Buddhism the Japanese way: Shinto kami

(Slice)

Are we guilty of 'magical thinking'?

(Theory of Samsara) Are we guilty of "magical thinking"? Well, awakening (enlightenment) isn't some kind of "blessing"

• Dalai Lama: Why 'praying' for peace to God [has never and] will never work #fypシ 

Roman Empire copied Greece’s religion?

Did Rome copy ancient Greece’s religion?

(Para Bellum) Nov. 6, 2025: Did ancient Rome really copy its religion from more ancient Greece — or is that just a modern myth? This video uncovers the true origins of Roman religion and shows how it developed into a unique and complex system of beliefs unlike anything in Greece.

The earliest Italic tribes of the Tiber Valley, whose worldview was shaped by animism (the belief that nature itself is alive with spirit), totemism (sacred tribal animals like wolves, woodpeckers, and boars), and fetishism — the idea that certain objects held divine power.

Discover the “pledges of Rome’s eternity,” seven sacred relics believed to guarantee the survival of the Roman state. From there, trace how Etruscan and Greek religion influenced Rome.

The Etruscans gave Roman gods human form, while the Greeks provided myths to explain their origins — pairing Jupiter with Zeus, Venus with Aphrodite, Mars with Ares, and so on.

But this blending was never perfect. Roman gods had different roles, personalities, and meanings. Explore gods the Greeks never had:

• Janus, god of beginnings and endings;
• Quirinus, protector of the Roman people;
• the household Lares and personal Genius;
• Pomona, Vertumnus, Terminus, Mefitis, and many others.

Roman religion also worshipped abstract values like Virtus (Valor), Pax (Peace), Fides (Loyalty), and Disciplina (Discipline), building entire temples to ideas rather than personalities.

Unlike Greek religion -- which emphasized myth, emotion, art, and beauty -- Roman religion was about duty, tradition, and exact ritual. The Romans believed the gods cared less about faith and more about whether rituals were performed flawlessly.

Every sacrifice, prayer, and gesture had to be precise — or repeated from the beginning. Divination was another core part of Roman religion.

Inherited from the Etruscans, practices like haruspicy (reading the entrails of sacrificed animals) and auspicy (interpreting bird signs) guided political decisions, wars, and daily life.

Uncover stories like Publius Claudius Pulcher at the Battle of Drepana, who mocked the sacred chickens — and lost an entire fleet.

Roman priests were not a separate religious class. Priesthoods were held by politicians and generals — Julius Caesar, Cicero, Sulla, Augustus, and Scipio Africanus all served as priests while leading the state, proving how religion and politics were inseparable in Rome.

In the end, Roman religion wasn’t a copy of Greek religion — it was a fusion of Italic, Etruscan, and Greek beliefs shaped by Roman values: duty, order, family, and the power of the state.

This video uncovers how it worked, what the Romans truly believed, and why their religious system helped build one of the greatest empires in history.

Bibliography

1. Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. Profile Books, 2015.

2. Beard, Mary, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. Vol. 1: A History. Cambridge University Press, 1998.

3. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Haruspicum Responsis.
4. Cicero, Marcus Tullius. De Natura Deorum.

5. Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Roman Antiquities.

6. Plutarch. Parallel Lives.

7. Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Indiana University Press, 2003.

8. Turcan, Robert. The Gods of Ancient Rome. Routledge, 2000.

9. Varro, Marcus Terentius. Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum (Fragments).

10. Wissowa, Georg. Religion und Kultus der Römer. C.H. Beck, 1912.

11. Rüpke, Jörg. “Divination and Roman Political Decision-Making.” Numen 44 (1997): 1–22.

12. Rüpke, Jörg, ed. A Companion to Roman Religion. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

13. North, John. “Roman Religion.” In The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 7. Cambridge University Press, 1990.

14. Scheid, John. An Introduction to Roman Religion. Translated by Janet Lloyd. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

15. Scheid, John. Graeco Ritu: A Typically Roman Way of Honoring the Gods.

16. Bispham, Edward, and Christopher Smith, eds. Religion in Archaic and Republican Rome and Italy: Evidence and Experience

17. Schultz, Celia E., and Paul B. Harvey, eds. Religion in Republican Italy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

🎤 ⁠Voiceover by: Nick Banas Instagram: nickbanas

Website: parabellumhistory.com. 

✪ Members first on Nov. 4, 2025 🎬 Watch early and support the channel on Patreon: parabellumhistorychannel or become a member on YouTube: @parabellumhistorychannel to unlock early access to new videos. Music from videos: share.epidemicsound.com/xk7k4... Merchandise store: parabellumstore.creator-sprin...

Journey Into Buddhism w/ Sharon Stone

Journey Into Buddhism - Prajna Earth | full documentary

Dennis Schwartz Reviews

(PBS America) From PBS, PRAJNA EARTH explores the lost civilization of Angkor in Cambodia, the magnificent Angkor Wat temple, and Bali, Indonesia’s sacred landscapes.

Narrated by Sharon Stone, the trilogy's second film also shares trance dancers in the jungles of Java and the gigantic seven level mandala mountain of Borobudur (the largest excavated Buddhist temple in the world) and is described as “inducing an inner journey” by Asia Society, New York.

14th Dalai Lama endorsed film

Called “eye-opening and essential if you have an interest in Eastern spirituality” by the Boston Globe and an “illuminating meditation” by Variety, these visually stunning documentaries are cinematic pilgrimages to legendary places in Buddhist Southeast Asia and Tibet, including the spiritual wonders of Buddhist Laos, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Bali, Cambodia, Java, and Central Tibet (China).

Welcome to PBS America, a channel curated for an international audience from America's Public Broadcasting Service, PBS. This is a factual focused channel including award-winning American history, current affairs, and science.

Sign up to UK broadcast channel weekly highlights at pbsamerica.co.uk. Follow on X @PBSAmerica. Like on Facebook.com/pbsamerica. #buddhism #documentary #asia #religion

• Journey Into Buddhism - Prajna Earth (2006) documentary; Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What about the Walking Trees? (video)

(Real Science) The Secret Language of Trees

A real tree that actually walks (by growing new roots as others die off)

(Majestic AquariumsTV)  11/23/15: Real specimen on Fitzroy Island

• Rumble.com video search for trees (rumble.com)
• What happened to the ancient trees? 🌳 (rumble)
• Trees destroy the Carbon Tax narrative. Look at Canada

The biggest tree on Earth is bigger than imagined

(The Premier Discovery) Oct. 30, 2024: Top 20 Biggest Trees in the World. Trees have long stood as silent witnesses to the passage of time, some for thousands of years, growing to sizes that seem impossible. How big can a tree get? From trees so big they can’t be cut down to behemoths that survive fires because of how thick they are. The scale of some trees defies imagination. Here are trees from around the world that are bigger than our imagination can hold.

The Premier Discovery creates unique content for educational and entertainment purposes and represents only the opinions of the channel. It takes content seriously and all content meets legal standards for licensing or fair use. Any attempts to falsify content strikes via the YouTube copyright system will be dealt with by its legal team. The content presented in videos is intended solely for entertainment purposes. While it may draw upon facts, rumors, and fiction, viewers should not interpret any part of the content as factual or definitive information. Please enjoy responsibly.

• The Biggest Tree on Earth is Bigger Than Imagination

Time for Disclosure: ET Nancy Thames (C2C)

Galactic Federations Council: Secret Space

Join Nancy Thames, who for decades has been in contact and in league with extraterrestrial/extradimensional intelligences, as she discloses the truth about it on Coast to Coast on Friday, 10:00 pm to midnight: Coast to Coast.

Or participate in livestreams with her as she delves into the fascinating world of cosmic encounters and spiritual awakening.

Thames is a prominent figure in the realm of alien disclosure. Formerly employed by the Department of Defense (DoD), Nancy Thames’ life took an extraordinary turn as she embarked on a journey… More

A Lifetime of Positive ET Contact, Disclosure

– Nancy Thames

There are many kinds of interdimensional beings all around us all the time

Vril's Maria Orsic was also contacted

ET contactee Nancy Thames (who herself is interdimensional like them) talks with host Richard Syrett.

She is a former Department of Defense (U.S. DOD) employee and lifelong extraterrestrial (space alien) contactee of interdimensional ET beings who shares sixty years of profound experiences interacting with these entities (deva = "shining ones").

Thames asserts that her decades of encounters are not dreams but real interactions where she is a willing participant. She rejects the notion that she has ever been "abducted," instead describing her experiences as beneficial interactions governed by "soul contracts," or agreements made before her reincarnation on Earth.

Thames recounts early memories of being taken aboard crafts by hybrid Greys, noting a deep bond with one particular female Grey.

She distinguishes between different types of extraterrestrials while asserting that all share certain abilities.

"They are really all interdimensional beings," Thames clarifies. Other entities she has interacted with, often referred to as the "Elders," are benevolent and luminescent deva creatures that transcend physical forms.

"We are the only intelligent life"! - Yeah, right! Close your eyes and keep telling yourself that.

.

Their spacecrafts are living beings

When discussing their spacecrafts, Thames describes how she once found herself in a vast, sterile environment filled with different alien species.

"It's like you step into a whole new dimension," she says. On board the ship, Thames experienced what she called a kundalini awakening, surges in energy that opened her (chakras and) subconscious potential.

"They [do] that to help us remember our soul history," she reveals, while also mentioning that both she and her son have undergone this kind of awakening.

Thames goes on to explain the purpose of these ET interactions: "They are reaching out to humanity...[because they] want us to raise our frequency," she insists.

According to her, the most effective way to initiate this process is through meditation with intense focus.

"The best thing to do is to meditate with intention," Thames explains.

• AUDIO: coasttocoastam.com/show/2024-10-25-show
• Facebook: Time for Disclosure

Categories: akasha devas, extraterrestrials, alien, alien abductees, alien abduction, alien civilization, alien humanoids, Alien Intervention, Aliens, Ascension, Awakening, Beings, Consciousness, Contact, contactee, Council of Elders, Creator Source, Dimensions, DNA, Earth, Elders, encounters, ET, extraterrestrial, Giant spacecraft, Government, Government conspiracies, Grays, Greys, Humanity, intelligence, Military, My encounters and experiences with extraterrestrials, solar system, souls, spacecraft, Star Visitors, starseeds, technology, UAP, UFO, UFO contact, UFO encounter, UFO Incident, UFO Sightings, UFOs, USO, vibrational frequency, Zeta Reticuli

The beauty of Kalash and Rajasthan (doc)

Discover the Kalash people | Beautiful women and shocking traditions of this isolated tribe

(WeGeo) June 22, 2024: 👀 Watch playlist with all videos about various countries: • Countries Images provided by ‪@rustamsheraz‬

• Archaeologists uncover 12th century hidden gem of a statue in Buddhist Cambodia

Rajasthan, the Lost Land of the Maharajas

(Best Documentary) Feb. 8, 2024: RAJASTHAN This land rich in history embodies all the magic of India. Located in the northwest of India, it is the ancestral land of the maharajas "great kings" and Rajputs (rajaputras) or "sons of kings." Let's meet inhabitants and travelers of this isolated state between plains and mountains in the most inhabited desert in the world. Director: Laurent Cadoret. Original title: "Somewhere on Earth: Rajasthan"

Mission: The "Buddha's Lost Children" (film)

David A. Taylor, Tricycle Magazine, Winter 2007; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tough Love Maverick Buddhist monk Khru Ba gives a novice Buddhist monk Thai kickboxing lessons in Northern Thailand, from Buddha's Lost Children.

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Monk on a Mission Saving the Orphans of Northern Thailand (full doc)

Buddha's Lost Children: full documentary

(Dhamma Source) June 26, 2023: Buddha's Lost Children is a feature-length documentary film about a Thai Theravada Buddhist monk named Phra Khru Bah Neua Chai Kosittowho -- armed only with his Buddhist faith and skills and master Thai kickboxer skills -- wages an inspirational battle to help save orphaned children, fight drug (meth) abuse, and preserve a vanishing way of life. Director: Mark Verkerk. Learn more and support here: buddhaslostchildren.com

Buddha’s Lost Children is a Dutch film about Theravada Buddhist Thailand, directed by Mark Verkerk, EMS Films, 2006.

As the lights go down, the sound of a stream is heard. The first images show a bare-chested man cross-legged on a tall stone spur in the forest, limbering up his arms and neck in what looks like a cross between meditation and martial arts.

His face is calm, but his body wears a wild constellation of tattoos: calligraphy wriggles down his arms, and a winged horse flies across his chest.

The man is a Thai Theravada Buddhist monk. In the next moment, he’s egging on two boys who are kick boxing. “That’s it!” he cries.

“Kick into his neck.” The documentary Buddha’s Lost Children tells the story of the maverick Buddhist monk and former pro kickboxer Khru Ba and his mission to save forgotten souls at the edge of Thai society — drug-infested communities in the mountainous region of northern Thailand along the Burmese border, near Laos, known as [the drug dealing haven] the Golden Triangle.

“Look at the things they do,” Khru Ba says of the addicted. “Who’ll forgive them? The law of the land doesn’t forgive them, nor does the law of karma....

Only a crazy fool of a monk like me is willing to forgive them.” The hill-tribe ethnic groups of that region — including the Akha, Karen, Yao, and Lisu — have for much of their history been at the mercy of larger forces: drug barons, corrupt Thai officials, disease, and poverty.

They have always lived at the margins: They dress differently from mainstream Thais, speak in different tongues, and hold animist (rather than Buddhist) beliefs. They don’t fit in.

At Khru Ba’s Golden Horse Monastery, he takes their orphaned and abandoned children under his wing and gives them lessons in, among other things, Buddhist Dharma and Thai kickboxing.

“Thai boxing means having a free heart and body; it means not being enslaved to desire or to drugs,” he tells his novices. “Do you understand?”

The boys shout, “Yes!” The young Buddhist novices ride into a village on horseback, saffron robes flapping in their wake, like a gang in a spaghetti Western.

The ritual of receiving alms food from villagers looks almost like a holdup. Khru Ba shouts out his version of karma: Be good, good things come to you, but “if you’re not good, the [animist] spirits will break your neck.”

Mark Verkerk, the Dutch filmmaker who spent three years making the film, says it is about more than an itinerant monk.

“It was important that the film communicate something universal,” Verkerk said by email, “something people could relate to from other cultures — and there’s nothing more universal than raising kids.”

Khru Ba left his own wife and two children after a close friend’s death and a vivid dream that commanded him to open a Buddhist monastery in the mountains of the far north, where one in five youths who turn up for national service are addicted to cheap Western methamphetamines.

Like a spiritual 007, Khru Ba has special permission from the Supreme Patriarch in Bangkok to use whatever methods he deems necessary to address the problems at the kingdom’s edge.

“He’s the only monk to have found a way to operate in this border region,” says Verkerk.

The film, with cinematography that combines sweeping landscapes and intimate views of the region’s culture, has taken honors at various festivals in Europe and North America, and in August (2007) it had its American theatrical pre-release in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is now available on DVD.

• Monk on a Mission - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

Five genders found in Indonesia (Nat Geo)

National Geographic, Oct. 21, 2008; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ananda, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Indonesia is the site of the world's largest excavated Buddhist temple complex: Borobudur

Five Genders? | National Geographic

(National Geographic) Through many options for gender expression, including recognizing five genders, this [indigenous] Indonesian community finds balance and peace and prays to share this with the world. It is not part of the original Buddhism that covered the island, nor the subsequent Hindu and Islamic influences that dominate today.

This funded white lab coat says I'm the authority.

WQ COMMENTARY: Does having five basic genders make sense? It does and has since ancient times. Even ancient India recognized that some people might be:

1. male,
2. female,
3. ambiguous or androgynous (both male and female)
4. male feeling like a female
5. female feeling like a male.

If the last two want to identify not as they were born but as they now feel, we might well designate those individuals "transgender" or transsexuals or crossdressers or expressive nonnormative individuals.

Group 3 used to be called hermaphrodites with attendant organs or vestigial components of both organs and/or chromosomal deviations from the standard binary categorization the medical field imposes on a population. Moreover, it would make sense that some humans are asexual (not sexual), eunuchs (neutered/spayed), or gay, bisexual, heterosexual, pansexual, or questioning and fluid, "heteroflexible."

So while this might seem confusing, it is actually not that complex. The growing complexity of LGBTQIA[LMNOP]+ is confusing and left undefined.

This discussion already took place in ancient Buddhist times, and the great commentator Ven. Buddhaghosa and others of his day opined that apart from males and females, they are pandakas ("perverts," deviants, gender-benders, crossdressers, humans with ambiguous genitalia and therefore "eunuchs," which could be karmic in origin -- usually spoken of as the result of past sexual misconduct -- or simply within a biological spectrum of what's normal for human earthlings, as opposed to the humanoids that live elsewhere throughout the galaxy and universe, within and outside of this world-system).

ABOUT: National Geographic [claims that it] is the world's premium destination for science, exploration, and adventure. Through their world-class scientists, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, Nat Geo gets closer to the stories that matter and past the edge of what's possible. More: Official site: NatGeoOfficialSite. Facebook: FBNatGeo Twitter: NatGeoTwitter Instagram: NatGeoInsta ➡ Subscribe: bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe

• Taboo: Third Sex: channel.nationalgeographic.com...
• Five Genders? | National Geographic • Five Genders?

Kyrgyzstan Buddhist temple reopens (video)

Ruins of ancient temple to open in Kyrgyzstan (rferl.org); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Kyrgyzstan to reopen ancient Buddhist temple to the public (Buddhistdoor Global)

Ruins of ancient Buddhist temple set to open in Kyrgyzstan (rferl.org)

Where did Buddhism begin?

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha (Gandhara Greco-Buddhist art)

Where did Silk Road Buddhism come from? Gandhara or what is now Afghanistan (the home of the Buddha and his extended family, the Indo-Sakas/Scythians known as the Shakyas) or proto-India (Bihar and Magadha, before the formation of modern "India" under Emperor Ashoka, or China, after Buddhism traveled from there and spread out from there?

Dr. Ranajit Pal (ranajitpal.com) would agree that while Buddhism began in what is now India, it co-arose in the Buddha's homeland, what we could call "Shakya Land," around the three seasonal capitals of Kapilavastu (Kabul/Kapil), Bamiyan, and Mes Aynak, all in modern Afghanistan, Central Asia.

History of Buddhism in West Turkistan

Afghanistan, after all, has the largest and some of the oldest Buddhist statues in the world, and the Buddha visited it seven years after his great awakening, returning to his people, many of whom then ordained and either followed him back East or stayed and formed large monastic communities for nuns and monks, practicing in accordance with the Doctrine the Buddha was establishing all around the Gangetic plain and foothills of the Himalayas.

Maybe this is how it went: Silk Road expansion

He was not from Nepal, not a Hindu, not a member of the formal caste system but a "warrior" and therefore labelled a kshatriya in accordance with the Brahmin priests and their Vedas ("Knowledge Books") and view of the four varnas or categories of social obligations (duty, dharma) one is necessarily born into, with the Brahmins placing themselves on top. 

But the administrators, the warrior-nobles or Aryans reckoned themselves in accordance with this imposed system, in the vicinity of the remains of the once great Indus Valley Civilization. Gandhara in Indo-Pakistan (with Taxila or Takkasila as its capital) is ancient even by that time, according to Buddhist sources (Jāt. 96).

• Who were the Scythians? Where is Scythia?
• Kurgan hypothesis (the people of the stupas)
• Buddhism in Central Asia (The Stans/USSR)
• History of Buddhism in West Turkistan
• Kyrgyzstan | Silk Roads Program (unesco.org)
• Buddhist Kyrgyzstan Monastery (Great Patron)
• PHOTOS: Stone Buddhist Stupa, hollow cavity
• There's a hollow, echoing stupa in Kushinagar/Kusinara (Gorakhpur, India).

Tash Rabat: Kyrgyzstan Buddhist Monastery?

Kyrgyzstan Buddhist Monastery (The Great Patron of Buddhism | Facebook)

Fortunately, some stupas or kurgans are hollowed out early temple prototypes (Kyrgyzstan)

Maitreyas (Metteyyas) teach.

Tash Rabat is a well-preserved 15th century stone caravanserai in At Bashy District, Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan. It is located at an altitude of 3,200 meters (10,500 feet).

Research: As early as 1888, Russian traveler Dr. Nicolay Lvovich Zeland suggested that it was originally a Nestorian or Buddhist monastery.

Research undertaken at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s by the Institute of History of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences [mistakenly*] concluded that Tash Rabat was originally built as a Nestorian monastery in the 10th century, although no Christian artifacts were ever found during excavations. More

*Later it was determined to be a Buddhist monastery as all inscriptions, artifacts, and references were found to be Buddhist in nature.

This was further supported by the fact that its inhabitants were Buddhist during the period of its construction (Khudyakov, Ju. (2009). Таш Рабат - Караван-сарай или замок [Tash Rabat - caravanserai or temple]. Priroda (in Russian). Russian Academy of Sciences (6): 55. Retrieved 2 May 2014). 

COMMENTARY

Jesus in India (Holger Kersten)

[Its hollowed stupa and Mongolian-style compound, with yurts to weather the Central Asian snow and grassland, certainly appears more Buddhist than later Christian traditions influenced by Buddhist monasticism. It might have been both, built up for both purposes, as Russian Christian Nicolas Notovitch found at Hemis Gompa in his travels through Buddhist Tibet/India, Ladakh, where Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth had stayed and trained. See more at Jesus in India and in particular the works of Holger Kersten.]

Tash Rabat is a medieval Buddhist caravanserai in Kyrgyzstan (Central-Asia.Guide)

Spiritualism: Evolution or Devolution?

Pat Macpherson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

Hypnotic Séance painting by Swedish artist Sven Richard Bergh 1887 (National Museum).

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American Spiritualist pantheist Cora L. V. Scott

Theosophy opposes Spiritualism's interpretation of evolution. It instead teaches a metaphysical theory of evolution mixed with human devolution.

Buddhist sacred texts and Hindu Vedas agree: Humanity is not evolving but devolving, even as some individuals make meditative and karmic progress.

• See the work of the brilliant American Vedic-Hindu Michael "Forbidden Archeologist" Cremo (mcremo.com)
• American Spiritualist medium Cora L. V. Scott rejected evolution, dismissing it in her lectures and supporting a type of pantheistic Spiritualism (Modern Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism: Vol. 2, 2001, pp. 135-136).

Madame Blavatsky was guided by the Masters

Spiritualists do not accept the devolution of the Theosophists.

To Theosophy, humanity (life on the human plane, which refers to an entire plane not just the miniscule portion of it on Earth) starts in a better state, one of presumed perfection (a Golden Age).

This, of course, is not actual perfection. It then falls into a process of progressive devolution -- materialization, density, coarseness, sickliness, shrinking lifespan, and so on -- which is not linear but punctuated by periods of progress and regress, with minor cycles within a much larger samsaric cycle, developing the intellect and losing spiritual consciousness.

Spiritualist Gerald Massey

After the gathering of experience and growth through repeated rebirths, humanity in general regains the original spiritual state (goes back to being like the superior deva plane), as individuals in specific may do at any time, which is one of self-conscious evolution that begins devolving again.

Theosophy and Spiritualism were both very popular metaphysical schools of thought especially in the early 20th century and were always clashing in their different beliefs.

Russian Madame Blavatsky was critical of Spiritualism; she distanced Theosophy from Spiritualism as far as she could and allied herself with eastern occultism (G. Baseden Butt, Madame Blavatsky, p. 120).

British Spiritualist Gerald Massey claimed that Darwin's theory of evolution was not wrong but incomplete (Concerning Evolution, p. 55). More

• An unresolved archeological controversy from 20th century: The discoveries of Rutot at Boncelles, Belgium

Looking for Consciousness (Dr. Dispenza)

Dr. Joe Dispenza via Good Vibez, 4/12/19; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

►Video (Dr. Joe Dispenza's How to Use Your Conscious Mind) uploaded with permission of the owner

What is consciousness?

Matthieu, scientists want to test Buddhist brains meditating. - Should I go blow their minds?

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The brain (rupa) is not the mind. Cittas are.

Neuroscientists asked the Dalai Lama for eight Buddhist meditators to scan their brains in an experiment. What the scientists saw baffled them. There was too much frontal lobe activity. One in particular, they declared, must be "the happiest man in the world."

You want to test 8 meditators?

That may have been Matthieu Ricard, the actual "happiest person in the world." He is a European Vajrayana Buddhist monk from France, a close associate of the 14th Dalai Lama, who lives in the Himalayas in a large Buddhist monastery in Nepal one country over from the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India.

Dr. Joe Dispenza uses his own functional definitions of "brain," "mind," and "consciousness," treating them as distinct things.

That is the way they are analyzed int Buddhist psychology and physics (Abhidharma, the "Dharma in Ultimate Terms"). In Buddhism they are called rupa, mano/nama, and vinnana. Of course, they are inseparable, but they are distinguishable.

Let's visit the Dalai Lama lives in Dharmsala.

Physical form: The brain is interdependent with consciousness, which is just a process, an aspect of "mind." (though the physical heart is the real seat of consciousness, the "mind door" in Buddhism, which is a personally verifiable fact anyone can check using this meditation).

The Buddha defined mind-and-body (nama-rupa) in terms of eight elements, though no one seems to have told Dr. Dispenza that.

• "Brain" (body, physical form, ultimate materiality) is comprised of the "Four Great Elements" or mahabhuta (dhatus, the characteristics of matter, "matter" being arrangements of subatomic particles Buddhism calls kalapas).
• Space (akasha-dhatu) is the fifth element.
• "Mind" is four immaterial processes: perception, sensation, formations, and consciousness.
• "Consciousness" is classified as the sixth element in some sutras (i.e., MN 140).

Let's ask Pa Auk Sayadaw to explain. - Good idea

Consciousness is the sixth element? Yes, as if to say that consciousness is a feature of the universe rather than merely a quality or characteristic of mental human experience.

There are other beings (devas, etc.) who also have mind, who are also conscious, but one has to wonder if the animists didn't have it right all along: consciousness is everywhere and, therefore, all things are potentially conscious or aware in some rudimentary sense, like crystals, memory banks, imprint holders.

.

Sight is in the eye, consciousness in the heart.

The brain, for Dr. Dispenza and Western neuroscience, is firing and wiring neurons. How do we change our lives? How do we change our habits? This can only be done by breaking negative thoughts, and this is possible by living consciously (mindfully?) We have to become; we have to start living consciously. Let's start by breaking the addiction to negative thoughts.

📖Check out Dr. Joe Dispenza's books and other works. Kindle readers get a FREE 30-day plan and access to millions of e-Books by signing up here. (We wouldn't, but you might want to).

👉Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon

👉Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

👉You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter

👉Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind

• 🎞 If you liked this, you may also like:
• Joe Dispenza - How to create a new reality
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