Cohort

Eeek! Three days without a blog entry! And no, that is fake angst: I am not really bothered!

So what have I been doing? If I said "being", would that be too glib? If I said playing as being, would that be too predictable? If I said building stuff and generally helping on Second Life, would that sound too ephemeral? If I said studying Dharma and accumulating merit, would that sound too self-involved? Well these things are not presented for anyone to judge! But do let me tell you of one thing...

I have the good fortune to have a fabulous fiancée. We met on Second Life. We have met many times in Real Life. We both practise the same Buddhist tradition. And we are currently awaiting completion of a US visa petition. That's because we currently live more than 4,000 miles apart and want to be together! It's a lesson in patience for us and hopefully in six months time things will be sorted out.

We both attend Dharma classes in our currently separate cities, and both classes are taking summer recess. And yet we love to study. Moreover, we love to study together. And so one of the things we are doing, during the summer and for this year only while we still have to be apart, is to set ourselves a book to read. We read a chapter at a time and discuss it over Skype. Wonderful!

So she is my cohort. Or together we make a cohort, marching together towards...

...well, why do people travel together? For support. For company. For pleasure. For inspiration. To share teachings. To help each other reach the shared goal. To reach that goal faster and more surely than alone. These are some of the benefits of Sangha. No wonder Sangha is one of the Three Jewels!