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.

The Buddha and King P. (sutra)

G.P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Names), Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, as taught to us by the noble Czech-born scholar-monk Ven. Dhammadipa

The Buddha as a king Maitreya Jampa, Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal (fedMin/flickr)

 

Once, far to the west of Magadha (India), there was a discontented royal. From a distance he befriended an Indian king. They had never met, but they grew close as they exchanged gifts, and news, and outlooks on the world.

 

King Pukkusāti lived west of the Indus river in modern Taxila, Pakistan (which until 1948 was India next to Afghanistan). His friend was the Buddha's famous royal patron, King Bimbisara, who ruled Magadha.

Gold Buddha, Bodh Gaya, India (Chandrasekaran)

King Pukkusati heard of the Buddha's teachings and was so moved that he determined to begin meditating in his private quarters. His success in achieving the absorptions led him to renounce, then he was overcome with a longing to meet the Buddha.

He cut his hair and beard and became a wandering ascetic (shramana), like Prince Siddhartha had. And like Siddhartha, he crossed the Indus river into India. Before he could reach the Buddha, however, he stopped for the night and was given lodging in a potter's shed at the house of Bhaggava the potter in Rājagaha, the capital of King Bimbisara's kingdom. 

Buddha, Taxila Museum (Amir Taj)

The Buddha knew he was coming and arrived at the guest quarters in the potter's house after the king. The Buddha asked to be allowed to share it, and Pukkusāti -- having no idea that this was the Buddha -- readily agreed. They sat together for some time meditating in silence. The Buddha was impressed at the king's ability to meditate so deeply, apparently entering the absorptions.

When he emerged and was still meditating, the Buddha taught him the Dhātu-vibhanga Sutra (hear it below). The former king, now a wandering ascetic, immediately recognized that this could only be his professed teacher, the Buddha. At the end of the sutra, having had a noble attainment, he begged his forgiveness for not having paid him due honor when they met.

He then beseeched the Buddha to confer on him the higher ordination of a fully gone forth Buddhist monastic. The Buddha said yes and sent him to procure a proper alms bowl and saffron robe. On the way, however, Pukkusāti was gored to death by a mad cow.

When this seeming tragedy was reported to the Buddha, he explained that Pukkusāti was a non-returner and had therefore been spontaneously reborn [i.e., immediately, without the intervention of parents, but based instead solely on the power of karma] in the Pure Abodes (MN.iii.237 47).

• The Pure Abodes are five special planes of existence in Buddhist cosmology (see graphic below). They are only open to non-returners, that is, those who have attained the third stage of enlightenment but pass away before full enlightenment. If one were fully enlightened, there would be no rebirth or disappointment (dukkha) at all. These unique planes from which there is no falling back, unlike all other "heavenly" worlds within the sensual, fine-material, and immaterial spheres. The heavens (sagga) are not immaterial planes. Most are composed of subtle material form, four are formless, and six are sensual within our own sphere the Kama Loka. (See graphic below for full listing of all these worlds).

In this context, Pukkusāti is spoken of as a "son or offspring of good family," "nobly born" (kulaputta, iii.238); see also J.iv.180 and DhA.ii.35.

Buddhist treasures being smuggled out of formerly Buddhist Pakistan and parts of Pashtun-dominated Afghanistan, which together once formed Gandhara, India, on the frontiers of ancient Shakya territory, the Buddha's hometown (BigStory.AP.org).

  

Sutra explanation

Derived from the Commentary

Indo-Greek Buddha coin (as.miami.edu)

In his comments on the Dhātuvibhanga Sutra, the great Buddhist commentator Buddhaghosa gives a long account of Pukkusāti (MA.ii.979 ff.). Compare it to the story of King Tissa of Roruva (ThagA.i.199ff.).

 

King Pukkusāti had been the king of Takkasilā (Taxila), a contemporary of King Bimbisāra (himself a stream enterer) of about the same age. A friendly al)liance was established between the two kings through merchants who traveled between their countries for purposes of trade.

Over time, although the two kings had never seen each other, there grew between them a deep bond of affection. King Pukkusāti once sent King Bimbisāra a gift of eight priceless garments in lacquered boxes. This gift was accepted at a special meeting of the entire court. King Bimbisāra wishing to return the favor but having nothing to match of a material nature, sent what he considered most precious:

 

He conceived of the idea of acquainting King Pukkusāti with the knowledge that there had appeared in the world of Three Jewels (ratanāni): the Buddha (Teacher), the Dharma (Teaching), and the Sangha (the intensively Taught). 

So he had inscribed on a golden plate, four cubits long and a span in breadth, descriptions of these Three Jewels and of various tenets of the Buddha's Dharma -- such as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthānā), the Noble Eightfold Path, and the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment.

 

This plate was placed in the innermost of several special caskets made of various precious materials and was taken in procession on the back of the state elephant to the frontier of King Bimbisira's kingdom. Similar honors were paid to it by the chiefs of other clan territories (janapadas rather than "countries") all the way along the route to Takkasilā.

Pukkusati's probable route: Afghan border policeman, Gosha district, Nangarhar, Pakistan border May 2, 2013 (Reuters/VOANews.com)

 

When King Pukkusāti, in the solitude of his inner chamber, read the inscriptions on the plate, he was filled with boundless joy so much so that he decided to renounce the throne and the world.

 

He cut off his long hair and beard, donned fine robes like the coarse ones used by wandering ascetics of the day, and left the palace alone amid the lamentations of his subjects. They loved him and wanted him to say and lead them.

 

The Buddha (dharmadeshana)

He traveled the 192 leagues to the wealthy city of Sāvatthi, passing the gates of Jetavana, "Jeta's Grove," the famous Buddhist monastery where the Buddha frequently resided. But having understood from King Bimbisāra's letter that the Buddha lived in King Bimbisara's capital, Rājagaha, at Vulture's Peak monastery, he neglected to inquire if the Buddha was Jetavana. He continued his travels onward 45 leagues farther to Rājagaha, only to find that the Buddha was all the while residing in Sāvatthi.

As it was then evening, he sought lodging in Bhaggava's house. The Buddha, with his divine eye, saw what was in store for Pukkusāti. So traveling on foot from Sāvatthi, he reached Bhaggava's house at sundown. He awaited his opportunity to engage Pukkusāti in talk after a long period of meditation, which was fortuitous because it made the former king's mind and heart malleable and trainable.

When the Buddha taught him the "Analysis of the Elements Discourse" (Dhātu-vibhanga Sutra) -- which deals with the six major elements of earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness -- he was able to intuitively grasp and benefit from it, becoming a stream enterer then a non-returner very soon reborn fully enlightened.

"Analysis of the Elements Sutra" (Dhātuvibhanga Sutta). Meditate on this with headphones, pausing as needed, as the Buddha guides Pukkusati through the deepest levels of meditation, beyond the four material and four immaterial meditative absorptions (jhanas). Hearing this, Pukkusati was enlightened and became a non-returner, who was reborn in the Pure Abodes, where he attained nirvana without ever having to return from that world (MN 140).

After his untimely death -- which is explained in the Commentary as not being a natural or accidental occurrence -- Pukkusāti was reborn in a Pure Abode (suddhavasa) called the Avihā world where, together with six others, he became an arhat at the moment of his rebirth (see S.i.35, 60, for the names of the others and the remarkable story that led to this unusual immediate enlightenment).

Mad cow? The "cow" that killed Pukkusāti is explained, as so often happens in these strange situations, as having been a yakkhinī who was reborn a cow in 100 times. In her final rebirth as a cow, she killed, in addition to Pukkusāti, Bāhiya Dāruciriya (Bahiya "of the Barkcloth," famous in the sutras for becoming enlightened after hearing the briefest teaching of the Buddha), Tambadāthika, and Suppabuddha the leper (DhA.ii.35).

What is so remarkable about Pukkhusāti and the others who attained when reborn in the Aviha world is that they were some of the seven monks who, in the time of Kassapa Buddha, decided to abstain from eating until they should attain arhatship. They went to live on the top of a mountain and kicked down the ladder that had used to climb up to the top on.

The senior ascetic attained arhatship, the second became a non-returner, but the remaining five died of starvation -- after refusing the others' offers of food to sustain them in their practice. But they were proud and had made no such agreement to accept alms from those who had succeeded while fasting. The five were reborn in the Tusita world, a very exalted plane of existence.

In this age they became, respectively, Pukkusāti, Kumāra Kassapa, Bāhiya Dārucīriya, Dabba Mallaputta, and Sabhiya (Ap.ii.473; DhA.ii.212; UdA.81; but see MA.i.335, where only three are mentioned (Pukkusāti, Bāhiya Dārucīriya, and Kassapa).

THRIVE: What On Earth Will It Take? (video)

Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; ThriveMovement.com

The world is waking up, but what on Earth will it take to finally THRIVE?

What does "Om mani padme hum" mean?

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Donald S. Lopez (U. Michigan); Wiki edit

The mantra in Tibetan script on rock outside the Potala Pueblo/Palace (onwardtibet.org)

Tibetan script of Om mani padme hum ["Hail, Jewel-Lotus Bodhisattva [Avalokiteshvara, who is Kwan Yin]" or "Jewel in the lotus"] mantra (Tashi Mannox/tibetanlife.com)

Yes, but what does it mean?

Buddha on cash (Omoo/gansv1846/flickr)

Mantras (sacred incantations) may be interpreted by practitioners in many ways, or even as mere sequences of sound whose effects lie beyond strict linguistic meaning.

 

In this, the second most famous Buddhist mantra behind the selfless climax of the Heart Sutra literature (Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi swaha), we must question our common sense literal interpretation. Dr. Donald S. Lopez, professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, points out a more sensible explanation.

Om is the cosmic sound in Sanskrit

The middle part of the mantra, maṇipadme, is commonly interpreted as "jewel in the lotus," Sanskrit maṇí ("jewel, gem, cintamani") and the locative of padma "lotus"). But according to the distinguished professor, it is much more likely that maṇipadme is in fact a vocative, not a locative, addressing a bodhisattva called Maṇipadma, "Jewel-Lotus," which is an alternate epithet of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. 

It is preceded by the syllable oṃ (aum, shown at right) and followed by the syllable hūṃ. These are both interjections without direct linguistic meaning. This lack of direct meaning is easy to understand when one considers corresponding Judeo-Christian exclamations used in and around prayer, praise, and worship such as "amen" (a Western corruption of the East's aum), "Hallelujah," "So be it!" "So may it be!" It's not that they have no meaning or serve no function; it is that that meaning and function is indirect and open.

 

In this case, one opens and places oneself in a proper frame of mind/heart with the cosmic sound oṃ then seals the utterance with another syllable (hum, the sacred sound corresponding to the throat chakra). Many mantras, such as the epitome of the Heart Sutra, end in svaha ("all hail").

Om mani padme hum: mantra of Avalokiteshvara Tibetan script (Christopher J. Fynn)

 

31 Planes (sayalaysusila.net)

Another suggested translation runs: Om purifies bliss and pride (realm of the gods); ma purifies jealousy and the need for entertainment (characteristic of the asura loka, the realm of the jealous angels/godlings); ni purifies passion and desire (characteristic of the human realm); pad purifies ignorance and prejudice (characteristic of the animal realm); me purifies greed and possessiveness (characteristic of the realm of the hungry ghosts); hum purifies aggression and hatred (hell realm).

 

Prof. Lopez also notes that the majority of Tibetan Buddhist texts have regarded the translation of the mantra as secondary, focusing instead on the correspondence of the six syllables of the mantra to various other groupings of six [such as the Six Realms, which are the first six planes of existence, categorized as the Sensual Realm in the three realms within the Buddhist cosmology of 31 Planes of Existence] in Buddhist tradition (Lopez, p.130). 

For example, in the Chenrezig Sadhana, Tsangsar Tulku Rinpoche expands upon the mantra's meaning, taking its six syllables to represent the purification of the six realms of existence... More

In other words, ᠣᠧᠮ ᠮᠠ ᠨᠢ ᠪᠠᠳ ᠮᠡᠢ ᠬᠤᠩ

There was no "Big Bang" (audio)

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich, KPFA Berkeley, 3-19-14

A first point, a first cause, a prime move(r) -- the Big Bang is no better than positing an all-powerful God who did it, yet we fool ourselves by using words to say nothing.

  

Recent reports of a major "breakthrough" on inflation less than a trillionth of a second after the purported Big Bang are exaggerated, but for good reason: There are Nobel Prizes at stake.
 

No doubt banging has gone on in space, big banging worse than the worst gang banging at The Bada Bing in Jersey. Nevertheless, there was no BIG Bang, a beginning to everything. Recently a scientist was being interviewed (maybe on NPR audio or C2C) and admitted that "the Big Bang" was not the beginning of everything, just the beginning of our ability to find a beginning, the edge of the knowable. What a gyp.

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Buddhist cosmology: 31 Planes of Existence

We were not all raised with the fantasy-tale that science had an answer to the origin of the universe? But now there are multiverses, and scientific uncertainty is expressed more openly, and even if a Big Bang occurred ~13 billion years ago, that in no way says that was IT, that was the beginning of all, the first cause.
 
There is no sensible or meaningful first cause, and one would become deranged pondering such a question. It is one of the Four Imponderables in Buddhism -- which not only would never lead one to enlightenment but would certainly, if persisted in, drive one to madness. Here is a simple analogy to see why: A professor starts drawing a circle on a chalkboard, and after the 33rd loop asks the class,
 

Count chalk loops or watch me pole dance.

"Where does this circle start?"
 
"Wherever you first placed the chalk," they answer.
 

"Where was that?"
 

"Hmmm, we didn't notice."
 

"Where does it start now?"
 

"Well, after you started it -- at some arbitrary point -- it ceases to have a meaningful 'beginning.' Any point, pick a point. Is that your point?"
 

"Yes, if you track and analyze the chalk marks, undoing each of the 33 or million loops to reveal incontrovertible forensic evidence of the first track, the original loop, what will it get you?"
 

"It will tell us exactly where you first set the chalk down!"
 

"And what will that tell you about the beginning of a circle?"
 

"Of a circle, nothing. But of this circle, nothing... Hey, wait a minute!"
 

"Exactly! This won't tell you who or what set it, or why, or where chalkboards come from, or what chalk is for, or anything else that matters about our existence. It will only lead to endless speculations and enduring academic careers that result in nothing about the true nature of existence (such as the Three Marks or how YOU or your life, such as it is, came to be).

 

A better bang to find

"But if one were to meditate, one could potentially see for oneself how things (galaxies, universes, and people) originate, turn, and fall away -- again and again and again."
 

It is possible with Buddhist meditation on the Four Elements (not four material things but four primary or fundamental qualities of materiality) to begin to see the ultimate "particles" of perception (called, in Buddhist physics, kalapas). One can go from the smallest, these features of matter, to the most cosmic -- world expansions and world contractions. And what is another word for the transition between those two periods (aeons) than a Big Bang?
 

There is a Big Bang, but there was no "the Big Bang," no beginning. And if we crave to know about the first in the endless cyclical series, it would tell us nothing of the space it blew up or into or created as it blew, or the matter that burst into expansion (inflation), or subsequently collapsed and caused yet another implosion, which gives rise to another explosion.
 

Hmm, maybe lines and symbols?

Worst of all, assuming the insanity for pondering this imponderable is not the worst thing, you and science will be none the closer to finding or figuring out "how it all began." Keep blowing up infinitesimally small particles at CERN/LHC instead.

Everyone loves a good ghost story

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Roger Clarke (Telegraph.co.uk)

I don't see anything because I'm not looking to the left. OH NO! Shapeshifter!

Ghosts/phantoms permeate European culture through and through (telegraph.co.uk)

 

"Hungry ghosts" (pretas) depicted in Asia

It’s the time of year [the dead of winter] -- a little before that other time of year -- when many people’s minds turn to spooks and ghost stories. Once, the parish bells rang out on Hallowe’en to scare away such prowling phantoms and demons speeding forth from what M.R. James, the Victorian ghost-story writer, would call “sequestered places.”

But now, a commercialized Hallowe’en presents itself, imported from the United States, which in turn took its antecedents from an Irish Catholic celebration of seasonal misrule.

 

Ghosts are real. Just ask Dr. Gabor Mate.

Up to the 19th century, it was often said in rural England that none but a “Popish priest” could lay -- or exorcise -- a ghost, and much of traditional English belief in ghosts comes from the unquiet spirit of hidden Catholic traditions. 

 

In earlier centuries, for example, to say you believed in ghosts was to identify yourself as a Catholic, or at the very least a religious dissident, since early Methodists believed in the same thing also.

 

The infamous Cock Lane ghost that so convulsed London in 1762 was very much gingered up by a parish priest with Methodist inclinations; all of society, including Horace Walpole (who wrote the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto), flocked to a house in Smithfields to hear the ghost that scratched out pronouncements on the living and dead. 

 

Ghosts can cook (M.A. Winkowski)

The founder of the Methodist faith, John Wesley, came from a haunted family. The account of the Epworth Poltergeist in 1716 is one of the classic ghost stories in the canon, and it took place in the Lincolnshire rectory while 14-year-old Wesley was away from home. In letters to John’s brother Sam, his mother detailed how the arrival of two new servants at Martinmas (the feast of St. Martin on Nov. 11) was the beginning of... a whole panoply of terrifying sounds, groans and crashes that not even a sceptical father could explain. John Wesley’s father, a bad-tempered man who was constantly at war with his own parishioners, finally decided that these sounds came from Old Nick himself. More

Real "ghosts" (shadows, poltergeists)

 (COMMENTARY)

Seance faked hand image (Museum archive 1920)

Ghosts (Sanskrit pretas, Pali petas) are real, though mostly harmless. They are unfortunate "spirits" (with subtle physical forms and often the power to appear in various shapes and guises). All of them lived before -- like all beings everywhere, just revolving and revolving in endless cycles of samsara.

 

It is rebirth that can be brought to an end and, with it, all suffering (dukkha, disappointment) once and for all. But people are not interested in that. We're interested in trying to get ahead on this plane of existence. Just below us are the animals suffering terribly. No one cares. The ghosts have it even worse, though not nearly as bad as the ogres (yakkhas), cruel titans (asuras, "demons") and hellions (narakas).

Shapeshifting "Old Hag" ghosts

Just the other night I was accosted by "ghosts" due to the "Old Hag Syndrome." The female ghosts (not old, not hags) held my hands down against my will while I was conscious, upset, awake, and struggling. Because there was sleep paralysis, people will say d'uh it was "sleep" and therefore a dream. While dreamlike, it is not semiconscious, closed eye sleep. We can trigger paralysis through deep relaxation without actually being in a sleep state. The struggle to come out of paralysis lasted for what felt like ten minutes.

(paranormal.about)

Of course, it couldn't have helped that Mesmerist/hypnotist Rick Collingwood (mindmotivations.com) was on Coast to Coast talking about Hypnosis and Evil Spirits. He was not a believer until he hypnotically exorcised a "speed spirit" (a possession resulting from the use of speed such as meth or cocaine), which so weakens a person as to make him/her susceptible to entities seeking to attach or to behave parasitically as energy vampires).

 

The fireplace will keep them away

As usual, these usually-unseen beings seemed more mischievous than malevolent. But they are very happy to scare a person, as if to feed on the distress. If there are shining beings on the Abhasvara Plane who feed on joy, why not miserable eaters who zap energy away? So I cultivate compassion and annoyance rather than fear or actual malice ready to banish them with positive and protective energy.

• BOOK: A Natural History of Ghosts (Roger Clarke)
• Hungry Ghosts Eat Dead Bodies, Skin Flakes, and... (tofugu.com)
• The Hungry Ghost Realm (Tibetan Buddhist Altar) The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called Why P'howa? The next of the lower realms is the realm of the...
  
• The Realm of Hungry Ghosts (China Buddhism Encyclopedia)Hungry ghosts (pretas) are pictured as beings with huge, empty stomachs, but they have pinhole mouths, and their necks are so thin they cannot... 
  Hungry Ghosts: The Diet of the Dead among the Grigori... (esoterx.com) The Realm of the  Hungry Ghosts, Hindu/Buddhist... Take for example, the Hindu preta (a Sanskrit term meaning “departed, deceased, a dead...”)
• What are "Hungry Ghosts"? (Barbara O'Brien)
• VIDEO: Black bear loose in Pasadena
• Jim Earl's big page of poop
• Jimmy Dore Comedy

Understanding Consciousness and the Universe

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; David Wilcock (DivineCosmos.com)

American Edgar Cayce now and then

David Wilcock (the rebirth of Edgar Cayce, America's former "sleeping prophet") is now a professional researcher, lecturer, and filmmaker who studies ancient civilizations, consciousness science, and new paradigms of matter and energy. His upcoming Hollywood film CONVERGENCE unveils the proof that all life on Earth is united in a field of consciousness, which affects our minds/hearts in fascinating ways. More

Evidence of alien abduction (shocking video)

Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Roger Leir, M.D., Jamie Maussan, "Mistero"

(Dennis4706) "Alien Abduction of the Fourth Kind"; European ET-human pregnancy: 5:25

True events at shapeshifter Sherman ranch

We are conditioned to laugh and ridicule at so much as the possibility that the Earth is, or has ever been, visited by intelligent extraterrestrials.

Although millions of people have seen UFO craft and reported their sightings, very deliberate government propaganda campaigns have us all dismissing such reports out of hand. It is all nonsense and conspiratorial, something only yokels see and never have evidence to substantiate. 

UFOs (ET craft) in ancient India: vimanas

However, what is really happening is a suppression of evidence and the simultaneous over-exposure of frivolous reports, hoaxes, and strategic distractions.

At one time, according to researcher Robert Morningstar (UFODigest.com), the US had to convince the USSR that Americans did not believe in UFOs. This was because such objects were appearing and being tracked all over Russia. Russians suspected that they were in fact futuristic American technology. 

(History Channel) "Russia's Roswell" at the secret Cold War era military base Kapustin Yar

What Big Business wants, that's what we do...

Psychological warfare led our secretive government to convince Russia that it had no involvement as Americans did not believe in such things. Disinformation was deployed to ensure that. This happened in spite of the Roswell incident in New Mexico, USA, in 1947 and the day after (and "Mexico's Roswell" in 1974, Canada's Roswell in 1967, Russia's Roswell in 1948, Brazil's Roswell in 1977, Britain's Roswell in 1980) and the bringing down of similar craft then reverse engineering the technology aboard.

National reports (ufocenter.com)

There are in fact many groups with various purposes, some beneficent others artificial and maleficent. Yet how we view them depends so much on our government, its mainstream media partners, and our conditioning. We can laugh, but since truth is much stranger than fiction, we choose to investigate. Everyone else will come to believe when the military-industrial complex wants them to. And it's a safe bet that that will be for self-serving purposes.

(IC) "Skinwalker Ranch" A scientific research team investigates

and documents the supernatural phenomena surrounding the

disappearance of a cattle rancher's son. Inspired by true events.