“We are learning how not to resist love in order to become pure
channels of love. Even though this is, consciously, our greatest desire,
we fear turning into this emptiness and allowing ourselves to be
inundated with love. When this does occur, we experience divine ecstasy,
in which the idea of the self disappears. This experience is similar to
death, which is why we choose to think so much instead. Compulsive
thinking is the greatest defense mechanism: it keeps us busy and gives
us a sense of security.”
Monday, August 3, 2015
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 03/08/2015
“Estamos aprendendo a não resistir ao amor, ou seja, aprendendo a nos
tornarmos canais puros dele. Embora conscientemente esse seja o nosso
maior desejo, tememos nos tornar esse vazio que é inundado pelo amor.
Porque quando isso ocorre, experimentamos o êxtase divino, no qual a
ideia de eu desaparece. Essa experiência se assemelha à morte. É por
isso que nós pensamos tanto. O pensamento compulsivo é o maior mecanismo
de defesa. Ele nos mantém ocupados e nos dá uma sensação de segurança.”
Today's Daily Dharma: Low-income Buddhism
Low-income Buddhism
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Those
of us in the lower class have no real disposable income, no truly
'free' time, and we have to keep up a break-neck speed just to break
even. We get up early to sit before heading to a job that we can
tolerate only because we sit. We meditate before bed to alleviate some
of the daily stress that would otherwise keep us up all night.
Economically and spiritually, it's always a battle just to stay put.
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Sunday, August 2, 2015
Via JMG: ISRAEL: 16 Year-Old Girl Stabbed At Jerusalem Pride Dies Of Her Wounds
Three days after being critically wounded by an ultra-Orthodox man that went on a stabbing rampage at Jerusalem's Gay Pride Parade, Shira Banki, a 16-year-old Israeli teen succumbed to her wounds Sunday afternoon. Five other people were wounded in the attack. Police confirmed that the suspected stabber is Yishai Schlissel, a Haredi man from Modiin Ilit who stabbed three participants in the 2005 Gay Pride march. He was recently released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence. Banki was a high-school student from Jerusalem, studying at the Hebrew University High School. She took part in Thursday's parade to show solidarity with her LGBT friends. She is survived by her parents and three siblings; her family decided to donate her organs.Shira's family has issued a statement.
"Our magical Shira was murdered because she was a happy 16-year-old – full of life and love – who came to express her support for her friends' rights to live as they choose. For no good reason and because of evil, stupidity and negligence, the life of our beautiful flower was cut short. Bad things happen to good people, and a very bad thing happened to our amazing girl. The family expresses hope for a less hatred and more tolerance."
JMG ISRAEL: Rallies To Be Held Nationwide In Aftermath Of Jerusalem Pride Stabbings
Rallies to protest Thursday's stabbing attack at Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade and the arson attack in which a Palestinian child was killed will be held in major Israeli cities on Saturday night. A rally in Tel Aviv already planned to mark six years since two people were killed in a shooting at Bar Noar, a Tel Aviv gay youth center, will be turned into a protest against violence following Thursday's stabbings. At 7:30 P.M a Peace Now rally will be held at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, and from there the participants will march to Gan Meir, where another rally is scheduled to take place. Opposition leader and Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog is scheduled to speak at the Rabin Square rally, as well as Meretz leader Zehava Galon, Zionist Union MK Amir Peretz, former Shin Bet chief Carmi Gilon and more. The Jerusalem rally will begin at 9:30 P.M. in Zion Square. A protest will also take place at 8:00 P.M. in the northern city of Haifa, and at 8:45 P.M in the southern city of Be'er Sheva.During yesterday's arraignment the deranged attacker declared that he does not recognize the authority of Israel's legal system as he was acting under orders from God.
RELATED: Yesterday the New York Post published an op-ed which denounces the resurgent claims of "pinkwashing" that appeared on social media after Israeli politicians and religious leaders unanimously expressed outrage about the attack. An excerpt:
Their voices arrived this week both loudly and swiftly, often cloaked in the veil of “pink-washing” — the academically vogue assertion that Israel uses its pro-LGBT record to obscure its Gaza blockade and West Bank occupation. Transgender activist Pauline Park declared Thursday on Twitter: “Jerusalem LGBT PrideParade attack by Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Assailant undermines Zionist Pinkwashing Propaganda.” “Will the Zionists continue their pinkwashing campaign?” asked another on Twitter.
Indeed, across the #pinkwashing spectrum, posters insisted that Israel is actually unsafe for its LGBT citizens, that it’s far from a liberal haven and that Netanyahu’s good wishes are merely political showmanship. As with most socio-political-cultural conflicts, the truth is at once far simpler — and more complex. Indeed, much as in other Western democracies, Israel’s open society can cultivate extremists who may act out with violent results. Yet despite their horror, these egregious examples do not render those societies fundamentally violent.
Via JMG: Anti-Gay Texas AG Ken Paxton Indicted On Multiple Counts Of Securities Fraud
Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas and a former state legislator, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of securities fraud and of failing to register with the state securities board, officials said. The grand jury in the northern Dallas suburb of McKinney handed up a three-count indictment against Mr. Paxton on Tuesday, the officials said. The indictment is to be unsealed on Monday, when Mr. Paxton is expected to turn himself in to the authorities at the Collin County Jail. The charges — two counts of first-degree securities fraud and one count of third-degree failure to register — are tied to Mr. Paxton’s work soliciting clients and investors for two companies while he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives, before he was elected attorney general in November.RELATED: Several days after the Obergefell ruling, Paxton declared that county clerks were allowed to refuse to issue same-sex marriage licenses.
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 02/08/2015
“Uma das chaves fundamentais para a sustentação do êxtase, é não nos
apegarmos a um desfecho determinado para as situações. É aprender a se
mover na sabedoria da incerteza, ou seja, libertar-se de toda e qualquer
expectativa. Isso significa abrir mão do controle, e entregar-se para o
fluxo da vida. Permitir que Deus nos leve. Desde as coisas mais simples
até as mais complexas.”
“One of the fundamental keys to sustaining ecstasy is not to cling to any particular outcome of a situation. The key lies in learning how to move in the wisdom of uncertainty by freeing ourselves of any expectations. This means giving up our control and surrendering to the flow of life. We allow God to lead us – from the simplest of circumstances to the most complex.”
“One of the fundamental keys to sustaining ecstasy is not to cling to any particular outcome of a situation. The key lies in learning how to move in the wisdom of uncertainty by freeing ourselves of any expectations. This means giving up our control and surrendering to the flow of life. We allow God to lead us – from the simplest of circumstances to the most complex.”
Today's Daily Dharma: The Love Available to Us
The Love Available to Us
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There is far more love available to us in any given moment than we might be aware. And there is much, much more love in our hearts than we as adults have been conditioned to believe is appropriate to express.
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Saturday, August 1, 2015
Gay marriage in the year 100 AD
Gay marriage sounds like an ultra-contemporary idea. But almost twenty
years ago, a Catholic scholar at Yale shocked the world by publishing a
book packed with evidence that same-sex marriages were sanctioned by the
early Christian Church during an era commonly called the Dark Ages.
Illustration of Serge and Bacchus, in a same-sex union
John Boswell
was a historian and religious Catholic who dedicated much of his
scholarly life to studying the late Roman Empire and early Christian
Church. Poring over legal and church documents from this era, he
discovered something incredible. There were dozens of records of church
ceremonies where two men were joined in unions that used the same
rituals as heterosexual marriages. (He found almost no records of
lesbian unions, which is probably an artifact of a culture which kept
more records about the lives of men generally.)
Bolstered by this evidence, Boswell published a book in 1994, the year before his death from AIDS, called Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe. The book comes out next month for the first time in a digital edition. It was an instant lightening rod for controversy, drawing criticism from both the Catholic Church and sex pundit Camille Paglia. Given the Church's present-day views on gay marriage, these detractors argued, Boswell's history seemed like wishful thinking.
Via WGB: Leslie Jordan Throws Coffee At Men Screaming Antigay Slurs Inside WEHO Starbucks
“You will die, fucking faggots!” one of the men allegedly announced to the entire store.
Joseph Daniels, who was waiting in line at the time, told WEHOville, “It was very scary and unexpected.” But he wasn’t going to let a group of d-bags get the best of him. He walked over to the men and told them their behavior was “rude.”
Then the manager came along and told them to get the hell out.
The thugs refused to leave and proceeded to call everyone in the store “faggots.” And that’s when things got really heated. Because unbeknownst to the homophobes, Leslie Jordan happened to be there.
Yes, the Leslie Jordan." Full story here!
Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 01/08/2015
GURU SHARANAM HARI SHARANAM SACHCHE SHARANAM PRABHU SHARANAM ~ Estou
sob a guiança e a proteção do Mestre, da Verdade e de Deus ~
“Isso é entrega, isso é redenção. Para verdadeiramente entregar-se, se faz necessário muita confiança. Entregar significa se tornar livre do peso que você carrega. Você entrega e deixa que o mestre leva para você. Você entrega seus problemas e não pensa mais neles. Porque se você diz que entregou, mas continua preocupado ou não aceita a solução que lhe é oferecida, existe aí um autoengano. Significa que o ego ainda está tentando controlar o destino da embarcação, porque não confia que será levado para um lugar seguro. Mas afinal, o que é seguro? As referências do ego dizem respeito apenas a satisfação do corpo, e isso é muito limitado.”
“Isso é entrega, isso é redenção. Para verdadeiramente entregar-se, se faz necessário muita confiança. Entregar significa se tornar livre do peso que você carrega. Você entrega e deixa que o mestre leva para você. Você entrega seus problemas e não pensa mais neles. Porque se você diz que entregou, mas continua preocupado ou não aceita a solução que lhe é oferecida, existe aí um autoengano. Significa que o ego ainda está tentando controlar o destino da embarcação, porque não confia que será levado para um lugar seguro. Mas afinal, o que é seguro? As referências do ego dizem respeito apenas a satisfação do corpo, e isso é muito limitado.”
GURU SHARANAM HARI SHARANAM SACHCHE SHARANAM PRABHU SHARANAM ~ I am
under the guidance and protection of the master teacher, of truth and of
God. ~
“This is surrender; this is redemption. In order to truly surrender, a lot of trust is needed. Surrendering means becoming free of the weight that we carry. We surrender when we let the master teacher take this weight from us, and surrendering our problems means that we no longer think about them. If we say we have surrendered but continue to worry and do not accept the solution our teacher has offered, then there is still some self-deception happening. This means that the ego is still trying to control the fate of its vessel, because there is still mistrust that this vessel will be led to a safe port. In the end, what is safe? The references that the ego knows only involve corporeal satisfactions, and this is a very limited perspective.”
“This is surrender; this is redemption. In order to truly surrender, a lot of trust is needed. Surrendering means becoming free of the weight that we carry. We surrender when we let the master teacher take this weight from us, and surrendering our problems means that we no longer think about them. If we say we have surrendered but continue to worry and do not accept the solution our teacher has offered, then there is still some self-deception happening. This means that the ego is still trying to control the fate of its vessel, because there is still mistrust that this vessel will be led to a safe port. In the end, what is safe? The references that the ego knows only involve corporeal satisfactions, and this is a very limited perspective.”
Today's Daily Dharma: The Light Is Always There
The Light Is Always There
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Drawing
attention to stillness, silence, and spaciousness shifts your focus
from feeding the insecurity of the ego to connecting with pure being.
Anytime you identify with a sense of 'I' "'I feel something'; 'I have
lost some thing'; 'I am lost'" you are identifying with the wrong
person. You are identifying with the ego, with your pain body, not with
your true nature.
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Friday, July 31, 2015
Via JMG: COLOMBIA: Top Court Considers Marriage
Colombia’s top court held a day-long hearing on Thursday on whether it should interpret its constitution as giving marriage rights to same-sex couples — framing the debate in a wider discussion about whether international standards now dictate that marriage equality is a fundamental right. The hearing comes five weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to allow marriage equality, in a move that reverberated around the world. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, Colombia’s Constitutional Court weighs foreign precedent and international human rights law in its decisions. To discuss the question of marriage equality in Thursday’s debate, the Court’s judges invited a broad range of international opinions, including representatives of the United Nations’ human rights office, the U.S.-based conservative legal group the Alliance Defending Freedom, and Albie Sachs, the former chief justice of South Africa’s Constitutional Court who authored a 2005 marriage equality ruling.A decision is expected by the end of the summer.
RELATED: Elsewhere in South America same-sex marriage is legal in Argentina, Brazil, French Guiana, and Uruguay. Civil unions are legal in Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. A same-sex marriage lawsuit is pending before the Venezuelan Supreme Court. Homosexual acts remain illegal in Guyana, but nowhere else on the continent.
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