Free Art in Los Angeles today (P.S.T.)

PacificStandardTime.org FREE ADMISSION

WestHollywoodBookFair.org (Oct. 2, 2011)

"Family Guy" to premiere in theatres (free)

(Fan favorite "Road to Multiverse") America's No. 1 family enters its 10th season midnight on Thursday at AMC Century City 15 in LA and in New York, Chicago, Boston, Dallas...

Science confirms that laughter is good medicine, so here is a major dose of innovative animation. The Buddha was perhaps the only major religious figure frequently depicted as happy, jovial, and laughing -- and for good reason. Enough with the stiffness of austerity and onto the joy here and hereafter.

(LA Times) In celebration of the show’s 10^th anniversary, the funny side of the FOX network is spotlighting the Griffin household -- Stewie, Brian, Peter (Seth MacFarlane), Lois, Chris, and Meg (Mila Kunis) -- with a 10-city, one-night-only, exclusive midnight viewing of an exclusive episode as well never-before-seen footage, trivia, and giveaways.

• Also in: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Seattle

Tickets for the Southern California event are free on a first-come, first-served basis and can be reserved at familyguyLA@gmail.com.

The new episode that will be screened is called “Lottery Fever,” which finds the Rhode Island family struggling to stay grounded after finding themselves holding a winning ticket. The especially subversive 2009 episode “Road to Multiverse” will also be screening, having been picked for the occasion by fans voting via Facebook. The screenings will also include a 22-minute bonus feature from the forthcoming “Family Guy” DVD, due on shelves on Dec.13, 2011.

• PHOTOS: laughingbuddha.biz
• Sarah Palin gets phone pranked
• Ancient Buddhist monuments of Sri Lanka

Afghan-style monoliths on Buddhist isle (itchypaws)

"The Book of Aquarius" (alchemy on the radio)

Wisdom Quarterly
Alchemist Jay Weidner interview, really gets going at Minute 8:00.

Alchemy and the Philosophers' Stone are real. We are not joking. This book covers the full theory and practice of alchemy. Instructions include how to make the Philosophers' Stone, which is capable of reversing the aging process and curing all disease. The effect of this is that it become possible to extend life. These are ancient secrets that have never before been released to the public. Read before judging. This world is not what it seems to be. The Book of Aquarius is free and public-domain (no copyright). Read it online, or download the PDF, HTML, buy it in paperback from Amazon, or list to the audiobook (163 MB). Copy and distribute it in any way.

• The Book of Aquarius
• Hosted by Forgotten Books
• Last updated on Aug. 21, 2011

A Stone of truth and rarity,
Given freely with sincerity,
Few believe or understand,
For [it's] evidence they demand;
So here it is, as you ask,
Truth for you I [will] unmask;
Nature's simple, certain way,
Gives life and hope out of decay;
For those who hear Nature's call,
Stand up strong and stand up tall;
With little time left in this world,
All the secrets will be unfurled;
From this book the wise will see
Life is not what it seemed to be.

(TheHallOfRecords) William Henry interviews Jay Weidner (for Whitley Strieber) on the Secrets of Alchemy and the Cross in Hendaye, France. He reveals the secrets of the alchemical traditions, Fulcanelli, 9-11, climate chaos, 2012, and the Mayan predictions [on the end of the age] in the Cosmic Calender of the Ages.

• "Dark Knight" Aquarian Stargate and Archetypal Apocalypse
  
• New! Photographic Evidence of an Alternative History
• A collection of genuine photographs which contradict accepted history and science.
  

BREAKUP: "Be Gentle With Me" (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly

"Be gentle with me, oh oh, be gentle with me...please be gentle with me, handle with care, be gentle with me...or I shall kick your teeth in."

Breaking up is hard to do, they say. But it depends. It certainly is if one repeatedly reflects on the appealing qualities of the lost person.



However, if one were to from to time consider and reflect on the unappealing aspects, that clinging and pining would vanish.



One would become disenchanted, disillusioned, dispassionate. And then it would be possible to be freed. There is, of course, a trap. If one pushes away from the pain, that is just as dangerous as clinging to the pleasant in the first place. Aversion is as hard to deal with as undue attraction.

"Garden of Love" (Benny Hill)

Hate quickly replaces love -- without displacing it. One is then attached and angry, hurt and seeking some way of ridding oneself of the pain, the memory, the intrusive thoughts.







Wise reflection (yoniso manasikara) sees things as they truly are -- neither ignoring the bad nor exaggerating the good.



With freedom comes laughter again. Everything is funny. Everything is light. Everything is fine just as it is, because fine/not-fine is all in the mind that judges it so. With a different decision, the world seems to change. There is no out there without an in here.



Laugh, and the whole world laughs with you. Cry, and you can cry alone. (Misery loves company, but the company soon wearies of les contagious miserable).

Be sure to have the number to cancel.

A natural solution without harmful chemical pharmaceuticals? (welltabs.com)

Free "X Fest" at the Los Angeles X Games

Free X Fest at L.A. LIVE!

"X Fest," which opens at 9:00 am daily, is the FREE portion of the ESPN action sports festival featuring live concerts, interactive parks, athlete appearances, demos, giveaways, sponsors, industry booths, and more.

• See bands on the Radio X Stage powered by KROQ FM
• X Games Los Angeles (womentalksports.com)
• Men's grooming habits turn women off
  
• July 30th: L.A. Rising - Rage Against the Machine

Beavis & Butthead return

Meditate: Insight meditation in California

Chemtrails-shemtrails! Radiation-obfuscation! There's still meditation to soothe the mind and gladden the heart. The world is old world yet and nothing we'll soon forget. Of much greater importance is transcending the illusion of samsara that causes us to suffer when the world is so beautiful in the eye of the wise beholder.

The latest Buddhist insight-meditation (vipassana) events and news in California for June 2011 and a few other important events in July and August:

• Northern California One-Day Courses

Berkeley: Saturday, June 4
South Bay: Sunday, June 5 & Saturday, June 18
Santa Rosa: Saturday, June 11
San Francisco: Sunday, June 19

• Southern California One-Day Courses

San Diego: Saturday, June 11
Santa Monica: Saturday, June 18
Baldwin Park: Saturday, July 2

• Trust Meeting at the California Vipassana Center (North Fork) on Sunday, June 12
  
• Trust Meeting at the Southern California Vipassana Center (Twentynine Palms) on Sunday, July 10.
• Children's Course at the Northern California Vipassana Center (Kelseyville) from Saturday to Sunday, July 9-10
  
• Children's Course at the California Vipassana Center (North Fork) from Saturday to Sunday, August 13-14

One-Day Courses
One-day courses are for students who have completed a ten-day Vipassana course as taught by S.N. Goenka. No registration for the one-day course is necessary. Simply bring a cushion and a non-perishable vegetarian lunch. Come for all or part of the course.

• Information on one-day courses in Southern California
• Information on one-day courses in Northern California
• Information on one-day courses, South Bay Vipassana Hall

VIDEO: Life on Mars? Housing found (See on YouTube)

Free ENCORE Webcast: "Weenie Roast"

(WEENIE ROAST) This modern rock concert features:

Monday, June 6 SET TIMES

Side Stage
2:00pm Young The Giant
2:40pm Foster The People*
3:20pm Airborne Toxic Event
4:00pm Neon Trees

Main Stage
5:15pm Face To Face
5:45pm A Day To Remember
6:15pm Cage The Elephant
6:50pm Bad Religion*
7:30pm The Strokes
8:10pm Rise Against*
9:30pm Linkin Park*

Free-floating planets found in the Milky Way

Alok Jha, Science correspondent (guardian.co.uk)

Artist's impression of free floating planet (Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt)

Astronomers discover 10 more free-floating planets in Milky Way
The planets, found by an international group of researchers, do not orbit any star.

Astronomers have found a clutch of planets that wander alone through interstellar space. The discovery of the objects, which do not orbit any star, will help scientists better understand how planetary systems form and evolve.

See lyrics below

The 10 free-floating planets are thousands of light years in the direction of the central bulge of the Milky Way, towards the constellation of Sagittarius. Their masses and compositions are thought to be equivalent to Jupiter and Saturn -- mainly hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of heavier elements.

"We expect that they were formed around stars and then, during the later stages of planet formation, they get ejected, primarily due to interactions with other planets," said Daniel Bennett, an astronomer at the University of Notre Dame. His team's results were published on Wednesday in Nature. More than 500 exoplanets have been detected in just over a decade of hunting by scientists... More

Literal Buddhist "Heavens" (celestial worlds)

Buddhist "heavens" include life on advanced planets and star systems. The various planes of existence in Buddhist cosmology are celestial spheres -- delineated in measurements. Our tendency is to imagine dimensions and immaterial worlds. But the vast majority of worlds are in fine-material planes where the beings enjoy long life, beauty, radiance (streaming glory), vitality, and few of the limits that hinder human beings. None of those worlds is permanent; all of them fall away, but they last a long time.

The Buddha recommended that monastics become wandering recluses. It was crucial to break the bonds of familial and clan affiliations, provincialism, short-sightedness, and a person's "story" to understand the bigger world with its many ways of being. When the Sangha became more settled, monastics lost this advantage to breaking through the illusion of stability, ease, and personal identity.

Brahmin priests were settled, attached to name and fame, clinging to status and honors. Shramans (wandering ascetics) were originally as free as deer roaming about with robe and bowl and karma as their only support. Today, outsiders have a great advantage. If one feels isolated or misunderstood, one has the opportunity to break through the illusion often besetting more settled and attached members of society.

Beth Gibbons of the band Portishead seems perfectly aware of this two-edged sword that can either build character or deeply wound the spirit:

Please could you stay awhile to share my grief
For its such a lovely day
To have to always feel this way
And the time that I will suffer less
Is when I never have to wake

Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever

Those who have seen the needle's eye now tread
Like a husk from which all that was now has fled
And the masks that the monsters wear
To feed upon their prey

Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever

(Always) doubled up inside
Take awhile to shed my grief
(Always) doubled up inside
Taunted, cruel...

Buffalo (New York) Yoga Fest

Anicka Edwards

Yoga is truly for everyone -- from those who are mildly curious to those who are deeply into the yoga lifestyle, kids included. Need more strength? Maybe better concentration? Or what about connecting body, mind, and spirit? Need to be elevated and taken into a new dimension? Whether we practice yoga in the comfort of our home, at a neighborhood yoga center, or on Sundays at the Inner Harbor, there is no escaping a phenomenon that has swept through the country. More

• Live Life with Yoga Weekend (New Jersey)
• Therapy: Incest is never "consensual" (CNN/RAINN)
• Laughter Yoga helps paralyzed teen (Toronto Sun)
• The lesbians in New Jersey love JWoww
  

What "Woodstock 1969" was like (video)

Andy Pietrasik and Christian Bennett (Guardian.co.uk) VIDEO: Woodstock 42 years later (Photo: Gawker.com)

SoCal Buddhist Center opens for courses

Vaddhana.dhamma.org, April 15, 2011

The newly constructed SCVC is open and accepting applications for free 10-day Buddhist insight meditation (vipassana) retreats taught in the tradition of S.N. Goenka.

The Southern California Vipassana Center Trust is delighted to announce the opening of Dhamma Vaddhana, the newly completed Buddhist meditation center in Twentynine Palms near Joshua Tree, California.

The center will open with an inaugural FREE ten-day course to be held from May 4-15, 2011. Online registration is now open for this first course, as well as for all other courses offered at the new center throughout the year.

To apply to sit or serve a course at SCVC, please visit the course schedule page at schedules.

About the SoCal Vipassana Center

To learn more about the development of Dhamma Vaddhana, please visit vaddhana.dhamma.org. There is a lot of work to be done to meet the May 4th starting date for the course.

Old students who have the time and energy in the next couple of weeks to help complete the final projects and get the center ready for its first course are welcome to come out to Dhamma Vaddhana and pitch in.

Along with all the work that needs to be done, there will be three group sittings a day. Accommodations and meals will be provided for all old student volunteers.

LOCATION

Southern California Vipassana Center: Dhamma Vaddhana

68561 Twentynine Palms Highway,

Twentynine Palms, CA 92277

Phone: (760) 362-4615

NOTE: If you are currently on the waitlist for a course at the California Vipassana Center (Dhamma Mahavana) in North Fork and would like to apply for a course at the Southern California Center, please email CVC North Fork at registration to cancel your waitlisted application. After doing so you may then submit a new application to attend a course at the Southern California Vipassana Center.

Directions from the west (Los Angeles area) I-10 eastbound to 62 northbound (29 Palms Highway). Continue through Morongo Valley, Yucca Valley, and Joshua Tree. Continue past Copper Mountain Community College (on left). Go another two miles and look for a tall radio tower on the left side of the road. This tower is directly across the highway from the center. On your right you will see a sign indicating the center property. Turn right onto Mantonya Road (dirt road), and right again into the entrance driveway.