Happy Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent for most Christians. Wisdom Quarterly's Mexican Buddhist Crystal Q. is torn between celebrating abstinence, the FiveEight or Ten Precepts, Ten Commandments, and reverting to simplicity. Since ancient Indian times, ashes from the pyre have been used by wandering ascetics as a way of getting clean. (Ashes are absorbent, and when collected from a funerary pyre, they are a strong reminder of this body's mortality). Buddhist David Bowie perhaps quoted the Anglican prayer book best when he sang, "Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie" (David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes").
So it's time for a field trip to church (Catholic mass) to see these smearing of cremation ashes across foreheads in Los Angeles. Ananda is eager to see what this is all about. CC took us to the giant Buddhist temple east of Los Angeles in the very Asian San Gabriel Valley, where we enjoyed the Aztec dancers dancing for the Chinese Mahayana Humanist Buddhist crowd. So this explosion/clash of Mexican and European church tradition ought to be a Roman spectacular.
Pasadena, California, has many Catholics, and "church" (mass) was packed. The one we attended is beautiful inside, much more beautiful than the usual Holy Roman Empire version. It has a picture of God unlike any other Euro Catholic church building we've ever seen, a massive mural. And next to the God are beautiful devas ("angels"), drawn in gold and very colorful. The many pews were full, and there is a Spanish language service going on in the school building across the street. This church building is on the corner of Fair Oaks and the 134 Freeway, with a big belfry and clock (campanile). Inside, it's like a mausoleum of imported stone. And the attendees are a mix of Hispanics, Italians, Europeans, and a sprinkling of Blacks and Asians. Everyone is very nice and seem repentant as they line up for their pyre ashes, almost certainly incense stick remnants and coal. Wine and gluten crackers are served, if one doesn't mind mixing saliva with everyone else, but it's wiped with a white towel between sips, which is certainly sterilizing through prayer and God's power or the priest's magic. The officiant and his altar boy assistants said some nice words, encouraged people to be good and observe the RamadanLenten (Latin Quadragesima, "Fortieth") self-purification practices for the next month and ten days, and to do acts of abstinence, restraint, charity, and kindness, all beautiful sentiments for those who live up to the best of their religion. It is very much like the Buddhist Rains Retreat (Pali Vassa).
Meat eating during the Holy Season?
We agree: Let animals live by not eating them.
Historically, abstinence from meat was a requirement on the days of the Lenten season, including Sunday, the "Lord's Day") [20]. In Eastern Christianity -- including Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, Eastern Lutherans, and Oriental Orthodox -- Great Lent is observed continuously without interruption for 40 days starting on Clean Monday and ending on Lazarus Saturday before Holy Week [21, 6] and the big finale of the real New Year's Day, Easter, the first day of spring (time of renewal, when the "son" rises after being as dead as the winter, as explained by Astrotheology). More
In India, cremation ashes are called phool ("flowers"). They are collected from the pyre in a rite-of-passage called asthi sanchayana then dispersed. This signifies redemption of the dead in waters (like those of the "holy" Ganges or Jordan River) considered to be sacred and a closure for the living (Hinduism, Note 28).
American Pope's first Lent
Kendrick Lamar's Lefty Gunplay, Grammy Award winning LA Latino
Dr. Dre made mad money signing Eminem, so Kendrick adopted Lefty Gunplay (F. Scott Holladay)
(HP) Christianity erased the truth, but the evidence remains: Viking "berserkers" were said to fight in a trance of unstoppable fury. Some historians believe this rage may have been triggered by psychoactive plants like henbane or hallucinogenic mushrooms. Seeds found in a Viking grave in Denmark suggest these substances were known and possibly used. Christians systematically destroyed much of the old pagan knowledge. This video explores the evidence behind one of Viking history’s strangest questions. More
Valentine's Day (aka Saint Valentine's Day, Feast of St. Valentine [1]) is celebrated annually on February 14th [2].
This celebration of going from Lust to Love like the Go Go's, it originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world [3, 4].
Cupid is Mara and Kama
There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Saint Valentines connected to February 14th [5], including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century [6, 7].
According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer [8]. Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: Tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the Roman emperor [7]. An 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution [9].
Will consumers buy cheap cards?
The 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14th [10, 11]. The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries, when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the "lovebirds" of early spring.
In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion for couples to express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").
Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid [who acts like the India god Kama, Greek Eros and Aphrodite, Roman Venus, and Buddhist Mara].
No sex please. We're Ameboids 'n Gatchularians
In the 19th century, handmade cards gave way to mass-produced greetings [12] thanks to capitalism. In Italy, Saint Valentine's keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart" as well as to children to ward off epileptic fits (called Saint Valentine's Malady) [13], which could be thought of as an overwrought lover's obsessive mania, like St. Vitus' Dance. More
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
Man, this is cool, this is the life 😭
From homeless drug addicts to high-functioning workaholics, the continuum of addiction cuts a wide and painful swath through our Western culture.
Blending first-person accounts, riveting case studies, cutting-edge research and passionate argument, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts takes a panoramic yet highly intimate look at this widespread and perplexing human ailment.
Countering prevailing theories of addiction as being a genetic disease or an individual moral failure, addiction specialist Dr. Gabor Maté, M.D., presents an eloquent case that addiction – all addiction – is in fact a case of human development gone askew.
No substance (not heroin, meth, crack) is addictive. If it were, everyone who took it would become addicted. They do not. We become addicted because we are predisposed by a history of early child trauma. Combined with substances or behaviors, drug use leads to addiction.
Dr. Maté, who for 12 years practiced medicine in Vancouver, Canada’s notorious Downtown Eastside – North America’s most concentrated area of drug use, begins by telling the stories of his patients who, in their destitution and uniformly tragic histories, represent one extreme of the addictive spectrum.
With trademark compassion and unflinching narrative eye, Dr. Maté brings to life their ill-fated and mostly misunderstood struggle for relief or escape -- through substance abuse -- from the pain that has tormented them since childhood.
Dr. Maté shows how the behavioral addictions of society’s more fortunate members – including himself – differ only in degree of severity from the drug habits of his Downtown Eastside patients.
In reality there is only one addiction process, its core objective being the self-soothing of deep-seated fears and discomforts.
Turning to the neurobiological roots of addiction, Dr. Maté presents an astonishing array of scientific evidence showing conclusively that:
Addictive tendencies arise in the parts of our brains governing some of our most basic and life-sustaining needs and functions: incentive and motivation, physical and emotional pain relief, the regulation of stress, and the capacity to feel and receive love;
These brain circuits develop, or don’t develop, largely under the influence of the nurturing environment in early life, and that therefore addiction represents a failure of these crucial systems to mature in the way nature intended; and
The human brain continues to develop new circuitry throughout the lifespan, including well into adulthood, giving new hope for people mired in addictive patterns. Dr. Maté then examines the current mainstream. More
Sense craving (kāmacchanda): seeking pleasure through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and physical feeling.
Ill-will (vyāpāda): feelings of anger, hostility, vengefulness, resentment, hatred, and bitterness.
Sloth-and-torpor (thīna-middha): mental and physical lack of energy with little to no ability to make effort toward samadhi or concentration.
Restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): the inability to calm the mind and bring it to stillness (samadhi) and focus one's energy.
Skeptical doubt (vicikiccha): lack of confidence, conviction, faith in the practice and one's ability to succeed in calm and insight toward enlightenment and liberation.
According to Gil Fronsdal, the Pali term (nīvaraṇa) translated as "hindrance" actually means "covering." What these hindrances cover over are: the clarity of our mind, as well as our ability to be mindful, wise, concentrated, and stay on purpose [1].
According to earlier translations by Rhys Davids, the Pali term nīvaraṇa (Sanskrit nivāraṇa) refers to an obstacle or hindrance in the ethical sense, usually enumerated in a set of five [7].
In Pali language literature: Pali canon
In the Pali canon'sSamyutta Nikaya, several sutras or discourses juxtapose the Five Hindrances with the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (satta-bojjhanga) [a].
For instance, according to SN 46.37, the Buddha states: "Meditators, there are these Five Hindrances, obstructions, corruptions of mind, weakeners of wisdom. What are the five?
Sensual craving...
ill-will...
sloth-and-torpor...
restlessness-and-remorse...
skeptical doubt...
"There are, meditators, these Seven Factors of Enlightenment, which are nonhindrances, nonobstructions, noncorruptions of mind/heart. When cultivated and developed, they lead to the realization of the fruit of true knowledge and liberation.
"What are the seven? The enlightenment factor of mindfulness... equanimity... [8][b]."
Ven. Anālayo emphasizes: To overcome the hindrances, to practice satipatthana[the Four Foundations], and to establish the awakening factors [the Seven Factors of Enlightenment] are, indeed, according to several Pali discourses, the key aspects and the distinctive features common to the awakenings of all buddhas of the past, present, and future [9].
Ven. Anālayo supports this by identifying that, in all extant Sanskrit and Chinese versions of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse (Satipatthana Sutta), only the Five Hindrances and Seven Factors of Enlightenment are consistently identified under the dhamma contemplation section.
Contemplations of the Five Aggregates clung to as self, Six Sense Bases and Four Noble Truths are not included in one or more of these non-Pali language versions [9].
In terms of gaining insight into and overcoming the Five Hindrances, according to the discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Buddha proclaimed:
"How, meditators, does a meditator live contemplating mental objects in the mental objects of the Five Hindrances? Herein [within this Doctrine and Discipline], meditators, when sense-craving is present, one knows, "There is sense-craving in me."
When sense-craving is not present, one knows, "There is no sense-craving in me."
One knows how the arising of the non-arisen sense-craving comes to be; one knows how the abandoning of the arisen sense-craving comes to be; and one knows how the non-arising in the future of the abandoned sense-craving comes to be [10]. More: The Five Hindrances
Dave Mustaine (formerly of Metallica then his revenge creation Megadeth) has bad mojo. No one in the metal community really likes him, certainly not his bandmates. Maybe there's a reason -- a bad childhood, trauma, scars, bad choices, and a spooky vibe. He did once make one good album though and at least one truly great song, strangely appropriate in the end:
(Asangoham) Oct. 15, 2025: Real "awakening" [Buddhist enlightenment, bodhi] does something extraordinary and, no, it doesn't wipe out our personality or
turn us into some kind of blissed-out zombie.
The ego doesn't get annihilated; it just stops running the
show. What we thought was solid and separate turns out to have been flowing and connected all
along.
When we see this clearly, we don’t have to work to get compassion. It just starts
happening.
Regular compassion usually works from a sense of distance: I feel bad for you, I want to help
you, I'll make sacrifices for you. This kind of caring matters enormously.
However, when the
fence between "me" and "you" becomes see-through, compassion flows without anyone directing
traffic. It's just compassion moving through whatever's happening, taking care of what needs
taking care of.
The Christian New Testament captures this perfectly: "Love is patient, love is kind. It doesn't envy, doesn't
boast, isn't proud. It doesn't dishonor others, isn't self-seeking.”
It’s basically describing what
love looks like when the ego stops trying to manage it.
Similarly, the Gita says: "The wise see with equal vision a learned priest, a cow, an elephant, a
dog, and an outcast." It's what we see when we recognize the same consciousness
showing up everywhere.
Explore the thin line between spiritual enlightenment and psychological dissociation in this deep dive into consciousness, control, and awakening [breaking free].
This video examines how genuine spiritual liberation differs fundamentally from trauma-induced dissociation and why understanding this distinction matters more than ever.
Discover the hidden mechanisms of social control through psychological operations, quiet warfare, from declassified documents to modern cult tactics.
Learn how spiritual communities can become vehicles for manipulation and how to distinguish authentic teachers from those who exploit vulnerability.
Topics explored:
✦ Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars: Economic and psychological control systems
✦ MK-Ultra and the engineering of dissociative states
✦ Cult case studies: Aum Shinrikyo, NXIVM, and their manipulation tactics
✦ Enlightenment vs. psychopathy: Understanding emotional detachment
✦ DPDR (depersonalization-derealization) as enlightenment's shadow side (#DPDR) ✦ How genuine awakening generates natural compassion
✦ Zen Buddhism, Bhagavad Gita, and the Dhammapada teachings on presence [mindfulness] ✦ Red flags in spiritual communities and teacher-student relationships
✦ Protecting yourself from manipulation while pursuing genuine growth.
This video draws from Buddhist psychology (Abhidhamma), Vedic philosophy, documented cult cases, and modern neuroscience to illuminate the crucial differences between liberation and dissociation.
Whether one is on a spiritual path or simply interested in understanding consciousness and control, this exploration offers practical wisdom for maintaining psychological sovereignty.
Script: Sid. Edit: Joana Riza Dela Cruz.
Voiceover: Rohit Dave.
Original Score: @asangvani
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"Ghost Month" (the Seventh Month of the Chinese Lunisolar Calendar, corresponding to Sept. 6 to Oct. 6, 2025) is the time of the Ghost Festival (Yulanpen). It is observed among the Chinese diaspora population of the world, particularly in Chinatowns, Malaysia, Singapore, and anywhere Mahayana Buddhism dominates. Hungry ghosts or petas (Sanskrit pretas) are miserable being who have been reborn deprived due to unskillful karma (deeds).
If hungry ghosts, demons, and malignant spirits are living beings, and Buddhists cherish all sentient beings, how do we exorcise them when they create obstacles in our lives? Why did Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) convert angry subhuman beings into "protectors of the Dharma" (Dharmapalas)? Why did the great Tibetan sage Milarepa have long conversations with ghosts and demons? How do can humans protect against curses and black magic? What are Buddhism’s Protective Verses (Parittas), and how do we chant them? These questions are answered in this “Buddhist Guide to Exorcism: A Spirit Handler’s Guide” and demonstrate some of the methods. More: Buddha Weekly
The Hungry Ghost Realm: A Buddhist Teaching of Hope in Addiction
(Mythos & Logos) Complete Archives: Mythos & Logos. The Realm of Hungry Ghosts (peta-loka) is a plane of existence in Buddhist cosmology, an unfortunate destination, an afterlife marked by deprivation, suffering, and dependency.
The journey of one of the Buddha's chief disciples, Maha Moggallāna (Sanskrit Maudgalyayana, Chinese Mulian), to this realm provides a first step for how to break the vicious cycle of addiction borne of trauma.
Many of us have a "hungry ghost" (peta, preta) lurking inside of us. If anyone is struggling, please reach out to a professional as there are many great organizations, including @TWLOHA, filled with people trained and willing to help.*
00:31 Bhavachakra at Punakha Dzong, Bhutan, photographed by Bernard Gagnon, licensed under Creative Commons
00:49 The Six Realms of Birth, Edo Period Japan, British Museum
01:13 Ghosts from the Bangkok National Museum
01:26 Hungry Ghost Scroll, Kyoto National Museum
02:06 Unending Hunger
02:09 Hungry Ghost Scroll, Kyoto National Museum
02:50 Haunting Ghosts from the Thirty-Seven Nats
03:15 Dr. Gabor Maté, In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
03:54 Hungry Ghost Scroll, Kyoto National Museum
04:39 Maudgalyayana [Maha Moggallana] Rescuing His Mother, Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum
05:05 From Darkness
05:08 Ven. Maha Moggallana at Wat Olak Madu, Kedah, photographed by Ven. Anandajoti Bhikkhu, licensed under Creative Commons
05:38 Hungry Ghost Scroll, Kyoto National Museum
06:37 Yulanpen Sutra, Mahayana canon
07:12 Shakyamuni Buddha from the Dazu Rock Carvings, photographed by Michael Gunther, licensed under Creative Commons
07:42 Mulian Saves His Mother, 19th Century China
08:26 Into Light
08:30 Silk Roundel with Endless Knot Symbol, 19th Century China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
09:00 Rahans Receiving Offerings, 19th Century Burma
09:18 Hungry Ghost Scroll, Kyoto National Museum
09:57 Offering at Hong Kong Ghost Festival, photographed by Rose Tim Wing Mxuiek, licensed under Creative Commons
10:10 Begging monk in Himeji, photographed by Nesnad, licensed under Creative Commons
10:20 Mukaebi of the Bon Festival, photographed by Batholith
10:55 Conclusion
10:59 Homeless man in New York, photographed by CGP Grey, licensed under Creative Commons
11:09 The Drinker by Albert Anker
11:26 Sinhalese manuscript, photographed by Wellcome Images, licensed under Creative Commons
11:51 Floating Lanterns, photographed by San Lie, licensed under Creative Commons
12:25 Hungry Ghost Scroll, Kyoto National Museum Ambient - The Ambient by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
ABOUT: Mythos and Logos are two ancient words that can be roughly translated as “Story and Meaning.”
Support the channel by subscribing, liking, and commenting to join the conversation.
Patreon: mythosandlogos. The purpose of this channel is to share the important stories at the foundation of human cultures throughout history. These include mythology, legends, folktales, religious stories, and parables from the dawn of history to the modern day. This channel provides interpretations and insight into these stories, to find and apply their meaning to contemporary life. All stories covered are treated academically. This channel makes no claims regarding the historical, scientific, or religious truth of these tales. Rather, its goal is to find the meanings understood by their authors and apply them to the modern world.
*All channel income from October 31-November 30, 2021, donated to To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) to help the Hungry Ghosts around us every day. Thanks for supporting an organization that helps those who are struggling.
(Ādittapariyāya Sutta, SN 35.28) In the Pali language canon there is a discourse (sutra) called the "Fire Sermon Discourse," popularly referred to as the Fire Sermon [1].
In this discourse, the Buddha teaches that achieving liberation (vimutti, moksha) from all suffering (pain, disappointment, rebirth, and unsatisfactorinesss) through letting go everything (ALL) mind and the five senses obsessively CLING to as personal, as sources of pleasure, and/or as enduring.
This sutra is also found in the Buddhist Monastic Code (Vinaya) at Vin I 35 [5].
English speakers might be familiar with the name of this discourse due to T. S. Eliot's titling the third section of his celebrated poem "The Waste Land" as The Fire Sermon. In a footnote, Eliot states that this Buddhist discourse "corresponds in importance to the Sermon on the Mount" in Christianity [6].
In the Pali canon's "Collection of Discourses" (Sutta Pitaka), the Fire Sermon is the third sutra delivered by the Buddha (after the first discourse, called the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, and the Anattalakkhana Sutta), several months after his great awakening/enlightenment, on top of Gayasisa Hill, near Gaya, in what is now India (formerly the maha-janapada Kingdom of Magadha before there was an "India").
He delivered it to 1,000 newly converted wandering ascetics (samanas) who formerly practiced a sacred fire ritual (Pali aggihutta, Sanskrit agnihotra) [7].
The 5th-century CE post-canonical Pali commentary called the Sāratthappakāsini (the Spk.), attributed to the Theravada scholar-monk Buddhaghosa, draws a direct connection between the ascetics' prior practices and this discourse's main rhetorical device:
Having led the 1,000 ascetics to Gayā's Head, the Buddha reflected, "What kind of Dhamma talk would be suitable for them?"
He then realized, "In the past they worshipped fire morning and evening. I will teach them that the 12 sense bases (āyatana) are burning and blazing. In this way they will be able to attain full enlightenment" [8]. More
What is the FAT founder of world's third largest religion (when the 1 billion uncounted Buddhists in communist, and therefore officially atheist, Buddhists are counted) in the world going to teach us about being fit? The fact is the popular depiction of "Fat Happy Buddha" is not the historical Buddha Shakyamuni (born Prince Siddhartha Gautama) but rather a monk (now elevated to bodhisattva) named Budai (also Putai, Hotei), a Chinese monk with a big sack of candy for children, a luck-bringing jolly fellow very reminiscent of the West's Santa Claus.
Fat on a slippery wet diving board
ABOUT: Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, is professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the founder and director of its renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic. His clinic was featured in 1993 in the public television series Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. Jon Kabat-Zinn is the author of 15 books, in print in over 45 languages. These include Full Catastrophe Living; Wherever You Go, There You Are; Coming to Our Senses; and Mindfulness for Beginners.
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