It's been a long day for us here in my small town in the Sierra foothills. 1,000 lightning strike and about a dozen fires. But it is also Guru Rinpoche day, so we offered tsok and there were rainbows.
Buddhist teacher and author. Director of the Mayum Mountain Foundation www.mayummountain.org Substack https://tiny.cc/trwk001
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It's been a long day for us here in my small town in the Sierra foothills. 1,000 lightning strike and about a dozen fires. But it is also Guru Rinpoche day, so we offered tsok and there were rainbows.
The only thing worse than the three of them would be the four of them.
Ugh.
Those pictures of Modi with Xi and Putin turn my stomach.
I noticed myself being able to sit up straighter today as I was singing a Buddhist liturgy and playing hand instruments. Hmm. Gotta do "arm day" before I hit the sack.
I'm on Day 8 of a thirty day strength and muscle building program. Only 15 minutes a day. I hate exercise for exercise sake, but I appreciate the efficiency.
Yes, I am familiar with it.
It certainly did audio well. The Martian movie was good, but with all that interior monologue I think audiobooks with A-list voice actors like this one may be better.
Apparently a movie version starring Ryan Gosling will be out next spring.
Before I unsubbed from Audible some time ago, I apparently downloaded Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Sci Fi, no violence, no sex. Science, adventure. Great voice acting. It was a totally immersive audiobook from beginning to end.
I applied for Social Security today. Just so you know, it was easy and quick online, unlike the process with Medicare. I wonder whether angels will sing when the first payment is deposited into my checking account in December, to let me know it is there. 😇
Fire Kash Patel. He is totally unqualified for the job and it shows. Embarrassing.
Wouldn't Yelp would be so much better if you could delete restaurants that you have already been to and didn't like or knew you would never go to in a thousand years?
I wrote promotional material for an east coast Dharma center about a couple of workshops I'll be doing there next month. It was ridiculously time-consuming. But, I guess in the process I planned the workshops. So, there's that.
I’m here for it.
Thank you from Calaveras County!
TIL: ‘Afro-Appalachian’ is a thing, and when its done by Mon Rovîa, it’s like heaven
I've had sciatica this week, making it difficult to sit. I usually prep for the classes I teach while sitting at a desk. Instead, I have been lying on my back, or a little walking or stretching, then going to my desk to write when I am one hour from deadline. It works!
I guess I am not interested in making influencer posts here that are all about "adding value" and framing things around your "pain points" like a marketer.
Trying to organize the substance, the actual teaching is an ongoing battle. Right now I throw it all--from notes to transcripts--into Scrivener files, in case I have time to organize it into another book someday.
My relationship with BlueSky seems to be to pop on and share my day to day. Substack so far is about my observances on Buddhism in America right now... at least as much as a I know from my experience.
Sitting around waiting for tonight's Zoom class to start. In my Dharma teacher robes.
I must be a different person than I was a year or two ago when I lived “Strange New Worlds” and “Wednesday.” They both seem dumb af this season.
Trump Attempts To Flush 14-Year-Old Masseuse Down Toilet
10 to 20% of postmenopausal American women are estimated to be on HRT. The dose range is: • Oral estradiol: Typical dose = 0.5–2 mg per day • Transdermal estradiol (patch): Typical dose = 25–100 mcg/day. The dose for trans women is two to six times that amount.
Cool!
Hi Judith. A recent book of mine was purchased by the University of California library system without a Library of Congress number.
This bot does not know how to write Tibetan. Probably for the best.
I’m sitting in a parking lot next to an ATM, on hold with my bank so they can unblock my atm card. Apparently, I’ve entered the pin wrong too many times. It’s been 18 minutes on hold so far. I use Apple Pay these days instead of cash. So this happens about once a year when someone requires money.
I was thinking T would own "man-girl love" by now and convince his base to abolish statutory rape laws. But, no. Just saying he barely knew that guy.
Canceling Colbert is just another egregious example of why we can't entrust our major media institutions in the hands of profit-driven oligarchs. Such concentrated power over media is especially dangerous under growing authoritarianism, muffling dissent precisely at the moment when we need it most.
#colbertshock
I've adopted the custom here in California.
Twenty-three people have registered for our Troma Chod I year long course. We will be mainly be exploring the first ten chapters of Heart Essence of Saraha, a revelatory text by the 19th century Tibetan great, Dudjom Lingpa. The topic of these chapters is Troma Ngondro.
BREAKING: Scientists are staging a “science fair” in the lobby of a Congressional building to tell elected officials about the critical knowledge the US will lose because their research grants have been canceled.
Buddhistdoor Quote for Today: Lama Shenpen Hookham 🔗 Explore more at BDG: www.buddhistdoor.net #Buddhism #Buddha #Dharma #vajrayana #TibetanBuddhism #Mahamudra #Dzogchen #Compassion #Mindfulness #Liberation #Awakening #Spirituality
View from my house this evening.
Adam, you mentioned that you too are still in a process that has been unfolding since the Jan 6th insurrection. I would like to hear more about that.
Listening to Bryan Kohberger confess to four murders in court to take a plea on YouTube. It's bone-chilling.
This is a report from 2017, which included over 800 transpeople with about about half describing themselves as non-binary. The report is a summary of data, unclear if it cherry-picks. They don't cite any scientific peer-reviewed publication of their work in a medical or scientific journal.
When I see photos like this of British people from my grandparent's generation, I see myself. Although my British and Scots ancestors came to the States early, they married other British immigrants. So here I am born in 1959... and I look like Charles Laughton and people on BBC.
I wonder if that is 50 miles as the crow flies or 50 miles as the truck drives.
Nice! IDK if it is possible to leave a review after you are no longer on Audible. But... uh... just sayin'. Also, I am looking at a membership in @libro.fm (and trying to get my book on there of course.)
Is Author Republic still the best way to get my indy audiobook on Libro.FM?
Hi, we are an alternative to Amazon-owned Audible 👋🏻 With us, you select the independent bookshop you want to support (we have 3,000+ partners across the globe), and we share profits from your purchase with them. We're also employee-owned and a registered Social Purpose Corporation.
I hadn't thought of that!
I think she is a cyborg. I used a Kindle for my Dharma books, like you, primarily. I stopped new purchases on Amazon in February. I buy a few hard copy Dharma books a year from the publishers, but mainly rely on my existing library.
I am an audiobook hound. I prefer having them for keeps so I can take my time with them. The library apps will have to do. That face.
I used my final Audible credit today. I am inexorably bound up with Amazon as an author. But, thinking of Jeff Bezos' smug face at Trump's inauguration, and his Stepford wife, I just can't bring myself to renew.
Where is Cypress Park?
Will do. I've continued on my break this morning, and I think I should be taking notes! From All the Things I already know he is amazing.
Wow. Cool!
I started Cloud Cuckoo Land, a megabook by Doerr, yesterday. He's a masterful genius and the first chapter is intriguing. I will probably read it in increments because the Libby app does not allow renewals when there are people waiting for it. There are always people waiting. #Booksky
That cover is beautiful. Is it a dust jacket or is that right on the hardback?
Hungary banned anything that “promotes homosexuality,” which means Pride. However, today over 500,000 people in Budapest told the government to fuck off. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Logical.
youtu.be/aA5NUJ40oQs?...
I wish there really was a secret resistance inside the Federal workforce. But everyone knows it isn't true.
It became the app we know today in 2021.
The Gentleman in Moscow is a former bestseller and beloved book to many. Charming and clever protagonist, no violence, rare fade-to-black implied sex. Painless education about 20th century USSR. Long. I enjoyed both the audiobook and the ebook through the Libby app.
The road to fascism is lined with people telling you to stop overreacting, you little baby, just roll over and go back to sleep.
I got attached to it because I knew how to do it. But it has such an ugly way of doing references.
These crosses they wear are the severe thunderstorm warnings of pure bullshit
Now I have 30% left, and it is due in three days. I've turned on airplane mode on my Kindle in case I don't make it in time. Some day, it can't be returned that way. But I promise I will be expeditious.
I started by listening to an audio version of A Gentleman in Moscow, a 500 page novel recommended to me by many, on the Libby app. When I had to return it about half read, I switched to the ebook from Libby.
Are you in grad school or something? That was the last time I used APA style.
Josh Johnson is way more that one of funniest comedians around. He’s a stealthy and powerful change agent. May he live a long and healthy life!
Thanks. I’ve got a lake to swim in just a couple of miles away. Book club meeting first.
No. Around here they said, “Trump Vance because Fuck Your Feelings.”
“It’s going to be 94 today,” I said, turning to Toesie, the orange cat to my left looking at me expectantly. “Good day for a swim.”
Everything they do screams that they need the level of education of the public to be lowered in order to continue to rule.
It motivates me to keep practicing to not waste what I was given.
Since I see him purely, I think of this as a Buddha emanating as a teacher for a certain group of people at a particular time and place.
Thinking this morning about one of my Vajrayana teachers. He was very popular in the 90's and early 2000s in the U.S. But, nowadays, I don't think a humble, slow-speaking, Tibetan man who taught traditional Dharma would be anywhere near as popular.
Brownshirt ICE rolled up to my local Home Depot today and got the F-off treatment. Shoutout to this woman because this is exactly how it’s done. No badge, face covered = F*ck all the way off. 📌 It’s on us citizens to stand up for our vulnerable brothers and sisters.
Democratic Leaders Stand Real Still In Hopes No One Notices Them theonion.com/democra...
NYC needs a female mayor.
Don't be me. Don't spend years of your life formatting complicated texts and tearing out your hair because you don't know how to make and modify custom styles. I bought expensive apps, hired people, got volunteers, all because I didn't know what took me a half hour to learn today on YouTube. Doh!
I probably would have written "an historian," too. That's why I hire copyediters for my books.
Have a lunch and a Siesta and practice from two until dinnertime. More joy that way, I'm finding... making things happen first.
I set up the space for practice, make some offerings, maybe say hi to Tara, then go walk a mile and then get to work on my books, Substack, admin until midday.
After 30 years of doing my main Buddhist practices in the morning, I'm finding afternoons work better for me now.
The Spelling Bee is, though.
It helps if you practice before starting to read.
A lot of people like to cry. As long as it is genre appropriate, e.g. not military Sci Fi, you're probably on the right track.
Only once in my life have I heard someone say that they felt emotionally manipulated by anything that was not an incarnate human. It was about a movie we'd watched together. It made her cry.
Within a few words, I could recognize Rinpoche's writing.
y'know it's kind of a tell that they think celebrating the end of slavery is DEI
This is Frank. He has found that the secret to happiness is a couple flowers, a lot of sunshine, and the occasional midday nap. 13/10
THIS IS ABSOLUTE INSANITY. 👇👇
The lake is in the back, but you are showing the front of the Palace. So, there has been editing or AI.
I've turned on my Contemporary Folk radio channel on Pandora, and I'm ready to finish editing a workbook I've drafted.
Summer is the time for short and sweet Zoom Dharma talks. Someone was kind enough to send me a list of topics she was interested in. So, I'm starting on Wednesday.
Literally the Russian flag in the post. Two of them
There is no such thing as an overreaction with what has now happened. This is the line in the sand. Every red hat who supports killing Americans is a traitor.
Around here, every city had its own protest, for example Angels Camp, Sonora and Tracy.