Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Mardi Gras ("Fat Tuesday") Meditation, Time...

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly; Dan Harris, Geoffrey Jowett (coasttocoastam.com); AP.org; Wiki
(NPR) Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics offers practical advice for stressed-out cynics Trying to reduce anxiety and stress in 2018? If meditation makes you want to throw something, ABC News Anchor Dan Harris offers some advice in his new book.
(Terry Gross/NPR) Can Buddhist practices help us overcome the biological pull of dissatisfaction? Science journalist and author Robert Wright says that Buddhist enlightenment might help counteract our natural tendency towards unhappiness. His new book is Why Buddhism is True.

 
Dan Harris is a correspondent for ABC News and the co-anchor for the weekend edition of Good Morning America. He is on Coast to Coast tonight (Feb. 13, 2018) to talk about what he learned on his cross-country trip on a rock-star tour bus: He was helping average people maximize their potential using what science is finding:

Dashama Konah sits on the beach in Hawaii.
MEDITATION can lower blood pressure, relieve depression and anxiety, and rewire key parts of the brain.

Intuitive Geoffrey Jowett is also on the show helping others on their journey to enlightenment by recognizing that each of us is part of "GOD" -- unlike what the Buddha taught -- and that our sole purpose in life is not to become enlightened and free ourselves and others from suffering but to perpetuate "divine love." Jowett teaches how to develop the ability to communicate with departed loved ones and spirit guides. More + AUDIO
A real TIME TRAVELER?

 
Happy Black History Month - love, God
A self-proclaimed time traveler hailing from the year 2030 purportedly took a lie detector test to prove to skeptics that he is telling the truth.
 
Dubbed "Noah," the young man made headlines late last year when he "emerged from hiding" to share his fantastic story of journeying from the not-too-distant future back to our present day.

Angelic (deva) black babies of God
As one can imagine, his tale was met with considerable skepticism, leading to Noah making yet another video where he allegedly submits to a polygraph test.
 
However, much like his account of traveling through time, the update is also rather dubious since the video conveniently does not show the device which is supposedly testing him....is it confirmation that the young man really is from the future or a not-so-clever hoax?
Today is Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday


If one is Catholic (or many types of Western Christian), particularly French or French-colonial Catholic, today (Mardi Gras) and tomorrow (Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day) are a big deal. South America (think Brazil) and the U.S. state of Louisiana really know how to party...and how to experience penitent guilt afterward.*

Costumes, beads, and music: Mardi Gras
Ash Wednesday? Ash everyday, tilaka (forehead mark) applied at Anu's wedding (A. Nijda)
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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - Families camped out from early morning to catch beads and stuffed animals thrown from float riders. Revelers took to the streets in elaborate or funny costumes evoking Marie Antoinette, Pres. Donny Trump and other glamorized "vampires" [parasitic demons]. Amused bystanders took in the chaotic scene and annual American ritual from lawn chairs. More

Hindu custom appropriated by Catholicism
*ASH WEDNESDAY
This is a fasting (Christian vegetarian) day, the first day of Lent in Western Christianity.

It occurs 46 days (40 fasting days with six non-fasting Sundays) before Easter (the Dionysian worship of the fertility Goddess Ēostre and  searching for mushrooms/rabbit "eggs" all over the ground).

It falls as early as Feb. 4 and as late as March 10. Ash Wednesday is observed by many Western Christians, including Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and some Baptists.
 
Why? According to the canonical Christian gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus Christ (the Bodhisattva Issa) spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by his enemy Satan/Mara. Lent originated as a mirroring of this, fasting 40 days as preparation for Easter. More

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