Ask a Teacher: Holidays 2020

 

Ask a Teacher: Holidays 2020
By Nina Herzog

Even if you can’t be physically present with your family this holiday season, you can use your practice to welcome loved ones into your heart.

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Via Daily Dharma: Relaxing into the World

 The more my actions are motivated by generosity, loving kindness, and the wisdom of interdependence, the more I can relax and open up to the world. 

—David Loy, “Rethinking Karma”

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Via Daily Dharma: Being Free

 We are used to thinking of freedom as being free to do what we want, but the Buddha sees it as being free from wanting. 

—Andrew Olendzki, “The Ties that Unbind”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 22, 2020 💌

 

"Inspiration is God making contact with itself."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Work with What Arises Inbox

 The mark of a true practitioner is not what arises in your life and mind, but how you work with what arises.

—Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, “The Path of Patience”

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The woodcut prints of Tom Killion

 

The woodcut prints of Tom Killion speak of a deep love for the landscape, a passion for the poetics of space. In particular California’s northern wild edge inspired him from an early age. Spending countless hours carving into wood the sketches he brought back from his trips into the great outdoors. The technique applied is almost identical to the traditional Japanese woodblock printing used by Hokusai two hundred years ago. A multi-color print can take several months to complete but the result is one of a kind.

 

https://doorofperception.com/2018/03/tom-killion/

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Via Daily Dharma: Connecting to This Experience

 Prayer just for itself, just for the act of praying, is a way of connecting to the deep ocean of being that we all are. It is a way of offering our bows, our incense, our flowers, to the ineffable reality of the moment, to the absolute reality of this experience. 

—Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, “Prayer: Sensei Pat Enkyo O’Hara”

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Via Daily Dharma: Bearing Difficulty

 It is only natural that we don’t like suffering. But if we can develop the willpower to bear difficulties, then we will grow more and more tolerant. There is nothing that does not get easier with practice. 

—H. H. the Dalai Lama, “Enduring the Fires”

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I love this

 

Via No Matter How Fine a Love: The LGBTQ Baha'i Experience

No Matter How Fine a Love: The LGBTQ Baha'i Experience

It’s been a while since I last posted and for that I apologize, since my last post I have been contacted by those investigating the Baha’i Faith both heterosexual allies and those who identify as LGBTQ asking me for clarification on the Baha’i stance on LGBTQ people and same sex relationships, in each case they said that there is nothing on the US Baha’i website which I found odd, at the end of the last decade there was guidance which if one read between the lines stated that same sex couples wouldn’t qualify to declare as Baha’is unless they fell in-line with Baha’i law which realistically is a passive aggressive way to suggest getting a divorce. Today I was startled to see on the US Baha’i website absolutely no reference to the Baha’i stance on LGBTQ people and same-sex relationships / marriage (please correct me if I overlooked this). For many Americans LGBTQ issues are very important, not only for LGBTQ Americans seeking a loving religious community, but also our heterosexual allies who value LGBTQ people’s humanity. The erasure of LGBTQ guidance on the US Baha’i website (good, bad, or indifferent) simply stings for me as a gay man, it’s the very same sinking feeling I had when the Trump Administration expunged any LGBTQ references on the White House website, it made me feel invisible yet again. For the individual investigating the Baha’i Faith and wanting to know what the Baha’i Faith’s stance on a good 10% of the population (conservative estimate) the website leaves them perplexed as the Baha’i Faith’s rallying cry for “unity in diversity”, the Oneness of humanity, and the elimination of prejudices of any kind assuredly gives the impression that Baha’is would value the humanity of LGBTQ people and would accept them, their spouses, and their families with open arms. It’s also been brought to my attention by a heterosexual mother of a transgender child that not once is homophobia or transphobia listed as forms of prejudice that Baha’is actively address on the website, with Hate Crimes on the rise (transgender women of color in particular) is quite alarming to her as she investigated the Baha’i Faith. As I am writing this I’m doing my very best to not feel rage, instead I’m seeking out clarification from the Public Relations Office at the Baha’i National Center and will share what they say to my inquiry. Attached are screenshots from the US Baha’i website from a few years ago pertaining to guidance on same-sex relationships/ marriage, one must remain vigilant when it comes to this sensitive subject in the Baha’i Faith, one day guidance is up, the next day its invisible (there’s a theme here).

 

For the current public website of the American Baha’i community sans LGBTQ / same sex relationship information

 

and finally, after all their cruelty and homophobia... they end with:

The Baha’i Teachings and Homosexuality

Via Daily Dharma: Broadening Your Mindset

 Adopting a mind that is free from grasping is a direct antidote to a narrow and fixed perspective. 

—Khentrul Rinpoche, “Unity in Difference”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 18, 2020 💌

 

There are billions of tiny acts that create suffering in the world—acts of ignorance, greed, violence. But in the same way, each act of caring—all the billion tiny ways that we offer compassion, wisdom, and joy to one another—serves as a preservative and healing agent.

- Ram Dass -

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Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus)

Via Daily Dharma: Seeking with an Open Mind

 If one seeks understanding with a vacant mind,
the moon seems full each and every moment.

—Jiaoran, “A Full Load of Moonlight”

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Conversa com Bial - Programa Com Barack Obama,16/11/2020.

Via Daily Dharma: Counteract Aversion

 In the throes of aversion, we tend to one-sidedly focus on what is unpleasant and irritating rather than look at the situation from a more global and balanced perspective. The traditional counteraction to aversion is loving kindness practice, which broadens our view of things.

—Bo-Mi Choi, “Five Drinkable Remedies for the Five Hindrances”

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Barack Obama: The 2020 60 Minutes interview

The English Teacher (2020) - AWARD WINNING Short Film | Drama

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 15, 2020 💌

"There are billions of tiny acts that create suffering in the world—acts of ignorance, greed, violence. But in the same way, each act of caring—all the billion tiny ways that we offer compassion, wisdom, and joy to one another—serves as a preservative and healing agent."

- Ram Dass -

Gift Like You Mean It: New Guy | Etsy

Dashing in December Official Trailer | Premieres 12/13 on Paramount Network

Via White Crane Instistute // The VAGINA MUSEUM

 

Noteworthy

2019 -

The VAGINA MUSEUM opened in London's Camden Market;  In July we talked about the Penis Museum, one of the top tourist attractions in Reykjavic, Iceland. Now, in a sort of response to its erection,  it has a sister museum across the pond, in London. The Vagina Museum is the first of its kind and is driven by a mission for social justice and public health initiatives.

Visitors to the museum will discover informational posters and sculptures, a small shop with vaginally themed products and an events calendar that includes a dinner for Trans Day of Remembrance and "Cliterature" (book club) meetings.

"The anatomy has such complex politics around it that we found it was best to first engage people through what they know, so we can teach them things they don't know," said the museum curator, Sarah Creed. "It's all about unpacking social constructs and changing perspective through engagement."

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Via Daily Dharma: Traveling Toward Truth

 The Buddha found what he had to see by sitting still, but even he had to travel to get to that point, to see through the other roads that would lead nowhere and come finally to the understanding that the truth we’re looking for is no further than the hair on our arms. 

—Pico Iyer, “The Long Road to Sitting Still”

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ESTEREÓTIPO

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Via White Crane Insitute // This Day in Gay History

 

Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989
This Day in Gay History
Born Aaron Copland 1900 - AARON COPLAND, American composer (d. 1990); an American composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as “the dean of American composers.” Copland's music achieved a difficult balance between modern music and American folk styles, and the open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. He incorporated percussive orchestration, changing meter, polyrhythms, polychords and tone rows. Aside from composing, Copland taught, presented music-related lectures, wrote books and articles, and served as a conductor (generally, but not always, of his own works). Copland was born in Brooklyn, NY, of Lithuanian Jewish descent. Throughout his childhood Copland and his family lived above his parents' Brooklyn shop. Although his parents never encouraged or directly exposed him to music, at the age of fifteen he had already taken an interest in the subject and aspired to be a composer. His musical education included time with Leonard Wolfsohn, Rubin Goldmark (who also taught George Gershwin), and Nadia Boulanger at the Fontanbleu School of Music in Paris from 1921 to 1924. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1925 and again in 1926. Copland defended the Communist Party USA during the 1936 presidential election. As a result he was later investigated by the FBI during the Red scare of the 1950s, and found himself blacklisted. Because of the political climate of that era, A Lincoln Portrait was withdrawn from the 1953 inaugural concert for President Eisenhower. That same year, Copland was called before Congress where he testified that he was never a communist. Outraged by the accusations, many members of the musical community held up Copland's music as a banner of his patriotism. The investigations ceased in 1955, and were closed in 1975. Copland was never shown to have been a member of the Communist Party. Despite this insult, only a decade later, in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Copland the Medal of Freedom for his contributions to American culture. Copland exerted a major influence on the compositional style of his friend and protege Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was considered the finest conductor of Copland's works. British progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded two pieces based on Copland works: Fanfare for the Common Man and Hoe-Down. Several of their live recordings of Fanfare for the Common Man incorporated the closing of the second movement of Copland's Symphony no. 3 as well. Copland was a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the U.S. and the U.K. He made a series of recordings of his music, especially during the 1970s, primarily for Columbia Records. In 1960, RCA Victor released Copland's recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra of the orchestral suites from Appalachian Spring andThe Tender Land; these recordings were later reissued on CD, as were most of Copland's Columbia recordings (by Sony). Copland's sexuality was documented in Howard Pollack's biography, Aaron Copeland: The Life and Work of An Uncommon Man. Unlike many gay men of his age, Copland was neither ashamed of nor tortured by his sexuality. He apparently understood and accepted it from an early age, and throughout his life was involved in relationships with other men. In later years, his affairs were mostly with younger men, usually musicians or artists, whom he mentored, including composer Leonard Bernstein, dancer and artist Erik Johns (who wrote the libretto for The Tender Land), photographer Victor Kraft, and music critic Paul Moor. Given the social prejudices of the times in which he lived, Copland was relatively open about his sexuality, yet this seems not to have interfered with the acceptance of his music or with his status as a cultural figure. The likely explanation is that Copland conducted his personal life with the characteristic modesty, tactfulness, and serenity that marked his professional life as well. Copland died of Alzheimer’s and respiratory failure in North Tarrytown, NY (now Sleepy Hollow), on December 2, 1990.

Tristan Harris: The End of Free Choice | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Preorder: BEING RAM DASS

 

"I’ve never been into being a guru. As a teacher, I always use my life experiences as a lesson plan—often as an example of what not to do. We’re on a journey together, and I’m as honest as I can be about my trip." - Ram Dass

 

 

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Via Tricycle Talks Religion As We Know It

Tricycle Talks 

Religion As We Know It

Defining religion with scholar Jack Miles

By Tricycle

Oct 28, 2020

Tricycle is pleased to offer the Tricycle Talks podcast for free. If you would like to support this offering, please consider donating. Thank you! 

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What is religion? Is Buddhism a religion? How about democracy? And how religious (or not) do you have to be to ask?

In the latest episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s Editor and Publisher James Shaheen speaks to Jack Miles, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scholar of religion, about what we mean when we say something is a religion and how Miles’s own life has led him back to this question time and again. 

Miles’s latest book, Religion As We Know It: An Origin Story, was released in 2019. In it, he explores the commonsense understanding of religion as one realm of activity among many, and how this definition serves and fails us. Miles is also the author of God: A Biography, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996, as well as the general editor of the Norton Anthology of World Religions and professor emeritus of English and religious studies at the University of California, Irvine.

Tricycle Talks is a podcast series featuring leading voices in the contemporary Buddhist world. You can listen to more Tricycle Talks on Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio.

Make the jump here to find the link and others of note

Thank you for subscribing to Tricycle! As a nonprofit, we depend on readers like you to keep Buddhist teachings and practices widely available.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Via Daily Dharma: Keep Your Hope Alive

 Hope is a flame that we nurture within our hearts. It may be sparked by someone else—by the encouraging words of a friend, relative, or mentor—but it must be fanned and kept burning through our own determination. 

—Daisaku Ikeda, “On Hardship & Hope”

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Via Daily Dharma: A Task for Us All

 I encourage you and me to ask ourselves how can each of us find our way to compassion and connection; maybe through spiritual practice, compassionate work for others and our world, or connection with trees, mountains, and the Earth?

—Radhule Weininger, “Practicing in a Pandemic”

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Daily Dharma: Fall in Love with Silence

 I no longer sit because I long for awakening. I sit because I have fallen in love with the silence.

—Nina Wise, “The Psychedelic Journey to the Zafu”

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Via JoeMyGod // Brazil’s Bolsonaro: “Stop Being Fags” About COVID

Brazil’s Bolsonaro: “Stop Being Fags” About COVID

Agence France-Presse reports:

President Jair Bolsonaro drew criticism Tuesday for telling Brazilians not to deal with Covid-19 like “a country of fags,” the far-right leader’s latest controversial outburst on the pandemic.

Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the virus even as it has killed 163,000 people in Brazil,  made the comment during a meandering speech at the presidential palace in which he also appeared to threaten US President-elect Joe Biden.

“All anyone talks about these days is the pandemic. We need to stop that,” said Bolsonaro during the speech, which was ostensibly on tourism. “I regret the deaths. I really do. But we’re all going to die someday. There’s no use fleeing reality. We have to stop being a country of fags. We have to face up to it and fight. I hate this faggot stuff.”

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro answers @JoeBiden’s threat of economics sanctions if Brazil doesn’t stop deforestation in amazon rainforest:

“Diplomacy isn’t enough. When the saliva (dialogue) is over, you must have gunpowder” pic.twitter.com/Qcqf4DPPLs

— Samuel Pancher (@SamPancher) November 10, 2020

During a speech, President Jair Bolsonaro hit out at U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden’s comments about deforestation in the Amazon, saying that “when the saliva runs out, there must be gunpowder.”pic.twitter.com/F70QbGALO6

— The Brazilian Report (@BrazilianReport) November 10, 2020

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - November 11, 2020 💌

 

 

If you meditate regularly, even when you don't feel like it, you will make significant gains, allowing you to see how your thoughts impose limits on you. Your resistances to meditation are your mental prisons in miniature. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Feeling in Healthier Directions

 We need to learn ways of expressing the pure energy of our feelings—anger and hate feelings especially—in a healthier direction that’s beneficial to the world.

—Interview with Maxine Hong Kingston by Trevor Carolan, “Helping Veterans Turn War into Art”

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Via Daily Dharma: Develop a Balance

 Just as meditation requires ... determination to carry it out, likewise it requires a sense of balance to determine when to push ourselves harder and when to step back and relax where we are.

—Lama Dudjom Dorjee, “Heartfelt Advice”

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Operation Warp Speed: Planning the distribution of a future COVID-19 vac...

Via Daily Dharma: Recognizing Our Dependence

 There is no self-grounding inner core of the individual. Our lives are entirely dependent processes.

—William S. Cobb, “The Game of Go”

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Via Tricycle // The Third Harmony

The Third Harmony
Directed by Michael Nagler

Nonviolent resistance is more effective—and now more frequently applied—than violent resistance. The Third Harmony takes a look at the peaceful path to humanity’s transformation in the 21st century.

Watch now »

Via Daily Dharma: Guard Your Mind’s Door

 Mindfulness is said to protect the mind from the intrusion of unwanted elements—whether they be from the senses or from thoughts—like a guard at the door.

—Robert E. Buswell, Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., “Which Mindfulness?”

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