Desire can be "good" in Buddhism?

Don't look at my bikini butt, okay, you perverts? It's just flesh for sitting on toilet seats.*

.

Good (beneficial) "desire"

I want to meditate now to make progress.

Chanda: "intention," "desire," "will." 1. As an ethically neutral psychological term, in the sense of "intention," it is one of those general mental concomitants or factors (cetasika, Table II) taught in the Abhidhamma (the "Dhamma in Ultimate Terms"), the moral quality of which is determined by the character of the volition (cetanā) associated with it.

The Commentary explains it as "a wish to do" (kattu-kamyatā-chanda). If intensified, it acts also as a "predominance condition" (see paccaya 3).

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  OK, now shut up, Nerd (iStock)

  Definition of terms: "GOOD": wholesome, skillful, beneficial. "BAD": unwholesome, unskillful, leading to an increase in suffering when karma (deed) eventually ripens and fruits into karmic-resultants in spite of the fact that a deed performed now may seem to bring about an immediate increase in pleasant feeling.

2. As an evil quality it has the meaning of "desire," and is frequently coupled with terms for "sensuality," "greed," and so on, for instance: kāma-cchanda, "sensuous desire," one of the Five Hindrances (nīvarana); chanda-rāga, "lustful desire" (kāma). It is one of the Four Wrong Paths (agati, motivated by greed/chanda, hate/dosa, delusion/moha, or fear/bhaya).

Simplistic, wrong: Buddhism explained in 1 minute?

3. As a good quality, it is a wholesome (kusala) will, motive, or zeal (dhamma-chanda) and occurs, for example, in the formula of the Four Right Efforts (padhāna): "The meditator rouses will (chandam janeti)..." If intensified, it becomes one of the Four Roads to Power (iddhipāda).

Bad (harmful) "desire"

Oh, hells yeah, look at that butt!

Tanhā (lit. "thirst"): "craving," the chief root of suffering [behind ignorance], and of the ever-continuing cycle of rebirths [known as samsara].

"What, O meditators, is the origin of suffering (disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, off-kilter woe)? It is this craving that gives rise to ever-fresh rebirths and, bound up with [sensual] pleasure and lust, now here, now there, [continues wandering on, trying] to find ever fresh delight.

"It is [threefold:] sensual craving (kāma-tanhā), craving for [eternal] existence (bhava-tanhā), and craving for non-existence (vibhava-tanhā)'' (D.22).

Tanhā is the eighth link in the formula of the Dependent Origination (paticcasamuppāda). Compare also at the kinds of "truth" (sacca).

Corresponding to the six sense-objects, there are six kinds of craving, craving for:

1. visible objects (sights),
2. sounds (auditory experiences),
3. fragrances (aromas),
4. tastes (flavors),
5. tactile impressions (bodily contact),
6. mental impressions (rūpa-, sadda-, gandha-, rasa-, photthabba-, dhamma-tanhā). (M.9; D.15)

Corresponding to the threefold existence, there are three kinds:

1. craving for sensual existence (kāma-tanhā),
2. craving for fine-material existence (rūpa-tanhā) [in the many celestial/dimensional "heavenly" (sagga, deva-lokas) realms],
3. craving for immaterial existence (arūpa-tanhā) [in the four formless worlds] (D.33).

If I can't get butts, I'll scarf dopamine-chocolate

There are 18 "thought-channels of craving" (tanhā-vicarita) induced internally, and 18 induced externally; and as occurring in past, present, and future, which total 108. (See A. IV, 199; Vibh., Ch. 17 Khuddakavatthu-Vibhanga).

According to Dependent Origination, craving is conditioned by feeling; on this see DN 22 (section on the Second Ennobling Truth).

As for "craving for [continued or eternal] existence" (bhava-tanhā), it is said (A.X.62):

"No first beginning of the craving for [continued] existence can be perceived, O, meditators, before which it was not and after which it came to be. But it can he perceived that craving for existence has its specific [cause and] condition. I say, O, meditators, that craving for existence also has its condition that feeds it (sāharam) and is not [subsisting] without it. And what is that condition? It is 'ignorance,' one must reply."

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*Deposit used chocolate here.

Craving for [continued] existence and ignorance are called "the outstanding causes that lead to happy and unhappy destinies (courses of existence)."

(See The Path of Purification, Vis.M. XVII, 36-42).

The most frequent synonyms of tanhā are rāga ("lust," "greed," "passion") and lobha ("greed"). See the "roots" of good and evil, the skillful and the unskillful, at mūla).

• Karma: Ten Courses of Wholesome and Unwholesome Action
• The Roots of Good and Evil (Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel Series 251/252/253)
• Will Tilly Norwood be the new Gal "IDF Zionist" Gadot?
• Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary via palikanon.com (chanda and tanhā); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Cavemen shamans got high all day? (sutra)

When did humans start smoking cannabis?

(Ink Explainer) June 4, 2026: When did early humans start smoking weed (THC/CBD)? The answer goes back way further than most of us would expect. Our relationship with cannabis did not begin in a college dorm or a back alley. — Rather, it started over 12,000 years ago, when some of the first farmers in East Asia looked at a very useful wild plant and thought, "Let's grow this."

This video traces the full history of cannabis — from a 2,700-year-old shaman's tomb in western China to the smoke-filled burial caves of the Pamir Mountains, the golden cups of Scythian warriors, the sacred altars of ancient Judah, the bhang rituals of India, a Chinese physician's lost anesthesia formula, a Congolese tribe that traded war for hemp, and the American political machine that turned a 12,000-year-old plant into one of the most dangerous [Schedule 1] substances on Earth.

By the end, viewers might start seeing this plant a little differently. All factual research sources are linked below.

Cross faded humans/monkeys?

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📚 RESEARCH AND SOURCES: ▸ Yanghai Tombs — "Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia" (2008, Journal of Experimental Botany) doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ern260 ▸ Jirzankal Cemetery — "The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs of western China" (2019, Science Advances) doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1391 ▸ Herodotus — The Histories, Book IV, on Scythian cannabis use (c. 440 BCE) ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen (1970, UC Press) ▸ Scythian Gold Cups — "Residue analysis of golden artifacts from Scythian kurgan in the Caucasus" (2015, Antiquity) ▸ Tell Arad Shrine — "Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad" (2020, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology) doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2020... ▸ Atharva Veda — Ancient Vedic text listing cannabis among five sacred plants ▸ Robert Dudley and Dušan Borić — Research on anandamide and the endocannabinoid system ▸ Harry Anslinger — Federal Bureau of Narcotics records, the Gore Files, and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 ▸ John Ehrlichman — interview quote on Pres. Dick Nixon's drug policy, published in Harper's Magazine (2016) by Dan Baum: "Legalize It All" harpers.org/archive/2016/04/l... ▸ DEA Judge Francis Young — "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (1988, Docket No. 86-22)

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PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Shen Nong — legendary Chinese emperor, traditionally credited as the author of the Pen Ts'ao Ching, one of the world's earliest medical texts, which recommended cannabis for joint pain and malaria. ▸ Herodotus — Ancient Greek historian (c. 484–425 BCE). Traveled through Central Asia and documented Scythian cannabis rituals in vivid detail. His accounts were confirmed by archeological discoveries nearly 2,400 years later. ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Soviet archeologist who in 1947 excavated frozen Scythian tombs in Siberia's Altai Mountains, confirming Herodotus's descriptions of cannabis use with perfectly preserved tent frames, heated stones, and cannabis seeds. ▸ Hua Tuo — Chinese physician (c. 140–208 AD). Mixed cannabis with wine to create an anesthetic and performed surgery during which patients felt nothing — 1,800 years before modern anesthesia, executed by warlord Cao Cao. His formula was lost when he burned his own writings in prison. ▸ Cao Cao — One of the most powerful warlords in Chinese history (155–220 AD). Had Hua Tuo arrested and executed after the physician refused to serve as his personal doctor. ▸ Harry Anslinger — head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962. Criminalized cannabis through racist propaganda, fabricated evidence (the Gore Files), and targeted Black musicians including Billie Holiday. ▸ Billie Holiday — legendary jazz singer targeted by Anslinger, not for drug use but for performing "Strange Fruit," a protest song about American lynchings. ▸ John Ehrlichman — Pres. Nixon's domestic policy advisor, who in a 2016-published interview admitted the War on Drugs was designed to target anti-war protesters and Black communities. ▸ Francis Young — DEA administrative law judge who, after two years of reviewing evidence in 1988, concluded that cannabis should not be classified as a Schedule 1 drug alongside heroin. The DEA rejected and ignored his recommendation.

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🎨 Animation by Ink explainer

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#cannabishistory #weedhistory #history #ancienthistory #cannabis #marijuana #explainer #animation #education #HarryAnslinger #SilkRoad #archeology #humanhistory

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"The Cave of the Body" (Guhatthaka Sutta)

Clinging to this cave heavily defiled [1]

one is stuck, bewildered, far from seclusion

from craving for the sensual pleasures [2]

of the world, which are hard to let go.

Those chained to craving

bound by the allure of becoming

find no release

for there is no liberation by others.

Intent, before and behind [3], on thirst

for sensual pleasure here or before —

full of lust for sensual pleasures,

busy, deluded, greedy, entrenched

in the wobbling way [4] they —

impelled into pain — lament:

"What will we be

when we pass away from here?"

So one ought to train here and now.

Whatever one knows as wobbling

in the world, do not, for its sake, behave,

for such life, the enlightened say, is short.

I see them in the world

floundering

men immersed in craving

for new states of becoming.

Base people moan in the mouth of death, their craving

for states of eternal becoming and annihilation [5] unallayed.

See them floundering in their sense of mine like fish in the

puddles of a dried-up stream — and, seeing this,

live with no sense of mine, not forming

attachments to states of becoming.

Subdue craving for both sides [6], 

comprehending [7] sensory contact free of greed.

Doing nothing for which one would oneself

rebuke oneself, for the enlightened person

adheres not to what is seen, to what's heard.

Comprehending perception, one crosses over the flood —

the sage unstuck from possessions.

One, with arrow removed, lives heedful,

longing for neither

this world nor the next.

ENDNOTES

1. Nd.I: Covered with defilements and unskillful mental states, characteristics, qualities.
2. "Sensual craving" and "sensual pleasures" are two possible translations of kama ("sensuality"). According to Nd.I, both meanings are intended here.
3. Nd.I: "Before" ("in front") means experienced in the past; "behind" means to-be-experienced in the future.
4. Nd.I: "Wobbling way" means the karma of the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. (See AN 10.176).
5. States of not-becoming = "oblivion." These are states of becoming that people can get themselves into through a desire or craving for annihilation, either after death or as a misguided goal of their spiritual striving. (See Iti 49, ucchedavada, annihilationism). As with all states of becoming, these states are impermanent (transient) and disappointing (painful).
6. According to Nd.I, "both sides" has here several possible meanings: sensory contact and the origination of sensory contact; past and future; name-and-form; internal and external sense media; self-identity (view) and the origination of self-identity. It might also mean the states of becoming and not-becoming (eternalism and annihilationism) mentioned in the previous verse and below, in Sn 4.5.
7. Nd.I: Comprehending sensory contact has three aspects: (1) being able to identify and distinguish types of sensory contact; (2) contemplating the true nature of sensory contact (e.g., impermanent/inconstant, disappointing/unable to fulfill, and impersonal/not-self); and (3) abandoning attachment to sensory contact. The same three aspects apply to comprehending perception, as mentioned in the following verse.

• See also: AN 4.184

• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Guhatthaka Sutta, based on translation and notes by Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org, Sn 4.2 PTS: Sn 772-779), Wisdom Quarterly

Why do good things happen to bad people?

Reckless driver gets instant karmic result? - AI: Fish killers kill tuna then get eaten by shark

(Buddha's Wisdom) What the Buddha NEVER said about KARMA | The Western Lie

Karma is so complex a topic that trying to fathom the "working out of karma" is something on a scale so staggering that it is considered one of the Four Imponderables in Buddhism. Only a buddha can begin to navigate the intricacies, probabilities, and intrepidities of how any deed (action) will meet its many results.

Therefore, the comic above is very funny. Of course, we do not see things working out! We are, for one thing, looking on too infinitesimally small a timescale. For another, imagine just the balls on a billiard table. They are all more or less equal, except for positioning.

One ball bangs into them, and no one can predict where they will go -- not even the one with the stick banging one into the others in a very controlled setting. Now take the countless variables associated with any single deed -- the intention behind it, the thoughts after it, the unknowable impacts on others... It's just too much.

Even the Buddha, when he looked into the future, did not give an exact date when things would happen. But he did know that when this or that sign appear, the results are coming, and that was on a grand scale of collective karma.

More importantly he knew that it was not possible for bad karma (such as the breaking of the Five Precepts) to produce a welcome result. This seems like nonsense to us because we get pleasant results from breaking them all the time.

What we don't know is that that result is not the karmic result, the vipaka. When that resultant ripens, woe. If we knew that, what we shrink back from the unskillful, the unwholesome, and the unwise courses of action, of which there are ten, the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action.

The Four Imponderables

The acinteyya are identified in the Acintita Sutta (AN 4.77), as follows [8]. There is the:

1. buddha-range of buddhas [i.e., the range of powers a Buddha develops as a result of becoming a buddha];
2. jhana-range of one absorbed in jhanas (the meditation absorptions) [i.e., the range of powers that one may obtain while absorbed in the jhanas];
3. [precise working out of the] results of karma;
4. speculation about [the origin, etc., of] the cosmos.

These four are imponderables that ought not to be speculated about [as doing so may lead one to become unhinged and nevertheless not understand them, when the path-of-practice that is the purification of the mind/heart is here and yields insight into all these things and why they are imponderable in the first place].

• NOTE: (SN 56.41 develops this speculation as the ten indeterminate).

Acinteyya literally means "that which cannot or should not be pondered or thought about, the unthinkable, the incomprehensible, the impenetrable, that which goes beyond the limits of thinking and over which therefore one should not ponder.

These Four Imponderables (unthinkables) are:

1. the sphere of a buddha (buddha-visaya),
2. the sphere of the meditative absorptions (jhāna-visaya),
3. the sphere of karmic-results (kamma-vipāka),
4. brooding over the world (loka-cintā), particularly over an absolute first beginning of it. (See A.IV.77).

SUTRA

"Therefore, O meditators, do not brood [fret, preoccupy, waste time, become distressed] over the world as to whether it is eternal or not eternal, finite or infinite (limited or endless)...

"Such brooding, O meditators, is senseless, has nothing to do with genuine good conduct (see ādibrahmacariyaka-sīla, "supreme or higher morality"), does not lead to turning away, letting go, extinction [of delusion and suffering], nor to peace, full comprehension, awakening (enlightenment), and nirvana, and so on" (S.56.41).

• Buddha's Wisdom (video); Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; commentary and editing by Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Why ME? The 'Law' of Karma

(Buddhist Audio books) Invisible Law Controls Our Life: Kamma (Karma) in Buddhist Abhidhamma

First of all, what is Abhidhamma? It is the systematic treatment of the Dharma, the Buddha's Teachings, in ultimate terms.

Second, what is karma in Buddhism? It is a deed, willed action, which the Buddha divided as either physical, verbal, or mental, singling out intention or motivation (cetana) as the key to determining what it is and what it will produce.

If I do something, why I do it matters. A Manhattanite is walking down the boulevard on a dark and rainy night. She looks down an alley as see me over someone, lifting a blade that glints in the light of a dingy streetlamp about to bring down a blade on the body.

There's always a solution, a fix it.

What's happening? Can we judge? What's the karma (deed, action, doing)? She screams, "bloody murder!" and I look up and show her my scalpel. She looks down and sees a woman on the ground unable to breathe. And I explain that I was about to stab her in the throat, draw blood, and let air into her windpipe because she has something jammed into her mouth and is about to go unconscious and die if I do not intervene. "Oh, are you a doctor?" she asks me. "No, of course not, but I do watch lots of reruns of MacGyver," I answer.

Now that we know all this, what's the karma? The horrible act of attempted murder or the exact opposite, the precious act of preserving life?

It's hard to say, so we should reserve judgment at least a little, until we can discern my MOTIVE, my INTENTION, my VOLITION, my cetanā or underlying impulse to act.

The Roots of Good and Evil: Buddhist Texts

That mental motive is the real "karma," the real determinant of the deed, and it doesn't matter what others think, approve of, or condemn. She may hate me, she may get a beat cop to shoot me to prevent what she thinks is going on, a judge may imprison me based on her testimony, but all of that is HER karma, not mine. I will be "judged" impersonally by myself or the universe for what I was actually doing when that ACT matures and comes to fruition.

Importantly, there are only six root motives for an action, a deed, any kind of karma. See The Roots of Good and Evil: Buddhist Texts translated from the Pali (Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel Series 251-253) by Western monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera.

There are other divisions, such as the Ten COURSES (kamma-patha) of Unwholesome Action and, of course, Ten Courses of Wholesome Action. There are probably millions of deeds, but getting to the root (radix, radical) of the matter, we have only six roots:

1. greed (lobha, lust, craving, clinging, desire, wanting)
2. hatred (dosa, aversion, fear, anger, annoyance, ill-will)
3. delusion (moha, ignorance, wrong views, confusion)
4. nongreed (alobha, letting go, selflessness, sharing, giving, generosity, dispassion, detachment)
5. nonhatred (adosa, loving kindness, compassion, mudita or joy in others' joy, unbiased onlooking)
6. nondelusion (amoha, wisdom, knowledge, knowing-and-seeing, understanding, penetration).

• See the Discourse on Right View or Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta.

We can divide karma (acts) into ten kinds:

• Three of body

1. destroying life

2. stealing

3. sexual misconduct

• Four of speech

4. false speech

5. divisive speech

6. offensive speech

7. senseless speech

• Three of mind

8. covetousness

9. malice

10. wrong view.

Ah, what does the Buddha know anyway?

What is there to notice here? Most karma is produced by the mouth or other means of VERBAL expression. The body may do things, but when does it do them that it is not being motivated (directed, willed) by the mind? Not acting out, not speaking out, it is still possible to produce karma (deeds with the power of producing a subsequent result) JUST BY THINKING. There really is mental karma. The RESULTS of karma are not karma, even though we in an offhand, shorthand way often refer to results as karma when we say, "It is my karma," referring to something that happened to us. That is never our karma, technically, but we all understand that what we think we're saying is, "This is a result of my deeds," and that may well be. Not everything that happens is due to karma. There are other causes. But most of the important things that happen to us that we notice and think are unfair, that's likely due to our bright and dark karma. This is a world of mixed results. To live in a world of predominantly bright results, there are karmas (acts) for that. Similarly, to live in a world of darkness and even worse suffering than we have here on the human plane (which is regarded as the lowest of the worlds one can be reborn in that is still considered "good"), there are deeds for that. Unless we get real with ourselves, privately, and recognize our motives, our intentions, what is impelling us to act, we cannot be surprised what we get as a result.

Remember, what we experience is not what we are doing now. We have a massive cache of past karma (from this and countless past lives even if we disbelieve those former lives and rebirths ever happened) that is trying to mature and come to fruition, to ripen and produce results.

The two names for karmic results are vipaka (resultants) and phala (fruits). The distinction seems to be, although we cannot prove it but remember Ven. Nyanatiloka (the Western translator of the Buddhist Dictionary) always making the distinction being mental-resultants and outward-circumstances. If we act, we immediately feel some way about it -- regret, remorse, anxiety about being found out or caught or punished, and so on, or rejoicing, approving, carefree or proud to be found out or recognized or rewarded, and so on, depending on the kind of action.

There is a terrible kind of karma, one that is possibly the worst of all karmas, and what is strange about it is that most of us most of the time would not even think there's anything wrong with in our Western society. What is it?

• What is the worst thing in the karmic world, the producer of the most amount of bad (unskillfulness, demerit, evil, misery)?

Wrong view (micchā ditthi), sometimes manifesting as the perversions or distortions (vipallassa). This is the one to be most wary of, for we will be held responsible for what we think, what views we cling to and act on. If we believe something is good because that's what people around us told us or it's the way we were raised, that DOES NOT make it good or okay. It is what it is, in accordance with the six roots mentioned above, and will produce corresponding results that are either welcomed and wished for or unwelcome and unwished for. Proceed cautiously before acting. A little or a lot of introspection helps.

• Outline of Buddhism

If there were just ONE primer to understand the complexity of karma in Buddhism, Wisdom Quarterly would say it is American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi's treatment of the subject here:

Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is, Talk 5, "Rebirth and Kamma"

• Buddhist Audio Books (video), June 8, 2025; Bhikkhu Bodhi, "Rebirth and Kamma"; TEXT: Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Nude BC Grammys: Chap, Bey, Kendrick

What happened at Grammys in burned LA on Groundhog Day?

WATCH LIVE: Groundhog Day 2025 Punxsutawney Phil ceremony (Vista News)

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Attn-W Bianca Censori, uncensored Mrs. West

Is the country very different or all the same? In rural Pennsylvania on the East Coast, all the attention was on Knob Gobblers Gobbler's Knob for a rodent named Phil and its shadow due to strange Germanic pagan traditions about the change of seasons (midway between winter and spring) on Grundsaudaag. The grund sow or "groundhog" Punxsutawney Phil is a beloved kind of beaver, predicting incorrectly 60% of the time, getting up in its hole but being bothered by local yokels eager for misleading prognostication. However, it's an important day because it is the only American holiday that even tries to commemorate a change of seasons, which was once an important thing tying an agrarian society to the land.

Where's Andie MacD? (Groundhog Day 2025)

Way on the other side of the land, on the West Coast, eager beavers flaunt it for more fame and riches. Sadly (or schadenfreude), Taylor "Nazi Football Barbie" Swift walked away emptyhanded because The Industry noticed her big album was a big dud of self-indulgent and uber lazy arrangements. Get a legit hit, Swift. Jelly Roll, same deal. Worse, the Grammys tried to right the wrong the Illuminati goddess faced in being ignored by the country music world with her attempt to cash in on country music's moment, Cowboy Carter. That's how Swift started, after all, preening for Nashville country crowds then turning her back on them for Hollywood's limelight and reigning pop idol. If Swift's the princess at odds with the more talented Olivia Rodrigo, who's the queen? Chappell Roan? Lady Gaga? MIA Lana Del Rey? Ms. Slipknot?

• 'Bianca, blink twice': Kanye West and his new wife escorted out of event after ‘naked’ appearance at Grammy 2025
• Grammys 2025: 10 takeaways from Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar's biggest night (NPR)

Which god, Beh? The fix was in, but I'm so surprised I pulled it off

Best of Glambot: 2025 Grammys | Grammys 2025 | E! News

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Grammys 2025: winners, surprises, and must-see moments |⭐ OSSA

(OSSA) Feb. 3, 2025: Sean P. Diddy Combs was unable to make it but sends his love to partner Jay-Z and others. (They know who they are). The 67th Grammys were a wild ride full of shocking moments, surprise appearances, and jaw-dropping wins. From Beyoncé "Queen Bey" Carter making history to some unforgettable red carpet looks, the night had it all. Who knew narcissist Kanye West’s wife would turn more heads than Kim Kardashian with her bold, sheer outfit? Not to mention, Teddy Swims shared some huge news, while Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars brought the house down with their performance. And let's not forget the emotional tributes to Quincy Jones and those lost in the past year. Oh, and did we mention the powerful speeches? From Chappell Roan’s call for artists’ rights to Shakira’s heartfelt message about immigrant solidarity, this Grammy night was one for the books. Want to know all the juicy details? From red carpet chaos to backstage surprises, we’ve got it covered, breaking down all the surprises, wins, and more.

• Grammys 2025: winners, surprises, must-see moments |⭐

Buddha, what is the cause of fame and winning, riches and influence?

Karma (deeds, intentional actions of the past coming to fruition in the present) is the great arbitrator, meting out "rewards" and "punishments," which are really just the welcome and unwelcome results of deeds done under the influence of six or seven things: greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), delusion (moha), nongreed (alobha), nonhatred (adosa), nondelusion (amoha), and most often a MIX of these states producing mixed results. The first three are Three Poisons, the next are their positive counterparts better expressed in positive terms. How karma manages to do all of this, resulting in the life we see and the things that happen to us (as resultants and fruits), is explained in detail in the Abhidhamma or "Doctrine Explained in Ultimate Terms," an ancient collection of psychological Buddhist texts. This is a very general answer -- that what we do bears results that we will face soon or after a very long time. (It can't seem fair because we did them in ignorance and we will not be told that our own actions condition what we experience later; moreover, using such words as "good" or "bad" gives a moralizing tone that is not present in the impersonal playing out of these things. The Buddha revealed the significance of karma (sowing good to reap good) centuries before Christianity or Brahmanism/Hinduism exactly so that people could know and do something about it, storing up much good for the future when it is most useful and welcome. "Karma, it's everywhere we're going to be." More specificity as to what acts are skillful and unskillful is found in the "Ten Courses of Wholesome Action," with their counterparts (Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action).

Manson gang in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

• Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Crystal Q., Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds? (1)

O, Scythian Princess Sundari Nanda (Gotami), you are the Janapada Kalyani of this land!

Is there a heaven (sagga)? By heaven is meant a literal "world of shining ones in sky so far up it's space" (the akasha-deva-loka). We agree with Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry's sentiment as he sings: "Is there a heaven? I'd like to think so" heard here:

(Roxy Music) "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"

Retro Vintage Time Traveling - 1950s Sci-Fi - An AI Short Film

(Retro Retake) Dec. 2, 2024: #Retrofuturism merges seamlessly with the sleek futurism of the Space Age. Three enigmatic companions, clad in shimmering pink outfits, stand poised against the breathtaking backdrop of a distant time or planet, visible through the panoramic window of their spacecraft. This gem isn’t just a visual feast; it’s an invitation to dream, to wonder, and to step into a world where elegance meets cosmic adventure. Every scene captures the essence of a time we’ve never known but have always longed to explore. Are we ready for the captivating beauty of this retrofuturistic universe? #RetroFuture #retro #AIFilmМ

One of the most important questions of our time, since at least the time of the Buddha when the world was obsessed with sex and sensual pleasures, is: "Is there sex after death?"

A stark answer to this was once given by a hopeful comedian: "Yes," he assured his audience reasoning that, "You get laid in a coffin, don't you?" It may be funny, it may be serious. We don't want it to all end! Thinking we're something, we don't want to become nothing. We wish for life to continue (eternally) in some better way, some better place, many better circumstances. This is all possible through skillful karma (profitable, beneficial, wholesome deeds).

• The Buddha pointed out that there are three forms of desire (tanha, craving, thirst) that are terrible, plentiful sources of suffering: (1) craving for sensual pleasure (kama craving), (2) craving for eternal existence (bhava craving), and (3) craving for annihilation (when we want to get off this merry-go-round, vi-bhava craving).

Good deeds or bad, life will continue into the afterlife -- into countless future lives until we bring about enlightenment (bodhi) and awakening, liberation (moksha) and nirvana. It will not happen by accident.

It requires knowing-and-seeing, and that requires calm-and-insight, and that requires morality and right effort. The Buddha summarized it as sila, bhavana, panna or virtue (karmic skillfulness), meditation (mental cultivation), and wisdom (liberating insight).

What is morality?

Virtue means harmless, peaceful, pleasant.

The Buddha defined that simply as these Ten Courses of Wholesome Action, avoiding the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. A more basic definition is by way of roots: Those things rooted in greed, hatred, or delusion give rise to unskillful actions (karma), whereas those rooted in nongreed, nonhatred, or nondelusion give rise to skillful actions. We can call the good kind merit because its results are always welcome, pleasant, and wished for. (Unskillful karma is called that because it is bad, meaning that when it brings forth its results, they are unwelcome, unpleasant, and unwished for).

What is meditation?

Meditating is cultivating, not just by sitting

The English term "meditation" is very misleading because the Pali word bhavana really means "bringing into being" or "cultivating," and that can be done at any time through mindfulness and right effort. (Other Pali terms like jhana, jhayanti, anussati, and kammatthana are also rendered with this same catchall English term, adding to confusion as to what the practice is).

Meditation in English has come to mean sitting cross-legged. But "cultivating" can be done while engaged in actions, uttering chants, mantras, aphorisms, or affirmations. If I want to cultivate a fit body, I go to the gym, dojo, or walking path and exercise, practice movement and deeper breathing.

Similarly, if I want to cultivate a fit mind or heart, I go to sacred places, zendo, or forest (into nature) and exercise, mentally practice calm, attentiveness, wakefulness, positivity, equanimity, and more soothing breathing.

What is wisdom?

Insight into the true nature of reality

The goal of the previous to is to bring about insight, which we can set the preliminaries (a calm and attentive mind able to be consistently mindful, which means aware without reaction, judgments, thinking, ambitions, striving, or efforting, just being here now, whatever the circumstance, not getting sucked up in stories, narratives, assessments, judgments, or rationalizations). So we can think of it as vipassana (insight) bhavana (cultivation).

To cultivate insight, the Buddha explained in two famous sutras the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness, that is, being mindful of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. This is called satipatthana. There's no need to think about it; all of the instructions are given in these two discourses. (See Ven. Analayo on the meaning of "mindfulness" in Early Buddhism and then read the simple exercises on, first, how to be mindful of the body). Simple is not easy. All that is needed is persistence to establish a practice. Doing a lot then nothing, a lot then nothing is no way to practice. Doing a steady amount, even if tiny at first, soon grows into a solid habit. Steadiness, not extreme efforting or insane determination, wins the game.

Anyone who's read or heard the Buddha's life story misunderstands what happened. Ask them. This is the key question. He's born a prince, wants more, renounces the throne, goes off on a spiritual question, heads for the mystic East, practices yoga and austerities (like regular fasting and penance and all kinds of moral rules) and monastic living and meditation... And it doesn't work. He doesn't become enlightened. So he doubles down. And it doesn't work.

But this time it's even worse. He exhausts himself to the point where he accepts help from women, whom the other wandering ascetics will not even talk to, stare at, or receive anything from. Here Siddhartha is talking to, looking at, and even receiving from, accepting an offering of food and nourishment.

The happily pregnant milkmaid Sujata offers the ascetic Siddhartha a rich meal of rice.

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He builds his strength back up and realizes the body is his friend, not his enemy as the other spiritual seekers feel sure is the case. But he realizes that nearly seven years of striving, enlightenment has not come. So rather than ramp it up even more than before, he suddenly remembers something that happened to him at age 7. He remembers a spontaneous meditative absorption (jhana) he entered as a child at the Harvest Festival in Kapilavastu (probably Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which was part of ancient Gandhara). He then wonders if this isn't the way to enlightenment.

A knowingness comes back to him that this is the way -- the way of letting go, giving up, surrender, radical acceptance, tolerance, letting things be.... He further wonders why he has been avoiding this pleasant abiding and realizes it has been because of his "spiritual" aversion to pleasure. But this is not sensual pleasure (kama sukha). This is super-sensual (abhi-kama, piti, blameless contentment, sukha, and joy, not dependent on the physical senses). If it is blameless, then it is okay.

• Even today, Buddhist spiritual seekers have the exact same fear without realizing it, thinking that the path has to be arduous and full of virile effort to count, when that is exactly why it didn't work for years and years for the Bodhisattva Siddhartha. CONTINUED IN PART II
• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly; Retrofuturism; Roxy Music, "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"