2026 Buddhist Film Festival (6/16-30)

A 15-day film festival co-presented by Tricycle Magazine and the Pure Land Foundation runs from June 16–30, 2026. All are invited to join for Tricycle’s third annual Buddhist Film Festival, offering five feature-length films and five short films from across the Buddhist world that can be watched all festival long. Tricycle is pleased to co-present this year’s festival with the Pure Land Foundation. Tickets are $40 for general admission and $30 for subscribers. — Get tickets below. Please note that the festival is only available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. TICKETS

(Asangoham) What are the ancient teachings of Pure Land Buddhism?

• Tricycle's Buddhist Film Festival
• Tricycle.org; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen Bradshaw (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Comedy: It's a mad MAD (Magazine) (film)

(YouTube Movies & TV) "When We Went MAD!" (full film)

Go mad. Enlist. Kill for patriotism and bank profits.

MAD is an American humor magazine that was launched in 1952 and is currently published by DC Comics, a unit of the DC Entertainment subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.

MAD was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines [2], launched as a comic book series before it became a magazine. It was widely imitated and influential, affecting satirical American media, as well as the cultural landscape of the late 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than two million during its 1973–1974 circulation peak [3].

It is the last surviving title in the EC Comics line, which sold Mad to Premier Industries in 1961 but closed in 1956.

Mad publishes satire on all aspects of American life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. Its format includes TV and movie parodies and satire articles about everyday occurrences that are changed to seem humorous.

Mad's mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, is usually on the cover. More: Mad (magazine)

Jimmy Kimmel: Trump, end of year wrap

(Jimmy Kimmel Live)

(The Daily Show) Trump's Award Tour: FIFA Peace Prize Laureate, Kennedy Center Honors

(Daily Show) Trump goes "Captain Phillips" on Venezuelan oil tanker, and MAGA purges "woke" fonts, and Pres. Maduro sings "Don't Worry, Be Happy"

(IHIP News) I've Had It: FBI Director Ka$h Patel in front of Congress

(Jordan Klapper) Does war criminal Trump deserve a peace prize?

Trump ended so many wars, it's impossible for MAGA to name one

(Democracy Now!) Rep. Delia Ramirez files to impeach of Kristi Noem

Remembering madness of Mad Magazine

This video is about Mad Magazine

It's like SNL in comic book form

(Jedd.0953) Sept. 30, 2024: The world of satirical humor owes a great debt to the goofballs who created Mad Magazine.

Every generation has some connection to the Mad brand, but there really aren't many fun videos surrounding its legacy as a brand, so here we go with one attempt.

💀Music ListWandering - District LostSuperNova- District LostHow Far? - District LostFunGun - DainumoBad Micheal Jackson 8bitLemon Demon - Hyakugojyuuichi 2003Bizet - HabaneraNever Gonna give You Up 8bitJellies Theme SongInstagram 💀/ j3dd.0 Twitter 💀https://x.com/NitroGaiden

A new kind of PORN? 🍆👩‍🦽😲 (video)

Lady Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has criticized 'virtue signaling' (YouTube.com/The Telegraph)

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Sophia Leone dead in the Age of Selfishness

[“Porn” has many meanings and seems to be able to refer to anything we obsess over or fetishize. Disasters, doom-scrolling, torture, music, manga animation, anything that excites interest. But inspiration?]

Paralympian Baroness Grey-Thompson has said disabled people are not all “heroes,” as she pushed back against the concept of “inspiration porn.” 

The 54-year-old wheelchair racing champion said disabled [or otherwise-abled] people were often treated as if they were “brave and marvelous” simply for getting up in the morning.

‌The Welsh life peer recalled how her wheelchair-user friend who is an accountant was once described as an “inspiration” by a stranger.

She told the Desperately Seeking Wisdom podcast: “I was with a friend a little while ago, who is a wheelchair user as well, and somebody came up to her and they recognized me as an ex-athlete and that was lovely.”

“And they said to my friend, ‘Oh, you’re inspirational as well.‌’ And she’s an accountant. I’m not sure you generally call accountants ‘inspirational.’”

Lady Grey-Thompson, who amassed 11 gold medals over 16 years, said this perception “gets a bit complicated” when it comes to sporting figures (Andrew Yates/AFP/The Telegraph).

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Now that's porn I can sit behind!

She added that the reality is there are some disabled people who will struggle to get out of bed in the morning and struggle to work. “There’s also a lot of non-disabled people [who] will struggle with that.

“Just because we have an impairment, it doesn’t mean to say we’re heroes.”

The former athlete went on to voice her annoyance with “virtue signaling” and the misconception that the 2012 Paralympics “changed the world” for disabled people.

Power sports to politician

“As much as I loved the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, I worked on the bid, and I worked on delivery, and I worked on legacy. It was amazing. That has not changed the world for disabled people.” 

“People say, ‘Oh 2012 changed the world,’ because it makes them feel better. “Well, it’s almost like we don’t have to do anything else because we had the Paralympics in the UK. And I get really annoyed by that.”

Lady Grey-Thompson said the “reality” is that people don’t know “how hard life can be for disabled people.” 

“You know, making trains step-free is going to be expensive and a lot cheaper if they started it 30 years ago. So it’s things like that.‌

They say magic is unreal, so was this just good timing? Why does she stiffen?

It's a man's world? Pay the toll or Troll says 'no go'

I may be a superheroine, but not for this chair.

“Train access hasn’t improved, inspiration porn hasn’t improved, education for disabled children is still a struggle, access to sport facilities is still a struggle.” Source

Sign up to the Front Page newsletter for free: It’s the essential guide to the day’s agenda from The Telegraph -- direct to inboxes seven days a week.

• The Telegraph, 4/5/24: ‘Inspiration porn’ (The Telegraph via MSN)
• Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Lion's Roar mag: Heart Sutra, Halloween...

Lionsroar.com, Top Stories, 10/31/23; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Unlocking the Wisdom of the Heart Sutra

The Heart Sutra is a pithy, powerful text. If one understands it, says Ven. Guan Cheng, one understands the Buddha’s teachings. From the November 2023 issue of Lion’s Roar.

The Great Lessons of Halloween

What do we want to be for Halloween? Who do we want to be in life? Ira Sukrungruang on the costumes we wear.

How to Set Better Boundaries

Guided by Buddhist teachings on the brahmaviharas ("Diving Abidings"), Elizabeth Hernandez-Stomp helps us learn when to say yes and how to say no. [To read this article in Spanish] Para leer este articulo en español: “Cómo establecer mejor nuestros límites”

Share Your Wisdom: Do you practice loving-kindness meditation?
If so, how has it changed your life or practice? Send your answer, location, and a photo of yourself to themoment@lionsroar.com for possible inclusion in Lion’s Roar magazine.

Joseph Goldstein: It’s Not Either-Or

In this conversation with Buddhadharma (the Teachings of the Buddha), the Insight Meditation Society co-founder applies the “harmonized understanding” approach championed in his book One Dharma to the idea of buddhanature. In the end, it’s not about who’s right or wrong about it. It’s about what leads us to less clinging. From the Fall 2023 “Buddhanature” issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Guide.

The 17th Annual Lion’s Roar Online Auction begins November 13, 2023

It’s that time of year again! The 17th annual Lion’s Roar Online Auction, the biggest fundraising event of the year, is starting soon.

Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche completes US tour in New York, Montana, and Colorado

Through September and October, Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche, the spiritual heir and grandson of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, visited the US to offer teachings in New York, Montana, and Colorado.

For subscribers: “Short, Simple, Lovely Meditations” Audio Pack

This audio series available exclusively to Lion’s Roar subscribers is designed to help even the busiest of us find a few brief moments to practice through short but powerful meditations. We can all spare a few minutes to come back to the present moment, and these short, simple, lovely meditations do just that.

AD: Online course, Nectar of the Path: Teachings on the Path of Awakening (tergar.org)

10.31.2023

British comedy is against Trump (video)

Russell Howard, April 6, 2023; Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

King of Amerikkka, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Melania, King Charles, Concubine Camilla (PBS)

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Trump is going to "Make Jail Great Again" | The Russell Howard Hour

A Trump crumpet = Trumpet

(Russell Howard) In this compilation from The Russell Howard Hour, let's take a look back at some of the events leading up to the Trumpet's arrest, as well as some of the Crumpet's best (worst) moments.

Welcome to the official Russell Howard channel. Subscribe to watch the very best Russell Howard clips, twitter, facebook. Watch new episodes every Thursday at 10:00 pm on Sky1 #RussellHoward

American mockery of Trump

(Daily Show/Jordan Klepper) US loves its king whether he's right or right

May issue "Lion's Roar" Buddhist magazine

May issue of Lion's Roar (mailchi.mp); Ananda (DMB), Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

WELCOME TO THE MAY ISSUE

The Buddha's Eightfold Guide to Life His Step-by-Step Teachings for Less Suffering and More Joy Subscribe today to read the May issue online.

Over 20 years ago, I took an Abhidhamma ("Higher Teaching") course at my Sri Lankan temple in Los Angeles. After the first class, I thought, “Man, Buddhists really love lists!”

As the weeks went by, my teenage mind was inundated by the Five Aggregates (khandhas), the four types of consciousness (citta), the different mental factors (cetasikas) -- ranging from 42 to 52 depending on tradition -- the 12 causal links (nidanas) of Dependent Origination, and more, including subdivisions involving even more lists.

This issue of Lion’s Roar explores one of Buddhism’s most essential lists, that of the Ennobling Eightfold Path (part of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment), right:

1. view,
2. thought,
3. speech,
4. action,
5. livelihood,
6. effort,
7. mindfulness,
8. concentration.

As Sister True Dedication explains, the great thing about the Eightfold Path is that “each element of the Path contains the other seven within it, and they work together to create a complete path to liberation.”

Throughout this issue, Lion's Roar authors reveal the intertwined nature of different elements of the Path. They stress the importance of the Eightfold Path in our lives off the meditation cushion, through compassionate interaction with our world.

We don’t need Buddhism to explain these concepts: Koun Franz argues in his examination of how "right view" is rooted in a realization of suffering, impermanence, and non-self [the unfulfilling, unstable, and impersonal nature of all phenomena and states of rebirth].

“What Buddhism does is to say, these things matter.” These days, when I teach the Eightfold Path to the tweens and teens at my temple’s Sunday School, I emphasize its nonlinear and circular nature.

I tell them, “If you’re doing one, you’re doing them all.” I tell them, “Try to embody just one element of the Eightfold Path every day. The rest will fall into place.”

- Associate Editor Mihiri Tillakaratne

TAKE A SNEAK PEEK INSIDE THE ISSUE

What Really Makes Us Happy

As a Buddhist teacher, psychiatrist, and leading researcher, Dr. Robert Waldinger studies life from three very different perspectives.

But he says they all come to the same basic conclusion about what really makes our lives happy and meaningful and what doesn’t. More

The Path of Joy and Liberation

The Buddha’s Four Noble [Ennobling] Truths include the truth that the Eightfold Path is a way out of suffering. It’s not just the path to happiness, says Sister True Dedication, it’s happiness itself. [After all, there is no way to happiness because happiness is the way.] More

Realize Your True Nature

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche presents practices for recognizing the true nature of mind — empty [impersonal] and open, luminous and aware. More

Subscribe to Lion's Roar to read the May issue online.

Lion's Roar Magazine Audio Library

Lion's Roar; Ananda (Dharma B Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha's declaration of attainments

Get 12 audio collections free as a subscriber. Start listening today. 

When one becomes a Lion's Roar subscriber, one gets unlimited access to everything on the website, including Lion's Roar magazine, plus special collections of exclusive content including 20 e-books, 12 audio collections, and a 15-year magazine archive.

Learn Buddhist perspectives on navigating difficult times, practices for finding peace of mind, heartfelt stories that offer warmth and connection, and much more.

The exclusive subscriber audio library offers 12 collections of guided meditations, Buddhist teachings, and exclusive interviews. Enjoy audio programs like:

🎧 Meditations for Befriending Yourself

🎧 Cultivating Positive Habits of Mind

🎧 Great Dharma Teachers: Mushim Patricia Ikeda

🎧 How to Die a Good Death

🎧 Meditations and Advice for Tough Times

Enjoy 12 audio series free with subscription. Start listening today. SUBSCRIBE TO LISTEN NOW Included in each subscription:

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All are invited to subscribe to Lion's Roar to experience all the wisdom, practices, and helpful advice it has to offer. All content is accessible on digital devices, so it can be taken wherever one goes.

• Subscribe to Lion’s Roar – Lions Roar

FTX, WTF? Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto crimes

Kevin T. Dugan, Matt Stieb, THE MONEY GAME (NYMag.com, Intelligencer, 11/16/22); Sheldon S., Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Awkward, on the spectrum, math genius Sam (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)

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8 more disturbing revelations about Sam Bankman-Fried

The first stage of any collapse is confusion, maybe even schadenfreude (German for "delight in another's misery").

A polycule of 10 live in sex partners for Sam

It was no different during the wild week when [the new oversexed Bernie Madoff] Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the supposed crypto wunderkind and founder of FTX, tried and failed to sell his imploding empire only to find himself totally broke, his companies bankrupt, and his sexual polycule (FTX circle all "dated" each other in the Bahamas crypto mansion) perhaps no longer in the mood. (Read about all that sex story here).

OMG! I could have lived like Sam did!!!

The stage after that, though, is fear — and that is precisely where we are now. The sum of Bankman-Fried may have added up to less than his parts, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was deeply interconnected with the worlds of politics and finance beyond the relatively small world of digital currencies.

Since his bankruptcy filing, the crypto empire Bankman-Fried presided over has been subject to even more embarrassing and damning revelations, and he is the target of multiple investigations.

It is still too early to say that he’s headed for prison: If the prior big financial crisis taught us anything, it’s not to be shocked when nobody gets arrested for obvious crimes — but that is certainly a strong possibility. Here’s what we’ve learned about SBF since Friday.

• LISTEN: Follow Cover Story: Seed Money a podcast about the secret life of a billionaire

FTX software had a very illegal-sounding back door for moving huge sums of money

Who can judge but a magistrate, so it’s not up to us to decide what’s against the law. But we’ve got eyes.

Over the weekend, it was revealed — first by Reuters — that a back door was written into the code at the FTX crypto exchange that allowed Bankman-Fried to move customer deposits from that platform to his (supposed completely separate) hedge fund, Alameda Research.

In essence, this was a way to keep quiet the alarm bells that would have started to ring if anyone else had been aware that he was moving this money. All told, Reuters reported that $1 billion was missing. More

DI: British Royals are Reptilians (NY Mag)

Hua Hsu (nymag.com); Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

We are “sheeple,” and our Overlords are Reptilian aliens (who come from inside Earth)

Reptilian possession: British Royal Family (illustration*)

When David Icke (pronounced \ike\) announced to the world in March of 1991 that he was [blowing the whistle as a] fringe prophet: He had something to lose.

The Englishman had played professional soccer briefly in the early 1970s before arthritis forced an early retirement. He parlayed his connections into a successful and highly visible career as a journalist, TV host, and sportscaster.

But in Icke’s retelling, this line of work began to feel vapid and unfulfilling. A visit to a psychic healer named the threat Icke felt coursing through his aching limbs: He had been chosen to save the human race.

Would most recognize a Reptilian humanoid?

But from what? Icke spent the rest of the decade fleshing out his prophecies, becoming a one-stop global clearinghouse for any and all fringe theories, from UFOlogy to the Illuminati to Matrix-style media critique to Occupy Wall Street (about which he made a documentary after traveling to New York).

Dragons can be good, as in China, less so in India

His cosmology is...wide-ranging, absorbing all conspiracy theories into a single, massive omni-theory. The details appeal to specific audiences — the decline/fall/looting of America is a perennial favorite — but its power is in how Icke connects the dots between every conceivable anti-­Establishment belief system.

The starting premise is that the vast majority of humans suffer from being enslaved [and exploited as as wage slaves in a disaster-capitalist system, ogres, yakkhas, maras, asuras, and royal-nagas known as] shape-shifting reptilian overlords.

We slip serpentine elements into our logos

They are both non-human aliens and natives of this hollow Earth, and they include the British royal family [with dragon and serpent insignia], much of the remaining European aristocracy, and various global power brokers — a clandestine network called the Babylonian Brotherhood.

Together, this global elite controls the media, science [funded gatekeepers], [mass] religion, the Internet [and its algorithms], all governments [to some degree].

GOP 'n Dems, same thing, one Party, two wings

The rest of us, Icke says, are “sheeple” who lack the consciousness to see the world for what it is. It is a struggle of Them vs. Us, where basically anything — [Nazi pacification program] fluoridated water, the NSA [and other clandestine alphabet agencies like the CIA], Bob Hope [popular personalities used to promote industry and/or militarism], pedophilia [PizzaGate, the dark side of Hollywood, Q Anon, and both wings of the Money Party, particularly the Clintons, Bidens, Mark Epstein, Ghislane Maxwell, Trumps, Bushes, and Obamas] — stands in as evidence of their power.

Twenty years after Icke changed a career on TV [from complicity to whistleblowing], the plain-spoken "messiah" has found his audience on the Internet.

Icke’s followers cut across party and class lines, and he travels the world giving radiantly strange, nine-hour performances [talks exposing what is right in front of us but not recognized as insidious]. His appearances are equal parts lecture, motivational speech, revival meeting, and peace-and-love dance party.

He stages an annual daylong event at Wembley Arena in London and has sold out New York’s Nokia Theater many times. Source

• *Illustration by Darrow [Photo: Rex/Hugo Burnand/Clarence House/AP (royal family); Paul Edwards/AFP/Getty (Queen's body); Alamy (lizard heads); Getty (lizard tail)]
• UAP Ep 44: Are reptilian aliens abducting humans to create a new race? – Fox Sports 640 South Florida
• Reptilians in the News: Rare, never-before-seen baby albino Galapagos giant tortoise debuts at Switzerland zoo (MSN)
• American royalty: The Amber Heard op-ed Depp sued over has now been modified
• Investigators believe suspected Serial Killer cop might have murdered 15-year-old girl, who was found tied up to tree in 1974

The Dalai Lama on the coronavirus

Jason Duaine Hahn (people, 4/20); Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Time reached out to dependable operative, the 14th Dalai Lama, to say the right things.

When the CIA/CCP military-industrial complex wants 5G and a bioweapon, they mean it.

Let us bow in prayer for all people [terrorized by gov't power grabs] (Jim Dyson/Getty).

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Dispel fear with metta (McQuinlan/Getty).

The Dalai Lama says, "Prayer is not enough" [although meditation might be] in response to the coronavirus: "We must all take [some] responsibility [to help each other]."

The 14th Dalai Lama stressed the importance of compassion and courage [not giving into fear] in an interview with Time.

The Dalai Lama is calling for more “compassion” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Future-Buddha Maitreya (Thikse Gompa, Ladakh)

In an interview with Time published on Wednesday, the Dalai Lama — the spiritual leader of Tibet in exile (in the Himalayas of Dharamsala, India) — touched upon Buddhist philosophies and the belief the entire world is inter-dependent.

“We are all the same as human beings, and we experience the same fears, the same hopes, the same uncertainties,” the 84-year-old explained. “From the Buddhist perspective, every sentient being is acquainted with suffering and the truths of sickness, old age and death.”

“The outbreak of this terrible coronavirus has shown that what happens to one person can soon affect every other being,” he continued. “But it also reminds us that a compassionate or constructive act — whether working in hospitals or just observing social distancing — has the potential to help many.”

The Dalai Lama said he has prayed for coronavirus victims since it emerged from its original epicenter in Wuhan, China, last year, and he came to a realization after seeing the devastation it has left.

“Now we can see that nobody is immune to this virus,” he wrote.

“We are all worried about loved ones and the future, of both the global economy and our own individual homes,” he continued. “But prayer is not enough.”

Dalai Lama with French Matthieu Ricard

The former Nobel Peace Prize winner then called on others to show bravery like the millions of healthcare workers who are on the frontlines of the virus.

“This crisis shows that we must all take responsibility where we can,” he said. “We must combine the courage doctors and nurses are showing with empirical science to begin to turn this situation around and protect our future from more such threats.”

Then, using the global response to the virus as an example, the Dalai Lama asked people to consider what other things were possible if countries continued to work together around a cause.

Goddess of Compassion Kwan Yin

“All of us must take care of [the planet] and work to prevent climate change and other destructive forces,” he wrote. “This pandemic serves as a warning that only by coming together with a coordinated, global response will we meet the unprecedented magnitude of the challenges we face.”

Two million people around the world have been infected by coronavirus and 127,518 others have died as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Eventually, this virus will pass, as I have seen wars and other terrible threats pass in my lifetime, and we will have the opportunity to rebuild our global community as we have done many times before,” the Dalai Lama told Time.

“I sincerely hope that everyone can stay safe and stay calm.” [For fear is the greatest enemy, caused by governments, the mainstream media, Big Pharma about to capitalize with vaccines, Orwellian tracking systems, and deadly 5G...] More