Via Buddhist Geeks // Living Into the Fourth Turning

 

Living Into the Fourth Turning
A Buddhist Geeks Retreat

📅 June 11th – 18th, 2023
👥 Emily West Horn & Vince Fakhoury Horn

“Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Evolving.” – Ken Wilber

In the Buddhist Wisdom tradition the symbol of the wheel represents the cyclical process of iterative change. With each turning of the wheel of dharma the teachings are interpreted in more appropriate ways for their time & place. As the world of form evolves, so too does the dharma.  In this week-long virtual retreat we will embrace what has come before–with theory & practice from the first three historical turnings of Buddhism–while going beyond them.

Combining Silent, Guided, & Social Meditation periods, along with teacher-led & peer-supported learning formats, the structure of this retreat reflects the comprehensive nature of Evolving Dharma.

Practitioners of all experience levels are welcome.

Note: This retreat counts toward the retreat prerequisite requirement for the yearly Buddhist Geeks Meditation Teacher Training (next cohort begins: January, 2024). 

🥳 Features

• Integrate intensive retreat practice into your home life

• A daily hour-and-a-half Large Group Retreat Meeting with dharma teachings & facilitated breakout discussions.

• A daily hour-long teacher-led meeting, limited to 16 people per cohort

• A 15-minute private teacher meeting with your small group leader

• Multiple, daily Teacher-led Guided Meditation sessions

• Regularly facilitated Multiplayer Meditation periods

• Round-the-clock peer-led Silent Sitting periods

• Build your own retreat schedule around the practice modules offered

• Additional retreat resources for more in-depth study

• Recordings of the Large Group Teacher Talks and Guided Meditations

Register Here*

*Current Buddhist Geeks Network Members:
Click Here to Join the Retreat

Via DailyChatter // Shiny, Happy People

 

Need to Know

Shiny, Happy People

Bhutan

In Bhutan, the law states that “if the government cannot create happiness for its people, there is no purpose for the government to exist.” The small, constitutional monarchy in the Himalayan mountains, taking the constitutionally enshrined “Gross National Happiness” principle seriously, therefore aims to foster sustainable development, free speech, environmental conservation, and other laudable policy goals. As a result, it’s one of the happiest developing nations in the world.

As RealClearWire wrote, however, Bhutanese citizens also must fulfill their responsibilities in exchange for this happiness. As the Buddhist maxim says, “A little effort on your part will be much more effective than a great deal of effort on the part of the government.”

For example, as the World Bank explained, the Bhutanese government helped support women who have opened businesses in rural villages to preserve local traditions and create jobs to lure younger workers who might otherwise flood into cities. Happiness was the result.

“The whole process of planning the revival of our community has given us an opportunity to listen to each other and set a new vision for the stewardship of our culture, and the nature around us,” said Madam Pem, who started a restaurant that serves almost-forgotten traditional food in Nobgang, a village in the country’s west.

Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck is likely one reason why Pem and her fellow citizens might be joyful about their country. Soon after he ascended to the throne in 2006, he launched a democratization process, including scrapping anti-homosexuality laws in 2021.

The king in theory wanted to distance himself from the harsher periods in his country’s history. Political prisoners who allegedly suffered torture while in Bhutan are still in jail, for example. Most are from Bhutan’s crackdown on citizens who spoke Nepali in the 1990s. The government drove these people, who represented around 16 percent of the population at the time, into exile, argued Human Rights Watch.

Bhutan faces a bigger problem with its two titanic neighbors, India and China. The three countries have been engaging in negotiations in recent years over land claims in the space where their three borders meet, India Express explained. China has been trying to separate Bhutan from India, its traditional ally, ThePrint argued, citing an anti-India commentary in the Global Times, an English-language mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist Party.

Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering recently said China has an equal say in resolving the dispute. Objectively, he was probably correct. But many in India thought his comments were extremely concerning.

Maybe they should not worry and just be happy.

Via White Crane Institute // H. G. CARRILLO

 

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H. G. Carrillo aka Herman Glenn Carroll

1960 -

H. G. CARRILLO (born Herman Glenn Carroll) was an American fiction writer and academic born on this date (d:2020);

H. G. Carrillo was a writer’s writer—not a household name, but esteemed in literary circles. He began writing later in life, and was in his mid-forties when his first novel, “Loosing My Espanish,” was published. The book, which describes a Cuban-immigrant experience, was hailed as a triumph of Latino fiction; Junot Díaz praised the author’s “formidable” talent, calling his “lyricism pitch-perfect and his compassion limitless.” Carrillo went on to literary positions in and outside of the academy. He was an early casualty of the COVID pandemic, dying in the spring of 2020 at the age of fifty-nine. But his obituary—instead of tying a bow on the historical record—unspooled in quite a different direction, revealing secrets that Carrillo had worked for decades to conceal

In the 1990s, he began writing as "H. G. Carrillo," and he eventually adopted that identity in his private life as well. Carroll constructed a false claim that he was a Cuban immigrant who had left Cuba with his family at the age of seven; in fact, he was an African-American. Carroll wrote frequently about the Cuban immigrant experience in the United States, including in his only novel, Loosing My Espanish (2004). He was an assistant professor of English at George Washington University from 2007 to 2013, and was later chair of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

Carroll kept his true identity hidden from those close to him, including his husband, whom he married in 2015. Only after his death in April 2020 did the true details of his life become publicly known.

Carroll established a pattern of lying about his life by early adulthood. He would frequently fabricate his background to romantic partners and friends, variously claiming that he had attended or graduated from schools he was never admitted to, that he had worked as a sportswriter for a Detroit newspaper and written stories for The New Yorker, or that he had a child with a French woman, and that their child went on to attend the Juilliard School. One former partner said, "Herman walked the planet lying, and he might occasionally tell the truth. It wasn't malicious – it was a compulsion".

In or around 1989, Carroll was hired to manage a call center for HBO, where he remained for the following six years. The exact reason for his departure was unclear, though he may have been dismissed after his employers discovered he did not have a bachelor's degree, as he had claimed. In 1995, he enrolled at DePaul University in Chicago, where he received his B.A. in Spanish and English in 2000. It was during this time that he began constructing the H. G. Carrillo persona. In 2003, he legally changed his last name to Carrillo, and he went on to receive an MFA from Cornell University in 2007.

Carroll was gay; he was married to entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp, and they lived in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Berwyn Heights, Maryland. He had maintained his fabrications throughout his personal life. VanEngelsdorp later remarked that "the only true things he ever told me about his life was his birthday and the fact that he was Catholic". Carroll's first and only full-length novel, Loosing My Espanish (Pantheon, 2004), addresses the complexities of Latino immigration, religiously associated education, homosexuality, and lower-class struggles from a Cuban immigrant's perspective. The novel was published under the Carrillo name. 

Carroll was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer in the last months of his life. The illness and the severe side effects of his medication caused a steep decline in his health. In April 2020, he collapsed at his home and was admitted to a hospital in Washington, D.C., during the COVID-19 pandemic. While there, he contracted COVID-19, and he died from the disease on April 20, six days before his 60th birthday.

After the TheWashington Post obituary which reported on Carroll's life as he had misrepresented it, relatives in Michigan realized that he had fabricated his identity and informed Carroll's husband and the newspaper accordingly. The discovery of Carroll's fabrication was a shocking surprise to his colleagues as well as his close friends. Carroll's family had varied reactions: his sister said that he was "very talented" but "always eccentric", though she added that their mother, who died in 2015, had been aware of his fabrications and was "really hurt by the whole façade". Similarly, while many friends and former students expressed resentment towards Carroll after learning of his deceit, vanEngelsdorp felt more ambivalent.

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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 Speech: Refraining from Malicious Speech

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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 one 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 is contemptuous and domineering. Such a person dwells disrespectful and undeferential towards others, causing harm and unhappiness for many. If you see any such root of a dispute either in yourselves or externally, you should strive to abandon it. And if you do not see any such root of dispute either in yourselves or externally, you should practice in such a way that it does not erupt in the future. (MN 104)

Reflection You may have noticed that some people are more argumentative than others. There are certain character traits that account for this, and being contemptuous and domineering is certainly among them. The fact is that human conflicts are rooted in human qualities of mind, and these need to be addressed if any kind of transformation is to happen. The place to begin this process is in yourself. Do you see any roots of dispute in yourself? Daily Practice One of the ways to practice refraining from malicious speech is to clear your mind of the mental and emotional traits that give rise to it. Do you ever catch yourself being contemptuous or domineering? Do you ever dwell disrespectful and undeferential towards others? This is the place to start: “Others might tolerate these qualities in themselves, but I shall not.” Honest self-reflection is a challenging but rewarding practice. 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.

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Via Daily Dharma: Our Common Quality

 Living in a big city, sometimes we feel that we don’t know our neighbors but actually we know them well. They want pleasure and don’t want pain. 

Jeffrey Hopkins, “Equality”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - April 26, 2023 💌

 

"When you give another human being, your family, or your business, the fullness of your being at any moment, a little is enough. When you give them half of it, because you’re time binding with your mind, there is never enough. You begin to hear the secret that being fully in the present moment is the greatest gift you can give to each situation."

- Ram Dass -

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Compassion

 

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RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Compassion Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on 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) Compassion succeeds when it makes cruelty subside. (Vm 9.94)

Reflection When lovingkindness comes in contact with witnessing the suffering of others, it transforms into compassion. Compassion and cruelty are considered opposite mental states and cannot coexist in the same mind moment: when one is present, the other is absent. This is why it is so important to cultivate compassion as an intentional act, both to make it grow in its own right and to block out all cruelty. Daily Practice Allow yourself to be open to the fact that people are suffering. Cultivate the emotion of compassion and allow it to grow. You are training your mind to develop in a particular direction, much like guiding the growth of a plant or a vine. As the process unfolds, the tendency toward compassion will get stronger. As your character gradually evolves in this healthy direction, the tendency—even the ability—to feel cruelty will disappear. 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.

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Via Daily Dharma: The Beloved Is Love Itself

 The one we love is everywhere. By wakefully inhabiting our longing for the beloved, we are carried into the arms of love itself.

Tara Brach, “Making Room For Desire”

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

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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 mental objects as they actually are, then one is attached to thoughts. 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 Of the six kinds of objects that make up our experience, mental objects are the most challenging to work with. The feeling tones that arise with sensory objects give rise to craving, as we delight in the pleasure and are averse to the pain, but thoughts come with the added challenge of rich content. We can’t help but get drawn into the story and entangled in the plot, at which point our mental troubles usually increase. Daily Practice Practice regarding the mental objects coursing through your mind as thoughts and thoughts only. See if you can focus on their arising and passing away as a series of events occurring in the mind, without getting drawn into the content of the thoughts. Never mind, in other words, what the thought is about, but regard it simply as a passing mental phenomenon to be treated much like the passing physical sensations of the body.  Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering  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. Donate »

© 2023 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003