Wall Street: "Sleep Now in the Fire" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, Democracy Now!, Michael Moore, Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine once hired Michael Moore to produce their video for the song "Sleep Now in the Fire" eleven years ago. They chose Wall Street, shutting the stock exchange in the process as police overreacted to a music video.

Moore was arrested while everyone else ran away. But the story lives on because just today, he was banned from filming a news piece for a cable news agency. Apparently, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) now owns the street outside the exchange and determines who can be interviewed on the street.

Moore was interviewed on Democracy Now! this morning recounting the story to Amy Goodman. While he could have gone down to Occupy Wall Street a block or two away, Moore said he was going to Wall St. whether or not the news crew was coming. More than a decade later, one sign in this video says it all: "I CAN'T BELIEVE WE STILL HAVE TO PROTEST THIS CR*P."

Plaza renamed for man murdered by BART police

• Occupy Oakland [brutally] raided by police
  

The Native Americans of Tibet (Summer Pasture)

Wisdom Quarterly

(SGIntlFilmFest, September, 2011)

"Summer Pasture" -- or "Nomad's Life" -- portrays the story of a Tibetan family at a crossroads.

Husband Locha and wife Yama question their future as nomads as they spend their summer in eastern Tibet's Zachukha grasslands. It is an area known as Wu-Zui or "Five-Most," the highest, coldest, poorest, and most remote county in Sichuan Province, China.

Due to the growing pressures of modernization, the couple has to now face the challenge and have their lifestyle reshaped. Directed by Lynn True, Nelson Walker III, Tsering Perlo.

What do Tibetan nomads have to do with Native Americans? They are the same people, who thousands of years ago crossed the Bering Straits to seed the Eskimos and other indigenous Americans.

The planet and human life on it are far older than conventional anthropology concedes. But this field is contradicted by archeology, common sense, spiritual records, and mythology.

The similarities between Native Tibetans and Native Americans are so striking as to be painfully obvious. A trip to Ladakh, India or among the Hmong, Karen, and other native mountain tribes of Asia makes it perfectly clear.

"Summer Pasture" puts on display shocking "coincidences" or clear parallels rooted in a common historical family? The usual answer, however unlikely, is that sometimes similar circumstances lead to similar independent solutions. That may be. The consistent shamanistic traditions of people around the world furthermore suggest the reality of spirit worlds.

• Review: Summer Pasture (Variety)
• Summer Pasture Review (laweekly.com)
  

(thefederationoflight.ning.com)

Why the Dalai Lama worries about rebirth

Why the Dalai Lama worries about rebirth

The Dalai Lama, leader of Tibet, with Nelson Mandela in Africa (AP)

BEIJING, China (Xinhua) - The 14th Dalai Lama said Saturday he will decide whether to be incarnated [reborn] when he is "about 90" and that China should have no say in the matter.

If he is to be reincarnated, he will leave clear written instructions about the process, the Dalai Lama said in a statement after a meeting with leaders of the four Tibetan sects.

"Apart from the reincarnation recognized through such legitimate methods, no recognition or acceptance should be given to a candidate chosen for political ends by anyone, including those in the People's Republic of China," he said.

The Dalai Lama has brought up the same issue of his reincarnation on many occasions in the last two years. More

• South Africa denies Chinese pressure on Dalai Lama visa
  
• Dalai Lama missing in new Nobel laureate letter to Harper
• South Africa can block the Dalai Lama's visa, but not his...
• Rush claims Obama "plagiarized" him; it was Dalai Lama

Samsara is a flood of rebirth and dukkha

Climbing Everest for Middle East peace (video)

Wisdom Quarterly
(lancetrumbull)

Narrated by Nichiren Buddhist Orlando Bloom (pictured left) and hailed as a "tremendous achievement" by the Dalai Lama (Tibet's pope-king), "Everest: A Climb for Peace" is no typical Everest film. It is a socially relevant documentary about peace, war, and the human spirit -- an inspirational adventure film with some of the most incredible Mt. Everest footage ever shot, including a dramatic rescue from near the summit of a mountain some regard as Mt. Sumeru (the mountain at the center of the Buddhist cosmology). Tibetans call it Goddess Qomolangma ("Holy Mother"), whereas the local sherpas who frequently climb it call it Sagarmāthā, and the Chinese, who are still occupying Tibet, call it Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng in Mandarin.

View from the Top of the World

• VIDEO: EverestPeaceProject.com
• Everest: A Climb for Peace continues national TV airings
  

Shaolin: Kung Fu Buddhism (film)

Lewis Beale (Washington Post, Sept. 9, 2011)

Buddhist monks in "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” (The Weinstein Company)

[It's] arguably the most popular franchise in film history, featuring the 1,500-year-old martial-arts tradition of some Chinese Buddhist monks.

• I'll kick your @$$... once I finish this video game
  

The Shaolin Temple, founded in the fifth century, has been the key element in hundreds of movies and TV shows: “Kids From Shaolin,” “American Shaolin,” “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” “Shaolin Soccer” -- and now “Shaolin,” a new movie starring Jackie Chan and Andy Lau that debuted Friday on video-on-demand.

All are based on the martial-arts practices of the Buddhist monastery -- a special brand of kung fu that combines physicality and Buddhist spirituality and is, according to the Shaolin Temple’s Web site, “based on a belief in the supernatural power of Buddhism.”

“Most people don’t realize kung fu is internal and external, a peaceful and a martial application, and a Shaolin movie will include both... “Shaolin is all about spirituality, karma, your well-being,” adds Doris Pfardrescher of Well Go USA, which is distributing “Shaolin.” All other martial-arts films are “ just about action, fighting,” she adds, “but Shaolin is about religion, spirituality, being with Buddha.” More

Dolphins Speak like Humans: Study (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, LiveScience.com, Xinhuanet

BEIJING - Dolphins do not whistle as previously thought. Instead, they "talk" like humans, according to a new study.

Dolphins use their noses to produce a different kind of tonal sound, just like humans do when speaking [particularly evident in Tonal Asian languages like Thai and Chinese], said Peter Madsen, the lead author of the study published in Royal Society Biology Letters.

Madsen studied how dolphins communicate by digitizing recordings made in 1977 of a 12-year-old male dolphin, which was made to breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen called heliox.

Scientists said humans breathing in a heliox sound like Donald Duck. According to Livescience.com, the heliox was meant to mimic conditions during a deep dive since it causes a shift up in frequency. However, when breathing in heliox, the dolphin continued to make the same sounds with the same frequency. More

Enslaved, trained dolphin takes part in an aquatic football match to entertain tourists at the Hefei Aquarium in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province in 2010 (Xinhua).

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
Dolphins have feelings. Dolphins rescue humans from sharks and shipwrecks. Dolphins prepare their meals. Dolphins name themselves.... It does not surprise us in the least. Is there anything these sea mammals do not do? But language is the exclusive domain of humans! So long as we believe only our brains can handle syntax, grammar, and linear retentive expression, just so long will we keep ourselves distinct from nature and its countless life forms. Animals already communicate. They already possess means of communicating exceeding ours. Extraterrestrial life forms, who gave us the languages we are so proud of as our exclusive evolutionary advantage, possess still higher and better forms of language. For instance, UFO vehicles communicate a tripartite language, and many animals can use symbols and signs. That dolphins use tones is hardly news to anyone who has interacted with these magical sea creatures.

Translating dolphin communication is possible!
PHOTOS: Gallery of Amazing Dolphins
The Amazon River Dolphin and a Baby Albino Dolphin
BOOK: So Long and Thanks for All the Fish (HHGTTG)
VIDEO: Bizarre creature caught on video, Chupacabra?

Humans create dolphin simulating sea vehicle

China admits building deep tunnels

China's Ministry of Transport today announced that the construction of a 200-kilometer railway tunnel connecting mainland China with Taiwan is set to be completed within the next few weeks.

The "Great Tunnel of China" will link the coastal city of Fuzhou with Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, and will become the world's longest transportation tunnel by a considerable margin.

An official surnamed Dàdòng told a nonplussed press corps that "the tunnel will further enhance harmonious the relations between the mainland and our Taiwan compatriots."

When asked how China had managed to keep the gargantuan project a secret, Dàdòng simply said that "the workers lived underground, and we dumped the excavated rubble into the sea." More

• China's massive tunnel longer than United States
• Overcome Depression: How to Avoid Hitting Bottom
• Another China super tunnel
  

Panchen Lama visits Tibetans in remote China

He's just as good as the other guy. You will worship him, autonomous Tibetan serfs, for the glory of the state.

BEIJING, China (AP) - A Buddhist spiritual leader who was installed by China's communist government when he was a boy has visited a major Tibetan monastery in the latest attempt by Beijing to [enhance] his religious credentials.

The Panchen Lama is the second-ranked religious leader to Tibetans, after the Dalai Lama. But Tibetans generally do not accept this Panchen Lama because he was appointed by Beijing, while the original boy selected by the Dalai Lama in 1995 has not been heard from since.



The official Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday quoted the Panchen Lama as saying he was impressed with the amount of religious freedom enjoyed by Buddhists in the area surrounding the Labrang Monastery in western China's Gansu province.



With cues from the LAPD and former police chief Bratton, Chinese soldiers are getting the hang of how to keep Tibetan monks in line. It is said that more than 2,000,000 Tibetans have been killed so far. Bratton is currently in Britain teaching police their how to "re-educate" London protesters.

Buddhism meets Taoism (videography)

Buddha in Bhutan (Michael Foley Photography)

Brenda Smage reads Prof. Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II's scholarship on Taoism, Buddhism, and medieval China. Buddhism spread "hippie-like" from Dharma bum wandering ascetic scholars on the Silk Road. They settled in Loyang, hanging around with the Taoists/Daoists. Before long they have taken over the spiritual-philosophical landscape. Confucianists came to the rescue: T'ang Dynasty persecution put an end to Theravada Buddhism. (It eradicated Sarvastivada Buddhism, the original and much maligned "Hinayana" school). As the original teachings from India and Central Asia were driven out of China, only the overly wooden Ch'an (Zen) and overly devotional "Pure Land" traditions survived.

(Open Source Buddhism)

• Buddhist India: landlocked Ladakh, the roof of the world
  

VIDEO: Faking the NASA Moon Landing

Top Secret NASA footage of the making of fake Moon landing

WARNING: Gratuitous use of profanity by astronaut-actors angry at faking it.

First of all, the USSR has been to the Moon and the USA has too. By now China, India, the Europeans collectively have all at least circled and photographed it. Why then was the footage the world was show faked?

The faking was done on a Hollywood-style soundstage. This has long been known: There were many small mistakes as NASA rushed to prove we had conquered the lunar surface -- a flag fluttering in the wind of an atmosphere-free sphere, lack of propulsion jets, no indentation in the moondust where jet exhaust would have brought the vehicle to a soft landing, and so on.

The reason for the fake is much more shocking than the fact that there was a fake, as this leaked video seems to establish. Although this footage was shot and shown to the world, we did make it to the Moon.

(MUFON)

What we found were dilapidated structures, advanced mining efforts, extraterrestrials in massive craft, water, glass pyramids, and a you're-not-welcome mat that sent us off the unnatural satellite and kept us off ever since.

Perhaps there has been a green light since because we have bombed (crashed objects on) its surface, imaged the dark or far side, and fathomed its hollow nature. Of course, unfortunately, we are bent on militarizing it much as Hitler intended to do.

All of this might be dismissed out of hand if it were not for the persistent efforts of Richard C. Hoagland (enterprisemission.com), Dr. Stephen Greer (disclosureproject.org), and a growing parade of defecting military and government personnel at the National Press Club. Obama and Clinton know, having been briefed by Dr. Greer, but it is not within their power to do anything about it in terms of disclosure.

NASA shows a new map of the far side of the Moon
NASA showed on Monday the most complete picture of the far side of the moon. The picture was made thanks to the data transmitted by the probe Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

• European android will explore the Moon

• Total lunar eclipse of June 15

• Earth-equivalent amount of water within the Moon

• China is afraid of water on the Moon

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

"Missing in Tibet" (film)

China, Nepal develop Buddha’s "birthplace"

Golden face of the Buddha passing into final nirvana, Thailand (reuters.com)

China plans to help Nepal develop Buddha’s birthplace at Lumbini

(Reuters) A Chinese-backed foundation and Nepal’s government plan to transform the Buddha’s birthplace in southern Nepal into a magnet for Buddhists the same way Mecca is to Muslims and the Vatican is for Catholics.

• [Never mind that they might be going to the wrong place, because this is about spiritual tourism, and the U.S. is destroying the real place -- in its longest running war -- while China plans to strip its archeological treasures and history by mining metals there.]

The Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation plans to raise $3 billion at home and abroad to build temples, an airport, a highway, hotels, convention centers, and a Buddhist university in the town of Lumbini, about 107 miles (171 km) southwest of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.

The foundation, blessed by the Chinese government, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nepalese government last month to jointly develop and operate Lumbini, where the Buddha was [said to be] born Prince Siddhartha Gautama about 2,600 years ago. The foundation also pledged to bring communications, water, and electricity to Lumbini.

Buddhism was virtually wiped out in China during the chaotic 1966-76 [Communist/officially atheist] Cultural Revolution when temples were shut, Buddhist statues smashed, scriptures burned, and monks and nuns [killed or] forced to return to secular life and marry. In recent years, China has become more tolerant of Buddhism, which is considered “traditional culture” alongside Taoism and Confucianism.

Bodhi tree and the Mayadevi pond in Lumbini, Nepal, Nov. 2006 (Reuters/Bpilgrim)

“Lumbini will transcend religion, ideology, and race. We hope to rejuvenate the spirit of Lord Buddha,” said Xiao Wunan, a devout Buddhist who is executive vice president of the foundation. The development of Lumbini will... More

The Real Lumbini

Dr. Ranajit Pal

Nepal is a beautiful country, but a Gautama [Pali, Gotama] of Nepal is a [archeological] fraud. Nothing in the art, archaeology, history, or literature of early Nepal has the faintest hint of Buddhism.

R. Thapar affirms that Gautama was from the Nepal area, but this has no archaeological basis. Wikipedia pays lip service to archaeology and heedlessly places Gautama at Lumbini, thereby reducing history into a caricature. C. Humphreys laments over the stark ground reality,

"The Lumbini gardens, where Gotama was born, lie in the difficult Nepal Terai, and Kusinara, where the Buddha passed away, has little to show.'"

The way out of the chaos is shown by the British scholar T. Phelps who has exposed the dreadful forgeries of Führer who moved pillars and faked inscriptions and relics to falsely locate Lumbini. More

• PHOTO: Buddhist lay practitioners in Mahayana temple attire venerate a statue of the Bodhisattva during the annual Phi Ta Khon Festival at a temple in Suining, Sichuan province, China, May 2, 2009 (Reuters/Stringer).

China cracks down on rioting migrants

China tries to restore order after migrant riots

BEIJING (LA Times) - Chinese authorities struggled to restore order Monday after migrant workers, angry over the manhandling of a pregnant vendor, overturned police cars, smashed windows, and set fires near the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou.

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May 2011 video game sales hit four-year low
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GOP debate: 10 questions that need answers

Mitt Romney and candidates debate in NH

N.Y. jury convicts 3 in NYC hedge fund trial

Rare look into Tibet's Buddhist grottoes

"The frescoes have a twist of Kashmir flavor. They are a valuable resource for archeologists trying to figure out when and where Buddhism was introduced to China." Shangri la is full of Buddhist caves and treasures (TibetanAltar)

China Exclusive: A rare look into Tibet's largest Buddhist grottoes

(PeoplesDaily) Hidden among sandstone hills in remote western Tibet, a stretch of honeycomb-shaped caverns is way beyond the reach of most travelers.

Known as the Donggar Piyang grottoes, the 1,000-year-old caverns in the Tibet Autonomous Region's Ngari Prefecture hold one of the world's greatest collections of Tibetan Buddhist murals.

The grottoes, divided into two clusters of 200 and 1,000 caves, respectively, hold remains of ancient monasteries, fortresses, and forests dating back as far as the 10th century.

Experts expect that the well-preserved grottoes will shed some light on the Guge Kingdom, an ancient kingdom that is estimated to have existed between the 9th and 17th centuries in what is known today as Zanda County.

The exotic frescoes of the Donggar Piyang grottoes were first discovered in 1992, when an archaeological expedition team set foot in this remote corner of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau... More

Donggar Frescos and Rutog Rock Paintings (TibetTravel.org)
Shangri la (Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar)
Touring Tibet and China's minority cultures
China's lunar orbiter off to new space horizon
What's driving China's pursuit of financial success
China dying of drought and flooding
China's Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves

Afghanistan's wealth is hidden underground

(NPR) There's close to a $1 trillion waiting to be unearthed beneath the rocky soil of Afghanistan.

[Moreover, there are invaluable spiritual and historical Buddhist treasures waiting to be unearthed -- since this may have been the birthplace of Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, who was born in Lumbini, in Baluchistan [where Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan meet] and grew up in Kapilavastu, thought to be near the largest Buddha statues in the world prior to Taliban demolition, Bamiyan.]

The massive deposits of iron, copper, gold, and lithium [and rare earths detected by Chinese firms and crucial to the manufacture of computers, cell phones, and other advanced technology to say nothing of their burgeoning trade in heroin, a resource exploited by military forces, ours and theirs] could potentially turn the troubled nation's economy around.

"Afghanistan, with certainty I can say, in 20 years is going to be a mining country," Paul Brinkley, head of a Pentagon group called the Task Force for Business Stability Operations, tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "That is going to happen."

He sees these untapped natural resources as a means for Afghanistan to build a stronger economy.

Brinkley, who has been doing this kind of work since 2006, is stepping down from his post later this month. But he's adamant this project is only starting to scratch the surface.

"This is a resource the Afghans are beginning to understand offers them a future," he says.

Business In A War Zone
To Brinkley, Afghanistan's mineral deposits are the country's chance at having a core indigenous source of wealth. But he knows it's not as simple as just getting those minerals out of the ground.

Brinkley says that in order to properly develop the mining industry, "creation has to take place of business practices."

In the past, Afghanistan has seen lots money come into the country through illicit industries like opium production. He notes minerals can't be smuggled in the same way drugs can, so Afghans will need to engage in legal business transactions and build working relationships to make this work. More

Pentagon: No rush for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan

Afghan forces in spotlight as U.S. debates role

Afghanistan

Burmese president meets Chinese military

Xinhua, English.news.cn
Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou (L) shakes hands with Burmese president U Thein Sein at the President's House in Burma's new capital Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, May 13, 2011 (Xinhua/Myanmar News Agency).

NAY PYI TAW, Burma - Myanmar president U Thein Sein met with visiting Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou in China Friday with the two sides exchanging views on issues of common concern.

U Thein Sein expressed delight to see major progress achieved in the two countries' cooperation in various sectors, including frequent reciprocal visits at high level.

The visit of Xu soon after Myanmar's formation of the new government has actively reflected the friendly relations between the two countries and the two armed forces, he said.



He added that strengthening of Myanmar-China unity and cooperation not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but also contributes to the development and stability of the region.

On the occasion, Xu said 61 years after the two countries established diplomatic relation, bilateral ties have always maintained a healthy and stable development. More

• China, Myanmar sign MoU on rail transport project
• China's mining project put into operation in Myanmar
• Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway starts test operation
• 14th Wuyi Int'l Investment Fair kicks off in SE China
• Service held in memory of quake victims
• China aids least-developed countries
• China-EU cooperation looks forward to further development
• China becomes "outstanding actor in trade agenda" for Latin America: UN official