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

World's Greatest Religious Monument (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

"Digging for the Truth: Angkor Wat: Eighth Wonder of the World" (History's Channel) - Angkor Wat is actually the world's largest religious monument.

• Part One
  
  
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• Part Five
  
  

(Be2die4, June 6, 2011) Let's face the reality. Worldwide Cambodian communities are not blind to Hun Sen's autocracy or ignorant of what it is doing to Cambodia, plundering the nation. Cambodia needs leader not a tyrant or another Khmer Rouge military dictatorship. Of course the music, so popular in Asia, is not helping the awareness campaign. Bear with it, for there is an important message about what the [western] powers that be allowed or encouraged in Asia -- from Vietnam in the southeast to Afghanistan in the northwest.

Once great Cambodia (Khmer Empire) suffers under a new dictator

Sacred Yantra Temple Tattoos ("sak yant")

The all faiths yantra (lotus.org)

Sacred (sak) geometry (yant or yantra) tattooing refers to protective symbols embedded in the skin in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. It is the ancient magical practice of using sacred geometry along with Buddhist, Brahminical (proto-Hindu), and animist imagery as well as magical incantations (kata or mantras), written in Khom (an ancient script used to write Pali-Sanskrit or Prakrit, which does not have a unique script).

Thai Buddhist monk receiving sak yant or sacred tattoos (peaceloveandtea/devishakti)

Sacred geometry tattoos are made by Buddhist monks, brahmins, and Ruesi ascetics. Where they are made is called a Samnak Sak Yant (if a temple or a large establishment) or Dtamnak (if a smaller establishment with one master). Sak-yant.com presents a compendium of knowledge, information, and galleries about Thai Buddhist/animist temple tattoos, Saiyasart (Thai occultism), Buddha magic, kata (mantras), and sacred magic amulets. More

• PHOTOS: Wat Bhang Phra tattoo festival (demotix)
• Tattoosday: American blog tattoos
  
• Why are we here? Physics answers (MSNBC)
  
  It remains one of the largest unexplained mysteries of the universe, but particle physicists are gaining more confidence in a result from an atom smashing experiment that could be a step toward providing an answer. We exist because the universe is full of matter and not the opposite, so-called antimatter. When the Big Bang occurred, equal parts of both should have been created and immediately annihilated each other, leaving nothing leftover to build the stars, planets, or us.
• Are tumors key to making zombies?
• Guide to our nearest cosmic neighbors
• Black hole divulges its vital statistics
• Cyborgs already exist: super suit for strength
• UFOs over Washington (Robert M. Stanley)
  

Vesak 2011: Cal. Bodhi Vihara, Long Beach

California Bodhi Vihara celebrates 2600th Buddha Purnima (Indian Buddhist festival)

Vesak 2011 celebrations in Los Angeles

A brief outline of the life of the Buddha (dimc.net)

May in California is punctuated by Vesak celebrations. Temples usually divide up weekends to hold events. The Sri Lankan community has seven temples in the Los Angeles area and celebrates the event on different dates. (The final Sinhalese event in the area will be held on May 22, at Maithri Vihara in Sun Valley).

Today, the actual full moon observance day, was observed in a massive event at Dhammakaya Int'l Meditation Center (dimc.net) in Azusa. Two-hundred Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana monks from 11 different countries (Japan, China, Korea, Tibet, Burma, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and the USA) were in attendance along with -- by our estimate -- 1,000 white-clad Buddhists.

There were short welcoming speeches, chanting in various languages, guided meditation, and respectfully circumambulating holding candles in honor of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha as it sprinkled and thoughts of gratitude went out for the Dharma wishing the world peace.

Thai, Cambodian PMs fail to end border war

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Southeast Asian leaders made little headway Sunday in helping Thailand and Cambodia end a deadly border dispute that could undermine peace and stability in the region as it pushes for economic integration.

The prime ministers of the two feuding nations held talks Sunday -- mediated by Indonesia's president -- as part of efforts to hammer out a lasting cease-fire.

But neither seemed in any mood to back down.

"There's no conclusion," Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya told reporters after the trilateral meeting, providing no details. "We'll need further talks after this."

Other topics discussed in the two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, summit included Myanmar's bid to take over the rotating chair of the regional grouping in 2014-- something that appeared likely despite lingering concerns about human rights abuses, according to a draft statement seen by the Associated Press.

Spiraling food and energy prices and security in the South China Sea also were also on the table.

The main maritime dispute is over the potentially oil-rich Spratly islands, claimed in whole or in part by China and four ASEAN members --Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Vietnam.

The smaller nations, together with the U.S., worry that China may use its military might to seize the area outright or assume de facto control with naval patrols.

That could threaten one of the world's busiest commercial sea lanes.

"We deemed the South China Sea issue, in all its various dimensions, as having the potential to undermine the stability of our region," according to the draft ASEAN statement.

Member countries agreed to work toward ending a nine-year disagreement with China that has blocked completion of guidelines for an accord aimed at preventing armed conflicts over the disputed islands, it said.

Those guidelines would allow all the claimant nations to pursue joint development projects to ease tensions in the South China Sea region.

The annual meeting between leaders of the 10-member regional grouping was supposed to focus on steps needed to create an integrated regional economic zone by 2015. More

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The only thing that can be added to this intractable story is that border disputes between these neighbors extend back to pre-Buddhist times. While Buddhism and the reign of Buddhist kings may have helped these two great kingdoms (even through the period Cambodia was the magnificent Khmer empire), it has not been enough to end the greed that makes kings and tribes rapacious and vindictive. Land is held because of natural borders, power, and the ambition of rulers. While that may led to peaceful coexistence for some time, it certainly did not resolve issues to everyone's satisfaction out in open jungle and ocean. The dispute is geopolitical, which is confounded by ethnic differences and historical animosity as one side tries to outdo the other. Buddhism does not figure into it. Both lands are Theravada Buddhist with Hindu histories and interaction, according to their own mythologies, with space traveling entities that inspired their technological prowess and expanding influence at different times in history.

• PHOTO: Cambodian-style Buddha with chief male disciples Sariputra and Maha Moggallana (trekearth.com)