Uncertain Updates: April 2025

I know I just sent you all a new post a couple days ago (if you missed it, it's about programmer compensation and AI, and you can read it here), but I didn’t get around to posting a book update last month and April is almost over, so you’re getting double posts.

The book is making good progress. I’m still working on the rewrite of Chapter 2, but it’s now in a much better state than it was. As in, it now reads like something I’d be proud to publish rather than the quickly drafted first-written chapter of the book that it was.

Unfortunately, progress has been slow because writing about language is extremely tricky. A constant problem I have in general with the book, and especially with this chapter, is saying enough, but not too much, because I both don’t want to pull threads that aren’t related to the book’s central thesis and I don’t want to pull forward arguments for the book’s central thesis too soon.

I’ve been putting in regular hours to make progress, and I feel like I’m getting closer. My hope is that I won’t want to rewrite later chapters as much, and I’ll be able to get through them quicker.

Of course, there have also been delays. As you may remember from the last update in February, my mom passed away, and dealing with the grief made it hard to write. I’m no longer constantly sad or despairing, and I attribute that to giving time for the grief to work through me. I’ll also have a post about her up in time for Mother’s Day.

It also helped to have a grieving process, provided to me by Zen. I kept a photo of my mom and me sat on my altar for the 49 days after she died. In her honor and for her benefit, I chanted the Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo every day. Since I assume you are not familiar, this an important chant in Zen, and is always chanted as part of funerary practices.

I’ll leave you with it, and the translation of it we use at Bay Zen Center.

KAN ZE ON
NA MU BUTSU
YO BUTSU U IN
YO BUTSU U EN
BUP PO SO EN
JO RAKU GA JO
CHO NEN KAN ZE ON
BO NEN KAN ZE ON
NEN NEN JU SHIN KI
NEN NEN FU RI SHIN

Kanzeon! 
Praise awakening
We are born with awakening
We grow with awakening
We grow with awakening the Way, and our companions
Eternity is full of joy; the self is pure
Morning’s thought is Kanzeon
Evening’s thought is Kanzeon
Thought after thought arises in the mind
Thought after thought is the mind