12,000 protesters surround White House

Protesters unite, President responds
(treehugger.com/HuffingtonPost.com)

Obama delays Tar Sands oil pipeline decision until 2013

(Democracy Now!) Environmental activists are claiming victory after the Obama administration announced Thursday it will postpone any decision on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline until 2013.

The announcement was made just days after more than 10,000 people encircled the White House calling on Pres. Obama to reject the project. This was the second major action against the project organized by Bill McKibben’s 350.org and Tar Sands Action.

(thinkprogrees.org)

In late August and early September, some 1,200 people were arrested in Washington, D.C., in a two-week campaign of civil disobedience.

"We believe that this delay will kill the pipeline," says the Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein. "If it doesn’t, if this pipeline reemerges after the election, people have signed pledges saying they will put their bodies on the line to stop it." More

• Next: Fracking wells in Delaware River basin
• What is "Fracking"? (hydraulic fracturing)
• VIDEO: Gasland report now on PBS
  
• 12,000 wrap White House in demonstration
  
• Occupy Cal: police crackdown on massive protest
• Occupy Your Block: stop home foreclosures
  
• Penn State riot, child rape cover up, Paterno fired

Gasland the Movie (other trailer)

Coca Cola RECIPE revealed

Wisdom Quarterly
(Blink967) At least Pepsi, which is just as bad, makes funny ads using Buddhist monks.

This American Life's Ira Glass revealed the addictive ingredients that went into the original Coca Cola. It has no doubt gotten worse with the addition of synthetic excitotoxins euphemistically referred to as "natural flavors." (The only thing "natural" about them, according to FDA labeling guidelines, is that artificial chemicals are used to mimic something that exists in nature.)

"Coco cola" was originally concocted as a syrupy medicinal drink using tropical ingredients and dispensed at soda shops. The addition of massive amounts of sugar alone made it habit forming and carcinogenic. Cancer rates going up and hitting people younger? What a surprise. Adding alcohol, cocaine, caramel coloring, and neurotoxins (synthetic replacement of the original tropical fruit and nut oils) then cinched its addictive profile.

Snorting Coke? Soft drinks train us for hard (fermented) drinks.

This gave us the need we have felt ever since to drink this poisonous chemical brew, ride the sugar spike, and hit a low lower than we began with, which leads us to think another would be a good idea. Coca Cola remains the only American corporation with the legal right to import coca leaf and legally produce the illicit drug cocaine. It claims to no longer use it in its formulation, but it retains the right to produce it in great quantities (for sale to labs, street kids, the CIA?)

• sugar - 30 lbs
• cocaine (fluid extract of coca) - 3 drams
  
• alcohol - 8 oz
  
• oils of orange, lemon, nutmeg, coriander, neroli, cinnamon (tree bark)
  
• citric acid, caffeine, lemon juice, vanilla
• soda water (necessary or it would be impossible to consume this cloying amount of sugar without the body rejecting it by vomiting or avoiding it due to surfeit.

The exact level of cocaine was not quantified but it was sufficient to produce a "buzz" with 4 to 5 drinks, according to early newspaper accounts. Why only 30 lbs of sugar? There are now 16.25 teaspoons of sugar (1 tsp = 4 grams) in a 20 oz (590 ml) bottle, 9.25 teaspoons per can. Any more and it would become a syrup. Soda manufacturers have not found a way to add sugar and keep the formulation liquid. The addition of brain toxic artificial sweeteners (like aspartame) makes it worse on the brain than sugar.

• Is it true Coca Cola once contained cocaine?
  
• VIDEO: Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills
• The exact ingredients and how to make it (PDF)
• This American Life press release

Support This American Life and Nat'l Public Radio

The Recipe
ThisAmericanLife.org

FE Coca (Fluid Extract of Coca)	3 drams USP	4 oz FE Coco
Citric Acid	3 oz	3 oz
Caffeine	1 oz	1oz Citrate Caffein
Sugar	30 #	30 #
Water	2.5 gal	2.5 gal
Lime Juice	2 pints (1 qrt)	1 qrt
Vanilla	1 oz	1 oz
Caramel	1.5 oz or more to color	Color sufficient
	Use 2 oz flavor (below) to 5 gals syrup	2.5 oz flavor
7X Flavor
Alcohol	8 oz	1 qrt
Orange Oil	20 drops	80
Lemon Oil	30	120
Nutmeg Oil	10	40
Corriander Oil	5	20
Neroli Oil	10	40
Cinnamon Oil	10	40
(The Pemberton formula for 7X is the same as the Beal, just four times as much.)

• To make fluid extract of coca. Buy whole leaf coca tea. Instructions for making coca extract from this can be found online. You don't need much. The recipe calls for 3 fluid drams, which is equivalent to 1/8 of a fluid ounce or -- an easier measurement for a home kitchen -- 3/4 of a tablespoon.
• Make the syrup. Once you have your 7X flavor, and your fluid extract of coca, you are ready to mix them with your other ingredients to make the syrup. Mix your ingredients in this order: water, sugar, then coloring, then coca extract, then vanilla extract, then caffeine, then lime juice, and citric acid.

Go to Blog

Buddha's message to those who doubt (audio)

Wisdom Quarterly based on Ven. Soma Thera translation, Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65)

(DhammaCity) Kalama Sutra, readings from the Pali Canon by Sangharakshita.

Message to the Kalamas

1. Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha, while wandering in the country with a large community of monastic disciples, entered a town called Kesaputta. The Kalamas inhabiting Kesaputta said:

• "Reverend Gautama, the monk, the son of the Sakyans, while wandering in the Kosala country, has entered Kesaputta. This good repute has spread about him: 'Indeed, the Blessed One is consummate, fully enlightened, endowed with knowledge and practice, sublime, knower of the worlds, peerless, guide for those to be tamed, teacher of divine and human beings, which he himself has gained through direct knowledge.

The Buddha with a large number of monastics addresses the people of Kesaputta, India.

• He sets forth the Dharma, which good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end, possessed of meaning in letter and spirit, and complete in everything. And he proclaims the high life [direct path to enlightenment, brahmacarya] that is perfectly pure. Seeing such consummate ones is good indeed.'"

Asking for Guidance

3. The Kalamas in Kesaputta sitting respectfully to one side said to the Buddha:

"There are some ascetics and brahmins, venerable sir, who visit Kesaputta. They expound and explain only their own doctrines. The doctrines of others they despise, revile, and pull to pieces.

"Some other ascetics and brahmins, venerable sir, come to Kesaputta. They expound and explain only their own doctrines. The doctrines of others they despise, revile, and pull to pieces.

"Venerable sir, there is doubt, there is uncertainty in us concerning them. Which of these reverend ascetics and brahmins spoke the truth and which falsehood?"

Criterion for Rejection

4. "It is proper for you, Kalamas, to doubt, to be uncertain. Uncertainty has arisen in you about what is doubtful. Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon:

• what has been acquired by repeated hearing
• nor upon tradition
• nor upon rumor
• nor upon what is scripture
• nor upon surmise
• nor upon axiom
• nor upon specious reasoning
• nor upon bias toward a notion that has been pondered
  
• nor upon another's seeming ability
• nor upon the consideration, 'The ascetic is our teacher.'

"But, Kalamas, when you yourselves know":

• 'These things are bad these things are blameworthy
• these things are censured by the wise
• when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,' abandon them.

Greed, Hate, and Delusion

5. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does greed appear in a person for one's benefit or harm?"

"For harm, venerable sir."

"Kalamas, being given to greed, and being overwhelmed and mentally vanquished by greed, this person takes life, steals, engages in sexual misconduct, tells lies, and prompts another to do likewise. Will that be long for harm and ill?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

6. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does hate appear...?"

7. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does delusion appear...?"

8. "What do you think, Kalamas? Are these things profitable or unprofitable?"

"Unprofitable, venerable sir."

"Blameworthy or not blameworthy?"

"Blameworthy, venerable sir."

"Censured or praised by the wise?"

"Censured, venerable sir."

"When undertaken and observed, do these things lead to harm and ill or not? Or how does it strike you?"

"When undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill. Thus it strikes us here."

9. "Therefore, Kalamas, was it said: 'Come Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumor... But when you yourselves know: 'These things are unprofitable; these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill," abandon them.'

(Rainbowschaos/Flickr)

Criterion for Acceptance
10. "Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumor... But, Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are profitable; these things are praiseworthy; these things are lauded by the wise; when undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them.

Absence of greed, hate, and delusion
11. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does the absence of greed appear in a person for benefit or harm?"

"For benefit, venerable sir."

"Kalamas, not being given to greed, and not being overwhelmed or mentally vanquished by greed, one does not take life, does not steal, does not engage in sexual misconduct, does not tell lies, and does not prompt others to do likewise. Will that be long for one's benefit and happiness?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

12. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does the absence of hate appear in a person for benefit or harm?"

"For benefit, venerable sir."...

13. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does the absence of delusion appear in a man for his benefit or harm?"...

14. "What do you think, Kalamas? Are these things profitable or unprofitable?"

"Profitable, venerable sir."...

15. "Therefore, Kalamas, was it said: 'Come Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumor...' But, Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are profitable; these things are not praiseworthy; these things are lauded by the wise; when undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness," enter on and abide in them.'

The Four Divine Abidings
16. "Kalamas, the disciple of the Noble Ones practices in this way [the four Brahma Viharas or Exalted Dwellings]. Devoid of coveting (greed), devoid of ill will (hate), devoid of confusion (delusion) -- but mindful and clearly comprehending -- dwells pervading with thoughts of loving-kindness

• one quarter [of the world, the cosmos]
• likewise the second
• likewise the third
• likewise the fourth
• so above, below, and across
• one dwells having pervaded all living beings everywhere in the entire world (cosmos) with thoughts of loving-kindness that is free of hate or malice, grown great, exalted, immeasurable (boundless, universal).

"One dwells having pervaded with thoughts of compassion, one quarter, likewise the second, likewise the third, likewise the fourth, so above, below, and across; one dwells having pervaded all living beings everywhere in the entire world with thoughts of compassion that is free of hate or malice, grown great, exalted, immeasurable.

"One lives having pervaded with thoughts of gladness, one quarter....

"One lives having pervaded with thoughts of equanimity, one quarter....

The Four Solaces
17. "Kalamas, the disciple of the Noble Ones practices in this way. With such a hate-free mind, such a malice-free mind, such an undefiled mind, such a purified mind is one who finds four solaces here and now.

"'Suppose there is a hereafter [existence to come beyond this life] and there is a fruit, result, of deeds done well or ill [karma]. Then it is possible that at the dissolution of the body after death, I shall arise in better worlds, which are possessed of states of bliss.' This is the first solace found by such a person.

"'Suppose there is no hereafter [no rebirth] and there is no fruit, no result, of deeds done well or ill [no karma]. Yet in this world, here and now, free from hatred, free from malice, safe, sound, and happy, I keep myself.' This is the second solace.

"'Suppose harmful (results) befall the doer of harm. I, however, think of doing no harm to anyone. Then, how can ill (results) affect me?' This is the third solace.

"'Suppose harmful (results) do not befall one who harms others. Then I see myself purified in any case.' This is the fourth solace.

"Kalamas, the disciple of the Noble Ones who has such a hate-free mind, such a malice-free mind, such an undefiled mind, such a purified mind is one who finds, here and now, these four solaces."

The Kalamas' Reaction
"So it is, Blessed One! So it is, Sublime One! Venerable sir, the disciple of the Noble Ones who has such a hate-free mind, such a malice-free mind, such an undefiled mind, such a purified mind finds, here and now, these four solaces!

"Marvelous, venerable sir! Marvelous, venerable sir! Venerable sir, it is as if a person were to turn upward what had been overturned, or to uncover what was concealed, or to point the way to one who was lost, or to carry a lamp into the darkness, thinking: 'Those who have eyes will now be able to see.'

"So has the Dharma been set forth in many ways by the Blessed One. Venerable sir, we go to the Blessed One for guidance, to this Dharma for guidance, and to the Sangha [order of accomplished practitioners] for guidance.

"Venerable sir, may the Blessed One regard us as lay followers who have gone for guidance from this day forward."

• A Look at the Kalama Sutta (Bhikkhu Bodhi)
• The Right to Ask Questions (Larry Rosenberg)

Poor Casey Anthony! (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, TheGrio.com

Hating hateful actions (like murder) or hateful actors (like murderers) makes us guilty of hate. Hate is toxic to all who harbor it, and it is not cured by vigilantism or revenge.

There are those who give free rein to hate when it arises like stampeding horses. There are others who pull the reins and control their chariot even when the horses are bolting. The Buddha called the latter "charioteers," whereas the former are merely holding the reins.

American hatred has grown so great -- animosity at a mother or a trial gone wrong -- that citizens are ready to lynch anyone named Casey Anthony.

Searching Facebook, many have found a man by the same name and tormented him. His response to the vigilante mob? "I can't change my name, ladies and gentlemen."

"Casey Anthony" is a 43-year-old African-American male. He lives in Darby, Pennsylvania, and just happens to share the name of a 25-year-old Anglo-American female from Orlando, Florida, who is infamous for being found not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter.

• PHOTO: The other Casey Anthony from Pennsylvania (NBC Philadelphia)
• She's to be released Sunday; some fear for her safety
• Casey Anthony gets and loses job in pornography

Mr. Casey Anthony has been bombarded on Facebook. He estimates that he has gotten at least 300 friend requests, messages, and posts, all targeting the other Casey Anthony.

"After the verdict that day, it went crazy. It was like everybody wanted to know and wanted to comment on this Casey Anthony situation," he explains.

The Antidote is the Opposite
There are Three Poisons of the heart/mind: greed, hatred (often expressed as fear), and delusion. It is wise to root them out at every opportunity. It is easier to transmute or transform them into something useful than it is to rid oneself of them.

But surely if they remain, they are serving as the basis of unprofitable karma (unskillful action of mind, speech, or body). Their "antidotes" are categories of opposite states -- nongreed, nonhatred, and nondelusion. Three immediate remedies are given as:

1. letting go
2. generating compassion
3. being mindful of the present moment.

Why would one even try to avoid or abandon hatred if it is manifesting as "righteous indignation"? Surely, that justifies it and strengthens us to act in opposition!?

No, what it does is obscure the mind, cause one to act in ways that result in remorse, that bring about suffering for us (when those actions later ripen), the bring humans down to subhuman states.

Hate helps no one. And those who say it does are trying to make the best of a bad situation. Transform it, transmute it, let it go, be freed from it, free others from it -- for it will surely drag us down, and we will only realize it too late.

• A man named Casey Anthony (thegrio.com)
• What if Casey Anthony were black?
• The notion of race and coverage disparity also applies to Casey Anthony herself. Would she have been so easily acquitted if she were a Black woman?
• Prof. Boyce Watkins: Would a black Casey Anthony been exonerated? Most blacks don't think so
  

The Drug Companies' Big Hoax

(WQ) In Biblical English "sorcery" means the practice of concocting pharmaceutical "poisons," such as recent vaccinations and painkillers, from the Greek pharmakos and pharmakeia. It is interesting that while the USA makes up only 5 percent of the world's population, it constitutes 66 percent of the psychiatric drugs prescribed on the planet.

• phármakos – properly, a sorcerer; used of people using drugs and "religious incantations" to drug people into living by their illusions (strongsnumbers.com)

Drug Companies May be Perpetuating an Enormous Hoax

Are most psychiatric drugs nothing more than [poisonous] placebos? If that's the case, then drug companies are making massive amounts of money selling patients what is actually nothing at all. We suspect that the swine flu "epidemic" was -- in large part -- a "hoax" perpetrated by drug companies. But psychiatric illnesses are real, despite the fact that some of them such as ADHD may be over diagnosed. More

• "Sorcery" in the medical/pharmaceutical industry
• We've discovered another planet that can support life
• Multiple witnesses report 10 UFOs over Virginia
• The Key: A True Encounter [Buddhist principles revealed by the future]
• Caltech: Did Egyptians use kite power to erect monuments?

Marijuana: Medicine or Poison?

Wisdom Quarterly

Celebrated in the media, frowned on by cops (on duty), abused by the public, bemoaned by collaterally damaged victims of others' abuse... pot is funny; that doesn't make it healthy. How to quit pot addiction

The Buddha did NOT smoke marijuana, survive on hemp seeds, or advocate the consumption of any intoxicant, no matter what Cypress Hill or hempsters suggest. (Hemp good, drug harmful).

On the contrary, the fifth precept runs: "I undertake to abstain from consuming intoxicants that occasion heedlessness." Laying around sinking like a stone instead of advancing is spoken of as a terrible thing in the Advice to Householders.

In fact, he warned that "There are, young householder, six miserable consequences to indulging in intoxicants that occasion heedlessness: loss of wealth, increase in quarrels, susceptibility to disease, loss of reputation, indecent exposure, and weakened intellect" (Sigalovada Sutra).

If people get stoned, that's on them. The crime is thinking, saying, or acting as if the Buddha is applauding or winking.

• Wisdom Quarterly's BOTTOM LINE: We don't care if you smoke it, but don't allow yourself to be deluded into thinking it's a "Buddhist" thing to do. (If you "have" to have it, note what the HHC says is good about it*).

Marijuana is UNSAFE

Sam de Brito (smh.com.au)

Before we answer this, let me say I've smoked more dope than 95 per cent of readers, guaranteed. For close to 20 years I inhaled leaf, tip, buds, bush heads, hydro, chocolate "Buddha," sinsemilla [seedless], Mexican dirt weed, power skunk, Maui wowie, black hash, brown hash, green hash, hash oil, the putty out of downpipes... even ground up seeds and stems.

I've cooked with pot, eaten it [along with countless munchies] in cakes, brownies, banana bread, and straight off the plant. I've drunk it in thick shakes and smoothies, teas, bong water and, once, smeared resin on my eyeballs because someone told me it would get me stoned. (It didn't work).

I've grown it, stolen in, given it away, traded it for a wetsuit, even pretended it was parsley and kangaroo scat when selling it. So please don't tell me I'm anti-dope.

I just reckon it's time that people, in an attempt to sound enlightened, stop telling the world that "marijuana is harmless [or marijuana is healthy]." Anyone who's been around it for long enough knows that's not true.

I do not know whether others have ever heard voices after taking drugs. But I have, several times, and it used to be what I paid good money for. The problem was, as my drug career deepened and lengthened, those pesky head noises would appear after just one cone of hydro (hydroponically-grown). And there's the rub.

Hydro-marijuana is everywhere nowadays. It's the dope of choice for younger smokers, because nothing else delivers the punch and the value for money like a knuckle of super-sticky buds out of some biker's basement grow-room.

If one examines a hydro set-up, it is obvious they get hot and humid. Thus they are a magnet for every type of bug and insect within a mile. This is why a lot of growers hit their plants with a cocktail of pesticides and fungicides that make Agent Orange look like asthma medicine.

This means the plants, and the buds kids smoke, are also chock full of those pesticides. This is in addition to chemical fertilizers chosen by growers whose knowledge of chemicals and their effect on the human brain is limited to nonexistent. More

• First language spoken on Earth: Sanskrit, Egyptian, Hebrew, Ugga-Ugga?
• Why did the Three Wise Men [Magi, Buddhist monks from India according to the BBC] consider Frankincense and Myrrh good gifts for child lama/infant tulku/baby Jesus?
• Ludwig van Beethoven was black (half Moor, half European)
• UFO witness Jeff Conaway died of drug addiction, pneumonia

Treatment

The negative effects of marijuana addiction will impact an individual physically, emotionally, psychologically, and socially, causing the person's life to be unproductive and even disconcerting. Fortunately, addiction treatment can help establish energy and progress to individuals robbed of life by marijuana addiction. There is a reason why the individual smokes. And all of those reasons rolled up into one do change the fact that they experience harm as a result. It is not enough to switch addictions. More

• *Why is weed good? The problem with even organic (pesticide-free) cannabis is that the government and private growers have bred plants to drastically increase THC levels. In the process, they lowered levels of potentially beneficial (entheogenic?) components called cannabinoids like CDB, CBN, and THCV, according to Stephen DeAngelo (Harborside Health Center) in a mind blowing, pro-pot interview with Caroline Casey.
• AUDIO: Cannabis Club HHC, Medical Dispensaries