Buddhism explained with an Irish accent

Well, don't that beat all? Tuatha Dé Danann, I tink that's brilliant, always been partial to Booda.

(Cognito) Irish brogue/Gaelic accented "BUDDHISM EXPLAINED"

What's the Irish version of Buddhism?

We are the Tuatha Dé Danann

Buddhism is the THIRD largest religion in the world when we restored the 1 billion Buddhists in China the communist regime refuses to count since communism is officially atheist and insists party member comply.

Nearly all Chinese Buddhists follow three blended traditions (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism) and now have to mix those with a communist version of capitalism). The country's regime is trying to supplant religion with this new capitalist-friendly communism and a nanny state with mass surveillance, bringing the actual total number of Buddhists to more than 1.5 billion. That makes Buddhism the third largest missionary (universalist) "world religion."

Good thing we in US are not spied on

(The Young Turks) What the FLOCK (AI-driven camera system)?

Catholicism is the biggest religion in the world. Combining its total with Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, and many strange sects and post schismatic traditions, Christianity has the most nominal adherents.

Islam is said to be growing but is already the second biggest world religion, having gone from place to place by the sword, just as Christianity used to do with imperial crusades, ethnic cleansings, and forced conversions.

Buddhism is the original missionary tradition, but neither then nor now is it out to convert anybody away from their faith. Exposing them to the Teachings of the Awakened One capable of curing suffering and making people better at adhering to their beliefs and practices, it has been most welcome.

Why? Just as in the Buddha's time, the Buddha's Dharma ("Doctrine") is not actually a "religion." But the West treats all daily activities and beliefs as "religious" systems when, since the time Sumer, Greater Egypt, and the very advanced Indus Valley Civilization held sway, what we now call "religion" was just the collective daily habits and somewhat superstitious customs of whole societies that made little to no distinction between ordinary life and spirituality.

Buddhism in Celtic Britain and Ireland before Christianity?

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Buddhism in Celtic areas?

Transcultural Buddhism: Celtic Buddhism in pre-Christian Britain

The first Western Buddhist convert to become a monk was Irish

British forces arrival in Mandalay, Burma, in 1885: U Dhammaloka (wiki)

Irish Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk Ven. Dhammaloka in 1902, age approximately 50

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The Irish Buddhist: Forgotten Monk

His name was Venerable (U) Dhammaloka (born Laurence Carroll in the 1850s) from Boostertown, Dublin County, Ireland.

He reportedly gave at least five names for himself, including Laurence O'Rourke and William Colvin [2]. On occasion he used the nom de plume "Captain Daylight."

It is accepted that he was Irish, almost certainly born in Dublin in the 1850s, and emigrated to the United States, possibly via Liverpool. More

Celtic Buddhism, a new lineage

celticbuddhism.org

Welcome to CelticBuddhism.org, a site of benefit and inspiration to those who enter and proceed on the path of Dharma.

The lineage of Celtic Buddhism was suggested in the 1970s during a conversation between the renowned [and abusive, scandal-ridden, Shambhala] Tibetan lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his student John Perks. The actual development is the result of the mixing of their minds.

What would an Irish Buddhist do?

The lineage was formally incorporated as a non-profit in 1989, when it took on official status. After meeting for years in rented rooms, Venerable Seonaidh Perks established the Anadaire Celtic Buddhist Center on 11 acres in Saxtons River, Vermont, where the sangha ("spiritual community") erected a stone circle that has aided in increasing and focusing energies for transformation.

Sangha members are encouraged to establish a daily meditation practice. Practices range from a host of traditional Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhist practices to the more contemporary practices of the Celtic Fire visualization and working with the mandala of the Celtic cross. We also encourage integrating everyday practices in art, music, healing through various modalities -- including animals, and in the world of business.

As a group, some members have gone on yearly retreats to Maine (USA) or to further connect with latent Celtic energies to Ireland and Scotland. One member has delved into thangka painting to explore the emerging Celtic Buddhist mandala.

In March 2010, we celebrated the ordination of Sister Griffin as abbess of Glen Ard Abbey, a newly formed Celtic Buddhist monastery. More: celticbuddhism.org

• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

First tattooed man in America was Irish

Carnet de voyage - James F. O’Connell, découvreur de Nan Madol (tahiti-infos.com)

They danced, so I'll dance an Irish jig for them.

James F. O’Connell, the “Tattooed Man,” arrived in New York City in 1835, causing much consternation. If a lady so much as glanced at him, her future children would be born just as hideously inked as he was — covered in thick, patterned black bands that curved down and around their hands, arms, legs, and backs. Or so the churchmen told their flocks.

O’Connell, an Irish sailor, acquired his full-body tattoo during a stint as a castaway in the South Pacific’s Caroline Islands during the late 1820s and early 1830s.

After their ship sunk, Irishman O’Connell and his shipmate, George Keenan, were taken in by inhabitants of the island of Pohnpei — who were not cannibals, O’Connell emphatically states in his memoir.

Within a few days, the two were bustled off to an isolated hut, where five or six women, “savage printers” armed with ink and thorns, set about providing the newcomers with the markings that would smooth their way into the community.

The resulting tattoo, called pelipel, made O’Connell “fully human” in the world of the South Pacific, writes Juniper Ellis in her book Tattooing the World (Columbia University Press, 2008), for which the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) provided research support. More: neh.gov

The Dharma Bum

There's something about the Irish, going from a tiny island under the thumb of a neighboring island, pushed out into the world as a diaspora that saw the sidhe, Tuatha de Danan, the wee people, the spirits, and creatures of the Emerald Isle spread out into all corners of the world and the public imagination. The neighboring island forced itself on everyone, like the last militant vestige of the Roman Empire (the remaining force in Rome slipping on a sheep's disguise in an exhibition of soft power that conquered the planet or plane more deeply than British weapons and forces.

U Dhammaloka (right) with Burmese monks

How did the Irish win their way into the hearts of all, particularly with so many redheads? One of the most prominent and important of the Irish was named O'Connell (Laurence), who became the first Westerner to ordain as a Theravada Buddhist monk, Ven. U Dhammaloka (pronounced \ooh-dah-mah-low-kuh\), the "U" being an Burmese honorific.

He traveled by boat to California then by ship to Asia, where he made a name for himself as a freethinker and Buddhist, opposing Christian missionaries, ended up all the way in Mandalay, Burma, in a Buddhist monastery.

Another O'Connell (James F.), not JFO, also made a splash in the Pacific among the people of Pohnpei among the Caroline Islands. He was a sailor on a boat that wrecked, landing him in Micronesia and this adventure.

• P.T. Barnum's incredible freak show oddity, the First Tattooed Man in America, Irishman James F. O’Connell (irishcentral.com)

How an Irishman's tattoo changed history

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I was happy to be a Buddhist monk for freedom

(Rare Earth) James O'Connell, 18, survived a shipwreck along with seven others only to become the most famous Western man in Pohnpei. Ah, coming home after being enslaved since your late teens only to have your own society condemn you as Satanic for what they did to you and then be forced to headline a traveling circus freakshow until you died. No matter where you go, the tattoos always speak first. This is the (self-told, probably exaggerated for circus reasons) story of P.T. Barnum's original freak success story, "James O'Connell, America's first tattooed man."

Micronesia (with US Guam), Melanesia, Polynesia, Australasia (Oceania)

• The Life and Adventures of James F. O’Connell, the Tattooed Man (1845)

Support keeps Rare Earth going: rareearth and ko-fi.com/rareearth Follow Instagram: rareinsta. Follow twitter: evan_hadfield

• Evan Hadfield, Rare Earth, Nov. 25, 2023; Celtic Tattoos & Traditions; USA Kilts; Pulan Speaks (video); Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Another good tattoo idea?

1st Day of Summer: Summer Solstice (6/20)

What we call "Stonehenge" is really a reconstruction set up by cranes and heavy equipment.

Take that, Big Oil! You're ruining the environment, and this orange cornstarch proves it! (CND)

VIDEO: Environmental activists spray Stonehenge with orange corn powder | Coast to Coast

It's time for Buddhist Summer School 2024

It's finally the first day of summer, after wildfires, heat waves, earthquakes, volcanos in Hawaii and Mexico, and more political nonsense than one can comfortably fathom.

Unofficial summer began on Labor Day a few weeks ago. But the Sun (Sol, Surya) and Earth (Gaia, Bhumi) do not decide, and not even Moon (Luna, Soma, Chandra) has the final say.

It is Gregorian Calendar reading humans making our social constructs that decide, but somewhere high above in the arrangement of celestial bodies, we move from a wet spring to a grass-filled summer. There will be flames. The big first wildfire has ruined our Summer Solstice and Full Strawberry Moon Ceremony and postponed it indefinitely.

DisclosureFest.org

DisclosureFest.org (Disclosure Project Meetup) was all set to go off as a three-day festival this weekend. But the Post Fire in nearby Gorman forced it to be scrapped to avoid smoke and ash irritation, heat, and injury if it kicked up again, sparing tens of thousands of party people around the Castaic Lake Lagoon 40 minutes west of Downtown Los Angeles out by Magic Mountain.

Instead, there's a much smaller free vegan potluck party at Oh Happy Days Cosmic Cafe above Pasadena on Saturday, June 22, 2024 (meetup.com). Or enjoy the Summer Solstice at Kinship Yoga on Friday night, 6/21/24 in Highland Park (NELA) with Ryan and Stellar.

Like California, Arizona is in the Southwest US

Anything's better than staying in Arizona, the Land of Sun and Sand. the summer gods are not happy so they're scorching the land. Get out, unless you're at ASU. In that case, alkalinize with a mostly raw, green, fresh diet to avoid burning. Acidity gives way to quick sun damage.

Summer Solstice Party — (kinshipyoga.com)

• Bhikkhu Bodhi (As It Is); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Irishman was first Westerner to be a monk

Irishman U Dhammaloka (Laurence Carroll), The Dharma Bum; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; TheDharmaBum.eu, Dana.IO/thedharmabum

First Western Buddhist monk: Irish U Dhammaloka (Wisdom Quarterly)

I think I'll be a Buddhist monk

The Dharma Bum is a feature-length, partially animated documentary film that tells the tantalizing true story of Dubliner Laurence Carroll, who became Venerable Dhammaloka.

• Any relation to Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland? Of course not, because "Lewis Carroll" is the nom de plume (pen name) for Irish-connected Oxford don Dodgson, the author of classic literature for little Alice Liddell.

Laurence Carroll was born in Dublin in 1856 and spent his early life as an alcoholic hobo drifter bumming his way across the United States of America.
 

This freethinking, un-Catholic, un-Christian, atheist activist worked the shipping route from San Francisco, California, to Japan.

Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind

He found himself on the beach, hungover and homeless, after being kicked off the vessel for drunk and disorderly conduct.

He eventually made his way to Theravada Buddhist Burma, where he was helped by compassionate local Buddhist monks.

After five years as a monastic apprentice, he became the first Western man to ever don the saffron robes of a Theravada Buddhist monk.

• Carroll was not the only amazing Irish-American Buddhist monastic: There was also Zen Buddhist "saint" (bodhisattva) Maura Soshin O'Halloran
• American Buddhist Journal: POEM: "Finnegan's Awake"

Irish-American female Zen Buddhist saint (bodhisattva) in Japan: Soshin O'Halloran

I'm glad I became a Buddhist and did so much to spread freethinking against the British Empire.

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Ven. U Dhammaloka: First Westerner to ordain as a Buddhist monk

(Belfast Buddhist, 4/1/16) Venerable Dhammaloka was ordained in Theravada Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) prior to 1900, making him one of the very earliest attested Western Buddhist monks. He was a celebrity preacher, vigorous polemicist, free thinker, and prolific editor in Burma and Singapore between 1900 and his conviction for sedition and appeal in 1910–1911. Drawing on Western atheist writings, he publicly challenged the role of imperial Christian missionaries and by implication the British Empire. His Irish name was Laurence Carroll or Larry O'Rourke or Willam Colvin from Cork and Munster.

UK-occupied Northern Ireland

They gave him the new Buddhist name U Dhammaloka,* and that is just the beginning of the story!

• [*In Burmese U (pronounced "oo") is an honorific that signifies "sir," Dhamma is the Pali spelling of "Dharma," loka means "world." Interestingly, aloka means "light" or "bright whiteness" -- so his name, if pronounced with a long a, signifies suggests "Dharma Light or even White Dharma."]

U Dhammaloka was erased from history. His existence lay dormant for over 100 years. Why? The reasons are explored in the film.

Teach those Brits not to mess with the Celts

This Irishman caused quite a stir in his life, as he singlehandedly took on the might of the Christian British Empire in colonial Burma.

• [George Orwell was also decrying British colonial crimes against humanity in Burma and England for which he wrote Nineteen-Eighty-Four, and he wrote about the city monks of Burma -- eviscerating the layabouts -- in an essay "Shooting an Elephant"].

In the film we discover why he was under constant police surveillance and ultimately had to fake his own death as he transformed himself from an alcoholic bum to the original Dharma Bum. More

• The Dharma Bum - a documentary - Home | Facebook
• Goodbye Columbus, hello St. Brendan | Irish America

The Legend of the 6th Century Irish monk who may have sailed so America (grunge.com)

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Happy St. Paddy's Day?

Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

The Patrician Roman Patriarch Pat

As we celebrate Saint Paddy's Day today, one has to wonder why British Protestant Patrick gets so much credit from the Imperial Catholic Church.

• Is it Druid Genocide Day or St. Patrick's Day?

Saint Patrick (Gaelic Pádraig, Latin Patricius, "father of the people") was a 5th-century Romano-British anti-pagan, Christian missionary, and patriarch named bishop of Ireland by an outside entity.

Known as the "Apostle of Ireland," he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints being Brigid of Kildare and Columba. Patrick was never formally canonized [2], having lived before the current laws of the Catholic Church on these matters.

• Is St Patrick's Day a celebration of genocide? (Quora)
• Why pagans don’t celebrate St. Paddy’s Day
• Druid Genocide (Ireland's Folklore and Traditions)
• The 6th century Irish monk who sailed to America (grunge.com)
• Study: “Woke” attitudes linked to anxiety, depression, and a lack of happiness

We may have been better off as pagans.

Nevertheless, he is venerated as a "saint" in the Catholic Church, which also venerates the Buddha as a Catholic saint (St. Josaphat), the Lutheran Church, the Church of Ireland (part of the Anglican Communion), and in the Eastern Orthodox Church, where he is regarded as equal-to-the-apostles and Enlightener of Ireland [3, 4].

He was a slave in Ireland for years, escaped back to England then seems to have returned to extract his revenge as a patriarch to impose Roman church law on the Emerald Isle.

Patrick is credited with forcing Christianity on Ireland, converting a pagan society in the process, despite evidence of an earlier Christian presence [7].

We defend Catholicism b/c the British don't like it

In Patrick's autobiography, Confessio, when he was 16, he was captured at home in Britain by Irish pirates and taken as a slave to Ireland. He writes that he lived here for six years herding animals before escaping and returning to his England.

After becoming a cleric, he returned to spread Christianity in northern and western Ireland. In later life, he served as a bishop, but little is known about where he worked.

By the 7th century, he had already become the "patron saint of Ireland." His feast day is observed on March 17th, the date of his death not his birth. It is celebrated in Ireland and among the worldwide Irish diaspora as a cultural holiday celebrating all things Irish.

It is hardly as a religious observance nowadays, but in the dioceses of Ireland, it is both a solemnity and a holy day of obligation, even if pagans mourn the genocide he wrought upon the island.

Good John Riley's flag of the Mexican regiment

The Irish are so much like the Mexicans in this regard, taken over and thoroughly saturated by the Holy Roman Empire, as if the Church liberated the people when it enslaved them and still tries to rule every aspect of their lives and exact tribute for Rome.

So much is this connection felt that there are Los Patricios ("The Patricks" not Patricians), who were US mercenaries ordered to fight Mexico, but when they understood the fight, led by John Riley, they took the side of Mexico and fought against the US, as anyone who champions the underdog might well have done. More

• Who wrote the Vulgate?

Buddhism in Ireland + "The Miracle Club" (film)

The Journal, 1/16/17; Sony Pictures; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I'm Green Tara Kwan Yin, and he's the Irish Buddha Scythianmuni the Shakya/Scythian

Becoming a Buddhist in Ireland

(The Journal) Dharmachari ("Dharma Teacher") Vajrashura is one of four full-time teaching staff members at the Dublin Buddhist Centre (DBC), which is a registered charity.

Lawrence Carroll became Ven. Dhammaloka

Along with six other regular volunteers, they teach Buddhist meditation to approximately 600 new students a year, and Buddhism to another 100.

The DBC is the fulcrum of a wider community of 1,500 Buddhists in the Dublin area and has sister communities (or sanghas) in Killaloe, Clare and Westport, Co Mayo.

Dhr. Vajrashura grew up as Sean Boland in the west of Ireland, before coming across Buddhism in the TCD Meditation Society as a theoretical physics graduate.

Now 39, he is a full-time Buddhist teacher and lives with two friends in a small Buddhist men’s community in Dublin 7. There, they meditate at 7:00 am each morning, breakfast together, and go off to work – in his case as manager of the DBC (jrnl.ie/3130287).

ABOUT: TheJournal.ie is an Irish news website that invites its users to shape the news agenda. Read, share, and shape the day’s stories as they happen, from Ireland, the world, and the web. Submit clips to video@thejournal.ie. Stay up to date with all of the latest videos by subscribing to channel. Download our free iOS app (itunes.apple.com). Download free Android app (play.google.com). Twitter: twitter.com/thejournal_ie Facebook: facebook.com/TheJournal.ie Instagram: instagram.com/thejournal_ie Snapchat: thejournal.ie.

The Miracle Club

The King of Ireland (via Imperial Rome)

It's Ireland. You can be Catholic, Roman Catholic, New Catholic or Episcopalian, possibly Protestant, and maybe if you're really lucky Buddhist on the coattails of Lawrence O'Rourke, who became the world's first Western Buddhist monk -- U Dhammaloka -- when he left for the States and onto Asia (Mandalay, Burma).

Go to Lourdes, Ladies. We approve

Will you hold me, Friend? Yes, I'll "hold you like a grudge" (FOB). Directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan. Starring: Laura Linney, Maggie Smith, Kathy Bates. Set in 1967, THE MIRACLE CLUB follows the story of three generations of close friends, Lily (Maggie Smith), Eileen (Kathy Bates), and Dolly (Agnes O'Casey) of Ballygar, a hard-knocks community in Dublin, Ireland, who have one tantalizing dream: to win a pilgrimage to the sacred French Catholic town of Lourdes, a place of miracles that draws millions of visitors each year.

Who was the Irish "Dharma Bum" Lawrence Carroll or U Dhammaloka

When the chance to win presents itself, the women seize it. However, just before their trip, their old friend Chrissie (Laura Linney) arrives in Ballygar for her mother's funeral, dampening their good mood and well-laid plans. The women set out on the journey that they hope will change their lives, with Chrissie, a skeptical traveler, joining in place of her mother.

The glamour and sophistication of Chrissie, who has just returned from a nearly 40-year exile in the United States, are not her only distancing traits: Old wounds are reopened along the way, forcing the women to confront their pasts even as they travel in search of a miracle. #TheMiracleClub #OfficialTrailer #SonyClassics