It's hard to believe that Prince could write so many great songs, like Sinead's greatest hit
The last months of Sinead O'Connor's life were tragic
(Grunge) July 29, 2023. Was Sinead a crypto-Buddhist? She sure seems influenced by the Dharma and dogged by the Catholicism she rejected.
Canceled shows, chronic pain, and inconsolable grief — ["Lost in the Bardo"] Sinéad O'Connor's last months were deeply challenging, but her tragic death suicide at the age of 56 shocked the world. Here's what we know.
Dr. Gabor Mate's When the Body Says No explains why O'Connor had so many illnesses; it's the lasting result of enduring early childhood traumatic events. These incidents -- or our dysfunctional reactions to them -- live on for many years. It is our karma, our response to them, that has more to do with it than their happening to us. They happen to many, many people, but not everyone reacts in such a way to make the suffering unbearable. As Dr. Mate explains, not everyone who takes a drug becomes addicted, so drugs are not addictive. But nearly everyone who becomes addicted does so as a result of taking a drug (or engaging in a self-soothing behavior). Why is this? It is because of the presence of early childhood traumas in one's past. If they are there and we take a drug, we will become addicted. When the pain becomes too great, the BODY says no. It's not the mind, it's not all in one's head. The body is the storehouse of the trauma, and we either "work it out or act it out."
We know many people will cry, "Blaming the victim!" But consider why this is a foolish thing to shout. No one is saying we have a say in what happens to us. What we say is what the Buddha taught: We have a say in what we do. What we do is OUR karma. That will have an effect on what we feel, think, and experience. The results of our present karma will impact us now and for many lives in the future. If you do one deed, skillful or unskillful, it bears results over and over again, exponentially. It will not be exhausted by occurring back to you once in the future. Each impulsion (javana) or mind-moment (citta) will bear fruit and ripen in the future. So each thought, each word, each physical act will give rise to countless results. And each result will provoke another reaction, so we will go in circles until we can change course and not react that way to a stimulus. We can hardly do that know knowing what we know. So imagine how unlikely it is that we're going to change course anytime in the near future. We will not know, we will not remember, we will not see a reason to change then. When we did know, did see, did have a reason, we could not change by an act of will. So every deed matters, adds up, piles on. We are heirs to our karma, children of our karma, affiliates of our karma. Think, speak, and act wisely and compassionately. It will do you good for a long, long time.
Suffering from fibromyalgia, agoraphobia, and bipolar disorder, O'Connor's was a life of pain. That's not unusual in Ireland or any Catholic country. Catholicism is one jujubird of a F'd up religion. We at WQ known because many of us grew up Catholic and still suffer the consequences. #SineadOConnor #Singer #Musician
Why (the artist formerly known as) Prince had issues with Sinead O’Connor
(Sinnik22) Premiered Aug. 31, 2022. Sinead O’Connor has claimed that she faced a violent confrontation with Prince after securing her biggest hit with a cover of his song "Nothing Compares 2 U."
In a new interview with The New York Times, the Irish singer said the incident occurred when Prince invited O'Connor to his Hollywood mansion after the 1991 cover became a huge worldwide hit.
According to O’Connor, Prince “chastised her for swearing in interviews, harangued his butler to serve her soup though she repeatedly refused it, and sweetly suggested a pillow fight only to thump her with something hard he’d slipped into his pillowcase.”
Prince’s ex-wife Mayte Garcia -- who was married to the singer from 1996-2000 -- spoke out in the star’s defense, telling TMZ that he was never violent towards her or witnessed him being violent towards anyone.
Cat echoes Mayte’s sentiments in this episode.
She arrived in Hollywood as Tara Leigh Patrick. Thanks to Prince, she emerged a star known as Carmen Electra.
“That first time I met Prince, he was very quiet,” she says. “I was very shy, so there was this awkward moment of us just kind of standing in front of each other. He broke the ice by asking me if I wanted to play pool.”
Prince went to the piano and started playing "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music. “I had a feeling he thought I didn’t know the song, but it just so happened I had played Marta and Brigitta at two different dinner theatre productions of The Sound of Music in Cincinnati,” she says.
Then Electra danced for him -- the art in which she was most trained. Prince seemed impressed by her dancing, but days passed without her hearing back regarding the part in the band.
Electra assumed she’d been rejected.
“I wound up getting my deal with Capitol Records, so I stayed in L.A. to record my demos,” she says. “During that time, I got a call from Prince, who said he’d heard I was recording and asked to hear my songs.” After playing the songs for him, Prince told her he could do better.
A few days later, she met him in a studio in L.A. “He wrote me a song called, ‘Carmen on Top.’” Should she like the song, she could record it. “I loved it, but I reminded him that my name was Tara. He told me, ‘You look like a Carmen so, to me, you’re Carmen.’”
Though the song was never released, the new name stuck. She was now officially Carmen Electra.
Not long after, Electra accepted Prince’s invitation to move to Minneapolis and signed a record deal with Paisley Park Records.
Prince produced and wrote her first project, directed her videos, and styled her looks. Living at Paisley Park was utterly surreal, Electra wistfully recalls. “It looked like you were in heaven and a magical unicorn was going to come running around the corner,” she laughs. “Everything in Paisley Park was pastel and light and fluffy and dreamy. You just felt like you were in another world -- a world that Prince created.”
But even as she rose to fame, Sánchez found herself struggling with her mental health. Her new memoir, Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir, captures the tension between her public success and her private suffering — and more.
Erika should meditate. Right, Dick? - Yeah, Lisa
Princeton University Professor Sánchez talks with guest host Anna Sale about sharing some of her darkest moments with readers (like being a bipolar poet), caring for her mental health, and what she's learned from her personal cartoon role model — Lisa Simpson.
If considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1(800) 273-8255 (En Español: 1(888) 628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1(800) 799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
According to a report from the University of San Diego’s Justice in Mexico project, 138,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since 2006.
They call it the corner of heaven:
a laboratory, a foot at the throat
of an empire. Before the holy
dirt, the woman with the feline gait
waits with tangled hair, mouth
agape — the letter X marked
on what’s left of her breasts
and face. Nuestra Belleza
Mexicana. A roped mule
watches a man place a crown
on her severed head. Tomorrow
the queen will be picked clean
by the kindness of the sea.
Shuttered shops and empty
restaurants. Stray dogs couple
in a courtyard. Under a swaying
palm tree, a cluster of men
finger golden pistols, whisper,
aquí ni se paran las moscas.
Two boys, transfixed, watch
a pixelated video: a family fed
to a swarm of insatiable pigs.
A butcher sweeps blood
from an empty street. Death
is my godmother, he repeats.
Death is a burnt mirror.
When the crackling stereo
dithers between stations — amor
de mis amores, sangre de mi alma —
a gaggle of silent children
gather before a sputtering
trash bin. Together they watch
the terror hover like flies.
Source: Poetry (December 2015)
This episode was produced by Andrea Gutierrez. It was edited by Jessica Mendoza. Engineering help came from Stuart Rushfield. Executive producer was Veralyn Williams. Follow on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email at IBAM@npr.org.
The [delusional Republican billionaire] rapper, businessman, record producer, and social activist who once spoke of launching a presidential campaign for 2024, made his "announcement" about this year in a cryptic tweet on Saturday.
Experts are unsure how seriously to take West's proclamation, assuming he could even get on state ballots at this point. [It's more likely to be a publicity stunt for a new song, or a way to help his racist friend and fellow DJ Trump.]
"We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision, and building our future," West said. "I am running for president of the United States."
Yeah, K, you be the comic relief for a while.
So far, however, there is no evidence West has a campaign organization, nor is there any indication he has filed papers with the Federal Election Commission just four months before the November 3, 2020 election.
The filing deadlines for independent presidential candidates in many states have either passed or are coming up soon. Qualifying deadlines have passed in Texas, North Carolina, New York, Maine, New Mexico, and Indiana.
The last deadlines are in early September, just two months away, and candidates have to get thousands of people to sign petitions in each state in order to get on a ballot. More
COMMENT: Well, he's better than Joe Biden and Don Trump rolled into one, but is the USA really ready for a Black president? Barry Obama, who is half Black, and was the ninth president of the country, according to the suppressed history of the U.S. Historians will argue that the first eight don't count because the country was not officially put together in its current form until George Washington. The others led the Continental Congress or some such.
"OC87" The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger’s Movie
Can you make a movie while experiencing mental illness? [Is there any other way?] Bud Clayman is doing it. Will making a documentary about one's mental illness change one's life?
Mental illness interrupted Bud’s dream of a filmmaking career. Thirty years later, he’s making the movie of his life. Bud Clayman is one of films’ most unlikely heroes. This is a personal story with universal relevance -- a wildly original documentary of pain and vulnerability, empowerment, and Bud’s quest for belonging.
Throughout his youth, Bud’s future was filmmaking. After college in Philadelphia, he headed to Hollywood in search of a break.
Instead, he had a breakdown. As mental illness struck, it stuck. When distress and isolation set in, the diagnoses followed. For eight years, Bud lived in a therapeutic community. Without waiting for his illness to vanish, Bud has reclaimed his quest as a filmmaker.
As his camera chronicles the ups and downs of recovery, we also see the experience of what he calls “the fight inside my head.” Behind the lens, a parallel journey unfolds as Bud the Director grapples with the challenges of making an incisive, highly personal documentary -- a movie he believes will transform his life. More
Latin lover rants, raves, and fulfills Hollywood's real mission. "Fame is empowering. My mistake was that I thought I would instinctively know how to handle it" (Charlie Sheen).
"Winning!" Step aside Gaga, Lindsay, Britney, Paris, Christina (taken into custody for being so drunk in West Hollywood that she didn't know where she lived).
Actor/warlock/Vatican assassin Charlie Sheen -- doing his best rock-fueled Al Pacino in "Scarface" impression -- has been on a media rampage all week. First he's shooting himself in the foot then putting that foot in his mouth then, well, shoot-mouth-repeat.
Academy Award best documentary "Inside Job" reveals same sex and drug mania
It's wonderful entertainment. It's more real to us, as Americans used to Hollywood celebrity meltdowns, than the far more important meltdown of Libya's leader. Moammar Gaddafi does his best impression of another US-backed/US-deposed dictator, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, after he too crossed his equal opportunity employer (the CIA). They plummet like "shooting stars that shine so bright yet fall so far" (Sabbat).
Emboldened by blonde girlfriends, obscene amounts of money, personal fame, or what else could it be? Hmm. His famous father Martin Sheen, with his other son actor Emilio Estevez at his side, pleaded for compassion for Charlie: If he had cancer, people would not judge him so harshly. In fact, drug addiction is a cancer. And it should inspire as much compassion as The Big C.
Tiger Blood... music by Apollo Run
Both are curable -- but the cure is difficult to undertake if one will not admit that one has a problem. Moreover, it is necessary to identify a cause. Dr. Gabor Mate (author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts on addictionand When the Body Says No) has identified the cause not only of addiction but of common "incurable" diseases as well.
The best line in the din of tirades was delivered from the sidelines by John Stamos: “Contrary to the rumors, I am not replacing Charlie Sheen [on Two and a Half Men],” he tweeted. “However, Martin Sheen has asked me to be his son.”
Cancers have cures (rather than toxic and expensive treatments like chemo and radiation), but we are not allowed to hear about them. That is how the military-industrial-pharmaceutical-entertainment complex rolls. The job of the entertainment arm seems to be to distract (with celebrity meltdowns) and mislead (with carefully orchestrated disinformation campaigns). But the underlying goal of all its arms is power and profiteering.
Sex... Does Charlie have a prostitute or pornstar problem? He's in a polyamorousthreelationship. This term, coined by Wisdom Quarterly, describes a committed relationship shaped like a triangle. It seems better than the other shapes we usually adopt:
the point (single)
the line (monogamy)
the asterisk (promiscuity or serial-monogamy)
It seems like he has a problem. But it's hard to argue with Sheen's manic thinking. He has the success the culture adores and aspires to. This year's Academy Award-winning best documentary, "Inside Job," shows the exact same behavior engaged in by impulsive bankers, which sank our economy.
So why are we condemning Charlie who is spending his own money rather than embezzling ours? Is it because he's being a bad sport rubbing it in our faces, or is it because he's violating another code by exalting himself and disparaging others?
Drugs 'n Consequences Apart from the mania (as diagnosed by Loveline and Celebrity Rehab's Dr. Drew Pinsky) and many good times, Does Charlie have a problem? The determining question is: Is he experiencing consequences?
He lost his children this week. He lost his job on a popular sitcom. He lost his health (as a hernia forced him into the ER after a weekend of nonstop "cocktailing" drug abuse -- cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol -- as he watched pornography with paid prostitutes who then sold him out. His wife is divorcing him. She took out a restraining order that led police to forcibly remove his two sons. Actress Denise Richards has banned him from seeing his two daughters. His income is evaporating. Anti-Semitic ranting against his media boss, bashing Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), getting support and encouragement from Mel Gibson, Howard Stern, and Alex Jones... these could be problematic.
How? Exalting Self, Disparaging Others Wisdom Quarterly translation, Simile of the Heartwood (MN 30) The Buddha explained: "...Brahmin, a certain person leaving home would go forth into voluntary homelessness out of faith thinking, 'I am inundated by birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, unpleasantness, and disappointment.' Only a few declare the complete end of suffering. [That is, rarely is it heard, rarely is one able to practice it, rarely does anyone achieve the goal of nirvana.]
"Gone forth thus, one is [later] reborn in gain, honor, and fame. Satisfied, with desires fulfilled, one would praise oneself and disparage others: 'I am a gainer of hospitality; these others are impotent and unwise.' One does not arouse interest or effort to realize something more exalted than gain, honor, and fame and abides infatuated and negligent.
"Just as a person wandering in search of heartwood would come upon a huge standing tree with heartwood. One would ignore its heartwood, sapwood, bark, and shoots, cutting the branches and leaves and would carry them away thinking it heartwood. For whatever purpose one needs heartwood, to that purpose one would not come.
"Brahmin, I say, this person is comparable to that. Brahmin, a certain person leaving home would go forth into homelessness out of faith thinking, 'I am inundated by birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, unpleasantness, and disappointment.'
"Only a few declare the complete end of suffering. Gone forth thus, one is [later] reborn in gain, honor, and fame. One is neither satisfied with it nor are one's desires fulfilled; one does not praise oneself nor disparage others. One arouses interest and makes a sustained effort to realize something more exalted than gain, honor, and fame [for having practiced virtue and restraint].
"Not infatuated nor negligent, one takes upon oneself the endowment of virtues. Satisfied with it and with desires fulfilled, one praises oneself and disparages others: 'I am virtuous; these others are sunk in demerit.' One does not arouse interest nor make the effort to realize something more exalted than the endowment of virtues..." [The Dharma and leaving home is not merely for the cultivation of fame or riches, virtue or concentration. Instead, the intended purpose is to cultivate liberating wisdom.]
The film "Milarepa" depicts the humble beginnings of the man who was to become Tibet's greatest saint. Based on ancient oral traditions, a youthful Milarepa is propelled into a world of sorrow and betrayal after his father's death. Destitute and hopeless, he sets out to learn black magic -- to exact revenge on his enemies -- encountering magicians, demons, an enigmatic teacher, and unexpected mystical power along the way. But it is in confronting the consequences of his anger that he learns the most. Photographed in the stunning Lahaul-Spiti region of Northern India, "Milarepa" offers a provocative parallel to the cycle of violence and retribution we see consuming today's world (Duke University).
Mad Geniuses Jane McGrath (HowStuffWorks.com) Is insanity the secret companion to genius? Though we can't very well perform psychological examinations on those who are long dead, that hasn't stopped historians from speculating about the mental conditions of deceased geniuses by interpreting their personal letters, their works, and others' accounts.
.
It turns out some of the world's greatest geniuses were quite mad. In fact, some scientists claim that a far greater percentage of creative types (poets, painters, musicians, and the like) have been afflicted with bipolar disorder than the general population. Some of the world's most renowned creative minds -- including writers Mary Shelley, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway; composers Irving Berlin and Sergey Rachmaninoff; and painters Paul Gauguin and Jackson Pollock -- are believed to have suffered from the illness (source: Patient Health International).
H. Armstrong Roberts/Getty Images(Brain Image Gallery). Though we may not know what a high IQ has to do with mental illness, brilliant people often strike us as more than a bit nutty. You don't have to look far to find examples of the mad genius in history. See more brain pictures.
Despite evidence of a link between genius and madness, no one has proved that such a link exists. However, scientists at the University of Toronto have discovered that creative people possess little to no "latent inhibition," the unconscious ability to reject unimportant or irrelevant stimuli. As University of Toronto psychology professor Jordan Peterson puts it, "This means that creative individuals remain in contact with the extra information constantly streaming in from the environment. The normal person classifies an object, and then forgets about it, even though that object is much more complex and interesting than he or she thinks. The creative person, by contrast, is always open to new possibilities [source: University of Toronto]."
Let's take a look at these mad geniuses -- the famous thinkers and artists who may have experienced mental illness. First, we'll inspect the modern case of John Nash, whose schizophrenia has been sensationalized by Hollywood.
MILAREPA the MAHASIDDHA YOGI Edited from Wikipedia.com
Jetsun Milarepa (c. 1052-c. 1135CE) is one of Tibet's most famous yogis and poets, a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.
As soon as he saw Milarepa, an ineffable experience of concentrated bliss (Samadhi) arose in him, and for a moment he stood transfixed in ecstasy. Afterwards, he became a "Heart-Son" of Milarepa (rimpoche.co).
The essence of Milarepa lies in his writings rather than the many legends that have grown up around him. The writings, often referred to as the One Hundred Thousands Songs of Milarepa, are canonical Mahayana Buddhist texts [or at least of the Vajrayana branch of Mahayana Buddhism] that emphasize the temporary nature of the physical body and the need for non-attachment.
In contrast, the legends (and 2006 movie) of Milarepa's life are full of references to magic and wizardry and lack the same sense of devout non-attachment. They became popular through a romanticized and historically questionable biography (Mi-la-rnam-thar) sometime between 1452 and 1507.
According to the book by French explorer Alexandra David-NéelMagic and Mystery in Tibet, Milarepa boasted of having “crossed in a few days, a distance which, before his training [in ‘black magic’], had taken him more than a month. He ascribes his gift to the clever control of ‘internal air.’” David-Néel comments “that at the house of the lama who taught him black magic there lived a trapa [monk] who was fleeter than a horse” using the same skill.[2]
This esoteric skill, which in Tibet is known as Lung-gom-pa (“Wind Meditation,” lung = “wind,[3]gom-pa = “meditation”[4]), allows a practitioner to run at an extraordinary speed for days without stopping. This technique could be compared to that practiced by the Kaihigyo Monks of Mt. Hiei in Kyoto, Japan.[5] His cave is revered to this day.
All materials on this site are submitted by editors and readers. All images, unless otherwise noted, were taken from the Internet and are assumed to be in the public domain.
In the event that there is still a problem, issue, or error with copyrighted material, the break of the copyright is unintentional and noncommercial, and the material will be removed immediately upon presented proof.
Contact us by submitting a comment marked "private."
Do not follow this journal if you are under vinaya or parental restrictions. Secure protection by Sucuri.
Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at creativecommons.org/about/licenses.