Tibet: "My Reincarnation" (Rebirth)

My Reincarnation - Official Trailer from Zohe Films on Vimeo

Filmed over 20 years by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Jennifer Fox (Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman), "My Reincarnation" chronicles the epic story of the high Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and his Western-born son, Yeshi.

• Now playing at Laemmle's, Los Angeles
  

The film follows Namkhai Norbu’s rise to greatness as a Buddhist teacher in the West, while Yeshi, recognized at birth as the reincarnation or rebirth of a famous spiritual master (a tulku), breaks away from his father’s tradition to embrace the modern world.

Can the father convince his son to keep the family’s threatened spiritual legacy alive? Never before has a high Tibetan master allowed such complete access to his private life, and it is doubtful that another ever will.

With her intimate entry to both family and icons including the Dalai Lama, Fox expertly distills a decades-long drama into a universal story about love, transformation, and destiny.

This is an epic father-son drama spanning two decades and three generations. It is about Buddhism, cultural survival, identity, inheritance, family, growing old, growing up, faith, meditation, religion, magic, dreaming, spirituality, Dzogchen -- and past and future lives.

The film follows the renowned reincarnate Tibetan spiritual master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu as he struggles to save his spiritual tradition and his Italian-born son, Yeshi, who stubbornly refuses to follow in his father’s footsteps. More

(Oscopelabs) "Rebirth"

Occupying US with Glover and West (video)

Wisdom Quarterly: Voices for Change, Voices of Freedom

"Poverty is the greatest violence of all." Princeton University Prof. Cornel West laid it on the line protesting at the Supreme Court this weekend (Occupy DC, Oct. 16, 2011). Along with radio host Tavis Smiley, Prof. West recognizes that B.S. Obama is NOT the fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream.

The fact of the matter is that "Barack Obama is the Black mascot of the Wall Street oligarchs."

Prof. West is not alone in recognizing the situation for what it is. The whitewash has fooled no one. Where is the "change" we voted for, we believed was coming, we were promised. Obama lies like a Bush -- and has successfully put through Bush policies Bush could not push through. "The new NAFTA" is further proof that Bush-Cheney are still in office in disguise. The CHANGE we voted for never came.

Actor Danny Glover delivers an impassioned, impromptu speech to peaceful demonstrators giving voice to a movement that encompasses ALL Americans, not simply taxpayers, youth, veterans, minorities, gays, union members, parents, teachers, police, firefighters, and mortgage holders.

Dr. West addresses crowd at Occupy DC on corporate greed.

Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West tell it like it is: "Barack Obama is NOT the fulfillment pf Martin Luther King's dream!"

"Black Power Mixtape" is a Scandinavian exploration of African American voices of struggle during the 1960s on into the tumultuous '70s. Sweden sent a team of investigators to document and try to understand what the hippies, Black Panthers, civil rights movement members, and radicals were protesting and trying to accomplish during the greatest generation so far in our country's short history. More

• AUDIO: Berkeley Liberation Radio.net
• Free Radio Berkeley alongside Pacifica
• OccupyTogether.com
  

Greek Buddhism (video)

Opensourcebuddhism.org, Wisdom Quarterly
(Open Source Buddhism) Mike Watters through Professor Rev. Dr. James Kenneth Powell II

Buddhism was a beloved Greek/Bactrian/Scythian tradition influencing the Dharma and toga-sporting depictions of the Buddha as East met West in Alexander's expansive Indo-Greek empire, which encompassed parts of northwest frontier India (Gandhara, Afghanistan, Indus River valley).

This detailed study of the intriguing interactions of the ancient Greeks, Indians, and Buddhists as greater Greece became a major conduit of communication.

Greek Skeptics and Stoics were greatly influenced by their connections with Buddhism, but not the Cynics. Diogenes was certainly a Buddhist man in the West. The contrast between his view and that of Socrates and Plato is well articulated. He is far more in agreement with the Buddha than the others.

Watters' chronicle of the origins and development of the Alexandrian then Ashokan civilizations is concise yet replete with details. The travels of the two Greek Dharmaraksitas is a fascinating revelation following Greco-Buddhism to Sri Lanka.

The study of King Menander (Milinda) pushes home how Buddhism took root in Central Asia and the philosopher-monk Nagasena's arguments in Greek court were historically pivotal.

The Boy Mir: Struggle as the West’s war fails

(Seventhartproduction) Following the international hit "The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan," THE BOY MIR covers not one year but ten. It tracks the cheeky, enthusiastic Mir from a childish eight to a fully grown 18-year-old, a journey to adulthood in one of the toughest places on Earth, a journey that mirrors the story of Afghanistan.

• TheBoyMir-Twitter/theboymir-Facebook/The-Boy-Mir

The Boy Mir: One boy’s struggle and the failure of the West’s war [on Afghanistan]

Socialistworker.co.uk/Art
John Clossick thinks that The Boy Mir offers a stunning account of the trials of life in Afghanistan.

Six months before 9/11, shocking media images appeared of the Taliban government dynamiting the 1,450-year-old Buddha statues at Bamiyan in central Afghanistan. The demolition in March 2001 followed a Taliban edict that all statues be destroyed.

It brought the regime’s determination to impose a severe interpretation of Islam on Afghanistan into sharp international focus. The act shocked the West, although previously there had been little interest in the disastrous effects of a Western economic blockade on the country.

No one had commented much on the thousands of children who suffered from malnutrition as a result or were maimed by land mines. The visual shock of this destruction is both the starting point and the counterpoint for this affecting and strikingly shot documentary. More

• VIDEO: The Boy Mir: Ten Years in Afghanistan
• New view of Indian history (ranajitpal.com)
• PHOTOS: A journey through India
• BOOK: Red haired giants found in Afghanistan
• VIDEO: The End Game, Steve Quayle on Alex Jones
  

WARNING: Upsetting! Monstrous red haired giant watches "Twilight"

Protesting Obama in Los Angeles (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy Wall Street Goes Global

(XenuSmurf, Sept. 26, 2011) Thousands of supporters and protesters lined West Hollywood's Sunset Blvd. for a glimpse of Pres. [of the corporation] B.S. Obama, only to learn he and his entourage pulled in from a side street. What, no underground passageways like DC?

WEST HOLLYWOOD, California - Wouldn't it be great to have a black president? The Republicans may give us one -- if they can get their vast racist and fundamentalist contingencies to go along. Sure, some say previous presidents have been partly black, but imagine pizza man Herman Cain telling it like it is....

It wouldn't happen. He wouldn't tell it like it is. We may as well inherit Justice Clarence Thomas to the highest (public) office in the land. Those who are perched more highly -- at the NSA, NSC, Pentagon, CIA, and Moussad (not to mention the vast conspiracy known collectively as our Shadow Government) would get Cain to go along as they did Bush I, Bush II (Dubya/Cheney), and Bush III (Obama).

Occupy Los Angeles claiming to be Anonymous.

• VIDEO: "Antichrist" agrees Christ is God of universe
  
• Occupy Wall Street spreads across America (RT)
• VIDEO: Michael Moore says "Occupy Wall Street" will spread across America (Piers Morgan)
  
• "Are y'all really against Obama?" Yes. He is a great person. But the lies, the hypocrisy [the murder, homosexuality, secrecy, Michelle's breakdown about it, and endless concessions], promoting a Bush/Cheney agenda, it's too much! Like Princeton Prof. Cornell West and radio legend Tavis Smiley, we believe only keeping his "feet to the fire" will cause Barry Soetoro Obama to rise to the greatness he is clearly capable of rising to.
  

If Ron Paul keeps winning straw polls, they may stop using them.

Where is Candidate Obama when we need him? Where is the "change" he PROMISED? He was usurped by Complete-sellout Obama, who is almost certain to be re-(s)elected unless protesters have their way. Will there be more and bigger wars for the US, harsher and more tragic job loss rates, deeper debt and currency devaluation? If Obama has his way there will.

Who is better suited to hold office? True, the position is just a figurehead post, but it seems to affect us. Better the Great Communicator deliver the bad news than a right wing, hate-inspiring speaker. But we can think of a few names -- Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, or straw poll favorite Other.

• Punk rock on US airwaves (completecontrolradio.com)
• IAC Board Member Chelsea Clinton (not appointed because of her family's ties to IAC Diller)

(PiPhD) Occupy Wall Street Manifesto: KILL ALEC (ALEC = American Legislative Exchange Council) the corporate-funded, right wing organization in charge of writing custom-made legislation to spread Republican lawmakers across the country who push state legislatures and Congress further to the right.

• VIDEO: ALEC Exposed on Democracy Now!
• ALECexposed.org
• RT exposes ALEC
• OccupyWallSt.org
• Livestream.com: Global Revolution
• Four Horsemen (how the world really works)
• Ad Busters: Occupy Wall Street

Scientology vs. Reitman (Daily Show video)

Scientology on "This Week in God" (Daily Show)

Center for Inquiry West
Janet Reitman in conversation
Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011
11:00 am in Hollywood

Scientology, which created in 1954 by prolific sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world’s fastest growing religion. The organization claims it has millions of members around the world and huge financial holdings. But Scientology is also a notably closed "faith," harassing journalists and others through litigation and intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of the government to further its goals. Its attacks on psychiatry and its requirement that believers pay thousands of dollars for salvation have drawn scrutiny and skepticism. And ex-members use the Internet to share stories of harassment and abuse.

Based on her five years of research, unprecedented access to Church officials, confidential documents, and extensive interviews with current and former Scientologists, Janet Reitman now offers the first full journalistic history of the Church of Scientology. She provides an evenhanded account that at last establishes the truth about the controversial religion. More

• VIDEO: New book exposes Scientology
  
• Scientology slave "monastery" discovered
• Scientology convicted of fraud
• L. Ron Hubbard like the Buddha?
• More Americans say they have no religion

(cfiwest.org)

Mara: Buddhism's Super Devil, Cupid, Lucifer

Ananda W.P. Guruge (U. West, UNESCO, Sri Lankan ambassador) Wisdom Quarterly

Mara Devaputra, or the Super Devil, is more dangerous than the other maras.

The Buddha's Encounters with Mara the Tempter

Their Representation in Literature and Art

The Dictionary of Pali Proper Names (Prof. G.P. Malalasekera) introduces Mara (a Buddhist "super devil" as:

• "the personification of Death"
• "the Evil One"
• "the Tempter"
• "(the Buddhist counterpart of the Devil or Principle of Destruction)."

• Top 10 greatest TV and movie devils

It continues: "The legends concerning Mara are, in the books, very involved and defy any attempts at unraveling them."[1]

Analyzing a series of allusions to Mara in the commentarial literature, Prof. Malalasekera further elaborates on his definition with the following observations:

1. "In the latest accounts, mention is made of five maras -- Khandha-mara, Kilesa-mara, Abhisankhara-mara, Maccu-mara, and Devaputta-mara. Elsewhere Mara is spoken of as one, three, or four."[2]
2. "The term Mara, in the older books, is applied to the whole of the worldly existence, the Five Aggregates, or the realm of rebirth, as opposed to nirvana."[3]
3. Commentaries speaking of three maras specify them as Devaputta-mara, Maccu-mara, and Kilesa-mara. When four maras are referred to, they appear to be the five maras mentioned above minus Mara Devaputta.

Prof. Malalasekera proceeds to attempt "a theory of Mara in Buddhism," which he formulates in the following manner:

"The commonest use of the word was evidently in the sense of Death. From this it was extended to mean 'the world under the sway of death' (also called Mara-dheyya, e.g. AN IV 228) and the beings therein.

"Thence, the kilesas (defilements) also came to be called Mara in that they were instruments of Death, the causes enabling Death to hold sway over the world. All temptations brought about by the kilesas were likewise regarded as the work of Death.

"There was also evidently a legend of a devaputta [a "son of the gods," one born among the celestial devas] of the Vasavatti world called Mara, who considered himself the head of the Kamavacara-world [the sense sphere] and who recognized any attempt to curb the enjoyment of sensual pleasures as a direct challenge to himself and to his authority.

"As time went on these different conceptions of the word became confused one with the other, but this confusion is not always difficult to unravel."[4]

What follows from this statement, even though Malalasekera does not elucidate, is that the term Mara, when it occurs in Buddhist literature, could signify any one of the following four:

1. An anthropomorphic deity ruling over a heaven in the sense sphere, namely, Paranimmita-Vasavatti. He is meant when Mara is called the king of the sensual realm. In this position, he is as important and prestigious as Sakka (King of the Devas) and Maha Brahma (the "Great Supremo") in whose company he is often mentioned in the canonical literature. This Mara, or Mara-devaputta, is not only a very powerful deity but is also bent on making life difficult for spiritual persons.
2. The Canon also speaks of (a) maras in the plural as a class of potent deities (e.g., SN 56.11) and (b) of previous -- hence, logically future -- maras (e.g., MN 50). According to Tibetan texts, the ascetic Siddhartha could have, with the instructions given by Arada Kalama, become a Sakra, a brahma, or a mara [all of which are best understood as posts held rather than individual historical figures].[5]
3. A personification of Death is called also the Lord of Death, the exterminator, the great king (maha raja), and the inescapable (Namuci). The preoccupation of the Buddhist quest for deliverance is consistently stressed as escaping the phenomenon of death, which presupposes rebirth. The entire range of existence falls within the realm of Mara on account of the ineluctable presence of death. (Compare with Schopenhauer's concept of "Morture."[6]) All states of existence, including the six [near-Earth] heavenly worlds of the sense sphere, are said to return to the power of Mara, which means into the power of death.[7]
4. Mara can also be seen allegorically, with almost immediate personification, of the power of temptation, the tendency towards evil, moral conflict, and the influence of such factors as indolence, negligence, and niggardliness. Similar to Satan in Judeo-Christian and Islamic thinking and Ahriman in Avestan [Zoroastrian] thought, though in no way identical, this Mara is described as Papima (i.e., "the Evil One," or simply "the Evil")[8], "Kinsman of Dalliance" (Pamattabandhu), Calumnious or Malicious (Pisuna), and "the Black" (Kanha). Grimm calls this Mara "the prince and bestower of all worldly lust" and distinguishes him from Lucifer of the Bible on the ground that this personification "always remains apparent."[9]

In this work, where the Buddha's encounters with Mara are analyzed as they are presented in literature and art, the main concern will be with Mara as a personification of temptation (No. 4 above). But I will also briefly examine how the other concepts are sometimes subsumed under this and how the literary description or the artistic representation of Mara is conditioned by the merger of three separate concepts as well as by the general body of Indian mythology.

It has to be noted that Mara is another name for the Indian "God of Love" [Cupid], known also as "Lust" (Kama) or "Deva of Lust" (Kama-deva), "Of Five Arrows" (Pañcabana), "Tormentor of Minds" (Manmatha), Bodiless (Ananga), "Flower-Weaponed" (Kusuma-yudha), and "Dragon-Flagged" (Makara-dhvaja). More

Access to Insight version:

1. Introduction
2. Mara Legends in Canonical Texts
3. Temptations by Mara in Non-canonical Buddhist Literature
4. Mara Episodes in Asian Buddhist Art
5. Conclusion

Buddhist Geeks Conference begins

Buddhist Geeks Conference


Keynote Presenters

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche Nalandabodhi

Jane Mcgonigal Reality is Broken

Shinzen Young The Five Ways

Other Conference Presenters

Diane “Musho” Hamilton Dragon Heart Sangha	Ken McLeod Unfettered Mind	Trudy Goodman InsightLA
Ethan Nichtern The ID Project	Vincent Horn Buddhist Geeks	Hokai Sobol Mandala Society
Danny Fisher University of the West	Diana Winston UCLA	Rohan Gunatillake 21awake.com
Kenneth Folk Kenneth Folk Dharma	Afra Moenter Ordinary Awakenings	Emily Horn Ordinary Awakenings
Kelly McGonigal Stanford University	Michael Trigilio StarveLab	Benjamin Beirs Classical Guitarist

Click to enlarge:

Buddhist monk's "Hippie History" (video)

Seven Dharmachari (Wisdom Quarterly)

VIDEO: "Drugs are bad, m'kay?"

How does one go from college to drugs to a search for nirvana?

Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Buddhist monk Ven. Rahula, Rev. Jim* (Back to the Future star Christopher Lloyd) from "Taxi" explains his roundabout path from Harvard University (with Tom Hanks), to peer-pressured premarital sex, to Woodstock, to the garage.

American (Sri Lankan Theravada) forest monk Ven. Rahula (Dhammatube)

The author of one of the most surprising and candid books on the "Buddhist" spiritual quest one may ever read (One Night's Shelter) is by Ven. Rahula. He is a former resident of West Virginia's Bhavana Society. He was once in line to succeed as its abbot when the noted elderly Sri Lankan scholar-practitioner Bhante G (author of Mindfulness in Plain English) stepped down. But he returned to the call of the open road after many years.


Meandering down from Afghanistan to the call of Acid (LSD) Full Moon Parties in Goa, India

Bhante Rahula recounts the "Hippie History" that led many in the West to seek a deeper spirituality through the Dharma (Pali, Dhamma) rather than the spiraling senselessness of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll.

• Download One Night's Shelter (FREE)

Baby boomers evolved from being fed up with endless American wars -- with Vietnam destroying the illusion that we were killing and conquering for any noble or humanitarian reason whatsoever -- via drugs towards interest in sharp mindfulness and blissful meditation.

The real renunciation of drugs is as much mental as physical

*Explaining the character of Jim on "Taxi"

Drugs Are Bad
Embodiment of the Sixties
Jim attended Woodstock ("500,000 people... Lucky for them I went, or it would have only been 499,999"). He said he kept finding God everywhere -- except "he kept ditching me." He spent a year of his life making a macrame couch. He was once traded from his commune to another commune for two goats and a Donovan record. Jim once claimed that instead of finding NIRVANA, his 1960's experiences only left him with recurring flashbacks of the original Mouseketeers appearing as visions hatching out of seedpods.

The lesson here is best summarized by South Park's Mr. Mackay: "Drugs are bad, m'kay?"

Final word: Children, drugs are bad. M'kay?