Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Via Daily Dharma


Cow Meditation | May 28, 2014

 
Far beyond 'self and
udder.' With nothing to
attain and nothing more
to prove at last one sits
peacefully serene. Sitting
quietly, the grass grows.  
 
 
—Edward Espe Brown, "The Vision Cow"
 

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Via JMG: WaPo Marriage Map


The Washington Post has published an interactive marriage map.  Click on each state for recent developments.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma


Peace Will Arise | May 27, 2014

Being a slave to our concerns is like being in debt to them. When we're in debt, we have no real freedom in our hearts. The more we pay off our debts, the more lighthearted we'll feel. In the same way, if we can let go of our various worries and cares, peace will arise in our hearts. 
—Ajaan Lee, “Sowing the Seeds of Freedom”
 

Monday, May 26, 2014

Via JMG: This Month From World Net Daily


 
About the cover story in this month's magazine from World Net Daily:
Newt Gingrich called it an “open, blatant example of the new fascism,” Charles Krauthammer called it “totalitarian,” Pat Buchanan labeled it “the new blacklist” and RedState headlined it as “a fascist purge.” And it wasn’t just conservatives sounding the alarm. Leftist comedian Bill Maher called the perpetrators the “gay mafia,” and even well-known “gay” media personalities condemned it, Andrew Sullivan saying it “disgusts me” and radio talker Tammy Bruce calling out the “gay gestapo.”

They were referring, of course, to the forced resignation of tech prodigy Brendan Eich as CEO of the company he co-founded, Mozilla, developer of the popular Firefox Web browser, all because he had donated $1,000 to California’s Proposition 8 upholding traditional marriage. Everyone knows the Eich story – and almost everyone, it seems, condemns it, as though it were a singularly egregious injustice in today’s America.

But, as revealed in the May issue of WND’s acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine, Brendan Eich, far from being a unique or especially shocking case, is just one of a growing multitude of Americans whose lives and livelihoods are being intentionally crushed by “THE NEW FASCISM.”
The issue includes articles by Pat Buchanan, Phyllis Schlafly, Linda Harvey, Scott Lively, and a cavalcade of other crackpots.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

16 Million Americans Gain Freedom to Marry: May 23 MNW


Via Daily Dharma


The Illusory Division | May 26, 2014

When we eat, we are collapsing the illusory division between self and other. We are breaking down the boundaries between our bodies and the outside world. That’s also what we’re doing when we meditate.
—Nick Nauman, “An Interview with Nick Nauman”
 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

STEVE HAYES: Tired Old Queen at the Movies - SUNSET BOULEVARD


JMG HomoQuotable - Frank Bruni


"A kiss is nothing. On the sidewalks, in the park, I see one every few minutes, a real kiss, lip to lip. It barely registers. It’s as unremarkable as a car horn in traffic, as an umbrella in rain. And yet a kiss is everything. A kiss can stop the world. The football player Michael Sam recently demonstrated as much. [snip] I still sometimes feel panic when my partner, meeting me in a restaurant, gives me a perfunctory kiss on the lips. And yet I feel robbed — wronged — if I sense that an awareness of other people’s gazes and a fear of their judgment are preventing him from doing that. We shouldn’t be bound that way, and on the day of the pro football draft, in front of the cameras, Sam rightly declared that he wasn’t. He did so with a gesture at once humdrum and heroic, a gesture that connects everyone who has been in love and affirms what every love shares: physical tenderness, eye-to-eye togetherness. It was something to behold. It was something to hold on to." - Frank Bruni, writing for the New York Times.

Read the full essay.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

JMG Quote Of The Day - Elton John


"While The Normal Heart is a product of a specific time, it is not an artifact. There is still an AIDS crisis -- not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but right here in the America, in your state, in your community. And, just as in 1985, it is silence, fear and stigma that continue to drive the epidemic. Today, African-Americans represent 12% of the national population, but they account for 44% of Americans living with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Gay and bisexual men comprise only 2% of the American population, but they represented 30% of the nation's HIV infections in 2010.

"Around 4,000 Americans are infected with HIV each year because of injection drug use, and one in seven HIV-positive Americans pass through a correctional facility each year. The crisis is particularly acute in the American South, where homophobia is rampant. I hope HBO's production of The Normal Heart will compel a new generation to act up. There is so much work still to be done, but there's also so much potential. The characters in The Normal Heart, living as they did in the 1980s, didn't understand what they or their friends were dying of, and they didn't have treatments to manage the disease. They hardly knew how to protect themselves.

"Today, we know how to protect everyone, and we have the ability to treat every single person living with HIV. Yet AIDS continues to prey upon the most vulnerable in our society: the poor, the incarcerated, sex workers, drug users, and those living in regions where intolerance and stigma are facts of life. Today, as ever, silence equals death." - Elton John, writing for CNN. The Normal Heart debuts on HBO tonight at 9PM.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Daily Dharma


Extinguish the Craving | May 25, 2014

Try looking into how feeling gives rise to craving. It's because we want pleasant feelings that craving whispers—whispers right there to the feeling. If you observe carefully, you will see that this is very important. This is where the paths and fruitions leading to nibbana are attained. If we extinguish the craving in feeling, that's nibbana.  
 
—Upasika Kee Nanayon, “A Glob of Tar”
 

Via The Mind Unleashed / FB:


Saturday, May 24, 2014

Via Daily Dharma


The Spokes of Our Lives | May 24, 2014

The spokes of wheels are like the spokes of our lives: our family, our community, everything that supports us. The center of our existence is the hub. And notice that when the wheel spins, everything is moving except for the center. That’s us, you know. Our wheels need to be true and straight. Be mindful of them, and tighten the spokes in the right way. 
 
—James Veliskakis, “Three Lives: From Biker to Buddhist”
 

Friday, May 23, 2014

The Harvey Milk Forever Stamp Is Dedicated


Via PRAIA DO FUTURO / FB:





Nosso diretor Karim Aïnouz fala a O Globo: "A intolerância e o preconceito são manifestações muito tristes da alma humana, e elas em geral são frutos da ignorância, assim como o fascismo e o racismo. Ver um filme onde um monte de gente morre, onde há violência e tiros para cima e para baixo não tem problema. Mas uma história de amor tem? Do que essas pessoas têm medo?". 

Leia a matéria completa aqui: http://bit.ly/oglobo-praiadofuturo

RuPaul Drives... John Waters Part 2


Via JMG: OREGON: Ballot Measure Dropped


Via press release:
Oregon United for Marriage submitted an amicus brief in the Rummell v Kitzhaber marriage equality case, noting that if the judge ruled in a way that allowed for same-sex couples to marry by May 23, the campaign would not submit the 160,000 signatures gathered to put a marriage equality measure on the ballot. Today is May 23—and following Judge Michael McShane’s ruling that extended the freedom to marry to all loving, committed couples in Oregon, a ballot campaign to address the same issue is no longer needed. “We are confident that the freedom to marry is secure in Oregon and that we do not need to move forward with the ballot measure,” said Oregon United for Marriage deputy campaign manager Amy Ruiz. “It is time to celebrate this victory for Oregon.”

Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via Lee Dorsey / FB;


Via Daily Dharma


Long Journey to a Bow | May 23, 2014

Learning to make that first bow to ourselves is perhaps a step to realizing that a bow is just a bow, a simple gesture where all ideas of 'self' and 'other,' 'worthy' and 'unworthy,' fall away. It is a step of confidently committing ourselves to realizing the same freedom and compassion that all buddhas throughout time have discovered; it is acknowledging that we practice to be liberated. 
 
—Christina Feldman, "Long Journey to a Bow"