Indian actress to pose for Playboy, ruin India

Huffington Post: Weird News; Wisdom Quarterly

India makes more movies than Hollywood

Sherlyn Chopra, a Bollywood film actor, will become the first woman from India to strip naked in Playboy. The 28-year-old knockout wrote to the magazine and suggested the idea herself, the BBC reported. They got back to her within a few days to accept. 

   

Fans will have to wait till the November issue circulates to get a glimpse of Chopra. A press conference earlier this week heralded the addition of a "Bollywood goddess" to the pantheon of beauties who've appeared on the pages of Hugh Hefner's magazine. 

 

India is socially conservative to a fault

But her decision to pose caused a controversy in her native India where the granddaddy of all adult magazines is banned. A critic cited by the Daily Mail wrote "one wonders if Sherlyn Chopra’s pictures wound a woman’s integrity."

  

Chopra, who has had small roles in a handful of Bollywood flicks, is unfazed by the criticism. "I have become the first Indian to pose naked for Playboy," she said to the BBC, "and nobody can take away that achievement from me," She uploaded snapshots from her tour of the famous Playboy mansions in Los Angeles to her Twitter account.

• PHOTOS: Sherlyn Chopra and Hugh Hefner
• Porn magnate Hugh Hefner reunited with girlfriend
• Bollywood hypocrisy: "The Dirty Picture"

 India tries to come to terms with its double standard in "The Dirty Picture"

as a Bollywood starlet is both made famous and condemned for being sexy.

Will gratuitous porn ruin India?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The specter of the bunny ears looms

Modern India is an amazingly conservative and sexist country. Although it creates far more movies than Hollywood, which are seen by far more people in India, there is no nudity in any of them. There is no sex, and for the longest time, there were no overt kisses, although both acts were implied. Dancing is celebrated and often serves as a substitute just as it has in many places around the world (including the US). And more and more violence is celebrated. But sex is taboo, which partially explains the massive population: With suppression comes a mystique with no legitimate outlet for experimentation, so illegitimate resources are exploited in secret. It is exactly because it is taboo that it remains titillating, fascinating, and an endless font of hypocrisy. Until now that titillation has been directed at foreigners (as well as children, the helpless, the most vulnerable, etc.), particularly Westerners, who constantly appear in what little porn is available in India. (It certainly exists but is very underground). Now rather than "liberating" anyone, Western-style exploitation can begin in earnest. Will it ruin India? It may. Other things like war, a war economy (thanks to a growing military-industrial complex), and infrastructure problems may seem more salient. But the day to day experience of living in sexist India is about to get worse.

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A Buddhist Path to Recovery (Part 2)

The Eightfold Path of Recovery
Buddhist Recovery at Dharma Punk, Against the Stream; Wisdom Quarterly (Part 2 of 3)

1. Understanding

We understand that recovery begins when we renounce and abstain from all substances and addictive behaviors regardless of specific substances we have become addicted to. Forgiveness, non-harming actions, service, and generosity (unselfishness) are a necessary part of the recovery process. We cannot do it alone. Community support and wise guidance are an integral part of the path to recovery.

2. Intention

We intend to meet all pain with compassion and all pleasure with non-attached appreciation, to forgive and ask for forgiveness toward all people we have harmed or been harmed by, including ourselves, to be generous and kind to all living beings, to be honest, humble, to live with integrity and to practice non-harming.

3. Communication/Community

Natalie Anonymous (nametranslation.co.uk)

We take refuge in (go for guidance to) the community as a place to practice wise communication and to support others on their path. We practice being honest, wise, and careful with our communication, asking for help from the community, allowing others to guide us through the process. Practicing openness, honesty, and humility about the successes and difficulties we experience.

4. Action/Engagement

We abstain from all substances and behaviors that could lead to suffering. We practice forgiveness toward all people we have harmed or been harmed by, including ourselves, through both meditative training and direct amends. Compassion, non-attached appreciation, generosity, kindness, honesty, integrity, and service are our guiding principles.

5. Livelihood/Service

We try to be of service to others whenever possible, using our time, energy, and resources to help create positive change. We try to secure a source of income/livelihood that is harmless (in line with the fifth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, right livelihood).

  

6. Effort/Energy

We commit to the daily disciplined practices of meditation, yoga, exercise, wise actions, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, compassion, appreciation, and moment-to-moment mindfulness of sensations, thoughts, and emotions. We cultivate the skillful means of knowing how to apply the appropriate action or meditation for any given circumstance.

7. Mindfulness Meditation

We develop wisdom through practicing formal mindfulness meditation (vipassana). This leads to clear seeing and healing the root causes and conditions that lead us to the suffering of addiction. We practice present-time awareness in all aspects of our lives. We take refuge in the present moment.

Drugs are rampant in Asia, such as Thailand (TIME Magazine)

  
8. Concentration Meditation

We develop the capacity to focus the mind on a single object, such as the natural breath or a phrase, training the mind through constantly bringing it back to this moment -- which is aided by such practices as loving-kindness, compassion, and forbearance -- to focus on the positive qualities we seek to uncover. We utilize concentration at times of temptation and craving to abstain from acting unwisely. We also offer and reach out to one another for support.

• PART 1: A Buddhist Path to Recovery
• A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps
• Does electronic dance music inspire drug abuse? 
• USC president urges students not to attend raves
• Family of girl, 15, who overdosed at rave to get payment

This is the path to awakening, the path of recovery from the addictions and delusions that have created an unbelievable amount of suffering in our lives and in the world. All living beings have the ability to live life along these lines.

There is no one who lacks the ability, only those who lack the willingness to take on such a radical task of transformation. Addicts who do not recover right away are not broken or lost. It is just that they have not yet found the willingness to take the path of Wisdom and Compassion.
  
We believe in the human capacity for change. We understand it from direct experience. If we can, you can.

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"Our deepest fear is not..."

Nelson Mandela (Eco_Bela/flickr.com)

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