Via NYTimes // Larry Kramer, Playwright and Outspoken AIDS Activist, Dies at 84

Larry Kramer, Playwright and Outspoken AIDS Activist, Dies at 84

He worked hard to shock the country into dealing with AIDS as a public-health emergency. But his aggressive approach could sometimes overshadow his achievements.

Make the jump here to read the full article and more

Via White Crane Institute // From Oscar Wilde’s DE PROFUNDIS

From Oscar Wilde’s DE PROFUNDIS

I don't regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure. I did it to the full, as one should do everything that one does. There was no pleasure I did not experience. I threw the pearl of my soul into a cup of wine. I went down the primrose path to the sound of flutes. I lived on honeycomb. But to have continued the same life would have been wrong because it would have been limiting. I had to pass on. The other half of the garden had its secrets for me also. Of course all this is foreshadowed and prefigured in my books. Some of it is in THE HAPPY PRINCE, some of it in THE YOUNG KING, notably in the passage where the bishop says to the kneeling boy, 'Is not He who made misery wiser than thou art'? a phrase which when I wrote it seemed to me little more than a phrase; a great deal of it is hidden away in the note of doom that like a purple thread runs through the texture of DORIAN GRAY; in THE CRITIC AS ARTIST it is set forth in many colours; in THE SOUL OF MAN it is written down, and in letters too easy to read; it is one of the refrains whose recurring MOTIFS make SALOME so like a piece of music and bind it together as a ballad; in the prose poem of the man who from the bronze of the image of the 'Pleasure that liveth for a moment' has to make the image of the 'Sorrow that abideth for ever' it is incarnate. It could not have been otherwise. At every single moment of one's life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been. Art is a symbol, because man is a symbol.

It is, if I can fully attain to it, the ultimate realisation of the artistic life. For the artistic life is simply self-development. Humility in the artist is his frank acceptance of all experiences, just as love in the artist is simply the sense of beauty that reveals to the world its body and its soul. In MARIUS THE EPICUREAN Pater seeks to reconcile the artistic life with the life of religion, in the deep, sweet, and austere sense of the word. But Marius is little more than a spectator: an ideal spectator indeed, and one to whom it is given 'to contemplate the spectacle of life with appropriate emotions,' which Wordsworth defines as the poet's true aim; yet a spectator merely, and perhaps a little too much occupied with the comeliness of the benches of the sanctuary to notice that it is the sanctuary of sorrow that he is gazing at.

I see a far more intimate and immediate connection between the true life of Christ and the true life of the artist; and I take a keen pleasure in the reflection that long before sorrow had made my days her own and bound me to her wheel I had written in THE SOUL OF MAN that he who would lead a Christ-like life must be entirely and absolutely himself, and had taken as my types not merely the shepherd on the hillside and the prisoner in his cell, but also the painter to whom the world is a pageant and the poet for whom the world is a song. I remember saying once to Andre Gide, as we sat together in some Paris CAFE, that while meta-physics had but little real interest for me, and morality absolutely none, there was nothing that either Plato or Christ had said that could not be transferred immediately into the sphere of Art and there find its complete fulfillment.

Via White Crane Institute // RACHEL CARSON

---

L to R: Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman

1907 -

Marine biologist RACHEL CARSON was born on this date. She was born in Springdale, Pennsylvania and spent the majority of her life outside of Washington, DC with summers in Maine. She is best known as the author of Silent Spring, which is considered one of the foundational documents for the modern environmental movement.

Silent Spring, published in 1962, awakened society to its responsibility to other forms of life. Carson had long been aware of the dangers of chemical pesticides and also the controversy within the agricultural community. She had long hoped someone else would publish an expose' on DDT but eventually realized that only she had the background as well as the economic freedom to do it.

Silent Spring provoked a firestorm of controversy as well as attacks on Carson's professional integrity. The pesticide industry mounted a massive campaign to discredit Carson even though she did not urge the complete banning of pesticides but called for research to ensure pesticides were used safely and to find alternatives to dangerous chemicals such as DDT.

The federal government, however, ordered a complete review of pesticide policy and Carson was asked to testify before a Congressional committee. As a direct result of that review, DDT was banned. With the publication of Silent Spring, Carson is credited with launching the contemporary environmental movement and awakening concern by Americans about the environment.

She died from cancer in 1964 at the age of 57. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service named one of its refuges near Carson's summer home on the coast of Maine as "the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge" in 1969 to honor the memory of this extraordinary woman.

In the early 1950s Carson moved with her mother to Southport Island, Maine and subsequently began a extremely close relationship with a neighbor Dorothy Freeman. The relationship would last the rest of Carson's life. The two women had a number of common interests, nature chief among them, and began exchanging letters regularly while apart. They would continue to share every summer for the remainder of Carson's life, and meet whenever else their schedules permitted. Carson and Freeman knew that their letters could be interpreted as a lesbian.

Freeman shared parts of Carson's letters with her husband to help him understand the relationship, but much of their correspondence was carefully guarded. Shortly before Carson's death, she and Freeman destroyed hundreds of letters. The surviving correspondence was published in 1995 as Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964: An Intimate Portrait of a Remarkable Friendship, edited by Freeman's granddaughter.

Via White Crane Institute // WILD BILL HICKOK

This Day in Gay History

James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok

1837 -

WILD BILL HICKOK is born in Troy Grove, Illinois. His real name was James Butler Hickok. Like many men in the wild west, Wild Bill really was wild with the men on the frontier and used his Lesbian buddy, Calamity Jane as a blind.

Few people ever knew the pair's secret, and in the movies about their lives, not a mention was made by either Doris Day or Howard Keel. The American West of the nineteenth century was a world of freedom and adventure for men of every stripe—not least also those who admired and desired other men.

Among these sojourners was William Drummond Stewart, a flamboyant Scottish nobleman who found in American culture of the 1830s and 1840s a cultural milieu of openness in which men could pursue same-sex relationships.

William Benemann’s recent book, Men In Eden traces Stewart’s travels from his arrival in America in 1832 to his return to Murthly Castle in Perthshire, Scotland, with his French Canadian–Cree Indian companion, Antoine Clement, one of the most skilled hunters in the Rockies. Benemann chronicles Stewart’s friendships with such notables as Kit Carson, William Sublette, Marcus Whitman, and Jim Bridger. He describes the wild Renaissance-costume party held by Stewart and Clement upon their return to America—a journey that ended in scandal.

Through Stewart’s letters and novels, Benemann shows that Stewart was one of many men drawn to the sexual freedom offered by the West. His book provides a tantalizing new perspective on the Rocky Mountain fur trade and the role of homosexuality in shaping the American West. For more: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13594189-men-in-eden

Via Daily Dharma: What You Discover Through Buddhist Practice

Practicing Buddhism is about discovering ourselves to be in a great, flowing river of continuities.

—Roshi Joan Halifax,“Giving Birth to Ancestors”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 27, 2020 💌

"Being conscious is cutting through your own melodrama and being right here. Exist in no mind, be empty, here now, and trust that as a situation arises, out of you will come what is necessary to deal with that situation including the use of your intellect when appropriate. Your intellect need not be constantly held on to keep reassuring you that you know where you’re at, out of fear of loss of control.
Ultimately, when you stop identifying so much with your physical body and with your psychological entity, that anxiety starts to disintegrate. And you start to define yourself as in flow with the universe; and whatever comes along—death, life joy, sadness—is grist for the mill of awakening."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: How to Unearth Natural Freedom

Exposed to the lucidity of simple awareness, practice dissolves into a practice of no practice (which is not the same thing as abandoning practice) where no one is doing or not doing anything, and natural freedom, no longer yearned for, naturally prevails.

—Joel Agee, “Not Found, Not Lost”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute / SIR IAN McKELLEN

---

Sir Ian McKellen

1939 -

Today's the birthday of beloved stage and screen actor and long time Gay Rights advocate and hero SIR IAN McKELLEN. Born in Burnley, England, he studied at St. Catharine's College, University of Cambridge. McKellen was nominated for an Oscar for his role as Gay director James Whale ("Frankenstein") in Gods and Monsters becoming the first openly Gay actor to be nominated.

He is the recipient of six Oliviers, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, A BIF Award, two Saturn Awards, four Drama Desk Awards and two Critic’s Choice Awards. He has also received two Academy Award nominations, five Emmy Award nominations, and four BAFTA nominations.

He's had quite a career with roles in such classic plays (and films adaptations) of Macbeth, Richard III and Edward II to name just a few. These are all available on DVD and well worth the watching. Millions of fans the world over know him as the bearded wizard Gandalf or the helmeted mutant master of magnetism Magneto. He may be the best known out Gay actor in the world. He's been out for decades becoming one of the first to do so back in the 1980s. People told him it would mean the end of his career. It hasn't.

In 2009 McKellen premiered a one-man show in Washington, DC as a benefit for the Washington Shakespeare Theater. He held an audience and this writer spellbound as he performed soliloquy after soliloquy from Shakespearean roles he's had over the years. He shared stories of the actors he has known and called friend. Most moving of all was his telling the story of being in South Africa after the end of apartheid. He was there for a role but was asked by local gay activists if he'd be willing to speak to Nelson Mandela about the need for Gay Rights protections in the new country's constitution.

He told them he would only agree if he were accompanied by South African Gay activist leaders. The three of them, all friends, met with Mandela and spoke of the need for the new country to place Gay Rights protections into the constitution. Mandela agreed and it was his support that allowed for South Africa to become the first country to place direct rights for Gay and Lesbian people into its constitution. McKellen called it the proudest moment of his life. We love you Sir Ian. Happy birthday!

Via Daily Dharma: Imagine the War Being Over

Victory is no balm for loss. Any of us may celebrate a moment, but we live a long time, and finality is not what we need, compassion is what we need. Let the future think about the war being over, because then it will be.

—George Evans,“A Walk in the Garden of Heaven”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Modern MET // Giant Buddha Is Surrounded With Harmonious Mound of 150,000 Lavender Plants

Renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando brings harmony to the landscape by enclosing a large stone Buddha in a lavender covered hill. Located in the Makomanai Takino Cemetery in Sapporo, Ando was charged with shaping the landscape around the pre-existing sculpture.

For 15 years, the 44-foot-tall Buddha stood alone as a solemn 1,650-ton figure in a field. “Until now, the Buddha statue has stood alone in the field, giving an unrestful impression. The client wanted to give visitors a more serene appreciation of the Buddha,” Ando shared. “Our idea was to cover the Buddha below the head with a hill of lavender plants. We called the idea the ‘head-out Buddha.'”

Make the jump here to read the original article and more

Via White Crane Institute // Tales of the City

1976 -

ARMISTEAD MAUPIN'S serialized epic Tales of the City makes its debut in The San Francisco Chronicle. That first appearance became a series of seven novels that were originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner. It has since been transformed into a movie and a musical.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 24, 2020 💌

"One day I was sitting in a motel in middle America, and it was one of those really plastic Holiday Inn type places, and I had arrived and I went into my room and I sat down and set up my little puja table and you know, all that stuff. Moving the menu and stuff, and it was kind of depressing, and I thought, 'Well, a few more weeks and I'll be done with this tour and I can go home.' And then I saw the pain that that thought was creating for me.

So I got up and I walked out of the room, closed the door, walked down the hall, turned around, came back, unlocked the door and yelled, 'I’m home!' And I came in and I sat down, and I looked and, you know, I wouldn’t have decorated particularly this way, but what the hell, you know? I thought, if I’m not at home in the universe, boy, I got a problem. If I say, 'I can only be home here, not there.'

What is home? Home is where the heart is. Home is the quality of presence. It’s the quality of being wherever you are."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Extend Compassion Toward Yourself

Compassion for oneself... is the basis of an authentic and openhearted life.

—Aura Glaser, “Into the Demon’s Mouth”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Pixar Sparkshort “Out” Disney+ Teaser Trailer

The Saint of Dry Creek

The local Toucan made a visit to a friend´s house

 

There are a pair of toucans who have und around OP for almost 15 years... a buddy posted this of one of them sporting the flag

Via Kalachakra by His Holiness the Dalai Lama // Happy Saga Dawa 2020

🙏— Happy Saga Dawa 2020 —🙏

Today marks the first day of the “Saga Dawa” observed during the fourth month of the Tibetan calendar. The Saga Dawa called the “month of merits” is the month during which five important life events of Lord Buddha took place. It is believed that Lord Buddha was conceived, born, defeated evil forces attained enlightenment and passed away into parinirvana on the 15th day of this month.
Therefore, this month is one of the most auspicious times for Buddhists. It is said that both positive and negative deeds during this month is multiplied 100,000 times.

P.C: Olivier Adam (Tibetan nun project)

Via Daily Dharma: Concentrate Your Effort

Intelligence or lack of it does not matter; between the dull and the sharp-witted there is no distinction. If you concentrate your effort single-mindedly, that in itself is negotiating the Way.

—Eihei Dogen Zenji,“The Principles of Zazen”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via White Crane Institute / Happy Harvey Milk Day!

The Harvey Milk Forever stamp

1930 -

Gay rights pioneer, martyr and San Francisco city supervisor HARVEY MILK was born on this date. Milk was an American politician and Gay Rights activist and the first openly Gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. He was often called, "the first openly Gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet," though this slights others who were elected before him in cities not so associated with Gay life.

What is not as well-remembered was his amazing ability to bring communities and neighborhoods together for progressive ends. 

The U.S. Postal Service officially revealed the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp in 2015. The stamp’s official first-day-of-issue ceremony took place at the White House. The public was invited to attend the May 28 Harvey Milk Forever Stamp special dedication ceremony in San Francisco. Customers may order the Harvey Milk stamp now through this link for delivery following the May 22 stamp issuance.

The stamp image is based on a circa 1977 black and white photograph of Milk in front of his Castro Street Camera store in San Francisco taken by Danny Nicoletta of Grants Pass, OR. Antonio Alcalá of Alexandria, VA, was art director for the stamp.

Via Daily Dharma: The Most Meritorious Act

Buddhism emphasizes love’s beneficial power. Because its nature is joy and because it always brings about happiness and well-being, to love is the most meritorious action.

—Karma Trinlay Rinpoche, “What We’ve Been All Along”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Querty // ! Meet the hunky Spanish doctor who beat coronavirus and just became Mr. Gay World Pride

30-year-old Francisco José Alvarado is a family doctor at Lavapiés Health Center in Madrid. While working tirelessly to help COVID-19 patients back in March, he contracted the virus. After making a full recovery, he returned to work. Now, he’s just been named Mr. Gay World Pride.

Make the jump here to read the full article and more

Via White Crane Institute / REVEREND ROBERT WOOD

---

Reverend Robert Wood

1923 -

REVEREND ROBERT WOOD, author of historic book Christ and the Homosexual (1960) was born. Wood's book is considered one of the first positive treatments of homosexuality and Christianity. 

Wood, himself a Gay man was ministering at the time in New York City and was well acquainted with the ostracism experienced by the gay subculture at the hands of what he saw as “a society which in most cases has not taken the time to study the facts and to know the individuals involved.”

“Christ and the Homosexual” was the first book published merging these two subjects, and groundbreaking in its poignant critique of the Church, and in its description, support, and affirmation of the Gay community.

All 3,000 hardbound copies sold at a cost of $3.95 each. Copies of the book are extremely scarce today as no further editions were printed.

Via Daily Dharma: Understanding Why We Do What We Do

You have to get dirty with your emotions. Meditation allows us to feel them, live them, and taste them completely. It gives us a lot of insight into why we do the things we do and why other people do the things they do. Out of this insight, compassion is born.

—Pema Chödrön,“Meditating with Emotions”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 20, 2020 💌

"Death is our greatest challenge as well as our greatest spiritual opportunity. By cultivating mindfulness, we can prepare ourselves for this final passage by allowing nature, rather than Ego, to guide us. In so doing, we become teachers to others, and our own best friends, looking beyond the body's death at the next stage in our Soul's adventure."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: An Ever-Renewing Present

All experience arises in the present, does its dance, and disappears. Experience comes into being only tentatively, for a little time in a certain form; then that form ends and a new form replaces it moment by moment.

—Jack Kornfield, “No Self or True Self?”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Imee Ooi - Medicine Buddha Dharani (Bhaisajyaguru) Phật Dược Sư Đà La Ni

Sanskrit: Bhaiṣajyaguru (भैषज्यगुरु) Chinese: Yàoshīfó (藥師佛); Yàoshīrúlái (藥師如來) Japanese: Yakushi (薬師); Kusurishi Nyorai (薬師如来) Korean: Yaksayeorae, Yaksabul (약사여래, 약사불) Mongolian: Оточ Манла Bhaiṣajyaguru, more formally Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharāja (भैषज्यगुरुवैडूर्यप्रभाराज; "Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light"), is the buddha of healing and medicine in Mahayana Buddhism.

In the English language, he is commonly referred to as the "Medicine Buddha". The use of the analogy of a Buddha being depicted as a doctor who cures the illness of suffering using the medicine of his teachings appears widely in Buddhist scriptures. In the Bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharāja Sūtra, the Medicine Buddha is described as having entered into a state of samadhi called "Eliminating All the Suffering and Afflictions of Sentient Beings." From this samadhi state he spoke the Medicine Buddha Dharani. 

namo bhagavate bhaiṣajyaguru vaiḍūryaprabharājāya tathāgatāya arhate samyaksambuddhāya tadyathā: oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye mahābhaiṣajya-samudgate svāhā. 

Buddhists recite the mantra of the Medicine Buddha to overcome sickness. He is also closely associated with ceremonies for temple donors and for transferring of merit to such donors.

Phật Dược Sư (tiếng Phạn: bhaiṣajyaguru; chữ Hán: 藥師佛; nghĩa là "vị Phật thầy thuốc"), còn gọi là Dược Sư Lưu Li Quang Phật, (bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūrya-prabha-buddha; 藥師琉璃光佛), là vị Phật đại diện cho sự trọn vẹn của Phật quả ngự cõi phía đông (là cõi Tịnh Lưu ly). Tranh tượng của vị Phật này hay được vẽ với tay trái cầm thuốc chữa bệnh và tay mặt giữ Ấn thí nguyện. Phật Dược Sư thường được thờ chung với Phật Thích Ca Mâu Ni và A Di Đà, trong đó phật Dược Sư đứng bên trái còn Phật A Di Đà đứng bên phải Phật Thích Ca. Trong kinh Dược Sư, hiện nay chỉ còn bản chữ Hán và chữ Tây Tạng, người ta đọc thấy 12 lời nguyện của vị Phật này, thệ cứu độ chúng sinh, với sự giúp đỡ của chư Phật, Bồ Tát và 12 vị Hộ Pháp và Thiên vương.

Medicine Buddha Puja for Healing the World

Buddhist Mantra For Healing all Sufferings, Pain and Depression - Tayata Om Mantra

Mantra of Medicine Buddha (108 Times)

Best Medicine Buddha Mantra & Chanting (3 Hour) : Heart Mantra of Medicine Master Buddha for Healing

Mantra Buda da Medicina TAYATA OM BEKANDZE BEKANDZE MAHA BEKANDZE RANDZE SAMUNGATE SOHA

Praise and mantra of Medicine Buddha (Sangye Menla)

Medicine Buddha Mantra 3 hours

Mantra do Buda da Medicina

O Mantra do Buda da Medicina, cuja função é livrar os seres vivos das doenças exteriores e interiores concedendo-lhes bênçãos. Confiando sinceramente no Buda da Medicina, os seres vivos destes tempos impuros podem ser curados de graves doenças físicas e mentais e encontrar alívio para a dor interior causada pelos três venenos – apego, raiva e ignorância. 

 

Também podem ser protegidos de muitos outros perigos e obstáculos. Este mantra libera o sofrimento da memória hereditária impregnada de culpa, punição, inveja, raiva, ciúme, ambição... e de desequilíbrio. 

 

A Mantra do Buda da Medicina é um método para obtermos as realizações deste  ser iluminado. Se praticarmos com sinceridade, receberemos um poder especial de corpo, fala e mente, que poderemos usar para ajudar os outros por meio de ações de cura, conforme o Mantra do Buda da Medicina. No processo de recitar o mantra do Buda da Medicina tente mentalizar a cor azul, mas, a cor que vier primeiro em sua mente é a cor que deve trabalhar. 

 

Tayatha om bekandze bekandze maha bekandze randze samugate soha 

 

Além do Visível https://www.facebook.com/allemdovisivel/ #alémdovisível @allemdovisivel 🍀

Via Tricycle // Our World in the Wheel of Life

What can Buddhist cosmology teach us about our current existential anxieties? Curtis White looks to the Tibetan Wheel of Life to find the bigger picture for this moment of crisis.

Make the jump to read the full article and more here

Via Daily Dharma: Correcting Your Errors

The primary duty of a trustworthy friend is to point out your faults—for only when you see your faults can you correct them; only when you correct them are you benefiting from your friend’s compassion in pointing them out.

—Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “The Power of Judgment”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Greater Good // Six Daily Questions to Ask Yourself in Quarantine

Make the jump here to read the full article and more

Via Querty // British ambassador to Poland wears rainbow face mask for LGBTQ rights

In a statement, Knott said, “While right now we all need to focus on fighting COVID-19, we must not forget to continue protecting the values in which we believe.

“On International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia, we reaffirm our support for efforts to raise public awareness of issues affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, and pay tribute to the hard work of LGBTI people in Poland, the UK and around the world to ensure human rights and dignity for all.

Make the jump here to read the full article and more

Via Daily Dharma: How to Cultivate a Skillful Mind

Dharma practice is about the development and cultivation of skillful mind states—no matter what the situation. This is not to say difficult mind states don’t arise unbidden, but which ones do you want to hang on to? What kind of mind do you want?

—Diana Winston,“Seven Reasons Why It’s Better Not to Hate Them”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via FB

Via FB

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 17, 2020 💌

"When you stop living by other people's judgments or expectations, you start doing what you need to do. In trying to decide what you want to do with your life, listen to your heart. The program is much farther out than you ever thought it was. I never thought I'd be a Yogi. Each of us has our own unique Karmic predicament; our own unique work to do. Always choose that which you feel is most in harmony with the way of things."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: How Presence Leads to Freedom

With presence, every moment offers a choice. Sometimes the moment of choice races by like a road sign while we are doing 75 miles per hour on the freeway. … This is where mindfulness comes in.

—Oren Jay Sofer, “When to Speak and When to Listen”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via KCRW / Foxhole

Make the jump here to listen to this and more on KCRW

Via NPR / On His Debut Album, Jonah Mutono Embraces His Identity And His Name

After recording as "Kidepo," Jonah Mutono's switch to his real name coincided with his decision to come out as gay. His debut album GERG is about reconciling that identity with his Ugandan upbringing. 

Jonah Mutono's debut album GERG is really more of a re-entry. Until late last year, Mutono released music under the name "Kidepo." But starting with the single "Shoulders," and now with GERG, he's sharing his real name and story of self-acceptance for the first time.

Make the jump here to listen to the full story and more from NPR

Via Daily Dharma: Becoming Silence Itself

In order to be in a relationship with the sacred, we must be willing to become still and quiet. We must be willing to be if only for a short while, silence itself.

—Vanessa Zuisei Goddard, “The Places We Go to Be Here”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Lion´s Roar / I Vow Not to Burn Out

Mushim Ikeda says it’s not enough to help others. You have to take care of yourself too.

Make the jump here to read the full article and more

Via Lion´s Roar / The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism

Thich Nhat Hanh’s guidelines for anyone wishing to live mindfully.

The Order of Interbeing (Tiep Hien) was formed by the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh in the mid-1960’s, at a time when the Vietnam War was escalating and the teachings of the Buddha were desperately needed to combat the hatred, violence, and divisiveness enveloping his country.

On the full moon day of February 1966, Zen Master Nhat Hanh ordained six members into the Order—three men and three women ranging in age from twenty-two to thirty-two. All were board members of the School of Youth for Social Service, which he had helped found the year before. During the ceremony, the six ordainees vowed to study, practice, and observe the Fourteen Precepts of the Order of Interbeing, a wonderful blend of traditional Buddhist morality and contemporary social concerns.

For ten years, no new members were permitted to join the Order’s core community. In fact, this “period of experimentation” was extended until 1981, when Nguyen Anh Huong, a microbiologist and lay meditation teacher, became the seventh member of the Order.

Today, there are thousands worldwide who regularly recite the Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism, which remain uniquely applicable to contemporary moral dilemmas. They are guidelines for anyone wishing to live mindfully. By developing peace and serenity through ethical and conscientious living, we can help our society make the transition from one based on greed and consumerism to one in which thoughtfulness and compassionate action are of the deepest value.
—Fred Eppsteiner

The Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism

1. Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.
2. Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.
3. Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness.
4. Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. Find ways to be with those who are suffering, including personal contact, visits, images, and sounds. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
5. Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of your life Fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
6. Do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your hatred.
7. Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Practice mindful breathing to come back to what is happening in the present moment. Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.
8. Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
9. Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.
10. Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community, however, should take a clear stand against oppression and injustice and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.
11. Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realize your ideal of compassion.
12. Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war.
13. Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others, but prevent others from profiting from human suffering or the suffering of other species on Earth.
14. Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only an instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of the Way. (For brothers and sisters who are not monks and nuns:) Sexual expression should not take place without love and commitment. In sexual relationships, be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.

 Make the jump here to read the full original and more

From “Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism,” Revised edition: Oct. 1993 by Thich Nhat Hanh, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California.

Via Daily Dharma: Acting with Full Engagement

Meditation is just to be here. This can mean doing the dishes, writing a letter, driving a car, or having a conversation—if we’re fully engaged in this activity of the moment, there is no plotting or scheming or ulterior purpose. This full engagement is meditation. 

—Steve Hagen,“Looking For Meaning”

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - May 13, 2020 💌

"It's like a moth being drawn to the Light. As you reach a certain point, you realize that you only see the projections of your own mind. Everything that's happening to you is a teaching designed to burn out your stuff. Your humanity isn't an error. All your desires are part of the journey."

- Ram Dass -