Showing posts with label Kali. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kali. Show all posts

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Vedas: Forbidden Archeologist Michael Cremo


Michael Cremo
Researcher and author Michael "The Forbidden Archeologist" Cremo discusses his latest work on consciousness and intriguing discoveries challenging conventional paleoanthropology. A focal point of the conversation is the recent discovery of a species of pachycephalosaur dinosaurs in Montana, USA, known for their distinctive domed skulls. These herbivorous dinosaurs measured about 10 feet long and lived approximately 75 million years ago, before being wiped out by an asteroid impact near the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

Cremo challenges the long-held belief that humans and dinosaurs never coexisted. He cites evidence of human-like footprints dating back to the Cretaceous period and describes a "Jurassic dinosaur bone...with cut marks...like somebody had taken some sharp instrument and used it to strip the flesh off this dinosaur bone." These findings suggest a possible overlap between humans and dinosaurs, a position dismissed by mainstream scientists.

Currently involved in the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium project in India, Cremo says he is developing exhibits that explore concepts such as cyclic time and the soul's journey through different bodies (reincarnation) in different planetary systems.

He emphasizes the need for new explanations of human origins that incorporate all of the data -- particularly ooparts (out of place artifacts) and the concept of consciousness.

Having attended the Science of Consciousness Conference in Barcelona, Spain, he quotes one scientist from the conference who likened theories of consciousness to "toothbrushes," noting: "Everybody has one, but nobody seems to want to use the other person's," highlighting the fragmented and inconclusive nature of current scientific understanding.

Cremo argues that ancient civilizations had a sophisticated grasp of consciousness and the "self" (atman, ego) as distinct from the physical body. He points out that many ancient texts, such as the Vedic scriptures of the Brahmin priests claimed by Hinduism, describe a multidimensional universe (multiverse) with conscious selves transmigrating through various planes of existence.

"In the Vedic texts," he notes, "they speak of 400,000 human-like species scattered throughout the universe, some with amazing powers and abilities beyond what we are able to accomplish."

The Vedas also indicate there have been interactions between these entities and humans for vast periods of time called yugas, kalpas, and maha-kalpas (epochs, aeons, and great aeons). More

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

The Age of Filth (Era of Mental Trash)


The Era of Mental Trash
(Psyfluence) July 12, 2025: Let's explore the deep crisis affecting our mind and society in the Digital Age. We live trapped in a world overwhelmed by distractions, superficiality, and mass consumption of empty content that dulls our consciousness and weakens our ability to think deeply.


We talk about the silent collapse of the modern mind, a reality where truth is shaped by algorithms, noise replaces reflection, and mediocrity is celebrated as freedom and authenticity.

Did you know this generation is being educated to obey without questioning? We are being trapped in a sweet servitude full of filters, likes, and digitally-induced dopamine addiction. But not all is lost.


There are those who resist, who seek lucidity and depth amid the filth. If you feel something inside you refuses to settle for superficiality and constant noise, this video is for you.

Join the conversation, awaken consciousness, and learn why in a world full of mental trash and why thinking has become a revolutionary act.


Remember. Don’t forget. Subscribe, like, and share so more people can open their eyes and start rebuilding authentic thought.

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

What if God is a woman? (BBC)


Inside the world of Radhe Maa: India's 'Godwoman' | BBC

(BBC World Service) BBC World Service is a British public broadcast service. March 18, 2025: Radhe Maa (named after beloved Hindu Goddess Radha, Krishna's beautiful consort and object of devotion or bhakti) is one of the few women in India's controversial phenomenon of "godmen," who command large followings and claim to do miracles.

The BBC has got rare and exclusive access inside this "godwoman" palace, to understand this world of faith and fear, where followers are told donations bring miracles and disobedience could lead them to harm. Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 bbc.in/3VyyriM
  • 00:00 A world like no other
  • 01:50 How the so called "miracles" work
  • 03:08 The "godmen" (sadhus) phenomenon
  • 04:48 An educated devotee
  • 05:38 The darsham in a room in red and gold
  • 06:56 The value of "miracles"
  • 08:12 Radhe Maa-ji’s palace
  • 09:40 Becoming a "godwoman"
  • 10:38 Radhe Maa’s hometown
  • 11:07 A world of faith and fear
  • 12:58 Unquestioning devotion
Gnosticism: Christian Goddesses
Find more of the best BBC World Service documentaries to watch in less than 30 minutes here 👉🏽 • Documentaries under 30 minutes | BBC. This is the official BBC World Service YouTube channel. Like it? Find more here: Instagram 👉🏽 bbcworldservice, Twitter 👉🏽 bbcworldservice, Facebook 👉🏽 bbcworldservice, BBC World Service website 👉🏽 bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio. Thanks for watching and subscribing. #BBCWorldService #WorldService #india #godwoman #radhemaa
  • BBC World Service, March 18, 2025; Omg Desi Kali Radhey Maa Gopi; Morgue Official (Gnostic Gospel Christianity clips); Ashley Wells and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Alan Watts: Psych of Mystical Experience


One implies the other, a yin to every yang
Alan Watts has earned a reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of Eastern philosophies for the West beginning at age 16 in England.

That was when he wrote an essay for the journal of the Buddhist Lodge in London and began to develop an audience of millions who have been enriched through his books, recordings, TV, radio, and public lectures.

In all, Watts wrote more than 25 books and recorded hundreds of lectures and seminars, all building toward a personal philosophy that he shares in complete candor and joy with his readers and listeners throughout the world.

His overall works have presented a model of individuality and self-expression that can be matched by few philosophers. Pacifica Los Angeles (KPFK.org) continues to air Watts on Sunday mornings and during Something's Happening at midnight on Thursday nights overnight to Friday.

Some sources for Alan Watts' tapes and information:

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Before Big Bang: science has new theory

.
What happened before the Big Bang?
It's not really space. But enjoy this artist's rendering as if it were (Shutterstock/Live Science)
.
(Live Science) The Big Bang is commonly thought of as the start of it all: About 13.8 billion years ago, the observable universe went boom and expanded [popped] into being. [It did not expand into something, as there was nothing to expand into prior to that.]

But what were things like before the Big Bang? Short answer: We don't know. Long answer: It could have been a lot of things, each mind-bending in its own way.
The Buddha (Gandhara)
[What was the universe/multiverse like before the before? Only the Buddha knows, and some high-plane devas, and the people he told, and the rishis or "seers" of the Vedas and other knowledge books, given what they saw and were told by extraterrestrial visitors to the Indus Valley Civilization, Emperor Ashoka's Bharat/India. Science does not really want to know for knowing's sake but to argue and posit and prove with the evidence it finds convincing, never mind the actual Truth. Because what if the answer is too weird, like this all being a samsaric simulation, a trap, an endless cycle of karma and becoming in a loop, like Neitzche's nightmare scenario?]
In the beginning

The first thing to understand is what the Big Bang actually was. "The Big Bang is a moment in time, not a point in space," said Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech.edu) and author of The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself (Dutton, 2016).
  • [It is dumb for science to say there was a Big Bang and then define it as they do. It is like saying, "Religion and spirituality are stupid because they believe in miracles. We don't. So just give us this one miracle at the beginning, unexplained and inexplicable, and we promise not to resort to any more miracles after that. We'll explain everything else and define what is an isn't reality with reason and constructs hammered out by mere reasoning and then constantly update that picture with new ideas, theories, and assumptions, never getting anywhere but having fun and making lots of money along the way, unlike those stupid religionists and magicians talking their nonsense and mysticism.]
  • Stern opposition faced in Deep Red States pushing Christianity in public schools
  • Space photo of the week: Milky Way's galactic twin captured by dark energy camera
[There's a new beginning! It's called the Big Bounce, which isn't exactly new

The gods did it.
The Big Bang may not have been the beginning of the universe, according to a theory of cosmology that suggests the universe can “bounce” between phases of contraction and expansion. If that theory is true, then it could have profound implications about the nature of the cosmos, including two of its most mysterious components -- black holes and dark matter.

With this in mind, a recent study suggests that dark matter could be composed of black holes formed during a transition from the universe's last contraction to the current expansion phase, which occurred before the Big Bang.

You can be happy. Here's how. Grab some paper
If this hypothesis holds, the gravitational waves generated during the black hole formation process might be detectable by future gravitational wave observatories, providing a way to confirm this dark matter generation scenario. (Ergo, we just figured out a way to make a lot more money, funding new kinds of super-expensive observatories. And while we're at it, we need a bigger electron collider.)

Observations of stellar movements in galaxies and the cosmic microwave background — an afterglow of the Big Bang — indicate that about 80% of all matter in the universe is dark matter, a substance that doesn't reflect, absorb, or emit light (even though it's all around us, not just off in deep space where we can't see it because it's so far away).

Oh, Buddha, give me some insight it all.
Despite its abundance, scientists have not yet identified what dark matter is made of. In the new study, researchers explored a scenario where dark matter consists of primordial black holes formed from density fluctuations that occurred during the universe's last contraction phase, not long before the period of expansion that we observe now.

They published their findings in June in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. More:
[Back to the old theory]
Demiurge: Check it out, Chugs. Quiick, give me your lighter. I'm going to create something.

(Family Guy) God (Demiurge) created the universe

Thus, it's possible that the universe at the Big Bang was teeny-tiny or infinitely large, Carroll said, because there’s no way to look back in time at the stuff we can’t even see today.
  • [Dumb. All we do is look back. And there are ways of looking back, not to mention the beings who were there when it happened because the universe, this universe, is far older. And we live in a multiverse. And it is possible to know things by direct perception, but that requires purification of mind and development of the dibba cakkhu or "divine eye," the human capacity to exhibit marvelous powers of perception, even us, even now.]
All we really know is that it [It? What? The pre-universe, something was preexisting?] was very, very dense and that it very quickly got less dense.
  • Hey, Everybody, sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now. Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to an inbox. By submitting your information, you agree to be legally bound to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16+.
As a corollary, there really isn't anything outside the universe, because the universe is, by definition, everything.
  • [Unless we mean the multiverse, but they're separate, except for trans-dimensional travelers who have found a way to break through to other dimensions and universes, but they haven't told us how to do it, I mean they've told us, but they haven't gotten it published in a peer-reviewed journal of our liking and raked over the coals by friends of ours in the elite circles of The Academy who are gatekeepers to keep Truth and the riff-raff out, so until then there is just no way to be outside the All which is the Everything and the only Reality that we know of and can ever know.]
Question. Answer. I've got it!
So at the Big Bang, everything was denser and hotter than it is now, but there was no more an "outside" of it than there is today. As tempting as it is to take a godlike view and imagine you could stand in a void and look at the scrunched-up baby universe right before the Big Bang, that would be impossible, Carroll said.

The universe didn't expand into space; space [you know, that stuff that is nothing but holds everything, defined as the delimiting distance between things, yeah, that stuff] itself expanded.

"No matter where you are in the universe, if you trace yourself back 14 billion years, you come to this point where it was extremely hot, dense, and rapidly expanding," he said.

No one knows exactly what was happening in the universe until 1 second after the Big Bang, when the universe cooled off enough for protons and neutrons to collide and stick together.

Many scientists [that we approve of and never mind the others] do think that the universe went through a process of exponential expansion called inflation during that first second. This would have smoothed out the fabric of space-time and could explain why matter is so evenly distributed in the universe today.

Before the bang
Secret life before the BIG bang
It's possible that before the Big Bang, the universe was an infinite stretch of an ultrahot, dense material, persisting in a steady state until, for some reason, the Big Bang occurred.

This extra-dense universe [the previous universe before the current universe] may have been governed by quantum mechanics, the physics of the extremely small scale, Carroll said.

The Big Bang, then, would have represented the moment that classical physics took over as the major driver of the universe's evolution. [What is Quantum Mechanics?]

Try hedonism. I liked it.
For [horndog atheist] Stephen Hawking, this moment was all that mattered: Before the Big Bang, he said, events are unmeasurable, and thus undefined. Hawking called this the no-boundary proposal: Time and space, he said, are finite, but they don’t have any boundaries or starting or ending points, the same way that the planet Earth is finite but has no edge.

"Since events before the Big Bang have no observational consequences, one may as well cut them out of the theory and say that time began at the Big Bang," he said in an interview on the National Geographic show "StarTalk" in 2018.

Or perhaps there was something else before the Big Bang that's worth pondering. One idea is that the Big Bang isn't the beginning of time, but rather that it was a moment of symmetry.

In this idea, prior to the Big Bang, there was another universe, identical to this one but with entropy increasing toward the past instead of toward the future. Increasing entropy, or increasing disorder in a system, is essentially the arrow of time, Carroll said, so in this mirror universe, time would run opposite to time in the modern universe and our universe would be in the past.
  • [Strangely, the mathematical functions and Einstein's equations do not have an arrow and therefore time can run in either direction without violating math rules or fundamental quantum mechanics, what with retro-causation even being shown to possibly exist.]
E Questions, Buddha Answers
Proponents of this theory also suggest that other properties of the universe would be flip-flopped in this mirror universe.

For example, physicist David Sloan wrote in the University of Oxford Science Blog, asymmetries in molecules and ions (called chiralities) would be in opposite orientations to what they are in our universe.

A related theory holds that the Big Bang wasn't the beginning of everything, but rather a moment in time when the universe switched from a period of contraction to a period of expansion.
  • [Ah, this would be in line with Buddhist and Vedic cosmology and the views of the other Dharmic religions, which speak of periods of expansion and contraction within a great aeon or maha yuga, a staggering period of time humans had no business imagining if it were not for space beings filling their minds with explanations of what goes on out there in boundless reaches of space known as the akasha deva loka or "world of light beings in the sky."]
This "Big Bounce" notion suggests that there could be infinite Big Bangs as the universe expands, contracts, and expands again.
  • [Ah, now we're getting somewhere, and the Indian books of the subcontinent have been reaching Western scientists by various means after all. This is exactly what the East posits, not a finite first point or cause, but only cycling that neither has a need for a beginning nor any end in sight. There is. And when is it? Now, the eternal now.]
The problem with these ideas, Carroll said, is that there's no explanation [that I know of] for why or how an expanding universe would contract and return to a low-entropy state. [But, of course, I haven't read the ancient texts, have I?]

Let's send this one up and see if it flies.
Carroll and his colleague Jennifer Chen have their own pre-Big Bang vision.

In 2004, the physicists suggested that perhaps the universe as we know it is the offspring of a parent universe from which a bit of space-time has ripped off.

It's like a radioactive nucleus decaying, Carroll said: When a nucleus decays, it spits out an alpha or beta particle. The parent universe could do the same thing, except instead of particles, it spits out baby universes, perhaps infinitely.

"It's just a quantum fluctuation that lets it happen," Carroll said. These baby universes are "literally parallel universes," Carroll said, and don't interact with or influence one another.

If that all sounds rather trippy [then you have been smoking 5-MeO-DMT or regular DMT or], it is — because scientists don't yet have a way to peer back to even the instant of the Big Bang, much less what came before it.

There's room to explore, though, Carroll said. The detection of gravitational waves from powerful galactic collisions in 2015 opens the possibility that these waves could be used to solve fundamental mysteries about the universes' expansion in that first crucial second.

Theoretical physicists also have work to do, Carroll said, like making more-precise predictions about how quantum forces like quantum gravity might work.

"We don't even know what we're looking for," Carroll said, "until we have a theory."

Friday, July 12, 2024

9th avatar of Vishnu, Jesus or Buddha?

What the cartoonist (Dan Piraro) doesn't realize is that the Buddha did set down such a rule.

Great teachers of world's religions (Where's Mo?)
Christianity (particularly imperialist universalist Catholicism and hegemonical American Protestant Evangelism) is closer to Hinduism than Buddhism is, for all of their apparent similarities. The historical Buddha did not teach what Jesus or Krishna (avatars of a God like Vishnu), Brahma or Shiva taught.

All of these, we are told promoted devotional practices as the best that could be done by most humans during the Dark Age or Kali Yuga. Hinduism, to be more popular and tolerant, accepts other religions enough to swallow them and call them part of its own Eternal Teaching or Sanatan Dharma.

Hindu holy man, sadhu, sannyasin, ganja smoker
If Brahmin priests could not rid themselves of pesky wandering ascetic or shramanic traditions like Buddhism and Jainism, it simply dealt with them by incorporating them into its own structure and pantheon just as it did the ancient Vedas ("Knowledge Books") of proto-India and the Indus Valley Civilization, extending Hinduism (which was systematized and established by Adi Shankara a few centuries ago by coordinating and getting major points of agreement for many and diverse "religions" around the Indus River, thus resulting in the name of one conglomerate religion of Indus-ism where previously people did not live with the modern idea of being in a "religion" or doing anything more than practicing spiritual things as part and parcel of daily life).
Tribal Jewish God in a polytheistic world
The British imposed the idea that one must name "spiritual" practices and/or superstitions and beliefs a "religion" and that those practicing in accordance or adhering to such beliefs must be "members" of that religion. The ancients in India, proto-India, Egypt, and elsewhere simply did not have this belief but simply went along when told by the dominant and oppressive colonizing culture. One has to imagine that pre-Christian pagans in Europe did not think they had a "religion" but were just living their cultural life and holding popular beliefs about how the world (with its spirits and mysteries) works.

Amitabha Cosmic Buddha
While Early Buddhism, just like Jainism, rejected the Vedas and gods as ultimate sources of wisdom or liberation, later (Mahayana) Buddhism was co-opted by the Brahmin priests and turned into a kind of Hinduism by other names. While there are certainly many devotional practices in modern Theravada Buddhism, a back-to-basics movement to preserve the historical Buddha's Teachings, many Mahayana traditions and practices went overboard to devote themselves to anyone but the historical Buddha.

Kwan Yin (female Avalokiteshvara)
That Buddha is respected but then quickly disregarded, forgotten, or shunned for "better" Mahayana Buddhist figures like the Cosmic Buddhas Amitabha (and His promise of praying to Him to be reborn in His heavenly Western Paradise, the Pure Land, where one can make efforts to reach enlightenment and liberation without bothering to do anything toward that here other than praying and devoting oneself to Him here and now) and Vairocana, or the ever-popular Virgin Mary figure Kwan Yin (Guanyin, Kwannon, Chenrézik, or Avalokiteshvara, the Goddess of Compassion, who like many other Mahayana figures is actually a bodhisattva, a person striving for Buddhahood, not a buddha at all) and Kṣitigarbha, who saves beings from the hells, which they fall into on account of their own deeds and views.

Pals Jesus, Budai, and Krishna with a cow
This devotional bent of Mahayana Buddhism has gotten so severe that who "the Buddha" is is often blurred, with most of the world mistaking him for the Mahayana figure Budai/Putai/Hotei the "Fat Happy Bodhisattva," the obese guy revered in Chinese restaurants around the world. Moreover, a distinction at one point had to be made between what Western elucidator of Buddhism Alan Watts points out in the Japanese Buddhist terms jiriki versus tariki -- enlightenment by one's own efforts or by outside help.
  • Jiriki (自力, "one's own strength" [1]) is the Japanese Buddhist term for "self-power," the ability to achieve enlightenment and liberation (in other words, to reach bodhi and nirvana) through one's own efforts, whereas tariki (他力, "other power," "outside help") is the belief that it cannot be done on one's own. These two terms in Japanese Buddhist schools classify how one becomes spiritually awakened [2]. The first is commonly practiced in Zen Buddhism, whereas the much more popular Pure Land Buddhism refers to the power of Amitābha Buddha to "save" beings who merely have faith, believe, and worship an outside force like the mythological Amitabha [3].
Does Christianity teach Christians and Catholics that they can save themselves, awaken themselves, enlighten themselves, or even get into heaven (which is viewed as final salvation) by their own efforts? Certainly not. Most modern Christian schools teach that it is ONLY by "grace" (God's underserved gift or His whimsical feeling like it) and never by "works" (one's own efforts) that anyone can be saved.

All three religions (Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism) believe in karma (the power of deeds to bring about a result, but Christians insist everything is either God's will or not and nothing we can do can change that, other than perhaps groveling, begging, bargaining, self-abnegation, and absolute devotion and throwing ourselves on His mercy can save us.

For Christians killing isn't so bad compared to not loving the God enough because that God can erase that karmic debt and sin, wipe it away in an instant of devotion, obedience, adherence, and voluntary slavery, whereas not killing in the first, who cares? That's not a big deal to most Christians or apologists. Of course, Hinduism now talks about karma a lot, but it is said that the Buddha was the first sage to go around telling ordinary people about the importance of their deeds.

Up until then it was more or less a secret among Brahmin priests and preservers of the Vedas, who were not keen on telling anyone other than Brahmins. The Buddha, who was regarded as a Karmavadin (Teacher of the efficacy of actions) not as a Buddhist (which came later with the Western idea that things have to be a "religion"), went around telling everyone, emphasizing karma to everyone as a principle, a fixed law, an orderliness to the universe we live in, be it a simulation or a real place.

One has to eventually put forward the endeavor and effort to awaken oneself; it simply cannot be "given" or gained by devotion. It does not belong to anyone to give, not even "God," who Himself, Herself, Itself is not enlightened nor liberated but rapt in this samsara.


So while it is beautiful that we can all be Hindus now, all go back to a time when there was just one universal religion everyone had to follow, a worldwide belief system with an all-attractive cult figure like Krishna, Christ, Thor, Zeus, Sophia, Aphrodite, Brahma, Mithras, Ahura Mazda, Allah (or His Prophet), the Great Spaghetti Monster, Odin, or countless other astrotheological figures, Buddhism does not need the Buddha to be an "incarnation of Vishnu."
  • The great thing is, of course, that "Hinduism" is not really a religion even now when it is treated like one because it has always meant a collection of disparate views, practices, belief, and preferred central gods (one choice in picking any incarnation of an essential Brahman, or "reality behind all illusion") presenting itself as an avatar or aspect of the One True God(hood). The yogis have their way, as do the Shaivites and Vaishnavites, agnostics, atheists, Kali worshippers, devotees of the Goddess Saraswati, Ma Durga, Radha (Krishna's partner), Krishna, or 100,000 others.
In fact, it is insulting as it shows a severe lack of understanding by Brahmins and Hindus that such things could even happen. A buddha is an arhat (fully enlightened being), who therefore by that supreme enlightenment is never again reborn, does not incarnate, does not reappear or rearise. Of course, there will be other buddhas, like Mahayana Buddhism's second favorite buddha of all time, the Buddha-to-come, the Future Buddha, Maitreya.

But that being will not be the last one (Siddhartha Gautama Buddha) coming again. It will be a new one, just as there have been ones in the ancient past and in the distant future. It is never the same being returning to teach beings how to make an end of all suffering and all rebirth after realizing the too-subtle unique teachings of Dependent Origination and anatta (the impersonal nature of all existence) or egolessness.

The Lord's Prayer (Medieval English)
  • Text by Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Friday, June 30, 2023

India's metal music fest; Hindus react (video)

What would middle-aged Hindus think of black speedmetal from King Diamond's Mercyful Fate? They like it but don't think Indians will understand [unless they're from Bangalore metal fest].

I went to India's metal festival -- pure Mayhem
(Karl Rock) Premiered April 3, 2023. India has its own extreme metal festival, and New Zealander Karl Rock went this year to see how it compares to other foreign music festivals.

Let's go backstage at the Bangalore Open Air Festival in the Indian state of Karnataka to see behind-the-scenes of Mayhem's pre-show prep.

The lineup also included death metal from Pestilence, Born of Osiris, Godless, Dying Embrace, Kryptos, and Amophia.

Follow the Bangalore Open Air Festival on Instagram to get details about the next festival instagram.com/bangaloreopenair.

Thinking of attending? There's more information available on the blog "Everything You Need To Know About Bangalore Open Air Festival" blog.karlrock.com
Bangalore Open Air is India's premier hard rock and heavy metal music festival. It started in 2012 and has featured bands like Mayhem, Iced Earth, Napalm Death, and Marduk.

When your cellphone is pickpocketed, find it for sale at the night market

Bangalore Open Air is a music festival in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, that was founded in 2012 by Salman Syed. From thrash titans Kreator and Destruction to legendary heavy metal stalwarts Iced Earth and extreme metal luminaries like Mayhem, Rotting Christ, and Vader, Bangalore Open Air has been bringing legendary and cutting-edge acts to India for more than a decade.

The festival brings together 6,000 Indian metal music fans every year, and it's continually growing. With its combination of great music, good food, and a lively atmosphere, the Bangalore Open Air Festival is an experience not to be missed for anyone visiting the city.
  • 00:00 India's biggest metal festival
  • 00:25 Bangalore city overview
  • 00:41 Do I listen to metal?
  • 01:30 The bands
  • 01:55 My favorite Indian metal band (Godless)
  • 02:26 Why is there a metal festival in India? (Salman Syed interview)
  • 04:04 Tour of the venue
  • 05:38 What happens backstage?
  • 06:57 Pestilence performing in India
  • 07:24 Foreigners at the festival
  • 07:41 What's the food like?
  • 08:14 Meeting Indian metal fans
  • 10:04 Backstage with Born of Osiris
  • 11:16 Mayhem stage and backstage tour
  • 12:46 Mayhem arrives backstage
  • 13:27 Mayhem takes the stage
  • 15:16 Should you attend next year?
Undercover in a stolen phone market in India
(Karl Rock) June 22, 2023. MUMBAI (Bombay), India: Karl went undercover in a stolen cellphone market in India. This is where stolen phones might end up. Pickpocket gangs steal them and fence them here, along with old phones from electronic recyclers. Fake Chinese iPhones are sold here, too. Avoid shopping at these black markets. And avoid pickpockets with these practical tips: Stay vigilant and be aware of surroundings. Pay attention to the people around. Stay alert in crowded areas, public transportation, tourist spots, and busy streets. Keep all valuables hidden: Avoid displaying valuable items such as expensive jewelry, cash, and flashy electronic devices. Put them in a secure place like a money belt, hidden pocket, or bag close to the body. Or leave them behind hidden in a hotel room. More

Monday, March 27, 2023

Chinese Mahayana: Amitabha's Pure Land

Tung-Lin Temple, West Covina; Sayalay, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Cosmic Amitabha Buddha of Infinite Light
In the San Gabriel Valley, along the other foothills dividing Los Angeles from Orange County, in a house used for retreats, mostly by dedicated Chinese speakers interested as much in accomplished Theravada teachers as anything, tucked away in a beautiful residential area, we met an angelic girl, nearly blind.

It turned out she was not a girl but a full-grown woman, married, wise, gentle, compassionate, and wishing to teach the Dharma. We were amazed.

Then we came to find she had started a Meetup group as part of a small and much more obscure Chinese temple.

Ancient frescoes found inside Chinese caves
It might be in her backyard. But she made videos, too. As the Meetup fades out of existence, it's nice to hear what Mahayanists believe in the worship of Amitābha over the historical Buddha, emphasizing this "cosmic savior" figure and Guanyin (Goddess of Compassion) over the historical Buddha and his two chief female disciples, Ven. Khema Theri, foremost in wisdom, and Ven. Uppalavana Theri, foremost in powers.

Let's listen to a few minutes of this innocent angel's teaching.

Guanyin Goddess of Compassion
Weekly meditation and Dharma class (in English) is held on Saturdays from 10:00 am—11:30 am. Meditation cushions, chairs, and water are provided. All are welcome to join. Address:
  • Tung-Lin Buddhist Temple
  • 1488 E. Cameron Avenue
  • West Covina, California 91791
Please park inside gate. (Keep going past roundabout driveway). The temple is the back building that looks like a house. Check out its YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/f4iken2002.
  • Why does Pureland Buddhism believe as it does? Alan Watts has an excellent and historical explanation for it as Buddhism declined and degenerated, losing sight of what the historical Buddha taught and developing speculative views and "shortcut" methodologies that made sense to later teachers and the founders of new schools.