Life: again, too busy…

It’s becoming far too common a complaint for me; and really it’s not even a complaint as much as an acknowledgement: I’m very, very, very busy.

The downside is that I’m not able to go over class notes and post interesting (to me at least) bits from my courses each day or so.

The upside is that I’m living my dream, insofar as “teaching Buddhism” has long been my dream. Speaking of which, things are going well so far. The material has been all background: the Indus Valley Civilization, the introduction of the Indo-Europeans in 1500 BCE, the Vedas, Brahmanic Culture, etc. None of it is my strong suit, so I only hope that when we get to my favorite aspects of Buddhism (as it develops, changes, adapts to new philosophical and cultural landscapes) I’ll be better able to convey the material. The students have been great though, very engaging and bright, and asking good questions. Next week we talk about “Buddhism’s Radical response” to the culture of its day… should be good.

Other good news is that I’ve been given an “Intro to Tibetan Buddhism” class for the Spring. I’ll only have 30 or so students then, which means a break from lecturing and hopefully a chance to learn with the students.
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In other news… I’m quite sure I’ll go to Hawaii in January (the cost is high, but I think the mental health benefits – getting out of the gloomy Missoula winter – make up for it). I will also go to England in the Spring, in late March. Ostensibly it is to visit Ph.D. programs in London and Liverpool, but my real reason is to see Ana again. Right now it is set to be a 9-day trip over my Spring break, but there is a Graduate Research Conference in Bristol on the 17th, a week before I had planned on going. So I may make it a 2-week trip… (more time with Ana 🙂
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That’s all for now… Hopefully soon I’ll be posting on less mundane topics again, but for now this is all I’ve got.