Blink 182's Tom DeLonge on UFOs, UAP

The cover up continues with Blink 182's Tom DeLonge

UFO levitation is impossible with no proof for it - Elon Musk on how aliens will judge humanity

Real-life time travel: Travelers, religion

(ApexTV)

Anyone who disbelieves in real-life time travel may want to spend some time watching "Glitch in the Matrix" videos content creators make by gathering testimonies of inexplicable real-life experiences.

Let's time travel! - To when? - To next weekend!

An anonymous time traveler operating under the alias Darryl Dean (from 2033) claims to hold a detailed chronology of upcoming events on Earth. The mysterious man shared his shocking predictions on the internet in a bid to validate the remarkable assertion that time travel is real.

In his declaration, the time traveler prophesized alien (ET) contact and global peace. He said: "I saw that there was a lot of skepticism regarding my story, and I want to say that it is not my goal to convince everyone that I am telling the truth. I simply want to speak to those of you who will listen."

Mr. Dean insists he comes from the Year 2033 and initially intended to stay in the current era only briefly. Speaking with the paranormal investigators from the YouTube platform ApexTV, purported time traveler Dean argued his predictions will prove accurate over time.

These claims come after a "time traveler" from the Year 4413 made a terrifying claim about the future of humanity.

• 'Time traveler' from Year 6000 makes chilling AI claim with photo from the future
• NASA-backed doomsday warning from Stephen Hawking could happen soon
• "China's Nostradamus" terrifying warning about how US-Iran War will end

The math checks out! It's theoretically possible.

He said: "I saw a bunch of questions asking if there are going to be any wars in the future. I can tell you that there will be no major wars, and when the aliens come in 2028, they will usher in a state of peace and prosperity. People will realize they are not so different, and the entire world will unite," reports the Daily Star.

Humanity's descendants will also embrace a single universal religion, which Mr. Dean asserted will have replaced all existing faiths by 2033. He refused to share any details about the religion, fearing it might cause a temporal paradox.

Neil de Grasse Tyson believes

E=MC2: The faster I go, the slower time moves

— until it stops [then it begins to go backwards]

The self-proclaimed time traveler then claimed that time travel technology becomes public knowledge in 2028, along with revelations about extraterrestrial life forms beyond our planet.

• What do we want? Time travel! When do we want it? Uh, it doesn't really matter because, paradoxically, once we have it, we will always have had it, going anywhere in time.
• Source: 'Time traveler' from 2033 shares year aliens will make contact and it's soon (MSN)
• 'Time traveler' from 2033 shares year aliens will make contact and it's soon (AOL)
• Time travel PROOF: Time traveller from 2033 reveals shock predictions of future | Express.co.uk
• The Truth of Rebirth: why it matters for Buddhist practice

Time travel in religion

What's real, how can we know? Practice

Some ancient accounts feature characters who appear to leap forward in time. In Buddhism's Pāli canon, the Payasi Sutta ("Payasi Discourse") describes how the disciple Ven. Kumara Kassapa explains to a skeptic that time flows differently on different planes of existence, particularly the long-lasting heavenly realms [4].

Christian time jumping with Rip VW

Drink and idle hands make for sleepiness.

American and European Christians (with a capitalist work ethic to teach) persistently recount the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch American man with a habit of avoiding work. Rip lives in a village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains years before the American Revolution. 

One day, he goes squirrel hunting in the mountains with his dog, Wolf, to escape his wife's irritation.

You're off your rocker, old coot! - No, I'm not!

When evening comes, he hears a voice calling his name and finds a man dressed in old-fashioned Dutch clothing, carrying a keg of alcohol. Rip helps the man carry his burden to a cleft in the rocks from which thunderous noises are emanating; the source proves to be a group of bearded men wearing similar outfits playing ninepins.

Hinduism derives from Vedas

In Hinduism's Vishnu Purana we find the story of Raivata Kakudmi (son of Revata), who visits the God Brahma in a certain heaven then returns to Earth to find that many ages have elapsed [2, 3]. King Kakudmi is a king often featured in Hindu literature. He is described as the king of Kushasthali, the son of Revata [1] and the father of Revati, the consort of the deity Balarama. His account is given within texts such as the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha, the Devi Bhagavatam, and the Bhagavata Purana.

 

Time traveler Darryl Dean reveals the future of India in 2060

The Japanese legend of "Urashima Tarō," first recorded in the Manyoshu, tells of a fisherman who visits an undersea palace for three days, only to return and find that centuries have passed and his world is gone [5].

• This should be compared to Middle Length Discourse 50 (MN 50), where Ven. Maha Moggallana describes mermaids ("sea nymphs") dancing in dazzling undersea palaces, which he can see through his highly developed psychic powers but which has not made sense to scholars and readers ever since his comments were written and included in the Pali canon: "In the middle of the ocean/There are mansions aeon-lasting, Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming/With a clear translucent luster,/Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance/In complex, intricate rhythms."

Jewish time travel?

In one Jewish tradition, the Prophet Mo (Moses) is transported by one of his tribal Gods to the study hall of Rabbi Akiva, where he is confused by the future evolution of Jewish law.

Another Talmudic story features Honi HaMe'agel, a 1st-century BCE miracle worker who sees a man planting a carob tree that will take 70 years to bear fruit. Honi falls asleep and awakens 70 years later to find the tree fully grown and its fruit being harvested by the man's grandson [6, 7].

In Islam, the Quran (Koran) tells of the Seven Sleepers, a group of monotheistic (more likely henotheistic) young men who sought refuge in a cave to escape persecution. As they slept, their preferred God preserved them for centuries. When they awake, they discover that the world around them has changed. This narrative, found in the Quranic Surah Al-Kahf, describes divine protection and time suspension [8, 9, 10]. More

Rip Van Winkle (continued)

Actual photo of Rip, 1896 (JJ)

Not asking who these men are or how they know his name, Rip joins them in drinking from the keg he has helped carry and soon becomes so drunk that he falls asleep. He awakens on a sunny morning, back at the spot where he first saw the keg-carrier, and finds that many drastic changes have occurred:

• His beard is now a foot long and grey,
• his hunting musket is badly deteriorated, 
• his dog Wolf is nowhere to be found.

Returning to his village, he discovers it to be larger than he remembers and filled with people in unfamiliar clothing, none of whom recognize him. When asked how he voted in the election that has just been held, he declares himself a loyal subject of King George III, unaware that the American Revolutionary War has taken place in his absence.

Why is this fiction so popular in the US?

He learns that many of his old friends either were killed in that war or have left the village and is disturbed to find a young man who shares his name, mannerisms, and younger appearance.

A young woman states that her father is Rip Van Winkle, who has been missing for 20 years, then an old woman recognizes him as Rip. The young woman and the young Rip are his children, and the former has named her infant son after him as well.

Rip discovers that his wife has been dead for some time but is not saddened by the news. He learns through a village elder that the men he met in the mountains are said to be ghosts of the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Halve Maen.

His daughter takes him into her home, and he soon resumes his usual idleness (unconcerned by the major political changes during his slumber) and begins telling his story to every stranger who visits the village. The tale is solemnly taken to heart (despite some assuming him to be off his rocker) by the settlers, particularly by the old Dutch inhabitants who say that, whenever thunder is heard, the men in the mountains must be playing ninepins. More

Hopis remember: Grand Canyon underworld

(Last Cartographer) What the Hopi said was living beneath the Grand Canyon, USA

Who "Created" the Universe?

(Buddha's Wisdom) Who created the Universe? | Buddhism's answer according to Matt

Baka Brahma, luminous,

entertained these [wrong] views:

“I AM that God, the One who makes,

Father of the whole World.

I flourish from My own purity.”

But He had wrongly conceived of

views that wrapped around Him

as tight as serpents’ coils:

The supreme wandering ascetics

conquered Him by knowledge.

He was cured. Source

Why don't [some] Buddhists believe in God? | Buddha's Wisdom

I am that I am?

A god (brahmā) known as Baka once reflected privately that he and his heavenly plane of existence were everlasting. He thought that it was not possible that there could be a higher plane of rebirth and was therefore convinced he had overcome all rebirth and suffering.

The Buddha discerned his deep-seated wrong view and decided out of sympathy to pay Baka a visit in his heaven. When the Buddha appeared in that brahmā world, Baka Brahmā welcomed him formally but immediately announced:

“Now, good sir, this [place] is permanent, this is everlasting, this is eternal, this is total, this is not subject to pass away; for this neither is born nor ages nor dies nor passes away nor reappears, and beyond this there is no escape” (MN 49).

The Buddha, however, contradicted him, pointing out that every one of his claims was wrong. Just then Māra the Tempter [a kind of Lucifer figure] joined their conversation. Māra’s task is to prevent beings from being won over to the Dhamma, to keep them trapped in the cycle of rebirth and death, what Mara views as his personal domain [11].

Taking possession of one of the brahmā’s attendants, Māra urged the Buddha, with a display of sympathy, to accept this brahmā as God, the creator of all other beings.

He told the Buddha that wandering ascetics of the past who delighted in things of this life and “who lauded Brahmā” won happy rebirths afterwards, while those who disbelieved and rejected Brahmā had to endure terrible punishment [in hells].

The Awakened One (the Buddha) let Mara have his say and then called his bluff: “I know you, Evil One. Do not think, ’He does not know me.’ You are Māra, Evil One, and the Brahmā and his assembly and the members of the assembly have all fallen into your hands, they have all fallen under your power. You, Evil One, think, ’This one, too, has fallen into my hands. He, too, has fallen under my power.’ But I have not fallen into your hands, Evil One. I have not fallen under your power.”

“All beings subject to craving—humans, subhumans, devas (celestial deities), or brahmās (grand divinities)—are said to be under Māra’s power because they can all be moved by their mental defilements and must drift along in the current of rebirth and death.

But the Buddha and the other arahants (fully enlightened ones) have permanently and completely escaped Māra’s circle of influence, for they have eliminated all defilements. They have exhausted the fuel that leads to rebirth and thus have vanquished the Lord of Death (Mara).

Baka Brahmā begins to speak on his own behalf. He reminds the Buddha of his opening statement on permanence. He warns him that it is futile to seek “an escape beyond” his own brahma realm. Then he cajoles and threatens the Buddha in the same breath:

“If you will hold to earth… beings… gods… you will be close to me, within my domain, for me to work my will upon and punish.”

The Buddha agrees that if he clung to earth (or any other aspect of existence) he would remain under the control of Mahā Brahmā ("Great Supremo") and Māra, too, but he adds:

“I understand that your reach and sway extend thus: Baka the Brahmā has this much power, this much might, this much influence.”

The Buddha points out that beyond the thousandfold world system over which Baka reigns there are planes of existence of which Baka is totally unaware, and beyond all conditioned phenomena there is a reality that transcends even “the allness of the all”—a consciousness without manifestation, boundless, luminous on all sides—to which Baka has no access whatsoever.

The Buddha, demonstrating his superiority in knowledge and power, then uses his superior psychic powers to humble Baka in front of his entire assembly. By the end of the discourse, these once haughty divine beings marvel at the might of the wandering ascetic Gotama:

“Though living in a generation that delights in being…he has extirpated being [becoming, bhava] and its root” [12].

A brahmā with wrong view

Once an unnamed brahmā gave rise to this deluded thought: “No ascetic is powerful enough to reach my [divine] realm.”

The Buddha read his mind and proved him wrong by simply appearing before him and sitting at ease in the air above his head, while radiating flames from his body in a dramatic display of supernormal powers.

Four great arahant (fully enlightened) disciples—Mahā Moggallāna (the monk the Buddha declared "foremost in psychic powers" among his disciples), Kassapa, Kappina, and Anuruddha—independently realized what had happened and decided to join their Teacher on this divine brahmā plane.

Each disciple sat cross-legged in the air respectfully below the Buddha—but above that brahmā—in one of the cardinal directions, emitting fire around himself. A short dialogue in verse took place between Mahā Moggallāna, the Buddha’s second chief male disciple, and that brahmā:

“Today, friend, do you still hold that view,

The same view that you formerly held?

Do you see a radiance

Surpassing that in the brahma-world?”

“I no longer hold that view, dear sir,

[I reject] the view I formerly held.

Indeed, I see a radiance

Surpassing that in the brahma-world?”

Today how could I assert the view

That I am permanent and eternal?”

According to the Commentary (tika) to this story, the brahmā gave up his wrong view, his wrong belief in his own superiority when he observed the magnificence of the Buddha and a few of his arahants.

When the Buddha preached the Dhamma to him, that brahma was established in the fruit of stream-entry and stopped thinking of himself as permanent.

When this brahmā saw his own [radical] impermanence clearly and distinctly for himself, his former tenacious wrong view, wrong opinion that his world and life were immortal was uprooted.

Many aeons of preparation, the brahmā’s quick intellect, the Buddha’s perfect timing, and the support of the four arahants bore fruit in this divinity becoming a stream enterer (one who has reached the first stage of awakening).

After the Buddha and those arahants left and returned to Jetavana, the great brahmā wanted to learn more about the powers of Buddhist monastics. He sent a member of his retinue to ask Mahā Moggallāna whether there are even more monastics of this teacher who can perform such feats as he can. Maha Moggallāna replied:

“Many are the disciples of the Buddha

Who are arahants with taints destroyed,

Triple knowledge bearers with spiritual powers,

Skilled in the course of others’ minds”

(KS I, 182–84; SN 6:5).

Not only do large numbers of monastics have such special powers and the ability to know other people’s minds, but there are numerous fully purified arahant disciples of the Buddha as well. The emissary was glad to hear this answer, as was that brahmā when he received the report. Source

• Matt (Buddha's Wisdom); Susan Elbaum Jootla (Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel 414/415/416, Teacher of the Devas); Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Was Bruce Lee even human? (video)

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Bruce Lee's philosophy: Jeet Kune Do

Jeet Kune Do Chinese (JKD, 截拳道, literally "Stop Fist Way," figuratively, the "Way of the Intercepting Fist") is Bruce Lee's hybrid martial arts style, which he conceived of and practiced. It centers on the principle of counterattacking opponents in order to impede their offense [12, 13].

As an eclectic martial art, it relies on a style of fighting heavily influenced by Wing Chun, Tai Chi, taekwondo, boxing, fencing, and jujutsu [14, 15].

JKD, which Lee intended to have practical applications in life without the traditional routines and metaphysics of conventional martial arts, also incorporates a set of principles to help practitioners make quick decisions and improve their mental and physical health [13, 16].

Lee, who based JKD on his experiences in unarmed fighting and self-defense, as well as on his Zen Buddhist, eclectic, Confucian, and Taoist philosophies [14, 17], did not formally codify JKD before his death.

As a result, JKD practitioners have had to rely on their own interpretations of Lee's philosophy [18, 19]. More

Talking to the Dead (pets, for profit)

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The Buddha's first sutra: Wheel of Dharma

THE BUDDHA'S FIRST SUTRA (56.11) Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma

Turning in the dreaded Wheel of Samsara

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Awakened One was dwelling at Baraṇasi (Varanasi) in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the Group of Five [wandering ascetics, his former companions in the spiritual life]:

“Meditators, these two extremes should be abandoned by one who has gone forth from the homelife to the left-home life. What are the two? The pursuit of sensual happiness in sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of worldlings, ignoble, unbeneficial on the one hand and the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial on the other.

“Without veering off towards either of these extremes, the Tathagata (the Wayfarer, the Buddha) has awakened to the Middle Way, which gives rise to knowledge, which gives rise to vision, which leads to peace, to direct experience, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

“What, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to knowledge and vision…and which leads to nirvana? It is this Ennobling Eightfold Path:

1. right view,
2. right intention,
3. right speech,
4. right action,
5. right livelihood,
6. right effort,
7. right mindfulness,
8. right stillness.

“This, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to knowledge and vision, which leads to peace, to direct experience, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of disappointment (suffering, pain, misery, dukkha): rebirth is disappointing, aging is disappointing, illness is disappointing, death is disappointing; union with what is displeasing is disappointing; separation from what is pleasing is disappointing; not to get what one wants is disappointing; in brief, the Five Aggregates clung to as self are disappointing.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment: It is this craving that leads to renewed becoming (rebirth), accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasure, craving for eternal existence, craving for annihilation.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment: It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that craving, the letting go and abandoning of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it.

“Now this, meditators, is the ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment: It is this Ennobling Eightfold Path; that is (1-8), right view…right stillness.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience (true knowledge), and light.

What does it take to be a "wise man"?

“‘This ennobling truth of disappointment is to be fully understood’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of disappointment has been fully understood’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment is to be abandoned’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the origin of disappointment has been abandoned’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment is to be realized’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the cessation of disappointment has been realized’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This is the ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment is to be developed’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct epxerience, and light.

“‘This ennobling truth of the way leading to the cessation of disappointment has been developed’: Meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me knowledge, vision, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

“So long, meditators, as my knowledge-and-vision of these Four Ennobling Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was not thoroughly purified in this way, I did not claim to have awakened to the unsurpassed supreme enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, and brahmas (deities, demons, and divines), in this generation with its wandering ascetics and temple priests, its beings of light (devas) and humans.

I can get off this interminable wheel now.

“But when my knowledge-and-vision of these Four Ennobling Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was thoroughly purified in this way, then I claimed to have awakened to the unsurpassed supreme enlightenment in this world with its devas, maras, and brahmas, in this generation with its wandering ascetics and temple priests, its beings of light and humans.

“Knowledge-and-vision arose in me: ‘Unshakable is my liberation of heart/mind. This is my final rebirth. Now there is no more again becoming.’”

This is what the Blessed One said. Elated, the Group of Five delighted in the Awakened One’s words.

The first hearer to awaken

And while this discourse (sutra) was being spoken, there arose in Venerable Kondañña the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dhamma: “Whatsoever originates also ceases.”

And when the Wheel of the Dhamma (Doctrine) had been set in motion by the Awakened One, the earth-dwelling beings of light (bhumi-devas) raised a cry:

• 

  The 31 Planes of Existence

  “At Baraṇasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One, which cannot be stopped by any wandering ascetic or temple priest (shramana or brahmana) or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world.”
• Having heard the cry of the earth-dwelling beings of light, the beings of light in the realm of the Four Great Kings raised [the same] cry: “At Baraṇasi…this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One.”
• Having heard the cry of the devas of the realm of the Four Great Kings, the Tavatiṁsa devas (the light beings of the World of the Thirty-Three)…
• the Yama devas…
• the Tusita devas…
• the Nimmanarati devas…
• the Paranimmitavasavatti devas…
• the devas of Brahma’s retinue raised [the same] cry: “At Baraṇasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Awakened One, which cannot be stopped by any wandering ascetic or temple priest or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world.”

Then at that moment, at that instant, at that very second, this cry spread as far as the brahma world, and this 10,000-fold world system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurable glory and radiance appeared in the world surpassing the divine majesty of the devas.

Then the Awakened One spoke this inspired utterance:

“Koṇḍañña, indeed, understood! Koṇḍañña, indeed, has understood!” In this way Venerable Koṇḍañña acquired the name “Añña Koṇḍañña—Koṇḍañña Who Has Understood.”

• SN 56.11: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta—Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), suttacentral.net, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Dear Buddha: Who created the universe?

Someone asked the Buddha, "Who created this universe?"

It's a question we (metaphysical thinkers, philosophers, and intellectuals) love. We would probably all want to know. That someone may have been the foolish monk Ven. Malunkyaputta. Here's how the Buddha answered to subdue his delusion, ignorant confusion, and pernicious wrong views.

Metaphysical questions

Malunkyaputta, do not trouble yourself with such Qs

Once when presented with a problem of metaphysics (questions that go "beyond physics") by the Buddhist monk Malunkyaputta, the Buddha calmly responded with the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow.

On that occasion, Ven. Malunkyaputta had been meditating when he got distracted and started pondering. The hindrance of skeptical doubts arose in his mind, realizing that he had never gotten the answer to all of the usual "spiritual" questions seekers were usually in search of. All of those unanswered (some might even say unanswerable, the imponderable questions that plague Homo sapiens or "thinking human").

• Is the physical world finite or infinite?
• Did the universe have an origin, and will it end?
• Who created this Universe?
• Is the soul the same as the body or different?
• What becomes of a fully enlightened person after death?
• And so on ad nauseum. There is really no end to possible metaphysical speculations.
• There is even a Buddhist text that summarizes all of the view prevalent at the time of the Buddha, which is called the Brahmajāla Sutta or "The Net of All-Embracing Views."
• "Views" (ditthi) generally refers to wrong views (miccha-ditthi) unless otherwise qualified with samma- ("right-") views. They are as dangerous as a thicket one will get caught up in; it is far better to set them aside, awaken, and with an enlightened mind try to recall what they were when they used to make sense because they will not make sense -- and will not arise -- to the awakened (enlightened) mind/heart.
• Ven. Malunkyaputta did not stop there. He threatened the Buddha that he would quit the monastic life and disrobe if he did not get answers to these things.
• The Buddha gave him a powerful parable, asked him if the Buddha had ever promised to answer such questions in exchange for him becoming a monastic disciple, and thereby encouraged him to pursue the Path to the end of all suffering at which time he could see for himself independent of any teacher or teaching. This was that parable:

When one is shot with an arrow smeared with poison, that wounded person's family may summon a doctor to have the poison removed and provide an antidote [9].

But what if the wounded person refuses to let a doctor do anything until such time as certain important questions are answered? What if the wounded person demands first to know:

• Who shot me with this arrow?
• What is that person's caste and job?
• WHY did that person shoot this arrow?
• What kind of feather was used in its tail?
• What kind of wood was used in its shaft?
• What kind of poison was smeared on its tip?
• What was the method the poison was procured?

One who demands first to have answers to all of that would surely die long before such questions were answered.

So, too, Malunkyaputta, a meditator will die long before getting such [fruitless metaphysical] questions answered.

It is no different for one who follows the Middle Way, which teaches only those things necessary to realize enlightenment (direct knowing-and-seeing for oneself).

Things not helpful and not necessary (but harmful and misleading), the Buddha (the Tathagata or Wayfarer, the Supremely Awakened One) does not teach.

It is because those types of questions are not helpful in one's quest for enlightenment that they have been left undeclared. More (Nontheistic religion)

More, more? Enough has been said, but for those persistent thinkers who question

I have more questions, Sir. - Ask them.

NOTE: It is not because they can't be answered. They can (but any answer will be misleading, confusing, entering a thicket of views). It is not because a Supremely Awakened Buddha does not know; such an extraordinary being does know. But it is precisely because those questions are not useful (but a detriment) that the great Teacher -- concerned with the welfare and wellbeing of students -- sets aside such things and leaves them undeclared.

A disciple, a student, also sets them aside and pursues this path-of-practice to its culmination: awakening in this very life. Then one may ask all such questions.

One will not ask them because they will not arise because they will not make sense once one understands and penetrates DEPENDENT ORIGINATION (paticca-samuppada).

One may even answer them for others on their quest who ask such loaded questions, but to do so will be a disservice to them which the Awakened One has avoided, set aside, and left undeclared.

• It would be like asking the question, "Have you stopped beating your wife? Yes or no!" What is the right answer? There isn't one. There's an explanation but not an answer.
• A more ancient example that still makes sense is the question, "When this fire goes out, which way does it go: up, down, sideways?" It doesn't "go" somewhere, for it ceases when its causes-and-conditions cease because, really, it never had an independent existence (an existence independent of those very causes and condition: fuel, wick, heat, oxygen, and process-of-combustion...
• In exactly the same way, when we ask about the "soul" (the "self," atta, atman, ego, personality, being, consciousness), "Where does it go after death? To annihilation? To eternal life? Which is it?!" The question is wrong, so any answer will be misleading and mistaken. But there is an answer:
• The Buddha formulated that answer in accordance with ultimate truth: Dependent Origination. "When this is, that comes to be; when this is not [present], that does not come to be." Or it may also be phrased more poetically as, "Not having been, they come to be; once having been, they cease." What? Those things. Which things? All composite things (nirvana being the only compact, a.k.a. non-composite, thing and so not a "thing," no-thing yet not "nothing") but most importantly the Five Aggregates clung to as self.
• That is why the Heart Sutra says, "Form (the first aggregate or heap) is emptiness, and emptiness is form." A better modern translation would be to say, "Form is impersonal [not self], and the impersonal is form." Then the exact same thing is then said of the remaining four aggregates: feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness(es), the khandha or skandhas in Sanskrit.
• The Buddha also went into greater detail when he answered, "What things?" with "the ALL that is burning."

How could this possibly be true? There are many who have followed the Middle Way, who have avoided four foolish (and detrimental) questions and pursued four wise (and beneficial) questions. What are they?

1. Was I in the past?
2. What was I in the past?
3. Will I be in the future?
4. What will I be in the future?

The fool ponders such thing fruitlessly, full of wrong view, caught in a thicket of views. However, the wise pursue four other questions which the Buddha has suggested, commended, and advocated:

1. What is dukkha (disappointment, suffering, pain)?
2. What is its cause?
3. What is its solution?
4. What is the way to its solution?

These, indeed, are of great benefit. They are known as the Catu-Ariya-Sacca, the Four Ennobling (Enlightening) Truths, the fourth being this very Ennobling Eightfold Path declared by the Buddha.

• Video; explained by Dhr. Seven and Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Life inside China's 'Heavenly Palace'

(SpaceX Insider) Inside China's Tiangong Space Station

Alleged photo of TSS Heavenly Palace (CGI?)

Tiangong (Chinese 天宫, Pinyin Tiāngōng, lit. "Heavenly Palace") [5][6], officially the Tiangong Space Station [7] (Chinese 天宫空间站, Pinyin Tiāngōng Kōngjiānzhàn), is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency [8].

Tiangong is a modular design, with pieces docked together while in low Earth orbit, between 210 and 280 miles (340 and 450 kms) above the surface of Planet Earth.

Modules of the Heavenly Palace (TSS)

It is China's first long-term space station, part of the Tiangong program and the core of the "Third Step" of the China Manned Space Program. It has a pressurized volume of 12,000 cubic feet (340 m3), slightly over one-third the size of the US's International Space Station.

Tiangong Space Station aims to provide opportunities for space-based experiments and a platform for building capacity for scientific and technological innovation [9] far in excess of Europe, the US, or any other human efforts on the planet currently. More

What’s inside China’s Death Villages? (The biggest cover-up yet)

What is 'gained' by enlightenment?

(Anand Universe Official)

If the great problem in life is clinging (upadana) to illusions -- such as things being able to satisfy/fulfill us, things being permanent, and things being personal -- then the great awakening to their true nature as suffering, impermanent, and impersonal, we suddenly are able to let go, internally renounce (nekkhamma), and awaken (bodhi). The great awakening to Truth sets us from and allows us to lay down the burden we have carried in this samsara, this wheel of life after life meeting with suffering in this form or that, in this plane or that, within this sphere or that. It is like breathing a sigh of relief with tears of joy that there is an escape, a freeing oneself from the thicket of views, and finding peace. That is one way to look at it. But it is much more joyful and blissful than Anand is letting on. Imagine years of imprisonment then being released. Imagine painful illness then getting well. Imagine being in a shadowy world or illusions and goblins then stepping into the light. Nirvana is like that.

Levels of reality and real-life levitation

(Jason Gregory) Siddhis: the magical powers of spiritual masters

Real magic is really possible? - Yes.

In Dharmic (Indian) religions, the siddhis (Sanskrit सिद्धि siddhi, fulfillment, accomplishment) are material, paranormal, supernatural, magical powers, abilities, and attainments, such as levitation (paranormal).

They are the products (sometimes byproducts) of yogic advancement through daily practices (sādhanās) such as meditation (jhana, dhyana) and eight-limbed yoga [1].

The Pali term iddhi ("psychic powers," ṛddhi) is often used interchangeably in Buddhism.

Etymology

Illusion in Prague using steel armature

Siddhi is a Sanskrit noun that can be translated as super "knowledge," "accomplishment," "attainment," or "success" [2].

Method

Buddhism's Path of Purification (Visuddhi-magga) is one of the great commentarial texts to give explicit details about how meditators and spiritual masters can actually manifest supernormal abilities [3].

• [These powers are not really "supernatural" because, however uncommon, they are our natural potential.]

It states that abilities such as levitation (flying through the air), walking through walls (solid obstructions), diving into the ground as if it were water, walking on water as if it were land, and so forth are achieved through changing one element, such as the earth element (Pali pathavi), into another element, such as air (vayu) [3].

• [This is done at will because one has mastered the absorptions (jhanas) via that element. How this is done is explained in practice by Buddhist teachers and meditation masters. Theoretically and conceptually, it is laid out in The Path of Purification, an ancient Buddhist text compiled by the great monk and commentator Buddhaghosa.]

The individual must master disc (kasina) meditation before this is possible [3]. The modern Buddhist Master Dipa Ma ("Dipa's Mother"), who trained in The Path of Purification via her personal teacher Anagarika Munindra, had these abilities -- according to her closest American students who went on to become world famous meditators and teachers (Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Boorstein). Their claims were verified in Calcutta and the USA but, of course, never to the satisfaction of Western science or the impossible standards of the great skeptic the Great Randi. See the great book about her by an American admirer Amy Schmidt, Knee Deep in Grace. Not only did she develop these powers with Anagarika Munindra's instructions, she taught them to her enlightened daughter Dipa and others around her. More: Siddhi

• Levitating monk | Stable Diffusion; Aperture, The 7 Levels of Reality; Jason Gregory, Siddhis; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit