Sunday, February 8, 2026

Via um Amiga


 

Via Alison Marshall \\\ Cosmic Conversations Blog

 




Cosmic Conversations Blog

Tracing Baha'u'llah's voice across the architecture of thought


The Year of the Answer in the Badíʿ Calendar (2026-2027)

Author: Alison Marshall
Categories: Distilled Insights

Via Spirit Rock Meditation Center \\\ Tempel Smith: Finding Peace In Every Moment


 

VIa Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation \\\ Words of Wisdom - February 8, 2026 🏔️

 


“We can come back to the control we feel with our thinking minds; the problem is we are reinforcing our own sense of separateness.

And in that world of separateness, we're constantly locking doors to protect something, and feeling drier and drier in the process. We're turning off the life juice, the flow of the universe, just in order to protect something...

Once we recognize who we thought we were, we say ‘yeah, there’s my thinking mind,' and it defines all this, but behind it all here I am, I just am.
 
- Ram Dass

Source: Ram Dass – Here and Now – Ep. 93 – The Thinking Mind

Via LGBTQ Nation \\ 25 LGBTQ+ books that changed the literary landscape


 

Via White Crane Institute \\ Parinirvana Day, or Nirvana Day

 

White Crane InstituteExploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
 
This Day in Gay History

February 08


Noteworthy
Buddha
2022 -

Parinirvana Day, or Nirvana Day is a Mahayana Buddhist holiday celebrated in East Asia. By some it is celebrated on 8th of February, but by most on 15th of February. It celebrates the day when the Buddha achieved Parinirvana, or complete Nirvana, upon the death of his physical body.


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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 Daily Dharma: The State of Simplicity

 

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The State of Simplicity

The principle of renunciation is not to encourage a state of lack but to establish as complete a state of simplicity as possible. In that simplicity you can more clearly see those patterns of wanting, not wanting, fearing, hoping, as they take shape.

Ajahn Amaro, “Just Another Thing in the Forest”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE
“Happens to the Heart”
By Shozan Jack Haubner
Leonard Cohen imparts wisdom on a fellow priest while they care for their dying teacher. 
Read more »

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna

 

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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 beset by aversion, one is aware "the mind is beset by aversion". . . One is just aware, just mindful: "There is mind." And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
As mental factors flow into consciousness, they color and distort the clarity with which we see what is actually going on, either in the world or in our own minds. Sometimes the mind is "beset by aversion" —that is, we feel annoyance at or distaste for some object of experience. Resenting this, or wishing it were not so, does no good and can even make aversion worse. With mindfulness practice, one simply abides without clinging and lets the experience come and go. 
Daily Practice
The practice of mindfulness is simply to be aware of what is happening in the moment. This includes being aware of both healthy and unhealthy states of mind, and here we are being encouraged to know when the mind has been impacted by the emotional state of aversion, the not liking and not wanting of something. The practice here is to simply note the aversion without clinging to it. Aversion to the aversion is a form of clinging.
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)
Reflection
In some contexts the words "joy" and "equanimity" can seem to exclude one another: it is either one or the other. Here they are combined in the third phase of absorption, where the strong sensory pleasure of the previous two jhānas fades away, to be replaced by equanimity. Then this equanimity itself is subtly pleasurable but not in the same sense as before. The absence of pleasure is itself pleasurable, so to speak.
Daily Practice
Again, never mind the formal levels of jhāna practice. That is something you can get into if you take up formal jhāna practice under proper conditions. But sitting in silence and solitude on a Sunday morning or afternoon, you can allow the mind and body to formlessly unwind and relax to such an extent that you taste the quality of equanimity, of being fully aware of all experience without wanting anything to be different than it is.
Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and Abiding in the Fourth Jhāna


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

Questions?
 Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.
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© 2026 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

Saturday, February 7, 2026

Via FB


 

Via FB


 

Via White Crane Institute \\ JONATHAN, SON OF SAUL

 

White Crane InstituteExploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
 
This Day in Gay History

February 07

Born
David and Jonathan [Pierre et Gilles, 2005]
1046 BCE -

JONATHAN, SON OF SAUL, born; OK...there was no "February"in 1046 BCE. And no one knows exactly when the biblical Jonathan was born, either. But since no one of any particular importance to Gay history was born on February 7, let’s just assign it to this sweet young man, whose present in Holy Writ has always been an embarrassment to fundamentalist preachers everywhere?

The love of Jonathan for David, a love so deep that he foreswore his father out of loyalty to his beloved, has provided literature with both a powerful trope for male love and one of the most oft-quoted lines of Scripture, spoken by David at the death of his friend: “My brother, Jonathan, thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women” (2 Samuel 1:26). Attempts to explain away this line are among the most dazzling examples of sophistry, ingeniousness, and wrong-headed mumbo-jumbo in 2,000 years of biblical exegesis. But we know what it means, don’t we?

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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 Daily Dharma: Don’t Withdraw

 

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Don’t Withdraw

All hearts are tempted to grow numb, to withdraw and tuck in as if about to roost for the long night. We must not allow this to happen. 

Rick Bass, “Answering the Call”


CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

How to Let Go
By Daehaeng
A Korean nun and Seon master explores letting go as an act of unconditional trust. 
Read more »

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Effort: Developing Unarisen Healthy States

 

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RIGHT EFFORT
Developing Unarisen Healthy States
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 the healthy state, 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 energy awakening factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
The mental and emotional states that are healthy, leading away from suffering and toward greater clarity of understanding, do not always arise on their own and sometimes need a little help. In the sequence of awakening factors, investigation of states naturally gives rise to energy, because everything becomes so interesting, but the development of energy can also be instigated and encouraged as a deliberate practice. 
Daily Practice
Interesting how it is put in the text: that we need to stir up energy to develop energy. What this is pointing to is that sometimes we just have to reach down and decide that we will bring more energy to bear on a given situation. Perhaps it is blinking the eyes to overcome drowsiness or gritting the teeth boost our willpower to avoid a temptation. Energy is a factor that can be weak or strong. Here we practice strengthening it.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and the Third Jhāna
One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States

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.
© 2026 Tricycle Foundation
89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003