Alan Watts: Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life

Alan Watts via KQED" Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life: S1 E4 - The Void | Remastered

The Grand Illusion: I am (a soul, a self)

Why “self” is the biggest illusion — Buddhist wisdom

Self is dependently originated.

(Buddhism Podcast) Buddhism Explained. Is your sense of “self” really what you think it is?

This video looks at the Buddhist teaching of “not-self” [that ALL things are impersonal] alongside insights from modern neuroscience.

Let’s see why the constant feeling of [me, myself, and] “I” may not be a fixed entity [remaining fixed through time] but an impersonal process the mind creates moment by moment.

Let’s learn about the Five Aggregates clung to as self —

1. form;
2. feelings,
3. perceptions,
4. mental formations, and
5. consciousness —

I am that beautiful I am. I am GOD. Right?

and how they shape the idea of a personal self. Modern brain science also points to the same conclusion: There’s no single control center in the brain that is “I.”

This isn’t about denying life, being confused by it, or falling into nihilism. It’s about understanding the true nature of experience and freeing ourselves from unnecessary ignorance, attachment (clinging), aversion, and tremendous amounts of suffering. What could set us free? The Truth sets one free.

• 

  It's a practice, not a theory of origins.

  [For anyone who foolishly says that because there is no self there is nothing, there is the profound ultimate truth of Dependent Origination, that all things that come to be come to be dependent on causes and conditions and not without them. But just as these things, these elements or ingredients, are not the constituent-composite-thing that seems to come into being when they come together, just so the only thing that really comes into being is unsatisfactory. It is ignorance (illusion). It is radically impermanent (in constant flux and hurtling towards destruction). Seeing this with clarity, with right view (vipassana, lit. "clear seeing"), the mind/heart lets go of what it was previously clinging to so fiercely. It is, according to the Buddha, on according of not seeing the truth of Dependent Origination that we continuously wander on through uncountable lives in search of pleasure, pleasant distractions, and fulfillment without find anything but unsatisfactoriness. But if I'm not my thoughts, who’s thinking them? Buddhism's answer changes everything and it can be verified, which leads to enlightenment in this very life!]

Let’s walk through the practical path of Virtue (Ethics, Morality, Kind), Stillness (Calm, Singlepointed, Concentration), and Wisdom (Insight, Right View, Enlightenment), leading to clarity and a deeper sense of freedom.

When rebirth ends, death ends

Where do I go after death? The Buddha's answer

• 00:00 - Why “I” feels so real
• 03:16 - What we’re made of 09:14 - How the mind creates the story of “me”
• 14:13 - When we let go completely [because we have seen things as they really are], peace reveals itself
• 19:05 - Life without the “self” — not “empty” but free

What really happens after death, according to Buddhism?

Rebirth leads to me.

This in-depth reflection explores the nature of rebirth, karma, the final moments of consciousness in one life before rearising in the next, and the 31 Planes of Existence (reduced to Six Realms in Three Spheres and countless worlds)—not as distant beliefs, but as states of mind shaped by intention.

Based on early Buddhist texts, this teaching points beyond the idea of a fixed self and reveals a deeper truth: liberation begins not at death, but in this very moment. [If we were to understand Dependent Origination, this moment itself could be the moment of realization and awakening to the Truth.]

• 00:00 - Who are we—before we ask where we’ll go
• 04:23 - What shapes the path after death?
• 09:18 - What are the [31 Planes of Existence, summarized as Six Realms, and countless] worlds of rebirth?
• 14:47 - What happens in the last moment of consciousness?
• 19:56 - The final answer: beyond maps and destinations

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: At [Buddhism Podcast] channel, we are committed to sharing the beauty and wisdom of Buddhist teachings with the purpose of education and inspiration. All our content is created with deep respect for the historical Buddha’s teachings, aiming to promote understanding, mindfulness, and compassion in everyday life. Our goal is to present the values and practices of Buddhism in a way that is accessible and beneficial to everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs. We do not seek to influence or alter anyone’s faith but simply to offer insights into the timeless wisdom of Buddhism as a source of guidance and positivity. This channel is a space for learning, reflection, and connection, guided by the principles of respect, kindness, and truth. If you have any feedback or concerns, we welcome open and respectful dialogue. Thank you for supporting our mission to share the meaningful messages of Buddhism with the world." #BuddhistWisdom #NoSelf #SpiritualAwakening

• Mirror self memes (tenor.com); Buddhism Podcast, Aug. 10, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Who's behind my eyes experiencing all this?

Who is the one behind our eyes? Buddhist insights beyond no-self

(Buddhism Podcast) Buddhism Explained. Right now, it feels like someone is watching from behind our eyes. Who is it? Buddhism teaches that what we call “self” (atta, atman, soul, ego, personality, essence) is not what it seems.

The Buddha didn’t just deny the self — he pointed to something much deeper, something that remains when the seeker disappears. This video follows the teachings on awareness, no-self, and the quiet presence that doesn’t need a name. The Buddha’s answer isn’t something to find — it’s what’s always been here.

• 00:00 - "No one there"...but why does it still feel like someone's watching?
• 05:37 - Not a person, just a process
• 10:25 - The final trap: holding onto "no-self"
• 14:46 - No one is seeing, but seeing still happens
• 18:51 - When the seeker disappears

#BuddhistWisdom #NoSelf #BehindYourEyes

• Buddhism Podcast, June 12, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

A life of white privilege is nice (NYU)

How to be an Antiracist (Kendi)

The thing about white privilege, like implicit bias, is that we don't know we have it. We would notice if we lost it through sudden poverty or loss of looks. We enjoy it, fail to check it, and offend a lot of people who are not similarly privileged in a deeply racist society. It's deep because it's not always on the surface, like when someone says we had a Black president. That proves we're not racist as a country? Let's ignore who has been president every other time (except for the first nine, who were also Black, and maybe Lincoln, but those nine do not count because technically we were not yet a country due to the Articles of Confederation not yet being ratified or something; we've covered this). We don't see our own privilege, yet seeing someone else's can be painfully obvious when we have been sensitized to what others have been talking about. It's good to be in the know rather than oblivious. Generational wealth, health, better treatment by police and clerks, courts and officials, being given the benefit of the doubt constantly... Watching Matt Walsh's recent "Am I Racist?" movie did more to make us think whites really are oblivious to the advantage(s) they enjoy and take for granted or who others are systematically mistreated and disadvantaged. White guilt is not the solution, but neither is white fragility. We have to awaken and work toward equality and equity or something approaching fairness and inclusion, not just those in power deciding what's "fair" enough.

We stand for justice...for lions.

The local Shambhala Buddhist Center in Los Angeles used to have an occasional white sensitivity class to discuss our privilege and issues that never get talked about but affect us all. Remember on "Seinfeld" how when race would come up, everyone would go silent and awkward? It's really like that. Was it because Kramer was in the room (on the set) and he might ad lib something? It would have been great to have a national conversation. Walsh's film didn't advance anything, only shining negative light on a new industry of DEI profiteers, as if it were all only them. Oh, before they came along everything was all right, right, Matt?

the mosaic of me (the video that got me rejected from NYU)

(NatalieAlbaugh) Sept. 24, 2024: I needed to make a video about myself to submit for my NYU college application back in 2023. This is that video, and although I may have not gotten into NYU, I'm so grateful to have this video to represent the first few chapters of my life. :)* Please watch until the end!

• Ashley Wells, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation)

Kornfield: Who are the 12 Living Masters?

Sharon, Joe, Jack, Sylvia(?) The Best of Sharon Salzberg: Life, Teachings, Quotes (Awaken)

Living Dharma: Teachings and Meditation Instructions from Twelve Theravada Masters

• The full classic text FREE: Living Buddhist Masters by Jack Kornfield (Internet Archive)

Once upon a young American from the Bay Area in California decided to go on a spiritual quest.

(Yes, that's true of writers at Wisdom Quarterly, but this time we're talking about Jack Kornfield, who preceded us).

Kornfield decided to seek the wisdom of the East along with his hippie friends from the East Coast.

Jack Kornfield: Life is funny because karma is.

While working in the Peace Corps and learning languages in Asia, he trained to be a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India (just like we did, although we added Sri Lanka, where many of the sutra texts are stored along with their chief translator, Bhikkhu Bodhi, our teacher and inspiration.

Buddhism for Beginners (Jack Kornfield)

Wishing to visit Thailand, a friend who became Tan Jess, and I heard about Kornfield's guide to young seekers, which talks about a dozen living masters one might possibly study under in the original wandering ascetic forest tradition). Kornfield was good enough to write about his experiences under ten teachers, ten living Buddhist masters, for a Western audience back home. Not everyone is called to let it all go and go East. (But we were). Thankfully, Kornfield was.

The Wise Heart (Jack Kornfield)

Miraculously, he found what he was looking for, and not only he but at least four others. All seem to have attained the path of stream entry (the first stage of enlightenment) there under Dipa Ma and others.

There is Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein (IMS, IMS Forest Refuge), Sylvia Boorstein, and we could swear there was someone else who is not Trudy Goodman (founder of InsightLA.org) because she came into Kornfield's life much later and is now his wife, but maybe it was his previous wife, Liana.

Kornfield awakened (probably in Dipa Ma's living room in India), was sent back to the US, and is now the co-founder of the Bay Area's Spirit Rock Meditation Center near San Francisco and one of the co-founders of Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.

What does Kornfield teach?

Where does he teach? Spirit Rock and InsightLA

Kornfield has worked to make Buddhism accessible for Westerners [10], combining loving-kindness and self-compassion with the practice of mindfulness. He incorporates the wisdom of Eastern and Western psychology. In his book After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, he writes about the honest development of the wise heart within the cycles of day-to-day life.

Original 1977 cover of the book

For instance, "amid all the Western masters and teachers I know, some idealistic perfection is not apparent.

"Times of great wisdom, deep compassion, and a real knowing of freedom alternate with periods of fear, confusion, neurosis, and struggle. "Most teachers will readily admit this" (pg. xix).

Kornfield's early lectures were featured by Joe Frank on his radio series "The Other Side." More

• Jack Kornfield, Living Buddhist Masters (Internet Archive, archive.org); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ajahn Mahindo (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Crash course in Feng Shui (video)

Self-discipline enables the magic of martial arts

Maybe the Western world is a little off track

White men can't jump (or cook rice correctly)

What could females do with training and discipline?

Homeless freeway mansions of Los Angeles

The solution to homelessness could be easy and inexpensive rather than a bureaucratic mess.

.

Not all 'homeless' are alike on the streets of LA

What will become of the people in Los Angeles who are priced out of the housing market and oftentimes strung out on drugs? Even if they are detoxed and recover from addiction, what does the city and county plan to do with the billions devoted to solving the system problem? New stories like this only highlight what every Angeleno knows is going on under every freeway overpass and most sidewalks in plain sight.

Riverside properties along the 110 Freeway in Highland Park are a nuisance to nearly no one.

There may be tiny homes nearby, but they are run like a prison and people do not want that.

• 

  If only the inside were clean

  Homeless families say they have "no choice" but to take up space next to dangerous freeways because they can't find housing or jobs.
• Some of the unhoused have taken creative measures to bring creature comforts to their tiny shanty homes.
• The freeway families say they "look out for one other" and have built their own tiny community.
• Caesar Duarte didn't flinch as an Amazon truck barreled down the busy 110 Freeway in Los Angeles, missing his makeshift home by just a few feet.

I want to go off grid and live in peace

The only thing that stood between Duarte's outdoor kitchen and speeding vehicles was a three-foot retaining wall and metal fencing. 

The 44-year-old mechanic and house painter said he has learned to deal with the danger and noise since he erected his homestead by the freeway about four years ago.

With all new materials, a home like this might only cost $40K to build and place on a foundation

Is there any hope for a future of modular homes with A/C and protection from rain and sun?

.

Could there be a double wide mansion on wheels?

"It doesn't bother me, and also I have no choice," Duarte told DailyMail.com. "Everything is too expensive. Rent is too expensive, and right now it's hard to find jobs.

"We are struggling like everyone here. We don't have any problems with anyone, and we don't make problems with anyone. The neighbors, we take care of one another."

Is there a homeless crime problem? Yes

• More + PHOTOS: Inside LA's ramshackle city built on the side of a busy freeway
• ‘I’m a builder by day then go home to my squat’
• A better tiny home: Abodu Quiz

What's the tiniest "home" possible? LA's plan for "tiny tent" housing

With more than $100 million to spend, Mayor Karen Bass and LA County should be able to afford at least 800 "tiny tents," according to Fishbone and Crab in the Morning on 95.5 FM (j/k).

If they don't like their tiny tents, we have ways to convince or house them in our jails - LAPD

• Hike along California coast on popular beachside trail
• 1 in 3 young women identify as LGBTQ+ reveals study
• 20 states with the highest LGBTQ+ population percentage
• 19 ways gender disparity negatively impacts men
• 21 reasons Americans are less tactile than rest of world
• 1 US dollar = 156.0400 Japanese yen
• 60 year-old breaks stereotypes as she is crowned Miss Universe Buenos Aires
• Selena Gomez says unrealistic beauty standards make her “sad for my generation”
• REVEALED: The Midwestern city where Americans can still make a killing on property after prices surged 52% in a year, with plentiful skilled jobs, cute streets, and lush greenery fueling country's hottest property market | Daily Mail Online
• Daily Mail (mailonline.co.uk) via MSN, 4/25/24; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly LIVE from Highland Park, along the Arroyo Mojado (LA River tributary)

Mushroom Motherboard: fungus computing

Simon Whistler, Megaprojects, 3/4/24; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

How ancient and important are mushrooms to this world? Ask Paul Stamets (fungi.com)

(TED Talk by Paul Stamets) Six Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World [they built in the first place]

The Mushroom Motherboard: The crazy fungal computers that might change everything

Mycorrhizal relationship of mushrooms

(Megaprojects) March 4th, 2024: Let's unlock the secrets of fungal computing to discover the mind-boggling potential of fungi as living computers. From the Wood Wide Web to the Unconventional Computing Lab, witness the evolution of mushroom technology. A "mushroom" is the fruiting body of a much larger network called the mycelia [the world's first Internet], the matted undergrowth of connections in forest and field. It was the earth's first communication network of hyphae, the mycorrhiza (CMN) or symbiotic relationship between fungi and green plants. That mushrooms would serve as entheogens (substances capable of manifesting the divine within) for humans and animals is an amazing coincidence. Or is it a correspondence to something, as one of our earliest human ancestors?

• Denver introduces psychedelic crisis training program

Got a beard? Good: beardblaze.com. Simon Whistler's social media: Twitter: simonwhistler

Is consciousness an illusion? (video)

Kmele Foster, Dispatches from The Well, Big Think, Jan. 11, 2024; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Jump real spiritual answers from Hindu monk Swami Sarvapriyananda, Vedanta Society. New York

Is consciousness an illusion? 5 experts explain

(Big Think) “If science aims to describe everything, how can it not describe the simple fact of our existence?”

On this episode of Dispatches, Kmele Foster speaks with the scientists, mathematicians, and spiritual leaders trying to do just that.

This video is an episode from @The-Well, a publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation.

Subscribe to The Well on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/thewell-youtube Watch the full podcast now ► • Dispatches from The Well. In the newest episode of Dispatches from The Well, we’re diving deep into the “hard problem of consciousness.”

Here, Kmele Foster combines the perspectives of five different scientists, philosophers, and spiritual leaders to approach one of humanity’s most pressing questions: What is consciousness?

In the AI age, the question of consciousness is more prevalent than ever. Is every single thing in the universe self-aware? What does it actually mean to be conscious? Are our bodies really just a vessel for our thoughts?

Foster asks these and many more questions in the most thought-provoking episode yet. This is Dispatches from The Well. Featuring: Sir Roger Penrose, Christof Koch, Melanie Mitchell, Reid Hoffman, Swami Sarvapriyananda.

Read video transcript ► bigthink.com/the-well/dispatc...

ABOUT: Kmele Foster is a media entrepreneur, commentator, and regular contributor to various national publications. He is the co-founder and co-host of The Fifth Column, a popular media criticism podcast. He is the head of content at Founders Fund, a San Francisco based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies, and a partner at Freethink, a digital media company focused on the people and ideas changing our world. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

• Read more from The Well:
• Actually, neuroscience suggests the “self” is real ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/actuall...
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein can illuminate the debate over generative AI ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/mary-sh...
• Few of us desire true equality. It’s time to own up to it ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/few-des...

About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup

Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ► Facebook: https://bit.ly/thewellFB ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/thewellIG

Life in Buddhist Japan is a rollercoaster ride

ReutterFamily.com, Life in Japan, 11/3/23; CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Riding Japan's most thrilling rides at Fuji-Q Highland | Life in Japan

(Life in Japan) In Episodes 229 and 234, the expat Reutter family (Ruth, Nate, Anna, and Rebecca) goes on an adventure to Fuji-Q Highland,  home of some of Japan's most intense amusement rides, after an epic Japanese celebration that shut down the town. It's Rebecca and Anna's 14th birthday, so we're coming to try them out. As globetrotter on a trompe le monde, life in a Buddhist country is pretty sweet with lots of intercultural exchange. #lifeinjapan

For lots of additional content in English, see the website ReutterFamily.com. Check out Paz Japan Channel: pazchurch. For Paz Coffee Shop: pazcoffeeshop.com. Nate's Instagram: NateReutter. Ruth's Instagram: RuthReutter.  Japanese Translation Team: Ryoji and Miruka.

"Til Death Do Us Part?" (book)

Christopher Nyerges, School of Self-Reliance; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Author Christopher Nyerges (left) guides survival students through the woods.

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How Death Taught Us Some of Life's Most Important Lessons

Dolores Nyerges on the cover

How can we deal with death in an uplifting and positive way? This book covers some of the lessons about death from the life of author Christopher Nyerges and his deceased wife Dolores.

These are the collected stories of how the author and his wife dealt with death, together, after her parting. Included are lessons about how:

• to support those whose spouses have passed away,
• having pet animal funerals,
• how to prepare for the inevitability of death,
• how to “be with” a loved one when s/he dies,
• and more.

These are true stories!

There are sections about dealing with “ghosts” and poltergeists and the strong possibility of an afterlife. The book is presented as a series of vignettes, all true-life stores and real-life examples.

It is not a “how-to” book, but one presented in such a way to assist anyone who is going through something similar on account of death.

Nyerges is a prolific author.

This book also deals with the details of how Dolores died and how her body was kept for three days in the home [in the tradition of a wake or vigil].

Numerous reviewers have been emotionally moved by reading the accounts of how Dolores’ body was dealt with, how her body was preserved for three days at home before cremation, and how her friends honored her life. They have declared it a wonderful and touching book. More

• EAT TO YOUR HEALTH! Medicine and Plant walk – School of Self-Reliance

Foraging Wild Edible Plants of North America

REVIEW: What awaits us? 'After Death' (film)

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Angel Studios, Premieres in L.A. on 10/26/23

This is a famous Buddhist thangka design about samsara, the Wheel of Becoming or Bhavachakra, cyclical rebirth as incessant oppression until one awakens from the illusory that was never real.

About Death

YOLO? No. How many lives are lived? Countless.

Opening this week is a movie about a most amazing subject: We don't die. We're alive now, and we'll be more alive when we're gone. This is the less real of the two places, a short reprieve, a chance to do much merit that would be useful in the hereafter. Near-death experiences change people, usually for the better, making experiencers much more aware of the purpose and value of this life. For most of us, not having a preview (except maybe through this movie), we squander this life, failing to appreciate what potential it held. Do it. Do something. Meditate. Study. Realize the Truth. YOLO? Ha, not even close.

WISDOM QUARTERLY REVIEW

Survival of Bodily Death (Dr. R. Moody)

This is an excellent documentary, with testimony by those who have directly experienced "death" (in the medical sense because all of them without fail, whether they had an ecstatic celestial experience or a dismal infernal experience or both, attests to the fact that WE DO NOT DIE at what we call "death."

Universally, a person who has a near death experience (NDE) loses the fear of death. Here we are in a sleepy illusion; by contrast (as the ancient Greek philosopher Plato noted in his discussion of forms and his Allegory of the Cave) there is the wakeful real thing.

The choice of a name for the movie is the oddest thing, as this documentary is all about Life after Life, as Dr. Raymond Moody, who also appears in the movie, named his famous book.

We do not die then become alive again, as many people misinterpret Buddhism and the other Dharmic religions to teach. Buddhist teachings, particularly in the Abhidhamma, state that the next life commences immediately, instantaneously, at the very next moment.

Excellent Buddhist explanation by Western monk

What causes confusion is talk of the bardo or "intermediary state" between this life and a future life. What happens in between is still life, life that began right after the last moment of the previous life. (This may be understood as one ego passing, the gandhabba or transitional-being (becoming) having experiences then another rebirth of longer duration:

If two lives are long and the one in between is short, this might lead to the confusion that one was "dead" in between "life" and the "afterlife" when, clearly, one was alive all along for all three lives, as well as the many lives that came before and the many to come hereafter.

We are dying at every moment, but what is reborn in the very next sub-moment is nearly identical, so we don't notice the falling away in rapid succession. The rearising moment after moment comes to seem like a "being" is living when in fact a "becoming" is becoming, passing away, rearising, passing away, rearising...

When there's a stark break in circumstances -- a new body, a new name, new circumstances, new characteristics, all born of karma -- one might well conclude that one has died and been reborn, never noticing that that was happening all along.

This is the meaning of impermanence (anicca), not that one will eventually die and pass away but rather that what is conceived of as "self" is passing away all of the time, incessantly without respite until we awaken from the illusion (delusion), arrive at enlightenment, and experience nirvana.

Life after life after life...

The Evidence Under Hypnosis

Life is not forever because one (the Five Aggregates clung to as self) will one day die but because whatever is conceived of as self is passing away, passing away, passing away... Nirvana is the deathless state (amata) when this is no longer the case: With the end of rebirth, all suffering is ended, and death is ended.

Having a Buddhist on or even religious scholars representing many traditions would have added great dimension to this film, but as was stated, this is largely a Christian film all about the science, the objective facts lined up alongside the story of the personal experiences of NDE characters.

Dr. Helen Wambach, Ph.D.

Adding in the scientific data gathered by researcher Dr. Helen Wambach, Ph.D., from her detailed scientific studies presented in the book Reliving Past Lives may have done wonders for bringing together the subjective accounts and the objective facts. He gathered and documented more objective data than any of the doctors in the film, although she gathered data through tens of thousands of hypnotic regression sessions (and progressions into future lives) and the film is dealing with NDE accounts.

Along with the teachings of Christianity, which is the driving force of this movie and its makers, a lone Buddhist subject tells his story of suicide, a negative NDE that turns positive, and being resuscitated and glad to be on earth in the hospital. His mother, a nurse, saw him take his own life, prompted by an unclean spirit, and she is at his bedside crying when he returns to life.

Karma and Rebirth (Appleton)

He ends up becoming a U.S. military chaplain, talking about God and a merciful son listening to soldiers' tales of war atrocities and their deep remorse for unskillful karma, no longer referring to a Buddhism he never really studied or understood when he was a Korean Mahayana Buddhist immigrant becoming an American rocker, drug abuser, and suicide victim.

(Suicide may be self-victimhood, but Chaplain Kevin speaks of an unwholesome spirit who tricked him, prompted him, and directed him on how to take his own life. He was tricked by being offered a deal that if he killed himself, that old man spirit would get his time in hell reduced by 50,000 years, just like a lawyer making big claims for some ulterior motive).

Most of the talking heads, according to the screen notes under their names, end up being best-selling authors, who wrote out their stories in gratitude for getting more time to live. They are not simply average citizens chosen at random to be on screen.