Loving kindness with Jack Kornfield

Jack Kornfield (insightla.com); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

When's it safe to love? When's it safe not to?

The Buddha taught that we can develop loving kindness (metta) by visualizing how a caring mother holds her beloved child.

 

Altruistic love is our true nature, but it is often covered over by a protective layer of fear [bhava, the opposite of love, rooted in dosa, aversion/hate].

 

The Buddhist path uses systematic trainings to cultivate love. These trainings are found throughout the Buddhist world. They strengthen our capacity for love, compassion, joy, and peace. The practices that develop these qualities combine repeated thoughts, visualization, and feelings.

 

These trainings have been employed by millions of practitioners to transform their own hearts. 

 

Pick yourself up and love the world. (AP)

Loving-kindness is the first of these trainings. In loving-kindness practice, students visualize themselves and repeat four or five traditional phrases of well-wishing, such as “May I be safe and healthy. May I be happy.” Along with the recitation, a bodily sense of love is established, and feelings of loving-kindness are invited.

 

The marriage of wisdom and compassion

Loving-kindness develops as we repeat these phrases thousands of times, over days and months. I often recommend a year of developing loving-kindness for oneself.

 

Because of the shame and unworthiness most if not all of us carry, loving ourselves becomes a particularly powerful practice [a radical act of self-acceptance].

 

It doesn’t create love; it opens the pathway to the gold of our natural love. Then that love can spill over to touch and bless all that we come in contact with.

• Saturday with Jack Kornfield -- Awakened Heart/Awakening Together Day of Practice at InsightLA's 2018 benefit

Join in on a joyful day of transformative teachings, wonderful stories, heart practices, and awakening together. In these turbulent and divisive times, more than ever we need ways to steady our hearts, calm our minds, clear our vision and inspire our action. We will cultivate the qualities of courage and love, how to dwell in kind awareness, and how to enhance our natural capacity for care and connection, towards ourselves, our society and all beings. Metta and goodwill -- combined with compassion, forgiveness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity -- are the revolutionary and necessary powers that can transform our lives and mend our world.

• Awakened Heart with Jack Kornfield
• 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
• Saturday, November 3rd
• First Presbyterian Church
• Santa Monica CA

REGISTER NOW

Go to the Moon, Kathina, potluck (Oct. 25)

Ananda M. (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Dhr. Seven, Ellie, Jen (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

We'll visit the moon, Luna (called Soma and Chandra in Buddhist-Hindu-Jain India), by remote viewing in deep meditation.

In addition, we welcome back former American Buddhist nun Ellie from an east coast trip and our newly minted American Buddhist nun Alicia on the occasion of the sacred Kathina Ceremony, the most significant lay Buddhist holiday for making good karma. 

We celebrate with a vegan POTLUCK as we enjoy vegan snacks, chocolate, chips and salsa, kombucha and drinks on ice...

• Dharma Meditation Initiative, Los Angeles
• The Neighborhood Church
• 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Room 23
• 2 blocks north of Colorado Bl., near Norton Simon

Dharma Meditation Initiative, Neighborhood Church (meetup.com/zen-07). MARC.UCLA

Kathina celebrated in Pasadena on Sat. & Sun., Nov. 3-4, 2018 (LA Buddhist Vihara)

Jack Kornfield: Awakened Heart, LA (Nov. 3)

Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman (InsightLA); Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Join Insight LA for a joyful day of transformative teachings, wonderful stories, heart practices, and awakening together.

More than ever, in these turbulent and divisive times, we need ways to steady our heart, calm our mind, clear our vision, and inspire our action.

Let's cultivate the qualities of courage and love, how to dwell in kind awareness, and how to enhance our natural capacity for care and connection towards ourselves, our society, and all beings.

Metta and goodwill -- combined with compassion/forgiveness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity -- are the revolutionary and necessary powers to transform our lives and mend our world.

Proceeds from this unique benefit support InsightLA.org's Insight in Action program, which offers mindfulness and compassion trainings to over 20 non-profits serving our wider Los Angeles community.

• The Awakened Heart w/Jack Kornfield
• Saturday, Nov. 3rd, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
• First Presbyterian Church, Santa Monica
• Los Angeles, California
• TICKETS

My doctor sexually molested me! (cartoon)

Stephanie Elam, Jack Hannah (CNN, 10/18/18); Family Guy; CBS Morning News; Crimes on Campus, USC Edition; Seth Auberon, Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

WARNING: This report contains graphic and sensitive material of a sexual nature.
 

Gynecologist sued over inappropriate touching:
93 more ex-students accuse former USC gynecologist of sexual misconduct, attorney says

Gloria Allred, Esq. with student victim

LOS ANGELES - Ninety-three additional women have come forward to accuse longtime USC gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall of sexual misconduct, according to the attorney in the case.

Tyndall was the only full-time gynecologist at the school's Student Health Clinic for 30 years. Attorney John Manly said the 93 former students are represented in two new lawsuits.

The former students allege that USC ignored complaints about the doctor for decades, and concealed the doctor's actions.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Manly called on California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to investigate USC. The attorney general's office declined to comment on the matter to CNN.

 

Tyndall's attorney, Leonard Levine, had no comment but said the doctor continues to cooperate in the investigation.

We hate President Trump at USC (iheart.com)

In July, after more than 50 accusers sued Tyndall and USC, Levine said in a statement that his client "is adamant that he engaged in no criminal conduct while practicing medicine at USC.

Hmmph, I should've been a gynecologist.

He firmly believes that when all the facts are known, and experts in the field of gynecology and obstetrics are consulted, it will be determined [that] his examinations of students at USC were for the stated medical purpose, and consistent with the standard of care for such examinations," the statement said.

 

The women say they were sexually abused, harassed, and molested by Tyndall, who was fired by the university in 2017 for inappropriate behavior, according to USC. University officials said the school reached a settlement with the doctor and did not report him to law enforcement or state medical authorities at the time. More + VIDEO

The World's Weirdest Latinos (video)

Masaman, Oct 19, 2018; Xochitl; Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Paraguayans are World's Weirdest Latinos

What exactly makes Paraguay different? Why are Paraguayans known throughout Latin America and beyond as the "weirdest Latinos"? Let's look at the history of one of the smallest, but certainly not weakest, "Hispanic" (Spain-based or Spanish-speaking) countries, a country few outsiders know much about. This video has been demonetized due to the title...worth it. Sources: ozy.com..., daytranslations.com..., britannica.com..., britannica.com....

Don't talk to the police (video)

Prof. Duane, Regent University School of Law, 3/20/12; Seth Auberon (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly


 

Regent Law Professor James Duane gives viewers many startling reasons why they should ALWAYS exercise their 5th Amendment rights -- to remain silent -- when questioned by government officials. Download article on the topic at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Don't consent to police searches (video)

Steve Silverman; Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Steve Silverman on what to do when stopped by a cop from C-Span. Withhold consent of any search of your person, property, and auto. Remain silent. Courteously assert your 4th and 5th Amendment rights, even if you are completely innocent and have nothing whatsoever to hide. Call a lawyer, particularly a defense attorney, in advance for an explanation as to why it NEVER benefits you in court to have given up your rights for whatever reason. They will trick you out of them if you think you're just being "helpful" to their investigation. Silverman (Flex Your Rights) provides the information. LibertyPen.com

Four forms of "right" speech (sutra)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (WP) via PacificBuddha.org; Dhr. Seven, Sayalay Aloka (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

[THE BUDDHA EXPLAINS:] "Householders (ordinary laypersons), there are...four kinds of wholesome verbal conduct, conduct in accordance with the Dharma....

"And, householders, how are there four kinds of wholesome verbal conduct, conduct in accordance with the Dharma?

(1) "Here someone, abandoning false speech [perjury, bearing false witness], abstains from false speech: When summoned to a court, or to a meeting, or into the presence of one's relatives, or to one's guild, or to the royal family's presence, and questioned as a witness thus: 'So, good person, tell what you know,' not knowing, one says, 'I do not know,' or knowing, one says, 'I know'; not seeing, one says, 'I do not see,' or seeing, one says, 'I see'; one does not in full awareness speak falsehood for one's own ends, or for another's ends, or for some trifling worldly end.

(2) Abandoning malicious speech, one abstains from malicious speech; one does not repeat elsewhere what one has heard here in order to divide [those people] from these, nor does one repeat to these people what one has heard elsewhere in order to divide [these people] from those; thus one is one who reunites those who are divided, a promoter of friendships, who enjoys concord, rejoices in concord, delights in concord, a speaker of words that promote concord.

(3) Abandoning harsh speech, one abstains from harsh speech; one speaks such words as are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and lovable, as go to the heart, are courteous, desired by many, and agreeable to many.

(4) Abandoning idle chatter, one abstains from idle chatter; one speaks at the right time, speaks what is factual, speaks on what is good, speaks on the Dharma and the Discipline; at the right time one speaks such words as are worth recording, reasonable, moderate, and beneficial.

That is how there are four kinds of wholesome verbal conduct, conduct in accordance with the Dharma.

• COMICS: Funnies with Jen Sorensen
• I quit drinking year ago here's what happened?

Native Los Angeles: Garden Fund

Haramokngna.org; Xochitl, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

"We have to save Native LA!"

Haramokgna is in the Angeles National Forest of Los Angeles County. It opened in 1998 with a special use permit in a former fire station.

The site where Haramokgna sits is on Red Box Saddle -- the first resting spot on the trek from the sea to the desert.  So the people came here to gather the bounty of the mountains -- the pine trees and pine nuts, the bay laurel, the black oak acorns...

The people also came together to renew family ties, trade songs, stories, and gossip, and to meet eligible marriageable youth from the other side of the mountains.

The front building is being converted into an interpretive exhibit of the five [Los Angeles] tribes of the San Gabriel Mountains: Tongva/Kizh (Gabrieleno), Chumash, Tataviam (Fernandeno), Kitanemuk, and Serrano.

These five tribes explored in their pre-contact relationships with the land and with each other via the trade routes through these mountains. More

Urgent campaign

Urgent campaign to fund a new ethnobotanical garden (donate: haramokngna.org)

Before Monty Python's Flying Circus (video)

Monty Python the Flying Circus; Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Monty Burns

This black and white documentary seeks to discover what life was like before Monty Python's Flying Circus, the British troupe of comedians, writers, and artists that changed the face of British comedy and therefore comedy across the Western world.

• JimmyDoreComedy.com (KPFK.org)

Art in Zen: wabi-sabi, kintsugi (video)

S. Fitzgerald, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

Broken cup repaired with gold, sacred scars, beautiful brokenness (thecupandtheroad.com)

In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection.

The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the Three Characteristics of Existence (三法印 sanbōin):

1. impermanence (無常 mujō) 
2. disappointment (苦 ku) 
3. emptiness, the absence of a self (空 kū).

The art of kintsugi, the beauty of brokenness, sacred scars (esprit-kintsugi.com)

.

Kintsugi, Zen art in Japan (ruicunha.org)

Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, roughness, simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes.
 

DEFINITION

According to Leonard Koren wabi-sabi can be defined as "the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty, and it occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the far West."

Whereas Andrew Juniper notes that, "If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi."

For Richard Powell, "Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect."

Relationship building (iamkristenbecker.com)

The words wabi and sabi do not translate easily into English. Wabi originally referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society. Sabi meant "chill," "lean," or "withered."

Around the 14th century these meanings began to change, taking on more positive connotations. Wabi now connotes rustic simplicity, freshness, or quietness and can be applied to both natural and human-made objects or understated elegance. More

The Beauty of Brokenness: Kintsugi
 
Kintsugi ("golden joinery"), also known as kintsukuroi ("golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique.

As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history -- and therefore preciousness -- of an object, rather than something to disguise. More

• Kintsugi: the art of precious scars (lifegate.com) By repairing broken ceramics, it's possible to give new life to pottery that becomes more refined by its “scars.” 
• Kintsugi, The Japanese Art of Mending Broken Ceramics with Gold (artsy.net) The technique known as kintsugi, which means “golden seams,” was developed by lacquer masters... 
• Kintsugi 金継ぎ: The Book of Life (theschooloflife.com)...a gathering of the best ideas around wisdom and emotional intelligence.
• VIDEO: How to Fix Broken Pottery ...into eye-popping decorations that are literally dripping in gold.
• VIDEO: Kintsugi: The Art of Embracing Damage 
• What is kintsugi? (mindful-company.com) 
• Kintsugi Kintsukuroi Art: where to buy
• Kintsugi, centuries-old Japanese method of repair
  

(The School of Life) HISTORY OF IDEAS: At the heart of Japanese philosophy and wisdom lies a concept called wabi-sabi, a term that denotes a commitment to the everyday, the melancholic, the broken, and imperfect. It’s a term we need more of in our lives. theschooloflife.com. Produced in collaboration with Mike Booth (somegreybloke), #TheSchoolOfLife. 

News of the Day
Questions and answers about state of the US-Mexico border

Saudi account of Khashoggi killing is widely denounced

Sales are brisk as Mega Millions jackpot hits $1.6 billion

Mexico slowly processes caravan migrants at Guatemala border

Mega Millions jackpot hits $1.6B, thanks to worsening odds

Violence, confusion surround Afghan parliamentary elections

10 days after hurricane, football offers a welcome escape

Warren ancestry highlights how tribes decide membership

Chinese gov't plans to launch artificial moon

Time via Tim Conway Jr. iheart.com/live/kfi; CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Chinese government plans to launch new moon into orbit

Ah, a new moon in the sky reflecting

China is reportedly planning to launch an "artificial moon" in the next couple of years, designed to light up the night sky over the country.

And when we say launch, we mean LAUNCH! The mini-moon will be launched over 300 miles above Earth's surface and could shine eight times brighter than the actual Moon (Soma, Luna, Chandra).
 
Location-wise, the new moon will hang over Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province.

Moon over Chengdu (Getty Images)

The "artificial moon" itself will have a reflective coating and mirrors to reflect sunlight back to Earth -- but this moon's light can be focused to light up specific areas.

Officials say it could conserve energy by replacing streetlights, thereby saving 1.2 billion yuan ($173 million) in costs annually and provide emergency lighting in cases of natural disasters and blackouts.

 

The new moon is expected to launch in 2020.  If it's successful, three more could be launched by 2022. Read more at Time.com

Los Angeles launches FAT crybaby Trump

Politicon; KFI AM 640; MTV Decoded; Crystal Q., Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I'm not a fat ass! I'm not a baby! I'm king president for life! (Andrew Mollenbeck)

.

LOS ANGELES, California - A balloon portraying Pres. Trump as a fat ass baby in diapers has taken flight in DTLA.

The balloon is a lookalike to the one that accompanied protests in London over the summer. This one lifted off next to the 110 Freeway, where it can be seen by drivers.

Come meet the fat ass (politicon.com)

"It's part of the political landscape, and I think people are interested to come and see it," says Simon Sidi, co-founder of PolitiCon (politicon.com).

"We're going to fly it most of the day into the evening, and then it will be inside PolitiCon so people can come and take selfies with it tomorrow," he says. More

(MTV Decoded) Every racist thing Trump has said (almost)

Jackpot: How to win billion dollar lottery!

Ñanamoli Thera, Culakammavibhanga Sutra (MN 135) via Access to Insight; Associated Press (ap.org); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Q., CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What happens if you win Mega Millions' $900M jackpot?

Official website: megamillions.com

DES MOINES, Iowa - Despite the horrible odds — one in 302.5 million for those keeping score at home — someone (or group) will eventually match all six numbers and win the Mega Millions jackpot, now at $900 million. It could happen as soon as Friday night, when the next drawing is held, leaving most of us disappointed but some lucky winner beset by a host of questions. More

• READER MAIL: "Dear Wisdom Quarterly, even though that stuff happens to most winners, HOW do I win? Thanks!

How to win the lottery

We want: long life, health, beauty, power, riches [like massive lottery winnings], high birth, and intelligence, or some of these things? They do not appear by chance.

It is not "luck" that someone is healthy or a lack of luck that someone is stupid. It may not be clear to us now, but all such inequalities among beings come about due to the karma they have made, actions from the past ripening now.

Each person reaps one's own fruits. So if we are touched by short life, illness, ugliness, insignificance, poverty, lowly birth, or stupidity and one does not like these things, there is no need to accept that that is the way it is. Something can be done; "action" (karma) can be taken.

Gambling leads to loss; merit leads to winning

It is also the mark of one who -- having heard the Dharma that leads to enlightenment and liberation from all suffering -- is no longer drifting aimlessly but now has direction in life and a sense of understanding and control over the sort of events that will occur now and in the future.

The future need not be like the past, provided one makes the appropriate kind of karma now. Knowing what karma to make and what to avoid is the mark of a wise person.

 

SUTRA: Short Exposition on Karma

For one who knows-and-sees, it's easy to win!

1. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the [Buddha] was living in Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, in the multimillionaire's Park.

 

Then Sub, the Brahmin student, Todeyya's son, went to the [Buddha] and exchanged greetings. When the courteous and amiable talk concluded, Sub sat down respectfully to one side and said:

 

2. "Master Gautama [the Buddha's surname], what is the reason, what is the condition, as to why inferiority and superiority are met with among human beings, among humankind?

"One meets short-lived and long-lived people, sick and healthy people, ugly and beautiful people, insignificant and influential people, poor and rich people, low-born and high-born people, stupid and intelligent people.

"What is the reason, what is the condition, as to why superiority and inferiority are met with among human beings, among humankind?"

The Buddha answers
3. "Brahmin, beings are owners of karmas, heirs of karmas, they have karmas as their progenitor, karmas as their kin, karmas as their homing-place. It is karmas that differentiate beings according to inferiority and superiority."
 

Winning numbers: 15-23-53-65-70-7 (10/19/18)

4. "I do not understand the detailed meaning of Master Gautama's utterance spoken in brief without expounding the detailed meaning. It would be good if Master Gautama taught me the Dharma so that I might understand the detailed meaning of this utterance spoken in brief without expounding the detailed meaning."

 

"Then listen, Brahmin, and heed well what I explain."

 

"Even so, Master Gautama," Sub the Brahmin replied. Then the [Buddha] explained... More

 

The "American War": businessmen make more money from war than from lottery: 3 top Afghan officials killed while US general is fine
KABUL, Afghanistan - The three top officials in Afghanistan's Kandahar province were murdered when traitorous guards opened fire on them at a security conference today (10/18/18), the deputy provincial governor said, and a "Taliban" spokesman said the target was Washington's top general in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, who escaped without injury, according to NATO. More

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