Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ireland. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Halloween, Samhain, Grateful Dead, DMT

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(Holiday History) From harvest to haunting: How Samhain (like ancient Japanese Buddhist Obon and seasonal Mexican/pan-Latin Dia de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead" celebrations) became Halloween for wandering spirits, fairies, elves, ghosts, ghouls, and goblins.

OBON (お盆) or just Bon (盆) is a fusion of the ancient Japanese belief in ancestral spirits and a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of the ancestors.

We'll be together again: samsara
This syncretic Folk (like the Shinto "kitchen god") Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday.

During it people return to visit ancestral family places and clean ancestors' graves because this is when the spirits of ancestors are revisiting household altars [like Mexican ofrendas prepared for the Day of the Dead].

Obon has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and includes the dance Bon Odori. More
What Buddhists can do for the Dead
The Buddha's chief disciple declared "foremost in psychic powers" among the monks Ven. Maha Moggallāna (comparable to the Buddhist nun Ven. Uppalavanna) saves his Brahmin mother from hell by transferring merits to her after she has died: "Mulian Rescues His Mother"
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Folk Buddhists pray soul out of purgatory (Silver)
The "transfer of merit" (Sanskrit pariṇāmanā [Note 1], Pali pattidāna or pattānumodanā) [3, Note 2] is a customary part of Buddhist spiritual practice where a practitioner's merit (puñña), resulting from wholesome karma (skillful deeds), is transferred to deceased relatives, friends, deities (devas), or to all sentient beings everywhere (as when cultivating the four illimitable Divine Abidings).

Day of the Dead, Mexico, 1995, cemetery prep
Such a "transfer" is a physically enacted deed with its sharing done mentally. The recipient (or another relative stuck in a purgatory such as the realm of hungry ghosts) can receive this merit when they rejoice (feel gratitude, literally becoming the "grateful dead") due to the meritorious acts being done and shared with them on their behalf.

Ah, they remember me! I'm grateful for their help!
This is necessary because in the realm (plane of existence) in which the recipient(s) have been reborn, the opportunity to generate beneficial karma by any other means is extremely limited or altogether absent.

In any case, the person offering, sharing, transferring merit produces more and more merit (wholesome karma). In Buddhism, sharing merit is seen as a far better alternative to mourning. More
The Grateful Dead of the afterlife?

I'd be grateful for help when I pass away
The "grateful dead" in folklore gave 1960s singer and frontman Jerry Garcia the idea to name his band the "Grateful Dead."

According to bassist Phil Lesh, singer Garcia: "In that silvery elf-voice, he said to me, 'Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?'" [27]

The definition found in the Britannica World Language Dictionary is "the soul of a dead person...showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial."

According to Director Alan Trist of Ice Nine, the Grateful Dead's music publishing company, Garcia found the name in the Funk & Wagnalls Folklore Dictionary, when his finger landed on it while playing a game of Fictionary [28].

In her Jerry Garcia biography Captain Trips, author Sandy Troy states that the band was smoking the entheogenic psychedelic DMT (also known as "The Spirit Molecule") at the time [29].

DMT: The Spirit Molecule
The motif of the "grateful dead" person appears in folktales from many cultures around the world [30]. Fittingly, the first show under the name Grateful Dead was in San Jose, near San Francisco, on Dec. 4, 1965, at one of Ken Kesey's "Acid Tests" [31, 32, 33].
Scholar Michael Kaler has written that the Dead's participation in those Acid Tests was crucial to the development of their improvisational vocabulary and to their bonding as a band, with the group having set out to foster an intra-band musical telepathy [34].

He says this coincided chronologically with adoption of the same goal by acid rockers Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, and the Velvet Underground [35]. More

DMT: the sacred spirit molecule
Free-base DMT powder and vape extracted from Mimosa tenuiflora root bark (wiki)
  • QUESTION: Does LSD ("acid") release DMT from the pineal gland (agni chakra, third eye, dibba cakhu), or how is it an entheogen (a substance that releases the divine from within) could lead to visions of reality beyond the normal human spectrum?
Logo used by proponents of Cantelmoism
DMT
(di-methyl-tryptamine, also known as N,N-dimethyltryptamine or N,N-DMT) is a psychoactive entheogen ("releaser of inner divinity"), psychedelic ("mind-manifesting"), serotonergic hallucinogen ("vision producer"), and investigational wonder drug of the tryptamine family that occurs naturally in many [if not most] plants and animals [2, 3, 4, 1].
Forest ayahuasca (natema): DMT from plants
DMT is used in sacred ayahasuca (aka natema, yagé, caapi, nátema, pindê, patem, shori, mii, miiyagi, uni) ceremonies, abused as a psychedelic drug in urban settings, and prepared by various cultures for ritual shamanic healing purposes as an entheogen [14].

DMT has a rapid onset, intense psychedelic effects, and a relatively short duration of action. For those reasons, DMT was known as the "businessman's trip" during the 1960s in the USA, as a user could access the full depth of a psychedelic experience in considerably less time than with other substances such as LSD or magic (psilocybin) mushrooms [15]. More


DMT Movement: for medicinal and spiritual uses

DMT GOD: Prepare in 8 Days
A wealthy biochemist and Yale University graduate named Chris Cantelmo created an online DMT church or cult he called "Cantelmoism" [Can tell more-ism] in the late 2010s [241].

Mr. C had worked in the pharmaceutical industry for decades, including running multiple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) companies [241]. 

He began his DMT campaign on Reddit and other social media websites after experiencing the "spirit molecule" in 2018 [241].

He rapidly spent his wealth in a fervent attempt to promote DMT and get as many people to try it as possible, forming a union in the process and becoming an online spectacle [241].

Chase Hughes marked for telling truth
Among other claims, Mr. C asserts that DMT cured his mind cancer and that it could cure other diseases [241]. He later explained that he had mind, not brain, cancer and that what it had really cured was his "severe" atheism, which he likened to a mental cancer [241].

Mr. C, they say, had mental health issues, so he had to be put out of his misery by alleged "suicide" (taken out before others could start following him). He was put under pressure, losing his home in November 2019 [241],

Behavior Ops Manual (Chase Hughes)
Why? He dared to promote a natural cure outside the for-profit Big Pharma model. Since Big Pharma had not yet found a way to legally profit from. Anyone who tells the world about the wonders of DMT risks the same fate. So talk to Chase Hughes if this is too hard to believe.

Black market availability
Vape pens or electronic cigarette cartridges filled with liquid DMT were being sold on the black market by 2018 [39, 38, 40] due to there being no licit market. Akasha Song previously manufactured and sold DMT on the Dark Web and is said to have been the largest DMT producer and seller in history [242].

DMT's legal status
International law
Internationally, DMT is illegal to possess without authorization, exemption, or license. However, natural ayahuasca and other DMT brews (natema, yage, etc.) and plant preparations are lawful. More
Why Asians don't really do Halloween

It's a Mexican tradition, and I love it
Mexican Buddhist, why would the living celebrate the Day of the Dead?
Ghost perceived in bedroom found in art: Spirit of the Dead Watching (Paul Gauguin, 1892)

Monday, October 5, 2026

Ireland activist/dissident Dolours Price



A NEW documentary focusing on the life of militant IRA activist and dissident Republican Dolours Price has just arrived on Netflix, having earned great reviews
Sisters in the Resistance against imperial rule
I, Dolours, from Director Maurice Sweeney, presents a powerful and disturbing portrait of Price, who died in 2013 and spent time in prison for her role in the IRA bombing of London's Old Bailey in 1973.

The documentary sees the once-idealistic Price reflect on her part in the troubles and the depths she was willing to sink to in the name of the cause.

Two years prior to her death Price agreed to conduct a filmed interview on the condition it would never be broadcast during her lifetime.

The resulting interview with The Irish News, which forms the basis of I, Dolours, saw Price confess to her involvement in the murder of Jean McConville, a mother of 10 from west Belfast who was abducted and killed by the IRA in 1972.

McConville was suspected by the IRA of passing on information to British forces, though a police investigation, conducted decades later, found no evidence she was an informer.

Her body was eventually discovered on a beach in Louth in 2003, following a tip-off from the IRA. More: A powerful documentary on IRA activist Dolours Price has arrived on Netflix | irishpost.com

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Irish billionaire Saint Chuck Feeney


Irish American Charles Francis Feeney (April 23, 1931–October 9, 2023) was a businessman and philanthropist who made a massive fortune [from the U.S. military] as the co-founder of DFS Group (Duty Free Shoppers Group), the travel retailer of luxury products based in Hong Kong.

He was the founder of the Atlantic Philanthropies, one of the largest private charitable foundations in the world. Feeney gave away his fortune in secret for many years, wisely choosing to remain anonymous while doing it, donating more than $8 billion in his lifetime....


PERSONAL LIFE: Wise Saint Feeney was known for his frugality. According to a New York Times article in 2017, "Until he was 75, he traveled only in coach [the lowest class, discount seats], and [he] carried reading materials in a plastic bag."

He did not own a car or a house and wore a $10 Casio F-91W watch [41, 16]. As of 2016, he lived in a rented apartment in pricey San Francisco, California, with remaining assets of $2 million [1]. More


Dāna (sharing, generosity, liberality, giving, supporting, helping) as an internally-motivated spiritual act or a formal, externally-influenced religious act is directed by Buddhist laypersons first at monastics and spiritually-developed persons [37].

In the Buddhist understanding, it has the effect of purifying and transforming the heart/mind of the giver [38], the one who lets go.

Generosity developed through unselfish sharing and generous giving leads to the experience of material wealth and the possibility of being reborn in happy states (defined as rebirth in the human world or the many superior planes of existence above it).


In the Pāli canon's Dighajanu Sutta, "generosity" (denoted there by the Pāli word cāga, which can be deemed synonymous with dāna) is identified as one of the four traits conditioning happiness and wealth in future lives (after this karma comes to fruition and ripens. Just as a seed sown does not immediately burst into a sprout or blossom into a flower or fruit, it is foolish to expect immediately obvious karmic resultants. And it is exactly for this same reason that unskillful misdeeds do not show the harm that comes from them immediately in what John Lennon foolishly popularized as "instant karma." There is nothing instant about most karma, and even to the extent that karma can produce immediate mental benefits, these are not always obvious).


Conversely, lack of letting go, sharing, providing for others, liberality, giving leads to woeful (unhappy) states in the future, after the ripening, as well as poverty.

Dāna (having done acts sharing and generosity) leads to one of the development of one of the "perfections" (paramis, pāramitās, known as dānapāramitā, the perfection of letting go, detachment, giving up, benefiting others).

This can be characterized by unattached and unconditional generosity, giving and letting go [39].

The Buddhist belief that actual letting go, actual giving, the kind without seeking anything in return, rather the transactional variety of this-for-that, leads to great spiritual wealth and immediate mental satisfaction and calm. Otherwise, we are subject to great disappointment.

Moreover, letting go reduces the acquisitive (greedy) impulses that ultimately lead to continued suffering [40] from egotism. More

Could good Saint Feeney (as we call him, when Chuck sought no such title in his life and the Catholic Church has yet to recognize him) have benefitted by living in liberal California, in the Bay Area of all places, surrounded by Asian and Buddhist influences, like so many of the Golden State's remaining inhabitants?

What have we done to be Saint Feeney?

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Eclipse, alignment, and meteor shower


What is Earth center of that stars circle it?
Remember to see the "per-seeds" (pronounced /per-see-ids/) through the dark night of the new (missing) moon, a fireball Perseid meteor shower, as earth passes through the debris field of Comet Swift-Tuttle, and an alignment of six planets: Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There's a total solar eclipse, the first in 27 years for Europe, over Greenland (technically part of Denmark), Iceland, and Spain -- a shadow going in the wrong direction if the Earth were spinning from west (Greenland) to Spain (east). It will be visible to millions on Earth. Will the world end? - YES, but not tomorrow.


Nearly 2 1⁄2 years after space enthusiasts on Earth last saw a total solar eclipse, another is on its way, allowing U.S. viewers to see a partial glimpse of the phenomenon, with other parts of the world like Spain seeing totality.

This year’s eclipse falls on the morning of Aug. 12, 2026, allowing people across most of Europe and in northwestern Africa to see the moon something (possibly Rahu) cover or "eclipse" most of the sun.

For most people, including those in the United States, the moon will not completely block the sun, making this year’s eclipse partial, according to NASA's website.


The lucky people in the USA able to view the partial solar eclipse this year include those from Alaska to North Carolina. People in [the small capital country of] Washington, DC [the ruling district of the larger country's original imperial-colonial name, Columbia], will also be able to see it.

In Alaska, the eclipse will happen in the morning, while those in the northern U.S. will be able to see it between midday and midafternoon, NASA said. People near the center of the eclipse path in Greenland, Russia or the North Atlantic will experience the eclipse for a slightly longer period; most people will see the sun eclipsed for less than two minutes, according to NASA. More:

Friday, July 31, 2026

Truth about Black Irish: Ireland's DNA

(Evo Inception) The truth about the Black Irish: Ireland's hidden DNA
celticbuddhism.org
U Dhammaloka (Burmese ဦးဓမ္မလောက) lived from 1856–1914. He was an Irish-born migrant worker [1] who became a Theravada Buddhist monk.

He was a strong critic of Christian missionaries and a temperance campaigner who took an active role in the Asian Buddhist revival around the turn of the 20th century.

Venerable Dhammaloka (because "U," pronounced ooh, is not a name or initial but a Burmese honorific) was ordained in Burma prior to 1900, making him the earliest attested Western Buddhist monk in modern times.

He was a celebrity preacher, vigorous polemicist, and prolific editor in Burma and Singapore between 1900 and his conviction for sedition and appeal in 1910–1911.

Drawing on Western atheist (freethinking) writings, he publicly challenged the role of Christian missionaries and resisted attempts by the colonial government to charge him for sedition. More

Sunday, June 21, 2026

Summer Solstice: summer begins (6/21)


(Wye Explorer) Stonehenge Summer Solstice 2026 | Over 20,000 Welcome the Sun

It occurs to us that this whole "summer" thing is a social construct. It is. What does "summer" mean. There are all those associations and connotations, but everyone knows it's when the sun's out, the clothes are mostly off, school is on break, and there's going to be a vacation, road trip, partying, and just plain old hanging around, maybe making some money.


It's a break from the routine. It's time away from the prison of the school system and the [bleep] warden who thinks s/he runs the place. Think of Project X or American Graffiti. Ah, summer, there's nothing like it. And this is Southern California, so all the more reason.

We say summer begins when school lets out. That was a week or two ago. Like gender assignment, who needs an objective measure? Well, many people do. And so we have the solstice, the astronomical measure that seems so scientific. But every American knows that summer begins on Memorial Day (May 25); that's the social reality overriding whatever others try to say is only objective and nothing else. It's both.

It runs through Labor Day (the unofficial end), a fake American holiday to remove Americans from the worldwide Labor Movement and May Day (May 1st), which idealistic socialists fight for, collectivists dream of, and New Age communists and college Marxists cheer for.

Thursday, April 16, 2026

High in Scotland: 'Trainspotting' turns 30


What do you for fun around here? Drugs?
Trainspotting
is a 1996 British black comedy drama film directed by Danny Boyle, starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, and Kelly Macdonald in her film debut. It is written in English and Scots [3]. Based on the 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh, the film was released in the United Kingdom on Feb. 23, 1996 [6].

The film follows a group of heroin addicts in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh, Scotland, and their passage through life. Beyond drug addiction, other themes in the film include an exploration of urban poverty and squalor in Edinburgh [7]. Trainspotting was released to critical acclaim and is today regarded by many critics as one of the best films of the 1990s.... More

T2: The Sequel? Lightning in a bottle?