|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna
Via Daily Dharma: The Power of Forgiveness
Our
ability to forgive allows us to make space for our ability to meet
suffering—our suffering as well as the suffering of others—with a kind
heart.
Gina Sharpe, “The Power of Forgiveness”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via White Crane Institute// The high levels of homosexual experiences in Iran
Noteworthy
2009 -
On this date a sociologist at an Iranian university presented a study showing high levels of homosexual experiences among the country's population.
Iran has strict laws against sex outside marriage and other sexual acts
such as masturbation. Adultery and same-sex acts are punishable by
death. Startling new research from sociologist Parvaneh Abdul Maleki
found that 24% of Iranian women and 16% of Iranian men have had at least
one homosexual experience. 73% of men and 26% of women surveyed said
they had masturbated.
Ms. Maleki presented her findings at the Third Conference on
Well-being in the Family and the story was reported in the Iranian
press, albeit as a report on sexual deviance in need of treatment. The
report also revealed that more than 75% of those who grew up in a
conservative religious environment have watched pornography, 86% have
had a heterosexual relationship outside of marriage and just over 4%
have had Gay or Lesbian relationships. Since Iran's Islamic revolution
in 1979, human rights groups claim that between 3,000 and 4,000 people
have been executed under Sharia law for the crime of homosexuality. The
President of Iran admitted in an interview that there may be "a few" gay
people in his country, but attacked homosexuality as destructive to
society.
In an interview with U.S. current affairs TV program Democracy Now,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also rejected criticism of the execution of
children in Iran. During a visit to the U.S. in 2007 he said in reply to
a question posed about homosexuality during his speech at New York's
Columbia University: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your
country… In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don't know who has
told you that we have it." In his TV interview he condemned American
acceptance of gay people. "It should be of no pride to American society
to say they defend something like this," President Ahmadinejad said.
"Just because some people want to get votes, they are willing to
overlook every morality."
|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 Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 22, 2023 💌
I think in relationships, you create an environment with your own work on yourself, which you offer to another human being to use to grow in the way they need to grow.
- Ram Dass -
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Via Daily Dharma: Meet Fear in the Body
Whether
you are working through deep fear and shame or a less acute emotional
reaction, your inner freedom will arise from bringing attention to how
the experience is expressed in your body.
Tara Brach, “Finding True Refuge”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
Friday, January 20, 2023
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Intoxication
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
Via Daily Dharma: Our Real Home
Anyone can build a house of wood and bricks, but the Buddha taught that that is not our real home. Our real home is inner peace.
Ajahn Chah, “Our Real Home”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Tricycle // Meditation Month: Day 20
A Reminder to Pause
By Kathy Cherry
By Kathy Cherry
|
Via White Crane Institute // RICHARD C. FRIEDMAN
This Day in Gay History
January 20
Born
1941 -
RICHARD C. FRIEDMAN was born on this date and was an academic psychiatrist, the Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a faculty member at Columbia University. He was also a courageous ally of the gay community. He conducted research in the endocrinology and the psychodynamics of homosexuality, especially within the context of psychoanalysis. Friedman was born in The Bronx, New York.
In the 1960s when marriage and adopting children seemed an impossible dream for gay men, Dr. Friedman was our champion. His 1988 book, Male Homosexuality: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective showed that sexual orientation was largely biological and presented a case that helped undermine the belief held by most Freudian analysts at the time that homosexuality was a pathology that could be cured.
His wife, a clinical social worker at the Weill Medical College of Cornell commented, "Straight people had the same personality issues, and they got away with murder; but gay people were stigmatized, and he didn't think that was right."
His work was a direct challenge to popular Freudian theories and thrust him into the center of debates among the more established heavyweights of psychoanalysis. It led to a model in which analyst and patient simply assumed that homosexuality was intrinsic, said Jack Drescher, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University who knew Dr. Friedman and would later offer his own critiques of Dr. Friedman’s theory as new approaches to working with gay and lesbian patients emerged.
“Given that
he was a younger colleague, it was brave of him to take older experts
on,” a colleague said. But it was in keeping with who he was. “He had an
edge and wasn’t afraid of anybody,” he said. Dr. Friedman died in his
home in March 2020.
|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
Amazon frown logo
RIP, AmazonSmile
Amazon is sunsetting its AmazonSmile program, which allows shoppers to donate a percentage of purchases to their charity of choice, by Feb. 20.
The news comes as the company tightens spending and lays off 18k+ employees — some of whom received notification by email this week, per Business Insider.
Why?
Amazon says it’s donated $449m+ to 1m+ charities since AmazonSmile launched in 2013, but says the program was “spread too thin” and failed to have the desired impact.
In 2022, charities received an average of less than $230, per NPR.
Yet small organizations say it helped:
The SquirrelWood Equine Sanctuary tweeted that the $9.3k+ it’d received made a “huge difference.”
The Cat’s Meow tweeted that the ~$4k it’d received covered expenses when donations fell short.
Meanwhile…
… others argue Amazon could have done more.
In 2017, journalist Marc Gunther pointed out AmazonSmile only gave 0.5% — so a dime for a $20 purchase — and only when shoppers remembered to use the right URL.
Case in point: In 2015, the AmazonSmile Foundation donated ~$12.8m — 0.00012% of Amazon’s ~$99.1B in retail sales that year.
What now?
Customers can still donate to their favorite charities until the program ends, buy items from their wish lists, or, obviously, donate without Amazon.
Meanwhile, Amazon says it will continue to invest in areas “where it can make meaningful change,” including local nonprofits and — perhaps conveniently for Amazon — its own charitable efforts, like Amazon Future Engineer, which funds computer science education.
BTW: We know you’re dying to see the farm animals at SquirrelWood Equine Sanctuary, so here ya go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)