Halloween, the Happiest Time of Year!

Wisdom Quarterly (Editors)

China's Gao Temple caverns were converted into a peculiar kind of Chinese hell, where devils are depicted torturing beings reborn in perdition. Do Buddhists go to heaven? (Deanspic/Flickr)

Halloween is America's greatest holiday. It is one of the few times we formally acknowledge that it is not all about us. Our ancestors are still with us in one form or another. In the Petavatthu, the Buddha explained that it was not possible for someone not to have relatives dwelling in the unfortunate abodes -- the realm of ghosts and subhuman existences collectively. This is because "relatives" is defined as going back seven generations (just as it extends for the Native Americans). What leads to rebirth on those unfortunate planes? The anti-precepts lead there: not abstaining or discouraging killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, deceiving, or drug taking. To abandon these and encourage others to abandon them is the way to the human world and higher worlds. But here now -- where we are shamed for any "deviant," "sinful," or "wrong" impulse -- Halloween is the only appropriate holiday for acting out in all the ways that are forbidden. It is no wonder Halloween has become more popular with US adults than children.

Halloween (Samhain) witch, angel, she-devil

For just one day I'll pretend I'm a s----y devil. My parents say it's crazy and they won't have it under their roof! But every other day of the year it's hypocrisy. How can pretending (and deceiving others) be preferable to play acting? Halloween is not when we are like this; Halloween is when we express how we think of being. Strangling the expression of everything unpleasant does not make it go away. It feeds it and keeps it alive with guilt, shame, and turning a blind eye. Let it see the light of day. Maybe it's not as much to be afraid of as we fear. It would be less worse to die than to live always fearing death. Whosoever would purposely turn from the truth, whatever the truth may be, is no truthseeker.

(Barbara Virgo Hobbs/Flickr.com)

Family Guy: Sugar is the cause of fast aging, rotting, and mental instability as Stewie Duck and Pink Brian find (tv.ign.com).

Foreclosure firm mocks evicted at Halloween party
Lindsay Lohan spends Halloween at county morgue
The famous [Hindu] "Trinity" concept not in Bible
Haunted Magic Castle burns on Halloween
Fire officials are trying assess the damage after a greater-alarm fire ripped through the famed Magic Castle in the Hollywood Hills on Monday. Fire crews said the blaze was contained largely to the attic and walls of the historic venue but that there might be significant water damage. There is no immediate cause for the blaze...

Perseus Cluster Screaming Skull space jack 'o lantern is actually a Chandra image of galaxies in X-rays (A. Fabian, et al./IoA Cambridge/NASA/Space.com).

The Parable of the Sacred Grove

Xia on the true meaning of sangha (TempleoftheGoddess.org)
(shinra-sanne.deviantart.com)

A solitary man journeyed about the world. When he met others on the road, he looked down, grunted a passing greeting, hunched his shoulders, and continued on his way.

In each village he passed, he saw the people gathering beneath the trees, the "Sacred Groves" they called them. They entered the wood by twos, threes, sometimes alone. They danced, sang, laughed, ate, and watched the cycles of the Moon together.

The man wondered what it would be like to walk beneath those trees. Each time he passed their wood, he wondered if the people would welcome him or turn him away.

He wondered why they met in their Sacred Groves, beneath the trees, instead of the village square. He wondered what drew them to those places. But the man never went into the woods. Having decided long ago that he needed no one, he walked alone. It was better that way. Still, he wondered. More