Occupy LA-Wisdom Quarterly activities

Council of Elders, Occupy Los Angeles, Wisdom Quarterly, Against the Stream, LACHS

Saturday, 11-4-11: 3:30 pm meditation and Dharma teaching guided by Against the Stream, south steps. SEIU Health and Wellness Fair at OLA covering addiction, mental health, both the physical and spiritual. Clinicians, counselors, mediators, 12 steppers will be there.

Sunday: 2:00 pm, Interfaith Affinity Group meeting and to discuss plans for Nonviolence Day. Less about planning and more about sharing and being together in a spiritual setting. 3:30 is a Compassionate Communication class.

• COUNCIL OF ELDERS Sunday, Nov. 20th, 3:00 pm: Noted civil rights leaders Rev. James M. Lawson, Dolores Huerta, Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd, Dr. Maher Hathout, Rabbi Leonard Beerman, and others from many of the defining American social justice movements of the 20th century. They will lead a service of solidarity and host a conversation with Occupy demonstrators and others. Similar event with other notable elders will be held in San Francisco.

Nonviolence Day is 12-3-11. Music and more. Guided meditation. Inspiring original songs incorporating devotional chanting including harmonium, bells, tambourines, guitars, drums, singing and dancing. Yoga class.

Meditation by Megan and Andrea (Against the Stream)

• Monday, Nov. 21st, 11:00 am-12:15 pm

Everyone is invited to join a Sitting Meditation and Silent Peace Walk at Occupy Los Angeles. We will send positive intentions out into the world.

Let us be the change we want to see in the world -- as we generate the combined energy of mindfulness, calm reflection, loving-kindness, and insight. The 99% and the 1% are worthy of happiness and compassion. Let's sit and walk for protestors as well as police, slum lords and slum residents, householders and homeless. Poverty, unemployment, greed, and corruption are more than a domestic issue. Help create an environment for the 100% to come together in meditation and share the intention of creating peace, harmony, and freedom for ALL beings.

Simple acts contribute to a major paradigm shift. Why? Peace in ourselves creates peace in the world.

SCHEDULE
10:50 am - Gather, get settled
11:00 am - Sitting meditation
11:20 am - Peace Walk in silence
11:50 am - Sitting mediation (20 mins)

Organized by the Los Angeles Compassionate Heart Sangha, a mindfulness meditation group practicing in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. No political affiliation.

Friday Night - The Dharma Test Kitchen

(cartoonstock.com)

Against the Stream is offering a new class -- an exploration of the practical connection of Dharma practice and our daily lives.

The focus of the class is the belief that what we do off the cushion matters more than what we do on it. Success in meditation, after all, comes from being virtuous and mindful enough to get on a cushion in the first place.

Social "engagement" is more than a buzz word. So each month ATS will explore a different fundamental aspect of basic Buddha-Dharma from a variety of participant perspectives. The class has a rotating schedule of teachers, teaching together and individually on a given monthly theme.

Start the weekend with artful practice, sangha community-building, and a connection to basic Dharma philosophy.

• ATS Santa Monica
  
• drop-in, donation-based
• Fridays, 7:30 pm

Lesson is Simple; Student is Complicated

Wisdom Quarterly; Dan Millman (PeacefulWarrior.com); Laura Murphy
What can just one person do?

Mark Twain once said about worrying, "I've had a lot of problems in my life, most of which never happened." We get in our own way. The Path is there. The Path is clear. Wherever we step, it appears underneath our feet -- if that is the direction we have set ourselves in. The Path is not the problem. The student is.

The student is complicated. The world spins around us. Occupy this, occupy that, Occupy Samsara. We already here, being crushed by the Wheel of Death and Rebirth. We are suffering. And it need not be that way -- except for the craving, hate/fear, and delusion that overwhelms us and gets us to buy in.

"I always wanted to be someone," Lily Tomlin observed, "maybe I should have been more specific." Today Foley Square is on fire (Occupy Wall Street's massive protest). Berkeley is burning (after being doused again).

Burma, paradoxically, is cooling. And taking a stand is Los Angeles means going to UCLA, Occupy LA, or Cal State University Dominguez Hills. I want to sit down, not by going to work, to take a stand.

"It begins on the ground. Strong roots help a tree to bear fruit; the same is true of human beings. Magical thinking is popular, always has been. But reality rules. Observe and listen to nature's whispers, and all will be well."
- Dan Millman

Wisdom Quarterly invited Amma, and a dozen meditators crowded into Magdha Rod's Meditation Temple at Occupy LA to hear Amma speak and lead meditation.

What Can One Person Do?
Laura Murphy, CC Liu
The Buddhist nun Amma (Bhikkhuni Thanasanti) has been in Los Angeles.

Wisdom Quarterly along with the Occupy LA Interfaith Council and Against the Stream, she was brought down to speak at City Hall and lead a meditation.

It has been an honor to meet and share space with her and other engaged Theravada Buddhist meditators.

Her efforts and willingness to be of service have inspired. Her presence has benefited many. She moves on to Santa Barbara as the movement expands or breaks with a 1,000+ SEIU (union) members, students, and LA occupiers.

Occupy LA may expand to an additional site. Nonviolence may provoke police to behave like soldiers on foreign soil. It has elsewhere -- in a nationwide sweep of Occupy Movement encampments and preemptively violent police tactics.

Hold the ground for a more mindful, peaceful, safer movement to benefit all (even the 1% who benefit when the 99% benefits).

What can I do? Walking meditation, water-only fasting, refrain from speaking in observance of nonviolence (ahimsa), when even words may do harm.

I am inspired to investigate true freedom and how I may achieve that in my own way, in my body, using my mind, and filling my spirit with breath.

"The First Law of Planning:
Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything."
- Arthur Bloch

• [Totalitarian] Burma generals inch towards reform
• A Hopeful Sign: Burma wins ASEAN chair
• Burmese refugees get help
  
• UC Berkeley Student Protest UPDATES
• Introduction to "healthy skepticism"
  

JoAnna Harper and Amma's meditation/dialogue at ATS, 11-16-11

What are the Buddhist precepts for?

Amma chants to close a mindful exercise of deep listening she led.

Occupy UCLA: Take down those tents!

The Occupy Movement promised a Day of Action across nation
Take Back UCLA

(LA Times) Bringing the Occupy Wall Street movement and student protests to Westwood, about 25 tents were set up today on the UCLA campus. But officials said the encampment violated school rules and would not last long.

The tents were pitched on Wilson Plaza near the base of the landmark Janss Steps. And about 100 or so demonstrators were reportedly gathered in the area. Authorities were studying ways to make sure the camp did not stay up...

“The university does intend to enforce those policies,” UCLA spokesman Phil Hampton said.

“At this point, the conversations taking place are about how best to do that.” UCLA wants to balance the protesters’ right to free speech with [the rights of police to beat them]... More

PHOTOS: Day of Action

Occupy LA Calendar Actions (video)

Occupy UCLA, Occupy Los Angeles, Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy CSUDH

Channel 5 (FOX Channel 11 local affiliate KTLA.com/local) Los Angeles news coverage

There are fresh and exciting actions afoot. There are two BeGrouped text groups -- one for the Action Committee (discussiion) and one for Action Updates (strictly updates, no chatter). There is also a Twitter feed @OccupyLAAction and spying through Facebook.com/groups/215029945237006

Wednesday:
What: Mic Check at UC Board of Trustees Meeting
Where: Long Beach
When: Bus leaving OLA (Occupy LA) 1st & Main at 8:15 am.
Why: Tuition Hikes

Protesters Arrested at Massive "Occupy L.A." Rally
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) - Union and Occupy LA demonstrators staged a massive
march and rally in downtown LA as part of Thursday's "National Day of Action"

Thursday:
What: Occupy the Bridge
Why: Corporate greed is killing good jobs. L.A.'s bridges, roads, parks, and schools are outdated and crumbling. We're losing firefighters, police, and good school jobs in our communities due to budget cuts. But Congress refuses to tax millionaires and super-wealthy corporations to pay for legislation that will create 125,400 good jobs in California. Wall Street banks were in trouble, Congress rushed to bail them out with billions in taxpayer money - but now Congress and corporations are turning their backs on our schools and communities.
When: Meet at Spring and 1st at 6:00 am for breakfast and to march over. March begins at BofA Plaza at 7:00 am!
Where: 4th & Flower St.

Local Channel 5 Los Angeles News (KTLA.com), Nov. 17, 2011

What: USWW March
When: Noon
Where: Leaving from City Hall South Side



OCCUPY UCLA @ 12:30 pm
What: One-Day Strike, all day picket line at CSU Dominguez Hills, Carson
When: 6:00 am - 7:00 pm (or whatever portion of the day you're available)
Where: Campus Main Entrance (Gate E), 1000 E. Victoria St, Carson 90747
Why: Support Quality Public Higher Education
Stop the Corporate Takeover of the CSU! Help Save Middle Class Jobs!
Faculty Want to Provide Quality Education & Support Our Families. Join us!
Facebook.com/event.php?eid=219712158099755



Saturday:
What: Health & Wellness Fair
**MORE INFO COMING ASAP**

What: Aerial Photo of Occupy Los Angeles
**MORE INFO COMING ASAP**

Occupy Wall Street New York, SEIU, and Occupy Los Angeles (KTLA.com)

What: Power of Comedy Event
When: 8:00 pm (leave from City Hall at 7:00 pm)
Where: Meet at northside OLA steps; event is at the Hollywood Palladium
Why: to encourage comedians to avoid working with stations who misrepresent the movement
**This is a ticketed event. OLA RSVP contact TBD -- stay tuned!**

Tuesday Nov. 22nd:
What: Teach-In & March to the Fed
When: Teach-In at 2:30 on northside steps, leave from Fountain Box at 4:00 pm for March
Where: Federal Reserve Bank
**Please let me know when we have a Facebook event for this, waiting on that link to print flyers**

UC Berkeley administrator misspeaks about a peaceful worldwide movement involving students that is repeatedly the victim of police and state-sanctioned violence.

Saturday Dec. 3rd:
**Still in Development**
What: Occupy Union Station -- joint action with Occupy Long Beach and Occupy Pasadena, likely other Occupy SoCal groups as well
When: 11:00 am -2:00/3ish
Where: Union Station
Why: Skits and so on to creatively reach out and gain public awareness and support
More details to come

**Still in Development**
What: Official LA Day of Non-Violence
Where: Southside steps OLA
Presentations/Speakers/music/etc. Presented by Interfaith Community, Quakers, and UCLA Center for Study of Religion.

More details to come



Tuesday Dec. 6th:
What: City Council Meeting
When: 10:00 am
Where: City Hall
Why: Resolution to end Corporate Personhood

Saturday, Dec. 10th:
What: March for International Human Rights Day
When: 10:00 am-1:00 pm
Facebook.com/event.php?eid=229528123768777

Cal State Long Beach police pepper spray abuse as tuition is hiked

Friday: All-night dance at Occupy LA (11-11-11)

PROTEST FEST: Occupy Los Angeles, Dev (Wisdom Quarterly), DJ Anonymous
What it might look like -- before the rain starts

On arrival, be careful about these 11 types of dance injuries (FunnyOrDie.com)

The Los Angeles occupation is growing. On Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 (11-11-11) at 4:00 pm there begins an all-night Protest Fest concert/dance/rave. It will feature various DJ in the plaza under the southside steps. STOMP @ City Hall promises to be the largest peaceful action since tents brought back the spirit of a 1960's style youth movement that can no longer be dismissed by the mainstream media as mere "camping." There will be DJs, meditation, yoga, tables, big tents, and all the features Occupy LA has grown famous for in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Bring your ideas to the movement during the planning stages, at the [alternative] media tent, and put a West Coast twist on this party for the 99%.

(Facebook/Daily Mail)

STOMP @ City Hall, Friday, Nov. 11, 4:00 pm (clip courtesy of EDC 2011)

It started with 12 students on Wall Street...

(Daily Mail/NewWorldOrderReport.com) Protest enters [another] week with activists in Los Angeles saying they will remain "indefinitely." Demonstrators [unwilling to quietly accept] corporate greed along with U.S. banking and political systems [police abuse, endless war, poverty, hypocrisy...] Major cities across the U.S. are today bracing themselves for more protests against corporate America as the Occupy Wall Street campaign enters its [another] week and gathers pace. The demonstrations, which began in New York City, have already spread to Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Denver, and Seattle.

• Occupy LA's 99%: Plenty of Media Manipulation
• (A response to LA Times reporter Steve Lopez by Cheryl Aichele) If the LA Times wants to truly report on the First-Amendment Advocates at City Hall [the Occupiers], maybe they should ditch the dismissive comments and start reporting. Here are a few things you missed.
• Don't be fooled by the new poverty numbers
• Wall Street Journal undermining Occupy Movement
• Strange earthquakes jar Oklahoma

(EDC The Movie) Revolutionary rock and folk galvanized the '60s, as rave and punk do now. Sex, drugs, and raucous music are demonized just as they were in the '50s when repression led to the backlash called the Sixties.

• Electric Daisy Carnival Experience rave doc dropped...
• EDC movie premiere and Kaskade riot doc (Hollywood...
• A&E: EDC movie event cancelled; Mad Caps to leave Vegas
• EDC movie yanked from Regal, AMC Theaters...
• EDC movie premiere ends in riot

11/11/11 (11:11 am) Meditation

MedMobLA, Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy LA, Occupy Freedom, Against the Stream

Sundry groups sat in unity with a worldwide matrix of meditators on the northside steps in the heart of Los Angeles, Camp City Hall. Meanwhile, around the world and across occupation sites, peace demonstrators began to follow the words:

Think with your heart, love with your mind.

"Jay Baba," a disciple of Himalayan master Yogiraj Siddhanath, lead a moonlight sit the night before on the southside steps following general assembly. The technique we employed to hold the peace involved becoming the Moon, facing the Earth, and flooding our planet and everyone on it with love.

After all, this is not an anti-Wall Street protest. It is a pro-99% movement. Give fairness a chance, Corporate demagogues. Give generosity a try. Since there is not enough for even one bank's greed -- which becomes too big to bail -- there might just be enough for everyone's need. Thriving never has to mean depriving others. Win-win is our goal, with institutions, with each others, with the world.

• VIDEO: livestreamed at occupyfreedom@ustream.com courtesy of Yoga Activist Arthur Klein (the Guru Within) and the Occupy Los Angeles Media Tent.
  
• Organize meditation flash mobs, yoga, and interfaith community services at the new dedicated Interfaith Tent (southside), Meditation Temple tent (a Magdha creation), and daily Yoga Loft yoga instruction (5:00 pm, southside steps).

-peaceprize.com-warisacrime.org-

CODEPINK: 11-11-11 at Occupy LA

On 11-11-11 add your voice to the call for an end to all wars!

CODEPINK joins Vets for Peace and Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace in an anti-war extravaganza at the site of the Arlington West art installation and memorial:

• Friday, Nov. 11, 10:30 am
• North of Santa Monica Pier
• Ocean & Colorado, Santa Monica 90401

Money for People’s Needs,
Not Corporate War Profiteers' Greed!

As women struggle the world over to be heard as powerful and passionate, so do those who Occupy LA. Join the latest Women and Allies meeting Friday to make plans and take action.

• Solidarity with Palestine Freedom Riders
• Friday, Nov. 11, 5:00 pm
• south side near Children's Area next to Media Tent
• City Hall south, 200 N. Spring St., downtown LA

Occupy LA, Not Palestine!

Remember war criminal Condi Rice? Codepink does.

Martine Batchelor at Against the Stream

Creative Engagement

• Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, 7:30-9:00 pm
• Suggested Donation $25 (no one turned away)
• 4300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA
• (across from Los Angeles Community College)
  

Against the Stream MELROSE is pleased to have Martine Batchelor as a guest for this special evening. She will speak on how we can creatively engage with ourselves and the world. This talk will explore meditation as a process of un-grasping, releasing, and thus allowing a creative response.

Batchelor was born in France and spent ten years in a Korean monastery studying Zen Buddhism. Then she met Buddhist writer and former monk Stephen Batchelor. She is now a guiding teacher at Gaia House in England. She was a founding teacher of the Sharpham College of Buddhist Studies. With her husband Stephen, she leads meditation retreats worldwide and lives in Southwest France. Her books include Buddhism and Ecology; Walking on Lotus Flowers; Women in Korean Zen, and Let Go: A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits. Her most recent book is The Spirit of the Buddha.

DAY 39: Jesse Jackson at Occupy LA (video)

(insightoutnews)

November 9, 2011 - News report on the 39th day of OccupyLosAngeles.org includes interviews with protesters, clips from the rally, and more. Edited and hosted by Margot Paez of InsightOutNews.org.

Spalding Gray: Swimming to Cambodia (video)

WritersBlocPresents.com, Laemmle Theatres, Wisdom Quarterly

"I hadn't had a perfect moment yet. And it's very important for me to have perfect moments in exotic countries like that... It kind of lets you know when it's time to go home..."

"Look, I got a vision of myself by now as a kind of wandering bachelor mendicant poet, wandering all the way down the beaches of Malaysia eating magic mushrooms all the way as I went until I reach Bali and evaporate in a state of ecstasy in the sunset!"

"But I wasn't telling Renee that. But she could see that my will, or what was left of it, was beginning to vacillate.

"And we fell into a fight on the way to the party in the Gulf of Siam. And we were fighting all the way, and we got there, to the Gulf of Siam, and it was exquisite, you know?

Gulf of Siam (Thailand)

"Unlike The Hamptons, where you have a boat, and a bigger boat, and then a ship, and a bigger ship, and desire, and the carrot, and the carrot, and the carrot, and desire, and desire, and desire, and desire.

"There was nothing to buy out there in the Gulf of Siam. I mean it was like one big piece of calendar art.

"I just said, 'Look, look, look, Renee, look at this beautiful sunset!'

"...I might be able to have a perfect moment right now."

Part 1 (iamtheuseless1)

Spalding Gray's "Talking Cure" is not only one of the best one-man performances but actually one of the best films ever. "Swimming to Cambodia" is a Jonathan Demme-directed performance film (before "Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia" but after "Stop Making Sense"). The film is a performance of Gray's monologue ("Talking Cure") which centers around themes like his trip to Southeast Asia to create the role of the U.S. Ambassador's aide in "The Killing Fields" and his search for a perfect moment.

"Swimming to Cambodia" was originally a theatre piece on which Gray worked for two years, and it won him an Obie award. The opening shots depict Gray walking toward The Performing Garage in New York. He goes in, walks past the audience, and takes his seat behind a table. On the table is a glass of water, a microphone, and a notebook. Behind him are two pull down maps. One is a map of Southeast Asia and the other is a diagram of the bombing of Cambodia, which Gray tells the viewers was called Operation Menu.

Spalding Rockwell Gray (1941-2004) was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist, and monologist. He was primarily known for his "trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania." Gray achieved notoriety for writing and acting in the play, which was adapted into a film.

• Tribute to Spalding Gray with Nell Casey...
• Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, 7:30 pm
• Laemmle Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset, WeHo

Free the Slaves (video)

Wisdom Quarterly (Green Fest LA, Oct. 29, 2011), FreeTheSlaves.net

Together we can end it: 1320 19th St. NW Ste. 600, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 775-7480.

Now that Demi Moore is divorcing a philandering Ashton Kutcher, who will bring attention to child sex trafficking and the plight of underage prostitutes in the US? Who will stop the beatings of unpaid laborers? Who will get rights for domestic help treated worse than pets?

Jessica Gardiner answers questions and admires newborn. "Our mission is simple: We liberate modern slaves around the world then help them build their lives as human beings" (WQ/Seven).

Slavery goes far deeper than girls being forced to be molested to profit pimps and impoverished madams in secret brothels, who frequently trick parents into selling their children into indentured servitude or a better future -- never realizing what that means.

How to do something about it: info@freetheslaves.net

Impersonal economic forces ruin lives, but so do the very personal choices of white slavers, purchasers, money launderers, and capitalists with the next best thing to gold: free disposable labor. Most of us are "wage slaves," but at least we get wages and can act as if we were free. Imagine losing even those two perks.

Talking about an incomprehensible topic sometimes means just pointing at pictures. Gardiner grieves while producer Harold Linde fields questions (WQ/Seven).

Free The Slaves occupied a booth across from John Perkins -- the former self-described "economic hitman" for the US military-industrial complex -- at this weekend's Green Fest. Twin ghosts, beautiful young ladies with gaunt and haunted faces called attention to a taboo topic. An oversized picture book by Lisa Kristine. FTS

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Success in solving the problem feels good, so celebrate!

Brunch on the Beach with Ajahn Thanasanti

Awakening Truth, Wisdom Quarterly, Against the Stream, Occupy Los Angeles

SANTA MONICA BEACH, California - An unfamiliar moisture forms over the LA basin. It washes down to the sea. There, huddled like stray coyotes, are the tattooed love children of ATS and WQ in honor of Theravada Buddhist nun Thanasanti, affectionately referred to as Amma.

• Brunch on the Beach with Amma and ATS
• Sunday, Nov. 6, 10:00 am until...
• 14782 Pacific Coast Hwy, Santa Monica 90402
• Lifeguard Station #18, at the Volleyball Courts

THE PLAN: meditation, food, and fun. But the nagas, who rule the water, must have gotten the sky devas to bring precipitation. It's like Bangkok in the foothills. One can only imagine what the shore is like. Nagas will not stand for easygoing times, hanging out, volleyball, or a potluck. Bring thick sunscreen. We recommend SPF-Raincoat.

Occupation Meditation
Then after we are soaking wet from the beach, we are going to try to dry out at another action. Wisdom Quarterly and Against the Stream brings Amma to lead a meditation to wrap a two-day teach-in:

• Occupy Los Angeles
• Sunday, Nov. 6, 4:00-5:00 pm
• Downtown City Hall encampment
  
• Meditation Temple (Tent), near northside steps