Radio Interview

books (Photo credit: brody4)

Radio Interview: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/webbweaverbooks/2013/01/19/webbweaver-books-proudly-presents-author-chris-mckenna

Web Weaver Radio Interview

Taking part in a radio interview tonight with Web Weaver Books. 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/webbweaverbooks/2013/01/19/webbweaver-books-proudly-presents-author-chris-mckenna

Will post when it’s ready – assuming I don’t mess it up and say something stupid.

Buddhism and “laying the smack down”

Buddhism, ‘a science of mind’ (Photo credit: zensquared)

Work has been annoying of late. We have deadlines for handing things in a whole bunch of events that are crisscrossing each other on the run up to the holidays, not to mention idiotic systems of information organisation that has left people copying stuff from paper into the computer, printing it out, and then putting it back into the computer (on a different program) and printing it out again. Needless to say I’ve found myself getting a bit miffed.

I think part of the problem is that I did a reasonable amount of Analysis at university and then went into a job where I had to analysis systems for problems. So when I’m working on a job now I can’t really turn it off. This combined with my borderline OCD when it comes to time and communication, have not been the best of mixes.

It has left me wondering about the relationship between Buddhism and getting stuff done. Is it wrong for me to try and fix the problems that I come up against? Should I just accept that things are the way they are and move on? It seems to be summed up by pseudo-Buddhist a saying that it common in our work place:
“You can do it willingly or you can do it unwillingly”

Ie you’re going to have to do it so just get on with it. I’ve seen a lot of this kind of thing recently and I have wondered if it is in fact a perversion of the true meaning of being Buddhist (if there is such a thing.)Needless to say, I hate the saying, as first of all it suggests that things cannot be changed and secondly because it’s a false choice. For me the saying would be better as:

“You can do it willingly or you can do it unwillingly, or you can just not do it at all.”

This would seem the most “Buddhist” version, although it would probably end up in you getting sacked.
The picture of Buddhism seems to have been painted in many ways as passive religion where the world happens and we should not fight to make it better. This seems wrong to me. If you look at what the Buddha did in his life, then one of the first things he did after enlightenment was make a choice to bring about change. He saw it would be hard and troublesome and made the choice to teach others. He chose to engage the world and to try and help with people’s problems.

There is an example of a sick member of the community (dysentery I think) where the poor monk has been abandoned by all the other monks on the excuse of “worldly problems”, and the Buddha corrects then and tells them it’s their responsibility to care for each other. There are numerous other examples. This is just the first one that came to mind where the Buddha tells people to engage and try to make people’s lives better.
Likewise there is case of the Dali Lama. While I could not answer to whether or not he is enlightened, he is clearly further along the path than I am. But when it comes to the issue of China and Tibet, he doesn’t simply say, “well the Chinese are our masters now. Let’s just do what they say.”

There is also Thich Nhat Hanh a monk whose writing I very much admire. He does not limit his teaching to spirituality, but also talks about poverty. I remember in a book I read on Anger that he wrote where he was trying to help people who were having trouble in their marriages due to a lack of communication.

Now I have to admit that the problems I’m talking about here are minor compared the above examples. But I think it does show that it is not the place of a Buddhist to be passive. We should fight for change and improvement with both the little things and the big things in life. Anything that makes people life a little easier is a good thing.

Saying that, I should also point out the place where I have been going wrong this week. Fighting for change is one thing. Getting annoyed and frustrated about it is a different thing. I do need to learn to fight without getting so caught up in it. If I fight for change and get some result it should be the same for me as if I fight and get a result.

Part of the problem for me is that anger has been effective in the past. If I’m nice and say to people “it would be nice if…,” or “is there any chance you could not…” or “This is not effective, maybe we could do it a better way.”  I am ignored and nothing is done. Yet, the times that I’ve lost it, change has often happened. I’m not sure what to do about that. Some would say pretend to be angry, but that tends to lead to me just being angry. It’s something I do need to work on, but I’ll keep fighting for change.

A book lovers library - interview

Recently did an interview with Rebecca Sweeney Graf @ a book lovers library. You can find it here:

http://www.abookloverslibrary.com/interviews.html

Lesson four: Ideas

Finally did the fourth part. More to come. 

Where do good stories come from?

Enchantments (4) (Photo credit: laffertyryan)

This may be a very short post as in short I have no idea. I think when I read Steven King’s book he said something to the same effect. Ideas are just there. I don’t think it is possible to consciously make them.

Don’t get me wrong, after I have a story idea, I’m often able to follow back my train experience to see how some thing that were in my mind at the time were able to come together (and sometimes I can’t), but I have never be able to reproduce the effect. I can’t say that if I do an activity of type A and combine it with a thought of type B, I will result in C: a story. It just doesn’t work that way.

That said there are some things that I have found conducive to coming up with stories that may or may not work for other people.

1. Be open to stories.

Some one told me once that psychologists studying dreams can have trouble with patients who say that they are unable to dream. The advice that they give, I am told, is to just give it a try. The psychologist will tell them to put a pad and paper next their bed. Low and behold, the next week the patient will come with their own book of dreams.

I think writing is much the same. The more I write and the more that I am thinking about writing the more ideas come to me. I don’t think these ideas are unique to me, or to writers in general. The difference is that writer, or any artist, will be receptive to the idea. While someone else will barely pay attention to it and get back on with what ever that thought happened to interrupt.

That’s why I say be open, and be ready. Listen to yourself carefully, so that when the time comes you’re ready to catch that idea.

2. Experience new things.

I think I get some of my best ideas from new experiences. Personally I like to travel, but even if that’s not possible, I do like to try things locally. If you’ve ever seen the message “yes man” then that should be your template. Go out try things that you’ve never done before and see what happens. It might inspire you to write something, if not at least you are living.

I think writing has a lot to do with perspective. If you get out there and do things, not just things the things you like. You come to understand people a bit better. This really helps with writing and really helps to inspire some interesting ideas.

3. Read, watch and listen

If you want to write in a certain genre then it really helps if you know about the genre. Often the best ideas are combinations of things that came before with a new twist. So to be able to do that you have to know what’s out there already. You don’t want to be plagiarising someone else’s work, but moving it on or giving it an extra dimension or perspective is fine.

A good example would be the Asimov stories. He is described as the found of modern android novels. Now if you look at the work that he did and say Data from Star Trek, you can see quite a few similarities, but the writers have moved things on and brought new aspects and new perspective to the original idea.

So reading all this I think it can be summed up in a single sentence:

Look for inspiration, don’t wait for it to come to you.

The Simplicity of Running.

56/365 morning run (Photo credit: kharied)

I went a nice run today and really enjoyed it. Over the past seven years I’ve I’ve been running on and off and I wish that I had got into earlier.

Today, as I ran, I was thinking though about why I like running. Yes there are all the health benefits and you get nice dose of natural chemicals as a reward. But I think for me the thing I like most is its simplicity.

Running is about me. Unlike other things like teaching and writing, the my success and failure is totally up to me. I am in complete control. There are not bosses, no students, no publishers, no readers. Just me and I succeed it’s down to me, if I fail it’s down to me.

In world where everything is so interconnected and success is dependant on the hand you are dealt, it’s nice just to have something simple.