For those who don’t know – I’m currently working on my ph.d. thesis (gadzooks) in Buddhist Ethics. It’s an amazing, often odd process, certain to be different for everyone who ventures toward and through it. I have had amazing fortune thus far, with an amazing advisor, great help from friends and colleagues, and continued support from family and friends. Without all of this I know I wouldn’t be where I am today. I’m in the ABD stage (All But Dissertation),... Read more

Many thanks to Patia (whose photography is a must-see) for inviting Julie and me out on a flickr group photography night. It was cold (being Montana, ya know), but about ten of us managed to gather in Caras Park and spend a good hour plus playing with the light (and flashlights)… Me and Julie, somewhat ghostly The Higgins Bridge and Clark Fork River Four of us getting crazy creative for the cameras. Close-up of the River and Trees Me Click... Read more

This from Bodhipaksa, head man at wildmind.org and my first meditation teacher: In Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, Jackson explores the effects of “our high-speed, overloaded, split-focus and even cybercentric society” … click here to read more. I’d write more now, but, in truly fancy fashion, I’m… distracted. Read more

I have little of any significance to say. No Buddhisty brilliance. No Montana moments. No philosophical fu–fuing. I did buy myself a fancy new computer though (pictures to follow no doubt). A fancy (I’ll use that word a lot when describing it) HP Tablet PC. It has a fancy pen that you can use to write directly on the screen, the fancy screen. Oh, and you can just use your fingers too. It does other fancy things too, but that’s... Read more

“eternal life belongs to those who live in the present.” – Wittgenstein. From Simon Critchley, author of “The Book of Dead Philosophers.“ Read more

There is a great site I discovered with Matt, a fellow Missoula meditator and Pali-farer, that has the Dhammapada in Pali, with English translation and the stories used to illustrate each verse. Yamaka Verse 1 (wav)Yamaka 2 (mp3)Yamaka 3 (mp3)Yamaka 4 (mp3)Yamaka 5 (mp3)Yamaka 6 (mp3)Yamaka 7 (mp3)Yamaka 8 (mp3)Yamaka 9 (mp3)Yamaka 10 (mp3) It’s very helpful to hear the verses chanted as you read them. A note on reading though: unfortunately the sight doesn’t have the diacritical marks on... Read more

This blog post was sent to me by my friend Sjors in London. It’s well worth a read and, more so, a listen. And I thought Dick Cheney was going to take the cake for foul language in the White House… Guess not. The very interesting point is that this didn’t come out until after the election. As with Obama’s unproven citizenship and his fumbled swearing in ceremony, I have to wonder if this won’t spark yet another crazy right-wing... Read more

It’s been a long time since my last “gratitude journal” and so here goes… Ken Robinson. – a good friend of mine from my Bristol days (’04-05) is sick and in the hospital. Ken is a retired gentleman who has for years made the Centre for Buddhist Studies there a second home, regularly attending classes and our weekly tea gatherings. He has an enormous wealth of studies and life experience that he has generously offered to us students over the... Read more

I spill coffee a lot. Most of my shirts have a coffee stain somewhere, my coats too. When I graded papers, often they were left with tell-tail brown rings, or worse. Toshiba (mine) and Dell (Julie’s), the scene of the spillage But yesterday’s spillage takes the cake. In the morning, lazily enjoying my cinnamon coffee at Julies, I surfed the web, on her computer. Oliver, her adorable cat, decided to be playful and nice and jumped up onto my lap.... Read more

A story today in NewWest about Missoula’s gloomy weather (and lovely accompanying photographs) caught my eye. As a regular sufferer of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) I can attest to the author’s description of Missoula in January: Overhear someone trying to explain the inversion to an outsider and often, you’ll hear the word “trapped.” As in: stuck in the valley with no way out. They’re talking about the the cloud cover, but they likely mean much more.The city, usually a bounding,... Read more