Saturday, August 9, 2014

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Via Daily Dharma


Return to Nirvana | August 9, 2014

Nirvana is a reaching-point, a goal. But nirvana is also the home to which we are returning. We use the words 'original state of mind' to denote both our home and our destination.

- Sokei-an, “Return to Your Original State”

Flower of the Day: 08/09/14

“Love can be more deadly than death itself. Pure love is a great threat because it is born from the truth, and the truth represents the end of deceit.”

Sri Prem Baba

Friday, August 8, 2014

Matt Alber - House on Fire - Live


Via Daily Dharma


Challenge How We Cling | August 8, 2014

When Buddhism says, 'It's an illusion, it's empty,' I think back to when Ignatius said, 'Your self—that's your problem. You have to conquer self, kill the self.' It's that tradition, both in Christianity and in Buddhism, in which we are challenged to let go of what is so comfortable and what we cling to as who we are, if we're going to open ourselves to reality and truth.
 
-Jerry Brown, “Politics and Prayer”
 

Flower of the Day: 08/08/14

“A lot of light is arriving on this planet, but our bodies are not yet fully attuned to these new frequencies of light. So it is possible that you may enter situations that are a result of this dissonance, but that still serve to move the energy that is stuck in your system. When this happens, be careful not to frighten yourself because that opens a hole that you can be swallowed by. In this case, you enter a spiritual emergency, which some may call an existential crisis, madness, or panic.”
 
Sri Prem Baba

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Flower of the Day: 08/07/14

“Surrender is only possible if there is trust, and trust is a blossoming. One can remain cowering at the edge of the abyss of love for months, years, or many lives, too afraid to jump. One may be hearing love’s call asking one to jump, but it’s not possible to determine when one will be ready for this to happen.”

Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


The Long Road to Sitting Still | August 7, 2014

The Buddha, perhaps, taking the Middle Way and always reminding us that even our destination is unfixed and perhaps illusory, is every walker’s special friend. Those who journey with him know that they may not come to knowledge so much as a deepened sense of their own ignorance.
 
- Pico Iyer, “The Long Road to Sitting Still”
 

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

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Via Daily Dharma


The Natural Order of Things | August 6, 2014

While we live, we are able to live. When it's time to die, we are able to die. This is the natural order of things, and to the extent that we align ourselves with this, we experience peace even in the midst of distress.  
 
- Meikyo Robert Rosenbaum, "Breathless"
 

The Secret of our Century - Baha'u'llah


Flower of the Day: 08/06/14

“The main aspect of the spiritual journey is creating union. Every river flows towards the ocean, and the ocean never refuses a river. But, for the river to approach the ocean, it must have the strength to overcome all of the challenges along the journey. This strength is gained through the union of various rivers, because one river alone easily disappears.”
 
Sri Prem Baba

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

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Bliss is a By-Product | August 5, 2014

There may be bliss with awakening, because it is actually a by-product of awakening, but it is not awakening itself. As long as we are chasing the byproducts of awakening, we will miss the real thing. 
 
- Adyashanti, "Bliss is a By-Product"
 

Flower of the Day: 08/05/14

“Identifying the negative aspects of the personality is like opening up a window to brighten a dark room. When you open it, the darkness disappears, but you see that the room is dirty. The light comes in to illuminate your perception, but it’s not enough to remove all of the impurities. If the floor is very dirty, then it might have to be cleaned several times. You keep cleaning until it is very clean. The same thing happens with the heart.”
Sri Prem Baba

Monday, August 4, 2014

Flower of the Day - 08/04/14

“Desire and ambition generate unrest. All anxiety and the compulsion to do are symptoms of desire and ambition. One only frees oneself of a symptom by eliminating the cause, which is only eliminated by understanding the cause. Self-investigation generates this comprehension. By investigating the causes, one will discover that one is obsessed with success. But I ask you: what is success for you? Is it reaching a certain level in your life? And once you reach this level, what do you do? You want more. This is the nature of desire.”
Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma


Self Disappears | August 4, 2014

When we are freed from the reactive patterns sprung from the boundaries we live by—good and bad; love and hate—we are not the self we were before. And when the boundaries themselves dissolve, self as we understand it disappears.
 
- Anne C. Klein, “The Four Immeasurables”
 

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Via Bilerico: Nepal Regressing Dangerously on LGBT Rights


Sunil Babu Pant, the first openly gay politician in the mountainous south Asian nation of Nepal and the head of the country's only LGBT rights group, is warning that the country is at risk of a dangerous backslide on LGBT rights inspired by similar reversals in India, Russia, and some African nations.

In an op-ed for the Nepali Times, Pant writes:
The Law Ministry, under the NC's Narhari Acharya, is trying to enact punitive laws that re-criminalise LGBT relationships, completely overturning previous Supreme Court decisions. After the first Constituent Assembly was dissolved in 2012, there is not a single person from the third gender community in the bureaucracy, ministry, parliament or any other decision-making level...
This new draft provision of civil and criminal codes prepared by the Law Ministry not only defines homosexuality, but also oral and anal sex among heterosexuals, as 'unnatural' acts. The definition of rape is narrowed only to women. The notion that only men can be rapists and only women can be victims comes from a deep-rooted patriarchal mindset. These notions seem to be inspired by conservative reversals in India, some western and African countries...
All Nepalis who believe in equality and tolerance must raise their voices. The right to justice of all marginalised peoples is under threat from a regressive state. They are going to be excluded, margninalised, discriminated against, criminalised and demonized.
Pant tells Gay Star News that the Law Ministry is preparing to push the measures through parliament after an attempt to do so in 2011 failed. The proposed laws would punish gay sex with three years' imprisonment, which is a tougher penalty than the one-year jail sentence attached to gay sex before it was decriminalized in 2007.

"We are really concerned about this attempt of taking Nepal back to draconian era after so much progress we made. Unbelievable that the government is going all against the Supreme Court decisions on LGBTI rights and other minority and marginalized people's rights in Nepal," he said.

Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2014/08/nepal_regressing_dangerously_on_lgbt_rights.php#DGFS5pAOB6jYbLeu.99