A Short Exposition on Karma

Ñanamoli Thera translation (Cula-Karma-Vibhanga Sutra), edited by Wisdom Quarterly

We want long life, health, beauty, power, wealth, status, and wisdom. But they do not appear randomly or by chance. It is not luck that one is healthy, nor by a lack of luck that another is foolish.

Although it may not be clear to us now, such inequality among beings comes about due to individual karma. Each person having once acted and performed deeds eventually reaps the fruit of such actions (even if they are only verbal or mental).

There is great hope in this message, even if we habitually say someone is being unfairly "blamed." If we ourselves experience short life, sickliness, ugliness, insignificance, poverty, low status, or foolishness and one does not like it, there is something one can do.

It is not by chance! It is not random! It is not without many causes. Of all the causes that conspire and yield for us misfortune, the most important is how we conduct ourselves, how we respond (rather than habitually react), how and whom we question, what we develop as a result.

Our future is always in our hands, even if we refuse to steer. If we give away our control, that is also a choice that has consequences for us. How great is the Dharma, this enlightened teaching of truth, that it reveals what we can do to make things better! There is relief now, and great results in the future when we will have no idea what we did right, just as now we have no idea what we did "wrong" that is bringing about our suffering.

To be able to make the "right" kind of karma now is a great blessing. To hear/read/know the Dharma is not an accident, but it is often taken for granted and wasted. Knowing what karma to make much of and what to abandon and disregard is the mark of a wise person. For one is no longer drifting aimlessly, but takes the wheel of life and steers with direction, sharing in the co-creation of the future, enjoying some measure of control over what is to come. And in this very moment, one has available great joy due to that. The Buddha explains.

We have a choice, if only we knew it

1. Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Buddha was living in the city of Savatthi at Jeta's Grove, in Anathapindika's Park.

Then Subha a brahmin boy, Todeyya's son, went to the Enlightened One and exchanged greetings. And when the courteous and amiable talk was done, he sat respectfully to one side and said:

2. "Master Gautama, what is the reason [cause], what is the condition, why is it that inferiority and superiority are met with among human beings? For one meets with short-lived and long-lived, sick and healthy, ugly and beautiful, insignificant and influential, poor and rich, low-status and high-status, foolish and wise people. What is the reason, what is the condition, why is it that superiority and inferiority are met with among beings?"

3. "Brahmin, beings are owners of karma (actions, deeds, intentions), heirs of karma, they have karma as their progenitor, karma as their kin, karma as their resort. It is karma that differentiate beings according to inferiority and superiority."

4. "I do not understand the detailed meaning of Master Gautama's utterance spoken in brief being explained. It would be good if Master Gautama taught me the Dharma so that I might understand the detailed meaning."

"Then listen, brahmin, and heed well what I shall say."

"Even so, Master Gautama!" Subha the brahmin replied. And the Buddha explained:

5. "Brahmin, here some man or woman is a killer of living beings, murderous, bloody-handed, given to blows and violence, merciless to living beings. Due to having performed and completed [undertaken and carried out] such deeds, on the dissolution of the body, after death, that person reappears [is reborn either spontaneously or in the more familiar way through the intermediary of parents] in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, even in one of the great hells.

If, on the dissolution of the body, after death, instead of reappearing in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, or hell, one comes again to the human state, one is short-lived wherever one is reborn. This is the way that leads to short life, that is to say, to be a killer of living beings, murderous, bloody-handed, given to beating others and violence, merciless to living [sentient] beings.

6. "But here some woman or man, having abandoned the killing of living beings, abstains from killing living beings, lays aside the rod and lays aside the knife, is considerate and merciful and dwells compassionate [with heart trembling and following along with the hearts of those who suffer] for the welfare of all living beings.

Due to having undertaken and carried out such actions [mostly of abstaining from doing harm], on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in [a state of abundance], a happy destination, [in the human world, a fortunate place], even in an exalted heavenly world.

If, on the dissolution of the body, after death, instead of reappearing in a happy destination or in one of the many exalted heavenly worlds, one comes again to the human state [the lowest of all the fortunate states of rebirth], one is long-lived wherever one is reborn. This is the way that leads to long life, that is to say, to have abandoned the killing of living beings, to abstain from killing living beings, to lay aside the rod and lay aside the knife, to be considerate and merciful, and to dwell compassionate [with heart open and responsive] for the welfare of all living beings.

7. "Brahmin, here some man or woman is one who strikes beings with hands or with clods or with sticks or with knives. Due to having undertaken and carried out such actions, on the dissolution of the body, after death, one reappears in a state of deprivation... If instead one comes to the human state, one is sickly wherever one is reborn. This is the way that leads to illness, that is to say, to be one who harms beings with one's hands or with clods or with sticks or with knives. More

Genetically altered cows produce human milk

Richard Gray (Telegraph.co.uk, April 2, 2011); Wisdom Quarterly

Scientists have created genetically modified cattle that produce "human" milk for nutritious.

 
(WQ) In a disgusting display of science making chimeras, genetic manipulation has gone mad.

(Can Mad Cow disease, called spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, really be too far behind?)

In experiments approximating bestiality-by-proxy, food geneticists have created Franken Food fodder. (Dr. Frankenstein is the scientist imagined by a teenage Mary Shelly as the creator of a monstrosity named after him) is being developed to ruin the health of abusive eaters lacking the compassion or sufficient knowledge about health to eat a harmless vegan, vegetarian, or "halfitarian" diet.
  
And will it be a minor act of cannibalism to slaughter and eat these part-human cows once their usefulness to the dairy industry and factory-farming ranchers is exhausted? Here's the story, reported as if every "scientific breakthrough" is something to brag about:

Genetically modified human-cows

Scientists have successfully introduced human genes into 300 dairy cows to produce milk with the same properties as human breast milk.
  
Human milk contains high quantities of key nutrients that can help to boost the immune system of babies and reduce the risk of infections.
  
The scientists behind the research believe milk from herds of genetically modified (GM) cows could provide an alternative to human breast milk and formula milk for babies, which is often criticized as being an inferior substitute.
  
They hope GM dairy products from herds of similar cows could be sold in supermarkets. The research has the backing of a major biotechnology company.
  
The work is likely to inflame opposition to GM foods. Critics of the technology and animal welfare groups reacted angrily to the research, questioning the safety of milk from genetically modified animals and its effect on the cattle's health. More

CNN: UFO truth revealed by CIA, FBI, US

(3USALL) A large number of former high-ranking officials including astronauts, air traffic controllers, ex secret operations officers, commercial pilots, numerous military defense specialists with top secret clearance, people who had access to very sensitive documents, lieutenants, ex commanders in the U.S. Air Force, and so on. All are going before the National Press Club to discuss their experiences with UFOs. All are willing to go before Congress to testify under oath. Never before has such a diverse and well connected group come forward. There is a full documentary on the 3usall Channel under playlists called "U.F.O. DISCLOSURE PROJECT - FULL VERSION." It is extremely informative and enlightening from disclosureproject.org.

FBI: Roswell UFO Telegram (July 8, 1947)

RoswellProof.com

The telegram below from the FBI Dallas office was sent to the Washington headquarters on July 8, 1947 at 6:17 pm Central Time (probably Standard Time). It is the only known government document directly relating to Roswell that has ever been found. (A higher-resolution PDF version of this telegram can be downloaded from the FBI Freedom of Information Web site here).

Although blacked out in this copy, the 8th AAF contact person with the FBI is known to have been Major Edwin Kirton (misspelled as "Curtan" in the telegram), one of Gen. Ramey's intelligence officers. Kirton seems to have been one of Ramey's key media spokespersons, because he was also contacted and quoted by the press on at least two occasions. This in itself is somewhat odd, because normally such a task would be handled by a public information officer, not an intelligence officer.

Reuters news agency may have been the first to contact Kirton, since his statements to Reuters are the least definitive compared to those made elsewhere. Reuters identified Kirton as a nondescript "duty officer," not an intelligence officer, and said that his statements represented quotes from Ramey. In the Reuters article, Kirton did not specifically identify the recovered object.

Instead he gave a physical description very similar to that given the FBI but said nothing about it being or resembling a radar target. He did say it might be a weather balloon, but one not allegedly recognizable by anybody at the base as "an army type balloon," However, not only did Ramey early on sometimes identify the debris as resembling a radar target (e.g., San Francisco Examiner and early UP story in the San Francisco News), when Ramey announced the official identification, he was quoted as saying that it "definitely was a United States Army device." (See AP main story) As was often the case, the story being given the press was inconsistent. More

U.S. Government releases UFO files

UFOevidence.org

Goverment UFO documents on the Internet

In the middle to late 1970s, several individuals, mostly associated with the group Citizens Against UFO Secrecy (CAUS), used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to compel various U.S. government agencies to release their files on the UFO phenomenon.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - UFO documents

UFO documents from the CIA, obtained through Freedom of Information Act. This collection catalogues CIA information on this subject from the 1940s through the early 1990s. Most of the documents concern CIA cables reporting unsubstantiated UFO sightings in the foreign press and intra-Agency memos about how the Agency handled public inquiries about UFO sightings. For the most recent CIA information on UFOs, see the article "CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-90" at the Center for the Study of Intelligence website (odci.gov/csi). The article is located in On-line Publications under the "Studies in Intelligence" section, specifically semi-annual Edition #1, 1997.

Defense Intelligence Agency - FOIA UFO documents

Defense Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act government documents concerning UFOs from the Defense Intelligence Agency. (UFO documents are listed on this page, along with other topics.)

FBI - Unidentified Flying Objects

UFO documents from the FBI, obtained through Freedom of Information Act. "The FBI documents represented by the above-listed electronic documents were taken from the Freedom of Information Act Reading Room at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. These FBI documents have been scanned from paper copies as released to FOIA requesters over the years. In some instances, the copy quality is poor because the original files are in fragile condition. These are the best reproductions available."

National Security Agency (NSA) UFO Documents

The documents listed on this page were located in response to the numerous requests received by NSA on the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects. In 1980, NSA was involved in Civil Action No. 80-1562, Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy vs. National Security Agency. Documents related to that litigation are marked with *. "XXXXX" has been inserted in a title if a portion of the title has been deleted prior to release.

The Black Vault

Archived here, find thousands among thousands of government documents, in their actual scanned form, ranging from a vast array of subjects. These subjects span across many different "conspiracy" theories and other historical documentation such as the existence of UFO's, Alien cover-ups, Nuclear and Biological Weapons, Space, World War II (the historical nature), and many more subjects that will keep you browsing for hours. All documents contained here were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and are completely 100% genuine. Some documents contained within this archive are not seen anywhere else in the world, and came to the light of day because of the FOIA request made for specifically this archive.

The Majestic Documents

Robert Wood, Ryan Wood "What we have here is the evidence. We have scores of documents, hundreds of thousands of words, hundreds of pages, of which most are top secret code word. Not just photocopies, but originals with real inks, watermarks, and testable paper. The vast majority has never been seen before. We present here the detailed documentation that seems to place the stamp of reality upon the recovery of crashed extraterrestrial vehicles by the United States from 1947–1954. This validates what most people already accept: there is extraterrestrial life and we are not alone. This presentation by Dr. Robert M. and Ryan S. Wood follows chronologically a paper evidence trail left by former Presidents, military and intelligence leaders of the time."

U.S. Department of Defense - Office of the Secretary of Defense/Joint Staff Electronic Reading Room Documents Concerning UFO's

U.S. Department of Defense - Defenselink Freedom of Information documents from the U.S. Department of Defense, concerning UFOs. According to their website, "The documents displayed below reflects all current Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)/Joint Staff (JS) holdings on this subject matter. "

Edgar Cayce: Future Prophecies (video)

(Edgar Cayce TV) Edgar Cayce's more than 14,000 readings contain several that prophesy major physical changes to planet Earth. There is weight to his future prophecies because many of his "prophecies" about the past have been proven true. While he lived, he looked into the past and spoke of it in ways no one understood. Later, after his death, science caught up to what he had been saying -- information which is unthinkable at the time. Cover ups in Egypt do not disprove Cayce's revelations, but rather for transparent investigation. With the recent ouster of Hosni Mubarak during the historic Egyptian uprisings, calls have grown louder for the ouster of Egypt's megalomaniacal chief of antiquities Zahi Hawass. When his tyrannical hold over the vast field of Egyptian archeology is broken, a fairer system of independent investigators and peer reviewers may be able to reveal the secrets Hawass has been keeping from the world.

Cosmos TV: Recent ancient discoveries!

Ancient Metal Religious Books
(Coast to Coast with guests David Elkington and Charles M. Higgins) Appearing in the middle two hours, British scholar and author David Elkington speak about the extraordinary discovery of 70 ancient metal religious books that could alter the world's view of biblical history. (See related article). Elkington, who was privileged to examine the lead tablets in person, said the books contain images and a form of paleo-Hebrew writing, measure about four inches across, and many are still sealed. Almost all appear to be authentic. "If they are forgeries, what are they forgeries of? Because you don't forge something that's unique," he noted. Laboratory metallurgical tests confirmed they are ancient, he continued, adding that the book form of the metal documents points to an early Christian origin.

3,000 year old written record discovered in Greece
(AFP, April 7, 2011) A clay tablet that is over 3,000 years old and considered Europe's oldest readable text has been found in an ancient refuse pit in southern Greece, a US-based researcher claimed on Tuesday [April 5, 2011]. The tablet, an apparent financial record from a long-lost Mycenaean town, is about a century older than previous discoveries, said Michael Cosmopoulos, an archeology professor at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. The sun-dried tablet was found near the hilltop village of Iklaina in the western Peloponnese peninsula, surviving purely by accident when the refuse pit was set on fire and baked the clay.

These very small metal books -- many of which are sealed, with the approximate height and width of a credit card -- are being called the greatest discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls (over 900 manuscripts that include every book of the Christian Bible's Old Testament, except the Book of Esther) in Christian history. The books are said to have contemporary accounts about Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection. These books have been dated from the 1st century.

How does nuclear radiation do its damage?

Molika Ashford (popsci.com)

Boy is screened for radiation in Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, on March 16, 2011 (Tayama Tatsuyuki/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images).

Ionizing radiation -- the kind that minerals, atom bombs, and nuclear reactors emit -- does one main thing to the human body: It weakens and breaks up DNA, either damaging cells enough to kill them or causing them to mutate in ways that may eventually lead to cancer.

After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, four nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant are now damaged and releasing radiation. Workers trying to keep the reactors from getting worse are themselves being exposed, while the Japanese government has called for anyone within 20 kms of the plant to evacuate.

Nuclear radiation, unlike the radiation from a light bulb or a microwave, is energetic enough to ionize atoms by knocking off their electrons. This ionizing radiation can damage DNA molecules directly by breaking the bonds between atoms. Or it can ionize water molecules and form free radicals, which are highly reactive and disrupt the bonds of surrounding molecules, including DNA. More

Radioactive water leak plugged at Fukushima

The operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says it has plugged a leak of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.

Japan releases radioactive water millions of times the legal limit

Radiation at the shoreline of the Fukushima facility has measured several million times the legal limit, just four weeks after the earthquake and tsunami and days after workers…

U.N. nuclear watchdog will push for new nuclear plants

The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan has set off a debate in the international community about the future of nuclear energy.

Japan to release 11,000 tons of radioactive water in ocean

In Japan, the Tokyo Electric Power Company has begun releasing more than 11,000 tons of radioactive water into the ocean while it attempts to find the source of radioactive leaks at the crippled…

Residents near damaged Japanese plant to prepare for lengthy displacement

Displaced residents of areas near Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have been told their evacuation may last for months, leaving thousands in temporary shelters…

Obama energy plan calls for reducing oil imports, affirms nuclear

Pres. Obama has unveiled a new energy policy seeking to reduce the use of foreign oil while reaffirming a commitment to nuclear energy.

U.N. urges Japan to widen evacuation zone

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has urged Japan to expand the evacuation zone…

"Prescription for Survival": A debate on the future of nuclear energy between anti-coal advocate George Monbiot and anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott

The crisis in Japan has refueled the rigorous global debate about the viability of nuclear power. Japan remains in a "state of maximum alert" as the experts scramble to contain radiation that is…

Japan to decommission 4 stricken reactors

Japan has announced plans to decommission four reactors at the earthquake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Emergency crews have failed to control reactors Units 1 to 4 since they were…

Japan on "high alert" as plutonium found in soil, radiation worse than Three Mile Island

Indian Holyman Satya Sai Baba is dying

India's living godman in critical condition: hospital Indian guru Satya Sai Baba, often accused of faking the magic powers he once actually weilded, is now in a critical condition (sai-fi.net)

HYDERABAD, India (AFP) – One of India's best-known spiritual leaders, famous for his apparent miracles and long list of influential followers, is on life support in a southern hospital, officials said on Tuesday.

Satya Sai Baba, 85, who has devotees in more than 100 countries, was admitted to a hospital funded by his organization in the town of Puttaparthi with lung and chest congestion on March 28, 2011.

His condition has since deteriorated, and he is now on a ventilator and is receiving kidney dialysis, the most recent health bulletin from the hospital said on Tuesday.

He remains "critical," although his "level of consciousness has considerably improved," and his vital systems are "stable," said the update from the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences. Thousands of followers have begun arriving in Puttaparthi, home to Sai Baba's ashram in the southeastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with many agitated by conflicting information given out by local authorities.

Government officials have sought to play down the seriousness of his condition, while police are preventing groups from gathering in the town, according to local reports.

The wild-haired leader has a following of millions in India and abroad, many of whom believe him to be a living god, and the reincarnation of the great spiritual guru, Sai Baba of Shirdi, who died in 1918.

The guru, who claims to have performed several miracles including bringing men back to life, counts former Indian prime ministers, top businessmen, and even the country's cricketers among his devotees. His organization funds health and education projects in India, including a string of hospitals that claim to be able to cure ailments beyond the capabilities of mainstream medicine.

He and Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, the so-called "hugging saint" of Kerala, India are the best known of thousands of Hindu ascetics.

The swami's birth in Andhra Pradesh is shrouded in mystery. One hagiographical account by a biographer claimed the mysterious sounding of drums signalled his impending birth. In his teens he is said to have begun singing verses in Sanskrit, a language of which he had no prior knowledge, and then became able to materialize flowers and sweets to the astonishment of observers.

His devotees also credit him with an ability to remember his past lives, a frequent claim of Indian holy men, and he is believed to produce sacred ash every day.

His work in education and health have won him widespread acclaim and respectability, but his reputation has also been damaged by allegations of sexual abuse and pedophilia [and clear evidence of faking materializations in public].

A BBC program in 2004 called "The Secret Swami" featured interviews with former followers who claimed Sai Baba took advantage of them. The allegations were denied by the spiritual leader's organization.

Study: Sex before 15, girls beat boys

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Kounteya Sinha (TNN)

Perhaps India and the United States of America, the largest democracy and the most famous one, respectively, are not very different after all (TribuneIndia.com).

 

NEW DELHI, India - This may come as a shock for those who oppose the introduction of "sex education" in Indian schools, but premarital sex has been found to be common among young males. However, a higher percentage of females aged 15-24 years have had sex before reaching the age of 15.

 

A large scale youth survey conducted under the aegis of the Union Health Ministry in the six Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar [which has the most important sites on the Buddhist Circuit], Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu has thrown up some interesting findings.

 

Around 15% of young men and 4% young women interviewed admitted to having pre-marital sex. Shockingly, 24% of the women had premarital sex for the first time before age 15 compared to 9% men.

 

Premarital sex was also found to be more common in rural India.

 

According to a report prepared by the Population Council in Delhi and International Institute of Population Sciences in Mumbai (Bombay), youth in rural areas are also more likely than those in urban areas to initiate a premarital sexual relationship by age 15 (29% compared to 17% among young males, and 46% compared to 31% among young females).

 

Around 6% of rural youth compared to 1% of urban youth had their sexual debut before age 18.

 

Over 26% of young men and 40% of young women reported that they had spent time alone with their first romantic partner at age 15 or below.

 

Many of the premarital sexual experiences reported by the youth were risky. Around 25% of young men and 21% of young women reporting premarital sex had sex with more than one partner.

 

Moreover, consistent condom use was limited only 13% of young men and 3% of young women reported condom use in all premarital encounters.

 

While sexual relations were generally unsafe across all the six states, some notable state-level differences were found. For example, among young men, multiple partner relations were reported by 32% in five of the six states, but by relatively few (14%) in Rajasthan.

 

Releasing the study, Union Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said young people in India face multiple risks associated with sexual and reproductive health, which include pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality, delayed abortion seeking, unmet contraceptive needs, and lack of knowledge to make informed decisions.

Dispute over the Buddha's Birthplace

Dispute over the Birthplace of Buddha Boils Again

Dream Nepal (edited for clarity by Wisdom Quarterly)

[According to Dream Nepal:] It has become the norm for Indians to claim that the Buddha was born in India. This piece of news is propaganda meant to create hype in the media.

• The invisible history of Afghanistan comes to L.A.

Indians envy the rich traditions of Nepal. They cannot bear to see tourists flying to the ancient tourist mecca of Kathmandu. They cannot accept Nepal glorifying (and being glorified by) the tradition of the Buddha.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak has made the news with the same old story that desperately seeks to place the birthplace of the Buddha in India.

The model for the Aukana Buddha was Afghanistan's enormous statues, which came before Sri Lankan Buddhism, the second oldest seat of the tradition. Sinhalese Buddhists on the island off the tip of India say their origins are Aryan (Iranian), that is, from northwestern India and Magadha, having travelled here by boat in waves.

His opening sentences simply mock the whole world, which believes that Gautam Buddha was born in Kapilavastu, Nepal. But due to a Brahminical conspiracy, the world is so misguided that the birthplace of the Buddha has wrongly been taken to be in the Terai region of Nepal [Lumbini, a park the Siddhartha's mother was traveling through on her way home to give birth among her family, as was the ancient Indian custom].

Therefore the real Kapilavastu, known presently as Kapileswara near Bhubaneswar in Orissa (India), is seldom visited by the present generation of Buddhists. How on Earth can Pattanayak think it's a conspiracy?

Who cared about the importance of the birthplace of the Buddha at the time when we started to believe that he was born in Nepal [as promoted by British and other Western archeologists who came in after European colonial rule was set up and advocated such things as the Aryan Invasion theory because they could not accept that India had developed such technological and cultural advances without help from waves of Caucasians streaming in from the north]?

Thai Buddha built in the original style, derived from Gandharan-style northwestern Indian statues (modern Afghanistan) such as the Bamiyan Buddha (Image: Glenn Carter).

But now that the Buddha's birthplace is of eminent historical, cultural, and economic significance, Indians are dying to confuse people with false information.

The world [except for Dr. Ranajit Pal, Wisdom Quarterly, and a growing number of investigators] believes the Buddha was born in Kapilavastu, Nepal. [Actually, Nepal and nearly everyone else promote a small park called Lumbini as the actual birthplace, with Kapilavastu being Siddhartha's hometown, where his mother returned to raise him, the capital of his father and the rest of the Shakya clan's territory.]

However, these stupid bunch of people who are trying to make it into the news are involving themselves in various lame accusations in a desperate attempt to save their baseless ideas. Subhas writes... More

The Buddha's Real Roots
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
One need only visit modern "Lumbini," Nepal to get a sense that this is not Siddhartha's birthplace. The archeological evidence is scanty -- but it does exist. How is one to account for it?

Dr. Pal explains that a Fuhrer, a British archeologist, tried to gather acclaim by finding this important site. He was not going to be stopped by the facts. He conspired to deliberately place what few artifacts have ever been found there, thus obscuring the real site. The evidence, both textual and archeological, points more and more far to the West, to the frontiers of ancient India.

Recent evidence reveals a whole other reason for the British to promote the view that the Buddha's birthplace and hometown were far to the east in Nepal:

There is an "invisible history" of what we call Afghanistan (a northwestern province blending with ancient India, which itself was simply a collection of mahajanapadas, or "footholds of clans," territories controlled by powerful extended families, often called kingdoms even though the forms of government differed over time from place to place just as their borders did).

Hundreds of years ago, the British drew the Durand/Zero line because Afghanistan had always been a launchpad for empires in the region. It is pivotal, strategic, and along ancient trading routes. Even today, only sixty years after Afghanistan and Pakistan were created out of Indian territory, and long after the Indo-Greco and Bactrian empires:

Bactria (Greek Βακτριανή, with Pashto, Persian, Tajik, and Chinese variations), later variously called Tukharistan, Tokharistan, and Tocharistan, was the ancient name of a historical region in Central Asia, located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya (Oxus). It was a part of the northeastern periphery of the Iranian world and northwestern Indian world -- now part of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. The region was once host to Zoroastrianism (which was second only to Judaism in contributing to Christianity) and Buddhism.

Gandhara (an ancient name made famous by the gorgeous art and Indo-Greco statues in the Gandharan style in American museums such as Pasadena's Norton Simon). It has long been assumed that as Buddhism went west, he took on Western features in the image of Greek sculptures and Western ideals of beauty.

However, there is good reason to believe he came from the vicinity of modern Afghanistan with genetic traits more characteristic of Central Asians (Aryans = ancient Iranians) -- tall, blue eyes, light skin (golden as opposed to the two other categories of red and black). At that time -- long before Islam or Christianity, before Arab invasions into the region, after the fall of great empires in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and most notably Sumer -- India was the great power and influence in the region, as it had been for many centuries from the time of the Indus River civilizations, which cut right down the center of this area along the ancient Indus and Saraswati river routes. The Grand Statues of the World - Woman dies as Afghan protests continue - Need a job? Work at Democracy Now!

Do plants really love the sound of music?

(Telegraph, April 5, 2011)

Do veggies thrive on Verdi? Will flowers blossom if they hear Handel? The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra releases a CD to encourage growth in the garden.

When Prince Charles told a television interviewer 25 years ago that he was in the habit of talking to his garden plants, and moreover that they responded, some thought he was plain bonkers, while others saw it as an engaging eccentricity.

The most charitable among us argued that he must have been speaking figuratively. If you murmur sweet nothings to the nasturtiums, we reasoned, you are likely to be the kind of person to give them the love and care that they need to thrive. You do not have to pretend they are listening. The “response” that Prince Charles detected would be in the way they burgeoned and blossomed, rather than pillow talk from the flower bed.

What Earth naturally looks like when it is clean environmental paradise with human harmony.

For although plants are complex and mysterious in many ways, they neither hear nor speak, except in children’s literature. Yet from time to time we read of experiments suggesting that subjecting them to blasts of music and other sounds, as their seeds are springing into life, can enhance vigor and performance. Reports of the phenomenon crop up as regularly as the bindweed on my allotment, and are just as persistent.

Last week QVC, a television shopping channel, aired the issue again when it released an album of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Mozart to an audience of a hundred plants. It’s called The Flora Seasons: Music to Grow to (which raises the question why they chose Mozart rather than Verdi). The album can be downloaded from QVC’s website as a celebration, so they say, of the start of the gardening season. More - What effect does music have on plants? - VIDEO: The Secret Lives of Plants - Do flowers have a separate secret life?

Why Plants Really Matter
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
It's not a coincidence that the Buddha reached enlightenment under a tree. His tree was a kind of fig (Ficus religiosa). But previous teaching-buddhas had reached the same goal under different trees.

One's spinal column is like a flexible stem, and the crown of one's head a flower that blossoms with a thousand petals. Bowing is like laying the flower in front of someone or something we honor. This is the mystic-yogic imagery of chakras, energetic wheels with petals. The spine is also like a great tree that fruits first with compassion, then wisdom, then liberation.

The Story of the Lineage

In "The Story of the Lineage" [Nidanakatha (with lines from the Buddhavamsa, the 14th book of sacred scriptures as preserved by recitation), translated by Rhys Davids in Buddhist Birth-Stories (Jataka Tales), pp. 81-232], the Buddha details certain important elements of former buddhas.

He covers the incalculable period between the time he became the Bodhisattva up to his life as the Buddha Gautama and includes the details of buddhas who gave him the sure prediction of one day becoming a Supremely-Enlightened-One. Those elements include their name, the names of their chief disciples, and curiously the type of tree under which they gained enlightenment.

For example, part of the text explains that a previous buddha (possibly Kondanya Buddha) and his many disciples received generous alms from the Bodhisattva (the future Shakyamuni Buddha). They were so generous that he pondered who this person was that had given them. He discerned with his psychic faculties that it was a future buddha:

"This man has given such great alms, who can he be?" and perceiving that at the end of two incalculable-aeons and 4,000 cycles he would become the Buddha Gautama, addressing the Bodhisattva, he made his prediction. The Bodhisattva saw no sense in continuing in the worldly life if in the future he would be a buddha, so he ordained, embraced the ascetic life, learned the Buddha-Dharma, gained superknowledges (psychic powers), and the eight attainments (eight "meditative absorptions" or jhanas), and was reborn in the Brahma world. In that life the Bodhisattva was the brahmin Suruci.

"The city of Mangala Buddha was called Uttara; his father was the warrior-caste noble Uttara; his mother was Uttaraa; Sudeva and Dhammasena were his two chief male-disciples. The Naga was his enlightenment (bodhi) tree. His body was 88 cubits high. When [he passed into nirvana], after he had lived 90,000 years, at the same time 10,000 worlds were [enveloped] in darkness, and in all worlds there was a great cry and lamentation of men." [Apparently humans are widespread throughout the cosmos, rather than there just being one "human world"].

After Mangala Buddha passed away, shrouding in darkness 10,000 worlds, the Buddha Sumana appeared. He also had three assemblies of disciples. In the first assembly there were one million millions disciples, in the second, on the Golden Mountain, 90 million of millions, in the third 80 million of millions."

"At this time the Bodhisattva was the Naga ruler Atula, mighty and powerful. And hearing that a buddha had appeared, he left the Naga [extraterrestrial reptilian] world, accompanied by his assembled kinsfolk. Making offerings with divine [heavenly, from space, extra-terrestrial] music to the Buddha Sumana, whose retinue was a million million monastics, and having given great gifts, bestowing upon each two robe-garments of fine cloth, he was established in the Three Guides [Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha]. And this teaching-buddha also foretold of him: 'One day he will be a buddha.' "

"The city of this buddha was named Khema; Sudatta was his father, Sirima his mother, Sarana and Bhavitatta his chief male-disciples, Udena his assistant, Sona and Upasona his chief female-disciples. The Naga was his enlightenment-tree..." (Buddhist Birth-Stories, pp. 122-124).

This is just a slice of interesting ancient Buddhist oral tradition. It indicates not only the importance of plants, but the widespread dispersal of humans throughout space (other planets and worlds in this ten-thousandfold world system, of which there are countless such systems), the cyclical nature of time and society, the prominence of women (in that buddhas always have chief female disciples in addition to a tree, which is not always a banyan or fig tree, and varying numbers of enlightened disciples), the strange and changing status of reptilian shape-shifters (Nagas) in Buddhist cosmology, who are sometimes characterized as angry and above humans and at other times angry and beneath humans, and the breadth of time the Buddha discussed, spanning incalculable aeons, which means there is no ultimate beginning point for evolution (but instead devolution, punctuated equilibrium, evolution, creative meddling from space or a kind of "creationism" to that extent, and cycles upon cycles within cycles).

"Be Your Own Shaman" (April 5th Party)

All are invited to a FREE party on Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time.

Check out the book: Be Your Own Shaman

Dr. Deborah King is holding an ONLINE party to celebrate the launch of her new book, Be Your Own Shaman. Register by Tuesday, April 5th. This FREE TeleEvent will include music, laughter, the opportunity to win prizes like workshops and programs, and King will teach powerful healing technique. It's a FREE event, but it is by invitation only, so sign up now.

MI5 Files: Nazis planned a "Fourth Reich"

MI5 files: Nazis planned "Fourth Reich" in post-war Europe (Telegraph.co.uk, April 4, 2011) The Nazis hatched plans for a “Fourth Reich” by planting sleeper cells in post-war Europe to destabilise governments, secret MI5 files show.

Bookseller Jim Marrs explains the Big Picture(begins at 4:10)

(IUFOC, 2009) Jim Marrs has gathered compelling evidence that an effort has been underway for the past 60 years to bring a form of National Socialism (Nazism) to modern America, creating in essence a modern empire -- a Fourth Reich. Marrs reveals the frighteningly fact that today the United States is ruled by the same wealthy elite that originally funded the Nazis and fueled their terrifying ideology. Details - Armistice Day in Photos - Iwo Jima's mass graves - Jim Marrs discusses 4th Reich with Alex Jones:

Where will William and Kate honeymoon?

Hoping to avoid Kate Middleton's Naga princess-fairytale-come-true story, we're pulled in by "news" the royal couple will be coming to Buddhist Nepal, assuming it's not an extended April Fools' joke.

William, Kate to honeymoon in Nepal (wink-wink)

(IANS April 1, 2011) It's neither the romantic Mediterranean isle of Sicily nor scuba divers' paradise Australia where Prince William and Kate Middleton will head for their honeymoon after tying the knot in Westminster Abbey on April 29th. Instead, their destination is going to be Nepal, the land of the Buddha, Mt. Everest, and the Gurkhas [who were exploited by the British, enticed to fight against their own interests, and cheated out of promises made to them in return for their service], with whom William's younger brother Prince Harry served in Afghanistan for a brief spell in 2007-2008. But before the paparazzi start a stampede buying tickets to Nepal, maybe they should consider other factors too. For instance, the Nepali newspaper that "broke" the royal news did so on April 1, celebrated worldwide as All Fools' Day. More

William and Kate to Honeymoon in Nepal?

HIMALAYAN TIMES - Prince William and future Princess Kate Middleton are honeymooning in Nepal? They are according to "a report in the London Times." And you know it's true because the report said that Lowbrow Pinkelton, private secretary of Prince William, who is responsible for his travel arrangements, formally confirmed it: Royal Rumors and Related April Fools' Hoaxes - Why do some girls have all the luck? (Karma)

Blaming God for disasters? (cartoon)

Palin-Buddha Cartoon The Buddha gives prospective presidential candidate Palin some non-political advice during her tour of India in "The Devil Made Me Blog It"! (Rbtenorio)

In India, Sarah Palin bashes President Obama Moments after saying she wouldn't criticize Barack Obama abroad, Sarah Palin in India on Saturday said that if she were president there would have been "less dithering, more decisiveness" on Libya. Pressed in a much tougher question-and-answer session than Palin has recently allowed herself to be subjected to during appearances in the U.S, the former Alaska governor told conference attendees at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi that Obama had not shown enough conviction in executing a strategy in Libya.

Buddhist monks in India pray for Japan quake victims - Mothers-to-be Observe Five Precepts - U.S. gov't embarrassed by Afghan woman again - Lady Gaga spends B-day performing in L.A. (25 years old at Staples Center)

Americans blaming God for disasters

Disaster strikes. Is it a sign from God? Or is it just global warming? A poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service (RNS) found that:

While 56 percent of Americans believe "God controls everything in the world," only 38 percent believe that "earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters are a sign from God."

According to the RNS article on the survey, which came out Thursday, the idea of God punishing entire nations for the sins of a few only appealed to about 29 percent of Americans.

"It's interesting that most Americans believe in a personal God and that God is in control of everything that happens in the world… but then resist drawing a straight line from those beliefs to God's direct role or judgment in natural disasters," said the CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, Robert P. Jones, in an interview with RNS. More

Automakers feel worsening effects of Japan crisis - Japan disaster another worry for global economy - Discipline: no looting in Japan - Japan quake to cost insurers like Katrina - Disasters abound in 2010's world gone wild: Quakes, floods, blizzards

Comedy and the US War in Afghanistan

Malalai Joya, Afghan war critic, gets U.S. visa

A prominent Afghan feminist and war critic was granted a visa to enter the United States on Thursday -- by the same State Department office that turned her down last week -- and belatedly started on a speaking tour that is scheduled to wind up in San Francisco. The case of Malalai Joya is the latest of several in which the Obama administration, after at first refusing entry, has allowed a visit by a foreigner who has criticized policies of the United States or its allies (San Francisco Chronicle).

"Orgasm, Inc." (film)

(AstreaMedia) In the shocking and hilarious documentary "Orgasm, Inc." filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a pharmaceutical company during a drug trial. The company is developing what it hopes will be the first Viagra-style drug for women to win FDA approval. But first Big Pharma has to invent a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD).

Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure. Soon she begins to suspect that her employer, along with other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits.

"Orgasm, Inc." is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire -- and that ultimate moment: orgasm.

Jerusalem UFO, Buddhist rapper in Japan

Smoking gun UFO footage over Jerusalem

Michael Cohen (allnewsweb.com)

Two witnesses who happened to be at the Armon Hanatziv panoramic lookout over Mount Zion and the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel at 1:00 am managed to film one of the most interesting UFO clips ever captured. The sighting took place January 28, 2011. The men notice the large ball shaped UFO suspended in the night sky and begin to film. The UFO descends directly over the Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount, hovers, flashes, then shoots upward. One of the witnesses and filmatographers, Mr. Eligael Gidlovitch of Tel Aviv, notes during the filming, in Hebrew, that he is certain that it must be forbidden for civilian craft to hover over Jerusalem in such a manner.

God is Dying, again

(KC Star/Heritage Foundation) God is not dead. But he might just be sick with worry about us. If a team of respected scientific researchers is right, religious belief is headed for extinction in at least nine nations. This projection, somber to some and soothing to others, got a lot of play during the recent annual meeting in Dallas of the American Physical Society. First reported by the BBC, the findings came in the form of a highly technical account of group dynamics based on a mathematical model. They would spark little public interest if the subject were bowling leagues or bocce enthusiasts. Religion, to put it mildly, is different. A fair historian would acknowledge that faith has been on trial since the beginning. The centuries have seen intense, sometimes violent, conflicts among competing creeds. More

Buddhist Monk Raps in Japan

(Chu Yang, UPI) The sounds of central Tokyo's Kyoouji Temple have long included softly chanted prayers and traditional bell chimes. But in recent years, another beat has joined them: hip-hop. “Okay, baby, no problem. It is hard to live in this world. Hey, hey, bro, listen carefully!” This lyrical rap comes from Kansho Tagai. He is not a hip-hop star. He is a 50-year-old Buddhist monk who is also the head of this 400-year-old temple. Tagai raps Buddhist sutras to hip-hop beats to draw younger people to his place. Once or twice a month he dresses in traditional Buddhist robes and performs hip-hop at his temple. Tagai’s efforts have won him young followers, who call him Mr. Happiness for his positive outlook. The number of people that visit his temple has doubled since he began rapping. Each month, about 100 young fans stop by to see Tagai. More

Alyssa Milano's pre-natal yoga - Buddhist nun to teach in Washington

Yeti lends helping hand to Nepal monastery

It's no laughing matter: stealing Himalayan artifacts from ancient Buddhist cultures.

"Yeti" lends helping hand to Nepal monastery again

KATHMANDU (TNN) - It sounds like an implausible April Fool's Day stunt. But after almost a decade, a centuries-old Buddhist monastery struggling in the foot region of Mt. Everest is now going to get a fresh lease of life, thanks to the yeti (Pali, yakshi, female ogre, in Buddhist cosmology).

Pangboche Monastery, built around a rock in Khumbu in northern Nepal, called the gateway to the world's highest peak, survived for centuries on donations given by foreign trekkers and mountaineers who visited the over 600-year-old edifice lured by tales of it possessing the skull and a hand of the yeti, the legendary beast who inspired an expedition by Sir Edmund Hillary himself and was the subject of a book by another Everest hero, Reinhold Messner.

"I saw the skull and the hand in the late 1980s after I returned from New Zealand," says Ang Rita Sherpa, senior programme manager at The Mountain Institute that last year helped restore the crumbling down monastery with financial assistance from the US Ambassador's Fund. "Both were stolen in the early 1990s. After the monastery lost its main source of tourist attraction, it fell into hardship, barely able to sustain itself." More

World's greatest Buddhist site discovered!

Gabrielle Niu (Penn Museum) enhanced and updated by Wisdom Quarterly

Afghan archaeologist examines the remains of Buddha statues discovered inside an ancient monastery in Mes Aynak, Logar province, Afghanistan, on Nov. 23, 2010 (AP).

Afghanistan, it often goes unremembered, for centuries flourished as a cultural crossroads of Buddhism and trade along the Silk Road. Nineteen miles (30 km) from the Afghan capital of Kabul, under layers of unexcavated earth, lays a large 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery. Mes Aynak is a sprawling trove of Buddhist monastery ruins, statues, and reliquaries (stupas) attesting to the prolific role that Afghanistan played in the spread of Buddhism in Central Asia (to Russia) and East Asia (to China). More

• The Invisible History of Afghanistan
• What the census means for modern India
• Power of Meditation (Dr. Judith Orloff)
• Refuted: Dinosaurs and Humans lived together
• VIDEO: Should questioning Gandhi's sexuality be banned?