Like
music, intention can influence our mood, thoughts, and feelings—setting
an intention in the morning we set the tone for the day.
—Thupten Jinpa, “Two Exercises for Turning Intention into Motivation”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Thursday, January 21, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Set the Tone for Your Day
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Via Tricycle // Esoteric Theravada
Esoteric Theravada
Interview with Kate Crosby by Matthew Gindin
Interview with Kate Crosby by Matthew Gindin
|
Via Daily Dharma: Feed Your Contentment
When we meditate, we are training the mind to stop feeding a pain pattern.
—Ruth King, “Soothing the Hot Coals of Rage”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 20, 2021 💌
I can do nothing for you but work on myself...you can do nothing for me but work on yourself!
- Ram Dass -
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Via Morning wisdom to wake you up
If you want to gain any real benefit from [Buddhist teachings], you have to let them stretch your own lived experience.
—Larry Rosenberg, “The Right to Ask Questions”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Monday, January 18, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Learn to See Beyond Your Judgment
Meditation
is learning how to be present and aware of what’s going on and learning
to be able to distinguish between your judgment about a moment in time
and the actual experience.
—Interview with Tuere Sala by Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar, “Prosecutor, Dharma Teacher”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Via LGBTQ Nation // Republicans dodge metal detectors & tote guns in the capitol. Harvey Milk’s assassin did the same.
Harvey Milk
On a November morning in 1978, former San Francisco supervisor Dan White snuck past metal detectors at San Francisco City Hall and assassinated his colleagues, mayor George Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk.
That historical violence might give one an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu in the present, upon hearing that Republican lawmakers want to bring guns into the U.S. Capitol — which is why it’s an important time to look back at what happened in San Francisco in 1978, to see if there are any lessons for today. What happens when powerful bigots don’t get their way, and don’t think they’ll ever have to face consequences for their actions?
Via White Crane Institute // Noteworthy - ALLEN GINSBERG
1956 -
The poet ALLEN GINSBERG wrote his intensely personal anti-war, love-hate poem "America" on this date. He later published it in his collection "Howl" it is one of the first poems to deal openly and honestly with homosexuality. America is a largely political work, with much of the poem consisting of various accusations against the United States, its government, and its citizens.
Ginsberg uses sarcasm to accuse America of attempting to divert responsibility for the Cold War ("America you don't want to go to war/ it's them bad Russians / Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. / And them Russians"), and makes numerous references to both leftist and anarchist political movements and figures (including Sacco and Vanzetti, the Scottsboro Boys and the Wobblies). Ginsberg's dissatisfaction, however, is tinged with optimism and hope, as exemplified by phrases like "When will you end the human war?" (as opposed to "why don't you...?").
The poem's ending is also highly optimistic, a promise to put his "queer shoulder to the wheel," although the original draft ended on a bleaker note: "Dark America! toward whom I close my eyes for prophecy, / and bend my speaking heart! / Betrayed! Betrayed!"
------
Today's Gay Wisdom
2018 -
Allen Ginsberg's
AMERICA
America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over
from Russia.
I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.
Asia is rising against me.
I haven't got a chinaman's chance.
I'd better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles and hour and
twentyfivethousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underpriviliged who live in
my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I'm a Catholic.
America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they're all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they
sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers
it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party was in 1835
Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy.
America you don're really want to go to war.
America it's them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader's Digest. her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him makes Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers.
Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job.
It's true I don't want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I'm nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.
Via Daily Dharma: The Power of Radical Equanimity
Sitting in radical equanimity, we let all of life be just what it is and our resistance drops away.
—Jundo Cohen, “The Power of Radical Equanimity”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 17, 2021 💌
In spiritual evolution, you don’t destroy the ego, you merely shift from identifying with it to using it as a functional unit. You still need it to function so that when I’m talking to you, I realize there’s a “you” and a “me.”
- Ram Dass -
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Develop a Sense of Closeness with All Beings
It
is not sufficient merely to see that sentient beings are suffering. You
must also develop a sense of closeness with them, a sense that they are
dear.
—Jeffrey Hopkins, “Everyone as a Friend”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Friday, January 15, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Sit in the Unconditioned Spaces
Coming
into contact—if only for a moment—with the unconditioned, with life as
it is without all our fears and preferences—isn’t this what meditation
is really about?
—Noelle Oxenhandler, “Go Bang Your Head Against the Wall”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Gay Wisdom // White Crane Institute
Noteworthy
1929 -
On this date The Rev. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR was born in Atlanta, Georgia. As an African American civil rights leader he spoke eloquently and stressed nonviolent methods to achieve equality. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. In 1983, the third Monday in January was designated a legal holiday in the U.S. to celebrate his birthday. King's message was a catalyst for many in the gay rights movement and continues to be an inspiration for the GLBT community today.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Via English Literature / FB
"Helpless Love"
Once upon a time all feelings and emotions went to a coastal island for a vacation. According to their nature, each was having a good time.
Suddenly, a warning of an impending storm was announced and everyone was advised to evacuate the island.
The announcement caused sudden panic. All rushed to their boats.
Even damaged boats were quickly repaired and commissioned for duty.
Yet, Love did not wish to flee quickly. There was so much to do. But as the clouds darkened, Love realized it was time to leave. Alas, there were no boats to spare. Love looked around with hope.
Just then Prosperity passed by in a luxurious boat. Love shouted, “Prosperity, could you please take me in your boat?”
“No,” replied Prosperity, “my boat is full of precious possessions, gold and silver. There is no place for you.”
A little later Vanity came by in a beautiful boat. Again Love shouted, “Could you help me, Vanity? I am stranded and need a lift. Please take me with you.”
Vanity responded haughtily, “No, I cannot take you with me. My boat will get soiled with your muddy feet.”
Sorrow passed by after some time. Again, Love asked for help. But it was to no avail. “No, I cannot take you with me. I am so sad. I want to be by myself.”
When Happiness passed by a few minutes later, Love again called for help. But Happiness was so happy that it did not look around, hardly concerned about anyone.
Love was growing restless and dejected. Just then somebody called out, “Come Love, I will take you with me.” Love did not know who was being so magnanimous, but jumped on to the boat, greatly relieved that she would reach a safe place.
On getting off the boat, Love met Knowledge. Puzzled, Love inquired, “Knowledge, do you know who so generously gave me a lift just when no one else wished to help?”
Knowledge smiled, “Oh, that was Time.”
“And why would Time stop to pick me and take me to safety?” Love wondered.
Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and replied, “Because only Time knows your true greatness and what you are capable of. Only Love can bring peace and great happiness in this world.”
“The important message is that when we are prosperous, we overlook love. When we feel important, we forget love. Even in happiness and sorrow we forget love. Only with time do we realize the importance of love. Why wait that long? Why not make love a part of your life today?”
Author Unknown
Via Daily Dharma: The Meaning of Emptiness
Emptiness
does not mean that things don’t exist, nor does “no self” mean that we
don’t exist. Emptiness refers to the underlying nonseparation of life
and the fertile ground of energy that gives rise to all forms of life.
—Jack Kornfield, “Identity and Selflessness in Buddhism: No Self or True Self?”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Practice Being Yourself
Buddhist practice is not about forcing ourselves to be natural. It is about being ourselves.
—Gary Thorp, “Shelter from the Storm”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 13, 2021 💌
Jesus said you will get to the kingdom of God and that’s where you’ll find the children. I like to believe in childhood or childlike qualities as a goal. Or a way to reach spiritual awareness. It’s not about going back to being a child, it’s to be childlike, in the sense of innocence, openness, freshness, and beginning.
- Ram Dass -
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Noticing Your Reactions
When
Buddhist teachings talk about emotions, such as love and hate, they are
describing our disposition toward the things we encounter.
—Andrew Olendzki, “What’s in a Word? Dukkha”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Monday, January 11, 2021
Via Tricycle // Karma
Karma Is Individual
By Thanissaro Bhikkhu
By Thanissaro Bhikkhu
|
Via Daily Dharma: Meditating On Thoughts
To
meditate upon thoughts is simply to be aware, as thoughts arise, that
the mind is thinking, without getting involved in the content.
—Joseph Goldstein, “These Are Not ‘Your’ Thoughts”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via The Poor People’s Campaign
|
The
Poor People’s Campaign witnessed with heavy hearts the events of
January 6th, when a mob emboldened by hate, lies, and racism laid siege
to the US Capitol and other state capitols across the country in an
attempt to subvert our democracy. This
attack was carried out at the behest of a narcissistic President and
his enablers, who have followed a divisive political strategy that is as
old as the deconstructionists of the 1870s and the Southern strategy of
the 1960s. We know that the only antidote to this poison in our body
politic is a moral fusion coalition committed to reconstructing
democracy.
Such
violence always erupts when there is the greatest possibility for
change. Throughout history, Native and Indigenous people have seen this
kind of mob violence. Black people have seen it. Women have seen it.
Asians have seen it. Latino farm workers have seen it. Workers standing
for labor rights have seen it. What we saw this week is not the dream of
America, but it has too often been the practice of America. Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)