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.
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 manifestation of lovingkindness is the removal of annoyance. (Vm 9.93)
Reflection
Only one
experience occurs at a time. Each one replaces the one before it and is
itself replaced by the next. This happens in rapid succession as the
stream of consciousness flows on. It feels like a continuous event, much
as the still images displayed rapidly in a movie theater merge into a
flowing story, but in fact, each mind moment is organized around a
single object, with a single emotional response.
Daily Practice
This means that
when you are feeling kindly or benevolent toward a particular person or
in a particular situation, you cannot at the same time feel ill will or
anger or annoyance. The beauty of lovingkindness is that it replaces
negative emotions in the mind. Next time you feel even slightly annoyed
by someone or something, try conjuring up an attitude of kindness toward
something and watch the annoyance disappear.
Tomorrow: Refraining from False Speech One week from today: Cultivating Compassion
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Grief
is an expression of the loss of something meaningful, which means I
had, at least for a time, the opportunity to experience love—true, real,
meaningful, heartfelt love.
It’s Not Too Late Rebecca Solnit in Conversation with James Shaheen and Sharon Salzberg
Rebeca
Solnit is determined to change the narrative of despair in the face of
the climate crisis. In this piece, Solnit explores the dangers of
hyperindividualism, the spiritual power of renunciation, and why she
believes that beauty is an essential piece of activist work.
An intimate portrayal of illness, spiritual care, and letting go, Review
follows three people with terminal illness and their reflections on
life and spiritual explorations before death. Subscribers can stream the
film on Tricycle’s Film Club all month long.
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)
Death is suffering. The passing away of beings, their dissolution,
disappearance, dying, completion of time, dissolution of aggregates,
laying down of the body. (MN 9)
Reflection
It is natural
that we experience a great deal of mental pain when someone we love
dies. Such pain is an inevitable part of life. The Buddha never said
there is a way to make pain go away. How much suffering it causes,
however, is another matter. Pain is amplified by our resentment of it
and our resistance to it, and by our wishing it would go away. Pain is
diminished by our turning toward it, accepting it, and attempting to
learn from it.
Daily Practice
Reflect on the
poignancy of death, either the death of someone dear to you or your own
inevitable death. Allow yourself to feel the sorrow, which is an
expression of mental pain. This is natural. Also allow yourself to feel
strong, whole, and balanced in the midst of the sorrow. Mental pain,
like physical pain, is something to be examined carefully and with
equanimity. We need not feel overwhelmed by it.
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
Sometimes
our most obvious destructive behaviors conceal something else that is
even more difficult for us to acknowledge. We may be willing to
acknowledge our anger, but unwilling to look at the fear and
vulnerability beneath it.
How
Haemin Sunim, internationally known as the “Twitter monk,” came up
against the internet’s ‘cancel’ culture, prompting questions of the
ethical responsibilities of a modern practitioner.
An intimate portrayal of illness, spiritual care, and letting go, Review
follows three people with terminal illness and their reflections on
life and spiritual explorations before death. Subscribers can stream the
film on Tricycle’s Film Club all month long.
ANDRÉ GIDE,
French writer, Nobel laureate died (b. 1869); Not unlike Gore Vidal and
Truman Capote sniping at one another like Paulette Goddard and Rosalind
Russell in The Women, the feud between Gide and Jean Cocteau
was a low point in both their careers. The feud, which lasted for more
than forty years, all public, stemmed from simple, mortal jealousy
between these two cultural gods. Gide was enraged that Cocteau had kept
his young lover, Marc Allégret out all night and had, presumably, slept
with him. Gide confessed years later that he wanted to kill his rival
but decided the word was bloodier than the sword.
Young Andre Gide
2018 -
TODAY'S GAY WISDOM
The wisdom of Andre Gide:
Art is a collaboration between God and the artist and the less the artist does the better - Andre Gide
Be faithful to that which exists nowhere but in yourself - and thus make yourself indispensable - Andre Gide
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. - Andre Gide
Dare to be yourself. - Andre Gide
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. - Andre Gide
It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves, in finding themselves. - Andre Gide
Obtain from
yourself all that makes complaining useless, No longer implore from
others what you yourself can obtain. - Andre Gide
One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time - Andre Gide
So long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity - Andre Gide
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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
Tai chi, a slow-moving form of Chinese martial art often called meditation in motion, is known to help increase flexibility and improve balance. New research suggests it can reduce blood pressure better than more vigorous forms of aerobic exercise.
