Addiction recovery on Friday the 13th

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Noah Levine (RefugeRecovery.org), Dharma Punx, AgainstTheStream.org; BLVDcenters.com

X marks the spot: BLVD Treatment Center, 1776 N. Highland, Hollywood, CA 90028

Inside the many beautiful rooms and posh digs of BLVD with patio (blvdcenters.com)

Make the 13th good luck. Get a free book. Stop craving from leading to harmful choices.

 

A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction

Today is "Friday the Thirteenth." And that can mean good luck or bad, bad if addiction is on the calendar, the menu, and to do list. But good if one is turning it around to recovery. 

Because today is Noah Levine's BLVD rehab (855 277-5363) open house, with a launch party for his newest book on treating intoxicants like forms of suffering and dumping them. 

The Dharma Punx, Against the Stream, The Heart of the Revolution author is calling the new movement Refuge Recovery (an unfortunate, alliterative name based on the mistranslation of sarana, which actually means guidance rather than refuge).
 
But "refuge," which really refers to nirvana, is what everyone calls the Three Gems or Jewels or Guides of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha (community), and "going for refuge" is what everyone thinks s/he's doing. The gems are right on the new cover!

Noah Levine and his inner mohawk meditator

Today is the best day ever because EVERYONE IS INVITED to the party with Wisdom Quarterly. And if you come, you'll get a FREE copy of Levine's newest book. Let's ask Noah and the publisher, What is "Refuge Recovery"?

It is a proven practice. It is a process. It is a set of tools. It is a treatment. It is a path to healing [from] addiction.
 

Residential: 516 N. Detroit St., LA, CA 90036 (Melrose/La Brea) behind Canters Deli

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Against the Stream, Melrose Ave., Hlywd

Refuge Recovery is a Buddhist-oriented, non-theistic [not to be confused with atheistic but atheists will love the Stephen Batchelor-inspired "Buddhist Atheist" tee-shirts for sale with the rest of the Against the Stream swag] recovery program that does not ask anyone to believe anything [thanks to the Kalama Sutra] -- only to trust the process and do the hard work of recovery.

In fact, no previous experience or knowledge of Buddhism is required. Recovery is possible, and this book -- like the books of Kevin Griffin -- provides a systematic approach to treating and recovering from all forms of addictions. When sincerely practiced, the program will ensure a full recovery from addiction and a life-long sense of well-being and happiness.

• FREE BOOKS and OPEN HOUSE
• BLVD Outpatient Treatment Center
• 1776 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood, California 90028
• Above Hollywood Blvd. just below Franklin Ave.
• VIDEO: Doubt and the Buddha's Advice (Kalama Sutra)
• Sarana: Going for "Refuge" or Going for "Guidance"?
• SERIES: A Buddhist Path to Recovery?

Noah Levine, M.A., scion/son of Buddhist author Stephen Levine and student of Jack Kornfield, has been using Buddhist practices to recover from addiction since 1988. He is the founding teacher of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society (refugerecovery.org)

St. Patrick's Day quake strikes L.A. (video)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly  UPDATED

VIDEO: FOX News' local L.A. affiliate  gets hit by quake while mocking leprechauns

KTLA Channel 5 News anchors Chris Schauble and Megan Henderson dive under their Hollywood prop desk when a 4.4-4.7 earthquake rumbles through Los Angeles. Then to add insult to injury, safety-minded Schauble is mocked mercilessly by his children when he gets home.

The mischievous leprechauns are upset (SB)

A large quake struck Los Angeles at 6:25 am on March 17, 2014 just as St. Paddy's Day celebrations were being prepared for throughout the city. While earthquakes are happening everyday, California has recently been struck by a large offshore temblor (a 6.8 or 6.9) and many minor aftershocks. This was only a 4.7 centered near Westwood, site of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. [The Shamrock Shake has now been downgraded to 4.4 and relocated closer to Encino. But the sort of scale still in use to measure seismic activity during monster movements is more misleading than a leprechaun's charm! A 7.0 is 10 times more powerful than a 6.0, for example.] See more from the US Geological Survey stationed in Pasadena at Caltech: earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes

• 

  Imp (thenewwildgeese.com)

  VIDEO: Mocking leprechauns, FOX News hit by large quake
• Leprechauns: Facts about the Irish trickster fairy (Live Science.com) Leprechauns are a type of fairy, though it's important to note that the fairies of Irish folklore were NOT cute Disneyfied pixies; they could be lustful, nasty, capricious creatures whose magic might delight you one day and kill you the next if you displeased them.
• Does morning quake mark end to LA's quake "drought"?

Good foot, Bad foot, BIGFOOT (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; former police detective David Paulides (Missing 411, canammissing.com); Sasquatch Central; CryptoWatch

Sasquatch trail cam photo, American Bigfoot Society, 2012 (Bigfoot Evidence)

(Whitley Strieber's Dreamland) Host Strieber interviews former police detective and missing persons investigator David Paulides (canammissing.com).

  

People are missing from National Parks, boulder fields, and other hotspots in the western US. Many of the cases go unsolved, many of them inexplicable far beyond ordinary abduction. Over the years, Stieber has amassed many missing persons cases as well, and the two compare notes and discuss what might be happening.

WARNING: This is a chilling and powerful topic that does not admit of any simple explanation -- other than Sasquatch, "fairies," or other dimensional creatures, and/or extraterrestrial and subterranean civilizations. Paulides does not make a definitive declaration about what he concludes. But having listened to more than 12 hours of interviews with him, it becomes clear that the truth is far stranger than fiction or simply Bigfoot, creatures who are at least partly human and hominids. Boulders are the key as explored in paranormal Iceland.

 

Good foot

(Sasquatch Central, 2013) Boy Taken Back to Camp by Female Sasquatch! Posted with permission from Chuck and Stacy of The Bigfoot Tonight Show (Facebook).

 

Dave W. relates a true story of a camping trip that he and his parents were on in the summer of 1969 when he was 7 years old. His memory is as fresh today as the day it happened and we can hear why. Dave wandered away from his parents' campsite late in the afternoon. Before long, as dark began to settle in around him, he noticed he could no longer hear the voices of his family. After calling out for some time with no response and the forest growing darker, he began to cry for his mother. Before long he heard heavy footsteps moving through the brush getting closer. Then emerging from the darkness was a huge "monkey man" as he called it back then except it was no male but a female Sasquatch with clearly visible breasts.

Sasquatch Watch Canada presents these photos, audio clips, videos and all documentation for educational and commentary purposes only and does not claim any ownership or liability.

Bad foot

 

Aggressive juvenile "demon" (rakshasa)

Mike Wooley talks to Tom from The Crypto Crew (CryptoWatch) about his face to face encounter with two very aggressive Bigfoot creatures near Many, Louisiana in December 1981. They were chasing deer while he was hunting them from a stand. One creature chased a small doe before realizing Wooley saw it from the deer stand. He then menaced him -- with "evil, Satanic" eyes, teeth clicking, and a low growl -- before whistling for back up and chasing Wooley out of the woods.

In fear we kill

(CW) Bigfoot encounter and shooting one of these beings 2013, a Crypto Crew exclusive. This phone interview with a murderer who encounters two Sasquatches ends with one of them dead. The game warden refused to take the information. Then government agents show up to cover up the incident.

• PHOTOS: Bigfoot tracks, Washington state (C2C)

All of this is fun. But the evidence is now conclusive and peer reviewed (Ketchum, et. al.) Moreover, more compelling audio evidence has been around for a long time. Not only are there corpses, there are ongoing relationships with Sasquatch individuals, who are at least partly human. These three stories do show a range of mystery and individual temperament because the worst thing we could do is think that they are all the same, "demons" or "guardians" of the forest, anymore than thinking humans or human groups are all the same. Finally, it is foolish to think that elements within the government are ignorant of the phenomenon. Just as they study the paranormal and keep their findings secret, they are well aware of this class of creatures and have their reasons for maintaining the secrecy of their findings if only to promote our misguided view of the story of how we evolved on this planet  (see Lloyd Pye on that count).