Trump's bonkers, headlines, comedy

Trump gets more erratic, doubles down on Kamala, and do MAGA voters even know what they're against?

If both candidates are terrible, let's have a Black woman be the first female in office.

.

Look, I'll let y'all smoke dope, okey-doke?

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Oct. 14, 2024: We are three weeks away from the presidential election and it was a messy weekend for Donald, he bragged about not using a teleprompter while reading from a teleprompter, he was in Aurora, Colorado, where the MAGA-faithful assembled to bask in the glow of their dear misleader, Trump said that if elected he will invoke The Alien Enemies Act of 1978, VP Kamala Harris released her medical information over the weekend and Trump has yet to do so, he has called for Kamala to pass a test on Cognitive Stamina and Agility, over the weekend he reportedly used the “R” word to describe her in front of his bigliest donors, for whatever reason Trump has doubled his support among Black American men and couldn’t wait to tell all the white people who came to his rally about it, no one mispronounces words better than the Donald, and after his rally in Coachella on Saturday JKL spoke to Trump supporters there about the issues that seems to have them so upset. #Kimmel

(DemocracyNow.org) Amy Goodman rounds up the world headlines. 

• 10-beautifully-preserved-ancient-cities-buried-beneath-the-earth
• Trump's-bizarre-music-session-reignites-questions-about-his-mental-acuity
• Extraordinary-unidentified-monument-discovered-deep-under-roman-lagoon
• China-has-built-a-giant-osprey-like-drone-that-engineers-say-can-carry-10-passengers-and-fly-at-340-mph
• Archaeologists-found-3-800-year-old-ruins-that-unveil-a-forgotten-water-cult
• Remains-of-dog-size-reptile-dating-back-237-million-years-uncovered
• En-route-to-an-asteroid-spacecraft-snaps-ghostly-views-of-earth
• Russian-man-rescued-after-67-days-adrift-in-stormy-sea-of-okhotsk
• Biden-responds-to-hurricane-survivors-fury-over-the-750-FEMA-payment-and-more-top-headlines
• 15-forgotten-historical-artifacts-rediscovered-in-modern-times
• Red-deer-cave-people-mysterious-humans-with-archaic-features-lived-just-14-000-years-ago
• Wild-images-surface-after-Sahara-desert-undergoes-rare-flooding
• Wild-images-surface-after-sahara-desert-undergoes-rare-flooding
• The Buddha's double tusker? Mysterious-elephant-species-from-India-uncovered-with-87-prehistoric-stone-tools

Shake 'n Bake: classic Cali quakes, fires

If Las Vegas is Paiute for "lost wages," what does Los Angeles mean? "Lost angels" (WQ).

Like Led Zep, I'm goin' to California with an aching in my heart. Get me out of Podunk!

This must be Indonesian in origin, or Ring of Fire

Los Angeles is a nice place. Everyone should visit. Now is a good time, smoky skies and unstable ground, plus Hollywood's Avenue of the Stars (bronze plaques embedded in sidewalk cement getting walked on and making good photo ops. The beaches, while polluted with fecal contamination, are beautiful to see and make great photo ops. Think of the social media potential. Have them eating their hearts out back home! The largest fire in the state is raging nearby, but that only affects the mountain people. Lowlanders in the Valley don't care, except along the edges where civilization meets the foothills.

• It's okay because only about 100,000 acres of SoCal are currently burning, and some of that is in the OC or San Berdoo, part of the IE
• Malibu morning earthquake followed by many fun aftershocks
• The Bridge Fire in zero percent contained at 50,000 acres and growing

State of emergency expands as western fires spread

(NBC News) Sept. 12, 2024: While cooler temperatures and lower winds have helped firefighters gain some control of three stubborn California wildfires, millions across the west remain on fire watch as Red Flag warnings remain in effect. NBC News' Dana Griffin reports from the fire line. #wildfire #California #fire

Unless one works in the DTLA skyline, those skyscrapers owned mostly by banks, one is not even going to notice the fires. The quakes are a different matter. They're amplified the higher up one is due to modern technology that absorbs the shaking on rollers. It's all de rigueur.

Griffith Park Observatory over Hollywood

There is that falsely flavored flour powder to make dead hunks of flesh crispy and tangy, so if we roll around in it during a temblor before the flames arrive, that's a kind of shaking and baking. Fire is not even necessary. It was 117 or more in the Valley a few days ago. LA is getting to be a kind of Phoenix West, which just set a record of 100+ degrees temps for 100 days in a row.

Catty Purry loves LA for flashy concerts

Wow, we're beachside in a bowl, a basin, with a breeze that swirls the particulate matter and smog, so we can't keep it up, but think of the views whenever it clears and the photo ops from Griffith Park Observatory and the hikes. LA needs a better slogan. "I Love LA" is silly and so last century. How about, "Come for the weather, stay for the girls"? They make good photo ops.

There are hidden waterways above LA, with waterfalls and pools. The LA River has rapids.

The beach view at sunset from Griffith, LA's own massive "Central Park"

See, it's a giant lake! - That's a reservoir, no entry allowed. It's fenced off and forbidden. - Oh.

Urban LA has many backwoods trails up north

Oh, the hiking! The trails make for nice photo ops with the latest iPone and its super digital camera and mic for recording everything for the cloud, AI, and whoever wants to review it. The fact of the matter is, when you arrive, we'll say: "Welcome to Southern California [now go home]." So if this becomes home, the laugh will be on us because you'll already be here. At least there are a lot of hidden Buddhist temples (List of Buddhist temples in the US).

(TheEarthMaster) Recent elevated earthquakes in SoCal is not a good sign

Guanyin Bodhisattva (nationsonline)

We just stumbled on one in the SGV City of El Monte (Spanish for "The Mountain," which is visible in the distance), a big Vietnamese one dedicated to Kwan Yin (Buddhism's Mother Mary figure), just like they love in Catholic French colonial Vietnam. It's bright and beautiful and on a tiny street near the intersection of Valley Blvd. between Garvey and Durfee. Keep going on Valley, turn right, and come upon a massive Theravada Thai Buddhist one, a hope, skit, and a hump from Hsi Lai, the largest (or second to BAUS in New York) Buddhist temple in the western hemisphere. They all make nice photo ops.

If Buddhism had "prayers," this could be one of them on the wisdom of loving-kindness.

What do Buddhist temples teach? (Devotion). What should they teach? (Principles).

10 Buddhist Principles: Nothing Can Affect Us NOW!

When will the next teaching buddha arrive?

(InnerLifeConsciousness) Summer 2024: What if we could learn some life-changing Buddhist principles just watching a short ASMR (possibly AI generated) video on the BoobTube? That would improve our lives all right.

The Buddha's wisdom helps practitioners achieve personal growth and mindfulness, overcome negative patterns and develop the Seven Factors of Enlightenment in this very life. But it's not intellectual or trying to grasp "principles" with defiled minds/hearts.

If we wish to see things as they really are, we first need to purify the heart/mind like cleaning off a lens. How can we clearly see what is and is not if the instrument we're using is all dusty and smudged with smut?

• What if there were an eightfold path (ashtanga) to samadhi and another to enlightenment? The first is Integral Yoga, and the second is the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. Both work well simultaneously

Jen, you know this is not about your ego, hot body, or fame. Hello! This is a spiritual path.

Group sitting helped kickstart my personal practice in private. I'd better do a free 10-day retreat.

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"Yoga" is not poses, which are only 1/8th of it.

Having wiped the lens, how do we discover the Buddha's timeless wisdom to navigate life's challenges? It begins by hearing. The ever hear the Dharma is a blessing. It is far more important to practice (to make more of the karma that enabled us to hear it in the first place), which begins by calm and mindfully (dispassionately observing what is, whatever it is) observing-without-reacting to everything around us.

Jennifer Love Hewitt, it's not about yoga pants.

When samadhi (stillness, unification of mind, superconsciousness) sets in, then the satipatthana or "Setting Up for the Four Foundations of Mindfulness" brings us to clear-seeing (vipassana).

Getting to calm is a field of endeavor (kammatthana) enough for most of us. Even relaxing is tough. But finding calm, there's every reason to keep going. Buddhism is the path of calm and insight. Insight, which is built on a foundation of samma-samadhi (right meditation), is what makes enlightenment possible.

Samadhi is not enlightenment though many mistake that initial bliss for spiritual liberation when there is so much more knowledge and freedom to come.

I'm so glad I found you. May I practice and gain enlightenment just like you?

Gone too soon, too soon. Now how will we ever awaken? Oh, the Dharma are the instructions?

• InnerLifeConsciousness (video), Aug. 13, 2024; TEXT: Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q., CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Team Fun in the Sun

Casting Call: Audition for "Lines" (comedy)

Sore-estimate-d6e.notion.site; jen, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

So you want to audition for Lines? Are you an actor or are you interested in acting? Hollywood Fringe meta-comedy LINES is casting. Stipend provided. Audition tapes are due by Friday, March 22, 2024, at 11:59 pm (PST). 

Super awesome, kind, cool, and organized team. The simplistic and flimsy flyer has a QR code for details. This where it leads: site.

We are now casting for Lines, a meta-comedy premiering at the Hollywood Fringe this summer in June of 2024. Below is a dedicated page with all of the information: character bios, key dates, rehearsal commitment details, and next steps. Check out the Instagram to meet the dm and chat.🌟

📝 SUMMARY
Lines opens on a blank stage with nothing but an empty hospital bed. One by one, members of the Jennings family enter the hospice room to say goodbye to Gladys, their dying matriarch.

This repeats the next day, and the next…and family tensions are revealed as they deliver monologues of regret, resentment, and gratitude to the sound of a heart rate monitor.

Without any warning, the Playwright stands and calls the whole thing off, declaring their work "a piece of sh*t." From the back row, an Audience Member convinces them to finish.

The Playwright, with nudges and advice from the Audience Member, begins to write new scenes in real time, experimenting with different themes, introducing and then retracting new plot points, changing character’s traits, and struggling to generate something that feels authentic and true to the story — especially for the character Gerry.

Gerry remains inconsistent, mysterious, or absent until the climax of the play when it is revealed that Gerry is in fact the self-insert of the Playwright [they/them], who is reckoning with their complicated relationship with their own recently deceased mother.

Only by acknowledging their grief does the Playwright finally figure out how to write Gerry’s goodbye to their mother — and they enter the play to deliver the final monologue in a moment of long-awaited catharsis and vulnerability. More

• Talaputa Sutta: "To Talaputa the Actor" (accesstoinsight.org)
• Right Livelihood: Considering a career in acting? You may want to reconsider, says American Buddhist monk Ven. Thanissaro, Wat Metta California (accesstoinsight.org)

COP Climate Conference: Headlines (12/6)

Top U.S. and World Headlines — Dec. 6, 2023

(Democracy Now!) Latest Shows. Support this work: democracynow.org/give. Democracy Now! with Jewish founder and host Amy Goodman is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8:00-9:00 am ET. Subscribe to Daily Email Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

HEADLINES: "Pay attention, Dum Dum"

Wisdom Quarterly (HEADLINES)

"That's right, Dum Dum." Fred Flintstone listening to The Great Gazoo (retrogasm)

Occupy San Francisco Raided
"It was 1:30 in the morning; they gave everyone a five-minute warning to evacuate, then started arresting people, smashing tents… what they did in Zuccotti, and everywhere else, too."

So it was that Occupy San Francisco became the latest [encampment] to be evicted, after a period which has seen camps in Wall Street, Oakland, and beyond also cleared.

"There were a lot of tears," added Scott Rossi, who has been involved in OccupySF since September. "The thing about a lot of the occupations is the people that camp there have nowhere to go, so there were a lot of tears from that portion."

Several hundred police were involved in the eviction, with around 70 protesters arrested. Rossi told the Guardian the operation was "like a lightning raid."...

Divine Feminine Institute opens
The Institute is committed to serving men and women interested in awakening to their full human potential. A synergy of teachers from many lineages have become enlivened through nurturing, awakening, and healing of essential sexual and spiritual energies. Our sexual (life) energy is expanded and nourished by bringing a spiritual awareness to it.

The Christian Devil is Real
According to American anthropologist Michael J. Harner, there is a hallucinogenic drink called natema made from a combination of Amazon plants that gives the Jivaro shaman entrance to the "real" world... Many times the Christian missionary had told the shaman Mashu of the devil [a Satan or Belial like Buddhism's Mara] feared by white men. But since he had never seen the spirit, Mashu remained skeptical. Some time later, after drinking natema, Mashu was confronted by this figure of the "white man's devil." Since that time, Mashu has remained convinced of this spirit's reality.

Mayan Calendar's Apocalypse

Apocalypse 2012 (3:45) - The end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 is a source of speculation by ancient alien theorists, who believe the Maya were visited and influenced by ETs.

US Horses are sent to Mexico to be Eaten
Since all three US horse slaughter operations were ordered closed, the number of horses exported to Mexico for slaughter has exploded. As of Dec. 20, 2007, 44,475 horses had been shipped to Mexico for processing for human consumption compared with 10,783 shipped at the same time in 2006 -- a 312 percent increase. Especially troubling is the treatment of the horses once they cross the border into Mexico. In October, the Humane Society of the United States released a video showing the brutal stabbing death of a fully conscious horse at a Mexican slaughter facility.

• AUDIO: Domestic Horse Slaughter: Five years ago, Congress cut off federal funding for horse meat inspection, which effectively killed off the factory slaughter of horses in the United States. The unintended consequence of that action has resulted in the inhumane transport of old, abandoned, and neglected horses to slaughterhouses outside of the US, to Canada or Mexico, where they may be subject to cruel treatment and unregulated slaughter.

Create a free website: wix.com

Wisdom Network News

In search of collective enlightenment
It also underlined his aspirations for the birth of a collective spiritual consciousness, one of the principal tenets of Mahayana Buddhism.... (Jakarta Post).

Surf Movies and Books
The personal narrative of the young author's coming-of-age love affair with surfing and his ever-evolving relationship to Buddhism makes for a quick... (Santa Barbara Independent).

[EVENTS CALENDER]
His works on display definitely offer a mix of expensive European paint and microcosm, as well as blue-eyed celebrities and Buddhism.... (Korea Herald).

Flowers Fall
But Buddhism is a little different from the Judeo-Christian tradition, where there are certain doctrines we could teach a three-year-old; for instance... (Chronogram).

Increased Vietnamese tension over religious freedom
A press release from the "Help Bat Nha" website claims further offenses to the Buddhist community last night. The 15 youngest monks and nuns were detained... (Examiner.com).

Vancouver: Dalai Lama peace summit, Chan Centre
The Dalai Lama is the most influential figure of the Gelugpa sect of Buddhism, which was found by a Tibetan philosopher. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is... (Ubyssey Online).

Izzy Rumney
Then I finally cracked Buddhism, and I've embraced it over the past year. My bedroom has a little meditation corner.” 5. This wine-coloured sofa from Urban... (Eye Weekly).

Heart Shrine Relics tour comes to Columbus
A rare opportunity to see Buddhist relics has come to Columbus. Relics of the Shakyamuni Buddha (founder of Buddhism), amongst many others... (Examiner.com).

How to be happy
Richard Gere is a regular in Himachal Pradesh after he discovered Buddhism and the Dalai Lama. The Osho Commune in Pune has many more foreign visitors than... (Indian Express).

Court: TAU bowed to Chinese pressure over Falun exhibition
...for students who study in China, a campus Confucius Center where students can study Chinese, and conferences on Buddhism and Chinese philosophy.... (Ha'aretz).

Staten Island Tibetan Festival '09
The oasis of calm fashioned after a Himalayan monastery hosts its annual Tibetan Festival, Oct. 3, noon-5 pm The day features lectures on Buddhism and... (Staten Island Advance - SILive.com).

Muslim leader quick to praise US president
She urged participants, who represent not only the three Abrahamic faiths but also Hinduism, Buddhism and other so-called “eastern religions”... (National).

Abu Dhabi sees 76 inscriptions on UNESCO's Rep. List...
China - Regong arts - In monasteries and villages along the Longwu River basin in Qinghai Province in western China, Buddhist monks and folk artists of the... (WAM - Emirates News Agency).

Mahatma Gandhi
The greatest son born on Indian soil, Republic of India (Bharat), was Prince Siddhartha, founder of Buddhism, which originated in... (The Island, subscription).

Shaolin warriors present remarkable, theatrical Kung Fu
For more than fifteen hundred years this Buddhist sanctuary has blossomed and withered, only to bloom again. It has seen glory and humiliation.... (PRLog.org, press release).

School staff looks at Islam in depth
She teaches courses on Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Women and Religion, Interfaith Dialogue and Religious Fundamentalism. Johnson said Understanding Islam did ... (Dayton Daily News).

Pictures of the Day
The festival celebrates events in the life of Guru Rinpoche, who introduced Buddhism in its Tantric form to Bhutan in the eighth century.... (Wall Street Journal blog).

Tantric Sex isn't Scary
According to the tantric philosophy in Buddhism, each of us is the union of all universal energy. Tapping into that union with someone else is the beginning... (Tonic).

Hinduism is the foundation of civilization
Forgetting Nepal's background of Hinduism and Buddhism, a democratic country like India, should not work to create anarchy and establish terrorism in Nepal.... (NewsBlaze).

Festival goes beyond religious borders
Diwali or Deepavali is a significant festival in Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and an official holiday in India. Adherents of these religions... (Indian NewsLink).

B'nai Brith assists multifaith conference from Yom Kippur...
The event included presentations on native spirituality, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam by community spokespeople. Yellowknife resident Elisabeth Gelb... (Jewish Tribune).

Buddhism is not a religion Part 3: Truth shall set you free
Now....before getting back to our conversation about why Buddhism is not a religion, let me reiterate that I am not proposing that the practice of what the... (Beliefnet.com).

Say what you will, but Five Precepts stand the test of time
And although Buddhism is a state-recognized religion, the concept of Almighty God is in fact nonexistent in this religion that emphasizes every human's own... (Jakarta Globe).

Lam Dong: police attack Buddhist temple...
Da Lat – Hundreds of police agents and government thugs attacked a Buddhist monastery in Lam Dong province, in the central highlands of Vietnam.... (AsiaNews.it).

Monks' morality important to Cambodia
Niigata, Japan — In Cambodia Buddhism is the state religion, guaranteed by the Constitution, and about 95 percent of the people are... (United Press International, Asia).

World religions plead for action at climate talks
The declaration, endorsed by prominent adherents of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism, was handed to Yvo de Boer, the UN climate chief.... (eTaiwan News).

The Dark Ages return in Aceh
There are five major religions in Indonesia – Buddhism, Hinduism, Protestant Christianity, Catholicism and Islam. Even though 80 percent of Indonesians are... (United Press International, Asia).‎

Religions press for action on climate
The declaration, endorsed by prominent adherents of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism, was handed to Yvo de Boer, the UN climate chief.... (eTaiwan News).

Krit Kraichitti, Thailand Ambassador to India calls...
“Buddhism is a common thread that connects most of these countries. There is lot of potential for Spiritual and Religious Tourism. Buddhist destinations in... (TravelBizMonitor).

World News

1. Asian stocks slip after tankan, Wall Street fall
2. Oil falls below $70 after surging overnight
3. Aid flows to tsunami-hit Samoas; death toll at 120
4. Ketsana leaves more than 360 dead across SE Asia
5. Saudi king's university slammed for coed classes
6. A new kind of justice in Pakistan's Swat Valley
7. Death toll in Samoas tsunami reaches 149
8. 2nd quake shakes Indonesia after temblor kills 467
9. Asia readies for next storm as death toll rises
10. South Korean leader urges strong army, citing threat

Buddhist Festival: Johnny Depp, Ewan

Religious Daily
Current Religious Events and News

Johnny Depp and Ewan McGregor films to be shown at Buddhist festival

• Buddhist News latest RSS headlines - Big News Network.com

– They might have been mildly surprised to be invited along, but a Ewan McGregor psychological thriller, a Johnny Depp psychedelic western, and one of the more cultish of recent cult movies, Donnie…

MORE HEADLINES

• Tibetans coming to terms with women Buddhist masters
  April 13th, 2009. The 800-year-old Tibetan Drukpa lineage of Buddhism - based in Nepal and practised in Bhutan and India - is empowering women, reviving the ancient tradition of women masters and monks that the Buddha encouraged.

• Still Not Giving Up on Shangri-la
  April 12th, 2009.Did Shangri-la actually exist? Bainbridge Island-based mountaineer Peter Athans “may have the answer,” the Seattle Times reports. Over two years, Athans led three expeditions to the remote kingdom of Mustang, in modern-day Nepal, and discovered in its numerous caves plenty of art and an ancient library belonging to one of Mustang’s early kings.
• Buddha for PM CM won't say
  April 12th, 2009. At another meeting in the evening, this time on the campaign trail in Jadavpur, he said: If the third front garners enough strength and unity can be maintained among its constituents, it won't… .
• One Cold Buddha
  The 10-member collective called Okamoto Studio has carved one of its signature ice sculptures for the biennial [Queens Museum of Art] International, this one a figure of the Buddha enclosed in a refrigerated altar.
• Week in Photos: A mass pillow fight and a rare prayer

The Tibet Connection Show

Potasi Monastery Tibet (listverse.com)

• TheTibetConnection.org

AUDIO of Pacifica Radio's monthly feature explores all things Tibet. Listen to the latest program (8/29/08) on why Tibetans love a Dalai Lama they do not know and have never seen.

VIDEO available (this is just a sampling) of Buddhist monks in an emotional encounter with protesters in Dharamsala PLUS the monks from Johkang Temple in Lhasa speak out during a managed media tour of Tibet PLUS the DALAI LAMA leads an interfaith prayer meeting at Gandhi's crematorium.

PODCAST the program, read top news headlines and articles, follow links, search archives, and enjoy "Tibet in 49 Seconds."

Click to Watch. Monks of the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala conducted a different kind of demonstration that had a dramatic effect on the community (Phayul).