Catholic Buddhist Lent: Ash Wednesday

Glam Buddhist David Bowie "Ashes to Ashes" (official video)

Holy [Hindu style) ashes on Ash Wednesday

Happy Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent for most Christians. Wisdom Quarterly's Mexican Buddhist Crystal Q. is torn between celebrating abstinence, the Five Eight or Ten Precepts, Ten Commandments, and reverting to simplicity. Since ancient Indian times, ashes from the pyre have been used by wandering ascetics as a way of getting clean. (Ashes are absorbent, and when collected from a funerary pyre, they are a strong reminder of this body's mortality). Buddhist David Bowie perhaps quoted the Anglican prayer book best when he sang, "Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie" (David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes").

The tilma of Juan Diego: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Madonna and Child? Kwan Yin

Why would a Mexican be Buddhist? One strong reason in the past was the arrival of Buddhist missionaries from Afghanistan and China before the arrival of Christianity. See American researcher Edward P. Vining and his published findings in An Inglorious Columbus: Or Evidence that Hwui Shan and a Party of Buddhist Monks from Afghanistan Discovered America in the Fifth Century, A.D.) Of course, in modern times Mexican Americans would love Buddhism for its many qualities and perhaps recognizing in the Buddhist Goddess of Compassion Guan Yin a great deal of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

So it's time for a field trip to church (Catholic mass) to see these smearing of cremation ashes across foreheads in Los Angeles. Ananda is eager to see what this is all about. CC took us to the giant Buddhist temple east of Los Angeles in the very Asian San Gabriel Valley, where we enjoyed the Aztec dancers dancing for the Chinese Mahayana Humanist Buddhist crowd. So this explosion/clash of Mexican and European church tradition ought to be a Roman spectacular.

WHAT HAPPENED?

St. Andrew's Church (Pasadena)

Pasadena, California, has many Catholics, and "church" (mass) was packed. The one we attended is beautiful inside, much more beautiful than the usual Holy Roman Empire version. It has a picture of God unlike any other Euro Catholic church building we've ever seen, a massive mural. And next to the God are beautiful devas ("angels"), drawn in gold and very colorful. The many pews were full, and there is a Spanish language service going on in the school building across the street. This church building is on the corner of Fair Oaks and the 134 Freeway, with a big belfry and clock (campanile). Inside, it's like a mausoleum of imported stone. And the attendees are a mix of Hispanics, Italians, Europeans, and a sprinkling of Blacks and Asians. Everyone is very nice and seem repentant as they line up for their pyre ashes, almost certainly incense stick remnants and coal. Wine and gluten crackers are served, if one doesn't mind mixing saliva with everyone else, but it's wiped with a white towel between sips, which is certainly sterilizing through prayer and God's power or the priest's magic. The officiant and his altar boy assistants said some nice words, encouraged people to be good and observe the Ramadan Lenten (Latin Quadragesima, "Fortieth") self-purification practices for the next month and ten days, and to do acts of abstinence, restraint, charity, and kindness, all beautiful sentiments for those who live up to the best of their religion. It is very much like the Buddhist Rains Retreat (Pali Vassa).

Meat eating during the Holy Season?

We agree: Let animals live by not eating them.

Historically, abstinence from meat was a requirement on the days of the Lenten season, including Sunday, the "Lord's Day") [20]. In Eastern Christianity -- including Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, Eastern Lutherans, and Oriental Orthodox -- Great Lent is observed continuously without interruption for 40 days starting on Clean Monday and ending on Lazarus Saturday before Holy Week [21, 6] and the big finale of the real New Year's Day, Easter, the first day of spring (time of renewal, when the "son" rises after being as dead as the winter, as explained by Astrotheology). More

(Neo Dharmism) Study Christianity, Hinduism, find one shocking difference

In India, cremation ashes are called phool ("flowers"). They are collected from the pyre in a rite-of-passage called asthi sanchayana then dispersed. This signifies redemption of the dead in waters (like those of the "holy" Ganges or Jordan River) considered to be sacred and a closure for the living (Hinduism, Note 28).

American Pope's first Lent

Kendrick Lamar's Lefty Gunplay, Grammy Award winning LA Latino

Dr. Dre made mad money signing Eminem, so Kendrick adopted Lefty Gunplay (F. Scott Holladay)

(The Circle of Syndicates) Why the Mexican Mafia is hunting this LA rapper

(Comedy Caliente) You're full Mexican?!? | Melissa Villasenor

Viking berserkers got high first?

Hollywood's Hart is Catholic?

(HP) Christianity erased the truth, but the evidence remains: Viking "berserkers" were said to fight in a trance of unstoppable fury. Some historians believe this rage may have been triggered by psychoactive plants like henbane or hallucinogenic mushrooms. Seeds found in a Viking grave in Denmark suggest these substances were known and possibly used. Christians systematically destroyed much of the old pagan knowledge. This video explores the evidence behind one of Viking history’s strangest questions. More

• What Ash Wednesday means | Beginning of Lent explained #ashwednesday #lent
• Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; History Profiles, Feb. 13, 2026

U.S. Buddhist Peace Walk despite Trump

(WCNC) Buddhist monks arrive in Rock Hill on Peace Walk, drawing hundreds of loving gawkers

(WBTV News - Charlotte) Theravada Buddhist monks walk for peace through South Carolina

(Enlightened Living) This is no ordinary trip

(WIS News 10) Buddhist monks' Peace Walk rallies support across USA

(News 19 WLTX) Buddhist monks make their way through Lexington

• Buddhist monks walk from Texas to nation’s capital to promote peace, unity and kindness (Press Register)
• Update: Buddhist monks resume walk for peace across US after two injured in traffic accident (Buddhistdoor Global)
• Buddhist monks walk from Texas to nation’s capital to promote peace, unity and kindness | The Greenwood Commonwealth
• (Marma Buddhist TV) Walk for Peace

Walking the Dog: Aloka's Peace Walk

(BARI Research) From Indian streets to 2,300-mile Peace Walk: What Aloka's journey teaches us

Buddhist monks cross Gervais Street Bridge on Walk for Peace

(News 19 WLTX) wltx.com, Jan. 11, 2026: Theravada Buddhist monks crossed over the Gervais Street Bridge with a sea of American supporters before reaching the State House during their journey across the USA to Washington, DC, to be seen by Trump.

 

(Ed and Pete) Peace is not defended with noise - it is lived. (And that's true for Aloka the Dog too)

(Occupy Democrats) Trump world just freaked out over viral Buddhist peace demonstration

(Divine Mental Health) Monks walk for peace with dog Aloka

• A Peace Walk across the United States to reach DC? What walk? Buddhist monks' Peace Walk across USA
• American Buddhist monks' Peace Walk across the USA to DC: reunion with injured monk
• Praise the Lord, pass the ammunition, and ATTACK peace monks in the name of the Jesus

Walking for Peace: Faith, Freedom, and Reviving Our Republic

• Mike (Reviving Our Republic with Mike Bedenbaugh) does not realize he is quoting the historical Buddha by sharing the Parable of the Blind Men and an Elephant

(WRDW News 12) Buddhist monks pass through CRSA, Peace Walk to DC

Live from Tignall, Georgia on January 6, 2026

Monks confronted by Christians on Walk for Peace USA — lesson on anger

Dodger 'Yagi' (GOAT) Ohtani: World Series

• (Search Party) How Shohei Ohtani happened
• What does Shohei (翔平) mean? Shō (翔) means to "soar or glide," and hei (平) means to be "level, in the sense of being calm or peaceful." Hei is also a common ending for male names. His surname's initial character Oh (大) means "great or large" and tani (谷) means "valley." One who glides peacefully in a grand valley (like a stadium)? Source
• He's the G.O.A.T. (the "greatest of all time), we say, which in Japanese is yagi  ("goat").

World Series Game 3 HIGHLIGHTS | Blue Jays versus Dodgers - Oct. 27, 2025

The Greatest of All Time: The Yagi

(SPORTSNET) Oct. 28, 2025: DODGER STADIUM, Los Angeles. In one of the most unbelievable games of professional baseball anyone will ever see, featuring every manner of drama, the Los Angeles Dodgers bested the Toronto Blue Jays by way of a Freddie Freeman walk-off homer after 18 grueling innings, taking a 2-1 World Series lead in the process.

• 0:00 - 1st Inning
• 0:18 - 2nd Inning
• 0:46 - 3rd Inning
• 1:15 - 4th Inning
• 2:06 - 5th Inning
• 2:36 - 6th Inning
• 2:53 - 7th Inning
• 3:21 - 9th Inning
• 2025 World Series Game 3
• 2025 World Series
• Toronto Blue Jays highlights

Blue Jays vs. Dodgers World Series Game 3 (10/27/25) | MLB Highlights

The Fix Is In: Gambling?

The G.O.A.T. Shohei "Yagi" Ohtani was spectacular. But the game lasted seven hours, ending about midnight. Even diehard fans, many of them Proles outside the luxuries of the Inner Party, had to get home and get to work the next day, possibly nursing hangovers from a day at Distraction Ball.

The grind continues, and the Dodgers are down, maybe making this the closest World Series in a long while. What started off with rumors of a sweep, the Dodgers taking the series in four straight wins, diverted and has made them really work for it.

It is possibly all scripted to milk billions in bets with bookies and offshore gambling agents. The fix is in. So don't gamble based on statistics and math. That's how they get a bettor. The best laid plans of mice and men do not pan out or else everyone would bet by the numbers. It's bound to be a counterintuitive ending to make the house the most money. Here, seven hours are condensed into about seven exciting minutes of play without all the milling about and nail-biting.

Best baseball player is Buddhist?

Sorry Ladies and Gents, he's taken.

Wisdom Quarterly has yet to conclusively demonstrate that the Yagi (Japanese for "goat") is a Japanese Buddhist from Orange County, where he played for the Angels. But what is the circumstantial evidence? Let's see.

The all is empty, devoid of self.

Nearly everyone in Japan is Buddhist, at least by tradition as are a great number of Asian Orange County residents, with only San Francisco and Los Angeles serving as home for expat Buddhist communities from Japan (where many were brought more than a century ago to work in building the railroads then unceremoniously locked up in gulags to sit out WW II, where the humiliation of forced internment has not been forgotten. But Japan has more than Zen Buddhism.

Shinto priest bows, placates kami

The older tradition is Shinto or kami (spirit) worship/tending. And the newer tradition is Pure Land faith-based Buddhism usually called Nichiren Shōshū. There are of course colonial remnants of Christianity and modernist agnosticism and atheism, but deep down most every Japanese person adheres to ancient Buddhist tradition along with observance of other spiritual legacies. While it might be wise for Ohtani to keep it a mystery and rake in nearly a billion dollars in his stint with the Dodgers, we bet that just beneath the surface he bows, prays, meditates, focuses Zen-like, and welcomes the help of the unseen world of kamis and blessings wherever he can get them from the Old Country and his new home. After all, he did not succumb to a Hollywood manager-arranged public relationship for the press. He traveled back to Nippon (Japan) and found a traditional wife to accompany him on his rise to stardom and his life as a living legend. Can Babe Ruth or Fernando Venezuela compare?

• 30 Things You Must Know About Shohei Ohtani | IBTimes: He practices Japanese Shinto (polytheistic animism) and calls himself an American Christianity, which is smart.

If we were world-famous bonsai tree growers in Japan, we'd put it out that we were pro-business Ninja Samurai capitalists, so everyone would know we were proud Americans but very open to Japanese traditions like the lore of Bushi warriors. No cents in offending the locals with our brash Americans...and very few dollars.

• OCBC Dharma Message on ‘Shohei Mandala’ Proves to Be a ‘Clean’ Hit
• Shohei Ohtani: All we know about the LA Angels star

The Curse of the Colonel: Avoid dead KFC birds

It might be orchestrated to maximize gambling and drunkenness: Toronto bounces back in Game 4

The Fix Is Still In (B. Tuohy)

What will Halloween in Canada be like? The Dodgers will soon find out. Why? Whoever is writing this sports script would want to stretch out the suspense, sell more tickets, raise more money betting, and making the win more of a surprise with cries of "next year" in case of an upset. It's rudimentary in a corrupt capitalist system of American sport.

How dare anyone question the honesty, integrity, and above-board directness of the MLB and all its players, who would never do anything just for the money. Balderdash! Who could think such a thing or say it out loud?

Me 'n My Buddha: Our Search for Liberation

Simpsons; Harry Nilsson "Me and My Arrow"; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

The Simpsons: Lisa's path to Buddhism

Richard Gere, are you peeking?

(Manda Flax) The famous American TV show The Simpsons, which has run longer and more successfully than any other, except maybe Survivor, once had an episode called "My Way or the Highway to Heaven." It was Season 30, Episode 3, and here's a clip. Lisa was already a Buddhist from way back, even before Bart went Zen.

My Way or the Highway to Heaven (plot)

In heaven, God and St. Peter are visited by the Buddha, who encourages them to open heaven to other religions.

Back on earth, in Sunday School, Lisa tells her class that besides redemption and good works (wholesome karma), there is The Bodhisattva's Way of Enlightenment. She then shares a story she calls “The Princess not affiliated with Disney, unless we are now owned by Disney.”

In Lumbini, outside the Shakya Kingdom during the 6th century BCE, a spoiled princess Siddmartha (a female version of Buddhism's founder Siddhārtha) remained dissatisfied despite having it all. She sought a Middle Way between extreme austerities and decadence.

Carl, shouldn't we be chanting? - Yes, Lenny.

She ventured out of the palace disguised as a poor boy. In search of scholars she goes to Kathmandu U. but frustratingly finds the university a party school.

Being void of ideas, she opts instead to sit under a Bodhi Tree until she awakens enlightened.

Meanwhile, back in heaven, St. Peter notices that Lisa is a good person, a good Buddhist, and God agrees that “all the good souls are welcome.”

Lisa should do yoga, too. Right, Homer? - Huh, what, Marge?

God, Jerry was right: JESUS SAVES (video)

Slayer; Seinfeld; South Park; April 1 2020, Sheldon, Seth, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What if "salvation" had nothing to do with our own karma (intentional actions) and understanding? What if were just the whim of some guy, some creator god, in a big simulation? Is life a test as a Big Bang Being looks down from some extraterrestrial home?

If it were then we'd have to worry, "Did I pick the right denomination?" like South Park points out:

We choose to follow the religion we think is best, but we don't choose which one to believe. That's dictated to us by relatives and society. Why think for myself? Even though others choose for me, it's incumbent on me to question and understand that religion, rather than just taking it for granted.

All religions have something good, and all religions have real problems to be aware of so we don't get sucked in. It's a fact of life:

You take the good, you take the bad, you take it all, and there you have...no salvation at all.

The Buddha awakened in the world. So it doesn't need to be any way other than it is for us to awaken. He pointed out the path he followed to emancipation, liberation, salvation, freedom from all suffering:

Salvation depends on what we do and think and understand. Otherwise, the teachings of religion can be twisted by others to mean what it never meant, things others tell us to control us and mislead us. Who saves? Who could save? We ourselves have to use our heart, our head, and our purified-intuition that is able to directly know.

“No one saves us but ourselves.

No one will, and no one may.

We ourselves must walk the Path.

Buddhas only point the way!"

(The Dhammapada Verses 165, 276)

(April 2 update) April Fools. Does Jesus save? In a sense, if he shops at Walmart and Geico or listens to Slayer, but actually it's not a joke. True believers should know, as Christian scholar Reza Aslan takes pains to document in Zealot, there are two Christian figureheads, Jesus of Nazareth the historical figure, son of man (manusya-putra) and would-be messiah versus "Jesus Christ," son of Zeus, son of god (deva-putra) the Nordic Nazi "Aryan-ideal" lord of astrotheological the West's conception. They are very different persons. Jesus of Nazareth spent his "lost" 18 years in India as a yogi, Buddhist monk at Hemis Gompa, Ladakh/Tibet, who studied Eastern philosophy with various Dharmic religions, as documented by Nicolas Notovitch, Kirsten Holger, Swami Abedananda, and others.

A strange "Chris-Buddhist-mas"

Ajahn Chah; Ajahn Maha Boowa; Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Was Jesus ever a Buddhist? Yes.*

It was Christmas (December 24th) in Thailand, and the foreign [Western Buddhist] monks decided to celebrate it. They invited some laypeople as well as the Abbot Ajahn Chah to join them.

The laypeople were upset and skeptical. "Why," they asked, "are Buddhists celebrating Christmas?"

Ajahn Chah gave a talk on religion in which he said, "As far as I understand, Christianity teaches people to do good and to avoid doing harm, just as Buddhism teaches, so what's the problem?"

"However, if people are upset by the idea of celebrating 'Christmas,' that can be easily remedied. We won't call it 'Christmas.' Let's call it ['Chris-Buddhist-mas']. Anything that inspires us to see what is true and do what is good is proper practice. You may call it any name you like."

The Christ and The Buddha

Ajahn Maha Boowa

Siddhartha the Buddha, Jesus the Christ, Saintly Young Men Manga (Geraldford/flickr)

.

Every [world-] religion teaches people to be good. I do not dare put the Christ (Jesus) and the Buddha (Siddhartha) in the boxing ring to see who's champion -- because the religions do not have anything to argue and fight about.

But we people who are variously "Christians" or "Buddhists" like to quarrel and to fight with words. Because of being stubborn, we do not practice the way of either religion.

The teachings of the founders of each tradition give us a "right path" to follow, so we ought to contemplate the virtues of the founders.

It is as if we were walking along a path to a particular destination. At first we'd go along a path that we knew until we reached a point where we no longer knew the way. So we'd ask someone who knows, and they'd tell us the way to go farther.

Siddhartha the Buddha lived to help others and to rise above the lures of the world.

.

As soon as we again reached a point of uncertainty, we'd ask again. We'd continue like this until we reached the goal at the culmination of the path.

The one who points out the path is a benefactor, and we ought to reflect on the gift.

The Buddha saw clearly into Dharma (the true nature of things), because he understood clearly the method by which he had trained himself [to see things as they really are].

Therefore, it was always beneficial when Buddhists turned to him. He was always ready to help the world gain freedom from various dangers with methods that were full of friendliness/loving-kindness (mettã).

To summarize, in both religions, the founders compassionately taught people to be good (virtuous) in the same way. They are different in their degrees of subtlety following the abilities of the founders of each tradition.

*Yes, Jesus was at one time a Buddhist monk, apparently in the Mahayana-Hinduistic-Vajrayana tradition. According to Nicolas Notovitch and many others, Jesus lived in India during the unknown or "lost" years of his life. There in Ladakh, India/Tibet, he was a Buddhist monk, a Hindu yogi, a miracle worker (siddhi), a healer, and teacher who got in trouble and went back to Jerusalem, where he got in even more trouble. And he came back to Kashmir, where we find his tomb now overtaken by a Muslim burial site with a Jewish person, whose feet are symbolized to mark it in a very Buddhist and very non-Jewish way.

Ven. Jesus?: "The Christ of India" (video)

Light of the Spirit (doc); Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

(Light of the Spirit) The Christ of India: The Story of Original Christianity asks, Did Jesus (Issa) spend his "Lost Years" in India? Visit a.co/8V4B9Wy.

.

Map of the former Empire of Tibet (wiki)

Why are Buddhism and Christianity so alike? The superficial similarities are astonishing. Then later the language branches apart as Christian apologists interpret terms like "born again" not as rebirth but as something that happens only in this life. The "Kingdom of God" goes from meaning something like the ultimate goal of Buddhism but then waters down the term in accordance with Sumerian and Jewish conception. "Eternal Life" replaces "the Deathless state" (amata), a synonym of Nirvana.

What was Jesus of Nazareth doing during the "lost years"? He travelled with a Jewish merchant caravan to Buddhist Kashmir, India, and Tibet, lived as a Buddhist monk in Tibetan Buddhist Hemis Gompa (lamasery) in Ladakh, high in the Himalayas on the border of Tibet, and practiced within Mahayana Buddhist and later in Hindu traditions, as Nicolas Notovitch discovered and reported to the West.

Notovitch saw, handled, and copied written records then wrote about it. It caused a wave of controversy and investigations trying to steal those written records. Swami Abhedananda followed in the footsteps of Notovitch and confirmed his story, even as Western investigators were unable to steal the original documents. While this may be very hard to take seriously, see the undeniable scholarship and evidence of Holger Kersten (tombofjesus.info/holger-kersten) and others.

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Discovering evidence of Jesus (Issa) in India

In 1887 the Russian Christian correspondent Nicolas Notovitch claimed that while at the Hemis Monastery in Ladakh, he had learned of the document "Life of Saint Issa, Best of the Sons of Men" – Isa being the Arabic name of Jesus in Islam.^[31][32]

Notovitch's story, with a translated text of the "Life of Saint Issa," was published in French in 1894 as La vie inconnue de Jesus Christ (Unknown Life of Jesus Christ).^[6][32] According to the scrolls, Jesus abandoned Jerusalem at the age of 13 and set out towards Sind, “intending to improve and perfect himself in the divine understanding and to studying the laws of the great Buddha.”

He crossed Punjab and reached Puri Jagannath, where he studied the Vedas under Brahmin priests. He spent six years in Puri and Rajgirh, near the Buddhist monastery Nalanda (the first modern university), and an ancient seat of Hindu learning.

Then he went to the Himalayas and spent time in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, studying Buddhism, and returned through Persia (Aryan Iran, see ranajitpal.com), then returned to Jerusalem at the age of 29. Notovitch's writings were immediately controversial. More