(VICE) Not satisfied with the traditional festival mission of getting off our nut, there is a new wave or brand of event which claims to transform mind, body, and soul (the living breath or spirit).
VICE's Amelia Dimoldenberg is invited deep into the jungles of Costa Rica, to attend Envision Festival on a quest to rid herself of her chronic awkwardness and open her third eye through bitcoin conferences, Buddhist drum circles, and vaginal eggs.
Subscribe to VICE: Subscribe-to-VICE. Check out full video catalog: VICE-Videos. Videos, daily editorial, and more: vice.com. More videos from the VICE network: fb.com/vicevideo. Get the best of VICE daily: bit.ly/1SquZ6v. Facebook: fb.com/vice. Twitter: vice. Instagram: vice.
Download VICE on iOS: apple.co/28Vgmqz or on Android: 28S8Et0. WATCH NEXT: VICE sat down with experts studying super rats to hear how the rodents got so strong and what can be done to get them under control: vice.video/2kiAwyl.
Amelia Dimoldenberg, VICE, May 24, 2018; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
All faiths can unite around one thing: the paramount importance of religious freedom. A case now in Pasadena Court of Appeals will impact us all. We must take a stand.
CALL TO PRAYER AND ACTION with the Apache Stronghold to protect sacredChi'chil Biłdagoteel ("Oak Flat") and to heal all people and our Earth with one drum, one circle, one prayer.
Dr. Wendsler Nosie Sr., long-time opponent of the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange and former chairman and councilman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, reacts to the passage of the Southeastern Arizona Land Exchange and Conservation Act in Dec. 2014:
"The greatest sin of the world has been enacted by Arizona Senator McCain, Senator Flake, and Representatives Kirkpatrick and Gosar of Arizona by including the Southeast Arizona Land Exchange in the National Defense Authorization Act (2015).
"We are calling on all religious faiths, and military veterans, for this country was founded on freedom of speech, religion and worship, which has been given away to a foreign mining company."
"They declared war on our religion; we must stand in unity and fight to the very end, for this is a holy war."
"We remember those who sacrificed and defended our people. We recognize our great leaders and their respect for those who know freedom. We must guide our people to, once again, hold our destiny in our own hands.
"I challenge each of us to overcome the oppression and begin the process of believing in ourselves. This must be the first step...
"Usen, we ask for your blessing to guide our current and future leadership so that our children and the unborn will inherit our Apache Way of Life." - Wendsler Nosie Sr. More
We're All One, so intimacy is key. If only you could into me see -- is what the poem seems to be saying. We come from nothing, we are one, we divide into two, split into three, and so fourth, quintessentially... Does it land as clever or a deadened flop on the ground, a moist thud? It's hard to say. Who dares to be poetic nowadays? It's a dangerous game. There's spoken word; that's safer.
From a recent talk by Wisdom Quarterly's Dharma editor
While the Vedas have been with us for a long time, Hinduism is rather recent, systematized and sanctioned by Sri Shankara.
It dates itself back thousands of years from its inception to say it is and has always been the Vedic religion, the Sanatan Dharma or Eternal Truth, but it was only organized long after the tremendous success of the Buddha's Dharma of Awakening, which challenged Vedic orthodoxy and the Brahmanical power structure.
Buddhism swept the empire/nation, brought together by the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka. Sri Shankara and others wanted an indigenously Indian faith to follow, not some outsider thing like the Scythian Buddha of Saka, who was not India and not even proto-Indian but adjacent, living around old Gandhara in the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Hinduism won. No one even considers the more than one billion uncounted Chinese Buddhists, so everywhere we see that Hinduism is called the world's fourth largest religion. In fact, there are only three "world religions," missionary in their structure and universal in their application: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.
But Hinduism has thoroughly suffused Mahayana Buddhism, much as Judaism has Christianity. Mahayana is the largest surviving school Buddhism. So we have the Heart Sutra and Eastern Philosophy in general, mainly the influence of Taoism, as if there were no difference in Teaching or definitions of moksha ("liberation").
There are tremendous differences. The Buddha taught one thing. The others teach something else. It's beautiful that the Dharmic religions can get along so well, but they neither intend nor teach the same things to the observant practitioner.
What we call a drug and a drug trip color our perception about it. Hallucinogens bad; they make you hallucinate. Psychedelics, bad; they are "mind-making," which is what the word means from psyche ("mind, soul") + delein ("to manifest"). Entheogen, good; they bring out the divine within, from Ancient Greek word éntheos ("full of the god, inspired, possessed" like "enthusiasm") and genésthai ("to come into being"), a term of praise for poets and other artists. An entheogen is a drug that causes one to become inspired or to experience feelings of inspiration, often in a religious or "spiritual" manner.
There are a lot of celebrities in this documentary.
Throw that out the window with these Hollywood celebrities, who were just experimenting and tripping, in the spirit of the Sixties' slogan "sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll." But is there a potential for insight, contemplation, realizing there is much more to life than we see in unaltered, ordinary consciousness? These mind-expanding plant substances open us to a larger spectrum of consciousness -- an animistic world of talking plants, a living planet (Gaia, Bhumi, Tierra), and active Nature (tathata).
(Rama's Screen) Rama is enthusiastic about Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics. He likes it, he really likes it.
June 21 is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the official start of summer. It's a great time to start meditating.Dharma Meditation Initiative will take a virtual trip to Pasadena's Sandy Beach.
Wear your summer attire and bring a towel and/or yoga mat.
We'll gorge on veganPOTLUCK summer treats -- chips, dips, salad, watermelon, sudsy kombucha in red cups on ice...
Look forward to a balance of guys and gals as well as:
serenity relaxation
a few yoga stretches
deep guided meditation
interactive hugs
comedy and laughs
music
mindful expression
sharing.
This even is suitable for beginners. Come to have fun, leave on a natural high.
MARC ("Mindful Awareness Research Center") at UCLA studies Buddhist meditation
I used to think UCLA was a bunch of elitist a-holes from the South Bay and westside.
.
Dr. Charles Grob studies MDMA at UCLA
“Hallucinogens were really the cutting edge of psychiatric research.”
— Dr. Charles Grob, UCLA professor of clinical psychiatry, in a July 9 Bloomberg article about research that found that small doses of the hallucinogen ketamine ("Special K") may help lessen symptoms in [or cure] patients with depression.
(Ethnomusicology, Feb. 4, 2018) Does non-Western music sound more familiar under the label of “psychedelic”? Does the label become less efficient once applied outside...
(Sept. 22, 2011) Counterculture truth-seeker Ken Kesey and his loyal troupe of LSD-influenced hipsters, the acid-laced Merry Pranksters, have once again rolled into the...
Michael Pollan, Terry Gross (NPR); Ananda, C. Quintero, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
The way [psilocybin is] being used [by research scientists] is in a very controlled
or guided setting.
Set and Setting
"...They [scientists] don't just give you a pill and send you
home; you're in a room. You're with two guides, one male, one female.
You're lying down on a comfortable couch.
What do you want, monsters?
"You're wearing headphones
listening to a really carefully curated playlist of music -- instrumental
compositions for the most part -- and you're wearing eye shades, all of
which is to encourage a very inward journey.
"Someone is kind of
looking out for you, and they prepare you very carefully in advance.
They give you a set of "flight instructions," as they call them, which
is what to do if you get really scared or you're beginning to have a bad
trip.
What are you here to teach me, monster?
"If you see a monster, for example, don't try to run away.
"Walk
right up to it, plant your feet and say, 'What do you have to teach me?
What are you doing in my mind?'
"And if you do that, according to the
flight instructions, your fear will morph into something much more
positive very quickly."
On how psychedelics can help change the stories we tell about ourselves
"The
drugs medicines foster new perspectives on old problems. One of the things our
mind does is tell stories about ourselves.
"If you're depressed, you're
being told a story perhaps that you're worthless, that no one could
possibly love you, you're not worthy of love, that life will not get
better.
"And these stories -- which are enforced by our egos really -- trap
us in these ruminative loops that are very hard to get out of. They're
very destructive patterns of thought.
"What the drugs plant-medicines appear to do is disable for a period of time the
part of the brain where the self talks to itself.
"It's called the default mode network,
and it's a group of structures that connect parts of the cortex -- the
evolutionarily most recent part of the brain -- to deeper levels where
emotion and memory reside.
Do drugs, mostly psychedelics, not too much. -Pollan's feared future tombstone engraving
Time travel
"And it's a very important hub in the brain
and lots of important things happen there: self-reflection and
rumination, time travel.
"It's where we go to think about the future or
the past, and theory of mind, the ability to imagine the mental states
of other beings and, I think, most importantly, the autobiographical
self.
It's a whole new way to look at cyclic time.
"It's the part of the brain, it appears, where we incorporate
things that happen to us, new information, with a sense of who we are,
who we were and who we want to be. And that's where these stories get
generated. And these stories can be really destructive, they trap us.
"...This network is downregulated [with psychedelics], it sort
of goes offline for a period of time. And that's why you experience this
dissolution of self or ego, which can be a terrifying or liberating
thing, depending on your mindset.
"This is what allows people, I think,
to have those new perspectives on themselves, to realize that they
needn't be trapped in those stories and they might actually be able to
write some new stories about themselves.
"That's what's liberating, I
think, about the experience when it works.
On how psychedelics can help dying people face their deaths
Prozac
[a toxic fluoride SSRI synthetic antidepressant] doesn't help when you're confronting your mortality [susceptibility to death, being mortal].
"But here we have
something [in entheogens] that occasions an experience in people -- a mystical experience [which Alan Watts describes as coming from the root word mu or mum, shush, that which can't be spoken] that somehow makes it easier to let go.
"And I think some of it has to
do with the fact that you do experience the 'extinction' of yourself
and it's kind of a rehearsal for [pleasant] death.
"And I think that may be part of
what helps people, that they [these entheogenic substances] expand their sense of what is your
self-interest. And your self-interest is something larger than what is
contained by your skin. And when you have that recognition, I think
dying becomes a little easier....
"There's no way to prove this, obviously, and it's a question that
really troubled me as an old-fashioned materialist skeptical journalist.
"It's like, 'What if these drugs are inducing an illusion in people?' I
got a variety of answers to that question from the researchers. One was, 'Who cares if it helps them?' And I can see the point of that.
"The
other was, 'Hey, this is beyond my pay grade; none of us know what
happens after we die.' And others say, 'Well, this is an open frontier.'...
"The experiences that people have are very real to them --
they're psychological facts. And one of the really interesting qualities
of psychedelic experience is that the insights you have on them have a
durability...
"This isn't just an opinion; this is revealed truth, so
the confidence people have is hard to shake, actually.
On a Johns Hopkins study on the use of psilocybin to help people quit smoking
"Smoking is a very hard addiction to break [by design, thanks to the Tobacco Industry]. It's one of the hardest
addictions to break.
"[I wanted to understand] how, after a single
psilocybin trip, they could decide, 'I'm never going to smoke again'
based on the perspective they had achieved."
"And they would say things
like, 'Well, I had this amazing experience. I died three times. I
sprouted wings. I flew through European histories. I beheld all these
wonders [past life memories?].
"I saw my body on a funeral pyre on the Ganges. And I realized,
the universe is so amazing and there's so much to do in it that killing
myself seemed really stupid.'
"And that was the insight. Yes, killing
yourself is really stupid -- but it had an authority it had never had.
And that, I think, is the gift of these psychedelics.
On his own experience tripping on magic mushrooms
"I had an experience that was by turns frightening and ecstatic
and weird. ...I found myself in this place where I could no longer
control my perceptions at all.
"And I felt my sense of self scatter to
the wind -- almost as if a pile of Post-Its had been released to the
wind -- but I
was fine with it. I didn't feel any desire to pile the papers back
together into my customary self...."
Howard Bloom started '60s?
"Then I looked out and saw
myself spread over the landscape like a coat of paint or butter. I was
outside myself, beside myself, literally, and the consciousness that
beheld this...was not my normal consciousness, it was completely
unperturbed. It was dispassionate. It was content, as I watched myself
dissolve over the landscape.
"What I brought back from that
experience was that I'm not identical to my ego, that there is another
ground on which to plant our feet, and that our ego is kind of this
character that is chattering neurotically in our minds.
"And it's good
for lots of things. I mean, the ego got the book written, but it also
can be very harsh, and it's liberating to have some distance on it. And
that was a great gift, I think."
Sam Briger and Seth Kelley
produced and edited this interview for NPR broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly
Seavy-Nesper, and Scott Hensley adapted it for the Web.
(Visit Pasadena) Arroyo Seco Weekend is a new music and arts festival that will take place for the first time this summer (June 24-15, 2017) in the park surrounding the Rose Bowl Stadium, which is located in the lower Arroyo Seco, the festival’s namesake. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Alabama Shakes, Mumford & Sons, Weezer, and The Mowgli’s are just a few of the 30 acts in the lineup that will perform on three stages. More: visitpasadena.com/events
The new West Coast Woodstock
Filling the local summer festival void created by Make Music Pasadena going on indefinite hiatus, Arroyo Seco Weekend brings headliners Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Mumford & Sons to Brookside at the Rose Bowl Saturday and Sunday.
Other marquee acts scheduled to perform on the heavily promoted fest’s three stages include Alabama Shakes, Andrew Bird, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Dawes, Fitz & the Tantrums, Live, the Shins and Weezer. Arroyo Seco Weekend is being presented by Goldenvoice, the production entity behind the Coachella and Stagecoach extravaganzas in Indio and last year’s Desert Trip dad-rock fest.
The freeway bridge over the usually "dry river" or Arroyo Seco, Pasadena (scpr.org)
The concert-going "hippies" of the 1960s
Both the lineup and the layout were shaped over a year and a half of meetings between promoters, neighborhood groups and city planners. One result: Arroyo Seco will be catered by restaurants such as Barrel & Ashes, Broken Spanish, Chigo, Frankland Crab & Co., Genghis Cohen, Sweetfin Poké, and Union. (So much for greasy burgers and cheap beer.)
The lineup spans several genres (although country and hip-hop are notably absent). More
Arroyo Seco Weekend takes place rain or shine
Brookside at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena
Noon to 11:00 pm Saturday, June 24
Noon to 10:00 pm Sunday, June 25
Single Day Pass/$125, Weekend Pass/$225. Children 10 and under FREE. Ticket info: (855) 273-4481. See arroyosecoweekend.com for more details, including shuttle and Metro info.
WARNING: Beheading! Breasts! Weird underworld (6th dimension) beneath Venice, CA from the unrated comic cult classic "Forbidden Zone" featuring The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One [the Buddha] was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's monastery. There he addressed the monastics, "Meditators!"
"Yes, venerable sir," the monastics responded.
The Blessed One said, "Meditators, it is as if there were two households with doors, and a person with good eyesight, standing there between them, were to see people entering and leaving a house, wandering out and about.
"In the same way, I see -- by means of the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human -- beings passing away and re-appearing. I discern how they are inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate in accordance with their karma (previous and present actions):
"O, how these beings -- who were endowed with good conduct of body, speech, and mind, who did not revilenoble ones (those who have gained any of the stages of enlightenment), who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views -- with the breakup of the body, after death, have reappeared in a fortunate destination, even the heavenly realm (sagga, celestial-deva worlds).
"Or how these beings -- who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech, and mind, who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views -- with the breakup of the body, after death, have reappeared in the realm of hungry ghosts (peta loka).
"Or how these beings -- who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech, and mind, who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views -- with the breakup of the body, after death, have reappeared in the animal world.
"Or how these beings -- who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech, mind, who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views -- with the breakup of the body, after death, have reappeared in a plane of deprivation, an unfortunate destination, a lower realm, even in [one of the] hells."
"Then the hell-wardens, seizing (such a being) by the arms, present that person to King Yama [the sympathetic Buddhist "Judge" of the Dead]:
"'This is a person, your majesty, with no respect for mother, no respect for father [Note 1], no reverence for wandering ascetics, no reverence for temple priests [shamansand Brahmins], no honor for the leaders of one's clan. Let your majesty decree a punishment.'
NOTE 1: The word "no respect for father" (apetteyyo) does not appear in the Thai edition, but it does appear in the Sri Lankan, Burmese, and British Pali Text Society editions.
WARNING: Topless breasts, electrified balloon torture (almost), and cursing! What must "hell" be like? Is it like "The Queen's Revenge" on Frenchy from "Forbidden Zone"?
"Then King Yama interviews and interrogates and castigates the person regarding the first deva [angelic] messenger:
"'Good person, did you not see the first devamessenger that has appeared among human beings [on the human plane, which means all of the manussya world]?'
"'I did not, your honor,' one says.
Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did you not see among human beings a tender baby boy lying prone in its own urine and excrement?'
"'I did, your honor,' one says.
Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did not the thought occur to you who are observant and mature: "I, too, am subject to rebirth and have not gotten beyond rebirth. I had better do good with body, speech, and mind"?'
"'I could not, your honor. I was heedless, your honor.'
Then King Yama says, 'Good person, through heedlessness you did not do what is good with body, speech, or mind. And of course, good person, they will deal with you in accordance with your heedlessness. For that harmful karma [2] of yours was neither done by your mother, nor done by your father, nor by your brother, nor by your sister, nor by your friends and companions, nor by your kinsfolk and relatives, nor done by the devas.
NOTE 2: The Pali language uses the word kamma (Sanskrit and English karma) in the singular here, as if it were an uncountable noun (like "water" or "information"). In other words, though singular in form, it could mean any number of actions. Because English does not have an equivalent uncountable noun for action, [it is here untranslated as karma, "actions," which is both singular plural].
WARNING: Sex and violence, sort of! (Creator Richard Elfman) "Forbidden Zone 2" the sequel wants to be funded so it can be remade and go beyond cult status (forbiddenzone2.com).
"'That unwholesome karma was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience the results.'
"Then, having interviewed and interrogated and castigated the person regarding the first deva messenger, King Yama continues regarding the second:
'Good person, did you not see the second deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?'
"'I did not, your honor,' one says.
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did you not see among human beings a woman or man 80, 90, 100 years old -- aged, roof-rafter crooked, bent over, supported by cane, trembling with palsy, miserable, broken-toothed, gray-haired, scanty-haired, or bald, wrinkled, with limbs all blotchy?'
"'I did, your honor,' one says.
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did the thought not occur to you who are observant and mature: "I, too, am subject to aging, have not gotten beyond aging. I had better do good with body, speech, or mind"?'
"'I could not, your honor. I was heedless, your honor.'
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, through heedlessness you did not do what is good with body, speech, or mind. And of course, good person, they will deal with you in accordance with your heedlessness. For that harmful karma [those intended actions] of yours was neither done by your mother, father, brother, sister, friends and companions, kinsmen and relatives, nor done by the devas. That unwholesome action was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience the results.'
"Then, having interviewed and interrogated and castigated the person regarding the second deva messenger, King Yama questions one regarding the third:
"'Good person, did you not see the third deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?'
"'I did not, your honor,' one says.
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did you not see among human beings a woman or man diseased, in pain, severely ill, lying in his or her own urine and excrement, lifted up by others, laid down by others?'
"'I did, your honor,' one says.
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did not the thought occur to you who are observant and mature: "I, too, am subject to illness, have not gotten beyond illness. I had better do good with body, speech, or mind"?'
"'I could not, your honor. I was heedless, your honor.'
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, through heedlessness you did not do what is good with body, speech, or mind. And of course, good person, they will deal with you in accordance with your heedlessness. For that harmful karma of yours was neither done by your mother...your friends and companions...nor done by the devas.
"'That unwholesome action was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience the results.'
"Then...regarding the third deva messenger, King Yama interviews and interrogates and castigates one regarding the fourth:
"'Good person, did you not you see the fourth deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?'
"'I did not, your honor,' one says.
Human tortures
Evil deeds done dirt cheap ripen later (UC).
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did you not see among human beings rulers -- catching a thief, a criminal -- having him tortured in many ways:
flogging him with whips,
beating him with canes,
beating him with clubs;
cutting off his hands,
cutting off his feet,
cutting off his hands and feet;
cutting off his ears,
cutting off his nose,
cutting off his ears and nose;
subjecting him to [these forms of medieval torture:] the 'porridge pot,'
the 'polished-shell shave,'
the 'Rāhu's mouth,'
the 'flaming garland,'
the 'blazing hand,'
the 'grass-duty (ascetic),'
the 'bark-dress (ascetic),'
the 'burning antelope,'
the 'meat hooks,'
the 'coin-gouging,'
the 'lye pickling,'
the 'pivot on a stake,'
the 'rolled-up bed';
having him splashed with boiling oil,
devoured by dogs,
impaled alive on a stake; or
cutting off his head with a sword?'
Those who support and approve harmful actions engage in harmful mental action (karma).
"'I did, your honor,' one says.
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did not the thought occur to you who are observant and mature: "It seems that those who do harmful actions are tortured in these many ways in the here and now. How much more in the hereafter? I had better do good with body, speech, and mind"?'
"'I could not, your honor. I was heedless, your honor.'
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, through heedlessness you did not do what is good with body, speech, or mind. And of course, good person, they will deal with you in accordance with your heedlessness.
"'For that unwholesome action of yours was neither done by your mother...nor by the devas. That unwholesome karma was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience the results.'
"Then, having...regarding the fourth deva messenger, King Yama interviews and interrogates and castigates one regarding the fifth:
"'Good person, did you not see the fifth deva messenger that has appeared among human beings?'
"'I did not, your honor,' one says.
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did you not see among human beings a woman or man, one day, two days, or three days dead: bloated, blue, oozing?'
"'I did, your honor,' one says.
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, did the thought not occur to you who are observant and mature: "I, too, am subject to death, have not gotten beyond death. I had better do good with body, speech, and mind"?'
"'I could not, your honor. I was heedless, your honor.'
"Then King Yama says, 'Good person, through heedlessness you did not do what is good with body, speech, or mind. And of course, good person, they will deal with you in accordance with your heedlessness. For that harmful karma of yours was neither done by your mother, nor your father...nor by the devas.
"'That unwholesome action was done by you yourself, and you yourself will experience the results.'
"Then, having interviewed and interrogated and castigated the person regarding the fifth deva messenger, King Yama falls silent [3].
NOTE 3: In Asian Buddhist kingdoms, there was a custom that when a king was sentencing a criminal to death or to be tortured, he would not actually express the sentence, but would simply fall silent. The Commentary counsels that if a student asks not to hear the description of hell (which follows from this point), a teacher should teach the student meditation and then wait until the student has reached stream-entry before returning to a description of [the hells].
Hell awaits (Metal Blade Records) What must "hell" be like? Slayer tries to express it in their implicitly Christian/Satanic song "Hell Awaits."
"Then the hell-wardens torture [the person with a store of bad karma] with what's called a fivefold imprisonment: They drive a red-hot iron stake through one hand, they drive a red-hot iron stake through the other hand, they drive a red-hot iron stake through one foot, they drive a red-hot iron stake through the other foot, they drive a red-hot iron stake through the middle of his chest.
"There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
"Then the hell-wardens lay one down and slice one with axes. Then they hold one's feet up and head down and slice one with adzes. Then they harness one to a chariot and drive one back and forth over ground that is blazing, burning, and glowing.
"Then they make one climb up and down a vast mountain of embers that is blazing, burning, and glowing. Then they hold one's feet up and head down and plunge one into a red hot copper cauldron that is blazing, burning, and glowing.
"There one boils with bubbles foaming. And as one is boiling there with bubbles foaming, one goes now up, now down, now all around. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as hone's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted [4].
NOTE 4: In the Sri Lankan (Sinhalese), Burmese, and British Pali Text Society editions, all in Pali, the sentence, "There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not exhausted" appears after each of the punishments [painful karmic consequences] listed in this paragraph. In the Thai edition, which is followed here, it appears only at the end of the paragraph.
Headless ghost of Yue Fei confronts recently deceased spirit of Qin Hui in 6th Court of Hell. Plaque held by attendant (left) reads: "Qin Hui's 10 wicked crimes" from a 19th-century Chinese Hell Scroll (W).
.
Human torture exists but not hellish?
"Then the hell-wardens throw one into the Great Hell [Avici, "The Waveless"]. And as to the Great Hell, meditators:
"It is four-cornered and has four gates set in the middle of each side. It is surrounded by an iron fortress wall and roofed with iron. Its floor is made of red hot iron, heated, fully blazing. It stands always spreading 100 leagues all around.
"The flame that leaps from the eastern wall of the Great Hell strikes the western wall. The flame that leaps from the western wall strikes the eastern wall. The flame that leaps from the northern wall strikes the southern wall. The flame that leaps from the southern wall strikes the northern wall. The flame that leaps from the bottom strikes the top. The flame that leaps from the top strikes the bottom.
"There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
"There comes a time when, ultimately, with the passing of a long stretch of time, the eastern gate of the Great Hell opens. One runs there, rushing quickly. As one runs there, rushing quickly, one's outer skin burns, one's inner skin burns, one's flesh burns, one's tendons burn, even one's bones turn to smoke.
When [one's foot] is lifted, one is the just same [5].
NOTE 5: The Commentary does not explain the meaning of this ambiguous sentence. It could mean that when the hell-being's foot is lifted from the burning hot floor, either (1) one's skin and so on continues burning or (2) one's body returns to its original form, either of which is gruesome.
(MVD Entertainment Group) This is the "Citizen Kane" of underground movies. Sexy Frenchy falls into an insane underworld (sixth dimension) ruled by a horny little king and his jealous queen. Chicken-boy comes to the rescue, only to have his head cut off by the soul-singing Devil himself -- played by Danny Elfman and the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. Frog butlers, topless princesses, black gamblers and drug dealers, and rioting school kids sing and dance in unforgettable musical numbers!
Ethiopian Christian: Hell is terrible.
"But when one finally arrives, the door slams shut. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
"There comes a time when, ultimately, with the passing of a long stretch of time, the western gate of the Great Hell opens... the northern gate... the southern gate of the Great Hell opens. One runs there, rushing quickly. As one runs there, rushing quickly, one's outer skin burns, one's inner skin burns, one's flesh burns, one's tendons burn, even one's bones turn to smoke. When [one's foot] is lifted, one is the just same. But when one finally arrives, the door slams shut. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
"There comes a time when, ultimately, with the passing of a long stretch of time, the eastern gate of the Great Hell opens. One runs there, rushing quickly. As one runs there, rushing quickly, one's outer skin burns, one's inner skin burns, one's flesh burns, one's tendons burn, even one's bones turn to smoke. When [one's foot] is lifted, one is the just same. One gets out through the gate. But right next to the Great Hell is a vast Excrement Hell.
"One falls into that. And in that Excrement Hell, needle-mouth beings bore into one's outer skin. Having bored into one's outer skin, they bore into one's inner skin... one's flesh... one's tendons... the bone. Having bored into the bone, they feed on the marrow. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
"Right next to the Excrement Hell is the vast Hot Ashes Hell. One falls into that. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's harmful actions are not yet exhausted.
"Right next to the Hot Ashes Hell is the vast Simbali Forest, [with trees] reaching up a league, covered with thorns 16 finger breadths long -- blazing, burning, and glowing. One enters that and is made to climb up and down them. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome actions are not yet exhausted.
"Right next to the Simbali Forest is the vast Sword-leaf Forest. One enters that. There the leaves, stirred by the wind, cut off one's hand, cut off one's foot, cut off one's hand and foot, cut off one's ear, cut off one's nose, cut off one's ear and nose. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
"Right next to the Sword-leaf Forest is the vast Lye-water River. One falls into that. There one is swept downstream, one is swept upstream, one is swept downstream and upstream. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
Islam: Muhammad visits to hell to see women
"Then the hell-wardens pull one out with a hook and, placing one on the ground, say: 'Well, good person, what do you want?'
"One replies, 'I'm hungry, venerable sirs.' So the hell-wardens pry open one's mouth open with red hot iron tongs -- blazing, burning, and glowing -- and throw into it a copper ball, blazing, burning, and glowing.
"It burns one's lips, it burns one's mouth, it burns one's stomach and comes out the lower side, carrying along one's bowels and intestines. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome actions are not yet exhausted.
"Then the hell-wardens say: 'Well, good person, what do you want?' One replies: 'I'm thirsty, venerable sirs.' So the hell-wardens pry open one's mouth with red hot iron tongs -- blazing, burning, and glowing -- and pour into it molten copper, blazing, burning, and glowing.
"It burns one's lips, it burns one's mouth, it burns one's stomach and comes out the lower side, carrying along one's bowels and intestines. There one feels painful, racking, piercing feelings, yet one does not die as long as one's unwholesome karma is not yet exhausted.
"Then the hell-wardens throw one back into the Great Hell once more [6].
NOTE 6: The Commentary notes that not everyone who falls into [Avici] hell is tortured with all of these painful karmic consequences: some of the tortures are skipped; in some cases the hell-being's karma is exhausted before the full round of tortures is completed, so that one dies and is reborn elsewhere. Not everyone goes for repeated rounds. Also, it should be noted that suffering in hell is NEVER for eternity (though it may certainly feel like an eternity). As the discourse implies, when the hell-being's bad karma is exhausted, one dies and is reborn elsewhere, in accordance with one's other karma.
(FZ) What in the world is "Forbidden Zone" the cult movie about?
"Once, meditators, the thought occurred to King Yama: 'Those who did bad deeds in the world are tortured in these many ways. O, that I might gain [rebirth in] the human state! And that a Wayfarer (Tathāgata, a buddha) -- worthy and rightly awakened -- might arise in the world! And that I might attend to that Wayfarer! And that he might teach me the [liberating] Dharma! And that I might understand his Dharma!'
"I tell you this, meditators, not from having heard it from another wandering ascetic or Brahmin. On the contrary, I tell you this just as I have known for myself, seen it for myself, understood it for myself."
That is what the Blessed One said. Having said it, the [Welcome One and] Well-Gone One, the Teacher, further said:
Warned by deva messengers, those youths who are heedless grieve for a long, long time -- people entering a lower state.
But those here who are good, people of upright conduct, when warned by deva messengers are ever heedful of this ennobling Dharma.
Seeing danger in clinging, in the coming-into-play of rebirth and death, they are released from letting go (not being clingy), in the ending of rebirth and death. They, happy, arriving at safety, fully released here and now, having gone, gone beyond all anger and danger, have escaped all suffering and disappointment.
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Wear your summer attire and bring a towel and/or yoga mat.
"What the 
Prozac
[a toxic fluoride SSRI synthetic antidepressant] doesn't help when you're confronting your mortality [susceptibility to death, being mortal].
