In
the process of developing compassion, we need to become skillful at
knowing when to apply boundaries and when to relax or release them.
—Lorne Ladner, “Taking a Stand”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Developing Compassionate Boundaries
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 23, 2021 💌
When I perform a wedding ceremony, the image I invoke is of a triangle
formed by the two partners and this third force, which is the shared
love that unites and surrounds them both. In the yoga of relationship,
two people come together to find that shared love but continue to dance
as two. In that union, both people are separate and yet not separate.
Their relationship feeds both their unique individuality and their unity
of consciousness.
Love can open the way to surrendering into oneness. It gets extraordinarily beautiful when there’s no more “me” and “you,” and it becomes just “us.” Taken to a deeper level, when compassion is fully developed, you are not looking at others as “them.” You’re listening and experiencing and letting that intuitive part of you merge with the other person, and you’re feeling their pain or joy or hope or fear in yourself. Then it’s no longer “us” and “them”; it’s just “us.” Practice this in your relationships with others.
At a certain point, you realize that you see only the projections of your own mind. The play of phenomena is a projection of the spirit. The projections are your karma, your curriculum for this incarnation. Everything that’s happening to you is a teaching designed to burn out your stuff, your attachments. Your humanity and all your desires are not some kind of error. They’re integral parts of the journey.
Love can open the way to surrendering into oneness. It gets extraordinarily beautiful when there’s no more “me” and “you,” and it becomes just “us.” Taken to a deeper level, when compassion is fully developed, you are not looking at others as “them.” You’re listening and experiencing and letting that intuitive part of you merge with the other person, and you’re feeling their pain or joy or hope or fear in yourself. Then it’s no longer “us” and “them”; it’s just “us.” Practice this in your relationships with others.
At a certain point, you realize that you see only the projections of your own mind. The play of phenomena is a projection of the spirit. The projections are your karma, your curriculum for this incarnation. Everything that’s happening to you is a teaching designed to burn out your stuff, your attachments. Your humanity and all your desires are not some kind of error. They’re integral parts of the journey.
- Ram Dass -
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Via White Crane Institute / HARVEY MILK
1930 -
Gay rights pioneer, martyr and San Francisco city supervisor HARVEY MILK was born on this date. Milk was an American politician and Gay Rights activist and the first openly Gay city supervisor of San Francisco, California. He was often called, "the first openly Gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet," though this slights others who were elected before him in cities not so associated with Gay life.
What is not as well-remembered was his amazing ability to bring communities and neighborhoods together for progressive ends.
The U.S. Postal Service officially revealed the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp in 2015. The stamp’s official first-day-of-issue ceremony took place at the White House. The public was invited to attend the May 28 Harvey Milk Forever Stamp special dedication ceremony in San Francisco. Customers may order the Harvey Milk stamp now through this link for delivery following the May 22 stamp issuance.
The stamp image is based on a circa 1977 black and white photograph of Milk in front of his Castro Street Camera store in San Francisco taken by Danny Nicoletta of Grants Pass, OR. Antonio Alcalá of Alexandria, VA, was art director for the stamp.
Via Lion's Roar //
Mindfulness and the Buddha’s Eightfold Path
To understand how to practice mindfulness in daily life, says Gaylon Ferguson, we have to look at all eight steps of the Buddha’s noble eightfold path.
In his first teaching at Deer Park, the Buddha praised mindfulness: “The Noble Eightfold Path is nourished by living mindfully.”
From the beginning, the path of awakening includes all aspects of our human lives: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and social. The aim is a mindful life. This means that our relationship to our sexuality and our consumerist economic system, our parenting, and our politics are all part of the path.
This approach to living fully is outlined in the eightfold path. “Right mindfulness” is one aspect of this path, alongside right view, right intention, right effort, right meditative engagement, right speech, right livelihood, and right action. The Sanskrit word samyak—often translated as “right” or “perfect”—can also mean “complete.” Engaging mindfulness encourages complete engagement with life.
Let’s walk through these aspects of the Buddhist spiritual path, returning mindfulness to her rightful place among her seven less famous but equally important sisters and brothers.
Via Tricycle // Chanting in the Time of COVID-19
 Chanting in the Time of COVID-19
Interview with Kanho Yakushiji by Koshin Paley Ellison |
|
Via Daily Dharma: Cultivating a Generous Spirit
Through generosity, we cultivate a generous spirit. Generosity of spirit will usually lead to generosity of action.
—Gil Fronsdal,“The Joy of Giving”
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Friday, May 21, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Being Present for Our Own Pain
After
recognizing our suffering, we must respond to it with love. This takes
courage and commitment. It means not looking away, not seeking
distractions when offered the opportunity to be present for our own
pain.
—Beth Roth, “Family Dharma: Leaning into Suffering”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Thursday, May 20, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Just Being Here
Meditation is just to be here. Not over there. Not longing for something else.
—Steve Hagen, “Looking For Meaning”
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Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Via White Crane Institute // Today's Gay Wisdom
2007 -
TODAY'S GAY WISDOM
From Lorraine Hansberry:
"The oppressed are by their nature ... forever in ferment and agitation against their condition and what they understand to be their oppressors. If not by overt rebellion or revolution, then in the thousand and one ways they will devise with and without consciousness to alter their condition." Lorraine Hansberry
"I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and—I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations."
"We only revert back to mystical ideas - which includes most contemporary orthodox religious views, in my opinion - because we simply are confronted with some things we don't yet understand."
"There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning -- because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is. [from Raisin in the Sun]"
Via GBF // René Rivera - HEARTS
HEARTS –
· Here (present and connected)
· Expressed delight
· Attunement
· Rituals and routines
· Turning towards after conflict
· Secure attachment with self
Thank you, René
Rivera!
Via Daily Dharma: Sensations that Arise and Pass Away
If
the mind labels a pain, saying, “I hurt,” you have to examine the label
carefully, contemplate it until you see that it’s wrong: the pain isn’t
really yours. It’s simply a sensation that arises and passes away,
that’s all.
—Upasika Kee Nanayon, “Tough Teachings to Ease the Mind”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - May 19, 2021 💌
From the soul’s point of view, you come to appreciate that each one of
us is living out his or her own karma. We interact together, and those
interactions are the grist for each other’s mill of awakening. From a
personality point of view, you develop judgment, but from the soul’s
point of view, you develop appreciation.
This shift from judging to appreciating — to appreciating yourself and
what your karmic predicament is, and who other beings are with their own
karma — brings everything into a simple loving awareness. To be free
means to open your heart and your being to the fullness of who you are
because only when you are resting in the place of unity can you truly
honor and appreciate others and the incredible diversity of the
universe.
- Ram Dass -
Excerpt from Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Seeing the Truth of Each Moment
Mindfulness
practice enables us to go beneath the surface level of our
moment-to-moment life experiences, which are clouded with emotions and
habitual thinking, and allows us to see the truth of what is happening.
—Phillip Moffitt, “The Mindfulness of the Buddha”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Monday, May 17, 2021
VIa Prefeitura de Ouro Preto // DIGA NÃO A HOMOFOBIA!
Infelizmente ainda hoje muitos ataques são realizados, sendo eles verbais ou físicos. O ex- participante do reality show Big Brother Brasil, que é conhecido por todos como Gil do Vigor, sofreu ataques homofobicos após uma visita ao estádio de futebol do seu time, Sport.
Esse é apenas um dos casos que acontecem diariamente no Brasil e no mundo e, muitos deles nem são conhecidos, por serem sofridos por pessoas anônimas.
Hoje, 17 de maio, é o Dia Internacional Contra a Homofobia; data esta destinada à conscientização, evolução, amor, respeito, luta e fim de todo o preconceito.
"Neste dia de combate à LGBTfobia que seja mais do que tudo, um dia de reflexão. O Brasil é um dos países que mais mata pessoas LGBT no mundo e estar vivo é ainda o nosso maior ato de resistência. Não deveria ser assim. Homofobia é crime!"
Gil do Vigor
Sunday, May 16, 2021
#344 How to Handle Anger, Uncertainty, and Self-Loathing | Mushim Patricia Ikeda
•1:15:09
#344: How to Handle Anger, Uncertainty, and Self-Loathing | Mushim Patricia Ikeda
When somebody wrongs you, what is the wise way to handle your anger? Is forgiveness possible? What about friendliness? My guest today has a lot of thoughts about how to handle anger and how to respond to people who mean you harm.
It might surprise you to hear from a Buddhist teacher who actually isn’t utterly disparaging of anger. In fact, she is proud (somewhat facetiously) of having been called “the original Angry Asian Buddhist.” Her name is Mushim Patricia Ikeda, and she is my kind of Buddhist. She self-describes as “snarky,” and, as you will hear, she loves to laugh. She has doable, down-to-earth strategies, and she makes a compelling, if counterintuitive, case for the pragmatism of sending goodwill to people who want to harm you.
Mushim is a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. She is a writer, activist, and diversity consultant. She has trained for decades as both a lay and monastic Buddhist. Aside from anger, we also discuss how to handle uncertainty, and what Mushim calls a “pandemic of self-loathing” in our culture. But we begin with some candid talk about the trauma of being an Asian-American during a time of rising violence against the AAPI community.
This is the second in a two-part series on the uptick in anti-Asian violence -- a trend that should be particularly worrisome for this audience, given the Asian roots of meditation and many of the other happiness-producing modalities we talk about on this show. If you missed it, go check out Monday’s episode, where we explore the history of anti-Buddhist and anti-Asian violence in America (which started decades before the pandemic), and the hurt felt by many Asian-American Buddhists about how they can be overlooked by other American Buddhists, including, sometimes, me.
Two other items of business: first, are you interested in teaching mindfulness to teens? Looking to carve your own path and share this practice in a way that feels real, authentic, and relevant in today’s world? Our friends at iBme are accepting applications for their Mindfulness Teacher Training program - catered towards working with teens and young adults. The last round of applications are due May 15th and scholarships are available. For more information and to apply, check out: https://ibme.com/mindfulness-teacher-training/.
And second, we want to recognize and deeply thank mental health professionals for all you do. For a year's FREE access to the app and hundreds of meditations and resources, visit: https://www.tenpercent.com/mentalhealth.
Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/mushim-patricia-ikeda-344
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