One of the first posts I wrote here, as I remember, had to do with my discomfort with identifying as a Buddhist. I had no trouble with the Buddhism part; it was the identity part that bothered me. Just to say "I am a [insert object of your choice]" gives me a little twitch of discomfort these days.

But I don't think the "I am a ..." thing is a real problem, unless you are completely oblivious to why it might be a problem. And it's a problem because labeling ourselves as anything just reinforces the "I" illusion. It assumes there is an essence of "me" that can be labeled (see "Sunyata").

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Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche, a lineage holder in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition, has a new book out called Living Fully: Finding Joy in Every Breath. This is not a book I would recommend to someone who just wants to learn something about Buddhism. However, I think some of you who already have some experience with practice would find this book inspirational and clarifying.

But first, a little bit about The Problem With Books. A book that speaks deeply to one person might seem trite and silly to someone else. Those who approach Buddhism as a mostly intellectual exercise would probably dismiss this book as so much silly fluff. Likewise, someone new to Buddhism looking for a book about The Quick Fix to Turning My Life Around So That It Doesn't Suck would probably find this book baffling.

On the other hand, sometimes the right book at the right time can speak to the reader at a very profound level. Living Fully speaks to a lot of "stuff" going on in my own life and practice at the moment. And while little in the book is new to me, I appreciate the reinforcement.

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It's already January 23 in China, so the Chinese new year has begun. This is a year of the dragon, so for fun I wrote an article about Buddhist dragons. Enjoy.

This morning I ran into an article about correct use of the word karma, based on what it says in a standard dictionary. Unfortunately, the article, and the dictionary, are incorrect. Barry Wood of GateHouse News Service wrote,

"Karma" is a Sanskrit word that means "a deed, act, fate." It's an important term in Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions. Webster's distilled definition is "the totality of a person's actions in any one of the successive states of that person's existence, thought of as determining the fate of the next stage."

I don't know how to contact Mr. Wood, but if I could, this is what I would say:

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