PETA plans PORN site to Save Animals

PETA.org, Wisdom Quarterly, Huffington Post.com


Porn for Chicks, Foxes, and Puppies?
Editorial Staff, Wisdom Quarterly

We are prudes. We do not approve. We love animals and consider them worth saving and sparing from human torture for their flesh and pelts. Yet to excite the passions of a world aflame in lust is karma that harms activist and audience. Will we look? Probably. Will we protest? Yes. Will we pose nude? No. Will we applaud or censure those who do? No. Do we condone it? No. Is anyone asking us? Not as such. Does the intention justify the means? No.



We must agitate and enlighten people and call their attention to the plight of our fellow humans, earthlings, and all living beings. But to do so in a way that calls their attention in one way and brings them down in another, that is not the win-win possible here. Is this an effort from within to undermine PETA as an organization? Maybe.



It is not the first such campaign. There was a similar effort by another organization to save the forest by this exact means. The world will be great when it is sex-positive, full of integrity (non-hypocritical), violence-free, equal, and compassionate. Let's bring that moment into being. Make love, not war. Go topless. Be free. Be so considerate of others that their passions are not aroused to their ultimate detriment.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

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Some Buddhist advice on lust

Key passages from Buddhist texts translated by Wisdom Quarterly
(Wonderlane/Flickr.com)

What household-Buddhists do is one thing. What Sangha-members (Buddhist monastics) do is another. The Buddha advised renunciates (monks, nuns, novices, and those training intensively) to be extremely careful to avoid the snare of lust.

Of great advantage is restraint in body, of great advantage is restraint in speech. Of great advantage is restraint in mind, of great advantage is restraint everywhere. The renunciate restrained in everything is freed from all sorrow.

It would be far better to bore out your eyes with red-hot irons than encourage yourselves in sensual thoughts or look upon a man or woman's form with lustful desire.

The renunciate who has retired to a quiet of place [seclusion of heart/mind but not necessarily of body, unless that is needed], who has calmed mind/heart, who clearly perceives the Dharma experiences a joy transcending that of humans.

O renunciates, if you must speak with a [member of the other sex], let it be with pure heart, and think to yourself, “As a renunciate I will live in this corrupting world as the spotless leaf of the lotus, unsoiled by the mud it grows out of.”

If the [person] be old, regard that person as your [parent]; if young, as your [sibling]; if very young as your child.

O renunciates, cover your heads with the helmet of right intention, and abandon with fixed resolve the five [strands of sense] desire.

Lust clouds one's heart when it is confused with [form's] beauty and the mind is dazed.

One who is controlled in hand, foot, speech, and in the highest [head], one who delights in meditation and is composed, one who is solitary and contented -- that person is called a renunciate.

One who holds neither “I” nor “me” at all towards mind and body [a stream enterer or other noble disciple], who grieves not for that which one does not have -- that person, indeed, is called a renunciate.

As the jasmine creeper sheds withered flowers, even so, O renunciates, totally shed lust and hatred. More

(discovermagazine.com)

Gratification, Danger, and Escape – 1
Based on Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation in Anthology of Discourses
Before my enlightenment, O disciples, when I was still a bodhisatta (being striving for supreme enlightenment), this thought occurred to me:

“What is the gratification in the world, what is the danger in the world, and what is the escape from the world?”87

Then I thought:

• “Whatever joy and happiness there is in the world [and there is plenty], that is the gratification in the world;
• That the world is impermanent, pervaded by disappointment, and subject to change, that is the danger in the world;
• The removal and abandoning of [sensual] desire and lust for the world, that is the escape from the world.”

So long, disciples, as I did not fully understand as they really are the world’s gratification as gratification, its danger as danger, and the escape from the world as escape, for so long I did not claim that I had awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with its devas, māras, and brahmās [light beings, adversaries, and divinities], in this generation [a biological not chronological reference] with its ascetics and brahmins, its [earthbound-] devas and humans.

But when I had fully understood all this, then I claimed that I had awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with…its devas and humans. The knowledge and vision arose in me:

“Unshakable is the liberation of my mind; this is my last birth; there is now no further re-becoming [rebirth].”

• 86. Ajjhupekkhati. This refers to the third itemupekkhā (equanimity, impartiality, unbiased observation], which literally means “onlooking,” that is, detached observation or examination.
• 87. These three terms, which often appear together in the texts, are in Pāli: assāda, ādīnava, nissaraṇa. The commentaries relate them to the Four Noble Truths in this way: “Danger” indicates the truth of suffering [dukkha or disappointment]; “gratification,” the truth of the origin (for pleasure is the stimulus for craving, the true origin of suffering); and “escape,” the truth of the cessation of suffering, or Nibbāna (Sanskrit, nirvana). Although the fourth truth, the truth of the path, is not explicitly mentioned in this triad, it is implied as the means or way of escape.

Sex Scandals in Religion (video)

(TimothySpeaks, June 8, 2011)

In this exclusive Web chat, Robin Benger and Peter Kavanagh deliver a very enlightening perspective on the making of "Sex Scandals In Religion." This discussion delves more deeply into the subject matter, beyond what was possible to cover in the broadcast documentaries themselves.

The producers reveal the similarities between the four religions covered in the episodes -- as well as the similar responses to allegations of sex abuse that have occurred in religious organizations.

From Robin and Peter's experience, it becomes very clear just how difficult and dangerous it can be to cover such subjects. Intelligent and thoughtful questions came from the online audience, which highlighted the growing interest in these issues.

Female Sex Maniac Still on the Loose

Original news item Lite-News (Aug. 13, 2010)

Nikki Lee: "I’ve had sex with 5,000 men in nine years (but never the same man twice)," boasts the 25-year-old beauty therapist and model.

Is it a compliment or a slap in the face to "victims" of promiscuity?

[Some may hail it as the triumph of feminism and gender equality, but others sadly recognize the telltale signs of childhood trauma.] A 25-year-old beauty therapist has claimed to have slept with 5,000 men in just nine years -- or 3,285 days.

Nikki Lee also boasts about having a "personal best" of four men in one night and she claims she has never had sex with the same conquest twice. In an admission that will shock most people, the blonde Essex girl has told how she has had casual sex in nightclubs, alleyways, parks, cinemas, and teen discos since losing her virginity at 16.

"Obsessed" with conquests, objectification, one night stands

Miss Lee, who also works as a model, admits to going on regular sex holidays, where she sleeps with men in clubs, on beaches, and even on balconies. She averages having sex with two men every day and has kept the details of each of them in a little red notebook -- all with scores.

By the time she was 21, Miss Lee claims to have had sex with 2,289 men. Although the admission, made to a weekly real-life magazine, cannot be verified, has been called "emotionally very dangerous" by a relationship expert. More>>

Promiscuity can spread all out of control like an addictive drug to the brain, and we build tolerance. But What the Bleep do We Know?

• What are we coming to when these are our top artists and celebrities? Ke$ha, Lady Gaga/Beyonce ("Telephone"), Rihanna ("S&M"), Britney Spears, Paris Hilton (night vision technology), Kim Kardashian, gender-bending and celebrity lesbian roles and displays (Sandra Bullock, Annette Bening, Marlee Matlin of "The L Word" fame, child star Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens, the cast of "Sex and the City," Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Ronson-Lohan, Katy Perry... What would parents do without Rebecca Black, Justin Bieber, prodigy Jason Kertson, and the Jonas Brothers?
• Chinese seek all-lesbian Chako Paul City, Sweden
• Country, too: Jessie James' "The Boys of Summer"
• Problem with sex? Find out at SASH.net
• No men OR women needed: artificial sperm and eggs created for first time: Sperm and eggs have been grown in the laboratory in a breakthrough process that could change the face of parenthood forever.

If men and boys do it and have for a long time, why should women and girls hold back?

Sex in the Digital Age: Sad and Solo

Jeremy Hsu (LiveScience.com) with Wisdom Quarterly commentary


Sexuality in the Digital Age can mean sexting on smartphones, hookups through Craigslist and Facebook, and transmitting lewd photos like Weiner.

But while humans continue to define the do's and don'ts of online lust, a new generation of computer programs may have already figured it out. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, a scandal like Anthony Weiner's doesn't even necessarily need two humans anymore.

Online chat bots already send come-hither messages to users of social media or dating websites. Video games and online programs also offer virtual girlfriend (or boyfriend) experiences on smartphones and handheld video game consoles.

The crude connections may signal a "robotic moment" for society where humans begin turning to artificial intelligence to fulfill emotional needs, said Sherry Turkle, director of MIT's Initiative on Society and Self.

"I did find people who were interested in artificial boyfriends and girlfriends, in artificial spouses," Turkle told InnovationNewsDaily. "They were not being ironic. They felt that people had failed them. And that a robot would be a safe choice."

Virtual lovers
Such "seduction by social robots" forms a key theme in Turkle's latest book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (Basic Books, 2011).

She found that some people can desire what robots offer -- either in virtual form or as crude sex bots -- even if it marks a step below emotional fulfillment with other human beings. More

• Top 7 Useful Robots You Can Buy Right Now

VIDEO: Sex Robot (Discovery Health)
All over America there are men with a bizarre unspoken fetish. Welcome to the sex robot scene where femme-bots are becoming a reality.
Inventor unveils $7,000 talking Sex Robot
(CNN) To some men, she might seem like the perfect woman: She's a willowy 5 feet 7 and 120 pounds. She'll chat with you endlessly about your interests. And she'll have sex whenever you please -- as long as her battery doesn't run out.
Couple's robotic child does everything (is it legal?)

Make Love, Not Robots

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

It seems like the end of the world. This is a terrible idea. But it makes it obvious how easy it is to sell anything: Accentuate the positive; dismiss the obvious.

What people do, whatever they do, that's fine. Why would anyone else worry about other people's business -- unless it affects us, unless they are part of the Sangha (or some other select group with inherent rules)?

Often it would happen among Buddhist monastics that, in ancient times, one would say to another, "You don't tell me what to do, and I won't tell you what to do." That comment alone is a violation. Outside of the rarefied atmosphere of a monastery, family, or coherent group, however, who can argue with this laissez faire attitude? Free trade, rough trade, who's to say?

Is it "sexual misconduct"?

Sexual misconduct (kamesu micchacara) is defined, technically, as sexual intercourse (penetration) with someone when you are not free to consent (because of living in dependence on someone else such as a parent, guardian, or spouse) or with someone not able to give consent (because that person is living in dependence on someone else).

This detailed definition (found in the Numerical Discourses, Book of Tens, Sutra 206) is not the whole story. The Five Precepts are defined at different levels: In the most basic sense, they are the bottom line. But the reality is, there is more to it. Although it is frequently mentioned, no precept says one abstains from lying. That's what people say based on not reading primary documents and instead relying on loose translations. One abstains from "false speech." And false speech goes a lot farther than mere lying.

As an unsuitable translation, "sexual misconduct" is defined as "adultery." But our modern view of this word (a married person having extramarital relations) is not mentioned at all. What's mentioned is much wider, what we would call "cheating," seducing someone in a relationship. But usually we do not hold that person as having done much by Judeo-Christian standards, even if we despise such people at a gut level. Kamesu means sensuality. Sexuality, its most exaggerated form, stands for less serious manifestations of it (such as gluttony or abuse of any of the other five senses). The worst "false speech" (musavada) is bearing false witness (perjury).

The Five Precepts were not invented by the Buddha but realized by him and revealed as crucial to keep -- if one would be happy now (through peace of mind) and in the future when one meet with the results of karma. What makes something "bad"? If it harms the doer (when the action bears its result, which is rarely right away), if it harms another (which is usually right away), or both (which seems to mean society or everyone involved not merely the two principals, e.g., sex with someone dependent on parents involves many more people that the two having sex.

Who's harmed by sex with a bot?

There is no way to have sex with a robot without engendering a habit of lust and its expression. This will not be helpful in life. The excuse, completely unfounded, that it is a "release valve" for sexual energy is flawed. Eating more does not make one less hungry. On the contrary, one grows fatter and hungrier. Be that as it may.

If one chooses to become obsessed with sex -- Internet pornography, prostitution, pandering, or prurient interest in "interactive technology" -- that individual is alone in that. But none of us are alone. The illusion of separation is deluded, but there is no convincing anyone in the grip of it that it is anything but true. All we do affects others, and to a greater or lesser extent we are responsible for that.

Sex with robot -- even robot "children" -- may be legal. But is it a good idea? This commentary cannot go any further than to say to the individual, Think twice. Lot's of things are legal that are not a good idea.

Masturbation (which is what sex with an inanimate machine is) and the realization of the fantasy envisioned in West World makes us all more isolated, unempathic, and enmeshed in unsatisfactory pursuits that science (for profit) hails as a technological breakthrough to advance the world. This is what happens when socially-ostracized nerds rule the world.

Help save the world -- offer nerds affection so they won't spend their time inventing things like automated kissing machines.

Rape and the Prophetic Dream from Hell

Wisdom Quarterly based on original translation by Ven. Nyanaponika and Hellmuth Hecker in Buddhist Women at the Time of the Buddha Samsara, the "Wheel of Rebirth," in Buddhist art

Du: Dung-like life to live,
No willingness to give,
Although we could have given much,
We did not make our refuge thus.

Sa: Say the end is near?
Already 60,000 years have gone
Without respite the torture is
In this hellish realm.

Na: Naught, no end near, O, would it end!
No end in sight for us.
Who once did misdeeds here
For me, for you, for both of us.

So: So could I only leave this place
And raise myself to human realm,
I would be kind and restrained too,
And do good deeds in abundance.

A boiling cauldron of oil in the depths of Avici, a hellish realm in Buddhist cosmology

After Mallika gained unshakeable confidence in the Buddha, she also won her husband over to the Dharma:

One night King Pasenadi had a succession of 16 prophetic dreams. During them he heard gruesome, unfathomable noises from four voices: "Du, Sa, Na, So."

When he awoke, fear seized him. Sitting upright and trembling, he waited for sunrise.

When his brahmin priest advisors asked him whether he had slept well, he related the terror of the night. He asked them what could be done to counteract the menace. The brahmins declared that one would have to offer great blood sacrifices [of biblical proportions (Exodus 12:29)] to pacify the evil spirits.



In his fear the king agreed. The brahmins rejoiced because of the gifts they would surely reap and busily began to make preparations for the great sacrifice. They scurried about, building a sacrificial altar and tying animals to posts to be killed.

For greater efficacy, they demanded the sacrifice of four human beings, who also awaited their death tied to posts.

When Queen Mallika became aware of all this activity, she went to the king and asked him why the brahmins were so busy running around joyfully and expectantly. The king replied that she did not pay enough attention to him and did not know his sorrows: He told her of his dreams.

Mallika asked the king whether he had consulted the first and foremost "brahmin" (one ennobled by actions rather than birth) about the meaning and interpretation of his dreams.

Torture ancient Indian style, a man being boiled alive in oil under brahmin oversight

The king replied that she would first have to tell him who was "the first and foremost" among brahmins. Mallika explained that the Awakened One was foremost in this world of devas and hamans, the first of all noble individuals everywhere.

King Pasenadi decided to ask the Buddha's advice and went to Prince Jeta's Grove, to the abbey donated by the millionaire Anathapindika.

There he related to the Buddha his 16 dreams and asked what would happen to him as a result.

Life size scene depicting torment in the worst plane of existence, Avici

"Nothing," the Buddha replied and explained the meaning of each to him. The 16 dreams were prophecies, revealing that in the distant future living conditions on Earth would deteriorate due to the increasing moral laxity of rulers.

During a contemplative period, King Pasenadi had been able to see the future in a vision within his sphere of interest, as a monarch concerned with the well-being of his subjects.

The Results of Former Karma
The voices the king had heard belonged to four men who formerly lived in Savatthi and been rapists or seducers of married women in either case engaged in sexual misconduct.

As a result of that karma ripening at the time of death, it conditioned rebirth in a correspondingly hellish world. And for 30,000 years they drowned in red hot cauldrons of oil, coming nearer and nearer to the fire, which intensified their already unbearable suffering.

For another 30,000 years they slowly rose up in those iron cauldrons and had now come to the rim, where they could once again at least breathe the air of the human realm.

Each one wanted to give voice to a verse. But because of the gravity of their hurtful deeds, they could not get past the first syllable. Not even in sighs could they voice their suffering, having long lost the gift of speech.

The four verses -- which start in the ancient language of the Buddha's day with "du," "sa," "na," and "so" -- were recognized by the Enlightened One as follows

A glimpse of freedom every 60,000 years for violating the Five Guiding Precepts of happiness in the human world

Dung-like life to live,
No willingness to give,
Although we could have given much,
We did not make our refuge thus.

Say the end is near?
Already 60,000 years have gone
Without respite the torture is
In this hellish realm.

Naught, no end near, O, would it end!
No end in sight for us.
Who once did misdeeds here
For me, for you, for both of us.

So could I only leave this place
And raise myself to human realm,
I would be kind and restrained too,
And do good deeds in abundance.

After King Pasenadi had heard the dreams explained in detail, he became responsive to the request of his compassionate queen. He granted freedom to the imprisoned men and the animals. He then ordered the sacrificial altar to be destroyed (Jataka 77 & 314).

Sex Trafficking with Ashton and Demi (video)

Moore, Kutcher: Join our crusade to end child sex trafficking

Watch the full interview with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher on "Piers Morgan Tonight," which airs weeknights on CNN/US.

Kutcher, Moore on using social media to stop child sex trafficking Piers Morgan - CNN.com Blogs

"There's between 100,000 and 300,000 child sex slaves in the United States today," Ashton Kutcher tells CNN's Piers Morgan. "If you don't do something to stop that -- that's when there's something wrong with you."

In their first-ever joint primetime interview, actress Demi Moore and actor Ashton Kutcher were on Thursday's "Piers Morgan Tonight."

The husband-and-wife team launched The Demi & Ashton Foundation (DNA) after a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in January.

They met a girl who had been trafficked into the United States by her pimp, who brought her into a field where she was repeatedly raped on a trash bag by 30 men. The DNA Foundation stands for the fundamental right to freedom for every person -- because it's within our DNA. More