Buddhist love at first sight: WHY? 💘😍

"Winds in the east, mist coming in, like something is brewing about to begin. Can't put my finger on what lies in store, but I feel what's to happen all happened before."

Have we met before? | Seven signs of a past-life connection

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 WHY DO SOME STRANGERS INSTANTLY FEEL LIKE FAMILY? What are the signs we have known someone in a past life? And what does Buddhism actually teach about these karmic connections?

Lana Del Rey "Video Games"

This video examines seven experiences often linked to past-life (what non-Buddhist traditions call "reincarnation") relationships, from instant trust and unexplained recognition to recurring conflict and shared spiritual growth.

Ashe "Moral of the Story" (official audio)

Through ancient Buddhist texts, traditional stories, disputed past-life cases, meditation teachings, and modern memory research, let's explore Buddhist rebirth without assuming that the oversimplification that a "permanent soul" (atta or atman) is traveling from one life to another. That is what is happening, conventionally speaking but, ultimately, it is a pernicious wrong view.

Catherine O'Hara "Sally's Song" (from The Nightmare Before Christmas)

• What are the OBSTACLES to progress in serenity, meditation, insight, and enlightenment? The Five Hindrances: affection (lust, attachment, passion, clinging), aversion, restlessness, fatigue, doubt.
• Lana Del Rey "Once Upon a Dream" (music video)

Diana Ross theme from Mahogany ("Do You Know Where You're Going To")

DISCOVER

1. Seven signs that may make someone feel strangely familiar
2. Why the strange old couple greeted the Buddha as if he were their long-lost son
3. The reported recognition of the 14th Dalai Lama and the case of Swarnlata Mishra
4. Why the Buddha said "a being who has not [already] been your mother is not easy to find"
5. The Jātaka Birth Story about the couple who raised the Buddha for 1,500 births
6. Why guided past-life regression is not the Buddhist method of recalling previous lives
7. The Buddha’s overlooked second explanation for why two people feel drawn together

Sonic Youth "Becuz" [Because of You]

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 The couple who called the Buddha “son”*
• 02:09 When a stranger feels like family
• 06:36 The ones who came back
• 12:57 Can meditation show you?
• 17:38 The second explanation

Elton John "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (lyrics)

• *(NOTE: The Sāketa couple (Nakula-mata and Nakula-pita)'s first meeting and the rival wives come from commentarial literature written centuries after the Buddha, drawing on older oral tradition. This video presents them as the tradition tells them, not as verified history. (Nakula-pita and Nakula-mata Gahapati)

📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING (affiliate links)

Primary texts:

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Saṃyutta Nikāya)
• Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Aṅguttara Nikāya)
• Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikāya)
• E. B. Cowell (ed.), The Jātaka, or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births
• E. W. Burlingame (trans.), Buddhist Legends (Dhammapada Commentary)
• Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli (trans.), The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga)

Clairo "Sofia" (I Know We Can Do It If We Try)

Modern cases and research:

• Ian Stevenson, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation
• Morey Bernstein, The Search for Bridey Murphy
• Scoboria et al. (2017), "A mega-analysis of memory reports from eight peer-reviewed false memory implantation studies," Memory
• John F. Kihlstrom, “Hypnosis, Delayed Recall, and the Principles of Memory”

Winds in the East (movie montage)

📿 Which sign brought someone to mind...and what actually happened? Leave more than a number. What moment that made you think of the person? Join community: Instagram: buddhaswizdom. Facebook: buddhaswizdom. X: https://x.com/BuddhasWizdom. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ndnBU5... TikTok: buddhas.wisdom.

Support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom, paypal.me/buddhaswisdom. 🙏 Subscribe for more of the stories behind Buddhism’s most familiar ideas. #Buddhism #PastLife #PastLives #Rebirth #Karma #PastLifeConnection #BuddhasWisdom #KarmicConnections #Meditation

• SOKO :: "First Love Never Die" (official video)
• An Unusual Prince/Once Upon a Dream (from "Sleeping Beauty")
• Buddha's Wisdom, Sept. 26, 2026; Ashley Wells and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Save the planet with Kat: NY Climate Week

What does "Art for Impact" mean?

I spent last week in New York City for Climate Week. Some of it was at the UN (United Nations), where was a participant and listened to people work through targets and timelines.

Some of it was on a stage at the Sheen Center, where I was asked a question I thought I already knew the answer to.

The panel was Art for Impact, and the question was simply, "What does that mean?"

The czar's former empire became a union

I found myself talking about the old Soviet Union (USSR), which tried to overtake Buddhist Afghanistan with its Bamiyan treasures. Because if we look back at the USSR, artists were forbidden.

Writers could not write certain songs or paint certain images. A poem could get one sent to Siberia to a gulag to freeze and be forgotten. None of that happened because anyone thinks art is decoration.

Climate Week NYC 2026 | September 20–27, New York City, USA

Beauty attracts attention. Art makes an impact.

It happened because people in power understood something about art that the rest of us have largely let ourselves forget. The people in power are not afraid of it because it is beautiful. They are afraid because it works.

I have been turning that over all week. Art is not a way of illustrating what we already know or believe. It is one of the few things that changes what a society comes to know, see, or believe without asking anyone's permission.

Every law that has ever protected a forest began as a feeling held by enough people at the same time. Art is how a feeling like that becomes shared, so that once enough of us are carrying and sharing it, it stops being an opinion; it becomes something everyone simply assumes and takes as obvious.

That is what I mean by "impact art." It is also what those rooms at the UN are quietly waiting for. Targets are written by people, and people keep them or abandon them depending on whether what is being protected feels worth the trouble by the time a deadline arrives.

• 

  I am your God, Savior of rich Corporations.

  Trump administration lowers fuel economy standards, critics say at significant cost to environment | PBS
• Oil corporations get break to sell more gas before polluting petrol runs out | NPR
• Lower mileage standards, higher pump costs | LA Times
• Trump rolls back fuel economy standards for automakers

The frameworks are real and necessary, and I'm glad they exist. What decides their fate is whether enough of us care when they come due. That part is not written into any of those documents. It is the part I think artists are for.

I've talked about fire for days, so I won't repeat myself. Only that on stage I realized I had spent the month painting the same thought. I learned it in Altadena, site of the massive Eaton Fire (2025).

Mural prayers preserved behind gold

Six months after that wildfire started by careless SCE (Southern California Edison), I was invited to paint a mural with the community. As we worked, people embedded their prayers on the wall, our wooden canvas, that I then preserved behind gold paint.

[That massive Eaton Fire mural now sits prominently inside the north wall of The Free Store inside The Collaboratory on Woodbury in Altadena.]

The Eaton Fire Collab, Altadena, LA, CA

One woman pointed to her friend across the mural in the making. She had lost her home to fire and had not smiled in six months. There she was with a brush in her hand saying, "I should paint more."

• HELP: Ekaterina Sky's Altadena Eaton Fire mural | Wisdom Quarterly and Dharma Buddhist Meditation

One of the prayers inside the Eaton Fire mural

No target was written that day, but something changed anyway.

The UN panel also asked, "What is the hardest part?" On purpose I look at what is happening to the living world. And more than once it has taken my hope away. One night, I could find no light at all. All I could do was be grateful for one breath, that single breath, then the next.

• How did the wandering ascetic Siddhartha become the "Enlightened One," the Buddha by mindfully meditating on in-and-out breathing?

The Buddha had a big heart for everyone.

I think that is the whole practice. We do not have to wait until something is nearly gone before we love it. The Earth's wildlife is still here. The soil. The people. The flora, the fauna. Gratitude is not a soft feeling; it is where protection begins.

This is why clean air and clean water (rivers and oceans), healthy soil and healthy trees (forest) have never sounded like a modest thing to receive or hand down. They are our entire human inheritance.

Most of what holds them is still standing. The people living alongside forests have protected them for generations without ever needing instructions, only support.

There's one more thing before I go. Artful Impact is back, opening the new season with Robert J. Dellinger on why climate science needs storytellers, which turns out to be the same question I was asked on stage. But Artful Impact approaches it from the other side.

Life Force Trees | 165 Trees Per Person

Here is what I would love from you, readers. Tell me about a piece of art that changed something in you and what you did afterward. This second part is what I am collecting. Post it below in the comments.

With love,

Ekaterina Sky, Impact Artist

P.S. If this message makes you want to put your hands into something right now, see 165 Trees: ourlifeforce.org.

Speaking: Invite Ekaterina Sky to speak on the environment and artful impact

• Ekaterina Sky (ekaterina-sky.com) edited by Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Sacred Path powwow, LA's Griffith Park (11/7)

Where's the powwow? It's at LA's enormous central park Griffith Park next to Hollywood.

What is Griffith Park? - It is a giant wilderness area with free roaming lions like P-22's cubs.

Danza Azteca, Indigenous Los Angeles

Sacred Path at The Autry Museum. The big Los Angeles Pow Wow 2026 is scheduled for Saturday, November 7th, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm. (Grand Entry begins at 1:00 pm).

The Autry Museum is in Griffith Park, Los Angeles (between Hollywood and Glendale). It is appropriate for ages 13+, families, seniors, and admission is FREE and open to the public. More info

Griffith Park is also home of Indie Shakes

Independent Shakespeare Co. Bridge Centennial Celebration, Oct. 10, 2026 (IndieShakes)

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Why do powwow dancers gather together?

ABOUT: Join The Autry (next to the LA Zoo by the Shakespeare Festival) for a full-day celebration of Indigenous/Native culture with traditional powwow dancing, food, and vendors. The event features:

• 

  Shaman medicine man healers?

  Traditional dancing and songs led by Northern- and Southern-style drummers and singers
• Indian tacos and traditional toxic (acrylamide soaked) frybread
• Vendors selling traditional and contemporary Native American arts and crafts
• Native community information booths
• Diverse Native languages, customs, and dances

Will there be any arts and crafts for sale to commemorate all the tribes and traditions of LA?

Visit sacredpath.org

SACRED PATH: The Autry is pleased to announce a new partnership with Sacred Path Indigenous Wellness Center. Sacred Path is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving urban Native communities, offering a variety of programs and services designed to promote cultural connection, community engagement, and overall well-being. For more info, please visit sacredpath.org.

What is a powwow?

What must the extraterrestrial visitors the tribes remember have looked like? (wiki)

The Autry Museum of the American West

A powwow is a Native American gathering that brings together Indigenous communities to celebrate their culture, heritage, and spirituality. It includes traditional regalia, intertribal dancing, singing, and Indigenous foods and crafts.

What NOT to do at a powwow?

• 

  Is it a Native Quinceañera?

  Don’t touch dancers’ regalia (and please refrain from calling it a "costume")
• Don’t take close-up photographs or video without permission.
• Don’t walk through the dance arena or close to dancers, drummers.
• Don’t interrupt sacred traditional ceremonies, dancing, or singing.
• Don’t drink alcohol or consume drugs at this family-friendly event.

What to do at a powwow?

• Be respectful.
• Stand quietly during prayers and flag songs.
• Follow the instructions of the emcee and arena director.

Land Acknowledgement

Cherokee Land Acknowledgement

The Autry Museum acknowledges the Tongva/Gabrielino (Kizh) peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles Basin and Southern Channel Islands). We recognize that the Autry Museum and its campuses are located on the traditional lands of Tongva/Gabrielino peoples and we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam ("Ancestors"), ‘Ahiihirom ("Elders"), and ‘Eyoohiinkem ("our relatives/relations") past, present, and emerging.

• EVENTS | The Autry Museum
• Autry Museum of the American West
• 4700 Western Heritage Way
• Los Angeles, CA 90027-1462
• (In Griffith Park across from LA Zoo)
• MAPS AND DIRECTIONS
• PARKING

White man's powwow (slam dance mosh pit)

DO NON-NATIVE YOUTH EVER GATHER FOR TRIBAL DANCING?

• Genetic study places Indigenous ancestors' arrival near the end of the Ice Age
• Autry.org; Xochitl, Crystal Q., Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

White man's powwow: slam dance mosh pit

Study finds mosh pits mimic ancient tribal rituals

If only neighboring Hollywood nightclubs had a way for young invading European settler colonialists to express themselves in appreciation of their musical traditions, perhaps a distinctive dance style to the beat of relentless drums with howls and yelps, cheers and applause.

• VIDEO: Mosh Pit Meditation, Part 1 (Wisdom Quarterly)

Careful, kids, you don't want to get hurt.

Such exuberance might look like pure mayhem and random violence, particularly when it devolves to a war game/war dance called a "Wall of Death."

For example, the biggest Wall of Death ever was during Slaughter to Prevail's set at Hellfest 2024. Is it real?

Hey, down front, we're trying to watch the show! - Then pay for a seat. This is GA on the floor.

POV: Hellfest wall of death from eye of storm - It's growing, not shrinking: Inkcarceration 2025

We Got Power! (perihelionarts.com)

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Mosh Pit Meditation (calm amid chaos), Pt. 1

But a tribal war dance full of fists and fury with wild gyrations of the body, swinging limbs recklessly at nonparticipants, or coagulate into a swirling mass of humanity in a "circle pit" to the grating guitars, excruciating vocalizations, and amplified rhythm section of rebels without a cause, ne'er-do-wells, and malcontents. Perhaps, in time, such an outlet will form in and around Tinsel Town, USA, as bands seek to win the attention of corporate music industry types.

Mosh pits of the future

The craziest mosh pit ever seen (band = Drosera)

• I. Rony, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

CIA spies on US citizens, cellphones?

(LADbible Stories) We asked a CIA officer 24 tough questions | Honesty Box

Confessions of an Economic Hitman

John Perkins 2025 (Gage Skidmore)

Author John Perkins (narrated by Brian Emerson, Blackstone Audio, Inc., Audible Audiobook) has 4.5 out of 5 stars (with 2,867 reviews).

This is the factual confession of how the USA turned from a respected republic into a fearful rogue empire.

"Economic hit men," John Perkins writes, "are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder."

I'm CIA? - We're a permanent wartime economy.

John Perkins should know; he was an economic hit man: His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the USA, from Panama to Indonesia, to accept enormous "loans" for infrastructure development and to make sure that the lucrative projects were contracted to American disaster capitalist corporations like

• Halliburton,
• Bechtel,
• Brown and Root (KBR, Inc.), and
• other United States engineering and construction companies.

How would you like to be a puppet?

Now saddled with huge debts they cannot pay back, these countries come under the control of the US government, the puppet World Bank Group, and other US-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks, dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.

This extraordinary real-life confession exposes international corruption, intrigue, and little-known government and corporate activities that have dire consequences for American democracy and the world. More: Audible Audio Edition)

We asked a CIA officer 24 tough questions | Honesty Box

Steve Jobs of Apple Corp. once made a deal with the devil (Faustian bargain) with the CIA.

.

The CIA Central Intel Agency works for Trump

(LADbible Stories) 18,286,543 views. Dec. 3, 2025: In this episode of Honesty Box, former CIA spy and whistleblower John Kiriakou spills the beans all about working for America’s primary [known] intelligence agency. [The NSA, SS, NSC, and other more secretive alphabet agencies still go unseen.]

DISCLAIMER: This interview was filmed in early 2025. Thanks to John Kiriakou for taking part. Find more of his work at johnkiriakou.substack.com and johnkiriakou.com.

How it all began for me at the CIA

(LADbible) CIA officer who exposed USA's torture program | Minutes With

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:40 What does the CIA actually do?
• 01:27 What skills make a good spy/secret agent?
• 03:10 Coolest "spy tech" you ever got to use?
• 04:33 Does the CIA listen to Americans through our phones?
• 05:35 Are hitmen real?
• 06:44 How does the CIA corrupt and recruit spies?
• 09:15 Do you ever fear for your life?
• 12:31 Does Pres. Trump have the UK and Europe's back?
• 13:04 Which film or TV series portrays spies best?

• 

  I bought my own wire: My iPhone spies on me!

  14:23 Are American social media platforms the biggest intelligence-gathering tool today?
• 14:58 What was 9/11’s impact on the CIA illegal activity in the world?
• 15:47 Why are there so many wars in 2025?
• 16:48 Can the CIA murder and make someone disappear?
• 18:02 How does the USA track terrorist threats?
• 18:51 Can you be a spy and still have a moral compass?
• 19:32 What is the most controversial thing you’ve done?
• 20:52 Shouldn’t torture be legal if we are protecting American lives?
• 21:52 What is the most dangerous country [besides the USA] in the world right now?
• 23:16 What do you make of US foreign policy right now?
• 24:09 Does China actually pose a real risk to the West?
• 25:22 Is the CIA or MI6 more elite?
• 26:27 Are sleeper agents real?
• 27:51 Is "Chief of Disguise" a real job?
• 28:51 What made you decide to blow the whistle?

Men in suits, intel for the US, Mossad, CIA: puppeteers

What's a puppet to do? (Howdy Doody)

👀 Welcome to LADbible Stories – the home of raw interviews, real people, and powerful documentaries. From Minutes With and The Meet, to the brutally honest Honesty Box, we shine a light on untold human experiences. Subscribe now for moving content. 📲 Subscribe to LADbible Stories: @ladbiblestories 📺 Want more from the LADbible universe? LADbible TV: @ladbible LADbible Entertainment: @sportbible. #CIA #whistleblowers #spy #espionage #politics #ladbiblestories #podcast