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August 16, 2007
Does Global Warming Cause Earthquakes?
I was one of the early acceptees of the global warming hypothesis in the mid-80s because even back then all the glaciers were melting, it was recordable, it was reported and you could see it. Wisdom, my friend — use your eyes and ears and mind rather than just believe the talking heads and wait for their prognostications, which today are often politically motivated.
Most of my friends all poo-poohed this idea but I said "Look at the melting glaciers and some of these islands whose coastlines are going. That's global warming. Why else would glaciers melt and the weather be changing so much?" We even talked about — and this is in the mid-80s mind you, not to be buying coastal properties over the next decades, especially in Caribbean. I kid you not, this is all true and here we are 20 years later that it's finally accepted. Do you see how slow the government and mass opinion moves?
Now the only reason I state this is to make the case I'm not one of those late on the bandwagon, and thus to prepare you for the next question which I have NOT seen answered anywhere. It's a QUESTION, as I don't know the answer but it seems reasonable to me, yet there seems to be a media blackout on this topic….
If the oceans rise, doesn't that put more pressure on the ocean floor? I mean, yes of course the pressure is distributed, but I always watch television shows saying that at so many feet deep, the pressure on our submarine glass (or whatever) is such and such.
Well, now that we're adding an inch or two (or more) of ocean water on TOP of what was already there, doesn't this put even more pressure on the ocean bottom, and doesn't that make it even more unstable…which is thus possibly giving rise to all these increases in earthquakes we seem to be seeing?
In other words, isn't global warming the possible cause behind this increase in ocean earthquakes?
I have not seen this answered elsewhere. I suppose the dismissive answer is that it's all distributed, therefore NO, but that doesn't make sense because not all the ice that is melting was floating on the water to begin with.
Anyway, just pondering…I'm sure there's a science answer, but I haven't seen it.
If I'm right, not only will more and more ocean front property disappear over time as the oceans rise, but we'll see more and more tsunamis and earthquakes due to the added pressure on the oceans crust, … or possibly because of the decreased pressure in places where the weight of ice was holding down a potential geological reaction because of the downward pressure it imposed (and now it's free to move).
I don't know .. if someone has a link to the science behind this, then let me know and I'll post it.
August 15, 2007
Kundalini Meditation
I have to constantly remind people what real kundalini cultivation is. For whatever reason, most people have the wrong idea of and wrong definition of kundalini in their mind.
When you cultivate correctly - in ANY cultivation school using ANY method you like – eventually your real chi will arise. If it doesn't you're not making progress, period. That arising is the beginning of kundalini. As jing transforms into chi, that's the beginning of kundalini. When your breathing stops during meditation, that's your real chi arising, your kundalini. When you achieve samadhi, the chi responsible for this and that blissful feeling are the reuslt of your real body chi, your kundalini. The real kundalini experience is warm and blissful.
So what's all this stuff about kundalini burning, being hot and painful?
If you activate your chi from forceful techniques — as is done in the yoga schools from forceful breathing techniques – you often force a premature rising of your chi that ascends, but has to go through all these obstructed chi channels. You turned on this faucet of energy, and it has to go somewhere but the water hoses are crimped. What happens? Friction. Friction causes pain, the burning, the uncomfortable sensations. Obstructed chi channels are being opened because you forced the process, so now you feel it. In Buddhism, the Buddha Maitreya called this the "Big Knife Wind." Why? It feels like a knife cutting you open as all these chi channels are forced open by the chi, or wind element.
See…every school describes the same spiritual phenomena, but just uses different words.
This friction is the cause of the discomfort and pain you read about with premature kundalini arisings. The big secret? There are both YIN and YANG kundalini arisings. In the literature, you only read about the YIN arisings and not the yang arisings. In the wisdom schools, people don't even talk about this anymore because it's just a stage of body purification, and in the high stages of the path past the third dhyana, people don't even talk about the body anymore.
In Chapter 4 of Measuring Meditation, we go over nearly two dozen cases of individuals who all thought they had a kundalini arising. How many were? None.
Rather than me talk about it, download the free kundalini meditation chapter from Measuring Meditation and learn this stuff. It corrects a lot of false notions out there and you'll learn lots from the case studies. When I was young everything I absorbed in the literature about kundalini pretty much turned out to be wrong until Master Nan gave these lectures.
FREE! (…and invaluable.)
Filed under Meditation, Samadhi - dhyana by admin
August 13, 2007
Recession or Depression? It's Here, It's Started
These last two weeks I've had multiple people from multiple fields tell me we're finally heading for a doozy of a depression, like 1929.
Why "depression" rather than "recession"? That's what I asked when hearing all this advice,
One real estate agent coach, who handles markets in California, Las Vegas and Florida, told me, "Bill, it's because this time people are losing their HOMES!"
Consider this…
The sub prime mess has just started. This is just the tip, and already hedge funds are going belly up. I'm waiting to see what happens to the banks … and the big problem is when ratings agencies downgrade debt ratings, which could explode the whole mess. I cannot go into that, but if the debt rating of a bond issue drops, especially for an entire class of bonds, the results are potentially catastrophic. It's a NATION KILLER issue.
Economically speaking, basically people bought over-priced houses that they could not afford on their salaries, which themselves are dependent on iffy jobs easily eliminated or outsourced during a downturn. As I've constantly said, this is the danger to America, not terrorism — there are no jobs anymore and the economic base, dependent on consumer debt, leaves us in a precarious situation.
Remember after 911? Air flights dried up, which hit the hotel industry, and then the entertainment industry, restaurants, etc. … jobs were lost simply due to a temporary decline in consumer confidence, but in this case this is a REAL DECLINE IN CONSUMER SPENDING WE'RE TALKING ABOUT because the dollars won't be there. And as for free trade, as I always say, free trade is NOT The concern when the majority of your population is unemployed! That whole manta of "free trade" only works in a particular economic environment. The economists who talk about these things never think through the extremes and big issues, but just lock their minds to some standardly accepted math models (deviations will risk your chances for tenure) just as people tie their thoughts to the Bible.
As the Boat Monk Zen master said, ""[Quoting, locking yourself to] A fitting sentence can be a stake that tethers a donkey for 10,000 aeons."
Continuing … the mortgages on most of these homes were adjustable rate rather than fixed (meaning as interest rates rise they'll get even more unaffordable and there will be even more defaults). To top it off, people were given mortgage loans without any down payments, so it's easy for people to walk away from their real estate if it was an investment that didn't work out. If you haven't put any money in a house, and it drops in value and you can't pay the mortgage, many folks will just walk away. Homebanc just went bankrupt – an issuer of prime, not subprime, mortgages. Hmmmm.
Already in Vegas suburbs you can find areas where 40% of the properties are for sale, at 20% off, and there are no buyers in sight. Florida is a mess. Other communities are being hit. This thing has just started turning … the domino effect is going to be EXTREME. Overextended debt, as it always is, has been the enemy. The stock market decline is just beginning and who knows what the final repercussions will be ? Yes there will be bobbing both up and down, and the talking heads will try to assure the public that everything is all right as they quickly work to save their own monies (I saw that happen with my own eyes in Hong Kong before a big bank was decalred bankrupt), but the party is basically over. Bailouts are occuring now at the TOP, when historically they are usally done only at market bottoms!!! That gives you something to think about.
Remember, as the market declines, people liquidate other assets to pay for margin calls, etc. So gold, rather than go up, will drop in a time of deflation. So will every other asset class except cash. But with banks being unsafe with mortgage loans going belly up, the dollar dropping if the FED has to inflate to keep things afloat, with possible problems with credit derivatives and derivative leveraging tied into the banks … where do you put your cash? Banks aren't safe in this type of situation. If you know where to put your money, let me know.
I didn't ask for these phone calls but so many people have called ME, so I had to write about this. The common man hasn't a clue as to what's happening. I even had Chinese call me who have a say in managing China's billion dollar currency reserves, and they're concerned!
In the long run, the only way out of this type of 60 year mess is innovation, new technology released/invested in/developed to create new industries AFTER we get somewhat out of a crash and let the bankruptcies settle. That's the only thing that will be able to pull us out of the bottom when it's all over. It's a Kondratieff sort of thing, a need for new technology to power a boom that will power an economy. Something people can invest in to power the next wave up. Without that, we'll be stuck in the water. And let me tell you, there's PLENTY of new technologies locked up in Work for Others orders issued by the defense industry. They just have to be released.
Most people live in yesterday, and never realize that the US is actually a replacement demand market for most services and goods (everyone has a car, TV, air conditioner, etc. and only replaces them) rather than a growing demand market like India or China where most people don't have these things and want to buy them as a Middle Class develops. We're no longer a manufacturer of most items – in fact other countries don't even have to buy these items from us anymore (like in the 60′s and 70′s) because they're manufactured in their own nation by local industries. It is manufacturing, or production, that makes repayment of financial loans possible as loans for startups and factories are usually self-liquidating. On the other hand, consumer loans for items of consumption (boats, paintings, cars) depend on repayment for other sources of income that are not necessarily as secure as loans for income producing assets. With that in mind, it's easy to see how China is setting itself up as the next economic juggernaut of the world — it will be the producer AND consumer as it grows its own middle class.
We buy too many things we don't need using consumer credit card debt or refinanced housing loans (which disintegrate when real estate drops in value). So we're maxed out. Jobs have been outsourced, and we actually have no stability of incomes or security of jobs if things get bad, especially if our jobs are service based. Remember that when there's just a minor stock market down turn, thousands are fired on Wall Street, and then the insurance industry, and then so on it goes. If firms have to cut costs to survive, even MORE outsourcing will occur. Optional services will be the first thing cut in the next downwave environment. Economists say you can have a nation that survives doing services only…nonsense. The service, software, information, and entertainment industries as the basis of an economy sounds great, but is a delusion of strength and robustness.
Another point: The influx of cheap labor from Mexico and South America will lead to ugly prejudicial race problems if there is a downturn. In terms of the long view, the best and brightest also no longer favor coming to our universities for higher degrees as their first choice, or their attendance is made difficult by our new Homeland Security concerns when these are the very individuals who slowly can produce the new vitality and breakthrough necessary for the economic future. The US strategy should be focused on reversing brain drain as innovation is the one factor that's saved us for so long; this is the core of a healthy future. Change the policies. Welcome these folks, encourage these folks.
Yet another gigantic problem – Interlocked networks of derivatives trading vehicles (swaps, options, etc.) in the banking field have left the entire system vulnerable to a few players going under…but I don't even want to get into that. I've been in that field. If you haven't it's difficult to explain all the interlocked players who suffer when one party goes under. Let's just say that all those risk models that people operate by don't work in economic extremes, and that's why the hedge funds go belly up. They're just the first ones to go; the later ones are the heavier players.
These issues, as I've said, have always been the problem our leaders should be concentrating on, not some crazy focus on other countries or terrorism. The dollars should be spent on these issues, these concerns, this stuff. The strategic security concerns are THESE factors. The economic base has degraded, because of the wrong policies, and this has put the country in more jeopardy than anything else you can imagine. Politicians are looking the wrong way and focusing on the wrong issues….to win votes or outof ignorance. The Comptroller of the Currency gets on 60 Minutes and says that health care obligations will bankrupt the US, and instead of changing the healthcare system, as Joe Mercola sugests (www.Mercola.com), we're talking about doubling, tripling, quadrupling those liabilities … in order to win votes?
This is ridiculous.
Anyway, if my friends are all right, a big decline may have started. I don't have any advice other than to read The Elliot Wave Theorist, by Robert Prechter, which will keep people updated on what to do and where to go to preserve their assets and wealth if this all comes true … whether it unfolds quickly or slowly. This view could be wrong, but the house of cards is indeed a mess, most of which can be traced back to over-leveraged debt with increasingly difficult chances for repayment..
Another friend just advised me that this book ties everything together (America's Financial Apocalypse: How to Profit from the Next Great Depression), so you can look into that as well.
Come election time, start thinking about these issues. Who's talking about them? No one. Why? Doesn't win votes, or they're ignorant of the matter.
The US is going the way of Rome in terms of repeating its strategy for decline. Wisdom is what is needed. Wisdom, not intelligence. Intelligent people think they're smarter than everyone, including you, and become arrogant in forcing their way, their solution on the matter because they're sure it will work. The only believe in their own solutions whereas wise people know how to look at issues in a multi-factorial, globular way that tends to work out.
As I point out in my book on Kuan Tzu, you need wisdom and quick action (quick decisions) to succeed as a leader. If these guys act too late, then everyone is in jeopardy. You need wisdom like a Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton, rather than intelligence like a George Bush or Hillary Clinton, in order to make the right decisions. The party doesn't matter so much any more, whereas the qualifications of the individual does.
More to know: http://www.larouchepub.com/hzl/2007/3431house_of_cards.html
August 6, 2007
China Bans Buddhas From Reincarnation
"Tibet's living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China's atheist leaders." So runs the first sentence of the following article.
Now the reason I bring up this article is severalfold.
Understand that strategywise, in one fell swoop the Chinese can now claim that none of the future masters born into Tibet are individuals of political power (unless they're already controlled by the government). The government has asserted control with this strategy, and in a briliant manner. Whether this is good or bad is not the issue. The issue is for you to understand strategy, and to realize how politics (and even religions) have over time in the course of history made dogma to control things. Flex your wisdom muscles.
Of course this sort of "banning" is not binding. If a realized master wants to be reborn somewhere to help the people, they will. You can neither ban someone from heaven nor ban them from reincarnation. Silly.
However, what you can do is create a reason for refusing to politically recognize such individuals when they do reincarnate. Why? Control. Political control, religious control.
This has been done over and over again in history, and become part of the dogma of a religion. The problem is that people are sheep and fail to recognize this and throw off the chains that bind them. So I bring up this current story to make you realize it is still happening today and WILL happen in the future. It happens in all fields, including medicine and science. Yes, even the sciences! Science is now politicized, and the truth or facts are crushed/silenced in favor of profits and what people in power want to happen. You just have to flex your wisdom muscles to know how to deal with this and how to guide yourself in life.
In the case of the Dalai Lama, China has been trying to gain control of that position for quite some time. At worst, a realized master will simply reincarnate to help the people, but without the name of Dalai Lama or any other title in the future. They do this all the time. End of the story. Maybe it's even for the best that the position of Dalai ends because of the changing needs of the world, … who knows? Nothing lasts forever, impermanence rules all things. That's how hutuku, or Living Buddhas, operate anyway — they just come, realize enlightenment, and are recognized for their spiritual enlightenment without needing a name or position. It's the karma of the people whether or not they have political power or not. But think of the methodology behind this. This is a methodology for controlling the people, and nothing more.
Now let's switch traditions. People within a religion think that all the decisions in their religion — Roman Catholicism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Judaism, Protestantism, Episcopalians, and so forth — are blessed by God or the higher powers, or somehow are a reflection of God's will and represent true dogma, TRUTH. This belief verges on the fanatical. I have a book by a PHD (I don't remember its name) who came to the crushing conclusion that he could not recognize what the "real" Bible was because of all the translations and editings that have crept in over the years, and therefore had to consider it a compilation by men rather than God.
You needed a PHD to know that? I just laughed at the ignorance. If only people cultivated and got even the littlest amount of samadhi, they'd realize how to sweep aside all sorts of strange, radical notions that are taken as orthodoxy.
Well, this is just another example of what I always say: Open your eyes and wisdom stores and understand how things are done. Don't just believe, but test everything. Cultivate to prove things for yourself. Run your own life based on what you know. Don't break any laws, but don't fall for dogma.
Most things come about through skillful means or expedient means, well explained in the Lotus Sutra. A master comes, sees a problem, and then gives a solution but to make it acceptable, gives it a religious coating in some form so people can accept it. For instance, within families people tell white lies all the time to smoothen certain situations and circumstances, and this is really the same thing. So if the houses people built are all full of mold that would kill the inhabitants (ex. Israelites), a master provides an injunction not to live in them saying it "comes from God."
See how it works? It came from the individual, but you attribute it to a higher power so that you have compliance. In ancient China, people would sometimes say the book they authored was written by Confucius or Lao Tzu so that the ideas within would be accepted. That's the same sort of thing. Shakyamuni Buddha often talked about how simple it was to cultivate the Tao (enlightenment), but people wanted complicated things so he gave teachings that he compared to "giving yellow leaves to children, telling them it's gold, in order to stop their crying."
That's expedient means, or skillfulness. Skillfullness can be for the positive or negative, but just recognize that it's skillfullness, not honesty we're discussing here. This is what's used in geopolitics all the time. Wrapping what you want people to do in a lesser truth in order to help them because they're too ignorant to accept the real truth in the first place.
If you want a war, for instance, you stage a mock invasion or invite an enemy to attack so that you now have justification to rally the people. Many countries have done this and it's still being done. I remember watching on TV a recent report of "weapons from Iran that were helping the Iraqis." What the handlers forgot was that Iran doesn't use the Roman Numeral system, and all the bombs were plastered with the Western alphabet. Just yesterday I read a newspaper where the reporter — yes the REPORTER — laughingly reported of another false flag operation that was so transparent he couldn't believe it. So people are aware of these things…. don't think this is just me or craziness. This is standard practice. I'm just trying to teach you wisdom.
This sort of thing is done all the time. In fact, if you cannot do this sort of thing as a ruler, you're probably not qualified to be a leader. The question is whether you have wisdom as to whether your decisions and directions and strategies are right, for just because you can do it doesn't mean it isn't the road to ruin. That's the question — is there a wise wisdom strategy behind this? As to the poor execution of tactics, that's a separate issue.
I cannot comment on the future of the Dalai Lamas of Tibet, nor what it should be. I think only Nan Huai Chin can do that. He once told the Dalai Lama years ago that he should visit China during a certain period of time, and if he didn't he'd lose his chance. Sages were always employed by kings and emperors in the past in order to know what strategy directions would be best for a country, as they can see the future karma of decisions you make. Sages are more valuable than diamonds and gold, and more valuable than other advisors or large armies (because they know how to avert war or conquer without fighting — see my book on Kuan Tzu). The first emperor of China only became the emperor because one of his five chief advisors was a Taoist master who advised the king on all sorts of secret Taoist strategies that led to his success.
Now despite this sort of advice, the Dalai listened to his entourage of political advisors rather than an enlightened sage (even though Master Nan actually knows more about Chinese politics, history and strategy than anyone I know, which made it yet another bad decision), so his fate is his own doing from missing that chance. As to what will become in the future of the Esoteric School of Tibetan Buddhism, this is an area of concern whether or not we have this issue come up. That's an issue for another time.
August 4, 2007
The Hidden Truth of UFOs
People always ask me about UFOs. Today you can see countless TV programs and pictures of them. We even have had US Presidents admit they've seen them.
So what's the story?
The BEST source of information out there, and probably the only you can really trust, is by Dr. Steven Greer, who has had the honor of debriefing multiple US presidents, the heads of the CIA, NATO generals, US generals and colonels, MI5 heads, UN General Secretaries, international bankers and industrialists in the know, and countless other high mucky mucks about what's really going on. He has the credentials to do this–at this level of debriefing they don't call in donut heads. Only if what you know is true, has been checked, and powerful people verify your words and vouch for you are you asked to do this sort of thing.
Think about that ….that in itself is one sort of "proof".
The regular people who write the popular books you read on this topic are not called in to do this, so that tells you who you can trust as your minimum baseline of getting informed. You can even find the "Disclosure Project" video on Google video if you look. It's all true information….the unbelievable stuff you have to read about.
Having sat with mega-bankers and generals and heads of multi-national companies at high levels, let me tell you what one famous individual told me to summarize this sort of thing: "There's a lot more going on than people know, or can believe, but it's the truth." I always tell you in cultivation to open your eyes. So if you want to know about this stuff then read this book below, and then you're informed and then can forget about it and get back to cultivation. Why? Because there's nothing you can really do about it except to know about it, and cultivation is what you have to do. After you read this, how does life change? It doesn't. Nothing changes. The world goes on, it's just that you won't be so easily cheated.
Incidentally, what I talk about in cultivation is actually the ONLY FRAMEWORK that could quell world disruption whenever this information actually does leak out and no one can control it anymore. It's non-denominational, cuts through religions, and applies to them as well.
Dr. Greer has written two books: The Disclosure Project and HIDDEN TRUTH, FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE. The latter is by far the best, and much of the information inside actually dovetails with some truths about cultivation. If you've always wanted to get one book on the topic, this is the one:
What's interesting is that Greer maintains that most of the information on UFOs is contained in Work For Others (WFO) contracts outside the government so that it can be controlled and government officials have little access to it; even Presidents who try to get to it are denied access. And guess which groups are particularly involved in the secrecy aspect, according to Greer? Certain religious orders, particularly Mormon and Vatican interests that want to control what regular people know for religious reasons. Seems people aren't mature enough for the truth; on that line the religious orders themselves are not mature enough when they reject the truths of cultivation. Orthodoxy always does this control thing.
Most of these groups are running on an eschatological worldview of destruction that "the world's going to come to an end and all life on earth will end and the good Christians are going to float up into the sky to Jesus." (Hidden Truth, Forbidden Knowledge, p. 224.) Westerners — not Easterners because they have a more sane worldview – actually make decisions with this in the back of their mind, hoping to hasten this result. I remember Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, making comments like that which guided his environmental decisions. These are the meta-programs people in power are running on, which are totally fictitious, and this is how they make their decisions. But as Buddha explained, the human world will last for a long, long, long, long time – we're talking of thousands of thousands of years. Think about this, too: the very existence of extraterrestrial life ALREADY proves the viewpoints of these groups is wrong. Interesting, huh?
There's all sorts of information in this book (alien reproduction vehicles, electronic-consciousness transference devices, black ops, etc.) that answers a lot of questions most people have, especially as to WHY THIS and WHAT'S THE AGENDA? If you want to learn about UFOs, get this one book to get the basics down right. As the author says, if you've read two dozen other books on UFOs and abductions, that means you've incorporated two dozen times more disinformation and rubbish than someone who's only read one book, so get this one. This is the one to read in your lifetime, especially the program planned for staging mock invasions with alien reproduction vehicles. I remember reading about how Werner Von Braun told Dr. Carol Rosin, his spokesperson, he had seen the plans by the military-industrial-intelligence complex for keeping control and keeping the wheels of these roganizations running by going from the Cold War, to actions against rogue states, to focusing on the "threat of global terrorism," to asteroid impact fears, to a hoaxed threat from space, and Greer reveals the set-ups already in place.
Incidentally, Confucius used to call this level of control (design) the "100 families," and the first step of any ruler would have to be to rectify them, i.e. keep THEM under control. Roman rulers, to solidify their positions, would also exert their influence in this direction. European leaders as well. Cardinal Richileu, of France, basically created the French state of today by reigning in the power of such influences. They always exist; in most countries of the world, a handful of people have the power and connections to control things and a leader can arise only if they appease them or reign them in. It has always been that way. But enough of that …
Now the Eastern cultivation schools talk about the existence of other worlds and higher realms and their inhabitants quite openly. There are Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism and other schools where realized sages, not controlled by any orthodoxy, just tell you how things stand. In fact, Shakyamuni Buddha even talked about how the universe realm of humans is divided into 4 partitions, and where we stand within this level of existence, as well as how the other realms as structured and their inhabitants. Where are you going to find that in the Bible, or the states you can cultivate that these research groups are bumping into with electronic devices?
You see, once you cultivate to any degree of samadhi, the truth of life being everywhere in the universe, with both higher and lower planes of existence, becomes self-evident and with self-awakening orthodox religion cannot control you anymore with all sorts of strange notions that control you based on telling you to just stop asking questions and believe rather than prove things for yourself. This world is not the center of it all, and is pretty darn low on the totem pole. What's fed to regular people in the organized religions actually keeps them then from making spiritual progress in regards to this whole structure.
Of course, that's not the case when you have access to cultivation methods and knowledge.
So what's special about this Earth of ours? Dr. Greer even recognizes what Buddha said, which is that this realm is one in which it's EASIEST to cultivate to high spiritual states precisely because it's a realm of pain and suffering; higher realms are too pleasurable for people to make the effort. Access to the higher realms is what happens when you cultivate chi, then shen, then emptiness. Chi corresponds to the astral body and astral or etheric realms depending upon the degree of chi refinement, and then higher realms correspond to the cultivation of what Tibetan Buddhism calls the pure illusory body. There are all sorts of stages of this, just as there are stages of samadhi. There are infinite gradations, but once again they can be summarized via the larger groupings of the four dhyana and four formless absorptions with their own gradations.
Want to know more about this whole topic of UFOs, and get to the hear of the matter with just one book?
Filed under Meditation, Real World by admin
August 2, 2007
Evangelicalism and Prajna Wisdom
The other day I was reading a book review on Amazon.com, and the Christian author's hypothesis was that the rise of Christian evangelicalism with its stress on emotions and feelings as the religious pathway had resulted in the intellectual decline of Christianity compared to other religions.
His premise was that Christians, as a whole, tended to dwell on emotions and feelings to the detriment of critical analysis, and resultantly, the intellectual underpinnings of Christianity had become vastly weakened.
This was actually blunting their spiritual life rather than elevating it, he proposed. Without more intellectual rigor, many Christians were succumbing to fantastical, whimsical ideas of what Christianity is, and what the future of the world entails — adopting strange notions (an instance being ideas of the "Rapture" that didn't even exist for most of the last 2000 years) which have no basis in science or logic….including cultivation science. Cultivation science is what counts here, because it explains ALL the phenomena encountered or expected in religions that are to be true.
It never ceases to amuse me of the many grossly unbelievable things people will believe in, because of their religion or even because of beloved sci-fi TV shows or bemusings of futurists in journals, and yet those same people will time and again reject the commonly reported acts, achievements and abilities of saints and sages (gong-fu attainments or exhibitions commonly reported of cultivation masters across traditions) actually explained in cultivation schools, along with HOW TO CULTIVATE THEM. Here we have witnesses, across traditions, of the same common experiences, along with explanations — AND THESE ARE THE THINGS PEOPLE IGNORE OR POO-POOH while accepting fantastical notions.
Amazing! Also, sad, funny and pitiable. Here's a sample of a dharma battle between the Bon tradition and Esoteric Tradition in Tibet where masters demonstrated various gongf-fu abilities that people don't believe in:
Then the time arrived for the competition in evidence of siddhi [supernormal abilities]. Vairotsana held the three realms in the palm of his hand. Namkhai Nyingpo, riding on the sun's rays, demonstrated many miracles. Sangye Yeshe summoned malevolent spirits with a gesture of his purbha, slew his enemies with a movement of his phurba, and pierced a stone with a thrust of his phurba [just as in the Story of King Arthur]. Dorje Dunjom ran like the wind, encircling the four continents in a flash, and offered the King seven different kinds of treasure as proof of his feat. Gyelwa Chokyang projected Hayagriva, the Horse-necked, from his fontanelle, instantaneously filling the microcosmic universes with the sound of his neighing. Tsang-ri Gompo conquered the three realms in an instant, and offered the god Brahma's nine-spoked wheel as proof of his feat. Gyelwa Lodro walked on water. Denma Tsemang conclusively defeated the Bon in religious debate, explaining the Kanjur Rochok from memory, projecting the forms of the vowels and consonants into the sky. Kaba Peltsek enslaved the legions of arrogant spirits. Odren Zhonnu swam like a fish in the ocean. Jnana Kumara drew ambrosia from a rock. Ma Rinchen Chok ate pebbles, chewing them like dough. Pelgyi Dorje moved unimpeded through rocks and mountains. Sokpo Lhapel summoned a female tiger in heat from the south by means of his hook-mudra, his mantra of summons and his samadhi. Drenpa Namkha summoned a wild yak from the north. Chokro Lui Gyeltsen invoked the manifest forms of the Three Lords of the Buddha's Three Aspects in the sky in front of him. Langdro Konchok Jungden brought down thirteen thunderbolts at once, and despatched them like arrows wherever he wished. Kyeuchung caught and bought all the Dakinis with his samadhi. Gyelmo Yudra Nyingpo disciplined the Bon in grammar, logic and science, and overpowering external appearances through the penetrating insight of his samadhi, he effected many transformations. Gyelwa Jangchub levitated in lotus posture. Tingdzin Zangpo flew in the sky, his vision encompassing the four continents simultaneously. In this manner all of the Twenty-five Mahasiddhas of Chimphu demonstrated evidence of their siddhi [attained through the practice of dhyana]. Furthermore, the Eight Siddhas of Yerpa, the Thirty Tantric Priests of Sheldrak, the Fifty-five Recluses of Yong Dzong, etc., all showed a particular dissimilar sign of siddhi. They transmuted fire into water and water into fire. They danced in the sky, passed unimpeded through mountains and rocks, walked on water, reduced many to a few and increased a few into a multitude [like Jesus' feeding of the loaves of Bread to the multitude]. All the Tibetan people could not help but gain great faith in the Buddha, and the Bon could not help their defeat. The Bonpo ministers amongst the ministers were speechless.
[Sky Dancer, Keith Dowman (Sow Lion Publications, Ithaca: New York, 1996), pp. 112-113.]
Now don't get all excited about this because you can find similar feats amongst the samadhi and realized masters in Hinduism, Taoism, even Christianity. Wherever there is a samadhi master, such things are possible after sufficient cultivation. It's all a science, and even these feats can be explained via how to cultivate them, how you achieve them, and what's going on.
Continuing, most critics usually attack Christianity via the angle that Christian faith or belief isn't enough for spiritual progress. Why? Because you can prove things through self-cultivation, and if you don't make the effort, then "why not?" when that's the purpose of religion and the self-proof is readily available for sifting through all the nonsense so that you're not wasting your time. It's like running a shop and just hoping you're making a profit while refusing to do an easy profit-loss statement to see if you're making or losing money. It's easy to do the numbers of self-proof, and yet if you don't, what type of stupidity is that if you want to see if you'll survive?
Most of the Eastern spiritual schools are laid out in such a way that you can EXPERIENCE AND PROVE all the spiritual states and principles mentioned, which is the religious path. In fact these are the same states achieved by the Christian saints, but eastern schools have everyone trying to cultivate these states for liberation whereas Christians only have a few devoted people bumping into them anymore.
Why? Because the intellectual framework of cultivation principles is lacking in Christianity anymore (in preference to expoundings by reverends and priests with intellectual and speaking powers rather than samadhi attainments, i.e. spiritual accomplishments) so the common man doesn't even know how to cultivate correctly. Or, doesn't even know it exists, or that that's what they should be doing. Or a bunch of other reasons I'm sure you can think of.
Without this reliance on proof, that's why Christianity now has over 33,830 denominations or sub-groups or divisions (David B. Barrett's World Christian Encyclopedia). Tell me, they can't all be right, can they? The truth is, with even the slightest cultivation attainments from regular meditation, you can start identifying the nonsense spin-offs immediately. IMMEDIATELY.
The problem for Christianity has grown even worse over time in that the common man is now clinging to emotions–because of this stress on emotions over reasons trumpeted by evangelicalism — as the cultivate path wholly in itself. That's the problem in many Christian sects, divisions, groups, sub-groups or denominations.
This, of course, leads to nothing other than a strong bathing in transient feelings for awhile, and then tomorrow is another day. Translation: no cultivation progress.
People can claim this is the way to salvation, liberation, Heaven and so forth, but is it? There's not even any logic to it, other than belief. Well, you believe that one day a half-blood, uncircumcised baby killer whale will become King of England, but belief is belief. Beliefs are just claims with no means of possible proof and so anything goes with belief and all sects can abound, whereas on the Eastern side we have the fact you can prove spiritual states for yourself, along with robust intellectual explanations of the path, principles and stages.
You can call this a claim, but it becomes a fact with self-proof, or self-realization, and history shows plenty of people who do achieve something along these lines, just as it shows plenty of people who can lift more than their own weight in barbells. In fact, no Eastern tradition could survive WITHOUT the proof of people who could cultivate using its methods and tenets to some level of realization. Today we have the Western schools controlled by a central power or Orthodoxy which expounds a judgement on matters based soley on someone's opinion, rather than the truth or falsity of the matter. Hence we have Galileo's censure, and the censure of all sorts of scientific findings as perfect examples of belief over fact, dogma over truth. If THESE PROVABLE THINGS can be censured although they're correct, what about the things that CAN'T BE PROVEN but people are supposed to go on by "faith"?
When you think about it and compare those who ACHIEVE something spiritually with those who don't, it's because of cultivation, not simply because of belief and certainly not because of feelings or even "vague feeling states". To trumpet that idea is a disservice to people in the extreme; there is work to be done. Don't cut off people's wisdom life.
As Jeff Levin wrote,
"Spirituality," as the term traditionally has been used, refers to a state of being that is acquired through religious devotion, piety, and observance. Attaining spirituality-union or connection with God or the divine-is an ultimate goal of religion, and is a state not everyone reaches. According to this usage, spirituality is a subset of a larger phenomenon, religion, and by definition is sought through religious participation. Religious scholars, historians, clergy and mystics of all faiths, and laypeople have always used the term in this way, almost without exception. [God, Faith, and Health, Jeff Levin, (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2001), pp. 9-10.]
So spirituality actually means SUCCESSFUL CULTIVATION PRACTICE, not simply membership in a group or the attendance of religious services. Remember that.
In most all genuine cultivation schools, you need both merit and wisdom to be able to achieve some degree of spiritual attainment. Those are the two wings that let you fly: (1) spiritual wisdom and (2) merit or virtue. Morality, ethics, the practice of virtue and cutting off of evil ways – all these PLUS good works brings you merit….a BIG accumulation of merit….which you need to succeed on the cultivation path.
Christianity as a path excels in teaching the doing of good works and merit making. It excels on the merit side. Everywhere you look, Christians are sponsoring this or that to help other beings. Yes, other groups do, too, but Christianity is EXTROVERTED in the performance of merit making activities. It's proactive along these lines as a general characteristic of the tradition.
Excellent! Commendable beyond compare. Marvelous!
From a practical standpoint, Buddhism fails in this way and so do other traditions even though they also press people to do merit. It's not that Buddhists and others don't do acts of charity (don't be nonsenical), but that its expression does not come to the forefront of spiritual practice in many traditions despite the teachings to do it. In fact, when you have a lot of merit, you tend to be born in richer rather than poorer environments, and those tend to be Christian in this day and age…a self-reinforcing circle for as long as the karma lasts. One hundred years from now, who can say?
But what about wisdom? What about wisdom and Christianity? Where does wisdom go when emotion takes over?
The big question is, does Christianity make the "great sin" of cutting off one's wisdom life? My teacher always said that the charlatans, cheats and fakes who falsely posed as spiritual leaders promising to lead people to enlightenment or salvation, yet all for the power and money, were guilty of cutting off people's wisdom life, and thus would eventually merit a karmic rebirth in Hell. Rarely would he stress a consequence that severe.
When you steal money it can be repaid (and will be!), and even a life can be given in return, but he always warned us never to cut off people's wisdom life, because then they revolve around the web of reincarnation for aeons, cut off from the possibility of enlightenment because someone had blinded them with false notions they now cling to. The karmic consequence of misleading people spiritually for money, power, greed, sex or whatever? Hellish karma — be forewarned.
Now back to our story and the cultivation of wisdom….
Where Christianity goes lacking, especially when compared to Eastern spiritual traditions, is in the cultivation of the wisdom for how to tread the spiritual path. This is one of the reasons that Christianity could never take a strong foothold in India, other than through heavy charitable work, and why many writers, intellectuals and even politicians who EXPERIENCE India also go so far as to mention its superiority in this realm. I've even watched TV documentaries where the commentator flat out says that scholars in other traditions marvel at the profoudity and robustness of the intellectual frameworks in these traditions, and frankly admit they cannot compete except through excuses like "Just believe." It's like enrolling in the army where you're not supposed to ask questions, but just follow orders and march to your death.
Here is a list of some of the MAIN Christian groups which you can readily scan, and I don't and won't say anything because I know your mind will immediately evaluate them as to their "wisdom content" or approach to spirituality all by itself:
African Independent Churches (AICs), the Aglipayan Church, Amish, Anglicans, Armenian Apostolic, Assemblies of God; Baptists, Calvary Chapel, Catholics, Christadelphians, Christian Science, the Community of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("Mormons"), Coptic Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches, Ethiopian Orthodox, Evangelicals, Iglesia ni Cristo, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Local Church, Lutherans, Methodists, Monophysites, Nestorians, the New Apostolic Church, Pentecostals, Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterians, the Salvation Army, Seventh-Day Adventists, Shakers, Stone-Campbell churches (Disciples of Christ; Churches of Christ; the "Christian Church and Churches of Christ"; the International Church of Christ); Uniate churches, United Church of Christ/Congregationalists, the Unity Church, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Vineyard churches and others.
The big point to know or understand is to fathom this question: "What is spiritual wisdom then, namely the prajna wisdom or transcendental wisdom spoken of in the East which is the other crux for cultivating enlightenment?" What is the definition of wisdom necessary for spirituality?
The answer:
"Prajna wisdom is not ordinary wisdom. … Prajna wisdom indicates that which is able to understand Tao, realize Tao, cultivate the self, release one from the bondage of birth and death and leap over the mundane. This is not common intelligence. It is the wisdom which is the root and origin of the body of Tao. The "so-called" original, or primal, wisdom is merely a name. To use contemporary understanding, it's that which goes above and beyond average intelligence and common wisdom, that which can understand the essence and origin of life, the original nature. This cannot be the result of cognition. Rather, it's the great wisdom achieved through complete engagement in the cultivation of one's body and mind. It is this level of wisdom which is prajna. The word wisdom, which we commonly use, cannot express the full extent of the meaning of the word prajna. Therefore, it is not translated." [Commentary on the Diamond Sutra, Nan Huai-chin, trans. by Pia Giammasi, (private manuscript), pp. 1-8]
Let's say that again: "Prajna wisdom indicates that which is able to understand Tao, realize Tao, cultivate the self, release one from the bondage of birth and death and leap over the mundane. "
If you can find this in a tradition, FANTASTIC. What's left is to cultivate now that the path is made clear. That's all I care about for you. You will never turn a Hindu into a Jew, Moslem into a Taoist, Confucian into a Shintoist and so forth. (Yes there are exceptions, but you get the idea so don't nitpick, just get the point). So all I care about is that you recognize the pathway to enlightenment, and within your own tradition practice along these lines, achieve something and then help the others. You want to convert to something else, then convert. You don't want to, then don't — but practice in the way that's effective.
That, my friend, is wisdom. Do you have it? Do you know the target of the path? Do you know how to get there via practice? Do you have a practice vehicle or method(s)? Are your practicing correctly? Do you know what to expect in terms of the gong-fu (kung-fu, kungfu, gongfu) or stages of the path? …
Knowing the answers to these and similar questions is prajna wisdom, transcendental wisdom, the wisdom you need to succeed in cultivation.
Filed under Meditation, Real World by admin
One of the big sorrows in the world is the end of any cultivation tradition. But the world is marked by impermanence, so that is the fate of ALL sects, religions, creeds and so forth. Even for countries, there is no boon of perpetuity; look at the companies that comprised the DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE at the turn of the century and they are all gone, too. And these were the industry giants — the biggies of the time. In time, Microsoft, Walmarts and even Home Depot will disappear. When I was young, Sear was big — but now it's nothing compared to its former self.
Have I made my point?
If not, consider that nothing is left of the great Assyrian and Egyptian religions. What about the Greek mysteries, and European Paganism? Zoroasterism hardly exists anymore and Confucianism and Taoism are basically gone. Who knows what the Aztecs and Mayans were up to before the Spaniards came for "gold, glory and God"? All these traditions once WERE THE WORLD TRADITIONS. All gone now, basically gone. So don't ever think the little (or large) group you've been born into or selected out of choice is THE THING, or destined to last either, or the CHOSEN, select, destined, real one.
In time, Christianity will disappear, Islam will disappear, Judaism will disappear and so on it will go. Yes, they will ALL disappear. This is not blasphemy, this is impermanence which characterizes all phenomena. It characterizes thoughts, it characterizes the universe.
Shakyamuni Buddha even predicted the specific die out of Buddhism saying that the only component left of this great cultivation stream in the far future would be the recitation of the "Namo Amitofo" mantra because it's the simplest cultivation method that exists; all the high wisdom components would die out well before that because people will turn to stupider and stupider religions and cultivation claims, including all sorts of crazy promises such as expounded by the New Age traditions. Their wisdom life would turn off. He talked about this and explained it clearly and talked about how false cultviation streams would arise, all polluted or diluted of true cultivation content. (Not this website — that' s my committment).
Now every GENUINE samadhi tradition will eventually die out, but while alive every genuine samadhi tradition usually has sages within in who can see the future of the tradition. Why? How? Through their samadhi attainments. And thus, they can see into the future of a tradition and see, or predict the various masters who will be born into that tradition, as well as its ultimate end – the termination of that tradition. All things die, all lines are subject to impermanence and via samadhi you can predict the end of a tradition. So it is no special thing that the line of Jewish prophets – basically Jewish samadhi masters — would die out and that this was predicted or "fulfilled." It's really nothing special at all that this would even be predicted. It's not special, just extremely unfortunate. That is the fate of all samadhi traditions, which is why they must be rejuvenated with new teachers over time to keep things alive.
So how can we rejuvenate the Jewish tradition and enable it to start attaining samadhi masters again like Elijah, Daniel and Elisha? I don't mention Moses as an exemplar because his samadhi attainments were extremely low, which is why the tradition's foundations have led to so many problems over time. All three of these master were far higher than Moses in terms of the attainments of the Tao.
Anyway, the Mideast is a great place to cultivate. Greece, Pakistan, Egypt, the Persian states and so forth all benefit from a dry, arid climate which helps with cultivation. It is very difficult to succeed in cultivation in humid environments, and certain types of gong-fu are most easily accomplished only in dry, arid environments. With the arid or desert regions, it is easy to conquer the water element of the body and cultivate some special physical types of gong-fu, especially Rainbow Bodies. It'snot that you can't cultivate them elsewhere, it's just that their cultivation is easiest in dry, arid regions. Remember, there is no exclusivity involved here, so don't get tripped up in things. ALways return to fundamental principles.
Now we don't know what specific methods the old Jewish prophets (samadhi masters) used as the basis of their cultivation. All we know is that today many Jews prize the Kabbalah as a cultivation vehicle even though frankly, they don't know how to cultivate using it. They mix its cultivation with all sorts of nonsense and miss its basis as a cultivation vehicle. Remember, once you know the principles of cultivation, you can use anything to cultivate; stray from those principles and you're mostly wasting your time. So use your time to advantage.
We also know that the Jewish Kabbalists who succeeded all talk about "ayin," or emptiness, non-ego or absence of the self which means they're cultivating the exact target everyone else is. Yep! Exact same target, despite any prostests. If you are striving for the stage of emptiness and no-ego, and that guy over there is also targeting the same, then I don't care how much you try to make your traditions and targets different. "No self" is no self. Same target. Same stages. Same methods.
Take a look at these excerpts from Jewish masters to get the point that there is no exclusivity here, as much as people would like. That's another fallacy found with other groups which claim they are the only ones saved, or their tradition is the only one holding the keys, or they are the selected ones. Nonsense, especially when you open up your third eye and see the infinite beings in infinite realms in the universe. That's just the typical propaganda found in Tibetan Buddhism, Born Again Christianity and other schools made to attract followers and keep the tradition alive. Remember I said that wisdom, over time, dies out just as bad money drives out the good.
But enough of that. Continuing….take a look at just a few of these quotes to get a flavor for what I'm talking about:
'The essence of the worship of God and of all the mizvot is to attain the state of humility, namely, — to understand that all one's physical and mental powers and one's essential being are dependent on the divine elements within. One is simply a channel for the divine attributes. One attains such humility through the awe of God's vastness, through realizing that "there is no place empty of Him" (Tiqqunei Zohar 57), Then one comes to the state of ayin [emptiness], which is the state of humility. — One has no independent self and is contained, as it were, in the Creator, blessed be He. — This is the meaning of the verse (Exod. 3:6): "Moses hid his face, for he was in awe. —" Through his experience of awe, Moses attained the hiding of his face, that is, he perceived no independent self. Everything was part of divinity." '(Mevasser Zedek, Issachar Ber of Zlotshov, (Berditchev, USSR, 1817), p. 9a-b.)
Hasidism says, "When one attains the level of gazing at ayin [emptiness], one's intellect is annihilated. —Afterwards, when one returns to the intellect, it is filled with emanation." (Maggid Devarav le-Ya'agov, Dov Baer, ed. Rivka Schatz Uffenheimer, (Magnes Press, Jerusalem: Israel, 1976), p. 224.)
Another Hasidic text says, "Arriving at the gate of Ayin [emptiness], you forget your existence altogether." (The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, Daniel Matt, (Castle Books, Edison: New Jersey, 1997), p. 141.)
Yet another quote specifically referring to the Kabbalah: "The sefirot are stages of contemplative ascent; each one serves as an object and focus of mystical search. In tracing the reality of each sefirah, the mystic uncovers layers of being within herself and throughout the cosmos. This is the knowledge that the kabbalist strives for, supernal wisdom. However, there is a higher level, a deeper realm, beyond this step-by-step approach. At the ultimate stage, the kabbalist no longer differentiates one thing from another. Conceptual thought, with all its distinctions and connections, dissolves. " (The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism, Daniel Matt, (Castle Books, Edison: New Jersey, 1997), p. 180.)
And now the meat…
I don't want you to have to read the Zohar to understand Kabbalah meditation. All I want you to do is the following.
Take a look at the previous blog post on the method of visualizing the four major chakras, with the ROOT chakra at the bottom and CROWN chakra at the top. Huh — the Kabbalah use the same terminolgy…interesting. Then also remember that for cultivation purposes you can focus on your body's chi channels using the group of the left, right and central chi channels (ida, pingala, sushumna), or back, front and central chi channels (du-mai, jen-mai, zhong mai – sushumna). If you open up the left and right, the front and back will naturally open up and vica versa, which I explain on the site articles.
Now take a look at any picture of the Kabbalah with four chakras on the center line, and the left and right channels flagging the central channel. Presto. You now have enough information to figure out how to be in line with Judaisim and cultivate QUICKLY to get samadhi. Please use it to rejuvenate the Jewish tradition of extinct samadhi masters upon your success.
Once you understand the basic principles, cultivation is just that simple. It's not mysterious or mystical. Don't complicate it or get lost in garbage, explanations, mucky muck and so forth. Just cultivate. Just throw your time into cultivation.
There are common, scientific principles to spiritual cultivation. Prayer, visualization, and so forth are effective WHEN YOU FOLLOW THESE PRINCIPLES and ineffective when you don't. The gong-fu achieved and stages of attainment for people who succeed are common, non-denominational phenomena.
ALL traditions rely on similar principles and methods to achieve the same states, and IT IS TRUE that some masters do succeed in proceeding further than others in their own tradition and versus other traditions, but like the Diamond Sutra says, all the sages and saints rely upon their cultivation of the same principle. So if you want to help save or rejuvenate the line of Jewish samadhi masters, apply these principles to tools within the tradition and you'll get the result I'm teaching you to achieve.
That's how you rejuvenate a tradition.
Filed under Meditation, Samadhi - dhyana by admin


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Small station wagons are hardly a thriving breed in a modern age where acronyms like SUV and MPV take care of those with practical needs.
It's still a niche that Chevrolet feels fit to tackle, however, with its new Cruze station wagon that will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
The first official picture that you see here shows that GM has at least attempted to endow it with a sportier, more hatchback-like design that features a tapering single-arch roofline that still fits a set of roof rails.
Measuring 4768mm in length, the wagon is 258mm longer than its hatchback sibling and 81mm longer than the sedan.
In practical terms, this translates into 500 litres worth of load space up to the window line in the boot, which can be expanded to almost 1500 litres up to the roof if the rear seats are folded.
It's not all about bulk, however, with a new 97kW 1.7-litre turbodiesel engine, mated to an idle-stop system, allowing an official CO2 figure of just 119g/km - which would be just enough to put it on the good side of South Africa's emissions tax to put that into perspective.
Not that there is much chance of seeing it here any time soon. Our contact at GMSA said there are no plans to bring the station wagon to South Africa at this stage.
One thing we will inevitably see, however, is a number of small styling changes to the Cruze, which include a redesigned front bumper, modified headlight innards and new wheel designs on the outside and a few minor trim changes inside.
Anonymous, wrote
rather by a kia, hyundia
Riaan, wrote
AnTiyota, wrote
Chevrolet did an excellent job with the rear. Looks stunning! About time a manufacturer brings a good looking, yet affordable (not AudiMercBM priced) station wagon.
kay, wrote
I see this one coming to SA.
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This bread is wonderful with most any soup or with a meal. We love the onion taste, too.2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon poppy seed 1 teaspoon parsley flakes 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted 2 eggs 1/2 cup onion, finely chopped 5 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled, optional 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, poppy seeds, parsley flakes and garlic powder. In a smaller bowl whisk together buttermilk, melted butter and eggs. Add to dough mixture. Fold in crumbled bacon, shredded cheese and onion. Mix well with a spoon. Spray a 9 x 4 inch bread pan with cooking spray. Add bread dough and bake in preheated 350 degree oven 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Makes 1 loaf. Enjoy! If you like this recipe, you might also like my recipe for Quick Molasses Oat Bread. © The Southern Lady Cooks photos and text – All rights reserved. No copying, posting on other sites, or other uses allowed without written permission of the copyright holder.Click to follow The Southern Lady Cooks on Facebook.
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Filed under: Cheesy Onion Bread with Bacon Tagged: | Bacon, baking, bread, cheese, cooking, Entertaining, Onions, southern lady


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Fantasy Football Daily Games | Week 13 Special Turkey and Trimmings Edition: Green Bay vs. Detroit
With the three huge scoops of football the NFL is serving on Thursday, FanDuel and Draft Kings (and other sites, I'm sure) are offering a bunch of Thursday-only contests. Some of the larger tournaments will pit players from just six NFL teams in more than 3,000 fantasy lineups. The gravy will rise to the top!


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What to look for in dueling autopsies of Michael Brown
This column originally appeared on ProPublica's website and is being republished with permission.
In the next few weeks, separate teams of doctors will issue autopsy reports about Michael Brown, the unarmed African American shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. If history is any guide, they will differ, perhaps significantly, on how to interpret the gunshot wounds on his body. Michael Baden, the veteran medical examiner chosen to autopsy the body by Brown's family, has released the preliminary results of his autopsy and both the St. Louis County Medical Examiner and U.S.… Read more


text: The Best Movie Hairstyles 10 Movie Characters' Hairstyles We've Coveted by POPSUGAR Beauty 5/21/10 10 Reactions 3 Shares Print 0 2 1 0 0 It's an almost universal experience: you go to a movie, and come out with a major crush, because an actress in the film you've just seen has the most amazing hair. We Bellas put together 10 hairstyles we've obsessed over at one point or another, but we want to know who your hair crushes are, too. So join our new Hair Crushes group and post your all-time favorite movie styles. Click through to check out our picks, and tell us who you think belongs on the list. Andy Sachs What's Your Reaction? 0 0 0 0 0 0 The Devil Wears Prada was all about realizing who you really are, but Anne Hathaway's makeover hair, complete with long layers and blunt bangs, was totally fierce. 1 / 10 Viola De Lesseps What's Your Reaction? 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gwyneth Paltrow's superstar-making turn in Shakespeare in Love was also remarkable for her amazing princess hair. 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This collection of fiction, representing some of García Márquez's earlier work, includes eleven short stories and a novella, Innocent Eréndira, in which a young girl who dreams of freedom cannot escape the reach of her vicious and avaricious grandmother.
About the Author
Gabriel GarcÍa MÁrquez was born in Colombia in 1927. His many books include The Autumn of the Patriarch; No One Writes to the Colonel; Love in the Time of Cholera; a memoir, Living to Tell the Tale; and, most recently, a novel, Memories of My Melancholy Whores. Gabriel GarcÍa MÁrquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.