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Sunday, July 6, 2025
Via Daily Dharma: Our Relationship in This Moment
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation //
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Via Dan Piraro
If you’re like me, you’ve had enough of bad news and despair lately. Our country’s “birthday” a few days ago only served to remind me that everything dies. Death is a necessary element of life, making way for the next generations. New life often follows death, and that’s what I hope for America.
So today, instead of expounding on the systemic ills of the nation, I’d like to recommend what has been to me a consistent source of joy, reflection, and inspiration that I’ve benefited from for quite a few years now—a website called The Marginalian by Maria Popova.
Many of you Jazz Pickles are likely already regular readers, but if not, consider giving it a try. It’s a free, donation-based site, and Popova is a remarkable genius.
As a subscriber, you’ll get a couple of emails each week with two or three short articles on something fascinating from the worlds of literature, philosophy, art, or science. These are sometimes reports of interesting new books, but more typically, they are about deep musings on the beauty of the world, the universe, and the human soul by exceptional people throughout history. Popova’s commentary is always thoughtful and deep, and her prose is gorgeous, on par with any of the classic literary minds and philosophers she references.
In my humble opinion, her mind is among the best our species has to offer. For me, her posts have been a consistent lifeline to sanity in dark times and have inspired me to be joyful and creative, even in the toughest of times.
Her insights into literature and her talent with the English language are humblingly impressive, all the more so because she was raised in Bulgaria and English is not her mother tongue. While I strive year after year to become a better writer, compared to Popova’s simplest posts, I feel like an adolescent wielding a pair of nunchucks against an expert ninja; I only end up knocking myself unconscious.
A recent post she titled “A Defense of Joy” was just what I needed this morning. Along with examples of the sentiment from time-honored writers, she adds these thoughts of her own:
“One of the most important things to have learned in life is that choosing joy in a world rife with reasons for despair is a countercultural act of courage and resistance, choosing it not despite the abounding sorrow we barely survive but because of it, because joy — like music, like love — is one of those entirely unnecessary miracles of consciousness that give meaning to survival with its bright allegiance to the most alive part of us.”
I practice this brand of resistance daily, telling myself I will not let any greedy conmen or tinpot dictators rob me of my joy. As John Lennon sang, “Nothing’s going to change my [inner] world.”
Another recent article about higher levels of consciousness opens with this paragraph:
“It is hardly surprising, given the co-evolution of vision and consciousness, that how we look at the world — what we choose to bring into consciousness — shapes what we see, which in turn shapes the world we make in the image of our vision. This is why we call visionaries the people who see sides and paths others do not, who catch in the prism of their consciousness the light of the world invisible to the rest and cast it back magnified, more luminous, iridescent with possibility.”
This is the part each of us plays in creating our unique reality: By where we put our attention. It isn’t blindness to evil; it is balancing it with views of the best of life, leaning more heavily on the good than the bad.
As I struggle clumsily with my writer’s nunchucks, I’ll just say that Popova’s writing is deep stuff that always lifts my spirits and inspires my creativity.
Do yourself a favor and give The Marginalian a try. In times like these, here’s a good one to start with.
(I have no connection to Ms. Popova or her site other than being a grateful fan.)
Dan Piraro
Saturday, July 5, 2025
Via God -- Thou Shalt Boycott Florida
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They built a concentration camp in the middle of a swamp.
They filled it with tents, bunk beds, and fences. They built it in eight days. And now they’re refusing to let Democrats even see inside.
Welcome to Alligator Auschwitz.
This is what fascism looks like when it stops pretending.
And now they are bringing it everywhere.
They passed the Big Evil Bill.
They ripped healthcare from 17 million people.
And now they’re building camps.
Do not reward this. If you were planning a Florida vacation, cancel it.
Thou shalt boycott Florida.
So what do we do with all this rage? We don’t spiral. We strike.
We boycott. We march. We organize.
We build something stronger than their fear.
We support bold leaders who fight billionaire fascists.
We grow media that tells the truth.
We say what must be said, even when it's dangerous.
No more hoping they come to their senses. They won't.
We must never, never, never give up.
So here’s what I’m doing.
Today I’m offering you a whopping 40% off to Letters from God to keep this independent media operation growing.
This isn’t just a newsletter. It’s a protest. A rebellion. A home for everyone who still gives a damn.
Let them have their cruelty.
We’ve got each other.
I will never stop fighting for you.
We will win.
Love,
God
"I believe in what you are doing. I stand with you and will fight to the end. Thank you." - Brandon
© 2025 God
548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104
Via The Tricycle Community \\ The Future of Buddhist Translation
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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
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Via Daily Dharma: Sublime Experiences
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