Category Archives: Information

Information

Looking Back Looking Forward

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I like to think this rainbow ushers in a new dawn and hope it brings new interest and energy here. And some cheer too.

A rainbow arcs over the Borrowdale valley looking towards Derwent Water in the center of the English Lake District. Snapped by a fellow walker.

So, Jade Mountains Buddha Hall, this weblog, has transitioned into a new home and as with all moves there are changes. Change in appearance and by all accounts that seems to be welcomed. Changes to how features work – comments have been switched back on again and as always I welcome readers input. And for me there are behind-the scenes switches and levers I need to learn to master. For the record the banner photograph was taken by me while on a Sangha walk up to Nine Standard Rigg in Eastern Cumbria.

With the aid of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine I retrieved Jades original About page published some time in mid 2003. I didn’t write a lot back then however I was glad to see the post The Road Not Taken was logged in the archive and so I have pulled it back into the current site. And at such times as these, moving house, it is perhaps good to reflect on the original intention that inspired me to maintain an on-line presence in the first place. So here is my first post, The Entrenching Tool!

Last November reflecting, as now, on my on-line efforts I wrote the following:

Just as with the entrenching tool on first sight Jade might look like a joke or better put, a self-indulgence. A monastic going on about herself, Where’s the Buddhist teaching in THAT? One might well ask. Unfold the site, use it, and hopefully you will find it a useful tool. A good place to return to. But most importantly, Jades meta-message if you like, Buddhist practice is not something outside of daily living or confined within the walls of monastic practice. If that comes through then I’m happy.

Yep, I can stand by that. Please keep coming back.


And a HUGE thank you to Julius who was and is the moving hand behind this transition into a new house.

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Information

Ah Peace! Oh! Changes

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The blogging world has been hit with a huge flood of spam commenting these past few weeks and Jademountains has been awash with it. Somebody kindly switch off the comment facility this morning, thank you J, and I can take a deep breath out with relief. Deleting page after spam page of comments has left me frazzled. At the moment only registered users can leave comments, which is basically just me. If you want to say something about a post you can send it via the contact form and I can post it for you.

Over the next week or two my energies will be devoted to organizing moving Jade Mountains into, or onto, a different ‘platform’ where I will be able to drive the site more easily. Comments will be enabled then.

So there will be some changes in the appearance of the site. For the better hopefully. Maybe some disruption of service but hopefully not for long periods of time.

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Falls Between the Cracks, Information, Out and About

BAD – Buddhist Action Day

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Well I am always glad to get behind collective activity which lends itself to the good and BAD err….sound good! Sorry I couldn’t resist! So if you are part of a Buddhist group or community why not clean out a ditch, mend a footpath or…well there are so many possibilities. Linking up with groups such as The Woodland Trust, National Trust and similar organizations might provide suitable work for willing hands.

Would you or your organisation (in Britain) be willing to run an event during the Diamond Jubilee year in July 2012? Each major faith community has been offered a month in 2012 in which to organise inclusive events based on various themes. The Buddhist community has been offered a month – July – in which to run events that have an environmental theme. We have chosen July 3rd as our official ‘Earthkind – Buddhist Action Day’ but your events may be planned for any time during July.
Earthkind – Buddhist Action Day. The Network of Buddhist Organisations.

Please let me know if you/your Buddhist community are organising something during July. I’d love to join in if I’m nearby(ish), already I’m thinking of heading towards Telford in the Midlands.

And do remember to let the NBO know what you have planned so they can publicise it on their website.

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Falls Between the Cracks, Information, This and That

Social Networking On Line

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Well, this article is certainly an eye opener and a half.

How is a group its own worst enemy?

So, Part One. The best explanation I have found for the ways in which this pattern establishes itself, the group is its own worst enemy, comes from a book by W.R. Bion called “Experiences in Groups,” written in the middle of the last century.

Bion was a psychologist who was doing group therapy with groups of neurotics. (Drawing parallels between that and the Internet is left as an exercise for the reader.) The thing that Bion discovered was that the neurotics in his care were, as a group, conspiring to defeat therapy.

There was no overt communication or coordination. But he could see that whenever he would try to do anything that was meant to have an effect, the group would somehow quash it. And he was driving himself crazy, in the colloquial sense of the term, trying to figure out whether or not he should be looking at the situation as: Are these individuals taking action on their own? Or is this a coordinated group?

He could never resolve the question, and so he decided that the unresolvability of the question was the answer. To the question: Do you view groups of people as aggregations of individuals or as a cohesive group, his answer was: “Hopelessly committed to both.”

From a talk given in 2003 by Clay Shinky A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

All good stuff to be aware of for those working towards building community on-line.

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