(Abramorama) The WISDOM OF HAPPINESS shows us a timeless truth: happiness is still possible, even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. This powerful message of hope is delivered as a personal audience with one of the greatest living thinkers, Nobel Peace Prize winner Tenzin Gyatso, known to billions around the world as the 14th Dalai Lama.
From Executive Producers Richard Gere and Oren Moverman, the film premieres its North American theater tour in 2025. Learn more and sign up to receive updates: wisdomofhappinessfilm.com.
Dalai Lama shares advice for finding happiness in the 21st century in new documentary
The commune was packed with a very diverse crowd characteristic of Altadena and Pasadena. There was less shade than prior years because the old trees burned during the Eaton Fire. But the main structure (the historic Solvang House) was safe, the grass was green, and the free vegan food line was moving.
The generosity of The Vegan Joint is amazing
The Vegan Joint and Au Lac, Los Angeles, provided Thai curry, brown rice, sauté, chili sauce, peanut sauce, samosas, tamarind dip, stir-fry, and specialty drinks (kava-kava and goji matcha watermelon) by El Chef, a food artist from Long Beach who volunteers for plantbasedtreaty.org events with Samantha Lau.
Soul Force music was provided by Rhythms of the Village, whose annual Spring Festival is not going to be ruined by the fire even though the store burned down. It will be held on May 24, 2025, on the grounds of Muir High School in Pasadena. Ameca and Onochie kept the rhythm going with many artists on stage, lots of percussion, Alma Cielo on violin, Paul Livingstone on stand-up bass, and a chorus of singers.
Brooke Robbins of the Altadena Pasadena Sierra Madre Community Resource Hub (APS-CRH) was present to build community and get the word out about an important upcoming Public Awareness Presentation on Friday, April 25, 2025, at 5:00 pm by the Erin Brockovich supported lafirejustice.com firm. Then Cielo brought out the guest of honor, Oh Happy Day owner John Hopkins for a round of hugs and a few nice words. Leigh Adams and her rainbow hair made it to the stage then Sam Lau of Plant Based Treaty until the music took over again for jazz improv.
Come celebrate a FREE, family-friendly event with live music, plant-based vegan foods, and speakers honoring vegan restauranteur and Altadena legend John Hopkins of O' Happy Days Vegan Cafe.
ABOUT: Earth Day Altadena with guest of honor: John Hopkins, Oh Happy Day Vegan Cafe, hosted by Soul Force Project, UNA, and Plant Based Treaty with performances by: EarthSeed Band, Baba Onochie, Rhythm of the Village, Paul Livingstone, Alma Cielo: REGISTER (luma)
What happened? More than 1,500 people showed up from in and around Pasadena to welcome the great, albeit softspoken, doctor and environmental icon. She told the story of her life, gave reasons for hope that our planet can be saved, then took questions submitted by students. What can we all do to save animals, save humans, and save the forests? Go vegan, plant-based, vegetarian, or intermittently veggie. Join a local chapter of Jane Goodall's Root & Shoots, and consider that every decision we make individually about a clean environment adds up (forming collective action) until, one day, it's clean and restored.
Conservation icon Dr. Jane Goodall will speak in Pasadena on March 30, 2025. This inspiring afternoon with Dr. Goodall will focus on hope, resilience, and the power of collective action. [Watch this event FREE and LIVE on KLRN Pasadena YouTube channel.]
Dr. Goodall, known for her groundbreaking research on chimpanzees in Tanzania, has spent her life advocating for protecting all species and the environment. Nowadays, she inspires action through the work of the Jane Goodall Institute and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots. FREE TO RSVP:
Hosted by the Pasadena Education Foundation, Pasadena Unified School District, and the Roots & Shoots LA Basecamp, this special event will take place at Pasadena High School, where Dr. Goodall will share personal stories from her remarkable life, reflecting on the resilience of people and wildlife alike and the importance of community in creating lasting change.
She will discuss how the lessons she’s learned from her decades of conservation work can inspire the next generation to take meaningful action for the planet, animals, and local communities.
(Jimmy Kimmel Live) April 13, 2023: Dr. Goodall talks about her love of animals, dreaming of growing up to study wildlife, her mother’s encouragement, women not being scientists when she started out, bonding with one chimp in particular named David Greybeard, chimp “language,” the mourning and grief around a chimp when they die, being open to the idea that Bigfoot [Yeti, Almas, Orang Pendek, and Sasquatch-like cryptids] might exist, and her new Apple TV+ series “Jane” about the adventures of a little girl and her imaginary chimp.
This event is designed for young people and families, providing insights into how we can all contribute to a more sustainable, compassionate world. Before the lecture, localRoots & Shootsgroups and community partners will display information about their projects and offer opportunities to connect and learn how everyone can get involved in efforts that benefit the environment, animals, and communities.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson likes chimps and ETs
Sunday, March 30, 2025, 3:00-5:00 pm
Pasadena High School
2925 E. Sierra Madre Blvd.
Pasadena, LA County, CA 91107
Live broadcast
Can’t make it or interested in tuning in remotely? This event is being broadcast live! Tune in at 3:00 pm on the KLRN Pasadena YouTube Channel.
Jane Goodall on why we should be HOPEFUL for the future
(The Project) June 3, 2024: Dr. Jane Goodall has been on a lifelong mission to reconnect humans with the natural world and take on urgent climate action and she tells us why we all should have hope for the future. #JaneGoodall#Chimpanzees#ClimateAction
Event details
Dr. Goodall with kids in wetlands
Tickets are available by invitation only. Advanced reservation is required to attend. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. Arrive early to access the best seats in the house (general seating). Fifteen minutes before the program begins (2:45 p.m.), reserved seats will be released to guests waiting in a standby line. American Sign Language interpretation is available. PARKING: Ample parking is available on campus at Pasadena High School. Extra parking is available down the street at Victory Park, where electric vehicle charging stations are also available. Street parking is also available. Guests are encouraged to carpool, use public transportation, or ride-sharing apps.
ALERT: Photography and videography: This event is being captured. Please note the photography and videography disclaimer: By registering for and attending this event, attendees acknowledge and consent to the audiovisual recording of likeness and voice during the event activities. Jane Goodall Institute may capture still and moving images and audio recordings for promotional materials, publications, and other media related to the organization’s mission and activities. These materials may be used on print, digital, and online platforms by Jane Goodall Institute and its affiliates. By participating, attendees grant Jane Goodall Institute the right to use, reproduce, and distribute such recordings without further approval or compensation. This consent includes using and disclosing images and voices in the public domain.
No one seems to have told the rest of the country, but where the sun sets (West Coast), the sun rose this morning to a new spring. Everything is green and sunny, cool and moist, and a person's thoughts lilt towards thoughts of
The Spring Equinox, also known as the vernal equinox, is one of the four solar festivals of the year. The equinox — which translates roughly in Latin to “equal night” — is when the sun sits vertically above the equator, making day and night equal across the planet.
The Spring Equinox officially marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and there are celebrations around the world to usher in longer days and springtime. [This is the real traditional New Year's Day, when the Earth (Tierra, Gaia, Bhumi) renews herself in preparation for another cycle.]
In some cultures, this day also marks the beginning of the new year, which in Iranian (original Aryan) culture is called Nowruz. The Spring Equinox is a brilliant time for new beginnings [like maybe a nice spring cleaning], no matter how one celebrates on March 20th.
This is the best time to begin a regular meditation practice, graduating to walking meditation, mindfulness in nature, and deep stillness to see things as they really are.
An outfit just for practice helps.
Do the basics: Put on all white. Find a quiet spot apart from distractions. Use this spot over and over again. It becomes powerful. Set down a mat and cushion (a bundle of leaves or grass is enough to get the tailbone higher than the knees). Sit. Inhale deeply. Release. Do it again a few times, without forcing the air out. It's just about letting go completely, so completely that the body hangs as if held up by a clothing hanger, not stiff, not slack.
You're a baby in white, so go easy.
Straighter is more comfortable, even though it doesn't seem like it at first. Posture is important to attention. Bring (advert) the attention to the present moment, this moment, and to stay in just this moment, remain aware of the breath. Which breath? This breath, just the one happening now all by itself. Become the watcher (not the commenter, fixer, improver, slowdowner, or anything else), just the watcher. This is mindfulness -- clear awareness of the present without evaluation.
Whoa, what a trip! What was that? I want that again!
Set a time limit in advance and keep it. Even if it would be nice to go longer because it is going so well, know the time of rising. Even if it is going horribly with raving lunatic thoughts of a psychopath with lurid fantasies and wrath, lust and revenge, delusion and a lightshow, know the time of rising. The mind will thank you later.
Ten minutes is a good start time, slowly working up to an hourlong sit. That seems impossible now, but in time, whaddyaknow, it suddenly is possible. What changed? I'dunno. This practice is about persistence. It does itself and then there is no effort. The enemies of that are expectations, unsettled greed or desire for achieving something, and the Five Hindrances. They will come to hinder. They are already present. They can be overcome. But whether or not they have been overcome, persist. This is spring. This is the beginning. Have "beginner's mind" in place of the "monkey mind" that usually rules the cage. Smile. It helps.
Instructions are confusing because it's so simple.
It is easy to say that "meditation is NOT about thinking." That's clear. That's easy to see. Don't indulge thought; just let them be by turning your attention to this subtle breath that keeps changing. What is difficult to grasp is that "meditation is NOT about not-thinking." Not-thinking may happen. It doesn't matter. As that is not the goal, if it doesn't happen, it's okay. Giving attention to one object and bringing attention back and back again and again ("Begin again" as Sharon Salzberg says) is what is important.
Feed me, Phone-Momma! Feed me more!!
The mind like a petulant and insolent child will resist. Let it. Bring it back. Do not scold it or become upset. Let it be. Surrender completely to this moment, whatever is in this moment, not being moved to do anything no matter what the mind says it must do. See what happens. Could the mind be wrong no matter what it feels or demands or insists is true?
How did Siddhartha Gautama do it?
We'll never see things as they really are so long as we keep believing that we already are seeing them that way. We have never been seeing them that way. If we had, we'd awaken. We'd be enlightened, which is to say, Dependent Origination would make sense. And it doesn't, does it? (Hint: It's a practice, not a theory). That's a whole different kind of meditation called insight (vipassana) after getting good at this kind, which is called serenity (samatha). Don't jump ahead. Let it go. (If all else fails, sign up for a free 10-day Goenka retreat. Everyone should do at least one in life).
Storm timeline: When will the heavy rain, mountain snow hit SoCal?
(ABC7) March 11, 2025: Another storm in Southern California will soak the region, bringing mountain snow and heavy rain to the region, with strong winds and flooding, particularly in the burn scars of the Eaton and Sunset Fires in Altadena and Hollywood but not sparing sunny Orange County and the Airport Fire burn scar. The Palisades Fire may wash more debris into the sea, further polluting Santa Monica Bay. Snow at the beginning of spring and freezing temps as the city prepares for St. Patrick's Day? What climate change and chaos is afoot? Legend has it that when there is fire, there are earthquakes so Angelenos can "shake and bake," with mudslides following every hillside fire, wearing away at the city, capital of the world, as it falls into the Pacific. Mt. Baldy is covered in snow with foothills dusted, easily melting in the sunshine of clear days. Meteorologist Dallas Raines explains, and KTLA 5 provides in-depth coverage. Torrential rains, atmospheric river, El Nino and La Nina threatening, waterspouts, a tornado in Pico Rivera, thunder, graupel, hail, the weather devas are having a field day. Full story: abc7.com/post/los-angeles-wea...
California has no weather to speak of. A cloud over Los Angeles is news because temps may dip under the 70s. Northern California is colder, but the state is famous for its sunny beaches and SoCal scenery. Today is different. Strange H20 has been condensing in the sky and falling onto the ground. No one knows how to drive in it, so expect crashes, spinouts, and traffic. This climate chaos is being exacerbated by HAARP, DEW (directed-energy weapons), and chemtrail technology, fanning winds for hotter fires followed by excessive rain that causes landslides, mud floods, and changing real estate costs, somehow always moving them up and never down. The LA Fire(s) have left the area all around Hollywood in grave danger of floating away into the streets of the Valley and the sea (Santa Monica Bay) with toxic plastics for our finny friends in the Pacific Ocean. Sorry, sealions and sweet dolphins. Take that, sharks and stingrays. All apologies to the basis of life on earth, plankton and sea vegetables. All weather forecasts are humble-brags because they usually ignore the hardships in the Midwest, East Coast, and South, where real weather happens -- heavy snow, killer freezes, sleet, tornadoes, hurricanes, power outages.,,
Death Valley, California -- one of the hottest, driest, lowest places on earth -- becomes Lake Manly again
(Uncovering) Sep 22, 2023 North America used to have a massive body of water west of the Mississippi called Lake Corcoran where present-day California rests. This massive lake mostly disappeared, but part of it (Tulare Lake) actually remains today, and it grows with every storm and snowmelt. The nation's breadbasket is Central California, a possibly toxic lakebed sprayed with Monsanto Corporation chemicals and petroleum-tainted water for the state's booming economy.
Native Americans remember and welcome back Pa'Ashi (life giver)
Stock footage is acquired from storyblocks.com. Follow me on my other socials: TikTok: @uncovering_yt Facebook: Uncovering Yt Instagram: @uncovering__yt Twitter: @uncovering_yt
Poor Israel needs a pause to rearm, refuel, restock secret weapons, and get Biden administration limitations off its back. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: Trump was not the peace candidate. He is as much about popular wars as any Washington insider. The warmongers just have to point out what's in it for him. Some tourist hotels in the Holy Land? Those Gazans must die! Some Trump, Inc. merch in the Middle East? Bomb any country you like, Bibi Baby! We celebrate peace in any form, but this is the worst form, a PR (public relations) ploy to justify further genocidal war, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and American imperialism with a proxy. Ashkenazi Jews claiming their God-granted land in a faraway place their great grandparents claimed? That's good enough for any Christian Zionist to fund war and more war, arm a holocaust and extermination, take sides against humans. Will no one be regaining their senses? Is no one interested in looking at the truth? Let's let Jeremy Scahill (DropSiteNews.com) explain it to the masses; this is how modern war is conducted, a psyops in addition to death from the sky, weakening the target then bombing it out of existence. (Let's all celebrate a day of peace in the streets, and mourn the rest of the year with our heads down, saying nothing to question the motives of our government and its proxies).
Gaza ceasefire: Daniel Levy, Muhammad Shehada, Jeremy Scahill on Trump's role and Palestine's future
(Democracy Now!) Jan. 16, 2025: Support work: democracynow.org/donate.
Roundtable on the planned Gaza ceasefire with former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy of the U.S./Middle East Project, Gazan analyst Muhammad Shehada of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor and journalist Jeremy Scahill of _Drop Site News_.
The discussion centers on how incoming Pres. Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff pressured Israel to accept the deal and what it reveals about the outgoing [Pres. Genocide Joe] Biden administration's refusal to use its own leverage for the same end.
"Joe Biden could have ended this long ago," and that he chose not to "exposes the utter moral rot that existed within the Biden White House," says Jeremy Scahill.
Still, guests say it's unlikely that the ceasefire announcement signifies true relief for Palestinians beset by Israel's genocidal violence.
Levy says Netanyahu is already working to renege on [go back on, renegotiate, spoil, upset, cancel] the deal and continue an ethnic cleansing and genocidal holocaust (imperial extermination) that has helped him retain his political power and safety from imprisonment for corruption as he is being prosecuted in Israeli courts, while Shehada warns that all signs point to the continued subjugation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in conditions "more painful than the war."
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