From SGI USA, I'm Cassidy Bradford, and this is Budability. The weekly series where I talk with

Buddhists from all walks of life about the power we each have to change our lives and the world around us.

When I was younger, I was afraid of falling asleep.

And then I was afraid of fish.

After that, butterflies.

But like many of you who responded to this week's question about fears, my fears have become a little more abstract.

Some of you are afraid of failure. Others love. But the most common response we got was the fear of loss, losing self-confidence, losing yourself, and like today's guest, the fear of losing someone you love.

Today, I'm talking with John Plummer of Cold Spring, New York, about how he faced that fear

and continues to face that fear head on.

My name is John Plummer.

I live in Cold Spring, New York, which is in the Hudson Valley, about an hour and change north of New York City.

I am a writer.

I write mostly for television.

To kind of open things up, I would love to hear about how you encountered Buddhism and why you started practicing.

I know it's a very kind of interesting journey. So. Yeah. I mean, I first heard about

Namiohorengu Kyo when I was in college at Tufts University. I heard about it from a guy

that I became really good friends with. We got cast together in a show, and he had just started chanting Namyoho Rengay Kyo two weeks before he met me.

And we became very good friends, did all kinds of stuff together creatively over the next two years.

He introduced a lot of people to Buddhism

and to this practice of chanting. And I was definitely not one of the people he introduced

because in fact, I tried to convince him to stop practicing Buddhism. And I made a plan that I was going to go over to his apartment

when I knew he was going to be home alone so I could really confront him. I was going to do it.

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