And now I’ve lost my way again:
Body asking shadow, “Which way from here?”

Cold Mountain Poems II, Han Shan

That sums up the week.  Those of you on 108ZB’s Facebook page will have seen a stream of Twitter posts.  Yes, I have succumbed to one more rabbit hole of social media.  It’s been an interesting experiment in watching the grasping ego and the fragile, therefore easily muddled, mind.  For the first 48 hours I was caught up in acquisitions of those to follow and shameless seductions of those I wanted to follow me.  How fascinating to watch the wild horses of the ego drag me hither and yon across the landscape.  I can’t say it’s much of a revelation.  I mean, which of us doesn’t know we are nothing more than a lump of scheming desire seeking only the next opiate to ease our insecurities?

And yet.  In all that mess, there were a few redeeming features.  I learn that keeping the activities of the psychologist separate from those of the bumbling buddhist is a good thing.  It’s also wise to pick one’s social media face and wear it close.  Do I want to be a political pundit or a one-line insight slinger?  Do I want to be a deconstructionist of the flighty and famous or a parrot of what has been published in reams by famous teachers?

Apparently a successful face on Twitter does not depend on what one wants to be.  Regardless, for the moment, I shall play the parrot and re-tweet (got to love it!) the wisdom of the sages I encounter on this new path.

Other than that, I am strangely bereft of any dharma insights.  As the 3rd anniversary of 108zenbooks approaches, I’m preparing a review of The Art of Haiku: Its History through Poems and Paintings by Japanese Masters by Stephen Addiss and hoping to be hit with a rather large enlightenment stick.

Have a safe holiday weekend.  Be good even if you feel you don’t need to be because you already are.