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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.
Generosity
trusts the emptiness that runs through things, even ungenerous or
ungainly things—it links to the clarity that underlies all our madness.
Whenever my thoughts turn toward greed, acquisitiveness, or stinginess,
my shoulders tense up, and it feels as if I’m holding my breath. To find
a remedy, I don’t have to improve my thoughts, though—just be generous
with them. Then freedom seems to appear automatically.
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Anxiety,
heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. It's the kind of
place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle
rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it
soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate
with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our
hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle,
compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and
not acting like we know what's happening, we begin to access our inner
strength.
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When
we really see, in our mind’s eye, a person we think we don’t like, and
instead of solidifying our reasons for hatred we honestly wish them
happiness, good health, safety, and an easeful life, we start to forget
what we thought we hated and why we felt that way in the first place. A
sense of equanimity toward everyone arises as we do this practice—we
feel compassion for those who were once invisible to us, and our
disregard and apathy morph into concern for their well-being and safety.
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When
we take words to be statements of ultimate truth, then differences of
opinion will inevitably result in conflict. This is where ideological
wars come from, and we see in the history of the world an endless amount
of suffering because of it. But if we see the words and the teachings
as different skillful means for liberating the mind, then they all
become part of a great dharma feast.
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If
we can begin to consider hatred as the enemy, as your and my enemy,
then we can begin to transform our anger into compassion. That will be
how we can take advantage of an unfortunate and tragic situation.
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Truth
has no action. Truth is weak. Truth is not utilitarian, truth cannot be
organized. It is like the wind: You cannot catch it, you cannot take
hold of it in your fist and say, ‘I have caught it.’ Therefore it is
tremendously vulnerable, impotent like the blade of grass on the
roadside—you can kill it, you can destroy it. But we want it as a thing
to be used for a better structure of society. And I am afraid you cannot
use it, you cannot—it is like love, love is never potent. It is there
for you, take it or leave it.
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It
is helpful at the beginning of your meditation practice to free
yourself from the idea that in order to meditate properly you must have
no thoughts. Instead, establish a different relationship with your
thoughts so that over time they can fade more effortlessly into the
background. All meditators have thoughts arising during their
practice—it’s what you do with them that matters.
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It
looks like only one thing can save us: the development of inner wealth.
Then there’s a perfect circle, everything is good. When we’re in tune
with our inner wealth—the qualities of compassion, contentment,
patience, and so on—it’s endless, it’s timeless. Those are the qualities
that we’re born with. Everybody. The whole process of meditation is all about trying to dig into this inner wealth, to access it.
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We
have to look at what’s important in life, develop a strong sense of
priorities, and be willing to say no to the currents that would lead to
less worthwhile pleasures. As the Buddha said, if you see a greater
pleasure that comes from forsaking a lesser pleasure, be willing to
forsake that lesser pleasure for the greater one.
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It
is undeniable that others and the larger world, so beleaguered at this
moment in history, need everything that we have to give. But what to
give is the problem. It seems finally clear that we cannot find out what
to do simply by thinking about it. We need to gain our inspiration and
our direction from much deeper sources.
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"While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by state legislatures, he believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect," White House spokesman Shin Inouye told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday.As noted above, the current bill will be presented during the lame duck session which ends in just a few weeks. When the new legislature is seated, Democrats will hold a super-majority in both chambers.
"As he has said, his personal view is that it's wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so. Were the President still in the Illinois State Legislature, he would support this measure that would treat all Illinois couples equally," Inouye said.
The lead sponsors of the "Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act," state Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and state Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago), intend to put the measure up for a vote during the upcoming January lame-duck session. The toughest challenge for gay marriage backers will be winning passage in the Illinois House. Prospects for approval in the Illinois Senate--where Obama once served--are brighter.
The
more clearly we see the lack of worth in mental and physical
sensations, the less desire we'll have for them until, thoroughly
disenchanted, craving will be snuffed out automatically. As soon as that
occurs, pure happiness will arise by itself.
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There
is a simple way to become a buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome
actions, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate
toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors,
not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or
worries, you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else.
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The “Marriage Equality Law” seeks to modify some 20 articles of the Civil Code, including whose surname goes first when children are named. Opponents asked for the bill's vote to be postponed until the Senate's first meeting in April to allow more time to study the proposal. The request received unanimous approval. The bill has already received an initial nod in the Senate and it cleared the nation's lower house earlier this month. President Jose Mujica has said he'll sign the bill into law. Uruguay currently recognizes gay couples with civil unions. After a couple has lived in a “stable relationship” for 5 years, they may petition the government for the recognition.Another report notes that senators opposed to the bill claimed that the ruling party was trying to rush the bill through without "the normal procedures."
"I am very proud of the amazing talent and leadership of the Lambda Legal staff, board and volunteers that has resulted in this top ranking from our colleagues and peers," said Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director of Lambda Legal. "We have been fighting for equality for LGBT people and people with HIV for forty years, and we have many victories and achievements about which we are proud because they have changed people's lives - and our society - for the better. This is a transformational time in our movement for LGBT equality. Lambda Legal will continue to lead the way with all our energy and all our hearts. We are grateful to all our supporters and colleagues around the country, and thank those who have honored us with this top ranking for 2012."Rounding out Guidestar's top five:
The ICM poll conducted just before Christmas found 62% of voters now support the proposals, with half this number – 31% – opposed. Most previous polls have found opinion leaning the same way, although the two-to-one margin revealed on Wednesday is particularly emphatic. An ICM online survey for the Sunday Telegraph in March asked the identical question – which expressly reminds people that the option of civil partnerships already exists for gay couples – and established a 45%-36% lead for the reformers. That significant hardening of opinion during the year will encourage Cameron, whose embrace of gay marriage has proved controversial, not only with religious leaders but also with the Tory backbench. And the new poll reveals a particularly significant swing towards the reform among the Tory base.
Tom Roes, whose website allows people to download the documents needed to leave the church, said traffic on ontdopen.nl – "de-baptise.nl" – had soared from about 10 visits a day to more than 10,000 after Pope Benedict's latest denunciation of gay marriage this month. "Of course it's not possible to be 'de-baptized' because a baptism is an event, but this way people can unsubscribe or de-register themselves as Catholics," Roes told Reuters. He said he did not know how many visitors to the site actually go ahead and leave the church. About 28 percent of the population in the Netherlands is Catholic and 18 percent is Protestant, while a much larger proportion – roughly 44 percent – is not religious, according to official statistics. The country is famous for its liberal attitudes, for example to drugs and prostitution, and in April 2001 it was the first nation in the world to legalize same-sex marriages.RELATED: Early this year a French man successfully sued to have his name removed from the baptismal records of his diocese. He was the first in his nation to be officially debaptized. In Germany, about 200,000 Catholics have filed the paperwork declaring that they will no longer pay the religion tax which is allocated to the Catholic Church.
If
we really stop to think about praise and criticism, we will see they do
not have the least importance. Whether we receive praise or criticism
is of no account. The only important thing is that we have a pure
motivation, and let the law of cause and effect be our witness.
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From
the habit of speaking truthfully confidence is acquired, since there is
no need then to dissemble or conceal the truth. Moreover, the speaker
of truth inspires confidence in others who come to know that they may
rely implicitly on his words.
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We
cannot enjoy life if we spend our time and energy worrying about what
happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow. If we’re afraid all
the time, we miss out on the wonderful fact that we’re alive and can be
happy right now.
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