Michael of One Foot in Front of the Other wrote a great post on playing public chess in New York City. It ends with this great line – a lesson taken to heart: “I picked up some great pointers Sunday, the most important being that the beauty and intricacy of a person's mind has little or nothing to do with outward appearances.”
Go East, young man: Buddhist Chaplain Danny Fisher of the self-named blog is off on a long adventure in India. Here’s a passage from his last America-written post till 2007: “Tomorrow I am off to the village of Bodh Gaya in Bihar, India--the site of the Buddha's enlightenment. I'll be there until just after the new year, working for a Buddhist Studies program in the area.” But don’t ignore his blog for the next four months, y’all: He hopes to continue to blog when he can.
Meantime, Clarity of Clarity's blog is off to Dechen Choling – which is a Shambhala Meditation Center in France. He writes, “I'm off to Rigden Abisheka tomorrow, and I'll be gone for about 12 days. This will be the largest program ever in Dechen Choling, around 230 people. It will be given by my root guru, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. … You could say that it's the culmination of my 12 years of practice.”
Meanwhile, Justin Whitaker is expecting to be going to Hawaii for a conference in January. He went to the prior year’s conference – last January, or thereabouts – and he liked it. Justin writes in American Buddhist Perspective, “Also it will give me two more opportunities to hone my conference/presentation skills. For the (aspiring) academic, such skills are quite necessary and like Aristotle's virtues they can only be developed by habituation.” It will also give him a great opportunity to work on his surfing skills and drinking from cocoanuts skills.
Meanwhile, again. LOTS of meanwhiles. Bill of Integral Options Café is off to Nova Scotia. Kira is going, too; they are vacationing. To prevent explosions on their jet getting there, Kira won't be allowed to bring her eyedrops. Oy, vey. [I wonder if Bill will keep up his 4am Pacific Time speedlinking-post-writing regimen when he's in N.S. We'll see.]
It’s so nice to have you back where you belong: ChaserPaul of cut to the chase had DEFINITELY, ABSOLUTELY put an end to his blog, right? Well, no. In a post titled “The Third Time is Not a Charm,” he begins by writing, “This was the 3rd time I tried to quit this addiction of blogging. I am a man who can survive 3 brain & spinal surgeries, but I can’t walk away from a poopy blog? Grrr… dammit!”
Gareth of Green Clouds has been posting recently on the meaning of life and on death. In one in his series of posts he relates the Upanishad story of Nachiketa who is rejected by his father and walks off into the forest to find Yama, the Lord of Death. Yama offers Nachiketa three blessing of his choice. Read Gareth’s post to learn the blessings wise-beyond-his-years Nachiketa chooses.
Umguy of Ideological Putty is “struck by the thought that [his] mother and father are most likely both going to die without either of them having a realization of their true nature.”
ebuddha of Integral Practice thinks about his cloud of thoughts: “Thought throws up its forms - taking its cues from silent intelligence and awareness - but these forms thrown up, like waves, or chairs, bodies - are useful for living and being guided in the world. But don't identify with these thoughts, the same way you don't identify with the other forms that can be seen from the eyes. All show up, appear, and pass away.”
Nagarjuna writes in Naked Reflections about loving everyone. “When I write or talk about wanting to love everyone, I'm sure some people think I'm out of my mind. Love the guy who messes all over your blog? Love the boss who denigrates you in front of your co-workers? Love John Mark Karr? Love Osama bin Laden?”
Mumon of Notes in Samsara likes MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. “Olbermann uses one of my favorite points: these people in Washington are our employees, not our ‘leaders.’”
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| Scott Wichmann in "I AM MY OWN WIFE", a one-man-err-woman-err-man show |
Scott Wichmann of Scott Wichmann Online is a red-hot Richmond, Va.,-based actor [and was Blogisattva Award nommed for his post last year, “Baseball and the Bardo of Becoming”]. In his next acting gig, he will be playing Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf in the Firehouse Theatre Project’s “I AM MY OWN WIFE.” This follows a run at the Boston Globe playing multiple characters in a new play, bound for New York next year, "The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath." [See 8/16 Boston Herald article.]
Cliff of This Is This writes a short post that lives up to it’s title. It’s free to read, so go ahead, read it: “If Money and Taste were No Option.”
Will of thinkBuddha writes a postmodern post which thinks about what he is thinking about as he writes his words. “I have been sceptical of the idea of free will for some time. A couple of years ago I became very interested in what happens when I made decisions. And again, the closer you look at this, the more puzzling it becomes.”
Tor of Tor’s Rants is registered with PayPerPost. Tor writes, “Digital photography is not just the wave of the future; frankly, it's the wave of the present. You won't make much money selling stuff on eBay without good digital photos.”
That's a wrap, readers. Write y'all, again, in a few days. Blog on!
