Valentine's Day (aka Saint Valentine's Day, Feast of St. Valentine [1]) is celebrated annually on February 14th [2].
This celebration of going from Lust to Love like the Go Go's, it originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world [3, 4].
Cupid is Mara and Kama
There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Saint Valentines connected to February 14th [5], including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century [6, 7].
According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer [8]. Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: Tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the Roman emperor [7]. An 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution [9].
Will consumers buy cheap cards?
The 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14th [10, 11]. The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries, when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the "lovebirds" of early spring.
In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion for couples to express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").
Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid [who acts like the India god Kama, Greek Eros and Aphrodite, Roman Venus, and Buddhist Mara].
No sex please. We're Ameboids 'n Gatchularians
In the 19th century, handmade cards gave way to mass-produced greetings [12] thanks to capitalism. In Italy, Saint Valentine's keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart" as well as to children to ward off epileptic fits (called Saint Valentine's Malady) [13], which could be thought of as an overwrought lover's obsessive mania, like St. Vitus' Dance. More
Weed Psychosis is exploding in America (but nobody warned us)
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
(African Diaspora News Channel) Feb. 10, 2026: Rosemarie Havsom reports: Marijuana (from the Chinese mahua,* not Spanish "Mary Jane," weed, pot, the Devil's cabbage, cannabis, THC/CBD) is being sold as “safe,” “natural,” and “harmless” — but emergency rooms across America are seeing a disturbing surge in weed-induced psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations, schizophrenia and violent breaks from reality. This isn’t about old-school [2% THC] weed. Today’s high-THC products are 10–30x stronger than what past generations used — and the brain is paying the price.
*According to our botany and plant medicine teacher, USC's Dr. Adams, who is fluent in Chinese and whose wife is Chinese, our word "ma-rijuana" (potent hemp) comes from the Chinese word ma, including mahua (麻花), mafen (麻蕡), and mabo (麻勃), referring to specific parts of the male and female flowers of a cannabis plant with differing cannabinoid ratios. More
Don't smoke drugs, Kids, because according to good Dr. Gabor Mate if one has early childhood traumas, one will become addicted to its use and abuse.
This video segment was produced by the African Diaspora News Channel team. All content is human-generated and delivered. Connect with Rosemarie: @havsom
Cartoon characters may age right in front of our eyes and eventually die, like The Simpson, Family Guy, and South Park, but we never will. That kind of mortality is only in animation and just for laughs. Can you imagine if radical impermanence applied to our lives? Why, our youth, beauty, and joys might evaporate right in front of our eyes, like good ol' Beavis and Butthead. Of course, the ancient sages of India warned of just such a thing in this story of the past by the Buddha:
Odd that the supremely enlightened Buddha mentions the teachings of another teacher? No, Araka is the Bodhisatta (in a past life, i.e., the Buddha before enlightenment). He is recalling what a good teacher taught before "supreme" (samma-sam) awakening.
"Once long ago, meditators, there was a teacher named Araka, a leader of a school who was free of lust for sensual pleasures. He had hundreds of students and he taught them dhamma [his Doctrine] in this way:
"'Next to nothing, students (Brahmins), is this human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and distress. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a purified life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.
"'Just as a dewdrop on a blade of grass soon vanishes with the rising of the sun, in the same way, students, human life is like that dewdrop — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.
"'Just as when the weather-devas send rain in large droplets that hit and form a water bubble that soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that water bubble — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is born there is no freedom from death.
"'Just as a line drawn on water with a stick soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that line — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.
Subject to aging, I should seek the ageless.
"'Just as a river flows down from the mountains, goes far in a swift current, and carries everything with it, so that there is not a second, not a moment, not an instant when it stands still, but instead it flows, and moves and rushes. In the same way, students, human life is like that river — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.
"'Just as a strong person might form spit on the tip of the tongue then spit it out with little effort, in the same way, students, human life is like that spit — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.
Huh huh huh, you look old. Here's a cane.
"'Just as a shred of flesh tossed onto an iron pan that has been heated all day soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that shred of flesh — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.
"'Just as a doomed cow being led to a slaughterhouse stumbles with every step as it moves closer to slaughter and closer to death, in the same way, students, human life is like that doomed cow — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'
Old Cornholio (new Beavis & Butt-Head)
"Now at that time, meditators, the average human life span was 60,000 years, with females marriageable at 500. And at that time there were [only] six afflictions: [touch of] cold, heat, hunger, thirst, [and the need for] defecation and urination. Yet even though humans were so long-lived, long-lasting, with so few afflictions, the Sage Araka taught dhamma to his disciples in this way:
"'Next to nothing, students, is human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'
"At present, meditators, one speaking rightly might say, 'Next to nothing is human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'
How many moons would we have seen? 36,500?
At present, meditators, one who lives a long time is 100 years old or a little more. Living 100 years, one lives for 300 seasons: 100 seasons of cold, 100 seasons of heat, 100 seasons of rain.
Living for 300 seasons, one lives for 1,200 months: 400 months of cold, 400 months of heat, 400 months of rain.
Living for 1,200 months, one lives for 2,400 fortnights: 800 fortnights of cold, 800 fortnights of heat, 800 fortnights of rain.
Living for 2,400 fortnights, one lives for 36,000 days: 12,000 days of cold, 12,000 days of heat, 12,000 days of rain.
Living for 36,000 days, one eats 72,000 meals: 24,000 meals in the cold, 24,000 meals in the heat, 24,000 meals in the rain — counting the taking of mother's milk and obstacles to eating.
Obstacles to eating? There are these: when one does not eat due to anger, when one does not eat due to distress, when one does not eat due to illness, when one does not eat due to an observance [Uposatha] day, when one does not eat due to poverty.
Turn, turn, turn, how the season turn.
"Meditators, reckoning the life of a human being who lives for 100 years, there is the lifespan, the seasons, the years, the months, the fortnights, the nights, the days, the meals, the obstacles to eating.
"Whatever a teacher would do in seeking the welfare of disciples, out of sympathy for them, have I done for you.
"Over there, there are the roots of trees; over there, empty dwellings. Practice meditative absorptions (the jhanas), meditators. Be not heedless, such that you might fall into regret later. This is our message."
Mike Judge, Beavis & Butt-Head (MTV via Paramount+); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Arakenanusasani Sutta (AN 7.70, PTS: A iv 136) based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans), Wisdom Quarterly
"Medicinal cannibalism" was widespread in many countries of early modern Europe, who couldn't get enough meat medicine (mummia), desiccated embalmed mummies from ancient Egypt during its Egyptomania age of discovery.
The Bible [often rewritten (forged), redacted, and reinterpreted] strongly condemns practices associated with Moloch, which are heavily implied to include child sacrifice. More
Born Jeffrey Block (Dec. 10, 1944), now known as Bhikkhu Bodhi [a], is an American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk, a major inspiration for Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal, educated in California, ordained in Sri Lanka, and now teaching in New York and New Jersey.
Long ago at BPS, Bhikkhu Bodhi authorized our Dharma editor to promote his mail order Buddhist course called The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, a ten-cassette set he recorded in the basement of the Washington Buddhist Vihara with glossary and notes. To reach a wider audience, we took it online with millions of views, our dhamma-dana.
Block was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1944 to Jewish parents. He grew up in Borough Park, where he attended elementary school P.S. 160 [4] and graduated from New Utrecht High School [5]. He then worked as a door-to-door salesman selling paintbrushes [6].
In 1966, he obtained a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College, where he first encountered Buddhism in books at the bookstore [6]. In 1972, he obtained a doctoral degree (PhD) in philosophy from Claremont Graduate University [7, 8] in Southern California before deciding to move to Asia to ordain as a monk. More
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is an annual observance adopted by the United Nations General Assembly to promote equal participation of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields [1].
Did the world forget all the female greats in herstory (his-story)? There was Kwan Yin (Buddhist Goddess of Compassion); Scheherazade; Asherah (the Jews' God's wife); Ven. Khema and Ven. Uppalavanna (the Buddha's chief female disciples); the world's first Buddhist nun (the Buddha's mother Maha Pajapati); Prince Siddhartha's wife -- who became an enlightened Buddhist nun and the top debater in the land -- found hidden all over ancient Buddhist texts by many and varied names: Rahulamata (Rāhula's mother), Bhaddakaccā (Lucky One), Yasodharā (Graceful), Bimbā Devī (Princess Bimba), Bimbā-sundarī (Bimba the Beautiful), Bhadda-kaccānā (Lucky Kaccana), Subhaddakā; though Mahayana Buddhist texts favor the epithet "Yasodharā" the daughter of Dandapānī, she was born Bimbā, and names like Yosadhāri were descriptive epithets applied to her, which later became regarded as names. It is also possible that in Gautama's court there was a Yasodharā, daughter of Dandapānī, and that there later came to be a confusion of names (Dictionary of Pali Proper Names).
The U.N. General Assembly passed the resolution in 2015 [2], which proclaimed February 11th as the commemoration of the observance [3].
A theme is selected annually as a focus point for gender equality [or parity] in science [4].
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is implemented annually at the U.N. Headquarters by the Royal Academy of Science International Trust in partnership with UNESCO and UN Women to promote the role of women and girls in scientific fields and celebrate those who have been successful in the field [5]. More
Sheherazade (mnemonic "She Her a Sadie," Scheherazade, Shahrazad, Šahrzād) is the legendary narrator and central character framing One Thousand and One Nights (Arabic ألف وواحد ليلة, Romanized Alf wa waħid layla).
This collection of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and North African folktales compiled in Arabic between the 8th-14th centuries is a powerhouse in the West, where its origins are deemphasized.
Buddhism came out of the Middle East, not today's geopolitical morass dubbed the "Middle" East but rather Gandhara [ancient Afghani-stan, Saka-stan, Paki-stan, ir "Kapilavatthu-stan," the mahajanapada of Gandhara at the foothills of the Hindu Kush, which are part of the greater Himalayan range, in Central Asia, northwestern frontier of what later became the Empire of "India" united by Buddhist King Ashoka, but was not yet India or Hindu-stan and no longer Maha Bharata), and the Buddha was a Saka (Indo-Scythian, Shakya, Sakya] in the ancient Kingdom of Magadha now the modern Indian state of Bihar. Note that nowhere is Nepal mentioned because, according to Dr. Ranajit Pal, author of Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander, that seems to be where the Buddha's hometown/homeland was RELOCATED for religio-historical, cultural, and geopolitical purposes after Islamic invasions overrunning the Near East and "Middle" East, and the rich Empire of India, all make-believe designations resulting from imperial British colonialism in a region of the world the ancient Greeks called Scythia and beyond].
Princess Yasodhara, Prince Siddhartha's wife
Sheherazade is the super smart wife of King Shahryar who saves herself, and ultimately all the women in the kingdom, from execution by recounting a continuous sequence of interlinked stories over the course of 1,001 nights.
Sheherazade is not the protagonist in the individual tales she narrates. Rather, she functions as the unifying narrative consciousness of the entire work of brilliance. She's the storyteller.
Through [the use of cliffhangers or] deliberate pacing, narrative suspense, and thematic selection, she gradually transforms King Shahryar from a ruler driven by misogyny and vengeance into a just and stable king. 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.
%20wiki.jpg)
