Via LGBTQ Nation Daily Brief

 

7 everyday people who proudly fought for LGBTQ folks in 2021

Out celebrities often get all the attention, but these lesser-known folks fought to make life better for the #LGBTQ community.

 

---

The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature

1936 -

BRYNE R.S. FONE, American scholar and writer, born; It would be impossible to compile a complete survey of Gay male literature; the very looseness of the definition of "Gay" (not to mention the wealth of possible material) would overwhelm the project. Despite that, Byrne R.S. Fone fashioned a useful, intelligent, and amazingly functional volume that traces Gay male themes from classical antiquity to the present day.

Drawing on a variety of traditions and cultures -- from ancient Greece to modern Egypt, from the Hebrew Bible to the Russian revolutionary Sergei Esenin -- Fone reviews and reprints not only significant texts, but also supplies readable, intelligent introductions that illuminate the subject in the Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature (ISBN: 0231096712).

Most of the material, apart from a short section on Latin American and Cuban writing, is steeped in a Western European tradition; the book nevertheless conjures a good case for a Gay sensibility--or rather a series of sensibilities--that amazes, alarms, and endures. Fone is also the author of A Road to Stonewall: Male Homosexuality and Homophobia in English and American Literature, 1750-1969 and Masculine Landscapes: Walt Whitman and the Historical Text.

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

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

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

 

Via Daily Dharma: Piercing Awareness

 

To investigate is to contemplate with a silent mind. It’s to illuminate that which is cloudy or confused—to explore and to discover what we have not yet noticed or understood. This kind of deep inquiry provides us with the tools to free the mind from suffering and the pitfalls of an unexamined life.

—Narayan Helen Liebenson, “Practicing Questioning”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel // Cultivating Lovingkindness

 

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Lovingkindness

Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on lovingkindness, for when you develop meditation on lovingkindness, all ill will will be abandoned. (MN 62)   The characteristic of lovingkindness is promoting welfare. (Vm 9.93)

Reflection

One of the great insights of Buddhist practice is that who you are at any given moment is not set in stone, is not a matter of chance, and is not shaped by others. In every mind moment you are shaping who you will become in the next moment. Understanding this is profoundly empowering, for it gives you an opportunity to decide for yourself that you will be a better person in the future by being a better person now.

Daily Practice

Kindness can become an ongoing practice, a habit of mind and heart that tries at every opportunity to wish the best for others. It is not a matter of liking people as much as wishing them well and caring for their well-being. Practice targeting random people you encounter throughout the day and wishing them well. Notice the subtle effect this has on your own mind, squeezing out any annoyance or resentment you might otherwise feel.

Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Compassion

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

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Not Good, Not Bad

 

Suppose you’re trying to work, you’re really busy, and the phone rings. We resent the ringing, because we’re trying to work. But the problem isn’t the phone ringing. It’s just ringing. It’s not good or bad.

—Charlotte Joko Beck, “When You Are in Harmony”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel // Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering

When people have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9) Aging is suffering: "old age, brokenness of teeth, greyness of hair, wrinkling of skin, decline of life, weakness of faculties." (MN 9)

Reflection

The wheel has turned one full revolution now, as we looked at each of the path factors four times over the course of a month. We now return to the beginning and go through another cycle over the course of the next 28 days. The noble truth of suffering is not something we "get" once and for all and then move on. It is something to investigate again and again from multiple different angles as our perspective on it changes.

Daily Practice

We hardly need help understanding the truth of aging, since it is everywhere so  apparent. As our experience with the practice progresses, we learn to observe the signs of aging with greater objectivity and less self-reference. This is just what happens to a body when it ages. It is not that we are being personally persecuted by time. Work on developing the perspective that aging is something to observe rather than to fear.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

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 - December 26, 2021 💌

 
 

I’m sure it is obvious to you, when you reflect upon it, that the nature of one’s reference group has a lot to do with how you deal with a variety of social and economic problems in the world around you. If your reference group is very small, then only within that group is it ‘us,’ and the rest of the universe is ‘them.’”

- Ram Dass

Via Daily Dharma: Adjusting Your Rudder

 I liken the process of transforming habits to turning a cargo ship at sea. A large vessel with that much momentum can’t make sharp turns. However, a one- or two-degree course correction of the rudder, if held steady, will take that ship in a very different direction over time.

—Oren Jay Sofer, “Turning a Ship”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Daily Dharma: Celebrate with Peace

 

[The holiday season] is a wonderful time, especially if we remember to celebrate with feelings of peace and good will, banish our harsh judgments and foolish prejudices, and remind ourselves of our interrelatedness with other people, sentient beings, and the natural environment that surrounds us.

—Reverend Earl Ikeda, “O Bodhi Tree, O Bodhi Tree”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Dhamma Wheel // Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19) Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen awakening factor of mindfulness. (MN 141)

Reflection

The premier list of healthy mental and emotional states includes the seven factors of awakening, the first of which is mindfulness. It is good to practice mindfulness frequently, for that will incline the mind to further mindfulness. Right effort has a lot to do with developing and maintaining healthy habits of mind and body. It is not always easy to do the right thing, and it often takes effort, but it is invariably good for us.

Daily Practice

The effort required to sustain the state of mindfulness over time—that is, over multiple mind moments in a row—is not the teeth-clenching discipline of forced action but rather the gentle willingness to come back to the present moment. See if you can access a way of understanding effort that is easeful and natural rather than strained. Think of the effort you put into doing the things you like to do—it is an easy effort.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna
One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

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

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Tricycle // The Best Possible Life

 

The Best Possible Life By Seth Zuiho Segall

In the West, our deeply rooted ideal of human flourishing as the pinnacle of a good life has shaped the way we’ve adapted the dharma.

Read it now »

Vi Daily Dharma: Cherishing Family //

 

While an attitude of nonattachment is essential, it would be sadly misguided to imagine we need to give up love and affection for our family members in order to follow the Bodhisattva Way of universal compassion.

—Lama Jampa Thaye, “Bringing It All Back Home”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // SOL INVICTUS

 

The Unconquered Sun 2017 - SOL INVICTUS ("the Unconquered Sun") or, more fully, Deus Sol Invictus ("the Unconquered Sun God") was the late Roman state sun god. The cult was created by the emperor Aurelian in 274 CE and continued until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I. The Romans held a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, "the birthday of the unconquered sun." The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the patron god of Emperor Aurelian (270-274); and Mithras. Oh, and a Jewish upstart named Jesus. December 25th was also considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called bruma. It was therefore the day the Sun proved itself to be "unconquered" despite the shortening of daylight hours. (When Julius Caesar introduced the Julian Calendar in 45 B.C.E., December 25th was approximately the date of the solstice. In modern times, the solstice falls on December 21st or 22nd.) The Sol Invictus festival has a "strong claim on the responsibility" for the date of Christmas, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Solar symbolism was popular with early Christian writers as Jesus was considered to be the "sun of righteousness." The date for Christmas may also bear a relation to the sun worship. According to the scholiast on the Syriac bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi, writing in the twelfth century: "It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnized on that day." (cited in "Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries", Ramsay MacMullen. Yale:1997, p155)

|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8| 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 |8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|

Via Be Here Now Network // Madison Margolin – Set and Setting – Ep. 2 – Connecting the Dots with Jason Pinsky

  Madison Margolin – Set and Setting – Ep. 2 – Connecting the Dots with Jason Pinsky
December 21, 2021 Jason Pinsky joins Madison Margolin for a conversation about connecting the dots of The Pinsky Triangle, and the great power of plant medicines to...

Listen Now

"Handel's Messiah in Grace Cathedral" (complete) • Beautiful HD • Americ...

396Hz | Let Go Of Anxiety | Overcome Fear | Heal Root Chakra

Dave Richo - Letting Go of Fear Affirmations

Via LGBTQ Nation Daily Brief // Utah billionaire leaves Mormon church with blistering accusation it is actively harming the world

 Utah billionaire leaves Mormon church with blistering accusation it is actively harming the world

The state's richest native will give $600,000 to an LGBTQ group to assist any queer students at the church's Brigham Young University who might be forced to leave. 

 

 

Make the jump here to read the article and more

417Hz 》Remove Negative Energy from Home