288,000 Jelly Beans, 1 video (Kina Grannis)

(Kina Grannis) Posted Nov. 2, 2011 -- "In Your Arms" took 22 months, 1357 hours, 30 people, 2 ladders, 1 still camera, and 288 thousand jelly beans! It already has well over 2 million hits. Kina is on tour and in Europe in 2012 and on Facebook all the time.She has a new album called Stairwells. "In Your Arms" was written by Kina Grannis, directed by Greg Jardin, produced by Daphne Raves, with concept art by Lauren Gregg, wardrobe by Gillian Zwick, sound design by Suzanne Goldish, using the production company: @radical.media. See the Secret Crazy Project celebration.

The awesome Jelly Bean Animation Team was: Kristina Carucci, Lauren Cunningham, MacKenna Dixon, Marcus Demmon, Kevin Harman, Alexandra Judelsohn, Jay Kim, Pearl Lung, Ptolemy Slocum, Erin Thiele, and Clarisse Wiedem with additional animators: Monica Ahanonu, Matt Beans, Sarah Burt, David Chang, Jane Cohen, John D'Arco, Hope Marquardt, Erin McLaughlin, Krisztianna Ortiz, Kyle Padilla, Allen Marshall Palmer, Natalie Pasallar, JJ Rubin, Cherie Saulter, Susan Wiedem, John Sheptock, Janine Sides, Hethur Suval, Chelsea Stark, and Sarah Tejeda.

Special thanks to Jelly Belly [a gross, allergenic, sweet tasting mix of chemical flavors, colors, sugar, bleached flour, and corn syrup that it better regarded as a pretty "art supply" than any kind of "food"]. Kina Grannis on Myspace or kinagrannis.com

Mindful Living/Neurobiology of Love (UCLA)

Mindful Living and the Neurobiology of Love: Finding Inner Peace and Interpersonal Connection in a Changing and Uncertain World. In this two-day event, internationally esteemed Buddhist scholar and leader in the field of mindfulness meditation JACK KORNFIELD joins us.

• Jack Kornfield and Daniel Siegel
• Nov. 5-6, 2011
• Location: UCLA, Ackerman Grand Ball Room
• Information, conference agenda, registration

Pioneer in the field of interpersonal neurobiology and mental health Daniel Siegel joins him to explore how we can awaken the mind and live with peace and kindness in our most intimate relationships.

Weaving an in-depth immersion in direct experience with cutting edge views into the inner functions of the brain, Kornfield and Siegel will lay out a new way of understanding how our connections with others -- and ourselves -- provide the foundation for living a healthy, joyful, and wise life. More

Professional and contemplative practitioners alike will find value in this educational journey that provides practical steps to transforming one’s own inner architecture as well as liberating the mind’s innate drive toward compassionate and empathic relationships. Built on thousands of years of reflective practice and an innovative synthesis of over a dozen branches of contemporary science, "Mindful Living and the Neurobiology of Love" integrates the best of ancient wisdom with the power of empirical research to provide a timely vision into the nature of a healthy way of being in our modern and ever-changing world wtih 13 CEUs available. More

"Nothing Higher To Live For" (video)

A Buddhist View of Romantic Love
Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano (BPS, Bodhi Leaves No. 124)
"Like Crazy" (trailer)

IF IT IS possible to live with a purpose, what should that purpose be? A purpose might be a guiding principle, a philosophy, or a value of sovereign importance that informs and directs our activities and thoughts.

To have one is to live seriously -- though not necessarily wisely -- following some track, believing in a hub to the wheeling universe or a sea toward which we flow or an end before which all the hubbub of civilization subsides.

What is your purpose, friend, or what should it be? Perhaps most of us do not come to a clear conclusion in the matter. But this does not mean we have no purpose, only that we do not recognize it or admit it or even choose it for ourselves.

In the unhappiest case nature simply takes its course, which is a turbid meandering through the swamps of desire. If life means nothing then only pleasure is worthwhile; or if life has meaning and we cannot get at it then still only enjoyment matters -- such is the view of brutes and some sophisticated philosophers.

It slips into the unconscious by default when we hold no other. But we are reluctant to entertain it and will rather, if we think about it, take as our purpose support of family, search for beauty, improvement of society, fame, self-expression, development of talent, and so on.

But it might be fair to say that apart from these or beneath these the fundamental purpose of many of us is the search for love, particularly romantic love. The love of a man for a woman and a woman for a man is often the floor to which people fall after the collapse of other dreams. It is held to be solid when nothing else is, and though it frequently gives way and dumps them into a basement of despair, it still enjoys a reputation of dependability.

No matter that this reputation is illogical -- it still flourishes and will continue to flourish regardless of what is said in any book. Love, or possibly the myth of love [with its knights in shining armor and falling angels], is the first, last, and sometimes the only refuge of uncomprehending humanity.

What else makes our hearts beat so fast? What else makes us swoon with feeling? What else renders us so intensely alive and aching?

The search for love -- the sublime, the nebulous, the consuming -- remains sacred in a world that increasingly despises the sacred.

When the heroic and the transcendental are but memories, when religious institutions fill up with bureaucrats and social scientists, when nobody believes there is a sky beyond the ceiling, then there seems no other escape from the prison of self than the abandon of love.

With a gray age of spiritual deadness upon us, we love, or beg for love, or grieve for love. We have nothing higher to live for.

Indeed, many take it on faith that romantic love is the highest thing to live for. Popular literature, movies, art, and music tirelessly celebrate it as the one truth accessible to all.

Such love obliterates reason, as poets have long sweetly lamented, and this is part of its charm and power, because we want to be swept up and spirited out of our calculating selves.

“Want” is the key word, for in the spiritual void of modern life the wanting of love becomes increasingly indistinguishable from love itself.

So powerful, so insistent is it that we seldom notice that the gratification is rare and the craving relentless. Love is mostly in anticipation; it is an agony of anticipation; it is an ache for a completion not found in the dreary round of mundane routine.

That we never seem to possess it in its imagined fullness does not deter us. It hurts so bad that it must be good.

Practically nobody questions the supremacy of romantic love, which is good enough reason to do a little poking around the foundations of its pedestal. More

• VIDEO: Maher says Gadhafi sodomy sign of Islamic gay
• Poverty and obesity go hand in hand due to bad food
  

Study: Women are attracted to other women

Huffington Post, Wisdom Quarterly

Admiring another woman’s looks could have an underlying meaning, because according to recent research, 60 per cent of heterosexual women find other women sexually attractive.

The latest findings from Boise State University discovered that:

• over half of the 484 straight women questioned had been attracted to another female at some point in their lives
  
• a further 45 per cent admitted to kissing a woman
• 50 per cent confessed to enjoying fantasies about other ladies.

“Women are encouraged to be emotionally close to each other. That provides an opportunity for intimacy and romantic feelings to develop,” says Prof. Elizabeth Morgan from the study. A previous study found that the chances of a woman being attracted to other women increases as she get older. More

Sexual Misconduct?
Wisdom Quarterly
"I kissed a girl, and I liked it, taste of her cherry Chapstick," Katy Perry likes to brag. And as a society we love it. And as parents we worry. And as college girls we think we're the only ones. Is bisexuality or lesbianism "sexual misconduct," breaking the third of the Five Precepts?

This is a difficult question. When asked and pressed one very prominent Buddhist scholar-monk told us yes. He may have worried about why we were asking. The question was specifically about women engaging in sex with other women. But since a man was doing the asking -- and since by monastic disciplinary (Vinaya) rules penetration is what counts as intercourse and "defeat" (parajika) -- the venerable elder may have worried more about the questioner than the question.

(androgynousbeauty)

Obviously homosexuality, bisexuality, experimentation, and child molestation (bacha bazi, pederasty, pedophilia) are rampant throughout the world. But almost nowhere are they spoken of freely. The taboo against molestation and incest is not in committing it but in talking about it, particularly by victims. Molestation leads to unwanted sexual feelings.

If there were no homosexual molestation, it is very likely there would still be a significant percentage of homosexuals in the world's population. However, it would not likely carry the stigma it now does due to its being confounded with the very disturbing issue of child molestation.

Sex with children and children having sex with one another is sexual misconduct (kamesu micchacara). The sexist definition of the term is recounted by monks (in the absence of a nun's tradition in the oldest Buddhist monastic disciplinary code, which is only now being revived after a long absence). The term is detailed for monastics since it involves any sexual or erotic behavior. But for lay Buddhists it is limited and somewhat unclear.

Found in the Numerical Discourses, Book of Tens, Discourse 206 (AN X.206), "sexual misconduct" is defined as sex (presumably intercourse) with a female who is protected by (dependent on) any of ten types of guardians. Surely the same applies for females, who in many traditional societies are spoken of as if they had no sexual agency and were merely receptive.

• "Abandoning sexual misconduct, one abstains from sexual misconduct; he does not have intercourse with women who are protected by their (1) mother, (2) father, (3) mother and (4) father, (5) brother, (6) sister, or (7) relatives, who have a (8) husband, who are protected by (9) law, or with those already (10) engaged."

(See Bhikkhu Bodhi translation, In the Buddha's Words, p. 159, based on MN41; Saleyyaka Sutra; I 286-90).

• Study: Brits prefer reading a good book over sex
• Study: Junk food makes healthy men infertile
  

Healing with "The Book of 528" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, Dr. Len Horowitz

HealingCelebrations.com, HealthyWorldAffiliates.com, Tetrahedron.org, HealthyWorldStore.com, LiquidDentist.net, Love528.com, FluScam.com

• All messages get a reply: (888) 508-4787

Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, internationally known public health authority, has founded various non-profit educational organizations to educate people around the world on matters of extreme public importance -- vaccinations, musical scale manipulation, government conspiracies, population reduction plans...

For more than a quarter century, his offerings have endorsed taking personal responsibility for health choices. The goal is achieving optimal wellness and assuring disease prevention through positive lifestyles. This also involves risk avoidance and keeping abreast of controversial social, economic, environmental, and political issues and threats during this fascinating and challenging age.

(Mr. News)

"If the mainstream media won't do their job, don't fight them, just replace them because they are no longer relevant." - Editor 
(guerillamedia.co.nz)
. HealthyWorldAffiliates.com from Len Horowitz. TheVinnyEastwoodShow.com (americanfreedomradio.com) "In a world so full of madness, if you lose your sense of humor you'll go friggin' nuts, it's the lighter side of genocide." Film Maker:
 Putting in what the media leave out, bringing the world news from the front lines, Mr. News is New Zealand's alternative Media.

Relationship Dharma

Relationships are great. They give our lives meaning. And there is probably nothing that leads more people to spirituality in general and Buddhism in specific than the suffering that comes from them. We do not have to wait to the break up to sometimes feel empty, jilted, cheated on, or dissatisfied. All we have in life are relationships -- most of them not romantic. So why is the romance so tough? Maybe it's the roles we play. Kloncke has a great take on it.

A couple who meditates in bed together... usually ends up doing something else. Sit in the living room.

Relationship Dhamma
Katie (Kloncke.com), tweaked with love by Wisdom Quarterly
Concluding this spontaneous miniseries on companionship (spontaneous yes, but maybe not concluding), we arrive at Ryan. Who? You know, my partner, the guy from Kale vs. Flowers and Bad Good Romance.

The other day, I read a passage from James Agee’s Southern novel A Death in the Family that reminded me of our household dynamic. Specifically, it reminded me of the ways we negotiate gendered roles, try to both anticipate and discuss each others’ needs, and occasionally discover “dhamma,” or insights about the nature of things, right in the (dis)comfort of our own home.

In this scene from the book, Jay is jolted awake in the dead of night thanks to a call... Jay has decided to take the train up to his parents’ town, and he and his wife Mary, also awakened by the phone call, are getting him ready to leave.

Ryan tells this funny joke sometimes about one method -- half-conscious at best -- by which person X tries to evade domestic work and pile it on a partner:

• “But you’re so good at [cooking, doing laundry, calming a fretful child]. If I do it, I’ll just [bleep] it up.”
  

This is a passive-aggressive compliment-trap, which leaves the other person feeling obligated to do the thing s/he is so much better at doing.

Obviously, this is one of the big problems with the naturalization of gender roles in hetero-normative family systems. Men are raised to believe that they don’t have to learn how to cook/clean/mend/mind children because women are so naturally good at it. More

Feedback

• This s*cks, what about the sex? Dharma-sharma, Zen pita sandwich. If we encouraged gutsier behavior from American Buddhist guys, or tamped down women telling people to have boundaries all over the place, I for one would be a happier camper. Let free love be free. Chemistry first, then worry about the details? - Lovedoll
  
• Oh, Katie. My heart feels good reading this, I’ve been thinking about things like this, and I love when I get to hear where you’re thinking and the spaces you make for it. A blessing! - Leorasf
  
• I've been practicing and studying the Buddha Way since 1993 and exploring the question "What is engaged Buddhism?" since the late 90s. As former executive director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and editor of its journal, Turning Wheel, I was privileged to meet many practitioners of engaged Dharma including Robert Aitken Roshi, who told me that THERE IS NO BUDDHISM THAT IS NOT ENGAGED. Now I direct the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program along with Roshi Joan Halifax, where we forge new pathways of everyday engagement and servant leadership. - Maia Duerr

Mrs. and Mr. Goenka practice the Art of Living as married householders (dhamma.org)

BREAKUP: "Be Gentle With Me" (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly

"Be gentle with me, oh oh, be gentle with me...please be gentle with me, handle with care, be gentle with me...or I shall kick your teeth in."

Breaking up is hard to do, they say. But it depends. It certainly is if one repeatedly reflects on the appealing qualities of the lost person.



However, if one were to from to time consider and reflect on the unappealing aspects, that clinging and pining would vanish.



One would become disenchanted, disillusioned, dispassionate. And then it would be possible to be freed. There is, of course, a trap. If one pushes away from the pain, that is just as dangerous as clinging to the pleasant in the first place. Aversion is as hard to deal with as undue attraction.

"Garden of Love" (Benny Hill)

Hate quickly replaces love -- without displacing it. One is then attached and angry, hurt and seeking some way of ridding oneself of the pain, the memory, the intrusive thoughts.







Wise reflection (yoniso manasikara) sees things as they truly are -- neither ignoring the bad nor exaggerating the good.



With freedom comes laughter again. Everything is funny. Everything is light. Everything is fine just as it is, because fine/not-fine is all in the mind that judges it so. With a different decision, the world seems to change. There is no out there without an in here.



Laugh, and the whole world laughs with you. Cry, and you can cry alone. (Misery loves company, but the company soon wearies of les contagious miserable).

Be sure to have the number to cancel.

A natural solution without harmful chemical pharmaceuticals? (welltabs.com)

Breasts, Tourism, Toplessness, and Love Hewitt

Wisdom Quarterly

Jen's "Ghost Whisperer" is based on James Van Praagh's life. But mainly she gives people a serious case of Bebe Stevens Syndrome.

Bigger Breasts equals More Tourists

Giant breasts are becoming the norm in Wellington, New Zealand. The breasts in New Zealand are growing dramatically. Throughout the country the sale of size D thru J have increased 53 per cent. Also embracing the bust increase is the struggling travel industry, which is seeing equivalent lift in their business. More

Wisdom Quarterly continue to reveal the popularity of our favorite agnostic ghost whisperer and yoga enthusiast., Ms. Love Hewitt. Nearly a million and a half views later, she is gaining popularity on what 2012 has in store for the planet. Jen leans toward Buddhism with selfless acts of loving-kindness. We may be under-counting, but official is official.

• Jennifer Love Hewitt bouncing back from breakup with yoga and ice cream
  
  

Buddhists Obsessing On Breasts?

Wisdom Quarterly

The problem has gotten so pointed, even new Buddha statues are affected (Woottamee)

Whether trying to meditate, do yoga, watch TV, or shop for groceries, distractions are everywhere. The Buddha once pointed out that the shape of a woman is a man's greatest obsession, and the shape of a man is a woman's. Why are we obsessed?

It seems to be a deep seated compulsion that goes beyond our cultural conditioning all the way down to the brainstem, the reptilian brain, and the limbic system.

But it is made far worse by the multibillion-dollar breast industry. That's not enhancement, bras, and bathing suits -- it's everything: music, TV shows, ads, sales persons, singers...nothing is free of it. It in no way stops there. And the obsession is not limited to leering men.

Men gawk, while women are more subtle. But it is women who disproportionately suffer from body dysmorphic disorder and an inferiority complexes trying to keep up with airbrushed images. The images are modeled on the figures of pubescent, meat-hormone fed American teens, push-up bra wearers, and post surgery party goers.

Male mammals have mammary glands, too, and they're real breasts.

Mindfulness cures obsession. Contemplation on the repulsive aspects of the body (in 32 parts), because the Buddha did not simply say that we are obsessed. He offered solutions. The body is beautiful. But in it there is a danger. Moreover, there is an escape from the danger.

We are sunk if we simply go through life dragged about by our impulses, being manipulated by the media, and being taken advantage of by those who profit from our wandering eyes and minds.

Envy or lust, what are women looking at?

All mammals, both male and female, have them by definition. Our attention is directed and manufactured by design. What is driving us? If we assume it is "nature," there's nothing to nurture and nothing we can do about it.

If we understand that there is an industry (selling sex, self-esteem, magazines, fashion, femininity, cancer, movies, unrelated product sales, etc.), we can begin to see through it and free ourselves.

• Legalized female toplessness: Overrated?
  
  
• Topless laws in the US discriminate against women
  
  
• Celebrate National Go Topless Day
• Jennifer Love Hewitt wins best breasts in Hollywood
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder (Self-Test)
• Compilation of Jennifer Love Hewitt's finest
• Bust Magazine: new breast exams dangerous

Feng Shui for a "romantic" bedroom

There are basic ways to create a romantic bedroom with feng shui.

First of all, clean the bedroom. We need to clear clutter and junk so that positive energy can flow through the room easily. Clutter is known to block the flow of positive energy (called “chi” in feng shui). Things like books, dirty clothes, and other miscellaneous junk should all be removed. The area under the bed should also be cleaned and kept clutter-free. In addition, remove things that are reminders of the past or past relationships.

Moreover, remove the television and the computer from the bedroom. Whether we believe it or not, computers and televisions literally suck energy. They are known to affect the relationship and snatch away a partner’s attention.

Make room for love. If we wish to reignite our love lives, we need to get rid of all objects related to loneliness and make room for objects that represent love. More

• Feng Shui explained
  

The Origin of Sex (video)

7 Things Husbands Want to Tell Their Spouses

Parasites and Pathogens and how sex began
LiveScience.com

Without the pathogens and parasites of the world, there might be no such thing as sex.

A new study finds that in organisms that can reproduce alone or with a partner, sexual reproduction is the result of a deadly arms race between host and pathogen.

Without the presence of pathogens, the host organism sticks with the tried-and-true method of asexual [sexless] breeding. When threatened by a continually evolving pathogen that gets better and better at killing its host, however, the host organism starts seeking out sex partners.

"You actually need these pathogens or parasites to be co-evolving for sex to be maintained," study author Levi Morran, a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University, told LiveScience. More

• 6 (Other) Great Things Sex Can Do For You
• 10 Surprising Sex Statistics
• Top 10 Mysteries of the First Humans
• 10 Things That Turn Men Off
• 10 Best Sex Tips from Men's Magazines
• 10 Things Husbands Should Never Do
• 9 Signs Your Marriage Might Be Over
• Origin of Sex Pinned Down
• A Brief History of Human Sex
• Tiny Creatures Rediscover the Joy of Sex
• The Bizarre Sex Life of an Orchid
• Super Geckos Excel without Sex

Finding happiness from Buddhist point of view

Jerome Ryan (mountainsoftravelphotos.com) and Wisdom Quarterly
Dieter Glogowski is a contemporary Tibet and Nepal photographer. His photos are excellent, and the quotes he chooses to accompany them are short and thought-provoking (mountainsoftravelphotos.com).

The root teachings of Buddhism are the Four Noble Truths, which state that there is disappointment and we can rise above it by a path of practice that reduces our attachment and clinging to things, people, and states. There are Buddhist resources to assist in increasing joy.

At war with China? Ever notice how much the most famous Buddhist, the 14th Dalai Lama, laughs? He laughs in spite of all difficulties. If we can learn to do that, it will serve the world well. Smile, and the whole world smiles.

Wisdom (the 14th Dalai Lama): It is important to know that there are three kinds of wisdom: / Wisdom resulting from listening, / wisdom resulting from reflection, and / wisdom resulting from meditation.

Consciousness (Dhammapada): We are what we think / All we are arises from our thoughts / With our thoughts we create the world.

Compassion (Mother Teresa): Always try to act in a way that people are happy to have met you.

Equanimity (Sutta Nipata): We exchange the breath of air with the rain forests. We drink the very water that flows into the ocean. Water and air are integral parts of our lives. And we are part of the whole world. We realize that we depend on each other, that we are related to each other. Then we will deal with all of nature carefully, we are part of it.

Love (Phil Bosmans): A flower needs sun to become a flower. / A human being needs love to become a human being.

Impermanence (14th Dalai Lama): It is my firm conviction that the power of the gun barrel is of limited time. / But the power of truth will increase more and more with time.

Mindfulness (Thich Nhat Hanh): Real life is experienced here and now. The past has already gone; the future has not yet come. Only in the present moment can we truly live life.

Meditation (Sogyal Rinpoche): The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well; meditation is the road to enlightenment.

(Geshe Yongdong) Path to Happiness Teaching, October 13, 2009, Part 1A

• The Discourse Collection (Sutta Nipata)
• Illustrated Treasury of Truth (Dhammapada)
• Buddha-path and other photos (AJE44/Flickr)
• PHOTOS: Thru the Lens (Adrian-Evans.com)
• Euphoria Yoga of Woodstock, NY
  

Animal Karma: "One Lucky Elephant" (film)

(One Lucky Elephant) What happens to a circus elephant when it comes time to retire? After 16 years in the spotlight, Flora, an African elephant living in St. Louis, must find a new home. And David, the circus producer who has cared for her all these years, must say goodbye. The road to Flora's retirement, however, is a difficult and emotional one. The bond between human and elephant is tested in unexpected ways. Ten years in the making, this touching, thought-provoking film deftly investigates the problems and mysteries posed by keeping wild animals in captivity while never losing sight of the delicate love story at its heart.

How to Develop the 528 Kinds of Love

Wisdom Quarterly translation (from obtuse English) by Mahasi Sayadaw

In the Path of Discrimination (Patisambhidamagga) 528 kinds of universal loving-kindness (metta) are possible. This refers to the manner of developing loving-kindness by those who have achieved meditative absorption through love (metta jhana).

Developing universal love is the duty of monastics, as is doing the recitation for the development of perfection and the wholesome. The Pali chant they recite is the same as the recitation done by rote by the majority of people. This is that chant:

Sabbe satta, sabbe pana, sabbe bhuta, sabbe puggala, sabbe attabhavapariyapana. These five phrases denote that universal love is ultimately sent out equally to all sentient beings without distinction or limitation.

"All creatures, all who breathe, all living beings, all individuals, and all who have the attributes of a being," convey the same meaning: ALL beings. This is love without distinction (anodhisa).

Coincidentally, 528 Hz is a healing frequency

To distinguish (odhisa) one brings these beings to mind: "All females, all males, all Noble Ones [who have reached the various stages of enlightenment and liberation from suffering], all ordinary worldlings, all devas or light beings [usually but not exclusively celestial], all human beings, all beings in the four woeful realms (those suffering gravely, animals, ghosts, "demons," and hellions).

These denote the seven kinds of beings. Loving-kindness is developed in oneself [for oneself first] then radiated to that degree towards these groups individually and together.

In developing universal loving kindness, these two groups are recited or uttered in combination with the four phrases:

1. May [they] escape from all dangers;
   
2. may [they] be free from mental distress or misery;
3. may [they] be free from bodily suffering or injury;
   
4. may [they] have full accomplishment with complete happiness, that is, look after themselves with ease.
   

The last phrase is significant and meaningful: All beings are exposed to external dangers. There are also internal dangers such as disease and unpleasant sensations in the material body. For the sake of health and proper livelihood, everything should be done to stay well. Only when one is free of danger and harm and when the necessities of life are adequately obtained can there be happiness physically and mentally.

If the burden of the aggregates (khandha) can be successfully shouldered, all is satisfactory regarding worldly affairs. Then love is undertaken with a benevolent frame of mind: "May one be able to shoulder and sustain the aggregates with happiness."

Love Math
If love is developed towards the five types using the four phrases (5 x 4 = 20), there are 20 anodhisa. If further development of love is practiced, uttering "all females" and so on, comprising seven phrases distinguishing beings "May all be free from danger" and so on, which describe the manner of developing love in four phrases (7 x 4 = 28), it comes to 28 odhisa. Adding the 20 anodhisa and the 28 odhisa totals 48. This is love on Earth in all directions (disa anodhisa).

Developing love towards all beings living in the ten directions, "May all beings [in this direction] be free from danger and harm" and so on, would make up a sum of 48:

1. East (48)
2. West (48)
3. North (48)
4. South (48)
5. Southeast (48)
6. Northwest (48)
7. Northeast (48)
8. Southwest (48)
9. Nadir (48)
10. Zenith (48)

When added (10 x 48 = 480), it comes to 480. Developing love according to regions of the universe [this world-system and world-systems in all directions] is called disa odhisa. Adding 480 to 48 disa anodhisa results in a total of 528 kinds of love.

• It may seem specious or like splitting hairs, but loving-kindness is recited in this way. It is important to recognize that, as unpopular as this sounds, one is not in fact correctly practicing loving kindness meditation until one achieves "absorption" (non-dual full concentration) through it. That absorption is what is expanded to all beings without distinction. (It is not possible to attain absorption through oneself or through a person who has died, for reasons that have yet to be explained but that suggest our profound interconnectedness). That absorption is what brings the unbelievable benefits of loving kindness so often touted by meditation teachers.
  

1. May all beings be free from danger, free from mental distress (misery), free from bodily suffering (pain), and be able to care for themselves with ease (shoulder the burden of psychophysical existence)....

2. May all beings who breathe...

After reciting the words "May [they] be free from danger" in the course of developing universal loving kindness, the mind that concentrates and the voice of utterance immediately cease. This cessation of mind and matter is also contemplated. Such contemplation, loving serenity-meditation together with insight-meditation, is being developed in pairs.

Continuous contemplation of serenity and insight in pairs is called yuganaddha vipassana:

3. May all living beings be free from danger, free from mental distress, free from bodily suffering, and be able to look after themselves with ease (or happily shoulder the burden of this existence with physical and mental happiness).

4. May all individuals be free from danger, and so on... More

• *Patisambhidamagga: Pali for "path of discrimination" (often simply Patisambhida) is a Buddhist sacred scripture, a component of the ancient Pali Canon preserved in Theravada Buddhism. It is part of the 12th book of the Collection of Sutras called the Khuddaka Nikaya. Tradition ascribes it to the Buddha's chief disciple...
  

• Nude Janice Dickinson on meditation, yoga
• Yoga Journal: "The Power of Love Meditation"
• Quantum Balancing: Love Meditation steps
• VIDEO: Solfeggio tones binaural beats alpha 528 Hz
• In the Buddha's Words (Bhikkhu Bodhi) Study Guide
  

Excavating the Heart through Meditation

Excavating the Heart through Buddhist mindfulness meditation
Noah Levine (Huffington Post, Dharma Punx Against the Stream)
When I first heard the Buddhist teachings on loving kindness, compassion, and forgiveness, I was incredibly skeptical.

Coming from a background of drugs and violence, I saw those heart qualities as undesirable and perhaps unsafe. In the circles I ran in, compassion was seen as equivalent to weakness and would make you vulnerable to harm and abuse.

I learned early on that this world was full of pain and seemed to lack much kindness. In reaction to the pain in my life, I began to close my heart and to harden myself against all forms of love. So it was with great hesitance that I experimented with Buddhist practices of kindness and compassion.

In the beginning, I don't think forgiveness was even in my vocabulary. The only reason I opened myself to these meditation practices, often called heart practices, at all was because I had tremendous faith in the practices of mindfulness (paying attention to the present moment), the Buddha, and my teachers, who assured me that it was safe to love again.

I heard things like "love is your true nature" or "the heart has a natural tendency toward compassion." Now I had already been meditating for some time, examining my inner-world through mindfulness, and I didn't see any of the love and compassion of which these teachers spoke.

When I looked into my heart and mind I only saw fear, anger, hatred, judgment, more fear, and a lot of lustful cravings. When I sat quietly, paying attention to my breath, my attention was repeatedly drawn into fantasies of vengeful destruction or pornographic sex:

One moment I was bashing in my stepfather's head with a Louisville slugger, the next I was in a threesome with Madonna [pictured here in green cap] and Traci Lords [against wall].

I was pretty sure that was all that was in there. Mindfulness helped me deal with my inner confusion. It allowed to me to ignore my mind at times or not take it so personally at others, but it didn't seem to be magically creating a loving heart out of my inner-critic/terrorist/pervert/tough guy.

In the early days of my meditation practice I was only interested in mindfulness. I was introduced to breath awareness meditations and as a result I experienced the direct benefits of concentration and mindfulness. I immediately found temporary relief from fear of the future and shame about the past.

Learning to train my mind to pay close attention to the present moment was difficult, but fruitful. I experienced the immediate, if only momentary, relief from the suffering I created with my mind's tendency to be lost in the future and past.

Before I began my meditation practice, when my mind started to worry about what would happen in the future, I would get completely sucked into the fears and often become convinced that the worst-case scenario would play out.

Mindfulness gave me the tools to let go of those thoughts and to bring my attention into the body's experience of the breath. Mindfulness made sense to me and it wasn't difficult to gain a verified faith [saddha] in that aspect of Buddhism. For me, mindfulness proved to be the doorway to the rest of the Buddha's Dharma, or teachings. I came to believe that it was going to be possible to train my mind, but I still had no hope for my heart. More

• Dharma Punx: Against the Stream Meditation Society
  
• The Heart of the Revolution (Harper Collins)

"Meditate and Destroy"