Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal

Sunday, May 20, 2018

KARMA: Do wild animals feel love? (video)

Wildlife (video, Sept. 25, 2016); Crystal Quintero, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly

Are animals real? Do they have karma?
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

We don't believe in ghosts, we don't believe in angels, but somehow we believe in animals. Why? We can all see them. We don't believe in the ones we can't all see (like the cryptids).

Animals are not humans. Animals are spiritual. Humans, in addition to being human, are part animal and part spiritual.

The karma that brought beings to rebirth in the animal world (tirachana loka) is karma inferior to actions that brings one to rebirth in the human world (manusya loka). This happens when it finally ripens, which can be a while.

Animals, while inferior to humans and other beings for the time being, are not really animals any more than humans are stuck being human. We are not trapped in this state, in these bodies, with these potentials and limitations.

We devolve, and evolve, and continue to cycle through the realms (samsara) chasing sensuality, motivated by greed, aversion, and delusion. So, too, animals will not always be animals. In the past, they were not animals. All beings, though limited now, have potential for much more than we are expressing.

We are all bound by karma until we are liberated by enlightenment and enjoy nirvana. Be considerate to animals. The karma (actions) toward them ripens just as does the karma toward other humans. Be kind to humans, but also be kind to animals.

Most people have no idea what animals are doing, how they are living, what becomes of them when they pass on. The Buddha knew and he often talked about it in the Jataka Tales, which are generally regarded as Aesop's Fables. But mention of animals in the sutras reinforces that the Jatakas are closer to truth than we could ever imagine.

Do animals help each other? (video)

Happiness Kingdom, 4/2/17; Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly

Is this mongoose bumming a ride on this bird, or is something more sinister aloft? Whatever's happening, it has to be a great day for the mongoose flying. This is famous footage, and what happens is not what it seems. But for one moment, a bird became a plane, a mammal sprouted wings, and no one would believe it without video to prove it.

Animals Help and Harm Other Animals

Animals, while not human, can be very humane and heroic. Animals sometimes help save one another. They have saved humans. How did they know? Our faith in animals, which we tend to know as children, can be restored. Humans to be human must be humane.

(Euthanasia is murder in the guise of "humane" treatment with horrendous karmic results. Our own distress at seeing an animal or human suffer causes us to kill and pat ourselves on the back as "humane" when it is murder with the karmic results of killing, running counter to the first precept).

Animals feel, they love, they form attachments, they care for one another, help one another, and they matter. Would a swan feed a fish? Would a cat save a fish? Would a dog? Would a bear save a baby? Would a bear save a crow from drowning? Would a dog swim out to save a baby bird? Would a bird save a bird or a tortoise a tortoise? Do elephants bother to say goodbye to the dead? Do dogs suffer broken hearts or desperately try to "wake up" their dead friend? Would cat try to resuscitate an injured cat? Yes.

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Science: Time may just NOT EXIST (audio)

Carlo Rovelli, Ira Flatow (Sci Fri); Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How do you think about time? Most people experience it as Newton described it -- as something that passes independent of other events, that’s the same for everyone everywhere, and moves in a straight line. Still, others have come to embrace Einstein’s view that time instead forms a matrix with space and acts like a substance in which we are submerged. But author and physicist Carlo Rovelli has an even different approach to time. He’s working on a way to quantify gravity in which time doesn’t exist. He joins Science Friday's Ira Flatow to discuss his theories detailed in his book, The Order of Time. Read excerpt: The Order of Time.

AUDIO: Benedict Cumberbatch reads The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

VIDEO: Benedict Cumberbatch plays "Patrick Melrose" gay incest rape victim molested by his British father (Showtime)

Friday, May 18, 2018

Oh, that stupid sexy royal wedding! Congrats, Meg

I. Rony, editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Natalie Ktena (BBC.co.uk, May 18, 2018)

"Put your Harry in to make your Markle sparkle" - Crown Jewels brand condoms.

Royal wedding merch: Harry and Meghan condoms, anyone?

Some people will love the sex products -- for others they'll be the definition of "wrong" (so wrong)

My redheaded boy is finally growing up.

Royal weddings often bring out the more eccentric side of the British character. This can manifest in many ways, including:

(a) Developing a sudden desire to have a street bash with neighbours you've never spoken to before (other than to say "Ello, luv" when you find yourself putting the rubbish bins out on the curb at the same time)

(b) Watching two strangers tie the knot on the tele and having me mates over to "celebrate" by watching British reruns:

The Benny Hill Show
WARNING: Sexy depictions of traditional gender roles once popular on U.S. television!

(c) Thinking it's probably OK to drink ale for breakfast as long as it's out of a commemorative mug.

Meghan, we can call him West

While Will's and Kate’s wedding back in 2011 spawned a personalised pizza pie and some souvenir batts (AA), Harry and Meghan Markle memorabilia is scaling new heights of silliness.

In fact, this time around, it seems there’s more weird and wonderful wedding paraphernalia than ever before.

It does of course include the much-derided, unwittingly risqué Harry and Meghan one-piece bikinis [and "Crown Jewels" bran condoms].

(Eve Libertine's UK punk band Crass) "Our Wedding" from Penis Envy

But it doesn't end there, in fact... More

I have no time for royal wedding marketing, but I will make an exception for this fine piece of work. pic.twitter.com/pCj5Qp2sfj— Hannah Al-Othman 🐝 (@HannahAlOthman) May 16, 2018 twitter

We love the royals. We're very proper Brits. And we don't like that Mr. Benny Hill.

Beautiful interracial love story: UK+US

Meaninglessness of Modern Life: SEX (video)

King Komodo 1/16/13; Seth Auberon, Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The excellent six-part series Decadence: Meaninglessness of Modern Life examines modernity and considers the impact of our relentlessly changing world upon key values that used to make Western society something to aspire to.

Each episode is packed with pearls of wisdom and a lot of food for thought. Concepts are well presented with rational arguments and good examples -- helping to justify the often disappointing new realities it reveals.

After consideration, even if this series were only half-true, we can hardly afford inaction. Join Host Pria Viswalingam for the new documentary series as he considers whether we are now completely bogged down in a mire of meaningless self-indulgence, asking whether we really need:

iPods
plasma screen TVs
Brazilian waxes
self-navigating 4WDs to achieve "happiness."

He asks, IF family incomes are higher than ever before in the Western world -- with property values soaring -- and IF conspicuous consumption and material wealth have never been so evident, why are we so unhappy?

Another Way to Happiness (Dharma Meditation Initiative)
Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines)
Original release dates: December 2006-January 2007

Physics: Consciousness creates reality (video)

Ken Rohla (freshandalive.com); Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Volcanoes spread ash--powdered monatomic elements, ORMES/ORMUS, to rejuvenate.

Ken Rohla: The Physics of How Consciousness Creates Reality

(Fresh and Alive, Dec. 6, 2016) FreshAndAlive.com Founder and President Ken Rohla discusses scientific evidence supporting the concept that consciousness creates reality.

COMMENTARY

Alchemists' "Rosetta stone" (which we have covered in the past) seems to be just this never-touched-the-ground rainwater dew-residue, evaporated mineral remains of monatomic elements (single atoms of powdered precious metals) with very strange superconducing, rejuvenating, and levitating/anti-gravitational properties. ORMUS can be consumed but is better assimilated if it is fed to plants first, which take them up and can then be utilized by the body consuming the plants. Bacteria in the ground help break down the metals to a form plants can use, but volcanoes send this ash into the sky, where rainwater may catch it for ancient alchemists to collect without knowing what it was.

When raped by your father (video)

Terry Gross, David Bianculli (Fresh Air/NPR, 5/10/18); Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly

Anglo-American Edward St. Aubyn, a.k.a. "Patrick Melrose," was raped by his father. Benedict Cumberbatch -- the deep-voiced actor, whose roles have ranged from Sherlock Holmes to Doctor Strange -- once said there were only two roles on his long-standing acting bucket list.

One was Hamlet, a role he played in 2015. The other? Patrick Melrose, a role he tackles -- and conquers -- in a new Showtime miniseries beginning Saturday.

Parts of it are wickedly funny; other parts are searingly dramatic. But all of it is riveting and excellent.

Cumberbatch is very convincing (Fresh Air).

The first novel featuring Patrick Melrose -- a privileged British aristocrat with a past that haunts him, and a drug addiction that nearly kills him -- was published in 1991.

Like the others in the series, it was written by Edward St. Aubyn as a mostly autobiographical exercise in exhuming and confronting both his demons and his childhood.

Get over it, kiddo. - You did this, Daddy!

St. Aubyn's mother was a wealthy American who gave his British father not only money but power. The abuses of that power, directed at both young Patrick and his mother, are particularly cruel and severe -- and are unveiled slowly in this TV production of Patrick Melrose.

The first two episodes cover the events of the first two books but not in sequence. One storyline reveals the horrid abuse [incestuous, homosexual, pedophilia and repeated rape] the father inflicts upon his 5-year-old son.

Drug abuse and addiction

Heroin (and doctor-opiates) numbed my pain.

The other shows Patrick, in his 20s and fighting the riptide of heroin addiction, learning that his father has died and flying to New York City to retrieve his father's ashes.

Two questions are central to this Patrick Melrose miniseries. The first is, Can Patrick climb out of the drug-fueled, bitterly hostile spiral he's in? The other is, What put him there?

For the second question, we spend a lot of time watching Patrick's childhood, where Sebastian Maltz plays young Patrick. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays his mother. And Hugo Weaving, in a role that's frightening in its dispassionate depravity, plays his father.

Hmm, I was also raped. Is heroin the cure?

The scenes from the past are so intense, even at what should be casual dinner parties and outdoor gatherings underneath fig trees, that you don't even notice, much less resent, that Cumberbatch is offscreen for large chunks of time.

And when he's there, the actor is so good at embodying and reflecting all of Patrick's tightly coiled pains and emotions, he takes us with him every perilous step of the way.

My father was a monster! So am I.

Other co-stars include Blythe Danner, Allison Williams, and Holliday Grainger, all of whom contribute to a miniseries that might be described as Brideshead Revisited meets Trainspotting.

David Nicholls, who adapted this story for television, and Edward Berger, who directs all five episodes, are both clearly on the same wavelength as the star of this show.

The title character's story is unforgettably gripping. So is the experience of watching this miniseries. One of Patrick's father's sayings, quoted often during the drama, is, "Go with the best or go without." Watching Showtime's Patrick Melrose is going with the best. More + Audio

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HBO's re-do of Fahrenheit 451 is halting, never catches fire
Vida brings two sisters back to their old neighborhood
Fallout of US incest?: 10 people killed in Texas high school shooting today; young suspect in custody

Discourse on Crying (sutra)

A. Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Assu Sutra (SN 15.3) Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly

You mean this continues in future lives!?

Thus have I heard. The [Buddha] was once staying in Savatthi where he said:

"From an inconceivable (undiscernable, inconstruable) beginning comes rebirth. No beginning point is evident from which beings, hindered by ignorance and ensnared by craving, set off to continue wandering on.

What is the Wheel of Life and Death, the Continued Wandering On (Samsara)? Hamster Wheel

"What do you think, meditators? Which is greater, the tears shed while wandering on through rebirth all this time -- crying and lamenting due to meeting the unpleasant and being separated from the pleasant -- or the water contained in the four great oceans?"

One ocean is immense. How about four?

"As we understand the Dharma taught to us by the Blessed One, greater are the tears shed while wandering on through rebirth all this time -- crying and lamenting due to meeting with the unpleasant and being separated from the pleasant -- rather than the water contained in the four great oceans."

"Excellent, meditators, excellent! It is excellent to thus understand this Dharma taught by me.

"Greater are the tears shed while wandering on through rebirth all this time -- crying and lamenting due to meeting with the unpleasant and being separated from the pleasant -- rather than the water contained in the four great oceans.

No, not another death, not another death!

"Long have we (repeatedly) experienced the death of a mother. The tears shed over the death of a mother while wandering on through rebirth all this time -- crying and lamenting due to meeting with the unpleasant and being separated from the pleasant -- are greater than the water contained in the four great oceans.

"Long have we (repeatedly) experienced the death

of a father...
of a sister...
of a brother...
of a son...
of a daughter...
of relatives...
of wealth...
loss due to disease.

I was the killer, for what?

"The tears shed over loss due to disease while wandering on through rebirth all this time -- crying and lamenting due to meeting with the unpleasant or being separated from the pleasant -- are greater than the water contained in the four great oceans.

"Why is it? From an inconceivable beginning comes rebirth. No beginning point is evident from which beings, hindered by ignorance and ensnared by craving, set off to continue wandering on.

"Long has been the experience of suffering (the range of unpleasant, unwelcome feeling ranging from discomfort to agony), experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries -- long enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things (formations, conditioned-phenomena), long enough to become dispassionate, long enough to become liberated."

See also SN 15.13

Pope defends gay rapist priests in S. America

BBC.com, 5/18/18; Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Bishops Ramos Pérez (L) and González Errázuriz have held three days of crisis talks.

All Chile's 34 bishops offer resignation to Pope over child sex abuse scandals

I love children and this Holy Roman Church!

All of Chile's 34 Roman Catholic bishops have offered Pope Francis their resignations in the wake of a child [rape] scandal and cover-up.

They asked forgiveness [for their "sins"] from victims and the Church for their "grave errors and omissions."

I thought we had a deal? - We do!

It was not immediately clear whether the Pope had accepted the resignations.

Francis had been criticized in Chile for his decision to ordain a bishop who is accused of covering up [homo]sexual [child] abuse committed by a priest.

He said in January that he felt "pain and shame" over the scandal, which has rocked the Catholic Church in Chile.

It is the first time that all the top churchmen in a country have offered to leave their posts like this.

What's this sex scandal about?

I cover up child rape not ~~enjoy~~ do it myself.

The upset centers on Bishop Juan Barros [pictured at left], who is accused of using his position in the Catholic Church to try to block an investigation into his mentor, Catholic Priest Fernando Karadima.

[Gay hypocrite] Fr. Karadima was an influential priest who was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing young boys in the 1970s and 80s.

Guilty? - "Who am I to judge," Don?

He was "sentenced" to a [comfortable life in a Catholic villa, spa, retreat center for a] lifetime of "penance and prayer" [and rest, relaxation, masturbation, and some more boys if he could sneak them in].

He never faced criminal prosecution in Chile as too much time had passed, but the judge who heard victims' testimony in a year-long investigation described them as "truthful and reliable."

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Barros three years ago despite the [criminal] cover-up allegations. He is not accused of carrying out abuse himself. More

More on this story

Shadows, djinn: "Supernatural Assault" (film)

VisionaryLiving.com, coasttocoastam.com; Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Paranormal expert and researcher Rosemary Ellen Guiley and documentary filmmaker Paul Taitt (Supernatural Assault) discuss terrifying bedroom visits by "shadow people" and their connection to the supernatural race of beings known as the djinn (evil genies). They explain what can be done to guard against them as well as psychic attacks in general. More + AUDIO

Are supernatural djinn reclaiming Earth?

DarkElementFilms.com

With reports of nightly visitations and assaults by shadow people on the rise, who, or what could be behind these strange and sometimes terrifying supernatural encounters?

There are researchers and scholars today who believe that a faction of the supernatural race known as the Djinn are responsible. It is also believed that this evil faction is motivated by revenge and that they are seeking to restore their dominance over the Earth.

History of the djinn
The Arabic word jinn, Romanized as djinn, comes from the verb janna, which means "to hide or conceal." The djinn are intelligent spirits with a sordid history of uprising, banishment, and demonic behavior.

Djinn stories emerged in early Arab culture later adopted into Islamic theology. Also known as genies, the djinn are a lower rank of angels that can appear in humanoid, shadow, and animal forms. They can also possess humans.

Djinn were without original physical form. They were spiritual beings made from a scorching, smokeless fire that in today's terms would probably be described as a type of plasma. It is said that djinn are masterful shapeshifters, with the ability to choose any form they like. In Islamic belief, djinn are often associated with the forms of human-shaped shadows, snakes, or dogs. More

Pyramid Power: Russian research (video)

David Wilcock via Divine Truth, April 14, 2018; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macperson, Wisdom Quarterly

David Wilcock (Edgar Cayce reborn) reveals Russian pyramid research far in advance of our own. But there was at least one American genius who took pyramids seriously, New Age author Patrick Flanagan.

(KadamaSoul) I remember an astral projection I did once. I saw a bright, clear blue pillar of light coming out of a pyramid. Then I woke up. But it's interesting that Patrick Flanagan, inventor of the Neurophone, wrote a book called Pyramid Power: The Science of the Cosmos. Flanagan says he would put food inside of a pyramid to preserve it, and it would take longer to decay. He says he would feed his cat with a banana that stayed under the pyramid to good affect. Then there's Ken Rohla. He says similar effects occur near pyramids. I purchased Ormus ("Orbitally Rearranged Monatomic Element" or M-state element), which is not cheap.

Pyramid energy and what we can do with it

(Fresh And Alive, Dec. 11, 2017) Fresh and Alive President Ken Rohla (freshandalive.com) discusses what pyramid energy is and what practical things we can do with it to enhance health, protect ourselves against electromagnetic (EMF) pollution, improve the structure of water, balance weather, reduce earthquakes, neutralize radioactivity, and more.

STOP overthinking, worry, stress (audio)

ZenLifeRelax (video); Ananda M. (D.M.I.), Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

This frequency (528Hz) releases inner conflict and struggle with an anti-anxiety cleanse.

This Solfeggio frequency (528 Hz) is the “miracle tone” and can be downloaded in seven different versions on iTunes.apple.com.

According to Dr. Leonard Horowitz, 528 hertz is a frequency that is central to the “musical mathematical matrix of creation.”

More than any sound previously discovered, the “love frequency” resonates at the heart of everything. It connects our heart, our spiritual [pranic] essence, to the spiraling reality of heaven and earth.

Download MP3 store zenliferelax.dpdcart.com
iTunes: apple.co/2x5xPEf
Amazon: amzn.to/2fEMp31

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Tibetan Buddhist magic: Rainbow Body (video)

David Wilcock (Edgar Cayce); Wiki; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tibetan letter "A" (ahh) inside a thigle

In Dzogchen, "rainbow body" (Tibetan འཇའ་ལུས་, 'ja' lus, Jalü, or Jalus) is a level of realization.

It may or may not be accompanied by the "rainbow body phenomenon." The phenomenon is a religious topic that has been treated seriously for centuries, including in the modern era. Other Vajrayana teachings also mention rainbow body phenomena.

Rigpa

The phenomenon is a third person perspective of someone else attaining complete knowledge (Tibetan རིག་པ, rigpa). Knowledge is the absence of delusion regarding the display of the basis. More

LA Buddhist nun: Meditation's an Oasis (video)

Sayalay Aloka Nyani (Thabarwa Nature Center), Dhr. Seven, Ananda M., Wisdom Quarterly

On almsround in the San Gabriel Valley

Meditation is essential for a life of "right understanding," right-view (samma-ditthi), on the Noble Eightfold Path. Knowing the truth is essential.

Who we are, what we do, or where we live is not nearly as important compared to our understanding.

So more than study, which is very beneficial, we benefit by PRACTICE of the Path for the truth.

Imagine a distant land, an OASIS in nature. It would never do to only study maps, ask others about their travels, or reason out geographical features from a high vantage point. These things, as helpful as they might be, could hardly get us there.

Sillier still is the idea that setting off in any direction -- without study or guidance from someone who knows by first hand experience -- is going to get us to the place me mean to go. We're likely to end up very lost.

Sayalay from Virginia to Burma to California

When the Buddha outlined the Path to Enlightenment into eight general factors, we can see a great logic to it.

Right-view (to understand) and right-action (to practice) lead to right-meditation (coherent states of mind and mindfulness or samadhi and sati), which perfects right-view.

Often the Path is divided in three parts:

virtue (the precepts)
purifying concentration (coherence)
wisdom (right-view).

Can a baby know the way to enlightenment?

Our right-behavior is key, and for our action to be "right" it must be guided by correct understanding, right-view, knowledge, and wisdom.

A meditator needs to use mindfulness (present-time awareness free of grasping, clinging, rejecting, resenting, or misunderstanding) of experience to calmly observe.

By nonclinging (giving, letting go, detaching) to every experience of mind and body, mentality and materiality, psychology and physicality, we become free and can begin to see thing as they really are. The Buddha then explained the systematic Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness to see:

body
feeling
mind
mind-objects.

What is there to see? There are three characteristics of all things that, by seeing, frees us.

In this way we can use this life in the "right" way, in a very beneficial way, free of attachment to what is ultimately (1) impermanent (passing), (2) disappointing (woeful, unable to satisfy or fulfill), and (3) impersonal (not at all what it seems).

When we practice in the "right" way -- in accordance with right-view or right-understanding -- the heart/mind naturally knows, and sees, and enjoys experience without grasping, clinging, and attachment. We no longer get stuck.

Whether we can do or not do, we just know and experience free of the Three Poisons (the roots): attachment, aversion, delusion about experience.

"Good"?

Just keep practicing and doing good deeds continuously. What is "good"? Actions (karma) motivated by nongreed, nonhatred, nondelusion (the three good roots), things that neither harm oneself nor others, this is "good."

This is the most important thing to do in spite of The Eight Worldly Conditions:

gain
loss
honor
disgrace
praise
blame
pleasure
pain.

A better way to live

Embodying Perfect Wisdom

All of these eight are just "created truths" (our consensual- or social-reality). We can experience created truths without attachment or aversion or confusion.

If we understand in this way, we live carefree, without worries about our lives or whatever things happen. It is very relaxing.

We need not pursue pleasures, distractions, and happinesses. We can do necessary things, like merit and meditation instead. This will solve all kinds of problems.

And even if it does not seem to, or if it appears to be too hard, we can surely practice in this way slowly for the duration of "meditation" session by session.

What if rather than chasing after "happiness," we simply abandon three expressions of karma (mental, verbal, physical) that chases, rejects, or gets confused about experience?