lotusinthemud

get those typing fingers ready.........

I type with two fingers - both middle fingers - no idea why.
Here's something I can use them for -

What is it?

It's National Blog Posting Month!

Why the **** would I want to do that?

You started a blog to make yourself write more often?

NaBloPoMo is an alternative to November's NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, the program wherein you crank out a novel in thirty days.

Some of us lack the imagination, stamina, and self-destructive impulses required to write a novel that quickly, but, by Grabthar's Hammer, we can update our blogs every day for a month!

Rules

Post every day for the month of November. That's it.

::to find out more

Thanks to Lex

na blo po mo

Are you up for it?

What is it?

It's National Blog Posting Month!

Why the **** would I want to do that?

You started a blog to make yourself write more often?

NaBloPoMo is an alternative to November's NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, the program wherein you crank out a novel in thirty days.

Some of us lack the imagination, stamina, and self-destructive impulses required to write a novel that quickly, but, by Grabthar's Hammer, we can update our blogs every day for a month!

Rules

Post every day for the month of November. That's it.
   
http://www.fussy.org/nablopomo.html    ::link

how does she read your mind?

A bit of silliness for Halloween

This witch knows what you are thinking!

but what would I write about?

Karen has written an excellent post of suggestions re what to write in a weblog on her Vox blog :

Ok, so these are not actually rules, maybe they're guidelines, or simply food for thought:

 

First off, know this: I want to hear your voice. This is not formal writing. Talk like yourself, like you do when we're having dinner together. Ok, the way you do before we've had four bottles of wine. Yes, you get points for good spelling and grammar (that comes naturally to you anyway), but if you start to sound like Abe Lincoln it won't be you. Be you. I think you're brilliant.

 

Second, talk about what you know. You know so much more than I do about almost everything from politics to parenthood. Talk about your experiences. We all make our way in the world in a different way. Tell me about yours. We're not together every day - or even every month. Fill in some of the blanks for me.

 

Three. Don't be too ambitious, just tell one of your stories. Vox is the land of anecdotes. Short and sweet works great (I am not a good role model for this).

::and much more here

(and if you want your own Vox blog, which I highly recommend, find out more and sign up here)

QotD: happy halloween

Did you dress up today? 

Only in my Buddhist robe.

See any good costumes?

Not yet - but we have a big bag of chocolate goodies in case we are visited.

thoughts - just drop them

A . . . great distraction at times are so-called "running commentary" thoughts such as, "Now I am not thinking of anything," "Things are going very well now," "This is dreadful; my mind just won't stay still" and the like . . . . All such thoughts should simply be noted as "Thinking," and, as Huang Po says, just "dropped like a piece of rotten wood." "Dropped," notice, not thrown down. A piece of rotten wood is not doing anything to irritate you, but is just of no use, so there is no point in hanging on to it. . . . Nor is there any need to try to retrace the links in a chain of associated thoughts, nor to try to ascertain what it was that first started the chain. Any such impulse should itself be noted simply as "Thinking," and the mind should revert to the breathing. However badly things have just been going, one should take up again at the only place one can--where one is--and go on from there.

~ Bhikkhu Mangalo, The Practice of Recollection

how does she read your mind?

A little bit of Halloween silliness - try this game

larger pureland sutra

This is the version of the Larger Pureland Sutra, one of the major Pureland texts, used by my sangha, the Amida-shu. Dharmavidya, our Dharma teacher and head of our Order, gave a series of Dharma talks on this sutra during the July 2006 retreat at Amida France.

(These were digitally recorded and I distribute them to people who subscribe - they receive ten monthly CDs per year. Please contact me if you would like to subscribe - see address below my photograph)

Larger Pureland Sutra

Full text of the Sukhavati Vyuha Sutra: manifesting the land of bliss in the recension used by the Amida-shu

[The Scene] *
1. Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was staying at the Vulture Peak at Rajagriha.

2. At that time the Buddha was attended by twelve thousand monks, all of them arhats.

3. Among them were
- the Buddha’s first five disciples, the first arhats, Ajnatakaundinya, Ashvajit, Bashpa, Mahanama, and Bhadrajit;
- the first lay disciples who had all subsequently ordained: Yashas and his four friends, Vimala, Subahu, Purna son of Maitriyani, and Gavampati;
- the three Kashyapa brothers, Uruvilva Kashyapa, Gaya Kashyapa and Nadi Kashyapa, together with Kashyapa the younger and Kashyapa the great;
- the two friends, Maudgalyayana and Shariputra;
- the disciples Kapphina, Chunda, Aniruddha, Nandika, Kimpila, Subhuti, Revata, Khadiravanika, Vakkla, Svagata, Amogharaja, Parayanika, Pantha, Pantha the younger;
- the Buddha’s half brother Nanda, his son Rahula, and his cousin and closest disciple Ananda;

4. The Buddha was also attended by a great many bodhisattva mahasattvas with Maitreya at their head.

Full text of the Sukhavati Vyuha Sutra: manifesting the land of bliss in the recension used by the Amida-shu

amida hawaii - more on the earthquake

We are so grateful that neither Paul nor Judy were hurt in the Hawaii earthquake. However there has been worse damage to the buildings than was first evident - they have been designated unfit for living in at the moment. Here is Judy's description of her experience - and very challenging it sounds too:

Many people have asked about our experience of the earthquake, but we've been so busy with the aftermath that I just realized we never did a post about it. Well, here's a bit of our story, or at least my version of it.

Like other devastating forces of nature, earthquakes seem strangely selective creatures. How many times have you seen on the news a single house standing alone after a tornado or a wildfire? A doll or picture seemingly untouched among the rubble of a hurricane? It's hard to get one's head around.

sally is blogging

Sally, formerly of Amida Newcastle, who is now living as part of The Buddhist House community, our main centre in Leicester, where she is a trainee, has started a new weblog. This will give a flavour of what it is like to engage in the Pureland Buddhist path.