"Find something that needs help, and help it, then you work on yourself to make it a conscious act. As Gandhi said, The act that you do may seem very insignificant but it is important that you do it.
- Ram Dass -
Wednesday, August 18, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Enlightenment Shines on Us All
Enlightenment is not so much something to be achieved by personal attainment but rather something that constantly bathes us, a light for the world already given by the boundless presence of buddhas and their teachings.
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Via Pink News // Taliban will ‘weed out and exterminate’ LGBT+ people in Afghanistan, warns exiled gay author
Gay Afghan author Nemat Sadat has warned that the Taliban will “weed out and exterminate” the LGBT+ community in Afghanistan following their seismic takeover.
There has been significant concern for the safety and wellbeing of women, girls and LGBT+ people in Afghanistan after the extremist militant group seized power.
The Taliban is expected to enforce its extreme interpretation of Sharia law across Afghanistan, which would see many women, LGBT+ people persecuted. Under it, queer people and women could be sentenced to death.
Speaking to PinkNews, Sadat said there is “no telling” how bad the situation will become for LGBT+ Afghans stuck in the country under Taliban rule.
Sadat and his family left Afghanistan when he was still a baby and they ultimately settled in the United States. In 2012, he returned to his birth city of Kabul to work as a professor of political science at the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF).
Widespread anti-LGBT+ sentiment meant that it was impossible for him to settle there. Warlords spread rumours that he was a practicing homosexual. Sadat reacted to the rumours by advocating for LGBT+ rights on campus and in his classroom.
Shortly afterwards, the Taliban got involved. The extremist group wrote a manifesto claiming AUAF had “become a bastion of gays and lesbians” because of Sadat’s activism, adding that he should be “targeted and killed”.
Via FB // Nossa solidariedade as Mulheres afegãs
Nossa solidariedade as Mulheres afegãs
Ommolbahni
Hassani, mais conhecida como Shamsia, é uma grafiteira afegã e
professora de escultura na Universidade de Kabul. Ela tem popularizado a
arte urbana nas ruas de Kabul. Shamsia expõe a sua arte digital e a sua
arte urbana na Índia, Irão, Alemanha, Itália, Suíça e nas missões
diplomáticas de Kabul.
Via Daily Dharma: Your Body Is a Teacher
Monday, August 16, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Compassion Is Wisdom
Via White Crane SInstitute // MURRAY EDELMAN, Ph.D.
MURRAY EDELMAN, Ph.D., A mathematician statistician, founder and central figure of the Chicago Gay Liberation group was born on this date. Murray helped to bring the modern gay liberation movement to Chicago and did crucial work to develop a visible and militant LGBT activism during the early years of the movement in Chicago.
While a graduate student at the University of Chicago, he was instrumental in bringing the modern-day Gay Liberation movement to Chicago. As a founder and important figure of Chicago Gay Liberation, his work was central to developing a public, visible, and militant LGBT activism during the early years of the movement. In addition, he served for more than a decade as director of exit polling at Voter News Service, an organization employed by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and the Associated Press in national elections, where he was responsible for the groundbreaking effort to have gay, lesbian, and bisexual self-identification made part of electoral exit polling. His friendship with philosopher-activist Arthur Evans resulted in Edelman providing Evans the monies with which to publish his seminal work, Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture.
As a founder of the first Gay Liberation group in Chicago, which was initially based in Hyde Park, between 1969 and 1972 Edelman helped plan and participated in many early demonstrations and public activities, including pride rallies, media “zaps,” and public dances—the latter, in those years, a daring activity that risked police intervention. In a short span of years, CGL decisively shifted the norms of gay and lesbian life and activism by modeling visibility and coming-out and by acting on the proud principle that militancy in pursuit of justice is reasonable and right.
Perhaps his most significant contribution took place in 1971, when Edelman disrupted a taping of “The Howard Miller Show,” a local Chicago television talk show. Miller’s guest was the deeply homophobic, but best-selling, Dr. David R. Reuben, author of Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask), which had made headlines across the country. Edelman challenged Reuben’s homophobia, and the “zap” became a major local news story in the press and on television. It helped to make “gay lib” a legitimate topic of coverage at a time when few mainstream outlets recognized LGBT issues in any way. The action also helped to put Chicago on the national gay liberation map after The Advocate covered it prominently.
More recently, in the 1990s, as a key director of the polling operations of Voter News Service, Edelman ensured that GLB self-identifiers would be included routinely in exit polls. By facilitating studies of GLB voting behavior, this move has enhanced the leverage and bargaining power of LGBT communities and political organizations. While his role in this has remained largely hidden from the general public, its contribution to our communities’ visibility and political clout has been profound.
For helping to bring the modern Gay Liberation movement to Chicago and working to develop a visible and often militant political activism during the early years of the movement in Chicago as well as enhancing LGBT political visibility in recent years, Edelman has been selected for induction into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Via Thich Nhat Hanh Quote Collective / FB
Via Daily Dharma: Acting in Harmony
Via Tricycle: Mr. Hu and the Temple
Mr. Hu and the Temple
Directed by Yan Ting Yuen
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Via Daily Dharma: Respond With Love
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - August 15, 2021 💌
"The only thing that ever dies is the model you have in your mind of who you think you are. That’s what dies." - Ram Dass
Saturday, August 14, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Finding Forgiveness
We teach what we have learned. We act as we have been acted upon. A person who is not loving has not experienced love. It is not his fault. Realizing this gives rise to forgiveness.