Buddhism for Bloggers

Attachment, Suffering, and Stats

My husband and I love to check our blog stats. We'll e-mail each other if there've been record visits. Or we'll try to figure out why it's so behind normal. Or sometimes we'll just remark on how relieved we are that they're right where they were yesterday.

Though we might argue that we're not "attached" to our blog stats, I think any impartial observer would say otherwise.

This is a strange segue into Buddhist thought, but bear with me, I'm going somewhere.

We bloggers tend to feel some envy for people who are averaging thousands of hits per day, especially if they're making money off it. We've all heard stories of people who quit their jobs and now run great blogs with comparatively little work

Or here on AC, some people seem extraordinarily popular while we feel ordinary (or perhaps below average).

When we see others succeed where we don't, we have the tendency to feel jealous and frustrated. We idealize their success and think "Oh, if only my blog were as popular!" (or "I were as popular).

And yet, as with anything, popularity and success are not trouble-free. The Buddha's second noble truth is that attachment causes suffering. If successful CPs or bloggers have the same mindset that we do, then surely their lives must be full of the same frustrations, no matter how well they're doing compared to us.

If your blog gets 50 hits per day and suddenly it's down to 30, you feel bad. If someone's getting 5000 hits per day and they only get 3000 or 3500, it must be painful for them as well.

It's the same if we envy the lives (and money!) of actors, pop stars, CEOs, anyone else. Unless they have learned to move further beyond attachment than we have, their lives are not happy or perfect. They may even be more miserable because they have more to lose.

All things have their end. Maybe the blog is no longer successful. Maybe their looks fade. Maybe they simply lose their fan base. Or perhaps these apparently successful people develop a drug addiction, blow through their money, or make some really bad PR moves. Maybe they just can't fall in love.