Lost in translation: Jesus' Aramaic wasn't Greek

(The Unseen Bible) Jesus spoke Aramaic, not Greek: Here's what got lost in translation

Jesus? Christianity built on lies and holes

(Sacred Logic) Ten documented historical facts that make Jesus of Nazareth impossible

(Sacred Logic) Six big holes in the Jesus story the Church tried to cover up

(Sacred Logic) Ten historical lies that created Christianity

Well then who wrote the Bible then?

(Sacred Logic) Investigating true history of the Gospels (Bart Ehrman)

The Uncensored Bible (all 88 books)

Discover the Christian Bible’s hidden truth

• The Book of Enoch
• Who are the Nephilim? 
• Watchers (angels)?
• Why does the UNCENSORED Ethiopian Bible have 88 books?
• Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church of the Oriental Orthodox Churches

The Heart Sutra (translation)

Avalokiteśvara, Padmapani. What is the personification of the Perfection of Wisdom?

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The deva Avalokiteśvara

Om! Hail, the Perfection of Wisdom, beautiful and wholesome!

The being bent on supreme enlightenment was moving through the wisdom that has gone beyond, looking down from on high, beholding only five heaps, seeing that in and of themselves they are empty.

Here within this Dharma, O Foremost in Wisdom, FORM is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form.

Emptiness does not differ from form, and form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is form, that is emptiness.

Prajnaparamita of Java

The same is true of FEELINGS, PERCEPTIONS, FORMATIONS, and CONSCIOUSNESS.

Herein, O Foremost in Wisdom, all phenomena bear the mark of emptiness. They are not dual, not produced nor stopped, not defiled nor immaculate, not deficient nor complete.

Therefore, O Foremost in Wisdom, in emptiness, in being impersonal, there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor formation, nor consciousness.

Bodhisattva, Dambulla, Sri Lanka

There are no bases -- no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles or objects of mind; no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to:

There is no mind-consciousness element; there is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: There is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.

There is no cognition, no attainment, and no nonattainment.

Prajna, Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom

Therefore, O Foremost in Wisdom, it is because of this non-striving to attain that a being bent on supreme enlightenment, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings, one is not made to tremble.

One has overcome what can upset, and in the end is quenched, having let go, having glimpsed Nirvana.

Tibetan Avalokiteśvara with 11 faces

All who appear as supremely enlightened beings in the three periods of time -- past, present, and future -- fully awake to the utmost, to right and supreme enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.

Therefore, one should recognize the Perfection of Wisdom, the Prajnaparamita, as the great mantra, the mantra of great knowledge, the utmost mantra, the unequalled mantra, allayer of all suffering, in truth -- for what could go wrong? By the Prajnaparamita has this mantra been realized. It runs like this:

Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha!

(Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O, what an awakening, all hail!)

This (having seen all conditioned phenomena as impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal) completes the Heart of perfect Wisdom.

• Mantra Music: Heart Sutra Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya in Sanskrit in for Recitation (Buddha Weekly)
• Translated by Dhr. Seven, based on the Sanskrit original as translated by Edward Conze (via DharmaNet International), for Wisdom Quarterly

The Rubber Yacht of Hymie Cohen (poetry)

Kindle edition (Prof. Juan Cole)

Statue of Persian poet Omar Khayyam, University of Madrid, Spain

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam series of postcards by M. V. Dhurandhar (Wiki)

• 

  Why would a Persian poet need a yacht?

  What is a rubber yacht? - It is a plasticized dinghy.
• Who is Hymie? It is a religious slur for Jews derived from the Hebrew Chaim ("life"), pronounced /hai-ym/ or /hay-yim/. It is also used in the term "Hymietown," a nickname for Brooklyn, NY, and as a Jewish first name.
• Who is Cohen? - Common Jewish surname, reminiscent of a priest or someone descended from a priestly caste.
• In that case, what is The Rubber Yacht of Hymie Cohen? - It is a misapprehension and misunderstanding of the famous translated Persian text, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: new modern translation

Host Mitch Jeserich, Letters & Politics, KPFA.org, Berkeley

Professor Juan Ricardo Cole

GUEST: Prof. Juan Cole is a public intellectual, prominent blogger, and essayist, and the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He is the translator of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam: A New Translation from the Persian.

• AUDIO: The history behind The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam

Kindle edition (Prof. Juan Cole)

Omar Khayyam (1048–1131) was a Persian astronomer and mathematician born in Nishapur in northeastern Iran, who lived and worked at the courts of the Seljuk dynasty.

Modern scholars agree that there is very little (if any) of the collected work of poetry known as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam that can with certainty be attributed to the historical figure.

A tradition of attribution grew up in the centuries after Khayyam’s death, which culminated in the popular Edward Fitzgerald’s translation in the 19th century. More

• The 'Hymie' Incident: Jesse Jackson claimed comments were harmless (Los Angeles Times)
• Mitch Jeserich, Letters & Politics, kpfa.org, Aug. 5, 2025; Shauna Schwartz, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"The Heart Sutra" (RAP version)

The Heart Sutra [Mantra] by MC Yogi (feat. 10,000 Buddhas) is closer to an actual RAP song

"Heart Sutra - Rap" by Chogyal Rinpoche

Avalokita [Kwan Yin] hears the cries of the world

(Chogyal Rinpoche) 🇬🇧 This rap was composed with the intention of making the daily recitation of the sacred Heart Sutra easily accessible to young people. May it be of benefit. [Don't show it to your grandmother or her head may explode.]

ma sam jö mé sherab parol chin

makyé mingak namkhé ngowo nyi

soso rangrig yeshe chöyulwa

dü sum gyalwé yum la chaktsal lo

• VIDEO: The Mexican Buddhist Cholos of Thailand (AFP)
• VIDEO: "Reincarnated" rap music by Kendrick Lamar

diké dak gi töpa dü chik na

chomdendé gyalpö khab jagö pungpö ri la gelong gi gendün chenpo dang

changchub sempé gendün chenpo dang tab chik tu zhuk té

dé tsé chomdendé zabmo nangwa zhejawa chö kyi namdrang kyi ting ngé dzin la nyompar zhuk so

yang dé tsé changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa nyi la nampar ta zhing

pungpo ngapo dedak la yang rangzhin gyi tongpar nampar ta o

dené sangye kyi tü

tsé dang denpa sharibü changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk la diké ché mé so

rik kyi bu gang lala sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa chepar döpa dé jitar labpar ja

deké ché mepa dang | changchub sempa sempa chenpo pakpa chenrezik wangchuk gi tsé dang denpa shara datibu la diké ché mé so

Wait, wait! Shouldn't we decide if we're East Coast or West Coast first? (sanghabuild.org)

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teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

sharibu rik kyi bu am rik kyi bumo gang lala sherab kyi parol tu chinpa zabmo chöpa chepar döpa dé ditar nampar tawar ja té

pungpo ngapo dedak kyang rangzhin gyi tongpar nampar yangdakpar jesu ta o

zuk tongpa o | tongpanyi kyang zuk so

zuk lé tongpanyi zhen mayin no

tongpanyi lé kyang zuk zhen mayin no

dezhindu tsorwa dang | dushé dang

dujé dang | nampar shepa nam tongpa o

sharibu detawé na chö tamché tongpanyi dé

tsennyi mepa | makyepa | magakpa

drima mepa | drima dang dralwa mepa

driwa mepa | gangwa mepa o

sharibu detawé na tongpanyi la zukmé

tsorwa mé | dushé mé | dujé nam mé | nampar shepa mé

mik mé | nawa mé | na mé | che mé | lü mé | yi mé

zuk mé | dra mé | dri mé | ro mé | rekja mé | chö mé do

mik gi kham mepa né yi kyi kham mé

yi kyi nampar shepé kham kyi bardu yang mé do

marikpa mé | marikpa zepa mepa né gashi mé

gashi zepé bardu yang mé do

dukngalwa dang | künjungwa dang

gokpa dang | lam mé | yeshe mé | tobpa mé

matobpa yang mé do

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

sharibu detawé na changchub sempa nam tobpa mepé chir

sherab kyi parol tu chinpa la ten ching né té

sem la dribpa mepé trakpa mé dé

chin chi lok lé shintu dé né nya ngen lé depé tarchin to

dü sum du nampar zhukpé sangye tamché kyang sherab kyi parol tu chinpa la ten né

lana mepa yangdakpar dzokpé changchub tu ngönpar dzokpar sangye so

detawé na sherab kyi parol tu chinpé ngak

rigpa chenpö ngak | lana mepé ngak

minyampa dang nyampé ngak | dukngal tamché rabtu zhiwar jepé ngak

midzünpé na denpar shepar ja té

sherab kyi parol tu chinpé ngak mepa

teyata | om gaté gaté para gaté | para samgaté | bodhi soha

• Tibetan and English translation of the Heart Sutra: lotsawahouse.org/words-of...

THE HEART SUTRA (English)

Standard English translation (by the great Edward Conze) with minor edits by Wisdom Quarterly (The Heart Sutra | Buddhist Traditions | Amherst College)

Om! Homage to the Perfection of Wisdom, the Lovely, the Holy!

Avalokita, the Holy Lord and Bodhisattva, was moving in the deep course of the Wisdom which has gone beyond.

He looked down from on high, beheld but five heaps, and saw that in their own-being they were empty.

Here, O Sariputra,

form is emptiness, and the very emptiness is form;

Emptiness does not differ from form, and form does not differ from emptiness; whatever is emptiness, that is form.

The same is true of feelings, perceptions, impulses, and consciousness.

Here, O Sariputra,

all dharmas [phenomena] are marked with emptiness;

They are neither produced nor stopped, neither defiled nor immaculate, neither deficient nor complete.

Therefore, O Sariputra,

in emptiness there is no form nor feeling, nor perception, nor impulse, nor consciousness;

[There is] no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; no forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touchables [tangibles], or objects of mind; no sight-organ element, and so forth, until we come to:

[There is] no mind-consciousness element; there is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance, and so forth, until we come to: there is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death. There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.

There is no cognition, no attainment, and no non-attainment.

Therefore, O Sariputra,

it is because of one's non-attainmentness that a bodhisattva, through having relied on the Perfection of Wisdom, dwells without thought-coverings. In the absence of thought-coverings one has not been made to tremble.

One has overcome what can upset, and in the end one attains to Nirvana.

All those who appear as buddhas in the three periods of time [past, present, future] fully awake to the utmost, right and perfect Enlightenment because they have relied on the Perfection of Wisdom.

Therefore one should know the prajna-paramita as the great spell [mantra], the spell of great knowledge, the utmost spell, the unequalled spell, allayer of all suffering, in truth -- for what could go wrong? By the prajnaparamita has this spell been delivered. It runs like this:

gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.

(Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond, O what an awakening, all-hail!)

This completes the Heart of perfect Wisdom.

What's rap if not bad lyrics 'n a good beat?

Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Grandmaster Flash on "The Message"

Greatest rapper of a generation Justin "Elvis" Biel?

Get Out The Way: "Move B**h" (Ludacris)

It's a beautiful sentiment to present this timeless classic of the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajna Paramita) literature to youth in an idiom they might appreciate and listen to more than grandmotherly droning and chanting in a temple setting. But it does bring up one minor problematic question: What is rap? Is it like poetry in that anything is if it says it is? The phonebook well-read can be [made to be] "poetic." So drop a beat behind it and any ol' grouping of words is "rapping"? May be. We can ask Weird Al or Justin Timberlake. But it seems to us that real rapping, which is why the young at heart like and relate to it so much, is its brutal honesty, simplicity, and funky @$$ beat.

The uncensored (explicit) version just has more umph and gusto.

It's the beat, the beat, the beat propelled by a propulsive lyrical accompaniment consistent with the feel or underlying sentiment of the genre. One has to wonder if N.W.A would have had as much success -- with the exact same musical elements -- if their lyrical content and message were "Officers Is Nice" instead of "F*** the Police." Similarly, what is arguably the greatest rap song ever [if such a thing were possible to accurately determine] might not really be with weaker lyrics. In the case of Ludacris' "Excuse Me, Miss, If I May Just Get Through," or as it is known on internet radio "Move B*tch," where "bitch" refers, of course, to a pregnant dog driving in front of him and his featured artists. Ergo, if we're going to really have a Heart Sutra Rap, methinks we need to get real, gritty, and street, not simply rely on poetic feet.

• When is music Cultural Appropriation: Elvis Presley vs. The Beatles

The corrosive effects of listening to rap music on violent office workers

• MC Yogi, "Heart Sutra [Mantra] Rap," 2023; Chogyal Rinpoche, Sept. 18, 2022; Edward Conze (trans.), "The Heart Sutra"; Office Space (Mike Judge); Grandmaster Flash; Weird Al Yankovic, "White & Nerdy"; Ludacris, "Move B*tch"; Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Brother Jason (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Jan. 4, 2025

Abhidhamma w/ Bhikkhu Bodhi (video)

(Tergar) Back to the Roots: Mapping the Mind through Abhidharma with Bhikkhu Bodhi

Tibetan Yongey Rinpoche (Tergar)

Students of the Dharma, tomorrow (Saturday, May 17th, 2025) instead of Bhikkhu Bodhi's regular class on the AN, the venerable American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk will be giving an online lecture on the Abhidhamma ("Higher Doctrine") through another Buddhist organization, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's Tergar:

• Back to the Roots: Mapping the Mind through Abhidharma with Bhikkhu Bodhi
• RSVP FREE: (Disclosure Project) STUDY: Abhidhamma ("Higher Doctrine") with Bhikkhu Bodhi, Saturday, May 17, 2025, 7:00 AM | Meetup

Anthology (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

All regular students are welcome to join this program, which will run from 10:00 am to 11:30 am (ET). Find more details and a registration form here: Tergar Events

Note two options on the registration form: (A) If no translation from English to another language is needed, register to view the lecture through YouTube. (B) If translation into another language is needed, register to view the lecture through Zoom.

With metta, BAUS via Wisdom Quarterly

"Many, fearful of annihilation [extinction] at death, construct belief systems that ascribe to their individual selves, their souls, the prospect of eternal life. A few yearn for a path to liberation but do not know where to find one. It was precisely to offer such a path that the Buddha has appeared in our midst."

- Bhikkhu Bodhi

Details

Ven. Buddhaghosa, the great Buddhist scholar-monk, compiling Theravada Abhidhamma texts

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Manual of Abhidhamma (Bodhi)

Seeking a deeper understanding of your own mind — a map to greater well-being? Join us for a special online webinar with Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, a renowned Buddhist scholar and teacher of Buddhist philosophy, as he unravels the profound wisdom of the Abhidharma.

Often referred to as “Buddhist psychology,” the Abhidhamma [the “Dhamma in Ultimate Terms" or “Higher Doctrine”] offers a detailed map of consciousness, illuminating the intricate workings of our thoughts, emotions, and perceptions.

In this event, Bhikkhu Bodhi will guide us through the “topography” of consciousness and core principles of the Abhidharma, exploring how this ancient system of analysis can provide valuable insights into the causes of suffering and the path to innate well-being.

By systematically exploring the inner landscape of mind, we can clarify which mental states lead to suffering, which cultivate happiness and well-being at present and in the future, and which ultimately lead to full inner freedom (enlightenment, awakening, bodhi).

This is a unique opportunity to learn from a renowned master teacher and deepen your understanding of these essential teachings.

Why attend?

Wow, so my emotions actually make sense.

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is a respected Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator renowned for his clear and insightful teachings on Abhidharma, the system of Buddhist psychology. Bhikkhu Bodhi's teachings emphasize the importance of understanding the mind by systematically guiding us to recognize confusion and discover the reality that leads to profound self-understanding and lasting well-being.

What will we learn?

But consciousness is too big to understand! - Successful meditators understand it.

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In this program, participants will get an overview of the Abhidharma's teachings and learn the classifications of consciousness how to cultivate beneficial mental states

What is included in this program?

Included in this LIVE teaching by Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is a presentation followed by a Q&A session, during which participants may ask what pertinent questions they like.

Cost?

This webinar is free of charge, so no payment is required.

• Register now!
• Vegan Social Brunch on the Patio, Saturday, May 17, 2025, 11:00 AM | Meetup

Bhikkhu Bodhi

American Bhikkhu Bodhi

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American-born Buddhist monk from New York City. After completing his PhD in philosophy at Claremont in Los Angeles. He then traveled to Theravada Buddhist Sri Lanka, where he received full ordination in 1973, under the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Mahanayaka Thera. From 1984 to 2002, he served as editor for the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, where he lived for ten years with the senior German Buddhist monk Ven. Nyanaponika Mahathera at the Forest Hermitage. He currently lives and teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS.org) in Carmel, New York. More

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (BAUS.org), Tergar (events.tergar.org); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Graham Hancock: Yoga in Mohenjo-daro

Graham Hancock: Yoga in Mohenjo-daro

Pashupati seal impression

(Journey With The Mystics) There is a famous Mohenjo-daro seal called the Pashupati or the "Lord of the Animals" as if it were the Vedic/Hindu deity.

It is likely much older than this division of the Hindu trinity. It shows an advanced yoga pose, a lotus position with heels touching and facing upwards.

Lord Shiva (Sivakempfort)

Sadly, no one has yet rigged artificial intelligence to crack the code and decipher the ancient Indus Valley Civilization language of this area and/or what was spoken in Harappa (since it seems to not have been an early/archaic form of Vedic Sanskrit as one might guess).

#grahamhancock #mohenjodaro #shiva #pashupati #podcast

• Indigenous Aryanism of India
• GrahamHancock.com via Journey With The Mystics, Feb. 9, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Eve: 'Rescuer' (ezer) of Adam in Eden

• 

  Don't you mention that woman, young punk!

  Woman, Thy Name is Ezer ["Rescuer"] The [Judeo-Christian] LORD God said, “It is not good for the man [Adam] to be alone. I will make a helper [ezer, rescuer, Eve] suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). [Hey, LORD, but what about my first wife, Lilith? - Don't worry about her, Adam, my boy, I'll send her away to become a demoness and jealous eater of babies. That ought a teach her to mouth off. - Like your wife, Asherah, LORD, who I suppose was therefore my mom? - Don't ever bring her name up, Adam, or else! Anyway, my boy, we were better off alone just kicking it in this groovy garden planet we grew out of effort. Enjoy it before I throw you out. Unless you want a guy-pal to hang with. How about a Steve? - Whatever, LORD, as you see fit.]
• Were Adam and Eve made stupid? : r/Christianity
• Jesus' "helper" Mary Magdalene | Bible Mystery Resolved:

Ezer is a powerful word

More Than Enchanting (Saxton)

Scholar R. D. Freeman observes that ezer (pronounced /et-sir/) is a combination of two words, one meaning “to rescue” or “to save,” the other meaning “to be strong.”

Theologian and author Dr. Walter Kaiser notes that ezer appears in the Old Testament often in parallel with words denoting strength and power. The word ezer does not mean that a woman should never be an assistant, an ally, a supporter.

There is nothing negative about a man or a woman helping someone or being called by the [God] to fulfill that role! It’s always a privilege to serve [the God] as we serve others. But it is also crucial that we understand that in the biblical definition of “helper,” the ezer can also fulfill a different role.

It seems that ezer has more to do with what helping looks like, because it doesn’t seem to suggest anything about hierarchy. In some instances, ezer is a word with military connotations; the ezer is also a warrior.

In this context, help comes from one who has the power and strength to provide it. Ezer is a verb as well as a noun, meaning “to defend, protect, surround and cherish.” The ezer is an amazing mix of strength, power, proactivity, and vulnerability. Source

— Adapted from Chapter One, “The Blueprint,” by J O Saxton

What is anyone to make of Adam and Eve on Earth (Eden)?

Of course, the story of Adam and Eve (the Adama or first iteration of humankind and its other half, Eva, the second woman after Lilith in Judaism) is deep and ludicrous.

It is deep that it must be hinting at something else, a truism set in a mythological tale, ludicrous if taken at face value after centuries of translation and misinterpretation.

For instance, there is no "apple," but Christians will swear there is. The "snake" is a humanoid reptilian. There is much here, likely inherited from Sumerian sources, spun by countless rabbis and sincere students to take some useful teaching from it.

Likewise, Buddhism has an origin myth -- not of how it "all" started but rather how human life on this earth began. Long, long ago, light beings (devas, which are a superior class of brahmas) alighted on this planet and over the course of time devolved and became coarser and coarser until we find ourselves the way we are today.

The full tale the Buddha told, almost certainly rooted in true things but explained simply in ways that are hard to take literally, is known as the Aggañña Sutta or "A Buddhist Genesis," "On Beginnings."

• Read Wiki version of this sutra
• The Aggañña Sutta (DN 27)

Dhamma Aboard Evolution

A modern writer (Suwanda H. J. Sugunasiri) gives an excellent analysis of this metaphor or allegory (dealing only with sections 10-16 of this long discourse) in an eBook known as Dhamma Aboard Evolution: A Canonical Study of Agganna Sutta in Relation to Science.

In this analysis, the "light beings" (lit. "shining ones") are not humanoid beings who can fly alighting on earth by light itself reaching earth like photons from a faraway source. The author explains his motive for writing it:

The Aggañña Sutta of the "Long Discourses of the Buddha" (Dīgha Nikāya) is no satire or parody, as seen by some scholars. Drawing upon cosmology, Darwinism, psychology (Freud, Piaget, etc.), and linguistics, it paints a historically and scientifically accurate picture of devolution and evolution, going beyond the Big Bang. Sentient beings emerge [on earth], bringing with them the latent defilements of craving and passion, nourished by evolving plant life around them. Compatible with Western science, the breakthrough comes when Abhassara beings [from the Abhassara heaven or plane of existence] are taken to be photons, taking Abhassara in a literal etymological sense of "Hither-come-shining-arrow." However accurate this picture may be, the Buddha’s point, is that knowledge of the Dhamma is more important than anything else, explaining the title. More

Buddhist cosmology

Artists paint images of space for NASA

The Buddha described a universe consistent with the multiverse theory where there are countless worlds in all 10,000 directions, anywhere we can point. But all of these are classified into 31 Planes of Existence. One such plane is this world of "radiant ones."

So this sutra is saying this is the divine and sublime world we came from, not evolving from microbes in a primordial soup up to great apes or hominids (though that may be the origin of these bodies). We are fallen devas with every potential of becoming devas again, so in that sense we are divine beings in these sensual bodies.

Our karmas (actions, deeds, intentional acts) determine where we are subsequently reborn, just as previous karmas led to our rebirth on the human plane. We also have the potential to fall further down.

• ābhassara: The "Radiant Ones" are a class of heavenly beings of the Fine-Material Sphere (rūpa-loka); cf. deva.

Abhassara is a brahma-world where radiant devas ("shining ones") live from whose bodies rays of light are emitted, like lightning.

This plane of existence belongs to the rūpaloka (the Fine-Material Sphere)

• The Buddhist cosmos (universe/multiverse) is classified into three spheres: the Sensual Sphere (kama-loka), where earth and the sensual heavens are, as well as every other plane below the human world (animal, ghost, titan, hells), the Fine-Material Sphere, where more ethereal heavens are, and the Immaterial Sphere, where non-material worlds of pure mind are. This is an interesting distinction as it suggests that all that we call "form" or ultimate "materiality" (rupa) is coming from finer energy that is not yet form. All there is is called nama-rupa, "name and form" (mind and body). Form is of two general kinds, sensual and subtle (matter and light). And there is a sphere of worlds without form, only name or mind, a kind of Logos or Platonic "forms").
• It is essential to note that they are brahmas, as this means they are neither male nor female but "god-goddesses" ("supremos") without sexual dimorphism like the lower devas of the Sensual Sphere.

Is there a "heaven"? - There are many!

This plane corresponds to the second meditative absorption or jhāna (Abhs. v.3; Compendium 138, n.4).

All being depend on nourishment: The devas living on this plane subsist on joy (pītibhakkha) (S.i.114.; DhA.iii.258; J.vi.55).

Their span of life is two aeons (kalpas, kappas or more loosely speaking two "eternities"), but there is no guarantee that a person reborn here may not later be reborn in some unfortunate destination/unhappy condition (A.ii.127; but see Abhs. v.6, where their lifespan is given as eight kappas), as is the case for all beings who have not yet attained the first stage of enlightenment.

From time to time these devas utter shouts of joy exclaiming, "Aho sukham, aho sukham!" This sound is said to be the best of sounds.

These devas are completely enveloped in ease (sukhena abhisaññā parisaññā) (A.iii.202; D. iii.219). Their plane forms the third station of consciousness (viññānatthiti). Like humans on the human plane, they are of uniform body, but their perceptions are diverse (ekattakāyā nānat-tasaññino) (A.iv.40, 401; D.ii.69; D.iii.253).

During the periods of the development of the world (evolutionary cycle), many beings are reborn in the Abhassara world, and they are then called the highest of the devas. Yet, even they change their condition (A.v.60).

In lists of devas (e.g., M.i.289) they are listed below the Appamānābhā and above the Subhā. More

• Video shorts: Robot Chicken; Magnify explaining ezer, "rescuer" Eve; Billy Carson on the Sumerians; irate Irish lass on feminism overdoing it and crapping on the menfolk
• J O Saxton, More Than Enchanting; Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Suwanda H. J. Sugunasiri, Dhamma Aboard Evolution; Agganna Sutta (DN 27, Digha Nikaya, Pali canon); G. P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Proper Names); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly