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Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Dec. 21, 2012: The End of Time? (video)

Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; NPR.org; COUNTDOWN: -1

Official Countdown Clock
Marshall Masters, 2012 researcher and author, offers an in-depth look at the predictions made in a crop circled formation he calls the "2012 Star Map of Doom."

Known as Avebury 2008, it tells us that on Dec. 21, 2012, we will begin to experience the onset of a protracted global catastrophe. It will last for years and will include a pole shift, such as the one predicted by America's "sleeping prophet" Edgar Cayce.

For the readers of Marshall's book, Crossing the Cusp: Surviving the Edgar Cayce Pole Shift, this video offers an in-depth back story not included in the book.

Maya expert: "End of Times" is our idea, not the ancients'
Bill Chappell (The Two-Way, NPR)
Tourists are seen in front of the "Gran Jaguar" Mayan temple at the Tikal archaeological site in Guatemala, where ceremonies will be held to celebrate the end of the Mayan cycle known as Baktun 13 and the start of the new Maya Era on December 21.It is Dec. 20, 2012 -- and citizens of Earth are panicking, consumed by the idea that the world will end [tomorrow]  Friday, something they say was predicted by Mayan astronomers. Of course, most people are not panicking, and Maya expert David Stuart says no one should. The calendar, he says, has plenty of room to go. In an interview airing on Thursday's Morning Edition, David Greene asks archaeologist Stuart, who helped translate influential ancient Mayan hieroglyphs in 1996, if he thinks the world will end on Dec. 21st. LISTEN
  • PHOTO: Tourists in front of the "Gran Jaguar" Mayan pyramid temple at the Tikal archaeological site in Guatemala, where ceremonies will be held to celebrate the end of the Mayan cycle known as Baktun 13 and the start of the new Maya Era on Dec. 21.
Safe from the Apocalypse in Europe
Eleanor Beardsley (UFOs and ETs on NPR.org)
Bugarach where UFO and ET conspiracies gather
Friday is the last day of a 5,125-year cycle in the Mayan calendar, sparking talk about the possible end of the world. About two years ago, a rumor began circulating on the Internet that the French village of Bugarach, population 200, would be the only place to survive this apocalypse. But despite many news stories of people flocking to the village, less than two weeks before "doomsday," there was no one on the streets. Houses were shuttered against the cold.... For 40 years, [the mayor] says, people have been coming here looking for UFOs and extraterrestrials or the healing power of the mountain. "And now add this Mayan rumor and the buzz created on the Internet..." LISTEN
 
Buddhist and Mayan Time
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
Mayan and Mesoamerican calendars are very sophisticated (freewebs.com).
   
Studying and calculating (lajhsslab.com)
Twenty-six hundred years ago the Buddha -- like the ancient Vedic seers of the Indus River Valley Civilization and the great Mayan Empire (part of a series of great cultures such as the Aztecs, Toltec, Olmecs, Incans, etc.) -- spoke of cycles of time. In Sanskrit these are referred to as kalpas
 
There are various cycles, all confusingly called kalpas. In detail, they are distinguished as great kalpas (maha kalpas), those of indeterminate length, and so on. Translated as "aeons," they break down into ages and epochs and other similar cycles.
 
In just the same way, the Mayan calendar is not simply a lunar-cycle annual timekeeper, or tzolkin with a 260-day cycle. The Mayan civilization's long-count calendar has cycles within cycles. The most important represents a recurring period of 26,000 years calculated by the precession of the equinoxes. 
 
How to read the Mayan calendar
But the baktun is perhaps the best known. All that is happening in speaking of these cycles covering immense periods is illustrating the repetition of tendencies. Things are cyclical but not circular; they spiral. Sometimes they spiral out of control, yet they right themselves in time. Things devolve and evolve again. This is the intrinsic nature of samsara, the "Wheel of Life and Death." 
 
We are now, and we will be again. However, and this is the unimaginable and unacceptable thing, it will not be us as such. Who will be came from us. It is us again, but we will not be the same. We will die, we are dying, and what we hold dear is lost here. But what we have been will come to meet us again (and again and again...).
  
Connecting with the Maya in Mexico (mexicotoday.org)
Things fall apart at every moment, and in the next moment something re-arises. What re-arises is almost the same but NOT quite identical. 
So the stream goes with everything dying, something being reborn, but it is not us. Yet, we identify with and cling to what is now just as we identify and cling with what is yet to come. 
 
Ultimately, we are not all this -- these forms, feelings, perceptions, formations, or consciousnesses -- and we will not be that either. But in the smoldering haze of ignorance it will seem that way, driven by fires of lust and the embers of fear/resentment. Far better, then, would it be to occupy ourselves with doing something about these three defiling influences -- greed, hatred, and delusion.

(Divine Cosmos) Edgar Cayce, reborn as David Wilcock, on prophecy

Monday, December 10, 2012

Birthday card for teen girls prompts outrage

Wisdom Quarterly; Huffington Post (UK); Rzoont
Get boobs, a man, gold, and gifts -- then you'll have value and feel fulfilled.
 
(Rzoont/flickr.com)
Hallmark! Greeting card company Hallmark has apologized for the distribution of a sexist birthday card that encourages teenage girls to snag rich husbands by using their bodies. The card was spotted by @CheesyHel at her local newsstand in Hertfordshire, England, last week while she was shopping for a card for her niece. In a statement, a spokesperson for Hallmark Cards said the company was "surprised and horrified" to discover that the card is still in circulation since it has not been produced for 15 years. [This was acceptable in 1997?] More

Were there a mountain made of solid gold, double that would not be enough to satisfy a single person. Know this about craving (trying to fill ourselves from the outside in) and live accordingly.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

India at 65: Independence Day 2012

Wisdom Quarterly

Saffron, white, and green with Buddhist wheel
AUGUST 15th marks India's independence from British oppression. Much like the United States, the "greatest experiment in democracy" (India) liberated itself from United Kingdom colonialism in 1947. Unfortunately, it meant the loss of a great deal of land ceded in the interest of the departing empire. It has kept India fighting with its neighbors (the new Pakistan and East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) ever since. Imperial UK strategists cut India up along religious lines. But ethnic strife has continued to plague the nation as well as its infamous communal violence. Tens of millions of Indian Muslims were given a homeland of sort, but 100 million Muslim remain in India. And Pakistan poses the greatest threat to its sovereignty. With the US military on former Indian land (Gandhara now Afghanistan) as it continues to prosecute the longest war of its short history, the even shorter-lived nation is determined to take sides against its own neighbors squeezing it to give up territory, Pakistan and China. Southern California is privileged to have numerous Independence Day celebrations on weekends throughout the month, particularly in LA's "Little India" (Artesia).

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Buddhists from space leave crop circle?

Amy Oliver, DailyMail.co.uk, Aug. 13, 2012; Wisdom Quarterly
Intricate crop circle of Buddhist symbol for infinite time and wisdom appears in crop field
Buddhist endless knot symbol illustrates perceptions of reality.
This is the latest intricate crop circle to appear overnight in a British wheat field.
  
The mysterious pattern resembles the ancient Tibetan Buddhist symbol of an "endless knot" -- a complex loop of lines and circles to illustrate the eternal flow of time.used
   
The symbol has many meanings, but because it has no beginning and no end, many people who follow the religion say it represents the wisdom of the Buddha.

"Been reading the Dhammapada."
This endless knot crop circle has been carved into a field at Cheesefoot Head, Winchester near the A272 motorway. Amateur pilot Matthew Williams snapped the pattern near Cheesefoot Head, Hampshire.
He said: "I’m a bit of a sceptic. But this is such an intricate design, I don’t know who could make such a thing." He added, "To me, there’s such peace and calm emanating from this formation! The tangled mass of twists and turns release some great energy when you realize it is an unbroken line."
   
By walking from any one point in this huge formation, it is possible to walk all the way around, covering every inch of carved-out path and return to the start [just as wisdom emanates from and returns to the heart].
  
Crop circles have been appearing in fields throughout the summer. Some believe they are signs left by space aliens and UFOs. But others think they are made by pranksters. [There is little doubt that both are true.] More

WikiLeaks' Julian granted asylum in Ecuador

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)
(veteranstoday.com)
 
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who forestalled extradition to Sweden (then abduction to the US for torture and silencing) from the UK by asking for humanitarian asylum from Ecuador while residing safely in its London embassy, has been granted permission to remain in the embassy indefinitely.
  
The US/UK will not stand for it. Assange is wanted for questioning -- never having been charged -- by Sweden. But Sweden, in fact, does not want to question him about trumped up sexual offenses, for if it did it would come to England and conduct an interview. Instead, it is being pressured and guided by the US to get hold of the Australian citizen and then extradite him to America.
  
England is now contemplating the unthinkable: It is threatening to break into sovereign Ecuador's embassy, which like all embassies is regarded as Ecuadorian soil. Therefore, it claims to be planning an invasion.
  
Prosecuting Pfc. Bradley Manning contradicts every principle of whistle blower protection, freedom of the press, and free speech rights. If Manning is guilty then so are all people, papers, and other mainstream media outlets that have ever disseminated secret leaked information.

Violating Pakistan's sovereignty for PsyOps plan to pretend the real Osama was murdered
  
Similarly, if Assange is allowed to be silenced, disappeared, or indefinitely imprisoned in super-max facilities in the US, and entire organization is being silenced for whistle blowing. Manning, as a US soldier, had a personal legal responsibility to reveal American military crimes.
  
Assange as an Australian national was clearly within his rights to published leaked materials like an media outlet enabled by the worldwide Web. But because it revealed war crimes and plans of the only remaining superpower, it has not gone unpunished in contradiction to international law. 
  • Will Americans stand silently by? Will we be complicit? (Germany was once a superpower, and precious few Germans spoke out when it counted. What will we do?)
The military says B.S. Obama did not kill Osama bin Laden; Americans did. I did not. Only those who applaud and approve of it did. SEAL Team 6 are not bragging about extrajudicially executing a man in long-dead Osama's place. Obama is bragging. Hillary Clinton is bragging. Joe Biden is bragging. Now the military is speaking out against its commander in chief even as he remains in office.
Dishonorable Disclosures
   
I didn't mean to brag about StuxNet and Iran?
Intelligence and Special Operations forces are furious and frustrated at how Pres. Obama and those in positions of authority have exploited their service for political advantage.
   
Countless leaks, disclosures, interviews, and decisions by the Obama Administration and other officials have undermined the success of the Military-Industrial Complex's Intelligence and Special Operations forces and put future missions and personnel at risk. 
   
Dishonorable disclosures are so serious that for the first time former operators have agreed to risk their reputations and go on the record in this special documentary. 
   
Its goal is to educate Americans about serious breaches of security by the Obama Administration (largely ignoring those of the previous administration and its Valerie Plame outing) and prevent them from ever happening again. (Use of military ranks, titles, and photographs in uniform does not imply endorsement of the Dept. of the Army or the Department of [War]. All individuals are no longer in active service with any federal agency or military service).

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

British Buddhism

How many Buddhists are there in Britain?
In 2001, according to the census, there were 151,816 Buddhists in Britain. However, that does not take into account those who regard themselves as Buddhists as well as Christians, or Jews, or Taoists, or anything else.
  
The census form made no provision for such people to be counted. There are also those who refuse to label themselves as "Buddhists" because it runs counter to the principle of selflessness or egolessness. They prefer to think of themselves as free spirits.
  
Irrespective of how many Buddhists there are in Britain today, there is unquestionably a growing interest.
  
How has Buddhism developed in Britain?
A Japanese-style Buddhist garden in Europe
Japanese-style Buddhist garden in Europ
Buddhism first found its way into Britain in the 19th century through translations of scriptures from the various schools in different parts of the east. In 1879 Sir Edwin Arnold compiled an epic poem, The Light of Asia, describing the Buddha's life. This was to become a classic and is still in print today.
  
The limited number of books available in those early years was enough to inspire a few to begin actually practicing Buddhism as a way of life. One of those, Allan Bennett, went to Sri Lanka in 1898 and returned as Ananda Metteyya, the first Englishman to be ordained as a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu) of the Theravada tradition.
   
[An Irishman -- Lawrence Carroll a.k.a. Lawrence O'Rourke or William Colvin -- preceded Bennett. He became Venerable Dhammaloka, the first Westerner to become a Buddhist monk, which he did in Southeast Asia years before.]
 
The Buddha sent the Dharma far and wide
In 1907 a number of people got together and formed The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This was succeeded in 1924 by The London Buddhist Society, founded by Christmas Humphreys. It was the first really successful organization in Britain to provide a platform for all schools and traditions of Buddhism. It stood alone for almost 50 years as the focal point for Buddhists in Britain.

Sixties Britain brought eastern religions into fashion for the first time, including Buddhism. The Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 eventually led to the exodus of thousands of Tibetans with the Dalai Lama in 1959. This brought lamas to the west. These two factors in particular led to the mushrooming of new Buddhist groups. As a result, today almost every Buddhist tradition is represented in Britain. More

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Social strife in US, UK, and MX (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Plan B; Mexican Institute of Sound; LifeAfterHate.org; Occupy LA
Plan B's "Ill Manors" (translation: "bad ghetto housing projects") illustrates that England's problems are rooted in class warfare. Socioeconomic status trumps race as a cause of social strife. The US masks our class warfare as a correlated racial issue.

Sikh vigil, Madison, WI (LAH)
The post-racist organization and magazine "Life After Hate: A Journal of Basic Human Goodness" shares the pain of the Sikh Community after the tragic violence in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. LAH outreach Kindness Not Weakness is honored to bring Wisconsin Wars B-Boy/Breakdance Battle, a statewide tournament celebrating B-Boys and B-Girls and the healthy challenge they engage with. Support this magnificent example of diversity, inclusion, and fearless creative expression! More

Police attack Occupy Movement for chalking
 
Police state to crack down on Occupy Art Walk
(OccupyTogether.org)
Art Walk chalk protests, using the concrete jungle that is downtown Los Angeles, are being given a chance to usse a wall with LAPD provided chalk. This is in marked contrast to last month's Art Walk that was met with arrests and beatings. What is the crime? Chalk is messy and requires precious water to rinse off, so naturally Special Weapons And Tactical (SWAT) forces have to be deployed to tamp it down. Otherwise, who knows, Occupy activists might get carried away and start playing unauthorized games of hopscotch. Public order and what Shephard Fairy calls "obedience" must be maintained at all costs even if civil liberties are exchanged for the veneer of "security."
Mexican Institute of Sound's Mexico illustrates that its problems are rooted in the false US "war on drugs," a hypocritical campaign aimed at arresting and imprisoning racial minorities while simultaneously militarizing civilian police agencies and destroying neighboring Mexico from the inside out by increasing demand while pretending to exhaust all avenues to reduce it.
NPR "Alt Latino" (Latin alternative) music blog 
Ranchera accordions. Romantic boleros. Maybe some sweet cumbias. Those sounds spring immediately to mind when discussing Mexican music. But Mexico is a playground for musicians of all genres and backgrounds. Dig a little deeper and you'll find sensual son jarocho stylings alongside astounding rock 'n roll and heart-accelerating electronica. Every week on the Alt.Latino podcast, co-hosts Jasmine Garsd and Felix Contreras explore the sounds of Latin America.
    (July 13, 2012) Occupy Movement LA Chalk Walk 1

    Wednesday, August 8, 2012

    Afghan Buddhist loot returned to Kabul

    Many of the precious [pre-Islamic Buddhist] objects were looted during Afghanistan's civil war.

    Hundreds of archaeological artifacts looted from Afghanistan have been handed over to the country's national museum during a ceremony in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Many of the 843 pieces were stolen during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s and ended up on the black market.
       
    Some of the items, which include stone statues of Buddha [who was born near the ancient Indian frontier in an area known as Gandhara conjectured to be in the vicinity of modern-day Bamiyan, Afghanistan] and intricate ivory carvings, are up to 4,000 years old.
       
    The British Museum in London has helped to complete their return. Some of the stolen artifacts were recovered by British border forces and police, while others were found in private collections and bought back by generous donors.
      
    One stone Buddha, thought to be around 1,800 years old, was stolen from the museum in Kabul and recovered in Japan. The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) flew the pieces back to Afghanistan in large crates, landing at their military base in Camp Bastion.  

    "As the figure of [the] Buddha looks down at us, finally at rest after its 20-year ordeal, it is hard not to think of its future"
    - ( BBC News, Kabul)

    Wednesday, July 18, 2012

    Ke$ha and Britney on The End of the World

    Wisdom Quarterly (April 2011)
    Ke$ha wrote the lyrics, Britney Spears sings them. Their advice for the end of the world? "Just dance." Translation: Don't pay attention. Add, "Make a lot of good karma," and we agree.

    What if the world ends? What if it doesn't? The "world" as we know it is a series of rapidly forming and disintegrating moments. Because we do not pay close enough attention, we do not normally notice the incessant rise and fall of physical and mental phenomena. But together they form the "world." So long as there is life, there is rising and falling. This is not only true on the subatomic level, it is true on the level of history and our lives. It cannot be otherwise in the world of composite things. All things are things, composed of other things. There is only one exception -- nirvana. Liberation from all suffering is no plane (loka), condition (ayatana), heaven (sagga), or immaterial sphere (arupa loka), and yet it is not "nothingness" (akincanyayatanaupaga). What then is there to worry about? Only ignorance. The ultimate truth sets one free, whereas ignorance means bondage, incessant rebirth, and suffering. The only thing between one and the truth is a lack of absorbed-concentration (serenity) and wisdom (liberating-insight). Otherwise, change is the only constant.

      Saturday, June 23, 2012

      UK Buddhist chief convicted of sex abuse

      Chief Sanghanayaka Thera of Great Britain Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Child Abuse
      Colombo Telegraph (June 5, 2012) via The Buddhist Channel; Wisdom Quarterly
      Sri Lankan chief monk convicted of sex abuse
      LONDON, England - The Chief Monastic Order Elder of Great Britain and abbot of the Thames Buddhist Vihara has been convicted of four counts of indecent assault on a underage and sentenced to seven years in prison, a judge ruled [June 5, 2012].
         
      He is also banned for working with children for life and his name is added to sex offenders register, a court spokesman told The Colombo Telegraph.
         
      Venerable Pahalagama Somaratana, 65, of Dulverton Road, Croydon was convicted at Isleworth Crown Court on May 1 of four counts of indecent assault on a female under 16 between January 1, 1977 and December 31, 1978 at an address in Chiswick.
         
      He was found not guilty of the rape of a female under 16 between January 1,1977 and December 31, 1978 at an address in Chiswick and not guilty of indecent assault on a female under 14 between January 1, 1985 and December 31, 1986 at an address in Croydon.
      • [This is even more serious because it is absolutely a breach of monastic disciplinary rules, which means that if penetration happened -- whether or not he was convicted of it or even charged -- he has committed a grave "defeat" offense (parajika) and is instantly not a monk and not part of the Order. In addition, he has discredited the Buddha's message (Dharma), Theravada Buddhism, the Male Monastic Order (Bhikkhu Sangha), Sri Lanka (his country of origin), and celibate Buddhist monasticism.]
      • Sri Lankan Buddhist monk beat 14-year-old Catholic student for refusing to learn Buddhism
      In May 2010 Child Abuse Investigation Command officers began an investigation into historical allegations of indecent assault and rape. On Tuesday, 14 September 2010 a (then) 64-year-old monk was arrested on suspicion of an historical indecent assault and rape. He was questioned at Heathrow police station and later bailed pending further enquiries.
       
      He was charged on September 12, 2011 and further charged on  November 11, 2011.
        
      On Friday, September 23 Pahalagama Somaratana appeared on bail at Feltham Magistrates’ Court charged with rape of female under 16 between January 1, 1977 and December 31, 1978 at an address in Chiswick and indecent assault on a female under 16 between January 1, 1977 and December 31, 1978 at an address in Chiswick.
         
      Pahalagama Somaratana has been charged with another eight counts of sexual abuse on Friday, November 11 the London Metropolitan police told the Colombo Telegraph. According to the metropolitan police these eight indecent assaults on a female under 14 took place between January 1, 1985 and December 31, 1986 at an address in Croydon.
         
      The 65-year-old Pahalagama Somaratana Thero appeared on bail at Feltham Magistrates’ Court on Friday, December 2 and was bailed to appear at Isleworth Crown Court on December 20, 2011. Source

      Sri Lankan war and sex crimes against Tamils
      Raped ethnic minority Tamil Hindu rebel
      GRAPHIC CONTENT! A new video shows the Tamil rebel [LTTE] media TV announcer Issapriya’s naked body (shown left). It lies with hundreds of dead bodies, first with hands tied then untied. They indicate that she had been raped by Sri Lankan soldiers then executed.
        
      A [majority Sinhalese Theravada Buddhist] security forces officer speaking in Sinhalese to a female says, “Here,  here, Voice of Tiger announcer.” (See at Minute 2:56 in the video).
      The video clearly demonstrates a woeful and consistent pattern by the Sri Lankan forces: Most of the female combatants, armed and unarmed, as well as civilians are stripped naked or have their underwear pulled down to their knees and their bras are either missing or near their neck, exposing the breasts of teenage girls and young women. Only a few men are stripped naked. [Do Sri Lankan soldiers rape them, too?]