Just when the summer is getting started after a long, cold spring in Los Angeles, the LAUSD has started classes up again only a month after Independence Day! What gives? Now there's no more summer and no time for our summer school. It's time for Class 3 on The True Nature of Existence with American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Grab some sunscreen [or better yet, alkalinize the body so that it will not be susceptible to burning by acidic reaction to sunlight] — it’s National Bikini Day this July 5th. It’s the perfect opportunity to head to the beach. National Bikini Day celebrates the anniversary of the invention of the two-piece bathing suit. Owing to its risqué design, the bikini was slow to be adopted — but it gradually gained traction when film stars like Ava Gardner and Brigitte Bardot started to wear bikinis on public beaches and in their films. The garment was certainly one of the greatest inventions of all time and, due to the supposed "explosive" effect it had created, it was named after Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific where US warmongers and their suburban drones conducted nuclear testing in 1946. Get ready to celebrate this iconic summer look.
Ban the human body! What do you think this is, the Garden of Eden! God will smite you all!
The answer, in brief, is join this tribe and do what they do. Become a master diver by epigenetics -- kickstarting our natural human capacity that mostly goes unprompted and dormant.
7 days with the tribe that BREATHES underwater (Bajau Sea Nomads)
(Joe HaTTab) The BAJAU (Sama-Bajau): Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia. 🌊
Meet the Bajau — the “Sea Gypsies” who have lived in and on the ocean for centuries. With a population of about 100,000 people across Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, they are legendary free divers (70 meter + depths with no oxygen tanks).
Let's visit their stilt villages in Tawi-Tawi, Philippines, and North Sulawesi, Indonesia, to uncover their survival secrets — and find out why their ancient way of life is vanishing.
Young men, beware of selkies, beautiful but vicious
Mermaid princess Suvannamaccha (Thai สุพรรณมัจฉา, RTGS Suphannamatcha or Suphan Matcha, Khmer សុវណ្ណមច្ឆា, ALA-LC Suvaṇṇmacchā, Pali सुवण्णमच्छा, suvaṇṇamacchā, literally "golden fish") is a daughter of Ravana (Thotsakan), appearing in the Thai and other Southeast Asian versions of the Ramanaya [1].
Suvannamaccha tries to spoil Hanuman's plans to build a bridge to (Sri) Lanka but falls in love with him instead [2].
The figure of Suvannamaccha is popular in Thai folklore and is represented on small cloth streamers or framed pictures that are hung as luck-bringing charms in shops and houses throughout predominantly Theravada Buddhist Thailand.
Story
A mermaid charm in Thailand
[The Hindu monkey-headed god] Hanuman, while building a causeway [that has really been found to exist], discovered that he was hampered by mermaids underwater.
Hanging wall mount: Suvannamaccha luck bringing charm (amulet) in a riverside shop in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
When the divine Mother GoddessSita is kidnapped, her husband [ET] Lord Rama enlists Hanuman's help in rescuing her. Hanuman learns that Goddess Sita is being held captive on the island of (Sri) Lanka.
Hanuman informs Lord Rama, her husband, who orders him to build a causeway to Lanka from Proto-IndiaJambudvipa so that Rama's army can attack.
Chris Columbus reported seeing mermaids.
Hanuman collects his band of Vanaras and they begin placing huge boulders in the sea [between the tip of the subcontinent and the teardrop shaped island to the south] to make a foundation for the causeway.
After a few days, they notice something is wrong and call Hanuman to report that matter to him. They tell him that each day they throw rocks into the sea and the next day they are gone. Hanuman asks for volunteers to join him while he instructs the others to continue throwing rocks into the sea.
When several volunteers step forward, Hanuman leads them into the waves. They find a large number of mermaids living underwater. As they watch, a new rock is tossed in. The mermaids underwater take the rocks and carry them away.
Golden Fish, you're real! Every Thai knew it!
Hanuman looks around for their leader. He spots a lovely mermaid supervising the others. He swims towards her, but she skillfully evades him. Time and again he begins an attack, but it comes to nothing. Hanuman soon finds he is falling in love with the aquatic creature.
He changes his tactics and begins to silently woo her. She responds to him, and soon they are together at the bottom of the sea.
When Maha Moggallana, the Buddhist monk the Buddha declared "foremost in psychic powers," looked into the sea, he saw a delightful world of mermaids (sea nymphs) dancing and existing by what sounds like advanced technological means:
"Mansions stand for an eon in the middle of the sea,/ The hue of beryl-stones, brilliant, glowing, radiant;/ There dance full many nymphs in divers hues" (Isaline Blew Horner, born 1896, trans. of MN 50).
"There are mansions that last an eon standing in the middle of a lake./ Sapphire-colored, brilliant, they sparkle and shine./ Dancing there are nymphs shining in all different colors." (Bhante Sujato, trans. of MN 50). More: Are mermaids manatees?
Later, Hanuman asks the mermaid why she is stealing the rocks. She tells him that she is Suvannamaccha, a daughter of Ravana (the "demon" who had abducted Sita).
When Ravana saw Hanuman's Vanaras building a causeway, he instructed Suvannamaccha to stop it. Hanuman tells the mermaid why he is building the causeway.
He tells her of the abduction of Sita, the battle between Rama and her father Ravana, and why they started to build a bridge to reach Lanka. More
Dubbed. 👇🏽 share.epidemicsound.com/joeha... Add this code JOE50 on the above link for Epidemic Sound and get 30 days free then discount 50% for two months for all new users. ♦️🤍⚡️
● Instagram انستغرام ➭ joe_hattab
Team 🎥
🌊 Underwater Cinematographer
KevShen. 🌊 Cinematographer
TOMMY VISION
🌊 Assistant Camera
Ourty Mohamed
🌊 Graphic
Anouar Ozgar
🌊 Research
Nada Hammouch.
Playlist of more great documentaries:
• 🌳
Playlist of the most interesting islands:
• 🌊
Playlist of prison documentaries:
• 🪐
Joe HaTTab, March 23, 2025; Mermaid (Sea Devi) Kelly Ani, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
What is 'life' anyway? These bizarre fossils are neither plant nor animal, but a 'weird fusion'
Light microscope images of euglenoid cysts from ~200 million years ago in Germany (left) and the Netherlands (right) (Bas van de Schootbrugge/Utrecht University).
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Macroscopic life forms in space light years wide
If ever playing Twenty Questions, there's a little-known form of life to pick that is sure to leave all opponents stumped.
It is neither animal, nor vegetable, nor mineral. It's not even bacterial nor fungal. What the hockey puck?
It's called a Euglenid (euglenoid) – and it's a weird fusion of a bunch of different living things.
Euglenids are a group of unicellular eukaryotes that gain energy through both photosynthesis (making energy from light), like a plant, and through consuming other living beings, like a carnivorous animal (stealing the bodies of fellow beings).
Examples of fossilized Pseudoschizaea shells, also recorded as Chomotriletes, Circulisporites, and Concentricystes (Schootbrugge et al., Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 2024).
These aquatic organisms split off from other eukaryotes roughly a billion years ago, yet their fossil record for all that time on Earth is scarce.
Now, an international team of scientists argues that they have found ancient Euglenid fossils hiding in "an extensive paper trail" of already published scientific research.
For years, the shell-like fossils were misidentified as possible worm eggs, algal cysts, or fern spores, partly because of their tiny circular "ribs" on the inside.
The fossils didn't really fit into any taxonomical box. So in 1962, scientists called them Pseudoschizaea shells.
Their similarities over the years have stumped experts, as these fossils span immense timelines, from almost half a billion years ago to the present. More
Sleigh Bells wears her love of the Goddess of Compassion on her arm, La Virgen de Guadalupe
Mary Magdalane: Jesus and his Early Followers | full documentary | Biography
Honoring the sacred feminine
(Biography) For nearly 2,000 years, she was believed to be a "prostitute" who repented and became a disciple of Jesus. But we reveal the truth about Mary Magdalene [Hebrew "Mīryām of Magdala," ancient Judea, Rome] that is finally emerging.
ABOUT: Dive more deeply into Biography on the website:
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Facebook: biography, Instagram: biography, Twitter: biography. Biography highlights newsworthy personalities and events with compelling and surprising points-of-view, telling the true stories from some of the most accomplished non-fiction storytellers of our time. #Biography
~
In my house
Virgin Mary or Kwan Yin?
I was raised Catholic with a very Catholic mother who always had a Buddhist statue of Kwan Yin, the Buddhist Goddess (or Bodhisattva) of Compassion, in the living room even when we moved to a new house. When I discovered Buddhism as a teen, and like Lisa Simpson thought this is the greatest nonreligion in the world and slowly became a Buddhist, I thought my mother would understand. She didn't.
"You don't?" I asked. Then why do you have that Buddhist statue in the living room.
"I have no such statue," she insisted.
I walked her to the living room and pointed, "Then what's this?"
"No, it's just that the Chinese [Asians] don't make her eyes right because every group makes her look like themselves. But it's the Virgin Mary."
Then I showed her a book with Kwan Yin's picture and said, "Well, I suppose now you'll be throwing her away since it's the wrong [Mother Goddess/saint] one? I'll take it." And I picked her up and brought her to my bosom.
"Nothing doing, Mister! Give it back!" She took Kwan Yin from me, dusted her off, and put her right back in her place on the windowsill in the bright Southern California sun.
"So what are you a Buddhist now?" I asked her.
"Never you mind," she answered. "Move it along."
And that's how we became a two-religion household, all thanks to this one sacred feminine figure.
~
A devi with gandharvas
Origen [the Church Father who followed the BuddhaAmmonius Saccas aka "Shakyamuni"] preserves a statement from Celsus that some Christians in his day followed the teachings of a woman named "Mariamme," who is almost certainly Mary Magdalene [142, 143].
Origen merely dismisses this, remarking that Celsus "pours on us a heap of names" [142]. More
~
Virgin Mary appears to a Native?
What's with the iconography on the Queen of the Angels, the Queen of Heaven, the Virgin of Guadalupe (the appearance of a Mary in Mexico)? Those are bull horns under her but a crescent moon. She has a radiant aura, projecting her subtle energies all about. There's a blue cloak (the sky) spangled with stars (space, heaven, the celestial realm), where she is queen, crowned, held up by a cherubic angel in a cloud...
British Theravada Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm explains the Buddhist
significance of the early Christian Church Father Origen and his teacher.
Mary Magdalene, as described in the Bible, was a devoted follower of Jesus. She was present at his crucifixion and resurrection. She is often depicted as a repentant sinner and prostitute, but recent scholarship says that portrayal is wrong and was no accident. Taylor "Nazi Barbie" Swift, like Mary Magdalene, has been a powerful and influential figure in music and has faced much criticism and misunderstanding. Throughout her career, Swift has been depicted as a “serial dater” and a “manipulative celebrity,” just as Mary Magdalene was demonized as a prostitute. More
Buddhism and the Virgin Mary
Ven. John, Adrian Urias, June 10, 2020 edited by Wisdom Quarterly
Kwan Yin (Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) is NOT Mary, but both are Goddesses of Compassion
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A Goddess emerges from a giant clamshell
(Adrian Urias) My friend "John," a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, tells me the story of why there is a statue of the Virgin Mary [looking like beloved Buddhist GoddessKwan Yin] at a Mahayana Buddhist temple in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, right next to the famous ship the RMS Queen Mary, in front of the shore. She is emerging from a clamshell like the famous Botticelli painting (shown above), "The Birth of Venus."
The baby Future-Buddha and the mother who raised him (Sri Lankan art)
Do Buddhists have a Madonna and child, the Buddha and his mother?
Mother Goddess and child
It's easy to think that the Virgin Mary refers only to Mother Mary, but the real star is usually the Apostle and Super-Disciple Mary of Magdalene. The Bible reduces all the Marys to one generic Mary, and it's not an accident. Sexism is burying the significance.
The same thing happened to Prince Siddhartha's wife, (Bimba Devi) known to the world by her descriptive title Princess Yasodhara. What happened to her after Prince Siddhartha decided to leave on a spiritual quest to find a solution to the universal problem of suffering.
He set off, leaving behind his family, friends, and future subjects, renouncing the throne and all the luxuries of the palace, including wife and son. He left to return with a solution.
We run this Church, not the people
And, indeed, seven years later, now awakened to the utmost, supremely enlightened, he returned. He ordained his 7-year-old son as a monk. Now where did this leave his son's mother? She ordained as well and became fully enlightened, a great teacher, and a remarkable debater willing and able to take on anyone anywhere. Why don't we hear about her? Why has she been forgotten to history?
Ask the average Buddhist, and all that's likely to be remembered is that she got left behind. Nothing of the sort happened. She was remembered and saved -- as were the Buddha's adoptive mother, who raised him from the age of 7 days (when his biological mother, her sister, Queen Maya Gotami, passed away). His mother, Pajapati Gotami, became the world's first Buddhist nun.
The Buddha Gautama remembered everyone, and came back to offer them the Dharma, the Teaching that leads to deathlessness (nirvana), ultimate liberation from all suffering.
Honoring the Buddhist feminine
But his former wife, like Mary Magdalene, gets short shrift. How is she hidden and buried?
She is given many names, with a few recognizing they are all describing one single person: Bimba Devi, Princess Yasodhara, Rahulamata, Bhaddha Kaccana, Kaccana, and so on. Fortunately, scholars realized it.
Why did the men of the Christian religion bury all the Marys (Miriyams)? It seems the explanation is that it did not want to highlight the female contributions but rather bury and erase them. Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene (who, Jewish rules tell us, had to be Jesus' wife, not just his disciple otherwise he could not have been a rabbi, as he is called many times in the books of the Bible).
Then there are the Buddhist Taras
Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
Juan Diego, I've come to conquer the Natives here in New Spain/Mexico. Go tell the Church.
Many colorful Tibetan Taras are honored.
Tara (Sanskrit तारा, Tārā, སྒྲོལ་མ, dölma), Ārya Tārā ("Noble Tara"), also known as Jetsün Dölma (Tibetan rje btsun sgrol ma, meaning: "venerable mother of liberation"), is an important figure in Buddhism.
She is especially revered in Himalayan Vajrayana Buddhism and the larger Mahayana school. She appears as a female bodhisattva (being bent on supreme enlightenment) in Mahayana Buddhism and is considered to be the consort or shakti ("power") of Avalokiteshvara (a Buddhist god/goddess of compassion)[1].
Tārā is also known as a savioress who hears the cries of beings in the world (saṃsāra) and saves them from wordily and spiritual dangers [2].
In the Vajrayana school, she is considered to be a buddha, and the Tārā Tantra describes her as “a mother who gives birth to the buddhas of the three times [past, present, future],” who is also “beyond saṃsāra and nirvāṇa” [3].
She is one of the most important female deities in Vajrayana and is found in sources like the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa and the Guhyasamāja Tantra [4].
Key Indic Vajrayana texts that focus on Tārā include the Tantra Which is the Source for All the Functions of Tārā, Mother of All the Tathagatas (Sanskrit Sarvatathāgatamātṛtārāviśvakarmabhavanāmatantra) and Tārā’s Fundamental Ritual Text (Tārāmūlakalpa) [5, 3].
Tārā remains a popular meditation deity (yidam) in Tibetan Buddhism, and she is also revered in Newar Buddhism in Nepal.
Many Taras
Tārā is considered to have many forms or emanations, and there are several traditions that list 21 Tārās.
Each Tara has a different color, implements, number of faces and arms, and activities such as pacifying (śānti), increasing (pauṣṭika), enthralling (vaśīkaraṇa), and assaulting (abhicāra) [2].
Feminine iconography
The green (or "blue-green," Sanskrit śyāmatārā) form of Tārā remains the most important form of the deity in the Tibetan tradition [6, 7].
A practice text entitled Praise to Tara in Twenty-One Homages is the most important text on Tara in Tibetan Buddhism and is the source for the various traditions, which list 21 forms of Tārā (one Tara, many manifestations, aside from the main green form).
The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus alike:
Oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā.
It is pronounced by Tibetans and Buddhists who follow the Tibetan traditions as oṃ tāre tu tāre ture soha. The literal translation is "Oṃ O Tārā, I pray O Tārā, O Swift One. So Be It!" More
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, converted to Jewish atheism
I would do anything to become an American sex symbol and finally be loved, Daddy.
I'm an LA girl from an LA world.
Marilyn Monroe was born in Los Angeles, living in 12 foster homes and an orphanage, getting married at 16 to escape all that. She divorced then dated gaunt, Jewish, nebbish writer Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman) and identified with Jewish people as a "dispossessed group."
She got engaged to Miller and wanted to convert to Judaism to make herself part of Miller's family [206]. She was instructed by Rabbi Robert Goldberg and converted on July 1, 1956 [205].
However pretty our food, it comes out the same.
Monroe's interest in Judaism as a religion was limited: She called herself a "Jewish atheist" and did not practice the faith after divorcing Miller, though she did retain some religious items [205].
Egypt lifted her ban after her divorce was finalized in 1961 [205]. Then she married baseball star and Italian Catholic Joe DiMaggio.
She's Catholic. Don't let anyone tell you different, like my sainted mother.
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She is one of the most important female deities in Vajrayana and is found in sources like the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa and the Guhyasamāja Tantra [4].
