Thursday, April 30, 2020

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Via Daily Dharma: How to Suffer Less

You eliminate an enormous amount of suffering by concentrating on the suffering that is actually present instead of creating more with your thinking. It is the difference between discomfort and torment.

—Larry Rosenberg,“When the Student is Ready, the Teacher Bites”

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Monday, April 27, 2020

Via Daily Dharma: Connecting with Our Power

What if we said that power is internal freedom, that power is the capacity for choice?

—Helen Tworkov, “Just Power”

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Sunday, April 26, 2020

Via White Crane Institute // LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

Ludwig Wittgenstein
1889 -
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1951); an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of language. His influence has been wide-ranging and he is generally regarded as one of the 20th century's most important philosophers.
Before his death at the age of 62, the only book-length work Wittgenstein had published was the Tractatus Logico-Philisophicus,["Philosophical Investigations"], which Wittgenstein worked on in his later years, was published shortly after he died. Both of these works are regarded as highly influential in analytic philosophy.
Ludwig Wittgenstein seems to have been uncomfortable with his sexuality. Certainly, he was very secretive about his sexual interests and activities. His secretiveness is not altogether surprising, considering the fact that homosexuality was illegal in Austria and Britain during his lifetime. Therefore, details of his emotional and sexual life are sparse.
William W. Bartley first broached the subject of Wittgenstein's homosexuality in his 1973 biography and received considerable censure and disapproval from the philosophy establishment. Apparently, in his student days in Vienna, Wittgenstein occasionally cruised the Prater, a large public park, where he met rough trade youths; he seems to have continued this activity later in England. However, Wittgenstein is also believed to have had long-term affairs with men of his own class, such as the philosopher Frank Ramsey and the architect Francis Skinner.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - April 26, 2020 💌





"If we can imagine a wheel whose rim is the cycle of births and deaths, all of the 'stuff' of life, conditioned reality, and whose center is perfect flow, formless no-mind, the source, we’ve got one foot with most of our weight on the circumference of the wheel, and one foot tentatively on the center. That’s the beginning of awakening. And we come in, and we sit down and meditate, and suddenly there’s a moment when we feel the perfection of our being and our connection. Then our weight goes back on the outside of the wheel. Over and over and over, this happens.
Slowly, slowly the weight shifts. Then the weight shifts just enough so that there is a slight predominance on the center of the wheel, and we find that we naturally just want to sit down and be quiet, that we don’t have to say, 'I’ve got to meditate now,' or 'I’ve got to read a holy book,' or 'I’ve got to turn off the television set,' or 'I’ve got to do… anything.' It doesn’t become that kind of a discipline anymore. The balance has shifted.

And we keep allowing our lives to become more and more simple, more and more harmonious. And less and less are we grabbing at this and pushing that away..."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Softening Your Ego

Gratitude is a way of undercutting your ego.

—Interview with Rev. Dr. Alfred Bloom by Jeff Wilson, “Beyond Religion”

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Saturday, April 25, 2020

Via Insight Meditation Society


May all beings be healthy.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe and protected.
May all beings be free.

Via Daily Dharma: Recognize the Miracles of Life

Distractions can be so harmful: they [turn] us away from the miracle of life all around us.

—Leo Babauta, “Dropping Distraction”

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Thursday, April 23, 2020

Rev. Patricia Mushim Ikeda prays the Shantideva Prayer

Join the the nationwide #ClimatePrayer at 12noon local on Earth Day, April 22nd. Sign up and download the prayer of your choice here: http://bit.ly/earthdayprayer Then come back to FB to pray along! Why not say a prayer at 12noon local every day of Earth Week! Rev. Patricia Mushim Ikeda, a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA is praying Shantideva’s Prayer. 

#FaithClimateActionWeek Ecumenical Advocacy Days Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life Earth Day Network Lutherans Restoring Creation CA Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology Presbyterian Hunger Program United Church of Christ Parliament of the World's Religions Sojourners Creation Justice Ministries



Shantideva’s Prayer, as recited by Rev. Patricia Mushim Patricia Ikeda, East Bay Meditation Center

May I be a protector to those without protection, A leader to those who journey,
A boat, a bridge, a passage to those desiring the shore of non-suffering.
May the pain of every living creature Be completely cleared away
May I be the doctor, and the medicine, and may I be the nurse for all sick beings until everyone is healed.
Just like space And the great elements such as Earth may I always support the life of all the many creatures.
And until they pass away from pain, may I also be the source of life for all the realms of varied beings that reach into the ends of space.


Oração composta pelo mestre Shantideva no século VIII


Que eu me torne em todos os momentos, agora e para sempre,
Um protetor para os sem proteção,
Um guia para aqueles que perderam o seu caminho,
Um navio para os que têm oceanos a cruzar,
Uma ponte para aqueles com rios para atravessar,
Um santuário para aqueles em perigo,
Uma lâmpada para aqueles sem luz,
Um lugar de refúgio para aqueles que não têm abrigo,
E um servo para todos que precisam.

Via Daily Dharma: Listening to Silence

[When] you simply listen without attachment to sound, to silence, or to the contrast between the two, there’s no attachment at all … You will eventually reach a point when listening still occurs, but it no longer has an object. In other words, there is still awareness, but that which you are aware of is empty.

—Dharma Master Hsin Tao,“Listening to Silence”

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