Against the Stream closes due to Noah Levine

ATS Board of Directors (AgainstTheStream); Ananda (DMI), Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

LETTER FROM ATS BOARD

Dear [Against the Stream] Sangha,

In the last album of his life, three weeks before his death, Leonard Cohen sang this:

I wish there was a treaty we could sign

I do not care who takes this bloody hill

I’m angry and I’m tired all the time

I wish there was a treaty

I wish there was a treaty

Between your love and mine.

F all of you! It was mine to close. What of it?

While we may not be angry or tired, something about this verse feels right. Whoever you are, wherever your heart rests in this moment, may there be this: a treaty between your love and ours.

We want to acknowledge our bottomless gratitude for everyone who has created goodness in the ATS community. So many people have offered their hearts, talent and resources. The ripples and resonances of this goodness will continue. Refuge does not arise in a particular place, but in the space between the goodness of our hearts.

When this space is imbued with wisdom, respect and love, we call it sangha. It has been a privilege to walk this path together. We hope that the pain of recent months actually leads us back towards the heart and that we might understand compassion, clarity and change ever more deeply. As we have learned from practice, great pain does not erase goodness, but in fact, informs it.

Dipa Ma said, “There is nothing ultimately to cling to in this world. However, life is not to be rejected. It is here. And as long as it is here and we are here, we can make the best use of it.”

May we make the best use of our lives. Whatever freedom arises, may this be a cause and condition for less suffering and more safety in our world.

Love,

ATS Board of Directors

ATS Teachers Council

ATS Grievance Council

• Refuge Recovery meetings continue in Hollywood
• Find meetings near you at RefugeRecovery.org

Heavy metal in Asian hands (video)

Babymetal  竜宮ツカイ, interview, Rob Halford (AP); CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

 

BABYMETAL: "Catch Me If You Can"「かくれんぼ」

Full live compilation. 高画質、最高音質です、ヘッドホン等を使用して大音量で聞く事をおすすめします。 ◎Thank you to all BABYMETAL fans worldwide who have uploaded great live clips. All hail the influence of the dark goddess Ariana Grande.

GUILTY: Kavanaugh on SNL (comedy)

Matt Damon, Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers, 9/29/18; Wisdom Quarterly

We watched the whole sordid trial, found both sides very compelling, then figured out Judge B.M. Kavanaugh was lying, dissembling, diverting, avoiding answering, trying to avoid prosecution for sexual assault (as there is no statute of limitation in Maryland). And just when the Republican-hired prosecutor/questioner figured out the exact date of the event was listed on Kavanaugh's own calendar, Lindsay Graham threw a fit to divert attention, and the prosecutor was shuttled out of there never to ask another question. What a sham. Now this phony "FBI investigation" has been announced to add a veneer of legitimacy over a stinking mass of Trump's manure, and everyone seems to be falling for it. The Democrat, the "opposition," seem to do about as much to harm us as the Republicans do, Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Kavanaugh Hearing Cold Open: SNL

Judge Brett Kavanaugh (Matt Damon) takes questions from Senators Chuck Grassley (Alex Moffat), Dianne Feinstein (Cecily Strong), Amy Klobuchar (Rachel Dratch), Thom Tillis (Mikey Day), Cory Booker (Chris Redd), John Kennedy (Kyle Mooney), Sheldon Whitehouse (Pete Davidson), Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon) and prosecutor Rachel Mitchell (Aidy Bryant). #SNL #SNL44 Full episodes: nbc.com/saturday-night-liv..., facebook.com/snl.

Trump Holds Crazy Press Conference to Defend Brett Kavanaugh: A Closer Look

Seth Meyers takes a closer look at Lying President Trump's crazy solo press conference where he defended his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, from sexual assault allegations. LateNightSet, Seth Meyers: nbc.com/late-night-with-se....

This is why Trump doesn't do solo press conferences
(The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sept. 26, 2018) Colbert delivers a monologue about Trump's long, incoherent, rambling press conference just minutes after Trump's long, incoherent, rambling press conference. Subscribe To "The Late Show" Channel HERE: http://bit.ly/ColbertYouTube For more content from "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", click HERE: http://bit.ly/1AKISnR Watch full episodes of "The Late Show" HERE: http://bit.ly/1Puei40.

Full Frontal with Samantha Be

Sam Goes Full Carrie Over Kavanaugh (Act 1)

(Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Sept. 26, 2018) It's been yet another week of non-stop hellfire, sh*t news. And thanks to [accused gang rapist] Brett Kavanaugh, Sam finally has her Carrie moment. Watch Full Frontal with Samantha Bee all new Wednesdays at 10:30/ 9:30c on TBS, fullfrontalsa..., twitter.com/FullFrontalSamB, facebook.com/fullfrontals....

• Act 2: His So-Called Ruined Life, 9/26/18, Full Frontal
• Act 3: Revenge of the Cheerleaders, 9/26/18, Full Frontal:

LIAR: Kavanaugh's felony lies (video)

CBS News, live coverage; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Look at Thurs, July 1, 1982 for day of attack.

Lying to the Senate is a felony. Judge B.M. Kavanaugh was asked by the right honorable Senator Kamala Harris (a brilliant Black Native American from California), Did you watch Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's testimony? No, he answered. This is a demonstrable lie as attested to by a photo of him watching it and the testimony of the person who took the photo who saw him watching it. Of course, he lied more than that about much bigger things. He lied about blackout drinking. He lied about never being at such parties when his own calendar shows a gathering quite like that (Thursday, July 1, 1982).

But as he well knows as a judge, a lie in one thing may be taken to mean a lie in all things, as another senator reminded him is often the instruction to juries. Why did he lie? Why not? He was prepared to lie about any and everything to get himself on the supreme court. He lied to the world. He lied to his victims. He lied to his God with his parents in the room. Hypocrite. He does not have the judicial temperament to serve on SCOTUS, in addition to being a felon, a gang rapist, a blackout drinker, a skilled liar, an angry and belligerent and disrespectful sober person.

• ChinatownLA.com: 80th annual Harvest Moon Festival

Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford full testimonies before the Senate Judiciary Committee

CBS News, streamed live on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018)

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers, both testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Ford said during her testimony that she was "100 percent" sure that Kavanaugh assaulted her, while Kavanaugh said that he was "100 percent" sure he had not done anything of the kind. The differences are irreconcilable. After the full day of dramatic testimony, Kavanaugh's supporters in the Senate were largely ready to move forward with his confirmation vote, though a few key senators remained undecided Thursday night as his confirmation hangs in the balance. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh's confirmation Friday. For a full recap: cbsnews.com/news/christin... CBSN live: cbsn.ws/1PlLpZ7

Republican rapists and race in America

Associated Press (ap.org); Seth Auberon, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

America's erstwhile "dad" becomes "America's Rapist" and sits in prison.

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Hearing on Kavanaugh allegations puts #MeToo to the test

WASHINGTON, D.C. - No matter what ultimately happens to Brett Kavanaugh and the women who accuse the Supreme Court nominee of sexual misconduct, the Senate hearing on the allegations will offer a historic test of the #MeToo movement, which began only a year ago.

He may gang rape and molest, but he's a good provider. Church says to stand by him.

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TOP PHOTO: A crowd gathers at Dilworth Plaza by the city hall for a walkout in solidarity with Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, in Philadelphia on Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. Survivors of sexual assault shared their stories with the crowd, and then led a march around City Hall. The walkout is part of a nationwide movement called for by Tarana Burke, the founder of the #MeToo movement (Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP).

 

He's white. We're white. That's the US.

Since it coalesced around accusations against Harvey Weinstein, the movement has toppled many prominent abusers in Hollywood, journalism and politics. But #MeToo has also been about believing survivors, and the treatment of Kavanaugh's accusers raises questions about whether that part of the mission remains largely unfulfilled.

 

The young movement is "fighting an uphill path, going against centuries of accepted, ingrained bad behavior," said Kristen Houser of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. "I think people say we're at a tipping point. I don't believe that. I don't think anything's tipped."

 

Some advocates say the handling of the complaints — especially lawmakers' unwillingness to authorize a deeper investigation into Kavanaugh's conduct — shows how... More

• Rape-loving Catholic Church wants more in China 

1. Lawyer: Firing of officer who killed neighbor is premature
2. Cosby in cuffs: TV star gets 3 to 10 years for sex assault
3. Dallas police officer who shot neighbor fired by department
4. Woman says ex pressed for baby, didn't know her plan to kill
5. Judge appears likely to toss Stormy Daniels' defamation suit

The REAL Planet of the Apes (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, S. Auberon, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; BBC; Motherboard; DiscoveryApes are not monkeys are not gorillas are not humans are not Bigfoot, dummy. Get it right!

Did you know there's a talking gorilla?

(BBC Earth, June 2016) Meet Koko, a western lowland gorilla that has been taught sign language. She's making us question what we think we know about animal intelligence. Join in the conversation on social media with #TalkingGorilla. The full documentary aired on BBC One on June 15th and was available on BBC iPlayer for 30 days afterwards. In the US it was broadcast on PBS on August 3rd. BBC Earth has a YouTube channel, too, as well as Facebook (ex-UK only), twitter, and a regular website at bbc.com/earth/world for all the latest animal news and wildlife videos from BBC Worldwide, trading as BBC Studios, who help fund new BBC programs.

 

The Real Planet of the Apes (documentary) 

(Motherboard) This crew traveled to remote Liberia, Africa, to find "Monkey Island," an area inhabited solely by former lab tested chimpanzees that have survived disease, unimaginable human cruelty, and two civil wars. Motherboard goes to the island, interviews the locals, and meets the cruel scientists involved in the testing facility 25 years ago. Read These Chimps Helped Us Find a Hepatitis Vaccine. Now They've Been Left to Die. This documentary is a Motherboard production, made possible by 20th Century Fox's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Check out Motherboard's fictional narratives, set in the world of "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes": Spread of Simian Flu: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year 1). Struggling to Survive: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year 5). Story of the Gun: Before the Dawn of the Apes (Year 10). Subscribe and follow on facebook.com/motherboardtv and twitter.com/motherboard.

 

Most brutal chimpanzee society ever discovered: Rise of the Warrior Apes 

(Discovery UK, March 2017) This video tells the epic story of an extraordinary troop of chimpanzees, as they brutally fight other chimp colonies and each other to be the largest apes known to man [other than Sasquatch, which leading researchers say is not an ape but which Native American tradition says is human, which would seem to make them as ape as modern humans]. Subscribe to Discovery TV for more great clips: youtube.com/subscription and follow Discovery on twitter.com/DiscoveryUK.

Animals: Full Moon Honey Offering

BD Dipananda (BuddhistDoor.net); Dhr. Seven, Ananda M., Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha with monkey and elephant in Parileyya Forest (scentsofgrace)

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The Honey-Offering Festival: Commemorating the Service of Animals to the Buddha

A forest monkey makes an offering of honey.

The Honey-Offering Festival is a Buddhist religious ceremony that commemorates the service and sustenance provided by animals to the Buddha during his tenth rains retreat [following his enlightenment] at Parileyya Forest.

According to legend, during his stay in the forest a monkey brought him an offering of a honeycomb to eat, while an elephant brought fruit and protected the Buddha from fierce animals.
 

Golden statue of the kind elephant and generous monkey

When the Buddha accepted the gift of the honeycomb, the monkey became overjoyed and began to leap from tree to tree. He thereby suffered a fatal fall in his reckless jubilation.

However, because of his generous gift, the monkey was immediately reborn in the celestial World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa), the second of the six heavens in the Sensual Sphere (Kama Loka).

Since these events are believed to have taken place on the day of the full moon, the occasion has come to be commemorated as Madhu Purnima or “honey full moon.”

The festival is observed on the full moon day of the tenth lunar month, mostly by Theravada Buddhists in South and Southeast Asia.

This year (2018) the festival falls on September 28th, and Theravada Buddhists in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and elsewhere will observe it by offering honey and other foods as alms to monastics.

As a Buddhist lunar day of observance, uposatha, that dates back to the time of the Buddha and during which members of the monastic community or sangha and lay practitioners observe their practice more deeply -- the basic Monastic Code (Patimokkha) governing conduct within the Monastic Order is recited.

Traditionally, a minimum of four monastics is required to recite the basic code; however, in circumstances when fewer monastics are present, the Vinaya (full set of Monastic Rules) prescribes alternative activities. The most senior monk of the group leads the ceremony, following a ritual for mental purification.
 
Lay Buddhists also play an active role in commemorating the day, many of them observing the Eight Precepts (uposatha sila):
 
1. To refrain from taking life
2. To refrain from stealing
3. To refrain from sexual activity
4. To refrain from false speech (perjury, etc.)
5. To refrain from using intoxicants
6. To refrain from eating at the improper time
7. To refrain from dancing, singing, wearing garlands, and perfumes
8. To refrain from using luxurious sleeping places.
 
They can also practice meditation, listen to Dharma talks, recite sutras, and participate in other ritual activities. More

 

What is the attitude of Buddhism toward animals? The Full Moon Honey Offering is a poignant tale that shows the special place and potential of animals in the Buddhist tradition. The Dharma Meditation Initiative commemorates it on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 at 7:00 PM, Neighborhood UU Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Room 23, Pasadena, Los Angeles, CA 91103.

Mandela Effect, DMT, Simulation... (video)

Felipe Alexander (2016 video); What's the Mandela Effect?; Pat Macpherson, Ananda M. (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mandela Effect, DMT, Simulation Reality, I-Ching, and more

Felipe A.

The Mandela Effect is perhaps one of the most shocking, overwhelming, and confounding certainties.

It can penetrate the human mind so harshly that it can cause a small awakening within an individual or cause one to denounce such wild theories and use the confabulation argument via Wikipedia on every single effect despite the growing mass of evidence that something is clearly altering recorded history.

For many of us the Mandela Effect has had a profound influence in our lives since discovering it. Life was for lack of a better term "normal" before the Mandela Effect, but after coming in contact with this it has caused many of us, including me, to question my own beliefs on how this universe functions and my role in it.

The Mandela Effect has the strike of a 1,000 tons of dynamite on the human psyche but is nothing in comparison to what I am going to talk about here. This is a rabbit hole and it goes deep!

REFERENCE VIDEOS

• Did Philip K. Dick disclose the real Matrix in 1977?
• DMT Trip Carrier Wave and Breakthrough Sound 
• Theoretical Physicist James Gates Finds Computer Code in String Theory
• 6 Things That Might Prove We Are Living in a Simulated Reality

Credits Music by: Sirius Beat, The Cosmos Link: youtu.be/Bkg08NvtvBU, Director of Photography Mitch Martinez (mitchmartinez.com), Beachfront B-Roll: Free Stock Footage, Beach front productions, Spider Scene: youtube.com/watch?v=XteZq..., Bubble Scene youtube.com/watch?v=3FaVQ..., Other Great Channel about The Mandela Effect: Esoteric Detective youtube.com/channel/UCfm0..., facebook.com/EsotericDete..., MoneyBags73, youtube.com/user/MoneyBags73, Life Matrix youtube.com/channel/UCkHx..., patreon.com/lifematrix

Fall season begins today (Sept. 22)

Ananda M. (Dharma Meditation Initiative); documentary; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

If we kept track of all the full moons, like Buddhists in Asia do, uposatha would be easy.

(COMING SOON: Dharma Meditation Initiative (9/20/18) attendees have voted unanimously to organize a sacred plant ceremony for shamanic healing -- just as the Buddha's tribe, the Shakyians/Scythians, utilized sacred soma (haoma) for the expanding of consciousness and meditating/seeing things as they truly are.)

What is the attitude of Buddhism toward animals? The Full Moon Honey Offering is a poignant tale that shows the special place and potential of animals in the Buddhist tradition. Lunar exploration meditation. Special vegan chocolate snacks with agave (planet "honey").

• Dharma Meditation Initiative, Los Angeles
• Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018, 7:00-8:30 PM
• Neighborhood Church 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Room 23
• (near Colorado Blvd.), Pasadena, CA 91103

Working with difficult emotions (video)

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (ajoyfulmind.com); Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

(Paul MacGowan, March 2017) Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche talks about how to use meditation to work with and transform our emotions even the most difficult ones.

Everything we know about Jesus is wrong

Reza Aslan, Abby Martin (Breaking the Set/RT); Pat Macpherson, Crystal Q., Wisdom Quarterly

Why Everything You Think You Know about Jesus is Wrong: Interview with Author Reza Aslan

Abby Martin interviews Reza Aslan (April 2014), historian and author of the best-selling book Zealot: the Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, discussing how he arrived at the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth was a revolutionary political leader rather than the peaceful prophet characterized by mainstream culture.

• Breaking the Set @ fb.me/JournalistAbbyMartin 
• Abby Martin @ twitter.com/AbbyMartin

Volunteering, meditating in Burma (video)

ThabarwaVolunteering.com, ThaBarWa Centre; Ellie Marsh, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Here's a usual day in the all-volunteer ThaBarWa Centre as international volunteers help the Buddhist monastics, patients, projects, as well as meditating, eating, and enjoying each others' company (Summer 2018). This short video is a snapshot of life in Buddhist Asia for Western travelers, made by a lovely Latin couple. Gracias. Facebook: @thabarwavolunteering, Instagram: @thabarwavolunteering. Contact us with any question. It's crazy here, so I stayed ten months.

   

QUESTION: Venerable sir, should monastics improve society?

Sayadaw U Ottamasara, the abbot at ThaBarWa, explains if and how Buddhist monastics should attempt to improve society. Q&A session, Dec. 2014, ThaBarWa Meditation Center, Thanlyin, Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar).

PARTY at my house with the cops (video)

Project X, Pasadena (best scene); DJ Cube, Steve Aoki; Hedonist Club (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Project X is an American comedy film directed by Nima Nourizadeh and written by Michael Bacall and Matt Drake based on a story by Bacall, and produced by director Todd Phillips.

The film follows three friends -- Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper), and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) -- who try to gain popularity by throwing a party, a plan that gets out of control.

A nationwide open casting call was used to find fresh faces. Filming took place on sets in the foothill community of Pasadena, a suburb of greater Los Angeles over five weeks on a $12,000,000 budget.

The film is presented as a found footage home video from the perspective of an attendee using a camera to document the night's events.

Some critics compared it to the old comedy Animal House. Following its release, incidents of large-scale parties blamed or referenced blamed the film as an inspiration. 

(Q-Designs) Kid Cudi ft. MGMT: "Pursuit of Happiness" (Steve Aoki Dance Remix from Project X Soundtrack OFFICIAL VIDEO, Summer 2012), video edit: DJ Cube.

"Wandering But Not Lost" (video)

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (preview) via Paul MacGowan, 2018; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

In 2011 Mingyur Rinpoche (tergar.org) left his monastery in Bodh Gaya, India (the place of the Buddha's great enlightenment), late at night to go on a wandering retreat. He didn't tell anyone where he was going. He returned 4 1/2 years later. This film is a reflection of his journey. Go to ajoyfulmind.com to find out more.

Mingyur Rinpoche: "Calming the Mind: The Practice of Awareness Meditation" (Lerab Ling, Dec. 9, 2013) This is a public talk by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche in Lerab Ling, France, on September 11, 2010. More

Trump is an idiot on trade (Last Week Tonight)

John Oliver (Last Week Tonight, , 8/19/18, HBO); Seth Auberon (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Trade: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Supreme Leader Donny Trump is waging a trade war that hurts many American workers. Maybe he would understand this if our heavy-handed documentaries about the global trading system were more informative. Connect with Last Week Tonight online.

 

Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost-news as it almost happens:  Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would:

 

Facebook.com/LastWeekTonight. Follow on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news: Twitter.com/LastWeekTonight. Visit the official site for all that other stuff at once: HBO.com/lastweektonight.