Showing posts with label multiple traditions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multiple traditions. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Japan: What is Shinto? (video)

Huffington Post, Japan-Guide.com, A Pagan Tapestry


Shinto is Japanese for "the way of the kami" (devas, gods/goddesses, spirits). It is the indigenous spiritual tradition of the Japanese people. It is as old as Japan itself. It remains Japan's major religion alongside Buddhism.

Shinto does not have a founder nor does it have sacred scriptures like sutras (discourses) or the Bible. Propaganda and preaching are not common either, because Shinto is deeply rooted in the people and traditions.

Shinto "gods" are called kami. They are sacred spirits that take the form of things and concepts important to life-- such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers, and fertility. Humans become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami.

The kami of extraordinary people are even enshrined at some shrines. The Sun Goddess Amaterasu is considered Shinto's most important kami. More

Monday, May 2, 2011

CNN: Osama bin Laden Buried at Sea

UPDATE: CNN reports that Bin Laden has already been buried at sea.

Bin Laden to Be Buried at Sea ASAP


Per Islamic tradition? No joke:

[Think of a cover story.] U.S. officials tell me the last thing they want is for his burial place to become a terrorist shrine.

[Use that pretext.] To avoid that, an informed source tells me, the intention is to bury his body at sea — leaving no definitive location for the final resting place of his body.

[Get mainstream media confirmation.] A senior administration official tells my colleague Jake Tapper this about the body: “We are ensuring it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. It’s something we take seriously and therefore it’s being handled in an appropriate manner.‬”

[Use true peripheral details to distract from central lie.] Under Islamic tradition, ABC’s Zunaira Zaki reports, the body would be washed by Muslim men and buried as soon as possible, usually by the next prayer (since Muslims pray five times a day), although there may be delays under certain circumstances (e.g., for autopsies). The body is usually buried in a simple white sheet — whether buried in the ground or at sea.

UPDATE: He's already buried at sea according to CNN [a CIA propaganda outlet in its American version, which is very different from the ]. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen separate reports facial recognition software was used to do a preliminary I.D. and officials say DNA samples have been collected for more thorough testing.

The story is already falling apart!
Wisdom Quarterly
Pres. Obama knew a day before as he joked about Trump and other well known conspiracies and cover ups. He claims it took nine months to get the military team ready. He claims he ordered the kill (just when he was floundering in polls as he launches his re-election campaign and is being lambasted for not being born in the USA and hiding his records, with Donald Trump nipping at his heels, and Orly Taitz pointing out he doesn't have a real Social Security number).

Our crack troops, after nine months of planning, flew two helicopters into Pakistan without Pakistan or anyone else knowing. They lost a copter in the process and destroyed it, not a trace left. They caught bin Laden in a mansion, told him to give up, but he resisted. What could they do but shoot him in the head at close range (destroying the evidence of an impostor corpse? obliterating possibility of facial recognition software working? a statement used to cover up impostor's suicide?)

Pres. Obama stated DNA had already confirmed his identity, but not enough time had elapsed for such genetic confirmation. Oh, but never mind, we're sure it was him, so we need to dump the body in the sea where no one can ever find it and contradict us as they did with that pesky Hitler suicide after he ran off to Antarctica via Argentina. And never mind that Osama bin Laden was seen in American hospitals abroad.

This is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE: Jack Ruby kills supposed JFK-assassin Lee Harvey Oswald on TV before questions get asked and Oswald slips up on the cover story. Oops. FBI put Ruby up to it? Metal from Twin Towers carted away and sold as scrap or dumped at sea. No one wants it even though the building could not have gotten hot enough to melt steel into puddles as found at ground zero. Never mind that embedded particles proving demolition-style high explosives were used were nonetheless discovered on other debris....

Cold fusion discovered; perpetual motion machine built; cancer cure discovered... Oops, discoverer dies of heart attack/cancer/mysterious accident/suicide, and anyway discovery already disproven; papers burned to not mislead other with such nonsense. Bush slips up and mentions a plane crash that hadn't happened yet.... What a joke. Thank you, CIA/NSA/NSC for being so messy in your cover ups, false flag operations, and propaganda campaigns.


How to use an "Emmanuel Goldstein": He's threatening Israel, must attack! He's taunting us, must attack! He's making a fool of Americans, must attack! Lies in the fog of war aren't verified.


Saturday, April 30, 2011

Introduction: How to Meditate (video)



Why Meditate?
Wisdom Quarterly
How does one meditate? It is the easiest thing to learn yet one of the hardest to practice. Ven. Yuttadhammo explains how in the first video in his series. But why meditate?

There are profound benefits, but that meditation eventually becomes extraordinarily pleasurable and self-healing is reason enough. "There is no way to happiness because happiness is the way!" Even enlightenment is attainable in no long time. But before freedom, there is calm and natural happiness emerging from within.

It's easy to learn, so the question is, Why should it be so hard to do? The answer is easy: It's simply because it goes against the grain of our mental habits.

Physically, we do not want to sit still without sleeping. Mentally, we are restless or lustful, angry or fearful, bored and confused. So a practice that brings clarity, energizes us, and somehow brings relaxation and serenity? The mind will say, "Impossible! I can do it better" as it thinks us into a tizzy or a dead end.

The breath is the way to the present moment, and it also allows us to peer into the mind emotional states. (How we are breathing directly mirrors our state of mind/heart).

Mindfulness frees us from discursive thinking, worry, and confusion: "Be here now!" And if the mind slips away, that's perfectly okay as long as it is brought back. Bare attention (dispassionate observation) -- detached from states of greed/craving, hate/resentment, and delusion/inattentiveness -- frees the heart/mind.

Learning Buddhist Meditation
() This video discusses a simple technique of sitting meditation. Second (of six) in a series of videos on how to practice meditation free of religious dogma and spiritual mumbo-jumbo.