Valentine's Day (aka Saint Valentine's Day, Feast of St. Valentine [1]) is celebrated annually on February 14th [2].
This celebration of going from Lust to Love like the Go Go's, it originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world [3, 4].
Cupid is Mara and Kama
There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Saint Valentines connected to February 14th [5], including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century [6, 7].
According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer [8]. Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: Tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the Roman emperor [7]. An 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution [9].
Will consumers buy cheap cards?
The 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14th [10, 11]. The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries, when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the "lovebirds" of early spring.
In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion for couples to express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").
Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid [who acts like the India god Kama, Greek Eros and Aphrodite, Roman Venus, and Buddhist Mara].
No sex please. We're Ameboids 'n Gatchularians
In the 19th century, handmade cards gave way to mass-produced greetings [12] thanks to capitalism. In Italy, Saint Valentine's keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart" as well as to children to ward off epileptic fits (called Saint Valentine's Malady) [13], which could be thought of as an overwrought lover's obsessive mania, like St. Vitus' Dance. More
(Big Fox News) Feb. 21, 2024: Today is National Breakup Day. (Is it because it's "2/21" -- "two, two, one" as in "couple, couple, single" as in "going, going, gone"? No, this is no May 4th, Star Wars Day, when we say, "May the 4th be with you." It's because it's a week after Valentine's Day and Boo was only sticking around to not be alone on the momentous triumph for Kama/Cupid (Mara/Eros) or to get a gift, dinner, and to avoid the humiliation of sitting alone at a restaurant on the biggest day of the year for daters, lovers, and soon to be heartbroken and pathetic hungry ghost humans).
Love hurts, and breaking uphurts worse. So hu-man up! Don't act like such a clingy ghost. That is to say, get out of Buddhist cosmology'sRealm of Hungry Ghosts.If you can't help it, talk to addiction medicine specialist Dr. Gabor Maté, who says we can become addicted to anything, even a partner (even though no person, sexual act, or substance is, in and of itself, addictive. If it were, everyone partaking would become an addict, and they don't. So why did we? It's because of our history of early childhood traumas. We are predisposed. That history combined with pleasant dopamine-pleasures = hardcore addiction. And today is the day we are disposed.
Now are ye undeceived.*
It gives singles -- and even those who are attached in a committed relationship, marriage, or handfasting -- a day to reflect on past relationships and realize our own personal growth gained from those experiences.
Feb. 21, 2025: The five fastest ways to get broken up with are: (5) hogging the remote (taking too much ownership of the TV, the complaint of 15% of partners), (4) fake listening (failing to communicate because of distraction, ADHD, and not listening), (3) bad money management (splurging, gambling, no control of finances), (2) forgetting [Is it forgetting?], and (1) smoking (the worst thing a partner can do for 64% of people about to breakup with us). Note that neither stinking, snoring, nor cheating made the list. Lesbian Ally Johnson looked it up and presented it to horny hetero co-host Klein on KROQ this morning.
Nothing hurts worse than realizing the person you were in love with is an evil jerk
I'll never write a spiteful song about this guy. He's perfect. And we'll always be happy!
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Let's stand by this star as the world burns.
*American author Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote an allegory, the climactic part of which reads: "by the blaze of the hell-kindled torches, the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wife her husband, trembling before that unhallowed altar.
“Lo! there ye stand, my children,” said the figure, in a deep and solemn tone, almost sad, with its despairing awfulness, as if his once angelic [now demonic] nature could yet mourn for our miserable [human] race.
“Depending upon one another’s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream! Now are ye undeceived! — Evil is the nature of [hu]mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!”
“Welcome!” repeated the fiend-worshippers, in one cry of despair and triumph. And there they stood, the only pair, as it seemed, who were yet hesitating on the verge of wickedness, in this dark world.
A basin was hollowed, naturally, in the rock. Did it contain water, reddened by the lurid light? or was it blood? or, perchance, a liquid flame? Herein did the Shape of Evil dip his hand, and prepare to lay the mark of baptism upon their foreheads, that they might be partakers of the mystery of sin, more conscious of the secret guilt of others, both in deed and thought, than they could now be of their own.
The husband cast one look at his pale wife, and Faith at him. What polluted wretches would the next glance show them to each other, shuddering alike at what they disclosed and what they saw!
“Faith! Faith!” cried the husband. “Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!”
Whether Faith obeyed, he knew not. Hardly had he spoken, when he found himself amid calm night and solitude, listening to a roar of the wind, which died heavily away through the forest. He staggered against the rock, and felt it chill and damp, while a hanging twig, that had been all on fire, besprinkled his cheek with the coldest dew ("Young Goodman Brown" classic American literature, 1835 short story about 17th century Puritan New England).
If only the Buddha had had anything to say about suffering
On many occasions, being asked questions, the Buddha reminded people that he only really taught two things. Any guesses? Did he teach magic and koans? Yin and yang? Mojo and moxie? The Kama Sutra and The Art of Not Giving a F***?
No. Of course, it was suffering (dukkha) and the end of suffering (nirvana). Why would anyone "teach suffering"? The Buddha had to make clear what "suffering" means. He defined it very handily and broadly, a functional definition for the cure he is about to present. What is the use of being told there's a cure if we haven't realized what disease we have been suffering from? "Pain" is much broader than we've imagined, as it includes disappointment, frustration, loss, separation, and even the excruciating agony of heartbreak.
But that's so pessimistic!
No, it isn't. It's a setup for the presentation of the antidote, solution, cure -- the path of practice to bring ALL suffering to a final end. We never even imagined we could bring it to an end, hoping death would do that for us. Death does not do that at all! Why? There is rebirth, and the reason there is rebirth is because there is craving and karma as yet to bring about its many results of all our skillful and unskillful deeds.
ALL disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, and woe CAN be brought to an end, a final end for it to never arise again. That is the great optimism of Buddhism, the "good news" of the Buddha's message to a benighted world of humans and devas (light beings, shining ones).
Suffering (dukkha): Disappointment is one of the Three Universal Marks of Existence. Various sutras sum up how cognitive processes result in our aversion (resistance, hate, fear, revulsion) to unpleasant things and experiences as we are moved to crave, grasp at, and cling to pleasure (sukha), keeping us in saṃsāra, the Cycle of Death and Rebirth. It is at the root of the Five Aggregates clung to as "self": (re)birth is suffering, aging, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, mental pain, grief, and despair are s; suffering, asociation with the unloved, separation from the loved, NOT GETTING what one wants, getting what one does not want, all of this is "suffering." In brief, the Five Aggregates clung to as self (khandha, skandhas) are suffering.
The Four Noble Truths are Buddhism in a nutshell because they present the whole of the path of practice in four ennobling (enlightening) statements, like the assessment of a master physician:
Diagnosis: There is a disease (suffering)
Etiology: There is a cause of that disease (craving rooted in ignorance and associated with aversion)
Prognosis: There is a solution
Cure: There is way to the solution (magga, the path).
Early emphasis is on the importance of developing liberating insight (vipassana) to penetrate these fundamental truths about existence is key, and that insight is arrived at by the path of purification, the path to freedom, which is calm leading to samma samadhi, the meditative absorptions (jhanas), to reach a foundation of balanced stillness and intensification of mind able to penetrate them. It is not by thinking or study, belief or powerful faith. One needs to experience these truths until they are self-evident, not statements, not assessments, not doctrines.
The fourth truth is the general Ennobling Eightfold Path, but there is a more detailed summary enumerated in the 37 Requisites of Awakening/Enlightenment (bodhipakkhiya-dhamma).
For adults only. Are you 18? Pretend to press here <> if you are. Otherwise, go away. Not suitable for monastic eyes.
"Sex with Sadie" (or it could've been "Sex With Emily") was a show by graphic feminist sexologist Dr. Sadie Allison (that was Rated somewhere between R, NC-17, and XXX), CEO of TickleKitty.com, a "toy" company concerning itself with base sensual pleasures of every description, the practice of villagers.
Sex or passion for Valentine's?
Happy Valentine's Day, elementary school class!
Dr. Sadie, is there Nothing Higher to Live For than [boinking, schtooping, and the ChoctawHeimlich]?
Sure there is, Wisdom Quarterly. My TEDx Talk (below) is all about fearlessgiving not mutual wham-bam-thank-you-mam'ing.
No, we'd just like an honorific title, too. What we mean by "sexy" is passionate. We're interested in Turning Passions Into Profits like that shady guru Howard Christopher, Lisa Garr's motivational speaker pal.
Wisdom Quarterly, what about turning your passion into fearless giving?
VIDEO: Nothing Higher to Live For: A Romantic View of Romantic Love Some people have nothing but romantic love to live for. It may not be bad but done out of instinct and passion. Love is sweet, and it is our greedy (lusty) nature to give in. But why do we worship relationships so ardently, and why do we stop our search for real fulfillment with it? We see no better gods than Cupid, Mara, Kama, and Eros. If love is the highest thing to live for then it is a hopeless universe, because we should see in a calm hour that Cupid's arrows thrill and make us bleed, leaving us pathetic and clingy. Where does hate come from other than a prior attachment now broken? Nothing Higher To Live For?
*Turning sexual PASSION into skillful action of Fearless Giving with Dr. Sadie
Turning sexual passion into skillful karma
Wretch, right, Dr. Sadie? - No, stretch, Dear, and get limber. - I thought you said get Limburger.
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How can we empower real intimacy?
(TEDx Talks) How did a renowned American sex educator develop the passion for "fearless giving" (dana) that allows her to teach intimacy techniques to millions? What obstacles and prejudices did she overcome to blossom as America's Pleasure Coach? And how can we adapt her "fearless giving" model to create happiness in our own lives -- in and out of the bedroom?
In her short TEDx talk, Dr. Sadie shows how to face life's challenge with true determination, especially when one's drive to give fearlessly runs smack up against daily reality.
She offers examples from her own childhood, where intense family dysfunction, coupled with being fiercely ostracized at school for guiding girlfriends through their budding sexuality, could easily have kept her from ever being successful.
Yet, her drive to give fearlessly and passionately has led her to become one of today's leading authorities on sexuality and an award-winning sex self-help author with over two million books sold (as of 2013).
Watching Dr. Sadie enables us to discover our own inner "fearless giver." By the end of the talk, we'll know the best moment to fully embrace it.
I go to nightclubs for the restroom camaraderie
ABOUT: Dr. Sadie Allison is one of America's leading experts on human sexuality. Founder and CEO of Tickle Kitty, Inc., Dr. Sadie is the IPPY Best Sexuality Award-winning author and publisher of today's bestselling line of fun, informative, sex-help guides — the kind we wish we'd read earlier in life. Her ever-popular classics include Ride 'Em Cowgirl! and Tickle His Pickle. Dr. Sadie's mission is to empower women and men to embrace an even deeper enjoyment of their sexuality through encouragement, information, and inspiration [rather than the standard American discouragement, ignorance, and guilt/shame of our parents and teachers] — topped-off with a dash of humor.
TEDx: In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = "independently organized TED event." The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized* (*subject to certain rules and regulations).
Dr. Sadie Allison, TEDxGoldenGatePark, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Nov. 14, 2013; Vanessa (Klein Ally Show, KROQ, 2025); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Shauna Schwartz, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Trump complains about his fat photos, Putin on Tucker Carlson, and did you do IT last night?
(Jimmy Kimmel Live)
Feb. 15, 2024:
Donald Trump was back in the warm embrace of the American judicial system today, tomorrow in NYC the judge is expected to rule in his $370 million-dollar civil fraud case, he was in South Carolina where he took some time to boast about his golf game and complain about chubby photos of him, 1 in 5 Americans believe that Taylor Swift and her beard Travis Kelce is part of a very complicated conspiracy to re-elect Joe Biden, Tucker Carlson went to Russia for an interview and Vladimir Putin wasn’t impressed, and the show goes to the L.A. Farmer’s Market to see if people “did it” last night in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
Trump’s crazy Valentine’s message for wife Melania, Lara Trump (son's wife) for RNC co-chair, couples play hand hole
(Jimmy Kimmel Live)
Feb. 14, 2024: Single men and women have been using apps and websites to find love, but lately they have turned back to a very old-fashioned way of finding dates, there has been a big surge in AI-generated companions, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump all took to the internet to wish their wives a Happy Valentine’s Day, Trump has endorsed his daughter-in-law Lara for RNC co-chair, there was a special election in New York yesterday to fill the vacancy left by exiting LGBTQIA+ Republican George Santos, and in honor of Valentine’s Day couples on Hollywood Blvd. play a new game called “Hand Hole!”
Gwen Stefani drops by every show she can
Gwen Stefani [who will be on the Klein Ally Show on KROQ FM on Friday morning, 2/16/24] talks about Valentine’s Day with hubby country star Blake Shelton, giving him a flame thrower, her kids giving out Valentines in class, No Doubt reuniting to play Coachella, getting back together with her old band, her new song "Purple Irises," and checking-in on a local souvenir shop where Blake is doing some last-minute shopping for Valentine’s Day.
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We're tired of this whole Valentine's Day mania -- as if there's Nothing Higher to Live For. There's more to life than endless obsession with romantic relationships. What else is there? There's Galentine's Day! What else?
There's friendship,
there's spiritual aspiration,
there's yoga,
there's sisterhood,
there's travel,
there's book writing,
there's enlightenment and a whole dimension of wisdom and compassionate experience, like helping Mother Theresa feed the poor and save the dying.
He's OK, he's an ally. - No, girl, boys stay home!
I want to fix the environment, stamp out war, stop corporations from raping everyone, stop rapists from raping victims, start a book club to read Soshin O'Halloran's book about Irish Zen, and stop bad comedians from terrorizing audiences with squirm-inducing sets. So this V-Day we're doing Galentine's Day, a day of friendship and fun. This is a day for chocolate and laughs...and a potluck on Saturday at the Happy Day Vegan Cafe:
The way to build community (a spiritual sangha of doing good and uplifting each other) is coming together to share and celebrate. It's time for good eating, conversation, performance, music, entertainment, meditation, and some Sanskrit yogic chanting. It's PC's birthday, and Cody is performing new music. Your talents and cuisine are needed, too. it's an all-vegan potluck of delicious dishes: Ethiopian from Eagle Rock, Thai from Pasadena, Italian pizza from Altadena, and Middle Eastern from Glendale, but most of all it's stuff from your house or culinary explorations. Massage chair, ecstatic breathwork, and Reiki healings will also be offered along with group blessings. It's all in fun and for the sake of community-building. RSVP. It's FREE:
We all gathered in the Valley (1/27/24) in a spacious home with wood floors. Cacao was brewing on the stove as vegan dishes were brought in and spread all across a large table. Lisa opened the event with a circle of introductions by each person, city traveled from, and the nature of the dish brought for the potluck. Then we ate, socialized, got cozy and, finishing up, prepared for a meditative experience. This was no lecture but a sensual, in-the-body experience of profound relaxation, staying with the present moment, and trying not to anticipate the wonderful chocolate (xocolatl, Theobroma cacao) about to be served. Using deep breathing and complete letting go, staying awake and alert of all that was going on right here right now, we opened up, became vulnerable, felt our feelings, experienced our sensations with what the Buddha taught was mindfulness: dispassionate awareness of all that was going on. It is not enough to be aware. It is awareness, watching the experience. Seeing sights, hearing sounds, feeling tactile sensations, perceiving scents and tastes and mind object and letting them be. Radical acceptance of what is without fixing it, altering it, distorting it, or resisting it. In that moment, everything was okay. Everything was acceptable. Everything was impersonal and passing away, repeating or not as alluring as it previously seemed to be. Smiles sprouted on faces all around.
This is the plant helper Theobroma cacao
Everyone sat in a circle, on soft sofas, chairs, the wooden floor, with Stephanie on a yoga mat as the demonstration, Seven led us through letting go and consciousness-expansion. Then came the creamy vegan chocolate and an intention setting exercise, as we placed our intentions into the drink by some shamanic alchemical Dr. Emoto alteration of water by consciousness, as Indian genius Jagadish Chandra Bose (who discovered The Secret Life of Plants) taught was happening all the time as we interact with our environment.
Then we mindfully drank, experiencing the cacao with all six of our senses. Then solid pieces of chocolate were distributed, rich in the alkaloid theobromine, and savored in a way that brought out all its richness -- aware of craving, desire, or grasping arising for flavor and comfort -- so as to make it both delicious, opening to our lives (because this is not a rehearsal for some future time when we'll be alive) and a lesson that mindfulness is possible every waking moment. Meditation is one thing, sitting in a stillness approaching samadhi, and mindfulness is possible once an attitude adjustment makes us aware what we are doing, what we have been doing, and what is possible to do. Rather than abandoning ourselves and the present moment, we can be fully in the moment like a peak experience. We can enjoy all that human life has to offer and not mindlessly cling to it, making ourselves susceptible to misery when it alters, as it certainly will. We can see things as incapable of fulfilling and satisfying us and behave accordingly. We may even glimpse how impersonal it all is. Then we met ourselves with a partner, standing face to face, practicing being present for our experience and being present for another person. Everyone met, embraced, shook hands, introduced themselves to one another. There was a memorial for great vegan Buddhist Alan, who recently passed away, as his caretaker Christina was present. Then more socializing and storytelling took place, having gone up a few levels, as everyone was suddenly on very intimate terms and open with everyone else. It was a meditative, mindful, and gastronomical success.
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