Predicting the market's hard, beating it impossible
The Number One business in America used to be Apple Corporation, the iPhone, iPad, iTamp slave factory owner, but it was shoved out of the way by the computer chip company Nvidia. That is until yesterday, when China released DeepSeek, a very cheap A.I. search function. That release by the CCP crashed Nvidia, taking it down the farthest a company has ever fallen financially since the last time Nvidia fell (about $250 billion that time). That's what Wall Street calls volatility. To invest or not invest? Hotshots have the most exposure to upswing, but the down draft burns them up when they crash. At least Apple is stable, however irresponsible or amoral the corporation may be. What's GM up to? What about other war stocks? Big Pharma? There's another "flu" on the horizon, and if we call it a "Covid," that means big money for companies already making big money on new allopathic drugs like esketamine ("Spravato"). Caveat emptor.
Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley suddenly feels like a faraway paradise beach
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WHAT HAPPENED?
What is a sound bath for spiritual cleansing?
In PR Russia with its worker cooperatives, the nation hides a glorious imperial past. Leningrad is actually Saint Petersburg, and this is where the czar stored the booty from imperial Eurasian adventures and conquests in the forging of the USSR, a Soviet super-nation, now mostly disassembled. The great Central Asian "stans" where the Buddha grew up are remnants of that time as is Ukraine and places as far away as Mongolia. The palace is now a museum. One needn't travel all the way there to see it, just visit The Langham Huntington Resort Spa in residential Pasadena on Lake Ave., which becomes Oak Knoll as it flows south.
All the Gilded Age gold inlay on the ceiling...anyway, turn left to the Georgian Room, apparently named after the country of Georgia, where 60 yoga mats were arranged in a flower pattern streaming out from a center, where all of our "philosophical instruments" (Tibetan and crystal singing bowls, Zildjian gong, tingsha, giant shamanic drum, muyu wooden temple drum) were set up. Enormous amethyst and clear quartz crystals formed a ring around our sacred space. Eager participants, many of them guests of the hotel, streamed in and found a place, arranging themselves on the ground for maximum comfort, socializing and hugging. Then Seven sounded the drum and brought their attention to the basics for the evening:
total relaxation
receptivity with palms facing upward (downward for grounding)
diaphragmatic breathing
placing the mind on the breath to remain in the present moment, knowing the human superpower of adverting attention to a safe default (resting home) position at the nose or belly button.
Slowly the other musicians, the Zildjian Mistress Linda Lau Cole and Dr. O'Connor and Linda with the bell and her husband with the rain stick wandered about, enchanting the audience. Some sat to meditate, others taking a supine position to exhale.
The instructions were simple. What? Be. Where? Here. When? Now. How? Breathe and stay with the breath already breathing itself. Be a mindful observer of all that is coming up, without
fixing
judging
evaluating
clinging to
rejecting
fighting
or even choosing
The work of the shaman is healing.
the content of experience. Be here now. Stay present. Know the safety of presence as Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle explain it. Be in the now. The room was very safe. People kept streaming in, finding a mat. The sounds became ethereal, echoing, softening hearts and soothing minds.
Dr. O'Connor voiced otherworldly notes, traces of Tibetan chants, a heavenly choir as the Mistress joined in. Seven gave reiki and a laying on of healing hands, transferring prana and whispering a sacred mantra, for those open to it.
Dr. O'Connor began the process of emerging, signaling the supine to slowly move their heads side to side and rouse themselves with tapping. Slowly they sat up, smiling, looking at one another with lovely eyes.
Raising open palms, we intoned three long "OMs" together to send out metta and positive energy to an aching world. Outside, the earlier rain had quelled the fires and begun the cleansing process. Inside, the vibration had been raised, and there was clarity and a wish to connect.
The next FREE sound bath and healing event was announced (February 8, 2025, at 4:00 pm, at The Awareness Center, Pasadena.
Roses were distributed to everyone as was water provided by the spa. Some people cried tears of joy, free hugs were on offer, and plans were made to reunite as everyone was invited to the next event.
Spend an hour or more with Dr. O'Connor and healers gathering for a sound bath, vagus nerve release, relaxation, and meditation.
Dr. O'Connor and Dharma Buddhist Meditation are offering a complimentary sound bath and emotional healing to support Los Angeles residents affected by the recent fires with our very own Seven and Devorah Anderson.
Using Tibetan singing bowls, Indian harmonium, shamanic drums, and a Zildjian gong, this healing session promotes deep relaxation, breath work, emotional release, de-stressing, and physical renewal.
Let the soothing vibrations help begin to restore balance, ease stress and strain, and bring about peace from within during this time of recovery.
WHO MAY ATTEND? This is for any LA resident emotionally, psychologically, or physically affected by the fires. (That means you).
There is good scientific evidence that sound stimulates the vagus nerve and can therefore positively affect our wellbeing.
Jon Stewart on whether Dems' "Trump is a fascist" accusations are warranted | The Daily Show
(The Daily Show)
Jan. 27, 2025:
Jon Stewart discusses China's new A.I. tool "DeepSeek" [that has put American A.I. out of business and sent Siri/Alexa to OnlyFans] and urges Democrats to convince voters of THEIR plan rather than react to Trump's "fascist" first week of executive orders. #DailyShow #JonStewart #Trump
Trump comes to LA and rambles about fires, Musk moonlights for Germany, and Guillermo's snake massage
(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Jan. 27, 2025: Football? The Super Bowl is now set between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, Tom Brady might be getting too comfortable as part of the broadcast team, calling everyone a "stud," Trump was in Los Angeles this weekend to survey the fire damage, California Gov. Gavin Newsom was on hand to greet him and kiss up to him hard, Trump went on an odd rant about the fire being a “genius,” Mel Gibson went on Hannity to talk about Trump visiting California, Elon Musk decided to beam into a rally for the ultra far-right “Alternative for Germany” party, the Senate went to a tiebreaker to confirm drunkard Pete Hegseth as secretary of war, and Jimmy pranks Guillermo with a snake massage for his birthday. #Kimmel
Wouldn't it be better to be a "priest" than a "shaman"? A priest is an intermediary between a religion and parishioners, whereas a shaman is all about direct experience. So, of course, having no intermediaries is better. The Buddha, like Mahavira and many others before him, went into the woods to have an experience of Truth. Shamans do not seek beliefs, dogma, and things to accept. They go for a face-to-face meeting with what is real. Rather than faith and devotion (bhakti and puja), they seek the path of knowledge and wisdom (jnana and prajna). Knowing and seeing, the Buddha taught others to know-and-see. One can go far on faith (saddha), but all the way to liberation, that's a job for wisdom.
The Beginning of Religion and Faith: The History of Religion
(All Things Humanities) Jan. 1, 2025: Religion has been around for a very long time. When most people think of early religion, they think of ancient religions such as Hinduism, Sumerian(ism), Zoroastrianism, Judaism, ancient Egyptians, and Mayans. However, religious belief and spirituality have a much longer history than that. The origins of religion date back to prehistoric times, that is, before human beings even began writing and carving into rocks. We have evidence showing religious practices taking place as early as 60,000 BCE. So where did religion start, why did it start, what did it look like, and why were human beings partaking in it? This video is a deep dive into the origins of religion and why human beings have been undertaking this behavior. You’re watching All Things Humanities.
Is there shamanism in Sweden? Of course, there are the Sami, the Indigenous whites, the original Scandinavians we seem to base all of our Christmas imagery on -- reindeer sleighs dashing through the snow in colorful clothes, dropping psychedelic mushrooms the shaman dropped in through the chimney of our yurt through to deliver so that we could place them in stocking over the fireplace to dry so they wouldn't rot and turn into charcoal-looking petroleum sludge. The red and white of the Amanita muscaria or powerful fly agaric entheogen was the "gift surprise" we are mimicking under the pine tree, where they grow in a symbiotic relationship to the conifers. It all ties in from former Lapland (now Sapmi) to the Arctic Circle, where the North Pole is located. The shamanism in this cold part of the world is what we have been mirroring and remembering in our racial or genetic memory as a collective human family. Just ask Terence McKenna or the Machine Elves.
Inca Wisdom: Urban Shaman Annika Panotzki's Guide to Emotional Transformation
(Wisdom From North) Annika Panotzki is a Swedish urban shaman whose vision is to build bridges between the teachings of Inca Shamanism and the urban culture of the West.
For Annika, her life completely transformed after opening herself to the wisdom of the shamanic Inca way. In the Inca tradition, Annika says, we see that we are all creators of our lives.
The higher awareness we have, the more we can create and choose good things. When we see that we already have everything we need around us and we see that there is enough for everybody, then we are no longer guided by our ego.
When life is flowing for us, then it is natural to receive and have the desire to share with others. We can share our unique talents, passions, kind thoughts, and so on.
This natural teaching is beautiful and can be applied no matter who we are, what we are working with, or where on earth we live. Inca Shamanism's philosophy of life has amazing tools for us.
Bhikkhu Bodhi's surprising and profound description of nirvana (nibbana)
(Daniel Aitken) In this profound Dharma Chat, renowned American Theravada Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator Bhikkhu Bodhi sheds light on the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path: nirvana (nibbana). Join him as he navigates the intricacies of this elusive concept in three ways, unveiling its multifaceted nature and dispelling common foolish misconceptions about this reality. Watch the full episode at dharmachats.com.
Nirvana (the Unformed)
Arhats in nirvana are not in nothingness
The beautiful thing about this short answer is that it is what Bhikkhu Bodhi was saying decades ago in his landmark series As It Is, ten taped lectures. The "Nibbana" lecture (Number 6) goes into detail to show that nirvana is NOT nothingness as so many people have concluded. It is not "emptiness." It is not negative, though described by excluding what it is not, which makes it sound like exactly that. Anyone wishing to intellectually grasp nirvana, because direct realization of it (which is the best way of understanding it) is a little way off, will enjoy this talk:
The shaman climbed the mountain, gathered sacred flowering herbs and berries along the way -- Datura moonflowers, toloache, Brugmansia angel's-trumpets, Salvia apianakasiile sage, toyon, holly -- until delirium overwhelmed him with lurid and ecstatic visions of hell and heaven. Then he returned to the human world.
Word spread of him. People asked, "Is it true, as they say, that you have seen hell?"
"I have."
"What's it like?"
"It's hideous, ironic, horror beyond imagination," the shaman winced to relive, nearly blinded by his recollection:
When do we eat? - We're eaten.
"There's food everywhere, but no one eats, and drink aplenty, but no one drinks. There are long wooden spoons with which to partake, but their bodies have only tiny appendages for arms, too short to bring such elongated spoons up to their shriveled lips. Parched slaver forms ashes in their mouths, and bodies waste away. Struggle as they might, everything goes to wrack and ruin. They bellow in agony."
The people shrank away, with growing acreage dedicated to burying their discarded surplus, collapsing under smoldering heaps of trash.
"And heaven?" asked the hopeful. "Is it true, as they say, that you have seen heaven?"
"I have."
"And what's it like?" they pleaded.
"Heaven," the shaman revealed, "is exactly the same."
"What!?" cried the people. "The same? Surely that is no heaven!"
How they faced one another.
"There is one difference," the shaman went on to explain.
"In heaven, there is an abundance of food and drink, long wooden spoons, and bodies with tiny appendages too short to bring these utensils up to their mouths. But the beings there, without hesitation, use the long spoons to feed one another.
"There is no want. No request goes unanswered, no desire unfulfilled. Acts of kindness overflow as do the spoons. Spoon fed and cared for, there are continuous cries of gratitude and rejoicing as beings fall over one another to be the first to give.
Time to eat? - For us? - No, for them.
"There is food, and they eat. There is drink, and they drink, and they relish their bounty and diversity. They care for one another, nourish one another, thank one another. The sweetness of their caresses, gentleness of their words, and kindness of their eyes," the shaman wept to recall, "make the place so beautiful that I only wish I could show one world to the other."
I remember studying the doctrine of Dependent Origination(D.O.), hoping to determine a "first cause," a prime mover, the beginning of everything. Taken in an academic way, one might conclude that it all began with ignorance (avijja or avidya,"unknowing"). It made sense. IF everything is an illusion (maya), as Hinduism says, ignorance would be the first cause. Of course, it didn't really make sense but only remained academic.
Years later, speaking with someone who had attained the first stages of enlightenment (yes, such a thing is possible today), I of course asked what the breakthrough was: absorption (jhana), insight (vipassana), stillness (samadhi)?
I was baffled to be told that it was actually "the practice of Dependent Origination." I had to stop myself from saying, "But Dependent Origination is not a practice, just a theory of everything and how it all began..." I bit my tongue and instead asked, "How does one practice that?"
It goes back to what the wandering ascetic Siddhartha was doing in the forest that time. He pursued his great spiritual quest with the question, "Why do we suffer?" or "What is the cause of suffering so that we can end it?"
He was finally practicing the absorptions, or jhanas, which purified his mind until with "clear seeing," he asked, "What is the cause of present suffering (aging, decay, death)?"
He understood that it was rooted in rebirth, and he saw that rebirth is rooted in other things (becoming, clinging, craving, feeling, contact, senses, body-mind, consciousness, formations), back and back into past lives. And why were there formations? Ignorance is the answer. That having been, this came to be.
The ascetic Siddhartha traced it all the way back, seeing how things co-arise: With the arising of this, that arises. When this is not, that does not come to be. This is how he became the Buddha, "the Enlightened One."
I remembered how the Buddha had warned Ananda not to underestimate Dependent Origination. Ananda made the mistake of saying that he thought it was clear and obvious. "Do not say so, Ananda, do not say so." Dependent Origination is deep and profound and seems so to one who understands. It is on account of not seeing this that both he and all of us have wandered through samsara for so very long.
Dependent Origination is the vivid counterpart to the mind-bending doctrine of no-self (anatta). People necessarily misunderstand that doctrine -- according to their inclination, either as eternalism or annihilationism (both of which are wrong) -- because they have never understood Dependent Origination, which can be understood as a very general principle ("suchness") or a very specific practice.
"Practice, what practice?" I asked. See a proficient meditation master such as Pa Auk Sayadaw or any of his awakened student-teachers. Until it is put into practice, there will be no realization (liberating insight), no liberation (moksha), no enlightenment (bodhi), and no nirvana.
How the Buddha solved the mysterious riddle of life | His greatest teaching
(SEEKER TO SEEKER) The Buddha's greatest discovery, Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppada, aka conditioned cogenesis, conditional coarising, interdependent arising), reveals the profound mechanics of life, suffering (dukkha, disappointment), and liberation (moksha, nirvana).
This essential doctrine shows how all experiences arise from interdependent causes and conditions, unraveling the roots of our struggles and pointing to the path to ultimate freedom.
This video breaks down the 12 causal links of existence and their deep implications for our understanding of "self" and reality. #buddha#buddhism #philosophy #enlightenment#dharma#dhamma
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756–December 5, 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age resulted in more than 800 works representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture." More
Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
Egypt, Jordan reject Trump plan to "clean out" Gaza; Palestinians return to N. Gaza in historic day
(Democracy Now!) Jan. 27, 2025: As Palestinian survivors in Gaza begin to return to their homes during the first ceasefire in over a year, DN! speaks to Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Drop Site News about the future of those who have been displaced. As Palestinians are "returning to a devastated landscape…determined not to leave their land" in defiance of "plans of ethnic cleansing that have dated back to the 1950s for Israel," Pres. Trump told reporters that he wants to "clean out" Gaza, suggesting that Palestinian Arabs should be ethnically cleansed into Egypt and Jordan. Both countries have "rejected this, and they've done so since the beginning of this genocidal assault," says Kouddous.
ABOUT: Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8:00-9:00 am ET. Support: democracynow.org/donate.
Holocaust Memorial Day: What happened at Auschwitz
(Sky News) Jan. 27, 2025: January 27, 2025, marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in German occupied Poland.
Sky's Alastair Bruce has been looking at why the world stops each year -- to remember what must never be forgotten. "Never again" used to be the motto and peace slogan, but then the modern state of Israel, funded and backed by the UK, US, and EU, decided it wanted an empire in the Middle East starting with Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and expanding into Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and all the land visible from there. So the Holocaust is back and stronger than ever. "Never again to us" is apparently what was meant, and by using the slogan to promote the act, it is happening again with world approval, complicity, or at least looking the other way.
Comedy: Norm MacDonald lays into Jews for four minutes straight
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New study overturns idea that 1st Americans originated from Japan. It was likely Siberia.
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Did Native Americans originally migrate from Japan [or was it Siberia]?
The Great Spirit placed us here protect it.
The long-standing theory that the earliest Native Americans migrated to the Western Hemisphere from Japan is facing significant scientific scrutiny. A new study challenges the idea that these early populations, often referred to as First Peoples, descended from the Jomon people, who lived in Japan 15,000 years ago.
NOTE: This is of interest to Wisdom Quarterly because Indigenous populations have strong links to Buddhism both from pre-Christian missionary work (Edward Payson Vining, 1885) and from migration from either Buddhist Japan or Buddhist Siberia, where a great deal of shamanism is blended with the Buddha Dharma.
This research, published in the journalPaleoAmerica, disrupts the established narrative by analyzing genetics and skeletal biology which, according to the authors, do not support the connection.
For decades, archeologists have pointed to similarities in stone tools to support the theory. They argue that early Indigenous populations followed a coastal route along the northern Pacific, crossing the Bering Land Bridge [between Siberia, Russia and Alaska, USA] to reach North America.
Once there, they spread rapidly across the [American] continent, reaching South America’s southernmost tip within 2,000 years.
Central to this hypothesis has been the resemblance of stone artifacts crafted by the Jomon [ηΈζ, "straw rope pattern"] people and those found at early First Peoples sites in the Americas.
However, this latest study, conducted by experts in human teeth biology and Ice-Age genetics, suggests otherwise.
Led by Prof. Richard Scott, an anthropologist with nearly 50 years of experience studying dental structures worldwide, the research team employed advanced statistical methods to compare tooth samples from populations in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific.
THE RESULTS revealed minimal overlap between the Jomon and Native American samples. Only 7% of the teeth showed any connection to non-Arctic Native Americans.
"We found that the human biology simply doesn’t match up with the archeological theory," said Prof. Scott. "These people who lived in Japan 15,000 years ago are an unlikely source for Indigenous Americans. Neither the skeletal biology nor the genetics indicate a connection. The most likely origin for Native Americans appears to be Siberia."
The genetic evidence aligns with the dental findings. Co-author Prof. Dennis O’Rourke, an expert in the genetics of Indigenous Americans, explained that maternal and paternal lineages in early Jomon and American populations do not overlap.
Diorama of Jomon people at Sannai Maruyama: food gatherers, hunters, with some agriculture.
"Recent studies of ancient DNA from Asia show that the two groups diverged from a common ancestor much earlier than previously thought," he stated.
This view was echoed by co-author Prof. Jennifer Raff, who has extensively studied the genetics of Ice-Age populations.
Their findings build on earlier work by O’Rourke and Raff, including a groundbreaking analysis of ancient DNA from Ice-Age remains in Alaska in 2016. This latest study, supported by archeological and ecological experts, adds another layer of complexity to the story of human migration to the Americas.
Adding weight to the study’s conclusions is a recent genetics paper on the Japanese population, which found evidence of three distinct migrations into Japan, rather than two as previously believed.
This supports the idea that the Jomon population’s genetic makeup is distinct from that of Indigenous Americans.
Moreover, a separate archeological discovery in New Mexicounveiled human footprints dating back 23,000 years. These footprints, described as definitive evidence of human presence in North America before the Last Glacial Maximum, challenge previous timelines. Yet, they offer no support for the theory that Indigenous Americans originated from Japan.
Jomon teeth vs. Native American teeth (G. Richard Scott, University of Nevada Reno)
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The study’s authors acknowledge limitations, such as the relatively young age of available Jomon DNA and dental samples, which date back less than 10,000 years.
Despite this, they argue these samples are reliable proxies for earlier populations in Japan.
"We assume they represent the Incipient Jomon or the people who made stemmed points in Japan 16,000–15,000 years ago," the authors wrote.
The findings call for a reevaluation of how we understand the migration of the First Peoples. While it remains likely that they reached the Americas via the Northwest Pacific coast, their origins appear to lie in Siberia, not Japan.
Prof. Scott emphasized, "The Incipient Jomon population represents one of the least likely sources for Native American peoples among non-African populations."
This study marks a significant shift in our understanding of early human migration. By combining advanced genetic and dental analyses, it highlights the importance of revisiting long-held assumptions.
The search for definitive answers continues, with scientists exploring new evidence to refine the complex story of how humans first populated the Americas. Source
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