Changes are coming

The Creative Buddhist Sunday Supplement

Red Ladder Studio’s room with a view

Hello you,
It’s Sunday morning and I’m home alone. This weekend I’ve been setting up my studio space. Some would call it an ‘office’ but as I’m trying to spend less time on admin and more on making stuff, I’m calling it my studio. I arrived in Stockholm just 3 weeks ago and am slowly unpacking my things and getting settled.

Usually the Sunday Supplement is ready by Friday and scheduled to go out at 7am on Sunday, but here I am, with my coffee, writing to you in real time. I started writing this newsletter 7 years ago and though it’s taken different shapes, it’s been pretty consistent.

I’ve yet to figure out my ‘human design type’, or do the enneagram personality test, but after 36 years of Dharma practice, I hope I know myself reasonably well. When I started practicing, aged 20, I practiced in order to change myself, to perfect myself even. These days, practice is all about making peace with the way I am and working as creatively as possible with what I am. One thing I’ve made peace with (and stopped apologising for) is my need for change.

I have a couple of new Red Ladder Studio projects simmering away, I’ll tell you about them when they are a little more cooked. They’ll change the shape of my work, so then the question is, how does my newsletter fit into this new shape? Should I even keep going with it?

The answer is always the same for me; I have to reinvent what I’m doing. Throw everything up in the air and start over again. If I do that I’ll have a new newsletter project, even if the new one is pretty similar to the old one! Hilarious, really, but I have to convince myself that this is something new to get my creative juices flowing.

It’s the same in meditation. I’ll get really settled and still, but also stagnant. I have to literally ‘shake it off’, and start again. Over and over. I love Trungpa’s saying, ‘first thought, best thought.’ But how can I keep having first thoughts?

I also know myself well enough to know that I can bin things too soon. That I can be too rash in my decisions to change direction. That I have to temper myself.

So I want to tell you about two immediate changes.

The free Sunday Supplement will come out fortnightly rather than weekly. You’ll get your usual supplement next week. Writing it is one highlight of my week. It’s such fun. But right now I’ve decided to put more time into The Creative Buddhist paid newsletter, which comes out every Friday, and other projects I have on the back burner.

If you want to hear from me every week, consider becoming a paid subscriber. I’ve just dropped the price to £5 a month, or £50 a year (less than £1 a week). I subscribe to a few newsletters myself. I know for me £5 feels more affordable than £6 or £7. Maybe it’s the same for you?

The Sunday Supplement will always be free and I’ll be adding more free stuff to the Digital Notebook at Red Ladder Studio.

If you are a paid subscriber, then a big thank you for your support. It makes it possible for me to do the work I do, and love so much. And if you are a free subscriber, I’m grateful to you too for inviting me into your inbox and your continued interest and encouragement.

More news coming soon, meanwhile I’m sending some love your way,
Vajradarshini

P.S. Have you been clicking on the secret links in ‘hello you’ and ‘sending some love’ above?

Red Ladder Studio | Instagram

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Waiting at the bus stop - Vajradarshini