Humans never needed dentists until...

(Erased Century)

• The Weston A. Price Foundation

Cartoon: Beavis 'n Butthead get old (sutra)

I didn't know we were going to get old.

Cartoon characters may age right in front of our eyes and eventually die, like The Simpson, Family Guy, and South Park, but we never will. That kind of mortality is only in animation and just for laughs. Can you imagine if radical impermanence applied to our lives? Why, our youth, beauty, and joys might evaporate right in front of our eyes, like good ol' Beavis and Butthead. Of course, the ancient sages of India warned of just such a thing in this story of the past by the Buddha:

• Odd that the supremely enlightened Buddha mentions the teachings of another teacher? No, Araka is the Bodhisatta (in a past life, i.e., the Buddha before enlightenment). He is recalling what a good teacher taught before "supreme" (samma-sam) awakening.

The Buddha on Teachings of the Sage Araka

(Paramount Plus) Mike Judge's Beavis & Butt-Head meditate with their nice hippie high school teacher | Season 2's funniest moments | Paramount+

Things are radically impermanent.

"Once long ago, meditators, there was a teacher named Araka, a leader of a school who was free of lust for sensual pleasures. He had hundreds of students and he taught them dhamma [his Doctrine] in this way:

"'Next to nothing, students (Brahmins), is this human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and distress. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a purified life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a dewdrop on a blade of grass soon vanishes with the rising of the sun, in the same way, students, human life is like that dewdrop — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as when the weather-devas send rain in large droplets that hit and form a water bubble that soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that water bubble — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is born there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a line drawn on water with a stick soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that line — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

Subject to aging, I should seek the ageless.

"'Just as a river flows down from the mountains, goes far in a swift current, and carries everything with it, so that there is not a second, not a moment, not an instant when it stands still, but instead it flows, and moves and rushes. In the same way, students, human life is like that river — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a strong person might form spit on the tip of the tongue then spit it out with little effort, in the same way, students, human life is like that spit — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

Huh huh huh, you look old. Here's a cane.

"'Just as a shred of flesh tossed onto an iron pan that has been heated all day soon vanishes, in the same way, students, human life is like that shred of flesh — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.

"'Just as a doomed cow being led to a slaughterhouse stumbles with every step as it moves closer to slaughter and closer to death, in the same way, students, human life is like that doomed cow — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'

Old Cornholio (new Beavis & Butt-Head)

"Now at that time, meditators, the average human life span was 60,000 years, with females marriageable at 500. And at that time there were [only] six afflictions: [touch of] cold, heat, hunger, thirst, [and the need for] defecation and urination. Yet even though humans were so long-lived, long-lasting, with so few afflictions, the Sage Araka taught dhamma to his disciples in this way:

"'Next to nothing, students, is human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'

"At present, meditators, one speaking rightly might say, 'Next to nothing is human life — limited, a trifling, a mass of disappointment and despair. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, and lead a pure life. For one who is reborn there is no freedom from death.'

• 

  How many moons would we have seen? 36,500?

  At present, meditators, one who lives a long time is 100 years old or a little more. Living 100 years, one lives for 300 seasons: 100 seasons of cold, 100 seasons of heat, 100 seasons of rain.
• Living for 300 seasons, one lives for 1,200 months: 400 months of cold, 400 months of heat, 400 months of rain.
• Living for 1,200 months, one lives for 2,400 fortnights: 800 fortnights of cold, 800 fortnights of heat, 800 fortnights of rain.
• Living for 2,400 fortnights, one lives for 36,000 days: 12,000 days of cold, 12,000 days of heat, 12,000 days of rain.
• Living for 36,000 days, one eats 72,000 meals: 24,000 meals in the cold, 24,000 meals in the heat, 24,000 meals in the rain — counting the taking of mother's milk and obstacles to eating.
• Obstacles to eating? There are these: when one does not eat due to anger, when one does not eat due to distress, when one does not eat due to illness, when one does not eat due to an observance [Uposatha] day, when one does not eat due to poverty.

Turn, turn, turn, how the season turn.

"Meditators, reckoning the life of a human being who lives for 100 years, there is the lifespan, the seasons, the years, the months, the fortnights, the nights, the days, the meals, the obstacles to eating.

"Whatever a teacher would do in seeking the welfare of disciples, out of sympathy for them, have I done for you.

"Over there, there are the roots of trees; over there, empty dwellings. Practice meditative absorptions (the jhanas), meditators. Be not heedless, such that you might fall into regret later. This is our message."

• The Three Basic Facts of Existence: I. Impermanence (Anicca)
• Visiting Old Stuart | Beavis and Butt-Head
• (Comedy Central UK) More moronic Beavis and Butthead moments | Beavis and Butthead
• Mike Judge, Beavis & Butt-Head (MTV via Paramount+); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Arakenanusasani Sutta (AN 7.70, PTS: A iv 136) based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans), Wisdom Quarterly

Why do men look so much younger now?

(Jamel_AKA_Jamal) Why did men used to look older? Make It Make Sense | REACTION

Touch me now. It doesn't matter. I've got breast armor. I'm failed pop idol Catty Purry Brand.

.

I wish, I wish I were Daisy from Great Gatsby

It seemed to begin when I was a kid in middle school. I couldn't wait to get to the ninth grade so I could be all grown up like the seniors. They had mustaches, cars, and girls fawning all over them. But a strange thing happened, and I saw and noticed it in slow motion. Neither I nor my classmates were ever getting any older. We were the same people being promoted through the grades. The older kids left school never to be seen again, so there was no direct comparison. But in my I remember thinking that by the 9th grade, there was no real noticeable change. Sure, there was progression. We didn't freeze in time. What I mean is, we didn't become them. The 7th graders did NOT grow up to look like the 9th graders of our youth. What was going on? It might all be perspective, but everyone began to notice.

Japanese pederast gave us K-Pop looks (hormones)

San Fran pedophile whitewashed faces gave us it.

British perv or international comedic genius?

When we were kids, all the "kids" on TV were actually adults in the role of children. So if we saw ourselves in them, we were deceived. Just think of Dawson's Creek, Romeo + Juliet (with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes), My So-Called Life with Jared Leto, Strangers with Candy (the only honest show, featuring young Old Lady Amy Sedaris and young sparkly gay couple Paul Dinello and Stephen Colbert (the gay version), MTV shows like Undressed (a sexy adult soap opera for tweens), Saved by the Bell (with sexpot Tiffani [Amber] Thiessen), to say nothing of my favorite show.

Attention whurs strippers stole the US sitcom?

That would be Mr. Show with Bob and David that gave us Sarah Silverman, Jack Black (who must have sold his soul to the Devil to be looking like he does), David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Brian Posehn, SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny)... They were old and balding then, so what to make of now?

Tell them then give the people what they want.

There was also Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with breakout superstars Julia Butters, Margaret Qualley, and a virtually unknown bleach blonde with Barbie tendencies and a taste for extreme metal, I think going by the name Margot Robbie.

Now we're all dying, and we're not even rich, famous, or part of the Hollywood (Illuminati) elite.

It's almost as if the Buddha were right:

1. All things are hurtling toward destruction (radically impermanent),
2. unable to satisfy or ever fulfill us (disappointing), and
3. utterly impersonal (not self).

These are called the Three Characteristics of All Conditioned Phenomena. We are conditioned phenomena (mind-body nama-rupa psycho-physical, well, not so much "entities" as "trans-i-ties."

There must be a "self"! Or else who's writing -- and who's reading? - There is a self, an atta or atman. Touch your chest; there's the self. It does no good to think, "Is there a 'self' or is there not a 'self'?" What is useful is to ask, What is the nature of that "self" that for sure is existing right here right now?

It is (as impossible as it will ever actually be to believe but actually possible to see) utterly impersonal. This is why Buddhism is not a faith.

• CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS "NOT SELF" BUSINESS? IT SEEMS LIKE A JOKE. - Yes. It is possible to explain with an analogy. Let's say I say, "There's no such thing as a 'car.'" Then pointing you'll say, "You're crazy. It's right there! They're everywhere. Cased closed!"
• But I'll say, "I didn't say there isn't anything that looks like a 'car.' The illusion exists, and it's quite useful to designate assemblages of things and cling to them as real entities, but the fact is -- in an ultimate sense -- there is no such thing as a car. You might ask, "What is there then?"

• To that I will point to all the parts that, when put together, give the illusion of a new thing coming into existence. It sure seems to come into existence. It can do things the parts couldn't, and conventionally speaking, it is new to existence. But it never really makes it. It is unreal, an illusion.
• "What's the proof?" you say.
• I say, "Let's take it apart and find it." We proceed to disassemble the whole assemblage, and when we come to the last two pieces and separate them, do you think a 'car' will fall out?
• No, it was never like that!
• Exactly! And what was it like? Let's say a car is composed of 5,000 pieces but really only needs five (5): wheels, frame, motor, steering wheel, and brake. Is there a 'car' in there, or do these exist independently?
• They exist independently. We don't need those particular pieces. Any set of wheels, frame, motor, steering device, and brake will do.
• Do you see? The 'car' does not come into being and, of course, never goes out of being, in an ultimate sense. An illusion arises, and an illusion goes away, and this "illusion" is a convenient descriptor of that assemblage.
• I don't get it.
• Let's make it easier. Fire does not exist.
• That's easier?
• Yeah, because now you can point and say, "You're crazy. That's it right there. There's fire everywhere. Case closed!"
• I will then counter by pointing out that what we call "fire," what we regard as real and existing and being "fire," is actually an illusion that arises utterly dependent on five factors.
• What five? It is just one thing, a fundamental element!
• Not at all. The five (and there can be more, but let's keep it to five fundamental ingredients which, when present, reliably give the persistent illusion of fire): fuel, heat, oxygen, wick, and the mysterious process-of-combustion. (We can go on and on analyzing "fire" into parts, but the one thing that is sure is that it is all parts, not a compact thing in itself).
• How do we know that?
• We know that because when present, Bam! The illusion arises. When any is missing, the illusion goes away. Put the five together (in a functionally coordinated way) and there it is, "fire." Take any way, and where has it gone? Where does fire go when it goes out?
• Up? No, I don't know, into oblivion?
• Does it wait in oblivion to come back? Because, let's say we remove oxygen, it will go right out. Add the oxygen back, and it will roar back. Where was it in the meantime?
• It was not anywhere. It does not actually "go" out. It becomes unmanifested.
• It becomes nonexistent, except it doesn't really come into and go out of existence either. It just seems to. Why? Because it is conditionally originated, that is, dependently originated. When this is, that comes to be. When that is not, it does not come to be.
• Oh, I kinda get it. I don't believe it! I think people, and fire, and cars are real. Real REAL.
• Can you begin to see, however, how and why someone might say they're unreal?
• Not really. That's crazy.
• It's crazy to our conventional way of worrying and needing to cling to illusions. But let's say we wanted to be free of illusions, then wouldn't it be great to disillusion ourselves?
• Disillusion?
• Awaken, enlighten, clearly see what's really there?
• Well, yeah, sure if we could be sure that that really is the Truth.
• We can. The Buddha saw it, pointed to it, and invited us to come and see, to clearly see the Truth, not to believe him or anyone else. We with our own purified and intensified eyes, heart, mind could come and see. Where is the car before the parts-of-a-car are assembled?
• It isn't anywhere.
• Where will it go when disassembled again?
• It won't "go" anywhere.
• Now you're getting it! It doesn't come or go because it was never really what it seemed to be. Illusion arises, that's for sure, and the illusion of the loss of it, that, too, is sure. But it isn't reality.
• Why would anybody talk like this?
• One (such as the Awakened One, the historical Buddha) would talk like this because we are clinging to pain (suffering, distress, disappointment) and the unreal. He wanted to move us to reality, and that means waking up to what's REALLY there and what's been there all along.
• What's that?
• Self and not-self.
• Aha! So there is a self?
• Yes, conventionally speaking. But ultimately speaking, no. There is no self.
• You're crazy. It's right there. I'm pointing at it. Case closed.
• And what are you pointing at?
• At you, Dummy! I can also point to myself, Smarty.
• Good, good. I say you're pointing at a body.
• Well, sure, but within that body there's a soul, and that's the self!
• Good, very good. The body is an illusion; you can see that much. Now let me disassemble the soul/self you're sure is in there. What are the components of "self"?
• There are no components! It's a highly mysterious fusiform whale carcass thingy with feelings.
• Ha ha ha. There is a body; that's one thing, but it is no thing. It is components. We can disassemble, reassemble, add, subtract, but still it's just a functional assemblage of parts. The "self" is partly that and partly four other things.
• Things? What things?
• Invisible things -- feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and a mysterious process we call consciousness. Whatever else we want to add to "self," it is at least these fundamental five things, these Five Aggregates clung to as "self."
• Oh. I think I'm starting to see. You're not crazy, but you're speaking dangerously. Aren't you afraid you're going to vanish in a puff of unsmoke for talking like this?
• What would vanish, the illusion? I'd be glad to get rid of it. It has cause incalculable misery (dukkha) and disappointment, chasing after things for it, never being able to satisfy or fulfill it. Ah, to be free!
• Free of "self"?
• No, free of the persistent illusion of "self" traveling and rearising life after life in this samsara, this Wheel of Rebirth, of Life and Death, of endless suffering (unsatisfactoriness)!
• Yeah, I guess that would be good, but what about taking rebirth in a permanent heaven and having a good time all the time till the end of time?
• Nice alternative, but it doesn't exist. The longest most enduring heavens all come to an end eventually. It may take a great aeon (maha-kalpa), but beings (dynamic becomings) fall away to continue on according to their just desserts which we call karma. And because of greed, hatred, and delusion (lust, aversion, and ignorance), our many unskillful deeds in pursuit of things will yield many painful results for a long, long time. It would be far better to awaken to the Truth.
• Well, I won't argue with that. But who can say what the "Truth" is?
• The Awakened One, the Buddha, and those enlightened ones who have awakened by practicing the Teaching (the Dharma) of the Awakened One(s).

Faith (saddha, confidence, truth, conviction) is useful but not nearly as important as a shamanistic attitude to actually come see the Buddha's Teaching, investigate it, and confirm it. It won't liberate us because it's true; it will liberate us because we PRACTICED whether or not we "believed" (had faith) in advance. Better to doubt and question AND practice than to completely "believe" and not practice.

• Modern Buddhists try to explain this away by various analogies, many of which amount to Hinduism with different gods and bodhisattvas. It's actually very easy to grasp intellectually and not be confused, almost impossible to accept, as if by accepting we would instantly disappear in a puff of unsmoke (as in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). We will not. The habitual tendency or "conceit" (māna) to conceive, think, and speak in terms of I-and-other is very strong and not easily wiped away, but actually wiping it away is key to awakening from illusion and clinging and suffering. It is the missing key to enlightenment.
• Even Mahayana, which often speaks like a school of Hinduism, could understand this if it only paid attention to its most prized and popular discourse, the Heart Sutra. It's not about love, feelings, and emotions; it's about getting to the heart of wisdom through the perfection of wisdom.
• What is there if not a self/soul? - There are Five Aggregates clung to as self. - Who clings?! - The aggregates, steeped in ignorance, cling and have aversion/fear. Released from the illusion (disillusioned), there is freedom and realization that the ultimate Truth was always true. - How does [the illusion of] self arise? - It comes about through Dependent Origination.
• Talking about "Emptiness" (Śūnyatā) and "Suchness" (Tathātā) obscures the fact that what the Five Aggregates clung to as self are devoid of is an abiding, enduring HEART, core, essence. Conditioned things do not last even one moment because in the sub-moments there is arising, turning, and falling away. This is true at a submicroscopic level of atoms (kalapas) and mind-moments (cittas), mind and body, name and form.
• All that is "self" bears the Three Marks of Existence mentioned above.
• And this is great news because to really see it, even for a moment, transforms the heart/mind, releases us from illusion, as we are able to effortlessly let go of clinging and be free through the perfection of wisdom, the direct experience of the Truth.
• This does not happen by accident. It happens by higher training.

Erin Brockovich, WQ: ABJ racked up another million views.

Mindfulness of Eating (meditation)

This is regular eating, mindless and full of craving (for dopamine). How is it done mindfully?

I don't want to look fat (muffin topping) in a bikini at the pool party (collegepill.com)

Budai, the Fat Happy Bodhisattva

What is the FAT founder of world's third largest religion (when the 1 billion uncounted Buddhists in communist, and therefore officially atheist, Buddhists are counted) in the world going to teach us about being fit? The fact is the popular depiction of "Fat Happy Buddha" is not the historical Buddha Shakyamuni (born Prince Siddhartha Gautama) but rather a monk (now elevated to bodhisattva) named Budai (also Putai, Hotei), a Chinese monk with a big sack of candy for children, a luck-bringing jolly fellow very reminiscent of the West's Santa Claus.

Fat on a slippery wet diving board

ABOUT: Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the founder and director of its renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic. His clinic was featured in 1993 in the public television series Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the author of 15 books, in print in over 45 languages. These include Full Catastrophe Living; Wherever You Go, There You Are; Coming to Our Senses; and Mindfulness for Beginners.

• Eating Meditation – Sounds True

Youth Sutra, The Buddha's Diet Plan

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Anti-fat propaganda poster, USA, 1942

Want guaranteed weight loss and better health? What if there were a "Royal Buddhist Diet"? Well, there is and it's hard, but it really works.

King Pasenadi of ancient Kosala was very fat.

He waddled around his kingdom, belly swollen, feet sore, short of breath. One day, after eating a bucket of rich, royal food, he found the Buddha and sat beside him, panting like a sweaty mess.

Rich foods are royal. Healthy foods are priceless

The Buddha gently commented, "When one stays mindful, one will know how much one has eaten and what amount is enough. Then all of that person's afflictions will become slender and one will age gently and protect one's life."

A Brahmin youth from the king's retinue was standing nearby. King Pasenadi instructed him to memorize the Buddha's words and recite them whenever the king was about to eat.

As soon as King Pasenadi learned to pay bare attention to his eating -- to savor it and remain aware of chewing and tasting and swallowing it -- he was able to delight in a single cup of rice.

• 

  TikTok live from Pasadena (@alyssaantocii)

  [So as not to body shame the royal, let's just say he was voluptuous, zoftig, big boned, had a glandular condition, metabolic syndrome, was prediabetic, loved flying his freak flag and doing his own thing, had too much plastic xenoestrogen in his body and brain from the environment, ate too much, and had poor impulse control from early traumatic childhood events that made his regulation of dopamine a challenge.]

• 

  Hollywood diet craze: candy (Food Network)

  NATIONAL STRAWBERRY DAY (Feb. 27th) adds an extra aphrodisiac to the American "month of love." Devilishly sweet, delightfully low in calories, strawberries (which are not really berries though avocados are) are the perfect food to feel naughty and nice at the same time. Grown both around the U.S. and around the world almost year-round, we’re never far from a supplier of this tasty tongue-tickler to celebrate!
• It's also FAT THURSDAY, International Polar Bear Day, Protein Day, Pasty Day, World NGO Day, The Big Breakfast Day, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, No Brainer Day, Retro Day, Chili Day, National Toast Day...

What does this Japanese Elly Amai Strawberry from Erewhon cost $19? (Food & Wine)

• A $19 strawberry has caused a stir online. And of course, it's sold at Erewhon (and currently sold out)
• Erewhon’s $19 strawberry is dystopian: Why so fancy?
• I spent $20 on one single strawberry that's 'best tasting'

Going vegan saves the animals and the planet.

In time King Pasenadi became slender and strong, full of energy and beautiful. And as he sat stroking his slender limbs, he said:

"The Buddha has twice shown me compassion -- for my benefit now and for my benefit in the future."

What is this diet regimen called? "Mindful eating." What is "mindfulness"? Let's ask Ven. Analayo:

• MINDFULNESS in Early Buddhism (Ven. Analayo)
• Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: Mindfulness Explained
• Mindfulness Revisited: A Buddhist-Based Conceptualization - Ronald E. Purser, Joseph Milillo, 2015
• Is Mindfulness Present-Centered and Nonjudgmental? – Georges Dreyfus

Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease

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The Buddha looks too young

Mahavira: The Buddha was 35

In the Dahara Sutta, SN 3.1, King Pasenadi hints that the Buddha is too young, so young in fact that, compared to other prominent teachers, he must not yet be fully enlightened.

The Buddha explains to the king that there are four things in the world that must not be taken lightly on account of their youth:

1. a noble,
2. a snake,
3. a fire,
4. a holy person.

It was this discourse (S.i.68f.) that resulted in the conversion of King Pasenadi, which Mahayana refers to as the Kumāradrstānta Sutra (Rockhill: p.49):

Youth Sutra: Too Young?

Ven. Sujato (trans), Dahara Sutta (SN 3.1), suttacentral.net edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Thus have I heard. Once when the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, in Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery, King Pasenadi of Kosala arrived and exchanged pleasant greetings with him.

When their greetings and polite conversation were over, the king sat respectfully to one side and said to the Buddha: “Does the worthy Gotama claim to have awakened to supreme enlightenment?”

“If anyone should rightly say of someone that he has awakened to supreme enlightenment, it is of me that one should say it. For, great king, I have awakened to supremely perfect enlightenment.”

The king replied, “There are those wandering ascetics and [temple-bound] Brahmin priests who lead a monastic order and spiritual community (sangha) and tutor that community. They are well-known, famous founders of religions (dharmas), deemed enlightened (holy) by many, such as:

• Pūraṇa Kassapa,
• the bamboo-staffed ascetic Gosāla,
• the Jain ascetic of the Ñātika clan,
• Sañjaya Belaṭṭhiputta,
• Pakudha Kaccāyana,
• Ajita of the hair blanket.

Little serpent (naga) can become mighty dragon

“I also asked them whether they claimed to have awakened to supreme and perfect enlightenment, but they made no such claim. So why do you, given that you are so young and only [relatively] recently gone forth [into the left home life of a wandering sannyasin]?”

“Great king, these four should not be looked down upon nor disparaged because they are young:

• a noble,
• a snake,
• a fire,
• a mendicant.

“These four should not be looked down upon nor disparaged because they are young.”

That is what the Buddha said. Then the Enlightened One, the Teacher, went on to say [in verse]:

“A person should not despise

a noble of impeccable lineage,

high-born and famous,

just because such a one is young.

For it is possible that that lord of humans,

as a royal heir, will gain the throne.

And in anger will execute a royal punishment

and have one violently beaten.

Hence, avoid such a noble

for the sake of life.

Whether in village or wilderness,

wherever a snake is seen,

one should not look down on it

nor despise it for its youth.

With its rainbow of colors,

a snake of fiery breath slithers along.

It lashes out and bites a fool,

male and female alike.

Hence avoid it

for the sake of life.

A fire devours a huge amount,

a conflagration with a blackened trail.

One should not look down on it

just because it is young.

For once it gets fuel

it will become a huge inferno.

It will lash out and burn a fool,

male and female alike.

Hence avoid it

for the sake of life.

When a forest is burned by fire,

a conflagration with a blackened trail,

shoots will spring up there again,

with the passing of days and nights.

But if a wanderer endowed with virtue

burns you with holy power,

you will have neither sons nor cattle,

nor will your heirs inherit wealth.

Childless and heirless you become,

like a palmyra palm-tree stump.

That is why a wise person,

seeing what is beneficial,

will always treat these four properly:

a snake, a fire,

a famous noble,

and a holy person endowed with ethics.”

When this was said, King Pasenadi of Kosala exclaimed:

I've got my eye on you, Little Fire

“Excellent, sir, excellent! As if one were righting what was overturned, or revealing the hidden, or pointing out the path to one who was lost, or lighting a lamp in the dark so people with eyes could see what is there. Just so the Buddha has made the Teaching clear in many ways. I go for guidance to the Buddha, to the Teaching (Dhamma), and to the [noble] Saṅgha. From this day forward, may the Buddha remember me as a lay follower who has gone for guidance as long as life lasts.”

Hacking of American Mind: Science Behind Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains

• Practical Buddhism: Royal Buddhist Diet: Guaranteed Weight Loss; Ven. Sujato (trans) (Dahara Sutta, SN 3.1) edited by Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly