https://one.one.one.one/family/ Cloudflare has a dns option for families that might allow you to add black/white lists - I can't find the documentation for that feature but you might have more success than I have had. It said they would add that feature in the initial announcement
Very cool - I chatted with someone in NYC, another in Switzerland, and a third in Mumbai, and a few others I didn't ask where they were - there are fascinating people everywhere!
How'd you guys end the conversations & after how much time?
I find it difficult to break off conversations because if I meet a new human being I'm interested in I'll want to meaningfully connect and perhaps form a light friendship.
Yes. Long journey. Shortest version goes:I read everything for decades. Including the koan about Vimilakirti's "Thundering Silence". Ran into freebuddhistaudio. Intrigued by the Vimilakirti lectures.
Sangharakshita mentioned the "White Lotus Sutra". Not knowing anything about it, I wondered if there was a blue lotus sutra or a pink lotus sutra. No. Just the one. I had honestly not heard of it in all those years! I listened to his talk on the parables and symbols in it. I downloaded these to an iPod, which was great for long drives.
Wanted to know more. So I went to my spiritual provider, Half Price Books, and found "Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism" by Richard Causton, former head of SGI UK, and the first volume of "Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra" by Daisaku Ikeda.
These were really revolutionary compared to all I had previously read. I moved to the boondocks after a divorce and it was scary at the outset with pumps failing, pipes freezing and storms howling. They helped me cope.
After a while I really felt that the only way the world is going to break out of its endless cycle of hate, war, and retribution is through human revolutions, one person at a time, so I looked for a Buddhist group "nearby". Apple Maps said Fresno, 50 miles away, so I joined in order to practice with a group working for the same goal.
I am especially intrigued by the "Innumerable Meanings" prequel to the Sutra, which most people gloss over. But Mr. Toda didn't, and I can see why.
That was a very long journey to the Lotus Sutra, essentially on my own. I had never heard of it, nor SGI, for ages.
But to me, the notion of Bodhisattvas voluntarily taking on karma and returning to earth really struck home. It's Vimilakitri's "illness" and even Neal Donald Walsch mentions the idea of returning to earth rather than escaping it, though I can't find that reference.
The fact that there are similar ideas in physics matters to me. Some are referred to in the Indra's Net analogy.
That's really fascinating. I grew up in the SGI, but it's rare to meet people who converted to Buddhism through such interesting and circuitous routes as you have. Thank you for sharing
Non-Fiction: travels by Michael Crichton. Fascinating book that gives you different perspective on a variety of topics. Very well written
Fiction: My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl- nsfw story about a young guy in early 20th century Europe who develops a method for increasing libido - hilarity ensues.
You just learned something about yourself - now go and figure out more things about yourself. just because you want something (to be productive 100% of the time) doesn't mean it's what will make you the most effective person possible. Surrender to your ways of being - you will be so much happier than trying to stuff yourself into a box that society or your ego has imposed.
