ZEN RADIO: Alan Watts (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich (Letters & Politics, 9-9-13, KPFA.org), AlanWatts.com

1. Disappointment, 2. Craving, 3. Freedom -- a clean cut Alan Watts on American TV

  

Mystical Watts in 60s California

Pacifica Berkeley's beloved history buff Mitch Jeserich finally went overtly Buddhist coordinating an entire show about the late great British-born Zen, Taoist, Eastern Philosophy master Alan Watts. It was the first day of the fund drive, and he would be following up the next day (today) with an all meditation show featuring salesman George Quant and his post-TM "IQM." The wonders of meditation were extolled but slightly sullied by Quant's crass salesmanship. It was like listening to a motivational speaker wing it on stage while thinking that nobody is noticing all the speech errors and redundancies, the misused terminology and overreaching to sound scientifical. At least he has the background for it (with TM and Deepak Chopra Foundation credentials and what he learned in one day at UCLA), and goodness knows selling mantras as a panacea has been in vogue since the 1970s. Just think of that funny scene in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" at the California party. But sales are sales, and it is a fund drive. And if it helps Jeserich meditate more, then it was all for aught.

• PLAY NOW! (Oct. 9, 2013, 10:00 am, download MP3 clip, 10.28 MB)

 

Who cares about Watts (RIP)?

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha initiated a missionary movement

It all started in Berkeley, but Alan Watts changed our lives in Los Angeles. KPFK FM remains the only Pacifica Radio station to regularly schedule segments of Watts from the archives. Thanks are due to Roy (of Hollywood) Tuckman, whose Sunday morning show (8:00 am) and overnight ("Something's Happening," 12:00 am-5:00 am) Thursday broadcasts keep Watts alive in our ears and minds. 

Watts was perhaps the first Westerner in America to really understand Zen, the way of the Tao, Asian culture, and Mahayana Buddhism more generally. He, of course, had help from the early Occidentals, those British, German, and French scholars of the Pali Text Society and their Wisdom of the East (Orientalist) translations and interpretations. 

What we have today by way of accurate accounts of the historical Buddha's words and teachings in English owe much more to the work of these European pioneers than that of the ordained monastics in Asia whose missionary efforts tried to carry the message across the sea in the tradition of the Buddha's earliest disciples. 

It was the Buddha who began to set in motion the Wheel of the Dharma by teaching five hearers then sending out 60 enlightened disciples, no two in the same direction, to spread the news that enlightenment was possible for ordinary householders regardless of caste, socioeconomic status, gender, race, or other social barriers. 

Those Buddhist missionaries apparently succeeded far outside of India to the west even before the Dharma spread east to the shores of Vietnam (Indochina) on the South China Sea. They (and their own followers) traveled from modern day Afghanistan and Iran (Baluchistan) up through Central Asia and, centuries later, through the future Indo-Greco empires of Bactria and Sogdia, into Israel (cosmopolitan Jerusalem) and Europe (Kalmykia), Mongolia, Russia, Siberia, and China. The message even seems to have reached Catholic Rome through the Church Father Origen.

Jesus the Buddhist

A wild eyed householder Watts who drank

Saint Issa (Jesus of Nazareth) apparently heard something that called his attention to travel to India/Ladakh/Tibet in search of truth and a mission of his own. (But few Christians will stand for that story being widely told; fortunately, Holger Kersten, Elmar Gruber, the BBC, and others do tell it widely. 

Few would believe that Buddhism was in an arm of ancient Greece (the "West") before it made it to China. Fewer would believe that the Buddha's teachings first came to the Americas from China a thousand years ago. But that incredible journey is documented in Rick Field's How the Swans Came to the Lake. Of course, truth has always been stranger than fiction. And now as then the world get the universal Dharma from all directions. Do we understand it? Alan Watts did.

Study: How many dates before sex?

Ashley Wells, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Kelly Bourdet, Refinery29 (Shine.Yahoo, 9-13-13)

Look, you're a nice girl and all, but I just want to wait and get to know you a little better.

  

Conservative mystery date (TMW)

A study...from Business Insider and Survey Monkey delves deep into the ever-changing connection between sex and love in America. 

 

And while this is by no means an academic study, it does offer some interesting insights into our romantic lives.

Let's get sexually statistical (Business Insider)

How are we finding dates? No surprise, online dating is a growing means of meeting that special someone. How are we asking people out? Apparently, a text message dinner-and-drive-in invite is becoming increasingly prevalent. 

Nothing too crazy there, but the most interesting trends have to do with what we want (physically) out of our dating lives and when, exactly, we want it. More

• (Herbal) testosterone makes it possible (advertisement)
• PHOTOS: Kristen Stewart skinny dipping in Swiss Mountains
• World's Favorite Male Porn Star Talks Feminist Porn
• Answer: If you haven't kissed by the 5th date, you probably won't have sex until marriage 

"All Wars are Bankers' Wars" (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Michael Rivero (WhatReallyHappened.com)

(pacsteam.org/pacman packs) Video by Zane Henry, written and spoken by Michael Rivero

Question: War, what is it all about?
Answer: Wars are not about starting or ending wars, and even less about who wins or who loses. War is always funded 100% on both sites by the global banks (IMF, International Monetary Fund) with only TWO goals -- population reduction through genocide and mass murder toward the larger goal of WORLD DOMINATION, which is accomplished from the start by making sure the IMF system is in total control of the DEBT their wars create. Controlling the DEBT resulting from wars is the main purpose. The goal is not just to control countries but to totally take EVERYTHING over. This is about full-spectrum dominance. In other words, the pure purpose of war is war itself. It is a profitable and self-justifying endeavor for power and control by bankers.

Autumn Festival: story behind the cakes (sutra)

CC Liu, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Zen Vuong (Pasadena Star-News); Pacific Asia Museum

The glorious harvest moon refulgent with yin energy (donnalewisconan)

  

Father and son make lantern

The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates harvest, family reunions, and hope for another year of good fortune.

Some believe the celebration’s roots originated from the Chinese rebellion against the Mongols, who detested moon cakes. The Chinese rebel leader, Zhu Yuanzhang, had a hard time organizing a coup because large gatherings were outlawed, reports ChinaTravel.com. So the rebels baked a slip of paper into moon cakes. It ordered insurgents to attack on the 15th day of the 8th lunar year. Thus the Chinese eat moon cakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival to celebrate this successful overthrow.
  

Tea with dense, sickly sweet cakes.

Thanksgiving [means] the centerpiece for this Chinese and Vietnamese harvest celebration doesn’t include a bulky dead bird. During Zhongqiu Jie, or the Mid-Autumn Festival, people give family, friends, and colleagues moon cakes, a small but filling pastry embossed with a description of its innards or the name of a bakery. Others have patterns of clouds, the moon, or a rabbit [a lucky symbol of the moon]....

 

“It’s almost like a Christmas fruitcake. It’s a traditional gift...,” said Becky Sun, a Pacific Asia Museum spokeswoman. “Adult children give them to parents and seniors. Friends and business partners give them to each other...” More 

The Miserly Treasurer

Ken and Visakha Kawasaki (trans), Illisa Rebirth Tale (Jataka 78)

The miser didn't enjoy his riches either

This story was told by the Buddha while at Jetavana Grove about a tremendously rich royal treasurer.

He lived in a town called Sakkara near the city of Rajagaha and had been so tightfisted that he never gave away even the tiniest drop of oil that could be picked up with a blade of grass. Worse than that, he wouldn't even use that minuscule amount of oil for his own satisfaction. His vast wealth was actually of no use to him, to his family, or to the deserving people of the land.

 

Moggallana, however, led this miser and his wife to Jetavana, where they served a great meal of cakes to the Buddha and a large number of monastics. After hearing words of thanks from the Buddha, the royal treasurer and his wife attained stream-entry.

That evening the monastics gathered together in the Hall of Truth. "How great is the power of Ven. Moggallana!" they said. "In a moment he converted the miser to charity, brought him to Jetavana, and made possible his attainment. How remarkable is the elder!" While they were talking, the Buddha entered and inquired as to the subject of their discussion.

 

When they told him, the Buddha replied, "This is not the first time, monastics, that Moggallana has converted this miserly treasurer. In previous days too the elder taught him how deeds and their effects are linked together." Then the Buddha told this story of the past [past life].

 

The best cake is raw vegan berry cheesecake California-style (TheRawtarian.com)

 

Long, long ago, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benaresaranasi, there was a treasurer named Illisa who was worth 80 crores of wealth. This man had all the defects possible in a person. He was lame and hunchbacked, and he had a squint; he was a confirmed miser, never giving away any of his fortune to others, yet never enjoying it himself either.

 

Interestingly enough, however, for seven generations back his ancestors had been bountiful, giving freely of their best. When this treasurer inherited the family riches, he broke that tradition and began hoarding his wealth.

 

One day, as he was returning from an audience with the king, he saw a weary peasant sitting on a bench and drinking a mug of cheap liquor with great gusto. The sight made the treasurer thirsty for a drink of liquor himself, but he thought, "If I drink, others will want to drink with me. That would mean a ruinous expense!" The more he tried to suppress his thirst, the stronger the craving grew.

 

The effort to overcome his thirst made him as yellow as old cotton. He became thinner and thinner until the veins stood out on his emaciated frame. After a few days, still unable to forget about the liquor, he went into his room and lay down, hugging his bed. His wife came in, rubbed his back, and asked, "Husband, what is wrong?" "Nothing," he answered. More

View from the Top of the World (film)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; BBC; LiveScience.com

(BBC 4/MrMikoulis) Natural World "Himalaya Incredible"

Buddhist Sherpas guide Westerners (NatGeo)

The Himalayas (Sanskrit, hima "snow" + ālaya "dwelling," the "abode of the snow" and home of the Yeti) is a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau claimed by China.

 
The Himalaya, as it is also known, is home to some of the planet's highest peaks, including the highest, Mt. Everest. The range includes over 100 mountains exceeding a height of 7,200 meters (23,600 ft). By contrast, the highest peak outside of Asia -- Aconcagua, in the Andes -- is 6,961 meters (22,838 ft.). These mountains have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia, many of its peaks being sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus.

Yeti (i.e., Abominable Snowman) scalp on display, Khumjung, Nepal, Himalayas

Bigfoot, Laos (Jenny-H-Edwards)

MONSTER QUEST (History Channel via Esoteric Haven) Gathering evidence over the past century of the existence of the yaksha Yeti, the Abominable Snowman, we follow an expedition into the Himalayas in search of this nocturnal creature attacking villagers and slaughtering yaks. The Yeti is an ape-like cryptid taller than a human, similar to the lowland Bigfoot, inhabiting the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet. The names Meh-Teh (man-bear) and Mi-göi (Tibetan, "wild man"), Bun Manchi (Sherpa, "jungle man"), Mirka (Nepalese, "wild-man"), and Kang Admi (Snow Man) are commonly used by the indigenous Buddhist people, for whom these creatures are central in history and mythology. The cryptozoology community regards the Yeti as a legend.

Early European Yeti trackers, Mount Everest, 1954 (DailyMail.co.uk)

 

The Himalayan range is vast

Apart from the Greater Himalayas of these high peaks, there are parallel lower ranges. The first foothills, reaching about 1,000 meters along the northern edge of the plains, are called the Sivalik Hills or Sub-Himalayan Range. Further north is a higher range reaching 2,000-3,000 meters known as the Lower Himalayan or Mahabharat Range.

 

Trying to summit from base camp

They abut or cross five countries: Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, and Pakistan (formerly Gandhara, which includes Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush, which is technically also a part of the Himalayas), with the first three countries having sovereignty over most of the range. They are bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain.

 

Three of the world's major rivers -- the Indus (from which "Hinduism" gets its name), the Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra all rise near Mount Kailash to cross and encircle the Himalayas. Their combined drainage basin is home to some 600 million people.

Lifted by the collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian Plate, the range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) long.

Where to find Bigfoot(s)

Marc Lallanilla, Assistant Editor (LiveScience.com, 9-19-13)

Reported sightings of Bigfoot -- the legendary apelike creature that's been a favorite of cryptozoologists for decades -- have abounded for decades [centuries if one counts the testimony of Native American tribes]. Now, for the first time, someone has created a map showing the places where alleged Bigfoot sightings have occurred.

 

Joshua Stevens, a doctoral candidate at Pennsylvania State University, used data compiled by the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), which tries to document "the presence of an animal, probably a primate, that exists today in very low population densities," according to the group's website. [He] plotted 3,313 data points showing where people have claimed to see Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch, Skunk Ape, Yeti, Skookum...)More

• VIDEO: Proof of Bigfoot's Existence (ABC News)

Bigfoot exists

Sleeping Bigfoot "Matilda" colorized (CC)

(WQ) Many sincere Americans are hot on the search for the elusive North American Bigfoot (Sasquatch). Often seen, often photographed, often leaving forensic evidence (hair, DNA-rich follicles, footprints, sound recordings of otherworldly howling), and well known to the governments who continue to deny and mystify their existence as another human or semi-human species for reasons only they know, Bigfoot evidence is not hard to come by; it is impossible to certify. The gatekeepers and knowledge filterers in academia and mainstream outlets will not stand for it. They would sooner admit that extraterrestrials, PSI activity, various forms of astrology, and subterranean carnivores are real. This is far from the best available evidence, and that is exactly why it is suddenly getting attention. If it could not be debunked (by the fact, e.g., that the face of the creature does not move just like a mask is expressionless or that high definition video has poor definition), we would not be allowed to see it on a large scale. Those who search will find a great deal of plausible evidence, such as that of Dr. Ketchum's recent DNA analysis and more DNA data being confirmed by a group that will be much more careful how they release the information this time.

 

George Knapp interviews Dr. Ketchum about DNA (coasttocoastam.com)

"Ode to Failure" (short film)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly and Tamara Levitt (BeginWithin.ca)

Written, illustrated, produced by Tamara Levitt with audio recorded by Peter Willis, digital painting by Natalia Shevcun and Tamara Levitt

 

BeginWithinTV

Imagine a short film that involved themes of acceptance, compassion, and self-awareness. How lovely to share an "Ode to Failure" with all who strive, those who have fallen, those who have yet to fall. Who among us will be getting up again? Worldly success, meditative success, ego accomplishments, selfless accomplishments, there are many things to move toward energetically. Gratitude can follow failure, just as expectations are likely to be followed by resentments. We try and we try, muscling it rather than enjoying effortful-ease (sthirasukha, strong-flexibility, soft-strength) all the time forgetting that Happiness Doesn't Come from Headstands.

Environment: "A Fierce Green Fire" (film)

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; First Run Features

From the Academy Award-nominated director of "Berkeley in the Sixties," AFGF is narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, and and Isabel Allende.

Spanning 50 years of grassroots and global activism, this award winning Sundance documentary A Fierce Green Fire brings to light the vital stories of the environmental movement where people fought -- and succeeded -- against enormous odds. From halting dams in the Grand Canyon to fighting toxic waste at Love Canal, Greenpeace to Chico Mendes, climate change to the promise of transforming our civilization, this film is "nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself" (Los Angeles Times).

KOAN: Beiko's No Enlightenment

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly with Roshi Jeff Albrizze (PasaDharma.org), Book of Equanimity, Case 62; ZCLA (ZenCenter.com); Alan Watts(KPFK.org/Pacifica Radio)

Zen is a Mahayana school that developed in China during the 6th century as Chán (jhana). Zen spread south to Vietnam, northeast to Korea, and east to Japan (desktopc.com).

Kipp Ryodo Hawley (left), Lorraine Gesho Kumpf, John Heart Mirror Trotter, Mark Shogen Bloodgood, George Mukei Horner, ZCLA at special open house service (Wisdom Quarterly)

  

PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY

(photographybydavidmcmeekin/flickr.com)

The primary meaning of Bodhidharma's principle muddled Emperor Wu's head.

The non-dual [Mahayana Buddhism adopted the Brahminical, Vedic, Hindu concept of Advaita rather than keeping to what the historical Buddha taught] Dharma gate of Vimalakirti made Manjushri's speech go wrong.

Is there anything here of enlightenment to enter and use?

MAIN CASE

Attention!

Master Beiko sent a monk to ask Kyozan, "Do people these days have to attain enlightenment?"

Kyozan replied, "It's not that there's no enlightenment,

But how can one not fall down into the second level?"*

The monk related this to Beiko, who wholeheartedly approved it.

• *How can one not remain stuck in "the second level," that is, in one's foundational serenity (zen) practice rather than ascending to final liberating-insight (vipassana)?
• AUDIO: Alan Watts explains Zen, koans, "Haiku" (Pacifica)

APPRECIATORY VERSE

Kwannon in the garden (WQ)

The second level divides enlightenment and rends delusion.

Better to promptly let go and discard traps and snares.

Merit, if not yet extinguished, becomes an extra appendage.

It is as difficult to know wisdom as to bite one's navel.

The waning moon's icy disk; autumn dew weeps.

Benumbed birds, jeweled trees, dawn's breeze chills.

Bringing it out, great Kyozan discerns true and false.

Completely without flaw, the splendid jewel is priceless.

 

Outside the "Gateless Gate" of the uber urban Zen Center, Los Angeles (WQ)

The Path to Freedom (self-guided tour)

Wisdom Quarterly; FGS; AccessToInsight.org, Self-guided Tour of the Buddha's Teachings

Modern Buddhist pyramid pagoda/stupa complex (Linc060/flickr.com)

  

A foundation in the Buddha's Dharma

By its nature, the truth invites us to "come and see," to question and investigate. Curious about exploring the Buddha's teachings as presented in the ancient Pali canon?

  

Links are to selections of short passages from the Buddhist sutras introducing or illustrating aspects of a single topic.

 

When encountering a particularly meaningful or interesting passage, look for the full text by simply following the link at the end. 

 

The teachings are profound and complex

Many passages are cross referenced with other pages, making it possible to pursue a theme to whatever depth is desired.

 

This is not, of course, an exhaustive tutorial. A number of the topics introduced are explored more thoroughly in the Study Guides. The General Index also contains references to additional readings on related topics.
 

Modern Buddhist pyramid, Fo Guang Shan, Taiwan (Steven Barringer/Zosoiv71/flickr.com)

  
Begin the tour by exploring the Three Guides (Triple Gem):

1. THE BUDDHA: Sketch of the Buddha's life based on sutra excerpts.
2. THE DHARMA: Outline of the Buddha's teachings organized according to the "gradual instruction." The Buddha frequently used this framework to guide students from first principles through progressively more advanced teachings, all the way to the culmination of the Four Noble Truths by the realization of nirvana (Pali, nibbana).
3. THE SANGHA: Descriptions of the Noble Order -- the community of monastics and laypersons who have gained at least the first stage of enlightenment called stream entry. This is known as they Ariya-Sangha).

• Buddhist Dictionary, by Ven. Nyanatiloka (Kandy: BPS, 1980). A classic handbook of important terms and concepts in Theravada Buddhism.
• Path to Deliverance, by Ven. Nyanatiloka (Kandy: BPS, 1982). A systematic exposition of essential points of Dharma based on passages from the sutras.
• Study Guides: anthologies of short passages for individual and group study.
• The Wings to Awakening: An Anthology from the Pali Canon, by Ven. Thanissaro (Barre: Dhammadana Publications, 1996).

"The Summit" of the most dangerous mountain

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Pat Falvey and Pemba Gyalje Sherpa (thesummitk2book.com, Beyond Endurance Publishing), ImageNowFilms.ie

The film The Summit, produced and directed by Nick Ryan. In US theaters Oct. 4, 2013. (DVD and downloads available early 2014).
 

Not all Westerners respect Buddhist Sherpas

It was the deadliest day on the world's most dangerous mountain, K2. This is an early trailer for the feature book and documentary film "The Summit."

On August 1st, 2008, 18 climbers from around the world reached the summit of K2, the world's second highest (some argue the highest) and most dangerous mountain. It is a peak which claims the lives of one in every four climbers who attempt it. Over the course of 28 hours, however, K2 had exacted a deadlier toll: 11 lives were lost in a series of catastrophic accidents.
 

Beware: mountains do not exist to be climbed

Standing at 8,611 meters and attracting a climbing elite along the Pakistan-China border, K2 is known as the "Mountaineer's Mountain" (much like Denali in Alaska) because of its extreme technical challenges, its dangerously unpredictable weather, and an infamous and hazardous overhanging wall of glacial ice known as the Serac.

Snowbound at Base Camp for weeks on end and increasingly despairing of their prospects for success, an unexpected weather window finally gives the climbers the opportunity they were waiting for. In their collective desire to reach the summit, seven expeditions agreed to coordinate efforts and share equipment. Triumph, however, quickly turns to tragedy when a seemingly flawless plan unravels with lethal consequences.

Over the course of three days, a Nepalese Sherpa called Pemba Gyalje, along with five other Sherpas, was at the center of a series of attempts to rescue climbers who had become trapped in the Death Zone (above 8,000 meters), unable to escape its clutches and debilitated by oxygen-deprivation, chronic fatigue, delirium, and a terrifying hopelessness.

The tragedy becomes a controversy as survivors walk away from the catastrophe on the mountain into an international media storm. Countless stories emerge, some contradictory and many simply untrue.

More recent trailer of "The Summit" to be released in US on Oct. 4, 2013

Mahakala, Yeti, a fierce spirit, Tibet (MTP)

Based on Pemba Gyalje's eyewitness account and drawing on a series of interviews with the survivors, which were conducted for an award-winning documentary. "The Summit: How Triumph Turned to Tragedy on K2's Deadliest Days" is the most comprehensive interpretation of one of modern-day mountaineering's most controversial disasters.
 

Also at the heart of The Summit lies a mystery about one extraordinary man, Ger McDonnell. By all accounts, he was faced with a heartbreaking dilemma -- at the very limit of his mortal resources, he encountered a disastrous scene and a moral dilemma: Three climbers were tangled up in ropes and running out of time.

In the Death Zone, the body is literally dying every passing second. Facing one's mortality, morality is skewed 180 degrees from the rest of life off the mountain. When a climber falls or wanders off the trail, the unwritten code of the mountain is to leave them for dead. Had Ger McDonnell stuck to the code, he might still be alive.
 
"The Summit" is about the very nature of modern adventure, one that remains contentious and fiercely debated. The book "The Summit" deals with the logistics, excitement, fears, successes, rescues, and fatalities of ill fated days on the world's most dangerous mountain.

Massive Chinese cave found with own weather

Wisdom Quarterly; FreeRadioRevolution; Sarah Griffiths, Telegraph.co.uk, Oct. 2, 2013

Crystal pools at Er Wang Dong (Caters News)

The cave is so huge that it has its own weather system: Explorers discover a lost world with thick cloud and fogs trapped inside. The (Er Wang Dong) cave system was discovered in the Chongquing province of China by a team of cavers and photographers. Caver Robbie Shone, from Manchester, England, said a few of the caves had previously been used by nitrate miners but had not been properly explored. The network, which includes "cloud Ladder Hall" measuring around 51,000 meters squared, has water sources and vegetation on the floor. Adventurers have stumbled across a cave so enormous that it has its own weather system, complete with wispy clouds and lingering fog inside vast caverns. More

Red Deer Cave Man discovered in China may be new human

New NSA revelations (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill are working on new NSA revelations

Working on new revelations (news.yahoo)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Two American journalists known for their investigations of the United States' government said they have teamed up to report on the National Security Agency's role in what one called a "U.S. assassination program."

(WQ) The N.S.A. has a history of secret war activity, propaganda (psyops), and unconstitutional spying on American citizens and others around the world -- as journalists Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill continue to reveal. Most N.S.A. spying has been done by the use of cell (mobile) phones, Internet activity, electronic databanks, and cameras owned by private firms who share information with the clandestine American spying agency (for profit and influence) linked with the CIA, NSC, FBI, and Pentagon. Together, they form the core of the US military-industrial complex.

S.N. Goenka passes away at 90

Roshi Albrizze, Wisdom Quarterly; Michael and Juliet (insightcenter.org)

The great S.N. Goenka (dhamma.org)

Famous vipassana (Buddhist insight meditation) teacher S.N. Goenka -- who formed a worldwide network of free 10-day meditation retreats -- passed away today at his residence in Mumbai (Bombay), India. He was 90 years old.

Funeral services were held on Tuesday, October 1, 2013. Goenka-ji, as he was known, was a leading lay teacher of vipassana meditation in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin. He trained more than 800 assistant teachers, and each year more than 100,000 people attend Goenka led vipassana courses, according to Wikipedia.

Insight Meditation

(Wiki) The technique S.N. Goenka taught represents a tradition which is traced back to the historical Buddha. Goenka emphasized that "The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dharma -- the way to liberation -- which is universal." He presented his teachings as universal truths open to people of any and all faiths. Goenka called vipassana meditation an experiential scientific practice, through which one observes the constantly changing nature of mind and body at the deepest levels, a profound understanding that leads to a truly happy and peaceful life.

 

Mrs. and Mr. S.N. Goenka (right)

Although Indian by descent, Goenka was born and raised in Burma, where he met his teacher. He was an industrialist until he had the good fortune to come into contact with U Ba Khin, from whom he learned the vipassana (or dry insight) technique. After receiving training from his teacher for 14 years, Goenka settled in India and began teaching vipassana in 1969.

 

In a country still sharply divided by differences of caste and religion, the courses offered by Goenka have attracted thousands of people from every part of society. In addition, many people from countries around the world have come to join courses in vipassana meditation.

He was recently conferred the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honor in India, for social work on the occasion of India's 63rd Republic Day.

The Insight Center, whose founders have sat more than a dozen 10-day courses between them, mourn the loss of this great lay Buddhist teacher. A special session will honor Goenka's work and passing at 10:00 am, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2013.