Let's see Gaza today, live from Palestine

It's Bisan from Gaza, and Israel even took our rubble

They bombed our Gaza concentration camp.

(AJ+) It's Bisan in the rubble of Gaza, Palestine, where Israel even took away the rubble [and all the bodies buried under it so the IDF can't be proven to have committed an even larger Holocaust (Nakba) in their latest genocide, ethnic cleansing, and series of atrocities, international war crimes, and crimes against humanity by having DNA to test and proven another child was beheaded, another woman killed, another innocent elder slaughtered, to say nothing of all the young males automatically classified "combatants" suitable for murdering just because they were able-bodied and male of a certain age that they might have posed a danger to the Zionist Jewish settler colonial project at some point.

(Kim Iversen) Azealia Banks goes to Israel pro-Jewish Zionist, comes back PRO-Palestine

Eve: 'Rescuer' (ezer) of Adam in Eden

• 

  Don't you mention that woman, young punk!

  Woman, Thy Name is Ezer ["Rescuer"] The [Judeo-Christian] LORD God said, “It is not good for the man [Adam] to be alone. I will make a helper [ezer, rescuer, Eve] suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). [Hey, LORD, but what about my first wife, Lilith? - Don't worry about her, Adam, my boy, I'll send her away to become a demoness and jealous eater of babies. That ought a teach her to mouth off. - Like your wife, Asherah, LORD, who I suppose was therefore my mom? - Don't ever bring her name up, Adam, or else! Anyway, my boy, we were better off alone just kicking it in this groovy garden planet we grew out of effort. Enjoy it before I throw you out. Unless you want a guy-pal to hang with. How about a Steve? - Whatever, LORD, as you see fit.]
• Were Adam and Eve made stupid? : r/Christianity
• Jesus' "helper" Mary Magdalene | Bible Mystery Resolved:

Ezer is a powerful word

More Than Enchanting (Saxton)

Scholar R. D. Freeman observes that ezer (pronounced /et-sir/) is a combination of two words, one meaning “to rescue” or “to save,” the other meaning “to be strong.”

Theologian and author Dr. Walter Kaiser notes that ezer appears in the Old Testament often in parallel with words denoting strength and power. The word ezer does not mean that a woman should never be an assistant, an ally, a supporter.

There is nothing negative about a man or a woman helping someone or being called by the [God] to fulfill that role! It’s always a privilege to serve [the God] as we serve others. But it is also crucial that we understand that in the biblical definition of “helper,” the ezer can also fulfill a different role.

It seems that ezer has more to do with what helping looks like, because it doesn’t seem to suggest anything about hierarchy. In some instances, ezer is a word with military connotations; the ezer is also a warrior.

In this context, help comes from one who has the power and strength to provide it. Ezer is a verb as well as a noun, meaning “to defend, protect, surround and cherish.” The ezer is an amazing mix of strength, power, proactivity, and vulnerability. Source

— Adapted from Chapter One, “The Blueprint,” by J O Saxton

What is anyone to make of Adam and Eve on Earth (Eden)?

Of course, the story of Adam and Eve (the Adama or first iteration of humankind and its other half, Eva, the second woman after Lilith in Judaism) is deep and ludicrous.

It is deep that it must be hinting at something else, a truism set in a mythological tale, ludicrous if taken at face value after centuries of translation and misinterpretation.

For instance, there is no "apple," but Christians will swear there is. The "snake" is a humanoid reptilian. There is much here, likely inherited from Sumerian sources, spun by countless rabbis and sincere students to take some useful teaching from it.

Likewise, Buddhism has an origin myth -- not of how it "all" started but rather how human life on this earth began. Long, long ago, light beings (devas, which are a superior class of brahmas) alighted on this planet and over the course of time devolved and became coarser and coarser until we find ourselves the way we are today.

The full tale the Buddha told, almost certainly rooted in true things but explained simply in ways that are hard to take literally, is known as the Aggañña Sutta or "A Buddhist Genesis," "On Beginnings."

• Read Wiki version of this sutra
• The Aggañña Sutta (DN 27)

Dhamma Aboard Evolution

A modern writer (Suwanda H. J. Sugunasiri) gives an excellent analysis of this metaphor or allegory (dealing only with sections 10-16 of this long discourse) in an eBook known as Dhamma Aboard Evolution: A Canonical Study of Agganna Sutta in Relation to Science.

In this analysis, the "light beings" (lit. "shining ones") are not humanoid beings who can fly alighting on earth by light itself reaching earth like photons from a faraway source. The author explains his motive for writing it:

The Aggañña Sutta of the "Long Discourses of the Buddha" (Dīgha Nikāya) is no satire or parody, as seen by some scholars. Drawing upon cosmology, Darwinism, psychology (Freud, Piaget, etc.), and linguistics, it paints a historically and scientifically accurate picture of devolution and evolution, going beyond the Big Bang. Sentient beings emerge [on earth], bringing with them the latent defilements of craving and passion, nourished by evolving plant life around them. Compatible with Western science, the breakthrough comes when Abhassara beings [from the Abhassara heaven or plane of existence] are taken to be photons, taking Abhassara in a literal etymological sense of "Hither-come-shining-arrow." However accurate this picture may be, the Buddha’s point, is that knowledge of the Dhamma is more important than anything else, explaining the title. More

Buddhist cosmology

Artists paint images of space for NASA

The Buddha described a universe consistent with the multiverse theory where there are countless worlds in all 10,000 directions, anywhere we can point. But all of these are classified into 31 Planes of Existence. One such plane is this world of "radiant ones."

So this sutra is saying this is the divine and sublime world we came from, not evolving from microbes in a primordial soup up to great apes or hominids (though that may be the origin of these bodies). We are fallen devas with every potential of becoming devas again, so in that sense we are divine beings in these sensual bodies.

Our karmas (actions, deeds, intentional acts) determine where we are subsequently reborn, just as previous karmas led to our rebirth on the human plane. We also have the potential to fall further down.

• ābhassara: The "Radiant Ones" are a class of heavenly beings of the Fine-Material Sphere (rūpa-loka); cf. deva.

Abhassara is a brahma-world where radiant devas ("shining ones") live from whose bodies rays of light are emitted, like lightning.

This plane of existence belongs to the rūpaloka (the Fine-Material Sphere)

• The Buddhist cosmos (universe/multiverse) is classified into three spheres: the Sensual Sphere (kama-loka), where earth and the sensual heavens are, as well as every other plane below the human world (animal, ghost, titan, hells), the Fine-Material Sphere, where more ethereal heavens are, and the Immaterial Sphere, where non-material worlds of pure mind are. This is an interesting distinction as it suggests that all that we call "form" or ultimate "materiality" (rupa) is coming from finer energy that is not yet form. All there is is called nama-rupa, "name and form" (mind and body). Form is of two general kinds, sensual and subtle (matter and light). And there is a sphere of worlds without form, only name or mind, a kind of Logos or Platonic "forms").
• It is essential to note that they are brahmas, as this means they are neither male nor female but "god-goddesses" ("supremos") without sexual dimorphism like the lower devas of the Sensual Sphere.

Is there a "heaven"? - There are many!

This plane corresponds to the second meditative absorption or jhāna (Abhs. v.3; Compendium 138, n.4).

All being depend on nourishment: The devas living on this plane subsist on joy (pītibhakkha) (S.i.114.; DhA.iii.258; J.vi.55).

Their span of life is two aeons (kalpas, kappas or more loosely speaking two "eternities"), but there is no guarantee that a person reborn here may not later be reborn in some unfortunate destination/unhappy condition (A.ii.127; but see Abhs. v.6, where their lifespan is given as eight kappas), as is the case for all beings who have not yet attained the first stage of enlightenment.

From time to time these devas utter shouts of joy exclaiming, "Aho sukham, aho sukham!" This sound is said to be the best of sounds.

These devas are completely enveloped in ease (sukhena abhisaññā parisaññā) (A.iii.202; D. iii.219). Their plane forms the third station of consciousness (viññānatthiti). Like humans on the human plane, they are of uniform body, but their perceptions are diverse (ekattakāyā nānat-tasaññino) (A.iv.40, 401; D.ii.69; D.iii.253).

During the periods of the development of the world (evolutionary cycle), many beings are reborn in the Abhassara world, and they are then called the highest of the devas. Yet, even they change their condition (A.v.60).

In lists of devas (e.g., M.i.289) they are listed below the Appamānābhā and above the Subhā. More

• Video shorts: Robot Chicken; Magnify explaining ezer, "rescuer" Eve; Billy Carson on the Sumerians; irate Irish lass on feminism overdoing it and crapping on the menfolk
• J O Saxton, More Than Enchanting; Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary; Suwanda H. J. Sugunasiri, Dhamma Aboard Evolution; Agganna Sutta (DN 27, Digha Nikaya, Pali canon); G. P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Proper Names); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

ZEN of living on atomic, volcanic faultlines

CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Mari Yamaguchi, Ken Moritsugu, Tokyo (AP)

Volcano post eruption: In Japan firefighters and Japan Self-Defense Forces conduct a rescue search on Mount Ontake, Central Japan, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014 (Associated Press)

Scenes broadcast live on Japanese TV station TBS showed soldiers carrying yellow body bags one-by-one to a camouflage military helicopter that had landed in a relatively wide-open area of the now bleak landscape, its rotors still spinning.

The bodies were flown to a nearby athletic field, its green grass and surrounding forested hills contrasting with Mt. Ontake's ash-gray peak in the background, a reduced plume still emerging from its crater.

The bodies were then taken to a small, two-story wooden elementary school in the nearby town of Kiso, where they were being examined in the gymnasium. Family members of the missing waited at a nearby municipal hall.

More than 200 soldiers and firefighters, including units with gas-detection equipment, were part of the search mission near the peak, said Katsunori Morimoto, an official in the village of Otaki. The effort was halted because of an increase in toxic gas and ash as the volcano continued to spew fumes, he said. "It sounds like there is enormous ashfall up there." More

China says monks advised to leave quake area

Tibetan monks attend a cremation ceremony for an earthquake victim at the earthquake-hit Gyegu town of Yushu county, China, April 21, 2010 (Reuters/Stringer).

BEIJING (AP) – Chinese authorities said Friday that Buddhist monks had been advised to leave an earthquake zone in a Tibetan region because specialized personnel were needed for reconstruction work, rejecting accusations that they had been told to leave for political reasons.

• Slideshow: Series of strong earthquakes hit China
• Video: Quake experts debate NW "big one"
• Video: China mourns earthquake victims

The death toll from last week's earthquake rose to 2,187, with schoolchildren accounting for some 200 deaths. The State Council, China's Cabinet, issued a statement in response to The Associated Press' questions about why Tibetan monks were told this week to leave Yushu county, the epicenter of the quake in a remote corner of western Qinghai province. More>>

• US Gov't Workers Obsessed with Internet Porn

Buddhist monks help save Earthquake victims

Text by Anita Chang (AP)

Tibetan Buddhist monks and rescuers save woman after hearing her cries PHOTOS

JIEGU, China – Tibetan monks in crimson robes dug through earthquake rubble alongside government rescue workers Friday, a startling image for a Chinese region long strained by suspicion and unrest. The central government has poured in troops and equipment to this remote western region, but it is the influential Buddhist monks who residents trust with their lives — and with their dead.

• Video: Monks join China quake rescue effort
• Slideshow: Series of strong earthquakes hit China
• Video: China has ceremony for quake victims

As the death toll climbed to 1,144, there was tension and some distrust over the government relief effort, with survivors scuffling over limited aid. "They have a relaxed attitude," said Genqiu, a 22-year-old monk at Jiegu Monastery, of the government-sent rescue workers. "If someone's taking their photo then they might dig once or twice." More>>

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Tibet Experiences Killer Earthquake

Rescuers search Tibet rubble after quake kills 10

Audra Ang (AP)


In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, usable belongings were carried out by residents from the damaged building in Gedar Township of Damxung County in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Monday, Oct. 6, 2008. Two earthquakes jolted the capital of Tibet and surrounding areas Monday, killing more than 30 people and collapsing hundreds of houses, Xinhua said (AP Photo/Xinhua, Purbu Zhaxi).

• Below see "Eight Causes of Earthquakes in Buddhism"

BEIJING -- Rescuers rushed tents, food, and water to villagers in Tibet on Tuesday after an earthquake and scores of aftershocks rattled the capital and surrounding areas, killing at least 10 people and collapsing hundreds of houses.

State media said soldiers and rescue dogs were searching through rubble for people in Yangyi, the hardest-hit village in Dangxiong County, where the magnitude 6.6 quake struck late Monday afternoon.

The official Xinhua News Agency said nine people were killed in Yangyi. The 10th death was a high school student killed in a stampede in Shan'nan Prefecture, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Dangxiong, during a quake evacuation, Xinhua said.

Nineteen people were injured in Yangyi, many with bone fractures, Xinhua said. They were mostly women, children and the elderly because the men were away harvesting and foraging for winter, it said.

About 171 homes were destroyed. Photos on the central government's Web site show piles of concrete — all that remained of collapsed houses — and the exposed roots of trees ripped from the ground.

"Almost all the buildings have collapsed in Yangyi," said Yi Xi, an employee of the Geda Township government, which oversees the village. "I went there earlier and did not see a single one still standing."

"Our efforts are focused on providing them food and shelter," she said in a telephone interview.

Tenzin Chodrak, who escaped because he was putting extra hay into the sheepfold when the quake struck and his home collapsed, told Xinhua his nephew was killed and his mother was injured.

"I can't believe it," Nyima, a Tibetan herder who lost her 2-year-old daughter, was quoted as saying by Xinhua as she wept.

According to the news agency, at least 700 rescuers were working Tuesday, with soldiers putting up more tents hoping to accommodate all the villagers by dusk. Health workers were doing medical checkups and sanitizing the area to prevent epidemics, it said.

Dangxiong County is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the capital city of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) from Beijing.

Many families stayed in tents Monday night because they were afraid their homes would fall down. The regional seismological bureau registered 188 aftershocks by 7 a.m. Tuesday (2300 GMT Monday), Xinhua said, including one above magnitude 6.0.

Authorities said Lhasa airport and the Qinghai-Tibet railway — which stretches from western Qinghai province to Tibet — were still operating. Chinese media reports said none of Lhasa's landmarks, such as the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple, appeared to be damaged.

But schools in the capital were closed Tuesday for safety reasons, Xinhua said. Shops and hotels in Dangxiong County reached by telephone said they were open and business was normal.

China's far west is fairly earthquake-prone. On Sunday, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region, which borders Tibet, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which also suffered a 6.6-magnitude quake hours later. At least 60 people were killed when a village collapsed.

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12 devastated parts of Sichuan province, just east of Tibet, killing 70,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless.

China says Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries but many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for most of that time. On March 14, monk-led protests against Chinese rule turned violent in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and ethnic Chinese residents were attacked.

• Earthquakes in Ancient India

Why do earthquakes happen in Buddhist terms? For the real answer, approach a master or a monk who has attained the fourth jhana and fourth arupa (eight lokiya-samapatti). [That would mean all eight attainments -- the form and formless jhanas.]

Eight Causes of Earthquakes in Buddhism
"This great earth is established upon liquid, the liquid upon the atmosphere, and the atmosphere upon space. And when mighty atmospheric disturbances take place, the liquid is agitated. And with the agitation of the liquid, tremors of the earth arise. This is the first reason, the first cause for the arising of mighty earthquakes.

"When an ascetic or holy person of great power, one who has gained mastery of mind, or a deva (demigod) who is mighty and potent, develops intense concentration on the delimited aspect of the earth element, and to a boundless degree on the liquid element, one, too, causes the earth to tremble, quiver, and shake. This is the second reason, the second cause for the arising of mighty earthquakes.

"When the Bodhisatta [Buddha-to-be] departs from the Tusita Realm and descends into his mother’s womb, mindfully and clearly comprehending; and when the Bodhisatta comes out of his mother’s womb, mindfully and clearly comprehending; and when the Tathagata becomes fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme enlightenment; when the Tathagata sets rolling the excellent Wheel of the Dharma; when the Tathagata renounces his will to live on; and when the Tathagata comes to pass away into the state of Nirvana in which no element of clinging remains — this great earth trembles, quivers, and shakes.

"These are the eight reasons, the eight causes for a great earthquake to arise."

(Posted by Sofital)

EDITORIAL: Given the utter rarity of buddhas on earth, if this list were exhaustive, the earth wouldn't have many earthquakes. Or it may be that the first two reasons are the primary causes. Obviously the Buddha was making known how significant it was for a buddha to be present. Beyond that, it stands to reason from what seismological evidence that, in fact, the continents are not on solid ground but on liquid or molten earth. Atmospheric disturbances could include any reverberations.

More interestingly, however, is the potential that Tibetans (Buddhist or Bön) are utilizing iddhi (supernatural powers derived from misuse of jhanic attainments, i.e., "meditative absorptions") to harm or send a harmless but potent message to Beijing. Practicing or misfiring could conceivably have led to an earthquake in Tibet itself. However, there is no evidence of this whatsoever, merely a speculation on the possibility to try to begin to make sense of this tragic event and the recent shocks experienced throughout Asia lately. Free Tibet!

May ALL living beings be well and happy (even the Chinese).

Send complaints, protest-letters, and Sharon Stone style hate-mail for the audacity of editors to so much as suggest the possibility that any Tibetan protester would even dream of following in Milarepa's footsteps in defense of his/her country and the unique Dharma preserved there to: mythinskin@myemail.com