Alex Grey's Full Moon Gathering, NY

Full Moon Gathering with Alex and Allyson Grey, Joey Mercedes: Wappinger, New York

Inspiration over perspiration.

Alex Kenton Grey Velzy (born in Colombus, Ohio on Nov. 29th, 1953) is an American visual artist, author, teacher, and Vajrayana Buddhist practitioner.

He known for creating spiritual and psychedelic artwork such as his 21-painting Sacred Mirrors series [1].

He works in multiple forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and painting.

Sanskrit Vajra (Tibetan dorje): thunderbolt

He is on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department.

He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit organization in Wappingers Falls, New York [2]. More

Love is a Cosmic Force by Alex Grey (alexgrey.com)

Earth Witness by Alex Grey (See the Buddha's 'earth witness mudra')

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Vajrayana Buddhism

Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, Entheon, 2021 (alexgrey.com)

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Dissectional art for Tool's Lateralus CD

Vajrayāna (Sanskrit वज्रयान, lit. "vajra vehicle"), is also known as Mantrayāna ("mantra vehicle"), Guhyamantrayāna ("secret mantra vehicle"), Tantrayāna ("tantra vehicle"), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism.

It is a Mahāyāna ("great vehicle") Buddhist tradition that emphasizes esoteric practices and rituals aimed at rapid spiritual awakening [or some deluded facsimile, replacing what the historical Buddha considered liberation for what previous Vedic, Hindu, esoteric teachers called moksha].

Vajrayana artist Alex Grey, 2013

Emerging between the 5th and 7th centuries CE in medieval India [1], Vajrayāna incorporates a range of techniques, including the use of

• mantras (sacred sounds),
• dhāraṇīs (mnemonic codes),
• mudrās (symbolic hand gestures),
• mandalas (spiritual diagrams), and
• the visualization of deities and [cosmic] buddhas.

Sakka (Indra) with vajra, lotus

These practices are designed to transform ordinary experiences into paths toward enlightenment, often by engaging with aspects of desire and aversion in a ritualized context.

A distinctive feature of Vajrayāna is its emphasis on esoteric transmission, where teachings are passed directly from teacher (guru "master" or vajrācārya "teacher of vajra") to student (chela) through initiation ceremonies [2].

Tradition asserts that these teachings have been passed down through an unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha (circa 5th century BCE)... More

Full Moon Gathering, CoSM, July 12, 2025

CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (@chapelofsacredmirrors) • Instagram

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Facebook, July 12, 2025

(AlexGreyCoSM) 🌕 You’re invited to CoSM’s July Full Moon Gathering! Hosted by @alexgreycosm and @allysongreycosm

📍 Where? @chapelofsacredmirrors (CoSM), New York. 🗓 When? July 12, 2025. 🎵 Featuring After Party music by Joey Mercedes 
@joey_mercedes_.

Come early for the full experience of our Full Moon Workshop: Transmuting the Veteran Narrative 
led by @Visionaryveterans @Veronikarose.art and @cp_Flow_ with special guests @burgandyviscosi and @the1sam__juan. See you there! 💕 Secure TICKETS: 🔗 in @chapelofsacredmirrors.

• CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors
• 46 Deer Hill Rd., Wappingers Falls, NY 12590-3911
• Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (2025) (Before going reviews)
• Entheon at CoSM: 2025 Day Pass - Universe
• Alex and Allyson Grey, Wappinger, NY, July 12 / X
• Alex Grey Full Moon Gathering, July 12, Facebook
• Alex Grey (@alexgreycosm) • Instagram
• (Disclosure Project) Road trip: Full Moon Gathering with visionary artist Alex Grey, CoSM, New York, Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 11:00 AM | Meetup
• (Nature Center) Road trip: Full Moon Gathering with visionary artist Alex Grey, CoSM, New York, Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 11:00 AM | Meetup
• (PasaDharma) Road trip: Full Moon Gathering with visionary artist Alex Grey, CoSM, New York, Sat, Jul 12, 2025, 11:00 AM | Meetup
• Alex Grey (alexgrey.com); Dhr. Seven, Ekaterina Sky (ekaterina-sky.com) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

What's wrong with the "Barbie" film?

(PragerU/Amala Ekpunobi Unapologetic) ALERT: This movie review (character assassination) is by a devotee/employee of insufferable, ever-pontificating, moralist, arch-conservative, rightwing, pro-capitalist, pro-patriarchy, pro-Bible, Jewish-Christian syncretistic radio host Dennis Prager!

As a trans person, I liked Barbie, Dennis-puppet.

But the tear down is fun to watch, and it's the only person giving out the plot points beyond the first ten minutes of the film, which are completely misleading because the movie takes a turn into woke screed, by some accounts. Little girls won't know what's going on, but their parents should. Is this what we want kids learning? Probably. Good work, Greta Gerwig and partner Noah Baumbach. Or is it? Will it cause a backlash from Republicans, Christian fundamentalists, Jews for Jesus, and fellow rightwing hate-radio types?

Barbie: "Wokest" movie of the year?

So I watched the new Barbie movie this weekend and, oh boy, do I have thoughts. Did the movie stay true to Barbie’s original wholesome message that “girls can do anything”? Or did it end up as two hours of woke feminist propaganda?

• Unapologetic Discord: discord.gg/unapologetic
• Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra Confronts controversy over right-wing guest conductor Dennis Prager (Deceptive Cadence/NPR)

Why KIDS should not watch Barbie

Margot Robbie was the third choice beauty.

(Films Express) July 1, 2023. Let's talk about why kids should not watch Barbie. Make sure to watch the whole way through because there are details. The first ten minutes (and all of the trailer) is nothing like the rest of the film. It's a trap. It's all over woke and down with the Patriarchy. Down with it. But since when is the Patriarchy Ken (Ryan Gosling) and his weird, possibly gay friend Alan (Michael Cera)? With Kate McKinnon as "Weird Barbie" and Will Ferrell as the boss at Mattel Corporation or some such. #filmsexpress #barbie #margotrobbie

Alan meets Weird Barbie

(JoBlo Movie Clips) July 13, 2023. Alan (Michael Cera) is probably gay, and Ken is maybe gay but a sexist jerk Barbie (Margot Robbie) is tired of being oppressed by. To live in "Barbie Land" is to be a perfect being in a perfect fantasy place -- unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. Or Weird Barbie is talking to you. Also starring America Ferrera.

"Flatlining" the brain at will (video)

CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; self-proclaimed jhana expert Vern Lovic

What are the intricate workings of the mind, and how are they experienced within?

 

(Gavin Johnson/flickr.com)

Vern Lovic: I'm curious. Has anyone run MRIs (magnetic resonance imagings) of meditators that have reached a flatline mind -- no thought... stopped mind?

WQ: a flatline would seem to indicate that someone is dead. But, yes, it's been done. It is causing a wave in new medical research. There is neurotheology, where people have "GOD on the brain." There is scientific mind reading. There is at least one meditator sufficiently skilled as to directly manipulate his EEG readings. (See below). He is not a monk but can flatten his line at will, a skill of great subtlety and practice. Yet, it would seem, he must be thinking to intend it and be aware that he is getting the results he is after.

Monk's fMRI (Zoran Josipovic video still)

In a laboratory tucked away off a noisy NYC street, a soft-spoken neuroscientist (Zoran Josipovic) has been placing Tibetan monks into a car-sized brain scanner to better understand the ancient practice of Buddhist meditation. Could this unusual research unravel the secrets of leading a harmonious life and also shed light on some of the world's more mysterious diseases? Josipovic, a research scientist and adjunct professor at NYU, says he has been peering into the brains of monks. Brains of meditating monks get MRI scans.

VL: The monks are meditating, so they're doing something. There is another state -- the state of, well, "flatline" for lack of a better word. 

WQ: We tracked him down, Vern, so you could see it for yourself. A functional MRI scan would certainly show activity. "Flatlining" is for graphs with lines, which is characteristic of an EEG (electroencephalograph) machine. It is the remarkable speaker Ken Wilber, who videotaped his own flatlining to demonstrate the amazing level of self control he can exhibit. 

His proficiency is such that he can enter states that would seem to be reserved not only to arhats but wondrous masters. We covered him back in 2009. Look: "Family Guy" Meditation Master Ken Wilber!

Flatline

(IntegralNaked) Ken Wilber stops his brain, flatlines, at will.

This is incredible! (psychcentral.com)

Ken Wilber can stop his brainwaves on demand. Actually -- and in a more serious vein -- this is the famous EEG machine recording where Wilber enters various meditative states, one of which is a type of "thoughtless," "image-less," or "formless" state: 

His brainwaves come to an almost complete stop, as clearly recorded on this portable EEG machine. (This video is discussed in One Taste, April 10 entry).

Wilber was asked to do a short 10-minute commentary on these various meditative states and the corresponding brain-wave patterns that are shown on the EEG machine in the video. He enters four meditative states (nirvikalpa samadhi with closed eyes, open eyes, sahaj ["ever present awareness"], and mantra-savikalpa), each of which has a very distinctive brain-wave pattern.

In his commentary, Wilber emphasizes that the patterns shown on this machine may or may not be typical, but they do emphasize that profound states of consciousness can be evoked at will, and these show immediate correlations in brain-wave patterns.

If nothing else, seeing somebody's brainwaves flatline in about four seconds is a sight not easily forgotten! It also explains why it was once heard that Wilber's girlfriend, upon delivering news that she thought might not be happily received, "Now, um, honey, make your brain waves go to zero..."

More seriously, as Wilber often says, "If you want to know God [Brahman], you've got to get your brain out of the way first. It's just one big stupid filter...."

Death (Metal) Music and Real Death

Full uninterrupted news clip (9:11 mins)

Does Buddhism have anything to say about music? People resonate with their dominant emotional states as expressed in musical choices. Most of the world is dominated by sensual desire (lobha, greed, lust) rather than hate (dosa), delusion (moha), or fear (bhava). All are present in our mental makeup. But since lust dominates for most of us, our musical choices reflect that.

Pop music around the world is therefore all about love, ego, possessions, and loss. Slipknot is an example of music that veers in the other direction -- to extremes of anger, self-loathing, rejection, and alienation. These topics are the dark side of our society, the shadow selves we dare not face or come to terms with.

Death metal explores these and even darker, more explicit subject matter. Yet for most of us the causes of suffering (our own lust, hatred, ignorance, fear) remain unexplored. A threefold craving -- for sensual desires, eternal existence, and for annihilation -- was pointed out as the primary cause. Whereas rock 'n roll's clarion call was to "party on" (think Wayne's World), death metal stars encourage fans to "stay brutal," which is not exactly what Gray's bandmates have done:

Slipknot unmasked mourning death

Slipknot bassist died of drug overdose
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Autopsy results show the bassist for heavy metal band Slipknot died of an accidental overdose of the [painkiller] morphine and fentanyl, a synthetic morphine substitute, police said Monday. Paul Gray, 38, was found dead in a suburban Des Moines hotel room on May 25. A hotel worker told a 911 dispatcher that a hypodermic needle was found near Gray's body and that pills also were found in the room. The autopsy shows he died of an overdose, Urbandale police said in a news release. [Given that the heart is literally corrupted by hatred and other negative emotions, it is no surprise that] they also said the autopsy revealed signs of significant heart disease. More>>

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"Family Guy" meditaton master (Ken Wilber)

Green, postmodernism, Oprah (Eckhart Tolle) A New Earth, The Secret, manifesting?

Who is Ken Wilber? He is a meditator, author, and apparent self-promoter rooted in Western science. Ken has no "heart," now we find he has no brain either! Ken can stop his brainwaves at will. That is, while hooked up to a personal EEG machine, Ken enters various meditative states, one of which is a type of "thoughtless," "sign-less," "image-less," or "formless" state.

It is not the famous Buddhist meditative state known as cessation (nirodha samapatti) but what he calls (in more traditional Hindu terms) nirvikalpa samadhi. Its correlate is that his brainwaves come almost to complete rest, as clearly recorded on his portable electroencephalograph (EEG) machine.

(This video is discussed in One Taste, April 10 entry.) We asked Ken to do a short 10-minute commentary on these various meditative states and the corresponding brainwave patterns that are shown on the EEG machine in the video. Ken enters four meditative states (nirvikalpa closed eyes, nirvikalpa open eyes, sahaj, and mantra-savikalpa), each of which has a very distinctive brainwave pattern.

In his commentary, Ken emphasizes that the patterns shown on this machine may or may not be typical, but they do emphasize that profound states of consciousness can be evoked at will. And these show an immediate correlation to brainwave patterns.

If nothing else, seeing someone's brainwaves flat line in about four seconds is something not easily forgotten! It also explains why we once heard Ken's girlfriend say, upon delivering news that she thought might not be well received: "Now, um, honey, make your brainwaves go to zero...."

More seriously, as Ken often says, "If you want to know God, you've got to get your brain out of the way first. It's just one big stupid filter." — IntegralNaked

Being "Spiritual" versus "Religious"

Marlise Karlin (founder of The Simplicity of Stillness) Huffington Post

I recently read an article by James Martin, a nationally known Jesuit priest, who spoke to the popular phrase "I'm spiritual, just not religious" and explained that this kind of thinking could mean that being religious is about "...abiding by arcane rules and hidebound dogmas." He suggested that people who say they're spiritual, not religious, might not want to be accountable to a community because "...there's no one to suggest when you might be off track." Does he have a point? More>>

Vast Sky (Ken Wilber)

Genpo Merzel Roshi • Bernie Glassman Roshi • Ken Wilber

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