The Changing Landscape

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Having been gifted a subscription for 3 years during Michael's stewardship - I'm not sure why but I'm very grateful - it is only recently that I've had to make the decision on whether to continue to be a subscriber. I'm here for the Forum, only occasionally visit the Home Page and rarely read the articles. The subscription fee was not an issue, a buck a month is not going to break the bank.

I decided to subscribe for a number of reasons, not least of which was the feeling that if the site fails to attract enough paying punters then it is likely that LuLa and the Forum I value would in turn fail. I also felt that it would be difficult to monitor and assess the direction of the site under the new management without being able to access the content.

I'm under no illusion that my contributions to LuLa matter to anyone other than myself, I contribute merely because over the years I have enjoyed doing so and hope to continue. I wish LuLa well.

Keith has described my own feelings about LuLa very accurately.

Eric

[elliot_n]

Far be it from me to teach/question you on things Buddhist (meant with sincerity), but from a layperson's perspective this comment in Wiki has me confused re your statement of Samsara and Nirvana being "one."

As a temple to dualistic thinking, wikipedia isn't the best source for an understanding of buddhist ontology. Josh is correct — samsara and nirvana are one. As it says in The Heart Sutra, 'Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form'. Transcendence is immanence.

[Rob C]

As a temple to dualistic thinking, wikipedia isn't the best source for an understanding of buddhist ontology. Josh is correct — samsara and nirvana are one. As it says in The Heart Sutra, 'Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form'. Transcendence is immanence.

And to think that I imagined that gallerist-speak was something new!

;-)

[josh.reichmann]

As a temple to dualistic thinking, Wikipedia isn't the best source for an understanding of Buddhist ontology. Josh is correct — samsara and nirvana are one. As it says in The Heart Sutra, 'Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form'. Transcendence is immanence.

Indeed.
To explore more deeply people might look to terms such as Tathāgatagarbha, or Dharmakaya.
The idea of “Buddha nature”, or an endogenous Buddha quality resting and ready to be matured within all mind-streams (human and otherwise), the latter term is the idea of a non dual “space” of conscious arising which is both with and without form and beyond conceptual containment, only to be “known” through direct realization.

This dharmakaya is spontaneously and concurrently arrising beyond time and form and yet also manifesting within these, only to be reached through meditational equipoise and a “purified” view of phenomenon. 

This type of thinking amounts to what is called the prasangika madhyamaka, commonly known as the middle path. A view which is taught by the Dali Lama and the lineage I work with.
😊
 
(A galarist would obscure and abstract this - which would be a shame I agree!)

[Rob C]

Indeed.
To explore more deeply people might look to terms such as Tathāgatagarbha, or Dharmakaya.
The idea of “Buddha nature”, or an endogenous Buddha quality resting and ready to be marured within all mind-streams (human and otherwise), the later term being the idea of a non dual “space” of conscious arrising which is both with and without form and beyond conceptual containment, only to be “known” through direct realization.

This dharmakaya is spontaneously and concurrently arrising beyond time and form and yet also manifesting within these, only to be reached through meditational equipoise and a “purified” view of phenomenon. 

This type of thinking amounts to what is called the prasangika madhyamaka, commonly known as the middle path. A view which is taught by the Dali Lama and the lineage I work with.
😊
 
(A galarist would obscure and abstract this - which would be a shame I agree!)

But hey, there's not a lot new under the spaced out Sun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm6qw_yeo6o

[josh.reichmann]

But hey, there's not a lot new under the spaced out Sun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm6qw_yeo6o

Uh oh, are we gonna start a metaphysical code chat through music !?

[LesPalenik]

Having access to LuLa and youtube is all one needs for happiness

[elliot_n]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDgHUj8sJaQ

[josh.reichmann]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDgHUj8sJaQ

"."

[Rob C]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDgHUj8sJaQ

Mark Rothko should sue.

[32BT]

There's apparently room for a new business opportunity on the new LuLa.

Artist statement on demand...

[dng88]

Sad to see this happen.  Still have the dvd but only once a year after Micheal is gone. And mainly to see old article or forum.

[Paul Wright]

Out of interest, how are visitor numbers and participation statistics compared to say, 12 months ago?

[josh.reichmann]

Out of interest, how are visitor numbers and participation statistics compared to say, 12 months ago?

Dramatically up. From daily user, imprints, article reads and most notably (minus the latest article which is perhaps too far tilted to the philosophical side, though the authors last piece was shared over 130x etc) the shares of articles are in numbers never seen on Lula.

Though, I’d say there is less consistency. And its difficult to track responses based on themes, as there are many different kinds of Lula members and different optimal times to publish etc.

I’ve been experimenting and feeling out my own interests and responding to the community and there have been wider swings of engagement but larger numbers then 12 months ago. Seems reasonable given my style.

Overall our articles now have upward of 10/15 even 20k views which is new and about 10x the precious average. I do think there is a new wave of people entering the space. I can’t attribute that to any one factor or my doing.

We have yet to relaunch our social media and the site has also not launched its touch up / redesign because we’ve been focusing on moving servers, fixing backend issues and some long term systemic UX things which preceded Kevin’s tenure but carried forward. The site is being updated to last.

Subscriptions are up.

But, I’d say my challenge is to get published the new tutorials which we are working on and to reorganize the categories. This is in the works among other new features!

Your question is timely as we are having a full discussion on our diagnostics and other insights today (now)
Anyways, thought I’d chime in rather than watch speculation “go wild”.

Josh

[Krug]

I am delighted to see those figures for use of the site and find them heartening for the future prospects of Lula  -  frankly I did not enjoy the previous period and felt that it veered too much from the mien and value of the original site.  There are and will be aspects of the new direction that, like everyone I guess, I will not especially enjoy but that is what makes a site worth visiting and reading and thinking about.  There are sites aplenty for the more 'routine' and predictable aspects and approaches to photography when one needs those  ...  Reid Reviews and Diglloyd for in depth or controversial reviews of potential kit, Fred Miranda for regular news and everyday examples of what others are doing and many other suchlike  ...  Lula should plough a different furrow, methinks.

[alainbriot]

Congratulations Josh.  Hard work is paying off.  I enjoy the variety of essays you publish.

[Robert Roaldi]

Congratulations Josh.  Hard work is paying off.  I enjoy the variety of essays you publish.

Ditto. I never understood the fear of change that emerged during the changeover.

[LesPalenik]

Congratulations Josh.  Hard work is paying off.  I enjoy the variety of essays you publish.

I also enjoy the variety of the articles. You never know what will come next.

[petermfiore]

Ditto. I never understood the fear of change that emerged during the changeover.

Change is the most fear inducing nature of humanity. Mostly, because it kicks in before any facts have been brought to the table.

Peter

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Change is the most fear inducing nature of humanity. Mostly, because it kicks in before any facts have been brought to the table.

Peter

Well put. That certainly has been demonstrated with the changing of the guard at LuLa.
Understandably, there have been kinks, but it looks to me as if Josh and his team have been quite responsive.

Eric