Work has begun on the two bathrooms for the cave area; that is to say, the sand and gravel are being moved. Next step is to dig septic tanks and destroy the old makeshift shower, and then we can start the building.

sirimangalo.org has been getting some upgrades lately; the first is the ability to post to several places at once – I’m posting this to my weblog, the main sirimangalo.org site, and two new sub-sites.

The first new sub-site is lanka.sirimangalo.org, which is the new home page for our monastery. Visit this site if you are looking for information on coming to practice in Sri Lanka.

The second new sub-site is an experiment at social networks. That still seems odd, since we’re not supposed to be particularly social. But I think it’s good to have a Buddhist alternative to things like Facebook, so here’s a way for people to connect with other Buddhists in a mindful and meaningful way. Or so it is hoped. Anyway, it is here:

my.sirimangalo.org

so you can check it out, sign up, let me know what you think.

One last thing I’m hoping to do is set up some sort of live broadcast. Actually, I’ve already set up the broadcast system, just have to find a home for it. Maybe yet another subdomain? The idea is to give refuges and precepts over the Internet; it seems there is much interest in such things.

Finally, I’ve started vLogging again. I realized that uploading 600MB videos in the jungle is not a day-to-day task, so I’m trying to do smaller, shorter videos. My first is here, check it out: