What is the True Nature of Existence?

Talk 3. The True Nature of Existence | Bhikkhu Bodhi (The Buddha's Teaching: As It is, 1981)

Epstein/Trump's global pedophile ring?

Swingers? Melania's ties to sex trafficker Epstein: Mystery over how they met (RadarOnline)

We molested kids. It bonded us. It's a Southern thang (Florida), y'all wouldn't understand.

(Grunge) Celebrities whose prison lives worse than thought: Would Trump get sent to Club Fed?

• Trump biographer (Michael Wolff) claims tapes of Epstein talking about Trump are 'too hot' to release and there are hours and hours and hours of them (Latin Times)

The Buddha-Dhamma (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Nobody explained existence this clearly — except the Buddha himself

Ego (Buddhism podcast) Buddhism Explained 🌿 Why are we here? [Can we go now? Can we hang out a little longer?] What is the meaning of existence? These timeless questions have haunted humanity for millennia.

And more than 2,500 years ago, one man offered the clearest, most transformative answer ever given — the Buddha. In this compelling exploration of the Buddha’s life and mission, we retrace his journey from hedonistic royal comfort to shamanic spiritual awakening, his fearless renunciation of power and pleasure in pursuit of a deeper truth, and his discovery of the Middle Way — a path of profound insight, mental clarity, and ethical freedom.

Through stories like Kisagotami, the grieving mother, and Angulimala, the feared mass murderer turned monk, we witness how the Buddha’s wisdom was not just a philosophy, but a living force of compassion and transformation.

Who was "the Buddha"?

Bhikkhu Bodhi introduces The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is (Lecture 1)

🔍 This video reveals:

• – Why the Buddha rejected metaphysical speculation and instead focused on the practical problem of suffering
• – How his teaching remains universally relevant in a world flooded with confusion, anxiety, and distraction
• – What makes the Dhamma radically empowering: no savior to worship, no doctrine to blindly follow — just insight, mindfulness, and ethical responsibility

🙏 Whether a long-time Buddhist practitioner or simply searching for clarity in a chaotic world, this teaching offers a timeless mirror to see self — and life — more clearly.

💬 "Come and see for yourself," the Buddha said. This may be the most direct, most human explanation of existence ever shared.

📌 Remember to like, comment, and subscribe if this message resonates in the heart.

The Buddha and His Dhamma

Bhikkhu Bodhi anthology

Buddhism originated with an Indian Scythian prince known as [Prince Siddhartha Gautama or Siddhattha Gotama, later called "the Enlightened One" or] the Buddha, who taught in [the frontier] Northeast [of future] India [Scythia, Saka, Shakya Land, Central Asia, ancient Gandhara, next to proto-India at a time when there was not yet an "India" but there had already been a Maha Bharat] in the fifth century BCE.

Two centuries later, with the support of the Buddhist Emperor Asoka [who created "India" by uniting disparate kingdoms on the subcontinent or Jambudvipa/Roseapple Land], Buddhism spread over the greater part of India and from there traveled the full breadth of the Asian continent.

In several tidal waves of missionary zeal, it rose up from its Indian homeland and inundated other regions, offering the peoples among whom it took root a solid foundation of faith [saddha, verifiable confidence] and wisdom upon which to build their lives and a source of inspiration towards which to direct their hopes.

At different points in history Buddhism has commanded followings in countries as diverse geographically, ethnically, and culturally as Afghanistan [Kapilavastu/Kapilavatthu, Kabul, Bamiyan, and Mes Aynak] and Japan, Siberia and Cambodia, Korea and Sri Lanka; yet, all have looked towards the same Indian sage as their master. More

• Ego (Buddhism Podcast), July 8, 2025; Bhikkhu Bodhi, As It Is, Tape 1; Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2006, BPS.lk, Wheel 433, The Buddha and His Dhamma, Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), Nov. 30, 2013; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Trend: wearing Maxi Pads on right ear?

How did crooked businessman, TV show real estate baron (The Apprentice), and landlord Don John Trump become a billionaire? It must have been all those good business ideas:

• 

  Trump Bandage for sale

  starting a "Trump University" to teach business but bilking the students dumb enough to sign up and pay to hear trivial advice, a phony institution that got shut down,
• selling overpriced Trump Bibles (one book he's never looked through),
• trying to sell gold colored Kanye-style tennis shoes he's never worn,
• promoting a ghostwritten book though he's never read it (The Art of the Deal by Tony Schwartz), gaudy Trump merch... Oh, wait.

VIDEO: Joe Concha slams Ari Melber for calling Trump's bandage a 'spectacle': 'Go to hell'

They love me. Everyone loves me. It's love.

It was his father's money given to him to do his dad's business. But after learning how to be a slumlord from his hideous father, it's been all Donny since then. Now how can he capitalize from this shooting? If he can just get the Maxi Pads corporation (Always®) interested in a business partnership.

Sometimes he tells the truth, like in 1998 (People)

Or he can wear a giant neck brace at the RNC and sue the Secret Service with the help of some ambulance chasers? But most attorneys won't come near him since it is well known that he doesn't pay his legal bills. If only there were a way, maybe start a trend of oversized red ties or ridiculous wigs. There has to be something. Just give him time and he'll come up with something for the art of the hustle.

• Fact-checking Day 2 of the Republican National Convention 2024 (Washington Post)
• LGBTQ flags and quinoa: The liberal Virginia enclave where VP pick J.D. Vance lives

Future First Lady Usha Vance and U.S. President J.D. Vance (prediction)

JD, are these dummy Republicans cheering for me? I can't hear so well, my eardrum. - Yes, DJ.

Buddhist Summer School: The Buddha (1)

Summer School Lesson 1: The Buddha

Bhikkhu Bodhi explains the Dhamma in English

Who is the Buddha in Buddhism? Budh is the ancient Sanskrit/Pali root for "awake," so Wisdom Quarterly Dharma Editors Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson translate the Buddha-Dharma as "Awakenism."

"The Awakened One" (the Buddha) and this Teaching (the Dharma) are all about enlightenment (bodhi) and the end of suffering ("nirvana'ing," nirvana as a verb).

A great intro to Pali canon sutras

When we stand, we're standing. When we sit, we're sitting. When we nirvana, we are nirvana-ing, which is unlike anything in samsara (the round of rebirth and suffering) so there's nothing to compare it to. It is the supreme, the utmost awakening that has gone and is going beyond the beyond.

This begins to become clear with our American scholar-monk Sri Lankan Theravada teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi explains "Buddhism." Tape 1, The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is.

"The Dharma Bum" U Dhammaloka in Burma

Born Jeffrey Block, a New York Jewish philosophy student in California, who earned his doctoral degree at Claremont then traveled to Asia in the footsteps of Venerable U Dhammaloka (formerly Laurence Carroll, Larry O'Rourke, William Colvin), the Irishman who came to California then became the first Westerner ever to ordain as a Theravada Buddhist monk).

Alan Watts [gets] in his own way.

Listening to Alan Watts and surrounded by a burgeoning hippie movement, Dr. Block became a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk), taking the name Venerable Bodhi in Sri Lanka, where the great German Jewish Buddhist scholars were busy translating ancient Buddhist texts from Pali (a colloquial form of Sanskrit also called Magadhi, which is what the Buddha spoke as he taught in Magadha) into modern English.

• What's so great about British Californian Alan Watts? Wiki answers: Unabashed, Watts was not averse to acknowledging his own "irreducible rascality," referring to himself in his autobiography In My Own Way as "a sedentary and contemplative character, an intellectual, a Brahmin, a mystic, and also somewhat of a disreputable epicurean who has three wives, seven children, and five grandchildren" [45].

 

Soshin Maura O'Halloran, Irish bodhisattva

Why California? It is on the western edge of the American Empire, suffused with Asian influences, so it often serves as a springboard to the wisdom of the East. Like Led Zeppelin, lots of adventurous types on a spiritual quest are "Going to California" then on to Kashmir and beyond. Alan Watts found his way from farther east than Bhikkhu Bodhi and all the way to Zen Buddhist Japan, not unlike the Irish bodhisattva Soshin Maura O'Halloran, who went from Boston to Tokyo to practice the Dharma.

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (As It Is); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Jewish captive Mia "Lips" Schem is free

Jake Tapper's CIA/mainstream media propaganda Mia Schem selected clips on 55 days in Gaza (MSN); Shauna Schwartz, Sheldon S., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Is Mia Schem a veteran of Israel's militant IDF?

Epileptic beauty Mia Schem, the one in the pictures with inflated duck lips, has been quoted as saying there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, inviting the IDF to kill them all. Is she a propaganda tool for Israel or an angry snob whose all-night party was interrupted by angry concentration camp prisoners breaking out of their open-air prison to retaliate for years of oppression and abuse by Israel.

As Schem was held in a Gaza apartment, Israeli terrorists known as the IDF were bombing to kill Jews (in accordance with its stated "Hannibal Doctrine") and innocent Gaza civilians (which, according to Schem, do not exist) all around her, as this Getty Images photo shows.

I've become the poster child for Jewish hostages

She has now gained the celebrity/notoriety she always dreamed of, though she may regret that wish. She feared she might be raped, but no one raped her. Except she "knows" she would have been raped but for the home she was staying in having a family and wife present protecting her. Of course, the footage shown by Jake Tapper and his mainstream media propaganda outlet (controlled by the CIA) is extremely edited and brief, milking all the most bitter and threatening moments.

• US propaganda: Who is Mia Schem (Shem)? Israeli woman seen in first Hamas captive video (newsweek.com)

I'm French and super sexy, but that's no reason for anyone to want to have sex with me.

• Not in our name: Pro-Palestinian Jewish protesters clash with police outside White House (newsweek.com)

You see what we put up with from Gazans.

"I only had one pita bread a day," she complains, as the family giving her that bread was being starved by Israeli policy to deprive all of Gaza of enough food, clean water, and basic human rights other occupied peoples enjoy. Indeed, Gaza is not the world's largest "open air prison" because in prison prisoners are taken care of. Gaza is a "concentration camp" where detainees are imprisoned and abused and deprived of the basics until they die.

IDF soldiers rape then accuse Hamas of it.

Israel treats Gaza as a genocidal death camp, which fortunately is being revealed in the Hague as the country of South Africa bravely brings forth charges of literal genocide against Israel, the IDF, and PM Netanyahu. Netanyahu was trying to make Israel a police state rather than just an apartheid state, but Israel's high court just squashed his plans to overhaul the judiciary to keep himself out of prison for corruption and extend his war as cover for more abuses of Palestinians. Mia Schem details her 55 days held hostage in Gaza

• Pure propaganda: 2023 Israeli war on Gaza hostage crisis
• Jewish Voice for Peace
• IfNotNowMovement.org
• Code Pink: Women for Peace
• American Veterans for Peace

Bhikkhu Bodhi: Noble Eightfold Path (audio)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (recorded at the Washington Buddhist Vihara, D.C.); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

(Dhamma: Genuine Teachings of the Buddha and His Noble Disciples) "The Noble Eightfold Path," Tape 7 by Bhikkhu Bodhi (American scholar-monk Jeffrey Block) from the "As It Is" series.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is the most famous American Buddhist monk in the world. He is the English translator of the major original Buddhist texts. His six-day, non-residential meditation retreat in Los Angeles looks at Buddhism through the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Retreatants return home to rest each night. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from the preeminent Theravada teacher of our time. APPLY. Lankarama Buddhist Institute. More

What is the True Nature of Existence? (audio)

Ven. Bodhi; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Urban Dharma

A buddha is a supremely enlightened teacher like the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.

   

Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ph.D.

American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi once created a ten-part audio course on Buddhism called "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is" while living in Washington Buddhist Vihara in DC.

It was 1981 and Bhante G (then president of the Buddhist Vihara Society) suggested that young Bhikkhu Bodhi record lectures so the temple could distribute them as a set.

Traveling to Kandy, Sri Lanka -- where Bhikkhu Bodhi was living as editor of the Buddhist Publication Society -- to get permission to more widely publish these teachings. Bhikkhu Bodhi gladly gave it so long as it was not-for-profit but instead a gift of Dharma. The lectures are now in the "public domain," which means anyone may copy and help distribute them.

They make the most sense when listened to in the sequence Bhikkhu Bodhi recorded and listed them as they build on one another. These are MP3 files (free download) thanks to the great work of Los Angeles' Ven. Kusala at urbandharma.com).

Our noble meditation teacher Kalyani recommends they be placed on an MP3 player and listened to throughout the day. The simple merit of giving the gift of Dharma becomes supramundane when one listens and gains insight into the Buddha's message. Special thank you Bhikkhu Bodhi for decades of remarkable English scholarship bringing the Teachings to life.

AS IT IS (audio files)

1. The Buddha - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19 MB
   
2. The Four Noble Truths - MP3 - 1:21 min - 18.6 MB
3. The True Nature of Existence - MP3 - 1:18 min - 18 MB
4. Dependent Origination - MP3 - 1:15 min - 17.2 MB
5. Rebirth and Karma - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19.1 MB
6. Nirvana - MP3 - 1:16 min - 17.5 MB
7. The Noble Eightfold Path - MP3 - 1:19 min - 18.1 MB
8. Meditation - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19 MB
9. Social Teachings of the Buddha - MP3 - 1:17 min - 17.7 MB
10. The Sangha - MP3 - 1:18 min - 17.9 MB

REVIEW
Wisdom Quarterly

1. The series begins by introducing what a buddha is and who the Buddha was.
2. Then it moves on to the core teachings, Buddhism encapsulated in the Four Ennobling Truths. ("Noble" means enlightened).
3. Reality is explained in Lecture 3.
4. Then the means of gaining liberating-insight by mindful contemplation of the 12 links of causality called Dependent Origination to explain how the present suffering is rooted in the past.
5. This leads to a discussion of rebirth and karma, essential links that reveal the true nature of disappointment (suffering or dukkha) central to the Buddha's teaching on how to bring about the end of suffering in the very life.
6. Nirvana (called nibbana in Pali) is the complete cessation of suffering. It is NOT nothingness, emptiness, or the void. It is far subtler than we will ever imagine.
7. It is brought about by cultivating the supramundane Noble Eightfold Path  of paths-and-fruits, magga-and-phala.
8. This path is one of meditation (actual practice) more than intellectual study and detached learning.
9. But self-cultivation in Buddhism also includes a sensitivity to the social dimension that critics of the ancient Theravada ("Teaching of the Buddhist Elders") school often cite as self-serving, wrongly assuming that the Buddha neglected society when in fact so much of his teachings are concerned with the betterment of a world that does not for the most part meditate.
10. Those who dedicate their lives to meditating, to preserving the Dharma, and to teaching are the Sangha, the Monastic Order. As Americans and Socially Engaged Buddhists, we tend to dismiss the Order of Nuns and Monks (and countless temporarily-ordained practitioners) as an anachronism even as they continue to be a vibrant part of Buddhism.

More from Bhikkhu Bodhi: Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (BAUS.org)

Shambhala: Save on all Buddhist titles

Shambhala Publications; Wisdom Quarterly

Save 30% and get free shipping (by 3-31-13 when using the code BCAL12 at checkout, U.S. Media Mail only) on Shambhala's entire Buddhist catalogue now including Snow Lion. Want a sneak peek of the catalogue? Check it out online to find: new books and audio, special offers and discounts, excerpts and author interviews, articles and more!

SEX TAPE: Great Hindu Guru in Bed

Join the cult, spend some money, watch the sex tape, quit in disgust over the fraud. See FULL UNCENSORED VERSION of Nithyananda and actress Ragasudha.

If their lawyers haven't thought of it yet, the Nithyananda cult can start claiming this was all an enlightening wake up call by the omniscient guru to start paying attention to his message. Why not? It might work. People have been more gullible than that. And after all Americans (even Indian-Americans) don't care about sexual indiscretions. Hypocrisy they will not be crazy about. Why not take the approach of Osho (Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh) and actually advocate "sacred" sex? When you claim celibacy, or a vow of poverty, or some higher spiritual morality, you're setting yourself up if all that's underneath is hypocrisy.

The sex itself doesn't bother anyone. It sure doesn't bother (or surprise) the staff at WQ. No one was mad at Bill Clinton, Tiger Woods, or [name the sports figure of your choice] for the SEX. It was the lying, the lack of character, the deception. That's why people get mad. That's why devotees in India vandalize ashrams.

For the Nithyananda's website to imply that this didn't happen -- but is instead only a case of "graphics, conspiracy and rumors" -- puts the cult in a bad position. Here's the video. Anyone can see: It's clearly him. It's clearly sexual. And is that alcohol? What are those pills? Is this how the holy guru spends his off-time, laying around like a pillow prince, watching TV, and being hand fed?

• Swami known for all the wrong reasons, spirituality at stake
• Swami Nityananda sex scandal upsets US and India
• Sex with Megan Fox now even less likely (PG-13)

In His Own Words

ABOUT THE FOUNDER - Paramahamsa Nithyananda, "a renowned spiritual master of the modern age," was born in the famous spiritual town of Thiruvannamalai in the Southern part of India, which has been home for several enlightened masters... Swamiji, as his disciples and devotees lovingly call him...

Home - Founder - Worship Services - Nithyananda Vedic Temples - Get Involved = Give Money - Photo Album - About Us - Give More Money

• Holy men of India
• Thieves cut off man's "holy leg"
• Millions bathe at Hindu festival
• Hindu Kumbh festivals
• In pictures: Pilgrims gather for Indian Mela

What is "Fair Use" on Celebrity Sex Tapes?

When Fair Use Isn't Fair
(NPR, Feb. 13, 2010) Joel Rose reports on the some of the intricacies in fair-use law. That's the law that says we can use things made by others without permission or payment to make something new. It's what lets us record videos and use iPods to use later. It's also the backbone of rap music and serious documentaries. But we only hear about "fair use" when various industries are trying to limit it with lawsuits.

• Listen Now - Playlist

What a Celebrity-Sex-Tape lawsuit can teach us about fair use
(All Tech Considered Blog, Nov. 12, 2009) Is it a case of fair use? Or did Gawker violate the couple's copyright on the video?

• Children, immigrants forced into slavery, sex trade in Ohio
• Write short (3 minute) fiction for NPR contest
• John Mayer apologizes Playboy interview comments
• Tenn. teacher accused of shooting principal, asst. principal
• Feeling bored could be bad for your health, experts say
• Proposal would lower fines for red-light violations in L.A.

NASA's Top Secret UFO Tapes

NASA UFOs STS-75 "The Tether Incident," Sunday, February 25, 1996. The Space Shuttle Columbia deployed an experimental tether into orbit. The experiment was called the Tethered Satellite System (TSS- 1R). Its purpose was to generate electricity by utilizing the Earth's magnetic field.

Unfortunately, during deployment a problem occurred. The 12 mile long tether snapped due to the synthetic material accumulating a critical charge. The tether broke, and the experiment was unsuccessful. But approximately five hours of data was recorded.

The Tether Incident is famous due to the appearance of many alien spacecraft (vimanas), powered vehicles, or unidentified flying objects (UFOs) clearly visible in NASA's own footage. The agency tried to claim that the objects are simply space debris and ice particles that look big because they are very close to the camera.

However, the tether was reportedly 900 miles away from the space shuttle when the footage is being taken. At one point one of the disc shaped objects passes behind the tether, which makes it over 900 miles away. This also means that an object that far away at that size makes it too big to be simple space debris or ice as NASA's cover story attempted to explain it away.

The akasha deva loka (space inhabited by advanced beings) is crowded with spacecraft. It is impossible that the US government is unaware or ignorant of their presence. Contact was established long ago. The fact that this government continues to hide and deny what they know is no obstacle for independent observers assessing the situation. (Russia and England made much of their extensive UFO records public).

UFOs (extraterrestrial crafts from advanced alien civilizations of various kinds) exist. They have for millennia been incorporated into the world's sacred literature (particularly that of India), and there are scientists who are well aware of the phenomenon. The painful part is that after disclosure, the careers and reputations ruined by those willing to accept the body of evidence now will not be restored. Believe, but know that it is not permissible to speak. Powerful interests are intent on not letting this be widely known or accepted as fact.

Obama and Osama: "1984" in real life

Boogeyman Bin Laden (AFP); savior Obama (AP)

Be Afraid, Very Afraid, Okay?

Because it's time for the Two Minutes Hate

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Osama bin Laden threatened Americans in a new audio recording aired Wednesday, saying President Barack Obama inflamed hatred toward the U.S. by ordering Pakistan to crack down on militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law there.

• Video: Muslim world readies for Obama's speech in Cairo
• Video: Obama praises king in Saudi visit
• Video: Engaging the Muslim world

Bin Laden claimed U.S. pressure led to a campaign of "killing, fighting, bombing and destruction" that prompted the exodus of a million Muslims from Swat in northwest Pakistan.

The message was broadcast for the first time on pan-Arab Al-Jazeera Television around the same time Obama touched down in Saudi Arabia at the start of a Mideast visit. He is trying repair relations with the Muslim world frayed under the previous Bush administration.

[It's remarkable that any American could believe this media report. It's as remarkable as the fact that few young Tiananmen Square massacre took place twenty years ago. Anyone who has read Nineteen Eighty Four knows that one character was set up as the bogey man. He was responsible for everything including the endless wars. Of course, a very controlling government was responsible. The straw man was just used to take the blame, to be hated as a figure of mythic proportions. Like Osama bin Laden, he no longer even existed. But the power and propaganda-potential were too much; the government could not help but use him whenever they wanted to prod the population. The CIA/NSA/FBI makes the false-flag tape; the right wing media (with Al-Jazeera legitimacy) launches the propaganda blitz. And the population runs scared, reacting on cue, questioning nothing, not even their vanishing rights].

PLAY VIDEO: Al-Jazeera release (AFP)

"Elderly people, children and women fled their homes and lived in tents as refugees after they have lived in dignity in their homes," bin Laden said. "Let the American people be ready to reap what the White House leaders have sown," he added.

"Obama and his administration have sown new seeds to increase hatred and revenge on America," bin Laden said. "The number of these seeds is equal to the number of displaced people from Swat Valley."

Pakistan launched in April a military offensive to expel the Taliban from Swat Valley after the militants abandoned a peace deal with the government that gave them control of the region.

The offensive, strongly backed by Washington, is seen as a test of Pakistan's resolve against militants in the northwestern border region near Afghanistan. Pakistanis tired of militant attacks in the country that have killed hundreds of civilians have also supported the campaign. But the fighting has uprooted some 3 million people.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, in Saudi Arabia with Obama, said al-Qaida obviously is seeking to shift attention away from what he called the president's historic efforts to have an open dialogue with the Muslim world.

He said the White House was not surprised bin Laden released the message threatening America just as Obama was preparing to deliver a major speech on U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Obama advisers have not yet been able to completely review the tape, but found it consistent with past bin Laden messages, he said.

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, promptly dismissed suggestions that anyone but al-Qaida and the Taliban are responsible for the refugee crisis in Pakistan. He spoke during a visit to Islamabad.

"This entire problem began with al-Qaida and its associates and everybody in the world knows that. It's silly indeed to respond to such a ludicrous charge," Holbrooke said at a joint news conference with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Bin Laden focused entirely on Pakistan in his latest message, claiming Zardari was paid by the White House to start the crackdown.

Zardari "turned the army from its main task of protecting Islam, Muslims, and their land," bin Laden said. He said Zardari "betrayed the nation" to "implement an American, Jewish and Indian conspiracy" against Pakistan.

Al-Jazeera aired excerpts of the recording and did not say how it was obtained. The authenticity of the recording could not be immediately verified.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said the tape is being analyzed by U.S. intelligence but noted there has never yet been a fake bin Laden tape. He said bin Laden is still presumed to be alive and the release of his messages are timed to coincide with major events.

He said this message recycles themes from earlier messages and does not appear to contain any specific or credible threat information.

After the message was broadcast, chatter on militant Web sites speculated that Al-Jazeera had received the tape earlier but aired it to coincide with Obama's landing in Riyadh. But the station's Deputy Editor-in-Chief Ayman Gaballah told The Associated Press that suggestion "does not deserve a comment."

"It is not logical that we comment on anyone who writes something like that on a Web site," Gaballah said.

Bin Laden, whose last message was released in mid-March, has been sparing in his criticism of Obama in the past. In January, he said only that the U.S. president had received a "heavy inheritance" from his predecessor.

However, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri has repeatedly condemned Obama, even using racial slurs.

Bin Laden's message followed just hours after al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, criticized Obama's planned speech in Cairo Thursday to the Islamic world. He said it will not change the "bloody messages" the U.S. military is sending Muslims in American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Source