moment

Petrarch: I confess that my body has always been a burden every time I think of myself; but when I cast my eyes on the unwieldiness of other people's bodies, I acknowledge that I have a fairly obedient slave. 

St. Augustine: As to your body, of what do you complain? 

Petrarch: Of that which most other people complain. I charge it with being mortal, with implicating me in its sufferings, loading me with its burdens, asking me to sleep when my soul is awake, and subjecting me to other human necessities which it would be too tedious to go through.

St. Augustine: Calm yourself, and remember you are a man.

confounded

Why?

Nicholas Hiatt

civility

ditto

Eeyore

“It's the end of the world every day, for someone.”
― Margaret Atwood

manure

bulls

Maryjane

smoggy

DAAAARGHK

LOL

whatever

3 hours ago, Yueya said:

A slightly edited version of something I wrote a while back on another thread: 

 

As someone who lives a fairly reclusive life, I come here for community to some degree. I like connecting with other people whose spiritual life is foremost. At times I feel the real warmth that comes from genuine connection. And there’s plenty of variety in personalities and perspectives here.  Also, there’s occasionally information I find particularly helpful. 
 
However, the nitty gritty of my experience is in working through difficulty.  I live within a semi-wilderness environment and my communion is mostly silent interaction with nature. That’s the core of my life. I don’t need any shields against intrusive human vibes or to expend energy on projecting an identity. But that in itself can lead to inner weakness. I’ve learnt that I also need meaningful opposition. That’s what I find on Dao Bums. 
 
The forum abounds with heavily defended city dwelling people, sensitive people who have needs for strong psychic shields. There’s so much unexpressed emotion lurking behind the words, so much psychic content to contend with.  Strong ego’s, forceful opinions, powerful identities, hostility both expressed and covert.  You name it, it here in spades. All these attributes help me gain insight into similarities within my own psyche. In particular, it reveals my emotional weaknesses and shows me how fragile my serenity can be. That shows me the specific areas I need to work through in a way that allows my heart to remain open amongst difficulty and opposition. For me, that's achieved by an ongoing alchemical process of enhancing and enriching my ability to feel in an undistorted way through the harmonisation of my innate feeling sensitivity by means of transmuting my emotional vulnerabilities so they become inner pathways into deeper reality. I've found by doing so I naturally enhance my alignment with heart-mind of Dao, with Spirit, with my Buddha nature (or whatever else you might like to call it.)  And that's the only true basis for inner strength. 
 
If a community could ever be perfect then none of us would need to develop inner connection with Spirit, with the Divine. Of course, I appreciate the effort people here, including myself, have made in the past and continue to make to try to maintain some degree of health here. That’s vital. It's in all of our interests. However, it will always be a futile task to try and impose that from the outside using rules. Ultimately the quality of discussion can only ever be a reflection on our collective de, with the most active contributors having the greatest influence.  To my mind, Dao Bums does very well for an online community. Underneath all the surface froth there’s real Spirit at work here. And that can only ever be something that's revealed to us in glimpses.  

 

[Addendum: The new moderation team has definitely reigned in some of the more hostile forum traits I've mentioned.] 

 

 

Excellent!

endangered

Malala Yousafzai

When she was still a young girl, Malala stood up against the Taliban in Pakistan, insisting that girls be allowed to receive an education. In 2012, she survived a shot to the head by a Taliban gunman and went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights advocacy work.

“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” — Malala Yousafzai

Miep Gies

Anne Frank didn’t hide herself. Hermine “Miep” Santruschitz Gies is the woman who helped protect her and her family from the Nazis for over two years during World War II. She is also the woman responsible for saving Anne’s diary after the Franks were arrested.

“Permanent remorse about failing to do your human duty, in my opinion, is worse than losing your life.” — Miep Gies

Johan van Hulst

In 1942 and 1943, Dutch educator Johan van Hulst arranged for the transport of some very precious cargo. It was passed over a hedge, hidden in basket and sacks, and then whisked out of Amsterdam by bicycle. The cargo wasn’t food or supplies: It was Jewish children, smuggled and saved by van Hulst and his colleagues during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

Sarah Winnemucca

Sarah Winnemucca was the daughter of the Chief of the Paiutes tribe, who became a writer and educator who advocated for Native rights, and in the 1870s served as an army scout and an interpreter, and even spoke with President Rutherford B. Hayes, though promises he made to her tribe were never honored. In 1883, she published Life Among the Piutes [sic] in which she called out white people for their own savagery, reappropriating the term often used toward Natives. She also spoke out against sexual assault and corrupt government policy, speaking on the lecture circuit and becoming a prominent and outspoken advocate for Native peoples.