Why This Blog

Natira: “Is truth not truth for all?”

Star Trek “For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky” (s3ep8), Stardate 5476.4.

I started blogging way back in 2005 after visiting Japan for the first time, and discovering the Jodo Shu Buddhist path shortly thereafter from a now-defunct English-language site. Back then, I blogged on Blogger for a year or two, but soon moved to WordPress and have been here for almost 15 years. I have started, and then removed blogs a few times (Level 8 Buddhist, Japan: Life and Religion, etc), but I always come back and start again.

I am not sure why I have such a strong impulse to blog on such nerdy topic over and over again. In the beginning, it was my way of trying to reconcile my religious-cultural experiences in Japan, with the kind of stuff I learned about in Western textbooks. The two seemed pretty different, but over the years I learned a lot about Japanese religion and culture, and every time I learned something new, I’d put it on the blog so others could find it. I have often updated certain articles on Wikipedia as well.

Later, when I was part of a local Japanese-American temple (Jodo Shinshu sect), I learned even more from the experience. The Buddhism is often presented to Westerners is somewhat skewed by a combination of outmoded translations, native “Protestant” bias, and just lack of information. I had to relearn a lot of assumptions over the years myself, and I really miss that time with the temple community, even if I decided to follow a slightly different path.

Over the years through blogging I have been lucky to meet disparate people in places like Europe, Africa and Asia who wanted to learn more, and were themselves struggling with finding the right information. Some of these areas do not have large Buddhist communities. But what matters is that anyone from any walk of life can find information they want, and put it into practice in a way that suits their life. A single mom in rural Arkansas, or a student in Sweden, or an elderly Asian-American all have the right to learn the Dharma, and shouldn’t be limited by time, place, background or cost.

I prefer this open approach. Instead of relying on gurus, special transmissions, seminars, meditation centers, retreats and so on, I want to present Buddhist teachings as-is from sources and sites I come across. I do not make money from this, and I don’t want people’s money (my current employment is enough). Instead, what I learn for myself, I also share with others. Truth must be truth for all with no strings attached.

The way I figure it: people can make their own informed decisions about how to put the Dharma into practice in their lives. They just need sufficient information to make informed choices.