Sorry for not posting anything here in a while (10 days!), it’s just been a bit busy in real life. First, the property thing isn’t as simple as thought; the property we decided on turns out to be too big for a residential mortgage, so either the group puts $80,000 as a down-payment or we find another property. The group has about $50,000 on-hand, so it’s not really feasible at this point. Also, interest rate would be higher as it would be considered a commercial loan. There may be a way around this, but we’re looking at other (smaller) property as well now – yesterday saw some 5 acre parcels, but nothing that really fit the bill – nothing that compared with the first property, anyway. Today we’re going to see another that looks a little more promising. Anyway, still optimistic and the group of people supporting this project have promised that one way or another it will happen.
Tuesday I joined a Visuddhimagga study session at the Dharma Centre in Winnipeg. Met Lama Gerry and his community; nice group, intending on joining every week.
Saturdays I’ve started Monk Radio again, for anyone who hasn’t yet heard. Check http://radio.sirimangalo.org/ for local time. I’ve also returned to Google Moderator for posting questions (actually somehow I thought they shut it down…), so you can post and vote on questions all week here:
http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=2057be&t=2057be.40
Wednesdays (I need a schedule! Oh, wait, I have one, here) I’ve agreed to start giving talks in Second Life again at the Buddha Centre. At its best, SL is a great platform for teaching; at its worst, well, I don’t really know how low it can go… let’s hope it works out well. Visit here for the location information and here if you don’t know what Second Life is (hint: you need a good graphics card and a stable Internet connection).
Jared finished his first course quite successfully, so he’s on track for novice ordination. Last night he asked me for an ordination date and I suggested April 1st (it’s Easter Monday, so a holiday). Otherwise Visakha Puja, but it’s late this year. Maybe waiting another three months would be good for him? Uncertain.
That’s all I can think of for now. More when uncertainties become certain (i.e. past).