"Life on Mars?" is a song by the Vajrayana Buddhist British musician David Bowie, first released on his 1971 album Hunky Dory.
Conceived as a parody of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" [which was more directly mocked by Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols], "Life on Mars?" was recorded on 6 August 1971 at Trident Studios in London, and was co-produced by Bowie and Ken Scott.
The track features piano by the keyboardist Rick Wakeman and a string arrangement by the guitarist Mick Ronson. "Life on Mars?" is primarily a glam rock ballad, with elements of cabaret and art rock. The lyrics are about a girl who goes to a cinema to escape reality and include surreal images that reflect optimism and the effects of Hollywood.
In June 1973, at the height of Bowie's fame as Ziggy Stardust, RCA Records issued "Life on Mars?" as a single in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at number three. To promote the single, Mick Rock filmed a video that shows Bowie in make-up and a turquoise suit singing the song against a white backdrop.
Bowie frequently performed "Life on Mars?" during his concerts, and the track has appeared on numerous compilation albums. Commentators generally consider "Life on Mars?" to be one of Bowie's finest songs and one of the greatest songs of all time. More: Life on Mars? (Wiki feature)
Author Stanford University Social Psychologist Dr. Philip Zimbardo and Dr. John Boyd have 4.4 out of 5 stars (with 326 reviews).
Our every significant choice -- every important decision we make -- is determined by a force operating deep inside our mind: our perspective on time -- our internal, personal time zone.
This is the most influential force in our life, yet we are virtually unaware of it. Once we become aware of our personal time zone, we can begin to see and manage our life in exciting new ways.
In The Time Paradox, Dr. Zimbardo and Dr. Boyd draw on 30 years of pioneering research to reveal, for the first time, how our individual time perspective shapes our life and is shaped by the world around us.
Further, they demonstrate that our and every other individual's time zones interact to create national cultures, economics, and personal destinies.
No matter our time perspective, we experience these paradoxes. Only by understanding this new psychological science of time zones will we be able to overcome the mental biases that keep us too attached to the past, too focused on immediate gratification, or unhealthily obsessed with future goals.
Time passes no matter what we do; it's up to us to spend it wisely and enjoy it well. More
(Corey Campbell) Buddhism is increasingly popular in the West, but are we burying its moral foundations in favor of a more individualistic and mass-marketed version of spirituality?
As Buddhism has begun to gain a firm foothold in the West, its fate in its traditional Asian homelands has been moving in the opposite direction, toward atrophy and decline.
Already in several Asian Buddhist countries Buddhism has been forcibly suppressed, while even in those countries that have preserved their political integrity the Dharma no longer occupies the same sovereign place in people's hearts it held in an earlier era.
The spread of Buddhism in Asia: Silk Road
Although devotion and a sense of Buddhist personal identity still remain strong, throughout the breadth of Buddhist Asia, cultural and ideological forces of great power have been unleashed that daily challenge the influence of the Dharma as the key to meaning and value for those who profess it as their light and guide.
Among the changes taking place in current patterns of thinking, perhaps the most detrimental to the Dharma has been the rise to prominence of a materialistic world-view that focuses upon the present life as the only field for human endeavor.
This paradigm or view need not be assented to intellectually, with full awareness of its implications, for it to become a major determinant of our attitudes and conduct.
(Key of Awesome) Camila Cabello's "Havana" parody unplugged!
Often a curious ambivalence prevails in our minds, where one part of us professes our confidence in the lofty principles of the Dharma, while with the other we think and act as if the present life were the sole occasion for happiness and the achievement of worldly success were the true mark of the accomplished individual.
The rapid spread of this materialistic outlook has in turn brought about a far-ranging secularization of values that invades every part of our lives.
This transformation of values gives precedence to goals and attitudes diametrically opposed to those advocated by the Dharma. And under its impact the scales have tipped far away even from a reasonable balance between material and spiritual goods.
Now we see acquisitiveness replacing contentment as the reigning ideal, competition taking the place of cooperation, speedy efficiency the place of compassionate concern, and selfish indulgence the place of abstinence and self-control.
The attempt to live simultaneously by two conflicting sets of principles — those being ushered in by secular materialism and those grounded in the Dharma — generates a... More
FWBO Dhammaloka may not be a well-known name even to FWBO practitioners. But that will soon change. Dhammaloka means "Realm of the Dhamma," or "Land of the Teaching of the Buddha." And FWBO Dhammaloka is a UK charity dedicated to helping India revive Buddhism and Buddhist values like compassion, wisdom, and equality of opportunity across India.
Although the charity has been registered for some time, it was almost dormant until May 2008. That's when it registered an Internet fundraising account with JustGiving. Now only a few months later, it has just celebrated raising its first £10,000 ($18,000) for Dharma projects in India.
FWBO News is reporting that “Dhammaloka has no full time or even parttime staff – just the charity trustees, who are all busy elsewhere. So from the first we adopted a decentralized strategy of facilitating the fundraising efforts of others rather than trying to do it all themselves. More>>
--
Non-violent communication (NVC) in Juno (parenting) and Funky Raw (raw food) at www.seedofpeace.org, "NVC Topics." FWBO News blog.
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.
