FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Who are you?

A: Good question! Do you know: I spent many, many years trying to find out who I was, only to discover that I'm really not anyone! It sure took a load off my mind, I can tell you that.

In any case, my name is Michael and I live with my wife in the Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts. At the time of this writing I am 37 years old. I was born in Indiana and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. I've moved around a little since then - when I was 26, I moved to Columbus, the capital city of Ohio. Then I spent five years in Boston (mostly in Jamaica Plain) beginning in 1999. In 2004, I moved to New York, living in Brooklyn and Queens, and in Summer 2008 I managed to escape it, unscathed yet improved.

Q: What do you do?

A: When I'm not earning money I like to be outside as much as possible. I like to bike and hike and travel to new places. I very much enjoy taking photographs, mostly of flowers and birds and bugs but also other things too.

Q: What is this website?

A: Mostly these days it's just a repository for photographs. It was begun back in 2005 with all sorts of grandiose plans I haven't had the time to do. There did used to be a blog here, but I no longer blog. The domain name is a play on my initials, which are M.A.L.

Q: How do I contact you?

A: I receive all email messages sent to any address at this domain. If you feel like stalking me, I suppose my snail mail address could be tracked down with relative ease.

Q: What websites do you recommend?

A: I recommend visiting Achewood and Homestar Runner, and then turning off the computer and doing something in real life.

Q: What is the Dhammapada?

A: The Dhammapada is a collection of verses in the Theravada Pali Canon (specifically, the Sutta Pitaka). You can find some good translations of it here.

The verses on the main page of my website are adapted from the following sources:

  • Dhammapada: The Sayings of Buddha, A New English Version by Bart Marshall: ©2006 Bart Marshall (PDF; downloadable here)
  • The Dhammapada: Translated for the Modern Reader by Eknath Easwaran: ©1985 The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation (Nilgiri Press)
  • Dhammapada: The Sayings of Buddha by Thomas Cleary: ©1994 Thomas Cleary (Bantam Books)
  • Dhammapadam: An Anthology of Sayings of the Buddha by A. P. Buddhadatta Mahathera: N.D. (Aggarama, Ambalangoda, Ceylon)
While these books are my guides, the words I use are my own, so any deviation from the original Pali teachings is solely the result of my own ignorance.

May any merit accumulated be dedicated to the awakening of all sentient beings.

Q: Have you always been a Buddhist?

A: No one from Indiana is born a Buddhist.

 me