A person holding an object in the air.
A drawing of a camera on a green background
A drawing of an old fashioned typewriter with paper.

As a professional writer and researcher, I seek opportunities to collaborate with others.

For example, I can serve as Project Advisor or Writer-Researcher on your educational documentary project, or I can work professionally as an advisor or teacher to those students of screenplay writing, grant writing, or other form of writing.

My current project, "Byrd, Alone," is a feature length dramatic screenplay, described below, and I am seeking all levels of collaboration in the Development of that project.

Email me a description of your needs and interests so we can discuss.

MAIL-ORDER BRIDES? Marriage by Correspondence



An Ethnographic and Feminist feature documentary about pen-pal courtships and marriages between women in the Philippines and men from the USA.

The project is intended for educational purposes.

This documentary is a work in progress. 

I am writing a feature-length dramatic motion picture about Admiral Richard E. Byrd.  This biopic integrates Byrd's achievements in aviation and exploration, together with the history of various areas of science and technology, plus it interweaves the story of the complex relationship Byrd shared with his wife and children.

In the story, Byrd spent 5-months while alone in the center of Antarctica and we learn that Richard Byrd was one of the world's foremost aviators and displayed extraordinary gifts in organizing successful expeditions to Antarctica. His major achievement was to apply the airplane, radio, camera, and other modern technical resources to these polar explorations.

 

List of Buddhist Lists

One of the first things a newcomer to Buddhism is struck by is all the lists - the 4 of this, the 5 of that, 12 of these and the 37(!) of those. This information can be a bit overwhelming especially since there are 100s of these lists. The following is my attempt to come up with a basic list of lists. If you can get your mind wrapped around just these lists, you will hopefully have the essentials necessary to understand the Buddha's teaching.

One List of One

Mindfulness

Two Lists of Two

  1. 2 Things to be Developed
    • Wisdom
    • Compassion
  2. 2 Types of Truths
    • Conventional (Relative)
    • Ultimate (Absolute)
the-four-noble-truths-flow-chart

Three Lists of Three

  1. 3 Refuges
    • Buddha
    • Dharma
    • Sangha
  2. 3 Characteristics of All Phenomena
    • anicca   not stable, inconstant, impermanent
    • dukkha  not ultimately satisfying
    • anatta   empty of any inherent existence, coreless
  3. 3 Divisions of the Teachings
    • sila   morality, virtue, ethics
    • samadhi   concentration, indistractibility
    • pañña   wisdom

Four Lists of Four

  1. 4 Noble Truths
    • Dukkha happens
    • Dukkha arises dependent upon craving
    • Stop craving and the Dukkha stops
    • Practice the 8 Fold Path to learn to stop craving & end Dukkha
  2. 4 Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthana)
    • kaya   the physical body
    • vedana   initial reactions to sensory input
    • citta   mind states; moods
    • dharmas   phenomena with respect to 5 specific teachings
  3. 4 Right Efforts (sammappadhana)
    • To make an arisen, unwholesome state of mind cease
    • To make an unarisen, unwholesome state of mind not arise
    • To make an unarisen, wholesome state of mind arise
    • To make an arisen, wholesome state of mind continue
  4. 4 Highest Emotions (brahma-vihara)
    • metta   Unconditional Love
    • karuna   Compassion
    • mudita   Joy at others (or ones own) Good Fortune
    • upekkha   Equanimity

Five Lists of Five

  1. 5 Precepts
    • To not kill living beings
    • To not take what is not given
    • To not act sexually in a way that is harmful
    • To not lie, slander, use harsh words, or gossip
    • To not partake of drugs and alcohol
      which lead to further confusion
  2. 5 Hindrances
    • Sensual Desire
    • Anger and Ill-will
    • Sloth and Torpor
    • Restlessness and Remorse
    • Skeptical Doubt
  3. 5 Khandas [Heaps, Aggregates]
    • rupa   physical form
    • vedana   initial reactions to sensory input
    • sañña   conceptualization, perception, identifying ability of the mind
    • sankhara   mental activities (thoughts, emotions & memories)
    • viññana   consciousness
  4. 5 Dharmas of which to be Mindful
  5. 5 Faculties (indriya)   [same as 5 Strengths (bala)]

One List of Six

  • 6 Senses
    • Seeing
    • Hearing
    • Smelling
    • Tasting
    • Touching
    • Thinking

One List of Seven

Two Lists of Eight

One List of Ten

  • 10 Perfections (parami)
    • Generosity
    • Morality
    • Renunciation
    • Wisdom
    • Energy
    • Patience
    • Truthfulness
    • Determination
    • Unconditional Love
    • Equanimity

One List of Twelve

  • 12 Links of Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppada)
    • Ignorance
    • Concoctions, Fabrications
    • Consciousness
    • Mind and Body
    • The 6 Senses
    • Contact
    • Vedana - initial reaction to sensory input
    • Craving
    • Clinging
    • Becoming
    • Birth
    • Death

One List of Thirty-seven

37 Factors of Awakening

A short essay about alternative and creative forms of scholarly work.

These are instructions about breathing for the purpose of relaxation. This art installation project was produced and exhibited at the College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, in 2007.

During 1997-2000 I produced a 30-minute documentary video titled, "Bendum: In the Heart of Mindanao" while on location in Mindanao (writer-researcher, camera director, and editor). I was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research Grant in 1998, a couple of Ford Foundation grants (1998-99), and other support from corporate manufacturers of pro equipment for documentary media production to develop and produce educational documentary projects about a tribal community's relationship to the natural environment at the Pulangi River, Bukidnon, Philippines. In 1997, with grant support from many sources, I moved my filmmaking gear (production and post production systems), my family, and myself to Mindanao, Philippines, without knowing what exactly what my project's journey would explore or when I would come back to the USA.  I worked in Mindanao for nearly three years on this and other video-digital media-research-writing projects.

Thereafter, during 2001-2009 I wrote various versions of a scholarly paper about my documentary, "Bendum," in response to my documentary filmmaking experience in Mindanao a few years prior. The paper on this site examines my film in relation to my scholarly doctoral research in Education, written in 2009.

In 2022 I am producing a hypertext version of this research, integrating audio and video elements with text content.

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