The End Times? The World is Ending!

There's an orange clown on the TV every day!

Will the world end? How will the world end? When will the world end? Why will the world end? Questions, questions. Of course, the world will end. Not any time soon, but never mind about that. It's always ending, constantly hurtling towards destruction. "Change is the only constant," some wise person once said. That person was talking about what the Buddha called anicca. We translate this as "impermanence," but that's very limited and misleading. We prefer flux, dissolution, or radical impermanence, though "change" also works.

The idea is that, that something will change is no kind of message to the world. Of course, things are impermanent. We all know that. Only a child would think things are going to stay the same. (Guilty! And we're old enough to know better). It might be better to investigate how things are going to change because that sort of explains the why. The when is easy! Right now. Now. The eternal now. When is a mountainside not crumbling? Even as geological forces send it up, it is already disintegrating. When aren't human cells dying? They are always dispatching and falling off. That's what it means to have a body, though we don't much notice, know, or want to know.

How are things changing? Little by little until they give way to a noticeable amount. The more closely we investigate and notice, the more and more we become aware of when and how this is happening. It can become so upsetting that we stop clinging. Why, being ourselves impermanent, would we chase and cling to impermanent things?

It's all in the mind?

(Buddhism Podcast) When we understand the mind, our life begins to change

The Fire Sermon

Once upon a time, the Buddha was walking along the river and he came upon 1,000 fire worshippers with their matted locks or jatas, wandering ascetics in search of truth. They saw him and were moved by his gravitas, charisma, and appearance. He himself was a wandering ascetic but a Scythian (Shakyian) from the West, serene, and delightful to look upon. What could he possibly have to say about ultimate truth? See "The Fire Sermon."

• After Skool, "These Unprecedented Times"; Buddhism Podcast; Dhr. Seven (text), Amber Larson (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

27 Buddhas before the historical Buddha

(Buddha's Wisdom) 27 samma-sam-buddhas before the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama

• Buddhahood: List of 27 previous Supremely Awakened Buddhas

The Khuddaka Nikaya, or "Collection of Little Texts" (Pali khudda = "smaller," "lesser"), the fifth division of the Sutta Pitaka ("Discourse Collection"), is a wide-ranging collection of 15 books (18 in the Burmese Tipitaka), containing complete sutras, verses, and smaller fragments of Dhamma (Teachings). While many of these have been treasured and memorized by devoted Buddhists around the world for centuries, others have never left the private domain of Pali language scholars; some have yet to be translated into English. More: accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka

14. Buddhavamsa — "History of the Buddhas": Biographical accounts of Gotama (Gautama) Buddha and of the 24 [of 27 he mentioned] supremely awakened buddhas who preceded him. Availability of English translations: Print: Minor Anthologies (Vol. III) — Buddhavamsa: Chronicles of Buddhas and Cariyapitaka: "Basket of Conduct," I.B. Horner (trans., Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1975). On-line: None known.

What's special about human life? (Blind Turtle)

SUTRA: The hole in the ring

Who would ever become a Buddhist monastic?

"Meditators, suppose that this great earth were completely covered with water and a person were to toss a ring with a single hole onto the surface.

 

"A wind from the east would send it west, a wind from the west would send it east, a wind from the north would send it south, and a wind from the south would send it north.

 

"Moreover, suppose there were a blind turtle that surfaced only once every 100 years.

"Now, what do you think? How likely is it that that blind turtle, coming to the surface only once every 100 years, would ever stick its head through that ring?"

 

"It would be very improbable, venerable sir! It would only be by chance that a blind turtle, coming to the surface only once every 100 years, would stick its head through that ring [being tossed around by wind]."

"Likewise, meditators, it is very improbable, mere chance that [at any given time] one obtains a human rebirth.

"Likewise, it is very improbable, mere chance that a Tathagata [a fully enlightened teaching buddha], worthy and rightly self-awakened, ever arises in the world.

"Likewise, it is very improbable, mere chance that a Doctrine and Discipline [Dhamma-Vinaya] expounded by a Tathagata appears in the world.

"But now this human rebirth has been obtained. A Tathagata, worthy and rightly self-awakened, has arisen in the world. A Doctrine and Discipline expounded by a Tathagata has appeared in the world.

 

"Therefore, take as [an extraordinarily rare and] sacred duty to contemplating [these four enlightening/liberating truths]:

1. 'This is [the meaning of] suffering...
2. This is the origin of suffering...
3. This is the end of suffering.'
4. Undertake the duty of contemplating: 'This is the path-of-practice that leads to the end of suffering.'"

In retrospect, the historical Buddha might have said:

1. This is pleasure (sukha)...
2. This the origin of pleasure...
3. This is the end of pleasure (dukkha)...
4. This is the path-of-practice that leads to more and more pleasure [until one reaches the ultimate and unsurpassable bliss of nirvana.]

• Why didn't he? It must have occurred to him. One very likely reason is that this is not the path of hedonism (pleasure-seeking as the ultimate good). Making an end of 

1. What is "suffering" and could we talk about pleasure instead?

Don't cry for me, Goddess of Compassion. (Tears of Mary of Clopas/wiki)

.

What is dukkha (disappointment, distress, unsatisfactoriness)? There is no need for confusion about dukkha or displeasure with translating it as "suffering." It is the nature of Pali and Sanskrit that a term has a RANGE of meaning, from agitation to agony.

All of these are dukkha, which could be rendered "off-kilter," like the wheel of an ox-cart that is off center and making for a bumpy and unpleasant ride. The Buddha defines exactly what he means by the word: "Not getting what one wants, getting what one doesn't want, being separated from or losing what one loves, being joined with what one detests." In short, the Five Aggregates clung to as self (the khandha or skandha) are disappointing, painful, unable to ever fulfill, and are thus unsatisfactory and suffering.

(Wiki) According to Monier Monier-Williams, the actual roots of the Pali term dukkha appear to be Sanskrit दुस्- (dus-, "bad") + स्था (sthā, "to stand") [9, Note 2]. Irregular changes in the development of Sanskrit into the various Prakrits [ancient hybrid languages] led to a shift from dus-sthā to duḥkha to dukkha.

Western Theravada Buddhist monk Analayo

Western scholar-monk Ven. Analayo concurs, stating that dukkha as derived from duḥ-sthā, "standing badly," conveys nuances of "uneasiness" or of being "uncomfortable" [16].

Silk Road philologist Christopher I. Beckwith elaborates on this derivation [17]. According to him: "...although the sense of duḥkha in Normative Buddhism is traditionally given as 'suffering,' that and similar interpretations are highly unlikely for Early Buddhism.

"Significantly, Monier-Williams himself doubts the usual explanation of duḥkha and presents an alternative one immediately after it, namely: duḥ-stha "'standing badly,' unsteady, disquieted (literally and figuratively); uneasy," and so on.

"This form is also attested, and makes much better sense as the opposite of the Rig Veda sense of sukha, which Monier-Williams gives in full [11, Note 3].

Translation

The literal meaning of duḥkha, as used in a general sense, is "suffering" or "painful" [Note 4]. Its exact translation depends on the context [Note 5].

Contemporary translators of Buddhist texts use a variety of English words to convey the [many] aspects of dukh.

Early Western translators of Buddhist texts (before the 1970s) typically translated the Pali term dukkha as "suffering." Later translators have emphasized that "suffering" is a too [harsh and too] limited translation for the term duḥkha and have preferred to either leave the term untranslated [15] or to clarify that translation with terms such as

• anxiety,
• distress,
• frustration,
• unease,
• unsatisfactoriness,
• not [getting] having what one wants,
• having what one does not want, and so on [19, 20, 21, Note 6].

In the sequence "[re]birth is dukkha," it may be translated as "painful" [22].

The opposite of pleasure

But I want what I want when I want it!!!

When related to vedana ("sensation" or "feeling") dukkha ("unpleasant," "painful") is the opposite of sukha ("pleasure," "pleasant"), yet all feelings are dukkha [unsatisfactory, disappointing] in that they are impermanent, conditioned [impersonal] phenomena, which are unsatisfactory, incapable of providing lasting satisfaction or actual enduring fulfillment.

The term "unsatisfactoriness" then is often used to emphasize the unsatisfactoriness of "life under the influence of afflictions and polluted karma" [23, 24, 25, 26, 27, a], but it would equally well -- though much less obviously -- apply to sukha.

All pleasure ultimately fails to fulfill, satisfy, make us happy exactly because the nature of ALL conditioned (dependently originated or co-arisen) phenomena is beset by what the Buddha described as three universal characteristics or the Three Marks of All Conditioned Existence (ti-lakkhana) and transient states.

Early Buddhism

Dukkha is one of the three marks of existence -- namely anicca ("impermanent"), dukkha ("unsatisfactory"), anatta ("impersonal," "not-self," "empty," devoid of an enduring essence) [Note 7].

Various Pali canon sutras (discourses) sum up how cognitive processes result in an aversion to unpleasant things and experiences (dukkha), forming a corrupted process together with the complementary process of craving and clinging to pleasure (sukha).

What does dukkha mean?

This is expressed as saṃsāra, an ongoing process of [re-]death and rebirth [Note 8], but also more pointedly and non-metaphysically in the process-formula of the Five Aggregates clung to as self (skandhas):

1. [Re-] birth is dukkha (disappointing),
2. aging is dukkha,
3. deteriorating is dukkha,
4. illness is dukkha,
5. death is dukkha;
6. sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are dukkha;
7. association with what we don't like is dukkha;
8. separation from the liked is duḥkha;
9. not getting what is wanted is dukkha.
10. In summary, the Five Aggregates clung to as self (khandhas) are dukkha. More

• Hawaiian green sea turtle Chelonia mydas swimming in turquoise waters (AI generated 32475192 stock photo at Vecteezy)
• AI generated Hawaiian green sea turtle (37750217 at Vecteezy)
• Swim with turtles in Waikiki | Honolulu, Hawaii (Giftory)
• Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Chiggala Sutta: "The Hole" (SN 56:48) based on a translation by American Thai Theravada monk Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff, abbot, Wat Metta, CA), Wiki edit dukkha

Vedas: Forbidden Archeologist Michael Cremo

(Gregg Braden Channel) Kali Yuga survival: What the Vedas say about the Reset | Michael Cremo

• Michael Cremo (and remote viewing), Coast to Coast, 11/6/25

Michael Cremo

Researcher and author Michael "The Forbidden Archeologist" Cremo discusses his latest work on consciousness and intriguing discoveries challenging conventional paleoanthropology. A focal point of the conversation is the recent discovery of a species of pachycephalosaur dinosaurs in Montana, USA, known for their distinctive domed skulls. These herbivorous dinosaurs measured about 10 feet long and lived approximately 75 million years ago, before being wiped out by an asteroid impact near the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

Cremo challenges the long-held belief that humans and dinosaurs never coexisted. He cites evidence of human-like footprints dating back to the Cretaceous period and describes a "Jurassic dinosaur bone...with cut marks...like somebody had taken some sharp instrument and used it to strip the flesh off this dinosaur bone." These findings suggest a possible overlap between humans and dinosaurs, a position dismissed by mainstream scientists.

Currently involved in the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium project in India, Cremo says he is developing exhibits that explore concepts such as cyclic time and the soul's journey through different bodies (reincarnation) in different planetary systems.

He emphasizes the need for new explanations of human origins that incorporate all of the data -- particularly ooparts (out of place artifacts) and the concept of consciousness.

Having attended the Science of Consciousness Conference in Barcelona, Spain, he quotes one scientist from the conference who likened theories of consciousness to "toothbrushes," noting: "Everybody has one, but nobody seems to want to use the other person's," highlighting the fragmented and inconclusive nature of current scientific understanding.

Cremo argues that ancient civilizations had a sophisticated grasp of consciousness and the "self" (atman, ego) as distinct from the physical body. He points out that many ancient texts, such as the Vedic scriptures of the Brahmin priests claimed by Hinduism, describe a multidimensional universe (multiverse) with conscious selves transmigrating through various planes of existence.

"In the Vedic texts," he notes, "they speak of 400,000 human-like species scattered throughout the universe, some with amazing powers and abilities beyond what we are able to accomplish."

The Vedas also indicate there have been interactions between these entities and humans for vast periods of time called yugas, kalpas, and maha-kalpas (epochs, aeons, and great aeons). More

9th avatar of Vishnu, Jesus or Buddha?

What the cartoonist (Dan Piraro) doesn't realize is that the Buddha did set down such a rule.

Great teachers of world's religions (Where's Mo?)

Christianity (particularly imperialist universalist Catholicism and hegemonical American Protestant Evangelism) is closer to Hinduism than Buddhism is, for all of their apparent similarities. The historical Buddha did not teach what Jesus or Krishna (avatars of a God like Vishnu), Brahma or Shiva taught.

All of these, we are told promoted devotional practices as the best that could be done by most humans during the Dark Age or Kali Yuga. Hinduism, to be more popular and tolerant, accepts other religions enough to swallow them and call them part of its own Eternal Teaching or Sanatan Dharma.

Hindu holy man, sadhu, sannyasin, ganja smoker

If Brahmin priests could not rid themselves of pesky wandering ascetic or shramanic traditions like Buddhism and Jainism, it simply dealt with them by incorporating them into its own structure and pantheon just as it did the ancient Vedas ("Knowledge Books") of proto-India and the Indus Valley Civilization, extending Hinduism (which was systematized and established by Adi Shankara a few centuries ago by coordinating and getting major points of agreement for many and diverse "religions" around the Indus River, thus resulting in the name of one conglomerate religion of Indus-ism where previously people did not live with the modern idea of being in a "religion" or doing anything more than practicing spiritual things as part and parcel of daily life).

• Was Jesus a Hindu avatar? | Catholicism Coffee

Tribal Jewish God in a polytheistic world

The British imposed the idea that one must name "spiritual" practices and/or superstitions and beliefs a "religion" and that those practicing in accordance or adhering to such beliefs must be "members" of that religion. The ancients in India, proto-India, Egypt, and elsewhere simply did not have this belief but simply went along when told by the dominant and oppressive colonizing culture. One has to imagine that pre-Christian pagans in Europe did not think they had a "religion" but were just living their cultural life and holding popular beliefs about how the world (with its spirits and mysteries) works.

Amitabha Cosmic Buddha

While Early Buddhism, just like Jainism, rejected the Vedas and gods as ultimate sources of wisdom or liberation, later (Mahayana) Buddhism was co-opted by the Brahmin priests and turned into a kind of Hinduism by other names. While there are certainly many devotional practices in modern Theravada Buddhism, a back-to-basics movement to preserve the historical Buddha's Teachings, many Mahayana traditions and practices went overboard to devote themselves to anyone but the historical Buddha.

Kwan Yin (female Avalokiteshvara)

That Buddha is respected but then quickly disregarded, forgotten, or shunned for "better" Mahayana Buddhist figures like the Cosmic Buddhas Amitabha (and His promise of praying to Him to be reborn in His heavenly Western Paradise, the Pure Land, where one can make efforts to reach enlightenment and liberation without bothering to do anything toward that here other than praying and devoting oneself to Him here and now) and Vairocana, or the ever-popular Virgin Mary figure Kwan Yin (Guanyin, Kwannon, Chenrézik, or Avalokiteshvara, the Goddess of Compassion, who like many other Mahayana figures is actually a bodhisattva, a person striving for Buddhahood, not a buddha at all) and Kṣitigarbha, who saves beings from the hells, which they fall into on account of their own deeds and views.

Pals Jesus, Budai, and Krishna with a cow

This devotional bent of Mahayana Buddhism has gotten so severe that who "the Buddha" is is often blurred, with most of the world mistaking him for the Mahayana figure Budai/Putai/Hotei the "Fat Happy Bodhisattva," the obese guy revered in Chinese restaurants around the world. Moreover, a distinction at one point had to be made between what Western elucidator of Buddhism Alan Watts points out in the Japanese Buddhist terms jiriki versus tariki -- enlightenment by one's own efforts or by outside help.

• Jiriki (自力, "one's own strength" [1]) is the Japanese Buddhist term for "self-power," the ability to achieve enlightenment and liberation (in other words, to reach bodhi and nirvana) through one's own efforts, whereas tariki (他力, "other power," "outside help") is the belief that it cannot be done on one's own. These two terms in Japanese Buddhist schools classify how one becomes spiritually awakened [2]. The first is commonly practiced in Zen Buddhism, whereas the much more popular Pure Land Buddhism refers to the power of Amitābha Buddha to "save" beings who merely have faith, believe, and worship an outside force like the mythological Amitabha [3].

.

Does Christianity teach Christians and Catholics that they can save themselves, awaken themselves, enlighten themselves, or even get into heaven (which is viewed as final salvation) by their own efforts? Certainly not. Most modern Christian schools teach that it is ONLY by "grace" (God's underserved gift or His whimsical feeling like it) and never by "works" (one's own efforts) that anyone can be saved.

All three religions (Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism) believe in karma (the power of deeds to bring about a result, but Christians insist everything is either God's will or not and nothing we can do can change that, other than perhaps groveling, begging, bargaining, self-abnegation, and absolute devotion and throwing ourselves on His mercy can save us.

For Christians killing isn't so bad compared to not loving the God enough because that God can erase that karmic debt and sin, wipe it away in an instant of devotion, obedience, adherence, and voluntary slavery, whereas not killing in the first, who cares? That's not a big deal to most Christians or apologists. Of course, Hinduism now talks about karma a lot, but it is said that the Buddha was the first sage to go around telling ordinary people about the importance of their deeds.

Up until then it was more or less a secret among Brahmin priests and preservers of the Vedas, who were not keen on telling anyone other than Brahmins. The Buddha, who was regarded as a Karmavadin (Teacher of the efficacy of actions) not as a Buddhist (which came later with the Western idea that things have to be a "religion"), went around telling everyone, emphasizing karma to everyone as a principle, a fixed law, an orderliness to the universe we live in, be it a simulation or a real place.

One has to eventually put forward the endeavor and effort to awaken oneself; it simply cannot be "given" or gained by devotion. It does not belong to anyone to give, not even "God," who Himself, Herself, Itself is not enlightened nor liberated but rapt in this samsara.

So while it is beautiful that we can all be Hindus now, all go back to a time when there was just one universal religion everyone had to follow, a worldwide belief system with an all-attractive cult figure like Krishna, Christ, Thor, Zeus, Sophia, Aphrodite, Brahma, Mithras, Ahura Mazda, Allah (or His Prophet), the Great Spaghetti Monster, Odin, or countless other astrotheological figures, Buddhism does not need the Buddha to be an "incarnation of Vishnu."

• The great thing is, of course, that "Hinduism" is not really a religion even now when it is treated like one because it has always meant a collection of disparate views, practices, belief, and preferred central gods (one choice in picking any incarnation of an essential Brahman, or "reality behind all illusion") presenting itself as an avatar or aspect of the One True God(hood). The yogis have their way, as do the Shaivites and Vaishnavites, agnostics, atheists, Kali worshippers, devotees of the Goddess Saraswati, Ma Durga, Radha (Krishna's partner), Krishna, or 100,000 others.

In fact, it is insulting as it shows a severe lack of understanding by Brahmins and Hindus that such things could even happen. A buddha is an arhat (fully enlightened being), who therefore by that supreme enlightenment is never again reborn, does not incarnate, does not reappear or rearise. Of course, there will be other buddhas, like Mahayana Buddhism's second favorite buddha of all time, the Buddha-to-come, the Future Buddha, Maitreya.

But that being will not be the last one (Siddhartha Gautama Buddha) coming again. It will be a new one, just as there have been ones in the ancient past and in the distant future. It is never the same being returning to teach beings how to make an end of all suffering and all rebirth after realizing the too-subtle unique teachings of Dependent Origination and anatta (the impersonal nature of all existence) or egolessness.

The Lord's Prayer (Medieval English)

• Text by Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Cosmic time: How long is an aeon (kalpa)?

Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Finally, to suggest that the Buddha may have known what he was talking about, thousands of years ago he was asked to define an "aeon," a kalpa.

His practical answer suggests he was defining a great aeon, an unimaginable length of time, the duration of a universe or longer. We cannot imagine such timespans, except that now science throws around the idea of our universe being 13 billion years or more (given that older light is sometimes spotted by new space telescopes like Hubble and that newest one). How does a teacher of Truth begin to define a thing that cannot be imagined? He uses his imagination to stagger his audience with the otherwise inconceivable. The Buddha answered by saying:

• Imagine a piece of flawless marble or granite one yojana (seven miles) long, one yojana tall, and one yojana wide. Now further imagine a person coming by every hundred years and wiping this great mass of flawless stone without crack or crevice with a piece of soft Kasi cloth (the finest muslin). That entire mass of rock would be worn down to nothing, and yet a single kalpa would still not have elapsed ("The Mountain," Pabbata Sutta, SN 15:5, Dhr. Seven translation).

The strange thing about Sanskrit and Pali terms is that, while kalpa means "aeon," it can also mean "lifespan" and so be as short as one human lifespan, which is variable duration between 80,000 years and less than 120. At that time, females reach puberty after 500 years. (But here "500" does not really mean a literal half of a millennium. It means "many," like when we in modern American English hyperbolically say, "There was a million of them" and there was nowhere near an actual million (as in acne pustules on a teenager's face) or there were many more than a million, but we stopped counting (as with the number of stars visible in the night sky not beset by light pollution).

That is not all the Buddha said because he was making a point about the insidious nature of rebirth. We all want to live, to pursue new stimuli and indulge in sensual pleasures, so much so that we cling to life, but we eventually die. This unsatisfied craving -- which can never be satisfied except that we think, "Oh, sure it can, with the next thing," because each thing obtained ultimately disappoints -- engenders another rebirth. How many rebirths? Countless, too many to count, because it's been going on for unimaginable kalpas. So the Buddha made his point: 

"And we have all wandered on through many such aeons -- many hundreds, many thousands, many hundreds of thousands of them. Why? Birth has no known beginning.

"Long enough has one experienced disappointment, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling up the cemeteries, long enough to become disenchanted with all things, long enough to become dispassionate, long enough to be free [of clinging to] all things." Let go and be free.

• See SN 15:5  Pabbata Sutta | "A Mountain" (dhammatalks.org)
  

OOPARTS: out of place artifacts, impossible

Impossible ruins no one can explain

(Mystery History II) Oct. 14, 2022. What are ooparts? Here is video footage of some of them, impossible ruins that cannot exist (with the false history of the planet we've been told) that yet do exist.

• The unnatural future of physics
• Is there really a secret underground alien base below New Mexico? Or is it all just a story?
• The rise of ‘luxury surveillance’
• A fabled map of the cosmos lost for thousands of years has been found
• NASA announces unidentified aerial phenomena (UFO) study team members
• Modern humans and Neanderthals lived together in Europe for 2,000 years

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• Main narration by Don Moffit: donmoffit.com

Rebirth: What are the "Abodes of Beings"?

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

In the sutra texts (e.g., D.33, A.IX.24) nine abodes of beings or satta vasa are mentioned. According to the Buddha: "There are, O meditators, nine abodes of beings, namely:

1. "There are beings who are different in body and different in perception (mind), such as human beings, some celestial beings [akasha devas], and some beings living in the world of suffering (vinipātika).

• [The "human world" is a plane of existence (loka) not limited to earth. It extends in 10,000 directions to many other places in the universe, wherever there are humanoids.]

2. "There are beings who are different in body but equal in perception, such as the first-born brahmas (a kind of deva) of the Brahma-world (i.e., at the beginning of each new world-formation or great aeon, maha kalpa; see Deva II).

3. "There are beings who are equal in body but different in perception, such as the radiant devas (ābhassara, see Deva II).

4. "There are beings who are equal in body and equal in perception, such as the all-illuminating devas (subha-kinha; see Deva II).

5. "There are beings without perception and feeling, such as the unconscious beings (asañña-satta).

6. "There are beings who -- through the complete overcoming of perceptions of matter (rūpa-sañña), the disappearance of perceptions of sense-reaction (patigha-sañña), and non-attention to perceptions of variety -- by thinking 'Boundless is space' are reborn in the Sphere of Boundless Space (see Deva III; Jhāna 5).

7. "There are beings who -- through the complete overcoming of the Sphere of Boundless Space -- by thinking 'Boundless is consciousness' are reborn in the Sphere of Boundless Consciousness (see  Jhāna 6).

8. "There are beings who -- through the complete overcoming of the Sphere of Boundless Consciousness -- by thinking 'Nothing is there' are reborn in the Sphere of Nothingness (see Jhāna 7).

9. "There are beings who -- through the complete overcoming of the Sphere of Nothingness -- are reborn in the Sphere of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception (see Jhāna 8) (A.IX.24).

 

Commentary

According to the Commentary to this division of the sutra texts, the partially enlightened beings of the "Pure Abodes" (suddhāvāsa) are not mentioned here because they exist only in those world-periods (aeons, kalpas) in which fully enlightened teaching buddhas appear. Compare with viññāna-tthiti. Source

• Write like an Egyptian (Penn.Museum)
• Write like a Babylonian (Penn.Museum)

"Forbidden Archeology" Google talk (video)

Michael A. Cremo, Talks at Google, 10/7/14; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Some science is forbidden because new discoveries would upset everything we believe.

"Forbidden Archaeology" (Talks at Google)

Michael A. Cremo (mcremo.com) delves into "forbidden" archeology. Over the past two centuries, archeologists have found bones, footprints, and out of place artifacts proving that people like ourselves have existed on earth for hundreds of millions of years. This upsets the cart of the theory of evolution and so is actively suppressed by academics and ignored by everyone else.

Black budget scientists know all about it.

Many scientists have forgotten or actively ignored these remarkable facts -- even when they handled undeniable evidence. Why? It is primarily because some facts contradict the now dominant views and explanations about human origins, evolution, and extreme antiquity.

According to these popular views, humans like ourselves (Homo sapien sapiens, "modern humans") have existed for only about 100,000 or maybe 200,000 years, and before that there were only more primitive human ancestors.

This evolutionary paradigm, held by influential and vested groups of gatekeeper scientists, has acted as a "knowledge filter." This filtering -- conscious or not, intentional or not -- has left us with a radically incomplete set of facts for building our ideas about human origins.

Recovering the complete set of facts takes us on a fascinating expedition, across five continents to various archaeological sites, some long forgotten, some that are the center of ongoing controversy.

On the other hand, the complete set of facts is consistent with the accounts of extreme human antiquity found in the ancient Vedic Puranas and Buddhist texts (like the Buddhist Genesis Sutra) about our devolution, the historical writings of ancient India.

Who is Michael Cremo?

The evidence is there in the layers of earth.

BIO: Michael A. Cremo is research associate in history of archeology. He has been a member of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC) since 1993. His WAC3 paper "Puranic Time and the Archaeological Record" was published in the Routledge One World Archaeology series volume Time and Archaeology (1999), edited by Tim Murray. He is also a member of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA).
 
In 2004 Cremo's paper "The Later Discoveries of Boucher de Perthes at Moulin Quignon and Their Impact on the Moulin Quignon Jaw Controversy," presented at the XXth International Congress for History of Science, Liege, Belgium, was published in a conference proceedings volume of this congress, by the scientific publisher Brepols. Cremo is the principal author of the book Forbidden Archeology, a comprehensive historical survey of archaeological anomalies. In a review in British Journal for History of Science, Tim Murray said the book "provides the historian of archaeology with a useful compendium of case studies in the history and sociology of scientific knowledge, which can be used to foster debate within archaeology about how to describe the epistemology of one's discipline." Cremo is particularly interested in examining the history of the archeology from the standpoint of alternative worldviews, particularly worldviews with foundations in ancient Indian thought. He has given invited lectures on his work at the Royal Institution in London, the Anthropology Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, the Archeology Department of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and many other scientific institutions. He has also lectured on his work at universities throughout the world.

"What the Ancients Knew: India" (video)

Host Jack Turner; Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly
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• VIDEO: Sex and the Ancient Indian girl, so progressive

How sex differences and lust began (sutra)

Maurice O'C. Walshe (trans.), Agganna Sutra (DN 27) from The Long Discourses of the Buddha, Wisdom Publications (Boston); edited by Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly PART 2/3

"A BUDDHIST GENESIS" continued

In the beginning...

"...And as they did so, their bodies became coarser still, and the difference in their looks became even greater.

"And the females developed female sex-organs, and the males developed male organs.

"And the women became excessively preoccupied with men, and the men with women.

Do it to me filthy, you beast! - I'm trying!

"Owing to this excessive preoccupation with each other, passion was aroused, and their bodies burned with lust [sexual desire].

"And later, because of this burning, they indulged in sexual activity. But those who saw them indulging threw dust, ashes or [89] cow dung at them, crying: 'Die, you filthy beast! How can one being do such things to another?!'

Queen Maya giving birth to Prince Siddhartha under sal tree in Lumbini, Gandhara (WQ)

 
"Just as today, in some districts [of India], when a daughter-in-law is led out, some people throw dirt at her, some ashes, and some cow dung, without realizing that they are repeating an ancient observance. What was considered bad form in those days is now considered good form.

• Goosebumps: 24 unbelievable celebrations in India

17. "And those beings who in those days indulged in sex were not allowed into village or town for one or two months.

"Accordingly, those who indulged for an excessively long period in such base practices began to build themselves dwellings so as to indulge under cover.

"Now it occurred to one of those beings who was inclined to laziness: 'Well now, why should I be bothered to gather rice in the evening for supper and in the morning for breakfast? Why shouldn't I gather it all at once for both meals?' and did so. Then another one came and said: 'Come on, let's go rice-gathering.'

"'No need, my friend, I've gathered enough for both meals.' Then the other, following this example, gathered enough rice for two days at a time, saying: 'That should be about enough.' Then another being came and said to the second one: 'Come on, let's go rice-gathering.'

"'No need, my friend, I've gathered enough for two days.'

• (The same goes for 4, then 8, days).

"However, when those beings made a store of rice and lived on that, husk-powder and husk began to envelop the grain, and where it was reaped it did not grow again, and the cut place showed, and the rice grew in separate clusters.

18. "And then those beings came together lamenting: 'Unwholesome ways have become rife among us: at first we were mind-made, feeding on delight.

 
(All events repeated down to the latest development, each fresh change being said to be due to 'unwholesome and unskillful ways')... [91] [92] and the rice grows in separate clusters. So now let us divide up the rice into fields with boundaries.' So they did so.

 

You just gotta grab 'em by the purse, guys.

19. "Then, Vasettha, one greedy-natured being, while watching over his own plot, took another plot that was not given to him, and enjoyed the fruits of it. So they seized hold of him and said: 

"'You've done an unwholesome thing, taking another's plot like that! Don't ever do such a thing again!'

"'I won't,' he said, but he did the same thing a second and a third time. Again he was seized and rebuked, and some hit him with their fists, some with stones, and some with sticks. And in this way, Vasettha, taking what was not given, and censuring, and lying, and punishment, originated.
 

20. "Then those beings came together and lamented the arising of these unwholesome things among them: taking what was not given, censuring, lying, and punishment. And they thought:

"'Suppose we were to appoint a certain being who would show anger where anger was due, censure those who deserved it, and banish those who deserved banishment! And in return, we would grant that being a share of the rice.'

[93] "So they went to the one among them who was the handsomest, the best looking, the most pleasant and capable, and asked that being to do this for them in return for a share of the rice, and that being agreed.
 

21. "'The People's Choice' is the meaning of Maha-Sammata, which is the first regular title to be introduced. 'Lord Of The Fields' is the meaning of khattiya [now translated as warrior-caste member, administrator, or noble], the second such title.

"And 'One Who Gladdens Others With Dharma' is the meaning of Raja [now "Royal" or "King"], the third title to be introduced. This, then, Vasettha, is the origin of the class of khattiyas [warriors, rulers], in accordance with the ancient titles that were introduced for them.

"They originated among these very same beings, like ourselves, no different, and in accordance with Dharma, not otherwise.

Dharma is the best thing for people

In this life and the next as well.

22. "Then some of these beings thought: 'Unwholesome things have appeared among beings, such as taking what is not given, censuring, lying, punishment and banishment. We ought to put aside unwholesome and unskillful things.' And they did [94] so.

"'They Put Aside Unwholesome And Unskillful Things' is the meaning of Brahmin, which is the first regular title to be introduced for such people. They made leaf-huts in forest places and meditated in them. More