Under a Full Strawberry Moon (6/29)

Thirteen full moons make up one calendar year?

Last month's blue moon was really June's? The Gregorian calendar really fails us, making the lunar calendar of 13 months (moonths, since every year has 13 full moons, one each moonth) or even the Chinese lunisolar calendar look very appealing by comparison.

How long is a moonth? It is four weeks. How long is a week? It is seven days. How long is a day? About 24 hours or so. And the surprise is that, agreeing on all of these numbers as most Westerners will, what number __ x 28 (four weeks or a month) will give us 365 days?

• Mmm, is it 12? - No, it is not. - Oh, is it 11 then? - No, and you're only getting colder. - You don't mean it's 13, do you, because that's bad luck! We can't have 13 anywhere or bad luck will happen, and I'm already afraid that you brought it up! It's 12, right? It has to be 12 because 12 months equal one year!

The number is 13 because 13 x 28 = 364 + plus 1 turnaround (New Year's) day to reset for the next year. This is astronomy in action, only we've been lied to for so long and taught to fear the evil, wrong, bad "thirteen" with superstitions and stupidity for so long that we do not even question it.

The Buddhist lunar observance: uposatha

(The Dhamma Hub) How to observe the uposatha correctly for a wise lay Buddhist

It's like a Roman religion, and we all just do what we're told. But 13 is a holy number with many excellent attributes, not the least of which is that's how many natural full moons and months we have each year. The ancient Vedas and Sumerian texts were onto something, so why did moderns try to take that away from us, detach us from our celestial clock, our connection to the seasons, solstices, sabbaths (a word that literally means "Saturdays," which we have been conned into thinking is synonymous with solar worship on Sundays), and a more reliable calendar?

The virtues of the lunar observance

(watsanfran) Virtues of Observance | Uposatha Sutta | Animated Buddhist Stories

There is a way to construct it so that holidays do not jump around in a haphazard way necessitating a priestly caste to interpret the signs for us every time we want to commemorate something. The indigenous people knew it, as did the aboriginal, and the wise women (cursed as "witches"), the pagans, and the heathens, the Gnostics and the Buddhists. The Buddha set aside one day a week to observe the uposatha or "fasting" day (because one only eats between dawn and noon and not after) of observing the Eight Precepts.

Of the four weeks in a month, the full moon observance is the most obvious so it seems the most special, as in if you're only going to follow one a month, this would be the one. Anyone can look up and see that it is time to reflect on the Dhamma, invest in our meditation practice or sadhana, and hear the Teachings of the Awakened One.

• (WCNC) What is the strawberry moon? What to know about June's full moon (2026)
• (WION) Strawberry moon 2026: This rare illusion has stunned skywatchers [Which illusion? It's not red and never was, as it is named after Native American strawberry picking season]

Summer Solstice: summer begins (6/21)

Solstice Crop Circle | 21 June 2026 | Kingweston, Somerset | Crop Circles from the air

• Angkor Wat (Buddhist Hindu temple), Cambodia
• Newgrange, Ireland
• Stonehenge, England
• Summer solstice

(Wye Explorer) Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2026 | Over 20,000 Welcome the Sun

It occurs to us that this whole "summer" thing is a social construct. It is. What does "summer" mean. There are all those associations and connotations, but everyone knows it's when the sun's out, the clothes are mostly off, school is on break, and there's going to be a vacation, road trip, partying, and just plain old hanging around, maybe making some money.

(Stonehenge Dronescapes) Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2026 field setup

It's a break from the routine. It's time away from the prison of the school system and the [bleep] warden who thinks s/he runs the place. Think of Project X or American Graffiti. Ah, summer, there's nothing like it. And this is Southern California, so all the more reason.

We say summer begins when school lets out. That was a week or two ago. Like gender assignment, who needs an objective measure? Well, many people do. And so we have the solstice, the astronomical measure that seems so scientific. But every American knows that summer begins on Memorial Day (May 25); that's the social reality overriding whatever others try to say is only objective and nothing else. It's both.

It runs through Labor Day (the unofficial end), a fake American holiday to remove Americans from the worldwide Labor Movement and May Day (May 1st), which idealistic socialists fight for, collectivists dream of, and New Age communists and college Marxists cheer for.

Heat in Southwest, snowstorm in Midwest

(Bari Weiss' CBS Evening News)

(Professor Jiang Classroom) Why the US could lose war with Iran | Professor Jinag Analysis

• The Jimmy Dore Show

It's already 2026 down under in Australia

(Perth) New Year's Eve Dhamma Talk | Ajahn Brahm | 31 December 2025 into 2026

New Year's Eve fireworks: Sydney, Australia rings in 2026

• New Year's Eve (on the flawed Gregorian Calendar)
• New Year's Eve by region, Oceania, Australia
• Australia sparkles into 2026 | 9 News Australia
• Cities across Australia prepare to ring in 2026 | 10 News

New Year Blessing 2026 by Ajahn Jayasaro

Thai Forest Tradition: OM

British Theravada Buddhist monk (Thai Forest Tradition) Ajahn Jayasāro, Dec. 31, 2025: So it's another new year, and I would like to offer my best wishes and blessings to everyone for this new year.

Of course, needless to say, the world’s an absolute mess. But it's always been this way. When was it not like this?  So yes, we do what we can do. And I would like to suggest that you have very clear goals in your life -- whether they’re career goals, worldly goals, or spiritual goals -- and having small, very modest, measurable goals throughout the year to give you that sense of confidence and uplift, not making goals too far ahead in the future. This is true both for worldly and spiritual goals.

Spiritual goals: How would that work out?  My suggestion would be to take some mental defilement [of the heart], take some negative quality within you -- say, anger, jealousy, or something like that -- with the understanding that’s not who you are. It’s just a habit, just something we’ve accumulated and something that we can do something about.

Make this coming year a year when you put some consistent effort into reducing the amount of that negative quality like anger or jealousy.

And at the same time, choose a particular virtue -- whether it’s mindfulness, or kindness, generosity, patience, and so on -- and put some systematic, consistent effort into cultivating that.

This is the year of that virtue for you. And keep tabs on it. Notice if you are noticing some changes within you -- small, incremental changes, not big "wow" changes. These are realizable, practical, and will have wonderful effects on your general mental health and a sense of well-being.

And having projects for yourself and projects for others -- trying to do something good and kind for the people around you every day, something that at the end of the day you can feel proud of. And you can say, Yes, that was a good thing I did today!

We have to come to terms with the world we live in and not let our hearts/minds be carried away on a stream of anxiety and aversion and so on.

The opportunity to follow that stream is always there, but you don't have to follow it. We have a choice here. And the more that we follow the Buddha’s teachings, collectively referred to as the Dhamma, integrate them into our lives, the more capacity we have to create a better world for ourselves -- maybe not the world that you see on your screens, but your own world of you, and your family, and your friends, and community, and doing the best we can in an imperfect world.

The important thing is to come to terms with, “It's like this. Right now, it’s not any other way than this. But it’s changing.” And when we come to peace with the way things are -- right here, right now -- then we can move forward with wisdom and creativity. It’s not a passive acceptance of, “Oh, we can't do anything about this right now.”

It’s the recognition that when our minds/hearts are calm with an acceptance of how things are right now, then we can see, Yes, there is exactly something we can do something about, and here's how to do it.

So I wish you all the best, in your health, and your relationships, and your family, and your community. May you grow and prosper both in the worldly and the spiritual realms in this coming year!

• Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

3i/ATLAS object coming? Disclosure?

Why is 3i/ATLAS such a big deal? Is it a UFO?

3i/ATLAS, also known as C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and previously as A11pl3Z, is an interstellar object, perhaps just a comet [16][17], discovered by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) station. It follows an unbound, hyperbolic trajectory past the Sun [5][c]. It will come as close as 1.8 AU (astronomical units, nearly twice the distance of the Sun) from Earth.

China just issued a warning about 3i/ATLAS — and NASA is silent!

(Newsmax) NASA is silent on 3i ATLAS' abnormal behavior: Dr. Avi Loeb

Therefore, it poses no threat [18] to Earth unless it is a UFO mothership, vimana, or extraterrestrial technology such as a probe intentionally sent to monitor this sector and region of space. It is the third interstellar object confirmed passing through our Solar System, after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov [19], hence the prefix "3i." It is not expected to brighten enough to become visible using binoculars or to the naked eye. During solar conjunction on Oct. 21, 2025 [f], it could be observed by the GOES-19 weather satellite [20]. More

Could it be a vimana (aerial vehicle) like the one found in Afghan cave?

• 

  (Vaimanika Shastra Shakuna)

  Vimānas are flying palaces or chariots described in Hindu texts and Sanskrit epics, which are disdainfully labelled "mythological." The Pushpaka Vimana of Ravana (who took it from Kubera, whereafter Rama returned it) is the most quoted example of a vimana. Vimanas are also mentioned in Jain texts, and Buddhist text contain a whole section on vimanas, talking about the karma that led beings to be reborn in or in possession of a vimana (space platform).
• ETYMOLOGY: The Sanskrit/Pali word vimāna (विमान) means "immeasurable" (WQ). Monier Monier-Williams defines vimāna as "a chariot of the gods [the devas], any self-moving aerial car sometimes serving as a seat or throne, sometimes self-moving and carrying its occupant through the air; other descriptions make the Vimana more like a house or palace, and one kind is said to be seven stories high," and quotes the Pushpaka Vimana of Ravana as an example. It may denote any vehicle, especially a bier or a ship as well as a palace of an emperor, especially with seven stories [1]. Nowadays, vimāna, vimān, and bimān all mean "aircraft" in Indian languages. More

(Endling Echoes) Neanderthals painted caves to use them as temples to ET space "gods"?

Physicist Avi Loeb reveals why Atlas/3i 'comet' might be hostile alien object | RISING+

(The Hill) Premiered Oct. 30, 2025: Harvard Physics Prof. Avi Loeb joins the show to discuss the recent finding of the interstellar object 3I Atlas. NASA insists it's just a normal comet, but Prof. Loeb believes it's worth discussing the possibility of it being a piece of alien technology. #AviLoeb #3IAtlas #SpaceAliens

• 3iatlas, tenor.com gif; Rising/The Hill, 10/30/25; NBC News; NewsX Live; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

No Kings protests across USA (10/18)

ICE, get 'em! Bust their heads in My America!

The No Kings protests, also known internationally as the No Dictators or No Tyrants protests, is a series of demonstrations, largely in the United States, against what the organizers describe as authoritarian policies of Donald Trump and corruption in his administration [3][4][5].

(NBC Bay Area) San Francisco plans a massive Anti-Trump March

"Nothing says Traitor quite like a Trump sign"

What will it accomplish? - I'dunno. - What is it meant to accomplish? - Absolutely nothing, by design. - It just makes us feel good.

Protests first took place on June 14, 2025 (labelled as "No Kings Day" by the 5051 organizers and participants) on the same day as the U.S. Army 250th Anniversary Parade and Trump's 79th birthday.

We demand more experimental vaccines!

It's George Soros funded? Agenda 2030? Permits were applied for and police consulted for a nice autumn day of funny signs safe for everyone. Organizers have planned the "No Kings protests 2.0" for Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025 [6]. More

• Official website: NoKings.org
• Plague of 'frogs', 'dinosaurs', 'yip yip' protesters rally in Portland | ABS-CBN News
• Why protesters in giant animal costumes are smarter than you think | Strict Scrutiny
• Hanover Park armed cop (police officer) arrested by ICE
• Public Health Professor Craig Spencer warns Trump’s ‘eugenics’ shutdown health policy echoes Nazism
• This is how you can bamboozle ICE goons at No Kings protests | The Daily Beast

Colbert harmlessly mocks Trump, who eats at McDonald's | racist young

Republicans | Why Mike Johnson won't seat new Dem. Rep. Grijalva

The bad news about these protests w/ Mel K

(Official website: The Jimmy Dore Show) Mel K goes on the show to discuss: Don't be fooled.

The Power Belongs to the People

United against King Trump

(NoKings.org) In June 2025, millions of everyday Americans from every walk of life peacefully took to the streets and declared with one voice: "No Kings." The world saw the power of the people, and Pres. Trump’s attempt at a royal coronation collapsed under the strength of a movement rising against his abuses of power. Now, he’s doubling down — sending militarized [ICE] agents into our communities, silencing voters, and handing billionaires giveaways while families struggle. This isn’t just politics. It’s democracy versus dictatorship. And together, we’re choosing democracy. [And alone, Trump chooses dictatorship. Maybe we should crown him president and put him on the cover of TIME?]

Organizer Leah Greenberg: Keep it chill

(DemocracyNow.org) "No Kings. No Thrones. No Crowns." Millions to protest in across USA

Protest, eat cake, just don't ask me about Epstein

Even as Pres. Trump has cracked down on dissent and illegally sent military and paramilitary troops into multiple cities to conduct police activities (posse comitatus), organizers of Saturday's anti-authoritarian "No Kings" protests expect millions to join at least 2,500 rallies across all 50 states and several U.S. territories.

The turnout could surpass the 5 million protesters who turned out for "No Kings Day" events in June 2025.

We don't do kings...unless they do us first.

"We are engaging in the most American activity in the world, which is coming together in peaceful protest of our government," says Jewish Leah Greenberg, co-founder and co-executive director of the progressive organization ⁠Indivisible.

ICE was invented using the pretext of 9/11.

Trump's threats against the protests are a "classic exercise of the authoritarian playbook, to try to create fear, to try to threaten, to try to make people back off preemptively," she adds.

"There will be no fear, but the fear of what will happen to us if we don't mobilize," says Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez of the 25th Ward in Chicago, where mass protests are expected.

A nice summer No Kings protest day in sunny SoCal, downtown Los Angeles, June 14, 2025

Is 'No Kings' real or controlled opposition?

Indivisible Movement is a crock. I did not authorize it. AOC, Hillary, and Joe don't back it.

Is Leah Greenberg a real rebel or actually just pro-Zionist controlled opposition?

1984: Emmanuel Goldstein (drawn by AI) during a 'Two Minutes Hate' : r/midjourney

.

L. Goldberg in the role of 1984's E. Goldstein?

"Controlled opposition" means a group that stands as a placeholder for actual opposition, but who are completely ineffective.

Therefore, a ruler controls even the so-called "opposition" in an adversarial relationship. It is as if one's defense attorney were bought off by lawyers for the prosecution to ensure a conviction.

Hey, Leah, stay in your lane! I'm the Savior here

In this sense, everything is controlled by the ruling group, or the Uniparty, without necessarily a direct conspiracy taking place.

Example in 1984

In George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, anyone who thought s/he was rising up against fascism and the Dictator Big Brother would get behind the [Jewish] "opposition" leader Emmanuel Goldstein and his organization "The Brotherhood."

ICE/DHS is surveilling you.

It was fake, as the failed protagonist (Winston Smith) painfully found out. There was no real opposition. It was just a trick of the Inner Party (O'Brien) and Big Brother and the Thought Police, controlled opposition. Read the novel; there's a reason it's famous.

The Jimmy Dore Show is a sarcastic, satirical, and very informative show that, while on the Left, is accused of being on the Right because it dares to stick to the truth rather than following the mainstream media's talking points on my subjects dear to liberals, progressives, and radicals. It airs weekdays at about 4:00-6:00 pm on YouTube and Rumble and at jimmydore.com.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations M-F 8:00-9:00 am ET. Go more in-depth and watch livestream at democracynow.org.

• Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Mysterious TikToks; 3i/ATLAS object

What is this space object, a UFO or comet?

3i/ATLAS, also known as C/2025 N1 (ATLAS) and previously as A11pl3Z, is an interstellar object (comet? [16][17]) discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) station at Río Hurtado, Chile, on July 1, 2025.

When it was discovered, it was entering the inner Solar System at a distance of 4.5 AU (astronomical unites, 420 million miles or 670 million kms) from the sun.

The object follows an unbound, hyperbolic trajectory past the sun with a very fast hyperbolic excess velocity of 36 mi/s (58 km/s) relative to the sun [5][d].

3I/ATLAS will not come closer than 1.8 AU (170 million miles or 270 million kms) to Earth, so it poses no threat [18].

Terraforming a planet makes it habitable: Oxygen

on Earth is result of life with Neil DeGrasse Tyson

It is the third interstellar object confirmed passing through the Solar System, after 1I/ʻOumuamua (discovered in Oct. 2017) and 2I/Borisov (discovered in Aug. 2019) [19], hence the prefix "3i." More

• Ben Colson, YouTube, Parts 21 and 22; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

[Buddhist] World Surf League Finals (8/25)

What is 'Buddhist' about the practice of surfing?

Get back on and ride the waves.

There are many ways in which surfing, which seems to have been "invented" in the Pacific -- in Peru and Polynesia, with important contributions from Buddhist Japan (which at that time included a cultural hold on what is now part of Hawaii in the Imperial USA), tracks with the best elements of Eastern philosophy.

That philosophy, distinct from Western philosophy we are all generally familiar with, is a syncretic blend of Buddhism, Zen, the Vedas, Hinduism, Taoism, Shinto, and indigenous shamanism. (British Californian Alan Watts explained it very well to Westerners).

• Mindfulness (fully absorbed in monotasking)
• Absorption (undistracted doing temporarily freed of discursive thinking)
• Letting go (non-clinging, as in "Let Go, Let God," with "God" understood to be Nature, the Universe, things just as they are at this moment, more Brahman than a brahma)
• Going with the flow rather than struggling against it (entering flow states familiar to poets, rappers, artists, and persons able to enter trance states at will)
• Skillful allowing and accepting rather than shoving, muscling, and efforting (radical acceptance as understood by Buddhist teacher and psychologist Tara Brach)
• Riding the wave (internally of emotions, externally tolerating and skillfully adapting to the "Eight Worldly Winds"):

Practicing at home in the Deep South, USA

Theravada Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg elaborates on the Taoist idea of “the ten thousand joys and the ten thousand sorrows.” Our lives are constantly changing, sometimes in the space of a minute. The Buddha taught that the “Eight Worldly Winds” are:

1. pleasure
2. and pain,
3. gain
4. and loss,
5. praise
6. and blame,
7. fame
8. and disrepute.

Taoism and the Tao Te Ching (Book of Changes)

They (and all things) are constantly arising and passing away, beyond our control. We suffer when we cling to pleasure, gain, praise, and fame or hold the expectation that they will always be present.

When instead we get pain, loss, blame, and disrepute, we feel that something is terribly wrong, or that we’ve done something wrong... More

• Well, what should we do when everything sucks? Surf.
• Whether that means ride the waves of life constantly coming at us like Eight Worldly Winds or vicissitudes or actually getting out on the water, waiting for the swells, and riding them back to sure with the practiced skills of balance, poise, allowing, persistence, and mindful awareness.

Lexus WSL Finals Fiji 2025 | World Surf League

Map shows Fiji cluster of islands in center

What to know: The paradise and power of Cloudbreak | Lexus WSL Finals Fiji. At the Lexus WSL Finals, the WSL Final 5 will face off at Cloudbreak, one of the most powerful lefts on Earth. It's a wave that demands total commitment and punishes hesitation. With a world title on the line, this is the ultimate test of talent, mental acumen, and pure surfing instinct. The stakes have never been higher, and there's no room for error. History will be ridden, and World Champions will be crowned: Paradise and power of Cloudbreak (WSL)

Where is Fiji?

Where in the world is Fiji? It is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean (between Hawaii and Australia). It rests about 1,300 miles (1,100 nautical miles or 2,000 kms) north-northeast of New Zealand.

Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about 110 are permanently inhabited—and more than 500 islets, amounting to a total land area of about 7,100 square miles (18,300 sq kms). The most outlying island group is Ono-i-Lau.

• DETAILS: Lexus WSL Finals Fiji 2025 | World Surf League

Mexico's Baja California in upper right, Fiji in center, Southeast Asia on left, Africa at far left

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About 87% of the total population live on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. About three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levu's coasts, either in the capital city of Suva, or in smaller urban centers such as Nadi (where tourism is the major local industry) or Lautoka (where the sugar-cane industry is dominant). The interior of Viti Levu is sparsely inhabited because of its terrain [13]. More

• WorldSurfLeague.com/events/2025
• VIDEO: 1,700-year-old city hidden beneath Pacific Ocean
• WSL 2025; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

One month since Bikini (Atoll) Day

Just when the summer is getting started after a long, cold spring in Los Angeles, the LAUSD has started classes up again only a month after Independence Day! What gives? Now there's no more summer and no time for our summer school. It's time for Class 3 on The True Nature of Existence with American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi.

NATIONAL BIKINI DAY - July 5, 2025 - National Today

Who would wear floss and handkerchiefs?

Grab some sunscreen [or better yet, alkalinize the body so that it will not be susceptible to burning by acidic reaction to sunlight] — it’s National Bikini Day this July 5th. It’s the perfect opportunity to head to the beach. National Bikini Day celebrates the anniversary of the invention of the two-piece bathing suit. Owing to its risqué design, the bikini was slow to be adopted — but it gradually gained traction when film stars like Ava Gardner and Brigitte Bardot started to wear bikinis on public beaches and in their films. The garment was certainly one of the greatest inventions of all time and, due to the supposed "explosive" effect it had created, it was named after Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific where US warmongers and their suburban drones conducted nuclear testing in 1946. Get ready to celebrate this iconic summer look.

Ban the human body! What do you think this is, the Garden of Eden! God will smite you all!