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 We tend to think the gift is to have seen something new, but perhaps it’s more to have seen through something old, and the real discovery may not be a truer formulation but the giving up of any view.

Henry Shukman, “The Art of Being Wrong”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Compassion

 

RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Compassion

Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on compassion, for when you develop meditation on compassion, any cruelty will be abandoned. (MN 62) Compassion is like a mother with a son who is ill, for she just wants the illness to go away. (Vm 9.108)

Reflection

While lovingkindness is a universal intention of unbounded kindness and an indiscriminate wish for well-being that can radiate in all directions, compassion is what this changes into when it encounters a person or group of people suffering or being harmed. At that point the general urge for safety is focused on the intention to alleviate that suffering. Compassion is a particular form of lovingkindness, focused by suffering.

Daily Practice

In order to feel compassion, you have to be willing to see the suffering of others. It can be hard to open to this, but your lovingkindness will not transform into compassion unless you do. Practice being willing to witness suffering when you encounter it, and pay attention to the texture of your inner experience as it moves through phases: resistance to the pain, opening to it, feeling the hurt of it, then maturing into true compassion.

Tomorrow: Refraining from Malicious Speech One week from today: Cultivating Appreciative Joy Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via White Crane Institute // NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY

 

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Original Keith Haring Poster for National Coming Out Day 1988

1988 -

NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY -- National Coming Out Day was founded by Robert Eichberg and Jean O'Leary on October 11, 1988 in celebration of the first Gay march on Washington D.C. a year earlier. The purpose of the march and of National Coming Out Day is to promote government and public awareness of Gay, bisexual, Lesbian and transgender rights and to celebrate homosexuality. National Coming Out Day is a time to publicly display Gay pride. Many choose this day to come out to their parents, friends, co-workers and themselves.

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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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Via LGBTQ Nation // Heartstopper books

 

“Heartstopper” books accused of “promoting the LGBTQ ideology” in library defunding effort

"These books and lifestyle choices are destructive and wrong," one conservative activist said. 

 

 

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right View: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

 

RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering What is the origin of suffering? It is craving, which brings renewal of being, is accompanied by delight and lust, and delights in this and that: that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for being, and craving for non-being. (MN 9) When one does not know and see the five aggregates as they actually are, then one is attached to the five aggregates. When one is attached, one becomes infatuated, and one’s craving increases. One’s bodily and mental troubles increase, and one experiences bodily and mental suffering. (MN 149)

Reflection Previous passages have focused on each of the aggregates in turn: material form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. Here we are invited to look at them as a whole and notice the way they can all act as the place in our experience where attachment that leads to suffering is born and develops. When we understand the aggregates as the fleeting processes they are, non-attachment is easier.  Daily Practice Use the three-part analysis of craving as a practical tool. Notice when you have a craving for sensual pleasures, for the things that you like to persist or increase. Notice too when you have a craving for being, wishing for something gratifying to happen. And notice when you have a craving for non-being: that is, when you want something to go away that you do not like or want. These are the textures of craving; practice being aware of them as they occur. Tomorrow: Cultivating Compassion One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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Via Daily Dharma: Getting Closer to Our Pain

 The closer we get to our pain, the greater are the odds that we’ll be able to skillfully relate to it rather than from it.

Robert Augustus Masters, “A Painless Present”

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Via White Crane Institute // MPHO ANDREA TUTU van FURTH

 

Noteworthy

Mpho Tutu van Furth with her father Desmond Tutu

1963 -

MPHO ANDREA TUTU van FURTH is a South African Anglican priest, author and activist. We know she was born in this year, but have randomly assigned this birthdate because we can't ascertain her actual date of birth. She is the daughter of Leah and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She coauthored two books with her father, and a biography about him with journalist Allister Sparks. She was ordained in 2003, but due to the regulations of the Anglican Church of South Africa, she was not permitted to function as a priest in the church after marrying a woman in 2015. In 2022 she began preaching in Amsterdam. As a child, Tutu had no desire to follow in her father's footprints as a priest and later described her path to the ministry as taking the "scenic route" and said she felt God calling her into the profession.

Tutu van Furth was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2003. Before her ordination, she was the director of the Discovery Program at All Saints Church in Worcester, Massachusetts. She received her master's degree from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and after her ordination she began preaching at the historic Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia.

Tutu van Furth has co-authored a number of books including Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World and Tutu: The Authorised Portrait; The former two books were written with her father and the latter with journalist Allister Sparks. She has been an outspoken advocate for the importance of forgiveness. She made news for forgiving the murderer of her housekeeper in 2012. She and her father have advocated for forgiveness in the wake of racial tensions and police shootings in the United States. As a public speaker, she has shared the stage with The 14th Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Ken Robinson and others.

Tutu van Furth was the founding director of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and served as executive director from 2011 to 2016.

In January 2022, Mpho Tutu van Furth was confirmed as pastor of Vrijburg, a church in Amsterdam, by the reverend Joost Röselaers

In 2015, Tutu married Marceline van Furth, a Dutch professor of medicine, and moved to Amstelveen in the Netherlands. Shortly after the marriage, the Diocese of Saldanha Bay withdrew her license as a priest. Both of her parents were supportive of her marriage. According to the BBC, the Anglican Church of South Africa is looking at new guidelines for members who enter same-sex unions, but it is "not clear whether there will be any change when it comes to same-sex marriages of church clerics". 

In 2022, the Church of England – which does not allow its clergy to marry the same gender – prohibited her from leading a funeral because she is married to a woman. 

In regards to her marriage, Tutu van Furth said, "I had the extreme good fortune of growing up in a household with parents who were very clear about their faith and very clear about full inclusion of all people ... regardless of gender and gender identity and regardless of sexual orientation." Her father said in 2013 that he would never "worship a God who is homophobic" and both of them have been active in calls for LGBT equality. Desmond Tutu stated that he was "as passionate about [the campaign against homophobia] as I ever was about apartheid".

Reverend Tutu von Furth had previously been married to Joseph Burris, with whom she had two children

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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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BBC Crowd Science // Why am I gay?

 

Released On: 07 Oct 2022

Human sexuality comes in many forms, from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual. But seeing as homosexuality creates apparent reproductive and evolutionary disadvantages, listener Ahmed from Oslo wants to know: why are some people gay? CrowdScience presenter Caroline Steel examines what science can - and can't - tell us about the role of nature, nurture and evolution in human sexual attraction. She asks a geneticist what we know of the oft-debated 'gay gene', as well as looking into why homosexual men on average have more older brothers than heterosexual men. Caroline looks into the role of nurture with a developmental psychologist to answer a question from a CrowdScience listener from Myanmar. He wonders if the distant relationship he has with his own father has impacted his own feelings of attraction. She also learns about research into a group of people in Samoa who may shed light on the benefits of traditionally non-reproductive relationships for communities as a whole. Presented by Caroline Steel Produced by Jonathan Blackwell for BBC World Service 

Contributors: 

Dr. Kevin Mitchell – Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin 

Dr. Malvina Skorska - Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto 

Prof. Lisa Diamond - Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies, University of Utah Prof. 

Paul Vasey, Professor and Research Chair, Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge 

Vaitulia Alatina Ioelu, Chief Executive Officer, Samoa Business Hub

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and Abiding in the First Jhāna

 

RIGHT MINDFULNESS
Establishing Mindfulness of Body

A person goes to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and sits down. Having crossed the legs, one sets the body erect. One establishes the presence of mindfulness. (MN 10) One is aware: “Ardent, fully aware, mindful, I am content.” (SN 47.10)   Full awareness: when walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent . . . one is just aware, just mindful: “There is body.” And one abides not clinging to anything in the world. (MN 10)

Reflection

Mindfulness of the body can take place at any time and with any activity. We practice it formally seated on a meditation cushion to become familiar with a certain range of sensations, and then we can extend it to other areas of daily life. Acting with full awareness is particularly well suited to ordinary activities requiring a sense of continuity over time, such as walking or dressing yourself. Full awareness is mindfulness in motion.

Daily Practice

All skills are gradually learned by practicing them again and again. When sitting still we tend to focus on the bodily sensations associated with the breath; when walking mindfully we notice the sensations of the rhythmic moving of certain muscles. See if you can extend the scope of these practices by becoming aware of the sensations of other bodily motions, such as those associated with taking a sip of tea, for example.

RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna)

Having abandoned the five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of seclusion. (MN 4)

Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering
One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna

Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media
#DhammaWheel

Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Via Daily Dharma: What to Do with Stray Thoughts

 The very fear of stray thoughts is another stray thought. Therefore, if you have many stray thoughts, consider it a natural phenomenon and do not despise them.

Master Sheng-yen, “Being Natural”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - October 9, 2022 💌

 

"I don’t elevate human relationships that much. I see them as just more of the interaction with the phenomenal world, and another person is a set of phenomena manifested. I see that when I’m getting upset because somebody is a certain way, I take that upset and ask 'Why am I upset?' I realize that a part of my upset is because I have a model that I am holding of how the world should be other than the way it is. I have the choice of either trying to change the world to adhere to my model, or let go of my model to be with the world." - Ram Dass

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