Hopis remember: Grand Canyon underworld

(Last Cartographer) What the Hopi said was living beneath the Grand Canyon, USA

FREE to live in Las Vegas? Underworld

(Ruhi Senet Documentaries) I visited the Mole People of Las Vegas, who live with no sunlight

• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Subterranea (geography)
• Homelessness in the USA
• Homelessness
• Underground House Las Vegas

The Rules-Based Order (is a lie)

(The Jimmy Dore Show) The MOST shocking thing said at WEF Forum’s in Davos 2026

(Democracy Now) Living on Planet Trump, World Economic Forum, Davos

Literal underworld crime, Los Angeles

Underground crime ring: Stolen cars in secret tunnels in LA County | FOX 11 LA

(FOX 11 Los Angeles) Whittier Narrows, Los Angeles County, near Montebello - Sept. 4, 2025: FOX 11's Matthew Seedorff received a tip suggesting that criminals are storing stolen cars inside remote runnels in Los Angeles County. Where do stolen cars disappear to with LoJack and all of the new built-in GPS tracking devices? So this is where stolen cars go before they hit the "chop shops" and are sold for parts or shipped out of the country at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro to be sold on the world market by crime syndicates. Meanwhile, the LAPD and LASD and CHP all have their fingers up their nose not knowing anything and being too afraid to enter the tunnels to chase after the car thieves and criminals.

FOX 11 News on YouTube: @foxla Watch more FOX 11 on YouTube: Police Chases • Brazen Crime • Homeless Crisis: Underground crime ring: Stolen cars in secret tunnels in LA County | FOX 11 LA

• Matt Seedorff (FOX 11); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Secrets Beneath: The Maya, underworlds

(Space and Science) Secrets Beneath the Maya: Lost Worlds and Ancient Tunnels | Underground Worlds (documentary)

• Pillars of the Past: Lost city impossible to reach in Peru
• Chichen Itza pyramid temple of the Maya peoples
• Maya peoples (the Maya of Mesoamerica)

Hidden underworld below plateau, Egypt

New chamber discovered in the Great Pyramid could finally answer ancient questions

Are there cities below?

The Great Pyramid of Giza has fascinated people for thousands of years. It has always been standing as a mysterious symbol of ancient Egypt’s ingenuity.

Despite centuries of study, many secrets remain hidden within its massive and beautifully crafted stone walls.

Recently, scientists made an exciting breakthrough: they discovered a previously unknown chamber deep inside the pyramid.

This hidden space could provide crucial information about how the pyramid was built and what purpose it served.

Using advanced technology, researchers are now closer than ever to unlocking some of the Great Pyramid’s most enduring mysteries, sparking worldwide curiosity and excitement.

• Beneath the pyramids: Exploring Giza’s lost city
• Scientists discover skeletons hidden in the Egyptian pyramids
• VIDEO: Inside the subterranean chamber of the Great Pyramid
• New discovery at Stonehenge reveals a monument ten times bigger
• VIDEO: Archeologists in Peru unveil a 3,500-year-old city
• Mexico defeats the US for the nation’s 10th Gold Cup title
• American explorer Brien Foerster - MSN

A hidden room revealed

Impossible alien technology

The discovery of a secret chamber inside the Great Pyramid is like finding a hidden treasure in plain sight.

By using state-of-the-art scanning methods, scientists detected a large, sealed space that had never been explored before. This chamber is not connected to any of the known corridors or rooms, making it a genuine surprise.

Mehdi Tayoubi, co-founder of the ScanPyramids project, described the finding as “a premier,” adding, “It could be composed of one or several structures...maybe it could be another Grand Gallery. It could be a chamber; it could be a lot of things.”

Even after thousands of years and centuries of study, the pyramid still holds secrets waiting to be uncovered.  More

• Tanya Lambrechts, Trini3333/reddit, Ancient Hypotheses, MSN.com, June 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Satanic Luciferian: Banker whistleblower

Dutch banker Ronald Bernard exposes elite Satanism and Luciferian networks that promote real child sacrifice (performed to blackmail newcomers and trap them in elite underworld lifestyle). This behavior also exists in Mojave, California (Mojave Mysteries | Coast to Coast AM), on a much smaller scale just as it existed in ancient Israel. See rense.com for chance of coverage of such unspeakable secrets conducted by CIA and Israel's Mossad as a very profitable way to control geopolitics and world events. It can continue because no one believes. It's too bizarre to be real.

• Mojave Mysteries (Desert Paranormal Series) by M. L. Behrman (mojavemysteries.com)

Trekking Pyrenees and an underworld

Naomi Klein: End Times Fascism (video)

Naomi Klein on Trump, Elon Musk, Far Right, and "End Times Fascism"

There's no underworld below us.

(Democracy Now!) May 5, 2025: An alliance between the far right and Silicon Valley oligarchs has given rise to a form of "end times fascism," says journalist Prof. Naomi Klein.

She details in a recent essay she co-authored with Astra Taylor on how many wealthy elites are preparing for the end of the world even as they contribute to growing inequality, climate crisis, and political instability.

Klein says that while billionaires dream of escaping to bunkered enclaves or even to space, Pres. DJ Trump and other right-wing leaders are turning their countries into militarized fortress states to keep out immigrants from abroad and ramp up authoritarian control domestically.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8:00-9:00 am ET. Subscribe to Daily Email Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe. Latest shows. Support work: democracynow.org/donate

• Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, democracynow.org; Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Underground city under Egyptian pyramid?

(Praveen Mohan) Secret Underground City Found in Egypt? Khafre Pyramid Mystery

'INCREDIBLE claim' Giza Pyramids discovery SPLITS science world | Feat Miniminuteman

Huge structures discovered under pyramids?

On March 15, 2025, a group of researchers revealed some wild news: Using a new type of radar imaging technology, they claimed to have discovered new “internal artificial structures” beneath Egypt's three Great Pyramids in Giza. These structures supposedly include eight cylinders surrounded by constructs resembling spiral staircases. Does their innovative radar imaging technology actually work? If so, are those "structures" real? Let's find out. Paper: mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/20/...

• Archeologists stunned to discover 2800-year-old Turkish temple that was being used to prepare medicines
• Praveen Mohan; Piers Morgan host debate; Sabine Hossenfelder; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

US explorers find lake under gas station

There ain't no hellish, subterranean underworlds

where we are taken to be tortured except maybe...

How could freshwater get into the underworld? Drainage?

Alabama has a cave wonderland

Spelunking is cool, albeit dangerous, as a sport and pastime. It's incredible when archeologists and anthropologists find human ancestors took psychedelic drugs in caves in Spain, the Americas (like Mexico's cenotes and Mayan sacrifice sites and Peru's Nazca Lines region), and Africa. Caves are perfect places for preservation of artifacts, including miniature ET bodies. What in the world would a lake be doing under a gas station, which is sure to eventually pollute its pristine waters? What else is to be found in the underworld the government keeps secret from us, with its high-speed railroad system and massive natural and bored cave systems across the country?

• VIDEO: 170-foot hole in the woods leads to huge crystal discovery
• Three-fingered ET 'alien mummies' found in Peru have fingerprints that do not appear to be human: official report
• Human bodies, elongated ET heads: Alien fever grips Southern Peru (NDTV)
• Peru alien mummy mystery deepens as scientists make bizarre find when they check inside their mouths (Irish Star)
• Humans used psychedelic drugs in cave rituals 3K years ago

Who'd risk life and limb to suffocate in cave in?

Go to Las Vegas and watch the daily workers going underground to do their secret science work in black budget projects, or rediscover great caverns in the Southwest like the massive cities under the Grand Canyon, which were revealed in full newspaper spreads then denied and blocked off to the public. The truth is out there, um, down there. Los Angeles has a widespread system of caves under downtown, which were also revealed by the Los Angeles Times but then denied so that now no one pays any attention. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Massive lake found 170 feet below gas station

(CaveChronicles) March 6, 2025: A gas station owner invited us out to explore a massive cave in the petroleum product dispensary's backyard. We had no idea how huge it would turn out to be -- or how potentially polluted as a garbage pit with possibly volatile compounds in the air. Check out the channel: ‪@ActionAdventureTwins‬

• Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds (2)

Continued from PART 1: Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds? (1)

• It can be pleasant, pleasurable, joyful, contented, blissful. The first two absorptions or jhanas have a characteristic rapture, joy, or I prefer "bliss" (ecstatic happiness) not based on the body, just a joy bubbling up based on a clear conscience, radical acceptance, universal love of everyone, non-opposition to anything. "It's all good," as Homer Simpson would say. But this is unthinkable to "spiritually" minded people seeking austerities, hardships to overcome, a quest, the climbing of a mountain, and the foolish repetition of a mantra they read the life story of the Buddha. You know that part where he said, "I will not move from this spot until my blood dries up and my bones turn to dust"? Nearly everyone erroneously concludes from this that "the secret" is a strong determination (adhimokkha) that put Siddhartha over the top.
• It's all that clenching of the teeth, sweating, efforting, manly virility (viriya) that was exactly in the way. Tiring of hedonistic pleasures as a prince, he ran in the other direction to the point of exhaustion, to Death's doorstep. Tiring of severe austerities that didn't work, what now? Back to hedonistic princely pleasures like Mara was possessing him to consider? NO.
• The Middle Way avoids both extremes. He ate. He didn't overeat. He slept. He didn't oversleep. He exercised. He didn't overexercise. He meditated (jhayanti). He didn't overmeditate (in the sense of that translated saying Bhikkhu Bodhi renders in a Pali expression), premeditate, undermeditate, and so on.

Sex with incredibly beautiful and alluring nymphs in heaven?

Heaven can be like TV's Fantasy Island

First understand that there are MANY "heavens." They are not all the same, and they are not all connected.

The Buddhist universe (which is a multiverse of bubble-like universes in all directions), in Buddhist cosmology, is divided into three spheres: the Sensual (kama), Fine-Material (rupa), and Immaterial (arupa). The Buddha frequently spoke of 31 distinct "planes of existence." These are not worlds but planes, which means there are countless worlds divided into these planes. They interact. For instance, the human and animal planes intersect as do the realm of ghosts and superior ET worlds. He mentioned other worlds that are not raised to the level of a "plane." Most interesting is the case of the human plane (manussya loka), which is not limited to this earth; there may be countless worlds where humans/humanoids live in the galaxy, world-system, and universe.

We are in the lowest of these, the sensual. It not only holds the human plane, it also includes the many hells, the animal plane, the ghost realm, and others. Surprisingly, there are the sensual heavens, extraordinary physical worlds, better and more beautiful than the world we know. These are in space, though some may also exist in our Hollow Earth (Agartha), which according to Buddhist cosmology is quite different than the way we imagine it. We are only aware of a portion of this plane, with our own sun and moon revolving overhead. There are other worlds separated from us by ice walls only surmountable by vimanas (ancient UFO type craft sometimes available to world monarchs in these worlds).

O, Janapada Kalyani, they want us to marry.

So one day the Buddha came back home to his family and friends, his people and familiar surroundings. His cousin/half-brother Nanda (the son of his mother's sister, who had raised him since the age of 7 days, when he was Prince Siddhartha) was getting married, possibly being married off to his sister, known variously as Sundari Nanda and Janapada Kalyani. Prince Siddhartha himself at the age of 16 had been married off to his cousin Bimba Devi (aka Princess Yasodhara). This is how it was among the royal Scythians/Shakyians/Sakas, as much as it may scandalize us. But it may have scandalized the Buddha because he intervened.

As he was leaving a meal invitation on the day before the wedding, the Buddha handed Nanda his brother his alms bowl. Nanda was glad to accompany him to the door out of respect and reverence for him. But when they came to the door, the Buddha did not take the bowl from him. He continued to walk, and Nanda thought he would carry his bowl to the gate. At the gate, the Buddha did not turn to take the bowl but continued walking all the way back to the monastic encampment in the grove where he was staying. CONTINUED IN PART II

As they were walking out of the gate, Janapada Kalyani was on the verandah of the palace watching this odd scene, Nanda following behind the Buddha with a monk's bowl in his hand. Worried, she called out to Nanda, "Come back to me soon, dear!" Nanda turned to see her ravishing beauty but dared not say anything out of respect for this spiritual master of great renown, his half-brother (same father, mothers who were sisters), with whom he had grown up with to the age of 29.

When the Buddha arrived at his dwelling, turned around and sat down. And there Nanda was standing holding the monk's bowl, which is what one brought along with seeking to gain admission to the monastic order, usually with some cloth for stitching a robe. The Buddha, seeing him said: "Nanda, are you here to become a monk?"

Confounded and unable to explain the misunderstanding, Nanda inexplicably just said "Yes." So the Buddha directed attendant monks, Scythian relatives and childhood friends of Nanda, to ordain him. They did. They were very proud that he had chosen to ordain and seek enlightenment instead of marrying the most beautiful "belle in the land," which is what Janapada Kalyani means

But Ven. Nanda was miserable and tormented by lust. He wanted to marry her, have sexual relations with her, and he wanted to disrobe and get back to the palace, to his riches, his status, and his future. He did not want to be celibate. And the more he tried to meditate as the Buddha had instructed him, the more frustrated he became.

I've lost everyone in this fire.

The other monks could see he was frustrated and miserable as a monk, so they told the Buddha. And the Buddha called for Nanda to be brought to him. Nanda came, looking miserable, and the Buddha asked him to hold on to his robe. When he took hold of the corner of the Buddha's robe, they flew through the sky over a great field where a forest had burned down. There Nanda noticed a she-monkey with a burnt nose and tail sitting on a stump looking around at the devastation.

They then traveled through the air upwards into space to the steps of a heavenly mansion (vimana). It was sparkling white, and many gorgeous, pink-footed nymphs were giggling and wiping the steps, bringing it to a sparkling shine. Nanda had never in his life beheld such beauty, such perfection of complexion and symmetry, such sexiness, newly nubile forms. He stepped toward them and asked what they were up to. They turned and batted their eyes, explaining that they were preparing this special heavenly mansion in expectation of the arrival of its owner, their master, the head of household, King Nanda.

Nanda was filled with awe and explained to them that surely King Nanda was a ruler on Earth. Why did they think this was his mansion? They explained that it was true that he was currently a royal living in a palace on Earth but that due to his karma, he would soon (because time is different on other planes, simultaneously moving at different speeds) be arriving in what might seem like a lot of human time but was in next to no time on this heavenly sensual plane.

Ven. Nanda turned to the Buddha and asked if he had heard what they said. The Buddha nodded and motioned that they had to go. Nanda was reluctant to leave, having just heard the greatest news of his life -- that all this would be his, and these would be his consorts, and he would live here in extreme pleasure as the owner and the ruler.

Noticing his excitement and giddiness, the Buddha asked Nanda if he happened to be interested in these celestial nymphs. Nanda was astonished at the question. Of course, he was interested, more than anything in all the world. The Buddha asked, "But what about Janapada Kalyani, your beautiful fiancée, who not long ago was the love of your life?"

Nanda shook his head and struggled to explain, "These are the most beautiful nymphs I have ever seen. Compared to the least beautiful of them, Janapada Kalyani seems like that she-monkey with the burnt nose and tail they had just seen sitting on a stump down there. She is not 1/16th part as beautiful; she does not even come into the count. The Buddha seemed surprised to hear it, as everyone knew Janapada Kalyani was the undisputed beauty of all the land (the janapada or territory of the Sakas/Scythians).

Then holding on to a corner of the Buddha's robe, they departed that world and descended to the human plane again. When they arrived, they did not stop but continued to descend into the plane of the Earth.

They descended through the ground to a dark and ominous underworld, where Nanda noticed two demon-like monsters tending a fire under a cauldron of heated oil. They were intent on their task and didn't seem to notice either the Buddha or Nanda there. So Ven. Nanda asked them what they were up to. One turned abruptly and rudely asked him what business it was of his, adding that if he had to know, they were preparing a welcome for that bad man Nanda, who would be arriving in no time to their chamber to be tortured and tormented, being boiled in hot oil.

Nanda was terrified but managed to stammer that he had heard that Nanda when leaving the human world was destined to ascend to a heavenly mansion, where nymphs awaited him as their master.

The monster agreed but pointed out that when his meritorious karma was exhausted there, King Nanda would drop into their hands, where they would be waiting for him to make him face the consequences of his unskillful karma, which he had also accrued in addition to the good. Nanda in terror looked toward the Buddha, who motion that it was time to go. Nanda desperately asked if the Buddha had heard what those hideous monsters had said. He had, and they departed, returning to the human world.

When they returned, the Buddha took his seat, and Ven. Nanda turned to return to his quarters to meditate. The Buddha asked him, "Weren't you interested in disrobing, being dissatisfied with the purity of the monastic life, Nanda?" "I'm fine," he said. "I should go practice. But, tell me, venerable sir, if I do, do you promise that when I pass away, I will be reborn among those pink-footed nymphs just like they said, there to be master of that mansion?" The Buddha assured him. So Nanda said, therefore, there was no need to disrobe.

The monks saw a marked change in Ven. Nanda, who was now diligent, determined, withdrawn into seclusion, constantly meditating. They approached him and asked what had changed. He recounted his experience in that sensual heavenly and the Buddha's promise that by applying himself, that would be his reward after passing from the human plane.

Does the body even matter?

Our body doesn’t matter after (Hindu) enlightenment. Buddhist enlightenment runs far deeper because the Buddha understood and taught that we are NOT consciousness nor any of the Five Aggregates clung to as "self." See the famous Heart Sutra for this insight.

The monks were scandalized and began to tease and taunt him. Nanda was confused. Instead of being happy for him, rejoicing to see him behaving with as much monastic dedication as any of them, they had now taken to referring to him not as "venerable" or "Friend Nanda" but as "hireling," bought with the price of nymphs. Ven. Nanda paid them no attention and went into seclusion to practice more diligently. The monks asked him, "What about your beloved fiancée who only recently you were walking around distraught, missing her and wanting to return to the place and the low life of an ordinary worldling?" Ven. Nanda had no need of that now; he had nymphs on his mind, and in the back of his mind, he also remembered what the demonic beings had said would happen after his sojourn in heaven.

The monks being scandalized by Ven. Nanda's newfound determination and efforts, his story of visiting his future destination and being promised his reward, complained to the Buddha, who reminded and admonished them to apply themselves with diligence to work out their own salvation now when circumstances were good, the Teacher was near, and they were young and able-bodied, sufficiently fed and robed, of good health, able to make progress. But they were upset at Ven. Nanda's special deal.

In no long time, Ven. Nanda made a breakthrough in his meditation and became enlightened. At that moment, his lust and interest in those many nymphs subsided, and he was at peace. He went to the Buddha to report his progress, announcing his attainment implicitly, how much he appreciated the encouragement, and that he now had seen the Dharma, the Truth.

The Buddha smiled but asked him, "What about our agreement? What about your reward?" Nanda blushed with embarrassment in front of the others and explained that at the moment of his attainment, he had released the Buddha of any such promise or obligation. The Buddha nodded in agreement. Turning to those monks who had not dedicated themselves, had not taken advantage of the excellent circumstances to practice, and had not broken through in their meditation practice.

This story, this beguiling Buddhist account from the Pali canon (almost certainly a backstory from the Dhammapada or the Nikayas, here retold from memory, originally struck a chord. It has very strong Dickensian and Ebenezer Scrooge elements about a miraculous turnaround, a kind of near-death experience that changes one's outlook completely and reorders one's priorities in life. It's amazing that a base aim could produce a holy outcome, that having set off to get lucky in the afterlife could keep one on task long enough for the Dharma and Discipline to work its magic and produce liberating insight. He must have let go, set aside his ambitions, and really investigated phenomena (dhammas) to produce knowledge-and-vision of the path and thereby perceive the true nature of existence as radically impermanent, incapable of fulfilling us, and impersonal.

So perhaps now that video makes sense of what's really possible and who's really up there waiting. This Round (Samsara) is long and wearisome. Long enough have we continued wandering on, reborn here and there, experiencing all of these things, long enough to have grown weary of its carrot and stick, its ups and downs, its promises and disappointments, the best laid plans of mice and men, long enough to let go.

• Thig 5.4: Sundarī Nandā Therīgāthā (Bhikkhu Sujato)
• The Buddha and Nanda go to heaven with … | Flickr
• No one need worry that the Buddha was playing favorites with his family. He saved Sundari Nanda, too, ordaining her as a Buddhist nun and teaching her until she reached enlightenment, just as he did for his mother (Ven. Maha Pajapati Gotami, the first Buddhist nun in history), his former wife (Ven. Bhaddakaccana, Rahulamata, Yasodhara, Bhadda, Bimba), his son (Ven. Rahula), his cousin (Ven. Ananda), and many other Scythian/Shakyian/Saka "princes" (royals, nobles, nomadic kshatriya warriors), nearly everyone from Kapilavastu, except those who clung to a worldly life.
• Even the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, is said to have attained one or more of the stages of enlightenment and become one of the Noble Ones (Aryans) because of the Buddha teaching him until he was free.
• And he visited his biological mother in another heavenly world within the Sensual Sphere, the World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa Deva Loka), to teach her and other devas who came to bring them all to self-realization, when she had at that time returned to live in the more exalted Tusita world, where she left to come to earth to provide the Bodhisatta a suitable womb and lineage. The World of the Thirty-Three might also be called Second Heaven, whereas Tusita is Seventh Heaven.
• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds? (1)

O, Scythian Princess Sundari Nanda (Gotami), you are the Janapada Kalyani of this land!

Is there a heaven (sagga)? By heaven is meant a literal "world of shining ones in sky so far up it's space" (the akasha-deva-loka). We agree with Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry's sentiment as he sings: "Is there a heaven? I'd like to think so" heard here:

(Roxy Music) "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"

Retro Vintage Time Traveling - 1950s Sci-Fi - An AI Short Film

(Retro Retake) Dec. 2, 2024: #Retrofuturism merges seamlessly with the sleek futurism of the Space Age. Three enigmatic companions, clad in shimmering pink outfits, stand poised against the breathtaking backdrop of a distant time or planet, visible through the panoramic window of their spacecraft. This gem isn’t just a visual feast; it’s an invitation to dream, to wonder, and to step into a world where elegance meets cosmic adventure. Every scene captures the essence of a time we’ve never known but have always longed to explore. Are we ready for the captivating beauty of this retrofuturistic universe? #RetroFuture #retro #AIFilmМ

One of the most important questions of our time, since at least the time of the Buddha when the world was obsessed with sex and sensual pleasures, is: "Is there sex after death?"

A stark answer to this was once given by a hopeful comedian: "Yes," he assured his audience reasoning that, "You get laid in a coffin, don't you?" It may be funny, it may be serious. We don't want it to all end! Thinking we're something, we don't want to become nothing. We wish for life to continue (eternally) in some better way, some better place, many better circumstances. This is all possible through skillful karma (profitable, beneficial, wholesome deeds).

• The Buddha pointed out that there are three forms of desire (tanha, craving, thirst) that are terrible, plentiful sources of suffering: (1) craving for sensual pleasure (kama craving), (2) craving for eternal existence (bhava craving), and (3) craving for annihilation (when we want to get off this merry-go-round, vi-bhava craving).

Good deeds or bad, life will continue into the afterlife -- into countless future lives until we bring about enlightenment (bodhi) and awakening, liberation (moksha) and nirvana. It will not happen by accident.

It requires knowing-and-seeing, and that requires calm-and-insight, and that requires morality and right effort. The Buddha summarized it as sila, bhavana, panna or virtue (karmic skillfulness), meditation (mental cultivation), and wisdom (liberating insight).

What is morality?

Virtue means harmless, peaceful, pleasant.

The Buddha defined that simply as these Ten Courses of Wholesome Action, avoiding the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. A more basic definition is by way of roots: Those things rooted in greed, hatred, or delusion give rise to unskillful actions (karma), whereas those rooted in nongreed, nonhatred, or nondelusion give rise to skillful actions. We can call the good kind merit because its results are always welcome, pleasant, and wished for. (Unskillful karma is called that because it is bad, meaning that when it brings forth its results, they are unwelcome, unpleasant, and unwished for).

What is meditation?

Meditating is cultivating, not just by sitting

The English term "meditation" is very misleading because the Pali word bhavana really means "bringing into being" or "cultivating," and that can be done at any time through mindfulness and right effort. (Other Pali terms like jhana, jhayanti, anussati, and kammatthana are also rendered with this same catchall English term, adding to confusion as to what the practice is).

Meditation in English has come to mean sitting cross-legged. But "cultivating" can be done while engaged in actions, uttering chants, mantras, aphorisms, or affirmations. If I want to cultivate a fit body, I go to the gym, dojo, or walking path and exercise, practice movement and deeper breathing.

Similarly, if I want to cultivate a fit mind or heart, I go to sacred places, zendo, or forest (into nature) and exercise, mentally practice calm, attentiveness, wakefulness, positivity, equanimity, and more soothing breathing.

What is wisdom?

Insight into the true nature of reality

The goal of the previous to is to bring about insight, which we can set the preliminaries (a calm and attentive mind able to be consistently mindful, which means aware without reaction, judgments, thinking, ambitions, striving, or efforting, just being here now, whatever the circumstance, not getting sucked up in stories, narratives, assessments, judgments, or rationalizations). So we can think of it as vipassana (insight) bhavana (cultivation).

To cultivate insight, the Buddha explained in two famous sutras the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness, that is, being mindful of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. This is called satipatthana. There's no need to think about it; all of the instructions are given in these two discourses. (See Ven. Analayo on the meaning of "mindfulness" in Early Buddhism and then read the simple exercises on, first, how to be mindful of the body). Simple is not easy. All that is needed is persistence to establish a practice. Doing a lot then nothing, a lot then nothing is no way to practice. Doing a steady amount, even if tiny at first, soon grows into a solid habit. Steadiness, not extreme efforting or insane determination, wins the game.

Anyone who's read or heard the Buddha's life story misunderstands what happened. Ask them. This is the key question. He's born a prince, wants more, renounces the throne, goes off on a spiritual question, heads for the mystic East, practices yoga and austerities (like regular fasting and penance and all kinds of moral rules) and monastic living and meditation... And it doesn't work. He doesn't become enlightened. So he doubles down. And it doesn't work.

But this time it's even worse. He exhausts himself to the point where he accepts help from women, whom the other wandering ascetics will not even talk to, stare at, or receive anything from. Here Siddhartha is talking to, looking at, and even receiving from, accepting an offering of food and nourishment.

The happily pregnant milkmaid Sujata offers the ascetic Siddhartha a rich meal of rice.

.

He builds his strength back up and realizes the body is his friend, not his enemy as the other spiritual seekers feel sure is the case. But he realizes that nearly seven years of striving, enlightenment has not come. So rather than ramp it up even more than before, he suddenly remembers something that happened to him at age 7. He remembers a spontaneous meditative absorption (jhana) he entered as a child at the Harvest Festival in Kapilavastu (probably Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which was part of ancient Gandhara). He then wonders if this isn't the way to enlightenment.

A knowingness comes back to him that this is the way -- the way of letting go, giving up, surrender, radical acceptance, tolerance, letting things be.... He further wonders why he has been avoiding this pleasant abiding and realizes it has been because of his "spiritual" aversion to pleasure. But this is not sensual pleasure (kama sukha). This is super-sensual (abhi-kama, piti, blameless contentment, sukha, and joy, not dependent on the physical senses). If it is blameless, then it is okay.

• Even today, Buddhist spiritual seekers have the exact same fear without realizing it, thinking that the path has to be arduous and full of virile effort to count, when that is exactly why it didn't work for years and years for the Bodhisattva Siddhartha. CONTINUED IN PART II
• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly; Retrofuturism; Roxy Music, "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"

Hidden devils and demons all around

Skip to Minute 3:25 for Fengdu Ghost City based on Buddhist and Chinese mythology

.

The UnXplained: Hidden Devils and Demons Surround Us

(HISTORY) Evil (pāpa, Nio) is all around us. See more in this compilation from The UnXplained.

• VIDEO

First, there was the USA's first known serial killer, Mr. H. H. Holmes from the Chicago World's Fair, the real name of which is World's Columbian Exposition (because Columbia is the USA's little-known first name before reverting to the reptilian name Amerika, not related to Amerigo Vespucci as we are all taught).

Where are the "devils"? They are with the ghosts and demons in the underworld (ancient Greek Hades), Gehenna, or what the ancient Chinese call Fengdu Ghost City (Chinese 丰都鬼城, 豐都鬼城) pinyin Fēngdū Guǐ Chéng, originally 酆都鬼城 [1]).

This is a large complex of Chinese shrines, temples, and monasteries dedicated to the afterlife located on Ming Mountain [2] in Fengdu County, Chongqing municipality, China [3]. It is situated about 110 miles (170 km) downstream from Chongqing on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

The city consists of buildings, structures, dioramas, and statues related to Diyu and Naraka, concepts from Chinese mythology and Buddhism that signify the underworld or hell(s). It is modeled to resemble Youdu, the capital of Diyu.

After the building of the Three Gorges Dam and the rising of the water level of the river it became separated from the city of Fengdu, which was rebuilt higher up the mountainside on the south side of the river [4]. More: Fengdu Ghost City

ABOUT: From the producers of Ancient Aliens and The Curse of Oak Island comes The UnXplained, a one-hour, non-fiction series that explores the world’s most fascinating, strange, and inexplicable mysteries. Hosted and executive produced by Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor William Shatner (Star Trek, Boston Legal), each episode features compelling contributions from scientists, historians, witnesses, and experiencers—each seeking to shed light on how the seemingly impossible actually can happen.

Watch favorite episodes of The UnXplained, and stay up to date on favorite The HISTORY Channel shows at history.com/schedule. Check out more full episodes of The UnXplained on YouTube (https://bit.ly/TheUnXplainedS5) and on Google Play (https://bit.ly/TheUnXplainedS5GooglePlay). Subscribe for more from The UnXplained and other great The HISTORY Channel shows: http://histv.co/SubscribeHistoryYT. Watch more The UnXplained on YouTube in this playlist: https://histv.co/UnXplainedYT. Find out more about the show and watch full episodes: https://histv.co/unxplained. Check out exclusive The HISTORY Channel content: History Newsletter: https://histv.co/newsletter. Website: https://histv.co/History. Facebook: https://histv.co/Facebook. Twitter: https://histv.co/Twitter.

The HISTORY® Channel, a division of A+E Networks, is the premier destination for historical storytelling. From best-in-class documentary events, to a signature slate of industry leading nonfiction series and premium fact-based scripted programming, The HISTORY® Channel serves as the most trustworthy source of informational entertainment in media. The HISTORY® channel has been named the #1 U.S. TV network in buzz for seven consecutive years by YouGov BrandIndex, and a top favorite TV network by Beta Research Corporation. For a deeper dive, visit history.com or follow @history on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. For additional press materials visit the A+E Networks Press Center at http://press.aenetworks.com. #TheUnXplained

• The UnXplained, Nov. 17, 2024: CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

50,000-year-old American pyramids: Cuba

Just as ancient Egyptians built massive pyramids along the Nile, ancient Americans built Cahokia

• VIDEO: The mystery of the 50,000-year-old Sunken City of Cuba (msn.com)

Latin American wonders hidden in the jungle

Look at a map of the USA. The Gulf of Mexico is shown differently in each. Cuba is massive, as big as Florida, but is often minimized. All maps are politicized, which is odd since we now have low-flying satellites 20 miles up that can photograph and give us a real picture. But all "space photos" are manipulated CGI (computer generated images). They are warped, shrunken, expanded, enhanced, etcetera. There are 50,000-year-old pyramids underwater between the continental U.S. and the island nation. The mainland has Cahokia with its pyramid "mounds" in St. Louis, Missouri. A hop over the Gulf, Mexico has extraordinary pyramids in the Yucatan Peninsula and Veracruz.

• Cuban pyramids: Cuban underwater formation
• Archaeologists found the lost remnants of a Maya civilization hiding in the jungle
• What is a Mesoamerican pyramid?
• List of Mexican Mesoamerican pyramids
• Know More via msn.com, "The mystery of the 50,000 year old Sunken City of Cuba," Oct. 9, 2024; Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Xochitl (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mexico, though called Mesoamerica, is in North America and is full of ancient pyramids