Dalai Lama becomes a "Masterchef" (video)

Greig Box-Turnbull, Daily Mirror July 19, 2011 (Mirror.co.uk)

The Dalai Lama (Tibet's pope-king) appeared as guest judge on "Masterchef."

The Dalai Lama yesterday [July 18, 2011] made a bizarre appearance as guest judge on the Australian version of Masterchef.

Stunned contestants prepared lunch for the Tibetan spiritual leader -- but he refused to rate their offerings, saying it would be against his Buddhist principles.

In a special episode of the hit TV show, the religious figurehead was presented with several sweet and savory veggie dishes as he took time out from his official duties on a visit Down Under.

Kindness is appreciated everywhere.

He liked a Sri Lankan curry with roti bread, but gnocchi -- an Italian dumpling -- was his least favorite. However, his most severe criticism about the gnocchi was the comment that the contestant “tried their best.”

Speaking about fine dining, the Dalai Lama also told the contestants: “My knowledge of these things is very limited. Whatever I get, I accept.

“As a Buddhist monk it is not right to prefer this food or that food.”

But he did [regrettably] reveal he was a huge fan of cheese and also said his other favorite foods included bread, tofu, mushrooms, desserts, and “especially” coriander.

Speaking about the food he was presented with on the show, he said: “They all had a special taste and beauty.” Source

Chanting "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" didn't save Amy

Amy Winehouse dies in spite of Soka Gakai chanting

Even though she chanted daimoku, she remained addicted, suicidal, and on a self-destructive path. Does that mean daimoku doesn't "work?" That depends what one means by "work." If we think namu-myoho-renge-kyo is a magic phrase that makes us happy and is a get-out-of-death-and-suffering-free card, no, it doesn't "work." Nichiren Buddhism is a life-long practice -- even if our life turns out to be heartbreakingly short. It's not a quick fix or magic cure. More

Just Chant This and That's It?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Is it possible that Brahminical-style chants that mimic Sanskrit hymns (gathas) do not have magical power?

The Vedas gave the ancient Indus Valley Civilizations, which Adi Shankara's Hinduism claims as its inheritance, mantras for everything.

These enchantments first focused the minds of seers (rishis) and were then used by brahmins to enhance their temple-bound priesthood that the Buddha (and other spiritual wanderers or shramans) rejected.

But the technique is sound -- repetition that cuts off normal consciousness and gives way to an elevated state. Simply chanting never works anymore than saying "Abracadabra" or "Open Sesame."

But sincere, persistent, and devoted utterance of special sounds is widely accepted as being effective IF it is consistent and in integrity with one's life. Living one way and chanting another is working at odds with one's professed intention. For example, trying to quit drugs while chanting Nichiren Buddhism's hallmark hymn might really help.

But getting high to enhance the elevation brought on by dedicated chanting is only mocking the process. Or, worse, using the chant as a quick shortcut to material riches -- why, IF that worked, who wouldn't do it? Nichiren goes much deeper than a pretty mantra and a cultish appearance.

• Maybe it worked: Did Amy Winehouse die of alcohol withdrawal?
• What is Nichiren and "Value Creation"? (sgi-usa.org)

Tina Turner chants on CNN's Larry King

• PHOTOS: Drugs ruin a person's youthful looks
• Too much of a good thing: When sex lasts too long
• Amy's parents, public braced for death for years
• Amy Winehouse joins unfortunate 27 Forever Club
• Three-way Los Angeles AdultCon cancels convention
• Squatting (adverse possession) to get a home
• Squatter gets $330,000 house in Texas for $16

Lady Gaga's going bald, Kim Kardashian's skin

Wisdom Quarterly (GOSSIP+ADVICE)
Akasa, Netherlands (willem-mantra.blogspot.com)

Balding?

She "plummets like a shooting star that shines so bright yet falls so far" (How Have the Mighty Fallen?/Sabbat)

Rumor has it, superstar singer Lady Gaga is using Rogaine (to regrow hair). No one in her camp is speaking publicly. But drug and alcohol abuse, mania, sex addiction, stress, a temper, and other acidifying habits would take their toll on anyone's body. Too much testosterone, which causes men to go bald, would also make Gaga (aka S.J.A. Germanotta) stressed out and sexually aggressive. (According to John Gray, therapist and acclaimed author of Men Are From Mars Women Are From Venus, females need oxytocin not testosterone to feel soothed. The imbalance would ruin her life, not only cause her hair loss. Hair damage and thinning are aggravated a lack of self-worth. So is anxiety and self-starvation (yo-yo dieting or an undiagnosed eating disorder). As it would for any of us in her position, these things cause the multi-millionairess to overprocess, bleach, dye, and weave her hair -- and even to pull it out. Gaga's yoga habit would help, but she practices exactly the wrong kind (Bikram) for a "fiery constitution" (called pita dosha in Ayurveda). She needs soothing, not stimulation. Is she on a sure track to the 27 Candle Club?

Scabby?


Gorgeous Kim Kardashian has a hideous secret -- one that, like Lady Gaga's, would be helped by an alkalizing diet and a good detoxing -- scaly psoriasis. Her human scabies was revealed on a recent episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." She may avoid stressful situations to prevent flare-ups of this itchy blotchy skin disease, but the root cause is environmental toxins being cleared from the body through its largest organ, the skin. That means the lungs and colon are not doing their job. Yum, celebrities are so beautiful...and just as human as Hollywood agents, some of the least savory humans on the planet.

Sogyal Rinpoche in Sex Abuse Scandal

• Allegations against Sogyal Rinpoche highlight the dangers of [Mahayana] Buddhist injunctions against gossip [that in any way criticizes the Sangha, which in Mahayana Buddhism means the entire "community" of practitioners, in front of outsiders] and insistence on loyalty.

Lama sex abuse claims call Buddhist taboos into question

Mary Finnigan (guardian.co.uk)
An exiled Tibetan Buddhist nun prostrates around the main temple and the residence of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (Ashwini Bhatia/AP).

In November 1994 an American woman known as Janice Doe filed a $10m lawsuit against the Tibetan lama Sogyal Rinpoche, charging him with sexual, mental, and physical abuse. The case was dealt with out of court and Janice Doe signed a non-disclosure agreement in return for a cash settlement.

Sogyal Rinpoche with Joan Halifax and Richard Gere in Switzerland, 1985

Sogyal denies allegations of abuse, but fresh evidence against him was recently aired in an investigative documentary called In the Name of Enlightenment, broadcast on Vision TV in Canada.

A beautiful young woman identified as Mimi described an abusive sexual relationship. She was the first person claiming direct experience of Sogyal's exploitative attentions to go public since the 1994 lawsuit.

Sogyal (surname Lakar -- rinpoche is a title that means "precious one") is the frontman for a Tibetan Buddhist organization called Rigpa, which has a worldwide reach with 130 centers in 41 countries. He has a bestselling book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, to his name and he starred alongside Keanu Reeves [Chris Issak, Bridget Fonda] in the movie Little Buddha.

Sogyal is a formidably successful guru -- probably the best known Tibetan after the Dalai Lama. His trajectory into Buddhist superstardom suffered only a temporary setback following the Janice Doe lawsuit -- despite the fact that lurid rumors about his sex life circulate on the Internet with increasing volume and persistence.

The allegations raise a wider question: Why are victims of sexual exploitation by charismatic religious leaders reluctant to denounce their abusers? In the Canadian documentary, Mimi highlights the "Stockholm syndrome"... More

Sex Scandals in Religion.com

A Tibetan Buddhist master beloved by millions uses his position and authority to take advantage of young women. For over three decades, complaints are dismissed as merely the grumblings of the uninitiated. A guru focused on his own pleasure turns the Path to enlightenment into a road of sexual servitude. Written and directed by Debi Goodwin.

Sex and Buddhist monasticism?

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Renunciates have always faced the lure of desires, aversions, and delusions making the ordinary (non-accomplished), uninstructed Sangha ripe for abuses.

How would Buddhism be any better a tradition if it concealed serious rule violations by its monastics? Most stories that come to our attention are not actually alleged to have been acts committed by "monastics" who follow many precepts. They are usually the deeds of "novices," who are probationers in training to keep ten precepts.

• The Buddhist Monastic Code (English)
  

For fully ordained monks and nuns, four acts are considered "defeat offenses" entailing immediate expulsion and loss of ordination from the Buddhist Monastic Order.

This is true for all Buddhist schools, even if lesser rules have been altered over the centuries. The historical Buddha set up a celibate monastic tradition with many disciplinary guidelines dealing crucial requisites and minor etiquette. Why?

The Buddha explained that it was ultimately for the good of humans and devas, so that the teachings would remain in the world as long as possible. More specifically, the rules are in place to increase confidence in the Sangha so that people will become receptive to hearing the Dharma and practicing for the benefit of one and all. It is also for the peace and progress of sincere monastics and the training of those able to be trained.

By following the Five Precepts, lay Buddhists do not face the same restrictions as those who follow hundreds of guidelines. Nor do they risk losing their status for lapses. If Buddhists conceal the disqualifying offenses of monastics -- an act as unskillful as making false allegations -- the Dharma is lost. There are only four monastic acts that cannot be remedied:

1. murder
2. sexual penetration of any kind
3. stealing
4. falsely claiming spiritual attainments

DEFEAT: (Sanskrit, pārājika-dharma), a group of four offenses that are the most serious in the Buddhist monastic code of discipline (Prātimokṣa). The penalty for any of the four is lifelong expulsion from the monastic order (Sangha). The four are (1) sexual intercourse; (2) serious theft; (3) murder; (4) falsely claiming to have attained supernatural powers [or the stages of enlightenment]. A monastic who commits a "defeat" (the traditional etymology of pārājika) offense is compared to "a person whose head is cut off, or a withered leaf dropped from the tree, or a stone slab split in two, or a palm tree cut from the top [which is incapable of regrowing]." Such a person has been defeated and cannot be readmitted to the Order (encyclopedia.com).

• Shock at lama Sogyal Rinpoche's past
• The Politics of Well-Being: Gurus behaving badly
• VIDEO: sex abuse allegations vex Vatican
• AUDIO: Father Lopez Lopez, another case of Vatican molestation
• Group speaks out against priest convicted of child molestation
• SNAP: The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
• Catholic priest extradited to Ireland to face molestation charges
• Hare Krishnas sued for child sexual and physical abuse

The Mystery of the Dogon

Unmuseum.org

Full moon emerging from clouds (Sam Mugraby/Photos8.com)

Last month two Suns were filmed at sunset from various parts of the world. Today there was a full lunar eclipse. All this got us to thinking about the amazing Dogon of Africa, who long ago claimed there was a "Dog Star" behind the Sun. It is only visible (with telescopes) every fifty years according to their ancient astronomy. They also knew a great deal about this solar system. The source of their information? Strange beings (amphibian Nommos, hermaphrodite mermaids) who came from their and left behind this legacy.

In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian descent. But their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. According to their traditions, the star Sirius has a companion star, one invisible to the human eye. This companion star has a 50 year elliptical orbit around the visible Sirius and is extremely heavy. It also rotates on its axis.

This legend might be of little interest to anybody but the two French anthropologists, Marcel Griaule and Germain Dieterlen, who recorded it from four Dogon priests in the 1930's. It would be of little interest except that it is exactly correct.

How did a people, who lacked any kind of astronomical devices, know so much about an invisible star? The star, which scientists now call Sirius B, was not photographed until a large telescope was devised and finally used in 1970.

The Dogon stories explain that according to their oral traditions, a race of "people" from the Sirius system called the Nommos visited Earth thousands of years ago. The Nommos were ugly, amphibious beings resembling mermen and mermaids.

They also appear in Babylonian, Accadian, and Sumerian myths. The Egyptian Goddess Isis, who is sometimes depicted as a mermaid, is also linked with the star Sirius.

According to the Dogon legend, the Nommos lived on a planet that orbits another star in the Sirius system. They landed on Earth in an "ark" [spacecraft] that made a spinning descent to the ground with great noise and wind. The Nommos gave the Dogon their knowledge about Sirius B.

Moreover, according to legend, the Nommos furnished the Dogon with very interesting information about our own solar system:

• The planet Jupiter has four major moons
• Saturn has rings
• The planets orbit the Sun.

These are all facts only discovered by Westerners after Galileo invented the telescope.

The story of the Dogon and their legend was first brought to popular attention by Robert K.G. Temple in his 1977 book The Sirius Mystery. Science writer Ian Ridpath and astronomer Carl Sagan replied to Temple's book, suggesting that this modern knowledge about Sirius must have come from Westerners... [because, of course, an African hunter-gatherer tribe who speak a languages distinct from everyone around them could not possibly be reporting their lore accurately].

• History of Mali's Timbuktu
  

But it does not explain a 400 year old Dogon artifact that apparently depicts the Sirius configuration nor the ceremonies held by the Dogon since the 13th century to celebrate the cycle of Sirius A and B. Nor does it explain how the Dogon knew about the super-density of Sirius B, a fact only discovered a few years before anthropologists recorded the Dogon stories.

But it is also important to remember that although many parts of Dogon legend ring true, other portions seem mistaken [from the point of view of our current understanding]. One Dogon belief is that Sirius B occupied the place where our Sun is now. Our understanding of physics prohibits this. And if the Dogon believe that Sirius B orbits Sirius A every 50 years, why do they hold their celebrations every 60 years? [Never mind that few who begin the massive preparations will live to see those celebrations.] More

Free-floating planets found in the Milky Way

Alok Jha, Science correspondent (guardian.co.uk)

Artist's impression of free floating planet (Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt)

Astronomers discover 10 more free-floating planets in Milky Way
The planets, found by an international group of researchers, do not orbit any star.

Astronomers have found a clutch of planets that wander alone through interstellar space. The discovery of the objects, which do not orbit any star, will help scientists better understand how planetary systems form and evolve.

See lyrics below

The 10 free-floating planets are thousands of light years in the direction of the central bulge of the Milky Way, towards the constellation of Sagittarius. Their masses and compositions are thought to be equivalent to Jupiter and Saturn -- mainly hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of heavier elements.

"We expect that they were formed around stars and then, during the later stages of planet formation, they get ejected, primarily due to interactions with other planets," said Daniel Bennett, an astronomer at the University of Notre Dame. His team's results were published on Wednesday in Nature. More than 500 exoplanets have been detected in just over a decade of hunting by scientists... More

Literal Buddhist "Heavens" (celestial worlds)

Buddhist "heavens" include life on advanced planets and star systems. The various planes of existence in Buddhist cosmology are celestial spheres -- delineated in measurements. Our tendency is to imagine dimensions and immaterial worlds. But the vast majority of worlds are in fine-material planes where the beings enjoy long life, beauty, radiance (streaming glory), vitality, and few of the limits that hinder human beings. None of those worlds is permanent; all of them fall away, but they last a long time.

The Buddha recommended that monastics become wandering recluses. It was crucial to break the bonds of familial and clan affiliations, provincialism, short-sightedness, and a person's "story" to understand the bigger world with its many ways of being. When the Sangha became more settled, monastics lost this advantage to breaking through the illusion of stability, ease, and personal identity.

Brahmin priests were settled, attached to name and fame, clinging to status and honors. Shramans (wandering ascetics) were originally as free as deer roaming about with robe and bowl and karma as their only support. Today, outsiders have a great advantage. If one feels isolated or misunderstood, one has the opportunity to break through the illusion often besetting more settled and attached members of society.

Beth Gibbons of the band Portishead seems perfectly aware of this two-edged sword that can either build character or deeply wound the spirit:

Please could you stay awhile to share my grief
For its such a lovely day
To have to always feel this way
And the time that I will suffer less
Is when I never have to wake

Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever

Those who have seen the needle's eye now tread
Like a husk from which all that was now has fled
And the masks that the monsters wear
To feed upon their prey

Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever
Wandering stars for whom it is reserved
The blackness of darkness forever

(Always) doubled up inside
Take awhile to shed my grief
(Always) doubled up inside
Taunted, cruel...