The Dharma, sutras, and commentarial interpretations of interest to American Buddhists of all traditions with news that not only informs but transforms. Emphasis on meditation, enlightenment, karma, social evolution, and nonharming.
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(WQ) Twenty thousand people made it out to VegFest, the great success likely being due to the fact that it is now free. There was plenty of parking across the way. Music, drinking, shopping for cool t-shirts and high vibration gauzy linen, supporting animal shelters, exploring a spiritual bazaar, healing, cooking demonstrations; saving the whales, orangutans, Hollywood wildlife, cats, dogs, and endangered species. Dine on tons of food and free samples. Have some vegan ice cream, Native Foods, Asian curries, tacos, ala carte items, health drinks.
TV/radio host/comedian Mark Thompson (The Edge Show, Tim Conway Jr. Show, and sundry appearances with comedians on KPFK like the Jimmy Dore Show, David Feldman Show), a defender of animals and a vegan, served as announcer on the main stage as thousands from The Valley and beyond milled about like a modern Woodstock at Woodley Park, the "Central Park" of the SFV. Next year should be even bigger. And Earth Fair (the local Earth Day Fest) is coming up soon.
This question attracts everyone from the casually curious to the passionately academic.
Many others who fall along the compelling continuum pose the question about the greatest literary challenge of all time: understanding the author behind Shakespeare’s plays and poems.
Courtier poet Edward De Vere -- the 17th Earl of Oxford -- was identified as a candidate in 1918 by J. Thomas Looney.
(It is pronounced low-nee, and jokes serve only to detract from the seriousness of the investigation). Looney was a writer and an English teacher who assembled a profile of the author based on the contents of the body of work.
Further investigation has only augmented and illuminated the case for Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, to the point where he has become the leading candidate for the man behind the pseudonym or pen name.
Adherents to the theory, who are called Oxfordians, are a large and ever-growing group. They find the body of evidence persuasive.
The De Vere Society, founded in 1986, supports and encourages this investigation and conversation in order to reach a better, deeper understanding of the works and the world that supported their creation. More
Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom QuarterlyOPINION
Donald Trump is not a Republican. The real danger would be if Speaker Paul Ryan were nominated because all he would do is obey the party in our one-party system, the Capitalist Money Party (RepubloCrats).
GOP will back Clinton and derail Trump.
Trump is not part of the political Establishment. The most important thing is not to nominate or vote for an Establishment candidate. Hillary Clinton is a Democrat, a complete sell-out, liar, criminal, lesbian hypocrite, defender of a serial sexual harasser/drug deal facilitator (Bill) all too happy to attack women and threaten them into silence (just ask insider Roger Stone).
Clinton is the Establishment who promises more of the same -- more wars, more killing, more drones, more bank fraud, more Wall Street protection, more loss of jobs, more insufficient Romneycare (Pres. Obama, as if he led the third George W. Bush administration, just adopted the Republican/insurance industry plan instead of the single payer plan we all wanted and asked him for), more lies, more hypocrisy, more military-industrial complex bidding...
This is why we have to vote for Bernie Sanders (berniesanders.com). Sanders is not a Democrat; he is an Independent. Sanders is not part of the Establishment. The Establishment must not win.
And this is why Trump is better than Clinton and why it is so important to nominate and vote for Sanders. Or vote for Jill Stein or Andrew Basiago or anybody other than the one party system Capitalist Money Party.
Wait, what about voting for Ted Cruz? He chose hated candidate and failed businesswoman Carly Fiorina. Ted Cruz has no chance. Former Republican Speaker John Boehner said of Cruz today, "He's Lucifer" and "I've never worked with a more miserable son-of-a-b*tch in my life."
Cruz and John Kasich are tools being used by the GOP to derail Trump so that they don't have to step in and blatantly contravene the will of the people, which they will do. Why? Because Trump is not a Republican and not part of the Establishment.
The nomination process is rigged, elections are rigged (with Bush/Cheney's rigged and unaccountable Diebold machines and Help America Vote Act), and we do not live in a Democracy. We talk about it, we say we do, we pretend, we assume that's what this is, but anyone outside -- and some inside -- can see that this is a capitalist oligarchy. Ask Greg Palast. But we have...
"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" Investigative Reporter Greg Palast's feature documentary exposing the theft of the 2016 election and the billionaires bankrolling the ballot banditry. Coming Summer 2016.
(MTV News, Decoded April 27, 2016) The Surprisingly Racist History of the Term Caucasian
"Caucasian"?
Wisdom Quarterly (OPINION)
Facts presented in a fresh way -- concise, to the point, building up to support the thesis, exquisite! And who knew, right? Actually, readers may know this from a recent post about where the people Europeans enslaved in America came from.
No, it's not Africa like we're all taught. Slaves came from America! Wow, they enslaved and raped mated with the natives, some of whom were black, all of which were called the "copper colored" races. America was the land of "reds" and "blacks."
Latin-American singer Christina Aguilera
See Dr. Joy DeGruy, who goes much deeper into the social construction of the idea of "white" as one race, which originally kept out the Irish, some of the lightest skinned people on the planet. It's amazing; there was no thinking, "We're all 'white'."
Now everyone in the U.S. and Europe takes it for granted, unless you're Latino/a. Then you can be as "white" as Christina Aguilera or Wonder Woman Lynda Carter, but have a drop of Spanish blood (which is all European and not at all native) or a Spanish surname and you're "brown."
Latin-American Wonder Woman
Of course, our country suffers from more than just prejudice, racism, and implicit bias. We have colorism or shadism: the darker your skin, the worse treatment you get.
Who knew MTV (pronounced eMpTyV) was still around or ever doing anything good? We hear they want to bring music videos back, but that's just a rumor. It didn't pay enough the first time. Happy College Signing Day.
Why was the judge so fearful? Because she understood the archaic language he was speaking as it pertains to laws still on the books the court system has done everything it can to circumvent by tacit agreement as it forces and dupes us into signing away our natural rights. We cannot emphasize the importance and significance of what this man accomplished on camera which the modern legal system wishes no one would ever know about.
The Bozeman Chronicle editorial board released a
statement objecting to WEST banning all recording and spectators from
ernie's court proceedings: bozemandailychronicle.com
Surprising Mainstream Media Items
AP wins Pulitzer stories on slavery in the seafood industry The AP won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for documenting the use of slave labor in Southeast Asia to supply seafood to American tables -- an investigation that spurred the release of more than 2,000 captive slaves.
US to send 200+ troops, Apache helicopters to Iraq The U.S. gov't wants to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send eight Apache helicopters to kill in a fight against the alleged Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, defense officials said.
Pentagon misled lawmakers on military-sexual-assault rates The Pentagon misled Congress by using inaccurate or vague information about cases of sexual assault [homosexual and heterosexual rape of fellow troops] in an effort to blunt support for a Senate bill that would make a major change in how the military handles allegations of sexual misconduct, an AP investigation found.
WARNING: Red band version. See clean version here. Official "Keanu" movie trailer with Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. In theaters today! Keanu courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Germany a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment GmbH
Grumpy Cat, step back. Bye-bye, Hello Kitty. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, a.k.a. the hugely popular comedy duo Key & Peele, star as "Clarence and Rell," two cousins who live in the city but are far from streetwise.
When Rell’s beloved kitten, "Keanu" [with a very special cameo by "Matrix" actor Keanu Reeves], is catnapped, the hopelessly straight-laced pair must impersonate ruthless killers in order to infiltrate a street gang and retrieve the purloined feline.
But the incredibly adorable kitten becomes so coveted that the fight over his custody creates a gang war, forcing our two unwitting heroes to take the law into their own hands.
It is, therefore, hardly surprising that plenty of theories about the most famous (English) bard and his work have arisen. It was, after all, Mark Twain
who said:
“So far as anybody actually knows and can prove, Shakespeare
of Stratford-on-Avon never wrote a play in his life.”
Not always as easily dismissed as Shakespeare champions would have
you believe, here are the most widely known theories about the
authorship of the plays.
Various authors
Here the mask is more obvious
In 1848 the American Joseph C. Hart wrote a book putting forward the
argument that the plays were written by several different authors.
In
1856 the American Delia Bacon wrote an article to support this
theory and attributed the authorship to a group of people who were
overseen by Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Walter Raleigh.
Edward de Vere
Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford was also the Lord Great
Chamberlain of England and a courtier poet. There is [much] evidence
that suggests he did write them.
But some believe there are references
in the plays to de Vere's life and that there are a series of codes in
the writing that implicate the 17th Earl of Oxford as the true author. This is the theory
put forward in the film "Anonymous." More
Conclusion?
We don't know for certain who wrote these works, but we know for certain it was not the man given credit. That the Earl of Oxford would write poetry anonymously, wear a mask, and ask Shakespeare to take credit, that makes sense.
10 reasons Shakespeare was not the author
(Anonymous Movie's Channel) Filmmaker gives 10 reasons the uneducated Will Shakespeare -- even if he had been born a genius and prodigy -- could not possibly be the author.
Poorly planned event devolves into riotous police clashes
Hundreds of protesters closed streets and clashed with police around the Pacific Amphitheater in Costa Mesa Thursday night following Donald Trump's first campaign rally in Southern California.
Orange County police wore full riot gear, and some were on horseback as they clashed with a crowd of mostly anti-Trump protesters, who held Mexican flags and signs that denounced Trump's views on immigration [and sexism].
Protesters in SF GOP Convention (KFI)
The protest took shape as Trump's rally was ending at about 9:00 pm as the Republican candidate's supporters walked to their cars.
Anti-Trump protesters, who mostly waited outside during the rally, began gathering in larger numbers on the surrounding streets. [Trump supporters, pumped up by Trump's racism, misogyny, and economic fantasies, were eager for a confrontation, using their cars as weapons as police looked the other way.]
While most of them were peacefully protesting, others became more violent. One man was seen atop a police car, while others threw rocks and broke police car windows. More + PHOTOS
Adam Corolla called into the "Kevin & Bean Show" Thursday morning, April 28: PODCAST
KROQ's massive post-Coachella concert. Tickets on pre-sale (and selling out) at noon, April 29. Featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lukas Graham, Lumineers, Garbage, Fitz and the Tantrums, Panic! At the Disco,Cold War Kids, Empire of the Sun, Strumbellas, Weezer, and others.
Tibetan craftsmen were creating stunning artistry of their deities in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Mustang before Leonardo da Vinci painted "The Last Supper."
In "Lost Treasures of Tibet," NOVA (pbs.org) goes behind the scenes with the first conservation team from the West, as it undertakes the painstaking restoration of these ancient masterpieces and the beautiful Buddhist monasteries that house them.
Located in present-day Nepal, Mustang contains some of the last remaining relics of an almost vanished world of ancient Buddhist culture. Across the border in Tibet, Chinese occupiers have purposely destroyed thousands of monasteries since taking control of the country in 1950.
Tour Mustang Journey through this hidden Tibetan kingdom in neighboring northwest Nepal.
Creating a Wall Painting Conservation experts and local people revive Mustang's age-old artistic traditions.
So the survival of Mustang's monasteries (gompas) is more important than ever. But preservation is extremely difficult because of the centuries of neglect, weather, and earthquakes that have brought many buildings to the brink of ruin and collapse.
High in the Himalayas of western Nepal, in a little-visited kingdom known as Mustang, exists a treasure trove of medieval Tibetan art now undergoing urgent restoration (NOVA).
The flag of a free and independent Tibet without Chinese or CIA intervention (HDW)
In the course of their restoration work, Western conservators come face-to-face with a thorny problem of culture clash: Local people want missing sections of the murals completed. Westerners are aghast at the idea. But their hosts are equally shocked at the thought of honoring unfinished deities.
The program follows the struggle of an international team headed by British conservationist John Sanday to restore the greatest gompa of all -- Thubchen, the royal monastery in Mustang's capital of Lo Monthang.
The first order of business is fixing Thubchen's roof -- no small feat since 200 tons of dirt have been piled on its flat surface over the centuries to seal out leaks. To bear that much weight, the hidden ceiling beams must be more than two feet thick, an apparent impossibility considering that Mustang is virtually treeless.
Sanday solves this riddle when his team excavates down to the beams and discovers an elaborate jigsaw puzzle of construction that uses interlocking small timbers to create a clever lightweight, load-bearing structure.
Ancient Tibetan craftsmen were equally inventive in engineering an ideal wall surface for their murals (seeCreating a Wall Painting). Six layers of plaster were applied to the walls, starting with a coarse grain and becoming progressively finer.
The same method was used for secco (dry plaster) murals in Europe during the Renaissance, but it is unknown if Tibetans and Europeans exchanged information on the technique.
As for Thubchen's paintings, they are badly obscured by aeons of butterlamp soot, animal glues [like the horse pulp used in the West], and abrasions from yak tail dusters. To deal with the disfigurement, Sanday calls in Rodolfo Lujan from Italy, one of Europe's premier experts in art restoration.
After painstaking treatment to stabilize the plaster, which is badly flaking, Lujan and his assistants start removing the grime. What emerges is startling to behold: brilliantly colored scenes depicting the life of the Buddha (seeBefore and After).
The artists left no signatures, but Lujan places them in a class with the Italian Renaissance masters. "Maybe the quality is even better than...a Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael," he marvels.
This makes it all the more difficult when he is asked to take his own clumsy brush in hand to complete the missing sections of these priceless masterpieces. More
(Smithsonian Channel) King Thutmose IV did not build the Great Sphinx. He rediscovered it
hidden in the sand and -- according to legend -- it made him king in
return. From: "SECRETS: The Sphinx."
(Brien Foerster, June 23, 2014) How we know the pharaohs did not make the Sphinx; Stephen Mehler explains the running water beneath and the purpose of the Goddess Sphinx (khemitology.com).
In ancient Egypt, when pharaohs wanted to record something for eternity
and have it be known not only to mortals, but more importantly, to the
gods [space-devas], they wrote in stone.
The hieroglyphs carved into the Dream Stela
of Thutmosis IV, an enormous upright slab at the base of the Sphinx,
tell a portentous story of a young king's bargain with the sun god [Surya].
In
this interview, Egyptologist Kasia Szpakowska deciphers the stela for
Gary Glassman, producer of NOVA's "Riddles of the Sphinx."
As Kasia Szpakowska explains, dreams like the one recorded on the
stone slab at the base of the Sphinx had the power to solidify a
pharaoh's reign and change the course of history.
Photo of the Sphinx (135 years ago) buried in sand, neck far too wide before modifications.
(Cfapps7865, July 19, 2015) The Tunnels and Chambers Under the Sphinx. There are shafts and chambers in, on, and around the Sphinx. Ground penetrating radar confirms it. Why do we not hear about it from the so-called "experts"? They need to preserve Egyptian national pride. No modern Egyptian wants to hear that the pyramids, temples, and monuments are far older than popularly believed. Therefore, they were built by pre-Egyptian peoples. Egyptian only go back a few thousand years. Some pyramids are at least 25,000 years old, and the Sphinx is thought to be about 34,000 years old. The oblong skulls of pharaohs, often hidden by a headdress like that of Nefertiti, suggest the rulers were not ordinary earthlings but still human. The connection of this culture to Mars (Cairo means Mars) and the monuments visible on Mars suggest a connection between the two planets and their ancient cultures.
Stela etching of Thutmosis IV offering incense to the god [Anubis?] as the Sphinx.
NOVA: Who was Thutmosis IV, and why would he come here, to the area of the Sphinx?
Kasia Szpakowska: Thutmosis IV was the
eighth king of the 18th dynasty, which is during Egypt's New Kingdom, a
period when Egypt was really at its height. This area, at that time, was
like a recreation area for the pharaohs. They would come here to hunt,
ride their chariots, do target practice.
What is the story written on Thutmosis IV's stela?
The Dream Stela describes a time when he was just newly king. [Scholars
put his reign at 1401-1391 B.C.] According to the stela, Thutmosis IV
was strolling here one day, all alone. Around midday, he got very hot
and decided to rest in the shadow of the Great Sphinx.
And at the moment
when the sun hit the zenith -- was at the top of the sky -- the god
Horem-Akhet-Khepri-Re-Atum came to him in a dream and basically told him
that if he cleared away the sands that had been building up around [the
Sphinx], the god would make sure that Thutmosis IV was the ruler of
upper and lower Egypt, unified.
So the Sphinx was buried in sand at the time. Do we know how deeply?
It probably was deeply buried. We're not sure how much. I imagine that
the outline of the body would have been visible, but there wouldn't have
been the details of the paws, of the body at all. The head would have
been visible.
(Sept. 14, 2015)
Although
long believed to have been a dynastic Egyptian work, in this
video we see that the vertical erosion on the Sphinx and enclosure
occurred at least 5,000 years before the pharaonic Egyptians
ever existed. It was constructed between 30-80,000 years ago. There is
clear evidence of chambers and tunnels UNDER the Sphinx, as Edgar Cayce
saw.
DREAMS for ancient Egyptians
Was it unusual, in Egyptian lore, for a god to speak to a mortal?
The stela is an account of the king's dream.
It was very unusual for a god [deva] to speak to a mortal [human]. The kings, however,
throughout Egyptian history would be spoken to by gods.
They received
communications from gods through revelations and oracles. But seeing a
god in a dream was an extremely rare phenomenon.
So that's also part of the reason that Thutmosis IV erected the
stela -- to emphasize that he was the person whom the god chose to speak to
in this very, very intimate encounter during a dream.
How did the Egyptians think about dreams?
Dreams were considered an external phenomenon. A dream was something
that was outside of you. Egyptians never said, "I was dreaming," or "I'm
dreaming right now," or "I'd love to be dreaming."
You saw things in a
dream, as if it were something external to you, over which you had no
control. And, in fact, most of the references we have to dreams in
ancient Egypt treat them as things to be avoided and feared. So we have
many spells to keep away bad dreams. In part, it's because dreams seem
to be somewhere, again, between the land of the living and the land
beyond.
The inhabitants of the beyond included not only the gods, not only the
dead, but also the damned, those Egyptians who had not made it
successfully to the afterlife or were thought of as enemies of the king
or the gods. And those beings, through a dream, could also access a
vulnerable individual while he or she was asleep, as a nightmare. More
Anubis: It's a dog not a lion
Robert Temple (Ancient Astronaut Arguments): The Sphinx and Anubis (Part 1 of 4)
Robert Temple reveals that the Sphinx was originally a monumental Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god, and that its face is that of a Middle
Kingdom pharaoh, Amenemhet II, which was a later re-carving.
In
addition, he provides photographic evidence of ancient sluice gate
traces to demonstrate that, during the Old Kingdom, the Sphinx as Anubis
sat surrounded by a moat filled with water -- called Jackal Lake in the
ancient Pyramid Texts -- where religious ceremonies were held.
Temple also
provides evidence that the exact size and position of the Sphinx were
geometrically determined in relation to the pyramids of Cheops and
Chephren and that it was part of a pharaonic resurrection cult.
The Sphinx Mystery verifies the existence of secret underground chambers
beneath the Sphinx and demonstrates its origins as the Egyptian god of
the dead, Anubis.
It includes an anthology of eyewitness accounts
from early travelers who explored the secret chambers before they were
sealed in 1926.
It reveals that the Sphinx was originally carved as a monumental crouching Anubis, the Egyptian jackal god of the necropolis.
Shrouded
in mystery for centuries, the Sphinx of Giza has frustrated many who
have attempted to discover its original purpose.
Accounts exist of the
Sphinx as an oracle, as a king’s burial chamber, and as a temple for
initiation into the Hermetic Mysteries. Egyptologists have argued for
decades about whether there are secret chambers underneath it,
why the head-to-body ratio is out of proportion, which is completely uncharacteristic of Egyptian design, and whose face adorns
it.
Robert Temple addresses the
many mysteries of the Sphinx and presents eyewitness accounts, covering a period of 281 years, of people who saw the secret chambers and
even went inside them before they were sealed in 1926 -- accounts that had
been forgotten until the author rediscovered them.
He proves that Zahi Hawass, ousted head of Egyptian antiquities, is a liar. He also describes
his own exploration of a tunnel at the rear of the Sphinx, perhaps used
for obtaining sacred divinatory dreams.
Temple reveals
that the Sphinx was originally a monumental Anubis, the Egyptian jackal
god. The face is that of a Middle Kingdom Pharaoh, Amenemhet
II, which was a more recent re-carving.
In addition, he provides photographic
evidence of ancient sluice gate traces to demonstrate that, during the
Old Kingdom, the Sphinx as Anubis sat surrounded by a moat filled with
water -- called Jackal Lake in the ancient Pyramid Texts -- where religious
ceremonies were held.
Temple also provides evidence that the exact size and
position of the Sphinx were geometrically determined in relation to the
pyramids of Cheops and Chephren and that it was part of a pharaonic
resurrection cult.
What is the connection between Mars and ancient Egypt?
(Tip Wiki Guide) There are true cures common doctors have no interest in revealing. Why should they? Treatments (not cures) are much more profitable. Real cures exist. Dr. Wallach explains the key to health, which is getting the 90 essential nutrients we need from our diet and, when necessary, supplements. For more cures visit tipwikiguide.com.
Epigenetics and gene activation for improved health and longevity (josephmaroon.com)
.
Click to enlarge infographic on epigenetics.
Epigenetics: (the part of our genetic code that is "above genetics" or above the specific instructions). Biology is NOT destiny, even though the slogan rhymes. Epi-genetics refers to the environmental triggers that set off gene expression. We are not victims of our genetic inheritance (codes) but our environment, particularly our diet and deficiencies. Things in the environment, prebirth and postbirth, set in motion or keep from setting in motion what is written in our collection of instructions.
These authors advance a theory of mineral deficiencies, rather than genetics, as cause of diseases.
Calling upon the research and theories of Dr. Joel Wallach, Epigenetics contends that many diseases currently considered genetic in nature -- such as Huntington’s disease, cystic fibrosis, and so on -- are actually a result of dietary mineral deficiencies.
The book, co-written by doctors Wallach, Ma Lan, and Gerhard Schrauzer, also discusses [discredited medical theories that were once the the medical establishment standard], and references several anecdotes from Dr. Wallach’s career.
Epigenetics [looks at] history for several chapters without making any clear connection to its thesis [which is that the medical field changes as theories come and go].
When the thesis does appear, it feels like a change in topic. Despite this, the volume is an entertaining read until some of Dr. Wallach’s minor run-ins with the mainstream medical community are characterized as “witch hunts.”
At this point, the text begins to counter-attack the medical establishment. The remainder of the book reviles negative responses to the theories presented and discusses encounters with several professional establishments and colleagues.
The tone is often embattled, offended, and personal. Dr. Wallach has long promoted the concept [and gathered evidence for the fact] that mineral deficiencies are the primary cause of disease... More
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