I met up with Y Ban and her translator yesterday. She commented that my work was good and could get published here, and that what I wrote would have me thrown in jail 30 years ago (lol)! She also offered to get Vixen translated for $3000 US which upon consideration I don’t think it’s worth [...]

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Last night had a meditation on anger and a reading about anger from Thay’s book the Heart of the Buddha’s teaching. It made me realise that I can transform the anger I have towards the government and towards some situations that men create into something else- and it needn’t be a barrier to me practising [...]

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Last night went to Highway 4 and ate crickets! They were barbequed and were crunchy and nutty. We also had samplers of fruit rice wine in apricot cranberry passionfruit and apple which was gorgeous. Talked to Cynthia whom is an accomplished networker whom ran into me at the Bookworm- we did Vietnamese classes together in [...]

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Just read an interview with Yann Martel author of Life of Pi and a series of notes he has written for his next novel. It is very revealing about his process for writing. He says that art takes from life and gives it meaning- which I agree with. He does a lot of research for [...]

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I have been spending some time reading Buddhist texts and other writings such as Thomas Moore’s original self. It has reminded me to try and stay in touch with my dreams- of which I remember many. My time at the sangha too has deepened me and I have come to realise that writing and Buddhism [...]

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I’m taking a break from the 50 verses of consciousness and reading Thomas Moore’s Original Self. There are some zen like moments in his writing- however he thinks (and I paraphrase) that living in the present moment solely denies links to the past and the future. I think he misunderstands the emphasis on trying to [...]

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Read more Ursula Le Guin wisdom from an interview on her website. She talks about letting stories grow and gestate, something that I am learning to do organically. In my short stories I need to know what is going to happen in order to sculpt and structure the story. I have yet to master organically [...]

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I am finding that doing the practice has made me more aware of my emotions and I feel them more acutely than I have in a while. These range from frustration to joy that I am in Hanoi (so it’s not all bad!) I’m going to go to Saigon and follow Thich Nhat Hanh around [...]

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This morning went to the women’s museum which had a temporary exhibition when it was renovating- called Memory of Time. It had objects and pictures from 1945-1975 showing women’s contribution to the war. It moved me more than the military museum did, there were pictures of survivors of torture, women in the cages they used [...]

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Went out for dinner last night with an american academic Doug whom teaches at Hanoi University whom had read Vixen and met me at a bookworm gallery launch. He has met Tim O’Brien the author of “the things they carried” and Tim O’Brien said (and I paraphrase very badly) that there are two kinds of [...]

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