Friday, August 27, 2021

Via Daily Dharma: Don’t Fear Your Mind

We do not need to be afraid of our mind. We can go on a journey of discovery and experiment. Then we are able to play with our mental processes and develop our mental ability in wisdom and compassion.

—Martine Batchelor, “Meditation, Mental Habits, and Creative Imagination”

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Via White Crane Institute - ERIKA MANN

 


Erika Mann
1969 -

ERIKA MANN died on this date. Who was Erika Mann? Mann was the daughter of Thomas Mann and Katia Mann and led one of the most eventful lives you've probably never heard of. She was born in Munich and had a privileged childhood. The Mann home was a gathering-place for intellectuals and artists. She was hired for her first theater engagement before finishing her Abitur at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. On July 24, 1926, she married German actor Gustaf Gründgens, but they divorced in 1929. In 1927, she and Klaus undertook a trip around the world, which they documented in their book Rundherum; Das Abenteuer einer Weltreise. The following year, she began to be active in journalism and in politics. She was involved as an actor in the Lesbian film Mädchen in Uniform (1931, Leontine Sagan) but left the production before its completion. In 1932 she published the first of many children's books. Shortly thereafter she became involved in several Lesbian affairs in her private life. Her first noted affair was with actress Pamela Wedekind, whom she met in Berlin, and was engaged with her brother Klaus. She later became involved with director Therese Giehse, and journalists Betty Cox and Annemarie Schwarzenbach, whom she served with as a war correspondent during World War II. As was later written, her relationships were both sexually passionate and intellectually stimulating. Mann enjoyed being in the company of women who were intelligent, and with whom she could converse with on any number of international topics. 

In 1933, she, Klaus, and Therese Giehse had founded a cabaret in Munich called Die Pfeffermühle, for which Erika wrote most of the material, much of which was anti-Fascist. Erika was the last member of the Mann family to leave Germany after the Nazi regime was elected. She saved many of Thomas Mann's papers from their Munich home when she escaped to Zurich. In 1936, Die Pfeffermühle opened again in Zurich and became a rallying point for the exiles. In 1935 she undertook a marriage of convenience to the homosexual English poet W. H. Auden, in order to obtain British citizenship. She and Auden never lived together, but remained friends and technically married until Erika's death.

In 1937, she crossed over to New York, where Die Pfeffermühle (as The Peppermill) opened its doors again. They lived (with Therese Giehse and her brother Klaus Mann and Miro) in a large group of artists in exile with people like Kurt Weill, Ernst Toller, and Sonja Sekula. In 1938, she and Klaus reported on the Spanish Civil War, and her book School for Barbarians about Nazi Germany's educational system was published. The following year, they published Escape to Life, a book about famous German exiles. During the war, she was active as a journalist in England. After World War II, Mann was one of the few women who covered the Nuremberg Trials. Following the war, both Klaus and Erika came under an FBI investigation into their political views and rumored homosexuality. In 1949, becoming increasingly depressed and disillusioned over post-war torn Germany, Klaus Mann committed suicide. This event devastated Erika.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Via FB

 


Via LGBTQ Heritage/Memorial Project W // Gay History – August 24, 79 AD: Mt. Vesuvius Erupts Burying Gay Lovers and Ancient Gay Porn In Pompeii

 

Gay History: August 24, 79 AD

Mt Vesuvius erupts burying Pompeii and preserving the city forever. The ash preserves homoerotic frescoes that Christianity would no doubt have destroyed had they not been covered. When the artwork was first discovered, people found it so scandalous that much of it was locked away in the National Museum of Naples, where it remained hidden from view for over 100 years. In the year 2000, the art was finally made view-able to the public, but minors must be accompanied by an adult.

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - August 25, 2021 💌




The way you work, in doing Sadhana [spiritual practice], is that every act you perform becomes a method of taking you to this other state of consciousness. You are trying to change your perceptual vantage point, and everything you do has to be a device to take you to that place. From a Western point of view, you are doing a complete cognitive reorganization. You are changing your reference point, changing the core concept around which the whole constellation is built. - Ram Dass
 

 

Via Daily Dharma: Sharing Our Karma

 

Recognizing that difficult emotions are common to all humans also seems to arouse immediate feelings of empathy with others. We share our emotions: they are part of our collective karma, the human condition.

—Wes Nisker, “It’s Only Natural”

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Via Tumblr // Pima Chondron

 


Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Via Daily Dharma: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

No matter how high the mountains of the great dharma are, no matter how deep the sea of ignorance is, they will be as nothing before a boundless spirit of determination.


—Koun Yamada, “Great Faith, Great Doubt, Great Determination”

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