Saturday, November 5, 2022

Via Daily Dharma: Interdependent Happiness

 In a thoroughly interdependent world, one’s own happiness cannot be built successfully upon the suffering of others. 


Andrew Olendzki, “The Other Dukkha”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States

 

RIGHT EFFORT
Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders unhealthy states, one has abandoned healthy states to cultivate unhealthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to unhealthy states. (MN 19)
Reflection
The mind has the capacity to guide how it functions to some extent, and unhealthy states such as fear, anger, and aversion have a harmful effect on our well-being. So it makes sense to use whatever ability you have to inhibit the arising of these mental and emotional states before they flood your mind. Once they arise, unhealthy states take over and inhibit the arising of healthy mind states, so it’s better they don’t occur at all. 

Daily Practice
Keeping your mind focused on healthy states prevents unhealthy states from arising. Only one state of mind can be present at a time, so if you frequently occupy your mind with healthy states, such as thoughts of kindness or generosity or joy in the well-being of others, then your mind will remain inclined toward similar healthy states. Maintaining positive states of mind is the best way of restraining negative mind states.

Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna
One week from today: Abandoning Arisen Unhealthy States

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



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Via White Crane Institute // An excerpt from Mark Thompson’s Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning

Today's Gay Wisdom
The First (modern) Faerie Gathering
2017 - 

Equinox/Return

An excerpt from Mark Thompson’s Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning

What Edward Carpenter, Gerald Heard and Harry Hay recognized was the “new city of Friends” described by Walt Whitman over a hundred years ago—a sustaining place where “robust love” might thrive, a deep source of empowerment. It has been a dream asserted by a few and glimpsed by others at crucial points in our development. The early 1950s and 1970s were times when our movement howled at the moon, briefly acknowledging that this dream could be a reality. That this rude awakening represented something instinctual, wildly alive, posed problems for our leaders. Here was nature, woolly and cloven-hoofed, taking on unexpected form. Here were luminous faces peering out on the edges of accepted reality. How strangely familiar, too, for others to suppress what they do not comprehend, to fear what they’ve been taught to distrust.

Power, status, the hierarchy of who’s on top is the real currency of American culture, and so many of our leaders have been seduced by it all. These are the tactics of assimilation and they smell of panic. Thinking we have gained so much, we have been led to settle for less than we can be.

There is a tyranny implicit in any label, and certainly the label of Gay has now been revealed as much for its limitations as for its liberations. Why not consider difference, whatever its reason, in terms of function? The concept of a faerie shaman is just one idea that indicates a purposeful role, beyond that of just political or sexual identity. In times past and in many cultures, we often assumed the tasks of the shamans—wise and creative ones—and were duly honored as such. If we can but take gay beyond society’s definition—which we have internalized—and see ourselves as part of this function, our secret will be out.

I failed in my father’s eyes, and he in mind, as, I suppose, it had been fated. More to the point, few gay men ever seem to find complete acceptance from their fathers. (And even tolerance, however honorable, cannot account for true knowing.) Gay men have even less hope of being accepted by the greater father, the world of our daily existence, which, despite tolerant inroads, remains disapproving to its core. But neither can an opposite reality—that is, the matriarchy—hold any more honest place for us. Perhaps at one time, and according to the current feminist myth, the dominant Great Mother societies of agrarian, pre-Judeo-Christian times accepted gay men as welcomed sons. But I suspect, more likely, as subservient sons, in contrast to the outlawed sons of our contemporary age.

So gay men remain suspended in a horrible dilemma. Both the matriarchy and the patriarchy have, in effect, played themselves out; and the future, symbolized through an historic union of the two—has yet to fully emerge. Gay male consciousness remains stymied, unable to come of age. This is why so much of recent gay-identified culture appears to lack deeper meaning; however fresh and guileless its messages, empowered as it is by ritual dance and sex and defiance against corrupt authority.

At what point do gay boys stop finding favor in their father’s eyes? What stories are withheld, what rites of manhood lost in that uncomprehending gaze? Now, as gay men, we must begin by finding forgiveness in each other’s eyes, seek favor in stories of our own telling — our own fairy tales, the instructional fables we need to assume a mature and ever evolving gay adulthood. And for this we need to reinvest in wonder.

By learning more fully to evoke and to balance the powers of (what were once known as) the Earth Mother and Father Sky, we can set into motion our own whiling evolution as gay men beyond definition. We will no longer suffer from the constraints of living on a fraction of a life. We will evidence harmony as men who see clearly within and thus act cleanly without. We can learn to revel in our perspective, as much as our preference, and we don’t need a name. Our freedom is our responsibility. We simply need to do our work.

But first we must take the dark fantasies of our suppressed spirits out of their closets into the powerful light of reality. We can have a vision, and, thus, a culture to affirm, until one day perhaps our fathers will knowingly proclaim: “I have one of those.”

Gay Spirit: Myth & Meaning is now available at www.gaywisdom.org www.whitecranebooks.org


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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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Friday, November 4, 2022

Via RawStory

 


Via NPR // Gay country music icon Patrick Haggerty died Monday at age 78

 


[GBF] new GBF talks // San Francisco

 



Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Living: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings

 

RIGHT LIVING
Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Harming Living Beings
Harming living beings is unhealthy. Refraining from harming living beings is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning the harming of living beings, one abstains from harming living beings; with rod and weapon laid aside, gentle and kindly, one abides compassionate to all living beings. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may harm living beings, but I will abstain from the harming of living beings.” (MN 8)
Reflection
One of the key characteristics of Buddhism and other Indian traditions is a fundamental respect for life and a commitment to an attitude of non-harming. One form this can take is giving the gift of harmlessness to all beings through ethical behavior: not killing, not lying, not stealing, not misbehaving sexually, and not becoming intoxicated in various ways. Beyond these restraints, you can also actively practice kindness and compassion.

Daily Practice
Bring a benevolent attitude of harmlessness to the forefront of your mind whenever you remember to do so. When looking at or thinking about a living being, allow the natural emotion of caring to arise and sustain it by actively reinforcing it with the thought “May you be healthy; may you be well; may you feel safe and free from harm.” Undertake a commitment to abide with compassion for all living beings whenever you can.

Tomorrow: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
One week from today: Abstaining from Taking What is Not Given

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



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© 2022 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Everyone Has Been Your Friend

 Remember that everyone, at some time over the beginningless course of lives, actually was your nurturer, caring for you as much as your kindest friend.

Jeffrey Hopkins, “Breaking the Habit of Selfishness”


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Thursday, November 3, 2022

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VOTE!

 


Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Action: Reflecting upon Bodily Action

 

RIGHT ACTION
Reflecting Upon Bodily 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 bodily action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)
Reflection
The image of planting seeds and harvesting their fruits is widespread throughout the world. It is a simple model of cause and effect, and it lies at the heart of the Buddhist understanding of karma. As embodied beings we are always engaging with the world, and we are invited here to notice this fact and engage with care. If we want good things to come our way, we need to do good deeds to ensure that they do.

Daily Practice
Think of meditation as similar to looking in a mirror, but instead of regarding your external form you are observing the quality of your inner life. When you act in certain ways, how does it make you feel? If you regularly feel bad about what you do, then you are planting the wrong seeds. Gradually learn to act in ways that will result in healthier and more beneficial outcomes for yourself and others. 

Tomorrow: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings
One week from today: Reflecting upon Verbal Action

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

Questions?
Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.



Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning.

© 2022 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Via Daily Dharma: Held in Refuge

By taking refuge, we place ourselves in a spacious container within which we are lovingly held, just as we are. However strong and whole we may feel, however broken and vulnerable, and with all our flaws and imperfections, we are held in great love and tenderness. 

Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: Taking Refuge (On the Wings of Angels)”


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