The Best Possible Life
By Seth Segall
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Monday, February 1, 2021
Via Tricycle // The Best Possible Life
Via Daily Dharma: Breathing as One
May
we carry each other through these dark times through the strength of
our practice, sitting in silence and stillness, breathing as one.
—Brandon Dean Lamson, “Meeting Violence with Kindness”
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Sunday, January 31, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Build the Foundation of Compassion
Generosity is the ground of compassion; it is a prerequisite to the realization of liberation.
—Marcia Rose, “The Gift That Cannot Be Given”
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Via White Crane Institute // HOWARD OVERING STURGIS
1855 -
HOWARD OVERING STURGIS, the novelist and eccentric was born on this date. A millionaire American expatriate, Sturgis passed his life in England knitting, embroidering and writing novels. He is best known for two: Tim: A Story of Eton and Belchamber. Affable and witty, Sturgis was a favorite with Henry James, Edith Wharton, and A. C. Benson, and the subject of a memorable sketch by E. M. Forster. Sturgis maintained a lifelong relationship with a much younger man, William Haynes-Smith, familiarly known as "the Babe", to whom his novel "Belchamber" is dedicated.
The scion of a wealthy New England family, his parents sent him to be educated at Eton College. He went on to study at Cambridge where he became a friend of the novelists henry James and Edith Wharton.
After the death of his mother in 1888 he moved, with his lover William Haynes-Smith, into a country house named Queen's Acre, near Windsor Great Park. Sturgis's first novel, Tim: A Story of School Life (1891), was published anonymously and was dedicated to the "love that surpasses the love of women." It describes the love of two youths at boarding-school.
He died on February 7, 1920. After his death appreciations of him were published by A.C. Benson, Edith Wharton, E.M. Forster and George Santayana, his cousin.
Via BrainPickings // D.T. Suzuki on What Freedom Really Means and How Zen Can Help Us Cultivate Our Character
D.T. Suzuki on What Freedom Really Means and How Zen Can Help Us Cultivate Our Character
“The ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow.”
By Maria Popova
Alan Watts may be credited with popularizing Eastern philosophy in the West, but he owes the entire trajectory of his life and legacy to a single encounter with the Zen Buddhist sage D.T. Suzuki (October 18, 1870–July 12, 1966) — one of humanity’s greatest and most influential stewards of Zen philosophy. At the age of twenty-one, Watts attended a lecture by Suzuki in London, which so enthralled the young man that he spent the remainder of his life studying, propagating, and building upon Suzuki’s teachings. Legendary composer John Cage had a similar encounter with Suzuki, which profoundly shaped his life and music.
In the early 1920s, spurred by the concern that Zen masters are “unable to present their understanding in the light of modern thought,” Suzuki undertook “a tentative experiment to present Zen from our common-sense point of view” — a rather humble formulation of what he actually accomplished, which was nothing less than giving ancient Eastern philosophy a second life in the West and planting the seed for a new culture of secularized spirituality.
But by 1940, all of his books had gone out of print in war-torn England, and all remaining copies in Japan were destroyed in the great fire of 1945, which consumed three quarters of Tokyo. In 1946, Christmas Humphreys, president of London’s Buddhist Society, set out to undo the damage and traveled to Tokyo, where he began working with Suzuki on translating his new manuscripts and reprinting what remained of the old. The result was the timeless classic Essays in Zen Buddhism (public library), originally published in 1927 — a collection of Suzuki’s foundational texts introducing the principles of Zen into secular life as a discipline concerned first and foremost with what he called “the reconstruction of character.” As Suzuki observed, “Our ordinary life only touches the fringe of personality, it does not cause a commotion in the deepest parts of the soul.” His essays became, and remain, a moral toolkit for modern living, delivered through a grounding yet elevating perspective on secular spirituality.
Via Comic Sands // The Walking Dead' Shuts Down Homophobic Backlash
'The Walking Dead' Shuts Down Homophobic Backlash To Show's Gay Storyline With Powerful Post
Zombie thriller franchise The Walking Dead just clapped back at homophobic internet trolls in a concise but oh-so-satisfying tweet.
The show's non-negotiable commitment to showcasing LGBTQ+ characters and relationships has already won praise in the past. The recent tweet only solidified the franchise's solid footing as an ally.
The homophobic hullabaloo all began when actor Jelani Alladin appeared on the podcast Talk Dead to Me.
He discussed how proud he was to play his character in the show who—among many heroic attributes—just so happens to be one half of a same-sex couple.
"There was no kind of need to explain anything further and I love that The Walking Dead is kind of putting that forward, that LGBTQ relationships are nothing different than any other kind of relationship."
"They have the same struggles, they have the same complexities, they get mad at each other, they love each other just as hard."
The onscreen couple is made up of Alladin and fellow actor Nico Tortorella, who identifies as gender fluid.
Via Daily Dharma: Train Your Mind How to Respond
The
quality of our life is determined by our mind’s response to the
circumstances of our life. It is not determined directly by the
circumstances.
—Yoshin David Radin, “Brief Teachings”
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 31, 2021 💌
"It’s amazing how the nature of your relationships change when it’s coming out of love instead of trying to get love."
- Ram Dass -
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Via Tricycle // Buddhism by the Numbers: Climate Change and Pilgrimage Sites
Buddhism by the Numbers: Climate Change and Pilgrimage Sites
By The Editors
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Via Daily Dharma: Unravel Your Patterns
There
is insight to be gained in seeing how we transfer life patterns of
control, anxiety, or self-consciousness into our meditation practice.
Learning to undo some of these patterns within our practice is a
meaningful step in learning how to release their grip on the rest of our
lives.
—Christina Feldman, “Receiving the Breath: Meditation Q&A”
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Friday, January 29, 2021
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Compassion Reverberates
Whether
we know it or not, every act of compassion, real or simulated, may have
a positive significance far beyond our powers of imagination.
—Taitetsu Unno, “Three Grapefruits”
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Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Via Love Serve Remember Foundation // Join Jack Kornfield for a New Masterclass on Interactive Guided Meditation
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Via Sean Rayshel // #HolocaustRemembranceDay
Today we honor all those who we lost in the Holocaust for #HolocaustRemembranceDay.
All the millions of Jews, Disabled, Gays, Roma, Jehovah Witnesses, Freemasons, Artists, Socialists, Clergy, and freethinkers. Time and time again we repeat the mistakes of our past, ripping children out of their parents arms and writing a number on their arms in a Sharpie marker, and putting them in “holding pins” to me is no different from what happened to ancestors, and to the gay communities throughout Germany and Nazi occupied Europe.
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 27, 2021 💌
"Faith is not a belief. Faith is what is left when your beliefs have all been blown to hell. Faith is in the heart, while beliefs are in the head. Experiences, even spiritual experiences, come and go. As long as you base your faith on experience, your faith is going to be constantly flickering, because your experiences keep changing."
- Ram Dass -
Excerpt from Be Love Now: The Path of the Heart
Via Daily Dharma: Arranging a Life You Want
Make the things you want to do easy, and the things you don’t want to do difficult.
—Gregg Krech, “Meditating Every Day and What to Do When You Don’t”
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Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Tricycle Talks: Buddhist Magic and Why We Shouldn’t Cast It Aside
Tricycle Talks: Buddhist Magic and Why We Shouldn’t Cast It Aside
With Sam van Schaik
With Sam van Schaik
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Via Daily Dharma: Learn Who You Are
Learning
to really notice what goes on in us and sensing who we are at a deeper
level brings more space and possibility into our lives.
—David Rome, “Focusing”
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Via Daily Dharma: The Importance of Joy
Joy
creates a spaciousness in the mind that allows us to hold the suffering
we experience inside us and around us without becoming overwhelmed,
without collapsing into helplessness or despair.
—James Baraz, “Lighten Up!”
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Monday, January 25, 2021
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Understand Your Mind
Just
understand your mind: how it works, how attachment and desire arise,
how ignorance arises, where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know
the nature of all that; just that gives so much happiness and peace.
—Lama Thubten Yeshe, “Chocolate Cake”
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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 24, 2021 💌
I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people.
- Ram Dass -
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Take Refuge in Flexibility
The Buddhist Way invites us to take refuge in openness and in accepting that to do this we must transcend all rigid identities.
—Fabrice Midal, “Brief Teachings”
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Contrastes
Last night after a shocking series of bizarre and mean emails from my mother, I was in a funk and upset and sad all day. ((How a 65+ year old man can be nonplussed by a mother is stuff for future postings... But I digress)). Then some rotten stuff from work, all of which set me off in a seriously non-Buddhist way. Ugh... Tests and dhukka!
So… when I zoomed into a meeting with folks in Guatemala, I was, to be quite honest, somewhat reticent... The last encuentros with Bahá’ís for me didn’t end well…
I was so surprised last night.
I felt a sense of refuge and well a bit of “saudades” for the first time in years.
The remembrance service for Bob Porter sponsored by the Bahá'ís de Guatemala was simple, sweet, and lovely. People saying hello for maybe 15 minutes before… and Marcy was a joy! At one point there were over 100 folks from maybe 5 countries!
It was the first Bahá’í gathering I went to in over 2 decades. And it felt nice, it felt like home, people were sweet, and it was good to see some old friends. It bought back some good memories and adventures. The Porter family was great, KC even played a song, Kristy and Curt & Sonia shared sweet memories. All of us that are not there in Guatemala expressed our sense of, what we say in Portuguese “Saudades”.
Me, in the early 1980's sporting a badass moustache with Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum in Guatemala City
What was magic for me, it was the first time in years that I could go to my prayer book and read without a block, a sense of loss, rancor…
So during the service, I dug out my Bahá'í books and found the above picture, which made me smile. Doña Marcy had me drive Khánum around Guate in their teeny tiny suzuki pickup!
To say I miss Bahá’í sangha, the kind like last night, when folks were just pure love and light goes without saying. When I came back to the States, it was rough, I missed community and probably the adrenaline from serving there, my relationship with my son’s mother was upside down, grad school, coming to terms with my sexuality, my son, my work… and I had no community to stand on, to support me. In fact, the Bahá’ís sort of cast me adrift until they eventually threw me out for activism and well love. It took me years to trust anything spiritual, indeed even the thoughts of God and community. To that I am eternally grateful to the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group, who pulled me out of my anger hole and set me right.
So em fim, I will always be a BaBu = Bahá’í Buddhist, or the Bahá'ís might say, "a friend of the Faith". And will continue to wait on the sidelines for the day they will come to their senses re: inclusion and homophobia.
Visualize a guy, at the Metta bus bus stop, patiently checking his dharma watch, over and over, and over:
Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be happy. Breathe out.
Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be healthy. Breathe out.
Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be safe. Breathe out.
Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be at ease in all the Worlds!
¡Gracias Don Roberto y Muchas Gracias Team Porter! y un grande gracias a los Guatemaltecos, - may your sweetness, energy and love keep shining!
Life is good!
Friday, January 22, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Go Outside
Nature teaches us simplicity and contentment, because in its presence we realize we need very little to be happy.
—Mark Coleman, “A Breath of Fresh Air”
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Thursday, January 21, 2021
Via Tumblr // Immoral and moral actions
Immoral and moral actions ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche
https://justdharma.com/s/7st2u
We have to overcome our defilements, and they are fueled by immorality. An action is defined as either "immoral" or "moral" depending on whether it feeds the defilements or not. If it does it is immoral and if it purifies and transforms them it is moral. Things do not become moral or immoral because rules have been made up for convenience. They become one or the other for this simple reason.
– Tai Situ Rinpoche from the book "Ground, Path and Fruition" ISBN: 978-1877294358 - https://amzn.to/16Njb20
Tai Situ Rinpoche on the web: https://www.palpung.org/ Tai Situ Rinpoche biography: https://www.palpung.org/
Via Tricycle // Prosecutor, Dharma Teacher
Prosecutor, Dharma Teacher
Interview with Tuere Sala by Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar
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