The Dharma Punx thing in Santa Monica on Monday was fun. I'm guessing between 0 and 3 of the 70+ folks who saw my talk there will show up at Hill Street Center tomorrow at 10am (see details on the link over to your left). We shall see...
I keep forgetting to mention my talk/book signing at Bodhi Tree Books in Los Angeles at 7pm March 12th. The address is: 8585 Melrose Ave. West Hollywood, CA 90026. It's free and open to the public.
Also, I'll be at the Dharma Punx place in Hollywood (they got more than Starbucks I tell ya!) leading zazen and talking on Sunday March 15th at 11am. See the post below for the link and other details.
Ventura College was loads of fun last night. Thanks to all who attended! The conversation kept drifting into Big Questions of Life, The Universe and Everything. That's understandable as it was the college's philosophy club after all. The problem with Ultimate Answers is that every last one of them, no matter who it comes from, is sheer speculation. Zen training seeks to get students out of the area of speculation and back to reality. So we don't really address those questions.
I'm a bad Zen teacher, though (as I know many people will vouch for). See, sometimes if you know a teacher very well, on rare occasions that teacher, when she is alone with you and no one else is looking, will indulge in such speculations. This is a very private thing. I've even had teachers openly deny the things they speculated on with me in private when I've brought them up in public. I, on the other hand, often speculate a bit too much in public. I need to stop that. Anyway, I doubt anyone takes me very seriously so it's probably OK. Just remember if you hear me speculating about those kinds of big questions I don't know my ass from a hole in the ground.
And neither does anyone else.
