Seriously sick Professor Jordan Peterson seems to be hallucinating or conflating as he pontificates on the allegory of the "Story of the Buddha" mixing it up with the Christian interpretation of the "Story of Adam and Eve" and Paradise Lost in terms of Joseph Campbell' "hero's journey."
Art, Nature, and Sustainability by Katie Savoy
is an installation that continues through Sunday, August 31, 2025, at the Hastings Branch Library.
Art, Nature, and Sustainability is inspired by Southern California's landscapes. Katie Savoy finds magic painting Nature's hidden details, from flowers to mountain views. The art, including abstract explorations of texture and fluidity, is a constant journey of growth and therapy.
She's committed to sustainability, sourcing all materials secondhand and repurposing every piece. Her hope is to share this peace and calm with Los Angeles.
More info
Ongoing through Saturday, July 26, 2025: A colorful abstract with pencils and paintbrushes and the word ART. Each of us is a “piece” of what makes the library special! Help create a puzzle mural by decorating your own puzzle piece during this year’s Summer Reading.
Individual pieces will become part of a larger mural that will be unveiled during our End of Summer Bash on Saturday, August 2nd at Jefferson Branch Library.
Designs can be about anything related to the library – a favorite book or favorite book character, or something that makes one think of the Pasadena community.]
How to Join:
Pick up a puzzle piece at any Pasadena Public Library location starting Saturday, June 14th. Return decorated puzzle piece by Saturday, July 26th to be added to the mural.
Questions? Ask Marie Plug at mplug@cityofpasadena.net. We can’t wait to see what contributors create. Let’s make something awesome together!
Library Location Allendale Branch Library, Hastings Branch Library, Hill Avenue Branch Library, Jefferson Branch Library, La Pintoresca Branch Library, Lamanda Park Branch Library, Linda Vista Branch Library, San Rafael Branch Library, Santa Catalina Branch Library, Villa Parke Community Center Branch Library
Audience Adults, Adults 50+, Children, Emerging Adults (18-24), Family (0-12), Infants and/or Toddlers, Preschool, Tweens
Event Type Arts & Culture, Celebrations, Community & Civic Affairs, Exhibits, Summer Reading.
He massacred trees: White man arrested in Downtown L.A. chainsaw tree mystery
(KTLA 5) April 23, 2025: A man has been arrested in connection with dozens of city-owned trees in Los Angeles that were cut down with [an electric] chainsaw over the Easter Holiday weekend. The suspect, Samuel Groft, 45, was arrested [on eight counts of] felony vandalism. [His crimes may cost the city more than $300,000 dollars to repair, but will a spend a penny of that on buying seeds to plant many additional trees to install in our concrete jungle?] KTLA's Mary Beth McDade reports. Details: DTLA chainsaw tree massacre suspect in custody
Broadleaf. Evergreen. Conifer. How well do we really know our trees? Now we have a goal for National Arbor Day. Visit the arboretum.org in Los Angeles (by boat, not plane, like Greta Thunberg).
NOTE: National Arbor Day always falls on the last Friday in April, but many states observe Arbor Day on different dates throughout the year based on their best tree planting times, which varies widely. For example:
What one madman did in LA, we can all undo by getting out and helping nature (arborday.org).
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Plant a tree, preferably one native and appropriate to the region.
May we suggest using an acorn to produce an oak? And avoid watering its stem, but rather water around it to encourage it to grow strong roots far and wide.
What better way to celebrate Arbor Day than to plant our very own tree? It's an incredible experience watching a tree grow over the years.
Why did the Buddha love trees so much?
One mark of goodness (Buddhist skillfulness, wholesomeness, unselfishness, selflessness, nongreed, letting go, generosity, loving-kindness, giving, dana, compassion, thoughtfulness) is "planting trees the shade of which we will never sit under" because they take so long to grow. Why should we be unselfish? One good reason might be to look around and realize that we have shade because of the kindness of others (Native Americans, land caretakers, and bhumma-devas or woodland fairies and angelic light beings) who came before us. That should be reason enough. But this reflection may also help: Just as we cannot harm others without simultaneously harming others, we cannot help others without simultaneously helping ourselves. It may not be obvious, but that's just the way it is by a natural regularity we can call karma, the law of receiving back in kind what we put out into the world, not only immediately but also after a long time.
It's an unbelievable feeling knowing that we made it happen. Don't print this article! Deforestation is a huge problem with many implications, and reducing our paper usage is the most immediate way to make a difference.
We can go a step further by seeking out brands with sustainable business practices (not just greenwashing by corporations and the PR firms they hire to sell sell sell), and by adopting strong composting and recycling habits.
Siddhartha awakened with the help of this Bo tree
EDITOR'S NOTE: Let's not just recycle the way they do in Hollywood. Let's precycle the way they have been doing in Berkeley for decades. What's that? It's considering where something is coming from, what waste it is producing by reducing, reusing, and recycling. Pre-cycling is thinking ahead of time, maybe even thinking out for seven generations like the Indigenous peoples of America, the Native American tribes, and the Buddha spoke of doing. The Buddha said that? When asked about benefiting the deceased by the "transfer of merit," the Buddha explained that we have relatives. And if we do something for one who is not in a place able to receive it, it will still benefit our other relations out for seven generations. It's an odd coincidence to mention seven if the two are not related, so either they both knew something or the Buddha's teaching reached the Americas just like American historians like Edward P. Vining (An Inglorious Columbus) and Rick Fields (How the Swans Came to the Lake) have documented happened centuries ago. How can we "transfer" good karma because isn't "karma" one's own doing? Yes, it is, but it can be transferred in this way, according to the Buddha. There are worlds one may be reborn into that provide little to no opportunity for doing good. If one has a deed done on his or her behalf AND one appreciates, approves, applauds, and rejoices on account of that, then that one so doing is producing lots of skillful (good, meritorious) mental karma. And that will be of benefit there in that place. Only some places allow for this transfer to take place, but the Buddha said that our "relatives" extend out for seven generations, and with so many beings involved, it is impossible that we would be without being in just such a place to receive our transferred karma. So it will not go to waste, and who knows? It may be that we find ourselves reborn in such a destination needing help and overflowing with gratitude (like the "grateful dead") when a relative does something good on our behalf.
Take a hike -- the good kind! Hiking is a great escape from the doldrums of everyday life, and it's an activity that's great for people across a wide age range.
Where better to do it than out in nature? "Forest bathing" is a practice of doing it in the buff or at least scantily clad to absorb the dappled sunshine and negative ions as the trees and green environment exhales after breathing in what we exhale. It's an opportune time to be mindful rather than worried all full of discursive thoughts.
Why We Love National Arbor Day
The Buddha, ready to pass away into final nirvana and make an end of all rebirth, walked faraway until he came to twin sal trees, reclined between them, and bid the simulation farewell.
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Natural beauty is one reason. With so much of our population living in big cities, it's easy to lose sight of nature's greatness and splendor. Sniff a frangipani. Inhale the sappy ooze of a pine. Behold a cherry blossom.
Our planet needs love. Despite some disagreement about whether or not global warming is real and the fault of irresponsible corporations and thoughtless consumerism, there's no debating that keeping our planet healthy helps to keep us healthy. We avoid polluting, so let's avoid over-consuming.
There's a lot to love about a holiday that helps make our planet a better place. There's a global movement with over 40 nations having their own version of Arbor Day. Therefore, it's safe to say that this holiday is worldwide.
We've got a lot to be thankful for when it comes to trees, so it's only natural that so many cultures have their own day to celebrate. Source: National Arbor Day
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MyOutdoorLife, April 19, 2025; KTLA 5 News, Los Angeles, April 23; 2025; NationalToday.com, April 25, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
(MorgueOfficial) In the Bible, "God" demanded bloodsacrifices, the death (murder) of innocent men, women, and children, and repeatedly unleashed plagues and floods to destroy humanity. Why would a "loving God" constantly demand sacrifice and worship? What if that weren’t God but actually the Devil? Who were the Cathars?
Ancient Aliens: Otherworldly Magic and Witchcraft from Outer Space
They gave Maria Orsic her oracular powers
(HISTORY) Oct. 26, 2023: Where did the origins of "magic" begin? Could it be that angelic (deva) and demonic (asura) light beings came to earth to give secrets to humanity that have served as a blessing and a curse in accordance with how we have used them? See more in this compilation from Ancient Aliens.
Lindsey Charleston, History All Day via MSN.com, Feb. 6, 2023; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; RTE One via SnM Chanel, "Song of Our Ancestors" (video link)
How long have whites been covering this up? An inconvenient truth, so scientists kept quiet?
The earlier inhabitants were hunter-gatherers with blue eyes and dark skin, DNA reveals.
When we arrived from space to this rock...
"A historian makes a fascinating discovery that challenges everything we [say we] knew about early humans," MSN is reporting.
"(They looked nothing like we thought)," the mainstream media channel adds. [They were Black with blue eyes, but let's bury the lead and not say that right up front. A documentary reveals the shocking DNA evidence that confirms this unexpected finding.]
We weren't all pale gingers?
Many millennia ago, in the ancient [super green] forests of Ireland, early humans thrived in spite of competition from other predators like bears and wolves.
In the present day, the area, known as the Burren, is a rocky landscape with virtually no trees in sight.
Still, traces of our [human] ancestors have managed to endure the ravages of time, making way for a discovery that challenges our current knowledge of human prehistory. More: MSN
Buddha, how did life begin on earth?
The Buddha, who knows and sees, was very wise.
[The Buddha explains the beginning of life on this planet as being a process of devolution, from the time some devas or light beings alighted here and began to become coarser and coarser as their karma (intentional deeds) worsened. Corrupted minds led to corrupt speech and actions, which have brought us down to our present day when we are short lived, struggle to eat and satisfy our many desires, and must cope with many diseases when previously the human race -- that is, the devolving space race -- had many fewer problems. This devolution does not contradict the presence of evolution, as all things are cyclical and a coming Goden Age is ahead of us, just as many are behind us. There are revolutions within revolutions, cycles within cycles. And this is what the ancient Vedas ("Knowledge Books" of proto-India preserved in Hinduism) call the Kali Yuga or "Dark Age." See DN 27, the Agganna Sutta, or "A Buddhist Genesis Sutra" for details.]
Documentary hosted by Brendon Gleeson, published by RTE in 2021
The Burren is a place full of intrigue and mystery to filmmaker Dr. Katrina Costello, who has been working there for over 13 years. "It is not a landscape that gives up her secrets easily, but in every fold of rock and around every corner there is always a new surprise."
Her love for that landscape is obvious, which captures the raw and complicated beauty of the Burren using intimate natural history photography and the spontaneous insights of a cast of local contributors.
InThe Burren: Heart of Stone, audiences are taken on a journey through the ages, tracing the genetic story of the Irish people.
It tells the story of the Black Irish hunter-gatherers and reveals what became of them. It asks if prehistoric farmers [who came second] irreversibly altered this landscape and if modern Irish society is descended from those who first lived here over 10,000 years ago?
Woman crosses over and gets told our role on earth (near death experience)
(The Other Side NDE, Aug. 6, 2022) Having had an NDE in February of 2008, Kelly’s life was shifted and forever changed. During her near-death experience, she was witness to many things and shared in many experiences that allowed her to return to her physical body with all of her senses awakened. As a psychic, medium, and intuitive channeler, she now works towards walking beside others and walking others home as a soul guide.
Music from this video is from the independent record label Akashic Records here ▶️ youtube.com/channel...
#nde #neardeathexperience #neardeathexperiences
near death experiences
NDE
🎵 Background music licensed through AudioJungle and Epidemic Sound
🎥FOOTAGE licensed through VideoBlocks and Filmpac, except parts about the topic that have been used under fair use.
DISCLAIMER: This video is taken from an interview by this channel (The Other Side NDE) and is not taken from another channel, and it is all original content.
(Family Guy) Did "God" really create the world out of thin air as depicted here? WARNING: Fart joke.
Devas came from space and became coarse.
There is a Buddhist "Genesis" account in the Aggañña Sutra, the 27th discourse of the Buddhist "Collection of Long Discourses" (Digha Nikaya).
This sutra describes an explanation the Buddha gave to two Brahmins, Bharadvaja and Vasettha, who left their high caste family to become wandering ascetic (shaman) Buddhist monastics.
Carl "Cosmos"Sagan on the Big Bang (edited for Christian rednecks)
Mandalas depict near-Earth space.
The two Brahmins are insulted and maligned by their fellow Brahmin caste members for their intention to become members of the Buddhist monastic community (Sangha).
Then the Buddha explains that caste and lineage cannot be compared to the achievement of practicing virtues in line with the Dharma (the Ultimate Truth, the Doctrine, the Teaching leading to enlightenment), as anyone from the four major castes can become a Buddhist monastic and reach the state of full enlightenment.
The Buddha then explains the beginning of the Earth (Bhumi) and the birth of social order and its structure, including caste distinctions. The Buddha emphasizes the message of universality in the Dharma and how the Dharma is the best of all things. More
American BuddhistJack Kerouac asked: "Are we fallenangels who didn't want to believe that nothing is nothing and so were born to lose our loved ones and dear friends one by one and finally our own life, to see it proved?"
We are not mere animals. For we have the power to choose (in a moral dimension), to act or refrain from acting regardless of what provokes us -- and these volitional actions are our karma, which makes our future. We are reborn countless times according to our deeds.
Karma -- it's everywhere we're going to be. In Buddhist terms, we are surely more "fallen angels" (devas) of a sort, evolving and devolving, if the Buddhist Genesis (Agganna Sutra) account is to be taken literally.
JACK WHO-A-WHACK? Kerouac (1922-1969) was an American novelist and poet considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. He is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose, covering topics such as Buddhism, drugs, Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, poverty, and travel. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beat poets, a progenitor of the hippie movement. Since his death his literary prestige has grown, and previously unseen work has been published. He wrote, On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Mexico City Blues, and much more.
Twin Ear Cleaning That Will Make You Tingle 150%. [Enjoy 22 minutes of this as recorded with my special ASMR mic sr3d.co.uk pro version].
Crazy Tingling
ASMR stands for "autonomous sensory meridian response." It is an experience characterized by a static cling or tingling sensation on the skin.
It typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. It has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia.
ASMR signifies the subjective experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin."
It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attention control. More
How could whispering change one's life? Andrea Seigel tells this story about finding out that she is undeniably not alone. She’s a novelist with several books including Like the Red Panda.
Artist Alex Grey's DMT-vision of Adam and Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Discussion of the sutra, "A Buddhist Genesis," begins at Minute 44:00. See Part 2 of SUTRA
(Bhante Punnaji) Ven. Punnaji, Ph.D.AGGAÑÑA SUTRA, Part 1: Sutra Study Class by Ven. Dr. Punnaji Mahathera at the Buddhist Maha Vihara on August 4, 2014.
In brief, according to the Agganna Sutra (Columbia University), the Buddha explains that human life on began when devas ("shining ones") with the power of flight descended onto this plane, this world (loka), which as the Human Plane is only one of many similar worlds.
These beings then devolved to the present day, along the way losing their self-luminosity and other qualities over millions of years. The principal cause of this devolution and decay has been karma, their personal and collective behavior, their unprofitable actions and the impact of those actions on their descendants.
Verify it yourself.
But life is cyclical, small cycles within larger cycles, rather than uniformly downhill. We are told things are better now than before in history. The fact is that by going further back, things are worse. They improve and decline, decline and improve with a downward trend Then they dissolve, remain chaotic, and begin again in a kind of golden age that lasts a long time then slowly begins to decline again, cyclically getting better and worse as it goes.
This is in accord with the Vedic view in India that was known before the historical Buddha. There is NO need to take this as an "article of faith" because it can be personally verified by meditation (purification of the mind by serenity, absorption, and the application of mindfulness for the development of direct insight). Humans, even today, are capable of enlightenment/awakening.
The many "gods," devas or brahmas, tampering and tinkering with this current colony, this "generation" and its many human and other species over the aeons, set this planet in motion as a going concern.
This is what Indian histories and mythologies affirm. According to the Buddha, in a discourse called "A Buddhist Genesis" or Aganna Sutra, life on Earth began when flying beings of light (devas, lit. "shining ones") came down onto the planet and found it delightful, a kind of "Eden" or garden planet.
They stayed so long and ate of the garden that they lost their self-luminosity, telepathic powers, and finally their morality (sila) -- in consequence of which lifespans shortened and their karma caused physical differences to appear on the planet: the kinds of foods available, sicknesses came about, harmful customs developed.
Just as Micheal Cremo (Forbidden Archeology) explains with reference to ancient Vedic, Hindu, and Brahminical sources, Buddhist texts agree: we are not currently evolving after "the fall" but devolving. Things are getting worse, life is getting shorter -- not in a perfectly linear way but in smaller cycles within larger cycles. This is now a Decadent Age, a Kali Yuga, long after a Golden Age.
We think we live longer than a few decades ago and therefore the farther we go back, they must have lived much shorter lives. The fact is that, as the Jewish and Christian bibles declare, human lifespans were much longer in the past.
In fact, according to Buddhist sources, lifespans in the future as in the past, cyclically, human lifespans grow to 80,000 years. We can't imagine, but it's all relative. A life of only 900 years, as the Bible brags about must not have been all that long ago, relatively speaking.
The Earth or life on it is not 6,000 years old as calculated by some literal Christian interpreters. It is hundreds of millions of years old on a planet that is billions of years old in a galaxy and universe that on the one hand is timeless and on the other of such length as to stagger the mind, calculated not in earth-years but in various kinds of "aeons" (kalpas).
(BhantePunnaji.com) The Evolution of the Universe [is devolution]
Human life rises to great technological heights and falls again, and then the cycle repeats. That is why there are such ancient marvels all around us. In fact, science shows this, though scientists do their best to be apologists for the status quo and the gatekeepers of academia and the mainstream media. Buddhism is very science-friendly. Science is always changing its views.
Science dictates what constitutes "acceptable" theories as yet unproven, sometimes unproveable, often gained and guided by outside influences like funding and craving for fame and influence, popularity and past wrong views. Science does not live up to its unbiased ideals but suffers from its many human frailties and rarely admits it.
Later a new theory comes into vogue, also wrong, and no one can say any different. New evidence gets interpreted in different ways or hidden or falsified, and no theory can account for all of it. We would rather go with the Buddha's accounts because he was someone who knew directly -- and it is possible for us to know directly (which is what meditation, insight, and enlightenment make possible).
The
shooting of two California deputies responding to a disturbance at a
Rastafarian marijuana farm has drawn attention to religious use of the
drug, sparking debate over whether churches should be protected from
drug prosecutions.
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - A man charged with murder, sexual assault [of a child], and other counts in the death of an 11-year-old girl on the largest American Indian reservation changed his pleas to guilty Tuesday in a case that prompted calls to expand the Amber Alert system and the death penalty to tribal communities across the U.S.
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Twin Ear Cleaning That Will Make You Tingle 150%. [Enjoy 22 minutes of this as recorded with my special ASMR mic sr3d.co.uk pro version].
ASMR stands for "autonomous sensory meridian response." It is an experience characterized by a static cling or tingling sensation on the skin.
(Bhante Punnaji) Ven. Punnaji, Ph.D. AGGAÑÑA SUTRA, Part 1: Sutra Study Class by Ven. Dr. Punnaji Mahathera at the Buddhist Maha Vihara on August 4, 2014.
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico - A man charged with murder, sexual assault [of a child], and other counts in the death of an 11-year-old girl on the largest American Indian reservation changed his pleas to guilty Tuesday in a case that prompted calls to expand the Amber Alert system and the death penalty to tribal communities across the U.S.
