The self that I identify with emanates from the ocean of
love. The self that is the ego is the ocean of fear.
When I am loving awareness I’m aware of everything outside, but pulling
into the heart, the spiritual heart brings me to loving awareness. I’m
aware of my thoughts, but loving awareness is simply witnessing them.
And loving awareness is in the moment. I have thoughts about the past
and future, and those are not helpful, so I dive deep into the present
and the presence and in this present moment we will find loving
awareness.
Only this moment is real, this moment of loving awareness. The past and the future are all just thoughts.
-Ram Dass -