Shake 'n Bake: classic Cali quakes, fires

If Las Vegas is Paiute for "lost wages," what does Los Angeles mean? "Lost angels" (WQ).

Like Led Zep, I'm goin' to California with an aching in my heart. Get me out of Podunk!

This must be Indonesian in origin, or Ring of Fire

Los Angeles is a nice place. Everyone should visit. Now is a good time, smoky skies and unstable ground, plus Hollywood's Avenue of the Stars (bronze plaques embedded in sidewalk cement getting walked on and making good photo ops. The beaches, while polluted with fecal contamination, are beautiful to see and make great photo ops. Think of the social media potential. Have them eating their hearts out back home! The largest fire in the state is raging nearby, but that only affects the mountain people. Lowlanders in the Valley don't care, except along the edges where civilization meets the foothills.

• It's okay because only about 100,000 acres of SoCal are currently burning, and some of that is in the OC or San Berdoo, part of the IE
• Malibu morning earthquake followed by many fun aftershocks
• The Bridge Fire in zero percent contained at 50,000 acres and growing

State of emergency expands as western fires spread

(NBC News) Sept. 12, 2024: While cooler temperatures and lower winds have helped firefighters gain some control of three stubborn California wildfires, millions across the west remain on fire watch as Red Flag warnings remain in effect. NBC News' Dana Griffin reports from the fire line. #wildfire #California #fire

Unless one works in the DTLA skyline, those skyscrapers owned mostly by banks, one is not even going to notice the fires. The quakes are a different matter. They're amplified the higher up one is due to modern technology that absorbs the shaking on rollers. It's all de rigueur.

Griffith Park Observatory over Hollywood

There is that falsely flavored flour powder to make dead hunks of flesh crispy and tangy, so if we roll around in it during a temblor before the flames arrive, that's a kind of shaking and baking. Fire is not even necessary. It was 117 or more in the Valley a few days ago. LA is getting to be a kind of Phoenix West, which just set a record of 100+ degrees temps for 100 days in a row.

Catty Purry loves LA for flashy concerts

Wow, we're beachside in a bowl, a basin, with a breeze that swirls the particulate matter and smog, so we can't keep it up, but think of the views whenever it clears and the photo ops from Griffith Park Observatory and the hikes. LA needs a better slogan. "I Love LA" is silly and so last century. How about, "Come for the weather, stay for the girls"? They make good photo ops.

There are hidden waterways above LA, with waterfalls and pools. The LA River has rapids.

The beach view at sunset from Griffith, LA's own massive "Central Park"

See, it's a giant lake! - That's a reservoir, no entry allowed. It's fenced off and forbidden. - Oh.

Urban LA has many backwoods trails up north

Oh, the hiking! The trails make for nice photo ops with the latest iPone and its super digital camera and mic for recording everything for the cloud, AI, and whoever wants to review it. The fact of the matter is, when you arrive, we'll say: "Welcome to Southern California [now go home]." So if this becomes home, the laugh will be on us because you'll already be here. At least there are a lot of hidden Buddhist temples (List of Buddhist temples in the US).

(TheEarthMaster) Recent elevated earthquakes in SoCal is not a good sign

Guanyin Bodhisattva (nationsonline)

We just stumbled on one in the SGV City of El Monte (Spanish for "The Mountain," which is visible in the distance), a big Vietnamese one dedicated to Kwan Yin (Buddhism's Mother Mary figure), just like they love in Catholic French colonial Vietnam. It's bright and beautiful and on a tiny street near the intersection of Valley Blvd. between Garvey and Durfee. Keep going on Valley, turn right, and come upon a massive Theravada Thai Buddhist one, a hope, skit, and a hump from Hsi Lai, the largest (or second to BAUS in New York) Buddhist temple in the western hemisphere. They all make nice photo ops.

If Buddhism had "prayers," this could be one of them on the wisdom of loving-kindness.

What do Buddhist temples teach? (Devotion). What should they teach? (Principles).

10 Buddhist Principles: Nothing Can Affect Us NOW!

When will the next teaching buddha arrive?

(InnerLifeConsciousness) Summer 2024: What if we could learn some life-changing Buddhist principles just watching a short ASMR (possibly AI generated) video on the BoobTube? That would improve our lives all right.

The Buddha's wisdom helps practitioners achieve personal growth and mindfulness, overcome negative patterns and develop the Seven Factors of Enlightenment in this very life. But it's not intellectual or trying to grasp "principles" with defiled minds/hearts.

If we wish to see things as they really are, we first need to purify the heart/mind like cleaning off a lens. How can we clearly see what is and is not if the instrument we're using is all dusty and smudged with smut?

• What if there were an eightfold path (ashtanga) to samadhi and another to enlightenment? The first is Integral Yoga, and the second is the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. Both work well simultaneously

Jen, you know this is not about your ego, hot body, or fame. Hello! This is a spiritual path.

Group sitting helped kickstart my personal practice in private. I'd better do a free 10-day retreat.

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"Yoga" is not poses, which are only 1/8th of it.

Having wiped the lens, how do we discover the Buddha's timeless wisdom to navigate life's challenges? It begins by hearing. The ever hear the Dharma is a blessing. It is far more important to practice (to make more of the karma that enabled us to hear it in the first place), which begins by calm and mindfully (dispassionately observing what is, whatever it is) observing-without-reacting to everything around us.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, it's not about yoga pants.

When samadhi (stillness, unification of mind, superconsciousness) sets in, then the satipatthana or "Setting Up for the Four Foundations of Mindfulness" brings us to clear-seeing (vipassana).

Getting to calm is a field of endeavor (kammatthana) enough for most of us. Even relaxing is tough. But finding calm, there's every reason to keep going. Buddhism is the path of calm and insight. Insight, which is built on a foundation of samma-samadhi (right meditation), is what makes enlightenment possible.

Samadhi is not enlightenment though many mistake that initial bliss for spiritual liberation when there is so much more knowledge and freedom to come.

I'm so glad I found you. May I practice and gain enlightenment just like you?

Gone too soon, too soon. Now how will we ever awaken? Oh, the Dharma are the instructions?

• InnerLifeConsciousness (video), Aug. 13, 2024; TEXT: Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q., CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Team Fun in the Sun