Saving the children of India (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Rocky Braat "Blood Brother"

(BBD) Rocky Braat met a group of Indian children diagnosed with HIV while drifting through India. He wanted to save them all, but in reality he couldn't cure even one of them. They teach him, daily, that love is the only thing that makes life worth living. The truth is, he needs them as much if not more than they need him. (BloodBrotherFilm.com/Facebook/twitter) 

Reaction: "Let's get them low cost drugs!"?

[Not covered in the film: Why do they really have this diagnosis? Poverty and poor nutrition from processed foods like white rice and Monsanto's chemcial-laden agricultural products. And why will they die? Capitalism and the commodification of Big Pharma "health care" that wants more and more such diagnoses -- that will show up if anyone taking an "AIDS test" has a flu, malnutrition, is generally sickly or normally fending off an infection AND is interpreted as being in an at-risk group by test result interpreters -- whether in gay and poor neighborhoods in the USA or in the developing world, all to boost sales of their products with the help of government and NGO funds for more misguided R&D.]

Mysterious RAIN storm sweeps through L.A.

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Shirley Jahad (KPCC FM, SCPR.org, Pasadena)

What would a wise person do, the Buddha asked, seeing danger here and safety on the further shore? In the Parable of the Raft he advises, build a raft (whatbettertime.org)

 

Weather (twitter.com/NWSLosAngeles)

A mysterious rainstorm swept through Los Angeles yesterday, concentrating in the foothill suburb of Pasadena, headwaters for the mostly concrete Los Angeles River. While there were no fatalities, it did lead to many collisions because the inhabitants of this desert megalopolis do not know how to drive in rain, sleet, or snow, which rarely is a problem. 

(Oh no, it's raining!) The cause of the storm is unknown, probably a coincidence. These sorts of things just happen sometimes. A dancing flash mob was observed in Hahamongna in the vicinity of Devil's Gate Dam, but they did not expect flash flooding.

Snow in L.A. mountains (Oscars)

Their Native American ceremonial activities are not thought to be connected to either last night's showers or a second storm forecast for Southern California, which is expected to pass with more disruptions than the first rains. The region is now bracing for the larger of the two storms, which is expected to arrive on Thursday night and last through Saturday or Sunday.

• Officials in the San Gabriel Mountains have called for mandatory evacuations in the Colby Fire area, according to the Glendora PD; water barriers have been erected to protect homes from potential mudslides.
• Azusa officials ordered mandatory evacuations for residents on Ridge View Drive, below the Colby Fire burn area.
• L.A. County Public Works announces road closures.
• Glendora officials offered residents advice on how to prepare for potential mudslides and flooding on the city's website.
• Nat'l Weather Service updated its list of alerts and advisories.

LA Rain: Full list of advisories

Nearly an inch of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles (five miles south of Pasadena), with the San Gabriel Mountains getting up to two inches of rain. The California Highway Patrol reports there were about 111 collisions in L.A. County between 5:00 and 9:00 am Thursday morning. That is more than double the total of a non-rain day.

 

The water can only be as clean as the land

LAX Airport did not suffer any major flight disruptions, but the showers caused the cancellation of more than 100 flights at SFO (San Francisco).

• L.A. RAIN: Billions of gallons of polluted runoff likely to flow into the sacred ocean at Santa Monica Bay (Sadly L.A. gets plenty of rain, usually all at once, but it makes almost not effort to catch it, preferring instead to steal it from the north and neighboring states to the east).
• Glendora's RED ALERT press release with mandatory evacuations: 
• Forecast: debris and mud flows 
• Storms fuel mudslide anxiety
  

Woman survives car crash off canyon

The National Weather Service says the second storm is expected in Southern California by tonight or early Friday morning. The forecast calls for rainfall of 3 to 6 inches in the foothills, and up to 8 inches in some areas. A high wind watch will also be in effect in the Antelope Valley until Friday evening. More

What animals can teach us (audio)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Maria Armoudian (The Insighters, Scholars Circle, Pacifica, Jan. 26, 2014); Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, Kathryn Bowers (Goodreads.com)

Don't look at me! You're just anthropomorphizing (ktla.com)

 

I am looking at you (Tess_athey/flickr).

Do animals get depressed? Overeat? Laugh? Feel feelings?

Inspired by an eye-opening consultation at the Los Angeles Zoo, Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., a cardiologist, embarked upon a project that would reshape how she practiced medicine -- and how we all look at animals.
 

The consultation revealed that monkeys experience the same symptoms of heart failure as her human patients. Beginning with questions about what animals go through, Natterson-Horowitz began informally researching every affliction she encountered in humans to learn whether it happens in animals, too.

It does. Dinosaurs may have had brain cancer, koalas can catch chlamydia (the STD), reindeer seek mind expansion and/or escape by using hallucinogenic mushrooms, stallions self-mutilate, and gorillas experience clinical depression.

• LISTEN NOW: AUDIO (download)
  

Paying butchers is like paying hitmen to kill.

 

Natterson-Horowitz and science writer Kathryn Bowers have dubbed this pan-species approach to medicine zoobiquity (like ubiquity). Here, they present a revelatory understanding of what animals can teach us about the human body and mind, exploring how animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and heal patients of all species.

What animals can teach us about being human

You don't buy bacon, do you? Don't tell me you buy bacon.

 

Concerns about the recent explosions of HIV, West Nile Virus, and other avian and swine flus that originate in animals have encouraged new efforts on a global scale to bridge the gap between animal and human medicine for the benefit of both. Zoobiquity is the first book to explore many of the overlapping human and animal health issues. It provides new insight into the treatment of diseases including diabetes (from the sugar and starch we eat), cancer (from the pollution), heart ailments (from stress), and mental illnesses (from all causes).

 

It is even bigger than health, however. It encompasses much more than our human diseases and how to cure them. It sheds light on the evolution of hierarchies and similarities between a tribe of apes and a Fortune 500 company. 

It suggests that the ways we run our political and justice systems may overlap with how animals protect and defend their territories -- and that examining this possibility in a scientifically credible way could help strengthen our institutions.

 

It dangles the possibility that human parenting could be informed by a greater knowledge and respect for how our animal cousins solve issues of childcare, sibling rivalry, and infertility. More

Beyond Coping: The Buddha on Illness

Wisdom Quarterly; Abbot Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff, accesstoinsight.org), "Study Guide"

The Buddha ministers to the needs of a very sick monk the other monks were neglecting

 

Chinese Oroqen shaman

An anthropologist once questioned an Eskimo shaman about his tribe's belief system. After putting up with the anthropologist's questions for a while, the shaman finally told him: "Look. We don't believe. We fear."

 

In a similar way, Buddhism starts not with a belief, but with a fear of very present dangers. As the Buddha himself reported, his initial impetus for leaving home and seeking awakening was his comprehension of the great dangers that inevitably follow upon birth: aging, illness, death, and separation.

 

The awakening he sought was one that would lead him to a happiness not subject to these things. After finding that happiness, attempting to show others how to find it for themselves, he frequently referred to these themes as useful objects for contemplation.

Because of this, his teaching has often been labelled "pessimistic." But his emphasis is actually like a doctor who focuses on symptoms and causes of disease to bring about a cure. The Buddha fearlessly dwells on these unpleasant topics because the awakening (enlightenment) he teaches brings about total release from them.

 

This study guide provides an introduction to the Buddha's teachings on them. The passages included here -- all from the Pali canon -- are arranged in FIVE SECTIONS:

1. The first section (The Buddha as Doctor, the Dharma as Medicine) presents medical metaphors for the teaching (Dharma or Dhamma), showing how the Buddha was like a doctor and how his teaching is like a course of therapy offering a cure for the great dangers in life.

 

2. The second section (The Doctor's Diagnosis) diagnoses the problems of aging, illness, death, and separation, touching briefly on the Buddha's central teaching, the four noble truths.

3. The third section (Heedfulness) contains passages that use these themes as reminders for diligence in the practice. The central passage is a set of five recollections, in which these recollections forms a background for a fifth recollection: the power of one's actions (karma or kamma) to shape one's experience. In other words, the first four recollections present the dangers of life, whereas the fifth indicates the way to overcome the dangers by developing skill in one's own thoughts, words, and deeds.

4. The fourth section (Advice) contains passages that give specific advice on how to deal with these themes. The Buddha's teachings on karma provide an important underpinning for how problems of pain and illness are approached. Given the fact that the experience of the present moment is shaped by past and present intentions, it is possible that -- if an illness is the result of present intentions -- a change of mind can effect a cure. If the illness is the result of past intentions, a change of mind may not cure it but can protect the mind from being adversely affected by it. Some passages focus on how practicing the Dharma can cure an illness, whereas others focus on how the Dharma can ensure that, even if a person may die from an illness, the illness will make no inroads on the mind.

5. The fifth section (Teaching by Example) gives examples of how the Buddha and his disciples skillfully negotiated the problems of aging, illness, death, and separation.

Huxley: Buddhism in the future ("Island")

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Velma Lush (huxley.net), "The Influences of Eastern Philosophies in Aldous Huxley's Island"

The Parable of the Raft: No man is an island (dipa), so be a lamp (dipa) unto yourself, make a raft of the Dharma, and paddle to the further shore of nirvana (danitadelimont.com)

  

Aldous Huxley (biografieonline.it)

Aldous Huxley's utopian final novel, written in the 1960s and set on the fictional Buddhist island of Pala, offers psychedelic drugs ("moksha medicine") and tantric sex, but otherwise isn't fun.

In his last major work, Island, the evils Aldous Huxley has been warning us about in his earlier works -- over-population, militarism, coercive politics, mechanization, the destruction of the environment, and the worship of science will find their opposites in the gentle and doomed utopia of Pala (Woodcock 18).

 

Huxley [author of Doors of Perception] used his books to explore his struggles against personal tragedy and to search for the meaning of human existence. His interest in eastern philosophies and mysticism began in the early twenties with the study of Blake and Bohme.

 

His fascination with Eastern religion was one of the reasons he departed on a world tour in 1925. The island of Pala is probably one of the islands of the [historically Buddhist] Indonesian Archipelago.

 

In Island, Huxley's portrayal of the Palanese beliefs demonstrate principles of Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. The beliefs, values, and struggles of a lifetime are combined to form this culmination of his life's work.

 

The Palanese culture, as described in the book, started with the mingling of Western science and Oriental philosophy, in the characters of Raja of the Reform and the Scottish physician, Dr. Andrew MacPhail. 

 

The Raja had hired Dr. MacPhail to remove a tumor from his face during the early 19th century. The Raja and Dr. MacPhail and their descendants worked together "to make the best of all the worlds -- the worlds already realized within the various cultures, and beyond them, and the worlds of still unrealized potentialities" (130).

 

Will Farnaby, a journalist whose boss also owns Southeast Asia Petroleum, finds himself shipwrecked on this island. Under two motivations, Farnaby asks and is given permission to stay for a month. Farnaby, or Huxley, is genuinely interested in learning the culture, not only for literary reasons, but to find out more about himself.

His second motive is to negotiate a lease between Southeast Asia Petroleum and the Palanese government, for which he will earn a large sum of money. At several points throughout the novel Farnaby feels guilty about betraying his guests. Farnaby comforts himself with the thought that if he didn't do it, somebody else would. The forces of history are working (84).

 

As in the Hindu philosophy outlined in the Bhagavad Gita when Krishna explains to Arjuna that he is an instrument of the action; it is his fate or destiny to fight. The same holds true for Farnaby; his destiny has brought him to Pala for a reason.

Dr. Robert MacPhail, the grandson of the Dr. Andrew, suggests "to have a better understanding of what was actually done to develop the Palanese culture, you start by knowing what had to be done, what always and everywhere has to be done by anyone who has a clear idea of what's what" (34).

And so Farnaby begins his learning about Pala by reading the underlying principles of its existence, the Notes on What's What. The Palanese are described as Mahayanists Buddhists "shot through and through with Tantra" (74).

 

The first principle "Nobody needs to go anywhere else. We are all, if we only knew it, already there" (35) shows an element of Taoist philosophy.

 

The fictional version of Tantra can be interpreted as Taoism, since being a Tantrik means you don't denounce the world and try to escape into nirvana. You accept the world and everything about it. 

 

The Mahayanist Buddhist philosophy of the Palanese aims at the passage beyond suffering into the Clear Light of the Void [shunyata] of all living beings (nirvana), while living according to the Tao, appreciating and working with whatever happens during a person's life on earth.

Nirvana is a blissful state or freeness of mind. You can see the true essence of things; you can see their reality. The Palanese are taught to understand and appreciate life by being constantly aware of who you are in relation to all experiences. Over a thousand birds inhabit the island mimicking the word "attention," reminding people to pay attention to everything they do. From the beginning, children are taught to do things with a "minimum of strain and maximum of awareness" (145).

 

By the time children are 14, they've learned to get the best objectively and subjectively out of any activity (146). The Palanese make use of everything they do, everything that happens to them, all the things they see and hear and taste and touch, as a means of liberation (74).

 

By being fully aware of what you're doing, work becomes the yoga of work, play becomes the yoga of play, everyday living becomes the yoga of everyday living (152). One of the means of becoming aware of yourself in relation to the universe (being enlightened) is through "meditation." 

 

Meditation is considered "Destiny Control" since it opens your mind to an intuitive level to a greater understanding and awareness. The Palanese believe in the Buddhist philosophy that suffering is universal [i.e., that all conditioned phenomena are unsatisfactory], but one-third of it is sorrow inherent of the human condition and two-thirds is homemade as far as the universe is concerned (85).

 

Life is full of "changes and chances...beauties and horrors and absurdities" (26). Destiny Control cannot take away all the pain of suffering in bereavement, for that would make a person less than human (98). 

 

With meditation your mind can be "blue, unpossessed and open" (86), understanding that "man is infinite as the Void" (185). The body is merely a covering. The (Hindu and Buddhist) karma and (Taoist) mind of your loved one lives on [after death].

 

In their initiation into adolescence, Palanese youth climb a dangerous rock precipice to remind them of the presence of death and the essential precariousness of all existence. At the end of the climb, the children are introduced to moksha [liberation] medicine or revelation of life. 

 

Artist's rendering of the coming Future-Buddha Maitreya shrine (maitreyarelictour.com)

 

As outlined in the [Eastern] wisdom of China and India, enlightenment or nirvana, means divesting oneself of the illusions of the sensory world and constantly rising to a higher conception of an ideal world (Yutang 550).

The moksha medicine is described as the banquet of enlightenment, while meditation is considered dinner. During the moksha ceremony, the Lord of the Dance, Shiva-Nataraja, dances in all worlds, the world of the senses, the world of matter, the world of endless coming and passing away, and the world of Clear Light (170).

The flame can be considered representative of the "Tao" or thread that holds all the universe together. With the ceremony, the people understand the nature of their existence, the "One in plurality, the Emptiness that is all, the Suchness totally present in every appearance" (170). More

The harm DRUGS do

Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; The Economist "Scoring Drugs" (The Lancet*)

In a scientific ranking that appeared in The Economist, based on research profiled in the medical journal The Lancet, mushrooms came in as the LEAST harmful (Wiki).

 

Iatrogenesis (death by MD) is the major killer

Researchers asked drug-harm experts to rank the listed legal and illegal drugs on various measures of harm both to the user and to others in society.

These measures included damage to health, drug dependency, economic costs, and crime. The researchers claim that the rankings are stable because they are based on so many different measures and would require significant discoveries about these drugs to affect the rankings.

Note that alcohol, despite being legal, is by far the most harmful, far more harmful than any other intoxicant listed. Not only is it the most damaging to societies, it is also the fourth most dangerous to users. Most of the drugs were rated significantly less harmful than alcohol, with most of the harm falling on the user.

The authors explain that one of the limitations of this study is that drug harms are functions of their availability and legal status in the UK. So other cultures' control systems could yield different rankings.

 

*SOURCE: "Scoring Drugs," The Economist (Nov. 5, 2011), data from "Drug Harms in the UK: a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis" by David Nutt, Leslie King, and Lawrence Phillips on behalf of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs. The Lancet, Nov. 6, 2010 [376(9752):1558-65. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6, PMID:21036393].
 

Modern Medical Sickness

Big Pharma's big money makes it okay.

Iatrogenesis ("originating from a physician") is the criminally careless or innocent and inadvertent adverse effect or complication resulting from medical treatment or advice. This includes drug dispensing, surgery, and invasive treatments by physicians, pharmacists (Greek "sorcery, poisoning"), surgeons, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, nurses, or dentists. It is not restricted to conventional medicine, but that is where the extraordinarily high numbers and irony are. Consumer beware. It may even result from complementary medicine and alternative treatments. In the United States an estimated 225,000 deaths per year have iatrogenic causes [B. Starfield, July, 2000) "Is US health really the best in the world?" (PDF). JAMA 284 (4), PMID 10904513)]. But Dr. Gary Null, who focuses on public health and nutrition, asserts that the figure is 750,000 a year or higher, making it the biggest killer in America. This means that drugs and invasive treatments kill more patients when used as directed and even when used under direct medical supervision by a doctor! Some iatrogenic artifacts are clearly defined and easily recognized, such as a complication following surgery. Some less obvious ones can require significant investigation to identify, such as complex pharmaceutical drug interactions. Other conditions have been described but are as yet unproven, such as the detrimental effects of vaccines (which can cause death, Downs Syndrome, autism, and spectrum disorders such as Asperger syndrome.

Complaint: Why ya gotta talk about SEX?!

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

That is so disgusting! Sex and Buddhism together?

Lost in translation (en espanol*)

COMPLAINT: I'm no prude but... Why do you have to talk about SEX?!

My gratitude to Wisdom Quarterly for posting some articles and therapeutic workshops regarding sexuality ("Sex, Intimacy, Communication on Buddhist the Path"), but why?

In the world of sensuality, desire, and intimate sexual relationships, I believe that they are educational to many. HOWEVER, as we ALL know, practitioners at different levels may have different needs! For those, like me, who have been on the path for many years and have transcended those worldly desires and felt free will not need any therapy!

Furthermore, although observing celibacy is not required in many spiritual practices for laypeople, enjoying sex, especially with multiple partners (over-indulging in sensual pleasures) is certainly not  encouraged. Do you encourage it? Why is WQ talking about food, too? I'm not done yet! I want to be heard!!

REPLY: Dear Madam and/or Sir, Consider contributing something on the topic. Anyone who reads one day of Wisdom Quarterly may be misled. But anyone who reads many days will begin to see some balance in our coverage.

WQ: public relations geniuses (lol)

We do not encourage sexual misconduct/clinging to sense desire. We condemn it. It is not the path. But most people may not actively be on the path or seeking it just yet. What should they do? Live lives of shame and guilt, hide or be frustrated, lie to others and deceive themselves? Sex is here. Let's deal with it, candidly and honestly with care for our relationships and the place of this part of our corporeal reality. Believe it or not, there are uptight members of this Judeo-Atheistic-Christian society. 

Our human bodies are fine (examiner.com)

Wisdom Quarterly is a sex-positive site: Like FEMEN and OCCUPY and PUSSY RIOT and SLUTWALK and GO TOPLESS and CRASS, we use our bodies to demonstrate and call attention to ill-done deeds around the world. Let intolerant/orthodox Christian fundamentalists, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Satanists, and gatekeeping scientists condemn us. But we will nevertheless cover "forbidden" topics. We welcome all help toward voluntary celibacy for temporary intensive-practitioners, such as those on retreat or pursuing a period of monasticism. Please, offer our readers help on this popular subject.

 

Right-wing Republican Jesus

COMPLAINT cont'd: I may not be able to offer help since I am not a "sex" guru. I just wanted to point out the fact that there are lay practitioners of different kinds of spiritual practices who have realized greater satisfying fulfillment from spiritual practices than from sex. They may not need sex therapies in order to please their partner(s). Of course, I agree with that most humans still have basic needs to fulfill. Therapies suggested by Wisdom Quarterly could be educational and helpful. However, "sex" may not need to be "encouraged" in the name of religion! Why don't you stupid tramps give it a rest? Many great sages of different kinds of spiritual practices embrace a life of celibacy, although they might not be required to do so. However, without judging people by religious standards, I have nothing against those who like to enjoy hot sex. It's just personal choice. As for me, I agree with the teachings of Yoganada [Editor: SRF's Paramhansa Yogananda] and Jesus [St. Issa] on "relationship." Get a life.

*TRANSLATION: A boy wearing a skull rock 'n roll tee-shirt is being scolded by a Catholic priest, who is saying: "Look, son, I don't have anything against rock, but doesn't it seem morbid and in poor taste to you that someone would use an image of a cadaver as a marketing strategy?" Poster reads "Church versus Rock: Not too different."