Gary Donnelly

Fantastic night at Hed (PE), Spineshank(!!!!), and Drowning Pool.

Oh it was like I was 13 again, but with arthritic feet and fingers.

Students got wind of one of my dogs dying, and did a very lovely thing.

Pleasant setting for today's away day.

I think I'd be fine in one of these, too. I'm certainly not opposed to them!

And I certainly do remember!

Nice to digitally 'bump into old students online.

Fab when this happens. It's nice to know they feel supported, but I cannot claim any real part of this fantastic success.

Today at Wigan Diggers festival.

YouTube video by Gary Donnelly Philosophy Chat w/ Jay Thakkar, Dr Gary Donnelly, Prof Dave Webster, and Eric Kaplan

youtu.be/qVxrM_V1xEA?...

OK, so a little later than planned (real life gets in the way), but here's the full chat - coming in at about 55 mins - between me, Jay, Prof Dave Webster, and Eric Kaplan (Hollywood writer, Berkeley PhD).

Not a bad idea!

I have a group of mates (let's say about 12) who bombard my inboxes every day with videos, memes etc.

It's impossible to get around to them all. Then in person 'you didn't watch the videos I sent'

No, because you send 15 a day, and ten other people do the same! There'a no time! 🙈🙈

I will let you know! Looking forward to getting into it. Just distracted at the moment by this, which is a reflection of my mood rather than your book! I aim to have read both by end of Sept 💪💪

Liverpool is part of me as I have been part of it. I long to reconnect with the place properly.

We cop a lot of flak as Scousers, but it's my favourite city in the world, and I've never been as satisfied as I was teaching young working class Scousers about Indian philosophy.

My mate has done a 'youtube tour' of Liverpool today.

God I miss Liverpool. I live now in gt Manchester, work in Manchester. Most of my familial links to the city have now died.

I'd move back tomorrow, I really would. And I'd taken a pay cut to work there again. For the future, I hope.

Finally got around to picking this up! @axdouglas.bsky.social

What’s in a word? Dealing with ‘religion’

Regular readers (ha!) or TikTok viewers will have no doubt seen how much time I’ve been spending arguing that we can categorise Buddhism as a religion with largely Western enthusiasts who are very keen to wriggle out of any such notion. Well, I’ve been…

You are definitely right, there! Thank you 💪💪

Did you get the gig?!

I tend to see these things as stuff I just happened to do, or ways in which I indulged myself. Then it's onto the next thing and sorta forget about the last thing.

When I say that, people think I'm being flippant, or faux-modest. It's not that, but I understand how it can seem so!

Can relate with the work thing, even now tbh I'm not especially happy and would rather be doing something else (teaching more, really) but yeah, it's very personal isn't it?

I have a weird relationship with these things, and I shift focus quite quickly when I'm 'done'.

Anyway, I'm always very pleased for people in their successes. It's great to see people you like doing well and being happy.

It's not a complaint or anything, just an observation.

It was a goal for so long, in the main to prove to mysekf that I could. It takes up your whole life.

Until it doesn't!

I enjoyed it and I suppose I'm glad I did it, but yeah. No real feelings about it other than those.

And I'd say that is in terms of feeling 'smarter' (or 'smart' full stop, tbh), or even as a proper sense of achievement. It just fizzled out, and I had and have no strong feelings either way.

Still, I graduated in the afternoon and saw the Wildhearts that night. That was good.

Seeing some friends with whom I did my masters celebrating earning their PhDs. One wrote 'it didn't make me feel as smart as I thought it would'.

Isn't it funny? I don't know what I expected after mine, but I didn't really feel much at all.

Thank you! It was good fun! Weird the connections you make with people online.

In about 8 hours, details below

I'm doing an Instagram live session this week alongside Eric Kaplan (BBT, Futurama), Prof Dave Webster (formerly of Liverpool), and of course Jay Thakkar.

It'll be happening at 00.01 GMT Thurs 21st Aug (midnight is too ambiguous!).

So that's just gone midnight, Thursday morning/Weds night.

On Buddhist dogma and Buddhist exceptionalism

There’s been a whole hoo-ha online recently about whether or not we can say that Buddhism has any ‘dogmas’ (or dogmata, as I like to pretentiously call them). Many people claim that Buddhism has no dogmata whatsoever: it is a faith (lol) based on…

I'm doing an Instagram live session this week alongside Eric Kaplan (BBT, Futurama), Prof Dave Webster (formerly of Liverpool), and of course Jay Thakkar.

It'll be happening at 00.01 GMT Thurs 21st Aug (midnight is too ambiguous!).

So that's just gone midnight, Thursday morning/Weds night.

A note on the significance of the Gāndhārī Buddhist literature

Does anybody remember that phrase, ‘the stink of Zen’? That idea within Zen that practitioners can be a bit to self-impressed and self-assured, thinking they know it all, detaching themselves from real life and facts on the ground? I…