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.
When
we trust with our open heart, whatever occurs, at that very moment that
it occurs, can be perceived as fresh and unstained by the clouds of
hope and fear.
"My own strategy is to keep cultivating the witness, that part of me
that notices how I’m doing it—cultivate the quiet place in me that
watches the process of needing approval, of the smile on the face, of
the false humility, of all the horrible creepy little psychological
things that are just my humanity. And watching them occur again and
again and again."
WILLIAM DORSEY SWANN
(c. 1858) was an American gay liberationist activist. He was born into
slavery, so we can only guess at the date of his birth. He was the first
person in the United States to lead a queer resistance group and the
first known person to self-identify as a "queen of drag."
Swann was a slave in Hancock Maryland and was freed by Union soldiers after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.
During the 1880s and 1890s, Swann organized a series of balls in Washington D.C.
He called himself the "queen of drag". Most of the attendees of Swann's
gatherings were men who were former slaves, and were gathering to dance
in their satin and silk dresses. Because these events were secretive, invitations were often quietly made at places like the YMCA.
Swann was arrested in police raids numerous times, including in the first documented case of arrests for female impersonation in the United States, on April 12, 1888. In 1896, he was falsely convicted and sentenced to 10 months in jail for "keeping a disorderly house", i.e., running a brothel.
After his sentencing, he requested a pardon from President Grover
Cleveland who blanched and took to his chambers, requesting his salts.
Which is to say the request was denied, but Swann was the first American
on record who pursued legal and political action to defend the LGBTQ
community's right to gather.
Swann was known
to have been close with Pierce Lafayette and Felix Hall, two men who had
also both been slaves and who formed the first known male same-sex
relationship between enslaved Americans.
When Swann stopped organizing and participating in drag events, his brother continued to make costumes for the drag community.
Two of his brothers had also been active participants in Swann's drag
balls. Swann is the subject of the upcoming non-fiction book The House of Swann by Channing Joseph, set for publication by Picador in 2021.
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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
Whatever a person frequently thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)
Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts the mind, and strives to maintain arisen healthy mental states. One maintains the arisen mindfulness awakening factor. (MN 141)
Reflection
One form that effort takes in Buddhist practice is the rousing of latent tendencies and dormant traits, encouraging them to rise into conscious awareness as active mental and emotional states. The more frequently you do this, the more likely these states are to become the natural inclination of your mind. And once aroused, healthy states such as mindfulness need to be reinforced and maintained by deliberate choice.
Daily Practice
Throughout the day, remind yourself often to be mindful, to be consciously aware of what you are doing or feeling or thinking. And once you establish the presence of mindfulness, make a further effort to sustain it over time. Mindfulness, once established, needs to be reestablished moment after moment. Each moment is a new beginning and a new opportunity to bring clear awareness to all you experience.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mental Objects and the Fourth Jhāna One week from today: Restraining Unarisen Unhealthy States
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
Loving
ourselves involves accepting this truth that we are imperfect, and once
we realize this, we can shift away from perfection and instead move
toward perfecting our love toward our imperfect selves.
RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Intoxication
Intoxication is unhealthy.
Refraining from intoxication is healthy. (MN 9) What are the
imperfections that defile the mind? Negligence is an imperfection that
defiles the mind. Knowing that negligence is an imperfection that
defiles the mind, a person abandons it. (MN 7) One practices thus:
“Others may become negligent by intoxication, but I will abstain from
the negligence of intoxication." (MN 8)
Gain and loss are two of the eight worldly conditions. These are
conditions that people meet—impermanent, transient, and subject to
change. A mindful, wise person knows them and sees that they are subject
to change. Desirable conditions do not excite one’s mind nor is one
resentful of undesirable conditions. (AN 8.6)
Reflection
The conditions
of gain and loss are the first pair of the eight “worldly winds”
described in the texts, and they constitute the Buddhist equivalent of
the phrase “You win some and you lose some.” The idea is that some
things are inevitable in life, and the appropriate strategy in such
cases is not to hope for them not to happen but rather to adjust
yourself to them in a way that is skillful and conducive to overall
well-being.
Daily Practice
Notice how
natural it is to feel good when you gain something you value and to feel
bad when you experience loss. Notice also how, in such circumstances,
you allow yourself to be buffeted by the worldly winds of gain and loss.
See if instead you can remain firm, grounded in equanimity rather than
in favoring or opposing what happens. This is one way to remain
clearheaded when facing intoxicating conditions.
Tomorrow: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Harming Living Beings
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
