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.
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Coachella has a country cousin called Stagecoach. Why? It's getting to be an all-country world, as country music takes over every facet of our lives. No one has sneaker because now they only sell cowboy boots at the boot stores that have replaced the brand name tennis shoes outlets. Who could ever forget country music heroes Backstreet Boys?! Get this: Diplo's Honky Tonk featured billionairess Paris Hilton on the ones-and-twos who brought out country legend Lizzo, who is slimming down (and Chromeo, Sofi Tukker, and others), to do her big hit:
Not to be outdone, Jelly Roll (on the Mane Stage) rolled out Ho-di Ho-down Ke$ha, Super Hip MGK, the Wiz Khalifa, along with eight other featured guests. He has lots of friends and a girlfriend even.
The FULL Stagecoach 2025 lineup: 49 Winchester Abby Anderson Abi Carter Alana Springsteen Alexandra Kay Angel White Anne Wilson Annie Bosko Ashley McBryde Austin Snell Avery Anna Backseat Boys Blessing Offor Brent Cobb Brothers Osborne Bryan Martin Carly Pearce Chayce Beckham Colby Acuff Conner Smith Creed Crystal Gayle Dasha...
Jelly Roll, that's too much sun! Sunblock, son! - Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) "My Ex's Best Friend"
Diplo’s Honkytonk Drake Milligan Drew Parker Dylan Gossett Dylan Scott Flatland Cavalry George Birge Goo Goo Dolls Jelly Roll John Morgan Kashus Culpepper Koe Wetzel Lana Del Rey Lanie Gardner Louie TheSinger Luke Combs Maddox Batson Mae Estes Midland Myles Kennedy Nelly (25 Years of Country Grammar) Nikki Lane Niko Moon Noeline Hofmann Sammy Hagar Scotty McCreery Shaboozey Sierra Ferrell Sturgill Simpson Tanner Usrey The Bacon Brothers The Castellows The Wilder Blue Tiera Kennedy Tigerlily Gold Tommy James & The Shondells T-Pain Tracy Lawrence Treaty Oak Revival Tucker Wetmore Vincent Mason Waylon Wyatt Whiskey Myers Zach Bryan (PLUS lots of secret special guests). It was bouncin':
Stagecoach (StagecoachFestival.com) is the name of Coachella's country cousin, coming third in a line of three weekends at the Indio Polo Field (brought to us by the nice folks over at LA's own Goldenvoice productions, one of the first companies/one-man-operations to organize risky punk rock concerts in venues like the Palladium in Hollywood), milking every last drop out of the LA and OC markets by playing to the country music fad that has outlasted rock 'n roll and rap by a few decades now.
Lana Del Rey (aka Lizzy Grant)
It's not a fad. Country's here to stay. So to destroy it and its influence, the music biz has to get it from within. Inject all these inimical forces, LGBTQIA+ influences, watered down crossover hits, and so on. Elijah and the Good Old Boys know what we're talking about.
All your country music favorites are there: Lana "Cowgirl" Del Rey, who's going country on her next release just as the bandwagon is going strong.
There are also these heavy hitting country stars: Jelly "Potato" Roll, T-"Bronco" Pain (doing a cover of country classic Black Sabbath's "War Pigs"), DJ Paris "Rawhide" Hilton, Mumford "General Store" and Sons, "Creeps" Creed, Ol' Nelly, Shaboozey, and a few surprises. Like, maybe, Axel "Cornfed" Rose will show up to wow the crowd of Stetsons and Naugahyde cowboy booties.
Maybe Beyonce will show up and show them how country music is really supposed to be (ehem) or that bestselling rap artist gone country with Miley Cyrus' dad, what was his name? The "Old Town Road" gay Illuminati-joining, right in your face Satanic young fella, who was doing it all in jest just to make it in Hollywood and get out of his sister's house. Taylor "Nazi Barbie" Swift! No, she didn't come up with "Old Town Road," but she did start as a clean-cut cookie cutter country artist -- before falling for the allure of Hollywood superstardom over Nashville.
All the Black artists prove that country music fans were never racist, just slow to get with the urban vibes and give up their slave trade ancestral riches, y'know, the inheritances of land in a biased nation under one flag, the Confederate flag.
It's a Southern thang; y'all wouldn't understand. It's the end of racism, even among all the Trump fans, Republicans, Fundamentalist Evangelical Christians, and secretive interracial lovers.
STAGECOACH 2025 IS SOLD OUT! Tune in to the official livestream on Amazon Music starting April 25 at 4:00 pm PT. And never mind the rain or cold of the winter wonderland that is Southern California's high desert: Stagecoach
Stagecoach Festival 2025; I. Rony, Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Xochitl (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY
We often hear said that "Los Angeles has no culture." That may be. But we do have the country's largest book festival. Who knows who's doing all that reading, but we buy a lot of books and launch more careers than Nashville, Frisco, and the Big Apple. How to boil down this mega literary festival full of authors, promoters, publishers, and poets.
To boil down the whole two-day event on the USC campus near the heart of the city (DTLA), there was this former teenage heartthrob named Avan Jogia. His post-teen fans mobbed the Poetry Stage tent to marvel at his ability to write, express emotion, and cuss. It was hot. (It wasn't but if one loves a TV star and sees him in real life, dressed in suit, tie, and checkered Vans, hey, that's something. What is it? An opportunity to sell lots of copies of a personally autographed hardcover poetry book about the darker side, very Emo and slightly Goth, called Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob).
USC encourages responsible graffiti: It's lit
The annual Los Angeles Festival of Books on the USC campus (now in a kind of lockdown status requiring picture ID to enter) is here, hosted by the Los Angeles Times.
It is two full days of authors, book sales, literary performances, networking, seeing and being seen, getting published, and maybe even wrangling a book deal with a major publishing house.
Don't count on it. There's nearly no money on anything but novels that get picked up and converted into something else by the Hollywood Machine, the dream of any serious writer eager to cash in rather than promote the art of communication and literature.
Books, books, read books on Venus and Mars!
There is also a religious section and a massive Buddhist organization giving out FREE sacred Buddhist texts and titles from both the back-to-basics historical Buddha-oriented Theravada tradition and the much larger Amitabha (a Cosmic Buddha) and Guanyin (Goddess of Compassion) emphasizing Mahayana school and its apocryphal writings. A lovely Muslim organization will have literature as in years past. Bring a book bag, enjoy food and live entertainment, and lots of schmoozing and walking around like a college coed. Info: Festival of Books
30 Years of Stories: The L.A. Times Festival of Books Returns
Modern "readers" prefer more pictures, manga, anime, and comics with easy emotional signaling
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is marking its 30th anniversary as it returns to USC’s University Park Campus all day on April 26-27, 2025. For three decades, this beloved event has brought together book lovers, authors, and storytellers to celebrate the written word. Join fellow book enthusiasts as USC welcomes the community to its campus for this annual event. Visit the L.A. Times Festival of Books at USC website
Hey, can I be the next pope? - Get real, Don. - C'mon, Jorgie, who cares? Can I be Antipope?
(CBS News) April 26, 2025: Who will be the next pope? Here's a look at some of the top possible papal candidates as the cardinals prepare for the papal conclave (Latin for "with key," i.e., "behind locked doors"), which will take place in early May, likely after Cinco de Mayo. They promise to start on May 7, 2025.
The funniest thing about the upcoming papal conclave is the FACT that anyone can be installed as pope. One only has to have been confirmed as a Catholic after First Communion, which doesn't actually mean one has to be a Catholic, just in official records. One could be confirmed now, before beginning. One could be the most popular kind of Catholic: Lapsed. Unlapse or say you're back. Oh, yeah, though -- most Catholics don't qualify. Boys only. It's an Old Boys' Club. It's the original corporation, all top-down hierarchy and a strict Patriarchy. Even though it can be anyone, the cardinals always pick a fellow cardinal. Go figure.
Prophecy of the Popes: Petrus Romanus (aka a dark skinned "Peter the Roman"?) Says who? Says Irish Catholic Saint Malachy: Prophetia Sancti Malachiae Archiepiscopi, de Summis Pontificibus (the "Prophecy of Saint-Archbishop Malachy, concerning the Supreme Pontiffs")
Never mind the Virgin Mary. Like the name of a ship, most of which are by convention named after females, she's just for show. Anyway, it has already been decided, and this conclave business is all for show. Heard about the smoke? The color of it will tell if it's black or white. Isn't that a lovely imperial Roman custom? Who knew the Holy Roman Empire (religious arm), as part of the Ring of the City, still ruled the world alongside Washington DC (military arm) and London's financial district?
CBS News 24/7 is the self-aggrandizing anchored streaming news service from CBS News and Stations that is available free to everyone with access to the internet and is the destination for breaking news, live events, original reporting and storytelling, and programs from CBS News and Stations' top anchors and correspondents working locally, nationally, and around the plane of the earth. It is available on more than 30 platforms across mobile, desktop, and connected TVs for free, as well as CBSNews.com and Paramount+ and live in 91 countries.
It rained in Los Angeles on Saturday morning, as it has 5 out of the 6 years this fest has existed. So most diehard yogis were undeterred. While it remained cold, cloudy, and drizzly with showers in some parts of the megalopolis that is LA County, which stretches for over 50 miles across as a basin, the sun came out over Torrance, the city (one of 88) hosting the festival.
Yogananda was a great Indian guru who is bigger than the organization that claims to be his exclusive promoter, the Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF). There is a better albeit smaller organization that promotes the real guru, baby and all.
(Could the great Hindu-Christian syncretic-saint have had a baby with one of his American female disciples?) The Ananda Church of Self-Realization (Donate | Yogananda Fest) is a kind of schism that arose among Paramhansa Yogananda's followers.
One original disciple, Kriyananda, was a purist. He decided to publish the founder's autobiography in its ORIGINAL (unredacted, unabridged) form. It's better that way to read it, but SRF doesn't like it.
The larger, less orthodox SRF organization made changes to the classic book and will not settle a lawsuit that says the rightful owner of the religious organization is Yogananda's unacknowledged son. There's DNA evidence to back up Ananda's claim, but SRF will not acknowledge, as to do so would mean the loss of their ability to legally claim ownership of the book, its proceeds, the properties spread across LA and elsewhere, and the legacy of the great master. What to do? What to do? More lawyers are needed to settle the issue. Or the son should become a guru, claim his lineage, and speak out publicly rather than behind the Ananda organization. Until then, there are TWO versions of the book. Which have most people read?
After about 9:00 am, with clear skies and lots of enthusiastic participants from the Holy City of Lost Angels, events went on as planned: meditation, Kriya Yoga, Hatha Yoga, inspiring featured speakers and more.
That mansion became Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship's Mother Center (older than the magnificent Lake Shrine in Malibu, currently closed due to the Palisades Fire), after the organization's founding in 1920, along with a big temple in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. (next to an old hospital purchased by Scientology and made into big cult offices), whereas Vivekananda's Victorian style house is a small and easily missed blip on Figueroa Street. Not far from there, a devotee of Sri Anandamayi Ma named Swami Paramananda founded the beautiful and rustic monastery in Glendale/La Crescenta called Ananda Ashram (Ananda Ashrama, spiritual center for Vedanta) in 1923.
So Yogananda is a sort of latecomer but by far the most successful of Indian gurus in America, outshining even the Beatles' cultish Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder and promoter of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which was a fad from the 1960s though still some people swear by it, like a young Jeff Goldblum in his cameo in Annie Hall.
Why does any of this matter? Not only did Hinduism come to America, Buddhism came along as well (many centuries earlier, even before Columbus and Christianity, according to Rick Fields, Edward P. Vining, and other American historians), making an incredible splash that still reverberates and sends out rings of influence. Books have been written about it.]
Is the Bible a lie? Spinoza reveals how God was invented to control us
(Wise Daily Reflections) April 25, 2025:
Is the Christian Bible a lie? Spinoza reveals how the Judeo-Christian God was invented to control people within the empire.
This video dives into one of the most radical and clear-sighted ideas in the history of philosophy: Baruch Spinoza exposes the political function of religion and explains how the twisted concept of God was constructed as a tool for control.
This is a powerful, timely, and unsettling analysis that challenges everything traditionally believed about faith.
God: An Anatomy
God made into an earthy Man
This is an astonishing and revelatory history that presents the Judeo-Christian God as "he" was originally envisioned by ancient worshippers -- with a distinctly male body, superhuman powers, and earthy passions.
Drawing on her academic expertise and scholarly examination of the Jewish-Christian Bible, University of Exeter Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou (Ph.D., Oxford) paints a vivid portrait of a very human-shaped deity, a product of a particular society, a particular time, made in the image of the people who created him, shaped by their own circumstances and experience of the world.
This is a god of stunning surprise and complexity. Whether one is a believer or not, this fleshy uncensored (monotheistic) "God" has shaped our Western concept of life and death, our assumptions about sex and gender, even our perception of what it is to be a person.
Arresting, elegant and passionately argued, it is cultural history on a grand scale. More
#Spinoza #Religion #Bible Thanks for watching.
💡 What reflections can be taken away from this video?
Share thoughts in the comments. 👇
Found it enjoyable? Leave a valuable like 👍 and remember to subscribe to the channel to stay tuned for future daily reflections. 🔔 Is the Bible a Lie? Spinoza Reveals How God Was Invented to Control
Wise Daily Reflections, April 25, 2025; Prof. Francesca Stavrakopoulou; Sheldon S., Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
The Buddha versus Mara: The Buddhist "Satan" and his three tempting daughters
You can have whatever you desire
(Buddha's Wisdom)
April 26, 2025:
🔍 BUDDHISM'S "DEVIL" AND HIS THREE SEDUCTIVE DAUGHTERS. Did you know Buddhism has its own version of the Devil, a Satan figure?
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Buddhism's version of the Devil
02:01 Meet Mara, Buddhism's ultimate villain
06:44 The first daughter Tanhā (Craving)
11:08 The second daughter Arati (Boredom/Discontent)
15:30 The third daughter Rāga (Passion/Lust)
20:02 How the Buddha defeated Mara and his daughters
24:40 The daughters among us - modern applications
Mara, the Buddhist devil or chief demon, commands three daughters, who each specialize in a different type of temptation. Their tactics haven't changed in 2,600 years. They're still working on us today -- even through our smartphones.
Christian Sabrina Carpenter is sexy wholesome?
DISCOVER:
The shocking parallels between Mara and Satan in religious mythology
How the Buddha's legendary showdown with Mara's daughters reveals timeless psychological insights
Why Mara's three daughters represent the most dangerous mind-traps humans fall into
The surprising connection between ancient Buddhist warnings and modern digital addiction
How the "I see you, Mara" technique can free us from these temptations today
Ready to break free from the cycles keeping us stuck?
SOURCES:
The Dhammapada, Sutta Nipata, Majjhima Nikaya, Anguttara Nikaya, Ādittapariyāya Sutta ("The Fire Sermon"), Satipatthana Sutta ("Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness")
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