Cali burns: Mt. Baldy Zen Center at risk

Leonard Cohen was a Zen monk on Mt. Baldy

While the Line Fire continues to burn over 28,000 acres on Monday night in the San Bernardino Mountains, the Bridge Fire has scorched more than 34,000 acres in the Angeles National Forest.

• The Mount Baldy Zen Center (mbzc.org)
• What's the Mount Baldy Zen Center?
• Wellness Retreat | THE LIFTS @ MT BALDY (mtbaldyresort.com)

Tadasana Yoga Retreat on Mt. Baldy

The Bridge Fire was first reported at 2:00 pm Sunday at East Fork Road near Glendora Mountain Road [in the San Gabriel Mountains].

Within a few hours, the brush fire erupted to about 800 acres, Angeles National Forest officials reported.

By Tuesday evening, CAL FIRE reported the flames had blackened more than 34,240 acres. On Sunday night, mandatory evacuation orders were issued north of [the City of] Azusa in the East Fork communities of Camp Williams Resort and the River Community. More: Bridge Fire California, Mt. Baldy, Angeles National Forest (vvdailypress.com)

• Fire explodes: 47,904 acres burn on Mount Baldy, Wrightwood, evacuation orders issued
• Latest news: Police issue evacuation order for Mt. Baldy (aka Mt. San Antonio)
• Ski Area Management (SAM): Wildfires threaten Mountain High, Mt. Baldy, and others across the West
• Line Fire in San Bernardino County: Sheriff provides new details on arrest of white arson suspect (ABC7 Los Angeles)
• SoCal fires grow, Cali Gov. Newsom declares emergency, structures destroyed: Airport Fire in OC, Line Fire near Highland, Bridge Fire in Azusa
• Airport Fire in Orange County's Trabuco Canyon area spreads to more than 23,000 acres, homes destroyed near Lake Elsinore
• KTLA 5, Los Angeles, 9/12/24; Victor Ville Daily Press, 9/11/24; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Impossible ET ruins: Puma Punku, Bolivia

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In Search of Aliens: Mystery of Puma Punku Revealed (S1, E7) | full episode

Puma punku or "Gate of the Puma, Bolivia

(HISTORY) The ancient Bolivian ruins of Puma Punku have mystified archeologists ever since their discovery. The massive stones are carved into blocks that are unlike anything found anywhere else on earth, in Season 1, Episode 4, "The Mystery of the Puma Punku."

#InSearchOfAliens Subscribe for more HISTORY. Check out exclusive HISTORY content: History Newsletter. Website: histv.co/History. Facebook, Twitter.

HISTORY® is the leading destination for award-winning original series and specials that connect viewers with history in an informative, immersive, and entertaining manner across all platforms. The network’s all-original programming slate features a roster of hit series, premium documentaries, and scripted event programming.

Zen monk-musician Leonard Cohen (video)

Lee Thomas-Mason (faroutmagazine.co.uk, June 18, 2019); Armelle Brusq; Leonard Cohen ("Famous Blue Raincoat" via Uncovered Emotions); Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A day in the life of famous musician Zen Buddhist monk Leonard Cohen

There's a time in life for searching for satori.

For a spell of five years beginning in 1994, the great American musician Leonard Cohen lived at the Mount Baldy Zen Center, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.

At the time Cohen was exploring life as a Buddhist monk, living on 10,000 foot Mt. Baldy to study and assist Rinzai Zen Master Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi.

The best place to look for satori is within.

“I don’t think anybody really knows why they’re doing anything. If you stop someone on the subway and say, ‘Where are you going – in the deepest sense of the word?’ you can’t really expect an answer,” Cohen once commented when speaking to author Pico Iyer back in 1998.

“I really don’t know why I’m here. It’s a matter of, ‘What else would I be doing?’ Do I want to be Frank Sinatra, who’s really great, and do I want to have great retrospectives of my work? I’m not really interested in being the oldest folksinger around,” he added in reflection.

Back in the spring of 1996, French artist Armelle Brusq was tasked with filming a documentary of Cohen’s daily routine at Mt. Baldy.

Leonard went Zen. I went Tibetan (Bowie)

“Cohen’s cabin with his Technics KN 3000 synthesizer and computers are shown, and he sings his new song ‘A Thousand Kisses Deep.’ He also recites three unpublished poems, two telling about Roshi (one titled ‘Roshi at 89’). The third was titled ‘Too Old,’” the documentary’s Director Brusq once explained. More

LYRICS: "Famous Blue Raincoat"

It's 4:00 in the morning, the end of December

I'm writing you now just to see if you're better

New York is cold, but I like where I'm living

There's music on Clinton Street
all through the evening

Leonard Cohen and daughter Lorca, Mt. Baldy

I hear that you're building
your little house
deep in the desert

You're living for nothing now

I hope you're keeping
some kind of record

Yes and Jane came by
with a lock of your hair

She said that you
gave it to her

That night that you
planned to go clear

Did you ever go clear?

Monk Leonard Cohen, Mt. Baldy Zen Center, LA

On the last time we saw youyou looked so much older

Your famous blue raincoat
was torn at the shoulder

You'd been to the station
to meet every train

You came home without Lili Marlene

You treated my woman
to a flake of your life

And when she came back
she was nobody's wife

Well I see you there
with a rose in your teeth

One more thin gypsy thief

Well I see Jane's awake

She sends her regards

And what can I tell you
my brother, my killer

What can I possibly say?

I guess that I miss you
I guess I forgive you

I'm glad you stood in my way

If you ever come by here
for Jane or for me

Leonard Cohen with Suzanne (pinterest.it)

Well your enemy is sleeping
and his woman is free 

Yes and thanks for the trouble
you took from her eyes

I thought it was there for good
so I never tried

And Jane came by
with a lock of your hair

She said that
you gave it to her

That night that you
planned to go clear

Sincerely, L. Cohen

"Spock," Leonard Nimoy, dies (video)

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; DC; V.F. Gunaratna (BPS.lk)

(Star Trek) Spock's death from the movie "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan"

Let us live while we can for death is certain; life is not. Soon enough Mara comes.

(In Search Of with Leonard Nimoy) "Other Voices" (Season 1, Episode 1) The secret life of plants is revealed by modern technology! This fascinating opener explores plant communication, language, and healing.

• VIDEO: "In Search Of" (all episodes in order)
• VIDEO: "The Secret Life of Plants"

What will Kirk (R) do without Spock (L)?

Star Trek's Spock, Leonard Nimoy, dead at 83: Nimoy endeared himself to uncountable fans as his character Benjamin Spock. He died today, Feb. 27, 2015 at his home in L.A.'s ritzy Bel Air neighborhood, his spouse confirmed. He was 83. According to Susan Bay Nimoy, the explanation for his death was "end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," or COPD, that he attributes to years of smoking. He was reportedly hospitalized earlier this month. It's very sad even though he told us all we could suck it.

 

Buddhist Reflections on Death

V.F. Gunaratna (Buddhist Publication Society) edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson

To the average person death is by no means a pleasant subject or talk for discussion. It is something dismal and oppressive -- a kill-joy, a fit topic only for a funeral house. The average person immersed as we are in ourselves, ever seeking after the pleasurable, ever pursuing what excites and gratifies the senses, refuses to pause and ponder seriously that these very objects of pleasure and gratification will some day reach their end.

 

If wise counsel does not prevail and urge the unthinking pleasure-seeking person to consider seriously that death can also knock at our door, it is only the shock of a bereavement under our own roof, the sudden and untimely death of a parent, wife, child [or beloved TV star] that will rouse us up from our delirious round of sense-gratification and rudely awaken us to the hard facts of life.

Then only will our eyes open, then only will we begin to ask ourselves why there is such a phenomenon as death. Why is it inevitable? Why are there these painful partings which rob life of its joys?

• There is also a solution to the problem of death -- and not only death but also aging, sickness, and suffering -- and the Buddha teaches that this ultimate solution is nirvana, the "end of suffering."

Three things: impermanence, disappointment, egolessness!

To most of us, at some moment or another, the spectacle of death must have given rise to the deepest of thoughts and profoundest of questions. What is life worth, if able bodies that once performed great deeds now lie flat and cold, senseless and lifeless? What is life worth, if eyes that once sparkled with joy, eyes that once beamed with love are now closed forever, bereft of movement, bereft of life?

...It is the contemplation of death (while living), the intensive thought that it will some day come upon us, that softens the hardest of hearts, binds one to another with cords of love and compassion, and destroys the barriers of caste, creed, and race among the peoples of the Earth all subject to a common destiny. Death is a great leveler. Pride of birth, pride of position, pride of wealth, pride of power must give way to the all-consuming thought of inevitable death. It is this leveling aspect of death that made the poet say:

"Scepter and crown
Must tumble down
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade."

It is the contemplation of death that helps to destroy the infatuation of sense-pleasure. It is the contemplation of death that destroys vanity. It is the contemplation of death that gives balance and a healthy sense of proportion to our highly over-wrought minds with their misguided sense of values. It is the contemplation of death that gives strength and steadiness and direction to the erratic human mind, now wandering in one direction, now in another, without an aim, without a purpose.

It is not for nothing that the Buddha has, in the very highest terms, commended to his disciples the practice of mindfulness regarding death. This is known as "marananussati bhavana." One who wants to practice it must at stated times, and also every now and then, revert to the thought maranam bhavissati -- "death will take place."

 

This contemplation of death is one of the classical meditation-subjects treated in the Path of Purification (Visuddhi Magga) which states that in order to obtain the fullest results, one should practice this meditation in the correct way, that is, with mindfulness (sati), with a sense of urgency (samvega), and with wisdom (ñana). More
 

(In Search Of Season 2, Episode 2) "The Man Who Would Not Die: The

fascinating saga of the Count of Saint-Germain," who dazzled the courts

of Europe for over 100 years, leading some to believe he was immortal.

"In Search of Ancient Mysteries" (TV show)

(Searchfortheunknown) The second pilot documentary in the In Search Of series: "In Search of Ancient Mysteries" (1975). The seventies were a time of disclosure and openmindedness before new and more powerful drugs were released into the society that put the kibosh on actual growth to welcome the Age of Aquarius. It was the dawning of the New Age, but not the realization of it. Why do the real thing when a synthetic substitute is cheaper, faster, and more profitable? So here we are, not much further along 35 years later. Of course, we have made a great deal of progress individually but not as a collective culture. This should remind us that the we is me; what I do is what we do, for that is the collective consciousness, and all we can do is contribute to it ourselves and by encouraging others. This episode is based on the book In Search of Ancient Mysteries by Alan and Sally Landsburg, narrated by Rod Serling of "Twilight Zone" fame.

In Search Of...Atlantis (video)

"Photograph" of the Buddha?

In Search Of (Part I) Spirit Photography?

There exists a curious image of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. It was reputedly taken or at least discovered in Bodhgaya, India, in 1980. A devotee, it is said, was photographing the site of Shakyamuni's ("Sage of the Shakyas") great enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. The image, not seen at the time of photographing, subsequently appeared on the film.

It is an image of a very comely young meditator with a top knot, robe, and almost cosmetic details. The photograph has not been widely circulated. It may inspire the faithful or arouse doubt. One copy hangs at the Bhavana Society, a Theravadan monastery/nunnery in West Virginia, for all to see.

Photos taken in Bodh Gaya showed this image when developed.

How would a recent "photograph" of an ancient figure be possible? Leonard Nimoy offers a fascinating explanation of the phenomenon.

In Search Of (Part II) Deva Hoax in England?

In Search Of (Part III) Man makes photographs with his mind in controlled experiments