Off the Japanese coast of Yonaguni Island, divers have mapped an 80‑foot stepped formation. Some researchers are treating it as a possible submerged pyramid, others as a fractured slab of natural bedrock.
A scientific team applied surface irradiation dating and radiocarbon analysis to samples from the site and reported a formation age of about 10,000 years, raising the possibility that the structure predates every named civilization now in school textbooks.
The age estimate has turned a local curiosity into a live question about when organized construction first appeared in what is now Japan.
Why an 80-foot stepped pyramid off Japan matters now
The central tension is no longer whether an amazing structure exists at Yonaguni, but what its age and origin say about early humans around the Westernmost Point of Japan.
If the stepped blocks at Iseki Point (Kaitei Iseki) formed around 10,000 years ago, as one scientific abstract reports, then any deliberate shaping would have happened long before the rise of states in the Middle East like Mesopotamia or Egypt's Nile Valley.
[But this dating would place it long after Gobekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and other sites like the pyramids of Egypt and Sudan/Nubia, which are possibly 25,000+ years old, to make no mention of Plato's mythical Atlantis or Mexico's Aztlán].
That gap is what makes the site have global relevance rather than making it merely a regional diving attraction. The age estimate comes from samples collected at Iseki Point on the seafloor and analyzed with a surface irradiation dating method, according to an ETDE/OSTI bibliographic record.
The same record states that 14C age determination of attached fossils was used alongside irradiation data to estimate when the submarine ruins formed, and it gives a figure of about 10,000 years for that formation age.
Those numbers anchor the debate: If the structure is that old, any human role would push organized stonework in the region far earlier than currently documented...
Additional context comes from work that links the Yonaguni structure to the wider history of the Ryukyu Islands. A study cited through a digital object identifier treats the site within the paleogeography of the region and references “Paleogeography of Ryukyu Islands and” the submarine ruins off Yonaguni, Okinawa, Japan, according to the record for Kasekiken.
By placing the formation within a broader reconstruction of sea levels and island positions, that research frames the Iseki Point structure as one data point in a changing coastal system rather than as an isolated anomaly. More:
Did civilization begin at Karahan Tepe? Humanity before Göbekli Tepe | Prehistory doc
(History Time) Premiered April 19, 2024: — History Time is written, researched, and produced by Pete Kelly.
Check out other channel for more history content: @petekellyhistory.
CHAPTERS
11:30 - I - In The Beginning
28:36 - II - Dancing at the Dawn
59:23 - III - The Older Brothers of Adam
1:28:15 - IV - Of Sorcerers & Stone Circles
Research
BOOKS
René Girard, Violence & The Sacred (1972)
Klaus Schmidt, Gobekli Tepe (2012)
Steven Mithen, After The Ice (2003)
V. Gordon Childe - Man Makes Himself (1939)
Robin Dunbar, Human Evolution (2014)
Robin Dunbar, How Religion Evolved (2022)
David Wengrow & David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything (2021)
Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas (1988)
Mircea Eliade, Shamanism (1951)
Jaques Cauvin, The Birth Of The Gods & The Dawn of Agriculture (1994)
Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (1973)
Claude Levi Strauss, The Savage Mind (1966)
Dancing at the Dawn, Yosef Garfinkel (2003)
Brian Hayden, The Power of Feasts: From Prehistory To The Present (2014)
Dacher Keltner, Awe - The Transformative Power of Everyday Wonder (2023)
ACADEMIC JOURNALS
The Archaeology of Ritual, Edward Swenson (2015)
Becoming Farmers: The Inside Story, Anna Belfer-Cohen (2011)
The Earliest Dancing Scenes In The Near East - Yosef Garfinkel (2003)
On Scorpions, Birds & Snakes - Benz & Bauer (2015)
Farewell to the ‘Childhood of Man’ - Wengrow & Graeber (2015)
So Fair A House, Göbekli Tepe - E. B. Banning (2011)
Göbekli Tepe Preliminary Report, Klaus Schmidt (2000)
Gods & Monsters - David Wengrow (2011)
Jaques Cauvin: The right man for the reason - Anna Belfer Cohen (2011)
The Legacy of Jaques Cauvin, Melinda Zeder (2011)
Klaus Schmidt, Hans Georg K Gebel (2014)
The Natufians In The Levant, Anna Belfer-Cohen (1991)
To be not to be, Olivier Aurenche (2013)
The Neolithic Transformation, Willie Thompson
The Origins of Agriculture, Price & Bar-Yousef (2011)
Rational Choice In The Neolithic?, Kim Sterelny (2015)
The Origins of Agriculture In The Near East, Melinda Zeder (2011)
On The Nature of Transitions and Revolutions in Prehistory, Ofer Bar-Yosef (2005)
The World’s First Temple, Sandra Scham (2008)
Thanks to @dakotawint for the drone footage
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(Ink Explainer) June 4, 2026: When did early humans start smoking weed (THC/CBD)? The answer goes back way further than most of us would expect. Our relationship with cannabis did not begin in a college dorm or a back alley. — Rather, it started over 12,000 years ago, when some of the first farmers in East Asia looked at a very useful wild plant and thought, "Let's grow this."
This video traces the full history of cannabis — from a 2,700-year-old shaman's tomb in western China to the smoke-filled burial caves of the Pamir Mountains, the golden cups of Scythian warriors, the sacred altars of ancient Judah, the bhang rituals of India, a Chinese physician's lost anesthesia formula, a Congolese tribe that traded war for hemp, and the American political machine that turned a 12,000-year-old plant into one of the most dangerous [Schedule 1] substances on Earth.
By the end, viewers might start seeing this plant a little differently. All factual research sources are linked below.
📚 RESEARCH AND SOURCES: ▸ Yanghai Tombs — "Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia" (2008, Journal of Experimental Botany) doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ern260 ▸ Jirzankal Cemetery — "The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs of western China" (2019, Science Advances) doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1391 ▸ Herodotus — The Histories, Book IV, on Scythian cannabis use (c. 440 BCE) ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen (1970, UC Press) ▸ Scythian Gold Cups — "Residue analysis of golden artifacts from Scythian kurgan in the Caucasus" (2015, Antiquity) ▸ Tell Arad Shrine — "Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad" (2020, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology) doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2020... ▸ Atharva Veda — Ancient Vedic text listing cannabis among five sacred plants ▸ Robert Dudley and Dušan Borić — Research on anandamide and the endocannabinoid system ▸ Harry Anslinger — Federal Bureau of Narcotics records, the Gore Files, and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 ▸ John Ehrlichman — interview quote on Pres. Dick Nixon's drug policy, published in Harper's Magazine (2016) by Dan Baum: "Legalize It All" harpers.org/archive/2016/04/l... ▸ DEA Judge Francis Young — "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (1988, Docket No. 86-22)
————————————————————
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Shen Nong — legendary Chinese emperor, traditionally credited as the author of the Pen Ts'ao Ching, one of the world's earliest medical texts, which recommended cannabis for joint pain and malaria. ▸ Herodotus — Ancient Greek historian (c. 484–425 BCE). Traveled through Central Asia and documented Scythian cannabis rituals in vivid detail. His accounts were confirmed by archeological discoveries nearly 2,400 years later. ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Soviet archeologist who in 1947 excavated frozen Scythian tombs in Siberia's Altai Mountains, confirming Herodotus's descriptions of cannabis use with perfectly preserved tent frames, heated stones, and cannabis seeds. ▸ Hua Tuo — Chinese physician (c. 140–208 AD). Mixed cannabis with wine to create an anesthetic and performed surgery during which patients felt nothing — 1,800 years before modern anesthesia, executed by warlord Cao Cao. His formula was lost when he burned his own writings in prison. ▸ Cao Cao — One of the most powerful warlords in Chinese history (155–220 AD). Had Hua Tuo arrested and executed after the physician refused to serve as his personal doctor. ▸ Harry Anslinger — head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962. Criminalized cannabis through racist propaganda, fabricated evidence (the Gore Files), and targeted Black musicians including Billie Holiday. ▸ Billie Holiday — legendary jazz singer targeted by Anslinger, not for drug use but for performing "Strange Fruit," a protest song about American lynchings. ▸ John Ehrlichman — Pres. Nixon's domestic policy advisor, who in a 2016-published interview admitted the War on Drugs was designed to target anti-war protesters and Black communities. ▸ Francis Young — DEA administrative law judge who, after two years of reviewing evidence in 1988, concluded that cannabis should not be classified as a Schedule 1 drug alongside heroin. The DEA rejected and ignored his recommendation.
States of not-becoming = "oblivion." These are states of becoming that people can get themselves into through a desire or craving for annihilation, either after death or as a misguided goal of their spiritual striving. (See Iti 49, ucchedavada, annihilationism). As with all states of becoming, these states are impermanent (transient) and disappointing (painful).
According to Nd.I, "both sides" has here several possible meanings: sensory contact and the origination of sensory contact; past and future; name-and-form; internal and external sense media; self-identity (view) and the origination of self-identity. It might also mean the states of becoming and not-becoming (eternalism and annihilationism) mentioned in the previous verse and below, in Sn 4.5.
Nd.I: Comprehending sensory contact has three aspects: (1) being able to identify and distinguish types of sensory contact; (2) contemplating the true nature of sensory contact (e.g., impermanent/inconstant, disappointing/unable to fulfill, and impersonal/not-self); and (3) abandoning attachment to sensory contact. The same three aspects apply to comprehending perception, as mentioned in the following verse.
See also: AN 4.184
Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Guhatthaka Sutta, based on translation and notes by Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org, Sn 4.2 PTS: Sn 772-779), Wisdom Quarterly
New evidence of civilizations THRIVING before the cataclysmic flood
(Gaia) Is there archeological evidence across ancient sites from around the world that suggests civilizations thrived before the flood?
Experts piece together pre-flood history by examining antediluvian (pre-flood) myths alongside astrologically aligned megaliths on different continents.
Connecting data points from before the Great Deluge uncovers new evidence of unfathomable complexes from a mythological time when gods walked the Earth and influenced humanity.
ABOUT: Gaia offers the largest resource of consciousness expanding videos. Answer life's deeper questions and go beyond the mainstream narrative with Gaia— a member-supported media network of truth seekers and believers empowering an evolution of consciousness. Explore over 8,000 ad-free, streaming titles that challenge modern paradigms and allow us to manifest the reality that defines our being. Experience Gaia in English, Spanish, German, or French. It offers original, dubbed, or subtitled content in these languages. Join hundreds of thousands of members in 185 countries in awakening consciousness. #Gaia 8,000+ Films, shows, and classes on Gaia. Start FREE trial: cs-link.gaia.com/4f1gK5g Connect with #Gaia: Visit Gaia website: gaia.com
Gaia.com, July 18, 2025; Pat Macpherson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
This is why scientists are terrified of China's prehistoric mega structures and unexcavated pyramids
(Incredible Stories) In this chilling deep dive, we explore 20 massive ancient archeological sites across China that defy logic, challenge technology, and remain cloaked in silence.
From the impossible engineering of the Longyou Caves (formerly filled with water and only revealed when local villagers sought to drain them) to mysterious burial pyramids locked beneath military zones, these structures are more than relics. They're unsolved threats to our understanding of history.
Why are experts and Chinese authorities afraid to investigate further? What secrets are too dangerous to uncover? Watch now and find out what lies buried in China’s forbidden past.
Meditation in Ireland: accelerated spiritual evolution
Black Irish beauty, hybrid ET?
Devi ET on stage in Thailand
Evidence of strange human hybrids revealed | Ancient Aliens
Cheddar Man, blue eyed, dark skinned original inhabitant of the British Isles + ET = Hybrid
.
We are the creators watching your progress.
(HISTORY) May 21, 2025: Let's review the medical and scientific evidence for unusual hybrid (part human/part alien) species. This is an Ancient Aliens compilation from The HISTORY Channel. Watch full episodes and stay up to date on all of favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel website at history.com/schedule. #AncientAliens
Ancient Aliens, The HISTORY Channel, May 21, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
Ancient Aliens: The Forbidden Zones of the World (S10, E10) | full episode
(HISTORY)
May 21, 2025: Due to [mostly American and CIA-funded] warfare, instability, and inaccessibility, there are specific regions of the world that are off-limits to exploration.
See more in Season 10, Episode 10, "The Forbidden Zones."
Watch full episodes and stay up to date on all favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel website at history.com/schedule.
#AncientAliens
Shingon (真言宗, Shingon-shū, "True Word/Mantra School") is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called Tōmitsu (東密 literally, "Esoteric [Buddhism] of Tō-ji") [1].
The word shingon is the Japanese reading of the Chinese word 真言 (zhēnyán) [2], which is the translation of the Sanskrit word mantra, which means something like "thought instrument" (Japanese "true words" or om'yomi).
The Zhēnyán lineage was founded in China (circa 7th–8th centuries) by Indian vajrācāryas ("esoteric teachers") like Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra.
These esoteric teachings would later flourish in Japan under the auspices of a Buddhist monk named Kūkai (空海, 774–835), who traveled to Tang China and received these esoteric transmissions from a Chinese master named Huiguo (746–805).
Kūkai established his tradition at Mount Kōya (in Wakayama Prefecture), which remains the central pilgrimage center of Shingon Buddhism. More
Check out these otherworldly (inner earth) discoveries and more in this Ancient Aliens compilation:
1. Forbidden Caves 0:00
2. Underground Aliens 5:45
3. Forbidden Caves 2 12:05
4. Underground Aliens 2
Our Earth is hollow? - Shush, it's a secret!
Watch full episodes and stay up to date on all favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel website at history.com/schedule.
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ABOUT: "Ancient Aliens" explores the controversial theory that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millions of years.
ABOUT: HISTORY® is the leading destination for award-winning original series and specials that connect viewers with history in an informative, immersive, and entertaining manner across all platforms. The network’s all-original programming slate features a roster of hit series, premium documentaries, and scripted event programming.
#AncientAliens, History Channel, May 15, 2025; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Shingon
Hidden pyramids deep underground (S9, E10) | Ancient Aliens | full episode
(HISTORY)
April 23, 2025: With infrared satellite technology detecting pyramids hidden underneath the sand in Egypt and airborne laser sensors discovering long lost pyramids beneath the jungles of Central America, many believe we have entered a new pyramid era -- an age of discovery that will be marked by unimaginable new findings.
See more in Season 9, Episode 10, "Hidden Pyramids."
Watch full episodes and stay up to date on all favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel website at history.com/schedule.
#AncientAliens
History Channel, April 23, 2025: Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(Patrushevs) This is Part 2. How is it northern nomads are self-sufficient in extreme cold, whereas we in the West can hardly stand an overcast day? This is a day in the life of a reindeer-herding family's life as baby Katya grows more and more independent and helpful around the home. The family migrates from place to place in search of the best pasture for its domesticated but wild-looking reindeer herd. Could these be Siberian Eurasian Chukchi (Chukchee people) from Russia from the Bering Sea region in easternmost Siberia (next to westernmost America)? The Chukchiare thought to be the forebears of the Indigenous tribes (called First Nations people in Canada) throughout the Americas.
According to several studies on genomic research conducted from 2014 to 2018, the Chukchi are the closest Asian relatives of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as of the Ainu people, being the descendants of settlers who neither crossed the Bering Strait nor settled the Japanese archipelago.
(Patrushevs) The ancient ways of raising kids by northern nomads, the Sámi for example, is so different from modern Western methods.
Where's their babysitter, the television? How are they supposed to wean their kids without a TV?
It's almost certain Piaget, the famed developmental psychologist, would not approve. What if they grow up with a complex about reindeers or yellow snow or something? It's too risky. Bring them indoors and tie them to an apron string and yell at them until they're neurotic just like the parents.
White "Indians" living in tipis in Scandinavia
Of course, maybe we in the West have far more to learn from them than they do from us, judging by outcomes and the lengths of our comparative child rearing traditions.
It's eerie and seemingly inexplicable the way people far afield can look so much alike in their traditions and style. In Buddhist Ladakh, in the Indian Himalayas next to Tibet, there are black and white photos of American Indians. Why they're there, no one can say. But looked at more closely -- beyond the long straight black hair, sun kissed skin, silver and turquoise jewelry, hairless faces, horses, colorful cotton cloth with geometric patterns and unique designs, one is startled to realize they are not Native Americans at all. They are traditional Tibetans (Ladakhis, too), who are cowboys sporting cowboy hats who roam with the buffalo (bison) on the Tibetan plateau.
Scandinavian teepees in Sweden and Norway
To see photos of ultra-Scandinavian Sami, the original inhabitants of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia (or Sapmi, Fenno-Scandinavia, a region formerly referred to as Lapland), one cannot help but be struck how they, too, look exactly like American Indians. They live in teepees, make colorful cotton clothes and wear animal skins, follow shamans, and require very close inspection to see the tiny differences that make all the difference to us as we try to distinguish one tribe of nomads from another. The way they all raise their children is very similar and very different from our modern ways.
Ancient Civilizations: The advanced Aztec Empire | full history documentary
(Get.factual) April 17, 2024: Mexico City, known in ancient times as Tenochtitlán, is the "Venice" of Mesoamerica with its canals and immense architecture far surpassing anything in Europe at the time.
The Aztecs: within a very short time they created a huge empire, the capital (today's Mexico City) of which as a metropolis, a perfectly organized floating garden city on the Mexican plateau.
At its head were kings who may have sacrificed humans to feed the demands of rapacious Reptilian "gods." This full history documentary tells the true story of the rapid rise and tragic demise of a unique people.
(Moving to Mexico) Nov. 28, 2024: BUCERÍAS. I moved to Mexico and I did not expect THIS. You, too, can make a difference! Support Casa de La Paz ("House of Peace") by donating today at CDELAPAZ.org/donate. Let's meet Alana, who began a new chapter of her life when she moved from Vancouver, BC, Canada, to Bucerías, Nayarit, Mexican coast, in 2022. She opens up about her journey, sharing the surprises she encountered despite thorough research before making the move. Alana offers tips and advice for anyone considering a similar transition, emphasizing the importance of connecting with the local Latin and large foreign (tourist) community. She highlights volunteering as a powerful way to build connections, sharing her personal experience of joining Casa de La Paz after being inspired by this video: Two Expats Take on a Life-Changing Mi... My Mexico Survival kit: Stay cool: amzn.to/3V9V79R Stay connected: amzn.to/4gcVicW Prevent Dengue Fever: amzn.to/3ZclAF5 Hangover Cure: amzn.to/3BcXSR2.
The "Temple of the Moon" is an Incan ceremonial temple on Huayna Picchu near Machu Picchu, in Peru. The site is made up of stone masonry and an open-face, shallow cave. In the center of the cave is a stepped sculpture cleanly carved out of rock (hard andesite). Beside the stepped sculpture are steps that lead more deeply into the cave. It is thought that the caves were possibly used to hold mummies. The Temple of the Moon dates back at least 1500 years [1]. [We suspect much older.] It was rediscovered in 1936. It rests 1,280 feet (390m) below the summit on the north side of Huayna Picchu. More
Pre-flood ruins of advanced civilization high in the Andes mountains: Naupa Huaca
(Universe Inside) Sept. 22, 2024: Far from the bustling tourist Peruvian paths that lead up to famous Machu Picchu or Ollantaytambo, in the remote Andean highlands of Peru's Sacred Valley, rests a mystery site hidden away within a rock cave.
This site is called Naupa Iglesia, or more accurately, Naupa Huaca. This unexplained structure is believed to be a prehistoric site left by a civilization far more ancient and far more advanced than the Incan civilization which inhabited the region.
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Fairies (mystic devas, "shining ones") are ETs or extradimensionals of Celtic and Irish lore.
Irish "Divine Tribe of Danu" with Reptilian Naga
What is the mystic technology strange heavenly, hellish, extraterrestrial, and extradimensional deva ("shining one") beings seem to have left behind or gotten giants to erect? They are strange kurgans, tumuli, barrows, what in Buddhism are stupas, pagodas, cetiyas, and chortans (stone structures built atop anomalous energy vortices or lines). The US is full of them in the Northeast, where America's Stonehenge sits in Salem, New Hampshire.
The deva or "shining one" Lord Shiva said he
came from a rocky planet and brought some of it.
Ancient Aliens: Galactic visitors leave mystic technology | full episode
(HISTORY) Sept. 18, 2024: Did ancient Druids travel to New England and New York's Hudson Valley centuries ago, bringing with them the beliefs and technologies of their alien mentors, the "Shining Ones" [devas involved in the Buddhist Scythian/Shakyian tradition of tumuliand kurgan-pagodas, cetiyas, and chortans, Irish Aos sidhe, fay, Tuatha de Danann] of Irish mythology? See more in Season 14, Episode 7, "The Druid Connection." #ancientaliens
One of the most striking features of Buddhism, which began in Central Asia and proto-India, are the architectural features known as stupas -- which bear a striking similarity to the much older tradition the Buddha was following from Central and North Asia: tumuli, kurgans, barrows, burial mounds. Where they are place, what is put in them, and what they were used for is mysterious.
Long ago, our UCLA Professor of Buddhism Dr. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. told the class an amazing story. He had been a Zen monk in Korea (at Songgwang-sa, Cholla Namdo), living an austere life, and a Theravada Thai Buddhist monk in Thailand then disrobed and went on to become a doctoral student and professor. He detailed the long hours of meditation sesshins, how little they ate, how they slept on straw mats in the hall, which were then rolled up for a day of sitting zazen. It was the real thing, not our silly notions of Zen as wandering about navel gazing and pondering koans. One day he was surprised that to break the monotony of this season of intensive practice, when half of the monks went on extra duty cooking, warming, cleaning, and providing support, and the other half did nothing but meditate. Perhaps not understanding Korean as fluidly as he would go on to do, the monks were laughing -- if memory serves, and memory of old college lectures is not the most reliable source of information -- as they attempted to stick a straw from the broom in his scalp. Why? There was nowhere for it to go. He tried many times. They all smiled or laughed.
Zen austerities during sesshin included these things that left us rapt in class, particularly one aspiring Angeleno wanting nothing more than to move to India and become an extreme ascetic to gain the path and win enlightenment right away:
They would wake up at 3:00 or 4:00 in morning
Go to a water pump, dip two fingers in salt to brush their teeth
Go sit on reed mats and stiff cushions for the morning sit
Eat a meal of boiled rice, daikon radish they grew, a slice of ginger, and if they were lucky a sprinkle of sesame seed
Then go to meditate more, for 18 hours a day
If someone started to nod off, the Zen master might bring out swords for meditators to lean their chins on (and no one would ever fall asleep)
It was cold outside, and the zendo was warmed from the wooden floor by some creative technology from the kitchen or furnace room circulating heat under the boards.
Sesshin is, of course, an intensive, so it wasn't always like this. During the rest of the year they might chop wood, carry water, grow vegetables (mainly daikon), go on alms, rake leaves, and be mindful all day long.
(Prof. Buswell's great insight was that the Zen monastic experience is not a bunch of iconoclastic Beat poets sitting around, drinking tea, puffing pipes, writing haiku, pondering koans, and playing the flute under cherry blossom trees. They were all very learned in the texts and other studies and were in this monastery to practice beyond words. As Americans we think Zen is the easiest of all the Buddhisms because it's just "whatever," anything we want it to be. But that is not how it is in serious Asia, where this tradition is the way of "meditation" (which is what jhana, dhyana, Chan, and Zen, or Seon in Korean, mean). So with all this meditating, it's no wonder one would be more sensitive to subtle energies and architectural emanations:
When they went on their walking tour, they were headed for a stupa (솔도파, soldopha, a stone burial mound housing the Buddha's and other enlightened individuals' sacred relics or sharira). When they arrived, he reported that meditation went much better, more plunging into "Zen," which literally means jhana or "meditative absorption." His meditation was disturbed when the monks gathered around him, handed him the straw, and now it went into a pore in his scalp. The pore opened large enough to stand the straw on end. He was surprised as there had been no way to do it, to stand it, previously. The class asked, "Why, what changed, what does it mean?"
Discussing this story just now, it occurs that the "pore opening" was an assumption. The straw may have stood on end all by itself without sitting into an enlarged pore. It was just necessary, hearing the story, to imagine that it went into a little hole that opened like a third eye. But imagine an electrified field buzzing with static cling raising the straw. That makes more sense for such a strange tale. Who knows? Someone, ask Prof. Buswell: buswell@humnet.ucla.edu
"Casual Conversation with a Zen Master" (Sept. 20-21, 2024, 7:00 pm) will feature a talk by Ven. Pomnyun, a Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, humanitarian assistance expert, and environmentalist: international.ucla.edu
He didn't seem to know other than it was just a tiny paranormal proof that meditation near these ancient Buddhist stone structures is different. Being near sharira (remains, ashes, colorful silica, glassy beads, gems from the sacred pyre) is different, and that's why they are honored. Maybe stupas (circumambulation mounds) are built on ley lines, over vortices, near portals? Maybe building them creates a portal or energy anomaly?
Sure, it could have been psychosomatic, but that seems unlikely since he didn't know what the straw was meant to do or represent in the first place. Imagine, as a hypothetical example, that it is impossible for you to get into full lotus. You just can't, never have been to from too much sitting in chairs and not doing yoga. Then you go to a stupa and suddenly slip into the posture without much effort. What changed? You weren't trying to get into it. It just came naturally. These are trivial things, but they're concrete.
UCLA with Prof. Buswell's office on upper left
Those Korean Zen Buddhist monks knew meditation would be different around the kurgan/stupa. Surely anyone who hangs around these ancient structures will eventually experience something odd. We dash in during the day, laughing and horsing around with friends, body hair rise and tingle, we giggle, run out, take a picture, and wonder why and how they were built. And we think we know the first thing about them? It's like going to Lake Titicaca to the portal rock with a doorframe carved in it for no apparent reason. Slapping the rock, taking a picture, and going away we think we know anything about what that place can do and why it was built.
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