Wednesday, March 25, 2015

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (BBC)

Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly
The greatest book ever: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (moviepicturedb.com).

UPDATE: (BBC Radio, March 15, 2015) Live broadcast of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," 2014. The book is a comedy science fiction series created by Douglas Adams (RIP). Originally a radio comedy broadcast on as 12 episodes on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon. Adaptations have included stage shows, a "trilogy" of five books published between 1979 and 1992, a sixth novel penned by Eoin Colfer in 2009, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 computer game, and three series of three-part comic book adaptations of the first three novels published by DC Comics between 1993 and 1996.
 
(BBC Radio/HG2G) "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Fit the First 1.1 (see 1.2+ beyond).

The Hitchhiker's Guide
Don't panic. While the editors workout a post-non-apocalyptic dispute about the nomination of the new features editor, Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal wishes its reader a fine experience through space, at least the local galaxy (Buddhist world-system within systems, countless worlds upon worlds, side by side like bubbles in space or the akashic aether).

Most English-speaking people have heard of this work, but few may realize that it began as a fantastical BBC Radio program that in many ways was better than the first book in the increasingly misnamed "trilogy."

Hitchhikers and hotheads, you should always know where your towel is (mediakick.org).
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The Path of Purification (P)
It is Douglas Adams' brilliant first attempt to blend comedy and sci-fi genres, but it ventures deeply into the true nature of life, the universe, and everything.

The epic story concerns a book, the Hitchhikers's Guide, "the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom" (like the Pali canon, Vedas, Sumerian Gilgamesh, Egyptian heiroglyphs, or those Bedouin stories and books). Its four protagonists involved in an unimaginable adventure are earthling Arthur Dent, alien friend and writer Ford Prefect, earthling love interest and astrophysicist Trillian (Trisha Macmillan), and former galactic president and runaway dissident Zaphod Beeblebrox.

It is more philosophical than formal philosophy, more spiritual than most spirituality, more scientific than that PBS show on astrophysics, or as Edie Brickell (and New Bohemians) would say:

The Path of Freedom (V. 1.1)
"I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know, if you know what I mean
Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box
Religion is the smile on a dog 

I'm not aware of too many things
I know what I know,
if you know what I mean, doo'yeah
[Shove me] in the shallow waters
Before I get too deep
What I am is what I am
Are you what you are or what?

...I know what I know, if you know what I mean
Philosophy is a walk on the slippery rocks
Religion is a light in the fog...
 
You haven't lived until you've hitchhiked in sexy, Scandinavian, alien Russia (nuffy.net).

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Taylor Swift .porn (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly (Associated Press, Mail, Inc.); Bart Baker
Hey, Vickie (Karlie Kloss), it's my party! I'm the star here! Where did you get those wings? Swift sings center stage, Dec. 2, 2014, Victoria's Secret event (Joel Ryan Invision/AP).

Heart to Heart with Taylor Swift (Wonderland)

(Bart Baker) "I Knew You Were Trouble" as it rings true to the world and parody makers.
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NEW YORK, USA - The Taylor Swift, Microsoft, and Harvard University [all elite corporations] are among those buying up .porn and .adult Web suffixes as a pre-emptive move before those domain names become available to everyone this summer.
 
Swift attends the SNL 40th Anniversary Special in New York, where she presumably failed to get most of the jokes, so sang some hits (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP).
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I am SO hot. Look, everybody!
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is making Internet address suffixes beyond the usual .com or .org available for people and businesses to use. While some are in Chinese or other languages besides English, others could include the likes of .music, .app or, of course, .porn.

Representatives for Taylor Swift, Microsoft, and Harvard could not immediately be reached for comment. According to the site, Microsoft has bought not only Microsoft.porn but Office.porn and Office.adult as well. Will Tadolf Swiftler also be buying dummy.porn, Hitler.porn, or badinfluenceonourkids.porn?

"Tadolf Swiftler"
No one who knows is saying but speculation is rampant. And what will Swifty be putting up on her .porn site? Her Victoria's Secret material (shown above), behind the scenes n*p slip photos from her SNL appearance that time, private photos her many disgruntled ex-boyfriends took of her in compromising positions which were then taken from her laptop/Blackberry or cloud storage site?
 
To check what brands, groups, and celebrities have bought their domain names, visit icmregistry.com/domaincheck.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Ajahn Jumnien coming to West Coast

Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Alan Flum (forestretreat.org)
The Buddha reclining into parinirvana (flickr.com).
[This is a] lovely article about Ajahn Luang Por Jumnien:
He is truly a remarkable teacher who teaches the Dharma deeply and generously shares his personal experience to aid [in directly experiencing enlightenment and liberation].

For those interested, Ajahn Jumnien will be coming to the the U.S. in June 2015. He will teaching in Southern California and in the Pacific Northwest. For more information, visit forestretreat.org.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Cute animal pictures! (Animal Realm)

Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly
Excuse me. - Excuse me. - Beg your pardon. - Can somebody turn on the hot water again?

Bunnies, they're not just for Easter (Esther, estrus) anymore. Maternal love is forever.
As I was telling you, Douglas... - Yes, do tell! It's quite fascinating what we've been through.
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1 "plane"=countless worlds
There comes a time in your life when you walk away from the drama and the people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, focus on the good, forget the bad, love the ones who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is all part of life, it's true, but getting back up is real living.

The Buddha outlined 31 Planes of Existence, general levels where rebirth (relinking) can take place. But each "plane" may have countless worlds expression it, like the innumerable, uncharted, unimaginable diversity (papanca) of just the "animal plane" or tirrachana yoni -- to say nothing of the  "human plane" (manussa loka) spread throughout the visible galaxy and beyond. We were never alone, nor is there any end to the worlds into which one may fall. But the end of rebirth (enlightenment) is possible when one sees the dangers, false promises (of satisfaction), and other faults with all conditioned worlds (ti-lakkhana) and wearies of the merry-go-round (samsara).

"Are you tired of the tide? Aren't you tired of the tide? Roll in a rockpool. Come, let's hide. Build a tower of strength and watch it weaken. Construct high hopes as the brightest beacon. Watch the seagulls eat the trash you contemptuously ditch. Do you know a seagull? Do you know a wreck? Do you know a raging wind? Tower of strength takes to the sea, oh oh oh!" (RP)

Mom, what are they looking at? Why do they stare with those boxes. Why is the sky blue?
I'm getting the hang of this. If I double-click my paw, it seems to come alive.
My mother is the furry, but I would follow her anywhere just to be licked clean again.
There-there, we're all mammals, and I sympathize with you. But now tell me about the fish.
Pull my...uh, on second thought, don't. But do tell me how you could possibly be so tiny!
Eight is enough when eating, but when it comes to sleeping, the more the merrier!
"The animal realm (tirrachana yoni) or womb is super-diversified!" said the turtle.
Please, Chinese zookeeper, don't torture me in that isolation cage. I'll confess to anything!
I saw a sandcrab, I saw a sandcrab! I better save him before he drowns in this salt foam!
"Tom 'n Jerry," it's good TV. I just don't know who in the world this rat thinks he is!
Momma? Momma? Momma? - I don't know how to break this to you, Kitty, but...
Momma? - Yes, dear, what is it? -  I love you, meow, meow. - Rrrrrrrrrrr.

Hey, so this is what evolution looks like! You know we're related, according to these guys.
Humans fight, build, bombs and pollute the planet all day long. With our bigger brain, we just swim, eat, make love, and play. Who, then, is the smartest species on this big blue Earth? Read the Hitchhiker's Guide.
Mommy, am I a panda or a black-and-white mitten? Zoos won't torture me, will they?
Oh, finally, I'm out of that dark, dank hole and back in the sun and open air! Never again.
Good karma is hard to come in subhuman worlds (apaya), but motherhood is available.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Irish-Buddhism on St. Paddy's Day (tavern talk)

Pat MacphersonDhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval, Bhante, Maya, Kelly, Bela, Wisdom Quarterly Dr. Laurence Cox
Kiss me, dummy, I'm Irish! Oh, how we used to party at U Mass for St. Pat's
The woodland devi Danu and the wee people in the fairies' realm of Ireland (amayodruid)

Pasadena's authentic Irish tavern, putting the pub back in "public life" (tboylestavern.com)



Gaelic rules!
Wisdom Quarterly will be gathering for a collective editorial meeting in celebration of St. Paddy's Day in Pasadena on Tuesday, March 17, 2015 after the close of business (5:00 pm) till the Tavern closes down and throws us out onto the alley. The three dual topics or points of business to be discussed will be:

(1) The first Western person to become a Buddhist monastic, the Irishman Ven. Dhammaloka (Dubliner Laurence Carroll, who more than century ago traveled to California then Southeast Asia to ordain in the Theravada tradition), and the possible ascension of Irish Buddhist Pat Macpherson to replace Amber Larson as features editor so Amber can return full time to Dharma editing;
  • VIDEO: "The Dharma Bum": feature-length, partially-animated documentary on the tantalizing subject of a freethinking atheist alcoholic Irish hobo, born in 1856, who traveled across the globe to Buddhist Burma, renounced the bottle, shaved his head, donned saffron robes, and became a Theravada Buddhist monk,  and in doing so could very well prove to be the missing link in the origin story of Western Buddhism! (Ian Lawton, Ireland/Dana.io crowdfunding)
First black U.S. president was Irish? (AP)
(2) whether drinking ale as food (beer as “bread”) can fit within the parameters of the Five Precepts and the growing “Irish or Celtic Buddhist” movement;

(3) allowing gays to finally participate in East Coast St. Paddy's day parades; and the real origins of “Saint Patrick's Day.” Do most readers know that St. Paddy was a British/Roman slave brought to the Emerald Isle and kept as a captured servant against his will until his escape back to Britain six years later?
Celtic Buddhist Rev. Peers
What manner of homosexual abuse was forced on him as a hapless slave can only be surmised, but immediately on escaping he thought it would be a good idea to go to the Vatican in Rome to join an all-male Catholic monastic order.

He then returned the favor of Pagan s*d*my by sticking it to Ireland in the worst possible way as a Christian missionary intent on domination, genocide, the establishment of Church rule, Christian conversion by the sword, and the eviction of all the dragons (nagas or “reptilians,” since Ireland has never had any actual animal-snakes, dragons, or serpents).

This must have been why the Brit heavy metal musician, lead singer and lyricist for Sabbat, wrote the album “Dreamweaver.” Such songs as “Clerical Conspiracy” talk about journeying as a British Christian (i.e., a pre-Anglican Catholic) missionary to wipe out the Pagans in the south and across the seas only to realize the error of his ways. But we all love our “Celtic” heritage -- as if there were one anymore than there is a definitive “Anglo Saxon” or other proud European lineage to cling to -- and what we imagine as Celtic gets tied up with our “Catholic” cultural identity.

(MP) The year 2014 celebrated a quarter century since the making of one of the finest metal albums ever made, Sabbat's "Dreamweaver (Reflections of Our Yesterdays) from Noise Records.
Ireland's great revolutionary, Galway Che, honored with a monument (thesundaytimes.co.uk)
Bringing Buddhism alive in Ireland, the Savaripa Family (CelticBuddhism.org)

Recollecting the devas: Devi Danu (K. Dillon)
So we will not stand for it being sullied, defiled, or marred by the hidden historical truth or any untoward speculation about our greatest “saint.” We defend the genocidal Catholic emperor Constantine, for goodness sakes! So how are we not to defend our hometown boy Patrick? Even if he is technically not Irish but British, a Royalist, and a Roman enslaver. Happy Pagan Genocide Day.
 
Mexican Irishman Peter Griffin (Family Guy)
But what any objective Irish person might think, the Holy Roman Church says he's a “saint” and a “liberator” who killed the Celtic Pagans (nature worshippers following the “Old Ways” brought over from continental Europe that served the people for so long, like the Druids or Wiccans or Ancients in Stonehenge, the Salisbury Plains, and other sacred locations. Sister Margaret Prescod (sojournertruth.org) had it right this morning in her brief summary of St. Paddy's Day and the real “Saint Patrick.”

Prof. Laurence Cox, Maynooth Univ., Ireland
We will also be honoring the revolutionary Galway Che Guevara and singing Irish songs and poetry in honor of Gaelic culture that now extends around the world. A special dedication to the bhÅ«mi-devas (the earthbound “woodland-fairies” or fay) will also be made. Join us for this special Irish-Buddhist observance melding Gaelic, American, Latin, and perhaps even some British and Catholic customs as only Los Angeles can!
Irish Celtic European map of the Gallia tribes and their towns (wiki commons)
The gate to the Irish Fest(s) Los Angeles, Pomona Fairplex (Wisdom Quarterly)