America's Buddhist burial mound at Sedona

Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; photographers Pete/Karevil, Glen Carlin

Vajrayana Buddhist prayer flags flying over Boudhanath, Nepal (Pete/Karnevil/flickr)

 

Wisdom and Compassion

The dome at the base of Boudhanath Stupa ("Enlightenment Reliquary," a UNESCO World Heritage Site) outside Kathmandu, Nepal represents the entire world. When a person awakens (represented by the opening of the eyes of wisdom and compassion) from the illusory bonds of the world, that person has reached the state of enlightenment. Complete liberation (nirvana) awaits and is already visible when this is accomplished.

America needs a great Buddhist stupa!
Xochitl, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Sedona's Buddhist Stupa, Sedona, Arizona (Glen_Carlin/flickr.com/collage)

 

Flags over Sedona Stupa (Glen Carlin)

We have one! We have other smaller ones, too. Every Buddhist temple in America wants its own old-world reliquary, a white mound to entomb spiritual treasures.

Pagodas, dagabas, chortans, mandala-mounds, and so on all house priceless reliquary objects -- either minute amounts of the historical Buddha's funerary ashes or relics (strange physical byproducts of enlightenment manifesting as beautiful glass-like beads and other formations that survive or are produced during cremation) or the remains of arhats, honored teachers, and world rulers (chakravartins).

Then there's the great Tibetan stupa at SMC in Colorado, too (shambhalamountain.org)

• 

  Small side-chortan in Sedona

  Wait a minute. How in the world could there be so many of the Buddha's cremation ashes to supply all the world's stupas? It's ludicrous; it's like all that wood the Medieval Christians sold as authentic bits of Christ's own Roman cross. The answer is very simple. If we begin with one cup of actual cremation remains, then we can divide that, but as with any precious powder, it is watered down with a neutral substance: one part relic ashes with one million parts neutral ashes = 1,000,001 parts authentic Buddha ashes. Stranger still, "relics" multiply, so they are not limited to what was available the first day. Moreover, not only the Buddha's remains are used but those of many arhats. There are still arhats, still funeral pyres, cremation remains, and so long as the Dharma is practiced even by one person, there is a chance for more.

Amazing Anasazi (Hopi) ruins at Tuzigoot, Clarkdale, Arizona (americansouthwest.net)

 

Wooden Buddha (Glen Carlin)

City councils are very reluctant to approve of such building requests. There is a campaign to bring one to Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara.
 
But one already exists, built by Tibetan Buddhists in northern California. Across the USA there are small ones and plans, or at least dreams, for more.

Buddha profile (Glen Carlin)

However, there is at least one great one already: It is in our spiritual center where Native Americans recognized vortices of power and energy, Sedona, Arizona.

Wisdom Quarterly visited with Xochitl and Dr. Rei Rei to visit the Anasazi sites and this amazing hidden gem hidden on the west side of the American Southwest's most beautiful town.

To visit, choose the cooler months. Sedona is amazing year round, with winter snows the blanket the red rocks. It is one of the most picturesque landscapes in the world, a lower extension of the once Buddhist Grand Canyon. (How could the Grand Canyon ever have been Buddhist? It was).

• VIDEO: Native Buddhist artifacts, Grand Canyon
• Were the Anasazi [Native Americans] Buddhists?
• Buddhist cave temples found in Grand Canyon
• AUDIO: Ancient Egyptians in the Grand Canyon 
• Grand Canyon's secret underground Buddhist temple?  
• Native American Buddhism and Tibet 

Hovering above the massive stupa is a gorgeous wooden Buddha carving surrounded by many American offerings: trinkets, flowers, incense, glass beads, Native American jewelry, coins, notes, flags...adding to the splendor of the U.S. Southwest (Glen_Carlin/flickr.com).

Sedona, Arizona is "the most beautiful place on earth" (visitsedona.com)

Yoga training and 2015 trip to India

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Jeanne Heileman (Yogaworks.com/Larchmont)

Come and see the wonders of North India with Jeanne Heileman (internationalyoga.com)

Yoga instructors Jeanne Heileman and Sarah Ezrin, YogaWorks, Larchmont More info

.

YogaWorks trip to India with Jeanne Heileman

This free event is the perfect way to find out more about what makes the YogaWorks method, and YogaWorks Teacher Training, the gold standard for yoga in the U.S. and beyond. The session begins with a free hour class taught in the YogaWorks method followed by a information session led by the trainer. This session is highly recommended for students considering our teacher training, as well as serious students of yoga who are curious as to what taking a teacher training involves and how to take their yoga practice to the next level. Space is limited; RSVP recommended to hold a spot. There will also be a presentation on the upcoming trip to India. More

YogaWorks, Larchmont

Just east of Hollywood, California Larchmont Village has as a casual feel to it, the main street lively with foot traffic. Smack in the middle of the bustle sits Center for Yoga, a peaceful, homey studio steeped in history. Originally founded in 1967 by Ganga White (of White Lotus fame), Center for Yoga was the first yoga studio to open in Los Angeles. Maty Ezraty, one of the original YogaWorks founders, worked as a manager at the Center before moving on to open her own studio on Montana Avenue.
 

Spanning two floors, this charming space has three yoga rooms including a rope wall and a giant main room with high ceilings and a life-size Buddha. True to its classical roots, the studio attracts many devoted yoga students from the Los Angeles area. They come for advanced Mysore style Ashtanga and Vinyasa Flow Classes. Beginners also have a wide variety of Level 1 classes to choose from, like YogaWorks signature and Iyengar.

Enjoy a FREE WEEK of unlimited yoga, meditation, and exercise at YogaWorks

Join us on our trip to see the wonders of India, January 2015 (internationalyoga.com)

Boycott, Divest, and Sanction ISRAEL (video)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Sonali Kolhatkar (UprisingRadio.org via KPFK.org Los Angeles and KPFA.org Berkeley, July 7, 2014)

Let's face the awful truth about why Israel gets away with war crimes: "The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media" - former CIA Director William Colby (DP).

That boy has a stone in his hand, annihilate him! Israel (an arm of the CIA) seeks revenge! Israel's invasion, occupation, and annihilation of Palestine was a Catastrophe or Nakba (EOI).

alestine burning as a result of Israeli government bombing supported by the majority of its Jewish, nationalist population calling for "revenge" against Arabs (electronicintifada.net).

.

Are we, as Americans -- Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, animistic, atheistic, and hedonistic -- guilty of Israel's crimes against humanity? We as a country fund, support, direct, then defend Israel. And whatever our president does or does not do, there are real movers and shakers -- what we call the "military-industrial complex" working in lock step with the CIA, NSA, and corporations -- who actually call the shots, stage events, and manage the spin and public relations on the mainstream media.
 
Family Members of Slain and Beaten Palestinian Boys Speak Out about Israeli Brutality

I can make you president, Mitt. - Thanks, Bibi!

Two children -- one American, the other Palestinian, boys from the same family --are at the center of revenge killings and torture by Israeli Jewish terrorists.

Israel claims to be retaliating against captive Palestinians in the world's largest open-air prison (Gaza) for the kidnapping and murders of three Israeli teens. Sixteen year old Mo Abu Khadeir was found dead in East Jerusalem after being kidnapped by Jews who burned him alive, the cruelest form of murder.

• (UPDATE: Six Israeli Jews have been arrested, and three have allegedly already confessed to these crimes against humanity who were answering open calls for "revenge" by their Prime Minister Netanyahu, the apparent head of the Israeli military and its chief CIA contact).

Autopsy reports have confirmed that the teenager was burned alive. Days of protests in Palestinian towns and cities culminated in the arrest of six suspects by the Israeli government.

• LISTEN to segment with Mo's cousin and Tarek's aunt
• AUDIO: Listen to the entire program (Uprising/Pacifica)

Oh, Great Wall God, please help Bibi kill my enemies *sniffle-sniffle* (BBC/S401)

 .

Is/was "Israel is worth ten CIAs"?

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy from the same family, the American teen Tarek Abu Khadeir, was savagely beaten by undercover Israeli police while watching the protests.

It is fortunate that two separate cameras were filming Tarek as he was beaten unconscious. They did not manage to film him as he was denied medical treatment, jailed without charge, then fined to win his release as family members paid steeply for his freedom.

• (UPDATE: Tarek was subsequently brought up on trumped up charges in an apparent attempt to protect Israel's paramilitary police, who beat him without justification in an extreme abuse of power. The U.S. government put out a meek statement calling for an investigation into the use of "unnecessary force" by militant Israeli agents).

Sexist, patriarchal Israel says it a democracy

Tarek, 15, is a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent. He was on vacation visiting relatives when beaten nearly to death then arrested and imprisoned without trial to cover up police crimes. After days of lobbying by advocacy groups and his family here in the U.S., he was sentenced by Israel to 10 days of house arrest in Palestine. His beating was captured on video by two neighbors and can be viewed online (and below).
 

Obama proves US is pro-AIPAC, pro-Jewish

Israeli raids have targeted and killed [100] Palestinians in the Gaza strip (the open-air prison Israel maintains, which no one is allowed to leave although they are civilians who have not been charged much less accused, tried, or convicted of any crime). While collateral damage is widespread, with many innocent civilians being killed by precision state-of-the-art Israeli weaponry, Israel claim members of the group Hamas among them. The Israeli government uses the pretext that it is blaming Hamas for the deaths of the three Israeli teens -- with no evidence, no trial, no formal accusation, no conviction, no due process at all.  More 

GUESTS: Mohammad’s cousin Amal Abu Khadeir and Tarek’s aunt Sanah Abu Khadeir. Special thanks to Haia Radwan, Uprising's newest intern, for help with this story.

The US, like Israel, gives the illusion of being a democracy but it's pay to play (occupy)

What's it like living under an "illusion of democracy"? Find out in Israel and U.S.

  
Beating a child into unconsciousness 
(AB) Black clad paramilitary Jewish Israeli police attempt to murder an American child in a hidden courtyard in Palestine, but it is filmed by neighbor for the whole world to see.

The infamous video of the American boy Tarek being beaten by Israeli police until unconscious then his body being dragged away to prison. This was before police realized he was an American.

• There solidarity protests in California this week joining Palestinians against Israeli war crimes and attacks on captive Palestinian civilians. In San Francisco, people are gathered on July 7th from 4:30-6:30 pm in front of the Israeli Consulate, 456 Montgomery St. at California St.
• In Los Angeles a demonstration was held on July 8th, from 4:00-7:00 pm in front of the Israeli consulate, 11766 Wilshire Blvd., West Los Angeles, CA 90025.
• There are also protests across America by progressives condemning Israeli nationalists, the Obama administration, American Jews, and Christian fundamentalists who support right wing extremists in Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's military regime.

Too close for comfort?
Wayne Madsen (rense.com, May 24, 2010)

Gay bathhouse buddies, Rahm+Obi

Pres. Barack Obama and improperly-elected Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel are members of the same Chicago gay bath house). President Obama and his Jewish, pro-Israel Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel are lifetime members of the same gay bath house in uptown Chicago, according to informed sources in Chicago’s gay community, as well as veteran political sources in the city. More

• U.S. complicity in Israel's attack on Gaza The US needs to admit its responsibility for the crisis in Palestine. 

• 

  CIA is Google is NSA is Facebook is DARPA

  I'd dump the Israelis tomorrow": controversial ex-CIA analyst...
• Ex-CIA Chief Michael Scheuer says Israel is [now] worth nothing to U.S. 
• Former CIA Bin Laden Unit Head Michael Scheuer slams Israel lobby 
• Protests Are Going Viral (Occupy.com) ISRAEL - Israel denied the entry of more than 1,500 pro-Palestinian activists trying to come into the West Bank and Gaza to build a... embassy’s main gate. • April 17, ISRAEL - 1,600 Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike to protest Israeli forces...
• Meet the Muslim-American leaders the FBI and NSA have been spying on ...State University, who champions Muslim civil liberties and Palestinian rights; Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council...to the White House. But even if Saeed had asserted that Palestinian violence is justified in response to Israeli occupation, such a... 
• International Activism Surges into Summer...of resistance the past two weeks: More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners have participated in a mass hunger strike in the occupied... the displacement, murder and imprisonment of thousands of Palestinian families. Despite evictions and arrests, Occupy Moscow hangs...  
• "Israel and the Bomb" (documents, Dimona revealed) In early December 1960 [one part of] the CIA distributed its findings to other government agencies...On January 31, 1961, ten days after Pres. Kennedy took office, and in.... the Israeli assurances, a political commitment from Israel was worth pursuing...
• Why the [most effective] in Mossad and the CIA are women (Forbes) ...protocol, the head of Mossad -- Israel's national spying agency -- singled out... She tells me that that one of the CIA's best-kept secrets is that their most...down 185 billion-dollar dynasties collectively worth $1.2 trillion.
• VIDEO: Is Alex Jones "Jewish" or just a future "Israeli"? 
• Not my CIA, your CIA? Israel/CIA vs. Mandela! ...TV news shreds the myths (VeteransToday.com) ...Obama's speech at Nelson Mandela's memorial left out the CIA's responsibility for putting Mandela in prison for most of.... The cross currents article is really worth reading.
• Israel and Iraqi Kurds: Gambling with "moderate allies"
• Social Media: "Nazis rape Brazil" in World Cup soccer
• CODE PINK: WOMEN FOR PEACE

Where is there a free media?
Samuel_Washington (DailyPaul.com, 11/30/2013)

...Alex Jones' wife is Jewish. Alex Jones' children and wife are de facto Israeli citizens. Alex Jones can become an Israeli citizen. Many PNAC members (read Neo-Con warmongers) are also dual citizens of Israel.

This group realized that [to make] major change in the U.S. would require a new "Pearl Harbor" event -- this was just before 9/11.
 
The president of GCN -- [Genesis Communication Network, the media corporation that owns Alex Jones' show], who pays ABC News, gives airtime to Alex Jones' disinformation and Jason Bermas' disinformation -- is also a sponsor of The Daily Paul. He owns Midas Resources. See the ads on the page?

• In 1984 ABC was bought out by Capital Cities, [which was] founded in part by CIA Director Bill Casey (under then-V.P. George Bush Senior. ABC then became known as "The CIA Network."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff -- also a dual Israeli citizen -- released Israeli spies from U.S. custody after 9/11.
 
Alex Jones' father was a member of the Jon Birch Society -- [a] suspected Zionist front with Freemason connections, which was funded by Nelson Rockefeller [and] had CFR members sitting on [its] board. Fred Schlafly, husband of Congresswoman Phyllis Schlafly, was also a Jon Birch Society board member. More

Have Israel and USA become terrorists bent on creating "enemies" then attacking them? (AJ)

A Jewish homeland already exists as a Russian oblast predating "Israel" in Palestine.

Kim, Kali, Kwan-yin, Kumari, Mary K (video)

Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Sonia Narang ("The World," PRI.org, 6-18-14); KFIam640.com; Christian Today; New York Daily News

The new Madonna and Child, Kim Kardashian and North West, June '14 (hiphollywood.com)

Holy cow! Kim Yin Kardashian is now a goddess deified by American artist Hannah Kunkle

Kim, Kwan Yin, the Virg Yin as manifestations of the Goddess (Hannah Kunkle/Splash/KFI)

.

Kim as black as Kali, bad tan (guyism.com)

US artist Hannah Kunkle's digital paintings feature reality TV star Kim Kardashian (Mrs. Kanye West) as various religious icons.

They were featured in an exhibition entitled "The Passion of Kim Kardashian" that opened in Brooklyn. Kunkle, 23, admits she is "strangely fascinated" by Kardashian.

Kanye and Kim, the FUTURE couple

"It's art. It's supposed to be wild and, not offensive, but prying," she told a US newspaper after various religious leaders slammed her work.
 

Father Michael Perry of Our Lady of Refuge Church in Flatbush, Brooklyn told the New York Daily News the show was "dumb and stupid." Kardashian is also portrayed as the Hindu goddess Kali, Jesus the Christ, Catholic nuns, Joan of Arc, and a Satanic priestess [like Mary Kay but selling Khroma]. More

We've just about had it with Kardashian-West, just about, but the West needs goddesses, too

Kim Kardashian Satanic high priestess with her own altar (animalnewyork.com)

Satanic priestess: Kim drops in on Kanye at Bonnaroo 2014 in seductive top (Daily Mail)

. 

I'm still a young hybrid (M-C)

The artist explains why she did it: "I think she is almost a patron saint of pop culture," Kunkle told the Daily News.

"She's everywhere." And in an April 2014 interview, she went beyond statements of admiration: "Kim Kardashian is God," she told VICE.

• Future goddess Honey Boo Boo is "a tiny, dimpled monster"
• VIDEO: Kim flashes lots of skin as she goes braless: Kim Kardashian stepped out in New York wearing another daring outfit and revealing [that she must be trying to become the new Madonna].
• The 5 Principles and 10 Commandments of Hinduism 
• What does it mean when one says I'm Shia or Sunni?
• Fun with fungi: the lurid bolete (wiki)
• FEMEN.org: Topless female activists

The Living Goddesses of Nepal

Sonia Narang (The World, PRI, 6-18-14); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Along a busy thoroughfare near Kathmandu, Nepal, a passageway leads into a large, open-air courtyard. In the back corner, there’s a modest home with a red sign outside that simply reads, “Living Goddess.”

 

Kumari blessing at festival (Sonia Narang)

A narrow wooden staircase leads up to the second floor, where the goddess spends much of her childhood. She’s called a Kumari (Ku Mary), and she’s [adored] by Nepali Hindus and Buddhists, who believe she's the [embodiment] of the Hindu goddess Durga [with the power to kills one's demons].
 
In Nepal, this centuries-old tradition of choosing a young girl as a goddess continues to this day. Now, people from around the world flock here to get a glimpse of her.


 

Are there Himalayan pools in Nepal?

I got to know the mother of this Kumari after several visits to her house.
 
Her name is Shobha Bhajracharya. She has a full, round face with a sweet smile.
 
I ask her how she felt when her daughter Samita was chosen to be a Kumari a few years ago. She laughs shyly.
 

Kumari is so cool! Choose me! I can morph.

“I felt both happy and sad,” she says.

“On one hand, I felt happy because when your daughter becomes god, having a god in the home is a delightful thing.

But [on the other hand] I also got scared because I wasn’t sure if we would be able to follow all the rules.” More

Who is the Buddhist Goddess Kwan Yin?
ReligionFacts.com; edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Goddess Kwan Yin buddha-to-be with a  thousand arms (chinatourguide.com)

 
Kwan Yin (also Kuan and Guan Yin) is the bodhisattva of compassion. [A bodhisattva is a person who has vowed to develop the perfections to become a buddha].

I wear white! Goddess power!

She venerated by East Asian Buddhists [particularly in the very Hindu-influenced Mahayana school, having morphed from the Hindu god Avalokitesvara].

Commonly known as the "Goddess of Mercy," Kwan Yin is also revered by Chinese Taoists as an Immortal. The name Kwan Yin is short for Kuan Shih Yin (Guan Shi Yin), which means "Observing the Sounds of the World [One Who Hears the Cries of the World]."

Braless in Paris, France (M-C)

In Japanese, she is called Kannon, or more formally Kanzeon; the spelling Kwannon, resulting from an obsolete system of romanization, is sometimes also seen. In Korea, she is called Kwan-um or Kwan-se-um. In Vietnamese, she is called Quan Âm or Quan Thế Âm Bồ Tát [Kwan Yin Bodhisattva].

Kuan Yin is the Chinese name for the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. However, folk traditions in China and other East Asian countries have added many distinctive characteristics and legends [to the original Brahminical/Hindu legend]. Most notably, while Avalokitesvara can be depicted as either male or female, Kuan Yin is usually depicted as a young woman, whereas Avalokitesvara in other countries is usually depicted as a man.

My make up is optional! No, Kim!

Along with Buddhism, Kwan Yin's veneration was introduced into China as early as the 1st century CE, and reached Japan by way of Korea soon after Buddhism was first introduced into the country from the mid-7th century.
 
Representations of the bodhisattva in China prior to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) were masculine in appearance. Images which later displayed attributes of both genders are believed to be in accordance with the Lotus Sutra, where Avalokitesvara has the supernatural power of assuming any form required to relieve suffering and also has the power to grant children.
 

I don't git it! - I'm "Kim Yin" now. (PH)

Because this bodhisattva is considered the personification of compassion and kindness [more like Princess Diana of Wales or the original Goddess DIANA, who now appears in the form of the Hunger Games' Jennifer Lawrence], a mother-goddess and patron of mothers and seamen, the representation in China was further interpreted in an all female form around the 12th century. In the modern period, Kuan Yin is most often represented as a beautiful, white-robed woman... More

 

Kwan Yin in Theravada Buddhist Thailand, Wat Plai Laem, Ko Samui (sandrobisaro.com)

But I want to be the All-American Goddess! Notice me! I'm Lindsay "The Luóhàn" Lohan!

  
NY to legalize medical marijuana
[Hey, Lindsay,] New York is poised to become the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana, but smoking it will not be allowed under... [So why don't you move there?]