Halloween bedtime story: birth of Vampires

(Holiday History) Halloween bedtime story: birth of the Vampire

Avalokitesvara Enlightenment Day (8/1)

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

This weekend (either Saturday or Sunday), Hsi Lai Temple will be conducting a noontime offering to the great Kwan Yin Pusa (Guanyin Bodhisattva), who began as the male deva Avalokita (Avalokitesvara).

It is unknown which day it will be because it is officially posted as "Sunday, 8/1, at 10:00 am, but Sunday is 8/2, Aug. 2, 2026. So maybe it starts on Saturday at 10 and culminates with noontime offerings at 12 the next day? Call the temple for proper details.

• Hsi Lai (Coming West) Temple
• 3456 Glenmark Drive (near 60 Fwy)
• Hacienda Heights, LA, CA 91745
• info@ibps.org, (626) 961-9697

It will be located in the Hsi Lai Temple main shrine at the top of the steps near the giant incense cauldron that looks like the Liberty Bell. Fortunately, for the Fo Guang Shan (lit. "Buddha's* Light Mountain") Movement Buddhists of the world and others, there will be a Livestream (live from Los Angeles):

Buddha's Light Mountain

Fo Guang Shan (FGS, Chinese 佛光山, Pinyin Fó guāng shān, lit. "Buddha's Light Mountain") is an international Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist organization and monastic order. It is based in Taiwan and practices Humanistic Buddhism, whose roots are traced to the Linji School of Chan Buddhism.

The headquarters, Fo Guang Shan Monastery, is located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Buddhist Taiwan, and is the largest Buddhist monastery in the island country .

[Of course, mainland China lays claim to Taiwan as an integral part of the PRC (People's Republic of China) just as it insists that Bon/Vajrayana Buddhist Tibet and similarly oppressed Muslim Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest are part and parcel of the nominally communist actively capitalist post-kingdom].

• Buddhism in Taiwan
• Buddhism in China

The organization is also one of the largest charity organizations in Taiwan. Its counterpart for laypeople is known as the Buddha's Light International Association. Founded in 1967 by Hsing Yun, the order promotes Humanistic Buddhism and is known for its efforts in the modernization of Chinese Buddhism.

The modernist order is famous for its use of technology, and its temples are often furnished with the latest equipment [1, 2]. Hsing Yun's stated position for Fo Guang Shan is that it is an "amalgam of all Eight Schools of Chinese Buddhism." More

• (*Sadly, while it sounds like one big, united Buddhist family, in fact the Buddha in the title refers to the "Cosmic Buddha" Amitabha, as in Amitofu, not the historical one from Earth, who is lovingly called the Sage of Scythian Shakya/Saka Clan, Shakyamuni, Siddhartha Gautama) 
• Hsi Lai Temple, Los Angeles; CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit FGS

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Mexican Barbie gets in on the holiday

Today, Nov. 1, is Día de los Muertos. It’s a time when people celebrate the lives of those who've passed on -- a time to remember family members, close friends, pets, even strangers, perhaps all of humanity.

The Mexican American holiday holds a special place for many people as a way to grieve those who have died and keep their memory alive.

• La Calavera Catrina ("The Skull Belle")
• Day of the Dead in Mexico | Celebration in Cancun and Xcaret Park | Dia de Muertos

Catrina beauty contest winner in Los Angeles

People usually celebrate with an ofrenda or offering altar that has photos of their loved ones, their favorite meals, orange marigolds, pan de muerto [bread for the dead, dead bread, soul cake offerings], sugar skull candies, and other items that have special meaning to those being remembered.

Home altar feels like Halloween

In celebration of the holiday, LAist.com asked readers: "What is a memory of a loved one you would like to share for Día de los Muertos?"

LAist heard from people across Southern California about those favorite moments. This digital ofrenda is meant to highlight those memories.

The Day of the Dead and the story of La Catrina | Mexican animated tale

Remembering loved ones

Offerings (ofrendas) to benefit the deceased who are grateful to be remembered by the living

.

Photos of the dead on home altar

Joanne Pineda of Monterey Park (a small city in the San Gabriel Valley of LA County) has made a tradition of celebrating Día de los Muertos with her family. She said she’ll always remember the time when her dad asked her mom to dance to Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” in the living room.

(News 4 San Antonio) The origins and meaning of Dia de los Muertos

“Thinking about it now really brings me tears because it just brought them so much joy. It brought them close together,” Pineda said. “For me to be there, to see that, how special it was to them I just think about it all the time.” More

Coco (by Pixar/Disney)

• VIDEO: "Day of the Dead" catches on in the U.S.
• David Rodriguez and Gillian Morán Pérez, LAist.com, "Angelenos are celebrating Día de los Muertos. Here’s who they’re honoring today," Nov. 1, 2025; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Night in the cemetery: Day of the Dead

Día de Los Muertos Ofrenda Exhibition | Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel

What is the Day of the Dead? A night in the cemetery in Oaxaca

 

Isn't that right, Madam Presidente Sheinbaum?

(Andy Spits) The Day of the Dead in Oaxaca City, Mexico. We had the chance to spend the night in a cemetery in Oaxaca (\wah-ha-kah\) during El Dia de Los Muertos with local people. This night was magical. Why? The conception of death for Indigenous Mexican people is very different from our Eurocentric conception, and we really like this much more traditional point of view.

He lives in Orange County.

Of course, love. Of course, honor. Of course, remember. The dead are grateful. The dead may need our help (so we can transfer merit to aid them out of a bad way they may have fallen into.

After all, what is "family"? It extends seven generations out, and among all those people it is said that it is impossible that not one of them has fallen into a bad way (niraya), an unfortunate destination. (Is it a coincidence that the Indigenous people, the Native Americans, also concerns themselves with seven generations?) So what we offer, if it is not needed by that particular person for whom we make the offering or ofrenda at the altar, other extended family members in need may partake of it and be given ("transferred") good karma, which is needed everywhere at all times.

Buddhism's "Transfer of Merit"

What is the transfer of merit? (Julian Daizan Skinner). The Buddha

nails it down in Theravada texts and commentaries explained below*

Mexican Buddhists

Somos Aztecas y Maya, y si no se van las almas (los muertos) al cenote (la tierra), donde van?

Nuestra Senora Guanyin of Guadalupe

The only other people who spend a night in the cemetery for any good reason are Buddhist monastics training to contemplate and be mindful of death (maranasati).

Why would anyone contemplate it? Just as traditional filial piety says to hold on to loved ones, to cling to them, to never forget, Buddhist wisdom says to let go, detach, set them free. In this way they can come back, are not stuck, and go on living.

The ruling sky-gods are hard to please.

They did not "die" in the sense of ending, stopping, or finishing. The Wheel of Life and Death keeps turning, does not stop turning, fits the other side of the coin to the process. How can there be an inside without an outside? How can we really ever "live" if all we do is fear that it will end and all will be lost? Sure, these trivial things and possessions will be pulled from us, but not all will be lost. Our character, the habits we built up, and our store of deeds (karma) is carried from here to the beyond.

• Transfer of merits (patti-dana) and receiving merits (puredhamma.net)

*Transfer of merit

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrine, Terms edited by Wisdom Quarterly

What do hungry ghosts need and want?

Patti-dāna is literally "giving of the acquired," that is, "transferring merit." Though very seldom mentioned in the older texts (e.g., A.VII.50), it is a widespread custom in all Buddhist countries.

The merit of morality (sila), especially that which is acquired by giving alms to monastics and the needy, can be transferred to others. This is so that one's own good deeds may become to others, especially to departed relatives and friends reborn in the ghost realm, an inducement to a happy and morally wholesome state of mind. (That is the secret of how it works).

Naked hungry ghosts in rags, hounded by dogs

Transferring merit is advocated (without mentioning the term patti-dāna) in the Tirokudda Sutta (Khp. and Petavatthu) and its Commentary (Khp. Tr.).

It is one of the ten "bases of meritorious action" (puñña-kiriya-vatthu, where it is called pattānuppadāna, App.).

• For more, see The Doctrine of Reversible Merit by F. L. Woodward, Buddhist Review (London), Vol. I (1914), p. 38.

COMMENTARY

Let's party till we're dead then go to the cemetery

The Day of the Dead is said to be on Nov. 2, but it is preceded by a visit and/or an overnight stay in the cemetery on Nov. 1.

Halloween is celebrated on Oct. 31 because it is based on All Hallows' Eve (the Catholic Church version attempting to usurp the heathens), making All Hallows' Day Nov. 1, the exact date of the events of the commencing of the original Day of the Dead.

Nov. 2 is the wrapping up of the previous night's celebration. Therefore, this "day" is carried out over two days.

We're here to civilize you. - With that Book?

Sadly, now in the USA, we have gotten it further twisted: We have become The Dead. Why? We dress up, haunt others, trick or treat, and cram ourselves full of sugar-laden candy, leaving Nov. 1 and 2 to be days of sickness with stomachaches and sensitive teeth, making ourselves ripe for possession, our immunity compromised by the shock of glucose spikes, in need of purging, walking around like traumatized zombies.

It's odd how the ancients knew this was a special time for peering between realms. Irish Scottish Celtic Samhain (Sauin), European paganism, Wicca remembered that before they were all but exterminated by Judeo-Christianity's Old Testament God of Genocide.

• Andy Spits, YouTube, Jan. 29, 2020; Julian Daizan Skinner; Mexican Buddhists Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Buddhist Lent: Kathina ceremony (10/27)

Golden Buddha from ancient Gandhara, modern Afghanistan (from Saving Mes Aynak)

Golden Buddha polished to brilliance in Burma

The Buddhist holiday season has just begun in the Theravada Buddhist world, as the Lent period comes to a close with a culminating ceremony called the Kathina ("Unshakeable") robe offering. It is a kind of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) after the fast rather than before it.

It is said that this is the most meritorious ceremony lay people participate in, generating a great deal of beneficial karma (punya, kusala kamma).

What happened?

The new facilities can hold ~1,000 people

The Buddhist temple (Mindfulness Meditation Center) was never more crowded. Both lots were full with cars overflowing onto the neighboring suburban streets.

Nearly everyone was dressed in white just like at the time of the Buddha. There were giant tents and chairs set up near the bodhi tree (a descendant of the original tree wandering ascetic Siddhartha sat under to become the Buddha, the "Awakened One"). Snack boxes were being given out, and monks were gathering in the hall.

Two Vietnamese Theravada nuns were filming the abbot, who is said to be over 100 years old. Abbot Ahangama Dhammarama may not be a centenarian yet, but he does hold the record for the longest person (more years in robes) than anyone in America. Although he may have committed defeat offenses as some say, he is still credited with the longest ordination period or years of seniority (more than 80).

The nuns gathered around him to take selfies as the monks assembled in the pews before lining up to go outside and take their seats at long tables under a giant tent. They chanted (having chanted until midnight the night before) blessings (parittas). Then the parade (perihera) began on the boulevard in front of the temple complex. We lined up to give offerings (dana) to the monastic who walked by with bowls and robes and large gift bags.

The monastics were then served delicious foods, both hard and soft, and devotees offered them their fill so they could return to their meditation. But this day marks the end of the intensive retreat period ("Lent"), so it was on to the awarding of the ceremonial "durable robe" for the temple's monastic resident who had best adhered to the Discipline in the preceding three months of the Rains.

• PHOTOS; Mindfulness Meditation Center - Covina Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara | Facebook

Marvels of monumental Chinese Buddha statue

• Mindfulness Meditation Center - Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara | Covina, San Gabriel Valley, LA, California
• All night chanting begins Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, at 4:30 pm with dinner served at 7:00 pm
• Full day ceremony: Ancient Buddhist Ceremony: Kathina Robe Offering, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, 9:00 AM | Meetup
• 1023 N. Glendora Ave., Covina, California
• San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County
• Note that each temple celebrates on its own schedule throughout the month. It is not a single day event but will go on at different viharas usually on weekends. The celebration day is usually preceded by all night paritta and sutta chanting in Pali (Magadhi), one of the languages the Buddha spoke. It is customary but not mandatory to wear all white.

Knowing Our Festivals 005: KATHINA

International Buddhist flag with Dharma wheel

(HARMONICO) 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘀: 𝗞𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗔. Kathina is a Buddhist festival, which comes at the end of the Rains Retreat (Vassa), the three-month rainy season retreat for Theravada Buddhists.

Let’s watch this episode from the KNOWING OUR FESTIVALS series to understand more about the festival.

This looks at Malaysia, but this holiday festival is celebrated around the world in every country with a Theravada Buddhist population (Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, India, Malaysia, Singapore, America, Germany, England, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam...)

• The Buddha in Sri Lanka (flickr.com/Yim Hafiz)

Penang Harmony Corporation (HARMONICO) would like to thank the Malaysian Buddhist Meditation Centre, Nandaka Vihara, Bukit Mertajam, and Dr. Li Feng for contributing to the production of this video, Oct. 30, 2021.

• Bhante Dhammarama Maha Thero, Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara (MindfulnessMeditationCenter.com); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen Bradshaw (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

US soldier sets self on fire to protest Israel

TMZ.com (graphic video); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

War is ugly, but Israel doesn't mind. It's a traumatized diaspora read to traumatize others.

MAN SETS HIMSELF ON FIRE NEAR WHITE HOUSE, EXTINGUISHED, ARRESTED

Do I love Gaza or hate being a US soldier?

A man (Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty military serviceman in the US Air Force, who no longer wanted to be complicit in Israel's genocide against Palestine, particularly the US-funded ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank by government-backed illegal Jewish settlers) protested Israel's war in Washington, D.C. Bushnell set himself on fire in a park near the White House and was only saved -- for the moment, as he died later -- by cops, who quickly held him at gunpoint ready to execute him with service revolver cause if he gave them cause, surrounded and extinguished him.

Look at this other American guy set himself on fire (and not blurred out by censors) tmz.com/watch/0-6x0dv368

One of the many reasons Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc was wrong to do this (ritual suicide), even if he was doing the good of calling attention to US war crimes in Vietnam in the summer of 1963 is that he, inadvertently, inspired others to think this was a way to get attention for good causes like protesting bad wars. Is it bad karma? Can one know his thought at the moment of ignition or death? Was there not hatred (aversion, dosa) present at that moment? If he died, his mind clear, no aversion, then it would not condition his rebirth negatively. And if he was enlightened before dying, there would be no rebirth at all. The minutiae of such matters is explained in detail in the Abhidharma ("Doctrine in Ultimate Terms" literature, an explanation of Buddhist psychology).

Food for The Day of the Dead (audio)

Austin Cross, AirTalk LAist.com, 89.3 FM; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

First of all, what TDOTD?

Happy Hallowtide. Every year on the last Saturday before Nov. 2nd, Hollywood Forever welcomes the world onto its cemetery grounds to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos – the "Day of the Dead."

This is one of Mexico’s most colorful traditional holidays, which reunites and honors beloved ancestors, family, and friends.

It is believed that on Dia de Los Muertos, the living commune with the dead – at a mystical time when the veil is lifted between their two realms so that they may share a day together.

At Hollywood Forever participants from the around the world, most of them in costume, spend a unique and memorable day.

The cemetery comes to life with joyful celebration, as a vibrant procession featuring hundreds of Aztec ritual dancers weaves through the cemetery.

More than 100 altars, created by members of the community in remembrance of their beloved ancestors and loved ones, dot the grounds.

Musical performances by Grammy Award winning recording artists entertain on five stages. More

• Día de los Muertos | Hollywood Forever (ladayofthedead.com)
• Hollywood Forever Cemetery, L.A.
• 9:00 am-12:00 am, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023

Food for Day of the Dead (KPCC FM)

We're not the Dead, we're mocking the living.

November is just around the corner and with it a major holiday for many in the USA's Latin American community. It’s Día de los Muertos ("The Day of the Dead").

Here in Los Angeles that means days of festivals and celebrations of life and the lives of those we have lost (the dearly departed, the grateful dead, the hungry ghosts or petas).

Can I be Latina like you guys? (Lana Del Rey)

It also means bakeries full of specialty treats for families’ ofrendas or altar offerings. One of the most common offerings put out for the holiday is the Pan de Muerto ("Bread of the Dead"), a sweet bread made with orange blossom water and dusted with sugar.

Its distinct shape resembles a skull and crossbones and is put out to honor the souls (gandhabbas) of loved ones who have since passed away to the great beyond of the afterlife (rearising somewhere else guided by past and present karma).

Maybe we can ask Santa Muerte

Today on AirTalk for "Food Friday," guest host Austin Cross delves into the history of the Pan de Muerto and its connection to the Day of the Dead with Heber Lopez Renteria, store team leader for La Monarca Bakery's Los Angeles locations, and Gab Chabrán, associate editor of food and culture for LAist.

• AUDIO: COVID-19 latest: FDA study looks into dangerous risk of stroke for anyone who pairs COVID and flu vaccinations | LAist (NPR News for Southern California, 89.3 FM (kpcc.org)

The show is also open to listeners calling in! If anyone celebrates Día de los Muertos and has a favorite treat or offering for the holiday, share it with the show. How can we celebrate or honor a loved one through food?

• Call: (866) 893-5722 or email at atcomments@laist.com

Mahayana Repentance Service (8/20-27)

Hsi Lai Temple (Hacienda Heights); Ananda, CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ksitigarba saves hell beings

You know that big Buddhist temple on the side of the hills that separate Orange County from Los Angeles County? It's Hsi Lai on the LA side, facing the San Gabriel Mountains, overlooking LA's second valley. What do they do there?

It's a Taiwanese Mahayana complex built on the model of genuine Chinese temples following a more devotional, slightly Zen, style of Chinese Buddhist tradition, ancestor worship, good luck rituals, nuns training, repentance, chanting, and weeklong sleepovers of more intense meditation practice.

It's the second largest in the Western hemisphere

There are classes, which at first will not seem very friendly to Westerners, catering to a largely Asian population from both counties. But a persistence pays off, and there's a Buddhist college (University of the West) they run in nearby Rosemead. So they do provide English-speaking programs from time to time.

In any case, there's always a small and interesting museum, a giant vegan/vegetarian cafeteria to visit, a tea house, and a gift shop. Visit any weekend. Coming soon:

Filial piety Emperor Liang Repentance Dharma Service

Buddhist repentance? This special program runs for one week, from August 20–27, 2023. It will be held in the Main Hall at 3456 Glenmark Drive, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745 (MAP).

• Light-Offering Dharma Service: Wednesday, Aug. 30, 10:00 am– 12:00 pm, Main Hall
• EVENTS CALENDAR (Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple)