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Bodhipaksa

@bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy

154 followers 4 following 2.6K posts

Scotland's most prolific Buddhist author? Living in New Hampshire. Author of books on meditation and Buddhist practice. Dad. Vegan. FakeBuddhaQuote-ologist. 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.scot/@bodhipaksa, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

Posts Replies Media

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 9h

I had no idea @billamend was here! Foxtrot was my favorite newspaper comic strip, back in the day when it ran daily. I must have owned all the books at one point as well.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 10h

@thisismyglasgow recounted the story of Harvie's Dyke not long ago. www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/w…

smithsonianmag.com

When a 19th-Century Scottish Landowner Blocked a Public Footpath, Locals Rebelled. Now, Archaeologists Have Unearthed Parts of His Controversial Wall

The rebellion against "Harvie’s Dyke," a pair of stone walls erected in the 1820s, was a triumph for the workers and middle classes of Glasgow, who used riots, boycotts and lawsuits to win back access to the River Clyde

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 18h

#WritersCoffeeClub 19 Oct Tell us about some unwanted critique you've received. This is my second response to this question. You really should check out the "fan mail" I receive at my Fake Buddha Quotes website. This is a website for debunking quotes that are misattributed to the Buddha […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Reposted by Bodhipaksa

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 19 Tell us about some unwanted critique you've received. I sent an article I'd written to someone who came on one of my meditation retreats. He was impressed, and asked an AI to do a comparison between my essay and a late Buddhist teaching I wasn't very familiar with. The […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 19 Tell us about some unwanted critique you've received. I sent an article I'd written to someone who came on one of my meditation retreats. He was impressed, and asked an AI to do a comparison between my essay and a late Buddhist teaching I wasn't very familiar with. The […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Reposted by Bodhipaksa

kim_harding ✅ @kim-harding.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

A woman was arrested in Philly for blocking a delivery robot www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-inte… Carolyn Marvin was charged with ‘disorderly conduct’ for protesting delivery robots taking jobs.

A woman was arrested in Philly for blocking a delivery robot

Carolyn Marvin was charged with ‘disorderly conduct’ for protesting delivery robots taking jobs.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

Okay, so they did that, and I'll just have to adjust. What I will never get used to is seeing Sofie Gråbøl, who was the lead detective, Sara Lund, on Forbrydelsen (The Killing), playing a victim's mother. Every time I see her on screen I have to say to myself, "She's not the detective. She's […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 19/10/2026

I'm watching Season 2 of #TheChestnutMan on Netflix. Just got to the end of Episode 3 and... OMG Tell me they did not do that.

Reposted by Bodhipaksa

@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 18/10/2026

"..another predicate that hasn’t rec'd enough attention: Natl Security Pres Memorandum 7 that Trump signed in 2025 aiming to bring full force of fed govt down on leftists it defined as “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity..” If @willbunch.bsky.social wrote it, you should read it.©

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

#SilentSunday #SeelentSinday

A vivid orange sunset of fine-textured clouds, with shadows tinged violet. The sky is framed on the bottom and the left by the silhouettes of trees.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct. 18 Talk about a time you had a revelation. Every book I've written has involved revelations. Sometimes they're sudden, but often they emerge gradually. Sometimes the revelations have come through writing, and sometimes prior to it. One of the most transformative […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

@gottalaff.bsky.social Yup.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 18/10/2026

@gottalaff.bsky.social This is the first of Vance hearing about failures of leadership? He doesn't watch or read the news?

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

Boosting images that lack alt text is different than posting images that lack alt text. In both cases, you’re making life difficult for people with visual impairments. Why would you want to do that? I’m starting to turn off boosts for people who do this. I hope others do as well.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 17 What are the defining traits of your niche in your genre? My “genre” is nonfiction: specifically Buddhist-related. The writing has to be rooted in traditional Buddhist teachings, and yet also connect with modern psychology and neuroscience. It must be useful to the […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 17/10/2026

So Katie Zacharia lasted ~0.5 Scaramuccis as White House Press Secretary! www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/us/polit…

Katie Zacharia, Trump’s New Press Secretary, Is Fired After 5 Days

The ouster came as Ms. Zacharia was shadowed by questions about how she had presented her legal career and handled her first press briefing.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 16 "How do you feel about people reading your works without buying a personal copy?" Lending books to friends is good. Borrowing books from libraries is good. I know my books are on piracy sites, but I suspect the people who download them are more interested in amassing […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

@gottalaff.bsky.social Doesn't seem to be. (I wouldn't have known it was fake, but others on BlueSky pointed out that the store didn't actually exist.)

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

@gottalaff.bsky.social It's fake, though, which makes me not even trust the figures.

Reposted by Bodhipaksa

Alexander Karn @xankarn.mastodon.online.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Teaching James Whitman's book, Hitler's American Model, in my "War and Holocaust" class today. In 1934, at a meeting of Nazi lawyers who were convened to translate Hitler's racial ideology into law, the was a lengthy discussion of American law. The most virulent racists at this meeting were the […]

mastodon.online

Original post on mastodon.online

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

@kim_harding The word "forced" should be in quotes. No one has forced Rooney or the publisher to withdraw her books. The idea that a publisher might be sued because the author they're paying donates money to Palestine Action seems very far-fetched. Claiming you've been forced to withdraw a book […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub 15 Oct What's the last thing you read to really impress you, prose-wise? Alasdair Gray's "Poor Things." I bought it a few years ago on a trip back to Scotland, and only recently got the chance to start it. It's in a variety of styles. It's presented as a found 19th century […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Reposted by Bodhipaksa

@GottaLaff @gottalaff.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Live, on TV. Like everyone else Trump hates. He's doing all he can to normalize violence by his govt.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

@gottalaff.bsky.social I had the Covid, flu, and pneumonia shots all on the same day. I wanted to get them all over with at the same time. Of course we don't all react to these things the same way, and there have been times when one vaccination wiped me out for a day or two.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 14 Who do you wish you could share your work with, but can't? There are a few high school teachers I’d like to share my books with. One taught English and the other two biology. Alas, I have no idea if they’re even still alive.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

@mrundkvist I find it interesting how the artist represented lightning not as a forked, branching line, as would be typical now, but as slightly diverging lines, as we might expect to visualize wind. (I’ll just note that your image lacks alt text, in case any visually impaired person sees my […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

I just banked my pre-midterm $90 bribe from Donald Trump. And I just have to say "Thank you"! Thank you for making the national debt even bigger, you incompetent loser!

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

@gottalaff.bsky.social You'd think she was a high school girl making a speech about how proud she is to have been selected as prom queen. Except that the average high school girl would have more gravitas.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

@tomgauld.bsky.social The most recent book my partner borrowed from the library is "The Antique Hunters Guide to Murder."

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct. 13 What writerly weakness do you overcorrect for? When I'm not clear about what I'm trying to say I tend to do a brain dump of everything I find interesting about the topic. Sometimes I manage to clarify what my message is, but other times I simply try to entertain the […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Prime Minister Tusk of Poland: “Anyone who, for any reason — treason, stupidity, or money [cough: Donald Trump cough] — wants to weaken Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression is clearly acting against their own nation, the security of their own state, and its sovereignty,”

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

To be honest, I had thought things in the US would have been far worse right now. I'd expected that the DoJ would have launched an investigation into the Democratic party and frozen its funding. It's fortunate that Trump, while fascist, is also not very intelligent. Any fascist leader worth […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

@parami2u.bsky.social Thanks, Parami!

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

And here's the local newspaper report on their deaths.

An extract from a newspaper report.

A husband and wife, roped together, died after falling 300 feet while attempting to climb 12,900-foot Mount Toll near Brainard Lake on Saturday.

Julie Boucher, 33, probably died immediately, and Clive Baillie, 34, died about 45 minutes after rescuers arrived at the scene.

The north face of Mount Toll involves a technical climb, its ragged ridge looming above Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. The face is known to be a very severe, almost vertical ascent.

According to Rocky Mountain Rescue member Skip Greene, the call for help went out about 2:30 p.m. The person who reported the accident told Greene that he had been climbing Mount Audubon when he glanced over towards Toll and saw the couple falling off the face, with large rocks tumbling around them.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Here's a better photo of Clive, taken in 1991 when we went cross-country skiing in Utah.

A young man with a moustache, wearing reflective glasses and a plaid shirt. The background is a blue/green blur.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Both their mothers died last year, I believe. Ginny Boucher was one of the founders of the Interlibrary Loan system and is name-checked in Reginald Ray's "Buddhist Saints in India." Anne Baillie was a quiet wee housewife fae Glenrothes. Both their fathers (Bill Baillie and Stan Boucher) died a […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Julie has an intellectual freedom award named after here. www.lrs.org/resources/intellectual-…

Julie J. Boucher Memorial Award for Intellectual Freedom – Library Research Service

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Clive's obituary was in the Glasgow Herald. www.heraldscotland.com/news/1212632…

heraldscotland.com

Scots-born professor killed in US peaks

A SCOTTISH-BORN computer professor and his American wife have been killed in a 300ft fall in Colorado's Indian Peaks wilderness area, it emerged last night.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Exactly 30 years ago today (also Columbus Day) my friends Clive Baillie and Julie Boucher (his wife) died while they were attempting to climb Mount Toll in Colorado, where they lived. They were 33 and 34 respectively. Clive was an old friend of mine from school […] [Original post on mastodon.scot]

A photograph of Clive Baillie in climbing gear, ascending a cliff. I'm not sure I have any pictures of his front half!

From left to right, Julie Boucher, myself (Bodhipaksa) and some fellow I don't remember, standing in front of some mountains in Colorado, undoubtedly near Boulder, where Clive and Julie lived.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

He knows that taking out one Representative isn't going to save him from the blue tsunami that's coming next month. But the point here is probably personal. He detests black women, especially when they have power. This is as much about hitting out at her personally as it is about swaying the […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

There are reasons for the policy of not announcing investigations into political figures just before elections. It's to avoid even giving the impression that investigations are being used to sway elections. It's to protect democracy. Trump is launching an investigation against Rep. Ilhan Omar […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Blade Runner 2099: I won't be watching this, because it's on Amazon, but it looks interesting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwK5KxoJsvk

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

#writerscoffeeclub Oct 11. What's a turn of phrase you've 'inherited' from someone else? My second answer to this is "Close enough for jazz," which I picked up from my high school trumpet teacher. (We weren't playing jazz.)

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Well, well, well. Who would have believed it! After all, no other than Boris Johnson, when he was foreign secretary, said "Nyet" when asked if there was evidence of Russian interference. I know it's always safe to assume incompetence on the part of BJ, but it is quite possible he was lying, and […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

"Some of the differences observed were dramatic, however, with one chemical – benzyl benzoate, which is used in personal care products, as a food additive, and in lice and scabies treatments – appearing in the autism group at 722 percent higher concentration than in controls."

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub 11 Oct. What's a turn of phrase you've 'inherited' from someone else? I'm sure there are a lot of these that I don't even recognize, but one that stands out is "Being comfortable with discomfort," which I picked up from a friend and fellow meditation teacher around 30 years […]

Original post on mastodon.scot

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

It just kills me that The Authors Guild doesn't have a possessive apostrophe. But at least it's not The Proofreaders Guild.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

This is the best response to this prompt that I've seen.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

@StevenSaus I like this, thanks.

Bodhipaksa @bodhipaksa.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

#WritersCoffeeClub Oct 10. Do you have a guiding principle as a writer? The reader should always learn something that helps them live a richer, happier, more fulfilled life. #WritingCommunity