Summer of Love + Road to Kathmandu (travel)

Road to Kathmandu, 1977 (full version)

(mtdd1948) June 15, 2017: India's famed Taj Mahal is an entirely Islamic architectural masterpiece created by Muslims in a land of rock-cut Buddhist marvels and countless Hindu temples? Let's take an overland "magic bus" trip from stuffy London, England, to wild Kathmandu, Nepal.

1967: The Summer of Love

(Free Documentary - History) April 19, 2024: In 1967 an expressive, colorful musical force painted a backdrop of love, social change, fashion, turmoil, and war.

Son, drop your gun and come back home to us!

The world remembers the "Summer of Love" in 1967 [which we always thought took place in '69] as one of those moments when a unique and creative explosion of rock music and popular culture arrived in the UK and US.

This documentary is driven by the soundtrack of the time, which kept the imperial American troops company as they massacred millions of Buddhists in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, powered the American Anti-War and Civil Rights movements, which opened the hearts and minds of Baby Boomers who had matured into hope-filled teens.

This special celebrates 1967 as a famous year full of music and change.  “Stick a flower in your hair [or a soldier's rifle at Kent State] and remember that you are Us not Them.”

• WATCH: 1968: Year of War, Turmoil & Beyond...

Subscribe Free Documentary - History Channel for free: https://bit.ly/2FjRPgV Facebook: https://bit.ly/2QfRxbG Twitter: https://bit.ly/2QlwRiI. #FreeDocumentary #Documentary #History

ABOUT: Free Documentary - History is dedicated to bringing high-class documentaries to a large audience on YouTube for free. See fascinating animations showing the past from a new perspective and explanations by renowned historians that make history come alive. Enjoy stories about people and events that formed the world we live in.

• mtdd1948, June 15, 2017; Free Documentary History; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The First Sutra (Turning the Dharma Wheel)

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), Dhammacakkapavattana Sutra (SN LVI.11, Budsas.org/ebud)

Gold Buddha in Sarnath, India near Varanasi/Benares (chandrasekaran a flickr.com)

Theravada monks visit Sarnath stupa, Uttar Pradesh, India (Stefaan & Eric/flickr)

 

Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma

The Buddha teaches the Five Ascetics

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Varanasi in the Deer Park at Resort of the Seers (Isipatana, Sarnath). There the Blessed One addressed the five ascetics:

"Meditators, these two extremes should not be followed by one who has [renounced and] gone forth into homelessness. What two? The pursuit of sensual delight in sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of worldlings, ignoble, unbeneficial, and the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, and unbeneficial. Without veering towards either of these extremes, the Wayfarer (Tathagata, i.e., the Buddha) has awakened to the Middle Way, which gives rise to direct vision, which gives rise to knowledge [knowing and seeing], which leads to peace, to wisdom, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

"And what, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Wayfarer, which gives rise to vision... which leads to nirvana? It is this Noble Eightfold Path, that is: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. This, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Wayfarer, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to wisdom, to enlightenment, to nirvana.

The unseen devas are also eager to learn.

"Now this, meditators, is the noble truth of suffering (unsatisfactoriness, disappointment, dissatisfaction, distress, lack of fulfillment): Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the Five Aggregates of Clinging are suffering.

"Now this, meditators, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering (disappointment): It is this craving [rooted in ignorance, delusion, wrong view, greed, and aversion] which leads to re-becoming, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking satisfaction here and there, that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for continued becoming [everlasting existence], craving for annihilation.

Devotees at Sarnath stupa (Stefaan & Eric/flickr)

"Now this, meditators, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: It is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that very craving, the letting go and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, non-reliance on it.

"Now this, meditators, is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: It is this very Noble Eightfold Path, that is, right view...right concentration.

"'This is the noble truth of suffering': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

"'This noble truth of suffering is to be fully understood': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision...and light.

"'This noble truth of suffering has been fully understood': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision...and light.

"'This is the noble truth of the origin of suffering': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

"'This noble truth of the origin of suffering is to be abandoned': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision...and light.

"'This noble truth of the origin of suffering has been abandoned': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision...and light.

Dharma wheel (hmhalff/flickr.com)

"'This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

"'This noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision...and light.

"'This noble truth of the cessation of suffering has been realized': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision...and light.

"'This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

"'This noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision...and light.

"'This noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering has been developed': thus, meditators, in regard to things unheard before, there arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, direct experience, and light.

"So long, meditators, as my knowledge and vision of these Four Noble Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was not thoroughly purified in this way, I did not claim to have awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with its devas, Mara, and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and Brahmins, its [earthly] devas and humans.

• NOTE: The "three phases" (ti-pariva) are: (i) the knowledge of each truth (sacca-nana), for example, "This is the noble truth of suffering"; (ii) the knowledge of the task to be accomplished regarding each truth (kicca-nana), for example, "This noble truth of suffering is to be fully understood"; and (iii) the knowledge of accomplishment regarding each truth (kata-nana), for example, "This noble truth of suffering has been fully understood." The "12 modes" (dvadasakara) are obtained by applying the three phases to the Four Noble Truths.

"But when my knowledge and vision of these Four Noble Truths as they really are in their three phases and 12 aspects was thoroughly purified in this way, then I claimed to have awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with its devas, Mara, and Brahma, in this generation with its ascetics and Brahmins, its [earthly] devas and humans.

"The knowledge and the vision arose in me: 'Unshakeable is this liberation of mind/heart. This is my last birth. Now there is no more re-becoming."

This is what the Blessed One said. Being pleased, the group of five ascetics delighted in the Blessed One's words. And while this sutra was being spoken, there arose in Kondanna the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dharma: "Whatever is subject to origination is also subject to cessation."

Word gets around

And when the Wheel of the Dharma had been set in motion by the Blessed One, the Earth devas shouted: "At Varanasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dharma has been set in motion by the Blessed One, which cannot be stopped by any ascetic or Brahmin or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world!" Having heard the shout of the Earth devas, the devas of the realm of the Four Great Sky Kings shouted: "At Varanasi...this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dharma has been set in motion by the Blessed One, which cannot be stopped...by anyone in the world." 

Having heard the cry of the devas of the realm of the Four Great Kings, the devas of the realm of the Thirty-Three...the Yama devas... the Contented devas... the devas Delighting in Creation... the devas Delighting in the Creations of Others... the devas of Brahma's company raised a cry: "At Varanasi, in the Deer Park at Isipatana, this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dharma has been set in motion by the Blessed One, which cannot be stopped by any ascetic or Brahmin or deva or Mara or Brahma or by anyone in the world."

So at that moment, at that instant, at that second, the shout spread as far as the Brahma-world, and this ten thousandfold world-system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurable glorious radiance appeared in the world surpassing the divine majesty of the devas [the "shining ones"].

Then the Blessed One uttered this inspired utterance: "Kondanna has indeed understood! Kondanna has indeed understood!" In this way Kondanna acquired the name "Anna Kondanna -- Kondanna Who Has Understood."

The Buddha in Stone (sutra)

Wisdom Quarterly; Wonderlane, thanks to Natalie Sandoval on Buddhist pilgrimage

The Buddha in stone (Wonderlane/flickr.com)

   

This is a stone carving of the Buddha seated on a lion throne with a magnificent halo aura. he is holding the lotus mudra (yogic hand gesture) while seated in full lotus meditation asana (posture). He is surrounded by students, devas (angelic light beings) and dakinis. Coins are offered at the base of the statuary, located at the Deer Park in Sarnath (Isipatana, Uttar Pradesh), just outside India's holiest ancient city of Varanasi (Benares), which is where the Enlightened One taught his first sermon, expounded to the Group of Five Ascetics who became the first to directly know-and-see the Dharma in this dispensation.

What did the Buddha teach?

The Buddha's first sermon

“Meditators, two extremes should be avoided by one who has gone forth into [spiritual] homelessness. What are they? 

 

“The pursuit of happiness in sensual pleasures, which is low, vulgar, the way of worldlings, ignoble, unbeneficial on the one hand and the pursuit of self-mortification, which is painful, ignoble, unbeneficial on the other.

“Without veering towards either of these extremes, the Tathagata [the Buddha referring to himself] has awakened to the Middle Way, which gives rise to vision, which gives rise to knowledge, which leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nirvana [complete freedom].

 

 

“And what, meditators, is that Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata? 

“It is this Noble Eightfold Path [to Freedom], namely, right [samma, perfect, complete, harmonious, beneficial] view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. 

“This, meditators, is the Middle Way awakened to by the Tathagata, which gives rise to knowing-and-seeing, which leads to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nirvana.” More

• First Sermon: Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma
• The History of Humankind (Univ. of Texas)

(Incredible India 3) The Holy City of Varanasi (Benares)

Turning the True Wheel (sutra)

Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, FIRST SERMON, based on Ven. Nanamoli translation, "Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma Discourse" (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, SN 56.11)

The Supremely Enlightened Buddha (KanikaBadwal/flickr.com)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was living in Benares at the Deer Park in the Resort of Seers (Isipatana). There he addressed the group of five.

 

Gold Buddha, Thai cave (Cdammen/flickr)

"These two extremes ought not be cultivated by one who has gone forth from the household-life [as a spiritual seeker in search of truth]. What two? Devotion to indulgence taking pleasure in the objects of sensual desire, [a habit] which is inferior, low, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to no higher good. In contrast, there is devotion to self-torment [severe asceticism], which is painful, ignoble, and leads to no higher good.

 

"The middle way discovered by perfectly enlightened one[s] avoids both extremes. It yields vision, yields knowledge, and leads to peace, to wisdom (direct knowing), to discovery, to nirvana (the end of all suffering). What is that middle way? 

 

"It is the Noble Eightfold Path, namely, right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the Middle Way discovered by supremely enlightened one[s]... 

• [Samma is a multivalent term being translated as perfect, supreme, and "right"; it also means whole, full, complete.]

[FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS]

The Buddha under umbrella (Saminla88/flickr)

"DISAPPOINTMENT (dukkha, suffering, unsatisfactoriness, misery, woe, ill), as an ennobling truth, is this: Birth is disappointing, aging is disappointing, sickness is disappointing, death is disappointing, sorrow and crying, pain, grief and despair are disappointing; connection with things disliked is disappointing, separation from things liked is disappointing, not getting what one wants is disappointing -- in short, the Five Aggregates of Clinging are disappointing [that is, identifying with the psycho-physical components of existence is disappointing].

  

"The ORIGIN of disappointment (suffering), as an ennobling truth, is this: It is craving [as one of the 12 links in the causal chain of dependently originated suffering rooted in ignorance] that produces rebirth (again-becoming, renewal of being, renewed existence) accompanied by enjoyment and lust, thirsting after this and that, craving for strands of sensual pleasure, craving for continued existence, and/or craving for nonexistence.

 

"CESSATION of suffering, as an ennobling truth, is this: It is the remainderless fading and ceasing, giving up, abandoning, letting go, and rejecting of that very [kind of] craving.

 

"The WAY leading to the cessation of disappointment, as an ennobling truth, is this: It is this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention; right speech, right action, right livelihood; right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. [The eight path factors are distinguished into three categories: wisdom or insight, virtue or morality, and meditation or concentration.]

 

[TWELVE ASPECTS, THREE PHASES]

Wheel halo (Buddhism.about.com)

"'Disappointment, its origin, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation, as [four] ennobling truths, are this.' Such was the vision, the knowledge, the understanding, the discovery, the light of wisdom that arose regarding things never before heard by me. 

 

"'They can be diagnosed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge... 'They have been diagnosed.' Such was the vision, the knowledge... 'They can be abandoned.' Such was the vision, the knowledge... 

 

"'They have been abandoned.' Such was the vision, the knowledge... 

 

"''They can be verified.' Such was the vision, the knowledge... 

"'They have been verified.' Such was the vision, the knowledge... the light of wisdom that arose regarding things never before heard by me...

   

"As long as my knowing-and-seeing of how things are was not yet purified in these 12 aspects, in these three phases, for each of the Four Noble Truths, I did not claim in the world -- with its shining ones (devas), its killers (maras), its divinities (brahmas), in this generation with its ascetics (shamans) and priests (Brahmins), with its princes and people -- to have discovered supreme enlightenment.

[KNOWING-AND-SEEING]

Siddhartha and the group of five fellow practitioners including Kondañña

"But as soon as my knowing-and-seeing of how things are was purified in these 12 aspects, in these three phases, for each of these four ennobling truths, then did I claim in the world -- with its shining ones, its killers, its divinities, in this generation with its ascetics and priests, its princes and people -- to have discovered supreme enlightenment. 

"Knowledge and vision arose in me thus: 'My mind/heart's deliverance is unassailable. This is my last birth. There is no more [suffering or] renewal of being.'"

 

That is what the Buddha said. The group of five were glad and approved of his words.

 
[THE ONE WHO KNOWS]

During this utterance, there arose in Kondañña the spotless, immaculate vision of (insight into) the Dharma: "Whatever is subject to arising is also subject to [immediate] cessation."

 

When the True Wheel (the Wheel of the Dharma) had thus been set a'rolling by the Buddha the earthbound devas raised a call: "In Benares, at the Deer Park in the Resort of Seers, the matchless Wheel of the Dharma has been set a'rolling by the Blessed One, not to be stopped by ascetic or priest or shining one or killer or divinity or anyone in the world!"

  

On hearing the earthbound-devas' call, all of the devas in the six Sense Sphere deva worlds took up the call until it reached beyond Brahma's Retinue in the Fine-Material Sphere.

 

And so indeed at that hour, at that moment, the call soared up to the Brahma World, and this ten-thousandfold world-system shook and rocked and quaked. Moreover, a great measureless radiance surpassing the splendor of the shining ones shone throughout the world.

 

Then the Buddha exclaimed: "Kondañña knows! Kondañña knows!" That is how he got his name, Añña-Kondañña, which mean Kondañña-who-knows.

The Buddha's First Sermon (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly translation (Dhammachakapavattana Sutra, SN 56.11)

(My-Third-Eye/flickr.com)

PREFACE: Seven weeks after the great enlightenment, the former ascetic Prince Siddhartha, now the fully awakened Buddha, set out to teach his five former companions. He realized that they were still stuck in the futility of struggling by severe asceticism near India' holy city on the Ganges, Varanasi. He had previously practiced with them undertaking the most extreme penances and painful observances. He abandoned this well worn path to "spirituality" when he realized it would never lead to awakening to the Truth and liberation from all suffering. He discovered that cultivating absorptions and insight (jhana and vipassana) through proper concentration and mindfulness (samma samadhi and samma sati). In this sutra the Buddha sets in motion the Wheel of the Truth (the essential limbs, or spokes, of which lead to the hub of nirvana). This is the True Wheel, the path to the liberation he had experienced seven weeks earlier.

 

The Buddha addresses the Group of Five

SARNATH, India - Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was in Varanasi at the Resort of Seers (Isipatana) in the Deer Park. There he addressed the group of five ascetics.

  

"Recluses, these two extremes should be abandoned by anyone who has gone forth from household life. What two?

   

"There is devotion to indulgence, coarse pleasures associated with sensual desire, which is inferior, base, vulgar, ignoble, and leads to disappointment on the one hand, and on the other hand there is devotion to asceticism, which is just the same.

  

"The middle way discovered by [me] avoids both extremes. This path leads to vision, knowledge, peace, direct experience, discovery, to nirvana (final liberation). What middle way? 

  

"It is this ennobling Eightfold Path, namely:

1. right view
2. right intention
3. right speech
4. right action
5. right livelihood
6. right effort
7. right mindfulness
8. right concentration.

The Four Noble Truths

I. "Disappointment as an Ennobling Truth is this: Birth is disappointing as are aging, sickness, death, association with the unpleasant, dissociation from the pleasant, not getting what one wants is disappointing -- in brief, the Five Aggregates of Clinging are disappointing.

II. "The origin of disappointment as an Ennobling Truth is this: Craving produces renewal of being [rebirth] accompanied by enjoyment and lust and delighting in this and that. What craving? Craving for sensual desires, craving for [eternal] existence, and craving for nonexistence.

  

III. "Cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this: It is remainderless fading and ceasing, letting go, relinquishing, rejecting and abandoning of such craving.

   

IV. "The path leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this: It is this ennobling Eightfold Path...

  

"'Disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing (knowledge and vision of the Dharma), understanding, discovery, the light that arose in regard to things never heard by me before. 'Disappointment as an ennobling truth can be diagnosed.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing, understanding, discovery, the light that arose in regard to things never heard by me before. 'Disappointment as an ennobling truth has been diagnosed.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing, understanding, discovery, the light that arose in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"'The origin of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and seeing... 'This origin of disappointment as an ennobling truth can be abandoned.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'This origin of disappointment as an ennobling truth has been abandoned.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"'The cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'This cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth can be verified.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'The cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth has been verified.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"'The way leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth is this.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'The way leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth can be developed.' Such was the knowing-and-seeing... 'The way leading to the cessation of disappointment as an ennobling truth has been developed.' Such was the vision... in regard to things never heard by me before.

  

"As long as my knowing-and-seeing of things just as they are was not purified with regard to these 12 aspects, in three phases for each of these Four Noble Truths, I did not claim in this world with its light beings (devas), its killers (maras), its creatives (brahmas), in this generation with its wandering ascetics (recluses) and Brahmin priests, with its princes and people to have discovered the supreme enlightenment.

  

"But as soon as my knowing-and-seeing of things just as they are was purified with regard to these 12 aspects, in the three phases for each of these Four Noble Truths, then did I claim in this world... to have discovered the supreme enlightenment. Knowledge and vision arose in me: 'My heart's deliverance is assured. This is my last birth. Now there is to be no renewal of being.'"

  

That is what the Blessed One said. The group of five were glad, and they approved of his words.

   

Now during this teaching there arose in the ascetic Kondañña the purified and stainless vision of the Truth: "Whatever is subject to arising is also subject to falling away."

   

Word Spreads Fast

Our 10,000-fold world-system

When the Wheel of Truth had been set rolling by the Buddha, the earthbound devas raised this cry: "At Varanasi, at the Deer Park in the Resort of Seers, the matchless Wheel of Truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One, not to be stopped by any recluse or deity, death-angel or divinity, or anyone in the world!"

  

On hearing the earthbound devas' cry, the devas inhabiting the six celestial paradises in space within the Sensual Sphere took up the cry until it reached beyond Great Brahma's Retinue in the Fine-Material Sphere. So indeed at that hour, at that very moment, the cry soared up to the World of Great Brahma. And this 10,000-fold world-system shook and quaked, and an unbounded radiance surpassing the very nature of the light beings was displayed throughout this entire world-system.

  

Then the Buddha exclaimed: "Kondañña knows! Kondañña knows!" And that is how that venerable one acquired the name Añña-Kondañña -- "Kondañña Who Knows."

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A Buddhist "Second Coming" (video)

Dharmachari Seven, Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

The Bodhisat is threatened by Mara as alluring deva lingers and nagas and yakkhas scheme.

  

William Yeats in his poem "The Second Coming," which some people call "The Falconer," laments:

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..." More

It feels like that now for us between bouts of bliss.

"Summertime and the living is easy" sang Gershwin, Pete Seeger, then Sublime.

"Fish are jumping and the cotton is high. Your daddy's rich and your momma's good looking, so hush little baby. Don't you cry. One of these mornings you're going to rise up singing. Then you'll spread your wings and take to the sky."

Siddhartha was born at a time of endless low-level conflict in Afghanistan (Gandhara). The Shakya clan's land (janapada) with its capital in Kapilavastu was always jockeying to expand or at least maintain territory. He was rich. He was beautiful. He was happy. What was there to be unhappy about, what disappointment, what deprivation, what suffering?

Isn't it exactly like that for us in America? We're endlessly squabbling for territory in Afghanistan, India's northwest frontier at the foot of the Himalayas. Our fathers are rich, our mothers good looking, and we're happy.

Sumeru is no mount but an axis.

Well, we're not really any happier than Siddhartha was. But what do have to be unhappy about? This is as good as it gets materially. The world wants to come here thinking they'll be free, rich, and fulfilled.

We know what Siddhartha found out: What fulfillment is there, what satisfaction, what is there to gain living like this? So is the Bodhisattva -- either Maitreya (Metteyya aka present-day Nātha in the deva-world or the future Ajita in the human plane, discussion) or any of those who have taken vows since Shakyamuni will do -- coming?

A Second Coming?

Hurtling and hurtling in widening desire

The deva cannot hear the deva-ruler;

When Things Fall Apart, the Center cannot hold;

A police state is loosed upon the first world,

The Tasers are loosed, and everywhere

In a ceremony of obedience the innocent are drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some unveiling is at hand;

Surely a Second Coming is at hand.

Again-becoming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image of Axis Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in plains of the Ganges,

A shape with griffin body, the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its naga thighs, while all about it

Reel light beings and indignant river birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That 26 centuries of samsaric sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what new Mara, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Benares to be born?

• The Second Coming (poem)
• What was Yeats talking about?
• TED VIDEO: Ken Robinson: School Kills Creativity

"I Can Do It! 2011" (Oct. 14-16 Conference)

Wisdom Quarterly, Hay House Publications
(HayHousePresents)

• I Can Do It! Conference 2011
  
• Pasadena Convention Center
  
• October 14-16, 2011

"Pasadena is the Varanasi (Benares) of the United States," according to Paramahansa Yogananda. The Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh visit nearly every year as many Eastern masters before them did.

Now join a line of incredibly popular spiritual materialists, world-famous New Age thinkers, urban shamans, and Hay House authors for a weekend retreat in Pasadena!

Join Hay House for a day or the entire weekend! The conference features Colette Baron-Reid, Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph.D., Gregg Braden, Sonia Choquette, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Debbie Ford, Louise L. Hay, Robert Holden, Ph.D., John Holland, Deborah King, Brad Lamm, Denise Linn, Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., Dr. Christiane Northrup, Cheryl Richardson, Caroline Sutherland, Eldon Taylor, Sandra Anne Taylor, Reid Tracy, Doreen Virtue, Brian L. Weiss, M.D., Dr. Darren R. Weissman, Marianne Williamson.

It's strictly a coincidence that all of the featured authors are white or Jewish, not prejudice at Hay House. Things were different in the 1940s! It's not like unintentional bias gets pointed out to the octogenarian publisher by her authors. Who dares rock the boat when there is still so much money (abundance) to be made? Happy Birthday, Louise Hay! (She turns 85 on Oct. 8, 2011). Go

Louise L. Hay A talk with 85 year-old publisher Louise Hay

Colette Baron-Reid

Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph.D.

Gregg Braden

Sonia Choquette

Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Debbie Ford

Robert Holden, Ph.D.

John Holland

David Kessler

Deborah King

Brad Lamm

Denise Linn

Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.

Dr. Christiane Northrup

Cheryl Richardson

Caroline Sutherland

Eldon Taylor

Sandra Anne Taylor

Doreen Virtue

Brian L. Weiss, M.D.

Dr. Darren R. Weissman

Marianne Williamson