Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Sexy "Obama Girls" turn on Barack (video)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; ; Amber Lee Ettinger (RT America); Leah Kauffman; Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (democracynow.org)

(Carey Wedler

B----, please! she said.

Tom Tomorrow (thismodernworld.com)

Before Obama became president, his message of "change" had many falling in love with the well-groomed CIA operative and Illinois senator. One busty individual, model Amber Lee Ettinger, became an instant Internet hit when she declared her "love" for the then-candidate. Ettinger's "Obama Girl" video went viral. But years of the commander-in-chief in office has her looking for a new crush. She joins RT America with more on why she has had a change of heart.

ht obama girl video thg 120905 wblog Obama Girl Returns, Kind Of

The voice behind Obama Girl, Leah Kauffman

A new Obama Girl video -- “Still Got a Crush on Obama” -- was released in 2012: If “Obama Girl” looked different but sounded exactly the same, that’s because Leah Kauffman -- the original singer and songwriter behind the 2008 “Crush on Obama” song and video -- actually stars in this one. Last time Kauffman and partner Ben Relles, who is not involved with this new video, hired a [hot] model, Amber Lee Ettinger, to lip-synch the original song. But in 2012 Kauffman finally stepped up to take center-stage. VIDEO

Obama defends more NSA spying

China sees Obama girls, but not Xi's daughter

China sees Obama girls, but not Xi girl

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Pres. Obama on Monday (March 24, 2014) defended U.S. surveillance programs as serving national security rather than [civil liberties or] commercial interests, in a wide-ranging meeting with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of a nuclear summit. More

Soft Dictator and new Pope
(Gwen Ifill/PBS NewsHour) Pres. Barry and Pope Francis met for the first time at Corporate Church HQ, the Vatican. The papal audience emphasized different points. Obama claims they focused on their shared interest in helping the poor, while Vatican officials emphasized areas where their views differ like birth control mandates.

Barack Obama: The Least Transparent President in History

Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan (DemocracyNow.org)

Six years into the Obama administration, the president’s promise of “a new era of open government” seems just another grand promise, cynically broken. LISTEN

As colleges across the country, from Harvard to U of Mississippi, deal with (often unconscious but sometimes blatant) racism, a new film tackles the issue with comedy and satire: "Dear White People" follows a group of black students on a fictional Ivy League campus. One of the students hosts a campus radio show of the same name. It confronts racist stereotypes and dilemmas faced by students of color. Tensions come to a head when a group of mostly white students throw an African-American-themed party, wearing blackface and using watermelons and fake guns as props. More

VIDEO: Bush was bad, but Obama fooled the world

Our "brain" on mushrooms

Pat Macpherson, Xochitl, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Los Angeles Mycological Society

Giant puffball "brain" mushroom found in Angeles Nat'l Forest, March 30, 2014 (WQ)

Some mushrooms are entheogenic magic

Recently, we went hiking in the rugged mountains behind Los Angeles, in the chaparral of the Angeles National Forest behind one of the largest cities in the world.

Plant wisdom

And our Indian guide made a startling find: a giant puffball mushroom that could only be described as a "brain." It is white, with two hemispheres, cortical ridges, a brainstem fixed deep in the clay and sand soil, and an apparent gunshot exit wound out of which, had Mr. Lincoln been sporting this thinking-cap, all his memories would have oozed.

Puffball skulls, UK (Nathan Lee)

The first question we had was, "Is it poisonous?" We followed that closely with, "Can we eat it?"

Like any good guide, we were taught the first rule for those who choose to snooze during survival training. As for eating wild mushrooms, "When in doubt, throw it out." This comes right out of the LAMS' playbook.

Identification

Cooking With Native Foods (Tim Martinez)

(LAMS) The fact is that there are many excellent edible wild mushrooms [and a few sacred entheogenic ones] almost anyone can learn to identify. And there are deadly poisonous species that every collector should be familiar with as well.

Sadly, there are no simple rules to reliably tell which mushrooms are poisonous or edible. The only way to safely forage for wild mushrooms is to be familiar with the characteristics of the species one sets out to collect. Learn these characteristics by collecting with experts who can teach them those characteristics.

Haul of desert mushrooms reaching 8.5" and brain puffball (Xochitl/Wisdom Quarterly)

LAMS hosts several mushroom forays every season where beginners can start. Why use an expert; why not just go by trial-and-error? There is a more famous saying among mushroomers (mycologists, those who study mushrooms), and it runs:

"There are daring wild mushroom eaters.
And there are old wild mushroom eaters.
But there are no daring-old wild mushroom eaters."

LA awash in pot as shops file to renew

These delicate fruits of the soil can be deadly. The Buddha was possibly lead out by death caps (Amanita phalloides) fed to him by a blacksmith mistaking them for a supple pigs' feast like truffles.

Beginners ought never rely solely on identifications based on a field guide -- particularly those that provide only pictures and brief descriptions

Find some mushrooms in need of identification? See the L.A. Mycological Society contact page. Also check the recommended reading page for Websites, books, and journals to learn to identify mushrooms in the wild.

VIDEO: Making an Indian teepee from a tarp
VIDEO: What's in our backpacks? Pack lightly
Annual Lummis Day returns to NE L.A. in June
VIDEO: U.N. Climate Panel issues dire warning of threat to global food supply, calls for action
Inside the "Electronic Omnivore": new leaks show NSA spying on U.N., Climate Summit, text messaging
Do Girl Scout cookies still make the world a better place?
Rick and Kay Warren try to improve church attitudes about mental illness
People still uninsured may turn to community clinics
Supreme Court loosens limits on political contributions (Now we'll have the "best democracy money can buy")
LA County on health care plan for undocumented
LA Heat exhibition celebrates Angelenos' love of hot sauce
LA hasn't had positive job growth in 23 years, report says (Wendy Lee) The UCLA Anderson Forecast says L.A. needs to improve education and make the area more business-friendly in order to increase jobs.

LA rain: showers, hail, thunder, wind, road closures Wed. (Maya Sugarman/KPCC)

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Trying to escape the Surveillance State (video)

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; author, researcher, and journalist Julia Angwin with Amy Goodman, Nermeen Shaikh, Juan González (democracynow.org)

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Julia Angwin visited Democracy Now! to discuss her new book, Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance. Currently at ProPublica and previously with The Wall Street Journal, Angwin details her complex path toward increasing her own online privacy as a private citizen.

According to her research, the private data collected by East Germany’s Soviet-era Stasi secret police at its height of abuse pales in comparison to the information revealed today by an individual’s Facebook profile or Google search history, which is never erased by Google even when we clear our history. It is used by the government for unconstitutional unwarranted spying on Americans, by police to give everyone a police record, and by advertisers to target individuals. More

Jesus in India as a Buddhist monk (BBC video)

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly (2011); BBC 4 (British Broadcasting Corporation, "Did Jesus Die?"); National Buddhist Authority of Sri Lanka

Jesus Christ, Yshua of Nazareth, St. Issa arrives at Hemis Gompa, Ladakh, Himalayan India

The historical Jesus (Duccio di Buoninsegna)

Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, traveled to ancient India, to Kashmir and Buddhist Ladakh bordering Tibet, and ordained as a Buddhist monk?

How could this possibly be? Jesus is GOD (merged with Brahman), the son-of-god (devaputra), an incarnation (tulku, avatar), the Messiah (Maitreya) -- the All-Knowing, All-Powerful, All-Present, why would he go on the quest of a truth seeker in search of himself, peace, and enlightenment? He's got a universe to run and sacrificial lamb blood to spill!

Anyway, who is this rinkydink operation "the BBC" to investigate and conclude such things!? Why would a Jew leave the Holy Land and travel to the holy land to find the Wisdom of the East? It makes no sense! It upsets the cart! It's not copacetic! I have a good corporate job, a nice conservative church, a tight mortgage, and a set of Charlton Heston videos -- I will not tolerate new evidence, written documents, a tomb, a body, lore, or objective facts! It's not convenient! Oh, gawd, make it stop!

BBC 4 Documentary

Jesus Lived in India (Kersten)

(BBC 4) This documentary takes a serious look at the question, "Did Jesus die?" It examines many ideas then at Minute 25 the examination takes a very logical and grounded turn with surprising conclusions demonstrating that: the "Three Wise Men" from the East were in fact Buddhist monks, who went in search of Jesus (a tulku), found him, and came back for him around puberty.

(This kind of occurrence, characteristic of Tibetan Buddhism, is told in modern American terms in the Hollywood film "Little Buddha").

European eyes: "Sermon on the Mount"

The 18 "lost years" (not lost but purposely removed from official story) of Jesus are explained and were well known in the polyglot history of Christendom of the past. After monastic training in a Himalayan Buddhist monastery, or gompa, Jesus, known as "Issa" or "Isa" (just as he is referred to in Islam), taught Buddhism, then returned to his home in the Middle East. There he was persecuted as a rebel and troublemaker agitating for social justice and Jewish liberation from imperial Roman rule.

He was condemned, survived a six-hour crucifixion, and with the help of family and friends escaped back to Kashmir, Afghanistan, where he died a beloved old man or "saint" at the age of 80. His tomb has been located and examined, but exploration is limited due to Islamic sensitivities as it is now co-occupied.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Wisdom Quarterly to go Baptist (cartoon)

I. Rony, Wisdom Quarterly, April 1, 2014

Another Lord, or avatar, is born unto the world! The Sun of the Sky is now the Son of Man but still the Son of God, the Father, and ~~that Pigeon~~ the Holy Spirit.

Christ, Budai, Chrisna, Holy Cow, Tiki

Given that Lord Jesus -- like Lord Vishnu, and Lord Brahma, Lord Sakra -- was a Buddhist, our work is done.

Wisdom Quarterly: American Baptist Journal will be going Protestant, fundamentalist Christian and literalist. So when the Holy Bible says, "Thou shalt not," we shall not.

And when it says, "Thou shalt," for example, "not suffer a 'witch' [a wise person or pharmacist] to live or tolerate sassy children who sass their parents," we shall "stone them to death" as literally commanded.

Why for? For the Lord God hath said so, and who are we to argue with the Controller, All-Knower, and Everywhere-Be'er? Maybe we should change our name to Faith Daily: U.S. Christian Diary.

Now that God gave us this child, I was thinking to name him Stewie. - I was thinking Jessie.

Better PR and humble, if fetishistic, hygiene

But, you know, the New Testament is a lot more Jesus-friendly than that creepy Father-friendly first part.

Maybe we won't be fundamentalists, but still very literal. When the new-and-improved Bible, which leaves off that Jewish-heavy winner-writes-the-history first part, says: Our creed(s) is this,

Our New Creed

A new creed means a new uptight lifestyle

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made; Who for us men [not women, slaves, or animals], and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man [a tulku]; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come [reincarnate again] to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost [spirit, breath of life, prana]."

Why Baptist?
Well, truth be told, we needed a B sect. That way we won't have to alter our letterhead that much -- out with the Budh (awakening), in with the Bapt (napping).

Buddhism was too free, too much about individual responsibility. It's concise ~~propaganda~~ statements of faith like this, which every Christian is forced to agree with, that really sells seats and pews.

Like us, God the Father probably likes TV (TIR)

Because, you know, like, "God so loved the world that [He didn't bother to come Himself but sent his young son in His place because He was probably busy with other stuff]."

On second thought, we may be going Catholic instead, not literally "universalist" but we can enlist in the army of the Holy Roman Empire. It's not so bad, what with the new and improved Papa (Father, Pontiff, Pope), His Holiness il Papa Francisco de Argentina, CEO Pope Francis I. At least Catholicism kept one symbolic woman (the Kwan Yin Mother Mary), and that way we can still be members of Pussy Riot singing the Punk Prayer.

The Exorcist priest got possessed

The Evil Pope (Cardinal Ratzinger, who by his own admission was once a Nazi, Pope John Paul II's right hand man), Benedict ~~Arnold~~ XVI, abdicated the throne. But his Chief Pontificate(r) history is amazing: He ran the "Holy Inquisition," which got a nice name change to the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," according to former Catholic-insider now Episcopalian priest Mathew Fox. Maybe we should convert to EAS or the world's newest religion Jediism or Peter's faith:

Not easy being Father, harder to be His kids

(FOX) When Peter's dad visits the Griffins, he tries to impose his religious beliefs. Son Stewie ends up living in a bubble, and father Peter searches for a new religion. He find faith in his TV hero the holy spirit of the Fonz. But "Happy Days" are not here: the newly established Church of the Fonz struggles to keep members.

The rock-cut temples of Buddhism

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

Bezeklik ancient Buddhist rock-cut temple monastery complex (chinatouronline.com)

Tiger's Nest Buddhist Monastery perched on cliff, Bhutan (MichaelFoleyPhotography/flickr)

Rock-cut Buddha, Luoyang Shaolin Temple, taken during the "Kung Fu and Buddhism Tour by Cycle" through China in 2013 (Great-wall-hikers/flickr.com)

Kwan Yin, Yungang (G-W-H)

It is characteristic of Buddhism that temples were built by carving them directly into mountains out of bare stone -- a feature known as rock-cut architecture, particularly in ancient India.

This was accomplished in some advanced way that cannot be explained today, for it was a time when there were presumably no lasers, power drills, grinders, sanders, or diamond-tipped chisels.

Mountain-sized Buddhas, Bamiyan

The first were in Afghanistan beginning at the time of the Buddha. His family was apparently living in the area, the northwestern frontier of greater "India" (Bharat) beyond Gandhara.

There are stunning examples in the spectacular Afghan archeological sites of Bamiyan and Mes Aynak, the jaw-dropping caves of Ellora and Sanchi in Buddhist India, and China's Bezeklik and Yungang grottoes.... Of course, one cannot lose sight of the official "largest" Buddhist sites in Borobudur, Java, Indonesia and the rock-cut marvels of the Cambodian jungles at Angkor Wat and "lost medieval cities" (livescience.com) such as Mahendraparvata discovered in 2013. We are assured by the enlightened and psychic Buddhist master Ven. Jumnien that more such stone sites remain in the jungle to be found.

Giant and Buddhist missionaries Datong, Yungang Grottoes (Great-wall-hikers/flickr.com)

Magnificent rock-cut architectural finds: stupa at Mes Aynak, Afghanistan (ranajitpal.com)

"Copper Well" (Mes Aynak), Afghanistan mineral mine treasures (AP)

World's largest Buddhas, Bamiyan, Afghanistan

The real Kapilavastu, the Buddha's hometown, was close to modern Kabul (Kapil). For the ancient country's capital, seat of the Shakyan janapada (the "foothold" of the Shakya clan's territory) may have been Bamiyan, a site famed not only for rock-cut caves and monastic dwellings but also the most massive Buddha statues in the world.

Bojjannakonda cave (Adityamadhav83/AP)

It was rich because it was on the Silk Road between India to the east and Central Asia to the west. Right from its inception Buddhism traveled the route west into ancient Greece and onto China. It is said that one of the first things the newly enlightened Buddha did was send out 60 enlightened missionaries in all directions; they were wandering ascetics spreading the "good news" of liberation from all suffering.

Cliffside Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan, overlooking adobe "pueblos" in the distance (wiki)

Much of desert western China features magnificent rock-cut Buddhist architecture which is little known today. Islam supplanted the Dharma and obscured its Buddhist past. Much of the architecture is now in a part of the Great Walled Empire (China), known as the restive Uighur Autonomous Region. Like Buddhist Tibetans from the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Muslim Uygurs want nothing to do with colonial communist/capitalist Han Buddhist Chinese rule.

Buried treasures at Mes Aynak (Andy Miller)

At 2,600 years, the oldest Buddhist temple complex yet discovered and largest -- with a central area of one square mile -- is at Mes Aynak ("Copper Well").

However, most of it is still underground as an archeological site never to be excavated if China (through its Chinese Metallurgy Company) has its way. China will be the next empire to invade Afghanistan, according to Afghans, after the ancient Greeks with Alexander, the British, the Soviets, and the Americans.

Scientific research in "forbidden archeology" suggests that technologically advanced tools were in the possession of someone as explained by Micheal Cremo, David Hatcher Childress, and others.

Buddha Grottoes, China (Great-wall-hikers)

While characteristic of Buddhist sites, rock-cut technology did not remain exclusive to the East, having made its way to Petra and widely practiced in Cappadocia, (Anatolia, Asia Minor) Turkey, particularly in the soft stone of Derinkuyu. But no other religious movement did so much to generate and exploit this practice -- we would guess with help from above, namely, the akasha deva loka (space deva world).

https://www.flickr.com/photos/great-wall-hikers/

Buddhism spread from Afghanistan
Dazzling new finds from Mes Aynak and Tepe Naranj near Kabul

Ranajit Pal, Ph.D. (ranajitpal.com)

Mes Aynak vihara, Trapusa (Brent E. Huffman)

"The discoveries cover more than 1,000 hectares and have unearthed [Buddhist] temples, monasteries, and about 1,000 statues, which cannot be compared with finds from any location in Nepal.

Smaller Buddha, Bamiyan

"The site is about 20 km from the Indian border (pre-partition) and was probably within ancient ‘India.’ The RigVeda names many rivers and tribes of Afghanistan, which shows that it was a part of Vedic India.

"The new discoveries unmistakably indicate that Buddhism spread from Afghanistan and northwest India, not eastern India or Nepal. The discoveries at Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, and [Greco-Buddhist] Hadda highlight the primacy of Afghanistan and Gandhara in early Buddhist history."