How to train like Bruce Lee (video)

Bruce Lee, Fists of Fury, 1960

In light of the recent insult rapist Harvey Weinstein's favorite director Quentin Tarantino delivered to the memory of Bruce Lee, we thought we should show who the great martial artist really was.

What was he like in the dōjō?* Lee was a paragon of self-restraint, meditative calm, and disciplined determination. He was also an all-around nice guy in Hollywood.

That's not the way first-time father Tarantino misrepresents Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It's like when Tarantino revised history to curry favor by pretending that Nazis lost WW II when they actually won.

Nazis are still in power, albeit under different names: Project Paperclip brought many SS and Nazi Party members to the U.S. to become unprosecuted citizens, scientists, and influential government operatives.

They set up our very own "Gestapo" (eventually known as the CIA), our nuclear program, our surveillance state, our secret police, our empire-building alphabet agencies, and more. German Nazi Wernher von Braun came to work for the military-industrial complex and on secret projects like the American Oppenheimer.

Bruce Lee is presented as a bully who beats up Brad Pitts' character. This would never happen, nor is there any such report of it or anything like it happening. But Tarantino cares about plots, not realities. Fortunately, the current movie is his penultimate. With Harvey Weinstein headed for a Jeffrey Epstein fate, who would inspire and bankroll him now?

The dōjō is a space for immersive learning and meditation, traditionally in the martial arts and Buddhism. The Japanese term literally means "place (dō) of the Way (jō)." Bruce Lee was master of the mats, self-defense and Eastern philosophy, which included zazen or sitting meditation.

Living in underground human worlds (video)

Interesting Facts, Aug. 20, 2019; Wisdom Quarterly


You Won't Believe This Underground City Still Exists

It would seem in this modern-day and age that we humans like to build things that reach the sky. However, it goes without saying that humans have probably lived underground and in caves since ancient times to escape harsh weather and other things such as invading armies, building downward deep intricate tunnels, waterways, and entire underground cities that amaze. From ancient underground cities, nuclear bunkers, and modern marvels of construction, check out the most insane underground cities in the world.

• For copyright matters please contact us at: miniminter1992.29@gmail.com
  
• #cities #undeground #city #development #building #buildings

Describing NIRVANA (sutra)

John D. Ireland (trans.), Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Nibbāna Sutta: Blowing Out (1) ("Inspired Utterances," Udana 80), edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Enlightenment: "Light arose, knowledge arose" (Turning the Wheel of the Dharma Sutra).

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Buddha Maitreya thangka (exoticindiaart.com)

Thus have I heard. At one time the [Buddha] was staying near Savatthi in Jeta Wood at Anathapindika's monastery.

On that occasion the [Buddha] was instructing, rousing, inspiring, and gladdening meditators with a Dharma talk connected with nirvana. And those meditators, being receptive and attentive and concentrating the whole mind, were intent on listening to Dharma.

Then on realizing its significance, the [Buddha] proclaimed on that occasion this inspired utterance:

There is, meditators, that base where there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air, no base consisting of boundless space, no base consisting of boundless consciousness, no base consisting of nothingness, no base consisting of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, neither this world nor another world nor both, neither sun nor moon.

Here, meditators, I say there is no coming, no going, no staying, no ceasing, no arising. Not fixed, not movable, it has no support. Just this is the end of all suffering.

Describing Nirvana

Buddha, Gandhara, 3rd cent. (TZG)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One (the Buddha) was staying near Savatthi in Jeta's Grove in Anathapindika's monastery.

On that occasion the Blessed One was instructing, urging, rousing, and encouraging meditators with Dharma-talk concerned with nirvana.

The monastics -- receptive, attentive, focusing their undivided attention, lending ear -- listened to the Dharma. Then on realizing the significance of this, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed:

There is that sphere, meditators, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind, neither the sphere of boundless space, nor the sphere of boundless consciousness, nor the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.

There is neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. There, I declare, there is neither coming, nor going, nor staying, neither passing away, nor arising: unestablished,* not becoming, without support [of mental object].** This, just this, is the end of all suffering.

• *See SN 22.87 and the discussion in The Paradox of Becoming, Chapter 7
• **See SN 22.53

Who was the "best" Beatle? (video)

FabFourrArchivist; The Beatles, "Blue Jay Way"; Kelly Ani, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Who's the "best" Beatle? Of course, this question is impossible to answer...sober. But if you ask Lucy to take a magical mystery tour, it becomes apparent that it's not the pretty one. And it's not the smart one. And it's not the last member to join. Who doth make yon sitar gently weep? Who's the most spiritual? Who has not the most but the deepest thing to say? Who knows? They're all good, and it's easy to miss Mr. Ono. Great musicians don't die. They are assassinated by the CIA and FBI. It's standard policy, and it usually takes place at age 27.

(Wiki) George Harrison MBE (Feb. 25, 1943–Nov. 29, 2001) or "The Quiet Beatle" was an English musician, singer-songwriter, music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles.

Harrison embraced Hinduism and Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Eastern spirituality in the Beatles' work (Gilmore, Mikal (2002). "The Mystery Inside George" by Mikal Gilmore, 2002, in Harrison: By the Editors of Rolling Stone).

Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions like "Here Comes the Sun," "Something," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock and towards Indian classical music through his use of the Indian sitar on "Norwegian Wood." He initiated the band's embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967.

He subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna Movement. After the band's break up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically-acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord"... More

Biased doctors and medicine (comedy)

John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, Aug. 18, 2019; Sheldon S., Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Bias in Medicine: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

John Oliver discusses the roles that gender and racial bias can play in medical treatment. Die an iatrogenic death, like millions of Americans have, and see who cares or does anything to the doctor. Connect with Last Week Tonight online for more almost news as it almost happens: YouTube. Find it on Facebook like your mom would an on Twitter the way Trump does for news about jokes and jokes about news. Official site for all that other stuff at once HBO.

We're racist because prison is racist (video)

Wes Watson of San Diego (watsonfit.com, GP Penitentiary Life, August 13, 2019); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Sheldon S., Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly Part 1

WARNING: Graphic language, gratuitous profanity, violence, sexual content, shocking stories!

The SHU (Security Housing Unit, aka solitary confinement, "the hole") is a part of a prison with further restrictions, where guards further mistreat prisoners to exact revenge or to control them and model brutal behavior, which they in turn inflict on one another and then on citizens outside of prison.

What horrors happen in U.S. prison -- and there are many including rape, extortion, cruelty, lack of compassion or sympathy, and all the worst human traits imaginable (greed, anger, delusion) -- are spurred by the treatment and torture of prisoners by the facility, warden, and fellow inmates. Prisoners run prisons because guards are too cowardly, too underpaid. too poorly staffed to do it themselves.

Nazis, white supremacy gang, Aryan Brotherhood, forced racial segregation

The system is at fault. Guards are trying to survive, prisoners are trying to survive, and prison officials are trying to capitalize on a pre-existing system. One unfairness grows into another. The end product is a toxic system that poisons society. Whatever happens in prison gets to the outside world. Enlightened self-interest teaches us that when we say "we don't care" about prisoners then we must not care too much about the world outside prison.

When people call for harsher and more expensive punishment as the solution, they are contributing to the problem, hardening prisoners and turning them out on a world that did not prevent their severe torture, neglect, and abuse in prison. Many prisoners may be horrible human beings, victims of abuse turned abusers or PTSD-suffering torture victims from the way they are tormented in prison, but they are yet human beings. What we allow to be done to the least of our brothers we do to ourselves. The test of a society is not how it treats its privileged members but how it treats its prisoners.

Going Beyond Theory (Ajahn Chah)

Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

"It's not on sale!" We're not plastic dolls with plastic cards. Bye-bye, money.

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Beyond Theory

"We love to shop!" - Consumer Dollies

From what I’ve heard there are a number of Buddhist scholar-monks who search and research in accordance with the texts.

There’s no reason why we shouldn’t experiment. When it’s time to open our books and study, we learn in that style.

But when it’s time to take up arms and engage in [spiritual] combat, we have to fight in a style that may not correspond with theory.

If a warrior enters battle and fights according to what’s been read, one will be no match for the opponent.

When the warrior is sincere and the fight is real, one has to battle in a style that goes beyond theory. That’s how it is.

The Buddha’s words in the texts are only guidelines and examples to follow, and studying can sometimes lead to carelessness.

Beyond good and evil

If we're not extremely careful, unrestrained harm will bite us like a baby gator (AP).

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The Buddha taught us to refrain from all that is bad, to do all that is good, and to purify the heart/mind.

Our practice, then, is to get rid of what is worthless and preserve and increase what is valuable.

Do we still have anything unskillful in our heart? Of course! So why not clean house? But true practice is not merely getting rid of what is bad and cultivating the good. This is only part of it.

In the end we must go beyond both good and bad. Finally, there is a freedom that includes all and a dispassion/desirelessness from which loving-kindness and wisdom naturally flow.

Beyond teaching

WTF?! I said it's not on sale!

Ajahn Fuang: "If I have to explain everything, you'll get used to having things handed to you on a platter.

"And then what will you do when problems come up in your meditation and you don't have any experience in figuring things out on your own?”

Today is the first day of school (in the massive Los Angeles School District system), so summer's over. And it couldn't come too soon. School-age kids will be the death of me! Where's all the serenity I gained in Thailand, where the forest tradition monastics touch nirvana?

The Path to Nirvana (Dhammapada 20)

Acharya Buddharakkhita (Dhp. 20, accesstoinsight.org); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Lake in Biogradaska Gora, old growth forest in Europe (bing.com/images)

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Verse 273.

From virtue, calm. From mindful-calm, insight.

Of all the paths the Ennobling* Eightfold Path is best;

of all the truths the Four Ennobling Truths are best;

of all things passionlessness is best:

of humans the Seeing One (the Buddha) is best.

• [*Noble = "enlightened, superior, awake"; ennobling = "what makes one enlightened, superior, awake."]

274.

This is the one direct path;

there is none better for the purification of insight.

Tread this path, and bewilder Mara (Death).

275.

Practicing this path

one makes an end of all suffering.

Having discovered how to pull out the thorn of craving,

I make known the path.

276.

You yourselves must strive; Teachers only point the way.

Those practitioners who tread the path,

absorbed in meditation,

are released from the bonds of Mara.

• Alternative rendering: Just this is the path — there is no other — to purify vision. / Follow it, and that will be Mara's bewilderment. / Following it, you put an end to suffering. / I have taught you this path having known — for your knowing — the extraction of arrows. // It's for you to strive ardently. / Tathagatas simply point out the way. / Those who practice, absorbed in jhana, from Mara's bonds they'll be freed (Ven. Thanissaro).

277.

"All conditioned things are hurtling toward destruction" —

when one sees this with wisdom,

one [is disenchanted and] turns away from suffering.

This is the path to purification.

278.

"All conditioned things are disappointing" —

when one sees this with wisdom,

one turns away from suffering.

This is the path to purification.

279.

"All things are impersonal" —

when one sees this with wisdom,

one turns away from suffering.

This is the path to purification.

280.

The idler who does not exert oneself when one should,

who though young and strong is full of sloth,

with a mind full of vain thoughts —

such an indolent person does not find the path to wisdom.

281.

Let a person be watchful of speech,

well controlled in mind, and commit no harm by bodily action.

Let one purify these three courses of action [speech, mind, body],

and win the path made known by the Great Sage.

282.

Wisdom springs from meditation;

without meditation wisdom wanes.

Having known these two paths of progress and decline,

let a person so conduct oneself that one's wisdom may increase.

283.

Cut down the forest (craving), but not the tree;

from the forest springs fear.

Having cut down the forest and the underbrush (desire), be passionless, O meditators!

• [Note 20: The meaning of this injunction (Verse 283) is: "Cut down the forest of sensual craving and lust, but do not mortify the body."]

284.

For so long as the underbrush of desire, even the most subtle,

of a person towards another is not cut down,

one's mind is in bondage,

like the sucking calf to its mother.

285.

Cut off your affection in the manner of a person

who plucks by hand an autumn lotus.

Cultivate only the path to peace,

nirvana, as made known by the Exalted One.

286.

"Here shall I live during the rains,

here in winter, here in summer" —

thus thinks the fool.

One does not realize the danger (that Death might intervene).

287.

As a great flood carries away a sleeping village,

so Death seizes and carries away
the person with a clinging mind,

doting on family and riches (cattle).

288.

For one who is assailed by Death

there is no protection by kin.

None there are to save one —

no sons, nor father, nor relatives.

289.

Realizing this fact,

let the wise person,

restrained by morality,

hasten to clear the path leading to nirvana.

Alan Watts: "Emptiness" (video)

Alan Watts (alanwatts.org) via Alan Wattsify; Seth Auberon, Crystal Q., Wisdom Quarterly

Dominatrix teaches female power

Edward Helmore (The Guardian); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, E.Askew (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Want to be more assertive in life?

Former dominatrix shows women how

Une Femme Libre (One Free Female)

Kasia Urbaniak has mastered the dominant position with men. She is a master at unpicking power dynamics.

It’s a decade since Kasia Urbaniak hung up her whip.

The former American dominatrix -- one of the highest paid in Manhattan, she likes to say -- now crafts her knowledge of gender power play into a new career:

She’s a female "empowerment coach" in a city where power is a naked game.

What started as an online discussion group is now, thanks in part to Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Alan Dershowitz, Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, and #MeToo, a booming business.

With courses titled "Power With Men, Foundations of Power" offered as part of her introductory monthlong seminar, Urbaniak is an emerging star of the movement.

“I don’t teach anything related to BDSM or sex, just the application of power dynamics,” Urbaniak tells me. “It’s about the communications that women carry that either make them go speechless or afraid of coming across as too bossy or too needy.”

As a professional dominatrix, Urbaniak has mastered the dominant position with men. She is a master at unpicking power dynamics. And over the past two years, the news cycle has delivered almost daily updates to the subject at hand.

Women are too often taught to acquiesce; they shut-down, they minimize. They do it at work, at home, in the bedroom, at work -- anywhere, in fact, where their paths cross with men. More

What happened to comedian Benny Hill?

Alpha 11; Benny Hill Fan Consortium; Pfc. Sandoval, S.Auberon, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly

Europe's largest orgy, 2019: sexual revolution

Few British men were funnier than Benny Hill. There's Monty Python, Black Adder, Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G, Borat, Bruno). Yet, no one in England seems to think so. They are not proud of their great export. And they don't seem to have been too fond of him when he was all T&A on their English tellies. But we loved him. He was like a one-man "Beavis & Butt-Head" Jaggernaut, in other words a kind of British Mike Judge. He may be accused of being sexist or exploitative today, and he certainly was crass and juvenile. But that was on camera. He was an entertainer, a great friend to many women, and possibly gay, not the character he portrayed for television. It was low-brow humor with a British twist with more wit than one would expect on this side of the Atlantic. One could say that he didn't know what he was doing. However, according to Alpha 11 (Aug. 14, 2019) "Benny Hill was a prominent figure in British culture for nearly four decades. His show proved to be one of the great success stories of television comedy and was among the most-watched programs in the world."

Fascists vs. Antifa in Oregon (video)

The Guardian, August 2018; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Police and other right wing racists are coming to Oregon to fight. Antifa ("Anti-fascists") and others are there to fend them off. Portland, Oregon is too progressive to let red cap wearing thugs destroy the peace and fabric of a liberal society. Citizens say no to Trump and no to warring in the streets.

Fight for Kashmir, India vs. Pakistan (video)

PBS News; Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit, BBC

India claims the entire state of J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) based on a document signed in 1947. Partition from Pakistan came in 1947. Muslim-majority Pakistan claims J&K based on its majority Muslim population. China strategically claims the Shaksam Valley and Aksai Chin (wikipedia).

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Neighboring Afghanistan and China

The Kashmir conflict is a territorial conflict primarily between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region.

The conflict started after the partition of India in 1947 as a dispute over the former princely state of J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) and escalated into three wars between India and Pakistan and several other armed skirmishes.

China has also been involved in the conflict in a third-party role. Both India and Pakistan claim the entirety of J&K. India controls approximately 55% of the region's land area and 70% of its population, whereas Pakistan controls approximately 30% of the land, and China controls the remaining 15%. More

• Kashmir conflict: How did it start? (National Geographic)
• Here's why stakes are so high in Kashmir conflict (PRI.org)
• Why does Article 370 matter in Kashmir? (NY Times)

How old is this fight?

Pakistan's map of Kashmir

(BBC) Nuclear-armed neighbors India (former Bharat) and Pakistan (former India) have fought two wars and a limited armed conflict over Kashmir. Why do they dispute the territory, and how did it start?

Kashmir is an ethnically-diverse Himalayan region, covering around 86,000 square miles (138 sq km), famed for the beauty of its Switzerland lakes, meadows, and high snow-capped mountains.

Even before India and Pakistan won their independence from Britain in August of 1947, the area was hotly contested.

Under the Partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act, Kashmir was free to go with or "accede" to either India or Pakistan.

The Maha-raja (great local ruler) Hari Singh initially wanted Kashmir to become independent. But in October 1947 he chose to join India. In return he got India's help against an invasion of tribesmen from Pakistan. More

"Good Boys" rated R for 6th graders (film)

Seth Rogen, Good Boys; Sheldon S., Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

WARNING: Explicit sexual content, gratuitous cussing, foul language, adult situations, drugs!

In the continued slide to moral decay, Hollywood is at least making it very funny. This questionable if delightful tween film is as raunchy as the new genre of female gross-out films SNL alums brought us. But it's more like live action South Park with kids leading the charge of their own eventual demise. Society goes to pot, kids are oversexed before they can even have sex, and Seth Rogen makes money. Thanks, Hollywood.

• Larry Mantle's "FilmWeek" critic advises sixth graders to sneak a peak by getting a copy of the video and watching it in secret (KPCC FM)

Worldwide pedophile ring busted! (video)

ABC News (Australia) 2015; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Worldwide paedophile ring busted in sting operation

[ABC News (Australia), Aug. 26, 2015] 7.30's Mark Willacy goes inside the covert police sting operation that brought down a global paedophile ring, including its South Australian ringleader.

"PizzaGate" is real and worldwide.

Where there is one ring with many tentacles and shared members in internet chat rooms and private member clubs, there are others yet to be arrested and stopped. People laugh at "PizzaGate" as a hoax, and they cry to hear what Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, and others were doing on Orgy Island and the Lolita Express. But now that the main blackmailer enforcer, Jeffrey Epstein -- working under an unindicted, multi-billionaire boss -- has been "permanently silenced" by strangulation or induced suicide, who else is out there doing the same thing that will never be revealed?

There is no justice for victims when a prosecution case is ended and no evidence found in that investigation used by a complicit government and its officials. More

• ABC News: abc.net.au/news
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• twitter.com/abcnews

India's Independence Day with Modi (video)

Video produced by Angad Singh, Zubair Ahmed Dar, Supreet J. Bargi, and Akash Bisht. Video editing by Adam Deniston. This segment originally aired on VICE News Tonight on HBO on Aug. 15th, 2019.

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Prime Minister Modi is "like a god" to Indian nationalists over Kashmir
NEW DELHI, India - Chants of “Long live Mother India!” and “Down with Pakistan!” rang out in the streets, as crowds gathered to hear PM Narendra Modi speak atop the massive, Mughal-era, Red Fort for Independence Day.

As Indians celebrated the birth of the world’s biggest democracy, India, members of Modi’s massive fanbase hailed his recent revision to the constitution -- ending the state of J&K (Jammu and Kashmir)’s special semi-autonomy.

“I must say Modi is like a god to India today. Terrorism will end. The fact is that Kashmir is ours now,” Vijay Rashtravadi, a demonstrator in New Delhi told VICE News.

• BBC VIDEO: Modi's total lockdown and blackout of Kashmir

Modi’s decision splits India’s only Muslim-majority state in two parts -- and into “Union Territories” -- which means Kashmir will lose representatives in Parliament, and the central government will gain direct control.

The move has angered Pakistan, which lays claim to Kashmir. Pakistan’s leader compared Modi’s “arrogance” to that of Hitler’s in a tweet on Thursday (Aug. 15th).

“It’s my hope that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will be ours soon also,” Rashtravadi said. “It’s my hope Modi will quickly make it ours, too.”

While people paraded in the nation’s capital, Independence Day celebrations in Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar, were orchestrated -- largely missing attendance by Kashmiri folks who actually live there.

“Kashmiris have lost 5,000 years of history as a country,” Kashmir University Professor Hameeda Nayeem told VICE News. “Overnight their identity, their dignity, their everything has been lost.”

The Kashmir valley has been under lockdown for 12 days, as the government moved an additional 35,000 soldiers into the region. Internet and communications are blacked out, opposition politicians have been detained, and large public gatherings are banned.

“This is all bullsh*t,” Nayeem said. “They are actually hiding a dark Hindu fantasy of destroying Kashmiri Muslims and reducing them to a miniscule minority so that they can always rule them and they will be enslaved.”

Kashmiris still protested: Many waived Pakistani flags, and some were seen unfurling banners of a local Islamic-state affiliate.

While India initially denied there were any protests last week, calling such media reports “fabricated” fake news, they eventually recognized “widespread unrest.”

Today, India announced it would start to ease its restrictions in Kashmir gradually.

“You are creating a dynamic which is pushing violence forward. Why is that done? That is also done deliberately to provoke this violence,” said Dr. Ajai Sahni, executive director at the Institute for Conflict Management, to VICE News. “So you create this whole demonization of the Muslim, which assists in your Hindutva [Hindu Nationalist] consolidation.”

Downgrading democracy is Kashmir is likely to push people towards an insurgency that Pakistan is accused of sponsoring -- feeding the popularity of recently re-elected Modi, who has styled himself as India’s Chowkidar or “Guardian.”

• Subscribe: bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News
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How people of Kashmir are reacting to India's crackdown

(PBS News Hour, Aug. 16, 2019) Nearly 4 million (mostly Muslim) people in Kashmir have been confined to their homes in a total communications blackout since Indian Prime Minister Modi stripped the primarily-Muslim Indian state of its semi-autonomous status 13 days ago. Civilians are not handling the situation well, but why hasn’t there been more resistance?

Pleasure can lead to pain (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (Lion's Roar); Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Internal knots

Gee, this is tough. Pleasure can lead to pain.

"Not all internal formations* are unpleasant. There are also pleasant internal formations, but they can still make us suffer.

"When you taste, hear, or see something pleasant then that pleasure can become a strong internal knot.

"When the object of your pleasure disappears, you miss it and you begin searching for it. You spend a lot of time and energy trying to experience it again.

• *Internal formation: crystallization (Sanskrit samyojana = “fetter,” lit. “to crystallize”), knot, constriction. Everyone has formations (knots) we need to take care of by the practice of meditation, to undo them and experience freedom, transformation, and healing.

"If you smoke marijuana or drink alcohol and begin to like it then it becomes an internal formation in your body and in your mind. You cannot get it off your mind. You will always look for more.

"The strength of the internal knot is pushing you and controlling you. So internal formations deprive us of our freedom." More

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Get the best of Buddhist wisdom delivered to your inbox! Free gift! (lionsroar.com)

• Excerpt from the article "Loosening the Knots of Anger" by Thich Nhat Hanh in Lion's Roar magazine
• Deer Park Monastery, Southern California
• Plum Village Mindfulness Practice Center

Heavy metal KILLS (Beavis & Butthead)

Patch via Loudwire.com; Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A concertgoer died Sunday (Aug. 11, 2019) on Slipknot's KnotFest tour at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in Tinley Park, Illinois, after collapsing to the ground when he was thrust out of a mosh pit. As reported by Patch, the attendee -- Richard Valadez, 62 -- was moshing with others during the band's set in the Chicago suburb when he was knocked to the ground and had a seizure. After initial confusion resulted in delayed medical assistance, Valadez was pronounced dead at 11:34 p.m. local time, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office. More



Coping with Death

Langur monkeys mourn "death" of robot doll.

This is a bit strange because when Slipknot was recently in Los Angeles (San Bernardino, July 27, 2019), people in the slam pit nearly died -- being trampled, slipping in and out of consciousness -- due to a pit that was too brutal. Singer Corey Taylor stopped the show and said, "Nobody's f-ing getting hurt on my f-ing watch" and told everyone to, "Step the f*** back." No one was going to get hurt or killed on his lookout. I guess they f-ing were. Where was Taylor's all-seeing eye when Valadez went down? It just goes to show, heavy metal is a deadly sport. Beavis and Butt-head reveal just how hard it is to get heavy rock right. Lots of rockers have died this year, Loudwire remembers.

False Flags, Spying, Pizza (David Dees)

Artist David Dees (ddees.com); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

PizzaGate: elite pedophile rings

A false flag is a deceptive operation done under the flag of the other side. It's like Spy vs. Spy. If White Spy does something that makes it appear that Black Spy did it, then uses that incident as a pretext to retaliate, we have a false flag on our hands. And anyone who calls it out will be demonetized on YouTube and censored on social media. Whistleblowing will not be tolerated.

The collage art of ddees.com says it all, from psyops to propagandistic PR campaigns on mainstream (fake) news.

Sheeple: 6 companies control 96% of media

Noam Chomsky spelled it out in his book describing how our police state government rules, not as an all-out dictatorship, but as a PR-loving oligarchy manufacturing consent. We are the rule, and we consent to all that happens? Yes, and if we don't, then the government gets heavy-handed. It's how we treat other governments, as when John Perkins described being an Economic Hit Man. When the hitman can't get the job done, the U.S. government says, "It's time to send in the jackals."

• PM Katrin Jakobsdottir: battling Iceland climate change
• Rense.com goes to right to find the truth
• Who arranged murder of Jeffrey Epstein?
• CNN: Creepy Chris "Fredo" Cuomo threatens heckler

Lost Civilizations (documentary)

DTTV Documentaries, March 4, 2019; Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

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Cities Beneath the Jungles, Deserts, and Seas

(Disclose Truth TV) There are many ancient mysteries in human history. But none capture the attention as much as long lost civilizations that have never been rediscovered.

In a new, never-before-seen documentary, we look in deserts, dense jungles, and even underwater to prove that legendary ancient cities are waiting to be found.

With the advance of new technology, it is entirely possible that archaeologists will one day make a history-changing discovery that simply defies comprehension, unearthing a previously unknown civilization.

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Buddha statues and Egyptian-style artifacts and Mayan-style hieroglyphics found in the Grand Canyon. These findings were published by Kinkade, who found and detailed chambers and underground rooms capable of holding 50,000.

Native American legend backs this finding. It tells of the "ant people" who came to the surface through tunnels and took the surface populations down below the earth for safety, to preserve them during a cataclysm.

There are ruins found in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, Africa. Portions of a wall the size of the Great Wall of China was found and explored as well Nazca Lines carved into the ground and a dry lake bed with remnants of a vast and great civilization.

Lidar technology is revealing many things, like El Dorado the great "golden" city. Once thought to be only a legend, it is now as real to us as it was to the alien Spanish/European invaders and occupiers (Conquistadores) who sought it, misled by locals who were giving them the run-around. And there's much more.

Gay in the Deep South (video)

Straight Dave (S.B. "Bruno" Cohen); S. Auberon, CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"Straight Dave" (Sacha B. Cohen)

Anthropology is the study of humans, but we can't see ourselves unless we're looking at ourselves through the eyes of outsiders, in this case the British Sacha Baron Cohen. He made mincemeat out of America as "Borat," showing us up for all our follies and shortcomings.

Here "Bruno," as "Straight Dave," travels to the South for a good ol' fashion beat down in "Straight Dave's Man Slammin' Maxout." But the easily-duped, beer-swigging, Caucasian, Christian, WASPy, IQ-impaired, hyper-masculine fight fans will have none of it.

Maybe we should be more tolerant and less hateful/phobic? Or maybe the city folk "Cosmopolitans" should just wince at what the country neighbor cousins are doing to the image of the USA toward the LGBTQI community. Either way, it's very funny and all in jest, as Cohen explained on The Jonathan Ross Show in England.

Us vs. Them: How Fascism Works

Michael Slate (KPFK), Jason Stanley; Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

“A vital read for a nation under Trump.”­

—The Guardian

“By placing Trump in transnational and transhistorical perspective, Stanley sees patterns that others miss.... Twenty months into Trump’s presidency, the evidence is mounting that he’s right.”

—NY Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

Fascist politics are running rampant in America today—and spreading around the world. A Yale philosopher identifies the ten pillars of fascist politics, and charts their horrifying rise and deep history.

Author Jason Stanley, as the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics.

• Michael Slate Show, Fridays KPFK 90.7 FM, Los Angeles
• Worship of cult personality Bob Avakian (revcom.us)

In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.”

He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Burma (Myanmar), and the United States, among other nations.

He makes clear the immense danger of underestimating the cumulative power of these tactics, which include exploiting a mythic version of a nation’s past; propaganda that twists the language of democratic ideals against themselves; anti-intellectualism directed against universities and experts; law and order politics predicated on the assumption that members of minority groups are criminals; and fierce attacks on labor groups and welfare.

These mechanisms all build on one another, creating and reinforcing divisions and shaping a society vulnerable to the appeals of authoritarian leadership.

By uncovering disturbing patterns that are as prevalent today as ever, Stanley reveals that the stuff of politics—charged by rhetoric and myth—can quickly become policy and reality. Only by recognizing fascists politics, he argues, may we resist its most harmful effects and return to democratic ideals. More

“With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism.”

—William Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope