OneSangha

I’m curious about how blogging fits into people’s lives. Having done a fair bit of writing at other points of my life, I’ve been somewhat hesitant to write much about many parts of my practice because I’ve wanted to keep the focus on what I’m doing as I’m doing it, and I’m over apt to love my own words as it is. But I find that my teaching Chen* is changing a lot, and I’m becoming more willing to talk about whatever I happen to be working on in that context. Which has me at least considering (further) that perhaps it’s time for me to grow up and get over myself.

* Chen Taijiquan. Which should be distinct from Chan, but such discretion is not a major feature of my life.

I read it a lot more reliably when I’m home sick, I’m afraid. But yes, it’s one of the ones I try to follow.

I’ve found a balance – maybe not a good one – between writing with some degree of immediacy and being adequately opaque about things that did not seem appropriate in the past, but those boundaries seem to be doing a lot of moving at the moment. It must be good for me, I’m feeling thrown for a loop. But while I have a surprisingly good community out here, sometimes, well, really, I feel the lack of people to whine to! (Though I’m pretty sure you’re on the filter for what whining I do do. Perhaps I’ll start sending Chen Laoshi whiny letters in Chinese. He might think that was funny.)

Separately, I’m suspecting that I’m going to start doing more writing, though the academic work will probably keep that to at best a dribble. Some of it I’m pretty likely to post – the Zhuangzi stuff is pretty straightforward, for instance (well, except for being Zhuangzi. But my notes are straightforward).