Buddhist Geeks in Los Angeles (InsightLA)

Wisdom Quarterly; Buddhist Geeks coming to Los Angeles (InsightLA.org)

Buddhist Geeks Conference 2014

Buddhist Geeks are excited to announce that their new workshop, "Mind Hacking," will be offered on August 2, 2014 from 10:00 am-1:00 pm at InsightLA in Santa Monica.
 
The workshop will be led by geeks, mind hackers, and Buddhist teachers Vincent Horn and Emily Horn.

 

Over the course of this 3-hour interactive workshop they plan to explore the basics of the hacking mindset as well as discussing four meditative skill-sets for hacking the mind, including:

• Concentration Meditation
• Investigation Meditation
• Meditative Inquiry
• Formless Awareness

During this time together all participants will be engaged in both silent meditation as well as a social form of mindfulness called "social noting." There will be plenty of time for fine-tuning and questions as all journey into a process of hacking the mind, awakening the heart, and rebooting the world.

The Buddhist Geeks Team

25 Mildred Ave., Asheville, NC 28806

The opening keynote at the Buddhist Geeks Conference 2014 will be offered by Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara. She will be joining Geeks in the exploration of convergence. She brings years of experience as both a teacher and practitioner of Zen Buddhism.

"She asks me, 'Why Zen?'
clear blue sky
sunlight dancing off the bare branches
sound of leaves
the little black-headed chickadee whistles
my life so clear, so direct
gratitude for this mind moment."
- from Roshi O'Hara's book: Most Intimate: A Zen Approach to Life's Challenges

Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara received priest ordination from Maezumi Roshi and Dharma Transmission and Inka from Bernie Tetsugen Glassman. She founded Manhattan's Village Zendo, New York. 

• Before Mindfulness: Joseph Goldstein in LA
• About InsightLA and Trudy Goodman
• Heal GRIEF with Induced After Death Communication Some psychotherapists can help the grieving experience a reconnection with someone who has passed away, resulting in the healing of deep sadness associated with grief. The method of inducing this experience, called IADC, was discovered in 1995 by Dr. Allan L. Botkin and works for PTSD.

Sugar is worse than cocaine (video)

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Alex Cohen (SCPR.org); Suzi Yoonessi

What's she doin? I'dunno, but it's Barbie! How could it be bad? Her Corvette, dream house

Is it child abuse to give your kids sugar? Coca Barbie doesn't think so!

Funny or Die had a contest, and "Olive and Mocha's Fast Times at Sugar High" took first place. It was an unlikely friendship between a goody-goody and a bad-seed that resulted in havoc at a birthday party.

I'm not hyper! But get me some more candy!

Sugar was the culprit. Not System of a Down's "Sugar," though maybe that had something to do with it. It was the pure white and artificially-flavored confection and killer of America's kids. How could it be worse than the deadly excitotoxin cocaine? For one thing, it's legal. For another, no one suspects it.

We were all high on SUGAR: "The Kombucha mushroom people...!"

 

Birthday party: Fast Times at Sugar High

They shove it into kids, with each American child snorting, shooting (hospital IV), or swallowing an average of 150 one-pounds sacks of it each year, usually hidden in food, desserts, and soda. It dehydrates, ruins the ability to concentrate, sends blood glucose levels through the roof, kicks the immune system offline for about five hours after each it, and eats away at the body. It may or may not directly cause obesity, but it is the cause of early-onset diabetes, brain problems (mental fog, confusion, spectrum disorders), cancer, tooth rotting, premature aging, and more. Yuck!
 

Funny or Die contest

Drugs! Drugs! Get your drugs here!

(SCPR) The L.A. Film Festival this year joined forces with the comedy video website Funny or Die in a talent search for diverse, unique, and authentic voices in the comedy world.

 

The submissions to the "Make 'em LAFF" competition were whittled down to the top 25, then the top 5, and this weekend, the first place winner was revealed: Suzi Yoonessi (audio).

• You Don't Have to [die of] Diabetes!
• Free weekend in Los Angeles (airfare not included)
• The Epidemic of [Rap] and Sexual Abuse in the U.S.

• Teaching Through Trauma: How poverty affects kids' brains
• CDC survey finds teens smoking fewer cigarettes
• Why mental health training for law enforcement isn't enough
• Battle rages on over what makes a true Tennessee Whiskey

• BE AFRAID: the ISIS insurgency continues in Iraq
• SoCal vets express frustration with unrest in Iraq
• WATER: vast reservoir deep below Earth's surface
• WEATHER: How climate change is affecting the landscape

• If baristas finish college, Starbucks will pick up the tab
• World Cup: US coach Klinsmann wants youth, int'l experience
• LAUSD teachers confused over changing arts education plans
• On The Lot: World Cup effect, internships, Kate Mantilini...
• World Cup 2014: European upsets and grudge matches
• Close Calls: Hikers survive Grand Canyon rock slide
• VIDEO: Obama in OC at UC Irvine's commencement
• 2 TV chopper pilots who followed OJ chase 20 years ago
• Who's killing the peacocks of California's Rolling Hills?
• Remembering Casey Kasem, host of American Top 40

Join the Om Healing Circle of Los Angeles

Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Kaustubhi (omhealingcircle@gmail.com)

"OM" (aum) is the primordial or cosmic "sound of the universe" (Didi/esotericonline.net)

 

Everyone is invited to visit and join the Om Healing Circle in Los Angeles. It meets every first and third Saturday of the month at 1:00 pm. Together, participants seek to heal themselves, humanity, and Mother Earth (Bhumi, Gaia, Pachamama...). Om is a seed (bija) mantra with powerful resonant effects.

• Kaustubhi: (323) 423-3371
• omhealingcircle@gmail.com
• Protective Chanting in Buddhism
• The Book of Protection (Paritta)
• Recommended CDs from SoundsTrue: Mantras for Meditation and Healing Mantras by Thomas Ashley-Farrand
• See the World, my Children. It's big!

Healing Mantras

Enrico Galvini (CEO of Bodhisattva Music) and his faithful dog recommend Healing Mantras by Thomas Ashley-Farrand holding the German version in the jungles of Costa Rica.

Thomas Ashley-Farrand explains the Vedic origins, meanings, and uses of mantra.

Poor SLEEP makes us fat, demented (audio)

Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Allison Aubrey (Morning Edition, 10-17-13, NPR.org)

Americans aren't getting the recommended 7-9 hours (Franck Camhi/iStockphoto.com)

  

American men are fatter than other men

Is that 6:00 am workout getting in the way of good sleep? Don't think those fat cells won't notice.

 

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that inadequate shut-eye has a harmful response on our fat cells, reducing their ability to respond to insulin by about 30 percent. 

 

Over the long-term, this decreased response could set the stage for Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and weight gain.

BREAKING NEWS: Reason we sleep discovered!

The brain on final rinse cycle by end of a good night's sleep (Katherine Streeter/NPR.org)

(All Things Considered) While the brain sleeps, it clears out harmful toxins, a process that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's, researchers now say. During sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid to and from the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours, a study of mice found. "It's like a dishwasher," says Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Rochester and an author of the study in Science. The results appear to offer the best explanation yet of why animals and people need sleep. More (LISTEN)

 

Dr. Maiken Nedergaard (URMC)

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that there's "an intimate relationship between the amount of sleep we get and our ability to maintain a good, healthy body weight," says sleep expert Helene Emsellem, director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

 

But Americans don't seem to be getting the message that we need seven to nine hours per night. More than 1 in 5 of us, according to a from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is getting six or fewer hours of sleep per night, on average. LISTEN

• Mysteries of Sleep were Just Too Mysterious
• "Memory Pinball" and Other Reasons We Need a Nap
• Of Neurons and Memories: Inside "Secret World of Sleep"
• What happens in our brains while we're asleep? That's one question neuroscientist Penelope Lewis is trying to answer. She directs the Sleep... 
• How Sounds Undermine Sleep
• We're thinking about sleep. Do we really need it? How do we get more? And what happens inside our brains...
• Pulling Back the Covers on "Strange Science of Sleep"
• "He said, 'You know, I have to be honest; there's a lot we know about sleep, but there's a lot that we don't know. So just try to take it easy.'" 
• The Secret World of Sleep
• There is no need to say that we humans tend to feel pretty lousy if we don't get enough sleep. Perhaps the most extreme example of this... 
• Science of Slumber: How Sleep Affects Memory 
• So how much rest does your brain really need, and what does it do with that rest once it's getting it? We're talking about the science of sleep...
• How Much Sleep Do Kids Need? Not Such a Mystery After All
• Are doctors really clueless on how much sleep children need? That was the provocative premise of a study we reported on yesterday.
• PSYCHIC: (Coast to Coast) Saints and Sages
  World-class spell collector, psychic practitioner, scholar, and teacher Judika Illes offers encyclopedic knowledge of the sacred, helpful mystics, saints, and sages from a large variety of religious traditions. She'll share the various ways these beings and traditions can be used to help illness, unemployment and more. But in the first hour of tonight's show, retired professor of climatology Dr. Tim Ball discusses Arctic ice and climate projections.