May 6, 2004

hypertexting

I struggled and struggled, but could never seem to get anywhere with the hypertexting project. Each time I’d start and then get so frustrated that I’d give up. I finally expressed my frustration to someone doing the project and they gave me the initial text all completed — the one they did. At first I felt like this was cheating and I never even opened it up. For about a year now the whole project has sat untouched on my hard drive.

Then when I saw Geshe Michael he talked about this project he’s going to do starting on September 27th which is translating, online so everyone can see, one of Tsong Khapa’s texts on emptiness. He’ll be translating it and Tibetan and English words will pop up on the screen while you watch him on real time video. As he says, “that way all the scholars can watch and tell me when I screw up.”

Anyway, some little fire was lit inside me and I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to sit down in one session and complete the Long Life Prayer (the first hypertext assignment), but that that was okay. I didn’t need to, because it wasn’t the point. The point was to do it — no matter how long it took. Like Lama Yeshe used to say, “slowly, slowly.” I’ve been plugging away at it, referencing the completed text to make sure I’m not totally off (i.e. having the scholars check me as I go), and nearly finished. Just a couple more lines to go.

Amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t let the larger task intimidated you. I’m getting more mentally prepared to have a child everyday.

posted @ 6:50 AM

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