Love, Sex, and Death (video)

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Jeff Walker, the "Carneous Cacoffiny" of Carcass; Nancy Updike (ThisAmericanLife.org, 4-25-14)

Oh the Occupy hippies of Claremont (B/W)

April, of course, is National Poetry Month in the US. Happy birthday, Shakespeare/Edward de Vere. And Wisdom Quarterly did an in house call for submissions. The rules were easy: "Repurpose something fun that tells a higher truth." Lately, we have been listening to a lot of grindcore, an extreme genre of death metal from Earache Records most people cannot swallow.

 

"Do it, do it, do it, you know you want to"

Three British vegans invented it (because vegans rock harder), and it changed American music. It was Occupy Los Angeles close to the end, before the literally "jackbooted thugs" of the LAPD Riot Squad stormed the peaceful encampment to cheering LA Times reporters sitting in the sidelines, after the "American Spring" was subvert by police state spies. And if Aleksa, the "face of the movement," can be a Cradle of Filth fan and a great kisser, why wouldn't Wisdom Quarterly have been listening to Carcass?

Then MARA [the personification of death in Buddhism] said to me:

 

Selena G. listens to more than Justin B. (wwtdd)

"Strike up

The discordant underture,
This carnal cacophony,

Perversely penned,
Transposed and decomposed

On strings fashioned from human twine."
 

I ask why,

But Mara carries on:

 

"Lovingly wound and fretted upon my bow,
Garishly incinerated.

All the dead resonate
In final death-throes."
 

I was vibrant as I thrashed
In movements scripted for the dead...
Orchestral horrors Mara vehemently conducts.

My corpus concertos were cordial.
I was disinterred and detuned,
All six feet below

In harmony with the deceased.

• Dear Maya: "Are you guys crazy?" Take this quiz and find out: Bipolar Depression Quiz or try the Free Personality Test

D.I.Y. (store.thisamericanlife.org)

In our pre-teens we walk around every day with the knowledge that our body is about to change. We don’t know exactly when or how. All we know is that it will happen and we will come out the other end a different person. This American Life hears from kids who are reluctantly facing puberty...any minute now.  Producer Nancy Updike takes some personal questions about death and dying to a place where they are happening all the time, the hospice. LISTEN

Golden King Tut the teen pharaoh (ancient-egypt.co.uk)

Mara explained:

"My inspiration is your disintegration.
You're my latest masterpiece!
The score creeps your flesh."
 

All my notes seeped from sinewy frets.
 

"But, no, don't hold your breath," Mara added,

"As you wait for your God, or The Void, or the
Abyss of Nothingness."

Mara knew, Mara knew, and said:

We live our lives in blue bras and wretchedness.

"Your usefulness is not through.
Your productivity will resume
In sordid, soiled handicrafts."
 

It was my afterlife's handicap.
The corrupt crescendos
Leaving me out on a limbo
And down on my knees.
I could not rest in my piece, rest in my piece.

 

Christian terrorists in Egypt (us.msn.com)

With deadly dynamics
I'm dead, buried, and barred,
My remains dampened and fingered,
My mortal coil barbed.
 

The death-bells are peeling
Ringing out as I flake
Shrieking out their recitals
In celebration of my wake.
 

Egypt my Egypt (nocaptionneeded.com)

Enter my funereality
My world two metres under
A curious habitat
A muddy trench to plunder.
 

Pass on to ethereality
Churned out under the sextant's blade.

We live our lives in wretchedness,
And death is no escape.
And Death is no escape.

Another good poem was based on Boxxy and Carlie Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," the bestest song in the history of music...except for Katy Perry's pre-girl kissing Christian rock. But it's X-rated, so let's just remind readers who "Boxxy" is, the most beautiful girl on the WW Web.

The Other F-Word (faith)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Joseph Goldstein (IMS); Wikipedia edit saddha; Ben Griggs (Happy Science Temple, Japan)

(SoundsTrue) Insight Meditation, Tape 10, a talk on faith and wisdom with Joseph Goldstein

Buddha, Gandhara style

FAITH IN BUDDHISM (Pāli saddhā, "to place one's heart on") is an important constituent element of the teachings of the historical Buddha within all Buddhist traditions, although the kind and nature of "faith," confidence, conviction, or devotion varies in different schools.

According to the tradition using the exclusively Buddhist-language of Pali, some of the first words uttered by the Buddha after resolving to teach to the world the Dharma he had rediscovered were: "Wide open is the door of the Deathless to all who have ears to hear! Let them send forth faith [confidence in the enlightenment of the teacher, the teaching, and those successfully taught] to meet it!" (Mahavagga, I, 5,11; Vinaya Texts, T.W. Rhys Davids, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1996, p.88).

 

Treasure, faculty, power of faith

Richard Gere and Lisa Simpson meditate

The Pāli discourses (suttas, sutras) list confidence/faith as one of Seven Treasures (dhanas) (e.g., Collection of Long Discourses III.163, Estlin Carpenter J. (ed.), The Dīgha Nikāya, Pali Text Society, London 1976, p. 163), one of Five Spiritual Faculties (indriyas), one of four "streams of merit," and one of the Five Spiritual Powers (balas).

Gyatrul (b. 1924), in a commentary on the 17th century work of Chagmé, rendered into English by B. Alan Wallace states [Karma Chagmé (author, compiler), Gyatrul Rinpoche (commentary) and B. Alan Wallace (translator), 1998. A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahamudra and Atiyoga. Ithaca, New York, USA: Snow Lion Publications):

Tibetan lamas, India (Laura Murphy)

By the power of faith, we are able to eliminate the two types of obscurations [i.e., the "obscuration of conflicting emotions" (Sanskrit kleśa-varaṇa) and the "obscuration concerning the knowable" (Sanskrit jñeyāvaraṇa), Jikdrel Yeshe Dorje (Dudjom Rinpoche, author), translated and edited by Gyurme Dorje and Matthew Kapstein (1991). The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. Boston, USA: Wisdom Publications, p.107]. Through the power of faith both ontological and phenomenological knowledge arises. It is also by the power of faith that both the common and uncommon siddhis [psychic/supernormal powers] arise. More

(Ben Griggs) Happy Science, Japan, international retreat, spring

2011:  Koan seminar exploring "faith," interviews participants.

The Future: sutra, time travel, cartoon (video)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly translation based on Ven. Thanissaro, Anagata-bhayani Sutta, "Discourse on Future Dangers" (AN 5.78)

The future: where you and I will spend the rest of our lives...when cartoons have been rendered useless by the lolcats (Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)

 
"Meditators, five future dangers are enough, when considered, for one living in a remote setting -- heedful, ardent, and resolute -- to live for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized. What five?

Mr. Peabody & Sherman use the Wabac (Way Back) to travel in time

 
1. "One reminds oneself: At present I am young, dark-haired, endowed with the blessings of youth, in the first stage of life. But a time will come when this body will be beset by old age. When one is overcome by old age and decay, it is not easy to practice the Buddha's teachings. It is not easy to reside in seclusion in peaceful forest or wilderness dwellings [beneficial for rapid success in Buddhist serenity and insight forms of meditation].

"Before this disagreeable, distressing, unwelcome thing happens, let me make an effort for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized, so that -- endowed with this instruction (Dharma) -- I will live in peace even when old.
 
"This is the first future danger that is enough, when considered, for one -- heedful, ardent, and resolute -- to live for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized.

"Free Birds" - Going back in time to get turkeys off the menu

 
2. "Furthermore, one reminds oneself: At present I am free of illness and discomfort, endowed with healthy digestion: not too cold, not too hot, moderate and agreeable. But a time will come when this body will be beset by illness. When one is overcome by illness, it is not easy to practice the Buddha's teachings. It is not easy to reside in seclusion in peaceful forest or wilderness dwellings.

"Before this disagreeable, distressing, unwelcome thing happens, let me make an effort for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized, so that -- endowed with this instruction -- I will live in peace even when sick.
 
"This is the second future danger that is enough, when considered, for one -- heedful, ardent, and resolute -- to live for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized.

Original Mr. Peabody Dog and Boy Sherman (1959), "Rapunzel"

 
3. "Furthermore, one reminds oneself: At present food is plentiful, and alms are easy to come by. It is easy to maintain oneself by gleanings and patronage. But a time will come when there is famine: Food will be scarce, alms hard to come by, and it will not be easy to maintain oneself by gleanings and patronage. When there is famine, people will congregate where food is plentiful. There they will live packed and crowded together. When one is living packed and crowded together, it is not easy to practice the Buddha's teachings. It is not easy to reside in seclusion in peaceful forest or wilderness dwellings.

"Before this disagreeable, distressing, unwelcome thing happens, let me make an effort for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized, so that -- endowed with this instruction -- I will live in peace even when there is famine.
 
"This is the third future danger that is enough, when considered, for one -- heedful, ardent, and resolute -- to live for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized.

Family Guy/original "Back to the Future" blend

4. "Furthermore, one reminds oneself: At present people are living in harmony, on friendly terms, without quarreling, like milk and water, looking at one another with eyes of affection. But a time will come when there is danger due to an invasion by savage outsiders. Taking power, they will surround the countryside. When there is danger, people will congregate where it is safe. There they will live packed and crowded together. When one is living packed and crowded together, it is not easy to practice the Buddha's teachings. It is not easy to reside in seclusion in peaceful forest or wilderness dwellings.

"Before this disagreeable, distressing, unwelcome thing happens, let me make an effort for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized, so that -- endowed with this instruction -- I will live in peace even when there is danger.
 
"This is the fourth future danger that is enough, when considered, for one -- heedful, ardent, and resolute -- to live for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized.

Traffic? The first "movie" (30 secs) ever filmed in Los Angeles, 1899

  
5. "Furthermore, one reminds oneself: At present the community (Sangha) -- harmonious, on friendly terms, without quarreling -- lives in comfort with a communal recitation [of the guidelines of the path-to-liberation]. But a time will come when the community is split. When the community is split, it is not easy to practice the Buddha's teachings. It is not easy to reside in seclusion in peaceful forest or wilderness dwellings.
 
"Before this disagreeable, displeasing, unwelcome thing happens, let me make an effort for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized, so that -- endowed with this instruction -- I will live in peace even when the community is split.
 
"This is the fifth future danger that is enough, when considered, for one -- heedful, ardent, and resolute -- to live for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized.
 
"These are the five future dangers that are enough, when considered, for one -- heedful, ardent, and resolute -- to live for attaining the not-yet-attained, reaching the not-yet-reached, realizing the not-yet-realized."

Literal time travel

 

Time travel may already be a functional reality

(C2C/DiscloseTruthTV) "Time travel is possible and already being done" according to attorney Andrew Basiago from the US government's Project Pegasus (DARPA/CIA). Basiago and his father served in the secret program. He blows the whistle on the current state of the cover up and surveillance technology being deployed. This includes chronovision, a natural quantum-access time-visualization technology to see events recapitulated in time through a TV-like box, suggesting that "time" -- along with various alternative timelines -- is constantly occurring rather than dead and gone. Events leave a cyclical residual signal that can be amplified, as was discovered during investigations of Gregorian chant harmonics, as well as incipient signals of future events. These fading signals, like ripples in a pond, can be amplified in the lab -- and this has already been done. Elite physicists, like Fermi of Fermilab fame, were well aware of this discovery and its theoretical, experimental, as well as practical implications. One device, Basiago explains, "generates a hologram of a past or future event...by driving an electromagnetic signal through an octagonal, an eight-sided array of bismuth crystals." Time travelers like Basiago were trained in its use. Basiago last saw these technologies in 1972, when he left the program. However, he is convinced that chronovision has been implemented by the US intelligence community to aid in its widespread spying programs.

• AUDIO: Basiago on Teleportation, Time-Travel, Mars

Who is Andrew D. Basiago? His father was a project principal, and he became a project participant. He a is a lawyer, writer, 21st century visionary, and future presidential candidate (Barry Obama was also involved in Project Pegasus and Mars travel). He is an emerging figure in the Disclosure Movement leading a campaign to lobby the US government to tell the truth and disclose its involvement in various mind bending controversies. Beyond mindboggling time travel, near instant travel to Mars to see the life forms living there, and "quantum access" to past and future events. He has been identified as the first of two major planetary whistleblowers predicted by ALTA, the Web Bot project that analyzes the content of the Web to discern future trends.

The new "Monastic Diet" (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly based on Book of Protection (MN 2)

Middlesex schoolboy to Shaolin monk: Enter the Suburban Dragon (See below)

Fat Budai, fit Buddha (center), fat Hotei (Sonam Ukyab/Khorsani/flickr.com)

 

S.A.D. reading won't help.

Ever try to diet? It would be better to live-it. The Buddha was fit, but not Budai (Hotei), the "Fat Happy Bodhisattva" so often confused for the Buddha.

He was roly poly and very pudgy. But he was a Chinese monk and jolly folkloric Santa Claus figure named Budai ("Cloth Sack") who came longer after the Buddha. Taoism reveres him more than Buddhism does, and that's only because he is much more of a good luck charm than an exemplar.

 

Four Reflections of a Buddhist Monastic

1. Wisely reflecting I wear this garment in order to protect myself from cold, heat, gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, from snakes [who would strike warm flesh using thermal-vision but not cool cloth], and also as a constant cover motivated by modesty.

 

Vegan diets are compassionate and healthy

2. Wisely reflecting I partake of food not for the pleasure of it, not for the pride (resulting from the physical strength that can be obtained), not for adornment, not for beautifying [and beefing up] the body, but in order to maintain this body, to slake the hunger, and to enable the practice of the high life. And I do so also to quell the pangs of hunger (due to want of nourishment) but avoiding pain (resulting from an excess consumption of food). In this way life is maintained free from wrongdoing and free from distress.

Fitness = sleep, eat well, smile, work, exercise, and relax.

 

I'm not fat. I'm small-shirted!

3. Wisely reflecting I make use of lodgings in order to protect from cold and heat, from gadflies and mosquitoes, from wind and sun, from snakes, as a constant protection against the rigors of climate, and in order to realize that ardent yearning for seclusion (which results in mental concentration and meditative absorption).

 

4. Wisely reflecting I make use of medicine as an aid to eliminate bodily pains that have arisen and also to maintain that important condition [so useful in striving for liberation from all suffering, enlightenment], free from disease.

• The Importance of "Wise Reflection"

"All The Taints" (MN 2) Bhante G explains this sutra dealing with the eradication of the three taints: craving for sensual pleasure, craving for being, and ignorance, which are heart-defilements brought about by unwise reflection or unskillful attention. The seven methods to eradicate them are: seeing, restraining, using, enduring, avoiding, removing, and developing.
 
Or do it the Hard Way
How about a strictly vegetarian Shaolin monk's diet?
From Middlesex schoolboy to Shaolin monk: Enter the (Terribly Suburban) Dragon

So much strength and power from veggie diet?

He's the ordinary north London boy who became a Chinese warrior monk. And his story is as astonishing as it is inspiring. Matthew Ahmet is 20 and he's hard -- very hard. His head is shaved, and his body bears the ravages of a violent life. A mark on his forehead shows where a metal bar came crashing down on his skull. His forearms have been sliced repeatedly by razor-sharp knives, and his left arm has a "punishment" burn from boiling water. So when he sits down, flashes a beautiful smile, and talks about spreading happiness and peace, it comes as a great surprise. More
 

Why do ALL diets fail? Lose weight anyway (ModernHealthMonk.com).

The Nun and the Libertine - Better than Sex

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly, based on Ven. Thanissaro translation Subha Jivakambavanika, Psalms of the Sisters (Therigatha 14.1)

What's a beautiful, enlightened, celibate nun to do? (sodahead.com)

 

The delightful grove by day

As the Buddhist nun (theri) Subha was wandering through Jivaka's delightful mango grove, some libertine (a goldsmith's son) blocked her path. She said to him:

 

"What wrong have I done you that you stand in my way? It is not proper, friend, that a man should touch a woman who has gone forth [entered upon the spiritual life of renunciation]. I respect the Master's message, the training pointed out by the Well-gone One. I am pure and without blemish:
 

"Why do you stand in my way? You -- your mind/heart agitated, and I -- unagitated; you -- impassioned, I -- unimpassioned, unblemished, with a mind everywhere released: Why do you stand in my way?" 

 

Wait says the Libertine (Bighead4144/flickr)

[He answered:] "You are young and good looking, so what need have you of going forth? Throw off your saffron robe. Come, let's delight in the flowering forest! A sweetness they exude from all around, the blossoming trees with their pollen. The beginning of spring is a pleasant season.

 

"Come, let's delight in the flowering forest! The trees with their blossoming tips moan in the breeze: What delight will you have if you plunge into the forest alone? Frequented by herds of wild beasts, disturbed by elephants rutting and aroused, you want to go unaccompanied into the great, lonely, frightening forest?

 

The forest grows scary in the dark with its unseen creatures and wild beasts

 
"Like a doll made of gold, you will go about like a goddess (devi) in the gardens of heaven. With fine and delicate Kasi fabrics, you will shine, O beauty without equal! I would be under your power if we were to dwell in the woods. For there is no creature dearer to me than you, O nymph with languid regard. If you'll do as I ask, happy, come live in my house! Dwelling in the calm of a palace, have women wait on you, wear delicate Kasi fabrics, adorn yourself with garlands and creams. I will make you many and varied ornaments of gold, jewels, and pearls."
 

This wig looks great on you.

"Climb onto a costly bed, scented with carved sandalwood, with a beautiful, well-washed coverlet, spread with a new woolen quilt. Like a blue lotus rising from the water, where there dwell spirits, you will go to old age with your limbs unseen, if you stay as you are in the renounced life."

 

[She said:] "What do you assume of any essence, here in this cemetery grower, filled with corpses, this body destined to break up? What do you see when you look at me, you who are out of your mind?"

 

[He said:] "Your eyes are like those of a fawn, like those of a nymph in the mountains. Seeing your eyes, my sensual delight grows all the more. Like the tips of blue lotuses are they in your golden face -- spotless: Seeing your eyes, my sensual delight grows all the more. Even if you should go far away, I will think only of your sparkling, long-lashed gaze, for there is nothing dearer to me than your eyes, O nymph with languid regard."

 

Golden white Buddha (sukhothai-tourism)

[She said:] "You want to stray from the road! You want the Moon as a plaything! You want to jump over Mount Sineru -- you who have designs on one born of the Buddha [Enlightened One]. For there is nothing anywhere at all in the world with its devasthat would be an object of passion for me. I do not even know what that passion would be, for it has been undone, root and all, by the Path. Like embers from a fire pit -- scattered, like a bowl of poison -- evaporated, I do not so much as see what that passion would be, for it has been undone, root and all, by the Path. Try to seduce one who has not reflected on this, or whom the Master has not instructed. But try it with this one who knows, and you do yourself harm! For whether insulted or worshiped, in pleasure or pain, my mindfulness stands firm. Knowing the unattractiveness of compounded things, my heart adheres nowhere at all. I am a follower of the Well-gone One, riding the vehicle of the Noble Eightfold Way: My arrow removed, canker-free, I delight, having gone to an empty dwelling. For I have seen well-painted puppets, hitched up with sticks and strings, made to dance in various ways. When the sticks and strings are removed, thrown away, scattered, shredded, smashed to pieces, not to be found, in what will the mind there make its home? This body of mine, which is just like that, when devoid of phenomena, does not function. When, devoid of phenomena, it does not function, in what will the mind there make its home?

 

"Like a mural seen painted on a wall, smeared with yellow pigment, there your vision has been distorted, meaningless your human perception! Like an evaporated mirage, like a tree of gold in a dream, like a magic show in the midst of a crowd -- you run blind after what is unreal. Resembling a ball of sealing wax, set in a hollow, with a bubble in the middle and bathed with tears, eye secretions are born there too: The parts of the eye are rolled all together in various ways." 

 

Oh, no, Lisa! What have you done? That's gross. I'm sorry I was hitting on you!

 
Plucking out her lovely eye, with mind unattached she felt no regret. "Here, take this eye. It is yours." Straightaway [dispassionately] she gave it to him. His passion shriveled right then and there, and he begged for her forgiveness. "Be safe, follower of the renounced life. This sort of thing will not happen again! Harming a person like you is like embracing a blazing fire. It is as if I have seized a poisonous snake. So may you be safe! Forgive me."
 
And freed from there, the nun went to the unexcelled Buddha's presence. And when she saw the mark of his excellent merit, her eye became as it was before.