Thursday, July 16, 2020

Via White Crane Institute // ANTINOUS

This Day in Gay History

July 16

Born
Antinous
0110 -

ANTINOUS born (d: 130 C.E.); If there was an All Time Beautiful Men contest, this man would have been a contender if he didn’t just walk away with the cup. And like most beauties, be married well. Antinous was a famous beauty of the ancient world who became the beloved of the emperor Hadrian.

He may have been a male prostitute when Hadrian met him, but his origins are obscure though later on he was believed to have been the product of a virgin birth. All that is known for certain is that Hadrian was immediately and utterly smitten with the beautiful 15-year-old.

From that time on, Antinous was with the emperor constantly until a journey to Egypt where he was drowned in the Nile. Some say that Antinous, knowing that a prophecy had declared the death of Hadrian unless a living sacrifice were to be offered in his place, died so that his lover might live. Others believe that Antinous, growing into young manhood, was ashamed of playing mistress to the emperor.

The most poignant story is that the boy killed himself because he couldn’t bear the idea of growing old. What we know for certain is that Hadrian’s grief at the death of Antinous was uncontained and nothing short of monumental. He deified him and founded the city of Antinopoölis in Egypt in his honor (and many other Antinopoölises elsewhere in the world) and renamed the boy’s birthplace Antinopoölis as well.

A cult was inaugurated in his honor that focused on the youth who was born of a virgin and went on to sacrifice his own life for the good of mankind. Coins were minted with his likeness and numerous busts and shatteringly beautiful statues were erected to commemorate the beauty of this youth and the love the emperor felt for him (there are so many beautiful images that are purported to be Antinous it is hard to choose which one to include here).

After deification, Antinous was associated with and depicted as the Egyptian god Osiris, associated with the rebirth of the Nile. Virgin birth. Risen from death. Sacrificed for the benefit of all people. 

Sound familiar?

Antinous was depicted as the Roman Bacchus, a god related to fertility, cutting vine leaves. Sociologist Royston Lambert wrote an utterly fascinating study of the relationship of Hadrian and Antinous as well as an equally intriguing discussion of the parallels between this story of a young man, sacrificed and associated with rebirth, and another contemporaneous story about a young man from Nazareth.

Highly recommended: Check this out on Amazon .

Via Daily Dharma: Celebrate the Light

Threaded through the dark tangle of our misery are strings of light. We are no more responsible for the light than for the dark, but surely it is wise to celebrate the beauty of the light that has manifested in and through us.

—Matthew Gindin, “Putting to Rest the Myth of the Heroic Self”

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Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Via Daily Dharma: Befriend Who You Already Are

Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.

—Pema Chödrön,“Nothing to (Im)prove”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - July 15, 2020 💌


If we accept that the ends of our actions often prove unknowable, we’re also freer to be focused on the process of our work as it’s happening. We can be attentive to situations as they occur. What lies before us is it. Helping is right here. Not having to know so badly, not wandering off looking, we’re more able to be present, freer simply to be.
We needn’t be troubled or worn down, then, by paradox and ambiguity. The mystery of helping can be our ally, our teacher, an environment for wonder and discovery. If we enter into it openly, our actions fall into perspective, a larger pattern we can trust. At rest in the Witness, meanwhile, we greet the outcome of our action with equanimity.

Here is a final shift in perspective which can help release us from burnout: We do what we can.

- Ram Dass -

Monday, July 13, 2020

Via Daily Dharma: Cultivate Open Awareness

Cultivation of open awareness contributes to more flexibility of the mind and a concurrent ability to include more perspectives. Our powers of observation become more acute, and we can actually see our prejudices arise, noticing how we cling to fixed views. Eventually, it becomes easier to relinquish them and be open to new ways of seeing.

—Diane Musho Hamilton, Gabriel Menegale Wilson, and Kimberly Loh, “In Brief”

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Sunday, July 12, 2020

Heart Sutra Live Looping Remix【Loopstation RC-505】


Via Daily Dharma: Anchoring in the Present Moment

Most people think that thoughts and emotions are the enemy. But we can use thoughts and emotions, even the bad ones, to actually bring us into the present moment.

—Phakchok Rinpoche, “Creating a Confident Mind”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - July 12, 2020 💌



It's the expectations of your own mind that creates your own hell. When you get frustrated because something isn't the way you thought it would be, examine the way you thought, not just the thing that frustrates you. You'll see that a lot of your emotional suffering is created by your models of how you think the universe should be and your inability to allow it to be as it is.

- Ram Dass -

Saturday, July 11, 2020

NiT GriT - The Awakening


Via Daily Dharma: How to Become Whole

To have well-being means to be whole—not split. It means being able to accept one’s own life—including one’s past—without striving for something else or wanting to be somebody else. 

—Interview with Werner Vogd by Susanne Billig, “Becoming Whole”

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Via FB



Thursday, July 9, 2020

Cacao: Food of the Gods - a film about the origin of cacao ceremonies


Via Daily Dharma: Warm Up for Meditation

Take the time [you] need to prepare the body for meditation. By doing so, we invite the breath to become our closest ally—one we can rely on to inform us about and eventually lead us back to the spaciousness right here and now.

Lauren Krauze,“Breathe Easy”

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