Dear Dharma friends:

I want to take this opportunity to share my appreciation
to those of you who share sincerely-- in a real dharma
spirit, ask questions, answer what with what you know
and honestly say "I don't know" where that's the case.
This forum has been resource for Buddhists and
those exploring becoming Buddhist, nothing airy-fairy
or new-agey here. I have to acknowledge Barnaby in
setting the tone long before I arrived on the scene. I never
asked to lead this, rather when he wanted to retire from
Tibetan Buddhism Tribe, he asked me to fill his shoes.

Some of you are really awesome in terms of knowledge
and experience, some are Sanskrit or Tibetan scholars,
some are Tibetologists with advanced degrees from western
Universities. Others have many months or years of retreat.

I want you to know that near the end of this month, I am
going on a short solitary retreat-- only four months. I'm
delighted at this small opportunity. So please, in my absence,
play nice!

I've invited a couple of really knowledgeable people to join
this tribe. In fact they've been lurking for months. They have
my complete respect and trust not only as dharma "students"
of really great Lamas but also as practitioners. So when you
meet either Lama Thubten or Ngakpa Bill here please
appreciate that they are not by any means self-ordained,
self-appointed, frauds or the like. They are bona fide disciples
of masters like His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, the Khenpo
Brothers, Chogyal Namkhai Nobu Rinpoche, His Holines the
Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche, etc.

Assuming that impermanence doesn't get us, we'll be chatting
again after Jan 1 of the new year.