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| Olivia Culpo, the new Miss America, can't believe all her prayers finally came true! |
Miss Pennsylvania USA claims pageant rigged
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| Praying to Saint Barbie |
A posting on Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin's Facebook page claims another contestant learned the names of the top 5 finishers on Sunday morning -- hours before the show was broadcast.
Monnin claims the other contestant told her the names of the Top 5 she spotted on a planning sheet for the telecast -- and she decided to step down as soon as those same contestants were named during the show.
"In my heart I believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and high moral integrity, none of which in my opinion are part of this pageant system any longer," Monnin wrote in one of her Facebook posts.
Monnin, of Cranberry, Butler County, did not immediately respond to a Facebook message from The Associated Press. Donald Trump, who runs the Miss Universe Organization, called Monnin's claims that the pageant was fixed... More
The Buddha on Beauty
Dhr. Seven and Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly translation
"Five things are desirable, agreeable, pleasant, yet hard to obtain in the world. What are the five?
1. Long life... 2. beauty... 3. pleasure... 4. status... 5. rebirth in heaven...
The Greek King Menander asked the Buddhist monk Nagasena, "Revered Nagasena, why is it that all people are not alike? Some are short-lived, some long-lived, some sickly some healthy, some ugly some beautiful, some without influence some of great power, some poor some wealthy, some low born some high born, some foolish some wise?"
"Five things are desirable, agreeable, pleasant, yet hard to obtain in the world. What are the five?However, I tell you, these five things are not to be obtained by prayer or vows [petitioning or bargaining]. If they were to be obtained in this way, who would not have them?
It is not fitting for a follower of the Noble Ones [and their enlightening teaching] who desires beauty to plead or bargain for it, or to delight in doing so.
Instead, a disciple of the Noble Ones who desires beauty should follow a path of practice leading to beauty. In so doing, one will attain it, be it human [now or in the future when one is again born as a human] or divine [in worlds to come]...
(The same may be said of long life, pleasure, status, and rebirth in heavens)..." (AN 5.43).
The Cause of Beauty
Wisdom Quarterly translation based on Rhys Davids'
Nagasena replied: "Why is it that all vegetables are not alike? Some are sour, some salty, some pungent, some acidic, some astringent, and some sweet?"
"Venerable sir, I fancy that it is because they come from different kinds of seeds."
"Just so, Great King, are the differences you have mentioned among humans to be explained. For it has been said by the Buddha: 'Beings, O brahmin, each have their own karma [deeds], are inheritors of karma, belong to the tribe of their karma, are relatives of karma, have karma as their protecting overlord. It is karma that divides them up into low and high and such divisions."
- (From Rhys Davids, Milindapanha, "Questions of King Menander," 1:100).
The secret, then, is that karma separates the beautiful from the ugly. What karma? Patience and kindness having been willed, carried out, and accumulated, frequently practiced, made a habit are causes of beauty when any of these acts come to fruition. Anger, ill will, hate, resentment, and harshness are causes of ugliness when these mental actions finally come to fruition. The Buddha explains in detail:
But WHY?
Perplexed by the apparent and seemingly inexplicable disparity that exists among humans, the young truth seeker Subha ("Beauty") approached the Buddha and questioned him regarding it.
"Venerable sir, what is the reason, what is the cause that we find among humans the short-lived and the long-lived, the diseased and the healthy, the ugly (dubbannā) and the beautiful (vannavantā), the powerless and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, the ignorant and the wise?"
The Buddha explained: "All living beings have actions (karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their resort. It is karma that differentiates beings into low and high states.[Note]"
Then he explained the causes of such differences in accordance with the law of causes, conditions, and their many results:
"...If one is wrathful and turbulent, is irritated by a trivial word, gives vent to anger, ill-will and resentment, that person, as a result of irritability, when born among humans, will become ugly." (This is because this seed comes to fruition at the time of rebirth conditioning what is expressed in terms of one's vast store of karma).
"If one is not wrathful nor turbulent, is not irritated even by a torrent of abuse, does not give vent to anger, ill-will, and resentment, that person, as a result of amiability, when born among humans, will become beautiful." Similarly a reason is given for each kind of karma, conduct, behavior, states (volitions), and traits (habits) that have the power to ripen in the future. More
Instead of reading the aryan ("noble") works of Greek King Menander (called the Milindapanha) a series of questions and answers from one of the Buddhists who flourished in ancient Greece (Indo-Greco empires like Bactria), this Greek Neo Nazi failed to check his anger.
He let it grow until, like fire, it spread all out of control. And he revealed his true colors in this lifetime -- anger, a propensity for violence, animosity, and abusiveness. He had trained in the military and Greek special forces as many Neo Nazis dream of doing.
Losing control, he beat a female political opponent on live TV. First he threw a drink in the face of another female opponent. He is being sought by police to account for his outlandish behavior that has upset national sensibilities and standards of conduct for men particularly politicians appearing in public.
(LeakNewz) Greece's pre-electoral climate has become more explosive after a high profile neo-Nazi MP assaulted two female politicians from leftwing parties on live TV.
The beating, a first in the nearly 40 years since democracy was returned to its birthplace [although it existed in the Indian Buddhist Sangha before arriving in ancient Greece], broke out during a morning talk show when Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman of the far right Chrysi Avgi ("Golden Dawn") took umbrage at deputy Rena Dourou declaring that his party "will take the country back 500 years."
After leaping from his seat and throwing a glass of water at Dourou, a deputy with the radical Syriza party, Kasidiaris then turned on Liana Kanelli, an MP with the KKE Communist party, who, waving a piece of paper, stood up to condemn the action.
As the cameras rolled, the cropped-haired Kasidiaris, a weightlifting enthusiast who had served in Greece's special forces, is shown beating Kanelli, slapping her around the face... More
Neo Nazi won't be beautiful
Instead of reading the aryan ("noble") works of Greek King Menander (called the Milindapanha) a series of questions and answers from one of the Buddhists who flourished in ancient Greece (Indo-Greco empires like Bactria), this Greek Neo Nazi failed to check his anger.He let it grow until, like fire, it spread all out of control. And he revealed his true colors in this lifetime -- anger, a propensity for violence, animosity, and abusiveness. He had trained in the military and Greek special forces as many Neo Nazis dream of doing.
Losing control, he beat a female political opponent on live TV. First he threw a drink in the face of another female opponent. He is being sought by police to account for his outlandish behavior that has upset national sensibilities and standards of conduct for men particularly politicians appearing in public.
(LeakNewz) Greece's pre-electoral climate has become more explosive after a high profile neo-Nazi MP assaulted two female politicians from leftwing parties on live TV.
The beating, a first in the nearly 40 years since democracy was returned to its birthplace [although it existed in the Indian Buddhist Sangha before arriving in ancient Greece], broke out during a morning talk show when Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman of the far right Chrysi Avgi ("Golden Dawn") took umbrage at deputy Rena Dourou declaring that his party "will take the country back 500 years."
After leaping from his seat and throwing a glass of water at Dourou, a deputy with the radical Syriza party, Kasidiaris then turned on Liana Kanelli, an MP with the KKE Communist party, who, waving a piece of paper, stood up to condemn the action.
As the cameras rolled, the cropped-haired Kasidiaris, a weightlifting enthusiast who had served in Greece's special forces, is shown beating Kanelli, slapping her around the face... More
