What in the world? "Police State 4" (video)

Infowars.com, Wisdom Quarterly
(ChangeDaChannel)

Police State 4 chronicles the depths to which our republic has fallen. Veteran documentary filmmaker (and libertarian muckraker) Alex Jones reveals the existence of a secret network of FEMA camps being expanded nationwide.

The military-industrial complex is transforming our once free nation into a giant prison camp. A cashless society control grid, built in the name of "fighting terrorism," is actually being constructed to enslave Americans.



Body scanners, sound cannons, electro-magnetic pulse weapons, citizen spies, staged terror, mind control plants (Manchurian candidates), and cameras on every corner and laptop - it is only the beginning of the New World Order's unbelievable plan.

The "Continuity of Government" program has established an all-powerful shadow state, revealing preparations to enter the secretive world of emergency dictatorship, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) betrayal, and a shredded constitution.

Witness police and military savagely attacking innocent citizens as our own elected government unleashes false flag operations to justify its oppression. The shadow government is ruthless behind the scenes. Jones takes on corrupt mercenary police and exposes mainstream media brainwashing because those who are part of the problem are also victims of it.

How Many Past Lives Have We Had?

In the Buddha’s Words by Bhikkhu Bodhi edited by Seven for Wisdom Quarterly

Buddha, Thailand (PhotAsia/Flickr.com, Photasia.net)

Without Discoverable Beginnings

(1) Grass and Sticks

The Buddha said: “Disciples, this samsara [literally, "faring on, wandering on" through rebirths] is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not able to be discerned of beings roaming and wandering on [through the cycle of repeated births and deaths] hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

[The search for such an ultimate beginning is one of the Four Imponderables.* If pondered and pursued it would be useless and lead to derangement. Yet if such a pursuit could succeed, it would nevertheless not lead to dispassion, enlightenment, and liberation from suffering. If it did lead to the end of suffering, the Buddha would have taught it.]

“Suppose, disciples, a man would cut up whatever grass, sticks, branches, and leaves there are in this Jambudipa [the "Rose Apple Land" or Indian subcontinent] and collect them together into a single heap. Having done so, he would put them down, saying for each one: ‘This is my mother, this my mother's mother.’

“The sequence of that man's mothers and grandmothers would not come to an end, yet the grass, sticks, branches, and leaves in this Jambudipa would be used up and exhausted. For what reason? Disciples, it is because this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not able to be discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

“For such a long time, disciples, you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and swelled up the cemeteries. It is enough to become disenchanted with all formations, enough to become dispassionate toward them, enough to be liberated from them.” (SN 15:1; II 178)

(2) Balls of Clay

Disciples, this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not able to be discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving. Suppose, disciples, a man would reduce this great Earth to balls of clay the size of jujube kernels and put them down, saying [for each one]: ‘This is my father, this my father's father.’ The sequence of that man's fathers and grandfathers would not come to an end, yet this great Earth would be used up and exhausted.

For what reason? Disciples, it is because this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not able to be discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

For such a long time, disciples, you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and swelled up the cemeteries. It is enough to become disenchanted with all formations, enough to become dispassionate toward them, enough to be liberated from them."
(SN 15:2; II 179)

(3) The Mountain

A certain monk approached the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said: "Venerable sir, how long is an aeon?"

"An aeon is long, monk. It is not easy to count it and say it is so many years, or so many hundreds of years, or so many thousands of years, or so many hundreds of thousands of years."

"Then, venerable sir, is it possible to give a simile?"

“It is possible, monk," the Buddha said. "Suppose, monk, there was a great stone mountain a yojana [seven miles] long, a yojana wide, and a yojana high, without cracks or crevices, one solid mass of rock.

At the end of every hundred years a man would stroke it once with a piece of fine silk cloth. That great stone mountain might by his effort be worn away and eliminated, yet one aeon would still not have elapsed! So long is an aeon, monk.

"And of aeons this long, we have wandered through so many aeons, so many hundreds of aeons, so many thousands of aeons, so many hundreds of thousands of aeons. For what reason? It is because, monk, this samsara is without discoverable beginning.... It is enough to be liberated from them." (SN 15:5; II 181-82)

(4) The River Ganges

At Rajagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the Squirrel's Sanctuary, a certain brahmin approached the Buddha and exchanged greetings with him. When they had concluded their greetings and cordial talk, he sat down to one side and asked: "Master Gotama, how many aeons have elapsed and gone by?"

Ganges at Varanasi, where Buddhism began in the Deer Park at Sarnath

"Brahmin, many aeons have elapsed and gone by. It is not easy to count them and say there are so many aeons, or so many hundreds of aeons, or so many thousands of aeons, or so many hundreds of thousands of aeons."

“But is it possible to give a simile, Master Gotama?”

“It is possible, brahmin,” the Buddha said. “Imagine, brahmin, the grains of sand between the point where the river Ganges originates and the point where it enters the great ocean: It is not easy to count these and say there are so many grains of sand, or so many hundreds of grains, or so many thousands of grains, or so many hundreds of thousands of grains.

“Brahmin, the aeons that have elapsed and gone by are even more numerous than that! It is not easy to count them and say that there are so many aeons, or so many hundreds of aeons, or so many thousands of aeons, or so many hundreds of thousands of aeons.

“For what reason? It is because, brahmin, this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not able to be discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

“For such a long time, brahmin, you have experienced suffering, anguish, and disaster, and swelled up the cemeteries. It is enough to become disenchanted with all formations, enough to become dispassionate toward them, enough to be liberated from them.” (SN 15:8; II 183-84)

(5) Dog on a Leash

“Monks, this samsara is without discoverable beginning. A first point is not able to be discerned of beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

“There comes a time, disciples, when the great ocean dries up and evaporates and no longer exists. But still, I say, there is no making an end of suffering for those beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

“There comes a time, disciples, when Mt. Sineru, the king of mountains, burns up and perishes and no longer exists. But still, I say, there is no making an end of suffering for those beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

“There comes a time, disciples, when the great Earth burns up and perishes and no longer exists. But still, I say, there is no making an end of suffering for those beings roaming and wandering on hindered by ignorance and bound by craving.

“Suppose, disciples, a dog were tied up on a leash bound to a strong post. It would just keep on running and revolving around that post. So too, the uninstructed ordinary worldling regards

1. form as self...
2. feeling as self...
3. perception as self...
4. volitional formations as self...
5. consciousness as self....

“One just keeps running and revolving around form, around feeling, around perception, around volitional formations, around consciousness [the Five Aggregates of Existence].

“As it keeps on running and revolving around them, it is not freed from form, not freed from feeling, not freed from perception, not freed from volitional formations, not freed from consciousness.

“It is not freed from birth, aging, and death; not freed from sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair; not freed from suffering, I say.” (SN 22:99; II 149-50)

*The Four Imponderables
Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (A.IV.7)

These Four Imponderables are not to be pondered (or speculated about). Anyone who persisted in pondering them would come unhinged and experience vexation:

1. The sphere of a buddha's influence (the buddha-range of a buddha, i.e., the range of powers a buddha develops as a result of becoming a supremely enlightened teacher)...
2. The jhana-range of one absorbed in jhana (the range of powers it is possible to develop based on the eight meditative absorptions]...
3. The results (or working out) of karma...
4. The [first cause, moment, purpose, etc., of the] universe...
   

Rebirth: Wandering Without End

Bhikkhu Bodhi and Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The Buddha's teaching addresses something not immediately perceptible to us: our bondage to the Round of Rebirths.

From the selection of texts on similes regarding the boundless series of rebirths that has been cycling without any discernible beginning in time comes a frightening possibility.

This cycle is called samsara, a Pali/Sanskrit word that suggests the idea of directionless wandering or faring on. No matter how far back in time we may seek a beginning to the universe, there was never a moment of initial creation.

There are, however, periodic "creations" or, more correctly speaking, "impersonal formations" at the beginning of each world-system.

There was no creator; they simply follow a natural cyclical process of evolution and devolution. At times these world-systems are referred to as universes within a multiverse.

But if we reserve the term "universe" to everything in the entire cosmos inclusive of all the countless world-systems, there is no beginning to be found. World-systems last a great aeon (maha-kalpa) passing through four incalculable or uncertain phases: formation, duration, contraction, and an empty time.

This period of calm is followed by yet another formation, another revolution, which may be thought of as a Big Bang. But a Big Bang in no way explains the actual first cause or creation of the universe ("all that is") only another round of development, operation, chaotic dissolution, and quiescence.



Similarly, just as world-systems evolve and dissolve over billions of years, each different but each arising from the former, the same goes for individual rebirths. Each past and future life is a point along an ever-changing line of identity and attachment, the sense that a single entity is carrying on. Aggregates of clinging recur through countless deaths and rebirths.

As in the former case so in the latter, there is no beginning point to be found. Moreover, there would be no benefit to finding one if it became possible to find. For knowing it would not bring about the end of suffering (nirvana).

No matter how far back we may trace any given individual sequence of lives, we can never arrive at a first point.

How long will the Round of Rebirth last?
According to these texts (given in full In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (Teachings of the Buddha), even if we were to trace the sequence of our mothers and fathers across world-systems, we would only come upon still more mothers and fathers stretching back into the far horizons.

Moreover, the frightening prospect is that the process is not only beginningless, it is also potentially endless! This may not seem frightful to anyone who does not see suffering -- or grasp the Four Noble Truths even intellectually -- and the potential for far greater suffering due to karma produced in ignorance driven by craving.

As long as ignorance and craving remain intact, the process will continue indefinitely into the future.

For the Buddha and Early Buddhism, this is above all the defining crisis at the heart of the our condition: We are bound to a chain of rebirths, and bound to it by nothing other than our own ignorance and craving.

The pointless wandering on in samsara -- suffering as we chase pleasure, enduring happiness, and security where it cannot be found -- occurs against a cosmic background of inconceivably vast dimensions.

The period of time that it takes for a world system to evolve, reach its phase of maximum expansion, then contract, and disintegrate is called a kappa (Sanskrit, kalpa) or aeon.

The texts offer vivid similes to suggest the duration of the various types of aeons; others offer vivid similes to illustrate the incalculable number of aeons through which we have already wandered interacting in all kinds of relationships with one another.

As beings fare along, wandering and roaming from life to life, shrouded in the darkness of ignorance over what is going on or what is causing the unsatifactoriness and rebirths, they fall again and again into the chasm of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

They fall again and again into the chasm of incomprehensibly woeful realms in the unfortunate destinations -- the worlds of animals, ghosts, monsters, and hellions.

Because their craving propels them forward in a relentless quest for gratification of sensual desires, ambitions, and running from pain, they seldom pause long enough to step back and carefully consider their existential plight.

As Text 1,4(5) states, they just just keep revolving around the Five Aggregates in the way a dog on a leash might run around a post or pillar. Since their ignorance prevents them from recognizing the vicious nature of their condition, they cannot discern even the tracks of a path to deliverance.

Most beings live immersed in the enjoyment of or the search for sensual pleasures. Others -- driven by the need for power, status, and esteem -- pass their lives in vain attempts to fill an unquenchable thirst.

Many, fearful of annihilation at death, construct belief systems that ascribe to their individual selves, their "souls," the prospect of eternal life. They do not perceive that this constructed "self" is perishing at every moment, changing, altering, and hurtling towards destruction.

A few yearn for a path to liberation. But they do not know where to find one. It was precisely to offer such a path that the Buddha has appeared in our midst. Buddhism originally was precisely a path-of-practice to the end of suffering.

• AUDIO: Nirvana explained (D.I.Y. Dharma)