Saturday, August 2, 2014

Via Daily Dharma


The Vow Behind Generosity | August 2, 2014

Every act of generosity reminds us of the possibility that we might actually live the bodhisattva's vow, the vow to engage in everyday life as though the well-being of others is just as important as our own.
 
- Dale S. Wright, "The Bodhisattva's Gift"
 

Friday, August 1, 2014

[Ensinamentos Budistas 326]


SF Gay Men's Chorus Celebrates the End of Prop 8


A violência invisível - Monja Coen Roshi


Publicado em 05/05/2013
 
Palestra do ciclo "A Banalização do Mal, Ensaios Sobre Fenômenos Líquidos" da Escola Paulista de Psicanálise. Realizada no auditório da Livraria Martins Fontes de São Paulo. Neste encontro a Monja Coen Roshi, missionária da Tradição Zen Sotoshu do Japão, abordou o tema: "A violência invisível".






Flower of the Day: 08/01/14

“At some point, one tires of walking in the circles of ignorance, because one becomes aware that one’s actions generate more and more suffering each time. One sees oneself stuck in the same place, and feels a sincere willingness to go beyond this place and to free oneself of all lies and self-deceit. So one says: ‘I want to know what my responsibility is in this game. Why do I keep repeating the same negative situations? Why am I always falling in the same hole?’ At this moment, one commits oneself to the truth, as much as it may hurt one’s vanity.”
 
Sri Prem Baba

Walt Disney - Ferdinand The Bull - 1938


Via Daily Dharma


Ignorance is King | August 1, 2014

Ignorance is like the king, and clinging attachment and hostility are his ministers. To rid ourselves of the king's minions we must get rid of the king. And so it is of greatest importance to identify ignorance properly.
 
- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "Like a Pig In..." 

Via Blue Nation Review / FB:


Thursday, July 31, 2014

Via JMG: CHINA: Man Sues Search Engine For Directing Him To "Ex-Gay" Torture Clinic


 
Via the Associated Press:
A gay Chinese man said Thursday he was suing a psychological clinic for carrying out electric shocks intended to turn him straight, as well as the search engine giant Baidu for advertising the center. The Beijing LGBT Center, which campaigns for gay rights, said it was the first court case involving so-called conversion therapy in China. China declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 2001. The center's executive director, Xin Ying, said some professional hospitals in China, as well as smaller private clinics, still provide conversion therapy and that the group hopes the case at the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing will lead to a ban on the therapy. Yang Teng, 30, told The Associated Press that the therapy given to him included hypnosis and electric shock and he was left physically and mentally hurt. He said he voluntarily underwent the therapy in February following pressure from his parents to get married and have a child.
Local activists demonstrated outside the court today carrying a banner that read: "Homosexuality is not a disease, we don't need to be cured." A judgment in the case is expected by the end of the year.


Reposted from Joe Jervis

Via FB:


Flower of the Day: 07/31/14

"When you develop the virtue of trust to the point where you are able to surrender yourself to the flow of life, you become a hollow bamboo flute which God’s melody is played through."
 
Sri Prem Baba

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Via JMG: UTAH: Language School Fires Teacher For Blog Post Explaining Homophones Because There And Their Is Totally Gay


From the you-can't-make-it-up-department in Provo, Utah:
Homophones, as any English grammarian can tell you, are words that sound the same but have different meanings and often different spellings — such as be and bee, through and threw, which and witch, their and there. This concept is taught early on to foreign students learning English because it can be confusing to someone whose native language does not have that feature. But when the social-media specialist for a private Provo-based English language learning center wrote a blog explaining homophones, he was let go for creating the perception that the school promoted a gay agenda. Tim Torkildson says after he wrote the blog on the website of his employer, Nomen Global Language Center, his boss and Nomen owner Clarke Woodger, called him into his office and told him he was fired. As Torkildson tells it, Woodger said he could not trust him and that the blog about homophones was the last straw. "Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality," Woodger complained, according to Torkildson, who posted the exchange on his Facebook page.
The school has denied the teacher's claim of homophonia - but has also deleted his post from its website. Their clunky mission statement could use some work: "Nomen Global Language Centers substantially helps students from all cultures and walks of life to excel in each aspect of their English acquisition and to obtain their goals for the future. We achieve this goal by means of qualified and experienced faculty, dedicated staff, engaging and challenging curriculum, and professional and ethical student services." (Tipped by JMG reader Joseph)
 
Reposted from Joe Jervis

Flower of the Day: 07/30/14

"When you fall in love with someone, you project all of your dreams onto them and you start to daydream. The other person does the same thing, and you both go on trying to keep this dream alive while avoiding the truth. You avoid revealing yourself to the other, just as you avoid seeing the other’s revelation because it could be a threat to your dream. Thus, the truth becomes a threat, because you prefer to keep on living in your dreamworld."
Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


Romantic Love | July 30, 2014

In Buddhist practice, we discover that mindful attention can reveal a deeper truth in whatever object we are paying attention to. The same is true in romantic love. When we use our attention to touch and open the deeper truth in a person, we not only catalyze the experience of love, we become love. The source of love is revealed to be within us; we no longer have to go looking for it somewhere outside. 
 
- Nicole Daedone, "Love Becomes Her" 
 

Via Daily Dharma


Blowin' in the Wind | July 29, 2014

How do we renounce? How do we work with this tendency to block and to freeze and to refuse to take another step toward the unknown? If our edge is like a huge stone wall with a door in it, how do we learn to open the door and step through it again and again, so that life becomes a process of growing up, becoming more and more fearless and flexible, more and more able to play like a raven in the wind? 
 
Pema Chödrön, "Like a Raven in the Wind" 
 

Monday, July 28, 2014

There Goes the Gayborhood? By Amin Ghaziani


Flower of the Day: 07/28/14

"We waste a great part of our journey looking for someone to blame for our unhappiness, and believing that we are not good or worthy enough to be happy. This addiction to accusing others is so deeply rooted and can be so subtle that, when you least expect it, you find yourself accusing the other and believing that you are a helpless victim. But when you can transform this victim within you and free yourself from the lenses that distort your perception, you experience a major change in perspective: you stop seeing the glass half empty and start seeing it as half full."
 
Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


Heart of Mine | July 28, 2014

Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there’s no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn’t melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart’s not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You’d get it and be right here. 
 
—Han-Shan and Gary Snyder, "Parting Words Summer 2014"
 

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Via Daily Dharma


Clear Insight | July 27, 2014

A clear insight into the nature of physical forms and mental events will release you from all suffering and stress. 
 
—Upasika Kee Nanayon, "Tough Teachings to Ease the Mind"