"Winds in the east, mist coming in, like something is brewing about to begin. Can't put my finger on what lies in store, but I feel what's to happen all happened before."
Have we met before? | Seven signs of a past-life connection
(Buddha's Wisdom) š WHY DO SOME STRANGERS INSTANTLY FEEL LIKE FAMILY?
What are the signs we have known someone in a past life? And what does Buddhism actually teach about these karmic connections?
This video examines seven experiences often linked to past-life (what non-Buddhist traditions call "reincarnation") relationships, from instant trust and unexplained recognition to recurring conflict and shared spiritual growth.
Through ancient Buddhist texts, traditional stories, disputed past-life cases, meditation teachings, and modern memory research, let's explore Buddhist rebirth without assuming that the oversimplification that a "permanent soul" (atta or atman) is traveling from one life to another. That is what is happening, conventionally speaking but, ultimately, it is a pernicious wrong view.
What are the OBSTACLES to progress in serenity, meditation, insight, and enlightenment? The Five Hindrances: affection (lust, attachment, passion, clinging), aversion, restlessness, fatigue, doubt.
*(NOTE: The SÄketa couple (Nakula-mata and Nakula-pita)'s first meeting and the rival wives come from commentarial literature written centuries after the Buddha, drawing on older oral tradition. This video presents them as the tradition tells them, not as verified history. (Nakula-pita and Nakula-mata Gahapati)
š SOURCES AND FURTHER READING (affiliate links)
Primary texts:
Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Saį¹yutta NikÄya)
Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Aį¹ guttara NikÄya)
Bhikkhu ĆÄį¹amoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima NikÄya)
šæ Which sign brought someone to mind...and what actually happened? Leave more than a number. What moment that made you think of the person? Join community: Instagram: buddhaswizdom. Facebook: buddhaswizdom. X: https://x.com/BuddhasWizdom. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ndnBU5... TikTok: buddhas.wisdom.
Support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom, paypal.me/buddhaswisdom. š Subscribe for more of the stories behind Buddhism’s most familiar ideas. #Buddhism #PastLife #PastLives #Rebirth #Karma #PastLifeConnection #BuddhasWisdom #KarmicConnections #Meditation
(Autumn Kings) I caught a feelin' at the end of the night/ Vision of a god walkin' into the light/ Whisperin' words that I needed to hear:/ Never lose faith while you're livin' in fear
Then it was gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Yeow!
Had a premonition at the end of the night/ Vision of a devil tryna swallow the light/ Screamin' so loud, it was all I could hear/ Tellin' me it's better if I disappeared
Then it was gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone
Can't make up my mind/ I'm sick of never knowin' my direction/ Lookin' for a sign/ Need more than just the man in my reflection/ It's time for me to take what's mine/ Leave the rest to the great divine/ And find somewhere that I belong/ Before I'm gone!
Can't make up my!/ Can't make up my mind/ Cuz I ain't full of time!/ Can't make up my mind/ I'm sick of never knowing my direction/ Looking for a sign/ Need more than just the man in my reflection/ It's time for me to take what's mine/ Leave the rest to the Great Divine/ And find somewhere that I belong
Can't make up my mind/ I'm sick of never knowing my direction/ Looking for a sign/ Need more than just the man in my reflection/ It's time for me to take what's mine/ Leave the fears of the past behind/ And find somewhere that I belong/ Before I'm gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ Gone, gone, gone/ La, la, la, la, la, la, la...
Autumn Kings: Canadian rock band that formed in Ontario in 2015, who have since relocated to Detroit, Michigan, USA [2, 3]. The group started as an independent band but signed with Hopeless Records in August 2024 [4], crediting Linkin Park and Metallica as inspiration [15].
Nothing lasts; love it anyway (impermanence)
(Buddha's Wisdom) Can we love something so hard we keep it from changing or love someone without trying to keep it just the way it is? | The Buddha's truth about impermanence
What is "impermanence" in Buddhism?
Look, we'll never grow apart or separate!
Anicca (pronounced /ah-nee-cha/) means "impermanent," "transient," "in constant flux," "changing," "unstable," "perpetually altering," and so on. As an abstract noun (aniccatÄ), it is "impermanence."
It is one of the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence (ti-lakkhana). In most texts, the two other characteristics (that all things are "disappointing" and "impersonal" or dukkha and anattÄ) are derived (S.22. 15; Ud.IV. I).
The impermanence of "things" (dhammas, "phenomena") is their arising (appearing), turning (changing), and passing away (vanishing).
It is the restless arising, altering, and disappearing of things that have come to be (arisen, become) then immediately (in the next submoment) changed and in the next submoment scattered, dissolved, been destroyed, passed out of being. All of this is called "becoming."
Then what may rightly be said of all things, of all mental and material phenomena in an ultimately sense -- namely, of cittas and kalapas -- is that, "Not having been, they come to be, but once having been, they cease." This is the radical truth of impermanence from moment to moment, not their eventual decline, which anyone can see. It is because we do not see their radical changeability and their hurtling towards destruction that the mind/heart clings to things or to the appearance of things, falling under the illusion/delusion that they persist from moment to moment. They SEEM to persist! That is because what replaces them (cittas and kalapas, mind-moments and particles) are other mental and physical phenomena that is almost but not quite the same. The new things (the replacements from moment to moment) are not identical. Casual observation makes the mind believe they are, that it is the self-same thing from one moment to the next persisting, carrying on. But it is not.
Flip the pages, and the cartoon shark moves.
For example, to easily illustrate this subtle but vital point, imagine watching a motion cartoon (a moving comic strip reel). How is the illusion of "motion" being achieved? Certainly, the drawing is not moving. But that's what it looks like to the casual observer. A flipbook of cartoon images if being flipped through. If the flipping stops, the illusion (of motion) stops. If the flipping resumes, it is as if the motion resumes. The image itself NEVER moves. The reel or the flipping moves, and because the images are so similar BUT not identical, movement of the images is magically conjured. Now, take two or more consecutive images. Are they all identical or just very similar? They are very similar with a tiny, almost imperceptible difference between them. That miniscule difference causes the illusion of the image's motion when there is flipping or when the reel is spinning at a certain number of frames per second (FPS). But casually shuffling these images in hand (no flipping, no reel), they all look the same, exactly the same. Many frames later in the sequence, one can perceive a difference. Then, training the eye to notice, one can begin to see that they are all just a tiny (barely noticeable) bit different.
Move hundreds of thousands of frames in a reel
Who cares? The more similar the frames, the more the moving cartoon will appear smooth and realistic, whereas the less similar the image-frames will make the movement appear jumpy and artificial. In high-fidelity movies, frame rate is important, moving faster than the eye can perceive it. Slow the rate down, and reality comes into view. Nothing on the screen is actually moving. The illusion is stripped away. Every "movie" has to move at a replacement rate that tricks the eye/brain into not noticing its segmented nature, its constituent nature, its compounded nature, its lack of identity. This frame NEVER becomes that frame, but because the second follows the first, the replacement is accomplished seamlessly.
In just the same way, we never notice that our reality is a bunch of segments, a stream of mind-moments and particles -- incessantly arising, turning, and vanishing so quickly that everything around us gives off the illusion of identity (from moment to moment), continuity (that it is the SAME thing from one moment to the next moment), and the promise that thing (phenomena) there in front of us may (is capable of somehow, someday) fulfilling us, completing us, pleasing us, ultimately satisfying us, enduring and real. But it is neither real nor enduring and has no hope of ever fulfilling us. It is, in other words, impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal, not itself from one moment to the next.
So, again, who cares? One should care because it is by noticing that THIS IS REALITY, and this has always been reality, and that one CAN let go of the painful (the disappointing) by finally noticing that it is impermanent and impersonal, that it is dukkha and anicca, and that ultimately speaking, it is anatta, not-self). This realization leads to waking up, to enlightenment in this very life. This is why the Buddha teaches it -- not as a belief system to have faith in, but rather as a path-of-practice, a way of knowing-and-seeing for each person to personally experience. Why? So that the illusion (maya) will be broken and wisdom (panna, prajna) will arise and that clinging to the painful/disappointing will be let go of.
The meaning is that these things (all mental and material constituents) never persist in the same way for one whole moment, but that they are dissolving and vanishing from moment to moment (The Path of Purification, Vis.M. VII, 3).
Impermanence is a fundamental feature of all conditioned things (phenomena), be they material or mental, coarse or subtle, one's own (internal) or another's (external): ALL formations are impermanent (sabbe sankhÄrÄ aniccÄ; MN 35, Dhp. 277).
Wait, a "triangle" is just three lines?
What does "conditioned" mean? It means composed of parts, constituents; has a conditional existence utterly dependent on its parts. For example, what is an equilateral "triangle"? Ultimately, it is a conditioned phenomenon. What is it conditioned on? It is conditioned on three equal-length lines in a particular arrangement. That theoretical (intangible) arrangement is the triangle, and those physical (tangible) lines arranged that way are the triangle. When the conditions or constituents are moved, where does the "triangle" go? It does not "go" anywhere because it was never really (ultimately speaking) there to begin with. What was there then? There was an illusion (in the mind) arising based on causes and conditions being present, utterly dependent on these causes and conditions or supports, ingredients, elements, constituents. Conventionally, we can very rightly say that the whole is greater than the parts, but ultimately this is not actually true. The parts contained the potential for the illusion before we ever saw the illusion.
Again, not to be repetitive, who cares?! The noble ones (those along the stages of enlightenment) care because there are two precious things that result from this realization. One, everything and anything we cling to, if we saw it in its true nature (ti-lakkhana), we could immediately let go of and not be weighed down by or in bondage to it. Say, for example, we were eating rice in a dark cave and loving (and clinging to) it, and someone turned the light on. And we noticed that what we took to be white "rice" was maggots. Could we let go of our "rice" habit, our eating of it, of our clinging to it? Probably. Likely. Two, to what or to whom do we cling to the most in all the world, in all the universe, in all the multiverse? That's right, like it or not, it is to self that we cling. But what is "self" really? There is no self. But there is a persistent illusion of self (of identity, of continuity, even from life to life, transcending death). We don't notice it dying every moment. We don't believe it dies. It's right here. A moment later, it's right her, unchanged!
Unchanged?
Well, mostly unchanged.
That mostly is vital because "it" is a little changed. And like the cartoon frames mentioned above, this tiny change causes the illusion of movement, motion, that it's ANIMATED, alive, real, capable of willful motion. But that, we can now at least conceptually begin to see, is an illusion. "This" (this self) is not what it seems. It's not at all what it seems. Look:
Self (atta, atman, soul, ego, essence, personality, traits, karmic baggage, whatever) is real, conventionally speaking, and what anyone absentmindedly means by "self" was defined by the Buddha, whose purified mind and faculty of perception could directly perceive. What we mean when we say "myself," or when we speak of others and those "selves" is a tacit reference either to that body (form), these feelings (sensations), perceptions, mental formations (such as will, intention, motive), and/or this consciousness. (These five things -- these phenomena, phenomenal processes, one might even say epiphenomenal-, but why get all philosophical -- are called the khandha, or in Sanskrit skandha, the "Five Aggregates clung to as self").
But "I" am a "self" and "I" have them, right?
No. A triangle doesn't have lines. A triangle is the lines. But a line is not a triangle. And another line is not a triangle. And a third line is not a triangle. However, magically (illusorily) when the three lines ||| combine in that certain arrangement, shazam! There's the "triangle," utterly dependent on its causes and conditions. And let's say the "conditions" are the three equal-length lines, and the causes are pushing them into that arrangement. Bam! A "triangle" arose, came into existence, into being, became (always dynamically-becoming, never static-being), appeared out of nowhere. Just so, when these factors (elements, constituents, aggregates) are present, bam! There is what we call a "self."
It's not a theory; it's a practice
But consider what we think (or more correctly assume) what a "self" is and should be and how it should behave and what its nature is. It is something I (the self) control. I will it to be, and it obeys. But this is nonsense. The body (form) is and is of such a nature, "I" didn't make it. And even if I caused it to come into being (the "I" who did that having existed in the past in a past life during which karma was generated and this body just being the karmic resultant), I didn't know what I was doing or how and when it would come to be and in exactly what form or appearance. The body, being material, is of a material nature and follows the laws or regularities of material form. It doesn't listen me, doesn't heed when I bid it to be this way or that. I have almost no control of it. I can "will" to move, and sometimes (but not all the time), it moves; yet sometimes it moves all on its own when I didn't will it to. But I call it mine, say it's me, and really believe, "I" (it, this "self" here is) am the one in charge of it. Form, being material, is ultimately the Four Great Elements, which are not four things so much as they are four general characteristics with about a dozen expressions, so there's no sense in arguing against the old model of physics that we think in our modernity is archaic and silly. It is not silly. It is observably true, if we knew what it meant. See Four Elements Meditation by Pa Auk Sayadaw to find the elements and directly know-and-see them without arguing from a position of ignorance.
Four characteristics of matter
These four elements of form are only mentioned here because the Buddha simply lumped them all together and called them form, but he did not do that for "mind," which is much more understandably and deeply clung to as "self." The remaining four of the Five Aggregates are together called "mind." They go together. They, like the Four Great Elements, are not things so much as they are processes. The process of feeling (many constituent frames, one after another, never identical, in continuity, altered, different from moment to moment, one arising, turning, passing away before another arises, turns, and immediately passes away, like the frames of the cartoon), the process of perceiving, the process of mental-forming, the process of consciousness/knowing. The Buddha details them all to break the clinging to the illusion/delusion that any or all or anything else is "self." I am not my feelings, I am not my perceptions, I am not my mental formations. But you know what, I hot damn am sure MY consciousness! I am that I am, that consciousness itself that wills and knows, that watches and sees, that does and experiences!
This is a powerful delusion, one that no other religion (doctrine or dharma or teaching) can break from. The Buddha can and did break from it. He saw through it, saw and taught others to directly see what "consciousness" is. It is just a stream (sota). A stream of what? A stream of ever-changing cittas (mind-moments) and cetasikas (mental-concomitants). They can be directly perceived by mental purification and mindfulness, as explained in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutra. Then the illusion bursts. I am not consciousness. I can't control consciousness. I cannot say and get it to do what I want, stay awake, know this or that, and so on. I'm deluded to think "this I am." For it doesn't behave any of the way I will or wish to command.
Enough, I can't take it anymore!
That the totality of existence is impermanent is also often stated in terms of the Five Aggregates clung to as self (khandha), the 12 internal (personal) and external (belonging to others) sense bases (Äyatana), and so on.
Only nirvana (Pali nibbÄna), which is the sole "unconditioned element" and "not a formation" (asankhata), not a composite composed of constituents like everything else, is permanent (nicca, dhuva).
The insight leading to the first stage of enlightenment called stream-entry (sotÄpatti), is often expressed in terms of impermanence:
"Whatever is subject to origination [arising] is subject to cessation" (see the Buddha's First Sermon called the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, S.46. 11).
In the Buddha's last exhortation, before his parinibbÄna (his "final nirvana" without remainder), the Buddha reminded his disciples of the impermanence of all existence as a spur to diligent effort:
"Behold now, meditators, as I exhort: Formations are bound to vanish. Strive diligently!" (vayadhammÄ sankhÄrÄ, appamÄdena sampÄdetha, DN 16).
Without the deep insight into the impermanence (changing characteristic) and insubstantiality (impersonal characteristic) of ALL phenomena of existence (i.e., the Five Aggregates clung to as self) there is no attainment of enlightenment and liberation (bodhi and nirvana, awakening and freedom).
Therefore, comprehension of what radical "impermanence" really means, which is something only gained by direct personal meditative experience, heads two lists of insight knowledge.
Seeing things as they are, it's possible to let go
One, "contemplation of impermanence" (aniccÄnupassanÄ) is the first of the 18 chief kinds of insight (q.v.) and, two, the "contemplation of arising and vanishing [rise and fall]" (udayabbayÄnupassanÄ-ƱÄna) is the first of the nine kinds of knowledge that lead to the "purification by knowledge and vision [knowing-and-seeing] of the path-progress' (see "purification," visuddhi, VI).
Contemplation of impermanence leads to the "conditionless deliverance" ["signless release"] (animitta-vimokkha).
As herein the faculty of confidence (saddhindriya) is outstanding, one who attains in that way the path of stream-entry (the first stage of enlightenment) is called a "faith-devotee" (saddhÄnusÄrÄ« as listed among the "noble ones" or ariya-puggala) and at the seven higher stages is called faith-liberated (saddhÄ-vimutta). See also "the perception of impermanence" [the direct perceiving of radical impermanence of cittas and kalapas] or anicca-saƱƱÄ.
For more, see The Three Basic Facts of Existence I: Impermanence (BPS.lk, Wheel Nos. 186/187)
Buddha's Wisdom (video); text by Ven. Nyanatiloka; Autumn Kings; David Guetta; expanded by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
"How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise" is a beautiful saying. A few adjustments made it poetic but ruined its original meaning. What it really means, in plain English, is: "It feels horrible to know something when the person who finds out can't do anything about it."
Pasadena is part of Los Angeles, which is part of a giant mountainous forest called the Angeles National Forest, which is probably why it is full of coyotes (and bears, deer, rams, and man-eating lions). "Them coyot's is some wily varmints," the common wisdom goes around town. They'll pick a cat right off the street or out of a yard. It's like cats-and-dogs outside because, after all, these are felines and canines, wild or feral.
What do cats know about anything anyway?
Skulking loners and organized packs of canines lope around the streets, particularly in the foothills of Altadena and other communities, coming down in search of water, bowls of dogfood in yards, and anything on four legs wandering around at night. Coyotes will grab a human baby as quickly as a dingo would if no one is watching.
Bad Kitties worse than Good Boys?
(Cat Dog Diary) Imagine a freaked-out rescued kitten meets a fluffy puppy
Can you help me find my kitty?
When my beautiful neighbor asked me what I thought happened to her Fitzgerald, I diverted: "It's not important what I think. What's important is how we're going to find him before it's too late."
"So you'll help me search by walking around the block for hours, calling out, 'Here, kitty-kitty"?
"No, I won't do that. It hasn't worked for you, and Fitz loves you. I was thinking we go divine."
"Go 'divine'? Kill ourselves and look for Fitzy in heaven?"
"No, of course not! Cats don't go to heaven. Everyone knows that. That's a place for dogs."
"Where do they go then?"
"Well, that's what I intend to find out through some urban shamanic divination procedures. They'll tell us were to look or reveal the whereabouts of all that remains of frisky Fitzy the coyote's Pemican."
"Coyote chow?"
"Possibly. Do you really want to know?"
"Yes, I must have closure!"
"Well, if that's all you need, Dr. Deborah King told me we can do it ourselves. We can cut the dysfunctional energetic ties that bind and give ourselves relief."
"Just find my cat...or else."
She wasn't having it -- skeptic, doubter, distruster, faithless -- so she pushed me to do the only thing I could, which was to go behind her back to meet with a pet detective, a psychic familiar with these sorts of cases.
I only asked the psychic as a favor. She offered her services, saying she had a knack for dealing with beloved pets. I showed her some photos then we took a walk around the block to see if Fitz would run out of wherever it was hiding and come to the psychic like a magnet. That's what she claimed happened before in the rescue of both a pet cat and a tortoise.
"How does anyone lose a tortoise?"
"It was stuck under the fence, which I moved in my search, and it ran to me," she explained.
Not exactly magic, but I would gladly take it in this case.
Closure came for me quickly, and I wasn't even looking. The psychic said pictures and walking were no longer even necessary. She already had a clear story to tell. Coyotes were not to blame, except to the extent that they may have scared, startled, panicked, chased, terrified, or injured Fitz, but not killed and consumed it. This 9-year-old fur baby was driving her human caretaker to distraction, and she was near insanity. But she wouldn't listen.
It was going to be a tough case because I put limits on the remote viewing protocol and told the psychic to stuff her preconceived telepathy and start answering a series of commonsense questions.
She said, "You're being too rigid."
And I said, "Yes, I am, and I want you to narrow your impressions, visions, and telepathic communications with the cat to just answering what I ask. Force yourself to only reveal a tiny slice of all that you know, none of which is being helpful. If you can find it in yourself to answer, just find it physically without answering or saying anything. Just go straight to it or, better yet, just get the cat to run out and throw itself at you like you claim the tortoise did."
She could not, so we started with a flood of potentially useable intel, which sent us across the boulevard to a cul de sac then a yard then a yard then a shack. Wouldn't you know? We poked around...and she wasn't there. She may have been there before, hiding out under the shed, but we didn't find her or any tangible proof she had been there. Now the messages began to come in more strongly. The psychic was saying the cat was alive.
Personally, I took it for a goner, a tuft of colorful hair in a lump of coyote scat. But we found no such lump. I had already asked 80 people at a nearby church meeting; not one of them had seen the cat.
But one church woman was sure she could imitate its voice, and this allowed me to ask the cat questions about why it left. It answered, vaguely: "I was being smothered." That made sense, but was it any reason to leave? My neighbor says their love was mutual. Seems the cat didn't think so.
The owner of the shed wasn't home, so we could only look around the yard and come back to go through the shed, empty it, just as soon as we could get permission. I returned alone (because the psychic claimed not to be feeling well) at 10:00 pm. The owner still wasn't home, and his sympathetic neighbor couldn't grant permission for a search of it. I wandered up and down the alley, calling out, "Here kitty-kitty" like a darn fool, ending up doing what I told her was pointless. I tried reasoning with the cat, sending out my own intuitive feelers for the slightest hint.
Meanwhile, my nagging neighbor was on the phone, who promised a big reward she never really intended to pay out. She was doubting and demanding answers. The psychic started texting, sending new messages, saying the injured, hungry, thirst, confused cat had moved on. Work needed me to drive to the other side of the county for an important assignment. Isn't it just like the universe to all coincide and bombard us with nonsense from all directions (i.e., Everything Everywhere All at Once)?
The three were unrelenting, pulling me in all direction. All I could do was lope and skulk very suspiciously in an alley and around the property for an hour like a cat burglar casing a joint and hoping to catch video of the cat alive to at least have a reason to hope and continue the search. It would have been better to meet with the Council of Coyotes and ask it if any member had made off with a pretty angora calico Afghan tabby furball.
The Buddhist cats of ancient Japan
"How terrible is human attachment, tenacious clinginess, and our utter inability to let go. Such is the plight of humans on this vast plane of existence, the Buddha realized and proclaimed. But how can we let go?
The Buddha answered that. "Cultivate mentally-purifying calm the develop insight. When we see the true nature of things, the heart/mind, seeing the true nature of existence, automatically lets go with no effort on our part to separate. Let me repeat, we do not need to make any extra effort to relinquish. Seeing reality as it is is enough to discard and abandon everything we are consciously and unconsciously clinging to that is bringing about our suffering (dukkha).
E. Hicks
Abraham-Hicks (a council of 12 entities as channeled by Esther Hicks with the help of her very supportive husband Jerry) says that everything we want is downstream. Let go to get it. Stop fighting the way upstream. We are not salmon.
She called and texted me, demanding to know if it was the coyotes who tore and devoured her precious kitty. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the truth was worse than that.
The psychic said the scared cat had been found, wandering and drained, by someone who took it in and loved it better, kept it safer, and gave it so much love that it didn't even want to return "home" now. "Home is where the heart is," everyone knows that. She pushed and pushed me, and all I could say was, "You say you don't want it, this reality we're in [where the cat is dead], but you don't, you don't really mean it. You say you won't stand for it, this circus we're in, but you don't, don't really mean it. What if the truth is worse than that?"
"No, that's what you already think happened. You want 'closure' to accept that. What if it's worse? What if Fitz doesn't want to come back?"
"Impossible! Fitzgerald needs me, can't live without me..."
"Well, I don't know about that. Wouldn't it be worse to find out that Fitz is fine but not coming back, alive and happy but not with you?"
"What the h*ll are you talking about?! I'll break Fitz out! Who has my cat?! Who's keeping him hostage and away from me?!"
"Why are you asking me? You don't believe in cat psychics, remember? Who cares what she said? You ask me for the 'truth,' but you don't, you don't really mean it."
If the divine Master Plan is perfection [by rebirth]
Maybe next I'll give Jewish a try
Trusting my Soul to the Ice Cream Assassin
Here, here, here
[CHORUS]
How many Fates turn around in the overtime?
Ballerinas have fins that you'll never find
You thought that you were the bomb
Yes, well so did I
[CHORUS]
She's addicted to nicotine patches
She's afraid of a light in the dark
6:58 are you sure where my Spark is?
Here, here, here
Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, July 4, 2026 (a true story with details changed to protect the guilty and innocent, a learning experience about human nature beset by clinging and ignorance)
Internationally recognized environmental activistJulia Butterfly Hill travels to Pasadena to headline a public fundraiser supporting community efforts to preserve 193 trees slated for destruction and removal by the PUSD (Pasadena Unified School District).
Her appearance comes as the school district's tree-removal plans have drawn widespread public condemnation, concern, legal action, peaceful protests and demonstrations, and extensive regional media coverage.
Despite weeks of advocacy, the school district has not yet committed to permanently preserving any of the remaining trees slated for destruction and removal.
Trees at San Rafael Elementary School, including mature and protected trees, were removed during bird nesting season without city tree permits or on-site biological monitoring.
Pasadena is honored to welcome Julia Butterfly Hill. She is traveling here to support efforts to preserve the trees of the Pasadena Unified School District.
She is an internationally-recognized environmental advocate best known for her historic 738-day treehouse sit to protect an ancient, giant California redwood, an act of peaceful civil disobedience that inspired people around the world.
Join us for an evening hosted by the youth working to protect the PUSD trees.
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