This story is easy to do because the men at Wisdom Quarterly are dog people, who love dogs and fish and only recently warmed up to the wonder of cats. Who would have guessed that a dog can be a monk's best friend?
According to the monks, Aloka began following them during their walk and despite facing hardships – including being hit by a car and falling seriously ill during the journey – it (he) repeatedly rejoined the peace procession.
Aloka's prominence grew when it joined a larger American initiative called the "Walk for Peace." This event began on October 26, 2025, when a group of approximately 19 Theravada Buddhist monks from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas, set out on a roughly 2,300‑mile walk from Texas to Washington, D.C.
You love dogs? - I love ALL living beings.
Aloka has walked alongside the Buddhist monks, sometimes on foot and other times riding in a support vehicle when needed [3].
It has a distinctive heart‑shaped marking on its forehead and has amassed a large following on social media platforms [5]. More
Map of the monks' spiritual journey (yatra) from Fort Worth, TX, to Washington, DC
(The Week) Meet Aloka, the dog who is accompanying 19 American Theravada Buddhist monks from Southeast Asia on a 37,000 km peace walk to spread peace and kindness throughout the USA
As a literal mark of skillful karma performed in the past, one is reborn (due to some heavier unskillful karma) in the Animal Realm below the human plane of existence but with beauty and marks on the fur, skin, or feathers. Behold the perfectly formed white heart on Aloka's third eye/forehead.
Aloka literally means "light" and is sometimes used as a synonym for "white"
Not every bad thing that happens to a person right after doing a bad thing is the karmic-result of THAT bad thing. Things take time to incubate and produce their results (vipaka and phala). It would be very unusual for an act (deed) to be so weighty as to produce an immediate result such as the Beatles would have called "instant karma." In any case, the result of an action is not called "karma." Results are called vipaka (resultants) and phala (fruti). Doing something unpleasant to someone who did you first is called revenge, and it is your unskillful karma. Their karma has not yet ripened to produce its result. Therefore, there is no need to attack people. This will only be harmful to you. They'll get theirs. Trust the impersonal law of causes and effects, of deeds producing appropriate results. It's universal.
KARMA (Sanskrit, Pāli kamma) "intentional action," correctly speaking denotes the wholesome and unwholesome volitions (kusala- and akusala-cetanā) and their concomitant mental factors, causing rebirth and shaping the destiny of beings.
Cetanā is the intention, motivation, underly motive, the volition behind an action; this is what determines if it skillful, neutral, or unskillful more than the action itself seen objectively. It is the subjective input, which is visible to those who develop spiritual sight (dibba cakkhu).
These karmical volitions (kamma cetanā) become manifest as wholesome or unwholesome actions by body (kāya-kamma), speech (vacī-kamma), mind (mano-kamma).
Thus, the Buddhist term "karma" by no means signifies the RESULTS of actions and certainly not the FATE or DESTINY of beings or whole nations (so-called wholesale or mass-karma), misconceptions which, through the influence of Theosophy, have become widely spread in the West.
"Volition (cetanā), O meditators, is what I call action (cetanāham bhikkhave kammam vadāmi), for through volition one performs the action by body, speech, or mind.
There is karma ("action"), O meditators, that ripens in hell.... Karma that ripens in the animal world.... Karma that ripens in the world of humans.... Karma that ripens in the heavenly worlds....
Threefold, however, is the fruit of karma:
ripening during the lifetime (dittha-dhamma-vedanīya-kamma),
ripening in the next birth (upapajja-vedanīya-kamma),
ripening in subsequent births (aparāpariya-vedanīya kamma)...." (A.VI.63).
The three conditions or roots (mūla) of unwholesome karma (actions) are greed, hatred, and delusion (lobha, dosa, moha).
Those of wholesome karma are:
unselfishness (alobha),
hatelessness (adosa = mettā, goodwill),
nondelusion (amoha = paññā, knowledge).
"Greed, O meditators, is a condition for the arising of [unskillful] karma; hatred is a condition for the arising of karma; delusion is a condition for the arising of karma...." (A.III.112, A.III.34, A.III.147).
"Unwholesome actions are of three kinds: conditioned by:
greed,
hate,
delusion.
"Killing... stealing... sexual misconduct... lying... slandering... rude speech... foolish babble, if practiced, carried on, and frequently cultivated, leads to rebirth in hells, or among animals, or among ghosts" (A.VIII.40). More
The first Friday of October is World Smile Day (Oct. 3, 2025), a relatively new holiday with a fascinating story. Created by a commercial artist named Harvey Ball, this day came about as a response to his creation of the smiley face. Harvey worried that the commercialization of the symbol would lessen its impact. We can hardly blame him for his estimation; the symbol has been used in many different ways including clothing, comic books, coffee mugs, pins, and more. These little yellow faces are more than just a symbol, they’re a statement about the power of smiling.
History of World Smile Day
Has this symbol always existed?
In 1963, Harvey Ball, a graphic artist and ad man from Worcester, Massachusetts, created the smiley face symbol [the yellow emoji icon] we’ve all come to know.
Popularity for this symbol exploded into the world of popular culture. It’s every artists’ dream for their work to be respected and recreated and few symbols have had quite the legacy that Harvey’s creation has had. More: nationaltoday.com
Smiling animals brighten our day
If looking for something to brighten an otherwise dreary winter day, look no further than these adorable animals. Looking at their cheery grins will no doubt put a smile on the face that watches them, too. These smiling animals will brighten the day
Buddhism: There is no way to happiness. Why? Happiness is the way
I let go, surrendered, and blissed out on the mat.
This is a tricky truth no one talks about, at least not in the West. We are forever searching and seeking, scheming and striving to get happy, to FIND a way to happiness. But this message turns that sort of thinking on its head.
When at a Buddhist monastery or on a Buddhist retreat, it's not uncommon to ask, "How do I attain meditative absorption (jhana)?" Another word for it is "zen" or dhyana and dharana on a yoga retreat. But there's no answer. One is taught a technique but no way to achieve the thing one strives for. Why?
It is reached by letting go, dropping the striving, surrendering up the muscling, giving up the go-getter attitude. It just happens. And teachers will say, "There's no way to [scheme and use force to] do it. Meditators just do it."
I went to the room of the greatest jhana teacher in the world, and I pressed him, "What's the secret?"
He didn't know what I meant, he said. He didn't even know what I was talking about, he claimed. Then I thought, he's given me an opening. Here's my chance. I better ask very carefully:
"How does one meditate...successfully? What I mean is, how does one attainabsorption? How does one get to..." He looked at me like I was kidding and when he saw that I was not, as if by rote, he gave me the basic instructions:
Sit up straight, but not too straight, relax, bring your attention under your nose to the breath, remain aware of each and every in-breath and out-breath that is happening. Don't do anything but give your undivided attention to that breath (composed of an in-portion and out-portion). Just that. [Then what? - Then nothing, just that. - No, but there has to be something more; it can't be just that. - Just do that (in addition to keeping silent, following the Eight Precepts, and always keeping the breath in mind except when asleep) and then report to me what happens during the daily interview sessions. Try it. It's very simple, but there's nothing easy about it. So keep at it.]
Bare awareness (mindfulness/sati) is a start.
"No," I said, "not how does one sit; how does one succeed? How does one get to that state of one-pointedness, samadhi, stillness, rapture, unbroken focus...?"
"Oh, that," he said. "I don't know that." I thought he was joking, a real effort to make an American-style joke, and I didn't know why he wasn't telling me. He knew I was sincere. He knew I had been striving all month long. Then I applied more pressure than probably anyone would ever dare to apply.
I wasn't leaving without an answer: "What do you mean you don't know? Who better than you? If you don't know, who could possibly know?"
Then he stunned me, as he often did with the directness of his insight and his willingness to share his knowledge with me? "I don't know because I do not read minds. People come to me. I give them the instructions. And some of them come tell me what is happening, and I guide them from there."
You asked him what?! Did he throw you out?
"But WHY do some of them have something start happening since not everyone does?"
"That I do not know. I just know they do. And when they do, I can help them, guide them to go deeper. But how they get to it in the first place, that I do not know." [These aren't exact quotes, just the gist of the conversation, which only lasted a few desperate minutes as I pushed and pushed.]
As he said this, I realized I had asked him this before, after sitting with him in Asia at his massive monastery, where it seemed everyone was succeeding and attaining. I asked him and pushed him a little on the matter with someone sitting by me to catch what I might be missing, two Americans sincerely wanting to experience what Buddhist texts write about, what the Buddha taught, what sutras say happens.
At that time he looked at us and perceiving our sincerity said one strange word, his guess as to what it was distilled down to ONE thing as if it could ever be just one thing distinguishing success from just sitting. That word was parami. She smiled next to me, but I grimaced, perplexed. "'Parami?' The Sanskrit word paramita?"
"Yes," he answered, but he was actually talking about the Pali (and therefore Theravada Buddhist) form of the word parami. In either case, it means "perfection," but the Sanskrit is a diluted Mahayana term of six factors, whereas the historical Buddha always taught TEN intentional actions (deeds, karma).
My teacher clarified. What he imagined (from what he heard from many of his successful students reporting to him) was that they remembered doing skillful deeds in the past, and he concluded that those past skillful deeds were coming to fruition as they sat. And that's why some succeeded and not others.
What kinds of questions are these? You are silly.
(What I was really getting at was, WHAT ACTIONS CAN SOMEONE DO NOW OR WHILE ONE IS SITTING IN MEDITATION, ANXIOUS FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN, TO MAKE IT HAPPEN?)
That he didn't know, so I had to undertake a lifelong journey of trying to figure it out. Of course, it will have something to do with the Factors of Absorption (jhananga, "limbs of jhana"). Leigh Brasington figured this much out, having had the insight that happiness is the way:
Right Concentration: Practical Guide to the Jhanas
Brasington teaches a technique of focusing on one of these factors, happiness (piti, joy, pleasure, rapture, bliss) as it arises in the body in serenity meditation. By focusing on it, it increases based on the principle that, "Where attention goes, energy flows." This is true enough, but how does one get the initial happiness/bliss to pay attention to and make increase?
Now it makes sense that what I had always been looking for was a carrot or apple in front of the horse (mule, donkey, jackass). I could only neigh in realizing it: THE GOAL is not this happiness because THIS HAPPINESS is the way to relaxing, letting go, unstriving, surrendering, unclutching, dropping hangups, persisting without grasping or clinging, shikantaza ("just sitting"), not setting up a goal and striving for it. Why? It's because those blissful states of meditation and their attendant stillness, mindfulness, and progress towards insight are NATURAL. They arise. We don't "do" them. We can't do them. We don't know how and do not have that power.
But if we relax and just watch with vigilance, stillness, steadiness, persistence, we are cultivating the Factors of Absorption and other factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment, which are categorized into seven groupings.
One is reminded of a very important thing the Buddha once explained to someone. When talking about the Bodhisatta, himself at the stage of still being a seeker of enlightenment, he once realized that he could neither strive too hard or be negligent. Doing either, he sank as if in a great ocean (samsara), but not striving and not being negligent, he made progress. What could this mean either than the Middle Way of avoiding extremes, of persisting but not pushing, of cultivating but not disturbing the peace or giving in to apathy, listlessness, or despair?
Thai Forest Tradition arahant Ajahn Maha Boowa seems to be suggesting the same thing here (translated by the American intellect Ven. Thanissaro): "The tactics [techniques] given by each of the Buddhas to the world are called the Dhamma [Truth] of the doctrine. These aren't the genuine Dhamma. They're tactics [methods] — different offshoots — actions and modes displayed by the genuine Dhamma, means for letting go and striving, teaching us to let go, teaching us to strive using various methods, saying that the results will be like this or that. As for the genuine Dhamma of results in the principles of nature, that's something to be known exclusively in the heart of the person who practices. This Dhamma can't really be described correctly in line with its truth. We can only talk around it. And particularly with release [nirvana, liberation, freedom]: This can't be correctly described at all, because it's beyond all conventions and speculations. It can't be described. Even though we may know it with our full heart, we can't describe it. Like describing the flavor [of a soup using only words to someone who has yet to simply taste it]." From Things As They Are.
Smile, be happy. Don't overdo it; just let it be.
So happiness IS the way. Be happy. Right now. Choose it. It's a choice. Smile. After all, it's World Smile Day. Reflect, "Why is the Buddha ALWAYS smiling slightly?" There are no statues of him yelling or throwing things, losing his temper or his poise. Why? It's because once one uproots the defilements, there is nothing more tat can upset. One knows-and-sees directly.
Like that, Lisa, just like that. Hold it.
And to the extent that that knowing-and-seeing is the goal, one has reached it. Things have become clear, and nothing can any longer upset us. What was in the way, aside from the defilements (of which there are many subtle ones) and lack of parami-karma (ten skillful deeds performed with the ambition of nirvana being the result)? What is the direct path to bodhi (enlightenment, awakening, realization, liberating-insight)?
What is the way to bodhi? The Seven Factors of Enlightenment. What is the way to those factors? The preceding factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment. How does one do any factor? It's probably a good idea to be happy. How does one even begin to dream to do that? Smile.
BIG BEAR LAKE, Southern California - When, O, when will our birds fly above the foothills, above the City of Lights that is Los Angeles? Jackie and Shadow have gone through so much already, losing baby Brutus, selling off the naming rights to the others. It's time to take to the air and become fledglings.
Sonny 'n Gizmo at 10 Weeks, it's time to fly
Bald eaglets Sonny and Gizmo getting ready to spread wings and fly from Big Bear nest
(KCAL News) May 9, 2025: Nicole Comstock reports from Big Bear, where wildlife enthusiasts say that the bald eaglets are getting ready to spread their wings and fly from the nest for the first time.
Blame it on "Barbie" (actor Margot Robbie) - Why's your metal music so depressing, Bro?
Heavy metal or mental illness?
You call yourself a meditator with that racket?
(Wyatt's Metal) It's 2025, and there is one kind of music that is not going away. Rather than fading, it spreads. Why? The fanbase. Misfits like metal? Mental patients are moved? Animals like the beat and melody of music? Let's take a deep dive into the effects heavy metal (with all its genres like death metal, symphonic metal, extreme metal, speed metal, black metal, etc.) music can have on mental health.
Shocking: Bull attacks sexy woman in red at outdoor concert
(Andre Rieu - Espana Cani) Feb. 12, 2022: Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra perform Espana Cani live in Maastricht. This clip is taken from the DVD Wonderful World. For concert dates and tickets visit: andrerieu.com.
Subscribe to Andre Rieu's YouTube channel at: smarturl.it/5ubscribe or follow Andre Rieu on social media. Andre Rieu Productions (andrerieu.com).
The people of Spain are white?
That explains the Casta system.
I remember being shocked. It seems silly now, but then it made sense. When I arrived in Spain, I found that the people were white. They were Caucasian, not mixed, not even the slightest bit tan or all black haired and brown eyed. They were as European as all the rest of the Continent.
Passing through Basque Country and the future nation of Catalonia (Catalan) on a slow train along the Mediterranean ("Middle of the Earth," "Center of the World") coast, where were all the cacti, siestas, ponchos, and sombreros I had been taught to believe were what the Spanish brought to Mexico as gifts during their conquest, invasion, occupation, and migration?
Europe: un-united states (countries) of the EU
That was all wiped away. These people were amazingly vibrant, markedly different than the northerners. I was living in England at the time, often passing through France, and I was not used to California-style vibrancy and fitness. It was suddenly and shockingly apparent like why Londoners winter in the sun-soaked Iberian Peninsula.
No one believed me back home or had never thought about it one way or the other.
Do Eastern Europeans count? Not so some.
"Why wouldn't they be white?"
"They're Spanish (Espanoles); they speak Spanish (Latin-light)!" I argued in vain.
"Yeah, but Spain is Europe."
"Is it?" Oh yeah, I guess it is, as much as the Germans and Scandinavians might not think so; they barely accept Greece and Macedonia as part of the Continental Club, and that's only for the glorious cultural contributions of the ancients.
Otzi the Iceman was dark Turk (slowyarn.com)
If even Turkey and Anatolia can be "Europe," when they were formerly in "Asia Minor," then why wouldn't Spain be? The crowd at the concert above is what I saw, proof that the Conquistadors were not swarthy sailors living and taking wives in the Caribbean then traveling farther west to the Yucatan Peninsula and Mesoamerica to take over all that we now call "Latin America" and a goodly chunk of what the U.S. now claims as its own.
The more southern we travel, the more mixing
We get called Hispanic, white Latin, when we're brown and mixed with Indigenous blood, living here in the salad bowl/melting pot of The Angels (Los Angeles), where it gets confusing, growing up next to Kevin, throwing rocks at our neighbor Robbie Joiner. So this video of Spaniards in Spain out for their two favorite sports, classical music and running around with bulls.
This being the case, who would guess that one of the greatest Buddhist communities in the world is forming in Spain?
Indeed, the cave dwellers will come to know the power of samadhi and glory of insight in time. The foundation is being set and it is already being done. What a world, what a world, what a world...to spin so long in samsara only to come around again. Be nice on the way up; you'll be seeing those beings again on the way down.
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