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Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts

Friday, January 18, 2013

Orange County: Tet Festival 2013 (video)

Nguyen, Seven, Wells, Wisdom Quarterly
Orange County's Tet celebration welcomes the Year of the Snake (magnumasi.com)
 
Big belly Budai (Tanignak.com)
Tet, or Tet Nguyen Dan, is the Buddhist Vietnamese lunar New Year. It is celebrated from Saigon to Westminster.
   
English translation: "Feast of the First Morning." Celebrated this year in February according to the solar calendar, the upcoming Tet Festival will feature Old World traditions with additions to welcome the arrival of a new era. It is a manifestation of respect for family and ancestors.

Because it falls on Day One of Month One on the Chinese calendar, it is often celebrated in conjunction with Chinese New Year. Tet 2013 is a five-day celebration that begins on Feb. 9 and culminates with a massive festival on Feb. 14th (Valentine's Day). But the actual New Year begins on the 10th.
 
Tet is an enormous Vietnamese celebration compared to other cultures. It is preceded by weeks of preparation that commonly includes house cleaning and painting.


There is a Vietnamese belief that loud noise wards off bad luck, so fireworks and gongs are rung and set off all night.

There are parades, featuring traditional lion and dragon dances and family feasts. Inviting ancestors who have passed on to join in the celebration is common; special ceremonies and rituals are involved.
 
Traditional food served on Tet consists of Vietnamese delicacies like sticky rice dumplings called banh chung, roasted watermelon seeds, pickled onions, and a wide variety of dried and sweetened fruit. At the end of Tet Nguyen Dan, elders hand out envelopes full of money to children both to reward good behavior and as a symbol of good luck.
 
Tet 2013 will celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Snake [like the Mesoamerican naga Quetzalcoatl], following the close of the Year of the Dragon and preceding the Year of the Horse. It is a traditional celebration full of joy remembering and showing respect to loved ones who have gone before.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

GATE 3: Writing to Awaken Humanity

GateCommunity.org/StoryCon, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013; Wisdom Quarterly


“The Power of Story to Create Personal, Social, and Global Transformation”
“Celebrating Meaningful Messages for an Awakening Humanity”
  • Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013
  • Daytime Program: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • Evening Program: 6:30 pm - 11:00 pm
A Celebration of Transformational Entertainment, Media, and Arts

The Saban Theater
8440 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211 (MAP) (TICKETS)

LiveTalks LA:
Daniel Pink, Jan. 17
Matt Groening, Feb. 7th

    Thursday, January 3, 2013

    Not Quite Nirvana: A Skeptic's Journey

    Bill Williams (HartfordFAVS.com); Rachel Neumann (notquitenirvana.com); KPFK
    Thich Nhat Hanh teaches: "Seek in the present moment" (Not Quite Nirvana).
     
    Not Quite Nirvana is Rachel Neumann’s folksy account of her gradual embrace of Buddhist teachings, along with anecdotes of her dealings with Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, the famous Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and peace activist.
    One of her greatest challenges was learning to accept the truth of aging and death. Like many people, she lived with the illusion that aging, illness, and death are events that happen to other people.
     
    “Then, within a few months of turning 40, I got in a bad bicycle accident and tore up my shoulder,” she writes. “I got robbed, got pneumonia, got mostly better, cracked a rib… got bronchitis… got shingles, and lost a relatively young friend to lung cancer. Not only that, but every bone and muscle in my body felt like it had stopped working properly.”
     
    Neumann now believes that “death stays mostly hidden in U.S. society....Perhaps if death [were] as acknowledged and visible as birth, awareness and acceptance of it would become more commonplace.”

    Author, center, with daughters (dieselbookstore.com)
    Thich Nhat Hanh often writes and speaks about “no birth, no death,” meaning that we existed in our parents and prior generations long before we were born, and will continue to exist in our children and in the many people we have influenced while alive.
     
    When Neumann began work at Parallax Press in Berkeley, California, she was told that the staff gathered to meditate for 15 minutes at the start of each workday. She found the practice close to unbearable. “I would feel myself getting older, wasting my life just sitting there like a blob,” she writes in her light-hearted style.
     
    But she gradually saw the value of stopping and meditating. She and her husband began pausing before dinner with their daughters, Plum, age 4, and Luna, age 9, for a brief meditation. More

    Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble:   On Behalf of Nature ON BEHALF OF NATURE - For her newest evening-length work, Meredith Monk offers a poetic meditation on the environment. Using her highly acclaimed 2012 composition Realm Variations for vocalists and instrumentalists as a point of departure, she employs...different musical realms.
     
    Within this world, Monk evokes the Buddhist notion of the existence of different realm categories -- the idea of joining heaven [akasha-deva loka] and earth [manussa loka] by way of human beings.
     
    Drawing additional inspiration from writers and researchers who have sounded the alarm on the precarious state of our global ecology, Monk and her acclaimed Vocal Ensemble create a liminal space where human, natural and spiritual elements are woven into a delicate whole, in order to illuminate the interconnection and interdependency of us all.
    Back to Back Theatre:  Ganesh Versus the Third Reich
    GANESH VERSUS THE THIRD REICH (Back to Back Theatre) is poignant, beautiful, disarming, and full of vulnerability and sly transparency.
     
    The story begins with the [Indian] elephant-headed god Ganesh traveling through Nazi Germany to reclaim the swastika, an ancient Vedic/Hindu symbol. As this intrepid hero embarks on his journey a second narrative is revealed: the actors themselves begin to feel the weighty responsibility of storytellers and question the ethics of cultural appropriation. 
     
    Cleverly interwoven in the play’s design is the story of a young man inspired to create a play about Ganesh, "the god of overcoming obstacles."

    Monday, December 31, 2012

    Meditating-in the New Year (video)

    Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly
    Buddha under a fiery Bodhi tree as Mara and yakkhas attack (manicksorcar.com)

    Buddhist New Year's celebration with shamans in Far East Russian Buryatia (Sky News)
       
    Bye-bye 2012 mudra
    To meditate or ring in the New Year? Dating a person from Asia, I learned a momentous thing: I was assured that it is a well known and ancient belief that what one does on New Year's Day that is what one will be doing for the year. It makes sense.
     
    We're always trying to be happy. So we try to be happiest on New Year's eve. But what we think is happy is sometimes nothing more than excess and avoiding. What if there were a way to meditate-in the New Year?

    Bangkok (torchrelay.beijing2008.cn)
    There is. Los Angeles has three specific opportunities and an uncounted number of US temples that will be visited tonight and tomorrow morning.

    SHAMBHALA will hold an open sit from 4:00 pm to midnight. It's not eight hours of straight sitting. There's a celebratory dinner, a video by the "Sakyan" (Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's son and heir), walking, and lots of socializing.

    AGAINST THE STREAM is following tradition with its New Year's eve "Intention Setting" ceremony. It begins in Santa Monica, ends early, and is repeated in Hollywood on Melrose, which goes into the New Year. There are helicopters, gunfire, fireworks, and a humorous stream of intentions said aloud as candles are lit and Noah Levine gives an encouraging talk.

    SELF REALIZATION FELLOWSHIP also holds its annual welcoming the New Year meditation in Glendale in honor of founder Pramahansa Yogananda, Babajii, and the saints of all religions.

    Thursday, December 27, 2012

    ZEN: Completion of study (koan)

    Roshi Jeff Albrizze, PasaDharma.org (free, public Koan Study Group resumes Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, 7:00 pm; The Book of Equanimity, CASE 46: TOKUSAN’S COMPLETION OF STUDY
    American Zen groups everywhere. Heart of Zen Group, Loyola University, Maryland
     
    Deva looks on (00_prototype/flickr.com)
    PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY
    The pure ground without an inch of grass for 10,000 miles still deludes people.
    The clear sky without even a speck of cloud deceives us.
    Though wedges are driven in and pulled out, this does not impede holding up and supporting space.
    A hammer blow on the back of the head.
    Let's look at a skillful expedient.

    MAIN CASE
    (Myheartyourheart/flickr.com)
    Attention!
    Great Master Tokusan addressed the assembly saying, “Exhaust the end and there's instant attainment.
    The mouths of all buddhas of the three times [past, present, future] might as well hang upon the wall.
    Now, there's a person who roars with laughter. Ha! Ha!
    When you know this one, the essence of your exhaustive study is completed.”

    APPRECIATORY VERSE
    Gathering. Seizing the throat collar.
    Winds burnish. Clouds sweep.
    Chilling water, heaven turns to autumn.
    Don't say a fish scale lacks taste.
    Catching all the ocean's fish with a crescent moon.

    Monday, December 17, 2012

    Late Night Sex Talk: "Loveline" (video)

    LovelineShow.com; Wisdom Quarterly


    (LoveLineShow.com)
    Loveline is on the radio weeknights (Sunday-Thursday, 10:00-11:59 PM PST) live from Los Angeles (KROQ.com). It is co-hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky, DJ Mike Catherwood, and sex therapist Simone Bienne.

    It's a call-in question-and-answer show featuring any interesting person who can get through. (Start dialing before the show comes begins). What's the point? The primary goal is helping youth and young adults with relationship, sexuality, and drug addiction issues. 

    Dr. Drew has gone from radio to TV fame
    As a practicing internist and addiction specialist with training in psychology, Dr. Drew answers with medical authority. Comedian Psycho Mike adds humor and insight as a result of his own past dealings with drug abuse and ongoing recovery. Simone provides a woman's point of view and relationship and sex counseling expertise. Where else were we supposed to turn to find out everything we ever wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask our friends about?

    Saturday, December 15, 2012

    RAP: "Cali Christmas" (free webcast)

    Power106.com; Wisdom Quarterly (Friday, Dec. 14, 2012) COUNTDOWN CLOCK: -7

    Cali Christmas 2012 streaming live
    The year's biggest Los Angeles-area rap concert will be simulcast live tonight beginning at 7:15 pm. Big Boy and Co. from "LA's Hip Hop station" Power 106  FM bring it free after hyping it for two months straight. Tickets are sold out, and more than one surprise appearance is planned. 

    Tonight only! If rap matters, and it may not, tune in and watch the biggest concert of the year free! Performances by 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Big Sean, Meek Mill, The Weeknd, and Ca$h Out are scheduled.

    (blog.beliefnet.com/onecity)
    (WARNING: Profanity may go uncensored). So catch the livestream to see it as it all unfolds live.

    Wisdom Quarterly didn't succeed selling the station on the idea of including BUDDHIST RAPPERS like Japanese monks Kansho Tagai ("MC Happiness") and Ven. Shidaoxin, or "Faithful Bodhisattva" and our favorite Buddhist rapper Arj Barker! So catch these futuristic acts right here, right now:

    Ven. Kansho Tagai raps to spread sutras and happiness to young Japanese Buddhists

    WARNING: Mild profanity! Arj Barker is the "Sickest Buddhist"!

    Buddhist-Christian syncretism celebrating the Siddhartha/Jesus' bodhisattva ideal

    Ven. Shidaoxin takes lax Mahayana Buddhism to a new high (or low)

    Monday, December 10, 2012

    Los Angeles is a city of music (webcast)

    Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; KROQ.com  (COUNTDOWN CLOCK: -11)
    What if Mayan Calendar interpreters are off by nine days, ready? (beyondtheprophecies.com)


    Gwen's Bush, Gavin, Night 2 (kroq.com)
    While Wisdom Quarterly joined Dharma Punx at Against the Stream: Buddhist Meditation Society to see punk legends T.S.O.L. and the Adolescents, No Doubt made a surprise appearance at KROQ's annual "Almost Acoustic Xmas." As if the bill weren't full to the brim with talent, Gwen and Co. did a 40-minute set. Catch the one-time-only broadcast of the entire first night then tomorrow morning see No Doubt and many other artists:

    Almost Acoustic Christmas Webcast: Night 1 Monday at 10:00 am, Night 2 Tuesday at 10:00 am (PST). WATCH HERE



    Watch Saturday night’s show beginning today (Dec. 10) at 10:00 am Pacific Standard Time and Sunday night’s show on Tuesday, Dec. 11 at 10:00 am. These will be the only opportunities to watch! And by the way, there's nothing "acoustic" about it.

    NIGHT 1 WEBCAST SET TIMES:
    • Youngblood Hawke – 10:00 am
    • Two Door Cinema Club – 10:25 am
    • The Gaslight Anthem – 10:55 am
    • Walk The Moon – 11:30 am
    • The Lumineers – 11:55 am
    • AWOLNATION – 12:30 pm
    • Slightly Stoopid – 12:55 pm
    • Garbage – 1:25 pm
    • Bush – 2:00 pm
    • Rise Against – 2:40 pm
    • Linkin Park – 3:15 pm
    NIGHT 2: No Doubt, Of Monsters And Men, The Killers, Jack White, M83, fun., Neon Trees, Grouplove, Alex Clare, Imagine DragonsPassion Pit. WATCH

    City of Music?
    Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly
    He's not crying! Something got in his eye.
    The Gandharvas, or "The Angels" (the literal translation of the Spanish Los Angeles), really make this town the City of Music. 

    Forget Nashville and the countless American garages and studio apartment bedrooms where most music is now made and mixed. The neon lights under the Hollywood sign still shine. Not only for "new" rock but pop music and rap, too. And the 55th Grammy Awards Show just wrapped up five days ago.

    Dreamy gandharva Tadolf Swiftler
    In Buddhist cosmology gandharvas (angels) are "heavenly messengers and musicians" of the first two space worlds above the human plane. The Sensual Sphere heavens are really into pleasure, and music plays a big part as does food and fun we wouldn't normally attribute to "angels." There's gossip, silliness, vanity, and cupidity galore. Think pagan Roman, Greek, and Hindu Indian pantheons. 

    In one of their cities, where the stream-enterer Sakka is extraterrestrial king, these musicians entertain and entertain at what can only be thought of as massive cotillions, balls, and bashes, and concerts. 

    Dark goddess Ke$ha jingles during the ball (kissfm.com)
     
    Down here in the terrestrial "City of Angels," the big radio stations (and in other big markets) compete for dominance. KISS FM (an iheartradio.com affiliate) just had dreamy Tadolf Swiftler (a hybrid alien breakup artist with definite gandharva roots who also goes by Taylor Swift) and barfy Justin Bieber (another more-than-human oddity, uh, "star") play two nights of "Jingle Ball" concerts. KISS FM is the home of Ryan Seacrest, when he's not promoting the Kardashian sisters or every other show on TV (American Idol, etc.), and bills itself "L.A.'s #1 Hit Music Station," the music equivalent of TMZ.

    12.12.12 Hurricane Sandy Benefit Concert: Floyd, Stones, Who, Boss, Clapton, Kanye
    The show also featured a rare American appearance by Korean Buddhist bigwig PSY (Gangam Style), our own sweet Valley Girl Satanist Ke$ha, the Jonas Brothers, fun., Flo Rida, Jasmine Villegas, Afrojack, The Wanted, Zedd, Owl City, Ellie Goulding, Maroon 5 and Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, 4 Count, Sammy Adams, OneRepublic, Ne-Yo, and more glitter than Tinsel Town produces in a month. Never mind that upstart stations ("LA's Rock Alternative 98.7 FM," MyFM, or dinosaur rock KLOS FM who this year hosts the Doobie Brothers) also do their best to press artists into volunteering for these charity X-mas appearances/publicity stunts.
    But it's not over! This Friday KPWR FM (Power106) is holding "Cali Christmas" at the same venue KROQ sold out this weekend. Rap superstars 2 Chainz (Zen koan master), Big Sean, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Meek Mills, Ca$h Out, The Weeknd, and a surprise guest will perform. Li'l Wayne? Jay-Z? It's a secret! (And it's probably Wiz Khalifa).

    Wednesday, November 28, 2012

    JFK conspiracy redux: Judyth Vary Baker

    Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly
    Alvie (Woody Allen) explains the inconsistencies of the Warren Commission in "Annie Hall." Common sense has always known the US gov't is covering up what really happened and why.
    • JFK ASSASSINATION RE-EXAMINED 
    • with JUDYTH VARY BAKER, author of Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love & Lose Lee Harvey Oswald
    • Wednesday, Nov. 28th, 7:30-10:00 pm
    • The Canal Club, Venice Beach, CA
    • 2025 Pacific Ave., Venice, 90291 (310) 823-3878
      More info Gerry Fialka: (310) 306-7330
    • FREE admission! (meandlee.com/itinerary)
    JFK, Zapruder film still, the blood mistake (assassinationscience.com)

    Tour details (groundzeromedia.org)
    Judyth Vary Baker, author of Me & Lee: How I Came to Know, Love & Lose Lee Harvey Oswald, will appear in person and discuss her book. Baker's explosive story brings new insight to the role of Lee Harvey Oswald in the JFK assassination. She is a living witness to events that changed America. She knew Lee Harvey Oswald intimately as well as other key players in the fateful November, 1963 events.

    The Beauty and Patsy for the MIC (veteranstoday.com)
    Former Governor Jesse Ventura calls Baker's book "stunning" and ranked it among his six favorite conspiracy reads. New York Times best-selling author Jim Marrs, author of Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, recommends "the impassioned, unflinching voice of Judyth Vary Baker" to hear what our government will not tell us.

    In 1963, Ms. Baker attended Univ. of Florida and was involved in advanced cancer research involving radiation and human melanoma cells, focused on evaluating the effects of the cancerous SV-40 virus contained in early polio vaccines.

    In the Spring of 1963, Baker was contacted by Dr. Alton Ochsner, former President of the American Cancer Society and founder of the Ochsner Medical Clinic, to work on a summer project in New Orleans involving the transference of cancer via vaccine and its possible cure. During the course of this internship, Ms. Baker meets Lee Harvey Oswald, who becomes her constant companion, and
    eventually, her lover.

    Oswald is also associated with the Oschner project. The cancer research Ms. Baker is working on, she soon learns, is tied to efforts to kill Cuba's President Fidel Castro, possibly by a tainted cancer-inducing vaccine. Dr. Oschner is a supporter of anti-Communist activities.

    Although Ms. Baker eventually returns to Florida, she remained in phone contact with Lee Oswald until Nov. 20, 1963, just two days before the JFK assassination. Her book, Me and Lee, recounts the events of 1963 and the words of her final conversation with Oswald.

    During her US tour, Ms. Baker will be speaking at the Roxy Theater in San Francisco on Nov. 22, the 49th anniversary of the JFK assassination, which falls on Thanksgiving this year. She appears in North Hollywood on Nov. 26, and at the LA PRESS CLUB on Nov. 27 at 10:30 am. Details: Kris Millegan publisher@ (800) 556-2012

    Tuesday, November 20, 2012

    Forbidden Archeology: UFOs of India (video)

    Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
    Michael Cremo addresses the monthly MUFON LA meeting, Universalist Unitarian Church, Studio City, on the extreme antiquity of humans on Earth and written documentation of UFOs in ancient Sanskrit texts (WQ).

    Part I: Spacecraft in Ancient Sanskrit Texts

    Accounts of Spacecraft in Texts of Ancient India
    THE VALLEY, California - Last night the Mutual UFO Network of Los Angeles hosted scientist Michael Cremo who read and translated ancient Sanskrit texts, such as the Puranas or "Histories," explaining the nature of the universe.
      
    Just as the Buddha asserted, there are three distinct spheres (lokas): kama, rupa, and arupa or sensual, fine-material, and immaterial. MUFON's interest is in UFOs and extraterrestrials rather than cosmology as such.

    But Cremo made the link: There are three distinct kinds of UFOs (vimanas) depending on which sphere it is from. There are gross/dense machines, subtle-light vehicles, and "spiritual" craft. We can think of it in modern terms as ordinary Grey/MIC/Nazi saucers, vehicles used for dimensional travel, and mind-only (non-material) craft.

     
    PART II: Spacecraft in Ancient Sanskrit Texts
     PART III: Spacecraft in Ancient Sanskrit Texts

    Cremo distinguishes authentic Sanskrit texts of great antiquity from later "channelled" materials like the Vimanika Shastra, which may shed light on the matter but are not writings from yogis in the Himalayas. One amazing aspect is that when Dhurva meditated in the Himalaya, beings came down in a craft to take him to their world in another sphere. Earth is a world in the Sensual Sphere, and those beings were from a fine-material world or higher). 
     
    And this is the amazing thing: As he entered the craft, his body became like theirs. He had already understood by meditation that consciousness was separate, or at least separable, from his earthly body. He was transformed upon entering the craft and recounts in the texts that the craft became transparent and he saw the planets in our solar system passing, and they passed through other higher-dimensional planets on their way to their destination.
    Live in Los Angeles
    (forbiddenarcheologist.com)
    MUFON LA proudly presents Michael Cremo this month. In this rare (perhaps twice a decade) event, one of our favorite scientists reveals stunning findings. His research forms much of the basis of our view about Earth. His science is in line with a firm grasp of Vedantic and Puranic Hindu and Buddhist cosmologies, which he uses to tie together the story behind forbidden artifacts. What do they reveal? Past life and technology on our planet is much older and far more advanced than we can easily conceive. There is no denying that the forbidden truth is much stranger than the mandatory fiction in our college textbooks due to the knowledge-filterers and science suppressors. We "evolve," of course, but we were "created" (genetically manipulated) as well.

    Saturday, November 17, 2012

    Green Festival, Los Angeles (Nov. 17-18)

    GreenFestivals.org; Wisdom Quarterly

    The LA stop of the Green Festival is this weekend at the LA Convention Center. Connect with local communities to find ideas and innovations to help take the next green steps. Hundreds of speakers, exhibitors, DIY workshops... It stops in downtown Nov. 17-18. See the Online Event Guide. Admission is affordable on any budget. The fest is beinh held at the LA Convention Center: 1201 Figueroa St., intersection of the Santa Monica (10) and Harbor (110) freeways. Event hours are 10:00 am-7:00 pm Saturday and 11:00 am-6:00 pm Sunday. Exhibitors have have passed the Green America screening process for leadership in social and environmental responsibility and have earned the Green America Seal of Approval for their commitment.

    See Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman
    Amy Goodman, radio/TV hostess for the independent global news hour Democracy Now!, will speak and sign her latest book, The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 1:00 pm. Goodman goes beyond the mainstream media’s obsessive focus on poll numbers and candidate gaffes to examine how people are organizing, the impacts of restrictive voter ID laws, and the massive influx of campaign cash following the Citizens United decision. More