To save the remaining trees of Altadena

There is an organization that is currently doing something to save the remaining trees of Altadena, more than half of which were wiped out by the Eaton Fire. They are Amigos de los Rios ("Friends of the Rivers," referring to the Emerald Necklace).

(amigosdelosrios.org)

ADLR offers free watering assistance for Altadena homeowners:

In the wake of the Eaton Fires, our local trees need our help. We’re offering watering assistance for Altadena’s homeowners to protect and preserve our community canopy.

By signing up, those in need give permission for ADLR's trained team to visit a property and water its trees.

Amigos de los Rios is an Altadena-based 501c3 urban greening non-profit that has served the community since 2003.

(Amigos de los Rios) About us: The story of Amigos de los Rios

Its office was destroyed in the Eaton Fire and many of our staff have been impacted by fire damage and loss, leading to a great deal of concern about the tremendous loss of trees thoughout this Los Angeles foothill community.

It is critical to protect the remaining trees in Altadena by watering them over the hot Indian summer months to help them survive.

• DONATE TO THIS EFFORT
• SIGN UP FOR FREE SERVICES
• VOLUNTEER FOR THIS INITIATIVE

As such ADLR has started a program to help all families provide water to surviving trees. ADLR is working hard to raise grant funds for this endeavor. Support ADLR by donating to this effort or volunteering.

(NBCLA) An initiative to save the foothill trees in Altadena

Mission

If LiDAR is brought in, what's under the canopy?

Amigos de los Rios is working to create the Emerald Necklace: a natural infrastructure network of green spaces, green schools, parks, and trails throughout under-served communities in the Los Angeles Basin. ADLR is connecting the mountains to the sea, helping to provide equitable access to nature, and protecting our environment and urban communities from the threats of climate change. More

• Emerald Necklace vision plan
• Board of Directors | Amigos de los Rios
• SITEMAP | Amigos de los Rios - Emerald Necklace Group

Effort to save Altadena’s remaining trees after Eaton Fire

Highlighted by NBCLA, California Community Foundation, ABC7, and Pasadena Star News, after the devastating Eaton Fire, local groups are leading an urgent effort to save Altadena’s remaining trees. More

Creating an Emerald Necklace of parks in the Los Angeles Basin with support from California Climate Investments funding through the California Natural Resources Agency’s Urban Greening Program, Amigos de los Rios expanded the green schoolyard project at Mary Jackson. Multilingual More

• Amigos de los Rios
• DONATE TO THIS EFFORT
• 65 South Grand Ave.
• Pasadena, CA 91105
• amigosdelosrios.org/contact-us
• Greening at the Altadena Collaboratory
• Claire Robinson, amigosdelosrios.org, ADLR in LA schools | Spectrum News, In Focus; NBCLA; Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Let's END food waste: toogoodtogo.com

Too Good to Go; Gary & Shannon (KFI AM); CC Liu, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

LET'S END food waste TOGETHER. Food waste is a big problem. We can be a solution. Too Good To Go is the app that lets users rescue unsold food at favorite food spots from an untimely fate. Use the app to explore stores and restaurants in local area -- and save surprise bags of surplus food (some of it vegan or specialty depending on outlet) from going to waste at a great price: Save Food - Help The Planet - Too Good To Go (www.toogoodtogo.com/en-us).

Redefine Meat: plant-based 3D printed steak

RedefineMeat.com - New Meat, No Compromise, Oct. 6, 2023; Guy Raz, How I Built This (NPR, 10/15/23); Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ayala Meidan Rimoni of the vegan company Redefine Meat (© RedefineMeat.com)

“Our new-meat is a ‘hero item’ on menus, appealing to meat lovers and vegans”

Israel’s Redefine Meat is known for its unique “new-meat” technology, said to be able to replicate any cut of meat in plant-based form.

Since the meat alternatives launched commercially in 2021, they have received extensive praise — including from Michelin-star chefs — with the company raising a huge $135 million to expand globally.

Redefine Meat has gone on to partner with Europe’s largest meat importer, Giraudi Meats, allowing for an expansion across multiple countries.

The brand is now available at numerous restaurants Europe-wide, adding a record 70 new food service customers during this year’s Veganuary campaign alone.

In the United Kingdom, Redefine Meat has joined forces with gourmet food distributor Classic Fine Foods to make its products available at high-end restaurants across the country.

• Cultivating Excellence: Lallemand’s Leading Role in the Torula Yeast Revolution

GlobalMarketing Manager Ayala Meidan Rimoni told us more about the company’s ongoing expansion and innovations. 

Which products are available for hospitality and food service and where?

Redefine Meat’s portfolio of new-meat products is unique in today’s market, both for stand out quality and moreish taste, and how extensive the range is, especially compared to other brands.

We have two lineups, one catering for retail and the other Redefine Pro Series for food service, which currently includes over ten products.

Together with our brand-new category of pulled meats, launched late last year, these include the Redefine Premium Burger, Lamb Kofta, Beef Mince, Pulled Beef, Pulled Pork, Bratwurst, Merguez Sausage. and Beef Flank.

©Redefine Meat Redefine Meat is already available at close to 4,000 outlets across Europe and Israel, ranging from restaurants and steakhouses to hotels, cafes, and more.

More recent additions include established nationwide chains like The ASH in Germany, the steakhouse chain Loetje in the Netherlands, and the popular craft brewery BrewDog in the UK. For a full list of locations, see here...

• Redefine Meat interview: Vegconomist, the vegan business magazine

The world, the world! (sutra)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; F.L. Woodward (trans.), Kindred Sayings, The Chapter on Channa and Others (Samyutta Nikaya, IV, Pali Text Society)

Saving the world, protesting economic and social injustices, Occupy L.A. (Wisdom Quarterly)

  

(84) Ven. Ananda came to see the Exalted One [Buddha]...and asked:

"'The world! The world!' it is said. venerable sir, please explain, how far does this saying go?"

"Ananda, what is transitory (paloka-dhamma = bhijjanaka, worldly phenomena, impermanent) by nature is called 'the world' in this noble doctrine and discipline [Arya-Dhamma-Vinaya].

 

"And what, Ananda, is transitory by nature? The eye, Ananda, is transitory by nature...visible objects... [The same is said for all six senses including the] mind is transitory by nature, mind-states, mind-consciousness, mind-contact [contact = the coming together of sense base, sense object, AND consciousness], whatever pleasure or pain (weal or woe) or neutral state experienced arises owing to mind-contact -- that, too, is transitory by nature. 

"Ananda, what is transitory by nature is called 'the world' in this noble doctrine and discipline."

Empty (void)

(85) Then Ven. Ananda...said to the Exalted One: "'The world IS empty! The world is empty!' it is said. Venerable sir, how far does this saying go?"

"Ananda, because the world is devoid of a self or anything belonging to a self (atta-niya, a self's property or possessions), therefore it is said, 'The world is empty.' And what, Ananda, is devoid of a self or what belongs to a self?

"Eye, visible objects, eye-consciousness... mind, mind-objects, mind consciousness are devoid of a self. Ananda, that is why it is said, 'The world is empty!'"

In Brief

Massive, sitting, golden Shakyamuni Buddha statue, Thailand (WQ)

 

(86) ...Then Ven. Ananda said to the Exalted One: "Well, for me, venerable sir, if the Exalted One would teach me a teaching in brief, a teaching which on hearing from the Exalted One I might dwell solitary, remote, earnest, ardent, and aspiring."

 

"Now what do you think, Ananda? Is the eye permanent or impermanent?" -- "Impermanent, venerable sir."

"What is impermanent, is that pleasant or painful (weal or woe)?" "Painful, venerable sir."

"Now what is impermanent, painful (woeful, disappointing), changeable by nature, is it fitting to regard that as, 'This is mine. This I am. This is my self'?" -- "Surely not, venerable sir."

 

"Eye, visible objects, eye-consciousness, eye-contact -- is that permanent or impermanent?" [This same is said of all six senses, types of sense objects, consciousness, and contact between the three].

"Then of what is impermanent, disappointing, and changeable by nature, is it fitting to regard that as, 'This is mine. This I am. This is my self'?" -- "Surely not, venerable sir."

"So seeing, Ananda, the well-taught noble disciple... [is] freed of conceits; one grasps at nothing in the world [does not cling to anything in the world or anything regarding an illusory ego]. Being free from grasping, one is not troubled. Being untroubled, one is by oneself set free. Thus one realizes, 'Rebirth is destroyed, lived is the highest life, done is the task. There is no more of this [suffering] to come.'

 

"This, Ananda, is the proper approach to the uprooting of all conceits [delusions]."

 

The Heart of Wisdom Sutra

(COMMENTARY)

The later Mahayana tradition says all of this much more cryptically in the "Perfection of Wisdom" literature (Prajna Paramita), epitomized in the Heart Sutra.

 

There the Five Aggregates of Clinging are laid bare: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are empty. 

 

That is, they are devoid of a "self" through and through. Illusion exists. These constituents of being/becoming are generally regarded as a "self" by untaught, ordinary worldlings.

 

But because they are impermanent and unsatisfactory (disappointing), it is incorrect to regard them as personal. They are impersonal (not-self), beyond our control, brought into transient or momentary existence by causes and conditions. They do not arise by themselves but are brought into being by causes and conditions, which is to say they are dependently originated or arisen. 

 

All of this happens again and again based on ignorance. When liberating-insight arises, enlightenment dawns, and all suffering is brought to an end.

Yogis move Off the Mat, Into the World

OffTheMatIntoTheWorld.org

OTM uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious and sustainable activism to ignite grassroots social change, moving yogis off the mat into the world. Join the movement!

  
Yogis around the world are coming together to activate big change. Join the growing movement of leaders raising funds and awareness for global causes. Join the Global Seva Challenge and come on a life-changing journey to India. GET INVOLVED

MacArthur Genius Grants announced

Seven Jaini (WQ)

(9/22/09) – There are 24 new geniuses in America as decided by the the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation based in Chicago. The foundation has awarded each $500,000.00 with no strings attached and no explicit expectations.

WQ tracked down their names and fields of endeavor. Here, in simple alphabetical order, is the heavily Judeochristian listing of our best and brightest (who came to the attention of the foundation's 12 anonymous judges in 2009 by nomination not application).

1. Lynsey Addario, photojournalist
2. Maneesh Agrawala, computer vision technologist
3. Timothy Barrett, papermaker/conservator
4. Mark Bradford (CalArts, Los Angeles), mixed media artist
5. Edwidge Danticat, novelist
6. Rackstraw Downes, realist painter
7. Esther Duflo, economist
8. Deborah Eisenberg, short story writer
9. Lin He, molecular biologist
10. Peter Huybers, climate scientist
11. James Longley, filmmaker
12. L. Mahadevan, applied mathematician
13. Heather McHugh, poet
14. Jerry Mitchell, investigative reporter
15. Rebecca Onie, public health entrepreneur
16. Richard Prum, ornithologist
17. John A. Rogers, applied physicist
18. Elyn Saks (USC, Los Angeles), mental health lawyer
19. Jill Seaman, infectious disease physician
20. Beth Shapiro, evolutionary biologist
21. Daniel Sigman, biogeochemist
22. Mary Tinetti, geriatric physician
23. Camille Utterback, digital artist
24. Theodore Zoli, bridge engineer

There have been 805 Genius Grant recipients to date. They will take their half-million dollar "fellowships" and spend them anyway they choose without answering to anyone or anything but conscience. Why are they geniuses? The MacArthur Foundation explains that they select activists, artists, and scientists of every stripe for what they might do as importantly as for what they have done. Therefore, some are geniuses-to-be with their best work yet to be realized.

The foundation's president, Bob Gallucci, explains: "This is not just an award for past accomplishment [but] for the potential to do more creative things in the future." The foundation, established in 1978, is a private, independent grant-making institution dedicated to helping groups and individuals to improve the human condition.

There are a disproportionate number of recipients who adhere to one particular religion, be it culturally or spiritually. There are also many youthful fellows with bright futures now able to blossom into the geniuses they have have the potential to become. There are no age restrictions. One is even identified as a high functioning schizophrenic, who is currently a professor at USC. Their work and fields of interest also seems to have influenced judges -- from the economy to climate change, short story writing to poetry, from engineering to biology, visual art to applied math.

• MacArthur Foundation: macfound.org
• 6 Blacks win $500,000 "genius grants"
• Princeton University - Sigman, Zoli win MacArthurs
• More about the MacArthur_Fellows_Program

Past Buddhist Geniuses?

UCLA's MacArthur Fellows
UCLA's distinguished faculty includes MacArthur "genius grant" Fellows...Schopen, whose books include Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks (with Donald S. Lopez)

Buddhist Channel Buddhism News...
Nov 23, 2007...Moreover, American Buddhist converts like Saunders, who won the MacArthur Foundation's ''genius grant'' last year, are scooping up accolades...

Leading Buddhist Studies Program Eyes Tibetan Gap, UCLA Asia Institute
On May 23, a high-ranking Buddhist abbot and a U of Michigan professor will read...and two UCLA Buddhologists—MacArthur "genius" grant recipient Gregory...

3 Bay Area Residents Tapped for "Genius Awards" - Grants
Jun 15, 1993...The so-called genius awards from the MacArthur Foundation went to... Leonard van der Kuijp, 40, Buddhist and Tibetan scholar...