A Year of Blogging

Today is the first anniversary of putting up this blog. I started it just to play around and now its become an important part of my life.

Over 270 posts – talk about a gas bag! My sweet lord….

I didn’t get the counters up until the fall but if they reflect actual human visits (of which you gotta wonder – over 10,000 different visitors from the US, 1,100 from Britain, and even somebody from Mongolia – dang) then quite a few folks are peeking at this. 65 followers too – cool.

I’m grateful for James Ford’s Monkey Mind inspiration and for everyone that has visited and commented. Thank you!

Seems to me that internet Buddhism might be a third turning of the dharma wheel – preceded by monastic and lay practice. They aren’t mutually exclusive, of course. I know monks who have large numbers of friends on Facebook, for example (which I don’t really get but anyway…). And our little practice group of practitioners here at Transforming Through Play Temple has been refreshed by the various influences blowing through blog comments. So we’re all chopping it up together.

A growing number of people (who knows how many but I’m wondering if it’s actually larger than the number showing up at dharma centers) receive teachings and connect with other practitioners exclusively through the internet. I don’t know of any really successful internet dharma business models that have established significant revenue streams yet (italicized portion said with tongue in cheek) but I suppose that’s coming.

As for me, I like the donation model because it doesn’t work very well. Wonderful inoculation against getting all carried away by greed for fame and profit, “selling water by the river” as they say. But, shucks, if you want to make a tax deductible donation, go ahead and click over there on the right sidebar, way down near the bottom. Go ahead, challenge my practice!

In closing, a sincere thank you, dear reader, for giving what might be the most precious gift – your attention.