Crossing over to freedom (sutra)

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; John D. Ireland (trans.), "The Simile of the Boat" (Nava Sutra, Sn 2.8)

Buddha, I'm lost in this flood (ogha), this sea of samsara, far from the further shore. How shall I cross over, by waiting for Maitreya? (Thailand flooding/framework.latimes.com)

 

Samsara= wheel of rebirth and death

"One from whom a person learns the Dharma [the Buddha's teachings] should be venerated the way the devas venerate Inda, their leader [Sanskrit Indra, another name for Sakka, the king of the devas.] A teacher of great learning, thus venerated, will explain the Dharma, being well-disposed towards a learner (hearer).

"Having paid attention and considered it, a wise person, practicing according to Dharma, becomes learned, intelligent, and accomplished by associating diligently with such a skilled teacher.

 

"But by following an inferior and foolish teacher who has not gained (fine) understanding of the Dharma and is envious of others, one will approach death without having comprehended the Dharma and unrelieved of doubt.
 

Boats crossing, U Bein Bridge, Amarapura, Mandalay (Platongkohphoto/flickr)

.

"If a person going down into a river, swollen and swiftly flowing, is carried away by the current -- how can that person help others across?
 
"Even so, one who has not comprehended the Dharma, has not paid attention to the meaning as expounded by the learned, being without knowledge and unrelieved of doubt -- how can one make others understand?
 
"But if (the person at the river) knows the method and is skilled and wise, by boarding a strong boat equipped with oars and a rudder, can, with its help, set others across.

"Even so, one who is experienced and has a well-trained mind/heart, who is learned and dependable [Commentary: has a character which remains unperturbed by the vicissitudes of life], clearly knowing, can help others to understand who are willing to listen and ready to receive [possessing the supporting conditions for attaining the Paths and Fruits of stream-winning, once-returning, non-returning, and final sainthood (arhatship)].
 
"Surely, therefore, one should associate with a good person who is wise and learned.

"By understanding the meaning of what one has learned and practicing accordingly one who has Dharma-experience [Commentary: one who has fully understood or experienced the truth, the dharma, by penetrating to its essence through the practice taught by a wise teacher] attains (supreme) happiness [the transcendental happiness of the Paths, Fruits, and of nirvana]."

Crossing Over the Flood

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), "Discourse on Crossing over the Flood" (Ogha-tarana Sutra, SN 1.1)

 

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Savatthi at Jeta's Grove in Anathapindika's monastery. Then a certain deva, in the third watch of the night, filled the grove with her radiance as she went to the Blessed One.

Arriving, she bowed, stood respectfully to one side, and said to him, "Tell me, dear sir, how you crossed over the flood."
 
"I crossed over the flood without pushing forward and without staying in place" [without overexertion, without slacking, but persistently striving for balance or "unestablished," see Ud 8.1 and related references at SN 12.38 and SN 12.64].

• Translator's note: This discourse opens the Connected Discourses with a paradox. The Commentary states that the Buddha teaches the deva in terms of the paradox in order to subdue her pride. To give this paradox some context, read other passages from the Pali canon that discuss right effort.

"But how, dear sir, did you cross over the flood without pushing forward and without staying in place?"
 
"When I pushed forward, I was whirled about. When I stayed in place, I sank. So I crossed over the flood without pushing forward and without staying in place."

"At long last see I a true Brahmin, fully liberated, who without pushing forward and without staying in place has crossed over the entanglements of the world."

 

This is what that deva said. The teacher approved. And realizing that "the teacher has approved of me," she bowed, respectfully circumambulated him -- keeping him to her right -- and vanished then and there.

Crossing the Flood
Translated by U Tin U (Myaung), Rangoon, and edited by Wisdom Quarterly and the Editorial Committee, Burma Tipitaka Assn., 1998, Dhammaweb.net Oghatarana Sutta (SN I.01)

Deva spirit (smithymeerkat/flickr)

Thus have I heard: Once the Bhagava [the Bhagwan, the Blessed One, the Buddha] was residing at Anathapindika's Jeta's Grove Monastery in Savatthi. Then, soon after the middle watch of the night, a certain deva of exceeding beauty approached him, illuminating the entire grove. After paying homage, she stood at a suitable place, and addressed him:
 
"Sir, how did you cross the flood?" [Note 1]
 
"Friend, by not remaining still and by not putting forth strenuous effort, I crossed the flood."
 
"But, sir, in what way did you cross over while neither remaining still nor putting forth strenuous effort?"
 
"Friend, if I remain still, I sink [2]; if I put forth strenuous effort, I drift [3]. Thus, by neither remaining still nor putting forth strenuous effort, I crossed the flood."
 
"In the sentient world, only after a long time do I see one in whom defilements are extinct [4], one in whom defilements have been extinguished, who neither remaining still nor putting forth strenuous effort crossed the ocean of craving."
 
Thus said the deva. The teacher approved. Having noted the approval of the teacher, the deva paid respect then respectfully withdrew and vanished form there.
 

FOOTNOTES 1. the flood (ogha), metaphorically, the deluge of craving, wrong views, and ignorance which keep one submerged in the round of rebirth, death, and suffering (samsara). The four floods are: (i) kama-ogha: strong attachment to the five sensual pleasures; (ii) bhava-ogha: strong attachment to rebirth in the Fine Material Sphere, in the Immaterial Sphere, or to the attainment of meditative absorptions (jhanas), strong karma that leads to rebirth in these spheres; (iii) ditthi-ogha: the 62 wrong views (See Brahmajala Sutta, DN 1); (vi) avijja-ogha: ignorance of the liberating Truth.
2. If I remain still, I sink: Staying in the midst of sensual pleasures, making no efforts to break free of them, one sinks to the tower realms. Or in another sense, making no effort to get rid of demerit, one sinks to the depths of the four miserable states of rebirth.
3. If I put forth strenuous effort, I drift: Striving on the path purification from defilements through self-mortification/severe austerities sends one adrift in samsara. Or in another sense, even if one performs meritorious deeds while craving for rebirth in the higher realms of existence, such efforts merely bring mundane merit and one drifts along in samsara.
4. One in whom defilements are extinct is a true "Brahmin" meaning either a buddha or an arhat. The brahma, although designated as a deva in this discourse, had known Kassapa Buddha. Since the passing of Kassapa Buddha many aeons passed before Gautama Buddha appeared in this world.

Will my cyborg meditate for me?

I. Rony, Seth Auberon, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; MindfulCyborgs.com

Does she remember me? Is she meditating without me? (mindfulcyborgs.com)

  

IN THE FUTURE we will be rich then we'll have time to do the things we don't do now as wage slaves and sidelined automatons in the post-industrial age.

In the future, cyborgs -- sensitive, half-human, half-machine humanoids -- will do it for us.

Robotic lotus (dreamstime)

In the future we will say, "Siro, do a half hour of mindful breath-awareness to get into absorption, emerge, then give me a good 25 minutes of vipassana, you know 'insight contemplation,' and wrap it all up with five minutes of loving-kindness."

"Do you want a relaxing massage afterwards," Siro will ask, "or how about some soothing genmai tea for your nerves? Also, remember to call your mother. It's been awhile." "Siro, call her for me," we will add, "and make my tea extra strong.

Now 
In the present we aren't rich enough to meditate -- you know how much those zafus and zabutons cost, and who has the time?
 

In the present we're plugged in and on the move 24/7. What if someone texts us and thinks we're ignoring them when we don't text right back?
  

He remembered!

In the present we say, "Siri, am I free to sit for 15 minutes?" She answers, "Only 15 minutes, yes, you have lots of 15-minute openings on your calendar."

"No, Siri, I meant an hour -- then, well, with getting set up and cleaning up -- an-hour-and-15-minutes."

"No, you don't have any 75-minute openings, unless you..."

"OH, too bad! I was really looking forward to having a good sit like Siddhartha. Well, maybe in the future. Siri, sext my girlfriend."
 

What's that? - They say in the future this devi will meditate for us. (mindfulcyborgs.com)

(Mindful Cyborgs) Hosts Chris Dancy and Klint Finley with guest Kate Darling on "Extending Legal Rights to Social Robots") Episode 32: Emoji-ing Robots Seek to Fathom Their Origin

Who is "Siri," Goddess of the iPhone?

Amber and Bela Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Jennifer Van Grove (mashable.com)

Sri Sri Lakshmi devi, the Indian mythological source of "Siri" (amijha)

Siri was not blond like Marvel's Goddess Thor until Scarlett Johannson made her so in "She."

.

"Who are you?" I ask Siri, attempting to unravel some of the mystery behind the iPhone 4S virtual assistant by going directly to the source. No such luck. "Who I am isn't important," she tells me.

 

Let's stop being coy, Siri. Who you are is important. We both know that. So important that you may be a threat to Google's Android platform.

 

The world's best app is Audible not Siri.

And so I went to one of Siri's makers, Gary Morgenthaler, venture capitalist, Siri investor, and Siri board member, for a better answer to the question, Who is Siri?

Let's start with her name. Like any doting parent, Morgenthaler and the founding team behind Siri, especially CEO Dag Kittlaus, felt the newborn's existence was of such significance that she warranted a very special moniker. And so they turned to baby name books. 

[The Hindu Goddess Siri]

Is "Siri" (Inc.) based on Lakshmi or Freyja?

The team put together a shortlist of potential names, but Siri stood out.

Siri, a variant of Sigrid, is a Scandinavian and Norwegian girl name that means beautiful or fair victory.

The Indian name Siri is associated with Goddess Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth and prosperity.

 

Siri, to those who gave her life, became an amalgam of those meanings; they defined her appellation as, "beautiful woman that leads you to fair victory and wealth." [Obviously, they overlooked some of Siri's more colorful meanings.] More

• Ven. Uppalavana Theri: a Historical Lakshmi
• Sri Lakshmi in Buddhism, Goddess of Luck
• Christian God Yahweh had a wife: Asherah

Lakshmi

Koausa.org, edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Meditating Lakshmi, mother of Cupid (Kama)

The  devi  or goddess Lakshmi represents wealth and prosperity, material and spiritual. The word lakshmi (laxmi)  is derived from the Sanskrit laksme, meaning "goal."

Lakshmi, therefore, represents the goal of life, which includes worldly as well as spiritual prosperity. In ancient Vedic and more recent Hindu mythology, the Goddess Lakshmi, who is also called  by the honorific Sri, is the divine spouse or consort of Lord Vishnu, whom she provides with wealth for the maintenance and preservation of Great Brahma's creation (this world-system).

 

Sri Lakshmi is depicted in female form. [In Buddhism devas are transformational beings capable of adopting whatever form they please as Alexander Pope notes of Greco-Roman-European fairies (woodland dryads)]:

For when the Fair in all their Pride expire,

To their first Elements the [Spirits] retire:

The Sprights of fiery Termagants in Flame

Mount up, and take a Salamander's Name.

Siri, who sent this picture?

Soft yielding Minds to Water glide away,

And sip with Nymphs, their Elemental Tea.

The graver Prude sinks downward to a Gnome,
In search of Mischief still on Earth to roam.

The light Coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the Fields of Air.

Know farther yet; Whoever fair and chaste

Rejects Mankind, is by some Sylph embrac'd: 

For Spirits, freed from mortal Laws, with ease

Assume what Sexes and what Shapes they please.
 

...When kind Occasion prompts their warm Desires,
When Musick softens, and when Dancing fires?
 

'Tis but their Sylph, the wise Celestials know,
Tho' Honour is the Word with Men below....

Lakshmi is shown with four arms and four hands. She wears red clothes with a golden lining and is standing on a lotus. She has golden coins and lotuses in her hands. Two elephants (sometimes four) are shown next to her, symbolism conveying the following spiritual themes:

• Her four arms represent the four cardinal directions in space and symbolize omnipresence and omnipotence of the goddess. The red color symbolizes activity. The golden lining (embroidery) on her red dress suggests prosperity. The idea conveyed here is that she is always busy distributing wealth and prosperity to devotees. The lotus pedestal signifies that while living in the world, one should enjoy its wealth but not become obsessed with it. Such a living is analogous to a lotus that grows in dirty water but is not wet or defiled by it.

• 

  Radha, divine consort (WQ)

  Her four hands represent the four ends of human life: dharma (duty, social obligation, righteousness), kama ([Buddhist chanda] genuine desires beyond the sensual), artha (wealth), and moksha (liberation from death and rebirth). Whereas the front hands represent activity in the physical world, the back ones indicate the spiritual activities that lead to spiritual perfection.
• Since the right side of the body symbolizes activity, a lotus in the back right hand conveys the idea that one must perform his or her duties in the world in accordance with dharma [a Vedic idea distorted by the Indian caste system]. Fulfilling one's real duties as a human being on a spiritual quest leads to moksha (liberation), which is symbolized by a lotus in Lakshmi's back left hand. Golden coins falling on the ground from her front left hand illustrate that she provides wealth and prosperity to her devotees. Her front right hand is shown bestowing blessings... More

Tonight: See the Honey Moon all night long

Dhr. Seven, Bhante, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

The Moon will be big, bright, yellow, and very close tonight (latimes.com)

Honey full moon lunar observance or Madhu Purnima (thedailystar.net, 9-12-11)

Tonight, Chandra/Luna the Moon is providing a spectacular show in the sky (akasha) above Bhumi (Earth/Gaia). Every month has a full moon, a "month" (which we should call a moonth) being four weeks, a week being seven days, a day being 24 hours. Because with arithmetic like this, a year is 364 days (13x28) or 13 months rather than 12. The last or 365th day is New Year's Day, a fresh start, and resets the calendar. That is how it was, and that is how it would be, if we reverted to the more accurate, useful, and intuitive lunar calendar. The ancient societies had versions of it, not the least of which was the Buddhist calendar and the more ancient Mayan calendar. Buddhism, using Indian time, celebrated the lunar days of the new moon, quarter moon, half moon, and full moon as uposatha or "observance" days of intensive meditation, study, and hearing the Dharma. The tradition lives on around the world, including the USA. Seek out any Mahayana (Japanese roku sainichi) or Theravada temple, be it Thai, Burmese, Sri Lankan, Cambodian (Khmer), Laotian, Bangladeshi (East Bengal), or Indonesian, and feel free to participate in its monthly observance, dressed in white, practicing devotional activities, recalling the Buddha, endeavoring to comprehend the Dharma, and eating great ethnic foods. There are are least 25 temples to choose from in greater Los Angeles. The "Full Moon Honey Offering" is a special poornima or "full moon" observance day relating to remarkable event in the forest between the Buddha and a generous monkey and attentive elephant. Ancient yogic tradition calls for fasting on full moon days. The Buddha modified this to mean not eating after noon, which is the daily practice of Theravada monastics.

Mother's Day: The Buddha's Three Mothers

Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (AN 2.32)

Mother's Day in America in 12 comics from The New Yorker (newyorker.com)

 

The birth of Siddhartha with Mother Maya

The historical Buddha had three mothers in that final rebirth when he made an end of all suffering.

Most people will have heard of Siddhartha's second mother, his birth-mother, Maha Maya Devi ("Great Queen Maya"). She was a queen, the wife of his father a [rich Afghan Chieftain] King Suddhodana, whose riches derived from the Silk Road that brought wealth, merchants, and spiritual travelers to the faraway capital of Kapilavastu, the Buddha's hometown.

Birth mother: Queen Maha Maya Devi

Maya's beauty was like a "dream," and in fact the name maya derives from the Sanskrit and Pali word for "illusion" (taken in Mahayana-Hinduism as māyā, two religions that so influenced one another as to be the same thing with different deities, one buddhas the other avatars]. An illusion, of course, is fleeting. She passed away seven days after giving birth to Prince Siddhartha. There are reasons given for this -- the most spiritual being that she only took a human birth as a volunteer to give birth to him. We enter life knowing on some level those individuals who play the role of parents, partners, relatives, friends, and enemies. But that is a truth bigger than most can digest.

• 

  The Maya of Mesoamerica are related

  The words "Maya" -- the name of Native Americans from Mexico and Central America with that famous "calendar" -- and "Gautemala" in Mesoamerica derive from the name of the Buddha's mother and his surname Gautama and mala (garland). See Rick Fields' How the Swan Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America in which these and many more connections are drawn showing Buddhism's arrival in the Americas long before the Conquistadors and Catholicism.

Maya, Mariah (Mary), a queen in heaven

And she was reborn as a devaputra (born-among-devas) in Sakka King of the Devas' celestial realm, the World of the Thirty-Three in space. There her former son Siddhartha, after becoming the Buddha, thanked and repaid her for her help in this life by teaching her the liberating-Dharma. The other devas of that world also benefited, although Sakka their ruler was already a stream-enterer and therefore a devoted follower of the Buddha.

Our parents do so much for us that, according to the Buddha, the only way we can ever repay them is by teaching or leading them to the ennobling Dharma.

 

Repaying our Parents (sutra)

Wisdom Quarterly translation (AN 2.32)

Shravana Kumar carries his aged and poor blind parents on his shoulders (Ramayana) More

 

Come on, dad. You, too, mom. Get on up here!

"Truly I say, meditators, there are two people who are not easy to repay. Who? Mother and father. Even if one were to carry one's mother on one shoulder and one's father on the other for a century, and one were to look after them by anointing, massaging, bathing, and rubbing their limbs, even as they defecated and urinated where they sat [the shoulders], one would not by that pay or repay one's parents. Moreover, if one were to establish mother and father in absolute sovereignty over this great Earth, which abounds in the seven treasures, one would not by that pay or repay one's parents. Why is that? Mother and father do much for their children. They care for them, they nourish them, they introduce them to this world.

 

"But anyone who rouses one's unbelieving mother and father, settles and establishes them in conviction (saddhā); rouses one's unvirtuous mother and father, settles and establishes them in virtue (sīla); rouses one's stingy mother and father, settles and establishes them in generosity (danā); rouses one's foolish mother and father, settles and establishes them in wisdom (paññā): To this extent one pays and repays one's mother and father."

Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff) summarizes: This sutra (AN 2.32) shows that the only way to repay parents is to strengthen them in four qualities: confidence (faith), virtue (morality), unselfishness (generosity), and wisdom (discernment). To do so, of course, we have to develop these qualities in ourselves, as well as learning how to tactfully employ them in being an example to our parents. As it happens, these four qualities are also those of a kalyana-mitta or "noble friend" (AN 8.54), which means that in repaying our parents in this way we become the sort of person who would be a noble friend to others as well.

The Other Mothers

Foster mother: Maha Pajapati Gotami

Many will also have heard of the Buddha's foster or stepmother related by blood, Queen Mahā Pajāpatī Gotami (Sanskrit Gautami). As Mother Number 3, she was Queen Maya's sister and co-wife. 

Both were married to King Suddhodana. She stepped forward to care for the newborn Siddhhartha to the detriment of her own son, Nanda, the Buddha's brother (they shared a father, their mothers were sisters, and she nursed and adopted him at age 7 days, which would seem to make her a little more than a stepmother or Nanda a half-brother; she also had a daughter, the Buddha's rarely mentioned half-sister, Sundari Nanda) -- She was the mother of Nanda, but it is said that she gave her own son to nurses and herself nursed the Buddha.

 

Not his mother: Princess Bimba (Yasodhara)

She is much more famous in this world than Maya because Pajapati (Sanskrit Prajapati) went on to become the first Buddhist nun. The Buddha's brother and sister also ordained and became enlightened.

This was in addition to Siddhartha's wife, Rahulamata ("Rahula's mother"), Princess Bimba Devi, much more popularly known as Yasodhara.

Rahula, Bimba, Siddhartha

What we are never told as we hear the story of the Buddha's life repeated is the fact that he did not "abandon" his family. Far from becoming a deadbeat father, having a good old time in the wilderness as an extreme ascetic, he saved his family: He came back enlightened and led his mother, father, wife, son, brother, sister, foster mother, cousins, and extended family members to liberation, to enlightenment and nirvana. He even remembered his birth mother and visited her where she was reborn. Such was the reverence of the Buddha for his parents, and many monastics followed suit. For example, there is the famous case of one of the Buddha's chief male disciples, Maha Moggallana, visiting his mother in hell to help her.

Of course, the Buddha's former wife, now the Buddhist nun and famous disputant Ven. Bhaddakaccānā, is not the Buddha's mother. How could she be the Buddha's mother? She was their son Ven. Rahula's mother.

First Mother

Questionable quote (Lotusing/flickr)

No, the Buddha's "first mother" is a stranger story of rebirth. In brief, it runs as follows. One day the Buddha was walking down a road with his monastic disciples when he passed an elderly couple. The man called out to him, "Son! Your mother and I have been missing you! It has been a long time since you visited us!"

The monastics thought this was very strange. Stranger still, the Buddha approached them and spoke to them in a very kindly way with gratitude. The monastics were confused, Why is the teacher letting these strangers talk to him this way and addressing him as "son"?

The Buddha later explained that for many (500) lives this couple had been his parents. Over and over, the karma of the three being such, they were born together. She raised him over and again. And here she was in that last life running into him apparently out of the blue but not really by accident. The nuns and monks may have been surprised to hear it but, in fact, the Buddha taught something far more surprising:

So long is this samsara -- this "continued wandering on" through births and deaths -- that it is difficult to ever meet anyone with whom one has not already shared all relationships. Look around; those people have already been one's mother, father... How much gratitude do we owe them? While this seems preposterous, it seems so only because we do not know how long an aeon (kalpa) is, how many there have been, or how many times we have already been reborn, how many existences we have already lived, how much we have already suffered. We have little to no idea. For if we knew, we would not be so eager to continue to cycle and revolve in ignorance again and again.
 

Kwan Yin as Mother Goddess (D)

In that final existence, the Bodhisattva (the Buddha-to-be) had taken rebirth in a special way to accomplish his goal of becoming a world-teacher Supremely Enlightened Teaching Buddha, and Maya had volunteered to serve the world-system in the capacity of giving birth to such a great being.

But here in the world, already existing, was the Bodhisattva's long time mother, his mother many times over, and now she had again found him. Our mothers, even when they do not give birth to us this time, are all around (fathers too). Our nurturers are here, and still they nurture us -- sometimes they attack us perhaps due to our lack of gratitude or their lack of understanding -- and stranger still we, too, are former mothers and fathers of others. Such is the incomprehensible working out of karma, an imponderable (acinteyya) thing.
 
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms -- and we mean ALL of them including you -- from Wisdom Quarterly.

The Eurasian eagle huntress (photos)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; William Kremer (BBC World Service)

Golden eagle and falconer Ashol Pan Central Asia (Asher Svidensky/BBC News Magazine)

Moon Goddess Artemis

"I am named of olde by Men, Artemis and Cerridwen..." (The Book of Shadows, Lady Sheba).
 
Even before the ancient Greeks recognized her as Artemis -- Goddess of the Moon, Archery, the Hunt, Katniss to Hollywood, and Diana to the Romans -- the devi (female deva) appeared to inspire others.

Homer in the Illiad (xxi 470 f.) calls her "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals." Here she is celebrated by Bjork and appearing today:

The mythological arrows are no accident

Most children, Asher Svidensky says, are a little intimidated by golden eagles.

Kazakh boys in western Mongolia, however, start learning to use the huge birds to hunt for foxes and hares at the age of 13, when the eagles sit heavily on their undeveloped arms. 

Ashol Pan is a good girl and huntress.

Buddhism in Kazakhstan refers to forms of Buddhism especially prevalent along the Silk Road in Central Asia. Its history is closely related to the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism during the first millennium CE. A number of Early Buddhist schools were historically prevalent throughout Central Asia. Three major phases of missionary activities are associated with these chronological sects: Dharmaguptaka, Sarvāstivāda, and Mūlasarvāstivāda. The Dharmaguptaka made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism beyond India and Afghanistan, to areas such as Iran (Ariyan-land), other parts of Central Asia [at one time dominated by the ancient Greeks], and China, and they had great success in doing so... More

• The Golden Girl: 13-year-old is only female trained in traditional Kazakh art of golden eagle hunting

Map of Kazakhstan (upper left) and Mongolia

Svidensky, a photographer and travel writer, shot five boys learning the skill as well as the girl, Ashol-Pan. 

"To see her with the eagle was amazing," he recalls. "She was a lot more comfortable with it, a lot more powerful with it and a lot more at ease with it."

Kazakhs have good childhoods (HS-A)

The Kazakhs (Central Asia) of the Altai mountain range in western Mongolia are the only people who hunt with golden eagles, and today there are around 400 practicing falconers. Ashol-Pan, the daughter of a particularly celebrated hunter, may well be the country's only apprentice huntress. More

Eagle (garuda), pony (named Kanthaka?), and Kazakh falconer Ashol Pan (dailymail.co.uk)

A pony and a wandering, nomadic religion (shramanic Buddhism) for Ashol Pan (BBC)

Note the Uggs and harmony between human and animal realms (Asher Svidensky)

There are no such things as unicorns...except for this one and others like it. They have been bred back into existence by careful animal husbandry (dianapeterfreund.com).

Hunger Games III: "Divergent"

Take a teen angst trip all over again, this time with Shailene Woodley (as Tris Prior) instead of Jen Lawrence. Also starring Kate Winslet and Theo James as the mysterious Four.