The world has settled all its differences, and peace has broken out. But just when we were on the verge of celebrating a thousand years of sanity to come, Spain declares war on Argentina, threatening to rub their faces in the grass and to break Messi's body if necessary. Will Argentina, minus its Falkland Islands, put up with European imperialism, colonialism, and exploitation? It can only be decided on the field of mock battle before the audience of the world. And here we sit in the most cross-cultural city in the [Evil] Empire, Los Angeles, waiting to be amused, entertained, and delighted. RESULT: Having declared war on a European colony in the "New World," colonia powerhouse Spain beat the Latin upstart by the slightest margin possible, plunging the Americas into a funk and the EU into ecstatics. "There's always next year" won't work this time. A World Cup isn't that easy.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup final will be the last match of the 2026 World Cup, the 23rd edition of FIFA's competition for men's national soccer (association football) teams. The match is scheduled to be played at MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, near New York City, on July 19, 2026, and will see this country [England] go up against [France?]... More
While the soccer World Cup is being played in France, two young Tibetan refugees arrive at a monastery (lamasery) boarding school in exile in India. Its atmosphere of serene contemplation is somewhat disrupted by soccer fever, the chief instigator being a young student, the soccer(association football) fanatic Orgyen. Prevented by various circumstances from seeing The Cup finals on television in a nearby village, Orgyen sets out to organize the rental of a TV set for the Buddhist monastery. All the quiet contemplatives become loud sports enthusiasts instead, whose behavior borders on worldly hooliganism.
The Cupstars: Orgyen Tobgyal, Neten Chokling, Jamyang Lodro. Directed by Khyentse Norbu. Executive produced by Jeremy Thomas. Twitter: @recordedpicture
Monty Python's "Philosophy Football" coming to FOX Sports?
The USA's Midwest is about to suffer massive heat wave as it celebrates its Independence Day with many sporting events, stifling humidity, record temperatures, and lots of high-pollution (particulate matter of 10 microns or less) fireworks displays, including Dictator Trump's Washington DC circus spectacular. Claims are that this will be the single biggest detonation of firecrackers and hand bombs in the history of the country (not counting its many "shock and awe" displays over the head of other countries the imperialist USA was dominating and illegally bombing and occupying and robbing blind).
Hedonism? See the Buddhist story below about an ancient party just like EDC, Coachella, Burning Man, Woodstock. It's time to blast off to Vegas for the Electric Daisy Carnival rave and music festival. Since it unceremoniously got driven out of Los Angeles, it has found a home in Lost Wages, Nevada, near the Sphere where Gwen Stefani's No Doubt reunion shows are taking place. Oh, the traffic! But never mind that. It's time to party because it's the 30th anniversary of the event.
(Insomniac) #EDCLV2026. #insomniac. The official EDCLV2026 trailer has arrived! 💫 The event is May 15+16+17 as a worldwide community reunites Under the Electric Sky for the 30th anniversary of the event with three nights of celebrating life, love, art, and music.❤️🌈🎡 This is life, this is love, this is EVERYTHING!⚡️ The experience of a lifetime awaits…
Hedonism leads to happiness? A true story from ancient Buddhist texts: The Big Festival
1. YOUTH: Near the capital of the land there were small towns. The youths were born there as privileged Brahmins. One's family claimed important descendants from a town full of Brahmins, a very conservative place.
His father was from the most prominent family. Being high caste and from the town's most respected lineage, his dad acted like a petty king. So he grew up rich and honored, knowing very little about unhappiness or the real world.
He was educated like a [Boston] Brahmin, an education that included being taught about a life beyond this world.
There was another Brahmin family in a neighboring town. On the day he was born, in the other town, another son was also born. When they grew up they became friends and were soon inseparable. Whatever they did, play or study, pleasure or work, they were always together. They didn't quarrel or hold grudges against each other even though their dispositions were very different. One was a pioneer type, daring and enterprising, the other liked to cultivate what he had already gained. One was an only child, the other had three brothers and three sisters.
Their friendship meant a lot and filled their daily life, and they liked the other sex, light-hearted and indulging at their youthful age. Each was the leader of a group of friends with lot of high spirited play and sports. When they went swimming, their companions rode horses and others rode around like kings, playboys, enamored by the intoxications of youth, health, riches, and a good life.
In the capital, there was a giant annual celebration full of popular entertainment and amusement, the "Big Festival" on the hill. Of course, the friends all went to enjoy it. They reserved places to watch all the entertainments. When there was something funny, they laughed, when there was something fascinating, they got excited. They enjoyed it all so much that they went back for a second day to watch more performances.
But with the heightening of their expectations, their joyous mood failed. They still went back for a third day, since they had reserved it -- a new program of entertainments. They did not sleep well that night, however, as impressions of the previous partying haunted their minds.
While laying awake with insomnia, one thought: "What's the use of all this for us? Is there here that's really worthwhile? What's the benefit? Before long, all these glamorous people and actors will be old and decrepit. They will leave life and continue wandering on through existence (samsara), driven by sensuality and other insatiable cravings. And it's the same with us. These people can't even help themselves to solve the problems of their existence. How, then, can they help us? We're just wasting our time here instead of getting any closer to liberation!"
The other friend also had a restless night full of similar thoughts. He reflected how these dramatic performances had something to do with the reality of rebirth, but the joking and frolicking overlaying everything, pretending that there was only this life to worry about, was an artificial suppression, repressing the truth, all full of vain illusions.
On the morning of the third day, they went to their reserved spots at the festival, and one asked the other, "What's the matter with you? You're not your merry self like before. What are you depressed about?"
The other friend replied, "Tell me, what's the use of all these pleasures, all this candy for the eye and ear? It's worthless and useless! I'd rather be on a spiritual quest, searching for a way out, release, freedom, total liberation. The devastating law of impermanence, it all sucks. There has to be a way to liberation from all these fleeting illusions with their temporary allure haunting us and yet leaving us empty. That's what's been going through my head and making me think. Hey, but what you,? You look anything but cheerful!"
His friend replied, "I've been feeling the same as you. Why stay any longer for this BS vanity show? We should seek a way to something that's not BS!"
When he heard his friend had been thinking the same thing with the same wish, he happily said, "That's wild that we've been thinking the same thing! We've wasted our time and our lives long enough with all these worthless things. If one really wants a path to freedom, one has to leave home and all these possessions that possess us. We should go forth on a quest like pilgrims, free ourselves from the bondage of worldly crap and all this sensuality, rise above it like birds in the sky."
They agreed, and the two friends decided to ditch it all and become spiritual nomads, leading a life of simplicity away from it all, wanderers, on the road, surviving like ascetics.
They wandered around India searching for a guru, a spiritual teacher, or some teaching to guide them. When they had told their friends about their decision, most of those young men were so impressed that they joined them on their spiritual quest. All of them left home, took off their Brahmin threads, cut off their long hair, and put on the earth-colored garments of wanderers. Discarding the marks and signs of their privileged caste, they gave up the class system and entered among the classless ascetics. That's how the journey began.
In their travels, they met many wandering ascetics and temple priests who had the reputation of being exceptionally wise. They talked about God and the world, heaven and hell, the meaning of life and the way to salvation. But with their keen and critical minds trained as skeptics, they soon realized how empty all of those assertions were and how learned but ignorant these philosophers were. None of them could answer their probing questions. But the two friends were able to reply when questioned. How did the meet the Buddha?
This is where it gets personal and a little unbelievable. Following a lifelong wish to visit India and see the Buddhist circuit, I thought it was odd that no one much talked about the second most important place in Buddhist history. Sure, there's Bamiyan, Afghanistan, but people don't know that's the real Kapilavastu unless they read Dr. Ranajit Pal's book Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander. What with an inviting title like that, who's read or even heard of such a thing? The most important place is arguably "Enlightenment Grove" (Bodh Gaya).
But surely the second most desirable place to see and stand on is Vulture's Peak in the royal ringed city of Rajagaha (modern Rajgir), capital of Magadha, a legendary place of a ring of seven hills around an ancient royal city. On pilgrimage there, with its hot spring baths and lightly forested rolling hills, it was hard to believe I had made it. This was it with a commanding view of the area and not a vulture in sight. There have never been vultures here, as the place name is based on rocks that in the shadows look like vultures. Do they? If you squint your eyes, maybe.
So much of it remains unchanged with a large Jain and Hindu presence. But I found two Japanese Buddhist complexes to accommodate they annual rush of in-season Buddhist pilgrims. There was even a beautiful monastery/rest house nearby, a great place to meditate under a mosquito net. It was hard to sleep as the night wore on in this rural place because of pounding music. My fellow tourists in another room? Not likely; the place was nearly empty. It happened again on the second and third night when I left my room to explore the ruckus and stumbled on the Hilltop Festival! It's still going on as an ancient annual event. I had no interest in paying to go in or see what passes for "entertainments" in modern India, blaring loudspeaker bhangramusic, drums, parades, kathak dancing girls, alcohol, bhang (ganja)...who knows? I didn't go in. I just marveled at the bouncers who night after night kept this assembly going late into the night. For all of India's development and its leaping into modernity, there are things here that are unchanged since the time of the Buddha: ox drawn carts, mud huts, barefoot sadhus, rice harvests, women in saris working the fields, undeveloped rural villages, water buffaloes roaming around, cows treated like royalty, a thousand forms of Hindu worship...and this festival! So much of India has not changed since the British stumbled in and brought the world's largest rail system.
Now at the Royal Ringed City there was an annual event called the Hilltop Festival. Entrance was purchased for the young friends who sat together to witness all the festivities. When there was something funny, they laughed; when the spectacle was exciting, they got excited. And they paid fees for more shows. They enjoyed the fest that day and a second day, but on the third day their understanding started to awaken. They could no longer laugh or get excited, nor did they feel inclined to pay for more like they had on the first two days. Each had the same thought: "What is there to look at here? Within 100 years, everyone here will be dead. What we should do is become spiritual seekers looking for enlightenment." More: The Life of Sariputta by Ven. Nyanaponika Thera
The Buddha's future chief disciples at the Big Hill Fest by Hellmuth Hecker, edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly
EDC is an electronic dance music (EDM) festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac.
The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is the largest electronic dance music festival in North America with over 500,000 visitors in 2024 [2].
The event features electronic dance producers and DJs and incorporates a variety of electronic music, including house, techno, drum 'n bass, and dubstep [3].
In addition to the music, event goers experience 3D superstructures, colorful glow-in-the-dark environments, and LED-lit flora and fauna [4]. There are also interactive art installations throughout EDC, free-roaming carnival performers, and carnival rides for the inner-kids [4]. More
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