Rapture? "Rapture's Delight" cartoon (video)

Rapture's Delight (American Dad)

Why the World Will End (Again) Tomorrow

Stephanie Pappas (LiveScience.com)

(Fox) The world is about to end. Again. Oct. 21 is the next in a long line of apocalypses stretching back thousands of years.

This time, the prophet of doom is Harold Camping, a radio preacher who received international media attention in May when he predicted that Judgment Day would fall on May 21, followed by months of torment on Earth and an end to everything in autumn.

Judgment Day didn't bring the promised earthquakes and Rapture, but Camping now says May 21 marked a spiritual Judgment Day and that the world will still end "quietly" on Friday. It may seem odd that Camping's faith remains strong, but apocalypse experts say that doomsday prophets have often built their entire lives around their end-of-the-world views, and that worldview is hard to shake. For an elderly preacher like Camping, who suffered a stroke in June, apocalypse beliefs may also reflect his struggle with his own mortality....

• Deferred Doomsday Due Friday - Or Not
• Debris of Comet Elenin to Pass Near Earth
  
• Mysterious Planet Nibiru, Comet Elenin
• Camping says end of world is on May 21st
  

The Appeal of the End
Doomsday predictions, whether secular or religious, often attract those who feel the world is unsalvageable. Sometimes the world-ending catastrophe is nuclear winter; sometimes it’s the Mayan apocalypse. But religious doomsday groups often draw on mainstream faith, said Stephen Kent, a sociologist at the University of Alberta. "Almost all apocalyptic beliefs show Christian influence," Kent told LiveScience. More

Finding happiness from Buddhist point of view

Jerome Ryan (mountainsoftravelphotos.com) and Wisdom Quarterly
Dieter Glogowski is a contemporary Tibet and Nepal photographer. His photos are excellent, and the quotes he chooses to accompany them are short and thought-provoking (mountainsoftravelphotos.com).

The root teachings of Buddhism are the Four Noble Truths, which state that there is disappointment and we can rise above it by a path of practice that reduces our attachment and clinging to things, people, and states. There are Buddhist resources to assist in increasing joy.

At war with China? Ever notice how much the most famous Buddhist, the 14th Dalai Lama, laughs? He laughs in spite of all difficulties. If we can learn to do that, it will serve the world well. Smile, and the whole world smiles.

Wisdom (the 14th Dalai Lama): It is important to know that there are three kinds of wisdom: / Wisdom resulting from listening, / wisdom resulting from reflection, and / wisdom resulting from meditation.

Consciousness (Dhammapada): We are what we think / All we are arises from our thoughts / With our thoughts we create the world.

Compassion (Mother Teresa): Always try to act in a way that people are happy to have met you.

Equanimity (Sutta Nipata): We exchange the breath of air with the rain forests. We drink the very water that flows into the ocean. Water and air are integral parts of our lives. And we are part of the whole world. We realize that we depend on each other, that we are related to each other. Then we will deal with all of nature carefully, we are part of it.

Love (Phil Bosmans): A flower needs sun to become a flower. / A human being needs love to become a human being.

Impermanence (14th Dalai Lama): It is my firm conviction that the power of the gun barrel is of limited time. / But the power of truth will increase more and more with time.

Mindfulness (Thich Nhat Hanh): Real life is experienced here and now. The past has already gone; the future has not yet come. Only in the present moment can we truly live life.

Meditation (Sogyal Rinpoche): The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well; meditation is the road to enlightenment.

(Geshe Yongdong) Path to Happiness Teaching, October 13, 2009, Part 1A

• The Discourse Collection (Sutta Nipata)
• Illustrated Treasury of Truth (Dhammapada)
• Buddha-path and other photos (AJE44/Flickr)
• PHOTOS: Thru the Lens (Adrian-Evans.com)
• Euphoria Yoga of Woodstock, NY
  

Doomsday dud! So now what? (Commentary)

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)


Filmmaker Zeke Piestrup has been documenting Harold Camping; see below (SFGate.com).

Doomsday was a dud. It's no surprise. But we have to admit we're a little disappointed. We came in on the weekend, hugged Christian pets, went to a party, learned the Dougie -- and all for what?! When does the Bible show begin already?

• How Harold Camping marketed the Rapture
• Like End Times: Terrifying video from US tornado

Kate Upton teaches a weary world the Dougie

Armageddon is the name of a Jewish war. And apparently it can not begin until a few other things line up. Imagine a religion, fundamentalist Christianity, put in a position to long for war, to be wary of anybody labelled "the peacemaker" (usually American presidents who try to resolve Middle East tensions), and who sees End Time signs in every social eventuality:

Kindness? So what. Compassion? Who cares. Environmental stewardship? Never heard of it. But homosexuality? Aha! Crime? Yes! Earthquakes? Praise the lord! Everything bad is good if it signals the end of the world (and the beginning of assumption into heaven).

CBS News Video as posted on SF Gate's May 21, 2011: rapture or party time?

Camping to Answer on Film Today

Wisdom Quarterly
Fortunately, Zeke Piestrup has been following doomsayer Harold Camping for weeks, running tape for as much as 19 hours a day in the run up to The End. But Camping went into black out mode on the 21st. He will emerge on tape to explain why his prediction failed.

And Camping will have an explanation today because he holds the world's record on answering Bible questions (50 years) on an unscripted open forum radio show. He is unflappable, charismatic, and absolutely certain of his interpretations. He has survived at least one failed prediction (but that one left him the out that May 21 was the only other option). More than surviving, he comes out stronger, in accordance with psychologist Festinger's 1950's findings on doomsday cults.

Former KROQ DJ Piestrup was on KROQ radio in Los Angeles Monday morning (May 23) discussing his documentary film on Harold Camping and the Family Radio ministry.

Camping "flabbergasted" Judgment Day did not come

SFGate.com
The man who said the world was going to end appeared at his front door in Alameda (Northern California) a day later, very much alive but not so well.

"It has been a really tough weekend," said Harold Camping, the 89-year-old fundamentalist radio preacher [and twice failed prophet] who convinced hundreds of his followers that the rapture would occur on Saturday at 6:00 pm.

Massive earthquakes would strike, he said. Believers would ascend to heaven and the rest would be left to wander a godforsaken planet until Oct. 21, when Camping promised a fiery end to the world. More

• Will Graham [Televangelist Billy Graham's son] preaches on end times after camping's wrong prediction [because there's a lot of money to be made from doomsaying]
  
• Harold Camping Should Publicly Apologize for Wrong Doomsday Prediction, Says Christian
• Critical Facts About Harold Camping
• Harold Camping's Rapture prediction doing anything good?
• Harold Camping, We're Still Here After 6:01 P.M., What Now?
• Harold Camping doomsday prediction record: 0-2
• Jane Seymour: Schwarzenegger has more out-of-wedlock kids
  

Doomsday dud explained!

LiveScience.com

Harold Camping has some serious explaining to do. Or does he? He may be an embarrassment to Christians, laughing stock to atheists, and a "nut" to everyone else, but what motivated his charismatic confidence? (Image: Karl Tate, TechMediaNetwork)

If readers are reading this, Harold Camping and FamilyRadio.com's predictions that the end of the world would start Saturday (May 21, 6:00 pm) failed to pan out.

That's good news for most of us. But Camping and his Christian followers were looking forward to the end. After all, they believed that they were likely to be among the 200 million souls sent to live in [space] paradise forever.

[That is the total number to get to heaven, past and present, because the worldwide earthquake was going to toss up the dead, according to Camping.]

Piestrup documenting Camping in the run up to the end (Michael Macor/The Chronicle).

• Harold Camping "flabbergasted"; Rapture a no-show

So how do believers cope when their doomsday predictions fail? It depends, said Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal who studies the history of doomsday predictions.

Doomsdays without Doom

The classic study of "doomsdays gone bad" took place in 1954. A Chicago woman named Dorothy Martin predicted a cataclysmic flood from which a few true believers would be saved by aliens. Martin and her cult, The Seekers, gathered the night before the expected flood to await the flying saucer.

Unbeknown to them, however, their group had been infiltrated by psychologist Leon Festinger, who hoped to find out what happens when the rug of people's beliefs is pulled out from under them. Festinger's study, which became the basis of the book When Prophecy Fails (Harper-Torchbooks 1956), revealed... More

• When Doomsday isn't, believers struggle to cope
• What do believers do when the world fails to end?
• Pondering death can alter behavior [Maranussati]
  
• The Dish: Helper brain cells grown in lab
• No Rapture, No Judgment, NO DUH

Countdown to extinction: the last seven days with 89 year old Christian prophet Harold Camping. "It's the gays and drug addicts!"

• Will Graham preaches on end times after camping's wrong prediction
  
• LAPD hold suspect in Dodger Stadium assault on SF Giants' fan
• AP Exclusive: Former Palin aide pens tell-all

"Rapture" in Buddhism

Wisdom Quarterly

The "Christ in a the clouds UFO-invasion" theory promulgated by fundamentalist Christians may be a too literal interpretation of an internal experience.

There is a lifting up, an effervescence, a pleasurable floating sensation -- called piti in Buddhism -- as if one were held in soft, nurturing hands. Five things oppose it, and five things enable it. It all occurs on a seat, a cushion, or the root of a tree, fully clothed.

Rapture (Pali, pīti, pronounced "pee-tee," Sanskrit prīti) is variously translated as joy, bliss, supersensual happiness, enthusiasm, or keen or joyful interest in an object of Buddhist meditation. It is certainly not limited to Buddhist experience; it is, rather, a universally accessible and naturally occurring process of the cultivated mind.

It is a serene quality of absorption (intense collectedness or concentration into a single object, Pali, jhana, Sanskrit, dhyana). While rapture is uplifting, it eventually wears thin as the mind longs for greater peace. This happiness is happiness-in-the-body, but it is not a physical sensation. Rapture is precariously close to Earth and one senses it would not take much to draw one back to erratic and distressing worldly affairs.

Eventually, as the absorptions deepen (there are eight progressively subtle and pleasurable states, four material and four immaterial), gross happiness becomes equanimous. Excited bliss becomes calm impartiality. Buoyancy goes from a healthy, happy body to a tranquil, contented mind (sukha or "gladness").

What opposes entrance into this natural state? The Five Hindrances:

1. Sensual desire: craving for sense pleasures.
2. Ill-will, anger, or wrath: malice directed at others.
3. Sloth-torpor: boredom or lassitude of body and mind.
4. Restlessness-worry: worry, regret, scattered energy.
5. Doubt: lack of confidence, conviction, faith, or trust.

What enables entrance? The Five Factors of Absorption:

1. Moving the mind onto the object (applied attention)
2. Retaining the mind on the object (sustained attention)
3. Rapture (joyful interest in the object)
4. Happiness (the opposite of suffering or distress)
5. Equanimity (impartiality, serenity, tranquility)

All of these states are accompanied, to a lesser or greater degree, by one-pointedness of mind, something we often lack in our attention-deficit-disordered daily lives. When does serenity ever occur? Now. Only now.

Why the World WILL End Tomorrow

Wisdom Quarterly (Photo: 123rf.com)

The Buddha rested between two Sal trees in the midst of countless devas and members of the Sangha. He greeted well wishers, answered questions, and gave his last instructions, passing in joy through the jhanas ("meditative absorptions") with one final exhortation.

When the Buddha was passing away --that is, irreversibly entering parinirvana -- his final words were: "All conditioned things are hurtling towards destruction; work out your liberation with diligence!"

It is not enough to have faith (confidence in the Teacher, Teaching, and well Taught disciples). The value of faith is that it inspires one to investigate.

The purpose of investigation is to set off on a quest to make an end of all suffering.

Drugs do not "end" suffering. Death does not end suffering. Rebirth does not end suffering. What ends suffering?

This one possibility is the final end of all suffering -- nirvana.

• To experience nirvana directly, one must practice (not believe, debate, memorize, study, preach...) the Path of Awakening. The power is in the practice. Ananda knew the more sutras than any monk in the Buddha's time. But he was not enlightened until after the Buddha was gone. Why? Because he had not practiced even though he spent more time with the Buddha than anyone else.

What is the the Path? It combines serenity and insight as the marriage of compassion and wisdom. It is called the Middle Way to complete liberation.

A summary of the Noble Eightfold Path could describe it as cultivating virtue, concentration (samadhi), and wisdom -- all of which support one another. Realizing (not memorizing) the Four Noble Truths is the gateway to the deathless. It establishes one on the supramundane Path.

The world as a whole will not be ending. But "the world" for the individual will end, even now as it passes from this moment. No one will get out alive, which is to say that every personality will undergo transformation into something else. Clinging to identity is painful because one is not anything that can be clung to. There is no use in accepting these things on "faith." Realization is the way to happiness. The bliss of nirvana is within reach. But this is not it.

And whether one strives for wisdom and freedom or sinks into delusion and slavery, the Buddha's last words ring true:

"All conditioned things are hurtling toward destruction; work out your liberation with diligence [mindfulness and clear comprehension]!"

Fully enlightened beings (arhats) are the only beings who do not die. They enter nirvana, which is completely different than death and rebirth. Buddhas point the way, and humans and light beings (devas) are in the best position to reach this ultimate goal (salagram.net).

• Passing away consciously is the greatest journey

Atheists "to save pets after world ends"

During Rapture an Episcopalian priest, Fran, Roger the Alien, Stan the CIA Agent, and the slow janitor look on as naked people are lifted up ("Rapture's Delight," American Dad).

(Web.orange.co.uk) Enterprising atheist animal lovers are cashing in on religious pet owners who believe the world is about to end [on Saturday, May, 21, 2011].

Some US Christian fundamentalists [familyradio.com] believe Judgment Day will begin with a massive earthquake on Saturday.

They say believers will immediately go to heaven while the rest of us have another five months to suffer until the world ends in October.

The problem is that many fundamentalists are reportedly worried about what happens to their pets when they go to heaven.

Whereas in Buddhism animals are living beings subject to rebirth the same as humans, gods, hellions, and other entities, pets are not allowed in Christian heaven. Atheists will care for them on Earth.

A new company -- Eternal Earth-Bound Pets -- is offering to step up to "take that burden off your mind."

"You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved," the company says on its website.

"But when the Rapture comes, what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind?"

The post-Doomsday pet rescue service says it already already has 259 clients, who have paid $135 for the first pet and $20 for each additional pet.

All the rescuers are sworn atheists, which means they will be left behind on Earth, ready to rescue pets after their Christian owners have gone to the other side.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets co-founder Bart Centre said: "This will happen only if and when the Rapture happens. So we do not expect to have to do anything on Saturday."

End of the World moved up to May 21, 2011

Peter Smith (Faith and Works blog, Courier-Journal.com)

Judgment Day will be later this May "guaranteed"

While you're marking Derby Day, here's something to consider if you have plans for Preakness Day: Several billboards around Louisville -- and the nation and world -- are warning of an impending Day of Judgment to be on a date certain: May 21, 2011.

That’s when believers would be raptured to heaven. The complete end of the world, we "must realize," would come five months later on Oct. 21, 2011 according to the proponent's Website.

It’s part of a worldwide publicity blitz by a broadcast ministry called Family Radio, based in Oakland, California.

The short version: Founder Harold Camping believes through a complex set of numerological calculations, one can date the creation of the world, Noah’s flood, and other events described in the Bible, then extrapolate when the Bible "guarantees" the world will end. More


American Dad: Rapture's Delight (in Russian)

• Watch in English while it's available (Adult Swim)
• Read about this brilliant episode (Wikipedia)
• Doomsday coming later this month (May, 2011)
  

The End?
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)
It's like we have been trying to say: The "end" is not the end. The world will not end. Judgment Day is everyday for everyone who passes away. Karma is our judge, whether or not a god or other entity does. Gods themselves are controlled by karma.

The rapture is a misunderstanding of events likely to happen. Originally it seems to have meant that UFOs would descend from the heavens (the skies, space) to save 144,000 or so people (possibly naked) and take them up to safety. The lowest celestial realms are interested in the welfare of this planet and the good people on it.

Those people are not limited to Jews (or Christians) although these traditions began to teach that they were the "chosen people" of their tribal deity. There has been a great deal of contact with many peoples of the Earth. But at no time are people told, "It's the end, pure destruction, all is lost." Even Christianity does not teach such a thing. But try to tell that to Christians.

What do altered scriptures say, to say nothing of the original texts? Inimical entities will use the Earth to fight celestial entities. Rather than welcoming celestial "saviors," people around the world are being trained to fear, loathe, and fight anyone coming down. "They are all green, gooey, gray, and scary," we have come to believe.

Christian soldiers are ready to shoot at Jesus if he does not fit their image of a bigger than life translucent savior with blond hair and a kind smile. If he comes by ship, he had better be ready to dodge our Star Wars anti-spacecraft apparatus and laser pulse weapons.

In Buddhist/Hindu terms, it is Sakka (a.k.a. Indra, St. Michael, Thor, etc.) and the "shining ones" (devas) who, after keeping an eye on the planet and the general level of virtue of the population, will stand in defense against titans, reptilians, and ogres (asuras, nagas, and yakkhas) who are already here manipulating human affairs.

But it all sounds so preposterous, so mythological, so cartoonish that the only way to portray it is in a foreign-language cartoon. So here we again present the CIA's own Stan Smith and family of "American Dad" fame in "Rapture's Delight."