Buddhist David Bowie on End of Religion

David Bowie: Major Tom's Odyssey: "Space Oddity"

(T&H - Inspiration & Motivation) David Bowie on the real purpose of life

David Bowie at the Scottish Buddhist Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre with his lama Guru Chime Rinpoche almost ordained as Vajrayana Buddhist monk for a life of contemplation and peace

Sexy 'BABY groupies' of Hollywood?

(Asa Park) Me Too Movement? Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Ted Nugent, David Bowie, Rodney Bingenheimer, Jews in the Hollywood music and sex industries, heralding "sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll," while molesting child groupies the way P Diddy would? It was a secret in plain sight.

Buddhist David Bowie 'My Way' vs. 'Life OM?'

Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious sings Sinatra's "My Way"

"Life on Mars?" is a song by the Vajrayana Buddhist British musician David Bowie, first released on his 1971 album Hunky Dory.

Conceived as a parody of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" [which was more directly mocked by Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols], "Life on Mars?" was recorded on 6 August 1971 at Trident Studios in London, and was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott.

Bowie's Buddhist influences: life as a monk

(The best Philosophy of Life) From rock star to Buddhist monk? David Bowie's Buddhist journey

David Bowie’s Buddhist Master

The track features piano by the keyboardist Rick Wakeman and a string arrangement by the guitarist Mick Ronson. "Life on Mars?" is primarily a glam rock ballad, with elements of cabaret and art rock. The lyrics are about a girl who goes to a cinema to escape reality and include surreal images that reflect optimism and the effects of Hollywood.

Bowie the Buddhist :)

In June 1973, at the height of Bowie's fame as Ziggy Stardust, RCA Records issued "Life on Mars?" as a single in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number three. To promote the single, Mick Rock filmed a video that shows Bowie in make-up and a turquoise suit singing the song against a white backdrop.

Bowie frequently performed "Life on Mars?" during his concerts, and the track has appeared on numerous compilation albums. Commentators generally consider "Life on Mars?" to be one of Bowie's finest songs and one of the greatest songs of all time. More: Life on Mars? (Wiki feature)

Nirvana reunites w/o Kurt Cobain

Nirvana is the ultimate goal in Buddhism, the peak, the summum bonum. It's also a band.

Punk was fresh and rebellious and underground.

Long, long ago, in the early days of LA's hardcore punk scene, the Germs (one of the first hardcore bands with a female musician) used to play in Redondo Beach. They were banned from most places in Hollywood. I remember sitting on stage in front of Pat Smear's amp as he struggled to play even rudimentary guitar.

Darby Crash could not be convinced to use a microphone. He would yell and cut himself as he contorted on the stage, giving the crowd a show. Then years later Seattle vomited up Nirvana. And they would play around LA in small clubs. I resented Kurt's choice of a band name, a cheap shot, a low blow, exploitation, thinking that sacred attainment out of bounds for such a worldly purpose as a band name. Like Darby and I, Kurt at least understood the Buddhist significance of the word.

The Germ's punk tribute to Buddhism "The Slave"

Bam! Where did the shotgun blast come from?

Nirvana literally means "the end of all suffering." So on that basis it was a good name for a depressive grunge band from the mighty banks of the muddy river that runs through rainy Seattle. The Germs had a great album, "G.I.," a punk classic. Reading the liner notes, I was shocked to see that Joan Jett of all people had anything to do with it. She put it together. Joan Jett always just seemed like some rough gal who made out with child actor Dakota Fanning in a film about The Runaways, amazing she could extend her 15 minutes of fame to a lifetime of playing in front of an audience. (Of course, she didn't play herself in the biopic, but that's how I remember the female rocker).

• Dave Grohl joins lineup: LA FireAid benefit concert

The Germs live, "Lexicon Devil," with Darby Crash intoxicated as usual

Then, when Dave Grohl wasn't going to let Cobain's suicide (or murder by drug addled Courtney Love as the private investigator hired to investigate the death concluded and got in a lot of trouble for coming on the Kevin & Bean Show on KROQ and talking about it, now that Love was a rich heir that could sue anyone who dared to imply she was guilty of anything, as she went on to try her hand at acting in a movie about Larry Flynt) stand in the way of his musical career and went on to form Foo Fighters, bassist Krist Novoselic put together a band. I won tickets to see the group at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. I should have stayed home. They were horrible and boring and an insult to any expectations. Who, other than his mom, knew that Great Hair Dave was the secret power source of the group?

Whatever Cobain was channeling, it sure didn't seem Krist was contributing much. Though, of course, every member of a band contributes something ineffable even if people can't see it, maybe just energy and past life connections. So for all that time to pass, and all those Nirvana tee-shirts to be sold and worn by people who may never have heard the band, it's an inspiration to see the reformation go down like this. Pat Smear was a legend, and Dave Grohl knew it, so inducting him into the Foo Fighters was no accident. And it's almost as if he finally learned to play the guitar.

Dave Grohl and Pat Smear visit L.A.’s holiest David Bowie sites*

When people said the greatest grunge drummer in history would be playing the benefit, it seemed like a natural assumption that it would just be him on guitar with his very young daughter on drums like before. But this is Violet Grohl, not the little drummer girl (Harper). So what a treat to see all the effort that went into putting this together with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and St. Vincent with a defective earpiece still pulling out a fabulous performance. All hail, Dave (a kind of Don Bolles), a cheating cheater who cheats but that seems part and parcel to rock 'n roll. They all loved British Buddhist and almost-Scottish Buddhist monk David Bowie.

Vajrayana Buddhist David Bowie on spirituality

Dave Grohl, extreme metal fan of Sepultura

• *Millions have heard Nirvana’s cover of the David Bowie classic “The Man Who Sold the World” from their Unplugged album. Drummer Dave Grohl and guitarist Pat Smear (like Kurt Cobain and Darby Crash before them) are devout Bowie fans. But who knew that Smear and his bandmates in the Germs used to stalk Bowie all over 1970s' Los Angeles? Join Smear and Grohl as they drive around L.A. (in a custom and, as Grohl says, “totally ‘90s” Ford Bronco) visiting Bowie’s L.A. homes, both personal and creative. Along the way the two bandmates reminisce, nerd out on Bowie trivia, and even pick up a legendary passenger. (They also call Joan Jett at home.)
• Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Germs; Dave Grohl, Nirvana (reunion), Joan Jett, FireAid LA Fire benefit

US has already sent people to Mars (WF)

Let's return to Mars, where there are no politics (for now), for the future of the exoplanet will be as it was. Rest assured, there is life on Mars, and the US government knows it and has known it for a long time.

Unnatural formation: Martian doorway clearly cut into rock (The Enterprise Mission, 2022)

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For information and pictorial evidence of life and artifacts on Mars, see Richard C. Hoagland and his Enterprise Mission. Though he has sounded the alarm for years, the mainstream media now systematically ignores him. He used to be one of them. Much of his evidence comes from NASA photographs released in bulk. As soon as anyone spots an anomaly, archeology, or evidence of life on the planet, NASA scrubs the image. But Hoagland has copies of their original release.

• Hecklefish Moriarty, The Why Files, Nov. 2024; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Curiosity Rover found life on Mars?

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On the barren, cold expanses of Mars, a discovery has rocked the scientific world. The recent Mars rover unmanned mission has uncovered mud formations that tell tales of wet and dry spells spanning millions of years.

Could this revelation enhance the argument for life having existed on Mars? According to the research paper titled "Sustained wet-dry cycling on early Mars" published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Nature, the answer looks promising.

In situ observations of polygonal ridges. (CREDIT: Nature) In situ observations of polygonal ridges. (CREDIT: Nature) © The Brighter Side of News

The Hexagonal Clues

At the core of this breakthrough is the discovery of distinctive hexagonal patterns. These shapes, as scientists understand them, emerge when regions experience extended periods of wetness followed by prolonged dryness.

While it's been acknowledged that Mars holds remnants of dried rivers, lakes, and even seas -- a testament to its once wet environment -- the finding that Mars underwent wet-dry cycles multiple times potentially revolutionizes our understanding of the planet's past and its suitability for life.

• Related stories: New study sheds light on origins of life on Earth
• New discovery substantially rewrites history of life on Earth, scientists find Origins of Life?
• Scientists create RNA molecule that follows Darwinian evolution
• [Is or was there life on Mars? Of course there was and is, and the U.S. government knows it, and Andrew D. Basiago told us all about it, as did Enterprise Mission Hoagland, and the NASA photos before being smudged, scrubbed, and deleted. The humanoid life is now underground because of the atmosphere, but it is inhabited. And it may also have interdimensional beings, too.]

William Rapin, the lead researcher of the study and a distinguished scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Toulouse, France, commented, “We now have for the first time vestiges of times that could have been conducive to the origin of life.” More: NASA's Curiosity Rover may have found evidence of life on Mars

Science: Life on Mars, ocean found, gases

Unveiling Mars: The Mysterious Ruins and the Quest for Ancient Life (MSN)

• Prepared for soft disclosure?
• In today's unveiling, large amounts of the life-suggestive gases ammonia and phosphine have been found on Mars [Upper limits for phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Mars | Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A) (aanda.org)] It's hard to explain their presence in the atmosphere, which increase during the warmer times, without pointing at the forms of life that put out these gases.
• (Life on Venus, too? Phosphine is produced by bacteria in the swamps of Earth and it's also floating around the atmosphere of Venus, reddit.com).

• 

  Full of ocean water just like Earth, huh?

  Enormous hidden ocean discovered under Mars, and it could contain life: Geophysicists have discovered a gigantic hidden ocean beneath Mars' surface, and they say it could harbor life. The massive underground reservoir, discovered using seismic data taken by NASA's InSight Lander, contains enough liquid to cover the entire planet with a mile of water. However, it is far too deep to access by any known means. Trapped inside a layer of fractured rock 7 to 13 miles (11.5 to 20 kms) beneath the Red Planet's outer crust, reaching the water would require a drilling operation that has yet-to-be achieved on Earth. More
• Venus may have phosphine, but Mars has lakes of LIQUID WATER | astrobites
• Over 350 asteroids have hidden moons, Gaia space telescope finds (Live Science)
• 'Severe' G4 geomagnetic storm strikes Earth, making widespread auroras likely
• All life on Earth comes from one single ancestor. and it's so much older than we thought. (MSN)

(Popular Mechanics) In its ancient past, Mars likely contained many of the necessary ingredients for microbial life to flourish on its surface. Now, a new discovery by NASA’s Perseverance rover shows a trifecta of compelling evidence — including the presence of water, organic compounds, and a chemical energy source — all on one rock located in the Jezero Crater.

• David Bowie on Buddhism, ETs, art: Life on Mars
• One would think the word "organic" were life enough, but extraplanetary fossils found decades ago were not enough to overcome doubters in science. If Martian scientists bring us rock samples showing clear signs of earlier life on Mars, we still won't believe them. Life is earth-only. Just ask God (or read His bestseller). We are alone with Lord. Just Lord and us. That's it. No aliens!
• New life forms in earth? The Movile Cave was sealed off for more than 5 million years and the creatures inside of it create sunless FOOD in a completely unique way
• Little green men from Earth: Smallest human species ‘Hobbits’ were even smaller than thought, study finds
• Let's create a new species and call it Homo chimpus: What happens when scientists put a human intelligence gene into a monkey?
• Mysterious Denisovan human species lived undisturbed in the mountains for 160,000 years [and gave us Tibetans]
• Aliens probably exist – but there’s a terrifying reason why we’ve never met them (What if they're smarter than we are?!)

Although this is the best clue yet that microbial life existed on Mars, there are still other explanations that could explain account for this geologic display without the existence of microbes.

“Is there life on Mars” is a question that has vexed astrobiologists and [Buddhist rockstar] David Bowie [who almost became a Vajrayana Buddhist monk rather than a human-alien hybrid pop singer] alike.

Playing with reptilian monsters on earth

While the latter imagined some macabre collection of arachnids on the Red Planet [Spiders on Mars], NASA scientists are fixated on finding evidence that microbial life once flourished on the fourth rock from the Sun.

They are so fixated, in fact, that the space agency has spent more than $5 billion getting two immensely complicated robotic rovers — Curiosity and Perseverance — onto the Martian surface with this specific microbial mission in mind.

Now, one of those rovers might have discovered one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for Martian microbial life.

• Earth has a third form of life — and it could change how we generate power
• ‘Fool's gold' may be valuable after all (msn.com)
• Mountaineers discover mysterious ancient objects in the Alps
• Secret experiments by a 16th-century alchemist involved an element that nobody knew about at the time

Movile Cave, Romania: Life erupts inside cave sealed for 5 million years

Located on an arrowhead-shaped, three-foot-long rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls” in the Jezero Crater (the 28-mile-wide crater that Perseverance has called home for the past three years), this “piece of evidence” is actually a trifecta of data points that suggest the presence of past microbial life.

The rock in question features two vertical veins of calcium sulfate that likely formed from past water, and these stripes both flank a red band of rock filled with “leopard spots.”

NASA has discovered evidence of past water on Mars before, but it’s this narrow band of rock that brings new meaning to this discovery.

Using its SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry) instruments, Perseverance determined the existence of organic compounds within the rock.

What's in Area 51, Groom Lake, Dreamland?

Oh, and those “leopard spots?” Those likely indicate chemical reactions that could’ve supplied energy to ancient microbial Martians.

While each of these discoveries — the presence of water, organic compounds, and chemical reactions — would be notable even if discovered separately, NASA has never seen all three in one location, meaning the geological chemistry of Cheyava Falls is possibly our best clue yet that Mars once hosted life. More:

• NASA made a world-shaking discovery: compelling evidence of past life on Mars
• Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, The Angry Astronaut, 8/5/24; Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Scotland’s Buddhist Monastery: David Bowie

Bradley Jardine and Sakshi Rai for The Diplomat (thediplomat.com, April 4, 2016); Kagyu Samye Ling (samyeling.org); Telgraph.co.uk; Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

David Bowie told the Buddhist master: "I want to become a Buddhist monk" (Telegraph).

The main Tibetan temple at Kagyu Samye Ling, Scotland (Bradley Jardine/The Diplomat)

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Kagyu Samye Ling, Scotland

In 1967 Choje Akong Rinpoche helped found the first Tibetan temple in the West.

I studied to become a monk in London (Sivana).

The rolling hills of Scotland’s southern lowlands are an unlikely venue for a flourishing Buddhist culture, and yet rows of multicolored Tibetan prayer flags – red, white, yellow, blue, and green – flutter in Eskdalemuir’s breeze, their prayers slowly fading as they become entwined with the elements.

Indeed, the popularity of Tibetan culture in the West is a surprising phenomenon, especially considering that Tibet had little contact with the outside world until the twilight years of the 18th century. Its spread, much like the prayers on Tibetan flags, is an extraordinary story of cultural export.

Lisa Simpson at Kagyu Samye Ling (Dune)

Scotland’s engagement with Buddhism emerged through its imperial networks across Asia, particularly the Theravada traditions of Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. This engagement culminated in the founding of the Pāli Text Society in 1881, which undertook the ambitious task of translating the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhist texts into English.

Pāli is the [exclusively Buddhist] language in which the oldest scriptures of Theravada Buddhism were written.

Engagement with Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhism occurred much later, following an ambitious espionage campaign by Captain Montgomerie to infiltrate the secretive Lhasa at the peak (literally) of the Great Game [British spying campaign]. His spies hid secretive materials inside Tibetan prayer wheels.

The Mani Korlo or “Prayer Wheel House” has 45 wheels containing millions of prayers. The wheels are run by electric motors and “transmit prayers day and night” (Bradley Jardine).

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Following this, the growth of Scotland’s Buddhist community was slow but steady, culminating in the foundation of the Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Center (samyeling.org) in 1967.

The monastery practices the Karma Kagyu school of thought – an offshoot of the Kagyu tradition, one of the four major sects of Tibetan Buddhism – is believed to have been founded in the 10th century by Tilopo, a Buddhist yogi. Its main distinctions are its emphasis on orally imparting knowledge, and respect for lineage.

The Settlement Experiment

The Himalayan stupa (burial mound reliquary) at Samye Ling, Scotland (Bradley Jardine).

Ven. Bowie: What are you looking at? I've worn much stranger outfits (pinterest.com)

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It was cool to be Buddhist back then. Ask Leo.

Samye Ling, meaning “the place beyond conception,” was the first monastery to be founded in the West. Its co-founder, Choje Akong Rinpoche, was recognized as an incarnate lama as a young child (tulku) and became the abbot of the Dolma Lhakhang Monastery.

It was the 1960s and cool (Leonard Cohen).

Following a [CIA-sponsored] failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, Choje Akong fled to India by foot in a perilous journey of horrendous suffering, in which thousands of refugees starved to death or simply died of exhaustion. Four years later, he was working as a hospital orderly in Oxford. His immense monastic prestige had rapidly unraveled, leaving him scrubbing toilets in a foreign land.

The hardship he experienced during these years had a profound impact on his world outlook. Importantly, Choje arrived in the UK during the emergence of the swinging 1960s, with its radical politics and counterculture movements, sparking widespread enthusiasm for Tibetan Buddhism.

It’s within this context that Choje Akong Rinpoche and Trungpa Rinpoche took over a retreat center in the south of Scotland, which became Samye Ling in 1967.

David Bowie, Buddhist monk

I was young (19) and earnestly reading Buddhist translations thinking I want to be a monk.

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I studied their exams. I was about to shave.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Choje Akong Rinpoche invited many prominent lamas to teach at the monastery. Students studied the Kagyu system of meditation there, with famous faces among their ranks such as Leonard Cohen and David Bowie (religion and spirituality).

In fact, he not only studied at Samye Ling, David Bowie almost became a Buddhist monk there, stating in an interview that:

• "I was a terribly earnest Buddhist at the time…I had stayed in their monastery and was going through their exams, and yet I had this feeling that it is not right for me. I suddenly realized how close it all was: another month and my head would have been shaved."

It would have been good to do.

Local legend has it that monks at Samye Ling recognized something special in Bowie as an artist and encouraged him to leave the monastery and focus on his music.

The Samye Ling Community

Anyone visiting Samye Ling can’t help but admire the sheer scale of the ambition it embodies. The volunteer grassroots community building by a refugee community are hard to match, and it gives a sense of hope... More

• thediplomat.com/subscriptions

David Bowie was a Buddhist (video)

Telegraph; Sivanaspirit.com; Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The former Tibetan Empire's "Vatican" (Potala Palace) at Lhasa in David Bowie's dream.

David Bowie, who was 19 at the time, had first developed an interest in Buddhism after reading the Austrian explorer Heinrich Harrer’s book Seven Years in Tibet, describing his encounter with the young Dalai Lama.

Inspired by the legends of Tibet as a Shangri-La of mystical wonders, Bowie wrote a song, "Silly Boy Blue," with lyrics about "Mountains of Lhasa… feeling the rain" and "Yak butter statues that melt in sun."

"I want to go to Tibet," he told Melody Maker in an interview in 1966. "It’s a fascinating place, y’know? I’d like to take a holiday and have a look inside the [Buddhist] monasteries. The Tibetan monks, lamas, bury themselves inside mountains for weeks and only eat every three days. They’re ridiculous – and it’s said they live for centuries."

Confronting death

Rock 'n roll icon David Bowie Tibet benefit

Chime Rinpoche has not lived for centuries. Nor does he expect to. Sitting in the library of the Buddhist Society in London, sunlight streaming in through the windows, he is a frail-looking man, skin drawn tight over his skeletal face, wreathed in a beaming smile.

He is 76, and having suffered a stroke and heart problems, he has been told by his doctors that he may not have long to live.

Matt Caron looks into David Bowie's dream.

He laughs. "It doesn’t matter." He was born into an aristocratic family in the remote region of Kham, in what was then Eastern Tibet, and at the age of two was recognized as a high tulku, or [special] reincarnation, and taken from his family to be raised and educated at the Benchen Monastery. (Rinpoche is an honorific title literally meaning "precious one").

"I’m something like the 10th or 11th consecutively reincarnated lama." He shrugs. "But I never pay much interest in that." He was subject to an intensive regimen of Buddhist philosophy and logic.

Leaving Tibet

DL: I want to free Tibet. - MAO: I already did.

In 1956 he was among the party of lamas that accompanied the young Dalai Lama to China to meet Mao Tse-tung, when Mao smothered the Dalai Lama in blandishments [flattery] and then issued the ominous pronouncement that "religion is poison." More

• David Bowie almost became a Buddhist monk (sivanaspirit.com)
• Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery of Scotland and David Bowie

Remote viewing: A Trip to the Moon (video)

Ananda, Dhr. Seven, Som Dev, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust) "Space Oddity"; "A Trip to the Moon" (Le Voyage dans la Lune, Georges Melies, 1902)

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The Moon (Buddhist Soma, Vedic Chandra, Latin Luna) is of special significance in Buddhism.

It is the ancient lunar observance (uposatha, the Buddhist "fasting" day, where fast means not eating after noon) eight-precept day.

The Eight Precepts

1. I undertake to abstain from harming or taking life (human or non-human).
2. I undertake to abstain from taking what is not given (stealing, misappropriation, fraud, displacements that may cause misunderstandings).
3. I undertake to abstain from sexual activity.
4. I undertake to abstain from wrong speech: perjury, divisiveness, slander, harsh words.
5. I undertake to abstain from intoxicating drinks and drugs, which lead to heedlessness or carelessness.
6. I undertake to abstain from eating at the inappropriate time (the right time being after sunrise but before noon).
7. I undertake to abstain from singing, dancing, playing music, attending entertainment performances, wearing perfume, and using cosmetics and garlands (decorations).
8. I undertake to abstain from high and luxurious seats and beds and overindulging in sleep.

Our Trip to the Moon

In honor of this we will explore its mysteries first hand with a guided meditation involving "remote viewing" like Ingo Swann taught for the US government.

 

(Chinatown Los Angeles is also celebrating this day and night of Chinese-Buddhist festivities. See below).

  

We will launch from below the tree tops of giant redwoods at Cape Neighborhood UU Church (Launch Pad in Room 23) next to the meditation garden.

What is to be found on Soma's lunar surface?

What better way to enter the fall season than observing the autumnal equinox heralded by the Harvest Moon? This will be followed by discussion, Zen kinhin ("mindful walking"), and vegan refreshments.

   

In honor of LA's first annual Indigenous People's Day (Oct. 9th, 2017), which recently dethroned Columbus Day in LA, we will also touch base with local Native American Kizh (Tongva) tradition. More
 

LA Harvest Moon Fest, Oct. 7, 2017