Straight Edge: Boston hardcore punk film

(YouTube Movies)

Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington DC (1980-1990)

New Sharon Salzberg book: Finding Your Way

Sharon Salzberg (IMS, Barre, Mass.); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Young American Sharon Salzberg went to India and met the enlightened teacher Dipa Ma.

The new book makes a great inspirational gift

Today is the last chance to pre-order Sharon Salzberg's new book, Finding Your Way. This beautiful little gift book comes out into the world on Tuesday, Oct. 10th! All pre-orders in the US are eligible for a free poster inspired by the book.

The book pairs full-color illustrations with short essays about different topics. Everything is distilled into bite-sized pieces for contemplation.

• PRE-ORDER HERE

Salzberg's publisher is offering a 20% discount with code "SHARON" on pre-sales made directly through their website, so get the book at a reduced price from them before Oct. 10th, 2023.

Details are on the SharonSalzberg.com website. Celebrate the launch of Finding Your Way with Sharon and the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) Book Club.

A virtual class is happening on Oct. 10th. Register RIGHT HERE for this FREE event.

With metta,

Team Sharon (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

• VIRTUAL BOOK LAUNCH (10/10/23) Insight Meditation Society Book Club

When Sharon Salzberg came back from India

Sharon Salzberg, Festival of Faiths 2018; Ashley Wells, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

New York Jewish-Buddhist hippies hanging out in Calcutta, India with Dipa Ma

"Our relationship with pain and suffering" | Sharon Salzberg

(Festival of Faiths) Aug. 22, 2018. #FOF2018 From the session: "Dark Nights of the Soul" | 2018 Festival of Faiths:

• Real Happiness Meditation Challenge 2023 (Sharon Salzberg)

Dipa Ma (Amy Schmidt)

American Theravada (Vipassana) Buddhist Sharon Salzberg is a central figure in the field of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation, a world-renowned teacher, and a New York Times bestselling author.

She has played a crucial role in bringing meditation and mindfulness practices to the West [from India] and into mainstream culture since 1974. She is co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the author of ten books, including Real Love.

She offers a secular, modern approach to Buddhist teachings, making them readily accessible. "World religions teach us that suffering is part of the human condition. Our attempts to avoid suffering prevent us from experiencing essential insights and awareness that lead to spiritual healing and growth.

Knee Deep in Grace

"Individually and collectively, we must step into the shadows, sit with our fears, and embrace vulnerability. Spiritual teachings and practices help us transform the darkness into light, the fallow to the fertile, and awaken a deep level of awareness and accountability.

"Through these teachings, can we come to confront our shortcomings and broken behaviors? How can we face America’s most egregious acts, including genocide and slavery? How can feminine insight hold space for the darkness so that we can be transformed?"

THE 23RD ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF FAITHS, "Sacred Insight - Feminine Wisdom" is a five-day nationally acclaimed multi-faith celebration of music, poetry, art, film, and dialogue with spiritual leaders, practitioners, and teachers. April 24-28, 2018 | Louisville, Kentucky. More info: festivaloffaiths.org

The 2018 Festival explores practices, teachings, and insight rooted in Feminine wisdom. Speakers and artists from diverse backgrounds and faith traditions examine the Feminine aspects of God, non-dual thinking, the wisdom of the natural world, suffering, healing, emotional intelligence, and creativity.

The Festival seeks to offer deeper insight into the Sacred Feminine in all of us. Join the Conversation. Join the Movement. #FOF2018

"One of America's Top 8 Spiritual Travel Destinations."

- Huffington Post

Truth about the First Thankstaking (video)

FNX TV, Nov. 29, 2017; Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

THE MYTH of the First Thanksgiving we are taught is all a lie (New York Times)

Smoke Signals: Why the Story of Thanksgiving is a Lie

The history and truth behind the first "Thanksgiving" -- which we should actually call the first "Thankstaking" -- and why the MYTH of Puritans/Pilgrims and Wampanoag/Indians should never have been taught to American school children. What if there were a Native American Heritage Day instead of our current National Day of Mourning?

Sources:

• "The Real Story of Thanksgiving" (History Channel)
• The First Thanksgiving was not in 1621 [but rather in 1637 to celebrate stealing, killing, and a massacre] (eyewitnesstohistory.com)
• A Day of Mourning (americanindiansource.com)
• What really happened at the "First Thanksgiving": The Wampanoag Side of the Story (indiancountrymedianetwork.com)

Did we really land at Plymouth Rock? (video)

Moonanum James of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head (HuffPost, Nov. 22, 2017); Wrighta887 (storyboardthat.com); Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The ridiculous European invader version we tell ourselves (storyboardthat.com)

.

Why Native Americans observe a "National Day of Mourning" for Thanksgiving

Did "the Pilgrims" land on Plymouth Rock?

(HuffPost) For indigenous communities, "Thanksgiving" is a grievous reminder of loss. HuffPost visited Plymouth, Massachusetts, to speak to Moonanum James with the United American Indians of New England for the annual National Day of Mourning. The goal is to get the history right in spite of the government propaganda we are annually fed.

Fallacy of "official" history

Walt Disney Nazi German propaganda reel.

Pilgrims Disaffected separatists left the Church of England. They boarded the Mayflower and headed for Plymouth but reached Cape Cod. They signed the Mayflower Compact [the first governmental document]....

The time of the formation of the Church of England was a time of angry men and women and, whereas some were okay with these religious changes, others sought to escape. In the end, many English left for Holland, in the Netherlands.

Thou shalt not question history!

Unwelcome European immigrant-aliens faced their first winter here. For English Settlers, the trip to [a fully inhabited] America was an awful journey.

One of the many things that went wrong was that their boat, the Mayflower, went off course, landing them in Cape Cod. As winter was fast approaching, they docked on Cape Cod. Squanto helped them [survive].

[The new Settlers gave thanks for a massacre of 700 Natives -- and this is celebrated as Thanksgiving. This "thanks" came in the form of invasion, disease, squatting on stolen land, a slow genocide of men, women, and children, enslaving Natives, and introducing the foreign concept of land ownership to justify it all]. More

Joseph Goldstein at Insight LA (Aug. 6)

InsightLA.org; Dhr. Seven, Ananda M. (DMI), Crystal Quintero (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

• An Evening with Joseph Goldstein on Monday August 6th, 2018
• A Day of Practice with Dan Siegel and Trudy Goodman on Saturday August 25th
• A Day of Practice with George Mumford on Saturday, September 8th

Railroad ruins Thoreau's "Walden Pond" (audio)

Prof. Laura Dassow Walls, Host Mitch Jeserich (Letters & Politics, May 24, 2018, KPFA.org, Berkeley); Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

You could buy anything in the good ol' US of A. Negroes, need Negroes? Auction block.

We restored the trees and forests around Walden Pond, Mass. (Walden Pond Project)

.

Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life, talks about nonviolent Henry David Thoreau’s work on Civil Disobedience during the Walden Years.

Why would he, in apparent contradiction to nonviolence, support abolitionist (pro-abolition of slavery) John Brown’s armed raid on Harper’s Ferry?

Thoreau witnessed the disastrous coming of the railroad through Walden Pond, Massachusetts, the wiping out of the Native Americans, United States' deforestation, and the Industrial Age. More + AUDIO

Slaves revolt

US Marines enforce slavery, attack John Brown

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry was an anti-slavery movement effort in the U.S. Abolitionist John Brown tried to initiate a slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

But Brown's valiant party of 22 was defeated by a company of U.S. Marines, led by First Lieutenant Israel... More

Photos in the Library of Congress are evidence of the USA's genocide of Native Americans

• GUEST: Laura Dassow Walls is the Willliam P. and Hazel B. White professor of English graduate program in history and philosophy of science at Notre Dame University.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

First I stretch, do my yoga asanas or poses, then I'm ready to relax.

 

Part of a series on
MINDFULNESS
Buddhism
Psychology
Other
Similar concepts
Category: Mindfulness

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a program that incorporates Buddhist mindfulness (sati) practice to assist people with pain and a range of conditions and life issues that were initially difficult to treat in a hospital setting.

Developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the 1970s by Prof. Jon Kabat-Zinn, MBSR uses a combination of mindfulness meditation, body awareness, and yoga to help people become more mindful.^[1][2]

MBSR programs have been proposed for a wide variety of conditions including stress reduction.^[3][4][5] 

Clinical research studies have documented various physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness in different patient categories as well as in healthy adults and children.^[2][6][7] While MBSR has its roots in spiritual teachings, the program itself is secular.^[2][5][1] 

  

History

The concept of mindfulness has existed for over five millennia.^[8][9][10] Many credit the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course for introducing mindfulness to mainstream Western culture.^[11]

In 1979 Kabat-Zinn founded the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts and nearly 20 years later the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine.^[1] 

Both of these institutions supported the successful growth and implementation of MBSR into hospitals worldwide.^[1][2] Today close to 80% of medical schools offer some element of mindfulness training and research and education centers dedicated to mindfulness have proliferated.^[12] More

The Buddha's Mindfulness Practice
Ven. Nyanatiloka (Buddhist Dictionary) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The Four "Foundations of Mindfulness," literally "awareness of mindfulness" (sati-upatthāna), are the systematic contemplation of:

1. body
2. feeling
3. mind
4. mind-objects.

A detailed treatment of this subject, so important for the practice of Buddhist mental cultivation, is given in the two Sati-patthāna Sutras (DN 22 and MN 10), which at the start as well as the conclusion, proclaim the weighty words:

"The only [or the direct] way that leads to the attainment of purity, to the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, to the end of pain and grief, to the entering of the right path, and to the realization of nirvana is the Four Foundations of Mindfulness."

After these introductory words and upon the question which these four are, it is said that the meditator dwells in contemplation of the body (the four elements), the feelings (sensations), the mind (four of the five khandhas), and the mind-objects "ardent, clearly conscious and mindful, after putting away greed and grief with regard to the world."
 
These four contemplations are in reality not separate exercises but, on the contrary, at least in many cases, especially in the meditative absorptions (jhanas), as things inseparably associated with each other.

Thereby the Satipathāna Sutra forms an illustration of the way in which these four contemplations relating to the Five Aggregates (khandha) simultaneously come to be realized, and finally lead to insight into the impersonality (not-self nature) of all existence.
 
(1) The contemplation of the body (kāyanupassanā) consists of the following exercises: More

Insight Meditation Societies

Wisdom Quarterly; InsightMeditationSociety.org; InsightLA.org; SpiritRock.org

Openings

Space Available ~ Retreat Center The Wisdom of Equanimity, February 5–10, 2016 with Lila Kate Wheeler & Winnie Nazarko
Establishing Presence, February 19–24, 2016 with Winnie Nazarko & Annie Nugent
Awareness, Pure and Simple, February 25–29, 2016 with Madeline Klyne & Chas DiCapua
Full Retreat Center Schedule
Space Available ~ Forest Refuge
December 2015 onward
Full 2015 & 2016 Forest Refuge Schedules

Volunteer Opening
January Kitchen Working Guest

Buddhist Studies
Barre Center for Buddhist Studies

New to Meditation? What exactly do we teach at IMS? Primarily, we offer instruction and guidance in insight and lovingkindness meditations – practices that help bring genuine happiness to our lives.

• Benefits of meditation
• Guided meditations
• Tour our centers
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• Retreat FAQs
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"This retreat was needed and the timing was perfect. I gained the insight and the assistance I need to make a difference in my life.”
"I felt safe and cared for and had a remarkable retreat experience."

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• Stay in touch – join our mailing list
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Insight Meditation in Los Angeles with Trudy Goodman (InsightLA.org)

San Francisco Bay Area with Jack Kornfield (spiritrock.org)

• Insight Meditation Teachers, Worldwide

Protests: Dalai Lama in Boston, NYC (audio)

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Matthew Bell (PRI); Dalai Lama

Live Webcasts from Boston and New York City of the 14th Dalai Lama's teachings and dialogues, where he is appearing Oct. 31st to Nov. 5th, 2014 VIEW (dalailama.com). 

Tibetans turned out to welcome the Dalai Lama to Boston (Matthew Bell/pri.org).

Wisdom of Compassion

Supporters of the Dorje Shugden tradition in Tibetan Buddhism are behind a concerted protest campaign against the Dalai Lama, who spoke in downtown Boston on Thursday.

 

The Dalai Lama paid a visit this week to Boston, where thousands of his adoring faithful and fans bought tickets to hear him speak about topics including “educating the heart and mind.”

But the 79-year-old spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism has his haters too. And some of them, it turns out, are practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism.

 

Supporters of Dorje Shugden in Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana) are behind an ongoing protest campaign against the Dalai Lama, who spoke in Boston on Oct. 30 (Matthew Bell/pri.org).

 
Many of those [protesters] took position on Thursday morning outside the Wang Theater in downtown Boston, where the Dalai Lama spoke. They were joined by the lama's supporters, and the two sides held dueling protests. 

“Long live Dalai Lama!” one group shouted, waving Tibetan flags and holding up portraits of the monk they refer to as His Holiness. A few meters away, another group banged drums and chanted, “False Dalai Lama! Stop lying!” 

The Dalai Lama's visits Princeton University and mingles with nation's privileged students on the first day of his two-day visit to Princeton, New Jersey, USA on October 28, 2014. VIEW

.

“He’s running a theocracy," says Rebecca Gauthier, a spokeswoman with a group called the International Shugden Community. They're stepping up a protest campaign against the Dalai Lama, saying he's intent on stamping out Shugden, a tradition in Tibetan Buddhism. "He’s saying there can be no opposing voice, and that’s not okay,” she says.

 

Gauthier contrasts that to the loud scene outside the theater. “I think it’s great that we’re here demonstrating against the Dalai Lama and then right next to us are people who are for the Dalai Lama," she says. "That’s what democracy is."

37 Practices of a Bodhisattva [probably not the Buddha's 37 Factors of Enlightenment]: Video of  the current Dalai Lama's three-day teaching given in New Delhi, India from March 21-23, 2014, culminating in the bestowing of the Trisamayavyuharaja Empowerment. VIEW

 

This fight is partly about a theological and political debate that goes back centuries, to a time when Tibetan Buddhism was a sectarian mishmash of different lamas, monasteries, and practices. One of them centered on the Tibetan deity of Dorje Shugden and the rituals done in his name, the same rituals Gauthier's group adhere to. More

St. Patty parties in a Police State (video)

Pat Macpherson, Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Associated Press; Levin00

St. Patrick, wooo! Amherst, wooo! OH NO, the cops are shooting at us...Kent State!!

WARNING: Crass language, hooting, and college exploits by mostly underage drinking-revelers blowing off steam from their academic pursuits, a stressful economy, and Lent obligations! 
 

Knock it off, and get home to watch "Cosmos"!

What news stations called an "out of control riot" appeared much more like American college students doing what they typically do as they celebrate Dionysus in the guise of Saint Patrick -- followed by very aggressive police tactics. (See story below).
 

He's hurting my cold fingers! Hold him down by the face with your knee or boot, and punch him in the kidneys so he'll pee, while I cut off his circulation with these plastic zip cuffs (AP).

Future monument to rebel fighter Ernesto Che Guevara in Galway, Ireland. Che was part Latino and part Irish, a Son of Ireland with a rebellious spirit (thesundaytimes.co.uk).

Oh, h*ll no, not on my beat! Brothers, it's time for the Code of Silence. Let's get 'er done. There will be no partying on this college campus so close to the Feast of Saint Patrick (AP).

    

AMHERST, Massachusetts - The chaos at the University of Massachusetts over the weekend during a pre-St. Patrick's Day celebration brought new attention to an old problem affecting colleges across the country: How to deal with alcohol-fueled revelers during the March festivities.

Celebrations near the UMass campus in Amherst spiraled out of control Saturday as police dealt with thousands of drunken and unruly people during the annual "Blarney Blowout." More than 70 were arrested and four officers suffered minor injuries.

Like other colleges and towns, UMass and Amherst officials took action to try to prevent problems. The university warned students last week that there would be an increased police presence Saturday, and Amherst police prepared for large-scale disturbances...

The Party People gather for pre-St. Patrick's Day "Blarney Blowout" near the Univ. of Massachusetts in Amherst on Saturday, March 8, 2014. According to the Amherst Police Department, four coppers were slightly hurt as they beat back hundreds of unruly students who were throwing empty beer cans and plastic bottles at them as large college crowds gathered at an off-campus apartment complex (AP).

Death and Taxes: Boston Bombings

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

URGENT IRS MESSAGE: Hey, just because your limbs got blown off or your loved ones were killed or injured, that doesn't mean you get to skip today's tax deadline! Pay. Obey. And quit yer complaining. (Ken McGagh/MetroWest Daily News)

Giving us a taste of what our gov't gives others in our names

What is a "false flag" operation? Moreover, what is a Hegelian dialectic? Simply put it is when a ship does what it does under another flag, impersonating another actor, agent, or country.

 

Hegelian dialectic is "is the framework for guiding our thoughts and actions into conflicts that lead us to a predetermined solution." 

 

You heard him. Fearless Leader B.S. Obama is saying we will find whoever did this, why, and we will bring to bear the FULL weight of the law. 

 

The thing is, a group in the military-industrial complex already knows whom will be blamed, and already knows what the "punishment" will be. Come along for the ride. And try not to cheer too loudly or put those flags on car antennas or overwork the nice folks down at the enlistment center. 

 

We are all hurt, some of us outraged. Crying out in "self-righteous indignation" for "revenge" and "vengeance" and a biblical definition of blinding-justice ("An eye for an eye...," which Gandhi pointed out makes the whole world blind) is no way to act in times of great duress. 

 

Are we under duress? Yes. Someone is doing something, and they are doing it with a predetermined goal in mind. What will it be? What will it be? 

 

The Patriot Act is already active. We are already being spied on illegally and intrusively. Citizen ownership of guns is already being restricted.

NDAA (the fiat "authorization" to imprison and detain any American citizen for any reason without accusation, court, attorneys, representation, self-defense, or anything else one could call "justice" or "fairness") has already been signed into effect by Obama and is the de facto law of the land. 

 

We are already at war and planning more wars -- with Iran, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, China, and the "geopolitical Middle East" in general all left to conquer and lord over with "full spectrum dominance." 

 

Welcome to the Brave New World Order.

• Boston Marathon bombs: as it happened (Telegraph.co.uk)
• The US government plans things like this all the time, not that this is one of those times (Operation Northwoods)
• American Conservative founder says Boston bombing could be False Flag operation to start war with Iran
• Inflammatory CIA/CNN coverage of the event