The Gay Buddhist Forum by GBF

Many of us come to our practice with some degree of suffering. Our regular ways of dealing with life may be creating stress, or we feel a wanting, that something is missing as we engage in our capitalistic society.
While yearning for something is not in itself bad, we need to examine where we are looking for it. Rather than trying to just get from here to there or to become something we are not, can our practice help us become more genuine and experience our essential self?
In this talk, Pamela shares that delusion is at the heart of our grasping and aversion, because we still believe something we get or attain will alleviate our dissatisfaction. It is the falling away of this fantasy that is the gift of spiritual practice because it can lead us to being at peace in our lives.
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Pamela Weiss is a dual-lineage Buddhist teacher in Soto Zen and Theravada, and the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism." She sits on the Spirit Rock Teacher Council, and teaches through San Francisco Insight, San Francisco Zen Center and Brooklyn Zen Center. Pamela lives in San Francisco with her husband and little dog, Grover.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:

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• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

We often come with specific expectations about how the practice will help us reduce our suffering. But how do we react when these expectations are not met? What can we learn from these experiences?
In this talk, Steven Tierney helps us explore:

• We often get attached to fixed views because we crave certainty, knowing that we are doing something the "right" way so as not to be criticized. This fear is often the richest place in which to explore our practice.
• How can meditation allow us to examine from a fresh perspective if our beliefs and expectations align with reality?
• Why fixed views are only helpful if they provide guidance that is skillful. If not, abandon them.

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Steven Tierney (Kai Po Koshin) is a Dharma transmitted teacher in the lineage of Suzuki Roshi. Steven practices with: Meditation in Recovery, Great Spirit Sanghai SFLGBTQA Sangha, Gay Buddhist Fellowship and the Harford Street Zen Center. Steven believes that we can find wisdom, compassion and awakening wherever good people come together for practice, healing, service and joy. Dr. Tierney is a psychotherapist in private practice and Professor Emeritus in Counseling Psychology at CIIS.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:

• Donate
• Learn how to participate live
• Find our schedule of upcoming speakers
• Join our mailing list or discussion forum
• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

Alchemy is all about transformation, and there is nothing in our practice more transformative than generosity - toward both ourselves and others.
In this talk, Kevin Martin shares that what we do on the cushion is the most generous thing we can give to ourselves. Our practice can help us disrupt personal karma by making us more curious about the deeply held beliefs and patterns that imprison us.
Sharing the dharma is also a great act of generosity toward others. Putting our knowledge into action is even more powerful. It takes courage to apply the dharma in order to disrupt the conditions in the world that give rise to suffering.
Kevin goes on to explore cultivating a generous heart. This can include the courage to express our genuine self, which extends to others the freedom to be themselves.
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Kevin Martin, aka Thando, is a Vipassana meditation teacher with a decade of experience. He learned metta practice from his teacher's insight and cherishes witnessing life's aspects others fear experiencing. Thando's teaching philosophy is that life is our best teacher, and we should continually transform through cycles of death and life. His teaching style is practical and adapts to the student's understanding.
Thando means Love in Xhosa, a South African culture and language. While studying abroad in South Africa as a college student in 2009, Thando received his name from a Xhosa elder who identified 'love' as a virtue that would be his lifelong call to action. Since the passing of his elder, Thando has taken this name as a lifelong commitment.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:

• Donate
• Learn how to participate live
• Find our schedule of upcoming speakers
• Join our mailing list or discussion forum
• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

How do we respond to a culture steeped in misogyny, patriarchy, homophobia and white supremacy?

Rather than become overwhelmed, we can show up as our full selves and express our humanity through the energy of Wind Horse.
On Tibetan prayer flags we find 5 animals: the Garuda, Tiger, Lion, and Dragon on the outer edges, and in the middle is Lunkta or "Wind Horse."
Wind Horse is described as the energy of basic goodness we are born with and return to through our meditation. It gives us a sense of confidence without ego, the energy we feel when we are living aligned with integrity.
In the absolute sense, Wind Horse is the expansive feeling we possess but but do not grasp at. It is not really ours, so we hold it loosely, allowing it spaciousness.
In the relative world we inhabit, we can use Wind Horse as inspiration to live out our values with integrity. It helps us transform doubt and anxiety into spiritual warriorship to live out our Buddha nature.
WATCH the full talk on our website: https://gaybuddhist.org/podcast/wind-horse-ari-lathuras/
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Ari Lathuras has been practicing meditation for approximately 35 years. She has received teaching from many renowned Buddhist teachers over the years. Pema Chodron has been one of her main sources of dharma teachings. She studied and practiced with Ani Pema since the mid-90's.
In 2009 she met Ani Pema's teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and became a student of his. She has also attended several teachings with Mindrolling Kondro Rinpoche. As a professional sign language interpreter, Ari has interpreted for many dharma teachers over the years.

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:

• Donate
• Learn how to participate live
• Find our schedule of upcoming speakers
• Join our mailing list or discussion forum
• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter

How can we use the experience of anxiety to understand the Buddhist concept of emptiness?
Dale Borglum shares that our understanding of emptiness is necessary for conscious living and conscious dying, the subject of his life work.
Just being on the spiritual path can lead us into anxiety at times, because we are letting go of our identity. This anxiety can be a difficult experience because it becomes so persistent in the background that we no longer recognize it. This makes it difficult to differentiate when we are acting out of anxiety versus wholeness and centeredness.
Emptiness is often misunderstood as nothingness. It is simply a way of perceiving our relationship with the nature of reality. Embracing anxiety can actually bring us into direct relationship with the true nature of self. It is grasping at the delusion of a non-existent self that gives rise to our suffering.
Dale explores how all emotions are healing messages. It is only when we are immersed in the delusion of living in separateness that anxiety arises. By working with anxiety, we learn who we really are and how we can approach our death fully conscious, without fear. We come to see that anxiety is something we experience, but is not our true nature.
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Dale Borglum founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. Working with Ram Dass and Stephen Levine, Dale helped found the conscious dying movement in the West. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman and Dwarka Bonner of "Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook," Bantam Books and has taught meditation since 1974. Dale lectures and gives workshops on the topics of meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, and on caregiving as spiritual practice. He has taught with Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Joan Halifax, Robert Thurman, Joanna Macy, Jack Kornfield, Annie Lamott, Jai Uttal and many others. He has a doctorate degree from Stanford University.
Learn more at https://www.livingdying.org/

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To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit https://gaybuddhist.org/
There you can:

• Donate
• Learn how to participate live
• Find our schedule of upcoming speakers
• Join our mailing list or discussion forum
• Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996

CREDITS
Audio Engineer: George Hubbard
Producer: Tom Bruein
Music/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter