This week in Blogmandu, many bloggers were stressed and depressed, the Dalai Lama gave an address at the Mayo Clinic you may see online, there's trouble, trouble, trouble with Buddhist celebrity bloggers, one blogger is gracious, others are seeing their blogging activities pay off.
The Stream, Part I
Each day from March 9 until April 20 [and maybe beyond], William Harryman of Integral Options Café put up a post identifying those things he was grateful for that day. It was to have lasted for thirty days, but the gratitude kept on coming. Among things he was grateful for were an inspiring line in a book [Apr 17], a friend who called to arrange a lunch date [Mar 9], clients of his who read his blog [Mar 27], that there is a tomorrow [Mar 29], to be doing squats, again [Apr 3], the excellent photos Dave and Tyson put up at Via Negativa and tysonwilliams.com, respectively [Apr 5], Cheesecake Sugar-Free Instant Pudding [Apr 9] engaged readers and mozerella cheese [Apr 11], and nature in all its splendor [Apr 14]. So ... What are you grateful for?
Amanzi of amanziblog has a new job. Things seem to be going OK, but he doesn’t tell us what his job is, exactly. [Professional tennis player? Violinist? Competitor on the Xtreme Yoyo circuit?] “In reality, the string is neither too loose nor too tight. Having been much tighter in the past, it seems much looser now. It is not, however, too loose. Just looser. A bit more comfortable. And I have been humming along on my well-vibrating string for well on 9 days now, making more progress than I ever do when I bury myself in effort.”
beesucker of Authentic Personality advises that the Dalai Lama’s webcast of his Mayo Clinic address of Apr 17 is available online [Yipee!] but it doesn't work on Firefox [Boo!]. In a second post, beesucker asks, “What happens when the Dalai Lama dies?”
~C4Chaos of the same-name blog writes that he gave up on having a regimented regime of practice and returned to the homeostasis of going with the flow. “Calling it quits on the ‘rigidness’ of personal development practices was the best thing I did since I started to engage the personal development domain. The good thing about it is that, there’s no need to prolong the day into 36-hours, do polyphasic sleeping, or compartmentalize practices into quadrants.”
“Rainy days and stomach aches and clenched jaws and dogs in bed. Notes slipped under the door announcing a ‘loos’ tooth.” So begins the Saturday morning post by ‘the girl’ of auspicious coincidence. It’s been a tough time for ‘the girl’ recently, as readers of her blog well know. But the morning reaps a playful, dizzying post for us readers. “It’s Saturday. Nothing less, nothing more. And so it begins, or finishes beginning, as the case may be. I’m off to meditate, if I can remember how.”
Will of thinkBuddha wrote this:
April retreat –
not a single poem
until the train home.
Norman of Thole Man gives us Stump: “An ancient stump standing like some sentinel in the misty depths of and even older part of the forest; ancient coppice which has become engulfed by the relatively new conifer plantation.” [It’s his latest painting, btw. Quite beautiful.]
George Dvorsky of Sentient Developments writes, “James Hughes interviewed me last Saturday for his Changesurfer Radio show. We talked about a number of things, including the Toronto Transhumanist Association, virtual worlds, postgenderism, animal rights, expanding personhood, and Battlestar Galactica.” George links to the show in mp3. Didn’t work for me; may work for you. Interesting stuff -- 0bviously!
Ooo, Ooo, Celebrities, Ho!
The Tricycle website has launched “Tricycle Blogs” that offers the words of either four or five individuals and is free to read but requires registration with Tricycle Blogs to comment. [Trike is wanting to build a database of prospective subscribers, no doubt.] Jeff Wilson’s old offsite no-comments Blogger blog [called TricycleBlog] has been melded with what’s going on here. The new blogs are by celebrated Buddhists [and constant subjects or authors of Tricycle pieces] Stephen Batchelor and Susan Salzberg, as well as Lin Jensen and, possibly, Enkyo Roshi. The single posts thus far by Batchelor, by Salzberg and by Jensen seem stiff and preachy, like book introductions – not surprisingly, perhaps – demonstrating a lack of familiarity with the blogging milieu. But corporate blogs, rather notoriously, are stiff, endeavoring to control, use and spin blog readers rather than participate as equals in the big block party that is the spirit of the free-wheeling blogosphere.
Enron Redux: In Thoughts Chase Thoughts B’du Reporter writes about new financial information and whatnot the US government forces Tricycle to disclose to the public. Though the non-profit has a significant negative fund balance, the salary of its editor has been increased to 95K and the former editor was paid $100/hr for 210 1/2 hours of work [that's four grueling hours/week]; the vast majority of its contributions for the year before last are now disclosed as coming from a “disqualified” source; its much-ballyhooed fundraising concert, Demonic Devine, starring Laurie Anderson & Philip Glass, netted ZILCH; and 601 meditation kits sent to individual prisoners cost Trike approximately $450 each, even though Tricycle solicited donations claiming they would cost $75!
Meantime the frenetic FOBs [Fans O’ Brad] are yapping at the groupblog/fansite Flapping Mouths about Brad shutting down comments at his blog Hardcore Zen. Ryunin who solo-blogs Reality, Anyone? writes in Flapping… “As for his cancelation of all comments, I hope you guys don't mind. It seems like ‘I am not going to talk to you anymore.’ But it is rather making sure that people don't waste time in flamy discussions.” Justin, who solo-blogs Ordinary Extraordinary writes in the comment thread to Ryunin's post, “I find it odd and interesting that Brad is treated so differently from everyone else here. Sometimes it seems that Brad could let off a fart and we'd have someone explaining why it was the exact right thing to do at that moment for the good of humanity and someone else would comment what a wonderfully 'Zenny' aroma it had.”
In Hardcore Zen this week, The Brad pokes texty knife holes into a prospective employer, Clouds in Water Zen Center, where the interview questions he endured were not up to his high standards. Spectulation is that Crazy Brad either didn't get the job or won't get the job but certainly that he shouldn't get the job. In a second post, The Brad is going to Atlanta to get a brainscan.
Speaking of branscans, Bodhiwater of Ambhoja…water born…seeking light tells us that Zen meditators’ and Himalayan yogis’ brains are different – likely to be speedier at reacting to events. Futher, Bodhiwater posts a link to where we may each check our own brain speed.
The Stream, Part II
The IOC serves steak: William Harryman of Internet Options Cafe tosses down the blood-filled gauntlet, asking readers to respond to his interesting, well-worded essay on not being a vegetarian. See if you'll bite down on this:
I sometimes feel guilty that I eat meat, but it passes quickly. I tend to think that most food animals are fulfilling their role in life when they become my meal. I don't eat animals that I know to be intelligent (which means pigs), and I no longer hunt wild game. I have actually only killed a deer once, when I was thirteen.
Derek of don’t drop that atomic bomb on me uses as part of his practice the challenge of driving at or under the speed limit.
In his post “The Past is Dependent on the Present,” Justin of Ordinary Extraordinary waxes heavy about the Flexiverse. “The old view of history being dependent only on its own past is turned inside out. The past and the present are interdependent. 'Mind' is back in the center of the picture. Subject and object are two sides of the same coin. And it all ties in closely with Buddhist notions of relativity, mind and that only the present is true reality.”
In a post that offers bodacious online stuff for those interested in the Leary-route to expanded consciousness, Daniel of The Hyperaware Consciousness recommends Psychedelics and Religious Experience by Beat Buddhist Alan Watts, Zennist Susan Blackmore’s I Take Illegal Drugs for Inspiration and his own popular blog entry, “Insanity, Paradigms and Consensus Reality.” Plus, there are links to awesome flash animation.
Vincent of Numinous Nonsense promises us that he is very soon going to launch a "project that is devoted to pseudo-academic Buddhist blogging." In the comments section, Vince explains what he means. "The pseudo has to do with acknowledging that I’m not an expert in the field, and that I’m mostly just playing with ideas."
After seven weeks of blogging celibacy, chalip of Blogisattva Best Blog Award-winning Zen Under the Skin says hello and tells us how very busy she’s been with a class, a writers’ group and family. In two-weeks’ time, she hopes things free-up so she may re-up as a passionate blogger and blog reader.
The Internet Pays Off – for readers and bloggers
Moose has pulled his “Tao of Cats and Dogs,” posted on April 5 to The Contemporary Taoist, for hardcover publication in the May issue of LivingNow, “Australia's biggest holistic and alternative lifestyles print mag.” Other good news, Moose will soon have his own domain: thecontemporarytaoist.com, natch. Blog on, El Moose!
~C4Chaos of ~C4Chaos got a healthy check for the use of his photos by the Experience Washington tourism website. Well, maybe it’s not so healthy: Of the many things TildeCeeFour intends to do with the money, one is buying “a few cups of Caramel Macchiato” at Starbucks.
F. Kwan of foot before foot: the photoblog is fully determined to make what she’s passionate about more central to her life. She writes, “I made the decision, once and for all, to throw myself into my passion of photography as an actual vocation.”
“Blogging is good for your career. A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field.” says the opening sentence to a 4/16 Boston Globe article. The article tells us that we should choose a focused topic for our blog, and having done that, there are eight reasons why blogging helps. The article fleshes out the reasons, as listed below:
- Blogging creates a network.
- Blogging can get you a job.
- Blogging is great training.
- Blogging helps you move up quickly.
- Blogging makes self-employment easier.
- Blogging provides more opportunities.
- Blogging could be your big break.
- Blogging makes the world a better place.
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