books I am reading right now

No Time to Lose, Pema Chodron, her commentary on the Way of the Bodhisattva. I am well into this and it is very good. Lots to think about and practice, especially mindfulness, which PC really inspires me toward.

Karma-Yoga and Bhakti-Yoga by Swami Vivekenanda. Very interesting discourse on Bhakti which ties in with my novel and the next book....

Miracle of Life, stories about Neem Karoli Baba, compiled by Ram Dass. Stories about the guru of Ram Dass, who he describes in Be Here Now, which I actually read as a kid, maybe a teenager. Bhakti path. Good so far. Having met and had darshan with a real guru for the first time recently, Amma, her in NorCal, I am curious about gurus especially one like NKB who I "met" early in my life. I don't know if he is my guru or not but perhaps I will figure that out.

The image is of Kuan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, originally called Avalokitesvara in Buddhist texts like the Heart Sutra. She was originally described as male and then became male and/or female.

updating my website

Web design itself is pretty difficult and hard to do well, so when I finally decided to update my website in style and content I chose to try Drupal again. It's kindof overkill maybe for a small site but it beats the headaches of trying to format using html or dreamweaver. It allows me to create content and keep things simple. I have a lot of respect for web designers and I know they know that few appreciate how tough their job is. This could help me if I end up managing web projects.

So check out my newly evolving website at www.charleskeatts.com and let me know what you think, how you think it could be better, and what works and doesn't work. Thanks!

Vipassana, "diluted" Buddhism and my teachers

One day many years ago, after I had been studying Eastern religions for many years, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and some other possible permutations, I had a friend at the time tell me that he had gone on a Vipassana retreat. He had done a week or ten day silent meditation retreat in what I assumed was a type of Buddhism similar to the Soto Zen I had studied. Oh no, he said, maniacally, this type of Buddhism was the only real, true Buddhism, what the Buddha really taught. This type of dogma always made me skeptical and he said it with such certainty that I was especially dubious.

That was about ten years ago and I have met many practitioners of Vipassana, or Insight meditation, over the years, and have attended a class and studied books such as "What the Buddha Taught" based on a recommendation from my Soto Zen Teacher, Tim McCarthy. I have not heard many claims over the years regarding purity or superiority like my crazy friend, obviously a "young" student of the practice. I have noticed what might be arrogance or a lack of beginners mind in some, and in myself, over the years, but I see that as part of the process and nothing lethal. I am a big fan of Zen myself and love the Blue Cliff Record and other teachings, as well as the words of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, who founded the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara, and who worked with Kobin Chino Otokawa, Roshi who taught my teacher.

Recently the issue of Insight Meditation and other forms of Buddhism came up at my girlfriends' house and the discussion apparently got pretty heated. I was not there, thankfully, but heard enough to think of a way to poke fun at statement like "other forms of Buddhism are watered-down Vipassana". I don't know who told my friend Alan that, if anyone, but if that's true isn't Vipassana a diluted form or branch of Hinduism? I don't think so obviously but it's fun to imagine the reactions.

I prefer to think of these religions and philosophies evolving over time as they travel through different cultures. Maybe not better, or worse, but different. I don't know if it is necessary to complicate it much more than that. Or not at all. Suzuki Roshi talked about how we are just Buddhists, and Kobun says some interesting things here.

language virus theory origins and similarity to burning man

so this link will take you to some info on the original ws burroughs idea of the viral language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nova_Trilogy.

I was also thinking about the viral nature of burning man. I think that it is interesting, annoying and scary the way people use burning man as a label, a way of categorizing certain types of art or dress. for example, if people have a certain kind of hair and dance or play a certain type of music, they can be lumped in the bm category easily, when their original motivation, like the culture of bm itself, came from somewhere else. maybe it is a lazy way of forgetting or not admitting ones ignorance: I don't know where these people came from or how they got their ideas but I am too lazy to wonder about it so I will just label them as burners. it's a virus, I think, like bm itself, which infects and lives off its hosts, and I am mixing my metaphor.

I love bm don't get me wrong. just don't assume and overuse the label, please.

legendary pink dots and other stuff

saw the legendary pink dots at cafe du nord tonight: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Legendary+Pink+Dots

They were very good, reminding me of early pink floyd with syd barrett, but not crazy, combined with dj shadow and massive attack, who they probably influenced. the opening act was big city orchestra and they were good too, more avante garde.

a good day today of helping kate with her bike, a cool dahon ciao folding bike with a shimano internal shifting cartridge. very warm in the bay area today, thank you suvs. had fun painting with a friend's five year old daughter, very cute, and worked on my own stuff, more windows, using vinyl and other mediums. had an idea for a window covered in blue resin with just scratches in it, maybe other patches of color. tomorrow plan on meditating, running, bouldering, and reading ny times with coffee. some or all of that could happen. trying to keep up more on news these days. the idea of hillary as sec of state is interesting. not likely, I guess.

need to choose a project management class soon. if anyone has taken classes at PMI I could use some feedback on a couple. also looking at a life coach that I like but it's a bit pricey...