Via Ram Dass LGBTQ+ September Satsang ~ Connecting with the Divine

 

September LGBTQ+ Satsang Following in the Footsteps ~ Connecting with the Divine Sept 11 @ 8 pm EDT | 5 pm PDT REGISTER HERE   “I hang out with my guru in my heart. And I love everything in the universe. That's all I do all day.” ~ Ram Dass

In Honor of Neem Karoli Baba’s Mahasamadhi (meaning, a conscious being’s exit from the body at the time of physical death), the Ram Dass LGBT Fellowship is gathering to share stories and communally delve into our experiences contacting the Divine Presence.  We will share with each other how Ram Dass and/or Maharaji-ji is present to us in whatever form, be it from within our own heart, via another person, in spirit, in dreams, recorded teachings, or in a myriad of other ways. Join us for a spirited gathering to honor our queer fellowship community. This event will include meditation, social discussion time, and kirtan. Please feel free to bring a story, excerpt, or teaching to share with the satsang, that connects you to or reflects your queer spiritual experience. REGISTER HERE Add event to calendar          LGBTQ+ Fellowship Mission Statement The LGBTQ+ Ram Dass Satsang’s mission is to cultivate loving awareness and heart connections in a community of kindred souls. We celebrate our unity in the full spectrum of gender and sexuality in and from a space of supportive openness. GOALS: Create a refuge of satsang for LGBTQ+ individuals through the teachings of Maharaj-ji and Ram Dass Promote inclusive transcendence and self-acceptance of our human incarnation as members of the LGBTQ+ community Explore the intersection of seva/service & the spectrum of gender and sexuality  Hold a space for exploring being LGBTQ+ from the perspective of consciousness  Have a place to have a voice and be a valued part of the community   Remove barriers from LGBTQ+ identities within the spiritual world Help to generate a shift within the collective consciousness through awakening VALUES: Following the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba & Ram Dass Service Compassion Acceptance Spiritual Inquiry Cultivating the Witness Loving Awareness Devotion Healing Loving our Roles and Souls Honoring the individuality within the Unity Developing our Sadhana SEE YOU SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 The Ram Dass LGBTQ+ Satsang team

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You signed up for the Ram Dass Fellowship via the Form you filled out after one of RamDass.org's Meditation Courses or by visiting our website.​ Our mailing address is: Love Serve Remember Foundation 226 W Ojai Ave Ste 101 #531 Ojai, CA 93023

Via JMG: CDC Data: Life Expectancy Dropped 1.8 Years In 2020

 

Via Lama Rod Owens

 

Podcast: Rethinking the Dharma with Lama Rod Owens and David Nichtern In this podcast episode, Lama Rod Owens joins Buddhist teacher and Grammy-nominated musician, David Nichtern to discuss reimagining the dharma in a way that is appropriate for our time.

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Tending to the summer of apocalypse

Inbox

Lama Rod Owens assist@lamarod.com via gmail.mcsv.net

2:14 PM (14 minutes ago)

to me

Dear Friends,  Probably like you, I have been really exhausted.  Though I now enjoy my life, it has been tremendous labor to experience this level of mental and physical wellness. I am grateful for the labor, and still, it is important for me to tell the truth that this labor has cost a lot.  These pandemic years have invited me to re-evaluate how I spend my time and direct my energy. I have come to understand that I must protect my energy, especially in a culture where so many people don’t realize the preciousness of their energy and have found themselves spending energy unskillfully or taking energy from others in ways that they may not be aware of. Boundaries have become essential in protecting my energy. I’ve had to divest from spaces, groups, relationships, and even lineages not because I disliked them but because I just don’t have the energy to offer right now; though I hope to be able to return to these places when I am not trying to survive an apocalypse.  As we continue moving through the year and deeper into this apocalypse, we have to become more conscious of how we spend our energy. We must figure out how to let go of the places, things, and relationships that are taking more from us than we realize.  My goal is to care for myself in order to care for my communities. I am not called to be a martyr in this life, and likely you are not either.  I am called to survive to help bring about this new world to which I believe we are giving birth. I want to be of service to help, not deplete myself in meaningless ways.  So this is a question I leave for you: Are you being depleted, or are you being sustained?  With love, Lama Rod

Podcast: Rethinking the Dharma with Lama Rod Owens and David Nichtern In this podcast episode, Lama Rod Owens joins Buddhist teacher and Grammy-nominated musician, David Nichtern to discuss reimagining the dharma in a way that is appropriate for our time.

Listen Here

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Appreciative Joy

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 appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The far enemy of appreciative joy is discontent. (Vm 9.100)

Reflection

It is telling that we do not even have a word in English for the Pali word for appreciative joy (mudita). By putting together two words, we only approximate what we are trying to convey. Appreciative joy is the emotion of feeling happy for the other person, not because of them or about them, but celebrating the fact that they are happy and feeling blessed or fortunate in some way. Why don’t we have a word for this?

Daily Practice

Pay close attention to what happens in your own experience when you hear news of some good fortune befalling someone, whether the person is well known to you or not. Do you feel resentment, jealousy, or some other form of discontent? If so, stop right there and intervene. Conjure up goodwill instead and practice feeling happy for the person. These two mind states are opposites: one is unhealthy and the other healthy.

Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Be Patient with Your Mind

 Understanding comes from patiently reasoning with yourself. You cannot force your mind or order it about. 

Gehlek Rinpoche, “An Interview with Gehlek Rinpoche”

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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 consciousness as it actually is, then one is not attached to consciousness. 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

Last week we were reminded of the consequences of not knowing and seeing consciousness as it really is, namely attachment, infatuation, and an increase of troubles generally. Here we discover the positive side of the story. We are much better off when we understand that consciousness is a series of momentary phenomena that arise and pass away in rapid succession. Seeing this, we do not get attached to it.

Daily Practice

Become familiar with the habit of regarding your own mind as a series of events rather than as a solid thing with enduring qualities. Little is lost by doing so, and much can be gained. With a process, there is nothing to attach to. It is like watching a game or a performance: you want to stay present and attentive, but you don’t want to inhibit what is happening by trying to hold on to it. Your mind too is like a performance.

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

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: Find the Middle Path of Anger

 There is great potential for us to find a middle path with anger through mindfulness, not adding to our brutal self-judgments because of it, and not acting it out in ways that ultimately leave us isolated and regretful.

Sharon Salzberg, “The Deluding Force”

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LGBTQ Baha'i Experience Q and A, August 2022

Via Daily Dharma: Patience Is Self Care

 Anger, annoyance, and impatience deplete energy. Patient effort strengthens our resources.

Allan Lokos, “Cooling Emotional Fires”

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

 

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 pleasant feeling, one is aware: “Feeling a common pleasant feeling.” When feeling an uncommon pleasant feeling, one is aware: “Feeling an uncommon pleasant feeling”. . . One is just aware, just mindful: “There is feeling.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

A common pleasant feeling refers to the ordinary pleasures we are capable of experiencing through the gratification of the senses. Some things look really good, sound wonderful, taste and smell delicious, feel smooth and cool to the touch, and are great to think about. An uncommon pleasant feeling is the sort encountered during some meditation practices. In both cases it is okay to be closely aware of pleasure.

Daily Practice

When pleasure is encountered in ordinary life it is usually accompanied by desire and craving. When we practice mindfulness with pleasant feeling tones as an object, the goal is to experience the sensations with equanimity rather than with preference and attachment. It is natural to experience pleasure; the danger comes only when we allow it to carry us away into unhealthier mental and emotional states.

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, with joy and the pleasure born of concentration. (MN 4) One practices: “I shall breathe in contemplating fading away";  one practices: “I shall breathe out contemplating fading away.” This is how concentration by mindfulness of breathing is developed and cultivated       so that it is of great fruit and great benefit. (A 54.8)

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

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Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - August 21, 2022 💌

 

The next message you need is always right where you are.

- Ram Dass -
 

Via The Sacramento Bee // In Placer County, one church is healing the community through radical acceptance

 

Carving the Divine

Receding water levels of China's Yangtze reveal ancient Buddhist statues

 

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Via Krisna Das