Via Daily Dharma: Transform Life Through Attention

 The universe doesn’t need to feel like a cold place, indifferent to our presence. As Dogen puts it in the Shobogenzo, “mountains belong to the people who love them.”

Mike Gillis, “The Kindness of Joe Pera”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember // Ram Dass, Love Serve Remember

 

Ram Dass on Bearing the Unbearable

If you don’t use the part of the mind that is the intuitive heart-mind, if you don’t cultivate it and use it, you’re just left in a reactive kind of puppetry.

It’s only when the mind, the awareness, draws back that you have a sense of the gestalt – you see the whole thing, and then there is nothing in you pushing it away or grabbing at it.

In order to be able to cultivate that level of awareness, you have to finally come to terms with denial, because otherwise the closing of the heart to protect from despair is too much. To that extent you are not able to work with what is, and there is a part of you that is locked in, closed off from the universe, and so you’re saying, “I wanna be everything. We are all one except for this or that. But that’s too horrible. I can’t bear that.”

What the game is about is bearing the unbearable. - Ram Dass

Read more: https://www.ramdass.org/bearing-the-unbearable/

Via Academe Today

 

THE REVIEW | OPINION

Our Students Don’t Need Identitarian Paternalism

By Blake Smith

Colleges have co-opted queer mentorship.

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Taking What is Not Given

Taking what is not given is unhealthy. Refraining from taking what is not given is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the taking of what is not given, one abstains from taking what is not given; one does not take by way of theft the wealth and property of others. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may take what is not given, but I will abstain from taking what is not given.” (MN 8) On tasting a flavor with the tongue, one does not grasp at its signs and features. Since if one left the tongue faculty unguarded, unwholesome states of covetousness and grief might intrude, one practices the way of its restraint, one guards the tongue faculty, one undertakes the restraint of the tongue faculty. (MN 51)

Reflection

The precept against stealing, phrased here as taking what is not given, protects us from ethical misconduct and from unhealthy mind states such as greed and covetousness. On a more subtle level, every time we go beyond the given data of sense experience we are in a sense taking more than is given, which can be seen as a form of stealing. It can be challenging to be with what is without mental proliferation, but it is worthwhile.

Daily Practice

See if you can train yourself to be aware of the raw texture of sensory input without looking beyond what is given in experience and trying to take more. The Buddha often urged his followers, “Train yourself thus: In the tasting there will only be what is tasted,” nothing added or taken away. This injunction is also in the mindfulness instruction: “Be just aware, just mindful, that there is flavor, without clinging to anything in the world.”

Tomorrow: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via White Crane Institute // Archetype of the Double By Mark Thompson

Today's Gay Wisdom

2017 -

TODAY'S GAY WISDOM

From issue #48 of White Crane, The Shadow

Archetype of the Double

By Mark Thompson

Queer eros holds multiple purposes in our lives — pedagogic, religious, creative, even altruistic — beyond the near-meaningless context it’s been assigned. No matter how it’s dealt with, being Gay must certainly encompass more than whom we choose to have sex with. We’re not different because of what we do in bed. The difference comes from what’s happening under our skins, not the sheets. A psyche-based paradigm of Gay nature puts homosexuality in a new light. To be Gay, as currently defined, gives us a limited place to stand in the world and a lever with which to somewhat move it. But an understanding of our lives stemming from psychological mindfulness permits a much better view of society’s queer men as potential healers, soul guides, and culture makers for all people.

There is a wealth of archetypal forces residing within us; as many, one might say, as there are gods in the heavens. Some archetypes can be literally imagined, such as the Questing Hero or the Wise Old Man. (In Western culture, major archetypes are seen in the personae of ancient deities, on tarot cards, or in the image of certain pop icons.) But others are representational of more abstract images and ideas, like Self or Individuation, which are known as archetypes of transformation.

Some archetypes are widely experienced in Western culture (the Senex, or Judging Father, is one). But other archetypes are more acutely felt, for reasons of biological or social inheritance, within individual minds. Archetypes of the Same or Double, the Wounded Healer, Divine Chi ld, Lunar Phallos, and Trickster are especially ascendant and at work in the psyches of Gay men today. I believe the fundamental basis of being queer is an archetypal matrix, or inner constellation, characteristic of those who have been so labeled. This biologically determined psychic structure is further organized according to the vicissitudes of one’s personal and collective upbringing.

Because these archetypes contain energetic forces vital to challenge and change — necessary to the discovery of new ideas and modes of being, but revolutionary in that they upset the established order — individuals acting out the contents of these archetypes are shunned and suppressed. Recognizing this helps us to see how certain capacities of the soul could be assigned as “Gay” throughout time; their value, adaptation, and even survival contingent on the specific cultural milieu in which they’re perceived. Seen from this vantage, being Gay is more about what we do — our social role and function—than about what and how we’ve been sexually labeled. It is a subjective, multidimensional view of same-sex love, not a further justification. After al l the damage that’s been done, what recourse do we have but sublimity?

In way s both covert and blatant, a large percentage of us are soul-wounded early in life. We know this hurt better than any lover. And so we wonder: Are we damaged due to too much love from one parent and not enough from the other? Despite the rhetoric of Gay pride, may be there really is something “abnormal” about being homosexual. Then again, perhaps there’s nothing wrong at all except for society’s prejudice. Whatever the reason for rejection, is our wounding a curse or a spiritual occasion? Maybe it’s an opportunity to take the road less traveled. Because a false self and its sensibility of shame has been implanted in our souls, not many have been able to see clear enough to answer these questions. That is why striving to create an autonomous awareness is crucial. As someone who assiduously tended to the wounds of his own soul, some of Jung’s insights about same-sex love hold value for us today. For it was he who finally grasped the one truth essential to any Gay person: Our homosexuality has a meaning peculiar to us, and us alone. Taking the downward tumble into our own depths demands that we become conscious of that meaning.

Archetype of the Sames

The archetype of queer love itself is the Double. What inquisitive Gay boys seek is an unfailing mirror in which to see themselves. But what sensitive Gay men desire is the ideal companion with whom they may share that reflection. So we search for someone just like us, a twin or double self. As an archetype of sames, the Double is the source of democracy, justice, and equality in the world, transcending boundaries of age, class, and nationality. This is what Walt Whitman implied when he talked about “adhesive” love, one celebrating “the need of comrades.”

The Double is one of the most important and ascendant elements within a Gay male psyche. We feel its presence erotically, and project it — in ways both direct and subliminal — on the men we encounter and the work we do in the  world.

It is the wellspring of our creativity and endurance; it is the very root, in fact, of our modern Gay identity. Men who do not regard themselves as homosexual experience this archetype, too. For them the Double is not as prominently situated in the anatomy of the soul, or else its libidinal charge has been devalued and contained in hollow ritual, or even made taboo. For these reasons, the Double is one of the most thwarted archetypes in modern Western society, having been perverted from the enabling of loving comradeship to purposes of competition, envy , and war.

Mark Thompson was author of many books that have influenced the Gay cultural wisdom movement. Among these are Gay Body: A Journey through Shadow to Self, from which this is excerpted and Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning (White Crane Books). He was a regular contributor to White Crane and served on the White Crane Board. He is deeply missed.

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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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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Verbal Action

 

RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Verbal Action

However the seed is planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing good deeds; bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too verbal action is to be done with repeated reflection: (MN 61) When you wish to do an action with speech, reflect upon that same verbal action thus: “Is this action I wish to do with speech an unhealthy verbal action with painful consequences and painful results?” If, upon reflection, you know that it is, then do not do it; if you know that it is not, then proceed. (MN 61)

Reflection

What we say has its origin in intention, the set of our mind as we speak. It is intention that initiates action of body, speech, and mind. Intention can be conscious or unconscious. Sometimes we know exactly what we want to say and say it, but much of the time words just pour out, apparently on their own. We are encouraged here to be consciously aware of our speech and to actively monitor its effect on others.

Daily Practice

The practice here is not so much to monitor the content of your speech as to attend carefully to your attitude of heart and mind as you are about to say something. You may say something accurately, but if it comes with a tinge of judgment or dismissal or disrespect, then it is likely to have a harmful effect. Speak what is true, and do so with an attitude of kindness or equanimity, guarding against aversion and hate.

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given
One week from today: Reflecting upon Mental Action

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

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Appreciating Mistakes as Opportunities

 We learn from mistakes, and also from letting others point out our mistakes: when we said things poorly, when we misunderstood, when we completely misjudged another person, when we failed to sustain a harmonious relationship. Mistakes and failures make up the rich seedbed of self-reflection and improvement.

Krishnan Venkatesh, “How to Practice Right Speech Anywhere, Anytime, and with Anyone”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // The WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT

 

Noteworthy

1920 -

The WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT was a decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy: Disagreements over strategy threatened to cripple the movement more than once. But on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all American women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

The campaign for women’s suffrage began in earnest in the decades before the Civil War. During the 1820s and 30s, most states had extended the franchise to all white men, regardless of how much money or property they had.

At the same time, all sorts of reform groups were proliferating across the United States— temperance leagues, religious movements, moral-reform societies, anti-slavery organizations—and in many of these, women played a prominent role.

Meanwhile, many American women were beginning to chafe against what historians have called the “Cult of True Womanhood”: that is, the idea that the only “true” woman was a pious, submissive wife and mother concerned exclusively with home and family.

Put together, all of these contributed to a new way of thinking about what it meant to be a woman and a citizen of the United States.

In 1848, a group of abolitionist activists—mostly women, but some men—gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to discuss the problem of women’s rights. They were invited there by the reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.

Most of the delegates to the Seneca Falls Convention agreed: American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” proclaimed the Declaration of Sentiments that the delegates produced, “that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” What this meant, among other things, was that they believed women should have the right to vote.

During the 1850s, the women’s rights movement gathered steam, but lost momentum when the Cicil War began. Almost immediately after the war ended, the 14th Amendment and the 15th Amendment to the Constitution raised familiar questions of suffrage and citizenship.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, extends the Constitution’s protection to all citizens—and defines “citizens” as “male”; the 15th, ratified in 1870, guarantees Black men the right to vote.

Some women’s suffrage advocates believed that this was their chance to push lawmakers for truly universal suffrage. As a result, they refused to support the 15th Amendment and even allied with racist Southerners who argued that white women’s votes could be used to neutralize those cast by African Americans.

Starting in 1910, some states in the West began to extend the vote to women for the first time in almost 20 years. Idaho and Utah had given women the right to vote at the end of the 19th century. Still, southern and eastern states resisted. In 1916, NAWSA president Carrie Chapman Catt unveiled what she called a “Winning Plan” to get the vote at last: a blitz campaign that mobilized state and local suffrage organizations all over the country, with special focus on those recalcitrant regions.

Meanwhile, a splinter group called the National Woman’s Party founded by Alice Paul focused on more radical, militant tactics—hunger strikes and White House pickets, for instance—aimed at winning dramatic publicity for their cause.

World War I slowed the suffragists’ campaign but helped them advance their argument nonetheless: Women’s work on behalf of the war effort, activists pointed out, proved that they were just as patriotic and deserving of citizenship as men.

 It fell to Tennessee to tip the scale for woman suffrage.

The outlook for ratification by the requisite number of states appeared bleak, given the outcomes in other Southern states and given the position of Tennessee’s state legislators in their 48-48 tie. The state’s decision came down to 23-year-old Representative Harry T. Burn, a Republican from McMinn County, to cast the deciding vote. Although Burn opposed the amendment, his mother convinced him to approve it. Mrs. Burn reportedly wrote to her son: “Don’t forget to be a good boy and help Mrs. Catt put the ‘rat’ in ratification.” With Burn’s vote, the 19th Amendment was fully ratified.

Finally, on August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. And on November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time..

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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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Gay History – 1919: The First Gay Movie Was Made Over 100 Years Ago – “Different From The Others” [Video]

 

Via

RIGHT SPEECH
Refraining from Malicious Speech

Malicious speech is unhealthy. Refraining from malicious speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning malicious speech, one refrains from malicious speech. One does not repeat there what one has heard here to the detriment of these, or repeat here what he has heard there to the detriment of those. One unites those who are divided, is a promoter of friendships, and speaks words that promote concord. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak maliciously, but I shall abstain from malicious speech.” (MN 8) Disputes occur when a person adheres to their own views, holds onto them tenaciously, and relinquishes them with difficulty. Such a person dwells disrespectful and undeferential toward others, causing harm and unhappiness for many. If you see any such root of a dispute either in yourself or externally, you should strive to abandon it. And if you do not see any such root of dispute either in yourself or externally, you should practice in such a way that it does not erupt in the future. (MN 104)

Reflection

If you look around you will easily see that so many of the disputes taking place in the world are rooted in the human tendency to become attached to views and opinions. It is natural for people to disagree, but it is neither necessary nor inevitable for them to argue about it. Views are learned ways of organizing our understanding of the world, and when held lightly they are beneficial, but they can easily become a source of trouble.

Daily Practice

Notice when you see people attached to their views, when they are holding on to them tenaciously, and when they relinquish them with difficulty. Next, notice when you do these things yourself. Try looking at things from different points of view, if only to train your own mind to become more agile and avoid getting locked in to particular perspectives. Notice how many things can be seen from many different points of view.

Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Verbal Action
One week from today: Refraining from Harsh Speech

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

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

 

Via Daily Dharma: Let Your Practice Shape You

 We think that we have to know who we are in order to bloom, but that is not true. It is our nature to bloom, but we don’t have to know who or what we are in order to do so. . . . We can only do the practice and let it shape us.

Ken McLeod, “On Not Being Special”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - August 17, 2022 💌

 
 

You’ve got to see if you keep examining your own mind (which must be your work in part, to become mindful) you must see that who you think you are and how you think it is, is what’s creating the reality of what you’re seeing.

- Ram Dass -

Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center, February 15-16th 1997

Via CEBB-BH

 

“O refúgio é instantaneamente o lugar de repouso na natureza livre e lúcida que nos permite ver os aspectos condicionados e nos permite, se nós estamos além do caminho do ouvinte, efetivamente experimentar. Então, a gente poderia dizer que o refúgio é o início do caminho e é também o último gesto dentro do caminho. A saída do caminho é o refúgio, quando nós verdadeiramente tomamos refúgio, o caminho termina”. 
  

- Lama Padma Samten -

 

Via FB

 

Via FB

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Compassion

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Compassion

Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis upon which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on compassion, for when you develop meditation on compassion, any cruelty will be abandoned. (MN 62) The far enemy of compassion is cruelty. (Vm 9.99)

Reflection

In a moment of compassion, cruelty is impossible, and when cruelty is present there is no room for compassion. As opposite emotions, these two always compete for a spot in the mind. Whichever is raised into conscious awareness from its unconscious latency will have the greatest impact on the mind stream that follows. When we are able to cultivate compassion over cruelty, we can train our minds toward healthy and happy states.

Daily Practice

Put aside some time each day to think of the suffering of others, perhaps just before or just after meditating, and allow yourself to feel compassion in your heart rather than pity or despair. Also, any time you catch yourself feeling mean-spirited or hurtful, immediately take note of that and see if you can replace the incipient cruelty with its antidote, authentic compassion. In these ways you guide your mind in a noble direction.

Tomorrow: Refraining from Malicious Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

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

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: What is Goodwill?

Mature goodwill accords dignity to others, recognizing that they are the agents responsible for their happiness.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “The Kamma of Goodwill”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute // The GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA

 

Noteworthy

1988 -

The GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA, meeting in Victoria, BC becomes "the first mainstream church in the world to accept Gay ordination without imposing celibacy."

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

RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and see consciousness as it actually is, then one is attached to consciousness. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection

Continuing to cycle through all five aggregates, our text comes to focus on consciousness as a source of the craving that leads to suffering. The mind can take anything within its scope as an object of awareness, and you can bring mindfulness even to awareness itself. What does the experience of knowing actually feel like? Learn to regard the act of awareness itself even-mindedly, without getting caught or attached.

Daily Practice

Work at bringing a posture of equanimity to the experience of consciousness. Awareness itself is not attached; attachment arises alongside it, coloring the awareness with a trace of favoring some things and opposing others. Back away from these subtle forms of craving and see if you can simply be with the experience of knowing something in a balanced and even way, with an evenly hovering awareness.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.