A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Mind
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 the mind is composed, one is aware: “The mind is composed”. . .
One is just aware, just mindful: “There is mind.” And one abides not
clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
A composed mind
is unified, peaceful, steady, and clear. We can access such states of
mind when engaged in the practice of meditation, and mindfulness of mind
is established when you are aware of what a composed mind feels like
and you are able to sustain it over time. The mind becomes like a
mirror, reflecting itself.
Daily Practice
Sit quietly,
relaxing the body while gently holding it erect, and allow the mind to
gradually become more and more composed. With every outbreath, sink
deeper and more comfortably into the serenity of the moment. It is like
untangling knots, one after another, until the mind becomes smooth.
Allow yourself to feel the composed mind, aware simply that awareness is
aware of itself, without clinging to anything in the world.
RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the Third Phase of Absorption (3rd Jhāna)
With the fading away of joy, one
abides in equanimity; mindful and fully aware, still feeling pleasure
with the body, one enters upon and abides in the third phase of
absorption, on account of which noble ones announce: “One has a pleasant
abiding who has equanimity and is mindful.” (MN 4)
One practices: “I shall breathe in contemplating cessation";
one practices: “I shall breathe out contemplating cessation.”
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 Way to the Cessation of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
We just keep reaching for the truth together because that's really the
highest thing we can offer each other, that's the way we help each other
get free.
This is the birth date of German lawyer, writer and Gay Rights pioneer KARL HEINRICH ULRICHS
(d. 1895). In the early history of LGBT Rights that includes John
Addington Symonds, Magnus Hirschfeld, and Edward Carpenter Ulrichs is
one of the most important. He wrote under the pseudonym Numa Numatis
till 1868. He was born in Aurich, Hannover and died in L'Aguila, Italy.
He is considered the first person to stand in public for the rights of
homosexuals. And all this before the word "homosexual," or
"heterosexual" for that matter, even existed. Ulrichs is seen today as a
pioneer of modern Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender movements.
He studied law at
the universities of Göttingen and Berlin (1844-47) and became a junior
attorney in the civil service of the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1854 he left
state service to become a free-lance journalist and private secretary
of a representative to the German Confederation in Frankfurt am Main.
In Frankfurt he
used embryology to develop a theory of homosexuality that he presented
in a series of five booklets (1864-65) titled Forschungen über das
Rätsel der mannmännlichen Liebe (Research Into the Riddle of Love
Between Men). This he later extended to twelve booklets with the last
appearing in 1879.
He assumed that
love directed towards a man must be feminine and used the Latin phrase
anima muliebris virili corpore inclusa (a female soul trapped in a male
body), and he coined the term 'Urning' (Uranian) for such a person. This
was a reference to Plato's Symposium in which Pausanias postulates two
gods of love, the Uranian (Heavenly) Eros who governs principled male
love, whereas the Pandernian (Vulgar) Eros governs heterosexual or
purely licentious relations. Károly Mária Kertbeny later invented
alternative words such as Homosexualität.
Ulrichs regarded
homosexuals as neither criminal nor sick and tried to organize them for
their own welfare. In 1864 he was planning to publish a homosexual
periodical and in 1870 he started it but it only lasted for one issue
through lack of support.
Also on August
28th. 1867 he became the first self-proclaimed homosexual to speak out
publicly for homosexual rights when he pleaded at the Congress of German
Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of all
anti-homosexual laws. He was shouted down.
|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|
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
Whatever a person frequently
thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their
mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has
abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s
mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)
Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts
the mind, and strives to develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental
states. One develops the unarisen awakening factor of joy. (MN 141)
Reflection
Buddhism
sometimes gets a reputation for not being joyful enough, with all the
emphasis on suffering and the calm emotional balance of equanimity.
There may be only the hint of a smile on the face of a Buddha statue,
but we can be assured that inwardly the Buddha is experiencing great
joy. Joy is one of the seven awakening factors and is therefore a
beneficial capacity to develop. Make an effort to stir up joy; it is
good for you.
Daily Practice
The way to
develop the arising of joy that has not arisen on its own is by rousing
the will or generating an intention to be joyful. This is done by
thinking of something, either through memory or imagination, that you
find joyful. Even when fleeting, a joyful moment is a moment devoid of
its opposite mental states, such as unhappiness or dejection. The
effects are amplified greatly if you are able to sustain joy for some
time.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
Sensual misconduct is
unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9)
Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among
sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may engage in
sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct.” (MN 8)
Flavors cognizable by the tongue are of two kinds: those to be
cultivated and those not to be cultivated. Such flavors as cause, in one
who cultivates them, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to
diminish, such flavors are not to be cultivated. But such flavors as
cause, in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to diminish and
healthy states to increase, such flavors are to be cultivated. (MN 114)
Reflection
How easy it is
for some of us to misbehave among sensual pleasures associated with the
tongue and flavors! We are used to hearing that some foods are better or
worse for our physical health because of their nutrients and/or toxins,
but here we are being told that some flavors arouse unhealthy states
such as greed and hatred, while some do not. We should learn to look at
the impact of what we eat on the mind as well as the body.
Daily Practice
Try looking at your eating experience as a series of choices, not only of what
you eat but also of the quality of mind with which you are eating. An
easy example is eating something that tastes so good that craving for
more arises in the mind. Whether it is raw kale or a sugar doughnut is
not the point, nor is it necessary to stop eating it. What is important
is learning to eat without the co-arising of greed. Try this out in your
own experience.
Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Rather
than constantly seeking to eliminate all small irritations from our
lives, we can use them as a basis for developing more patience. If you
emphasize comfort over the practice of patience, your mind will get
weaker and weaker.
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 mental
action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)
When you wish to do an action with the mind, reflect upon that same
mental action thus: “Is this action I wish to do with the mind an
unhealthy bodily 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
We are familiar with the expression Think before you act. Here it is suggested, Think before you think! It
is not as hard as it sounds. The idea is to pay attention to intention,
that function of the mind that decides what to do next or points the
actions of the mind in a particular direction. Is it really a good idea
to go back over what you should have said in that argument last week?
Probably not. Choose a different path.
Daily Practice
By getting in
touch with the workings of your intentions, you gain access to the
rudder of the ship, so to speak. Learn to notice, not only what you are
thinking but also what you are planning. Much of the time we have no
access to this, as things are moving so fast or we are so reactive that
we don’t feel we are in control of ourselves. But there is an executive
function in the mind, and we can learn to notice what it has in mind to
do.
Tomorrow: Abstaining from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures One week from today: Reflecting upon Social Action
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
TRUMAN CAPOTE,
American author died (b. 1924) an American writer whose non-fiction,
stories, novels and plays are recognized literary classics, including
the novella BreakfastAt Tiffany’s (1958) and InColdBlood
(1965), which he labeled a "non-fiction novel" and was co-written by an
uncredited Harper Lee, Capote’s childhood friend. Lee modeled the
character of Dill on Capote, known then as Truman Persons. A recent
memoir by Chicago Tribune reporter, Marja Mills, The Mockingbird Next
Door, quotes childhood friend of Capote’s, Harper Lee calling him “a
psychopath.”
At least 20 films
and TV dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories and
screenplays. Capote, all of 5 feet 4 inches tall and openly gay in a
time when it was common among artists, but rarely talked about, was well
known for his distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms,
his offbeat manner of dress and his fabrications. One of his first
serious lovers was Smith College literature professor Newton Arvin, who
won the National Book Award for his Herman Melville biography.
Capote often
claimed to know intimately people he had in fact never met, such as
Greta Garbo. He professed to have had numerous liaisons with men thought
to be heterosexual, including, he claimed, Errol Flynn. He traveled in
eclectic circles, hobnobbing with authors, critics, business tycoons,
philanthropists, Hollywood and theatrical celebrities, royalty, and
members of high society, both in the U.S. and abroad. Part of his public
persona was a long-standing rivalry with writer Gore Vidal ("Truman
Capote has tried, with some success, to get into a world that I have
tried, with some success, to get out of."). He famously commented on
Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, "[It] isn't writing at all -- it's typing"
Today's Gay Wisdom
2017 -
The wisdom of Truman Capote
All literature is gossip.
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
Fame is only good for one thing - they will cash your check in a small town.
Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.
I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.
Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.
Love is a chain of love as nature is a chain of life.
Mick Jagger is about as sexy as a pissing toad.
My major regret in life is that my childhood was unnecessarily lonely.
No one will ever
know what 'In Cold Blood' took out of me. It scraped me right down to
the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did
kill me.
Sometimes when I think how good my book can be, I can hardly breathe.
The quietness of his tone italicized the malice of his reply.
Well, I'm about as tall as a shotgun, and just as noisy.
|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|O|8|
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
