As it’s been a while since my last news round-up, I wanted to let you know about a few relevant goings-on, before letting you know how we are closing the year with our charitable activities here at The Dalai Lama’s Cat: Buddhist compassion in action.
Thank you, David, for this informative & heartfelt update💕
Here is a suggestion I would like to make: offer more giving options for regular subscribers. You may recall that I had contacted you once before about increasing my donation from $7 per month to $25. You referred me to Substack & I couldn’t figure out how to make that happen so is it possible that you could offer a range of contributions between $7 monthly & $100 annually? I, for one, would eagerly increase my contribution.
Thanks for considering.
Also, FYI, I own & have read all of your books & share them & your posts with others. Your work shines such a positive light in the world. Thank you❤️🌹
Many thanks for your very generous response, Jann, and I do remember you asking about more options.
Substack provides only three levels of payment - monthly, annual and foundation. The first two are not flexible, but for the 'foundation' level you can basically key in any amount above the annual figure in the box. Foundation level membership is the second column from the right on the following page: https://davidmichie.substack.com/subscribe
My heartfelt thanks to you and anyone else for increasing your support in this way. Together we can do so much!
Love this update! I hope you get more subscribers...if we keep sharing your pages, this may help as well as gifting your works/books, i know others will love them as much as we all do. I have read all of your vooks and ieep listening to your books over and over again and somehow, it happens just at a time when i need to hear the trachings. Thank-you for everything you do 🙏 I look forward to to next book and your next update 😊
No worries, Megan - I think we all got what you meant. And I am extremely grateful to you for your generous response and for so kindly sharing my work with others - that's how we can grow this special little community!
I am excited for the publication of Good Karma. Thank you for taking us on this journey with you. I'm disappointed to hear about the audio books. It reminds me of the short story you just shared regarding the diappointment of the cafe not being included in the reviews. I know that good things are headed your way. You provide so much good to others.
Regarding the point on paying subscribers, I will share my personal decision with you. I originally signed up as a non paying subscriber after reading the last Dalai Lama's Cat book, as your website was referenced. I hadn't heard of Substack prior to that. I enjoyed your posts, and was pleasantly surprised to find that you actually responded to our comments. At that time, I was a paying subscriber to a newspaper. One day it occurred to me that after reading the news, I was anxious. But I looked forward to your newsletter which brought me peace. At that moment I canceled the news, and signed up as a paying subscriber to your newsletter. In all honesty, I could have kept the paying subscription to the news, as well as signing up to your newsletter, but it felt contradictory. So for me, it wasn't something that you did or didn't do that flipped the switch. It was more of an idea of what I wanted my thoughts and actions to support.
I really appreciate you sharing how your awarness of the way reading the news made you feel, Stacey, and your decision to pay for Dharma wisdom rather than the worldly news. I gladly pay for both, and you are quite right that where we channel energy, including the financial kind, is what we may expect to experience more of. Basic karma, really. My heartfelt thanks.
I'm really sorry that publishers are choosing AI over your voice. Of the four of your books that I have listened to on Audible, three were read by you. You have a lovely voice and I enjoy listening to it. I think the fourth book was read by a different narrator, not AI. But I guess that is the future, though I don't like it. I will be sure to purchase the two books on Audible that I don't have while I can so that I can have the consistency and pleasure of keeping up with your voice talent.
What a wonderful thing to be so talented as a writer and a reader! Thank you for sharing your gifts!
You are very kind, Lisa. It is really the patience of my audio publisher team that should be acknolwedged. They have to sit there for day after day as I record, stop the recording every time I mess up, and find a good place to begin again. It takes about a week per book and is quite a gruelling process!
I am sorry more people don’t share their prosperity with you. I was very surprised to read you only had 1,100 paying subscribers. I hope you are able to increase this population significantly in 2025
I enjoy your stories & forward them to friends & family - I will start including an ad to subscribe themselves.
Please keep doing what you do. You are having a transformative impact on my life & I am sure many others.
I am really thrilled to hear how the Dharma is resonating with you Chuck. While I work hard to get the messages out there, I make no claims for the wisdom itself which is direct from my pure lineage teachers! I really appreciate your activities re: sharing my posts with others!
My sincere thanks, Anna. I certainly don't begrudge Substack their 10% cut - none of this would be possible without them. But it is nice to have a clear pathway for those who are able and willing to donate directly to such deserving causes. Thanks so much for all your comments and support over the years!
Thanks so much for the end of year update. You are right, I missed your new book, but to complete your books collection, I asked as a Xmas present your only book I did not have. “The Secret Mantra”, I am at chapter 10 now. Hope I will finish before the end of the year.
I wish the best to you and your loved ones.
Thanks for your books, your emails, your updates and all the help you have brought to the world.
It's bizarre and really quite sad to hear that your voice might be replaced by AI, David. The transmission of your warmth, your heart and your playfulness will just not be the same. Let's pray that they reconsider and that your own recording can be restored before long.
The small fee I pay for my subscription to your newsletter is one of the most meaningful and rewarding investments in my life. Just as the purchase of all your books is one of my wisest investments.
Your writing has been a true solace and wise guide through dark valleys, David. I'm grateful beyond measure that you continue to write; and further, that we can now also join you in contributing to many precious animals. Thank you. 🙏🏼💓
Thank you, David, for your update. What a shame about the audio versions of your first 3 Dalai Lama's cat book being recorded by AI voices. I prefer to read from the books themselves but I am sure that if I listened to audio books I'd rather hear an authentic narrator.
Thank you also for giving us the opportunity to support the charities, in return we gain the priceless Dharma teachings through your weekly posts as well as regular updates on the charities' work. All the best for 2025.
Dear David, Thank you for beautiful teachings in wonderful fictions! They are charming, endearing and spot on! I felt so happy to be among the subscribers. Like many, I am very careful and budget conscious. That said, generosity which helps reaffirms so much for me and here I give and get simultaneously!
May your 2025 be peace filled and creative, and may you continue to provide this virtual sangha. Perhaps that second wish is totally self-serving. I’ll meditate on that! 🙏🏽🪷☀️
Dear David, I’m so sorry for the publisher’s decision concerning the audiobooks read by you! I have ordered all three of them at once. Usually I prefer paper books (and I have read all of yours), but I thought that I would love to listen to the Dalai Lama’s Cat-stories when I’m travelling by car and I’m very much looking forward to receiving them.
Wonderful end of year report David… I don’t know if you have this available on your substack page, but being able to gift a subscription to a friend, family member or loved one might be another source of income for your good works … Blessings for the coming year, gratitude for the past… 🙏🏽💕
Many thanks, Margaret. This is possible and something I've offered in the past, but I don't like to constantly harass people for money! Thanks so much for all your support.
Thank you, David, for constant quality posts each week. You never miss a week! and you always answer contributor's comment. That alone is hard work and I'm grateful for it. At the same time, you are engaged in writing books and putting together all those thoughtful teachings for us.
I am annoyed that so many take for granted all the work and effort that goes into the writing of these richly informative articles.
The subscription fee is, so little compared to the benefits we receive from your writing. I have been so ill this past year; your posts have given me strength and perspective to plough on.
In your weekly postings you often make reference to your Guru Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden, and I was saddened when you wrote that he had died. It was clear that has friendship meant so much to you as a dear friend and mentor. I am sad for your loss David.
I must add here, as I read all the comments, that you have a very loyal band of subscribers. Small in numbers maybe by comparison, but fierce in loyalty and appreciation.
My best wishes to you and Koala for the year ahead. Regards Trish.
'Fierce in loyalty' - a great phrase Trish, and so true! Thank you! Yes, the loss of Geshe-la in 2011 was sad in a way, but many of his students had no doubt that he would return ... which he has. Something I will be writing more about in the coming weeks and months!
Thank you, David, for this informative & heartfelt update💕
Here is a suggestion I would like to make: offer more giving options for regular subscribers. You may recall that I had contacted you once before about increasing my donation from $7 per month to $25. You referred me to Substack & I couldn’t figure out how to make that happen so is it possible that you could offer a range of contributions between $7 monthly & $100 annually? I, for one, would eagerly increase my contribution.
Thanks for considering.
Also, FYI, I own & have read all of your books & share them & your posts with others. Your work shines such a positive light in the world. Thank you❤️🌹
Many thanks for your very generous response, Jann, and I do remember you asking about more options.
Substack provides only three levels of payment - monthly, annual and foundation. The first two are not flexible, but for the 'foundation' level you can basically key in any amount above the annual figure in the box. Foundation level membership is the second column from the right on the following page: https://davidmichie.substack.com/subscribe
My heartfelt thanks to you and anyone else for increasing your support in this way. Together we can do so much!
So sorry, David!
Rossy Cortes
You are right, we need more opitions, I can not incresea the amount, Mexico is not going well neither I, but more options are important.
Thanks for sharing.
Rossy Cortes
Mexico
Love this update! I hope you get more subscribers...if we keep sharing your pages, this may help as well as gifting your works/books, i know others will love them as much as we all do. I have read all of your vooks and ieep listening to your books over and over again and somehow, it happens just at a time when i need to hear the trachings. Thank-you for everything you do 🙏 I look forward to to next book and your next update 😊
I really must wear my glasses when i type messages...excuse my spelling errors 🤦🏻♀️
No worries, Megan - I think we all got what you meant. And I am extremely grateful to you for your generous response and for so kindly sharing my work with others - that's how we can grow this special little community!
Hello David,
I am excited for the publication of Good Karma. Thank you for taking us on this journey with you. I'm disappointed to hear about the audio books. It reminds me of the short story you just shared regarding the diappointment of the cafe not being included in the reviews. I know that good things are headed your way. You provide so much good to others.
Regarding the point on paying subscribers, I will share my personal decision with you. I originally signed up as a non paying subscriber after reading the last Dalai Lama's Cat book, as your website was referenced. I hadn't heard of Substack prior to that. I enjoyed your posts, and was pleasantly surprised to find that you actually responded to our comments. At that time, I was a paying subscriber to a newspaper. One day it occurred to me that after reading the news, I was anxious. But I looked forward to your newsletter which brought me peace. At that moment I canceled the news, and signed up as a paying subscriber to your newsletter. In all honesty, I could have kept the paying subscription to the news, as well as signing up to your newsletter, but it felt contradictory. So for me, it wasn't something that you did or didn't do that flipped the switch. It was more of an idea of what I wanted my thoughts and actions to support.
May you have a wonderful start to the new year!
-Stacey
I really appreciate you sharing how your awarness of the way reading the news made you feel, Stacey, and your decision to pay for Dharma wisdom rather than the worldly news. I gladly pay for both, and you are quite right that where we channel energy, including the financial kind, is what we may expect to experience more of. Basic karma, really. My heartfelt thanks.
I'm really sorry that publishers are choosing AI over your voice. Of the four of your books that I have listened to on Audible, three were read by you. You have a lovely voice and I enjoy listening to it. I think the fourth book was read by a different narrator, not AI. But I guess that is the future, though I don't like it. I will be sure to purchase the two books on Audible that I don't have while I can so that I can have the consistency and pleasure of keeping up with your voice talent.
What a wonderful thing to be so talented as a writer and a reader! Thank you for sharing your gifts!
You are very kind, Lisa. It is really the patience of my audio publisher team that should be acknolwedged. They have to sit there for day after day as I record, stop the recording every time I mess up, and find a good place to begin again. It takes about a week per book and is quite a gruelling process!
What wonderful work you are doing,David,and what a sign of the soulless times we live in that artificial voices are used rather than the authors own.
Thanks so much for you kind support, Lorna, and how right you are about these soulless times!
Thank you for all you do.
I am sorry more people don’t share their prosperity with you. I was very surprised to read you only had 1,100 paying subscribers. I hope you are able to increase this population significantly in 2025
I enjoy your stories & forward them to friends & family - I will start including an ad to subscribe themselves.
Please keep doing what you do. You are having a transformative impact on my life & I am sure many others.
I am really thrilled to hear how the Dharma is resonating with you Chuck. While I work hard to get the messages out there, I make no claims for the wisdom itself which is direct from my pure lineage teachers! I really appreciate your activities re: sharing my posts with others!
My sincere thanks, Anna. I certainly don't begrudge Substack their 10% cut - none of this would be possible without them. But it is nice to have a clear pathway for those who are able and willing to donate directly to such deserving causes. Thanks so much for all your comments and support over the years!
Thank-you for sharing your kind thoughts and your sensitive wisdom and for just being you.
So sweet, thank you Trisha!
Dearest David,
Thanks so much for the end of year update. You are right, I missed your new book, but to complete your books collection, I asked as a Xmas present your only book I did not have. “The Secret Mantra”, I am at chapter 10 now. Hope I will finish before the end of the year.
I wish the best to you and your loved ones.
Thanks for your books, your emails, your updates and all the help you have brought to the world.
Rossy Cortes
Greetings from Mexico
Many thanks Rossy for all your beautiful comments and sharing! I sincerely appreciate it!
It's bizarre and really quite sad to hear that your voice might be replaced by AI, David. The transmission of your warmth, your heart and your playfulness will just not be the same. Let's pray that they reconsider and that your own recording can be restored before long.
The small fee I pay for my subscription to your newsletter is one of the most meaningful and rewarding investments in my life. Just as the purchase of all your books is one of my wisest investments.
Your writing has been a true solace and wise guide through dark valleys, David. I'm grateful beyond measure that you continue to write; and further, that we can now also join you in contributing to many precious animals. Thank you. 🙏🏼💓
My heartfelt thanks for your lovely message, Sharadha!
Thank you, David, for your update. What a shame about the audio versions of your first 3 Dalai Lama's cat book being recorded by AI voices. I prefer to read from the books themselves but I am sure that if I listened to audio books I'd rather hear an authentic narrator.
Thank you also for giving us the opportunity to support the charities, in return we gain the priceless Dharma teachings through your weekly posts as well as regular updates on the charities' work. All the best for 2025.
My heartfelt thanks for your constant support and encouragement, Wendy!
Dear David, Thank you for beautiful teachings in wonderful fictions! They are charming, endearing and spot on! I felt so happy to be among the subscribers. Like many, I am very careful and budget conscious. That said, generosity which helps reaffirms so much for me and here I give and get simultaneously!
May your 2025 be peace filled and creative, and may you continue to provide this virtual sangha. Perhaps that second wish is totally self-serving. I’ll meditate on that! 🙏🏽🪷☀️
What a beautiful message! My sincere thanks to you, Diane!
Dear David, I’m so sorry for the publisher’s decision concerning the audiobooks read by you! I have ordered all three of them at once. Usually I prefer paper books (and I have read all of yours), but I thought that I would love to listen to the Dalai Lama’s Cat-stories when I’m travelling by car and I’m very much looking forward to receiving them.
Glad you got in quick, Susanna. I don't know when exactly they will no longer be available, but it can't be far off.
Great work David this year and I look forward to more musings in 2025.
My sincere thanks for all your support and encouragement since the beginning, Tom! And for re-stacking so many of my posts!
Thank you for all you do
It's my privilege and joy, thank you Maurice!
Wonderful end of year report David… I don’t know if you have this available on your substack page, but being able to gift a subscription to a friend, family member or loved one might be another source of income for your good works … Blessings for the coming year, gratitude for the past… 🙏🏽💕
Many thanks, Margaret. This is possible and something I've offered in the past, but I don't like to constantly harass people for money! Thanks so much for all your support.
Thank you, David, for constant quality posts each week. You never miss a week! and you always answer contributor's comment. That alone is hard work and I'm grateful for it. At the same time, you are engaged in writing books and putting together all those thoughtful teachings for us.
I am annoyed that so many take for granted all the work and effort that goes into the writing of these richly informative articles.
The subscription fee is, so little compared to the benefits we receive from your writing. I have been so ill this past year; your posts have given me strength and perspective to plough on.
In your weekly postings you often make reference to your Guru Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden, and I was saddened when you wrote that he had died. It was clear that has friendship meant so much to you as a dear friend and mentor. I am sad for your loss David.
I must add here, as I read all the comments, that you have a very loyal band of subscribers. Small in numbers maybe by comparison, but fierce in loyalty and appreciation.
My best wishes to you and Koala for the year ahead. Regards Trish.
'Fierce in loyalty' - a great phrase Trish, and so true! Thank you! Yes, the loss of Geshe-la in 2011 was sad in a way, but many of his students had no doubt that he would return ... which he has. Something I will be writing more about in the coming weeks and months!