You're too "clingy" (cartoon)

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka

I don't know what I'm doing wrong in relationship after relationship, searching for...

(Family Guy/Hulu) As clingy as a baby at the bosom is Stewie as Brian tries to cling to Drew

Starts off fun, gets to be too much.

Crystal, is clinging a problem in life? It is in Ashley's life; she has been known to get quite clingy. Ask her. But you? Not me so much, but guys I've dated. What do they do? You know how Brian once went on that reality dating show as a contestant then became infatuated with the bachelorette? Yes, exactly, I get it. He would leave all these phone messages and not get the hint to naff off. 

Brian the clingy bachelor (Family Guy)

"Clinging" (upādāna), according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), is a pathetic and intensified degree of craving. The opposite is the "extinction of craving," which is identical with the "extinction of defilements" (āsavakkhaya), which is the attainment of full enlightenment or arhatship. (See noble persons).

There are four kinds of clinging that prevent enlightenment:

1. sensual clinging (kāma-upādāna),
2. clinging to views (ditthi-upādāna),
3. clinging to mere rules and rituals (sīlabbata-upādāna),
4. clinging to personality-belief (atta-vāda-upādāna).

(1) "What now is sensual clinging? Whatever with regard to sense objects there exists of sensual lust, sensual craving, sensual attachment, sensual passion, sensual delusion, sensual fetters (bonds of desire): this is called 'sensual clinging.'

Owner of a lonely heart? Try clinging to sensuality. It will disappoint, but what else are you going to do to overcome the empty feeling in your core and the body's cravings? Invest?

 
(2) ''What is the clinging to views? 'Alms and offerings are useless; there is no fruit or result for good and bad deeds: all such views and wrong opinions are called the clinging to views.

(3) "What is the clinging to mere rules and rituals? The holding firmly to the view that through mere rules (vows, precepts, discipline) and rituals (observances) one may reach enlightenment: this is called the clinging to mere rules and rituals.

• [NOTE: the way to enlightenment and nirvana is liberating-insight, made possible by the Noble Eightfold Path, not mere observance of ceremonies, celebrations, superstitions, magic, abstinences, or austerities, which may aid one along the way but cannot possibly in and of themselves bring about enlightenment.]

(4) "What is the clinging to personality-belief? The 20 kinds of ego-views with regard to the aggregates of existence (see sakkāya-ditthi): these are called the clinging to personality-belief" (Dhs.1214-17).

Not going to get all clingy, are you? - I'm not even going to call you tomorrow. - Good.

.

Heart Sutra: immaculate heart free of clinging

This traditional fourfold division of clinging is unsatisfactory. Besides sensual (kama) clinging we would expect either clinging to form or materiality (rūpa) and clinging to formlessness or immateriality (arūpa), or simply clinging to continued existence (continued becoming, bhava-upādāna).

Although the non-returner, the third of the four stages of enlightenment, is entirely free from the traditional four kinds of clinging, that person is not yet free of rebirth, as one still possesses clinging to continued becoming, the deep desire for rebirth on other planes even though one grasps that they are illusory, marked by Three Characteristics of Existence, namely, that they are impersonal, impermanent, and never able to satisfy one's desires.

The Commentary to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), in trying to get out of this dilemma, explains "sense clinging" as including here all of the remaining kinds of clinging.

"Clinging" is the common rendering for the Pali/Sanskrit term upādāna, but "grasping" would come closer to the literal meaning of it, which is "uptake" after craving it. See the Three Cardinal Discourses (Wheel No. 17), p.19.

"Family Guy" the Very First Episode

(Workard) Life in modern suburban USA as brought to us by Seth Macfarlane and the many writers of and contributors to "Family Guy." This is the pilot or unofficial first episode, the prequel. The "official" first episode was a remake of it.

Psychedelic Rock at The Terrace (Family Guy)

Erik Morgan (Collective Consciousness), Anonymous, Dev, Wisdom Quarterly

The earthbound "fairies" (bhumi-devas) have their own special instruments (CC).

.

(collectiveconsciousnessband)

We're looking for bands to book for psychedelic rock in Pasadena (in the foothill area of Los Angeles) on Thursday nights at The Terrace (next door to the Pacific Asia Museum and its many Buddhist exhibits) on Colorado Blvd. at Los Robles Ave.

 

Collective Consciousness

We want bands that will bring a lot of friends so that everyone's circles and musical creations can connect into a collective of memories and new friendships, coming together and forming greater networks between everyone in SoCal sharing in this beautiful collective consciousness. Infinite heart vibrations connect us.
 

The devas' music

Hey, Erik, can the Wisdom Quarterly house band audition? We only have two songs -- "Noble Indian Chief" and "Do Her" -- so far but lots of hipster/hippie friends and fans. Granted the songs are covers paying homage to Peter and Lois Griffin of "Family Guy" fame. We're called "Handful of Amber," psychedelic death metal/vegan grindcore, pro-entheogen, lute/harp music. Well, here, have a look:

(Family Guy) Peter and Lois are a "Handful of Peter" performing "Do Her" while baked on entheogenic cannabis, which does not end up helping their music or public performance.

Pacific Asia Museum

Fusion Fridays, Chinese and Mexicans return to America (pacificasiamuseum.org)

Cartoon violence, "The Other F Word" (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; The Other F

A mighty devil (mara) says to a lesser demon (rakshasa, asura, or yaksha): "For all this talk of innate Buddha-nature, business is still humming right along." (buddhisthumor.org)

Go to your room, Lisa. Feelin' lucky, punk?

(FOX, Rated X for extreme) Cartoons precede our feature presentation. Isn't it funny living in a society that thinks nothing of showing violence on TV, but slip in some side boob? Oh 'ell no, the U.S. will not stand for it! "Think of the children!" Marge Simpson and a million MADD busybodies are heard to say. Then you become a father and, suddenly, hypocrisy sets in. Not my daughter's cleavage! Not my wife's amateur movie appearance. Have a son. Maybe he'll be partially gay, and will the same worries apply? Maybe. Maybe a whole set of new ones.

You're a good monkey. Stay out of Chris' closet.

"Men love porn," Quagmire and a million S.A.D. lazybodies are overheard to whisper. We need a spurt of dopamine, androgens, epinephrine, and maybe even a drop of oxytocin. Self soothing. Women can worry. Men can choke something. Look at that "Brass Monkey," the Buddhist band the Beastie Boys likes to say. He's a funky monkey. Sooner or later, punk rock boys become punk rock dads and discover the meaning of the other F word:

The Simpsons (Matt Groening) meet Family Guy (Seth Macfarlane); Gustavo Macana (mash up)

"The Other F Word"

A movie of quotable quotes: "A little ANARCHY can be a life-changing experience"

The Other F Word (with Spanish subtitles). Watch it without all the subtitulados.

"The Other F Word" is a doc directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins, executive produced by Morgan Spurlock of "Supersize Me" fame (Rolling Stone). The film explores the world of punk musicians getting older and becoming parents. How can they maintain the contrast between an anti-authoritarian ethos and the responsibilities of F?

Other F-word? Fatherhood

It features interviews with more than 20 dads running the gamut of "punk" styles from Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 to Fat Mike of NOFX. It also includes professional skater Tony Hawk, who was part of a related subculture. Punks like skateboards. Other fathers featured: Jim Lindberg (Pennywise), Tony Adolescent (The Adolescents), Art Alexakis (Everclear), Rob Chaos (Total Chaos), Joe Escalante (The Vandals), Josh Freese (session drummer), Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Lars Frederiksen (Rancid), Matt Freeman (Operation Ivy), Jack Grisham (TSOL), Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion), Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks), Mike McDermott (Bouncing Souls), Tim McIlrath (Rise Against), Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Duane Peters (U.S. Bombs), Joe Sib, Ron Chavo Reyes (Black Flag), and Rick Thorne (BMX biker). Additional music by FEAR, Dead Kennedys, Against Me!, Good Guys in Black, and the Black Pacific.
 

D'oh, I'll rip your head off and spit down your neck! - I'll tear ya limb from limb, fat chicken!

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Live from Afghanistan, eve of [fake] elections

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Sonali Kohlhatkar (UprisingRadio.org)

Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, that our CIA's Taliban destroyed (Hazaristan Times)

   

Afghan voting, no exit polling (Uprising)

Elections in Afghanistan take place this Saturday (April 5, 2014), with violence spiking strongly. On Friday, two journalists with the Associated Press were shot. One of them, the Pulitzer Prize-winning German photographer Anja Niedringhaus, was killed. The other is Kathy Gannon, author of the book I Is For Infidel, who is reportedly in stable condition.

Proud warriors came to kill and rape, now on psych meds and headed home (scoop.it)

"It was fun" fighting for empire. Just look what the Romans did for Israel (defense.gov).

Sure some treasures were lost, but that's ancient Greek and Gandhara history. Think of the heroin trade we gained for the CIA to fund more covert war activities! (metmuseum.org)

 

Afghan children, a.k.a. collateral damage

[JSOC and the American military-industrial complex have left this ancient nation -- where Buddhism simultaneously began as the gateway between Asia and Europe -- safe and secure, bringing peace and freedom and now fair and transparent democratic elections, but somehow...]

Dozens of attacks in the past weeks throughout the country have created a tense atmosphere. On Wednesday a [brainwashed] suicide bomber killed six Afghan police officers in the capital Kabul, and a day before that a candidate running for election and nine of his supporters and staff were killed in a northern province. Al Qaeda?

"Democracy kicks in" (1:35) after invasion and occupation (Family Guy)

• AUDIO: LISTEN NOW

Greco-Afghan Buddha

Among the candidates for president are a number of “warlords,” such as Abdul Rashid Dostum and Abdullah Abdullah. Afghan [Puppet-] President Hamid Karzai, who has presided over the country for nearly the entire time of the US occupation, has reached the limits of his tenure. Last December Karzai refused to sign an accord with the US over the status of US forces in Afghanistan, saying it would be more appropriate for his replacement to make the decision.

GUESTS: Anand Gopal, journalist covering Afghanistan and author of a forthcoming book on the US-war called No Good Men Among the Living, joins Uprising live from Afghanistan; Edward Girardet, author of Killing the Cranes: A Reporter’s Journey through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan and editor of the just released fourth edition of the Essential Field Guide to Afghanistan joins from France.

Former CIA Director, U.S. Sec'y of State, JSOC Cheerleader (Warlord) Leon Panetta, Esq. (gold tie) and outgoing billionaire Dictator-Most-Friendly-to-the-West Hamid Karzai (AP/VOA)

The US just can't stop blowing billions in Afghanistan (Vice News/RAWA.org)

Wisdom Quarterly to go Baptist (cartoon)

I. Rony, Wisdom Quarterly, April 1, 2014

Another Lord, or avatar, is born unto the world! The Sun of the Sky is now the Son of Man but still the Son of God, the Father, and that Pigeon the Holy Spirit.

 

Christ, Budai, Chrisna, Holy Cow, Tiki

Given that Lord Jesus -- like Lord Vishnu, and Lord Brahma, Lord Sakra -- was a Buddhist, our work is done.

Wisdom Quarterly: American Baptist Journal will be going Protestant, fundamentalist Christian and literalist. So when the Holy Bible says, "Thou shalt not," we shall not. 

And when it says, "Thou shalt," for example, "not suffer a 'witch' [a wise person or pharmacist] to live or tolerate sassy children who sass their parents," we shall "stone them to death" as literally commanded.

Why for? For the Lord God hath said so, and who are we to argue with the Controller, All-Knower, and Everywhere-Be'er? Maybe we should change our name to Faith Daily: U.S. Christian Diary.

 

Now that God gave us this child, I was thinking to name him Stewie. - I was thinking Jessie.

  

Better PR and humble, if fetishistic, hygiene

But, you know, the New Testament is a lot more Jesus-friendly than that creepy Father-friendly first part.

Maybe we won't be fundamentalists, but still very literal. When the new-and-improved Bible, which leaves off that Jewish-heavy winner-writes-the-history first part, says: Our creed(s) is this,

Our New Creed

A new creed means a new uptight lifestyle

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made; Who for us men [not women, slaves, or animals], and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man [a tulku]; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come [reincarnate again] to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost [spirit, breath of life, prana]."

Why Baptist?
Well, truth be told, we needed a B sect. That way we won't have to alter our letterhead that much -- out with the Budh (awakening), in with the Bapt (napping).

Buddhism was too free, too much about individual responsibility. It's concise propaganda statements of faith like this, which every Christian is forced to agree with, that really sells seats and pews.
 

Like us, God the Father probably likes TV (TIR)

Because, you know, like, "God so loved the world that [He didn't bother to come Himself but sent his young son in His place because He was probably busy with other stuff]."

On second thought, we may be going Catholic instead, not literally "universalist" but we can enlist in the army of the Holy Roman Empire. It's not so bad, what with the new and improved Papa (Father, Pontiff, Pope), His Holiness il Papa Francisco de Argentina, CEO Pope Francis I. At least Catholicism kept one symbolic woman (the Kwan Yin Mother Mary), and that way we can still be members of Pussy Riot singing the Punk Prayer.

The Exorcist priest got possessed

The Evil Pope (Cardinal Ratzinger, who by his own admission was once a Nazi, Pope John Paul II's right hand man), Benedict Arnold XVI, abdicated the throne. But his Chief Pontificate(r) history is amazing: He ran the "Holy Inquisition," which got a nice name change to the "Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," according to former Catholic-insider now Episcopalian priest Mathew Fox. Maybe we should convert to EAS or the world's newest religion Jediism or Peter's faith:

Not easy being Father, harder to be His kids

(FOX) When Peter's dad visits the Griffins, he tries to impose his religious beliefs. Son Stewie ends up living in a bubble, and father Peter searches for a new religion. He find faith in his TV  hero the holy spirit of the Fonz. But "Happy Days" are not here: the newly established Church of the Fonz struggles to keep members.

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• VIDEO: Buddha and Jesus: A Comparison (Powell)
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Sexually aggressive, not because HE's drunk

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Maanvi Singh "If he's sexually aggressive in bars, it's not because he's drunk" (NPR.org, 3-3-14); DemocracyNow.org

She's probably not thinking that she wants that guy to grab her (Iurii Davydov/iStockphoto).

Who let the dawg out? - Rrrrr, woof!

Young women are often the targets of aggression when they are out in bars, but the problem isn't that guys are too drunk to know better.

Instead, men are preying on women who have had too much to drink.
 
When researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Washington observed young people's behaviors in bars, they found that the man's aggressiveness did NOT match his level of intoxication. There was no relationship.
 
Instead, men targeted WOMEN who were intoxicated.
 

We're young and wild, and we love to party (drink) in nightclubs with no panties.

 
The researchers hired and trained 140 young adults to go into bars in the Toronto area and note every incident of aggression that they saw. They found that 25 percent of all incidents involved sexual aggression. And 90 percent of the victims of sexual aggression were women being harassed by men.
 

Violating the fifth precept (iStock/npr.org)

Almost all of the aggression was physical, with about two-thirds of the aggressors physically touching women without consent. About 17 percent threatened contact. And 9 percent verbally harassed their targets.
 
Men may perceive intoxicated women either as more amenable to advances or as easier targets who are less able to rebuff them because they don't have their wits about them, the researchers say.

"There's no reason that women should be touched against their will," says Kate Graham, the study's lead researcher and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at the Univ. of Toronto. Women wouldn't accept that kind of behavior at school or on the street, she notes, but it seems to get a pass in bars, she tells Shots [Health News from NPR].
 

No means yes...but yes means maybe.

The study was published online last Monday in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
 
The researchers also wanted to look into whether unwanted sexual advances were intentional, or just a matter of misperception. This study points to the former, Dr. Graham explains.
 
"If you walk through a bar and grab a woman's breasts and then disappear into the crowd, that's probably not a misunderstanding," she says. "You don't actually think that she wants you to do that."
 
And fact that men were more likely to take advantage of intoxicated women shows that most of these incidents aren't well intentioned, Dr. Graham says.
 
And the bar staff rarely stepped in and stopped the sexual aggression. "There should be training for staff on how to intervene," Dr. Graham says. "If [a bar] wants to have female patrons, they ought to make it more female friendly."
 

I want a divorce. She went to a bar and came home drunk.

Efforts have been launched in Washington, DC and around the country to do just that. They provide bar staff with free training on how to respond when they see sexual harassment.
 
The research was observational, so it doesn't let us know what either the aggressors or their victims felt. And since the observations were made in public places in or around bars, the study doesn't tell us much about sexual assault or rape that might occur out of public view or after women leave the bar.
 
But the takeaway, Dr. Graham says, is that "people should stop believing that [Robin Thicke] song. The lines really aren't that blurred." Comments?

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(Democracy Now, March 10, 2014) U.S. military sex crimes from the top down

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"Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" (TV)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Neil deGrasse Tyson (cosmosontv.com)

The new "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" premeires Sunday, March 9, on 10 channels

The "cosmos" or world-system we live in is much bigger than we can imagine.

Celestial planes in Buddhist cosmological museum, Thailand (UweBKK/flickr.com)

  

Look up, look up, and look out over the skies. It's what any eager astrophysicist would do, from the smoky skyline of New York to the chemtrail-laden skies of Los Angeles. From coast to coast, the host with the most is no longer Carl Sagan. Now the mantle is passed onto upstart Neil deGrasse Tyson, the telegenic Michio Kaku of all things space, a media darling who knows better than to step out of line and say anything daring or beyond the pale of the gatekeepers of academe. But he does a good job, and the kids will love to be drawn out of the misery down here into the mystery of worlds above. Minds may be expanded, but the status quo will not be questioned. Stephen Hawking and his new brain implant were not available to work on the show. Carl Sagan was, but the ChronoVision is not yet what it will one day be (just ask Andrew Basiago). As for "Cosmos," even Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane is on board, having brought the show to Fox TV. More (plus video)

Another real-life DEMONIC haunting (video)

Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Billy Hallowell (TheBlaze.com, Feb. 12, 2014)

Another real-life demonic infestation? Ex-politician says his family waged terrifying battle against "evil entity" in home

Yakkha Krampus, Austria (WB)

A former Pennsylvania politician is set to release details of a story that is sure to stun -- and spook -- his former constituents.
 
Bob Cranmer, a former Allegheny County commissioner, will release a new book later this year titled The Demon of Brownsville Road. But rather than a work of fiction, Cranmer claims the text will take readers through real-life horrors his family faced at the hands of a demonic force inside their home.

Sakka, King of the Devas

Cranmer told TheBlaze that his family was terrorized over a two-year period beginning at the end of 2003 and coming to a close in early 2006.
 
But he said that there was evidence that something wasn’t "right" just weeks after he, his wife, and their four young children moved into the home back in 1988.
 
“We were in the house for a few weeks [when] my wife and I started to experience things that were paranormal,” he said. More

 

Do demons delight in public displays of Christian hatred or would they prefer a cover up?