From Yule log to Yuletide, the word "Yule" is inextricably linked with the holiday season. But have you ever wondered where this term began, or why so many of the December holidays bear similarities?
As with many of our holiday traditions, Yule's earliest roots were Pagan, and therefore initially centered on nature and the cycles of the sun. In simplest terms, Yule, marking the winter solstice (which falls on December 22nd this year) and shortest day of the year, honored the rebirth of the Sun God (Frey, in Norwegian traditions), whose flame had been extinguished at Samhain. This yin/yang balance of masculine and feminine energies, is central to many Pagan traditions, where the eternal Goddess figure ages from virgin to crone over the course of the year without dying, while the more relatably mortal God figure dies every year on Samhain only to be reborn at Yule. A Roman Pagan variation, called "Saturnalia" in homage to the birth of the Roman Sun God, Saturn, was also prevalent until, as Christianity spread through Europe, the various Sun God festivals were incorporated into a celebration of Jesus' birth.
Why, despite pretty divergent traditions, all the attention to birth? For Pagans, the lengthening days and impending spring signified a time for honoring the literal births of new seeds in the ground as well as the more figurative births of goals for the future. So if you'd like a bit of New Year's tradition in this year's Yule celebration, perhaps follow the Pagan Yule lead, and incorporate a ceremonial listing and burning of goals and resolutions for the year ahead. After all, ‘tis the season!
Pine trees, wreaths, branches along the mantle – for a winter holiday, the Yule-tide season certainly is green. But where did the evergreen symbolism begin, and how do we best keep our seasonal branches verdant?
Early Pagans favored the evergreen during the stark winter months as a symbol of life everlasting. These same traditions claim that families first brought live trees inside the home to provide a warm winter respite for wood spirits, hanging bells on the tree limbs to signify the wood spirits’ presence. To the Celts, the evergreen’s massive height and elaborate root system represented both eternity and the magical adage “as above, so below.” Similarly, the evergreen wreath, a circle with no beginning or end, symbolized a new cycle in the ever-turning wheel of life.
So, how do you best care for these branches? Tree decorator to the stars, Dr. Christmas (www.drchristmas.com), advises buying live trees later rather than sooner (this weekend being the perfect time, so it’ll be fresh the full 12 days of Christmas), and taking them down when the needles snap instead of bending. If the artificial route is easier, or you just don’t have the time or space for a tree, evergreen-scented candles and oils do a wonderful job of conjuring the holiday spirit – without housing any wood spirits.
Kabbalah is the mystical branch of Judaism, but one does not need to be Jewish to practice or study it. In fact, Aaron Hamilton, a member and youth mentor for New York City's Kabbalah Center explains, "Actually, it is believed that Judaism came from Kabbalah, not the other way around."
It has a fascinating 4,000 year history that traces its secrets from Eden to Egypt and Moses to Madonna, Kabbalah's modern maven. And what's surprising is that it incorporates concepts that are considered "new age" such as astrology and numerology, as well as discussing spiritual concepts in terms of energy and psychology. Each religion has its own language and architecture, so those just beginning to explore Kabbalah may find the new words and detailed steps challenging. But as with most mystical branches of religion, the emphasis is on the spiritual experience and its application to enriching our lives now, rather than focusing on a reward at our life's end.
A story in Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth describes a religious conference in which all the monks understood each other but the priests, speaking in terms of rules and codes rather than experience, had trouble finding common ground. No matter what we study, when we truly open our minds and seek to understand, we can find ways to connect to each other - whether it's Buddhism or Judaism or quantum physics - as illustrated in the video clip above (click HERE to view) which shows a meeting of minds when scientists from the film What the Bleep met up with Kabbalah leaders in 2005.
If learning more about Kabbalah appeals to you, go to www.kabbalah.info or www.kabbalah.com to find a wealth of information and perhaps the answers you seek.
Guising and witches, campfires and pumpkins – these past seven days have been a whirlwind of Samhain images and traditions. But now that you’ve explored the whys behind contemporary Halloween trends, what’s next?
Well, Samhain was initially a New Year celebration, developed by the ancient Celts out of reverence for the earth’s calendar, the end of the harvest, and the changing of the seasons. As with all Pagan holidays, great attention was paid to the earth’s cycle and the elements of earth, wind, air, and fire. So, for a last exploration of Samhain 2007, and in keeping with this holiday’s Pagan roots, let’s see what the stars have to say.
October 31, 2007 falls within several astrological cycles. Perhaps most prevalently (and familiarly to anyone traveling or working with electronics these past couple weeks), from October 13th to November 1, Mercury is in retrograde. In simplest terms, this means we can all expect miscommunication, travel glitches, and electronic difficulty (back up those computers!). As the first and last few days of Mercury's retrograde cycle tend to be the most difficult, you may wish to allow extra travel time for any Halloween commutes, or to be particularly attentive to your communication.
The news isn’t all bad, however, as while Mercury is in retrograde it's an excellent time to reflect back and return to old projects and intentions – a perfect match for Samhain’s traditional reflection on the year’s harvest. Just keep in mind that Neptune will be direct this Halloween, so we may not be seeing everything clearly. (Unsurprising, given the extensive masks and costuming on this day - perhaps Samhain’s wandering spirits will be equally stumped!)
By Pagan tradition, certain qualities are also attributed to each day of the week. As Halloween falls this year on a Wednesday, we are in particularly strong alignment for creative work and money/business matters. More relevantly for Samhain traditions, Wednesday is believed to be the best day for lifting hexes and conducting psychic readings. So, if you’re interested in gazing through this night’s thin supernatural veil, it looks as though stars and tradition are in your favor.
Whatever Halloween enjoyment you choose this Samhain, be it distributing modern-day soul-cakes among guising children, lighting a candle for poor Jack’s lantern, or reflecting quietly on your personal harvest and hopes for the year ahead, we hope you enjoy the evening and its rich history. Happy Halloween!
Halloween may not come to mind as readily as, say, Thanksgiving, for culinary enticements, but there’s a great deal more to this ancient Celtic tradition than soul-cakes and bags of candy.
To begin, hospitality was historically a substantial Samhain component. In addition to the treats bestowed on visiting guisers in exchange for songs or prayers, dinners were prepared for the deceased, both to honor passed loved ones, and to appease less friendly spirits. In areas of Ireland and Scotland they still set a place for dead loved ones at the Samhain table, and pass the evening with nostalgic stories. The more menacing spirits, however, proved more of a trick. Not wishing to invite any threatening presence into the home, ancient Celts would place a dumb supper of traditional Samhain foods outside their door, or bury apples roadside for those spirits who were lost or without descendants.
Why the emphasis on apples? In keeping with the ongoing apple-bobbing tradition, ancient Celts believed that eating a slice of three different apples ensured a year of good luck, and that an apple before sleep on Samhain night would prevent illness for a year. The apple was also credited with magical abilities, due in part to the pentagram revealed at an apple’s core, when sliced width-wise.
One Pagan divination ritual instructs that you sit in front of a mirror, lit only by candlelight or the moon, and descend into a meditative silence, focusing on a particular question. Next, cut an apple into nine pieces, eating the first eight with your back to the mirror before throwing the ninth slice over your left shoulder, and following it with your gaze. If you allow your focus to “soften,” an image is said to form from the reflected moon or candlelight in the mirror, providing your answer.
In addition to apples, other Dumb Supper foods include traditional Irish colcannon and barmbrack - just chew carefully, as Samhain dishes often include buried objects, such as coins, rings, or cloth, from which the diner might glean divination. Hazelnuts are another customary Samhain treat, regarded by the Celts as a symbol of occult wisdom, as is chocolate, associated in Mexico with wishing the dead a sweet return in their next incarnation.
So this year, don’t limit yourself to the candies of contemporary custom, but indulge instead in a full Samhain feast! After all, you’re just protecting your home.
Haunted houses and horror films, zombies and ghouls, Halloween traditions are inseparable from images of the dead, even if the origins are sometimes a bit, well, masked.
To the ancient Celts, the fine Samhain veil between earthly and spiritual planes made for a long night of ghostly goings on – from wandering spirits, to visitations from departed loved ones. In this context, our tradition of visiting haunted houses and telling ghost stories around the fire harks back both to the Pagan ritual reverence for the dead, and the ancient Celtic desire for protection from more menacing, soul-stealing ghouls.
Sprinkling salt into the hair of children, or burning dried sage (known as smudging) were just a couple of the protective measures favored across the British Isles. But how does this relate to fire? It may seem simply convenient, given the charm of a late October hearth, that campfires and ghost stories are so intertwined. Historically, however, Samhain balefires were an integral part of the night’s celebration, lighting the dark sky, purifying the land, warding off evil, and containing the energy of the newly departed Sun God (whose passing symbolized both the end of the harvest and the slaughter of animals for winter).
The ancient Celts often burned several fires in close proximity, and would drive their cattle between the flames, or leap amongst the fires themselves, in a ritual purification. (The perception that fire could purge evil influences was later used to horrifying effect in the witch burnings of the mid-fifteenth through eighteenth centuries.) As cattle were a primary unit of currency to pre-Christian Celts, villagers would also cast the bones of slaughtered livestock upon the fire, along with other symbols of their hopes for the coming season. The term “bonfire,” from “bone-fire,” is said to have grown from this practice.
As the morning sun rose, portions of the dwindling fire were distributed to re-kindle individual hearths and protect the journey home. (The moan of the Bean Sidhe or banshee, foretelling a death in the family was, after all, a threat up until morning.) The Samhain ashes were then sprinkled over the fields for protection during the winter months.
So this year, as you light your fire or place a candle in your Jack-o-lantern, maybe take a moment to toss your own hopes for the coming season upon the flame. At a minimum, you’ll know your dreams are well-protected.
Costumes, masks, and trick-or-treating. Fun stuff, associated with costume parties and the collection of candy, right? Sure, in contemporary American society, but the original Pagan associations were a more literal matter of life and death.
To the ancient Celts, the thin veil between the living and dead on Samhain night allowed for both reverent reunion with departed loved ones and possible harm from more malicious wandering spirits. To protect against the latter, Pagans donned masks and costumes of the dead, hiding their identity as living beings, and allowing them to walk unharmed among Samhain’s spirits.
How did these masquerades coincide with trick-or-treating? To best understand this evolution, we need to make a pit-stop at guising – a Scottish tradition in which goblin and ghoul-costumed folk sang and danced their way among neighborhood homes, intimidating any evil spirits in their path. In exchange for their performance, residents would provide a treat – that is, the smart residents would, as in absence of said treat, guisers were prone to, well, tricks. Christmas wassailing, dating from the Middle Ages, is another example of the Celtic exchange of song and sustenance – as is the medieval practice of souling, in which peasants would travel door to door across the British Isles, receiving soul cakes in return for their Samhain prayers for the dead.
So while the Samhain stakes have dropped with time, and the urgency of dressing as a ghost, goblin, witch, or ghoul to avoid detection among the dead has transitioned into a more playful variation, creative fun still abounds in this long-standing tradition. Maybe this year add some soul cakes (see recipe) to your Halloween spread, or favor a ghostly ensemble over more contemporary trends. You’ll be treating friends to a Halloween tale, and avoiding the tricks of those wandering spirits all in one.
Whether messily scooping out your pumpkin at home, admiring this year’s carvings around the neighborhood or, ok, using your computer’s mouse to scrawl a pumpkin mask on Facebook, Jack-o-lantern season is upon us. But have you ever wondered how this unusual tradition began?
Jack-o-lanterns were brought to the United States by Irish immigrants during the potato famines of the mid-1800s. In keeping with the ancient Celtic belief that the veil between life and death is thinnest on Samhain, the earliest Jack-o-lanterns were designed both to welcome deceased loved ones and frighten away less welcome spirits. The carving of faces, as opposed to other symbols, stemmed from the Celtic belief that the head housed a person’s immortal soul, and was therefore sacred. Hence, if you must venture out on Samhain night, a Jack-o-lantern (or “kail-runt torch” in Scotland) was intended to fool any spirits that might cross your path. In Ireland, Jack-o-lanterns were carved from hollowed turnips, but as pumpkins were more plentiful in America, the tradition quickly adapted.
So who’s Jack? While the specifics of his legend vary wildly, in essence Jack was a lazy, yet shrewd, Irish farmer who had the poor judgment to try to trick the devil – and by extension, death. (This legend likely arose after Christianity’s arrival in Ireland, as earlier Pagan traditions would have been unlikely to include a devil figure – or to see a harbinger of death as evil.) Of course, the devil, being quite crafty himself, knew that, as all living beings must die, Jack was actually denying himself an after-life. And so the devil threw Jack an ember from the flames of hell, and Jack placed it inside a carved-out turnip to light the path of his purgatory, as he wandered the earth in search of a resting place. (In fairness, there’s also the less creative, mid-eighteenth century definition of a Jack-o-Lantern as simply a night watchman – but what fun is that?)
So this year, as you bring knife to pumpkin (or cyber-knife to Facebook screen), consider the rich history behind your carving – and maybe think twice before forfeiting the traditional protective face for a more contemporary scene or symbol. After all, poor Jack is still roaming!
The association of Halloween with witches is as old as the holiday itself – and yet witchy interpretations have varied wildly with time. To contemporary American children, the cackling gorgon on her broomstick is textbook nightmare and horror film fodder. To Wiccans and ancient Celts, however, this wart-nosed hag represented the Goddess as woman in the final state of life. Wise with experience, she stirred at her cauldron (womb), wherein the dead awaited their rebirth with the Sun God at Yule. Pagan perspectives often utilize both Goddess and God figures in a yin/yang-like dynamic: the God being born of the Goddess each year and maturing to his death and rebirth, as the Goddess holds constant and immortal.
So, why the huge interpretational chasm? When Pope Gregory IV standardized All Hollow’s Day (or All Saints’ Day) from its previous May date to November 1, the Pagan Samhain festival was imbued with Christian meaning. Some of these pieces fit easily - Samhain’s honoring of the dead became All Hollow’s Day’s honoring of the saints - but others, like the powerful crone, were perhaps a bit more threatening, as demonstrated by the European witch hunts spanning 1450-1700. And so what was once a symbol of reverence for death and the life cycle transitioned into a figure of mystical peril.
So, ok, that takes care of the witch and the cauldron, but what’s with the broomsticks and flying in the air? The Wiccan broom (or besom) is used to cleanse ritual spaces by literally and figuratively sweeping away negativity, and then stored near a hearth or door to prevent evil from entering. During the Burning Times, witches were accused of flying broom-less, thanks to a grease-based “flying ointment.” Given that many of the ointment’s ingredients were hallucinogenic (hemp, belladonna, and poppy), another interpretation is that “flying” may have referred to astral projection.
And then there’s that favorite witchy companion: the bat. While nocturnal flight and vampiric associations have long contributed to make the bat a symbol of Halloween hauntings, many Pagans view the bat as a protective presence, harbinger of good fortune, or guide to past lives. Fortunately such dichotomies are in many ways exactly what Halloween is about: the veil between life and death, love and fear, yin and yang. So whether you think she’s a magical crone or a terrifying hag, on Samhain, all witches are welcome.
For most of us autumn is rife with Halloween images and traditions: Jack-o-lanterns, spider webs, haunted houses, and apple bobbing. The symbols are familiar, but many of their stories have been buried with time and commercialization. (I mean, it’s not quite Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day, but I’m thinking Hallmark and company are pretty fond of this time of year.) Beneath all the eerie seasonal fun, however, lies an equally intriguing Celtic and Pagan history.
In simplest terms, pagan holidays honor the seasons, encouraging us to look within ourselves and our world at the parallel cycles of birth and death, and planting and harvest. Each ancient sabbat coincides with a more familiar holiday, such as Yule at the Winter Solstice near Christmas, Mabon aligning roughly with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Ostara at Passover / Easter, and even Imbolc at Groundhog’s Day. So what’s the big deal with October 31st?
Halloween, known to the ancient Celts as Samhain (pronounced SOW-an) from the Irish-Gaelic word for “summer’s end,” was brought to the United States by Irish, Scottish and English immigrants in the 19th century. By the ancient Celtic calendar, Samhain marks the last of three harvest festivals, as well as the end of the Celtic year. All plantings, both figurative and literal, have been reaped, so as the leaves fall and the earth slumbers, we are encouraged to look within ourselves at our own recent closures in preparation for the new year’s rebirth.
In this sense, Halloween’s emphasis on death is largely figurative, but Samhain is not without its literal hauntings. During the rickety "tween" hours of Samhain night, the ancient Celts believed the veil between the living and dead was at its finest, allowing for free communication between the earthly and spiritual planes. For some, Samhain was therefore an opportunity for communication or séance with a departed loved one - and for others it was a long evening of hauntings and supernatural pranksters.
Where do you fall on this spectrum? Count down with Daily Mantra to find out, as we explore the traditions, tricks, and treats of Samhain 2007 via seven daily installments. Happy Halloween!
In an interview with Parade magazine, comedian Jerry Seinfeld talked about, among many other things, the benefits of his youthful flirtation with Scientology. “I last really studied, oh, it’s almost 30 years ago. Believe it or not...it’s extremely intellectual and clinical in its approach to problem solving, which really appealed to me. I actually got to it from my auto mechanics teacher in high school, who was into it, and he was telling me about it. In my early years of stand-up, it was very helpful. I took a couple of courses. One of them was in communication, and I learned some things about communication that really got my act going.”
Unlike Scientology’s high profile members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Seinfeld had but a brief interlude with the controversial church. And despite a small jab in the episode of Seinfeldspent lost in the parking garage, he doesn’t seem to have had any hard feelings either, unlike the guys at South Park, who vented in their controversial episode, Trapped in the Closet. What may be more revealing however is the perhaps unconscious connection Seinfeld made when talking about the church during an interview to promote the new animated film Bee Movie (in theaters Nov 2). Could it have been the hive minded similarities?
In her book, The Scandal of Scientology, author Paulette Cooper reveals how the cult-like religion founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard, targeted celebrities. “Their celebrity chasing goes back to around 1955 when Hubbard invited his followers to write and tell him which celebrity they wanted,” writes Cooper in a chapter entitled Children and Celebrities. According to the book, the list of celebs Hubbard hoped to attract included numerous comedians such as Ed Sullivan, Ernest Hemingway, Danny Kaye, Liberace, James Stewart, Bob Hope, Walt Disney, Milton Berle and Groucho Marx. The church opened a Celebrity Center in 1969 to cater to the needs of their A-list disciples.
Much of the criticism leveled at the church lies in the numerous reports of difficulties members experience when trying to leave the fold. “Even worse than what happens to an outsider who tries to attack Scientology is what happens to a Scientologist who turns against or displeases the group,” says Paulette in a chapter entitled, The Suppressives. Fortunately for Seinfeld, he doesn’t seem to have had any problems severing ties with Scientology; Cooper was not so fortunate. After publishing her book in 1971, the author, who was born in the Auschwitz concentration camp, was the subject of an organized campaign of harassment and litigation which was codenamed Operation Freakout and was exposed by the FBI after a raid on Scientology offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. in 1977.
Though out of print now, Paulette’s book is highly collectible, with second hand copies selling for up to $115 on Amazon.com. The full text is also available on the internet.
If you are curious about your long-term future and would like to know what old man karma has in store for your next lifetime, thanks to the internet, you don’t have to wait till your death to find out. A quick visit to the Reincarnation Station will tell you if you’ll be winging it with eagles or scrounging around with rats. Just answer a few simple questions to reveal your future species.
Remember, when you come back as a bear in your next lifetime, you won’t be able to enjoy The Simpsons, even in reruns. (Bears just can’t appreciate the humor and frankly find Homer and his brood a bit obnoxious.) Better not to wait then to visit the Burger King-sponsored site Simpsonize Me. Sure, we’d all like to become enlightened…eventually. Now the impatient have this other option. With Simpsonize Me, you can significantly transform yourself with less of a wait and a whole lot less effort. Rather than eternal bliss, visitors, like my friends Darin and Carlos (see pictures) who opted for a move to Springfield, can expect a good chuckle.
Becoming a cartoon is optional, whereas leaving your present body is not. For this reason, the karma-conscious among you might want to lay off Burger King’s other products. Should you mosey lower down the food chain and return in your next life as, say, a cow, you'll be glad you did.
According to my calendar, September 13th is the first day of both Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan. I find it fascinating for some reason when holidays from two different religions fall at the same time, as if there were some great coordinator in the sky spacing them out evenly across the calendar. But really, I shouldn’t be surprised that Judaism’s New Year, Rosh Hashanah, falls on the same day as Islam’s first day of Ramadan, their month of fasting, since both religions sprout from the same seed. As you probably know, Judaism's key text is the Torah, which constitutes the first 5 books of the Old Testament. Then Christianity provides the New Testament and Islam builds on that.
So if the scriptures of these different religions all have common forefathers, in the words of Rodney King, why can’t we all just get along? Mostly because we all think that we’re right and therefore everyone else is wrong. But what if we could find a way to celebrate both holidays, or all holidays, at the same time? Rosh Hashanah is a new year, a time of celebrating new beginnings. Ramadan is the beginning of fasting and prayer, a cleansing once a year to focus on what is good. I think they work quite well together. The Unity Church honors all religions and they are having their annual World Day of Prayer, which this year focuses on world peace, on the same day, Sept 13th. So it sounds like it’s a good day to hit the reset button and look ahead to the good things that can come if we can only learn that diverse ideas can be celebrated with unity.
Los Angeles filmmaker Dita Dimoné is working on a documentary about Santería and the common misconceptions that surround the religion. “I know that many people, including members of my family, have gone to Santeros/as for spiritual guidance, and I’ve seen them ridiculed or belittled,” says Dita. “I took an interest because whenever the subject of Santeria comes up people are quick to judge and voice their fears.”
Santería (also know as La Religión or The Way of the Saints) is amalgamation of religions, combining Yoruba traditions and religious practices from Southern Nigeria, Senegal and Guinea Coast with those of the Roman Catholic Church. It’s roots lie in slavery. When African slaves were brought to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations they were forcibly baptized by the Catholic Church. To keep their native religion alive under oppression, slaves equated the priests from their native religion to their new Christian Saints.
“The lack of knowledge about the religion has created many misconceptions and negative portrayals in television and film,” says Dita. “Melodramatic accounts depict Santeria as paganistic at best and satanic at worst. When African religions are depicted in films, books, and other media outlet, it is usually in some dark place with mysterious goings on - knives, blood, chicken feet, and corpses. In reality, that is far from the truth. The religion is festive, sensual, filled with passion and energy.”
It seems eco-sinners are lining up to have their guilt assuaged. A group called Earthly Sins was the first to offer eco-absolution at their portable confessional booth at the Glastonbury Festival in 2004. The “non-judgmental environmental advice installation” encouraged post-confessional participants to take a three-point pledge to make planet-positive changes in their life.
Now it seems the Roman Catholic Church are jumping on the green-guilt bandwagon. According to the UK’s Times newspaper, Benedictine monk Dom Anthony Sutch will don green robes, made from recycled curtains, to work an ecumenical eco-confessional box at the Waveney Greenpeace Festival in England this Sunday. Instead of Hail Mary’s, local green politician Rupert Read will be on hand offering transgressors guidance.
For those of us unable to walk or use public transport to get to an eco-confessional booth, rather than adding to your list of stuff to confess by making an unnecessary car journey, eco-sinners can repent in the privacy of their own home by leaving online anonymous confessions at: www.truegreenconfessions.com
Here’s a selection of Daily Mantra’s favorites from the site:
“I work for a car manufacturer, get a new car every year as a benefit and hate myself for it. I am a stumpy traitor.”
“My boyfriend tosses his cigarette butts out of his Prius.”
“I once dumped a boy for littering at an Earth Day festival.”
“If I only pee a little, sometimes I wont flush the toilet. I'll wait until I go once or twice more before flushing. I guess that's kinda gross, but it's just me living on my own, so no one else sees it.”
“ Ever since I was a kid, I've gone by the mantra, ‘if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down.’”
“I do green things (homemade cleaning products, line drying all my clothes, repurpose items, etc) not because I care about the environment, but because I'm cheap.”
“Since I confessed to my love of long baths here, my water heater broke and had to be replaced. The new one only heats up enough water to barely fill the tub halfway. I blame you guys for that.”
Well that’s eco-karma at work. / Photo courtesy of Earthly Sins
It has to be one of the most bizarre pieces of legislation ever enacted by a government, but Chinese officials have passed a law banning Tibetan Buddhist monks from reincarnating without prior permission from four separate government departments. The directive comes into effect on Sept 1st, 2007, and is seen as a means to control the province of Tibet and the influence of its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Order No. 5, issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs for the People’s Republic of China, ironically states that, “It is an important move to institutionalize management on reincarnation of living Buddhas.” Any unapproved reincarnations will be deemed “illegal and invalid.” China’s authoritarian Communist Party government is officially atheist.
The movement was founded by a sixty-six-year-old Virginia-based psychotherapist named Brad Blanton. He says everybody would be happier if we just stopped lying. Tell the truth, all the time. This would be radical enough -- a world without fibs -- but Blanton goes further. He says we should toss out the filters between our brains and our mouths. If you think it, say it. Confess to your boss your secret plans to start your own company. If you're having fantasies about your wife's sister, Blanton says to tell your wife and tell her sister. It's the only path to authentic relationships. It's the only way to smash through modernity's soul-deadening alienation. Oversharing? No such thing.
I started out reading the article by recoiling in horror - how could he be so brazenly honest? I consider myself to be mostly honest, except when trying to play nice. Is it more important to be right than nice? Being honest isn't always nice and it often complicates things. But being honest makes you - well be honest. And with that honesty, comes a lot of good things, like communication and being real and a sigh of relief.
In fact, all my relationships can take a whole lot more truth than I expected. Consider this one: For years, I've had a chronic problem where I refer to my wife, Julie, by my sister's name, Beryl. I always catch myself midway through and pretend it didn't happen. I've never confessed to Julie. Why should I? It either means that I'm sexually attracted to my sister, which is not good. Or that I think of my wife as my sister, also not good.
But today, in the kitchen, when I have my standard mental sister-wife mix-up, I decide to tell Julie about it.
"That's strange," she says.
We talk about it. I feel unburdened, closer to my wife now that we share this quirky, slightly disturbing knowledge. I realize that by keeping it secret, I had given it way too much weight.
Honesty helps us grow and become better people. I'm not convinced people have the guts to be radically honest. But then, that's kind of a radical idea.
Oscar the 2-year old cat has an uncanny ability to predict death. The feline has forecast the final hours at least 25 patients at the dementia unit of the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island, where he resides. Not known as a friendly cat, Oscar will pace the wards looking for patients whose time is near, curling up beside them and providing comfort as they die.
Staff at the dementia unit, who adopted Oscar as a kitten, soon noticed the cat’s remarkable predictive abilities, calling families and priests when Oscar settled next to the patients in order to administer his own kind of last rites.
"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa, who works at the hospital and wrote a story in the New England Journal of Medicine profiling a day in the life of Oscar. "Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one."
The latest internet sensation doesn’t even have a computer. He’s a homeless man called Gordon who resides on the streets of Bournemouth, England. The 78-year old’s uncanny ability to pluck the correct time out of thin air, without any mechanical or digital aid, has made him a hit with locals. Now the white bearded elder has found international stardom, thanks to a Facebook appreciation group set up by Gordon’s number one fan Chris Kimber, a 24 year-old student.
"He can tell the time even though he doesn't have a watch,” Chris told the UK’s Daily Mail. "Some people think it's because he always listens to the football on a portable radio - other's joke that he's got superpowers."
The football-mad, time-telling elder, who wanders the streets sporting a parka jacket and multiple football scarves, is such a legend in his home town that his local soccer club AFC Bournmouth let him in for free. Now, thanks to the Facebook site, he has over 9,000 friends from all over the globe who swap photos and tales, raising the modest man and his mysterious talent to mythological proportions.
All I can say is I’d much rather bump into Gordon, than his fellow internet star Paris Hilton. At least Gordon’s famous for doing something useful – and being a friendly, lovable character to boot.
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway has revealed she has psychic powers on the website for a new alternative therapy centre she co-founded with business partner Elisabeth Samnoy. The Astarte Education center (named after an ancient Middle Eastern goddess) aims to teach students to “create miracles” by communicating with angels, which their website explains are “forces that surround us and who are a resource and help in all aspects of our lives.”
“I’ve always been interested in alternative forms of treatment,” says Martha in a statement. The Princess says she first realized she had clairvoyant powers while working with horses as a child. “I later came to understand the value of this enormous gift and would like to share it with others."
A certified physiotherapist, Märtha dropped Her Royal Highness title in 2002, choosing to lead a normal life and pay taxes. She moved to New York with her husband in 2004 and published a children’s book. In 2005, she caused further controversy, when she chose a home birth for her second child. After redefining her royal duties again in 2006, she retains patronage roles with six health related foundations.
"Kosmos" is an old Pythagorean term, which means the entire universe in all its many dimensions-physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. "Cosmos" today usually means just the physical universe or physical dimension. So we might say the Kosmos includes the physiosphere, or cosmos; the biosphere, or life; the noosphere, or mind, all of which are radiant manifestations of pure Emptiness, and are not other to that Emptiness.
One of the catastrophes of modernity is that the Kosmos is no longer a fundamental reality to us; only the cosmos is. In other words, what is "real" is just the world of scientific materialism, the world of "flatland," the flat and faded view of the modern and postmodern world, where the cosmos alone is real. And one of the things these two books try to do is rehabilitate the Kosmos as a believable concept.
Feeling lost? Like a love tester for religion, Belief-O-Matic is a quiz you can take to tell you what religion you should follow.
The Belief-O-Matic disclaimer says, "The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa."
Even though I consider myself a Buddhist, according to Belief-O-Matic, I should be a Unitarian Universalist or a Liberal Quaker. Buddhism only ranked third on my choices!
Still, I wasn't swayed. This quiz reminds me that faith isn't strictly based on one's personal belief system; it's about your personal connection to feelings, symbols and traditions. It's no mere coincidence that I was born to a Buddhist mother.
I'm really okay with the fact that my belief system doesn't flawlessly toe the Buddhist party line. Buddhists are my people. And I'll take Thai food over Quaker cooking any day.
Our knowledge of our own mortality is what separates us from the animals. All beings want to live, but not all beings know they are going to die.
Burdened with this knowledge, humans invented religion. Much of what we think of when we think of religious teaching concerns the way to live, but really, it all adds up to preparing ourselves for death.
This is what I find the most difficult task of being a Buddhist -- in particular, a Buddhist who doesn't believe in reincarnation. Sometimes I wish I could be a Christian, and be convinced that death means going to a happy place filled with rewards and clouds and harps and unlimited calorie free, really good-tasting chocolate cake. Oh, and meeting god and having all of your questions answered.
If I could meet god and ask him a question, I would ask him why I can't find a calorie-free, really good-tasting chocolate cake here on earth. But I suppose I already know the answer to that question. It's because all human acts have consequences, and a consequence free existence has no meaning.
When I think about death, I don't think about what happens after, because I don't think that anything happens after. I just think about whether or not I'll be able to let go of fear and attachment. I also think about illness, and how unpleasant that will be. Then I try to accept it, because it happens to everyone, good or bad. But it's tough and scary and hard work.
For Christians, the reward is a happy afterlife. For Buddhists, the reward is a fearless death.
As the world continues to turn, you'll find more and more people resisting scientific explanation and turning to faith based explanations which can be detailed in recent events such as: The Flying Spaghetti Monster, The Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese, perhaps those who are still denying Global Warming or the NY Yankees being the greatest baseball team that ever existed.
An interesting paper created by a Yale Psychologist and a Yale PhD candidate (Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg) states that it's because those of us who do it, think like children. Here's an excerpt:
"The main source of resistance to scientific ideas concerns what children know prior to their exposure to science. The last several decades of developmental psychology has made it abundantly clear that humans do not start off as "blank slates." Rather, even one year-olds possess a rich understanding of both the physical world (a "naïve physics") and the social world (a "naïve psychology"). Babies know that objects are solid, that they persist over time even when they are out of sight, that they fall to the ground if unsupported, and that they do not move unless acted upon. They also understand that people move autonomously in response to social and physical events, that they act and react in accord with their goals, and that they respond with appropriate emotions to different situations.
These intuitions give children a head start when it comes to understanding and learning about objects and people. But these intuitions also sometimes clash with scientific discoveries about the nature of the world, making certain scientific facts difficult to learn... "
I had dinner tonite at IHOP with a Buddhist Monk.
I tried to eat my pancakes in a very mindful way.
I wonder if he noticed?
Which makes me think, that there is really no difference in the way you eat a pancake from the outside, it's how you eat a pancake from the inside. I love the idea of eating at IHOP with a Buddhist Monk.
Syncretism: noun : the combination of different forms of belief or practice
Syncretism consists of the attempt to reconcile disparate or contradictory beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term may refer to attempts to merge and analogize several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an underlying unity.
These days most people I meet are syncretics, but they don't even know it. All the belief systems, self-help development programs, religious beliefs and New Age practices that abound these days give people a choice of moral guidance, practices and philosophies to pick and choose from. More than just "One Way" to Enlightenment, more than a "Middle Way" - there's a proliferation of DIY belief systems that allow people to rationalize and choose what philosophy works best for them.
The Zen Master says everything is connected, but we see good and evil every day. Constantine noticed the duality the other day. Is the Zen master blind? If seeing is believing, then who is right?
There is indeed "world opposite duality" and "everything is connected" at the same time. They are games played on different levels. Think of the layers of an onion. Each layer is part of the onion just as a different layer is part of the onion at the same time. On one layer of the onion is the world of duality: good/evil, love/fear, growth/death and etc. On another layer is the world of connections. Everything is a tweak of something else. Good and evil do not exist. There is no duality, everything is connected.
You have a choice. You can decide which layer you want to play in. You can play the game of good vs evil (and even choose if you are a good or evil character). You can strive to be the Zen master and understand everything as connected. And then you will see connections everywhere you go, to everything. You can even play on multiple layers at the same time. Playing the good Angel and seeing the connections all around you.
The onion is all fine and yummy (especially dipped in batter and fried!) but I'm currently interested seeing beyond the metaphor. What beyond the onion? Probably a whole farmer's market of choices.
Spring is here, which means fresh air, open windows, and filthy, disgusting flies.
I was brought up a Buddhist, which means I do my best to regard other beings with compassion. I have even at times managed to muster some compassion for the fly – for example, when I’ve seen one haplessly banging its big-eyed head into a window again and again. It’s clear that all he wants to do is go back outdoors, and that's where we agree -- I want him outdoors as well.
But when a fly is nowhere near a door or window, and just wants to trample my food supply with its turd-encrusted feet, it's time for drastic action.
It’s a common misconception that Buddhists believe in nonviolence under all circumstances. In fact, Buddhists do believe that acting self-defense is not only acceptable, but at times obligatory.
So I rationalize my murderous intentions towards the musca domestica by telling myself that I was not only defending my family’s health, but also accelerating another creature’s path to reincarnation. Never mind that I don’t personally believe in reincarnation – the flies don’t know that. But if reincarnation happens to be real, maybe the flies will get lucky and be reborn as cockroaches. Then they’ll be tougher to kill and have longer life spans. Or maybe they’ll hit the reincarnation jackpot and be reborn as humans. Then they’ll get to experience the pleasure of killing bothersome flies. There is nothing like the thrill of landing a clean midair strike on a fly that's just awakened you from a deep slumber. Take that, disease bag! That's what you get for puking on my pepperoni!
Yesterday, two people came to my door selling religion. I could tell that's what they were up to before they'd even made it to the doorbell. They just had that look about them. I can smell 'em a mile away.
But their approach was different. As their opener, they said, "We're students, and we're doing a project and we'd like you to fill out this survey."
They clearly meant for the survey to be the starting point of a c
From Yule log to Yuletide, the word "
Pine trees, wreaths, branches along the mantle – for a winter holiday, the Yule-tide season certainly is green. But where did the evergreen symbolism begin, and how do we best keep our seasonal branches verdant? 
Haunted houses and horror films, zombies and ghouls, 
Costumes, masks, and trick-or-treating. Fun stuff, associated with costume parties and the collection of candy, right? Sure, in contemporary American society, but the original 
Whether messily scooping out your pumpkin at home, admiring this year’s carvings around the neighborhood or, ok, using your computer’s mouse to scrawl a pumpkin mask on Facebook, 
The association of 
For most of us autumn is rife with 
If you are curious about your long-term future and would like to know what old man karma has in store for your next lifetime, thanks to the internet, you don’t have to wait till your death to find out. A quick visit to the 
Remember, when you come back as a bear in your next lifetime, you won’t be able to enjoy The Simpsons, even in reruns. (Bears just can’t appreciate the humor and frankly find Homer and his brood a bit obnoxious.) Better not to wait then to visit the Burger King-sponsored site 
According to my calendar, September 13th is the first day of both 
Los Angeles filmmaker Dita Dimoné is working on a documentary about 
From an 
Feeling lost? Like a love tester for religion, 
Our knowledge of our own mortality is what separates us from the animals. All beings want to live, but not all beings know they are going to die. 
