"I don't have the attention span to meditate"

Wisdom Quarterly (INTERVIEW with Fat Joe) no relation to Fat Mike

• Joe, do you or could you meditate?

"What? I have ADHD. At least I think I do. My mom's doctor gave me speed [the chemical pharmaceutical Ritalin], so I do now anyway."

[Still drinking soda, eating fast food (excitotoxins and cancer-forming carbs, adulterated fats, sugars), watching TV (commercials)...]

"There's no way I can meditate. I can't pay attention. I've been sitting here playing Call of Duty: Black Ops for like 12 hours.

"If I try to meditate, I'll fall asleep. So, like, forget it. My phone keeps going off, texts, uh... What was I saying?

"I'm so fat and losing my hair. I look like Da' Buddha, or who's that guy at the Chinese take-out, Hotei Budai? You know, you rub his belly. Anyway. What, like, you sit down, like, on the floor on a cushion? Dude. No way! Maybe after some primo bud..."

• But, Joe, how are you able to pay attention to those videogames for 12 hours?

"What d'ya mean?"

• If you have Attention DEFICIT and Hyperactive Disorder, where are you getting all this attention?

"Oh-oh, I see! Hmm, huh, yeah. Medication? This game's exciting! Isn't meditation, like, BORING? Just sitting there staring at your belly button. What is meditation? I can't do it! I don't have the attention span to meditate."

Fact Find Tour Inside Joe's Head


Short Attention Span Theatre "Leaving Jesusland" (NOFX)

• Beer and the Science of Partying
• Adventures in Hyperactive Meditation (borntoexplore.org)
• Zen Buddhism and ADHD: Meditation not medication
• VIDEO: Excitotoxins The Taste That Kills
• PDF: Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
  
• TaoJoe.com: Path of Least Resistance

Meditation as treatment for ADHD (ABC News)

Dalai Lama becomes a "Masterchef" (video)

Greig Box-Turnbull, Daily Mirror July 19, 2011 (Mirror.co.uk)

The Dalai Lama (Tibet's pope-king) appeared as guest judge on "Masterchef."

The Dalai Lama yesterday [July 18, 2011] made a bizarre appearance as guest judge on the Australian version of Masterchef.

Stunned contestants prepared lunch for the Tibetan spiritual leader -- but he refused to rate their offerings, saying it would be against his Buddhist principles.

In a special episode of the hit TV show, the religious figurehead was presented with several sweet and savory veggie dishes as he took time out from his official duties on a visit Down Under.

Kindness is appreciated everywhere.

He liked a Sri Lankan curry with roti bread, but gnocchi -- an Italian dumpling -- was his least favorite. However, his most severe criticism about the gnocchi was the comment that the contestant “tried their best.”

Speaking about fine dining, the Dalai Lama also told the contestants: “My knowledge of these things is very limited. Whatever I get, I accept.

“As a Buddhist monk it is not right to prefer this food or that food.”

But he did [regrettably] reveal he was a huge fan of cheese and also said his other favorite foods included bread, tofu, mushrooms, desserts, and “especially” coriander.

Speaking about the food he was presented with on the show, he said: “They all had a special taste and beauty.” Source

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful! (Mudita)

Wisdom Quarterly (The solution and way to success is mudita, explained below)

She can act, sing, dance, marry well but is no golden idol like Yogini Moss (elledecor.com)

Why everyone hates Gwyneth Paltrow
Wwtdd.com but reframed by Wisdom Quarterly
Insufferable Hollywood elitist? GOOP megalomaniac? Or just a really cool person? Gwyneth Paltrow steps in it in her interview with Elle Decor magazine. On being asked to list a few things “she can’t live without,” she revealed a fantasy life detached from most people’s reality. Born to privilege (not in any way by "accident" but thanks to the fortunate fruition of karma seeded in the past), she indeed deserves to surround herself with the finest in life. But is she thankful for all that karma is bestowing on her, or is she bragging, or did her agent answer for her?

• How it all started: Gwyneth dies in "Contagion"
  

Gwynnie, what can’t you live without?

1. DeGournay hand painted wallpaper - “I indulged with one wall in my London living room covered in a gorgeous pattern.”

Seriously, this is the first thing? Of course, maybe it’s reverse order and this is the last. What would Sid do? He would have said “an end to suffering for all living beings” or “happiness in the Land of the Shakyas” or good health, a white pony, and a shady tree for spiritual exertions. But times, they are a’changin. Today, we need our wallpaper! What would our interior designers do with bare walls? Paltrow’s choice begins at $650 per panel, and the average cost is thought to be $12,000 per room, but that’s nothing with Coldplay money.

2. Seasonal flowers - “I like single-variety arrangements -- peonies, hydrangeas, and white lilies -- casually arranged.”

Oh, that’s nice. The devas love flowers, and their presence adds a lot of radiance to a room. She wants the very best but does not want it to look like any effort was involved. Expensive things are just lying around. Space-heaven must be missing an angel (akasha deva), and she’s down here with us.

3. Darren Almond’s photography - “His arresting, large-scale artwork brings a sense of majesty to a room.”

Christies has sold a few of his pictures, ranging in price from $3,515 to $16,250. But "majesty" is a dead giveaway, isn’t it. It reveals her blue bloodline all the way back to Tavatimsa. (I’m thinking maybe Elle Decor put her up to this list to sell more of these items and get a kickback from the producers. More

4 Ways to Be Happy NOW

Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha often extolled four states that accompany peace, pleasure, and positive karma. Of these the third is perhaps the most difficult yet also the best for us to actively cultivate, particularly when we read about the rich and famous. Ever notice how often they appear in the media -- between stories about the wretched and destitute we feel superior to? Why? It might be to keep us feeling inferior and dissatisfied -- ready to BUY (usually on credit) anything offered promising to make us happy. As if happiness could be bought. There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So be here now. And be happy now. Here’s how.

1. Loving-kindness (metta) means boundless friendliness (agape).
2. Compassion (karuna) is the active side of love, alleviated others' suffering.

3. Joy-in-others'-success (mudita)

Appreciative, sympathetic, or vicarious joy means experiencing pleasure by delighting in the happiness of others rather than begrudging their success or well being. Just as a parent aware of a child's accomplishments and successes. The pain of envy, jealousy, meanspiritedness, smallmindedness are all enemies of this form of happiness that is always available since we think someone is always doing better than us. Altruism is not necessary, just a spirit generous enough to be happy for others. Delighting or lauding others' good karma is good karma! If one were to joyfully reflect with appreciation or vicarious joy on someone else's merit -- such as giving the Buddha or an arhat a gift -- one would share in that merit. The reverse is true, too: Begrudging others' success, fame, beauty, longevity, influence, respect, or wealth is demerit (unprofitable mental karma). Envy, jealousy, disgust at their success leads to our own failure. Imagine that. No one teaches that in Judeo-Christian culture. We reap what we sow, so we are sowing seeds of discontent to begrudge others' actually deserved fruits and results (even if we cannot find when those seeds were planted, owing to their cause in the distant past shrouded by rebirth and recoverable only by the cultivation of absorption in meditation and the exercise of the divine eye).
4. Equanimity (upekkha)
This means impartiality, equipoise, looking back on without elation or dejection, non-bias, wishing these states on all beings everywhere without preference or distinction. They are, after all, called the Four Immeasurables or Four Boundless States. Far from indifference, with which many confound it, like the others it is experienced in absorption (jhana) after the first three Divine Abidings are cultivated.

Hater (H8R) TV

• H8R: new anti-mudita show encouraging hate
  

"In Search of Ancient Mysteries" (TV show)

(Searchfortheunknown) The second pilot documentary in the In Search Of series: "In Search of Ancient Mysteries" (1975). The seventies were a time of disclosure and openmindedness before new and more powerful drugs were released into the society that put the kibosh on actual growth to welcome the Age of Aquarius. It was the dawning of the New Age, but not the realization of it. Why do the real thing when a synthetic substitute is cheaper, faster, and more profitable? So here we are, not much further along 35 years later. Of course, we have made a great deal of progress individually but not as a collective culture. This should remind us that the we is me; what I do is what we do, for that is the collective consciousness, and all we can do is contribute to it ourselves and by encouraging others. This episode is based on the book In Search of Ancient Mysteries by Alan and Sally Landsburg, narrated by Rod Serling of "Twilight Zone" fame.

Sex Trafficking with Ashton and Demi (video)

Moore, Kutcher: Join our crusade to end child sex trafficking

Watch the full interview with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher on "Piers Morgan Tonight," which airs weeknights on CNN/US.

Kutcher, Moore on using social media to stop child sex trafficking Piers Morgan - CNN.com Blogs

"There's between 100,000 and 300,000 child sex slaves in the United States today," Ashton Kutcher tells CNN's Piers Morgan. "If you don't do something to stop that -- that's when there's something wrong with you."

In their first-ever joint primetime interview, actress Demi Moore and actor Ashton Kutcher were on Thursday's "Piers Morgan Tonight."

The husband-and-wife team launched The Demi & Ashton Foundation (DNA) after a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in January.

They met a girl who had been trafficked into the United States by her pimp, who brought her into a field where she was repeatedly raped on a trash bag by 30 men. The DNA Foundation stands for the fundamental right to freedom for every person -- because it's within our DNA. More