"Rapture's Delight" is the ninth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series American Dad! It originally aired on the Fox TV network in the United States on Dec. 13, 2009 [and remains one of the funniest and most satirical takes the show dared to make]. This episode centers around CIA Agent Stan and his housewife Francine's life after the vast majority of the church, including their children Hayley and Steve, are raptured ("taken up"), leaving everyone else Left Behind. When Stan begins to blame Francine for not getting into heaven, Francine ends their relationship and befriends a man whom she later finds out to be Jesus Christ. Francine becomes his bride, leaving Stan behind to participate in the showdown at Armageddon. More
"The Rapture" is a Christian eschatological ("end-times") belief held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of a magic event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, together with Christians who are still alive, will rise "in the clouds, to meet the Lord [who might be in a spaceship] in the air" [1, 2].
I don't want to be left behind with all the sinners!
Many different timelines have been asserted that tie to ideas of a seven-year "Great Tribulation": pre-tribulation [3], mid-tribulation, pre-wrath, and post-tribulation raptures; and to a thousand-year age of Messianic rule: millennialism, pre-millennialism, post-millennialism, a-millennialism, and preterism [4, 5].
The origin of the term extends from translations of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the Christian Bible, which uses the Greek word harpazo (Ancient Greek ἁρπάζω), meaning "to snatch away" or "to seize."
The idea of a rapture as it is defined in dispensational premillennialism is NOT found in historic Christianity. It is a relatively new doctrine, originating from the 1830s.
Why was I left behind, not good enough?
Most Christian denominations, and the numerically largest, do NOT believe or subscribe to "rapture theology" and have a different interpretation of the aerial gathering described in 1 Thessalonians 4 [6].
They do NOT use "rapture" as a specific theological term, nor do they generally subscribe to the dispensational theology associated with its use [7].
Instead, most Christians typically interpret "rapture" in the sense of the elect (the saved) gathering with Christ in Heaven directly after the Second Coming. They reject outright the idea that a large portion of humanity will be "left behind" (like the very profitable, fearmongering book series depicts) on Earth for an extended tribulation period after the events of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 [6, 8]. More
Zionist Republican President Trump -- being blackmailed by Epstein, Mossad, and Maxwell -- already BLAMING Bibi's War on Iran on his White House staff [many of which are Ashkenazi Jews as in many previous administrations] with Dave DeCamp
(Religion For Breakfast) Why religions survive when prophecies fail: Have we all been left behind? The Rapture (as preached by Evangelical Christians) took place on Sept. 23-24, 2025, Julian Calendar (not Gregorian Calendar). It is good for a cult when their prediction and prophecies FAIL. It's the social psychology/sociology of religious thinking. Das Kapital? No, das Dispensationalism.
Even though the "rapture" did not take place, it is always a good day to repent, turn oneself around, and do better. "Go in peace and sin no more" was good advice from St. Issa. Mahayana Buddhism, which is very Hindu/Christian, has a long history of regular repentance ceremonies.
Trump has NOTHING to do with Epstein birthday letter, Pam Bondi grilled, federal workers go without pay
(Jimmy Kimmel) Costco is now offering Big Pharma's Ozempic and Wegovy for half price, hundreds of thousands of federal employees are working without pay including air traffic controllers, the tower at Burbank Airport went unstaffed for six hours yesterday, Mike Johnson said Republicans are praying it’ll be a “very short shutdown,” Trump was asked whether furloughed employees would get retro-active compensation, Marjorie Taylor Greene gave a shocking statement about health insurance, Trump met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at the White House and gave him his vision of what America would have been like under President Harris, the Senate Judiciary Committee was at work today hearing testimony from Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi, she refused to deny that border Czar Tom Homan was seen accepting $50k in cash, she dodged a question regarding whether the FBI found photos of Trump and Epstein with topless women, and since Donald Trump claims to have nothing to do with the now infamous Epstein birthday letter, we decided to do a bit of research to see if everything adds up.
Jimmy Kimmel, Oct. 7, 2025; Times Radio, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
The first Friday of October is World Smile Day (Oct. 3, 2025), a relatively new holiday with a fascinating story. Created by a commercial artist named Harvey Ball, this day came about as a response to his creation of the smiley face. Harvey worried that the commercialization of the symbol would lessen its impact. We can hardly blame him for his estimation; the symbol has been used in many different ways including clothing, comic books, coffee mugs, pins, and more. These little yellow faces are more than just a symbol, they’re a statement about the power of smiling.
History of World Smile Day
Has this symbol always existed?
In 1963, Harvey Ball, a graphic artist and ad man from Worcester, Massachusetts, created the smiley face symbol [the yellow emoji icon] we’ve all come to know.
Popularity for this symbol exploded into the world of popular culture. It’s every artists’ dream for their work to be respected and recreated and few symbols have had quite the legacy that Harvey’s creation has had. More: nationaltoday.com
Smiling animals brighten our day
If looking for something to brighten an otherwise dreary winter day, look no further than these adorable animals. Looking at their cheery grins will no doubt put a smile on the face that watches them, too. These smiling animals will brighten the day
Buddhism: There is no way to happiness. Why? Happiness is the way
I let go, surrendered, and blissed out on the mat.
This is a tricky truth no one talks about, at least not in the West. We are forever searching and seeking, scheming and striving to get happy, to FIND a way to happiness. But this message turns that sort of thinking on its head.
When at a Buddhist monastery or on a Buddhist retreat, it's not uncommon to ask, "How do I attain meditative absorption (jhana)?" Another word for it is "zen" or dhyana and dharana on a yoga retreat. But there's no answer. One is taught a technique but no way to achieve the thing one strives for. Why?
It is reached by letting go, dropping the striving, surrendering up the muscling, giving up the go-getter attitude. It just happens. And teachers will say, "There's no way to [scheme and use force to] do it. Meditators just do it."
I went to the room of the greatest jhana teacher in the world, and I pressed him, "What's the secret?"
He didn't know what I meant, he said. He didn't even know what I was talking about, he claimed. Then I thought, he's given me an opening. Here's my chance. I better ask very carefully:
"How does one meditate...successfully? What I mean is, how does one attainabsorption? How does one get to..." He looked at me like I was kidding and when he saw that I was not, as if by rote, he gave me the basic instructions:
Sit up straight, but not too straight, relax, bring your attention under your nose to the breath, remain aware of each and every in-breath and out-breath that is happening. Don't do anything but give your undivided attention to that breath (composed of an in-portion and out-portion). Just that. [Then what? - Then nothing, just that. - No, but there has to be something more; it can't be just that. - Just do that (in addition to keeping silent, following the Eight Precepts, and always keeping the breath in mind except when asleep) and then report to me what happens during the daily interview sessions. Try it. It's very simple, but there's nothing easy about it. So keep at it.]
Bare awareness (mindfulness/sati) is a start.
"No," I said, "not how does one sit; how does one succeed? How does one get to that state of one-pointedness, samadhi, stillness, rapture, unbroken focus...?"
"Oh, that," he said. "I don't know that." I thought he was joking, a real effort to make an American-style joke, and I didn't know why he wasn't telling me. He knew I was sincere. He knew I had been striving all month long. Then I applied more pressure than probably anyone would ever dare to apply.
I wasn't leaving without an answer: "What do you mean you don't know? Who better than you? If you don't know, who could possibly know?"
Then he stunned me, as he often did with the directness of his insight and his willingness to share his knowledge with me? "I don't know because I do not read minds. People come to me. I give them the instructions. And some of them come tell me what is happening, and I guide them from there."
You asked him what?! Did he throw you out?
"But WHY do some of them have something start happening since not everyone does?"
"That I do not know. I just know they do. And when they do, I can help them, guide them to go deeper. But how they get to it in the first place, that I do not know." [These aren't exact quotes, just the gist of the conversation, which only lasted a few desperate minutes as I pushed and pushed.]
As he said this, I realized I had asked him this before, after sitting with him in Asia at his massive monastery, where it seemed everyone was succeeding and attaining. I asked him and pushed him a little on the matter with someone sitting by me to catch what I might be missing, two Americans sincerely wanting to experience what Buddhist texts write about, what the Buddha taught, what sutras say happens.
At that time he looked at us and perceiving our sincerity said one strange word, his guess as to what it was distilled down to ONE thing as if it could ever be just one thing distinguishing success from just sitting. That word was parami. She smiled next to me, but I grimaced, perplexed. "'Parami?' The Sanskrit word paramita?"
"Yes," he answered, but he was actually talking about the Pali (and therefore Theravada Buddhist) form of the word parami. In either case, it means "perfection," but the Sanskrit is a diluted Mahayana term of six factors, whereas the historical Buddha always taught TEN intentional actions (deeds, karma).
My teacher clarified. What he imagined (from what he heard from many of his successful students reporting to him) was that they remembered doing skillful deeds in the past, and he concluded that those past skillful deeds were coming to fruition as they sat. And that's why some succeeded and not others.
What kinds of questions are these? You are silly.
(What I was really getting at was, WHAT ACTIONS CAN SOMEONE DO NOW OR WHILE ONE IS SITTING IN MEDITATION, ANXIOUS FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN, TO MAKE IT HAPPEN?)
That he didn't know, so I had to undertake a lifelong journey of trying to figure it out. Of course, it will have something to do with the Factors of Absorption (jhananga, "limbs of jhana"). Leigh Brasington figured this much out, having had the insight that happiness is the way:
Right Concentration: Practical Guide to the Jhanas
Brasington teaches a technique of focusing on one of these factors, happiness (piti, joy, pleasure, rapture, bliss) as it arises in the body in serenity meditation. By focusing on it, it increases based on the principle that, "Where attention goes, energy flows." This is true enough, but how does one get the initial happiness/bliss to pay attention to and make increase?
Now it makes sense that what I had always been looking for was a carrot or apple in front of the horse (mule, donkey, jackass). I could only neigh in realizing it: THE GOAL is not this happiness because THIS HAPPINESS is the way to relaxing, letting go, unstriving, surrendering, unclutching, dropping hangups, persisting without grasping or clinging, shikantaza ("just sitting"), not setting up a goal and striving for it. Why? It's because those blissful states of meditation and their attendant stillness, mindfulness, and progress towards insight are NATURAL. They arise. We don't "do" them. We can't do them. We don't know how and do not have that power.
But if we relax and just watch with vigilance, stillness, steadiness, persistence, we are cultivating the Factors of Absorption and other factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment, which are categorized into seven groupings.
One is reminded of a very important thing the Buddha once explained to someone. When talking about the Bodhisatta, himself at the stage of still being a seeker of enlightenment, he once realized that he could neither strive too hard or be negligent. Doing either, he sank as if in a great ocean (samsara), but not striving and not being negligent, he made progress. What could this mean either than the Middle Way of avoiding extremes, of persisting but not pushing, of cultivating but not disturbing the peace or giving in to apathy, listlessness, or despair?
Thai Forest Tradition arahant Ajahn Maha Boowa seems to be suggesting the same thing here (translated by the American intellect Ven. Thanissaro): "The tactics [techniques] given by each of the Buddhas to the world are called the Dhamma [Truth] of the doctrine. These aren't the genuine Dhamma. They're tactics [methods] — different offshoots — actions and modes displayed by the genuine Dhamma, means for letting go and striving, teaching us to let go, teaching us to strive using various methods, saying that the results will be like this or that. As for the genuine Dhamma of results in the principles of nature, that's something to be known exclusively in the heart of the person who practices. This Dhamma can't really be described correctly in line with its truth. We can only talk around it. And particularly with release [nirvana, liberation, freedom]: This can't be correctly described at all, because it's beyond all conventions and speculations. It can't be described. Even though we may know it with our full heart, we can't describe it. Like describing the flavor [of a soup using only words to someone who has yet to simply taste it]." From Things As They Are.
Smile, be happy. Don't overdo it; just let it be.
So happiness IS the way. Be happy. Right now. Choose it. It's a choice. Smile. After all, it's World Smile Day. Reflect, "Why is the Buddha ALWAYS smiling slightly?" There are no statues of him yelling or throwing things, losing his temper or his poise. Why? It's because once one uproots the defilements, there is nothing more tat can upset. One knows-and-sees directly.
Like that, Lisa, just like that. Hold it.
And to the extent that that knowing-and-seeing is the goal, one has reached it. Things have become clear, and nothing can any longer upset us. What was in the way, aside from the defilements (of which there are many subtle ones) and lack of parami-karma (ten skillful deeds performed with the ambition of nirvana being the result)? What is the direct path to bodhi (enlightenment, awakening, realization, liberating-insight)?
What is the way to bodhi? The Seven Factors of Enlightenment. What is the way to those factors? The preceding factors of the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment. How does one do any factor? It's probably a good idea to be happy. How does one even begin to dream to do that? Smile.
What is the blissful and inviting rapture of the light of absorption (jhana)? Is it santosha?
Can a Westerner achieve rapture and insight?
Full moon Sunday is the Uposatha (the fasting day of the lunar observance) when some choose to keep the Eight Precepts for one day and night. LA's Mindfulness Meditation Center in Covina (suburban San Gabriel Valley) is conducting its monthly Poya Day celebration in honor of it. This is an excellent time to relax, listen, and practice the path of absorption with the great Ajahn Brahm -- or to read Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties.
The Jhanas (Absorptions) – Seven Steps to Heaven (and One Beyond) by Ajahn Brahm
(The Buddhist Society) Jhāna (meditative absorption, zen) is a bliss better than sex? Mantra: "Relax to the max!" There are two kinds of Buddhist meditation (no, not samatha and vipassana, which are a single system bifurcated by people who misunderstand what's needed for insight. The two types are Second Noble Truth (craving) meditation and Third Noble Truth (letting go) meditation, as explained by accomplished Western meditator Ajahn Brahm.
British Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera (known to the world as Ajahn Brahm) was born Peter Betts in London, England (United Kingdom) on August 7, 1951.
He came from a working-class background then won a scholarship to study theoretical physics at Cambridge University in the late 1960s. After graduating from Cambridge, he taught high school for a year before traveling to Northeast Thailand (Isan) to become a Theravada Buddhist monk.
(Michael Taft Nondual Meditation) June 12, 2020: Jhanas (lit. "meditations") are special states of deep absorption that make a wonderful setup for doing awakening practices.
There is no way to happiness because happiness is the way
In this video, meditation teacher Michael Taft describes what jhanas are and clarifies the basic steps for getting into the first jhana.
Jhanas are meant to be enjoyable, and it's very important not to approach jhana in a mood of grasping, tightness, or struggle. Don't try too hard!
How to
Instead, approach jhana in a mood of pleasure, joy, gratitude, kindness, and openness.
Learning to do jhana is an excellent way to supercharge your vipassana (insight) practice, or to stabilize the mind for nondual (advaita) awareness practices.
00:03 - Introduction
1:24 - The Setup for Jhana (getting focused, and allowing piti to arise)
9:16 - Entering the First Jhana (moving attention to the piti, then resting until unification occurs)
12:39 - Three Things that Can Happen Next (including going into the second jhana)
These videos are made possible only by the generous donations of viewers. Please consider supporting this work: bethupton.com/support-my-work (bethupton) Find out more here: bethupton.com. Shot by Alexis P.N. @GuavaFunk: laffcotchtv. Contact: alexispn777@gmail.com
How to strengthen concentration through jhāna with Shaila Catherine
(Dhamma Centre) Streamed live in 2021. This online event includes a Dhamma talk, a brief guided meditation, and a Question & Answer session. Ask questions about the practice of concentration, and Shaila will respond with an understanding gleaned from her extensive experience with jhana practice. Join to explore the role of concentration in Dhamma practice.
"Concentration"? What does samadhi really mean? The Pali texts describe this quality of mind as "internally steadied, composed and settled, unified." It is a coherent mind, a unification of the mind with the object, a stillness of mind free of distraction, undistractedness, collectedness, and focused attention that produces a profound stability of mind. It is the factor that lands on the meditation object, penetrates it, and stays there. We stay attentive with the object, not dispersed, dissipated, scattered, or agitated. We experience it with cohesion and coherence, internal strength, often very pleasant (states linked to bliss, happiness, equanimity, a joy born of seclusion or withdrawal of the senses) associated with tranquility, calm, ease, peacefulness, stillness, rapture, bliss, deep and profound equanimity. Fixed focus (appana samadhi) is a single focus on any one of a variety of different objects. There is another called momentary concentration (kannica samadhi).
The Jhanas: A Practical Guide to Deep Meditative States
Author Shaila Catherine has 4.8 out of 5 stars with 27 ratings for this instructional manual. It promises to give access to some wonderful things:
Experience new levels of joy, calm, and clarity with this revised and enhanced edition of the bestselling Focused and Fearless.
The Pali word jhana (Sanskrit dhyana) literally means “to meditate.” It also refers to a traditional series of states of meditative absorption, each deeper than the last, in which the mind is undistracted by sensation, thoughts, or moods.
Shaila Catherine’s friendly, wise approach, blended with contemporary examples and pragmatic "how to" instructions that anyone can try, shows meditators (and non-meditators) how to attain these extraordinary states with relative ease.
But jhana practice is about much more than just meditation or concentration [the misleading word most often used to translate samadhi]; it offers a complete path toward bliss, fearlessness, and true awakening.
It's so natural, laypeople can reach it with ease.
Jhanas are states of happiness that can radically transform the heart, reshape the mind, imbue consciousness with enduring joy and ease, and provide an inner resource of tranquility that surpasses any conceivable sensory pleasure.
Jhanas are states of deep rest, healing rejuvenation, and profound comfort that create a stable platform for transformative insight.
In this approach to jhana, we use the calming aspects of concentration to support the investigative aspects of insight meditation. The fruit of concentration is freedom of heart and mind.
This new edition of the meditation classic clarifies crucial points and offers twenty-one additional exercises, making this a great book for both those new to jhana practice and those looking to deepen their practice. The Jhanas: A Practical Guide to Deep Meditative States
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