2012: They Don't Want You to Know (video)

(HowStuffWorks) Thousands of people across the globe believe the world will end in 2012 -- but why? The beliefs of 2012 fans, from interpretations of the ancient Mayan calendar to concerns over irregular sunspot cycles and solar storms, spell new hope for humanity or doom of biblical proportions.

"Day of the Dead" (Dia De Los Muertos)

Wisdom Quarterly, HollywoodForever.com

(Britphoto) The 11th Annual Dia De los Muertos ("Day of the Dead") festival filmed (and edited) by Karl Polverino at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Oct. 30, 2010.

Hollywood Forever is a cemetery like no other. One of the world’s most fascinating landmarks, it is the final resting place to more of Hollywood’s founders and stars than any place on Earth. Founded in 1899, this graveyard was an integral part of the growth of early Hollywood. Paramount Studios was built on the back half of the original site, where it still operates today. It is the choice resting place for most of the founders of Hollywood’s great studios, as well as its writers, directors, and performers.

The cemetery is now listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. Visitors come from all over the world to pay respects to Johnny Ramone, Cecil B. DeMille, Jayne Mansfield, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and hundreds of Hollywood’s greatest stars. But mostly they come to celebrate a Latin holiday quickly catching on. It is the new Cinco de Mayo ("Fifth of May") for Los Angeles's indigenous ethnicity.

After all, not long ago California belonged to Mexico. Los Angeles ("The Angels") was settled by celebrants of a culture that remembered its ancestors and set aside this special day (traditionally Nov. 1st) to care for them after their passing. Not coincidentally, almost a world away, Europe chose the same day. But it is the eve of that day that became most famous as All Hallow's Eve.

The veils separating the human, ghost (preta), animal, monster (asura, yakkha, naga, kumbandha), and hellion planes seems to thin at this time, perhaps allowing lower planes to again savor the wondrous but largely taken for granted opportunity of existence as a human, the last fortunate destination in Buddhist cosmology.

Remembering Mara (maranasati) on LA's Day of the Dead

Mindfulness of Death
Wisdom Quarterly translation Maranassati Sutra (AN 6.20)
Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was residing at Nadika, in the Brick Monastery, where he addressed the recluses, "Recluses!"

"Yes, venerable sir," they replied.

"Mindfulness of death when developed and made much of is of great fruit, of great benefit. It leads to the deathless [nirvana], has the deathless as its final end. Therefore, one should develop mindfulness of death."

When this was said a certain disciple addressed the Buddha: "I already develop mindfulness of death."

"How do you develop mindfulness of death?" the Buddha replied.

"I think, 'Oh, if I were to live for a day and night and attend to the Blessed One's instructions, I will have accomplished a great deal!' This is how I develop it."

Another disciple added, "I, too, already develop mindfulness of death."

"How do you develop mindfulness of death?"

"I think, 'Oh, if I were to live for a day and attend to the Blessed One's instructions, I will have accomplished a great deal!' This is how I develop it."

Then another added, "I, too, develop mindfulness of death... I think, 'Oh, if I were to live for the interval it takes to eat a meal and were to attend to the Blessed One's instructions, I will have accomplished a great deal.' This is how...."

Then another added, "...I think, 'Oh, if I were to live for the interval it takes to swallow four chewed up morsels of food and were to attend to the Blessed One's instructions, I will have accomplished a great deal.' This is how...."

Then another added, "...I think, 'Oh, if I were to live for the interval it takes to swallow one chewed up morsel of food..."

Then another added, "I...think, 'Oh, if I were to live for the interval it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out..."

When all this was said, the Buddha addressed them. "Whoever develops mindfulness of death thinking, 'Oh, if I were to live for a day and night... a day... the interval it takes to eat a meal... swallow four morsels of food and were to attend to the Blessed One's instructions, I will have accomplished a great deal!' -- such practitioners are said to dwell heedlessly. They develop mindfulness of death slowly for the sake of ending the defilements.

"But whoever develops mindfulness of death thinking, 'Oh, if I were to live for the interval it takes to swallow one morsel of food... for the interval it takes to breathe out after breathing in or to breathe in after breathing out and were to attend to the Blessed One's instructions, I will have accomplished a great deal!' -- such practitioners are said to dwell heeding my advice. They develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the defilements.

"Therefore should you train yourselves: 'We will dwell heedfully. We will develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the defilements.' That is how you should train yourselves."

That is what the Buddha said. And the recluses delighted in his words.

What did the Maya know?

Wisdom Quarterly

The Maya or Mayans knew one thing for sure. The Ages change. And this one is coming to an end. As of today, or perhaps December 21, 2012, we transition from one to another. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

There is great astronomical and astrological significance in this. But few of us now regard the significance of astronomy in our lives, and astrology has been made a pop media joke. There is significance. We are separate from space. We are in space. This is a space world. It is visited by other space worlds. It is influenced and influences other space worlds.

The Maya were told that and taught various calendars and synchronaries. The days of the week, the phases of the Moon (which is the Earth's timepiece once so valuable to everything we did that the powers that be -- other space or subterranean entities -- could not stand for it and obscured it as evil and replaced it with worship of the Sun, which also was always important), the days to undertake an endeavor.

We laugh. How naive of our forest-dwelling forbears who somehow built monoliths and observatories, pyramids and spiritual centers (all with aid from above). Never mind that all over the world similar groups did the same thing, from Egypt to Cambodia, from Sumeria to India, from Easter Island to Stonehenge, from unknown site to unknown site. These sites are everywhere.

The world will end, guaranteed.

But it will spring up again. That is certain.

If we fear change, we will always live in fear, because change is the only constant.

What can we do?

We suggest we work out our liberation (salvation, emancipation, improvement) with diligence. We'll see you in heaven, in paradise, in good states supported by the profitable karma willed, performed, and accumulated right NOW. And for a few all praise is due, who confirmed that it is possible right here, right now, in this very life: Nirvana is visible within samsara. They are not the same thing.

• Be the Change: Occupy Together
• Buddhism in ancient America
• Rick Fields' book will remain as the first attempt to document the Buddhist movement in America. There are approximately eight hundred persons and places named in the book, from Shakyamuni, who started it all, through to the Tibetans, Koreans, Vietnamese, Japanese, Sinhalese, Chinese, and a plethora of Westerners. It's a fascinating story full of eccentric characters, good intentions, and unstinting effort....Buddhism's migration to the new lands....
  

View inside an ancient Mayan tomb

Exterior view of tomb of Mayan ruler at the ruins of the Mayan city of Palenque in the hills of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas (INAH/Reuters).

A tiny remote-controlled camera peered inside the tomb that had been sealed for 1,500 years, revealing red frescoes, pottery, and pieces of a funerary shroud made of jade and mother of pearl. Archeologists had not been able to access the vault discovered in 1999 inside a Mexican pyramid among the ruins until now, the INAH said in a release on Thursday. More

Tiny camera reveal early Mayan tomb
Researchers said Thursday that a tiny remote-controlled camera lowered into an early Mayan tomb in southern Mexico has helped reveal an intact funeral chamber with offerings and red-painted wall murals. The tomb was discovered in 1999 inside a pyramid among the ruins of the Mayan city of Palenque in the hills of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Ancient Ballplayer Found?

Mexico City – Mexican archaeologists have found a new ballplayer monolith dating from between 900 A.D. and 1000 A.D at an archaeological site in the north-central state of Zacatecas, INAH said.

Maya offering found in Cenote, near Chichen Itza

The offering contains human bones of at least six individuals, probably sacrificed during a pair of intense dry season periods, one nearly 1200 years ago and the other, 900, as well as ceramic vessels; jade and shell beads; flint and double leaf knives, shell round artifacts that might have been Tlaloc goggles, animal bones, and a great amount of charcoal probably used during the ritual.

Will 2012 change our DNA?

(Burkard)

Venus the Comet and its Serpent tail (video)

In ancient times, the planets themselves were the "gods" (Image: redicecreations.com)

“From the smallest particle to the largest galactic formation, a web of electrical circuitry connects and unifies all of nature, organizing galaxies, energizing stars, giving birth to planets, and on our own world, controlling weather and animating biological organisms. There are no isolated islands in an electric universe” (David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill, Thunderbolts of the Gods).

(Tbolts Interviews) The Thunderbolts Project's Wallace Thornhill (holoscience.com) is an Australian physicist. His work on The Electric Universe provides the broadest synthesis of electrical principles to date. It covers solar system history, planetary cratering and scarring, the electrical dynamics of the Sun, and the nature of galaxies. He is co-author of Thunderbolts of the Gods.

Multicultural Mythology Explained

RedIceCreations

The Vedas [India's ancient scriptures] said that the star Venus looks like fire with smoke. The star had a tail [a flying serpent], dark in the daytime and luminous at night. This luminous tail, which Venus had in earlier centuries, is mentioned in the Talmud: "Fire as hanging down from the planet Venus." Described by the Chaldeans, the planet Venus was said to have a beard. "Beard" is used in modern astronomy in the description of comets.

The Mexicans called a comet "a star that smoked." What was the illusion of the ancient Toltecs and Mayans? What was the phenomenon, and what was its cause? A train large enough to be visible from Earth and giving the impression of smoke and fire hung from the planet Venus.

Venus, with its glowing train, was a very brilliant body. Therefore, it is not strange that the Chaldeans described it as a "bright torch of heaven" that "illuminates like the Sun" [a second, lesser sun]. They compared it with the light of the rising Sun.

At present, the light of Venus is less than one millionth of the light of the Sun. "A stupendous prodigy in the sky," the Chaldeans called it. The Hebrews similarly described the planet: "The brilliant light of Venus blazes from one end of the cosmos to the other end." Chinese astronomical texts refer to a time in the past when "Venus was visible in full daylight and, while moving across the sky, rivaled the sun in brightness." More

Mayan Calendar: The End and Beginning

Wisdom Quarterly

(LINK) Why do people believe and fear the Mayan calendar's "end" when they will not give the Mayan "creation" the time of day? Genetic manipulation, the great flood, warring extraterrestrial factions, the "Gods" killing off humans wholesale, it's all there in the indigenous Popol Vuh or Mayan creation myth, a campfire version of Earth history.

Just as the Maya postulated an end date, an explanation was given for the beginning. Even before Mesoamerica, ancient India explained the origins of the universe.

The Mesoamerican Maya (aka Mayans) had a great deal of advanced technical knowledge. They used it to build an extremely sophisticated civilization. Their empire expanded in a man made paradise, an extremely fertile jungle. The nagas (feathered serpents, flying dragons, Draco star system beings) who aided them also filled them with a preoccupation with the stars, astrology, and the cycles of time and what these cycles would mean for future generations. The Mayan Calendar states that a new age will begin on December 21, 2012. The date has been disputed since we are not living on Mayan time and have had to transliterate their information to our own Gregorian chronology.

Their architectural feats are unmatched today. We would not be able to build what a culture with no power tools or heavy equipment was able to build with apparent ease. But the Maya were not alone in these feats. Evidence of similar accomplishments are found around the world -- most of them hidden due to a phenomenon known as "forbidden archeology."

This states that what does not make sense according to prestigious and established theories of how cultures evolved, from lower and more primitive to higher and more "modern," are rejected out of hand. One will be drummed out of the field for attempting or speculating something that contradicts current thinking. Such is the state of "unbiased" science and academic politics. The truth may eventually win out, but it would have won out much sooner had it not been hampered by obstacles that have nothing to do with the science.

The world is familiar with the magnificent Stone Age ruins in Buddhist Cambodia (Khmer empire), but we argue about the date choosing to believe the official royal histories of self-aggrandizing kings who claim construction to forward the notion that they were omnipotent. Stonehenge is also widely recognized as nearly impossible to explain (less well known being nearby complexes and burial mounds, not to mention similar sites found even in America).

The exact same thing has happened in Egypt, where pharaohs tore down statues of former rulers, erected their own, and claimed larger (much more ancient) monuments a result of their efforts. It worked. Those rulers basked in the glory of inherited sites too grand to be comprehended even in their time and all the more in ours. Zahi Hawass (Egypt's own Indiana Jones, a megalomaniacal Head of Antiquities, who has now been given a prison sentence for his ongoing outrages) ignores egyptologists and any alternative theories, as if to hide the truth to promote his own opinions.

Less well known are many underwater structures kept hidden, such as those photographed by deep water submersibles and those found in and around India, which has a mythological basis for them but very little formal research funding. Why? Governmental and extra-governmental (military-industrial complex) agencies do not want these widely known.

This brings us back to the Maya and the Mayan calendar. Their sophisticated understanding of time, history, and cyclical ages was not their own. It was handed to them from "on high," as it were, through visitations. We mask it in religious terms because that makes sense to those familiar with Judeo-Christian mythologies. But there is very little spirituality around this, except for the advances advanced civilizations (who have visited this planet) seem to exhibit as part of the evolution of any sophisticated culture. ETs are capable of things we would call miraculous, not only with their machines but in terms of their own organic abilities -- telecommunication, telekinesis, cloaking/invisibility, healing, and so on.

Being so intelligent and advanced, capable of genetic manipulation and war, they had much to say about time. What then did they say about the past, our origins, our creation? Mayan creation myths should be as popular a subject as their scatological myths: "2012, the end of the world." They never said such things, but that's what we hear. Their year 2012 merely marks a 26,000 year cycle that is the end of an age. The world will change. The world has already radically shifted in a relatively short period. Expect more, but the drama of obvious difference on December 22, 2012 is misguided.

Quetzalcoatl will return. A new planet will be announced (not "discovered" since it is already known an in view) in our solar system, and revelations will be made (but not the biblical doom and gloom). That disclosure is taking place even now. India knew thousands of years ago because devas had told humankind, and the Vedas record that knowledge. Sumerians were told. Every great culture that became an empire was told. Only we have been kept in the dark. But even we had the mythology and scripture discussing it. Science liberated us (by rejecting interpretations and editing of sacred texts), and science enslaved us when it was co-opted by powers who saw how easy it was to manipulate by funding and public relations campaigns.

The Vedas explained in very general terms how things began (animation starts at 2:03)