On the Summer Solstice of Saturday, June 20, 2026, from 7:00 to 10:00 pm the LAist is holding a rave at Remainders Creative Reuse. Total price of entry? $5.00 (five USD and 49 cent service fee).
Break out the rave gear and join Remainders Creative Reuse and LAist.com for a night of wild dancing, crafting, and community.
DJ Tekfor will be on hand all night bumping the 90’s rave jams and all the other hits. And there will be not one, not two, but three crafting stations with instructors:
Already have a project in progress? Bring it along! Or if still looking for a spark, we’ll have a pop-up crafting table ready for everyone.
Whether a raver knits, collages, beads, sketches, or basketweaves, this is the perfect excuse to make something while soaking up the ravey 90’s vibes! Come as you are. (Bonus points will be awarded for 1990s-inspired outfits).
We wouldn't put anything past Larry Mantle or Pasadena's KPCC 89.3 FM and its long-running battle to seem more relevant than Madeleine Brand and Santa Monica's KCRW 88.9 FM.
No, remember there was that Asian science journalist at KPCC and like the LA and Pasadena Weekly? She used to go to all sorts of parties, festivals, events, write about it, be on the radio all the time. Then KPCC booted her, KCRW picked her up? She lived in a small house in NoHo, the value of which kept going up, trapping her in LA.
Friends, this is the talk I gave last week presented here edited by Wisdom Quarterly:
.
The War of Opinions
Should I write DC a strongly-worded letter?
When we are belligerent and violent, there are always two wars happening simultaneously, the War of Bombs and the War of Opinions.
The War of Bombs requires the War of Opinions as its fuel. If we end the War of Opinions, we simultaneously end the War of Bombs.
Is this what John Lennon and Yoko Ono meant?
We are all responsible for the War of Opinions, so we can end it at any time. The way we end the War of Opinions is by thinking then saying this: "Whatever opinion you hold, I have compassion for you, and whatever opinion I hold, I have compassion for myself."
If we choose these mental positions, we will never have to agree with each other to see the end of belligerence, violence, war, disputes, arguments, and doing harm.
The true cause of violence is not disagreement; it is how we think about each other and feel about each other when we disagree with each other.
Violence can only happen if it is acceptable for us to withhold compassion from those with whom we disagree. This is the cause of war.
Our differences of opinion do not cause violence. What causes violence is that we are willing to withhold compassion from others, any others, because of their opinions.
There is only one reason to withhold compassion from anyone: to actively build more violence on this planet. That's what our withheld compassion does.
If we are trying to accomplish something other than that by withholding compassion, then we are using the wrong tool. If we want to build peace, the tool that will build it is compassion-for-all.
The trouble with these times [is that they aren't a-changin' enough] is that many are trying to build peace by withholding compassion from those who disagree with them. That action builds war. So they are trying to build peace with that which only builds war.
That is like saying, "I'd like to build a house to sleep in, a good strong dwelling, so I'm going to build it out of water." [What do we think we are, fish, mermaids, aquatic plants?]
Water is useful for many things, but we can't cut it into blocks and build shelters with it. [What if we freeze it first? Igloo ice, sure, but this is water we're talking about, not permafrost ice in the arctic.]
Our misunderstandings are so basic to our belief system that we do not see that we are trying to build a house with something we cannot build a house with. That's how elemental our misunderstandings are. But that's also how powerful our opportunities are.
All we need to do is say, "Now that I can see that I've been trying to build a house with blocks of water, let me try again, but with blocks of wood, and see what happens." Voila: a beautiful, solid house.
A house made of water would not be nearly so nice or durable...or livable at all.
Not by hatred but by...this is an eternal law.
And so it is with peace. We can say, "Let me try using compassion-for-all to build peace, and see if that works any better than withholding compassion." And it will work every time. That is an eternal and universal law.
One can't build walls with wet fluid water; one can't build true and lasting peace with hatred of the people who disagree with us.
Our hatred builds something: It builds more of the Era of Belligerence.
It does not build peace in the world. It also does not build peace for us personally — in our day-to-day experience, our family and circle of friends, our workplace and our minds/hearts.
What builds peace for us, in our personal experience, is to say this: "I disagree with that point of view yet still have compassion for the person who holds it."
That builds the kind of deep peace that makes it easier for us to do everything we have to do throughout the day. It makes it easier to be a parent, easier to be a friend, easier to be a whatever.
A war brings these forces to our attention, but they are always at play, in smaller ways, within our lives. Disagreements break out in the home and the workplace. And we always make more peace for ourselves when we feel and think this:
"I disagree with the way my boss (spouse, child, friend, whoever) sees this situation. Still, I hold deep compassion for this person."
Similarly, the fire of war requires certain conditions to ignite and burn and grow.
Remove the War of Opinions and, no matter how many lit matches are thrown onto the fire of war, it will not ignite.
Compassion-for-all is like soaking fuel used in the fire of war. No matter how many flames are dropped on wet wood, it won't catch on fire. Our compassion-for-all ends this war and every war.
I serve my king with no question, Sir. - Good boy
When our compassion ends nowhere, there will be peace on earth. When our compassion goes everywhere, there is no ready fuel for war.
What will happen when we start to pair compassion-for-all with whatever opinion (view) we hold?
What will happen is that we will spend more time in our Peace Mind, which is the higher portion of our consciousness. And when we do this, we'll see new solutions—solutions that already exist, except that we cannot see them yet because they can only be seen from the more loving portion of consciousness.
When we have compassion for others, we free them from our hatred, vitriol, animosity, belligerence, so they visit their Peace Minds more often, too.
Republican gals love soldiers who kill for God.
And when we are all in our Peace Minds, new solutions will be so easy to see that we almost won't be able to comprehend how we ever stayed at war or disagreeing for so long.
Solutions to our problems already exist. Whether we can see them yet depends on our perspective. Where are we placing conscious attention in our own consciousness? Is it our Peace Mind?
It's not that this conflict, or any conflict, is based on an unsolvable problem. It's that we cannot yet see a solution that will resolve this issue from our current perspective.
Move our perspective, and the preexisting solution becomes apparent.
What's the one thing we can do to serve the world? We can learn to transition our own perspective upwards so we can see more solutions and bring more innovations to humanity.
What's another thing we can do? We can pair compassion with everything we think and feel. Compassion can be added to any thought, like this:
"I greatly disagree with what that leader has done, and I have compassion for everyone who lives in that country, even for the leader herself," or "I think that's a terrible thing to do, and I have compassion for the person who has done it." Just add one in.
No consensus of opinion needs to be reached to end the War of Opinions. We can end war without a single opinion ever changing.
We end it by adding our compassion-for-everyone to any opinion we have.
That ends the war, because now it's not a War of Opinions that we're seated within—it's simply a landscape of opinions that are allowed to exist.
It's not a War of Opinions when there is compassion-for-all present. Now it's a community of unique human individuals who compassionately respect each other. We came here to be unique.
We did not come here to create a consensus of opinion. We came here to be in a vibrant (lively and diverse) community of original thinkers, coexisting, more than tolerating but appreciating differences.
Peace Class, free, Wednesdays on Zoom
We came here to learn how to do that in peace.
What makes that possible is this phrase: Regardless of how we see things, we have compassion for one another. That choice-of-thought builds the kind of peace we came here to build.
On a recent night, practitioners gathered, took to zafus and zabutons (sitting cushions), chanted Sanskrit the Japanese way then English, and started a session of shikantaza, just sitting.
Then came time for kinhin, the relief of getting up to stretch and walk slowly and mindfully before another sitting session. Then the fireworks: question and answer with discussion.
"Those who know don't say, and those who say don't know" is a Taoist saying and sentiment. Many things can be known, and many of them can be expressed. So we hit the meditation leader with two barrels' worth of questions. Next time we finish off with koans of such subtlety and complexity, he stands no chance.
For years, Zen came to Pasadena through PasaDharma under the auspices of Founder Roshi Jeff Albrizze (Rev. Lotus Peace), successor Meditation Guide Seven, and PasaDharma's friends at:
perplexing riddles to help us overcome rigid and limiting habits of mind and get us thinking outside the box (koans),
questions and answers, and
an open group discussion.
Sensei completed his Hossenshiki ceremony in Japan, a necessary step for a Sotoshu novice to take toward becoming a full-fledged Zen Buddhist priest, as he became Zagen (pictured above), then Osho. He is also the author of a very helpful Guide to Zen:
With 4.3 out of 5 stars (38 reviews), this 2021 Simon & Schuster introduction to Zen is unlike any readers have ever seen — inspired by manga and graphic novels. It offers a comprehensive overview of Soto Zen Buddhism in a delightfully captivating way.
Complete with dynamic, detailed illustrations, American Soto Zen Priest Seigaku Amato uses a semi-narrative style to take readers on a visual tour of Buddhism and, using specifics to illuminate universals, dives deeply into the practices and forms of Soto Zen.
In honor of our teacher the Buddha Shakyamuni
Whether we are just taking our first step or have been practicing Zen for years, this creative and profound book can serve as a constant companion and guide on the journey as it explores topics such as:
(Ms Jessica Jaye) March 14, 2025: Brisbane, AUSTRALIA, Down Under, working it in Sydney. Can a sex worker be candid about the oldest profession in the world? It is not all a sleazy street exchange. In some places, like parts of the state of Nevada (outside of the county Las Vegas is in places like The Love Ranch) in the USA. In countries around the world, this is going on every day. In fact, some would argue that there is no country, no state, no city where it is not. Instagram: msjessicajaye. TikTok: msjessicajaye1.
The Five Precepts would seem to preclude this line of "work," given that it is a kind of sexual misconduct (abusing sex) in the eyes of society. Moreover, one might argue that it is "trade in living beings," one of the forms of Wrong Livelihood (from the Noble Eightfold Path), exploiting oneself and/or others, and for all appearances it is corrosive to the individual engaging in it. Does it have to be?
Weren't there always courtesans (royal call girls) and geishas (well-mannered conversationalists for the rich)? These high-class escorts may not exactly be the same thing. They may be. But they are not regarded as such by the society.
One must take care not to rationalize that all wives are engaged in this line of work for fear of falling into specious reasoning and logical fallacies.
Ultimately, who is responsible for me but me? The buck stops here. We simply wish to share the Buddha's advice. The British scholar Maurice O'Connell Walshe dared to tackle this topic from a Buddhist perspective.
All materials on this site are submitted by editors and readers. All images, unless otherwise noted, were taken from the Internet and are assumed to be in the public domain.
In the event that there is still a problem, issue, or error with copyrighted material, the break of the copyright is unintentional and noncommercial, and the material will be removed immediately upon presented proof.
Contact us by submitting a comment marked "private."
Do not follow this journal if you are under vinaya or parental restrictions. Secure protection by Sucuri.
Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at creativecommons.org/about/licenses.
