Adventures in Church: Lent Ashes

The priest recommended a sexy movie, The Substance, for its lesson on beauty, ashes, and dust.

Improving Catholic Jesus, nicer and whiter

Vibhuti is valuable. It must be. People will go to great lengths to get it, even if it's just a smudge or cross over the third eye. How does one turn common ash into a sacred object of veneration? Bless it.

It was a rainy Ash Wednesday in the City of Lost Angels. But we went on an adventure anyway. (No one walks in LA, and during the rain, no one remembers how to drive). The rain ruined it the big open house event at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center (MD, "Mother of Suffering" Catholic monastery situated next to burnt out Altadena high atop the idyllic town of Sierra Madre, Los Angeles).

The male gaze and absurd beauty standards

MD changed its whole schedule: No mass at 8:00 am or 6:00 pm as promised, and the "open house" (the first time the popular retreat center nestled in the green foothills after the Eaton Fire, which is right next door and partly burned the place, making it susceptible to mudslides and flooding. The volunteers did not have much information, even on the current condition of the pope. One would think they would be on top of it, but the pope seems not nearly as important as when the pope was John Paul.

I'm so pretty, and I'm getting ready for church.

The day was nothing, no tour, but one could walk down a hall to visit the "Stations of the Cross" by looking at very dark pictures of the great Roman Crucifixion of a troublemaker called "Christ."

He suffered for his sins against the state, but having no sins his suffering has been transferred to cover the Passionists who populate the place, Catholics in specific, and everyone in general. That means us, confirmed "sinners." And you better feel bad about it or else.

The glories of the Holy Roman Empire today

Joe Rogan and British comedian Jimmy Carr

Abstain from MEAT EATING for Lent or life or at least on Fridays, like Jesus wants (Christspiracy)

LA is a paradise from the air (Echo Park Lake)

The center has such a nice main building full of meditation rooms with their own showers. It's almost haunted in its kind of sterile monasticism with lots of Carmelite brown and old-style hotel. One is reminded of Self Realization Fellowship's Mother Center on top of Mt. Washington in neighboring Mt. Washington, overlooking the LA skyline. Now that's a place to visit, all syncretic Hindu-Christian, where Paramhansa Yogananda slept. One can visit his room with its tiny bed once a year on his birthday.

But this place, a kind multiroom mansion is dreary with devotion, austere penitence (tapas), and a priest from India who knows nothing about Jesus' time in India or all of the scholarship behind that century-old discovery.

• See Nicolas Notovitch, Holger Kersten, Swami Abedananda, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, the BBC, and others: Unknown years of Jesus

There's a written record of where Jesus was?

Holy cow. It has a nice gift shop and lots of things to sell. There were ashes for the asking, but very little else. It used to be that to get a communion wafer and wine (gluten cracker and grape juice) from a communal cup with saliva wiped off by a handkerchief, one had to have gone to confession or gotten right with the Priest/Lord/Church Official, or Holy Ghosts.

But not for this token? Anyone could go up and be smudged (not in the good way using Indigenous sage or Salvia apiana, but rather here using the burnt offerings of palms that were prayed over).

Two priests, one from India the other from the Philippines, did not inspire us -- noncommittal, inoffensive, diffident, and reticent with little to no knowledge of anything about Jesus in India or anything else that is not Chruch-approved and Vatican-sanctioned. That's the way to stay out of trouble, one could suppose. But how is it that a priest of this religion, so emphasizing the Stations of the Cross, doesn't seem to know about the face of the lord (God's son or devaputra) appearing on a cloth used to wipe his bleeding facade during his ordeal or "passion"? That cloth should be at least as famous as the Shroud of Turin and Jesus' tunic. There's a whole station about it, and in the middle of this month the holy relic goes on tour through Southern California from wherever it's kept the rest of the time (under lock and key in a temperature-controlled vault somewhere in Europe.

Jesus Christ lived in India?

Who had ever heard of such a thing? Jesus' face on another cloth and no one has anything to say? If it's coming on tour in the neighboring cities, but the Indian priest didn't know? He did know of a mysterious relic in his hometown in India. There a wax figure of Jesus under glass grows a beard not made of hair but of some fibrous substance. Another miracle yet this very same priest had never heard of the Christian saint's blood in a vile that has remained liquid for centuries. It was almost a shame to tell him about it, or anything else, because he didn't believe it. Did the Church say so? seemed to be his whole position on everything. What kind of kissing up is that, following a religion and never questioning it? The smart kind, the kind that keeps one in good graces with the higher ups, the "let's not upset things and get me in any kind of trouble or scandal"? What is he up to that he would so fear any potentially unflattering attention or appearance of impropriety in believing or admitting to knowing about anything unorthodox?

Let's get out of this place, exquisite grounds without a sense of holiness

The Church knew where I had been and deleted it.

From there we left, driving in the rain to find a better mass, something of a more popular nature. Every Catholic church in the country celebrates it. They are standardized and not allowed to deviate.

We found a giant ash mass at St. Andrew's Catholic Church (Pasadena, California), the one with the clock tower visible from the 134 Freeway, where it splits from the 210. It has some of the most beautiful Roman Italian (and life-like brown skinned mural art) and alabaster white statuary with giant imported marble columns and a big picture of the "God" right up front looking down, with impossibly high ceilings, which may be 100 or more feet up.

St. Andrew's Church campanile

There was a big crowd of penitents, half of them Anglos, half of them Latinos, with a sprinkling of Asians, gathering even as it drizzled and threatened to rain. There was a Spanish service going on in the St. Andrew Catholic School hall with a purple draped cross, the cloth representing the figure usually found on it. The Spanish version seemed more spirited, as accords with Chicano gatherings, full of heart and warmth.

• The priest said an amazing thing we'd never heard before. If it were a trope, they'd all be saying it and wed've heard it a million times. The sign of the cross has two motions. The first spells "I" top to bottom, and the second, which sweeps from side to side, cancels it out. It's self-abnegation for God (a tip of the hat to Buddhism's selflessness).

Sign of the cross in six steps: I and Not I.

It was odd sitting there watching the giant church fill up. Most Catholics only go to church or "mass" three times a year -- Easter, Ash Wednesday, and Xmas. It seems like enough. The words of the priest were odd to hear: words full of guilt, sin, pleading for forgiveness, as if it were a given that everyone had and was going to sin.

Apparently, we are all sinners, and we have to sin, and there's no way not to sin, so be sure to feel guilty about it, and come to church for indulgences to stay on His good side in case you die midweek. Just keep coming, and that'll keep you in His good graces? (Who thoughtlessly accepts such empty promises, or is it that having nothing else, because they were never allowed to investigate anything, there is no choice? Just accept it all or reject it all, and since we can't reject it all, we have no choice but to accept it all?)

The Substance

You are not your body. - What?! But I...

The multilingual priest conducting the mass gave a good sermon when he deviated from the standard text and told a story about watching the Oscars and being surprised to see The Substance getting attention. To hear this Father tell it, he saw the film or at least part of it. In one scene a woman (Demi Moore), fearing she's getting to look too old and is losing the interest of her husband, goes in for a beauty treatment. It will make her look 20 years younger with porcelain skin (think filter but in real life). She does, but it has a side effect of inflammation and looking worse before it gets better. So she takes a walk and dives into a Catholic church to sit in the back and just reflect as she waits for her new face. It happens to be Ash Wednesday, and the preacher is yelling, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," not singing a song by Bowie but quoting the Bible. She's shocked to realize that after all her efforts to beautify her body, it remains ashes and dust (though better preserved looking now and less rotty).

THE SUBSTANCE | official trailer | in theaters & on MUBI now

This religion seems to have been better in the past. Or was it always like this? How is the spell not broken, the stench of hypocrisy of child molesting priests not enough to wake people up that the Vatican runs too tight a ship, here to take in taxes (rebranding them as tithes) for this arm of the Holy Roman Empire?

The rules for Lent

LENTEN REGULATIONS: The Holy Season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. This year it falls on March 5th. During Lent, all Catholics engage in various penitential practices. Of those, the most important and obligatory are the regulations on fasting and penitence.

Do it for me, Virgin Mary, Mother of God (Veiled)

Abstinence from meat is to be observed by all Catholics 14 years old and older on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays of Lent. Abstinence means refraining from eating all meats including beef, poultry, pork, etc. [slaughtered cows, birds, pigs, and so on]. Seafood [dead fish] is permitted.

Fasting is to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday by all Catholics who are 18 years of age but not yet 60. Those who are bound by this may take only one full meal. [That's quite a fast.] Two smaller meals (that do not equal one full meal) are permitted. [Will it be enough, will people starve?]

The special Paschal fast and abstinence are obligatory [mandatory] for Good Friday and encouraged for Holy Saturday. By the threefold discipline of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer the Church keeps Lent from Ash Wednesday until the evening of Holy Thursday.

All the faithful and the catechumens should undertake serious practice of these three traditions. Failure to observe any penitential days at all or a substantial number of such days must be considered serious.

Abortion? What's so special about a tiny egg?

• Taken verbatim from the St. Andrew Church Bulletin, Old Pasadena, March 2, 2025

Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center is excited to announce that it is fully reopening and invites the public to a special homecoming event on Ash Wednesday, March 5, 2025, from 2:00–5:00 PM. No reservations needed. Come get ashes, pray the Stations of the Cross, and take a guided tour of the grounds [cancelled due to rain but moved indoors for a self-guided review of some pictures]. Development Director Melanie Goodyear at MGoodyear@MaterDolorosa.org and (626) 355-7188 x 103.

• Team Recovering Catholics (accompanied by a real diehard old timey Catholic to ask questions), Wisdom Quarterly, March 5, 2025

Lent: Will Devil tempt us? (Alan Watts)

Impatient? Rush to Minute 2:37 to hear Christian approach and the Devil's opposition to being good

What is the Zen way to liberation? Kindergarten

Imagine beginning the Rains Retreat (Buddhist Lent known as Vas) with the idea of being good. Mara will come right at you like an angel of light (Mara Devaputra, Cupid, Eros, Kamadeva) and undermine your efforts, won't he? That's his modus operandi, as Alan Watts explains. But Taoism, and therefore Zen Buddhism, has a solution: Don't let him know what you're doing. One must act without intention, without premeditation, without the goal or outcome in mind so as to not let him know what we're up to on our path to be good. Otherwise, he'll just come along and ruin our efforts like taking candy from an old person or trying to give veggies to a baby: They'll fight you.

• Alan Watts on doing good without the backlash or how to escape the Devil and bad karma (sin, debt, guilt) (KPFK)

The problem with trying to go good is our store of past bad (sin). What to do?

5 reasons why those who try to be good (chosen ones) struggle with lust

What does Alan Watts know?

By understanding both cultures, he's a bridge.

Not 40 days, but for more than 40 years, Alan Watts has earned a reputation as one of the foremost Western interpreters of Eastern philosophy.

Beginning at age 16, when he wrote essay for the journal of the Buddhist Lodge in London, Watts developed an audience of millions who were enriched by the wisdom of the East through his books, recordings, radio shows, public television programs, and public lectures.

In all, Watts wrote more than 25 books and recorded hundreds of lectures, all building toward a personal philosophy that he shares in complete candor and joy with readers and listeners throughout the world.

Insight can do what the ego cannot do by doing. - Philosophy or sophistry? Does Watts go too far?

Sixties icon? He was at it since before the 1950s.

His overall body of work has presented a model of individuality and self-expression matched by few philosophers, modern or ancient.

KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles continues to air Watts on Sunday mornings (8:00 am) and during Something's Happening midnights on Thursdays overnight to Friday.

The three main sources for Alan Watts are the Pacifica Radio Archives, (800) 735-0230, pacificaradioarchives.org, the Electronic University (415) 460-0825, alanwatts.org, and Wisdom Quarterly.

• Alan Watts, "Buddhist Radio," 3/2/25 (KPFK 90.7 FM)
• Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Jesus was a magi (Myth Vision)

"Good Christians" vs. all the others

Mysteries of monastic practice (video)

Mysterious monks around the Himalayas – practicing since the Ice Age?

The Buddha was an Indo-Scythian living close to the Himalayan range his whole life.

.

Siddhartha failing at asceticism

(FactFile) Sept. 20, 2024: Just as every culture holds its religion dear and follows unique practices, monks and nuns dedicate their lives to a spiritual practice. These monastics are deeply committed to their Doctrine (dharma), their belief system or faith, immersing themselves in meditation and rituals.

• 

  The Buddha ("Awakened One") finds success

  The Buddha avoided extremes of hedonism and self-mortification, teaching the Middle Way that avoids extremes. He did, however, teach 13 sane ascetic practices (dhutangas) for the overcoming of certain defilements, hindrances, and obstacles to practice to be able to breakthrough to calm and insight (samadhi and vipassana, where samadhi is shamatha and defined as the first four meditative absorptions and insight-practice takes these temporarily purified states and applies them to systematic practice of the satipatthanas or foundations of mindfulness to breakthrough to liberating wisdom, enlightenment, and release from samsara).

Their devotion is a profound expression of their beliefs and play a crucial role in preserving and passing on their spiritual traditions. Through their disciplined practice, they seek to connect with higher truths and guide others on their spiritual journeys.

Let's take a detailed look at some of the world's most mysterious and oldest-known monks. #factfile [This sensationalistic video was originally published under the very misleading clickbait title "Mysterious Monks Found in the Himalayas – And They’ve Been Living Since the Last Ice Age"]

• FactFile, Sept. 20, 2024; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Wisdom Quarterly to convert to Jainism

This famous picture of the Buddha is said to actually be Mahavira, who is usually depicted bald.

Oh, you April Fool's Day pranksters!

Who had the first nuns?

One of the most remarkable, and largely inexplicable, things about Jainism is how similar it is to Buddhism, how much the life of the Buddha mirrors the life of Mahavira -- so much so that the British in India translating the ancient texts always assumed the stories were talking about one person. In fact, even though we know better now, it is very reasonable to postulate that the reason they are so similar is because they were the same historical figure and a schism divided Buddhism between strict vegetarian wandering ascetic purists (the Jains) and more reasonable (Middle Way) sectarians. Each built up its own camp and back story.

Bald, naked ascetic under a tree: Mahavira

While this may sound preposterous, note the curious detail that Siddhartha was not always called the Buddha ("Awakened One") but was previously called Mahavira ("Great Hero"), a common epithet, just like Bhagavan ("Blessed One") or Tathagata ("Wayfarer"). They both led sramana (wanderer) traditions that rebelled against the supremacy of the Vedas (ancient "wisdom books") of the temple-bound Brahmin priests. Both talked incessantly about karma (deeds). Both emphasized the necessity of direct experience of the Truth, not mere faith (saddha), moral observances (sila), book learning (suta), or scholarship or relying on intermediary "priests" to dispense blessings, boons, good luck charms, viewings (darshan), or magical transmissions, as they have come to do because people for ages have been looking for an easier and easier Path to Freedom.

Jainism explained

(Cogito) Jainism, some call it the world’s most peaceful religion. Mahavira (the Nigantha Nattaputta as he is known in Buddhism) was a contemporary of the historical and slightly younger Siddhartha Gautama who became the Buddha. They led the two "wandering ascetic" Indian traditions to survive to the present.

Mahavira meets a naga (MGP)

[Most peaceful? Except perhaps for the fact that as Jains do not engage in any harmful work, many have become investors investing in the worst trades weapons, alcohol, drugs, funding every kind of harm known to humankind. Is it wrong to invest and profit from arms sales? Cattle raising? Big Pharma sorcery? Pesticides? Weapons R&D? AI technology?]

Jain monastics (sramanas or wandering ascetics, both nuns and monks, and there are possibly more females since Mahavira was the first to ordain women) are famous worldwide for their strict adherence to ahimsa or “non-harming,” “non-violence.”

Going as far as to sweep the floor with a dust broom as they walk to avoid stepping on any tiny lifeforms, covering their mouths as to not swallow [small bugs] or breathe hot air on [unseen] living creatures, and following a strict vegetarian diet that bans:

• all meat,
• all fish,
• all eggs
• all potatoes (and root vegetables and some fruits).

Who wouldn't prefer naked founder?

So what is Jainism, and why is it considered the world’s most peaceful religion?

The ancient Jain philosophy has garnered the eye of the modern world as their ideas of non-violence, strict vegetarianism (with many now becoming vegans), and what could be called an environmentalist outlook are strikingly relevant.

Jains have been highly influential in India for thousands of years, shaping its vegetarian-friendly diet and lending the concept of ahimsa to Gandhi's independence movement against the colonial British empire.

Naked Jain monk honors 24 Tirthankaras of history, jinas and mahaviras, Jains and great heroes

Hey, Mahavira, really is naked.

A “Jain” (Jaina) is someone who accepts the teachings of the Tirthankaras, the “Ford-makers or Ford-finders.”

“Jainism” comes from the word Jina. Tirthankaras, those who cross over and bridge this dangerous side of the river and that safe side, allowing followers to move from samsara to moksha, from endless-rebirth to liberation.

They, the teachers, are the most important people in Jainism. They have removed all attachments to the world and during their lifetimes have managed to break free from the endless cycle of rebirth and death. It is this cycle, this endlessly turning wheel (samsara), that Jains believe keeps souls trapped in the world, going from one birth to another.

[Naked? White-clad versus sky-clad]

White clad vs. sky clad? Mahavira

There are two kinds of Jains, the Svetambaras and the Digambaras, the more mellow reformed and the strict orthodox. Some wear white cotton robes, whereas the others go about naked like severe ascetics from the time of the Buddha. They own nothing (niganthas), cling to nothing, not even castoff bark cloth rags to protect against the elements and for the sake of modesty. These "sky-clad" ascetics and their followers were the vegetarian gymnosophists mentioned by the ancient Greeks. (Gymnos means "nude," which is what one did in the ancient Greek gymnasium, and sophist means "philosopher" or "teacher" as in sophistry or philo-Sophia, the "love of wisdom").

Sources

• Lindsay Jones, Encyclopedia of Religion Volumes 1, 3, 6, 7, 10
• Sherry Fohr, Jainism: A Guide for the Perplexed
• Paul Dundas, The Jains (the best book to read if only reading one)
• Lawrence A. Babb, Understanding Jainism

(Amazon.com put a copy limit on this, so I couldn't export my notes, and it took me hours to do it manually, and it made me angry, and this is the only way I can vent. Good book though 8/10, 9/10 with rice).

• Jain sacred texts: sacred-texts.com/jai
• Life of Mahavira: sacred-texts.com/jai/sbe2...
• Tattvas: sacred-texts.com/jai/9tat...
• Great Vows: sacred-texts.com/jai/5vow...

COMMENTS

• 

  There's got to be a better way

  QUESTION (John D.): How could Wisdom Quarterly turn their backs on the truth and follow some other dharma teacher?
• ANSWER (Ashley W.): Well, it was either Mahavira and Jainism or Apollonius of Tyana the wandering sage of Saint Issa/Jesus' time and Mysticism. No one voted for Judaism, even the Ultra-Orthodox kind or the mystical Kabbalah, and Shamanism, which did get a lot of votes, is just so amorphous. We don't need more Occult mumbo-jumbo or Seeking but an actual path.
• QUESTION (Jane D.): Why not become Unitarian Universalists or Quakers? They're really liberal and open minded
• ANSWER (Ashley W.): It's true. There is no shortage of options. We also considered Vaishnavism Yoga, Celtic Nature Worship/Witchcraft/Paganism, the Flying Spaghetti Monster religion, Esoterica in general, Theosophy in specific, and our ever-present default option Animism, our fallback Atheism (or better still Dharmic Atheism), and our on-the-fence Syncretism or Agnosticism. But we love India (Bharat) and think that's the heart of the planet's spirituality.
• QUESTION (Reese Tarded): Have you thought about your future and God's plan for your salvation? I'd like to talk to you about eternity and the love waiting for you if you just accept this short little creed.
• ANSWER (Ashley W.): Take a hike, Reese.
• QUESTION (Reese Tarded): Are you saying Wisdom Quarterly is NOT converting to Jainism or anything else?
• ANSWER (Ashley W.): Yes, yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Happy April Fools' Day. I still think we should have gone with the wandering sage Apollonius of Tyana personally; then it might have been more obvious we were being facetious. But Jainism is nice and Mahavira, if it weren't for the Buddha, would have been the greatest teacher of his day.

Follow on twitter: cogitoedu, Reddit r/cogitoedu, Facebook @Cogito, YouTube. Patreon: cogitoedu. Merch: cogitostore.teemill.com.

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Why have you scrolled this far down? No one reads down here. #India #Jain #Jainism #IndianHistory #Jains #VPN #NordVPN Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator. All images are taken from Creative Commons or used in accordance with fair use. If an image has been used without proper attribution, please contact by email or on twitter, and that will instantly bed resolved.

• Cogito (video), Aug. 31, 2019; Editors, Wisdom Quarterly: American Jain Journal, April 1, 2024

US soldier sets self on fire to protest Israel

TMZ.com (graphic video); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

War is ugly, but Israel doesn't mind. It's a traumatized diaspora read to traumatize others.

MAN SETS HIMSELF ON FIRE NEAR WHITE HOUSE, EXTINGUISHED, ARRESTED

Do I love Gaza or hate being a US soldier?

A man (Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty military serviceman in the US Air Force, who no longer wanted to be complicit in Israel's genocide against Palestine, particularly the US-funded ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank by government-backed illegal Jewish settlers) protested Israel's war in Washington, D.C. Bushnell set himself on fire in a park near the White House and was only saved -- for the moment, as he died later -- by cops, who quickly held him at gunpoint ready to execute him with service revolver cause if he gave them cause, surrounded and extinguished him.

Look at this other American guy set himself on fire (and not blurred out by censors) tmz.com/watch/0-6x0dv368

One of the many reasons Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc was wrong to do this (ritual suicide), even if he was doing the good of calling attention to US war crimes in Vietnam in the summer of 1963 is that he, inadvertently, inspired others to think this was a way to get attention for good causes like protesting bad wars. Is it bad karma? Can one know his thought at the moment of ignition or death? Was there not hatred (aversion, dosa) present at that moment? If he died, his mind clear, no aversion, then it would not condition his rebirth negatively. And if he was enlightened before dying, there would be no rebirth at all. The minutiae of such matters is explained in detail in the Abhidharma ("Doctrine in Ultimate Terms" literature, an explanation of Buddhist psychology).