So yesterday we had our usual weekly zazen thing at Hill Street Center in Santa Monica (details at the link on your left). I'd say between 8 and 10 people attended. I really don't know for certain. Coulda been as many as 11. I took the money out of the donation box and counted it later. There was 14 dollars.
It costs $240 per month to rent the meditation room space at Hill Street Center. I spend another $50 to $100 per month on sundries used at exclusively or at least mainly by the group — tea, food for the one-day retreats, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc. Even when everyone who attends contributes $5 a person, which is what I ask for on the website, it usually doesn't cover everything. This was not a problem when I was working full time for the film company I still rep for. But I'm no longer full time with them, so they pay me a pittance. I'm sure as hell not getting rich off book sales either. J.K. Rowling or Dean R. Koontz get rich writing books. Guys who write paperbacks about Buddhism don't. I don't have any wealthy sponsors behind the scenes either. What I get in the donation box is it, period.
So if you come to sit at Hill Street Center, please keep this in mind. I don't have any desire to make money off the zazen sittings. But I can't afford to pour my own cash into it either. When I could afford to, I did. Now things are different.
I hate to be a televangelist about all this. And I won't.
The bottom line for me with the Saturday morning things is this: I sit from 10 to noon on Saturdays at HSC and you're welcome to join me. The end. I'm not trying to start a movement or even a sangha. But I can't do this for free. It isn't free for me and it isn't free for the people who come join me.
Now, and this is totally unrelated but I was amazed someone put this on the Internet, listen to The Troggs Tapes.
Peace!
