Virginia Giuffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s most prominent victims, has alleged in her memoir that a “well-known prime minister” brutally beat and raped her. It was an attack so “savage” it pushed her to escape Epstein’s sex-trafficking network, the teenager claimed.
In her posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Giuffre referred to her abuser only as the “Prime Minister,” saying she feared he would “seek to hurt” her if she named him. In past court filings, she had accused former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak of raping her, an allegation he has repeatedly denied.
According to the memoir, Giuffre met the “Prime Minister” on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands in 2002, when she was 18. She was instructed to accompany him to a cabana, where the situation quickly turned violent.
“He repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me in fear for my life,” Giuffre wrote. “Horrifically, the Prime Minister laughed when he hurt me and got more aroused when I begged him to stop. I emerged from the cabana bleeding from my mouth, vagina, and anus.”
Giuffre said the politician “raped me more savagely than anyone had before.”
Tag: religion
The Diamond Sutra section 3
Section three has been added to the Diamond Sutra. A link to the sutra can be found at the top of this page or here.
Kumarajiva’s translation of the Diamond Sutra was divided into thirty-two sections by Prince Zhaoming of the Liang Dynasty (502-587). The sutra has been divided in different ways by others, but the Zhaoming division has remained the most widely used to this day. The titles of the sections are also his.
Section Three is called “The Heart of the Mahayana” because it contains the basic Mahayana vow to help all sentient beings attain enlightenment. In a word, to “save” them. The version and explanation of the vow in this section is the “heart,” or deepest explanation of the vow, because it includes both the helping part and the empty part.
As the Buddha says in this section, “All great bodhisattvas…should realize as they vow to save all sentient beings that in truth there are no sentient beings to be saved.”
This is both an answer to Subhuti’s question and a rephrasing of it. In the last paragraph of this section, the Buddha answers with more detail: “Subhuti, if a bodhisattva has laksana of self, laksana of human beings, laksana of sentient beings, or laksana of a soul, then he is not a bodhisattva.”
Laksana is a Sanskrit word meaning “characteristic,” “mark,” “symptom,” or “mental thing (dharma).” It is often translated as “characteristic,” “mark,” “thought,” or “idea.”
The basic meaning of laksana is “dharma of the mind” or “thing of the mind.” Thus, if a bodhisattva has any “thing at all in their mind about there being selves, human beings, sentient beings, or souls” when they are generous, they are not truly a bodhisattva. This describes the ultimate selflessness of self and other.
In this translation, the word “soul” has been used. A more literal translation would be an entity that “takes rebirth” or lives after this body is gone.
Word choices are fascinating and need to be discussed, but to avoid getting lost in them, it is best to remember that in this section, the Buddha is categorically saying that no matter what kind of sentient being you can conceive of, in truth, there are no sentient beings, there is no saving them, and if a bodhisattva has an iota of a sense that they are doing that or that they have a self, then they are not truly a bodhisattva.
In other posts we have discussed fractals in the humanities. This concept may help in understanding the meaning of this section and in glimpsing the meaning of the sutra itself. Surely all of us at one time or another have acted with a pure heart and a pure mind to give to or help another with no thought of ourselves or even of them. For at least a moment we dwelt within a pure state of mind and feeling that was utterly selfless, sublime.
Rather than say that state is the Diamond Sutra, let’s say that it is a state that points toward the meaning of the sutra. That state is a small fractal of the larger fractal set described by the sutra. Altruistic consciousness freed from the marks self, other, calculation, design.
first posted SEPTEMBER 9, 2014
NOTE: My original intention was to post the entire sutra and do commentaries on each section within six months or one year. I have not been able to do that due to other commitments and interests but may go for it at some point. The Diamond Sutra is a beautiful work of literature and an important text for Buddhist practitioners. It would be good if everyone were exposed to it and at least had some sense of what it means. ABN
How Jonathan Greenblatt views the online information war
He is presenting the Jewish Supremist argument for total information control through censorship, bot-propaganda, and most of all ownership. ABN
The Human Toll of the Gaza War: Direct and Indirect Death from 7 October 2023 to 3 October 2025
Summary
The human toll of the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza since 7 October 2023 can be summarized in a few statistics even as the raw numbers cannot do justice to the raw suffering: the Israel Defense Forces have killed and seriously injured more than 10% of the population and, through the destruction of infrastructure — including energy, water, sanitation, agriculture, housing, and healthcare — rendered the conditions of life so difIicult as to cause long term harm for the rest of the population.
As of 3 October 2025, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, 67,075 people have been killed and 169,430 people have been injured out of the approximately 2.2 million people living in the Gaza Strip in July 2023 (not including Israeli military forces). 2 The total number of Gazans has declined to an estimated 2.1 million people since the start of the war due to death and the exodus of about 100,000 people from the territory.
The total number of casualties, 236,505 people who have been killed and injured, constitutes more than 10% of the pre-war population of Gaza. That is, if the statistics, from the Gaza Ministry of Health, are complete. Recent analysis by public health experts suggests that the number of fatalities reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health, which faces many obstacles to making a full account of the deaths, may be a signiIicant undercount of the violent deaths.
In the West Bank, 1,048 people have been killed and 10,320 people injured from 7 October 2023 to 3 October 2025 by direct violence. 4 Altogether, the number of residents of Gaza and the West Bank killed and injured in this period is 68,123 people directly killed and 179,750 people injured.
Full document:
Free will: its locus is the mind
Action in the physical world is a smaller set of options than action within the mind.
Thus, the locus of free will is the mind not the body or its actions.
We always have many options in the mind. Many choices are available for what we choose to think or how we choose to frame something.
A related idea that is not necessarily part of the above is if God or Dharma Protectors or some other being in a higher realm wanted to influence us, they would be most likely to do so by influencing our minds.
This influence could be a subtle guiding of our thoughts, actual channeling of their thoughts, or even a vision when we are alone.
When we are alone because in those moments the influence will be primarily on our minds not our bodies. Our eyes may see and our ears hear, but if no one else is there the influence will ultimately occur in our minds and remain in our minds as memory.
When we are alone because if another person is present and they see or hear the same thing, the influence will impact the physical world to a much greater extent.
It will not be contained within one human mind. Two people will be astounded by it, talk about it, share it with others. This extends the influence well into physical reality causing it to have a much wider impact.
Visions influencing more than one person have happened, but these should not be the standard of proof that events of that type do happen.
Indeed, it makes sense to assume that interventions into human affairs from higher realms happen to individuals far more often than to pairs or groups of people.
This also makes sense from the point of view that the locus of free will is in the mind.
A higher being can influence the mind and the will in this way without causing major distortions in the physical world.
Meditation Virtuoso – Delson Armstrong
UPDATE: I finished watching this video last night.
I highly recommend it for all Buddhists and everyone else.
Delson provides a comprehensive overview of meditation practices in Buddhism, yoga, Hinduism, and Tantra.
He knows the material very well and has experienced the wide variety of practices that characterize ancient Asian religious systems.
Don’t miss this one. I watched it in sections and repeated parts and will probably watch it again.
The interviewer also does a very good job. ABN
‘Jews are born spies’ — Ricard Nixon
And that’s their mild side. ABN
Ep127: Siddha Tales – Delson Armstrong 2
Mennonite Community in Maine Leaving the State Over Religious Beliefs, Intransigence from Secretary of State
Mennonites in Dexter are leaving Maine for religious reasons after the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), headed by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, refused an accommodation that would allow them to avoid violating their religious objections to commercial insurance.
Mark Nolt, a Mennonite father of 13 living in Dexter, spoke with The Maine Wire on Wednesday about his decision to leave the state along with other members of his religious community.
“We’ve been working with the state now for six-and-a-half years on that, and just finally chose to give up and move out of state to be able to hold to our convictions,” Nolt told The Maine Wire.
Nolt explained that their troubles with Maine’s state government stem from their religious prohibition on commercial insurance, including vehicle insurance, which Maine requires.
Mennonites eschew commercial insurance for a few reasons, he explained, including a belief that they should rely on their own community for support rather than on outside corporations. According to Nolt, they also believe that insurance takes away from trust in God and leads to a more careless outlook on life.
US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, calls on American Christians to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel after numerous incidents of Christians being beaten and spat upon by Jews
Jewish ‘morality’ is not Christian morality, nor is it a universal morality which treats all people with ethical compassion. It is a tribal ‘morality’ or code which applies only to Jews. Everyone else is inferior or worse, Amalek. ABN
‘Most Extensive Wave Of Persecution In Over Four Decades’: Dozens of Pastors Arrested By The Chinese Communist Party
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials on Friday evening arrested more than two dozen pastors across at least seven provinces who are part of the underground Zion Church network, extending what China Aid called “the most extensive and coordinated wave of persecution against urban independent house churches in China in over four decades.” Details on both the charges and the total number of arrests remain thin, but one U.S.-based Zion Church pastor, Sean Long, said the pastors may be charged with “illegal dissemination of religious content via the internet.”
“More than thirty pastors, ministers, and Christian leaders have been arbitrarily detained, disappeared, or placed under house arrest,” according to China Aid. “Their homes and worship venues have been ransacked, property confiscated, and their families harassed.”
Christianity has faced official persecution in China ever since the communist takeover of China enshrined atheism as the state religion and Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution exerted totalitarian control over the daily life of his subjects.
Despite this fact, China likely has one of the largest Christian populations of any country in the world. Statistics on the underground church are, by definition, hard to find, but estimates on China’s Christian population range up to 100 million, more than the membership of the CCP, and growing.
The CCP has responded to the perceived threat of Christianity by pressuring its subjects to join state-sanctioned churches, which offer a theology in which biblical truth has become subservient to the state.
About the Zion Church
Zion Church is an unregistered, underground Protestant church network in China, founded in 2007 by Pastor Jin Mingri, also known as Ezra Jin, in Beijing. It has grown to become one of the largest house churches in the country, with an estimated 10,000 congregants across 40 cities, operating through unofficial gatherings in homes, restaurants, and online platforms like Zoom and WeChat. As of October 2025, the church is facing a major crackdown, with Pastor Jin Mingri detained in Guangxi Province and over 30 church leaders arrested nationwide, prompting international condemnation and calls for their release.
Continue reading “‘Most Extensive Wave Of Persecution In Over Four Decades’: Dozens of Pastors Arrested By The Chinese Communist Party”Meditation Virtuoso – Delson Armstrong
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Purging America First: Inside the GOP’s Zionist Vetting Machine
In the dimly lit corridors of Capitol Hill, where backroom deals shape American foreign policy, House Speaker Mike Johnson recently conducted what can only be described as a strategic war council. On the afternoon of September 17, 2025, Johnson gathered with a who’s who of pro-Israel organizations for a private meeting ostensively designed to eliminate dissenting voices within the Republican Party. What emerged from this closed-door session reveals a coordinated effort to ensure ideological orthodoxy on Israel.
The meeting itself reads like something out of a tired political thriller. Johnson, who described himself to the assembled group as a “Reagan Republican” focused on “peace through strength,” went on to make a startling admission that isolationism is rising within the Republican Party and that a major debate on the issue is likely once President Donald Trump leaves office.
But Johnson’s most revealing statement came when he told the group that in his candidate-recruiting efforts, he’s working to filter out isolationists to prevent that wing of the party from growing more prominent in the House. Four people who attended the meeting confirmed this extraordinary pledge to Jewish Insider.
“The speaker was very, very direct about the U.S. role with Israel and in the world and understands that there are voices that don’t agree in both parties, on both extremes, and urges us all to be involved in fighting back against those extremes,” Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told the publication.
The guest list for Johnson’s gathering was a who’s who of America’s most powerful pro-Israel organizations. In attendance were representatives from The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, the Republican Jewish Coalition, Agudath Israel of America, AIPAC, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, National Council of Jewish Women, Synergos Holdings, CUFI Action, the Orthodox Union, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Standard Industries, the American Jewish Committee, Zionist Organization of America, National Debt Relief, Jewish Institute for National Security of America, the Deborah Project, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Coalition for Jewish Values and the Endowment for Middle East Truth. This comprehensive coalition represents the full spectrum of pro-Israel advocacy, from religious organizations to political action committees to think tanks—a formidable alliance with vast resources and influence.
…A University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll conducted between July 29 and August 7 showcased a dramatic generational divide within the Republican Party. While 52 percent of Republicans aged 35 and older sympathize more with Israel, that figure drops to just 24 percent among those aged 18 to 34.
The split grows even wider when it comes to Gaza. Among older Republicans, 52 percent view Israel’s actions as justified. Among younger ones, only 22 percent agree. “The change taking place among young Republicans is breathtaking,” said Shibley Telhami, the poll’s principal investigator. “While 52 percent of older Republicans (35+) sympathize more with Israel, only 24 percent of younger Republicans (18–34) say the same—fewer than half.”
American Buddhist Net 