Summary: Episode Description: In this episode, taken from the Buddhist Geeks Conference 2012, Tami Simon, founder and publisher of Sounds True, explodes the taboo around charging for what is of ultimate value. What if commerce were seen as a positive engine supporting the dissemination of spiritual teachings versus something to be avoided or disdained? Episode Links: Sounds True Transcript: Tami: Itâs wonderful to see an entrepreneur born within an entrepreneurial company. Well actually maturing within an entrepreneurial company. So Vince, you know I actually just feel so proud of you. I did from the moment I met you and I couldnât believe that we had the chance to hire you and then the chance to watch you take your wings. And itâs an honor and a pleasure to be part of the Buddhist Geeks conference. Here my first time here at Buddhist Geeks. So this phrase selling the Dharma, this phrase was introduced to me when I was 22 when I first started Sounds True. And so just to give you a little bit of background. I went to Swarthmore College and was in the religious studies department. And in my sophomore year was studying with a professor who was there for one year from Sri Lanka, Gunapala Dharmasiri, and he was there on Fullbright scholarship and he was teaching a course that I took called Buddhism and Existentialism. And soon after taking that class I dropped out of college. And I decided instead to travel to Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal for a year. And when I came back I started Sounds True. When we launched our very first catalogue, I sent it to Professor Dharmasiri because I wanted to show him what had become of me. So I sent him the Sounds True catalogue and he wrote me back a letter. And now to give a little context he had been a Theravada monk for the first 16 years of his life before he became a professor. And he wrote in this letter to me âleave it to Tami to sell the Dharma.â And there was something in that letter and the way that he used that phrase, it was humorous, it was slightly derogatory, it was slightly a rib, and I could also tell that he was slightly chucked, slightly like I knew she would do something. She was bold. She wore her ripped jeans to class even when I thought that was perhaps disrespectful. I told her not to dropout of school. It was disrespectful to her parents. And here she is selling the Dharma. And this letter from him and the use of that phrase stuck with me. And truthfully it stuck in my heart. Was I doing something that was in anyway disrespectful to what I cared the most about, to what I had given my life to in that year when I was traveling in Sri Lanka and India and Nepal. I gave my life to doing everything I could to introduce the practices, that I had been introduced to, to as many people as possible. Was there anything contradictory or wrong or bad in starting a business for the purpose of selling these teachings? So itâs an idea that haunted me for quite some time. But I have to say it doesnât haunt me anymore. I actually feel that the work that weâre doing at Sounds True and in the relationships we have with other people to sell the Dharma is an evolutionary movement that is tremendously positive and is creating all kinds of access. So I want to talk a little bit about that. I want to talk about some of the questions Iâve had and how Iâve sorted it out. One of the things that Iâve asked is why is it that thereâs so much, you know, Vince introduced this. This is controversial. Why is it controversial to begin with? Whatâs the big deal? Weâre producing books and audio programs. Weâre giving authors royalties. Weâre charging $4.99 for, less than a fancy Starbucks drink, for two hours of incredible down-loadable content. So whatâs the big controversy? And Iâm not a historian of religion so Iâm not going, clearly, and Iâm not going to speak about this. I mean I already talked about my college dropout status.
