Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. If you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family. This is a famous old Ram Dass quote. He took all that acid, hung out with gurus and saints, and did as much spiritual practice as anyone could. And Thanksgiving still triggered him. Why should we be different? Who are we that this should be easy? I don't always know how to relate to my folks, we've certainly had our ups and downs. As I write this from their kitchen...
11 days ago • 3 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. What's going on? What should I do? Integrating the two confusions. In my class "Meditation for the Journey," we dip our toes into the water of Buddhist Psychology and explore how we're tormented both inside our psychedelic experiences and out, by the three poisons: Greed, attachment, clinging, lust (Raga) Aversion, hatred, avoidance, ill-will, revulsion (Dvesha) Confusion, ignorance, misunderstanding, delusion (Moha) When discussing...
18 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. Getting the trauma out of your tissues isn't enough. You've also got to get the Love in. I walked into yoga this morning with all kinds of feelings. Mad at the world, scared about my fate, you know, usual stuff. And it was stuff I felt like I had to figure out. Stuff I had to solve. It took me about 15 minutes of sweating and breathing to realize the world wasn't the problem. It was me. My emotional issues (which the Buddhists so...
25 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. I hope you heal from the things you don't talk about. "I hope you heal from the things you don't talk about" is a blessing that has been making the rounds on social media lately. I've heard a lot of blessings, but this one just popped up a few months ago, and it's been everywhere. I think it's a beautiful acknowledgement and a validation that we're all working through endless amounts of grief, rage, and pain. For psychedelic people, it...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. Tis the season to remember our ancestors, our Grateful Dead. There is a legend about some very particular hieroglyphics in the pyramids at Giza. There is a line that can be translated as, "Spaceship Earth Will Be Piloted Into The Heavens By The Grateful Dead." I can't confirm or deny its veracity, but I would guess it's a pretty liberal translation. But we are told that our ancestors guide us, that they are watching over us, cheering us...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. Your Inner Child Loves The Hobbit. The 5-year-old and I read The Hobbit over the summer, and it has given us lots to think about. It's also led to one of my proudest parenting moments. We were making sandwiches for a hike, and he was spreading peanut butter onto some bread. It was a bit lumpy and patchy, and he pointed it out, saying, "It's fine." I countered, "No, dude, spread it all the way to the edges. You got this." He questioned,...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. Have you met time travellers? "If time travel is a real thing, where are all the time travellers?" I've met time travelers. They're at Grateful Dead shows. (present tense!) Grateful Dead shows are timeless. Time travellers gravitate towards timeless places, I believe. Television and movies would have you believe that they flock to singular historical events, but that's only part of it. It certainly makes for better TV to have a bunch of...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. The hero in our bodies I need to remind myself to be the hero of my yoga practice sometimes. I need to remind myself not to let myself off the hook and play the victim. I had Achilles tendon surgery a few years back. It affects my balance poses. The pose on one foot is very different from that on the other. It would be really easy for me to write it off. I catch myself making excuses, telling myself it's ok to give up. It's never going...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Welcome to this Week's Edition of Red Things on Tuesday. Pumpkin Spice Lemon Tek Ginger, Cinnamon, Clove, Nutmeg, Lemon, Mushrooms. It's autumn. Why not? There are plenty of people in the world who use peanut butter and jelly as their ceremonial offering. I've seen pictures of the little saints decorating slices of cheese pizza. To each their own. Spices aren't high on the list of sacrileges, I think. We're spice people. We love the touch of a cinnamon stick. The pop of a cardamom pod. The...
2 months ago • 3 min read