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.
(To contact us, leave a comment marked "private").
Oh no, a sexist, racist bigot just got elected to be leader of the US! Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. No one does much of anything but cry and complain after the fact. Where's Bernie?
(ET Canada/Global News) Hollywood Reacts To Trump Win: Stunned Hollywood elites reacts negatively to Donald Trump’s shocking win as Snoop Dogg calls Toronto “his new home.” ET Canada has all of their reaction.
(The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) Bernie Sanders: Now More Than Ever, It's Our Revolution. The Vermont senator -- whose task may have been to attract leftists and guide them back to the mainstream party ("Bernies' Plan B: Follow me to Hillary") -- remains optimistic about the country's future and urges citizens to become more deeply involved in the political process. He's got a new summer home and a new book just out, Our Revolution. Will you fall for it again? We never understood the slur "libtard" till now.
(CBS News, 60 Minutes) Leslie Stahl interviews Trump Family after election
(CBS) [Sell-out] Sen. Bernie Sanders [who may have taken a $600,000 from the Clinton Camp and used the windfall to buy a summer house, paid for in cash a week after getting out of the race], whose presidential campaign won 22 states and 13 million votes before being robbed of the nomination by corrupt Hillary Clinton, is laying out his agenda in his new book, "Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In." The Vermont senator joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss why he thinks Democrats failed to appeal to the working class in the 2016 election.
What's going on?
Excellent.
Author of Listen, Liberal! Thomas Frank was on the BBC and on Mitch Jeserich's "Letters & Politics" (10:00 am, 11/16/16) today breaking it down for a population misled by a deceptive mainstream media. People are not shocked that Trump won. He had a chance just by running in one of the two wings of our one party American system. What is the surprise is that we were all led to believe there was nothing to worry about because corrupt Hillary Clinton had it in the bag.
In fact, so convinced were we of this that we were shocked when someone with a 99% certainty of winning lost. Who said it was 99%? The deceptive media and corrupt pollsters. We at Wisdom Quarterly were so taken in that we were going to call it for Hillary a day in advance, seeing how the system is rigged and assuming that Democrats were the ones who rigged it more effectively than Republicans this time around. (Both sides engage in "caging" and other illegal and unethical practices, as Greg Palast details in his book and film). But it was the other way around:
Republicans rigged our gerrymandered system so that a minority won over a majority of voters. The consolation in California? Now big corporations will start selling high intensity marijuana (high THC, low CBD) like sugar, alcohol, and cigarettes to dumb everyone down with a new variation of an "opium for the masses."
I'm triggered! I'm so f#$%&@* mad at you, Mister Racist Sexist Nazi Trump!
The next stage: Will anti-Trump marches become a movement?
WASHINGTON, DC (AP) - Demonstrators upset over the election of Donald Trump have marched in cities around the country over the past week, and some are making plans to be in Washington for his inauguration Jan. 20. But whether marches will become a movement is an open question. More
The full moon of Nov. 14, 2016 is the biggest, closest, and brightest supermoon of the year. And it’s the closest supermoon since Jan. 26, 1948. Should we watch for this full moon on the night of Nov. 14? YES and if you do, it’ll be beautiful. (Well, it'll be beautiful anyway, so we should watch it). But for people in the Americas the moon is closer to full on the night of lucky Nov. 13th.
What's so super about this moon?
The moon turns precisely full on Nov. 14, 2016 at 13:52 UTC. This full moon instant will happen in the morning hours before sunrise Nov. 14th in western North America and on many Pacific islands east of the International Date Line. (See worldwide map below).
The Goddess Chandra Devi (light being)
In Asia and Australia the moon turns precisely full during the evening hours of Nov. 14. In New Zealand it actually happens after midnight Nov. 15. Around the longitudes of Europe or Africa, look both nights. More
Is the earth flat?* 47 years of NASA lies about the Moon. The moon is much closer than we are told and its own source of light (not simply reflected from the sun), according to empirical data we can test if we would only open our minds.
(Oct. 23, 2016) Questioning the distance of the Moon from Earth based on the easy visibility of a tiny (53 mile long) feature, the Tycho crater, at the bottom of the artificial satellite. But wait, there's more: viewing astronauts jumping on the Moon, gravity on the Moon, Moon models and miniatures, lying astronauts, missing videos, data, blueprints, and other records of the Apollo missions.
*Before you laugh, investigate. Debunk the claim, or try to. It may make you a believer. The world we see with our eyes is actually close to the way it is.
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi in the Eastern Monastery, in the palace of Migara's mother. On that occasion -- the lunar observance day (uposatha) of the fifteenth, the night of a great full moon -- he was sitting out in the open with the community of monastics.
Then a monk, rising from his seat, arranging his outer robe over one shoulder and placing his hands palm-to-palm over his heart, said to the Blessed One:
"Venerable sir, there is an area where, if the Blessed One will give me leave, I would like the answer to a question."
"Very well, monk. Sit back down in your seat and ask whatever you wish."
Responding to the Buddha, "Yes, venerable sir," the monk sat back down in his seat and said, "Are these not the Five Aggregates of Clinging -- form aggregate of clinging, feeling...perception...formations...consciousness aggregate of clinging?"
"Monk, these are indeed the five aggregates of clinging -- form...feeling...perception...formations...consciousness aggregate of clinging."
Saying, "Very good, venerable sir," the monk delighted and approved of the Blessed One's words and then asked him a further question: "But in what, venerable sir, are these Five Aggregates of Clinging rooted?"
"Monk, these Five Aggregates are rooted in craving."
More questions, explanations
Saying, "Very good, venerable sir," the monk...asked a further question:
"Is clinging the same thing as the Five Aggregates of Clinging, or is clinging separate from the Five Aggregates of Clinging?"
"Monk, clinging is neither the same thing as the Five Aggregates of Clinging, nor is it separate from them. It is just that whatever passion and delight is there, that is the clinging there."
Saying, "Very good, venerable sir," the monk...asked a further question: "Might there be diversity in the desire and passion for the Five Aggregates of Clinging?"
"There might, monk. There is the case where the thought occurs to someone, 'May I be one with such a form [body] in the future. May I be one with such a feeling [sensation]... perception [receptive of sensory stimuli]... [mental] formations... such a consciousness [awareness] in the future. This is how there would be diversity in the desire and passion for the Five Aggregates of Clinging."
Saying, "Very good, venerable sir," the monk...asked a further question: "To what extent does the designation 'aggregate' [heap, group, collection] apply to the aggregates [heaps]?"
"Monk, whatever form is past, future, or present, internal or external, coarse or subtle, mundane or sublime, far or near, that is called the aggregate of form.
"Whatever feeling is past, future, or present, internal or external, coarse or subtle, mundane or sublime, far or near, that is called the aggregate of feeling.
"Whatever perception is past, future, or present, internal or external, coarse or subtle, mundane or sublime, far or near, that is called the aggregate of perception.
"Whatever formations are past, future, or present, internal or external, coarse or subtle, mundane or sublime, far or near, those are called the aggregate of formations.
"Whatever consciousness is past, future, or present, internal or external, coarse or subtle, mundane or sublime, far or near, that is called the aggregate of consciousness.
[Note 1: One form of consciousness apparently does not come under the aggregate of consciousness. This is termed viññanam anidassanam -- consciousness without a surface, or consciousness without a feature. MN 49 says specifically that this consciousness does not partake of the "allness of the all," the "all" being conterminous with the Five Aggregates of Clinging. The standard definition of the aggregate of consciousness states that this aggregate includes all consciousness, "past, present, or future... near or far." However, because viññanam anidassanam stands outside of space and time, it would not be covered by these terms. Similarly, where SN 22.97 says that no consciousness is eternal, "eternal" is a concept that applies only within the dimension of time, so it would not apply to this form of consciousness.]
"This is the extent to which the term 'aggregate' applies to the aggregates."
Saying, "Very good, venerable sir," the monk...asked a further question: "Venerable sir, what is the cause, what the condition for the delineation [2] of the aggregate of form? And what is the cause, the condition for the delineation of the aggregate of feeling... perception... formations... consciousness?"
[Note 2: Delineation (paññapana) literally means, "making discernible." This apparently refers to the intentional aspect of perception, which takes the objective side of experience and forms, fabricates, makes it into discernible objects. In the case of the aggregates, the Four Great Elements, contact, and name-and-form provide the objective basis for discerning them, while the process of forming the mental formations takes the raw material provided by the objective basis and turns it into discernible instances of the aggregates. This process is described in slightly different terms in SN 22.79.]
"Monk, the Four Great Elements [are the characteristics of matter (rupa) known colloquially as earth, water, fire, and air] are the cause, the Four Great Elements are the condition for the delineation of the aggregate of form.
"Contact is the cause, contact the condition, for the delineation of the aggregate of feeling. Contact is the cause, contact is the condition for the delineation of the aggregate of perception.
"Contact is the cause, contact is the condition for the delineation of the aggregate of formations.
"Name-and-form (nama-rupa, mind and body, mentality and corporeality) is the cause, name-and-form is the condition for the delineation of the aggregate of consciousness." More
WARNING: Sass and some profanity from our new liberal, left-leaning centrist heroine (lol)
(CIA/CNN via WND) Bernie on Trump winning (11/10/16). This was our hero and source of hope? Biased, sell-out Wolf Blitzer: Bernie, do you think you could have beaten Trump? Bernie: "What good does it do now?! Ha-ha."
(CIA/CNN via MOX NEWScom) Filmmaker Michael Moore says Bernie Sanders would be president if [corrupt] Democrats had listened to the people!
Burn the El Don Trompo pinata in effigy? Hundreds of demonstrators seethe over being lied to by the mainstream media, propagandists, biased pollsters and pundits when told Hillary had it locked with 99% certainty when she was losing all along.
Anti-Trump demonstrators denounce Pres.-elect Trump in cities across the US (Reuters).
.
Thousands Across US Protest Trump Win
Protests against President-elect Donald Trump continue through the night in major cities across the U.S.A.
In New York City, thousands of demonstrators descended on Fifth Avenue's Trump Tower, and The New York Times says 15 people were arrested. Anti-Trump protesters in downtown Los Angeles burned an effigy of Donald Trump's head in front of City Hall [as UCLA students had earlier burned a whole body in Westwood], and hundreds of protesters shut down the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles. Crowds in Chicago blocked the entrance to Trump Tower, chanting [the MDC punk rock lyrics], "No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!"
"Protesters in Washington, DC held a candlelight vigil in front of the White House. Protests were also reported in Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Portland, Seattle, and Oakland [across the bridge from San Francisco]. More
US protests Trump, even if Bernie Sanders wants to work with him Sky News Donald Trump will be the next US president. For thousands, disappointment turned to protest as supporters of [corrupt criminal] Hillary Clinton channeled their disbelief into a single defiant message: "Not my president," they chanted. "Not today." [Not ever?]
In response to Trump's victory, a shocking win allegedly fueled by the rural roar of a dismayed white America, tens of thousands in at least 25 US cities -- including New York and Nashville, Chicago and Cleveland, San Francisco and Seattle -- shouted anti-Trump slogans, started fires, and held candlelight vigils to mourn the result.
Many of those demonstrations continued early Thursday morning and led to dozens of arrests.
"People are furious, not just at the results of the election, but the rhetoric of Donald Trump," Ahmed Kanna, an organizer for Social Alternative Berkeley, told CNN's Don Lemon.
Demonstrations outside Trump's properties
In New York, authorities estimated that as many as 5,000 people protested the real estate mogul's victory outside Trump Tower. They included pop star Lady Gaga, a staunch Clinton supporter.
Their concerns ranged from policies, such as his proposed plan to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, to the polarizing tenor of his campaign that stoked xenophobic [fear of outsiders] fears.
"I came out here to let go of a lot of fear that was sparked as soon as I saw the results," protester Nick Powers said. He said he feared Trump will support stronger stop-and-frisk policies that would put many people in prison. He also was worried that Trump's victory would embolden sexist views.
Fifteen Trump Tower protesters were arrested Wednesday night for disorderly conduct, an NYPD spokesman said.
In Chicago, activists marched down Lake Shore Drive -- an eight-lane expressway along Lake Michigan -- toward the Windy City's Trump Tower with signs such as one that said, "I still can't believe I have to protest for civil rights."
CNN's Ryan Young, who saw a few thousand people there, said many chanted vulgarities toward the president-elect.
"As a nation we thought we had come so far, but it seems like we're taking many steps back," one woman said. "We want to come together to change that."
Meanwhile, protesters in Washington chanted "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA," as they marched downtown to the Trump International Hotel. Elsewhere in the nation's capital, an illuminated sign proclaimed that the US is "better than bigotry."
Their cries turned profane after a solemn gathering of thousands who attended a candlelight vigil outside the White House to mourn the election loss.
Everything that has been built up has been destroyed," protester Brian Barto told CNN affiliate WJLA-TV. "America has failed (minorities)."Headed into Thursday, more than a thousand protesters in Los Angeles, including young Latino protesters, rallied outside City Hall, according to CNN's Paul Vercammen.
They chanted "I will not live in fear," "Fight back, stand up" and "¡Si se puede!" (Spanish for "Yes it can be done").
Protesters also set on fire a piñata depicting the head of president-elect.
Several protesters said they feared that family or friends might be deported once Trump takes office.
Brooklyn White, an 18-year-old protester who voted for Clinton, held a sign that said, "Hate won't win."
"We can't let it stop us," she said. "If he's the president then fine, but if Donald Trump is going to be it, then he has to listen."
Early on Thursday morning, the protesters marched onto the 101 Freeway and blocked traffic. Authorities arrested at least 13 protesters, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said.
In Oakland, California, police said as many as 7,000 demonstrators took to the streets Wednesday night. By then, trash fires burned on a highway. Johnna Watson, public information officer with Oakland's police department, said three officers were injured.
Thirty people were taken into custody and at least 11 citations were issued for vandalism, assaulting officers, unlawful assembly, failure to disperse and possession of a firearm. Police said some protesters threw Molotov cocktails, rocks, and fireworks at police officers.
A few miles away at Berkeley High School, about 1,500 students walked out of classes Wednesday morning. It was one of numerous high school walkouts that occurred nationwide following the election.
Supporters: Trump an "agent of change"
As anti-Trump protesters aired their grievances with the election's outcome, supporters also came out in some places to express their enthusiasm for the president-elect.
In New York early Wednesday, groups of Trump supporters cheered his triumph outside Trump Tower. Others went to the White House late Tuesday and early Wednesday to show their support.
Nicholas Elliot, a Georgetown University student, said he was elated about Trump's election as he compared it to the United Kingdom's Brexit vote to leave the European Union. More
Elon Musk believes we may be living in a simulated universe (Stringer/Reuters).
Is our world a simulation? Why some scientists say it is more likely than not.
A swath of technologists and physicists believe that "simulation theory" will be "proved," just as it was proved that the Earth was not the center of the universe.
When Elon Musk isn’t outlining plans to use his massive rocket to leave a decaying Planet Earth and colonize Mars, he sometimes talks about his belief that Earth isn’t even real and we probably live in a computer simulation.
The rise of robots: forget evil AI – the real risk is far more insidious
Musk is just one of the people in Silicon Valley to take a keen interest in the “simulation hypothesis,” which argues that what we experience as reality is actually a giant computer simulation created by a more sophisticated intelligence. If it sounds a lot like The Matrix, that’s because it is.
According to this week’s New Yorker profile of Y Combinator venture capitalist Sam Altman, there are two tech billionaires secretly engaging scientists to work on breaking us out of the simulation. But what does this mean? And what evidence is there that we are, in fact, living in The Matrix?
One popular argument for the simulation hypothesis, outside of acid trips, came from Oxford University’s Nick Bostrom in 2003 (although the idea dates back as far as the 17th-century philosopher René Descartes [the guy who famously deduced, "I think; therefore, I am").
In a paper titled “Are You Living In a Simulation?” Bostrom suggested that members of an advanced “posthuman” civilization with vast computing power might choose to run simulations of their ancestors in the universe.
This argument is extrapolated from observing current trends in technology, including the rise of virtual reality and efforts to map the human brain. More
Buddhism: Is the world real?
Question. Think for yourself: Kalama Sutra
Would anyone suggest a serious discussion of mad man Elon Musk's "world as simulation" theory? Would it not worry a person why, whether the theory is true or not, the media is promoting it as a serious thing to discuss?
It may be true. Let's say it's true. Why is the misleading-media telling us? Why do they promote so many zombie-related stories? Something's amiss in their reporting. Whose ends are being served? Let's stay afraid, very afraid. That's where the money is. And don't ask too many questions, kid. You may not like the answers.
The ultimate truth -- in a Buddhist worldview -- is that all of this is maya, a grand illusion. For it is not at all what it seems to be. Wait, what does it seem to be?
Look around. Look at anything. It seems to last, to endure, to persist when it is really passing away. All things are hurtling toward destruction.
It (the world) seems to be able to satisfy our desires, our cravings for pleasure and for things to be not as they are, our wants when it is really disappointing, unfulfilling, and unsatisfactory again and again. (How many times are we going to fall for the lures it places before our eyes -- delightful sights, sounds, savories, scents, sensations, and ideas in our heads?)
It seems to be, but in fact investigation shows that it is impersonal. It is not us, not ours, not property we can possess or control. It is empty (devoid of pith, essence, like an onion of many misleading layers). There is definitely something here -- which we can list, analyze, and label the Five Groups we Cling to -- but it is not what it appears to be.
The Teaching-Buddha of the Future: Maitreya
This is ultimate rather than conventional truth, and Elon Musk has not stumbled onto it. Musk is arguing that the unreal is unreal, whereas the Buddha was pointing out that even the real was unreal.
Is this the Grand Canyon or a picture of a Grand Canyon, and isn't it surprising that, ultimately speaking, the Grand Canyon is not what it appears to be. The Buddha called this realization seeing the Three Characteristics or Marks of Existence.
They mark all things (dharmas, conditioned phenomena). But there's one element not marked by these, not conditioned, not composed of parts like everything else, and therefore not falling away, unsatisfactory, and empty. And what is that? Nirvana.
How does one directly realize/experience that reality? Enlightenment. How does one get to the enlightenment the Buddha experienced? That's what Wisdom Quarterly has been talking from the onset. The short answer is that one cultivate serenity (jhana) and insight (prajna) by meditation (a calm and attentive mind) and mindfulness (nonjudgmental bare attention) as explained in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutra.
The Buddha gave a remarkable analogy. Realizing the true nature of existence is like stumbling into a ghost town. A town is there, but no one's in it.
It actually means that everything's all right, all right just as it is. But it is not safe here. Therefore, strive to get to the further shore beyond this danger, beyond life and death. Nirvana is that further shore.
If this realization is not approached with wisdom (wise attention, instruction), calm, and balance, it can be very misleading, disorienting, depressing, scary, and confusing. This Dharma is for the wise not the foolish, for the contented not the greedy, for the kind not cruel.
For if this Teaching (distinguishing ultimate and conventional truth) is picked up like a mishandled snake, that is to say, if it wrongly grasped, it is likely to turn and and do one harm. But if rightly grasped, it leads to happiness here and now, happiness hereafter, and liberation from all suffering.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, founder of Pussy Riot (AJ+); Masha Gessen on The Rachel Maddow Show; Russell Brand on The Trews; Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(AJ+, Nov. 12, 2016) Pussy Riot satirized a world where DJ Trump is president. Then he got elected in our corrupt electoral college system that lets mainstream candidates lose the popular vote and move into the oval office anyway.
WARNING: Explicit or at least very suggestive content. Not suitable for Russian or American public, okay for Europe, probably not Asia, elsewhere please check with your censors.
(WeArePussyRiot) Russian punk feminists Pussy Riot have turned their fire on [sexist, racist, buffoon] Donald Trump with a graphic, dystopian video that imagines the United States if the Republican presidential candidate wins.
(The Rachel Maddow Show, Nov. 12, 2016) Bogus, biased, nearly discredited lesbian talking head and Hillary supporter Rachel Maddow (MSNBC) does a great job of interviewing super Russian-American journalist-author Masha Gessen, who wrote the book on Pussy Riot and the movement that spawned feminist punk rock activists like Nadya and Co. Gessen's new article about life under Putin/Trump is called "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" (New York Review of Books).
Russell Brand makes sense
(Russell Brand) Trump. Right. Okay, the world's gone [really] nuts: Russell Brand on The Trews [if the news were true] (E372). In today's Trews [Nov. 10th] Brand responds to the [rigged as Greg Palast explains] U.S. elections results.
Soldier crying after glories of war -- killing, brutalizing, imposing rule (gettyimages.com)
(Slayer) "Fight Till Death" (lyrics and music by Jeff Hanneman) from the album "Show No Mercy"
LYRICS
Metal and men clash once more to the end
Warriors above with power to kill descend
Militia of blood troops of hate march to die
Soldiers of hell, VETERANS of death, arise!
CHORUS: Prepare for attack/Your bodies will burn/In this war there's no return/Prepare for attack/Death will arrive/Your orders are clear/No way to hide/Fight till death!
Senseless death of all mankind overtakes
Armored assassins destroy at will your escape
Children of sorrow are trampled onto the grave
There is no future, no f*cking world to be saved.
CHORUS. (To reign in hell!)
Gods of steel unleash their destruction on man
Reign of death what is the final command
Scepters of hate are dropped upon this earth
Clouds of terror destroy all hope of rebirth.
Fight till death. Fight till death. Fight till death.
Wrong livelihood: I want to be a killerslayer soldier
Our little murderer has been killed in war!
Right livelihood (samma ajivo) is the fifth of the eight path factors that comprise the Noble Eightfold Path, belonging to the virtue division of the Buddhist path.
Definition
"What is right livelihood? There is the case where a disciple of the noble ones [ariyas = enlightened ones], having abandoned karmically harmful livelihood, keeps life going by right livelihood: This is called right livelihood." — SN 45.8
Balance
"Herein [within this Doctrine], Vyagghapajja, a householder, knowing one's income and expenses, leads a balanced life, being neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that in this way one's income will be in excess of one's expenses and not expenses in excess of income.
(WQ) Sink not in debt like a stone in water (Sigalovada Sutra). For "if your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall."
I never meant to kill; you have to believe me!
"Just as the goldsmith or goldsmith's apprentice knows, on holding up a balance, that by so much it dips down, by so much it tilts up, even so a householder, knowing income and expenses, leads a balanced life, neither extravagant nor miserly, knowing that by this much income will be in excess of expenses and not expenses in excess of income." — AN 8.54
Wrong livelihood for lay followers
"A lay follower is wise to refrain from engaging in five types of business. What are the five? They are doing business [dealing, trading, profiteering] in weapons, human beings, meat, intoxicants, and poisons." — AN 5.177
Want to be a killer soldier? You may want to reconsider...
Althouse: The Crying Soldier
Then the chieftain Yodhajiva went to the Blessed One [the Buddha], bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and said:
"Venerable sir, I have heard that it has been passed down through the ancient teaching lineage of warriors that, 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of devas [angels, beings of light] slain in battle.' What does the Blessed One have to say about this?"
"Enough, chieftain, set that aside. Do not ask that."
I'm going to knock in some heads (AP)
But a second and third time...the chieftain Yodhajiva [persisted and repeated the same question...] "What does the Blessed One have to say about this?"
"It seems, chieftain, that I have been unable to dissuade you by saying, 'Enough, chieftain, set that aside. Do not ask that.' So I will answer plainly:
Live by the sword: 'TIl death do us part (Slayer)
"When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, his mind is already seized, debased, and misdirected by this thought [intention, volition, motivation]:
"'May these beings be struck down, slaughtered, annihilated, and destroyed. May they cease to exist!' If others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, he will reborn in a hell called the realm of those slain in battle.
Live by the gun as a soldier then a cop (AP).
"But if one holds such a view as this: 'When a warrior strives and exerts himself in battle, if others strike him down and slay him while he is striving and exerting himself in battle then, with the breakup of the body, after death, he is reborn in the company of devas slain in battle' -- that is his wrong view.
"Now, I tell you, there are two destinations for a person possessed of wrong view -- hell [the downfall, which includes many different types of increasingly bad worlds] or the animal realm [rebirth as any of the many diversified types of animals]."
They lied to me, cheated me fooled me!
When this was said, the chieftain Yodhajiva burst into tears and sobbed. [The Buddha then said:] "That is what I could not get you to set aside by saying, 'Enough, chieftain, set that aside. Do not ask that.'"
"Venerable sir, I am not crying because of what the Blessed One said to me, but because I have been deceived, cheated, and fooled for so long by that ancient teaching lineage of warriors who say [that one would be reborn] in the company of angels [or heroes] slain in battle.'" — SN 42.3
Oh, our little killer was killed while trying to kill others for his government!
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Republicans rigged our gerrymandered system so that a minority won over a majority of voters. The consolation in California? Now big corporations will start selling high intensity marijuana (high THC, low CBD) like sugar, alcohol, and cigarettes to dumb everyone down with a new variation of an "opium for the masses."
(The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) Bernie Sanders: Now More Than Ever, It's Our Revolution. The Vermont senator -- whose task may have been to attract leftists and guide them back to the mainstream party ("Bernies' Plan B: Follow me to Hillary") -- remains optimistic about the country's future and urges citizens to become more deeply involved in the political process. He's got a new summer home and a new book just out, Our Revolution. Will you fall for it again? We never understood the slur "libtard" till now.
