Uh-humina-humina

Those folks old enough to remember The Honeymooners will recognize this title as Jackie Gleason's characteristic mumble whenever he doesn't know what to say.  These days in the publishing industry, there's a lot of mumble-stumbling going on.  Nobody can say what the industry will look like in a couple years or a couple years beyond that. We know where we are heading eventually, but right now it is every author for herself when it comes to deciding what our particular publishing landscapes should look like.  Folks on both sides of the indie/traditional divide are both right and wrong about what works for others, regardless of the decisions they make for themselves.  Frankly, I'm tired of hearing folks balk at each other.  It reminds me of the scene at the dance in West Side Story where one gang and then the other scream mambo at each other.  Everybody is doing the same dance, the only thing that matters is which side of the floor you're on.  How about all of us making sure that authors have more choices and are treated more fairly no matter which way they decide to publish?

But I digress.  I am supposed to be talking about the Buddha, right?  In a way, I am.  We've moved to the part of the Eightfold path that focuses on Right Action.  And, yes, despite what the Supreme Court says, speech is action.  What we say has force and consequence.  Raise your hand if this sentence sounds familiar:  In the beginning was The Word.  If you follow the logic (and accept the premise) of this statement, our very existence was brought into being by speech.

Prayer, mantra use, affirmations and the like are all very powerful spiritual means of communication with the divine and our higher selves.  Written speech in the form of a novel is also very powerful.  The stories we value as a city or nation or as humans defines who we are.  As an author, the themes, symbols, characters we choose to include in our work speak volumes about us, and if we are lucky, they reach into the core of our readership to influence their lives as well.

But what message are we bringing?  Among the reasons I got into writing romance was the idea of demonstrating the strength of love's influence on the world.  Even when I write suspense it is with an eye to showing readers the impact that love, fear, anger, vengeance, joy and sorrow have on us in this world and to ask them to make a choice as to which ones to honor in their life.  What themes or ideas do you honor with your work?

On a final note, we are led to one of the most familiar caveats:  if you can't say something nice, hush up.  Buddhist philosophy warns against deliberate falsehoods, idle chatter, and from being unnecessarily harsh or offensive.  Only say that much that needs to be said in a gentle manner and no more. In this age of snark and cynicism and idle celebrity fascination, this is not easy advice to follow.  Much of our language has become so coarse that  f-bombs and other linguistic faux pas have become common place--even from elected officials. Forget chivalry, even civility is gasping for air.

Maybe it is time to lead a way back to a kinder, gentler form of discourse and dialog.  I'm game.  Are you?

Second, do no harm

The next step on the path is Right Intention.  Maybe it is the generation in which I grew up, but nearly every time I hear the word intention I think of the old saw--the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  My second thought is:  the road to everywhere is paved with intentions:  good, bad, misguided and sometimes lack of.  The point is to govern what you intend and be more conscious about what truly motivates you.

According to Buddhist theory, right intention refers to an ethical mindset that informs action.    Right intention is divided into three strands:  intention of renunciation; intention of good will and intention of harmlessness.

Intention of renunciation refers to refusing to succumb to desire's pull.  Intention of good will refers to resisting feelings of anger, jealousy or other negative emotions.  Intention of goodwill refers to abstaining from hurtful or cruel behavior.

Sounds really good doesn't it?  These principles could be summed up as "resolve not to be a jerk."  Most people would say they operate under some similar rubric, like the Golden Rule or even the Reiki Gokkai.  But I think many folks are just winging it, not really having any philosophy of how they operate in the world.

I know I owe a few folks out there apologies for a bit of bad behavior of my own when I was first starting out in this business.  I was coming from a viewpoint of lack:  there weren't enough readers out there for everyone to be read; only folks published by traditional publishers had any value; there are so many writers out there that if you make any demands, publishers will just skip over you to the next author; if I helped other people, they would get ahead and I wouldn't; blah, blah, blah.  It was the kind of thinking drummed into me by the publishing industry and particularly fellow authors.  I can't blame anyone for that since it was the prevailing wisdom at the time.

However, I realize now that this was the pull of desire, the Buddhists were talking about. It really isn't necessary to denigrate others to find value in yourself.  Most of the people who I know (or know of) who are happy in this business share with others in bigger ways than I do.  When you live in a mindset of lack or fear you become greedy, hording whatever crumbs of success or happiness or goodness that come your way.  Hoarding, as anyone who has watched one of those shows, is a disease of anxiety and a means of controlling one's environment--regardless of what is hoarded.  If you are unwilling or incapable of sharing your time, money, expertise with other writers without either feeling guilty or put upon, ask yourself why.  What would it take for you to feel comfortable enough in your writer's skin to be able to share more freely with others.

 Let's face it, we all have negative feelings--we compare ourselves to more successful writers and wonder why our work isn't flourishing as much.  We read someone else's masterpiece and think our work sucks.  Someone who started writing after we did surpasses us in no time and all our hard work seems for nothing.  It's hard not to want to pull out the Voodoo dolls and stab away.  However, that never really gets us anywhere.  Indulging negative feelings is really a double edged sword--it puts negativity out in the world toward the person you are hating on and it also makes you feel miserable.  But it really accomplishes nothing.  Holding the intention to resist these feelings, to put them aside when they crop up goes a long way toward keeping peace in your life.  Then your satisfaction with what you do or what you have accomplished isn't governed by what other folks are doing.

As I was telling a group I was speaking to yesterday--we are all works in progress.  Our work on ourselves is never done.  Even when we die we go on to do more work on the other plane.  So if you slip up, in whatever way, resolve to do better next time.  What's important is the intent--the mindset to act out out of love, kindness, and compassion--even if we don't always succeed.  Like Scarlet O'Hara, we, too, have another day.