The fifth of the Five Precepts the Buddha advised humans to adopt is to abstain from intoxicants that occasion heedlessness such as alcohol, drugs, and such substances [12, 13].
The Five Precepts (guidelines for morality, virtue, human ethics, harmlessness, ahimsa) are called paรฑca-sฤซla, binding on all Buddhist laypeople. They are to abstain and refrain from:
killing any living being
stealing (taking what is not given)
sexual misconduct
false speech (which means speaking falsehoods or lying and malicious speech, harsh speech, and frivolous speech or "animal talk"* mislabeled as gossip)
the use of intoxicants (such as beer and spirits or surฤmeraya).
Early Buddhist texts nearly always condemn alcohol as do Chinese Buddhist later post-canonical texts (of the Mahayana tradition).
Smoking is sometimes also included here.
In modern times, traditional Buddhist countries have seen revival movements to promote the Five Precepts, the least good karma if we hope to ever be reborn on the human plane again and avoid the subhuman planes.
In the West, the precepts play a major role in Buddhist organizations. They have also been integrated into mindfulness training programs -- though many modern "mindfulness" specialists, having changed the definition of "mindfulness" (which the Buddha called sati) to something that better suits them -- do not support this because of the precepts' spiritual religious import.
Lastly, many conflict prevention programs make use of the precepts. More
What do we do when drinking other than "animal talk"?
Back off, Bich! - Don't call me 'bich,' Birdbrain!
*What is "animal talk"? It is lowly speech, literally "beastly talk," the name the sutras (ancient texts) give for the following: "Talk about:
Think of something more universally loved than muffins? Can't be done (except maybe chocolate chip cookies). The beloved muffin deserves a day of its own, and for that we have February 20th. It’s National Muffin Day! "English muffins," with the prominent nooks and crannies from the sourdough, have been whipped up in kitchens as far back as 1,000 years ago in Wales, and American style muffins have been around since the 18th century. Muffins are a bad breakfast on the run, a better substitute for toast during brunch, and an easy sugar treat to make and give as a gift to people we don't like. Sugar is bad. How is any American going to celebrate National Muffin Day? Eating a face full of muffins probably, but there are ways of making this gluten-toxic treat good and good tasting. Here are a few ideas for toasting this usually bad when spectacular-when-baked good. Make it vegan, gluten-free, add blueberries and nuts, and serve it with a side of raw hemp milk or almond. nationaltoday.com
Discover new yoga modalities, wellness innovation, and headliners Travis Eliot and Lauren Eckstrom at Yoga Expo LA 2026. All ages. The Yoga Expo LA 2026 is a Forward-Thinking Gathering of Yoga, Wellness, and Innovation.
Join in on Saturday, February 7th, 2026, at the prestigious Pasadena Convention Center for the nation’s largest yoga-inspired gathering.
Now in its 8th year, The Yoga Expo LA is evolving to highlight the future of yoga, wellness innovation, and conscious community building. This all-day immersive event welcomes 3,000+ attendees and features:
๐ World-Renowned Headliners: Practice with Travis Eliot and Lauren Eckstrom, co-founders of Inner Dimension TV, as they lead powerful, transformational sessions designed to inspire and elevate.
๐ง Yoga for Every Body: Experience diverse styles and new modalities—from vinyasa and restorative to trauma-informed practices, sound healing, and next-generation yoga hybrids.
๐ฑ Wellness Innovation: Explore the latest in holistic living, biohacking, functional wellness, mindfulness technologies, and sustainable lifestyle solutions.
๐ค Presentations and Workshops: Engage with teachers, healers, and facilitators offering classes, talks, and practices to deepen this journey. Each exhibitor receives a 50-minute presentation slot to connect directly with attendees.
๐ค Community and Connection: Network with studio owners, retreat leaders, conscious entrepreneurs, and fellow seekers who are shaping the future of wellness.
✨ Opportunities to Participate: Presenters, Teachers, Facilitators: Share gifts on stage.
Exhibitors and Brands: Showcase products and services.
Sponsors and Partners: Align with a trusted platform and reach a highly engaged audience.
The Yoga Expo LA 2026 is more than an event—it’s a movement of forward-thinking wellness and conscious connection. Be part of a day that inspires, educates, and uplifts.
๐ Visit TheYogaExpo.org to register as an attendee, presenter, exhibitor, or sponsor.
Saturday, Feb. 7th, 2026
10:00 am-6:00 pm
9:00 AM VIP early entry
WHAT TO EXPECT
Enter the healing salon pyramid.
๐ Headliners: Travis Eliot and Lauren Eckstrom: Experience transformational practices with Travis Eliot and Lauren Eckstrom, world-renowned yoga teachers and co-founders of Inner Dimension TV, leading main-stage sessions that will inspire, challenge, and uplift.
Yoga and Movement: From energizing vinyasa flows to restorative practices and cutting-edge new modalities, there’s something for every body.
Move, breathe, and expand practice while exploring the future of yoga. Expect classes all day long led by a diverse lineup of teachers, plus live music, movement, and community networking.
๐ง๐พ♂️ Meditation and Mindfulness
What would Patanjali do? (Yoga Sutras)
Discover accessible yet powerful meditation practices rooted in ancient wisdom and adapted for today’s world. Learn tools for stress relief, resilience, and clarity from teachers blending tradition with modern insights.
๐ก Keynotes, Panels, and Wellness Innovation: Join inspiring talks, panels, and forums led by industry leaders, exploring yoga philosophy, integrative health, wellness tech, biohacking, longevity, and conscious business. This is where movement meets personal and professional growth.
๐ฉ๐ผ๐ฆ๐ผ Family and Little Yogis: Yoga is for all ages! Kids can explore yoga, mindfulness, breathing techniques, and creative activities in a safe, playful space—making The Yoga Expo a family-friendly experience.
๐️ Marketplace: Explore over 125+ conscious brands from local artisans to global innovators. Discover yoga apparel, retreats, clean skincare, wellness products, cultural crafts, and sustainable solutions—all curated to inspire conscious living.
๐ฟ Organic Food and Beverage Sampling: Fuel the day with delicious, health-focused food and drinks. Enjoy tastings and options ranging from vegan, organic, gluten-free, and non-GMO to innovative wellness snacks and beverages.
✨ Community and Connection: Beyond classes and products, The Yoga Expo LA is about connection—meeting teachers, practitioners, conscious entrepreneurs, and seekers who are shaping the future of wellness. Be Part of a Transformational Experience Step into a day of yoga, movement, and mindful living, hosted by Arianne Traverso and Sandra Tribioli. Together, they bring decades of expertise in yoga, wellness, and transformational community experiences, curating a space where ancient yogic traditions meet modern innovation.
๐ Exhibitors and Sponsorships: For exhibitor and sponsor opportunities, connect with: Sandra Tribioli | sandra@theyogaexpo.co
WHAT ATTENDEES SAY
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"There was a great variety of classes offered and lots of different vendors to shop with. It was a fun-filled day, and well worth it! I really enjoyed it and can’t wait for the next one!"
"Amazing experience. Tried so many classes—there were endless choices. All the instructors were inspiring and unique!"
"Spent the entire day at the expo and was able to enjoy four different classes. The marketplace was out of this world. Already planning for next year!"
"Such a beautiful event filled with amazing people and conscious vendors. As a beginner, I felt so welcome—I explored so many styles of yoga. Best weekend ever!"
"It was a day full of laughter, joy, and unforgettable memories. The kids were glowing with happiness exploring yoga life."
WHERE TO STAY
⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎
Hotel Dena (formerly the Sheraton Pasadena) ๐ Right inside the Convention Center 303 Cordova Street, Pasadena, California, USA, 91101 ๐ Toll Free: +1-800-457-7940. Why? Exclusive discounted group rate with breakfast included. (Call hotel directly for updated rates if needed.)
WHAT TO KNOW
๐ต Cash-Friendly — Please support vendors. Discover innovative yoga mats, tools, clothing, jewelry, travel destinations, and more.
๐ VIP & Ultra VIP (High Life) Passes — Enjoy early entry, skip the lines, receive a premium gift bag, and access extra perks.
๐ง Classes — First come, first served. Arrive early to secure a spot.
๐ซ Ticket Policy — All ticket sales are final. No refunds. ๐ฆ Rain or shine — the event will go on regardless of weather.
✨ Learn more or subscribe at TheYogaExpo.org. Thanks to sponsors and partners! Holistic Wander Global Sound Bath and Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal
Fat Thursday (French Jeudi Gras, not to be confused with next week's Maundy Thursday, ahead of Mardi Gras) on the Catholic Calendar takes place on the Thursday ahead of Ash(Tilaka) Wednesday (the official start of Lent) in February, right before the 40-day period of Lent. That’s February 27 this year.
And yes, it’s exactly what readers may be thinking — a time to indulge. Clear the kitchen and pantry in preparation for FASTING. That’s what Lent is all about, abnegation, austerity, asceticism as watered down as can be and still called a sacrifice and abstention.
I'm going to kill this Lamb (of God) and eat him
Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday") is coming, the time of year all Catholics become ducks and stuff themselves(Foie Gras)until, loving the Lamb of God, they demand Veal(made of baby Cow) and then go back to eating baby Lambs, chopped
As the lean season of Lent draws near, food becomes central to many peoples’ thoughts. There’s nothing like a fast (intentional cleansing starvation) to get us thinking about food, particularly those forbidden treats loaded with calorific ickiness.
If donuts were the first thing that came to mind, then that mind is on the right track because this holiday, originating in Catholic Poland, is about stuffing our faces with Polish donuts, known as pฤ czki, and a few other exotically named sweet treats. Pancakes come to mind.
Every Fatso knows calories don't count today.
History of Fat Thursday
Though the exact origin of how this holiday came to be founded is unknown [though the eating up of all the forbidden foodstuffs of the next forty days seems like a pretty convincing explanation], the Polish tradition of consuming donuts is very much known. It dates as far back as the 1500s.
On the religious side of things, Fat Thursday is the last hurrah before the fasting period of Lent, wherein devout Catholics give up many indulgences in the 40 days leading up to Easter, the pagan Day of Rebirth (Resurrection and fertility), when the world springs back to green life after winter.
Roman Catholicism is as far from Christ's message as Protestantism
Traditionally, Catholics abstain from meat and alcohol during this period, as the idea is to give up things one is addicted to, loves, abuses, can’t give up even though one knows one should, in order to focus on the meaning of Easter.
Fat Thursday is known as Tลusty Czwartek in Poland. For those who doubt, the "fat" part of the name refers to the fried sugar crust of different types of pฤ czki (pronounced \poonch-key\ or \pots-ski\) consumed by Poles all over the European country.
The Pope is dying, and all we're worried about is will he get his Angel Wings? We'll get ours.
The most traditional form of pฤ czki is a fluffy donut filled with rosehip jam and dusted with powdered white sugar that looks like cocaine and the contents of a bloody nose on toast.
However, there are many variations now when it comes to fillings. Essentially, this day serves a dual purpose, as it allows Poles to indulge guilt-free in their favorite confectionery, while also carrying a religious meaning.
Rio Carnaval: Fat Tuesday in Brazil: Carnival in Rio (Portuguese Carnaval do Rio de Janeiro) is a festival held every year before Lent that is considered the biggest (and probably the sexiest and most decadent) celebration of Carnival in the world, with two million people per day on the streets, first celebrated in 1723 (wiki).
Some even refer to the day as International Polish Donut Day, and the average Pole will eat two or three today, which translates to about 1,050 empty calories (if anyone is counting, though we’re not)!
If the thought of consuming donuts scares an eater (because of the gluten, fried oil, toxic white sugar, strange fillings, rancidity and carcinogenic acrylamides from heat exposure), the recommendation is to eat just one gluten-free one with a better sweetener (agave, coconut blossom powder, erythritol, monk fruit, birch xylitol, or herbal stevia, because not eating a donut on this day means bad luck for the rest of the year, according to fat Polish tradition.
Another traditional Polish dessert that is extremely popular on this day is faworki, in some places, also known as Angel Wings. Faworki are thin gluten dough ribbons, fried until crispy and sprinkled with powdered white sugar. More
National Day Today, 2/27/25; Recovering Catholic Madison, Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
(Good Morning America) Feb. 7, 2025: Lifestyle contributor Lori Bergamotto shares top pizza recommendations for Super Bowl Taylor Swift Viewing party and National Pizza Day this Sunday. GET PIZZA FIX HERE: tinyurl.com/bdhzaw3u
Pizza is an American invention
Gluten-free vegan deep dish?
They don't eat pizza in Italy. They don't even know what it is. Italia eatta panini, a kind of fluffy bread with just a few garnishes for flavor. It took an American to make a pie. Living on the West Coast, which may arguably be the best coast, we are all about a thick crust, preferably gluten-free.
The East Coast, in New York style, a flour tortilla is used, the thinner the better. (How does that make any sense?) Living outdoors in giant in backyards, the west and Southwest can have their own pizza ovens year around, except for the two weeks when it rains.
Vegan nut cheese drizzling, Beyond meat toppings, and lots of fresh green basil, thin heirloom tomato slices, herbs, and no pineapple (we repeat, no pineapple, this is not Hawaii), with savory spices, maybe even some shitake mushrooms... There's no end to what the imagination can create on Pizza Day.
Oddly, this year falls on 4/20, and Pizza Day falls on Super Bowl Sunday -- traditionally known as the day more avocados are consumed than any other (except maybe Cinco de Mayo) due to the dips, chips, and sandwiches. It's almost as if someone, some deva up there, knows what's going on down here.
A: Gluten is found in wheat, barley, rye, oats, and buckwheat (not a grain or grass but full of a gluten to protect itself), a plant toxin appearing in different forms with different names but doing the same thing to our intestines -- stripping the cilia and leading us to have digestion and malabsorption issues. ALL oats (even the ones labelled "gluten free") are the worst because they are full of avenin (oat gluten); the label is accurate because the wheat version (from cross-contamination) is called gluten, not the oat version.
Our intestines should look like a shag rug on the inside, not a smooth water hose. But as colorectal exams show, we are no longer equipped to absorb nutrients. All humans are harmed by any amount of gluten (gliaden, avenin, etc.), but we're used to it.
Monsanto (Bayer Inc.) and others have manufactured new higher-gluten forms of grains. That makes food production more convenient, addictive, and harmful. We all want spongy, chewy, moist breadlike products, full of protein (the cause of gluten's harm) and lots of starch, which is quickly converted into sugar by the body.
Dr. Joel Wallach (criticalhealthnews.com) states that nothing is more widespread and harmful than the glutens (a plant lectin), killing countless people every year but doing so slowly by malabsorption, malnutrition, and the inability to replenish the micronutrients needed for vibrant living. Deficiencies caused by eating glutens cause many diseases, and supplementing won't help if we are still being exposed to gluten (hidden everywhere or in obvious sources) because our cilia has not been allowed to grow back. Macronutrients like calories come in, but not the trace minerals and vitamins from healthy foods and supplements. The soil is depleted, so even the best most varied (organic, seasonal, local, fresh, healthy) diet will not help restore the 65 to 90 vital nutrients we need if gluten is still in our diet.
John Oliver, Last Week Tonight, HBO, Feb. 4, 2024: Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
A History of Chuck E. Cheese: Last Squeak Tonight with John Oliver (web exclusive)
The show may be killing this British wit (HBO).
(LastWeekTonight) Last season, LWT made a hard-hitting piece on homeowners' associations. Then they made this Chuck E. Cheese exposรฉ for those who are under 35 and will never own a home.
John Oliver, they're bringing Jon Stewart back to The Daily Show in 2024
Season 11 starts Feb. 18, 2024. Connect with Last Week Tonight online...Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens, find on Facebook like your mom would, or follow on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news. Or just visit the official site for all that other stuff at once: hbo.com/lastweektonight.
The biggest message Dr. O'Bryan revealed last night was that EVERYONE who consumes wheat or "gluten-free" products contaminated with wheat gluten (up to 20% and still legally labelled "gluten-free") is harmed by it. The human body recognizes wheat protein as an invasive organism and reacts to it as a pathogen because of the proteins and peptides on its surface. All of this has been made much worse by Monsanto Corporation and Big Ag, which have increased the gluten (a harmful plant lectin) in wheat for ease of processing, making it more addictive even as it does more harm like stripping away the cilia lining the gut responsible for most of our nutrient absorption.
It's no wonder so many of us are fat, inflamed, and malnourished. That's right. We're starving not for calories, which are in abundance, but for nutrients, particularly micronutrients. Dr. Joel Wallach insists we need about 92 nutrients from our diet (if these nutrients were still found in the soil) or from supplements to be healthy and not deteriorating. Suffice it to say, most of us are deteriorating. We need to clear out the bad (remove all gluten and about 13 other harmful agents typically consumed on the SAD (Standard American Diet) to be able to absorb and assimilate the benefits of essential supplements. While everyone who eats wheat and wheat-contaminated products is harmed, only about 1 in 8 exhibit stomach symptoms. The rest of us are suffering from mental, skin, and many other problems. For more, see Dr. O'Bryan's work at: The Inflammation Equation
There are seven strains of lactobacillus from San Francisco, which if added to wheat, makes it possible to eat wheat in sourdough form, but it is not feasible nor available.
On Day 17, wheatgrass sprouts start making the deadly protective protein (gluten), so one must make it, cut it, and press it oneself to be sure it is young enough to be free of harm. Commercial wheatgrass juice could be contaminated
Chemicals like BFA and other phthalates (in micro- and nano-plastics)
Dr. Joel Wallach states that ordinary buckwheat contains fagopyrins (plant lectins) which, like oat-gluten (called avenin and gliadin) are worse than wheat-gluten (criticalhealthnews.com). Might HTB be better? Wheat, barley, rye, oats, and buckwheat contain a form of gluten even if it is not technically called "gluten."
There are great gluten-free grains: rice, amaranth, millet, sorghum, quinoa, organic corn, and teff.
Due to the current laws, "gluten free" foods are allowed to contain up to 20 percent gluten and still adhere to the labelling law.
Our gut health is the gateway to health, according to Dr. Tom O'Bryan (thedr.com), a speaker and writer on chronic disease and metabolic disorders.
Dr. O'Bryan joins guest host Lisa Garr (email) to discuss how gut health impacts everything in the body, especially the brain.
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