Still arriving ~ Thich Nhat Hanh https://justdharma.com/s/b2s1o
Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow because even today I still arrive. – Thich Nhat Hanh from the book "Being Peace"
ISBN: 978-1888375404 - https://amzn.to/19RFS7z
Thich Nhat Hanh on the web: http://plumvillage.org Thich Nhat Hanh biography: http://plumvillage.org/about/
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Slowly over the years I’ve noticed that when I’m working with the dying
or working on a political action or something, I feel absolutely
harmonious with my being - like this is just what I should be doing. And
it began to dawn on me: feed people, serve people, be like Gandhi.
- Ram Dass -
Who’s being affected by your hatred? The first person is you.
—Interview with Ani Choying Drolma by Pamela Gayle White, “Topping the Charts for Freedom”
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| Yes, We Can Have Hope | ||
| Roshi Joan Halifax reflects on the idea of “wise hope” and why we should open ourselves to it. | ||
As
Buddhists, we share a common aspiration to awaken from suffering; for
many of us, this aspiration is not a “small self” improvement program.
The bodhisattva vows at the heart of the Mahayana tradition are, if
nothing else, a powerful expression of radical and wise hope—an
unconditional hope that is free of desire.
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This Day in Gay History
T.S. Eliot
T.S. ELIOT, poet, dramatist and literary critic, born in St. Louis MO (d: 1965) He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. He wrote the poems "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", The Waste Land, "The Hollow Men", "Ash Wednesday", and Four Quartets; the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party; and the essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent". Eliot was born an American, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at the age of 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39. When he was living in Paris before WWI, he met a French medical student named Jean Verdenal in the Luxembourg Gardens. Werdenal was waving a branch of lilac at the time. Verdenal died in the Dardanelles in 1915. Eliot dedicated Prufrock to him, adding a epigraph from Dante’s Purgatory: “Now can you understand the quantity of love that warms me to you, so that I forget out vanity, and treat the shadows like the real thing.”
This is all we know about his friendship with the young medical student, and all we are likely to know. Other considerations: Eliot had a horror of the female body, he feared it, and thought it “smelled.” He had an abhorrence of sex in general, though as a boy, he masturbated guiltily and wrote a magnificently sensuous poem about it…an excerpt here:
Then he knew that he had been a fish
With slippery white belly held tight in his own fingers
Writhing in his own clutch, his ancient beauty
Caught fast in the pink rips of his new beauty.
Eliot obsessed with the thought that every man wanted to kill a woman, and without irony, extended his fantasy to all men. His first marriage was miserable in that his wife laughed in his face at the very idea of sleeping with him. These are the general facts, and various interpretations are offered by various biographers. Thus far, interpretations have run in two obvious directions. Of course he was completely asexual. Of course he was a latent homosexual. Either seems unfair in some way; he was simply T.S. Eliot. Perhaps the first queer?
Appreciating the many ordinary encounters we have leads to a broader and deeper experience of life.
—Rev. Dr. Kenji Akahoshi, “Shin Buddhism: A Path of Gratitude”
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Almodovar
PEDRO ALMODOVAR, Spanish filmmaker, was born; Almodóvar is the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, and quirky stylings, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular songs, irreverent humor, strong colors and glossy décor. He never judges his character's actions, whatever they do, but he presents them as they are in all their complexity. Desire, passion, family and identity are the director's favorite themes. Almodóvar is openly – dare we say brilliantly? -- Gay and he has incorporated elements of underground and gay culture into mainstream forms with wide crossover appeal, redefining perceptions of Spanish cinema and Spain in the process. At one time, it is believed, he owned the film rights to Tom Spanbauer’s mystical book, The Man Who Fell In Love With the Moon (though we now believe Gus Van Sant has these rights.)
Around 1974, Almodóvar
began making his first short films on a Super-8 camera. By the end of
the 1970s they were shown in Madrid’s night circuit and in Barcelona These shorts had overtly sexual narratives and no soundtrack: Dos
putas, o, Historia de amor que termina en boda (1974) (Two Whores, or, A
Love Story that Ends in Marriage); La caída de Sodoma (1975) (The Fall
of Sodom); Homenaje (1976) (Homage); La estrella (1977) (The Star)
1977 Sexo Va: Sexo viene (Sex Comes and Goes) (Super-8); Complementos (
“I showed them in bars, at parties… I could not add a soundtrack because it was very difficult. The magnetic strip was very poor, very thin. I remember that I became very famous in Madrid because, as the films had no sound, I took a cassette with music while I personally did the voices of all the characters, songs and dialogues.” After four years of working with shorts in Super-8 format, in 1978 Almodóvar made his first Super-8, full-length film: Folle, folle, fólleme, Tim (1978) (Fuck Me, Fuck Me, Fuck Me, Tim), a magazine style melodrama. In addition, he made his first 16 mm short, Salome. This was his first contact with the professional world of cinema. The film's stars, Carmen Maura and Felix Rotaeta, encouraged him to make his first feature film in 16mm and helped him raise the money to finance what would be Pepi Luc: Bom y otras cgicas del monton.
Almodóvar's subsequent films deepened his exploration of sexual desire and the sometimes brutal laws governing it. Matador is a dark, complex story that centers on the relationship between a former bullfighter and a murderous female lawyer, both of whom can only experience sexual fulfillment in conjunction with killing. The film offered up desire as a bridge between sexual attraction and death.
Almodóvar solidified his creative independence when he started the production company El Deseo, together with his brother Agustín, who has also had several cameo roles in his films. From 1986 on, Pedro Almodóvar has produced his own films.
The first movie that came out from El Deseo was the aptly named Law of Desire (La Ley del Deseo). The film has an operatically tragic plot line and is one of Almodóvar’s richest and most disturbing movies. The narrative follows three main characters: a Gay film director who embarks on a new project; his sister, an actress who used to be his brother (played by Carmen Maura), and a repressed murderously obsessive stalker (played by Antonio Banderas).
The film presents a gay love triangle and drew away from most representations of Gay men in films. These characters are neither coming out nor confront sexual guilt or homophobia; they are already liberated, like the homosexuals in Fassbinder’s films. Almodóvar said about Law of Desire: "It's the key film in my life and career. It deals with my vision of desire, something that's both very hard and very human. By this I mean the absolute necessity of being desired and the fact that in the interplay of desires it's rare that two desires meet and correspond."
Almodóvar's films rely heavily on the capacity of his actors to pull through difficult roles into a complex narrative. In Law of Desire Carmen Maura plays the role of Tina, a woman who used to be a man. Almodóvar explains: "Carmen is required to imitate a woman, to savor the imitation, to be conscious of the kitsch part that there is in the imitation, completely renouncing parody, but not humor".
Elements from Law of Desire grew into the basis for two later films: Carmen Maura appears in a stage production of Cocteau’s The Human Voice, which inspired Almodóvar’s next film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; and Tina's confrontation scene with an abusive priest formed a partial genesis for Bad Education.
The same mind that can create harsh judgments is capable of undoing them through the power of awareness and attention.
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Aim of Attention”
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While keeping people focused on a strong, robust election process is a must, we also need to prepare for a coup.
Some days I feel confident it will happen. A poll showed over 75 percent of Democrats think this is possible — and a shocking 30 percent of Republicans do too!
Other days I feel confident this is tough talk from a president not good at planning ahead. Still, he is good at the kind of misdirection that can keep us complacent and reactionary — which could lead us to stop doing the important groundwork of getting out the vote, protecting the post office and fighting voter suppression.
Inside the Translator’s Workbook
By Ken McLeod
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The
ability to be a true friend to oneself, to love and respect oneself, to
offer heartfelt wishes for one’s own safety, health, happiness and
peace, will determine the authenticity and ease with which we offer
[lovingkindness] to others.
—Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: A Bedtime Ritual”
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Photo by Todd Cravens.
For several years, the furniture in my house has been picked up for free at curbside giveaways. There’s a special pride that comes with my “cheap” décor. Pride in the story. In the uniqueness. And in my resourcefulness.
There’s also shame in the fact that this “look” — this shoddy, worn-down furniture — is the result of not being able to afford something “better.”
All my lamp shades are crooked. You can tell this bookshelf is the wooden base of a construction sign, leant against the wall. That other bookshelf is an old bed frame with shelves added to it. There’s a beautiful tea table with a design that keeps chipping away.
Today wabi-sabi is known in the West as a popular trend in style and interior design, yet it originally drew on Chinese Confucianism and Japanese Taoism as a defiant response to elite materialism.
Wabi-sabi is now known as a design trend akin to hygge or minimalism. But the essence of its appeal lies in what cannot be bought or mass produced.
The breath reminds us that we are here and alive: let it be your anchor to the present moment.
—Elana Rosenbaum, “Guided Meditation: Awareness of Breathing”
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Every moment a thought enters your mind, right at that moment, before the seed takes fruit, offer it. You can offer it to Kali Ma, to Christ, to me, it doesn’t matter. Offer it to God, like you have been full of opening, full of God, full of the Living Spirit.
-Ram Dass -
Underneath
all the confusion of conceptual thinking and emotional reaction,
underneath all the ideas you have about who and what you are, there is
nothing—no self, not a vestige—but there is a clear empty knowing.
There! This is what you are.
—Ken McLeod, “Inside the Translator’s Workbook”
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Meditation without bodhicitta ~ Lama Yeshe https://justdharma.com/s/p4ut8
Why is bodhicitta necessary for success in meditation? Because of selfish grasping. If you have a good meditation but don't have bodhicitta, you will grasp at any little experience of bliss: 'Me, me; I want more, I want more.' Then the good experience disappears completely. Grasping is the greatest distraction to experiencing single-pointed intensive awareness in meditation. And with it, we are always dedicated to our own happiness: 'Me, me I'm miserable, I want to be happy. Therefore I'll meditate.' It doesn't work that way. For some reason good meditation and its results — peacefulness, satisfaction and bliss — just don't come.
– Lama Yeshe from the book "Buddhist Wisdom:
The Path to Enlightenment" ISBN: 978-1906787141 - https://amzn.to/1sRyZRc Lama Yeshe on the web: http://www.lamayeshe.com/ Lama Yeshe biography: http://fpmt.org/teachers/
- Ram Dass -
Before
acting, one should reflect, “Is this for the benefit of myself and
others?” In the middle of an action, one should reflect, “Is what I am
doing for the benefit of myself
and others?” And after any action, “Is what I just did for the benefit of myself and others?”
—Sylvia Boorstein, “Dear Abbey Dharma Fall 2011”
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Effort
is more important than so-called success because effort is a real
thing. What we call “success” is just the manifestation of our mind’s
ability to categorize things.
—Brad Warner, “Think Not Thinking”
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When
we focus less on dodging imaginary punishments and more on planting
seeds for the future with our beneficial thoughts and actions, we are on
the right track.
—Mindy Newman and Kaia Fischer, “One Hundred Karmas”
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Give & Take with Musician Sonny Rollins
Interview by Gabriel Lefferts
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By
pausing many times throughout the day and bringing an interest and
presence to your habitual ways of reacting, your life will become
increasingly spontaneous and free.
—Tara Brach, “Finding True Refuge”
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Ellis "Mr. Soul" Haizlip
ELLIS B. HAIZLIP aka "Mr. Soul", born on this date (d: 1991) was a leading producer of black cultural events and mentor of black artists,
Ellis Haizlip was born in Washington, DC. Details of his early life are elusive, but rumors have persisted that his father was a diplomat who once served as the ambassador to the Court of St. James from Antigua (other accounts claimed Trinidad) and he may have spent many of his formative years in London. He told friends that he grew up in segregated Washington DC, and had had witnessed contralto Marian Anderson’s legendary 1939 concert on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial. We do know that he attended Howard University and graduated from there in 1954.
Mr. Haizlip helped further the careers of many black artists, including the singers Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, Roberta Flack and Novella Nelson and the actress Anna Horsford.
He was the executive producer of the television program "Soul," which became a showcase for young black artists, among them the poet Nikki Giovanni. The program was broadcast on Channel 13 from 1967 to 1973.
Mr. Haizlip began his career at Howard University, where he was a producer with the Howard Players during a summer season. After graduating in 1954, he left for New York City, where he began producing plays with Vinnette Carroll at the Harlem Y.M.C.A. One of their productions was "Dark of the Moon," with Cicely Tyson, Clarence Williams 3d, Isabel Sanford, Calvin Lockhart, James Earl Jones and the Alvin Ailey Dancers. Produced Dietrich Concert.
Haizlip was an out gay man at a time when that was dangerous. He spoke out about LGBT rights at every opportunity he was given, even confronting Louis Farrakhan.
He died of lung cancer in 1991.. His niece Melissa Haizlip has produced a documentary about her uncle called "Mr. Soul" More about that here: https://www.mrsoulmovie.com/
Who dwell in the heart cave has no limit. Who dwells in the heart cave is beyond time, beyond space.
Each time you experience yourself as something or somebody, just notice
that it's another thought or sensation drifting across the walls of the
cave, and return to the spacious, formless, timeless essence.
-Ram Dass -
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Merit
created through skillful means and wisdom is for more than physical
comfort; it is to improve the conditions for your mind.
—Tsoknyi Rinpoche, “Noble Wishes”
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Home is not a place. Home is an architecture of bones and a steadily thumping heart. Home is where dreams are born, and monsters are put to rest. It is where the soul can unfurl like the petals of a flower and find succor in the golden blush of each new day.
The most important point of Buddha's teachings ~ Gyaltsab Rinpoche https://justdharma.com/s/5v6dq When you suffer, if you take that not just as your own suffering but rather as the nature of samsara, then you are understanding the most important point of Buddha's teachings. – Gyaltsab Rinpoche source: https://bit.ly/1jJWC9e
Fortune
and misfortune, good and bad—not everything is how it looks to your
eyes. It’s not how you think it is either. We’ve got to go beyond
fortune and misfortune, good and bad.
—Kodo Sawaki Roshi, “To You”
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Mindfulness
allows us to watch our thoughts, see how one thought leads to the next,
decide if we’re heading toward an unhealthy path, and if so, let go and
change directions.
—Sharon Salzberg, “Mindfulness and Difficult Emotions”
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This Day in Gay History
Alain Locke
ALAIN LOCKE (d: 1954) An American writer, editor, philosopher, educator and patron of the arts was born on this date. He is best known for his writings on and about the Harlem Renaissance. He is unofficially called the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance." His philosophy served as a strong motivating force in keeping the energy and passion of the Movement at the forefront.
In classic same-sex “culture carrier” mode, Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material. Locke edited the March 1925 issue of the periodical Survey Graphic, a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about the flourishing culture there.
Later that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known and seminal works.
His philosophy of the New Negro was grounded in the concept of race-building. Its most important component is overall awareness of the potential black equality; No longer would blacks allow themselves to adjust themselves or comply with unreasonable white requests. This idea was based on self-confidence and political awareness. Although in the past the laws regarding equality had been ignored without consequence, Locke's philosophical idea of The New Negro allowed for real fair treatment. Because this was just an idea and not an actual bylaw, its power was held in the people. If they wanted this idea to flourish, they were the ones who would need to "enforce" it through their actions and overall points of view. Locke has been said to have greatly influenced and encouraged Zora Neale Hurston.
He was also a Bahá'í
Genuine
spiritual practice offers a way to face both our inner and outer worlds
and to bring these two related realms into living, loving dialogue.
—Gaylon Ferguson, “Natural Bravery”
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The Living Spirit, the Beloved, is always right here. It is merely your mind that prevents you from acknowledging its existence. When you quiet your mind or open your heart out so that it draws your mind along with it, only then do you rend the veil to see that the Beloved is right here.
- Ram Dass -
Don’t really get all the BLM stuff?
The
gate of liberation is always open … if only you could actually
recognize and receive what is here in front of you, rather than what you
wish were here instead.
—Koshin Paley Ellison, “Being Content with What We Have”
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If
we wait until we are saints, if we put off meditation until our [ethics
are] perfect, then we will never meditate! Whatever our moral
situation, we must begin.
—Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “The Seal of Sila”
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9-11 hero Mark Bingham
MARK BINGHAM, passenger on United Airlines Flight 93, died (b. 1970) Bingham is believed to have been among the passengers who attempted to storm the cockpit to try to prevent the hijackers from using the plane to kill hundreds or thousands of additional victims on September 11, 2001. He made a brief cell phone call to his mother, Alice Hoagland, shortly before the plane went down. Hoagland, a former flight attendant with United Airlines, later left a voice mail message on his cell phone, instructing Bingham to reclaim the aircraft after it became apparent that Flight 93 was to be used in a suicide mission.
Bingham was survived by his former boyfriend of six years, Paul Holm, who says this was not the first time Bingham risked his life to protect the lives of others. In fact, he had twice successfully protected Holm from attempted muggings, one of which was at gunpoint. Holm describes Bingham as a brave, competitive man, saying, "He hated to lose — at anything." He was even known to proudly display a scar he received after being gored at the running of the bulls in Pamplona.
A large athlete at 6 ft 4 in and 225 pounds, he also played for the San Francisco Fog, a rugby union team. The biennial Gay Rugby tournament is named in his honor (the Bingham Cup).
FATHER MYCHAL F. JUDGE, Chaplain, FDNY died (b 1933) a Roman Catholic priest of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor, Chaplain of the Fire Department of New York and first officially recorded victim of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Following his death, a few of his friends and associates revealed that Father Judge was Gay — as a matter of orientation rather than practice, as he was a celibate priest. According to fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen: "I actually knew about his sexuality when I was in the Uniformed Firefighters Association. I kept the secret, but then he told me when I became commissioner five years ago. He and I often laughed about it, because we knew how difficult it would have been for the other firefighters to accept it as easily as I had. I just thought he was a phenomenal, warm, sincere man, and the fact that he was Gay just had nothing to do with anything." Judge was a long-term member of Dignity, a Catholic GLBT activist organization that advocates for change in the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality.
Since October 1, 1986, when the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine for the Faith issued an encyclical, On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, which declared homosexuality to be a "strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil", many bishops, including Cardinal O’Connor of New York, banned Dignity from Catholic properties. At that time, Judge welcomed Dignity's AIDS ministry to the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi. At Judge's memorial service, Malachy McCourt said that he had heard "if Mike got any money from the right wing, he'd give it to the Gay organizations. I don't know if that's true, but that's his humor, for sure."
Ironically, Judge's firefighter helmet was presented to Pope John Paul II in memory of his death. Although there has been call within the Roman Catholic Church to have Mychal Judge canonized, there is no indication that this process is being seriously considered by the Church hierarchy. Several independent Catholic and Orthodox denominations, most notably The Orthodox-Catholic Church of America, have already declared him a saint. A film, The Saint of 9/11 portrays Mychal's life as a spiritual adventure and an honest embrace of life, where alcoholism and sexuality were acknowledged. Inspired by his life, the documentary embraces Mychal's full humanity.
Arthur Evans
ARTHUR EVANS, gay theorist, philosopher, activist died on this date (b: 1942). Evans was one of the founders of the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) that coalesced after Gay people and supporters protested a 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village Gay bar. He and others founded the organization when they became frustrated with the tactics of the Gay Liberation Front, which he felt were not assertive enough. Based in New York, the alliance became a model for Gay Rights organizations nationwide, pushing in New York for legislation to ban discrimination against Gay men and Lesbians in employment, housing and other areas.
Mr. Evans wrote its statement of purpose and much of its constitution, which began, “We as liberated homosexual activists demand the freedom for expression of our dignity and value as human beings.”
To attract attention the alliance staged what its members called “zaps,” confrontations with people or institutions that they believed discriminated against gay people. Among other incidents, they confronted Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York, went to television studios to protest shows perceived as anti-Gay, demanded Gay marriage equality rights at the city’s marriage license bureau, and demonstrated at the taxi commission against a regulation, since abolished, requiring Gay people to get a psychiatrist’s approval before they could be allowed to drive a taxi.
In the fall of 1970, Mr. Evans and others showed up at the offices of Harper’s Magazine in Manhattan to protest an article it had published sharply criticizing Gay people and their lifestyle. It was Mr. Evans’s idea to bring a coffee pot, doughnuts, a folding table and chairs for a civilized “tea party.” When the editor, Midge Decter, refused to print a rebuttal as the group demanded, Mr. Evans erupted.
“You knew that this article would contribute to the oppression of homosexuals!” he yelled, according to the 1999 book “Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America” by Dudley Clendinen, a former reporter for The New York Times, and Adam Nagourney, a current Times reporter. “You are a bigot, and you are to be held responsible for that moral and political act.”
While living in Washington, Mr. Evans had spent his winters in Seattle researching the historical origins of the counterculture. After settling in San Francisco, he wrote “Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture,” a 1978 book tracing homophobic attitudes to the Middle Ages, when people accused of witchcraft, the book contended, were being persecuted in part for their sexuality, often their homosexuality.
He was among the first -- if not the first -- people to coin and use the term "Radical Faerie" beginning in a regularly circle that met in San Francisco.
He went on to write The God of Ecstasy, a reinterpretation of the Dionysus myth and Critique of Patriarchal Reason (1997), a dense treatise arguing that misogyny and homophobia have influenced supposedly objective fields like logic and physics.
