(Matt Cullen) The child molesting Epstein Network behind [funding] Ed Sheeran runs deeper than we knew, exposed by the firing of the great [and very mindful] Macklemore
(Double Down News) "It's a total hijack": How current Zionist, ex-Mossad spies are running foreign governments including ours in Washington, DC. "They can't corrupt egomaniac Trump, he's too rich"?
(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Trump is trying to steal midterm election, Don Jr's fishy wedding. "China's AI will save us"?
Join Veggie Hikers, Vegan Spirituality, Dharma Buddhist Meditation...at summer's end for the “No Meat & Mingle” at Los Angeles' Leo Carrillo State Beach for our annual hike and vegan cookout!
Can’t make the hike? Attend the cookout BBQ (or vice versa).
The hike starts at 10:00 am. The potluck cookout portion with beach BBQ starts at about 2:00 pm.
Leashed dogs welcome at the beach, but not on the hiking trail.
Plant based foods are delicious
See details about the hike and where our cookout will be in the "Notes from Hosts" section. In order to participate in the potluck portion of the event, all participants must bring a ready-to-eat vegan dish to share or vegan items to grill and share (veggie kabobs, vegan burgers, tofu hotdogs, etc.) Not doing so may not seem fair to those of us who do.
VEGAN means no meat, fish, eggs, dairy, or honey -- no animal byproducts at all. Everyone, bring a prepared dish and food to grill to serve at least 10 people to have enough food for all to enjoy. This is a FREE event. Donations welcome but not required. Funds pay pricey Meetup dues, supplies, and other costs for future potlucks.
The autumnal, fall, September, or southward equinox is the moment when the Earth's Sun (Surya, Sol) appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward.
Because of differences between the calendar year and the tropical year, the fall equinox may occur from September 21st to 24th. It is called the equinox because night (nox) and day are equal (equi) today.
At the equinox, the Sun (as viewed from the equator) rises due east and sets due west. Before the Southward equinox, the Sun rises and sets more northerly; afterwards, it rises and sets more southerly.
The equinox may be taken to mark the end of astronomical summer and the beginning of astronomical autumn (autumnal equinox) in the Northern Hemisphere, while marking the end of astronomical winter and the start of astronomical spring (vernal equinox) in the Southern Hemisphere [1]. More
While talking impossible truths...look, free energy
If autumn begins, summer must end. Not "social summer," that ended weeks ago. This is astronomical summer, or what Sol (Surya, Sol) and Tierra (Bhumi, Gaia, Urth) are up to in relation to one another. According to Eric Dubay, the reason for the changes has nothing to do with the gatekeeper science were fed from the University system. It's all about the Sun and Moon chasing each other in a circle (not an orbit around the Earth) above the Earth that is more a spiral, sometimes tight in, sometimes wide out.
Let's let evidence, not spin, speak.
This is Western Zetetic science, which is based on tangible proof, experimentation, and demonstrable repeatable procedures that our science only gives lip service to nowadays. Of course, nobody cares what's real or what the ancients knew and taught in every major religion. We only care what YouTube stars say in the name of science. The Dharmic religions have one very consistent view about where we are and what is around us, and this does not match with the claims of modern science for the last few centuries. People take sides. The truth be damned. It's all about argument and fake CGI evidence. Everyone is forced to conform and reject the Bible, the Vedas, sacred Buddhist Teachings (the Dharma), Jainism's revelations, what the devas show and tell us. No one is allowed to question the official story we're all fed!
There are Four Ennobling Truths, four realizations that lead to enlightenment here and now and awakening in this very life, with spiritual liberation and freedom for all time. What are they?
This is disappointing, incapable of ever fulfilling us.
This is how pain/disappointment/suffering originates.
This is the cessation of all suffering (nirvana).
This is the Path to the cessation of all suffering.
Many people misunderstand Buddhism because the word "suffering" comes up so much that it seems that's all there is -- depressing talk about pain. This is very misleading. Buddhism is ALL about bringing about the END of all suffering.
I'm not like this. I'm just having a bad day, k?
That is nirvana, attainable here and now, no having to wait till death, which is actually a lot late to be starting to do anything about all the suffering that awaits us for remaining ignorant and asleep. So since we don't suffer, we dismiss anything they Buddha said, thinking it doesn't apply to us. But do we suffer? Well, that depends on, What is "suffering"?The Buddha defines what he is calling suffering (dukkha):
Various sutras sum up what unpleasant things and experiences in countless rebirths we undergo. It is not just the pain that touches us in this life; the process rolls on and on in the "continued wandering on" of saį¹sÄra.
Oh, the Buddha found the end to all pain?
This process itself (the Five Aggregatesclung to as self) is suffering, is unsatisfactory, is disappointing, is liable to great pain, is utterly incapable of ever fulfilling us. Rebirth is suffering (unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, unfulfilling) as are growth (maturation), aging (slowly breaking down), illness, death, loss, sorrow, crying (lamentation), physical pains, grief, and despair.
Contact with unpleasant (hateful, unloved, unwanted, repulsive) things suffering, as are being separated from the pleasant (wished for, loved, wanted, attractive). Not getting what we want, getting what we don't want, never being satisfied with anything we get, always longing and craving for more...all of it is unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, suffering.
And it all comes back to a more fundamental disappointment beneath it all -- the Five Aggregates clung to as self: body (form); feelings (sensations), perceptions, formations, and consciousness clung to as "self."
Emphasis in Buddhism is NOT on belief. That's nearly useless and only preliminary. The emphasis is gnostic like the ancient Gnostics, for whom direct personal experience of the Truth is everything. Part of that is cultivating insight (vipassana, lit. "clear seeing") into the nature of this "suffering" along with the other two marks of existence.
The process of craving, grasping, and clinging starts with sense-contact, part of the Five Aggregates clung to as self, and how this corruption, this misapprehension, this forming of wrong view, this distorted seeing can be overcome by progressive training of the heart/mind, culminating in progressive insight, which can be remembered as the Seven Stages of Insight.
This begins by moral restraint (virtuous conduct, sila), which makes meditation (the absorptions, jhanas) possible, which makes mindfulness into the four foundations (body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects) possible.
This brings us back to the basics, the foundational summary, of what we need to penetrate -- not memorize, recite, "believe," argue about), the Teaching of the Four Ennobling Truths. What's "noble" about them or about suffering? They are not noble in the English sense of the word. The Buddhist sense of noble is arya or Aryan, which means "enlightened" or "enlightening."
The list is not a formula but a very general outline of the reflections that bring about what the historical Buddha called "enlightenment" (bodhi, "awakening"). We would rather stay asleep and perchance dream a pleasant fantasy full of pleasure and sensual experiences, delights, happiness in all its forms, of which there are many.
But this dreaming is very prone to nightmares, for in pursuit of pleasure, we ill-conduct ourselves and those karmic deeds come to fruition and ripen in great suffering, unimaginable suffering. We already taste that now, when we would dream and be full of pleasure and happiness all the time or, at least, at will. But that doesn't happen. We can't make that happen. We think we can so, like a donkey after that carrot, which is just right there in front of us, we keep going, pulling a heavy load of a cart laden with more and more karma (all our actions).
Buddhist sutras, or discourses, show the broad meaning of "suffering," from the slightest agitation to the greatest agony, coming in three categories:
dukkha-dukkha, aversion to physical pain – which includes physical and mental suffering, such as rebirth, aging, illness, dying, distress due to the undesirable.
viparinama-dukkha, the frustration of disappearing happiness – which is the suffering of pleasurable, pleasant, and happy experiences changing to painful, unpleasant, and miserable ones when the causes and conditions that produced the pleasurable are exhausted or lost.
sankhara-dukkha, the disappointment and unsatisfactoriness of transient, changing, impermanent "things" – the inability of [conditioned] things to give us constant, lasting pleasure and happiness.
So there is an END to all this suffering, now?
This includes a fundamental, inescapable unsatisfactoriness that pervades all things in and states of existence, all situations and future lives in any world (of which there are countless), any plane (of which there are 31), and any sphere (of which there are three), because all things all the time are incapable of fulfilling us and are always changing, hurtling towards destruction, and are ultimately impersonal, not ours, not under our absolute control.
At this level, the term dukkha, "suffering," indicates a lack of any lasting satisfaction, any ultimate fulfillment, any that things can ever measure up to our expectations. More
What is the point of all this talking about or even mentioning "suffering"? Yeah, yeah, we get it; we know we suffer, duh! Can't we just talk about nice things -- bliss, lights, expanded meditative states, magical powers, insights into all physical and mental phenomena, joy unending, nirvana-fication, quenching thirst, dousing the flames of greed, hatred, and smoldering delusion, stuff like that? Suffering is the problem that pleads for a final solution, a state and trait, a condition in need of a cure, an unbearable thing that we at some point have to deal with and bring to a final end.
Four truths to freedom
There's much to do to be free.
The first ennobling truth is the recognition that there is suffering, not because there is but because we don't even recognize it. We think we do. As soon as it pops up, we turn away, move on to something else, jump for distractions. We have next to no idea what it really is or what is causing it.
That is the second ennobling truth: What is causing it? The ROOT cause, the fundamental cause, the ultimate cause is? It is not craving (desire, wanting). It is ignorance (avijja), manifesting as wrong views (miccha-ditthi) and delusion (moha), confusion about reality.
The solution is? Awakening to the Truth, the ultimate truth (paramattha), enlightenment right now -- through realizing the causal links of Dependent Origination, the process by which this suffering is arising. Among those 12 links, of which ignorance is the ultimate cause, is one the Buddha singled as the one we can actually do something about right here and right now directly, and that is craving (tanha). Why do we crave? Ignorance, which is the same reason we have aversion and why we are deluded. The Buddha singles out craving to work on undoing the causes and conditions bringing about suffering. Why?
That is the third ennobling truth: What is not-suffering? Nirvana. Nirvana is the end of all suffering. How do we realize nirvana, directly perceive and experience it here and now?
That is the fourth ennobling truth: There is a Path to the end of suffering. What is it? It is outlined in general in the Ennobling Eightfold Path. However, to be more specific and less general, the Buddha spoke of 37 "things pertaining to enlightenment," the bodhipakkhiya-dhamma, for immediate development to know-and-see nirvana.
Buddhism Podcast (videos); Dhr. Seven (text), Ashley Wells (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
Long ago there used to be a writer calling herself "Dukkha Girl." She disappeared, came back, faded again. We love DG. Where is she today? One can only imagine the fate of suburban motherhood or rural farm life with cats. Maybe, just maybe, she became a nun, forsaking the lower-life of householders for the high-life of striving full-time for the ultimate goal of nirvana. Who knows?
Help wanted. Inquire within (in the Comments)
We're sure she'll eventually be in touch to tell us. In the meantime, there's an attention-[whur] we imagine in the role, now that the original DG's been excluded. But this gal's branded a total "poser" and banned. It's got so bad, she lost her business.
Beloved vegan yogini with a penchant for makeup, what will become of her? Does anyone out there have Cali Vibes Who is the future influencer, the next MrsBeast, doing yoga, eating at Cena Vegan?
She or he must exist out there. Look, there's Luke_7. If only that person would contact us here. Eris is not the most punk rock girl in the world. Will she never learn? For all we know, s/he's reading this right now ready for a close up, an unsung genius with an attitude. Contact us below in the Comments Section. Yes, you.
No one imagines s/he could be a reliable correspondent for the despondent, a reporter of all that is dukkha in life. But someone can. Why not you?
Are you drawn to Daria's tone, to snarky commentary mumbled under breath, wishing to get a message to millions. Wisdom Quarterly has millions of views.
There are so many voices that need to be heard.
Great writing skills not a prerequisite, nor is knowledge of philosophy or religion, just opinions. Remember that episode of Family Guy when Peter got a job at the local news station for a weekly segment "What Really Grinds My Gears"? Like that. Do that. Opine. We'll edit and punch it up, make it relevant to the true extent of dukkha.
QUALIFICATIONS: Opinionated, snarky, willful, mad. Gender: open. Race: open. Religion if any: open. Writing skill level: average. Health: have a pulse. Psych: sass. Location: US or expat in Asia. Meditation practice: preferred. Musical taste: alt. Political leanings: open. Sense of humor: a must.Favorite color: should be purple. How to apply: Send writing sample.
Author Dhammaloka ("Dharma-world" or "Dharma-light or white") Viriya ("energy") knows that liberation (vimutti, moksha, vimokkha) from the cycle of rebirth (samsara) comes from the Awakening (bodhi-ification) of the (ennobling = enlightening) Truths.
To be awakened, one needs to practice mindfulness-meditation (satipatthana) by relinquishing attachment to the six senses, which will eradicate the clinging to all [of their attendant] phenomena, before the Dhamma (Truth, Teaching, Doctrine) eventually reveals itself to the practitioner.
Once the practitioner catches a glimpse of the Dhamma, the Ultimate Truth, through direct knowing-and-seeing, the practitioner will know there is no more falling back into the mire of this mundane world.
The Buddha pointed out the way to end of all suffering through mindfulness (sati) practice, and many practitioners since the Buddha’s time have reached that bliss and release from practicing in accordance with it.
However, in the author’s observation, although practitioners in this age find the practice fulfilling, they do not experience the awakening moment and therefore do not see the fruition as they hope to.
What are the challenges of an intensive insight meditation (vipassana) retreat?
What enables a practitioner to experience bliss (piti) from meditation?
What does the practitioner experience when the Dhamma finally appears as direct knowledge and vision?
Find out in this book, which is the first-hand experience of a yogi ("practitioner") who went through the trials and tribulations of a vipassana ("insight") meditation retreat at a forest monastery to see for himself the ultimate truths of
disappointment (that all phenomena are unsatisfactory and unable to fulfill),
impermanence (that all phenomena are constantly hurtling toward destruction).
Directly knowing-and-seeing these Three Universal Truths produces a life-changing experience.
NOTE: Not all vipassana meditation retreats are affiliated with Indian S. N. Goenka (dhamma.org). Burmese monk U Ba Khin's star student and businessman just popularized it worldwide with a free, volunteer-based, 10-day structure.
The Buddha in the usual list we call the Noble (Ennobling = Enlightening) Eightfold Path called one of those factors samma-sati not sati. What's the difference? One might think one is being mindful, but is it what the Buddha or the noble ones call "right" mindfulness? (If there's a right, that implies there's a wrong way to go about it or fool oneself that one is doing it at all). If "mindfulness" only meant awareness, then I'm being "aware" (conscious) right now, right? Yes! Am I being mindful? Probably not. There's a difference, a big difference. Retreat leaders and personal teachers should talk about it more and stop taking it for granted that one will just figure it out or that it is so patently obvious that it needs no defining or delimiting. It does, at least for over-thinkers. Sure, there are some people who will just take to it like guppies or ducklets to water. (They've likely extensively and successfully practiced in past lives).
We don't know what we're doing, but we got a groupon
Therefore, the most important thing before embarking on a vipassana retreat (whether it's Goenka-based or not), know that it is being defined as satipatthana. That means the fourfold setting up of mindfulness, which is explained in great detail in two sutras (Pali canon discourses or suttas). However, and this is the maddening part, almost nothing is said to define mindfulness (Buddhist sati). That is the most important thing to know, but it gets taken for granted. Or very weak definitions are offered, such as defining it as "awareness." We are aware right now, and more than 99% of us are not being mindful about it. For an extensive definition, see the academic work of Western Theravada professor-monk Ven. Analayo.
The Buddhist version of "mindfulness" called sati, as we understand it, is "bare awareness" with detachment, looking on, dispassionate watching. Sounds easy, but it is very hard because it goes against our deeply ingrained habits and traits. Usually when we are aware of anything, we taint that awareness with the Three Poisons of the heart/mind: liking, disliking, indifference (from the roots of all bad karma poorly translated as "greed, hatred, and delusion."
Look up lobha, dosa, and moha. And what becomes apparent is that Pali and Sanskrit terms have wide valence, a range of meaning for a single word. "Greed" or lobha does not mean our idea of greediness. It means liking, preferring, welcoming, grasping, attaching, and getting clingy about pleasant phenomena. "Hatred" or dosa does not mean intense fury or anger; it means disliking, having an aversion to, fearing, avoiding, repressing... It is our customary reaction to any and everything we find unpleasant.
Then there's "delusion" or moha, the worst one, the most embedded one, the hardest one to see. It refers to all the wrong views we hold, consciously and unconsciously, distortions of reality, perversions (seeing what is unpleasant as pleasant, what is repulsive as attractive, what is transient as lasting), confusion, not knowing, not understanding, not fathoming, not knowing, not seeing. This is practically our whole existence, if we think about it, but it might be summarized as failing to notice the Three Characteristics of Existence in all things -- that they are ultimately radically impermanent, eventually disappointing (unable to ever fulfill us), and (no matter how impossible it is to conceive, believe, fathom, or accept) altogether impersonal.
So to be mindful (to see clearly, which is to practice vipassana) is to look on, watch everything without giving in to the unconscious pull of these old habits. Just watch. Just notice. Just maintain attention. Note how when something is pleasing, greed for it arises. When something is displeasing, aversion with regard to it arises. When something is neutral, dull, confusing, hard to grasp, or boring, delusion arises, which is to say we space out, fall asleep, wander to something more interesting, even if it is a very unpleasant memory. Better than boredom. We do everything but be here now when this is the only real place there is to be. There's only now. The past is done. The future will take care of itself. But all our power is here, now. Let's attend to it. Let's finally see it for what it has always been so as to be liberated by the truth. The truth will set us free. What truth? The Truth, sometimes summarized as the Four Noble (Ennobling = Enlightening) Truths, the ultimate (paramattha) Truth, the true nature of existence (personally penetrating the Three Marks of Existence already mentioned). Need a list? There are the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment (the bodhipakkhiyÄdhammÄ). That Truth sets one free here and now, immediately.
But there's something every and anyone who embarks on Buddhist meditation needs to know beyond a good grasp of the meaning of "mindfulness" (sati). And that is that one will meet Five Hindrances whenever one tries to sit still or rest the mind or walk and move about with constant attention to the here and now, which does not involve "thinking" about the here-and-now, just watching it dispassionately.
The Five Hindrances one will meet in meditation (and their antidotes)
This is stupid! It doesn't work! Buddha was wrong!
The historical Buddha taught that there are Five Hindrances (paƱca nÄ«varaį¹a, Pali paƱca nÄ«varaį¹Äni), mental factors that hinder, obstruct, derail progress in meditation and ruin daily life [1].
The Theravada Buddhist tradition identifies these factors as specific obstacles to "meditation," which is defined as jhÄna (eight stages of stillness, unification, samadhi, concentration, coherence, superconsciousness) in practice.
Contemporary insight meditation teachers identify the Five Hindrances as obstacles to mindfulness meditation and obstacles to samma-samadhi ("right concentration," though "concentration" is problematic because we have many assumptions about what that means). "Stillness" is better, when the heart/mind has settled out, is silent, lucid, observant, directly knowing-and-seeing. But concentration is sometimes useful because ekaggata (singlepointedness or one-pointedness) is a factor of jhana.
The Five Hindrance are part of two types of obstructions (Sanskrit Ävaraį¹a, i.e., obstacles to insight, realization, awakening, buddhahood), afflictive obstructions (Sanskrit kleÅÄ-avaraį¹a, which include the Five Hindrances) and cognitive obstructions (jƱeyÄ-avaraį¹a, which bodhisattvas are trying to uproot) [2].
The classic list of Five Hindrances is [3, 4, 5, 6]
craving, desire, lust (kÄmacchanda): seeking pleasure through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and tactile sensation
sloth-and-torpor (thīna-middha): mental-and-bodily lassitude, laziness, weakness, lack of energy to strive, half-hearted action with little or no effort, attention, concentration
restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): the inability to allow the mind/heart to calm down, relax, become tranquil (passaddhi), serene, unflappable, steady, restful, undistracted, attentive, and focused, diligent, vigilant, energetic
Skeptical doubt (vicikiccha): lack of confidence, conviction, faith, trust that one has understood the instructions, the path, or one's abilities to successfully proceed. More
The antidotes are called the Five Factors of Absorptions, the jhana-anga (limbs or factors). By the way, right mindfulness immediately dispels delusion instantaneously.
Dhammaloka Viriya (diary); Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (commentary), Ashley Wells (editor) and Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) selection of video shorts, Wisdom Quarterly
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