Monday, July 31, 2017

Muslims love Jesus and Mary (audio)

Matthew Bell (PRI's The World , July 31, 2017); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly
A Christian man, portraying the Jew Jesus Christ, is hung on a cross during a re-enactment of the crucifixion on Good Friday in al-Qraya village, in southern Lebanon, April 14, 2017. Muslims also revere Jesus as a prophet. In the Quran, the story of Jesus describes him as a messenger, a messiah, and the “word of God” (Ali Hashisho/Reuters).


Who's that good Muslim prophet on the cross?
[Can we all just get along?] Muslims revere [the Jew] Jesus, too, but this Turkish author sees the Islamic Jesus in a new light.

Newcomers to the Quran [Muslim bible] might be surprised to find that the Prophet Muhammad is only mentioned a handful of times in the Muslim holy book.


The prophet whose name is mentioned most? That would be Moses -- indeed, the very same Moses from the Book of Exodus.
Jesus, the son of Mary, is mentioned numerous times in the Quran. And the Islamic version of the Jesus story, it turns out, tracks quite closely to the one that Christians know. 

The Quran has a whole chapter about Mary, who is the only woman mentioned by name in the holy book.

Christians hate Islam. Thanks, Republicans.
In one scene after the birth of her child, Mary is confronted by holy men accusing her of being impure. That is when baby Jesus speaks up in his mother’s defense, performing one of a couple of miracles that never show up in the New Testament version of the Jesus story. 

About 15 years ago, the Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol was handed a copy of the New Testament for the first time by a missionary on the street in Istanbul. Akyol says he went home and started reading it, and what struck him most was how much of the story of Jesus was already so familiar to him as a Muslim.

Such as the angel visiting the Virgin Mary to tell her that she would give birth to a son, and the description of Jesus as a messenger of God. “It was so similar,” Akyol says. More

What did the other Christians believe?

The Lost [Gnostic] Gospels: What They Don't Want Us to Know
NewEarth Son
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Drugs: "The Stoned Ages" (video)

History Channel; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly
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TED Talk: Human language and caves (video)


Why are these 32 symbols found in caves all over Europe?
TEDWritten language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing systems, our ancestors scrawled geometric signs across the walls of caves they sheltered in.

Paleoanthropologist and rock art researcher Genevieve von Petzinger has studied and codified these ancient markings in caves across Europe. The uniformity of her findings suggest that graphic communication, and the ability to preserve and transmit messages beyond a single moment in time, may be much older than we think.

The Roots of Religion
The Roots of Religion: Genevieve Von Petzinger (TEDxVictoria)
(TEDx) Doctoral student in anthropology at the University of Victoria, Genevieve Von Petzinger's main area of interest is understanding the geometric imagery of European Ice Age rock art and how we can use this type of behavior to identify cognitive and symbolic evolution in modern humans. Her work was featured on the cover of New Scientist in 2010 and Science Illustrated in 2011, and she has also appeared on the Discovery Channel's popular program Daily Planet.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. (Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at ted.com/translate)
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America's the poorest 1st World country (video)

Chris Hedges, Linh Dinh (RT): Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

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5 Censored US Books and Vagina (video)

Naomi Wolf, Mark Crispin Miller, Abby Martin (Breaking the Set); Editors, Wisdom Quarterly


Abby Martin speaks with NYU Media Studies Professor Mark Crispin Miller about five historical books that have been actively suppressed by the CIA an others, hidden from the American public.

Female sexuality from Naomi Wolf's book Vagina: A New Biography
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Thursday, July 27, 2017

TED Talk: Life is an illusion (video)

Anil Seth (TED Talks); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


Brain hallucinates our conscious reality
Right now billions of neurons in our brain are working together to generate a conscious experience -- and not just any conscious experience, our experience of the world around us and of ourselves within it.

How does this happen? According to neuroscientist Anil Seth, we are all hallucinating all the time. When we agree about our hallucinations, we call it "reality."

Life's not what it seems: Seeing's not believing
Seth takes us on a delightfully disorienting talk that may leave us all questioning the very nature of our existence.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts, and more.
What is the True Nature of Existence?
American Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi; Wisdom Quarterly; UrbanDharma.org
A buddha is a supremely enlightened teacher like the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.
   
American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi once created a ten-part audio course on Buddhism called "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is" while living in Washington Buddhist Vihara in DC. One of the talks explains reality:

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The NEW richest man in the world! (video)

Bloomberg.com; Crystal Quintero, Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
I win, I win! Everyone can see I'm the winner. Now I'm going to go buy some happiness.
  • Amazon's Founder, Chairman, CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest!
It's okay! He's one of us. What a great country!
With a paper fortune of $92.3 billion in stock, CEO Bezos is a major shareholder.
 
At 9:30 this morning, Amazon stock began selling at $1,083.31 a share making him the WORLD'S RICHEST HAPPIEST MAN beating out Mexican cellphone magnate Carlos Slim and MicroSoft's miserable developer and CIA-partner Bill Gates.
    The Market giveth, the Market taketh away
    Bloomberg.com, July 27, 2017 (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)
    The invisible hand of the market.
    A surge in Amazon.com Inc. shares Thursday morning in advance of the online retailer’s earnings report briefly propelled founder Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the world’s richest person.

    Shares of the online retailer fell 0.7 percent to $1,046 by 4:00 pm in New York [home of Wall Street and the NY Stock Exchange, possibly putting Bill Gates back in the lead].

    This is after climbing as high as $1,083.31 four hours earlier, which gave Bezos a net worth of $92.3 billion. Gates had a net worth of $90.8 billion as of the Wednesday close. More

    Depressed by this story? Go read about the "stars" at this time-dump: zergnet.com
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    Study: happiness can be bought (audio)

    AirTalk/KPCC (scpr.org,

    Happiness for sale: how to buy it
    If you have money, call me. I'll make you happy.
    New study explains how happiness can be bought.

    It’s often been said that money can’t (or won’t) buy happiness. The road to adulthood is littered with cautionary tales with this idea as the moral.
     
    King Midas’ touch turned things to gold, but he soon realized the fatal flaw in his plan after touching his daughter and turning her to a gold statue.
    • NEWSFLASH: Amazon.com's Founder, Chairman, CEO Jeff Bezos (with a paper fortune of $92.3 billion in stock) is a major shareholder. At 9:30 this morning, Amazon stock began selling at $1,083.31/share making him the WORLD'S RICHEST HAPPIEST MAN beating out Mexican cellphone magnate Carlos Slim and MicroSoft's miserable Bill Gates.
    http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-new-richest-man-in-world-video.html
    • VIDEO: Bezos surpasses Gates as world's richest man (Bloomberg.com, July 27) A surge in Amazon.com Inc. shares Thursday morning in advance of the online retailer’s earnings report briefly propelled founder Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the world’s richest person. More+VIDEO
    I could give this to someone to do things.
    One of author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic characters, eccentric millionaire Jay [The Great] Gatsby, throws lavish parties every weekend and has all the world’s modern comforts but can’t buy the one thing that truly makes him happy: love [of another character, Daisy, he desires more than anything].
     
    But the findings of a new study suggests that you might actually be able to buy yourself happiness -- if you spend your money right.
     
    The study, co-authored by American and Dutch researchers, suggests that people who buy time for themselves are happier than those who don’t. Think paying someone to go grocery shopping, walk your dog, or do your laundry.
     
    Stacks of time = stacks of potential happiness.
    The study surveyed 6,000 respondents from four countries and also conducted an experiment in which participants were given $40 one week to buy something material then $40 the following week.

    People said they were happier when they had more time versus when they purchased a material thing.
     
    There's money in these good luck envelopes.
    With the prevalence of the gig economy and apps that allow you to pay other people to do your grocery shopping or walk your dog, it would seem it’s easier than ever to buy yourself extra time and therefore buy yourself some happiness, that is, assuming you can afford to do it.
      
    What do you think about the findings of this [overblown] study? Does it correlate to your own life experiences? What kinds of tasks did you once do yourself that you now pay someone else to do? Do you find yourself happier as a result? More + AUDIO
    • Guest: Elizabeth Dunn, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and co-author of the study
    Silicon Valley's sexual harassment issue have a long history. Corruption at Samsung!

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      How to break out of jail (video)

      Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Libby Denkmann (KPCC.org); In the Woods

      (NBC4) Newly released video shows California inmates' escape from OC jail! The escapees film themselves breaking out of maximum security detention before kidnapping a taxi driver, living it up in San Francisco with marijuana, bananas, Jack Daniels, then getting caught.
       
      Hurry up and wait in that cell, convict!
      It’s been more than a year since three inmates escaped from a maximum security wing at the Santa Ana Central Men’s Jail in Orange County.
       
      A week passed before the manhunt ended in San Francisco, where two of the inmates were captured [after hanging out in the Whole Foods parking lot]. The third escapee turned himself in to local authorities.

      NBC4 obtained a video taken by the three men who escaped a maximum-security wing at an Orange County jail last year, using a contraband cellphone.

      But a new video from a lawyer connected to the case was released this week to KPCC FM media partner NBC4. The cell (mobile) phone video is shot in first-person by one of the three inmates who broke out of the O.C. prison, showing both the escape and the days following during their run.
       
      The footage has one of the escaped prisoners, Adam Hossein Nayeri, debunking [false] claims that [officials at] the jail made about their escape. This has led to questions about jail security and the transparency over what happened during the incident.

      Today Libby Denkmann speaks to reporters who’ve been following the story to find out more. More + AUDIO (interview)

      GUESTS
      Southern California Public Radio (scpr.org) for Los Angeles from KPCC 89.3 FM
      .
      DETAILS, DETAILS: This video has emerged, showing how three prisoners broke out of the Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana, California earlier this year. The video was shot on a contraband cellphone and shows the three inmates escaping through a vent which led to the roof. However, the video doesn't show how they got off the roof (using high tension industrial rope not as officials lied about saying it was sheets tied together). Authorities lied to protect themselves when they said the trio used a chain of bed linens to get off the roof, and the media bought it and reported it without questioning or pushing back on the claim. The video also includes several photos that the three men took during their nearly a week on the run. The men are seeing smiling at the beach with a cabbie who they allegedly took hostage and forced to drive them to San Francisco. In other photos, they smile and pose in front of the Haight-Ashbury intersection (SF's hippie district). The video ends with two of the escapees smoking marijuana in the back of a van just two hours before they were recaptured. Jonathan Tieu, 20, Bac Duong, 43, and Hossein Nayeri, 37, escaped from Orange County Central Men’s Jail on Jan. 22, 2016. From left, Jonathan Tieu, 20, Bac Duong, 43, and Hossein Nayeri, 37, escaped from Orange County Central Men’s Jail on Jan. 22, 2016. Three maximum security inmates broke out of Orange County Jail in 2016, spent days on the run and recorded the entire thing. Video obtained by NBC4 shows a first-person perspective of the escape. It contains voice-overs from one of the escapees, a compilation of news clips regarding their break-out, and video of their time fleeing authorities.
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      How smart are you? (quiz)

      Quiz (offbeat.topix.com); Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly
      Why are things free on the Internet? When it's free, YOU'RE the commodity. Email, LinkedIn/hiQ, porn, Facebook, SnapChat, Twitter, YouTube, social media -- it's all about mining information about you for data analytic firms. You put it on the Net for a tiny segment of the public to see, but a bot mines the data and sells it to corporations and the NSA, NSE, NSC, FBI, CIA, DHS, IRS, and the whole alphabet. It's a great business model and a dismal invasion of privacy that co-opts you to provide it.
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      What is the True Nature of Existence? (audio)

      Ven. Bodhi; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; Urban Dharma
      A buddha is a supremely enlightened teacher like the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.
         
      Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, Ph.D.
      American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi once created a ten-part audio course on Buddhism called "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is" while living in Washington Buddhist Vihara in DC.

      It was 1981 and Bhante G (then president of the Buddhist Vihara Society) suggested that young Bhikkhu Bodhi record lectures so the temple could distribute them as a set.

      Traveling to Kandy, Sri Lanka -- where Bhikkhu Bodhi was living as editor of the Buddhist Publication Society -- to get permission to more widely publish these teachings. Bhikkhu Bodhi gladly gave it so long as it was not-for-profit but instead a gift of Dharma. The lectures are now in the "public domain," which means anyone may copy and help distribute them.

      They make the most sense when listened to in the sequence Bhikkhu Bodhi recorded and listed them as they build on one another. These are MP3 files (free download) thanks to the great work of Los Angeles' Ven. Kusala at urbandharma.com).

      Our noble meditation teacher Kalyani recommends they be placed on an MP3 player and listened to throughout the day. The simple merit of giving the gift of Dharma becomes supramundane when one listens and gains insight into the Buddha's message. Special thank you Bhikkhu Bodhi for decades of remarkable English scholarship bringing the Teachings to life.

      AS IT IS (audio files)
      1. The Buddha - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19 MB
      2. The Four Noble Truths - MP3 - 1:21 min - 18.6 MB
      3. The True Nature of Existence - MP3 - 1:18 min - 18 MB
      4. Dependent Origination - MP3 - 1:15 min - 17.2 MB
      5. Rebirth and Karma - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19.1 MB
      6. Nirvana - MP3 - 1:16 min - 17.5 MB
      7. The Noble Eightfold Path - MP3 - 1:19 min - 18.1 MB
      8. Meditation - MP3 - 1:23 min - 19 MB
      9. Social Teachings of the Buddha - MP3 - 1:17 min - 17.7 MB
      10. The Sangha - MP3 - 1:18 min - 17.9 MB
      REVIEW
      Wisdom Quarterly
      1. The series begins by introducing what a buddha is and who the Buddha was.
      2. Then it moves on to the core teachings, Buddhism encapsulated in the Four Ennobling Truths. ("Noble" means enlightened).
      3. Reality is explained in Lecture 3.
      4. Then the means of gaining liberating-insight by mindful contemplation of the 12 links of causality called Dependent Origination to explain how the present suffering is rooted in the past.
      5. This leads to a discussion of rebirth and karma, essential links that reveal the true nature of disappointment (suffering or dukkha) central to the Buddha's teaching on how to bring about the end of suffering in the very life.
      6. Nirvana (called nibbana in Pali) is the complete cessation of suffering. It is NOT nothingness, emptiness, or the void. It is far subtler than we will ever imagine.
      7. It is brought about by cultivating the supramundane Noble Eightfold Path  of paths-and-fruits, magga-and-phala.
      8. This path is one of meditation (actual practice) more than intellectual study and detached learning.
      9. But self-cultivation in Buddhism also includes a sensitivity to the social dimension that critics of the ancient Theravada ("Teaching of the Buddhist Elders") school often cite as self-serving, wrongly assuming that the Buddha neglected society when in fact so much of his teachings are concerned with the betterment of a world that does not for the most part meditate.
      10. Those who dedicate their lives to meditating, to preserving the Dharma, and to teaching are the Sangha, the Monastic Order. As Americans and Socially Engaged Buddhists, we tend to dismiss the Order of Nuns and Monks (and countless temporarily-ordained practitioners) as an anachronism even as they continue to be a vibrant part of Buddhism.
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      Tuesday, July 25, 2017

      The Sky's Gone Out: Full Eclipse 2017 (video)

      GreatAmericanEclipse; Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


      (Bauhaus) Original Goth music "The Sky's Gone Out" from the classic album of the same name.*

      A total solar eclipse is unlike anything else we see in our lives. As totality approaches on August 21st, we will see the astonishing sight of day turning to night and the Sun's corona ("crown") blazing in the sky.

      The approaching spectacle is truly a great American eclipse because totality will sweep the nation from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. Nearly everyone in the USA can reach a place to see a total solar eclipse within a day's drive.

      Where can I see the full eclipse in the US?
      An eclipse is a cosmic billiard shot -- the Sun, Moon, and Earth line up to reveal the Sun's "atmosphere," its corona. Eclipses on Earth occur only because of an amazing celestial coincidence [or because the space people, the akasha devas who placed our Moon exactly where it is had a reason for doing so. The God? No. "Intelligent" Design? Sort of.] More + VIDEO
       
      What did the Buddha say about it?
      Samudra manthan bas-relief at Cambodian Buddhist/Hindu temple Angkor Wat shows Vishnu (Kurma avatar), center, with titans (asuras) and devas on sides. See annotated version.
      .
      (WQ) The many "gods," be they devas or brahmas, tampering and tinkering with this colony -- this "generation" and its many humanoid species and other creatures over the aeons -- vivified our planet. This is what histories and mythologies from India affirm. According to the Buddha, life on Earth began when... More
        
      Buddhist mythology
      Borrowed from ancient Vedic tradition; Wikipedia edit by Wisdom Quarterly
      The Buddha is a wise teacher who knows.
      The titan Rahu is mentioned explicitly in a pair of scriptures from the Samyutta Nikaya of the Pali canon.

      In the Candima Sutra and the Suriya Sutra, Rahu attacks Suriya (the Sun deity) and Chandra (the Moon deity) before being compelled to release them by the recitation of a brief stanza conveying the deities' reverence for the Buddha.
       
      The titan Rahu makes trouble in space (W).
      The Buddha responds by enjoining Rahu to release them, which Rahu does rather than having his head spontaneously "split into seven pieces" (Suriya Sutra).

      The verses recited by the two celestial deities and the Buddha have since been incorporated into Buddhist liturgy as protective verses (pirith or paritta) recited by Buddhist monastics as protective chants (Access to Insight, summary in the Devaputta-samyutta section).

      *Bauhaus: The Sky's Gone Out (full album)
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      Native Americans: Our ET origins (Star People)

       
      ET Origins: Secrets of the Star People
      UFOTV® The Disclosure NetworkThis fascinating documentary was created by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Bill Cote, who brought us The Mystery of the Sphinx, The Mysterious Origins of Man, and The Mysterious Stone Monuments of Markawasi Peru, all available for viewing at UFOTV® via YouTube.

      Tribal elders speak out
      In this film, Native American tribal leaders speak out for the first time about their secret knowledge of the Star People, knowledge that has been passed down for thousands of years. 

      It was revealed in a dream among tribal elders that now was the time for the tribes to break their silence and share their hidden knowledge of the Star People, visitors from other worlds.

      Meet people with firsthand experience of extraterrestrials (ETs), and hear amazing stories of the unknown. Witness a mysterious event that occurred in our skies -- for some a very visible and public sign from the Star People that we are not alone.

      2016 best ET movie. Coming soon to Special Edition DVD, iTunes, AmazonPRIME & UFOTV® on Roku. UFOTV® Accept no Imitations! (Please vote thumbs-up for UFOTV®!). ©2015 UFOTV® The Disclosure Movie Network and BC Video, Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pagan Europe knew of these ancient mysteries like the world tree, Yggdrasil, representing the planets of our solar system much as the axis mundi Mt. Sumeru in Buddhist texts.

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