Forbidden ancient Aryan religion (Sepehr)

Forbidden ancient Aryan religion - Hitler's library, Tesla, Blavatsky... (Robert Sepehr)

Presidential libraries? Last Week Tonight

A Late Summer Night's Dream (poetry)

As the summer winds down, the Altadena Library is having its Open Mic on Monday, Sept. 8th at 6:00 pm at Callisto Tea House on Washington and Altadena Dr. (Open Mic Night, Monday, September 8, 2025, 6 - 7:30pm - Programs — Altadena Library District) FREE

• Callisto Tea House, 1359 N Altadena Dr. (Map)

• Aveson Black Box Theater
• 3051 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena, CA 91001

Tuesday is the Odes to Altadena Poetry Workshop. All are welcome as this enclave returns to its rich history of art, activism, and writing. FREE

Bestselling author Janet Fitch will be reading! Thursday marks the return (from its usual summer hiatus) of Mandy Kahn's Deep Dive Poetry & Fiction at the Philosophical Research Society (PRS.org) historic mansion's Religions of the World Library on the next hill over, above Glendale, next to Griffith Park, at the eastern entrance to Hollywood (Tinsel Town proper). FREE

• PRS.org (Calendar)

Altadena Poetry Review Celebration
Saturday is the massive Altadena Poetry Review Celebration (2024-2025 Virtual Edition) at the Altadena Main Library Community Room featuring poets published in the anthology, including Mary Anne Berry, Don Kingfisher Campbel, Hazel Harrison, Ron Koertge, Noriko Nakada, Anna Mixtlan, Thelma Reyna (Golden Foothills Press), Lynne Thompson, Pam Ward, Alene Terzian-Zeitounian + OPEN MIC. Hosted by Altadena Library Co-Poets Laureate Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon. (This event will be livestreamed at youtube.com/AltadenaLibrary for anyone wanting to tune in remotely). FREE

• Altadena Poets Laureate - Altadena Poetry Review Celebration - The 2024-25 Virtual Edition, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, 3-5 pm
• Altadena Library District | Altadena CA | Facebook
• Altadena Library District (@altadenalibrary) • Instagram
• AltadenaLibrary (@AltadenaLibrary) / (Twitter) X

Of course, the whole of the community will be at Eagle's Hall for the free festival "Regrow Altadena" walking distance just down the hill along the miraculously unburned Christmas Tree Lane. (Both are on the same street at the same time, one on Woodbury, the other on Mariposa). The music and dancing from one may echo up and disturb the poetry readers if they whisper at the mic all NPR-style, so speak up or deliver those poems and attempts at haiku (haibun) as if they were spoken word with verve.

• Poetry and Garden - Poetry and Zine Workshop with Xitlalic Guijosa, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025, 11am-1 pm
• Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Events | SeatGeek
• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

It's Magic, This World (Pasadena Library)

EXHIBIT: It's Magic, This World.

The Eaton Fire hit three foothill cities

Art, Nature, and Sustainability by Katie Savoy is an installation that continues through Sunday, August 31, 2025, at the Hastings Branch Library.

Art, Nature, and Sustainability is inspired by Southern California's landscapes. Katie Savoy finds magic painting Nature's hidden details, from flowers to mountain views. The art, including abstract explorations of texture and fluidity, is a constant journey of growth and therapy.

She's committed to sustainability, sourcing all materials secondhand and repurposing every piece. Her hope is to share this peace and calm with Los Angeles. More info

• CALENDAR: Pasadena Public Library
• EXHIBIT: It's Magic, This World. Art, Nature, and Sustainability by Katie Savoy, through Sunday, August 31, 2025 - Pasadena Public Library

Stronger Together: A Collaborative Puzzle Mural

Ongoing through Saturday, July 26, 2025: A colorful abstract with pencils and paintbrushes and the word ART. Each of us is a “piece” of what makes the library special! Help create a puzzle mural by decorating your own puzzle piece during this year’s Summer Reading.

Individual pieces will become part of a larger mural that will be unveiled during our End of Summer Bash on Saturday, August 2nd at Jefferson Branch Library. Designs can be about anything related to the library – a favorite book or favorite book character, or something that makes one think of the Pasadena community.]

How to Join: Pick up a puzzle piece at any Pasadena Public Library location starting Saturday, June 14th. Return decorated puzzle piece by Saturday, July 26th to be added to the mural.

Questions? Ask Marie Plug at mplug@cityofpasadena.net. We can’t wait to see what contributors create. Let’s make something awesome together!

• Stronger Together: A Collaborative Puzzle Mural, Ongoing through Saturday, July 26, 2025 - Pasadena Public Library

Library Location Allendale Branch Library, Hastings Branch Library, Hill Avenue Branch Library, Jefferson Branch Library, La Pintoresca Branch Library, Lamanda Park Branch Library, Linda Vista Branch Library, San Rafael Branch Library, Santa Catalina Branch Library, Villa Parke Community Center Branch Library Audience Adults, Adults 50+, Children, Emerging Adults (18-24), Family (0-12), Infants and/or Toddlers, Preschool, Tweens Event Type Arts & Culture, Celebrations, Community & Civic Affairs, Exhibits, Summer Reading.

Jewish comedy: Larry Charles, Seinfeld

Notorious Anti-Dentite Jerry Seinfeld is now a big time Zionist*

Zionism is a criminal project and is not Judaism. Neturei Karta (NK USA) is the voice of masses of Orthodox Jews who follow TRADITIONAL Judaism in its opposition to the political (often secular) philosophy of "Zionism," the existence of the State of Israel, opposes the Zionist occupation of Palestine and condemns Israel's atrocities committed to and by many of its people. There are many Jews who oppose Zionism and Israel.

(Planet News) Israel under retaliatory fire! Bases hit, 220K affected, trapped by BN | BBC News

How Larry Charles went from selling jokes on the street to writing for Seinfeld

Larry David and Larry Charles

(Fresh Air, WHYY, June 17, 2025) In his new memoir, Comedy Samurai, Larry Charles reflects on his career in comedy — from writing for Seinfeld to directing Sacha Baron Cohen's films Borat and Brüno — and a recent near-death experience.

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Larry Charles, has been an integral part of TV shows and films that both reflected and made an impact on American popular culture.

He was a writer on Seinfeld, showrunner on Mad About You, a writer and executive producer on HBO's Entourage and a director and executive producer on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He directed Sacha Baron Cohen's films Borat and Bruno. He also collaborated with Bob Dylan on the film Masked and Anonymous.

• 

  Expert interviewer Terry Gross (NPR)

  From Peabody, Golden Globe, and Emmy Award-winning writer and director Larry Charles comes a rollicking journey through modern American comedy. He shares behind-the-scenes stories from his life's work. To tell his life story is to tell the story of modern American comedy. Over the last 40 years, few comedians have been a part of so many iconic, beloved projects. He was one of the original writers and producers on Seinfeld, directed over 20 episodes each of Curb Your Enthusiasm...

Larry David developed "Cosmo Kramer"

Larry Charles has a new memoir called Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter. When he says blood and guts, he means it. He and Sacha Baron Cohen took enormous risks with their films, in which Baron Cohen took his characters Borat and Bruno into the real world and shot scenes with people who thought Borat and Bruno were real people.

To expose antisemitism, racism, and homophobia, Baron Cohen's fictional characters pushed his targets to reveal their darker feelings and beliefs, and it sometimes ended in near violence, with Baron Cohen, Larry Charles and the crew fleeing.

(JimmyDore.com) All Israeli prime ministers lie with their fake names

Larry Charles also did a documentary series called Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy, where he went to dangerous places run by authoritarian rulers or were controlled by militias to see what comedy was like there. Larry Charles, welcome back to FRESH AIR.

Julia Louis Dreyfus as "Elaine"

LARRY CHARLES: Thank you. It's great to be here again. Thank you so much.

HOST TERRY GROSS: So the book starts with you having a heart attack and thinking...

CHARLES: *Laughter*

GROSS: This might be the end. Did facing the prospect of death make you rethink parts of your life and lead you to think you should rewrite parts of the book?

Woody Allen as Death

CHARLES: Well, I think it gave me a little more perspective on my own mortality. I have been obsessed with death since I'm a kid. But the reality of death and the obsession with death are two very different things.

And so I think I wanted to go back and be a little more honest and take a little bit more responsibility for my behavior. And I did add that layer to the book after all this happened.

GROSS: Yeah, because there's part of the book where you write you realized you were the agent of your own misfortune.

CHARLES: Very much so, yes.

GROSS: And that happened after...

CHARLES: And I had some bad agents, believe me. But I was...

GROSS: *Laughter* More: How Larry Charles went from selling jokes on the street to writing for 'Seinfeld' (NPR)

• *Anti-Dentite? The Yada Yada episode; Seinfeld lived on a kibbutz
• Psychedelic Therapy for Depression and Anxiety | Ketamine Therapy - Better U
• (The Tanya Rabbi) Jerry Seinfeld accused of being complicit in Gaza genocide: Is it an Ashkenazi white supremacist Jewish or Jewish superiority position to take to say we Jews have a "Jewish soul" that no one else has or can get. We are different. We are the best. Is that racist?

LA's Hsi Lai temple's 36th anniversary

It seems to have been a Taiwanese nunnery.

Fo Guang Shan's Hsi Lai Temple, at one time the largest Buddhist temple in the Western hemisphere (a title that may now belong to Chaung Yen Monastery in Upstate New York), is the North American regional headquarters of Fo Guang Shan.

• BUILDING THE TEMPLE at its current location in Hacienda Heights, LA County, survived six public hearings and more than 100 community meetings. In 1985, the temple was finally granted a building permit. The groundbreaking ceremony was held the following year. And the temple was completed on November 26, 1988. More
• CELEBRATIONS will be held between Dec. 22-29, 2024, according to the operator [at the contact number (626) 961-9697 and email info@ibps.org] who looked into it, possibly during a weeklong meditation retreat. See Hsi Lai Temple Events Calendar for future details
• 佛光百科 FoGuangPedia: Resources and Talks
• Humanistic Buddhism’s Paths to Happiness

It was built to serve as a spiritual and cultural center for those interested in learning more about Buddhism and Chinese (Taiwanese) culture.

It is the intention of its founder, Venerable Master Hsing Yun, to propagate Humanistic Buddhism (Chinese Mahayana) and to create a Pure Land here on earth.

Hsi Lai Temple is built to fulfill these goals in the United States. The Chinese words Hsi Lai mean “Coming (to the) West” and signify the dedication of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Order to spread the teachings of the Buddha (more emphasis on a "cosmic buddha" called Amitabha than the actual historical Buddha Gautama, a.k.a. Shakyamuni) to those in the West.

The International Buddhist Progress Society, a nonprofit organization, is the chartered name for the temple, and the temple has an affiliated and fully accredited Buddhist university in neighboring Rosemead, California, called University of the West. More: Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple

• Hsi Lai; VentureFull 2023 (video); CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Zen refuge: Huntington Botanical Garden

Asian garden pavilion sits on a lily pond with lotus flowers as tall pines, bamboos, and plum blossoms surround it: The lovely Lotus Pavilion (Martha Benedict/The Huntington/LAist.com)

.

Huntington Botanical Gardens in a new light

The Tao or "way" of Zen is [easy].

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is opening evening access to its Twilight Garden Strolls hours during the summer months so more people can enjoy the gardens in cooler temperatures. Previously, only members could get tickets to the special program.

Why the Huntington is extending hours: “Opening in the evening allows us to welcome more visitors who can enjoy green spaces and see our gardens in quite literally a different light,” said Director of Membership and Visitor Services at the Huntington Kristin Voss.

The program has been such a success for members that the Huntington is now expanding ticket access to the general public.

The cultivation of stillness, silence, absorption

• [EDITOR SEVEN: What is "Zen"? In English it means "flow state," "effortless creativity," "artless artfulness," "unpremeditated spontaneity," "calm," "ease," but in Japanese it comes from the Chinese Chan (channa), which is an attempt to pronounce the Pali jhana (from the Sanskrit dhyana), all of which mean "meditative absorption." If meditation in English means flapping our wings to get in the air, efforting to alight off a branch in a tree on a cliff, in Buddhist terms it is the bhavana or "cultivation" of the subsequent effortless soaring. Just let go of the branch.

• 

  What if? - Don't do that to yourself. Be here now
  

  We make an effort (dharana) to let go, allow, let it be, accept what is, breathe being aware only of that breathing, which keeps us in the present moment, not reacting to whatever arises but merely observing, not falling into the habit of escaping to the past and dragging it into the present, not leaping into the habit of escaping into the future and dragging it into the present, staying only here and now mindful (present with) of the present, watching, and remaining watchful.

• 

  Thinking is not the way. Let go. See. Allow.

  It is the nonabandoning of the moment, the nondistraction from the object, the following this very moment into calm presence, unification of mind, stillness, coherence, which are ways of saying samadhi. First there was the subject (me) and the object (what was observed). Then, for a moment, they were one; that is, there was no distinction. They merged, one absorbing into the other. It was so Zen.]

.

What’s different about the gardens in the evening hours: With the shift in temperatures and lighting, the gardens take on different sights, smells, and sounds.

One can see the campus during the “golden” or “magic” hour -- a favorite time for photographers when the sun is just about to set and casts an ethereal quality on plants and flowers.

Rose Garden Tempietto, Huntington Botanical Gardens (The Huntington)

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“The Desert Garden is one of my favorites,” said Voss. “There's something really lovely about the unusual shapes and colors matched with the warm tones of sunset during summer.”

How to take a tour after hours: This year, the Huntington has added Twilight Garden Estate Tours, a docent-led walk through many of the gardens and looks at some of the historic architectural features, on campus.

Docent leads Twilight Garden Estate Tour at Huntington Botanical Gardens (The Huntington)

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When and how to attend: There are three Twilight Garden Strolls left scheduled for the summer, but they will return. Hours are 4:30-8:00 pm. Reserve tickets ONLINE for $20.00. Tickets to the Estate Tours cost an additional $25.00. More: LAist.com

Wise quote and Zen comic art by Roshi Brad Warner, Angel City Zen, Los Angeles (WQ)

• Julia Paskin/LAist.com, July 21, 2024; CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Dhr. Seven (explanation of Zen), Wisdom Quarterly

LitFest in the Dena, Los Angeles (5/4-5)

LitFest 2024 (litfestinthedena.org)

This year’s theme is BOOKS THAT MADE THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

Neighborhoods, whether real or imagined, conventional or boundless, changing for better or worse, bestow an identity. They give us a way to see things – a way to see the world.

A neighborhood’s more than a collection of houses on a network of streets.

• LitFest 2024 Schedule PDF (litfestinthedena.org)
• Authors and Speakers – LitFest in the Dena

Storytelling, books, and poetry make us.

A neighborhood could be defined as a collection of people with unique experiences, conditions, and desires, who together form something bigger and more deeply affecting.

It’s where people engender powerful stories together. “It could be that the neighborhood, not the individual, is the essential unit of social change…when you think in neighborhood terms you see things previously rendered invisible.” — David Brooks, New York Times

• See 2024 SCHEDULE
• Full details: LitFest in the Dena

Books saved my life in solitary (Booker Prize)

Anita Singh, Telegraph, 11/27/23; Dhr. Seven, Ash Wells, Pat Mac (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Reading The Handmaid's Tale and cutting up our prison orange as the new black in Iran...

'Books could take me to another world'

If I could read just ONE book...

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed that she was saved from despair during captivity in Iran by reading a banned copy of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Booker Prize

She said that she and other cellmates maintained a secret library in Iranian prison. She was speaking at the ceremony for the 2023 Booker Prize, which was awarded to Paul Lynch for Prophet Song.

Prophet Song is set in a totalitarian Ireland, where the government has embraced tyranny and families live in fear of the secret police.

Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by Iranian authorities in 2016 on spying charges and spent almost six years in detention. She told the audience:

84,000 Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts found

“I spent nine months in solitary confinement with very little access to anything. Being claustrophobic, solitary was a horrific experience.

“After five months my family could bring me books. When the guard opened the door and handed over the books to me, I felt liberated; I could read books, they could take me to another world, and that could transform my life.”

Others left their books for us

In 2023 in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, 84 thousand unread manuscripts were discovered.

.

The books included War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope, and The Return by Hisham Matar.

But it was Margaret Atwood’s novel, belonging to a cellmate, which had the most profound effect.

“One day a cellmate received a book through the post [mail]; it was The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, translated into Farsi [Iranian language].

Who thought a book banned in Iran could find its way to prison through the mail? 

“When we left, we all bequeathed books to the secret library in the ward to keep our stories alive for others to come, just like others left their books for us to survive,” she said.

Ms. Zagahari-Ratcliffe previously revealed that she watched Andy Murray’s 2016 Wimbledon victory while in solitary confinement....

‘Stunning’ use of language

Paul Lynch was one of four Irish authors longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, which he attributed to the island country’s proud literary history.

“Writers like Beckett or [James] Joyce don’t just produce great works of literature, they transmit into the culture a massive energy and we’re still drawing on that, whether we realize it or not,” he said. More

• 32 secret meditation garden ideas for a peaceful outdoor space

Why Muslims destroyed world's 1st university

Bodhisattva, Jan. 30, 2022; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Why Muhammed Bakhtiyar Khilji burnt the Nalanda Buddhist University: the real reasons and firsthand accounts

(Bodhisattva) Why did Khilji slaughter thousands of monks and why did he then set the entire university on fire?

Was this the result of some misunderstanding or done on purpose with the objective of bringing Islam and driving Buddhism out of India? What do the accounts of the eyewitnesses of this unthinkable massacre tell us? Do they report a different motive for the bloodshed and burning of 9 million books?

Bakhtiyar Khilji arrived at Nalanda University with only 200 Central Asian horsemen. The six-story maha-vihara ("great monastery") looked like a huge military fort without any beginning or end.

Khilji killed thousands of monks and burned the nine-story library of the university. At any given time more than 1,500 Buddhist teachers and 10,000 students (first monastics then open to lay people from all over Asia) used to live in this university.

CHAPTERS

• 0:00 - Intro
• 2:02 - Eyewitness Accounts
• 5:01 - History and Significance of Nalanda University
• 8:28 - Destruction by Bakhtiyar Khilji
• 9:41- Impact on Buddhism

They were caught completely unaware of the impending attack. The next several hours were some of the most shameful hours in the long history of India (Great Bharat).

Every single teacher and student was murdered in one of the most horrible massacres the country has ever seen. The destruction was so complete that when he asked his soldiers to bring someone who could explain the content of the books, the soldiers could not find a single person alive.

They discovered that the entire city and hundreds of buildings spread in several kilometers was not a "fort" but a university, which the locals called Bihar (Vihar = monastic complex).

Khilji looted the monastery and obtained a great quantity of plunder. Before leaving the monastery, Khalji ordered the library and university to be set on fire.

With that, all the knowledge that was stored in those books and manuscripts was burned to ashes along with the bodies of the murdered monastics.

The millions of books of the library kept on burning for more than three months. But why did General Khalji kill thousands of innocent and unarmed monks, and why did he set the entire library and university on fire?

Was this result of some accidental misunderstanding or on purpose? What do the accounts of the eyewitnesses of this massacre tell us? Do they paint a better motive for the bloodshed and burning of millions of books?

Let’s explore one of the most shameful events in the history of humankind. #Nalanda #Khilji #University

CREDITS

• Timurid Siege of Multan (Mydust)
• Konark palm leaf manuscript (Amshpatten)
• Sanskrit written on the Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur (Matthew T. Rader)
• Ancient Monasteries Bihar Sharif (Odantapuribs)
• Front view of Vikramshila Monastery (Deepak Kumar Sharma)
• Buddhaghosa with three copies of Visuddhimagga (Photo Dharma)
• Painting of Battle of Tarain - Rajput States (Amit20081980)
• 1572-The Wounding of Khan Kilan by Rajputs-Akbarnama (Victoria and Albert Museum)
• Maharaja Chhatrasal (SPVCA)
• Nalanda University India (Hiroki Ogawa)

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The Buddha's declaration of attainments

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