Buddhist monks to bring peace on 9/11

Tibetan monks visit Pacific Asia Museum, Los Angeles

The Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena (Los Angeles County) is hosting a major event for the 9/11/11 tenth anniversary commemoration weekend:

Sand Mandala by the Gaden Jangtse Monks

The Gaden Jangtse Buddhist monks will spend five days at Pacific Asia Museum creating a sand mandala in the museum's Focus Gallery and a butter sculpture (floral form) in the courtyard garden.

The sand mandala is an ancient art form that is unique to Tibetan Buddhism. The artwork is made by placing fine sand, grain by grain, into an intricate design of the world in its divine form. Upon completion, the mandala is blessed a final time, and the sand is swept into a pile -- erasing the beautiful work of art.

Some of the sand is given to those present as a small blessing for their home, and the remainder is poured into the moving water of the ocean where it can carry prayers and blessings throughout the world. Visit over and over during the course of the five days to see the progression of the artwork and learn more about this ancient art form.

Did it all begin with Korea? (video)

America was once Korean territory -- as was Sumer, Egypt, and Central Asia, which includes Mesopotamia, the "cradle of civilization"? (Mash84)

Historian Rick Field's research (How the Swans Came to the Lake) establishes an Asian history of Buddhism in America -- long before Christianity. It was the first world religion to reach the Americas prior to Columbus and the Conquistadors.



It is easy to imagine Japanese or Chinese expansion, but Korea? Some Korean historians say Korea seeded Sumerian, Egyptian, Central Asian, and Mesoamerican cultures and eventual empires.

Sublime has a remake of a classic punk rock song by Bad Religion that teaches us all a lesson about expansionism, a Manifest Destiny view of the planet, and an endless thirst for fresh conquests:

We're Only Gonna Die

"Early man walked away as modern man took control

Their minds weren't all the same to conquer was his goal

So he built his great empire and he slaughtered his own kind

He died a confused man killed himself with his own mind... Go!

We're only gonna die from our own arrogance.

We're only gonna die from our own arrogance.

We're only gonna die from our own arrogance.

(That's why we might as well take our time)."

(Written by Greg Graffin, Ph.D. of Bad Religion from their debut release: "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?")

Did Korea establish Aztec and Inca empires?