OMG! A "Twilight" sequel! (cartoon)

Amber Dorrian and my kid sister "Bela" not Bella (Wisdom Quarterly)

Breaking Dawn premieres. The forces of the Moon versus those badly affected by the Moon. "Twilight" is basically Dracula vs. Wolfman. Only the vampires are melodramatic and the wolves are so CGI. This series is a mess. But, melodrama can be good. Soap opera thrillers for tweens who need a romantic lead are keeping the mall theaters alive.

Giggly Bieber kids and gayish gothy teens are outnumbered by horndog moms. Fans everywhere are sure to keep this blockbuster going. And that's good. It's keeping "romance" alive. And there's nothing higher to live for. So get used to it.

The world needs more Harry Potter with heavy petting because Emma Thompson isn't doing anything to meet our need for sizzle. Taylor Lautner is pure peach fuzz for a hirsute leading man. Robert Pattinson is very, very Brit'ish. And Kristen Stewart's lesbian child molester kiss with Dakota Fanning was a real let down.

Beating the Drum for War on IRAN (cartoon)

Wisdom Quarterly, RT.com, Jason Bermas

The abuses do not begin and end with cracking down on Occupy Movement free speech. The goal is far greater -- even more war and Perkins-style economic assassinations. Apathy means the war machine goes forward. The goal of occupiers is to call attention to the corporate greed and military madness behind our US policy of endless war as Orwell described in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

(RT ) Iran war drumbeat on CrossTalk with Mark Levine and guests

Nov. 14, 2011 - Is the latest IAEA report a case for a war with Iran? Why does the US get to read it first? Is there enough evidence to conclude that Iran's nuclear program goes far beyond peaceful purposes? And why is no-one questioning the credibility of the IAEA?

("Invisible Empire") The military-industrial complex

Internet Bible: "The Fall of Eve" (comic)

MysticPolitics (Flickr.com), Loldwell.com; text by Wisdom Quarterly

How did it all begin? Well according to the biblical teachings pushed on kids in America, it was all Eve's fault. Her fall was the fall of mankind.

(Of course, anyone who reads more deeply is surprised to find out there was more than one first couple and therefore probably more than one origin story and Earthly paradise. The name Lilith may be familiar). Nevertheless, Jewish and Christian histories -- borrowing heavily from distorted sources without attribution -- paint a dismal picture of human life.



This is probably why so many Americans are drawn to Buddhist and allied Eastern philosophies (Taoism, Yoga Sutras, Vedic Brahmanism, Hinduism, Sufism, Jainism, etc.) The potential of what it means to be human is much better.

From the human plane we are capable of attaining anything else, the wished for and the dreaded. It is possible to become a divinity (brahma), a light being (rupa loka deva), a celestial being (akasha deva), a fairy or nature spirit (bhummi deva), a better human, a ghost (preta), an animal, a monster, a hellion, a bodhisattva (striving to save others), a buddha (a rediscoverer and teacher of the timeless truth), a jerk, or a saint (arhat).

Rapture? "Rapture's Delight" cartoon (video)

Rapture's Delight (American Dad)

Sex and the Protests (Part II)

PART II: Anonymous, Seven, Amber (Wisdom Quarterly)

TO BE CONTINUED

Sex and the Protests in Cartoons

PART I: Seven, Anonymous, Amber (Wisdom Quarterly)

• Cartoonists treading lightly when drawing Obama

Welcome Table. Occupy Los Angeles. "We are peaceful, but we are passionate" the hash tag under the FREE CONDOMS sign reads. All these liberals, all these tents, all these Anti-Sex League members.

To put it in context, in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston lives in a future world, a dystopia. Big Brother is always watching. His job at the Ministry of Truth is redacting, rewriting, and sanitizing history for the current regime (inner party). His only outlet is cheap gin. But his mind is mostly on sex.

And there she was, Julia, beautiful but sporting an "Anti-Sex League" (ASL) sash. Why? Because Big Brother does not want anyone enjoying him or herself or giving allegiance to anything but the state. It's true of Communist regimes. It's true of fascists. It may even be true of über liberal protesters.

"The personal is political, the personal is political," and we are radicals. There she sat on the City Hall steps, cross legged and contemplating the tip of her nose. Pitzer College sophomore. A dreamy Age of Aquarius trippy hipster, a merry hempster, an occupation "hippie." What did I think would happen as rave music blasted from the now barricaded Spring Street next to the occupation?

"No, not again, O, what a man, just who I thought that I wanted to have. O, don't do that....that's all it takes to make me falling flat. No, not again, the loser I am. I love you tonight. You are my knight, pure and assured to make me feel all right, tomorrow you'll find I'm not around, but don't be uptight, because I loved you last night. Vacant and free, yeah that is me...." the Cardigans sing. Is that how it is at Occupy Scandinavia?

This is LA, and the ASL will not stand for it. Maybe in Claremont, but in the (western) Belly of the Beast? Downtown is no Greenwich Village. It's not even Podunk, USA. It is just a megalopolis city center with a City Hall next to a Federal Court building adjacent to a jail and a corporate skyline hovering over what was once a pueblo with a hegemonic church. Cartman was watching. Would we "respect his authoritay," or poke the eye of the War Machine?



"Make love not war, make love not war," I rooted inside my head. She was four inches from my face. Am I supposed to kiss her? Am I supposed to get a room (tent)? Am I supposed to suppose? I chose to just be in the moment. It sounds good. But a plan would have been better.

We'll march to the freeway overpass in the morning and remind commuters, wage slaves, that we're here for them. They'll honk. We'll hug. Maybe we can fingerpaint for freedom in the morning.... TO BE CONTINUED

Occupy Together vs. The Police (cartoons)

Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy Everywhere Demand Nothing, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Boston, Occupy San Francisco, Occupy Tokyo... Occupy TOGETHER
Officer Cartman: "You will respect my authority!" (Runescaper443*)

• CLICK IMAGES FOR VIDEOS

PHOTOS: Occupy Los Angeles (UPI.com)

Hippie InfestationSOUTH
PARK

Occupy Together

Wisdom Quarterly
Occupy Los Angeles has cooperated with police requests on where to squat and what space to leave open. Amazingly, things have remained peaceful. Usually, the LAPD is eager to riot, arrest, and brutalize. Fellow at work forces in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other places that feel the Arab Spring resonate with the American Fall. The police see to it because the motto of a police state is "We don't want to have to tell you twice." You have no rights -- unless you assert them. What gets into Little Eichmanns/Officer Cartmans? It is a different view of the world from that side of the line, where punitive, obedient, conservative, oppression, and (often) hypocrisy rules. Many officers are ex-military or active-reserve agents of the state. They are trained to humiliate, brutalize, and kill civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Northern Africa, and in other secret "kinetic actions." They take that training into American society saying, "I fought in Afghanistan for your free speech, so the h*ll if I'm going to stand here and let you mouth off!" Officer, isn't that a contradiction? "You will respect my authority!" Deploy pepper spray, baton, Taser, tear gas, less-than-lethal projectile shotgun, disorienting EMF emitter, microwaves, semi-automatic handgun, automatic weapons, water canons at will. Why? It is because, as we learn from an observation by the Dead Kennedys, "Police can riot all that they please."

Diverse issues invite diverse solutions at Occupy LA; clip from "Hippie Infestation."

*Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976: "Allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

"I think therefore I am"? Descartes was wrong

Wisdom Quarterly
(Leashcolon26/Flickr)

By the way, Rene Descartes was wrong. He is a famous philosopher in the Western tradition. He is most famous for deducing the maxim, "I think therefore I am."

He was wondering and reasoning and questioning. What is true? Do I exist? How can I know? What can I be sure of? As he thought and pondered, he realized that the only thing he could be sure of what that he was thinking.

If I am thinking then I am. I think therefore I am (exist). But it is not true. Based on the evidence, he should only have concluded: "I think therefore there's thinking."

In a sense thoughts think themselves. It is actually more complicated than that: They are dependently-originated. What's that? Dependent Origination is a teaching so subtle that the Buddha declared that it was on account of not seeing, not penetrating this teaching that both he and we had wandered on in this round of suffering.

Wisdom and insight are better than knowledge and thinking.

The "I" he posited was assumed. There was identification with the thinking. And viewing it as personal, he was logically trapped: A self exists. And it has all of these problems, thinking being one of them.

Had he meditated under a tree like Newton or Siddhartha, Descartes might have realized: This is a mess. Thinking is no escape. It leads to logical dead ends and fundamental assumptions. What if I were to let go of thinking and just being?

By not identifying, I might be freed because I have heard said by many, "The Truth shall set us free." It does. Thinking is not the way to enlightenment and liberation. Stillness, samadhi, and insight are.

Meditation is letting go, allowing stillness, then systematically
investigating reality with the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (DN 22).

"Family Guy" to premiere in theatres (free)

(Fan favorite "Road to Multiverse") America's No. 1 family enters its 10th season midnight on Thursday at AMC Century City 15 in LA and in New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas...

Science confirms that laughter is good medicine, so here is a major dose of innovative animation. The Buddha was perhaps the only major religious figure frequently depicted as happy, jovial, and laughing -- and for good reason. Enough with the stiffness of austerity and onto the joy here and hereafter.

(LA Times) In celebration of the show’s 10^th anniversary, the funny side of the FOX network is spotlighting the Griffin household -- Stewie, Brian, Peter (Seth MacFarlane), Lois, Chris, and Meg (Mila Kunis) -- with a 10-city, one-night-only, exclusive midnight viewing of an exclusive episode as well never-before-seen footage, trivia, and giveaways.

• Also in: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Seattle

Tickets for the Southern California event are free on a first-come, first-served basis and can be reserved at familyguyLA@gmail.com.

The new episode that will be screened is called “Lottery Fever,” which finds the Rhode Island family struggling to stay grounded after finding themselves holding a winning ticket. The especially subversive 2009 episode “Road to Multiverse” will also be screening, having been picked for the occasion by fans voting via Facebook. The screenings will also include a 22-minute bonus feature from the forthcoming “Family Guy” DVD, due on shelves on Dec.13, 2011.

• PHOTOS: laughingbuddha.biz
• Sarah Palin gets phone pranked
• Ancient Buddhist monuments of Sri Lanka

Afghan-style monoliths on Buddhist isle (itchypaws)

Mara: Buddhism's Super Devil, Cupid, Lucifer

Ananda W.P. Guruge (U. West, UNESCO, Sri Lankan ambassador) Wisdom Quarterly

Mara Devaputra, or the Super Devil, is more dangerous than the other maras.

The Buddha's Encounters with Mara the Tempter

Their Representation in Literature and Art

The Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (Prof. G.P. Malalasekera) introduces Mara (a Buddhist "super devil" as:

• "the personification of Death"
• "the Evil One"
• "the Tempter"
• "(the Buddhist counterpart of the Devil or Principle of Destruction)."

• Top 10 greatest TV and movie devils

It continues: "The legends concerning Mara are, in the books, very involved and defy any attempts at unraveling them."[1]

Analyzing a series of allusions to Mara in the commentarial literature, Prof. Malalasekera further elaborates on his definition with the following observations:

1. "In the latest accounts, mention is made of five maras -- Khandha-mara, Kilesa-mara, Abhisankhara-mara, Maccu-mara, and Devaputta-mara. Elsewhere Mara is spoken of as one, three, or four."[2]
2. "The term Mara, in the older books, is applied to the whole of the worldly existence, the Five Aggregates, or the realm of rebirth, as opposed to nirvana."[3]
3. Commentaries speaking of three maras specify them as Devaputta-mara, Maccu-mara, and Kilesa-mara. When four maras are referred to, they appear to be the five maras mentioned above minus Mara Devaputta.

Prof. Malalasekera proceeds to attempt "a theory of Mara in Buddhism," which he formulates in the following manner:

"The commonest use of the word was evidently in the sense of Death. From this it was extended to mean 'the world under the sway of death' (also called Mara-dheyya, e.g. AN IV 228) and the beings therein.

"Thence, the kilesas (defilements) also came to be called Mara in that they were instruments of Death, the causes enabling Death to hold sway over the world. All temptations brought about by the kilesas were likewise regarded as the work of Death.

"There was also evidently a legend of a devaputta [a "son of the gods," one born among the celestial devas] of the Vasavatti world called Mara, who considered himself the head of the Kamavacara-world [the sense sphere] and who recognized any attempt to curb the enjoyment of sensual pleasures as a direct challenge to himself and to his authority.

"As time went on these different conceptions of the word became confused one with the other, but this confusion is not always difficult to unravel."[4]

What follows from this statement, even though Malalasekera does not elucidate, is that the term Mara, when it occurs in Buddhist literature, could signify any one of the following four:

1. An anthropomorphic deity ruling over a heaven in the sense sphere, namely, Paranimmita-Vasavatti. He is meant when Mara is called the king of the sensual realm. In this position, he is as important and prestigious as Sakka (King of the Devas) and Maha Brahma (the "Great Supremo") in whose company he is often mentioned in the canonical literature. This Mara, or Mara-devaputta, is not only a very powerful deity but is also bent on making life difficult for spiritual persons.
2. The Canon also speaks of (a) maras in the plural as a class of potent deities (e.g., SN 56.11) and (b) of previous -- hence, logically future -- maras (e.g., MN 50). According to Tibetan texts, the ascetic Siddhartha could have, with the instructions given by Arada Kalama, become a Sakra, a brahma, or a mara [all of which are best understood as posts held rather than individual historical figures].[5]
3. A personification of Death is called also the Lord of Death, the exterminator, the great king (maha raja), and the inescapable (Namuci). The preoccupation of the Buddhist quest for deliverance is consistently stressed as escaping the phenomenon of death, which presupposes rebirth. The entire range of existence falls within the realm of Mara on account of the ineluctable presence of death. (Compare with Schopenhauer's concept of "Morture."[6]) All states of existence, including the six [near-Earth] heavenly worlds of the sense sphere, are said to return to the power of Mara, which means into the power of death.[7]
4. Mara can also be seen allegorically, with almost immediate personification, of the power of temptation, the tendency towards evil, moral conflict, and the influence of such factors as indolence, negligence, and niggardliness. Similar to Satan in Judeo-Christian and Islamic thinking and Ahriman in Avestan [Zoroastrian] thought, though in no way identical, this Mara is described as Papima (i.e., "the Evil One," or simply "the Evil")[8], "Kinsman of Dalliance" (Pamattabandhu), Calumnious or Malicious (Pisuna), and "the Black" (Kanha). Grimm calls this Mara "the prince and bestower of all worldly lust" and distinguishes him from Lucifer of the Bible on the ground that this personification "always remains apparent."[9]

In this work, where the Buddha's encounters with Mara are analyzed as they are presented in literature and art, the main concern will be with Mara as a personification of temptation (No. 4 above). But I will also briefly examine how the other concepts are sometimes subsumed under this and how the literary description or the artistic representation of Mara is conditioned by the merger of three separate concepts as well as by the general body of Indian mythology.

It has to be noted that Mara is another name for the Indian "God of Love" [Cupid], known also as "Lust" (Kama) or "Deva of Lust" (Kama-deva), "Of Five Arrows" (Pañcabana), "Tormentor of Minds" (Manmatha), Bodiless (Ananga), "Flower-Weaponed" (Kusuma-yudha), and "Dragon-Flagged" (Makara-dhvaja). More

Access to Insight version:

1. Introduction
2. Mara Legends in Canonical Texts
3. Temptations by Mara in Non-canonical Buddhist Literature
4. Mara Episodes in Asian Buddhist Art
5. Conclusion

Nagas in the News: Man Bites Snake

Wisdom Quarterly, Family Guy, Tyra Banks Show, Reuters.com, KTLA.com

Reptilian DNA can be activated by anger (apparently).

Man Bites Python

Reuters

A Kenyan man [like yesterday's incident in California but in 2009] bit a python who wrapped him in its coils and hauled him up a tree in a struggle that lasted hours, local media said.... Farm manager Ben Nyaumbe was working at the weekend when the serpent, apparently hunting for livestock, struck in the Malindi area of Kenya's Indian Ocean coast.



(reuters.com)

"I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python," he told the Daily Nation newspaper. When the snake coiled itself round his upper body, Nyaumbe resorted to desperate measures: "I had to bite it." The python dragged him up a tree, but when it eased its grip, Nyaumbe said he was able to take a mobile phone out of his pocket and phone for help.



That makes enough sense. After all, a python is massive and was taking him up a tree to eat, reminiscent of a culturally famous story about an apple and an idyllic garden. But it hardly explains the next story of human-reptilian (naga) hybrid behavior.







Man Bites Python, Says He Has No Memory of it

SACRAMENTO, California(ktla.com) - A man is facing animal cruelty charges for biting a two-foot long python, and he says he has no memory of it. Yesterday [Sept. 2, 2011] afternoon Sacramento cops were called...



While talking to the “victim” 57-year-old David Senk, who had blood in his mouth, another witness told cops that Senk took two large bites out of a live python.... They sewed up a two-inch hole in the belly of the snake, and they found a few ribs were missing. Senk was arrested for animal cruelty.

“I did what?” asked Senk when questioned by FOX40’s Lonnie Wong and added: "If you find the owner, tell him I'm real sorry...."

The snakes owner could not be reached, and Senk says he doesn't know how he got in contact with the Python. He also admitted to not liking snakes very much. PHOTOS

(Discovery Channel) A lighthearted exposé of reptilians (nagas) and titans (asuras) on Earth mankind from behind the scenes establishing a New World Order.

Sex with Neanderthals (animation)

Wisdom Quarterly (ARCHEOLOGY, COSMOLOGY)



VIDEO: "Family Guy" explores cave-couple sex and fighting



Sex with cavemen helped modern humans

Kerry Sheridan (AFP, Aug. 25, 2011)

Sexual encounters with archaic humans like the Neanderthals produced children who inherited key genes that have helped modern humans fight illness and disease, said a US study published Thursday.



(d.umn.edu)

"The cross-breeding wasn't just a random event that happened, it gave something useful to the gene pool of the modern human," said Stanford University's Peter Parham, senior author of the study in the journal Science.

Equipped with knowledge of the genome of the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, of whom a tooth and a finger bone were discovered in a Russian cave last year, researchers scoured the data for hints of what genes crossed over.

Scientists already knew that about four percent of Neanderthal DNA and up to six percent of Denisovan DNA are present in some modern humans. This study took a close look at a group called HLA class I genes which help the immune system adapt to fight off new pathogens that could cause various infections, viruses and diseases.

Researchers traced the origin of one type, HLA-B*73, to the Denisovans, who likely mated with humans arriving in West Asia on their way out of Africa. More

"Humans" According to Buddhist Cosmology

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

There are 31 Planes of Existence. That means living beings can take rebirth in various forms on various planes, even formlessly. Most realms, however, are "fine material" planes. But sadly most beings fall into unfortunate worlds. This world, this Earth, is not the full extent of the "human realm," according to Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal experts.



There are three spheres (sensual, fine material, and immaterial) in this world system. But there are countless world systems in all directions. Humans within this world system are not limited to Earth. We have been to the stars, and many reside there. Everywhere things evolve, devolve, and repeat. The history of life on this Earth is only known to a few.



Most of us are fed anthropological nonsense, sincere nonsense, from good professors. But entire fields of knowledge ignore the inconvenient truths their science stumbles on. Forbidden Archeology: The Hidden History of the Human Race by Michael A. Cremo is one brave effort to reveal the facts that do not fit the story. Cremo reveals a history so vast and incomprehensible that most shrink back to the safety of a story of human history that does not even make sense.



But Cremo's findings do accord with the wisdom of the East. Indian mythology (indeed mythologies from around the world), cosmology, and spiritual history (Vedas) tell an altogether different story covering billions of years, cosmic cycles, past empires, space flight, extraterrestrial visitations, other worlds, life on other planets in this very solar system, and much more. The Buddha adopted much of this cosmology. And apparently the Egyptians and Sumerians were aware of it.



Wisdom Quarterly has gone so far as to postulate that Buddhist cosmography and cosmology, which is centered around the mythical Mt. Sumeru, may be what Sumerian civilization was all about. There have been many visitations, many iterations of the "human" species, punctuated equilibrium (biological evolution in bursts), and a great deal of genetic manipulations by nagas (reptilians), devas (beautiful light being ETs), asuras (titans), kumbandhas (trolls), and even yakkhas (possibly neanderthals and other bipedal hominids, who still roam the world's forests in secret).



That Homo sapiens (modern humans) mated -- or were combined with since different species cannot produce viable offspring by simple mating -- should surprise no one. Homo floresiensis were "hobbits." And yet they were human. "Human" is a very labile term.

Stewie's Big Bang Theory (Family Guy)

• Modern man had sex with Neanderthals
  
  
• Skulls say humans and Neanderthals split 300,000-400,000 years ago
• European Neanderthals like us (marz7.net)
• Blow to Neanderthal breeding theory (BBC)
  
  

Happy Birthday, B.S. Obama (cartoon)

U.S. dollar banknotes blur as the U.S. debt ceiling rises and its credit worthiness is cut sending world stocks tumbling towards 11-month lows on Monday, overshadowing relief that the European Central Bank was buying bonds of strugglers Italy and Spain (Xinhuanet.com/Reuters).

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Xinhua) - Obama on Monday called leaders of Spain and Italy over the euro zone debt crisis and the riotous situation in Syria, the White House said. More



(thismodernworld.com)

• Marilyn Monroe 2.0: Jennifer Hudson's Happy Birthday
• Obama celebrates 50th birthday early in [Oprah's] Chicago
• Mr. [or Emperor] Obama's $3,580,000 birthday present
  
  

God's Approval Ratings Are Down (video)

WARNING: Potentially offensive or humorous depiction of how the Great Creator (Maha Brahma) in theistic faiths might have produced the universe, subsequent evolution, and the Church's alternative theory ("Family Guy").

God's Approval Rating Barely Breaks 50 percent
Jack Jenkins (Religion News Service)

WASHINGTON (RNS) - More than half of U.S. voters approve of God’s job performance, according to a new poll, making God more popular than all members of Congress.

• LISTEN: "God's Polling Power" (NPR)
  
• God's approval rating is 52%, a very theological poll
• VIDEO: Secret NPR: Bias or fake controversy? (newsy.com)
  

The poll -- which was conducted by the Democratic research firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) -- surveyed 928 people and found that 52 percent of Americans approved of God’s overall dealings [they particularly liked "its" creation of the universe], while only 9 percent disapproved.

Questions about God were asked as part of a larger survey assessing American opinions of congressional leaders in the midst of the ongoing debt ceiling debate in Washington.

God’s approval rating exceeded that of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, as well as both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, with each party receiving only a 33 percent approval rating.

God also polled significantly higher than the scandal-ridden media baron Rupert Murdoch: only 12 percent of those polled viewed him favorably, compared to 49 percent who viewed him unfavorably.

“Though not the most popular figure PPP has polled, if God exists, voters are prepared to give it (sic) good marks,” PPP said in a July 21 press release.



The poll also gauged God’s handling of specific “issues.” When asked to rate God on the creation of the universe, 71 percent of voters approved and only 5 percent disapproved. Respondents were also generally appreciative of God’s governance of the “animal kingdom,” with 56 percent approving and 11 percent disapproving.

Younger respondents were more critical of God’s handling of natural disasters, with those ages 18-29 expressing a 26 percent disapproval rating, compared to 12 percent disapproval among those 65 and older.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

• Read more at The Huffington Post