"All is Burning" (The Fire Sermon)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nanamoli/Osbert John S. Moore (Āditta-pariyāya Sutra, Three Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha, Wheel No. 17, BPS.lk)

LA is burning, Springs fire, LA Times cover (Mel Melcon/framework.latimes.com)

Gayasisa, Gaya Head, or Brahmayoni Hill, where the Buddha delivered the Fire Sermon.

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A world on fire (weakonomics.com)

English speakers might be familiar with the name of this discourse due to T.S. Eliot's titling the third section of his celebrated poem, The Waste Land, "The Fire Sermon." In a footnote, Eliot states that this Buddhist sutra "corresponds in importance to the Sermon on the Mount."

-Alexander W. Allison, Herbert Barrows, Caesar R. Blake, Arthur J. Carr, Arthur M. Eastman, and Hubert M. English, Jr. (1975, rev.), The Norton Anthology of Poetry, NY: W.W. Norton Co., p. 1042, Note 9.

The Sutra

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Gayā, at Gayāsīsa, together with 1,000 monastics. There he addressed them.

“Meditators, all is burning. And what is the 'all' that is burning?

 

“The eye [Note 20] is burning, forms [21] are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact [22] is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as its indispensable condition, that too is burning!

Woman sets boyfriend on fire (splash)

"Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, burning with the fire of hate, burning with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

 

“The ear is burning, sounds are burning…

 

The Fire Sermon (Wiki graphic)

 “The nose is burning, fragrances are burning…

“The tongue is burning, flavors are burning…

“The body [23] is burning, tangibles are burning…

“The mind [24] is burning, ideas (mental objects) [25] are burning, mind-consciousness [26] is burning, mind contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact as its indispensable condition, that too is burning.

Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.

What to do in the face of fire when all (Camarillo) is in flames? (latimes.com)

 
“Meditators, when a noble follower who has heard (the truth) sees thus, that person finds estrangement in the eye, finds estrangement in forms, finds estrangement in eye-consciousness, finds estrangement in eye-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact as its indispensable condition, in that too one finds estrangement.

 
“One finds estrangement in the ear… in sounds…

“One finds estrangement in the nose… in fragrances…

“One finds estrangement in the tongue… in flavors…

“One finds estrangement in the body… in tangibles…

Brain (mind/heart) on fire (salon.com)

“One finds estrangement in the mind, finds estrangement in ideas (mental objects), finds estrangement in mind-consciousness, finds estrangement in mind-contact, and whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with mind-contact as its indispensable condition, in that too one finds estrangement.
 

“When one finds estrangement, passion fades out. With the fading of passion, one is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that one is liberated. One understands: ’Rebirth is exhausted, the supreme life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more beyond.’”

That is what the Blessed One said. The meditators were glad, and they approved his words.

ENDNOTES

20. EYE [the sensitive portion of the eye], and so on: the six, beginning with the eye and ending with the mind (q.v.), are called the six “Bases for Contact (see Contact) in oneself,” and are also known as the six “Doors” for perception. Their corresponding objects are called “external bases.” (“Sense-organ” is both too material and too objective). This is because the emphasis here is on the subjective faculty of seeing, etc., not the associated piece of flesh seen in someone else or in the looking-glass, which, in so far as it is visible, is not “seeing” but “form” as the “external” object of the seeing “eye in oneself,” and insofar as it is tangible is the object of the body-base in oneself, and insofar as it is apprehended as a “bodily feature” is the object of the mind-base in oneself. Here the eye should be taken simply as the perspective-pointing-inward-to-a-center in the otherwise uncoordinated visual field consisting of colors, which makes them cognizable by eye consciousness, and which is misconceivable as “I.” The six Bases in Oneself are compared to an empty village, and the six External Bases to village-raiding robbers.

21. FORMS: the first of the six External Bases, respective objective fields or objects of the six Bases in Oneself (see EYE). The same Pali word rūpa is used for the eye’s object as for the first of the five categories, but here in the plural. Colors, the basis for the visual perspective of the eye (q.v.), are intended primarily. (See also under FORM [materiality]: Pali rupa (what appears, appearance). As the first of five categories (q.v.) it is defined in terms of the Four Great Elements [or material qualities], namely, earth (hardness), water (cohesion), fire (temperature), and air (distension and motion), along with the negative aspect of space (what does not appear), from all of which are derived the secondary phenomena such as persons, features, shapes, etc.: these are regarded as secondary because while form can appear without them they cannot appear without form. It is also defined as “that which is being worn away” (ruppati), thus underlining its general characteristic of instability).

22. CONTACT: the Pali word phassa comes from the verb phusati (to touch, sometimes used in the sense of to arrive at, or to realize), from which also comes the word photthabba (tangible, the object of the Fifth Base in oneself, namely, body-sensitivity). But here it is generalized to mean contact in the sense of presence of object to subject, or presence of cognized to consciousness, in all forms of consciousness. It is defined as follows: “Eye-consciousness arises dependent on eye and on forms; the coincidence of the three is contact (presence), and likewise in the cases of the ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. Failing it, no knowledge, no consciousness of any sort whatever, can arise at all.” This fundamental idea is sometimes placed at the head of lists of things defining Determinations (q.v.).

23. BODY: the Pali word kaya is used both for the physical body and for any group, as the English word “body” is. In Pali it is also used in the sense (a) for the physical frame, namely, “this body with its consciousness” in a general sense, sometimes called “old action,” and then it forms the subject of body contemplation as set forth in the Satipatthāna Sutra, the aim of which is to analyze this “conglomeration” into its motley constituents. Or else it is used in a strict sense, as here, namely (b) that “door” of the subjective body-sensitivity or tactile sense, the perspective-pointing-inwards-to-a-center in the otherwise uncoordinated tactile field of tangibles consisting of the hard, the hot-or-cold, and the distended-and-movable. (See also under EYE).

24. MIND: the Pali word mano belongs to a root meaning to measure, compare, coordinate. Here it is intended as that special “door” in which the five kinds of consciousness, arising in the other five doors (see under EYE), combine themselves with their objective fields into a unitive perspective-pointing-inwards-to-a-center, together with certain objects apprehendable in this mind-door, such as boundlessness of space, etc. (and names, fictions, etc.). Whatever is cognized in this door (see under Consciousness) is cognized as an idea (q.v.) as opposed to the bare objects of the eye uncognized by it as well. Here it makes this otherwise uncoordinated field of ideas cognizable by mind-consciousness (q.v.). And in the presence (with the contact) of ignorance (of the Four Noble Truths) it is misconceived as “I.” It is thus the fusing of this heterogeneous stuff of experience into a coherent pattern, when it also has the function of giving temporal succession and flow to that pattern by its presenting all ideas for cognition as “preceded.” In the Abhidharma, but not in the Sutta Collection, “the (material) form which is the support for mind” is mentioned (implying perhaps the whole “body with its consciousness”), but not further specified. This would place mind on a somewhat similar basis to the eye-seeing, as meant here in its relation to the objective piece of flesh (see under EYE). Later notions coupled it with the heart. Now fashion identifies it with the brain; but such identifications are not easy to justify unilaterally; and if they in any way depend upon a prior and always philosophically questionable assumption of a separate body-substance and a mind-substance, they will find no footing in the Buddha’s teaching where substances are not assumed.

25. IDEA [mind object]: the word dhamma [things, phenomena] is gerundive from the verb dharati (to carry, to remember); thus, it means literally a “carryable, a rememberable.” In this context of the six pairs of Bases it means the rememberables which form the mind’s special object; as distinct from the forms seen only with the eye, the sounds heard with the ear, the fragrances smelled with the nose, the flavors tasted with the tongue, and the tangibles touched with the body, ideas are what are apprehended through the mind-door (see under Eye, Forms and Mind, and also Contact). These six cover all that can be known. But while the first (see FORMS) are uncoordinated between themselves and have no direct access to each other, in the mind-door the five find a common denominator and are given a coordinating perspective, together with the mind’s own special objects. So the idea as a rememberable, is the aspect of the known apprehended by the mind, whether coordinating the five kinds of consciousness, or apprehending the ideas peculiar to it (see Mind), or whether apprehending its own special objects. This must include all the many other meanings of the word dhamma (Sanskrit dharma). Nirvana (nibbāna), insofar as it is knowable — describable — is an object of the mind, and is thus an idea. “All ideas are not-self.” What is inherently unknowable has no place in the Dharma (Teaching).

26. MIND-CONSCIOUSNESS: if it is remembered that each of the six pairs of Bases, the five consisting of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body, being coordinated by mind, are open to anyone’s self-inspection; and that consciousness is considered here as arising dependently upon each of these six pairs of Bases and in no other way whatsoever (since no other description rejecting all six is possible without self-contradiction); then this notion of mind consciousness should present no special difficulty.

Ajahn Brahm: Letting Go vs. Clinging (video)

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ajahn Brahm (BuddhistSocietyWA); Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrines and Terms

(Poh Ming Tse Temple, 2014) Ajahn Brahm: Freeing Our Minds from Our Mental Prisons

Ven. Ajahn Brahm, an ennobled and very humorous Western monk who emerged from the Thai Forest Tradition in Isan under Ajahn Chah, now lives and teaches in Australia. He had just come from teaching at a retreat when he chose to explore ways of letting go in the Buddha's teaching. Indeed, there is danger in clinging (upadana) and liberation in letting go, internally renouncing, and freeing ourselves from suffering.

Orange is the new black, but for free robes not bound jumpsuits (dreamstime.com).

Prison is a scary place yet not nearly as fearful as our mental prisons, ones we've created as terrifying places we are imprisoned even as we walk around free to do as we like. In this video teaching by the ennobled and humorous Western Theravada monk, brought to us by the Buddhist Congress and Angulimala Fellowship, Ajahn Brahm shares his insights and wisdom on the most important prison break we can attempt. It is peppered throughout with the distinctive flavor of Ajahn Brahmavamso's trademark humor. See video below from 2010 when he began this thread.

MENTAL PRISON: Some of us are as tortured and trapped as prisoners in prison cells.

 

Non-clinging (nekkhamma) is a Buddhist Pali term translated as "the pleasure of letting go" or "renunciation." It conveys, more specifically, "giving up worldliness and leading a higher life" or "freedom from crippling lust, craving, and addictions." In the Noble Eightfold Path, it is the first practice associated with "Right Intention."

In the Theravada list, it is the third of the Ten Perfections, involving non-attachment and non-clinging to suffering. How do we cling to suffering? The root of our self-injury is clinging to the Five Aggregates, to wrong views of self.

Milarepa's Tibetan Vajrayana writings are canonical Mahayana Buddhist texts that emphasize the temporary nature of the physical body and the need for non-attachment.

 

Non-clinging is also a central concept in Zen Buddhist philosophy. One of the most important technical Chinese terms for "non clinging" is wú niàn (無念), which literally means "no thought." This does not signify the literal absence of thought, but rather not clinging to or identifying with thought, the state of being "unstained" (bù rán 不染) by thought -- like a lotus flower born in water and grown up in water rising above water and remaining unstained by water.

Therefore, non-clinging is being detached from one's thoughts. That is, it is to separate oneself from one's thoughts and opinions [of course, they are not actually one's own] in detail as to not be harmed mentally and emotionally by them (see The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch translated by Philip B. Yampolsky).

I can do this monastic stint standing on my head...because I'm free (annenbergproject.org)

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"Freedom from sensual lust"

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Doctrines and Terms

Gokyo Ri peak (Hendrik Terbeck/flickr)

The real meaning of "renunciation" (nekkhamma) is an internal act not an external one.

It is not by shaving one's head and face and donning saffron robes that one moves toward enlightenment (bodhi, awakening) and nirvana (moksha, liberation from all suffering). There are many monastics who yet cling and are therefore no closer to freedom than householders).

The word is apparently derived from nir + Ö kram, "to go forth (into the wandering, left-home-life of an ascetic)." But in Pali language texts, this term is nevertheless used as if it were derived from lust (kāma as in Kama Sutra) and always as an antonym to kāma (craving for sensuality). 

It is one of the Ten Perfections (pāramīs or pāramitās as in the Prajna Paramita, the famous "Perfection of Wisdom" literature).

  

Nekkhama-sankappa, the "intention of renunciation" -- thoughts free of lust, thoughts of renunciation, is one of the three kinds of right intention or right thought (sammā-sankappa), the second factor in the Noble Eightfold Path (see Magga, 2), its antonym being kāma-sankappa, lustful thoughts and intentions.

Four Ways to Let Go and Get Free

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What is clinging?

Maitreya Buddha, Gandhara (wiki)

"Clinging," according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), is an intensified degree of craving. The four kinds of clinging are:

1. sensual clinging,
2. clinging to views,
3. clinging to mere rules and rituals [as if they could ever in and of themselves lead to or result in enlightenment],
4. clinging to personality-belief.

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

 

(2) ''What is clinging to views? 'Alms and offerings are useless [without karmic benefit to the giver]; there is no fruit and result for skillful and unskillful deeds: all such views and misconceptions are called clinging to [wrong] views.

(3) "What is clinging to mere rules and rituals? Holding firmly to the view that through [the observance of] mere rules and rituals one may reach purification [enlightenment and liberation, bodhi and nirvana), this is called clinging to mere rules and rituals.

 

(4) "What is clinging to personality-belief? The 20 kinds of ego-views [beliefs about self, identity, ego] with regard to the groups of existence, these are called clinging to personality-belief" (Dhs.1214-17).

 

This traditional fourfold division of clinging is unsatisfactory. Besides clinging to lustful objects of the sense, we would expect either clinging to fine material spheres and immaterial spheres of existence or simply clinging to continued existence (bhava-upādāna, continued being, which can never be static, and is therefore translated as becoming).

Although a non-returner, a person who has gained the third stage of enlightenment, is entirely free of the traditional four kinds of clinging, that person is not yet freed from rebirth, as one still possesses clinging to continued-becoming. The Commentary to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), trying to get out of this dilemma, explains sensual clinging as including here all the remaining kinds of clinging.

 

"Clinging" is the common rendering for upādāna, but "grasping" would come closer to the literal meaning of it, which is "uptake" or the habit of repetitive craving; see Three Cardinal Discourses (Wheel 17), p.19.

How to be "cool" (guide)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal (A MODERN GUIDE TO LIFE)

Hey, don't look at me, creep!

You know, first thing you want to do to be "cool" is click on a lot of ads, like especially the ones that say "free." They usually end up costing more. And spending buku bucks is definitely cools-ville, holmes.
 
Next you want to do all things cell phone/mobile -- tweet like there's no idea too stupid to talk about, and start with "OMG, can't believe she said that!" so ppl will know you're serious. Instagram it, f Facebook tho, dump that. SnapChat it, baby, same corporation.

(Double Take) Be totally HOT...and still have problems

Hey, look at those guys!

And makes lots of friends. It's easy! Just say, "Hey, 'friend' me, ese! I'm aiming for 10,000 likes!" Always talk with exclamation marks. Oh, and, aim for 10,000 likes. That's a good number of friends to have on social media in case you want to sell girl scout cookies outside of a medical dispensary or something. Get all krazy; like, y b norml? Listen to the s/he devils.

Be a gavone. We don't give an f'n s, b-tches!

And get a motto. You can have ours: "Always be good, except when you're bad. Choose to be happy, except when you're sad. Don't quote me on this, don't hold me to that. Should you live a good life? I guess it shall be."

Or how 'bout JC's? "Cut me some slack. I can't make up my mind. Get off of my @$$. I heard y'all the first time. I'll get to it eventually. Just leave me be!"

And never be sarcastic or ironic; peeps hate that cuz u'd have to think 'n stuff, and who's got time for that, yeah?

(Mr. Show with Bob and David) JC "Jeepers Creepers Semi-Star" the Musical

This guy, this guy right here, he's got it.

There's another way. But it's a big hassle. And who needs that? Why not just wake up late, bake, eat things in crinkly plastic bags, and breathe with ya mouth, and blow yer nose later?

Way back, like, in the beforetime, in India, this guy was totally done with the party-n-the-palace life, the naked dancing girls and musicians, the soma and ambrosia, the hoopla and the sports meets... 

The Four Noble Truths are all that's needed.

Quest. Why not seek FREEDOM? Be set free by the highest liberating truths.

1. There is a thirst, a TANHA. 2. It gives rise to terrible feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment, to dookie, to DUKKHA. 3. There is a COOL, cooling, quenching, slaking allayer of all ills, NIRVANA. 4. And there's a way to get to it, a MAGGA. So it is possible to be free.

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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?

Journalists and Snowden expose NSA (video)

Ashley Wells, Irma Quintero, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez, Nermeen Shaikh (DemocracyNow.com, April 14, 2014); Firstlook.org/TheIntercept

Journalists exposing NSA (zimbio)

Months ago, Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald (The Intercept) flew from New York to Hong Kong to meet NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Poitras and Greenwald did not return to the US until Friday when they flew from Berlin to NY to accept the George Polk Award for National Security Reporting. They arrived not knowing if they would be detained or subpoenaed after Director of National Intelligence James Clapper described journalists working on NSA stories as Snowden’s "accomplices." At a news conference following the ceremony, Poitras and Greenwald took questions from reporters about their reporting and the U.S. government intimidation it has sparked. More

Obama: Yes to NSA's unconstitutional spying

In their first return to the US since exposing the NSA’s mass surveillance operations, the Intercept journalists were honored in NYC on Friday. They play key roles in reporting the massive trove of documents leaked by Snowden. 

They were joined by colleagues Ewen MacAskill of The Guardian and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post, with whom they shared the award. In their acceptance speeches, they paid tribute to their source: "Each one of these awards just provides further vindication that what [Snowden] did in coming forward was absolutely the right thing to do and merits gratitude, and not indictments and decades in prison," Greenwald said. "None of us would be here...without the fact that someone decided to sacrifice [his] life to make this information available," Poitras said. "And so this award is really for Edward Snowden."

Nirvana as Living Experience

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Prof. Lily de Silva, Nibbana As Living Experience, Buddhist Publication Society (Wheel No. 407/408); news inserts by CC Liu

Monastic robe, Songkhla, Thailand (Homam Alojail/flickr/Bird_beckham77/500px.com)

 

Prof. Lily de Silva approaches the age-old question "What is nirvana?" from a fresh angle: “What does the attainment mean in terms of the living experience of one who has reached the ultimate goal?” She discovers in the Pali texts four outstanding attributes of this experience. It is spiritual freedom to be experience here and now. In a second essay she examines the two types of individuals who have realized the ultimate goal, the Buddha and arhat disciples, distinguished by the breadth of knowledge but experiencing the same nirvana and liberation. She is Professor Emeritus of Pali and Buddhism at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and a frequent contributor to scholarly and popular journals as well as the editor of the Pali Text Society's "Long Discourses of the Buddha" (Digha Nikaya).

 

Nirvana is freedom for those who practice

Nirvana (Pali nibbana) is the culmination of the Buddhist quest for perfection and happiness. 

In order to understand the meaning of this term it is useful to refer to the verse attributed to Kisa Gotami when she saw Prince Siddhartha returning to the palace from the park on the eve of his great renunciation.

She declared: Nibbuta nuna sa mata, nibbuto nuna so pita, Nibbuta nuna sa nari, yassayam Idiso pati [Note 1]. “Happy (contented/peaceful), indeed, is the mother (who has such a son); happy, indeed, is the father (who has such a son); happy, indeed, is the woman who has such a one as her husband.”

 

LA: Can adults learn to ride bikes?

Nibbuta (from nir + v) is often treated as the past participle of the verb nibbayati, and nibbana is the nominal form of that verb.

It means happiness, contentment, and peace. Nibbayati also means to extinguish, to blow out -- metaphorically, as in the blowing out of a lamp [2]. Nirvana is so called because it is the blowing out of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion [3].

When these metaphorical fires are blown out, peace is attained. One becomes completely cooled (sitibhuta) [4]. 

It is sometimes conjectured that nirvana is called "cool" because the Buddha preached in a hot and humid country, where cool was appreciated as being much more comfortable. Had he taught in a cold and bitter climate, nirvana might have been described in terms of warmth.

Chinese cyberthreat, US launches attack

But it is certain that the term “cool” was chosen to convey a literal psychological reality [5]. Anger makes us hot and restless. We use expressions such as “boiling with anger,” clearly expressing the intensity of aggressive emotion.

When such negative emotions are completely uprooted never to arise again, one's temperament must be described as cool. Nirvana is a state to be attained here and now in this very life [6] not a state to be attained after death.

 

In terms of living experience, nirvana can be characterized by four special attributes: 

1. happiness
2. perfection of virtue
3. realization
4. freedom. 

Happiness

#CancelColbert: Suey Park, Asian activist

Looking at these one by one, nirvana is described as the highest happiness, the supreme state of bliss [7]. Those who have attained nirvana live in utter bliss, free from hatred and mental illness among those who are hateful and mentally ill [8].  

Sukha in Pali, being the opposite of dukkha (disappointment, suffering, unsatisfactoriness) denotes both happiness and pleasure. In English, happiness denotes more a sense of mental ease and well being, whereas pleasure denotes physical excitement (pleasant agitation, arousal).

The Pali word sukha extends to both these aspects, and it is [2] certain (as shown below) that mental and physical bliss is experienced by one experiencing nirvana. The experience of supersensual yet physical bliss for limited periods is possible even before the attainment of nirvana through the practice of the meditative absorption (jhana, samadhi).

12-y-o Luke Quezada spreads love of books

The "Fruits of Recluseship" discourse (Samaññaphala Sutta) describes these physical experiences with the help of eloquent similes [9]. When bath powder and water are kneaded into a neat wet ball, the moisture touches every part of the ball but does not ooze out. Similarly, the body of the adept in the first absorption is suffused and drenched with joy and pleasure born of detachment from sense pleasures (viveka-jam piti-sukham). 

The experience in the second absorption is also elucidated: When a deep pool is filled to the brim with clear cool water fed by underground springs, its waters do not overflow, and no part of the pool remains untouched by the cool. Similarly, joy and pleasure born of concentration in the second absorption pervade the body of the meditator. 

 

Former CIA official: No Benghazi politics

The simile for the third absorption is that of a lotus born in water, grown up in water, fully submerged in water, drawing nourishment from water, with no part of it remaining untouched by water. In the same way, happiness/pleasure permeates, suffuses, and drenches the entire body of the adept in the third absorption.

These are the experiences of supersensual pleasure even before the attainment of nirvana. On attainment, more refined supersensual pleasure is permanently established. The "Discourse to Chunky" (Canki Sutta) specifically states that when a monastic realizes the ultimate truth, one experiences that truth “with the body” [10].

Regarding the experience of the arhat, the oldest discourses (Sutta Nipata) state that by the undoing of all feelings/sensations [through insight], one lives desireless and at peace [11].

  

I see you made an effort (Gurwitch)

Once Sariputra, the Buddha's chief male disciple foremost in wisdom (counterpart to the nun Khema), was asked what happiness there can be when there is no feeling/sensation [12]. He explained that the absence of feeling/sensation itself is happiness (contentment/peace/ease) [13].

It is relevant to note here that the Buddha states that he does not speak of happiness only with reference to pleasant feelings/sensations. Wherever there is happiness and pleasure, he recognizes that as happiness and pleasure [14]. More

• NOTES: (1) J I 60. (2) Nibbanti dhira yathayam padipo: Sn 235. (3) S IV 19. (4) Sn 542, 642. (5) A I 138, III 435. (6) D I 156, 167. 18 (7) Nibbanam paramam sukham: Dh 203. (8) Susukham vata jivama verinesu averino/aturesu anatura: Dh 197-99. (9) D I 74. (10) Kayena c’eva paramasaccam sacchikaroti: M II 173. (11) Vedananam khaya bhikkhu nicchato parinibbuto: Sn 739. (12) Kim pan’ettha n’atthi vedayitan ti: A IV 415. (13) Etad eva khv’ettha sukham yad ettha n’atthi vedayitam. (14) S IV 228.

News of the World: Fly Malaysia Airlines cheap

Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly (NEWS REVIEW)

Lose yourself! Dare to live, dare to fly, dare to fall into a hijacking black hole (cutideals)

(SH) A baby moose is stuck in the fence in the snow. Humans sneak up. What will happen?

1. Wells Fargo admits to defrauding homeowners out of their houses, robosigning, foreclosing, training employees to "lose" paperwork -- will not be charged with theft or any major felony but may have to pay small penalty to banking insiders.

2. DARPA is encouraging many academics and ametuers to work for the Killing Machine, the U.S. Imperial Military Service. But they don't know it. "I don't work for the military," they exclaim. "I just enter contests sponsored by DARPA; I can't help what they do with my invetions. If they want to build decision-making killer robots out of my contest winner, that's on them. I don't work for the military. I'm just a garage tinkerer, a code writer, a contest enterer." Oy vey.

3. "We Come As Friends" Anti-imperialist radio host Michael Slate (revcom.us) talks to the film maker showing just how "empire" is accomplished whether it's the British yesterday or the Americans today. The world's newest country is South Sudan on the continent of Africa. When Hillary Clinton visited, she invited investment and exploitation. Come, bankers, "do well while doing good," was her PR campaign's slogan. "There's plenty of money to be made" off of these black-skinned dummies, dark skinned needy, dimwitted pawns, poor, up-and-coming Third World youth. It is what the British did for centuries, and we're just following that Western lineage of invasion, occupation, and unadulterated exploitation while bringing "God" and "civilization" to these savages, those in need...while extracting everything we can via the railroads and infrastructure we first build to benefit ourselves. It's not for them, mind you, but for getting the goods to market by way of the exit ports for shipping. Thanks, future president Hillary; you're a Good Old Boy after all.

Dr. DeGruy, Fullerton College, March 28

4. Southern California progressives have become so open minded that they finally see that "mass incarceration" is a reality and a purposeful policy, a ALEC-style conspiracy? Have professors Michelle Alexander and Joy DeGruy finally broken into the popular imagination? What else could explain quizzing L.A. Sheriff candidates on their views of "mass incarceration"? Sure, they'll probably lie and do it anyway, but they can't say they were never asked. Then they can be called on their lying and voted out, and another set can be brought in and do the same thing, then voted out... See how well democracy works? Just ask the Great Communicator, our Fearless Leader Obama. He would never lie. He would sooner chop down a cherry tree and be spanked than fib about it.

Here's a handy chart provided by USAF

5. Dr. Roger Lear, M.D. (alienscapel.com) is dead? The only man brave enough to remove extraterrestrial alien implants, expose them, and live to tell about it... Well, perhaps not the latter. He has succumbed to medical interventions, one of America's leading killers (the iatrogenic effect). Was he assassinated for saying too much? He will be missed, and his evidence cannot be explained by ordinary means. The only way to ignore him is to ignore him. This leaves no messy questions about how inanimate objects, the "implants," have bundles of nerves going to them. Since when does the body not only not reject foreign matter but embrace it more than medical implants? His findings were shocking, so of course they could not be widely reported. To do so would mean having to find a way to dismiss the obvious: there are others, and they occasionally implant people.

6. Republican Chris "Christ" Christie has group sex and makes a polished porn movie about it? That's what Gawker is currently investigating -- with its near forensic analysis of the footage -- and reporting.

What goes up must come... Not necessarily.

7. Then there was something about some missing plane or something? Went off its route straight to Diego Garcia, a military base expert in secrecy for the clandestine military-industrial complex (MIC). It was probably just a coincidence that it was carrying 20 top secret chip researchers, many of them Americans, on their way to the capital of China. Sure the world is searching millions of square miles of sea for them, yeah. Hey, but did you hear about the discounted flights? Bring a cellphone (mobile) and call us the next time this happens so we won't worry so much.

• WARNING: Click on email, hackers could take control
• Washington landslide: 18 CA rescue specialists go to help

Update: Suspect in Hollywood Hills shooting dead; officer hit by small debris A police spokesman said the suspect in a shooting in the Hollywood Hills Monday morning has been executed by police is dead of apparent gunshot wounds but, more importantly, an officer has been slightly hurt during the altercation and is now doing well, according to Chief Charlie Beck. And as for the suspect Anaheim police recently executed for protecting himself against a vicious trained K-9 agent, uh, well, at least the doggie, whose name is Bruno, is making progress (video). But someone is trying to stop surveillance helicopters and their noise by complaining to the FAA when they are needed for police state protection law and order

2014 Best Movie: "12 Years a Slave" (video)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Irma Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly MODERN SLAVERY

(MCS Trailer)

Director Steve McQueen brings this powerful Academy Award winning film, determined the Best Picture of 2014. It is based on Solomon Northup's astonishing true story. In 1841, Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free citizen, is kidnapped and sold as a slave. He is stripped of his identity and sold into American slavery system forced to work for a ruthless plantation owner (Michael Fassbender).

 

There are many modern slaves in America and around the world today (freetheslaves.net)

 

Prof. Michelle Alexander

Now he must find the strength to survive in this unflinching story of hope that swept the Spirit Awards and earned a Golden Globe for Best Picture, Drama. 

This gripping film features an all-star cast, including newcomer Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'O, Angelina Jolie-loving Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Paul Dano. 

• WATCH "12 Years a Slave" on YouTube
• VIDEO: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration...
• VIDEO: Prof. Angela Davis on "Slavery and the Prison-Industrial Complex"
• VIDEO: Dr. Angela Davis clip, "Black Power Mixtape"
• TV: Malcolm X on PBS's "Open Mind": race relations (24:07)

(THNKR) The new "slaves" of the prison-industrial complex and drug war

 

THINK

Yale and Ohio State Univ. legal scholar Michelle Alexander's breakthrough book about the rise of mass incarceration in America argues that "by targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial subordnation and control just like the old Jim Crow system.