Peter Clothier's Blog, page 184

Bad Memory

Here's a truth about myself that I have known and acknowledged for years, but which I have found hard to accept and have found necessary to keep, where possible, from others: my brain is not good at retaining stuff. Stuff like names, dates; who wrote what and when; what this book was about, or that movie; facts of all kinds. Let alone the factoids.
And the truth behind that truth is that it's not about the quality of my brain. I think I have a good one. I simply have not trained it in...

The Standard, Part II

Well, it was a lot of fun. Each new venue, I have found, brings its own challenges, and the Cactus Lounge at the "Hollywood's Hippest Hotel" (see yesterday's entry) was no exception. Through my own inattention, I had the timing off. I read the detail of the hotel's flyer only yesterday. The 7PM start was billed as a warm-up hour with wine and conversation; my part was scheduled to start only at 8PM. The lounge itself is a pleasantly luxurious space, with patio-style easy chairs arranged ...

The Standard

A very different venue tonight for my speaking engagement series, the Standard Hotel in Hollywood, described as "Hollywood's Hippest Hotel" by no less an authority than Playboy Magazine. It may feel a little odd, in this context, to be talking about the negative effects of celebrity and money on the creative spirit! Still, as I have reiterated frequently, when asked about this, I have no objection to material success, for those fortunate enough to achieve it. My worry is for those many tal...

Plop, plop! Fizz, fizz...!

Oh, what a relief it is! Alka-Seltzer has nothing on the pill that Congress (finally!) prescribed last night to reform the health care system in this country. I know, I know. Like many of my readers, I would have preferred something more... radical. But I believe that our Barack Obama has an instinctive, practical wisdom about the minimum and maximum achievable, and that he gauged this right, not for me personally, but for the country. And he got it done. Kudos to him, and to Nancy Pelo...

Attachment to Outcomes

An old friend and a fellow-sitter in our sangha brought in some cards this morning for our feedback. The cards are a part of a whole project she has long been working on, having to do with the application of Buddhist teachings and principles to our daily lives. They are designed for one to be picked blind from the pack each morning--as when the magician offers the pack for our selection--and set in a decorative stand as guidance and inspiration for the day. The one I picked, in what she in...

Reticence

It came to me yesterday, not for the first time but in one of those fine moments of clarity where things come unexpectedly into focus, that virtually every leap forward in my life has come as a result of my having had to confront some reticence, or prejudice, or fear. It happened most recently with the publication of "Persist," in that week before my first speaking engagement at Th Inside Edge. I was all set to do what I have usually done in such a circumstance: write out a script from...

Freudian Slip

I woke thinking about my father again today. I suspect he spent much of his early life in an inner conflict with his ego--between a part of him that wanted to "show off" and another part that wanted to hide. I mentioned yesterday that before he went into the Anglican priesthood, he wanted to be an actor. I forgot to mention the in-between part, where he wanted to be a monk. I believe I remember right, that he had already signed on as a novice when he met my mother. As he told it, it was ...

Show-Off

I remember being taught at a very early age how bad it was to be a "show-off." Not sure how much resonance that expression has for (my now fellow-)Americans, but in England, back in the day, it was very much frowned upon by teachers and classroom peers alike. And the memory of that old rebuke returns when I find myself standing in front of rows of people gathered to hear what I have to say about "Persist." I feel like a bit of a naughty boy, doing something I'm really not supposed to do.
An...

Monks

It has been a week now since I visited the studio of a friend, painter, and fellow-blogger, Gregg Chadwick, and I have been meaning to post a few words about his work ever since. You'll have noticed that the past few days have not allowed me the time to get my thoughts focused. This morning, perhaps, at last, saving possible interruptions...
Simply put, Gregg has recently been doing paintings of Buddhist monks in saffron robes, often striding forward into a shimmer of light. The series...

Monday morning

This is not a great moment for The Buddha Diaries. I am mightily distracted by events arising from the publication and promotion or "Persist"--all good things, really, but more demanding of attention than I would wish.
Today, please note this review by Ken McLeod who teaches Buddhism, his blog, Musings, announces modestly, "from time to time for 'oh, these many long years.'" Ken is the author of an excellent call to Wake Up to Your Life, a book which I reviewed years ago for the Los...