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Went to Dinh Quan pagoda again- and this time the dharma talk was disappointing what little of it I caught railed against sex before marriage, AIDS and young people. I guess there is still a conservative streak in some Buddhist monks- just like there are conservatives in the church.Had a chat with Nicholas and Hannah about ghosts and spirits- they have been here for 8 months and commented that people didn’t seem to talk about ghosts etc in the way …

I went to a shamanic hour at an antique shop courtesy of Friends of Vietnam Heritage. We got to sit and talk for an hour or more with the shaman from the San Diu people. Funnily enough his translator told us that he was not sure if ghosts existed or not. The rituals sounded very complicated and to be a shaman you have to study at least 50 books in Chinese. The shamanic work is done out of charity- they …

Last night did a very profound practice “Touching the Earth”. Thay suggests that you do this practice until your anger and resentment etc has been released. It consists of listening to words about your ancestors and how they are in your body and recognising them in you even if they have not been able to support you because of their own fear, hatred and anger (ie your parents, grandparents and blood family). Then thanking your spiritual ancestors (which for me …

I have started reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Calming the fearful mind- A zen response to terrorism and it’s really inspiring. I want to do more work that is compassionate and from the heart- and I want to reconcile my day job as a psychologist with Buddhism. There is only one course running in WA on Buddhist psychology that is quite expensive in Australia. I wonder if I am strong enough to compassionately listen to clients now, the last time …

I’ve been shopping lately at two bazaars, a craftlink bazaar which donates money back to ethnic minorities and a charity bazaar run by the international women’s club. I can’t tell you what I’ve bought because they are presents for people- but needless to say they are very beautiful and relatively inexpensive. I saw some Vietnamese documentaries on illiteracy in the highlands and Ha Long Bay which made me think- I don’t usually think about the children that try and sell …

Last night’s practice included a talk by Trish Thomson whom is a member of the order of interbeing since the mid eighties about habit energies. She talked about how we all have the seeds of different emotions in us, and that we sometimes respond from habit energies formed when we were younger from our family and our environment. I was thinking about how I have responded to being alone in Vietnam with loneliness whilst in fact I have chosen to …

I went to a conference on religions and culture today and was disturbed to find out about the added gathas that a woman has to learn before being ordained as a nun as opposed to a monk (a woman has to learn about 100 more sayings!) The researcher whom was an Australian woman interviewed nuns at the Dien Quan pagoda where I went with the sangha and she also said that this was due to women having weaker natures. It …

“You never learn how to write a novel,” he said. “You just learn how to write the novel that you’re writing.” This is from Gene Wolfe and I got it from Neil Gaiman’s website.I think he’s right. I have found that each novel length work I have written has had a different process. The last one that I completed “Digging up the bones” was done in segments because I was handing the work over to my supervisor Kathleen Fallon. I’m …

While recovering from a fever have been reflecting on my writing process during this residency so far. I have produced about five to six short stories and have started the sequel to Vixen. I’m discovering more as I go along and I realise now that my ambition to have a completed manuscript in four months is a little ambitious. From my experiences so far in Vietnam and the different insights I have gained from a number of people- I want …

Here is the largest Buddha in Vietnam in Soc Son. Soc Son is more well known for the legend of a giant warrior whom helped the Vietnamese fight off the Chinese and his footsteps made the lakes and valleys in the mountains. Because of the largest Buddha which weighs thirty tonnes some other people want to make an even larger statue of Giong the warrior. This oneupsmanship is quite interesting I think! Here I am outside one of the many …