Sunday, January 23, 2011

My Sangha is Your Sangha

Most of you know that I am the opposite of tech-savvy.  It is a small miracle that I can make this simplest of blogs happen.  So it may come as no surprise to you when I say I kinda suck at internet.

By that, what I mean (beyond other things that I do not even have language for), is that  I can often NOT find what I am seeking online.  Before I started this blog, for instance, I looked around for something, ANYTHING online written by, for, or about buddhist practitioners dealing with their own illness and/ or death.  Zip. Nada.  I mean, I found nothing!  No wait, I did find a book on Amazon.com by Sandy Boucher about her year undergoing cancer treatment, which I bought and read.   But I wanted more, now.   I wanted dialogue.  

So I started this, rather one-sided, dialogue.  It's been good for me...  and you?

Yeah, just it, see:  It doesn't feel like much of a dialogue.  I do know some people read this sometimes, mostly because they tell me so (or because they were raised by my mom-- hi, SOMs!) but, really, I don't get a lot of back and forth.  Although I definitely talk about some of the same things I write about here when I run into my friends in real life (IRL, as they say online-- Wow!--  I have never felt so much like someone's lame spinster aunt in all my life!)  I'm nothing if not forthcoming and willing to share my personal obsessions with my friends.  (I don't know about you and your friends, but that is kinda what my friends and I DO...)


So it took me a bit by surprise when I got a follower I didn't personally know, and then a comment from another blogger whom I do not know.  Following them back up outta my rabbit-hole lead me on a crooked link chase to a WHOLE MOTHERLODE of BUDDHIST BLOGS, very few of which I had ever chanced upon before.  Click on any of these blogs and you will find more links to more blogs-- an ever-widening gyre of expanding or narrowing interests.  If you don't like one site, just keep clicking...  It is a little like when my dad first got his big satellite TV and had a zillion channels for the first time!    Maybe you all knew about this already, but it is news to me.

So, I've been flying thru cyber-space today, and boy, are my arms tired!  Not to mention how thread-bare my credentials as a Buddhist Blogger suddenly seem.  I mean, I guess I never thought about it before-- what right do I have to do this?  What do I think I know, anyway?  Well, truthfully:  Not Much.  Haven't mislead anyone, there.  This is really only about me trying to figure out me-- using the ancient tools of Buddhist and Yoga practices and texts.  And the practice of writing.

Once I got over myself, then it was kinda nice to know there are SO many of us out here-- trying to shed light on our paths with these same tools.  Glad to know you, cyber-neighbors!  (Cyber-sangha?  Hmmm... this mash-up lingo thing could get really old really fast, I can see that now, and am backing away  v-e-r-y  s-l-o-w-l-y....)

May we be good to one another, and dedicate all merit to sentient beings everywhere.  Boddhi Svaha!

1 comment:

  1. I am so thrilled you found more buddha bloggers but I am still convinced that you are the most talented writer!
    Love, SOM in Seattle

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