(Let's Be Clear with Ana Kasparian) Israel is going to regret suing New York Times for exposing their mass rape, bestiality, prisoner abuse, crimes against humanity, war crimes
(Buddha's Wisdom) GOENKA: The man who removed Buddhism from Buddhism?
Do it yourself at home the U Ba Khin way
The Goenka Method (of U Ba Khin) provides some practical advice for practicing systematic mindfulness (sati) of the body, one of the four crucial elements in the setting up of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana), a practice necessary for "insight" (vipassana). Is it the only method? No. Is it the most effective method? Who can say, as it varies from individual to individual. Is it an effective method? Without sufficient stillness, calm, samadhi, absorption (jhana), it seems to Wisdom Quarterly that it is not. The claim is that practicing vipassana can produce its own mild forms of "access concentration" without needed full absorption. This will at best be a very weak and sketchy foundation of sila and samma-samadhi, virtue and "right samadhi." Samadhi is crucial and cannot be skipped over with the ideal of "dry insight" being enough for this decadent age.
S. N. Goenka (Satya Narayana, Satyanārāyaṇa Gōyaṅkā, Burmese ဦးဂိုအင်ကာ) lived from Jan. 30, 1924–Sept. 29, 2013. He was an Indian Burmese businessman and teacher of Buddhist insight (vipassanā) meditation.
Goenka-jii (an honorific added out of great respect) retired from business in 1962, during a period of business nationalization by the military junta in Burma, then moved to India in 1969 to start teaching vipassana meditation.
His teachings are secular and therefore stay away from anything that might appear to be rites or rituals and instead emphasize that Buddha's path to liberation, which was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific (rational) in character.
This led to vipassana meditation appealing to people of all religions as well as no religion, theists, nontheists, atheists, and agnostics, from all parts of the world, East and West.
Vipassana, in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition, is derived from the Abhidhamma(as taught by the Buddha to the monk he declared "foremost in wisdom" Ven. Śāriputra [27, 28]).
Although some Burmese teachers hold that vipassana and Abhidhamma study are inseparable [29], Goenka invited students to consider the theoretical aspects of these Teachings (pariyatti), advising them that the most important aspect of the technique is its practice (paṭipatti), contrasting mere book learning from experiential learning.
Students are free to accept the theoretical background or reject any part they find objectionable.
Goenka reported the words of the Buddha as follows [30]: "Filled with these compassionate and loving thoughts, [the Buddha] proclaimed: Apārutā tesaṃ amatassa dvārā Ye sotavanto pamuñcantu saddhaṃ "Open are the gates of the deathless state to those with ears [to hear] who renounce their lack of [confidence]," that is to say:
"Open are the gates of Nirvana so that people who hear and practice will be able to overcome all doubt," which is one of the Five Mental Hindrances.
Free 10-day course
I thought I'd join a 10-day course, get enlightened, then go get my nails done. Boy, was I wrong.
Mr. Goenka became an influential teacher and played an important role in establishing non-commercial vipassana meditation centers globally where vipassana meditation is taught as a free 10-day residential program with no charges for food, lodging, or meditation instruction, with centers funded by voluntary donations from "old" (past and present) meditators.
How could it possibly be free? It is non-commercial. The rule is that only "old" students (who have completed at least one course) are allowed to donate. "New" students (who have not yet completed at least one course) are not allowed to donate. Donations are accepted after the completion of a course, which everyone qualifies to donate to at the end of each course, so there's never really a time when centers are open to donations and not accepting them. As soon as they are open to accepting dana (donations, gifts, charity), everyone present who just completed the course can give. Give what? Dāna
Goenka was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the government of India in 2012, an award bestowed for distinguished service of a high order.
Sign up for free 10-day courses worldwide at dhamma.org
(Wisdom Quarterly was fortunate enough to meet S. N. Goenka, 88, and his lovely wife when they were invited to the Dhammakaya Meditation Center in Azusa, Los Angeles, for a lunch in his honor and to receive an award for service to humanity, circa 2012. This was just as the Aztec Calendar was wrapping a cycle and the world was about to end, with few people noticing that a new cycle and new world would immediately be continuing. He seemed very kind, and not nearly as Dracula-like as one might think from hearing his droning, baritone Transylvanian/Indian accent on the standardized tapes played during all free 10-day courses). More
Buddha's Wisdom (video); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
I am thy Emperor in the Sky, the Demiurge, thy Jealous and vengeful Lord of all Worlds!
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Behold! The Way, the Truth, and the Light!
(MorgueOfficial) I discovered the REAL God | Why the Monad[the One, as taught in the varied traditions we collectively call Gnosticism] was too dangerous to teach.
So that even the Goddess of Wisdom (Sophia) as exemplified by Apostle Mary Magdalene (the closest and brightest apostle, the real intended successor of Jesus, not dogmatic Peter/Petra, an emissary of Sophia, Barbelo, the true GOD or godhead) had to denigrated and erased.
It's why Jesus the Anointed One (the Christed) had to be repurposed by imperial powers, misquoted, and made to work for the state (Emperor Constantine's Roman Empire and subsequent Christendom), and inverted until what the church says he said is nearly the opposite of what he was teaching.
Pistis Sophia (Koine Greek Πίστις Σοφία) is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic group's teachings of the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples, including his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. (In this context, "transfigured" refers to Jesus after his death and resurrection, not the event during his life where he spoke to appearances of Moses and Elijah on a mountain). In this text, the risen Jesus had spent 11 years speaking with his disciples, teaching them only the lower mysteries. After 11 years, he receives his true garment and is able to reveal the higher mysteries [entheogens] revered by this group. The prized mysteries relate to complex cosmologies and knowledge necessary for the soul to reach the highest divine realms. More
Why become a follower following in the footsteps of the guru to know what the guru knows when you can just pay lip service to the guru, praise, worship, sing about, and never actually follow anything he taught, pat yourself on the back for being a good "follower" (a pious Christian hypocrite), and call it a day?
Heaven awaits for all kiss-ups who never bothered to read, investigate, study, or experience what the Teacher taught. They just let child molesting intermediaries interpret it for them so they could be sure to get a good seat to the afterlife. God would be so proud!
So all true believers get into heaven?
It's interesting that many modern Christians, contradicting their own official sacred texts (council-approved books of The Book), believe in and speak of a God that sounds an awful lot like the Monad Jesus was really talking about.
The ancient Vedas, Brahmin priests (Brahmanism), and modern Hindus also speak of such a GOD (Brahman, not Brahma) that is not a being in the sky, not an old, bearded man on a cloud throne but rather "the absolute or ultimate reality behind all of the illusion" (the maya or simulation or the ever-revolving samsara). That GOD is called Brahman even in a polytheistic, henotheistic, sometimes pantheistic tradition with so much variety and complexity (because it's an amalgam of all the beliefs and practices found in India by the occupying British who could not understand it until they lumped the diversity into one big pile and called it a "thing," a "religion," of which ancient Indians had no concept, because like most people of the world, spirituality and daily life were not treated as separate).
BRAHMAN: In the Old Vedic and subsequent Hindu religions, Brahman (Sanskrit ब्रह्मन्) has a "variety of meanings," but in the Upanishads and later Indian philosophies it connotes "That" from which all existence proceeds, and to which everything returns [1, a], [the Source,] the origin and cause of all that exists [2, 3, 4]. In contemporary Hindu metaphysics, Brahman is the highest universal principle, the Ultimate Reality of the universe behind all the hide-and-seek "divine play" (lila), complexity, and confusion of maya (illusion). [The nondual of Advaita Vedanta.] More
That's what I've been trying to say: we're all divine
This Monad (ONE) is Brahman (GOD), and it probably the TAO, the Great Spirit of Native American lore, and it is likely the "Father" Jesus (Gnostic Jesus, Y'shua, Yeshua, Joshua, Isa, Saint Issa) was really talking about in an anionic (timeless/eternal now) Kingdom, not a heavenly rebirth but a timeless ("eternal") reality right now, for those [mystery cult] initiates ready and able to undergo purification and ego-death (loss of self to gain the kingdom of heaven) and be raised up in a rapture (bliss, unburdening, realization, union) of understanding (comprehension) and gnosis (actual experience) before passing away from this world.
The basic recurring theme in Hindu mythology is the creation of the world by the self-sacrifice of God—"sacrifice" in the original sense of "making sacred"—whereby God [or GOD] becomes the world which, in the end, becomes again God.
This creative activity of the Divine is calledlila, the play [or drama] of God, and the world is seen as the stage [platform] of the divine play. Like most of Hindu mythology, the myth of lila has a strong magical flavour.
Brahman is the great magician who transforms [it]self into the world and then performs this feat with [its] "magic creative power," which is the original meaning of maya in the Rig Veda.
The word maya—one of the most important terms in Indian philosophy—has changed its meaning over the centuries. From the might, or power, of the divine actor and magician, it came to signify the psychological state of anybody under the spell of the magic play [the actors or audience lost in the play].
As long as we confuse the myriad forms of the divine lila with reality, without perceiving the unity of Brahman underlying all these forms, we are under the spell of maya....
The Tao of Physics (Fritjof Capra)
In the Hindu view of nature, then, all forms are relative, fluid and ever-changing maya, conjured up by the great magician of the divine play. The world of maya changes continuously, because the divine lila is a rhythmic, dynamic play.
The dynamic force of the play is karma [act, action, deed, doing, intention], an important concept of Indian thought. Karma means "action." It is the active principle of the play [the acting], the total universe in action, where everything is dynamically connected with everything else.
In the words of the [Bhagavad] Gita, Karma is the force of creation, wherefrom all things have their life.
Drop Dead? Bigger than Nazi Barbie Taylor Swift-Kelce? Olivia, what's a daisy chain? Miss Rodrigo, is sex what you meant? What is this, the rebirth of the Lilith Fair? Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac), Shirley Manson's Garbage, Chappell Roan (Chapel Rowing?), punkers Bikini Kill, The Breeders, Die Spitz, and a little band we like to call Katseye until they get too famous to take our calls once they're on the road opening for Black Pink and BTS. Doechii, Eli, Quiet Light, Santigold, Rachel Chinouriri. What, no Linda Lindas? Oh, and a special appearance by up-and-coming world superstar and Taylor Swift nemesis Olive Rodricklow (aka our favorite female popstar Olivia Rodrigo).
Daisy Chain Fields is an upcoming charitable music festival, featuring a women-led lineup at Great Park in Irvine, Orange County, California, founded by American singer Olivia Rodrigo in 2026. All net profits are to go toward organizations supporting females, both women and girls. (Trans womyn are on their own).
Background
Pop superstar Rodrigo appeared in Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery (2025), a documentary about the women-led music festivalLilith Fair, which she cited as an inspiration to her music career.
Lilith Fair co-founder Sarah McLachlan is one of the performers at Daisy Chain Fields. Rodrigo announced the festival on June 22, 2026, concurrently through social media, Pitchfork e-magazine, and radio station 88.5 The SoCal Sound.
In an interview with Shaad D'Souza for Pitchfork e-magazine, Rodrigo said that the festival was inspired by Lilith Fair.
She went on to share, "I just feel like we need something really positive to do and see, and young girls need awesome role models who are supporting other women and who are engaging in something that's really joyful and musical and community-oriented."
Spend it for Olivia, girls. She needs it for girls.
Tickets for the festival sold out within 30 minutes on June 24, 2026, which led to event partner Verizon issuing new tickets on July 9, 2026.
The festival's sponsors are Depop, Etsy, Taco Bell, and Verizon. Rodrigo co-designed a merch collection for the festival [to milk more money out of the event] with ten female entrepreneurs; the collection is available for online purchase exclusively through Etsy and will also be available on festival grounds. [So bring money]. More
Yehuda Shimon wants IDF soldiers and violent settler-occupiers to MURDER all Arab and non-Jewish babies in Palestine? Is this in accordance with Ashkenazi Jewish dietary customs of keeping kosher and offering the preferred infant blood sacrifice to Yahweh, Molech, Baal, and the Demiurge?
Christian Zionists stand for genocide in Israel
(The Jimmy Dore Show) Jewish Israeli lawyer Yehuda Shimon has sparked a viral debate after calling for the COMPLETE genocide (ethnic cleansing, the war crime of indiscriminate wholesale slaughter of a people and noncombatants for being who they are) of any survivors in Gaza because he says one [Ashkenazi] Jewish life is equivalent to 10 million Palestinian lives. An eye for an eye, except one eye means blind 5 million in God-approved revenge.
The reporter, in disbelief, counters, "That just sounds racist." Shimon acknowledges, "Yes, I know [so what if we are? We have a right to be! For too long the world has mistreated us and sent us away, so now it's payback time, and we start with this desert and expand it out into a Jewish Empire that rules the world, like that Mr. Hitler planned, as we gobble up Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Iraq, UAE, and of course Saudi Arabia, but why stop there? With the help of our CIA, Mossad, and Shin Bet, we can have the whole world]."
Privileged Israeli Jews in Tel Aviv stand up for Palestinians?
(The Financial Express) Tel Aviv, Israel, peaceful demonstration turns violent as Zionist police force moves in to demonstrate state power and oppression of privileged Jewish citizens who step out of line and question the status quo, riot police clash with demonstrators who dare to sympathize with plight of Palestinian neighbors
Longstanding tensions between the US’s progressive Jewish community and the Zionist genocidal Israeli government came into focus this month, when Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and other far-right Israeli legislators attended the annual Israel Day Parade in New York City. More
"Today he is a baby, tomorrow he is a fighter," Jewish Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, head of the occupiers' (settlers') yeshiva school in illegally occupied by Jews Jaffa, incited his students forcibly drafted and serving in the Israeli Occupation Forces (IDF), to kill everyone in Gaza, including and especially babies, preferably by beheading, which is the way the local Tribal God likes and demands it. He referenced alleged Jewish "principles of [genocide] war," stating, "The law -- no soul shall live. If you don't kill them, they will kill you."
(Hook Global) "Israel must..." China shreds military Dictator Bibi Netanyahu's corrupt, right-wing Zionist government over Gaza, sends veiled message to Trump
Our state-sponsored God needs more blood.
When asked if babies were included, he responded, "Same, shoot them [like Nazis did to European Jews during the Holocaust that we can never again let happen, at least not to us again, because this only applies to the Chosen People, God's Chosen, us, the best and smartest people in the world with the highest IQs and not at all racist or elitist about it, except, well, humble brag, you know, we all know it, so the Goyim better start to accept it because Greater Israel, Eretz Yisrael is coming, and when we are the Master Race, no Palestinian shall live and no Gentile who opposes us or stands in our way, so help us God, the All-Merciful God of the Old Testament, except don't read the Book of Judges or that gives the whole story away. All hail, Bibi!]
Wait, what? We have our ancient Indigenous DNA still inside, with little Euro contribution?
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Los Maya y Azteca tenian mucha sabiduria
(Now it) Scientists reveal shocking genetic origin of Mexicans: Maternal line almost entirely Indigenous, paternal line mostly European. Why? Mass rape, forced blending, "survival mating" with invaders, occupiers, and Spanish and other European colonial masters
Mestizo
Maya
Aztec (Mexicas, Mexicanos)
Toltec
Zapotec
Olmec
African Americans
Edward P. Vining: An Inglorious Columbus
Rick Fields: How the Swans Came to the Lake
Down with rapist colonizers of Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown! St. Junipero?
Mexico? How big is the "United States of Mexico" (Estados Unidos Mexicanos)?
Anyone not convinced should read Forged about the writing of what Christians today call "the Bible" by Prof. Bart D. Ehrman. Yeah, but who is Ehrman?
Dr. Bart Ehrman, Ph.D., is an American biblical scholar whose research focuses on the historical Jesus, the textual criticism of the New Testament of the Bible, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He is a distinguished professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author or editor of more than 30 books, including six NY Times bestsellers, and the creator of nine lecture series with The Great Courses.
Forged: Writing in the Name of God--Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are
I bow to thine empty Roman torture device and think what I get out of it. Thanks, God!
He reveals which books in the Bible’s New Testament were not passed down by Jesus Christ’s disciples but were instead FORGED by other hands—and he explains why this centuries-hidden scandal is far more significant than many scholars are willing to admit.
A controversial work of historical reporting in the tradition of Princeton Prof. Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, and John Dominic Crossan, Prof. Ehrman’s Forged delivers a stunning explication of one of the most substantial—yet least discussed—problems confronting the world of biblical scholarship.
In this provocative work of biblical criticism, Prof. Ehrman separates history from tradition to reveal:
Ancient Forgery: Which New Testament books were written by anonymous authors who lied about their identity? Why does this scandal matter for modern faith?
Historical Methods: Techniques biblical scholars use to detect pseudepigraphyis how we can know who really wrote the books of the Bible.
Early Christian Conflicts: How internal debates and struggles with outsiders led different groups to create documents in the names of apostles like Peter and Paul (a Jew named Saul) to authorize their own views.
Lost Scriptures: An eye-opening look at non-canonical texts like the Gospel of Peter and 3 Corinthians, and what they tell us about the world of biblical forgery. More
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