To Melting-Pot Dharma Subscribers:

I have not written a blog post since 2019. Since then, my Buddhist practice has deepened, and now I have begun writing and sharing again with a new blog on Substack. My practice is in the Vajrayana (Tibetan) tradition with a focus also (at age 78) on Pure Land.

I call my blog, which is less than a week old, From the Pure Land. It’s off to what appears to be a healthy start.

• The first post explains my intentions for the blog.
• The second, Life, Death, and Afterlife, makes a rational case for an afterlife using no religious terminology.
• The third explains more about my plans and principles for From the Pure Land.
• The next one will return to religious language and explore what form an afterlife might take.
• Other future posts will explain why I’m certain that I’m already living in the Pure Lane, what it means to swoop from above while climbing from below, whether awakening is available to non-Buddhists, making friends with your mind, and the difference between equanimity and complacence. At least those are my current ideas.

Substack operates on a subscription basis, but subscriptions to my blog are free, with an option to pay as dana — only if you feel you are getting value and can afford to pay. Free subscribers get the same content as paid subscribers.

I hope you check out From the Pure Land and find value there.

— Mel Harkrader Pine (Urgyen Jigme)