BY ROB BREZSNY | FEBRUARY 13, 2024 (NewCity.com)

Photo: Jordan McDonald

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Some stories don’t have a distinct and orderly beginning, middle and end. At any one point, it may be hard to know where you are. Other tales have a clear beginning, middle and end, but the parts occur out of order; maybe the middle happens first, then the end, followed by the beginning. Every other variation is possible, too. And then there’s the fact that the beginning of a new story is implied at the end of many stories, even stories with fuzzy plots and ambiguous endings. Keep these ruminations in mind during the coming weeks, Aries. You will be in a phase when it’s essential to know what story you are living in and where you are located in the plot’s unfoldment.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): As I meditate on your destiny in the near future, I sense you will summon extra courage, perhaps even fearless and heroic energy. I wonder if you will save a drowning person, or rescue a child from a burning building, or administer successful CPR to a stranger who has collapsed on the street. Although I suspect your adventures will be less dramatic than those, they may still be epic. Maybe you will audaciously expose corruption and deceit, or persuade a friend to not commit self-harm, or speak bold thoughts you haven’t had the daring to utter before.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Lately, you have been learning more than you thought possible. You have surpassed and transcended previous limits in your understanding of how the world works. Congratulations! I believe the numerous awakenings stem from your willingness to wander freely into the edgy frontier—and then stay there to gather in all the surprising discoveries and revelations flowing your way. I will love it if you continue your pilgrimage out there beyond the borders for a while longer.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): As I study the astrological omens for the coming weeks, I suspect you will feel more at home in a situation that has previously felt unnerving or alien. Or you will expedite the arrival of the future by connecting more deeply with your roots. Or you will cultivate more peace and serenity by exploring exotic places. To be honest, though, the planetary configurations are half-mystifying me; I’m offering my best guesses. You may assemble a strong foundation for an experimental fantasy. Or perhaps you will engage in imaginary travel, enabling you to wander widely without leaving your sanctuary. Or all of the above.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Of your hundreds of wishes and yearnings, Leo, which is the highest on your priority list? And which are the next two? What are the sweet, rich, inspiring experiences you want more than anything else in life? I invite you to compile a tally of your top three longings. Write them on a piece of paper. Draw or paste an evocative symbol next to each one. Then place this holy document in a prominent spot that you will see regularly. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you are in a phase when focusing and intensifying your intentions will bring big rewards.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy hiked across Spain along the famous pilgrimage route, Camino de Santiago. On the way, he felt so brave and strong that at one point he paradoxically had a sobbing breakdown. He realized how fear had always dominated his life. With this chronic agitation absent for the first time ever, he felt free to be his genuine self. “I started to feel more comfortable in the world and consequently in my own skin,” he testified, concluding, “I think travel obliterates fear.” I recommend applying his prescription to yourself in the coming months, Virgo—in whatever ways your intuition tells you are right. Cosmic forces will be aligned with you.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the natural world, there are four partnership styles. In the parasitic variety, one living thing damages another while exploiting it. In the commensal mode, there is exploitation by one partner, but no harm occurs. In the epizoic model, one creature serves as a vehicle for the other but gets nothing in return. The fourth kind of partnership is symbiotic. It’s beneficial to both parties. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Libra, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to take an inventory of your alliances and affiliations—and begin to de-emphasize, even phase out, all but the symbiotic ones.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio author Dan Savage says, “I wish I could let myself eat and eat and eat.” He imagines what it would be like if he didn’t “have to monitor the foods I put in my mouth or go to the gym anymore.” He feels envious of those who have no inhibitions about being gluttonous. In alignment with astrological aspects, I authorize Savage and all Scorpios to temporarily set aside such inhibitions. Take a brief break. Experiment with what it feels like to free yourself to ingest big helpings of food and drink—as well as metaphorical kinds of nourishment like love and sex and sensations and entertainment. Just for now, allow yourself to play around with voraciousness. You may be surprised at the deeper liberations it triggers.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Dear Wise Gambler: You rank high in your spacious intelligence, intuitive logic and robust fantasy life. There’s only one factor that may diminish your ability to discern the difference between wise and unwise gambles. That’s your tendency to get so excited by big, expansive ideas that you neglect to account for messy, inconvenient details. And it’s especially important not to dismiss or underplay those details in the coming weeks. If you include them in your assessments, you will indeed be the shrewdest of wise gamblers.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn golfer Tiger Woods is one of the all-time greats. He holds numerous records and has won scores of tournaments. On twenty occasions, he has accomplished the most difficult feat: hitting a hole-in-one. But the weird fact is that there were two decades (1998–2018) between his nineteenth and twentieth holes-in-one. I suspect your own fallow time came in 2023, Capricorn. By now, you should be back in the hole-in-one groove, metaphorically speaking. And the coming months may bring a series of such crowning strokes.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Poet Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) lived till age seventy-six, but her destiny was a rough ride. Her native country, the authoritarian Soviet Union, censored her work and imprisoned her friends and family. In one of her poems, she wrote, “If I can’t have love, if I can’t find peace, give me a bitter glory.” She got the latter wish. She came close to winning a Nobel Prize and is now renowned as a great poet and heroic symbol of principled resistance to tyranny. Dear Aquarius, I predict that your life in the coming months will be very different from Akhmatova’s. I expect you will enjoy more peace and love than you’ve had in a long time. Glory will stream your way, too, but it will be graceful, never bitter. The effects will be heightened if you express principled resistance to tyranny.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean perfumer Sophia Grojsman says, “Our lives are quiet. We like to be disturbed by delight.” To that end, she has created over thirty best-selling fragrances, including Eternity Purple Orchid, Désir Coulant (Flowing Desire), Spellbound, Volupté (Pleasure) and Jelisaveta (“God is abundance”). I bring this up, Pisces, because I believe it’s now essential for you to be disturbed by delight—as well as to disturb others with delight. Please do what’s necessary to become a potent magnet for marvelous interruptions, sublime interventions and blissful intrusions. And make yourself into a provider of those healing subversions, too.

Homework: I dare you to forgive yourself for a past event you’ve never forgiven yourself for before. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

By admin | February 15, 2024 | Uncategorized

TERROR ON REPEAT

Editor’s note: The photos, videos and personal accounts below are extremely disturbing and may be too upsetting for some people. Read why The Post is publishing this story.

Icon: Scroll down to continue

When a gunman fires an AR-15 …

… a seemingly safe, familiar place instantly transforms into a hellscape ofchaos, destruction and mass death.

By Silvia Foster-Frau, 

N. Kirkpatrick and 

Arelis R. Hernández

Nov. 16 at 6:00 a.m. (WashingtonPost.com)

Mass shootings involving AR-15s have become a recurring American nightmare.

The weapon, easy to operate and widely available, is now used more than any other in the country’s deadliest mass killings.

Fired by the dozens or hundreds in rapid succession, bullets from AR-15s have blasted through classroom doors and walls. They have shredded theater seats and splintered wooden church pews. They have mangled human bodies and, in a matter of seconds, shattered the lives of people attending a concert, shopping on a Saturday afternoon, going out with friends and family, working in their offices and worshiping at church and synagogue. They have killed first-graders, teenagers, mothers, fathers and grandparents.

But the full effects of the AR-15’s destructive force are rarely seen in public.

AMERICAN ICON

A series examining the AR-15, a weapon with a singular hold on a divided nation

More stories

Press Enter to skip to end of carousel

The AR-15’s destructive force: A rare look at the weapon’s impact

Why are we showing graphic AR-15 content? A letter from the executive editor.

What does an AR-15 do to a human body? A visual examination of the deadly damage.

A letter from Executive Editor Sally Buzbee on the AR-15 series

Decades of marketing reinvented the AR-15 into a top-selling firearm

Sutherland Springs survivors haunted by an AR-15’s carnage, trauma

Magazine restrictions could reduce mass killings by AR-15s, but courts must decide

The AR-15’s impact in America: Here’s what The Post’s examination found

Why do people own AR-15s? 33% of owners cited self-defense, poll finds

Gunmakers’ growth in red states marks a divide on weapons like the AR-15

Armed with AR-15s, extremist and militia groups anticipate civil unrest

As guns saturate the United States, police turn to the AR-15

How the AR-15 became a powerful political, cultural symbol in America

As mass shootings rise, some senators are recanting their gun debate votes

The Louisville bank shooter bought a gun despite struggles with mental health

End of carousel

About the terminology  

The impact is often shielded by laws and court rulings that keep crime scene photos and records secret. Journalists do not typically have access to the sites of shootings to document them. Even when photographs are available, news organizations generally do not publish them, out of concern about potentially dehumanizing victims or retraumatizing their families.

Now, drawing on an extensive review of photographs, videos and police investigative files from 11 mass killings between 2012 and 2023, The Washington Post is publishing the most comprehensive account to date of the repeating pattern of destruction wrought by the AR-15 — a weapon that was originally designed for military combat but has in recent years become one of the best-selling firearms on the U.S. market.

This piece includes never-before-released pictures taken by law enforcement officials after shootings inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex., in 2022, and the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., in 2017, that were obtained by The Post. It is also based on Post interviews with survivors and first responders from multiple shootings as well as transcripts of official testimony provided by law enforcement officials who were among the first to witness the carnage. Read a note here from the executive editor about how The Post decided what to publish and why.

The review lays bare how the AR-15, a weapon that has soared in popularity over the past two decades as a beloved tool for hunting, target practice and self-defense, has also given assailants the power to instantly turn everyday American gathering places into zones of gruesome violence.

This is an oral history told in three parts that follows the chronological order of a typical AR-15 mass shooting. It weaves together pictures, videos and the recollections of people who endured different tragedies but have similar stories to tell.

PART 1

SHOTS ARE FIRED

To some it sounds like fireworks, to others a deafening roar. The initial burst from the AR-15 is often the first sign that something unusual is happening. Moments later, bullets riddle walls, windows, shelves and notebooks. Some people are shot and others scramble for safety. Later, investigators identify dozens or hundreds of bullet casings.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, you just hear the loudest, most unbelievably piercing sound you’ve ever heard in your life. Danielle Gilbert, high school student. Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Fla.

People started screaming, and there was hysteria and people were dropping to the ground. Heather Brown Sallan, vendor. Route 91 Harvest festival, Las Vegas.Play/pause button

Use Up/Down Arrow keys to increase or decrease volume.

​​Route 91 Harvest festival, Las Vegas. Oct. 1, 2017. 60 killed.

[Jason Aldean singing]

I turned around and … looked at the back doors, just trying to get my bearings and figure out, is this some kids throwing firecrackers? David Colbath, church congregant. First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Tex.

I heard what sounded like metal chairs falling, and I figured that was for the holiday program or something.Abbey Clements, teacher. Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn.

I just saw things flying off the walls, and that’s when it hit me — that it was bullets, that it was a gun that was firing off. Arnulfo Reyes, teacher. Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Tex.

The face my wife made the moment we heard shots and she started to run with the stroller … super tense — I don’t know how to describe it. Daniel Seijas, shopper. Allen Premium Outlets, Allen, Tex.

Smoke filled the place up from the constant shooting inside here. … You could smell the smoke. David Colbath, church congregant. Sutherland Springs.

Since it was pitch black, I could see the muzzle flashes coming from that left side. … There was drywall fragments falling from the ceiling. Anthony Burke, police detective and SWAT officer. Tree of Life Congregation, Pittsburgh.

To be able to cope with being in a position where I couldn’t do anything, I did the most useful thing that I can think of: I was counting rounds and reloads. Morgan Workman, church congregant. Sutherland Springs.

The bullets were ricocheting off the street. … You could hear the pinging and the ricocheting of them hitting the cars around you. It was the chaos of it — it just kept going and going and going. Heather Brown Sallan, vendor. Las Vegas.

Before he ever came in, there was really hardly anybody that could rise up and challenge him. But with these bullets just flying through the air, there was nobody going to be able to do it and nobody could. David Colbath, church congregant. Sutherland Springs.

NOTE TO READERS

THIS VIDEO WAS RECORDED BY DANIELLE GILBERT, MOMENTS AFTER A GUNMAN SHOT INTO CLASSROOM 1213 IN PARKLAND, WHERE SHE, MADDY WILFORD AND OTHER STUDENTS WERE TAKING AP PSYCHOLOGY. IN THE VIDEO, YOU’LL HEAR A LOUD ALARM, WOUNDED STUDENTS WHO ARE NOT VISIBLE CRYING FOR HELP AND ADDITIONAL GUNFIRE. IT IS UPSETTING.

Play/pause button

0:08 / 0:35Mute/unmute button

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Parkland, Fla. Feb. 14, 2018. 17 killed.

I got shot four times …I thought I got hit with a ton of bricks … so I looked behind me to try to see if there’s anyone to help me. And all I could see was blood. Maddy Wilford, high school student in classroom 1213, Parkland.

There’s dust everywhere. There’s debris. … I had like dust and debris coming off of my hands. … I was still just covered from head to toe. Danielle Gilbert, high school student. Parkland.

When I could hear the gunfire, I knew where he was. When I didn’t hear the gunfire, I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s coming this way.’ I kept thinking that everyone was dead. There’s no way they’re not all dead. Dallas Schwartz, employee. Old National Bank, Louisville.

I only thought he got shot one time, and it was five. … As the police and them come to us I just grab on my dad and just kept telling him I loved him before he died. Dion Green, bar patron. Oregon Historic District, Dayton, Ohio.

NOTE TO READERS

THE NEXT SECTION INCLUDES PHOTOGRAPHS WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE BLOOD AND DESTRUCTION THAT REMAIN AFTER BODIES HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE SCENE OF AN AR-15 SHOOTING.

PART 2

THE ATTACK UNFOLDS

In minutes, injured and dead fall to the floor. Some are able to flee, others are rushed to safety by police. Smoke from the rifle fills the air. The Post obtained never-before-published photographs from Robb Elementary School classrooms 111 and 112 in Uvalde. They show the carnage left behind, including the large volume of blood that collects. The photos, along with personal accounts describing young children’s lifeless bodies, echo descriptions provided 11 years earlier by witnesses at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

He shot the students there under the table. And so, I didn’t hear any yelling or crying. But I think it was due to the bullets, the gun, being so loud. Arnulfo Reyes, teacher. Uvalde.

I was stunned. I was hurt. I couldn’t move. Two kids fell on my back. Another two kids fell on those two kids’ back. We were stacked up right here like cordwood. David Colbath, church congregant. Sutherland Springs.

I saw my right arm get blown open in two places and my right hand. The pain was the worst pain I ever felt. I looked at it as I felt it, and it looked like shredded raw meat. And there was a lot of blood. Andrea Wedner, synagogue congregant. Pittsburgh.

It was a war zone and there was injured, there was blood everywhere. There was magazines, there was bullets. Danielle Gilbert, high school student. Parkland.

I notice on the whiteboard it looked like somebody had taken, like, their hand and, like, it just, it was wrote in blood — it looked like they wrote LOL on the whiteboard. Travis Shrewsbury, Border Patrol agent. Uvalde.

I could hear a little girl say, ‘Officers come in, we’re in here,’ and she sounded far away so I knew it was in the other room. And she said that once. And then maybe two or three minutes later she said it again. And then I just heard him walk into that other room. And he shot some more. So after that I didn’t hear her no more. And so I had figured he had killed her. Arnulfo Reyes, teacher. Uvalde.

My breathing was changing, it was getting more shallow, more rapid. I was salivating. I was losing my ability to expand my lungs. I was drooling. The pressure in my abdomen was getting greater by the minute and through my rectum. I felt that I was leaving. … I felt that I was dying. Daniel Leger, synagogue congregant. Pittsburgh.

I could hear people screaming, and I could hear people — you know, last words were uttered, things that were — fear, and just really awful sounds. And then it eventually started getting quieter. And that was the worst part. Was knowing that the quiet meant the worst. Morgan Workman, church congregant. Sutherland Springs.

After a while, I could see she was shot and she wasn’t going to survive. … I kissed my fingers, and I touched my fingers to her skin. … I cried out, ‘Mommy.’ Andrea Wedner, synagogue congregant. Pittsburgh.

One of my cousins — the cops dragged him in the hallway when they were taking us out. I saw the bullet in his head. Jaydien Canizales, elementary school student. Uvalde.

Two 6- or 7-years-old girls followed by two older, taller boys came out the east exit and approached. One little girl was heavily blood spattered and dazed. … Her friend said that she was all right and ‘stuff got on her.’ … I told the two to hold hands and go.Paul Lukienchuk, state trooper. Newtown.

The kids, some are scared, some are quiet, some are crying, some don’t know what’s going on. Some thought it was a practice fire drill. But they were ready to see us. … We told them: ‘Single file. Get your kids. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.’ Alexander Cuellar, Border Patrol agent. Uvalde.

They came, these three police officers with long guns. … I was instructed to unlock the doorandto raisemy hands and we all came out at gunpoint and were evacuated. Marcus Kergosien, store manager. Allen.

As I exit the classroom, there’s two more bodies on the right-hand side in the hallway, a girl and a boy both face down. Danielle Gilbert, high school student. Parkland.Play/pause button

0:04 / 0:07Mute/unmute button

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland

It was emergency vehicle sounds, and I couldn’t even look up. I looked at my feet, and the cold air in my chest, we had no coats and we were running toward the firehouse and it was — we didn’t know that it was over, so the trauma continued there. And then it’s just the worst scene you can imagine. You had chaos, and kids couldn’t find their siblings. Abbey Clements, teacher. Newtown.

I remember when we ran out and there was the police. … The look on his face, the terror on his face. He had people under his car. In his car. And I remember him just screaming: ‘Run for your fucking lives. Do not stop.’ … I remember my mouth being bone dry and my lungs were burning and I was so physically uncomfortable and I was so thirsty and I couldn’t stop. I just kept running and running and running. Heather Brown Sallan, vendor. Las Vegas.

He threw me down on the ground and got on top of me. … I think that moment was him grabbing my face and saying, ‘This is happening, like there are actual bullets flying at us now.’ … I just remember that feeling, I swear it was the moment that photo was taken, when he opened my eyes to what was actually happening. Dani Westerman, concertgoer. Las Vegas.

PART 3

DEVASTATION

When the shooting ends, police, coroners and other first responders bear witness to the destruction. They check for signs of life, attempting to separate the barely living from the dead. They collect evidence, photograph the scene and remove the bodies. A once familiar place is now forever changed.

It was dim. The movie was still playing. The alarm was going off. … I could smell the gas. … Then I began to notice the bodies. … There was blood on seats, blood on the wall, blood on the emergency exit door. Pools of blood on the floor. Annette Brook, police officer. Century 16 movie theater, Aurora, Colo.

I walked in there, and you’re, like, slipping and sliding, trying not to slip because it was bad. And just the thing I won’t forget is the smell. Alexander Cuellar, Border Patrol agent. Uvalde.

There were shoes scattered, blood in the street, bodies in the street. Straight out of a nightmare. Dion Green, bar patron. Dayton.

It looked like a bomb went off in there. When you can tell the difference between, you know, when somebody is alive and somebody is dead, it’s because there were pieces of people just laying everywhere. And those were the dead ones. The ones that were alive were barely moving but were moving. Rusty Duncan, volunteer firefighter. Sutherland Springs.

We were standing there looking at the scene and the phones kept ringing and ringing and ringing in the backpacks and on the desk of the parents calling their children. … They kept calling and calling and calling.Eulalio Diaz, justice of the peace and coroner. Uvalde.

As we were clearing the rooms, we came across a classroom which I thought at first was an art room because I saw a lot of red paint all over the walls and in the far left corner I thought I observed a pile of dirty laundry. … As I continued to stare at the room not being able to figure out what I was looking at, I realized that the red paint was actually blood and the pile of dirty laundry were actually dead bodies. Carlo Guerra, state trooper. Newtown.

As I stared in disbelief, I recognized the face of a little boy on top of a pile. … I then began to realize that there were other children around the little boy and that this was actually a pile of dead children. … I tried to count the number of dead between rooms #10 and #8, but my mind would not count beyond the low teens and I kept getting confused. William Cario, police sergeant. Newtown.

You can only imagine that gun being pointed down and shooting as much as you can into a body, what it would do. It’ll make you unrecognizable in a heartbeat. So, yes, I believe it, because I saw it with my own eyes. Rusty Duncan, volunteer firefighter. Sutherland Springs.

See how other readers responded to this story and share your own thoughts.5753 Comments

ABOUT THIS STORY

Reporting by Silvia Foster-Frau, N. Kirkpatrick and Arelis R. Hernández. Additional reporting by Jon Gerberg, Holly Bailey, Robert Klemko, John Harden, Jon Swaine, Elyse Samuels, Sarah Cahlan, Joyce Lee and John Woodrow Cox. Public records requests by Nate Jones.

Design and development by Shikha Subramaniam and Aadit Tambe. Design editing by Madison Walls and Matthew Callahan. Visual editing by Kainaz Amaria. Additional photo editing by Robert Miller and Natalia Jimenez. Additional video editing by Angela M. Hill.

Editing by Peter Wallsten, Rosalind S. Helderman, Kainaz Amaria and Wendy Galietta. Additional editing by Jordan Melendrez, Brian Cleveland, Kim Chapman and Tom Justice. Additional support from Sarah Murray, Ashleigh Wilson, Kyley Schultz and Brandon Carter.

The following people were interviewed by The Post: Jaydien Canizales, Abbey Clements, David Colbath, Eulalio Diaz, Rusty Duncan, Danielle Gilbert, Dion Green, Marcus Kergosien, Arnulfo Reyes, Heather Brown Sallan, Dallas Schwartz, Daniel Seijas, Dani Westerman, Maddy Wilford and Morgan Workman. Seijas was interviewed in Spanish.

Comments from Annette Brook, Anthony Burke, Daniel Leger and Andrea Wedner are drawn from court testimony. Comments from William Cario, Alexander Cuellar, Carlo Guerra, Paul Lukienchuk and Travis Shrewsbury are drawn from police investigative files.

While other weapons, including various types of semiautomatic rifles, are used in violent crimes, AR-15s have been used in 10 of the 18 shootings since 2012 in which 10 or more people were killed — making it the most commonly used weapon in the country’s deadliest mass killings.This data is drawn from a databasemaintained by the AP, USA Today and Northeastern University and analyzed by The Post.

Photo and video credits:

Introduction: Office of the District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District of Colorado; David Becker/Getty Images; and Texas Department of Public Safety/Obtained by The Post.

Part 1: Texas Department of Public Safety/Obtained by The Post; Connecticut State Police; U.S. Justice Department; Dayton Police Department; Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department; and Office of the District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District of Colorado. Videos by Las Vegas Video Archive/YouTube; Danielle Gilbert.

Part 2: Texas Department of Public Safety/Obtained by The Post; Dayton Police Department, Jonathan Mattise/AP; Shannon Hicks/Newtown Bee/Polaris; David Becker/Getty Images. Video by Ryan Deitsch via Storyful.

Part 3: Office of the District Attorney for the 18th Judicial District of Colorado; Texas Department of Public Safety/Obtained by The Post.

Texas Department of Safety photographs were not released by the agency but were separately obtained by The Post.

Crime scene photos from the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh have been cropped to remove labels placed by investigators.

The video provided by Danielle Gilbert from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland was originally played in open court during the trial of the gunman. The Post spoke to four people who were in the classroom including Maddy Wilford, who identified herself as one of the wounded students who can be heard in the video.

The photograph of the large field strewn with bodies from the Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas was posted on Reddit and 4chan on Oct. 2, 2017, the day after the shooting. The Post verified the time and location of the photograph by comparing it to body-camera footage, social media videos, police reports and other pictures taken at the scene. The Post could not determine the original online post or the photographer. The Post consulted Siwei Lyu, a computer science and engineering professorat the University at Buffalo and an expert on photo and video manipulation, who found no signs of manipulation.

Why we are publishing disturbing content from AR-15 mass shootings

By Silvia Foster-FrauSilvia Foster-Frau writes for The Washington Post about the nation’s emergence as a predominantly multicultural society, exploring its changing racial, ethnic and cultural demographics, and telling the stories of everyday Americans affected by and a part of such change. Twitter

Getting it off your shoulders is true power

Rami Dhanoa

Published in Orient Yourself

Feb 2, 2024 (Medium.com)

Your attention span may not be strong enough to take in what I’m about to share about why attention spans are being hijacked.

But that’s okay. The following is for the select few who realize the so-called knowledge that takes up our headspace is actually dangerous. Because it isn’t knowing, but mere mental stimulation.

Information is the drug, and our attentional balance is the victim. All the while, true wisdom is lost, and our life purpose along with it.

But there is a deep, ancient way out of this mess.

In Indian philosophy, there are three levels of knowledge:

• Hearing-borne-wisdom (shruta-mayi-prajna) which is like remembering facts and theories from an external source
• Reflecting-borne-wisdom (chinta-mayi-prajna) which is like seeing how the knowledge applies to your life
• Experience-borne-wisdom (bhavana-mayi-prajna) which is full realization of the experience that produced the words in the first place

Obviously, the goal is to not just be a brainy intellectual, but to transform the first into the last, with deep practice.

This happens by three steps:

• Hearing: Clearly receiving exactly what is being taught, as it is taught, and then not forgetting it.
• Reflecting: Keeping it in the mind as it is being interrogated, tested, brainstormed, and planned upon.
• Meditation: Applying our insights into daily life after ‘digesting’ the insight, to non-conceptually feel what the words are actually pointing to.

In Vedanta, this process is called nidhi-dhyasana, or placing oneself, meditatively, very close to what is being studied.

In Buddhism, it’s the standard educational process of developing wisdom.

All the Buddha’s teachings are not for intellectual satisfaction, they are signposts pointing to something profound, far beyond written or conceptualized ideas!

Now contrast this process of developing experience with Western education: we seem to think that a sharp mind, strong memory, and elaborate theorization is the be all and end all of learning.

Is it any wonder we’re not producing geniuses en masse, such as India during its classical/ancient era, or Europe during its Renaissance?

In the Information Age, knowledge has become a deadweight – even something toxic overloading your mind, with its insistent flooding of memory, mental depth, and attentional balance.

Stop reading, stop watching, stop consuming.

Fully hear, reflect, and feel/see.

Not what you think you should be working on, but what you know that you need to realize, fast, or else your life will be wasted.

Make knowledge power again by actually applying it with action, rather than letting it rot into toxic inertia.

Written by Rami Dhanoa

·Editor for Orient Yourself

Re-thinking human potential with meditation & Indic philosophy.

By Maria Popova (themarginalian.org)

Few things limit us more profoundly than our own beliefs about what we deserve, and few things liberate us more powerfully than daring to broaden our locus of possibility and self-permission for happiness. The stories we tell ourselves about what we are worthy or unworthy of — from the small luxuries of naps and watermelon to the grandest luxury of a passionate creative calling or a large and possible love — are the stories that shape our lives. Bruce Lee knew this when he admonished that “you will never get any more out of life than you expect,” James Baldwin knew it when he admonished that “you’ve got to tell the world how to treat you [because] if the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble,” and Viktor Frankl embodied this in his impassioned insistence on saying “yes” to life.

The more vulnerable-making the endeavor, the more reflexive the limitation and the more redemptive the liberation.

That difficult, delicate, triumphal pivot from self-limitation to self-liberation in the most vulnerable-making of human undertakings — love — is what poet and philosopher David Whyte, who thinks deeply about these questions of courage and love, maps out in his stunning poem “The Truelove,” found in his book The Sea in You: Twenty Poems of Requited and Unrequited Love (public library) and read here by David himself in his sonorous Irish-tinted English voice, in his singular style of echoing lines to let them reverberate more richly:

THE TRUELOVE
by David Whyte

There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.

I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.

Years ago in the Hebrides,
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of baying seals,
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,

and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them

and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly
so Biblically
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love

so that when
we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and everything confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t
because finally
after all this struggle
and all these years
you simply don’t want to
any more
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness
however fluid and however
dangerous to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.

“The Truelove” appears in the short, splendid course of poem-anchored contemplative practices David guides for neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris’s Waking Up meditation toolkit, in which he reads each poem, offers an intimate tour of the landscape of experience from which it arose, and reflects on the broader existential quickenings it invites.

Couple this generous gift of a poem with “Sometimes” — David’s perspectival poem about living into the questions of our becoming, also part of Waking Up — then revisit the Nobel-winning Polish poet Wisława Szymborska on great love and James Baldwin (who believed that poets are “the only people who know the truth about us”) on love and the illusion of choice.

FORWARD TO A FRIEND/READ/LISTEN ONLINE/