Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Via Daily Dharma: Understanding Change

 

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Understanding Change

Understanding change is not freeing ourselves in a fixed way, but it may help us to see there are different types of change. 

Martine Batchelor, “Impermanence as Liberation”


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Via White Crane Institute -- RANDY P. CONNER, Ph.D.

 

1952 -

RANDY P. CONNER, Ph.D., born on this date (d: 2022), was a gay spiritual seeker, activist, author, artist, and teacher.

Conner received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature/composition from the University of Texas at Austin. In the 1970s he taught the first gay and lesbian workshop at the Student Union there. His studies concentrated on the intersections of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and pursuit of the sacred.   Conner received his doctorate in humanities and religion in 2007 from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He taught at several colleges including Florida State University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the California Institute of Integral Studies. He was most recently Associate Professor of World Humanities at Moraine Valley Community College near Chicago where he created a successful state- and college-approved LGBTQ+ humanities course.

Conner’s spiritual path was focused on LGBTQ+ spirit in history and culture, especially as related to European Neo-Pagan, Indigenous Native American and African Diasporic traditions.  He was an initiate and practitioner of both Haitian Vodou and Reglade Ocho (Santeria), studying primarily with Mama Lola, a well-known practitioner of these African Diasporic traditions. He received his “Elekes” (spiritual beads for the orishas/deities) as a Santero in Cuba, later earning the title of Oungan.

Also a practitioner of Neopaganism and Wicca, he studied metaphysics and psychic arts with Tama Diaghilev, and Wicca/Witchcraft with ecofeminist leader Starhawk. Conner also studied Tarot and mystical symbology with spiritual teacher and scholar Angeles Arrien.  He became a Radical Faery in the 1980s and attended many gatherings over the years.

As an activist for LGBTQ+ rights, Conner testified in the mid-1970s at the Texas State Legislature for inclusion of gay and lesbian student organizations on campuses for which he was fired from his graduate teaching position. After moving to the Bay Area in 1978, he became a member of Bay Area Gay Liberation, campaigned against the Proposition 6 Briggs initiative, and for social/political justice for the queer and people of color communities. He also co-curated with his husband, David Hatfield Sparks, the El Mundo Surdo poetry series at Small Press Traffic in Noe Valley, created by Gloria AnzaldĂșa, his "hermana espiritual," and participated in Mainstream Exiles organized by San Francisco trans-activist Tede Mathews.

Conner was a contributor to several LGBTQ+ publications including the Advocate, the old San Francisco Sentinel and White Crane Journal. He also served as fiction editor for RFD magazine and taught a course in gay spirit at the Harvey Milk Institute in the mid-1990s. Among his many essays, articles, books, speeches, presentations, and other publications, several were nominated for Lambda Literary Awards, including the seminal  Blossom of Bone: Reclaiming Connections between Homoeroticism and the Sacred (Harper San Francisco 1993); the Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit (Cassell 1997) and Queering Creole Spiritual Traditions: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Participation in African-Inspired Traditions in the Americas (Routledge 2004).  In 2019, Conner published his five-volume study, The Pagan Heart of the West: Embodying Ancient Beliefs and Practices from Antiquity to Present (Oxford).  An expanded, revised edition of the Encyclopedia, re-titled The LGBTQ+ Companion to Symbol, Mythology, Folklore, and Spirituality, is forthcoming from Equinox Publications (London).

These many interests and projects he shared with his long-time companion/husband of forty-three years, David Hatfield Sparks. Conner went to ride with Charon to the Otherworld on May 5, 2022.  He is also survived by their daughter Mariah.


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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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Monday, September 16, 2024

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

 

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
What is the cessation of suffering? It is the remainderless fading away and ceasing, the giving up, relinquishing, letting go, and rejecting of craving. (MN 9)

When one knows and sees formations as they actually are, then one is not attached to formations. When one abides unattached, one is not infatuated, and one’s craving is abandoned. One’s bodily and mental troubles are abandoned, and one experiences bodily and mental well-being. (MN 149)
Reflection
The aggregate of formations includes all our habitual volitional and emotional responses to whatever information the senses are presenting to consciousness. This is where we love or hate what is happening, where we yearn for something different or accept peacefully what occurs. This is where suffering either is born or dies, depending on whether we respond in the moment with craving or with mindful equanimity.

Daily Practice
Suffering is not built into any given situation but is optional. Stress is not caused by external stressors but is an internal reaction to circumstances. See if you can bring the profound wisdom of this insight into your lived experience by bringing the cessation of suffering to every moment. Find what it is that you are yearning for, turn that craving into mindful observation, and watch the suffering attached to that moment disappear.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Appreciative Joy
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering


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Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



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Via Daily Dharma: Befriending Pain

 

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Befriending Pain

While pain can be distracting, alienating, and upsetting, it can also be a powerful way to practice being present with what is—without stories or expectations. 

Annalisa Rakugo Castaldo, “The Noble Truth of Pain”


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The Wall
By Douglas Penick
Author Douglas Penick explores what remains when the mind goes.
Read more »

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Via NPR // A theologian’s work was used to exclude LGBTQ people from church. In a new book, he and his son argue the exact opposite.


 

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna

 


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RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling
A person goes to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and sits down. Having crossed the legs, one sets the body erect. One establishes the presence of mindfulness. (MN 10) One is aware: “Ardent, fully aware, mindful, I am content”. (SN 47.10)
 
When feeling a common painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a common painful feeling.” When feeling an uncommon painful feeling, one is aware: “Feeling an uncommon painful feeling”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is feeling.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
Common feelings are those that come with ordinary experience, while uncommon feelings are connected with more subtle psychological and meditative experience. Remember, feelings in this context are not what we commonly think of as emotions; rather feelings refer to physical and mental sensations of pleasure and pain. Here we are directed to take note of the painful sensations with the equanimity of mindfulness.

Daily Practice
Pay close attention to what it feels like when something is painful, both physically and mentally, as a way of practicing the second foundation of mindfulness. This means you are not resenting or resisting the pain but merely taking an interest in it and investigating its nuances with a balanced mind. Pain need not be seen as “bad,” but rather can be explored as a different texture on the continuum of lived experience. 


RIGHT CONCENTRATION
Approaching and Abiding in the Second Phase of Absorption (2nd Jhāna)
With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, one enters upon and abides in the second phase of absorption, which has inner clarity and singleness of mind, without applied thought and sustained thought but with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



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© 2024 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Start with Truth

 

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Start with Truth

We think we know our own life, but what we know is only an edited version, colored by our emotions and narrow vision. How close can we come to the original draft? By staring at truth, the soil is warmed, and we begin digging toward the sky.

Gregg Krech, “Naikan Therapy”


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