Friday, December 1, 2023

**** FRIDAY PROGRESS REPORT *****

 Gratidão!



Thank all of you who have been mazing and supportive during this past few months of treatment to get rid of this infernal cancer.

Especially amazing has been the energy, love, thoughts, prayers and best wishes from so many different countries, people, religious and cultural traditions, points of view and advice, from those who have gone thru this! 

Yesterday I went for a consult with the folks from the radiotherapy and then to get one more jab (blocker). And the news was very positive.

I will continue with the blockers for one more year or so, and then aafter we stop report back to the radiologist. Both docotrs gave me good news... infact the second stop, the doctor said, as he sent me on to get my jab:

"You are fine, indeed doing really good! You are a man who appreciates numbers, so I cannot say that you are 100% cured. What I can promise is that your quality of life will continue to improve and that you are good, and healthy."

GOL! 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

 


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RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings
Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides with compassion toward all living beings. (MN 41) One practices thus: "Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from harming living beings." (MN 8)

There is a gift, which is a great gift—pristine, long-standing, traditional, ancient, unadulterated—that will never be suspect. Here a noble person gives up the destruction of life and refrains from it. In doing so, one gives freedom from fear, hostility, and oppression to an immeasurable number of beings. (AN 8.39)
Reflection
The path factor of right living is often called right livelihood, and it has to do with the practical effects of how we work in the world. Right livelihood is primarily a teaching for laypeople, as monks and nuns engage in no worldly affairs. Here we will focus on the so-called "ethical precepts," the first of which is to take care not to kill or cause injury to other living beings. This is the central organizing principle of all Buddhist ethics.

Daily Practice
Ethical integrity can be seen as a gift that you give to others, the gift of harmlessness. It is not a set of rules you have to follow but a set of guidelines to help you calibrate your behavior toward promoting welfare, both your own and that of others, and avoiding harm. Try to gradually develop this attitude so that you will be gentle with other creatures as an act of generosity rather than of forced discipline.

Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

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: Stay Open to It All

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Stay Open to It All

Surrender is the path to salvation. Experiencing equanimity requires welcoming change. Embracing the ubiquity of transformation can offer transcendence. 

Sunita Puri, “A Gift” 


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Thursday, November 30, 2023

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Bodily Action


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RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Bodily Action
However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds; bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too bodily action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)

When you wish to do an action with the body, reflect on that same bodily action thus: "Would this action I wish to do with the body lead to my own affliction?" If, on reflection, you know that it would, then do not do it. If you know that it would not, then proceed. (MN 61)
Reflection
The word for action is kamma in Pali, karma in Sanskrit, and the quality of our actions is a matter of great concern in the Buddhist tradition. We act with the body, speech, and mind, and each of these will be considered in turn. The teaching here is partly to learn how to pay close attention to what we are doing and partly to notice the ethical consequences of our actions. 
Daily Practice
To reflect on our actions is to bring conscious awareness to them. Most of what we do is done unconsciously, so the practice is to become conscious of what we are doing instead of doing it automatically. Start here with intention. Pay careful attention to the process of making simple choices, such as moving your hand or not, and see if you can catch when intention arises. Also note the ethical quality of your choices: Is a choice healthy or unhealthy?
Tomorrow: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings
One week from today: Reflecting upon Verbal Action

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.
© 2023 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Tricycle \\ Break Through or Die Trying

Break Through or Die Trying
By Tangen Harada Roshi
The great Zen teacher Tangen Harada Roshi turned to Zen upon his return from WWII as a kamikaze pilot.
Read more »

Via Daily Dharma: Embrace Life without Limitation

 

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Embrace Life without Limitation

Because the past is what it is and, as a result, I am who I am, my task is to embrace the whole of my life without denial or revulsion. 

Dale S. Wright, “Why Should I Appreciate Life?” 


CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute \\ OSCAR WILDE

 

Died
Oscar Wilde having lunch with Lord Alfred Douglas near Dieppe in 1898, after his release from Reading Gaol
1900 -

OSCAR WILDE, Irish writer, wit and raconteur died (b. 1854); Prison was unkind to Wilde's health and after he was released on May 19, 1897 he spent his last three years penniless, in self-imposed exile from society and artistic circles. He went under the assumed name of Sebastian Melmoth, after the famously "penetrated" Saint Sebastian and the devilish central character of Wilde's great-uncle Charles Robert Maturin's gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer.

Nevertheless, Wilde lost no time in returning to his previous pleasures. According to Douglas, Ross "dragged [him] back to homosexual practices" during the summer of 1897, which they spent together in Berneval.

After his release, he also wrote the famous poem The Ballad of Readying Gaol. Wilde spent his last years in the Hôtel d'Alsace, now known as L’Hôtel, in Paris, where he was notorious and uninhibited about enjoying the pleasures he had been denied in England. Again according to Douglas, "he was hand in glove with all the little boys on the Boulevard. He never attempted to conceal it." In a letter to Ross, Wilde laments, "Today I bade good-bye, with tears and one kiss, to the beautiful Greek boy. . . he is the nicest boy you ever introduced to me." Just a month before his death he is quoted as saying, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or other of us has got to go."

His moods fluctuated; Max Beerbohm relates how, a few days before Wilde's death, their mutual friend Reginald 'Reggie' Turner had found Wilde very depressed after a nightmare. "I dreamt that I had died, and was supping with the dead!" "I am sure," Turner replied, "that you must have been the life and soul of the party." Reggie Turner was one of the very few of the old circle who remained with Wilde right to the end, and was at his bedside when he died. On his deathbed he was received into the Roman Catholic church for some odd reason. Perhaps he really had lost his mind. Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900.

Wilde was buried in the Cimitiere de Bagneaux outside Paris but was later moved to Père Lachaise in Paris. His tomb in Père Lachaise was designed by sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein, at the request of Robert Ross, who also asked for a small compartment to be made for his own ashes. Ross's ashes were transferred to the tomb in 1950. The numerous spots on it are lipstick traces from admirers.

The modernist angel depicted as a relief on the tomb was originally complete with male genitals. They were broken off as obscene and kept as a paperweight by a succession of Père Lachaise cemetery keepers. Their current whereabouts are unknown. In the summer of 2000, intermedia artist Leon Johnson performed a forty minute ceremony entitled Re-membering Wilde in which a commissioned silver prosthesis was installed to replace the vandalized genitals.


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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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Wednesday, November 29, 2023

My Home Place


 

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Via Tricycle Film Club: Wandering … But Not Lost

 


Film Club: Wandering … But Not Lost
Directed by Paul MacGowan
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche spent four years as a wandering yogi—begging for food and shelter, and overcoming illness and a near-death experience. This intimate account explores not only the obstacles, but the lessons he learned and insights he gained during this life-changing experience. 
Watch now »