Looks like something's coming very soon...

More posters teasing Colpldays much-rumoured new experimental album have appeared across the world, with new images spotted in Berlin, Hong Kong, Madrid, Munich and Sydney. You can take a look below.

The campaign first began earlier this month with an identical poster inSo Paulo put up and then swiftly removed, with fans theorising that it had accidentally been put up early, with today (Thursday October 17) the correct date.

The appearance of at least five new posters today seems to confirm this to be true, while the bands recent updating of their profile picture to a sun and moon are leading to heavy speculation that new material is en route very soon.

Coldplay posters spotted in Madrid, Berlin, Hong Kong and Munich

Chris Martin and co. are said to be making their return with an arty record before the years out, ahead of dropping a more mainstream effort which is slated for a 2020 release.

The first album is the more experimental side of Coldplay, they probably wont tour until 2020 when the next one arrives, a source recently told The Daily Star.

Amid these whispers, fansite Coldplayingreported on October 15 that promotional artwork for the first LP had appeared inSo Paulo. The outlet claims that the poster was put up at Paulista metro station, only to be removed from public view just hours later.

The black and white vintage-inspired shot, which sees the band sat withGerman philosopher, poet, and composerFriedrich Nietzsche, displays the date November 22, 1919.

Fans are now speculating that this points towards the album release date or the arrival of the projects lead single.

Coldplay,who havent released an album since2015s acclaimed A Head Full Of Dreams, were believed to be releasing a new record in 2019after friend and collaborator Mat Whitecross previously toldNMEthat they were due to regroup and take a surprising turn with their output.

Ive heard a few things and filmed a few bits of them talking about it, but I dont think Im allowed to share anything. Its interesting, he explained.

Meanwhile, Coldplay are currently among therumoured acts for Glastonbury 2020.

Continued here:
More mysterious posters teasing Coldplays supposed new album appear across the world - NME Live

23 October 2019, 16:20

Coldplay are about to release their brand new album called Everyday Life, which will be split into two halves.

Coldplay teased their return with a series of cryptic posters which were spotted in Berlin, Hong Kong and Sydney.

They also changed their social media profile pictures to an image of the sun and the moon.

Shortly after, several fans started receiving "strange" letters about the band's return next month.

Coldplay's new album Everyday Life will be released on November 22, the band has confirmed.

Due to the release date being just a few weeks away, it is believed Coldplay's new album is finished.

The band teased they had been "in hibernation" while recording their new music.

Coldplay's new album will be titled Everyday Life.

It is expected to be a double album, with one half called 'Sunrise' and the other 'Sunset'.

Coldplay announced their new album by plastering posters on billboards that featured the band in a black and white vintage-inspired shot.

The posters saw the band sat with German philosopher, poet, and composer Friedrich Nietzsche and the date November 22, 1919.

The letter states: "In the classifieds you might write double album for sale, one very careful owner. One half is called Sunrise, the other Sunset. It is out 22 November.

"It is sort of how we feel about things. We send much love to you from hibernation. Chris, Jonny, Guy and Will Champion."

The track-listing has not yet been revealed.

Visit SmoothRadio.com for further updates when they arrive.

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Coldplays new album Everyday Life: Release date, tracklist and all the details you need to know - Smooth Radio

By title alone, Hellsing Ultimate put forth a challenge. The supernatural action manga by artist / writer Kouta Hirano received an anime series in 2001, but rapidly diverged from the then-unfinished source material. So by taking on the series once again - and renaming it as the definitive interpretation - required this version to offer something more. So what makes Hellsing Ultimate, well...Ultimate? The answer is simple: blood.

RELATED: 10 Shocking Anime Endings No One Saw Coming

No version of Hellsing is shy about its violence, but Ultimate revels in its gore. Remember Nietzsche's classic quotes about how fighting monsters risks becoming a monster yourself and the Abyss also gazes into you?' If the secret organizations in the world of Hellsing held enlistment drives, those lines would be in their recruitment videos. Whats the point of sacrificing your humanity, Hellsing Ultimate contends, if youre not going to enjoy it? Here are the luxuriously intense fight scenes that punctuate the series convincing argument.

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When the clandestine Nazi vampire warmongers of Millennium finally reveal themselves by laying siege to London, Integra Hellsing and her loyal butler Walter find themselves caught up in the attack. Walter buys Integra time to escape on her own, but she is still relentlessly hunted through the burning streets of the city by Millenniums troops. Cornered, Integra prepares to make her last stand when Father Anderson makes his presence known.

The Iscariot Organization was also let loose upon London once Millennium made their move, and Anderson commands their ground forces. From the rooftops, Iscariot recites their oath of service before descending with Andersons disciples Heinkel and Yumie. Iscariot sustains casualties, but in the end they (and Integra) are the ones left standing.

As a feint to remove Alucard from their planned target, Millennium sends a contingent to take over a British naval carrier. Leading them is Rip Van Winkle, the Nazis' preeminent sniper. The bullets fired from her antique hunting blunderbuss are capable of tracking her targets, as well as penetrating them multiple times. The solution for assaulting this fortified position? Load Alucard in a decommissioned SR-71 Blackbird, launch it at the ship and hope.

Its a valid tactic, bestowing a harsh truth that Victoria will later come to know when trying to defend Hellsing from being overrun a second time: long range combat against the undead only forestalls the inevitable. Even more unfortunate for Rip Van Winkle is that the King of Vampires is an unforgiving tutor. Despite being shot down, crashing onto the naval flight deck, and promptly being shot by Rip Van Winkle again, Alucard is barely rattled before he turns the snipers own gun back on her in an uncomfortably intimate way.

Early in the series, Alucard relies mostly on his guns. Why shouldnt he? The pair of pistols he wields are nearly the length of his forearms, which is no small boast given Kouta Hiranos character design aesthetic. So when Hellsing headquarters suffers a home invasion from the forces of the vampiric Valentine brothers, the No-Life King is delighted by the potential of a fellow nightwalker who might be on his level. Alucard rises to the challenge by discarding his trademark weapons...and his corporeal form.

RELATED: 10 Best Anime From Madhouse (According To IMDb)

Caught in a tide of nightmares unleashed from Alucards body, vampire sophisticate Luke Valentine finds himself the prey instead of the predator. Only the disappointment of Lukes failure to measure up draws Alucard out of his battle-drunk state as a writhing mass of eyes, shadows, and the horrors between them.The would-be assassin disappears down the throat of Alucards hellhound, and into the gulf of power between him and his target.

Hellsing Organization is a Protestant organization in Catholic territory, and Anderson has come to make it clear they are not welcome. By way of greeting, Alucard and Anderson trade bullets and blades. Only in a series like Hellsing Ultimate could combatants exchanging terminal head traumas count as sizing each other up. Their regenerative abilities force a stalemate, but Anderson departs with the promise to settle things later. Its as much a statement of intent from the show itself: setting themselves a high bar by starting as they intend to go on.

After the Valentine incident, Hellsing follows Millenniums trail to Brazil. All seems calm as they check into a hotel, but waiting for them are a battalion of local police. Their superiors have unwittingly sent them to death at the behest of Millennium operative Tubalcain Alhambra, the self-styled Dandy Man. If youre undead you have all the time in the world to pick up a hobby, and Tubalcains is mastering the deadly art of card tricks.

Alhambra reveals himself once Alucard makes short work of the SWAT team, and the subsequent duel between the two vampires takes them to the rooftop of the hotel. Alucard is pushed to the brink but Seras and her trusty cannon run interference, keeping Tubalcain occupied. In the end its the No-Life King who has the upper hand, as he bisects the Dandy Mans palm with a straight of his own.

Throughout the series, several allusions are made to how long Walter has been with the Hellsing Organization. Hes served Integras father, and even fought Nazis during WWII alongside a much younger looking (and gender-swapped) version of Alucard. Walters loyalty to everything that Hellsing stood for was unquestionable... which is what makes his betrayal all the more startling. After Alucard and Anderson finish their final battle, a younger, more vital Walter appears to literally step all over the moment.

RELATED: The 10 Best Horror Anime, According To IMDb

Turns out that Walter was just as human as anyone else: he feared getting old. In a desperate attempt to hold onto his youth and prove himself Alucards equal in combat, Walter cut a backdoor deal with Millennium to get some of that vampiric immortality they were handing out. Faced with another human who betrayed their humanity to gain more power, Alucard is battered but not beaten.

Possessing the battleship he was marooned upon, Alucard sails up the Thames River just as the Nazis and the Catholics set about carving up the flaming ruins of London among themselves. Integra gives him authority to use his full power on the opposing forces. Alucard reveals why he was so disappointed with previous foes: as the original Count Dracula, he amassed countless souls that are now extensions of his will. Even his previous victims - Rip Van Winkle, Tubalcaine Alhambra, even Luke Valentine - surface in the bloody tide of darkness unleashed to sweep Londons streets clear.

Anderson cant set aside his rivalry with Alucard, however, and carves his way through the vampires hordes to take a shot at the Lord of Darkness. Their initial skirmish leaves Andersons left arm a ragged ruin, dangling below the elbow. The undeterred Father simply clutches his arm in his teeth and sets back to slaughtering. Backed up by the remnants of the Iscariot Organization, he makes his way to stand before Alucard for the final time.

Once again, Hellsing HQ is under attack. In order to replenish the ranks of the soldiers slaughtered before, Lady Integra Hellsing had the foresight to hire mercenary band the Wild Geese. Their leader, Pip Bernadotte, made no secret of his attraction to Victoria. Dubious though their bond may be, the Police Girl and the Wild Geese hold the line against the marauding Nazi forces of mesmerist Zorin Blitz. The mercenaries are only human, however, and Victoria has yet to fully embrace her vampiric nature. Zorins advance eventually has the remnants of Hellsing in a desperate situation.

Her intrusions into Victorias psyche give her an opening to slice off the young vampires left arm. Enraged, Victoria uses Pip to finally feed her blood lust. The embrace causes her to generate a wing of blood to replace her severed arm, which she uses to go berserk on Zorins henchmen. Seizing the commander herself, Victoria drags Zorin along the hallway they were fighting in. The Nazi commanders head is ground against the wall with such force that the white hot intensity sets her body aflame.

As a franchise, Hellsing has a very grindhouse-style sensibility. Indeed, the logline of this fight sounds like something emblazoned on a poster outside the Alamo Drafthouse: one-armed police vampire fights a Nazi werewolf ." Such a pitch would be a climax in another story, but its not even the main fight of the Hellsing Ultimate episode it appears in.

RELATED: 10 Terrifying Junji Ito Stories You Shouldn't Read In The Dark

Accompanying Integra, Seras encounters The Captain: a silent figure first seen during Walters last stand. Feeding on Pip Bernadotte has made Victoria much stronger, but shes still no match for The Captain once he shapeshifts into his true form. Thats when Victoria realizes she, too, has abilities yet untapped in the form of Pips mind. Together, they work out a strategy in the Nazi treasure room and demote The Captain by using a dental filling taken from a Holocaust victim as a makeshift silver bullet.

Anyone whos seen this would agree that it deserves its own entry. Midway through the fight, Anderson unveils a strange package and shatters it, revealing a holy relic: one of the nails from Jesus' crucifixion. Driving it into his own heart, Anderson becomes a being of living, writhing thorns. As the priest ascended to his most powerful form, Alucard was at his most vulnerable.

Having released the tide of souls that acted as his protection, the vampire was paralyzed by his nemesis attack. As his defenses burned away, it was Seras Victoria who brought Alucard back from the brink. Refocused, Alucard tore Andersons heart and nail out and crushed it. The power of the relic was all that held Anderson together, and as the two rivals reached an accord, Anderson crumbled to dust.

NEXT: 10 Anime to Watch If You Love Tokyo Ghoul

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Hellsing Ultimate: The Best Fights, Ranked | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

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Global Cold Chain Tracking and Monitoring Market 2019 Key Factors and Emerging Opportunities with Current Trends Analysis 2024 - News Coed

Make Dufferin Park citys tennis hub

At a recent Dufferin Park Master Plan meeting, Brantfords parks- recreation department presented a development proposal that transforms what has been a hub for tennis for 110 years into just another park, which happens to include some tennis courts. There is no provision for a clubhouse to replace the existing one.

I am certain parks-recreation is not deliberately trying to kill organized tennis in Brantford especially now when Canada is doing so well. But that is the effect of its decisions. A basic clubhouse could become the epicentre of a vibrant tennis community, which would permit the city to compete with surrounding municipalities. Without a clubhouse, it will be difficult for the volunteer Dufferin Tennis Club to continue its good work to promote tennis by organizing regular events, facilitating lessons for juniors and adults and advocating for a sport that is accessible to everyone even those who cant afford hockey equipment or golf memberships.

We heard at the meeting that the city is unwilling to determine how much a basic clubhouse would cost and that there would be no repairs to lights, which are essential for tennis to continue while we await a decision on redevelopment.

We wanted to hear that the city is willing to work with the clubs volunteers to develop a plan that is financially feasible and will ensure the future of tennis in Brantford.

We wanted a commitment to support and promote tennis in Brantford and some assurance that the existing courts including the lights will be maintained so that we can continue playing.

Mississauga gave Bianca Andreescu the keys to the city. Brantford parks-recreation wants to shove us out and is not only going to lock the door behind us but tear down everything the Dufferin Tennis Club has built in the last 110 years.

Caroline FreibauerBrantford

Canada enjoyed huge respect for about 20 years after our contribution to winning the Second World War, building the St Lawrence Seaway, Pearson negotiating an end to the Suez crisis, staging Expo 67 and so on.

Then Trudeau senior took over and ran up our debt and deficit numbers to previously unheard of levels, gave the finger to the U.S. (which has de facto replaced U.K. as our military protector), and openly admired Mao Zedong (who killed more people than Hitler and Stalin combined].

We had an all-too-brief place in the Reagan-Thatcher sun, began to pay our way with Mulroney and Chretien, and came through the 2008 financial crisis well under Harper.

Then we elected the silver spoon drama teacher on the strength of his family name and a commitment to legalize marijuana. We now have zero credibility in foreign policy, marijuana is being sold illegally (as before) but we are setting up bureaucracies from coast to coast to control its sale, we dont contribute our share in NATO, we continue to bribe Quebec to stay in Confederation with $13 billion a year (imagine how Quebec would fare negotiating a free trade deal in Trumps Washington) and we are busily shutting down domestic and foreign investment.

As Nietzsche said:Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

I thought the Canada I visited in 1967 and emigrated to the following year was pretty amazing and it has been good to me. But I doubt anyone could start with next to nothing today and thrive in our over-regulated, over-indebted economy.

Socially, we seem to stand for brainless intolerance in our universities and immigration open to all but especially to people who dont really want a Canadian way of life. Instead of performing timely joint replacements on people who have worked a lifetime and contributed to OHIP, we worry about opioid abusers. Instead of educating our children with marketable skills in a disciplined environment, we load them with entitlement and debt. Instead of maintaining law and order, we practise catch-and-release justice. Wow.

John Purkiss

St. George

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Letters to the editor - Brantford Expositor

The reservoirs of an important art museum are deep, locked, and mostly invisible. The Newark Museum, occupying an urban block in New Jersey next to Rutgers University, houses a widely respected Tibetan Buddhist art collection, which His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has toured five times. Yet few people may be aware that the museum owns an equally impressive Japanese Buddhist art collection because most of it has never been on display.

In a new exhibition, Beyond Zen: Japanese Buddhism Revealed, on view through January 5, 2020, the museum has brought out what it calls baroque Buddhism: paintings, objects of pilgrimage, shrine ornaments, and gloriously gowned bodhisattvas and household-shrine buddhas. They abide in golden palaces, gem-studded gardens, under silken canopies. Aesthetics are ornate and materials are luxurious: gold, silver, lacquer, silk, and porcelain.

The exhibition provides a rare chance to peer deeper into the Newark Museums rich collections and offers insights into the evolution of Buddhism in Japan, especially in the Edo period (16031868). Much of the museums Japanese Buddhist art was acquired in 1909 from a Western collector who traveled through the countryside, buying what he liked and creating a casual but illuminating cross-section of Buddhism in pre-modern Japan. These sorts of objects are not often on view in art museums, not because they lack beauty but because curators do not consider them to be antique enough. The works speak to Japans reverence for Buddhism and the religions familiar presence within the daily lives of ordinary people. The arts baroque qualities filled a demand.

At the entrance of the exhibition, a scowling wooden temple guardian, Zocho-ten, the Guardian of the South, offers a glimpse into a more distant era. The sculpture is said to be from the Heian period (7941185) and is typical of the wrathful defenders early Japanese Buddhists called on to help defeat the enemies of enlightenment. Its unusual in this exhibition because of both its great age and its having been purchased by the museum in 1965.

Guest curator Midori Oka, associate director of the Mary Griggs Burke Center for Japanese Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University, selected around 50 objects for the show, ranging from sculpture and paintings to tiny votive pieces and netsuke [miniature sculptures worn with traditional Japanese dress]. Overall, she chose for dramatic emotion, vibrant imagery, and a wide view of Buddhisms appeal. Golden clouds hand-painted on the gallery walls lift ones spirits and recall the gilded aesthetic that created the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, suggesting a continuity between the Muromachi (13361573) and Edo periods. An elegant, wooden museum-built frame divides the gallery into two rooms. The dramatic entry houses four silk-scroll paintings of different manifestations of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion, all four not seen together till now. These and other objects in the exhibition are described below:

Kannon, Bodhisattva of Compassion: Four hanging scrolls, painted in teal, coral, black and gold on silk in the Meiji period (18681912), depict four of Kannons many manifestations: Fish Basket Kannon, Merciful Mother, Willow Branch Kannon, and the bodhisattva unadorned by other identities. Kannons robes are elegant, transparent and gauzy, draped and ornamented, and gloriously opulent, as befits a well-heeled bodhisattva wishing to convince humans of the elevating supremacy of compassion.

Bodhidharma (Daruma), Zen Patriarch: Zen practitioners will be familiar with conventional black-ink drawings of a starkly sober Bodhidharma staring wide-eyedhis eyelids legendarily cut off so that he can meditate without closing his eyesin a vaporous white space. This wooden Bodhidharma, however, wears a flowing red-lacquer robe that flips up in the wind blowing across his forehead and lifts off his feet. The flapping robe is a traditional imagining of the tale of Bodhidharmas miraculous crossing of the Yangtze River on a reed. He is on his way to spend nine years meditating in a cave. Made in the Taisho period (19121926), the statue feels modern and cinematic, and Bodhidharma looks like an action figure whipping through time and space.

Jizo: In the Edo, an artist envisioned a brilliance for the bodhisattva Jizo (Skt., Ksitigarbha), who rescues children and beings lost in hell. Sculptures of Jizo can be inelegant and lumpy, a squat figure formed from clay, or refined and elegant, as this one is. Here, the artist has given the bodhisattva the golden robes and aureole of a standing buddha. The face, with its high forehead, has the deepened gaze and unshakable serenity of ultimate wisdom. We recognize that Jizo has the power to reach even into the worst suffering.

Scenes of Hell: Dramatic visions of hell have always been appealing to artists. From the Edo period, this handscrollcreated with ink and vibrant color on paperitemizes both the garments that new arrivals will wear (to determine the weight of their sins, the curator writes) and the dark destinations that await them. Demons and writhing snakes skewer we humans, roast us in red flames, and boil us in grinning pots, having great fun at our expense.

Bodhisattva Seishi: In Pure Land Buddhism, the power of wisdom (Seishi) merges with the saving grace of Kannon and the inexpressible magnificence of Amida, Buddha of Boundless Light, to manifest enlightenment. Yet this lovingly carved wooden bodhisattva from the Kamakura period (11851392) is more personable and humble than we might expect from one with such a heavy duty. Traditionally, Seishi and Kannon are attendants of Amida. This statue is probably from an altar set that showed Amida at the center and Seishi and Kannon on either side. Seishi bends in gassho, hands together, a gesture of oneness. Viewed from the front, the bodhisattva appears to be magically beseeching us. Are we to cast aside our petty concerns and join him on the path?

Amida Buddha: In this Edo-period scroll, a dying soul (off-camera, so to speak) is welcomed into the Western Paradise (Jodo) where gold-robed Amida Buddha sits on a lotus throne amid stupendous scenery. Kannon leads an entourage to welcome the newcomer. Jizo, Seishi, and 23 other celestial beings have joined the party. Singing and playing heavenly instruments, they float on pearly clouds in the land of enlightened peace and beauty. Just in case you thought you might prefer hell.

The monks path: In four ink-and-color Edo-period scrolls, each with 24 scenes, the monk Tokuhon (17581818) is shown in his severe self-mortification and tireless missionary work (the exhibition text says) as he traverses the path of good deeds and miracles. He has many adventures, he meets with diverse beings and humans, and he assembles a whole novels worth of stories. Hes an ascetic wanderer whose life is nonetheless rich and lustrous. Monks and nuns used these etoki paintingsbased on handscrollsas a kind of slide show for spiritual and moral instruction.

The rest is here:
A Hidden Trove of Japanese Buddhist Art Revealed in New Jersey - Tricycle

The New York Times recently reported that those who eat their biggest meal in the early hours have better success losing weight. Buried in the article was a comment which would catch the attention of anyone who has had close contact with Theravadin monastics, or, like me, has been one:

The lowest B.M.I.s were recorded in the fraction of peopleabout 8 percent of the total samplewho finished lunch by early afternoon and did not eat again until the next morning, fasting for 18 to 19 hours.

This is a similar eating practice followed by Theravadin monasticsbhikkhus and bhikkhuniswho follow the dietary rules of the Vinaya, the monastic code believed to have been written by the Buddha himself. According to the Vinaya, monastics can eat food only between dawn and noon.

Although this diet was intended to meet the specific needs of the Buddhist community in 5th-century India, some lay people have chosen to take on a version of the practice. Theres even a book advocating the Buddhas diet.

The original logic of the monastic eating practice aimed to avoid causing aggravation to both monastics and laypeople, as explained in the Latukikopama Sutta (MN 66). The diet is neither intended as a health regimen, nor explicitly, as some have claimed, as an expression of a middle way between indulgence and asceticism. While its true that Buddhist monastic life was generally designed to be such a middle way, originally the Buddha allowed his monastics to go on alms round whenever they pleased. The Latukikopama Sutta explains that the Buddha forbade monastics from going on alms rounds after noon to avoid dangers that they might meet later in the daystumbling into natural dangers in the dark, being propositioned for a tryst in the twilight hours, random hooligansand to prevent inconveniencing or frightening lay people.

Considering that weight loss is only a significant issue in societies of satiety, the following of the bhikkhu diet as a health regimen is almost certainly an innovation of modern Western Buddhism. Some Theravadin lay people do follow the bhikkhu diet for a day every quarter moon as part of uposatha practice, where some monastic rules are followed for the sake of cleansing the defilements of the mind and making good karma, but not to slim their waistlines.

Since Im an ex-monastic, you might think that I am against the use of the bhikkhu diet as a mere dieting toolbut youd be wrong. I have used it that way myself from time to time, and recently, several weeks before I read the Times article, I had decided to take it on indefinitely.

The reason was simple: approaching 41 years of age, I found myself overweight and feeling the stressful, impermanent, and uncontrollable nature of my body. I needed to do something.

When I was a monk, the dietary rule turned out to be a profound practice for me. Learning how to tolerate hunger for hours a day became training for tolerating difficult emotions and physical pain. Restricting eating to the morning acts on your desire like focusing a camera lens: the way that the mind relates to the craving for pleasure and safety becomes clearer and easier to witness.

To use a metaphor of Ajahn Chah, the great Thai Forest teacher, the eating rule is like a Thai lizard hunter. He finds the mound where the lizard lives and closes off all the holes but one, then he waits, watching that one hole. Sooner or later the lizard comes out where he can catch it. In the same way, when you stop foraging for food whenever you want and limit yourself to the morning only, you can see your minds behavior around food more clearly.

Related: Dogen Said Not to Waste a Single Grain of Rice. Heres How.

As a layperson, following the bhikkhu diet is of course much more difficult. As a monk, I did not have to cook dinner for others while I myself was not eating or resist the urge to wake up my brain with a meal when I had to stay up late at night working. It was initially difficult as a layperson to adjust to the need to schedule a reasonable amount of healthy food before the noon cutoff. It was also hard to acclimatize myself to the season of hunger that began sometime in the late afternoon and continued until nighttime. After a week or two, however, the diet was feeling energizing. I was losing weight. There was an ironic, one might even say Epicurean, enjoyment in being able to eat freely in the morning, and also in not having to think about food after noon.

A sense of excitement began to grow about the diet. After feeling a little tired in the first week, I did as the monastics do: I began taking tonics in the late afternoon and evening (sugar, honey, and medicine are allowed according to all the different lineages). I would have tea and honey or a particular scandalous treat that is allowed for monastics courtesy of a loophole: dark chocolate. Due to the ingredients of pure dark chocolate being cocoa (a medicine) and sugar, monks in the Thai Forest tradition munch on the little dark squares at tea time. This might make us on the diet seem like dandies to you, but believe mewhen dark chocolate is the only food stuff you are allowed, its flavor begins to turn ascetic pretty quickly.

That adjustment made, I began to settle into the diet comfortably, at least for the most part. I slipped occasionally due to a birthday party dinner or needing to work late at night. I decided to accept that there might be a cheat day once a week, a practice actually recommended in The Buddhas Diet as good for your metabolism.

I also began to feel the mood that comes from settling into any difficult discipline, a mixture of increased self-confidence, self-respect, and a decrease in the kind of anxiety that results from not feeling able to rely on oneself. Other benefits included increased mental clarity and lightness in the latter half of the day, and better sleep at night.

Clark Strand, another ex-monk who tried the bhikkhu diet and wrote about it in Tricycle, fell off the wagon after a few months and gave it up. The friend whose bhikkhu practice inspired Strand to stop eating after noon also happens to be my former abbot, Thanissaro Bhikkhu. After Strand began eating after noon again, Ajahn Thanissaro reportedly told Strand, Its supposed to be part of a whole lifestyle. You take the bhikkhu out of the bhikkhu diet and all youve got is this guy who wont eat anything after twelve noon because it keeps his weight down. Hard to have much commitment to that!

Time will tell how I fare, but Im inclined to think that Ajahn Thanissaro was right. Neither the Times nor even a slim waistline is enough inspiration to keep on the bhikkhu diet. So although one might take up the bhikkhu diet out of a desire for health, longevity in its embrace will require seeing its personal spiritual benefits (and I think its clear that it would not be beneficial for everyone). It will also require having a little of the bhikkhu or bhikkhuni in you. But then isnt that supposed to be true of every follower of the Buddha?

[This article was first published in 2017.]

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I Tried the Buddhist Monk DietAnd It Worked - Tricycle

From running a small operation out of his parents basement in Connecticut 20 years ago, Kyle Tortora has an inventory of about 1,200 Buddhist and Hindu statues stored in an Oceanside warehouse, sold through his website and shipped all over the world.

Tortora, an Encinitas resident, launched his business after originally setting out to be a podiatrist, and then to escape the corporate world in New York City.

This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Q: What first sparked your interest in the Buddhist and Hindu religions?

A: I read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse like four times when I was growing up and just loved the book, I gravitated toward the book. I kind of thought about, not the supernatural aspects of Buddhism, but just the mystical aspect kind of drew me into it. I was studying pre-med to be a podiatrist, I just thought Id naturally be a podiatrist. I thought that was my path. I took organic chemistry at the University of Richmond and said, This is totally not for me. I switched my major to religion, which is what I was truly interested in. That summer I was like, I dont want to just go home and be a lifeguard for the summer, or do whatever job everyone else is doing. I researched temples to meditate in in Thailand. So, 18-year-old kid, I had a thousand bucks in my pocket and I went to meditate in Chiang Mai for two weeks in a temple up there. After that was done, I spent a month and a half and traveled around Thailand and it was just absolutely amazing.

Q: How did it turn into a business selling statues?

A: I went to Manhattan and sold websites for two years, and after that I was like, This sucks, I dont like wearing a suit and tie every day, schlepping around Manhattan, so I sold everything and went to India for the first time. Then I was old enough to say, Hey I need to figure out how Im going to make traveling work. I saw a nataraja statue and it just hit me. Im going to find out where these are made, Im going to build a website and Im going to come back here, buy a container, ship it back and sell them. And thats what I did. Twenty years later, here I am.

Q: Which countries do the statues in your inventory come from and who makes them?

A: More or less all over southeast Asia and south Asia. India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. I dont go to all of them on every trip, but I definitely hit all those countries in a four, five-year span. I work directly with artisans. I find the good artisans that I can work with who are trustworthy, who are good people. Usually it starts off, they have a stock of stuff and I buy those, but then I just kind of commission orders from them and then they make the statues for me. There are a couple artists in particular that went from basically having a workshop with two people and now its 30 people, and Im supporting, him, his family and all those people as well.

Q: Do your customers buy these statues as part of their religious practices, or are they more for decoration?

A: Both. I have Hindus buying them who are doing pooja, which is kind of a ceremony, so theyre worshipping these gods daily. I sell to Buddhist temples and Hindu temples. And then I sell to people who just want more outdoor statues. Theres a bunch of very spiritual people who arent fully practicing but they feel drawn to these statues. It kind of runs the gamut.

Q: Is there a strong market for these statues locally, given the growing interest in eastern religion and philosophy in Southern California?

A: Absolutely. I live in Encinitas, so thats like the epicenter of yoga, thats yogas birthplace in America. Im very happy that Im in the corridor between L.A. and San Diego because I have a lot of people coming through. This is definitely better than New York City.

For more information, visit lotussculpture.com

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Encinitas resident brings eastern religion statues to the west coast - Encinitas Advocate

Photo: Jack Taylor (Getty Images)

I dont know about you, but my Mondays hit me hard. I dont know if its the 6:30 a.m. start time (CST) or the result of my body clock being thrown off by sleeping most of the preceding weekend, but 9 times out of 10, I feel like Im pushing a boulder uphill through the fog, struggle-blogging and editing my way to Tuesday (okay, Wednesdaywhen I get over the hump).

In short, #MondayMotivation has remained a challenging concept for mea hashtag for the likes of relentlessly cheerful people, cross-fitters and freelancers (since I dont recall struggling through the beginning of the week in my freelance daysjust the end of the month).

But leave it to forever first lady Michelle Obama to compel me to reconsider with a dose of much-needed #Fitspo.

It doesnt always feel good in the moment, she posted on Sunday, showing us exactly how fit 55 can be as she got in some serious lunges with help from a medicine ball. But after the fact, Im always glad I hit the gym. How did you all take care of yourself on this #SelfCareSunday?

Honestly, Michelle? I dont remember (because I slept through it), but I know theres gotta be a better way to motivate for Monday, so I appreciate the nudge...

And the abs.

And of course, the arms. Always the arms.

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Let Michelle Obamas #SelfCareSunday Be the Motivation You Need This Monday - The Root

NewsHealthResearchers want to test if their findings among mice also apply to people

Saturday, 19th October 2019, 12:01 am

Restricting how much food is eaten at mealtimes could have the potential to increase the motivation to exercise, a study has suggested.

Researchers in Japan believe this could be the result of a surge in the hormone ghrelin after they observed mice began to exercise voluntarily following a period of fasting.

They said their findings indicated that better diet control, such as limiting food intake or intermittent fasting, could help overweight people maintain a more effective exercise routine and lose weight.

Ghrelin, often referred to as the hunger hormone, stimulates appetite by increasing the motivation to eat.

The hormone has also been reported to be essential for endurance exercise by increasing metabolism to meet the energy demands of prolonged exercise.

Food and diet

The team, from Kurume University School of Medicine, said that while previous studies have suggested a relationship between ghrelin and exercise, it was not known if the hormones levels had a direct effect on motivation.

They decided to investigate the relationship between ghrelin levels and exercise in mice by comparing food intake and activity between those with free access to food and those fed only twice a day for a limited time.

The researchers found that although both groups ate a similar amount of food, the mice on a restricted diet ran significantly more.

Meanwhile, mice genetically altered to have no ghrelin and on the restricted feeding diet ran less than the mice given free access. However, this could be reversed by administering ghrelin.

The team found that mice given free access to food and also given ghrelin ran significantly more.

More work needed

Our findings suggest that hunger, which promotes ghrelin production, may also be involved in increasing motivation for voluntary exercise, when feeding is limited, said researcher Dr Yuji Tajiri.

Therefore, maintaining a healthy eating routine, with regular mealtimes or fasting, could also encourage motivation for exercise in overweight people.

However, Dr Tajiri warned that their findings, which have been published in the Journal of Endocrinology, were based on animal studies.

Much more work is needed to confirm that this ghrelin response is also present in people, he said.

If it can be established in clinical practice, it not only opens up new cost-effective diet and exercise strategies but may also indicate a new therapeutic application for ghrelin-mimicking drugs.

The team now plan to carry out more experiments to confirm their findings in humans.

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Limited mealtimes 'could increase motivation for exercise', study with mice suggests - inews