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)

Re-Thinking Progress: Circular Economy (video)

Molly X, Wisdom Quarterly

It's better to be circular like the universe than linear like America's disposable culture

LABOR DAY, 2011 - It is better to live in an intentional community like Eco-Village, Los Angeles, than to buy-use-throw away everything in our lives. This mentality is dangerous to our health, the well being of the planet and has destroyed the economy. It is a corporate means of extraction, pulling money out of consumers who are encouraged to go into debt for the attempted satisfaction of desires ad campaigns seed and water. If we wake up to the unsustainability of this hamster wheel (aka "rat race"), we just might be able to pull ourselves and others out of the mire. It is better than holding our collective breathe waiting to exhale in the hopes that Obama is suddenly going to grow a backbone and reject the corporations that (s)elected him. The same holds true for our health and our garden... and the "meditation practice" we call life. Next time try a green job.

(good to be green)

Summer Solstice! (Stonehenge/Colorado)

Stonehenge on the morning of the solstice with New Age, neo-Pagan, hippie revelers and a few scientists welcoming the Sun (AP)

LONDON (AP) — A damp overcast morning has failed to deter thousands of people gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice.

Around 18,000 neo-pagans, new agers, and curious visitors gathered Tuesday in heavy rain to watch the Sun rise over the ancient stone circle on the Salisbury Plain about 80 miles (130 km) southwest of London.

The celebrations are a modern twist on solstice celebrations that were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar.

Police say the event was good natured, but 20 people were arrested for drug and public disorder offenses.

Stonehenge was built in three [major] phases [and lots of tweaking] between 3000 B.C. and 1600 B.C. It is one of Britain's most popular tourist attractions with over 850,000 visitors a year. More

Spiritual healing in Crestone, Colorado
ChicagoTribune.com

For thousands of years, the high, arid San Luis Valley has spawned tales of the strange and the fantastic. Later inhabitants noted a peculiar energy attributed to a combination of wind, 8,000-foot altitude, and an enormous aquifer beneath the highest high desert outside of Tibet. Some went further, claiming hidden UFO [i.e., Deep Underground Military] bases and mysterious portals where aliens enter and exit our world. All the while, the largest alpine valley on Earth became a magnet for eccentrics, dreamers, and seekers. Native Americans called it the Bloodless Valley, setting aside their weapons as they made vision quests up sacred Blanca Peak, the great sentinel of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains whose bony spine winds dramatically from southern Colorado to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Annual celebrations prove Stonehenge is more than just a Pagan magnet

Father's Day trek: Bigfoot, Devas, Shamans

Our Father’s Day gift to our expedition leader took a decidedly cryptozoological turn, a “Hooray for Cryptozoology” tee-shirt (threadless.com) from the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Wisdom Quarterly is going to the Yosemite Highlands to commune with nature in search of bhummi-devas (nature spirits, dryads) and their elusive companions the California Yeti, our native Sasquatch.

The indigenous Indians in the area were well aware of its existence all the way down to Mono Lake. We'll be staying in a yurt to ensure we're close to the forest and able to hear it, led by our friend Melissa's father, who is part Miwok.

(cryptomundo.com)

Native rock art of shamans, who created them as power points with celestial and animal references. They are scattered all over the Great Basin including Yosemite and the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which were once Paiute Indian areas.

• The Indians of Yosemite Handbook

These beings in Buddhist cosmology hold woodland power and possibly answers. Even if the Sierra Madre mountain range reveals nothing but misty emanations of light by granite-and-gold encrusted stones, streams, and placid Lake Tenaya, it will be an adventure to rival trekking in the Himalayas.

• Making a gratitude list
• Buddhist Blog: Father's Day Story
• New York dad's and grads Dharma talk
• Camping's stroke, God's wrath?
• Atheists raise money for churches
• See how atheists will barbecue on Earth
• Christian summer camps