Born Jeffrey Block (Dec. 10, 1944), now known as Bhikkhu Bodhi [a], is an American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk, a major inspiration for Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal, educated in California, ordained in Sri Lanka, and now teaching in New York and New Jersey.
Long ago at BPS, Bhikkhu Bodhi authorized our Dharma editor to promote his mail order Buddhist course called The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, a ten-cassette set he recorded in the basement of the Washington Buddhist Vihara with glossary and notes. To reach a wider audience, we took it online with millions of views, our dhamma-dana.
Block was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1944 to Jewish parents. He grew up in Borough Park, where he attended elementary school P.S. 160 [4] and graduated from New Utrecht High School [5]. He then worked as a door-to-door salesman selling paintbrushes [6].
In 1966, he obtained a B.A. in philosophy from Brooklyn College, where he first encountered Buddhism in books at the bookstore [6]. In 1972, he obtained a doctoral degree (PhD) in philosophy from Claremont Graduate University [7, 8] in Southern California before deciding to move to Asia to ordain as a monk. More
Bliss and Wisdom (Chinese 福智, Pinyin Fúzhì) is a Taiwanese Buddhist [that practices Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism] organization operating in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island.
Founded in 1991 by Master Jih-Chang, the organization arrived in the Canadian province in 2008 and has come under scrutiny for its significant acquisitions of land.
A citizens group estimates that Bliss and Wisdom has acquired over 17,000 acres of land in crowded Prince Edward Island, contravening the province's land protection legislation.
The provincial government of Prince Edward Island launched an investigation into Bliss and Wisdom's landholdings in February 2025.
The organization has extensive business holdings in the areas of jewelry, electronics, organic farming, translation, and exporting. They operate a natural foods retailer based in Taiwan called Leezen, which opened its first overseas store in Charlottetown in 2016. More: Bliss and Wisdom: Buddhist organization
This world has lost Erich von Däniken, influential author of Chariots of the Gods?. Swiss author Erich Anton Paul von Däniken (April 14, 1935–January 10, 2026) was the author of several scientific (critics deem "pseudoscientific") books that claimed extraterrestrial (ET) influences on early human culture, including the bestselling Chariots of the Gods?, which was published in 1968. Däniken was one of the main figures responsible for popularizing the ancient astronauts or "paleo-contact" hypothesis. More
What in the world do you mean four? Half are gone, and there were only ever five. The Fifth Beatle (Brian Epstein or any of the others) didn't even play, just managed.
He can manage again, if he's around. There's the real Paul McCarthy living a peaceful life in England:
There's pretty boy Pete Best still cashing checks for a little sessions work, replacement Ringo Starkey doing everything he can to prove he was a Beatle after all, like this great song:
And there's Fake Paul, touring and making speeches like always:
The son of Yoko "Chuck Berry Fan" Ono and John Lennon, Julian, the inspiration for the song "Hey Jude." That's more than enough to reform and go out on tour, maybe even make a few mega mass selling singles with the help of AI, psychics (in touch with George and John in the beyond), and old found tapes that can be developed into something:
JASON BONHAM'S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING to celebrate 50th anniversary of 'Physical Graffiti' on 2025 US tour
Jason got all the members back together?
On the heels of a successful tour that wrapped last December, JASON BONHAM'S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING (aka JBLZE) is back with another round of U.S. dates.
The latest tour will be a first for JBLZE as it will focus on the 50th anniversary of the LED ZEPPELIN classic album Physical Graffiti. The latest 21-city trek across the U.S. is billed as "An Evening with JBLZE celebrating 50 years of Physical Graffiti."
Son of original drummer John Bonham, Jason
JBLZE has never done a tour centered around a specific LED ZEPPELIN album before as Jason live celebrates all things about his father, drumming legend John Bonham.
The show will feature all the selections from Physical Graffiti performed alongside numerous other LED ZEPPELIN classics.
The tour kicks off on May 3rd in Wallingford, Connecticut, and runs across the country until it wraps on May 31st in Los Angeles, California.
We let the kid do it if he wants to tour
Along the way, the tour will make stops in
Wheeling, West Virginia (May 07),
Nashville, Tennessee (May 15),
Phoenix, Arizona (May 23), and
San Diego, California (May 28)
to name only a few markets. Public ticket sales begin Friday (February 28). More information on all tickets and performances can be found at jasonbonham.net.
Jason says, "This is my favorite LED ZEPPELIN album of all time. Being able to celebrate it the way we are planning on this tour is something I am extremely excited about. I can't wait for people to come out and see these shows and celebrate this extraordinary record with us. My goal is to play at least 50 shows to commemorate 50 years…And don't worry there will be plenty of other songs that you also love played that night."
Uncle Bobby, Robert Plant, on Jason's struggle
TOUR DATES:
May 03 - Wallingford, CT - Toyota Oakdale Theatre
May 04 - Stamford, CT - Stamford Palace Theatre
May 06 - Syracuse, NY - Landmark Theatre
May 07- Wheeling, WV - Capitol Theatre
May 09 - North Kansas City, MO - VooDoo at Harrah's Kansas City
May 10 - Tulsa, OK - The Cove Margaritaville at River Spirit Casino
May 11 - Waukee, IA - Vibrant Music Hall
May 13 - Milwaukee, WI - The Riverside Theater
May 15 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
May 16 - Robinsonville, MS - Bluesville at Horseshoe Tunica
May 17 - St. Louis, MO - The Factory at the District
May 19 - Austin, TX - The Paramount Theatre
May 20 - Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center
May 21 - Dallas, TX - Majestic Theatre
May 23 - Phoenix, AZ - Celebrity Theatre
May 24 - Indio, CA - Fantasy Springs Resort Casino
May 25 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain Winery
May 28 - San Diego, CA - Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay
May 29 - Paso Robles, CA - Vina Robles Amphitheatre
May 30 - Henderson, NV - Green Valley Ranch Resort Spa & Casino - Backyard Amphitheater
May 31 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theatre
This JBLZE is going down like a Lead Blimp
In a December 2024 interview, Terrie Carr of rock station WDHA-FM 105.5 FM, Dover and Morristown, New Jersey, Jason Bonham spoke about what it was like to perform in front of full houses with his LED ZEPPELIN EVENING show across North America the previous fall. He said:
"I always find it's a pinch-yourself moment because I look at it as I started this purely as a therapeutic way to get the LED out of me.
"After playing with the real McCoy, the real deal [the original lineup], in [December] 2007 [at London's O2 Arena], I remember when it stopped, it was a huge, 'Now what?'… because I just spent six weeks with the [surviving members of LED ZEPPELIN] every day [in preparation for the London show].
"Every day we were together, hanging out, telling stories. They would tell me things that I didn't know [about my dad]. Now I'm a grown-up — they would tell me all these different things. So suddenly you feel part of it. And my mom said, 'Are you gonna be okay when it stops?' I'm like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got this.' Because you've been given the keys to the kingdom, and you sat in the throne of the greatest rock and roll band in the world.
"So when it stopped, it was hard, I must say. And then when the idea came, 'Why don't you do a band, a tribute thing," I'm like, 'Are you kidding me? I've just played with [the original guys]. I don't wanna tarnish that.' So it became more therapeutic. And I realized it's about the fans. The reason why we're still doing it, after I got over my stories... 'It's about me and my dad' — it's not. It's about our love for Dad, me and everyone, because we all have stories of what he meant to us.
"I lost my dad; you lost your drummer. So that's the only reason — the love and the passion that we do it and still do it -- because there's a lot of other things that I like to do."
Jason Bonham spent nearly a decade touring as JBLZE before changing the band's name to JASON BONHAM'S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING. He later explained that the switch was prompted by a request from the LED ZEPPELIN camp, who wanted to use the "experience" name for a project involving the archive of ZEP live recordings.
JASON BONHAM'S LED ZEPPELIN EXPERIENCE was formed in 2009 to pay tribute to Jason's father, the band's original drummer, who died in 1980 at the age of 32. "It was meant to be part of my way of expressing my love for music and expressing myself with a tip of the hat to my father," Jason told Mixdown in a 2017 interview.
"Soon after doing the 28 shows that we did with an orchestra, everyone said, 'You're not going to stop now, are you? You haven't been here; you haven't played there…' And so I said, 'As long as you guys want me to do it, I'll do it.' It's really fan-based. More
Nirvana is the ultimate goal in Buddhism, the peak, the summum bonum. It's also a band.
Punk was fresh and rebellious and underground.
Long, long ago, in the early days of LA's hardcore punk scene, the Germs (one of the first hardcore bands with a female musician) used to play in Redondo Beach. They were banned from most places in Hollywood. I remember sitting on stage in front of Pat Smear's amp as he struggled to play even rudimentary guitar.
Darby Crash could not be convinced to use a microphone. He would yell and cut himself as he contorted on the stage, giving the crowd a show. Then years later Seattle vomited up Nirvana. And they would play around LA in small clubs. I resented Kurt's choice of a band name, a cheap shot, a low blow, exploitation, thinking that sacred attainment out of bounds for such a worldly purpose as a band name. Like Darby and I, Kurt at least understood the Buddhist significance of the word.
The Germ's punk tribute to Buddhism "The Slave"
Bam! Where did the shotgun blast come from?
Nirvana literally means "the end of all suffering." So on that basis it was a good name for a depressive grunge band from the mighty banks of the muddy river that runs through rainy Seattle. The Germs had a great album, "G.I.," a punk classic. Reading the liner notes, I was shocked to see that Joan Jett of all people had anything to do with it. She put it together. Joan Jett always just seemed like some rough gal who made out with child actor Dakota Fanning in a film about The Runaways, amazing she could extend her 15 minutes of fame to a lifetime of playing in front of an audience. (Of course, she didn't play herself in the biopic, but that's how I remember the female rocker).
The Germs live, "Lexicon Devil," with Darby Crash intoxicated as usual
Then, when Dave Grohl wasn't going to let Cobain's suicide (or murder by drug addled Courtney Love as the private investigator hired to investigate the death concluded and got in a lot of trouble for coming on the Kevin & Bean Show on KROQ and talking about it, now that Love was a rich heir that could sue anyone who dared to imply she was guilty of anything, as she went on to try her hand at acting in a movie about Larry Flynt) stand in the way of his musical career and went on to form Foo Fighters, bassist Krist Novoselic put together a band. I won tickets to see the group at The Troubadour in West Hollywood. I should have stayed home. They were horrible and boring and an insult to any expectations. Who, other than his mom, knew that Great Hair Dave was the secret power source of the group?
Whatever Cobain was channeling, it sure didn't seem Krist was contributing much. Though, of course, every member of a band contributes something ineffable even if people can't see it, maybe just energy and past life connections. So for all that time to pass, and all those Nirvana tee-shirts to be sold and worn by people who may never have heard the band, it's an inspiration to see the reformation go down like this. Pat Smear was a legend, and Dave Grohl knew it, so inducting him into the Foo Fighters was no accident. And it's almost as if he finally learned to play the guitar.
When people said the greatest grunge drummer in history would be playing the benefit, it seemed like a natural assumption that it would just be him on guitar with his very young daughter on drums like before. But this is Violet Grohl, not the little drummer girl (Harper). So what a treat to see all the effort that went into putting this together with Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and St. Vincent with a defective earpiece still pulling out a fabulous performance. All hail, Dave (a kind of Don Bolles), a cheating cheater who cheats but that seems part and parcel to rock 'n roll. They all loved British Buddhist and almost-Scottish Buddhist monk David Bowie.
Vajrayana Buddhist David Bowie on spirituality
Dave Grohl, extreme metal fan of Sepultura
*Millions have heard Nirvana’s cover of the David Bowie classic “The Man Who Sold the World” from their Unplugged album. Drummer Dave Grohl and guitarist Pat Smear (like Kurt Cobain and Darby Crash before them) are devout Bowie fans. But who knew that Smear and his bandmates in the Germs used to stalk Bowie all over 1970s' Los Angeles? Join Smear and Grohl as they drive around L.A. (in a custom and, as Grohl says, “totally ‘90s” Ford Bronco) visiting Bowie’s L.A. homes, both personal and creative. Along the way the two bandmates reminisce, nerd out on Bowie trivia, and even pick up a legendary passenger. (They also call Joan Jett at home.)
Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Germs; Dave Grohl, Nirvana (reunion), Joan Jett, FireAid LA Fire benefit
What's the big deal about Slayer? Let's look at their life story in this fascinating thrash metal bio-pic
Kardashian loves Slayer, does not love her back
It's funny that we were just talking about Slayer reuniting (Slayer then and now: true crime, new band) as the new band "Kerry King." That pending release seems to have spurred everyone but Jeff Hanneman to get back in the band, though his ghost (preta) is almost certainly present, wishing it could participate like we saw him doing that one time at the Palladium.
Slayer's back! Thrash legends have officially reunited and announced their
first shows in ~5years. Loudwire's Joe DiVita, Lauryn Schaffner discuss.
(Rock Feed) Feb. 21, 2024: The extreme metal thrash band Slayer has announced that they are reuniting in a surprise announcement. Slayer retired in 2019, and guitarist Kerry King recently announced his own solo project album with the Slayer sequel band "Kerry King" doing much the thing Slayer was doing when they left off.
Sending an attractive lookalike to my high school reunion
(VICE) Like many (most) of us, Stephen didn’t have a good time in high school. He played saxophone in the school band, was a loser, got bullied, and struggled a little (a lot).
Can we get these two to play us as a couple?
Having graduated ten years ago, he hasn’t seen any of his former classmates since. So why not dupe them into thinking he "made it"?
Now his high school reunion is coming up and he wants to settle some scores. So he enlisted the help of VICE's Oobah Butler via his app, Oobah.
In the wake of sending doubles of himself to collect awards and be interviewed by media outlets around the world, Oobah auditioned lookalikes and sent a hotter, more successful but fake version of Stephen to attend his high school reunion to reinvent his image in front of his old classmates.
But can he get away with it?
ArtNetworkTV, May 27, 2018; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Cycling through Buddhism's 31 Planes of Existence, simplified to six more general realms
Reincarnation research movie: Survival After Death
(ArtNetworkTV) This is an excellent science film from 1980s, a 40-minute documentary about rebirth research. It features American Prof. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virigina the 14th Dalai Lama, a rinpoche (high lama) reborn, Native American reincarnation traditions, children born with past life recall.
Now I've already been reborn.
The late Dr. Ian Stevenson was a pioneer in scientific research on reincarnation (which should really be called rebirth as it is not an eternal soul again and again taking on flesh as it seems).
Ian Stevenson was a prominent and internationally known psychiatrist, researcher, prolific author, and well-regarded figure in the field of psychical research. Science, the Self, and Survival after Death: Selected Writings of Ian Stevenson is the first book devoted to surveying the entirety of his work and the extraordinary scope and variety of his research.
He studied universal questions that cut to the core of a person's identity: What is consciousness? How did we become the unique individuals that we are? Do we survive in some form after death? Stevenson's writings on the nature of science and the mind-body relationship, as well as his empirical research, demonstrate his strongly held belief that the methods of science can be applied successfully to such humanly vital questions.
Researcher Eben Alexander continues this work
Featuring a selection of his papers and excerpts from his books, this collection presents the larger context of Stevenson's work and illustrates the issues and questions that guided him throughout his career.
Our esteemed colleague, Emily Williams Kelly, is the editor of this collection of Dr. Stevenson's writing.
He founded The Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS) at the Department of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville, VA. (medicine.virginia.edu/clin...)
(1974). Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (second revised and enlarged edition). University of Virginia Press.
(1974). Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of A Case. University of Virginia Press.
(1975). Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. I: Ten Cases in India. University of Virginia Press.
(1978). Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. II: Ten Cases in Sri Lanka. University of Virginia Press.
(1980). Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. III: Twelve Cases in Lebanon and Turkey. University of Virginia Press.
(1983). Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Vol. IV: Twelve Cases in Thailand and Burma. University of Virginia Press.
(1984). Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy. University of Virginia Press.
(1997). Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects. Volume 1: Birthmarks. Volume 2: Birth Defects and Other Anomalies. Praeger Publishers.
(1997). Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect. Praeger Publishers (a short, non-technical version of Reincarnation and Biology).
(2000). Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation (revised edition).
(2003). European Cases of the Reincarnation Type. McFarland & Company.
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