The Zen of Field Tripping ($10 tour)

Roshi Jeff Albrizze, Wisdom Quarterly; The Buddhist Progress Society (hsilai.org)

Hsi Lai Temple ("Going West" Monastery), Hacienda Heights, suburban Los Angeles, CA

Hillside parking lot, main entrance, Hsi Lai (Jesse Kaplan/TheGuibordCenter.org)

  

Courtyard with dining hall behind

PasaDharma provides a place to practice Zen. With an idea of having no ideas but "just sitting," the trip often remains on the mat. However, on Saturday (March 29) the local sangha will take up mats and walk around the grounds of the largest Buddhist temple complex in the western hemisphere: Hsi Lai ("Going West") on a hill that separates the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles from Orange County. This is a field trip.

Carpooling provided from Pasadena at 10:30 am. Those driving themselves are invited to meet at the temple at 11:00 am or join the carpool caravan going east to the temple. Chinese vegetarian lunch at 11:30 am. Tour starts at 1:30 and concludes at 3:00 pm.

• Saturday March 29th, 2014
• 3456 S. Glenmark Drive
• Hacienda Heights, CA 91745

What is Hsi Lai?

WQ at Hsi Lai full moon observance

This massive Taiwanese Mahayana Buddhist temple encompasses 15 acres and a floor area of 102,430 square feet. The temple's dynastic Ming (1268-1644 CE) and Ching (1644-1911 CE) architecture is reflected in its buildings, gardens, fountains, and statuary. Chinese speakers may regard Hsi Lai as "Coming to the West," signifying the dedication of the Buddha's Light Mountain (Fo Guang Shan) Buddhist Order to spread the teachings of the Buddha to the Western world. It is incluseve and provides Theravada as well as Mahayana teachings, having established the first Buddhist universities (University of the West) in the US. The founder, Ven. Master Hsing Yun, had previously established Fo Guang Shan, the largest monastery in Taiwan, which encompasses over 600 acres.

Going West under a full moon (WQ)

The temple was built to serve as a spiritual and cultural center for those interested in learning more about Buddhism and Taiwanese/Chinese cultural practices. This form of Mahayana came to be called "Humanistic Buddhism" aimed at creating a "Pure Land" on Earth. Built to fulfill these goals in the USA, the temple's objectives are to benefit society through charitable programs, nurture missionary activity through education, spread Dharma through rich cultural observances, and to edify people through traditional Buddhist practices.

RSVP (Roshi Jeff Albrizze at 626.529.4074 or jeffalbrizze@hotmail.com) so an advanced count can be provided to the temple.

CARPOOL: Meet at the Pasadena School District parking lot, 351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena, cross street East Del Mar Blvd.

MEET: Main entrance outside first Buddha Hall at 11:00 am; the group will then proceed together to dining hall for lunch, followed by tour starting at the Information Center at 1:30 pm.

DRESS: Out of respect dress comfortably but appropriately: avoid tank tops, shorts, or mini-skirts, smoking, and please avoid bringing meats of any kind or outside foods and beverages.

DONATION: $9 (cash only) per person covers delicious all-you-care-to-eat buffet Chinese vegetarian lunch. Museum admission is an additional $1. There is also a temple gift shop with prayer beads (malas), Dharma books, statuettes, souvenirs, and art.

Humanistic Buddhism & Leadership Online Certificate Program (uwest.edu)

Nature is cheaper than therapy: Walkabout!

Xochitl, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Tim Martinez, Arroyo Seco Foundation (facebook)

"NATURE. CHEAPER THAN THERAPY." (Sun Gazing/facebook.com)

The shores of Hahamongna "Lake" along JPL and Watershed Park, Pasadena

How the native inhabitants, the Tongva, saw Hahamonga at the head of the LA River

  

Go with the flow. If nature is cheaper than therapy, what could be more therapeutic than a walkabout in spring?

Wisdom Quarterly will join the Dry Riverbed preservationists of the Arroyo Seco Foundation to talk about Tongva culture, engage in environmental activism to save and restore the sacred site, and enjoy what Douglas Adams coined "sand, surf, and suffering" (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy).

The sun will be up, sand underfoot, surf lapping on the eastern edge of the park (thanks to the recent rains that came mysteriously out of nowhere), and "suffering" is ever present to remind us that enlightenment, nirvana, and freedom beckon.

• Hahamonga Walkabout 2014
• Watershed Park, Pasadena (lower lot)
• March 22, 9:00 am to noon

Native American Walkabout 2014 (March 22)

Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; ArroyoSeco.org (Facebook)

If the Buddha -- a wanderer -- went on a walkabout, what would he be doing? "May peace and balance be restored to Mother Earth and all who walk upon her" (Eco_Bela/flickr.com)

Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Walking Toward Enlightenment (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Tim Martinez led hikers to Hahamongna (JPL/Devil's Gate Dam), where they learned about its rich Native American heritage and how to protect it. Comments on the Devil's Gate sediment removal draft EIR were due on Jan. 21, 2014. (See here for more information).

View of flood control basin as it fills from atop Devils Gate Dam with JPL in distance

 

Old Los Angeles (tongvapeople.org)

What better way to celebrate the equinox and welcome spring than to set off on an aboriginal walkabout?

The original inhabitants of Los Angeles were the Tongva, who considered the Hahamongna watershed "sacred" land. The rain that falls in the forest rushes down the mountains and percolates through springs rising before flooding down into the Los Angeles Basin into the Pacific Ocean.

The Foundation

One of the most spectacular accomplishments of the Arroyo Seco Foundation (ASF) is reestablishing the Arroyo chub, a native fish in this major tributary of the Los Angeles River.

 

The ASF mission is to preserve and enhance the Arroyo Seco (dry gulch) from the San Gabriel Mountains down to the Los Angeles River, reforest the region, and promote environmental and cultural (Tongva/Gabrielino and Chumash) awareness of one of Southern California’s greatest natural resources. More

• The Original People of Los Angeles
• A Brief History of the Tongva People
• Our Rain Dance (Wisdom Quarterly)

Hahamongna Watershed Park, next to dam and its usually dry basin (PasadenaWeekly.com)

Son of Buddhist priest invented Bitcoin (video)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Leah McGrath Goodman (Newsweek); Daily Mail

Bitcoin is formless money, dependent on online networks and trading (technolovia.com)

  

Zen ensō (etsy.com)

According to today's issue of Newsweek, Satoshi Nakamoto is...Satoshi Nakamoto. The anonymous inventor of bitcoin -- an online-only virtual currency independent of any country or government now worth about $600 dollars (US) each -- is a 64-year-old Japanese-American.

Exposed by Leah McGrath Goodman

He is a former defense contractor living with his mother in a modest Temple City, California suburban home. He is worth at least 600 million dollars, but he is our neighbor: Temple City, which is largely Asian, is next to Pasadena in the foothills of Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley; it is anything but fancy squeezed as it is between Alhambra and Arcadia (of "Joan of Arcadia" fame), next to one of the toniest places in the country to live: San Marino.

 

(mag.newsweek.com)

According to the article, "He is someone with a penchant for collecting model trains and a career shrouded in secrecy, having done classified work for major corporations and the U.S. military." 

"Nakamoto's family describe him as extremely intelligent, moody, and obsessively private -- a man of few words who screens his phone calls, anonymizes his emails and, for most of his life, has been preoccupied with the two things for which bitcoin has now become known: money and secrecy."

Mega corporations serve the US government

The article quotes him as responding when asked about Bitcoin, "I am no longer involved in that and I cannot discuss it... It's been turned over to other people. They are in charge of it now. I no longer have any connection." He may now have to move and hire round-the-clock security for his own protection [assuming he wasn't working for the CIA, a military ("defense") contractor, or other quasi-government agency when he created the currency, in which case they will probably provide him protection free, we imagine].

Bitcoin is virtual not actual "coins"

If he father was Japanese and a "Buddhist priest," that means he was Zen. Like father like eldest son? As a "defense contractor" doing "classified work," we can only assume he is a clandestine operative for the military-industrial complex.

NSA files decoded (Guardian.co.uk)

So good luck with trading those ones and zeros; they should go much higher before settling and crashing, like other secret agent projects -- Google, Facebook, Apple -- which have seen major boosts to and stabilizations of their stock prices (read "elimination of any serious competition") due to their profitable affiliation with the CIA, FBI, NSA/DHS and/or other arms of the secret US government.

• Quora: How will China's bitcoin rules impact its value?
• Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox goes dark after $350 mil theft
• Two Numbers: Bitcoins from heaven
• Mt. Gox files for bankruptcy, blames hackers for losses
• Virtual currency bitcoin: anonymous Web shopping
• More tough news for bitcoin doesn't deter believers
• First US bitcoin ATMs to open soon in Seattle, Austin 
• Police: "apparent suicide" of Bitcoin Exchange CEO
• Newsweek becomes first mag to accept bitcoin...PR
• Warning: Mt. Gox bitcoin customers could be out of luck

When we were in the Spirit World (video)

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

The spirit world can appear as weird and strange (Alex Tooth/deviantart.com)

Mother Earth, Father Sky, one a womb, the other a seed, brought together by falling rain.

(KE) The shamans of Mongolia and Siberia who preceded Native Americans illustrate that knowledge of the spirit world is not limited to any culture, group, or period. These Vajrayana Buddhists and animists as well as the rishis (seers) and yogis (hermit-ascetics) of India were well aware of these strange realms and their inhabitants. In northern Europe the spirit world was sometimes referred to as the Wyrd (like our word weird).

Rain Dancing Our Way into the Spirit World

We dance to make it rain calling on spirit helpers and spirit guides. The rain dance of the Navajo Native American was influenced by the Hopi and others (sonocarina)

 

Dryad or "tree nymph" spirit

The spirit world (spirit = breath = an invisible force like the wind), according to Spiritualism, is the adjacent world inhabited by spirits. (WQ Rain Dance)

In Buddhism "spirits" are variously called devas, petas, nagas, suparnas, gandharvas, kumbhandas, yakkhas, narakas, and asuras, or "light beings, ghosts of the dead, dragons, avians, fairies, gnomes, hellions, demons, and titans").

 

Whereas religion concerns the inner life, the spirit world is regarded as an external environment for spirits (Spiritualism - Its History, Phenomena, and Doctrine, Arthur J. Hill 1918, p. 211). Independent from the natural world, both the spirit world and the natural world are in constant interaction.

Through mediumship -- through local shamans, curanderos or healers, medicine women and men -- these worlds can consciously communicate with one other. The spirit world can be described by mediums in trance (Ibid., W.J. Colville, Universal Spiritualism: Spirit Communion in All Ages Among All Nations, 1906, p. 42.

Anyone who does not believe the spirit world is real and right there before on blind third eye, there are three dangerous routes to personally prove that it is: drums, drugs, or trying to get through Finnegans Wake in one sitting.

Journeying to Three Realms in under 30 mins.

(NW) Use headphones. This is a shamanic journey led by Glenn Sullivan (NaturalWisdom.ie) explaining the landscapes and calling in the directions with a 16-min. drumming journey. Come together into a sacred circle and learn to journey into non-ordinary states of consciousness. See the spirits, gain a deeper understanding of the "human" plane and its many inhabitants, cycles, and patterns to problem solve in everyday life and the spiritual path.
 

HISTORY

Mayan shaman, Day of the Dead (IR-M)

By the mid 19th century most Spiritualist writers concurred that the spirit world was of "tangible substance" (ectoplasm) and a place consisting of "spheres" or "zones" (John W. Edmonds, Dr. George T. Dexter, MD, Spiritualism, 1853, p. 262). Although specific details differed, the construct suggested organization and centralization (Bret E. Carrol, Spiritualism in Antebellum America (Religion in North America), Indiana Univ. Press, Oct. 1, 1997, p. 62).

 

The 18th century writer Emanuel Swedenborg influenced Spiritualist views about the spirit world. He described a series of concentric spheres each including a hierarchical organization of spirits in a setting more earth-like than theocentric (Ibid., p.17). The spheres become gradually more illuminated and celestial.

 

Spirit travel through astral space

Spiritualists added a concept of limitlessness (Buddhism's "boundlessness") or infinity to these spheres (Edmonds, p. 123).  Furthermore, it was defined that "Laws" initiated by a god apply to Earth as well as the spirit world (Edmonds, p. 136).

Another common Spiritualist conception was that the spirit world is inherently good and is related to truth-seeking as opposed to things that are harmful residing in a "spiritual darkness" (Hill, p. 168; Edmonds, p.143). 

This conception inferred, as in the biblical parable of Lazarus and Dives, that there is considered a greater distance between helpful and harmful spirits than between the dead and the living (Hill, p.208).

Scandinavia: land of the Sami shamans (VN)

For some the spirit world was "The Home of the Soul," as described by Theosophist C.W. Leadbeater, suggesting that for a living human being to experience the spirit world will be a blissful, meaningful, and life altering experience (Colville, pp. 268-270).

Most shamans were women (DA)

Yet, John W. Edmonds states in his 1853 work, Spiritualism, "Man's relation spiritually with the spirit-world is no more wonderful than his connection with the natural world. The two parts of his nature respond to the same affinities in the natural and spiritual worlds" (Edmonds, p. 104). 

Edmonds asserts, quoting Swedenborg through mediumship, that the relationship between humans and the spirit world is reciprocal and thus could contain sorrow. Though ultimately, "wandering through the spheres" on a path of goodness "is received at last by that Spirit whose thought is universal love forever" (Edmonds, p. 345). More

(PD/EOC) What begins as a Christian program branches out with science in an attempt at credibility. Is the spirit world real? Who dwells in it? How did the spirits come into being? What do science and religion say about the spirit realm? Does the spirit realm affect us?

The Buddha: Knower of Worlds

Knower of the Worlds (Amrit Vismay)

The Buddha frequently said, there is this world and the other (or next) world. And a teacher who is enlightened directly knows and directly perceives these worlds. He frequently is shown to be aware of other planes or dimensions as well as worlds in space and underground (the 31 Planes of Existence). A buddha knows all of these worlds and the paths (karma) leading to rebirth there as well as liberation from them. 

Buddha life panels, Jing'an Temple, Shanghai

Four worlds he frequently saw and interacted with are enmeshed in this human plane -- the worlds of devas, yakkhas and maras, animals, and hungry ghosts. But he could see and visit all the manifold realms in this world system and even worlds between world systems (the interstitial hells of desolation and isolation). It is not clear if he visited other "world systems" (galaxies or universes), but it is certain that he knew about them. Buddhist cosmology describes them as having similar qualities and stations occupied by different beings such as each having a Maha Brahma and a Sakka and some having a Buddha from time to time.

• VIDEO: Sandra Ingerman on becoming a shaman (training) First set the intention. Shamanic teacher gets up close and personal with deep training insights on the benefits of a mini healing retreat (thecenterforhealingarts.com).
• VIDEO: Amazon Shamans and Ayahausca (DMT)
• VIDEO: How to see Spirit Realm (biblical "gift of discernment" with Jonathan Welton and fanatic Sid Roth)

"Desert Breath" spiral

Seen from high above, this spiral in the Egyptian desert captured by Google Earth appears to be a mystery. It's actually an enormous environmental art installation called "Desert Breath" created in 1997. The artists Danae Stratou, Alexandra Stratou, and Stella Constantinides originally designed the 1 million square foot piece with a small lake in the center, which has since dried out. LiveScience.com

Happy Lu New Year 2014! (video)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; TetFestival.org ASIAN LUNAR NEW YEAR 2014

(Ttinova) 2014 Lu New Year festivities are exotic and integrating into America

 

Tet parade, Orange County (magnumasi.com)

Each year Americans of Vietnamese descent celebrate the coming lunar year with Tết Nguyên Đán, the most celebrated and significant holiday on the traditional lunar calendar, which also marks the beginning of spring.

The Fung Brothers and Priscilla Liang joke and rap about the 626 (predominantly Asian and Mexican San Gabriel Valley) in suburban L.A. to "Thriftshop" by Macklemore.

  

The Year of the Horse (buddhistedu.org)

The community is proud and honored to present annually the largest Tết Festival in the entire world, attracting over 100,000 patrons from throughout the country and abroad. Visitors are immersed with a vibrant array of traditional foods, live entertainment, festive games, and customs celebrating the new year. This year is the Year of the Horse (Năm Giáp Ngọ).

 

Enter the Horse and exit the Dragon, it's spring and a brand new year!

 

By now the country's largest China town is not in San Francisco or Downtown Los Angeles but in the San Gabriel Valley (area code 626) with its massive mainland Chinese, Mexican, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Thai, Korean, Filipino, Latin American, and Indian communities.

(SoCalUVSA) A recap of 2013 Lu New Year celebrations in Southern California

That Tet Festival was held between Feb. 8-10, the Year of the [NSA] Snake.

 

2014 (latetfest.com)

VNCSC Tet Festival 2014

A three-day festival organized by the Vietnamese Community of Southern California at Garden Grove Park starting January 31st 2014 and running until February 2nd. 

San Diego Tết Festival

This year there are 11 beautiful contestants each competing for the grand prize of $2,000 and the title of Miss Vietnam San Diego 2014! Come to the festival... 

2014 Tet Festival moves to OC Fairgrounds

The 2014 Tet Festival is NOT going to be in Garden Grove this year.

Tet Festival - Costa Mesa, California (Facebook)

Famous Tet festival heading to Orange County fairgrounds

Organizers of the largest Tet Festival in the U.S. -- an event long linked... Negotiations between the two sides for the 2014 celebration... 

Holidays and observances in Vietnam in 2014

Garden Grove's popular Tet festival is back on 

(OCRegister.com) Garden Grove gets new operator for Tet festival 

2014 Tet Festival Event, L.A. Tet Festival

(TetFest.net) Event: The tenth annual LA Tet Festival 2014

Hiking to Native American Los Angeles

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Arroyo Seco Foundation; SaveHahamongna.org

Which "devil"? Hungry Sasquatch, angry watershed floods, silly rock formation? (ASF)

Pasadena opposes what LA proposes: future site after removal of all life and silt (ASF)

  

L.A. watershed (savehahamongna.org)

HAHAMONGNA, Arroyo Seco - "Learn to identify local native plants on this hike through the Arroyo, along with the various food, medicinal, spiritual, and practical uses that this rich habitat provided to the area's original inhabitants" screamed the poster.

 

Tongva villages of the Los Angeles basin

We were in! We met up at the world-famous Rose Bowl Stadium ready to hike to the Jet Propulsion Lab site Saturday morning. Everyone gathered, eager to learn, socialize, and smell the aromatic chaparral, flowers, and berries. 

  

Volunteering to clean the Arroyo (ASF)

There are Hollywood (toyon), elder, and manzanita berries. Wild buckwheat and a variety of acorns are staple foods. Coyote bush cures poison ivy and oak rash. Mule fat wood is best for fire sticks, and mugwort gives sweet dreams and keeps embers burning. Outreach Coordinator Tim Martinez taught us well. Meanwhile, on another ridge miles to the east, the Colby fire was smoldering and only 30% contained.

Tongva/Los Angeles River, foothills, and San Gabriel Valley (Hometown-Pasadena.com)

   

Who were the Native Americans here, the First Nation people of Los Angeles? They were the Tongva (Gabrieliño, Fernandeño, Nicoleño -- Europeanized names after Spanish colonization). The name is disputed; the people are not. There were various minor tribes, and everyone fled to Mexico to save their lives from the Anglo invaders from the east coast.

WILD PLANTS: In Australia, a walkabout is a sacred rite of passage one undergoes to find oneself by being immersed in nature. In SoCal, the Hahamongna Walkabout, hosted by Tim Martinez (ASF), seeks to inspire by guided tours through this rare spot near JPL (kcet.org).

 

Healing With Medicinal Plants

Save Hahamongna from bulldozers!
HOW TO: Wilderness Survival Skills (PrimitiveWays.com)
Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West: Cultural and Scientific Basis for Their Use (by Chumash healing woman)
Medicinal Plants of the American West 

Study proposes L.A. River/Arroyo Seco confluence urban riverfront

WITS (Minn. Public Radio)

First Buddhist University, USA

"Xmas Without China" (film)

CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Xia (kickstarter); Conscientious Projector

Mary's Christmas Museum for an inclusive Xtmas (Kevin Dooley/flickr.com)

(xmaswithoutchina) "Xmas Without China

Chinese immigrant Tom Xia challenges his American neighbors, the Joneses, to one Christmas season without using anything made in China!

"Xmas Without China" is a feature documentary set around the Christmas holiday in Arcadia, California, a Pasadena-adjacent neighborhood in the San Gabriel Valley that used to be predominantly Anglo, but is now half Asian.

 

Tom Xia, a Chinese-American immigrant, challenges his neighbors, the Jones family, to spend the entire month leading up to the commercial holiday season with no Chinese products in their homes and without purchasing any Chinese products for the holidays.

"Black Friday" is coming. Where will you be?

 

(Kevin Dooley/flickr.com)

Fed up with food and toy recalls, the Joneses take up the challenge. But the tables turn when Tim Jones provokes Tom about who he is and why he's so proud of China. As the Joneses struggle to figure out how to have a simpler Christmas in a time when "We don't make anything anymore." They also begin to think about just how related they are to China. 

 

Fed up with the mudslinging between the two countries, Tom finds himself on an unlikely journey to break down stereotypes between China and America. He find his own place between these worlds.

 

We shot the first half of the film, and in the wonderful way of documentary, we discovered that Tom's challenge brings us a fascinating story of the unusual relationship between two families who are each trying to adapt to the enormous changes that are defining our world today. More