Hi friends-- just getting back from a wonderful trip up to the Berkshires where my family had gifted me a chance to study therapeutic approaches to yoga (AMA, why the hell not, right?). It was a really wonderful trip, and I got to visit a family member at the New England Peace Pagoda, where most of these photos are from.

Much thanks as always to all the groups that put up with me disappearing from here frequently and otherwise spending ridiculous amounts of time playing Zelda and not on Steam, especially the Giveaways Club.

I hope you all are fulfilled by the work you're able to do in this crazy world, that your heart rests easy amidst the weather of this life, and that you connect with deep love with your family near and far.

The prayers of the pagoda were to the Lotus Sutra, Om Namu Myoho Renge Kyo--

1 month ago

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Oh yeah, "Level 3, one week"

1 month ago
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Welcome back, and nice photos!

(You may want to add a / to the end of the solution at jigidi, in its current form it will lead to a non-GA and may confuse a few people)

1 month ago
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☝🏻
I think I see what you mean, but I suppose I'll leave it to the puzzle solvers... I think a lot of folks just do the five letters, so I'm hoping people will put it together

1 month ago
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ESGST fixed the links for me after going to a 404.

1 month ago
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Bump, thanks for jigidis

1 month ago
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Bump 😊

1 month ago
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Interesting stuff! Very nice pics. That place must be very... lemme say "peaceful" for want of a better word; I'm trying to express that it triggers inner peace, if you know what I mean. If English has a way to express what I mean precisely, it escapes me now, but I think you get my point.

(AMA, why the hell not, right?)

Actually, lemme take you up on that.

Is that something you learned for your own use, as in for your own exercise or meditation when you do yoga, or something you learned to employ as a yoga instructor, in teaching yoga? And what prompted you to study that, just a general "this is a thing I do and I want to improve my doing of it" thing or did you have a particular goal?

1 month ago
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The therapeutics are something I'd like to be able to offer people, as I'm able and as people around me are interested, though I think the timing of the course and the impetus to do it now were largely personal-- I needed something enjoyable and healing to look forward to this year, and having this on the calendar gave me a lot to look forward to when I needed it most.

Also, working with SteamDeck Neck...

1 month ago
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Yeah, I feel that more than I'd like to. Sometimes, we really need a clear "countdown to the getaway" kinda thing to keep trudging through the daily toil...

Was it as healing as you hoped? :)

1 month ago
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It was maybe more healing than I had faith enough to expect ❤️‍🩹

1 month ago
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Great success, then! :D

1 month ago
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Lovely pictures!
What insights did you get from the trip? :)

1 month ago
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One vision was of the earth supporting us, yet also ready to consume me. I feel fortunate that some teachers along the way made space for remembering the indigenous people and their ancestors, there was even an off-hand comment about being weary of "Bringing colonized practices to recolonize native communities" that stuck on me; in my rational brain, I'm more of a traditionalist who is just chasing after dharma and those authorities, but several points in the trip felt like the land and its people were alive, aware and knowing-- it was a knowledge that's beyond me, and I feel honored to have been allowed to pass through its space.

1 month ago
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I'm so jealous! Those pictures are amazing! Welcome back! :D

1 month ago
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Beautiful pictures. Looks very peaceful out there.

Completely unrelated, but your third photo looks exactly how I would frame a screenshot in a game with ray-traced graphics. 😄

1 month ago*
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😅 You can take the gamer to Mount Meru, but you can't take the game out of the gamer... I was honored that the puddle gave me the angle in spite of my photography skills

1 month ago
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I don’t have work, so no, not fulfilled by that at all.
Also, not gonna do a jigidi per giveaway, no sir.
Toodles.

1 month ago*
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Appreciate you Maya. If it's of interest, there are only two jigis, both 63 pieces (there's a very simple puzzle the connects the last 4 GAs immediately after the second jigi). My times have been ousted off the jigidi leader board, but both puzzles took me about 5 minutes.

I was completely out of work but got a job offer the day before this trip, started yesterday! It's not the flashiest job in the world, but it's working with great people in a great atmosphere, and to me, that sparkles ✨

1 month ago
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It’s been 4 months. I’m trying to look at the positives, but the bottom line is that I still need an income to support my family.
Enough of my bitching though.

1 month ago
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Sounds tranquil, good for you.

1 month ago
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Thanks for the jigidis:)

I quit my job recently and the sad part is that I overall enjoyed it, but the environment wasn't healhty and there was a lot of wasted potential/effort that just made it so I no longer could feel like staying. It was hard to leave precisely because I actually liked what I overall did, but mental health is more important than any job. Hope to soon get back to a job alike with a better environment.

1 month ago*
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Bump!

1 month ago
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Sometimes I forget that you can find pagodas outside of Asia. I wonder if Buddhists who live there peregrinate to their closest one.

Thanks for the giveaways!

1 month ago
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We have lots of different traditions of temples around the cities-- actually, even here in the photos, there was Khmer tradition temple on the same property as the Nichiren / Japanese style one. I think a lot of Americans who may not be Buddhist mostly go to temples for meditation instruction, a very cool function which I never saw much of in China; closer to the city, a lot of temples also have a sangha around them supporting the monks while the monks offer all the services that we think of as religious-- pujas, memorials, etc.

1 month ago
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bump :)

1 month ago
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Bump!

1 month ago
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bump

1 month ago
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bump

1 month ago
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Thanks for the poem :)

1 month ago
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Bump

1 month ago
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Bump ;)

1 month ago
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a chance to study therapeutic approaches to yoga

That sounds fascinating. Yoga has always been very attractive to me on a spiritual level but I still know too little about it.
Did you learn a lot you didn't know at all?

1 month ago
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Super Bump, for a superb work !

1 month ago
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bump

1 month ago
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Bump and thank you!

1 month ago
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Bump 🙂

1 month ago
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