Sharpening the Axe: A Year of Building Beyond the Cushion

There’s a quote often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

That pretty much sums up the past year for me.

It’s hard to believe that my last entry was over a year ago. The silence here certainly hasn’t been from a lack of progress. Between building Beyond the Cushion, navigating Orange Photography’s busiest year, and spending more time in retreat than I had in the previous ten years combined, there hasn’t been much space to stop and write about it all.

Since my last update, I decided to focus on building an author platform before approaching book publishers. After more than a decade of photographing and interviewing Buddhist practitioners, I wanted to give these stories a wider audience and build relationships with the people and communities the books hope to serve.

Much of this year has gone into making that possible.

One of the biggest milestones was publicly launching the redesigned website during Saka Dawa, following six months of work with an art director. We continued refining it through the summer, bringing the photographs, interviews, videos, and themes into a more cohesive experience. There is still plenty to improve, but the project now has a home that better reflects what it has become.

I’ve also been building a small team to support creative direction, website development, video editing, SEO, and social media. For a project that has lived largely in my head—and on a collection of hard drives—for years, learning to share the work has been a significant step.

Together, we’ve developed new introductory videos, continued shaping practitioner profiles and theme pages, and created a more organized process for sharing stories through social media and newsletters. Some of that work is now visible on the website; some is the less glamorous preparation needed to share this archive consistently.

The vision for the books has also become clearer. The first explores the elements of a transformative Buddhist path through practitioners’ experiences. The second will look more broadly at the diversity of Buddhism in America, with the hope of involving other photographers and communities. The goal of 108 portraits continues to guide the work, though the platform now offers room for stories and conversations that extend well beyond the printed page.

Alongside all of this, I spent more than three months living on the road, including a two-month journey through the Southwest. Moving from place to place had a very real impact on productivity. It was also an interesting exercise in letting go of a permanent home—and noticing how much I rely on familiar surroundings to feel settled.

Over the past year, I also completed a number of retreats with my teacher. I’m deeply grateful for his guidance and for the practices he shared to help broaden and strengthen my Dharma activities, especially around Beyond the Cushion. These retreats gave me space to examine my motivation and deepen the practice that supports this work. His guidance continues to help me approach the project with greater clarity and a stronger intention to benefit others.

My ambition for Beyond the Cushion has expanded considerably. The ego-grasping part of me sometimes thinks it has become too ambitious, especially when I look at how much work remains. As the bodhisattva vow sinks in more deeply, though, that work also becomes a place to examine my motivation.

How much of this is about wanting to accomplish something? How much is about being useful to others? And how often do I remember to ask?

I can’t say that I’m acting with the vow in mind even half the time. But the Dharma and the consideration of others have become more regular parts of daily life. One sign of practice I keep returning to is how much of my mind and activity is directed toward the benefit of beings. Building this project gives me plenty of opportunities to see both my aspirations and my limitations.

Next week, that exploration takes me to Asia for about a month.

The catalyst is Project 108 in Bhutan, involving 108 stupas along the Mau Chhu River in Gelephu Mindfulness City. I’m grateful for the opportunity to attend as a practitioner and to document the experience as part of Beyond the Cushion.

From Bhutan, I’ll continue through Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand, including Siem Reap, Hanoi, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai.

I want to approach this journey with a question: What can I understand about lived Buddhism as a visitor, and what might I overlook?

Alongside visiting temples, I hope to pay attention to the people who sustain them, the everyday acts of devotion, and the relationships between practice, culture, and contemporary life. Being a Buddhist tourist carries its own assumptions. I’m interested in examining mine as I go.

These observations will likely become a dedicated section of the website, bringing a new perspective to a project that has focused primarily on Buddhist life in America.

It has been a full year of preparation, collaboration, travel, and practice. The axe is sharper, the team is growing, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of what we’ve been building.

More soon from the road.