Buddhist Camping Trip

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Dharma Punx (AgainstTheStream.org)

Dharma punks, campers, meditators, and Buddhists of Against the Stream, Los Angeles

A meditating "America" wears sweatshop-free American Apparel attire and holds a fine quality made-in-China American flag on a 4th of July parade float in Huntington Beach (KFI AM)

Meet author/founder Noah Levine

Wisdom Quarterly has been on vacation while the world falls apart.

Over the long Independence Day Weekend, we enjoyed a "Buddhist camping trip" at San Onofre State Beach Bluffs with Dharma Punx. It was a sold out, waiting list only event.
 

Dharma Punx of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society and guests reserved several campgrounds for 4th of July weekend at Old Man’s beach.

Body vs. board surfing (loltops.org)

It was not a retreat -- and not party central for the happy, clean living campers -- just an opportunity to spend time with sangha ("spiritual community") members, making campfires, surfing, hanging at the beach, and watching 4th of July fireworks.

Who is "Against the Stream"? This short clip shows a gathering at the Santa Monica branch of  Dharma Punx to see visiting Theravada monk Bhikkhu Bodhi for Buddhist Global Relief.
 

Camping dreams not reality

There were 50 people to begin with, but the camping was rougher than expected. It couldn't have helped that we're all spoiled cosmopolitans. The parties with the earliest reservations, first come first served basis, had it no better than the waitlisters really. Anyone looking for debauchery had to consider that there would be children, RVs, and tents.
 

It was four people to a car, three cars per site, so there was carpooling and ridesharing. That's when the fun began -- in addition to a meditation group sits and other activities throughout the weekend. But somehow someone forgot the Twister, or at least we didn't find it.
 

It was every person for him or herself, a real game of Survivor because we could enjoy activities, but ATS did not provide the food, drinks, water, firewood, tents, towels, or even sparklers! There should have been sparklers. ATS did not want to assume any liability for the weekend. It was only coordinating the logistics, and the rest was up to campers.
 

It's just camping and SoCal socializing

It wasn't free but it was cheap: $9 per person, per night (campsite fees) or $18 per person for the whole weekend, two-night minimum.

• San Onofre Bluffs and San Onofre Surf Beach are located south of San Clemente on I-5 (exit Basilone Road)
• BLUFF SITE: this section of the park offers campsites along the old Hwy 101 next to sandstone cliffs, six dirt trails with steep access to the beach.
• All campsites include fire pit and picnic table.

Bhikkhu Bodhi annually walks at Dharma Punx Santa Monica for Buddhist Global Relief

Our "brain" on mushrooms

Pat Macpherson, Xochitl, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Los Angeles Mycological Society

Giant puffball "brain" mushroom found in Angeles Nat'l Forest, March 30, 2014 (WQ)

 

Some mushrooms are entheogenic magic

Recently, we went hiking in the rugged mountains behind Los Angeles, in the chaparral of the Angeles National Forest behind one of the largest cities in the world.

Plant wisdom

And our Indian guide made a startling find: a giant puffball mushroom that could only be described as a "brain." It is white, with two hemispheres, cortical ridges, a brainstem fixed deep in the clay and sand soil, and an apparent gunshot exit wound out of which, had Mr. Lincoln been sporting this thinking-cap, all his memories would have oozed.

• Calendar of Events (LAMS)
• List of Natural Entheogens

Puffball skulls, UK (Nathan Lee)

The first question we had was, "Is it poisonous?" We followed that closely with, "Can we eat it?"

Like any good guide, we were taught the first rule for those who choose to snooze during survival training. As for eating wild mushrooms, "When in doubt, throw it out." This comes right out of the LAMS' playbook.

Identification

Cooking With Native Foods (Tim Martinez)

(LAMS) The fact is that there are many excellent edible wild mushrooms [and a few sacred entheogenic ones] almost anyone can learn to identify. And there are deadly poisonous species that every collector should be familiar with as well. 

Sadly, there are no simple rules to reliably tell which mushrooms are poisonous or edible. The only way to safely forage for wild mushrooms is to be familiar with the characteristics of the species one sets out to collect. Learn these characteristics by collecting with experts who can teach them those characteristics.

Haul of desert mushrooms reaching 8.5" and brain puffball (Xochitl/Wisdom Quarterly)

 

LAMS hosts several mushroom forays every season where beginners can start. Why use an expert; why not just go by trial-and-error? There is a more famous saying among mushroomers (mycologists, those who study mushrooms), and it runs: 

"There are daring wild mushroom eaters.
And there are old wild mushroom eaters.
But there are no daring-old wild mushroom eaters."

LA awash in pot as shops file to renew

These delicate fruits of the soil can be deadly. The Buddha was possibly lead out by death caps (Amanita phalloides) fed to him by a blacksmith mistaking them for a supple pigs' feast like truffles.

Beginners ought never rely solely on identifications based on a field guide -- particularly those that provide only pictures and brief descriptions

 

Find some mushrooms in need of identification? See the L.A. Mycological Society contact page. Also check the recommended reading page for Websites, books, and journals to learn to identify mushrooms in the wild.

• VIDEO: Making an Indian teepee from a tarp
• VIDEO: What's in our backpacks? Pack lightly
• Annual Lummis Day returns to NE L.A. in June
• VIDEO: U.N. Climate Panel issues dire warning of threat to global food supply, calls for action
• Inside the "Electronic Omnivore": new leaks show NSA spying on U.N., Climate Summit, text messaging
• Do Girl Scout cookies still make the world a better place?
• Rick and Kay Warren try to improve church attitudes about mental illness
• People still uninsured may turn to community clinics 
• Supreme Court loosens limits on political contributions (Now we'll have the "best democracy money can buy")
• LA County on health care plan for undocumented
• LA Heat exhibition celebrates Angelenos' love of hot sauce 
• LA hasn't had positive job growth in 23 years, report says (Wendy Lee) The UCLA Anderson Forecast says L.A. needs to improve education and make the area more business-friendly in order to increase jobs.

LA rain: showers, hail, thunder, wind, road closures Wed. (Maya Sugarman/KPCC)

Spectacular meteor over Joshua Tree (photos)

Wisdom Quarterly; Scott Rinckenberger, A Martinez, Alex Cohen, "Take Two" (SCPR.org)

Regularly scheduled long exposure camping shot in Joshua Tree National Park, California caught a meteor ads it exploded in the sky during a 30 second camera exposure.

  

Zion National Park (scottrinck.com)

Seeing a meteor streak through the night sky takes a certain amount of luck. Turn away for a second, and you could miss it. Capturing one on film is even harder.
 

So when photographer Scott Rinckenberger set out to shoot fall landscapes in the West, he wasn't expecting to capture the fleeting image of a shooting star.

Yosemite National Park (scottrinck.com)

But when it happened, he knew he'd captured something rare. "Take Two" talked to him about capturing the luckiest shot of his career as part of its occasional series, Picture This. 

"I generally spend my falls spending a lot of time in the outdoors, backpacking, and climbing, and that sort of thing, but late this summer...

Mt. Shuksan, Washington (scottrinck.com)

"I decided I would hit the road and just go out and try to track down the best landscape and the best weather I could starting in Seattle with a final destination of Joshua Tree National Park down in Southern California."

What happened the last night in Joshua Tree? "I guess I was just looking to get a shot that sort of encapsulated the feeling of camping out in the desert. I think Joshua Tree is such a spectacular landscape. 

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

"It's just such a wonderful way to spend the night, watching the stars and hanging out by a campfire that I was just looking for a shot that did a good job of sort of capturing that essence. So it was set up to capture the night sky with the brilliant starscape that was going on, as well as the beautiful camp we had set up among the rocks. It was going to be a good shot, but it turned out to be so much more." LISTEN + PHOTOS

• Wilderness survival (PrimitiveWays.com)
• VIDEO: Sex in trees is dangerous; don't try it!
• Fungus! (Beautiful Wildlife Garden)
• Are mushrooms healthy food?
• Edible and Useful Plants of California
• NEWS: Full-Spectrum-Dominance.com
• Right wing Jewish leader Ariel Sharon dies
• VIDEO: Snowden: Do UFOs inhabit Earth?
• Tarnished Los Angeles County Sheriff
• Dan's Hiking Blog, Los Angeles hikes
• The red-haired giants of Lovelock Cave, NV 
• International House of Reiki (chi from the sun)
• VIDEO: Sex scientist: lesbian activity up in US
• Gays, human rights, Sochi Russian Olympics
• Woman's 3 hour orgasm lands her in hospital
• Some MICROBES date before they mate
• 911: There was no gun found in my vagina!
• UFO or MIC? Mutilated cattle wash up on beach
• Noam Chomsky: Economic system "pure savagery"
• Dolphin playing or shark stalking kids in California?

(ASAP Science) Can plants think?