Mexico: Venice of Aztec Mesoamerica

(Moving to Mexico) I moved to Mexico as an English-speaking Gringo/a. I did not expect this

Secret Tunnels and Hidden Treasures | Temple of Quetzalcóatl

Ancient Civilizations: The advanced Aztec Empire | full history documentary

(Get.factual) April 17, 2024: Mexico City, known in ancient times as Tenochtitlán, is the "Venice" of Mesoamerica with its canals and immense architecture far surpassing anything in Europe at the time.

The Aztecs: within a very short time they created a huge empire, the capital (today's Mexico City) of which as a metropolis, a perfectly organized floating garden city on the Mexican plateau.

At its head were kings who may have sacrificed humans to feed the demands of rapacious Reptilian "gods." This full history documentary tells the true story of the rapid rise and tragic demise of a unique people.

• The Maya: Ancient Civilizations: The Mysteries...

Modern Gringa moves to Mexico (and loves it)

(Moving to Mexico) Nov. 28, 2024: BUCERÍAS. I moved to Mexico and I did not expect THIS. You, too, can make a difference! Support Casa de La Paz ("House of Peace") by donating today at CDELAPAZ.org/donate. Let's meet Alana, who began a new chapter of her life when she moved from Vancouver, BC, Canada, to Bucerías, Nayarit, Mexican coast, in 2022. She opens up about her journey, sharing the surprises she encountered despite thorough research before making the move. Alana offers tips and advice for anyone considering a similar transition, emphasizing the importance of connecting with the local Latin and large foreign (tourist) community. She highlights volunteering as a powerful way to build connections, sharing her personal experience of joining Casa de La Paz after being inspired by this video: Two Expats Take on a Life-Changing Mi... My Mexico Survival kit: Stay cool: amzn.to/3V9V79R Stay connected: amzn.to/4gcVicW Prevent Dengue Fever: amzn.to/3ZclAF5 Hangover Cure: amzn.to/3BcXSR2.

A life of white privilege is nice (NYU)

How to be an Antiracist (Kendi)

The thing about white privilege, like implicit bias, is that we don't know we have it. We would notice if we lost it through sudden poverty or loss of looks. We enjoy it, fail to check it, and offend a lot of people who are not similarly privileged in a deeply racist society. It's deep because it's not always on the surface, like when someone says we had a Black president. That proves we're not racist as a country? Let's ignore who has been president every other time (except for the first nine, who were also Black, and maybe Lincoln, but those nine do not count because technically we were not yet a country due to the Articles of Confederation not yet being ratified or something; we've covered this). We don't see our own privilege, yet seeing someone else's can be painfully obvious when we have been sensitized to what others have been talking about. It's good to be in the know rather than oblivious. Generational wealth, health, better treatment by police and clerks, courts and officials, being given the benefit of the doubt constantly... Watching Matt Walsh's recent "Am I Racist?" movie did more to make us think whites really are oblivious to the advantage(s) they enjoy and take for granted or who others are systematically mistreated and disadvantaged. White guilt is not the solution, but neither is white fragility. We have to awaken and work toward equality and equity or something approaching fairness and inclusion, not just those in power deciding what's "fair" enough.

We stand for justice...for lions.

The local Shambhala Buddhist Center in Los Angeles used to have an occasional white sensitivity class to discuss our privilege and issues that never get talked about but affect us all. Remember on "Seinfeld" how when race would come up, everyone would go silent and awkward? It's really like that. Was it because Kramer was in the room (on the set) and he might ad lib something? It would have been great to have a national conversation. Walsh's film didn't advance anything, only shining negative light on a new industry of DEI profiteers, as if it were all only them. Oh, before they came along everything was all right, right, Matt?

the mosaic of me (the video that got me rejected from NYU)

(NatalieAlbaugh) Sept. 24, 2024: I needed to make a video about myself to submit for my NYU college application back in 2023. This is that video, and although I may have not gotten into NYU, I'm so grateful to have this video to represent the first few chapters of my life. :)* Please watch until the end!

• Ashley Wells, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation)

Is science on verge of 'consciousness'?

The Origins and History of Consciousness (Erich Neumann)

Is science slowly stumbling on the fact that "consciousness" is impersonal and continues after death? We wouldn't like to think so because that does not accord with what is comfortable, and science doesn't ask big questions with easy answers.

It instead proceeds in tiny increments as it develops theories to explain larger data sets. A recent study on consciousness brings up the suggestion that human consciousness could be a side effect of entropy (sciencealert.com).

*Sarcasm* What? It's not the pinnacle of evolution and existence, the greatest thing in the universe, the end all be all proving that souls exist and are invincible and immortal?

Cosmic Consciousness (R.M. Bucke)

• VIDEO: Consciousness: The Fundamental Reality
• VIDEO: Tracking a thought as it moves through the brain is quite remarkable
• The mystery of "consciousness" shows there may be a limit to what science alone can achieve
• Pantheism: What if absolutely everything is conscious?

Dr. Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.

The shocking truth (anatta) is too much to handle for most people, who invariably misinterpret it to mean that things are eternal or things are annihilated, and there's no other possibility. Imagine if both extremes in view were wrong. They are. We neither carry on through death forever, nor are we annihilated at death. Spiritists and materialists both have it wrong.

Hidden Spring (Mark Solms)

Things are dependently originated. What arises does so dependent on conditions (so they do not really arise except as an illusion with the illusory marks of permanence, fulfillment, and personality).

In fact, we find, the three opposite Marks of Existence (ti-lakkhana) are present. Ultimately, "things" that arise dependent on causes and conditions are impermanent, disappointing, and impersonal.

Brain is not base of consciousness, which pervades all things we are conscious of. Anencephaly

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Physics of Expanded Consciousness

But will science ever come to that conclusion? Not likely. The goal of science is not enlightenment and liberation from the round of rebirth and suffering. (How can something even be said to be "reborn" if it cannot, like a moving river, be said to persist unchanged for two consecutive moments? It can).

• Study reveals how an anesthesia drug induces unconsciousness
• Human consciousness evolved as a means of social survival, scientists say
• The brain builds emotions regardless of the senses, neuroscientists find
• The larger brains of humans come with a tragic cost, study finds
• The clinic for psychedelic difficulties where people go when the trip never really ends
• Our brains trick us into thinking consciousness can reside outside the body, research argues
• Biobots arise from the cells of dead organisms − pushing the boundaries of life, death and medicine
• Brain waves found to travel in one direction when memories are made and the opposite when recalled
• Scientists find a determining mechanism for synapse formation in the cerebellum
• Study reveals differences in DNA folding between neurons and other brain cells, links them to cell functions
• Researcher explores how we can stretch our mind to grasp quantum entanglement
• Scientists uncover new mechanism of forgetting in brain neurons that could inform Parkinson's treatment
• Scientists show that there is indeed an entropy of quantum entanglement
• A molecular route to decoding synaptic specificity and nerve cell communication
• Magical equation unites quantum physics Einstein's general relativity in a first
• Scientists discovered something kinda alarming: The universe shouldn't actually exist
• The mystery of consciousness shows there may be a limit to what science alone can achieve
• Reality is just a bunch of hallucinations we collectively agree on
• Often seen, never studied: First characterization of a key postsynaptic protein
• Flow state uncovered: We finally know what happens in the brain when we're in the zone
• Wellness therapists say these 6 common habits are fueling our anxiety
• Scientists discover enzyme that reverses muscle loss due to aging
• This is untrue on each count: Dispelling the myths behind hypnosis

VP pick Vance: Trump is 'America's Hitler'

Who is Trump's VP pick J.D. Vance's Indian wife Usha Chilukuri Vance?

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Why did Vance call Trump Hitler?

Marco Rubio wants the job of VP or an appt.

(WQ) Ohio Senator J. D. Vance is most famous, in his very short political career, for calling Pres. Donald Trump "America's Hitler." Why did he say it? He said it because he is very honest and plainspoken, even though he attended Yale for law school and was a desk Marine in the U.S. military.

• All the times Trump’s VP pick JD Vance has attacked him

Trump is America's Hitler - J. D. Vance

(Ohio Capital Journal) VANCE: “I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like [Dick] Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler,” Vance wrote in a message (of which his erstwhile friend Rep. Josh McLaurin took a screenshot; the message was written in Feb. 2016 and reported by The Independent in April 2022).

In the screenshot, Vance describes the Republican party as “the party of lower-income, lower-education white people” and argues that “Trump is the fruit of the party’s collective neglect.”

Mr. Vance, don't say the truth about DT out loud.

Although J. D. Vance’s feelings toward Ex-Pres. Trump have made a turnaround, echoes of those frustrations with the Republican party remain a feature in his pitch to voters. He regularly jokes that there’s an evil party and a stupid party in Washington, adding that occasionally they get together to do something stupid and evil, and they call that bipartisanship. More: Ohio Capital Journal

• J. D. Vance: Trump is America's Hitler
• America's Hitler: Old J. D. Vance message turns up in heated Senate-primary
•  independent.co.uk
• Trump is a convicted felon: Some Ohio leaders react with fury, others with silence

You can't say Trump is like Hitler.

He is a Midwest redneck who wrote an autobiography he titled Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. He was a desk jockey in the U.S. Marines, and he married a very smart Indian American wife named Usha, whom he met at Yale Law School, where he became an attorney with humble and impoverished roots like a good American, as she went on with her education. He would make a much better president than Trump, so in a sense in his senescence Trump is doing the nation a favor, assuming the country does not move into even more war by inducting a military man with no combat experience, the surest way to get into even more wars of empire.

Hillbilly Elegy (J. D. Vance)

Kamala is what percent Black?

Isn't it interesting that failed Indian candidate Nikki Haley was invited to support Trump by giving a speech at the Republican Convention she failed to reach on her own and she agreed? But she was not chosen. Successful Indian candidate Kamala Harris is likely to become the first Indian U.S. president (because it looks like she is zero percent Black), and the Republican party has no shortage of Indian would-be candidates (like Ramaswami and Hirsch) and Trump supporters like Indian Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Are India and the USA bound to become best friend to the chagrin of Pakistan, Israel, and China, or is it all coincidence?

Complete Guide to Buddhism, Mindful Meditation

Seth Auberon, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Who needs practice when one can just read about it? It's a new year and I want to learn to meditate, be mindful, and reduce stress. I could sit, but that's hard. My mind is curious, and maybe this book writer found something that will make it easier. Could 59 raters be wrong? Yes, but it's better than hitting the cushion too quickly.

The Complete Guide to Buddhism, How to Meditate & Mindfulness Meditation to Reduce Stress, Anxiety & Find Lasting Happiness, for Beginners to Advanced

Whew, what a title. It's a 3 in 1 bundle in the Kindle Edition by author Harini Anand. It has a 4.4 out of 5 stars with 59 ratings.

Reduce stress while increasing calmness, clarity, and happiness even for complete beginners who are not Buddhists.

Mindfulness and meditation are simple practices available to all... Research over the past two decades by the California State University Department of Psychology broadly supports the claim that the practices have beneficial effects on physical and mental health.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio was quoted as saying, “Meditation more than anything in my life was the biggest ingredient of whatever success I’ve had.”

Plus, one is not required to have "faith" in the Buddha or live secluded in a distant monastery to reap the rewards.

This means anyone can increase wellbeing to deal with stress in a practical way while learning about Buddhism, mindfulness, and meditation as one wishes.

This three-in-one bundle includes:

• Buddhism for Beginners: Ancient Strategies for Lasting Happiness, Overcoming Stress, Anxiety & Developing a Zen Mind in the Modern World
• Buddhism: Discover Ancient Strategies for Beginners or Advanced to Achieve Lasting Happiness, Mindfulness & Calm Stress in the Modern World
• How to Meditate: Practicing Mindfulness & Meditation to Reduce Stress, Anxiety & Find Lasting Happiness Even if Your Not Religious, a Beginner or Experienced

[One knows there has to be an editing problem with these books if one of the titles contains a spelling error no one caught, where Your should be You're.]

Key concepts discussed in this bundle include:

• Over 9 different ways of meditation, choosing the best way for each practitioner
• What is Buddhism and what do Buddhists believe?
• Elite level meditations used daily by superstar basketball player Kobe Bryant
• Top tips for practicing mindfulness in everyday life
• The benefits of Moving Meditation plus 3 ways to start practicing them now
• Manage anxiety, stress, depression and sleep
• Why chasing success and happiness is making us miserable – and what to do instead
• The three major Buddhist divisions to know about
• How karma affects everyone and will catch up with us eventually
• The fastest way to start the spiritual path without living in a temple
• The Four Noble Truths and how they can end suffering
• Buddhism for kids to help children learn from our mistakes and live a happy life
• and much, much more!

The teachings of Buddhism, mindfulness, and meditation are straightforward and can be understood by anyone even if not religious. Begin the journey today towards stress-free, happy living with this bundle.

Older than Gobekli Tepe: Boncuklu Tarla

Gregon (The Daily Grail, May 20, 2023); Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

One hundred thousand carved beads have been found at the Boncuklu Tarla site so far.

Boncuklu Tarla: A megalithic site predating Göbekli Tepe

Couple of skeletons buried in an embrace.

The uncovering of the stunning megalithic architecture of Göbekli Tepe in modern-day Turkey (Türkiye) between Europe and Asia less than three decades ago turned our view of prehistory upside down.

Its massive T-shaped pillars predate the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge by 6,000 or 7,000 years.

While it took the spotlight, archeologists in the area continued finding similar sites with impressive architecture dating back the same mind-boggling stretch in time, more than 10,000 years before present.

One of the sites that has become well-known recently is Karahan Tepe (after it was covered in Graham Hancock’s Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse). However, a lesser-known site lies further to the east, and it may end up being even more important: Boncuklu Tarla.

• A tepe is a tell, a burial mound or small hill, in archeology
• Boncuklu Höyük is another ancient site in Anatolia, Turkey
• Ancient Buddhist archeological site of Ajina Tepe
• Amazing temple treasures of Göbekli Tepe
• Anatolia is in modern Turkey

Discovered during construction work on Ilısu Dam in 2008, it has undergone excavation over the last 11 years. It has already turned up many things. Like the other ancient sites of that time in Turkey, Boncuklu Tarla features a walled "temple" with rock pillars – but they appear to predate Göbekli Tepe by a thousand years or more. (The pillars don’t appear to be as impressive).

The earliest layer of the site dates back a staggering 13,000 years. What’s more, the excavation over the past 11 years has worked through multiple layers, with dating of those layers suggesting that it was occupied for about 4,000 years – from around 11,000 to 7,000 BCE.

The documentary Traces: Boncuklu Tarla offers an early look at the site and excavations, along with extended interviews with the lead archeologist Dr. Ergül Kodaş:..

Another surprising discovery appears to be a sewer system that dates back 12,000 years. This architectural feature shows yet again that humans that came out of the last Ice Age were anything but primitive. More

Alan Watts: What is Reality, what is Emptiness?

Alan Watts: "Reality" is not what we think (Is this a simulation?)

(T&H - Inspiration & Motivation) Alan Watts, the greatest Western translator of Eastern philosophy, gives different ways of looking at our world -- the way it really is as distinct from our commonplace distortions -- in one of his great lectures on reality versus maya (illusion). #simulation #reality #maya

Grand Canyon giants and underground cities

UFOmania (facebook.com/ufo.maniaII); Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Grand Canyon Underground Citadel Evidence of Giants and Underground Cities in America

The most famous report about giants and underground American cities appeared in the April 5, 1909 edition of The Arizona Gazette. It was entitled “Explorations in Grand Canyon.” Explorer G.E. Kinkaid discovered a huge underground “citadel” while rafting on the Colorado River. Read about it here: theseventales.weebly.com...

Sacred Sexuality? Tantric meditation (live)

Dhr. Seven, Ananda M., Jen B. (DMI/PasaDharma/Dharma Punx), Wisdom Quarterly; Hariprem

I have never felt so much blissful intimacy.

At its essence, tantra combines meditation, breath, movement, and sound to assist the body's chakra energy system to open.

(Never mind that; what about the sacred sexuality?)

This opening allows dormant energy to move up from the pelvis, along the spine. The movement of this life-force energy can help heal us by loosening constrictions in the body that have developed over time.

The expansion of the energy body increases sensitivity, empathy, and the ability to connect with others.
 

Partners bow to one another as goddess and god in union, as in video below (SheKnows).

• Tantrism is a contested concept, according to The Origins of Yoga and Tantra by Geoffrey Samuel, who says that Tantra Yoga may be described as practices in 9th to 10th century Buddhist and Hindu (Saiva, Shakti) texts that included yogic practices with elaborate deity visualizations using geometrical arrays and drawings (mandala), fierce male and particularly female deities, transgressive life-stage related rituals, extensive use of chakras and mantras, and sexual techniques, all aimed to help one's health, long life, and liberation. 
• VIDEO: How sacred sex heals shame and trauma

The expanded ability to connect with an intimate partner draws many to tantra. Aside from improving communication and intimacy, tantric practices can expand the energy body toward a higher purpose — meditative absorption, cosmic union, merging [consciousness] with the breath called prana or chi.

There are ecstatic benefits to tantra in an of itself. And it feels good to practice it for its side benefits with a partner. But how can we be open and intimate with anyone else when we have yet to be that way with ourselves?

Los Angeles, Dec. 21, 2017

Partner yoga twist (Kelly Bailey/SheKnows)

Everyone will have the chance to find out as Dharma Meditation Initiative (by Disclosure Project), Dharma Punx, and PasaDharma lead a two-hour tantric meditation and yoga workshop that includes Partner Yoga led by Neptune, Tantric meditation, guided visualization, potluck and desserts (vegan).

• Tantric Meditation Workshop and Potluck
• RSVP: Dharma Meditation Initiative
• FREE (donations accepted)
• Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, 6:45-8:30 PM
• 301 N. Orange Grove Bl., Pasadena, CA 91103

(Hariprem) Lesson 1, a simple tantric meditation for couples

Fox Power Yoga's Advanced Workshop (video)

Ami Fox, FoxPowerYoga.com; Wisdom Quarterly

Group yoga in Times Square, NYC (Mario Tama/Getty Images/SCPR.org)

 

Love and light! This Sunday (May 20, 2012) from 4:00-6:00 pm, come learn the most daunting yoga poses in a safe and nurturing environment.
  
I refer to these asanas (postures) as the "Ten Year Plan" in class because it often takes a decade or so to develop the core strength to be able to attempt them. They are often not introduced at all in a mixed-level setting.

• ARM BALANCE WORKSHOP: Handstand (Adho Mukha Vrksasana), Hurdle I and II (Eka Pada Koundiyanasana), Eight Angle Pose (Astavakrasana), Firefly (Tittibhasana), Shoulder-Press (Bhujapidasana), Feathered Peacock (Pincha Mayurasana), Flying Pigeon (Eka Pada Galavasana), and Scale (Tolasana).

There is no guarantee every workshop participant will be able to master them in just one session. But everyone will walk away with a deeper understanding of how they are done safely. What does a body need to get there? Usually what is needed are the twin qualities of yoga, the sthira-sukha ("effort-ease") we call strength and flexibility.

• Alpha Fitness Chalet, $10 at door
• 2836 N. Verdugo Rd., Glendale, CA 91208
• Thinking of attending? Let me know:  

Ami@foxpoweryoga.com
   

Women: In work, as in dating (video)

Scientists Levitate Animals

Charles Q. Choi (Special to LiveScience.com)

Scientists have now levitated small live animals using sounds that are, well, uplifting. In the past, researchers at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an, China, used ultrasound fields to successfully levitate globs of the heavi-est solid and liquid...The aim of their work is to learn how to manufacture everything from pharmaceuticals to alloys without the aid of containers....

"An interesting question is, 'What will happen if a living animal is put into the acoustic field?' Will it also be stably levitated?" researcher Wenjun Xie, a materials physicist at Northwestern Polytechnical University, told LiveScience. (The answer is yes!) More>>

• Study reveals how magic works
• Life's little mysteries
• Top 10 mysteries of the mind
• Most popular myths in science
• Experiment exposes paranoia and sense of Alien control

Binaural Beat Meditation

CLICK: binaural brain stimulation (YouTube)

• Review of the technology