Local beachcombers are used to seeing dead animals: seagulls, fish, crabs, even the occasional whale. But they had never seen anything like this. Animal experts were brought in to identify it. They were stumped. It looked like part dog, part reptile, and part rodent -- with claws and the beak of a bird. This animal, whatever it was, became known as the "Montauk Monster" [after the real Montauk Monster that was brought through the use of a special reverse-technology chair in the Montauk Project in the secret government lab on the island]. But where did the Monster come from? There could be only one answer: Plum Island.
Plum Island is just a few miles from where the monster was found. Locals had heard rumors that this was a top-secret government [gain of function] facility that created bioweapons, engineered animal hybrids, and maybe even experimented on human beings. Sounds like a wild theory. But then another animal washed up on the beach. Again, it couldn't be identified. And then another animal. And then two more. In 2010, the rumors about Plum Island seemed to be true when something else was found on the beach. This time it wasn't a strange animal. It was a body, a human body, well, it was almost human.
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At least Lion's Roar and my immediate practicing disciples remember me.
01.20.2023
REMEMBERING THICH NHAT HANH
This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of the passing of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and founder of the Engaged Buddhism movement, Thich Nhat Hanh, who passed away on January 22, 2022, in Vietnam.
Affectionately referred to as “Thay,” by his students, Thich Nhat Hanh is widely considered one of the most important spiritual leaders of our time. In his 95 years, he made a global impact as a teacher, author, and activist. His simple yet deeply profound teachings led countless people toward a life of mindfulness, joy, and peace and helped define Buddhism for the modern world.
The three pieces below offer a look into the remarkable life and teachings of this wonderful teacher, and how his community of students are continuing to carry his dharma forward.
In his book, At Home in the World, published in 2016, Nhat Hanh addressed the idea of his death, writing:
“Even when the cloud is not there, it continues as snow or rain. It is impossible for the cloud to die. It can become rain or ice, but it cannot become nothing. The cloud does not need to have a soul in order to continue. There’s no beginning and no end. I will never die. There will be a dissolution of this body, but that does not mean my death.”
Andrea Miller on what Thich Nhat Hanh taught her, his inspiring and courageous life, and how — through us — his wisdom will continue.
I wondered if I would ever see Thich Nhat Hanh again.
It was 2013, during his final North American teaching tour, and we were at Blue Cliff Monastery in the Catskills. The retreat had just wrapped up, and I’d stayed to interview him. We talked about many things — his family, karma, the key to happiness.
Then at the end, feeling a mix of happy and sad, I put my hands together in gassho. It was wonderful to connect with Thay, as his students call him, but he was getting older, frailer. Would this be the last time I’d see him?
The great meditation teacher Thich Nhat Hanh teaches five mindfulness exercises to help you live with happiness and joy.
Mindfulness gives birth to joy and happiness. Another source of happiness is concentration. The energy of mindfulness carries within it the energy of concentration. When you are aware of something, such as a flower, and can maintain that awareness, we say that you are concentrated on the flower. When your mindfulness becomes powerful, your concentration becomes powerful, and when you are fully concentrated, you have a chance to make a breakthrough, to achieve insight. If you meditate on a cloud, you can get insight into the nature of the cloud. Or you can meditate on a pebble, and if you have enough mindfulness and concentration, you can see into the nature of the pebble. You can meditate on a person, and if you have enough mindfulness and concentration, you can make a breakthrough and understand the nature of that person. You can meditate on yourself, or your anger, or your fear, or your joy, or your peace.
Eight of Thich Nhat Hanh’s students who are now teachers themselves share how they’re helping to carry his dharma into the future.
At one of the long summer retreats in Plum Village, I spoke publicly about spending time with my mother during the last few months of her life. A nun who felt touched by my story came over to me at the start of walking meditation. She bowed and took my hand. She did it in such a clear and straightforward way that I felt very happy as we walked together with Thich Nhat Hanh and the sangha around the lotus pond. I hardly knew her; there had even been a minor incident earlier when I caught myself judging her because she had behaved in a way that I didn’t approve of. Now she had come to me, had taken my hand, and we were walking together as if we were best friends. To simply feel her warm hand and to settle into every step taken together very mindfully was enough to let go of any prejudice I might have harbored against her.
"Thay" answers questions on June 21, 2014. Question: "My father makes me suffer a lot. Should I keep seeing him?" Answer: Transform the "father" within, and the external father will become much easier to know how to interact with.
COMMENTS
But, Thay, the poor innocent child is in danger.
Gino Asci: Did everyone there miss the fact that the child said, “It has come to be almost dangerous, and I don’t want to go anymore”? Who is this child’s guardian, and why is this child allowed to be anywhere near anyone who could harm him? The word "danger" spoken by anyone is a clear sign that there is something seriously wrong. Is this child okay today?
I'm glad I did the inner work.
Florabelle Raindrops: He said that he does not need to be around him, but love the father inside of himself. For he (the young man) is his father. If he is not mindful, this child may internalize the father's anger and become like him. When he can transform and find peace within himself, when he is older and ready, dealing with his father will be much easier because he will deal with him from a place of [acceptance and] strength, healing, and self love, not need, lack, and anger. He heard the child's desire for the father to change. So if the child wants the relationship to EVER change, the child has to do the work within himself -- not on his father. Listen to what Thay is saying. Let's stop trying to transform our fathers on the outside. Let them be. And let's be the person we need to be to be healthy within ourselves. Depend on a support system, spiritually and physically. Accept things as they are. Thay gave advice that will last this child's life, not just for this moment and situation. This boy is a child [Thay knows, who has been going to Plum Village for more than a year]. We watch a short video and can't assume we know the whole situation. These people have been around this particular child for some time. They know him and said they are here for him.More
Follow the film's official website (walkwithmefilm.com) and Facebook page (facebook.com/walkwithmefilm...). Directed by Max Pugh and Marc J. Francis. Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch. WALK WITH ME is a cinematic journey into the world of mindfulness -- the practice of bringing one's attention to the present moment. Meet Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr's nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize, the world-famous Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh or Thay.
Q: What is consciousness ? A: Mind and matter (nama-rupa) inter-are.
He is known as “The Father of Mindfulness,” “The Other Dalai Lama,” and “The Zen Master who fills stadiums.” Filmed over three years with unprecedented access, this visceral film offers a rare insight into a community of meditators who have left their families and given up all their possessions to practice the art of mindfulness at the Plum Village monastery in rural France.
It’s been 11 years since the harsh Death Valley landscape was this full of life. “Super bloom” isn’t an official term, National Park Service officials say, but it has come to describe the rare floral pageant of yellows, pinks, purples, and reds that blankets the desert moonscape after a perfect...
(Deborah Netburn) Tom Chester is standing in the middle of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, ignoring the majestic scenery. The towering Santa Rosa Mountains, the wide vistas and the clear blue sky are not what interests the 64-year-old retired astro-physicist. Instead, he keeps his eyes trained to the ground....
Published in Los Angeles Times on March 5, 2016 — headline: "THE BIG BLOOM - A band of plant enthusiasts scours the desert floor of Anza-Borrego Park for wildflower buds ready to burst"
Chuparosa bush, Glorietta Canyon, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (Mark Boster/LATimes)
Here's a view of the Milky Way galaxy like you've never seen before. The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope in Chile (APEX for short) captured this super-panoramic image of our home galaxy, mapping the full view of the galactic plane as seen from the Southern Hemisphere in unprecedented detail....
Wildflowers around shrub in field near Badwater Basin during rare “super bloom” in Death Valley National Park. Park Service updates best spots to see flowers throughout bloom (AP).
DEATH VALLEY NAT'L PARK, California - A rare "super bloom" of wildflowers in Death Valley National Park has covered the hottest and driest place in North America with a carpet of gold.
It is attracting tourists from all over the world and enchanting visitors with a stunning display from nature's colorful paint brush.
The National Park Service updates information on the best spots to see flowers throughout the bloom (websites below).
The wildflowers are being brought back to Los Angeles (wildflowering.org)
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(March 4th, 2016) Here are some things to know about this once-in-a-decade event:
WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT WILDFLOWERS IN DEATH VALLEY?
Death Valley National Park holds a world record for the hottest temperature ever recorded: 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius) on July 10, 1913. It's also home to the lowest elevation in North America, a place that's 282 feet below sea level, called Badwater Basin.
Every spring, some wildflowers bloom before it gets scorching hot, but the abundance of flowers this year is extremely unusual and happens about once every 10 years.
The last time there was a bloom of this magnitude was in 2005, and the time before that was in 1998.
Orchid-like passion flowers are from space...or at least Asia, showing the tremendous diversity of the plant kingdom, as distinct from animals, mushrooms, minerals...
Death Valley's average annual rainfall is 2 inches a year, and sometimes, it gets no rain at all.
This season, the park got three very rare storms in the first two weeks of October that dropped more than 3 inches of rain in some parts of the valley. That was enough to trigger the growth of millions of wildflower seeds that have been dormant, awaiting significant rainfall.
No one knows how long seeds can wait for rain, but some flowers blossomed in 2005 that had never been seen in the park -- indicating their seeds had been dormant for many years.
The most abundant and eye-catching wildflower is the aptly named desert gold, a large, bright yellow bloom that looks like a daisy. The stems this year are growing to waist height, and the flowers cover entire hillsides and vast areas of the valley floor in the southern section of the park. These flowers are easily enjoyed from the car.
Patient sightseers who get out of their cars can see many more species. More than 20 species of wildflower bloom in the park at various elevations.
Some of the other more common flowers include the deep purple phacelia; the desert five-spot, a delicate pink flower with five burgundy spots around its center; the gravel ghost, a delicate white flower that appears to be floating above ground like a ghost because its stem is so thin it's almost invisible; and various types of desert primrose.
Now, the best flower show is at the south end of Death Valley National Park along Badwater Road, south of Furnace Creek. As the temperature rises, those flowers will fade, and the bloom will move north and to higher elevations.
The National Park Service updates information on the best spots to see flowers throughout the bloom. For updates, visit dvnha.org or nps.gov/deva. [Deva? A deva is a Buddhist, Hindu, Jain woodland fairy, elemental, angel, royal, celestial, being of light -- there being many kinds of devas or, literally, "shining ones."]
The show won't last forever. Most of the flowers will wither in the next few weeks as temperatures start to rise.
Some flowers may be around as late as June at higher elevations, but those won't be as easy to see from a car and could require hiking. More
Weekend to feature heavy rain and winds across California California's withering winter dry spell [or infamous geoengineering-chemtrail drought] will end this weekend as a series of storms move through the state, the National Weather Service said. More
Facts for Kids: Indians Gabrieleños/Tongva However, the Tongva tribe is working to teach their ancestral language to the children again. If you'd like to know an easy Gabrielino words, miyiiha...
CityDig: Tongva Tribe LA (Los Angeles Magazine) ...The original Angelenos were the Tongva (“People of the Earth”) tribe. Here they are identified as the Gabrielino Indians due to their proximity to a range the Spanish Christian conquerors renamed the "San Gabriel" (Saint Gabriel) Mountains...
Obama grants monument status to vast swath of California desert
Joshua trees display unusually abundant booms in the Cima Dome area of the Mojave Nat'l Preserve. Obama is granting national monument status to nearly 1.8 million acres of scenic California desert wilderness, including land to connect this preserve to other established national monuments and national parks in area(David DanelskiThe Press-Enterprise via AP).
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President B. Obama is granting national monument status to nearly 1.8 million acres of scenic Southern California desert, a move the White House says will maintain in perpetuity the region's fragile ecosystem and natural resources, as well as provide recreational opportunities for hikers, campers, hunters, and others. More
California growth spurt after spring rains will resultin an intense summer fire season.
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