Now that Suicide Prevention Month is wrapped up, it's time to listen to some Korn again. They're in concert this weekend in SoCal. Due to leaks of credit card and personal financial information, one woman had her virtual tickets transferred to someone else. TicketMaster is to blame. How doe
September is National Suicide Prevention Month (samhsa.gov)
and if you've found a way to hang on, let's see if we could feel, think, and reason our way through this. Unless you're recovering from some attempt, the thoughts are the problem. What reasoning has let to contemplating a permanent solution to a temporary problem? It's all in the thinking. Thinking is a trap, basing decision on unquestioned assumptions. Become aware of the assumption, and all the thinking built on them magically falls away..
September is a month to [listen Guns 'n' Roses' "September Rain," very sad and depressing] and to remember the lives lost to suicide. Millions of people have struggled...
NAMI (nami.org)don't like it. Get involved because awareness is the way to prevention, whereas lack of mindfulness and clear comprehension (sati-sampajanna) is the way to automatic pilot. A dog chases a tail. Does it ever figure out that's its tail? One bite would do it, but it's too fast.
Is there ever a time to raise awareness of this urgent crisis? It's like asking, "When is the best time to plant a tree?" We use this month to shift public perception and spread hope.
Prevention beats trying to cure the spiraling when someone falls into a tailspin. That dog just won't stop. One way is to call (988) LIFE-LINE. Every year, the 988 Lifeline and other mental health organizations and individuals across the U.S. raise awareness of suicide prevention during September.
AFSP.org hails National Suicide Prevention Month and Week. This is a moment in time when we rally the public to create awareness of this leading cause of death and inspire more self-compassion.
If only there were a toolkit for suicide prevention (nimh.nih.gov). There is a
Digital Toolkit for Suicide Prevention Month. Join the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to raise awareness by sharing resources that can help one recognize the warning signs of suicide and do something about it.
KoRn "Dirty" (Live on the Other Side) lyrics by Johnathan Davis, from Issues; Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; SAMHSA.gov, Aug. 16, 2024, et. al.
The discourse called the Ambalatthika-Rāhulovāda Sutta
taught by the Buddha at Ambalatthikā (near Veluvana) to his son, the young Buddhist monk Ven. Rāhula deals with falsehoods.
Like an insignificant drop of water is the recluseship of those who do not shrink away from deliberate lying. It is thrown away, upset, empty, and void.
There is no harm they will not do who do not avoid lying. They run every risk, like an elephant who does not guard his trunk.
The Buddha had a son or two, Rahula and Ananda
One should practice constant reflection, thereby abandoning all things conducive to suffering, either to oneself or others, and develop self-control and purity (MN.i.414-20).
Ven. Rāhula was evidently very young at the time of this sutra, for we find the Buddha making use of frequent similes and pointing them out to him.
Well, Son, if you go with your father, I'll become a nun, too. Really, Mom, can I?
.
Let's get out of samsara [this simulation].
According to the Commentary, he was at the time only 7-years-old (MA. ii. 636), meaning in the first year of his training as a novice, a "little recluse" (samanera) in training.
The Commentary states that it was taught because very young novices might be tempted to say things both proper and improper; they were likely to imagine things.
This sutra is to warn Ven. Rāhula against the use of lies (MA.ii.635f.; AA.i.145; ii.547).
The Ambalatthika-Rāhulovāda Sutta is among the portions of scripture mentioned in the Bhābrā Edict of Asoka as being essentially worthy of study by all monastics. (See Mookerji: Asoka, p.119) (v.l. Ambalatthiya°). More
What is samsara? (It is the Wheel of Life and Death, the Endless Round of Rebirth, the Sea of Suffering, the "Simulation" we're trapped in until we awaken).
SUTRA: Teaching Rahula
I will show you the way to enlightenment. But as you are very young, I will show it in similes.
.
(MN 61) The Buddha taught this to his son, Ven. Rāhula, at Ambalaṭṭhika. Thus have I heard:
On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the Squirrels’ Sanctuary.
Now on that occasion Venerable Rāhula was living at Ambalaṭṭhika. Then when it was evening, the Blessed One rose from meditation (seclusion) and went to Ven. Rāhula at Ambalaṭṭhika.
Ven. Rāhula saw the Blessed One coming. When he saw him, he made a seat ready and set out water for washing feet. The Blessed One sat down on the seat made ready, and he washed his feet.
Ven. Rāhula bowed and sat respectfully to one side.
Then the Blessed One poured out the remaining quantity of water into the water-dipper and addressed Ven. Rāhula:
“Rāhula, do you see this small quantity of water poured into the water-dipper?”
“Yes, venerable sir.”
“Unless people are careful not to knowingly speak falsehood, there is as little of the monastic in them as this.” Then the Blessed One threw away the small amount of remaining water, and he addressed Ven. Rāhula:
“Rāhula, do you see that small remaining amount of water thrown away?”
“Yes, venerable sir.”
“Unless people are careful not to knowingly speak falsehood, what there is of the monastic in them is thrown away like that.”
Then the Blessed One turned the water-dipper upside down, and he addressed Ven. Rāhula:
“Rāhula, do you see this water-dipper turned upside down?”
I remember when I first learned how to meditate [by being mindful of] my breath some time in 1990, during my university years.
Back then, meditation was not as well known. The Beat Generation’s Zen trend in the 1960s had died out with disco in the 1970s.
Barnes and Noble had maybe only a few shelves in a single bookcase labeled with “Eastern Philosophy” that covered all Eastern religions, including Buddhism.
Ram Das’s cryptic book Be Here Now was the only book I had read prior to reading my World Religions book, which included a chapter on Buddhism for a class I took.
Be Here Now (Ram Dass for Neem Karoli Baba)
It was different in the early 1990s. There wasn’t a World Wide Web, Google, or even a digital Yahoo. We didn’t have Idiot or Dummy books back then. While there were books out there, you really had to explore a subculture, and you had to know someone in order to know what the subcultures were and where to find them.
Luckily, I had a friend who was into Zen, and he was considering becoming a Catholic priest at the time. He recently transferred from UC Berkeley, not far from San Francisco, which might be called the subculture mecca of the United States, certainly for the "weird" things like meditation. I asked him to teach me. I thought it would be good for me to learn from him.
He agreed and came over to my apartment one night to teach me a lesson I would never forget. I remember we were sitting on the floor of the living room during the lesson. I was thinking about TV’s depiction of meditation and what should be happening. Then I said, “Should I light a candle?” He said, “If you want to, you can.”
“Should I light an incense stick?”
Mindfulness of Breathing, Four Elements Meditation
“If you want to, you can. You can have representations of the Four Elements.”
He explained it to me, but I did not really know what he meant, so I lit a candle and an incense stick to fit my world view of what "meditation" should be like. Before we started, he gave me a little bit of a lesson on the story of the Buddha and how he became enlightened.
He then told me some things about the sitting posture and to press my tongue against the roof of my mouth and to swallow a lot in a natural way. “They say it is good for you,” he said.
Then he taught me how to count my breaths “Zen style.” I would silently and inwardly count the exhales of my breaths one by one until I got up to ten. Then I would count backwards back down to zero. Then up to ten again, and then back to zero. I would repeat these cycles until it was time to stop. If I lost my count, I would just start all over again from “one.”
After our session was over, he left and that was more or less “The Lesson.” After that, I do not know why, but I continued with this practice and other forms of meditation almost every day, more or less for the rest of my life (with some exceptions of course).
Twenty years later, in 2010, I visited Ulpathkanda, Hantanna (Spring Hill Monastery) near Kandy, Sri Lanka, where I was able to use the Internet for the first time in a very long time. I sometimes joked about how I was doing an “Internet retreat” from my full-time life as a forest monk in Na-uyana.
Nevertheless, I was still at a high mountainous jungle forest monastery. I looked up my old friend, my meditation instructor, on the Internet. When we were in college together, he had changed his major from philosophy to whatever one needs to become a Spanish teacher.
It looked as though he had really lived the Spanish lifestyle and moved all over the globe to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. The Internet kept track of all the different countries he lived in. It is true that “Big Brother is watching,” just like George Orwell warned, so I could now watch with an Internet connection.
After all of that globetrotting, he settled down in a Connecticut town not too far from where he originally taught me how to meditate. I picked up the monastery phone, dialed the phone card codes, then I dialed his number. The phone rang, and a woman’s voice answered the phone. “Hello?”
“Hello, my name is Bhikkhu Subhūti, and I was wondering if a Brett [J.] lives here?”
“Yes, he does.”
“May I speak with him please?”
“Uh, okay,” she said in a cautious voice to the stranger on the phone. Perhaps I was a telemarketer to her. They did not know what to expect. There were muffled voices coming through the phone’s speaker, then eventually the phone was passed to Brett.
“Hello, this is Brett.”
I instantly recognized his voice, which had stayed the same all these years.
Hello, this is Bhikkhu Subhuti (Jeremy Glick)
“Hello, this is Bhikkhu Subhūti. You once knew me as Jeremy Glick from Central. Do you remember me?” (Central is a shorthand name for Central Connecticut State University).
“Yes, I remember you, Jeremy.”
I continued, “A long time ago, you came over my place and taught me how to meditate and how to count my breaths. With a few exceptions, I practiced nearly every day, and my practice grew and grew, and eventually I decided to become a Buddhist monk in 2001. Now my name is ‘Bhikkhu Subhūti.’ I looked you up on the Internet so I could call you and say, ‘Thank you.’”
There was a long pause. It was five or six seconds of delay before he spoke, so it seemed long. He finally broke the silence and said, “You know, we never know what will happen to the seeds we have planted long ago.”
I did not expect him to still be a teacher of mine, but those were words of wisdom. We caught up on some old times. He was indeed a Spanish teacher and married a woman from Spain. His brother, who was an electrical engineer, quit the industry and now counts caribou in Alaska for a living.
I told him that I never went into teaching, which was expected at college, so I became a computer programmer instead for about six years before leaving all that behind me.
Times have changed and so did the both of us. I told him that I had my brother make me a Facebook account (with two friends), and although as a schoolteacher he was against Facebook, he thought I might be able use it to do something worthwhile for other people. I did not do much with social networks until last year, but I kept his thoughts in mind.
We talked some more and then we parted. If you ever have a chance to thank someone who has affected your life, I highly recommend it. Often, we do not think we make a difference, but we do, positively and, unfortunately, negatively. We always plant seeds in ourselves and others. Some germinate, while others do not.
Sometimes we believe they are trivial sprouts, but some can grow into towering redwoods. It can change a whole person’s destiny. So always plant happy seeds because, “We never know what will happen to the seeds we have planted long ago.”
Here, Critical Financial zooms in on 18 so-called “sins” that may not be as bad as we once thought. It's not clear what the point of this article is, maybe to just gather up more followers for the largest religion in the world (Catholicism/Christianity).
But making it easier is not the way to please most people who want to be better since so much of what we believe is cultural and temporal. (Many Catholic men are mad at "fake" Pope John Paul II for weakening the faith and watering everything down, like an anti-pope, while other Catholics celebrate him for opening up the Old Church and modernizing it).
We only get one chance a year to air our doubts.
Shouldn't the Bible be personal, literal, and timeless? Apparently not, not by a long shot. Let's look at a few examples and decide whether there's an impersonal (universal) law at play or just the Jew's tribal God's view at play.
1. Questioning Faith: Having doubts and asking questions are not signs of rebellion or weakness but can actually strengthen faith. Characters in the Bible like Thomas and Job (Joe'b) [as well as Adam and Eve] questioned God, which illustrates that doubt [and the pursuit of knowledge] is a human experience.
Deuteronomy 22 on how you can dress: This verse prohibits cross-dressing (Hebrew lo yibash). Scholars, historical authorities, and leaders hold different opinions on correctly interpreting and implementing this commandment (Deut. 22:5). Some argue the act of cross-dressing is an abomination. Others maintain cross-dressing is only a manifestation of a different bad intention, such as deception, idolatry, or [gay sex work] [12].
Go right ahead if you like looking like a [gay] Goth, wearing platform shoes as high as stilts [like the Glam bands of the 70s], or a hippie kaftan down to your toes [like a heathen, just don't do that Punk or Emo stuff or full body tattoos(Leviticus 19:28 You must not...put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD (biblehub.com), and spikes, and crazy hair, or revealing clothes that might tempt the weaker sex to rape you, or anything like that.
It's hypocrisy to act like the Bible is cool with people dressing alternatively. As A. J. Jacobs found out, the Book is very specific on how males and females are to dress. So veil that hair and face like the religion you laugh at for believing their sacred book].
Everyone's doing it. I did it better, like Madoff.
I mean, bankers and tax collectors gotta eat. And now that it's "standard practice," who are we to question the financial system in which we participate? That's Caesar's business, right, Jesus?
Same with drinking alcohol or spirits, right? Moderation. Just get a little drunk, which the Buddha warned against, but Jesus and the Apostles probably partied on wine every night or when plotting against the imperial Romans who overran their society....
[The following are violations of the Five Precepts all humans should follow if they wish to again be reborn among humans rather than in lower worlds. Note that No. 4 is usually lumped together as "wrong speech" but is here divided into four parts, showing the significance of verbal-karma for humans.]
People say, "You Only Live Once." It's untrue.
1. "Meditators, killing (the taking of life) — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is karma (intentionally-motivated action) that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm or womb of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of the hungry ghosts. The least of all the karmic consequencesresulting from the taking of life is that, if one is again reborn on the human plane, it leads to a shortened lifespan.
[NOTE: The human plane is the lowest of the good rebirth destinations. Below this human plane of existence are the apaya or "downfall" planes of animals, ghosts, demons, and hellions, woeful albeit temporary states.]
2. "Stealing — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is action that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of the hungry ghosts. The least of all the karmic consequences resulting from stealing is that, if one is again reborn on the human plane, it leads to the loss of wealth.
Are those haters flipping me off? Wait, is that Death? Wait, is this symbolism in my videos?
.
Taylor Swift's rivalry and revenge
3. "Sexual misconduct — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is karma that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of the hungry ghosts. The least of all the karmic consequences resulting from sexual misconduct is that, if one is again reborn on the human plane, it leads to rivalry and revenge.
4. "Telling falsehoods — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is action that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of the hungry ghosts. The least of all the karmic consequences resulting from telling falsehoods is that, if one is again reborn on the human plane, it leads to being falsely accused.
The mouth is like a loaded gun. Mind the tongue.
4. "Divisive tale bearing — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is karma that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of hungry ghosts. The least of all karmic consequences resulting from divisive tale bearing is that, if one is again reborn on the human plane, it leads to the breaking of one's friendships.
4. "Harsh speech — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is action that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of hungry ghosts. The least of all karmic consequences resulting from harsh speech is that, if one is again reborn on the human plane, it leads to offensive sounds [ejaculatory grunts, outbursts].
Billie: I better watch what I say. It'll come back.
4. "Frivolous chit chat (low or beastly talk, idle speech, busybody gossip) — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is action that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of hungry ghosts. The least of all karmic consequences resulting from frivolous chit chat is that, if one is again reborn on the human plane, it leads to not being believed (or taken seriously, words that are not worth taking to heart).
There's no need to count other's bad karma.
5. "Drinking alcohol (fermented and distilled liquor) — when pursued, indulged in, and stored up — is karma that leads to rebirth in hells, leads to rebirth in the realm of animals, leads to rebirth in the realm of hungry ghosts. The least of all karmic consequences resulting from drinking alcohol is that, if one is again reborn becomes a human being again, it leads to mental derangement."
Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Good Catholic goes to hell and says religion is to blame (shocking NDE)
(Shaman Oaks) June 7, 2023. #afterlife #neardeathexperience #heaven
M.K. (Kathy) McDaniel had an NDE (near-death experience) after contracting the flu.
0:00 - Intro
2:14 - NDE in Hell
17:17 - NDE in Heaven
21:49 - Why did I go to Hell?
28:40 - Are you trying to get rich?
29:14 - Could it have been a dream?
30:22 - Do you have nightmares from your NDE?
31:55 - How did your NDE change you?
35:36 - An email from Heaven
37:16 - What is the purpose of life?
38:51 - Are you afraid of death?
39:18 - Her book
Buddhism describes many hells (narakas)
She found herself wandering around [in a place Buddhists would describe as] hell [naraka-loka], but eventually ended up in heaven [Buddhist sagga or the deva-loka].
An NDE occurs when someone dies, is revived, and knows for certain that there is an afterlife -- life after life, life after death.
A distressing NDE like Kathy had happens to 3 in 10 people who have an NDE. For Kathy her NDE both distressed and amazed here, and it changed her life forever.
✨
CC Liu, Ananda (DBM), Crystal Q., Sheldon S., Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; China Travel
In Buddhism, the departed are called pretas or petas, "hungry ghosts" in the Realm of Ghosts
Let's celebrate and chase the ghosts away.
Halloween is in the offing, only but a week away. The ghosts gather, hunker down, hanker on the periphery. The Buddha saw them, pathetic creatures, karma-born with hideous features, the clinging departed, stuck on this plane or in between, in the Realm of Ghosts, hungry for what they had before.
There's great danger in attachment, hidden and ready to explode. O, what misery they deplore! Naked, unhoused, hungry, thirsty, reborn deprived. How odd that anyone not believe. Every culture knows. Haints, shades, specters, phantoms all, hardly here yet not fully gone. We remember them on The Day of the Dead, El Dia de los Muertos, All Hallows Eve, and #中元节.
(China Travel) Premiered June 30, 2022. Some think the Hungry Ghost Festival is reminiscent of Halloween and the Day of the Dead. Think so? The Hungry Ghost Festival is also known as Zhongyuan Festival (中元节), which Buddhists call the Yulanpen Festival (盂兰盆节). It falls on the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, though some places celebrate it on the 14th day. In 2022, it falls on August 11 or 12. Let's see the history and origin of the Hungry Ghost Festival, activities, traditions, how the name came about, and the things that should never be done.
This is Alan Watts on television (KQED), filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area back in the 1970s. In it he explains "the true meaning of karma" from the documentary Alan Watts: Why Not Now?
(T&H - Inspiration & Motivation) This is an inspirational and profound speech from the late British Buddhist philosopher Alan Watts, a self-described "spiritual entertainer." The original audio was sourced from: “Alan Watts: 'Eco Zen' from Philosophies of Asia”
produced and edited by T&H Inspiration. It is a documentary film on the life and works of Alan Watts, a two DVD set:
alanwatts.org/news.php.
The great philosopher Alan Watts
Each film comes with The Essential Alan Watts, a bonus disc of video materials that did not fit into the film, and "The Animated Alan Watts." The 23-minute DVD includes extracts from the 1972 series "The Fine Art of Goofing Off" as well as a couple of animations produced by South Park creators and animators. The reel has been met with joyous laughter and standing ovations at film showings and is not to be missed.
Why Not Now follows the life of one of the most inspiring philosophers of our time, Alan Watts, as told though none other than Alan Watts himself from the wealth of material and lectures that were left behind after his passing.
T&H Inspiration is on a mission to share inspiring wisdom. The goal is to have listeners pause, think, and reflect. Many videos revolve around the extraordinary teachings of Alan Watts that T&H produces with permission from the Alan Watts Electronic University.
T&H also films and releases original interviews with iconic people who have experienced successes while also persevering through life's highs and lows. T&H looks forward to sharing more of these perspectives and insights.
Its hope with these videos is to push thinking. As Alan Watts said, “No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time: he is like a steel bridge without flexibility, and the order of his life is rigid and brittle.” – Alan Watts.
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.
