Archive for September, 2007
Publications and a short film
Sep 28th
I managed to get another short story “Heroic Mother” to be published in the Griffith Review coming out in November themed “In the neighborhood” – meaning Asia. And at the moment I’m in production for a short seven minute film called “Ma”. Yes there is a mother theme running through all this! ‘Silence” has gotten $8000 in funding from Melbourne City Council which will launch it off the ground for production next year. So even though I haven’t actually done much in the way of writing over the last two months- thanks to working full time- there are things on the way.
No self
Sep 6th
Just read a transcript of a dharma talk by Thich Nhat Hanh about our continuation with our ancestors. His talks can be accessed at www.plumvillage.org
What he said made a lot of sense to me. He said that Western psychology is centred around the self which means it can only heal up to a certain point. Buddhist psychology encourages the concept of no-self – the connection of you to your ancestors and other beings so you go beyond yourself. I came to this conclusion while on retreat with Thay in Vietnam- that it did not matter who I was (i had been wondering what and who I was for sometime) but my interconnection with all beings made me who I am.
I have found so far with some of my clients that I see that they take to viewing their thoughts as being outside of themselves very readily. I have not yet taken that step of trying to teach mindfulness but I will soon.