News of the Day: Careless World (video)

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Xochitl,Wisdom Quarterly

Tom Tomorrow (thismodernworld.com)

 

(iTunes)
 
What are the "Akashic Records"?

In this episode of Ask Teal on the Akashic Records she explains that they are the human way of understanding that every (karmic act such as every) thought that has ever been thought still exists. Therefore, one aspect of collective consciousness is a vibrational "record" of every individual on its journey throughout all world-systems that have ever been before now and all future potentials originating from now. Teal describes the Akasha (aether, space) as being like a library where the planes, levels, or floors of a library of universal dimensions. The information in/on each dimension corresponds to the frequency specific to that dimension. To access specific information contained within the Akashic Records, one must first become the same vibration that contains that information. Teal explains what information is contained in each dimension. Animation by Jordan Duchnycz (thespiritscience.net). Music: "Diamond" by Cora Flora (coeur-de-fleurs.com).

Jade Buddha World Tour hits California (religion-events)

 

(Aside from rape) Indian women marry up; men left behind

(New York Times, "India Ink") There’s an unexpected problem in New Delhi’s high-end marriage market, according to Gopal Suri, who has been a marriage broker for two decades. There are too few “quality” men, he said in a recent interview, as a growing pool of young women with unprecedented levels of education are seeking and making matches with educated men from higher socioeconomic groups. The repercussions from India’s skewed sex ratios are being felt... 

• U.S. Hindus hear the call of India  
• Skirmishes threaten Pakistan-India thaw 
• India’s new focus on Rape shows surface of women’s perils 
• For India rape victim’s family, many layers of loss

"Sandy Hook" conspiracy theory (video)

Conspiracy theories too hard; easier to believe government lies (Gawker)

  

Conspiracy theories surrounding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have reached a new level with a viral "truther" video that has been viewed by millions of people in just one week. "Experts"... claim to have debunked the video as mere questions, not answers. On Jan. 7, the video titled "The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed" was posted to the YouTube channel ThinkOutsideTheTV, where it garnered more than 8.6 million views in just nine days. The 30-minute video uses news clips to point out "inconsistencies" in the Sandy Hook coverage.

• Obama announces GUN CONTROL (on pretexts)
• Fired porn-star-turned teacher can't get job back 
• Hate group drops Aaron Swartz funeral protest after Anonymous vows action

Golden Buddha altar Vajrayana-style (Buddhisttraintour)

 

Buddha collapsed

"As an 18-year-old girl who lives in Iran today and who faces very specific ideological, political and social pressures, I have a lot to say… Even though my film was not made in Iran, it shows my desire to speak of collective suffering, in Iran as well as in Afghanistan." That’s director Hana Makhmalbaf, whose feature-film debut, Buda as sharm foru rikht ("Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame")...

Golden Globes: Ferrell, Wiig, Fey, Poehler

When the 2013 Golden Globes story is written, it’ll be all about Jodie Foster’s meta, honest non-coming out and quasi-retirement, Anne Hathaway’s fake sincerity getting killed on Twitter, an appearance by former President Bill Clinton, Tommy Lee Jones’ grumpface, the best Taylor Swift joke ever, and a fantastic opening monologue from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. But don’t forget Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig’s presentation of Best Lead Actress in a Comedy or Musical...

• Tibetan cosmological models

Great stories make great change possible 

(Jonah Sachs) World-changing messages deserve to be heard -- really heard. But that only happens when we learn to tell a great story. Let’s re-invent our brands, make movies, or design and build websites. And along the way, get help telling the kinds of stories the world is waiting to hear: Free Range

Full Moon in Sagittarius

(Beth Owl's Daughter) ...In Western folklore, this full moon of May is sometimes known as the Dyad Moon or Lover’s Moon, celebrating the union of physical and spiritual. Also known as the Strawberry, Rose, or Flower Moon, some traditions say that this is the Moon that is most sacred to Artemis or Diana, the Huntress, and a Maiden aspect of the Goddess. This Moon favors expanding consciousness through chanting, sacred-sexuality, or working with plant allies (bhumi devas) and embracing the wild. Let the mood expand and become more adventurous and optimistic. Sagittarius is the consummate traveler, seeker, and vision quester. Sagittarius seeks wisdom through combining physical and spiritual experience in order to understand the true nature of existence. More

Atlantis: The Lost Continent

(JoeMozzone)

(3:10 mins) Leaked From NASA: Nibiru's Projected Path 2012

   

Danger: Flax seed is toxic and harmful! 
THE FACTS ON FLAX (Bruce Fife, N.D., Saturated Fats May Save Your Life)

[Try hemp, chia, or soaked raw nuts instead.] Many people nowadays are avoiding all types of meat and meat byproducts including fish. People prefer a vegetable source for Omega-3 fatty acids. Alpha-linolenic acid, which the body can convert into EPA, is found to some degree in many plants. Flaxseed contains [too much] alpha-linolenic acid (57%) of any commercially grown plant. [This causes an imbalance of the vital 3-6-9 ratio.] ... It's been hailed as a panacea for many ills. No respectable health food store would be caught dead without a half dozen assorted varieties available for sale.  Both good and bad can be said about alpha-linolenic acid and flaxseed oil in general. Unfortunately, the bad is ignored in preference to promoting only the good. This has created the misconception that flaxseed oil provides great benefits with little risks. In reality, there are many risks. More

• Seeds of Enlightenment 
• Bikini waxes cure lice
• Killing Web activist Swartz
• FBI investigated Scientology labor practices

Eating is Optional

WARNING: Without live guidance and proper practice, food is needed!

In India some practitioners are perfectly certain that no human food is necessary to sustain life and vigorous health. Breatharian-yogis living on prana (breath), solar emanations, exuded nectar, and perhaps water. The Buddha Boy did it. Here is one old man who has not eaten for 70 years. For some the practice of not-grounding, not touching earth, allows celestial energy to be collected without grounding out leading to incredible longevity (as understood by modern alchemists creating Ambrosia/Philospher's Stone from rarefied salts from evaporated dew that has not touched the ground).

 

EXPOSED: Satanism in the music industry

(Scrawny2Brawny) Music, Hollywood, Illuminati, NWO... This is a glimpse at the hidden force controlling "Hollywood" and its corrupt corporate music industry. We have looked over the Jordan and we have seen. Things are not what they seem..., as Pink Floyd phrased it ("Dogs"). Can anyone hear what Michael Jackson was saying?

"Being the artist that I am, at Sony, I've generated several billion dollars at Sony -- several billion. And they really thought that my mind was always on music and dancing... and it usually is. But they never thought that this performer, myself, would... OUT THINK THEM."

"I just need you to know, that this is very important what we're fighting for. Because I'm tired -- I'm really tired of the manipulation. I'm tired of how the press is manipulating everything in this situation.. They do not tell the TRUTH... They manipulate our history books."

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places" (Judeo-Christian scripture Ephesians 6:12).

"Sound City"


(Banana1015.com) Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor recently gave further details on [Nirvana drummer, Foo Fighters frontman] Dave Grohl’s upcoming Sound City Studios documentary and confirmed that their recent collaboration was part of the project. Grohl hasn’t volunteered much information about his upcoming movie on the studio where Nirvana recorded their famous album "Nevermind" -- the now closed Sound City Studios. The one thing Dave has hinted at is that we can “expect some epic jam sessions.” They will presumably involve: members of Ratt, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon, and Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor. Most of the information on the upcoming documentary has come from the other parties involved with the project, not Grohl. More

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Māyā: Buddha's biological mother in Indo-Iran

Prof. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Names (palikanon.com); Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Queen Maya, living in the crossroads of East and West, as the future-Buddha takes birth. Siddhartha is born with blue eyes, golden skin, and black curly hair.

 

Māyā: ("illusion," vision of beauty) or Mahāmāyā ("Great Maya") Devi (Queen, "shining one," deva, goddess). 

Maya was the biological mother of the Buddha (D.ii.52; see Thomas: op. cit., 25). 

Her father was the Shākyan Añjana of Devadaha, son of Devadahasakka. Her mother was Yasodharā, daughter of Jayasena. [Mhv.ii.17ff.; elsewhere her father is called Mahā Suppabuddha (ThigA.141), while the Apadāna (ii.538) gives the name of her mother as Sulakkhanā) quite like the Persian Sulakhan].

• AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Indo-Aryan Afghan women
• The unbelievable truth: Siddhartha born in Northwest India, now Iran
• Dr. Ranajit Pal places Buddha in Seistan Balochistan

The Buddha had blue eyes (CP)

Dandapāni and Suppabuddha were her brothers, and Mahā Pajāpatī her sister. Both sisters were married to King Suddhodana in their youth, but it was not until Māyā was between 40 and 50 that Siddhartha was born (Vibhā.278).

She had all the qualities necessary for one who was to bear the exalted rank of being the mother of the Buddha: she was not too passionate, she did not take intoxicants, she had practiced the pāramīs for 100,000 aeons, and had not since her birth violated the Five Precepts.

Sistan and Baluchistan, Iran/Afghanistan/Pakistan, ancient Northwest India (Maha Bharat)

   

Maya had a dream, a comforting dream that a magnificent event was in the offing.

 
Maya's Dream
On the day of her conception she fasted. And in her sleep that night she had the following dream: the Four Great Sky Kings (Catu Mahārājas) took her in her bed to Himavā and placed her under a Sal tree on Manosilātala. Then their wives came and bathed her in Anotatta Lake and clad her in deva robes. They then led her into a golden [space or ethereal] palace [craft, mansion, platform] and laid her on a deva couch; there the Bodhisat (the Buddha-to-be), in the form of a white elephant, holding a white lotus in his gleaming trunk, entered into her right side. This was on the day of the Uttar-āsālha-nakkhatta, after a festival lasting seven days, in which she had already taken part.

Maya returns to Tusita, awaits the arising of the fully awakened teacher down on Earth

 
From the day of her conception she was guarded by the Four Great Sky Kings; she felt no desire for men, and the child in her womb could be seen from outside.
  
At the end of the tenth lunar month, she wished to return to her parents' home in Devadaha to give birth as was the Indian custom. But on her way there, she stopped at the Sal tree grove in Lumbinī [exact location disputed, likely in Northwest India, toward Iran, which became part of Persia].

The child was born as Maya stood holding the branch of a Sāla tree (J.i.49ff) -- the imagery here being that of a particular kind of Indian tree goddess: Salabhanjika.
  
Seven days later Māyā died and was reborn as a male in the Tusita world in space, under the name of Māyādevaputta (Thag.vss.533f.; ThagA.i.502) or "Maya-born-among-devas."

  

Buddha visits Tavatimsa to teach

After Siddhartha became the Buddha he visited Tāvatimsa ("The Space World of the Thirty-Three") immediately after the performance of the Twin Miracle in Kapilavastu at the foot of the Gandamba tree, on the full moon day of the month of āsālha. That is where, for the three months of the rainy season, the Buddha taught the Collection of "Higher Teachings" (Abhidharma Pitaka) to his former mother, who came down from the Tusita world to listen to him.

The Buddha sat on King Sakka's royal seat (pandukambalasilāsana) at the foot of the Pāricchattaka tree. It is said that during this time, at certain intervals, the Buddha would return to Earth, leaving a seated image of himself (a division body in Mahayana terms) in Tāvatimsa to continue teaching while he attended to his human bodily needs, searching for alms in Uttarakuru and eating his meals on the banks of Lake Anotatta, where Sāriputra waited on him and learned what he had been telling the devas (DhSA.i.15; DhA.iii.216f); Ananda was not yet his attendant.

  

Visiting Tavatimsa to hear the liberating Higher Teaching (theindiespiritualist.com)

  
The commentaries (UdA.276f) state the view, still held by some, that had Māyā been alive the Buddha would not have been reluctant to bestow monastic ordination on women. This view, says Dhammapāla is erroneous. It would have made no difference. Why? It is the dhammatā of all buddhas that women receive ordination. Monks argue that while this may be true, ordination is subject to certain important restrictions.
 
It happens that the mothers of all buddhas die very soon after the birth of a bodhisattva because no other child is fit to be conceived in the same womb as a future buddha.
 

Māyā is mentioned in several "Rebirth Tales" (Jātakas) as the mother of the Bodhisat:

• the Alīnacitta
• the Katthahāri
• the Kurudhamma
• the Kosambī
• the Khandahāla
• the Dasarath
• the Bandhanāgāra
• the Mahāummagga
• the Mātuposaka
• the Vessantara
• the Susīma
• the Somanassa
• the Hatthipāla

According to some contexts, after her birth as Phusatī in the Vessantara Jātaka, Māyā became one of the daughters of King Kikī.
 

Māyā's resolve to be the mother of a buddha was formed 91 aeons ago in the time of Vipassī Buddha (J.vi.480f). She was then the elder daughter of King Bandhumā. One of the king's vassals sent him a piece of priceless sandalwood and a golden wreath worth 100,000 units of money. The sandalwood the king gave to his elder daughter and the wreath to the younger.
 
The elder daughter powdered the sandalwood and took it in a golden casket to the Buddha Vipassī. Some of the powder she offered to the Buddha to be rubbed on his body, the rest she scattered in his living quarters. It was the sight of the Buddha's golden body that inspired her with the desire to be the mother of such a being. Her sister later became Uracchadā.

A Question of Race
Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Indo-Aryan (Iranian) Buddhism reaches Island of Sri Lanka (NH53/flickr)

 
Unfortunately, living in the very implicitly racist West (not that anyone will admit it), the question of race comes up. Was the Buddha white, yellow, brown, or black?  

(What about biblically black Jesus or sacrosanct Mohammad?)
 
Those are the only four color choices modern Americans recognize (our British forbears and European may have more), although we are slowly warming to the idea of "mixed." What about white geopolitical Middle Easterners? No one calls them white; Jews aren't allowed in the club; even some of the whitest people on the planet only recently got to use the mantle (those people being the Gingers of Ireland). Often the whitest people are not considered "white" at all.
 

The Buddha's golden body (TB)

But this is not how "race" has been reckoned in the past -- not in America and certainly not in ancient India -- nor is it how the world does it now. More usual is the three shade distinction: light, medium, dark. In the Buddha's day those lighter skinned individuals were called golden. He was golden. He had curly black ringlet and blue eyes. He was not dark like so many of his followers in non-frontier India [called Bharat or Maha (Great) Bharat, as in the epic Mahabharata, since it was an expansive "empire," later re/united by Asoka, of affiliated family-centered rulers with dynamic territorials boundaries called janapadas or "holdings," literally "foothold of a tribe"].
 
A prophetic dream mentions that in the future he would have many very dark-faced followers wrapped in white garments, as happened in Magadha, India, where throngs of citizens interested in the Buddha-Dharma and this wise teacher wore white when visiting monastic centers.
 
We would like it all to be clean and like our own time. But it simply is not. There were no "countries" or "races" as such. These social constructs are categories that evolve and are greatly affected by politics, economics, and circumstances so much so as to be misleading. It is very hard to judge the past, given that we assume our standards are universal and absolute. It is not even possible to objectively judge other geographical regions at present, given that standards, terminology, customs, and judgments are neither universal nor absolute. The Bodhisattva was brilliant to choose neither East nor West but the conflux of the two. The same wise choice was made as to where to attain final nirvana (the nirvana entered into as one passes away as distinct from glimpsing or re-experiencing nirvana during one's lifetime).

Ananda asked, "Why have you chosen this Podunk town!?" (Kusinara/Kushinagar, thought to be near modern Gorakhpur, India, but possibly much farther west). The Buddha explained that it was between powerful kingdoms/republics (janapadas) of followers. This way they would not fight for the relics or be able to claim them as the property of one ruler to hoard. Indeed, the cremation remains were amicably distributed with at least one portion going into space (as hard as that may be to believe, so hard that history quaintly imagines "heaven" got a portion. But records state that an actual lower world in the sky -- in the akasha deva loka, maybe just somewhere flown to the equivalent of Mt. Olympus/Mt. Sumeru -- near enough to visit from Earth).

What do his parents or where he was born matter?
 
Four Places of Pilgrimage
Sister Vajira and Francis Story, Last Days of the Buddha (DN 16)

Buddhist pilgrimage sites across India (Buddhisttraintour)

  
...16. "There are four places, Ananda, that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence.[Note 42] What are the four?
 
17. "'Here the Tathagata was born!'[43] This, Ananda, is a place that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence.
 
18. "'Here the Tathagata became fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme enlightenment!'[44] This, Ananda...
 
19. "'Here the Tathagata set rolling the unexcelled Wheel of the Dharma!'[45] This, Ananda...

20. "'Here the Tathagata passed away into the state of nirvana in which no element of clinging remains!' This, Ananda...
 
21. "These, Ananda, are the four places that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence. And truly there will come to these places, Ananda, pious male and female recluses, laymen and laywomen, reflecting: 'Here the Tathagata was born! Here the Tathagata became fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme enlightenment! Here the Tathagata set rolling the unexcelled Wheel of the Dharma! Here the Tathagata passed away into the state of nirvana in which no element of clinging remains!'
 
22. "And whoever, Ananda, should die on such a pilgrimage with his heart established in confidence/faith/conviction (saddha), at the breaking up of the body, after death, will be reborn in a realm of heavenly happiness" (DN 16).

• Does all of this hold true if we go to the wrong locations? Some argue that it does, saying that the intention is what matters. So why not make these sights in my own back yard? No, there is something important about the place, the geography, the fact that the Buddha really was there. Just as it mattered to him and was important that he choose these places, so too it will matter to some of us to find those exact places rather than geopolitically and economically advantageous places. Sorry, Nepal, one of the most beautiful countries on Earth. And sorry, too, modern India. But the real locations have been appropriated, forged, been made the subject of political and economic advantage. Allow those sights to remain and the visitors to enjoy themselves. But some of us want to see the real thing even if nothing (excavated) is left.

The Past Glory of Kusinara
Sister Vajira and Francis Story, Last Days of the Buddha (DN 16)

Statue of the Buddha reclining into final nirvana, Kusinagar, India (tripadvisor.com)

  
41. When this had been said, Ven. Ananda spoke to the Blessed One, saying: "Let it not be, venerable sir, that the Blessed One should pass away in this mean place, this uncivilized township in the midst of the jungle, a mere outpost of the province. There are great cities, venerable sir, such as Campa, Rajagaha, Savatthi, Saketa, Kosambi, and Benares -- let the Blessed One have his final passing away in one of those. For in those cities dwell many wealthy nobles (warrior caste royals or kshatriya's) and Brahmins and householders who are devotees of the Tathagata, and they will render due honor to the remains of the Tathagata."
  
42. "Do not say so, Ananda! Do not say: 'This mean place, this uncivilized township in the midst of the jungle, a mere outpost of the province.' In times long past, Ananda, there was a king by the name of Maha Sudassana, who was a universal monarch, a king of righteousness, a conqueror of the four quarters of the Earth, whose realm was established in security, and who was endowed with the seven jewels.[53] And that King Maha Sudassana, Ananda, had his royal residence here at Kusinara (Kushinagar), which was then called Kusavati, and it extended 12 yojanas from east to west, and seven from north to south.

43. "And mighty, Ananda, was Kusavati, the capital, prosperous and well populated, much frequented by people, and abundantly provided with food. Just as the royal residence of the devas, Alakamanda, is mighty, prosperous, and well populated, much frequented by devas [from space] and abundantly provided with food, so was the royal capital of Kusavati.
  

The culmination of the Relics Tour, the proposed future Buddha monument at Kusinara

 
44. "Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds -- the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabors, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of 'Eat, drink, and be merry!'..." (DN 16).

•  Surely it will happen in the future that the West and whites will claim the Buddha. Now they say it is just a Greco-Roman influence on the art depicting the Buddha. But when it comes out that Mes Aynak and Tepe Naranj, Afghanistan are storehouses of splendor and that lost treasures buried and hidden in Iran (ancient Indo-Persia) and maybe even Iraq, and Gandhara (Pakistan and Afghanistan), as well as Central Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, other 'stans, and Russia at least up to Kalmykia, Europe) are recovered -- then the world will see Dr. Pal was right. The pieces of the puzzle fit together to match the texts. And what we have been presenting for years is not motivated by self-interest or any hope of doing to the Buddha what was done to the Christ -- turning him from an African (as recorded in the only physical description of him not cut out of the Bible), to a Middle Eastern Jew, to a tall Nordic blond suitable for European consumption.

• PHOTOS: Afghan women (LA Times)
• China, to spite India, helps Nepal develop Buddha's "birthplace"  
• The race and physical appearance of Jesus (St. Issa)
• "Girls" better than ever, enlightened TV review
• Seeds of Enlightenment (architecture and neuroscience)

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Gold Scratched Off Historic Golden Buddhas in Burma.

by Aye Nai, Democratic Voice of Burma, Oct. 14, 2008

Magwe, Myanmar -- A pagoda treasurer and local village authorities have scratched off gold coating worth five billion kyat from historical Buddha statues in a village in Magwe division's Yaynanchaung township, according to villagers. "NLD member U Nan Win from Pin Phayagon village saw the pagoda's treasurer Mya Moe, the village Peace and Development Council chairman Kyi Nyunt and six other people in the village scratching off the gold from the Buddha statues," Tint Lwin said.

James: It's a horrible shame whenever a sacred site/object is desecrated, however, in the end even the most sacred Buddha is just an object. A sacred site is impermanent like anything else and placing too much importance to it only wraps the ropes of attachment that much tighter around us. The gold coating attracts this kind of greed and waters the already hearty seeds of desire and is one of the reasons that I think golden Buddha statues are excessive.

PHOTO: Not the pagoda mentioned in the story.

~Peace to all beings~

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