Charlie Kirk tried to escape his SUV death

(The Jimmy Dore Show)

Charlie Kirk: “Epstein was cast for a specific role.” - Jewish Howard Lutnick knew about 9/11

Eckhart Tolle awakened by ego death

INTERVIEW: Why did Eckhart "awaken"? | Eckhart Tolle

• Third interview pinpoints ego death (the realization that all things are anatta, not-self, egoless, the liberating truth that all things are impersonal)

Who becomes enlightened?

WATCH: (Eckhart Tolle) Who becomes enlightened?

Going through a Dark Night of the Soul? Eckhart Tolle explains

• Eckhart Tolle, YouTube channel; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Doing LSD with pornstar Riley Reid

(Animated) Riley Reid's trip on three double tabs* (150 mcg) of acid got her stuck in a time glitch (loop) ~ Tales From the Trip.

Ram Dass' guru Neem Karoli Baba took LSD

The nature of the ego | Terence McKenna

• Entheogens
• LSD is a magic mushroom substance synthesized from Ergot
• What is "acid"? (drugfree.org)
• Psychedelics
  
• Hallucinogens
• Counterculture
• Mind or soul- manifesting
• DMT: dimethyltryptamine
• 5-MeO-DMT (Bufo, toad venom)

LA's Santa Monica, by Venice, is home of MS' Linkin Park (this park)

• *Acid was called "LSD-25," referring to a standard dosage of 25 micrograms (mcg, μg) because it is very potent per tab or tablet (blot, dot, drop, etc.). This would make three double tabs about 150 mcg. But ask Riley or see Sidney Cohen (1959), "The therapeutic potential of LSD-25," A Pharmacologic Approach to the Study of the Mind, p. 251–258.
• VIDEO: Lost Cannabis of the Silk Road: The Stans
• What's an "Entheogen"? Cannabis? (archaeological record)

Buddhism and entheogenic psychedelics?

Dalai Lama on using psychedelics

WATCH: (dalailamawisdom) Dalai Lama Q&A on using psychedelics

• Riley Reid (Animated); Mike Shinoda; DalaiLamaWisdom; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Jimmy Kimmel: Trump, end of year wrap

(Jimmy Kimmel Live)

(The Daily Show) Trump's Award Tour: FIFA Peace Prize Laureate, Kennedy Center Honors

(Daily Show) Trump goes "Captain Phillips" on Venezuelan oil tanker, and MAGA purges "woke" fonts, and Pres. Maduro sings "Don't Worry, Be Happy"

(IHIP News) I've Had It: FBI Director Ka$h Patel in front of Congress

(Jordan Klapper) Does war criminal Trump deserve a peace prize?

Trump ended so many wars, it's impossible for MAGA to name one

(Democracy Now!) Rep. Delia Ramirez files to impeach of Kristi Noem

Glitch in reality: We can't see the present

This man discovered a glitch in reality

Observe what's happening now

(Be Inspired) May 27, 2025: "We don't live in REAL time." We’re always living 100 milliseconds in the past. This video shows the mind-bending science behind why the "present" doesn’t really exist. Dr. Bruce Lipton agrees?

►TIMESTAMPS

• 0:00 - Must see
• 1:07 - The delay is real
• 3:06 - Predictive reality
• 5:28 - Free will is an illusion
• 7:27 - Who is in charge?
• 10:40 - Reality changes when we look
• 13:20 - So what is real?

✅SELF-HYPNOSIS AUDIO PROGRAMS: Reprogram subconscious mind: bit.ly/2RGCade

► Copyright ©: Script - BE INSPIRED. Narration - BE INSPIRED. Footage is licensed through Videoblocks, Artgrid, and Envato. Music: Epidemic Sound / Audiojungle / Envato Elements. Interviews, video references used under FAIR USE LAW. © BE INSPIRED CHANNEL - All rights reserved. For any concerns or business inquiries, please contac: beinspiredmanager@gmail.com.

AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: There may be a few links in this description that, at no cost to buyer, will earn us a commission if one chooses to click them and make a purchase Don’t worry. Be Inspired only recommends products it knows and trusts. This Man Discovered a Glitch in Reality

Past life memory of an ancient foreign langauge?

Reincarnation: What about MY past life?

(True Lives)

My past lives are me, right? I mean, that's "me" as much as this is, isn't it? How could the answer be that, ultimately speaking, I'm neither those people nor this one if, conventionally speaking, I'm as much that one as this one -- and bear the karma (the weight of deeds done good and ill in the past) of both, of all I have been? Answer? Be here now.

REBIRTH: patisandhi, literally "relinking, reunion," is one of the 14 functions of consciousness (viññāna-kicca). It is a karma-resultant type of consciousness that arises at the moment of conception, that is, with the forming of a new life in a mother's womb.

• REBIRTH: (punabbhava) literally, "re-becoming, again-becoming, rearising, "renewed existence," is a sutra term for "rebirth," which in later literature is mostly referred to as patisandhi.

Immediately afterwards consciousness sinks into the "subconscious stream of existence [becoming]" (bhavanga-sota). It is conditioned. Therefore, ever and ever-again, corresponding states of subconsciousness arise. Thus, it is really rebirth-consciousness that determines the latent character of a person.

"Neither has this (rebirth-) consciousness transmigrated [traveled] from the previous existence to this present existence, nor did it arise without such conditions as karma, karmic-formations, propensity, object, and so on.

That this consciousness has not come from the previous existence to this present existence, yet that it has come into existence by means of causes and conditions included in the previous existence, such as karma and so on, this fact may be illustrated by various things, such as:

• the echo,
• the light of a lamp,
• the impression of a seal,
• the image produced by a mirror
• [the movement of a wave across the ocean].
• [Doesn't a tsunami wave travel, after a massive quake, from Japan to California?]
• [No, never. The influence of it travels, but never does a single drop of water move from there to here. Stare at a wave. It seems to be a moving column of water moving across the ocean. But that is not what it is. What is it? It is one water molecule compressing another next to it and so on and so on. This compression and expansion, in a sense, is the "wave," not any particular drop of water. Strange but true.]

For just as the resounding of the echo is conditioned by a sound and so on and nowhere in the process is there a transmigration of sound has taken place, just so is it with this consciousness.

Furthermore, it is said: "In this continuous process, no sameness and no otherness can be found." For if there were full identity (between the different stages, past and present), then also milk could never turn into curd. And if there were a complete otherness, then curd could never come from milk....

If in the continuity of existence any karma-result [vipaka, phala] takes place, then this karma-result neither belongs to any other being, nor does it come from any other (karma), because absolute sameness and otherness are excluded here" (The Path of Purification, Vis, XVII 164ff).

In The Questions of King Milinda or Milindapahna (Mil.) it is said: "Now, Venerable Nāgasena, the one who is reborn, is that person the same as the one who has died, or is that person another?"

"Neither the same nor another" (Pali na ca so na ca añño).

"Give me an example."

"What do you think, O King: Are you now, as a grown-up, the same as you had been as a young and tender babe?"

"No, Venerable sir. Another person was the young and tender babe, but quite a different person am I now as a grown-up man."...

"...In the first watch of the night, is one lamp burning, and another in the middle watch, and yet another in the last watch of the night?"

"No, Venerable sir. The light during the whole night depends on one and the same lamp.''

"Just so, O King, is the chain of phenomena linked together. One phenomenon arises, another vanishes, yet all are linked together, one after the other, without interruption. In this way, one reaches the final state of consciousness neither as the same person nor as another.'' More: patisandhi

• True Lives (video); Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Connecting with Universal Consciousness

(Gaia) Connecting with Universal Consciousness [or Source]

Can we become angels (devas) by meditating?

Feeling a pull towards deeper understanding and greater connection with the Universe? This could be signs of an impending spiritual awakening, a profound shift that changes our understanding of self and reality.

This post may help in understanding everything we need to know about this transformative experience – from recognizing the early signs to navigating challenges and enjoying its benefits.

Ready for an [Eastern, more Hindu than Buddhist] enlightening journey? Let’s dive in, beginning with this guided meditation.

Key points

• A spiritual awakening is a transformative experience where we become aware of our "true selves" and connect to a higher power.
• Signs of spiritual awakenings can include feeling disconnected, reevaluating beliefs, having vivid or lucid dreams, experiencing shifting relationships, and increased intuition.
• Each person’s spiritual awakening journey is unique and personal, guided by one's own beliefs, experiences, and inner wisdom.
• During a spiritual awakening, individuals may also experience a strong connection to nature and have physical symptoms. More
• Tibetan Meditation Music; EnhancedApp.io, Spiritual Awakening: Everything to Know; Gaia.com on YouTube; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen B. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Palestinian comedy against Israel

What happened at the poetry reading?

• Poetry reading? History's 20 most influential poets (6/19)
• Let's talk about sex: poetry (June 19th)

Third Thursdays at SPARC

One of the sexy readers today just happened to be one of next month's features, Joseph Nicks, a man after the biological and whimsical, the terrestrial and environmental.*

He is currently working on a dictionary of Nickisms, his invented contributions to the English lexicon, like the term chronicide.**

Ron Koertge

Life is but a poem...or novel. (Ron Koertge)

(Poetry Foundation) South Pasadena Poet Laureate Ron Koertge, former PCC professor and current bestselling YA author, then schooled us all on how to present life in the Midwest roundabout the Fifties.

() Poet and young-adult novelist Ron Koertge grew up in rural Olney, Illinois, and received a BA from the University of Illinois and an MA from the University of Arizona.

Is no topic verboten in poetry?

Comfortable in both free verse and received form, Koertge writes poetry marked by irreverent yet compassionate humor and a range of personas and voices. He has published numerous collections of poetry. His novels and novels-in-verse for young readers include the popular Stoner & Spaz.

Koertge’s honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a California Arts Council grant, and inclusion in numerous anthologies such as Best American Poetry, Poetry 180, and Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” column.

Koertge’s young-adult fiction has won awards from the American Library Association and PEN America. For many years, Koertge taught in the MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults program at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. He lives with his wife in South Pasadena, California. More: Poetry Foundation

In the crowd

Other readers were in the house: GT Foster was reading from Warped by War his new collection of poems about being in Thailand during the US War on Vietnam (and Cambodia and Laos), derived from his novel The Boys Are Not Refined (Butt Naked Press). Helena and other Quakers, Toti O'Brien, Barbs Bagwell, and British poet Martin Jago.

She was the Poo

Kahnstallations by Mand Kahn ( Los Angeles) | The Poetry Foundation

.

Perhaps the highlight of the night was when Mandy Kahn hit below the belt and delivered an exquisite work of poetic art she dubbed "Poo." The audience thought they might have heard "Pooh." But no. It was poo. It was the most provocative of topics covered due not to its candor but its seriousness. To mimic it as to suggest what it was like would be difficult butt not impossible:

.

It was the Poo

Everyone does what? (Etsy)

with such intimacy have i known food

passing through without clinging i let go

what was once a part of me i part with

and so unstuck unplugged without

consternation do what is due with my dew

for all i have been of drink and stool

of toad and such delicacies sautéed

or stewed garlic umami and kosher salt

and for all i know all that fixes me to the

ground sending samples of soil

to the earth below

[Oh, Pooh and Eeyore, too, we all do; even

the dull Dodo and the Duke their dookie do

unblemished Dove and Duchess untouched

by soot do do their doo, too. Everyone Poo's.]

Mandy Kahn

Peace Piece: Immersive Poems of Mandy Kahn

(Poetry Foundation) ...in true LA form, enthusiastically live-tweeted by audience member Jenna Elfman, Mandy Kahn has been developing more ideas for poetry installations — an active syllable conservationist; she's now dubbed them "Kahnstallations." She says:

Mandy Kahn, live at the Getty Museum, LA

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to inject some energy into the poetry reading format. Slam poets have found a way to make their readings extremely appealing to wide audiences, as have the spoken word poets, and the avant poetry world seems to be doing lots of format experimentation, too. But I’d like to see mainstream poets find that same wider audience — that audience of fans who aren’t writers themselves. So I’m experimenting. Tonight I’ll be trying out four installations, and at the end of the night I’ll pass out comment cards so audience members can let me know which installations worked best for them. And I’ll keep writing new installations — keep honing — until I find a few that audiences seem to respond to. More

What is "slam" poetry?

SLAM: (Youth Speaks) "Somewhere in America" by Los Angeles Team

• Poetry slam is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges.

"Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"

By Ron Koertge

Featured poet Ron Koertge, MFA

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave

your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap

one is best, with pages the color of weak tea

and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than

three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware

any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks

across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.

And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle

where a child a year or two old is playing as his

mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.

The title, the author's name, the brooding photo

on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray

book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher

it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower

falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody

in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again.

• "Do You Have Any Advice…" | The Poetry Foundation

*Joseph Nicks, The Horizontal Forest

The Horizontal Forest as seen and lamented from the ground (treejourney.com)

.

Terrestrial Anthr-apology

long after this unsustainable

infrastructure collapses

beneath the burden

of fecundity and affluence

and digital instability

the oozing oilfields,

damned-up rivers,

dried-out aquifers

the bird-and-bat-bashing windmills,

battery-burgeoning e-wasted landfills

the acres of solar panels

supplanting the plants,

impeding the photosynthetic necessity

the combusted troposphere,

de-ozonified stratosphere

the phosphorescent coastal dead zones,

deforested/defrosted Amazonia/Antartica

the vanished worldwide megafauna

all will stand as silent testaments

to the ephemeral hyper-potency

of runaway hominism

whose viral expansion

from Pleistocene to Plastocene

left the far and wide terrestrium

styrofoaming at the seas

we could've lived less largely

but that's not the way we roll

of course it's going to take some healing, but

it certainly won't be a first for the Earth

to have survived a mass extinction,

though never one of such intelligent design...

the eons will season

themselves again

and life will re-diversify

with no remembrance of those

naked, tailless, erectile monkeys

run amok for that horrible fortnight

so many ice ages ago

the grasses will

give it no glossing

and the worms won't

wonder who won

and in the understory

become the prologue

of stories yet to unfold,

a prideless proliferation

of unapologetic anthropods

will go on about their business

as they've been doing for

four hundred million years

Unclenched: a passive fist's manifesto 

By Joseph Nicks

Unclenched: a passive fist's

The hominid hand. Its prehensile qualities (due largely to that remarkable opposable thumb) are legendary. It is perhaps the only anatomically advantageous structure this animal possesses. That oft-touted capacious cerebrum seems as often as not to allow itself to swell with a meaningless steam that marginalizes whatever intellectual potential it had in the first place. And with that pushed-in rostrum tucked up under the cranium and bent into an L-shaped labiolingual-laryngeal mess that imparts to this animal the power of speech, well that ability seems rarely to be put to good use.

No, it is the manus hominis that has allowed this species to be so constructive. Of course, as with those other two aforementioned structures, it can be just as adept at wielding weapons as it can tools. And when it is clenched into a fist, it is pretty much useless for anything other than fucking things up.

Though some of them may be infused with a certain degree of anger, none of the poems in this book, for example, could have been written had these fists not managed to come occasionally unclenched. More

**Chronicide

The God Chronos: "Time Clipping Cupid's Wings" (1694) by Pierre Mignard (1610-1695)

Seven (art by Lorna Alkana)

I stepped before the judge, penitent

eyes downcast, shoulders slumped

He passed sentence as I mumble-prayed

in a dead language within the echo chamber

between the ears of years, lips aquiver.

"Have you anything to say for yourself?" he asked,

having so heavily handed down the court's

sentence. "Guilty as charged" was all I could

think to say. If one is going to be honest, this is

probably not the time to start. But my jury of peers

had me dead to rights. What was there to deny with

all the evidence stacked before me? I'll take the plea

had it been on offer, I could see in hindsight.

The Butterfly Papillon realized the same thing.

Of all crimes, this the inexcusable

Of all sentences, this the unretractable

"What did you call it?" I asked the judge in one last stand.

"Chronicide," he gurgled in disgust, "killing time."*

What's next?

Belly Laughs Comedy & Food Festival | Nederlander Concerts

Dronepreneur Workshop - Free Online Workshop

• OPEN MIC NIGHT (free) at the Altadena Library, Monday, July 7, 6:00-7:30 pm Altadena — Altadena Library District
• *Killing a Homo (as in a Homo sapiens or "Man thinking") is homicide so, naturally, killing time is Chronicide (a Nickism by Joseph Nicks).
• Ron Koertge, Mandy Kahn, Joseph Nicks, Steve McQueen (Papillion, 1973); all uncredited poetry by Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Miracles of a Divine Buddha, a God?

The shocking truth about the Buddha they never told us

(Silent Flame) For centuries, we’ve been bowing, chanting, and meditating…. But did we ever stop to ask, Who was the Buddha — really? Was he a man who simply awakened? A divine being who walked among mortals? Or something far beyond both ideas?

This deeper dive is a controversial video as Silent Flame takes us on a journey through ancient Buddhist texts, modern science, cosmic metaphysics, and brutal honesty — to finally answer the question no monastic dares ask out loud, 🔥 Was the Buddha a God…or just a man?

✅ DISCOVER:

• Why early texts portray him as a human — and why that matters
• The hidden [Mahayana] doctrine of the Three Bodies of the Buddha
• The shocking Mahayana view that Buddha never passed away into final nirvana (what the world mistakenly calls dying, even though dying always entails rebirth so this could not be a common death the unenlightened experience)
• What neuroscience, quantum physics, and psychedelics reveal today
• How we should relate to the Buddha in real life — worship or walk?

If one has ever meditated, bowed before a statue, or just wondered what “enlightenment” really means… 🧘‍♂️ this is the video that connects the dots — and burns away illusions.

Don't accept out of faith. Investigate Teachings.

Was the Buddha a [Creator] God? Divine? A miracle-worker? Great gurus say, "No one saves us but ourselves; no one can, and no one may; we ourselves must walk the Path; buddhas only point the way."

We as earthling humans have been depending on gods and God for too long, waiting for them to return and rule, with we peons and pawns to their larger designs, such as the Anunnaki, the Greek, Roman, and Indian pantheons.

🔔 Subscribe for brutally honest Buddhist truth every week. 👇 Comment your truth: Is Buddha a god or are we just afraid to awaken? #Buddhism #Buddha #IsBuddhaGod #DharmaTalk #SilentFlame #Enlightenment #BuddhistPhilosophy #ThreeBodiesOfBuddha #NoSelf #Anatta #Awakening #BuddhistWisdom #SpiritualAwakening #Mysticism #ReligionVsSpirituality #QuantumBuddhism #BuddhismExplained #BuddhaTruth #TheRealBuddha #LongformContent #YouTubeDharma #Consciousness #BreakTheIllusion

• Silent Flame, YouTube.com, May 21, 2025; The 14th Dalai Lama; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Illusions, reality lies using autocorrect

• Cypress Hill is having "Illusions" live with an orchestra

Our existence is a lie…and here’s the proof

(Solace Fox)) March 8, 2025: Reality isn’t what it seems. What if everything we experience is just a carefully constructed illusion the mind is producing?

Reality is an ILLUSION: Mystery Beyond Space-Time (Donald Hoffman)

[There is a "mind only" philosophy in Buddhism that says it is ALL maya. See Yogachara and Madhyamaka.] This video explores the hidden layers of existence, the illusions shaping our perceptions, and the truth that’s been right in front of us the whole time. Once we see it, there’s no going back.

🕒 TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 – The Illusion We Never Noticed
• 02:12 – How Our Mind Creates Reality
• 05:47 – The Hidden Patterns Controlling Us
• 09:30 – Are We Living in a Simulation?
• 12:15 – Breaking Free from the Illusion
• 15:20 – The Ultimate Truth

Can we control the illusion we call "reality"? How our minds shape reality!

Beatle George Harrison explains the reason for meditation and yoga

Magic mushrooms give access to reality or nuts? - Joe Rogan: What's the hardest you ever tripped?

Personal perception vs. shared perspective - Non-duality is not the answer the Buddha taught

What then is reality really?

How our mind shapes reality

(Wise Quotes) May 11, 2024: Wisest Advice. Vibrations. Manifestation. Magical thinking? Hermeticism. Law of Attraction. Think and Grow Rich with Napoleon Hill. Explore the fascinating ways in which our mind shapes reality in this thought-provoking video. Learn how our thoughts and beliefs can influence the world around us.

• If the world is an illusion, why does it seem so real? Life is but a game? | We live in our minds

► @SolaceFox #purpose #god #selfhelp #motivational #Consciousness #Oneness #Spirituality #Mysticism #Enlightenment #Awakening #awareness #life #motivation #universe #ego

• Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

'Be here now' but when?!

Brilliant explanation of the Eternal Now

(Soul Continuum) MELBOURNE, Australia. Who is this genius with an Alan Watts' level of ability to explain transcendental and transpersonal, more Eastern than Western concepts like this? And is he being interviewed by a child? "Out of the mouths of babes" is the famous saying.

Commentary

Time is an illusion. This was said. What was meant? For one thing, time is relative to location. On other planes of existence (and there are at least 31major ones the Buddha talked about), time is different.

Things tend to last much longer there in those worlds. One can see that on the animal plane, life is even more brief than on the human plane. But the average lifespan on the human plane varies, contracting down to a few decades (Decadent Age or Kali Yuga), expanding to 80,000 years (Golden Age or Satya Yuga).

At this time in the repeating cycle (samsara), time is very short. When it was 80K years long, it was very short. So it is possible, not likely but possible, to notice the radical impermanence of all things.

That's the funny thing about time, both to be an illusion and something that contracts and expands. When is now?

We can speak of an "eternal now," not "eternal" in the sense of everlasting. It is eternal in the sense of being ever-present.

Time does not move, as the speaker shows, going from the past to the present to the future. That is how the mind is ordering it, making sense of it. (There's causality, with everything arising from sets of causes and conditions. And when science detects retrocausality, what are we to make of that? How can anything that happens now or in the future ever affect the past? It can. It does. It always has.

• This may sound abstract even though scientists have evidence for it, so to make it more tangible and relatable, we ask: Could you imagine being a retrosexual? (What the heck's that? It's a person who only dates people s/he has dated before, in other words, somebody who from now on only redates). Hey, they exist! Some are trans. Anyway, apart from the retrocausality in quantum physics, there is social retrocausality we see all the time if we ever bothered to notice. Everyday practically something that happens today changes the meaning of something that happened in the past. In the past, things were like this. Now they're like this. What we do a lot today changes what it means when it was done in the past. In the past it meant something, but since the "past" really only exists in our heads, that's what changing. What we're thinking changes. Past, future, they're not even real in an ultimate sense. In a conventional sense, they're very real. Better pay attention. We have to consider them, but what are we considering other than changing illusions?

The order of events may be that way, but actually it is always "NOW." We abandon the now to ruminate about the past or to worry about the future, losing the safety and potential of the ever-present.

Semi-Buddhist Eckhart Tolle, who became famous as the author of The Power of Now and through his business partner Oprah, was often asked: "How many nows are there?"

His mind would loop in disbelief about this question because of its astonishingly wrong assumptions. There aren't many "nows." There's only this now. Now is all the time. This is all there has ever been.

We can imagine a future (but when can we imagine it?) We can daydream about a better past. (But when can we do that?) There's only one answer to when anything happens or can happen.

Where and when do we have power? Where and when can we ever make a choice? When do we suffer or find bliss?

We'll lay it out, space it out, after the fact, for sure, but as we live it, when is it?

What was American guru and former Harvard professor Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert) talking about when he named his classic book, condensing his Indian love-guru (Neem Karoli Baba) and other gurus' message? He distilled all of their messages down to one and the same message: "Be here now."

Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Zen, being heavily influenced by Taoism, is all about being rather than doing (karma, action). But where to be?  When should we be mindful, when should we be present?

What? Be. Where? Here. When? Natch. Naturally, that is now.

• Soul Continuum, YouTube.com, 1/2/24; Dhr. Seven to Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Rains Retreat service, Super Blue Moon

Supermoon rises over Los Angeles' snow covered San Gabriel Mountains behind the megacity

Full moon, Surprise, AZ, on 8/1/23 (Diannie Chavez, The Arizona Republic via USA Today)

.

Where is the Moon Goddess?

A rare sky spectacle will occur Monday night that (probably) won't happen again for years:

A full moon that can be called both a "supermoon" and "blue moon" will grace the night skies over the U.S.

Dubbed a "super blue moon," the rare combination occurs when the different cycles of blue and supermoons happen to align on the calendar, says NASA's Noah Petro, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project scientist.

• [Blue moon: second full moon in same month (moonth). Super moon: a larger than average moon that's closer.]
• Who is it the lunar deity? Luna, Chandra, Soma?

If that's not confusing enough, astronomers also have varying definitions for what counts as a supermoon and what counts as a blue moon. (Just last year a full moon met the criteria for both, by some definitions). Here's why Monday's full moon is special:

What is a supermoon?

What's super about it? Its size from proximity

When the moon’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual, this cosmic combo is called a supermoon. A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time the moon is full.

The term was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979. "Different publications use slightly different thresholds for deciding when a full moon is close enough to the Earth to qualify as a supermoon," NASA explains.

"Because the orbit of the moon is not a perfect circle, the moon is sometimes closer to the Earth than at other times during its orbit."

• Related video: A rare super blue moon is about to happen (The Weather Channel)

When the moon reaches its closest point to Earth, about 226,000 miles away, full moons appear larger and brighter than at other times. A supermoon will appear 30% brighter and 14% larger than a typical full moon.

What is a blue moon?

Yes, look! It's all blue in color and cloudy!

There are two types of blue moons, seasonal and monthly. The one Monday will be of the seasonal variety. A seasonal blue moon occurs when there are four full moons in a single season (on this occasion, summer). When this happens, the third of the four is considered a blue moon.

The second definition – which arose from a misunderstanding of the original – is the monthly blue moon, referring to the second full moon in any single calendar month.

In either case, blue moons earn their reputation for being rare because of a quirk in the typical rhythm of one full moon per month [which always only had one full moon until the Vatican thrust the Gregorian Calendar on the world and divorced us from our planet's natural timekeeper].

The moon's cycle takes 29.5 days [28 days by our count of four weeks in a moonth, which means the time between full moons].

But, as Missouri State University Professor of Astrophysics Mike Reed notes, months [in the convoluted Gregorian Calendar] can have 28, 29, 30, or 31 days [to keep the number of days in a year with only 12 rather than the natural 13 moons that there should or used to be, given than 13x28=364+1 New Year turnaround day].

The two cycles create odd mismatches resulting in one more moon in a season or month than is typical – and that's a blue moon. Months usually have only one full moon – unless there's a (monthly) blue moon.

And seasons typically have three full moons – unless there's a (seasonal) blue moon.

Blue moons are not blue in color. Monday's full moon is unlikely to appear blue: Blue-colored moons in photos are usually made using special blue camera filters or photo editing apps.

Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Starlink 8-9 mission, Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, July 3, 2024, viewed from the Banana River.

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How rare is a super blue moon? When will the next one occur? "It's tricky to answer, because it depends on your definition of a supermoon and a blue moon," Edward Bloomer, senior astronomy manager at the U.K.'s Royal Observatory Greenwich told USA TODAY via e-mail.

The answer is different depending on whether you're talking about a seasonal blue moon or a monthly blue moon. If you tweak what counts as a supermoon, the answer also changes.

In general, a blue moon happens once every two or three years on average, according to NASA. The time between super blue moons can be as much as 20 years – but in general, 10 years is the average.

So when will the next super blue moon actually occur? A safe bet is January 2037, according to NASA. However, depending on what you count as a super blue moon, you may hear of another one rising before then. Source

Rains Retreat (Vassa) Buddhist Observance Day (Uposatha)

The Buddha under full moon (JUNAIDI/DeviantArt)

Every seven days, observant Buddhists honor the lunar observance day (the sabbath, which stands for "Saturday," the holy day of the Bible in Abrahamic faiths before it was changed to the Son's day without anybody noticing other than Jews, Seventh Day Adventists, and diehard Christian sects). This is weekly and in accord with the phases of the Moon (Soma/Chandra, Luna) everyone can look up and see. Of all four in a month, of particular significance is the one that falls on the full moon. It is kept in the same way, observing the Eight Precepts and "fasting" after noon (only eating between sunup and midday). It is a day to visit the monastery (vihara), nunnery, pagoda, or temple to study, hear the Dharma (Dhamma in the form of Bana or instruction), ask questions, practice meditation, and observe the additional precepts.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Monday's rare super blue moon is a confounding statistical marvel

• Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, Aug. 17, 2024; Sheldon S., Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly