The Buddha Wallah wishes to get the word out – but not The Word
With encouragement from the Sangha, I have been making my Dharma teachings available through the variety of contemporary communication channels.
Trusting it is OK with visitors to the outlets, I have listed in this blog ways to listen, view or read my small contribution to the Dharma. Other Dharma teachers, who rely upon one or two outlets, might consider expanding their avenues to share their teachings.
I wish to express much appreciation to you all for being a visitor to one or more of the outlets. Of course, we cannot measure the value if a visit contributes to an insight for a visitor. Insights come first. Numbers of visitors are mildly interesting.
I explore Dharma themes and, like others, use the spoken and the written to express the teachings. Until this week, I had no idea how many visitors have looked at my weekly blog or the websites.
Only the foolish, incidentally, think they know The Word and The Word is with them and what they believe.
Benoit, my webmaster, had kindly provided me years ago with the passwords, links and information to check out the stats but I never got round to check the number of visitors. I spoke with Nicole in Germany last week, who showed me how to locate and view the stats.
Here are the approximate figures for visitors.
30,000 visitors per month for the websites.
15,000 visitors per month for the Dharma blog.
20,000 visitors total for the Dharma Channel on YouTube.
Christopher’s Dharma Blog
http://christophertitmussblog.org
It is seven years this week that I started the blog. I made an agreement with myself to write a blog a week. So far, I have kept to this agreement writing 360 blogs in seven years.
By the way, how does one make an agreement with oneself? Do I have two selves with one self making an agreement with another inner self? Is one in a relationship with the other?
I made an agreement with myself to write three twitters a week when I started a twitter account 18 months ago. I never kept the agreement. Does this mean I have a dysfunctional relationship with myself?
Which self is dysfunctional? Is it the self that initiates the agreement or the self that fails to keep to it? Or both? Or neither?
If I don’t make an agreement with myself to continue a project, then why start anything? This inquiry is worth another blog.
The link on WordPress for visitors to leave a response on the blog seems to have broken some years ago. So do send me an email or put a few lines on my Facebook page if you wish to comment on a blog.
I said to Nicole that I would be happy if 100 or 200 visitors looked at the blog every month. I never got round to checking in seven years. She checked out the figures.
Of course, some will look at the blog more than once; some will barely give it a glance. Thank you for taking the time to check the blog.
Websites
Most visitors go to 1 and 2 of my six websites listed below.
The Dharma Yatra for late July 2014 with places for 120 adults and 25 youngsters, under the age of 16 years, is completely full.
1. www.insightmeditation.org International teaching schedule of Christopher Titmuss, to subscribe to freely distributed quarterly Dharma e-News, Dharma teachings, guided meditations, Dharma reflections, articles, social-political-analysis, 150 linked sites.
2. www.christophertitmuss.org Audio library of world-wide talks and one to one inquiry. Listen to audio guided meditations, poems, extracts from books and photos of Sangha around the world on flikr. Listen to teachings and opportunity to download or order on CD. Paypal available.
3. www.DharmaEnquiry,org Meet for four days twice a year to explore the depths of the Dharma, share experiences, insights, explore Buddha’s teachings and develop facilitation skills – held in Australia, Germany and Israel. Limited to 35 people in a session.
4. www.MindfulnessTrainingCourse.org Starting late January 2011, online Mindfulness Training Course with personal e-mail contact weekly with a Dharma mentor for a three month period. To develop your meditation, practice and wisdom in daily life. Around 25 mentors from 12 countries. See photos, bio, article of mentors and how to join. Donation based with registration charge..
5. www.bodhgayaretreats.org Join one or both of our two seven day silent retreats in the Thai Monastery, Sarnath, the place where the Buddha gave his first teachings, from February 18 – 25, 2015 and from Feb 25 to March 4. 2015. All run on donations. This is the 41st year of holding the annual retreats in India.Sarnath is 30 minutes in the taxi/auto rickshaw from Varanasi.
6. www.dharmayatra.org Join the 14th Dharma Yatra (pilgrimage) in southern France between late July and early August. Places for 120 adults and 20 children. Run on donations with modest registration cost.
Online Dharma Talks
For free dowloand of more than 100 Dharma talks visit www.archive.org . Length of the Dharma talks run from 40 mins to one hour exploring ultimate/relative truth including a range of daily life issues. There is a brief outline of the theme for each of the Dharma talks.
When I have prepared the summary of 20 or 30 talks, I pass them over to Frank in Germany who checks and kindly uploads to www.archive.org or iTunes.
Last year, Gaia House in south Devon, UK, engaged in a periodic spring clean. GH decided to keep the recorded talks actually given in GH by the various teachers over the years for the use of the yogis on personal retreat. GH offered to return to teachers their talks they had given somewhere else than GH. Faith from GH kindly telephoned me. She brought around boxes of taped cassettes, which I now store in the loft.
She handed over to me a total of 2,550 Dharma talks, some guided meditations and recorded Dharma Inquiry sessions on taped cassettes in large cardboard boxes.
The recordings were made on the old mini cassette format. I checked the quality of a few. The quality is excellent. The sound is as clear as my current quality microphone and digital recorder – a gift from the Dharm Enquiry group in Germany for my 60th birthday.
Judy of the Dharma Seed Tape Library at IMS in Barre, MA, USA kindly gave me a hard drive of more than 600 of my Dharma talks given over 25 years at IMS or SpirIt Rock. Ther are also a few hundred more Dharma talks/inquiry given in Australia, India, Israel and Europe.
I also have a few hundred Dharma talks/inquiry over the past 10 years from different parts of the world kept on the laptop and hard drive at home.
Number of recorded Dharma talks/inquiry probably amount to around 4000 talks going back to 1978.
One Dharma friend said in the Dharma hall early in May on the retreat in Germany. “Christopher, I remember listening to you give a Dharma talk in 1982 called “The First Year of Fatherhood.” Nshorna is 33 in early July.
Another person said:”:I have listened to many of your talks over the year on retreats, in the car, in the kitchen.”
I replied: “Have compassion for me. I have listened to every single one of them while giving the talk.”
Dharma Talks on iTunes
For free download of more than 100 Dharma talks on audio podcasts in iTunes.
Go to “ Dharma Talks of Christopher Titmuss” or click link below.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/dharma-talks-by-christopher/id730083641?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Next Major Upload
The next major upload to www.archive.org and iTunes will be Dharma Inquiry. Every other day on a retreat, I use an hour to invite a meditator to volunteer to sit with me at the front of the hall. We have a dialogue. Length of time usually ranges from a few minutes to 30 minutes. All participants have given permission to upload the inquiry with them. I am currently in the process of writing a couple of sentences on the theme and then will forward onto Frank to upload.
Christopher’s DharmaVideo Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp6LVwRLAs5P8zsxIqZ3o2g
These are short Dharma videos on various themes. These include a transformed life, pollutions of the global mind, on being Vegetarian, Do I cause my own suffering, Non-self and a 65 year Pilgrimage.
Facebook
Facebook Public Figure page. https://www.facebook.com/christopher.titmuss
I also have a Facebook page with many Facebook Friends.
Photos of International Sangha
See flikr for around 3000 plus photos in various sets of Sangha worldwide
Christopher’s Schedule for 2014 – March 2015.
http://www.insightmeditation.org/index.php/schedule/eng
Calendar
www.sanghacalendar.org – Retreats and events for Christopher Titmuss, Open Dharma, SanghaSeva, and guests.
Finally
I continue to enjoy working closely with groups of people, usually ranging from 20 to 120, to enable participants to explore the depth of the Dharma.
The exploration of liberation, love and conditionality of what arises and passes, matter to thoughtful human beings. That has always been the case, continues to be the case and will continue to be so.
OK. That’s it. I trust this seven year update on getting the Dharma word out , but not The Word, is helpful.
with very best wishes,
In the Dharma
Three Bows
Christopher
christopher@insightmeditation.org
sab kuch milega
everything is possible.