Just a reminder, I'll be the guest on the SUICIDE GIRLS RADIO SHOW tonight from Midnight to 2AM Pacific Time on Indie 103.1 KDLD in Los Angeles and KDLE in Orange County. For those of you outside of Southern California, there is a PODCAST AVAILABLE. I'm not a listener-to of Podcasts. I'm too old to understand the concept. But I can see on the page that you can either listen to the show live or download it. If it don't work, maybe you can try writing to Suicide Girls or Indie 103.1 directly. Won't do a lot of good to ask me because I am mucho stupid about this kind of computer techno stuff.
Thanks to everyone who showed up at the Bodhi Tree on Thursday. We had a good turn out, though I know a few of you are looking forward to future lifetimes as cabbages. Sorry about that. But I did warn you.
I'm terribly uncomfortable with the rockstar hucksterism involved in promoting a book. But I figure my book is way better than pretty much anything else out there on the market. So if you're gonna buy books, you oughta buy mine. In Los Angeles it's perfectly socially acceptable to be promoting yourself constantly, whereas where I grew up in Akron it isn't. I'm gradually getting used to this. It's just part of the job.
As far as Buddhism is concerned, it presents some dilemmas. We're always told to avoid fame and wealth. Now, wealth I have no trouble at all avoiding. You would be shocked to know how poorly most writers are paid. The few that make truckloads of money get a lot of press. But most of us are barely getting by. I'm OK because I have a real job too. But there's no way I could quit that job and live on what I make from writing.
But fame, on the other hand, is creeping up on me rapidly. As a Buddhist dude I get a lot of the downside of fame with not a whole lot of the perks. I mean I ain't getting rich. Legions of hot girls do not throw their panties at me when I speak. But I do get viciously criticized by people I don't know, I get asked personal questions by strangers who assume they know me and there are lots of demands on my time. I'm not complaining, really. I do this of my own free will and I could stop if I wanted (sounds like an alcoholic, but honest, I could).
I have some actors who attend my classes and they're usually worried about this kind of thing too. But if you're an actor a certain degree of fame is required. If you're a Buddhist teacher it's the same. Dogen left Kyoto because he was getting too famous and the other teachers in town didn't like that. He didn't move out to Fukui prefecture to avoid the spotlight, though. He moved out to avoid the bullshit he was getting from those dudes down in Kyoto. He didn't write the things he wrote just to stuff them in a closet to rot away. He wrote because he felt strongly that he had something of value to contribute to society. Buddha himself was very popular in his lifetime and he did nothing to try and shun that popularity.
The big problem with fame is in courting fame in order to be famous or in order to be rich. That road leads nowhere. On the other hand, if you're an artist who believes in your art then there is no sin in promoting it.
So listen up tonight and see if I get any undergarments thrown at me live on the radio. I wonder what would happen if I did...
