Friday, September 30, 2011
Occupy Los Angeles (Oct. 1, 2011)
[Kloncke] began gathering some friends into a group we call Bay Area Radical Sangha (BARS). BARS is a space for meditators with "radical" politics. How is that defined? Structural critiques of our racist, hetero-patriarchal, war-reliant, capitalist system.- RUMOR Alert: RADIOHEAD to play Occupy Wall Street!
- Buddhist production, feminist effort, and the god of work
Meditation Flash Mob: Noon, Saturday, October 8, 2011 at Pershing Square, downtown Los Angeles
All are welcome to stand up in a peaceful demonstration (occupyla.org)(TheOther99Percent) Consider donating $9.17 to a Media Fund to continue reports from the front line. OccupyWallStreet.org
Police State Brutality on Wall Street
(USLAWdotcom) This is a slow motion video analysis of the NYPD's mace/pepper spray deployment near Wall Street on Sept. 24, 2011. Alternate angle analyses indicate that this crime was retaliation for an immediately preceding interaction between an officer and some individuals on the sidewalk. More information and updates.
Conscious Life Expo (LA, Friday-Sunday)
 George Noory |  Terri Amos Britt |  John Major Jenkins |  Gloria Loring |  Sen. Mike Gravel |  Giorgio Tsoukalos |
 Nick Redfern |  William Henry |  Don Tolman |  Marisa Russo |  Laura Eisenhower | |
 Bruce Goldberg |  Jason Martell |  Stephen Bassett |  Whitley Streiber |  Sean David Morton |  Barbara Lamb |
 Emy Shanti |  Debra Katz |  Roger Leir |  |  Bashar |  Chief Golden Eagle |
 Dr. Carlos McDonald |  Xavier Yxayotl |  Gail Thackray |  Pat Boone |  Peter Canova |  Lupita Villalaizo |
 Dr. Jim Bourque Starr |  Selacia |  Ron Amitron |  Riz Mirza |  Marsh Engle |  Kaitlyn Keyt |
 Beth Lapides |  Dee Wallace |  Lori Spagna |  Scott Catamas |
Shaolin Warrior Temple in L.A. Storefront
Master Shi Yan Fan, Shaolin warrior monk (Simone Paz/Laweekly.com)
It is, however, no less sacred to those who seek refuge here from the modern world. Here, the warrior monk known as master Shi Yan Fan, or "Powerful Sky," teaches Zen Buddhism and Shaolin kung fu. "Shaolin means young forest. Shao for young. Lin for trees. It means you can live forever," he'll say to those who wander in.
The temple wasn't always there, at least not in the physical sense. When the master first came to Los Angeles from China, he would train students in community centers, gyms, parks, and forests. Eventually, the students got tired of carrying their weapons everywhere. They opened the temple, donating its rent, furnishings and upkeep.
Master Shi Yan Fan wasn't always a kung fu master. Actually, he wasn't always Shi Yan Fan. For all of his youth he was Italian-born Franco Testini. Though he has trained his entire life, only recently did he become an official Shaolin warrior monk, the first to do so in 300 years. He was branded on the head with nine incense sticks for five minutes. The last two minutes, when the incense burns through your skin, he says, "are very painful."
The ceremony was performed in 2007 at the Shaolin Temple in China when the Chinese government lifted its centuries-old ban on the practice. There was much fanfare. Preparations lasted a month. There were arduous training sessions and equally arduous lectures. Knees and foreheads became bruised from bowing for five hours a day. Some monks fainted from exhaustion. In the end, 100 monks were scheduled to receive the burn marks, but only 43 went through with it. "They got scared," Testini shrugs.
Testini has given his life to Shaolin. His mission is to share it with as many people as he can, and by share he means teach them compassion (a noble endeavor), to exercise every day (preaching to the choir) and to be happy without material possessions (good luck with that).
Training American disciples in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Psychedelic Research: LSD for depression, autism
(Mariesou/Flickr) 
Dr. James Fadiman, who has been involved with psychedelic research since the 1960s, joined Ian Punnett on Sept. 24, 2011 to discuss the newest research into the psychotherapeutic value of visionary drug use.
Psychedelics can be effective at micro-doses that have no intoxicating effects that are nevertheless medicinal. They have the capacity to increase personal awareness, produce spiritual epiphanies, and treat a host of serious medical conditions. Before it was banned LSD was in fact the most researched psychiatric drug on the planet, according to Dr. Fadiman.
Dr. Fadiman on Coast to Coast 9/24/11
The compound, which grows naturally and is derived from ergot fungi on rye, was first synthesized in 1938. It is effective in miniscule doses at only millionths of a gram, he stated, adding that mainstream researchers used LSD therapeutically to treat common neuroses, alcoholism, and even autism before it was banned in 1966.
Among hardcore alcoholics there was a 50% success rate. The efficacy rate was even higher for those with autism, he noted.
- Curiously, according to the doctor, the main effect of LSD occurs after the drug itself has left the body.
"Psychedelics give you a kind of a different view of everything... they take you much more into observing your life," he said.
A recent study at UCLA demonstrates how this inner journey can help people diagnosed with terminal cancer. Psilocybin, according to Fadiman, is a drug similar to LSD that has successfully been used to treat anxiety in late-stage cancer patients. Source
"Psychedelics and Freedom"
Psychedelic Explorer's Guide
- Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, (Spirit Rock) author of A Path with Heart
"Jim Fadiman's manual offers helpful and well-informed guidance for those who seek 'the divine within' through sacred plants and psychedelic substances."
- Daniel Pinchbeck,(Reality Sandwich) author of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl and Breaking Open the Head
"Transpersonal Conversations"
Why the Dalai Lama worries about rebirth
Why the Dalai Lama worries about rebirth
The Dalai Lama, leader of Tibet, with Nelson Mandela in Africa (AP)
BEIJING, China (Xinhua) - The 14th Dalai Lama said Saturday he will decide whether to be incarnated [reborn] when he is "about 90" and that China should have no say in the matter.
If he is to be reincarnated, he will leave clear written instructions about the process, the Dalai Lama said in a statement after a meeting with leaders of the four Tibetan sects.
"Apart from the reincarnation recognized through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People's Republic of China," he said.
The Dalai Lama has brought up the same issue of his reincarnation on many occasions in the last two years. More
- South Africa denies Chinese pressure on Dalai Lama visa
- Dalai Lama missing in new Nobel laureate letter to Harper
- South Africa can block the Dalai Lama's visa, but not his...
- Rush claims Obama "plagiarized" him; it was Dalai Lama
