Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 21, 2021 💌

 
 

When I wake up in the morning, I’m aware of the air, the fan on my ceiling, I’ve got to love them. I am loving awareness. But if I’m an ego, I’m judging everything as it relates to my own survival. The air might give me a cold that will turn into pneumonia. I’m always afraid of something in the world that I have to defend myself against. If I’m identified with my ego, the ego is frightened silly, because the ego knows that it’s going to end at death. But if I merge with love, there’s nothing to be afraid of. 

Love neutralizes fear.

- Ram Dass -

GÊNERO, EDUCAÇÃO E POLÍTICA - com o Sen. Fabiano Contarato

Via White Crane Institute // Do You Believe In God? By Quentin Crisp

 

Today's Gay Wisdom

2017 -

Do You Believe In God?

By Quentin Crisp

Well, now, the last time You-Know-Who was mentioned, I began by saying I wouldn't like to say anything that gave offense. And someone in the audience said, "Why stop now?" But this is still something that worries me, so if at any moment anyone finds anything I say offensive, they have only to jump up and down, make a scene, and we will stop.

I believe, like most people, not that of which logic can convince me but what my nature inclines me to believe. This is so of nearly everybody. I am unable to believe in a God susceptible to prayer as petition. It does not seem to me to be sufficiently humble to imagine that whatever force keeps the planets turning in the heavens is going to stop what it's doing to give me a bicycle with three speeds.

But if God is the universe that encloses the universe, or if God is the cell within the cell, or if God is the cause behind the cause, then this I accept absolutely. And if prayer is a way of aligning your body with the forces that flow through the universe, then prayer I accept. But there is a worrying aspect about the idea of God. Like witchcraft or the science of the zodiac or any of these other things, the burden is placed elsewhere. This is what I don't like.

You see, to me, you are the heroes of this hour. I do not think the earth was ever meant to be your home. I do not see the sky as a canopy held over your head by cherubs or see the earth as a carpet laid at your feet. You used to live an easy lying-down life in the sea. But your curiosity and your courage prompted you to lift your head out of the sea and gasp this fierce element in which we live. They are seated on Mars, with their little green arms folded, saying, "We can be reasonably certain there is no life on Earth because there the atmosphere is oxygen, which is so harsh that it corrupts metal." But you learned to breathe it. Furthermore, you crawled out of the sea, and you walked up and down the beach for centuries until your thighbones were thick enough to walk on land. It was a mistake, but you did it.

Once you have this view of your past — not that it was handed to you but that you did it — then your view of the future will change. This terror you have of the atom bomb will pass. Something will arise which will breathe radiation if you learned to breathe oxygen.

So you don't have to worry. Don't keep looking into the sky to see what is happening. Embrace the future. All you have to do about the future is what you did about the past. Rely on your curiosity and your courage and ride through the night.

"Do You Believe in God" is from The Wit and Wisdom of Quentin Crisp (1984), edited by Guy Kettelhack.

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

 

 

Reflection

What do you do when you are in the grip of an unhealthy mood, filled with a steady stream of unhealthy mental and emotional states? Sometimes you just have to take the initiative and change the channel, so to speak. Just as you might decide to prepare and eat a meal if you are hungry or take a walk if you are restless, so too you can decide to develop healthy states and, by various means, invite them to arise in your mind.

Daily Practice

You might adopt the practice of each day choosing a healthy state to develop and then working to deliberately bring it to mind. Maybe generosity one day, kindness another, or compassion all week. It is just a matter of making a decision to call to mind that particular positive quality. Choose to think kind thoughts about someone or decide to do a kind act, and you will find that the emotional state of kindness will naturally arise.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna 
One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

 

Via Daily Dharma: Let Your Mind Be

 

When you are the control freak who treats your mind like a slave, no wonder your mind always tries to escape from you. It will think of useless memories, plan something that will never happen, fantasize, or fall asleep—anything to not get away from you. That is why you can’t keep still!

—Ajahn Brahm, “You Are a Control Freak”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel

 

 

Reflection

There are so many ways it is possible to misbehave among sensual pleasures. Anything that feels good has the power to seduce us, and it does not take much for us to want more and more of almost anything. It is not that such pleasures are bad or evil, just that the pursuit of them can expand out of proportion and distort our behavior. It is empowering to understand this and temper our relationship to pleasure accordingly.

Daily Practice

Notice when something feels pleasurable and examine the texture of that sensation closely. Then let it go, as all transitory episodes of experience will inevitably cease. It is okay to welcome pleasure into your house as a guest, so to speak, as long as you also escort it to the door and wave goodbye when the time comes. It is when we chase after pleasure or try to hold on to it that we are in danger of misbehaving.

Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

 

Via Love Serve Remember Foundation

 

SAVE MY SEAT Greetings everyone, This December, we will embark on our first in-person retreat on Maui since Ram Dass passed away two years ago. With that, we are overjoyed to invite you to our free virtual retreat for those who cannot make it in person. We will honor Ram Dass's legacy by coming together to learn, contemplate, expand and practice in community - with the support of a lineup of world-renowned wisdom leaders. We're calling this retreat Legacy of Love - Honoring Ram Dass, and it will take place December 3-5th. The retreat will feature practical guidance along with ancient mystical traditions, poetry, chant, and meditation practice to help us ground ourselves and heal from the uncertainty and turmoil of the past few years. You might recognize some of our retreat teachers : Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman, Krishna Das, Mirabai Starr, Dale Borglum, Mirabai Bush, Rameshwar Das, Raghu Markus & more! We will also feature specially curated archival Ram Dass media, focusing on compassion, love & death and service & social action - with deeper exploration from our guest teachers. So we hope you'll join us to celebrate Ram Dass's legacy while we dive into the depths of our own spiritual hearts. See you soon! The LSRF Team   JOIN THE VIRTUAL RETREAT

Invite a friend! Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2021 Love Serve Remember Foundation, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you joined the Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation newsletter. Our mailing address is: Love Serve Remember Foundation 226 W Ojai Ave Ste 101 #531 Ojai, CA 93023

Via Daily Dharma: Control Your Mind

 

Because the mind is the basis of everything good or ill, nothing is more important than gaining control over the mind.

—Khenpo David Karma Choephel, “Shantideva on Mental Discipline”

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Via Daily Dharma: The Middle Way

 

There’s a natural balance, a dance, between embracing and releasing: turning your surroundings into yourself, like the tree that absorbs carbon dioxide, and turning yourself into your surroundings, like the same tree releasing oxygen. This is what Buddhists call the Middle Way.

—Shozan Jack Haubner, “Consider the Seed”

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OM SO HUM Mantra sung by CHOIR ** EXTREMELY POWERFUL ** Mantra Meditatio...

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Harsh Speech

 

Reflection

The human capacity for speech is so nuanced and our languages are so varied that we always have a choice about how we express ourselves. Whatever you are about to say harshly, you can say gently instead. Whatever comes to mind as a stinging riposte can be toned down to be less hurtful. Even a cruel remark can be turned around entirely, and you can say something agreeable instead. It’s worth trying to do this as a practice.

Daily Practice

Take care how you speak. Choose your words wisely and be wary of what you might blurt out without awareness. Right speech is mindful speech. Notice whether or not your words are gentle, spoken with an attitude of affection, and “go to the heart.” Even when others speak harshly to you, commit to being a person who refrains from harsh speech at every opportunity.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Mental Action
One week from today: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 17, 2021 💌

 

 

Who dwells in the heart cave has no limit. Who dwells in the heart cave is beyond time, beyond space.   

Each time you experience yourself as something or somebody, just notice that it's another thought or sensation drifting across the walls of the cave, and return to the spacious, formless, timeless essence. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Living Fully

 

To live fully means to be in touch with the impermanence of living in the service of greater compassion and equanimity, like a steady bamboo reed on a windy day.

—Anthony Tshering, “How the Concept of Impermanence Can Help Anxiety-Ridden Millennials”

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Via White Crane Institute // The VAGINA MUSEUM

 

Noteworthy

2019 -

The VAGINA MUSEUM opened in London's Camden Market;  In July we talked about the Penis Museum, one of the top tourist attractions in Reykjavic, Iceland. Now, in a sort of response to its erection,  it has a sister museum across the pond, in London. The Vagina Museum is the first of its kind and is driven by a mission for social justice and public health initiatives.

Visitors to the museum will discover informational posters and sculptures, a small shop with vaginally themed products and an events calendar that includes a dinner for Trans Day of Remembrance and "Cliterature" (book club) meetings.

"The anatomy has such complex politics around it that we found it was best to first engage people through what they know, so we can teach them things they don't know," said the museum curator, Sarah Creed. "It's all about unpacking social constructs and changing perspective through engagement."

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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute

"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org

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Via Tricycle // Dhamma Wheel

 

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Via Daily Dharma: What Is Prayer?

 

Prayer means accepting that I don’t know what’s good for me or for the world, but I trust that goodness exists anyway.

—Hannah Tennant-Moore, “Buddhism’s Higher Power”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via PBS// Cured

 

Make the jump here

Via The Elders

 

 

LONDON, 15 November 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

The Elders deplore dereliction of leadership, as COP26 gives leaders twelve months to take more decisive action on climate crisis 

 

Following the conclusion of COP26 in Glasgow, The Elders express their deep disappointment that world leaders have not yet had the courage to head off the worst impacts of the climate crisis. 

 

The Elders call on the UN Secretary-General to take a direct lead in maintaining relentless pressure on the worst-performing states, until they do their part to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. Such leadership should draw on his admirable new initiative to scrutinise net zero commitments made by businesses. 

 

The Elders reiterate their determination to work with younger generations, and to keep fighting for climate justice alongside the nations and communities most vulnerable to climate change. This means wealthy countries keeping their promises on climate financing, and compensating those worst affected. 

 

Some progress was made in the negotiations, including a commitment to double adaptation finance, and a requirement for countries with weak climate targets to improve them over the next twelve months. 

 

Important voluntary side-deals were made to gradually stop using methane and coal, reverse deforestation and decarbonise the financial sector, while some countries showed leadership in pledging to end oil and gas production. 

 

But the refusal to act at the scale and speed required means we are on course for a 2.4°C world. Such a temperature rise would mean hundreds hundreds of millions of people living today would face ruined livelihoods, displacement and loss of life. 

 

This represents a failure of leadership and a failure of diplomacy. World leaders must be held accountable for the climate disaster playing out on their watch. 

 

It is time to call out those who have obstructed the negotiations in Glasgow, and those who continue to downplay the climate emergency. This includes G20 countries that have not significantly increased their 2030 emission reduction targets, such as Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico and Russia, as well as those who insisted on watering down language on fossil fuels, including Saudi Arabia, India and others. 

 

The United States and China, who delivered an encouraging joint statement on future co-operation, still have not shown the leadership required from the world’s two biggest carbon emitters. The European Union and US were lacking in high ambition at key points in the negotiations, notably on loss and damage. As the COP26 Presidency, the United Kingdom fell short on the leader-to-leader diplomacy needed to seal a better deal. 

 

A pathway to 1.5°C is still just within reach, but only if major emitters take more decisive action in the next few years. The Elders implore all world leaders to bring their influence to bear on those holding back more urgent progress, and lead humanity away from existential disaster. 

 

Mary Robinson, Chair of the Elders, and former President of Ireland said:

“COP26 has made some progress, but nowhere near enough to avoid climate disaster. While millions around the world are already in crisis, not enough leaders were in crisis mode. People will see this as a historically shameful dereliction of duty. 

 

Leaders have extended by a year this window of opportunity to avert the worst of the climate crisis. The world urgently needs them to step up more decisively next year." 

 

https://theelders.org/

 

Via Daily Dharma: Heal Yourself and Others

We overcome deep-rooted self-centered habits by working compassionately for the healing of our societies and the healing of the earth. This is what’s required for the Buddhist path to become truly liberative in the modern world.

—David Loy, “Awakening in the Age of Climate Change”

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