The Boy Mir: Struggle as the West’s war fails

(Seventhartproduction) Following the international hit "The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan," THE BOY MIR covers not one year but ten. It tracks the cheeky, enthusiastic Mir from a childish eight to a fully grown 18-year-old, a journey to adulthood in one of the toughest places on Earth, a journey that mirrors the story of Afghanistan.

• TheBoyMir-Twitter/theboymir-Facebook/The-Boy-Mir

The Boy Mir: One boy’s struggle and the failure of the West’s war [on Afghanistan]

Socialistworker.co.uk/Art
John Clossick thinks that The Boy Mir offers a stunning account of the trials of life in Afghanistan.

Six months before 9/11, shocking media images appeared of the Taliban government dynamiting the 1,450-year-old Buddha statues at Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. The demolition in March 2001 followed a Taliban edict that all statues be destroyed.

It brought the regime’s determination to impose a severe interpretation of Islam on Afghanistan into sharp international focus. The act shocked the West, although previously there had been little interest in the disastrous effects of a Western economic blockade on the country.

No one had commented much on the thousands of children who suffered from malnutrition as a result or were maimed by land mines. The visual shock of this destruction is both the starting point and the counterpoint for this affecting and strikingly shot documentary. More

• VIDEO: The Boy Mir: Ten Years in Afghanistan
• New view of Indian history (ranajitpal.com)
• PHOTOS: A journey through India
• BOOK: Red haired giants found in Afghanistan
• VIDEO: The End Game, Steve Quayle on Alex Jones
  

WARNING: Upsetting! Monstrous red haired giant watches "Twilight"

SHAOLIN: Zen Kung-Fu Buddhist Monks (video)

(HopscotchFilmsEnt)

China is plunged into strife as feuding warlords try to expand their power by warring over neighboring lands. Fueled by his success on the battlefield, young and arrogant Hao Jie sneers at Shaolin's Zen masters when he beats one of them in a duel.

When his family is wiped out by a rival warlord, Hao is forced to take refuge with the Buddhist monks. As the civil unrest spreads and the people suffer, Hao and the Shaolin masters are forced to take a fiery stand against the evil warlords. They launch a daring plan of rescue and escape.

Not since the legendary kung fu film "Shaolin Temple" stormed the world in the 1970's has a movie been given permission to film in the actual Shaolin Temple of legend. The honor was bestowed on this lavish modern production, starring Andy Lau and Jackie Chan. This movie is one of Asia's most eagerly anticipated film events.

The Real Shaolin

(therealshaolin)

"The Real Shaolin" a moving, poetic, action-packed documentary feature about two Chinese and two Westerners who journey to China's Shaolin Temple inspired by the legends portrayed in kung fu movies with Bruce Lee and Jet Li. In the course of excruciating martial arts training, their fantasies to become kung fu warriors collide with harsh reality. Shaolin Temple is the ultimate test for martial artists from all over the world. Will they achieve their goal of living the Shaolin dream?

Meditation as War (with Mara)

Pat Macpherson (Wisdom Quarterly)

"Wrath" (vyapada) is negative in Buddhism. Is it ever useful? (butuzou-world.com)

BHAVANA, West Virginia - The editors of Wisdom Quarterly spent the last two weeks on retreat in rural forest meditation cabins. The cicadas, heat lightning, sudden storms, Mothman, and chilly nights, it seemed more like exotic Asia than the back woods of America.

• Christian stories about Sakka (Magha of Macala) call him "St. Michael," a stream-enterer and ruler of two lower heavens, who defends humans in battle opposing the titans and serpents.
  
  

Buddhism is deep, very deep. People mainly see the discourses or sutra collection, rarely seeing the source material, just hearing about it secondhand. They rarely see the meditator's self-discipline or Vinaya collection. And almost no one ever studies the "Higher Teachings" or Abhidharma collection.



Sitting in a magnificent wooden hall with high ceilings, surrounded by a tall forest and peaceful meditators from all over the East Coast, I found myself mad like the fighting Irish.

Maybe I went wrong the very moment I thought of meditation as adversarial. But I did. I saw Mara, the dark tempter figure, as an opponent. I went up against his armies, the Cankers of sensual-desires, desiring eternal existence, clinging to wrong-views, and ignorance.



Like a wrathful Japanese deity, I thought I should fight. But all fighters are caught up in fighting until they sue for peace. Until this retreat, no one mentioned Mara had ten more armies, the Fetters binding beings to the Wheel of Samsara:

• (1) personality-belief
• (2) sceptical doubt
• (3) clinging to mere rules and rituals
• (4) sensual craving
• (5) ill-will (wrath)
• (6) craving for fine-material existence
• (7) craving for immaterial existence
• (8) conceit
• (9) restlessness
• (10) ignorance

The first five are called "lower fetters" that bind or fetter us to rebirth in sensual realm planes. The latter five are called "higher fetters" that bind beings to planes of rebirth in the two higher realms, the fine-material and immaterial spheres (A.IX.67-68; A.X.13; D.33, etc.)

The Five Hindrances are hard to overcome if we cannot relax and let go. But these Taints (asavas) and Fetters (samyojanas) which defile minds and hearts are even more subtle adversaries.

The great Earth shook (see photos). Mara is no fool. He does not come on a war elephant. He sends seductive daughters. He does not confront. He subverts with pride and delusion. He does not want beings to end up in the hells. He just never wants them to escape the cycle of rebirth.



I have much to learn.

• Introducing Japanese Deities (fudosama)
  
  

The Boy Who Played on the Buddhas of Bamiyan

Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)

The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan (Phil Grabsky, Großbritannien, 2004)

The real Kapilavastu, where the buddha-to-be grew up, was likely not Nepal but Bamiyan, Afghanistan at the foothills of the Himalayan range -- or some such location in Baluchistan (Iran/Afghanistan/Pakistan), Central Asia, the ancient frontier of India.

This may seem odd, but Siddhartha was fair (golden), blue eyed, tall, and came from the west to India proper, where he became the Buddha in Bihar state and began teaching near Varanasi. The oldest Buddhist monastery discovered to date is 2,600-year-old Mes Aynak, Afghanistan, where so many of his family members (the Shakyans) might have gone to practice after ordaining.

The Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, gained faith when the Buddha visited seven years after leaving and, close to his death, became enlightened with the Buddha's help. His mother, Maha Prajapati Gotami, became the first Buddhist nun in history and also became enlightened. Many Shakyans such as Yasodhara (his wife), Rahula (his son), Ananda, Nanda, Sundari Nanda, Devadatta (his half-siblings often called cousins), Anuruddha, Kimbila... followed the Buddha and the Dharma and became part of the Sangha.

In this German film, a family struggles for survival amid the rubble of the Buddha statues of Bamiyan -- after their destruction by the CIA-backed Mujahadeen. Who were the Mujahadeen? Afghan tribal warlords? No, there were no such thing. Afghan and Pashtun culture have no history of such things -- even though that is the propaganda we are fed daily to justify America's most expensive, longest running, and most opaque war.

The Mujahadeen -- as well as Al Qaeda and the CIA's own Osama bin Laden -- were outsiders, criminals, released convicts (brought in from neighboring Islamic countries such as Pakistan) who were being encouraged to fight Russia in defense of Afghanistan with the secret help and military backing of the United States. See InvisibleHistory.com for the sordid details by American scholars Fitzgerald & Gould.

The reasons we are given in defense of endless war are psy-ops and propaganda. Unfortunately, the disinformation campaigns infect Hollywood, which goes on to produce modern propaganda films like "Charlie Wilson's War" featuring Tom Hanks. Blame the mess on a Texas Congressman. Blame it on a 6' 6" tall asuran billionaire cave-dwelling warlord and 9/11 mastermind. Blame anyone but our CIA or Pentagon.

But it all ties together the inscrutable range of topics regularly covered by Wisdom Quarterly, which must strike some readers as odd:

Afghanistan, Buddhism, extraterrestrials (and UFOs), giants or "titans," CIA abuses, 1984, US propaganda, war, Islam, Zoroastrianism, our military-industrial complex, Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 false flag operation, forbidden archeology, and endless government deception. It matters why our government (both elected and secret) actually fights wars as one of the most violent empires trying to rule the planet. Peace is hardly sustainable in the midst of deception. But when truth is found then peace comes quite naturally.

CIA/"Bin Laden" wants war in Afghanistan

Losing the Plot: The Afghan War after bin Laden
Jim Naureckas (fair.org)

With Osama bin Laden [Emmanuel Goldstein long gone and now "officially"] dead, can the United States finally bring an end to the Afghan War, its longest-lasting foreign military conflict?

It’s an obvious question, since the invasion of Afghanistan was largely portrayed as an effort to catch the leader of the group that carried out the September 11 attacks. [Create a problem, overcome reaction, and people will demand the "solution" you want -- because a pretext for war is easy if war is the goal.*]

Corporate media did sometimes address this issue.

On ABC (5/4/11), Christiane Amanpour asked in regard to bin Laden’s killing, “And many people are saying, well, does this require the U.S. to leave Afghanistan right now?”

She answered her question: “The job is not finished there. You’ll talk to the commanders. We’ll talk to them, it’s the Taliban there who are waging war against the United States, and that job is not finished.” More

*"Problem-reaction-solution" manipulation/propaganda technique explained by David Icke:

US Military fueling War on Afghanistan (video)

See full episode. FRONTLINE.

Americans are tired of the US military's longest running war in history. Why does it continue in spite of our pleas and votes to withdraw? Why does Obama increase troop levels and hostilities? Frontline (PBS) investigates.

NIGHT RAIDS: Fueling Afghanistan
Botched night raids and harrowing accounts from Afghan citizens have raised serious questions about the precision of intelligence and the rate of civilian casualties.

Last year the Times of London exposed a horrifying night raid gone wrong in which Afghan investigators found that Special Forces dug bullets out of the bodies of two pregnant Afghan women in an attempted cover-up.

Night raids are also controversial because they violate Afghan cultural norms. Tactics that are considered particularly offensive include troops entering a home where women are present or using dogs (which are considered impure) in their search. ...

• The truth about Afghanistan (InvisibleHistory.com)
• British troops killed in Afghanistan doubles this year

Bring Our Troops Home
Congress.org
Dear Mr. President,
You bring home 10,000 troops, and the rest by 2014. That is a drop in the bucket, too little too late. The Middle East War has to end right away. We have no business over there. We cannot afford it. It is an offensive action on our part.

Our military over there loses their lives, their sanity or they are injured horribly; there is no one that comes home from war the same person. The only reason we are over there is for special interest groups like oil bar[on]s and arms dealers that make a great deal of profit off of war.

In the meantime, at home our economy goes down the tube along with our jobs. If you want to have a war, go fight it yourself, and take all those people that like war with you. See how fast you solve the problem then. Stop the propaganda about all the good we are doing over there. ...

QUOTES

"According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the [Afghan] Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan..." Zbigniew Brzezinski

• "Afghan society is very complex, and Afghanistan has a very complex culture. Part of the reason it has remained unknown is because of this complexity." Mohsen Makhmalbaf
  

Rescuing Afghanistan's Buddhist history

Compiled by Wisdom Quarterly, Megalithic.co.uk , AFP, Science Religion News

"The Lost Buddhas of Afghanistan" (David Adams Films)

Last year [2010] the French archeological mission cooperating with the Afghan National Institute of Archeology began an excavation of an ancient Buddhist settlement at the Mes Aynak temple complex and mine.

Mes Aynak has the second-largest known unexploited copper deposits in the world. The team is racing to rescue as much as possible before the Chinese mining work begins.

Sacred buried treasure can be found throughout Afghanistan (Wall Street Journal)

The Afghan government awarded mining rights to the China Metallurgical Group Corporation [in collaboration with the Chinese government], which is keen to begin work at the site, 25 miles (40 km) from the capital Kabul.

First the Taliban mindlessly dynamited 1,500+ year old statues of the Buddha, the tallest in the world. Now a massive ancient Buddhist monastery is under threat in Afghanistan from a copper and rare earth mining company.

Mining in Afghanistan (NPR)

[This is so valuable to China that it recently pledged $3 billion to Nepal to build up its Lumbini as the Buddha's birthplace. This diverts attention from its more probable location in Islamic Afghanistan, which has many precious archeological sites that neither Chinese capitalists, atheist-communists, nor Afghani Muslims want more attention for.]

A Chinese company intends to blow up an ancient Buddhist monastery south of Kabul to make way for a massive copper mine. The plan has sparked outrage among Afghan and French archeologists, who have recently uncovered more than 100 statues within a large spiritual complex that includes seven burial mounds (stupas) built to house the relics of saints.

Located in a mountainous region southeast of Kabul, Mes Aynak is a hill topped by a 4500-square-meter monastery. [Monasteries were often built near precious metal deposits, which were used to create sacred art on the site.]

Although the site was spotted by archaeologists in the 1960s, it was never excavated. During the late 1990s, the hill was home to an al-Qaida " training camp," according to a 2004 report by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.



In recent years, looters damaged much of the monastic complex in search of antiquities, according to Nader Rassouli, director of Afghanistan's National Institute of Archaeology in Kabul, which is also participating in the current excavations.

Two millennia ago, this region served as a critical conduit in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China, says T. Richard Blurton, an archaeologist and curator at London's British Museum who has excavated in Afghanistan. He says Mes Aynak can provide new data on both the origin and demise of Buddhism in this culturally fertile region.

• See more at Science Religion News with a link to a paid article in Science and AFP.
• NOTE: Because Chinese mining in Afghanistan threatens an ancient tomb complex, Afghan archeologists have unofficially only been given a short time to excavate the site, which due to the US war and other limitations is actually only long enough to describe what is there. But will this informal delay be honored before mining and the site's destruction begins?
• Rescuing Afghanistan's Buddhist history at Mes Aynak

Top 10 Prophecies

Listverse.com

A 5th century ascetic monk, who was a disciple of St. John Chrysostom (a doctor of the Church), made a prophecy:

After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time for the Advent of the Antichrist approaches, people’s minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonor and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will become unrecognizable. [...]

People’s appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. [...] At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures.

Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds and murder will rule in society. [...] At that time men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is deceit of the Antichrist… More

Baba Vanga was a blind Bulgarian woman (born 1911, died 1996) who was a herbalist and alleged mystic who made many predictions for the future. She became incredibly popular due to her so-called mystical powers.

When she died huge crowds attended her funeral. Among her many predictions she claimed that by 4599 man would achieve immortality and that less than 100 years later we would begin assimilating with the aliens we meet on the hundreds of planets we will have populated.

She claimed that in 4509 man will become sufficiently developed that he will begin to communicate with God directly.

In 2221, while searching for extraterrestrial life man will come into contact with something truly terrible (though she did not state what).

Closer to our own time she predicted a change in the Earth’s orbit in 2023. Curiously she predicted the beginning of World War III in 2010, which does not obviously appear to have happened -- though her followers say the machinations may be in place for this to happen.

Alois Irlmaier WW III: “Everything calls peace. Shalom! Then it will occur -- a new Middle East war suddenly flares up, big naval forces are facing hostility in the Mediterranean -- the situation is strained.

"But the actual firing spark is set on fire in the Balkans: I see a ‘large one’ falling, a bloody dagger lies beside him -- then impact is on impact. Two men kill a third high-ranked. They were paid by other people. One of the murderers is a small black man, the other a little bit taller, with bright-colored hair. I think it will be at the Balkans, but I cannot say it exactly. [...]

"Immediately the revenge comes from across the large water. However the yellow dragon invades in Alaska and Canada at the same time. But he comes not far. And then it rains a yellow dust in a line. When the golden city is destroyed, it begins…” Most interesting in these predictions is the fact that he believes the war will begin in the Middle East... More

The "Catastrophe" (Nakbha)

Wisdom Quarterly

(Media4Palestine)

(May 15, 1948) Why was the creation of the state of Israel a "catastrophe," as it is remembered by the indigenous Palestinians? It is not. The Catastrophe (Nakbha) is the ongoing displacement, aggression, cultural genocide, and nonstop war brought on by Zionists seeking to create a Jewish homeland with American and British backers (who did not want Jews in their own countries).

Utilizing interpretations of the Bible to justify behavior more characteristic of -- God forbid -- Nazis? It's verboten! To mention any similarity between Israeli nationalists and Nazis is "racist," "cruel," and perfectly obvious to any disinterested bystander.

The 60th commemoration of the Catastrophe coincides with celebrations of the birth of Israel, our great partner throughout the geopolitical Middle East. Will we live to regret our collusion as a terrorist state with another terrorist state while labelling all Arabs "terrorists," or will God high-5 us on the Day of Rapture, which is Saturday, May 21, 2011 (possibly December 21, 2012)?

FamilyRadio.com (what "no man knows") predicts a great earthquake prior to doomsday, and that seems to have occurred near Libya. Rumors of an 8.4 tremor are circulating, but curiously any such news has been blacked out of the US Geological Survey site, which usually reports even minor shakers in almost real time. HAARP is armed and running; the earthquakes are coming and with it famine. It's neither nature nor God doing it.

• Connect the Dots with Lila Garrett (KPFK.org)
• Middle East in Focus with Don Bustany (KPFK.org)
• JStreet: Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Movement (jstreet.org)
  

Peace prospects bleak for Netanyahu U.S. visit

JERUSALEM (Reuters, May 19) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes to Washington on Friday to rally opposition to a Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition of statehood.

There is little indication the right-wing leader will, or can, offer new peacemaking ideas to persuade Palestinians not to take a detour at the U.N. General Assembly in September around the brick wall that the U.S. peace efforts have run into.

A unity deal between Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and the Islamist group Hamas has further dampened chances of a breakthrough. The accord signed this month, dealt a "tremendous blow" to peace, Netanyahu said. More

• Life in Abbottabad (Akbhar Khan's compound)
  
• Oprah's last show (Finally!)
  
• Billabong Rio surf action
• Animals around the world
• Prisoners lock arms

To Delight in (Osama bin Laden's) Killing

Wisdom Quarterly
(upi.com)

The Karma
Staged gathering to incense Muslims around the world (like burning a Koran, making sure Afghans know it and riot about it to justify a subsequent backlash against them) or the youthful and spontaneous bad karma of schadenfreude masked as "patriotism"? To delight in killing or to call for killing means one approves of it. This is the mental and verbal karma of "taking the lives of living beings." Almost as bad is the delusion that killing is a solution and does not cause retaliation by those insulted.

Thankfully, this is all over, right? We can now all live in peace!

Except that Osama bin Laden was killed long ago, according to Pakistan's assassinated leader, not in a US drone strike like many others but in a plot and coup attempt. It was never Christians against Muslims, so there are no hard feelings, right? Killing solves problems, right? Hanging Saddam Hussein. Murdering Gaddafi's children.

Pres. Obama knew of this before the comedic press dinner yesterday. Why would he plan to break the news late on a Sunday night in Washington, D.C.? It is morning in the Arab world. Is it an act of provocation on the part of the US military? An odd choice for an exquisitely organized public relations-savvy administration.

• VIDEO: Is Iran's dictator America's new enemy?
• Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11

Because we go to war for oil -- to serve multinational energy companies, the "industrial" in military-industrial complex -- Yemen will be brought down then Saudi Arabia.

That is not the way one would predict. It was revealed by a corporate insider. An oil executive revealed that the goal is to bring gas prices up to a pre-planned level.

Egypt's leader did not step down, but was told to stand down. And when he refused, reneging on an agreement, he was taken down through illness and is now being held for trial (in a kangaroo court of sorts).

Yemen's leader agreed to step down. But when he reneged and said he would rather call out the police state military to kill protesters if necessary, he will be deposed by the US through subterfuge and force. Naturally, if things were as they are reported, one would not think that Saudi Arabia was in line for upheaval.

Royal Wedding (comedy commentary)

Amber Dorrian and the Editors (Wisdom Quarterly)

Monty Python comically explains what British and American governing options evolved from, the "divine right" of holy dictators.

"Ironic. The middle-class Middletons looked fabulous -- elegant, restrained, classy, and the Royals looked like a bunch of chavs. Beatrice and Eugenie -- the goggle eyed kids of the Porks -- looked liked they thought they were going to 'My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.' One of them looked like she'd shot a deer and worn the antlers. Wow, too much money, no looks, and zero taste is a bad combination. Sam Cam, fabulous" (Sukisue in The Telegraph).

(BBC Worldwide) The stereotype of the medieval British peasant is that of an ignorant wretch. Monty Python's Terry Jones discovers that peasants were in fact literate, emancipated, highly political and legally savvy, house proud and healthy, and responsible for the peasants revolt of 1381.

How wonderful for Kate and commoners everywhere. Yay! One of us makes it to the top by inheriting a nation of subjects and serfs! That's some prince charming.

It makes me wonder though, why do we unquestioningly buy into this terrible fantasy? Every girl wants to be looked up to, but do we want to rule and be worshiped as "royalty"?

Whereas we're the United States, Britain one once the United Kingdom, a multinational EMPIRE that did not keep its hegemony and tyranny a secret. We keep ours a secret, built in secret by economic hitmen and jackals. Of course, it's not us and it wasn't them; we're all victims of our governments do in our name. More cake and parades for everyone!

I want to be rich and famous, too, like Evita singing Don't cry for me, Argentina! But not on the backs of "commoners," which by default means everyone but royals. I prefer castles and mansions everyone can visit and hang out at over a "to the manor born" attitude that means everyone else sleeps in a barn with the livestock.

The wealth on parade -- the royal grounds, jewels, cars, carriages, and architecture -- was all stolen. It is the booty of war, invasions, and conquests, not to mention working on the backs of the Island's own peasants, lords, and patriots.

Does the Mayan Calendar explain it? (video)

Sean David Morton "Prophecy 2012: Road to Tomorrow and Beyond"

In this amazing talk framed in terms of Mayan calendar prophecy, a talk also given at the October 2010 Conscious Life Expo, Sean David Morton makes sense of what is really going on.

Some ideas may sound so outlandish as to put mainstream listeners off until these ideas are combined with irrefutable facts: Much of what Morton was saying in 2009 that was unbelievable then has already come true!

The rest of what he is saying, therefore, becomes more believable. He is not giving breaking news on specifics (that was already done by others, and each key term such as "FEMA camp" or "Promise 2 software" can be fruitfully explored with any browser).

He is tying together an incredible array of specifics from a spiritual perspective, as contrasted with the scientific perspective provided by his co-presenter in another talk.