"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....
  

The Pyramids of China (video)

Walter Hain (text edited from German by Wisdom Quarterly)

There is a cluster of large pyramids (and the Maoling Mausoleum) in Shaanxi, China

Many years ago the popular scientific community and other publications announced the existence of gigantic pyramids in China. The controversy seems resolved by photos (left), satellite image confirmation, and new discoveries. With the help of Google Earth, the impressive objects are visible to all. So it can no longer be maintained that are no pyramids in China.

They have four even sides like the pyramids in Egypt and Mexico (pictured at left). Their size is comparable to those of the pharaohs and Mesoamerican (Mayan, Aztec, Olmec, and Mexican) rulers.

Mexico: a view of the Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan, which flourished prior to invasion by Europeans, from 200 AD to 600 AD, the site of the second largest pyramid in the Americas (wikipedia.org)

In 1912 two travel agents, Fred Meyer Schroder and Oscar Maman, reported a tremendous building they had seen in China: "It was more eerie than if we had found them in the wilderness. Here they had been under the nose of the world, but unknown to the western countries...

"The big pyramid is about 1,000 feet high [other descriptions estimate 1,000 to 1,200 feet high] and roughly 1,500 feet at the base, which makes it twice as large as any pyramid in Egypt. The four faces of the structure are oriented with the compass points," the two travelers reported.

During WW II, the USAF pilot James Gaussman and his co-pilot flew, through a technical defect in his guidance system, several times over the area in China. What he later reported sounds completely unbelievable: "I banked to avoid a mountain, and we came out over a level valley. Directly below was a gigantic white pyramid. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.

"It was encased in shimmering white. This could have been metal or some sort of stone. It was pure white on all sides. The remarkable thing was the capstone, a huge piece of jewel-like material that could have been crystal. There was no way we could have landed, although we wanted to. We were struck by the immensity of the thing."

[It is not generally known that originally the pyramids of Egypt were smooth on all sides encased in brilliant white alabaster.] More