A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Monday, December 19, 2022
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
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Via Daily Dharma: The Benefits to Meditation
The
only way one really gets any of the most important benefits of
meditation practice is by giving up on the notion that there are any
benefits to meditation practice.
Brad Warner, “Goalless Practice”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna
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Via Daily Dharma: What Do We Own?
What
can we really possess, after all? Our realization that there is
actually nothing that can be held on to can become a powerful factor in
cultivating our inner wealth of generosity, which is a wealth that can
never be depleted.
Marcia Rose, “The Gift That Cannot Be Given”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via White Crane Institute // SAKI
On this date the British writer SAKI was born (d. 1916). Born Hector Hugh Monro, his witty and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and is often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. His tales feature delicately drawn characters and finely judged narratives. "The Open Window" may be his most famous, with a closing line ("Romance at short notice was her speciality") that has entered the lexicon.
His short stories are extraordinarily compact and cameo-like, wicked and witty, with cruelty and a powerful vein of supernatural fantasy. They deal, in general, with the same group of upper-class Britishers, whose frivolous lives are sometimes complicated by animals – the talking cat who reveals their treacheries in love, the pet ferret that is evil incarnate. A devotee of London's Jermyn Street baths, it is reported, now that it has been revealed that Hector Hugh Monroe was Gay, his stories are being re-read as allegories of the torment of remaining bottled up in hypocritical English society. The stories are even more entertaining with this new knowledge. The nom de plume, "Saki" was borrowed from the cup bearer in The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
He never married. A J Langguth, in his biography, produces strong evidence to support the hypothesis that Munro was homosexual. Munro was guarded except in one or two of his stories and most of his readers would probably have been shocked had they known that his pen name refers to a cup bearer or beautiful boy and carries esoteric homoerotic connotations.
The Wisdom of Saki (H.H. Munro)
- A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation.
- I always say beauty is only sin deep.
- Hors d'oeuvres have always a pathetic interest for me; they remind me of one's childhood that one goes through wondering what the next course is going to be like - and during the rest of the menu one wishes one had eaten more of the hors d'oeuvres.
- Great Socialist statesmen aren't made, they're still-born.
- He spends his life explaining from his pulpit that the glory of Christianity consists in the fact that though it is not true it has been found necessary to invent it.
- You needn't tell me that a man who doesn't love oysters and asparagus and good wines has got a soul, or a stomach either. He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
- It's no use growing older if you only learn new ways of misbehaving yourself.
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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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Saturday, December 17, 2022
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States
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Via Daily Dharma: Searching for Solutions
When
I have a problem that comes to me, I’m not looking for the solution in
something other than the problem itself. Actually, the problem can be
the solution.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche in conversation with Helen Tworkov, “Mingyur
Rinpoche on Overcoming Panic and Finding Joy Through Acceptance”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE