Alan gets a go!
Posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
We are back from our six week trip to Sydney for the Lamdre teaching from HH Sakya Trizin. It was a very interesting time.
I have decided to make the odd comment on this blog since I am very interested in the content, and as a techie, it has fallen to me to set up the web site and provide the on-going technical support. As a software developer for many years it was a delight to download the WordPress blogging software (WordPress.org) and have the site basically up and running in a couple of hours. After many years using Lasso as my cgi, getting into PHP is proving interesting to say the least ... but there I go with techie talk and this is not really a techie talk blog.

In Sydney we were witness to a tiny part of the blending of the wisdoms of the east into the west. In this case Tibetan Buddhism with a largely western group of students. I was interested to notice, though, among the participants, many students with an asian ethnic background who may have had a grounding in other Buddhist traditions attending this very Tibetan discourse.
We set out to get interviews from as many of the teachers as we could and with considerable help from the organisers, we were able to interview HH Sakya Trizin who is the main lineage holder in the Tibetan Sakya School, his sons, HE Ratna Vajra Rinpoche and HE Gyana Vajra Rinpoche, and his elder sister, HE Jetsun Kushok. We were also able to interview Ven. Kenpo-La who runs the Drogmi Retreat Centre and was responsible for organising this visit by HH Sakya Trizin.
The Ven Robina Courtin attended the Triple Visions teachings and was kind enough to give us an interview, and one of our own highly respected teachers (and great friend) from Canada, Cecilie Kwiat, gave us an interview before she left to give some teaching in Tasmania prior to returning home.
The interviews were all slightly nail biting for me since I was using an Olympus WS-300M digital recorder and two, just purchased, Olympus lapel mics. However, apart from getting the odd setting slightly less than optimal, the recordings were a great success and I was impressed with the equipment. I was also impressed with what everybody had to say. It was a real privilege to be present and just able to listen while Jacqui did all the hard work.
So now it is time to edit the recordings and get them on line. We will put one up each week and for eight weeks thereafter. Just a few adjustments to do before the first one goes up, which will be the first interview we did with HH Sakya Trizin. If you leave us your name and email, we'll let you know as soon as it is ready.
be well
Alan
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say
that I've really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way
I'll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you write again soon!
Hi Alan
I notice your website cuts off a bit at the right side if I open it in Internet explorer but not if I use Firefox.
I use a Zoom H2 to record teachings etc. It is an amazing device and quite inexpensive considering what it does. Here is a link http://www.zoomh2.net/
I will post a link to your site form mine and send out news of the interviews from the Lamdre. Tomorrow I leave for a six week personal retreat with Cecilie.
All the best
Metta
Don
Hi Don.
Lucky you to be going into retreat with Cecilie. Jacqui and I spent 3 months with her last year, and it certainly moved us along a bit.
Thanks for the heads up re IE. Being a Mac user, IE doesn't loom large in my life, but I had better crank up Parallels and do some testing. I will check out Zoom H2, thanks for the tip.
be well
Alan