Buddhism vs. Taoism: when Zen was born

Every ordinary moment is pointing to our true Buddha nature | Zen Master Bodhidharma

(Daily Tao Wisdom) Buddhism versus Taoism: The Night Zen was Born: Bodhidharma

White House recognizes Buddhist holiday

(Buddha Dharma) White House VESAK 2026 from the White House to Bodh Gaya ("Enlightenment Grove"), the light of Buddha-Dharma (the timeless "Teachings of the Awakened One") More

• Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International | Berkeley CA | Facebook
• Wangmo Dixey, Executive Director of Dharma College (Tricycle)
• Dharma-College.com
• Beneath the Bodhi Tree: LBDFI
• University of the West | accredited University in Greater Los Angeles, CA
• Naropa University | Buddhist-inspired Contemplative Education
• Buddhism in the United States
• Buddhism in the West
• Buddhism in the Americas
• Buddhist Association of America (BAUS)
• Hsi Lai Temple: Coming West
• Vegetarianism by country
• Vegetarianism and veganism in China
• Japanese Buddhist Temples in Hawai‘i: An Illustrated Guide
• Creating a Buddhist Community: A Thai Temple in Silicon Valley (Asian American)
• Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
• Wangmo Dixey (Buddha Dharma), Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Living FULLY before our human life ends

(Buddhism Podcast) Living fully before life ends -- the Buddhist way to meet life

(Buddhism Podcast) Where do humans come from? Buddhism's view on origins

(Buddhism Podcast) Where do we go after death? The Buddha's answer: "rebirth" of the impersonal [one of the Three Universal Marks of Existence] process of Dependent Origination rolling in the "continued wandering on" of samsara

Realms of the Dharma: LACMA exhibit

Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 

LACMA has an excellent permanent collection.

"Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia" presents an international survey of Buddhism and Buddhist art, beginning with the religion’s origins in India and following its spread through mainland and island Southeast Asia (Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia), the Himalayas (Kashmir, Nepal, and Tibet), and East Asia (China, Korea, and Japan).

Buddhism Friendship Scholarship Program goes to LACMA

Incorporating 180 masterpieces of pan-Asian Buddhist art, the exhibition introduces key concepts of Buddhist thought and practice viewed through the prism of rare and extraordinarily beautiful Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and ritual objects.

Drawn from LACMA’s permanent collection, with several significant loans from private collections, the exhibition explores:

• the life of the historical Buddha,
• the role of the bodhisattva or Buddhist savior,
• Buddhist cosmology,
• and such key concepts as Dharma, karma, nirvana, mantra, mudra, and mandala.

The show focuses on art associated with such key phases of Buddhism as Theravada (early monastic Buddhism), Mahayana (the “Great Vehicle” populism), Vajrayana (the “Diamond Vehicle”—tantric or esoteric Buddhism), and Chan (Zen).

While closed on the Day of the Dead, the exhibit reopens along with the museum on Nov. 2, 2025, and continues until July 12, 2026. Ticket purchase necessary. Discounted for members.

• Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia | LACMA
• Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art Across Asia at LACMA — Art of The Ancestors | Island Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Global Tribal Art News
• At LACMA, splendid Buddhist art goes on view after years of delay | Los Angeles Times

Practice: What is "mindfulness"?

High quality, handmade Himalayan craftsmanshp of gold-faced Buddha - Etsy

What is that? - I don't know. I just let it be.

The Buddha talked about mindfulness (watchfulness, wakefulness, vigilance, diligence, sati) as a human capacity. It is being aware of the present in a dispassionate, nonreactive, unentangled way.

How do we become entangled? We follow automatic habits (going through life on "automatic pilot" rather than actually living).

• Western Theravada Buddhist monk Ven. Dr. Analayo has looked deeply into the definition of sati: "Mindfulness in Early Buddhism" (Journal of Buddhist Studies)

Love me. I'm cold and all alone and need a hug.

Our most pronounced habit is to crave and cling, to feed our greed and lust for pleasurable experiences. For example, rather than simply observing a beautiful thing, we want (and often do) reach for it, grasp it, hold onto it. This is attachment and clinging. When it fails to satisfy us, displeases, and disappoints, it becomes unlovable, unliked. And we fall into our second habit. Imagine a cute white lab mouse (or baby piglet) sniffling and looking for cuddles. We love it until we don't.

I've had with you, you dirty fat pig! Bacon!

We have the habit of experiencing fear, revulsion, annoyance, disliking unpleasant things and experiences. For example, rather than simply observing an ugly thing, we want (and often do) push it away, grab it and throw it away, resist it, beat it, destroy it (or, fearing it, we ourselves run away). Imagine a dirty rat, greasy and growling with shifty eyes.

Our most fundamental habit, which makes these other two or three (greed, hatred, and fear, fear being a kind of hate or "aversion"), is delusion, confusion, ignorance. It is not knowing, not understanding, not seeing things as they really are. One could say our whole experience is really a hallucination -- in the sense that we are rarely if ever looking at what's actually there, rarely being "mindful."

If we were being mindful, everything would be alright, acceptable, and we wouldn't abandon ourselves or the experience of the present moment.

Could we experience a pleasant sight, sound, scent, savor, (bodily) sensation, or simulation (mental thing) and simply let it be, radically accept it, not get entangled, involved, attached, not grasp or cling?

Mindful when walking, sitting, doing, viewing

If we could, that would be mindfulness.

Could we experience an unpleasant thing (internal or external) and simply let it be, radically accept it, allow it, not get entangled (by the habit of hate or fear), involved, not resist or run away, not deny or attempt to fix or destroy it? If we could, that would be mindfulness, seeing it just as it is and allowing it, letting it be whatever it is or wants to be without "fixing" it or making it be otherwise.

(This would mean fixing ourselves to be at ease with experience rather than trying to fix experience. If we could do this, then we would really be on our way to seeing things as they really are rather than constantly imagining them to be some way or other from our expectations, past experiences, fears, anticipations, neuroses, phobias, vulnerabilities...).

Could we experience a neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant thing (external or internal) and simply let it be without being bored, trying to escape the discomfort or confusion, without trying to figure it out and be one way or another, without trying to replace it with a pleasant and "interesting" thing? If we could, that would be mindfulness -- simply seeing what really is (right here, right now) without projections, distortions, expectations, preferences, just simply letting it (this moment) be whatever it is. That is mindfulness.

So the silly and downright foolish definition or idea that "mindfulness is walking in nature with awareness" becomes clear. We are never walking in nature, not mindfully. We are usually enjoying the change of scenery, the natural beauty, the slower pace, the fresh air, the uncluttered vistas, the everything-pleasant, hating the bugs and mosquitoes, weather and inconveniences, and missing most of the scenery because we're not really paying attention to what's there just noticing what we notice and daydreaming the rest of the time. Rather than ever being "here" right now, we instead constantly abandon ourselves, leave ourselves in the lurch of unpleasant experience, run these wheels of habit and automaticity, fail to engage with the real or the now or the present moment.

We dream of the past, imagine the future, and abandon the present. The first makes us depressed. The second makes us anxious. And the third makes us unhappy because, well, there's an interesting saying that takes some getting use to:

"There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way." If we were happy by being present, everything would be happiness. If we only allow ourselves to be happy when everything is pleasant, boy, we're in for a bumpy ride in life. If we insist we be unhappy when meeting the unpleasant, we have a lot of suffering coming our way (because a lot of, maybe most, experience is going to be unpleasant or boring). That will be the painful, the dukkha (the imperfect, off-kilter, off-center) causing us a bumpy ride.

How now if instead of habitually reacting all the time, judging, jumping to conclusions, thinking we know, being sure we know, we were to look with fresh eyes? "Beginner's mind," a famous attribute of Zen in particular and mindful meditation in general, is far better than the boredom, restlessness, annoyance, confusion, and insanity called "monkey mind."

The Buddha always has a little smirk or gentle smile.

The problem is this. The antidote is instant. It is called mindfulness (sati) because in mindfulness there is no greed, hatred/fear, or delusion. There is just this, just this moment, whatever is in it. And it's okay. It's fine because we let it be. We allow it. We accept it. We radically accept and embrace it because it is and for no better reason. Now it may change. (It will change). But for the moment, this moment, whatever this moment, we LET (allow) IT (whatever) BE (is). Allow whatever is. And smile. It feels nice, and it doesn't need a reason.

Now, the Buddha in talking about sati did not leave it at that. In fact, it's hard to ever find a definition of sati. That should be clear and well understood, implicitly one supposes, because all of the emphasis is what to be mindful of. That the Buddha called catu satipatthana, the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness to be exact or the Four Foundations of Mindfulness to be conventional.

Sure, mindfulness is best. One can never be too mind. It is good for all things, to just let them be and observe them calmly, dispassionately, objectively, unentangled. As a path to enlightenment, the Buddha spelled out FOUR things of which to be mindful, which are categories:

1. body
2. feeling
3. mind
4. mind-objects.

Buddhas teach mindfulness.

We will not be able to be mindful of any of them very well until we establish the habit of mindfulness, which runs against the stream of our other four habits (liking the beautiful, disliking the ugly, fearing the ugly, or being bored or confused by the neutral). Watch. Stay. Be here now. Don't abandon yourself or the present experience.

The Dharma (Teaching) of what it means to practice systematic mindfulness of those four foundations (which is the practice of vipassana, "insight meditation," "practicing to see things as they really are") is taught often enough at Buddhist retreats.

For now, just be mindful of all that is (right now), which is an ever-changing stream of things, always interesting if one investigates dispassionately.

There is much to see and much to learn, but not if we come at it with expectations and like we already know. A little beginner's mind goes a long way as does noble silence, not explaining, categorizing, conceptualizing, imagining, measuring, figuring, minding, or verbalizing. Just let it (this moment) be.

• Dhr. Seven; edited by Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen Bradford, Wisdom Quarterly

Dharma Buddhist Meditation (meetup.com)

Looking through the eyes of the Buddha

Once upon a time, there was a valley hidden in a faraway place no one imagined. Travelers along the Silk Road saw it from time to time and had to marvel at the great giants depicted.

When Russian psychic Madame Blavatsky saw the towering figures, she explained their antiquity and meaning. They represented the stages of humankind over millions of years of devolution, getting smaller as time went on. The Buddha, living as Ketu in the Tusita world, looked down and beheld the Earth (Bhumi), seeing that all of the necessary and sufficient conditions for his rebirth had now been met. He chose this place because of the parents and associates he would be reborn in the company of.

This is now Bamiyan, Afghanistan, but at that time it was a place called Kapilavastu in ancient Gandhara (the ancient Greeks called Scythia), Central Asia (a "middle country" or majjhimadesa like the Buddha Kondanna was reborn in or "foothold of a family clan" or mahajanapada), between East and West.

When their scion abandoned the palace in this seasonal capital and set off on a spiritual quest for seven years. (His son, Rahula or "fetter," had just been born, threatening to bind him to the mundane world when he knew he had a much higher and more pressing spiritual mission). He did not leave for himself but for the benefit of his people -- and all humans and devas ("light beings," "shining ones"). And just as he promised, having reached his goal, he came back to save everyone from suffering (dukkha).

Seasonal: Bamiyan, Kabul, Mes Aynak

Not everyone was interested in that, but everyone was glad to see him back. They celebrated him and they apparently took this ancient carving on the hillside and made it in his image. Unlike neighboring Vedic proto-India, they had no non-representation rule against depicting famous founders of a Doctrine (what we in modern times would call a "religion" but which they did not). Just as Mohammed would later do, the Buddha made a rule not to depict him in human form. He was represented by a bodhi tree, a lotus flower, a Dharma wheel and other nonanthropomorphic images, but not as a human being. When neighboring lands started to, all the stops were pulled out and Vedic (pre-Hindu) temples started depicting the gods in human terms, even if some had animal features like Ganesha and Hanuman and others had multiple faces like Maha Brahma.

He returned to save his son (Rahula, 7), his wife (Bimba Devi, known to the world as Yasodhara, 36), his cousin, as the Theravada tradition records, or his other older son from a union with a harem dancing girl named Mriga), his mother (Maha Praja Pati, the sister of his biological mother, Mahāmāyā, who passed away 7 days after the birth of Siddhartha so she could return to the Tusita world from which she could visit the Tavatimsa or World of the Thirty-Three to hear the Buddha teach and gain realization along with countless other devas), and many others, including Devadatta, Kimbila, Anuruddha, Bhagu, and other Scythian princes (nobles, khattiyas), even his charioteer Channa.

All that having happened, what must it have been like to climb up into the giant Bamiyan Buddha statue, the second largest in the world at that time (the other being the hidden reclining Buddha in the same area)? Imagine climbing up the many stories, through the cave and tunnel system behind the statue up into the head and looking out of its eyes across the Bamiyan Valley.

In another valley far, far away, along the same mountain range, the Himalayas, there is another valley, the Valley of Kathmandu. It has a famous stupa, a Buddhist burial mound, storing Buddha relics, as most stupas do or allege to do. It is famous for the Buddha Eyes painted on its side. They are the wisdom eyes at Boudhanath.

The question becomes, Why is the Buddha so famous? What is the reason for all of this adoration? Why is he remembered? What did he teach? He is remembered for his teaching, for saving those wishing to be saved. He did this by teaching only two things, suffering (dukkha) and the end of suffering (nirvana), or disappointment and liberation. Why did he teach this? He taught them because he wanted people and devas to be free. If they could see the predicament they were in, surrounded on all corners by karma, they would wish to make a final end of suffering.

If someone wanted that, the Buddha had it. Outlining his Teaching, his Doctrine (Dharma), in four ennobling (enlightening) truths, the fourth of which is the Path to Freedom summarized as the Noble Eightfold Path. He taught many things in specific, but this in general is what he taught, why he taught, and why he became so famous.

One needn't see out of his statue's eyes any more than one needs to climb into the Statue of Liberty's head to see things from her tiara or skull, looking across this Land of the Free. Are we free? We are not even close to being free. Even if we had all our right protected at every moment, we would be nowhere near being free.

Free in the Buddhist sense is about no longer being slaves to desire, no longer being in the dark of ignorance, no longer being subject to aversion. Making an end of all greed, hatred, and delusion, one experiences awakening and rests in the final peace that is nirvana.

• On killing pigs in the Midwest: karma of Cunda Sūkarika
• Major figures in ancient Buddhist history

The afterlife is real: Life is a game? (NDE)

Man dies and learns we have it completely backwards! (unbelievable NDE)

(Life & Beyond) April 25, 2024: This is the near-death experience of Andy Petro, how he died and learned that we have it completely backwards! This unbelievable near-death experience reveals a deep truth about life. We take it so seriously when it is NOT at all what it seems. What is it? That's why we meditate, to find a real answer to this question. Is it a "simulation" of some kind? Is it real?

Atheist has NDE and changes mind

(Coming Home) Atheist dies and finds there IS life after death (NDE)

(Coming Home) April 11, 2024: Atheist Nancy Rynes shares the story of her near-death experience that happened during surgery after a car ran over her while she was riding a bicycle. 

The Kalama Sutra gave me faith in the Buddha

During her encounter on the Other Side, she describes experiencing a spiritual realm where a guide showed her the interconnectedness of all things, which helped her develop a new awareness of the impact her actions have on others. After returning to her body, she struggled to integrate her NDE into the rest of her life. Ultimately, she chose a path of spiritual awakening through practices such as meditation and gratitude.

She now helps others navigate their own spiritual journeys, recognizing the core purpose of learning to live from a place of love and compassion. Her true life story emphasizes the transformative power of NDEs and the pursuit of spiritual understanding amidst all life's challenges.

“I was learning to live from that soul level of awareness rather than just my human level of awareness”

- Nancy Rynes

• Connect with Nancy Rynes ⇨ nancyrynes.com

How can we be sure NDEs are real?

Religion is a mess. Who believes?

We can hear many things, form concepts, adopt beliefs, but until we know-and-see for ourselves, we're relying on undependable things. The path to awakening has a phase of remembering our countless past lives. What are those memories? When one remembers them in all their details and sees trends and lessons lived over many lives in many places, not just this world, one gains a whole different view of life and comes to appreciate the need to make an end of rebirth if one would make an end of all suffering once and for all.

Life is a game, and everyone can win!

It does not much matter that we die because we are sure to live again again and again, in an unending cycle. How can we step off the carousel and awaken to the utmost? That is what the Buddha's Teaching, or Dharma, is for. In the meantime, an NDE characteristically has the consequence of losing all fear of death? How can that be? It's the scariest thing, isn't it? No, there are far scarier things, and rebirth is one of them. But most of us cannot imagine anything else. Fortunately, studying the Dharma can give rise to that knowledge-and-vision of what is real. #NearDeathExperience #NDE #afterlife

• Connect with Andy Petro: ✨ Website: andrewpetro.com
• 📚 Book: Alive in the Light: Remembering Eternity
• Raymond Moody's famous book: Life After Life 

💥 Watch Next: Unbelievable NDE: Man's Eye-Opening Afterlife Experience - • Unbelievable NDE: Eye-Opening Afterli... 💥 Binge Watch: Near-Death Experience Playlist - • Near Death Experience (NDE) ✅ Divine Invocation Code - ('A 77 letter Invocation Prayer for Abundant Wealth and Prosperity, Trusted by the Elite 1%.) ✨ https://tinyurl.com/4x745hsr⏰

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Introduction
• 00:39 Near-death experience: drowning
• 03:05 Encounter with the Light (God?)
• 09:27 Return to Earth and understanding
• 11:10 How it changed him

In 1955, Andy Petro's life changed forever when he faced a near-death encounter. He was submerged in a freezing lake for 15 minutes before high school graduation. He struggled against the cold and cramps but, unfortunately, he drowned while attempting to reach his friends on a floating platform. However, before he took his last breath, he heard a voice urging him to let go, which ultimately led to a sudden release from pain and cold. As he witnessed his own body entangled in weeds, he was drawn towards a comforting light and reassured with the words, "Andy, don't be afraid; we love you." This story reminds us that we are not alone, even in the darkest moments. There is always hope, and love can guide us towards the light. #NearDeathExperience #NDE #afterlife

Please consider subscribing to weekly video: @lifeandbeyondchannel

DISCLOSURE: This description may contain a few links. Clicking and making a purchase through them will not cost the clicker anything extra, but it may earn the channel a commission. Rest assured that it only recommends products that it personally knows and trusts.

• Life is a game and everyone can win - motivational video (iamfearlesssoul.com); Andy Petro; Nancy Rynes; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha's Second Coming: The Maitreya

Wisdom Tellers, Nov. 24, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

The Future Buddha: The Tale of Bodhisattva Maitreya

(Wisdom Tellers) Discover the incredible story of Maitreya, the future Buddha known for boundless love and wisdom! Follow his journey towards enlightenment and learn about his teachings that promise hope and kindness. Let's uncover the legacy of this compassionate figure and his impact on the world.

#Maitreya #Metteyya #MílèPúsa #MirokuBosatsu #MireukBosal #JampéGönpo #Buddha #Compassion #Enlightenment #wisdom

Messianic Buddhism?

Apocalyptic Buddhists await the Maitreya

Could there really be a Messianic Buddhism? There certainly is. (Tibetan Buddhism, for example, is obsessed with the Future Buddha and not so much interested in the historical one and his Teachings, even though they'll be the same Teachings).

There is a belief in the Buddha's "second coming." Of course, this is an oversimplification because it is not the historical Buddha Shakyamuni returning so much as it is another bodhisattva ("being bent on supreme enlightenment") arising. That buddha's name will be Maitreya, the "Messiah" of sorts, the Buddha-to-come.

In the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism, pejoratively referred to as Hinayana or "Lesser Vehicle" Buddhism, which it is not, he is known as Metteyya. The last Hinayana tradition was the Sarvastivada, which was destroyed by Mahayana Buddhism.

Ninety percent of the Buddhism in the world today is of the Mahayana sort, with only ten percent being Theravada or "Teaching of the Earliest Enlightened Elders" of the Buddha's time. Theravada is a back to basics revivalism of what the historical person taught, whereas Mahayana is a kind of catholicism or universalist teaching, more Hinduism than Gautama-Buddha-Dharma.

I want to be RICH but avoid wrong livelihood

Access to Insight; Dhr. Seven (trans.), Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Right livelihood, right livelihood, what is "right livelihood"?

Right livelihood is the fifth of the factors of the Noble (Ennobling) Eightfold Path. (Noble or aryan means "enlightened"). This factor belongs to the virtue division of the path.

The Buddha's definition

"What is right livelihood? A disciple of the noble ones (enlightened ones), having abandoned wrong livelihood, keeps life going by right livelihood. This is called 'right livelihood' (samma ajivo)" (SN 45.8).

"If one's outgo exceeds one's income,

one's upkeep will be one's downfall."

-Dhr. Seven, quoting wise business advisors

SUTRA: right livelihood

How rich? I want my own rocket.

"Here in this Dharma (Doctrine), Vyagghapajja, a householder knowing one's income and expenses leads a well-balanced life, neither of extravagance nor of miserliness, knowing that one's income will exceed expenses, and expenses will not one's income.

"Just as the goldsmith or apprentice knows, on holding up a balance, that by this much has it tilted down or by that much it has tilted up, even so a householder, knowing one's income and expenses, leads a well-balanced life, neither of extravagance nor of miserliness, assuring that one's income exceeds one's expenses, not one's expenses one's income" (AN 8.54).

Right livelihood's relation to the other factors of the path

Is it good to give our time? Yes, volunteer.

"How is right view the forerunner [of the path to enlightenment]? One discerns (knows and sees) wrong livelihood as wrong livelihood, right livelihood as right livelihood.

"What is wrong livelihood? Scheming, persuading, hinting, belittling, and pursuing gain with gain, this is wrong livelihood...

"One abandons wrong livelihood and enters upon right livelihood: This is one's right effort.

"One is mindful to abandon wrong livelihood to enter and remain in right livelihood: This is one's right mindfulness.

"Thus, these three factors — right view, right effort, and right mindfulness — revolve around right livelihood" (MN 117).

Wrong livelihood for lay Buddhists

Lie, cheat, steal!

"A lay follower abstains from five types of business. What are those five? One abstains from [trade, commerce, attempting to profit from]

1. business in weapons,
2. business in human beings (exploitation, buying and selling humans, prostitution),
3. business in flesh (meat),
4. business in intoxicants (alcohol and drugs of abuse), and
5. business in poison" (AN 5.177). More

Latinx Heritage Month: The Mexican Buddhist

Hispanic Star; Crystal Quintero, Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

"I'm a [Mexican Buddhist] with a battered brain/ Searching for a future, world is my aim/ Gimme gimme your hand, gimme gimme your mind/ Gimme gimme this, gimme gimme that," Darby Crash sang for the Germs on G.I., but he was a "Lexicon Devil" and a Celtic Buddhist, growing up in Hollywood. I was a Mexican Buddhist.

Would Frida Kahlo have been a Xicana?

"I want toy tin soldiers that can push and shove/ I want gun boy rovers that'll wreck this club/ I'll get silver guns to drip old blood/ Let's give this established joke a shove/ We're gonna wreak havoc on this rancid mill/ I'm searchin' for something even if I'm killed." Who knows what he's on about, youthful rebellion in nightclubs that repeatedly banned his L.A. band for being too much trouble perhaps.

L.A. is a strange melting pot of Latin and American

Latin-Irish rebel Ernesto "Che" Guevara Lynch

And I had to find meaning in it all, in a town of people mostly concerned with survival and fame. Alice Bag was a Latina punkette, the Germs were, Black Flag, Wasted Youth, Circle Jerks, FEAR...it was an amazing time, right on the heels of the 1960s.

Struggling artists are the poorest, but they regard themselves as "The Beautiful People" (think Marilyn Manson lyrics), so they fake it till they make it or get lost in a world of drugs.

It takes a store of good karma to have the talent, beauty, health, and funding to make it in Hollywood's three main industries (film, music, and sex). Who's afraid of Joan Jett's protege Darby Crash? Just watch The Decline of Western Civilization, Pt. 1 and you won't be. Penelope Spheeris made sure of that. He's funny, he's high, and he's hiding in the closet with Pat Smear (Foo Fighters). He's an icon of punk.

Hispanic Heritage Foundation

"Empty out your pockets, you don't need their change/ I'm giving you the power to rearrange/ Together we'll run to the highest prop/ Tear it down and let it drop," because he's a Lexicon Devil singing about Buddhism as it helped him deal with his impending local fame that would make him "The Slave" and the infamy that would free him:

Blended worldclass beauty queens

"It starts in your head/ And moves to your hands/ Your body starts shakin'/ 'Cause you're in demand/ You do the slave to the beat/ Of the neuro-sutra can can...// You're lashed 'twixt the stars/ With your ice and motor cars/ You do the slave to the beat/ Of the neuro-sutra can can/ Oh yea! Yea! Pull out the Zen/ I've got a Buddhist principle in my hand/ Your life seems wasted your bodies laced in/ Don't stop now you've got to trace it.../ You put your hands together/ Writhe in the shackle/ You twist your body round/ 'Til it starts to crackle/ You do the slave to the beat/ Of the neuro-sutra can can...// Right here right now, shake it in and out some/ Lights on off now make it spin and fight now."

It was the late 70s. There were still hippies on the streets. And the punks didn't like them, if only as a fashion choice. Peace and love were out, rebellion and hate were in. There was a still a draft. Cops were hateful as ever, shooting protesters they dubbed "rioters." Mexican Americans have been battling police and the establishment in this town since a century or more before that. Police are racist today. Painful progress has been made, but there's still a need for Latinx*/Hispanic Heritage Month.

Latina Power in MX and the USA!

*The -x replaces the gender markers -a and -o, female and male, inherent in Latin and its lengua franca Spanish, the sexist European language forced on the peoples of the Americas. All Mexicans are forced to learn Spanish to get by, but it is not the language of Mexico as most of us thoughtlessly imagine. It's the colonial language of conquest, domination, and genocide. Nahuatl and other Native American (First Nations) tongues are what Mexico spoke before Conquistadors forced them to do otherwise.

It's easy to forget that Los Angeles was a sleepy Mexican pueblo when some Spaniards in [Mission] San Gabriel Concentration Camp decided to take the town to Olvera Street instead. Some businessmen of a certain religious persuasion decided to build Hollywood here, and the rest is history or herstory. Then Nury Martinez and the LA City Council had a scandal, and here we are.