Buddha in the Garden, by Upasika Yoly

Buddha in the Garden is a charming and delightful book about how someone seeking to live by the tenets of the Buddha can manage a garden.

The author moved from creating an organic garden in the lush Willamette Valley, with abundant rainfall and fertile earth, to a place in Arizona where limited rainfall and scarcity of nutrients made a garden a target for insects and animals.

To protect a garden in such an arid climate, how is the concept of no killing resolved? Or can it be?

By looking at each pest and guest with a calm mind, the author developed a deeper appreciation of how to avoid just being reactive. Right View leads her to Right Action.

To replace a ‘Fix it Now!’ mentality with a calm ‘how does this action reflect the wheel of life?’ guides her to a deeper understanding that the order of life and death also leads to renewal and rebirth.

Her individual chapters on dealing with specific guests and pests ranges from the deeply insightful to the playfully charming.

In one chapter, after cleaning and sterilizing a kitchen counter, she notices a lone ant. Instead of reacting by using a newspaper to transplant the ant outside (and likely causing its death by separation from its colony), contemplation gives her the insight that the ant is a scout, and if left alone to return to its colony, it will relay the message, no food on this counter.

The author goes from reacting to skunks with great fear and foot stomping to speaking to them with a calm voice that they respect. And she learns that they are great protection for the garden at night.

From calm reflection she discovers that some bees love to frolic in a cool spray.

Her garden helps her to develop a compassion and a mindfulness of life.

Buddha in the Garden in an ideal companion for those who would like to deepen their appreciation of life in all its forms. It is a treasure trove for anyone seeking to garden in a mindful, peaceful way.

Available as a soft paperback on Amazon.

A glossary includes reading and viewing recommendations on YouTube.

Notes on Al Handa’s On The Road With Al & Ivy: Book One: Becoming A Face

I found reading Al Handa’s story about his experience of being homeless to be thoughtful and observant about the different kinds of people who experience that life.

In the title of his work, ‘Becoming A Face’ has a specific meaning. Al lived in his car with his companion, Ivy, a small dog. Becoming a face meant law enforcement recognizing that Al was homeless and living in his car. So anytime there was a problem or a complaint about the homeless, that could make Al a target.

In Al’s situation, he put in the effort so his car did not obviously appear to be lived in. He kept things in a trunk, and brought out items as needed.

Having Ivy as a companion also served a purpose. Ivy’s senses meant he could alert Al to a problem before Al was aware. I’ve often wondered why so many homeless have a dog as a companion. Al answers that question.

In the community Al lived in, he realized different people were taking care of each other’s dogs when someone had an appointment to keep.

Al also made the effort to stay groomed by paying to shower at a truck stop. This allowed Al to spend time in a coffee shop to charge his cell phone. The young people working at the coffee shop became aware of Al’s situation, and they would occasionally slip him a treat.

One issue Al mentions is that when he lost his tech job and his living situation, he at first spent money to stay in a motel. That just meant when he could no longer afford that, he had less money to serve as a cushion in his new life.

Returning to the issue of grooming, when I had a gym membership in a national chain, I could spot the people who were living rough who maintained a gym membership so they had a place to shower and groom.

Al’s story is also very specific about the types of homeless he came across. Some folks had the money to buy a small travel trailer. Others would find an isolated place by a river to camp. Single women would find another female companion for safety, and needed to find a safe place to camp or sleep. Some women would accept being in a relationship with a man for the safety it might provide.

In Al’s story, young people would come to a homeless camp by the river on the weekend to buy drugs and party. That drew the attention of a predator who would rob those young people and steal their jackets and shoes to sell.

In my life, I would take a friend out to dinner sometimes at a restaurant near a parking lot with food carts. That attracted the homeless at night, which was fine with me. But it also attracted the people who preyed on the homeless, which scared my companion.

Because Al became a face to others in the homeless community, he would meet and get advice about where to park or where to avoid. He also met a few who had lost a living situation but managed to find a way out of that life.

One sad aspect of Al’s story is the young women who would trade sex for drugs but would find themselves trapped into being a sex worker.

Al’s story is gritty and insightful, but also shows the human kindness that can be found.

There are many gems in Al’s story.

With the situation in the United States, I suspect more people might find themselves becoming homeless. Al’s story is a valuable guide to how to survive that life.

His book is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGWKK19K

Experiences With the Energy Body Update January 2026

1/7/2026

This is my latest energy body update. I now have a website at https://www.experienceswiththeenergybody.com. I post these updates there. My journal, Experiences With the Energy Body, is available at Amazon and Draft2Digital for .99.

I’ve mentioned my 11 week cycle. At the end of the last cycle, that intense band of energy around the crown of my head and the concentration of energy at the top of my head (the Thousand Petal Lotus in yoga) began to glow with energy.

I assumed when I started my next cycle, I’d start from that point. Instead, the focus became my chest/heart, neck/throat, and forehead between the eyes.

When I was young and did bellows breathing 3-4 hours a day, I never picked the body part/area that would be the focus of the next 11 week cycle.

Most recently I’ve been focused on my shoulders, the weakest part of my body. I avoided exercising my shoulders because of how weak they are. I realized from talking to a friend, I needed to double and triple the exercises to strengthen my shoulders.

That led to energy passing through my shoulders causing the muscles at the top of my shoulder where it connects to the body to spasm and relax. Then today, I had an experience of the full shoulder area glowing, which meant energy was fully transiting my shoulders. I was very pleased.

My goal now is to open that band around the crown and open the energy flow at the top of my head. When I accomplished that when I was middle aged, I felt like I connected to the wider universe. Information poured into my mind that became A Story is a Promise, my writing workbook.

As I’ve mentioned, paintings of Christian saints with the halo are symbolic of that band opened.

I believe a narrow focus on the body and mind keeps people from experiencing a connection to the wider universe. The universe is alive, but that’s not always easy to experience with a focus on the world.

For those who have made it this far, again, I now have a web site for my energy body journal and these updates at https://www.experienceswiththeenergybody.com

Blessings.

Movie Notes on Song Sung Blue and The Housemaid

Song Sung Blue

This is the story of two tribute singers (Don Ho, Patsy Cline) who come together to form a Neil Diamond tribute duo, billed as Lightning and Thunder. The film does a wonderful job of conveying the world of tribute bands and the friendships formed among the muscians.

As Lighting and Thunder become popular and even perform as the warm up act for Pearl Jam, a tragic accident maims Thunder.

Her life disappears in a haze of pain medication and grief.

The movies explores how blended families come together and how medical bills can drive a barely getting by family into poverty.

As Lightning heals, the duo again perform and the movie ends soon after that high point. I found the movie very affecting. Haven't cried this much at a movie in many years. Yes, it's formula, but well performed and heartfelt, and the music is fun to listen to.

Recommended.

The Housemaid

This is a dark and twisted tale of a young woman on parole who surprisingly to her gets a job as a live in housemaid for a wealthy husband, wife, and daughter.

The wife is unhinged and taking drugs to control psychotic episodes. In the past, she was suspected of murdering her parents.

But all is not what it seems in this clever film. And what is real steadily mutates.

This is a good film for folks who like dark stories. I enjoyed the twists and turns.

Rental Family

This is a sweet and heartfelt film starring Brendan Fraiser as a down on his luck American actor living in Tokyo and getting by doing cheap commercials. He's offered the job of pretending to be a young bride's groom at her wedding. He doesn't want to do the job, but finally does. Then he learns the purpose of the fake wedding was so the bride could have the life she wants.

He's then hired to be the pretend father of a girl whose mother wants to get her accepted to a prestigious school, and as a journalist pretending to interview a once famous, now elderly Japanese actor.

Only Brendan begins to really feel like he's the girl's father and that he should help the elderly actor make a journey to a special place. Complications multiply, but the film ends with Brendan having a deeper realization of who he is at a Shinto shrine he casually visited with the elderly actor.

Recommended.

For more capsule movie notes, visit https://www.storyispromise.com/quikcuts.html

Notes on Emma Pattee's Novel Tilt

In Emma Pattee's Tilt, a young, heavily pregnant mother is in an IKEA in Portland, Oregon searching for a baby bassinet when a major earthquake levels parts of Portland and all but one bridge over the Willamette river. At first trapped, she's rescued but loses her purse and phone in the rubble.

Her rescue can also be viewed as a metaphor, a birth into a new life.

Her first goal is to track down her husband at his job working at a cafe. When she reaches the cafe, she finds out he lied about working and instead is auditioning for a play, something he said he wouldn't do with the baby's birth immanent. To find him, now she must find a way to cross the Willamette river on the only standing bridge.

The novel is organized around going from the present to the past, meeting her actor husband when she's had a first play produced and has a fantasy about becoming a famous playwright. When she meets her later husband, he has a fantasy about becoming a famous actor.

Each jump to the past brings us nearer to the present. We learn how she gives up her fantasy, but her husband has clung tightly to the idea that somehow he can become a famous actor.

The chapters in the past collectively operate as a series of jolts that affect her marriage; mini earthquakes, so to speak.

When she finally reaches the last bridge standing across the Willamette river, it's blocked. The metaphor is that it's one of the last bridges that connected her to her marriage to her husband.

The novel makes the young woman's grueling journey heart-felt, compelling, and painful. By the end of the novel, she's ready to begin a new life.

I very much enjoyed the soon to be mother's journey through the broken city, passing by many, many landmarks I'm familiar with.

Recommended.

Find Emma's novel on Amazon at Tilt

For more of my novel reviews, visit https://www.storyispromise.com

Introduction to Experiences With the Energy Body

This journal is an account of my experiences of my energy body, also known as prana or life force.

To learn more about my journey, visit https://www.experienceswiththeenergybody.com

I began this exploration at a time I had started to practice hatha yoga postures. It opened a door I passed through to learn about my energy body over a period of a year, with 3-4 hours a day of meditative work done via bellows breathing.

I considered this the first quest of my life. I speak about that part of my life in this video posted on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-nocnYdFt0

Later I did some visualization and energy body work that opened a tight band of energy around the crown. I considered that the second quest of my life, and my experiences were detailed in the first edition of this work.

This 3rd edition of my journal conveys the beginning of a third quest, to understand the flow of energy around my face and head, including some drawings with renditions of energy flow.

I'm now including drawings of principle lines of energy throughout my body in this edition created July 2025.

My explanations of my understanding of my energy body will be interspersed with details of my life.

The journal is my attempt to share what I have learned.

Facebook Posts

As I began this quest in May of 2025 to map the energy flow around my face and head, I decided in August to begin offering posts on Facebook that tracked my progress. I will continue to add those posts here.

July 27th, 2025

For the last week I've been feeling two currents of energy running on both sides of my chest and over my heart. I enjoy it when I can feel the energy flow in part of my body. It's part of the process of fully opening the flow of energy.

I've been walking on a treadmill in a gym. While walking I visualize two bands of current running up the back and top of my head.

I expect this to be a slow process to open the energy flow in those channels.

Here's an image of my initial map of the energy flow around the top of my head. The map becomes more detailed as I continue this work.

August 4, 2025

In my energy body work, I'd spent time visualizing currents running through channels that came down my face. My goal was to open those constricted channels. I was surprised when those channels ran down my body and met at the base of the lumbar spine. There are also channels of current that run down each arm and leg. I knew about that from my energy body work in my twenties, when I did bellows breathing 3-4 hours a day for a year.

Interesting path to be on.

One way to understand energy flow in the body, think of a new house. Turn on water faucet, full flow. House 30 years old, turn on faucet, 50% flow. 60 year old house, 25%.

Various things constrict the energy flow in the body over time. Diet, lack of exercise, aging, dumping life force into negative thought patterns, just giving up.

Here's a map of my full body, front view.

Experiences With the Energy Body Available in Print and in Color

Bill Johnson offers a detailed account of how he developed and expanded an awareness of his energy body. In his twenties, Bill did bellows breathing for a year. That experience helped him to open restrictions in his body's energy flow. In this 2nd edition available in print and color from Amazon, Bill maps the energy flow around his face, head, and body and records his experiences and suggests techniques others can use to experience their energy bodies.

His book offers an insider's peek to those who struggle with managing and learning from the integration of body, mind, and energy body and what it means for the creative process.

Additionally, he provides some biographical details and endeavors that add color and insight into his treatment of this little-explored realm.

Available at https://www.amazon.com/Experiences-Energy-Body-Understanding-Together/dp/B0F5P47FK5/