Today's Daily Dharma: The Force of Love

The Force of Love

The extraordinary thing about the cultivation of metta [lovingkindness], as opposed to Christian ideas of love, is that it is a transpersonal force. When you concentrate on transmitting metta, it's like you're not actually doing it, you're just opening yourself up to this field of potential sympathy that exists between all sentient beings.

—Antony Gormley, "The Other Side of Appearance"

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Today's Daily Dharma: What Should I Do Today?

What Should I Do Today?

My students ask, 'What should I do now? What should I do today?' To me, it comes down to practice, clearing your mind and opening your heart so that whatever arises, moment to moment, you handle it as best you can.

—Jan Chozen Bays, "War or Peace? Thinking Outside the Box"

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Via Huffington: Every LGBTQ+ Person Should Read This

Dearest Queer Person,

Chances are you don't even know that you are holy, or royal or magic, but you are. You are part of an adoptive family going back through every generation of human existence.

Long before you were born, our people were inventing incredible things. Gifted minds like the inventor of the computer Alan Turing and aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont live on in you. 

The imprint that bold and brilliant individuals like Lynn Conway and Martine Rothblatt (both transgender women alive today) made on modern technology is impossible deny as present-day engineers carry their torch in the creation of robots and microprocessors. 

More recently speaking, one of the co-founders of Facebook publicly acknowledged his identity as a gay man, as did the current CEO of Apple.

We were so often gods and goddesses over the centuries, like Hermaphrodite (the child of Hermes and Aphrodite), and Athena and Zeus, both of whom had same-sex lovers. In Japan it was said that the male couple Shinu No Hafuri and Ama No Hafuri, "introduced" homosexuality to the world. The ability to change one's gender or to claim an identity that encompasses two genders is common amongst Hindu deities. The being said to have created the Dahomey (a kingdom in the area now known as Benin) was reportedly formed when a twin brother and sister (the sun and the moon) combined into one being who might now identify as "intersex." Likewise, the aboriginal Australian rainbow serpent-gods Ungud and Angamunggi possess many characteristics that mirror present-day definitions of transgender identity. 

Our ability to transcend gender binaries and cross gender boundaries was seen as a special gift. We were honored with special cultural roles, often becoming shamans, healers and leaders in societies around the globe. The Native Americans of the Santa Barbara region called us "jewels." Our records from the Europeans who wrote of their encounters with Two-Spirit people indicates that same-sex sexual activity or non-gender binary identities were part of the culture of eighty-eight different Native American tribes, including the Apache, Aztec, Cheyenne, Crow, Maya and Navajo. 

Without written records we can't know the rest, but we know we were a part of most if not all peoples in the Americas.

Your ancestors were royalty like Queen Christina of Sweden, who not only refused to marry a man (thereby giving up her claim to the throne), but adopted a male name and set out on horseback to explore Europe alone. Her tutor once said the queen was "not at all like a female." Your heritage also includes the ruler Nzinga of the Ndongo and Matamna Kingdoms (now known as Angola), who was perceived to be biologically female but dressed as male, kept a harem of young men dressed in traditionally-female attire and was addressed as "King." Emperors like Elagalabus are part of your cultural lineage, too. He held marriage ceremonies to both male-identified and female-identified spouses, and was known to proposition men while he was heavily made-up with cosmetics. 

Caliphs of Cordoba including Hisham II, Abd-ar-Rahman III and Al-Hakam II kept male harems (sometimes in addition to female harems, sometimes in place of them). Emperor Ai of Han Dynasty China was the one whose life gives us the phrase "the passions of the cut sleeve," because when he was asleep with his beloved, Dong Xian, and awoke to leave, he cut off the sleeve of his robe rather than wake his lover.

You are descended from individuals whose mark on the arts is impossible to ignore. These influential creators include composers like Tchaikovsky, painters like Leonardo da Vinci and actors like Greta Garbo. Your forebears painted the Sistine Chapel, recorded the first blues song and won countless Oscars. They were poets, and dancers and photographers. Queer people have contributed so much to the arts that there's an entire guided tour dedicated just to these artists at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

You have the blood of great warriors, like the Amazons, those female-bodied people who took on roles of protection and had scarce time or interest between their brave acts to cater to the needs of men. And your heart beats as bravely as the men of the Sacred Band of Thebes, a group of 150 male-male couples who, in the 4th century B.C.E., were known to be especially powerful fighters because each man fought as though he was fighting for the life of his lover (which he was). But your heritage also includes peacemakers, like Bayard Rustin, a non-violent gay architect of the Black civil rights movement in the U.S.

We redefined words like bear, butch, otter, queen and femme, and created new terms like drag queen, twink and genderqueer. But just because the words like homosexual, bisexual, transgender, intersex and asexual, have been created in the relatively recent past doesn't mean they are anything new. 

Before we started using today's terms, we were Winkte to the Ogala, A-go-kwe to the Chippewa, Ko'thlama to the Zuni, Machi to the Mapuchi, Tsecats to the Manghabei, Omasenge to the Ambo and Achnutschik to the Konyaga across the continents. While none of these terms identically mirror their more modern counterparts, all refer to some aspect of, or identity related to, same-gender love, same-sex sex or crossing genders.

You are normal. You are not a creation of the modern age. Your identity is not a "trend" or a "fad." Almost every country has a recorded history of people whose identities and behaviors bear close resemblance to what we'd today call bisexuality, homosexuality, transgender identity, intersexuality, asexuality and more. Remember: the way Western culture today has constructed gender and sexuality is not the way it's always been. Many cultures from Papua New Guinea to Peru accepted male-male sex as a part of ritual or routine; some of these societies believed that the transmission of semen from one man to another would make the recipient stronger. In the past, we often didn't need certain words for the same-sex attracted, those of non-binary gender and others who did not conform to cultural expectations of their biological sex or perceived gender because they were not as unusual as we might today assume they were.

Being so unique and powerful has sometimes made others afraid of us. They arrested and tortured and murdered us. We are still executed by governments and individuals today in societies where we were once accepted us as important and equal members of society. They now tell us "homosexuality is un-African" and "there are no homosexuals in Iran." You, and we, know that these defensive comments are not true--but they still hurt. So, when others gave us names like queer and dyke, we reclaimed them. 

When they said we were recruiting children, we said "I'm here to recruit you!" When they put pink and black triangles on our uniforms in the concentration camps, we made them pride symbols.

Those who challenge our unapologetic presence in today's cultures, who try to deprive us of our rights, who make us targets of violence, remain ignorant of the fact that they, not us, are the historical anomaly. For much of recorded history, persecuting individuals who transgressed their culture's norms of gender and sexuality was frowned upon at worst and unheard of at best. Today, the people who continue to harass us attempt to justify their cruel campaigns by claiming that they are defending "traditional" values. But nothing could be further from the truth. 

But now you know they are wrong. Just imagine the world without that first computer or the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, or a huge part of the music you've ever heard from classical Appalachian Spring to classic YMCA (I mean, we've held titles from the "Mother of Blues" to the "King of Latin Pop!"). How much less colorful would the world be without us? I'm grateful that you're here to help carry on our traditions. 

So, happy LGBT History Month! I hope to celebrate with you here at Quist. This list of LGBTQ history online resources is a good place to start in exploring more specifics about this heritage.
Lesbianamente*,
Sarah Prager

*Actually a term as a way someone signed a letter for a lesbian organization in Mexico decades ago!
This piece was inspired in part by facts and sentiments from Another Mother Tongue by Judy Grahn (published 1984). Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia edited by Gilbert H. Herdt (published 1993) is also referenced. Many of the referenced facts are cited so many places it has become common knowledge. Christianne Gadd contributed significantly to this piece. This post originally appeared in The Advocate.
Follow Sarah Prager on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Sarah_Prager

More:

LGBT History Quist App LGBTQ History Bisexual History LGBT History Lesbian History Transgender History Christina of Sweden Alan Turing

 

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Today's Daily Dharma: No Retreat

No Retreat

On the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment, he is said to have understood that everything is completely interconnected and interdependent. Therefore it is impossible for anybody to go on retreat from the world. Everybody knows that when you go on retreat, the whole world, no matter how tiny your retreat cabin, is there, in terms of your experience. And the purpose of retreat is precisely to transform the world.

—Richard Reoch, "The Path of Complete Enlightenment"

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Today's Daily Dharma: Just Being

Just Being

When we speak of just sitting, we are not limiting ourselves to describing a particular posture or practice. We are describing a way of being in the world in which everything we encounter is fully and completely itself.

—Barry Magid, "Uselessness"

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#ConLaVozBienAlta - FELGTB

Your Father (30s) | Campbell’s #RealRealLife

Today's Daily Dharma: Always Awake

Always Awake

Every instant in the flow of illusion and suffering displays the full panoply of the unimpeded awakened state. There are no moments in which awake is not.

—Douglas Penick, "Taken Away and Given"

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Today's Daily Dharma: Refuge in the Night

Refuge in the Night

Intimacy is a principal benefit of reclaiming the twilight hours of each day: intimacy with nature, intimacy with others, intimacy with ourselves. Darkness is good therapy. It unwinds the springs that daylight tightens and opens doorways onto eternity that are made invisible by light.

—Clark Strand, "Finding a Shallow Cave"

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 04/10/2015

“Movidas pelo medo e pelo ódio inconscientes, as pessoas se encontram, mas não sabem o que de fato querem umas das outras. Elas estão buscando algo, mas não sabem o que é. Elas ignoram que estão procurando uma parte de si mesmas no outro, e se iludem com a ideia de que o outro é a fonte da felicidade. Mas essa ideia é a fonte do sofrimento nas relações.”
“AMAR E SER LIVRE - As bases para uma nova Sociedade.”

“Movidas por el miedo y por el odio inconsciente, las personas se encuentran, pero no saben lo que realmente quieren unas de otras. Ellas están buscando algo, pero no saben qué es. Ignoran que están buscando una parte de sí mismas en el otro, y se ilusionan con la idea de que el otro es la fuente de la felicidad. Pero esta idea es la fuente del sufrimiento en las relaciones.”
“AMAR Y SER LIBRE - Las bases para una nueva Sociedad.”

“Motivated by fear and unconscious hatred, we interact with one another without even knowing what we truly want from each other. We are all searching for something, but we don’t know what it really is. We forget that we are actually looking for a part of ourselves in the other, and we delude ourselves into thinking that the other is our source of happiness. This very idea is the source of suffering in our relationships.”
LOVE AND BE FREE: The Foundations for a New Society

Today's Daily Dharma: Embrace Imperfection

Embrace Imperfection

My practice is teaching me to embrace imperfection: to have compassion for all the ways things haven’t turned out as I’d planned, in my body and in my life; for the way things keep falling apart, and failing, and breaking down. It’s less about fixing things and more about learning to be present for exactly what is.

—Anne Cushman, "Living from the Inside Out"

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Via Salon: Pope Francis met with openly gay couple — and unlike Kim Davis, who ambushed him, he did so intentionally

 

(Credit: Reuters/Aristide Economopoulos)

 

Pope Francis met with a gay couple the day before he met with same-sex marriage opponent Kim Davis, CNN’s Daniel Burke reports.

Yayo Grassi and his partner, Iwan — old friends of the pope from Argentina — visited the pontiff and were greeted with warm hugs. In an interview with CNN, Grassi said that “three weeks before the trip, he called me on the phone and said he would love to give me a hug.”

Unlike the publicity stunt manufactured by Kim Davis, her lawyers, and elements within the church hostile to Francis’ agenda, this meeting was both deliberate and purposive. 

Referring to the Vatican’s statement about Davis, in which Reverend Federico Lombardi said that “the only real audience granted by the Pope at the nunciature was with one of his former students and his family,” Grassi said “that was me.” Pope Francis taught him at Inmaculada Concepcion high school in Flores, Argentina, from 1964-1965.

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Via JMG: BREAKING: Vatican Distances Pope Francis From Kim Davis, “Meeting Should Not Be Seen As Support”

 

October 2, 2015 Marriage Equality, Religion

 

This morning the Vatican formally distanced Pope Francis from Kim Davis in a statement which declares that his meeting with her “should not be considered a form of support.” The Associated Press reports:

After days of confusion, the Vatican issued a statement Friday clarifying Francis’ Sept. 24 encounter with Davis, an Apostolic Christian who has become a focal point in the gay marriage debate in the U.S. In a statement, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis met with “several dozen” people at the Vatican’s embassy in Washington just before leaving for New York. Lombardi said such meetings are par for the course of any Vatican trip and are due to the pope’s “kindness and availability.” He said the pope only really had one “audience” in Washington: with former students and his family members. “The pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs. Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects,” Lombardi said.

Davis said earlier this week that she and her husband met briefly with the pope at the Vatican’s nunciature in Washington and that he encouraged her to “stay strong.” She later told ABC: “Just knowing that the pope is on track with what we’re doing and agreeing, you know, it kind of validates everything.” The Vatican statement made clear the pope intended no such validation. News of the audience sent shockwaves through the U.S. church, with Davis’ supporters saying it showed the pope backed her cause and opponents questioning whether the pope had been duped into meeting with her and truly knew the details of her case. Initially the Vatican only reluctantly confirmed the meeting but offered no comment. On Friday, Lombardi issued a fuller statement to “contribute to an objective understanding of what transpired.

Last night CBS News reported that a Vatican insider says the Pope was “blindsided” by the meeting.

A highly placed source inside the Vatican claims the Pope was blindsided. It is a meeting some charge was orchestrated by the man who lived there, the Pope’s representative here, Carlo Maria Vigano. Not even the Papal Spokesman Federico Lombardi knew about it ahead of time. Nor did the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which would have opposed it. Others claim the Pope knew about the meeting and had ordered Vatican diplomats, perhaps even Vigano, to set it up. CBS 2’s Vatican source doesn’t think so. A close advisor to Pope Francis tweeted that the Pope was, in his words, “exploited” by those who set up what the CBS 2 source says was a “meeting that never should have taken place.” Some call it an attempt by highly placed church leaders in the U.S. to diminish the impact of the Pope’s visit.

Also yesterday Esquire Magazine speculated that Pope Francis was “swindled” into the meeting by his own enemies within the Vatican. That story also blames Vigano and notes that he participated in NOM’s hate march earlier this year.

The man is a real player within the institutional church. He first came to prominence as a whistleblower during one of the several investigations of the Vatican Bank, which may be what got him exiled to this godless Republic in the first place. Despite that fact, Vigano is well-known to be a Ratzinger loyalist and he always has been a cultural conservative, particularly on the issue of marriage equality. In April, in a move that was unprecedented, Vigano got involved with an anti-marriage equality march in Washington sponsored by the National Association For Marriage. (And, mirabile dictu, as we say around Castel Gandolfo at happy hour, one of the speakers at this rally was Mat Staver, who happens now to be Kim Davis’s lawyer.) In short, Vigano, a Ratzinger loyalist, who has been conspicuous and publicly involved in the same cause as Kim Davis and her legal team, arranges a meeting with Davis that the legal team uses to its great public advantage.

It will be VERY enjoyable to watch the Liberty Counsel attempt to spin today’s bombshell from the Vatican, which will surely set off a firestorm of inquires about who actually set up the meeting.

NOTE: Also complicit here, in my mind, is ABC News. It was their reporter who lobbed that “conscientious objector” question on the papal plane as the Pope departed Philadelphia. And then the next day it was ABC News who somehow had the exclusive interview with Kim Davis. This was probably not a coincidence.
UPDATE: Here is Reuters’ take on today’s bombshell.

Pope Francis did not ask to meet a Kentucky county clerk who had been jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and did not offer her unconditional support, the Vatican said on Friday. Looking to limit controversy after last week’s meeting in Washington between the pope and Kim Davis, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said she was one of “several dozen” people who had been invited by the Vatican ambassador to see Francis. A senior Vatican official, who declined to be named, said there was a “sense of regret” within the Holy See over the encounter, which sparked widespread debate in the United States, overshadowing almost all other aspects of the pope’s visit. He added that Davis had been in a line of people the pope had met at the Vatican embassy in Washington before he left for New York. “The only real audience granted by the Pope at the Nunciature (Vatican embassy) was with one of his former students and his family,” the statement said.

Today's Daily Dharma: Rest in Lovingkindness

Rest in Lovingkindness

We suffer because we do not understand the openness of our true nature. This is the ignorance that the Buddha taught is the root of all suffering. . . . If we take the time to shift to a place where we can actually rest in openness and lovingkindness, our suffering diminishes.

—Lama Palden, "Practicing with the Five Hindrances"

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Via Towleroad: Dan Savage on Kim Davis and the Pope: Homophobia ‘Unites People Across Different Christian Faiths’

On All In with Chris Hayes last night, Dan Savage spoke about why Kim Davis’ secret meeting with Pope Francis is troubling and how it contradicts his message that the Catholic Church should focus less on social issues.

Said Savage of the meeting,

“I think it’s very revealing. You know, the Pope has said the church needs to de-emphasize social issues, needs to not just talk about gay marriage and abortion, but this secret meeting where he encouraged this woman to continue to discriminate against LGBT couples and then framed her as a conscientious objector….I think it really reveals what goes on with the Catholic church under the Pope, which is that this de-emphasizing of these social issues is – I don’t want to call it a racket or a scam, but it’s kind of a smoke screen that the Pope still believes these things, the church – the church said it is not going to change its position on same sex marriage, but then for the Pope to turn around and meet with someone like Kim Davis, and tell her – and encourage her to keep it up, keep discriminating against LGBT couples, it just shows that the church wishes it could engage in this activity.”

Hayes noted the irony that evangelical, protestant and Catholic Christians are now united given their historical ability to not always play nicely with one another. To which Savage replied, “It just shows you that homophobia is really what unites people across different Christian faiths now and it’s disgusting.”

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 02/10/2015

“O homem é uma semente, um potencial que pode ser manifestado ou pode ser desperdiçado. A colheita espiritual é sempre um mistério: plantamos pensamentos, palavras e ações, mas não sabemos quando vamos colher os grãos. Nosso trabalho é plantar pensamentos, palavras e ações que estejam alinhados com a Verdade maior. Em outras palavras, é plantar o bem para colher o bem. Mas, muitas vezes estamos colhendo coisas que não lembramos quando plantamos.” 

“El hombre es una semilla, un potencial que puede ser manifestado o puede ser desperdiciado. La cosecha espiritual es siempre un misterio: plantamos pensamientos, palabras y acciones, pero no sabemos cuándo vamos a cosechar esos granos. Nuestro trabajo es plantar pensamientos, palabras y acciones que estén alineados con la Verdad mayor. En otras palabras, es plantar el bien para cosechar el bien. Pero muchas veces estamos cosechando cosas que no recordamos cuándo las plantamos.”

“A human is a seed, a potential that can be manifested or wasted. The spiritual harvest is always a mystery: we plant thoughts, words and actions, but we don’t know when we are going to harvest the grain. Our work is to plant thoughts, words and actions that are aligned with a higher truth. We strive to plant the good in order to harvest the good. But oftentimes we end up harvesting things that we don’t even remember having planted.”

Anuncios Google 3:29 / 4:15 New Teacher Encounters Homophobia In Second Week.

http://imfromdriftwood.com/alexa_espinal/

Via LGBTQ Nation: A gay dad’s note to the Pope: You snubbed us for Kim Davis? Really?

Pope Francis

 
Last week, I invited the pope to join my family for dinner. It was largely a symbolic gesture, although I had a housecleaning action plan and menu picked out in case he accepted.

It wasn’t that I wanted him to meet my family specifically. I wanted him to simply sit face to face with a family like mine. My two sons were adopted out of foster care and were both in situations that were life-threatening and dire. Our family in the world of LGBT parents is not unique. A great number have stories about kids who’ve gone from lives of potential abuse and neglect to homes where their parents love and honor them.

My point to the pope was simply: Before you judge us, you can at the very least sit with us and see what we are about.

The pope covered a lot of ground during his visit to America. But one thing he didn’t do is meet with any LGBT families. To his credit, while he was here, he didn’t overtly bash of us either.

At least, not until he was on his way out.

Like a kid who’s been an absolute angel all afternoon, only to totally prank out at the end, the Pope shot a spit-wad to the LGBT community as his parting gift:

He secretly met with Kim Davis and put his seal of approval on her behavior.

Dear Pope Francis,

We sat staring at the empty chair at our dinner table. We had hoped it would be filled by you. True, the chance that you’d accept our invitation was a long shot.

It turns out it was an even longer shot than we thought while in America, you gave plenty of moving speeches. You talked of family and how you wished young people would be inspired to start one. You talked of love and bonds and principles that I agree with.

As you were leaving, we could have walked away with the feeling that some common ground had been met. Instead, you disappointed and betrayed us.

The issue isn’t simply that you met with Kim Davis. It’s that you embraced her behavior and encouraged it. Following your “secret” meeting, you said, “Conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right.”

What you neglected to say is that you can’t expect to conscientiously object without consequences. As with the right to free speech, you have the right to speak freely without fear of imprisonment or jail, but it doesn’t preclude others from speaking back or reacting harshly to what you said.

Anyone who believes the Bible legitimizes racism and/or slavery can state their conscientious objections to anti-discrimination protections, but it doesn’t give them the right to discriminate. A firefighter who believes flames are “the will of God” doesn't have the right to let houses burn down. Your right to object doesn’t give you the right to demean others.

The most honorable objections are done with willing sacrifices.

Kim Davis reports that you thanked her for her “courage.” It makes me sad that your idea of “courageous” is someone who humiliates loving families.

If you want to understand conscientious objection and bravery, I ask you to look instead to LGBT activist Corporal Evelyn Thomas:

“I served in the Army National Guard and The U.S. Marine Corps prior to the enactment of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell; during a time when “homosexuality was prohibited” under the Uniform Code of military Justice (UCMJ).
I survived my military career with damages. I survived a corrective rape. I was raped by four Marines; in which a pregnancy was the result. I carried the child of my rapists. I reported the crimes. Although it was traumatic and terrifying time, I survived the physical, mental, and emotional abuse… Too many innocent lives have been lost in this war against inequality and injustice…

Many people have viewed the iconic photo. It feels strange to think of that moment in the LGBT Movement. My comrades and I stood along the White House fence with our hands handcuffed to the metal bars, as a drastic and imperative plea for President Barrack Obama to end the oppressive, barbaric, and archaic practices of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. This is our Civil Rights Movement. Each time I look at that photo, I see 6 heroes — humans that risked their professional careers and some cases personal relationships to perform a brave act. We did not perform this act for fame or money. We did it so that the women and men serving in our military know and understand they are of value, and “their lives do matter.” We will not allow any man, woman, or government determine our worth.”

Evelyn Thomas and her comrades were brave. They made a statement for their beliefs and they understood the consequences. They didn’t want to be made comfortable. They wanted to be heard. 

Kim Davis is not Evelyn Thomas. She’s asking for the world around her to conform to her narrow-minded point of view. The fact that you apparently share her worldview still doesn’t make it right for her to impose those beliefs on other people.

The afterglow of your trip is gone. Long gone. The tears Bernie Sander shed over your seemingly forward-thinking principles have dried. It wasn’t that you snubbed LGBT families and didn’t speak out for our rights. It’s who you decided to see and support instead of us. Salt, meet wound. 

We look at your empty chair at our dinner table and realize it’s small compared to the emptiness you left in our hearts. When you were told that you had been a “star” on this trip, you replied, “How many stars have we seen go out and fall?”

Point taken.

Rob Watson is a gay father of two, LGBT activist, businessman and blogger.

 

Opinions and advice expressed in our Views & Voices columns represent the author's or publication's own views and not necessarily those of LGBTQ Nation. We welcome opposing views and diverse perspectives. To submit a article, column or video, contact us here. Due to the volume of submissions received, we cannot guarantee publication, however you are invited to express your opinion in the comment section below.

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Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 01/10/2015

“As pessoas às vezes estão tão distraídas, entretidas e encantadas com o próprio sofrimento, que nada além da oração pode ajudá-las. Por isso eu lhe convido a orar pelo outro. Por onde quer que passe, afirme internamente: ‘Acorde. Que o amor desperte em você. Que Deus desperte em você. Que você seja feliz.’ Permita-se emanar essa onda de luz e compaixão, esse querer bem sem saber a quem. O amor não tem endereço para se corresponder - ele é para todos.”

“Las personas a veces están tan distraídas, entretenidas y encantadas con el propio sufrimiento, que nada más allá de la oración puede ayudarlas. Por eso te invito a orar por el otro. Por donde quiera que pases, afirma internamente: ‘Despierta. Que el amor despierte en ti. Que Dios despierte en ti. Que seas feliz.’ Permítete emanar esa ola de luz y compasión, ese querer bien sin saber a quién. El amor no tiene dirección para corresponderse – él es para todos.”

“Sometimes people are so distracted, entertained and enchanted with their own suffering that nothing but prayer can help them. For this reason, I have been inviting you to pray for the other. Wherever you go, affirm internally: ‘Awaken. May love awaken in you. May God awaken in you. May you be happy.’ Allow this wave of light and compassion to emanate around you without needing to know towards whom this goodwill is directed. Love doesn’t need a delivery address – it is for everyone.”

Today's Daily Dharma: Life's Sacredness

Life's Sacredness

In trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. It’s easy to forget that life and death are part of the natural scheme of things, intrinsic to our lives in an eternally shifting universe.

—Ronna Kobatznick, "Sea of Sorrow"

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Today's Daily Dharma: Right Attitude

Right Attitude

Right attitude in meditating and practicing is when the mind is not colored by greed or ill will or hatred or confusion. Then we can investigate, and wisdom will develop.

—Carol Wilson, "If We Watch, Wisdom Comes"

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Via Sri Prem BabaFlor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 30/09/2015

“Tenho dito que o principal veneno do ser humano é a negação. Ela é um mecanismo de defesa muito complexo que usa todo o repertório da mente para encobrir partes da nossa personalidade que não aceitamos e queremos esconder. Isso é o que nos mantém nos círculos da ignorância - brigando, disputando, competindo, acusando e defendendo. É isso que nos mantém na guerra.”

“Como he dicho otras veces, el principal veneno del ser humano es la negación. Ella es un mecanismo de defensa muy complejo que usa todo el repertorio de la mente para encubrir partes de nuestra personalidad que no aceptamos y queremos esconder. Esto es lo que nos mantiene en los círculos de la ignorancia – peleando, disputando, compitiendo, acusando y defendiendo. Es esto lo que nos mantiene en la guerra.”

“The primary poison human beings take is denial. It is a very complex self-defense mechanism that uses the mind’s whole repertoire to cover up the parts of our personality that we don’t accept and that we want to hide. This is what imprisons us in circles of ignorance; fighting, disputing, competing, accusing and defending. This keeps the war alive inside of us.”

Budismo no Ocidente: Refuge + Entrevista com Dalai Lama Inédito em Português.

Via Bilerico: How Homosexuality Stopped Being a 'Disease'

We had been jointly planning our tactics over the past month. I and my compatriots of the Gay Liberation Front and Gay May Day collective, friends from the Mattachine Society, and members of the newly formed Gay Activists Alliance were to gather on this bright morning during the first week of May in 1971, and carpool up Connecticut Avenue in northwest Washington, DC to the Shoreham Hotel. Also uniting with us were people from out-of-town who joined us as part of "Gay May Day" as we attempted to shut down the federal government for what we considered as an illegal and immoral invasion into Vietnam.

We parked about a block away since we didn't want hotel security and attendees at the annual American Psychiatric Association conference to notice a rather large group of activists sporting T-shirts and placards announcing "Gay Is Good," "Psychiatry Is the Enemy," and "Gay Revolution." Half the men decked themselves in stunning drag wearing elegant wigs and shimmering lamé dresses, glittering fairy dust wafting their painted faces.

A year before, activists demonstrated outside the APA conference held in San Francisco. As a result, conference organizers conceded to permit a panel to lead a discussion workshop at this year's annual conference in DC under the title "Lifestyles of Nonpatient Homosexuals." The panelists included Dr. Franklin Kameny, Director of Mattachine DC; Barbara Gittings, Director of the Philadelphia office of Daughters of Bilitis; and Jack Baker, first "out" U.S. student body president at the University of Minnesota.
In their capacity as official conference panelists, they were granted inside access to all proceedings, including admission to the annual Convocation of Fellows, in which all attendees were to hear U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark deliver the keynote address in the hotel's over-the-top Regency Ballroom. Earlier in the week, some of us checked out the hotel's layout. The day before, a comrade placed a wedge in a doorway coming from the Rock Creek Park woods into the hotel, where we gained access.

All along, the panelists were to serve as our Trojan Horses. After the Convocation was called to order, and half-way through Clark's address, our insiders opened the doors and in we poured, chanting, waving, shouting. On stage, we witnessed a stunned Attorney General surrounded by similarly stunned and also upset APA officials, and seated in the front rows we noticed elderly men who wore gold medals around their necks. When they saw us, they stood and began beating us with their medals while shouting "Get out of here. We don't want any more people like you here!" Others yelled: "You're sick, you're sick you faggots, you drag queens!" Other psychiatrists stood up from their seats and attempted to push us physically from the hall. I was able to escape their grasp, and I sat locking arms with a contingent on the floor just beneath the stage.
Then Frank Kameny rushed the stage and grabbed the microphone, his booming voice cracking through the pandemonium even after the technician cut the power. "Psychiatry is the enemy incarnate," he yelled, the anger seemingly oozing from his pores. "You may take this as a declaration of war against you!"

And this was, indeed, our intent: to declare war on the psychiatric profession for the atrocities, the colonization, the "professional" malpractice it had perpetrated over the preceding century in the name of "science," the biological and psychological pathologizing of sexual and gender transgressive people. From the so-called "Eugenics Movement" of the mid-nineteenth century though the twentieth century and beyond, medical and psychological professions have often proposed and addressed, in starkly medical terms, the alleged "deficiencies" and "mental diseases" of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

Read more at http://www.bilerico.com/2015/06/how_homosexuality_stopped_being_a_disease.php#OdSvVVyPJOZj9vLh.99

Via urious Liberals / FB:

Via Subhi Nahas: Help Save LGBTI Refugee Lives

Neil Grungras campaign leader

 

'I was sure I’d be raped or killed. I was terrified': My life as a gay Syrian refugee who had to flee Isis
I first escaped to Turkey, but I wasn't even safe there – a childhood friend who had joined Isis threatened to kill me through a mutual friend

By Subhi Nahas
Originally published by the Independent.

Growing up in my small city Idlib, Syria, I always knew I was different. I didn’t know what the difference was or what it was called, but I knew I had a secret to guard. That was a decade ago. Even in my worst nightmare, I didn’t dream that one day my beautiful country would implode. And I couldn’t possibly imagine that one day I would address the UN Security Council on behalf of all refugees including LGBT people like me.

Once my family and community in Idlib found out that I was gay, they confirmed my worst fears. I was “abnormal” and “sick.” Most of them believed – and probably still do – that gay people like me should be hospitalized, imprisoned and even killed. I felt desperately alone.
The internet saved me. I was hungry for information about who I was, and I learned there were others like me who were able to live happily – with careers, travel, and even love. Many were free to tell the truth about who they are.

When I was 15, before I came to terms with my identity, my parents suspected something was “wrong” with me and sent me to a therapist. Breaching rules of confidentiality, he told them I was gay.

From that time, I became a prisoner in my home and my town. My father watched my every move. Authorities of the Syrian government and Jabhat al Nusra, a branch of al-Qaeda, raided cafes and parks where LGBT people secretly gathered. Militants promised the townspeople to cleanse our town of gender nonconforming people. Many people were arrested and tortured. Some were never seen again.

Then I became a target of the militants. In 2012, I was on a bus heading to university. We were stopped. The young people, including me, were taken to a remote house where we were all physically assaulted and harassed. The militants took special notice of me. They called me “sissy,” “faggot,” and other insulting Arabic epithets. I was sure I’d be raped or killed. I was terrified. In the Idlib of 2012, there was no law — only people with guns. Miraculously, they let me go.

The terror followed me home, where my father and I had our last fight. The scar on my chin is a constant reminder of his violent reaction to my being different.

My only hope was to flee. I escaped first to Lebanon and then to Turkey, where I lived for three years and began to advocate for other LGBT people and refugees like myself. I co-founded a group, LGBT Arabi, to bring LGBT refugees and non-refugees together. I wrote a blog about LGBT rights.

Read More>>> www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/i-was-sure-id-be-raped-or-killed-i-was-terrified-my-life-as-a-gay-syrian-refugee-who-had-to-flee-isis-10484304.html

 

 

Make the jump here to sign the petition

Via Sri Prem Baba: Flor do Dia- Flor del Día - Flower of the Day 29/09/2015

“Todas as separações que existem em relação ao mundo exterior são por conta das separações que existem dentro de nós mesmos. Tem sido muito difícil criar união fora simplesmente porque tem sido difícil criar união dentro.”

“Todas las separaciones que existen en relación al mundo exterior son por culpa de las separaciones que existen dentro de nosotros mismos. Ha sido muy difícil crear unión afuera, simplemente porque ha sido difícil crear unión dentro.”

“All the separateness we see in the outside world comes from the separateness that exists inside of us. Creating union externally has been so incredibly difficult simply because we have not yet been able to create union within ourselves.”

Today's Daily Dharma: The Path, Simply Put

The Path, Simply Put

Buddhist teachings can be divided into three parts: sila, samadhi, and prajna: ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom. Or to put it into the vernacular: clean up your act, concentrate your mind, and use your concentrated mind to investigate reality.

—Leigh Brasington, "Focus Comes First"

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