The Church has manipulated the truth and made of Jesus (Yeshua, Joshua, Issa, Y'shua) an idol, calling him the "Son of Zeus" from the time of Emperor ("Saint") Constantine and the Council of Nicaea.
Full moon in Leo portal is open! 8 things we need to know!
(Eye of Wisdom) Feb. 12, 2025: The full moon in Leo peaks today, February 12th, but the real shift? That kicks in tomorrow. The 2/12 portal is already opening, but its full power truly ignites on Feb. 13th, bringing a surge of energy that will hit everyone, whether they’re ready or not.
#spirituality #universe #spiritual #astrology
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The Buddhist lunar observance: uposatha
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Moon over sacred Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma
The weekly "Sabbath" day (a word that literally means Saturday), the Buddha pointed out, was aligned with the moon since ancient times. He continued the tradition by encouraging followers to step up their spiritual exertions in these ways:
Rather than the normal adherence to the Five Precepts (abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, or consuming intoxicants that lead to heedlessness), Eight Precepts are undertaken for the day. Visiting the temple or monastic complex for studying, hearing, and practicing the Dharma, the Buddha's Teachings, is done to rededicate oneself to the practice of the Path to awakening.
This is often called the "fasting day" not because one does not eat but because one fasts from noon onwards, not taking dinner or anything after the sun is directly overhead. (We often take three or more meals a day, and fast food commercials tell us to add another late night This is to preserve energy to put forth in one's kammathana or "field of endeavor," one's meditation subject or striving to establish a good habit, such as overcoming a particular obstacle or impediment to one's practice.
Say, for example, laziness were an issue. One might undertake the dhutangaor "sane ascetic" practice of not lying down for 24 hours and instead strive diligently while sitting, standing, or walking. This should only be undertaken under the supervision of a sufficiently skillful teacher for guidance, for otherwise we might only be exacerbating our imbalances without actually addressing what needs addressing.
If we tend to overeat, we might fast the whole day.
If we overtalk, we might observe noble silence or complete silence to balance out our tendency.
If we have an issue with some unskillful karmic habit, we might address it intensively on this day with help from a monk, nun, or meditation teacher.
In my case, I might notice an issue with getting angry or annoyed or being irritable and may therefore want to practice loving-kindness (metta bhavana) for the full day.
Others may constantly find themselves distracted or addicted to their phones and may want to strengthen their mindfulness (sati) by attending to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, or at least the first, which is "mindfulness of the body" unbroken for a whole day.
Another may think the biggest issue is lust, greediness, or selfish behavior, in which case sharing, sacrificing for others, helping, giving, or letting go might be wise.
In ancient India, "Buddhists" (disciples of the Enlightened One, the Buddha) would come to the monastery and spend the whole day and night (24 hours) there dressed all in white. This was the custom even in modern times in Theravada Buddhist countries.
Rather than sleeping, one might meditate the whole night or take just a few hours, say maybe four, of rest before returning home and resuming normal activities and the Five Precepts.
The Buddha highly praised "keeping the Sabbath," keeping one day -- in accordance with a phase of the moon visible to everyone looking up at the sky, particularly the full moon -- sacred, holy, or for intensive effort. Most of us will not become monastics even temporarily in this life, but we can have the benefits of monastic practice and quick progress even while leading a completely worldly life if we always remember the uposatha. - Dharma Editor Seven, Wisdom Quarterly 2025
Eye of Wisdom, Feb. 12, 2025; Sarah Hall, Feb. 9, 2025; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen B., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
It might be good if Ananda's student, the struggling American meditator "Doggone," not to be confused with Ven. Dōgen, could learn from former soldier in the U.S. military Ven. Scott, who has found peace through Zen practice, which includes a lot of Taoist philosophy (and probably a sizeable amount of Confucianism and Shinto, too).
It's hard if not impossible to get a "pure Buddhism" as the Dharma is always steeped in a culture colored by shamanic and other preexisting spiritual traditions and philosophies.
Look, Everybody, I'm being mindful and Zen.
The West is a good example. We color the heck out of Buddhism to make it understandable, not realizing how much we're distorting what the Buddha taught. Early Buddhism was colored by Saka/Scythian (Central Asian) and Vedic proto-Indian (Brahminical, Magadhi, subcontinental views) customs and cultural baggage.
Instead of muscling through everything, efforting and straining, there's a better way that bends with the wind, goes with the flow, and thereby follows "The Way," the Tao.
Western translator and spiritual entertainer Alan Watts speaks of a great divide in outlook in Japan that developed in Buddhism: self-power (jiriki) versus other power (tariki).
Can we do the impossible and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps? Or must we rely on some higher power, an outside source, to pull us out of the mire?
In practice, the latter may make more sense or seem much easier. The former may work, but it will take subtlety and great mindfulness (sati-patthana) so that ego is not just leading ego around, self-willed as it has so long been, thinking it's getting anywhere worth going.
Let's shut up and stop talking to ourselves to see
Is Pure Land Buddhism even still Buddhism?
Will faith in something outside ourselves us save us? Yes, there are the Three Treasures, the Three Jewels to whom we can go for enlightened guidance: the historical Buddha, the early Dharma, and the noble Sangha.
It is important to qualify these words as nowadays there are lots of buddhas or alleged "supremely enlightened teachers, and many latter-day interpretations of the Dharma (the Buddha's Teaching or Doctrine), and it is not the monastic Sangha ("spiritual community") that serves as this ultimate guide but rather the "noble" (Aryan/Ariya) or enlightened community, which refers to these eight people, who may or may not be Buddhist monastics.
Or must we take responsibility for our behavior and cultivate our own direct wisdom? (Of course we must do this, but the former may help in doing it).
Two Buddhisms have developed in Japan over this vital question of tariki versus jiriki. Shall we follow the example of the historical Buddha or the later (possibly make believe) "Cosmic Buddhas," who seem more like old time Vedic/Hindu gods (brahmas and devas) than the buddhas the Buddha talked about as having taught in the distant past.
There is Amitabha, Ksitigarbha, Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin, Kwan Yin, Kwannon), Budai, or whoever. It is the Kali Yuga (the "Decadent Age") after all, as Hinduism's holy books, the Vedas, tell Mahayana Buddhists. In these dark times, blind faith will seem far more attractive to faith-types full of attachments than the letting go asked of us by wisdom, confidence (saddha, reasoned and verifiable faith, conviction), and a persevering-practice.
Sit a little every day; that is far more powerful thana marathon effort every so often. Practice is key. Even trying to sit once will make this tariki vs. jiriki debate suddenly make sense. In the meantime, listen to Alan Watts. He, though irascible with an irreducible rascality, knows a thing or two.
The first yogi, Lord Shiva, in Rishikesh, India, set in the foothills of the Himalayas
The rock hewn castle wall of Thirumayam Fort Temple in South India
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(PraveenMohan) A giant egg-shaped rock reveals a strange secret about Shiva. Did the Hindu god Lord Shiva physically come down from the heavens, the sky, the akasha and rule India? Was Thirumayam Fort Temple in South India chosen for such a landing due to gravity? Is the lingam (phallic shaft) a spacecraft out of which he emerged?
Imagine a giant boulder, a massive egg-shaped rock that stands ten feet off the ground. One cannot reach it to touch at that level, shiny and smooth like an egg. What if it were a secret chamber? What if hidden inside this rock there were a hollowed-out cavity impossible to create with modern technology with a precisely cut hidden doorway revealed only by an earthquake? That would be an insane theory, right?
Yet, this is exactly what happened a few centuries years ago. It looked like this, smooth and natural. Then, because of that earthquake, a stone door cracked off and fell. Only then did the locals realize it was hollowed out, that there was a chamber inside. The door was so well made and so perfectly fitted that nobody recognized it was a door.
They put up a metal ladder to access the entryway. The earthquake revealed this chamber. No one knows when it was created. There are no inscriptions pointing to its origin.
Before analyzing the exterior further, let’s take a look at what's INSIDE.
There is only one thing inside today, a single lingam (sacred phallic stone). It is fascinating, a cylinder sitting on a square pedestal. Who carved it, carried it, and placed it here? No one. Normally people carve a shape, put it together, then place it in a certain location. This is the positive construction technique.
But this lingam was made through a negative construction technique. The lingam is carved out of the bedrock itself. Meaning that the lingam was not built up, rather it was created by taking rock away all around it. It was left over through removal all around it. We can call it a negative lingam.
Originally, there must have been other items inside, because what reason would there be to hide and seal this chamber if it only housed a lingam, right? Maybe it was studded with gold and diamonds, perhaps some advanced technology or electronic devices.
One may ask, Did they find some sophisticated devices here and remove them for study? How did anyone create such an advanced secret chamber hidden for many centuries in the past if we cannot do it even now? Such construction would be impossible without advanced alien technology.
Jiriki (self-power) versus tariki (other-power), by our will or another's will, that is the question.
To love ALL means to love ourselves, too.
Can we possibly attain selflessness (anatta, emptiness, the liberating realization that all things are impersonal) by self-will? Can we attain wisdom by our own ignorant efforts of trial and error?
It seems impossible. Or in any case, it seemed impossible until someone did it. Furtively scrambling in the dark, life after life, striving for complete liberation, someone came upon the ultimate truth and was liberated then pointed out the way for others to awaken themselves.
No one saves us but ourselves;
No one can and no one may;
We ourselves must walk the Path;
Buddhas only point the way.
Since then others have awakened to complete wisdom, having been shown the way. These beings are called disciples or followers of buddhas, particularly of a special kind of buddha, the supremely self-enlightened, supremely self-awakened (samma-sam-buddha), who managed to do it on their own over many, many lifetimes.
They weren't really on their own at all. They had a great deal of help all along the way, but as for the final awakening, that was not done under a teacher -- as no enlightened teacher exists when a buddha awakens.
They do it, it is said, by pursuing the development of the Ten Perfections over a long course of samsara (cyclical rebirth) over the span of aeons (kalpas) and great-aeons (mahakalpas), staggering periods of time (Vedic measurement).
Jiriki (自力) is one's own strength (will, power). It is the Japanese Buddhist term for self-power, the ability to achieve awakening (bodhi), liberation (moksha), enlightenment (in other words, to reach nirvana) through one's own efforts. Tariki (他力) means "other power," "outside help."
These terms in Japanese Buddhist schools classify methods by whether they rely on oneself (as the historical Buddha advised, particularly in his final admonition for us to "be lamps/islands (dipas) unto ourselves and to strive with diligence) or on an outside force.
Examples of an outside force are a Cosmic Buddha (e.g., Amitabha), God, Brahman, Brahma, or some other agency (higher power, other power, maybe even the group power of the Arya-Sangha, the community of enlightened disciples who followed the historical Buddha's advice).
How does one arrive at final emancipation, deliverance, liberation (moksha), reach the further shore of nirvana (the end of all rebirth and suffering)? How does one become spiritually enlightened? [2]
Jiriki is commonly practiced in Zen Buddhism, as in traditional Theravada (and the earlier "Hinayana" school, none of which survived and the last of which seems to have been the Sarvastivada) Buddhism.
NOTE: Theravada is a back-to-basics movement, not a surviving form of Hinayana ("Lesser or Smaller Vehicle" schools, but as there are no more Hinayana schools to hurl invective at, ill-informed Mahayana ("Great Vehicle") Buddhists sometimes accuse Theravada as being such a school.
In Pure Land Buddhism, tariki often refers to the power of Amitābha Buddha [3].
Who needs to put for effort like Siddhartha?
These two terms describe the strands of practice that followers of every religion throughout the world develop.
In most religions we can find popular expressions of faith that rely on the worship of external powers such as an idol or "god" of some kind who is expected to bestow favor after being given offerings of faith from a believer (sacrifices, vows, pledges of allegiance).
Some believers of Pure Land Buddhism accept that through faith and reliance on Amitabha Buddha one will be led to enlightenment (salvation).
These are examples of tariki, reliance on a power outside of oneself for salvation.
Self-will
Jiriki is seeking spiritual enlightenment through one's own efforts.
An example of jiriki in Buddhism is the practice of meditation. In meditation, one observes the body (most often in the form of following the breath and mind to directly experience the principles of impermanence and dependent arising or "emptiness"/its impersonal nature or the selflessness) of all phenomena.
Such principles are formally discussed in the Buddhist scriptures, but jiriki implies experiencing them directly for oneself. More
Tom Dongo, Linda Bradshaw (amazon.com); Moon, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
THE OPENING PORTALS OF SEDONA
Merging Dimensions: The Incredible Saga of the Bradshaw Ranch
On a secluded ranch near Sedona, Arizona, strange events mysteriously began in 1992. What does it portend for us all?
This is a collection of over 100 actual photographs of incredible events, otherworldly beings, strange flying craft, and unexplained light anomalies.
There has been a myriad of occurrences over the years, but the authors have chosen the most vivid of each type to share with readers. These are not all that have occurred, nor have the experiences stopped.
After compiling the following data over years, it is only now released to the world. This information is not intended to achieve any hidden agenda. It is only to inform those who wish to know.
The valley floor is a canyon rung by mesas.
It may appear farfetched to some, but for this no apology will be offered. This is the truth, and we cannot change the flavor or color of an experience to suit the belief parameters of another. What is, is.
To the best of our human ability, we share in exact detail all types of incidents that have, to this point, been experienced in relation to this fascinating area.
These, we believe, are indicative of many things to come. Join us on this journey. We share this with the fervent desire that each reader is inspired in a positive way. More:
Braden, Peters0n (What'sUp); Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, S. Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Gregg Braden: Disclosure Agenda: What is it, who benefits from it, and how?
(Gregg Braden Official) Premiered Jan. 23, 2023. @GreggBradenOfficial | What'sUp Series. It’s not often viewers get Gregg Braden to comment on the topics of other-worldly civilizations and the Disclosure Process, so we are in for a treat. 😊 The topic of today’s What'sUp Series is the Disclosure Agenda and those who benefit.
"[Sir] Jagadish Chandra Bose's wireless inventions antedated those of Marconi." Overhearing this provocative remark, I walked closer to a sidewalk group of professors engaged in scientific discussion. If my motive in joining them was racial [nationalistic] pride, I regret it. I cannot deny my keen interest in evidence that India can play a leading part in physics, and not metaphysics alone.
"What do you mean, sir?"
Plants and metals feel, Bose's instruments show.
The professor obligingly explained. "Bose was the first one to invent a wireless coherer and an instrument for indicating the refraction of electric waves. But the Indian scientist did not exploit his inventions commercially. He soon turned his attention from the inorganic to the organic world. His revolutionary discoveries as a plant physiologist are outpacing even his radical achievements as a physicist."
I politely thanked my mentor. He added, "The great scientist is one of my brother professors at Presidency College."
I paid a visit the next day to the sage at his home, which was close to mine on Gurpar Road. I had long admired him from a respectful distance. The grave and retiring botanist greeted me graciously. He was a handsome, robust man in his fifties, with thick hair, broad forehead, and the abstracted eyes of a dreamer. The precision in his tones revealed the lifelong scientific habit.
"I have recently returned from an expedition to scientific societies of the West. Their members exhibited intense interest in delicate instruments of my invention which demonstrate the indivisible unity of all life [Footnote 1]. The Bose crescograph has the enormity of ten million magnifications. The microscope enlarges only a few thousand times; yet it brought vital impetus to biological science. The crescograph opens incalculable vistas."
"You have done much, sir, to hasten the embrace of East and West in the impersonal arms of science."
"I was educated at Cambridge. How admirable is the Western method of submitting all theory to scrupulous experimental verification! That empirical procedure has gone hand in hand with the gift for introspection which is my Eastern heritage. Together they have enabled me to sunder the silences of natural realms long uncommunicative. The telltale charts of my crescograph [2] are evidence for the most skeptical that plants have a sensitive nervous system and a varied emotional life. Love, hate, joy, fear, pleasure, pain, excitability, stupor, and countless appropriate responses to stimuli are as universal in plants as in animals."
"The unique throb of life in all creation could seem only poetic imagery before your advent, Professor! A saint I once knew would never pluck flowers. 'Shall I rob the rosebush of its pride in beauty? Shall I cruelly affront its dignity by my rude divestment?' His sympathetic words are verified literally through your discoveries!"
"The poet is intimate with truth, while the scientist approaches awkwardly. Come someday to my laboratory and see the unequivocable testimony of the crescograph."
Gratefully I accepted the invitation and took my departure. I heard later that the botanist had left Presidency College and was planning a research center in Calcutta.
Botanist Jagadish Chandra Bose
When the Bose Institute (boseinst.ernet.in) was opened, I attended the dedicatory services. Enthusiastic hundreds strolled over the premises. I was charmed with the artistry and spiritual symbolism of the new home of science. Its front gate, I noted, was a centuried relic from a distant shrine. Behind the lotus [3] fountain, a sculptured female figure with a torch conveyed the Indian respect for woman as the immortal light-bearer. The garden held a small temple consecrated to the Noumenon beyond phenomena. Thought of the divine incorporeity was suggested by absence of any altar-image.
Bose's speech on this great occasion might have issued from the lips of one of the inspired ancient rishis.
"I dedicate today this [Bose] Institute as not merely a laboratory but a temple." His reverent solemnity stole like an unseen cloak over the crowded auditorium. "In the pursuit of my investigations I was unconsciously led into the border region of physics and physiology. To my amazement, I found boundary lines vanishing, and points of contact emerging, between the realms of the living and the non-living. Inorganic matter was perceived as anything but inert; it was athrill under the action of multitudinous forces.
"A universal reaction seemed to bring metal, plant, and animal under a common law. They all exhibited essentially the same phenomena of fatigue and depression, with possibilities of recovery and of exaltation, as well as the permanent irresponsiveness associated with death.
"Filled with awe at this stupendous generalization, it was with great hope that I announced my results before the Royal Society — results demonstrated by [reproducible] experiments.
"But the physiologists present advised me to confine myself to physical investigations, in which my success had been assured, rather than encroach on their preserves." More
1. "All science is transcendental or else passes away. Botany is now acquiring the right theory -- the avatars of Brahma will presently be the textbooks of natural history." - Emerson from the Latin root crescere, to increase. For his crescograph and other inventions, Bose was knighted in 1917.
2. The lotus flower is an ancient divine symbol in India; its unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul; the growth of its pure beauty from the mud of its origin holds a benign spiritual promise.
3. "At present, only the sheerest accident brings India into the purview of the American college student. Eight universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Pennsylvania, Chicago, and California) have chairs of Indology or Sanskrit, but India is virtually unrepresented in departments of history, philosophy, fine arts, political science, sociology, or any of the other departments of intellectual experience in which, as we have seen, India has made great contributions....We believe, consequently, that no department of study, particularly in the humanities, in any major university can be fully equipped without a properly trained specialist in the Indic phases of its discipline. We believe, too, that every college which aims to prepare its graduates for intelligent work in the world which is to be theirs to live in, must have on its staff a scholar competent in the civilization of India." - Extracts from an article by Professor W. Norman Brown of the University of Pennsylvania which appeared in the May 1939 issue of the Bulletin of the American Council of Learned Societies, 907 15th St., Washington, D. C., 25ø copy. This issue (#28) contains over 100 pages of a "Basic Bibliography for Indic Studies."
"All [humans] are made of water. If they leak out, they die." 100 Foot Surfing Days is a surfing film with some of the biggest waves ever ridden. Also included are interviews with the surfers willing to risk it all for the ride of a lifetime.
Release date: 2018. Running time: 31:46. Audio: English [CC]. Actors: Brock Little, Shane Dorian, Peter Mel, Carlos Burle, Mark Healey, Garrett McNamara, John John Florence, Ian Walsh, Albee Leyer, Evan Slater. Director: Josh Pomer. Genres: sports, action, adventure, documentary, independent.
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