iHeartRadio Living Room Concert (free)

Fox TV (youtube.com), March 27, 2020, iheart.com; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

iHeart LIVING ROOM CONCERT FOR AMERICA: a commercial-free benefit

(Fox TV) Don't miss the iHEART LIVING ROOM CONCERT FOR AMERICA, streaming across the USA and hosted by Elton John, TONIGHT (Sunday, March 29, 9:00 ET/6:00 PT) only on Fox.

• FOX will offer this event across all of its linear and digital platforms (and iheart.com)

FOX presents THE IHEART LIVING ROOM CONCERT FOR AMERICA, a music event to provide entertainment relief and support for North Americans to help fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic flu and to celebrate the resilience and strength of the nation during this police state action. Hosted by Elton John, the event will feature performances by:

• Billie Eilish
• Dave Grohl
• Camila Cabello
• Alicia Keys
• Mariah Carey
• Backstreet Boys
• Tim McGraw
• Sam Smith
• H.E.R.
• Billie Joe Armstrong (of Green Day)
• and more from their own homes.

Hosted by Elton John, this unique remote concert will feature some of music's biggest stars including Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Camila Cabello, Dave Grohl, H.E.R., Mariah Carey, Sam Smith, and Tim McGraw, as they perform (while social distancing and staying home) from their own living rooms. And the performances will be filmed with their own personal cell phone cameras and audio equipment to insure the safety of everyone involved.

The iHeartRadio Living Room Concert for America will also feature guest appearance from celebrities like Lady Gaga, Ciara, Demi Lovato, Lizzo, Russell Wilson, and more.

This will be filmed with their personal cell phones, cameras, and audio equipment, to ensure the health and safety of all involved. The concert will air in place of the iHeartRadio Music Awards in the show’s original broadcast timeslot: Sunday, March 29, from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/6:00-7:00 PM PT on FOX TV, the nice channel that brings us The Simpsons.

It will also be simulcast on iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide, as well as via the iHeartRadio app. The benefit special will be broadcast commercial-free.

In addition to featuring music, the hour-long concert will pay tribute to the front line health professionals, first responders, and local heroines and heroes who are putting their lives in harm’s way to help their neighbors and fight the spread of the viral scare.

It also will encourage viewers to support two of the many charitable organizations helping victims and first responders during the pandemic: Feeding America® and First Responders Children’s Foundation.

• More info: iHeart.com/LivingRoomConcert
• How can I help? Go to fox.tv/FeedingAmerica and
• The First Responders Children's Foundation (fox.tv/1strcf)

Corona Benefit Concert (free, Fox TV, 3/29)

Entertainment Weekly, March 26, 2020; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

News Flash: Elton John to host Coronavirus Benefit Concert

The first major benefit concert to provide relief and support for Americans impacted by COVID-19 is happening tonight, Sunday, March 29, 2020 at 6:00 PM, PT (9:00 PM ET). It stars Elton John, Billie Eilish, Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Billie Joe Armstrong, lame talk by Lady Gaga, Lizzo vamping with Elton, some country act, and many more. And it's free on Fox TV.

EW News Flash brings breaking news and exclusive stories from the world of entertainment, keeping the pulse on the latest updates in music, TV, movie, and celebrity news, full of behind-the-scenes coverage from A-List events and first looks at the newest TV and films trailers and teasers. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY is a pass to Hollywood’s most creative minds and most fascinating stars. With sharp insight and unparalleled access, it keep TV addicts plugged into pop culture. Web: ew.com, Twitter: bit.ly/Twitter_EW, Facebook: bit.ly/Facebook_EW, Instagram: bit.ly/Instagram_EW, Snapchat: bit.ly/Snapchat_EW, Pinterest: bit.ly/Pinterest_EW.

Explaining the "Parable of the Raft"

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ven. Karunananda, Ph.D., Wisdom Quarterly

Siddhartha was an ascetic under trees in search of freedom from samsara's seas (Hokusai)

 

Ascetic Sid, Mes Aynak (livescience.com)

According to the historical Buddha, the "Sage who came from the Shakya clan," if we want to cross over from this shore (samsara) full of danger to the further shore (nirvana) beyond all danger, we need to put together a "raft" (a sufficient understanding of the practice).
 

We gather just enough material then we strive diligently and consistently. We exert just enough effort (viriya), paddling with every limb we have, to cross over to nirvana.

• The Parable of the Raft

Persistent balanced-effort is the gradual path the Buddha taught, or we risk exhausting ourselves and giving up long before we reach the goal. Or we die trying by the legendary exertion that gets all the attention (in the story of the Buddha, of forest dwelling monastics, of patriarchs in later schools) in spite of the fact that it does not work to overdo it. Paradoxically, sometimes the "effort" required is allowing, that is, accepting, non-doing, abandoning the detrimental, letting go of clinging.

Under a sprawling Bodhi tree

Siddhartha persists but with ease and balance accessing the wealth of the jhanas.

 

Bodhi tree shrine, India (Themeplus)

Siddhartha did not succeed under the Bodhi tree because he tried so hard: So long as he was trying that hard, he could not succeed. He succeeded because he eased off, first accepting help from the maiden Sujata then realizing that jhanas (blissful and equanimous meditative absorptions) were the way. As an austere ascetic, he had been so afraid of pleasure and of becoming attached to it that he had avoided

A sufficient raft is all we need. Even a poorly fabricated raft is enough to get across over the flood (ogha), this sea of samsara. "Enough" concentration is enough, enough insight is enough. The goal exists.
 

Whether or not we achieve (patiently allow) absorption, access concentration may be enough. It becomes the route we take, the one now available to us. The Buddha's gradual path takes us from virtue to calm (samatha) to effortless-concentration (samma-samadhi). 

 

Even a flimsy foundation may be just enough support to successfully practice mindfulness (four foundations or bases) that support wisdom. Liberation depends on it.

The swirling, whirling, sucking sea

If there is time and a suitable teacher, a more stable platform is helpful. A human life is extraordinarily rare. It's a terrible thing to waste and a wonderful thing to utilize to finally see nirvana. If all one reaches is absorption (jhana), which is purifying by suppressing the defilements, that will lead to a very welcome rebirth.

But the end of all rebirth and suffering is the goal for those who have understood what the Buddha taught. So beyond calm, there is liberating-insight to strive for. This breakthrough is accomplished by practicing the factors of Dependent Origination. One thereby sees and undoes suffering. It is only by knowing-and-seeing the Path (magga-phala, "path-and-fruition" consciousnesses) that one awakens to unending peace.

The world is the world is the world

O, spirit, where shall I sit? - Try that tree (Deen406)

From this world, it is easy to see dukkha (suffering, disappointment, woe, lack of fulfillment from our many endeavors).

 

It is also visible from the lower Sensual-Sphere deva worlds, but on this plane we have drive due to there being reasons to strive constantly on our heels, urging and reminding us of the dangers: aging, sickness, ignominy, death, rebirth. The threat of defamation and infamy are very real as we face Eight Worldly Conditions:

• success and failure (gain and loss),
• fame and obscurity, 
• praise and blame, 
• pleasure and pain.

Who needs "the end of all suffering"? We all would IF we understood what the Buddha meant by dukkha. Some say, "All life is suffering." That is completely wrong -- unless one grasps what "suffering" means as a translation of dukkha. All the Buddha ever taught, according to him, was suffering and the end of suffering, disappointment and the end of disappointment, dukkha and nirvana. 

The way to nirvana is enlightenment (bodhi). And the way to enlightenment is mindfulness (as set up moment to moment and actively developed through contemplative themes outlined in the Maha Satipatthana Sutra). And the way to mindfulness is "meditation" (calm, zen, jhana, serenity, samatha, unification, singlemindedness, absorption, nondistraction, and samma-samadhi or "right concentration"). And the way to meditation is virtue (sila), which imparts peace of mind and non-remorse.

Samsara is impermanent (ever changing), unsatisfactory (disappointing), and impersonal. There is great danger inherent in it for the unenlightened. So we should get enlightened or into the stream certain to take us to enlightenment as soon as possible. Danger, what danger?

Until stream entry there is an ever-present danger of falling into unfortunate realms (rebirth destinations) for indeterminate periods of time. Then, during those times, one forgets the goal, forgets even the possibility of there being freedom from suffering, the possibility of awakening from this miserable dream with nightmare aspects. Continued: Who am I?