A couple days ago I was the guest on the morning drive-time show on YLE Radio XM3, "Extreme FM Helsinki." Kindo of a "morning zoo" type show with a couple of hip, young DJs and all the requisite sound FX and stuff. I was billed as "Zen and Sex Expert, Brad Warner." Well, I dunno about that. But they wanted to talk about my upcoming book "Sex, Sin and Zen" so that's how they promoted it. (The cover they're showing on Amazon is a dummy version, by the way. The real one is much better!)This was one of the city's Swedish language stations. The southwest of Finland has a large Swedish speaking population. The Swedes kept invading the place, it seems, and a few people got left behind.
The cute girl DJ asked me what I think about sleeping around. I wasn't sure if that was a come-on or not. I just said that in situations where a person tries to have more than one sexual partner it's necessary to be very careful and very respectful of everyone involved. Obvious stuff, I think. But sometimes the obvious stuff has to be said again and again. My view on such things in Buddhist terms is that there is nothing that is expressly forbidden. But there are some activities that tend to cause a person more mental stress and confusion than others. If you choose to engage in such activities, you're going to need to be that much more careful with yourself and all the people you're interacting with.
The Zen, Punk and Politics talk went really well. It was a packed house. I guess a lot of people actually do enjoy talking about religion and politics! I taped the talk and one of these days I'll put it up somewhere.
It's interesting to see such interest in Buddhism. But I was asked at a later talk how many people I thought actually started doing zazen after hearing me speak. I had to say, "Not many." But that's OK. If they're just coming for entertainment, I can provide that as well. And maybe years later a couple of the people who come to a talk will suddenly get the urge to start the practice without even remembering having seen me speak.
As for politics, Tom Henriksson, the guy who set up the punk and politics event kept insisting that I am a "political person" even if I don't feel like I am. Well, maybe. Depends how you define "political."
Yesterday I went to Tempere, which is about 2 hours drive north of Helsinki. I did a talk at their library and led zazen at a "laughing yoga" studio. I didn't get to actually participate in the laughing yoga. But I did tell a couple jokes. So I think it was OK.Tempere is also where I got the photo at the bottom of this page. I never got to find out if this was truthful advertising or not.
