A teaching in the Jardin

                 Ringu Tulku was here for two days over the weekend to give teachings on The Heart Sutra, which is just about my favourite thing. These teachings were just what I needed.

                   There were too many folk about to send any emails to agents, but I will send a couple today and I'm going to compose a letter to send to the agency in New York  headed by a man who is on the board of Shambala, the Buddhist publishers. The Buddha, The Dakini, and The Dirty Old Man is definitely not suitable for Shambala, but Mr Clark will, at least, have heard of the Tibetan teachers mentioned in the text. If I was playing American football, this would be a Hail Mary, the last throw of the dice. I'll soon have spent more time sending emails than I did writing the book, and I can just forget about it now, and get on with writing the sequel.

Jardins de Meditations de Samye

 

                        This is where I'll be staying for the next couple of weeks, in the home of my mentor, Lama Rinchen Palmo. So pleased to be here!!

                         While here I am here, I have started sending out emails to agents again, which is probaby a waste of time, but you never know.

                         When I was sending out emails to agents about two young adult books about twenty years ago, I assumed I got no responses (I was working as a school librarian at the time and got kids to confirm through questionaires, etc., that the books were hitting the mark) because they were books for 10 to 14 year olds and JK Rowling had maybe made the number of books getting written for that age group soar.

                         Then I wrote TheBlissBook and got an agent almost straight away. Of course, he never sold the books, but what the hell. But I was just lucky. 

                         I now think I was incredibly lucky to get two novels published at all! I think the reason why no one ever replies to emails is because agents are getting hundreds of them every week. Easy to write a book on a word processor and easy to send hundreds of emails. I reckon people who know people don't have to send emails.

                         If I make any money from The Buddha, The Dakini, and The Dirty Old Man I'll give it to Lama Rinchen. I don't need the money. I've never been better off!

Here comes the heat!

 

                  If the heat is coming, it's not here yet! But yesterday when I sat down for the first meditation and soon took a deep breath, I knew that something had changed. This feeling has been happening all year, maybe once every month. When this happens, you tend to feel a bit surprised and maybe exhilerated, but after a wee while you become habituated to this new state, and it all gets a bit humdrum again.

                So the meditations are developing nicely, and so I can have no complaints. But when I'm not meditating things are sometimes a little dull. Like today, when the weather is wet, windy and cold, and you don't really feel like going up to the hut.

               It's a bit of a trade off. The meditations work better when you behave yourself, but behaving yourself is boring, and you can't meditate all the time, not yet anyway.

                 I do feel I am bound for glory quite a lot, but life is also a little dull. I've been single since January, so this has made me more isolated. More isolation means better meditations, but it has a cost. This year I've been getting by on about one adult conversation a week ... I've been going to see my grandson and daugher most weekends. 

                  I haven't been sending out emails to literary agents since the New Year. Amazingly, someone actually replied to one and the book was sent to New York, but there's been total silence since. Anyway, I'll start sending the odd email from now on since there's nothing else for it.

                  This year is going to be special. The connection between the breath and the inner channels is firming up. Let's hope it's not a case of watch out what you wish for!!!