Dear friends,
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been struggling mightily to post something here on a regular basis… and I haven’t been very successful. Usually I post twice a week, but as you may have noted, there has only been one post the entire month of July. Maybe that’s just the way summer is — conducive to mush brain.
August promises to be just as challenging, and in fact I’ve already taken steps to create some brief sabbatical time on The Liberated Life Project (my stealth dharma blog).
So rather than fight it, I’m going to do the same with Jizo and take a one-month break from blogging here, through the month of August.
During that time, I’ll be deeply involved with engaged Buddhist work (live, in-person, not just online!) as we head into our intensive training time in the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program. From August 12 -14, Roshi Joan Halifax and Sensei Fleet Maull will teach on the Five Buddha Families, and then from August 19 – 21, Roshi Joan and Roshi Bernie Glassman offer a weekend on Bearing Witness to the Oneness of Life. In between, I’ll be supporting Upaya’s chaplaincy students as they do their own deep dive into compassionate action informed by dharma practice.
Before I go, a few news items to share with you:
- On Saturday, September 10th, Buddhist Global Relief is organizing a Walk to Feed the Hungry in New York City. I’ve added this event to the Calendar of Socially Engaged Buddhist Events.
- An article of mine appears in the just-published book Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices are Changing the Way We Live, an anthology edited by Mirabai Bush. The article is titled “Assessing the State of Contemplative Practices in the United States.” Other contributors include Donald Rothberg, Judy Lief, Father Richard Rohr, Barry Boyce, and Claudia Horwitz.
- If you’re trying out Google+, you can find a list of engaged Buddhists to follow here.
There’s plenty of good stuff to check out in the Jizo Chronicles archives if you miss the writing here. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful month and I look forward to seeing you back here in September!
Palms together,
Maia
The Jizo Chronicles 