I finally got the rss feed working right so everyone who is subscribed to the podcast through iTunes should now be getting it.  That’s a huge relief.  I have spent all week trying to get this feed working that I haven’t had a chance to prepare the talk for this week.  I should be able to get it done as long as Ike doesn’ t cause us to lose power.

After a few months on hiatus, Enlighten Up Podcast is coming back!  The first new show should come out sometime on Sunday.  Stay turned!

On this episode of the podcast, we are all over the place. Jimmy from SA wrote a couple of great questions which I attempt to tackle.

The first is dealing with differences in who we are and what we perceive the dharma says we should be. Is humor with questionable themes against the teachings? How about combat sports? Poop?

Then we talk about chanting. What it is, why we do it and how prevelant it is in a modern sangha. We also look at a few situations where spontaneous chanting is useful.

Some of the chants discussed:

• The Heart Sutra (The Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge)
• ‘Om Mani Padme Hung‘ (Compassion Mantra)
• Supplication to the Takpo Kagyus

We also discuss the practice of tonglen.

In addition, it’s that time of year again: Podcamp San Antonio Numero Dos. I play the San Antonio City Cynic’s promotional rap song for the event. It’s a hoot! For more information about Podcamp San Antonio II, just click here or here.

I discovered a new podcast that I am playing catchup on at the moment. It’s called ‘Zen Is Stupid‘ with Patrick and Gwen. (No, it’s not Buddhist bashing podcast…geez…don’t you people know be by now?) In fact, their tag line is

“Gwen and Patrick wrestle with the problems of being young, cool, and Zen. Straight talk, tough topics, real questions. Totally Zen. Totally stupid. “

Anyway, I love this quote from Gwen on Episode 34 titled “Religion”.

“Yea…I could SAY I have goals, but my destination is death…That leaves me pretty chilled out about goals most of the time.”

Definitely check this show out.

I’m running a little late with this weeks podcast because I did some recording last week for the Shambhala Meditation Center of San Antonio.  Acharya Moh Hardin and Sangyum Cynde Grieve were visiting from Halifax, NS.  Acharya Hardin gave a wonderful talk on Motivation which has been posted to the Shambhala Meditation Center of San Antonio’s web site as one of their podcasts.  Be sure to check it out!

I was at the monthly meetup of San Antonio new media types and Scot McKay told us about podlinez.com.  Basically, now my podcast has a phone number you can dial to listen to it.  How does it know?  I don’t know.  Who can I get to call it?  I don’t know, but I now have it!  So if you have the urge to listen to the EUP on your phone, you can call (214) 295-2713.

Our meeting this month was at Cafe Latino on N. St. Mary’s St. in San Antonio.  This place had a great vibe and the best Vanilla Hot Chocolate I’ve ever had!  We met out on the patio, where I took some photos.

There was a vine on a pole:

A fire pit:

which if you backed up from it, it turned in to black and white:

and, oh yea…the hookah tents:

yes…I DID say hookah tents.

Due to some personal issues, the Enlighten-Up Podcast will be on indefinite hiatus.  Thanx to all the people who listened here.  I really hope you found at least something that, if not useful, was at least entertaining.  I had a total blast doing it.

Much Love To All

Yes, I am a week late with the podcast.  If you glance back at the previous few posts, you will see why.  It’s been a rough couple of weeks.  At any rate, I actually sat down and recorded the new podcast about 30 minutes ago.  I thought it went rather well, too.  Until I glanced at the H4 and noticed the record light wasn’t on.

“Hmmm…I know I hit record…”  I glanced at the display and it informed me that the media card was full.   “Ahh yes…Podcamp Audio is still on there!”

So I am now waiting for 1G worth of audio data from podcamp to be copied over to the hard drive, then I’ll start this process again.

Bottom line:   There will be a new podcast up this afternoon or tonight!

Podcamp San Antonio was a huge success!  We are already full of ideas for next year.

I think one of the highlights was Michael Verdi, author of the book 'Secrets of Video Blogging' (which I am about to order from amazon) taking us through easy ways to vlog.  I really didn't have an interest in vlogging until I saw Michael.  Now I think I may wanna try it in some form.  Although I really have a body that was built for audio.

My other favorite presentation was a round table discussion on Guerrilla  Marketing, led by Alysan Childs, and the Morning Brewcast Gals, Jennifer Navarette and Jackie Adame.  We talked a lot about getting publicity with mainstream media and were lucky enough to have the Managing Editor of Blogger and Podcaster Magazine, Shelly Brisbin who was able to give us perspective from the main stream media side.

P. Dilly (aka Gary Leland) from Podcast Pickle gave a great talk on '10 Things Every Podcaster Should Do'.  He had actually asked the folks on the Pickle forums for their input and these are the ones that came up most.  I picked up a few tips from this that will change the way I have been doing things a little.

There was also hijinx.  My old buds from the JY show were on hand and kept me in stitches.  We couldn't convince them to give a presentation.  I think they would have been great, but there was no convincing them.  Maybe next year.

Now you can't have Gary Leland show up without the Podcast Pickle not being far behind. Here's me and Chris with the Pickle:

And the greatest picture from the show Jennifer from Morning Brewcast and David from The JY Show hamming it up with the pickle as the paparazzi filmed the whole sordid incident:

There are a number of other pictures from Podcamp San Antonio 2007  on my Podcamp Filckr Set.  If you want to hear/see all the action, in a couple of weeks all the audio and video will be made available on the web.  Stay tuned for details. 

Now I'm feeling the pressure!  As I have mentioned, Podcamp San Antonio is coming up on 19 May and I have volunteered to teach Podcasting 101.  I just found out that there was a wonderful article on Podcamp San Antonio in the Austin Chronicle Newspaper where I have now been dubbed 'The Buddhist Blogger'.  

The article was from an interview with Jennifer from the Morning Brewcast who has been working her tail off to make this thing happen.   And if you show up, you will see why.  We are going to have a blast before during and after podcamp!