Meth addicted MONKS: Meth Awareness Day

Gavin Butler (vice.com, Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 29, 2022, 7:07 pm); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

The monk, including the abbot, were sent to rehab after failing drug test (Hugh Sitton/Getty).
What's more misguided than becoming addicted (craving/clinging) to delusion-inducing drugs?

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Buddhist temple has no monks after they all test positive for METH

The Buddha would blush.

It follows a string of criminal scandals involving Theravada Buddhist monks in Thailand, where authorities are reporting record-breaking quantities of synthetic drugs.

A small Buddhist abbey’s entire coterie of monks was defrocked, dismissed, and sent to rehab this week after every single one of them tested positive for methamphetamine.

• NATIONAL METH AWARENESS DAY: Nov. 30th
• Get with the times, Thailand: Fentanyl deaths sweep LA
• Meth is turning Fiji from tropical paradise to a narco’s playground
• New Meth Capital of Australia: Perth
• The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth
• Solution? Investigations by Mexican-American reporter Sam Quinones

All four monks at a temple in Phetchabun province's Bung Sam Phan district, in central Thailand, were forced by police to take urine tests on Monday.

Who's high here? Is it you, or that one, falling asleep during meditation? Or this hyper one?

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True Tales of...Fentanyl and Meth (Sam Q.)

All four of them, including the abbot, failed. The monks were subsequently sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, local official Boonlert Thintapthai told the AFP, leaving the temple without "holy" men and raising concerns among local worshippers that they wouldn’t be able to conduct “merit-making” — that is, donating food (dana) to monks as a good deed.

• [There are other forms of good deeds (dana, sila, bhavana) besides practicing generosity (dana) and giving to the Sangha, but Thais are addicted to this form of good karma and are more prosperous than neighboring Theravada countries as a result.]

Mr. Boonlert said more monks would be assigned to the temple to allow people to carry out their religious duties.

• World News: Buddhist monks keep getting arrested for corruption, murder, and drug trafficking

It’s not clear why police targeted this particular temple, nor these particular monks, to test for drug use — but the action comes amid a broader national campaign to tackle the trafficking of illicit substances.

Thailand (which is part of the Golden Triangle, a place notorious for drug trafficking), like many other nations across Southeast Asia, has in the past two years seen a major uptick in the volume of meth passing through the country.

The Least of Us back cover (Sam Quinones)

Much of that can be traced back to the Golden Triangle — a notorious fountainhead for the synthetic drug trade, where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma (renamed Myanmar by the dictators) meet — and, more specifically, the conflict-riven hills of Burma’s Shan state.

In the wake of the Burmese military coup, which in February 2021 saw the Burmese military overthrow the civilian government and plunge the nation into chaos yet again, record-breaking quantities of both crystal methamphetamine and meth pills, otherwise known as “yaba,” have continued to pour out of the Triangle and flood the region.

Production and trafficking of illegal synthetic substances hit record levels in 2021, with authorities collectively seizing nearly 172 tons of methamphetamine and more than 1 billion yaba tablets.

• World News: Burma’s coup has opened the floodgates of the Southeast Asian drug trade

This is not an isolated case of Thai monks behaving badly either. In recent years, the sacred institution of Thai Theravada Buddhism has been tarnished by a series of high-profile arrests and scandals relating to corruption, murder, and drug trafficking among its monastics.

Good Western monk Ajahn Chah in Australia

• [EDITORIAL NOTE: A distinction needs to be made between the larger, lazier institutional school called the Maha Nikaya, which accounts for 90% of Thai monks, and the Dhammayut or Thai Forest Tradition of wandering ascetics (practicing the dhutangas or 13 Sane Ascetic Practices), who practice more in accordance with the historical Buddha's instructions, resulting in famous monks of great attainment -- even though some criticize this school as make believe, invented by a royal who wanted to temporarily ordain but found most temples too corrupt and lazy to be worth his time. He therefore set up a purer school that continues down to this day, made famous by many meditation masters emerging as a result of the back-to-basics approach to the Dharma. Thai Forest Tradition monks left the corrupt cities and temples for the solitude and silence of forests, which are in very short supply due to deforestation, but it resulted in the famous Ajahn Mun and other Isan (northeast Thailand) monks plus the great arhat Ajahn Jumnien and Ajahn Buddhadasa from the south of the country. Ajahn Chah, who was Maha Nikaya along with his famous awakened Western students, tried to erase the distinction between the two schools to be more inclusive, uniting the Sangha.]

Monk DUI, carrying meth (thethaiger.com)

In March, Luang Pu Tuanchai, a monk who rose to fame in 2020 after claiming to have omniscient powers [visions and miraculous powers, a claim which if false would instantly make him not a monk, as it is a defeat-violation of monastic rules to knowingly make false claims of attainments if the rules were enforced as they used to be in times past], was charged with drunk driving and drug possession — and subsequently disrobed (defrocked, thrown out of the monastic Sangha) — after police found him carrying dozens of methamphetamine pills.

Earlier in January, another monk was similarly disrobed after being caught consuming methamphetamine pills and selling them to local youths. Such controversies have eroded public faith in Thailand’s Buddhist monks, with experts telling VICE World News in March that the nation’s Buddhist monastic order was in need of reform to weed out bad actors and restore the religion’s image of purity and righteousness.

• World News: Photos show half a billion dollars’ worth of drugs going up in smoke

Trigger warning: crystalline methamphetamine

“The ultimate goal of [Theravada] Buddhism is for the people to get enlightened [awakened],” said Somboon Chungprampree, a social activist and executive secretary of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists.

“[But] most of the society is learning that not all those who are wearing saffron [robes] can be a holy or respectable person.” Buddhism is the official religion of Thailand, followed by about 93 percent of the population. The country is home to more than 300,000 monks [and possibly many more temporarily ordained samaneras or "novices"]. Source (vice.com)

• Follow Gavin Butler on Twitter
• Thai temple vacant after monks fail drug tests (livemint.com)
• Thai monks in rehab after testing positive for meth (nypost.com)
• Thai monks defrocked after testing positive for meth (CBS News)

Why US Army tried to exterminate US buffalo

Darkroom (Vox, July 30, 2021); Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Why the US Army tried to exterminate the bison

(Vox) They killed them then took credit for “saving” them. In 1894, a notorious white poacher named Ed Howell was caught in Yellowstone National Park slaughtering bison, which were on the brink of extinction.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz & Dina Gilio-Whitaker

US Army soldiers patrolling the park brought him into custody, and the story led to the first US federal law protecting wildlife. The soldiers were thought of as heroes for stopping the killer. But it was the US Army that had been responsible for driving bison to near extinction in the first place.

In the mid-1800s, a cultural fiction, an unfounded belief, known as “Manifest Destiny” dictated that white settlers were the rightful owners of the entire North American continent – even though Native Americans had inhabited the land for thousands of years.

In order to clear land for white settlers, the US Army engaged in violent scorched-earth tactics against the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains. One big part of that campaign was to eliminate their crucial food source: the bison.

Not a Nation of Immigrants (R. Dunbar-Ortiz)

By the end of the 1800s, a combination of commercial and recreational hunting, plus the actions of the US Army, had depleted the bison population to under a thousand, down from tens of millions at the beginning of the century.

Around the same time, the US government set aside some of the land once inhabited by the Plains Indians as a national park, and in 1872 Yellowstone was established.

A key mission of Yellowstone was to conserve the land and the animals that roamed there, including the bison.

Today, the soldiers who once patrolled the park are celebrated for having “saved” the bison in Yellowstone, obscuring their own violent contribution to the animal’s near extinction.

ABOUT: Darkroom is a history and photography series that anchors each episode around a single image. Analyzing what the photo shows (or doesn't show) provides context that helps unravel a wider story. Watch previous episodes: youtube.com/playlist...

Sources and further reading:

"The extermination of the American bison," 1887 Smithsonian survey by William T. Hornaday: repository.si.edu/handle... "Poaching Pictures," by Alan Braddock: jstor.org/stable... "The frontier army and the destruction of the buffalo," by David T. Smits: studylib.net/doc... Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out vox.com. Watch our full video catalog: goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: goo.gl/U2g06o or Twitter: goo.gl/XFrZ5H

Angkor Wat Buddhist Temple: Eviction of 10K

Thaiger (thethaiger.com); Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

10,000 Angkor Wat residents facing forced mass eviction

Cambodia upset over Thai temple's copycat

The UNESCO world heritage site of Angkor Wat, the largest religious complex in the world [almost as big as the unexcavated Buddhist temple complex of Mes Aynak, Afghanistan], is facing a humanitarian crisis.

About 10,000 people who live in and around the site have been told that they must move before the new year. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen describes it as “voluntary relocations,” but residents being pushed out of their homes and businesses with very little compensation view it more as forced mass eviction.

Amazing walls of Angkor Wat trace long history of devas and apsaras interacting with humans.

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Not only Angkor Wat, there are other temples

The temples of Angkor Wat span 400 square kilometers and were designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1992.

It is considered one of the most important religious complexes in the world [blending Buddhism and Hinduism], like the Vatican [which blends Mithra worship and Catholicism].

It is also the primary income driver for the town of [archeology-rich] Siem Reap and home to about 10,000 residents who set up shops, offer guide services, and sell food and souvenirs around the complex.

The ancient site was once a myth

But last summer, authorities began showing up at market stalls telling everyone they had to be out by the end of the year at the latest. Some have been offered small plots of land as compensation.

The land is in an undeveloped area about 20 kms from Angkor Wat, which wouldn’t provide much by way of work opportunities for the relocated residents [who would lose thei] vending opportunities they enjoy now]. More

• Truck overturns carrying 2,560 crates of beer in central Thailand

Giving Tuesday: a day to practice dana

Amber, Ananda, Ashley, CC, Crystal, Pat, Seth, Seven, Sheldon, Pfc. S (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Live Mindfulness Meditation, Mondays in the foothills of Los Angeles (11/27/22)

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I would be Mega Meditator and Wonder Heart!

After splurging on Black Friday then supporting the community on Small Business Saturday then losing it on Cyber Monday -- after swearing off consumer capitalism -- we arrive at GivingTuesday, a chance to make up for our egocentric lobha ("greedy, passionate, self-seeking" tendencies) and do something in the other direction: letting go. It's good to share, to give, to benefit others. It's enlightened self-interest because helping others -- particularly in terms of promoting the Truth (the Awakened One's Dharma or Doctrine of Liberation, the Path to Complete Freedom from all Suffering, the Dharma-dana) is the greatest giving.

Wisdom Quarterly's top supporter

Keep Wisdom Quarterly and Dharma Buddhist Meditation (three Meetups) going. Find a way to give. The best way is with a message of encouragement or volunteering or sending in a story or event idea. Monetary help also helps but is harder to give. Remember what the Buddha taught: It's good to give, give with our own hands, give with a mind/heart of generosity (letting go), knowing that karma (deeds leading to results) is real, with clear intention to benefit others, ourselves, and the larger community of living beings.

• Donations may be made through venmo.com/u/mehranh

What's Wisdom Quarterly's goal? Liberating-wisdom (prajna, paññā, knowing-and-seeing)

There are other ways to develop dana (letting go): Buddhist Global Relief (help.rescue.org)

Live Mindfulness Meditation, L.A. (11/28)

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen Bradford, Wisdom Quarterly

UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center

UCLA's MARC (the Mindful Awareness Research Center at marc.ucla.edu) sets the tone for our secular Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) meditation in a hidden corner of a delightful city park.

Nature contributes to easy relaxation. Mindfulness (nonreactive awareness) is an excellent approach to dealing with anxious states of body and mind, transforming them into opportunities to grow in consciousness, joy, acceptance, and happiness.

Attend 30 min. UCLA meditations online

Session includes stretching, mindful walking, gently guided meditating, and sharing afterward. Bring a folding chair, shawl, or blanket and an open mind to sit with a heartfelt community nestled in LA's Foothills. FREE, no donations. RSVP at Dharma Buddhist Meditation:

• DBM (Disclosure Project)
• DBM (Nature Center)
• DBM (PasaDharma)

How did the misty mountain meditation go?

Breathing in, breathing out, calming formations

Those who braved the mist and drizzle to attend were rewarded. We sat under the ancient pine trees on a soft bed of dry needles. The canopy kept us rain-free as we chanted call-and-response in Sanskrit and Pali, enjoying the weather brushing up against the foothills of the Angeles Crest Forest. Wild animals bounced around, crackling brittle leaves underfoot. The message was clear as Seven led the meditation:

Mindfulness Meditation: Short Guide (MindOwl)

"This is mindfulness meditation. That means dispassionate awareness of whatever is, radical acceptance of it, acting as the watcher of experience. So whatever comes up, be as a Beatle: 'Let it be.' Then there will be peace. There is nothing to understand or fix, nothing to grasp at or cling to, nothing to push away.

When we avoid these three bad habits -- grasping and clinging toward the pleasant, resisting and aversion toward the unpleasant, dullness and boredom toward the neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant -- we can cultivate three useful things:

1. nongreed (letting go, sharing),
2. nonhatred (loving kindness, friendliness),
3. nondelusion (wisdom, knowing-and-seeing)

in all their many positive manifestations, which are the bases for skillful deeds (beneficial karma).

It makes sense now. We can sit still.

"Meditation will happen when we are still, and the way to stop fidgeting is to observe, bear witness, bear discomfort, bear boredom, bear lust and all that attempts to pull one away from being in the present moment. But how will we know we're in the 'present'? That's easy. Observe the breath. It's only in the now.

If we're watching the breath -- without judging, measuring, evaluating, perfecting, changing, bettering, or interfering -- we are sure to be in the present, being in the present with what is, whatever is. That is mindfulness of this moment, of this situation, and all that is needed to see the Truth is to let the mind purify by settling so that it gains the eye to penetrate and see deeply." Then we had a great shared discussion.

Sports: Iran loses to USA in soccer (video)

FOX; Tom Lutz (@trom_lutz), TG, 11/29; HBO, 11/20/22; Pfc. Sandoval (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Christian Pulisic on the mark to score the first goal of the game (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

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Qatar World Cup: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

(LastWeekTonight) John Oliver discusses the Qatar World Cup, the human rights violations happening in the sporting event’s host country, and what perfection really means to highly paid Brand Ambassador David "Bend it" Beckham.

Connect with Last Week Tonight online...on YouTube for more almost news as it almost happens, on Facebook like your mom would, on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news, or on the official site for all that other stuff at once: hbo.com/lastweektonight.

Do the contributions of Blacks matter to anyone? Joy at final whistle (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

• PLAY BY PLAY: Iran 0-1 USA: World Cup 2022 – as it happened | World Cup 2022 | The Guardian
• Morality Patrol kills woman (Mahsa Amini) for "immodesty"

Tina Rasmussen: Buddha at the Gas Pump

Host Rick Archer, BATGAP, Feb. 26, 2019; Dhr. Seven, Kelly Ani (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Dr. Tina Rasmussen: Buddha at the Gas Pump interview

(BuddhaAtTheGasPump) Further discussion regarding this interview may be found in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Also see batgap.com/tina-rasmussen.

Diamond Way Buddhism to bodhi

After 20+ years of Buddhist and non-dual practice, in 2003 Dr. Tina Rasmussen, Ph.D., undertook a year-long solo retreat during which awakening (bodhi) occurred. She later

• ordained as a Theravada Buddhist nun with the world-renowned Burmese Meditation Master Pa Auk Sayadaw,
• became the first Western woman to attain that path, and
• was authorized to teach.

Practicing the Jhanas: Concentration Meditation

Dr. Rasmussen has been studied by the Yale Neuroscience Lab for research on the effects of meditation on consciousness and the brain.

She is the co-author (along with her then-husband and fellow-attainer Stephen Snyder) of Practicing the Jhanas: Traditional Concentration Meditation as Presented by the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw, and has been featured on Conscious TV and in Non-duality Magazine.

She is also involved in the Diamond Approach to realization. Dr. Rasmussen teaches students worldwide how to walk the path of the “urban mystic” — functioning from a deep spiritual understanding while living a modern human life.

Dr. Rasmussen has worked in the field of human/organizational development as a consultant/coach for 25+ years, with several published books on humanistic leadership.

Welcome to Yale University's Human Neuroscience Lab (McCarthy Lab, yale.edu)

How to direct or star in PORN (video)

Host Maryana, Dick Bush, Danny D, LADbible TV; Seth Auberon (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

WARNING: Frank, vulgar discussion of a sensitive topic in a patriarchal, Puritanical, sexist society!

Porn director reveals secrets of the adult film industry | Minutes With | @LADbible TV

(LADbible TV) These interviews with Dick Bush and Danny D[ingaling] have them revealing secrets on how they launched careers in the seedy underworld that is the porn industry, what their weirdest shoots were, and what usually happens on the set of porn shoots.

(LADbible TV) Male porn "star" Danny D on secrets of industry, 7/18/21

Subscribe to LAD Bible. Be in LADbible videos: instagram.com/ladbiblecasting, facebook.com/ladbible, instagram.com/ladbible, twitter.com/ladbible. #LADbible #UNILAD.

To license these videos, please email: licensing@ladbiblegroup.com.

Alan Watts' last radio interview (audio)

Alan Watts via Alan Watts Forum (reddit.com); Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The 1960s were a time of tripping and self-inquiry, which Alan Watts helped.

Greta Thunberg laughing and smiling (video)

Greta Thunberg, Russell Howard; Crystal Q., CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Time traveler or reborn with same features as may happen when someone dies suddenly? (WQ)

Greta brings youth fury to the Madrid climate summit | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

• COP 29: UN Climate Change Conference 2022
• The new Culture of Evil Think | Meer

Greta Thunberg as she's never been seen before: memes, beans, climate activism book

Is it climate alarmism to save the planet?

(Russell Howard) Nov. 5, 2022. From The Russell Howard Hour, in this extended interview, Russell sits down with one of the strangest voices in the fight to ease the climate crisis, Asperger syndrome (or autism spectrum) activist Greta Thunberg.

They talk about all things from beans to time travel to activism.

The Facts and the Solutions

And she has a new book, The Climate Book, a handbook by numerous authors for anyone who wants to know more about the climate crisis.

ABOUT: Welcome to the official Russell Howard channel. Subscribe. Follow the show on Twitter. Follow Russell on Twitter. Become a fan on the official Facebook page. Watch new episodes every Thursday at 10:00 pm on Sky1 #RussellHoward.

• Websites: Greta Thunberg - Facebook
• theyearofgreta.com (illustrated)
• Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg)/Twitter
• Greta Thunberg (@gretathunberg) Instagram
• Fridays for Future (climate movement)
• GretaThunberg.com(?)

Is this photo proof that Greta Thunberg is a time-traveler here to save the world? (artnet.com)

Greta Thunberg-inspried climate strike in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 2019  (MHM55)