A Year of Makeup in a Day (video)

(nowness.com)

If "beauty is only skin deep," what is makeup? A way of knowing that there has been too much aging ("oxidative stress")? No one wants to see what makeup can't hide... unless we've cultivated beauty within as well. The Buddha taught that beauty now and beauty in the future is the result of karma -- willing, performing, and accumulating mental, verbal, and physical acts of loving kindness, compassion, joy in others' joy, impartiality, the Five Precepts, non-anger, and other merit. In Natural Beauty, Dutch artists Lernert and Sander apply a year's worth of makeup on Belgian supermodel Hannelore Knuts. More

Profitable Karma (Kusala Sutra)

Wisdom Quarterly inverted translation (Kusala Sutra, AN 2.9, alternative rendering) The Buddha encourages all to replace the harmful with the beneficial (Nithya Priyan/Flickr).

By oneself indeed is the unprofitable done

And by oneself is one defiled.

By oneself is the unprofitable left undone

And by oneself indeed is one purified.

Purity and impurity depends on oneself.

No one can purify another. (Dhp 165)

"Disciples, develop the profitable.* It is possible to develop it. If it were not, I would not say, 'Develop the profitable.' However, because it is possible, I say: 'Develop the profitable.'

"If developing what is profitable resulted in harm and pain, I would not say, 'Develop the profitable.' However, because developing it results in benefit and pleasure, I say, 'Develop the profitable.'

"Disciples, abandon the unprofitable.** It is possible to abandon it. If it were not, I would not say, 'Abandon the unprofitable.' However, because it is possible to abandon it, I say: 'Abandon the unprofitable.'

"If abandoning the unprofitable resulted in harm and pain, I would not say, 'Abandon the unprofitable.' However, because abandoning it results in benefit and pleasure, I say, 'Abandon the unprofitable.'"

*Profitable (kusala): karmically beneficial, wholesome, skillful, good, worthy of being undertaken; that which when it bears its result (vipaka) or fruit (phala) is welcome, wished for, and pleasant.

**What is unprofitable (akusala)? Doing harm and/or encouraging others to harm. What is harmful? (1) Taking life, (2) taking what is not given, (3) taking sexual liberties, (4) taking the truth lightly, (5) taking alcohol or drugs that lead one to do harm.

How to Develop the 528 Kinds of Love

Wisdom Quarterly translation (from obtuse English) by Mahasi Sayadaw

In the Path of Discrimination (Patisambhidamagga) 528 kinds of universal loving-kindness (metta) are possible. This refers to the manner of developing loving-kindness by those who have achieved meditative absorption through love (metta jhana).

Developing universal love is the duty of monastics, as is doing the recitation for the development of perfection and the wholesome. The Pali chant they recite is the same as the recitation done by rote by the majority of people. This is that chant:

Sabbe satta, sabbe pana, sabbe bhuta, sabbe puggala, sabbe attabhavapariyapana. These five phrases denote that universal love is ultimately sent out equally to all sentient beings without distinction or limitation.

"All creatures, all who breathe, all living beings, all individuals, and all who have the attributes of a being," convey the same meaning: ALL beings. This is love without distinction (anodhisa).

Coincidentally, 528 Hz is a healing frequency

To distinguish (odhisa) one brings these beings to mind: "All females, all males, all Noble Ones [who have reached the various stages of enlightenment and liberation from suffering], all ordinary worldlings, all devas or light beings [usually but not exclusively celestial], all human beings, all beings in the four woeful realms (those suffering gravely, animals, ghosts, "demons," and hellions).

These denote the seven kinds of beings. Loving-kindness is developed in oneself [for oneself first] then radiated to that degree towards these groups individually and together.

In developing universal loving kindness, these two groups are recited or uttered in combination with the four phrases:

1. May [they] escape from all dangers;
   
2. may [they] be free from mental distress or misery;
3. may [they] be free from bodily suffering or injury;
   
4. may [they] have full accomplishment with complete happiness, that is, look after themselves with ease.
   

The last phrase is significant and meaningful: All beings are exposed to external dangers. There are also internal dangers such as disease and unpleasant sensations in the material body. For the sake of health and proper livelihood, everything should be done to stay well. Only when one is free of danger and harm and when the necessities of life are adequately obtained can there be happiness physically and mentally.

If the burden of the aggregates (khandha) can be successfully shouldered, all is satisfactory regarding worldly affairs. Then love is undertaken with a benevolent frame of mind: "May one be able to shoulder and sustain the aggregates with happiness."

Love Math
If love is developed towards the five types using the four phrases (5 x 4 = 20), there are 20 anodhisa. If further development of love is practiced, uttering "all females" and so on, comprising seven phrases distinguishing beings "May all be free from danger" and so on, which describe the manner of developing love in four phrases (7 x 4 = 28), it comes to 28 odhisa. Adding the 20 anodhisa and the 28 odhisa totals 48. This is love on Earth in all directions (disa anodhisa).

Developing love towards all beings living in the ten directions, "May all beings [in this direction] be free from danger and harm" and so on, would make up a sum of 48:

1. East (48)
2. West (48)
3. North (48)
4. South (48)
5. Southeast (48)
6. Northwest (48)
7. Northeast (48)
8. Southwest (48)
9. Nadir (48)
10. Zenith (48)

When added (10 x 48 = 480), it comes to 480. Developing love according to regions of the universe [this world-system and world-systems in all directions] is called disa odhisa. Adding 480 to 48 disa anodhisa results in a total of 528 kinds of love.

• It may seem specious or like splitting hairs, but loving-kindness is recited in this way. It is important to recognize that, as unpopular as this sounds, one is not in fact correctly practicing loving kindness meditation until one achieves "absorption" (non-dual full concentration) through it. That absorption is what is expanded to all beings without distinction. (It is not possible to attain absorption through oneself or through a person who has died, for reasons that have yet to be explained but that suggest our profound interconnectedness). That absorption is what brings the unbelievable benefits of loving kindness so often touted by meditation teachers.
  

1. May all beings be free from danger, free from mental distress (misery), free from bodily suffering (pain), and be able to care for themselves with ease (shoulder the burden of psychophysical existence)....

2. May all beings who breathe...

After reciting the words "May [they] be free from danger" in the course of developing universal loving kindness, the mind that concentrates and the voice of utterance immediately cease. This cessation of mind and matter is also contemplated. Such contemplation, loving serenity-meditation together with insight-meditation, is being developed in pairs.

Continuous contemplation of serenity and insight in pairs is called yuganaddha vipassana:

3. May all living beings be free from danger, free from mental distress, free from bodily suffering, and be able to look after themselves with ease (or happily shoulder the burden of this existence with physical and mental happiness).

4. May all individuals be free from danger, and so on... More

• *Patisambhidamagga: Pali for "path of discrimination" (often simply Patisambhida) is a Buddhist sacred scripture, a component of the ancient Pali Canon preserved in Theravada Buddhism. It is part of the 12th book of the Collection of Sutras called the Khuddaka Nikaya. Tradition ascribes it to the Buddha's chief disciple...
  

• Nude Janice Dickinson on meditation, yoga
• Yoga Journal: "The Power of Love Meditation"
• Quantum Balancing: Love Meditation steps
• VIDEO: Solfeggio tones binaural beats alpha 528 Hz
• In the Buddha's Words (Bhikkhu Bodhi) Study Guide
  

Beginner's Mind: Skillful Meditation Project

SkillfulMeditation.org

Beginner's mind is vast and open. We spend the rest of our lives learning to unlearn (mumzine)

One's experience of meditation defines meditation
The Skillful Meditation Project offers an approach to Buddhist meditation based on what people actually experience when they meditate.

This approach is called Recollective Awareness Meditation, as it involves recollecting what happens in one’s meditation sittings.

One can meditate in any manner one chooses in this approach or use the basic instructions suggested for beginning meditation students. A website is available for exploration, with a Meditation page that is particularly useful.

The site has articles and short audio clips on an unstructured approach to meditation, ways of recollecting one's sitting, and background on this approach and how it was developed.

• Unlearning Meditation: When instructions get in the way

Available from Shambhala Publications (or from Amazon at a 33% discount off the list price) is a book that explains in detail. And there is more about the book at unlearningmeditation.com and blog.unlearningmeditation.com.

Jason Siff's 2011 Retreat Schedule

• June 24-July 3, Spokane, Washington
• July 29-August 3, Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, Washington
• August 18-21, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Massachusetts
• August 27-28, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• October 19-30, Mandala Center, New Mexico

“Understanding Virtue” Cal Tech lectures

Virtue (arete, "excellence") personified as a goddess. The most articulated value in Greek culture is areté. The word means something closer to "being the best you can be" or "reaching your highest human potential" (Wikipedia/Celsus Library, Turkey).

Fuller, Caltech lecture series “Understanding Virtue”

What causes a person to do “good”? To act kindly, generously, heroically? Does special brain activity contribute to virtuous behavior in some people?

Fuller Seminary's Travis Research Institute and CalTech are partnering in a two-day lecture series to better understand the mysteries and nature of virtue through the twin lenses of neuroscience and philosophy.

• Talk: “Why Habit Matters: The Bodily Character of the Virtues"
• Prof. Stanley Hauerwas, Duke Divinity School
• Thursday, May 19, 7:30-9:30 pm
• Pasadena Presbyterian Church

Dr. Hauerwas holds a joint appointment in Duke's Law School and Divinity School, is a noted ethicist, peacemaker, and writer, and was named "America's Best Theologian" by Time Magazine in 2001.

CalTech Prof. Steven R. Quartz (Philosophy), leader of the Brain, Mind and Society Ph.D. Program will respond, drawing on his research on fundamental problems of the mind -- how the mind emerges from the developing brain and how we make decisions, including those with moral dimensions.

• Talk: "The Vicarious Brain: The Neural Basis of Empathy, Learning by Observation, and Sociopathy"
• Prof. Christian Keysers (Social Brain, Univ. of Groningen, Netherlands)
• Friday, May 20, 7:30-9:30 pm
• Beckman Auditorium on the CalTech campus

Dr. Keysers will describe how vicarious brain activity is strong in empathic individuals and reduced in sociopaths, suggesting that vicarious brain activity plays a role in the normal development of virtue.

Prof. Nancey Murphy (Christian Philosophy, Fuller Seminary) will respond, speaking from her research on the relationships between theology, neuroscience, and philosophy of the mind.

• FREE lectures, open to the public, are part of a major conference funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The conference brings together scientists, philosophers, ethicists, and theologians for a discussion of interdisciplinary perspectives on the neuroscience of moral action.

Pasadena Presbyterian Church: 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena 91101
CalTech’s Beckman Auditorium: 332 S. Michigan Ave. (south of Del Mar), Pasadena 91106.

• INFO: Fred Messick, Associate VP of Public Affairs, Fuller Seminary, fmessick@fuller.edu, (626) 584-5367
• Deborah Williams-Hedges, Interim Director of Media Relations, CalTech, debwms@caltech.edu (626) 395-3227