Rumpelstiltskin secrets revealed

Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos)

Why would anyone think we were mourning the dead. We are celebrating life. They still live.

Wheel of Life/Death (Bhavacakra)

Why are Mexicans and other Hispanics in Latin America obsessed with a Day of the Dead? It is to remember and honor loved ones who have passed. They are still here. We still love them and want the best for them. (Filial piety is common in the culture just as it is in Asia and used to be around the world). The idea of death is not a ghoulish thing in that context, but it mixes with spooky American Halloween or tainted by Catholic All Hallows Eve and loses its Obon and Samhain (Sau-in) echoes, which aim to honor and remember, connect and care for those lost to Death.

Countless worlds, 31 planes

In Buddhism, who is the Grim Reaper? One might think it's Yama, the King of the Dead, the kind judge in the afterlife. "Justice" is meted out not by him, who is just the one who delivers the news, but by karma (our personal store of deeds coming up for appropriate results). If it's anyone, it has to be the king of the yakkhas Mara, the personification of Death, a kind of Santa Muerte who is actually a "Cupid" or "Lucifer" figure in Buddhism who resides in the highest sensual-celestial heavenly world. His aim is that people should go to hell but rather to stay trapped in his sphere of influence, of which he imagines he is the ruler. In his view, no one should escape the Sensual Sphere (the human plane, the subhuman worlds, and a few of the lower celestial angelic planes) to the superior Fine Material Sphere or the even loftier Immaterial Sphere. These three spheres (Kama Loka, Rupa Loka, Arupa Loka) are general categorizations of the individual planes (lokas) within the 31 Planes of Existence.

The scary thing about Mara is that he's alluring.

La Muerte Aztec Tepito - Santa Muerte (Wiki)

Karma leads to all planes

Mara's influence only extends up to the world where he was reborn and is referred to as Mara Devaputra (a literal being "Mara reborn among the devas or gods"). He frequently comes to earth where along with the asuras or anti-devas he causes a great deal of mischief for mortals who are fueled by sensual desires, craving, and clinging. They hear the Dharma, the path to liberation made known by the Buddha, but it is hard to follow with all the allure of the five sense strands of pleasure. What is the antidote? It is practice, which reveals what we are clinging to: that which is impermanent, disappointing (incapable of ever fulfilling us), and impersonal. We will not see these Three Marks of Existence, the true nature of things, so we go on trapped, revolving in samsara, faring according to our karma (deeds), constantly facing and having to endure the results. When our deeds (intentional actions) are motivated by greed (attraction), hatred (aversion or fear), and delusion (wrong views), the result is suffering. When our karma is rooted in nongreed (letting go), nonhatred (kindness, heart), and/or wisdom (right view), the results (vipaka and phala) are sweet. It's our choice IF only we were mindful and in control of ourselves, but we usually are not. Buddhists are as bad as the Mexicans, always going on about Death.

• Buddhism came to ancient Mexico and the Americas? How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (shambhala.com)
• AUDIO: Day of the Dead on Coast to Coast AM
• Hey, let's have sex, Psyche? - Okay, Cupid
• Happy birthday, Fernando Valenzuela! (RIP) 

Skull face paint tutorial | Halloween, Day of the Dead, Samhain makeup tutorial | Snazaroo

Though the Buddha talked about 31 Planes of Existence, they were distilled down to just these 6

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(Shonagh Scott) Sponsored Shonagh Scott for Oct. 2017. Today's Halloween makeup tutorial is this beautiful but eerie skull face paint, sponsored by Snazaroo! Their products are so affordable, and their Halloween kits are great on children and adults alike and they're the sponsor. daz3d.com

• Makeup System: Dead Makeup for Genesis 9 | Daz 3D

Grim Reaper Makeup Tutorial for Halloween | ShowMe MakeUp

Death stands behind all rebirth.

(Shonagh Scott) Oct. 2014: As explained in the tutorial, I've created this look using cream products, face paint, and eyeshadows. Substitute the cream-based products for solely face paint. Hit subscribe to see more tutorials using a vast range of different media and brands. Watch me create special occasion makeup, stunning evening looks, and everyday makeup routines! Go with me behind the scenes on photoshoots, and even watch me create SFX makeup for fancy dress and The Dia de Los Muertos or Mexican Halloween (All Hallows Eve, Samhain, Obon)!

Good thing we'll never die and need not be mindful

Buddhists are crazy and stupid. Don't think about Death! Think about LIFE! Live it up, Man, live!!! Why the heck think about Death? - What if how we live is how we die? There is more than just this life. Samsara (the wandering through life and death) keeps going. We don't really die. We are wise to do something for the future, to prepare for it. If it all just "ended," we might be right to be hedonists living it up all the time. But it doesn't end, so we're neither insane nor dumb to be mindful of Death. It helps living life after life, and fearing (ignoring and avoiding) causes many problems that could be avoided with a little bravery to look even on Halloween.

• Model - Bill Follow him: itsteambill Instagram; @itsteambill The boys YouTube channel; gorillazillavids Music; Music - Alchemists Tale Composer - Tilman Sillescu www.freeplaymusic.com Products; Supracolor - Kryolan | 521, 517, 043, and White Black Face Paint Matte Brown and Matte Black Eyeshadow Translucent Power to set the cream. Camo Eyes Coloured Contact Lenses; camoeyes.com/product/crazy-con...
• Shonagh Scott, makeup artist tutorials on YouTube, 2017, 2014; Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The real George Carlin on Donald Trump

Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Who to choose, who to choose. On the one hand there's this old white man. He sucks. On the other hand, there's this other old white man. He sucks, too. He may suck even worse. But it could hardly be worse than it is right now, with US funding for war crimes in Israel, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, the Mediterranean, Syria, and the whole volatile region made constantly worse by Israel and CIA-groomed PM Netanyahu, and our permanent war economy. Couldn't the other at least not play into it? We revile and detest them both, but when living in a One-Party system, the Money Party, with two wings fighting for the same things but emphasizing and doing PR as if they are polar opposites, there's little cause for optimism. Now who's this horrible sounding RFK? He is saying some good stuff. Jill Stein is running Green. There just may be a break in the election, when the Devil decides to smite one or the other of these senile old guys and take away their arms sales budgets and weapon funding.

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LA's serial killer-rapist: "Grim Sleeper" (video)

HBO; Margaret Prescod (sotrueradio); Frank Stoltze; CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

(HBO) Community activist Margaret Prescod pushes LAPD in "Tales of the Grim Sleeper."

 

The "Grim Sleeper" is the nickname for an accused serial killer in Los Angeles, California, believed to be responsible for at least [190] murders [many more based on unsolved photographic evidence], one suspected, and one attempted murder in L.A. since 1985.

The attacker was dubbed the "Grim Sleeper" because he appears to have taken a 14-year slumber from his crimes, from 1988 to 2002. [That's when he was in jail.]

(ABC News/Nightline, Dec. 21, 2010) 180 photographs taken by the serial killer suspect show new potential victims that are unaccounted for, but the LAPD is not worried. Using its slang, "no humans involved."

Chief suspect [military trained and convicted military-rapist] Lonnie David Franklin Jr., 57, worked as a [mechanic for the LAPD and city] garbageman during this period, suggesting he may have taken advantage of his employment and hidden his victims in a landfill.

On July 7, 2010, Franklin was arrested [because his son had been DNA tested and accused but was too young to have done the killing, which then pointed the finger at one of his relatives].

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office charged him with ten counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, and special circumstance allegations of multiple murders in the case.

(The LipTV) Grim Sleeper serial killer documentary-maker Nick Broomfield

A grand jury indictment was issued on March 23, 2011. Franklin has been in jail since his arrest awaiting trial; the large volume of evidence in this case, some dating back 30 years, has caused a lengthy pretrial discovery.

The trial was originally scheduled to begin on June 30, 2015. [It concluded today, May 5, 2016 thanks in part to the tireless work of community organizer and KPFK radio host Margaret "Sojourner Truth" Prescod].

In May 2015, Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy delayed the trial until September 9 after Franklin's defense attorney requested more time to test several pieces of evidence. [Today at 1:00 pm it was announced that he was convicted on all counts.]

CONVICTED: Lonnie Franklin guilty
Frank Stoltze (KPCC, scpr.org, May 5, 2016)

He picked them up off the street at night and offered them rides. Instead, he shot and sexually assaulted them, dumping their bodies in back alleys and trash bins. Two of the women were strangled to death.
 

The trial featured gruesome crime scene photos of the women as well as long explanations of DNA and ballistics evidence.

One woman survived. In gripping testimony during the trial, Enietra Washington described being shot in the chest and sexually assaulted by a man she believed was Franklin in 1988.

For years, detectives "struggled" to solve the murders. [They didn't get much done during this "struggle," not so much as warning the public of the possibility that a serial killer was on the loose in LA.]

Family members accused the [racist] LAPD of giving their loved ones short shrift because they were poor and black.
 
A 2008 article in the LA Weekly chastising the LAPD for failing to publicize that fact that a serial murder was on the loose in South LA helped prompt the department to step up its efforts.

Defense Attorney Seymour Amster makes his final arguments in the "Grim Sleeper" serial murder trial in LA Superior Court against defendant Lonnie Franklin Jr. on May 2, 2016. The jury listened to the grisly details of how nine women and a 15-year-old girl were killed over two decades (Mark Boster/AFP/Getty).

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After a three month trial, an LA jury today found Lonnie Franklin Jr. guilty of 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder for a series of killings that started in 1985 and spanned three decades.
 

Franklin -- nicknamed the "Grim Sleeper" because of an apparent 13-year break in the murders -- [little known during his crime spree because police failed to tie the crimes together or show the least concern when they did recognize the pattern of evidence] immediately becomes one of L.A.’s most notorious serial killers.

 

Now, the jury will be asked to decide on a punishment. Prosecutors are asking for the death penalty. In California, only a jury can hand down capital punishment after a hearing in which the defendant can argue instead for life in prison. That hearing is slated for May 12.

Worked for the LAPD 
Franklin, 63, a former mechanic for the LAPD who worked as city garbage collector, preyed on young black women in South LA. Some were prostitutes. Others struggled with drug addition. More