How the Mongols erased Islamic Iraq

(Echoes of Torture)

Did Iran really damage lying Israel?

5000 Israeli Givati ​​Brigade Troops Die on the Spot‼️Iranian Missile Falls on Israeli Border

57,000 Israeli IDF Soldiers Surrender - Iran Takes Control of Strategic Israeli City

Mad Pele? Iceland erupts, China shakes, Israel

SCMP.com; AP Iceland eruption livestream (AP); Israel crime (The Jimmy Dore Show); Sheldon S., Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

At least 110 people have been reported dead and hundreds more were injured after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck China’s northwestern province of Gansu overnight on Dec. 18, 2023. It was China’s deadliest quake in nearly a decade since 617 people died in August 2014 when Yunnan province was hit by a major earthquake. More: sc.mp/avp0

O, Pele, forgive us our sins. 😉

The goddess Pele must be very mad, mad at Israel for mass murder, oppression, and hypocrisy; mad at the planet and fuming through an outlet in Iceland and seismic activity in China; weeping over dry drought-stricken Los Angeles (the center of the world because of the hegemonic influence of Hollywood) with a slow-moving storm that poses flood threat to California. What does Pele want? Repentance? A virgin sacrifice? More business as usual?

The Southland is in for a dangerous dousing. We must be complicit in Israel's support.

First water then snow, slamming into the state which is normally sunny and dry for Xmas.

Chemtrails, sprayed over the past few days in crisscross patterns, ensure a deluge for dry streets.

• Water is falling from the sky in Los Angeles, the capital (or throat chakra) of the world: California storms pose flood threat (weather.com)
• All this bad news!  Let's get a Master of Arts in Happiness Studies

Here's how much Israeli terrorists care about killing innocents

(TJDS) Jimmy Dore and Kurt Metzger break down war crimes visited upon Jewish Israeli by Israeli Jews of the IDF. When they do this to Arabs/Palestinians, no one cares. When they do it to European Jews, Israel blows up again against Netanyahu.

I misspoke. I was a hot, dumb Hollywood blond

Northwestern China hit by massive killer quake in freezing temperatures. Could it be, as Sharon Stone might ask, due to its criminal state oppression of ethnic Uyghurs, being forced to submit or face genocide like so many Tibetans? Of course, it would be silly, simplistic, and wrong to think that one thing immediately begets another. Samsara is very long, and there is time for bad karma to bear its bitter fruit. There is, however, such a thing as "collective karma," often too slow to save beings from their wrongdoing. For any Buddhist who doubts that, consider the fate of the Shakyas (Sakas, Scythians) in the Buddha's family clan. What became of them and why? They were slaughtered by their offended neighbors, this horror was later explained by being traced back to a time when many of them, having been born in each other's company as so often happens over the course of this long wandering on through samsara, they poisoned a river (apparently unintentionally), killing many fish. But isn't karma "intentional action"? Yes, the act, not the result. They intentionally poisoned the river; they did not intentionally kill the fish. The fish died as a result of their action, which made the results worse. It not only made it worse for individuals involved, it made the results catastrophic for them collectively. The working out of karma is an imponderable thing in detail but knowable in general.

Who in the world is Pele?

Girl fight: Kapiolani defying Pele (wiki)

In Hawaiian religion, Pele is the goddess of volcanoes and fire and the creator of the chain of over a thousand Hawaiian Islands.

Often referred to as "Madame Pele" or "Tūtū Pele" as a sign of respect, she is a well-known deity within Hawaiian mythology and is notable for her contemporary presence and cultural influence as an enduring figure from ancient Hawaii [1].

Epithets of the goddess include Pele-honua-mea ("Pele of the sacred land") and Ka wahine ʻai honua ("The earth-eating woman") [2].

In different stories talking about the goddess Pele, she was born from the female spirit named Haumea. This spirit is important when talking about Hawaiʻi's gods as she descended from Papa, or Earth Mother, and Wakea, Sky Father, both descendants of the supreme beings.

Pele is also known as "She who shapes the sacred land," spoken of in ancient Hawaiian chants [3, 4].

The first published stories about Pele were written by William Ellis [5].

According to legend, Pele lives in Halemaʻumaʻu of Kīlauea in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Kīlauea is a currently active volcano that is located on the island of Hawaiʻi and is still being extensively studied [6].

Many Hawaiians believe Kilauea to be inhabited by a "family of fire gods," one of the sisters being Pele who is believed to govern Kilauea and is responsible for controlling its lava flows [7].

There are several traditional legends associated with Pele in Hawaiian mythology. In addition to being recognized as the goddess of volcanoes, Pele is also known for her power, passion, jealousy, and capriciousness. She has numerous siblings... More + VIDEO

Iceland is exploding and vomiting molten earth

• AT A GLANCE:
• The eruption is just a couple of miles north of the town Grindavik.
• The entire town of Grindavik was evacuated in November because of seismic activity.
• Many evacuees are still living in temporary accommodations.

Iceland volcanic island that's still blackened

A​ large volcanic eruption is underway in southwestern Iceland, with semi-molten rock shooting high into the air in an area where scientists feared for weeks that such an event would take place.

I​t's happening about 2 miles north of the town of Grindavik, which had been evacuated last month amid fears that an eruption nearby was likely.

There are signs that Vikings were here.

Earthquakes left some homes damaged in the town, which also prompted evacuations. This type of eruption is not likely to send a large amount of ash into the air, and therefore, large-scale flight delays and cancellations are not expected.

The eruption is happening about 30 miles southwest of Iceland's capital, Reykjavik (home of chess), along the Reykjanes Peninsula.

• (​WATCH: Explaining the Iceland Volcano Eruption)

There are signs of volcanic activity everywhere

Iceland’s Foreign Minister Bjarne Benediktsson said on X, formerly Twitter, that there were no disruptions of flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open. More

The Morning Brief email newsletter provides weekday updates from The Weather Channel and meteorologists.

• VIDEO: Lava spews as Iceland volcano erupts near Grindavik | weather.com

Shoot people with their hands up. No, wait, never shoot when hands are up!

Trump mugshots, arrest...cavity searches

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Heavy.com; Huff Post, 8/24/23; DNyuz

D. John Trump mugshot memes: 47 of the funniest jokes about 'blue steel' moment | indy100

Bad citizen Trump has four court cases to fight before elections: Remember Stormy Daniels?

All hail the Fuhrer. Cranial cavity search reveals the problem with Fearless Leader Trump

While Trump was waiting in that Georgia jail, did he graffiti the cell like a lowlife?

In defense of "Honest Liar" Donald Trump, Dave Chappelle analyzes the Orange One's GOOD side.

I joined 3P, the Neo-Nazi white supremacist gang Peckerwood Prison Posse, so I alright.

WARNING: Schadenfreude is bad mental karma. To feel compassion, even for him, the worst of men, consider what'll happen to him when his tremendous store of bad karma begins to ripen.

REAL: face of evil, anger, victimization, vindictiveness, resentment, seeking revenge and civil war -- defendant Donald John Trump mugshot (Fulton County Jail, 8/24/23 via heavy.com)

Wait, nobody said nuthin about no cavity search! - Bend over Mr. Ex-President! (imgflip,com)

Trump didn't just lose the election. No candidate ever found more ways to lose (rense.com).

Damn! I was going to make my other face to not give those damn Dems the satisfaction...

• Trump's mugshot will make MSNBC masturbate, Bill Maher jokes (nypost.com)
• Trump TWEETS his historic mugshot in first post since Jan. 6th ban: First US president in history to get a booking photo after Georgia fraud arrest which recorded Fatty's weight as only 215 lbs. (Daily Mail)
• VIDEO: The Trump MUGSHOT is about to drop (One News Page)
• Criminal defendant Trump turns himself in at Fulton County Jail, Georgia – DNyuz
• Jenna Ellis has strikingly different mugshot than Trump co-defendants – DNyuz
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Prof. Michele Alexander)
• Hotel served half-naked woman covered in chocolate with dessert buffet – DNyuz

I was violated. My cavity didn't do anything.

Aside from Jenna Ellis, eight out of 18 of Trump's indicted co-conspirators and co-defendants had been booked at Georgia's Fulton County Jail and photographed as of Wednesday. Only former Georgia GOP lawmaker David Shafer joined Ms. Ellis in cracking a smile. Shortly after authorities released the mugshot, Ms. Ellis, who was charged with felony racketeering and solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, shared the photo in a post to her account on X (formerly Twitter). Trump's mugshot will be released today like all the others. (See above, courtesy of heavy.com). More

Barry Hussein Soetoro Obama went white and grey, and I went bald with so much stress.

I'm just an old man. Why are people treating me like I'm Tay Dog Swift? Leave me alone!

Trump's favorability rating among MAGAots at 99%. They also like Ronnie and Rama.

The British press, in this case the very respected The Guardian, has a field day making an ass of U.S. Pres. DJ Trump, their own P.M. Boris Johnson (aka Boorish Tallywacker)

The Age of Mass Incarceration is no joke. Just ask Professor Michele Alexander.

Not thrilled to be alive? Try Death Meditation

Deborah Netburn, LA Times, 7/20/23; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Wow, consciousness carries on into the afterlife. We're reborn over and over again!

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Want to feel thrilled to be alive? Try death meditation

Deborah Netburn

On a recent Saturday night, the scene was serene inside Tac-tile Mountain, a small, carefully curated shop in Pasadena.

Meditation cushions were laid out on the concrete floor. A sea of white candles was flickering in the window. And then the restaurant next door started blasting “Umbrella” by Rihanna.

The six of us who had gathered inside laughed nervously. We were already excited and a little hesitant. After all, we were there to contemplate our own deaths. Tac-tile Mountain was hosting “Death Reflections,” a two-hour, $55 workshop led by Marifel Catalig, a trained death doula [birthing assistant] and breathwork instructor.

I hoped death meditation would ease my fear of dying (Jeffrey Decoster/Los Angeles Times).

.

It had been advertised on Instagram as “a breath guided meditation intended to contemplate death in many forms.” The description ended there, so no one knew exactly what to expect.

Going into the workshop, I hoped that spending an hour meditating on my inevitable demise would ease my fear of dying. What I didn’t anticipate is that I would walk out feeling profoundly grateful for all the ordinary, messy, glittering life I’ve been blessed to live so far.

• Struggling to calm the mind? Buddhist monastics in Hacienda Heights offer meditation tips

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This overwhelming feeling of gratitude is not unusual after a prolonged death exercise, said Ines Testoni, a social psychologist who directs a course on death studies and end of life at the University of Padova in Italy.

“What I have been seeing for 15 years now is that knowing one has to die allows one to value life and feel more grateful for what life allows us to do and enjoy,” she said.

Welcome

What I really need is Mind-Cleansing Meditation. But where to get it? (Meditation Town)

.

Marifel Catalig, 40, greeted us at the door wearing a white blouse and wide-legged jeans, then asked us to find our seats.

After lighting the candles that were placed at the head of each of our cushions, we began with a gentle movement to release the tension of the day, then focused on our senses — paying close attention to what we could see, hear, taste, feel and smell.

Death meditations are wildly variable. In the Buddhist tradition the practice of maraṇasati, or "mindfulness of death," is designed to remind practitioners that death might come as soon as the next morning, the next meal or even the next breath, and encourage them to act accordingly.

Another Buddhist practice focuses on a detailed visualization of the body’s eventual decay to help relinquish [clinging] attachment to the material world.

• 12 places to find solace for the soul in Los Angeles

I thought it would be scary.

Catalig once attended a death meditation at which participants were wrapped in a white sheet to mimic the shroud they might wear after they die. Another time she led a living funeral workshop where participants were asked to write a eulogy for themselves that she read out loud to the group.

The meditation I attended was simpler. The focus was primarily on the type of life review many people undertake before they die.

Accompanied by a playlist of instrumental music that was more evocative than annoying, Catalig asked us to imagine our earliest memories and consider where we were, who was there, what we felt like, what it smelled like, and what sounds we heard.

We did the same for our early childhood, pre-adolescence, adolescence, early adulthood, and so on. As she spoke, memories of the many lives I’ve lived flashed through my mind. Most of them were mundane, but they filled me with a sense of tenderness.

There I was playing with a Fisher-Price barn on a green carpet, walking to school in new saddle shoes, riding bikes on the sidewalk with my sister. I saw sleepovers and middle school dances, late summer nights wandering around my hometown, blissfully bored and aimless.

Nobody has lived your life but you. All of your experiences, everything that got you here,

that belongs to you

 — Marifel Catalig, breathwork instructor

I saw scenes from my adult life before kids, my life as a new parent, my life with small children and, finally, my life now — my husband, my teenage sons, my colleagues, my friends, all the different and distinct lives I’ve lived.

“Nobody has lived your life but you,” Catalig said. “All of your experiences, everything that got you here, that belongs to you.”

Then the music shifted, and she asked us to imagine that we were nearing death. Our eyesight was fading, our hearing becoming more muffled. Food didn’t taste as good as it once did, and we were eating less.

In my mind I felt myself receding from the immediacy of life — a fog of gray between me and the world. As my experience of the world became more muted, I felt less afraid of leaving it.

Then Catalig had us imagine our last days. Who would visit us? What would they say? And then we pictured our last breath.

The Buddha was right all along!

“What do you want to breathe in?” she asked. “And what do you want to breathe out?” We imagined hovering above our lifeless bodies, what they would look like, and who would tend to them. For a brief moment, we imagined what might be next. In a society that rarely encourages reflections on death and dying, many of us respond to our innate fear of death with denial, Testoni said.

Carving out time to visualize and imagine our own passing can help us face that fear in a productive way. “Reflection makes us realize that we are afraid of something we do not know,” she said. “Knowing that we don’t know but we can know a lot is definitely reassuring.”

Sharing

When the meditation was over, Catalig invited us to share about the experience. One participant said the meditation helped her reframe the times in her life when she thought she was a bad person. Instead, she saw herself with more compassion.

Another participant said she felt that her higher self had been with her all along and was still with her. This brought her great comfort.

As for me, I walked out of the store in a state of elation. I was less afraid of dying, but mostly I felt so thrilled to be alive.

ABOUT: Deborah Netburn covers spirituality, joy, and faith for the Los Angeles Times. She started in 2006 and has worked across a wide range of sections including entertainment, home and garden, national news, technology, and science.

Curious to try one of Catalig’s death meditations? Find future offerings on her Instagram page or contact her through her website breathtodeath.com. More + VIDEO

"100 Foot Surfing Days" (film)

100 Foot Surfing Days

What is the art of being? To just flow.

"All [humans] are made of water. If they leak out, they die." 100 Foot Surfing Days is a surfing film with some of the biggest waves ever ridden. Also included are interviews with the surfers willing to risk it all for the ride of a lifetime.

Release date: 2018. Running time: 31:46. Audio: English [CC]. Actors: Brock Little, Shane Dorian, Peter Mel, Carlos Burle, Mark Healey, Garrett McNamara, John John Florence, Ian Walsh, Albee Leyer, Evan Slater. Director: Josh Pomer. Genres: sports, action, adventure, documentary, independent.

NPR: "Surrender, White People!" (comedy)

Authors D.L. Hughley, Doug Moe; NPR.org; casual racist Adam Corolla and Gina "Go Along" Grad (Adam Corolla Podcast); Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(Adam Corolla Show, July 1, 2020) One-on-one interview with D.L. Hughley begins at Minute 57:17

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Surrender, White People!: Our Unconditional Terms for Peace

Surrender, White People!

After 400 years of white "supremacy" in America, a reckoning is here. These are the terms of peace -- and they are unconditional. Bring a sense of humor, because this is going to sting.

The legendary comedian/activist and author of the “hilarious yet soul-shaking” (Black Enterprise) bestseller How Not to Get Shot and Other Advice From White People returns to address a nation on the edge of civil war.

After centuries of oppressing others, Whites are in for a surprise: They’re about to become an oppressed minority themselves. Yes, the face of America is getting a lot browner — and a reckoning is coming.

Modern KKK rally with Neo-Nazis in the South

Black and Brown folk are not taking a back seat anymore. It’s time to surrender unjust privileges and sue for peace while the getting’s good. Lucky for America, D.L. Hughley has a plan.

On the eve of America becoming a majority-minority nation, Hughley warns, the only way for America to move forward peacefully is if Whites face their history, put aside all their privilege and visions of superiority, and open up their institutions so they benefit everyone in this nation.

I represent Whites and pretend to be a leader.

But we can still have fun with this, right? Surrender, White People! hilariously holds America account for its wrongs and offers his satirical terms for reparations and reconciliation.

Reparations (monetary compensation from the government for an injustice by the government) are not new. Many people have gotten them, including slave owners, Italians, and others.

How Not to Get Shot and...

But when it comes to Blacks, who were promised them long ago, there's a taboo. It's unthinkable. They've been wronged and there's no making things right.

But it’s not all bad news, White folks. The upside is that if we put D.L.’s plan into effect, we can finally get black people to stop talking about oppression, discrimination, and their place in America.

Now, isn’t that something we ALL can get behind? Wouldn’t social justice and peace be better? Have a sense of humor, authors D.L. Hughley and Doug Moe do. More

• Centuries ago, Whites told Blacks, “Pick the cotton if you don’t like getting whipped.” Today it’s, “Comply with all police orders if you don’t want to get shot.” Comedian/activist D.L. Hughley – one the original Kings of Comedy – confronts and remixes White people’s “advice” in this “hilarious examination of the current state of race relations in the United States” (Publishers Weekly).

Yoga, Meditation in Action: Seane Corn (video)

Yogi Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Krista Tippett, Trent Gilliss (onbeing.org)

 

American Yogini Seane Corn

Yoga has infiltrated law schools and strip malls, churches and hospitals. This 5,000-year-old spiritual technology is converging with 21st-century medical science and with many religious and philosophical perspectives.
 

Midwesterner Seane Corn ("Off the Mat Into the World") takes us inside the practicalities and power of yoga [mainly those limbs of an ancient eightfold practice focusing on physical postures and breath regulation]. Corn describes how it helps her face the darkness in herself and the world and how she’s come to see yoga as a form of body prayer. More

• Listen to the radio show/podcast
• When Yoga Gets Really Real  When I moved to Jerusalem two years ago, I thought for sure that I would continue my yoga practice, especially after having yoga present in my life in so many ways for so many years. And I thought that I would even find others in this holy city to practice with. A sangha (spiritual community), a space, a teacher...

Exploring Mysteries, Encouraging a Love Affair with Life Parker Palmer pays homage with words of wisdom on "the savage and beautiful country that lies in between."

  

Living with Yoga: rehabilitation

Molested at 6-years-old, Corn made a gift of that experience -- not in spite of it -- by transforming the shame and darkness. She works with child prostitutes and sex trafficking here in the U.S. and in Buddhist countries like Cambodia. She went through a period of drug abuse, sex abuse, and other efforts to numb out and check out. But when she faced and actually dealt with and transformed the shadow, she was able to venture on the road to becoming whole.

  

VIDEO: Body Prayer
Trent Gilliss (onbeing.orgj)

For Seane Corn, yoga is much more than a practice in flexibility. It’s a way of applying spiritual lessons to real-world problems and personal issues. One way she channels her energy and love is through a practice she calls “body prayer,” as she shares in this video from Yoga from the Heart.

She shared this perspective about “body prayer” in the show, “Yoga, Meditation in Action”:
 

“I trust that if I do my yoga practice, I’m going to get stronger and more flexible. If I stay in alignment, if I don’t push, if I don’t force, then my body will organically open in time.

“I know that if I breathe deeply, I’ll oxygenate my body. It has an influence on my nervous system. These things are fixed and I know to be true.

“But I also recognize that it’s a mystical practice, and you can use your body as an expression of your devotion. So the way that you place your hands, the ways that you step a foot forward or back, everything is done as an offering. I offer the movements to someone I love or to the healing of the planet.

 

Hope I can do yoga like Seane during this war

“And so if I’m moving from a state of love and my heart is open to that connection between myself and another person or myself and the universe, it becomes an active form of prayer, of meditation, of grace.

“And when you’re offering your practice as a gift, as I was in that particular DVD, as I do often, I was offering to my dad who’s very ill. And so when I have an intention behind what I’m doing, then it becomes so fluid. Because if I fall out of a pose I’m not going to swear, I’m not going to get disappointed or frustrated. 

Titling a Show on Seane Corn’s Yoga

“I’m going to realize that this is my offering, and I don’t want to offer that energy to my father. I only want to offer him my love. And so I let my body reflect that. And when you link the body with the breath, when my focus is solely on getting the pose to embrace the breath that I’m actualizing, then the practice, it’s almost in slow motion.

“It has a sense of effortlessness. When people can connect to that, it takes the pressure off of trying to do it perfectly. It just becomes a real expression of their own heart.

“Sometimes it’s graceful and elegant, other times it’s kind of funky and abstract, but it’s authentic to who the person is. It’s their own poetry.” More

Learn a New Word; Parker Palmer Reminds Us That Work Doesn't Define You; Yoga Mom and Child; The Ethics of Lockpicking?

This week inspired a lesson from Ralph Waldo Emerson, a poetic reflection on being more than doing from Parker Palmer, a precious moment that will make you smile, and a peculiar story about a lockpicker that will make you think.