Dharma, sutras, and commentarial interpretations of interest to American Buddhists of all traditions with news that not only informs but transforms. Emphasis on meditation, enlightenment, karma, social evolution, and nonharming.
(To contact us, leave a comment marked "private").
(Bauhaus) Original Goth music "The Sky's Gone Out" from the classic album of the same name.*
A total solar eclipse is unlike anything else we see in our lives. As totality approaches on August 21st, we will see the astonishing sight of day turning to night and the Sun's corona ("crown") blazing in the sky.
The approaching spectacle is truly a great American eclipse because totality will sweep the nation from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. Nearly everyone in the USA can reach a place to see a total solar eclipse within a day's drive.
Where can I see the full eclipse in the US?
An eclipse is a cosmic billiard shot -- the Sun, Moon, and Earth line up to reveal the Sun's "atmosphere," its corona. Eclipses on Earth occur only because of an amazing celestial coincidence [or because the space people, the akashadevas who placed our Moon exactly where it is had a reason for doing so. The God? No. "Intelligent" Design? Sort of.] More +VIDEO
(WQ) The many "gods," be they devas or brahmas, tampering and tinkering with this colony -- this "generation" and its many humanoid species and other creatures over the aeons -- vivified our planet. This is what histories and mythologies from India affirm. According to the Buddha, life on Earth began when... More Buddhist mythology Borrowed from ancient Vedic tradition; Wikipedia edit by Wisdom Quarterly
In the Candima Sutra and the Suriya Sutra, Rahu attacks Suriya (the Sun deity) and Chandra (the Moon deity) before being compelled to release them by the recitation of a brief stanza conveying the deities' reverence for the Buddha.
The titan Rahu makes trouble in space (W).
The Buddha responds by enjoining Rahu to release them, which Rahu does rather than having his head spontaneously "split into seven pieces" (Suriya Sutra).
The verses recited by the two celestial deities and the Buddha have since been incorporated into Buddhist liturgy as protective verses (pirith or paritta) recited by Buddhist monastics as protective chants (Access to Insight, summary in the Devaputta-samyutta section).
This
fascinating documentary was created by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Bill
Cote, who brought us The Mystery of the Sphinx, The Mysterious Origins
of Man, and The Mysterious Stone Monuments of Markawasi Peru, all
available for viewing at UFOTV® via YouTube.
Tribal elders speak out
In this film, Native
American tribal leaders speak out for the first time about their secret
knowledge of the Star People, knowledge that has been passed down for
thousands of years.
It was revealed in a dream among tribal elders that
now was the time for the tribes to break their silence and share their
hidden knowledge of the Star People, visitors from other worlds.
Meet people with firsthand experience of extraterrestrials (ETs), and
hear amazing stories of the unknown. Witness a
mysterious event that occurred in our skies -- for some a very visible and public sign
from the Star People that we are not alone.
Pagan Europe knew of these ancient mysteries like the world tree, Yggdrasil, representing the planets of our solar system much as the axis mundi Mt. Sumeru in Buddhist texts.
Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) has been called the "sleeping prophet," the "father of holistic medicine," and the most documented psychic of the 20th century. Cayce [a lifelong Christian who understood the reality and significance of past lives and found places in the Bible where they had been referred to but were imperfectly deleted was born on a farm in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, in 1877. His psychic abilities began to appear as early as his childhood. As an adult, Cayce would put himself into a state of deep meditation, connecting with the universal consciousness [Akashic Records]. And from this state came his "readings." From holistic health and the treatment of illness to dream interpretation and karma and reincarnation, Cayce's readings and insights offer practical help and advice to individuals from all walks of life that is applicable even today. More
[Edgar Cayce has already been reborn as David Wilcock(divinecosmos.com). He is alive and well, after smoking prodigious amounts of CBD and THC in his wayward youth, in the USA right now, as has been carefully documented by Wynn Free in his book The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?]
LA Sheriff’s deputy accused of sexual misconduct [rape] with female minor [cadet]
Oh, hell no! Police rape children?
A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy is being investigated for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a female minor in the department’s Deputy Explorer Program.
Sources within the department say a deputy is on leave for allegations of misconduct which include sex with a minor, underage drinking, and the sharing of inappropriate photographs.
Not my baby, not my daughter!!! (AP)
The deputy was assigned to the sheriff’s station in Carson [unincorporated Los Angeles, near Long Beach].
In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department says it has been made aware of an allegation raised pertaining to a sworn member of the Department in connection with a Deputy Explorer.
You guys rape and kill? All lives matter!
“While the alleged involved employee** was not directly assigned to the oversight or management of the Explorer program, any proven criminal or other acts of [child molestation and statutory rape or] misconduct that violate public trust, and that of our Explorer program, and which jeopardize the hard work and years of service that have been put into building our revered Explorer program, will NOT be tolerated.”
A current, countywide review of the Explorer Program led to the discovery.
[If LAPD rapes, why not Sheriff's Dept?]
In the military we get to rape as a reward, pirate booty. Why not civilians, too?
.
This revelation comes during a time when the LAPD is dealing with its own controversy involving the alleged sexual relationship between an officer and a 15-year-old female cadet.
Robert Cain, 31, has been charged with six felony counts of sexual assault.
The 15-year-old is among seven other cadets who were arrested for allegedly stealing several patrol cars and police equipment.
(BBC Documentary) The Life of the Buddha is one early "hero's journey" to transformation.
This book was the first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psycho-analysis with the archetypes of world mythology.
It creates a road map for navigating the frustrating path of contemporary life.
Examining heroic myths in the light of modern psychology, it considers not only the patterns and stages of mythology but also its relevance to our lives today -- and to the life of any person seeking a fully realized existence.
Myth, according to world renowned mythologist Joseph Campbell, is the projection of a culture's dreams onto a large screen.
Campbell's book, like the movie series Star Wars it helped inspire, is an exploration of the big-picture moments from the stage that is our world.
It is a must-have resource for both experienced students of mythology and the explorer just beginning to approach myth as a source of knowledge.
This documentary is an exploration of famed mythologist Joseph Campbell's studies and their continuing impact on our Western culture.
Through interviews with visionaries from a variety of fields interwoven with enactments of classic tales by a sweet and motley group of kids, the film navigates the stages of what Campbell dubbed The Hero's Journey: the challenges, fears, dragons, battles, and return home as a transformed person.
In the case of Nathaniel Hawthorne's allegorical "Young Goodman Brown," the protagonist serves as a negative-example of this journey into the woods and the world of witchcraft.
Irish mythology is one of the richest.
Rooted in deeply personal accounts and timeless stories, Finding Joe shows how Campbell's work is relevant and essential in today's world and how it provides a narrative for how to live a fully realized life -- or as Campbell would simply state, how to "follow your bliss."
In narrative and comparative #mythology, the #monomyth or hero/heroine's journey is the common template of a broad category of tales that involve a heroic person who goes on an adventure and in a decisive crisis wins a victory then returns home permanently changed.
The concept was introduced by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), which describes the basic narrative pattern as follows:
A heroic person ventures forth from the world of common day concerns into a region of supernatural wonder. Fabulous forces are encountered there, and a decisive victory is won: The person comes back from this adventure with the mysterious power to bestow boons on ordinary folk.
The inward journey (WQ)
Campbell and other scholars, such as Erich Neumann, describe narratives of the Buddha, Moses, and Christ in terms of the monomyth.
NOTICE: Fair Use Copyright Law "Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."
I was offered the job. This is what I showed them. They used a swimming bot* instead.
(Time,July 19, 2017) An underwater robot entered a badly damaged reactor at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant Wednesday, capturing images of the harsh impact of its meltdown, including key structures that were torn and knocked out of place.
TOKYO, Japan - Images captured by an underwater robot showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's [highly contaminated and] crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.
2: lava-like formations underwater (AP)
The robot found large amounts of solidified lava-like rocks and lumps in layers as thick as 3 feet (1 meter) on the bottom inside of a main structure called the pedestal that sits underneath the core inside the primary containment vessel of Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor, said the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
*This is the remote-controlled swimming robot used in the Fukushima operation (Time).
PHOTO 1. Massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in Okuma town, northeastern Japan (International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning/AP).
2. Heaps of solidified lava-like rocks believed to be nuclear fuel that had melted in the 2011 accident during a probe inside of the Unit 3 reactor at Japan's tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
On Friday (July 21, 2017), the robot spotted suspected debris of melted fuel for the first time since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused multiple meltdowns and destroyed the plant. The three-day probe of Unit 3 ended Saturday.
Locating and analyzing the fuel debris and damage in each of the plant's three wrecked reactors is crucial for decommissioning the plant. The search for melted fuel in the two other reactors has so far been unsuccessful because of damage and extremely high radiation levels.
There-there, C3PO. He's scared of Fukushima.
During this week's probe, cameras mounted on the robot showed extensive damage caused by the core meltdown, with fuel debris mixed with broken reactor parts, suggesting the difficult challenges ahead in the decades-long decommissioning of the destroyed plant.
TEPCO spokesman Takahiro Kimoto said it would take time to analyze the debris in the images to figure out debris removal methods. More
WARNING: Vulgar display of power, cowardice, and abuse of human life by multiple police officers! Also contains foul language from murderer. (RT) A Minnesota [DA threw the case so that a] jury found St. Anthony killer cop and coward Jeronimo Yanez not guilty in the 2016 killing of innocent motorist Philando Castile. The aftermath of the deadly shooting was live-streamed on Facebook by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, which is why it received national attention. Days after the verdict, never-before-seen dashcam footage was released, showing Castile telling Officer Yanez about the firearm and confirming that he would not reach for it prior to being shot to death by Yanez anyway. RT.com, RT-America-air
The view from inside
(TYT) Killer Jeronimo Yanez killed innocent motorist Philando Castile during a questionable traffic stop for a broken
taillight. Castille was, after all, "driving while black."
The passenger, Diamond Reynolds, live streamed video on her
phone from the next seat as he died after being shot to death without provocation other than exiting the blind fear of Officer Yanez by being black and talking about a gun, as Officer Yanez held his deadly firearm in Castille's face, while another armed and trained officer stood behind to make sure he was killed if a fight broke out.
Reynolds' 4-year-old
daughter was in the backseat and was lucky to escape being shot to death. Both Reynolds and her daughter would almost certainly have been murdered as swell, except that Officer Yanez emptied his gun into the innocent driver. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks,
breaks it down.
“He let the officer know that he
had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet and the officer just
shot him in his arm," Reynolds said as she broadcast the Wednesday
evening shooting on Facebook.” More
Arizona tells armed drivers how to avoid deadly police stops
.
Pull over or we'll shoot anyway.
PHOENIX - Gun-friendly Arizona is trying to avoid deadly encounters between [fear-filled] police and people [on the receiving end while] behind the wheel by teaching armed drivers how they should handle themselves when they are pulled over.
Shoot anybody who might have a gun.
Arizona, which allows residents to carry weapons without permits, recently changed its driving rule book in a bid to avoid confrontations such as the one [where a fearful patrolman] killed Philando Castile. The Minnesota motorist, who had a gun permit [but made the mistake of driving while black], was fatally shot during a 2016 traffic stop after telling a [trigger-happy] officer he was armed.
[Minnesota admitted wrongdoing implicitly by paying off the murdered motorist's family but then murdered a meditation teacher standing next to a police car she had called because the officer got jittery while sitting in the passenger seat and, allegedly, hearing a "loud noise," according to the driver, who by being the driver is also guilty of murder under current law. But the shooter will not explain why he shot the woman to death in a case that continues to reverberate because she was white and New Age and he was black and Muslim. The female police chief has stepped down in response.]
Arizona is among a small number of states instructing drivers on what to expect during traffic stops. It appears to be the first to use its driving rules to address situations in which motorists are armed.
Democratic state Rep. Reginald Bolding said Castile's death inspired him to seek changes to the state's driver's manual. He said the revisions were necessary because Arizona does not require gun permits and some owners have not been trained to handle firearms.
Don't shoot, guys! Let's beat him for a while.
"The goal was to create a set of standards," Bolding said. The new edition of the driver's manual, published about a month ago, advises drivers with guns to keep their hands on the steering wheel during traffic stops and tell officers right away that there's a firearm in the car.
It also tells drivers not to reach for anything inside the vehicle without getting permission first [and even then move really slowly because a cop with a gun does not need an excuse to shoot with impunity].
But, don't worry, the DA will get him acquitted.
And officers can take possession of guns, [out of fear and] for safety reasons, until the stop is completed. [Police will decide when it's completed.] The firearms would [or should but maybe won't] be returned [even] if no crime has been committed.
No white males on this force
Lawmakers in Tennessee, Virginia, and Illinois have enacted laws over the last year that require driver education courses to teach people how to react when they are pulled over. [Police training procedures will remain the same.] Unlike the guidelines published in Arizona, none of the laws explicitly mentions what to do when armed motorists are stopped. More
All materials on this site are submitted by editors and readers. All images, unless otherwise noted, were taken from the Internet and are assumed to be in the public domain.
In the event that there is still a problem, issue, or error with copyrighted material, the break of the copyright is unintentional and noncommercial, and the material will be removed immediately upon presented proof.
Contact us by submitting a comment marked "private."
Do not follow this journal if you are under vinaya or parental restrictions. Secure protection by Sucuri.
Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at creativecommons.org/about/licenses.
A total solar eclipse is unlike anything else we see in our lives. As totality approaches on August 21st, we will see the astonishing sight of day turning to night and the Sun's corona ("crown") blazing in the sky.
