I think one of the “words of the year” for me for 2026 is generosity. I would like to be more generous with me, my personality, and with wisdom. Even the The Way of The Bodhisattva calls for generosity with wisdom. There’s a translation of the text from our local Zen Buddhist Temple (Sunim lineage) that I like, but I can’t find it anywhere.

I’ve refrained from generosity in some ways because I’ve thought that sharing wisdom would be taken poorly, or for fear of judgment. I’ve also refrained from being generous with who I am because I haven’t had the confidence to do so. I feel like that’s changing for me this year, which I’m really happy about!

I am updating this post August 2026 and I have definitely come out of my shell! I’m excited to reflect on this post next year.

So, in the spirit of generosity, I’d like to speak plainly about something which I doubt many of you reading this will find novel in any way. In the off-chance that you do find it novel, well, maybe that made this post worth it. I suppose even writing here made that post worth it, since this will be my first post here.

Anyway, I was talking to my wife, who asked one of her co-workers whether or not he believes in salvation through faith or through good works. He answered that he believes in salvation through surrender to god.

I said that this is indeed true, before one becomes united with god. That after this, maybe, one realizes that everyone is a part of God and that everyone is a god. This is known as basic fact throughout India. We are all connected.

I have a metaphor I like: suppose that when the body faces real death, the experience of identifying with a self might also be reincarnated, given that such an experience comes into existence from nothing and is remembered as beginning with real birth. If this were true, it’s possible that the experience of a self might be born into a different time, or even as a different organism. However, it’s also possible that such a birth could be temporally contiguous.

If the world continues to become bad, it stands to reason that more people who born are born into worse conditions. This is bad even for a selfish person who takes such a pluralistic view of things! Completing good works needn’t be a purely selfless pursuit.

I hope you are having a lovely day, and happy new year.