Writing the MA thesis at Nagi Gompa
This semester is my last in the MA program, so I decided to spend most of my time at Nagi, our nunnery, so that I could write in a relaxed way and hopefully digest the information more thoroughly from having few distractions. Although I miss our shedra sangha and especially the opportunity to talk about the dharma with such kind and learned students and teachers, it has been extremely helpful to have more mental space for contemplation and less activity to take my mind away from the material I’m writing about. Since I haven’t enjoyed writing until now, much of what I have learned so far this spring is how this can be a creative and artistic project, something both fun and meaningful which hopefully will clarify my many doubts, partial understandings, and misunderstandings regarding “the path” and how all the different levels of teachings fit together for the individuals who travel it. In my past years of study writing papers was always something...