F Rodeo Drive! "A People's Guide to LA"

Whitney Friedlander, LAWeekly.com; Ven. Piyananda; Wisdom Quarterly

Saffron Days in L.A. (Read excerpts)

Let the tour buses take the throngs to visit Marilyn Monroe's handprints at Grauman's Chinese Theater or to press their noses up to the windows on Rodeo Drive and wander Beverly Hills like they're Julia Roberts. 

  

Despite what the entertainment industry would have us believe, the city of Los Angeles and its surrounding neighborhoods have a much richer, often conflicted history than just those landmarks -- and A People's Guide to Los Angeles, just released by UC Press, would like to make sure we don't forget it.

    

Researched for more than 15 years by Laura Pulido, Laura Barraclough, and Wendy Cheng -- three Southern California natives and academics with backgrounds in ethnic studies or sociology -- and cultivated from published and personal accounts of Los Angeles' long-standing political, social, and racial power struggles, the travel guide was released this month and includes 115 sites of interest for the progressive-minded explorer. 

  

"We're looking to reach a whole group of tourists who might find themselves dissatisfied..." More

"Hello" - When Karmin moved from Nebraska to LA, capital of the world

Read More

"Dharma Maps" at Against the Stream

What is enlightenment? Bodhi, in Pāli and Sanskrit, is often translated as “enlightenment.” 

   

A better translation might be “to awake, become aware, notice, know, understand.” What does it mean to become awake? How do I wake up, become enlightened?
   
Dharma maps are descriptions of the path to enlightenment, strategies, step-by-step guides for organizing insight practice toward the (non) goal of enlightenment.

   

There many such maps, perhaps as many as there are teachers. Which works for us? This course will look at them as if portions of the Requisites of Enlightenment were independent maps:

 

The Seven Factors of Enlightenment, Sixteen Stages of Insight, Four Stages of Enlightenment, Ten Fetters... The course will also look at the work of the commentaries and

• The Progress of Insight by Mahasi Sayadaw
• Mastering the Core Practices of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram
• The Pros and Cons of Dharma Maps by Shinzen Young.

This is an intermediate level course and will explore insight practice using guided-meditation. Everyone who is comfortable sitting two 30-minute guided meditations per class is welcome.

• Dharma Maps: An 8-Week Series
• Thursdays, 7:30-9:30 pm
• June 7, 14, 28, July 5, 12, 19, 26, and August 2.
• Cost: $20 per evening. Some scholarships and work study available. No one is turned away for lack of funds. More

George Haas, who is from Manhattan, began sitting vipassana at Ordinary Dharma in Venice and reading extensively. In 1998, he began study with his current teacher, Shinzen Young, and Vipassana Support International, where he is now a senior facilitator.

Read More