Barack Barry Soetoro Obama (video)

VIDEO: Barack Obama, Barry Soetoro

(MarcusBrooks1776) Are we being fooled by the polished presentation of a charismatic orator who capable of charming the nation and the world. Barack (Barry Soetoro) Obama may not be who he claims to be. This video attempts to complete the picture an clarify who the American figurehead is. For those who voted for the presentation, there is no need to feel a sense of blame, there can be real change from here on.

Right-wing Republicans vilifying Democratic success

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
We love Obama... as a myth, not as actual leader. Where is the change and leadership we were promised? The only change is in tone, not substance.

The Bush-Cheney-Rove-Rumsfeld team is still in power through their policies; they're just not the face of it. Put forward a prettier face, and everyone will think something has changed. What has changed?

G. W. Bush should never have been allowed to pretend he was elected, to take power, or to tamper with the rights of Americans and the safety of the world. But using 9-11, he and the puppet masters (Cheney, the corporate military-industrial complex, the Pentagon, and the country's spying apparatus) did just that. They're still doing just that.

Barack Obama is a lovable charismatic speaker willing and able to do what is asked of him. And what is asked? Go along to get along and bring us along.

Our two-party system is two faces of the same coin united against any third voice. They are not their to wield power but to draw attention away from it. Those who were in power before are still in power whether they put forward and fund a black candidate, an Indonesian, a socialist, a "radical," a woman, or even themselves. "Change" -- they pitched a lie by promising us exactly what we needed without delivering it.

What is needed for Enlightenment?

Wisdom Quarterly

There are three kinds of fully awakened individuals: the personal (arahant-), nonteaching (pacceka), and supremely enlightened teaching (samma-sam-) buddhas. (Bodhisattva image by BDrunz/Flickr.com)

Buddhism is a well packed SET of (seven) teachings. The problem is dukkha (disappointment, suffering, distress, woe, or unsatisfactoriness), and the goal is liberation.

1 Thing The Buddha only taught one thing -- Dharma. This ancient word has at least a dozen distinct meanings. But it could be summed up as "truth" with a lowercase t. The ancient pre-Buddhist Sanskrit term dharma means Truth, uppercase t.

The Doctrine (Dharma) points at the Truth (dharma). It is only a pointer. It is not the Truth. The Truth cannot be expressed with words or concepts or thinking, which is often how we approach things, attempting to grasp and label and argue about them.

The Buddha's Teaching was set forth with a sutra called the "Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma" delivered to the five ascetics in the Deer Park in Sarnath, India, in the suburbs of Varanasi. It is now set in stone at the site.

One simile is that the Buddha points at the Moon. The Moon is the dharma. But people neglect to see the Moon, instead focusing on the pointing, the Dharma (Buddhist Doctrine or Teachings or instructions on getting to direct realization).

It doesn't help that the distinctions are so fine or that the word "Dharma" (as the Teachings or Doctrines of Buddhism) is not universally capitalized to distinguish it from dharma, which uncaptialized in Buddhist Sanskrit refers to phenomena or "things."

2 Things The Buddha only taught Dharma, which means he only taught two things -- the problem and the solution. Suffering (dukkha) is the problem. Release from all suffering (nirvana) is the solution.

The Dharma is symbolized as a wheel (chakra), the True Wheel, the Wheel of the Law (law means lawfulness or regularity of the universe not a set of rules for enforcement), the eight spokes of the Eightfold Path (one part of the Dharma).

3 Things It can be said that in this regard, he taught three things: Discourses (sutras), Discipline (Vinaya), and Abhidharma (the profound Dharma of Dependent Origination, mind, and the exacting details of the Path to liberation from suffering).

4 Things Of course, how could all of this ever be stated succinctly? Buddhism, the Buddha-Dharma, all that points towards the Truth that shall set one free is summarized and taught as four things, the Four Noble Truths: (1) we have a problem, (2) it has a cause, (3) it has a solution, and (3) this is the way to the solution.

Because Buddhism so well packed, what do people ever learn about it?

An introduction, that's what. We are constantly being introduced to Buddhism. When do we get an advanced or even an intermediate teaching? When does practice go beyond preliminary lists to unpack the wonderful Dharma within? Rarely.

37 Things So here it is. Monastic-scholars gathered all that pertains directly to enlightenment -- to "liberation from suffering" in this very life. They enumerated 37 things taught by the Buddha as indispensable aids to enlightenment.

These seven sets (14 individual items, many of them appearing in more than one grouping for a total of 37) are together called the Requisites of Enlightenment (bodhipakkhiya-dharma), "things pertaining to awakening," not to be confused with the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (bojjhangas), which is but one of the sets.

Requisites of Enlightenment
Ven. Ledi Sayadaw

1. Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna)
2. Four Right Efforts (Sammāpadhāna)
3. Four Bases of Success (Iddhipāda)
4. Four Controlling Faculties (Indriya)
5. Four Mental Powers (Bala)
6. Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Bojjhaṅga)
7. Noble Eightfold Path (Maggaṅga)

The bodhipakkhiya-dharmas are so called because they form part (pakkhiya) of enlightenment or awakening (bodhi), which here refers to the knowledge of the paths of liberating wisdom (magga-nāṇa). They are dharmas (mental phenomena) with the function of being proximate causes, requisite ingredients, and bases of, or sufficient conditions (upanissaya) for, path-knowledge. ["Path knowledge" begins with the path of stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment.]

• ALL THE DETAILS: The Requisites of Enlightenment: A Manual (PDF)

NASA knows about UFOs? (video)

Wisdom Quarterly (INVESTIGATION)

(NASA Ames, Feb. 2, 2011) NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size exoplanet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system. Located approximately 2,000 light years from Earth, Kepler-11 is the most tightly packed planetary system yet discovered. All six of its confirmed planets have orbits smaller than Venus, and five of the six have orbits smaller than Mercury's. More>>

NASA Knows About UFOs?
Wisdom Quarterly

Thanks to compartmentalization and secrecy (enforced by signed oaths that carry the threat of character and literal assassination as well as fines and imprisonment), one arm of NASA has no idea what other arms are doing. While one is on a very public wild goose chase for "evidence of the possibility of habitable planets outside our solar system," the other is reverse engineering alien technology.

(LINK) Jaime Maussan presents compilation of UFO footage from NASA More>>

SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is a good example: While functionaries pore over beeps and blips, Dr. Steven Greer has for year been pushing the envelope to disclose confirmed extaterrestrial contacts: SETI makes alien contact (VIDEO).

Wisdom Quarterly has frequently provided video evidence from NASA itself of UFOs in orbit around the planet as well as in the atmosphere. It has become an 800 lb. gorilla in the room, a naked emperor, a handicapped individual on an elevator. We stare at the ceiling, stare at our shoes, and fail to engage out of perhaps a well founded fear of being embarrassed or embarrassing someone else.

The testimonial, photographic, and video evidence is not hard to find if one searches, even though it is interspersed with red herrings, repugnant hoaxes, and potent disinformation campaigns. A good start is disclosureproject.org and the work of Richard C. Hoagland (co-author of Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA at enterprisemission.com) and Mexian-born American educated ufologist and journalist Jaime Maussan.

• Darkmission.net

Cow escapes slaughterhouse, new adventure

(WATCH VIDEO) Actor Ricardo Montalban plays an elegant cow escaping slaughter on the Family Guy episode "McStroke" (Season 6, Ep. 8). Peter suffers a stroke from eating meat and sets out to expose the horrors of the fastfood hamburger industry.

Matthew Brown (AP, Feb. 3, 2011)

BILLINGS, Montana – Five years after a cow dubbed the "Unsinkable Molly B" leapt a slaughterhouse gate and swam across the Missouri River in an escape that drew international attention, the heifer has again eluded fate, surviving the collapse of the animal sanctuary where she was meant to retire.

Molly B (AP/Great Falls Tribune/Rion Sanders)

Molly B was among an estimated 1,200 animals removed from the Montana Large Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in recent weeks as part of a massive effort to

bail out its overwhelmed owners. Animal welfare groups said they were forced to euthanize dozens of starving and ill cattle, horses, and llamas found on the 400-acre sanctuary in rural Sanders County.

The bovine celebrity herself -- an overweight black Angus breed said to be sore in the hoof but otherwise relatively healthy -- was removed to a nearby ranch and is headed this week to a smaller farm sanctuary. More>>

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet" (Albert Einstein).

• New Dawn Montana Farm Sanctuary
• The Ballad of Molly B (Great Falls Tribune)

CIA's Secretary of War to run for President?

CIA's Gates hopes effort to draft him for president "fails miserably"
Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)

Robert Gates, former CIA director and current US Secretary of War, says he hopes the push to have him run for president fails.

What would be the purpose of Republicans running Gates against Pres. Barack Obama (a.k.a. Barry Soetoro), who is a shoo-in after serving with distinction that makes even the Bush Dynasty proud as he promotes their policies as planned?

Candidate Gates can serve as a straw man pulling the election conversation to the right. This moving of what is considered the "center" by pulling in one direction is a longstanding tactic in Republican politics.

Do people remember Bob Dole who served a more useful purpose than winning by pulling Bill Clinton to the right to maintain his "moderate" (by comparison) position?

Likewise Secretary of War Gates -- by promoting extreme Republican views, maybe conceding a little on social issues so as not to appear to be so much of a company man -- would pull Obama farther to the right on "defense" and our debt-economy.

Then, as anyone can see, he would not have to "win" to prove useful to the powers that be.

If he did win, he would eerily be following a successful track set by George Bush Sr., who also went from the US military (both Air Force), to the CIA (both former directors), to executive positions in the White House, and finally to the presidency.

If he did win, hooray for the neo National Socialist party, who always prefers straight dictatorial power to the tact and "diplomacy" Mr. Clinton and Obama are so good at.

Why would Gates not want to do it? That is easy to understand: It is actually a step down to become "leader of the free world" when there's so much more money, information, and power (although far less national prestige) in the shadow government and the well paid military-industrial complex corporate world.

Pres. Bill Clinton -- who served as the face of power while constantly being kept in the dark -- said it best when he joked about life in the White House: "I don't know whether it's the finest public housing in America or the crown jewel of the federal prison system."

The funny thing about Obama

The eerie similarity is that George Bush Jr. and Dick Cheney did not have the legal right to run or become heads of state because they were from the same state. It violates the United States Constitution (Amendment XII). But by stating otherwise, and concealing an illegal abortion Bush hypocritically once paid for, rigging votes, tampering with the count, and denying Al Gore due process in court, Bush was (s)elected.

Why then should Obama's Indonesian citizenship stand in the way?

Barry Hussein is a great orator, a great American, a Christian convert, and a well loved figure compared to the dismal tyranny of Bush and Dick (and Colon Powell). And he has a promising future as the first head of the One World Government, if such a plan succeeds.

Imagine it. He's Christian, and he's Muslim. He's black, and he's white. He is intelligent, he can speak, he can sympathize, and yet he reads all the rhetoric on the teleprompter with earnestness and conviction. What more do we want from a figurehead?

The New World Order needs new world leaders. Vice Pres. Dick Cheney had his chance to become our dictator -- both pulling the strings and providing the face of power -- but failed. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was so frustrated by Pres. Bill's powerlessness that she became determined to one day get the job.

• Bush daughter comes out for same-sex marriage
• Dick's daughter gay and a gay rights activist
• Forget Palin, draft Gates for president?

The Vedas describe Underground Worlds

Text by Veda.harekrsna.cz (planetarium)
Buddha at Yungang Grotto, China (Anthony Bak/Flickr.com)

Bhurloka, or Bhu-mandala is the earthly level consisting of seven spheres (dvipas, literally "islands") -- Jambudvipa [India], Plaksadvipa, Salmalidvipa, Kusadvipa, Krauncadvipa, Sakadvipa, Puskaradvipa -- inhabited by various human beings.

"The planetary system known as Bhu-mandala resembles a lotus flower, and its seven islands resemble the whorl of that flower. The length and breadth of the island known as Jambudvipa, which is situated in the middle of the whorl, [is] one million yojanas [8,000,000 (square) miles]. Jambudvipa is round like the leaf of a lotus flower" (SB 5.16.5).

The planet Earth where we live now as human beings is situated within Jambudvipa. It is known as a karma-bhumi (Visnu Purana 2.3.2), the place where new karma is created, a kind of cosmic crossroads. Here we decide our future situation, higher or lower, by acting in a particular way.

"King Rahugana said: This birth as a human being is the best of all. Even birth among the demigods [hybrid humans] on other planets is not as glorious as birth as a human being on this Earth. What is the use of the exalted position of a demigod? On "heavenly" planets, due to profuse material comforts, there is no possibility of associating with devotees" (SB 5.13.21).

Governments are building secret underground cities and tunnels (helpfreetheearth.com)

BILA-SVARGA [Underground Bases, Hollow Earth]
Bila-svarga is the name of subterranean "heavens" inhabited by the Asuras [titans] and the Nagas. The Bhagavata Purana lists seven of them, each below the other: Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and Patala.

"In these seven planetary systems, which are also known as the subterranean heavens [bila-svarga], there are very beautiful houses, gardens, and places of sense enjoyment, which are even more opulent than those in the higher planets because the demons have a very high standard of sensual pleasure, wealth, and influence. Most of the residents of these planets, who are known as Daityas, Danavas, and Nagas, live as householders. Their wives, children, friends, and society are all fully engaged in illusory, material happiness. The sense enjoyment of the demigods is sometimes disturbed, but the residents of these planets enjoy life without disturbances. Thus, they are understood to be very attached to illusory happiness" (SB 5.24.8).

ASURAS - "Now let me describe the [offspring] of Diti, who were begotten by Kasyapa but who became demons. In this demoniac family the great devotee Prahlada Maharaja appeared, and Bali Maharaja also appeared in that family. The demons are technically known as Daityas because they proceeded from the womb of Diti" (SB 6.18.10).

"Beneath Mahatala is the planetary system known as Rasatala, which is the abode of the demoniac sons of Diti and Danu. They are called Panis, Nivata-kavacas, Kaleyas, and Hiranya-puravasis [those living in Hiranya-pura]. They are all enemies of the demigods, and they reside in holes like snakes. From birth they are extremely powerful and cruel, and although they are proud of their strength, they are always defeated by the Sudarsana cakra of [Krsna], who rules all the planetary systems. When a female messenger from Indra named Sarama chants a particular curse, the serpentine demons of Mahatala become very afraid of Indra" (SB 5.24.30).

NAGAS - "Beneath Rasatala is another planetary system, known as Patala or Nagaloka, where there are many demoniac serpents, the masters of Nagaloka, such as Sankha, Kulika, Mahasankha, Sveta, Dhananjaya, Dhrtarastra, Sankhacuda, Kambala, Asvatara, and Devadatta. The chief among them is Vasuki. They are all extremely angry, and they have many, many hoods [marks of royalty] -- some five hoods, some seven, some ten, others a hundred, and others a thousand. These hoods are bedecked with valuable gems, and the light emanating from the gems illuminates the entire planetary system of bila-svarga" (SB 5.24.31).

Someone has become one of the Asuras or Nagas, half human and half serpent beings, who are enjoying a high standard of material life on sub-earthly levels. One is endowed with supernatural powers, totally irreligious and usually inimical to humans. This seemingly ideal life is interrupted from time to time. One may be killed by the Sudarsana chakra and reborn as a human. More>>

(LiteralWord) Coast to Coast radio: George Noory discusses DUMBs with Richard Sauder

Do Buddhist texts agree?
Wisdom Quarterly

In at least one perplexing sutra, which has confounded the greatest translator of the Middle Length Discourses (Bhikkhu Bodhi) as to what it could mean, the Buddha's great disciple Mahakassapa describes human-hybrids and an entire luxurious underwater world:

"In the middle of the ocean
There are mansions aeon-lasting,
Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming
With a clear translucent lustre,
Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance
In complex, intricate rhythms" (MN 50).

Mahakassapa's ability to directly know this stemmed from the exquisite development of his psychic abilities. The Buddha declared him the foremost male disciple in this regard. In the same sutra, Mahakassapa reports a previous life of which he says, "My body had the same form as a human body, but my head had the form of a fish's head."

Of course, the agreement goes far beyond this one discourse. The Buddha repeated the ancient Indian cosmology inherited from the Vedas. He adapted and updated some parts but kept the principal figures and elements: Devas (space alien-human hybrids), nagas (reptilian-human hybrids), asuras (titans), yakkhas (ogres), garudas (avian hybrids), petas (phantoms), and others.

How is this anomalous data dealt with in Buddhism?

The same way it is dealt with in Hinduism and Christianity: It's not. It's dismissed as nothing but "mythology." The wonderful thing about considering this wealth of information "myth and make believe" -- preserved as sacred and monumental for the understanding of not only our origins as a species but the history of life on this planet -- is that human cultures are able to preserve what we no longer understand until such time as it can be understood again.

• Astronomers find six new alien planets in solar system
• California UFOs appeared to be having fun
• Sufi music festival comes to East India (Calcutta)
• Thailand donates Buddha statues to new Sri Lanka museum
• Thailand’s Department of Fine Arts has donated 11 Buddha statues to be exhibited at the Thai Gallery of the proposed Int'l Buddhist Museum in the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy. These statues represent different styles of different periods. One such statue is the Buddha in a walking posture unknown in Sri Lanka.

Astronomers find 6 planets in alien solar system

Artist's illustration of extrasolar planets discovered around the star Kepler 11 by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope (Nature).

Astronomers have discovered an alien solar system in which six planets are orbiting a sunlike star, with five of the newfound worlds in close-knit configuration. Few stars have been observed with planetary arrangements like our solar system, making this a compelling find. The newfound exoplanet system was sighted by astronomers using NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space observatory. The smallest of the new alien planets is about 2.3 times the mass of Earth. None of the extrasolar planets are inside the so-called "habitable zone" -- orbits where liquid water could exist on their surfaces, scientists said. Astronomers made the serendipitous find after poring over Kepler's observations of the changing brightness of the system's parent star -- called Kepler-11 -- as the orbiting planets passed in front of the star. More>>

We used to have Miles O'Brien, This Week in Space

• California UFOs appeared to be having "fun"
  (Feb. 1, 2011) A California witness driving north on Interstate-5 near the Arena Blvd. exit at 8:00 p.m. on Jan. 31, 2011 reports watching four bright, multi-colored lights 100 feet off of the ground, according to Feb. 1 testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

(NASA TV, Feb. 2, 2011) NASA's Kepler Mission has discovered 54 planet candidates that orbit in the habitable zone of their host star; this so-called "Goldilocks" region is "not too hot or too cold, but just right" for the possible existence of liquid water on the surface of a planet. Four of those candidates are near Earth-sized planets in orbit around small, cool stars. The findings, discussed at a news conference held Feb. 2 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, are based on data collected by the space telescope between May and September, 2009. Ground-based observatories will be used this spring and summer to help determine if these candidates can be validated as planets.

Chinese Year of the Rabbit and Egypt

Amber Dorrian (Wisdom Quarterly)

Child touches rabbit-shaped souvenirs for sale during Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations in Chinatown in Manila, Philippines (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters).

The Chinese New Year of the Rabbit
Elizabeth Flock (Washington Post)

Happy Chinese New Year of the Rabbit! The fifteen-day spring festival celebration based on the lunisolar calendar kicks off today with the promise of dragon dances, firecrackers, and couplets hung in windows. The Chinese New Year Parade will take over D.C.'s Chinatown in all its red glory on Sunday.

The New Year is at hand. So is the opportunity to learn about an alternative astrological chart: Which animal sign are you? Compare that to the old Sun sign horoscopes.

(WQ) The world operates with many calendars. The best is the lunar calendar, which accords with the regular phases of the Moon. But the most popular is of course the common Gregorian solar calendar. It awkwardly denies its lunar origins and tries to reorient towards the Sun for the sake of Christian hegemony.

Sun signs -- all 13 of them, including Ophiuchus the snake holder between Scorpio and Sagittarius, like the number of "Moonths" in a year -- replaced the older Chinese system. The zodiac behind the Great Wall assigned signs according to birth year, in 12 year cycles, rather than birth months.

The more ancient Egyptian system of astrology, provided by extraterrestrial sky beings as were most systems around the world such as the even older Indian Vedic system, was overtaken by the Babylonian system that came from the Greeks during the Ptolemiac period. That earlier system might have foreseen the revolt against a foreign-supported tyrant:

Egypt attacks protesters (video)

Officials offer a surprising apology and promise that Dictator Mubarak's son will not seek power. Police arrest journalists - Israel slams U.S. partner's response - "Day of Rage" in Yemen

Real News

• 300 reported dead in Egyptian protests: U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said Tuesday up to 300 people may have been killed and over 3,000 injured in Egypt. Pillay urged investigations into why security forces suddenly disappeared from the streets of Cairo, leaving a "security vacuum." Pillay said: "The population appears to be clearly rejecting a system that has deprived people of fundamental rights, and has committed a range of serious abuses, including widespread acts of torture."
• US weapons manufacturers get lucrative contracts from Egypt's dictator Mubarak: Egypt has for decades been the second largest recipient of US military aid. But most of that money ends up in the hands of US corporations in the form of lucrative contracts for fighter jets, missiles, teargas, and tanks. Lockheed Martin has received contracts worth $3.8 billion in the last ten years, General Dynamics $2.5 billion, and Boeing $1.7 billion.
• Human Rights Watch unveils systematic torture in Iraq: A Human Rights Watch report says elite security forces attached to the military office of Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki are torturing Iraqi detainees in a secret prison. The report adds these Special Forces are torturing with total impunity. Human Rights said it received official documents proving such prisons were under the authority of Maliki’s office and detainees were subject to the most brutal forms of torture.
• Astronaut's choice: Fly to Moon or stay with wife?
• Protests rock Jordan [Israeli military trembling in its jack boots]
• People demand Jordan PM step down [thanks to Tunisia]
• Journalists attacked, arrested in Egypt as crackdown intensifies
• Massive Australia cyclone brings terror, ruin (PHOTOS)

In Search of Lasting Happiness

We're genetically predisposed to certain moods, but we can help ourselves too. Hint: There's a difference between mere pleasure and substantive gratification.

In search of lasting happiness
Valerie Ulene (LA Times, Jan. 31, 2011)
As last year drew to a close, I found myself struggling with whether I'd draft resolutions for 2011. For years I've made commitments to exercise regularly, spend less and learn a second language, only to abandon them within the first few weeks of January. In spite of my poor track record, resolutions are difficult for me to resist. I guess I find something inherently hopeful about them, and failing to make them seems a bit like giving up. They are, in my mind, a road map to a more fulfilling and happier life.

Not surprisingly, finding happiness is more complicated than that.

In fact, until quite recently, many mental health professionals viewed the pursuit of happiness as pure folly. Most concentrated their energy and attention on individuals suffering from diseases like depression and anxiety, on relieving despair rather than promoting well-being. That's all beginning to change. Proponents of "positive psychology" think that happiness is a goal that people can -- and should -- work toward. They believe that it's not only possible but crucially important. More>>

• Happiness may depend on focus
• Life purpose leads to happiness

Arriving at Happiness in Buddhism
Wisdom Quarterly ("Ignorance cheerfully returned if not completely enlightened")
Happiness is not arrived at by directly craving and striving for it. Focus on things that naturally give rise to happiness. Q: Like what? A: Virtue (sila), focus (samadhi), wisdom (prajna).

Focus on focusing? Yes, that's a great start. Lasting happiness is a spontaneous result of getting back in balance. Where are we out of balance?

Do we have serenity, the unscatttered concentration that leads to happiness here and now? Being able to enter a serenely absorbed state at will gives rise to two great forms of happiness known as rapture and bliss (piti and sukha). One refers to ecstasy predominantly felt physically, the other mentally.

Then there's the heart-mind: Do we have wisdom, which leads to ultimate happiness? Displacing ignorance -- not by learning and thinking but rather by being mindful and directly knowing -- leads to enlightenment. The mind, like a candle, need not expel darkness. Illuminated, returning to its natural luminosity, takes care of that.

Happiness is actually the natural disposition of the mind: Rapture, being uplifted and transported, is very pleasurable. Bliss is a pleasant bubbliness, a lightness of being, an abiding with a good-humored nature. Both result from success in serenity meditation (shamatha or jhana-bhavana).

• Mind is luminous whether or not it is tainted by mental defilements.

Lasting "happiness" (beyond sensual and supersensual pleasure) comes from more than serenity. But the experience of serenity here and now depends on being in balance.

Happiness is available at any moment; it's our natural state! Of course, until one experiences this, it will seem untrue and impossible: Calling it proof, we'll offer reasons why we're unhappy, and why we deserve to be unhappy, never realizing how it is a choice.

What proof is there that happiness is a choice? Look, I can be happy right now, at will. Then my body smiles and sends endogenous chemicals to confirm it. Nothing made me happy other than choosing it. Everything that was "wrong" before is still "wrong," but I'm happy. I'm not stupid -- even if others say, "You're too stupid to see how unhappy you should be!" LOL. Who is silly, the one who can summon happiness in spite of any circumstance, or "victims of circumstance" who have their internal experience of mood dictated by external circumstances?

It isn't what happens; it's how we react. It isn't our circumstances; it's how we choose to perceive and interpret what is happening. I wasn't always able to choose, had no idea it was a choice. Actually, as a kid I knew. Then I forgot/got it trained out of me. But I recovered this natural ability by meditation (not just the sitting kind). And yet how many of us are "too busy" trying to be happy or focusing on happiness to actually meditate or do something that as a natural result gives rise to happiness?

Like many things in Buddhism, the factors of a result, such as happiness, are inseparable. But the Buddha analyzes them (separates them into constituent parts) for better understanding.

For example, the Noble Eightfold Path is a set of inter-dependent factors, literally "limbs," like the arms of an octopus. Developing any factor supports the others. More fundamentally, nongreed helps nonhatred and both help nondelusion, and nondelusion helps nongreed, and so on.

Another example is our "being" -- which is in fact an impersonal process of becoming. Its parts are inseparable, a cohesive whole. But it is better understood as what the Buddha called the Five Aggregates

• (1) form,
• (2) feelings,
• (3) perceptions,
• (4) formations,
• (5) consciousness

if the mind is ever to grasp who we are and the illusory nature of this entity being clung to as a "self." The unshakeable happiness of enlightenment is impossible without abandoning ignorance around this point.

The Five Spiritual Faculties
Bhikkhu Bodhi (American Theravada Buddhist scholar-monk)
There are Five Spiritual Faculties one balances for success in meditation moving towards enlightenment: This set is one of the groups of factors given special prominence in the sutras and is included by the Buddha among the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment. These faculties (indriyas) are:

1. faith or confidence (opposing doubt and uncertainty)
2. energy
3. mindfulness
4. concentration
5. wisdom.

The term indriya, "faculties," applied to this group as a whole is derived from the name of the ancient Vedic god Indra, ruler of the devas, and the term accordingly suggests the divine-like quality of control and domination. The Five Spiritual Faculties are so designated because they exercise control in their own specific compartments of the spiritual life. As the god (deva) Indra vanquished the demons (asuras, yakkhas, and nagas) and attained supremacy among the devas, so each of the five faculties is called upon to subdue a particular mental disability and to marshal the corresponding potency of mind toward the breakthrough to final enlightenment. More>>

• Listen: The Shamatha Project by B. Alan Wallace

How and why Egypt(s) happen (video)

Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)

The trouble with Egypt (and Tunisia, and Jordan, and...) is that America did what it frequently does to rule the world: It set up, trained, and supported a dictator who suppresses human rights, civil rights, and individual freedoms and replaces them with authoritarian "law and order."

John Perkins explains how the US empire rules.

Not satisfied to allow Egypt's current dictator to hand power over to his son, who might not be sympathetic to America and Israel (by, say, continuing to host secret detention centers for extraordinary rendition), the US has secretly encouraged an even more pro-American Egyptian to attempt to assume leadership. This time it will be different; this time there will be the appearance of democratic reforms and the Westernization of standards (read more electronics and consumer goods).

The author reveals the details of how the US has built an empire through debt.

That's all downtrodden people can hope for with a superpower that is little better than those former empire it has replaced. Iraq's Saddam Hussein was installed, trained, and supported by the US and CIA, then vilified when he dared to act independently with indifference to American demands. This has happened throughout Central America and elsewhere around the world. The standard operating procedure for corrupting governments and setting in place brutal military dictators is laid out from an insider in Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins.

Support-a-Yogi Meditation Program

SBinstitute.com (Shamatha Project)

The Shamatha Project, launched in Spring of 2007, brings together a diverse group of scientists and laypersons (like Alma attached to brain sensors) to study and measure the long-term effects of practicing shamatha, or meditative quiescence [serenity].

Although the training at Shambhala Mountain Center lasted three months, nearly one in five of the participants (12 out of 60) elected to continue full-time practice. So moved were they by their experiences that they immediately sought out the support that could sustain them in the long-term pursuit of shamatha.

This unexpected response required quick action, and temporary accommodations were found for all of the continuing shamatha yogis. Now more permanent accommodations and funding are required to sustain dedicated meditators from the Shamatha Project and from the 8-week shamatha retreats that Dr. B. Alan Wallace (pictured) is leading at the Phuket Int'l Academy Mind Centre in Thailand.

Fortunately, their needs are as modest as their goals are great. They have much work ahead, and it is our hope and intention to support them all the way. More>>

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The NEW Four Noble Truths

Seven Dharmachari (Wisdom Quarterly)
(Bwaters23/Flickr.com)

In response to a frequent criticism of Buddhism that it is too focused on "suffering," I propose the following retelling. The whole of the Buddha's message is summed up in a statement the Buddha frequently asserted: "I teach only suffering and the end of suffering." This is Buddhism in a nutshell.

But what does it mean to "teach suffering"? More importantly, what is the "end of suffering"?

These two questions are summed up in the Four Noble Truths. (These four ennobling truths should be understood as mundane and supramundane, a distinction which is crucial but rarely made). The Buddha was following Indian medical custom when he formulated the Four Noble Truths.

That model, then as now, first states the problem or diagnosis, then the cause, then the solution or prognosis, and finally a therapeutic regimen is given. If the "cure" or the therapy were for the Buddha to wave his hand in blessing over someone to bring them to enlightenment, he would have done that. But that does not lead to enlightenment. What does? Putting the Four Noble Truths into practice is the beginning of the practice. The culmination of the practice is the supramundane realization of the Four Noble Truths -- knowing and seeing with direct insight.

1. There is suffering. That's our medical condition. This is a terrible translation of a very subtle and wide-ranging Indian word, dukkha. A better translation is unsatisfactoriness or perhaps better yet, disappointment. Life disappoints, experience disappoints, but it is possible to get beyond this disappointment.
2. There is a cause of suffering. In fact, there are numerous causes. So why is it said that desire (tanha, craving) is the cause of suffering? The reason is because when one is working through Dependent Origination in the practice of insight meditation, one comes to understand that desire is the weak link. It is at this point that one is most effectively able to undo this entire mass of suffering. It may be argued that the actual overarching cause of suffering is ignorance. However when striving to overcome suffering, one does not seek to put an end to ignorance directly. One seeks to directly undermine craving -- which is possible to do when one sees the true nature of existence. This in turn will undo ignorance. The undoing of ignorance is enlightenment. But one pulls the vital piece out of the structure holding up suffering, and that vital piece is unwarranted desire for what is not beneficial. If it were beneficial, the Buddha would not have ever recommended that one strive to overcome it. But because overcoming it leads to the end of all suffering, then it is recommended and desire is pointed to as the "cause of suffering."
3. There is an end to suffering. What is the end of all suffering? Nirvana, the unsurpassable dissolution of all formations is the highest happiness. It is a happiness that transcends sensual pleasure. It is a happiness that transcends spiritual bliss (the kind of happiness found along the way to nirvana by practice of the jhanas). It is a happiness that even transcends equanimity (impartiality) leading to peace and composure and an unutterable joy.
4. There is a path that leads to the end of suffering. Because suffering or disappointment is the problem we face, the Great Physician has revealed a therapy that brings about the cure and restores us to our original happiness and the mind's luminosity. The cure does not come about from knowing the solution. The cure comes from putting the solution into practice. And what is the solution? The Noble Eightfold Path is the solution. Often spoken of as separate from the Four Noble Truths, this "therapy" is in fact the fourth Noble Truth.

But many people practice the Noble Eightfold Path and are not anywhere near enlightenment. Why is that? It is because, first of all, they are not aware of the technical definitions of these eight factors, choosing instead to go by their own "common sense" definitions of very particular Buddhist technical terms in rough translation and, second, it is not the mundane conceptual path that leads to enlightenment but the supramundane realization of what is and what is not Path(magga). For example, what could "right concentration" (samma samadhi) possibly mean? It means me concentrating, right? No!

Samma means full or perfected, and samadhi is defined by the Buddha as the first four meditative absorptions (jhanas or levels of Zen). We can "concentrate" a little, but can we reach full and steady absorption? Momentary full absorption is not enough; that is not the path factor called "right concentration." So without the purification that comes from skillfully practicing the absorptions, why would think we could reach enlightenment? We go from our defective, imperfect concentrating (trying to collect and focus the mind) onto "right mindfulness"? Are we mindful? Most people have at best a very sketchy idea of what "mindfulness" (sati) even means.

Similarly with the other path factors: people do not bother to secure the Buddha's definitions. And therefore they come to believe the Noble Eightfold Path is nice, obvious, and not really something that leads to enlightenment and nirvana, or the end of all suffering. (The supramundane Noble Eightfold Path, when known-and-seen, leads to enlightenment. Taking up the mundane Noble Eightfold Path is just a beginning).

They start taking up other practices, seeking other goals, reinventing Buddhism (as the Mahayana and largescale devotional movements like SGI did) in the image of their own thinking and assumptions. That's fine. Let's all do good, wait for the coming of the Maitreya (which as we have demonstrated is the origin of the word Messiah), and then we'll strive.

The path is here now. The historical Buddha's teaching is preserved and in rare places actually practiced as he laid it out (with the help of commentaries, which get a very bad rap by independent thinkers who resist being told what anything means or how anything "should" be practiced or how anything was practiced and understood by the ancients).

What's the hold up? Why is Buddhism -- which holds out not only the promise of ultimate happiness -- deemed "pessimistic"? It seems it's a matter of emphasis. Readers see this horrible and hard to bear word "suffering" popping up again and again and they think, "Gee, give us some Good News." It's all good news! So we propose a new iteration of the Four Noble Truths. They do not change, but the emphasis does to not only be positive but to sound positive and solution-oriented in line with the new Law of Attraction, "The Secret," abundance model of living:

1. There is happiness (nirvana).
2. There is an end to happiness (dukkha)
3. There is a cause of unhappiness (tanha).
4. There is a path that leads to happiness (magga).

Lost tribes of the Amazon found

Undated handout released by Survival Int'l from a Brazilian observation plane of what they say are uncontacted Indians seen holding primitive weapons (AFP/FUNAI/Survival/Gleison Miranda)

BRASILIA (AFP) – Brazil has allowed the release of rare photographs of an uncontacted Amazonian tribe to bring attention to the plight of indigenous people who rights groups say are faced with possible annihilation. The astonishing images, showing curious adults and children peering skyward with their faces dyed reddish-orange and toting bows, arrows and spears, were taken by Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI). Rights group Survival International, which accompanied the government agency on the overflight near the Brazil-Peru border, said their baskets were full of papaya and manioc grown in a communal garden. "Illegal loggers will destroy this indigenous people. It is essential that the Peruvian government stop them before it is too late," warned Survival's director Stephen Corry. More>>