Ask a Teacher: Holidays 2020

 

Ask a Teacher: Holidays 2020
By Nina Herzog

Even if you can’t be physically present with your family this holiday season, you can use your practice to welcome loved ones into your heart.

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Via Daily Dharma: Relaxing into the World

 The more my actions are motivated by generosity, loving kindness, and the wisdom of interdependence, the more I can relax and open up to the world. 

—David Loy, “Rethinking Karma”

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Via Daily Dharma: Being Free

 We are used to thinking of freedom as being free to do what we want, but the Buddha sees it as being free from wanting. 

—Andrew Olendzki, “The Ties that Unbind”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 22, 2020 💌

 

"Inspiration is God making contact with itself."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Work with What Arises Inbox

 The mark of a true practitioner is not what arises in your life and mind, but how you work with what arises.

—Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, “The Path of Patience”

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The woodcut prints of Tom Killion

 

The woodcut prints of Tom Killion speak of a deep love for the landscape, a passion for the poetics of space. In particular California’s northern wild edge inspired him from an early age. Spending countless hours carving into wood the sketches he brought back from his trips into the great outdoors. The technique applied is almost identical to the traditional Japanese woodblock printing used by Hokusai two hundred years ago. A multi-color print can take several months to complete but the result is one of a kind.

 

https://doorofperception.com/2018/03/tom-killion/

Via FB

 

Via FB

 

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Via Daily Dharma: Connecting to This Experience

 Prayer just for itself, just for the act of praying, is a way of connecting to the deep ocean of being that we all are. It is a way of offering our bows, our incense, our flowers, to the ineffable reality of the moment, to the absolute reality of this experience. 

—Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, “Prayer: Sensei Pat Enkyo O’Hara”

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Via Daily Dharma: Bearing Difficulty

 It is only natural that we don’t like suffering. But if we can develop the willpower to bear difficulties, then we will grow more and more tolerant. There is nothing that does not get easier with practice. 

—H. H. the Dalai Lama, “Enduring the Fires”

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I love this

 

Via No Matter How Fine a Love: The LGBTQ Baha'i Experience

No Matter How Fine a Love: The LGBTQ Baha'i Experience

It’s been a while since I last posted and for that I apologize, since my last post I have been contacted by those investigating the Baha’i Faith both heterosexual allies and those who identify as LGBTQ asking me for clarification on the Baha’i stance on LGBTQ people and same sex relationships, in each case they said that there is nothing on the US Baha’i website which I found odd, at the end of the last decade there was guidance which if one read between the lines stated that same sex couples wouldn’t qualify to declare as Baha’is unless they fell in-line with Baha’i law which realistically is a passive aggressive way to suggest getting a divorce. Today I was startled to see on the US Baha’i website absolutely no reference to the Baha’i stance on LGBTQ people and same-sex relationships / marriage (please correct me if I overlooked this). For many Americans LGBTQ issues are very important, not only for LGBTQ Americans seeking a loving religious community, but also our heterosexual allies who value LGBTQ people’s humanity. The erasure of LGBTQ guidance on the US Baha’i website (good, bad, or indifferent) simply stings for me as a gay man, it’s the very same sinking feeling I had when the Trump Administration expunged any LGBTQ references on the White House website, it made me feel invisible yet again. For the individual investigating the Baha’i Faith and wanting to know what the Baha’i Faith’s stance on a good 10% of the population (conservative estimate) the website leaves them perplexed as the Baha’i Faith’s rallying cry for “unity in diversity”, the Oneness of humanity, and the elimination of prejudices of any kind assuredly gives the impression that Baha’is would value the humanity of LGBTQ people and would accept them, their spouses, and their families with open arms. It’s also been brought to my attention by a heterosexual mother of a transgender child that not once is homophobia or transphobia listed as forms of prejudice that Baha’is actively address on the website, with Hate Crimes on the rise (transgender women of color in particular) is quite alarming to her as she investigated the Baha’i Faith. As I am writing this I’m doing my very best to not feel rage, instead I’m seeking out clarification from the Public Relations Office at the Baha’i National Center and will share what they say to my inquiry. Attached are screenshots from the US Baha’i website from a few years ago pertaining to guidance on same-sex relationships/ marriage, one must remain vigilant when it comes to this sensitive subject in the Baha’i Faith, one day guidance is up, the next day its invisible (there’s a theme here).

 

For the current public website of the American Baha’i community sans LGBTQ / same sex relationship information

 

and finally, after all their cruelty and homophobia... they end with:

The Baha’i Teachings and Homosexuality

Via Daily Dharma: Broadening Your Mindset

 Adopting a mind that is free from grasping is a direct antidote to a narrow and fixed perspective. 

—Khentrul Rinpoche, “Unity in Difference”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 18, 2020 💌

 

There are billions of tiny acts that create suffering in the world—acts of ignorance, greed, violence. But in the same way, each act of caring—all the billion tiny ways that we offer compassion, wisdom, and joy to one another—serves as a preservative and healing agent.

- Ram Dass -

Via LATimes

 

Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus)

Via Daily Dharma: Seeking with an Open Mind

 If one seeks understanding with a vacant mind,
the moon seems full each and every moment.

—Jiaoran, “A Full Load of Moonlight”

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