Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Frivolous Speech

 

RIGHT SPEECH Refraining from Frivolous Speech Frivolous speech is unhealthy. Refraining from frivolous speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning frivolous speech, one refrains from frivolous speech. One speaks at the right time, speaks only what is fact, and speaks about what is good. One speaks what is worthy of being overheard, words that are reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak frivolously, but I shall abstain from frivolous speech.” (MN 8)

Reflection This guideline for speech can sound more oppressive than it is. We are not all teaching Buddhas, and much of what we say may not be directly contributing to the edification of the world. The call is for us to use speech that is "reasonable, moderate, and beneficial. " This is practical advice to laypeople who will naturally speak of daily affairs but are encouraged to do so in a way that is healthy. Daily Practice When you speak, see that your words are weighty and worthwhile. Speak up when people are listening, and refrain from interrupting others. Always speak the truth, and try your best to emphasize what is positive and helpful rather than being overly critical and saying things that would hurt people. You have to be mindful to speak carefully. The practice of mindful speech is worthwhile in its own right and conducive to well-being. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Social Action One week from today: Refraining from False Speech Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Navigating Family Dynamics

Consider ​the moments when ​you​ take ​on​ ​a​ ​specific​ ​role with​ ​your​ ​loved​ ​ones.​ ​Notice​ ​that​ ​there’s some​ ​sense​ ​of​ ​space​ ​in​ ​the​ ​actual​ ​seeing​ ​of​ the role and the experience. The act of seeing the role ​could​ ​be​ ​the doorway​ ​into​ ​a​ ​different​ ​relationship.​ ​

Bart van Melik, “A Simple Exercise for Navigating Family Dynamics Over the Holidays”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 23, 2022 💌

 

 

The way in which I look at the events of my life, the perceptual vantage point has significantly shifted over time, so that I am much more inclined now to see the events of my life as an unfolding before me of a lawful set of events, and see it as connected across much broader time perspectives. 

- Ram Dass -

From Here & Now Podcast - Ep. 170 – Stories on Karma

Via White Crane Institute // COLIN TURNBULL

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(l to r) Dr. Joseph Towles and Colin Turnbull

1924 -

The famed British-American anthropologist COLIN TURNBULL was born on this date (d. 1994). Best known for this groundbreaking books The Forest People & The Mountain People, Turnbull was also one of the first anthropologists to work in the field of ethnomusicology an interest shared by Gay Rights pioneer, Harry Hay.

Turnbull was an unconventional scholar who rejected neutrality. He idealized the BaMbuti and reviled the Ik, and described the latter as lacking any sense of altruism, in that they force their children out of their homes at the age of three, and gorge on whatever occasional excesses of food they might find until they became sick, rather than save or share.

However, several anthropologists have since argued that a particularly serious famine suffered by the Ik during the period of Turnbull's visit may have distorted their normal behavior and customs, and some passages in his book make it clear that the behavior and customs of the Ik during the period he describes were drastically different from what was normal for them before they were uprooted from their original way of life.

In the US, he lived with his professional collaborator and partner of thirty years, the African American Dr. Joseph Towles, as an openly gay, interracial couple in one of the most conservative areas of the 1960s rural Virginia.

During this time he also took up the political cause of death row inmates. After his partner's death in 1988, Turnbull, strongly affected, gave all his belongings to the United Negro College Fund. In 1989, he moved to Bloomington, Indiana to participate to the building of Tibetan Cultural Center with his friend Thupten Jigme Norbu, elder brother of the 14th Dalai-lama. In 1991 - 1992, he moved to Dharamsala, India where he took the monks' vow of Tibetan Buddhism, given to him by the Dalai Lama. He was then given a buddhist name.

He died in Virginia in 1994, aged 69. Both Towles and Turnbull died from complications of AIDS.

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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 Pete / FB

 

Via Daily Dharma: Start Your Practice with Joy

By starting our meditation practice with joy in our hearts, we begin to associate all dharma activity with joy and we will, in time, begin to look forward to practice.

Pema Düddul, “Awakening to Joy”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Equanimity

 

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Equanimity 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 equanimity, for when you develop meditation on equanimity, all aversion is abandoned. (MN 62)

Reflection Equanimity is the fourth of the brahma-viharas, the sublime states of mind, and is the secret ingredient of mindfulness, indeed of the entire Buddhist approach to practice. Like the clutch of a car, which disengages the engine from the wheels, freeing them to revolve independently, equanimity disengages us from the compulsion of the pleasure/pain reflex, freeing us to experience a range of sensations without craving. Daily Practice Cultivate the experience of feeling pleasure without getting hooked by it and experiencing displeasure without needing to be rid of it. Notice how pleasure and pain are on one channel, so to speak, and our loving and hating of them are on another. Normally we are forced to respond to pleasure with attachment and to pain with aversion, but equanimity replaces these forms of craving, liberating the mind from them.  Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering And what is the way leading to the cessation of suffering? It is just this noble eightfold path: that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. (MN 9)

Reflection Understanding that suffering has a cause and can be cured is one thing, but managing to bring about that cure is a formidable challenge: “Just stop craving, and your suffering will disappear! How hard can that be?” As it turns out, it can be very hard indeed. The way out of suffering, woven from the elements of the eightfold path, needs to be crafted anew by each culture, each generation, each person. Daily Practice The practice of walking the path leading to the cessation of suffering has always been a creative project. Since every moment of every person’s experience is new and unique, the blueprint of the eightfold path has to be interpreted flexibly. Find your own distinctive way of understanding these timeless universal principles and applying them to the many challenges of your life and its unique set of changing circumstances. Tomorrow: Cultivating Equanimity One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2022 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Understanding Morality

 Ultimately, Buddhist “morality” is a no-morality. It represents a shifting mental structure that we understand only to the degree that we grasp its essential formlessness. 

Bodhin Kjolhede, “Pain, Passion, and the Precepts”

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Via White Crane Institute // PEDRO SEGUNDO MARDONES LEMEBEL

 

Pedro Lemebel

1952 - 

PEDRO SEGUNDO MARDONES LEMEBEL  was an out Gay Chilean essayist, chronicler, novelist, and LGBT activist born on this date (d: 2015); He was known for his cutting critique of authoritarianism and for his humorous depiction of Chilean popular culture, from a queer perspective. Imagine a cross-pollination between RuPaul, Larry Kramer and Antonin Artaud. He was nominated for Chile's National Literature Prize in 2014, and was a 1999 Guggenheim Fellow.

Lemebel attended writing workshops to hone his skills and network with other writers, his first writing recognition was in 1982, when he won an award for his short story, Porque el tiempo está cerca ("Because time is short"). In 1986, he published as his first major work, the book Incontables, a compilation of short stories under the feminist publication label, Ergo Sum. A year later, he co-founded a performance collective that used the tactics of intervention and disruption of events to raise public consciousness about the struggles of minorities in Chile. The disruption and performances of the collective brought Lemebel into public awareness in Chile. In 1986, he disrupted a meeting of Chile's left wing groups opposed to Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, entering the meeting in high heels and in facial makeup depicting an hammer and sickle extending from his mouth to his left eyebrow. At the event, he spoke about his manifesto, ‘Manifest: I Speak for my Difference’ criticizing homophobia in left wing politics. Though widely known to be a communist, he was estranged from the party because of his homosexuality (not unlike Harry Hay.)

Lemebel is beloved for his influence in the fight for homosexual rights, his work as a writer, and his strong political side. Lemebel was much more than a writer; he was a free man, an artist, a political and popular icon, but more than anything a rebel and a voice for the LGBTcommunity.

Lemebel was born Pedro Mardones Lemebel, but  he too k the last name of his mother, as the first big political decision that reaffirmed his commitment towards his Gay side, a side that was extensively incorporated into his literary works. Lemebel was able to envisage a hidden reality of Gay people; he was able to unmask the violence of which Gay people were victims in Chile. The importance of Pedro Lemebel is not only value for his talent as a writer, but also as a person of defiance in a conservative and machista country. Journalist Óscar Contardo described Lemebel as a “popular figure: a figure that is suppose to be disgusted in our society, which is the "loca" (queen), he managed to make that figure as the center, and then transform it into a popular icon."

Some of his works include: La esquina es mi corazón, Loco afán: Crónicas del sidario (chronicles). Santiago: LOM, (1996); De perlas y cicatrices ("Of Pearls and Scars"). Santiago: LOM, (1998); La esquina es mi corazón, Santiago: Seix Barral, (2001.) Tengo miedo torero (novel). Santiago: Grupo Editorial Planeta, (2001) (translated as My Tender Matador, published by Grove)

Lemebel died in 2015 of laryngeal cancer.

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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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