As part of my Footscray Community Arts Centre Residency I’m one of the many artists in the Go Show as part of the Melbourne International Festival. I will be workshopping my play for Melbournalia II with two actresses Ai Diem Le and Diana Nguyen in Maddern Square in Footscray. It’s on from October 22-25 2008. [...]

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I have been writing productively at my weekly residency at Footscray Community Arts Centre.  Which may be why I haven’t been blogging at all! For my birthday I was given a book “Writing from the inside Out” which talks about writer’s block as something to work with rather than something to get over. I also [...]

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Silence has been resurrected with a replacement actress but only for one week June 4-8. La Mama itself is in a precarious state and trying to raise $30,000 in three days to put down a deposit on the building they reside in. Please donate money if you can.

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Am in Saigon airport, dwelling in the present moment and thinking about the retreat. I have learnt so much and been so inspired by Thay’s lectures. The last lecture was on no birth no death and the idea of continuation, self and no self. I have vowed to all five of the mindfulness training this [...]

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Silence has been cancelled- Ai Diem Le was seriously injured in a car crash and we can’t replace her in time.

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On retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh for seven days and it is a wonderful experience breathing in and out with 400 people. There are dharma talks every day conducted by Thay himself. What I have taken from these talks have moved me so much. That my grandparents and parents are in every cell of my [...]

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I wrote the 80 word “intention to submit” statement for my masters in creative writing today- free at last- almost! I’ve found the journey really interesting, without Kathleen Fallon I would have quit all together. I have learnt that I can write academic discourse in english literature at postgraduate level and I’ve read a lot [...]

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I’ve been doing more reading on mindfulness and three models that it is used in- Acceptance Commitment Therapy which I’m going to do a short course on, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and Stress Reduction Therapy. I also bought a book The Mindful Way through Depression which complements what I was taught by Thich Nhat Hanh. [...]

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I have been dreaming of going back to Vietnam recently, always to return to temples. The most recent dream had a Buddhist nun talking to me saying that the answers to my questions lay within. This had a pretty deep and profound impact on me.I have been reading the latest Thich Nhat Hanh book titled [...]

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The saddest thing happened the other day. my friend huu tran’s baby passed away suddenly. his wife lucy is having trouble accepting it, during the funeral she sang to the baby’s body and asked us to wake Vin up because he wasn’t listening to mummy anymore.This is a poem for Vin
Small clamped fistLike a budded [...]

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