Explore Buddhist Afghanistan by motorcycle

Afghanistan the media won't show us 🇦🇫🏳️

Where in the world is Afghanistan? It's next to Hindustan (India) and Pakistan, Central Asia

These are the white, Caucasian, Central Asian people America destroyed in their longest war?

It's a mellow ride in the foothills of Central Asia

(Matt Shoe) Sept. 27, 2025: Afghanistan, Central Asia [formerly ancient Buddhist Gandhara, Saka-stan, Shakyā Land, Scythia, the real Kapilavastu, in the foothills of the Hindu Kush, part of the Himalayan Range] is one of the most misunderstood countries in the world.

The Monks of the Mines (National Geographic)

After decades of war brought on by empires (British, Russian, American, Chinese) and negative media coverage (US propaganda), most adventure travelers wouldn’t even dream of coming here.

[What is there to see in the Buddha's hometown?]

Who are the Hazara people?

But today, I [a Lithuanian from the EU] set out to show a different side of this country – the beauty, the hospitality, and the raw reality of life in Afghanistan today.

Riding my motorcycle from Kabul to the legendary Bamiyan Valley and the pristine waters of Band-e Amir Lakes, I’ll ride through breathtaking landscapes, ancient history, and powerful human encounters.

(Historian Dr. Ranajit Pal)

Along the way, I meet a beekeeper who shares his honey, almonds, and hospitality, explore the ruins of the ancient and massive Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the [CIA-ISI's] Taliban, share food with families living in caves Buddhist monastics carved out and occupied around the time of the Buddha and for centuries thereafter, and witness the extreme poverty that 40 years of war has left behind.

Band-e Amir Lake, Bamiyan, Afghanistan

Finally, I reach Band-e Amir National Park – home to one of the most beautiful lakes in the world, crystal clear and surrounded by dramatic canyons.

This is Afghanistan as never seen before: raw, real, and unforgettable. Keep exploring! 🌍✌️

• Buddhism in Afghanistan
• Greco-Buddhism in the Hellenistic Far East

Trump: It's time to re-invade

(Secular Talk) CIA controls Pres. Trump, who does what he's told

My e-Books: Guides: mattshoe.travel/guides: ⚠️ Afghanistan Travel Guide. Follow on Instagram: themattshoe. Facebook: mattshoeyoutube. TikTok: mattshoetravel. Business enquires: contact@mattshoe.travel.

• Matt Shoe, Sept. 27, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Cops cover up: Hot drunk cop kills motorist

Thinks fatal car crash is funny: "He didn't look okay" [because I mangled him with my vehicle]

You will cover up my crimes like I cover y'all!

(PoliceCamCentral) Washington State, summer 2025: Off-duty female cop drives drunk, kills motorcyclist, as police attempt to cover up her intoxication and avoid having her say anything incriminating on bodycam. She is finally arrested for DUI, found to be more than twice the legal limit. Through it all, she thinks the fatal crash she was involved in or caused is funny even as she is soaked in the blood of her victim, asking to be allowed to go home to get out of bloody and incriminating clothes as she gave CPR until she thought victim was dead and didn't bother to keep going, even though paramedics did continue. (She may have killed him by her drunken negligence as much as by colliding with him in the first place). It's silent behind the Blue Shield as other officers deserve to be arrested, investigated, and imprisoned for conspiracy charges of helping out their hot friend and colleague, scratching her back just as they would expect her to cover up for them.

White entitlement and privilege

(Access Hollywood) Why Rhode Island Assistant Attorney General
arrest video is going viral: ‘You’re gonna regret this!’

On the road w/ female motorcyclist: India

Terrifying noises are coming from a HAUNTED TOWN in Rajasthan, India 🇮🇳

(Itchy Boots) KULDHARA, India - In this episode, Itchy Boots leaves Jaisalmer and rides to Jodhpur. On the way out, she stops at the abandoned haunted town called the village of Kuldhara.

Want to learn how to use drones, GoPros, and 360 cameras to film your own solo motorcycle adventure? Check out: itchyboots.com/academy. This is where she teaches all her advanced filming techniques, including getting drone shots while riding.

Gear and equipment that she uses this season: itchyboots.com/blog/gear-...

Follow her journey at: ITCHYBOOTS.COM. Instagram: itchybootstravel. Facebook: itchyboots. #itchyboots #adventure #himalayan450

• Ms. Itchy Boots, Nov. 12, 2023; Crystal Q., CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Cheap supercars for broke boys: QtrLife Crisis

Ideal Media, March 3, 2022; Team T (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

There's room for all ages and genders on this ride.

Consider the fact that our hormones, patriarchal societies, the ways we're raised don't change so much. At the time of the Buddha, rich kids raced around in cool chariots with parasols and white stallions. Why? Image, chixdiggit, ego, testosterone, competitiveness, vanity, memories of life in the lower heavens (planes of existence in the deva worlds of the Sensual Sphere), who knows? But they did. And many people do it here and now, no longer limited to rich boys. Think of the new lowrider law in Los Angeles, California. Every kind of person in our U.S. car culture gets sucked in at least a little. Some a lot, but everyone a little. This is the Sensual Sphere (kama-loka). We aim for rebirth in the Fine Material Sphere or, at the very least, the sensuous heavens. Some more wisely aim for an end to rebirth or rearising in the hard-to-conceive Immaterial Sphere (the formless realms). Here, in the world of form (rupa), we want to experience things viscerally, corporeally, in the gut, on the skin, in the nether regions. We didn't make it that way. The karma of the being reborn here make it that way. So, given that we're wealthy and in the West with all its excesses, let's look at cars before they become illegal and we all go EV and start drag racing Priuses in tubes through our smart tubular cities, like that massive one being built in the desert. Kids, don't try this at home; ask a parent instead. But, you know, Knowledge and experience come from choices, and bad choices seem to yield the most knowledge and experience.

Cheap supercars for broke boys

(Ideal Media) Let's look at some not so expensive supercars for less than anyone thinks! Get in a 500 HP, 200 MPH beast that smokes a friend's BRZ. Some cheap cars make one look rich, from the Sl55 AMG, Fisker Karma, Aston Vantage, and Lotus Elise to the Dodge Viper, these cheap rides will make a statement wherever they're being driven. OK, OK, what's "cheap"? That depends. What's a "supercar"? That depends, too. Shut up. The average new car in America costs $50,000.00 so "cheap" varies.

Join The Ideal Fam at bit.ly/IdealMembership.  #dodgeviper #supercars #cheap

White killer cop given 20 years for murder

Associated Press (ap.org); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

But all I did was kill an [n-word]. All the guys at the station brag about doing it.

.

Lots of cops kill blacks! Why jail me?

Through tears, [murdered black motorist Walter] Scott's family told [racist killer cop] Slager they felt sorrow for him and the loss his young children would feel in his absence.

In the end, a judge sentenced Slager to 20 years in prison [instead of a death penalty for capital murder with extenuating circumstances like felony murder under color of law and civil rights abuses for Officer Slager's racist motivations], giving the Scott family the justice they had sought ever since a stranger came to them with the shocking video of [Officer Slager repeatedly shooting] Scott [as he was] being killed [by yet another racist cop in South Carolina].
 

"I forgive Michael Slager. I forgive you," Scott's [good Christian] mother, Judy, said as she turned toward her son's killer. "I pray for you, that you would repent and let Jesus come in your life." Sitting just a few feet away, Slager wiped tears from his eyes and mouthed: "I'm sorry [or perhaps mumbled the n-word as he might have done during the murder of black motorist Walter Scott]."

Murder in the 1st degree in progress, but Officer Slager allowed to plea to lesser charges.

.

Since when do Black Lives Matter?

The punishment wrapped up a case that became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement. Slager, 36, is one of only a few police officers to go to prison for a fatal shooting, and his sentence is by far the stiffest since the shootings came under extra scrutiny in recent years.

 

Attorneys [lying] for the former North Charleston officer said he shot the 50-year-old Scott in self-defense after the two fought and Scott grabbed Slager's stun gun. They said race didn't play a role in the shooting and Slager never had any "racial animus" toward minorities [and that when Officer Slager moved the stun gun next to the corpse, he was just? He wasn't defending himself then, just cooking the crime scene to get away with murder were it not for video of the murder].

 

Still, Slager pleaded guilty in federal court to violating Scott's civil rights. As part of a plea agreement reached in May, prosecutors dropped state murder charges. "This is a tragedy that shouldn't have happened," U.S. District Judge David Norton said [but, you know, no need to ruin Officer Slager's whole life over it. I'll give him 20 years, let him out on appeal or early for good behavior as he's treated like a king by racist prison guards housing him in protective custody]. More

College student brings Hollywood stars to tears

Olympic doctor gets 60-years for child porn

Lawmaker says she accidentally brought gun to airport

Cops have been going bad and murdering civilians for a long time. Shown here is the infamous "Dalton Gang," who had police among them who became criminals, murderers and thieves, in the Wild West (posthard.com).

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle [Crashing] (video)

Wisdom Quarterly
First person point of view of a typical city ride, until the bike is rear ended at low speed.

It's going to take a lot of maintenance to get back in the Zen Zone after a motorcycle accident. I should know; I almost died in one. The worst thing was not the concussion or complications but not being unable to bend my broken leg enough to get back into lotus position:

How would I sit; how would I reach enlightenment?!

Zen may mean jhana (meditative absorption), but there's more to it than zazen (sitting practice). One life trauma piles atop another, interspersed with good times so we don't notice the misery tank starting to read "full." The happiness tank is never running on empty. But we assume it is.

There's happiness everywhere -- in all things, at all times. Even the Holocaust can be fun if we make it that way -- for others, for ourselves, for both. It's that much of a choice. Fear stymies us -- in delusion about what is really happening and what it means. A person is only as trapped as s/he feels, never as trapped as one negatively imagines.

To spare his son the horror, he made it a game.

The terrible thing is we not only make it one way for ourselves, we contribute to the "consensus reality." This is horrible! This is unjust! This is anything but what it is. What is it? "It is what it is," whatever that may be, of course. Let it be.

Because whatever it is, four things are still true: There is unhappiness, but the unhappiness has a cause; there is happiness, and the happiness has a cause of happiness that we can do something about! These two sentences are the Four Ennobling Truths briefly stated.

When can it be done? Now. Now is the only time anything can ever be done. That should be clear enough just by a moment's reflection. There is always only now. Knowing that gives us power, what Eckhart Tolle made famous by naming it the "power of now."

Once we know this, the future is so bright we better bring shades. Even a motorcycle crash can't keep one down.

• Life is Beautiful (watch movie free)
  (Tenshigirl25) "Life is Beautiful," starring Italian actor Roberto Benigni (dubbed in English without subtitles), as a Jew caught up in Nazi machinations at a death camp with his son. The story was so uplifting as to win him an unforgettable Academy Award.

Then it's on to the Zen of Motorcycle Ghost-Riding (on a New Delhi, India freeway, while texting and skirting death at every lane change)

Fighting Back: Traffic Cameras

Traffic cameras spark rage
Angry motorists are fighting back over the increasing number of intersection cams.

• Unusual methods (WSJ.com)
• The big money in traffic cams
• Find the top speed-trap cities