A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Via Dhamma Wheel // Cultivating Equanimity
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Via Daily Dharma: The Gift of Uncertainty
—Kaira Jewel Lingo, “Trusting the Unknown”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via White Crane Institute // SOLSTICE
WINTER SOLSTICE - In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice, sometimes known as Yule, occurs on or very close to this date. In the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the first official day of Winter. In the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs around this time.
YULE is a winter festival celebrated in Northern Europe since ancient times. In pre-Christian times, Germanic pagans celebrated Yule from late December to early January on a date determined by a lunar calendar. During the process of Christianization and the adoption of the Julian calendar, Yule was placed on December 25, in order to correspond with the Christian celebrations later known in English as Christmas. Thus, the terms "Yule" and "Christmas" are often used interchangeably, especially in Christmas carols.
In Denmark, Norway and Sweden the term jul is the common way to refer to the celebration, including among Christians. In these countries the highlight of the yule celebrations is the Yule Eve or Christmas Eve on December 24, which is when children get their Yule or Christmas presents by a character resembling Father Christmas called julemanden (Denmark), julenissen (Norway), or jultomten (Sweden).
In Finland, it is called joulu, in Estonia jõulud, and in Iceland and the Faroe Islands jól.
Yule is an important festival for Germanic neopagans, Wiccans and various secular groups who observe the holiday at the winter solstice (December 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere, June 20 or 21 in the Southern Hemisphere).
As with other holidays at this time of the year, it is about the shortness of the day and the long dark night, and it is celebrated, traditionally, with the burning of a log all night to keep the light or carry the light over the divide of the old year to the new.
The burning of the Yule log, the decorating of Christmas trees, particularly with lights, the eating of ham, the hanging of boughs, holly, mistletoe, etc. are all historically practices associated with Yule. When the Christianization of the Germanic peoples began, missionaries found it convenient to provide a Christian reinterpretation of popular pagan holidays such as Yule and allow the celebrations themselves to go on largely unchanged, versus trying to confront and suppress them. The Scandinavian tradition of slaughtering a pig at Christmas (see Christmas ham) is probably salient evidence of this.
The tradition is thought to be derived from the sacrifice of boars to the god Freyr at the Yule celebrations. Halloween and aspects of Easter celebrations are likewise assimilated from northern European pagan festivals.
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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute
"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson
Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org
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Monday, December 20, 2021
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Via Daily Dharma: Finding the Still Point
—Jundo Cohen, “Four Steps You May Be Overlooking in Your Zazen Practice”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - December 19, 2021 💌
Water, when it flows downstream, doesn’t have a model of what it’s
doing. It’s just being water, and water floats downstream, because
that’s how water works. The thing that is extraordinarily hard for any
of us to truly realize and to have sufficient faith to accept, is that
if you stop having views, having models, planning, desiring, organizing,
and structuring, it’s all right.
You don’t stop your desires as long as you stay in a human body. You
break the identification with them. Thats all thats required.
It isn’t necessary to give up a thing. It’s necessary to give up attachment to the thing. That’s all that’s required.
- Ram Dass
Via Dhamma Wheel // Establishing Mindfulness of Mind
Establishing Mindfulness of Mind
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One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel
Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Special Edition: The Week in Good News - December 18, 2021
11 ways LGBTQ rights improved around the world in 2021
Though 2021 presented many challenges for the LGBTQ community, it was also a year of hope and progress. In several countries, new legislation was introduced while, in others, regressive laws were scrapped. New policies decriminalized homosexuality, provided protection for trans people against discrimination, and made it easier for the community to access healthcare.
Let’s take a look at eleven ways LGBTQ rights improved around the world this year. Here’s to more positive changes and safer spaces for LGBTQ people to exist in 2022.
Via Love Serve Remember Foundation \\ Ever wonder how "Be Here Now" came to BE? Dive in! 📘
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Via Lion´s Roar \\ Breathe
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Via Dhamma Wheel \\ Developing Unarisen Healthy States
RIGHT EFFORT
Developing Unarisen Healthy States |
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One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel
Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.
Via Daily Dharma: Change Requires Action
—Peter Doobinin, “Sutta Study: The Ship”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Via White Crane Institute // Today's Gay Wisdom: The Wisdom of Saki (H.H. Munro)
Today's Gay Wisdom
The Wisdom of Saki (H.H. Munro)
- A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation.
- I always say beauty is only sin deep.
- Hors d'oeuvres have always a pathetic interest for me; they remind me of one's childhood that one goes through wondering what the next course is going to be like - and during the rest of the menu one wishes one had eaten more of the hors d'oeuvres.
- Great Socialist statesmen aren't made, they're still-born.
- He spends his life explaining from his pulpit that the glory of Christianity consists in the fact that though it is not true it has been found necessary to invent it.
- You needn't tell me that a man who doesn't love oysters and asparagus and good wines has got a soul, or a stomach either. He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.
- It's no use growing older if you only learn new ways of misbehaving yourself.
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Gay Wisdom for Daily Living from White Crane Institute
"With the increasing commodification of gay news, views, and culture by powerful corporate interests, having a strong independent voice in our community is all the more important. White Crane is one of the last brave standouts in this bland new world... a triumph over the looming mediocrity of the mainstream Gay world." - Mark Thompson
Exploring Gay Wisdom & Culture since 1989!
www.whitecraneinstitute.org
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