In this video, philosopher and ethnobotonist, Terence McKenna discusses the relationship between individual consciousness and cultural systems with a simple and approachable vocabulary.  He advises us to keep the self as “the final arbiter” in a way not unlike the Buddha in the Anguttara Nikaya when he instructs the Kalamas of Kesaputta not to rely…

Earlier this winter I decided to learn a new hobby: cooking. Nothing too fancy or involved; just regular meals that were healthier and cheaper than the restaurant food I’d been living on. And, as an added bonus, greener, because homecooked meals invariably require less packaging than takeout. Last week I decided to try something southern:…

A lost sutta, composed in a singularly rare dialogue form, recently found, preserved in amber, in a heretofore undiscovered catacomb of Nalanda University.  Buddha: Verily I ask you, excellent Julia May Jonas, if you knew old age and death were coming in, like mountains advancing from the east and the west, the north and the…

Very well, dear reader, thank you. I’ve been focusing exclusively on mindfulness-of-the-body-breathing practice for the past few months. It’s the first practice I had instruction in and, since I began practicing regularly two years ago, it’s been my bedrock technique. Some people do metta regularly, but when I think of “meditation,” I think of my…

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