PRIVATE TEACHING | EVENTS | TALKS | WRITING
Hello,
It’s good to have you here. I’m grateful for your presence and especially your attention, given the racket our information glut makes. I don’t take it for granted.
In his book, Living by Vow, Zen teacher Shohaku Okumura Roshi makes a distinction between living life by karma or living by vow. Living by karma is living out of habit, out of our beliefs and ideas, our biases and preconceptions, learned, adopted, and reinforced over time. Living by vow, on the other hand, means to set the direction of our lives based on a deep and sincere wish to live as well and as fully as possible. In Buddhism, the main vow is the vow to awaken (which I often think of as being and staying awake). I’ve always loved this teaching, and recently started thinking about it in terms of this newsletter.
Like many writers, I don’t sit down with a plan, but instead discover what I mean to say through the process of writing. It makes for a lot of trial and error and it takes more time, but as I think about what I’d like to offer you here, I recognize that I’d rather take that time, even if it means writing less frequently, than try to create content to keep you engaged. I understand the latter is how one makes money but to me, it’s letting the tail wag the dog, and I’d rather not do that.
Instead, I want to slowly but steadily write down bits of life as I see it informed or clarified or supported by dharma—living dharma, in other words. I’d like to share the living, dynamic, profound teachings that have so much to say about how to go about our days with clarity and kindness.
Therefore, I’m renaming this newsletter as Living Dharma to reflect and sharpen its focus. I’ll still write when I have something worth saying and I’ll still welcome your support in any form it takes. Please share, sponsor this newsletter, or donate on my website as you’re willing and able, and know that I don’t take any of it for granted either. I know not many can claim to do for a living what they love, so I consider myself one of the luckiest. To share with you what I do is a joy and a privilege.
May we continue to share that joy and also the questions and the practice and the opportunity to practice. May we each, in our own ways, embody and radiate the best of the living dharma, for our own sake and for the benefit of everyone.
Love the new name & direction. And your dog 😍 look forward to continuing to read! 🙏🏻
I love the new name and approach.