God didn't write Bible, and Shakespeare...

didn't write a single word at all

Wisdom Quarterly

(SonyPictures)

The two most famous, or at least biggest selling, pieces of literature are biblical and Shakespearean. Both are frauds. The gods may have inspired the Bible over time, but men reworked, reframed, and redacted much of it. It is almost unrecognizable. Yet, God is still credited with it as if the Vatican had done nothing to conceal large portions of it.

But the King James Version is little better, and its Jewish roots are far from pure. They extend back to Sumerian tales. In fact, the mythology of the world has more in common than details (pronunciation of names, peoples, lands) to differentiate it. But religion is sacred. And no one can question it.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, can be questioned. And he did not write the works attributed to him. This has long been known by scholars. But it is such an unpopular position -- because, after all, they are great works -- that few get any mileage out of saying so. There are many accolades for crediting the gay, poorly educated commoner William. This obscures the real artist, likely an aristocrat banned from writing for the decadent theater of the Elizabethan Age.

(deveresocietyaustralia.wordpress.com)

"Anonymous" investigates the matter. Roland Emmerich directs this political thriller, a drama on drama, set in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. The plot is focused on the mystery surrounding the works of William Shakespeare and the alleged true author of the famous theatrical texts that have become the foundation of Western culture -- the Earl of Oxford Edward De Vere.

• OED: Oxford English Dictionary (3rd most read books)
• English: More than 600,000 words, over one thousand years
  

"Empty Mind, Full Heart" (Los Angeles)

Public Zen talk by Jeff Albrizze Roshi, July 6, 6:30 PM


Meditation as Enlightenment
Led by Jeff Albrizze Roshi

The noble silence of Zen meditation has been a gateway to spiritual awakening for hundreds of years. Find out how this form of silent concentration awareness can liberate one from suffering and help one live more fully right now.

• Learn to meditate like a Zen master in just minutes
• Use the mind's patterns to set oneself up for success
• Find out how difficulties are actually doorways to enlightenment
• Find a meditation posture that works according to body type

There will be a question and answer period and sever short meditations.

• Talk, meditation 6:30-8:00 pm
• Wednesday, July , 2011
  
• Alexandria II Bookstore (626) 792-7885
• 170 S. Lake Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101

Jeff Albrizze Roshi From Catholic altar boy to traveling Pentecostal preacher to part-time Buddhist monk, Roshi's spiritual journey has led him down many paths. He has been practicing Zen Buddhism for over 20 years and has been leading PasaDharma, a Zen Buddhist meditation group in Pasadena for 12 years.

• Zen Center Los Angeles (ZCLA)
• Zen in Long Beach (zmc.org)
  
• Yokoji Zen Mountain Center, So Cal
  

Fatima and the End of the World

Controversial Catholicism from Mostholyfamilymonastery.com

A film on Vatican II apostasy

This video was made to present the world's largest religion, the Catholic faith, to non-Catholics and Catholics alike. It has influenced conversions, lapses, and entering Catholic-recovery. It attempts to disprove the theory of evolution while not entirely understanding it, shows evidence of a world-wide flood of which many cultures speak, covers Biblical miracles, modern-day miracles, Eucharistic miracles, incorruptible bodies of saints, and the Shroud of Turin.

If not the most important, this is definitely one of the most important films produced by mostholyfamilymonastery.com. It covers how brief life is, how quickly humans are forgotten when we die, the various pains and tortures of hell[s], including information revealed to saints, and ways to avoid [rebirth in the] hell[s]. The film utilizes the wisdom of Matthew (16:26) and the way in which the Catholic Church’s greatest spiritual teachers look at life [allegedly].

Catholic: Molestation vs. Monasticism

Priests molest children; Nuns offer spirituality

Is homosexuality the Church's excuse for massive pedophilia and cover up scandals?

(AlterBoys) "The problem is not just with the fraction of priests who molests youngsters, but in an ecclesiastical power structure which harbors pedophiles, conceals other sexual behavior patterns among its clerics, and uses the strategies of duplicity and counterattack against the victims" (Joughin, M. "Church response to the sex abuse priest," In Fidelity, No.8., Sept. 1995, pg. 1).

Catholic nuns launch lay monastic movement

(CathNews.com) An order of Benedictine Sisters in Pennsylvania has launched what they describe as a lay monastic movement for seekers of God and a meaningful life, calling it “our gift to the next generation,” reports NCR Online.

“Monasteries of the Heart: A New Movement for a New World” offers an opportunity for anyone -- regardless, or even in the absence, of faith tradition -- to live Benedictine spirituality and values with online communities or in face-to-face groups of family, friends, neighbors, or fellow churchgoers, they say.

Members create their own “monastery” by supporting each other in shaping their spiritual lives around Benedictine values of community, prayer, meaningful work, peace, and care [proper stewardship not human exploitation] of creation. They can gather around a table or in an online “monastery without walls” for prayer, discussion, and reflection. More

• Defending the Faith from Falsehoods (mostholyfamilymonastery.com)

Study: Priests molested due to Sexual Revolution

(Joe.My.God-blog) According to a five year study commissioned by the Catholic Church, the real reason all those priests committed child molestation is because they were "poorly prepared and monitored" during the social tumult of the sexual revolution. Blame it on Woodstock.

The researchers concluded that it was not possible for the Church, or for anyone, to identify abusive priests [and bishops] in advance. Priests who abused minors have no particular “psychological characteristics,” “developmental histories,” or mood disorders that distinguished them from priests who had not abused, the researchers found.

Since the scandal broke, conservatives in the Church have blamed gay priests for perpetrating the abuse, while liberals have argued that the all-male, celibate culture of the priesthood was the cause. This report will satisfy neither flank.

The report notes that homosexual men began entering the seminaries “in noticeable numbers” from the late 1970s through the 1980s. By the time this cohort entered the priesthood, in the mid-1980s, the reports of sexual abuse of minors by priests began to drop and then to level off.

If anything, the report says, the abuse decreased as more gay priests began serving the Church. Many more boys than girls were victimized, the report says, not because the perpetrators were gay, but simply because the priests had more access to boys than to girls, in parishes, schools, and extracurricular activities.

The $1,800,000 study was conducted by New York's John Jay College, with the Department of Justice contributing $280,000.


The Pope knows Catholic priests molest children.

The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children according to a 1985 letter. AP writer Gillian Flaccus says the letter reveals then-Cardinal Ratzinger was aware of the case (April 9, 2010).

May Daze -- too much good stuff in L.A.

Wisdom Quarterly

LOS ANGELES, California - This city officially has too much to offer, "too much good stuff" as a silly commercial boasts of its outlets. The City of Angels (El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, "The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula) really does.

Buddhist Pope cancels L.A. appearance
The 14th Dalai Lama -- who only represents a former theocratic kingdom/mountain empire (that in ancient times extended its influence west to Israel and south to Bangladesh), which follows a small but very influential brand of Buddhism called Vajrayana or sometimes Lamaism -- was on his way to Los Angeles when his doctor grounded him in Tokyo, a great place to recover from any mysterious illness. Eh-hem. Well, we can only hope he's safe. Will he make it to USC by Tuesday? Probably not, students, so get ready for a stand in. (Are these tickets refundable a some sort of show is still put on?)

The Pope, a Saint?
There is no "avalanche of halos" the way there is at the Vatican since Pope John Paul II started handing out blessedness and sainthood (canonizing more people in one papacy than in all the papacies before him combined) making the Church more cosmopolitan but also making the faith more irrelevant. We obviously do not have more "real" saints, just a cheapening of the label. Los Angeles Catholics were blase -- unless they were in Rome for the beatification -- over the dead pope's new title "blessed."

Pope John Paul II beatified at the Vatican

The beatification ceremony in St. Peter's Square with Jewish leaders' support marks an important step on the late pope's path to sainthood. Crowds at the Vatican

We cleaned the Los Angeles River
This might be the river Porciúncula, the city's famous namesake, which is cleaned periodically by thousands of citizen volunteers, good stewards of the planet. Saturday was all about pulling plastic from the flood control wash since most of the burned out VWs and heavy duty garbage was removed a few years back.

The Doodah Parade and Books
The precursor to the more famous Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena is skewered on the same massive boulevard, but its date seems to get pushed further away each year. Maybe it's morphing into a Spring Fest in honor of Esther and Dionysus, given all the revelry, Paganism, and general good humor. The L.A. Convention Center's Lea, L.A. ("Read, L.A." or the city's first Spanish book fair, after the Guadalajara Book Fair) rivals The Los Angeles Book Fair (held this year at nearby USC).

Permaculture Convergence
Three days of hippie camping in Malibu to talk all things organic, gardening, farming, and green living -- now that sounds like a great time if it weren't so cold at night. But it's great by day!

CRASS tears through town
Britain's own anarcho-punk collective blew the windows out at the Glasshouse in the Pomona Arts Colony the night after it scared the chickens at the Fox Theater (a block away). We'll review the show soon because Eve Libertine's doppelganger (Carol Hodges) was FANTASTIC! The crust's delight. We stopped talking about the rescheduled shows because it was generally assumed Steve Ignorant was simply going to sing all the male vocals and skip the best of Crass. But Hodges made it the full CRASS experience (minus Penny Rimbaud).

MAY DAY!
See photos from celebrations around the world. It's International Worker's Day on our day off -- and the marching will go on in spite of LAPD crackdowns in the past that reveal that we live in an Orwellian police state with a lot of Huxley influences. Smaller crowds rally on their only day off in downtown L.A. under tight police control.

The Amazing Glut of Anniversaries
Shakespeare's birthday, Hitler's birthday, Japan's nuclear disaster monthly remembrance, King James' version of the Christian Bible (a pro-monarchy translation that became the world's most popular though far from its most accurate)... there are simply too many to track, but we'll add to the list to recognize some amazing coincidences.

"May you live in interesting times," the ancient Chinese compliment/curse runs.

Palm Sunday meditation: Take up my cross?

Huffington Post, Rev. James Martin, S.J. Catholic priest and author, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything

Palm Sunday raises at least two important spiritual questions for Christians: What does it mean to be like Jesus? And what does it mean to take up our crosses, just like he did? First, you don't need to go looking for your cross. Life gives them to you. Whether it's an illness or a tough family relationship or trouble in school or problems on the job. The real cross is the one that you don't want. Because it's hardly a cross if you want it. Just like it was for Jesus. Second, we are asked by Jesus to accept our crosses. Now, what does that mean? More

Church has Homosexual crisis, not Pedophilia crisis

Did Jesus have siblings?

Pope links (priestly) sex abuse to vices

Vatican defends Pope's record on sexual abuse

VIDEO: Christopher Hitchens slams Vatican, Pope over sex abuse scandal

Madonna and Opus Dei?

Pope's Sex Abuse Scandal

Passover for Children

Passover 2011 Bread

Does God choose when we die?

Liberate Yourself, Your Seder, Our World

Sikh men die after possible hate crime

"Forgive Us Our Trespasses"

To be a good Muslim

The Bible Undone: "Divinity of Doubt" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly featuring Uprising Radio (KPFK, Pacifica, Los Angeles)

Imagine reading the Bible like an attorney looking for evidence of what it actually says. One of the most famous attorneys of our time did just that. The Christian holy book comes undone on its own terms, that is, without resorting to things Christians could argue are "non-biblical."

(Bugliosi does not limit himself to Christianity, but also makes observations about Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism at minute 32:20. He misspeaks to suggest that the Buddha might have been an agnostic or atheist when in fact he was a non-theist, which means he said whether or not there are gods is not relevant to saving oneself from suffering).

No mention is made of the Gnostic gospels or New Age material. This is not an atheist attack, nor is it one sect of the religion against another. Instead, all of the information comes from bonafide biblical texts themselves (New Testament, Old Testament, Hebrew, English, Protestant, Catholic, and Greek).

Famed attorney discusses what the Bible really says with KPFK's Sonali Kolhatkar.

Conservative prosecutor and Christian agnostic Vincent Bugliosi is best known for successfully prosecuting Charles Manson and writing the best-selling book Helter Skelter, which went on to sell over 7 million copies, becoming the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing history.

He is also the author of Outrage on the acquittal of O.J. Simpson, and more recently The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Bugliosi has won 21 out of 21 murder cases and 105 out of 106 felony cases. He spent the past two years working on his new book Divinity of Doubt: The God Question.

On April 12, 2011, Bugliosi spoke with Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar about his new work, Divinity of Doubt. Atheism? No. Freewill? No. Virgin birth? No (according to the Bible, see video at minute 48:30). Darwin was an agnostic. Einstein believed in some kind of God, not a Judeo-Christian kind, but some kind. Bugliosi outdoes them both by diving deep into the Bible, which comes undone as we have misinterpreted it. Christians frequently say it says one thing when, in fact, it says the opposite.

Uprising Radio

How Gangs Began in Los Angeles (film)

(Watch: Part I)

April 15, 7:00 pm: (Ross Chapel, Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church, Pasadena) Reverend Hannah Petrie presents Bleecker Street Cinema’s film, "Bastards of the Party." This film is about the historical creation of gangs in Los Angeles. It deals with Malcolm X and other black leaders around the time of the Black Panthers and FBI fear of African-Americans and other sixties-era revolutionaries.

Apostle of Peace Wanted Guns for Indians
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