Jesus better than Christianity (Edgar Cayce)

• Edgar Cayce's A.R.E., Virginia Beach

Gnostic God Abraxis, higher than God of Bible

Trinity? Let's go back in time to see

What if a Trinitarian could go back in time to talk to the original Christians about the 'trinity'?

• What in the world is the "trinity"?
• Biblical redactions, contradictions, disagreements, removals, insertions, different accounts to perfect word of the God

Spiritual Krawl for Kris-Mass (12/24)

All-Saints Pasadena and SRF Xmas services 2023; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

How many religions are there in the US? Probably about as many disgruntled Gods have made. And we say that because, traditionally, there have been 200 kinds of Christianity, with many sects, not to mention how each congregation differs from the next even in the same version of X-ianity.

Which religion to choose in America? Jainism?

What could we do, living in a city so liberal as Pasadena (LA County, CA), the jewel of the Other Valley, the "Varanasi of the West"? (Varanasi or Benares is the most spiritual city in India).

We did a spiritual pub crawl by visiting a Buddhist center (Mindfulness Meditation Center – Covina – Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara), a semi-Hindu temple (Self-Realization Fellowship, Glendale), and an Episcopalian church, the best one in the country: All Saints Church, Pasadena (allsaints-pas.org).

• Radical inclusion at All Saints: Whoever one is, that person is welcome. A female dressed as a priest was breaking bread and distributing blood (gluten wafers and wine with everyone's saliva mixed in) in a European cannibalism ritual where they eat their god
• The Buddhist monastery had not official event, just visitors as many Sri Lankans in the U.S. are or have family members that have become Christians, after the British and Portuguese brought the religion to the formerly occupied colony
• SRF had an inclusive service, singing Christmas carols, eating cookies, singing, performing, and reading from Paramahansa Yogananda's The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You, with a decidedly Indian slant to the interpretation of Issa (Jesus) as a traveler to ancient India, where he was exposed to Tibetan Buddhism, the Brahminical Vedic religion (before Hinduism had been systematized into a "religion" by Sri Shankara), and the ways of the East

While not the 8 pm service we attended, it is similar to it from SRF

We come more out of family tradition than faith.

This third place with its 10:30 pm service was very inclusive -- reading from the Quran (Koran, Islam's holy book), giving a nod to the Jews, and talking about this one guy whose birthday it was. There was singing and lesbians officiants in different colors, as if the place were Unitarian Universalists, which Pasadena has two such places of worship (Throop and Neighborhood Church).

Religion is better when it includes women.

One hardly sees so many liberals gathered in one place, talking about the big Rose Parade and football game next week, protests against Israel and for Palestine, with a great deal of respect for non-Zionist Jews, massive compassion for all the suffering of the world, not least the tiny minority of Christians in Bethlehem, where Christmas has been cancelled by Jewish Nationalist war games and actual slaughter.

To meditate is the way to the divine.

The birthday guy was apparently a Palestinian living in the West Back 2,000 years ago, angering the Temple priests and Roman officials. The whole thing left us believing, There's no way Jesus (Issa) was real. They've made him up to be all things to everyone from an obscure figure in the ancient Near East. We think there was a historical figure but nothing like this fantasy Nordic son of Zeus the churches have going. Just ask Bible scholars like Bart Ehrman and Reza Aslan.

• Head of Catholic Church in Kenya defies pope's order
• Swami Vivekananda and his profound connection with Varanasi
• Liberation Theology in Latin America once made Catholicism great

"White Like Me" (documentary)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Tim Wise (White Like Me); NeighborhoodUU

Why can't people just be people? I don't even see color. I can totally relate to nonwhites...

White Like Me (film) is one-part memoir, another part essay collection. It is a personal examination of the way largely unseen racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white Americans.

It shapes, and privileges, it in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal justice, and so on.

With stories from his own life, Tim Wise demonstrates the way this implicit bias and occasional outright racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits -- in relative terms -- those who are “white like me.”

Wise discusses how race privilege can harm whites in the long-run and make progressive social change less likely.

It's great to be white like me. Kill four people, get parole, violate it, run to Mexico...lol

White "socialist" either way: Jew for social justice OR a German-style "National Socialist"

.

He explores the many ways whites can challenge their unjust privileges. And he explains, in clear and convincing language, why it is in the best interest of whites themselves to do so.

Using lively anecdotes rather than stale statistics, Wise weaves a narrative that is at once readable and scholarly, accessible and enlightening.

• Viewing and Discussion, Los Angeles
• Neighborhood UU Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd. 
• Pasadena, CA 91103  (626) 449-3470

White People for Racial Justice of SGVStephanie Ballard (neighborhooduu.org)

(Facebook) Open to all who identify as "white" and oppose racism. We met Feb. 18th at 7:00 pm to focus on applying "ring theory" (comfort in, dump out) to racial justice work. We gathered and heard about the most productive things to say to people of color on the front lines. This is about learning to be good allies and accomplices. Where? Ross Chapel, Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church.

KOAN: Zuigan's Permanent Principle

Wisdom Quarterly; Roshi Jeff Albrizze, PasaDharma.org, Case 75, The Book of Equanimity

PasaDharma's free meditation and koan study group, Thursdays (Wisdom Quarterly)

PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY

Even though you try to call it thus, it quickly changes.

At the place where knowledge fails to reach, it should not be talked about.

Here: Is there something to penetrate?

MAIN CASE

Attention!

Zuigan asked Ganto, "What is the original, permanent principle?"

Ganto replied, “Moving.”

Zuigan asked, “How about when it moves?"

Ganto said, "You don’t see the original, permanent principle.”

Zuigan was flabbergasted.

Ganto remarked, "When you agree, you are not liberated from the senses and their dust.

When you don’t agree, you sink into life and death forever."

APPRECIATORY VERSE

Perfect jewel without flaw, a great gemstone needs no polish.

Where the person of the Way is praiseworthy, she has no sharp edges.

When the path of agreement is forgotten, senses and dust are empty,

Liberated body without dependence. Alive and frisky!

ZEN: Open House and Party (Pasadena)

Roshi Jeff Albrizze, PasaDharma.org; Koan Study Group, Wisdom Quarterly

PasaDharma reading and discussing koan before zazen, Thursdays, 7:00-8:30 pm. Beginner's introduction at 6:30 pm if they call Jeff in advance: (626) 529-4074 (WQ)

   

Roshi leads kinhin walking meditation (WQ)

BUDDHIST PASADENA - The bell rings. The teacher, dressed in traditional black and sporting full sleeve tattoos, bows. Participants take their seats on zafus, zabutons, cushions, sofas, chairs, and ergonomic setups in the middle of a redwood tree forest on the Neighborhood UU campus.
 

PasaDharma.org

This is Pasadena, California, and one of the brightest and most successful Unitarian Universalist churches in Los Angeles is hosting another in a series of Buddhist meditation groups. Pasadharma is in its thirteenth year of providing a gathering place for Zen fellowship and "just sitting." The group is FREE and open to all, supported by the voluntary contributions of participants. The goal? To provide a sacred space for "just sitting" (zazen). Of course, there's more than just sitting going on.

301 N. Orange Grove Blvd #23 (upstairs), Pasadena CA 91103

But the point is that, unlike many Buddhist groups in Los Angeles and Orange County, the central focus here is on sitting. 

 

The bell rings, and the group reads (photocopies and digital versions provided). Roshi Albrizze, a former resident at ZCLA and a long time practitioner at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, talks about Buddhism from an American perspective to a largely Occidental audience, and discussion ensues. 

 

The bell rings again, and so begins the first session of formal sitting. Minds race. This is followed by slow and fast walking (kinhin) around the new UU labyrinth and a second round of sitting starts. The mind calms.

 

Then the after-party begins: networking, hugging, social bonding, working out Zen philosophy, and practical advice dispensed liberally to keep practitioners afloat in this mad, mad world. "How did you hear about it?" "I saw it on MeetUp.com!" "Me, too!" *vigorous handshake*

POTLUCK!

Thursday, January 31st will be different. Pasadharma is hosting a FREE OPEN POTLUCK PARTY for family and friends and curious onlookers. Meet the Roshi, his wife, his newborn, and the many activists that make up the progressive Pasadena/Northeast Los Angeles foothill community. Various insight (vipassana) meditators, Tibetan Buddhists, recovering Catholics and Jews, and Thich Nhat Hanh devotees feel at home at Neighborhood Church. And more than a few curious formerly-fundamental Christians drop by, as do urban witches (Wiccan priestesses), hipsters, shamans, cyberpunks, gardeners, and local cranks. All are welcome and embraced in this beautiful community of acceptance and Mahayana universalism.

Koan Study Group
Mara Schaeffer, Wisdom Quarterly

Koan: What is the sound of 1,000 jaws dropping?

PasaDharma's KSG is special. All that most Buddhist groups can offer to the public, over the years, is beginning meditation techniques: relax, watch your breath, feel your stress melt away, and try not to snore too loudly. After a few years of this, the serious spiritual seeker may want to advance to something with more depth -- sutra study or, peculiar to Zen, koan work. Like dream images that speak of profound meaning in symbols and images, with their origin in the objective unconscious, koan images are rich and deep. Their significance represents the collective wisdom of the Rinzai Zen tradition. But their meaning is not given freely; it requires a level of engagement and intensity which can vary from simple frustration to a deep "soul" searching like Jacob wrestling an angel. Roshi Jeff is a gifted guide through the treasure of nuances surrounding these puzzling riddles. The satisfaction of discovering each koan's meaning is one way into meditating -- the only way in is to abandon "efforting," muscling, and intellectualizing. (All of these get in the way of zen/jhana/absorption). The heart of the mystery to be found is both deeply satisfying as well as being "nothing special." We return to beginner's mind, to original worthiness, to an aha or "I knew that!" realization. But now we come to it with a more profound understanding.

Look who dropped by!

There's KPFK Radio host Carter Wallace and Master Gardener Mark Rice (instituteofurbanecology.org) with British Rose Diveen from Culture Club 101; that's permaculture designer and visual media artist January Nordman, that's author Prof. BJ Kelleher, there's the eye doctor who runs the PasaDharma Traveling Lending Library, there's that jerk who never talks to nobody but just sits, and over there are jazz impresarios, and PasaDharma's own resident didgeridoo player of Malibu's Wright Ranch fame, Ron the self-proclaimed bodhisattva with magic powers and relics, artists from Armory Arts, the anti-Big Oil NELA Transitioners, the spiritual-but-not-religious crowd from Alexandria II Bookstore, the "consciousness raisers" from Conscientious Projector, and the skeptics from nearby Caltech and JPL.

• Zen Ox-Herding, AC, and John Cage (PBS)
• Sex, Sin, Zen: Lust for Enlightenment (Brad Warner)
• North Korea says nuke tests target US, allegedly
• Timbuktu is becoming a ghost town
• Fleeing the Rose Garden
• Apple beaten by Big Oil as world's most valuable
• Homosexual child-molesting rapist Catholic priest trial
• Unplanned pregnancies [rape?] higher among military

"Dark Buddhism": Zen and Ayn Rand's Objectivism

I began as an Objectivist. Like many members of my generation, I discovered Ayn Rand in college, initially reading The Fountainhead and then Atlas Shrugged. I felt, at the time, that she had saved my life. I was a child prodigy and, as with most child prodigies, my adolescence and early adult years were filled with strong feelings of isolation and guilt. After years of bullying and taunting by other children (and the alienation of adults who found children with adult vocabularies and opinions to be creepy), I found myself overwhelmed with feelings...