# Zen Medicine > Literary microdoses on self-mastery, natural medicine, & the art of living. Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages ### Now URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/now/ Last updated: 2024-12-05T01:05:03.000Z This is what I'm doing now. ### My Library URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/books/ Last updated: 2025-09-21T19:53:50.000Z _No content available._ ### Writing URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/blog/ Last updated: 2025-05-12T17:51:27.000Z _No content available._ ### Tags URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/tags/ Last updated: 2025-02-11T13:11:57.000Z _No content available._ ### About EB. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/about/ Last updated: 2025-09-21T19:54:40.000Z > "I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process—an integral function of the universe." — R. Buckminster Fuller ## My life is a distillation of decades spent embodying ideas and ideals. I pursue what I call 'naturalness'. I think people call it 'authenticity', but that's missing something I can't yet articulate. - I eat an animal-based diet. - I quasi-legally pay no taxes. - I believe 'enlightened anarchy' is the natural state of free people. - I'm a practicing minimalist and own almost nothing. - I've lived in the jungle for years. - I think all people have fundamental goodness. - I only own Bitcoin. I study and train with ferocious vigour. I'm a student of Zen, Bitcoin, Medicine, and the Martial Arts. I'm a teacher, mentor, coach, and facilitator to some. My optimism is indestructible. And above all, all circumstantial triviality aside—I love you. I think you're beautiful. I have complete faith in you. Thank you. ## INTERESTS**.** *Things I'm obsessed with, shape my worldview, and colour my writing.* **⛩️ Zen:** Taoism, Ch'an, Awakening, [Cha Dao](https://www.highexistence.com/cha-dao/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (The Way of Tea), Koan practice. **🥋 Martial Artistry:** Shaolin, Bushido, Chi Gong, Yoga, Self-Mastery, Warrior Cultures. **💻 Sovereign Tech:** Bitcoin, NOSTR, Tor, Mesh Networks, Flag Theory. **🧬 Natural Health:** Psychedelic Therapy, Plant Medicine, Circadian Biology, Metabolic Theory of Cancer, Holistic Health. 👁️ **Depth Psychology:** Archetypes, Mythology, Personality, Perception, Lifestyle Change, Courage, Wisdom. **🏴 Political Philosophy:** Zenarchy, Game Theory, Reclaiming Aristocracy, Cultivating Virtue, Game B. 🌀 **Vibe Architecture:** Style, Taste, Minimalism, Experience Design, Agency, Heavy Music, Ritual, Ceremony. --- ### The Ango: Private Clients. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/ Last updated: 2025-06-19T15:51:59.000Z > An *ango* (*安居*) is a Japanese term for a three-month period of intense training for students of Zen. The word translates literally as 'peaceful dwelling'. ## **// THE ANGO.** **Peaceful dwelling in divine discipline. Setting up the sacred structure that liberates you to focus on courageous and virtuous undertakings.** My teacher often speaks of a 'Golden Thread'. Staring down the overwhelming possibility of potential futures, there is one—*just one—*path that captures the *greatest realistic possibility for your life*. We'll pursue this *golden thread*. Creating the structure, discipline, passion, and purpose needed to take the next great leaps in your evolution. For the Warriors: I am your greatest ally—a sacred sparring partner bringing out the best in you. I'm not trying to turn you into a carbon-copy coach-coaching-coaches on Instagram. You might want to be an ascetic monk, a loving parent, a reliable plumber, a wild artist, a powerful founder, a brilliant politician, or a kind human. All paths are welcome. We will walk together in the spirit of serious play. Welcome to the dojo, EB. ⛩️ --- ****You are a sophisticated bio-psycho-social organism.** We act as such. Nothing is off the table. We embrace avant-garde medicine and ancient wisdom traditions. We welcome pragmatic discipline and visionary manifestation. From cutting-edge blood testing to archaic techniques of ecstasy, we'll find the path that unlocks the next great chapter of your life. #### ****SCOPE.** - ****Holistic Self-Mastery:** Health. Wealth. Deep Work. Ritual. Psyche. Spirit. - ****Courage & Codes:** Ethics. Integrity. Moral Codes. Narrative Coherence. Massive Courageous Action. - ****Health & Healing:** Sleep. Diet. Circadian Biology. Phone Use. Tech Stack. Vitality. Bioenergetics. Strength. Aesthetics. Natural Living. - ****Radical Sovereignty:** Tax Reduction. Flag Theory. Nomading. Multiple Passports. Homeschooling. Community. Online Privacy. Bitcoin. Survival. First-Aid. - ****Psychedelic Therapy:** Experience Design. Prep/Integration Coaching. Ceremony Consultation. Dosing Programs/Protocols. #### ****REQUIREMENTS.** - ****You must get a comprehensive blood panel** (\~$200). To be completed within the first month. - ****You must provide a food & time log.** A 3-day breakdown of what you eat and how you live, so we both know what we're working with. - ****You must complete 3 daily trainings (meditation, movement, personal choice).** Weekly accountability. 100% adherence is not required, but is aimed for. - ****You must provide honest feedback on your experience.** At the end of the 3-month ango. - ****IDEAL: You have \~$200+ to invest in additional interventions.** We can modify this for no-cost interventions if necessary. #### ****NOTES.** - You do not need to follow any particular religious/philosophical orientation, nor will I ask you to. - You need \~1 hour per day for the daily trainings and any additional work we identify. We can work together to **create* this time. - You must act. These aren't feel-good weekly talks. We’ll have a strike rule. Non-negotiable. - You do not need experience with psychedelics, nor will I include this as part of any requirement, though we can certainly include it. #### ****WHO AM I?** - Designed the therapeutic programming/protocols for the largest psychedelic therapy company in the world. Used in over 660k+ client sessions. - Facilitation/integration coaching for 500+ individual clients. - Solo'd the base camp of the highest peak in the Americas (Aconcagua, Argentina) and ran back down**,* in barefoot shoes, without training. - Written online for over a decade, with millions of impressions from Tier 1&2 PR releases, dedicated audiences, & beyond. - Wilderness First Responder. CPR-Certified. Ceremonialist. Medicine Retreat Host. Permanent Nomad. ****INVESTMENT:** $750 USD for 1 ango. (3-month period) ****• Included:** 3-month term. 6 bi-weekly calls. Unlimited messaging w/ 24h response time. ****• \~15% BTC Discount:** $650 total if paid directly in Bitcoin. I can show you how. ### Imagine a world where you got out of your own way... Where the totality of your creative force was put toward pursuing your highest timeline, instead of inventing creative excuses and various forms of self-sabotage. Imagine a life of joy, courage, peace, creativity, deep relationships, fierce vitality, and profound engagement with life. Imagine how much better everyday life can feel. How much more you can give. How much fun you can have playing the greatest game ever made. That is what we're after. I will give you everything I've got, in an immaculate container of safety, security, power, and purpose. A 3-month portal to build the foundations of the rest of your life. **This is the Ango, and I welcome the willing.** EB. 🐉 > "There are only two mistakes along the way to self-mastery: not starting, and not going all the way." — Shi Heng Yi, 35th Grandmaster Shaolin Temple Europe. --- ## **READY? APPLY HERE.** ### Home Hero URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/home-hero/ Last updated: 2025-09-21T19:53:27.000Z ## I’m EB — Mixed Medicine Artist. I write literary microdoses on self-mastery, psychedelic medicine, natural philosophy, and the martial arts. With private clients, I'm equal parts therapist, mentor, and sacred sparring partner. Welcome to the Yakudō: Way of Medicine. ### Mark One. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/mark-one/ Last updated: 2025-06-15T14:30:35.000Z ## **ABOUT.** Mark One was an SF-based, VC-backed health-tech startup. Creators of 'Vessyl' automatic nutrition-tracking cup, and 'Pryme Vessyl', a hydration-tracking cup with a proprietary personal hydration algorithm and app. Industrial design from Yves Behar of Jawbone fame, placements in Apple, Amazon, and Equinox stores, NFL collaborations, and major press attention. It was a meteoric rise and a cataclysmic collapse. I joined the early team right out of university, leading organic marketing, social/community, customer support, and designing and releasing the campaigns for the pre-orders of Vessyl and sales of Pryme Vessyl. Was a fully remote employee \~7 years before COVID made it cool. Learned almost everything I know about hi-tech, high-growth startup life from this fantastic initiation with the MK1 crew. --- ## **WORK.** - Helped design, release, and run the most successful non-Kickstarter pre-order campaign at the time ($4M in pre-orders). - Orchestrated the release, sales campaign, and fulfillment of Pryme Vessyl, a 'smart cup' hydration tracker & app ($1M+ sold, placement in Apple, Amazon, Equinox), app UI/UX design & copywriting. - Managed all social media campaigns and organic marketing efforts. - Led the full Support department, coordinating a team of 5 remote contractors, fielding \~300 requests/day. - Coordinated, ghostwrote, and received multiple Tier 1 PR placements (TechCrunch, Forbes, CNN, NYT) driving millions of impressions. - 'Claim-to-fame' of being the last-standing member of the entire organization once it closed down. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/pryme-1.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/pryme2.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/Vessel-App-0612.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/vessyl-1.jpg) ### Exodus. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/exodus/ Last updated: 2025-06-15T14:31:14.000Z ## **ABOUT.** Exodus—now a NYSE-listed crypto company—is an OG in financial sovereignty technology and early self-custody crypto wallet. They offer a built-in exchange/swap ability, with self-custodied keys. A fully-remote, salary-paid-in-Bitcoin company, founded by a legendary designer & hacker duo. A true joy to contribute to this group for the time I did. --- ## **WORK.** - Contracted as VP of Communications during the 2017 ‘Crypto Winter’ craze. - Created the full foundations for comms, brand voice, tone, identity, and content and communication protocols. - Coordinating the customer support team during one of the wildest periods in crypto history, the 2017 craze, with dozens of support members and thousands of inbound requests. - Brilliant experience of getting my salary paid fully in Bitcoin, in a fully remote team/position far before it was standard practice. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/exodus-1.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/exodus1.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/exodus2.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/exodus3.jpg) ### HighExistence. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/highexistence/ Last updated: 2025-06-15T14:33:38.000Z ## **ABOUT.** HighExistence was an OG first-mover in the Web 2.0 blogging era, becoming one of the largest digital hubs for those exploring altered states, psychedelics, meditation, and alternative lifestyles. It grew into a major publication and expanded into an online community, eventually releasing products, online experiences, communities, and in-person medicine retreats. I've grown with HighExistene over the years, from guest writer all the way to Director of the organization. It was a pivotal force in my life, and has been a beacon for thousands of new friends and fellow misfits over the years. --- ## **WORK.** - Grew in the org from guest writer, to editorial intern, to core team, to Director of the organization. - My [authored articles](https://www.highexistence.com/author/ericbrown/?ref=zenmedicine.co) have received 1.5M+ unique pageviews. - Designed, created, sold, and ran The Ascent (2x), an 8-week spiritual business bootcamp. 30+ participants, $50k+ revenue. - Designed, created, sold, and ran (9x) high-ticket [Apotheosis](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) transformational plant medicine retreats. 120+ participants, $300k+ revenue. - Created and ran (2x) Metamorphosis, free multi-day at-home online retreats. Curating speakers, activities, artist performances, and giveaways. 600+ total attendees across the 2 events. - Designed, created, sold, and ran The Dojo online community for the audience. - Managed the blog editorial publishing, newsletter delivery, website backend transitions, and operational logistics for the media arm of the organization. Millions of social impressions, hundreds of articles, incredible domain authority. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/30cte-1.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/hex1.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/hexapo.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/remindful.png) ### Bushido of Bitcoin. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/bushido-of-bitcoin/ Last updated: 2025-06-15T14:34:56.000Z ## **ABOUT.** This was a fantastic opportunity to help bring a brilliant masterpiece to the world. Working with Aleksandar Svetski on the full production/release of his work 'The Bushido of Bitcoin'. We ran the full end-to-end production and release. Completing the writing, copyediting, book design, Kickstarter/Geyser pre-orders, Amazon release, international fulfillment, pay with Bitcoin flows, major podcast appearances, custom leatherbound edition—you name it, we did it. --- ## **WORK.** - Ran operations, logistics, website management, and fulfillment for the international [Amazon best-selling](https://www.amazon.com/Bushido-Bitcoin-Virtue-Economic-Standard/dp/B0DM55SPXC?crid=1IY3QFVZS12BR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.gHWo2upNvQkg%5Fc8svoAzuR1AX2Poi7CfUujrQUmR7PFSxlrzXx2q0OM7En1IVTnGbcLSufo%5F89zGkTCKKTjENhFRD2uhNl0T9sdcrDWD%5FNZRLotHjDsddACULB8DHOkGqQYvAXeKzMVenImAEgzyXw.m%5FS%5FY4-GuF5OemBcxJZEtN5Mc5E7%5FZP1agdKV-loBFk&dib%5Ftag=se&keywords=bushido+of+bitcoin&qid=1738879813&sprefix=bushido+of+bitcoin,aps,162&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=dissidentdire-20&linkId=62f3833c19e2906ff6a332dd2323d070&language=en%5FUS&ref%5F=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl&ref=zenmedicine.co) book release ‘[Bushido of Bitcoin](https://www.bushidoofbitcoin.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)’. - Editorial and writing contributions to the book itself. - Kickstarter & Geyser fulfillment, ongoing promotion, and complete Amazon publishing backend, including pay with Bitcoin purchase design/flow. - Writing, editing, and publishing essays across 3 different blog publications. - Created the foundational skeleton, content structure, and online implementation for the [Dissident Directory](https://www.dissidentdirectory.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/bushido.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/bushido.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/bushido2.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/bushido2-1.png) ### Apotheosis. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/apotheosis-retreat/ Last updated: 2025-06-15T14:36:19.000Z ## **ABOUT.** Born out of HighExistence as a way to bring our community together, Apotheosis has grown into a force of its own as a boutique, world-class plant medicine retreat and transformational initiation. Apotheosis has made me into the man I am today, both through my own experiences and the initiatory portal of becoming an ethical and capable facilitator and leader. Consistently rated as one of the most significant moments in people's lives, we hold ourselves to impeccable standards of safety, ethics, depth, and transformational outcomes. --- ## **WORK.** - Current Director and Lead Facilitator of Apotheosis Retreats. Boutique, world-class plant medicine retreats, specializing in Ayahuasca and Bufo/5MeO. - 10x high-ticket retreats designed, created, sold, and facilitated. $300k+ revenue, 120+ participants, 3 different countries. - I've helped build and run the full end-to-end execution and design here: experience design, ethical standards, high-ticket sales, marketing campaigns, website design, medicine facilitator, prep/integration curriculum design, and community building. - [NOLS Wilderness First Responder](https://www.nols.edu/en/coursefinder/courses/wilderness-first-responder-WFR/?ref=zenmedicine.co) training, the 8-month [ICEERS AyaSafety](https://iceersacademy.mykajabi.com/ayasafety-en?ref=zenmedicine.co) program, kambo facilitator intensive. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/medicine.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/medicine1.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/medicine2.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-13-at-13.12.05.png) ### Mindbloom. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/mindbloom/ Last updated: 2025-06-15T14:38:03.000Z ## **ABOUT.** Mindbloom is a mental health startup specializing in at-home ketamine therapy. They are now the largest provider of psychedelic medicine on the planet, with over 660k+ individual sessions administered. I joined as one of the earliest collaborators and wore every hat I could. Social media/marketing/growth, creating the Guide function and one of the first Guides, designing the programs, soundscapes, and guided session audios, writing the psychedelic therapy blog, and much more. About once every 2 minutes, someone experiences Mindbloom programming I created or contributed to. --- ## **WORK.** - One of the first two official Guides of the organization, guiding 320 clients through Mindbloom’s ketamine therapy protocol. Brought the entire state of California online. - Created the foundational ethical guidelines, protocols & expectations, and communications for Guides when interacting with clients. - Wrote 90% of the [Mindbloom Blog](https://www.mindbloom.com/blog?ref=zenmedicine.co), creating a ‘Ketamine/Psychedelic Therapy Bible’ of phenomenology, scientific research, preparation and integration guidelines, and psychedelic therapy overviews. Over 500k+ pageviews. - Designed, created, wrote, and implemented the program structure and core content for the first 12 therapeutic programs released, building these into the app backend. - Anxiety, Depression, Self-Love, Resilience, Relationships, PTSD, Psychedelic Therapy 101, Grief, Habit Change, Burnout, Emotional Regulation, Getting Unstuck. - Scripted dozens of in-session guided audio tracks, as well as ghostwriting the program content for collaborative program releases. - My foundations, programs, and content have now been used in over 660k individual ketamine sessions. About once every 2 minutes, someone uses Mindbloom programming I designed or contributed to. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/mb1.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/mb2.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/mb3.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/mb4.jpeg) ### Works URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/works/ Last updated: 2025-06-12T21:19:10.000Z _No content available._ ### Rustom Patel URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/rp/ Last updated: 2025-06-17T15:03:27.000Z Eric asks the right questions, applies his growing library of knowledge, and deeply invests his heart with the people he works with. He is a rich treasure of wisdom and a good friend. ### Nils Paar URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/np/ Last updated: 2025-06-14T13:18:12.000Z I don’t subscribe to many newsletters, but have been reading Eric’s for years. Insightful and thought-provoking. Never regretted it. ### Ethan Nelson URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/en/ Last updated: 2025-06-17T15:03:00.000Z Eric's writing hits different. His pieces on sovereignty have radically shifted how I see the world, reminding me that a no-bullshit spiritual path is possible. The only newsletter I actually read—full stop. ### Justin Noppé URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/jn/ Last updated: 2025-06-19T15:08:07.000Z Eric sees the world with razor-sharp clarity and relentless curiosity. His emails cut through cultural noise and challenge the status quo, leaving you with real insights that stick. ### Asha Urban URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/au/ Last updated: 2025-06-17T15:02:35.000Z Eric brings a rare depth of presence and integrity to his work. Whether guiding fellow humans through ceremonial rites of passage or writing from the heart and soul, he meets the moment with honesty, care, and deep listening. Both his words and facilitation carry the power of someone who has walked the path and done his own work. ### Jon Brooks URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/jb/ Last updated: 2025-06-17T15:02:00.000Z I’ve worked with Eric for nearly a decade. Everything from launching retreats and transformational containers to deep-dive podcast series and online courses. Eric consistently shows up with ninja-like precision, grounded professionalism, and a rare steadiness of presence. He’s got a pure heart. His commitment to inner growth and self-transcendence is unmatched. Working with him isn’t just productive, it’s inspiring. ## Posts ### 34 Quotes for 34 Years. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/34-quotes-for-34-years/ Last updated: 2026-07-23T14:01:53.000Z ### Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined finding myself on my 34th birthday in complete isolation, 5 days into a month of total silence, in the middle of the Mayan jungle, dieting the master trees of the Amazon, 5 weeks into a 1-year ancient rite of passage... ...indeed, until a few years ago, I wasn't even aware that this was a thing you could do. And yet, here we are. The Tao unfolds in mysterious, miraculous ways. I've missed you. I've missed the space we have here. I really hope you've been well. Deep breath... Writing here is an intimate affair for me. I know the vast majority of you personally. Many I have met in person, some online, and a small contingent still to meet. This isn't a faceless list to me. These are friends, colleagues, teachers, family. It makes me nervous, actually. Wanting to send something valuable, fear of vulnerability, not wasting time, fear no one likes it—all the usual suspects show up. Every time. I find myself in a quiet, tender, very squishy stage of life. I completed my [8 months of facilitating](https://www.zenmedicine.co/apprenticeship/) (phenomenal, best thing I've ever done so far)—took a few short weeks to pack on as much weight as I could—and have begun my full apprenticeship/initation. Stage 2 of this gigantic multi-year process. It's been challenging—really tough already. This process, by my own volition and by its own nature, is stripping everything from me. My relationships, my work, my standing in society, various roles and identities once inhabited, routines, structures, core beliefs. Everything slowly falls away... That void is quite difficult to inhabit on a day-to-day basis with any degree of sanity. But the void is also pregnant with possibility. There's been beauty too, no doubt. We are still in the early days. I expected to be writing more than I am. But some periods you just need to soak it all in first. I hope, and intend, to publish more while this continues. We will see. Though I would not let myself miss this annual tradition, sharing a few pithy ideas on my birthday. Here are [32 Reflections](https://www.zenmedicine.co/32-reflections-for-32-years/), and [33 Thoughts](https://www.zenmedicine.co/33-thoughts-for-33-years/) from years past: [32 Reflections for 32 Years. 🪷A reminder to myself on my birthday.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-bfaa0fe5-ca08-4eb8-a0fe-9c6d99c45819.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/caccdcae-8b8d-4fe2-9d67-710ce3bcca36_2912x1632-jpeg-d9340f5a-f886-4e0f-8b92-7ef416c6b594.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/32-reflections-for-32-years/) [33 Thoughts for 33 Years.Maxims, ideas, and a couple banger quotes.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-f08cb53f-5234-460d-a901-94942bb8370f.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/Screenshot-2025-07-20-at-07.55.43-4039d19b-25c1-4e8c-9826-a9dfd32914e0.png)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/33-thoughts-for-33-years/) **This year, I dug into my quote archive and excavated a few gems. And as I did this, something interesting happened...** Hints of a story emerged. A narrative arc—a hero's journey of sorts—threaded through the whispers of these inspiring individuals. I arranged the quotes in a few 'chapters', and in order. If you read these thoughtfully, maybe you'll pick up on the thread too. Echoes of eternity, the glorious depths of the human spirit, the raging against the dying of the light, and the miraculous gift of life and finding your place in it. I love you dearly, talk more soon. EB. 🙏🏻 --- > “But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin.” – Aldous Huxley > “A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to commit outrages…” – Hermann Hesse > “Wealth is what you have minus what you want; and by that definition some billionaires are broke.” – Morgan Housel > “A lot of the progress impulse is a pathological result of emptiness.” – Daniel Schmachtenberger > “A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” – African Proverb > “Historically, the most terrible things; war, genocide, and slavery, have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.” – Howard Zinn > “The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside us while we live.” – Native American Proverb --- > “Hope has two beautiful daughters - Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” – St. Augustine > “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin > “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel > “How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?” – Epictetus > “One should decide within the space of 7 breaths.” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo > “A man without a vision for his future will always return to his past.” > “To become who you want to be, you must sacrifice who you are.” > “The depth of the learning is in direct relation to the intensity of the experience.” – Robert Monroe > “Schools of deep thought have always imposed the discipline of silence.” – Oswald Wirth > “He who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much of a savage. He who is a scholar only is too soft, too effeminate. The ideal citizen is the scholar athlete, the man of thought and the man of action.” – Plato > “The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it is to them a recreation to play with burdens that would crush all others.” – Nietzsche > “He who delights in solitude is either a wild beast or a God.” – Nietzsche > “The lion and tiger may be larger, but you will never see the wolf perform at the circus…” --- > “What’s the core principle of a healthy identity? It’s something like the willingness and ability to adopt the stance of optimal challenge in the face of the catastrophe of life and the reality of atrocity. It’s a dancing stance. A playful stance if optimized. Eyes fully open, facing forward.” – Jordan Peterson > “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing both.” – Lawrence Pearsall Jacks > “If there were any one period of time that one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of revolution? When old and new stand side by side and admit of being compared. When the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope. And when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new. This time, like all times, is a very good time, if we but know what to do with it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson > “We must go far beyond any transformation of contemporary culture. We must go back to the genetic imperative from which human cultures emerge originally and from which they can never be separated without losing their integrity and their survival capacity. None of our existing cultures can deal with this situation out of its own resources. We must invent, or reinvent, a sustainable human culture by a descent into our pre-rational, our instinctive resources. Our cultural resources have lost their integrity. They cannot be trusted. What is needed is not transcendence but "inscendence," not the brain but the gene.” – Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth > “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth—we are all crew.” – Marshall McLuhan --- > “Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that the Nature he's destroying is this God he's worshiping.” – Hubert Reeves > “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will make you an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.” – Werner Heisenberg > “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” – William James > “Life, like a dome of many-colored glass / Stains the white radiance of Eternity.” – Shelly > “Life unfolds of its own and does not need commentary. The habit of editorializing about what is witnessed needs to be voluntarily surrendered to God.” – David Hawkins > “My own self I will place in Suchness, and, so that all the world might be helped, I will place all beings into Suchness, and I will lead to Nirvana the whole immeasurable world of beings.“ – Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita --- > “When we’re conscious with every step, making tea becomes a work of art." – Eckhart Tolle > “There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by. A life of good days lived in the senses is not enough. The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirt requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet.” – Annie Dillard > “It is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world.” – Mary Oliver, Invitation ### The Dokkodō. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/dokkodo/ Last updated: 2026-02-16T15:54:34.000Z > "Once you know the Way broadly, you can see it in all things." — Miyamoto Musashi ## I'm going to write more book commentaries... Not exhaustive reviews, nor compilation lists. I don't want to support the individual folly of reading a book review and pretending that you've actually read the book. Reading the book is the joy. So I'll plant a few seeds—choice words on the tomes that have become cornerstones in my life. I’ve grown tired of seeing the same cliché titles on every YouTubers '50 Must-Read Books’ list they use to capture your email and put you into a drip funnel to sell you AG1 supplements. They all follow the same script: - Taken on by a big publishing house, made to be 200+ pages longer than necessary. - Discuss one trite idea, with a cleverly branded name hot off the presses from their ad agency. - Ghostwritten by the lovely folks at [Scribe](https://scribemedia.com/service/publishing/?ref=zenmedicine.co) or similar, for a cool $30k price tag. My recent return to this—covering [The Way of the Superior Man](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-way-of-the-superior-man/)—seemed to land well. I have an older review of [Finite & Infinite Games](https://www.zenmedicine.co/finite-infinite-games/) floating around in the digital ether. Plus, a few pieces sharing my annual reading adventures ([2023](https://www.zenmedicine.co/exploring-the-26-books-i-read-in/), [2024](https://www.zenmedicine.co/ranking-the-26-books-i-read-in-2024/), 2025 incoming…). **Walking around my room this morning on a majestic Mayan Monday, my eyes landed on one of 3 things I wrote out and taped to my wall: The Dokkodō.** It shares the podium alongside Frank Herbert’s legendary quote on fear from the Dune series, and the Bushidō, samurai code of virtues. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2026/02/3.JPG) Musashi’s Dokkodō isn’t a book persay. Only 21 aphoristic statements. Though it packs more wisdom and challenge into those 21 lines than most modern self-help authors can bring to bear in the entire corpus of their lives' work. Of course, Musashi was a unique character. Almost unrelatable in his extremity. The most famous swordsman of Japan, a wandering samurai (ronin), who lived an extremely ascetic life. Toward the end of his life he took refuge in a cave, where he would later pass away, and penned his two canonical pieces: the [Go Rin No Sho](https://www.amazon.com/book-five-rings-Illustrated-Translation/dp/B0CPB7JCDC/ref=sr%5F1%5F10?crid=28KASVTL3Z5Q&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TBU%5FFv5KBqoXzOO3kWTHtmleh%5FH0o3L1wWZZo8pXtgLuOAH-I6g2Vt29tr9PBnT8o-osuDtbpRpdSLVh4Wk7GaOCfnT6EUclVn17hUDkDmvjTuDkjJLZLDW7myc9L82IGLGbvOIIcl992S4Do0nFiSKaiv4f4ZeW566Trug3%5FlN5VSA3H9o8NHf9IHftoF5cs218JGjDYEIJlTLH5WAHzTU2QyFqFtriWeI6sg3EERI.YnceCl3rD7D-RqvnnS6EZcYB51APaL-9LKb8n9BArbE&dib%5Ftag=se&keywords=musashi+eiji&qid=1771169779&s=books&sprefix=musashi+%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C505&sr=1-10&ref=zenmedicine.co) (Book of Five Rings), and The Dokkodō (Way of Aloneness). The brilliance of Musashi’s work is that while you can read this in 5 minutes or less, integrating it and mastering the challenge that each maxim presents is the work of a lifetime. It’s inexhaustible. Read this two years later, and 3 different statements will stand out to you. Two years more, and new ones reveal themselves with fresh, incisive wisdom. That is the true beauty of real masterpieces. And for the astute observer—alongside the martial arts influence like Bushidō, Judō, Kendō—Musashi's Dokkodō has also been a central inspiration behind my thinking on the Yakudō: Way of Medicine. [Yakudō: The Way of Medicine.Exploring medicine as martial art and mastery path.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-18.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/Yang----Name-Clash-2024-08-14-6D4XYVq----1-1.jpeg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/yakudo-the-way-of-medicine/) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2026/02/dokkodo-1.jpg) Mushashi's Dokkodō. ## The Dokkodō (Way of Walking Alone). 1. Accept everything just the way it is. 2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake. 3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling. 4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world. 5. Be detached from desire your whole life long. 6. Do not regret what you have done. 7. Never be jealous. 8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation. 9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others. 10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love. 11. In all things have no preferences. 12. Be indifferent to where you live. 13. Do not pursue the taste of good food. 14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need. 15. Do not act following customary beliefs. 16. Do not collect or practice with weapons beyond what is useful. 17. Do not fear death. 18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age. 19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help. 20. You may abandon your own body, but you must always preserve your honor. 21. Never stray from the Way. ### Here is another translation that is a little easier to digest: 1. Accept things as they are, and act accordingly. 2. Do not be distracted by seeking pleasure. 3. Approach everything and everyone with impartiality. 4. Don't take yourself too seriously; but be serious about others, and the world. 5. Do not be attached to your desires. 6. Have no regrets. 7. Do not be jealous. 8. Do not dwell on those you cannot be with. 9. Do not bear grudges or be resentful. 10. Do not be a fool for love. 11. Do not judge or make choices based on attraction or repulsion. 12. Do not dwell on places you cannot be; "wherever you go, there you are." 13. Do not make choices based on the taste of food; eat to live. 14. Do not cling to things that are no longer useful to you. 15. Do not be bound by custom or tradition; act as your own reason and conscience dictate. 16. Do not waste time or resources acquiring goods or knowledge that are not useful to you. 17. Do not let fear of death prevent you from living. 18. Do not store up treasures against your old age; live now. 19. Respect the gods, but do not depend on them. 20. Protect your reputation; "death before dishonor." 21. Never stray from what you know is right. --- - #3: 'Do not depend on partial feelings' is taking center stage in my psyche. To borrow a more modern interpretation from Derek Sivers, "if it's not *hell yes*, it's no." - I’ve been wrestling deeply with #9: Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others. This is an easy one to nod your head at in agreement, but quite difficult to embody in practice. - #6 on regret and #16, which rings with the true spirit of minimalism, are potent catalysts for transformation. - #1: Accept Reality is a complete path! It is the beginning, end, and vehicle of a total self-mastery journey. **If you have a knee-jerk reaction to any of these, it’s worth meditating on them further.** *“What’s the problem of pursuing the taste of good food!?”* you cry out. Then the obesity epidemic, the virtue of self-restraint, what is truly worthy pursuing in life, what you orient toward, and the matter of keeping desire in its proper place all arise, and the living wisdom of Mushashi’s Way reveals itself to you in ever-deepening layers. While the Dokkodō may not be the Way of Being that appeals to everyone, or is perfectly appropriate for your circumstances, there is always something hidden within these 21 lines that propels you forward on your journey of self-mastery. **That is quite a feat for something written alone in a cave 372 years ago.** Never stray from the Way, EB. ⛩️ ps: If you want to go a bit deeper, '[Musashi](https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-New-Novel-Eiji-Yoshikawa/dp/1568366485/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=28KASVTL3Z5Q&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.TBU%5FFv5KBqoXzOO3kWTHtmleh%5FH0o3L1wWZZo8pXtgLuOAH-I6g2Vt29tr9PBnT8o-osuDtbpRpdSLVh4Wk7Ga3Nfy6P5o3LwaBYhJzk8h3eaDk7pNeCJLWf6Ek1cGGYGLGbvOIIcl992S4Do0nFiSKaiv4f4ZeW566Trug3%5FlN5VSA3H9o8NHf9IHftoF5cs218JGjDYEIJlTLH5WAHzYXVA1whAyeKHVNuVieUQvs.4LuUxF-Ixuv0Se5GPGdHhd%5FZdy7l-NHGJBpa24Ewf2o&dib%5Ftag=se&keywords=musashi+eiji&qid=1771169553&s=books&sprefix=musashi+%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C505&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co)' is a historical fiction of Musashi's life written by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's one of my favourites. A great read regardless of your interest in Musashi himself. ### The Courage List. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/courage-list/ Last updated: 2026-02-09T15:58:10.000Z Good morning you beautiful freaks and geeks. It's been \~4 months. Can you believe it!? I missed you. Feels like a lifetime has passed. Much has transpired since we last convened: - I'm 7 months into my facilitator stay at Kumankaya. 7 months of the monastic schedule, without deviation. The best, and hardest, undertaking I've ever done... so far. - Started and finished my one-month Coca diet. - Led the 10th Apotheosis Retreat: our first ever [Marosa master plant diet](https://apotheosisretreat.com/marosa?ref=zenmedicine.co). - Saw my parents in Tulum, who came to see the center as well. That was a special moment for me, the meeting of my parents and my teachers. - Completed the first [Ango containers](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/)—my private client practice—with a few gentlemen. Incredible and inspired by what they were able to achieve. - Shaved my head after 2.5 years of growing my hair. - Unexpectedly got to meet two readers of this publication in-person at Kumankaya. John & Sam, that was a true joy, thank you! - A ton of psycho-emotional processing: major reckonings with fear, lust, greed, distraction, virtue, conflict, doubt, shame, compassion, boundaries. The usual suspects. - Currently 6 weeks into my two-month Shihuahuaco master tree diet. - Started a total work sabbatical to focus full-time on my [upcoming 1-year initiation](https://www.zenmedicine.co/apprenticeship/). - Found and have been enjoying the [5 Tibetan Rites](https://www.google.com/search?q=5+tibetan+rites&oq=5+tibetan+rites&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co) morning ritual. Now that we're safely past '[Quitter's Day](https://www.google.com/search?q=quitters+day&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co)'—the second Friday of January where 80-90% of new years resolutions have been dropped and forgotten—I want to share a practice for the warriors whose desire for true, lasting change still burns brightly. A small reminder on my thoughts about new year resolutions: [Plant Your Seeds in Spring.Aligning with natural cycles makes habit formation 100x easier.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-17.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/winter.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/plant-your-seeds-in-spring/) I did this practice last year, and it transformed every inch of my life: --- ## The Courage List. Simple in theory. Difficult in practice. Glorious in execution. The courage list cuts through noise, distraction, confusion, excuses. It is the simple yet challenging path to new levels, new devils, new possibilities. The practice is simple: 1. **Put yourself into a vital, bold, creative state.** Breathwork, cold shower, hard workout, ecstatic dance, listen to inspiring music. Whatever it takes. 2. **List a few core domains of your life.** Career, health, relationships, passions, bucket list. Whatever fits your present reality. 3. **Ask yourself, "what is the most courageous thing I *could* do, that I *would* do, that I *want* to do, here?"** Aim up. Aim high. Go big. Go bold. 4. **Write down what you come up with.** Usually, if you're bold, there are one or two core moves that surface. 5. **Pick the top 3-4\.** The few that strike the perfect balance between fear and excitement. The ones you know would change everything if you did them. 6. **Spend this year mercilessly focused on completing them.** When you've done them, make a new list. Do it again, and again, and again. Do them messy, imperfectly, shaking and quaking in your boots. Consider everything not on this list a distraction, to be reduced or removed entirely. --- There are two stellar benefits that come from this: 1. **If you do the things on the list, you can end up with a radically transformed life.** Starting the project, writing the book, moving countries, messaging that person, leaving your relationship, having the tough conversation, asking for what you want. Whatever it is. You can spend years of your life avoiding things that might only take a day, 2 weeks, or 3 months to do. 2. **You cultivate and reinforce the virtue of courage.** You begin to embody courage more effortlessly. Although I hope that completing the list will shift your life positively, the outcome of executing it is less important than actually mustering the courage and follow-through it requires. **Zoomed out over decades, building the virtue of courage is far more beneficial than the outcome of any single item on the list.** So what you get rejected? So what you made a mistake? So what the project didn't work? Quite frankly, until you've tried, you'll never know. Maybe—just maybe—things will end up better than you could ever imagine. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be free from harm. May you be at peace. **May this be your Year of Courage.** Live fiercely, EB. 🦁 ps: If there's interest (aka new questions), I'd love to do new Q&A posts. [First one](https://www.zenmedicine.co/answering-questions/), [second one](https://www.zenmedicine.co/answers-2/), [third one](https://www.zenmedicine.co/answering-your-questions-pt-3/). If you've got a curiosity, [submit it here](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co) please. 😄 ### Ho’oponopono. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/hooponopono/ Last updated: 2025-10-20T15:49:07.000Z > “You say that you are sometimes experiencing > the great silence and immensity of being, > and you would like to always be in that experience. > But the truth is > you are the great silence > and immensity of being > in whose vastness the sense of someone > dreaming about discovering and remaining > in the immensity of being > is appearing.” — Mooji, [White Fire](https://mooji.org/books/white-fire-2?ref=zenmedicine.co). ### The most ancient Buddha’s still only dream of coming up with a mantra as potent as the Hawaiian’s... [Ho’oponopono](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho%CA%BBoponopono?ref=zenmedicine.co) is a Hawaiian spiritual practice of reconciliation and forgiveness that will crack you open if you let it. It means ‘to put right’. It was developing to restore relationships and connections amongst individuals, communities, cultures. A beautiful practice, one that could only emerge from a territory as beautiful as the Hawaiian islands themselves. > Thank you. > I love you. > I’m sorry. > Forgive me. Whenever I’m deep in the mud, there are two ways I use this that always get me somewhere: ### 1\. Play With the Order. Repeat it like a mantra. If it doesn’t hit deep, switch up the order and you’ll find one that lands. Say it to yourself, to another person, to all people, to an event, God, a lost pet, whatever it is. - Thank you. I love you. I’m sorry. Forgive me. - Forgive me. I’m sorry. I love you. Thank you. - I love you. I’m sorry. Thank you. Forgive me. - I’m sorry. Forgive me. Thank you. I love you. You get the idea. One of them will be the order that lands for your current circumstance. Repeat it as needed, spoken like a mantra. ### 2\. Spill It All. The second variation is to take each line as a starting prompt. Pour your heart out into each stem. Sharing, writing, speaking anything and everything that is there to be said. - **Thank you…** for the laughs, for your wisdom, for the time we shared together, that time you drove over to my house… - **I love you…** you are amazing, you care so much, I love that silly thing you do, and I love that you’ve always been there for me… - **I’m sorry…** I’m sorry for the pain I caused you, for the way I failed you, for the way this happened, for my weakness, my humanness, my foolishness, that time I lied because I was uncomfortable… - **Forgive me…** for the wrongs, the misunderstandings, the hurt… Bonus points if you write this out as a letter. It's a cathartic experience whether you ever give it to the person or not. Particularly effective to do this practice for yourself. Emotional catharsis and reconcilitation doesn't need to be fancy. Sometimes, 4 simple lines will do the trick. Thank you. I love you. I'm sorry. Forgive me. EB. 🙏🏻 ### The Tamamuri Tales. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/tamamuri-tales/ Last updated: 2025-10-12T18:18:23.000Z > *"The plants look down on us from their position of wisdom and age, 500 million years of evolution and survival, as against 2.4 million for the Homo genus and barely 300,000 years for Homo sapiens, the newcomer. If we show them love, they are prepared to help us, but they test and challenge us, each in their own way.”* — Yves Duc, [Ayahuasca: From Serpent to Jaguar](https://www.amazon.com/Ayahuasca-Serpent-Amazonian-Shamanic-Education/dp/9896771995?ref=zenmedicine.co). *Oh, how my heart wishes I could make this longer. I would write a poetic tome dedicated to Tamamuri. Alas, my free time is limited, and something in me won't publish anything else until this piece goes live. Here we go...* ## Tamamuri. Gran hermano. Gran maestro. Irake. Irake *(ee-rah-kuh, Shipibo for thank you)*. Icha bires irake *(thank you so much)*. **What an unbelievable initiation.** A month with a master tree and ancient doctor. Every diet is game-changing. Establishing new, preposterous levels for what is possible and probable in medicine work. What a strong, gentle, and generous spirit. A big brother in more ways than one. I became a stronger, better man through this process—receiving gifts I can only hope to repay through good deeds in this lifetime. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/10/bear.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/10/Tamamuri-Bear-Bone-Doctor.jpg) Tamamuri's Oso (Bear) & Rokotoro (Doctor) forms. ## Meeting the Bone Dragon. In my [preview post](https://www.zenmedicine.co/tamamuri-the-bear-bone-doctor/) I shared two images of Tamamuri, his doctor and tree/bear form. I anticipated a meeting with a grizzly, maybe a polar bear, for novelty. ### While his overbearing stature was undeniably felt, Tamamuri appeared to me in an unexpected form: **The River Dragon.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/10/IMG_8420.JPG) Aquamarine serpentine form and fluidity. Undulating patterns of hyperfluorescent scales. A strong and fluid force. Mythologically gorgeous. Meeting and working with Tamamuri felt a lot like this picture of Haku, the river dragon spirit from the Studio Ghibli masterpiece [Spirited Away](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited%5FAway?ref=zenmedicine.co). The size differential is accurate. **With all the gentleness of Haku and all the ferocity of a great dragon, Tamamuri and I got some serious work done. Hard, difficult, but important work.** Surprisingly, there is one other characteristic known to Tamamuri that I didn’t highlight earlier but was ever-present throughout my diet: *mercury*. Tamamuri is associated with lakes of mercury. Liquid metal. Why? I don’t know. You might notice the grey mercury at the center of the ripples in his doctor photo. ### The Great Presence. The first ceremony indicated what was to come. Without announcement, hugging my knees on a small mat in the blackness of the jungles of Mexico, a shudder ripples down my spine as my hair stands on end... I feel a *gigantic* presence bearing down on me. Like a living skyscraper breathing down my neck, the size of the felt presence and the magnitude of its force shook me to my core. Then, the organic building *moved*. Slowly circling me. Step. Step. Step. Sizing me up, taking a good look at the tiny being curled up on his mat. Making its judgments. *“This is the great tree I’m meant to work with!? How on Earth can I manage this thing? This presence is intimidating, impressive, downright flabbergasting.“* I learned very quickly the difference in scale between a plant diet and a tree diet. Which should be obvious, given the size differential between a plant and the giant trees of the Amazon. *This is going to be a long month…* ### The Adamantium Infusion. Tamamuri is the unparalleled plant doctor of all things blood, spine, and bone. To provide another example, a practitioner here at the center right now also loved her Tamamuri diet: because it *corrected a slipped disc in her spine.* It's truly remarkable what diets are capable of handling. This next ceremony—with the connection now online—delivered in full. What I experienced I can only describe as an *adamantium infusion*. You remember Wolverine was upgraded by having his skeleton infused with [adamantium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamantium?ref=zenmedicine.co), a super-strong, quasi-liquid, mythical metal. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-11-at-20.26.58.png) In a painful and terrifyingly beautiful process, I was strapped to a surgical table as my bones and skeletal structure were infused with Tamamuri’s liquid mercury. I could feel it soak through bone and marrow, repairing cracks, injecting the living liquid lifeforce contained in this Tree-Teachers essence into me. Afterward, my entire visual field was coated in a living, dynamic quicksilver. A beautiful multi-chromatic metal overlay. An internal suit of armour, protecting and repairing a skeletal structure so desperately in need of it. *Unbreakable*. An untold level of strength and stability grew out of me in the days that followed. Posture improved. Breath slowed. Presence anchored. The first of many gifts that I would come to receive from my Big Brother. ### Psycho-Physical Chiropractics. Undoubtedly, the most insane/incredible experience I have ever had. Deep into the second week of ascetic adherences, approaching the halfway point in ceremony, Tamamuri in his doctor form *materialized in front of me*, clear as day in the dead of night. I could feel his pressure, see his movements, and could only bear witness as he got to work. Dancing around my chest and shoulders, he embarked on a psycho-physiological chiropractic session that I could never have guessed was physically or metaphysically possible. Placing one hand along my right jaw, the other pressing up against my right shoulder… *“take a deep breath,”* he whispered into me—**BAM!**—pulling and rotating head away from shoulder, popped my snowboarding-injured shoulder into new alignment. Pops of bones adjusting rippled through the maloka like firecrackers. Twisting my head back to look almost directly behind me… '*breathe, child’*—**BAM!**—another gigantic pop. Sat out in the Mexican jungle, rippling like Snap, Crackle, & Pop children’s cereal. As the physical adjustments were made, psychological restructurings snapped into place. **POP!** *“Ahh, I see how I haven’t been relating to my friend in the right way.”* **SNAP!** *“Ah yeah, I need to set a clear boundary here and this is why I feel frustrated.”* **CRACK!** *“Oh I’ve been justifying this addiction as something necessary for the work I do.”* Mental patterning pops into place alongside limbs and joints. Another reminder that there *is no real separation between mind and body.* A painful, beautiful, paradigm-shifting chiropractic session from the Bone Dragon. Not a bad Tuesday night. My body is limber, my thinking clear, my actions direct, and my spine strong. Irake, Tamamuri. ### Resolving the Shakes. I began this diet with the dream of being able to understand and resolve the hand tremors I have had for god-knows-how-long. I don’t remember a time without them. **This was Tamamuri’s greatest gift, and his most painful teaching.** It took a week of digging down. Painful ceremonies, emotional unsteadiness, lack of sleep and malnutrition set in, psychological resistance flares up, and confusion abounds. In a particularly challenging ceremony, with Tamamuri *drilling down my spine* like a dentist’s drill (remember that BZZZ from your childhood? Yeah.), a small voice whispered into my awareness... > *“Why does he get the cool dragon but I get the dentists drill?”* …wait a minute. *Who is talking? Is that me, talking to myself, about myself, from the third person? Who is the “he” and who is the “I” in this situation, when they are both me?* Some deep psychological fragmentation was revealing itself. Kind of terrifying to hear a part of yourself talk about yourself that you never knew existed. Tamamuri's drilling opened up a cave in visionary space, some cave deep inside of me, where a part of me was closed off. Some part of me, deeply disconnected from myself and my everyday psyche… ***who?*** It took a week of rigorous investigation and nervous system decompression *(getting closer to this inner self was wildly triggering)*, I discovered who it was: **me in my late teens/early twenties.** I had an incredibly difficult stretch for a few years, some of which I’ve alluded to in [“On Depression”](https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-depression/), but that wasn’t even the half of it. [On Depression.Painting the crushing picture of depression, and all that remains.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-15.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/blue-1.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-depression/) What I realized, agonizingly, is that he was ***terrified***. I spent years slowly losing grip on reality. I was frightened, alone, the ground of intelligibility crumbling beneath me, not understanding what was reality, fantasy, where my life was going or what narrative I could nest it within. Dreams blended into waking life, waking life dancing the fine line between death and madness. This part of me—the innocent, terrified boy—was locked away. So deeply repressed I had forgotten how challenging that period of life was. **It was this terror, the living terror locked away inside of me, repressed and regressed out of mind, that was manifesting itself in my nervous system as hand tremors.** *There it is!* The origin—the root cause—of the shakes. For 14 years, I have wondered why my hands shook. 14 years without an answer. It was Tamamuri’s spinal drilling, digging deep into the forgotten emotional caves of an Eric-long-since-passed, that helped me realize why this was happening. With Tamamuri’s loving care and some serious [IFS-style parts work](https://ifs-institute.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) over the next few days, I was able to reconnect with this part of myself, to process and release the existential terror that was living inside of me, and like clockwork, the shakes reduced. They are \~90% better now. My hands are steady, for the most part. There’s still some work to do to release the residue of the remaining emotional burden, but at least the path is clear, and it’s already substantially better. *Unbelievable.* **Repressed emotional pain manifesting as chronic physiological symptoms, resolved in sacred process with a master tree. You can’t make this stuff up.** ### The Gap of Thought & Action. One of the more subtle teachings and gifts from Tamamuri bubbled slowly into consciousness over the course of weeks. It was difficult to track at first, but it became increasingly obvious as the month progressed. **The gap, the fundamental distance between thought and action, was closing.** How often do you think *“I should do X…”* and how long does it take you to do it? Sometimes minutes, sometimes weeks. Things are put off, delayed, procrastinated, hesitated on, feet-dragged. Rumination kicks in, important things are forgotten, escapes and distractions are found. **How much of life is lost in this tiny, vast chasm: the space between thought and action?** Ideally, as a fully integrated being, your action *is* your thought. Your thought is your action. What you do is what you think. No resistance, no hesitation, no confusion, no rumination. Think. Act. Act. Think. No difference. *Zen is a very good discipline for this. We'll save that for a future piece.* Although I can’t claim this total integration yet, I notice a dramatic closing of the gap. From difficult conversations to cleaning the room, the gap between *“I should/want to do this”* and *“I am doing this now”* has shrunk. That is a true gift. And in large part, it came because Tamamuri does not accept excuses. There is no bullshitting a master. No sloppy thinking. No sloppy acting. No escape when they live inside you. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Reminds me of my older piece, [“Stop Plashing Around.”](https://www.zenmedicine.co/stop-plashing-around/) [Stop Plashing Around 🤭No, that’s not a typo…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-16.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/1b326ea5-5e52-4a88-b2e6-b9b470a4d823_3840x2160-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/stop-plashing-around/) ## Integration. So much integration to do, so little time to do it. On one hand, honouring the lessons learned and seeing the fruit that will be borne from the seeds that were planted here will be the work of my lifetime. There's a lot to do. Rooting down into my authority, my path, my practice, my [Yakudō](https://www.zenmedicine.co/yakudo-the-way-of-medicine/). Speaking more clearly, moving with intent, simplifying even further. And hopefully, to the best of my meagre ability: channelling the almighty natural force of this giant Amazonian master tree into some incredible and impeccable essays. On the other hand, I start my month-long Coca diet in 1.5 weeks. *No rest for the wicked, eh?* Here's a sneak preview: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-11-at-20.43.10.png) Buckle up, cowboy! We're veering into Inca territory and visiting their most sacred plant: the coca leaf. Solar consciousness and mental architecture. Let the games begin. ## I love you, Tamamuri. I had no concept of what we could do together, but I’m glad we did it. Your teachings were firm but wise. Your healing bitter, but necessary. You’ve given me the uprightness, stability, rooting, and readjustments I was hoping for. **May we live and work together in the service of others for years to come.** Irake, EB. 🐉 ### The Way of the Superior Man. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-way-of-the-superior-man/ Last updated: 2025-09-27T14:37:47.000Z > “The way a man penetrates the world should be the same way he penetrates his woman: not merely for personal gain or pleasure, but to magnify love, openness, and depth.” ## I have never highlighted & bookmarked any single book or paper more than this one... And honestly, that's saying a lot. I finished my second rigorous re-read of [The Way of the Superior Man](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Superior-Man-Challenges-Anniversary/dp/1622038320/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mtJhrhvZt-B0Kmqx%5FDX8XyXLZdEbELM4%5FQGpi1HGPZguIHV3Xg7GS41g1xX3ImSJvOZmZegaIhlFTFsLxLOpHyXg79yVexzeqK%5FSYarLDPOQ-fLdV0j4obKa3%5FfTgUgPI3lr7QMYyJPBWRzsL80l121PNm7bMITEVxWIwrtIdzV%5FaLGU8MyYQUskzB0SzE3i1Ksen81bwbhaKH5hmW66RB9p7JCzcKL-%5FCNjbVa-KuM.yzIUmuaX22xVEuStvluieEHSKH9cy5-phRUS8HLqqA8&dib%5Ftag=se&keywords=way+of+the+superior+man&qid=1758911129&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co). It's fitting that this is the first book commentary I release here. **Deida is a heart-integrated Nietzsche. He packs more substance in a single sentence than most modern self-help authors muster in an entire book.** > “Men who have lived significant lives are men who never waited: not for money, security, ease, or women. Feel what you want to give most as a gift, to your woman and to the world, and do what you can to give it today. Every moment waited is a moment wasted, and each wasted moment degrades your clarity of purpose.” *Every chapter hits me like an essay I wish I had written...* Deeper than this, part of me weeps—with the red rush of anger sparking inside of me—wishing I had heard just a single one of these lines from any male role model growing up. > “Everything in your life, from your diet to your career, must be aligned with your purpose if you are to act with coherence and integrity in the world. If you know your purpose, your deepest desire, then the secret of success is to discipline your life so that you support your deepest purpose and minimize distractions and detours.” I was speaking with a friend last week, and we ended up on gender dysphoria, transgenderism, and the future of the sexes. He put his position quite succinctly: > "It doesn't much matter, in 100 years this will all be commonplace and there will be no genders, no gender differences." I disagreed... **I see a possible and probable future where we go further than we've ever gone into recognizing, appreciating, and embracing gender differences.** In the past, gender roles were 'forced'—you couldn't break out of the pattern even if you wanted to. In modern culture, we've broken those moulds; no longer can gender roles be forced. Men can express emotion, women can pursue worldly success. In the future, I believe men and women will voluntarily embrace their differences, and we'll unlock the true genius of humanity that arises from the fierce and passionate sexual polarity between the genders. > “One of the deepest feminine desires in intimacy is precisely not to have to always figure it out for her man and guide him.” ### The Way of the Superior Man is the blueprint for how to dive deep into the heart, power, and purpose of the Sacred Masculine. His thesis and supporting arguments are simple in theory, and an entire discipline to pursue in practice: - Find your deepest truth and live from that place. Grounded in certainty, strength, and core confidence—in pursuit of your mission. - There is no meaningful difference between how you treat your woman and how you treat your life. - Lead with the love, strength, direction, purpose, and passion that is your birthright and inheritance as a man. Your woman and your world want to feel that, and respond positively to it. > “The most loving women are the women who will test you the most. She wants you to be your fullest, most magnificent self. She won’t settle for anything less. She knows it is true of you. She knows in your deepest heart you are free, you are Shiva. Anything less than that she will torment. And, as you know, she’s quite good at it.” The book is a series of 50 mini-essays filled with bangers like these, covering his 3 core themes of purpose, women, and harnessing sexual energy. It's linguistic dynamite. Detonating outdated models of masculinity, inviting you with love and firmness to own your purpose and be the man you are in your Truth and Fullness. It is written for heterosexual men, with a masculine essence, about relating with women of a feminine essence. Even if you are a woman, or are in an alternative sexual/relational dynamic, there is deep wisdom here for anyone who chooses to flip through these pages. > “The superior man is not seeking for fulfillment through work and woman, because he is already full. For him, work and intimacy are opportunities to give his gifts, and be vanished in the bliss of the giving.” Enjoy, EB. 🔥 ### Tamamuri: The Bear Bone Doctor. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/tamamuri-the-bear-bone-doctor/ Last updated: 2025-09-12T14:45:57.000Z **Finding free time here has proven more challenging than first imagined. Nevertheless, the writing continues! Thank you to those who have replied to the last few pieces, it’s always a joy to hear from you.* 🦁 EB. ## This week, I began my first month-long diet of a master tree: Tamamuri. I wrote about master plant diets in [The Marosa Meditations](https://www.zenmedicine.co/marosa-meditations/) and [Yakudō: The Way of Medicine](https://www.zenmedicine.co/yakudo-the-way-of-medicine/). [Yakudō: The Way of Medicine.Exploring medicine as martial art and mastery path.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-13.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/Yang----Name-Clash-2024-08-14-6D4XYVq----1.jpeg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/yakudo-the-way-of-medicine/) I get to diet for half the time I’m here: 4 of 8 months. If all goes according to plan, I start with **Tamamuri** for a month, followed by **Coca** (the sacred plant of the Incas) for another month, and conclude with 2 months of **Shihuahuaco**, the Tree of Life in the Shipibo cosmovision. I began this apprenticeship with the intent to change. To step into a fundamentally new level of personal evolution. Over the last 7 weeks, I’ve started to see the vision of the great curriculum Remi & the plants have in store for me: - **Body:** Tamamuri and nervous system restructuring. - **Mind:** Coca and upgrading cognitive architecture. - **Spirit:** Shihuahuaco and stepping into nobility, dignity, and sacred masculinity. **One step at a time, and Tamamuri is up first.** --- ## Addressing the Shakes. **Tamamuri came to me for a rather painful reason: my body—particularly my bone structure—has taken a considerable beating over my 3+ decades here on Earth...** Sitting in ceremony, I was bombarded with memories, flashbacks, and acute pains, specifically in the areas of my body that had experienced severe bone-level damage before. A fractured wrist, broken bones in my hand, untreated concussions, stitches in my face, a mangled shoulder from snowboarding, and all variety of bails and fails from a decade spent in the skatepark, on the ski hill, and playing contact hockey as a teenager. I sat there and wept, realizing the sheer amount of pain my body has endured, and how much the living memory of these experiences remains inside me today. **For as long as I can remember, my hands have trembled slightly.** Nothing too serious. You won’t notice it unless you look for it. But from my teenage years, these shakes pushed me away from artistic outlets like drawing or photography… because I could never keep my hands still enough to make it work. I don’t struggle with anxiety—it’s not pre-panic attack jitters. I spoke to my teachers about this, and Ashley nailed it: *“Your body is constantly bracing for impact.”* Remi called it a ‘relic’, the result of decades of pain stored in the nervous system. My body is just constantly—chronically—expecting pain to be right around the corner. Yikes. **So, like any good diagnosis, we found a treatment: Tamamuri.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/09/Tamamuri-site.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/09/tamamurirokotoro.jpg) Tamamuri in his Bear and Doctor forms, by friend and visionary artist [Quentin Pouyat](https://qpouyat.wixsite.com/quentin-art/about?ref=zenmedicine.co). ## The Spine Surgeon: From Biomedicine to Shamanism. Known to biomedicine and Peruvian shamanism as the ‘bone doctor’, Tamamuri *(*[*Brosimum acutifolium*](https://rain-tree.com/tamamuri.htm?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=In%20Brazilian%20herbal%20medicine%20the%20tree%20is,well%20as%20for%20gastric%20ulcers%20and%20skin)*)* is a specialist at all things bones, spine, and blood. Tamamuri is an Amazonian tree in the fig family that grows close to the rivers, and has a latex-rich bark. In herbal medicine across the Amazon, the leaves, bark, and latex are used for their strong anti-inflammatory and blood purifying properties, treating conditions like arthritis, rheumatism, joint pain, and general swelling. Beyond this, Tamamuri is fantastic at resolving back pain and problems, particularly anything related to the spine. **Stepping into Amazonian shamanism, Tamamuri is a great teacher in helping you ‘have a spine’—metaphorically speaking.** Endurance, resilience, uprightness—Tamamuri delivers a curriculum that helps the dieter develop a psycho-spiritual spine that the rest of their psyche can rest comfortably on. Tamamuri often takes the form of a giant bear, or a wise elder male, and is known to give strict yet loving lessons to the dieter. - Medicine sees Tamamuri as anti-inflammatory and immunomodulating. - Folk herbalism sees Tamamuri as a purifier, blood & bone healer. - Shamanism sees Tamamuri as an ally of fortitude, endurance, and life-force restructuring. *All to say… I’m stoked.* This will be the longest diet I’ve ever done, having done 2 weeks with Marosa last November, and 3 weeks with Ajo Sacha several years back. --- ## A Stricter Regimen. **Trees are categorically different than plants, however. They are an order of magnitude more formidable in their teachings and in their expectations.** Tamamuri in particular is sensitive to sugar, and so all fruit and honey is off the table. So it's one month of: - No salt, oils, meat/chicken, fruit/honey, spice, caffeine, alcohol/drugs. - No music, movies/TV, sex/masturbation/sexual thoughts, direct sunlight. - Plain oatmeal, lentils, white rice, white fish, potatoes, water, and chamomile tea only. - \~1 cup of Tamamuri tea a day, made by heavily boiling the bark in water. I’m wildly excited. I hope to make real progress in decompressing my nervous system from decades of pain, get a ferocious chiropractic readjustment of my physical and psycho-spiritual skeletons, and become a better man in the process. I’ll share more in **The Tamamuri Tales** once the month is complete. Wish me luck, this should be a big one. With love, EB. 🌳 ### Accept All Challenges. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/accept-all-challenges/ Last updated: 2025-09-08T14:13:07.000Z ## It does not matter what is in front of you… - Relationship drama. - Work struggles. - Annoying person on the subway. - Old patterns of behaviour. - Unresolved issues with your parents. - A friend is MIA and ghosting you. - Fear of the presentation you have to give. - Awkwardness of learning a new skill. **Accept all challenges. Immediately. Without hesitation.** Do not avoid. Squirm. Deflect. Deny. Avoid. Escape. What is paramount is the fundamental principle—[the posture](https://www.zenmedicine.co/adopt-the-posture/)—beneath all challenges: *you face life head on.* You go *forward*. You *persist* through what is *resisting* you. No challenge is ‘beneath you’. No problem is too big or too small for the totality of your spirit. This isn’t a deviation from your path. This *is* your path. This is your life, happening right in front of you, waiting for you to meet it fully. How do you possibly know that the Curriculum life is giving you is not exactly what you need, precisely when you need it? Since when did you have a sound grasp on the workings of [Almighty Impenetrable](https://www.zenmedicine.co/dont-lose-the-mystery/)? - *“I’m working on scaling my company, and this relationship drama is stupid, I don’t have time to deal with it.”* - *“This is too much for me, I can’t handle all of this responsibility and uncertainty.”* - *“Why does my partner still not trust me? Why are we still arguing about the dishes? Why is this happening? It’s so trivial.”* - *“I’m too depressed to do anything today, no way I can take the walk or get on my yoga mat.”* **No.** This is *the* moment. *Your* moment. *Your* challenge. *And you accept all challenges.* Life is giving you a gift. The healthy dynamic tension required to bring a new level of mastery out of you. The side conversation with the stranger at the coffee shop may hold the answer to the relationship problem you haven’t solved. The momentary delay in your commute is saving you from a head-on collision. Learning how to lead your team is teaching you how to lead yourself. **Face life head-on. Unflinching. Unblinking. Unbreakable.** *It does not matter what is in front of you...* Nothing is beneath you. Nothing is beyond your reach. You were made for times like these, EB. ### Flawless Fundamentals. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/flawless-fundamentals/ Last updated: 2025-09-04T20:37:47.000Z > Be flawless on the fundamentals. ## It is this simple—and this difficult... Whatever thing you’re working on: a strong body, calm mind, deep relationship, financial abundance, meaningful work, spiritual discipline, dazzling smile, healthy hair. **Big or small, tangible or immaterial, it boils down to being flawless on the fundamentals.** Exercise 3 times a week. Meditate for 10 minutes every morning. Call your friend. Save more than you spend. Give 20 minutes daily to your passion project. Floss. The fundamentals are more basic than you imagine: - It's not 'pick a hardcore training challenge and do it every day'—it's 'move your body vigorously, regulary'. - It's not 'try the new narrative structuring novel format'—it's 'sit down and write 500 words'. - It's not 'jump into the ketogenic intermittent fasting protocols'—it's 'drink water and eat a healthy meal'. - It's not 'take the coaches coaching coaches incubator'—it's 'create a thing people can buy and tell them about it'. You distract yourself with trivialities, fads, hacks, and the latest flashy snakeoil salesman poking at your deep insecurities to flip a quick buck. ***You can safely ignore nearly everything.*** It’s all noise. Distraction. Vanity. Do you *really* need the shiny software to write your book? Is that missing supplement the *real* obstacle in your health journey? *Sometimes* yes, you're at the deep optimization stage, and these minor tweaks become high-leverage unlocks. *But is that really where you're at right now with this thing you want to do?* Jack Dorsey was the CEO of Twitter and Square simultaneously, using only the Notes app on his iPhone. > jack dorsey ([@jack](https://twitter.com/jack?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=zenmedicine.co)) is forever goated to run twitter (and square) thru just his notes app. [pic.twitter.com/tH0ZtiwDhe](https://t.co/tH0ZtiwDhe?ref=zenmedicine.co) > > — gaurav (@gaxrav) [August 30, 2024](https://twitter.com/gaxrav/status/1829373047972700584?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=zenmedicine.co) > "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." — Bruce Lee ## Return, over and over, to the fundamentals. Then, execute them flawlessly. Do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, do better. You don't need authoritarian self-punishment for this. Life happens. You stray from the Way. Just breathe, pick yourself up, and return to the fundamentals. Work out. Write. Meditate. Eat real food. Do them for 1000 days straight. You want the answer to be flashy. You want it to sound cool when you share your story in the mythical autobiography someone is going to write about you in 20 years. You want ayahuasca to drop a mind-bending insight on you that it auto-magically sorts out every one of your problems. Get over yourself. This is how you *overcome* yourself. This is how you get out of your own way. Your ego is the obstacle. Agency isn’t about *fancy*. It’s about *fundamentals*. It’s aiming at *flawlessness*. Don’t break the streak. Do it with proper form. Don’t make excuses. Don’t quit. **Do. The. Thing.** Writing a 100,000-word book is just the ugly process of sitting down 100 times and banging out 1000 words. Followed by a dozen editing sessions. That’s it. **The idea that you haven’t found the ‘perfect answer’ or the ‘right tool’ is simply *resistance*.** *You can do it.* Just be flawless on the fundamentals, EB. ### Yakudō: The Way of Medicine. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/yakudo-the-way-of-medicine/ Last updated: 2025-09-04T01:03:28.000Z ## "Medicine isn’t something that I have. It’s a path that I walk…” My teacher Ashley casually dropped this incredible banger in one of our recent integration circles. *Something has been stirring deep inside me lately...* The singularity between martial arts, medicine work, and self-mastery is revealing itself. The grand unifying equation is slowly surfacing. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/08/teacher-copy-3.jpg) ## 薬道 Yakudō: The Way of Medicine. A neologism I created last week, combining the Japanese word for ‘medicine’ with the classic suffix ‘-dō’ meaning Way, from the ancient Taoist Dao. You’ve seen this combination before in more popular terms like: budo (The Martial Way), bushido (The Way of the Warrior), kendo (The Way of the Sword), judo (The Gentle Way), cha dao (The Way of Tea). ## The Great Way. **Translated literally, the -dō suffix refers to a way, path, course, or road in a literal sense.** But true to its Taoist roots, -dō/Dao refers to the Great Way, the ordering principle underlying all things. It’s not a thing, it’s an unfolding pattern. The flow of Life. The ordering of Reality. It is a *verb*. A process. The term touches two levels simultaneously: the cosmic (ground of being), and the practical (how to walk, talk, act, cultivate yourself). When you add -dō onto something, you’re saying, *“this isn’t just a thing, this is a path of self-cultivation that brings you into deeper alignment with the Great Way.”* > "Once you know the Way broadly, you can see it in all things." — Miyamoto Musashi ## The Way of Medicine. I’ve written previously on [Medicine as Sacred Practice](https://www.zenmedicine.co/medicine-is-a-sacred-practice/). You are an evolving, dynamic being. Health, wholeness, and self-mastery are not static milestones to be reached and then discarded. [Medicine is a Sacred Practice.The art, science, dance, and discipline of bringing people back to life.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-12.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/blossoms.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/medicine-is-a-sacred-practice/) **We can get esoteric and say that The Way of Medicine is the art and discipline of *becoming medicinal*.** Through disciplined practice and technical study, you become a medicinal force in people’s lives. You refine your ethical standards, increase your technical skills, reinforce your commitment, master your passions, and become someone whose mere presence is healing. You radiate joy, equanimity, courage, passion, and sacred purpose—and people *regulate themselves* into deeper alignment with the Great Way through you. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/08/The-Jungle-Trifecta-Plant.jpg) ## Master Plant Diets & Traditional Healers. **This is the part where we get extremely literal about Medicine as Mastery Path...** [The Marosa Meditations Pt.1Love, fear, & loathing in the heart of the jungle.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-11.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/illustration-banner.png)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/marosa-meditations/) I wrote an [introduction to master plant diets](https://www.zenmedicine.co/marosa-meditations/) in my Marosa recap. Master plant diets are the highest healing art of the Shipibo-Conibo people: > *"A master plant diet is a complex and rigorous discipline in which a connection between the dieter and plant spirit is made and nurtured. The master plant transmits guidance, healing, teachings, and energy (medicinal or otherwise) to the dieter.”* When you diet a master plant, you attain and maintain an *energetic imprint* of the *medicinal energy* of that plant. That connection—the medicinal force—lives inside of you. **You become a *living steward of medicinal energy*.** When you sit down in front of a *curandero* and they sing their *icaro* to you, they are accessing the medicinal energy of the plant(s) they have dieted that are most appropriate to treat the problem you have, and together—healer and plant—they begin a surgical process of cleaning you out. To give you a snapshot, here's what we've helped people work on over just the last month here: - Process of individuation - Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) repair and recovery - Chronic fatigue syndrome - Treatment-resistant depression - Ritualistic childhood sexual abuse - Every flavour of sadness, grief, anger, jealousy, rage, despair, lack of confidence **Curanderos are quite literally living, walking, breathing apothecaries of master plant medicines.** *This is one of the most sophisticated and incredible technologies humans have ever discovered and refined in the history of this planet.* There is a challenge, however. This energy is *delicate*. It must be maintained, nurtured, cultivated, and, like all plants, kept in an environment that is conducive to its growth. **But what then, if the environment this energy lives in is inside your own mind-body-spirit complex?** Recreational drugs, alcohol, junk food, toxic emotions, unaligned behaviours, addictions, pornography. All of these are harmful to the medicinal energy of the plants, and you can damage or lose the connection you have established by engaging in them. **The deeper you go into the Way of Medicine, the greater the degree of Self-Mastery it demands of you.** The Way of Medicine is a fierce undertaking. It is—*very literally*—a martial art. An ancient discipline and healing practice. A complete path. It is responsibility and stewardship. Ethics and integrity. Health and wholeness. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/08/maloka.png) ## 薬道場 Yakudōjō: Place of the Medicine Way. *Here's the best part...* **There is one other famous Japanese suffix we can riff with: '-jo' (place/field/ground).** You recognize this from the classic ‘dōjō’ – literally ‘Place of the Way’. The dojo is the hall, the building, the temple, the training ground for disciples of the Way. Academies, schools, arenas, monasteries, and temples—places in the world singularly focused on cultivating certain skillsets or attitudes are extremely helpful, and oftentimes necessary for the discipline to thrive and survive. So from our Way of Medicine we get the **Yakudojo: Place of the Medicine Way.** As I’ve [pointed out before](https://www.zenmedicine.co/jungle-trifecta/), Kumankaya comes close to this. Part university, part hospital, part monastery, part temple. [The Jungle Trifecta.Part university, part hospital, part monastery.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-10.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/plant.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/jungle-trifecta/) The place of the way of medicine. I feel a fierce calling to explore this idea in greater depth. I hope these early off-the-cuff notes landed. More to come. **YAKUDŌ: THE WAY OF MEDICINE.** With love, EB. 🐉 ### The Opposite of Suicide II. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/opposite-of-suicide-ii/ Last updated: 2025-08-16T14:56:07.000Z **Back on the* [**opposite of suicide kick*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-opposite-of-suicide/)**. This had the strongest response to anything I’ve ever written. My old HighExistence essay,* [**"The Ridiculously Obvious Meaning of Life"*](https://www.highexistence.com/obvious-purpose-life/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *is a close second. Now, the time has come. Let’s dig deeper, down into the next layer.* ## Suicide, the ultimate and final act, is never a spontaneous event. There are months—sometimes *years*—of deliberation. Innumerable missed opportunities, self-sabotaging decisions, overwhelming pain, careful planning. Suicide is the invisible, unspoken death by 1000 cuts that culminates in a great and final crescendo. **But as we’ve discussed, if suicide exists, its equal opposite must also exist.** [The Opposite of Suicide.A radical decision to come fully into life.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-8.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/seppuku.jpeg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-opposite-of-suicide/) ## Similarly, the *opposite* of suicide is not a singular, spontaneous event. It too is the result of deliberate planning, profound contemplation, self-affirming decisions, intentionally cultivating joy, and fierce vitality through 1000 tiny victories. **What is most important is that the opposite of suicide *also* culminates in an ultimate and final act: the lion’s roar.** An absolute decision. A *permanent* yes. Complete openness to Reality. A solemn and profound commitment to check in and show up fully from that point forward. You sit here now, reading this, nodding along, stroking your ego, imagining that you have already made this solemn commitment to Life. That you have already made the Absolute Decision. *Be honest with yourself...* This is between You and God. A private pact between Creator and Creation... - How many innumerable ways do you run away from life each day? - How much of yourself are you still holding back from the world? - How frequently do you resist the present reality of your experience? You’re tempted to *maybe* admit that you resist Life once or twice a day. A few moments of anxiety here, a delayed email reply over there. How about once or twice a *second*? How vast our range of resistance is. How frequent the moments of fear. How many psychological defence mechanisms have you carefully constructed around your heart? How sophisticated is the labyrinth you’ve built to prevent anyone from discovering *who you are*? Every distracted twitch to your phone. Every statement withheld out of fear. Every dream abandoned. Every duty left unattended. Every friendship neglected. Every contraction in the body, every pang of anxiety, every habit streak broken, every… **IS THIS THE FULLNESS OF YOUR SPIRIT, BROTHER?** IS THIS YOUR FULL LION’S ROAR? Where is the fire in your eyes? Where is the gravity behind your commitment? When did you accept this level of complacency? When did you abandon yourself? What do you mean you were tired today? What are you saying, you’ll ‘get to it later’? Why are you starting that project ‘next week’ as if Monday has some Holy Significance to you? These are not the tiny victories toward full vitality. These are the tiny deaths that lead to annihilation. Are you LIVING or are you DYING? **CHOOSE.** Choose again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Immediately, instantly, infinitely. > “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune This Lion's Roar on the other side of the Final Fear leads you somewhere fairly close to the great [Bodhisattva Vow](https://www.zenmedicine.co/adopt-the-posture/) of Mahayana Buddhism: > *“For as long as space endures,* > *and so long as beings exist,* > *may I likewise remain,* > *to drive away the sorrows of this world.”* [Bodhisattva-Warriors: Mahakaruna for Eternity 📿Exploring the shared DNA between Warriors and Bodhisattvas.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-9.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/4c395d10-d8dc-439d-a906-eb7f79afaed9_1920x1080.webp)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/bodhisattva-warriors-mahakaruna-for/) The sacred yes to all Life. To all things, in all times, everywhere. Let me hear that roar, EB. 🦁 ### Adopt the Posture. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/adopt-the-posture/ Last updated: 2025-08-08T14:17:51.000Z ## Obsessing over the idea of ‘postures’ recently… - *The eager medical student furiously taking notes as they watch the lead surgeon perform a complex task.* - *The devoted monk in a deep reverential bow to his teacher.* - *The abusive drunk, asleep on the couch, empty beer bottle dangerously close to falling out of his hand as the TV glows in the background.* - *The yogi on their rubber runner mat, saluting the sun and the dawning of the light of day in a deep downward dog, the first red rays of sunlight glimmering off toned muscle.* These conjure a clear image in your mind. These are *postures*. Complete mind-body orientations. **They are an attitude; a relationship to life. A mindset carved in flesh. An existential mode made manifest.** - *Do you want to be a leader?* - *Do you want to be happy?* - *Do you want to be a loving partner?* - *Do you want to be an apprentice under masters?* **ADOPT THE POSTURE.** Step into the total mind-body orientation—the *asana*—the *posture* of that role, that identity, that expectation, that living relationship. What is the posture of a disciple of Zen? A successful AI tech entrepreneur? A wild and untamed writer? A passionate lover? A good person? Conjure the image. The attitude expressed through action over time. Notice where it differs from your current reality. Then… **ADOPT THE POSTURE.** Take total ownership and step into the existential orientation that is written in embodied language. In yoga philosophy and practice, these postures are called *asanas*. The definition of an asana is a *comfortable, steady position*. Yes, at the beginning, the posture is uncomfortable. You have to work out bio-psycho-spiritual knots in the body-mind complex before you settle comfortably into them. Often, you have to increase both your *flexibility* and your *strength* to unlock a new *asana*. Deep lesson in there for those paying attention. Eventually, you learn to access the posture, it becomes comfortable, and easy to hold over time. The once-foreign posture is now a *natural expression of who you are.* You say you want to be a student—‘always in beginner's mind’—but how teachable are you? Do you listen when someone gives you feedback? Do you pay close attention when someone is demonstrating a technique to you? Do you *lean in* to the lessons? Do you revel in mistakes as part of the mastery process? You say you want to be a leader—but are you someone worthy of being followed? Do you take proactive steps to carve order out of chaos? Are you a living example of ‘do what I say not what I do’ and somehow expect respect to just show up in front of you? **ADOPT. THE. POSTURE.** This is the subtle yet profound wisdom found within the internal martial arts—chi gong, tai chi, kung fu, yoga. They are *postures* and *forms*. The [8 Brocades](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpN3AcXLSSk&ref=zenmedicine.co) of the Shaolin. Warrior pose in yoga. You can learn more about the warrior spirit from holding warrior pose for 5 minutes straight than you can from most books. Discipline, courage, self-mastery, integrity, balance, purpose, devotion. It’s all there, written in the ancient embodied teaching of Warrior pose. Want to become more powerful? To move force in the world? This is not a theory; this is a practice. Train the [Shaolin elementary forms](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNNPYeBmmXk&ref=zenmedicine.co), and *learn how to generate power* in your body-mind. *What do you want?* *Who do you want to become?* *How do you want to show up in the world?* **Adopt the posture. Train the form. Embody the archetype. Ingrain it into your nervous system so deeply it becomes a natural Way of Being.** Don’t talk about it, *be about it*. EB. ### The Jungle Trifecta. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/jungle-trifecta/ Last updated: 2025-08-04T14:35:10.000Z **2 weeks into my 8+ month stay at* [**Kumankaya*](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**. The first week was a Bufo Facilitator Training/Immersion, which I’ll write about soon, and last week was the beginning of our regular season. It has been impeccably beautiful, deepening my commitment to this path, place, and practice.* ## University. Hospital. Monastery. To me, [Kumankaya](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is equal parts of all of them. The jungle trifecta. ### University. With several hundred books, 2 living master teachers, serene nature, a sprawling campus, and endless nights of ceremonial education, Kumankaya is a jungle university. My brother-in-arms Nic [wrote a brilliant piece](https://apotheosisretreat.substack.com/p/the-path-to-becoming-a-curandero) for Apotheosis, diving deeper into the frame of master plant diets (Kumankaya’s specialty) as a Jungle PhD. [The Path to Becoming a Curandero.Jungle University and learning vs. healing diets.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2F9a6d2b92-7741-49ef-93f5-f228da365272-2Fapple-touch-icon-180x180.png)ApotheosisNicholas Stubbs![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2Fa8cf8714-834e-4013-98c6-0064ba009b2f_2048x2048.png)](https://apotheosisretreat.substack.com/p/the-path-to-becoming-a-curandero) **Some master plant diets are *teaching diets*: you are there to learn.** You study Shipibo—the indigenous ceremonial language used in this lineage—while learning how to work with visions, the medicine, and the Shipibo healing art. It is a long, rigorous, complex process. Akin to a Doctorate program. ### Hospital. Kumankaya is a hospital of the heart. A soul sanctuary. For some, it’s an emergency room, handling matters of life-threatening urgency like late-stage cancer or treatment-resistant depression. For others, it’s like visiting the chiropractor—a regular check-in and tune-up you do once or twice a year. The word in Shipibo for medicine house—*rao shobo*—is the same word they use for *hospital*. My role as a facilitator feels like being a nurse. Bringing people to and from their mats to sit in front of the doctors, keeping them comfortable and supported throughout their stay, and performing minor interventions in case someone is struggling and needs assistance in their pre- or post-care process. A psychic hospital, addressing matters of the body-mind with an ancient and sophisticated medical technology. Our staff consists of *los doctores*—medicinal plants—the two specialized surgeons, Ashley and Remi, and 2 facilitator-nurses, myself and another gentleman. ### Monastery. My favourite frame of all: the medicine monastery. This is the feeling that hooked me. A living community of fierce contemplative and self-mastery work. I’ve been doing a morning martial arts practice (the [Shi San Quan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoBuLx7icSI&ref=zenmedicine.co), 13 Fists Elementary Shaolin form) in the *maloka*, and it feels exactly like the dojo I've long dreamt about. I bow every time I step into this hallowed hall, just like getting on the tatami mats before a jiu-jitsu sparring session. Training grounds of an ancient lineage. Simple food, deep study, incredible depth of practice, apprenticing under living masters, and adopting the posture of a true disciple. **If you'd like to join me during my stay here and experience this work and this world for yourself, a reminder that I am running a 10-Day Master Plant Diet here in December,* [**Apotheosis: MAROSA*](https://apotheosisretreat.com/marosa?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.* Our schedule has been full, and adjusting to jungle life has taken a minute. But I'm settling in, and I've got dozens of ideas for new pieces already. More to come. I love you. EB. 🌿 ### 33 Thoughts for 33 Years. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/33-thoughts-for-33-years/ Last updated: 2025-07-23T14:11:10.000Z ## I turn 33 today... *Officially, some time around 10:20pm for you astrology nerds.* 😉 Writing this deep in the Mayan jungles of Mexico, tucked away at the holy grounds of Kumankaya. Who would've thought that I would be here on my birthday *(& my parents anniversary–same day!)*, in the early start of a multi-year apprenticeship? Not me. Following a trend I started last year ([32 Reflections for 32 Years](https://www.zenmedicine.co/32-reflections-for-32-years/)), I'm sharing some reminders, quotes, and ideas that resonate. No rhyme nor reason to what made the list—they're just present in my experience. It feels good to grow older. I feel my medicine building. I feel purpose. It’s only getting better. Here we go: 1. [F\*ck what you say.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/fck-what-you-say/) 2. *“If you feel far from God—who moved?”* – Afghan proverb. 3. *“Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”* — Alice, Alice in Wonderland. 4. The [opposite of suicide](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-opposite-of-suicide/) exists. 5. The heart knows the way. 6. *”There are only two mistakes along the way of self-mastery: not starting, and not going all the way.”* — Shi Heng Yi 7. [Long live the underground](https://www.zenmedicine.co/long-live-the-underground/). 8. [The sound of the rain needs no translation.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/sound-of-the-rain/) 9. All limitations are self-imposed. 10. *“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”* ― Thucydides 11. Courage is the first and final virtue. Act accordingly. 12. Move toward resistance. 13. Your life is not a test that you can fail. 14. [Free men don’t ask.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/free-men-dont-ask/) 15. [The righteous path is straight and narrow.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/87/) 16. Do not decorate your pain. 17. Do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, do better. 18. Martyrdom is not a virtue. 19. Everything is energy management. 20. *“You may abandon your body, but you must always preserve your honour.”* — Miyamoto Musashi 21. How you do anything is how you do everything. 22. Do not sacrifice the meaningful for the expedient. 23. You do not have enough Bitcoin. 24. *“We, half dust, half deity.”* – Lord Byron 25. *“Solvitur Ambulando.”* It is solved by walking. 26. You didn’t come this far to only come this far. 27. *“Rituals are to time what home is to space: they render time habitable.”* — Byung-Chul Han 28. Real beauty is modest and real wealth is silent. 29. *“Historically, the most terrible things; war, genocide, and slavery, have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.”* — Howard Zinn 30. Until death, all defeat is psychological. 31. *“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”* ― Pericles 32. *“Tradition is not the past, but that which does not pass.”* – Dominique Venner 33. I love you. Thank you. Well done. Keep going. Until next year, EB. 🍃 ### The Apprenticeship. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/apprenticeship/ Last updated: 2025-07-18T14:06:09.000Z ## In 2 days I begin an 8-month—aiming at 2 year–medicine apprenticeship at my sacred oasis of [Kumankaya](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) in Mexico... *I’ve alluded to this before. Now, let’s address it head on...* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-14-at-18.44.02-1.png) ## How This Came To Be. I was *summoned*. I wrote about this in my [Marosa recap](https://www.zenmedicine.co/marosa-meditations/). We’ve spoken about [glimmers](https://www.zenmedicine.co/anti-triggers-introducing-glimmers/): aspects of reality that shine to you. The term I use for a very strong calling or a very shiny glitter is being *summoned*. A profound pre-verbal realization, > *“If I wasn’t playing it small, if I wasn’t operating out of fear, if I loved myself fully, if I answered the call life is giving me—THIS is the direction I would go.”* I would take it further. It feels like an energy *other than my own* shows up in my psyche and declares with devastating force and clarity: > "This is your Path. This is your Sacred Task on this planet. This is what you have been training for. This is what your life has been building toward. If you wish to Rise, this is what we ask of you." *Sheeeeeeeeesh.* 😅 **It felt like Marosa, my deepest wisdom, and my highest potential all showed up in my psyche and CALLED ME IN.** They SUMMONED the BEST of me. Demanding that the Great Man show up. Calling me into a new level of service, self-mastery, courage, capacity, grounding, and vision than I’ve ever played at before. Basically—*stop f\*cking around*. **It wasn’t a matter of knowing what decision to make, it was a matter of mustering the courage to make the decision that I know I must.** I’ve been taking groups to Kumankaya for almost 5 years. I’ve got a long and winding history with the center, particularly with Remi and Ashley, the owners and master healers. They know more about my depths than most people on the planet. They’ve seen me in my glory, my pain, my confusion, and my potential. I am no fool. I do not call just anyone my Teacher. That word has weight to me. And I realized there is no one else I would step into this initiation with. --- ## A Few Reasons Why. - **Part of me has always craved a monastic lifestyle.** I’ve repressed it for far too long. I built the 100 Days project—particularly the WARRIOR100—to honour this calling. Most of my interests and areas of study revolve around monastic contemplation and self-mastery work. - **Kumankaya feels like a monastery.** A medicine monastery. Remi’s 20 year background in Christian monasticism certainly helps create this vibe. - **I view Remi and Ashley as living masters.** Stewards of an ancient lineage thousands of years old in the Shipibo-Conibo ayahuasca healing arts. - **I love facilitating retreats, and I’m good at it.** For 8 months, I get to do that full time. What an brilliant opportunity. - **I believe *master plant diets* are one of the most advanced forms of medicine in existence**. I want to study them fiercely. - **I realized \~1.5 years ago that I want to be a father.** I want to give my children the gift of the man I will become through this process. --- ## A Smattering of Final Thoughts. **I fundamentally disagree with the notion that a monastic lifestyle is an ‘escape’ from life, or ‘running away’ from society. I view it as running *toward* Life.** Unfiltered, undistracted engagement with Reality as such. The Hippocratic Oath is ‘Above All, Do No Harm’. If you *truly* believe that modern lifestyles are contributing to the collapse of civilization and the biosphere (aka ‘net negative’)—you might reconsider the social & environmental utility of a monastic way of being (getting closer to ‘doing no harm’). **I’d flip this right around: I believe most (though not all) of society is an elaborate construction to escape from matters of fundamental importance. A shape-shifting labyrinth of trivialities.** Yes, my apprenticeship is not *permanent*, and I will ‘return to the world’ after it. But do not mistake my fierce engagement for mere escape. I am not running away. I am honouring the deepest calling I have ever been given. I believe medicine work, particularly the Shipibo cosmovision and healing art, is one of the most *sophisticated forms of medicine that exists, and has ever existed, on the planet*. It is a radical and comprehensive bio-psycho-spiritual overhaul. This is not an attack on modern medicine. This is *in addition* to it. Amazonian plant and animal medicines are profoundly powerful healing modalities, and in order to study and practice with them deeply, this is what I must do. So, I am. Simple. --- ## What Comes Next? While this apprenticeship is my priority for the next several months, I will continue to write here with the remaining time and energy I have. Aiming for \~1x/week. I expect the nature of these pieces will shift toward Amazonian plant medicines, master plant diets, the philosophy of medicine, and the like. But who knows! Only time will tell. If you’d like to experience this yourself, I am running an [Apotheosis Retreat](https://apotheosisretreat.com/marosa?ref=zenmedicine.co) & master plant diet this December. We have a few spaces left. It would be an honour to serve you, in the lineage and center that has become my spiritual refuge. But for now, I must depart, for I have been summoned... With love, EB. 🌿🍵 ### F*ck What You Say. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/fck-what-you-say/ Last updated: 2025-07-16T14:36:05.000Z ## Held a solo ceremony last week to close out my 3-month [semi-sabbatical](https://www.zenmedicine.co/now/) and this chapter of my time in Canada... Sat alone in my room, repeating a mantra, attempting to deeply repattern it into my being: > *F\*ck what you say.* I wrote [a similar piece](https://www.zenmedicine.co/95/) back in January *(still a banger)*. This is important enough that it warrants repetition. [Blood & Ink: What Was That?action & words / grounded in reality / betting pools![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-7.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/78cc9fe8-829c-4d69-969e-47f6efff8b95_2048x1013-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/95/) > "What you're doing speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying." Talk is cheap. So unbelievably, unequivocally cheap. And this, from a guy who writes on the internet for a living. I *write*. Writing is an act. I have 500+ pieces around the internet, millions of words. I have stared down the barrel of a blank page more times than most people have attempted *anything*. You say you’re committed. You say you’re disciplined. You say you’re loving. You say you’re generous... DO. YOUR. ACTIONS. REFLECT. THIS? **What you *would* say about yourself should be so EVIDENT IN YOUR ACTIONS that it *doesn't need to be said.*** > “Those who speak don’t know, and those who know don’t speak.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching. The best exercise for this is the CCTV Thought Experiment: ## The CCTV Experiment. > Imagine there is a CCTV camera over your shoulder. It follows you everywhere and broadcasts your life 24/7\. There’s no audio. No one can hear anything you say. They can only see what you do. After a month of watching your actions—what would someone say about you and your life? - Would they say you’re disciplined? - Would they say you are a loving partner? - Would they say you're happy? - Would they say you care about climate change? - Would they say you have healthy habits? - Would they say you love yourself? ### The only real ideology someone holds is the one demonstrated by their actions. Biologically, it requires far more energy to act than to speak. If you really care about something, you act on it. If you truly believe in it, you do it. **If you want to know what someone believes, listen only to the story told by their actions.** - You say you care about climate change. Have you made even one hard decision to change your life and reduce your environmental impact? - You say you’re a socialist and favour wealth redistribution. How much do *you* donate to charity? Do you find ways to pay *more* taxes, if it’s such a desirable virtue? - You say you’re [a gentleman](https://www.zenmedicine.co/ode-to-the-gentleman/), a man of honour. Do you open the car door for your woman? Do you rise when a female enters the room in acknowledgement and respect? - You say you’re a leader. Do you have people that you lead? Do you take charge in your relationships and community? Is there anything—anything at all—that indicates you *actually* lead? **If you let it, this is deeply empowering. This catapults you to new levels of self-respect, integrity, and confidence.** By acting, you build a body of undeniable evidence. You root down into your proof-of-work. You stop questioning, doubting, debating, or wondering if you are who you say you are. You are generous because you have a history of generous acts. You can deliver that statement with deep integrity and with the unshakeable knowledge of expending lifeforce toward that aim. *F\*ck what you say. Show me what you do.* Show me *who you are,* EB. ### Answering Your Questions Pt.3 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/answering-your-questions-pt-3/ Last updated: 2025-07-14T15:36:30.000Z ### Hunger makes itself known to you just as you come upon a nondescript taco stand. What do you order? The only time I’m near taco stands is when I’m in Tulum, Mexico. The only time I’m in Tulum is when I’m preparing to go to [Kumankaya](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) to work, which means I’m on my preparation *dieta* and can’t eat tacos. No meat, no oils, no fried food, no junk. Pangs of hunger and frustration wash over me. I reconnect to the medicine experiences and my commitment to this path, and walk on, looking at some of the fun stores along the main strip in Tulum. Probably buy an overpriced t-shirt. 😉. ## Do you think the world is fucked on a 20-year time horizon? No. In two ways: The *planet* will be fine. It was fine far before humanity evolved, and will be fine long after. When people equate ‘end of humanity’ with ‘end of the world,’ it's self-absorbed hubris. Humanity is not the entire planet. Earth will be fine. Is *humanity* fucked over 20 years? Also no. Too short a timescale. People *need* fear—it’s the basis for most of their excuses in life, so there’s always going to be some manufactured catastrophe around the corner. It's also the most effective tool for increasing totalitarian control. It’s *necessary*. But don’t underestimate the collective willpower to 'keep things the way they are.' Barring a megavirus or total nuclear war, things might continue to get messy, but I don’t see any post-apocalyptic setup in 2 decades. I don’t believe humanity is ever fucked. We are resilient, bold, courageous, and beautiful. The future is bright, and this period will become a brief moment of forgetting in the human timeline. No black-pills ‘round here, partner. ## Who are your most influential role models today? Great question. I’ve had this as a draft outline for months now. Thanks for the push to get it out there: - [**Jamie Wheal**](https://www.google.com/search?q=jamie+wheal&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Author & Founder of [Flow Genome Project](https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). [Recapture the Rapture](https://www.recapturetherapture.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is one of the best books of the last decade. Huge inspiration. Grounded science, poetic language, core competence and confidence, and truly incredible cultural/anthropological takes on life, history, God, humanity, psychedelics, etc. He strikes me as a truly balanced human. Deep science/spirituality, professional/playful, technical/poetic, successful/humble. My biggest true role model. - [**Jack Dorsey**](https://www.google.com/search?q=jack+dorsey&oq=jack+dorsey&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Founder of Twitter, ran Square & Twitter simultaneously as CEO. Directed his attention to [Block](https://block.xyz/?ref=zenmedicine.co), building open-source Bitcoin hardware/software and contributing to the [NOSTR](https://nostr.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) decentralized social protocol. Dude is incredible, true to the hacker spirit. - **Satoshi Nakamoto.** Obvious. Creator of Bitcoin. I believe he/she/they gave the most selfless, advanced, and impressive gift to humanity of our entire generation. Technical mastery with selfless service. - [**Shi Heng Yi**](https://www.shihengyi.online/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** 35th Grandmaster of Shaolin Temple Europe. Probably done more to bring the wisdom of the Shaolin to the world than any single human in history, aside from the original masters. I love how he carries himself and shows up in the world, despite pushback and hardship. - [**Cameron Shayne**](https://budokon.com/cameron-shayne-1?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Multi-degree black belt in multiple martial arts. Creates a renegade movement language with his wife. Built a beautiful movement/tribe/community over the decades. Love his entire vibe. - [**Dr. Zach Bush**](https://zachbushmd.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Probably the most holistic Doctor on the planet right now. Triple-board certified, deep natural harmony. Great dude, huge respect. - [**Remi & Ashley Delaune**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxzNXQvtfhw&list=WL&index=8&ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Owners and healers of [Kumankaya](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Proud to call them my teachers. Two of the most beautiful folks I've ever met. - **My Mom & Dad.** A long, loving relationship. A beautiful home and family. They've given me everything I have. I think a lot of my work is born from a desire to make sure innocent, good people like my parents don't suffer from the shenanigans of the world. Trying to repay the gift of life I was given. - **Steve Jobs.** I miss Steve. It’s surprising how much the world has forgotten him. A true visionary. A real character. I will never forget the moment he pulled the first Macbook Air out of a manila envelope on stage. Only computer I've ever had since that day. Genius. Gone too soon. Thank you for everything. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/07/Jobs-Final.webp) One of the most inspirational photos in my life. Saved on my computer. RIP Steve. ## Who is John Galt? > *"I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."* — John Galt. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand One of the best speeches in any book: [“This Is John Galt Speaking.”](https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/RandAyn-Galt-Speech-excerpt.pdf?ref=zenmedicine.co) ## Who is a historical figure you feel you would most enjoy listening to lecture or speak on a subject? Any particular subject, or just let this person riff? **Honestly, Alan Watts.** Hearing an original Alan Watts lecture in person would be an ecstatic experience. He was a huge influence on me; still is. His wily, zany, organic Zen, paired with fierce intellect, study, and passion, was a beautiful combination. His words and writings inspire me. It sounds a bit ‘basic’ to write this, but I mean it. Other speakers I want to hear are the OG’s of ancient movements: the Buddha’s post-awakening lectures, the first Shaolin grandmasters, Zeno and the first meetups of Stoicism, the Dark Enigma hangouts of early Taoism, Miyamoto Musashi on self-mastery, and Alexander the Great. ## Do you bias more towards the true, the good, or the beautiful? I tried to write this answer 3-4 different times. The most honest answer is *probably* The Beautiful. Here's why: Who knows what the Truth is? My ego wants to say I'm oriented toward Truth at all times, but I don't know. I have bias, I have shadows, I make mistakes all the time. Do I even know what Truth is? Similarly with the Good. Do I know what the Good is? I have my theories. I work hard to try and be a good person, according to my definition of the Good. But do I know? Now, the Beautiful. Beauty is undeniable to me. Beauty is a direct, embodied experience that is virtually absolute. True Beauty hits you like a tsunami, less of a heady concept and more of a direct experience. In a real way, I believe that if something isn't beautiful (be it a theory, a product, or an identity), it's neither True nor Good as well. Beauty is far less subjective than people want to believe. Aesthetics and Beauty are huge driving forces in my life. > "When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong." — R. Buckminster Fuller In all honesty, as much as I'd like to virtue signal here, I probably bias more toward the beautiful on a day-to-day basis. ## What is the good life to you? Faaaakin’ hell what a question. My cheeky response is: the one I *have*. Life is good. My life is good. All is well. The very fact that you exist is such a preposterous happenstance that it should be immediately regarded as good. Love. Play. Agony. Ecstacy. Community. Purpose. Passion. Health. Vitality. Challenge. Friends. Family. Full, unfiltered Life. I'm a simple human, and my good life is pretty simple. I want to live in nature, nested in a community of trust, pursuing meaning and mastery, with a beautiful family, healthy and alive, with good tea and fresh mango. 😄 ## Curious to hear your definition of strategy. "Progress in strategy" == "Improvements in outcomes". What is your strategy for? It's a setup to get to a destination/outcome. The only question that matters is: Are you getting those outcomes? How quickly? How easily? How effectively? How many mistakes along the way? If you're getting: stable results, better-than-expected outcomes, faster, smoother, with minimal headache, you're becoming more strategic. Or, maintaining the *same* results despite less time, more complications, unexpected hurdles, and less effort is also better strategy. ## Do you ever worry about technologies like quantum computing creating vulnerabilities in the Bitcoin network? Or is the perspective that if a quantum computer can hack Bitcoin, then it could pretty much hack anything, and we've got bigger fish to fry at that point. - No. At this point, I don’t have *major* concerns about Bitcoin. It's one of the most heavily attacked/scrutinized code bases & movements in history. - The quantum computing problem always presents as ‘the bad guys have quantum computing’, but somehow the legendary developers of Bitcoin Core don’t? - Quantum computation can just as readily be put in the defence of the Bitcoin network as it could be used to attack it. A couple of BIPs ([Bitcoin Improvement Proposals](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips?ref=zenmedicine.co)) and bam, quantum computational defence of Bitcoin. They will adapt and evolve in lockstep. - Hacking Bitcoin is self-defeating. Once a hack is proven, the value drops to near 0, and the value of what they stole/could sell becomes worthless. Similarly, if they stole a ton of coins and tried to dump them on the market, it would tank the price. Even hackers and nation states are better off making Bitcoin worth more. Everyone is. Game-theoretic incentive alignment. ### I'd love to hear you riff more on agency. It seems to be a central theme of your writing these days. This concept of agency seems to be central to most fundamental disagreements in economics, politics and crucial to self-esteem and spirituality. Does high agency equate to nothing more than discipline? Is it self-esteem? Is it an ecology of transformative practices? Is it simply a choice? Ability to effect and materialize change. The ability to *make shit happen*. *"If you were stuck in a third-world prison, who would you want with you to get out?"* \> Probably the most high-agency person you know. **Agency is the antidote to victimhood.** Victims can't effect change in their current reality, or at least they don't believe that they can. Agency is at least the belief that you can change things, and beyond that, the real ability to materialize those changes. You can apply that to everything: culture, politics, health, wealth, spiritual development—individually, and collectively. All the things you listed are some necessary components of agency. Persistence over time (discipline), positive self-regard (esteem), energy management (ecology of practices), and exercising willpower (choice). With love, EB. ⛩️ ### // July 2025 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/july-2025/ Last updated: 2025-07-30T12:40:12.000Z - Disciple of [Kumankaya](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). - Steward of [Apotheosis](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). - Creator of [Zen Medicine](https://www.zenmedicine.co/) / [Ango](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/). ### A Variety of Religious Orientation. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/a-variety-of-religious-orientation/ Last updated: 2025-07-08T14:34:32.000Z ## Karl Marx famously called religion the *'opiate of the masses*.*'* Karl Marx was also… Karl Marx. A parasite drenched in resentment, birthing one of the most corrosive ideological movements mankind has ever known. *But we digress…* Many seek religion as a form of existential comfort. *“It’s all okay, heaven awaits you, you’re already good enough.”* A warm pat on the head. A friend in Toronto echoed something similar while fasting for Ramadan. He insinuated: > *“Religion is nice because it tells you what to do. It tells you how to live, how to speak, how to act, what to do. There’s ease and comfort in that.”* I imagine many people relate to religion like this… Both people who *are* religious and like it, and people who *are not* religious and do not like it: > *“It’s just comfort.”* ### I’ve come to relate to religion and spiritual tradition differently. I had no religion in my childhood. My parents were staunch scientific materialists and atheists. I never saw the point of religion myself, and I only ever heard critiques growing up. I had my periods of militant atheism, agnosticism, and then full-blown psychedelic spirituality. Over the decades, I’ve sampled the vast majority of religions. Read most of the world's Holy Texts. Spent time exploring Christian churches, zen monasteries, and extensive time on the yoga mat. **From the Shaolin to the Samurai, the Yogis to the Christian mystics, what I most appreciate is that there is a variety of religious orientation where God asks for nothing but the best of you, in all ways, at all times.** Adhering to the [yamas & niyamas](https://kripalu.org/resources/yoga-s-ethical-guide-living-yamas-and-niyamas?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=They're%20like%20a%20map,a%20moral%20code%20of%20conduct.&text=Aparigraha%3A%20non%2Dpossessiveness%2C%20non%2Dgreed.) of yoga is a great challenge. The [5 Buddhist precepts](https://www.lionsroar.com/buddhism/five-precepts/?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=The%20five%20precepts%20are%20the,and%20not%20indulging%20in%20intoxicants.), the [4 Bodhisattva vows](https://zmm.org/teachings-and-training/four-bodhisattva-vows/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and the [8 Bushido](https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/knowledge-of-men/the-bushido-code-the-eight-virtues-of-the-samurai/https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/knowledge-of-men/the-bushido-code-the-eight-virtues-of-the-samurai/?ref=zenmedicine.co) of the Samurai. These are demanding and unforgiving. They are *always on*. It’s not a once-a-week Sunday morning feel-good sermon. *And I kinda love it.* **Nothing has ever challenged me like the crucibles of serious spiritual practice.** Religions and spiritual traditions are the most effective outlets I have found to hone and cultivate the best in myself. They make me uncomfortable. They show me how much more I have. [The righteous path is straight and narrow](https://www.zenmedicine.co/87/). There is little room for negotiation. > "When you Trust, unquestionably, that where that Path takes you is not only in your highest good but in the highest good of all, you will be endowed with the strength of character to make those choices." — Eric Brown [Blood & Ink: Straight and Narrowvirtuous living / walking The Path / deepest trust![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-6.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/c4917068-7548-4e50-8993-b993381e2791_1920x965-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/87/) To act in integrity at all times. To speak the truth, no matter how afraid you are of what it will bring. To shudder at the thought of the magnified karma that awaits you on the other side of wrong deeds. In my estimation, these are not meant for the weak-willed. I don’t believe they are *possible* for the weak-willed. ### **Perhaps many people dislike religion because they can’t handle it?** Not because it’s too soft… but because it’s too hard? They’re constitution and self-serving hedonistic orientation aren’t *up to the task* of the deep spiritual austerities. That’s a fun frame to toss around. **Instead of being a refuge for the ‘weakest of us’ in need of nothing but petty comfort and a warm hug, I see religion and spiritual tradition as a dojo for the best of us. Honing the character, morality, and spirit of those who dare enter these hallowed halls millennia in the making.** - My teacher Remi was a Christian monk for 20 years, living several of those in silence, earning 2 PhD’s, and is one of the most upstanding, impressive, fiercely loving people I have ever met. - The living masters of the Shaolin, Zen, and Yogic traditions are equally some of the most impressive people I have ever seen. [Grandmaster Shi Heng Yi](https://www.youtube.com/@ShiHengYiOnline/videos?ref=zenmedicine.co) comes to mind. This is an aspect of religious orientation that I don’t see either side making… Religion (& spiritual traditions) demand impeccability. And that can push you farther than you’ve ever been pushed. Worth considering, EB. ⛩️ ### Podcast: EB on Medicine, Bitcoin, & Purpose. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/video-eb-on-medicine-bitcoin-life/ Last updated: 2025-07-05T14:39:07.000Z Spotify video podcast. ## A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to get back behind the mic with my friend Alex Barth... We went on an *adventure*. A 3-hour gauntlet. **His conversational wit, ability, and guidance brought out the best in both of us.** It starts slow, like all good things, but once we got running, we covered incredible ground. Alex has a beautiful opening, but if you know a bit about me already, we jump in fully \~11 mins in. [It's live on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QySGaQMOkWCpbdTV584NQ?si=b68b7d7642e445e0&ref=zenmedicine.co). We cover my past, present, future, thoughts on medicine, psychedelic therapy, bitcoin, culture change, narrative restructuring, my upcoming apprenticeship, behind-the-scenes of running retreats, you name it. The Bitcoin riff starts 1:31:00\. 😉 We laid out one of the greatest philosophical, psychological, and socio-cultural frames for *"Why Bitcoin?"* that I've articulated yet. --- ## Things We Cover: - Creating Zen Medicine & a new philosophy of medicine. - Interconnectivity & wholeness in human health. - Custom psychedelic stacks and personalized medicine plans. - Pursuing a path of purpose in the face of uncertainty. - My relationship to risk, finances, ethics, and self-authorship. - *"Why the psychedelic community needs physiotherapy."* - Calling vs. Conscience—Triggers vs. Glimmers. - Bitcoin is the crystallization of human life force energy. - *"I'd rather be financially bankrupt than morally bankrupt."* - How a sound money standard elevates human civilization. - The two major narrative schisms of the modern generation. - *"Part of dharma is paying the bills."* - Behind-the-scenes logistics & finances of running high-ticket medicine retreats. - & a ton more: tea, divination, metabolic health, lifestyle setups, etc. --- Go give the homie some love. He's doing the hard work of building something beautiful in public. I'd love to see this community rally in support of him. Enjoy, EB. 🐉 ### The Deification of Nature. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-deification-of-nature/ Last updated: 2025-07-03T14:38:28.000Z # My aesthetic philosophy and complete relationship to life is whatever [Anthony Chapel](https://www.garvangardens.org/weddings/anthony-chapel/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is… ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/07/anthony.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/07/anthony1.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/07/anthony3.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-03-at-09.50.07.png) *Guys, why didn’t you tell me this existed sooner!? You holdin’ out on me? I thought we were friends, man…* **This is it. The whole thing. It’s got everything.** - Japanese minimalism and Taoist wabi-sabi naturalness. - Greco-Roman Spartan simplicity. - Christian high-ceilings, holy ground, transcendent feel. - Humanity’s brilliant ‘ordering principle’ displayed in architectural magnificence. - Profound immersion within—and a deep complement of—the natural world. **This is a Real Holy Place™.** Not separate from the natural world, but a natural extension of it. It masterfully strikes the delicate balance between *“this grew out of the ground like a tree”* and *“this is the most deliberate and intentional design a human has ever made, not a single millimetre was left to chance.”* > “Here are my rules: what can be done with one substance must never be done with another. No two materials are alike. No two sites on earth are alike. No two buildings have the same purpose. The purpose, the site, the material determine the shape. Nothing can be reasonable or beautiful unless it's made by one central idea, and the idea sets every detail. A building is alive, like a man. Its integrity is to follow its own truth, its one single theme, and to serve its own single purpose. A man doesn't borrow pieces of his body. A building doesn't borrow hunks of its soul. Its maker gives it the soul and every wall, window and stairway to express it." – Howard Roark, Architect & Protagonist in [The Fountainhead](https://www.amazon.ca/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191153?ref=zenmedicine.co) by Ayn Rand. This is one of the purest expressions of the spirit of minimalism I have ever seen: the structure, the substance, the material *exists only where necessary.* If it’s not essential, it’s not there. Every piece *furthers the story.* From this intentional space arises a symphony between man and nature. Outside folding into inside. Sacred union of the subjective and objective. This is the *deification of Nature*. Elevating nature to the status of the Gods. > *“Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.”* — Hubert Reeves **Stunning.** For what better place to perform the holy acts of worship and marriage than wrapped in the loving embrace of Nature herself? Everything else is superfluous. In a random city in Arkansas, USA… Brilliant. Fabulous. 12/10\. EB. ### Answering Your Questions Pt.2 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/answers-2/ Last updated: 2025-06-28T16:27:42.000Z **Almost forgot about this bad boy!* [**Second round*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/answering-questions/) *of* [**Anonymous Q&A*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/qa/)**. I'll release one more round of answers before I start my 8-month experience in the jungle next month.* [**Drop some gnarly questions here.*](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co) *Everything is fair game. Let's get weird and wild with these.* 🍃 EB. #### On this page ### How do you embody your relationships? What values do you carry for intimate partner relationships? - ‘Embody your relationships’ is tricky wording—what do you mean? There’s something good here that I wish I understood better. - I’ll admit off the bat: I don’t consider myself ‘good’ at relationships (yet); personal, intimate, professional, or otherwise. I’m not sure many people would disagree with that either. It’s all too easy for me to withdraw into the peace and art of my life, thought, practice, work, and writing. Historically, I haven’t been great at keeping in touch with people, and I’m not overly expressive/emotional in direct conversation. - It’s not about relationships *per se*. It’s a matter of intent, integrity, and embodiment across your entire life. ‘How you do anything is how you do everything.’ You say you love this person–do you act like it? Do you value honesty? Be honest in your relationship. A relationship is the perfect training ground. A messy, beautiful, fluid dance. Are you holding yourself back from life… from your partner? You embody your relationships by bringing yourself deeper into life. ‘[The Way of the Superior Man](https://www.amazon.ca/Way-Superior-Man-Challenges-Anniversary/dp/1622038320?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ is a great place to start. - **Values I carry for relationships:** shared vision, overlapping and complementary values, fierce playfulness, passionate seriousness, a burning desire for love, challenge, exploration, integrity, and service. Emotional maturity, doesn’t track high on [the Dark Triad](https://www.health.com/condition/antisocial-personality-disorder/dark-triad?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=The%20dark%20triad%20includes%20malevolent,exploit%20it%20for%20personal%20gain.), and the ability to have difficult conversations. ### What is your favourite way to get out of a funk / lethargic states that persist? - Depends on the timeline. I’ve been in 10-year funks (seriously, being a teenager/young adult [was hard](https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-depression/)), 10-month depressive windows, 10-day struggles (‘in the mud’ as I call it), 10-second frustration fits. Here are some things you can mix, match, and stack that often work for me: - **Acute Physiological State Change:** 3+ min cold shower, 30+ minute walk, 4x rounds wim hof style breathwork, 1 hour hard workout/yoga. These are reliable, healthy, generally safe, and potent. Cold showers usually do the trick. Never underestimate how much a mental/emotional funk can be resolved through physiology. - **Environmental Changes:** If I’m in a multi-day funk, superficial physical changes often work. Shaving my beard/deep ‘grooming’ session, or cleaning/redecorating a room/home. That small, visible, tangible moment of progress, change, and forward momentum unblocks a lot of stagnant energy. It lets me see clearly that ‘something has changed’ and take that energy to whatever I need to do. - **Heavy Music:** nothing fancy. Heavy music hits some part of me that always works. Sadness, anger, confusion, pain, overwhelm, doesn’t matter. American Metal (Lamb of God, All That Remains) and Heavy Dubstep (the Canadian OG's Excision, Datsik, and Downlink) always put me back on the straight and narrow. - **Stop F\*cking Avoiding the Feeling:** Most of our lives are a distraction from heavy emotion. Admittedly, I’m close to an expert at avoiding feelings. Social media, overworking, and learning/studying—all have been convenient distractions from tough feelings. Stop running. Turn around. Face it head-on. Turn off all technology, sit in front of a blank page, and write. If you don’t want to write, sit in silence. Sit until you’re bored. Sit and sit and sit, write and write and write until something opens. Then you can work with it, feel it, and facilitate its passing. - **And of course, Deeper Interventions:** psychedelic ceremony, plant medicine or meditation retreats, moving countries, joining (or leaving) a job, [getting a tattoo](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-invisible-koan/). Chronic heaviness is telling you that it’s time for something new. Not just a new change, a new *chapter*. Perhaps, in major cases, an entire second book in the series of your life. A new identity. A new place. A new people. I’ve moved countries. I’ve gotten new jobs. I’ve built new experiences. I’ve tried weird and major health interventions (raw vegan to carnivore). Sometimes you need a system-level reboot if the above options don’t work. That’s okay! We should welcome these; they are truly life-changing. More often than not, if I’ve been in the mud for a few days and getting frustrated, my single day go-to looks like: 1. Give myself permission to stop attempting to work/do anything for the rest of the day. 2. Put on my favourite metal/music playlist. 3. Clean my home. 4. Take a cold shower, shave, cut nails, do laundry, 50 pushups, and put on clothes I love. 5. More often than not, I come out of that feeling *at least* ready to re-engage. I’ve rested, danced, gotten a clean house, feel new/fresh in my body, maybe had a good meal, and have brought a little more order to the chaos. ### What is your preferred way to buy Bitcoin while maintaining ownership of private keys? Do you use a hardware wallet? - **The short answer is:** I use [BullBTC](https://www.bullbitcoin.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) to buy, which requires self-custody addresses (they cannot hold your BTC, at a technical level), so I generate them on my [Coldcard](https://coldcard.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and my purchases go straight into cold storage. Easy. - My setup is not what I would recommend for people just getting started. I’ve been at this a long time. - My current setup is a [Coldcard](https://coldcard.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (BTC-only hardware wallet), connected to [Sparrow](https://sparrowwallet.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (software interface), linked to my node ([Umbrel](https://umbrel.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)), and I buy on [BullBitcoin](https://www.bullbitcoin.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (BTC-only non-custodial exchange in Canada). - One of the cardinal axioms in Bitcoin is “Not your keys, not your coins.” This is not a joke. All the stories of people getting wrecked are because they held their crypto on exchanges (these are nothing more than IOU statements), the exchange gets hacked or collapses, and they lose everything. - A good place to start is a software wallet (I worked for [Exodus](https://www.exodus.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) for a bit; they make great software). Self-custody because you hold your keys, but it’s a little more risky because it’s on your computer (connected to the internet). - If you’re going to store significant wealth (relative to your financial situation) in crypto, you *need* a hardware wallet. [Trezor](https://trezor.io/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is amazing (and has a [BTC-only option](https://trezor.io/trezor-safe-5-bitcoin-only?ref=zenmedicine.co)), [Coldcard](https://coldcard.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is BTC-only, Canadian, and incredible, [Ledger](https://www.ledger.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is dubious, and there are several others. - At a certain level of wealth (both % of your net worth and total $ value), you should set up a [multi-signature wallet](https://trezor.io/learn/supported-assets/bitcoin/what-is-multisig?srsltid=AfmBOooqhRUuHIV16qeEQlCGT0T%5FuTNODBSETyXlNZxC7pO5SzQwzOTM&ref=zenmedicine.co). This is nuclear-grade security, where you need 2/3 or 3/5 signatures from different wallets to move funds. You get multiple wallets from multiple providers, and can distribute them geographically, etc. This is hardcore mode. - Only Canadians can use BullBTC, for Americans, I would say: [River](https://river.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (BTC-only exchange) or [Strike](https://strike.me/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (BTC-only but more focused on the lightning network, not as easy for cold storage). I stand behind all 3 of those orgs completely, and I’ve done deep dives into all of them. - To start, I’d say try [Exodus](https://www.exodus.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) to get a feel for managing your keys. When you’re ready to play with hardware wallets: [Trezor](https://trezor.io/?ref=zenmedicine.co) if you have other coins, [Coldcard](https://coldcard.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) if you are BTC-only. Trezor is more user-friendly, while Coldcard x Sparrow has more functionality/features. ### What is your favourite way to rekindle creative momentum? - Write! Write write write write write. - I write all the time. I journal \~daily. I have \~3 dozen drafts/notes/pieces-in-progress at any given moment. - Freestyle writing has always been the answer for me. The pen is my sword, the blank page my greatest ally and deepest adversary. I get excited about the adventure ahead when staring at a blank page, cursor blinking, waiting for the Muse to appear. - My writing is almost a direct thermometer of my creative momentum at any time. When things are HARD, I’m quiet. When things are flowing, I could publish 2 full pieces a day. - If I don’t know what I want to talk about, I get very still, very quiet, and start watching for the places my mind goes first. If it’s bubbling up out of the ether, something is there to be explored. - Do new things! Go walk around a mall. Take a pottery class. Go speed dating. Anything. Everything. Break the pattern! ‘[The Artist's Way](https://www.amazon.ca/Artists-Way-25th-Anniversary/dp/0143129252?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ is great for this. Other options: - **Space.** Real, long, space. Creativity needs breathing room. Long walks. Rambling conversations. - **Tea.** It’s very rare that I sit down for a [tea ritual](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-way-of-tea/) and don’t walk away with an idea or two. - **Freedom to fail.** Removing the pressure from making it flawless gives you real room to explore and push the edges. - **Making it for me.** I’m kind of a weirdo. I think a lot of us here are. (That’s why I love you and appreciate you reading this.) I don’t mean that negatively. I don’t think my work has mass appeal, nor do I make it for that. I make things for myself. I am always the end user, the ideal customer, and the muse. 100-Day discipline challenges, ketamine therapy programs, wild and wonderful [medicine retreats](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), obscure and nerdy essays. Just make it for yourself. What do YOU want to exist in the world? Do that. That question spawns a ton of creative possibilities. - **Genuine curiosity.** Integrate the idea that your curiosity is uniquely yours, and that it will take you somewhere good. Ideas and creative possibilities are endless following that. ### What fears are you still battling and would like to bring more warrior energy to? - What a phenomenal question. Thank you! - **Vulnerability, Intimacy, Expression.** The reason I write so much is that I’m fairly reserved in person. I’m quiet and patient. I’m not great at expressing feelings (positive or negative). I don’t share a lot about my personal life (if you read the 200+ pieces here, very few talk about Eric the individual). I’d love to bring more courage to this, and I’ve been working on it. - **Art & Creativity.** I’m \~4 months into this ‘semi-sabbatical’ right now, and having all kinds of an [artistic/poetic awakening](https://www.zenmedicine.co/rescuing-the-lover/). I’ve always viewed writing as my creative outlet, but even my writing remains methodical, technical, and philosophical. I think part of me is still scared of attempting (& being bad at!) the ‘classic arts’ like music, poetry, painting. Some part of me is calling for it, though. - **Mastery.** I’m torn between loving life and wanting to learn and study everything, and feeling frustrated that I haven’t mastered something specific. It’s a tough one. At this moment, a part of me yearns for deep mastery, and that requires saying no to everything else. That requires some warrior spirit. Even as I write this, a dozen things pop up that I would like to master: BJJ, writing, tea ceremony, yoga, plant medicine/psychedelic work, and a musical instrument. I think the ‘fear’ here is a form of FOMO: picking one thing to master requires saying no, and I could be missing out. - **Success.** I think many people, myself included, fear success perhaps more than they fear failure. Success changes a lot. It changes how people relate to you, how they see you, the responsibilities you have, what you do for work, and the opportunities/options you have. It changes your life, and change is often scary, even if it’s positive. I have some fear or hesitation around success. There’s also a deep hipster-esque part of me that simply loves the underground, the fringe, and I myself want to stay in those spaces. - **Happiness.** Similarly, I have some fear(?) of happiness in some way. As if being happy in the present will ‘take me off my game’ or I haven’t ‘done enough to earn it yet’ or ‘people will call me out as an imposter’. There’s a real Warrior spirit you can bring to happiness, spirituality, reality—a fierce desire, and an active practice, to gratitude and celebration in each moment. I’ll release one final Q&A before starting my 8-month apprenticeship. Let’s make ‘em weird. [**Hit me with the best you’ve got**](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Talk soon, EB. ### Intellect, Intuition, Instinct. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/intellect-intuition-instinct/ Last updated: 2025-06-24T14:29:57.000Z Thank you for the brilliant response to [the Ango](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/), my private practice. I'm welcoming 3 people for this first round, and it looks like the first two seats are going to be filled soon. If you're on the edge, I'd encourage you to apply. With love, EB. 🍃 > “Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else.” ― Shunryu Suzuki,[Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind](https://www.amazon.ca/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Informal-Meditation/dp/1590308492?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### **Intellect is a good start...** The rational faculty of mankind is a beautiful gift. As natural as flowers blooming in spring. Thought arises, dances, plays, and passes. A truly remarkable phenomenon. Propelling humanity into [evolutionary domains](https://www.zenmedicine.co/prey/) previously unseen in the history of life on Earth, and potentially the vast cosmos. But the intellect is only one part of the bio-psycho-social organism you are. When making effective decisions, having more information is helpful; it's only reasonable. While the mind is necessary, strong, and brilliant, it must also realize that it stands to benefit from using all of the information and intelligence available to it. ### **Intuition brings your whole being into the game...** Intuition unites the holy trinity of heart, gut, and mind. With increased sensitivity, intuition offers profound guidance, deeper direction, and a Gestalt of the whole picture that none of them could get on their own. The brilliance of the mind, the wisdom of the heart, and the 'second-brain' stored in your gut give you a much greater picture of reality, even if the intellect can't put it into language. Sometimes, the vibes are off. Sometimes, things in the world [glimmer](https://www.zenmedicine.co/anti-triggers-introducing-glimmers/) in a way you can't verbalize. The intuitive sensing of the body combined with the fierce intelligence of the mind gives you a better read on reality, more information to work with, and offers greater guidance through this world. ### **Instinct activates the ancient intelligence of the entire web of life...** Beyond (or beneath) intuition, there is instinct. The ancient intelligence of your cellular memories, codified into the living programming of your DNA. Deep, foundational interconnectedness with the entire web of life. **The fundamental difference between intuition and instinct is that instinct can *act.*** Instinct allows the part of you always in fundamental harmony with the entire cosmos to get in the driver's seat. Here’s an important thing to recognize that's pretty hard to see until you’re aware of it: > You only know you bit your tongue or touched a hot stove *after* it has already happened. By the time you realize you’ve touched a hot stovetop, you’ve pulled your hand off of it. You only realized you’ve bit your tongue after your mouth has *opened* in response to biting it. > At what point did your intellect make the decision that you should take your hand off the hot surface? When was the great wisdom of your intuition consulted to stop the downward force on your tongue? **Never.** At no point was your intellect or intuition consulted; the processing speed and feedback loop are too slow. Instinct took over, made the decision, and acted on it. Your instinct acted before the mind could process the sensory information, and your heart could intuit it. In the hot stove example, the recoil impulse is initiated by nerves *in your spine*. It’s a [*spinal reflex arc*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflex%5Farc?ref=zenmedicine.co)—a neural shortcut. Sensory neurons in your arm detect pain, the spinal cord gets the message, and the muscles pull back instantly. All of this is done before the message even reaches your brain. Instinct can *act*. ### What if you lived your entire life from this ancient instinct? Instinct has access (because it *lives there*) to the entirety of your ancient ancestral intelligence. It has access to the entire field of reality that cannot be processed by the thinking mind. The conscious rational mind processes only a tiny portion of the available information in any given moment. The rest happens under the surface: the realm of subconscious instinct. Instinct has access to greater, richer information AND more capable, successful operating protocols. *You can live like this.* Ever tried to do a complex task while 'overthinking' it? - Hard to swing a golf club properly when you're micro-managing every moment. - Hard to submit a sparring partner when you're stuck in your head thinking about every move. - Even conversations are worse when you're thinking about what you're saying as you're saying it. Every athlete knows this. You drill the technique until it *becomes an instinct*. You no longer need to think about it. *In my opinion, this is Zen.* **Zen is the cultivation of instinct as a primary Way of Being.** Immediate, instinctual, unfiltered action. Acting from the part of you that is never separate from the origin-moment of existence. This is—in a direct way—the goal of [koan practice](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-invisible-koan/). Koans are designed to dismantle and disorient the rational faculties of the mind, where the answer is a single, spontaneous, *instinctual* act. Koans rewire and recenter the locus of identity down into the instinctual level of the human being. Zen–particularly its Taoist/Ch’an roots–views this primary nature as *fundamentally good*. Instinct is natural. Natural is good. Original Mind–human nature–is a positive force in the world. Worthy of further cultivation and greater embodiment. The path of Zen is the return to Original Mind. To root yourself back in the center of the sacred union between Consciousness and Cosmos. A return to instinct, EB. ### Opening a Private Practice. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/opening-a-private-practice/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T13:21:55.000Z **Today, I’m opening the doors to my private practice:* [**The Ango*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/)**.* **I am seeking 1-3 courageous individuals who resonate with my work and worldview and are ready to explore the edges of what’s possible in human development. To embody the vision of your life that has beckoned you for so long.* [**You can read more and apply here*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/)**.* **Feel free to reply with any questions. Let’s do something incredible together.* 🐉 EB. ## The Ango. > An *ango* (*安居*) is a Japanese term for a three-month period of intense training for students of Zen. The word translates literally as 'peaceful dwelling'. [The Ango: Private Clients.Self-mastery mentorship & sacred sparring partner.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-4.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/VIllage.png)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/) --- ## The Vision. **Radical change takes longer than you’d like, but far less time than you imagine.** 3-6 months can have you looking, feeling, and living like an entirely different person. There's always a time delay between internal changes and their external manifestations. You’ve seen the seeds of my vision in pieces like '[Medicine is a Sacred Practice](https://www.zenmedicine.co/medicine-is-a-sacred-practice/)’, ‘[MMA: Mixed Medicine Arts](https://www.zenmedicine.co/mma/)’, and ‘[The Opposite of Suicide](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-opposite-of-suicide/)’. **Hyper-personalized, evolutionary, experiential medicine.** Part medicine practice, part therapy, part dojo. Addressing a holistic picture of the individual: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and beyond. There are foundational changes—such as habit development, career transitions, entering or leaving relationships, adjusting sleep patterns—that take 60-90 days to become fully embodied. We can't—and I won't—work with less time than this. > "Everyone wants to heal until the medicine shows up in the form of discipline." We'll hit everything at once, at a pace that is manageable. An orientation that sets up long-term changes, with the brilliance of immediate results and felt momentum. --- ## The Specifics. **We’re going to run the gauntlet together.** Blood testing, natural medicine interventions, daily habit architecture, significant lifestyle transformations, cultivating courage, identity-level shifts, and laying the groundwork for the next decades. To name and pursue the highest realistic vision for your life. One of growth, love, passion, vitality, excitement, accomplishment, and sacred ambition. I have a few requirements for anyone entering this container: - You must get a blood panel done within the first month. - You must provide a 3-day food and time log. - You must aim to complete 3 daily practices: movement, meditation, and another of our choosing. - You must provide feedback at the end of it. - You must be willing to *act*. This is a 3-month engagement. Deep-dive experiential calls with homework every other week, and unlimited, direct messaging throughout. > "Eric brings a rare depth of presence and integrity to his work. Whether guiding fellow humans through ceremonial rites of passage or writing from the heart and soul, he meets the moment with honesty, care, and deep listening. His words and facilitation both carry the power of someone who has walked the path and done his own work." — Asha Urban. Guide Lead, Mindbloom --- ## The Outcome. **Where do I want you to be by the end of this?** *I have no idea.* If I knew beforehand, it wouldn't be *personalized* medicine. But there are milestones and north stars I hold the vision for: - **Feeling deeply at home in your body, healthy and vital.** The best health you've had in years. - **Real, visible change and momentum.** Tangible, measurable progress in biomarkers, discipline, and emotionality. - **Profound narrative coherence in your life story/future vision.** A deep clearing of the past, and a magnificent clarification of the future. - **New levels of capability, confidence, courage, and calm.** The real question is: where do *you* want to be? We'll craft a tailor-made stack of medical interventions, courageous acts, lifestyle changes, and deep healing experiences to get you there. --- > "I’ve worked with Eric for nearly a decade. Everything from launching retreats and transformational containers to deep-dive podcast series and online courses. Eric has consistently shown up with ninja-like precision, grounded professionalism, and a rare steadiness of presence. He’s got a pure heart. His commitment to inner growth and self-transcendence is unmatched. Working with him isn’t just productive, it’s inspiring." — Jon Brooks. Creator, HighExistence & the Stoic Handbook. ## What Will I Bring? **I bring the wisdom of experience and the attitude of a sacred sparring partner.** I have designed, run, and supported over 500 clients in transformational process. Ketamine therapy for treatment-resistant depression, plant medicine retreats for existential healing and spiritual practice, and 100-day discipline initiations to build momentum and deepen self-respect. About once every 2 minutes, a client uses therapeutic content for psychedelic therapy that I designed. My work has been vetted by therapists, clinicians, founders, doctors, shamans, and all varieties of healers, coaches, mentors, and fellow humans. I’m not on the sidelines—I’ve done it too. Overcoming major depression, crippling anxiety, various addictions, complete career transitions, identity transformations, building wealth and career, medication tapering, and a resolving all variety of neuroses, blocks, and emotional turmoil. There is nothing you can share with me that will scare me. I’ve seen it. And that is fertile ground for truly liberating expression and emotional freedom. *But in every container I designed, every experience I ran, every article I wrote, something was missing. Each of these was a piece, but never the whole puzzle...* ### **The Ango is the full picture and my complete offer.** [The Ango: Private Clients.Self-mastery mentorship & sacred sparring partner.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-5.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/VIllage-1.png)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/) If you resonate with my work and writing and feel an authentic call for something deeper, I encourage you [to apply](https://www.zenmedicine.co/private/). One conversation won't hurt, and it might just change your life. As the first iteration of a practice I will spend decades refining, I am going to put everything I have into this for you. I hope to see you soon. Let's do something truly beautiful together. Welcome to the Medicine Dojo, amigo. EB. 🧬 ### The Sound of the Rain. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/sound-of-the-rain/ Last updated: 2025-06-16T14:22:51.000Z > "I had a discussion with a great master in Japan, on the last visit there, and we were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English. And he said that’s a waste of time. > > “If you really understand Zen,” he said, “you can use any book.” You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary. “Because,” he said, “the sound of the rain needs no translation.” – Alan Watts, [The Web of Life](https://www.organism.earth/library/document/out-of-your-mind-4?ref=zenmedicine.co#ch4) --- > “The sound of the rain needs no translation.” --- **There is no book, scripture, ideology, thesis, cult, manifesto, doctrine, or dogma tucked away in some distant cave that you'll find the essence of Zen hidden within...** No *'gotchya!'* epiphany lurking around the corner. No hidden lesson. In the words of Po the Dragon Warrior: > "There is no secret ingredient." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/secret-ingredient.png) --- ### There is *no thing* captured in language that touches the domain of Zen. Or Reality, for that matter. - It’s not that you don’t understand it yet; it’s that there’s nothing to be understood. - You haven’t missed the teaching, because nothing is being taught. - Your life is not a 'test' that you can 'fail'. - Reality is not a 'theory' that must be 'understood'. - You cannot *think* your way down to the level of *experience*. - Getting caught up in mental machinations moves you *further away* from your target. This is not some trite villification of the mind, as we so often want to do. The mind and the stream of thought are as natural and spontaneous as rain. **Zen is an invitation to expand your engagement with reality.** Solely engaging reality at the level of the mind restricts your access to the awesomeness of Reality in its Fullness. You were never *taught* how to experience reality properly. You don't need to *learn* to hear the rain. You might say it's your ancestral inheritance. Or a gift from God. And... - It's not like the rain *sounds better* in Arabic. - You can't *hear it more clearly* from a Christian worldview. - Einsteinian physics doesn't help you *feel it* more fully. There is no religious narrative, no grand unifying theory, no PhD dissertation, no insight from your next 2x speed Audible book that gets you closer to the sound of the rain. The feeling of the wind. The warmth of tea. The ruby red of the rising sun. --- ## Meditative Mind. Japanese *Zen* gets its name from the Chinese *Ch'an*, from the Indian *Dhyana,* pointing at the state of the meditative mind: Calm and Awake. That's all Zen is. Nothing fancy to it. All the techniques, koans, meditations, and poetry are just pointers along the path, bringing you to this state. Calm & Awake. Present & Alive. Peaceful & Vital. Where Zen tends to get a 'hardcore' or 'weird' association is that it's helping you stay in this state through *anything* that happens. It's helping you *stabilize* this in *all possible circumstances.* The death of your parent. The great loss of a relationship. Overwhelming sadness after personal tragedy. Feeling alone in existence. Spontaneous joy. Calm, present, peaceful. Awake, alive, vital. Unflinching, unbreakable composure. With a composed nervous system and the spark of life infusing each breath, the rain, or the pain, transforms into a symphony of sensation, ringing with the brilliance of a full orchestra, teeming with the wild lifeforce of the living Earth. Existence begins to *speak to you* again. Sharing its wisdom, wonder, love, passion, and power. **You could say Life Itself *is* the universal language.** Immediately known. No translation or explanation needed. Once you root yourself firmly in this level of experience: direct, calm, organic aliveness — there are no words needed, no language suffices, and there's nothing much to say anyway… With love, EB. ### Great Medicine: Mahābhaishajya. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/great-medicine/ Last updated: 2025-06-12T14:16:40.000Z > *“You can’t bite your own teeth. You can’t taste your own tongue. And you can’t touch the tip of your finger with the tip of the same finger. And that is why there is always an element of profound mystery in the problem of who we are”* ― Alan Watts ## The paradoxical problem of self-awareness is that the object you’re looking for (yourself) *is* the subject that’s looking for it. **It’s easy to look out at the world and see an overwhelming number of *problems*...** The direction of society, your reflection in the mirror, talking to… anyone? Problems. Problems everywhere. More people view themselves and their society as sick. Unhealthy, off track, unethical. Sick, ill, dying. *But what if…* What if it isn’t the world that’s sick? What if it’s not reality that’s broken? What if I’m the one wearing ‘sick-coloured glasses’, and everything looks broken because of that? The opposite of rose-coloured glasses. Sick-coloured glasses. It’s not the world that’s sick; it’s my way of seeing that’s dysfunctional. **This is the first and final illness we face as human beings.** And it was through the discovery of this Great Illness that the ultimate medical diagnosis, prescription, and treatment were born: **The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism.** --- ## Mahābhaishajya: Great Medicine. Mahayana is one of the two core branches of Buddhism. Mahayana translates to ‘Great Vehicle’. Self-explanatory. With AI, I stumbled into the term **Mahābhaishajya: Great Medicine**. From the Sanskrit roots for 'great' and 'medicine'. From the times of ancient India, and still to this day, physicians follow a standard presentation and discussion with patients: > *(1) Diagnose the illness.* > *(2) Identify the cause(s) of the illness.* > *(3) Advise whether the illness is treatable.* > *(4) Present the treatment plan.* You’ve heard this several times in your life. Everything from cancer to the common cold is presented this way: > *(1) Yep, it’s the flu. That’s the runny nose, fever, sweats.* > *(2) Probably got it from that student in your class.* > *(3) Don’t worry, we can take care of it.* > *(4) Take this pill, get a ton of fluids, and rest.* --- ### This is what the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism are. They are a diagnosis, prescription, and treatment for an illness. **Great Medicine, for a Great Illness.** *But what illness? What medicine? What is prescribed?* The medical presentation of the 4 Noble Truths is: 1. **Diagnosis of Illness:** The first noble truth is that our lives are characterized by suffering or *unsatisfactoriness*. The Buddhist word for this is *dukkha*. Often translated as *suffering*, though I find unsatisfactoriness much more helpful. 2. **Cause of Illness:** The second truth is that the cause of dukkha is *craving*. Known as *tanha*—literally ‘thirst’—it refers to cravings, attachments, ‘clenching’, and personal desires. 3. **Healing of Illness:** The third truth is that if we can *end craving,* we can *end suffering*. This is known as *nirodha*, or *cessation.* Acknowledging that the end of the illness/suffering is possible. 4. **Treatment Plan:** Finally, the fourth truth is that the way to end this craving–the treatment protocol–is to follow the [*Eightfold Path*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble%5FEightfold%5FPath?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=Glossary%20of%20Buddhism,alternatively%2C%20equanimous%20meditative%20awareness%29.). *"You are sick. You are suffering because you are sick. You are sick because you desire things to be other than they are. Fortunately, this is treatable. Healing this requires committing to and walking the Eightfold Path."* **This is one reason why Buddhism appeals to so many Westerners. It aligns with a clear, empirical, methodical approach.** It is a diagnosis, a prescription, and a treatment plan. Follow the treatment, see the results, get better. Mahābhaishajya. Great Medicine, for a Great Illness. Happy healing, EB. ### The Marosa Meditations Pt.1 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/marosa-meditations/ Last updated: 2025-06-09T14:35:38.000Z I am leading a [10-Day Marosa Master Plant Diet](https://apotheosisretreat.com/marosa?ref=zenmedicine.co) (the very experience I’m writing about here) this December at [Kumankaya](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) in Mexico. **If you've been waiting for 'a sign', here it is.* Marosa changed my life completely, in ways I never thought possible. It's a great honour to be able to offer that to others now. If you apply, mention me and we can have our discovery call together. 🌿 EB. > *Marosa ri-di-di-di canodaaaa... 🎶* ## This little ditty lives in my head, fully ingrained into my nervous system... My small beginner *icaro* to Marosa. My Marosa diet changed my life. It was one of the most profound, difficult, ecstatic, otherworldly, and trajectory-changing experiences I’ve ever had. **And that’s saying *a lot*. I’m no stranger to being ripped apart. But I was ready for it, I came to play, and boy, did she deliver.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/EB-Full.jpg) EB x Marosa. ## Master Plant Diets. Master plant diets can sound intense (and slightly ridiculous) depending on your metaphysics, but what I write here is theoretically and experientially true, as best as I can put it into language: > A master plant diet is a complex and rigorous discipline in which a connection between the dieter and plant spirit is made and nurtured. The master plant transmits guidance, healing, teachings, and energy (medicinal or otherwise) to the dieter. You could also say you are forming a soul contract with the spirit of the plant, or you are uniting your consciousness with theirs. The process demands spiritual discipline, including a highly restrictive diet: no salt, no direct sunlight, limited music, no meat, dairy, spices, oils, certain nuts, and avoidance of violent media and thoughts, among other requirements. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/KumankayaFinals24_AlexCalvo-59.jpg) One big medicine family. This is paired with ritual ayahuasca ceremony, often sitting several times a week—as the *curanderos* (master healers) help to clear blockages and open/close your connection. They have dieted the same plant in the past and have a living relationship with it. Throughout your time, you ingest the master plant itself, often in the form of a drink, though not exclusively. This process increases sensitivity and reduces ‘noise’ in the mind-body complex, helping the dieter tune in and connect to the plants' energy. I wrote more about making this connection experientially in ‘[Courting the Muse](https://www.zenmedicine.co/58/)’. [Blood & Ink: Courting the Musethoughts on inspiration / chasing the dragon / creative advice![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-1.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/9a77da15-658d-43e4-98e2-471106d2658d_1024x1024.png)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/58/) ### There are plants and trees known to the Amazonian & shamanistic cultures that *have* *things to teach us*. **These are the Master Plants.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/marosa-full.webp) Marosa **(Pfaffia Iresinoides)*. ## Marosa. **Marosa *(Pfaffia Iresinoides)* is one of these master plants. Known as the ‘Plant of Love’, Marosa is a spirit of divine femininity, love, spiritual connection, and emotional healing/mastery.** She is phenomenal (you might call her an ancient world expert) at healing emotional trauma, relating to the feminine, cultivating spiritual connection, correcting the heart-mind relationship, and is uniquely adept at teaching *mudras*, often empowering people who work directly with their hands. *A small bonus is that Marosa can potentiate the effects of ayahuasca, already an intense experience, and it sure happened for me.* **Marosa felt like my Archetypal Muse.** She was the woman in the red dress in all of my dreams. The energy behind my mother's voice. The sound of music. The feeling of sunshine. The ferocity of the open ocean. The spirit of Mother Nature. She was every woman I’ve ever met, and unlike anyone I had ever known. I knew, somewhere deep inside, that I had spent my whole life looking for Her. That I worked so hard to become the Man I was just to meet Her. That I’ve been preparing many lifetimes to meet Her. Her radiance is intoxicating, empowering, brilliant, terrifying. She is every graceful jungle cat, curvy sports car, beautiful sunset all rolled into one. She is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty itself. She was the original seed behind '[What Are You Doing Man?](https://www.zenmedicine.co/what-are-you-doing-man/)'. It was Marosa who rewired this orientation in me. [What Are You Doing Man?Rewiring an orientation to the feminine.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-2.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/Shiva-Shakti-1849x1421.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/what-are-you-doing-man/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-09-at-09.24.33.png) Marosa Painting by friend and visionary artist [Quentin Pouyat](https://qpouyat.wixsite.com/quentin-art/about?ref=zenmedicine.co). ## Experiences & Outcomes. It’s difficult (impossible?) to write about first-person subjective experience. So much signal is lost in translation, and at the end of the day, it’s the embodied experience that matters, and the nervous system & psychic recalibration that comes from it. I had dozens of other insights during my 2-week diet that are not written about here. You can find the raw processing in pieces like '[Cracking the Koans](https://www.zenmedicine.co/50/)', '[On Self-Sacrifice](https://www.zenmedicine.co/53/)', '[Commit, Or Quit](https://www.zenmedicine.co/54/)'. Any piece written [after Nov 27](https://www.zenmedicine.co/blog/) last year was an integration of this experience. **This very publication—**[**Zen Medicine**](https://www.zenmedicine.co/welcome-to-zen-medicine/)**—and the future of my work were born in the middle of a ceremony during my Marosa diet.** My integration journey is still nascent, as more teachings, tests, and wisdom continue to surface over the weeks and months that have followed. But let’s have some fun. A few prominent experiences: ### The God Orgasm: Birth, Death, Obliteration, Ecstasy. I can only call this the God Orgasm. Maybe 'Pure Rapture'. A multi-hour mind-bender, with my teacher Remi delivering some of the most alien *icaros* I had ever heard (he was singing for someone also dieting Marosa, amplifying the intensity). A continuous, multi-dimensional, rainbow hyper-geometric internal implosion/explosion/annihilation/reconstitution/orgasm/death/rebirth. My body shook intensely from the erupting/collapsing supernova inside me, no sense of who I was or what was happening. It was glorious, awe-inspiring, majestic, royal, sacred, profound, terrifying, all at once. It reminded me how much energy—entire universes—live within every human. How much organic lifeforce my body is made from. Remi mentioned once that the ‘Garden of Eden’ was originally named the ‘Garden of Orgasms’, until it was neutered over the centuries. Fitting. This was a meeting with God in Almighty Glory. Ripped apart and put back together, every moment a mix of fantastic colour, sound, spirit, sensation—a symphony of experience in constant crescendo. **It taught me directly what true orgasm without ejaculation meant for men, and showed me the possibility of much deeper sexual mastery I could cultivate.** After all, orgasm is the tiny death in French: *la petite mort*. Unbelievable. ### Extended Ego Death: Lost in Selfless Groundlessness. Fast-forward a few days, and it was time for Her next ridiculous lesson. **Marosa had prepared me after a week for her most unforgiving teaching: returning my heart to the throne of my life.** *A throne which had been dominated by the Tyrant Mind until this point.* My mind is strong, smart, sneaky, and stubborn. It would not walk away from the throne it had held for many decades. Marosa knew the only way to do this was to show my mind, clearly and without doubt, how *profoundly inadequate* it was for the next chapter of my life. Oh boy… I entered a 2-3 hour extended Bufo/5-MeO-style ego dissolution. An eternity spent in groundless luminescence. No meaningful sense of time, space, self, orientation, or language. Teeth chattering like machine gun fire, near-schizophrenic shakes riddling my body. I thought I was going insane. I might never come back from this one... Over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again my mind was forced into submission—shown clearly that it *cannot* comprehend the mystery of life. It *cannot* wrap itself around the fluid and dynamic formless aliveness. After some nigh-unspeakable expanse of time, a realization occurred. While my mind was flailing and failing, my heart was buoyant. My heart could handle all of this effortlessly, and was having a joyous experience. It was ready for the task of guiding me into the next phase of my life. There’s a lot of integration still to happen. But my heart is back in the game, sitting atop the throne of my being, happy to have returned to its rightful home. ### Resolving Anger & the ‘Pit’. **I decided to do this diet because anger had dominated my emotional landscape for far too long. Years. It was a problem that was killing me slowly and hurting everyone around me.** I dug down deep enough inside myself to find ‘The Pit’ again. If you read '[On Depression](https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-depression/)', you know about the Pit. Anger was the only emotion I had that could escape the black hole that still lived somewhere deep inside. [On Depression.Painting the crushing picture of depression, and all that remains.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1-3.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/blue.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-depression/) Marosa blew it apart. Or rather, blew me apart. She broke me down completely and rebuilt me from the ground up—without a pit. Everything full and functional. *I have not been angry since that diet. At least angry in the chronic and debilitating sense. Over 7 months now. The pit is gone.* These are gifts I will never be able to repay. There is no Earthly amount of money I could have paid that would not be worth the emotional and spiritual freedom this has given me. ### Summoning into Sacred Purpose. **The beautiful brilliance Marosa radiates summoned an Ancient Masculine energy in me. Something was being called to rise and meet Her.** A clear, courageous, confident force. When that energy–that man–appeared, she summoned Him into Excellence. Summoned me into my next stage of service and self-mastery. At that moment, two things became unspeakably clear, an immaculate revelation from deep inside: 1. **I need to apprentice at Kumankaya.** To honour the call of monastic medicine work that has beckoned me for nearly a decade now. 2. **I would need to sacrifice everything in my life to do this.** *Everything.* Holy shit... And there I was, a random Thursday evening, deep in the Mayan jungles of Mexico, seated on a small mat, alone in the dark, while everything in my life was summoned in front of me for sacrifice. My relationship, my life, my work, my projects, my identity, my possessions, my current dreams. Everything ripping through my psyche, *"Yes, this too, this too."* The pain of the loss was overwhelming. But Marosa held it, never once backing down or breaking her gaze. There would be no bullshitting here. I had to see and feel everything I was giving up before I could say yes to this next initiation. It was time to Rise. **I’m happy to say that I begin the first major step of this process, an 8-month facilitation period at Kumankaya, this July. I have given up almost everything in my life to get here, and I haven't even started yet.** ### Getting Married to a Plant? Remi can bend sound with his voice in ways that seem to defy the laws of physics. When you ask him, even he doesn’t know how he does it, he just lets the medicine sing through him. In my final ceremony–the closing of my diet–as I sat in front of Remi, it was self-evidently clear that his voice was *tying a bow*. Sonic waves winding and weaving themselves around and inside me. Like a gift bow. But to me, it gave immediate, unspoken meaning to the term '*tying the knot'*, as in getting married. *I think I just got married to a plant...* **The depth of the relationship I formed with Marosa is unspeakable. She’s my best friend, my lover, my fiercest opponent, my highest possibility, my sacred partner, my mentor, teacher, guide, wife, mother, daughter, past, present, and future.** What label can you possibly give to a spirit that you’ve merged with completely? ## Up Next: Failures, Tests, & Challenges Now I had to go home and complete the process of sacrificing my entire life. Slowly, painfully, deliberately. There is no price I am unwilling to pay… but my God, the cost has been staggering. I understand what sacrifice means now. For you, Marosa, anything... **Part 2: Failures & Integration, here soon.** *Marosa ri-di-di-di canodaaaa*, EB. ps: If you reacted to this like 'wow, incredible' instead of 'wtf, weird', I invite you to join me for a [10-Day Marosa Diet](https://apotheosisretreat.com/marosa?ref=zenmedicine.co) of your own. Held in an impeccable container, I will keep you safe and supported as you do some of the most important work of your life. ☀️ EB. ### Modern Bloodletting. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/bloodletting/ Last updated: 2025-06-07T14:38:05.000Z ## I donated blood for the first time this week... ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/IMG_9019.JPG) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/IMG_9020.JPG) 550ml. AB+. 10 minutes. Veins like a leaf. 🍃 **A nurse asked all first-time donors why they came...** Aside from the obvious *“it’s a good thing to do”* (what I said), I wasn’t ready to drop *“it’s essentially modern bloodletting and a solid health practice.”* But let’s talk about that... --- ## Medical Rebranding. Modern medical science is amazing at taking ancient practices/remedies, running a study to prove what was known for millennia, renaming it, and presenting it as a 'new innovative discovery’. Two prominent examples from the past decades: 1. Wim Hof tweaking and rebranding the ancient Tibetan Buddhist *Tummo* ‘Inner Fire’ breathing technique. Hat tip to *pranayama* from yoga here, too. 2. Daddy Huberman & the online nervous system thinkboi’s taking the ancient yogic practice of *yoga nidra* and rebranding it as NSDR ‘Non-Sleep Deep Rest’. This is happening with psychedelics, breathwork, yoga, meditation, and the entire Amazonian Pharmacopeia, like kambo, [dragon's blood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton%5Flechleri?ref=zenmedicine.co), and more. **There is another practice, one far more archaic and controversial, that continues on to this day, newly branded with fancy-sounding medical jargon...** *Bloodletting.* --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/image.png) ## Bloodletting. Oh yes! The practice of draining blood for the treatment of a variety of diseases and ailments. Dating back 2300 years to the time of Hippocrates. From the [British Columbia Medical Journal](https://bcmj.org/premise/history-bloodletting?ref=zenmedicine.co): > "\[Hippocrates\] believed that existence was represented by the four basic elements—earth, air, fire, and water—which in humans were related to the four basic humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile. Each humor was centred in a particular organ—brain, lung, spleen, and gall bladder—and related to a particular personality type—sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, and choleric. > > Being ill meant having an imbalance of the four humors. Therefore treatment consisted of removing an amount of the excessive humor by various means such as bloodletting, purging, catharsis, diuresis, and so on." Thus, the practice of bloodletting was born. Though we may view this as an embarrassing footnote in the annals of medicine today, it continues, as alive as ever: ## Therapeutic Phlebotomy. > *"Therapeutic phlebotomy is when blood is drawn to treat a disease. It is used today in the treatment of a few diseases, including hemochromatosis, sickle cell disease, porphyria cutanea tarda, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and polycythemia.”* Bloodletting sounds way more hardcore. But it continues because there are *real benefits*. Even if you are not sick or dying, intentional bloodletting in the form of donating blood is a double whammy: 1. You get a few solid personal health benefits. 2. You can save up to 3 lives with a single donation. Win-win. ### Benefits of Bloodletting: - Free mini check-up during the screening process. - Healthier heart/vascular system (lower blood pressure (BP) & risk of heart attack). - Lowers/manages iron levels. Some people donate blood simply to manage iron levels. - The body creates fresh/new red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma. Cellular energy and vitality win. - Improves circulation - Reduces inflammation. - A little positive boost from endorphin release. *Not bad, eh?* It was fascinating to see the variety of people there. University students, a triathlete husband/wife whose friend had cancer and needed a transfusion, and a couple of older folks. No rhyme nor reason to who was there–on a random Wednesday afternoon–donating life-saving medicine for people they would never know or meet. **It hit me hard:** > There are so many influencers and ‘new paradigm’ online thinkers advocating for saving the planet, helping others, being a better person, virtue signalling (a group I most certainly fall into), yet these random run-of-the-mill Canadians had probably done more to save real lives than any of them? Wild. Humbling. There you have it. The modern science of therapeutic phlebotomy. The ancient art of bloodletting. Personal health benefits with social good. *If you can, consider becoming a donor.* 🩸 You might be on the other side of that equation someday, EB. ### Walking Dead: Chronic Stress Injury. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/chronic-stress-injury/ Last updated: 2025-06-05T14:35:46.000Z Shout-out to my brother Jasper for sending some incredible pushback and additional context on the recent essay, [Predator or Prey](https://www.zenmedicine.co/prey/): **"Our front-facing eyes evolved way before we embraced a more meat-heavy diet. All Hominidae and even all primates have front-facing eyes while most of them are completely vegetarian. The thing is that we evolved in trees and we needed the binocular vision to have better depth perception to successfully navigate tree tops for hanging fruits.* **Secondly, there's a whole school of thought that dives deep into our nature as prey that didn't evolve to be a hunter but built the habit of being a hunter. It explains a lot of our innate anxiety which is naturally a prey-like feature. We only feel confident in large groups which are very un-predator-like."* Great articles to read more on this [here](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-healthy-journey/202308/from-prey-to-predator-the-mindset-of-trauma-recovery?ref=zenmedicine.co) and [here](https://slate.com/technology/2012/10/evolution-of-anxiety-humans-were-prey-for-predators-such-as-hyenas-snakes-sharks-kangaroos.html?ref=zenmedicine.co). Onward! 🔥 EB. > "The physiological response to stress is normal, expected, and helps us cope with threats. Our brain has the ability to store memories of events (images, smells, sensations) that can be triggers for ongoing stress responses. When we are unable to turn off the normal stress response we can become physically impacted from the constant state of arousal.” — [NOLS](https://www.nols.edu/en/?ref=zenmedicine.co) Wilderness Medicine Handbook ### Once you learn the signs and symptoms (S/Sx) of chronic stress injury, you see it in people, cultures, and environments everywhere you go. *Viewing the impact of chronic stress as a personal injury is a frame that would change most people's lives.* It's obvious someone is injured when their wrist is in a cast, they have a rash on their face, or are presenting symptoms of the flu. **It is just as obvious that someone is suffering from chronic stress injury once you know what to look for.** A key concept in First Response is ‘early changing’ and ‘late changing’ vital signs. Indicators that something bad is happening. Some signs appear *early*, while others show up *later*. - Early-changingvitals include heart rate, respiratory rate, and skin colour. - Late-changing vitals include pupil responsiveness, blood pressure, and core body temperature. If someone’s pupils are fixed, dilated, and unresponsive to light… you’re late in the game and a crisis is already happening. If someone’s lips are turning blue (cyanosis), something bad is happening but you’re not in full-blown meltdown... *yet*. *Cyanotic skin is an early-changing vital sign. Unresponsive pupils are a late-changing vital sign.* **There are early-changing and late-changing signs of chronic stress injury.** ### Early Changing S/Sx: - Loss of vitality/creativity. - Dreading work. - Short fuse. *"Everyone's a problem, everything is too much work."* - Lack of motivation. - Physical fatigue. ### Late Changing S/Sx: - Sleep disturbances. - Substance use/abuse. - Persistent anxiety. - Isolation. - Inability to feel pleasure (anhedonia). - Hopelessness. It's easy and tempting to shrug this off, *"These are normal for me, and everyone I know feels most of them. It's not that bad."* That is *true*. **But you won't like the reason why...** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/06/Stress-Continuum-1.png) ### Our society is *sick*. Chronic stress injury is a reality for the majority of people you walk past on the street. That doesn't make it *normal*. Absolutely not *healthy*. It means that we have come to accept *profound dysfunction and illness* as 'normal'. **If you notice the S/Sx of chronic stress injury, you should start treatment (Tx) for it.** The longer this goes unresolved and unprocessed, the more insult is added to injury, the worse things get, and the harder it becomes to resolve later on. ### Tx Principles for Chronic Stress Injury: - Take a real break. - Disconnect from technology/social media. - Do things that bring you joy. - Body-based decompression: yoga, walks in nature, massage, breathwork, meditation, exercise, and sunlight. - Get the basics right: sleep, diet, exercise, meditation, home, hygiene. - Resolve the sources of stress (have the uncomfortable conversation, change your job, get out of debt, stop doomscrolling). - Seek professional help (therapy, psychiatry, doctor's office). - Build more structure for energy management into your daily routine. - Scream into a pillow. - Shake and dance it out. - Cry. One thing NOLS doesn't address head-on, but I believe is important to share: ### Chronic psychological-emotional stress injury will eventually metastasize and manifest as physical conditions and illness. - Yes, there is a direct connection between your gut issues and your toxic relationship. - Yes, your inferiority complex from childhood is now manifesting as an obscure and untreatable rash on your back. - Yes, you get sick every 3 months because your immune system is trashed, because your body is never in a rest/repair parasympathetic state from workaholism. If you are under chronic stress and your body is dumping adrenaline and other biochemical cocktails into your system beyond reasonable levels, paired with poor recovery from broken sleep and a myriad of minor issues, this will set off physical cascades that eventually become major problems. **Acute stress will grow into chronic injury. Stay injured long enough, and it becomes debilitating and life-threatening physical and psychological problems.** Fortunately, all you need to do is manage your stress. Be kind to yourself. Practice self-care like a sacred ritual. Slow down. Deep breath. Take good care, EB. ### Predator or Prey? URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/prey/ Last updated: 2025-06-03T14:42:26.000Z **It's not often I sit on a piece for weeks, debating whether or not to publish it... but let's venture into uncharted waters.* **We’ll put into words something you may have been feeling, like the agonizing* [**presque vu*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/presque%5Fvu?ref=zenmedicine.co)**, tip-of-the-tongue, but can't quite name it.* **The conclusion is worth seeing even if you don't read the whole piece. Find the wolf video. Deep breath...* ### **One of the dangerous psychospiritual trends I’m tracking is a collective identity shift from 'humanity as predator' to 'humanity as prey'.** *The collective unconscious waffles between these two poles on a seemingly daily basis.* ## Beyond Apex Predators. > "An apex predator, also known as a top predator or superpredator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own." — Wikipedia **Humanity is a predator species of such unmatched capacity that** **we have blown past the** [**definition of apex predator**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apex%5Fpredator?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=Apex%20predators%20are%20usually%20defined,eat%20plants%20%28primary%20producers%29.)**. We defy classification according to apex predator theory.** An orca, or lion—both apex predators—hunt a single shark or gazelle at a time; humans drag line and machine gun entire herds overnight. It’s no longer reasonable to classify humanity as apex predators. There are categorical differences. *This difference is so vast that you can pay for cute little excursions to laugh and take photos of other apex predators in their natural environments.* We’re like **omega predators**: the end goal of planetary predatory evolution. Capable of hunting anything and everything, no matter where or what it is. Humanity is at the top of *all food chains*. **We’re** [**dragons**](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-tale-of-the-dragon-riders/)**.** --- ## Hunting Made Us Human. **Meat was a profound catalyst for the evolution of humanity. Meat made us human.** It provided the caloric and nutritional density required for the brain to undergo a dramatic increase in size, baseline metabolic demand, and, thus, capability and intelligence. *To eat meat, you must hunt. To hunt, you must be a predator.* It is true that deep within your blood memory, there live recollections of an ancient past when humanity was hunted—when proto-sabertooth tigers had demonic fangs perfectly shaped to enter the soft point of your skull for a one-shot instakill—but that time is long gone. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/image.png) For millennia, humanity has hunted. It's like trauma healing: yes, something bad happened in the past, but that's not the reality of your present; let's get your nervous system unfrozen in time. ## Physiognomy. > “Physiognomy: a person's facial features or expression, especially when regarded as indicative of character or ethnic origin.” Beyond apex predator theory and evolutionary arguments, there is [physiognomy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physiognomy?ref=zenmedicine.co). Character traits from facial structure also indicate a predator class. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/eyes.png) Predators have close-set eyes, enabling better depth assessment and pinpoint tracking ability. Perfect for hunting. Humans have close-set eyes. Prey have wide-set eyes, perfect for scanning as much of the landscape as possible for threat detection. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/wide-eyes.jpeg) Wide-set eyes—less like a lioness, more like a doe? ### **It’s worth noticing the images, traits, and silhouettes a society deifies and glorifies.** [Hypertelorism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertelorism?ref=zenmedicine.co) is emerging in up-and-coming celebrities. Wide-set eyes. There’s a strong argument that this is part of a greater shift toward desiring more [neotenic features](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny?ref=zenmedicine.co)—juvenilization. Babies are cute. Humans are hardwired to care for cute things. Babies are cute in part because they have disproportionately large/wide eyes for their faces. This is why anime-style faces are so popular. Gigantic eyes staring at you. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/image-1.png) Interesting case study. One of the most popular movies **of all time*. Two things simultaneously: neotenic features AND a warrior/gaian culture. ### **We are glorifying, becoming attracted to, and elevating to celebrity status the physiognomic features of the harmless, the child-like, the baby-faced, the prey animals.** Humans are predators. You are a predator. Your ancient ancestors were predators. There is nothing wrong with this. This is human history. Your history. To address an obvious critique: yes, individual, isolated humans are still weak/prey-like. But when's the last time you were alone? Truly alone? No, being in a room of your house built by 34 other men with tools/techniques/materials created by 10000 others does not count as alone. When's the last time you had to do anything, like making clothes, hunting food, protecting yourself, gathering water, alone? Humanity is a **collective* species, and a **predator* species at that. **Predator is a loaded word in modern culture—in many ways justified.** It conjures images of atrocity, creepy fat men in basements, and levels of aggression that modern city slickers are all too uncomfortable with. A predator class necessitates hierarchy. There are predators, and there are prey. There are predators, and there are apex predators. It is not equal. **In prey, everyone is equal.** *Ah, there it is... the familiar perfume of political party slogans, "We the equal. We the oppressed. We the weak. We the victims. We the prey."* - In predator classes, characteristics like decisiveness, conviction, power, capability, excellence, and vitality are praised and rewarded. - In prey classes, characteristics like camouflage, escaping confrontation, threat detection, speed/agility, and power-in-numbers are rewarded. *Which of these is the direction we are moving in?* --- ## Predator vs. Prey Morality. **Nietzsche, in one of his prophetic (& problematic) masterpieces,** [**On the Genealogy of Morality**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On%5Fthe%5FGenealogy%5Fof%5FMorality?ref=zenmedicine.co)**, calls this *master vs. slave morality*.** Those terms are too loaded even for me to enjoy using, but *predator vs. prey morality* has a certain ring to it. *In the endless evolutionary dance between lion and gazelle, who is correct? Is the lion wrong, or the gazelle?* It’s a meaningless question. However, in no way—biologically, psychologically, morally—as much as you want to believe, and certainly as much as other people want to tell you, are you the gazelle in this situation. As an inheritor of the human bloodline, you are the lion. ### This is textbook psychological shadow material. A life-affirming, reality-according Truth is silently subjugated and rejected, pushed out of conscious experience and into the depths of the collective shadow. Without proper integration, it syphons energy, influences experience, and generates events in life that we call coincidence. > “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”‌ – Carl Jung By rejecting the reality of humans as a predator species, humanity is rejecting significant aspects of itself: power, purpose, vitality, capability, and our very role and responsibility in the natural ecosystem. **What I find most compelling is what happens in all the ideologies that ascribe to 'prey morality':** 1. *The 'oppressed', 'victimized', and 'prey' group* *together (strength in numbers).* 2. *A groundswell of support builds, and the group acquires power.* 3. *The group uses this new power to *hunt* and *prey on* those they view as the predators/oppressors.* 4. *Vicious censorship, deplatforming/debanking, cancel culture, violent protests, ‘tax the rich’.* 5. *Even the simple socialist act of "Hey Government, make this guy pay taxes on his hard-earned money under threat of violence/jail/death, and give that money to me to help my family" is *predatory*. You just remove the responsibility of 'doing the dirty work' (taking someone else's money) yourself.* **Every time, like clockwork. The predator spirit burns brightly even in those waving the flag of ‘humble, meek, simple prey’. After all, it's only natural...** *You must see how most of these traits are traditionally masculine as well, yes?* - The vilification of masculine ‘toxicity’—leadership, strength, assertiveness, action, vitality, decisiveness. - The bulldozing of all hierarchical structures as nothing more than systems of oppression. - The resurgence of interest in Marxist communism & socialist policy. - The growing impotence/sickness/waywardness/infertility of younger generations. This is of paramount importance for men. Testosterone is a hunting hormone. Stamina, strength, emotional steadiness, mental clarity. Every Silicon Valley tech guru and Wall Street finance bro is attempting to recreate a very ancient blood memory: *the art of the hunt.* ### We are in a slow but steady transition of our collective identity from a predator class to a prey animal. **Finally, there remains the critical issue of an individual, and an entire species, at war with its very nature.** > “A new consciousness is developing which sees the earth as a single organism and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed.” — Carl Sagan Being at war with yourself is the seed of all kinds of neuroses, psychoses, mental health problems, suicide, even war. Nothing desirable arises from the fragmentation of the psyche. **If you are an omega predator species hell-bent on rejecting every aspect of your nature, you’re in for a bad time.** The conspiratorial conclusion is simple: prey animals are easier to control. Sheep can be herded. There is a [perverse incentive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse%5Fincentive?ref=zenmedicine.co) to keep a population docile. But this is not conspiracy. It cuts deeper. This is an ongoing negotiation for the identity of the human race. **This does not mean, as they want you to believe, that you are a tool of destruction, a wanton-killing machine that eviscerates living creatures for fun like a psychotic jaguar.** *Far from it...* ### **True apex predators assume their place in the natural order. They steward the security of the ecosystem. They exist in harmony and wholeness with the world and accept their role without hesitation.** After all, [wolves change the rivers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&ref=zenmedicine.co). The introduction of wolves into an ecosystem had such profound [trophic cascades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic%5Fcascade?ref=zenmedicine.co) that the *shape of the rivers* changed. Apex predators are necessary. They steward ecosystems and maintain environmental homeostasis. **The problem is not that you are a predator. The problem is that you don’t embrace it.** *You have forgotten your blood memory. Your ancestral inheritance—cast off into the mud. You have forgotten who you are.* Reclaim your birthright. Return to natural order. Hold your head high and gaze firm, as all predators do. **And whatever you do: never let them convince you that you are nothing but a victim of oppression and mere circumstance.** *For you are not prey here...* With great power comes great responsibility, EB. ### Confronting the Digital Shoggoth. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/confronting-the-digital-shoggoth/ Last updated: 2025-06-01T14:18:32.000Z > **Shoggoth:** Fictional creatures created by H. P. Lovecraft, first appearing in his novella At the Mountains of Madness (1936). They are depicted as amorphous, shapeshifting beings who were genetically engineered by the Elder Things as a race of servant-tools, but eventually rose up against their masters. ### One of my biggest blocks, and a hill I’m pretty much willing to die on: *Social media is the beating heart of the Matrix.* All the ‘lifestyle designer conscious creator’ dudes, all the ‘5D pleidian astrology’ ladies, and of course, the tip of the spear Andrew Tate & Co.—all posting carefully crafted, professionally edited reels on how to ‘escape the matrix’. **My brother in Christ—Instagram IS the matrix.** If your livelihood depends on your ability to farm attention through dubious dark patterns of videography and industrial-scale attention hijacking, you have broken free of nothing. If your habitual instinct in any new environment is to take a photo so you can carefully reinforce an identity of being a free-spirited, effortlessly elegant human, this is the *obstacle*, not the *expression*. **One thing I cannot overcome is how *profoundly unnatural* it feels to whip out my phone to capture *anything*.** *"OK BOOMER.”* I get it. But don’t gaslight me into accepting that it’s somehow ‘natural human behaviour’. It’s not. If you’re espousing some narrative of ‘breaking free of Matrix programming’ and ‘rediscovering the Real World of human freedom’ while being wholly absorbed in unnatural behaviour, you’ve lost the plot. > *“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”* ― Upton Sinclair Maybe it’s because I grew up in the days before phones conquered the world. Every sacred moment now underlaid with reflexive thoughts of lighting, angles, quick-witted openers, *“wait, let me get a photo first.”* **We're biological bootloaders for the Matrix.** I can make many counterarguments, to be fair: - It takes real courage to put yourself out in the world, in any capacity, including social media & digital content. - There is truth to ‘meeting the people where they’re at’… and everyone happens to be on social nowadays. - Yes, I believe the lifestyle afforded by being an online/digital creator is ‘more free’ than traditional employment arrangements in many ways. - In the absence and loss of real belonging, witnessing, and community, we take what we can get in the form of [parasocial relationships](https://www.google.com/search?q=parasocial+relationships&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co), virtue signalling, and likes as indicators of social worth. - The desire & act of creating social content can come from a pure place like service, love, contribution, meaning, artistry, even the simple appreciation of who you are as a human being. - Taking a photo because you want to treasure an experience is not a bad thing, and doesn’t deserve the level of sh\*t I’m giving it here. But in other surreptitious ways, the neurotic act and habit-forming impulse of continuous ‘content creation’ is a much stronger and ever-present chain than ‘when the bell rings at 5pm I’m done with work’. **Capturing the experience removes you from the experience.** It throws off your nervous system and prevents the living experience from forming deeply emotional and significant impressions, and consolidating into long-term memory. You become increasingly dependent on capturing events on your phone because you’re outsourcing your body's living memory to digital technology. > *“Tell me what use is the key if you can’t see the chains.”* — [Crushed](https://open.spotify.com/track/2BzEsfwqucjlBSFu8s74sz?si=c742feca4ffa497d&ref=zenmedicine.co), Parkway Drive It's like '15 Million Merits’, the Black Mirror episode, a prophetic piece of art: Speech starts at 1:11. > “I haven’t got a speech, I didn’t plan words, I didn’t even try to. I just knew that I had to get here, to stand here and I knew I wanted you to listen; to really listen, not just pull a face like you’re listening, like you do the rest of the time. A face like you’re feeling instead of processing. You pull a face and poke it towards the stage and la-di-da we sing and dance and tumble around and all you see up here, it’s not people, you don’t see people up here, it’s all fodder. And the faker the fodder is the more you love it because fake fodder’s the only thing that works anymore, fake fodder is all that we can stomach — actually not quite all. Real pain, real viciousness, that we can take. Yeah, stick a fat man up a pole and we’ll laugh ourselves feral cause we’ve earned the right, we’ve done cell time and he’s slacking the scum so ha ha ha at him. Cause we’re so out of our minds with desperation we don’t know any better. All we know is fake fodder and buying shit. That’s how we speak to each other, how we express ourselves is buying shit. I have a dream? The peak of our dreams is a new hat for our doppel, a hat that doesn’t exist. It’s not even there, we buy shit that’s not even there. Show us something real and free and beautiful, you couldn’t. It’d break us, we’re too numb for it, our minds would choke. There’s only so much wonder we can bear, that’s why when you find any wonder whatsoever you dole it out in meager portions, and only then til it’s augmented and packaged and pumped through ten thousand pre-assigned filters, til it’s nothing more than a meaningless series of lights, while we ride day-in, day-out — going where? Powering what? All tiny cells in tiny screens and bigger cells in bigger screens and fuck you. Fuck you, that’s what it boils down to is fuck you. Fuck you for sitting there and slowly knitting things worse. Fuck you and your spotlight and your sanctimonious faces and fuck you all, for taking the one thing I ever came close to anything real about anything..." *Chills.* That speech is incredible. Daniel Kaluuya and the writers are geniuses. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/bing.gif) Immediately absorbed into the program. **The episode illustrates how quickly the Matrix absorbs any and every point of resistance.** *The shoggoths mutate and adapt without hesitation.* The protagonist is swallowed up and spat back out as a contributing member of The Program. His resistance absorbed and regurgitated into the very hollowness of the entity he rebelled against. *There is a consistent voice inside me that thinks I could add some real value by creating more short-form videos, poetry, quick ideas...* *...& there is another, quieter voice beneath that wonders how much people would like me if I had 25k more followers to my name...* **"Let me be important."** The Machine™ preys upon that innocent human vulnerability with every bit of supercomputing power it has. I'm not sure I will do anything about this. I thought it was worth sharing. I quite like the pace, intimacy, and prose of email essays... *...and I'm not confident that if I entered the realm where the shoggoths roam, I could leave with my soul intact.* ### Don’t Lose the Mystery. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/dont-lose-the-mystery/ Last updated: 2025-05-30T14:14:10.000Z > “Evolution is a change from a nohowish, untalkaboutable all-alikeness, to a somehowish and ingeneral-talkaboutable, not-all-alikeness, but continuous somethingelsification and stick-togetherness.” — William James ## In the final judgement, at the end of all roads of inquiry, no one really knows what’s going on here… As you venture into the outcomes of quantum physics, you’re confronted with far more questions than answers. Whatever ‘reality’ is becomes more fluid than concrete. **You live inside this Mystery.** Or, perhaps more accurately: "you" "live" "inside" "this" "mystery". Because who the hell knows what any of that *actually means*? When you drill down deep, the ground of intelligibility crumbles beneath you, and you find yourself in freefall through the Great Somethingness. **Humanity has been in this freefall since the moment Life began.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/IMG_2333.JPEG) Bardo Being by Alex Grey atop a Secret Writing wall by Allyson Grey. [Entheon Sanctuary of Visionary Art](https://www.cosm.org/entheon?ref=zenmedicine.co). New York. ### **It’s easy to get caught up in Certainty. Certainty is a fantastic coping mechanism when staring down the barrel of the Almighty Impenetrable.** But when you investigate the nature of your experience (the only thing you ever really 'have'), you realize you *still* have no idea what ‘certainty’ even is. *Who is certain? Of what? What exactly is certainty? What, specifically, does that word refer to in reality? What is reality? Where is it? How is it? Why is it? What!?* A friend of mine was describing his experiences coming out of mind-bending N,N-DMT experiences… left with the disorienting question: > *“What even is curiosity?”* **Words give you an illusory sense of control and grounding.** > *“Ah yes, that’s a tree.”* What? Are you sure? Quantum physics starkly disagrees that any single, isolated, individual object exists in any lasting capacity to be pointed at and named a tree. The Buddhists, too. *A mysterious, generative, dynamic, emergent, alive, collectively-hallucinated mirage with apparent sensory correlates...* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/IMG_8697-2.JPG) The impeccable [Net of Being](https://www.alexgrey.com/art/fire-eyes/net-of-being?ref=zenmedicine.co) by Alex Grey. ### **But, my fellow traveller, do not despair. For we have missed something important in our exploration...** *Who told you Mystery was a bad thing? Who told you that you had to relate to uncertainty negatively? Why did you believe them?* Every moment of your life is laced with Mystery. Juicy, sexy, luscious mystery. Mystery upon mystery. As the Tao Te Ching says, [*“Dark enigma deep within dark enigma / gateway of all mystery.”*](https://www.sanmateozen.org/learning-the-dark-enigma/?ref=zenmedicine.co) > *"Please, you who try to fathom dark-enigma clear through,* > *don’t pass your days and nights in vain."* > *—* Shitou This is one of the reasons traditional Chinese and Taoist landscape paintings are always *incomplete*. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/painting.jpg) They never attempt to 'capture' the full landscape in immaculate detail, because the details are *always* in flux. Never permanent. **There exists no fixed, formed, concrete reality to be captured in painting to begin with.** The ancient Artist-Intellectuals didn't leave open, cloudy, foggy, unfinished spaces in their paintings because they were amateurs. Precisely the opposite. They were Masters of the Mystery, and they captured its essence in their paintings. Vague generalities, loose feelings, hints of *somethingness*, fleeting depictions of a Mysterious Entity in dynamic change. Agonizingly beautiful. Profoundly mysterious. Completely ungraspable. It appears that we can interact with this Great Mystery in some way. That we are never truly separate from it. How fun! What an opportunity. **What a true and final freedom.** *Don’t lose the Mystery…* EB. ### MMA: Mixed Medicine Arts. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/mma/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T13:22:27.000Z > "Martial skills, spiritual self-discipline, and aesthetic sensitivity became merged into a single indistinguishable whole." – Eiji Yoshikawa, [Musashi](https://www.amazon.ca/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X?ref=zenmedicine.co) ## Mixed Medicine Arts. Or, Martial Medicine Arts? Medicine Martial Arts? *Let me know if one of those sounds better...* Shoutout to [Cameron Shayne](https://budokon.com/cameron-shayne-1?ref=zenmedicine.co)—5th degree taekwondo black belt, 3rd degree karate black belt, BJJ black belt, and founder of [Budokon](https://budokon.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)—for the seed of inspiration. Shayne refers to Budokon—a movement language for martial artists—as "Mixed Movement Arts." *Brilliant.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/budokon.jpg) > “Remember… you are expressing the technique, not doing the technique.” – Bruce Lee. ## Mixed Medicine Arts. Everything this implies is where I'm taking my work. The center point of overlapping Venn diagrams. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-27-at-09.24.26.png) ### The philosophy, discipline, and Way of Being of the martial arts, woven into the healing, wholeness, and evolution of personalized natural medicine. **Note: To be fair, while I love this remix on MMA, it isn't really new. This is essentially the Shaolin Way in a nutshell. While it's not often spoken of, the Warrior-Monks of the Shaolin Temple created an incredible variety of natural medicines. It was the Samurai who cultivated tea for medicine and ritual. Both have deep participation in and stewardship of naturalist philosophies like Zen & Taoism. I'm just inviting a psychedelic flair into the mix.* Progression paths for eager students, dojos of discipline for earnest practitioners, personalized healing journeys for private clients, and rigorous standards of quality and excellence along the way. Natural medicine. Plant medicine. Zen medicine. Bitcoin medicine. The Right Medicine, for the Right Person, at the Right Time, in the Right Way. *Noticing early whispers of a 'Medicine Eightfold Path’ here…* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/eightfold.jpg) ## The Practice of Medicine as a Process of Becoming. **One of the questions I get from friends at home when I talk about my work and process is, *“Aren’t you ever done healing?”*** It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but it's often genuine. The *practice* of medicine is a *process* of becoming. It’s a dance with the flow of time and change. My answer is a consistent ‘no’, there’s no real end, and there are a few reasons why: 1. **Experientially, the further I go into healing, the more new material surfaces.** The deeper you go, the more complicated it gets, and the longer it takes to resolve. Start with anxiety, progress to self-worth, then fear of death and the illusion of separation. The rabbit hole of *what is possible to be healed* runs deep, far deeper than modern culture recognizes. 2. **The difference between ‘growth’ and ‘healing’ might just be semantic.** The once-clear boundary separating ‘healing’ and ‘personal growth’ is beginning to blur and disappear. Most people consider ‘developing discipline’ a growth-oriented activity. Nowadays, I'd say we’re working on ‘healing your discipline’. There's an obstacle impeding the natural flow of life force energy, creating psycho-spiritual inconsistency (lack of discipline). Address the obstacle, ‘heal’ your discipline. But when you develop more discipline, most people would say you’ve *grown* instead of *healed*. 3. **New identities and new bodies will have new issues.** Humanity has not yet conquered aging, nature, or the law of entropy. Every few years, you have an entirely new body. No single cell remains the same. New bodies have new issues. As you’ve grown older, you’ve started to notice a little less energy, cuts take longer to heal, more frequent sickness, lower back pain, still comparing yourself to people more than you’d like, not a huge fan of the aging reflection that looks back at you in the mirror. So long as you remain a living creature, there is healing work to be done. ## Basic Goodness & Radiant Sunlight. This is a core part of my worldview. I believe all people have '[basic goodness](https://www.lionsroar.com/the-ground-of-basic-goodness/?ref=zenmedicine.co)', from Chogyam Trungpa and the Shambhala Prophecy: > *"You have something in yourself that is fundamentally, basically good. It transcends the notion of good or bad. Something that is worthwhile, wholesome, and healthy exists in all of us. Such goodness is synonymous with bravery. It is always there. Whenever you see a bright and beautiful color, you are witnessing your own inherent goodness. Whenever you hear a sweet and beautiful sound, you are hearing your own basic goodness. Whenever you taste something sweet or sour, you are experiencing your own basic goodness. Things like that are always happening to you, but you have been ignoring them, thinking that they are mundane and unimportant, purely coincidences of an ordinary nature. However, it is worthwhile to take advantage of anything that happens to you that has that particular nature of goodness. You begin to realize that there is nonaggression happening all around you in your life, and you are able to feel the freshness of realizing your goodness, again and again."* **If you've ever explored** [**Internal Family Systems**](https://ifs-institute.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **(IFS), you'll know that at the center is their theory of the Self.** The Self is present in all people, and when 'unobstructed', radiates the 8 C's: Confidence, Calm, Curiosity, Compassion, Clarity, Creativity, Connectedness, Courage. I believe this. Though the clouds may block the Sun, the Sun never stops shining. Inside all people are all the virtues and positive traits we admire in humanity. For various reasons, these get covered up. Whether you're in a 'growth mindset' or deep healing, the aim and outcome are the same: *clear away the obstacles and illnesses blocking the naturally beautiful expression of the individual.* ## Personal Evolution. Every person is so wonderfully, beautifully, painfully complex. A rich mix of childhood experience, ancestral genetics, cultural inheritance, and the accumulated weight of their human experience. **The precise mix of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual gifts and maladies is unique to each person.** The idea that you can run everyone through the same assembly line of healing is deeply misguided, at minimum less effective than it could be, and oftentimes dangerous. *And so…* **Mixed Medicine Arts.** Part school, part healing center, part dojo, part community, part nature, part sanctuary. Taking the best of allopathic and alternative medicines, finding the compounds, substances, experiences, techniques, and modalities that address the unique circumstances of each person, and creating tailored and personalized progressions for each person. Medicine and Mastery fused in a brilliant process of being and becoming. Healing and growth united as one. **MMA — Mixed Medicine Arts.** Welcome to the dojo, partner. EB. ### The Way of Tea. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-way-of-tea/ Last updated: 2025-05-26T14:38:22.000Z ## **My body is more tea than water at this point...** *I drink it constantly. Never long without it.* **Tea has been my ally, medicine, hobby, practice, fascination, and love for years.** I've written about the [dharma aspects of tea rituals](https://www.zenmedicine.co/17/) and [tea as a complete path](https://www.highexistence.com/cha-dao/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Tea is a sacred mirror—a moment of reprieve on your long adventure through life. *As you immerse in ritual, tea reflects back everything about your life. Your posture a reflection of your health. Your mental chatter a reflection of your inner world. You read yourself like a book when you begin to notice what it's like to sit in a tea ceremony. Trauma, excitement, nervous system dysregulation, inner critics, workaholism, shaking legs, boredom, peacefulness, overthinking—it's all right there on the surface, staring back at you from the bowl of tea in your lap.* Above all else, this is what tea taught me: ### The mind can get in the way of embodied experience. *To know that and to live it are two different things.* I write romantically about tea because it was the first practice that changed everything. It kept my mind engaged while allowing the mind to walk itself to the conclusion that it needed to get out of the way. I set my mind to the task of noticing everything happening (mindful awareness) while in tea ceremony. *Touch, taste, smell, rhythm, flow, structure, sensation, thought.* It had a task, it was happy. It tuned in and worked hard. As the mind began to notice how rich the sensory field was in every moment, it learned to reduce its signal and processing to make space for the flow of sensory information. **It concluded that the best thing it could do was quiet down.** - Dance of steam in air. - Scintillating textures of ceramic. - Appropriate attitudes for ritual. - Intimacy in spacious silence. - Cravings to escape into distraction. - Fluidity of ceremonial movements. - Earthy tastes of tea and leaf. - Warmth of water in the throat and belly. - Gentle sound of clinking bowls. - Communion with nature in resolute simplicity. - Earth, air, fire, water in elemental harmony. - Remembering that the present is not something that must be avoided. - Trail of thought as it drifts from thing to thing. - Strength of spine and body in seated, meditative posture. - Smooth flow of breath. Warm exhale, cool inhale. - Freedom found in form and structure. - Death and rebirth of the self in each moment. Being and becoming fused in a furious dance. Thus, the mind slowly quieted, sensations and sensitivity increased, and the world of direct embodied experience opened itself to me in glorious revelation. **Transcendent moments of luminous awareness are not the exclusive domain of psychedelics or meditation.** *The End of Time and the Dawn of Presence are available in every moment.* You live in the rich, organic aliveness of conscious experience. Rendering fully in every moment, and in every moment renewing itself. Nothing else—yoga, meditation, nature, drugs, peak experiences, writing, snowboarding, martial arts, fighting, reading—taught me that lesson as effectively, directly, and efficiently as tea. They all *work*. Tea is just the practice that worked best *for me*. Do I still think? Yes, endlessly. But now, thought arises more beautifully, naturally, organically, and brilliantly as steam, music, rivers, and wind in the grass. Passing through, worth noticing, and then moving on. Thank you, *Camellia sinensis.* The most ancient medicine, and my treasured teacher. I love you. Cha Dao – The Way of Tea, EB. *ps: If you'd like to explore the world of tea, it was* [*Global Tea Hut*](https://globalteahut.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *that guided me. Endless gratitude for their selfless stewardship.* ### Wilderness First Response. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/wilderness-first-response/ Last updated: 2025-05-17T14:28:07.000Z ## I'm a Wilderness First Responder under [NOLS](https://www.nols.edu/en/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (OG’s in extreme outdoor expeditions)... ...WFRs can provide first-response emergency medical treatment in remote environments (considered any situation where EMS: Emergency Medical Service is >30mins away). From multi-week expeditions in the Himalayas, a broken leg on a hike, to something as local as being wounded in a crowded protest zone where movement is restricted, like the [2011 Tahrir Square Egyptian Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%5FEgyptian%5Frevolution?ref=zenmedicine.co). I’m proud to have this. It was an experience of getting very clear, uncomfortable, and serious simultaneously. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/wfr.webp) Our favourite [Rod of Asclepius](https://www.zenmedicine.co/medicine-is-a-sacred-practice/), symbol of medicine/renewal. From my [opening piece](https://www.zenmedicine.co/welcome-to-zen-medicine/), the practice of medicine was something I never really considered. Blood and bone made me squirm. But a few things stuck in my head over the years: - Jamie Wheal’s phenomenal talk years ago on [Surviving & Thriving in VUCA Conditions](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw4ley5-RBk&ref=zenmedicine.co), where I first heard of WFR. For anyone doing deliberate work on culture/resiliency/Game B, it's an essential watch. - Holding myself and the [Apotheosis organization](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) to a higher safety and ethical standard when hosting medicine retreats and taking people into the jungle. - Increasing my skills in somatic, medical, healing, and transformative contexts. - A desire—when all else fails—to be useful when shit hits the fan. A little education goes a long way, from COVID to the recent Hurricane Helene North Carolina disaster. Patching myself up after heavy sparring sessions, assisting participants in pain on retreat, helping kids at the park when they fall off their bikes, and being a comforting and knowledgeable support in situations where EMS was already on their way. Fortunately, no infant CPR needed yet. If you’ve ever met me IRL, you know I walk around with a harness or bag on me at all times. It’s an extension of who I am, I’m rarely without it. I do that because I carry a first aid kit, wound kit, and clean water. 90% of minor cases can be dealt with that. ### **What WFR training gave me was a deeper level of unshakeable confidence.** I published “[How to Be Prepared for the Future Without Losing Your Cool](https://www.zenmedicine.co/how-to-be-prepared-for-the-future/)” last year. It's an ***absolute banger*** and a piece I still swear by: [How to Be Prepared for the Future Without Losing Your Cool.Finding the sweet spot between spiritual passivity and neurotic hyper-vigilance.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/icon/Zen-Icon-185803-1.png)Zen MedicineEric Brown![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/thumbnail/062a47d5-fca2-4bcd-be39-86da2a7ac7dc_2464x1856-jpeg.jpg)](https://www.zenmedicine.co/how-to-be-prepared-for-the-future/) **I believe you can cultivate an ecosystem of meta-skills that prepares you for anything the future brings.** Once your nervous system integrates that reality, your fear of the future drops to near zero. You are safe, and you can handle what may happen. I’ve got skills, practice, and knowledge in treating everything from pulmonary embolisms, hypothermia, broken bones, heart attack, lung failure, frostbite, altitude sickness, hyponatremia, CPR, spinal cord fractures, life-threatening bleeding, lightning, and every kind of cut, scrape, lesion, burn, bite, venom, amputation, and undesireable outcome under the sun. **It brings a very deep, steady calm when I’m out and about.** *What could happen here that I couldn’t handle? Not much, outside of mass casualty major disasters. But I can at least start the triage and treatment process for that, and direct others to render aid. Hakuna matata.* Pair that medical knowledge with survival & military skill (like the [100 Deadly Skills](https://www.google.com/search?q=100+deadly+skills&oq=100+deadly+skills&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co) series from retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson) and you're set. **I would recommend WFR training to any and every adult.** It should, if our education system ever decides to sort itself out, be taught as a requirement to every human on the cusp of adulthood. The experience was incredible, kids would love it, and it’s far more useful than the quadratic formula. If you’re looking for an edge right now or a new side quest to embark on, hop onto the NOLS website and find a [WFR Training](https://www.nols.edu/en/coursefinder/courses/wilderness-first-responder-WFR/?ref=zenmedicine.co) you can attend. **You never know, it might just save someone's life.** What a beautiful possibility to be prepared for, EB. ### What Are You Doing Man? URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/what-are-you-doing-man/ Last updated: 2025-05-15T14:07:35.000Z **I wrote this in a single sitting several months ago, 5:15am nestled in the jungles of Costa Rica. It's fiery—bitter medicine. Trying to process overwhelming pain, grief, and guilt from a separation alongside the integration of my* [**Marosa master plant diet*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/58/)**—a spirit of divine femininity, love, and spiritual connection. It's high time I wrote about that more.* **Thank you, Marosa, for your teachings, love, and wisdom. I love you. I can never repay what you have given me. But I will try. Thank you for giving me the target to aim at. I will reach it.* **Reading this again now… God, I still have a lot of work to do. Don't we all.* 🍵 EB. Do you worship the ground she walks on? Do you ravish her with your presence? Do you ever truly listen to her? You speak to her in words and she looks at you with feelings. ***You aren’t even speaking the same language.*** Are you willing to get over yourself and become the pinnacle of the Man that she deserves? To suck it up, shed your brittle ego, and surrender yourself completely to the divinity that arises with every breath she breathes? Do you take the lead, any lead at all? Have you created a Garden of Eden for her so that she can breathe freely and expand her infinite capacity for love to envelope you and everything her fierce gaze and soft touch fall on? ***If not, what the actual fuck are you doing man?*** She is a divine miracle. An angel incarnate. She is the living embodiment of cosmic lifeforce. The creative, playful, loving energy of the cosmos is standing in front of you. Embodied poetry. Not even poetry! She is the very Spark that inspired the greatest poets in history. The Muse who’s sung your song for eons. The Great Mother giving birth to all things, suffering through countless ages of neglect and hostility. The impenetrable, insurmountable Fount of Beauty. ***How dare you disrespect that.*** You treat her like some carbon-copy option among hundreds. Sitting here now, fucking around, secretly waiting for the next-best-thing to magically appear and grovel at your feet. Deceiving yourself with grandiose and narcissistic stories that she has no better option than the lacklustre limp-dick minimum effort you scrape together. Making her beg for attention—questioning your love but all the while clinging onto hope—barely able to rip you out of the trance of empty phone addiction or worse, the same goddamn video game you’ve been playing since you were 15\. ***For what?*** Because you’re comfortable? Because staying in some mildly okay non-thing is easier for you than releasing her into the arms of a love and lover who recognizes her for what she truly is and is willing to treat her that way? Because admitting to yourself you’re nowhere near the Man she deserves is too painful? Because anything beyond the bare minimum is too unreasonable to ask of a God-King like you? ***Do you hear yourself?*** You’re not suffering from too much masculinity, you’re empty of it. She’s starving. Begging you to be a Man for once in your life. Desperate to feel the power and purpose of the Sacred Masculine she knows lies somewhere deep in your heart. Yearning for you to show up at the table—come hell or high water—and lead her with love into heaven on earth. Get it together, man. [Commit, or quit](https://www.zenmedicine.co/54/). You’re not protecting anyone but yourself from pain, and you're hurting too. ***Perhaps the proper orientation of Man is to always feel inferior to the Divine Feminine.*** For what is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty other than Her? If you cannot see that, you do not deserve it. If you cannot act like it, you are not ready for it. Without her, your bloodline ends. Without her, you never become the Man the Gods are calling you to be. Your fate lies through her and beside her, not despite her. In what position are you to bargain? Bring nothing less than your absolute best to bear, to earn nothing more than the hope of being worthy of Her Grace. Your self-righteous entitlement in this matter is grossly misplaced. ***"Pride cometh before a fall."*** And the arrogance of Man is near limitless. If you are not prepared to show up—strong, full, capable, committed, and say without flinching, *“I am not yet worthy, but I will do everything in my God-given power to become the Man you deserve, I will never let you forget your Love and Beauty, and I will love you through absolutely everything, for you are the very air I breathed since I was born, the vital energy that propelled me through this life, and every spark of inspiration, joy, and purpose that animates me now,”* what makes you worthy of even her gaze? ***Secretly, you know this is the only test that matters to you.*** You distract yourself with the trivial nonsense of the world to escape this. You fear unworthiness. Fear being judged as not enough. So you retreat into absence, control, anger, indifference. Slowly, the Sacred Masculine inside of you withers and dies. You long for the opportunity to show your Self, Her, and God the Man you can be. You’ve pursued it your entire life. To find something truly worthy of your strength, discipline, courage, love, honour, dignity. Someone who will meet the best of you with the best of her, and launch you both into transcendent realms never once imagined. ***She is here in front of you now.*** Waiting, yearning, longing for the Divinity within you to spark an inferno of love, burning away all the fear, smallness, and separation in her. Waiting for you to rise. To become the Man, the Pattern, the Paternal, the Sacred Structure that frees her fully into love. ***What will you do?*** ### Details of the Magnificent. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/details-of-the-magnificent/ Last updated: 2025-05-13T14:14:39.000Z …splashes of rainbow across the countertop; first signs of morning light. …branches rustling in the wind; digressions of weather in a dance of limb and leaf. …when she brushes her hair behind her ear after every smile; refined grace. …quiet walks in the forest, ancient trees wrapping their arms around you, dirt, earth, and branch beneath your feet; ancient wisdom. ...birdsong in calm mornings, a melody of redemption; calling you home. …warmth radiating up your arms into your heart; first cups of fresh tea. …pounding heartbeats after a swift run in crisp morning air; living gratitude. …butterflies. 🦋 …the exquisite delicacy of pain and sorrow, joy and beauty; artistry in emotional tapestry. …meeting someone’s gaze from across the room, hints of a smile dancing across their face; subtle intimacy. …a warm meal grown, prepared, and shared in simple loving recognition; daily prayer. …the markings in marble, the patterns in wood, brushstrokes in jade; natural harmony in divine play. …a million nameless faces walking past you in the street, all dealing with the realities of life, loss, love, joy, hope, desire, despair, mortality, existence, all with a life as exquisitely confusing and awe-inspiring as your own; sonder. …dancing clouds flowing through summer breeze. …explosions of citrus and smell cutting into a lemon. …the ever-present, totally-incomprehensible, immediately-perceivable, shockingly-simple, deeply-complicated, continuously-emerging Great Mystery of Everything. An innumerable number of details, dancing upon the stage of perception, participating in the greatest masterpiece ever made. *Details...* **Details of the Magnificent.** > *“There are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see.”* — Jordan Peterson ### The 4th Pillar of Health. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/4th-pillar-of-health/ Last updated: 2025-05-09T14:26:35.000Z ## Sleep. Nutrition. Exercise. *In that order, I’d reckon*... Human health is incredible. There exists a vast range of well-studied, well-argued, deeply embodied, and diametrically opposed stances on what ‘healthy, normal, and optimal’ means. From fierce high-performance athletes to the average Twitch streamer, most people agree *(at least in theory)* on the Big 3: Sleep, Nutrition, and Exercise. With these, you’ve got 80% of your health nailed. There are always niche diets, latest fads, and alphabet-soup biohacks galore, but these are leaves dancing in the wind, supported by the deep roots of the Big 3\. ### **Over the next \~decade, a Fourth Pillar is going to make its way fully into the zeitgeist:** **Light.** *You've heard the early whispers... Daddy Huberman and his red light glasses. Immortal Vampire Bryan Johnson and his tirade against sunlight. Wild ones* [*sunning their balls*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd3Wq3HZa8I&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD&ref=zenmedicine.co)*. It's still on the fringes, but Light is landing in public health discourse.* *It’s going to make waves...* Your ‘light diet’ (aka [circadian biology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian%5Frhythm?ref=zenmedicine.co)) has a huge influence on sleep, digestion, energy, and *virtually everything else* going on inside of you. There’s a strong case that light ends up claiming the top place here: **Light. Sleep. Nutrition. Exercise.** *It’s that fundamental.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/biology.webp) Images like this, while true, barely scratch the surface of circadian biology. ## Circadian Rhythms & the Human Biological Clock. *Sleep/wake cycle, mood regulation, cognitive functioning, body temperature, metabolic functioning, cardiovascular health, hormone production/regulation, hunger signalling, eye health/repair, detox pathway performance, breathing patterns, urinary/kidney function, enzyme production, digestion… on and on and on.* Nearly every biological function is linked to light exposure and/or circadian rhythms. It’s staggering. To say nothing of the entire natural ecosystem's relationship to light... When the hyper-conscious 5D spiritual influencers say ‘You are a Being of Light’ — they’re correct. You, as a biological being, cannot be meaningfully separated from light. And when we say light in this context, we mean *the* *sun.* **More parts of your body are linked to light than any other ‘thing’ in the world.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/type.webp) Whenever you get graphics like this... you know there are shenanigans afoot. ## Chronotypes are a Scam. Everyone hits a stage where they start coping with their ‘sleep chronotype’. The war between the ‘early birds’ and ‘night owls’—that kind of nonsense. **The human animal evolved over millennia in a deep symbiotic partnership with the sun. So much so that there are really only two kinds of humans: those aligned with the natural light cycle, and those who are dysregulated and out of sync.** *Which camp are you currently in?* If you took humans out of manufactured environments and got them on good diets, no artificial light, regular sun exposure, and pleasant daily activity—give it a month and the idea of ‘night owl’ is dead and gone. You imagine that because you stay up late that you are somehow an exception to an evolutionary rule millions of years in the making. If nothing else, the human animal is incredible at remaining functional despite less-than-optimal circumstances. Just because you ‘don’t feel bad’ sleeping late doesn’t mean ‘your body likes it’, and it certainly doesn’t mean ‘this is the pattern best suited for you’. ## Playing God & Replacing the Sun. **Everyone’s up in arms these days about AI and the dangers of ‘playing God’. Not enough people are concerned about this aspect of playing God: replacing the Sun.** For an unfathomable amount of time, the sun was our singular source of light. For yet another mind-boggling expanse, we had fire. And now—in the time it takes to snap your fingers in evolutionary timescales—we have electricity and artificial light. **You are not adapted to artificial light.** At the level of your biology, we've re-created the Sun. Artificial light is a mini-sun, following you everywhere. This is playing God. We suck at it. It is not good for you. **With continued exposure to artificial light after sunset (even during the day indoors), you dismantle and disorient *every functional cycle in your body*.** Your rhythms are off across the board, and we all suffer for it. Death by a thousand mistaken signals of *‘oh look, a strong light source in my eyes at 9pm, I guess the sun’s out, time to wake up!’*. ## A Better Light Diet is Simple, But Not Easy. **Welcome into your mind the idea of your ‘light diet’.** Just like food, there are better and worse types of light, good/bad times of day to receive light, etc. **You don’t have to be perfect, but the more you dial it in, the better you feel, and the better your everyday experience becomes.** It’s straightforward to bring your light diet into greater harmony, but you probably won’t like the steps you need to take: - Get real sunlight (not behind a window) into your eyes *as soon as possible*, *every single morning*. Super bonus points for watching the sun rise. - No overhead and/or artificial lights after sunset. This is the final boss. No phones, no screens, no computers, no lamps, no house lights. Use candles, or [deep red-spectrum light](https://lichtblock.shop/collections/lichtloesungen/products/lichtblock-amico-nachtlicht?ref=zenmedicine.co) placed at \~ground/hip level (like a campfire!). - Consider halfway interventions: red light glasses, red light settings on your screens, being more deliberate with screen time, more 'orange' light bulbs vs. stark white, and swapping lamps for candles. - Be outside as much as possible, all day, every day. Even when cloudy, *especially* when cloudy. - Build a solar base. If you’re of hyper-white ancestry like me (British, Scottish, Welsh) and you ‘can’t tan/only burn’, make it a priority to build a base tan. You’re human, it’s possible. 10 minutes of direct exposure daily, slowly increasing weekly. Schedule it. Time in the sun=good, f\*ck Bryan Johnson on this one. - Bonus points if you watch the sunset. Low-level natural sunlight (the \~1.5h windows around sunrise and sunset) is the juiciest type of light to get direct exposure to. And like *everything* I write, I am not perfect at this either. We're in this together. **You will hear it here over and over again: align yourself with the flow of nature. From the Tao, to the aliveness of your emotions, to the daily solar cycle, aligning with natural rhythm and natural law is a good thing: a life-affirming, vitalizing act.** *It's the art & science of Zen Medicine.* **For your body, there is no stronger natural rhythm than that of the Sun and Natural Light.** Dial it in, and feel yourself come back online. More to come. To a good light diet, EB. ### The Heretic’s Guide to Depression. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/heretics-guide-to-depression/ Last updated: 2025-05-05T17:11:40.000Z > **Heretic*: "a person holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted."* ****Context:** When I was [challenged by depression](https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-depression/), I knew **nothing* I know now. No concept of meditation, alternative medicines, psychological frameworks, not even a cursory understanding of health. Depression was my initiation into this entire world. I was just a kid from Canada in pain. My mother was a family doctor with all kinds of connections, so I was thrust into the allopathic worldview and treatment paradigm. It was fast and all-too-easy to be sat down in front of psychiatrists and therapists with a pill for every problem. In my ignorance and desperation, I did what I was told. ****Disclaimer(?):** I’m conflicted on putting up a medical disclaimer. Normally this is where I say, **“I’m not a doctor, consult your primary care team before doing anything”*. But in part, this is for people who need to heal from the very recommendations and failures of their doctors, therapists, and care teams. It’s a strange void when the ‘system’ fails you altogether. I get it. While I lack letters after my last name, I have one thing going for me: **I fucking did it*. I healed depression, anxiety, OCD, psychosis and came out the other side. No life-long prescriptions, no side effects nor symptoms, no remaining major or chronic illnesses. Take that for whatever it’s worth. These will not be ‘standard medical recommendations’. These are **things that worked for me*, hard-won experiential wisdom from deep in the trenches fighting for my life. > “The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease, and once from the medicine.” ― William Osler ## On SSRI’s, Anti-Depressants, & Anti-Psychotics. We must begin here. I am conflicted on medication in the treatment of any/all mental health problems, in particular. *Because I took them.* I cycled through a variety of cocktails (medications and dosages) over a \~2 year period, until I became so infuriated with (1) the lack of progress, (2) financial cost, and (3) the onslaught of side-effects, that I tapered completely and started again from a worse place, as I now had withdrawal symptoms to deal with. I cannot honestly say they played *no* part in my journey. But it is not clear to me—nor is it possible to get this clarity—whether they were helpful or harmful. **My personal opinion is that they are: unnecessary, net harmful, and at a bare minimum, ineffective.** I believe they help some people. I also believe that just because someone is comfortable taking a pill to 'function' for the rest of their lives doesn’t mean they have been ‘helped’. Certainly not ‘healed’. *Once you start looking, you can tell who's taking SSRI's just by looking at them. Known informally as 'SSRI dead eyes'. You can tell who's taking ADHD meds like this too, because they look like... well, they look like they're on meth, which they are.* **SSRI’s numbed me. Completely. For years. This is the** [**Faustian bargain**](https://www.google.com/search?q=faustian+bargain&oq=faustian+bargain&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co) **of SSRI’s—the deal you make with the devil. No depression for no emotion.** Medications created ‘existential breathing room’, giving me a moment of reprieve to reorient and rebuild sturdy foundations. This *was* important. However, overcoming the numbness (& withdrawals/side-effects) was almost impossible. I cannot say with confidence that healing the numbness was easier, or more preferable, than living with the depression, as bad as it was. To this day, over a decade past, I still struggle with post-SSRI problems: distorted responses to stimulants/nervous system excitation, periods and waves of sexual dysfunction, hair loss, and more. I believe everyone is free to make their own decisions. But the core of good medical practice is *informed consent* and the *Hippocratic Oath:* > *“Above all else, do no harm”*. I believe the SSRI industrial complex is in deep moral violation by not making these things explicit: 1. **You are not ‘reducing depression’ with SSRI’s, you are muting your emotional range.** These are numbing agents. As part of that, you reduce the feelings of sadness/depression. Obviously. But you are at risk of losing your sensitivity to everything, potentially permanently. You are at risk of losing the very spark of life inside you. The question is not *“Do I want to feel less sad every day?”* It’s, *“Am I comfortable losing my capacity to feel?”* Sometimes—*temporarily*—that answer is yes. I understand. It was for me. And that’s okay. 2. **Matters of permanent sexual dysfunction are rarely discussed.** *“Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) is a set of heterogeneous sexual problems, which may arise during the administration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and persist after their discontinuation.”* Here’s a selection of possible outcomes, potentially *permanently*, or coming/going in waves: reduced libido, erectile dysfunction, loss of ability to orgasm, gential numbness, premature ejaculation, emotional blunting, anhedonia, cognitive impairment, fatigue, sleep disturbances, weight change, tinnitus, vertigo, pain sensitivity changes, menstrual irregularities, testosterone imbalances, fertility concerns, hair loss, temperature dysregulation. This list goes on. Do you truly understand the risk you are taking here? 3. **You will have to heal twice: from the medication, then the problem.** SSRI’s do not solve root cause problems. Period. They *may* give you the space to put together healthy practices to address the root cause(s), but they will *also* give you a host of side effects, dependency, symptoms, and potentially worsen the original condition if/when you stop using them. *They are a life sentence by neurobiological design.* Do you understand? Sounds a lot like the situation you’re already in anyway. In my opinion, you’re better off focusing on resolving the root cause while depressed. So let's talk about that. --- Here, I am looking back in time and trying to identify the specific insights/practices from the unspecific generality of life a decade ago that worked. It’s never this clean and clear in the moment, but hopefully these help. They helped me tremendously. And no, they're not pretty. ### “I’m going to be miserable anyways…” This was the game-changer. A full embodied realization that I would be just as miserable doing *anything at all*. So long as I was conscious, I was miserable. Sleeping, showering, eating, studying, seeing friends, self-harm, addiction, wallowing in pity. So I decided(?) to let myself be miserable while doing ‘healthy’ things. Honestly that simple. Miserable in a cold shower. Miserable on a walk. Miserable in ‘meditation’. Miserable with friends. Miserable at the gym. Miserable at parties. Miserable taking a nap. Not even trying to 'become less miserable’. Just doing things. **Slowly (over months), something bubbled up from the bottom of my being into conscious awareness: *things felt a little less miserable.*** Who cares if you don’t have energy? Who cares if you don’t feel better after it? Rebuild the healthy foundations while miserable. You’re not going to feel any better by *not* doing them. Submit to it. Be a slave of healthy routine, with no will of your own. It’s not pretty. Do it messy. Do it miserable. It might work. ### Go from the body-UP, not the mind-DOWN… You don't think your way out of depression. No intellectual epiphany is going to resolve anything. Focus on the bottom up. And I mean nervous system, body-level practices. **You are going to defibrillate your nervous system, shocking it with so much vital energy that it fully reboots and rebuilds the mind-body operating system from scratch.** *If* it is true that depression is merely a neurochemical imbalance (it’s not), this is still how you rebalance your neurochemistry anyway. No getting around this. You supercharge the process of homeostatic rebalancing and give the body-mind the resources it needs to harmonize. Boom. Neurochemical imbalance rectified, depression alleviated. Find the things that sufficiently shock your system back into something resembling aliveness: cold water, sauna, sprinting, organized sports, play, healthy food, novel experiences of beauty, making art, engaging with people, time in nature, sunlight. ### Put everything on the table… Consider everything as a possibility worth trying. I don’t care if you don’t like Tarot, get a reading and see if it helps. I don’t care if you don’t respect Western medicine; get a blood panel. I don’t care if you think talk therapy is stupid, do a few sessions. **You’ve got nothing to lose, and *your entire life* to gain.** Put all possible interventions on the table for consideration, give them their appropriate chance, and if anything feels like it remotely moves the needle, run with it. You might be surprised at the things that work for you. I was. The first thing was therapy, which introduced me to meditation, then yoga, breathwork, cold exposure, psychedelics, buddhism & mythology… Who knows, astrology could be the thing that instigates your return to wholeness. You need to be open to anything. ****On Psychedelics:** I believe fully in the life-changing power of psychedelic therapy. It's central to my work, having created retreats and ketamine therapy programs. But I am not adding a section here. Severe depression and suicidal ideation at the level I am discussing here are real contraindications (signs you should NOT do them). Psychedelics are **psycho-spiritually destabilizing* and are not the first appropriate step. You can message me directly if you have questions. ### Be f\*cking honest with yourself for once… If you cannot be honest with yourself, you’re not going to get anywhere. Be honest: *what do you truly think about your life?* Do you want to be in school? Do you like your job? Do you see a future with your partner? What is your relationship with your parents? Do you respect the values of your friends? What do you respect in a person, and are you doing those things? **BE HONEST.** And *“I don’t know right now”* is an acceptable answer. But aim for merciless, furious honesty. Then see if there are actions to take on the other side of that clarity. Like switching careers, learning a skill, quitting your job, finding new friends, taking up a hobby, marrying or breaking up with your partner. ### What do you care about more: your life or the narrative structure society has given you? Another pivotal realization. It’s more relevant to those with people-pleasing, timid personality tendencies, or from more collectivist national cultures… like me! It sounds obvious when you read it, but it wasn’t to live it. For my entire life, I had chosen to follow the narrative structure of my society *(was there even a different option?)*. My body-mind complex was rebelling against this, viciously fighting for its freedom and sending me overwhelming signals in the form of anxiety and depression. And yet… somehow the only option I could see was *“you need to make this work.”* **You need to find the *narrative structure* that fits *you,* not force yourself to fit into something you don't. Round hole, square peg; but your whole life story.** Also, let go of the societal narrative that there is some ‘pretty’ way to get out of depression. No, it’s not as elegant as taking the cute pink pill from the orange bottle with the rest of your beautifully bio-optimized life-hack supplement stack each morning. Getting over depression is messy, ugly, cringey, fucking hard, and confusing. Drop the narrative that it’s going to be a smooth, elegant process. Is your society's narrative worth your soul? You’re obviously in pain. Find the narrative and lifestyle setup that alleviates this pain. Become the sovereign author of your own story. ### Whatever it takes... It’s very likely that you do not have a positive, healthy fuel source to drive you right now. If you do, wonderful, use that for all its worth. But in the early stages, the thing that’s going to propel you forward is probably pain and anger. **The idea that an enlightened fuel source is going to descend from heaven is naive. Hope is not a strategy. Neither is apathy.** Use whatever it takes to spur you into embodied bottom-up action. Self-hatred, despair, indifference, anger. Use what you HAVE. You can focus on transitioning to clean, healthy, uplifting energy once you’ve cultivated vitality or found it in the world. For now, we work with what we have. *What do you have? What energy is alive inside you?* Run with it. ### You are being initiated into something important... **Remove from your mind the idea that your depression is some kind of ‘interruption’ to your life, ‘deviation’ from your path, or just ‘flaw in your system’.** No. This is meant for you, here and now. In hindsight, you will see it was a gift. This is your destiny speaking to you—because you can’t ignore it, can you? You can’t just shrug it off, you can’t turn the volume down—it’s in the very fabric of your consciousness. This is FOR you. This IS your life. Here is YOUR opportunity. It is not a distraction, it is not some tangent in the story of your life; it is the Active Quest, the Next Milestone, and the Current Boss Battle. Relate to your depression that way and face it head-on. Slay the dragon. Or [become a dragon rider](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-tale-of-the-dragon-riders/). ### Substitute increasingly less-bad things... **This is my most heretical statement, by far. No one's going to like this one... but it's also my secret weapon.** There is a spectrum of addiction/self-sabotaging activities. Some are legitimately worse than others; don’t fool yourself. Chronically scrolling Instagram is not as bad as shooting heroin. Now, imagine every form of self-harm/self-sabotage on a spectrum from most-bad to least-bad. **You can substitute ‘up the stack’, slowly swapping addictions and problematic behaviours for… slightly less problematic addictions and behaviours.** Do you think you’re really in the position to go from 100-0 on addictive and self-harming tendencies? Unlikely. Good for you if you can. I couldn’t. Start slowly. Cutting yourself? Try cocaine. Cocaine? Try porn. Porn? Try drinking lots of coffee. Caffeine? Smoke weed. Weed? Have some organic tobacco. Nicotine problem? Get hooked on social. Social? Translate it into creativity. Boom, healthy & life-giving substitution chain complete. It could be done in a year. Now, of course, you have to *stop* the previous behaviour. These are *full substitutions*. But I assure you, it is possible to drink enough coffee that you no longer need nicotine (for me, it was \~3 cups). If you’re addicted to coffee, yerba maté is a great substitute because you can drink it all day. Like caffeine? Wait until you try HIIT workouts. You can substitute all the way into extremely healthy behaviours, slowly swapping ‘okay’ things like a walk around the block with ‘really good things’ like sprinting sessions. ### Start with the absolute smallest possible step... A task so small it sounds fucking stupid. No, this is not the '30 Day Healthy Food Challenge’ you found on Instagram. I mean: if you usually slump out of bed at 3pm, the goal is just to be sitting up in your bed at 2:55pm. Then 2:45\. Then maybe sitting up in bed and being on your phone at 2pm. Then maybe getting out of bed properly by 2:30\. Or it’s catering to your addiction one less time during the day. If you usually have 10 smoke breaks, go for 9\. **Over days, weeks, and months, you build the two most important things: (1) momentum, and (2) evidence of real action/progress that becomes the foundation of self-respect, optimism, and positive affect.** And yes, changing your wake-up time from 3pm to 2pm is an ACCOMPLISHMENT. Treat it as such. If you struggle doing this, refer to the previous points of: ‘whatever it takes’, and ‘you’re going to be miserable anyways’. > "It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop." — Confucius ### On Depression. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-depression/ Last updated: 2025-05-02T14:35:36.000Z > *“Those who escape hell, however,* > *never talk about it* > *& nothing much bothers them after that.”* > *–* [*Charles Bukowski*](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9347497-lost-they-say-that-hell-is-crowded-yet-when-you-re?ref=zenmedicine.co) ***This may be difficult to read. It was hard to write. Fair warning given.** **p.s. This piece is precious to me, so I tried something new: I narrated it! I write as I speak, and now you can really feel the writing. It hits harder. If you like this format, let me know.* 🍵 EB. Zen Medicine: On Depression. 0:00 /913.2 1× ## I don’t really talk about my past… ever. Not my chronological past—my experiential past. Mostly for the reason Bukowski illustrated. I've integrated and feel no desire to revisit it. It has *passed*. Honestly, I don’t think I understand what people mean when they talk about ‘having depression’ today. It seems to mean 'I feel bad', like arcane Gen-Z slang I missed the boat on. When I hear people talk about it, I'm out at a café, on Zoom calls, seeing it on TikTok, or with someone on retreat... ...and I sit there wondering, *“But how did you get out of bed? How did you get groceries when that requires going outside? How can you use your phone?”* My experience of depression was not like this. I am not depressed. I haven't been remotely depressed in a decade. This is not a contest. I seek neither pity nor understanding. **Depression was one of the most important initiations I have ever had. I am intensely grateful, for it made me the man I am today.** If you don't understand what follows, thank God. I hope you never do. I would not wish this on anyone. But if you or someone in your life is depressed, perhaps this will help. **And for those who feel as I felt, I want you to know that I understand, I see you, and I love you.** > *“I’m a master of speaking silently—all my life I've spoken silently and I've lived through entire tragedies in silence.”* > *― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Gentle Spirit* ### I know what it’s like to wade through chest-deep water every day. How draining it is to tread water all day just to merely exist. An exhaustion sewn into your bones. To live in envy and be drenched in the red rush of what I can only call 'lameness’, seeing how free and unlaboured everyone else is, constantly questioning how you became so broken. Like running a race where you're up to your neck in honey and everyone else is on smooth, solid ground. When getting out of bed… hell, just *sitting up*, is a task you did not–*could not*–achieve today. ### I know the constant, chronic, dull pain from hearing ‘just get over it’ from every distant, distorted, fuzzy face you encounter. Echoing down through the empty hollowness of your body into the crushing black pit at the center of your being from which no light nor emotion escapes. Staying just long enough to add insult to injury, then *gone*, like everything else. ### I know the deeply complicated mix of emotion that arises as you sit in your bathroom, watching your blood flow down the drain from your latest episode of self-harm, confirming how unfortunately alive you still are on the outside and how profoundly dead you already are inside. A dark red reminder that the only thing on this planet capable of breaking through the great black fog that permeates every waking moment is a physical analgesic response to pain & injury, and what a perverse way that is to experience but a glimpse of peace. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and *I am desperate*. ### I know the frightening, truly terrifying moments when all that sadness collapses in on itself, condensing into a black hole of vicious anger & self-hatred. No nervous system was made to handle this much anger. It'll rip you apart at the seams. To look in the mirror and despise with vitriolic intensity everything you see reflected at you. To stop looking in mirrors entirely. To take down—or *break into pieces*—every reflective surface you have in your home because you can’t stand the sight of yourself. To lose the very concept of what you look like, with the care needed to change that long dead. ### I know how alien it feels to have no photos, no evidence, and often no coherent memories of your life for great periods of time. No short-term memory was consolidated, no energy for selfies existed, and no social gatherings were attended for photos from others. Like you didn’t exist for 5 years. For years, I learned about things that happened *in my life* from the recollections of my friends. How deeply disorienting. What are you going to tell your children? What do you have to look back on when there was nothing there to begin with? *Why does no one else talk about this?* ### I know the maddening (& somehow impressive?) ability of the mind to find every possible permutation of self-punishment. Starvation, overeating, purging, rotting away in filth, addiction, perfect performance in public, pushing everyone away, locking yourself inside, and all variety of self-harm and self-sabotage. It’s all that creatures like me deserve, after all: *creative torture*. ### I know the body-level pain that batters you when you can see that someone is trying to be supportive, but every blank stare, raised eyebrow, and empty statement of care just reinforces how little they understand. Revealing *yet again* how profoundly alone you are in all of this, and how much you wish they wouldn't have said anything at all—at least it would have maintained the illusion that someone might get it, someday. Followed swiftly by fresh layers of guilt and shame for being such a monster that you resent people who are just trying to help. ### I know the debilitation that comes from having that one person–parent, friend, professor, the fucking barista–who smiles at you, whose voice and presence are the only life-raft keeping you from drowning completely, and how pathetic you feel for being such an anchor in their life. Dead weight, always dragging them down, killing the mood, causing them pain—*your literal guardian angel!*—with the whimpering reality of your existence, where the only gift of thanks you can imagine giving them is the joy of your total absence. The crushing weight of feeling like every breath is a burden on other innocent people. ### I know the tsunami of sadness that crashes out of you as you fly past 'negotiating with yourself' into absolute last-ditch pitiful efforts of desperately begging yourself to carry on. Mascara and tears waterfalling down your face. On your knees, clutching your chest, gasping for breath in the corner of your closet, begging yourself to stand up. Begging with every inch of your decaying humanity to just stand up. *Do it for Mom. Do it for your brother. Just do it. Please, please, please, I'm begging you... I'm begging ME... please just one more day. I don't know why! Just one more day. You can do this. Don't give up. Get up. Get up. GET UP. Get up... please...* slowly fading into a whimpering ball on the ground, blacking out until a new day begins and the cycle repeats. ### I know how dehumanizing it is to finally, at the very end of your rope, muster the immense courage to seek help; scraping together money you do not have, and despite everything screaming at you otherwise, allowing the faintest glimmer of hope that things might change... ...only to crawl into the therapists office and be sat down, alone, for an hour, filling in fucking Scantron Bubble Cards like some high school history test from hell, ranking ‘symptom scales’ like you're a dysfunctional robot, where the answers come nowhere remotely close to capturing the crushing pressure of simple breathing, and how much worse that makes everything–and the vain smile and $200 invoice you get after your latest humiliation ritual. Checkmate. ### I know what it’s like to watch your hair fall out in clumps, to see your ribcage in gruesome detail, your throat eviscerated from throwing up, allowing the most abusive relationship dynamics that H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe only wish they could conjure up... ...for your dick to stop working entirely, days without eating, your world greyscale and monotone, the small whispers of strange voices that are either inside your head or out of it, the narcolepsy, insomnia, jitters, shakes, blurry vision, bloody rags, scarred limbs, withdrawals, onset symptoms, the sick comedy of suicidal ideation, and every other hellish side-effect that comes from the pharmaceutical cocktails and chemical experimentation they put you on. ### *...and the* *numbness*. Oh My God, the *numbness*. What you would give to feel anything at all. Pain is better than *numbness.* The absence of any and every feeling and sensation. Total loss of thought and narrative. The loss of self, soul, and substance. Unreality and depersonalization in vicious self-reinforcement. *The floating, empty ghost…* ### And I know how good you are at making sure no one else knows anything about this. Always the one with a smile on your face, telling everyone you're fine, suffering in silence, no one any wiser to reality. Tears become 'allergies', bruises become 'falling down', wristbands covering scars become 'style & self-expression'. Hair loss becomes a 'new hairstyle'. Freakouts in public become 'lack of sleep'. There's always an 'appropriate answer'. Maybe you should go into acting, because your performances are magnificent. Someday, you wonder silently, how many people will say *"Well I had no idea, he always seemed so happy..."*. And part of you dies each time, each act, each lie, starving for a moment of real connection. ## ...I know what it’s like. I’ve been there. --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/05/Eye-Window.jpg) ## And because I've been there, I also know… ### I know that if you find some way—YOUR WAY—to overcome this, to rescue yourself from the abyss... ...you will be granted one of the rarest and most beautiful experiences few humans ever feel: *the simple freedom of walking on this planet in peace.* Hardship and personal challenges remain, but nothing ever cuts quite as deep again. ### I know that your pain and sorrow, once metabolized, turn your life into a form of living medicine. You are the medicine. You become a force of healing—the very guardian angel that once held you afloat—for other people. It is a quiet joy that is hard to name, but has deeply karmic roots. ### I know that there is not a single thing more important for you to accomplish than to overcome this. This is your karmic inheritance. Your Earthly project. Anything and everything is secondary to this. Your whole life–money, career, education, relationships, even other aspects of your health–can be rebuilt on a better foundation. It will take everything you've got, your full undivided attention, to overcome this. ### I know that it is possible to reclaim the spark inside, as dark as it seems and as far away as the light is. That there is a future for you here, on this planet, at this time. It will be the hardest thing that you have ever done. No one and no thing will do it for you. But slowly, agonizingly, the spark can be found, the flame rekindled into a roaring fire of life-affirming soulforce that will carry you to heights all but forgotten to mankind. And that nothing else, ever, will feel quite as difficult. ### I know the soft, quiet, but unbreakable core confidence that comes after surviving something like this. No need to impress anyone. No need to discuss. The unshakeable knowledge that all is well. That you can handle whatever the future holds because you've already been to hell and back. No Earthly event can break those who have already been crushed by the Fist of God. The small smirk when you look at yourself in the mirror now. The spacious freedom of *being untouchable*. ### I know that every so often, you will come across another person who has that spark in their eye. Where you share a glance and know that you were not alone in your pain. That others, spread across time and space, were there with you the whole time... If this landed and you're left with **"Yes, but what can I actually do?"* I will release a second piece in 2 days time, sharing the real things that helped me, in the hope that they may help you too. --- ## & in closing, I will remind you of our little secret… ***...you can reply to these emails.*** There is someone here, writing the words you are reading right now. Whether you have no one at all or many to support you, know that there is at least one person here for you. Please do not forget this. **You are not alone.** I am here. I understand. I see you. I love you. **If you call, I will answer.** Grow toward the light, 🌻 EB. ### Rescuing the Lover. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/rescuing-the-lover/ Last updated: 2025-04-28T15:12:30.000Z > "And nobody told me I’d be begging for relief. > When what is silent to you feels like it’s screaming to me. > Well nobody told me I’d get tired of myself. > When it all looks like heaven, but it feels like hell." > — [Damocles](https://open.spotify.com/track/1ulH5PIntNj0ro2K69W4Fx?si=0410e0a5cd3d4310&ref=zenmedicine.co), Sleep Token. Fun Fact • Every essay I've ever written is made with one song playing on repeat. I poured this piece out of my heart while listening to this song. Listen to catch the vibe and read along. ## We meet every Tuesday at noon… I’ve been in a Men’s Circle ([ARKA](https://arkabrotherhood.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)) for a year now. Took me longer to pull the trigger than I care for, but all things happen right on schedule. There’s a strange safety in the ‘facilitator/leader/coach’ role: *the spotlight is rarely on me*. My job is to get out of the way and serve people. *To* *not make it about me.* Always the facilitator… never the participant. Never the one bearing his heart and pain. Never the one having the emotional breakdown. Never the one admitting an uncomfortable failure, or celebrating a glorious win. But even gold medal athletes have coaches. So, I took my own medicine and jumped into a container as a participant. One crisp spring morning, I opened my laptop, parked up Indian style, and got ready for the 2 hour session. *Deep breath.* We broke into small groups, each of us speaking for several minutes on *“Where are you currently stuck?”* ### *“Stuck? How could I be stuck? I’m on a* [*semi-sabbatical*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/now/)*. I have nothing but time, energy, money, and freedom. I’m the living definition of ‘not-stuck’… right?”* First reactions ripped through my mind. I’ve spent decades pursuing total freedom. I’ve come a long way. No longer bound by finances, skills, countries, commitments, mortgages, toxicity, taxes, you name it. I’m a free man… right? But the clench constricting my chest remained. Then—**BAM**—it surfaced: > *“My artist is stuck. My romantic is caged. My lover is dying.”* *Oh boy…* **For so long *(my entire life in fact),* I have funnelled the infinite tsunami of my creativity to flow in only one direction: writing semi-academic, quasi-poetic, philosophical essays.** Writing saved my life. I’ll never stop. It's like breathing to me. However, when I look around my room at my few remaining possessions, I see: a Native flute, an Argentinian saxophone, a watercolour paint set, calligraphy pens, a tea ceremony kit, origami paper, martial arts gear and gi’s, and God only knows how many tutorials, resources, and PDF’s on my computer… *Everything ‘waiting’ for ‘someday’ like Andy’s neglected Toys…* What f\*cking day? When do I plan on doing anything with these? What epiphany needs to happen for me to just enjoy sitting down and learning how to blend watercolour paints? ## I have never viewed myself as an Artist... **Something within me rejects even the *possibility* of that identity.** *Big talk for a guy who writes about ‘identity-level transformation’ on the internet professionally.* I started attending business/tech-specific regional programs in Grade 7\. Grade 7! Middle and high school. Graduated university with a Commerce degree. Straight into tech startups. My *entire adult life* in businesses and business school. But… for both middle & high school, I applied/was accepted to the music/arts regional programs too. Some part of me was still whispering—whimpering—the fire still burning. Part of me *yearns* for artistry. *Dying* for it. I’m sorry, my child. I’m sorry I left you behind. It’s the main ‘wing’ of my [Enneagram](https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (#4 – The Individualist/Artist) after the likely-obvious #2 – The Helper at my core. It boils down to: > *“I want to help people, but in my own fancy way.”* All of a sudden, ayahuasca retreats, 100-day discipline challenges, ketamine therapy program design, wilderness first responder training, and wild essays all make a bit more sense. This is also how I relate to the martial arts. I *prefer* the ‘internal’ martial arts (chi gong, shaolin kung fu, yoga) to the external (bjj, muay thai). I view martial arts as an artistic expression as much as any form of fighting skill. Watch a few videos of Shi Heng Yi, 35th Grandmaster of Shaolin Temple Europe ([this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpN3AcXLSSk&ref=zenmedicine.co) and [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz7MNKX63sI&ref=zenmedicine.co)) and tell me you don't see an artist at work. It’s *literally* what [Kung Fu (Gongfu)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung%5Ffu%5F%28term%29?ref=zenmedicine.co) means: refined skill through hard work over time. No different than painting, singing, dancing, writing, or even building businesses. Martial == Discipline. Arts == Creativity. Martial Arts == Disciplined Creativity. This is the beating heart of my work and life. Martial Artistry as a Way of Being. ## But something is shifting in the deep… **A new self-concept and world-view awakening at once. My whole life I saw the arts/creativity as ‘not practical’, certainly ‘not for me’. Now, I feel something else…** *If you go through your entire life unable to connect with the awesome beauty of existence, with no ability to see, feel, appreciate, or express that—what have you really done with your life?* I’ve had reflections from people that I have a ‘high risk tolerance’. Uprooting my life and moving countries, jumping into fields I have no experience in, taking the almighty bet on Bitcoin. It’s odd… I feel risk-averse. It’s just a matter of which risk you’re trying to optimize for, I guess… ### Having your Lover/Artist/Mystic/Creative/Romantic shut down might be the greatest risk you can take. If I don’t change something… my spirit will die long before my body is buried. I almost died this way in my 20s. This is a risk I will no longer take… I’ve written millions of words on the internet, millions more in private pages. I accept that some things simply cannot be captured in words. Or, that words are nowhere near adequate to convey the feelings/insights/experiences. In writing, I *feel* the same underlying essence in the [Ba Duan Jin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpN3AcXLSSk&ref=zenmedicine.co), in [this song](https://open.spotify.com/track/6jfGNVN3WgBz4svhusJWqr?si=8bc417c765e94dff&ref=zenmedicine.co), in the [haiku of dying samurai](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death%5Fpoem?ref=zenmedicine.co), in Alex Grey’s [Net of Being](https://www.alexgrey.com/art/fire-eyes/net-of-being?ref=zenmedicine.co), in Vianney Lopez’s [ancient flute](https://open.spotify.com/track/71gWSEHseAZMBC9XlctI3e?si=7a9d27a20eb84ca1&ref=zenmedicine.co). Expressing the inexpressible. Noble failure. Serious play. ### And maybe—just maybe—if I had more outlets to express and expand my Creative/Artist/Romantic energy, if my Lover was more deeply rooted and stable, I wouldn’t fall victim so easily to its' shadows: the impotent (passive) and the addict (active), both of which haunt me... Part of me is begging for total integration. To expand beyond blinking cursors, neat penmanship, and blank pages, and pour all of myself into music, creative experimentation, and works of art that go where words cannot reach. *Who would’ve thought: an innocent kid from Canadian suburbia would be crying out to write poetry, play the flute on the edges of great lakes, and channel the brilliant energy of life into great works of art.* Certainly not me. And yet, here we are… I don’t know what this will look like yet, but I know I will answer the call. Do not let your Lover die, EB. ### Schrödingers Stuckness. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/schrodingers-stuckness/ Last updated: 2025-04-25T14:12:31.000Z ## Walk with me down memory lane, to [Schrödinger’s Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s%5Fcat?ref=zenmedicine.co): - Cat in a box with a poison vial linked to a random activity (radioactive decay). - The box is closed. - The cat is 'alive *and* dead' until you open it—collapsing possibility into reality. - Observation *creates* the reality you see. --- ## Now… Schrödinger’s Stuckness. **Stuckness only exists when you're telling yourself that you’re stuck.** *The act of naming stuckness creates the stuckness.* Instead of flowing with life in reality, you’ve ‘pulled back’ into the realm of mental fabrication. When you're deep in thought, caught in analysis paralysis, stricken with fear, picture your body: standing still or glued to the chair, literally and figuratively not moving. Stuck. You’re off in fantasy land. And here, in the imaginary territory of the mind where paradox and impossibilities co-exist, it’s entirely possible to get stuck. To climb [Penrose Staircases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose%5Fstairs?ref=zenmedicine.co) and run the [Red Queen’s Race](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red%5FQueen%27s%5Frace?ref=zenmedicine.co). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/penrose.gif) **Not a single thing in Life is stuck. Everything moves, flows, changes. This is the law, not the exception.** *'Not Stuck' and 'Life' are basically synonyms.* You’re only stuck when you tell yourself you are. In telling yourself that you are stuck, you become stuck. You speak the reality of stuckness into being. And if you never tell yourself you’re stuck—you’re not! You remain free to respond. To flex your agency and make sh\*t happen. *Do you have air in your lungs? Do you have strength in your bones? Can you speak? Are you alive? Then you’re not f\*cking stuck!* ### **You might feel justified in claiming stuckness because you keep recreating a specific situation in your life.** **I call this 'looping'. It's not being stuck. The difference is that you are energetically creating a similar circumstance *despite* being a different person in a different reality.** > *“No man enters the same river twice. For it is not the same river and he is not the same man.”* — Heraclitus There is an unhealed part of you, an unintegrated lesson, waiting for you. The lesson is so important that it morphs itself into your new set of circumstances. "Gee, thank you, Mr. Important Life Lesson, for not giving up on me." 🥺 *Lowkey though, come here for a moment—friend to friend—it’s a weird flex of your willpower to pull yourself out of the flow of life and get caught up in the fictional story of stuckness. I care about you bro. You gotta stop this. Deep breath, bro. Find the next best step and take it. That's it. You can do it. No more stuckness. Easy.* ****4th Wall Break:** If you’re catching the vibe, I invite you to pull way back and play with '**all naming is creating'*. Just like stuckness. When you call something ‘good’ you create the goodness (at least the possibility of it). When you call something a ‘giraffe’ you create the giraffe. More than anything, language is separation. While it’s not fully **true* (there is no meaningful separation between anything), language has **functional utility*. Life is a [Rorschach Blot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach%5Ftest?ref=zenmedicine.co), and you get to slap words onto it. Good, bad, happy, sad, important, meaningless, dog, giraffe, traumatic, liberating, parents, children, me, you. Play with it. > "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." — John 1:1 One of Adam’s first tasks in the Bible is to *name all Earthly creatures*. You see it? Language creates the world. You live inside language. It is a great power. Use it wisely. > “The syntactical nature of reality, the real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish.” — Terence McKenna **If you are done playing the victim (and if you read this, I suspect you are): remove stuckness from your vocabulary.** You are not stuck. You are unbelievably, wildly free. Deep breath, jump in, go play, EB. ### The Invisible Koan. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-invisible-koan/ Last updated: 2025-04-22T14:07:54.000Z ## I spent 2 hours last week etching the word koan into the back of my neck… No, but, for real. It’s healed now, so I'm happy to share that I got a tattoo. The two kanji that make up the word KOAN. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/kanji.png) Let’s talk about what & why. 😄 > “I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.” — Tom Robbins ### **The short part of a long answer?** **It's important enough that I felt compelled to codify it in blood, sweat, and ink on my body.** Tattooing is ritual embodiment—a commitment filled with pain, purpose, and patience; a declaration of deep importance. ## Doing My Homework. I was 2.5 weeks into a medicine container last November—aya ceremony number 10, something like that. My previous ceremonies had been heavily Zen/Koan-themed… later birthing gems like [Courting the Muse](https://www.zenmedicine.co/58/), [Cracking the Koans](https://www.zenmedicine.co/50/), [Gentle Violence](https://www.zenmedicine.co/52/), and [Natural Anarchy](https://www.zenmedicine.co/59/). The medicine had me tapping out again, forcing my rational mind into submission against an overwhelming opponent, when a deep moment of clarity (& pain) arose. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/sasuke.gif) My neck began to burn. It hurt, like someone was carving into me with a dull pen. Akin to the appearance of Sasuke’s mark. And with all the self-evident, pre-verbal clarity that medicine experiences provide, I knew it was KOAN etching itself into me. **If not already apparent, this gives you an idea of the level of trust, respect, and devotion I have for (1) the medicine experiences, and (2) my own instincts. At that moment, I knew—and committed to—as part of integrating and ‘sealing’ these experiences, getting KOAN inked into me.* So in a way, I was just doing my homework. The medicine gave me an assignment, and you best believe I’m going to do it. Crossed it off my list and everything. 🤓 ## The Wild World of Koans. - *Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?* - *If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.* - *Without thinking of good or evil, show me your original face before your mother and father were born.* - *\[Your Name Here\].* - *What am I capable of?* ### **All of these are koans…** Koans tie the mind up in knots. They force it into submission by pursuing an impossible task. Renowned teacher Philip Kapleau has a great framing, > "...a koan is 'unsurpassed for breaking asunder the mind of ignorance and opening the eye of truth.'" Koans in practice can take weeks, months, or even years of wrestling with. They instigate '[Great Doubt](https://www.dailyzen.com/journal/great-doubt/?srsltid=AfmBOoqcRz1EAZLr4un1VF6e9mWDAFCuPvLzldRgRIEfhv1zl0h9xKt%5F&ref=zenmedicine.co)' – a pivotal aim in Zen. Doubt of the capability of mind, your worldview, understanding, and capacity. **A possibility opens at the moment of final surrender: *the answer can finally come from somewhere else*.** But where else could the answer come from? Well, the great wisdom of your body, for one. The part of you always in nondualistic harmony with everything. It is this *instinctual wisdom* that Zen & Koan practices are after. **All ‘answers’ to koans are *genuine acts*.** They are not fancy responses in well-thought-out language. They are authentic, immediate experiences. Demonstrating embodied wisdom, not remarking on intellectual understanding. **And true to Zen's rascal nature… these infamous ‘unsolvable riddles’ have real answers. Wrap your head around that one…** For aspiring monks in koan practice, every koan has a ‘real answer’. [The jakugo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakugo?ref=zenmedicine.co). Jakugo are ‘proof of insight’ for a koan. They are not the solution itself *(all answers are experiential insights and authentic acts)*, but they are ‘capping phrases’ — a proof of solution, matching the insight to a complementary piece of Chinese poetry. There are specific jakugo 'appropriate' for each koan. As the koan rips you open to an authentic realization of your original nature, you have an insight *(kensho)*. Your task is to review the snippets of poetry *(jakugo)* and select the one that best matches the particular insight. **I cannot properly express how much I love this.** I realize now that I wrote recently about [poetry being the Zen Bible](https://www.zenmedicine.co/zen-bible/). And here it is: poetry, delivered in genuine expression, as the answers to unsolvable riddles. Poetic. It’s easy for us to discard koans as silly playthings—not to be taken seriously. They’re ‘unsolvable’, so ‘anything goes’ and you just have to say something sufficiently stupid. Not at all. In the early developments of koan practice, they were categorized into 3 groups: *richi* (ultimate truth), *kikan* (skillful method), and *kojyon* (non-attachment). All koans are trying to *teach you something* about the nature of reality and who you are. Each koan has its accompanying jakugo. It’s not random. - **Names are koans.** You can’t ‘solve’ a person. But there is a right relationship with them. There are genuine, authentic, instinctual acts that are in harmony with the nature of things. - **Great life questions are koans.** How should I live? What am I capable of? These don’t have final, static, stuffy answers. The answers are lived, through genuine acts in reality. But there are real answers. **When you orient toward your highest possible self, for any and every question in life, there is only one right answer: the action your highest possible self would take.** *Duh?* A genuine, embodied act from your Buddha-nature, your deepest wisdom, your greatest courage. *Unsolvable riddles with clear answers.* There’s something I find particularly [*apropos*](https://www.google.com/search?q=apropos&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co) about having a tattoo that I cannot see. Just as you cannot bite your teeth or see your own face, I cannot see the tattoo I know I have. ## Only the Best. **What draws me to Zen and Koans is this: there is only one way to know that you really, truly, honestly, are not capable of something—you must give it your *best* shot.** If it’s anything less than your best, there’s room for doubt and excuses. You have to know, in every fibre of your being, that you... failed (or succeeded). Think of your high school exams *(and yes, the direct translation of koan is ‘public exam’ or ‘official case’)*. You could always tell yourself, *“I would’ve done better if I had eaten more, studied harder, actually cared, didn’t miss the bus, wasn’t distracted, really tried.”* Endless excuses protecting a fickle ego. **The only real way to give your absolute best? Become your absolute best. Live it in every waking moment. Make it your Way of Being.** This is Zen. Zen is not wishy-washy half-assed nonsense, nor are koans stupid games from a pompous high-and-mighty priest class. **They demand you become the smartest, strongest, wisest, most capable version of yourself, and then they *still* wreck you. Happily and without hesitation, submitting you at the bleeding edge of your capacity.** For only in those moments where you are beaten—truly humbled—can you get on your knees and openly receive the profound wisdom of your life, body, and buddha-nature. Only when you're empty can your cup be filled with something new. This is the power and potential of Zen Koans. This is what I never wish to forget. This is why I etched it, in blood and ink, into me. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/IMG_8980.JPG) Proof-of-Ink. So a silly fool like me might never forget: *there are no right answers, only right actions.* Thank you for listening :) EB. ### Long Live the Underground. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/long-live-the-underground/ Last updated: 2025-04-19T15:13:32.000Z ## LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND. **The** [**avant-garde**](https://www.google.com/search?q=avant+garde&oq=avant+garde&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co)**. The fringe. The edges. The unknown and as-yet unspoken. The emerging and the fiercely passionate.** Everything meant for mass appeal must be watered down. Made digestible. Politically correct. Carefully constructed. Slowly, the soul is carved out, like gutting fish. Substance dilutes into empty structure—made suitable for mass production. The handiwork, the art, the heart bleeding dry. Only the underground is pure; or dirty, depending on your viewpoint. Organic, chaotic, dusty, disorganized, dangerous, potent. The mainstreaming process is surgical neutering. Where sterility, 'purity', and no-sharp-corners reign as supreme virtues. **Only the underground is born out of the raw, unfiltered chaos of reality—the very stillpoint of creation.** The origin-moment of consciousness manifesting itself from the void, pulling fantasy into reality, where the seed of divine inspiration first weaves its roots into reality. It’s not understood. Nor well defined. It’s fragile, yet unstoppable. It’s felt but not yet named. Envisioned but not yet created. Certainly not universally palatable. **GOOD.** - **Underground warehouse gatherings in the early days of the American dubstep scene—a hyper-experimental fusion of digital sound design and soundsystem construction in symbiotic co-creative evolution.** Now, festival culture dominates North American summers, fueled by the [Funktion-One](https://funktion-one.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) & [PKSound](https://pksound.live/?ref=zenmedicine.co) sonic alchemy refined in these early days. - **Taoism took its first steps in the late-night, plum wine-infused gatherings of the artist-intellectuals in the** [**Dark Enigma Movement**](https://www.sanmateozen.org/learning-the-dark-enigma/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Simple gatherings [chasing the dragon](https://www.zenmedicine.co/58/) of natural philosophy and pure artistry, slowly growing into one of the most beautiful philosophical movements in history. - **The amount of Western culture quietly constructed in the first English coffee shops casts a grand shadow today.** They were a proto-internet, where information was freely shared and new cultural, political, and economic movements were founded. [Caffeine & coffeeshops](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/08/author-michael-pollan-discusses-how-caffeine-changed-the-world/?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=According%20to%20Pollan%2C%20caffeine%20drove,important%20cultural%2C%20political%2C%20and%20scientific) contributed much to the Western. - **Underground renegade chemists crafted novel psychedelic compounds and rogue therapists pioneered new paradigms throughout the 50's/60's.** And now, eager fools like me can stand on the shoulders of giants and learn the art and science of psychedelic therapy. **All of it is gritty. Messy. Ugly. Full of mistakes and casualties of the cause. Organic and wholly natural. Naturally unrestrained.** It’s not for everyone. It’s not *for* the culture, because it’s not yet *in* the culture. It's not for the money. The easily corrupting forces of finance, marketing, PR-speak, & corporate politics have not yet entered these hallowed halls. It's a *ritual investment*, a blood sacrifice of human biology bootstrapping proto-life into being with time, energy, love, and attention. It’s for the *art*. For the first-movers, visionaries, mad scientists, self-experimenters, renegades, and early-adopters. Those who self-select, with no promise of fame or recognition. There because they want to be—*have to be*—their soul beckoning them to the edges of emergence and the [adjacent possible](https://medium.com/pm-insights/remixing-your-way-to-innovation-the-adjacent-possible-a7c824bcb0be?ref=zenmedicine.co). While it remains many innovators' goal to break into the light of mass culture—as they are right to do—you will not find me there. Seek me out in the back of the library, the dim corner of the tea shops, deep in the dusty archives, candlelit huts in the jungle, down in the warehouse district—playing in the mud where the lotus first takes root. *For I seek something I cannot name...* That spark of unfiltered genius. The final dance with madness. Mainlining a moment of profound inspiration. The creative and vital force of Life infusing the room, and you know you have just experienced something of great significance—found a seed destined for the light. *"Sorry man, I can't explain it, you just had to be there."* **LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND.** EB. ### The Opposite of Suicide. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-opposite-of-suicide/ Last updated: 2025-04-28T15:58:11.000Z ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/suicide.jpg) ## Great depth in simple prose… ...I’ve experienced a weird, innocuous overlap between tech startups, medicine retreats, creating experiences, and client work: *I must explain what I do*... Putting ‘what I do’ into words has always been… interesting. Oftentimes aggravating. Like most poetic attempts at capturing reality, I’m left feeling like something is missing. My work with someone is never laid out from the beginning. It's *responsive*; it responds to *what arises from the depths.* I am excellent at *container design*; I call it *experience architecture.* Clinical psychedelic therapy protocols, entheogenic rites-of-passage, multi-month discipline challenges. Fair game. **I create sacred structure for the courageous to step into… and we wait.** We wait for the body-mind to unclench. To be broken open by voluntary surrender or overwhelming force… and we see what happens. We see what the deepest wisdom of their highest self has decided it is time to work on, here and now. When it surfaces, we run with it. **That’s the blessing and the curse of my curiosity and my work: you can’t pigeon-hole it.** We can run bloodwork panels as happily as we can go into people-pleasing Mr. Nice Guy emotional trauma responses, or abstract wrestling with nonduality and the nature of reality. It’s all on the table. *But this… this is good...* ## The Opposite of Suicide. Yes… Yes? Yes. Yes! ***YES!*** *That was my reaction reading that—and now that I look at it again—it's also the process someone goes through when doing this return-to-life. From yes…… to YES! Simple as.* ### **A single, profound, total decision to fucking LIVE. To be ALIVE. To choose with every fibre of your being your entire experience and existence. To make the single decision that makes all the difference.** *... but it’s an uncomfortable truth for most, isn’t it?* Most people—I will argue here, the *vast majority of everyone you have ever met—*have never sat down and explicitly decided to live. Most people’s lives reflect some version of this story: > *“…well, I didn’t decide to be here, my parents wanted a child for themselves and by some cosmic fluke I'm here. I didn’t ask for this, and honestly, I’m not sure I like it. Let’s try to make it not-so-bad until I die.”* This is the seed of the Cult of Comfort we live in. 'Not-so-bad'. **Very, very few (a % of the population likely close to those who actually ‘complete’ suicide) have made the opposite decision: the great decision to CHECK THE FUCK IN.** Statistics *(okay, AI)* seem to say \~0.014% of the US population commits suicide in any given year. Sounds about right. Equally, about 0.014% of people in any given year make the holy embrace of life. I believe French existentialist Albert Camus’ canonical book ‘[The Myth of Sisyphus](https://www.amazon.ca/Myth-Sisyphus-Albert-Camus/dp/0525564454?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ opens with this bombshell: > *"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental questions of philosophy.”* *Allow me to speak candidly, this is important:* **You (& everyone else) are not a prisoner of life. If you don’t like it, you can leave. But if you’re not going to leave, stop complaining. This is your choice.** Recognize that you are choosing every moment, every day, all of life. The door to leave is *always open*. Stay connected to the reason(s) why you stay. Embrace it with the greatest soul force you have in you. Choose it deliberately, intentionally, always. > *"Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.”* – Miyamoto Musashi, the 'Sword Saint of Japan', [Dokkodo](https://www.highexistence.com/miyamoto-musashi-dokkodo/?ref=zenmedicine.co) Be here. Do the thing. Play the infinite game. Choose the orientation that says this is all worthwhile. Give the total life-affirming YES. Cheeky Note: I believe Zen to be the direct path of **embodying* this total awakening, this full aliveness, this absolute presence and sacred yes in every moment. Once you've made the decision, Zen is the path of integration & embodiment. *What a gift, no? What a gift to give a joyous welcome to any and every possible experience. What is more freeing than that? All of life, equally welcome.* ### **This is what I want to do with people.** We bulldoze every and any obstacle standing in the way of the full lion’s roar. The sacred stance of [the dragon riders](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-tale-of-the-dragon-riders/). **The FULL FUCK YES.** Zen is also interesting here... all the obstacles & disagreements to life are mental fabrications. Your body and ancient being have no issue being here. It's all in your head! Zen—and its Taoist roots—bring the mind into harmony and—\* *poof*\*—obstacles vanish. Yes to the pain, the passion, the foolishness, the awkwardness, the suffering, the ecstasy, the mystery, the madness. Yes to the evildoers, the Kings, the mothers, daughters, and wayward fathers. To our animal brethren and the plant kingdom. The mundane and the mystical. From the Orient to the Occident. **YES.** This is the opposite of suicide. This is the Art of LIVING. The sacred spirit of WAKING UP. No time to waste, EB. ### Anti-Triggers: Introducing Glimmers. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/anti-triggers-introducing-glimmers/ Last updated: 2025-04-14T14:48:26.000Z > **TRIGGER:** “A trigger is a stimulus that elicits a reaction. In the context of mental illness, ‘trigger’ is often used to mean something that brings on or worsens symptoms. This often happens to people with a history of trauma or who are recovering from mental illness, self-harm, addiction, and/or eating disorders.” Everyone’s favourite term nowadays. Ol’ Reliable—the great excuse. I’m triggered. This is triggering. You're triggered. Sneeze the wrong way. Call someone the wrong made-up label. Walk down the street too slowly. Exist. Nervous systems so chronically red-lined that the most minor inconvenience sets off a cascade of bio-psycho-social freakouts. However, as our favourite French existentialist Albert Camus may have once said… *“in the midst of my trigger, I found, within me, an invincible glimmer…”* ## The existence of triggers implies the reality of glimmers… > **GLIMMER:** “A glimmer is an event that elicits an opening. In the context of personal growth, ‘glimmer’ is often used to mean something that brings on an increase in energy or excitement, usually alleviating negative symptoms and/or circumstances. This often happens to people who are following their curiosity, actively engaging with the world, and listening to the deep wisdom of their body.” There you have it—Dr. Brown’s clinical definition of **glimmers**. There’s a whole new-age self-help book right here for the taking. Shove this into ChatGPT and ask it for a 400-page manuscript (obviously 250 pages longer than necessary to appease publishers). Make sure to give it some edgy title like *‘F\*CK TRIGGERS: Find peace and have great sex in a world on fire’*. People like fake-swearing on book titles. It’s provocative. It gets the people going. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/image-2.png) Jokes aside, glimmers will change your life. That's what they are designed to do. It's their very reason for existing. Let’s start here: ### You don’t choose what interests you. Your interests ‘choose you’ far more than you choose them. Was there ever a time you sat down, deliberately sampled every genre of music, and rationally chose the style that was best for you? Hell no! You overheard a song on the radio and it spoke to you like a message from the mouth of God. It plucked your DNA like a Spanish guitar virtuoso, and you knew you had to have more of it. **Everything you care about is like this.** You find something, be it a woman, some music, a philosophy, a hobby—and it shines. It radiates lifeforce energy toward you. It glows brighter, sounds clearer, and looks more beautiful than the rest of reality. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/image-3.png) In open-world RPG's (role-playing games), these are the 'shiny' parts of the map. Indicating a quest, person, object waiting to be discovered, furthering your story. God only knows *why* it beckons you. But *you know* it does. **Glimmers are unique to you.** Not everyone likes the music you do. Some people despise it. Other people could not care any less about the world-changing idea you have devoted your life to. No problem! Because it is here you find the seeds of your dharma, your calling, your purpose, your great adventure here on Earth. **There is only one thing guaranteed when you find and follow your glimmers: you will have the adventure of your life.** That doesn’t mean it will be easy. Glimmers often thrust you into the most challenging crucibles you’ve ever faced. But they will be *your* crucibles. *Your* destiny. *Your* dharma. Just like Fool’s Gold, some things *look* like glimmers but are only distractions. Diversions that suck up all your vital energy and adventurous spirit. Drugs do this to most people. False glimmers. They look like shooting stars, but turn out to be satellites hit by a meteor. Be careful. Be discerning. Trust yourself. But do not ignore glimmers. If you ignore them, your world stops shining, literally and metaphorically. The world becomes grey, mundane, and hopeless. ### Signs and Symptoms of Glimmers. *How do you know you’ve found a glimmer? What are you looking for? If you want to write it in medical shorthand—the S/Sx of Gx:* - **Intellectual Curiosity/Fascination:** *You can’t stop thinking about it. It comes to your mind first thing in the morning, it bubbles up when you’re by yourself, it’s a rabbit hole you want to dive headfirst into.* - **Physiological Opening:** *You get more energy around it. You feel calm, open, excited, optimistic, loving, strong, ALIVE. You sit up straight, you pay attention. It evokes a positive, physical, life-affirming response in your body.* - **Mythopoetic Significance:** *Something about it calls to you, beckoning you. It’s not a logical answer, nor easy to put into words, but the deepest part of you has an intuitive, instinctual knowing that this is for you.* - **Emotional Superpositions:** *It evokes multiple emotions simultaneously. It’s scary and exciting. It’s empowering and limit-testing. It makes you feel like a King and a Peasant at once. It’s mundane to others but meaningful to you. While the exact emotion may not be obvious, the emotional response is undeniable.* ### Now what if you sit there and tell me, *“There’s nothing in my life that glimmers to me?”* 1. **First, I’m sorry.** What a painful life it is when the brilliant jewel of existence no longer shines to you. Who hurt you? What pain are you carrying? How long ago did you abandon your dreams? 2. **Second, it’s time to explore.** Radical intervention is needed. Maybe nothing glimmers to you because you’re in the wrong place. Your glimmer might be waiting for you on the beaches of Thailand, the monasteries of China, the café’s of Argentina, or back in your hometown with your parents. 3. **Third, cleanse the lenses of perception.** The glasses you see the world through are dirty. Psychedelic therapy may be the best tool for the job here. Psychedelics are uniquely effective at bringing the shiny brilliance of life back. They attune you to the signals of your body and make your senses sharper. 4. **Fourth, clean up.** Your mind-body complex is the most sophisticated sensing instrument this organic planet has ever created. SSRIs are uniquely poisonous, numbing bodily sensitivity and emotional receptivity. Detoxes, flushes, fasts, donating possessions, clearing your schedule, and more time in nature will re-attune your delicate instrument. **What a beautiful life it is when you see every moment and material thing for what it really, truly is: the crystallized light of God, glimmering brilliantly like a thousand suns.** All of it here, for you, setting the stage for your next adventure. Waiting for you to notice... Go play, EB. ### The Tale of the Dragon Riders. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-tale-of-the-dragon-riders/ Last updated: 2025-04-11T14:24:42.000Z Hopefully, you’ve come across Jordan Peterson’s discussions on the [reality of dragons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEEHjtVJHYs&ref=zenmedicine.co), they are fantastic. To get us on the same page: - Humans create abstract categories. - Humans have an abstract category: predator. No animal called a 'predator' exists in nature. Predator is an idea that buckets ‘living things that hunt other living things’ together. - Lions exist in nature. Lions are predators. Predator is an idea. - Now, we do a cross-examination of all predators and their characteristics. - Predators as a category, generally: fly (birds of prey), slither/scales (snakes), claws (big cats), hunt living things (humans), breathe fire (natural disasters, fires, lightning), are invisible or hard to see (sneaky, camouflaged, quiet), lie in wait outside the ‘protected zone’ (the edge of chaos, outside the village, beyond the pail, the unconscious, the undiscovered, deep in nature), protect treasure (new land, new discoveries, new resources). - If we can abstract a level up from lion > predator, we can run a second-layer abstraction from predator > dragon. - Dragons are the abstracted category of all apex predators. They are the mythological distillation of everything dangerous that lurks in the dark, beyond the known territory, waiting for you. - **If ‘predators’ are ‘real’ > ‘dragons’ are ‘real’.** ****NOTE:** **You can get non-dualistic fast and say ‘lions’ are just an idea too, as language is never reality itself, and no meaningful separation exists. This is true. You can get even spicier and say 'you' are just an idea too. This is true. But let's leave this aside for now.* **Nearly every culture, no matter how far separated by time or space, has myths of dragons.** It’s not hard to imagine the organic evolution of this: a group of explorers come stumbling back into the village in the middle of the night, frantic, semi-conscious, sputtering frightened tales of a great beast, size and shape unknown. “*…and giant fangs! …wait the fangs were claws? …wait claws for teeth!? …scales!? it flew in the air? there was fire too! the ground shook when it walked! it took my arm clean off, look!”* No one can confirm or deny these stories, because those who venture out into the dark chaos after either came back the same way or died and told no tale. Over time these stories coalesced into living mythology: *here, there be DRAGONS.* **Dragons are the mythopoetic, symbolic representation of the CHAOS as such that sits always just outside the ordered territory.** ## 🐲 The Dragon Slayers. Thus we begin every great hero story. A dragon in a faraway land. He terrorizes the people. He ruins the crops. He protects some kind of vast treasure. For the brave warriors, for the young rascal with a chip on his shoulder, and for the one foolish enough to answer the call to adventure—the opportunity of a lifetime is here. It is time to muster courage, gather the group, venture out, and slay the dragon. **For that is all we can do with chaos: venture out and crush it through force and will first, before it comes and gets us in the safety of our ordered village.** Chaos is bad. Chaos is uncertainty. Chaos is death. There is only one thing to do with chaos: kill it. Smite it with fire and brimstone. Bulldoze it into submission. The era of the dragon slayers begins. The beauty of humanity’s bravery, courage, mastery, and sacred order shines forth from these sacred warriors. But strange things happen… - No matter how many dragons are slain, more are found. - No matter how many parts of the map are filled in, the unknown, undiscovered parts of the map grow equally. There is *always* chaos outside the village walls. - Dragons and chaos find the village anyway: crops are plundered, land dries up and famines start, invisible diseases plague inhabitants. - The archetype of the HYDRA is born. Cut off one head of chaos, 3 more appear. While the eternal battle of good vs. evil wages on, man vs. beast, the dance between order and chaos, small whispers are picked up on the winds from foreign lands... **Whispers of a mysterious clan... the dragon riders.** They don't kill dragons, nor are they killed by them. A human<>dragon symbiotic pairing. They have tamed the great beasts. Or maybe… they elevated themselves to the level of dragons and thus earned their respect and companionship. ## ⚡️ All Hail the Dragon Riders. **There is a look written on the face of the dragon riders, that says more than any story or words can teach...** A gaze of total composure. Fierce and untouchable. The look of a man who has met death many times and made his peace with it. A man who found the dragon deep within his heart and conquered it. A man who has walked through hellfire and found the part of him that is indestructible. These are the dragon riders. Those firmly rooted in both chaos and order. Those who have seen through the illusion of opposites and realized the greater whole. Within order lies the possibility of chaos, and within chaos the dream of order. These are not static states but a dynamic flux, as fluid and graceful as dragon flight. In mastering this flowing dance, the dragon riders were born. Aligning with the rhythm of natural chaos. Deep within their martial art, they captured the spark of life—and made peace with the dragons. Chaos brings the possibility of opportunity. New lands, new resources, new skills, new seasons—great treasures. **They recognized the dragons for what they were: great protectors of this divine realm, stewards of a sacred process: evolution.** And on the day the dragon riders arrived in our village, everyone rose... for we knew we were in the presence of great beings. Half Human, Half God—Half Predator, Half Prey—Half Dust, Half Diety—Part Order, Part Chaos—Part Man, Part Dragon. They called themselves **ANTHROPOS**: Integrated Ones. All of us rose to bear witness to the dragon riders that day… ### Medicine is a Sacred Practice. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/medicine-is-a-sacred-practice/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T13:22:47.000Z ## Medicine is sacred. The relationship between practitioner and patient is holy ground. A profound, complex, intimate journey. There was a time when medicine was elevated to the level of divinity. It was recognized as a sacred undertaking. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/asclepius.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/nols.webp) **The** [**Rod of Asclepius**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod%5Fof%5FAsclepius?ref=zenmedicine.co) **remains the symbol of medicine—an homage to the Greek God of Healing and Medicine, Asclepius.** Even today, the ancient origins of medicine whisper to us. Paramedics, hospitals, army medical bodies, wilderness medicine councils, even the [World Health Organization](https://www.who.int/about/policies/publishing/logo?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=WHO's%20emblem%20was%20chosen%20by,a%20snake%20coiling%20round%20it.) use this archaic symbol of renewal, transformation, steadiness, and sacred purpose. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/cadecus-1.png) ****NOTE:** **Not to be confused (though it often is) with* [**the Caduceus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus?ref=zenmedicine.co)**, the rod with two coiled snakes and wings. This is the staff of Hermes, a symbol of commerce, travel, and messengers. The confusion started in the 19th Century when the U.S. Army Medical Corps wrongly adopted the Caduceus as its symbol–instead of the Rod of Asclepius–and the mistake has stuck with us ever since.* --- ### **The practice of medicine—and the art of healing—reunites a dynamic and complex organism into symbiotic wholeness and homeostatic equilibrium with its biological, psychological, and symbolic environment(s).** *This is not hyperbolic.* We have watered-down, pigeon-holed, and sheer-ignoranced our way to an apathetic, incorrect, and dangerous definition of what medicine is and how it should be approached. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/holarchy.png) **Medicine brings a series of nested wholes into internal coherence, wholeness amongst each other, and narrative cohesion throughout the stack.** Cell > Organ > Vital System > Body > Mind > Psyche > Identity > Habitat > Environment > City > Country > Culture > Planet > Metaphysics. *Disease is disconnection or dysregulation of individual layers, and/or in the relationships between them.* It’s never an isolated problem. Nothing exists in isolation. Resolution is as straightforward as cleaning and stitching a gaping wound. It is as complicated as journeying into the past to find where the soul is stuck in time—frozen development from acute traumatic experience—and bringing it back into the present. ### **Medicine is intimate.** From the most sterile clinical Western gynecologist appointment to the hardest ego-eradicating Bufo Alvarius experience—medicine takes people straight into their most intimate, transformative, and sensitive moments. - EMR rescuing someone after a car crash. Stemming major bleeding, performing CPR, a human life hanging in the balance. - Taking someone to the brink of annihilation in a Bufo experience. Rewriting and physically rewiring their relationship to God, Reality, Love, and Life. - Fertility consultation shapes the ability of couples to continue their bloodline and their living participation in the mythopoetic narrative of humanity. - Confronting atrocities beyond recognition: childhood abuse, mutilation from war, varieties of self-destructive behaviour, and all forms of trauma and wounding. - The expectation (and fear) that you have to show and tell the practitioner things you have never disclosed to another human. Intimate details like sexual health, getting naked, crippling addictions, historical trauma, physical ailments, fear of death, the list is endless. **This is not to be taken lightly.** - We can do better than 15-minute 2-question consultations every 6 months. - We can do better than [$125 bonuses](https://news3lv.com/news/nation-world/health-care-providers-were-bribed-into-suggesting-covid-vaccines-congressman-says-anthem-blue-cross-and-blue-shield-vaccine-provider-incentive-program-thomas-massie-kentucky?ref=zenmedicine.co) for every person vaccinated. - We can do better than allowing vending machines in hospitals. - We can do better than pill-first, change-later approaches. We *must* do better. **Medicine is the field that directly honours the basic fact of existence: YOU ARE ALIVE.** Medicine—in more ways than one—is the art, science, theory, practice, dance, and discipline of bringing people back to LIFE. Helping people *feel* truly alive. Reconnecting them to the flow of time and their place in existence. **Medicine affords people a simple freedom: the opportunity to walk on this planet without pain.** Psychological pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain. Existential pain. Medicine is a sacred practice. It is an intimate relationship between practitioner and patient. It is a hero’s journey reuniting Creator & Creation. Medicine is a dynamic process, a life-long practice. It’s not an isolated intervention, though that may be part of the greater journey. I hope we soon remember to recognize it as such. To your medicine, EB. ### Anthem URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/anthem/ Last updated: 2025-04-08T14:22:42.000Z Book notes for Anthem. ### The Beauty of Everyday Things URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-beauty-of-everyday-things/ Last updated: 2025-04-08T14:12:22.000Z Notes for the beauty of everyday things. ### On Ideal Conditions. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/ideal-conditions/ Last updated: 2025-04-07T14:32:42.000Z ## A short but sharp guest piece today... **Our visiting author is none other than the legend himself—Clippy. 📎** Everyone's favourite Microsoft Word 2000 OG AI. Be warned: behind his friendly veneer lies a fighting spirit. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/conditions.jpeg) **Ideal conditions do not and will not exist. Now is the best time to do anything.** Do it messy. Do it ugly. Do it imperfectly. Do it fast. Do it slow. Do it with incomplete knowledge. Do it when it might fail. Do it because it might fail. Do it full of mistakes. Do it cringey. Do it shaking with fear. Do it with your mouth dry and stomach tight. Do it with the voice in your head criticizing everything. Do it like an amateur. Do it with fierce passion. Do it 1 minute after waking up. Do it unmotivated. Do it under pressure. Do it in debt. Do it while juggling 2 jobs. Do it as a sacred offering. Do it with grace. *Whatever it is, whatever it takes.* **Do. The. Thing—Now.** You'll be glad you did, Clippy. ✨ ### Plant Your Seeds in Spring. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/plant-your-seeds-in-spring/ Last updated: 2025-04-04T14:31:57.000Z ## It’s Jan 2, 2025\. Toronto, Canada… Temperature a brisk -1ºC. There were 9 hours of sunlight today. The sun set at 4:51pm. Dark streets filled with sleet, snow, and frozen slush. Nearly 2 months into a long Canadian winter. A few more months to go. Most every living creature has begun to hibernate. Bears are in their caves. Squirrels subsist off the nut reserves they diligently created in the warmer months. For most humans, it’s a time of rest. *Except for one man…* He approached me on the street in the biting winds, unphased by the dry freeze harassing his face. He wore a giant hat, big blue jeans, quintessential red Canadian plaid, and had a weird piece of straw or wheat or something hanging limply out of his mouth… *“…tinkin’ of growing corn this year…”* he mutters. But it was what he asked next that shocked me… *“Do ya reckon I plant it tomorrow or next week?”* *“Is this guy psychotic?”* The question flashes in my head. It’s ridiculous to plant seeds in the Canadian tundra in winter. **And yet… blinded by my surprise and the veil of my hypocrisy, I carried on… for not two days ago had I finished planting seeds of my own—psychological seeds—New Years Resolutions.** --- ## Resolutions are perhaps the greatest failure society participates in each year. It’s not a mystery to anyone. 90%+ failure rate. *Of course they do… *why would you plant seeds in winter?** You might imagine there to be a meaningful difference between seeds of corn and seeds of exercise habits. There isn’t. It’s harder to bring the seeds of identity/psychological change to fruition than a stalk of corn. And all change is identity change. All habits are deep psycho-spiritual-emotional processes. And yet… everyone’s out here planting during winter hibernation. It’s preposterous! **I wonder how much the success rate would improve if everyone—changing nothing else—started their resolutions on April 1 instead of January 1.** Here’s how resolutions look now (assuming you live in a place with seasons and winter): - Last minute braindump some good-but-not-too-hard ideas while hungover in the uncanny valley between Christmas & New Years. - Commit to \~1 of these as your resolution. - Realize it’s a miserable endeavour to go to the gym and look awkward and be sore and tired while it’s dark and freezing outside. - Drop it after 4 attempts. - Forget about everything by the time spring comes ‘round. **It doesn’t need to be this way.** ### Aligning lifestyle change with seasonal cycles brings environmental factors *onto* your side, making change easier, instead of having to overcome them like an obstacle. - **SPRING:** *I feel a deep sense of change. I see it all around me. The snow is melting, the sun is out longer, and it’s getting warmer. Green is starting to return and I feel like I’m ready to grow too. I’m still a bit awkward at this new thing, but that’s alright because all of nature is still waking up, finding its legs again after a long winter slumber.* - **SUMMER:** *I’ve got momentum and a real habit formed now! The days are beautiful and I feel a sun-like radiant pride in myself for doing something new and difficult, and now I get to enjoy having this great new thing in my life.* - **FALL:** *Wow, I’m seeing results—the first harvests from my new habits have arrived! Now I know why ancient peoples always had harvest festivals. I’ve got a book draft written, I’ve lost 15 pounds, and my meditation practice is going well, whatever it is. I don’t have to put energy into making the habit happen anymore, and I notice when I don’t do it. It’s become a part of me, and I’m already dreaming about what seeds I want to plant next.* - **WINTER:** *Instead of being an obstacle and a source of negativity from failing, my new habit/behaviour is helping me through the long winter months. It gives me energy, structure, and satisfaction, and I know I’m going to come out even stronger on the other side. I can’t wait for spring.* **If you are going to plant seeds of change… plant them in the spring.** With love, EB. ### Ode to the Gentleman. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/ode-to-the-gentleman/ Last updated: 2025-04-02T18:46:52.000Z > “The end of all etiquette is to so cultivate your mind that even when you are quietly seated, not the roughest ruffian can dare make onset on your person.” It means, in other words, that by constant exercise in correct manners, one brings all the parts and faculties of his body into perfect order and into such harmony with itself and its environment as to express the mastery of spirit over the flesh.” > > ― Inazo Nitobe,[Bushido: The Soul of Japan](https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2279634?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- > *"*Gentleman:* a term for a chivalrous, courteous, or honourable man." – Wikipedia.* ### **Where have the Gentlemen gone? Have we killed them?** Though I wasn’t born in the era, I yearn for a renaissance of The Gentleman. I am 🤏🏻 this close to pulling a full Peaky Blinders OG Gentleman arc in my life. Last week, I taught myself how to use a straight razor. One of the many sidequests I'm taking on my [semi-sabbatical](https://www.zenmedicine.co/now/). There are other benefits to having a few inches of sharpened steel up against your jugular, I'll save those for later. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/03/image-1.png) Yes, I know the Peaky Blinders are not the shining example of ethics. Days of care, craftsmanship, etiquette, ethics, honour, honesty, presentation, purpose. **When the true aristocratic spirit—*excellence*—animated people.** - An age when we undertook the task of architecting culture seriously. - An era when our word was our bond. - Where the opportunity to participate in building a civilized society was deemed a worthy undertaking. - A brief moment where we tried our damndest to look respectable when entering the public domain because we *respected the enterprise of human society*. **We are *fundamentally* social creatures.** Up and down the stack (biology, psychology, neurology, spirituality, emotionality), you track social signals like an autistic savant. Thousands of impressions hit you every step down the sidewalk. Just beneath conscious awareness, you form a dynamic and sophisticated ‘under-standing’ of the whole. What’s acceptable, what’s emerging, what’s dying. You synthesize an orchestra of social signals into an unnamable but ever-present Gestalt of the human enterprise. **And I, for one, am fed up with what’s broadcast these days.** --- ## All Hail the Degens. **The message is crystalline: humanity is no longer worthy of beauty, goodness, and excellence.** *“Caring isn't cool. Effort is out—apathetic nonchalance is in. Looking like garbage in public is welcome. Swearing like a sailor is fine because you're obviously ‘thinking too fast’ to muster better vernacular. Being chronically sedated is normal.”* *“...well if you deconstruct the colonialist intersectional motif of the incumbent zeitgeist, you’ll inevitably conclude this banana a beacon of the Proletariat humanitarian struggle juxtaposed against the Bourgeois heteronormative impulse of oppression. Truly the upper echelons of artistic excellence. And of course, Foucault once argued similarly when…”* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/03/image-2.png) *Degenerate trivialities wrapped up in quasi-intellectual babble.* While I accept this is happening—as it has been for centuries—I will not stand by and allow it. I will not succumb to it. A great bamboozling is afoot. A sophisticated psychological operation. Like Indiana Jones swapping out an ornate golden statue for a sack of beans... ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/04/indiana.jpg) We're living through a modern remake of George Orwell's 1984: > UGLINESS IS BEAUTY. > MEDIOCRITY IS EXCELLENCE. > VICE IS VIRTUE. **And if you have a problem being surrounded and bombarded by this deluge of apathetic, nihilistic, monotonous monstrosity—you’re the maladjusted one.** *“Take this synthetic chemical cocktail for the rest of your life just to function and get out of bed in the morning. That’s how the majority of us are doing it now.”* Walking through modern cities, scrolling the virtual streets of social media—it’s a vast demoralization campaign. Softcore porn. Grown men trading Pokemon cards. The cult of Andrew Tate. It hurts. It physically pains me. Part of me weeps in witness of this. **I am spiritually exhausted seeing the majority of people look like they just rolled out of bed, on the brink of death, mainlining 40oz of caffeine and sugar in gigantic Stanley cups, adorned in vapid overpriced 'athleisure' sweatshop slop.** I’d prefer it if they *had* just rolled out of bed! But in most cases, this is a carefully crafted image, replete with outfits, haircuts, and jewelry running thousands of dollars to strike the delicate balance between *“I’m higher status than you”* and *“I don’t give a shit”*. Morbidly obese, in debt, SSRI-zombie eyes, monotonous speech, parroting the latest Party Slogans, sexually impotent, emotionally dysregulated, everything made of cheap toxic plastic trash, grey lifeless buildings, rampant numbness. *The soul of humanity withering away...* I get overwhelmed at times—but I will *never* be blackpilled. There is always opportunity. So long as there is breath in my lungs there is something to do. **Surprisingly, the clearer I notice this without flinching, the more I try to articulate it: the more my heart rips open. Something is summoned deep within me.** Chogyam Trungpa used to call it [*basic goodness*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic%5Fgoodness?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=Basic%20goodness%20is%20a%20term,level%20from%20beginningless%20time%2C%20good.). --- ## Reclaim the Gentleman. - Men who stood when a lady entered the room. - Men whose word was worth their weight in gold. - Men who dressed, acted, and spoke with class. - Men who took pride in their craft and their life. - Men who aimed at excellence and strove toward it. - Men of taste, etiquette, artistry, culture, philosophy, science. - Men who elevated the human endeavour to something transcendent. - **Men of *action.*** - **Men who *care*.** - **Men who *aim up*.** - **Men who pursue *Man’s Highest Nature.*** **The Gentleman—and everything the archetype entails (etiquette, culture, class, refinement, presentation, contribution)—is a crystallized form of self-mastery.** > "In its highest form, politeness almost approaches love." — Inazo Nitobe It's a basic form of respect for people: > *"Hi, I love you and I respect you, and to show you that, I will do my best in everything. I will take pride in how I look, act, walk, talk, speak, breathe, dress, dance, and participate in society. *I will be someone who reminds you of the goodness of humanity.*"* Before we close, an acknowledgement: **yes, there's far more to the Gentleman archetype than how you look. Some will brush this off as a vain and superficial rant. I did too, for a long time. But your body and appearance are an expression of your spirit. Take from that what you will.** God knows I am not innocent in all of this. I have a long and storied history with various forms of social degeneracy. Chronically stoned dirty hippy, violent and aggressive anarchist, loud and obnoxious skate culture. I've been there... But that boy is gone. I laid him to rest. The man was born, and he means business. **This Man is ready to breathe life back into the heart of humanity—to *in spire* others.** To reclaim the Gentleman and bring about a Renaissance of Class. To sharpen his intellect, bolster his ethics, back his words with action, to look, be, and become a bit more respectable each day. You are Indra’s Net: a jewel reflecting every other. A node broadcasting to the entire network. You are always broadcasting something. You can only choose what message you send. ***What message are you sending?*** **Please, let it be one of care, craft, honour, sincerity, integrity, passion, purpose, elegance, transcendence, wisdom, knowledge, style, grace, and excellence—in all ways, always, in service of all beings.** Let it be a message fit for a Gentleman, EB. ### The Zen Bible URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/zen-bible/ Last updated: 2025-03-21T15:17:02.000Z > “I don’t know anything about consciousness. I just try to teach my students how to hear the birds sing.” > — Shunryu Suzuki Roshi ## One of the myriad things I love about Zen is that there isn’t a Bible… **There’s no single, universally recognized holy book. There’s no canonical doctrine, no ossified dogma, no secret cult.** The closest you'll get is the famous ‘[4 Pillar Poem](https://www.zenmedicine.co/zen/)’ from Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/03/image.png) A separate transmission outside all teaching. Not founded in fine words of scripture. It's simple: pointing directly at mind. There, seeing original-nature, you become Buddha. – [China Root](https://www.amazon.com/China-Root-Taoism-Chan-Original/dp/1611807131?ref=zenmedicine.co) translation by David Hinton **Within Bodhidharma’s prosaic lines, the second interests us most.** Sometimes translated as *'beyond fine words and scripture.'* My tea teacher, [Wu De](https://globalteahut.org/pages/about?ref=zenmedicine.co), translates this more directly as *'No scripture. No doctrine. No dogma.'* Even in the closest thing to a ‘Bible’ that Zen has, 25% of it is dedicated to dismantling itself. This is a classic literary motif of the ‘Ch’an wrecking crew’ from Zen’s early origins. Ancient Taoists were masters at deconstructing the mental apparatus of meaning-making, eventually dismantling the conceptual structures of Taoism itself, composting it back down to its earthy organic nature. **What Zen hits you over the head with—over and over and over again—is this: the moment you go looking for answers in books, language, and thought, you’ve lost the sound of the birds.** The opening quote here was from one of the most celebrated Zen Masters of all time. It’s not random. It’s a profound teaching. *What of consciousness? What of the absolute? Riddles? Answers?* Life is a symphony. In the way people move. In the bends of the river. Every blade of grass and bird song is happening here and now. Don’t miss it. **How many times have you 'zoned out' at a concert, or in a conversation? Suddenly 'popping' back into the present moment after following 14 mental tangents?** Zen is that: stop zoning out. Language puts a filter, an impasse, a middle-man between you and direct experience. Language fissures the psyche. It creates the distinction between subject and object. At this point, Albert Einstein might lean back in his chair, look at us over his shoulder, flash a cheeky grin, and remind us, *“You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it."* It requires a mind-body evolution. A paradigm shift. This is what the practice of Zen is. Koan riddles, archery, tea, zazen meditation. Every practice is aimed at facilitating paradigm shifts in the organism. ## 📜 An Alternative. I have a silly proposal for what you might consider the scripture of Zen: *haiku*. Haiku is a minimalist, transient form of poetry developed in Japan. It shares a long and winding history with Zen. There is little meaningful separation to be made between them. Haiku isn't fancy. Quite the opposite: it’s profoundly plain. It captures a momentary reality. The sound of water. Bird song. Grass in the wind. A man in the mountain. > An ancient pool, > A frog jumps in, > The sound of water. > — Basho I find it fitting that the ‘scripture’ of Zen might be poetry. That the object of admiration and worship is nature. Something about that feels right. It's not a theory. It's not 'correct'. It's *artistic*. It's moving, it's fleeting, transient, nebulous. It conveys a *feeling*, not an *absolute*. That's about as Zen as it gets. Be well, EB. 🐉 ### // March 2025 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/march-2025/ Last updated: 2025-03-21T13:14:17.000Z - Living in Toronto, Canada 🍁 on a semi-sabbatical (\~3 months). - Preparing to apprentice at [Kumankaya Healing Center](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). - Writing [Zen Medicine](https://www.zenmedicine.co/) and dreaming up a book on the 'Bitcoin Koan'. - Director of [Apotheosis Retreats](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) – boutique world-class plant medicine retreats. ### Answering Your Questions. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/answering-questions/ Last updated: 2025-03-07T18:01:10.000Z **Later than desired getting this one out. Life has been insane recently, a true test. Will share more soon. For now, I've got answers to the Q&A.* **This was awesome. I loved it! I'm going to* [**keep the submissions open*](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co)**. Drop a question if you've got one. You should be able to jump to a specific question with the table of contents below (on a computer), with all the Q/A this one's long. With love, EB.* ⚡️ ### Why do you love Ayn Rand and which book of hers should I start with? 1. Her writing is incredible, plot/character development fascinating, and they are classic books. Great reads. 2. Most people believe what is necessary for the collapse of complex society are ‘black swans’ like superintelligent AI, climate devastation, nuclear war. Rand puts forward a chilling argument that all that is needed for collapse is the spirit of jealousy, envy, incompetence, and the red stroke of communism. It challenged my thinking, nested within phenomenal writing. 3. If you are only ever going to read one book, make it her magnum opus [Atlas Shrugged](https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191145/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=XUBA8D70WJAU&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Zf9wS6Rc%5FJVJSJd6Llz29XESviy-tfbU4lXI4OfEecYBR4yFYXIf7%5F0GPOBjrMhB3%5F1kL3rgp3Z6GhGJuu1U1X9JVVyFzqM66YSCnLwvlVT-D8nlDmVCZuHCb8Vn%5F5n7XiLgi9pxuFyWNq8Hj5BZPMcrIZJXlHnboiP0vS0lodzpc7mhj1nO-X%5Fz1365zP5F69ZY6qSJjMTv4la2gFQX72%5FwLDNaweEIRKeyZ%5FkHnCI.8C44AaUBHQkAO8JNF4gAguKeoYqs1i0cZUU0Ztbhgg0&dib%5Ftag=se&keywords=atlas+shrugged&qid=1737996298&s=books&sprefix=atlas+shrugge%2Cstripbooks%2C150&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co). If you’re willing to read two, I’d start with [The Fountainhead](https://www.amazon.ca/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0452273331?ref=zenmedicine.co). Shorter, still punchy, and you get to see the evolution of her thinking/writing going in this order. ### What are the most controversial ideas you’re currently entertaining or finding alluring in some way? Tough to answer, because a lot of these I don’t personally consider controversial. I think they’re basic and in many ways self-evident. Grant me some benefit of the doubt here, each of these deserve a full essay/conversation, but I don’t have that space. If I consider what most people would find heretical, some are: 1. We have a *profound* and *dangerous* lack of masculinity, and indeed patriarchy, in society, not too much/its not ‘toxic’. 2. Democracy is the [God That Failed](https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Economics-Politics-Perspectives-Democratic/dp/0765808684/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1GHQ8IT42QR36&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.HCryDMTaj1Vx0Zwv8u7387VCHg7xXTdS-dRlS3JoPOCPf0cWPu0T-oo8LUpNTMuc091n-l2LwXBtb5BOANvb60aOD-1Zhp8nAnuOe6M-adyyxaMRh6FNuQ7LfdQY8ymV90uuzZA4i8zB4rFE3pqcZicamZPvPMRpIpO7ON3pCLa4hsoBoqkTUlsjGDPqI-NZJzeT3FBO9YrXoVQ8x94D31j5G-0WUATqmWHKawNeuuI.RoYWlyOFRRRE%5FUNmasy-lQ02a8hHKzO3w6Dak2O5bFs&dib%5Ftag=se&keywords=democracy+god+that+failed+book&qid=1737996277&s=books&sprefix=democracy+god+that+failed+book%2Cstripbooks%2C186&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co), the State is a parasitic entity, taxation is armed robbery. 3. Bitcoin (& I guess gold/monetary metals) are the only *ethical* forms of money that exist. Though the ethics of metal mining is debatable. 4. Children cannot consent to gender therapy. Children cannot consent. Period. Child mutilation will be seen as one of the greatest atrocities of our age that we cheered for. This includes circumcision. 5. Tolerance is the virtue of a man without conviction. 6. I’m not confident that the experiment (which it is, historically speaking) of multiculturalism has 'worked' for society. 7. There are two things evidence demonstrates well: (1) increasing testosterone levels in men [changes their political stance](https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/155441/version/V1/view?ref=zenmedicine.co), (2) most modern men are close to, or already are, clinically deficient. It’s reasonable to say that the political opinions of most men are *wildly distorted* and should be taken with a heavy grain of salt. 8. I feel more and more that abortion is not good. I'm not yet convinced to say that it shouldn't be a right for women. But for a moment, try to imagine the raw biological material—the *mountain of human biomass*—that millions of aborted babies looks like ([WHO estimates](https://www.worldometers.info/abortions/?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=According%20to%20WHO%2C%20every%20year,to%202%2C500%20abortions%20per%20day.) 73 million/year, \~200k/day). I can't get myself to see that as something to celebrate... 9. Writ large, societies *without* religion at their center are not better than societies *with* religion at their center. 10. Some people *want* to be led/governed because it absolves them of responsibility for their lives. Far more blunt—there is a *degree* of slavery that people crave because the burden of total responsibility is too great. ### I was wondering if there any people who are interested in continuing some form of the Warrior 100 program. I really liked the small group form, the accountability, the learning of each other among other things. I have continued the accountability part (on daily physical activity), daily since the end of Warrior 100, with one friend, which is good but it's not the same. Less intense, less serious. - Incredible work keeping it going! Well done and I’m so glad to hear that. The W100 solidified some core practices for me too. - This is interesting. **If anyone else wants to join a decentralized 100-Days/WARRIOR100, reply to this email and I’ll see what we can do.** - I always wanted Phoenix Culture to be ‘uncopyrighted’. I am more than happy to provide 100% of the material we created for the 100 days if someone/some group wants to pick up the torch and keep it going. I can’t at the moment commit to doing this myself. Let me know. ### What is the optimal balance between chaos and order? Specifically, is it just a matter of being present now, when balancing between different extremes or nuances of life from negative and positive experience? What a question! 😅🥳 Holy moly. Here are a few frames, try them on: - **The optimal balance is whatever you can handle right now.** Whatever this ‘chapter’ calls for. Sometimes, that’s far more order in your life: deeply regimented, hardcore practice and structure. Sometimes, it’s far more chaos: radical changes, spontaneous evolution, highly intuitive. Meditate and ask your highest self what’s called for. - **Realize you have only ever lived in 100% chaos.** Nature == emergence == chaos. Reframe, as deeply as you can, chaos as ‘spontaneity’, ‘emergence’, ‘randomness’, even ‘playfulness’. It doesn’t need to have a negative connotation. Most people think of chaos as total anarchy and destruction. Chaos is beautiful, and you can handle it. Ch’an (Zen & Taoism) has an incredible term for this: [‘Li’](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4qS5ed1bQg&ref=zenmedicine.co). It means something like ‘Natural Law’ or ‘Natural Order’. Specifically, it meant the markings in marble, grain patterns in wood, shape of a river. Ask yourself what the markings in marble are. Are they sheer random meaningless chaos? Or are they a profound organic natural intelligence? Your entire life is Li. The flow of time is Li. This opens the door to a *profound* level of Trust. You are not in charge. You do not need to be in charge. Jump in, enjoy the ride. Follow natural emergence, and learn to surf chaos. - **Another flip: if nature is bringing you 100% chaos, why don’t you bring the 100% order?** All the way down to the level of perception itself, you are an ‘ordering machine’. Carve order from the chaos. Create your own ‘paradise’ (walled garden). It’s a conversation. A dance. Join in, be an equal partner. Respond immediately, without hesitation, trust what happens. - **And of course, to be cheeky and borrow from both Jordan Peterson and Taoism: the optimal balance is 50/50.** As [JBP says](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9083857-to-straddle-that-fundamental-duality-is-to-be-balanced-to?ref=zenmedicine.co) *“one foot in order, one foot in chaos”*. Of course, this is what the yin yang symbolizes. Spontaneity within structure. It is an ever-present balancing act. It’s not a test you can fail. It’s a dance. It’s play. Breathe, slow down, join in. ### You’ve been evidencing a notable shift in worldview toward being more ‘pilled’ or ‘based’ or hostile toward leftism. What is the story of this arc and what are the potential shadows or failure modes you need to watch out for as you dive deeper into these types of rabbit-holes? Labels are challenging. What do you mean by ‘based’ or ‘pilled’? To me, it means grounded in reality, in what works, outside of idealistic fantasy—but I sense that is not what you mean. I have an *openness*. And with openness, I accept good arguments when they’re made. Traditional right-wing stances have some *very* good arguments. My worldview is expanding to include both. I visciously attack my ideas and beliefs. Most people I meet say they’re ‘open-minded’, but when I ask what conservative/right-wing material they engage with, the answer is always closer to zero. Most of the time they can’t name anyone beyond Jordan Peterson. I spent nearly 3 decades heavily left, so I sought to balance that out. Turns out, when you stop avoiding/strawmanning the Right, there are important things to consider. 1. The Left we grew up with no longer exists. The World that we knew no longer exists. The Left today is dangerous. There is something pure to the spirit of charity, support, inclusivity, freedom of expression, etc. But suprisingly, it is now the left who advocates for gross censorship, continued war, destruction of property, increasing government control, etc. 2. When I looked around for people who inspire me, who I deeply respect even if I don’t agree with, the Left brought very few people forward. This was shocking and disorienting. To use a silly example, who does the Left have to rival Jordan Peterson? The man at least takes himself seriously, is intelligent, works hard, holds a job, raised a family, has taste. Who matches this? Destiny? Blue-haired streamers? Obama—who dropped more bombs on people than anyone in the history of the planet? Legitimately I would love people to highlight the beacons of the Left for me because I’m missing them. 3. Due to the *extremely* unique century we’ve grown up in, we’ve forgotten how fragile civilization is. It’s not a Law of Nature. It doesn’t just ‘exist’. It was fought for and created over centuries. To oversimplify, the Left seems hell-bent on excavating the foundations that make society function, and this is not good to me. 4. I don’t agree with many of the things the Left has begun to emphasize: all forms of communism/socialism are evil, it has never survived the test of reality; ‘forced charity’ is evil; you cannot normalize the fringes, by definition; wealth is not evil; free-market capitalism is the greatest force of prosperity in the history of humanity; you cannot compel language, censorship is evil; being angry is not an argument; equality of outcome (and less obviously, equality of opportunity) are slippery slopes to totalitarianism. 5. To get very abstract, the Left has begun to glorify—indeed even Deify—ugliness, incompetence, weakness, deconstruction as Virtues. Putting morbidly obese people on the cover of health magazines is not a virtue. Spineless, schizophrenic modern art like taping bananas to walls is not beauty, nor deep. ‘Deconstructing’ the systems that give life and liberty is not honourable. ### What are your likely largest shadows or blindspots? And the likely largest weaknesses or blindspots of your worldview? 1. I’m not sure what my worldview is right now. It’s extremely fluid. This question seems to have an assertion behind it. 2. Believing that everyone (1) can, and (2) should, take total responsibility for their lives, absent any ‘external governing force’. 3. Seeking narratives that support my beliefs of personal power, truth, beauty, goodness, peace, & freedom—which are becoming increasingly right-wing coded. (Although when you read that again it’s kind of wild to say). 4. Currently, I heavily emphasize effort & outcome over idea & intent. This can be problematic. 5. I feel like too much of a chameleon. Too able to go into a worldview and live inside of it. Like I said earlier 'tolerance is the virtue of a man without conviction'. There is something around commitment here that I have not yet wrestled with fully. ### Is there a general good pattern or framework to continually stay disciplined on a good path? There are many systems I have employed (e.g., Bullet Journaling, Notion) but without the fundamental drive or juice, these systems don't work; so, what are the best ways to keep the drive going, and do disciplined action, even when not feeling 100% (which can be half or more of days)? - **You answered your question: reclaim that fundamental juice.** There is no software or system that can stoke the flames of engagement, surrender, passion. Once you access that, the tools *rarely* matter. Jack Dorsey built Twitter & Square simultaneously never using a computer, just using the Notes app on his iPhone with his team. Tools don’t matter that much, but they’re good ‘bumpers’ to control and channel the energy. - **What is holding you back from fundamental juicyness?** Fear? Trauma? Boredom? Nihilism? Self-criticism? Overwhelm? Physical health? All of it? That’s where the work is! Sometimes it requires deep space/time (sabbatical-esque) to discover and correct this. - **The real tools you want to use are whatever helps you *stoke the fire of fundamental engagement*.** If I’m really bummed out, I put on some of my favourite heavy metal/dubstep tracks. A huuuge surge in energy after that. Breathwork, dance, music, affirmations, nature – all good tools to help with reconnecting to the vital spark, the *elan vital*. - **For smaller moments, simple mantras help.** *“I do not negotiate with myself.” “Tired? Do it tired.” “Surrender to the process.”* - **Recognize that 80%+ of resistance is resistance to *starting*.** Force the first 5 minutes, and you’ll be on your way. - **Radical simplification.** Aim for just ONE thing a day. *“If I only accomplished 1 thing today, what would I be happy about?”* Do that. Do it messy. Do it stupidly. 1 thing a day is far better than an unsustainable 15 minor things (this was an impossibly hard lesson for me to learn). ### What are your thoughts on Jordan Peterson's ideas and particularly his attempt at bringing Theological perspectives to a modern group of people that is suffering a meaning crisis. - Writ large I think JBP has been a great benefit to modern culture. I think he deserves every moment of greatness he earns. Huge, unapologetic fanboy. I have profound respect for the man. - I think he ‘religion-pilled’ an enormous amount of people. Myself and many others I know. He was one of the first people of intellect and character who could illustrate the depth and profundity contained in these traditions, specifically Western Culture & Christianity. - For a long time, I felt ‘disappointed’ to watch his transition from “depth psychology nerdy professor” > “heavily religious discussion” > “deeply entrenched in political discussions”. I don’t feel the same anymore (see my answer here on engaging in politics). I think he’s deeply courageous and stands behind his convictions. - I think the thing that triggers people the most is that he’s highly abstract/conceptual. Did you see his [talk with Dawkins](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wBtFNj%5Fo5k&ref=zenmedicine.co)? That’s how I think most people relate to him. *“Why can’t you just talk about facts and reality.”* I *personally* *agree* with JBP a lot more than the scientific-atheist group. I believe the abstract/mythological represents a kind of hyper/meta/archetypal reality that in some real ways is ‘more real’ than the changing world of forms in the present moment. ### What are your thoughts on staying up to date on world / US politics? Is it useful to track the news or is it more beneficial to focus on the "generator functions of world politics" solely without tracking issues? Is there a way to track politics without getting overwhelmed and terrified? - I am SO torn on this right now. I don’t have a clear answer. - For the longest time I would say *“its all a distraction, reclaim your attention”.* I don’t feel that anymore. The Great Timeless Mystery is manifesting itself RIGHT HERE, in front of you now! Engage with it, that includes everything. - These quotes ring in my head consistently: *“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.” “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”*—Plato. That Plato quote *really* fucked me up. - It's like an if-then problem. Do you think politics/the State is going away any time soon? *No.* Do you want to be governed by your inferiors? *No.* Then that means you need to do something. It's an opportunity for personal responsibility. - There’s also a hypocritical element to this. Millions of people, all of my friends and family, live within and benefit from the democratic process, yet almost none of them *participate* in it. How much do you *really* believe in something if you don’t participate in it? And participating in democracy is fairly clear: educate yourself, engage in healthy and passionate discussion, serve your family, community, country, and vote for either: representation of your ideas in parliament, or directly on issues. - If you’re not American (I’m Canadian), watching US Politics is another layer. The US sets the overton window in a lot of ways, and whether you like to admit it or not, other countries follow suit quickly. - When it comes down to it: I think healthy engagement is important, but DO NOT get black-pilled! If politics is leading you to overwhelm/shutdown/nihilism, pull back. Regroup. Reassess. Re-engage. Avoid the black pill at all costs. - And because actions speaks louder than words: I don't vote, I pay 0 taxes to any country, I do not plan to run for Canadian political office, I am not a resident of any country. My politics is the abolition of the State as such. My political action is my work and my writing, helping people *out* of that, as much as is possible. Another way to relate to politics might be a quote from Napoleon: *"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."* ### Should I buy bitcoin given that it's skyrocketing? Isn't buying now just buying the hype? - **The only question that matters is: “Have the fundamentals changed?”** Is the supply capped at 21M? Is the network decentralized? Is the network secure? Is the ledger immutable? These questions have *nothing* to do with price. You might need to learn more to understand *how* to answer these questions. But if your answer is “the fundamentals haven’t changed” you are now in a very interesting position: you have the *only* fixed-supply asset in existence, and a near-unlimited amount of capital that can compete for it—what do you think happens when an unlimited amount of money competes for a truly limited supply asset? - **You must form your own hypothesis and conviction.** If you don’t have conviction, with price volatility you won’t survive the downturns (meaning you’ll panic and sell) and will probably lose money. A 5-10 year time horizon is necessary for sanity. Even better: the rest of your life, or the rest of your bloodline. The longer the timeline, the more obvious it becomes. Zoom out. - I’d encourage you to read [The Bitcoin Standard](https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-Decentralized-Alternative-Central/dp/1119473861/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2HVP3P3IOYTG5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cTZRX-tntNHNwUoI036bSF3ef9IRH7qpNuJn8YhpPoLQ7JOgk0x-fBhX6Uw38YIj7Ji6sSO0Pr7ye8MH-xtfrVhWEDTkI6o6eyMpt9ILYy5EhAeghhmwak3esJ1607%5FtD8%5FJq7Pyjp80105S5-nVMYL59oz9Jm9JK%5FZ67r0C8k8II75pQ1IcUfW44alllLsB%5FFAe0c3jaYSlKWbKF0jaygfCd95TbjAQb6kMPuyrAEU.%5FpLk3w-yEKI-YfURwSEw4FZuuop2J8CHYtzKQd2-jXQ&dib%5Ftag=se&keywords=bitcoin+standard&qid=1737996407&s=books&sprefix=bitcoin+standar%2Cstripbooks%2C152&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) (long) and [Gigi’s 21 Lessons](https://21lessons.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (short) if you want to build depth of understanding and conviction in the fundamentals of Bitcoin. - With those caveats, my personal opinions: - **Anything under $1M/BTC is an absolute STEAL.** Bitcoin is *always* on sale. Buying at 92k/coin when it’s destined to be 1m+/coin is just a rounding error. I buy at any and every price. I bought at 500, 3.5, 65, 17, 42, 88, 108\. I’m still buying. - **No one who has bought and held for *more than 4+ years* has lost money.** But riding the wave of those 4+ years is hard. The 200 WMA chart is helpful and clarifying (it shows average price over the last 200 weeks). If BTC feels volatile, zoom out. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-07-at-09.59.17.png) The 200WMA is the solid line. What volatility? The only volatility is up. It's barely ever gone horizontal, let alone down. 200 weeks = 4 years = smooth and up. - **Where would you rather put your money and hard-earned savings?** Cash is inflated (devalued) at 7-10%+/year, plus taxes on top of it. If you do *invest* (eg: educated or degenerate gambling) Bitcoin is now the standard to beat. No major investment firm, hedge fund, or brilliant genius has outperformed simply buying and holding Bitcoin. Your question is: do you expect that to continue? - Look into [Dollar Cost Averaging](https://www.ml.com/articles/what-is-dollar-cost-averaging.html?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20dollar%2Dcost%20averaging,regardless%20of%20current%20market%20conditions.) (DCA). Many platforms offer this. If you’re going to invest 10k, it’s a lot safer to do $10/day purchases over 1000 days. Or $100/week for 100 weeks. It smooths out volatility. - If there are any specifics about BTC you want to dig into, [drop me some more questions](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co). I am fiercely passionate about this and would love to write more. ### Saw you were reading "We Who Wrestle with God" and would love to hear more about your relationship to Christianity. Personally, having been in new age / Buddhism / Mysticism for a while I'm beginning to notice that Christianity / the conception of a God with a Teleological direction feels quite a bit different from "Emptiness." The directionality and direct relationship with something larger feels more empowering. Have you experienced anything similar to this? - I hear you. I’m actively wrestling with this (pun intended). I don’t have a great answer right now. - At a base layer there is tension between Buddhist & Christian conceptions of reality (& all the other religions too). You have to do some fairly intense mental gymnastics to say “Buddhism and Christianity are saying the same thing in different ways.” Yes you can point to the Perennial Philosophy and get somewhere there, but it doesn’t resolve everything. - I’ve had a reckoning with Christianity the past few years. Mostly because I had to (& wanted to) steelman Western civilization for myself. Christianity and the West cannot be meaningfully separated (as much as some people say they can). Christianity built the West. Almost every modern value we hold has root in Christian Ethics. - Now to be fair, if you dig deep into the Christian Mystical traditions/teachers, they do emphasize direct experience of God, and their stories sound remarkably similar to many new age/Buddhist/Hindu conceptualizations. - I think a lot of practicing Christians like it because it *does* give them a feeling of a direct relationship with God (ie: Jesus Christ). - **Where I’m at now is something like the ‘sovereignty of taste’.** I don’t think an 'absolute Truth' of any religion can be proven. At the end of the day, whatever helps you deepen your connection to everything-that-is, be and become a good person, and live a life of meaning, purpose, honour, integrity–is good with me. Whatever fits your flavour. Currently, Zen & Taoism (Ch’an) do that for me. For many of my friends Christianity or Hinduism does that. Thank you, this was fun. [Questions remain open](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co). With love, EB. 🐉 ### You Deserve Better. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/you-deserve-better/ Last updated: 2025-02-28T17:17:24.000Z **Final call for* [**Anonymous Q&A submissions*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/qa/)**. Brilliant ones so far! I'll have a written piece out next week and drop a video with longer rants after that.* **I've got a fourth wall break at the end of this article for those wondering why 'Zen Medicine' is writing about Bitcoin and politics. Thank you. I love you.* 🤟 *EB.* *Full piece sharing my thoughts on the overhaul of the US Govt coming soon. Sneak preview: I love it.* **Today, let's double-click on DOGE, audits, and the groundswell of interest in auditing Fort Knox, validating that the US stockpile of gold still exists (which a disproportionate amount of USD monetary supremacy stands upon).** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-28-at-07.24.07.png) Unfortunately, the uproar around auditing the government is tiresome, trite, and expected. This is the same government—the very same people—who, for the better part of a decade, paraded and parroted the anti-security human rights violation: [*“If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to hide.”*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing%5Fto%5Fhide%5Fargument?ref=zenmedicine.co) The same organization that wanted to hire **tens of thousands of armed IRS agents** to audit *you* and your $600 Venmo payment is losing its mind over being held to the same standard. ### ***Government* is a *servant* to the *public will*.** *Whether or not it feels that way to you or anyone else is a separate—but important—discussion.* Government-as-such has never existed for any other purpose, and unless we decay-mutate into crushing dystopic totalitarianism, it will never exist for any other purpose. Any citizen, resident, or taxpayer should be able to, on their any and every whim, audit the financial setup of the servants whose lives they fund. Fort Knox hasn’t been fully audited since 1974, around the time of the Nixon decree that took the US (and subsequently the world) off the gold standard and created the ability to print money out of thin air, backed by nothing. 4 decades without an audit. The Pentagon has failed every audit it’s ever undergone. **You deserve better.** ### You deserve—*you guessed it*—Bitcoin. Bitcoin, for the 16 years it has run without major failure ([99.99% uptime](https://bitcoinuptime.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)), is audited, in its entirety, from the very moment of conception with the first genesis block, *every 10 minutes*. Every 10 minutes, the entirety of the Bitcoin timechain is audited, validated, and it *passes*. **EVERY 10 MINUTES. FOR 16 YEARS.** Not by a single party either. Protection against single points of failure is the entire point of Bitcoin. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/Screenshot-2025-02-28-at-07.14.32.png) At the time of writing, every ten minutes, the Bitcoin timechain is audited by 21,322+ participants (anyone who runs a full node). The total number is greater, these are only publicly visible nodes. **More than twenty-one thousand simultaneous and successful audits, every 10 minutes, for 16 years.** - The Bitcoin network has never been hacked. - The Bitcoin network has never failed an audit. - The Bitcoin network has more uptime than any other computer or financial network in history. - The security of the Bitcoin network is protected by the largest firewall of computational energy on the planet. Orders of magnitude bigger than the energy expenditure of the entire US Navy. The difference is so staggering that they’re not even playing the same game. Nation-state currencies exist by one thing and one thing only: federal decree enforced by coercion. A different way to say this: whenever a population has been *free to choose* what they use as money, government-issued paper has never—not once—won the competition of natural selection in a free market. The only reason you buy your food and pay your taxes in your nation's currency is because they force you to. **And I assure you, relationships built on a foundation of force are not optimal for individual human flourishing. They are harmful instead of healing.** You deserve better. You deserve Bitcoin, EB. ***EB Fourth Wall Break:** *I anticipate some of you may be bored by, or confused with, a consistent portion of my writing focusing on Bitcoin, politics, culture, and governance models.* **I invite you to stay with me. I promise you: the crucial connection between monetary policy, collective governance, cultural architecture, and individual healing, psychological health, and spiritual well-being will be made clear.* **For now, I invite you to consider: How does the health and psychology of a population (& its individuals) change if the base layer agreements of their society are built on trust, integrity, truth, honor, and long-term security?* **Conversely, how does their psychology and spiritual well-being change in a society founded on lies, dishonour, and short-term gambling? Ponder that, and you'll get a glimpse of where we're going. This is why governance, politics, bitcoin, and culture are* ***essential medicines** *for the healing and flourishing of individuals. They are as much a part of the network of reality you're embedded within as the air you breathe and the food you eat.* **My pieces will not focus exclusively on these topics, nor will they exclude them. Holistic healing, human flourishing, and the practice of medicine must consider* ***everything** *. I've got several pieces in the works on medicine-focused topics like cancer, depth psychology, personal empowerment, and more. Thank you. Buckle up.* 😉👊🏻 ### Zen Medicine: Anon Q&A URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/qa/ Last updated: 2025-02-26T15:22:55.000Z **A big welcome to the full Phoenix Culture fam. 790 strong now. If you're wondering why you're receiving this, check your email.* 😘 *We have closed Phoenix Culture, and I'm bringing the list here. The spirit of self-mastery, cultural architecture, and radical sovereignty live on in these pages.* **If now isn't the time, or you don't want to join this ride, you can unsubscribe at the bottom. Your attention is sacred and I honour that. Now, let's continue. EB.* 🦁 ### I'm trying something new with this one: [open, anonymous Q&A](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co). **Have a burning question?** Submit below and I'll put together a post with answers. If we get enough, I'll record a video with timestamped responses. **Anything is fair game.** Personal life, thoughts on 'Current Things™', psychedelic therapy, areas of interest, 'off-limit' topics, you name it. **If this goes well, I'll keep the form open permanently.** An easier way to get some back-and-forth going. 😄 *(I don't think the form will load in your email, you can jump* [*straight to it here*](https://tally.so/r/3jkkZR?ref=zenmedicine.co)*).* Stay strong, I love you. EB. --- ### Aposematism in Human Social Signaling URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/aposematism/ Last updated: 2025-02-13T16:09:27.000Z **I've got an '*[**About Me*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/about/)**' up now. I find it odd to write about myself, it feels unnecessarily limiting. But in case you want a re-introduction, there it is.* **I've also added a* '👍/👎' *signal to the bottom of all emails. If you like a piece, tell me. If you don't like it, tell me! I'm listening.* **There are a lot of images in this one, you might want to open it on your computer so you're not scrolling forever. Let's dive in. EB.* 🌿 *This one might trigger a few people…* 😅 It's not an attack. It's an exploration. **NOTE:** there is no *current* scientific basis for what I’m introducing here. I’m riffing… but there *is* a connection to evolutionary biology and I find the conclusion compelling. --- ## Aposematism in Nature. > "Aposematism is the advertising by an animal, whether terrestrial or marine, to potential predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defenses which make the prey difficult to kill and eat, such as toxicity, venom, foul taste or smell, sharp spines, or aggressive nature. These advertising signals may take the form of conspicuous coloration, sounds, odours, or other perceivable characteristics. Aposematic signals are beneficial for both predator and prey, since both avoid potential harm.” You can picture a few examples off the top of your head: the poison dart frog, porcupines, pufferfish, or the highly venomous *blue dragon* of Australia. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/blue-dragon.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/aposematism-4.png) > The question I'm exploring is: *does aposematism exist in humans?* ### Aposematism in Humans. Do humans ‘broadcast’ their toxicity, and erect sophisticated defences to warn and ward off potential predators, using *'conspicuous coloration, sounds, odours, or other perceivable characteristics'*? ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/apos.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/aposematism.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/takashi.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/alien.jpg) I’ll let you decide... ### What I find compelling is my lived experience of this... For a decade of my life—my entire twenties—I had a big black lip ring. I wore bright, confrontational colours in high school. Elaborate chains, upside-down crosses, scissor necklaces, you name it. Some of it *was* innocent and playful self-expression. But that boy carried a lot of pain inside of him. A lot of hurt, confusion, sadness, and anger. It was ‘edgy’ and they were good fidget toys. But there was another part of me that used it as a warning. A shield. Oftentimes it was a protection for the *other* person, somehow helping me 'bite my tongue'. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/colour.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/eb2.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/lip.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/swine.jpg) I was angry, intelligent, and good with words. A dangerous combination. Because the verbal lashings I could deliver when someone got on the wrong side of me were devastating. I could pick someone apart, find where it would hurt most, and hit them there. It’s a part of me I still fear, and I’ve become quite a quiet and peace-oriented person as a result. It was—*like any good aposematic marking*—both a personal defence and a warning to predators. What I lacked in physical strength, I made up for in verbal assaults. *Engage at your own risk.* I had the whole 'scene kid' period too. Dying my hair fire hydrant red, obscure and abnormal black/white colour combinations, bright markings and clothing everywhere and every day. It’s easy to say *“It’s just personal expression!”* and shrug it off. Which is true! **But the question is: what are you trying to express?** - A call for help. A bright and glaring *“notice me! I’m in pain.”* - A warning. *“Do not fuck with me.”* - A form of protection. *“You can’t hurt me, my armour is up.”* Some of my experience *was* just a phase. It was just discovering who I was and finding ways to be unique. But also, some of it wasn’t. As I've done my own healing work, as I've gotten honest with myself, I know that some of it was a call for help that I couldn’t say out loud. A lot of it was an elaborate defence system, a sophisticated series of warnings and protections against the pain and the predators I perceived in the world. Both are true. **So maybe—*just maybe*—when someone is trying to tell you who they are, you should listen.** When someone is broadcasting an elaborate construction of defence and offence, a signal of toxicity radiating out into the world, you keep yourself and everyone around you safe, and far away. **And you're probably wise to not: give them a seat in government, let them read sexual stories to young children in school, allow them to meet with malleable and naive pre-teens, or engage with them like a ‘project’ that you can ‘fix’.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/drag-queen.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/predator.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/punk.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/senator.jpeg) **And yes, if you believe any of what we’re discussing here, this opens the door to real compassion.** They might be in pain, they might have had some truly horrific things happen to them in the past. You can be compassionate, understanding, and loving. BUT... do you have the appropriate training to handle venomous animals? Do you know how to treat poison? Can you read the markings of coral snakes? > *Red Touch Yellow - Kills a Fellow.* > *Red Touch Black - Venom Lack.* > *Yellow Touches Red - Soon You'll Be Dead.* > *Red Touches Black - Friend of Jack.* **What makes you think these situations are any different? If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re going to get *wrecked*.** I sure did. I've watched many others get wrecked too. And I've helped them heal from that. You, your loved ones, your society, and other members of your human family might get hurt. Aposematism in humans is real. Listen to what the world broadcasts. It’s speaking to you all the time. Stay safe out there, I love you. EB. ### Free Men Don’t Ask. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/free-men-dont-ask/ Last updated: 2025-02-11T14:54:15.000Z **As promised, my full archive is loaded now.* [**\~190 pieces*](https://www.zenmedicine.co/blog/) *from Serious Play and Blood & Ink. I'll organize it this week. With that, I've closed them on Substack. This is now my only home on the internet.* **I don't often curate here, but I just found Eko's art piece '*[**The Machine Fights Back*](https://eko.substack.com/p/the-machine-fights-back)**' and he nails it.* **Thank you for being here. I love you. I see you. You're doing a great job. Now, onward! EB.* 🐉 > “Liberty is unobstructed action according to our will; but rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will, within the limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’; because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.” — Thomas Jefferson ## Freedom is action without obstruction. To require permission is tyranny. If you have to ask, you are not free. ***Free men don’t ask.*** Look at the abysmal state of ‘free countries’ in the world today. A regulation, a permit, a mandate, a lockdown, an ID, a 'State By-Law 13982 Subsection 13 Class C #109', *for* *everything*. They're certainly better than any of the '*Capital A'* Authoritarian regimes that the Human Rights Foundation notes [54% of the world's population](https://hrf.org/latest/the-time-for-democracy-is-now/?ref=zenmedicine.co) still lives under. But 'barely authoritarian' and 'free' are not synonymous. - **You are not free to educate your children.** Homeschooling is *illegal* in an astounding number of developed nations. As in, they can/will/do claim *child abuse* and then *take away your children* for opting out of State-mandated indoctrination. To learn more, read my piece '[Adolescence Was Manufactured](https://www.zenmedicine.co/76/)'. - **You are not free to the fruits of your labour.** Taxation is nothing other than theft via the threat of future violence from the State *(or if you prefer it raw & unfiltered: robbery at gunpoint)*. - **In Canada, you are not free to defend yourself and your family from attack.** The self-defense clause rarely holds up in court. - **It sounds odd, but you are not free to choose the water you drink.** Governments fluoridate water under the guise of ‘teeth whitening/health’. Capturing rainwater is *illegal*. That is in no way the role of the State as incarnated. This stretches on eternally—so I’ll spare you the laundry list…for now. *You must see where this goes, yes?* We got a glimpse during COVID. Vaccine passports. Carbon social credits. Socialized private property. We are *far closer* to **needing permission to have children** under dubious 'Climate Change Radical Action' mandates than you're ready to admit. You are *always* one day, one moment, one regulation away from *'your house/land is the Property of the State and will be returned to it, and we suggest you do so voluntarily'.* > **Sneak Preview:** this is why Bitcoin—private property that *cannot* be stolen—is a **revolution**. Everything else can be taken from you. But with 12-24 words in your head, your wealth is safe from foreceful rehypothecation. It changes the game theory of the State<>Citizen dynamic. **The U.S.—the current bastion of freedom in the West—would not exist were it not for free men who did not ask.** They acted. They claimed. They stood sovereign in their divinity as men equal under God. *It's so easy to forget: the revolution ignited over a 3-cent tax on tea. My oh my have we strayed far from the path of our forefathers.* They realized there was not one man on this Earth fit to tell them what they could and could not do with their lives. You are accountable to your Creator, that is all. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/bow.jpeg) As King Aragorn once said, “you bow to no one.” There's the Thelemic maxim, *“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.”* Or… in perhaps the greatest expression of this sovereign lifeforce, pushed up against the scrag rock of Hell’s Gate, the two words uttered by Leonidas, then King of Sparta, in defiant response to Xerxes’ demand that they lay down their weapons and surrender: ## “MOLON LABE.” *Ancient Greek for 'come and take them'.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/300-1.gif) We’re not going to get into the weeds of political philosophy, anarchist theory, or play mind games about how to govern under these axioms... yet. **I am hunting something far more subtle in you:** - *...why are you waiting for permission?* - *...who are you asking for it?* - *...when did you ever need it?* - (And maybe most important) ...*who do you imagine is going to grant this to you?* Starting your company. Quitting your job. Moving countries. Paying taxes. Saying the heretical thing. Eating what you want. Making choices for yourself. Changing your beliefs. Whatever it is. Anything. *Everything*. **The permission roadblock you perceive in front of you is nothing but a self-created, self-imposed, self-reinforcing story. *Airy nothing.*** You are a free human. You do not need permission. You are the sovereign ruler of your Kingdom. Make your choice. Claim it. ACT. - Yes, actions have consequences. - Yes, you should respect the freedom and humanity of everyone else. - Yes, given the current world setup and the global nanny state, some things *are* difficult/impossible to do without jumping through 'proper hoops'. **But I will not let you forget your fundamental freedom.** And as we'll come to see—neither will Zen. Zen is the Gateless Gate to fundamental freedom. Radical, raw, natural, wild freedom. *Betchya didn't see that tie-in coming did ya.* 😉 Remembering—*re-membering, re-embodying*—your fundamental freedom heals illnesses you didn't know you had, like the chronic disease of permission-seeking. Surrendering your sovereignty. But you need to claim it. Own it. Embody it. Live it. Breathe it. You do not need permission. You are great enough, wise enough, strong enough, and far beyond capable enough to decide and act for yourself. It is so easy to forget. After centuries of indoctrination and the slow erosion of freedom, it is almost lost to us now. And yet… deep inside of you, the indestructible fire of truth burns: **Free men don’t need permission.** *Free men don’t ask.* They act, EB. ### Back On the Mat URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/back-on-the-mat/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T13:23:08.000Z **Welcome to the new friends who joined yesterday. Didn't lose anyone either. Brilliant!* **Final housekeeping notes: expect 3-4 emails a week, at least. I might return to publishing daily, TBD. Want to ensure I can drop one big essay a week. I'll be adding my full archive from Serious Play & Blood x Ink over the next few days, \~150 pieces. That'll take some time to clean up, but it will be worth it.* **And a note: you should be able to reply to these emails, it goes straight to my personal one. Always, always, always happy to hear from you. Or, if you sign in here on Ghost, all comments are public. Now, let's jump in.* ## Yoga. Jiu-jitsu. Ayahuasca. *What’s the obvious, innocuous thing that connects them?* **A mat.** The yogi's rubber runner. Tatami in the dojo. Your seat in ceremony. Devastating in its simplicity. Profound in its depths. The places I've gone on a mat—staring down a sparring partner, flowing deep in ashtanga, surfing the still silence of meditation, or under the effects of a powerful entheogenic ceremony—are remarkable. Realizing how many pivotal moments have been on a mat is shocking. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/IMG_8867.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/IMG_8868.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/KumankayaFinals24_AlexCalvo-59.jpg) **The mat is sacred space.** Infused with ritual, tradition, meaning, lineage, wonderful and terrifying possibility. Your mat ushers you into full contact with reality. Total presence. You might die on the mat. Literally, or metaphorically. You could injure yourself irreparably. You might be stepping into the hardest night of your life. Equally, you might realize your greatest achievement, be filled with divine rapture for the first time, or experience earthshaking revelation. Anything is possible on the mat. *Deep breath.* The mat *commands respect*. The martial artist clips his nails, pulls his hair back, dons the kimono, and acknowledges his sparring partner. The women arrive gracefully in flowing white dresses to ceremony; all the men have cleaned up for once. The yogi lights incense. Everyone sets an intention. Everyone brings their *best self* to the mat. Unfortunately not a very common occurrence anymore. ### **Your mat is a symbolic center, a timeless meeting between the ancient past and the emerging future.** You stand at the edge of recorded history, taking a leap of faith into the unknown, casting votes for the future with blood, sweat, and tears. This is where you face your demons, come home to yourself, and to borrow from the Zen poet Bashō, *“seek what the ancients sought.”* Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. The only way out is through. The person who steps on the mat is never the same as the person who walks off of it. **This is the devastating, frightening, and inspiring realization of transformation:** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/metamorphosis.jpeg) The mat never lies. Nor does it judge. The mat asks for nothing more—and nothing less—than your best. It's humbling. You can’t bullsh\*t yourself on the mat. Your mat is a Holy Mirror, reflecting the complexity, beauty, and instability inside of you. Your mat is the beginning and the end of these great traditions. The vehicle and the destination. The path and the practice. Your mat beckons, *“I will support you, but I will not do it for you.”* It holds the container, but will not do the work. The mat is the greatest ally of any true Student of the Way. **Your mat is where *true transformation* happens.** Your psychedelic-infused God realization means nothing without *integration*. Your mat is where bio-psycho-spiritual embodied integration happens. It's where you learn to control your mind, watch your breath, sharpen your skills, build your strength—where you bring your values to bear *in practice, not just in theory*. Shi Heng Yi—35th Grandmaster of Shaolin Temple Europe—has one of my all-time favourite quotes: > *“There are only two mistakes on the path of self-mastery: not starting, and not going all the way.”* Knowing this, the Warrior trains. The student shows up. The yogi practices. Humble. Curious. Intimidated. Excited. *Deep breath.* For he has arrived at his destination, and his origin point. A place of worship, of struggle, of victory, humanity, legend, and lineage. A place to reconnect, release, perform, evolve, transcend, and be tested. *The mat is always there, waiting with bated breath to see who decided to show up today.* Let's get back on the mat, EB. ### Welcome to Zen Medicine. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/welcome-to-zen-medicine/ Last updated: 2025-06-23T13:23:00.000Z **If you’re thinking 'WTF is this!?' and from who/why:* **This is Eric Brown, you’re receiving this because you joined either my (1)* [**Serious Play*](https://seriousplay.substack.com/)**, (2)* [**Blood & Ink*](https://bloodxink.substack.com/)**, or (3) Phoenix Culture substacks. (Shoutout to those who were on more than one!)* **If you* [**missed the announcement*](https://seriousplay.substack.com/p/introducing-zen-medicine)**, I’m merging everything into one—this one—and bringing it back to Ghost. Thanks for your patience with the turbulence as we transition.* > “I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.” — Tom Robbins ## **Welcome everyone...** We've got 581 medicine friends here—you’re in good company. It's exhilarating to see this after starting with 28. **Let’s jump in:** *What’s happening here? What’s Zen Medicine?* I’ve spent over a decade studying and writing about psychedelic therapy, awakening, philosophy, embodied change, and natural health. But for too long, I’ve spoken *around* them. Never as direct as I desire. **You can expect:** short, potent emails most days, mixed in with longer, deeper essays. We're going to dive into self-mastery, Zen, Bitcoin, martial arts, psychedelic therapy, personal sovereignty, the philosophy/practice of medicine, and natural living. **Why?** Somewhere deep in my heart—not yet translated into words—*I* *know they overlap*. Bitcoin and Zen are *just as healing* as Advil and Breathwork. If you don’t see why, you will soon... **& More:** Ghost gives me a few new options to play with. Here's what's coming (or already started): 1. See what I'm doing/studying/living like on the [NOW](https://www.zenmedicine.co/now/) page. 2. Building out a [LIBRARY](https://www.zenmedicine.co/books/) of esoteric book commentaries. 3. Creating a wild paid tier, think 'Medicine Martial Arts' (MMA). Part school, part dojo, part mentorship. (TBD) 4. Starting a private medicine practice (coming... at some point). --- ## I never imagined life would bring me to medicine work... *...I was 15 on a ‘take-your-kid-to-work-day' with my mom, a family doctor and assistant surgeon. The horror I experienced sitting in the operating room watching* [*laparoscopic surgery*](https://www.google.com/search?q=laparoscopic+surgery&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co) *of a* [*gastric band*](https://www.google.com/search?q=gastric+band&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&ref=zenmedicine.co) *(stomach ring) violently dissuaded me from medicine as a career.* From that point on it was business school, tech startups, and side projects. Lo-and-behold, fast-forward a decade and... - I designed the therapeutic programming for the largest psychedelic therapy company in the world. - I’ve worked with hundreds of clients (\~400) 1-to-1, guiding them through ketamine therapy protocols. - My work has been consistently reviewed & approved by licensed clinicians, nurses, and doctors *(sometimes ghostwriting for them)*. - I have designed and run entheogenic retreats for hundreds of participants. - I got training/certification in Wilderness First Response, CPR, and Kambo facilitation. - I’ve run countless N=1 self-experiments. From extreme diets (carnivore & raw vegan), novel compounds (methylene blue anyone?), research chemicals, and esoteric/natural health interventions. *Who would’ve guessed?* **That’s what we'll do here: run headlong into the intersection of medicine, martial arts, bitcoin, natural living, and beyond.** I’m excited. It feels alive, fresh, and novel. I hope you’ll stay for the ride. If now isn’t the time, or it’s not your vibe, there is an unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email. No hard feelings, time is scarce and your inbox is sacred. Buckle up, thank you, & welcome to Zen Medicine. EB. ### Blood & Ink: Heretical Ideas URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/96/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:09.000Z ## **You’re undoubtedly familiar with the Archilochus quote: “We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training…”** He was a Spartan Commander. Of course it applies to the military, war, and emergency preparedness. But what of heretical ideas? > **Heretical:** *holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted.* What about those ideas that live just outside the [Overton window](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton%5Fwindow?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=The%20Overton%20window%20is%20the,population%20at%20a%20given%20time.)? Those on the bleeding edge of social acceptability? Many people—though certainly not all—hold far more heretical beliefs than you imagine. Certain people have not, will not, and do not hold these beliefs. Going outside of sanctioned boundaries is so beyond their frame it’s inconceivable to them. For better and for worse, they’ve become known as NPCs, Sheeple, Matrix, etc. Here’s the flip on the Archilochus quote: > **The bigger the group, the more most people’s expressed opinions return to ‘acceptable discourse’.** Alone, in the safety of your mind and unexpressed thoughts, you and many others hold some heretical beliefs, or at minimum, some gnawing and serious questions about the way things are going. Beyond this, lies the safe confines of the small friend group chat. Everyone jokes about how raunchy and ridiculous group chats get. There’s a sociological reason: it is a safe, low-risk testing ground to ‘check the pulse’ of ideas. To learn what is ‘too far’ or ‘too soon’ or ‘too serious’ to joke about and question. Crossing the line here has very few repercussions, *“Yo I was just joking bro, chill*.” Dinner parties, interest groups, and niche communities come next. *“I know I’m reasonably safe here, all these people have self-selected to be here. They must share some similar values, beliefs, and ideas as me. But I won’t take the first step… let’s read the room first.”* This expands out into the public square, political discourse, and the vast expanse of the internet. At the slightest doubt, the smallest crack, people revert deeper and deeper into the established social narrative. **You don’t need the evolutionary argument for why this is the case.** You’ve heard it 1000 times. Social rejection may as well be a death sentence to ancient humans, so you avoid rocking the boat as much as possible. But you abandon yourself. You abandon the genuine and not unreasonable questions you have. You lie. You erode your agency, truth, and honour. **Most tragically, you perpetuate the narrative in yourself and everyone else that *“I must be the only one who thinks this.”*** Millions of people feel isolated, alone, and insecure because not a single person has the spine to be a heretic. No one asks the uncomfortable question, says the edgy thing, or goes into a difficult conversation without getting triggered. - It’s kind of weird that COVID ‘arose naturally’ in China about 3 blocks away from an Institute of Virology that was studying aggressive gain-of-function research in SARS-Cov-2 viruses, no? - It is kind of strange that children can’t make permanent decisions for themselves like voting, or getting tattoos, and need their parents to sign off on things as simple as daylight school trips, but are given the total sovereignty to take puberty blockers and undergo irreversible castrations, mutilations, and surgeries, right? - “Trust the Science” is perhaps the most anti-science statement that you can make, yeah? Isn’t the scientific enterprise about critique, hypothesis/antithesis, difficulty to disprove, etc. - I know for a fact that the government has lied to me about A, B, and C in the past, that’s been proven. I know there are complicated pressures in scientific and academic institutions that warp studies and skew data. But on THIS issue, being used to justify increasingly totalitarian and absolutist control for the government, here and now, they are totally correct and questioning it is anti-human, right? - Growing up, I was told that technological progress made everything more available, better quality, and cheaper to buy. But now I’m an adult and everything meaningful is getting more expensive and doesn’t last. I can’t afford the life my parents and grandparents had, despite my salary being 4x bigger nominally. This is just something I’m doing wrong, right? **Now, at the end of the day, you might just be wrong! You might have a question that has an easy answer with information you were missing.** But someone has to be the first to say the Emperor has no clothes. **Sometimes, the greatest act of courage is asking simple, obvious questions.** Sometimes, what humanity needs most is standing in your truth and saying this is not correct, I do not agree, even when it makes for some awkward dinner parties or gets a bit of pushback online. It starts with you. Holding the line of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. But my God is it difficult. It is not easy to stand up in front of a faceless mob, and even harder to stand up in front of the faces of friends and family who you love and respect. **This is why the Warrior trains.** To build the muscle, the courage, and the soul force required. Because the most tragic outcome for humanity is not climate change devastation, not AI inhumane dictatorship, not nuclear war. The most tragic outcome is that… > *“…this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper."* — T.S. Elliot That the Truth remained unspoken, on the tip of the tongues of millions of people who all felt the same and said *nothing*. Slowly, quietly, consistently walking themselves to the edge of the cliff and right over it. No eye contact, no disagreements, not even a whisper. This need not be our fate. Muster your courage. Cultivate your spiritual and cognitive sovereignty. Then stand in it. Be willing to be wrong. Strong opinions, loosely held. This is why we train. EB ### Blood & Ink: What Was That? URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/95/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:10.000Z ## **What? Sorry, what was that? No, say it again…** *Sorry man, couldn’t hear that because…* > **WHAT YOU’RE DOING SPEAKS SO LOUDLY I CAN’T HEAR WHAT YOU’RE SAYING**. Run that back, you’ve got to reread it. **What you’re doing speaks so loudly we can’t hear what you’re saying.** The eternal reminder. *Action.* Talk is so unbelievably cheap. Talk is SO cheap nowadays that you can manufacture several books daily, every day, with the air of professional expertise for a $20 ChatGPT subscription. **Action speaks louder than words.** - Don’t tell me what you value: show me your calendar and where your time goes. - Don’t tell me you’re a man of honour: let it be evident in how you live. In an age dominated by the Mind and the Rational faculty, we’ve collectively gaslit ourselves into believing that what you say is more important than what you do. - Action expends more precious energy than thought alone. - Action is a value structure, an idea, made manifest. - Action is rooted in reality. It’s like a debate. When it comes down to it—bet on it. *“You wanna bet?”* Do you want to *put your money where your mouth is?* Show me the level of your *conviction*. Betting pools are often better prediction engines than polls. Because people have to put *skin in the game* to make a bet. Their money, something they expended their time and energy to get, is on the line. Action is no different. Talk is cheap, frivolous even. Don’t tell me who you are, show me. **What you are doing speaks so loudly we can’t hear what you’re saying.** Be a man of action, EB. ### Blood & Ink: The 3P Warrior Framework URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/94/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:10.000Z *Came across a simple framework. Delightful in its simplicity, powerful in its depth.* 3 pillars. I argue *in this order*, but switch them up depending on *your* needs. ### **1\. Purpose** **You need a direction. You need a reason to get out of bed. You need a vision so compelling it’s worth *suffering* for.** Only deep purpose—and its meaning—is strong enough to overcome your natural preference for short-term, hedonistic indulgence. Your purpose can change. It’s not a prison. But you need *something*. Choose a direction. Create a vision. Pick a path. Equal parts inspiring and realistic. ### **2\. Patience** **Anything truly worthy of your character takes time. All real gains come from compounding interest.** Playing long-term games requires two things: patience to wait for results despite putting in effort, and the persistence to keep going. **Learn the art of patience.** Patience doesn’t mean sitting around waiting for the world to deliver you something. Patience might be best considered the willingness to continue putting in effort without seeing immediate results and without a loss of enthusiasm. Fulfilling your purpose requires patience. You can cultivate patience. ### **3\. Persistence** **It’s cliché at this point, but it’s true: 90% of success is not quitting.** When you truly look into it, it’s astounding how many inventions, masterpieces, and monolithic companies only got to their peak because they didn’t stop. The famous example is Edison’s 1000 iterations of the lightbulb. Can you honestly imagine that? 1000 distinct failures. God only knows how much effort, sweat, frustration, confusion, and thinking went into each attempt. 12 failures would knock most people out of the game. **Become *hard to kill*.** It might seem like wishful thinking, an overly pretty picture of the reality of things. Try it on. Pick an aim. Adopt a long-term orientation. Do not give up. Pour yourself into each one of these, and give it your all: 1. Define an inspiring and possible vision with absolute clarity. Be *specific*. 2. Find a *sustainable maximum effort*, prepare for years instead of months, and do whatever it takes to not lose your enthusiasm. 3. Become *impossible* to kill. Do not remove yourself from the game. Never surrender. Each of those is challenging. But when properly combined — this energy builds nations. It alters the course of human history. It defines centuries. Let’s get to it, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Practice URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/93/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:10.000Z "Practice is not about overcoming human problems. It’s not about becoming serene and transcendent. It’s about embracing our lives as they really are, and understanding at every point how deep and profound and gorgeous everything is—even the suffering, even the difficulty. So we forgive ourselves for our limitations, and we forgive this world for its pain. We don’t say, “That’s not pain.” It is pain. You don’t say, “It’s not difficulty.” It is difficult. But when we embrace the difficulty… we see this is exactly the difficulty we need, and this difficulty is the most beautiful and poignant thing in this world." — Zoketsu Norman Fischer ## The path is the practice… Did you practice today? The devil never sleeps. Let’s get to it. No hurry, no pause, no mercy. Keep going, EB. ### Blood & Ink: No is Life Affirming. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/92/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:10.000Z ## **We live in an age of unrecognizable abundance…** It’s easy to forget how strange the times we live in are. The last century of human history brought about the most rapid changes humanity has ever seen. You can conjure up damn near anything at the click of a button on some magical glowing screen. Coffee from South America, tea from China, fresh fruit from Florida, electronics from Japan—just another Friday morning. Your quality of life and material abundance is better than every Great King that has ever existed. Throughout ancient history, life was a matter of saying YES. Of taking the adventure, of building civilization, of creating government. This is how our ancestors affirmed life. **Today’s age might be the epoch of saying no.** Saying no to the deluge of mindless trivialities. Saying no to substandard junk marketed to you as essential. Saying no to degenerate benders and immature interests. Because with an age of abundance comes constant bombardment. Ads, information, stuff, stuff, stuff. You drown in abundance. It consumes you, distracting you from the raw purity of life. **Sometimes NO is the most life-affirming thing you can say.** NO I will not lower my standards. NO I will not get distracted. NO I will not compromise my morals. NO I will not settle for this watered-down pre-destined path some nameless faceless government has assigned me. NO you will not tell me what I need, I will discover it myself. NO. NO. NO. NO creates the sacred boundary. The sacred boundary creates space. Space invites silence. And in that space, your sacred YES blooms. You hear your calling, and your conscience, once again. You remember who you are, and what you are here to do. You breathe, relax, play, and dance with the mystery. But it requires space and silence. Things that are becoming increasingly rare. **Sometimes NO is the most life-affirming move you can make. Sometimes it’s not about more, it’s about less, but better.** You are meant for great things. Say NO to anything that is not Great, EB. ### The Unbelievable Impact of Waking Up Early URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-unbelievable-impact-of-waking/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:14.000Z 📍 **Location:** *Jungle Mountains, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~8 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *This is the penultimate piece I will publish under Serious Play. End of Jan I’m evolving my writing/work/digital presence into something new. Announcement on that early next week. The writing will stay the same, but my ‘digital home’ on the internet is evolving. Nothing you need to do, just giving you a heads up. Today, I want to share the most important lifestyle change I’ve made in the last 3 years. See you next week!* 🐲 EB. --- ## **I was never a morning person, ever…** Not once in my 32 years of life did I naturally wake up early, or entertain the idea of it. Up until 2 years ago, my average wake time was 10-11am. Kind of embarrassing to admit that. It’s not like I was a night owl either. I would just sleep for 9-10 hours every night. There was a period of deep depression in my late teens/early twenties where sleeping early and rising late began. But after a while, it was just what I did. My life wasn’t a mess, so I didn’t worry about it. I’ve worked remotely for over a decade now. And trust me, it *never* changed. I was remote for 7+ years before Covid lockdowns thrust everyone into that work/life mode. ![](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/94aa8be1-07aa-4969-8dfd-9bdf9f611fc7_4032x3024.heic) ## But \~2 years ago, I got a *command*… Deep in the peak of 2 tabs of LSD, staring down the majestic mural we had done in our house in Buenos Aires, I was *summoned*. That’s all I can call it. It was clear as day: **you will rise with the sun.** It had wild archetypal solar masculinity energy behind it. King energy. Period. Non-negotiable. *Okay then!* When something that clear and strong comes into my field, I listen. It’s always served me well. **The adventure that followed to shift my natural wake cycle \~5 hours earlier changed everything in my life.** That’s what I want to share. Any major change in life requires a shift in everything else. You can’t change anything in isolation, nothing exists in isolation. It wasn’t easy, *at all*. This is not some sunshine story of setting an intention and everything magically sorts itself out. It was a *struggle*. It took 2 separate 100-day initiations with my ritual of waking with the sun to finally cement this practice. Let that sink in. I did a 100-day (3.5 MONTH) daily ritual of a sunrise movement practice, successfully doing it for \~92 days total, and it *still* didn’t have the staying power I needed. **But what had to happen, to finally make this happen, is powerful. The ripple effect of finally doing this changed so much in my life.** It has been the ‘keystone habit’ in my life. One thing that changed everything. A solid foundation for a better life. Here’s the rough overview: - **Beginning:** Set the firm intention to wake up with the sun (\~5.30am) at the time. - **Obstacle 1:** **“…but I don’t go to bed early enough to wake up at 5.30 naturally.”** *Okay—shift bedtime goal to \~9.30pm.* - **Obstacle 2:** **“…but I have too much energy at 9.30pm to fall asleep.”** *Okay—start to exercise daily to drain energy.* - **Obstacle 3:** **“…but I work too much and don’t have time to add 1-2 hours for exercise, gym, shower, travel.”** *This was an excuse. But okay — build the HERO100 and the WARRIOR100 to enforce a daily workout schedule. Had a ferocious reckoning with my addiction to work and chronic busyness at this point. Minor existential breakdown. Started learning how to set boundaries with work.* - **Obstacle 4:** **“…but I can’t just do heavy weights or hard training every day without burning out, it’s not sustainable.”** *Okay—deepened my yoga practice, started shaolin chi gong, and took morning walks to balance it out.* - **Obstacle 5:** **“…but I’m groggy during the day and it’s affecting my work/happiness.”** *Okay—taught/forced myself to nap early afternoon.* - **Obstacle 6:** *“…I’m tired but still wired when trying to sleep.”* *Okay, sorted out screen time habits, blue light exposure, and regulated caffeine intake only to the morning hours.* - **Obstacle 7:** **“…I’m still dependent on a phone to wake me up.”** *Okay—shifted my entire work/life schedule (& happened to move to Costa Rica at this time, where the sun sets at 5.30 every day, and rises at 5.30 every morning) to align with circadian rhythms, sunset, and naturally be tired when it’s time to sleep.* > **From trying to implement just one ritual—rising naturally with the sun—this is what had to happen, and what came out of it:** - Fixed sleep schedule, normalized bedtime. - Established daily physical exercise/movement practice. - Hard reckoning with my work/life balance and did some important internal work. - Built and ran 3 incredible 100-day initiations: 2x HERO100, 1x WARRIOR100 to cement the ritual and establish the practice. - Invited in more natural movement practices with yoga, walking, and chi gong. - Slowly but significantly improving my relationship with tech, screen time, and stimulants. - Better focus on circadian rhythm, natural health, and light diet. - **BONUS VICTORY:** With new energy and quiet, uninterrupted mornings, I get most of my major work done by 10-11 am and have the rest of the day to do what I please. I’m writing this at 7:30am, I’ve been up since 5:15, and already published another piece at [Blood & Ink](https://bloodxink.substack.com/), done yoga, started my day, walked around. **In *some* ways, waking up early is overhyped.** It’s like ice baths. If you think ice baths are going to magically turn you into Elon Musk, you’ve lost the plot. I’ve had many days of waking up early and simply wasting time for a lot longer. It’s not a magic bullet. **In other ways, it’s the most important undertaking and integration work I’ve ever done in my life.** It changed everything. My health is better, I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, my work/life balance is way better, I have far more free time in my day and feel less rushed while arguably getting more done, I have beautiful mornings to myself, and get more work done before 8am than most people do all day. T**his ‘positive domino effect’ applies to many other domains.** Integrating a daily exercise routine would have similar considerations, forcing you to sort out your work, sleep, diet, commitment, and discipline along the way. Same with doing your most important work task each day, taking up a new hobby, finding a partner for a relationship, you name it. This is why ‘simple’ behaviour change is so challenging. You’re not just changing, removing, or adding *one thing*. You’re tweaking every little variable that goes into it. But if your aim is true and your follow-through is consistent, beautiful things will come. Worth considering. Thank you, I love you. EB. ☀️ ### Blood & Ink: Perfect First Draft URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/91/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:11.000Z ## **Every first draft is perfect…** **…because the only thing a first draft needs to do is *exist.*** If it exists, it’s done. Perfect. Flawless. People get hung up on the first draft because they have convinced themselves that everything they do needs to be flawless the first time they do it. There’s a secret to overcoming this: *get in the habit of editing.* You're golden if you know you will edit the following drafts. The game to go from 0 -> 1 becomes much simpler: make it. Make it ugly. Make it quick. Get it done. Once the art of *refinement* is sewn into your bones, the grandiose fear of the first draft fades away. This applies to *everything*. Test the product. Write the essay. Take one small messy step toward the person you’re becoming. The first draft is not the final judgement. You don’t have to have it all figured out at the beginning. If you’re doing it right, there’s no possible way you will have it figured out before you start. The only perfectly known future is the past. The only perfectly complete draft is beneath your skill. Every first draft is perfect because all it needs to do is exist. Make it happen, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Bitcoin & Everything Else. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/90/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:11.000Z ## **There is Bitcoin, and there is everything else…** **The original promise of Bitcoin was decentralized, immutable, peer-to-peer money.** After 15 years of operation, Bitcoin still does this. Every 10 minutes, tick tock, next block. It’s gotten stronger at doing all of these: becoming the largest computer network on the planet, developing the lightning network, and an explosion in hash power (security) and node operators (decentralization). Something happened yesterday that was sad, and frustrating, but important to remember. Yesterday, Vitalik (co-founder of Ethereum, the second largest coin by market cap) declared that he had/was taking unilateral control and decision-making authority over the Ethereum Foundation until they sorted out some internal leadership challenges. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f78327e3-8aed-40d2-90bd-04b843de1ecf_1176x384.png) > Let’s look at that for a moment. - There is a governing foundation for Ethereum, which has its own leadership and hierarchical structure. - This Foundation owns the [trademark for Ethereum](https://trademarks.justia.com/866/34/ethereum-86634529.html?ref=zenmedicine.co) and controls its use policy. - The Foundation can be—and has been—taken over by a single individual granted sole decision-making authority. - This governing Foundation was given an astronomical amount of the original Eth token, pre-mined (before public access), and has dumped it consistently on retail investors since Eth started gaining traction. - The Eth community, led by the Eth Foundation, orchestrated the great ‘rollback’ of the blockchain after the ‘DAO Hack’ almost a decade ago. Decentralized means there is no center to do any of this. A governing body, a single leader, trademark ownership, insider access — none of this supports the ethos of decentralization. They are antithetical to it. Not being able to change the history of the blockchain is the definition of what people mean by an ‘immutable ledger’. The Eth community, over a decade ago, showed that Eth *was* mutable, and they changed it. This led to the Eth Classic split. To say nothing of Ripple and Solana, the two next largest coins. Developed by companies with classic leadership and equity structures. It is not my job nor my intent to tell you *why* decentralization is imperative for sound global money. You can research that yourself. Spoiler: it’s critical. Bitcoin has no leadership. No decision maker. No foundation. No marketing team. No lawyers. No trademarks. It had no pre-mine and no insider access before release. Nothing to sue. No head to cut off. No organization to manipulate. I’ve watched for many years as people give janky explanations of why blockchain tech is so important (it’s not), and how these new ‘cryptocurrencies’ use things like decentralization and immutability to give power and authority back to the people. The thing is… Bitcoin is the only one that meets those criteria. Satoshi never mentioned blockchain in the original whitepaper. The timechain (his term, not the same idea) is a ‘necessary evil’. Maybe we’re all just talking about different things, and this is making too big a deal of it. If people are looking for online gambling apps, trading anything with the hopes of it going up, wonderful. But for those committed to the total separation of money and state, of the birth and adoption of truly global sound money—one thing remains important and clear: **There is Bitcoin, and there is everything else.** Act accordingly, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Real Toxic Masculinity URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/89/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:11.000Z *I hesitated to publish this. I opened a new doc and started writing something else. Perhaps that is symptomatic of the essence of this piece. So here we are, leaning in.* ## **We’ve got toxic masculinity backward…** For the better part of a decade, the vein of the cultural conversation has painted the traits of traditional masculinity as “toxic”. That the ‘patriarchy’ (the Principle of Paternal Structuring) is somehow destructive to society, instead of the very force that built it. I’ll save that point for another exploration. Strength, leadership, courage, honour, competition, spartan simplicity, Stoicism (big and little S), and when the time calls for it… brutality. And indeed, there are times when the brutality of men is called for. Just wait until a malicious attacker invades your home. **As inevitably happens when a small boy is told that he is inherently bad and morally perverse, he rejects these parts of himself, and a reactionary swing to the opposite pole happens.** If you take toxic in a literal sense—something corrosive and destructive to self and society—it is obvious that real toxic masculinity is the Frankenstein that is born when men reject their nature. **Real toxic masculinity is effeminate, weak, and noncommittal men.** Cowardly, directionless, hedonistic, overly sensitive, misogynistic men are the destructive force. Can you go ‘too far’ along the hyper-masculine side of the spectrum? Of course. You enter the ‘Brute’, ‘Mindless Soldier’, ‘Barbarian’, ‘Dictator’, and ‘Psychopath’ archetypes. Not good. **Both sides of the spectrum lack the same things.** - Commitment to a higher power. - A moral code of conduct. - Deep meaning and fierce compassion. One just has the power and agency to make shit happen and is thus vilified. **But in overcompensating against the potential emergence of these fringe personalities, you wipe out the center of Good Men.** What you’re left with is a perverse hydra. A failed socio-biological experiment that is neither Good Man nor Good Woman. An ungodly creature, narcissistically self-absorbed in momentary whims. *Look around, what do you see?* - Boys who collect and trade Pokemon cards well into their 40’s. - Overcompensating, vapid, caricatured role models like the Tate’s. - Staggering increases in gambling, addiction, crypto casinos, and failed marriages. - Underfucked, underloved, and underrespected women. - Nice Guys without a spine to say no, with no strength or ability to protect their loved ones. - Corrupt and morally bankrupt leaders who produce nothing and parasitically suck the productive vitality out of society. Selling out future prosperity for annual bonuses. - Men of high IQ and Zero Action. - Sexual impotency, cherry-flavoured vapes, attention spans of gnats. - Men, who in their final and most depraved moments of self-abandonment, physically and psychologically castrate themselves. The list goes on… I fiercely believe in the idea that you should be free to do what you want. I would die defending that right for anyone on this Good Earth. But at the same time, come on man! Do you not *want* something better? Masculinity is not toxic. It is precisely the opposite: weak men, who have abandoned their masculinity, are toxic. - Know who you are and know what you want. - Have an aim in your life and pursue goals toward it. - Get your life in proper order. - Abide by a personal code. - Be the protector and provider for your territory. - Set the frame for your family. - Take the lead. - Accept total responsibility. - Create a surplus that benefits others, in mind body and spirit. **Honourable masculinity (alongside and in partnership with honourable femininity), built civilization.** The masculine spirit is responsible for the structure of modern civilization. The feminine spirit for the beauty and heart of it. The perverse masculine spirit is also responsible for most of the devastation of modern and historical society. The choice, as always, is yours. **Be a man. Then seek to be a good one.** We need you in the game and at your best. Do not reject who you are. Love and power, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Train Everything. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/88/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:11.000Z *Now is the time.* In the words of the late great Terence McKenna, from his classic [Exponential Weirdness rant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkKb8WnDMFA&ref=zenmedicine.co): *“I look for: the invention of artificial life, the cloning of human beings, possible contact with extraterrestrials, possible human immortality, and at the same time appalling acts of brutality and genocide, race-baiting, homophobia, famine/starvation – because the systems that are in place to keep the world sane, are utterly inadequate to the forces that have been unleashed.”* ***You feel it.*** It’s happening faster, more chaotically, with greater impact. The feedback cycle is compressed into mere minutes instead of months. You sense an intense undercurrent beneath and within all aspects of the cultural zeitgeist. Pandora’s Box is open. As much as you might desire a ‘RETVRN’ to simpler pre-technological times, the arc of time marches only forward in this Earthly domain. **The only way out is through.** The only question that matters is who will you be? Your time has come. The time to train *everything*. Now is the time for high agency, fierce vitality, strong community, courageous action, sovereign wealth, loving heart, rapid skill acquisition, wisdom cultivation, aesthetic sensitivity, relationship building, family growing. **Train EVERYTHING.** Strength, flexibility, humour, insight, critical thinking, beauty, honour, focus, fertility, connection, depth, mastery, posture, breath, perspective, compassion, joy, resilience, reliability, determination. Get IN the game. Don’t sit on the sidelines. Don’t pull yourself out. **The best of us need the best of us to show up at the table. That is the only way humanity has ever figured anything out. TOGETHER.** Raise the bar for yourself. Set a better baseline. Lift everyone else up to it. *“When death comes, make sure he finds you alive.”* Train everything, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Straight and Narrow URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/87/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:12.000Z “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” — Matthew 7:14, Bible You will find—all too easily—unsolicited life advice cosplaying as wise teaching online that says you can do anything you want—that the future holds endless optionality. But when you get down to the brass tax of living a virtuous life, this could not be further from the truth. **The righteous path is straight and narrow.** It does not leave room for negotiation. When considering the best course of action, if you adhere to a personal code, you watch the choices evaporate. **When one is committed to Truth, Integrity, Courage, Discipline, Purpose, or Moral Conduct, suitable choices are few and far between.** When you begin to ask, *“What is the most courageous choice?”* or *“What brings me closer to God?”*, or even *“What is in alignment with my highest Self?”*, you are not confronted with an overwhelming deluge of options. In your heart of hearts, in the deepest moments of revelation, you are confronted with The Path. Singular. Significant. Unquestionable. If it makes you simultaneously ecstatic and terrified, you’re in the right ballpark. **The question is not *what to do*, but rather: *will you do it*?** This is what the ancients meant when they say that the righteous path is Straight and Narrow. There are an infinite number of ways you can *avoid* the path. Many choices, made from smallness, fear, doubt, and uncertainty, will take you part of the way, but *you will know*. Have the courage to walk the Path. Develop the unshakeable Integrity to always make this choice. **When you Trust, unquestionably, that where that Path takes you is not only in your highest good but in the highest good of all, you will be endowed with the strength of character to make those choices and walk the path.** If your path is truly unclear, become very still and very quiet. Some will call this meditation, others will call it prayer. Hold the question in your mind, and in the still silence, you will hear your answer. The next step forward along the path will reveal itself. ***The only question is, will you take it?*** The path is straight and narrow, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Reflections on Social Media… URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/86/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:12.000Z ## **Hi there, my name is Eric, and I’m in a toxic relationship with social media…** *I joined Twitter in March 2010\. Facebook a few years before that. The first 3-4 years of my life after college were spent exclusively doing social media marketing & community management for tech startups.* It was ‘my thing’. I was fortunate—or unfortunate—enough to be in university just as ‘brands on Facebook’ were becoming a thing. The first days when the ‘Pages’ feature on Facebook was being rolled out. It empowered me because everyone was on a level playing field. No one had any idea how to approach this, and no one could have more experience than me. It was Day 1 for everyone. As a young and hungry marketing student in business school, I jumped in immediately. And it worked! I got my first job out of school working at an Intel & VC-funded startup in San Francisco, doing social & community. I beat out someone 10 years my senior because I played that trump card: no one could have more experience with social media than anyone else. **I have spent almost half my life on Twitter.** Twitter is my most used—and most problematic—platform by leaps and bounds. This is all to say that social media has been a huge part of my life, as it has been for basically everyone born in the last 2.5 decades. - I have met some of my best friends online. - I have found & won work opportunities because of it. - I have learned new things, found people/products that changed my life, and been exposed to a crazy amount of good and bad in the world through it. **But social media isn’t always the golden pony in my life.** Sometimes, it is a ferocious addiction. No different in my behaviour or relationship than alcohol, tobacco, porn, or gambling. To some extent, it’s likely true that as these platforms have become the true cultural behemoths that they are, the nature of the content, the workings of the algorithms, and a host of other unintended emergent phenomena have shifted the content and quality of the platforms from the nostalgia-fueled idealization I have of the early days of Twitter. **Nowadays, far more often than not, my relationship with social media is toxic:** - I spend hours in the loop of Twitter > IG > Twitter > IG refresh-refresh-refresh downward spiral. - I rarely, **RARELY** feel better about myself, other humans, and the future of humanity afterward. - With long enough exposure, normal human conversation becomes boring because it doesn’t move as quickly as I can inhale novel and emotionally compelling information on Twitter *(this is why Twitter has always been my top platform, the ‘quasi-insight-novelty-porn per second’ ratio is the highest).* - I have deactivated my accounts, deleted apps off phones, blacklisted websites on my computer, set time limits, and every possible combination of technologically-infused bumper rails you can imagine, to no real lasting success. Inevitably, whether it takes 6 minutes (seriously) or 6 months, the accounts are reopened and the apps find their way back onto my phone and into my life. **It’s insane for me to admit and realize this because I recognize that I’m not even that far extreme in my use**. I’ve seen screen time reports from others that are 2-4x my daily use. I never got into TikTok or Snapchat—thank god—and can only imagine the devastation that causes the psyche. But none of that is an excuse. **Like any good addict, the level of justification I pull off is miraculous:** - *“I need to be on it because I’ll build my audience and that’s a smart investment in my future.”* - *“Being tuned into global affairs and the cultural zeitgeist is important as a citizen and for the work I do.”* - The classic: *“Well I deserve a break/fun too, it’s just a few minutes.”* - *“I’ve found many cool products/people/opportunities here, I can’t just close all those doors on myself!”* On the surface these are true, and I would say generally good. But the way it shapes my personality is not good. My thinking becomes far less nuanced, my emotions get hijacked; I develop addict-level twitches and phone checks; it becomes a very compelling ‘safe zone’ from reality, a powerful outlet of distraction and dissociation; and my respect for myself decreases. **I’m honestly not sure what to do about this.** I’m torn between the ‘[commit, or quit](https://www.zenmedicine.co/54/)’ ethos and the [spirit of courage](https://www.zenmedicine.co/72/) I’m trying to cultivate this year. **What is the truly courageous act for me with social media?** - *Is it to nut up and try to join the public conversation? To build an audience and ‘make content’?* - *Is it to pull the plug entirely and irrevocably delete all my profiles? (This is the top contender right now for what would take the most courage from me.)* - *Is it to fool myself into thinking I can achieve ‘moderation’ with social media? Something I have never once accomplished in >50% of my life on this Earth?* **It’s not clear. Moderation has never been my forté.** I am *exceptional* at all or nothing, particularly the nothing part. If I don’t have it, I don’t use it, and I do other things. But moderation… that small window of opportunity never stays small that long. I’m not sure what the answer will be. *But I know something needs to change.* How’s your relationship with social media? Any tips for a simple man struggling to keep his attention sharp and clean in a hyper-emotional technological whirlwind of a society? Stay strong, EB. ### Ranking the 26 Books I Read in 2024. 📚 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/ranking-the-26-books-i-read-in-2024/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:14.000Z 📍 **Location:** *Bitcoin Jungle, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~15 minutes.* 🍵 **Vibe Check:** *Rooted down in Costa Rica after 2.5 months of visiting all 3 North American countries.* *I feel strong and excited, with a healthy amount of anticipation for the year ahead. It’s going to be a big one across the board.* *Also: my brother* [*Justin Noppé*](https://www.justinnoppe.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*, an extraordinary learning expert, has a workshop on accelerated language learning tomorrow.* [*Get all the details here*](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MzoShv458ScCb%5F0aPcndW18RdqCWE1Dsmg61jJwHKp8/edit?tab=t.0&ref=zenmedicine.co)*. Highly recommended.* --- ## Ladies and gentlemen… Happy New Year! 🥳 I’ve been on a ride the last few months. While I’ve been quiet for a bit, we’re 84 pieces deep over at [**Blood & Ink**](https://bloodxink.substack.com/)… Almost a month in Mexico in November for the latest [Apotheosis Retreat](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) followed by a 2-week Marosa master plant diet at the brilliant [Kumankaya](https://www.kumankaya.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). A full piece out on that heart initiation soon. Spent December visiting family in Canada & the US. It was 3 years since I had a white Christmas and 5+ years since I’ve been snowboarding! Snow is kind of a crazy thing when you don’t live in it. A different way of living and the trials of being around family are always a good mirror for spiritual progress. 😅 Bitcoin crossed yet another threshold in the cultural zeitgeist: breaking $100kUSD for the first time. This year is going to be one to be remembered, with the potential of several nation-states joining the race for the only fixed-supply asset in existence. If you’re ready for a refresher, I’ve written about the philosophy behind Bitcoin several times: [Sound Money & the Global Renaissance](https://www.zenmedicine.co/sound-money-bitcoin/), [The Juggernaut of Currency](https://www.zenmedicine.co/bitcoin-currency/), & [How I Became My Own Bank](https://www.zenmedicine.co/how-i-became-my-own-bank/). I’ve started to hone in a new direction for my writing, my work, and my life. I’ll be sharing about that likely next week, with a substantial update coming toward the end of the month. I’m excited about this one, it feels fresh, organic, and alive. **Thank you, as always, for being here. It means a lot to me. I respect your time and attention and always strive to put something valuable in front of you.** *You deserve nothing less.* I’m back with an annual tradition: recapping the books I read last year. We seem to have [kept our pace with last year](https://www.zenmedicine.co/exploring-the-26-books-i-read-in/), hitting 26 total, with a graveyard of half-read, abandoned books along the way. *These are listed in the order I read them, not by their rank. As a reminder, most of the rankings are going to be high, because if the book is \~6/10 or lower, I never finish it, and it never makes this list.* --- ### [**Essentialism**](https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown/dp/0804137382?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Greg McKeown (8/10)** Surprised it took me so long to get to this one. Minimalism the aesthetic practice and the philosophical orientation have been a cornerstone in my life for almost 15 years now. Essentialism applies this philosophy to life, particularly work. It is mercilessly effective at helping you *‘keep the main thing, the main thing’.* Some sharp, poignant reminders, but a bit repetitive after a while. Probably could have been a blog post with 80% effectiveness of the entire book, but worth reading if you haven’t. ### [**The Bhagavad Gita**](https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-2nd-Eknath-Easwaran/dp/1586380192?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Eknath Easwaran (10/10)** If you remember way back last year I set a ‘[misogi](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-misogi-a-different-way-to-do/)’ for myself: a major annual goal instead of a series of resolutions. That failed miserably, which I’ll write about for exploration and accountability soon. But the misogi was yoga-related, so I jumped back in to re-read the Gita. The Gita is one of the Great Books of history. I’ve read it in full \~4-5 times now. The translation by Eknath is top-notch. It is a staple in my life and expands far, far beyond yogic philosophy into the very nature of Reality and how to be a human on this planet. ### [**The Doors of Perception**](https://www.amazon.com/Doors-Perception-Heaven-Hell/dp/0061729078?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Aldous Huxley (9/10)** Re-read The Doors of Perception as a book club I was participating in was reading it. Unbelievable classic. Huxley’s range and raw skill as a writer are unparalleled. The man has Doors of Perception, Brave New World, Island, and the Perennial Philosophy all under his belt! He was a genius, and far too underrated even today. While the book is fantastic for its writing, I was already deep in the psychedelic space before I read this, so the revelations weren’t as earth-shattering as they may otherwise be for the uninitiated. ### [**Ultimate Guide to Methylene Blue**](https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Methylene-Blue-Mitochondrial/dp/177723963X?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Mark Sloan (10/10)** I am going to write an entire long-form essay about the following two books by Mark Sloan, covering methylene blue and red light therapy. Everything about this book is perfectly executed. It is specific, unbelievably thorough and rigorously cited with quality studies, and explores the truly remarkable substance of methylene blue. He advances a novel theory on cancer: the metabolic theory, rather than the genetic theory that is so commonly accepted by the medical establishment. It is metabolic inefficiencies in the cells that allow cancer to take root and proliferate, and if you fix metabolism, you can conquer, and even reverse, cancer. Two of the most accessible, affordable, powerful metabolic therapies available? Methylene blue, and red light therapy. ### [**Red Light Therapy: Miracle Medicine**](https://www.amazon.com/Red-Light-Therapy-Miracle-Medicine/dp/0994741898?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Mark Sloan (10/10)** Mr. Sloan has a formula for how he writes, and it works. This book is short, meticulous, insanely well-cited, and incredibly well-argued. I’m like a ‘layman doctor’. I can follow medical concepts to an extent, but certainly have no background in organic chemistry or a degree in medicine. His writing is perfect for it. He doesn’t insult your intelligence by watering things down, but his writing is clear, accessible, and straightforward. I’ve invested heavily in red light and methylene blue protocols as a result of these two books. It works. More to come on this. ### [**Becoming Bodhisattvas**](https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Bodhisattvas-Guidebook-Compassionate-Action/dp/1611806321?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Pema Chodron (8/10)** A brilliant double-whammy. First, it’s Pema. Pema’s heart-centred wisdom and depth of Buddhist practice are incredible. Second, it’s her commentary on another legendary text, The Way of the Bodhisattva. This is half poetry, half how-to-guide outlining the Mahayana Buddhist’s view of the *bodhisattva* while grounding it in practical advice for your practice and daily way of being. Beautiful, inspiring, motivating, and accessible. ### [**Inside the Yoga Sutras**](https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Yoga-Sutras-Comprehensive-Sourcebook/dp/0932040578?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Jaganath Carrera (8/10)** Another remaining piece of the yogic explorations. A re-read for me. This is a commentary/companion piece exploring the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. If you are keen to get nerdy about yogic philosophy and the practice of yoga, this is your book. It goes deep into history, philosophy, theory, etymology, and the entire yogic view of the world. It is dense and can be a tough read at times, but the depth it provides the intrepid explorer on the other side is invaluable. ### [**Ressurection Blues**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection%5FBlues?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Arthur Miller (7/10)** This is a weird one. I think I only finished this because it’s so unbelievably short. It’s like an experimental work that is written as a script for a play. Like you see the character’s names and what their lines are. But with that format it explores some timeless and beautiful topics, touching the head and the heart equally with part playfulness, part tragedy, and part humour. Well done and well executed, albeit unexpected. ### [**The Art of Learning**](https://www.amazon.com/Art-Learning-Journey-Optimal-Performance/dp/0743277465?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Josh Waitzkin (7/10)** Josh Waitzkin shouldn’t need much of an introduction. The legendary child chess prodigy that the movie ‘Searching for Bobby Fischer’ was based on. After mastering chess, he jumped over to Tai Chi Chuan (push hands) and became a world champion at that too. Now, he’s tackling his latest mastery path: hydrofoil big wave surfing. His understanding of true mastery and the art of learning (no pun intended) is unparalleled. This isn’t a book to go from 0-80% good, this is a book to go from 80-100% world-class at something. While the fundamentals and content of the book are excellent, writing is certainly a skill Waitzkin has not yet mastered. ### [**Leadership: Strategy & Tactics**](https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Strategy-Tactics-Field-Manual/dp/1250226848?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Jocko Willink (8/10)** Putting aside his public persona, Jocko was an accomplished Navy SEAL. If you have ever tried to coordinate and lead a group of people (as I have done, and failed at many times), it’s hard. Simple effective coordination of people is a challenge. I faced some leadership challenges this year, across Phoenix Culture, Apotheosis Retreats, and working as a team member with other organizations. So, I took a quick detour through some military leadership training with Jocko. He writes exactly like you’d expect, but many of the ideas are powerful and important. Worth a read. ### [**No More Mr. Nice Guy**](https://www.amazon.com/No-More-Mr-Nice-Guy/dp/0762415339?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Robert Glover (10/10)** This book came at the right time, written in the right way for me. Everyone I know who’s read this says that. For most of my adult life I suffered from ‘Nice Guy Syndrome’ or as I called it, a ‘martyr complex’. No More Mr. Nice Guy is a painful yet significant read. It methodically dismantles your personality structure, showing you exactly what’s wrong with acting that way, how it’s hurting you and everyone around you, and simple activities to begin changing things. I’m not a huge fan of ‘classic self-help’ but sometimes that’s exactly the medicine you need. Fantastic. ### [**Becoming a Barbarian**](https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Barbarian-Jack-Donovan/dp/0985452358?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Jack Donovan (9/10)** Jack Donovan—masculine philosophy for masculine men. Jack’s writing drips with the solar energy of masculinity in its fullness. This book might be a challenge for some people: advocating the lost wisdom of barbarian cultures. That’s an abstract way of saying: this is why you should, and must, care about your tribe more than other people. Tribal belonging, tribal dynamics, tight-knit ingroup/outgroup dynamics. If you tend to fall into the “love everyone, we’re all just one big human family” group, this is a strong sparring partner to poke some holes in that way of thinking. Bitter medicine for the love and light crew, but a very good read. ### [**The Way of Men**](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Men-Jack-Donovan/dp/0985452307?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Jack Donovan (9/10)** Brilliant. This is the men’s book for all men. If you need in any way to reclaim healthy masculinity, The Way of Men is fantastic. Donovan explores what he considers the 4 pillars of true masculinity: strength, courage, honour, and mastery. Going into why these are necessary, how to develop them, why they are traditionally masculine, and dynamics between men and men, men and women, and in group and out group as it relates to these 4\. Easy, but no less valuable of a read. Loved it. ### [**The Warrior Ethos**](https://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Ethos-Steven-Pressfield/dp/193689100X?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Steven Pressfield (8/10)** You can tell I started taking jiu-jitsu classes around this point of the year. The Warrior Ethos is a quick, juicy, historically-accurate read from the acclaimed writer Steven Pressfield. I loved it. I love Warrior cultures. I love the Warrior archetype. I love the history, the lore, the virtues. This is a study of the warrior cultures of history, how they rose and fell, the values they held, and how it all can apply to you in your life now. Simple, not necessarily paradigm-shifting, but a great read nonetheless. ### [**The Bushido of Bitcoin**](https://www.amazon.com/Bushido-Bitcoin-Virtue-Economic-Standard/dp/B0DM9PGD57?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Aleksandar Svetski (10/10)** Every so often you come across a book that you wish you wrote. This is that book. Funny enough, I did help to write, edit, and release this book! More to come on that in a future post. Svetski is a legendary entrepreneur, philosopher, and modern-day warrior. He takes a really interesting approach: let’s assume Bitcoin has won, and become a global monetary standard—who will we be, and who will we become, when that happens? Done are the days of the nyan-cat crypto lambos, the pump-and-dump scams. Svetski calls out the best of us, outlining the 10 virtues of a new Bushido– a new moral code for a world on a new socioeconomic standard. An absolute behemoth, with challenging ideas, brilliant etymological history, and powerful calls to action for all of us at this time in history. ### [**Atlas Shrugged**](https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191145?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Ayn Rand (12/10)** Last year I allowed myself the leniance to go over 10, and I’m doing that here for both of Ayn Rand’s masterpieces. 12/10 without question. It’s 12/10 because it honestly expanded my definition of what constitutes a good book. This is a true masterpiece. It is both a brilliant work of fiction, just the storytelling, character and plot development, and vivid imagery she provides—AND the most clear, sharp, devastating critique of egalitarian lim-dick communistic philosophy that exists. Randian philosophy is sharp, sometimes offensive, but deeply empowering to the individual. The human spirit and beauty of humanity pour forth in her work triumphantly. This is a masterpiece, and I don’t say that lightly and should be required reading for all humans who participate in society. ### [**The Fountainhead**](https://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191153?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Ayn Rand (12/10)** Again, another unbelievable piece from Rand. Taking an entirely different context, and still managing to weave out the metaphorical significance of deeply entrenched ways of thinking and acting in the world. This was written before Atlas Shrugged, and you can tell. She was gearing up, sharpening her sword. But it’s also shorter, more poetic in some ways, and still as elegantly merciless as a black widow spider. Game-changing. You should read it. ### [**The Holy Bible**](https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible/s?k=Holy+Bible&ref=zenmedicine.co) **(??/10)** Not a book I ever thought would make it into my reading list, but I guess it was inevitable. I have read every sacred spiritual text from nearly every world religion, the Quran, the Dhammapada, Tao Te Ching, you name it. But the Bible!? I never thought so. But it happened. You might remember [some of my posts](https://www.zenmedicine.co/christianity-immune-system/) exploring the [psycho-spiritual scaffolding](https://www.zenmedicine.co/reckoning-with-the-west/) that Christianity has provided the West. I had to read it. I’m not yet sure how I would rank it. While some aspects of it are profoundly important and very beautiful, some of it I still don’t understand, am confused about, or otherwise still processing. What I do feel strongly about now, more than ever before, is that I don’t believe I consider our modern-day Godless culture ‘better’ than the societies that had a religion at their center. That will be a much longer exploration to come this year, don’t you worry. ### [**The Tao Te Ching**](https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching/b?ie=UTF8&node=297525&ref=zenmedicine.co) **(12/10)** As always, you know the drill. Re-read this bad boy at least once a year. It’s medicine for me at this point. Necessary to keep me on the straight and narrow. Taoism, Ch’an, and Zen have been transformative in my life. Nothing comes close. All roads in my life lead me back to it, at deeper and deeper levels. Not much to say on this other than it happened, again. ### [**The Way of the Superior Man**](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Superior-Man-Challenges-Anniversary/dp/1622038320?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- David Deida (10/10)** Wow, this one was unexpected. I read this while on my 2-week master plant diet at Kumankaya, and it was perfect. It’s written similarly to the Tao Te Ching, a collection of short pieces, deeply approachable but profound and significant. Deida outlines and advances, as you might imagine, his idea of the Superior Man. Outlining in a crude way, that how you relate your sexuality, your sexual energy, and your purpose shows you how you relate to everything in your life. It is sharp, simple, straightforward, and an important message for all men looking to become their best selves. I highly recommend reading this. ### [**The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership**](https://www.amazon.com/15-Commitments-Conscious-Leadership-Sustainable-ebook/dp/B00R3MHWUE?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- CLG (8/10)** Re-read of the 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. This is one of the required books everyone at Mindbloom has to read, and it’s fantastic. It’s like an 80/20 split between typical business management reading and spiritual guidance. The Conscious Leadership Group does a good job balancing an otherwise difficult dance between the two of those worlds. Started this as an additive to my leadership explorations. Even if you’re not a leader, or even not in a company, this is good advice for all humans. ### [**Tao: The Watercourse Way**](https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Watercourse-Way-Alan-Watts/dp/0394733118?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Alan Watts (8/10)** With a renewed interest in Zen and Taoism coming off of my diet, I jumped back into Mr. Watts. Not much needs to be said here. Alan Watts needs no introduction. What I do love about some of his writings is something that doesn’t come across a lot when you listen to many of his lectures later in his life: the man was a ferocious academic. His mastery and depth of study into the Orient and theology are immense, and it’s in his writings that this comes through. Quoting multiple translations, ancient scriptures and anecdotes, he went deep into this world. A fantastic read for anyone interested in exploring Taoism. Ranking an 8 because after exploring Taoism myself, it wasn’t exactly revelatory. ### [**The Tao of Physics**](https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Physics-Exploration-Parallels-Mysticism/dp/1590308352?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Fritjof Capra (8/10)** This one was a doozy. Written by an accomplished quantum physicist, Capra describes in immaculate and at times pedantic detail the conclusions one must draw when exploring the overlap between the bleeding edge of quantum physics and the timeless teachings of the Eastern spiritual traditions. It is a \~70/30 split, focused more on the scientific research and advancements that reinforce the fundamental concepts so accepted by Eastern spirituality: the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, the lack of a material basis, the lack of time/self/other. It is extremely dense, and I’ve been reading this on/off for 2 years now. But if you really want to nerd out on the bleeding edge of quantum physics, and see clearly and directly how it confirms and validates the cardinal truths of Eastern religions, this is The Bible you need to read. ### [**Violence of Mind**](https://www.amazon.com/Violence-Mind-Training-Preparation-Extreme-ebook/dp/B07BGJFD7L?ref=zenmedicine.co) **\- Varg Freeborn (8/10)** This was a tough one for me. It confronts you with the reality of violence, what it means to be prepared to defend yourself, and how to go about doing that if the situation truly calls for it. It’s one thing to say that you would ‘fight for your family’ or something like that, it’s another to be able to do it. It’s another to be there standing in front of someone as a situation escalates into a fatal encounter. It’s another to keep your adrenaline under control when something terrible is happening around you and be useful. Violence of Mind explores these states from a man who has been in more mortal fights than he’d like to admit and has the training and experience to back it up. Valuable to read, but challenging if you’re not in the right and stable mindset for it. ### **100 Deadly Skills:** [**Combat Edition**](https://www.amazon.com/100-Deadly-Skills-Crushing-Embracing/dp/1544518862?ref=zenmedicine.co)**,** [**General Edition**](https://www.amazon.com/100-Deadly-Skills-Operatives-Surviving/dp/147679605X?ref=zenmedicine.co)**, &** [**Survival Edition**](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/100-Deadly-Skills-Survival-Edition/Clint-Emerson/100-Deadly-Skills/9781501143908?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Written by an ex-Navy SEAL, the 100 Deadly Skills series explores small quick tricks that you can use for everything from espionage, self-defence, staying alive, combat, evasion, you name it. It’s a fun, James-Bond-style skill acquisition read. How to fight, how to disappear, how to protect yourself. I loved it, he’s got one on Combat, Survival, and General skills. --- Thank you, enjoy the new year. 💛 EB. ### // January 2025. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/january-2025-2/ Last updated: 2025-01-17T12:58:20.000Z ## Life - Living in [Bitcoin Jungle](https://www.bitcoinjungle.app/?ref=zenmedicine.co) on a Bitcoin standard in Costa Rica with my partner Chloe and our cat, Nora. - Writing at [Zen Medicine](https://www.zenmedicine.co/) and drafting my first book. - Obsessed with Zen, Shaolin Kung-Fu, natural medicine *(ayahuasca*, *red light, & methylene blue)*, and Bitcoin game theory. ## Work - Founder & Steward of [Phoenix Culture](https://www.phoenixculture.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) – 100-day initiations and dojos for self-mastery. - Director of [Apotheosis Retreats](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) – boutique world-class plant medicine retreats. - Program Design & Therapeutic Content with [Mindbloom](https://www.mindbloom.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) – the largest provider of psychedelic medicine globally. - Content & Operations for the [Bushido of Bitcoin](https://www.bushidoofbitcoin.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) – book and movement about Bitcoin as a new global economic standard. ### Blood & Ink: When Things Don’t Work Out… URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/85/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:12.000Z ## **“Sometimes, what didn’t work out for you, really worked out for you…”** *What a brilliant pattern interrupt.* I stumbled across this the other day and fell in love with it. In hindsight, sometimes it’s obvious—you didn’t get that job you wanted, and that was necessary because it led to the great opportunity that came after it. **The job not working out, *really worked out* because something better awaited you.** Sometimes it’s not so obvious—spilling your coffee that morning and changing your shirt made you five minutes late for your commute which let you avoid that head-on collision you were going to be in because another person ran the red light just a mere 5 minutes before you arrived at the intersection. You *never know.* I also love this because it’s palindromic… you can read it backwards to a similar effect: ### **“Sometimes, what worked out for you, really didn’t work out for you…”** It’s a devastating experience when you finally *‘get everything you wanted,’* only to realize… it wasn’t what you wanted at all. You accomplished your goal only to realize the external achievement wasn’t enough to single-handedly sway the crippling self-image that was fueling your motivation in the first place. Here’s a recent example: due to my failure to communicate, I didn’t renew the lease on my home in Costa Rica quickly enough, and the owners rented it out. I learned this on January 2\. Our lease ended January 15. *Two weeks to find a new home? We’re still in the US. My car in CR isn’t even turning on and I’m not sure it can be fixed in time to move all of our stuff… “damn, I fucked this one up…”* And yet, within a few days, I found a new spot. Within a week we packed everything up. The car was fixed the same day we found a mechanic in the mountains. Two days ago, we moved everything we owned to a new home, nestled more deeply in the cloud jungles of Costa Rica—and it’s beautiful! From *‘this is not going well’* to *‘Oh wow, this might’ve worked out well.’* Now, we get to start this year in a new space, in a beautiful environment. **You never know what things are good for. Conversely, you never know what things are bad for.** In the words of the [old Zen parable](https://sacredstructures.org/messages/well-see-a-cautionary-fable/?ref=zenmedicine.co), *“We’ll see…”* Maybe, just maybe, it is all working out. Maybe every closed door isn’t a *rejection* from God, just a *realignment*… We’ll see… EB. ### Blood & Ink: Murphy’s Law URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/84/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:12.000Z ‘Murphy’s Law’, a golden rule paraded around by self-important tech VCs and business optimization gurus states *“everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”* On the surface, it sounds nice, a wise reminder to prepare in advance for things that might go astray. Many people I’ve met throughout business school, the high-growth startup world, and the schoolyard wisdom seekers trumpet this thing as if it were a commandment from God. There are 2 fatal flaws with Murphy’s Law—dangerous flaws—that are not recognized: ## **1\. Murphy’s Law is Self-Defeating.** Murphy’s Law takes about 1 second to disprove completely. And it only requires one simple question: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/09424793-1291-483e-bd74-62085b0b67e5_630x630.webp) You’re still alive, aren’t you? The universe is intact. Global cataclysmic warfare hasn’t broken out while your Q1 OKRs were moving forward. The very fact that you’re still conscious enough to talk about Murphy’s Law eviscerates the foundation that Murphy’s Law stands upon. **So, everything that could have possibly gone wrong, in fact, has not.** *“Oh, but that’s not what I meant…”* What did you mean? That you would do yourself a favour by planning with a bit of foresight about the few minor inconveniences that could arise while working on something important? Great. Why didn’t you say that? That’s an entirely different statement. ## **2\. Murphy’s Law Inculcates a Toxic View of Reality** **You will find what you look for.** *Let’s repeat that together:* **YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU LOOK FOR.** If you are looking for evidence that supports why something isn’t going to work, that failure was inevitable, that you’re just not cut out for the task — you **will** find it. You will find so much evidence you’ll get overwhelmed and spiral down. Murphy’s Law is the cynics’ ultimate trump card. Whenever something goes wrong, it’s a perfect moment to share this vapid pseudo-intellectual statement that it was, in fact, inevitable. But you miss everything that did go well. **This is one of the biggest struggles in the human psyche: negative or unexpected events are far more salient than good/expected ones.** You must train your ability to notice what is absent. You didn’t get sick today. Your father didn’t die. Your wife still loves you. That close call with the taxi on the street didn’t send you into a coma. Your food wasn’t poisoned. Everyone else on your team showed up for work. You didn’t get scammed out of your entire net worth. Your lungs still seem to work just fine. You can still comprehend language. The list is *literally* endless. But you never look for them. Nor does Murphy’s Law put you in the right frame, the right *relationship* with reality to notice them. Innumerable blessings are working in your favour. You have no idea. **Any small challenge that does happen to arise out of this vast expanse of perfection is precisely the challenge you need to level up and is therefore another blessing to you.** Get on the optimistic side. - Everything that needs to happen for you, will happen for you. - Everything that is happening to you, is happening for you. Have a great day, EB. ### Blood & Ink: The Year of Courage URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/83/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:13.000Z ## **Jesse Itzler** [**posted**](https://www.instagram.com/jesseitzler/p/DEyDifxyOOc/?hl=en&ref=zenmedicine.co) **his ‘word of the year’…** His is DOMINATE. For the last 5 years, it’s been SOUL. *That sounds fun! Alright, I’ll bite…* “What’s the word I want to carry with me every day this year?” **COURAGE.** At each moment, in every domain, and across my life writ large, I want to step back and ask *“What is the most courageous move I could make right now?”* and **DO IT**. It pains me to say that I am not, at this moment, 100% confident in my ability to do that. To identify the MOST courageous move, and act on it without hesitation. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself, maybe my standards are too high, but I felt disappointed admitting that. I did an exercise yesterday: I wrote down a bunch of domains (health, work projects, relationships, possibilities) and asked myself what the most courageous thing I could do for each of them was, and listed them out. The results shocked me. Simultaneously empowering and terrifying. The vision of my life if I did all of that was amazing. It was also terrifying because it showed me—clearly and without wiggle room—where I am still playing it small in life, how I’m operating out of fear or comfort instead of courage. But that’s the nature of this exercise. To train the muscle so it becomes second nature. So it’s not a question of which path to take, the default path becomes the path of courage. So that’s where we are right now. The Year of Courage. What’s your word for the year? Let me know and I’ll hold you to it. :) Love and power, EB ### Blood & Ink: Trust in God URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/82/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:13.000Z ## **“I need to heal my trust in God…”** *Don’t get caught up by the language. Don’t do the passive shutdown closure because you don’t believe some Sky Daddy is secretly orchestrating your life and hasn’t chosen to shower you with blessings because you’re fundamentally broken or sinful.* Replace it with whatever word you want: Life, Source, Reality, Nature, Tao, Brahman. --- ### While on my master plant diet, a woman at the center said this was what she was working on… …and there’s something important for you here. > *Do you trust Life?* At the most basic level of your existence, do you trust that what the future brings will be good? **The degree to which you *lack* this trust is the degree to which you feel the need to control.** Consider for a moment the best things that have happened to you. Bring to mind the most ecstatic moments you have experienced. I’m willing to bet most of them had an element of being *unplanned* or *unexpected*. They ‘surpassed even my wildest dreams’, or ‘were far beyond what I could have imagined’. That’s right! That’s *important*. **If your life was solely up to you and the small locus of things you control, your life would be nowhere near as beautiful as it is here and now. Many of the greatest things in your life you played no real part in bringing to fruition.** You may as well say that they were a gift from God. So then, why the lack of trust? Where is your faith? The evidence implies that the most beautiful moments, the greatest challenges and victories, were orchestrated by something far more powerful than you, worked out far better than you could even imagine, and became the bedrock for the beauty that you experience here at this moment. Sounds like a pretty good thing to trust in. It hasn’t let you down yet. **Indeed, it’s possible to take a bold step and say the moments that *have* let you down, where your suffering was greatest, were the events you tried to micro-manage, where the grips of your controlling need were the tightest, where your expectations were the most rigid.** Sometimes, the moments that are the hardest in life are those that we forced to happen, the ones that we *expected*, because we were living in a narrative of scarcity, opposition, fear, smallness, and disappointment—and the outcome matched the narrative. Perhaps this year is the year you work to renew your Trust in God. I have a lot of work to do here myself. This is not a carte blanche excuse to ‘give up’ and stop doing anything. This is your opportunity to embed yourself in what the yogis call *nishkama karma*: investment in the input while relinquishing attachment to the outcome. The outcome is not up to you—as much as you want to be. The outcome is in the flow of the Tao. How you act is up to you. **Consider for a moment—and indeed try not to forget—that the Great Power that manifests all outcomes effortlessly might just be working in your favour. It might be cooking up something far greater than you can even imagine right now.** Trust in that. Trust in your trust in that. And take a leap of faith, EB. ### Blood & Ink: IDD, Not ADD URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/81/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:13.000Z ## **A.D.D. Attention deficit disorder…** This clinical diagnosis has become so commonplace it’s now a trite statement made in passing conversation: *“Sorry, that’s my ADD acting up.”* *”I can be so ADD sometimes.”* ADD isn’t real. Attention is a muscle or a skill. You don’t have an irreversible genetic disorder, you have a skill issue. Modes of attention are known today as ‘spotlight’ or ‘lantern’ awareness. Spotlight attention is great when you’re trying to study, write, and connect. Lantern awareness is suitable when trying to take in the Gestalt of something, like sitting at a park viewing the landscape. In any situation, your full awareness is online. You can’t choose to use anything less than your full attention. So long as you are conscious, your awareness is online. Then what are we to make of ‘attention deficit disorder’? **How can you have a deficit of something that you can’t increase or decrease?** Attention is never lacking, nor is it deficient from a disorder. It’s not controlled effectively. If you watch the cultural conversation on ADHD online, you’ll something else always accompanies this conversation: **hyperfixation**. Hyperfixation is like an extended tunnel vision, where the individual locks in on something for hours and hours, often making remarkable and massive progress on skill acquisition or learning something. So we have a misnomer. You never have a deficit of attention. Attention is always present. The light of conscious awareness is always on whenever you are awake. If we are not lacking in attention, what *are* we lacking in? **Intention.** We are suffering from a lack of intention and grand narrative. - We don’t know what we want to focus on. - We don’t know why we have to focus on some things rather than others. - We haven’t proven to ourselves why certain objects are worthy of our attention, and so our attention jumps around, searching for something that ‘clicks’. **Attention follows intention.** A child can’t pay attention in school because they’re daydreaming looking outside at nature? They’re not lacking attention — it’s directed fully outside or on their thoughts. What hasn’t been conveyed to them is the value of the educational experience in front of them. Why are they learning this? What will this give them? What is the expected gain or result from doing this? If this is conveyed effectively and honestly, in a manner that they can understand, you will have their undivided attention. But your entire being must be behind the decision. Attention costs energy, another valuable resource when being human. ### In reality, we’ve got the whole thing backwards. We paint the picture of IDD as a personal failing of the individual or a mere unfortunate circumstance of birth where their brain doesn’t work quite correctly. In fact, if the blame is to be pointed anywhere, it is at the society. *Modern culture has failed to provide a grand narrative of significant depth, beauty, wonder, and inspiration to harness the magnificent power of human attention and focus it.* It hasn’t demonstrated the causal links between day-to-day actions moving toward the realization of that grand narrative. If I was a Gen Z, or Alpha, growing up, and I’ll I ever heard was a grand narrative that the world is dying and it’s just a matter of time, your existence is a meaningless jumble of atoms bouncing around for no good reason, and the only reason you need to do well in school is so that you can avoid poverty when the state comes at gunpoint to demand payment via taxation – I wouldn’t be very excited about any of that either! What’s the point of paying attention to anything going in that direction? **But completely unfocused, ungrounded awareness is dangerous.** Completely unfettered awareness is the basis for schizophrenia, everything of equally significant meaning/connection, with no hierarchy of priority. - If you struggle with attention, you must reclaim a grand narrative that is empowering and purposeful. - You must delineate a personal aim that serves that narrative. - And you must see how your daily actions take you toward that. If you get those 3 in alignment, flow state arises naturally, actions feel purposeful and coherent, and you just might notice that your ‘ADD’ drops away. Thank you, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Purpose x Pleasure URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/80/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:13.000Z ## **Is this not the hallmark of our generation?** Frankl’s prophetic quote rings like a clarion call for a distressed generation. This applies to everyone, but men most particularly. **It is virtually self-evident that the vast majority of modern culture exists as nothing more than a feeble attempt to fill a purpose-sized hole in the lives of our generation.** While we parade those who make and market the latest mango-flavoured stimulant delivery system or the growing market of “anxiety-relieving t-shirts” as successful and driven entrepreneurs, they are peddlers of petty trivialities capitalizing on the weakest parts of the masculine psyche. Alas, I am not here to attack with this post. I am here to confess: ### **I have lost my way…** I returned home to Costa Rica this week—bags filled with holiday goodies. Face plunged deep in the effervescent glow of social media and 12-second dopamine hits. I still struggle with excessive stimulant use and addiction. I have two different Substack publications—[one of them](https://seriousplay.substack.com/) collecting dust—for no good reason. It just wasn’t ‘exciting enough’ to keep going. I have been chronically overcommitted and juggling projects for almost a decade of my life now. I neglect my physical training and daily routines. I feel no better—and oftentimes no ‘further along’—than any other man confronted with the hydra of hyper-stimulating emptiness. **I don’t speak about this much, but the true catalyst for my adventure into radical growth and personal change was minimalism.** It wasn’t a Tony Robbins experience. It wasn’t a mid-life existential crisis. I found Minimalism in my late teens, got rid of 90% of stuff (and my *desire to have stuff*), and noticed for the first time a base layer of peace, focus, and quality of life that I had never felt. Like JFM of [The Minimalists](https://www.theminimalists.com/21days/?ref=zenmedicine.co) says, > *“Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life’s most important things—which actually aren’t things at all.”* It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt to me that there were things I could do, actions I could take, that had unbelievable returns on my quality of life. It’s a funny coincidence that no Warrior culture worth its salt has ever developed a Maximalist approach to stuff. Almost everything is a distraction from purpose. **The highest path is straight and narrow.** That initial domino of Minimalism grew into meditation, therapy, psychedelics, early bio-hacking, lifestyle design, nomading, on and on and on and on. **I need a radical reset.** To make the main thing the main thing once again. To get back to life’s most important things, which aren’t things at all. I shaved my beard yesterday. I’m moving homes in 4 days. A good start. I’m also going to update this publication at the end of the month, more to come on that. Losing your way is no problem. It is inevitable. Mistakes, missteps, and missing the mark happen. Just reorient, reassess, recommit. Let’s get back to purpose, on purpose. EB. ### We Who Wrestle With God URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/we-who-wrestle-with-god/ Last updated: 2025-01-11T15:12:56.000Z Review and notes from JBP's latest book. ### Blood & Ink: Busy by Design URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/79/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:13.000Z ## **Your life is busy by design…** There are 3 main reasons you find yourself with a calendar full of things to do: 1. You don’t know what you want. 2. You lack focus. 3. You need the distraction. **If you’re radically honest with yourself, what do you want?** For most people, it’s health, wealth, happiness—some combination thereof. Sometimes it’s adventure, fun, challenge, status. Whatever it is, the empowering truth is that each of those only takes an hour a day, honestly less. Exercise for 30 minutes. Call a friend for a meaningful conversation. Do 1 important thing to move your business forward. There you go. Do that 9am-Noon. You’re set for the day. No fancy productivity systems. No erratic sleep schedule. No daunting to-do list. If you know what you want, the steps are simple, and no step ever takes that long. **So maybe you do know what you want.** Then you’re just not focused. It’s far too easy for *“Do 1 important thing to move your business forward”* to become *“Check social media for 1 hour. Do the dishes. Prioritize your backlog of tasks. Respond to emails. Go for a walk. Sit down and half-ass 30% of the task you want to do. Check Instagram. Play with your cat.”* Not a damn one of those was the single thing you needed to do, and suddenly the entire morning is gone. You lack focus and/or the discipline to do it properly. They become interchangeable at some point. **Just sit down and do the thing, to the best of your ability.** ### And finally: the least obvious, but most insidious, for most people is that you *need* the distraction. You crave busyness. It gives you an excuse. It gives you a distraction from the constant feelings of insecurity, fear, uncertainty, heartache, confusion, and depression. It makes you feel important, significant, high-status, intelligent, and “in-demand”. I believe this is why most people still have notifications on for every app on their phone. I’ve sat at dinners with friends and watched people get a notification for every Instagram like and email that comes in. It gives me anxiety just watching it. Why would they do it? Because it makes them feel IMPORTANT. *“Look at all this attention! Look at how many people are paying attention to ME. I must be doing a good job.”* **You are busy because you welcome the distraction that trivial work gives you.** Busyness is the *solution* you have created for yourself, not the *problem*. What is being constantly distracted and overwhelmed *giving you?* It’s a shield, protecting you from the heartache, the hurt, the confusion, the anger. But if you took the time to sit in the discomfort, it would arise and pass quickly. Maybe you need a healing side-quest if something significant is still lurking under the surface. No problem! **You don’t need to be busy.** **Busyness is not a status symbol. It is not desirable.** **It is unfit for someone of your character. It is beneath you.** **Do not be busy this year.** Naval once said, and I think this is brilliant, *“you should be too busy to just ‘get a coffee’, while still keeping an open calendar.”* Understand that, and change your life. The game is simple: 1. Figure out what you want. 2. Do not distract yourself. 3. Take 1 small, repeatable step each day. 4. Enjoy the rest of your newfound time. I love you, have a brilliant year. EB ### Blood & Ink: Decorating Pain URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/78/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:14.000Z ## **Strange how we decorate pain…** This line hit me when I first stumbled upon it in a dusty forgotten corner of Poetry X. It feels relevant to the healing-spirituality-growth world in which I have been embedded for the better part of the past few years. - On the one hand, there is a timeless and near-limitless value to deep, comprehensive healing. I have seen it in myself and others countless times. Lives reclaimed, bloodlines shifted, possibilities expanded, and generational pain lifted. - On the other hand, it is all too easy to develop a kind of perverse obsession—nay, addiction—to the hamster wheel of healing. It becomes the ultimate excuse, *“I can’t do this until I’ve healed some repressed, unconscious trauma that I can’t even name.”* It becomes the cornerstone of people’s identity. **It is strange, how we decorate our pain…** As if it gives us something we’ve been missing. As if it ‘more real’ in our lives than the countless beauties, joys, and victories we’ve experienced. If I were to find a positive flip of the energy that Jocko, Goggins, and JBP have thrown into the public zeitgeist, it boils down to: *“Stop decorating your pain and get on with it.”* The harsh wisdom of the Father. Yes, you have pain. Yes, it may very well be impossible to get through childhood without some level of accumulated trauma. Yes, there is value to healing this when it becomes the true obstacle in the way. But no, it’s not insurmountable. No, it’s not an excuse for not taking action. No, it’s not a good nor reliable foundation to build your identity on top of. **My teacher and curandero, Remi Delaune, says *“No fear, no fascination.”*** Do not ignore your pain. Do not repress it. But do not get obsessed with it. Be not fascinated by it. There is far more scrumptious beauty, strength, and genius inside of you. The pain is only masking it. Go into it and beyond it, it is not the final destination on your journey. You need not decorate your pain, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Sacred Knowledge URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/77/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:14.000Z ## **The Hopi, a Native American tribe, have a term called ‘sacred knowledge’…** It is knowledge that *comes with responsibility*. It’s a package deal. Gain the knowledge, get the associated responsibility. Humour me for a moment, as we explore a *metaphysical* implication of this. The flipside could be: *Be careful what you learn, because if you don’t act on it properly (responsibility), you will suffer greatly.* There’s something profound in this. Because while many of you—and certainly myself—view gaining knowledge as a good thing, you lose one essential thing every time you learn something new: *the excuse of ignorance.* You lose the get-out-of-jail-free card of saying *“Ahh I didn’t realize I had to do that,”* or *“Oh, I wasn’t sure I wanted that anyways.”* Without the ignorance card, it is simply your fault. And you know it. As much as we may hope, you simply cannot lie to yourself. **The pain of not doing something you *know* you should have, or *wanted to*, can far exceed the momentary discomfort of making an ‘innocent mistake’ because you didn’t know better.** Over the long run, it’s easier to *do the thing*. You can’t run away from it. Knowledge is a Pandora’s box, once it’s opened, it’s open. Rob Burbea in his fantastic work on ‘Soulmaking Dharma’ extends this as far as *anything that enters your imagination*, you have a responsibility to steward. Things arise in your consciousness, sparks of inspiration, a calling toward a path, a momentary epiphany, because they are **YOURS** to work with. Even a dream can be considered a form of ‘new knowledge’. And you don’t act on that at your peril. **Do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, do better.** The temporal distance between the idea and your action is the suffering you will incur. Knowledge and responsibility. Knowledge and response-ability. This is Sacred Knowledge. Let’s act on it, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Adolescence was Manufactured URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/76/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T16:43:20.000Z ## If you’ve never read ‘[Sand Talk](https://www.amazon.com/Sand-Talk-Indigenous-Thinking-World/dp/0062975641?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ by Tyson Yunkaporta, I highly recommend it… It’s a phenomenal exposition of Indigenous thinking and ways of relating to land and life. But that is not the focus of this piece. Here I want to share a devastating revelation in Yunkaporta’s writing: #### Adolescence was manufactured. Yes, the years-long transitionary period that modern ‘tweens go through was designed, implemented and mass-produced no differently than the iPhone. Yunkaporta elaborates: > \[…\] Prussia even adopted the Roman symbol of the eagle as a logo, which was later picked up by the Nazis and the United States. Rome introduced mesmerising dreams of power and control that have not been easy to shake even in modern history. > > **This was the point in history that ‘adolescence’ was invented—a method of slowing the transition from childhood to adulthood, so that it would take years rather than, for example, the months it takes in Indigenous rites of passage.** This delayed transition, intended to create a permanent state of child-like compliance in adults, was developed from farming techniques used to break horses and to domesticate animals. Bear in mind that the original domestication of animals involved the mutation of wild species into an infantilised form with a smaller brain and an inability to adapt or solve problems. **To domesticate an animal in this way you must: 1\. Separate the young from their parents in the daylight hours. 2\. Confine them in an enclosed space with limited stimulation or access to natural habitat. 3\. Use rewards and punishments to force them to comply with purposeless tasks.** > > **The system they invented in the early nineteenth century to administer this change was public education**: the radical innovation of universal primary schooling, followed by streaming into trade, professional and leadership education. It was all arbitrated by a rigorous examination system (on top of the usual considerations of money and class). The vast majority of Prussian students (over ninety per cent) attended the Volksschule, where they learned a simple version of history, religion, manners and obedience and were drilled endlessly in basic literacy and numeracy. Discipline was paramount; boredom was weaponised and deployed to lobotomise the population. > > **Germany’s compulsory education system expressed six outcomes in its original syllabus documents: 1\. Obedient soldiers to the army. 2\. Obedient workers for mines, factories and farms. 3\. Well-subordinated civil servants. 4\. Well-subordinated clerks for industry. 5\. Citizens who thought alike on most issues. 6\. National uniformity in thought, word and deed.** This is part of why we're gobsmacked when we look back at stories of Alexandar the Great leading an empire at 17. *How could a 17-year-old be ready for such things?* Because at that point in history, he’s been a man for years. With adult responsibilities following a significant rite of passage into mature masculinity. I emphasize again the 3-step process of domestication: 1. Separate the individual from parents/others in daylight hours. 2. Confine them in small spaces with limited natural environmental input. 3. Use reward/punishment to mould behavior. Sounds a lot like the waking existence of most people. Re-wild yourself. Undomesticate your mind. The beautiful life waiting for you requires it, and perhaps if we may be so bold, the very future hangs on our ability to do this for ourselves and others. Free your mind, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Strength Through Submission URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/75/ Last updated: 2025-01-05T16:24:37.000Z “…you finally allow the fullness of life to flow through you, this is called submission.” — Shi Heng Yi, 35th Grandmaster Shaolin Temple Europe - You intend to pursue the *highest, most realistic version of yourself*. - You align yourself with the Will of God/Nature/Tao. - You get out of the way and let that almighty force animate you. But the trick here is that personal preference/thought/emotion—no matter how pure or positive in its intention—impedes the flow of Life Force. Set your intention and submit yourself to its unfolding. This is the discipline of surrender. I had a powerful experience with this, setting a fierce intention to do morning yoga practice for 100 days straight in the last Hero100 challenge. While others commented on the *discipline* required to do this, no discipline was necessary on my end. Only surrender. You wake up, surrender to the practice, and a wellspring of vital energy is available. You get up and do it. No questions, no negotiations, no trade-offs. The personal Will is powerful. But it pales in comparison to the Life Force that always surrounds you. Allow the almighty force of nature to animate you. It will carry you to heights you cannot even imagine right now. Happy flowing, EB. ### Blood & Ink: The Privilege of Difficulty URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/74/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:14.000Z “The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it is to them a recreation to play with burdens that would crush all others.” — Nietzsche **This is the energy.** Get to it, EB. ### Blood & Ink: New Years Eliminations URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/73/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:15.000Z ## What if you did the opposite of a New Year’s resolution? *As everyone is in the throws of making new to-do lists, setting nigh-unattainable goals for the year, and finding the perfect places for the deluge of gifts they received… what if you went the other direction?* What if you focused on New Year’s *eliminations*? - **What if you donated half your possessions?** Creating physical cleanliness and spaciousness, while making everything you own more meaningful. - **What if you stopped 2 time-wasting habits?** Opening up 2-4 hours a day that you didn’t realize you had. - **What if you dropped a lukewarm commitment/project?** Freeing up vast amounts of mental space and conscious attention. - **What if you let go of an identity instead of reinforcing a new one?** Becoming more fluid in your self-image and better able to respond to life. There is a real benefit to resolutions: there is always value in setting clear intentions for your life. **The value of elimination is less recognized in our busy, materialistic culture.** Eliminating the dead wood—be it physical possessions, mental baggage, or unaligned commitments—creates fertile ground for new growth to take root. **They don’t need to be ‘replaced’ by something ‘better’.** You could create more space, beauty, and openness in your life and stop. Opening the generative void that spontaneous, brilliant emergence comes from. *It opens mental and emotional spaciousness that most of us have forgotten is even possible.* As the New Year rolls along—it’s worth considering what can be *eliminated* from your life, as well as added to. Happy subtracting, EB. ### Blood & Ink: The Year of Courage URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/72/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:15.000Z ## **May 2025 be your year of courage…** This is my wish for you. **May this be the year you find the soft, still voice in your heart and let it guide you.** May this be a year where the unrelenting boldness of your human spirit triumphs over the panoply of fears conjured up from the unaligned imagination. Courage takes many forms. At times it is obvious. The courage to say the unpopular opinion. To stand up against tyrannical forces. To push yourself beyond your limits, into the ripe fields of new growth. At other times, courage takes a different form. - The courage to be vulnerable, and share more of yourself with a world so ready to receive all of you. - The strength to let the heart lead, and reclaim its rightful place atop the integrated whole of your being. - To be soft and open in a world you believe wants you to be rigid and closed. - To do the right thing—the best thing for you and the world—when no one else will see it and there will be no grand celebration for completing it. **Courage is simple when not overcomplicated.** - The quiet choice to find the Good in each day. - A small prayer of gratitude before a meal with healthy loved ones around you. - The miraculous decision to believe in yourself and allow the best parts of you to rise to the surface. - To live unapologetically. - To read poetry instead of the latest productivity listicle. The courage to live fully. May we all find this courage in 2025. To align ourselves with the rhythms of nature. To flow with the brilliant unfolding. To rest, play, laugh, and dance through the fires of transformation and initiation. **May 2025 be your year of courage.** I love you, EB. ### The Sacred & The Profane URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/sacred-profane/ Last updated: 2025-01-11T15:13:49.000Z Book notes for the Sacred & the profane by Mircea Eliade. ### Blood & Ink: Day 1 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/71/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:15.000Z ## **It’s always Day 1…** We are BACK – Happy New Year everyone! ✨ Writing from the winter wonderland of New Hampshire, US—probably with a case of mild Covid 😅—gearing up to head back to the cloud forests of Costa Rica in a few days. The New Year energy is in full force. Celebrations. Hangovers. Maybe a bit of reflection. Time with family. Lots, and lots, of food. *“It’s always Day 1”* is a line I’ve come to love. I use it at every core meeting in our 100-Day challenges with Phoenix Culture. I say it to people on plant medicine retreats. It’s my guiding principle. There’s always that surge of energy, optimism, focus, and discipline that comes on the first days of a new commitment. The vibe is high and the adventure is underway. After a week, a month, maybe even a few days, ‘reality’ sets in and the initial shine fades. Motivation sags, optimism fades, and the first string of ‘misses’ or ‘mistakes’ takes root. *It doesn’t have to be this way…* **Every day is Day 1 of the rest of your life.** Take a deep breath. Reorient. Reconnect. Recommit. Every day is Day 1. ### It’s like the deathbed request of Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. He asked to be buried in a white belt instead of his black belt. He wanted to be remembered as a learner, not a master. --- I’ve got some new developments coming through this year. I will merge my publications ([Serious Play](https://seriousplay.substack.com/) & [Blood x Ink](https://bloodxink.substack.com/)). I’m going to evolve them in a new direction, I think you’re going to love it. I do. Continual refinement. [Courting the muse.](https://www.zenmedicine.co/58/) The decision to split them was necessary to build this momentum. But it’s now a burdensome split of my lists and attention. More to come. It’s Day One, let’s go get it. EB ### Blood & Ink: Incomplete Idioms? URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/70/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:15.000Z ## There are missing second halves to some of our most well-known English idioms… > “Curiosity killed the cat**...**but satisfaction brought it back.""Great minds think alike...though fools seldom differ.""Jack of all trades, master of none...though oftentimes better than master of one.”"The early bird gets the worm...but the second mouse gets the cheese.""An eye for an eye...makes the whole world go blind."“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....that mediocrity can pay to greatness." These are substantially better with the second half! *“Fools seldom differ”* is a koan you could get unbelievable mileage out of if you sat with it for a while and looked deeply into the topics and issues that most people agree on… That’s all I want to share for today—a few juicy idioms from the archives. I will take a break (& give you one too) from daily posts until post-boxing day. Happy holidays if you celebrate. I love you. Be well. EB. ### Blood & Ink: Pathological Emptiness URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/69/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:15.000Z *“A lot of the progress impulse is a pathological result of emptiness.”* *– Daniel Schmachtenberger* ## This sentence took a moment to say, glossed over in an interview as quickly as it was spoken... *It shook me.* I love that he used *pathological*. In the medical sense, pathological means *‘involving, caused by, or of the nature of a disease’*. It can also mean *‘obsessive, compulsive’*, like pathological gambling. **The progress impulse as a *symptom* of the *psycho-spiritual disease* of *emptiness*.** *Banger.* He was referring to individuals and the collective. Maybe you can call the ‘individual progress impulse’ a ‘neurotic growth need’. There are many people whose names have become synonymous with a kind of masochistic, self-destructive discipline/growth orientation (Goggins, Jocko, you know). The fuel source is self-degradation paired with emptiness (so they say). **This is mirrored beautifully in the collective Western psyche.** Progress at all costs. Such a ferocious growth orientation that it begins to feel—more and more—like it’s less about pursuing a beautiful future, and more about running away from the present. Every ‘invention’ or ‘creation’, no matter how frivolous, mundane, toxic, or evil, is heralded as a divine incarnation of the Holy Principle of Progress. > **And this is why many people argue that the real transformation humanity and the individual must undergo is psycho-spiritual, not technological.** It’s the trap of hedonic adaptation taken to its extreme, fueled by AI-benders and extractive production. ‘Filling up’ the world out there with stuff will not ‘fill up’ the hole in your soul. Unfortunately, there’s another problematic outcome: I meet a lot of people who view *any desire for progress/growth* as pathological. They no longer have any frame in them that can see the desire for growth, productivity, or progress as healthy or wholesome. *This is a tragedy.* **The progress impulse fueled by emptiness is self-destructive. The lack of a progress impulse entirely in some ways shows you’ve already been destroyed. There is a middle way to be found.** *Everything healthy and unhindered in nature has an impulse toward growth, expansion, light, healing, and full expression.* Become very quiet. Find joy and healing, and listen to the quiet impulse inside of you that seeks the light, that wants to play, to contribute to the world—from a place of wholeness, excitement, joy, purpose, and passion. This orientation makes progress the *outcome*. **The progress impulse as a pathological result of *wholeness*.** Let’s find that, EB. ### Blood & Ink: How to Survive Bull Runs URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/68/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:16.000Z “If you want to compare Bitcoin to something else, compare it to fire, the number zero, the wheel, the printing press, or electricity.” — [Gigi](https://dergigi.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), Legendary Bitcoiner A few reminders for myself on surviving the Bitcoin bull run: - ***“Stay humble, stack sats.”* — Matt O’Dell.** Quintessential maxim. - **Do not gamble.** Do not f\*ck around with generational wealth. - **Bitcoin-only.** Everything else is a distraction at best, gambling casino most often, and an outright scam/ponzi at worst. - **Focus on the mission.** A decentralized, indestructible, ethical global monetary standard. Price is secondary. - **It’s either going to 0 or $1M+.** 0 is increasingly unlikely. It’s only $0.1M right now. Play the long game. Think of your future family. - **Contribute to the ecosystem.** Run a node, contribute hash rate, educate those who ask, and don’t be toxic—but protect the network. - **Not your keys, not your coins.** If you don’t have a private key, you have an IOU. - ***“If you don’t know where the yield is coming from, you’re it.”*** Don’t fall for the myth of *something from nothing*. - **Put in the proof-of-work.** Study. Practice. Train. Do the work. - **1 year of gain, 3 years of pain.** The moments of greatest ecstasy, when everyone’s parents are asking about it, when it all feels inevitable, it will crash. It always does. Be prepared. - **Don’t get rekt.** Don’t burn out, don’t lose everything, don’t be Icarus. That’s all it takes. Patience, purpose, conviction, action. **And—enjoy it!** It’s taken a long time and a lot of effort to get here. Lots of time was spent in the dark caverns of 15k when everyone left and got bored of it, after plummeting down from \~68k. $100k was as obvious—and dare I say inevitable—back then as it is the reality now. Countries, governments, and the biggest financial institutions of *all time* are finally coming in. Billions, if not trillions, of dollars flowing into the only true fixed-supply asset in existence? Hoooo boy. Buckle up. $1M is as obvious now as it will be when it happens. Play the *looooooooong* game, and enjoy the ride. EB. ### Blood & Ink: Ganbatte. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/67/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:16.000Z ## The Japanese have some dank words… Ganbatte is up there in the upper ranks. > *“Ganbatte is more than just a Japanese word; it is a core language component of the country’s culture and ethos. Ganbatte describes something rooted in the citizens of Japan from birth, a sentiment carried with them throughout their entire lives.”* We continue… > *“For the Japanese, however, ganbatte is indeed a way of life, no matter what kind of adversity one faces. It is related to the term gaman, from Zen Buddhism, which is ultimately about persevering with dignity no matter how difficult one’s circumstances may be.”* Cheer up. Be courageous. Do your best. Ganbatte—brothers and sisters—ganbatte! EB. ### Blood & Ink: Musashi URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/66/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:16.000Z ## Musashi is one of the greatest books I’ve ever read… *Maybe I just don’t read enough fiction, maybe.* It’s a historical fiction based on the general happenings of the life of Miyamoto Musashi. The writing is brilliant and evocative. This quote stuck out to me. It’s hard to pin down precisely, but I’ve never been able to ignore it: you can’t separate the Samurai or the Shaolin (& other Warrior cultures) from their cultural and artistic works. - The Shaolin domesticated the tea plant and created the first ceremonial rituals. - The Samurai brought haiku poetry to its greatest heights. - The Shaolin have an unbelievably vast knowledge of plant and herbal medicines. - There’s an entire sect of Zen (Kamakura) that was developed for the Warrior class and their spiritual development. - Scripture, poetry, calligraphy, history, ethics, etiquette, you name it. All of these are as much a part of the Samurai and the Shaolin as any martial prowess, individual discipline, or fighting skill. It’s all part of the practice. Never separate from it. They all contribute to Self-Mastery: savouring, saving, and serving the world. And I love that. Be well, EB. ### Blood & Ink: People as Jazz URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/65/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:16.000Z ## **“How available are you to those around you?”** We’re in the final 2 weeks of our integration program for the last Apotheosis Retreat. Yesterday, we ran a session about community, relationships, and integrating yourself into the web of life. It struck me. My honest answer is ‘not much’. **The prompt helped me realize that I still have a very deep transactional or ‘outcome-focused’ orientation with conversations, relationships, and community.** A sense of waiting/boredom in conversation, like there must be a faster way to get to this conclusion so that we can go back to living our lives. Conversation is always a means to some distant end, instead of the destination itself. I wrote: > *“That doesn’t feel good to say, it doesn’t feel in alignment with who I am or who I want to become. I want to be so nourished in myself that I can just be with someone, with groups of people, for hours and hours. To play jazz with people, to make brilliant spontaneous moments.”* Have you ever seen or spoken to jazz musicians? Jazz is a serious affair to those who study/play it. And yet, the act itself is playful, spontaneous, and borderline chaotic. **Life, people, and conversations are a lot like this.** A little aimless; not going anywhere in particular. A little chaotic; as you push your limits, go to the edge places, and coordinate live with another or several people. But the improvisation is beautiful, art happening in real-time. **Make jazz with people.** Be fully available to them. If you have chosen to be there, be there fully. Bring your mind, heart, and Self to the moment. It’s not about getting something for yourself or getting to a particular place. It’s about dancing and playing together. Make some jazz, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Once You Know Better, Do Better. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/64/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:17.000Z *“Do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, do better.”* *— Maya Angelou* ## **I wrote this at the end of** [**yesterday’s piece**](https://www.zenmedicine.co/63/)**…** It’s attributed to American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, though I’m not sure how or when I first came across it. It’s one of those lines that stuck with me from the moment I heard it. Some quotes have that power, y’know? Those are the gems. I love that you can read this without any shred of machismo or self-derogatory punishing energy. This line often sounds like it comes from Grandmother Willow in Pocahontas or the spirit of Mufasa in The Lion King. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/87163551-e5dc-432f-9e39-60ad58d02e43_640x372.webp) ## Deep compassionate wisdom free from scolding, disciplinary energy. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ea554a11-7e24-4d6c-a8ab-bb7cf19e11f6_900x644.png) *“Simba, my son, do the best you can until you know better. And once you know better, do better...”* It’s got the same savvy nonchalance as this classic Zen proverb: > *Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.* > *After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.* **This is the direct path of playful personal evolution, in an elegant 3-step feedback loop:** 1. **Always Do Your Best —** One of Don Miguel Ruiz’s 4 agreements. 2. **Learn & Improve —** Until you know better, and once you know better… 3. **Repeat —** Once you know better, your ‘best’ has improved, so return to Step #1. **It’s so easy to go off the rails into self-degradation when working towards something.** Pushing yourself past your limits into burnout and exhaustion *(this doesn’t count as your best! Your best requires and includes rest and recovery!)*. Or falling into the narrative quicksand that you’re not good enough, can’t do it, aren’t worthy of it, whatever, when you make a mistake, or learn a better way of doing something. It’s kind of remarkable: upon realizing a better way to do something, instead of celebrating and immediately adopting it, we have an internal temper tantrum because it means all the time we spent doing it before was ‘less efficient’ and somehow reflects our inadequacy. **Man... *without hesitation*, once you find a way that works better, just do it!** No commentary is necessary. No stories good or bad. Effortless flow. This applies to *everything*: how you speak to yourself, the quality of your work, learning a new skill, and communication in relationships. Do the best you can until you know better; once you know better, do better! Simple as. You’ve got this, EB. ### Blood & Ink: The Age of the Lost Boys URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/63/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:17.000Z ## **“We don’t grow up, we just grow old…”** I was cruising the barren wasteland of Instagram reels and came across one that struck me… This one, to be exact: Now, nothing against Jordan the Stallion, his account is honestly hilarious—but he said something that I don’t believe was meant in ironic humour, I believe this is an opinion held by far too many people, men and women alike. Specifically, he says… > *“And this is another example of men, we don’t grow up, we just grow old.”* Now sure, there’s an ‘inner child’ argument you could make here to defend that line. But also… *REALLY?* Instagram is a viral cesspool of brain-rot videos of grown-ass men trading Pokemon cards, [#nostalgia](ia-writer://quick-search?query=%23nostalgia)\-core videos, and silly gotcha pranks. It’s like Black Mirror watching 35-year-old grown men act like 12-year-old schoolboys. **You can—and absolutely should—grow up as a man.** Deep maturity, total responsibility, and high-conviction action are gifts afforded to the masculine psyche, not inevitable imprisonment that excited boys must be subjected to. I have spoken endlessly in my writings at HighExistence and Serious Play about the loss of the rite of passage, the initiatory experience that affords men this transition from childhood into full adulthood. This isn’t about *blame*. But this *idea* is deeply corrosive to the psyche of an individual and the well-being of a collective. Men can, and should, grow up. In our present culture, they don’t. Endless Peter Pan syndrome. These are very different problems and require very different solutions. *But my God, where are the REAL men? Where are the ADULTS in the room? Why is MATURITY such a scarcity?* **Because there is a truth that this genre of posts points to: maturity is not just a matter of age. You do not become a MAN just because you get older. Maturity, masculinity, and meaning are things you step into, cultivate inside of you, and develop.** They don’t fall out of the sky on your lap. They don’t auto-magically turn on once you hit a certain age. Do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, do better. Grow up, it’s great. EB. ### Blood & Ink: Soulmaking Dharma URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/62/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:17.000Z ## **“You have a responsibility to your imagination…”** This was a core takeaway from my cursory review of Rob Burbea's work and his ‘[Soulmaking Dharma](https://hermesamara.org/teachings/soulmaking-dharma?ref=zenmedicine.co)’. Burbea has become a quasi-saint figure in the Twitter-Dharma online realm. For understandable reasons: his depth of understanding is vast, his delivery warm yet firm, and the angle and nature of his work are fresh. And of course, like all individuals in these positions, his work benefits from the “gone-too-soon” tragi-fame that happens when someone passes away earlier than expected—I’m looking at you, Mr. Cobain. Burbea extends the Buddhist concept of emptiness to its limits. He clearly and concisely shows how it is fundamentally woven into all aspects of existence. All things arise mutually, all things have the potential for equal meaning and significance. But what he does next is interesting: he extends this to the [*imaginal realm*](https://wisdomwaypoints.org/2018/12/is-the-imaginal-realm-real/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Not quite reality, not quite fantasy. The imaginal is the space of your imagination, your visionary capacity, and your ability to project into the future. And he says something to the effect of *“you have a *responsibility* to your imagination.”* - You are the only person in human history who has had, and who will ever have, the specific dreams/imaginings that you have. - Your hopes, desires, possibilities, and imagined futures are *uniquely yours*. They are essentially a part of your dharma/karma. - You can step into deeper responsibility for yourself and the care of all beings by earnestly trying to ground your dreams/visions/inspirations in reality. I love this. There’s something beautiful, empowering, and ancient in the idea that your dreams are uniquely yours to pursue, that they are just as pregnant with meaning and reality as anything else ‘in the world’, and your dharma—your task in this earthly realm—is essentially to pursue your dreams and ground your imagination. Trust in the world that you can imagine. Believe in the world that your heart knows is possible. Something to play with, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Great Men URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/61/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:17.000Z ## There’s something important in this thread… Plato is attributed with another banger that echoes this theme: > *“Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it.”* You can follow this thread back to the ancient Tao Te Ching: > *"Superior virtue has no intention to be virtuous and thus is virtue. Inferior virtue cannot let go of virtuosity and thus is not virtue."* I don’t believe the all-too-cliché’d line that ‘all power corrupts.’ I believe fiercely that positions of power and status hierarchies *attract corruptible and corrupted people* at *disproportionately high rates*. Believing that all positions of power necessarily and inevitably corrupt an individual reflects your moral shortcoming more than any objective statement about the nature of reality (see ‘[Beliefs are Not Facts](https://www.zenmedicine.co/60/)’ from yesterday). Power *amplifies*. Power is not but the ability to channel energy. Just like *money* amplifies. - It can—and often does—amplify shadow tendencies. - Knowing this, one must be cautious of the allure of power, but not strictly forbid it. - Those who understand this and are guarded to it are those best equipped to hold it. I am reflexively and habitually cautious of those who seek power, leadership, and authority over others. I am unbelievably open to those who are *asked by the people to lead*, and who *answer the call that life is giving them*. Answer the call, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Beliefs are Not Facts URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/60/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:18.000Z ## It took several epochs of my life to realize that other people’s opinions of me/my life were not objective judgements of the world about my character… For a long time, in a mostly unconscious fashion, I held the belief that if I just became good enough, smart enough, capable enough, ‘perfect enough’, there would come a point in time when *everyone* would see me the same way and would understand (and agree with) what I said. Sounds silly to write it out, but it was real. **Whenever someone disagreed with me or raised an eyebrow in question about something I enjoyed or believed, it just felt like I hadn’t figured it out fully yet. Like if I could just explain it better, become a better example of it, or if I was just a *better person* they would come around and *see it my way*.** The day-to-day reality of that belief system was also painful. It kept me in a fairly consistent state of incompleteness/unworthiness because up until I could get everyone to understand/agree/support everything I did, *something was wrong & not good enough about me*. With some time and a lot of work, I realized that that would never happen. Actually, I want to live in a world of diverse opinions and tastes and can stand in my self-authority without needing everyone to agree with or understand how I live my life. **The greatest gift I have ever given myself at this stage in my life is a deep trust, and respect, for my intuitive taste/style/vibe.** I spent far too long in life gaslighting myself, thinking there was something wrong with me (or *everyone else!*) because they didn’t come to the same conclusions as me. Now, I like me. I like where my choices take me, I like the things that I like. I like my music, tea, simplicity, natural living, kinda nerdy-punk-awkwardness…even though I know it’s not for everyone. The opportunity is to deeply realize that opinions are not facts. I am not going to get into the reality/unreality of ‘facts’ and ‘objectivity’ in this piece. You can take this a step further, and realize that *your beliefs about yourself* are also just *opinions and not facts*. Most people act as if the beliefs they hold about themselves are cardinal truths about the nature of themselves and reality. - *“Oh, I’m not the funny one.”* - *“Yeah, I’m not that creative/artistic.”* - *“That’s great for you, but I can’t do this.”* In the great words of The Dude: > *“Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.”* **Realizing that your beliefs are just fleeting opinions and not objective facts is freeing. It changes YOU from a NOUN (fixed object) into a VERB (active process).** Maybe you’re not that funny yet. Great. Would you like to be? Is that something you want to work on? You can develop it. Free yourself from the bondage of belief-as-facts. It’s both untrue and psychologically harmful. Liberate yourself into the deep knowing of beliefs-as-opinion, and open yourself to the great process of being a verb. With love, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Natural Anarchy URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/59/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:18.000Z “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.” — Alexander Tytler, 18th Century Historian ## Some people say in a paragraph what others say in an entire book… This quote is 🔥🔥🔥. *\*chefs kiss\** He’s referring to the ‘pure form’ of democracy, which is just the will of the majority. Whatever the majority votes, whenever they vote it, is law. Our current instances of ‘democracy’ are mostly ‘representative democracy’ where the majority elects a small number of ‘representatives’, who are meant to enact the will of the people. It’s worth sitting with this quote for a good while. It settles in deeper the more you read it. A few ideas surfaced in me when I first read this: - **Never lose your Courage.** “From courage to liberty…” is the stage that humanity wants to be at, always. Courage into freedom, freedom into love, love into deep and total illumination. - **The average age of an empire is 250 years.** That is frightening. The US is \~246 years old right now. Every fiat currency (government-made money) that has *ever existed* has only met one end: death and collapse via hyperinflation. The writings are on the wall, and the next few decades of our lives could be quite an interesting adventure! - **Anarchy is the natural extension of Taoist philosophy.** Taoism is rooted most substantially in a *profound trust in the fundamental Goodness of nature, and by extension humanity*. Just let things take their course, without intervention, and what results is fantastically complex, effortless, excellence. Many Taoist artist-intellectuals at the time were deeply political, in spirit or their day jobs. Indeed, Confucious was said to have sought counsel from Lao Tzu, and the Tao Te Ching can be read as a political how-to guide as readily as a spiritual text. When taken from the individual to the collective level, Taoist philosophy brings you to a kind of calm, awakened anarchy — no rulers. “The great Tao flows everywhere, both to the left and to the right. **It loves and nourishes all things, but does not lord it over them.** And when merits are accomplished, it lays no claim to them.” – Alan Watts quoting Lao Tzu Be well, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Courting the Muse URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/58/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:18.000Z *“I only write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.”* *– Peter De Vries* ## **Ahh, the gold in this statement for any aspiring creative…** During my recent plant diet with Marosa, I had a strange yet beautiful insight: the shamanic process of dieting a plant is a lot like courting the Muse, pursuing a beautiful woman, or falling in love. It begins with an intention: Make the connection. Find the inspiration. Open the relationship. That grows with the faintest of whispers. A fleeting moment, the woman in the red dress passing by, lost in a dream. A sultry melody that floats into your head in the hypnagogic state between wakefulness and sleep. A splash of visual colour and pattern in ceremony. An unspeakable yet all-too-undeniable feeling that someone, something, is out there, waiting for you, calling you home… Then, without warning nor understanding, but with undeniable certainty, the connection is made. The woman appears in front of you. The golden thread of inspiration is taught and ready to play. The energetic imprint of the plant is present in your conscious experience. And so the dance begins… *Who are you? Why are you here? What can we do together? What do you want? How can I help you? Show me what we could do together in this lifetime.* A whirlwind of questions, conversations, intuitions, and ideations shoot off like fireworks. The connection strengthens and the relationship deepens. Inspiration is a lot like this. > **Inspiration is like passion: not something outside your control, thrust upon you by some hopefully benevolent and merciful being—it’s like fire: kindled slowly from small sparks into a raging inferno.** Just work at it. Notice your thoughts intimately. Follow the threads of what excites you: not like a detective hunting down someone, but like a dance partner following the next invited move. Dragons are fickle creatures. Capable of crushing you, while rarely revealing themselves. They arrive only to those who are still in Heart and Mind. - All you need to do is show up. Stoke the flame. Court the muse. Welcome the plant. - All of this is done from a gentle, open, calm, receptive state. - Just show up—butt in chair—each day. - Ask *“What is alive in me? What is alive that wants to come through me?”*… and wait. Become very still. Listen for the inaudible but undeniable music. Inspiration has a rhythm that you can dance with, even if you’ve never learned the moves before. **Inspiration is a Way of Living.** *You live an inspired life.* **Inspiration is a place you can visit.** If you are strong enough to stay very still. Breathe. *In-spire.* Inspiration is all around you, you just need to become very still and listen. And then, once you hear the music—join in the dance. Bon voyage, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Family Time URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/57/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:18.000Z "If you think you're enlightened, go spend a week with your family." – Ram Dass ## I just spent 24+ hours travelling from the isolated jungle mountains of Costa Rica to the snow-bitten suburban streets of Toronto, Canada… …to spend about 10 days with my family. *And, like, DAMN!?* I find it unbelievable how easy it is to slip into old habits and forgotten identities. Every time I return the EB of 10 years ago bounces right back up in front of me. Better parts of me pull a *facepalm* and are like… *“have we learned nothing these past several years?”* It's fascinating how quickly it happens. It seems that no one can push your buttons like your family can. But, that also keeps the door open for beauty, love, and deep connection. These relationships *matter to me*. And that’s what I’m here for. It’s been 10 months since I last saw my parents. 1.5 years since I was last in Toronto. 3+ years since I’ve had a white, snowy winter season. I want to show myself, and I want to show those I love, what has changed. Who I am. What I care about. Where I’m going. It’s not always perfect. I can bite my tongue a lot because I haven’t yet figured out the ‘ideal’ way to communicate something. Holding the messy, goopy, dynamic tension in intimate conversation has always been a challenge. Been a challenge for my family too. Let’s see if we can do a bit of work on that in the next few days. There’s a beautiful balance you can strike, between holding firm to who you are and your values, and not needing to shove it down everyone’s throat to bolster your unstable center of identity. Patience. Compassion. Love. Enjoy the weekend, EB. ### Blood & Ink: The Power Problem URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/56/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:19.000Z ## **Why does the conscious community have such a problematic relationship with power?** *There’s something juicy hidden in the cobwebs of this question. I can’t nail it down yet, but here are some initial thoughts:* First, I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing when discussing power. Maybe we are but with different interpretations. - **Power is the ability to *channel energy*.** - **Power is the ability to *effect change*.** - **Power is the ability to *do work*.** In the technical, engineering sense of ‘work’. A lightbulb has power, by channelling energy into light. A bulldozer has power, by modifying the landscape. And yes, of course, individuals like Presidents, celebrities, your parents, and all humans have power, with their ability to impact reality and your life. Channel energy. Affect change. Do work. I see nothing ‘inherently evil’ in any of these. And there are wild performative contradictions too… *“Connect me to my power”* is a fairly common (and in my opinion good) intention that a lot of the spiritual community has used in ceremony at some point. What do they mean by that? If power is evil, why make it an intention? And what of all the Reiki practitioners and ‘energy workers’ who do nothing other than… channel energy? That is power in its most pure form. **Beyond this, a dangerous broader issue lurks underneath this tumultuous relationship with power.** On a global level, a lot of these same people advocate for drastically reducing power consumption on global, national, and individual levels. This is a slippery slope that far too few people grok fully. **It’s simple, really: YOU require power. YOU need energy. If we want to reduce ‘power consumption’ and ‘energy use’, why don’t we just reduce YOU?** This becomes anti-humanistic dangerously quickly. This is the essence of the ‘paperclip maximizer’ artificial intelligence problem that was popularized in the nascent days of AI development. With a single objective, AI might realize that human beings are a source of energy/power, and turn them into a fuel source. Same idea, different direction. - Yes, dangerous things can be done by powerful people. - Yes, the allure of power can be corruptive. - Yes, positions of power tend to disproportionately attract corrupt and corruptible individuals. It’s cliche at this point, you’ve heard it before, but anything can be used for good or bad: > “The axe can be used to remove a fallen tree from your neighbours house, or used to remove your neighbours head from his body.” Power is no different. The challenge for us is that particularly in the Modern West, we have decoupled the cultivation of power from the moral/ethical frameworks that bound it. You see this in the McMindfulness movement of corporate America. You take meditation—an ancient practice with a profound impact on individuals’ lives—and decouple the practice from the comprehensive ethical, moral, and philosophical framework it was embedded in, and give the physical practice to overworked employees to boost morale and increase productivity. Same thing with the asana practice of Yoga. Yogic philosophy has one of the most advanced and comprehensive ethical, moral, and philosophical foundations around, which the physical asana practice was a part. **I think we missed the point with the power discussion.** It’s not about eliminating power, it’s about reintroducing, and hopefully even improving, the moral/ethical/philosophical/communal foundations that helped bind it, and put power in service of flourishing and comprehensive well-being. Power is here to stay. It’s the bedrock of your physical incarnation. We best learn how to steward it properly. Onward, EB ### The Tao of Physics URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/tao-of-physics/ Last updated: 2024-12-05T21:01:22.000Z This is a review of the Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. ### Blood & Ink: Anger Addiction URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/55/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:19.000Z ## **I’m switching it up a bit today…** When I’m rooted at home, my routine is consistent: I wake up at sunrise, journal, and then sit down and write whatever the day’s Blood & Ink piece is. Today, I wrote in my private pages about something that I think is important to share. Perhaps only important for me to say ‘out loud’, but maybe it will resonate with you too. --- ### There is a part of me, not very deep under the surface, that loves the opportunity to wallow in self-pity, lethargy, and disappointment… It seeks them out and capitalizes on them the moment an emotional challenge arises. It perpetuates and complicates brief moments into multi-day existential fits. - *Why is this?* - *What is the benefit?* - *Am I still seeking evidence to support the narrative of being broken, unworthy, and ‘justified’ in my emotional immaturity?* - *Am I that hungry for an excuse to be thrown off my game entirely?* - *Is there still such a vast wellspring of unprocessed negative emotion in me that any catalyst sets it off like dynamite?* **I don’t know. I do know that I’m better than this.** I have the tools to help these emotions pass through like the fleeting path of a butterfly in space. And yet, we are still right here. This is the reality in front of me. - *Is upset ‘safer’ than happiness?* - *Do I feel narcissistic if I don’t ‘allow’ small moments to ‘adequately’ bother me?* - *What would I say to a friend who brought this situation to me?* In some way—still—these moments are more emotionally visceral to me than positive emotions. - *Is this it?* - *They make me feel more alive?* - *Perpetuating negative/challenging emotion so that I can feel things more deeply?* **Damn, dude.** I need to deepen my positive emotional practices. Loving-kindness meditation, music I love, better conversations with loved ones, gratitude practice. *And there’s something about the addictive aspect of anger…* Something feels so righteous, empowering, and enlivening when the adrenaline of ‘sacred rage’ is coursing through my veins. We’ve got to work on this man. This is managed at home, not in ceremony. It’s time to integrate this, and access the alive, awake energy in positive and empowering emotions too. Let’s get to it, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Commit, or Quit. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/54/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:19.000Z *“Commit, or quit.”* ## **I love this heuristic so much. It’s wildly confronting.** *If you’re not committed to something, why is it part of your life?* Most of you have probably encountered Derek Sivers' “hell yeah, or no” quote before—same vibe. **You dishonour yourself, whoever else is involved, and whatever the thing is—with your floppy wet fish, quasi-committed attitude.** As much as you think you’re doing a great job of hiding it—somehow ‘protecting’ others from your internal division—everyone knows. They feel it. It radiates off of you. Now it’s important to say: being fully committed to something doesn’t mean that the thing is going to work out, be perfect, or effortless. That’s the sticky residue of ‘all or nothing’ sensationalist thinking. In reality, the orientation of *“I’m only going to commit to things that I know are going to work out 100%, for me, for the best.”* will have you committed to precisely nothing your whole life long. **Nothing worthy of your commitment is going to be easy, effortless, or guaranteed.** Usually, it’s the opposite. Those things most worthy of the greatness of your full commitment will challenge you, tie you up in knots, push your limits, and bring you to the edge of your capacity. Commitment has nothing to do with the *outcome*. Commitment is an *input*. It is a sovereign choice you make and an embodied act of devotion done each day. For a moment — forget about other people, different projects, the uncertain future, even the noble aims you have. Bring it back to your life for a moment: *What does it say about your relationship to yourself and your life when you are not fully committed to yourself, or your life?* **It is a profound level of self-betrayal.** *If you’re not committed to your life, why would anything or anyone else be?* Commitment is not a life sentence. It’s not a prison. Maybe there’s a project you’re working on that you don’t have a total commitment to. That’s fine. It’s not a binary between endless martyrdom or dropping the thing entirely. It’s a *negotiation*. What has to be true for you to fully commit to this? Is it changing the scope of what you’re working on? Is it changing the compensation structure so you feel fairly rewarded for your effort? Get clear with yourself, and make it happen. And if those changes can’t be made, if your requirements for full commitment can’t be met, great! You have your answer. *Commit, or quit.* **One of the mental pretzels I wrap myself into at this point is feeling like a failure if I quit something.** Being so attached to my identity as someone who ‘never backs down’ that quitting is never an option. *This is an opportunity to investigate what you are committed to.* - With your one wild and precious life, are you committed to this side project over your flourishing? - With your one wild and precious life, are you more committed to this other person than to your life? **The invitation is to be fully in, fully committed, to your existence here on this planet.** Everything else grows out of that. So long as you never quit on yourself, you can’t fail. This returns us to our opening: by never fully committing to yourself, to your own life, you’ve *already* failed. You’ve never started! *Commit, or quit.* Commit to yourself and your evolution. Commit to humanity and the present moment. Commit to doing good work. Commit to higher principles, like Truth, Goodness, Beauty, God, Virtue, and Life. > **It’s not conceited narcissism to be fully committed to your Life. It is the very starting point of the life you are destined to live on this planet.** The specific projects, people, and places that best match your commitments will change as consistently as the seasons. No problem. But honour yourself enough to be fully committed. **The energy of total commitment, presence, and attention is so liberating to yourself and others that the rest takes care of itself.** You’ve got this, EB. ### Blood & Ink: On Self-Sacrifice URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/53/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:19.000Z *“To become who you want to be, you must sacrifice who you are.”* ## **I talk about transformation in an intense frame…** Part of it is my personality, it’s what works for me. Part of it, I feel, is ‘true’. I’ve spent over a decade work-playing in the *“conscious, spiritual, healing”* space. Sometimes, how I talk about growth work rubs people the wrong way. - *“Not everything is so serious dude.”* - *“Too much masculine, not everything is a test/lesson/battle.”* - *“But you don’t have free will and all change is the grace of God anyway.”* There is truth to be found here. In fairness, I have been overly hard on myself, my heart has been given less priority than my mind, and a core part of me clings to the illusion of control and the power of will. But despite valid critique from fellow sparring partners, this energy in me has never left. **The person you are becoming will cost you no less—and no more—than the person you are today.** *Your current life is the cost of entry to your future.* You can’t “have your cake and eat it too.” The confidence you’re trying to cultivate requires sacrificing your timid tendencies. You bring yourself to the altar of Life as a devotional sacrifice, releasing yourself, and allowing the metaphysical transmutation to happen on its own. Oddly enough—and somewhat counterintuitively—I think it’s the laissez-faire, go-with-the-flow, soft spirituality folk who cling too tightly. Starting at \~18, I was violently thrust into a death/evolution process. Everything around me crumbled. My vision of my future cracked and disappeared, my psyche went to war with itself, and my understanding of reality flipped completely. To be clear, I didn’t want, or ask, for any of it. I didn’t enjoy it. It wasn’t pretty, empowering, or welcomed. I struggled and suffered for years. Cocktails of pharmaceutical medications, one faceless, monotone therapist after another, battling side-effects with different side-effects. But the other side of it is brilliant. The psycho-spiritual death process, the sacrifice of who I was for who I am, was the most brilliant gift I’ve ever been given. Now, I have (as much as possible) a warm, positive, open, welcoming orientation to this profound, humbling, and existentially challenging process of change. When everything crumbles down inside of and around me, my response now is, *“Ah excellent, the seed of this stage is cracking open, and a more powerful Self is now ready to grow out of it.”* **Natural Law is metal AF.** Nature is immensely powerful. The flow of the Tao generates volcanic eruptions, tectonic plate shifts, and the suffocating death grip of a boa constrictor as effortlessly and passionately as it creates butterflies. The process of profound self-transformation can be intensely and acutely challenging. I believe the more challenging, raw, and visceral it feels, the deeper you’re going. Because while it’s easy to sit on your cushion and say you want to feel confident, inspired, loving, and joyous, it’s harder to place yourself on the sacrificial table. - *Are you willing to let go of your self-concept as a good person?* - *Are you ready to sacrifice your lack of absolute responsibility?* - *Will you admit that you have precisely, profoundly, and absolutely no real idea what is going on here?* **The life that you want, the person you want to be, asks for only one simple thing from you: give me everything you are.** This is not negative. Give yourself fully to the Great Process of Change, and align yourself with the flow of Natural Law. Allow destruction, creation, and evolution to merge into a single, indistinguishable, ecstatic whole—and realize that *you are that*. You have never been anything other than that. You cannot ever be separate from this endless process of flux, change, evolution, and adaptation. The Tao doesn’t worry about you losing your self-concept of good/bad just like it doesn’t worry when you trim your fingernails. Put yourself as a willing sacrifice upon the altar of Life. Set your life on fire. And as mysteriously and magically as sound arises out of silence, you will rise from the ashes anew, reborn into and through the most ancient mystery in all of existence. Because this is who you are. You are that. You are the Timeless, Eternal, Mysterious process of inevitable and endless change. Trust. Let Go. Be Open. I love you, well done, keep going! EB ### Blood & Ink: Gentle Violence URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/52/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:19.000Z *“No one will know the violence it took to become this gentle.”* ## It’s unclear who this quote should be correctly attributed to… Parts of the internet claim it as Ralph Waldo Emerson, while others credit ‘Eben Britton’, an American NFL football player. Messenger aside, something in this message speaks to a core part of me. It reminds me of another hauntingly beautiful quote I came across many years ago… from ‘Lost’ by Charles Bukowski: > *“…those who escape hell, however, never talk about it & nothing much bothers them after that.”* Undergoing the initiation of getting unflinchingly real with yourself is no easy process. The other side of ‘doing the work’ *can* be beautiful: confidence, groundedness, contentment, vitality, and aliveness. But the pathway there is often fraught with challenges, initiations, shadows, traps, blindspots, pain, and discomfort of all varieties. *But it’s in the eyes… it’s always in the eyes…* I can see when someone has gone through hell and come out the other side. They have the small knowing smile of acknowledgement, the sacred witness looking back at you, *“ah yes, I have been there too. I see you.”* Sometimes—perhaps often—the work is not beautiful. It’s not glamorous. It’s easy to think that the work you have to do is not the work in front of you now. - **Why am I bored?** *I need to be confronting the yawning abyss of reality!* - **Why is my sexuality so difficult to express?** *I want the strength of my character challenged!* - **Why is my ceremony so gentle?** *I was looking for an initiation!* Your work is your work, at precisely the moment when it emerges in front of you. Boredom, rest, anger, controlling the passions, metaphysical restructuring. It’s all fair game. It’s all a necessary and next step toward true liberation. Don’t look away. Don’t hold back. Keep going. While those who have gone through hell don’t talk about it, you see it in their eyes. You hear it in their voice. The whispers of personal triumph. The spark of eternal overcoming. The gentleness on the integrated side of violence. You’ve got this, keep going. EB ### Blood & Ink: The Mind-Body Reality URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/51/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:20.000Z *“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.”* *— Thucydides* ## **Did you know Plato’s real name wasn’t even Plato?** Plato means *“broad-shouldered”* in Greek. He was an Olympic Wrestler. There are legends that he used to settle arguments just by flexing at people. 😂 In a real way, his physicality *was* his strongest argument. I’ll do another piece on this—*bringing back the ad hominem*—sometime soon. Now this quote is a quintessential example of the Warrior ethos. Illustrating the mythology permeating ancient Greek culture. But let’s make it personal: > *“The individual that separates his study from his training—his mind from his body, his theory from his practice—lacks courage in his arguments and skill in his actions.”* **There is a marked difference in the quality, conviction, and force behind someone's words when they have the physical strength and skills to back up what they say.** If you know—consciously or unconsciously—that you don’t want to offend someone because if they get pissed off they could beat the sh\*t out of you, it’s unimaginable the level of self-filtering that happens. The gap between what you think and say grows vast. Even what you allow yourself to think becomes limited over time. It takes courage, discipline, strength, and character to develop a strong body. You can’t get there by accident. Those characteristics feed into the quality and strength of your thoughts and speech. **The quintessential distinction between a Warrior and a Soldier is a total commitment to a transcendent ideal.** A soldier takes orders and puts his martial skills towards them. A Warrior decides what is *worthy* of his martial skill, and then acts in service of this. This requires purity of heart, strength of mind, and quality of thought. There’s a very simple, and very real connection between the two of these, one I have neglected for far too long in my life: *if you’re so smart, why aren’t you strong?* **There is no distinction between mind and body.** The form of your body is a living representation of the form of your mind. Weak body, weak mind. Inflexible body, inflexible mind. Sick body, sick mind. Don’t neglect this. Cultivate your greatness. I love you, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Cracking the Koans URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/50/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:20.000Z *“I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle - even though it cannot be solved - is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.”* *— Tom Robbins* ## **Koan’s appeared in many of my ceremonies during my 2-week diet…** The ‘unsolvable riddles’ of the Rinzai school of Zen, with footnotes to ancient Taoism. That quote is one of my favourites of all time. It points to something of profound importance. To try my hand at an all-but-inadequate interpretation, I’ll start with a line from Alan Watts: > *“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”* The point of a Koan is not an answer. The end game of koan practice is a *natural* and *spontaneous* act. To run the mind in circles attempting to resolve a problem that cannot be resolved. It can’t be resolved because it’s not a *question*. It’s an *invitation*. - You don’t ‘solve’ dancing. *You dance.* - You don’t get an ‘answer’ to breathing. *You breathe.* - You aren’t being ‘tested’ in life. *You participate.* The last statement of Robbins’ quote is of unique interest to us here. What happens—and indeed what the aim of a koan is—is to tie the rational, thinking mind in knots. To frustrate it so deeply and so profoundly with its inadequacy to effectively solve the problem, that in a great fit of resignation, the mind is dropped entirely. This opens the space for grace. That is, the deep and ancient intelligence stored in the body, in the heart, and indeed in all of life itself, is finally allowed to burgeon forth in a completely natural, spontaneous act. This is why some of the ‘answers’ to koans seem so ridiculous. > “What is the Buddha?” *Three pounds of flax.* Flax seed is HERE. In REALITY. This is the origin-moment and the end goal of all Zen training. Here and now. Grounded in reality. Beyond the fantastical machinations of mind and merging fully with the Tao, the great river of being that flows through and orchestrates all things. One of the things I love about koans is they offer you a powerful paradigm shift: stop looking for better *answers*, start looking for better *questions*. Here are a couple of ‘unanswerable questions’ I love: - *Who am I?* - *What do I want?* - *What am I truly capable of?* These can never be answered in any final and satisfactory sense. Why? Because as soon as you’ve got it, it’s gone. You, yourself, are the great force of change. Constant, dynamic, vital flux. The moment you’ve got an answer, you’ve changed reality, and thus changed the possibility-space of the question. The moment you reach a milestone, a new one is born. They arise mutually. But the gold is in the pursuit. The earnest endeavour to answer them in your very Way of Being is transformative. **The only way to answer the question of *“what am I capable of?”* is to do it!** It’s not a theoretical question. You are capable of no less and no more than exactly what you do. If you’ve ever done indoor rock climbing, they often have these pre-made pathways up the walls with various difficulties. What do they call them? *Problems.* Koans are a sacred sparring partner. It’s not about victory. It’s about refinement, dynamic tension, elevating standards, and shifting paradigms. Let’s pursue some better questions, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Regret vs. Failure URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/49/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:20.000Z ## **Regret is more painful than failure…** Failure *stings*. Regret *endures*. Failure uniquely can hit you in the sweet spot where your insecurities meet your ambitions. - *I’ll never get this thing that I desire.* - *I knew I wasn’t good enough for it anyway.* - *Is there something wrong with me?* It hurts, I get it. But failure—properly metabolized—is temporary. Reflect, learn, reorient, reengage. Regret, on the other hand, is a long, slow, drawn-out process. It bleeds you of vitality, energy, and attention. While failure can be integrated and become another moment in your life story, regret from never having truly attempted the thing lingers. It stays in your mind, an open loop, an endless question: *“Could I have done it?”* I can live with failure if I know that I tried. It’s substantially harder to live with the regret of knowing that you never really tried to do it. It leaves you stuck somewhere in the past. Imagining, fantasizing, wondering, ruminating. **All to say — hold nothing back. Leave it all on the field. Send it.** Deep investment in the input. Leave the outcome to God. You can always hold your head up high and say I gave it the best shot I could. There is a deep peace that comes from that. *And what do you know – it might just work out.* Give it your all, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Bottom-Up Evolution URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/48/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:21.000Z ## **Nothing changes if nothing changes…** *This line is tattooed across my mental landscape.* It’s the essence of *integration*. **If you want to change your life, change the life you live.** - What do you eat? How do you eat? - How do you speak? What do you speak about? - Where do your time, energy, and attention flow? - Who do you surround yourself with? - What environment do you live in? This is one of the deeply problematic traps I see many people fall into in the psychedelic and plant medicine communities. Wishful, childish dream-hopes that ‘the medicine’ will change everything. You go on your 6-hour ordeal and life auto-magically restructures itself around your latest fleeting dreams. **What medicine work does exceptionally well is cultivate an *inspired* *energetic state* within you, that hopefully you can work with as a limitless reservoir of inspiration, aspiration, and perspiration to go back home and make the real changes with as much ease, playfulness, and vital passion as possible.** Another line reminds us, *“God helps those who help themselves.”* *If you’re not willing to do the work and make the changes, why would the medicine show up for that?* But do not abandon all hope, ye who enter this path… for deep in the cave of this realization there is a golden treasure waiting for you: **If you want to change your life, change parts of your life.** Too often, we wait for some far-flung epiphany of great inspiration, the mythical tsunami wave of motivation, or great moments of sudden vivid clarity. All that does is abandon our agency. Evolution happens bottom-up. - **Set your alarm 5 minutes earlier each week.** After 3 months, you’re an hour earlier. After a year, you’re in the 5 am club with clean energy. - **Take a 5-minute walk each day.** You’ll like it so much that eventually you’ll do more. Somehow—secretly—there will come a day when you regularly take long walks, with no idea how the time in your calendar appeared. - **Give 1 person an authentic compliment each week.** Before you know it, you’re a happier person, and all your important relationships are one level deeper and more loving. - **Do 1 pushup a day.** Suddenly, you’ve got a consistent 20-minute daily workout routine going, with no real idea how it happened. But what’s important is that on the other side of these impossibly small changes that took root into regular patterns, you’ve now: become a morning person, prioritize recovery and time in nature, are a good friend and have meaningful relationships, and are fit and take care of your health. **Massive, identity-level transformations, lovingly grown from the small seeds of daily intentional action.** It’s not fancy, but fortunately, it’s not rocket science. Nothing changes if nothing changes. But everything changes if everything changes. No hurry, no pause. Small changes, compounding effects, massive evolution. Let’s get to it, you’ve got this. EB. ### Blood & Ink: The Zen Maxims URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/47/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:21.000Z ## **Nana korobi, ya oki…** A Zen proverb that translates to *“fall down seven times, stand up eight.”* To me, it means that with as little deliberation as possible—with minimal complaint, catastrophizing, or self-degradation—just get back on the horse. For 3 weeks I was at Kumankaya Healing Center in the Mayan jungles of Mexico. Getting power, let alone internet, in a place that remote is an act of incredible ingenuity. Tropical storm Sara ripped through Mexico during this time and tore up the electrical system. No power or internet for \~3 days, and when it returned it was only an hour a day. It threw me off this publication. I was also deep in my process and needed as much isolation and quiet time as possible. It’s particularly easy for me to fall into ‘all or nothing’ thinking. *“Either I do this perfectly, or not at all.”* A moment like this—missing my daily writing commitment—would’ve derailed me into dropping the project entirely, affirming a story that I’m not cut out for it, and feeling like a failure. *But what of it?* I’m back home in Costa Rica now. Settled. Here we are. **This rings of another classic Zen story, Joshu’s Bowl:** *A monk told Joshu, “I have just entered the monastery. Please teach me.”* *Joshu asked, “Have you eaten your rice porridge?* *The monk replied, “I have eaten.”* *Joshu said, “Then you had better wash your bowl.”* *At that moment the monk was enlightened.* **Without hesitation, with as little story as possible, do the next natural action.** I am settled. I have power. I will write. No storytelling, no spirals. Just back to it. There are probably many areas of your life where this simple wisdom could be applied to great effect. I’m glad to be back. I’ve missed this. The last 3 weeks were a pivotal moment, and I’m ready to pour it all into the pages in front of me. No hurry, no pause. Let’s get to it, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Friday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/46/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:21.000Z ## “Am I doing this out of courage, or fear?” *This question brings great clarity.* A ruthless katana, cutting quickly to the heart of the matter. Life rewards great courage. Reality hungers for the brave, bold, and fully alive. If you’re stuck on something, ask yourself this question. Would this choice be made out of courage—born of what is most true, good, and beautiful inside of me—or out of fear, letting smallness, apathy, and uncertainty win? This should be enough of a trailhead to get you started toward deeper clarity. I was *humbled* in my ceremony last night. Extremely challenging experience, but profoundly beautiful on the other side of it. I walked in feeling like hot shit. Just off a successful retreat, getting a bunch more ceremonies under my belt. Back on the mat. I knew what I was doing. I knew how to handle this. *WHAM.* Endless oceans of unfathomably complex organic intelligence opened up in front of me. Staring deep into a labyrinthine maze composed of sound, light, and space—shifting in violently geometric impossibilities. Ah, how little we know. How much there is to learn, grow, play, dance, and explore. And the simple way to move forward in light of the insurmountable complexity of Reality? Choose courage. Every time. You can do it, I love you. EB. ### Blood & Ink: Thursday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/45/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:21.000Z “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savour) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” — E.B. White ## To savour the world must come first… *Of what use is saving the world if you cannot appreciate it?* The world is not in mortal danger. The Earth will continue for timeless millennia. It is the heart of humanity that is at stake. I’ve been dieting *Marosa* for the past few days. A plant known in shamanic ethnopharmacology for its work on the heart, self-love, and fundamental connection to God and the planet. *Intimacy* is a big theme emerging for me, in dreams, thoughts, and visions. To put it crudely, it’s reopening the Lover archetype in me. The Lover—in its fullness—plants the seed for the Mystic to grow. Deep, fundamental, loving connection to Self, Other, and World. Many of the legendary Warrior cultures I’ve written about were great Stewards of the Arts. This is no coincidence. The Shaolin Monks of China were the first to domesticate Tea—*Camellia Sinensis*—and turn it into a ritual and practice known around the world today. The Samurai cultivated the arts of calligraphy, flower arrangement, and of course, the *haiku* poem. Capturing the essence and intimacy of the moment in front of them. Learn to savour the world. Become intimate. A passionate lover of existence. Let this love rip your heart open, and lead you into battle for the True, Good, and Beautiful. You must savour the world first, EB. *p.s.: I missed my first daily release yesterday. I apologize to you and me for missing this commitment. Without hesitation, we continue forward.* ### Blood & Ink: Tuesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/44/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:21.000Z ## No Hurry, No Pause. The story goes that Tim Ferriss used to write this on the top of his notebooks, as reminders to himself. Expanding on this in an interview, he adds *“Luxury, to me, is feeling unrushed.”* To put this into practice today, remember: > **Try to do everything 10% slower.** There’s real magic hidden here. Try it for a few days and you’ll intuitively pick up on it. This is what happens: everything you need to do gets done. It gets done in what you perceive as the same amount of time. You might even get it done faster because you’re more intentional in what you’re doing. Here’s what doesn’t happen: the anxiety, neuroticism, and frantic urgency that accompanies being in a hurry. *It goes further…* **This is how you align yourself with the Flow of Life.** This is the natural pace of existence. Everything happens in its proper time. Life does not hurry to get anywhere. Nor does it stop. Endless, gentle, river-like motion. **Aligning yourself with the Great River of Being is as simple as this: No Hurry. No Pause.** Do it for long enough and magic happens. You’ve got this, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Monday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/43/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:22.000Z ## My apologies for the delay in getting this out today… I just spent the last week leading our latest [Apotheosis Retreat](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). It was *phenomenal*. **I’m also starting a 10-Day Master Plant Diet today.** A little nervous about this one. 10 days, 6 ceremonies, another week and a half beyond the retreat I just ran. *This is where the magic happens.* The moment when you think you’ve given it all, when you’re pushed to your limits, you access a wellspring of vital energy previously inaccessible. I will continue to get these pieces out—my commitment to publishing daily here remains unbroken. But they might not come at the regularly scheduled morning delivery. Do not waiver brother. You’ve got this. Half dust, half deity, EB. ### Blood & Ink: Sunday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/42/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:22.000Z ## Strong opinions, loosely held… A favorite aphorism of mine given how hard it is to do. Humility is an essential component of self-awareness and growth. It means seeing yourself clearly and acknowledging faults or poor thinking without being overcome by a story about them. But a silent trap lurking in the corner of this development is a *lack of conviction*. Never going all in on the present. Always contending with whispers of doubt. Constantly second-guessing yourself will have you running in circles. Yes, you must be open to feedback, new information, and better arguments. But be firm in your convictions once you have them. Let them be *weight-bearing*. Hold them loosely, but make them strong. Be bold brothers, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Saturday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/41/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:22.000Z ## The name ‘Plato’ was given to him to mean ‘broad-shouldered’… *This was Plato’s conception of the ideal citizen…* The Scholar-Warrior. **The man of Thought and Action.** Some accounts have Plato settling disagreements simply by flexing. 😅 His body and wrestling prowess were enough of an argument against his adversary. Many of us are over-indexed on one. Find the balance, and cultivate Mind and Body. Both of these pursuits, cultivating the mind and the body, require the cultivation of the Spirit to see them through to completion. Embrace the way of the Scholar-Warrior, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Friday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/40/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:22.000Z “How you do anything is how you do everything.” ## Very few quotes have impacted my life as profoundly as this one… I believe it to be *ontologically true*. This is *how reality works*. ***You* are the common denominator across every activity, moment, breath, thought, word, and action in your life.** How you show up manifests in everything you do. - If you are lazy with your chores, you’ll be lazy with your speech. - If you are disciplined with your exercise, you’ll be disciplined with your work. - If you are present with your family, you’ll be present with your partner. **Your Way of Being influences everything.** *Herein lies the gift…* It’s bi-directional. Change how you do things, and you’ll change how you are. Change how you are, and you’ll change how you do things. This is Change. Growth. Evolution. Development. **How you do anything is how you do everything.** Do things with care, passion, and purpose, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Thursday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/39/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:23.000Z ‌“Beauty is the proper dwelling place for an enlightened consciousness.” – Jordan Peterson, Biblical Lectures ## Re-watching some of JBP’s biblical lectures when he dropped this gem during Q&A at the end of the first lecture… The question asked why the churches of antiquity were so grand, ornate, and beautiful. I wrote a bit about this in my recent essay on [Cathedral Consciousness](https://seriousplay.substack.com/p/cathedral-consciousness). But there’s something further I want to point out… **You, too, have this enlightened consciousness within you. In a very real way, you are this enlightened consciousness.** You can make every aspect of your life beautiful, a dwelling place suitable for the quality of your character. - Make your body strong and aesthetic. - Make your words sharp and poetic. - Make your clothing clear and dignified. - Make your smile glowing and radiant. - Make your movements intentional and purposeful. - Make your home brilliant and inviting. - Make your thoughts pure and loving. **After all, beauty is the proper dwelling place for an enlightened consciousness.** You are that. Make your life beautiful, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Wednesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/38/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:23.000Z ## **You didn’t come this far to only come this far…** You are in the middle of the greatest game ever played. A character with limitless adaptability, a lifetime’s worth of energy, and a magical playground surrounding you at all times. And what a storyline… …dropped into the game at a critical juncture, with myriad challenges facing you and your brethren. Endless opportunities to level up your skills, acquire rare goods, collaborate with fellow players, and take on some of the most pressing and persistent final bosses that the world can offer. *And you want to stop!? Get to Level 33 and check out? Spend the rest of your time in this grand adventure completing side quests for pocket change to spend at the tavern?* **My brother, you did not come this far to only come this far.** The entire world lays at your feet. You can reinvent yourself at any moment. Dream up entirely new adventures, develop new skills, and join greater communities. *You are the hero of your own story.* This can be the moment that everything changes. The spark that ignited the inferno of your passion. There is much more to be done. Let’s play better games, together, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Tuesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/37/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:23.000Z ## **You’re busy because your priorities are out of whack…** *Everything meaningful is a long-term endeavour.* There is an eternal balancing act between effort and patience. You can tend to the garden and create the best conditions, but you can’t rush fate. Plants need time to grow. In experiences I’ve run and people I’ve worked with, when people get honest with themselves, their priorities, hopes, and dreams often boil down to 3-4 major categories. Family. Work. Health. Spirituality. Relationships. When you’re playing games over decades, on any given day all you need is one clear, effective action. Honestly, to avoid burning out, this is generally all you can ask of yourself. **One clear, effective action.** These actions—whatever they are—rarely take that long. - One good, present conversation with your intimate partner. - 2 hours of focused, high-leverage work. - A core daily practice like meditation, yoga, or prayer. - 20-minute workout. Everything meaningful in your life can be done in the hours of 8-12 am each day. *Why then are you so busy?* When overwhelmed, do less. Stop doing anything and everything and give time to your most meaningful priorities. You’ve got this, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Monday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/36/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:23.000Z ## **Chogyam Trungpa’s got the best definition of a warrior…** In revisiting ‘[Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior](https://www.amazon.com/Shambhala-Sacred-Warrior-Chogyam-Trungpa/dp/1590304519?ref=zenmedicine.co)’, Trungpa starts the book by outlining what *warriorship* means in the Tibetan prophecy and lineage. **Translating from Tibetan, warrior means ‘one who is brave’.** Warriorship is the ‘tradition of human bravery’ or, better put, the ‘tradition of fearlessness’. **This is the Warrior spirit I am after.** While the battlefield is a most ready and obvious arena where fearlessness and bravery are needed, this definition is expansive, allowing all individuals to be Warriors. - It takes bravery to be honest with yourself. - It takes bravery to initiate difficult conversations. - It takes bravery to stand up against injustice. - It takes bravery to keep your heart open. - It takes bravery to pursue your dreams. - It takes bravery to move through dark nights of the soul. **Warriorship is the tradition of human bravery.** Any individual, any culture, without this foundation of bravery at its core, is doomed. An inevitable victim to the slow arc of entropy. *What areas of your life need your bravery right now? Where is courage being called for?* Call upon your spirit brothers and sisters. The world is with you. Go forward, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Sunday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/35/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:23.000Z ## **We’ve been at this for over a month together…** It feels like I’m just getting started. A good sign in my opinion! *The ritual is incredible.* Waking the sunrise, as the calm glow of the morning sun hits the jungle canopy, I sit down and write. Writing is essential. It’s like breathing for me. It feels right and good to put it first in my day. By the time 7am hit, I’ve already won the day. I did what was most important. My creative engines are firing. Having to put something out each day means I’m constantly looking for and thinking about things to write. It’s opened a floodgate of easy creativity. Thank you for your trust and presence here. It means a lot.I will continue to improve this, month by month, day by day. **I will make these pieces the most exciting, important, and insightful part of your day.** *And together—through blood and ink—we will forge our destinies together.* Onward, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Saturday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/34/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:23.000Z ## **We need to reclaim the word ‘elite’…** Our definition of *‘the elites’* is the ruling political and financial class. I propose a more apt term for this segment of society: **parasites*.* There is nothing elite about these people. The etymological roots of *elite* in Latin refers to those of ‘*excellence*’, ‘being *exceptional*’, and ‘those who *excel*’. What is it that this ruling class excels at? Other than the efficient and effective syphoning of lifeforce (in the form of money and attention) from the populous? They are a parasite. An infection. Freeriders. Rent seekers. They add no value because they have no value to give. They are not productive. They generate no new creation or opportunity. Their existence is playing a game of how much power and influence they can wield, for the longest amount of time, for the greatest benefit to themselves, at the expense of the host body. *This is parasitic behaviour.* Too many people I know—some of the purest and most excellent examples of humanity I have met—actively reject elitism and the associated personality traits. When they look at the people who are in this class now, all they see are narcissistic, machiavellian, psychopathic parasites. I wouldn’t want to emulate that either! What other traits are often lumped into the elite class? Power, status, influence, wealth. **In rejecting the pursuit of elitism, they necessarily reject power, status, influence, wealth, and more.** All of which are neutral characteristics that could be used in service of the highest good. We must reclaim elitism. We must rebrand and reveal these people for what they are: parasites of the body politic. And the best of us, once again empowered by the noble pursuit of excellence, reclaim the meritocratic elite status that is our birthright. **Don’t be duped by parasites.** Be elite, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Friday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/33/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:24.000Z ## **We’ve got everything backwards in the mental health world…** Depression and anxiety are known and classified as *mood disorders*. But what is not mentioned is that they are also *behavioural disorders*. **You *act* depressed.** Not to imply that depression is a *performance*, but to remind us that moods are *secondary byproducts*. When a plant is placed in a good environment, with proper nutrition, and a healthy ecosystem, it thrives. As is its nature to do so. Humans are no different. **Depression and anxiety for most people are an *inevitable outcome* of how they live their lives.** *You spend all day inside, stagnant, under artificial light, eating toxic foods, doomscrolling — and expect yourself not to be afflicted?* The environment, the behaviours, and the nutrition are completely out of whack. This opens a door to a brilliant opportunity: **act differently.** This is why anti-depressant medications are life sentences: people are unwilling to change how they act. And thus they are always treading water, trying to fend off the inevitable symptoms of that lifestyle for the rest of their lives. **Change how you act.** How does someone happy and thriving act? Do that *now.* The mood will follow, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Thursday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/32/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:24.000Z *"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”* *— Plato, The Republic* ## This quote smacked me… **At some stage of an individual’s awakening, they begin to wrestle with the important opportunity to take total responsibility for their lives.** This is an important moment. Step up to the plate. Take charge of your health, wealth, and happiness. Something I’ve been wrestling with is: *how does this apply to politics?* **Everyone complains that politics is useless. That politicians are spineless, corrupt morons – and yet, the very people who would make excellent leaders, who could inspire people and return us to cultures of greatness, avoid politics like the plague.** I don’t believe it is an accident that so many people we remember from ancient history were directly involved in politics, or closely adjacent to it. - **Marcus Aurelius:** the last great emperor of Rome. - **Leonidas:** King of Sparta. - **Tu Fu:** one of the greatest Taoist poets, was a political advisor in his day-to-day life. - While not *directly* politicians, every religious avatar (Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu), caused massive political waves in their time. - **Alexander the Great:** led the greatest empire of all time. - **Socrates:** put to death for how much he impacted politics. - **Diogenes:** visited and respected by Alexandar the Great. - **The Founding Fathers** of the US. We need great political leaders. They shape the chapters of history, inspire the masses, and live an example for us to strive toward. To say the pursuit of politics is fruitless is part of the problem. Is everyone meant to be a politician? No. I’m pretty happy with where Elon Musk is right now in the entrepreneurial world. **Your entire life is political. Every action you take and decision you make is a vote for how things should be, for the world you want to see.** Avoiding politics rescinds your power, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Wednesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/31/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:24.000Z “Strong back. Open heart. Grounded in dignity.” ## **This is one of my favourite mantras…** Deceptively simple, nested within it is an entire operating system for being an upstanding human in this Earthly realm. ### **Strong back.** Stand up straight. Pull your shoulders back. Hold your head up high. Root your feet down into the Earth. Stand, walk, and sit like you recognize and appreciate how sacred the gift of life is, and how grateful you are to it. Make every posture, every asana, every position a prayer. Presenting yourself in this way opens up space and memetic opportunity for others to do the same. Walk like you remember who you are. ### **Open heart.** Everyone is in this together. Everyone is trying to do their best. A strong back is a *prerequisite* for an open heart. Without a strong spine, upright head, and open chest, your heartspace is contracted, compressed, and pointed down to the ground. A strong back comes first. Then open your heart. Be gentle yet firm with all you meet. A small gesture like a smile, hug, or honest question goes a long way. Take a genuine interest in people, and cultivate fierce compassion for yourself too. When we close our hearts to the world, we’ve lost the game in a very real way. ### **Grounded in Dignity.** In the Shambhala Prophecy, the assumption of *“basic human goodness”* is a core tenet. Everyone you meet, including yourself, has this basic goodness as their essence. Dignity is the natural expression of basic goodness. When you have a strong back, an open heart, and a commitment to expressing your basic goodness – wisdom, clear decision-making, and a willingness to act come naturally. **These 3 factors combined can hold you through every situation, circumstance, problem, and moment in your life.** No matter where you are or what you’re doing — keep a strong back, an open heart, grounded in dignity. Onward, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Tuesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/30/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:25.000Z ## **Your external world is a reflection of your internal world…** An insight that often arises deep in the psychedelic headspace, and a go-to catchphrase of the new-age spiritual community. *The world out there is just a reflection of the world in here.* **I agree with this completely. I believe it to be true.** But it has some challenging implications that I don’t think the spiritual community has fully wrestled with… - If you’re so strong, why is your body weak and out of shape? - If you’re so abundant, why are you broke? - If you’re so loving, why all the self-sabotage and criticism? - If you’re so beautiful, why do you look dishevelled? *Something hasn’t clicked.* I think the natural conclusions are too challenging or frustrating for most of us. - Maybe I’m not as strong as I believe… - Maybe I’m not abundant… - Maybe I’m not acting from a place of love… - Maybe I don’t value beauty… - Maybe I’m not as great as I thought… **… YET!** Your external world IS a total reflection of your internal world. If you’re broke, out of shape, isolated, or self-sabotaging, it means you have work to do! This is cause for celebration, not degradation. *The game is still afoot!* Use your external world as a barometer for internal development. It’s not about specific X, Y, Z accomplishments and attaching too much worth to the externals, but they are great temperature checks to how things are going inside. **The external is a reflection of the internal.** Be honest, and act accordingly, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Monday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/29/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:25.000Z *Aut viam inveniam aut faciam — “I shall either find a way or make one.”* ## **This is the energy that moves the world…** The lightbulb. Democracy. SpaceX creating the largest flying object ever known and catching it out of the air on tiny pegs. An endless list of beauty and brilliance that you take for granted nowadays. None of it was made with *“we’ll see what happens…”* None of it was born out of *“if I align my chakras this will manifest effortlessly…”* **It was made by determined individuals, with a vision of what was possible, and the unbroken spirit to make it a reality.** They either found a way (discovery), or made one (invention). **There is a metaphysical convergence of these two, best highlighted in the ancient term *“inventio”.*** *Creation is discovery.* Like Thomas Edison said, *“I didn’t fail 1000 times creating the lightbulb, I just found 1000 ways not to do it.”* Part invention, part discovery. **Bring your spirit to bear brother. No excuses. No victim mentality. No fetishizing failure.** Whatever you believe, you’re correct. Either find a way, or make one, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Sunday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/28/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:25.000Z *“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”* *– Carl Jung* ## **Show me who you are…** Talk is cheap. The domain of rhetoric and sophistry. **To my astonishment, it was Bitcoin that drilled this lesson into me.** Bitcoins’ fundamental mechanism—the proof-of-work hash function—requires energy to be expended to guess the solution to a massively complex equation. **This energy expenditure is the divine thread that connects the abstract digital realm of Bitcoin to the living and breathing earth.** Solving the hash function requires computation. Computation requires energy. If you deliver the solution for the has function, it demonstrates—undoubtedly—that you *put in the work* to solve it. *“Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”* *— Marcus Aurelius* - Don’t tell me you’re committed to the project. **Show me.** Invest the time and energy, be proactive, and make good on your promises. - Don’t tell me you love someone. **Show me.** Let it shine through evidently in your actions. **People fool themselves (and others) into thinking that what you say is enough.** Until it is grounded in action (read: in reality) it’s hyperbole, mere conjecture. You must put in the work, and demonstrate your proof of work. When a morbidly obese person says “I’m healthy,” – what do you listen to? Their words or their actions? When a triggered husband is arguing with his wife and yells, “I AM calm right now!” – what do you listen to? Their words or their actions? Do not tell me who you are. Do not even tell yourself. **Demonstrate it. Embody it. Be it.** Show me who you are, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Saturday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/27/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:25.000Z *“Accountability feels like persecution to those without integrity.”* ## I don’t know where I heard this, but I love it… Accountability *could* be a gift that others give to you: - I respect you enough to hold you to your word. - I trust you’ll do what you say when you say it. - I support you and hold you to your commitments. Tet so many run away from accountability. Vague commitments. Beating around the bush. Layers of bullsh\*t and excuses. Accountability, for those of integrity, is a source of pride: - I am a man of my word. - You can rely on me. - My word is my bond. - I will either find a way or make one. - I’ve got you. How far we have strayed when accountability feels like a punishment. When it generates fear, resentment, or stress. **With integrity, accountability is a gift. Without it, a punishment, the scales of justice are never in your favour.** *You can change this, brother. At this very moment.* Make your word your bond. Do what you say you will. Do not commit to that which you cannot (or will not) deliver on. Take pride in the basics of being dependable, reliable, and consistent. **Turn accountability into momentum and motivation.** You can do this, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Friday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/26/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:25.000Z ## Obesity is a starvation response. A lot of people don’t realize this, and it certainly doesn’t find its way into public discourse often. **Obesity is the outcome of a starvation response.** The majority of modern, hyper-processed, mass-produced food lacks *real nutrition*. Processed & junk foods are *engineered* to lack nutrition so they don’t trigger a satiety response (feeling of fullness) so that you *can*—and *want to*—*eat more* of them. Even ‘healthy’ mass-produced food is grown in depleted soil, and selected for size instead of nutrient profile. **Although you may be eating a good *volume* of food, your body is not receiving the *nutrition* it needs to survive/thrive.** Here’s what happens: 1. What is the definition of a chronic lack of nutrition? Starvation. 2. What does your body do when it’s starving? Signals to convert *any* food intake to long-term fat storage to protect you. 3. What happens with the food you eat? It gets stored as fat because your body is concerned it’s not getting enough nutrition (which is *true*). 4. What happens when your body stores a lot of fat? Obesity. **This is the real reason most diets work: people just start eating real, nutritious food again.** The body doesn’t have to convert everything to long-term fat storage. Food is utilized better, and fat stores are reduced. The obesity epidemic is not caused by an abundance of food, it’s caused by a lack of nutrition. Eat real, whole, nutrient-dense foods, and you can eat as much as you want. Don’t starve yourself, Eric Brown. P.S.: What foods have the highest *nutrient density* and the greatest *bioavailability* (how easy it is to convert to fuel for your body)? Animal-based products. Organs, meat, dairy – in that order. ### Blood & Ink: Thursday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/25/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:26.000Z *“One of the things we know from the psychotherapeutic literature, every brand of psychotherapy, regardless of its scientific, fundamental, or philosophical orientation, has converged on the idea that voluntary exposure to challenge is curative. To what challenge? To all the challenges of life. So you need to develop a vision of yourself that’s capable of withstanding all the challenges of life.”* *— Jordan Peterson, Vision & Destiny* ## **Everything starts and ends with the vision you have of yourself…** This idea is cliche at this point, but things become cliche for good reason. You MUST see yourself as capable of being the person you desire. 1. You define a vision of yourself as someone who can do/is X, Y, Z. 2. You take the actions that align with how this future person acts, in the present. It’s that simple, and that hard. **You must believe that you can do it *before* you have the evidence that you have done it.** Growth is nothing other than this. Act like the person you want to be until those actions become a natural way of being, and you become the person you envisioned. You are not an imposter if you say *“This is who I want to be, I’m not there YET, but I’m working toward it.”* It’s not hypocritical to set a big goal and work hard to become the person who has achieved it. **Humility and discipline will take you far.** With a clear vision and willing effort, it’s only a matter of time. I believe in you. I believe in you so fully and completely that it would shock you. You can do it. **Create an inspired vision of yourself.** Then act accordingly, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Wednesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/24/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:26.000Z *“I slept and dreamt that life was a joy. I woke up and saw that life was duty. I acted and behold duty was joy.”* *– Miyamoto Musashi* ## **Jordan Peterson says something remarkably similar to this…** > *“The meaning of life is to find the largest burden you can bear, and bear it.”* While there’s room for healthy disagreement, there is a gem of significance here: At any given moment you have the option—and the opportunity—to do what is in front of you. *Aligned, purpose-driven action is meaningful.* It is a foundation for a life of fulfillment, meaning, and orientation. Our culture is plagued—perhaps even *defined*—by a lack of individual responsibility. An unwillingness to rise up, to make commitments, and to honour them. **In a real way, men need purpose more than they need happiness.** These two quotes provide a North Star that can carry you: act in service of your duty. Let your purpose be honouring your responsibilities. Lead your organization. Be a good father. Get your kingdom in order. Help those in need. Develop your skills. Things like this can be ‘oppressive requirements’ of the modern age, or they can be ‘sacred responsibilities’ that fuel you. **The choice is yours.** Act—and behold—duty becomes joy, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Tuesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/23/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:26.000Z “Hope has two beautiful daughters - Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.” — St. Augustine Sending love to you today. **Be courageous.** You’ve got this, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Monday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/22/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:26.000Z ## **When you begin studying Shaolin kung fu, they start you in one place:** > Learning how to stand. *What do you mean I can’t stand? I’ve been standing for decades?* Your standing posture highlights the entirety of your kinetic chain: - Do your ankles collapse inward from weak arches? - How are the bunions on your big toes from wearing shoes? - [Anterior pelvic tilt](https://www.google.com/search?sca%5Fesv=6298c17d4a9e2aad&q=anterior+pelvic+tilt&udm=2&fbs=AEQNm0A-2qeMemLzzt%5F2BVemHLFNuCSl5jMwuDXSDytcTb5xODqo%5FtJpGmaSU4pQVEbQQTDWnMPSk8wZNRhz5PGHQwbe9VGOsTvTC6PzQFjR3A55McI87gzvGpjAGq9Nm2Y19Am3ZfXn3nnrjEbsyiaTAyx5OlH9kfyofUfrh41ii7MJR49ai3I&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0puiU6ZqJAxU0ibAFHcNmAzUQtKgLegQIEBAB&biw=1472&bih=1049&dpr=2&ref=zenmedicine.co) from sitting for decades? - Are your ears, shoulders, and hips aligned? - Are you distributing weight evenly? - Does your head tilt forward from ‘text neck’? - Does the bottom of your ribcage flare outward to compensate for rounded shoulders? **Posture is a subtle gateway into fundamental personality.** *Your history, personality, and lifestyle are written in your posture, for those with eyes to read.* Learning how to stand comes first. Correcting any of the things mentioned on the list can take a considerable amount of time. Fundamental musculoskeletal changes take months and years, not just hours and days. Here’s a fascinating quote from [Yoga and the Quest for the True Self](https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Quest-True-Self-Stephen/dp/055337835X?ref=zenmedicine.co): > *“The entire superstructure of our adult lives is underlain by the primal language of our postures. The primary genius of yoga lies precisely in its recognition of the critical role of the body in the development and transformation of character.”* **Posture and personality are a self-reinforcing feedback loop.** If you feel confident, your shoulders will naturally come back, chest out, head up, with an alert, wide stance. If you lack confidence, you slump down, hide your head, have no eye contact, and generally *contract* yourself. The reverse is true: claiming *a posture of confidence* causes you to *feel confident*. This is the wisdom of the Shaolin and the ancient Yogis: **start with the body.** Taking care of misalignments in the body posture can resolve—on their own—misalignments of the personality. I need to do more yoga, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Sunday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/21/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:27.000Z - Everyone wants the supplement, no one wants to walk ten thousand steps every day. - Everyone wants the surgery, but no one wants a consistent bedtime. - Everyone wants the excuse of ADD, no one wants to meditate. **The ‘shortcut’—over the long run—is always longer than the direct path.** Shortcuts spawn a hydra of second-order implications. Side-effects to be mitigated, finding new shortcuts to resolve the side-effects, constant distraction, and a fragmenting of attention hunting for ever greater shortcuts. **The core problem is reinforcing the Way of Being that is always searching for shortcuts.** - Always distracted, searching for the sneaky route. - Always questioning, wondering where the free lunch is. - Always opportunistic, where the ends always justify the means. - Always incomplete, because there must be something better, out beyond the horizon of awareness. **Seeking the shortcut is finding the Faustian bargain.** In the pursuit of the shortcuts, you sell your serenity. You snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. **In hunting for short-term simplification, you sacrifice long-term satisfaction.** - Instead of spending 3 hours researching the latest app or technological hack to help you write better, faster, and longer – sit down and write the piece in an hour. - Instead of taking a fat loss pill and then having to find solutions and shortcuts to the sleep disorder, bone mineral density loss, and acne side effects – walk 10k steps every day. - Instead of using black hat, morally dubious techniques to hijack the attention of pre-teens on social media while eroding your integrity — create authentic and genuine artistic expressions that draw people toward you. - Instead of wasting hours in the black hole of hyper-niche biohacking techniques and edge-case esoteric interventions, focus on getting your sleep, nutrition, and exercise dialled in. **Do what is required. Put in the work. Do the reps. Stay lucid, present, and on the path.** The direct path is the shortcut, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Saturday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/20/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:27.000Z ## **There’s a desire in me to expand into the ‘gentleman archetype’, if you can call it that…** In re-reading my highlights from ‘[Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior](https://www.amazon.com/Shambhala-Sacred-Warrior-Chogyam-Trungpa/dp/1590304519?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ by Chogyam Trungpa, I reconnected with a central theme he develops: *Basic human dignity.* **He believes *(& according to the Shambhala prophecy)*, all humans have basic goodness inside of them.** Dignity is the outward manifestation and expression of this basic goodness. I grew up abjectly opposed to the *‘suit-wearing middle-manager class’*. I viewed it as a compensation technique and oppressive. A coping mechanism to look good on the outside to make up for internal ugliness, lack of confidence, and weakness. I still believe this, but there is nuance. That is not how all people approach the gentleman’s way. My opinion is shifting… **I believe that taking your appearance seriously, and beyond that, actively trying to cultivate the most aesthetic, presentable, professional version of yourself — is not only an expression of deep self-respect, it is also a way to demonstrate your respect to other humans, and to life itself.** Of course, the ‘gentleman’s code’ goes far beyond mere clothing and haircuts. That is but one aspect. Gentlemen reclaim chivalry, rising when a woman enters a room, holding good eye contact, being decisive and purposeful in their words and actions, and rising to the task at hand. Does this mean you’re going to see me rocking 3-piece suits in the jungles of Costa Rica? Unlikely. But there is something important here. **Aesthetics and conduct as a way of expressing, and honouring, basic human dignity.** What do you think? Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Friday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/19/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:27.000Z ## **There is a dynamic tension between traditional masculinity and modern civilization…** In our ancestral past, it was the role, duty, and honour of men to band together and provide the fundamental services to protect, provide, and uphold the culture of their tribe. From pure intention and great effort, our ancestors developed these systems. Better weapons, sharper skills, all the way to automated machinery and God-like technology. This is a great win for humanity, make no mistake. *However, it comes at a cost…* Slowly, but surely, the roles and services that were expected of men are automated away, absorbed by the state, by technology, or made effectively obsolete altogether. **To arrive at their fullness, men need tension between wild, raw nature and civilized society.** When you give a generation or two of men no meaningful purpose to pursue, bombard them with every possible hyper-normal dopamine stimulus, and even go as far as vilifying the very traits that give them pride to embody, you end up with, well, exactly what we see today. Listless, aimless, weak, anxious, incapable men. **Casualties of ‘hyper-civilized society’.** Men need tension between their masculine impulse and their safe society. They need the opportunity for honor. To make direct and real contributions to their culture. **To an extent—but only to an *extent*—can these be replaced with ‘civilized pursuits’ like building a business, intellectual enterprise, or raising a family.** These are true, good, and beautiful. But they lack the direct challenge, courage, and honour that was once required of them. Without the opportunity to truly fail, they never get the opportunity to truly succeed. Raw, pure masculinity will always be in dynamic tension with the arc of civilization. Rewild yourself, Eric Brown. ### 6 Health Interventions to Rocket You to Deadpool-level Vitality 👺 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/6-health-interventions/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:15.000Z 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~6 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *ICYMI, I dropped an experimental ‘*[*radio session*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mn3kCn0HWU&ref=zenmedicine.co)*’ last week. It’s long, but you can select the timestamps that sound interesting. I’m preparing to lead our upcoming* [*Apotheosis Retreat*](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *in \~2 weeks, excited to get back in the Mayan jungle and do some serious soul work. Switching up the pace this week with something easier, but hopefully no less impactful. With love, EB.* 🦁 --- ## 🩸 Blood & Ink *My daily micro-essays are rolling along right on schedule. Here’s what we looked at this past week. Join us over there for a daily dose of excellence.* - **Saturday:** [Justifying Your Life](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/13) - **Sunday:** [How to Overcome Fear of Failure](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/14) - **Monday:** [The ‘Orgasm Test’](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/15) - **Tuesday:** [Testosterone & Politics](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/16) *(*👀 *this is a fun one)* - **Wednesday:** [80% of Cha Dao is Cleaning](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/17) - **Thursday:** [LARP’ing the Warrior](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/18) [Blood & InkCulture, civilization, and the warrior spirit.By Eric Brown](https://bloodxink.substack.com/?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fcampaign=publication%5Fembed&utm%5Fmedium=web) --- ## There’s a part of me that loves super-nerdy esoteric health optimizations and interventions, though I rarely write about it… *Here’s a first attempt.* *None of these are affiliate links.* Doing everything on this list would cost \~$300, most can be done only one time for significant benefits, and can set you up for decades of great health. Live long and prosper. 🖖 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/47a6aec5-2075-4ebb-bfb0-722d5f766129_560x57.png) ### **1\. Blood & Hormone Test** **A deep analysis of your blood can reveal miraculous amounts of beneficial health information.** They are not prohibitively expensive (\~$150) and can highlight things that require immediate intervention, myriad ways to improve, and give you confidence in your current level of health. It’s an incredible—and for most of us—deeply needed practice. Even once is enough. However, getting your blood checked twice a year is a sound health decision for you and your family. Make sure that you get sex hormones checked as part of the test. You can use an app like [Sequel](https://www.withsequel.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (or just ChatGPT!) to understand the results and create an action plan for yourself afterward. No worries if the results page looks intimidating. I used [Labify](https://labifyhealth.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (US-based) and it’s great. ### **2\. Parasite Cleanse** **It’s no conspiracy that you have parasites living in you right now.** There are obvious examples like tapeworms in the gut, but what most of us don’t realize is how much of an impact they have on our *psychology*, *behaviour, and overall health*. If you have a tapeworm, you eat more. You might think that you’re just ‘hungrier’, but this signal is not coming from you, it’s coming from the parasite. Look at the animal kingdom. Snails infected by parasites go on suicide missions at the exposed ends of plants so the snail is eaten and the parasite finds a new host: Or just look at this fine specimen that comes out of a praying mantis, quite a common infection in wild mantis: **Every domesticated animal that comes into regular contact with humans (cats, dogs, horses, pigs, sheep, etc.) has a parasite cleansing protocol.** Why don’t humans? But they do! In many countries—such as Russia—annual parasite cleanses are common practice. Tangentially, there are many anecdotal reports of individuals who have lost the desire for homosexual/anal sex after completing an aggressive parasite cleanse. *We’ll save that rabbit hole for another time!* As part of your blood test, look at your *eosinophils* levels, as they can indicate an active or ongoing parasite infection. You don’t need to be at death’s door to have a parasite problem. A ton of common issues have their origins in parasites, like chronic skin issues, lethargy, mental fog, inflammation, and more. Many tinctures, or more aggressive interventions, are readily available online and in stores. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### **3\. Donate Blood** **Donating blood—while seen as a virtuous charitable act— has incredible health benefits.** The loss of blood incurred sparks the creation of fresh, new healthy blood cells in the body. Outside of transfusions, this is the most direct path to generating new blood cells at this magnitude. In an age where 100% of men have [microplastics in their balls](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/20/microplastics-human-testicles-study-sperm-counts?ref=zenmedicine.co), where we are bombarded with heavy metals and foreign toxins, harassed into extremely dubious and rushed vaccine requirements, and simply the wear and tear that comes with aging—triggering blood generation at this scale—blood free from these impurities—is a great move. Donating blood does not have to be a one-time move either. Great for saving someone’s life, great for making your own better. ### **4\. Buy/Transition to Barefoot Shoes** Barefoot shoes (defined as shoes with zero heel raise and a wide tox box) sound relatively innocuous, and super hippie, as a health intervention. The reason they are on this list is because the ripple effect is *enormous*. Your body is one fluid, dynamic, connected system. Chronic damage to your feet from arch support, raised heels, and compressed toes ripple up the kinetic chain into your heels, knees, hip alignment, lower back stability, rounded shoulders, forward head, laboured breathing, muscle imbalances, and postural problems. All of these knock-on effects are from a poor foundation in your feet. Your feet have a poor foundation because modern footwear is hostile to your natural foot structure. Transitioning to barefoot shoes can take time, as your body readjusts to the movement patterns and builds the strength required to support your body weight, but it is worth it. Slowly but surely, this adaptive process ripples up the kinetic chain and helps you unlock better posture, better breathing, better looks, and a stronger, more mobile body. Not bad for just switching the shoes you wear. I wear [Vivo](https://www.vivobarefoot.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) religiously. ### **5\. 30-Day Sugar Detox** **Good news! This one you can do completely for free.** Stop consuming sugar and sugary foods for at least one month. It’s not for a diet or weight-loss protocol. It’s to reset your tastebuds and break your body’s addiction to sugar. After detoxing from processed sugar and similar foods for this amount of time (the longer the better), you will come back *repulsed* by how most food tastes. In other words, you lose the desire for sugary foods. This is a fundamental change that benefits the next several decades. Most sugary foods are also heavily processed, contain unbelievably toxic chemicals, and have a zero/poor nutritional profile. The key to breaking this addiction is to reset your tastebuds, and your body will take care of the rest. ### **6\. Make a Commitment to Avoid Seed Oils Completely** **The widespread production and consumption of seed oils will go down as one of the greatest abominations of this time in human history.** Seed oils are poison. They are not fit for human consumption. Do not listen to what anyone says. Pay no respect to ‘heart healthy’ labels on tubs of margarine. **Go through your pantry now.** Throw away anything that has canola oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, grapeseed oil, rice bran oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, flaxseed oil, or vegetable oil. Most people who experience health benefits from a diet (usually from adopting more whole foods), experience these because they are drastically reducing their consumption of seed oils. They are in EVERYTHING. They are toxic. Do not consume them. Do you need to be the person at every restaurant sending back food depending on what oil they cook it in? Probably not. But at least in your home, do not even own them. Get rid of them. Commit to never use them again. **Your ancestors will thank you.** To your health, EB. 🩸 [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Blood & Ink: Thursday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/18/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:28.000Z *“The Warrior Archetype is not the be-all and end-all of life. It is only one identity, one stage on the path to maturity. But it is the greatest stage—and the most powerful. It is the foundation upon which all succeeding stages are laid.”* *— Steven Pressfield, The Warrior Ethos* ## **Something in the Warrior archetype, and its modern revitalization, beckons me…** *But I find myself challenged quite often… is this all just a LARP?* Who am I to talk about the Warrior? I’ve never seen military combat. I’m only a white belt in jiu-jitsu (green belt in karate in earlier years!). I’m still building strength and endurance. In counterbalance, I’ve dropped hundreds of hours into study, created (& completed!) an intense 100-day initiation into the archetype, and have poured thousands of hours since then into physical training, discipline, martial arts, and the cultivation of virtue. **The pursuit of the Warrior archetype is the most persistent and present energy inside of me.** But integrity is a fundamental virtue of the Warrior, and my positive interpretation is that I’m just trying to stay in total integrity with this. **The Warrior is the foundation.** Without the virtue, discipline, and integrity of the Warrior, pursuits into the other archetypes will fall short, or be corrupted. The Warrior is both the literal foundation for a culture: providing protection and a way of being for the civilian to aspire toward; it is also the psycho-spiritual foundation for an individual: it is the healthy evolution of the Hero (child) archetype, and the primal energy that enables all the others to come online. And too—perhaps most as a reminder to myself—everything begins with a vision. Maybe I don’t fully measure up to it yet, and that’s okay. **The path is the practice.** Onward, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Wednesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/17/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:28.000Z ## I’ve [written before](https://www.highexistence.com/cha-dao/?ref=zenmedicine.co) about my interest in the Japanese tea ceremony, cha dao *“the way of tea”*, and the life of the chajin *“tea people”*… I was reminded this weekend of a statement I learned from my teachers over at [Global Tea Hut](https://globalteahut.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)… *Cha Dao is 80% Cleaning.* - You clean the tea hut before guests arrive. - You keep the teaware clean before guests arrive. - You clean the tea bowls in front of guests during service as a sign of respect. - You clean the tea hut and teaware after a ceremony. - Monks of the tea hut have a cleaning ritual every week. In the middle of being grumpy about spending my peaceful Sunday morning sweeping cobwebs out of the rafters of our house, this came back to me. **If you want the glory of the tea ceremony, you must embrace the reality of cleaning the house.** For the chajin, cleaning is also a deep way to demonstrate respect. Respect for the guests first and foremost, but also respect for the tea/nature, respect for one’s self, and respect for the community around them. Inazo Nitobe, legendary scholar and author of the canonical book ‘[Bushido: The Soul of Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido:%5FThe%5FSoul%5Fof%5FJapan?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ makes a powerful point about etiquette: "It means, in other words, that by constant exercise in correct manners, one brings all the parts and faculties of his body into perfect order and into such harmony with itself and its environment as to express the mastery of spirit over the flesh" Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. **Keep your house clean. Make yourself presentable. It is a source of respect for you, for all who you meet, and for the gift of life itself.** 80% of cha dao is cleaning, Eric Brown ### Blood & Ink: Tuesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/16/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:28.000Z ## **You can *reliably* shift a man’s political orientation by increasing his testosterone levels…** While still a nascent area of study, there are many studies ([here](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550620945116?ref=zenmedicine.co), [here](https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/project/155441/version/V1/view?ref=zenmedicine.co), [here](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6717495/?ref=zenmedicine.co)) that show as little as a single dose of testosterone reliably nudges male political disposition toward the right. This is compounded by the fact that male hormone levels have been in an absolute freefall for almost a century now. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/6c910225-c27b-4d04-99f1-8afd05a1d209_1272x786.png) Testosterone is an ‘on demand’ hormone—you put yourself in situations where great action is needed (hunting, fighting, competition) and your body produces it. Modern civilization demands none of this from men. Urban city life is a barrage of testosterone-devastating influences: artificial light, sedentary lifestyle, plastic exposure, chemicals everywhere, lack of nutrition, etc. Most people feel strongly about their political beliefs and orientations. They feel that they are correct, and most importantly — they feel like they have thoughtfully and ‘heartfully’ reasoned themselves into this correct political orientation. **What does it mean that once you return a man to his natural and ancestral levels of testosterone – his deeply held ‘correct’ political beliefs change in lockstep?** *To be clear: this is not about getting a man to insane beyond-natural Hulk levels of his hormones: this is simply returning men to their evolutionary baseline.* I am extremely interested in this. The implications are enormous. **An alternative (and more challenging) way to say this:** > Most men are walking around in a *distorted* and *unnatural* physiological state, and their political leanings *reflect this distortion*. *How much weight do you give something when it’s coming from a distortion?* Get your blood tested Warriors. Sort out your hormones. Then we’ll talk shop, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Monday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/15/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:29.000Z ## **I was introduced to the idea of the ‘orgasm test’…** Talking with my friend and mentor last week, he shared this in a powerful frame about effective practices: > *If you ask someone whether they’ve had an orgasm or not, and they say *“Oh, maybe, I’m not sure, I think there was this one time…”* then they haven’t. There’s no question when it happens.* The same applies to all manner of techniques, practices, pursuit of goals, and internal states. **If it’s working, you’ll know it.** This echoes of the timeless Derek Sivers maxim *“hell yes, or no.”* Your technique is either working in a way that you notice, or it isn’t. You’re either feeling happier, or you aren’t. *Where might the orgasm test be useful in your life right now? Meditation practice? Weight loss journey? Regulating your emotions?* I have fallen into this trap far too many times. You gaslight yourself for years, dangling a hypothetical carrot in front of your face, *“Well maybe if I just keep going a little bit, I think I feel a hint of something happening…”* It’s easy to forget that when it’s working, YOU FEEL IT. **It’s undeniable.** I’m not talking about a ‘hack’ that magically transports you to the end goal. But you can tell whether you’re losing weight or not along the way. And if you’re not, it’s not working. Seek what is undeniable, and double down on it, Eric Brown ### Blood & Ink: Sunday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/14/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:29.000Z “Failure, unless catastrophic, is irrelevant.” ## **Let this sink in, brother…** *What is it you fear about failure? Why does the prospect of failing grip you so?* **The risk of real catastrophe is infinitesimal.** Deep down, the real fear is for your ego. That it won’t be perfect. That people will criticize you. That what is so meaningful to you won’t be as meaningful to others. *Where is the problem here?* **You have blood in your veins and fire in your spirit. You have breath, do you not?** *Get on with it!* Every failure is a step toward success. The price of success is the cost of failure. There is almost nothing that you cannot return from, stronger than ever before. - Money can be made again. - Time is never wasted if you learn something. - Reputations rebuilt. - Trust earned again. - Relationships formed anew. **Do not fear failure. At worst, it is irrelevant, at best it is the greatest teacher on your path.** Muster your courage, and move through the fear. Do. The. Thing. Eric Brown ### Blood & Ink: Saturday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/13/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:29.000Z ## I was moved by this video… [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/12ee3d0a-201e-46e5-916b-03b2e26383c0_1198x1874.png)](https://x.com/churchtalkative/status/1836729701924286620?ref=zenmedicine.co) [Watch the video here (1:29)](https://x.com/churchtalkative/status/1836729701924286620?ref=zenmedicine.co) *(Again, religious overtones aside, listen to the intent.)* It spoke to something I couldn’t put into words before: **You can use things to justify your life, or you can use them to amplify it.** - The gym can justify your life: *“I’ve earned this chocolate cake!”* Or the gym can catalyze your life: *“I’m working hard so I’m not going to sabotage myself.”* You see this everywhere in spiritual practice: - *“The universe will bring me what I need, so I don’t need to do anything.”* vs. *“The universe will bring me what I need, so I’ll relentlessly pursue my path until then.”* - *“There’s no ‘self’ doing anything anyways, so all effort is ignorant.”* vs. *“There’s no ‘self’ doing anything anyways, so there’s nothing blocking effort from flowing out of me.”* - *“Everything is permissible under God, so I will tolerate this evil in the world.”* vs. *“Everything is permissible under God, so I will honour my feelings and fight against evil.”* **Those who truly change their lives allow their practices and faith to catalyze their lives.** The choice—as always—is yours, Eric Brown. ### Is Christianity the Psycho-Spiritual Immune System of the West? URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/christianity-immune-system/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:17.000Z 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~13 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *I’ve been on a roll recently—great routine, optimistic momentum, health, and a new creative fountain I haven’t tapped into in a while. I’ve got a video experiment below I’d love your feedback on.* [*Blood & Ink*](https://bloodxink.substack.com/) *is on fire right now. I would love to hear from you, whether it’s “this sucks” or a simple “*👍*”. I’ll be in the comments, let’s open up the dialogue for these. Sending love to you, see you next week.* 🔥 *EB.* [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) --- ## 📻 Experimental Session: EB Radio **I miss old-school radio shows.** DJ’s riffing, curating a track list of bangers in between conversations. So I sat down one day last week and did one. I’d love your feedback. *Is this a direction worth pursuing?* I’ll have another take next week. *Hopefully this works for you. Because of YouTube copyright, it may be blocked in some countries, let me know).* --- ## 🩸 Blood & Ink *If you want to receive more from me throughout the week, here’s what I dropped over at Blood & Ink last week. I'm enjoying the daily ritual, and we’re just getting started.* - **Friday:** [The Secret of Bodhidharma’s Eyes](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/05) - **Saturday:** [Psychological Strength](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/06) - **Sunday:** [The Path is the Practice](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/07) - **Monday:** [Does God Love OnlyFans?](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/08) - **Tuesday:** [Preparation for Sudden Violence](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/09) - **Wednesday:** [Tradition is Not the Worship of Ashes](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/10) - **Thursday:** [On Ethical Disobedience](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/11) - **Friday:** [So Few People Have Genuine Enemies](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/12) [Blood & InkCulture, civilization, and the warrior spirit.By Eric Brown](https://bloodxink.substack.com/?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fcampaign=publication%5Fembed&utm%5Fmedium=web) --- **🚨 TRIGGER WARNING:** *I imagine this will be a sensitive topic. This is a working thesis. I do not claim it as the truth, though I feel something important here.* **📜 NECESSARY CONTEXT:** *I am not Christian, nor was I raised Christian. My parents were (and remain) scientific materialist atheists. At the time of this writing—32 years old—I have never attended an official Church service. Writing this is as strange for me as reading it may be for you, but I hope you’ll open your mind for a moment to join me on this adventure.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/077a9c12-2625-4707-a244-b75ed4b69cbb_560x57.png) ## **⚖️ Pascal’s Wager in the 21st Century** **You might be familiar with Pascal’s Wager….** Blaise Pascal was a seventeenth-century French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, and theologian. His Wager is simple *(intensely paraphrased* [*from the original*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal%27s%5Fwager?ref=zenmedicine.co)*):* > *“If the choice is between believing in God, gaining eternal joy while continuing to live life as normal — or eternal hellfire, one should choose belief in God.”* A few weeks ago I came across a ‘modern re-interpretation’ of Pascal’s infamous Wager: > *“God may or may not be real, but the other side is so passionate, so committed to worshipping Satan, evil, and corrupting children that even if God wasn’t real, believing in Him to fend these demons off is preferable.”* This frame is how I approach this essay because that argument is becoming impossible for me to ignore. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/69c87aef-8be3-4a57-af63-58711e368330_560x57.png) ## **👀 Call It Like You See It** **I spent too much of my life bending the knee to people-pleasing and martyrdom, becoming world-class at biting my tongue…** Through an arduous inner journey, I’ve been fortunate enough to get mostly over that hurdle. On the one hand, you can always retreat to the safe, partial bypass frame that *“everything is perfect, this is all the Divine Play, God is in all things, and everything is an illusion generated by your karma,”* Set that aside for a moment. On the other hand, if I were to call it as I see it, our present situation is something like this: ### **Modern culture has been on a slippery slope for centuries, steamrolling itself into depths of depravity, narcissism, moral bankruptcy, weakness of character, and downright evil that would make the great villains of our past weep with joy.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/398f5006-4cd4-4f2c-866d-a6f26cc643ac_800x600-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/bc87eb44-2a2b-4bc1-af72-a563138a487a_900x496-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/d9feae50-c237-4170-b33a-8a0d9b175822_1000x667.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a1198f41-6637-464d-ad95-c5e2ed8356f9_1581x1054.webp) Drag Queen Children Storytime / Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony / Sam Smith Musician / Lil Nas X Music Video ## …excuse me, but what the actual fuck is this? *I can pull hundreds of examples like this in 5 minutes flat.* Is this the best humanity has to offer? Hyper-sexualization of children, obvious blaspheming against world religions *(try doing this against Islam!)*, and straight-up demonic worship. *And these are just the subtle examples!* They leave room for ‘artistic interpretation’. We haven’t even cracked into the obvious and proven pedophilic degeneracy of P Diddy or Epstein—whose client list we may never see as it would crumble the aristocratic elite—let alone admissions from the likes of Megan Fox that she drinks blood in ritual ceremonies. Nietzsche—prophetic as always—called this several hundred years ago: > *“God is dead.”* While many have heard that before and proudly trumpet it to gain the cultural clout associated with weaving quotations of ancient philosophers into everyday conversation, that was not the entire statement: > *“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?”* **The void of moral righteousness and ethical boundaries left by the cultural movement away from religion is so big that it may not be possible to counteract it.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5dee3b4e-42bc-4f99-add1-1fc7fd51cbf5_560x57.png) ## **🧬 The War Inside of You** **When I say that Christianity is a psycho-spiritual immune system for the West, I mean it literally…** Most people say that they want peace in the world. But if you—yourself—had ‘total peace’ inside of you, you’d be dead! At every single moment, there is a war being waged inside of you. Your immune system is constantly attacking and neutralizing foreign invaders, bad actors, and corrupted cancerous cells. **If your immune system was completely at peace, you’d be dead in a matter of days.** Easy enough to understand at the individual level. Which leads us to an obvious question: *how do you create an immune system for a culture?* To address the obvious pushback right from the outset: yes, a culture needs an immune system to survive. A culture is a specific thing. There is a set of ideas, beliefs, customs, and practices associated with the ‘us’ that is part of the culture, contrasted against the ‘them’, those who are not part of the culture. If you allow every terrible idea, and every person into a culture, the inevitable end game is the erosion and elimination of that culture. Without an efficient and effective immune response, you die. **The thesis I am advancing here is that Christianity is (or has been) the immune system of Western Culture.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/294168a8-4954-4ab7-8288-71a5e2225b37_560x57.png) ## **🛡️ Protection Against What, Exactly?** Let’s take a look at the few examples I have been able to come up with as this idea has been percolating. ### **Nihilism & the Meaning Crisis** Of course, while religion is not fundamentally necessary to provide a sense of transcendent meaning and purpose in one’s life, it certainly did a good job of it. While simultaneously, modern empirical culture is struggling to come up with an existential orientation beyond ‘be a good consumer’. ‘Deaths of despair’ like suicide and overdose are killing more men aged 25-50 than anything else. And that’s just the extreme end of things, to say nothing of the countless number of aimless, driftless, depressed, disempowered people walking around. ### **Degeneracy & Moral Bankruptcy** We are being slowly but effectively corrupted by a tsunami of degenerate behaviour and moral bankruptcy. Scams, manipulating people, pornography, addiction, corrupt leaders, fertility and reproductive crises. The list reaches longer. This is the most acute and obvious example of a lack of immune response: toxic components are given free rein and are multiplying, inundating and crippling the host body. Christianity in more ways than one, directly addresses issues of morality, ethical behaviour, becoming an upstanding person, and how one ought to act in the world. ### **Strong Boundaries & Cultural Protection** A favourite line of the spiritual community—particularly when debating religious folk—is to pull a quote from the Bible itself, *“Love thy neighbour as yourself.”* To them, this is carte blanche access to let any one and everyone into their borders and treat them the same, if not better, than their population. They forget *(or more commonly ignorant, like I was)* that the Bible also says that mass invasions of foreign people into your culture are a *punishment for Sin*: #### **Deuteronomy 28:43-53** *Foreigners who live in your land will gain more and more power, while you gradually lose yours.* *They will have money to lend you, but you will have none to lend them. In the end they will be your rulers.* *All these disasters will come on you, and they will be with you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep all the laws that he gave you.* *They will be the evidence of God's judgment on you and your descendants forever.* *The Lord blessed you in every way, but you would not serve him with glad and joyful hearts.* *So then, you will serve the enemies that the Lord is going to send against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, and naked - in need of everything. The Lord will oppress you harshly until you are destroyed.* *The Lord will bring against you a nation from the ends of the earth, a nation whose language you do not know. They will swoop down on you like an eagle.* *They will be ruthless and show no mercy to anyone, young or old.* *They will eat your livestock and your crops, and you will starve to death. They will not leave you any grain, wine, olive oil, cattle, or sheep; and you will die.* *They will attack every town in the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and the high, fortified walls in which you trust will fall.”* **NOTE**: In fairness, there are many, many passages in the Bible that refer to loving your neighbour, being supportive of those in need, etc. **North America—and most of greater Europe—welcome an astronomical number of legal and illegal immigrants into the country.** Two things happen here: 1. The government cannot handle the influx and prioritizes new immigrants over its population. 2. The existing culture is diluted until there is no remaining original culture, just one nameless, faceless, national consumer base. Here’s a simple way to put this: someone from a different country, with a culture you don’t understand and a language you cannot speak, from halfway across the planet, who brings their culture to you, instead of fully assimilating into the hosts’ culture, is not your *neighbour*. Have you forgotten what the ‘neighbour’ means? Is there a place for legal immigration and providing the opportunity for a better life? **Absolutely without question**. But the sanctity of the host culture and the lives of the people come first. There is more tension in that discussion than you imagine. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/90941619-e130-4432-871f-91ce541c9f80_560x57.png) ## **🎯 A Very Challenging Recognition** Buckle up, this is going to be challenging for most of us. I’m wrestling with it deeply right now. It will activate a handful of pre-programmed defensive techniques. This is okay. Take a deep breath. I do not intend to convey any judgment or prejudice, my goal is precisely the opposite — to take an extremely sobering look at reality and be considerate of *all people*. If you are (1) able, and (2) interested, in following the writings that I’ve put out here for the past few years, you’re likely sitting somewhere at 110+ IQ. For better, and sometimes for worse, my writing is not the easiest to digest. **The trap for you is that you imagine that the way you view reality, and how you process information and orient yourself in the world is the way everyone else does, just to a varying degree based on personal preferences and childhood experiences.** This is incorrect. The average experience between you, and someone who is 80-100 IQ is vastly different. Let me give you two examples. Take this question: > *“If you didn’t eat breakfast yesterday morning, how would you have felt?”* You may answer: *“After a few hours I’d probably be hungry, maybe a little tired, grumpy.”* For others, their answer is: *“But I did eat breakfast yesterday morning.” “Yes, but how *would* you have felt if you hadn’t?” “I don’t know, I ate yesterday, and this morning. I feel good.”* An inability to get into the past hypothetical. Let’s take it up a notch. Next question: > *Write a story with two named participants having a conversation. One participant is telling a story that discusses two other named participants.* Even for you, this might be challenging at first pass. But sitting down for a few minutes, you could do it. Juggling who’s talking and keeping the storyline straight takes a bit of effort, but not outside the realm of possibility. A story about a conversation about a conversation. This is *recursion*. This is a *near-impossible task* for someone lower on the IQ spectrum. You might be tempted to think that sure, for someone with learning disorders or dyslexia this would be tough. But remember when I say this applies to \~100 IQ and lower, I am speaking about HALF of any given population. Why bring this up? How does this connect to Christianity and the West? **Be honest with yourself, if you are living with someone who cannot reasonably consider how they might have felt if they didn’t have breakfast yesterday, how do you possibly plan to coordinate with them and reason into complex dynamics of law, morality, ethics, future preparation, the emergence of complex systems, whatever it is.** It’s easy for you to sit down and say *“Here’s my grand synthesis of the moral implications of the world religions, paired with the best emerging psychological techniques, packaged into a secular framework that if we all just got on board, humanity would jump up the scale of consciousness like 300 points.”* That will NEVER happen. Not because people don’t want it. But because most simply can’t. No judgement. No problem. Just reality. *How then do you create any kind of civilized society?* **You need to create a moral and ethical framework for a collective that *everyone* can get on board with.** And while some of your desired nuance might be lost, I believe you vastly overlook the utility of saying *“This Good, This Bad. Don’t do bad, go to Hell.”* Everyone needs to be on the same page for this vehicle of society to operate effectively. Am I arguing that religion/Christianity is just a salve for idiots? Or as Karl Marx said that religion is simply ‘the opiate of the masses’? **NO**. But overlooking the coordination problem *is* idiotic. If you’ve ever tried to lead a team, you know how hard it is to coordinate even 5 people. Imagine coordinating millions of people, reasonably successfully, for centuries? *What’s your plan, Stan?* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4db2598b-6ba1-4c95-ac5d-23e3ab2014a2_675x499.png) I berated religion for years, I still have deep apprehensions about it. But at the same time, I’ve lived the midwit meme of *“*[*here’s my 20-page whitepaper combining the best of ancient wisdom with modern technology to create an emergent culture to facilitate the ongoing evolution of humanity.*](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xdJGZQGZpUuh5gQl4arT62j74az1ON6fEgE-4muHBF4/edit?ref=zenmedicine.co)*”* **It needs to be digestible.** *When you desire to live in reality and seek solutions that have real chances of success, you must contend with this.* ### The Christian religion is a psycho-spiritual technology that has been refined by our Western ancestors over millennia with the express purpose of protecting its host culture like an immune response against all kinds of foreign invasions, be they physical or ideological. Today, we are living through the example of what happens when this immune system is taken offline, or overrun completely. The host body is dying, infections of mind viruses and physical degeneracy are taking over, and we lack the ‘noble warrior’ white blood cells to activate an equal an opposing force and keep the body politic alive. Is this all religion is? No. [Just recently](https://www.zenmedicine.co/cathedral-consciousness/) I discussed the positive framing of how it helped orient people toward truth, goodness, beauty, mastery, and divine expressions through cathedral consciousness. Of course there is also the institution of marriage, ethical conduct, community building, and more. But this aspect of religion is also important. It is not all doom and gloom. That is also not my intent. There is beauty, possibility, and hope. There is always hope. Just something to consider, Eric Brown. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Blood & Ink: Friday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/12/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:30.000Z “So few people have genuine enemies.” ## **In my past—and to an extent my present—I worry what the ‘faceless mob’ thinks…** *What if I get criticized? What if they don’t like it? What if someone argues with me?* It’s easy to get stuck thinking your enemy is *out there*, lurking in the online shadows, patiently plotting your demise. My brother, the vast majority of people are treading water, trying to survive, and get themselves to the weekend. **Most people don’t think about you at all.** At least, far less than you imagine, and more positively than you think. **When confronting the beast of public criticism, it helps to imagine a specific person.** *“What if Person X saw this? What if they didn’t like it? What would they do?”* The answer is: they probably won’t see it, they won’t say anything anyway, and if they do, it’s not fatal. You don’t have a mortal enemy. No one is waiting to attack you. **Herein lies your freedom.** Be who you are. Do what you wish. Take a deep breath and plunge completely into the ocean of your excitement. **Do not fear the faceless mob.** Live fully, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Thursday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/11/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:30.000Z *“Historically, the most terrible things; war, genocide, and slavery, have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.”* *– Howard Zinn* J. Krishnamurti said something to this effect, in a less moralizing frame: > *“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”* The powers that be gaslight you into believing that you are the problem should you stray but one inch from their path. But a lone dissenter rarely commits the scale of atrocities that are sanctified and supported by the masses. **There is a place for ethical disobedience.** It is an uphill battle, a swim against the stream. But to lose your soul while gaining the world is a Faustian bargain not worth making. **Throughout every Warrior culture, strict adherence to a clear moral code was paramount.** The Bushido of the samurai, Chivalry for the Knights. This requires a fierce moral code and personal authority. Adopt a strong ethical framework, and have the spine to adhere to it. Onward, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Wednesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/10/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:30.000Z *“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”* ## **Growing up I was near-religiously opposed to tradition…** **Foolish and superstitious edifices of a decadent past that had no place in civilized culture.** Spiritual bondage from generations long since dead. I sought to free myself, to break free from tradition and find the emerging future at all costs. It led me to beautiful places. **But how foolish I was…** Like inspecting a car, and not knowing what a particular piece does, removing it completely. Your ignorance of its function is no basis for its removal. We forget how unique this moment in history is. The last century is vastly different than the entirety of human history. **It is also fragile.** In two generations we have lost fundamental skills like growing food, repairing clothing, medicinal uses of plants, living relationships with the sacred, community support, and others. None of this is guaranteed. Tradition is not the worship of ashes. **Tradition is the preservation of fire.** A passing of the torch from one generation to the next, so that what is meaningful, important, and essential to human flourishing might support the next generation to take one additional step forward on the path of progress. I am reminded of this quote by Dominique Venner: > *“Tradition is not the past, but that which does not pass.”* Embrace your heritage, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Tuesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/09/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:30.000Z *“The only solution for bad and violent people are good people that are more skilled in violence.”* *– Samurai Bushido Code* ## **It is not enough to be ‘willing’ to engage in violence…** With enough poking—and a few extreme hypotheticals—you can get most *(spiritual)* people to admit they would be willing to use violence to protect something they care about. > *“If they had a gun to your mom’s head, and no possible alternative, and only you could stop them, and, and, and…”* Effective shadow integration is how you arrive at this first milestone. **But it is nowhere near enough.** Against who do you imagine you need to be violent? An 8-year-old child? A sickly woman? A decrepit grandfather? **Unlikely.** If violence was necessary, odds are it’s against a middle-aged man, with some mix of: - combat experience (war) - motivated aggression against you (theft/home invasion) - the element of surprise (mugging) - deep training (martial arts sparring) **If you have not *trained in* violence you’re going to be submitted instantly, or worse.** If you think you can ‘turn on berserker mode’ in the heat of the moment, you overestimate yourself and underestimate who your opponent(s) might be. Willingness is a good start, it is the initial spark. Stoke the flame, develop martial skill, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Monday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/08/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:31.000Z [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e5510cbe-693d-4038-95d0-b5854448b092_1160x1164.png)](https://x.com/InternetH0F/status/1832479054731124843?ref=zenmedicine.co) [Watch this video](https://x.com/InternetH0F/status/1832479054731124843?ref=zenmedicine.co) (54 seconds long). ## **The mental gymnastics required to believe God supports your OnlyFans activity is nothing short of miraculous…** Religion aside, she’s demonstrating a belief that I think many people hold: > *“Evil is whatever says NO to me.”* Then they find the most appropriate name to call you. You’re a racist, sexist, misogynist, bigot, nazi, toxic. A fight against whoever and whatever says no. She is a living testament to leftist liberal orientation. A ’YES’ to everything, everyone, everywhere – all at once. - Online prostitution - Overwhelming a country with illegal immigrants - Chemical castration of children - Shitcoin casino pump and dumps **No matter how degenerate, dangerous, unethical, immoral, short-term whatever ‘it’ is, it is nowhere near as bad as saying NO to it.** No is evil incarnate. If nothing else, Warriors draw the line in the sand. They protect the perimeter. They enforce a boundary. **They say NO, and in doing so say YES to the best of life.** Fight for what you believe in, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Sunday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/07/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:31.000Z *“Drop the idea that you are on a route to a destination.”* *– Papaji* ## **The path is the practice…** **The origin, the journey, and the destination are the same: the practice.** *Where is it you think you’re going? Somewhere other than here?* Your entire life is here, now. What you seek is here, now. **Your path is your practice.** You do not practice to get somewhere. You practice because you have arrived. You practice to arrive fully. **Reclaim the fullness, presence, passion, and purpose of the already-awake vitality coursing through your veins.** Drop the idea that you are on a route to a destination. The path is the practice, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Saturday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/06/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:31.000Z ## **I’m the strongest I’ve ever been right now…** **I had a period in my early twenties of going to the gym regularly, but haven’t reclaimed that level of strength in almost a decade.** I’ve far surpassed that now. I’m not a Hulk by any stretch of the imagination, but the difference is visible and felt. Sparked by my [**WARRRIOR100**](https://www.phoenixculture.org/warrior100-waitlist?ref=zenmedicine.co) initiation last year, I’ve stoked the flame of regular strength and combat training into an inferno. I’ve broken my weightlifting records, submitted people in jiu-jitsu, and watched my body develop. **The psychological implications of developing physical strength are under-discussed in modern discourse.** Maybe it’s just me *(though I suspect I’m not unique in this)*, but I spent a lot of my life being the smaller, skinnier, weaker one. That inner knowing pervades every interaction. A small voice—nearly inaudible—whispers, *“Don’t rock the boat, you won’t be able to do anything if they get upset.”* **Developing physical strength and skill in combat changes this.** When you know that you can take a hit and give one back, psychological space for boldness opens. Things have become significantly easier: - Being radically honest with myself - Sharing dissenting opinions in conversation - Establishing and enforcing boundaries - Sitting in uncomfortable conversations The mind and body are intimately connected. No separation exists. Strong body, strong mind, strong will, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Friday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/05/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:32.000Z ## **As the story goes, Bodhidharma (the first patriarch of Zen) sat in a cave in meditation for nine years, the hours passing glacially. He began to tire, eyes drooping, and fell asleep.** Then and there—in a great act of defiance—he cut out his eyelids! No more interruptions. **This is my kind of spirituality.** No quasi-mystical manifestation rituals. No spiritual materialism with shiny rock collections. No exaltation of low energy, low agency passivity. **Ferocious, intense aliveness.** Total commitment to the path. Unwavering dedication to the craft. This is the face of Zen. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/3d2038fa-3daf-4de9-99f9-95624c146334_600x508-jpeg.jpg) Bodhidharma is always depicted with wild, unblinking eyes because of this. Alert. Present. Awake. Until you desire what you want as great as this, you will remain stuck. > *“Ah, yes, but the Buddha said desire is the root of all suffering.”* My brother, the Buddha left his entire family, abandoned his familial inheritance as a Prince, and spent decades engaging in every possible technique and practice to the point of near-death starvation and insanity. No excuses, Eric Brown. **P.S.:** *Fun addendum* — *it is also said that from his eyelids the first tea leaves grew, which when prepared with water, prevented sleep.* ### Reckoning With the West 🏛️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/reckoning-with-the-west/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:17.000Z 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~8 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *The daily writing ritual for Blood & Ink has thrown open my creator gates. It feels free and fun to be writing again. I’ve got a wicked video experiment I’ll share with you next week. I hope you enjoy this one! EB.* 🦁 --- ## 🩸 Blood & Ink *I kicked off Blood & Ink this week. Shoutout to those who joined Day One, I see you. It’s been a powerful ritual, sharpening the proverbial sword as it were. Look at what’s gone out here, and I’d love for you to join us.* - **Monday:** [**Musashi’s Twofold Way**](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/01) - **Tuesday:** [**The Emptiness Machine**](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/02) - **Wednesday:** [**Good Men vs. Good Men**](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/03) - **Thursday:** [**All Defeat is Psychological**](https://bloodxink.substack.com/p/04) [Blood & InkCulture, civilization, and the warrior spirit.By Eric Brown](https://bloodxink.substack.com/?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fcampaign=publication%5Fembed&utm%5Fmedium=web) --- ## [**Last week**](https://www.zenmedicine.co/cathedral-consciousness/) **I spoke about my ongoing reckoning with Western culture…** Today I’ll share a few glimpses into where that has taken me, and what I mean by this. ### **😈 The Epitome of Evil** **I grew up in the suburbs outside of Toronto, Canada.** Starting in my teenage years, the cultural zeitgeist and public media began to chant a troubling creed: somehow, inherently, I was the problem. A cis-gendered, heterosexual, privileged white male of the patriarchy. A child of Western Culture, standing for nothing but the oppression and enslavement of others and the destruction of planetary ecosystems. **From my suggestibility, I internalized a troubling notion: *I was the problem*.** This split my psyche, creating a constant and chronic self-correction mechanism. A vicious psychological sentry, detecting problematic natural impulses, and quickly correcting them. With internalized shame and guilt for just being who I was, I sought solutions to ‘the problem of myself’, and alternative models to Western culture. For the better part of a decade, I explored governance models, how to change your core beliefs, and exotic forms of spirituality. So long as it wasn’t what was I born into, it was fair game. **I spent a decade campaigning against ‘The West’.** I’ve written thousands of words on the internet to this effect. In some ways, my project [**Phoenix Culture**](https://www.phoenixculture.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) was born from this rejection of Western Culture, in search of something new and greater. I came out the other side with a comprehensive understanding of cultural emergence, governance systems, religious practices, and a theory of psychological change in an individual. These are all great things. But more recently I’ve started to see my rejection of Western culture—and my heritage and ancestry—for what it is: *a programmed allergic response.* If you cannot steelman the opposition, if you find nothing good nor beneficial in something — you’re not genuine. I noticed this and sought to correct it. What I realized, and discovered, was challenging. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ba6d1bb9-f2d4-4ad8-8541-e98d3395d803_560x57.png) ### **🌱 The Garden of the West** **It feels ridiculous to write this, standing in defence of what the West has given me and the world.** Alas, here we are at this point in history. Writing about the ‘benefits of Western culture’ is like the fish and water story. They are so evident, so pervasive, so commonplace, that it’s easy to forget that these things had an origin and that their origin is Western Culture. The fact that you can viciously critique Western culture in public without being struck dead, is itself something that originated in Western culture: *everyone equal before the law*. Let’s take a look at some of the things that trace their roots back to the very foundations of Western Culture: #### 📚 **Literacy** **The world was illiterate for most of human history.** It was primarily through Christianity & the Bible, giving everyone a direct connection to God, that literacy became public. The second literary revolution—the Gutenberg printing press—was created to spread the Bible. If you are not from an aristocratic family, and you can read, thank the West. #### **📜 Constitutional Republics** **The United States is not, and has never been, a democracy.** Nowhere in the Constitution is the word democracy found. The US is a constitutional republic, modeled after the most successful models of its Greco-Roman past. Constitutional republics are far superior to democracy. Democracy is the will of the majority. A pure democracy would have the rules changing each day, as the majority realized they could vote into existence whatever they wanted on a whim. A constitutional republic binds a group of elected representatives to adhere to a code, enabling change while maintaining structure. #### **⚖️ Equal Human Rights** **Knowing that you have a right to a trial of your peers and that *(at least in theory)* everyone is subject to equal treatment under the law, is a Western idea.** It’s insane to realize that all of these things were *created*. They are so fundamental to who we are and how we operate that they are taken for granted. Don’t overlook them, they are your cultural inheritance. #### **🔬 The Scientific Enterprise** **The seeds of the modern scientific enterprise take their root, surprisingly, not only in the West, but in Christianity.** The Church funded most scientific endeavours, to learn more about the brilliance of Gods creation. These seeds grew into modern science, granting us our current models of physics, medicine, and much more. To say nothing of the sheer amount of scientific discoveries and creations that come from Western institutions or individuals. #### **🏫 Universities** **Universities too, were created.** Born from the monastic model of the Christian church. Places of deep study and teaching, the early monasteries were incubated until they became resilient enough to grow outward. To this day—for better and for worse—universities are seen as beacons of higher learning and education. Thank you, Western monks. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) #### **🌐 Modern Governance Models** **While we had a brief rundown against democracy, many more foundations of modern governance claim their origins in the West.** The democratic model, separation of church and state, distinctions between city, state, and federal powers, and representational democracy. You name it, our models of governance are rooted in the ancient West. While you may be compelled to critique this *(as is your right under these models!)* if you think Western governance is so bad, you are free to go live under an authoritarian regime and see how enjoyable you find it. #### **✝️ Christianity and the Psychological Immune System** **This will be the full subject of my essay next week.** Christianity and the West are nearly synonyms. It is difficult to untangle the West from Christianity. A frame I’ve been developing is that Christianity is a psycho-spiritual immune system. While you may feel the rules, guidelines, and ethics espoused in Christianity to be *oppressive*, I invite you to consider how they are also *protective*. As a culture that is becoming less Christian at its core *(atheism the fastest growing, and nearly the largest, religious identification in the modern West)*, we have a concurrent increase in degeneracy, debauchery, mutilation of children, unethical conduct, and worse. More to come on this next week. #### **💵 Capitalism and Free Enterprise** **You can argue that capitalism was a global discovery.** As nation-states engaged with each other and within their borders, they found this to be the most efficient and effective means of trade. However, it is only due to the previous inheritances *(equality under the law, constitutional republics, widespread literacy)* that capitalism and free markets have been allowed to continue and generate the most unfathomable level of wealth for everyone ever created. #### **✊🏻 Foundations of Modern Ethics** **Last, but certainly not least, is the modern ethical software that most Western folk are running.** Regardless of how conscious any individual is about their code of ethics, you can guarantee its roots are nested in Christianity. While our culture may be increasingly less Christian, our cultural ethics remain almost completely Christian. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/017f5bd6-20d2-4a88-9b40-66e48f69be3b_560x57.png) ## **But What of the Atrocities?** **This is not to say that Christianity and Western Culture have not done terrible things.** Like I’ve said, I’ve spent the better part of a decade dismantling the West and taking sobering looks at the present and ancient examples of where things have gone astray. But something important hit me recently: *when something isn’t working flawlessly, you need to incrementally improve it — you don’t simply blow the whole thing up and start from scratch.* While I don’t recommend it for your own mental health, it is shocking to plug into public sentiment online and track it. You see clearly in some left-leaning ideologies how *explicitly* their goal is dismantling and destroying existing power structures. They are death cults, oriented around destruction rather than creation. **With the eyes to see it, it is embarrassing to realize that these people have the right to speech and protest given to them by the very system they seek to destroy.** *Should this be anywhere else in the world, or at any other point in history, they’d be thrown in prison… or worse.* - Are there real, true, and important improvements that need to be made? **Absolutely.** - Can you reasonably deny the important, rich, and significant contributions the West has made to the progress of humanity and your current society? **Absolutely not.** As my own reckoning with the West continues, I’ll write and share more about it. I hope this was useful—a little challenging—and a powerful reminder of the unbelievable creations the West has made, and stewarded, for centuries. Next week, we’ll explore **Christianity as a Psycho-Spiritual Immune System**. It’s going to be a good one. See you then, Eric Brown. ⚡️ [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Blood & Ink: Thursday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/04/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:32.000Z *“Until death, all defeat is psychological.”* ## **So long as you have breath in your lungs, love in your heart, and fire in your spirit — the game is still afoot.** If you can act, you can succeed. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f249f627-b196-42da-8db5-2cee2338ee9d_400x174.gif) “Unbroken” – fabulous movie. Fuck your stories: - *“If this was meant for me it would be easy.”* - *“It’s too late, it should have happened earlier.”* - *“Someone else could do it, but not me.”* **You’re not a victim.** It is hard because it is *yours* to overcome. Students of Zen had to kneel on the steps of the Dojo for days—without food, water, or encouragement—before they would be granted entry just to begin their training. You have breath, do you not? You have food, do you not? You can move, can you not? **What more do you need, brother?** Get on with it. Every heroic story revolves around one theme: *as long the hero is alive, there is hope.* **Until death, all defeat is psychological.** Onward, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Wednesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/03/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:33.000Z ## I just finished ‘[The Way of Men](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Men-Jack-Donovan/dp/0985452307?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ by Jack Donovan. An author of ‘Masculine Philosophy’, Donovan expands the frame of masculinity and the role of men in society. Most modern discourse boils down to what it means to be *‘a man’*. If you’re lucky (or persistent) you add nuance to what it meant to be a good man *in the past*, versus what it means to be a good man *now*. **In the Way of Men, Donovan opens a new frame: the difference between being a *good man*, and being good at *being a man*.** A crucial distinction. Throughout human history, men established and protected a perimeter. They define a territory and hold the line. From natural disasters, to animal attacks, to marauding gangs. No man can do this alone. No matter how good you are, you cannot withstand a dozen strong, capable, motivated barbarians attacking you. **It takes a group—in Donovan’s words a *gang*—of capable, bonded men to uphold the perimeter.** Men of the gang require 4 cardinal traits: strength, courage, mastery, and honor. - **Strength**: the ability to get shit done. - **Courage**: the willingness to take risk. - **Mastery**: developing useful skills. - **Honour**: the trust and respect of other men. **Being able to do this is *being good at being a man*.** No discussion of morality, virtue, compassion, style, philosophy, politics. No discussion of being a *good man*. There’s no philosophy of good men when you are under attack. When shit hits the fan, you look to men who are good at being men. It goes one step further… **You are only *able* to have the civilized discussion about being a *good man* because those who are good at *being men* have already established the perimeter, and provided the ongoing protection and resources needed for peace to prosper.** Being good at being a man comes first. It is the foundation of a stable masculine psyche and the fertile ground of a thriving culture. This is why so many modern men are afflicted with anxiety, lack of self-esteem, and the inability to attract a partner. They are not good at *being men*, and everyone knows it. A secure society and functional civilization is never guaranteed. It is earned each day anew. Be good at being a man—then seek to be a good one, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Tuesday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/02/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:33.000Z “Gave up who I am for who you wanted me to be, Don't know why I'm hopin' for what I won't receive,[](https://genius.com/32906701/Linkin-park-the-emptiness-machine/Let-you-cut-me-open-just-to-watch-me-bleed-gave-up-who-i-am-for-who-you-wanted-me-to-be-dont-know-why-im-hopin-for-what-i-wont-receive-fallin-for-the-promise-of-the-emptiness-machine-the-emptiness-machine?ref=zenmedicine.co)Fallin' for the promise of the emptiness machine.” — Linkin Park, The Emptiness Machine ## Linkin Park is making new music again. *Huge throwback to my teenage years. RIP Chester.* While it echoes with the dilution of the quintessential LP sound into yet another watered-down quasi-countercultural *‘still-within-the-lines’* performance act (it’s in the drum beat and chord progression), they *nailed* something: **The Emptiness Machine**. In ‘[The Way of Men](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Men-Jack-Donovan/dp/0985452307?ref=zenmedicine.co)’, Jack Donovan calls it **The Empire of Nothing**. The headless, soulless hydra that we call ‘corporate interest’ never provides what you truly need. It can’t. What you need is antithetical to the Goals of the Empire. Boundaries, belonging, heritage, values, purpose, meaning, traditions. An *‘us’* contrasting a *‘them’*. An *identity*. The Emptiness Machine absorbs the sacred and specific, churning out the mundane and undifferentiated. An empty ghost operating itself. Everything and everyone the same. Replaceable. It benefits from a culture of sameness: *an Empire of Nothing*. No boundaries, no differences, no cultures, no places, no peoples, no friction, no disagreement. Global hegemonic culture. One unified consumer base. The Empire lets you flaunt trivial nonsense like music preference, fast food, and vapid entertainment; but political differences, cultural heritage, and personal freedoms… these rock the boat too much. *“It impacts the bottom line, you see?”* **Warriors are the last bastion against the march into Global Nothingness.** Those of values, virtue, and courage holding the line and declaring, *“That is far enough. This you cannot have. I will live, and die, for my honour and my people.”* Warriors defend an Empire of Something, Eric Brown. ### Blood & Ink: Monday URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/01/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:58:33.000Z Thank you so much for being here, right at the beginning, it means a lot to me. I’m excited about this. I hope these are both provocative and useful, and they are as much notes to myself as notes to the world. Let’s begin. 🥋 “It is said that the warrior's way is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways.” – Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings ## When the pen fails, the sword upholds the boundary. Where the sword cannot reach, the pen arrives. Each instrument channels his power, extending his ability beyond himself. Blood spills. Ink drips. The arc of history bends forward. It is easy to forget that civilization is a social layer on top of violence. You take perverse pride in your inability to be violent; whether through argumentation or combat. You believe you have ‘evolved beyond’ it. You have only abdicated the responsibility. - Who do you call when someone threatens you? *Police.* - Who do you rely on against foreign forces? *Military.* - How do you settle a dispute against your neighbour? *State.* They wield violence on your behalf. You have not removed an ounce of violence from the equation, nor evolved beyond it. You shelter yourself from its deliverance while removing yourself from its consequences. Tolerance is the virtue of a man without conviction. The ability to protect yourself and others is the foundation of sovereignty. In rejecting the Warrior, you’ve abandoned your agency. Together—brothers and sisters—we reclaim the Warrior’s Way. That of the Pen, and the Sword. Of blood, and ink. Welcome, Eric Brown. ### 🕍 Cathedral Consciousness: Three Uncomfortable Truths. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/cathedral-consciousness/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:19.000Z 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~6 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *I’m in a deep reckoning with Western Culture. For years I have criticized Modern Western Culture, but something has shifted. I am reexamining and reclaiming my cultural heritage. I’ll write more about this next week.* **Today, I’m introducing a new daily publication.* I’ve got the first month of content outlined and it will be FIERCE – the first post goes out Monday. To a bright future, EB.* 🥋 [Blood & InkCulture, civilization, and the warrior spirit.By Eric Brown](https://bloodxink.substack.com/?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fcampaign=publication%5Fembed&utm%5Fmedium=web) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e562c80b-ae31-4256-975e-e9495cd72a90_2043x934-jpeg.jpg) ## \[NEW\] Blood & Ink I’m excited to introduce a new publication: [**Blood & Ink**](https://bloodxink.substack.com/)**.** **Blood & Ink is a daily digest** – **I’ll drop a short and sharp piece every morning.** *It is centered around the Warrior archetype, culture & civilization, human potential, timeless wisdom, and current event commentary. An outlet for experimental, off-the-cuff, powerful posts, and to ritualize my writing practice.* Drawing inspiration from this legendary quote from Miyamoto Musashi: > *“It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways.”* Although Substack gave me the option, in good faith I can’t add everyone automatically. You must subscribe yourself if you want to receive these. ### **Dive into living the Way of the Warrior:** [Blood & InkCulture, civilization, and the warrior spirit.By Eric Brown](https://bloodxink.substack.com/?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fcampaign=publication%5Fembed&utm%5Fmedium=web) I will continue to post here on Serious Play—weekly—with longer essays like the one below. I hope you enjoy both, and I hope you’ll join me over there. --- ## The [Duomo di Milano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan%5FCathedral?ref=zenmedicine.co), a central cathedral in Milan, began construction in *1386* and was completed in *1965*… **579 years.** Towering as the largest church in the Italian Republic—3rd largest in the world—it’s a living beacon of Gothic architecture. Leonardo da Vinci himself contributed to its construction over its long lifetime. While not all cathedrals rise over 6 centuries, the *average* cathedral took \~300 years. A mind-boggling amount of time. **You might have come across the term *‘cathedral consciousness’* in select corners of the internet.** > The idea is a semi-reactionary movement against the short-term, shiny-object schizophrenic attention of the modern age; *cathedral consciousness* is a psycho-spiritual invitation to vastly expand your time horizon. I stumbled into cathedral consciousness several years ago and ate it up. It was a ‘shiny dime’ idea, as Write of Passage godfather David Perrell might say: a simple, compelling idea that conveys a ton of juicy inspiration. It’s a calling card for those who want to contribute to greater things. It’s found root in the semi-spiritual, chronically online communities hungry for deeper meaning and contribution. Alas, something unspoken always whispered to me about this term, beckoning to some part of the picture I was not seeing clearly. Over the past few months, a few critical components of cathedral consciousness have emerged more clearly. **This is for those who love the idea of contributing to truly great works, and presents 3 uncomfortable truths about what is required to make them happen.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/76cfd7d3-db79-41ee-a044-8a05a30e50fc_560x57.png) ## **Enduring Testaments of Legacy.** In grappling with how these projects came into existence and sustained themselves long enough to reach completion, one important component—perhaps the *central* piece to all of this—rose from the shadows and revealed itself to me: These projects are testaments of *legacy*. They were created and funded by the aristocratic elite. While the soft spiritual part of you clings tightly to the dream that these were purely altruistic endeavours — they were not. These cathedrals were made as living legacies for the noble families that created them. They were born of the powerful and created for the powerful. Many cathedrals or buildings like this bear the name of the individual or family who created them. I spent two years living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, home to extremely grand architecture. The vast majority of them were funded by emigrated aristocrats who wanted to establish their legacies and etch their family names in the echoes of eternity. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/41953382-7088-4a07-a41a-bfb5e4538f36_1000x520-jpeg.jpg) Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral **This is a critical component that the spiritual communities and online aficionados miss.** These were fiercely egoic undertakings, testaments of personal greatness, and channelled expressions of power, fame, and wealth. The entire metaphysical orientation of the spiritual/self-development communities is a rejection of power, selfishness, grandiosity, hierarchy, ego, tradition, and the rest. It is no coincidence then, that none of these groups have built anything close to these great works. While you are welcome to your idealistic fantasies that some other way of doing this is possible, that a DAO (*decentralized autonomous organization)* running an obscure shitcoin fork of Ethereum is going to fund and orchestrate the construction of anything of significance – those who live in reality will see that the only lasting monuments of greatness like this were created by owners building a testament of their legacy, and we have all benefitted from it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/181d3b50-4b0a-4edd-b354-a8a7db4716d2_560x57.png) ## **Pursuit of Transcendant Ideals** **Of course, the nobility and elites of their times were rarely the ones building the monuments themselves.** 300 years is several generations. To sufficiently rally thousands of humans over vast expanses of time, everyone must be rallied behind a greater purpose, a higher vision. **In ancient times, these were offerings to Divinity.** It is no coincidence that most of these great creations are churches, chapels, public squares, fountains depicting religious iconography, or cathedrals. While they were a testament to legacy of the elites, they were also a pursuit of transcendent ideals. Ideals of beauty, greatness, passion, devotion, worship, strength, and truth. In his masterwork—[**On the Genealogy of Morality**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On%5Fthe%5FGenealogy%5Fof%5FMorality?ref=zenmedicine.co)—Frederich Nietzsche expounds the idea of Master and Slave morality. Master morality was defined by the rulers, and resembled the virtues that they saw in themselves: power, beauty, vitality, intelligence, and greatness. What was good is what was great. Born as a reactionary movement against this from the common people, new religions and moral codes arose that espoused the virtue of… precisely the opposite: Slave Morality. Suddenly virtue was weakness, quietude, ugliness, softness, poverty. You see this reflected in most major religions, and it is this sense of morality that dominates the world today. It is from this seed that nothing beautiful, substantial, worthy of enduring legacy is born. The very worldview, the living philosophy that created these great works is no longer dominant. > No longer do we pursue the expressions of greatness, vitality, or heroism, lest we offend someone, create a moment of inequality, or hurt someones feelings. As such, humanity slowly peters out to the lowest, meekest, softest, ugliest common denominator – and great expressions of beauty are lost. **To reclaim cathedral consciousness, we must similarly reclaim Master Morality. We must once again prize and pursue beauty, greatness, heroism, inequality, aristocracy, and nobility.** Unfortunately, this moral code is firmly in our spiritual shadow. Until the left, the new-age spiritualists, and the common man reclaim greatness, inequality, power, purpose, and vitality as guiding virtues – these works will remain forever out of reach. A bitter pill to swallow. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f661ab6b-3d98-4850-bdad-17fccbf11290_560x57.png) ## **An Unshakeable, Stable Foundation** **Finally, the least exciting yet most overlooked missing piece of cathedral consciousness: sound money.** All great works like this were born in the time of the gold standard. The 5000-year golden days of money. Gold was the established money all over the world. The hardest to dilute and the best at retaining its value over vast expanses of time. It is difficult for most to understand how profoundly and how subtlely unsound money corrodes your psychology. When you know that your $1 today will be worth $1 100 years from now, it shifts your [*time preference*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%5Fpreference?ref=zenmedicine.co) – your willingness to discount the present in pursuit of the future. You save, plan, and pursue longer-term projects. Gold retained its value for over 5000 years. In just 50 years, the US Dollar has lost 97% of its purchasing power. *It’s a critical reframe: housing hasn’t increased in value, your dollar has decreased in its purchasing power.* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f9aa7dc7-bb9b-4909-9b39-fe95a5171ef6_1090x1090-jpeg.jpg) **When you know that your money is going to be worth \~10% less next year than this year, it incentivizes you to spend it, now.** This drives short-term trivial consumption, and the idea of investing in something over centuries becomes a laughable pipe dream. Modern inflationary money leads us to this short-term, opportunistic cash-grabbing, and prevents us from creating masterpieces that rival the structures erected on a sound money standard. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/420f95b8-abf0-43a8-a30f-dda7869418f4_560x57.png) ## **Reclaiming the Consciousness that Built Cathedrals** **Modern culture has lost 3 critical components of cathedral consciousness:** 1. Nobility, Legacy, and Aristocratic Excellence. 2. Pursuit of Transcendent Ideals and Master Morality. 3. Stable Economic Bedrocks via Sound Money. **As much as you might see the hopeful idealists on Twitter discussing cathedral consciousness — until these fundamental pillars are restored, no modern cathedrals will rise.** Fortunately, there are steps you can take in your own life now to correct this. 1. **Reclaim Master Morality**: Begin to see and act through the lens that greatness, heroism, individuality, power, and excellence are virtues. 2. **Pursue Transcendent Ideals**: Ground yourself in enduring philosophical and religious orientations and make yourself useful. 3. **Promote a Sound Money Standard**: Of which Bitcoin is the shining beacon. There is work to be done. Correcting the centuries of psychological drift and sloppy thinking we have endured thus far will not be easy, but hope is not lost. All of these are possible and within our grasp, should we only desire to pursue them and reach out toward them. Godspeed, EB. ### Coming soon URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/coming-soon-67a8d08966f8ba001b5e92b9/ Last updated: 2024-09-23T22:26:49.000Z This is Blood & Ink. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### How to Be Prepared for the Future Without Losing Your Cool. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/how-to-be-prepared-for-the-future/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:20.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Bitcoin Jungle, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~6 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *This piece has sat collecting dust for almost 3 years! I wrote the core list years ago on a train ride into Toronto. Finally polished it off and happy to share it with you today. Last article I asked about frequency, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping for this result. Going forward, I’m going to turn this into a regular weekly newsletter (likely on Thursdays), and for those who want daily doses – stay tuned! I’ve got something coming for you next week.* 🔥 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7001aeb8-f3f7-434b-a67b-5faab4a1ff5e_1152x590.png) --- ## Anxiety is the epidemic of our times… **A gnawing sensation that chaos is around the corner, lurking behind every turn in the road of life.** This chronic tension incubates a host of neurotic tendencies to combat uncomfortable thoughts of the future. We hoard possessions, food, relationships, and commitments as a bulwark against the coming onslaught. We accumulate immaterialities like money, status, and connections. Scrambling frantically, hoping at some point a long-lost and forgotten feeling of safety will return. We flit through an endless labyrinth of hypothetical futures. This constant back-and-forth is what causes anxiety. We oscillate between the future and the present. Surruptiously, the low-level hum of anxious paranoia rises. This is the burden of a self-conscious creature. That you can understand your fate, and project into potential futures, none of which are grounded in reality. How can we deal with this? What is someone who wants to be prepared for the future to do? ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/aa972136-d2cc-4f48-84c9-99e20f898d9a_560x57.png) ## **Spiritual Acceptance and the Erosion of Agency** While people hoard anchors, things that tether them down and give them a false sense of security, others take the opposite approach: passive acceptance. You might call acceptance ‘self-abandonment’, as the outcome is the same. They put their energy into accepting all things that come their way, no matter what they are. This is the modern self-help and spiritual community. **The outcome of this acceptance is a complete erosion of agency.** The response is always a schizophrenic and disjointed explanation around ultimate metaphysical truths that no agency exists, no self to be agentic exists, and that all control is an illusion. We can sit and debate philosophical standings all day, but you’re riddled with anxiety as we have that conversation. Nothing is as effective at stoking the flame of anxiety as a loss of agency. Knowing that you are at the whim of anything or anyone who crosses your path creates a prey response—hypervigilance—and is counterproductive, even toward the goal of radical acceptance! Where is the middle ground between neurotic hypervigilance and passive acceptance? **Preparation.** Imagine a dancer or martial artist. They have no control over their sparring or dancing partner, but they train a repertoire of skills and moves so that as life moves, they move with it. They have agency because they’ve prepared. **What we’re looking for is minimum-viable competency in a host of meta-skills.** These are skillsets that when cultivated, allow you to respond, and indeed even dance, with the whims of fate. *You are training your ability to perform on demand.* Performing on demand is no small task. Spontaneity requires practice. What would you do if someone said *“Now, do something funny!”* to you? It might take you a minute. Whoops. Too slow! *“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.”* *― Archilochus* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a672c624-8965-4ac2-84f4-a859df75921c_560x57.png) ## **Dismantling the ‘Should’ Monster** My partner Chloe is an advanced language teacher. We were talking about ‘shoulds’ one day over dinner. She brought up something important: Should is always conditional. You need an ‘if’ at the beginning if it’s going to make sense. A favourite fallback of the spiritual community is that ‘there are no shoulds,’ there’s nothing you “should” be doing in life. It’s a coping mechanism for feeling less developed or put together than they ought to be at their age. - IF you want to get strong, you SHOULD be lifting weights. - IF you want your project to succeed, you SHOULD be working. IF you want to be free from anxiety; IF you want to develop agency and be a useful member of society — you SHOULD build your meta-skills. I have created a list below of things you should be able to do on a moment’s notice, without any preparation. These will take a good deal of training to be able to do on demand. I’m sure there are many more things we could add to it, let me know in the comments if you’ve got any. It is subjective, but it crosses a variety of competencies and aptitudes, and is challenging enough to be holistically robust. **If you can get to the point where you can do this list on demand, at any time, in any place — there is nothing the future will bring that you are not prepared to handle.** When your body realizes this, you become untouchable. This is the embodied knowing of the strength of your character, the strength of your will, and the capacity of your Being. Without any further need to fear the future, anxiety disappears. - You should be able to fast for 3 days. - You should be able to run 10k without stretching. - You should be able to submit someone in hand-to-hand combat. - You should be able to lift & carry an adult. - You should be able to fend off an attacker. - You should be able to kill. - You should be able to meditate for an hour. - You should be able to entertain yourself without electricity. - You should be able to use a weapon accurately. - You should be able to face death and die with honour. - You should be able to survive in the wilderness for a week by yourself. - You should be able to say you are an expert in a domain. - You should be able to ask interesting questions and give interesting answers. - You should be able to stay awake for 24+ hours under mild exertion. - You should be able to fall asleep in <10 minutes. - You should be able to find, grow, or harvest food, shelter, and water. - You should be able to dress wounds and provide basic first-aid/CPR. - You should be able to get to know someone deeply. - You should be able to speak for an hour about something you know/like. - You should be able to discern what is true/important information. - You should be able to suffer silently. - You should be able to lead. - You should be able to follow. - You should be able to tell a good story. - You should be able to heal yourself and others, mentally, emotionally, and physically. - You should be able to make people laugh. - You should be able to increase and balance your energy levels. - You should be able to support your lifestyle financially for 3+ months. - You should be able to make money in the free market using your labour/skills. - You should be able to console, support, and hold space for someone. - You should be able to check your thinking and correct for bias. - You should be able to speak confidently, articulately, with high signal. - You should be able to give and remove meaning from things. If you can master this list, you are unfuckwithable. This list is a set of milestones that train meta-skills like communication, survival, fitness, interpersonal relationships, usefulness, confidence, and leadership. You no longer need to guess and plan for the future, because you are ready for it. No matter what it brings — stress at work, rocky relationships, natural disasters, emotional turmoil — there is nothing that can cross your path that can throw you off course. *This allows you to settle deeply into the present moment because you no longer have to worry about the future or remember the lessons of the past. After all, they are sewn deeply into your bones.* No, school didn’t teach you any of this. No, your peers can’t do more than 3 things on this list. Yes, you are likely behind. None of these are valid excuses. Let’s get to work, and become capable, high-agency, grounded-in-the-present humans. And from this sovereign center, you are now ready to take on the future. Love and power, EB. 🦁 ### POV Perversion & the Splitting Western Psyche 📸 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/pov-perversion-and-the-splitting/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:21.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Jungle Mat Dojo, Uvita, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~5 minutes.* 🥋 **Vibecheck:** *Deep in the training montage right now. BJJ, weights, and the newly discovered* [*Budokon*](https://budokon.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *‘mixed movement arts’. Unlocking some serious power and will be channelling it into more writing. Earlier this week I published a fun piece on the meaning crisis for Apotheosis, you can find it below. I’ve got a poll at the end of this piece I’d appreciate your feedback on – to inform my writing here going forward. With love, EB.* 🦁 [The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Meaning Crisis 🗺️It’s known by many names…![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/145adeab-4914-47f2-9ac4-18994c35aa63_1276x1276.png)Apotheosis by HighExistence](https://apotheosisretreat.substack.com/p/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-meaning) --- ## A most insidious split has unfolded over the past decade… Glacially—nearly imperceptible—it has progressed nonetheless. The redefinition, I consider it a perversion, of ‘POV’. You’re familiar with POV from your childhood. The acronym stands for Point of View. In its original cultural context, it referred to a first-person perspective, particularly when used in media. It was looking at a situation from an individual’s perspective – from a singular, first-person point of view. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/929fae6a-3af6-4974-b209-a8122dcf83ac_600x364-jpeg.jpg) Proper POV references. Over the past decade, but accelerating in the last 3-5 years, POV and its use in modern culture has entirely changed. **READER NOTE:** *Be careful searching for examples of this online/on social, as POV is also a popular porn term. You’ve been warned. At least porn understands how POV is properly used.* POV has shifted, mutated, perverted, warped, and evolved, to mean *your* point of view looking *at* the individual. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/323c90a2-c2b1-47d1-84db-3b071e9208bf_842x1370.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e9d1c6e0-2dbe-4f6d-bb08-5751bcdf2002_1212x1344.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/55f21c3e-3b9d-4537-9cb7-d4f6c6aa4ee2_2452x1422.png) It has shifted from a first-person perspective to a second or third-person perspective. ### **I encourage you not to shrug this off as a mere linguistic misunderstanding, like when your mom thought LOL meant “lots of love”.** **This goes much deeper…** What you’re seeing reflected in the collective psyche is the individuals’ perception of their lives. **People see themselves now from the outside, in.** Believe someone when they show you who they are. This *is* their point of view. It’s a second or third-person perspective. A self-perspective entirely dominated by an outside perspective. Their existence and self-perception are filtered through how they appear to someone else. It is their appearance–not their direct experience—that is the foundation of their identity and sense of self. This is sad, pathetic, and deeply disturbing. Imagine how fragmented a psyche must be to exist in a constant state of immediate self-reflectiveness. To exist only within the eyes of other people, with no substantial internal existence of your own. *How demoralizing? How anxiety producing? How depressing? How depersonalizing?* Driven by the rise of narcissism, and fueled by hyper-selective algorithms incentivizing and prioritizing the refinement of an external facade – we are witnessing the splitting of the Western psyche in real-time. **This is why, alongside this, we’ve seen the equal rise of the ‘zombie’ and ‘NPC’ (non-player character) memes.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/2a2eb0c1-64c4-49bf-8d0f-2a825ca41a60_2134x772.png) Both of these are archetypes of a being that exists on this planet with little to no internal experience. They are there, but the lights aren’t on. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/791e0667-ca95-4796-8d0c-ae3841b1d1f9_980x952-jpeg.jpg) **To disavow your internal experience and make it subservient to the filter of the externalized other is a crime against your humanity.** Your fundamental aliveness is found only within the hallowed halls of your conscious, dynamic, vital internal experience. It is the first and last sacred object in your life. *“That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told 'no', we're unimportant, we're peripheral. 'Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.' And then you're a player, you don't want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.”* *― Terence McKenna* **Never abandon yourself.** Never let them dismiss your experience. Never discount your perspective. Never abandon your point of view. Your perspective, your emotion, your experience, your dreams, your thoughts, your ambitions. These are the bedrock of conscious existence and the seed of a meaningful life. I leave you with this, the very last inch of us: *“Our integrity sells for so little, but it is all we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free. \[…\] I had roses, and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish. Every inch, but one. An Inch, it is small and it is fragile, but it is the only thing the world worth having. We must never lose it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us. I hope that whoever you are, you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and that things get better. But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you. I love you. With all my heart, I love you.”* *— Valerie’s Letter, read by Evey, V for Vendetta.* Love, tea, and dragon energy, EB. 💚 🍵 🐲 *p.s.: I want to drastically update my writing here and create something truly valuable for you. What would you prefer, select one below:* ### I Was Made for Times Like These… ✊🏻 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/i-was-made-for-times-like-these/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:22.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** *Uvita, Costa Rica.* **📖 Reading Time:** *\~3 minutes.* **🏴 Vibecheck:** *I came across a social post by Zen teacher/abbot Joan Halifax that inspired this post. In recent weeks I’ve found myself incredibly overwhelmed, angry, and depressed at times. It’s been tough. Too much news/social time I think, at least partly. The idea/mantra expressed in this post helped ground me more, and I hope it proves fruitful for you as well.* --- ## AFFIRM: I was MADE for times like these… **Repeat it like a mantra.** When I was growing up in Canadian suburbia, one of the common social tropes was *“I should’ve been born in a different generation.”* Listening to the Beatles on the newest iPod Classic had every angsty teen thinking they should’ve been born in the ’60s. One of the limiting narratives I put out into the world was that I felt *‘alien’*. I didn’t belong here. It seemed like everyone else understood this human thing and I couldn’t grasp it. Somehow I missed the comfort-with-reality that I projected onto other people. Increasingly, you can find the ‘RETVRN’ movement in corners of the internet – those who advocate a return to the deep traditions of our ancestral pasts: the Roman Empire, Indigenous ways of living, etc. All of these narratives—the nostalgic longing for a decade that you have no experience of, the feelings of disconnection or alienation, and the growing pre-civilization traditionalists—all forget one critical point: ### YOU WERE MADE FOR TIMES LIKE THESE. The gnawing feeling you have inside of you that something different is possible isn’t a confirmation that you don’t belong here, it is precisely your dharma calling out to you in the present. It is that which you are meant to shepherd into the world. **You are a prodigy of the most adaptable, resilient, innovative, inventive, and explosive species to ever exist.** There is nothing that exceeds your capacity. ### YOU WERE MADE FOR TIMES LIKE THESE. Those final moments, when humanity’s collective back is up against the wall; when the night is darkest before the dawn; when you have exhausted your physical capacity and are running on willpower alone; when all hope seems lost but the beacons of Gondor are lit—this is where the human spirit shines. **And my child, you have inherited the brilliance of this spirit.** The fires of your ancestral inheritance burn inside of you now. You are not alone. You have the collective wisdom of the evolutionary chain of the human race sewn into your bones. *How many countless times throughout history have we had catastrophes to overcome, individually and as a collective? Can you imagine the black plague? 30% of the world’s population gone? Can you imagine the millions of challenges that every single one of your billions of ancestors had to overcome to pass on their genes for you to be here?* Every correct decision, every bit of wisdom, every strength of will lives inside of you now. And I affirm once again to you now: ### YOU WERE MADE FOR TIMES LIKE THESE. All of human history is nothing more than ‘times like these’. Archetypal battles between good and evil, something and nothing, life and death, here or there, now or later, vice or virtue, affirmation or negation, courage or cowardice. The choice is yours. Don’t fool yourself. You don’t belong anywhere else. You are destined to be HERE and NOW. Reality is right in front of you my brothers and sisters. ### YOU WERE MADE FOR TIMES LIKE THESE. Rise. Claim your inheritance. Reclaim your pride in the human spirit and become a paragon of excellence in this lifetime. **You are an unbelievably miraculous, highly preposterous, devastatingly gorgeous, brilliantly courageous, inspired spark of vital life force.** You were MADE for times like these. With love, EB. ### An Antidote to Ontological Shock. 💊 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/an-antidote-to-ontological-shock/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:22.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Uvita, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~4 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *I love you. You’re doing a great job. Keep going.* 🥋 EB --- ## “I just don’t know what’s real anymore!” *“I don’t know who I am, what I am, what this is…”* These statements indicate that someone is likely experiencing [***ontological shock***](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ontological%5Fshock?ref=zenmedicine.co). Ontological shock is the experience of being forced to question and reassess fundamental aspects of your reality. *Reality-as-you-knew-it* crumbles down. Many experiences induce ontological shock, but the psychedelic experience is perhaps the most reliable, direct, and challenging. To an extent, ontological shock is avoidable. When held well, glimpses into an expanded and altered sense of reality can settle into an evolved, expanded, and more fluid ontology; a more comprehensive way of understanding reality. **It is a strange and alien experience to have your narrative worldview rapidly expand.** Phenomenologically, it feels like a bubble popping. But the bubble happens to be your current understanding of what Reality is and how it works. One moment you’re sitting there, doing your best to follow the conclusions of your worldview, to integrate some new experience into your current narrative, when suddenly—*pop*—it can no longer explain the experience you’re having. The frame collapses like a house of cards, unable to assimilate the new experience into the existing architecture. **This is a pivotal moment of great change or great pain.** It happens in a moment, but integrating it can be a lifetime of work. *One of the unfortunate traps I see happen time and time again in my work is someone jumping from one rigid ontology right into the ready arms of another.* Perhaps the most common one is from Childhood Christianity → Militant Atheism. Nowadays, something like Agnosticism → ‘5D Pledian Neo-Shamanism’ seems to be the jump. *If the reality of your original ontology was empty and incomplete… what makes your new one any different?* You watch the mental gymnastics: *‘Everything I thought I knew was wrong, but now, now! – I have found the Truth. This is the way things are.’* **It’s a coping mechanism and cognitive trap born from the inability to hold void space, the liminal stages between stories.** And this is what makes Zen unique—and *uniquely beneficial*—for the psychedelic spirituality community. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/90c4d7c3-1235-4d28-8deb-dd3eb71e7887_1024x1024.png) ## **Zen & the Ch’an Wrecking Crew** Most people are uncomfortable with silence in conversation, so they start talking to fill the space. Most people are uncomfortable with the *space between ontologies* and jump into whichever one seems most resonant with their latest entheogenic experience. Same idea. Zen is nothing less than learning how to *hold the void*. Jumping from illusion to illusion does no good. It might provide a momentary reprieve from conceptual tension, but you’ve fallen into the same trap, with a different facade. Holding the space between stories is *hard*. **It is meditation.** When you begin meditating, you notice how hard it is to keep the mind focused. Pull that back a level, and you see how hard it is to stop the mind from latching onto stories. The muscles of mental control are weak. Fortunately, Zen makes you strong. Written by Bodhidharma, the First Patriarch of Ch’an *(a prototypical form of Zen)*, what you can call the 4 ‘founding’ lines of Zen are: *“Direct, non-verbal transmission from teacher to student.* *No scripture, no doctrine, no dogma.* *It must address the heart-mind of each individual.* *It must approach reality directly as it is.”* Zen ruthlessly emphasizes direct experience, before and beyond the linguistic machinations of the mind. **Zen trains you in the art of returning to the immediacy of direct experience.** It deliberately dismantles the story-telling, linguistic apparatus that plagues the consciousness of most of us. Famed scholar-translator [**David Hinton**](https://www.davidhinton.net/?ref=zenmedicine.co) playfully calls this the *‘Ch’an wrecking crew.’* Great sages throughout history show up and systematically dismantle the narrative structures in between you and reality. Zen helps you hold the gap. To play and explore in Reality-at-Large free from the reflexive overlaying of any fantastical stories. **Reality doesn’t need your story. It’s not lacking something.** *It’s like meditation: the only people who think it’s worthless are the ones who can’t do it.* *Zen too: the only people who think Reality needs a Story on top of it are the ones who can’t stop putting Stories on top of Reality.* It’s a [post-hoc justification](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/post-hoc?ref=zenmedicine.co). Zen training helps you stay *ontologically fluid*, cultivating the ability to move between Stories. To swap out Grand Narratives as easily as you change outfits. ![10 things you must know about Spiral Dynamics | by Ebrahim Haque Bhatti | ILLUMINATION-Curated | Medium](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/0696b3d3-3eba-473d-aa79-ce3802a65898_1045x1280-jpeg.jpg) ## **Spiral Dynamics and Tier 2 Thinking** Spiral Dynamics is a model of the evolution of consciousness in humanity. It distinguishes between ‘Tier 1’ and ‘Tier 2’ thinking. **The defining characteristic of Tier 2 thinking is the ability to *fluidly inhabit different perspectives*.** Like a hub and spoke, the skill of being able to return to a neutral frame, dive into a new perspective, return to neutral, and then explore a different one – is what defines Tier 2 thinking. If you always need an ontological frame, like an addict craving a hit, are you free to adopt a new perspective? You need a neutral resting point. This is Zen. Calm and Awake. No stories, no doctrines, no dogmas. **From resolving ontological shock to cultivating conceptual fluidity, Zen is a remarkable discipline.** Zen is total immersion in reality as it is. *And if you have resistance to total immersion in reality, well then, let’s start there.* 🪷 Namaste, EB. ### 32 Reflections for 32 Years. 🪷 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/32-reflections-for-32-years/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:22.000Z ## Today I turn 32… *(I wrote this yesterday, don’t worry.)* I wanted to sit down and write some reminders to myself. Below are a few pithy maxims — gentle reminders for myself to move forward with. These have gotten me through the good, the bad, and the impossible over the years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I’ve enjoyed living with them. 1. This moment is the youngest you will ever be again. 2. Nothing matters without your health. 3. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. 4. Reality is complete as it is. 5. You’re perfect just as you are… and you could use a little work. 6. Discipline is an act of profound self-love. 7. Time in nature heals most things. 8. True failure only arrives when you stop trying. 9. If you feel distant from God – *who moved?* 10. Seek that which makes you come alive. 11. You will never have enough Bitcoin. 12. Don’t take it personally. 13. Living is the art of dying gracefully. 14. Never let them break your spirit. 15. Do not sacrifice the meaningful for the expedient. 16. The Work, works. 17. Let go, or be dragged. 18. The *only* person responsible for meeting your needs is you. 19. 20% inspiration, 80% perspiration. 20. If you want to change the world, change yourself. 21. People respond to vibes first. Act accordingly. 22. The opportunity you’re waiting for is the one right in front of you. 23. Sonder: Everyone has a life as complex as your own. Be kind. 24. Gratitude is the appropriate response to the gift of life. 25. Do The Thing. 26. Don’t die with things left unsaid. 27. No moment is guaranteed, waste no time. 28. Do no harm, take no shit. 29. Love yourself enough to do your best. 30. Make giving a damn cool again. 31. How you do anything is how you do everything. 32. Never stray from the Way. 🦁 Love and power, EB. ### Radical Redesign: The Blueprint to Holistic Lifestyle Design 🗺️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/radical-redesign-the-blueprint-to/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:22.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Mi* *Templo del Cielo, Uvita.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~7 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *Writing is a barometer for my mental health. I feel better when words are flowing. If I stop publishing for a month or more, check in on me, I’m probably stressed out! I have some bangers coming out in the next few weeks, excited to share more with you all. For now, we begin our 10-day Radical Redesign experience *Friday*.* 🐦‍🔥 EB. [Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## I learn fast. If I get hands-on experience with a clear blueprint, I’m set… I’ve taught myself nearly everything I know. 90% of what I do and who I am I never learned in school. I just find a blueprint, drill it, and naturalize it. Blueprints—architectural diagrams of the structures and steps—are invaluable resources. **Creating ‘cultural blueprints’ has been part of the** [**Phoenix Culture**](https://www.phoenixculture.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **DNA since its inception.** Design, create, and release blueprints for human flourishing, collective intelligence, and regenerative culture. We’re releasing our first blueprint into the world this month: [**Radical Redesign**](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co). *A step-by-step blueprint and experiential container. Providing the toolkits and frameworks necessary to radically redesign your life and become the person you want to be.* Information wants to be free. Below I’m sharing the exact model we built. If you want to run with them and DIY it, be my guest. If you want real accountability, fierce motivation, immaculate container design, and the potent companion activities we’ve crafted, I invite you to join us on the experience live. **It begins tomorrow (Friday).** ## **1\. Address the Top Regrets of the Dying** If you’re stuck on a problem, it helps to imagine the end goal and work backwards. **Most people want a meaningful life—to have a life *well-lived*.** Fortunately, humanity knows the [top regrets of the dying](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying?ref=zenmedicine.co). Working backwards, design a life in the present that is oriented around the behaviours that avoid these: 1. *I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.* 2. *I wish I hadn't worked so hard.* 3. *I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.* 4. *I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.* 5. *I wish that I had let myself be happier.* It’s remarkable how profoundly this rearranges your priorities. That’s why it’s Day 1: Get Your Priorities Straight. ## **2\. Solidify a Personal Value Structure** **Success is never guaranteed.** The path forward is never clear. You need a compass, a way to cut through complexity and take the next aligned step. While ‘personal values’ sound fluffy, they are the greatest compass you have. So long as you act in alignment with your values, you will: 1. *Always have a next step.* 2. *Always achieve your goal: ‘Live in alignment with my values.’* 3. *Cultivate self-respect regardless of the outcome.* Personal values are the compass that guides you through the fog of uncertainty. Assess the moments you felt the best, and the worst, in your life, and surface the values that coloured these moments. ## **3\. Unlock an Empowering Vision** If you could have what you want—if you were *guaranteed* to succeed—what is it you want? **What is your ideal future?** Most people never clearly define this *(because specificity increases the chance of failure, something we address in later days)*, and thus never feel like any actions are moving them in the right direction. > *“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.”* — Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland Crystallize a compelling vision of your future. List out the things you want to have, do, and be, 6-12 months from now. ## **4\. Decorating Life with Ritual** > *“Art is how we decorate space. Music is how we decorate time. Ritual is how we decorate life.”* **Ritual is the complementary half of a compelling vision.** It’s no use being lost and focused on the future if you never appreciate the present moments that get you there. Rituals take care of both of these. They help you focus on moving toward your vision while bringing meaning, purpose, beauty, and presence to the day-to-day steps along the path. A ritual elevates routines and habits into moments of significance and personal meaning, becoming non-negotiable practices. [Join Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) ## **5\. Establishing the Strategy & Tactics** **While a vision is important, it becomes a burden if you don’t feel like it’s possible.** It becomes a reminder of your failure, rather than an inspired calling toward your greatness. The antidote is to ground your vision in regular, clear actions. Roll up your sleeves and get specific about the strategy, tactics, milestones, and execution for what you’re going to do to move toward your vision. This is the less exciting—but no less important—part of simply doing the work, chopping wood and carrying water, in service of your vision. **Break it down into milestones, goals, and daily actions, then get to work.** One day, one step, one action at a time. ## **6\. Holistic Life Foundations** > *“It does not matter how slow you go, so long as you do not stop.”* **Life is a marathon with a series of sprints.** The essence is never yielding. 90% of success is perseverance. **The greatest lever to increasing your endurance is getting your shit together at a radically deeper level.** Take an inventory of your health, wealth, relationships, and emotions, then sort them out. Strong foundations are essential to building masterpieces. It’s very easy to overlook the basics of life in pursuit of just *‘manifesting the quantum 5D vibrational heaven already here’*. While your vision is important, you’ll cripple yourself if your foundations aren’t in place; you won’t have the resiliency nor the stamina needed to make it happen. Sleep, nutrition, exercise, relationships, spiritual practice, income, debts, rest/recovery, beauty, play, meaningful work, service, contribution. ## **7\. Reframe Limiting Beliefs** Most people lose the game before it begins. They just don’t know it. **Most people, in a momentary fit of inspiration, set a vision for the future that is far beyond the glass ceiling of a core limiting belief.** Once the rubber hits the road, they stall out and sabotage themselves because the limiting belief prevents them from going any further. Resolving this is crucial. We address the ‘Core 4’ limiting beliefs: 1. *I don’t have enough resources (time, money, network, etc.)* 2. *I’m not capable of it.* 3. *I’m not worthy of it.* 4. *I’m not allowed to/it’s not safe.* Most people experience some variation of this. If you don’t address these, eventually you’ll trip yourself up and wonder why this pattern keeps happening. **Find the inspiring opposite, and treat it like a mantra.** Pair it with evidence to the contrary until you normalize it. ## **8\. Sealing Energetic Leaks** **Trying to fill a bucket that has one or more leaks is an absurd undertaking.** It is preposterous how many of us piss away our vital life force in situations exactly like this. **Sealing energetic leaks is imperative.** It reclaims a wellspring of vital energy that gives you the inspiration, stamina, resilience, and passion needed to execute the strategy you’ve created, overcome inevitable obstacles, and dream the impossible dream required to break through core limiting beliefs. Porn, social media, junk food, toxic relationships, addictions, negative self-talk, rumination, distraction, unhealed trauma, sedentary lifestyle, over/under sleeping, arguing, judgement, passivity, over-exertion. **Seal these with vigour and reclaim your life force.** You’ll need it where you’re going. ## **9\. Mastering Attention & Concentration** **You won’t go anywhere if you can only concentrate for 30 seconds at a time.** If you’re constantly pulled away by the next Current Thing and Shiny Object, the game is done. You’ll run the [Red Queen’s Race](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red%5FQueen%27s%5Frace?ref=zenmedicine.co), going faster and faster while making less and less progress. Cultivate your attention by developing the skill of concentration while simultaneously removing distractions *(particularly digital technology and unnecessary commitments)* that don’t serve your vision. ## **10\. Inviting Sacred Space** **Never underestimate the power of your environment to cripple or catapult your progress.** Creating sacred space enables the deep transformations of mind, life, and body needed to evolve. Clean up your home, create a sacred space, add beauty and nature, change the design to move stagnant energy and remind your mind/body that change is happening and you can see it. ## **Bringing It All Together** **What do you have by the end of this?** - Confidence in your life path because you’ve addressed the most common regrets of the dying. - A vision for yourself that is compelling and inspiring. - A personal code of ethics and a comprehensive game plan to move forward. - Meaningful rituals and sturdy life foundations help renew energy and keep you focused. - Newfound *unlimiting* beliefs and a reservoir of vital energy from sealing energetic leaks. - The ability, concentration, resiliency, and stamina needed to stay in the game and make consistent progress. - A sanctuary of sacred space that supports and enables your progress. **Equipped with this and the power of consistent effort, you will be shocked by what you can do—and who you can become—in a few months, let alone a few years.** *This is the Radical Redesign Blueprint.* And while information is helpful, it’s never enough. **The real keys are accountability, inspiration, support, momentum, and commitment.** If you want the accountability needed to do this; if you need the specific, paradigm-shifting activities for each of these stages; if you know the unbelievable transformational power of clear intention, collective work, and sacred containers, we are running people through a Live, 10-day Experience of this blueprint. **It’s $25 (20% off if you pay in Bitcoin). We begin Friday.** We’ll have several hours of expertly guided calls from me and the Phoenix Culture team along the way. Come and seriously play the game of radical redesign with us. [Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) I hope to see you there, EB. ⛩️ ### The Art & Science of Digital Lockdowns 🔐 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-art-and-science-of-digital-lockdowns/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:24.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Somewhere in the cloud forests, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~7 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *I haven’t done a proper guide in a while – felt good to lock in for this one, and I truly hope it helps. We are starting Radical Redesign, our 10-day lifestyle architecture quest, this Friday! A wicked group has gathered already. I’ve infused everything written below into Day 9 of the experience. I hope to see you there.* 🐉 EB. [Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## The collective attention armaggedon rages on… A virtual contagion decimates the population. Collective consciousness is under attack from the greatest barrage of exponential bullsh\*t we’ve ever experienced. Staying in control of your digital world is like slaying the hydra of [hypernormal stimuli](https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/comic/supernormal-stimuli/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Once you’ve got Facebook under control, 3 new platforms pop up. When confronted with a challenge of this magnitude, an equal and opposing force is necessary: **Declare digital lockdown.** Prioritize your attention *at all costs*. Treat your conscious awareness like the sacred Ground of Being it is. **If you want to get anything truly meaningful done in today’s age, getting control of your tech, before it completely puppeteers you, is paramount.** Up until the 1900’s, the word priority was *singular*. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/729fd7a8-93a3-44d4-a561-810936891def_2480x908.png) Like a canary in the coal mine, signalling the devastation to come, the word priority evolved and multiplied: *Priorities.* How a culture performs the mental gymnastics required to understand what it means to have a diversity of a singularity is beyond me. As the noble march of the Huberman Husbands continues, I hope we have finally put to rest the ideas of *multitasking and multiple priorities*. At the neurobiological level, multitasking doesn’t exist. There is only rapid task-switching. Advanced meditators know this too. With refined concentration, you can validate this experientially. You are only ever attending to one sensation at a time. The magician’s secret is that you underestimate how fast the stream of experience moves. Dozens, even hundreds of discrete sensations pass through your conscious awareness every second. **What follows are my nuclear protocols for getting your digital sh\*t together.** While it’s not a trophy I like to parade around much anymore, I won’t deny that my level of productive output is immense. I can get a lot done. Part of it is being merciless at wrestling technology so that it works for me, not against me. I’ve had periods where I use all of these suggestions at once *(nuclear mode)*, some of them at a time *(get sh\*t done mode)*, or none at all *(need more fast dopamine)*. I am **never** as productive, nor as fulfilled when I’m using none of these. Run this setup for two weeks. After enduring the difficult adjustment period, I guarantee you will feel substantially better. ## **🚮 Delete & Deactivate All Social Media Profiles and Applications.** One of the hardest, but also the most powerful. I’ve deleted my Reddit & Pinterest accounts entirely. I deactivated Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, & LinkedIn. I allow YouTube. If you’re not willing/able to do this *(you can always reactivate accounts later)*, they **must** **be off your phone.** I don’t miss them, other than lacking a convenient escape outlet to waste my time. Not a good sign for the social giants. ## **🦋 Shut Down All Distractions with Freedom.** [**Freedom**](https://freedom.to/?ref=zenmedicine.co) blocks all distracting apps and websites for certain time limits. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/02e02770-4de7-4579-8ce9-89e3694c7f93_2348x1138.png) You select what it blocks. It can be social/news sites, certain applications, or your entire connection to the internet. Selecting ‘Locked Mode’ means you can’t remove the limitations once you’ve started a session. Select any amount of time you want, and Freedom will block your list. Try to go somewhere blocked, and get hit with: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/0e86b962-6bf8-4fb7-8175-0034c7e2c474_2966x1652.png) ## **🛑 Use the Pause, Limit, & Insight Browser Extensions.** These are Chrome browser extensions made by Freedom. - [**Pause**](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/pause-stop-mindless-brows/ljfdccdjpfjpfjbpdiihanpodilolofh?hl=en&ref=zenmedicine.co) gives you a moment before continuing to any website that you add. Adding a 5-10 second ‘pause’ before opening Facebook gives you enough time to consider whether you want to be there, or you fell victim to an unconscious behavioural tick. - [**Limit**](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/limit-set-limits-for-dist/blcdfhbibkkjpfdddnmnmhfgjlicebba?ref=zenmedicine.co) blocks any website after you hit a certain amount of time on it. Set up 30 minutes for Facebook, and it will block it once you hit that limit. Add any site you wish. - [**Insight**](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/insight-track-and-optimiz/fekofipodopncnlomnghaaebmohagjho?hl=en&ref=zenmedicine.co) gives you weekly time reports of how long you’re spending on websites. The results are nauseating. This is good. Don’t look away. Creating a negative association is essential to fuel the desire to change behaviour. ## **📵 News Feed Eradicator.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/bf4dac54-3dd5-4f2e-bf4c-2e7eadeeb538_2974x1658.png) I’ve been using [**News Feed Eradicator**](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/news-feed-eradicator/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg?ref=zenmedicine.co) for over 2 years straight. A random change that started and then *never* stopped. The difference is incredible. It does what it says: obliterates the news feed of *every* social network you choose. It gives you a quote instead. **Home feeds are hyper-curated algorithmic labyrinths designed to silently assassinate your attention.** *Avoid them at all costs.* You can interact with the rest of the platforms normally. ## **✅ Single-Task With Slash.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/2fc5a4b5-9143-4842-a700-8129fa9b30c0_3420x2214.png) [**Slash**](https://getslash.co/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is a fantastic ‘done’ app made by a friend and mentor Jordan Lejuwaan. The behavioural design is second to none. Its killer feature is keeping your current task constantly visible while you work on it. You can see it at the bottom, *“Write Tech Hyperfocus Lockdown Article.”* I’ve used it for years, and there’s an incredible depth of features packed into elegant simplicity. It truly turns on hyperfocus and enables an insane level of output. I swear by it. ## **🖥️ Full-Screen Only** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/577c21f6-ed50-4770-a16a-7ec737893c1b_3420x2214.png) Self-explanatory. Work on one thing at a time. Full screen all your apps. I love the iA Writer app. It greys out every sentence except for the exact one you’re writing. Don’t mix and match screens when you can avoid it *(I understand taking notes for a YouTube video)*. Push yourself to make everything full screen, one thing at a time. It gets easier the more you do it. **Bonus Tip:** Extremely potent when combined with Slash, because the second you head back to your home screen *(searching for a distraction!)*, Slash is there, ticking away, ominously reminding you what you’re supposed to be working on right now. ## **⏱️ Automate Behavior Design.** **Set aside 20 minutes and go through every setting on your phone: Screen Time, Notifications, Do Not Disturb, and the Shortcuts app.** My recommendations: 1. **No Notifications, *Ever*.** Only phone calls can make noise. No badges, no notification centers, no lock screen. Turn them off. 2. **Do Not Disturb Profiles.** Deep Work, Sleep, and Weekend are 3 great ones to set up, with their own allowed apps, backgrounds, and automated on/off timers. 3. **Shortcut Automation.** Blue light from screens *(& phone use at night)* zonks your sleep cycle. Go to Automations and set it to automatically turn on Color Filters at Sunset and turn off Color Filters at Sunrise. Set the Color Filter as *red* as possible. 4. **Screen Time.** Mercilessly cap anything that you have trouble with *(social, reading, games)* and then respect yourself enough to honour those limits. If you can’t resist hitting “Ignore for Today” every time, delete the app. 5. **Clean Your Home Screen.** This is more of a personal aesthetic preference on my end, but it works well. Remove all apps from your home screen, put an inspirational background, and put the apps you *want to make normal behaviour* on your bottom row. Here’s my current one below (07/24), with Music, Books, and your favourite Duolingo Language across the bottom. It’s so easy to default to something on your phone: make sure your defaults are what you want. 6. (**HARD MODE) Turn your phone greyscale.** I’ve never done this, but I will admit it’s extremely effective at making your phone less inspiring to f\*ck around on. 7. **(BONUS)** **Leave it in another room.** Seriously. Don’t carry it with you. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4318c394-8a97-4f83-9b8a-61eb5b82c180_1179x2556.png) ## **👁️ The Art of Focus** There are countless components to cultivating focus and digital lockdowns not included here. *If you have any tips/tricks/questions about anything, please share. I’m always on the hunt for a good tool or technique.* I intend to help you keep your technology on your side, instead of becoming its b\*tch. **I will write another piece in the future on the more human side of focus: learning to say no, identifying importance, and loving yourself enough to be disciplined.** Momentum builds on itself. The first moment you feel the expansion, the spaciousness made available in your consciousness from these actions is intoxicating. What is uncomfortable for a few weeks becomes second nature in a few more. > **Developing concentration (and removing distractions) is Day 9 of our 10-Day Radical Redesign program.** If you liked what’s here, and want to go deeper *(especially if you want to *actually* implement this list)* – I encourage you to join us. We begin on Friday. [Join Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) Love and power, EB. 💛 ### How Excellence Re-Orients Your Life ☀️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/how-excellence-re-orients-your-life/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:25.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Uvita, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~3 minutes.* **🏴 Vibecheck:** *I’ve been a growth challenge the last few weeks. Learning how to step into greater leadership in a number of areas, from leading myself, my relationships, and the organizations I steward. It’s been challenging, but I can see the light. I see a next-level opening up. And even just for my own selfish gain, I’m excited to go through the Radical Redesign program we’ve been cooking up. A brief retreat and reassessment of what is important, where I’m going, and who I want to become. We’re starting on July 19, and it would be an honour to have you if you feel the need to stop, reorient, and execute. You can check it out below.* [Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) “Learn to value yourself, which means: fight for your happiness.” — Ayn Rand ## I inhaled two great works from Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead… I couldn’t put them down. Several thousand phone book pages absorbed in a few days. While I’ve heard whispers about the mythical texts before, I had never jumped in. **I’m glad I did.** While there are axioms of her philosophy I disagree with, there is a central thread in her work I find compelling: *the unbridled pursuit of excellence.* **One of the most pernicious and insidious forces taking root in the world today is the vilification of greatness.** The fruition of a trend that has been taking root over centuries. Greatness is attacked. Heroic figures are caricatured as weapons of oppression. Hard work is flaunted as a sin—effort avoided and persecuted at every turn. Think of what it implies that ‘tryhard’ has become a pejorative. **The unspoken and uncomfortable truth is that people would much rather tear down those who reflect their inadequacies and failures than do anything about their character.** It’s simply easier to destroy than to create. And thus, the centuries-long demolition of virtue, excellence, and greatness. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/3b5749c2-81e2-488d-adb5-2bc112947090_1179x1013.png) Even Duolingo cracks about it. Symbol of our times. Everything today is a shortcut, a hack, a grift, an affinity scam. Reward without work. Outcome without input. Destination without journey. This is held as *desirable*… More and more we see the incompetent, the incapable, the downright evil rising into positions of status, influence, power, envy, and inspiration in the eyes of the masses. *“When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.”* — Ayn Rand I’m not here today to espouse Randian ethics. I’m here to promote excellence as a noble virtue. I believe most people are crippled by their potential. I was. At the end of their lives, most peoples’ gravestones will read, *“He had so much potential”*. **The only way to realize all of your potential is to have none.** Potential is never fully realized. The more you achieve, the greater your potential grows. It’s a horizon, always receding (or expanding). The only way to reach it is not to have it. Unconsciously people recognize this and succumb to the downward spiral of realizing their aim: *the elimination of potential.* The elimination of excellence. The vilification of the creative force. *“Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”* — Ayn Rand **Excellence is one of the highest virtues one can aim at, perhaps for no other reason than how distributed it is.** Striving for excellence in your existence necessitates your engagement in all domains of life. Aim for excellence in love, compassion, beauty, character, discipline, work, skills, wealth, relationships, health, aesthetics, taste, interests, vision, communication, artistry, choice, courage, honour, integrity, justice, fairness, humility, and style. **Excellence is a meta-virtue.** It is the virtue that enables the pursuit and embodiment of all other virtues. If we take virtue as a moral good because it reduces the suffering of others, or furthers the positive development of sentient beings – excellence finds its home among the highest. My suffering is reduced when I engage with excellence. Being awe-struck by an artistic masterpiece, or the uplifting desire for growth that happens when I see a master at their craft. Excellence is the driving engine of humanity. The pursuit of improvement and skilled execution of your craft. *Excellence is a virtue.* **If it’s time for you to reorient your values, to aim towards something greater, Day 2 of our 10-day Radical Redesign program is a comprehensive values audit. There’s a ton more packed into this.** [Join Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) We start on July 19. If you feel as we feel, and want to pursue the virtue of excellence in your life, join us. ### The No-B*llshit Guide to Reinventing Yourself 🗺️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-no-bllshit-guide-to-reinventing/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:25.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** *Bitcoin Jungle, Costa Rica.* **📖 Reading Time:** *\~10 minutes.* **🏴 Vibecheck:** *Dropping a bigger piece here today, a no-nonsense guide to personal evolution. It’s but a taste of something bigger we’ve been cooking up: Radical Redesign. We’re running a 10-day live journey, starting July 19, for courageous humans looking to expand what’s possible. If that sounds like you, come join us. Love and power, EB. ⚡️* [Radical Redesign](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) *“Do the best you can until you know better. Once you know better, be better.”* ## “You know, you’ve really developed the art of reinventing yourself… every time I see you you’re a different person…” A friend and collaborator said this to me a few days ago. It was one of the best compliments I’ve ever received. Reinventing yourself—what I call *‘identity-level transformation’*—has been the core of my work and life for years. It’s no mistake that I use the mythology of the Phoenix as the core symbolism in [**Phoenix Culture**](https://www.phoenixculture.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co). The death/rebirth motif is an archetypal symbol of change. This Chapter in the Book of Eric is not the only one I’ve had. In previous decades, I’ve gone through: 1. Jock 2. Skate Culture/Punk 3. Depressed/Anxious/Struggling Emo Kid 4. Stoner/Hippie 5. Militant Vegan/Vegetarian 6. Tech Startup Bro 7. Psychedelics-as-Identity 8. Plant Medicine Facilitator 9. Jungle Samurai *(my favourite approximation of the present chapter).* Everything changed within those chapters. Everything. The people I hung out with, the way I spoke, my work, goals for the future, diet *(the full range from raw veganism to carnivore/animal-based)*, appearance, hairstyles, body mass, emotional baseline, nervous ticks. The contrast is stark. A few years ago, I was too depressed to get out of bed or eat for days, hopped up on pharmacological cocktails, thousands of dollars in debt, in abusive relationships, over-worked and over-stressed, unhealthy, uninspired. Now, I live in the jungle mountains of Costa Rica, in a beautiful relationship, building the projects of my dreams, the strongest I’ve ever been, with more money than I’ve ever had. I’ve become a leader and mentor to many, and continue to be an eager student in my own life. When I write about identity-level transformation, sometimes people think it’s hyperbole or metaphorical. For me this is a living, breathing reality. Changing who you are is possible. **This is my no-bullshit guide to reinventing yourself.** ## **1\. Articulate an Activating, Inspiring Future** It begins with a vision. As clear and concise as you can conjure. In the liminal space between shedding one identity and stepping into a new one, sometimes the vision is murky. That’s fine. It manifests as a longing, a gut-level instinct that something is being called forth. **Your only job here is to be courageous and clearly articulate the desired future.** I say courageous because most people hold back at this step. They succumb to an entrenched fear of failure, and avoid committing to anything specific. For the ego, it’s better to avoid failing than to succeed. Be courageous, call your shot. Make a list, put a timeline (6 months-1 year is good), and list the things you want to have, to be, and to do. **Most important is that your vision creates *emotional activation*.** You *feel* something when you think about it. This emotional charge is critically important. Keep your vision present. You may have seen [**my recent article**](https://www.zenmedicine.co/using-ai-to-imagine-the-future-heroic/) where I used Bing AI to envision what I’m embodying now. Make a vision board, write a sticky note, do whatever you need to keep your North Star in front of you. ## **2\. Identify Actions & Activities That Move Toward the Vision** **Chart the path from the Present to the Future.** Based on your Have/Be/Do list: *what do you need to do that’s completely new? What do you already do that you need to do more of? Less of? Drop completely? Practice?* Your list might look like: - Learn design to transition careers - Get way more physical strength - Study yoga - Start a gratitude practice - Move cities - Find a community of musicians - Buy a piece of art for your room The guiding question is: *how does the person who has/lives/is all the things you picture act?* You might end up with something like: - Sign up, and go to the gym 2x/week. - Message 2 people I respect and have feedback calls with them. - Sell my stuff so I can move countries. - Go to 3 interest events this month. - Create 1 new article/design a week and sign up for this course. - Write a journal daily. - Fix my sleep/wake cycle. - Choose happiness. Where are the gaps, and how do you take steps toward them? Best guesses are far better than nothing. ## **3\. Psychological Death, Epistemic Humility, & Putting Everything Up for Grabs** **This stage—grounding your vision into your daily reality—is where most people fall off.** Emotional instability, ego traps, disempowering narratives, and clinging of all kinds create a gravity for *the-way-things-are*, preventing you from hitting escape velocity to *become-what-can-be*. **One resource is using the emotional energy from your vision.** Let the beauty, love, and excitement of the desired future infuse you with the willingness and soul force necessary to continue moving through the difficult process of transformation. **The second part is not ignoring the obstacles, but not getting hung up on them.** As a shaman and mentor of mine says, *“No fear, no fascination.”* A few reminders are game-changing *(though sometimes painful)* at this stage: - **How you do anything is how you do everything.** Reinventing yourself is reinventing everything. Pick anywhere and begin. Speak differently. Do things that scare you. Change your room. Listen to new music. Find new communities. Change the way you walk. Develop new routines. - **If you don’t like the person you are right now, you shouldn’t like the way of thinking/living that got you here.** You can’t isolate one part of you and say *that’s the thing* that needs to change. There is no separation. Put everything up for grabs, all of it is on the table to be transformed. - **Humble yourself.** Practice epistemic humility. If you’re not where you want to be, you’re missing something. Accept that your ideas are incomplete, and seek relentless feedback from reality. As a Zen maxim says, *“You’re perfect just the way you are, and you could use a little work.”* Get comfortable being awkward, being the beginner, making mistakes, upsetting people. - **Don’t overlook small changes.** A haircut or new shirt work wonders in catalyzing the transition into a new identity. If you can get tiny wins, don’t overlook them. - **Cultivate ontological fluidity.** Reshape your story of reality. The new person you’re becoming will see reality differently. How does the ideal future self view reality, life, meaning, purpose, relationships, morals, values, vocation, free time, etc? Write it down. You must step into a new grand narrative, if you don’t, the current story will reshape you back into the same person you are now. This is what looping is, the same conditions create the same results. Change the conditions. - **Accept psychological death.** Have endless gratitude for the younger version of you, accompanied by mercilessly letting them go. The process of identity-level transformation is a death process. The person you are will die to the person you are becoming. Who you are now will no longer exist. Prepare yourself and walk boldly forward through the fires of change. - **Don’t let others anchor you.** Some people will *never* update their model of you – you must be aware of this, accept it, and move forward. Everyone else will do it slowly. Getting feedback is helpful, but don’t base your identity on others, they are always lagging behind the bleeding edge of your own transformation. Become your own authority. ## **4\. Massive, Relentless, Courageous Action** Let’s recap. So far, you’ve got: - A compelling vision of the future. - A best-guess roadmap of steps to go from here to there. - The traps/emotional challenges/psychological pitfalls that will arise. - There is only one thing that remains… **Massive, relentless, courageous action.** This is the training montage. This is literally and metaphorically drilling the behaviours, perspectives, and way of being of your future self into your bones so many times that it becomes who you are effortlessly. *You’re mastering the skill of being yourself.* Some decisions are easier than others. It’s easier to go through the awkward 2 weeks of a new hair style than it is to move across continents. But the need for courage, commitment, and relentless action are the same for both. You need to decide to go to the barber just as you need to buy the plane ticket and sell your sh\*t. It’s 1000 decisions and bold actions in service of your Vision. There was a point in your life where you couldn’t speak. Literally, you knew no language. Now you do. How? You may have forgotten, but you practiced language. I’m not saying this process has to be miserable, by no means, but it needs to happen. You are learning the skill of being an entirely different person. It’s awkward. You will mess up, but do not give up. Drill it. Practice being assertive. Develop the skill of joy. Eventually *(both sooner and later than you imagine)* your new perspectives, beliefs, morals, actions, habits, routines will become “second nature”. In reality, they will become your first and only nature. **They will become *who you are*.** Now you’ve made it. ## **5\. Internal Milestones & External, Unprompted Reflections** How you can be sure that you’ve changed? Deep changes take a long time to stabilize, and some aspects of change are easier to spot than others *(easier to tell if you’ve put on muscle or lost weight than to know if you’re more assertive or resilient)*. There are two key indicators I use: 1. **Accomplished Internal Milestones.** If you were courageous, in Step 2 you should have defined a very clear Have/Be/Do list. The question is: *are those present in your life now?* Did you really put on 20lbs of muscle? Are you on the path to changing careers? Have you bought that piece of art for yourself? Did you take that trip? Are you happier and more excited about your life? Whatever your indicators were, see if you’ve done them. Some take much longer to materialize, and simply *being on the path* counts too. If you have accomplished some of these, really acknowledge this, soak it in, and celebrate! You turned a visionary desire into a living reality. 2. **Unprompted, External Reflections.** In my opinion, the more powerful indicator is receiving unprompted, external reflections from the world that align with your vision. Here’s a personal example: 3 weeks ago I was in the jungles of Mexico in an appreciation circle during our latest retreat. Each person was put in the ‘hot seat’, and everyone would give them a note of appreciation. One of the unprompted, external reflections I got from someone was in essence, *“I appreciate how solid you are, you’re like a… jungle samurai.”* A few people nodded in agreement. If you remember my ‘[Envisioning the Future Self](https://www.zenmedicine.co/using-ai-to-imagine-the-future-heroic/)’ piece, *‘jungle samurai’* was the **exact** term I used. It went from an internal North Star to an external, unprompted reflection in a few months. Unbelievable! This is what I mean: do people or situations reflect the desires you’ve set, noticing that you’re happier, more engaged, doing different work, looking/feeling better, or responding to you in a different way? While you can’t *control* or manufacture these, they are powerful indicators. You don’t need external validation, but the reflections show what frequency you’re putting into the world. ## **6\. Revisiting & Re-articulating the Future** **There’s only one thing left to do once you’ve reached this point – start again!** While inhabiting a new identity and perceiving a new reality, you will inevitably have a new vision for the desired future. Why? Because your *desires* changed too. Your values evolved alongside you. *So sit down, envision and articulate the ideal future self, and continue the serious play of becoming yourself.* ## **Radical Redesign** **If the reality and possibility of identity-level transformation resonates, I am running a 10-day live experience called Radical Redesign.** We are going to go through this process together: crafting the vision, surfacing limiting narratives, creating the strategies to implement, and radically redesigning the life available to us. It’s 10 days, and $25\. It will lay the foundation for the next few years of your life. [I'm Ready](https://www.phoenixculture.org/radicalredesign?ref=zenmedicine.co) Come play with us. I hope to you there. With love, EB. 🫡 ### Bodhisattva-Warriors: Mahakaruna for Eternity 📿 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/bodhisattva-warriors-mahakaruna-for/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:25.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Uvita, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~5 minutes.* **🏴 Vibecheck:** *It’s 5:30am Saturday, the sun is bathing the jungle in its golden nectar. A lot of bamboo fell last night in the heavy rains. Birds are chirping. My cat Nora is hunting butterflies. All is well.* *It’s* *good* *to be back* *here.* *I* *started my first BJJ & Striking classes last week, turns out the* [*striking teacher*](https://www.junglebreezecr.com/about-us?ref=zenmedicine.co) *studied with the Shaolin! Brilliant opportunity. I hope you enjoy this one, it’s been close to my heart for many months \~* 🦁 EB. *“So long as space endures,* *and for as long as beings exist,* *may I likewise remain,* *to drive away the sorrows of this world.”* – Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva. ## I’m obsessed with the Bodhisattva… *Younger EB could have never imagined saying this. How the years change us! But as one does, I’ve been researching the Bodhisattva, and it’s grounding a thesis I have about the Warrior archetype…* **Bodhisattvas are the great avatars of Mahayana Buddhism, known as spiritually heroic individuals who strive to attain awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.** Their defining qualities are [*bodhicitta*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhicitta?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=Bodhi%20means%20%22awakening%22%20or%20%22,%22the%20thought%20of%20enlightenment.%22)—Awakened Mind—the spiritual orientation aimed at awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings, and [*mahakaruna*](https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/mahakaruna?ref=zenmedicine.co)—Great Compassion. Warriors are viewed in quite the opposite light. I fell victim to this view of Warriors and the Warrior archetype for a long time. Warriors as a relic of a barbaric past, dogs of a sadistic military. That is a pejorative, simplistic, and superficial view of Warriors. It helps to consider the distinction between Soldier and Warrior. Warriors in their fullness—rooted in the greatness of their archetype—are arbiters of Integrity, Discipline, Service, Courage, Virtue, Strength, and Mastery. Look at the 8 Virtues of [Bushido](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushido?ref=zenmedicine.co)—literally *‘the Way of the Warrior’*—of the samurai: justice, courage, benevolence, politeness, honesty, honour, loyalty, self-control. **At the core of the Warrior’s Vow is protection.** The Scholar-Warrior serves and protects with two instruments: the pen, and the sword. > *"It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways.”* — Miyamoto Mushashi, [The Book of Five Rings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FBook%5Fof%5FFive%5FRings?ref=zenmedicine.co). Warriors are the first and last line of defence for a people, an idea, or a place. The Warrior Spirit is a Protector. It defends the True, the Good, the Beautiful, the Culture, the Youth, the Elders, the Women, the Values, the Virtues, and the Traditions. The Warrior spirit stands up for what is Right, defending it against debasement, direct attack, and the inevitable arc of entropy. In her [article for Lion's Roar](https://www.lionsroar.com/a-greater-happiness-november-2012/?ref=zenmedicine.co), legendary American-Buddhist nun Pema Chodron argues that the Bodhisattva Vow and the Warrior Vow are the same. She uses the terms Bodhisattva and Warrior interchangeably. > *"The commitment to take care of one another, the warrior commitment, is not about being perfect. It’s about continuing to put virtuous input into our unconscious, continuing to sow the seeds that predispose our heart to expand without limit, that predispose us to awaken."* – Pema Chodron ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ba67dcff-847f-4972-a5c5-d4ed5d73b31a_602x1147-jpeg.jpg) In today’s age, we’re bombarded with images of pseudo-machismo Warrior energy. Weak replacements of the Awakened Warrior, full of physical strength, but deprived of emotional and spiritual fortitude. Vain imitations of Courage. Mahatma Gandhi called this moral strength *‘*[*satyagraha*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=Saty%C4%81graha%20%28Sanskrit%3A%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%97%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B9%3B%20satya,practises%20satyagraha%20is%20a%20satyagrahi.)*’*, later popularized by Martin Luther King as *‘Soul Force’*. **The Bodhisattva—and specifically the Bodhisattva Vow—is the greatest demonstration of the Warrior Spirit that exists.** The [Lankāvatāra Sūtra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La%E1%B9%85k%C4%81vat%C4%81ra%5FS%C5%ABtra?ref=zenmedicine.co) illustrates the essence of the Vow that Bodhisattvas take: *"I shall not enter into final nirvana before all beings have been liberated."* Buddhists believe in reincarnation, the endless existence of the Soul until its final liberation from the cycle of *samsara* (birth/death/birth). Look again at the opening passage from Shantideva, author of the canonical text on Bodhisattvas – [The Way of the Bodhisattva](https://www.amazon.ca/Way-Bodhisattva-Revised-Shantideva/dp/1590303881?ref=zenmedicine.co): > *“For as long as space endures,* > *and so long as beings exist,* > *may I likewise remain,* > *to drive away the sorrows of this world.”* **Imagine—for a moment—the reality, gravity, and profound implication of this statement.** Staring down the barrel of a thousand lifetimes of suffering, of eons of death/rebirth/death/rebirth, in the whole-hearted commitment to the protection and liberation of all sentient beings. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a4f25cda-20fd-4df4-8d83-bd3fca1fe3a5_1600x2253-jpeg.jpg) *“This bad boy? I’ll take an endless amount, thanks.”* It goes further, echoing into eternity, *“Though I can achieve nirvana myself, and exit the cycle of the birth and death and birth into realms of everlasting peace, I will not, not until the last blade of grass joins me.”* While this sounds intense—*perhaps insane*—to me it rings beautifully in the spirit of Serious Play. **We must never forget that what this Vow asks of the individual is the cultivation of their compassion, wisdom, joy, excellence, virtue, meaning, purpose, passion, and conviction.** All of these are *positive*. While the undertaking is *serious*, the outcomes are *playful*. You are undertaking a commitment of Self-Liberation for Others. **This is the Bodhisattva Vow.** **This is the Warrior Spirit.** Self-obliteration over and over and over again. Yet each time, returning to the heart, and with a courageous, life-affirming roar, declaring *“No. I shall not enter into final nirvana before all beings have been liberated. Again!"* This is dreaming the impossible dream and striving to bring it into being. This is Self-Mastery for Selfless-Service. Bodhisattvas are among the purest expressions of the Warrior Archetype. They embody Selfless Service, Self-Mastery, Compassion, Protection, Integrity, Moral Virtue, and Courage at a level nigh unreachable, indeed unimaginable, by most alive today. **There is nothing that inspires me as much as this.** Far beyond loss and gain, pleasure and pain, trivial self-interested distractions – the Bodhisattva *exists*. In service of all sentient Beings. Committed to their self-mastery to be put in the unflinching service of all beings for as long as time exists. This is what I would like the [WARRIOR100](https://www.phoenixculture.org/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co), my 100-day initiation into the Warrior Archetype to strive for. This is my personal North Star with [Phoenix Culture](https://www.phoenixculture.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) – create and refine the Bodhisattva-Warriors. Phoenix Culture as a *Mahayana* *(Great Vehicle)* for the liberation of individuals, cultures, and collectives. To gather together the individuals, who in this lifetime, cultivate the courage and generate the Soul Force required to undertake this initiation, mastering themselves and putting their power into service of the Collective. The Bodhisattva-Warrior exists in the hearts of all humans. Including you, should you choose to access and act on it. *What do you think? Insane, or incredible? Let me know in the comments.* Namaste, EB. 🐉 ### On Sparring Partners & Growth Challenges 🥋 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/on-sparring-partners-and-growth-challenges/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:25.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** *Jungle Mountains, Plantanillo, Costa Rica.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *4 minutes.* 🏴 **Vibecheck:** *Returning to the world after our recent* [*Apotheosis retreat*](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*. Feeling calm, strong, and inspired. I had a painful yet beautiful reminder of how important writing is to me. I feel like I let myself, and you, down with my absence here. But alongside this I feel a ferocious clarity and passion – the essence of my work and life honing themselves. I’m excited to be back in the arena here, and I will honour the time and attention you give to this, pushing us all toward beauty, mastery, and the spirit of serious play. I’ve made some aesthetic updates — I hope you like them. Now, onward!* *“A true sparring partner is not an opponent, but a comrade in the pursuit of excellence.”* – Emily Brooks ## **We are dying to be challenged…** Starved of difficulty. Dragon slayers reduced to dog walkers. Yes, we’re up against the ‘meta-crisis’ and a series of nebulous, amorphous, *always-around-the-corner* crises. Cost of living, monetary inflation, climate change. The hydra of hellscapes remains. But you can’t stare into the eyes of climate change. You can’t grapple with inflation. You can’t slay the cost of living crisis. The space between *“me vs. me discipline”* and *“intangible world crisis”* is lost. A sacrificial victim of increasing isolation, lack of deep relationships, and—without mincing words—the ‘lack of a spine’ of most people we’re surrounded by. For those committed to growth, excellence, and the spirit of *kaizen* – the yawning lack of a ‘worthy rival’ consumes them. By definition, you can’t see your blindspots. You need to test your limits. Hit your growth edges. To put your living thesis up against a worthy adversary. It’s the only way to get direct feedback from reality. **You need sparring partners.** In martial arts, a sparring partner steps into the arena with you. They attack your technique, challenge your art, push your thesis to its limits, provide feedback, and hold you accountable. This experience and camaraderie is invaluable. *How else do you discover where your growth edges are? How do you know what works well? How do you identify the limits of your capacity?* Sparring partners have been a background obsession of mine for a few years now. I alluded to the concept back in the “[Creative Evolution Manifesto](https://www.zenmedicine.co/creative-evolution/)” in 2021\. I extend the concept of sparring partners far beyond the walls of the dojo and the martial arts. Intellectual sparring partners. Philosophical. Emotional. Relational. Spiritual. Personal. Anyone who meets you at your level and provides the tension required to test your technique, willing to provide critical, direct, and supportive feedback is a sparring partner. All domains of life are the arenas. There are a few critical components of a good sparring partner: - Their ability is greater than or near your own - They are willing (& able) to provide specific, direct, caring feedback - They will not hold back out of pity, mince words, or beat around the bush - You have a foundation of trust established - You respect their word/opinion **For years I lived in frustrated agony. Lacking these partners but unable to name that which I was missing.** I knew my ideas, theories, and techniques were incomplete, incoherent, or inadequate; and yet, when I tried to dig into it with those around me, I was met with blank stares, incoherent ramblings, or an inability to provide feedback. I was stuck in a liminal space, having outgrown my arena but unable to find another. I have an insatiable hunger for being *‘the dumbest person in the room’*. It lights a fire in me like nothing else. Nothing has catalyzed my growth like being a beginner around experts. Around people a few steps, or several miles, ahead of me on the path. While I worked hard to meet them as equals, and to return the untold value that their sparring presence gave me — my time in the arena with these mentors, teachers, allies, and friends launched my capacity forward. **The Ideal of the Sparring Partner infuses all of my work.** I organize [psychedelic rites of passage](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), pushing people physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually into the next stage of their development. I create [100-day initiations](https://www.phoenixculture.org/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co), dojos of personal development for those hungry enough to challenge themselves. Seeking those who hold excellence as a virtue, and are eager to cultivate it. Even within these writings, I hope to challenge, inspire, and push people toward deeper levels of service, mastery, and greatness. Two final notes ring out to me whenever I reflect on sparring partners: 1. **Find a partner, or build a dojo.** Coaches, mentors, retreats, experiences, and dojos of all kinds can serve this purpose. You can ask people directly about this. If you can’t find a suitable arena, make one. Call in the people who will challenge you and whom you can challenge in return. 2. **If you truly love and respect someone, own your responsibility as their sparring partner.** Provide loving, direct feedback. Encourage their greatness. Help them stay accountable to their goals. Being an enabler in the life of other people is a sin difficult to measure in its perversity. It is the opposite of loving care. **Find those who make you better, and be someone who makes others better.** *This is the Way of the Sparring Partner.* Thank you, EB. ### Stop Plashing Around 🤭 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/stop-plashing-around/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:26.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** *Buenos Aires, Argentina.* 🇦🇷 **📖 Reading Time:** *\~4 minutes.* **🪬 Vibecheck: *Today is the FINAL DAY to join the*** [***HERO100***](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.* Doors close tonight. An incredible group has come together for this adventure. It’s not too late to take the leap, and make the decision that makes the difference.* 💯 [I'm In!](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) “To plash is to depart, leaving your work unfinished.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/b92762ad-759c-4466-add8-81d212e20235_1124x238.png) ## I stumbled across this long-discarded English word and it was love at first sight… There’s something aesthetically and conceptually pleasing about words. Finding a term that so elegantly describes a complex set of actions and variables. \* *chefs kiss\* 🤌🏻* Oh, how I and the people I know succumb to plashing daily. For many, it’s their default mode of operating. Some are expert plashers. Leaving strewn behind them a trail of half-assed projects and long-forgotten dreams, almost as if their stated goal was to see how many things could be started and then quickly dropped. Endless lists, sticky notes, ideas, dreams, and commitments are left for dead in the endless pursuit of the Current Thing, the next shiny object, the favourite distraction. If this sounds like you, there are a few main reasons it happens: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/421279ad-cc3c-4e79-83e3-f05b3ae8bbe5_836x87.png) ### **1\. It was too big of a task; you need to break it down.** **That major project staring you down from your bucket list is too daunting as a single line item.** *“Write a book”* is a huge undertaking, far greater than a single session. And frankly, it’s overwhelming. Your mind and body do their best to protect you from being overwhelmed, thus you *plash* your way along. **The antidote is to learn the practice of breaking things down.** *“Spend 20 minutes researching this topic.”* *“Write a skeleton outline.”* *“Write 500 words.”* All of these are much more approachable, unlikely to succumb to resistance, and exponentially more likely to find their way into your week and be seen through to completion. One of your tasks can be chunking it down into smaller tasks. **I’ll give an example and let you in on a little secret:** *I never write from a blank page.* It’s so cliché you see it in movies: the struggling writer, staring down their most fearsome opponent: the blank page. The cursor blinks ominously, like a demon taunting them. The antidote? **An outline.** This post you’re reading now was first: - Introduce PLASH - Reason 1 - Reason 2 - Reason 3 - Close Extremely basic. But now I have things on the page, and all I need to do is fill in those bullet points, and voilá! ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c0135c2b-9694-4123-ae0e-42e41a0b4788_840x96.png) ### **2\. It was never worth doing in the first place, and you know it.** There are innumerable commitments, tasks, projects, and undertakings that find their way into our consciousness mostly because *“someone said I should do this,”* *“this is what a good team member does,”* or *“I may as well try this.”* **None of these are compelling.** None of those are your dharma, your unique calling in this earthly existence. At some level, you recognize the futility and uselessness of this task, and it creates an insurmountable motivational blackhole. Thus, it’s written down, pecked at a bit, but then discarded, forgotten, and *plashed*. **Most of modern life is busy nonsense.** Trivial pursuits of mindless hobbies, distracting entertainment, and productive procrastination. This is a blessing in disguise: a doorway into letting go of the mind-numbing nonsense, to make space for the truly significant to arise. The antidote here is to allow yourself to have more space, contemplate more, and sense the things that are truly exciting you. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/581aca27-7845-4cfe-bb0b-6f199a1cb560_840x97.png) ### **3\. You need to build the muscle of single-tasking to completion.** **The Art of Focus is a skill that can be developed.** Instead of getting lost in self-deprecating stories—*“I can’t do this,”* *“I’m not cut out for this work,”* or *“there’s something fundamentally wrong with me,”* *(self-diagnosed ADHD’ers, I’m looking at you!)*—you can frame this as an opportunity to build a skill. Just like going to the gym: you make beginner gains quickly and then grow your strength over time. It doesn’t matter what you *do* to build this muscle, so long as you set the intention to complete the task, with as much presence as you can muster, and see it through to completion. > *“Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.”* **Fortunately, the skill of presence and full completion is one of many meta-skills that arise naturally in the** [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** When you commit to the 6 disciplines, an obstacle many face is learning how to enjoy the process, cultivate presence in each discipline, and see them through to completion each day. The 6 disciplines we have included are incredible on their own, with millennia of transformational power behind them. **But it’s these meta-skills: intentionality, presence, commitment, overcoming perfectionism & plashing, that truly excite me.** They can be taken into any endeavour in your life. Whatever you do, whoever you are – your life becomes more rich, inspiring, and important with these meta-skills in hand. **Today is the FINAL DAY to join us on this adventure.** If you want to overcome plashing, perfectionism, self-doubt, negative narratives, lack of momentum – this is your moment. If you want to unlock focus, intentionality, confidence, unconditional positive self-regard, massive momentum, and inspired action – this is your sign. **We begin on SUNDAY.** You can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ to join the same tribe as me and many others as we do this together. Stop plashing around. 💛 EB. [I'm In!](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/d656b72e-f3c8-4c46-93ca-c7de4e069dfb_840x98.png) ### Why Resolutions Are Designed to Fail. ❌ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/why-resolutions-are-designed-to-fail/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:27.000Z [Learn More](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## There’s a classic quote, attributed to all varieties of greater thinkers… > *“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”* Yet here we are, deep into New Year's resolution season… **…where 80%+ of resolutions *fail*.** You read that right. 80% of resolutions don’t survive until the end of January. It’s insane! While the intention to grow and develop is pure, the success rate is *atrocious*. **Resolutions are perfectly designed to fail.** Why? They’re done: 1. Alone. 2. Without accountability. 3. Inconsistently. 4. With unclear requirements. 5. Without reward or celebration. 6. Often in a self-deprecating, *“punish-yourself-with-discipline”* attitude. If you want to stack the deck *against* you, do that! **This year, I invite you to do something that *works*.** Something that delivers on its singular promise to create profound momentum in your life, and facilitate the growth and change you’re truly after. **The** [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**—our 100-day self-mastery experience—begins THIS SUNDAY.** It’s intentionally designed as the **antidote** to **every problem** that handicaps resolutions. The [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is done: 1. Together, in community. 2. With *layers* of accountability: daily individual, weekly tribe, monthly collective. 3. Consistently, every day. 4. With clear success metrics and visible progress. 5. Celebrated every step of the way. 6. In the spirit of self-mastery, serious play, and positive reinforcement. **Instead of starting a year off with a quick BANG and a long whimper, let’s try something different.** We’re calling in a community to complete 6 daily disciplines, for 100 days straight. Cold showers. Meditation. Journaling. Item Elimination. A Personal Ritual. And an Abstinence Challenge. > It’s a **perfect storm** for **making progress**. Imagine entering spring this year, as the flowers bloom, the sun shines, with… - One empowering life-long ritual formed. - One major vice overcome. - A community of friends and collaborators to celebrate with. - A more beautiful living space from eliminating outdated possessions. - Incredible momentum, confidence, and vital energy from seeing something through for nearly 4 months. **We’ve run hundreds of people through these challenges, and the results are incredible:** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/1c7d61e7-fb43-4629-a201-15a1212780f2_2796x1982.png) *Every single person surveyed* gave it an 8/10 or higher. **70% gave it a glowing 10/10.** Some have called it the best investment of the past few years. **This is an experience designed to *work*.** That’s it. *No gimmicks, no exaggerated promises, no complex techniques.* Just an honest community, with real accountability, doing beautiful work together, making real progress and embodied change together. It ***is*** challenging. I won’t lie. But the reward on the other side is equally oversized. We’ve got a custom tracking app, weekly facilitated accountability tribes, a private community, a hand-crafted 100-day journaling course, and more… **It’s $200 for the entire thing.** The value is UNBELIEVABLE. As part of the friends and family here, you can use ‘**SERIOUSPLAY**’ for a loving discount. Let this be the year that everything changed. Let this be a heroic year in your life. But prepare yourself: doors close this **WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10.** **We start Sunday**,and we’re bringing everything we’ve got to this one. 💥 It’s not too late. We’ve got everything you need to get started. All you need to do is take the leap… [Join the HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### A Counterintuitive Approach to Banging the Drum. 🥁 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/a-counterintuitive-approach-to-banging/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:27.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Buenos Aires, Argentina.* 🇦🇷 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~4 minutes.* 🧉 **Vibecheck:** *We’ve got* [***2 free workshops this week***](https://lu.ma/hourofpower?ref=zenmedicine.co)*—Friday and Sunday—for anyone looking to pick up timeless practices for a phenomenal year. We are one week out from closing the doors to the* [***HERO100***](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*. If you want to amplify your new year momentum, really ground your resolution into action, and do it in the presence of a powerful community – we’ve got you.* [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## My Serious Play family… I was going to write a note banging the drum about the upcoming [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and its awe-inspiring awesomeness. Features, benefits, the philosophy, you know the drill. While I’m happy to pop off about the philosophical underpinnings of the experience and the potent transformation that grows out of it, I thought of something different… … instead, **I’m going to step back and let our community speak for itself.** Here’s why I think it’s worth paying attention to this: - If you’re ***hungry for*** ***lasting change***… - If ***resolutions have failed*** you… - If you ***resonate with the ideas*** here… - If you want a **ferocious community of like-minded, open-hearted* people…* ***…this is for you.*** It’s a big experience, but great transformation *requires* grand undertakings. Every aspect of the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) has been designed specifically for this. **Now — every single word below came directly from previous participants.** From individuals just like yourself. Extraordinary people who made an extra-ordinary decision to take the leap, show up for themselves, and were given the experience of a lifetime. **These are the Heroic Voices:** > “After a few difficult years I was left feeling quite defeated, I had fallen into the cycle of trying to pick my life back up, do it for awhile, but then watch it come tumbling down again. This helped me rediscover my strengths, showed me what my body and mind was capable of, and opened my mind to a new understanding of time, commitment, resilience, and surrender.” > “I feel really proud for mustering up the courage to commit to something that seemed so hard for me. I would have never imagined doing something like this. I feel proud of that and it sets the foundation for doing hard things in the future.” “The HERO100 is a great way to jumpstart the habit you've always wanted to do. It was a life-changing experience. I learned that I can achieve anything if I put my mind to it.” > “I'm most proud of myself just for putting together the longest streaks of behavior I've ever done. It feels like a milestone to reach this level of consistently showing up over the long term.” > “100 days of discipline, dedication, and self realization. What can I say? It was tough, wonderful, and inspiring. I learnt so much, grew leaps and bounds, and developed vital skills that have been integrated into daily life.” > “One of the best decisions in the last couple years – if not the best. Really helped to get my routines strong, find like-minded people and to give full power.” “Dollar for dollar, is one of the most impactful forms of self improvement I have ever undertaken.” > “It takes concrete practices that will, unfailingly, improve your life and makes it all about DOING THEM. You can't NOT change for the better if you complete this programme. Fact.” > “This challenge was a very supportive and encouraging container with strong accountability and community. If you are wanting powerful change fast, don't think twice, just do it!” “If you want to kick-start that change in life you've been thinking about, there's no better way than HERO100.” > “I can’t recommend the experience enough. The list of rituals doesn’t tell the whole story. All who participated can attest it is more than it appears on paper. The value is in accepting the challenge and following through with it. You will recognize the changes in your mind, body and spirit. You will identify stories you’ve held about yourself without realizing. You will feel empowered to change your stories, supported by a community of other people facing down their own struggles, and connection to a greater pursuit.” > “Meet yourself in the HERO100 challenge. The team have put together the challenge and the support that will take you to the edge of your commitment, and beyond.” “This experience has been one of the most transformative experiences of my life.” I *literally* couldn’t have said it better myself. This is what is waiting for you on the other side of this experience. **This is your moment…** The opportunity to leap into the unknown. To make this year the year that everything changed. To prove to yourself how powerful you truly are. It is an identity-level shift unlike any other. [**Welcome to the HERO100.**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **We are closing the doors next week, January 10\. We begin on January 14.** For the gift of joining me on this adventure into Serious Play, you can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ when registering for a soul fam discount. I’ll see you there, partner. Let’s do this! 💛 EB. [I'm Ready](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### Using AI to Imagine the Future Heroic Self. 🪬 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/using-ai-to-imagine-the-future-heroic/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:30.000Z ## In a certain corner of the Twitter-sphere, memes spread like wildfire… I jumped on board one of these, using an AI-image prompt in [Bing Images](http://bing.com/images/create/?ref=zenmedicine.co): > *“Anime figurine of a . The figurine is displayed inside a box with text and logo for the box, allowing visibility of the figure, typography, 3D render.”* The results were **amazing**! I had a ton of fun playing around with it. *Note: this works much better with Bing versus Midjourney.* My prompting started with: > *“Anime figurine of 31-year-old male man, long brown hair tied in a bun, green eyes, lean features, strong, samurai-inspired clothing. The figurine is displayed inside a box with ‘Eric Brown’ text and logo for the box, allowing visibility of the figure, typography, 3D render.”* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ad31d635-a01e-44be-8569-041b8381814b_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/8ab2710a-2e77-485b-91d9-5493da57e4e8_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4b347529-bd6f-42e2-9762-419bdba651ff_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/431513b0-2ece-4799-9125-15a8e9bc5f43_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) Results from the first experiments. As the meme propagated through Twitter, I watched others come up with creative remixes, adding pets, magical items, or greater detail. Eventually, I dropped the box and added the spirit of Phoenix Culture, evolving it into: > *“Anime figurine of 31-year-old male man, full body displayed, short brown hair tied in a bun, green eyes, lean features, strong, minimalist clothing, dragon tattoo on his chest over his heart. Rounded glasses on his face, trimmed beard, small smile. He has a powerful, elegant, brightly-colored pet phoenix perched on his right shoulder. The figurine is displayed on a stand, full body displayed.”* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/856614a4-790e-4962-be55-00f965721494_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/8fe3f08e-b1db-47ed-891b-7e3d76cc7918_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/46e2a76a-6333-4c79-a3d6-1f33ddfc383d_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/397494e0-3809-4983-add6-00b05e397cf8_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4f295ef3-5bad-47f9-928f-efe322865f6f_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/aeae8b7e-03ae-45af-a2a2-2ab94af1d7e9_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4bbba77e-de64-429f-90ea-238746f17249_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f33915f6-0c3a-4cd0-9ccd-043a3900dedc_1024x1024-jpeg.jpg) Dragon EB with the Phoenix Culture spirit. WHAT!? These are awesome. 😂 ## **What struck me is how powerful this is for self-visualization…** …for accessing the best, the aspirational, and the truest parts of you. Calling them into existence and bringing a more clear vision of *who you can be* and *who you desire to become*. **Many of the images I saw made me *proud*.** It felt like in some weird way it was giving me a third-person self-perspective of how others view me in the most positive light. I also felt a visceral energy unlock in me as I stared back at the person I could *become*, in a more clear and direct form than the nebulous images and words and vague ideas that exist in my head. **It was at once deeply literal and entirely metaphorical.** I have a dragon tattoo over my heart and am building out my Phoenix Culture vision. The dragon and the phoenix, the yin and yang archetypes of natural forces, courting the vital energy of the cosmos in service of the world. But also the real, the literal: *my* glasses, *my* style, *my* beard, eye, and hair colour. **Having something like this, an archetypal version of my self-image, that I could tweak and play with, unlocked a deeper sense of total self-authorship, a desire to become the very person I was busy creating.** ## Visualized Intention. Now, I’m carrying these images with me, essentially as my intention for the next year, into the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and WARRIOR100 experiences we’re creating. *“Why am I doing this? What am I working towards?”* Well, THIS. **ME.** I’m doing these to step fully into the sovereign Warrior, to embody heroic consciousness and to show up for myself, for my family, for Phoenix Culture, and the world. I’ve got some work to do. Getting stronger, owning my power, growing my hair. 😏 But instead of obstacles, these are opportunities. They are *exciting* and *inspiring*, not frustrating nor overwhelming because *“I’m-not-there-yet.”* **The journey to actualizing this is exciting.** These are my goals, my desires, my self-image. To embody the Sage, the Magician, the King, the Warrior, and the Hero archetypes in their fullness and put them into service of Phoenix Culture, of bringing Truth, Goodness, and Beauty into the world. **But intention without action is just a pipe dream. A fantasy that never grounds itself in reality.** Fortunately, action is coming. We are on the eve of the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co), our 100-day initiation into holistic self-mastery. A journey into your psychic jungle, unlocking the wisdom, power, grace, and courage laying dormant inside of you, and taking bold, courageous, brilliant steps toward manifesting the heroic image that AI helps conjure up. [Join the HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ## Understanding Heroic Consciousness. I’ve heard directly and indirectly from people about hesitations or reservations around the “HERO” framing of the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co). *It’s too childish, too grandiose, ‘who-do-you-think-you-are’ sentiment.* But I rest firmly in this framing. **The rebirth of heroic consciousness in the individual is a fundamental necessity for humanity’s more beautiful future to be realized:** “We need a great rebirth of the heroic in our world. Every sector of human society, wherever that may be on the planet, seems to be slipping into an unconscious chaos. Only the heroic consciousness, exerting all its might, will be able to stop this slide toward oblivion. Only a massive rebirth of courage in both men and women will rescue the world. Against enormous odds, the Hero picks up his sword and charges into the heart of the abyss, into the mouth of the dragon, into the castle under the power of an evil spell.” – Robert Moore: King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. **The Hero archetype takes full responsibility, believes it is possible, and embodies courage, purity of heart, and greatness of action.** *What exactly is so problematic about responsibility, optimism, courage, integrity, and virtue?* It is not only reasonable to desire these things for yourself and others, but it’s entirely possible to cultivate these in yourself. That is what the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is. It is an incubator of heroic consciousness. It unlocks the dormant capacities of discipline, rigour, courage, spirit, resilience, and power within everyone. But how do you ground these lofty ideals in daily action? We take the most potent techniques of radical transformation, mix in community and accountability, and create an epic 100-day quest towards it. Cold exposure, meditation, journaling, minimalism, personal rituals, and abstinence. Ancient and archaic techniques of self-mastery, self-discovery, and self-transformation. 6 disciplines, 1 hour a day, 100 days straight. **That is how you ground them.** And this isn’t just my word. After taking hundreds of people through these, the results and unanimous and resounding: *it WORKS*. **This is our task this year. The rebirth of the Hero. The resurrection of Heroic Consciousness.** The [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) begins on January 14\. Doors will close on the 10th. Let’s do this together, the time is perfect, here and now. See you there. 🪬 EB. --- [Learn More](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### The Misogi: A Different Way to Do Resolutions ⛩️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-misogi-a-different-way-to-do/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:30.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Buenos Aires, Argentina.* 🇦🇷 **📖 Reading Time:** *\~6 minutes.* **🧉 Vibecheck:** *(1) Just dropped* [*a new podcast*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdUe69pk8lE&ref=zenmedicine.co) *with my mate this morning. Always an incredible sparring session with Jon. We cover the 100 Days, processing emotional material, the value of re-reading books, working with your partner, and a whole lot more. (2)* *We are firing on all cylinders – preparing, packaging, and crafting the *HERO100*. It is going to blow expectations out of the water. It is going to change lives. Your time is now, let’s get to it.* 🦁 [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## I just started [Essentialism](https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown/dp/0804137382?ref=zenmedicine.co) by Greg McKeown… It’s a remarkable, albeit painful, salve for my tendency to over-commit and ‘play the martyr’. My good friend and I agree that it should be required reading for all humans. **I’ve been a ‘practicing minimalist’ for over a decade now.** My journey into minimalism was the singular catalyst of the growth mindset in me. Once I felt the visceral improvement in my life, from newfound mental spaciousness to deeper comfort in my body, and a greater appreciation of beauty and meaning in my possessions, there was no turning back. **I felt ‘ready’ for Essentialism…** I felt like I knew what it was going to say. That I was in some ways ‘beyond it’. But it’s been poking at an important nuance that I haven’t fully taken to heart. Thus far, minimalism for me has been a tool to remove the excess, so that I could *continue saying yes* to all the commitments and opportunities that cross my path. These opportunities have been incredible: facilitating psychedelic retreats, living abroad in beautiful countries, getting my salary paid in Bitcoin over 6 years ago, and meeting remarkable people. But chronic overcommitment has also left me bitter, resentful, angry at myself and others, and stressed. > The Way of the Essentialist rests on the foundation of *saying no* to the trivial many so that you can *truly commit* to the excellent few. While great strides have been taken in this direction, it was a painful truth to see the ways that I am still chronically over-committed, consistently managing the trivial many, and overextending myself to do a lot of things in a mediocre manner, instead of a few things in a great manner. And now, at this time of year, it’s got me thinking about resolutions… ## ⛩️ Enter: The Misogi **I’ve become deeply interested in the work and life philosophy of Jesse Itzler…** To get his vibe, this is my favourite 8-minute introduction: Previously a successful founder with major exits, selling a private jet company to Warren Buffet, and later a coconut water company to Coca-Cola. This is the guy who put David Goggins on the map after his best-selling book ‘[**Living With a SEAL**](https://www.amazon.com/Living-SEAL-Training-Toughest-Planet-ebook/dp/B00U6DNZB2?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ was released. He’s like a distant mentor to me. While we have no personal relationship, I appreciate the power, ferocity, and genuine life force he brings. And yet, nowadays, well into his 50’s, you know what lights him up? *Running ultramarathons.* Completing 100-mile races, or climbing the vertical elevation of Everest in a weekend through his company [**29029**](https://29029everesting.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). It’s incredible. **The man is hungry, yet fulfilled in his hunger.** Through Itzler, I was introduced to a practice called the **MISOGI**: *Traditionally, the Misogi is a Japanese Shinto purification ritual, where participants embark on a pilgrimage, ending up at a waterfall to stand under the torrent of water and cleanse themselves.* > **In Itzler’s reinterpretation of the Misogi, he says it’s *“doing something so big, so hard, once a year, that it sets the tone for that entire year.”*** For him, these are 100-mile races. For others, it’s learning a language, building a business, launching that creative project, running a 5k, you name it. A nuance he adds is that you’ll know it’s big and hard enough if you feel like you only have a *50% chance* of completing it. If done properly, you should be able to look back on your year, and say *“2023 was the year I did THIS.”* The one, singular, year-defining endeavour. It solves the problem of overcommitment and lack of progress that I run into a lot. Too often do I—and many others I know—get to the end of the year thinking *“I know I did a lot… but what did I actually do?”* Last year around this time I released “[**Reclaiming Healthy Ambition**](https://www.zenmedicine.co/healthy-ambition/),” which was an important shift in my life. To consciously reclaim hunger, drive, ambition, and goal-oriented pursuits. **However—in my usual fashion—I committed to something like 6 things simultaneously.** As a result, many of them remain incomplete here at the end of the year. Painful, bitter medicine. While there are many things I did that I am deeply proud of this year, like building 2 world-class 100-day initiations, the HERO100 and the WARRIOR100, I don’t want to continue this pattern. **This year, I am making no resolutions.** I am, however, planning a Misogi. *If you only did one thing this year, what would you want it to be?* Imagine if you did a Misogi every year for the next 4 decades. 40 major milestone accomplishments. Running a marathon, writing a book, learning a new skill, starting that podcast, having a child. **40 of those, even 30, 20, or 10, sounds like a life well-lived.** BUT, and it’s a GIGANTIC but, you’ll never get there if you’re trying to do *everything else* at the same time. There are trade-offs to the time, energy, and intention you bring to this undertaking. If it’s big enough, if it’s important enough to you, it means other things are going to have to lay by the wayside. **My Misogi:** **400 hours of yoga study and practice, including completing my 300-hour yoga teacher training.** I have had a yoga teacher training course, sitting at 37% completion, in my awareness for the ***last*** ***3 years***. It has never been completed. Never been *prioritized*. This feels like a *challenge*. I *know* that there’s a likelihood I fail at this because I’ve failed to complete it for several years now. But it was never *the priority*. It was never a *misogi*. It was never the *alpha* and the *omega* of a year. It was always just a nice-to-have. Something cool to do in the background. Something more exciting to talk about than to do. While I will continue to have work obligations and other commitments, this is the focus. One of the reasons I have confidence in my ability to complete this misogi this year is because I know, already, that I have the sacred structure to help with this: the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co). **The** [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **is designed to be a misogi!** A grand undertaking that you can look back on at the end of the year and say *“holy shit, I did that!”* It’s also the perfect container to help you *complete* your misogi. The daily personal ritual challenge becomes the training for your misogi. You know my ritual is going to be yoga-focused, and help me quickly rack up 100+ hours toward my goal. Combine this with the structure the rest of the experience provides: - a community to offer ongoing support and motivation - an abstinence challenge to get rid of unaligned behaviour - meditation, journaling, and item elimination to keep my eye on the prize - accountability to push forward into this each day This is where I’m at. No resolutions, no new habits, no new commitments: just a misogi, and the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) to take me there. If you feel like you want an epic undertaking, or if you need the support to complete a misogi of your own, I invite you to join us. We begin on January 14th. **Let this be the year YOU DID IT.** The year a bucket list goal became a living, breathing reality. It’s possible. It’s waiting for you, on the other side of saying no to the trivial many, so that you can dive into the excellent few that remain. **This is the HERO100, the journey of a lifetime, in 100 days.** Let’s do this together. 🤟 EB. --- [Join the HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### Exploring the 26 Books I Read in 2023. 📚 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/exploring-the-26-books-i-read-in/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:30.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Buenos Aires, Argentina.* 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~15 minutes.* 🧉 **Vibecheck:** *I’m running a few free workshops in early Jan to help you kick off the New Year with an unbelievable bang. No lectures, just direct experiences to set a brilliant foundation for 2024\. We’ve got a few gifts for attendees too. 3 times you can choose from. See you there.* 🤟 [The Hour of Power](https://lu.ma/hourofpower?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## I read a lot… For me, reading is a way to decompress, to learn, to explore the brilliance of humanity’s past and present. It helps me get better at the work I do, form more holistic paradigms and perspectives, and explore myself in greater depth. Admittedly—and much to the chagrin of my partner Chloe—I read almost entirely non-fiction, always revolving around my core interests: Bitcoin, psychedelics, Zen, philosophy, personal evolution, and cultural architecture. I’ve never made nor shared a list like this. But I wanted to pull back the kimono just a bit and give you a glimpse into the day-to-day existence of EB. Not sure a book list is all that experimental, but something new is something new! **So here you are, the 26 books I read this year, with a brief overview/commentary on each of them.** *It starts with the books I re-read every single year without fail, what I’m reading now, and finishes with the list that I got through this year. I only include books here that I read cover to cover, in full. There are many partially complete or totally abandoned books that could be added, but I don’t feel that counts. You’ll see all the ratings are around 7/10+, at the risk of coming across as biased, I will simply say that if a book is 6/10 or lower for me, I just stop reading it. Therefore, they never make it to a list like this.* I hope you enjoy, and hopefully find an exciting book or two from this. I recommend every single one of these fully. ![](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/edf783e0-8d30-4cac-9a5f-1c91f8a09004.heic) My travelling library: books I’ve brought to or acquired in Argentina. ## Books I Re-Read *Every* Year > “I fear not the man who has read 1000 books 1 time, I fear the man who has read 1 book 1000 times.” — *Bruce Lee, or something like that.* 😉 There are a few books I return to like an annual pilgrimage. Just as no man can enter the same river twice, for he is not the same man and it is not the same river, so too can you never read the same book twice. Like watching a movie for a second time, you notice more details, see the plotline play out more clearly, and even have greater critiques or opinions on the subject matter. Currently, there are 6 books I return to annually. Fortunately, many of these are short, accessible, and packed with potent wisdom of millennia long past. #### [Tao Te Ching](https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061142662/ref=sr%5F1%5F5?crid=16H5477XDYDI3&keywords=tao+te+ching&qid=1703352114&s=books&sprefix=tao+te+chi%2Cstripbooks%2C347&sr=1-5&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Lao Tzu (12/10). The [Tao Te Ching](https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061142662/ref=sr%5F1%5F5?crid=16H5477XDYDI3&keywords=tao+te+ching&qid=1703352114&s=books&sprefix=tao+te+chi%2Cstripbooks%2C347&sr=1-5&ref=zenmedicine.co) is essentially the bible of Taoism, a philosophy-religion rooted in Chinese history. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and if I only had to choose one book to keep with me for the rest of my life, this is it. It always delivers. Written as a series of \~80 passages from the ancient sage Lao Tzu, it is truly a masterpiece of the ages. #### [China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, and Original Zen](https://www.amazon.com/China-Root-Taoism-Chan-Original/dp/1611807131/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2UEH09PG382IR&keywords=china+root+hinton&qid=1703352142&s=books&sprefix=china+root+hinto%2Cstripbooks%2C222&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — David Hinton (12/10). China Root traces the origin of Japanese Zen from its prototypical roots in China, Taoism, and the Dark Enigma scholars of Ch’an. It provides the conceptual framework and scaffolding that is so essential to a richer understanding and embodiment of Zen and Taoism, that I am now convinced that someone who hasn’t read this has not truly explored the depths of Zen and Taoism. It is that essential. Perhaps more than any other book in existence, this masterpiece by David Hinton single-handedly accelerated my exploration, appreciation, “understanding”, and embodiment of Taoism and Zen. A necessary accompaniment to the poetry of the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu. #### [Yoga Sutras of Patanjali](https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Sutras-Patanjali-Weiser-Classics/dp/1578637309/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=112YD4T960J07&keywords=yoga+sutras+of+patanjali+mukunda&qid=1703352178&s=books&sprefix=yoga+sutras+of+patanjali+mukun%2Cstripbooks%2C233&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Mukunda Stiles (10/10). The bible of modern Yoga by Patanjali, the patron saint of Yoga. It explores ashtanga, the 8-limbs of yoga, while providing the philosophical and metaphysical underpinnings that gave rise to the philosophy and practice of Yoga. Quick and approachable, yet endless in the depth of insight and wisdom that are contained within its pages. It is a true marvel of creation and has guided me through difficult times. #### [Meditations](https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-New-Translation-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0812968255/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2Q5D0GH49O498&keywords=meditations&qid=1703352198&s=books&sprefix=meditations%2Cstripbooks%2C230&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Marcus Aurelius (9/10). The first in the ‘Stoic trilogy’ that I make time to return to each year. While among the most popular books on this list, it claims that spot for good reason. The personal, private diary of Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome during the height of the Roman Empire, and the last of the Great Emperors. Never intended for publication, it was made available posthumously and has stood in the upper echelons of the Western canon ever since. Aurelius was a highly developed individual, a true embodiment of the Warrior-King, and his insights, honesty, and perspective remain as true and valuable today as they were hundreds of years ago when he was writing these daily entries to himself. Slightly repetitive after the halfway mark. #### [Letters From a Stoic](https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Penguin-Classics-Lucius-Annaeus/dp/0140442103/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1UH73O12Z4RYW&keywords=letters+from+a+stoic&qid=1703352212&s=books&sprefix=letters+from+a+sto%2Cstripbooks%2C230&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Seneca (10/10). The second in the ‘Stoic trilogy’. While perhaps the least known of the 3, it may be the most powerful resource for Stoicism that exists, sitting alongside the [Enchiridion](https://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Epictetus/dp/1774261103/ref=sr%5F1%5F6?crid=1H5S0RWC7Z2LN&keywords=enchiridion&qid=1703352226&s=books&sprefix=enchiridio%2Cstripbooks%2C225&sr=1-6&ref=zenmedicine.co). Seneca was truly a marvel, a man deeply in the world but not of it. He was self-sovereign, and when sentenced to take his own life, embodied the greatest of the Stoic virtues and walked boldly toward his fate, as his predecessor Socrates had once done. Timeless advice for how to conduct oneself within society while remaining absolute in your commitment to philosophy, to reason, and to practicing Stoicism. Truly amazing. #### [The Enchiridion](https://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Epictetus/dp/1774261103/ref=sr%5F1%5F6?crid=1H5S0RWC7Z2LN&keywords=enchiridion&qid=1703352226&s=books&sprefix=enchiridio%2Cstripbooks%2C225&sr=1-6&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Epictetus (10/10). The third in the ‘Stoic trilogy’ and perhaps the original seed of modern Stoic thought. Epictetus was a role model to Marcus Aurelius, and his ‘Handbook’, the [Enchiridion](https://www.amazon.com/Enchiridion-Epictetus/dp/1774261103/ref=sr%5F1%5F6?crid=1H5S0RWC7Z2LN&keywords=enchiridion&qid=1703352226&s=books&sprefix=enchiridio%2Cstripbooks%2C225&sr=1-6&ref=zenmedicine.co), is perhaps the greatest remaining piece on the philosophy of Stoicism. The Enchiridion itself is short, accessible, and powerful. It is mercilessly focused on what you can control, how to conduct oneself appropriately, and how to focus on the things that truly matter. Whenever I pick this up, it’s always the perfect timing. ## Book I’m *Currently* Reading #### [Bitcoin is Venice](https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Venice-Essays-Future-Capitalism/dp/B0CCQ9V1CZ/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2DJ4HNS8D1OUQ&keywords=bitcoin+is+venice&qid=1703352252&s=books&sprefix=bitcoin+is+ven%2Cstripbooks%2C227&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Allen Farrington & Sacha Meyers Bitcoin is a revolution orders of magnitude larger than most individuals have grokked at this moment in history. Usually known in a cursory manner as a technological and cryptographic marvel for its solution to both the Byzantine General’s and double-spend problem, Bitcoin is far, far more than that. Bitcoin is a foundation of absolute, inviolable Truth that is already, but certainly poised to, lead to a radical overhaul of governance, governments, cultural architecture, monetary theory, individual values, and human flourishing. It is this multi-disciplinary masterpiece that Bitcoin is Venice explores. Making ties back to the early days of Venice and the Western Renaissance, it draws parallels to our modern times and highlights how a global, open, permissionless, programmable monetary system is being bootstrapped before our very eyes. So far, so good. Not rating this as I’m still reading it. ## Books I Read This Year #### [Natural Born Heroes](https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Born-Heroes-Mastering-Endurance/dp/0307742229/ref=pd%5Fsbs%5Fd%5Fsccl%5F1%5F1/133-2913655-9982646?pd%5Frd%5Fw=mtWH9&content-id=amzn1.sym.89676150-e513-422e-84a9-9c8b85f32b61&pf%5Frd%5Fp=89676150-e513-422e-84a9-9c8b85f32b61&pf%5Frd%5Fr=FH5BD42SDTCWZSPR0M0M&pd%5Frd%5Fwg=6kKZh&pd%5Frd%5Fr=f592a959-9e3f-4cb7-b534-74380465be9e&pd%5Frd%5Fi=0307742229&psc=1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Christopher McDougall (8/10). From the famed author of ‘[Born to Run](https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greatest/dp/0307279189/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=24IIOYN8PLSCV&keywords=born+to+run&qid=1703352291&s=books&sprefix=born+to+r%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C226&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co)’, highlighting the Tarahumara “Running People” of Mexico, comes another brilliant exposé on the island of Crete and its people. It highlights how the inhabitants played a pivotal role in undermining Nazi power and near-singlehandedly opened a doorway to winning World War 2. They did this, in essence, with a prototypical form of *parkour*. With a unique movement style to effortlessly and silently navigate the treacherous and unforgiving mountain terrain of Crete, the mobility and courage of the Cretan people were able to secure their geographical position and deliver small but mighty blows against the overwhelming German forces. With McDougall’s witty and playful writing style, it’s a captivating read. Whether you like world history, biomechanics, or a good story of the hero’s journey — this has something for you. #### [Island](https://www.amazon.com/Island-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0061561797/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=3JN26RBC6MRL5&keywords=island+huxley&qid=1703352312&s=books&sprefix=island+huxl%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C230&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Aldous Huxley (10/10). Huxley is known to most for his truly remarkable writing style, prominently displayed in his powerhouse creations ‘[The Doors of Perception](https://www.amazon.com/Doors-Perception-Heaven-Hell/dp/0061729078/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=17Q1RZD8I5YVC&keywords=doors+of+perception+huxley&qid=1703352326&s=books&sprefix=doors+of+perceptio+huxley%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C221&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co)’ discussing his psychedelic experience with mescaline, and ‘[Brave New World](https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060850523/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1HJN05SGKR05&keywords=brave+new+world+huxley&qid=1703352338&s=books&sprefix=brave+new+wor+huxley%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C217&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co)’, his take on a dystopian future where it is pleasure, rather than power, that is used to subdue the populace. [Island](https://www.amazon.com/Island-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0061561797/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=3JN26RBC6MRL5&keywords=island+huxley&qid=1703352312&s=books&sprefix=island+huxl%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C230&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) is his antidote. His fictional world is rooted in a small utopian island where the people prioritize community, love, and a deep connection with the sacred. Part fantasy world, part philosophical diatribe, this is a truly imaginative take on the more beautiful world that is possible for humanity. Huxley, as always, delivers. #### [The Blocksize War](https://www.amazon.com/Blocksize-War-Control-Bitcoins-Protocol/dp/B096CLR1SS/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2IILPP5SWGKF3&keywords=blocksize+war&qid=1703352358&s=books&sprefix=blocksize+w%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C221&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Jonathan Bier (7/10). [The Blocksize War](https://www.amazon.com/Blocksize-War-Control-Bitcoins-Protocol/dp/B096CLR1SS/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2IILPP5SWGKF3&keywords=blocksize+war&qid=1703352358&s=books&sprefix=blocksize+w%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C221&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) chronicles one of the most pivotal moments in the history of Bitcoin, and the shining moment that the world realized the resiliency and capability of the Bitcoin community. From 2016-2018 a war was waged within the Bitcoin community – namely to increase the size of a block (hence ‘blocksize war’) that stores transactions. The amount of pressure here is staggering to contemplate. World governments, monolithic institutions and corporations, and the biggest Bitcoin mining hardware companies in existence advocated for an increase in the block size. However, due to the decentralization, autonomy, and sovereignty of the Bitcoin network, node-runners, and its protocol, Bitcoin successfully resisted and stayed true to its original design. Thus solidifying the power of the network, community, and ingenious protocol design. This is truly what separates Bitcoin from any other project, certainly in crypto, but perhaps in the world itself. #### [Wisdom of Insecurity](https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Insecurity-Message-Age-Anxiety/dp/0307741206/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2PIMV2M3ZWRAH&keywords=wisdom+of+insecurity&qid=1703352380&s=audible&sprefix=wisdom+of+insecuri%2Caudible%2C221&sr=1-1-catcorr&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Alan Watts (7/10). There are few individuals I have come across who can span the depth of insight, the wit of humour, accessibility of presentation, and balance of gravity with levity like Alan Watts. In my opinion, he rightly deserves every ounce of fame and respect he has ever had, and so much more. He has been a spiritual grandfather to me, helping elucidate complex theories of mind and spirituality that have unlocked the next steps in my path. I’ve read several other pieces by him, so this lacked the mind-expanding *oomph* that his writing normally delivers. Nonetheless, the [Wisdom of Insecurity](https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Insecurity-Message-Age-Anxiety/dp/0307741206/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2PIMV2M3ZWRAH&keywords=wisdom+of+insecurity&qid=1703352380&s=audible&sprefix=wisdom+of+insecuri%2Caudible%2C221&sr=1-1-catcorr&ref=zenmedicine.co) narrows down toward anxiety, the uncertainty of the future, and the futility of attempting to control it. Weaving in world religions, modern psychology, and at once a cosmic and deeply human perspective, this is a classic from Watts. #### [Zen Mind, Beginners Mind](https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-50th-Anniversary/dp/1611808413/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1JAXERGMQ88WU&keywords=zen+mind+beginners+mind&qid=1703352409&sprefix=zen+mind+beginners%2Caps%2C233&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Shunryu Suzuki (8/10). Certainly one of the canonical texts for any Westerner looking to explore Zen at much greater depth. Suzuki is a master in the Soto school of Zen, heavily prioritizing zazen—seated meditation—as the means and end of awakening and enlightenment. I’m more favourable to the Rinzai school, which uses wildness, koans, and advocates for sudden and total awakening versus the gradual path normally found in Soto. A collection of his dharma talks usually given after zazen sessions, this book is at once completely incomprehensible, and yet totally familiar. The wisdom of Zen is laid bare, completely in the open, for those with the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it. #### [Women Who Run With the Wolves](https://www.amazon.com/Women-Who-Run-Wolves-Archetype/dp/0345409876/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2WNGI242FLYH7&keywords=women+who+run+with+wolves&qid=1703352421&sprefix=women+who+run%2Caps%2C240&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Clarissa Estes (6/10). The feminine companion to [King, Warrior, Magician, Lover](https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=4YXMDX1KFIMM&keywords=king+warrior+magician+lover&qid=1703352432&sprefix=king+warrior%2Caps%2C232&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) – the classic text on the 4 masculine archetypes. [Women Who Run With the Wolves](https://www.amazon.com/Women-Who-Run-Wolves-Archetype/dp/0345409876/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2WNGI242FLYH7&keywords=women+who+run+with+wolves&qid=1703352421&sprefix=women+who+run%2Caps%2C240&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) introduces and expounds on the original feminine archetype: the Wild Woman. As Estes says, the Wild Woman is *lo que sabe*, the One Who Knows. Written in a welcome feminine format, full of winding tangents, immersive stories and fables, and the more open, receptive, and spontaneous characteristics so familiar to the world of the feminine. This was a brilliant counterpart to the masculine, technical, and dry presentation of [KWML](https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=4YXMDX1KFIMM&keywords=king+warrior+magician+lover&qid=1703352432&sprefix=king+warrior%2Caps%2C232&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co), but no less steeped in the wisdom and depth of Jungian psychology. #### [Krishna in the Sky With Diamonds](https://www.amazon.com/Krishna-Sky-Diamonds-Bhagavad-Psychedelic/dp/1594774412/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2M4EXK6F9AZSY&keywords=krishna+in+the+sky+with+diamonds&qid=1703352457&sprefix=krishna+in+the+sky+with+%2Caps%2C226&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Scott Teitsworth (10/10). With the subheading *“The Bhagavad Gita as Psychedelic Guide,”* you know you’re in for an interdisciplinary adventure. Here, the author makes a compelling case that the Bhagavad Gita itself, but particularly Chapter XI, is a documentation and exploration of an extremely profound psychedelic experience induced by the *Soma* medicine known throughout ancient India and featured prominently in the Hindu canon. Soma was likely a mushroom-based psychedelic sacrament, similar to the *Kykeon* of ancient Greco-Roman cultures. Here, Teitsworth walks you through, verse by verse, the psychedelic initiation provided by the Guru Krishna to his discipline Arjuna. It covers preparation, the nature of the psychedelic experience, the challenges when confronting the Absolute, and how to integrate these experiences afterward. Incredible. #### [Journeying Through the Invisible](https://www.amazon.com/Journeying-Through-Invisible-Peruvian-Medicine/dp/B09HL67FND/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2ESKLOCJ27NQH&keywords=journeying+through+the+invisible&qid=1703352482&sprefix=journeying+through+the+invi%2Caps%2C228&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Hachumak (8/10). It’s amazing how few books on plant medicines, shamanism, and transcendent states are written by practicing shamans. This is different. Written by Hachumak, an experienced Peruvian medicine man steeped in the tradition of lineage and the depth of his study – he explores every possible facet of the shamanic practice, plant medicine, and shares profound and beautiful thoughts on the relationship between the cosmos, mankind, and the natural world. Written in a firm but entirely loving manner, this walks you through the shamanic view of existence, the ins and outs of plant medicine experiences, the shadows of ayahuasca tourism, and much more. #### [Lying](https://www.amazon.com/Lying-Sam-Harris-audiobook/dp/B00FK4ZSJO/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1NB5725VJE81A&keywords=lying+sam+harris&qid=1703352496&s=audible&sprefix=lying+sam+har%2Caudible%2C224&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Sam Harris (9/10). It’s hard to call [Lying](https://www.amazon.com/Lying-Sam-Harris-audiobook/dp/B00FK4ZSJO/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1NB5725VJE81A&keywords=lying+sam+harris&qid=1703352496&s=audible&sprefix=lying+sam+har%2Caudible%2C224&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) a book… but I include it here because I view it as foundational reading for any mature, developed human. Coming in at about 50 pages, this extended essay by Harris makes a bold, beautiful, and compelling case against lying in all of its forms. It highlights how the prevalence and acceptance of lies great and small undermine the very foundations that modern civilization is built upon, create a variety of neuroses and anxieties in the individual who lies, and is never actually the best solution to *any* problem, despite the justifications we have. Required reading. #### [The War of Art](https://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-Steven-Pressfield-audiobook/dp/B07PTBYH2G/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=R9A68YK3L67B&keywords=war+of+art&qid=1703352513&s=audible&sprefix=war+of+a%2Caudible%2C222&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Steven Pressfield (7/10). Another aphoristic masterpiece. This begins the Warrior-themed reading sequence I did during our **WARRIOR100** experience earlier this year. The [War of Art](https://www.amazon.com/The-War-of-Art-Steven-Pressfield-audiobook/dp/B07PTBYH2G/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=R9A68YK3L67B&keywords=war+of+art&qid=1703352513&s=audible&sprefix=war+of+a%2Caudible%2C222&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) introduces the fundamental foe of any artist trying to break new ground: Resistance. It highlights resistance as the obstacle and the path forward for any creative endeavour. These beautifully written, powerful statements helped me relate to my creative work with equal parts more seriousness and more playfulness, to access my genius and continue to steward it. Strongly recommended for anyone undertaking a personal creative venture. #### [Man’s Search for Meaning](https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl-ebook/dp/B009U9S6FI/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=JV3LUIWSV0QO&keywords=man+search+for+meaning+kindle&qid=1703352541&s=audible&sprefix=mans+sear%2Caudible%2C229&sr=1-1-catcorr&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Viktor Frankl (9/10). I had never read this until this year, despite its near mythological standing for anyone interested in meaning, psychology, and human flourishing. I now see why and agree it deserves this status. While most people enjoy the autobiographical exploration of Frankl’s times in the Nazi concentration camps, I was most captivated by the second half of his book, which expands on his school of psychological thought: Logotherapy. Logotherapy is a meaning-oriented school of psychology, and I thought it to be brilliant. His honest assessment of the human condition, actionable steps, and approachable style were a true joy, and I’m glad I finally dove into this. #### [The Way of the Samurai](https://www.amazon.com/Way-Samurai-Arcturus-Ornate-Classics/dp/139880875X/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2PNA46SYVA14P&keywords=way+of+the+samurai+inazo&qid=1703352559&sprefix=way+of+the+samurai+inaz%2Caps%2C235&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Inazo Nitobe (7/10). This canonical text covers the *Bushido*: the Way of the Samurai. While I was familiar with Bushido and its associated virtues, this provided a depth and a human element that could only have come from a native Japanese writer and scholar. Courage, bravery, integrity, honesty, fidelity and more are covered in great detail. And with the author’s formal English prose, it’s written elegantly, reminiscent of the artistic language that seems to have been lost since the Renaissance. Brilliant for someone looking to explore the Samurai, their history, and their culture more seriously. #### [Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Shambhala-Sacred-Path-Warrior/dp/B0BMD6YKRZ/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=7LSAO1PIRMBA&keywords=shambhala+chogyam&qid=1703352573&sprefix=shambhala+chogy%2Caps%2C233&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Chogyam Trungpa (9/10). Shambhala was a game-changer for me, highlighting an aspect of the Warrior ethos that I had been looking for, but couldn’t fully articulate. Trungpa begins by relaying the myth of Shambhala, an enlightened society known to the Himalayas that has either been lost to the winds of time, or elevated to the non-visible realms of existence. Trungpa makes the case that nothing less than a rebirth of the Spiritual Warrior is needed to facilitate our continued evolution toward an enlightened society and a more harmonious existence with ourselves and life. The path of the Warrior, he claims, is *absolute genuineness* *in every moment*. The Warrior meets each moment fully and completely, never backing down, proud to be human, and expressing the dignity of the human condition with every breath, word, and deed. Far more expansive of a Warrior definition than a mere soldier in the military, I loved this take on what true Warriorship is. #### [Warrior of the Light](https://www.amazon.com/Warrior-Light-Manual-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0060527986/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=FL29GCZ7HTR9&keywords=warrior+of+the+light+coelho&qid=1703352588&s=audible&sprefix=warrior+of+the+light+coel%2Caudible%2C222&sr=1-1-catcorr&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Paulo Coelho (8/10). A small collection of passages, reminiscent of the [Tao Te Ching](https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061142662/ref=sr%5F1%5F5?crid=3I0B0WCPBHO4Q&keywords=tao+te+ching&qid=1703352615&sprefix=tao+te+ch%2Caps%2C294&sr=8-5&ref=zenmedicine.co), meant as a companion text to Coelho’s acclaimed text [The Alchemist](https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0062315005/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=3OFRIY0IUFXWY&keywords=the+alchemist&qid=1703352604&sprefix=the+alchem%2Caps%2C250&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co). About \~150 entries expand on his thesis of what it means to be a Warrior of the Light. A servant of the Soul. A steward of the Sacred. Similar to Shambhala, I loved this more expansive definition of a Spiritual Warrior and what the Way of the Warrior looks like in our modern age. Easily accessible, but no less potent than the greatest of tomes. #### [The Art of War](https://www.amazon.com/Art-War-Sun-Tzu/dp/1599869772/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2U0U4W7YAP88Y&keywords=art+of+war&qid=1703352625&sprefix=art+of+%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Sun Tzu (5/10). Perhaps one of the greatest books for Warriors ever written, [The Art of War](https://www.amazon.com/Art-War-Sun-Tzu/dp/1599869772/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=2U0U4W7YAP88Y&keywords=art+of+war&qid=1703352625&sprefix=art+of+%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) is a classic. Life lessons disguised as military strategy. It is immediately accessible regardless of the challenges you are up against in your life. Quick, direct, and to the point, as all good Warriors are. While it focuses heavily on grounded military strategy, it also shines a light on the conduct and precepts noble Warriors follow. It feels outdated at times, but its place in the upper echelons of Warrior culture makes it a must-read regardless. #### [Musashi](https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era/dp/156836427X/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=1911BI7CXXBXU&keywords=musashi+eiji&qid=1703352641&sprefix=musashi+eij%2Caps%2C238&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Eiji Yoshikawa (12/10). A historical fiction that documents the life and times of Miyamoto Musashi, one of the greatest swordsmen ever to walk the planet. Weaving in true documented stories from Musashi’s life, with the metaphorical and vivid imagery that only good fiction can provide – this was the longest, but simultaneously the most engaging book on this list. I couldn’t put it down. Every page was brilliant, and every twist in the narrative was exciting. It covers everything from Bushido, Zen, calligraphy, art, asceticism, purpose, passion, and the nuances of human relationships and the human condition. Best book I read this year, bar none. #### [The Prophet & Other Tales](https://www.amazon.com/Prophet-Other-Tales-Cloud-Classics/dp/1684129206/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=QT2SRY3OQF96&keywords=the+prophet+and+other+tales&qid=1703352655&sprefix=the+prophet+and+other+tal%2Caps%2C232&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Kahlil Gibran (10/10). This book was given to me by a dear friend as a birthday present last year. One of the first—*perhaps the only(?)*—poetry books I have ever read. It was incredible. A compendium of 3 individual collections from Gibran: The Madman, The Forerunner, and The Prophet. Gibran’s descriptive capacity, married to his depth of insight and transcendental spiritualism makes every passage a journey. It made me appreciate poetry at a much deeper level while providing true insight into life, death, relationships, God, myself, and more. #### [The Pocket Peter Kropotkin](https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Peter-Kropotkin/dp/0999249940/ref=sr%5F1%5F3?crid=1PY4OCKNHI7JT&keywords=pocket+peter+kropotkin&qid=1703352672&sprefix=pocket+peter+kropotki%2Caps%2C232&sr=8-3&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Nathaniel Perkins (7/10). Peter Kropotkin was a legendary anarchist philosopher. He travelled, went to prison, escaped prison, and was shunned into exile — all the while creating some of the most cutting and devastating critiques of Marxist communism, capitalism, feudalism, and the State known to man. He is a legendary figure in anarchist circles and illuminates what a self-sovereign populace built on free agreements between humans looks like. This collection of 8 of his most famous essays is well worth the read for those ready to open their minds to novel modes of governance and coordination of human action. #### [How to Opt-Out of the Technocratic State](https://www.amazon.com/How-Opt-Out-Technocratic-State-2nd/dp/B0BPT9JHDR/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=O0HCKQURELKY&keywords=how+to+opt+out+of+the+technocratic+state&qid=1703352685&sprefix=opt+out+of+the+techno%2Caps%2C225&sr=8-1&ref=zenmedicine.co) — Derrick Broze (7/10). The title is self-explanatory. I admire Derrick Broze for his true Warrior conviction, unbridled passion, and cutting insight – having seen him speak in person 3 times now nestled in the jungles of Costa Rica at Envision Festival. He brings a grounded, based perspective so needed by the spiritual community at this time. He covers the erosion of personal freedoms, the encroachment of the State into all areas of life, and most importantly, provides real, actionable steps on how to peacefully and voluntarily opt out of the technocratic state and live a life of enlightened anarchy. Recommended for those who are ready to radically alter their life into deeper alignment with their values. --- *That’s it from me. If you’ve got a book you read this year that was truly earth-shaking for you, I’d love to hear it. Drop it in the comments and I’ll add it to my list.* With love, EB. 🦁 ### 3 Lessons from Taking 100’s of People Through 100-Day Initiations 💯 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/3-lessons-from-taking-100s-of-people/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:31.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** *Buenos Aires, Argentina.* 🇦🇷 📖 **Reading Time:** *\~6 minutes.* 🧉 **Vibecheck:** *We officially opened the doors to the* [***HERO100***](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *last week! You can see a 60-second overview of our 100-day adventure* [***right here***](https://www.instagram.com/p/C04alOkupdy/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*. If you can, please share it with a friend you think would be interested. It helps us give the gift of greatness to more members of our human family. Thank you.* 🙏🏻 [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## We’ve run hundreds of participants through our 100-Day initiations this year… These are 3 meta-lessons I’ve learned in that process. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4b10824c-234e-4574-8944-fc78f05004e4_25x25.png) ### #1\. Discipline & Consistency are Spiritual Practices I’ve written about what I call the ‘[discipline of surrender](https://www.zenmedicine.co/discipline-of-surrender/)’ previously. In facilitating this process for others, and witnessing my process, it’s evident that discipline and the Art of Consistency are spiritual endeavors all on their own. **A disciplined commitment creates the conditions for an intense number of latent psychological blocks, tests of fortitude, and moments of surrender to arise.** First, the act of surrendering to your intention. The intention is set: *“I intend to see this challenge through all the way.”* While some may call what happens next *willpower* or *discipline*, I call it *surrender*. You surrender yourself to the intention. The byproduct of this is discipline. **The main obstacle to surrendering is resistance.** You wake up, you’re tired, and you don’t want to do the thing — if you were fully surrendered you would already be up and doing it. The possibility of choice has been relinquished. It’s been a busy day and you’d like to take a break – the willpower to do it arises effortlessly because the option *not* to do it has been surrendered. **Moments of resistance or hesitation are manifestations of the ego.** They are habitual patterns of outdated behaviours, justifications, or bargains made with yourself. The commitment to discipline surfaces all of these, to be witnessed and released so that the intention can be honoured. Second, the act of embodying your values. *“Don’t explain your philosophy, embody it.”* — Epictetus Another way to say this is *“Show, don’t tell.”* Talk is cheap, particularly when it relates to values. If you value self-mastery, personal integrity, commitment, discipline, strength, willpower, etc. — *prove it!* You prove it by doing it. Not sometimes, not only when you feel like it, not when it’s opportunistic, not only when you can package it nicely into an Instagram Reel. **Commitments are a sacred, non-judgemental mirror.** They reflect your commitment to—and your current embodiment of—your personal value stack. Third, they facilitate unitive experiences of deep self-awareness and insight into the nature of things. **This is a goal of any spiritual undertaking: greater self-awareness, unitive experience, and insight into the nature of Reality.** The moment before a cold shower, or sitting for meditation, is often fraught with hesitation, nervousness, boredom, or avoidance. But the moment you begin, it’s not that bad. Often it’s profoundly beautiful. The ability to drop the personal narrative in the cold or on the cushion deeply illustrates to you the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, or highlights the ephemeral nature of all sensations in the arising and passing away field of consciousness. **When we ask for feedback, we are met with the resounding response that the true value lies in making the commitment and following it through.** Everything else is a bonus. Discipline and consistency are spiritual practices. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/b95d0c83-f74a-4a59-8d31-5c39a9f9fa31_25x25.png) ### #2\. Support & Community are Non-Negotiable **A second lesson is that direct, ongoing support is non-negotiable.** When undertaking any psycho-spiritual process, having a guide, therapist, facilitator, doctor, shaman, or loving friend with you is *essential*. Support provides you with renewed motivation and vital energy to see the process through, with guardrails and boundaries if the process proves difficult. It gives you loving advice when working through deeply rooted behaviours or succumbing to negative spirals. **Support, in the form of direct counselling, accountability groups, and community events, returns you to the most indivisible unit of humanity: a *collective*.** I have many dead projects or unfinished challenges *(I’m looking at you, online yoga teacher training!)* that are sitting in permanent limbo because I was trying to do them *alone, by myself.* Energy gets drained, momentum is lost, motivation dwindles, and obstacles prove too difficult to overcome – whatever the reason *(excuse)* is. **On the flip side, the energy, scaffolding, and ongoing support that the community grants you gives you precisely what you need to persevere.** To be witnessed in your process, to receive advice, and to celebrate others. But I get it. Providing this level of support is *expensive*. It costs money and takes a lot of human energy. In the interest of profit margins, ROI, and logistical ease, support is reduced to emails sent to a maybe-maintained Customer Service address. **We will never do this.** We go in the opposite direction. After the positive feedback on our social habits app, weekly tribe calls, collective milestone gatherings, and the ongoing community — we are doubling down. More Q&A’s, more avenues for conversation, more access to the team and the Stewards. **Support is non-negotiable, and we’re acting like it.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/2c1c3eca-6a9a-479f-bef5-843c93a2c659_25x25.png) ### #3\. Mistakes & Failures are Great Gurus **Guru means “remover of darkness.”** A guru removes the shadows of confusion, uncertainty, hesitation, distortion, and distraction from the disciple, allowing the clear light of Insight to shine. Anything that helps you ‘remove the darkness’ is your Guru. **After witnessing hundreds of transformations, I know that mistakes and failures are the greatest of gurus.** It’s the moments when you make a mistake, where you take the easy road, when you encounter a personal ‘failure’ that the greatest insight is gleaned. These mistakes, misses, and missteps are the moments where insight is born: - *“Ah, I see clearly how staying out last night made me oversleep, and now I missed 2 of my challenges. It’s my nighttime routine that needs to change!”* - *“Ah, it was a perfectionistic tendency all along that was causing me to hesitate and not take action on this.”* - *“Oh, I see I have an all-or-nothing frame of reference, as I was considering dropping everything once I missed my first day. Let’s work on that.”* **This is where the gold is.** Because we have 3+ months together, you have the opportunity to *investigate* your behaviour, personality, and thought patterns and begin to make adjustments, find corrective behaviours, and embody new and more empowering belief systems. **The catalyst for all of these are the mistakes, failures, and missed opportunities that we so often lament.** Instead, in our experiences, they are celebrated with the reverence of a true Guru. --- *We are embarking on our next initiation, the* [***HERO100***](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*, on January 14\. You can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ when signing up for an exclusive discount. I’ll see you there, on our next adventure into discipline and freedom.* 💛 *EB.* [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### Going from Altered States to Altered Traits 🤟 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/going-from-altered-states-to-altered/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:31.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** Buenos Aires, Argentina. 🇦🇷 **📖 Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. **🧉 Vibecheck:** *We’ve opened the doors to the* [*HERO100*](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **TODAY*! On January 14, join hundreds of fellow heroes as we embark on a journey of self-discovery, embodied evolution, and collective initiation. I hope to see you there — it’s going to be legendary.* 🦁 [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## Last month we wrapped up 2 incredible [Apotheosis retreats](https://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)… I had the honour of facilitating these experiences. As they so often are, the retreats were profound, invigorating, and enlightening. Something meaningful to me was returning to the hallowed grounds of Kumankaya, the center where I had last facilitated retreats \~2.5 years ago. Synchronistically, I was placed in the same part of the *maloca* as I sat those years ago. To re-member back to the man I was then, and take a clear and unflinching look at the man I had become today, was humbling and inspiring. It filled me with joy and gratitude, deepening my reverence for medicine work and the integration process of self-mastery and personal transformation. **The work, *works.*** If you let it, and if you’re willing to show up for it. We’re now deep into the integration process. It can be challenging at best, and destabilizing at worst, to return to the normal world — to obligations and the familiarities of life back home after emerging from the evolutionary cocoon of a retreat. *“Nothing has changed, but everything is different,”* is one of my favourite lines related to psychedelic therapy. A retreat is \~7-10 days, a blink of an eye in the lives of most. But time has an incredible way of dilating on retreats, feeling like weeks or months have transpired in the span of a few short days. **It is possible, however, through an earnest integration process, to change that statement to *“everything is different, and now everything has changed.”*** It’s possible to become a new person, change the circumstances of your life, and bring your existence into deeper alignment with your values, dreams, and desires. After accessing new realms of being through altered states, integration is about taking them, transmuting them, and funnelling that energy toward altered traits. **Integration is going from altered states to altered traits.** Integration is trait development. “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” — Anais Nin **It looks something like this:** - What you do, what you think, and what you feel create your personality. - Your personality creates your reality: how you see and relate to Life. - If you want to change your reality: change your personality. - If you want to change your personality: change what you do, what you think, and what you feel. Integration is the container—the meta-structure—that facilitates the transformation of what you feel, what you think, and what you do. **You take the spark of inspiration and stoke it into an inferno of embodied action.** Serious, playful, consistent activity is the easiest, most direct, and paradoxically most effortless path of integration. **My biggest revelations revolved around stepping deeper into radical authenticity, and continuing with renewed vigour my path of Holistic Self-Mastery.** To give myself the gift of making mistakes, of doing it messy, and of deep experimentation. One of the things I’m most proud of in myself is my *breadth*. I know a lot about a lot. I can do a lot of disparate things. From high-level snowboarding and 15 years of hockey, to helping someone through trauma healing and building psychedelic organizations, and my writings. But the Achilles heel of *breadth* is that I feel a visceral lack of *depth* in my life. I want to *master* something. I want to be *world-class* at something. **The path in front of me is one of Self-Mastery.** I’m excited about the integration work. I’m anticipating the growth and challenge that will come from it. I’m excited also because I know I have the resources that I need. Over the past years, I’ve been building what I consider to be one of the greatest containers for deep psychedelic integration available: [**the HERO100.**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) While not explicitly designed for psychedelic therapy/plant medicine integration, I come up short looking for better alternatives. 6 daily disciplines for 100 days. The individual disciplines themselves—and more importantly the holistic synergy that comes from doing all of them together—creates a sacred container that holds you through the ups and downs of serious self-transformation. Each discipline is carefully curated to provide the ongoing energy, motivation, discipline, emotional freedom, and accountability to ground these fundamental transformations: - **❌ Abstinence:** stop doing something that keeps you stuck in your personal reality. Overcoming a major addiction, vice, or energetic leak. - **🪬 Ritual:** start doing something to step toward your new personality. Bringing ritual, new behaviour, and renewed structure to your days. - **🥶 Cold Showers:** cleansing the energy body while developing grit, vital life force, and willpower. - **🧘🏻 Meditation:** facilitates neuroplasticity and focus, essential nutrients in transmuting the personality and personal reality. - **📝 Journaling**: brings about insights regarding the current personality structure, and also helps to clarify the vision of the new personal reality to move toward. - **🚮 Item Elimination:** removes physical anchors to the past reality, creates physical and mental spaciousness, and shows intentionality and commitment to change, growth, and inner development. **All of this is done within a community of heroic individuals doing the same work.** The accountability, inspiration, and support provided by a community of practice is unmatched, and in itself is healing and transformative along the path of personal change. **All of this is done with a spirit of excitement, non-judgement, support, and eagerness.** Change is always made best from a place of positivity, optimism, and excitement. While change is possible simply because you hate your current circumstances—or yourself—it is never the best fuel source. Self-love and inspired action will always win, and that is the energy and worldview that we bring to this experience. **Last, but certainly not least, is that all of this is done for the length of time (100 days) it takes to steward and stabilize deep fundamental changes to the psyche, personality, and personal reality.** While bursts of inspired action are possible, it takes time to allow the changes in yourself to ripple out into your life; whether that’s moving homes, changing your living environment, making a career transition, having difficult conversations, rewiring new neural pathways in your mind, updating your model of yourself, and allowing others to update their model of you as well. All of these factors and more take time. They will not be firmly rooted after a 2-week sprint or a 30-day challenge. The length of time here is essential, with each discipline working its way deep into you and providing you the *evidence* needed to fully embody a new personality structure, and subsequently begin to inhabit a new personal reality. While the road ahead of me, and all of us, is long and challenging – I feel rooted, grounded, excited, and inspired to march forward – knowing that I have the support, the container, and the experiences approaching that will help me midwife a new identity and reality for myself with ease, greatness, and love. Thank you, I love you. 🤟 EB --- *The doors to the* [***HERO100***](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *are now open. It begins on January 14\. If you are ready for true transformation, to become the person you have always wanted to be, I invite you to join us on this adventure. You can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ for a friends & family discount.* [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### You Are the Masterpiece. 🎨 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/you-are-the-masterpiece/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:31.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Buenos Aires, Argentina. 🇦🇷 **📖 Reading Time:** \~5 minutes. **🧉 Vibecheck:** In a few days we open the doors to the [**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)—our epic quest into your psychic jungle—to find the treasure of existence, and the freedom in discipline. *We begin January 14.* I invite all who are ready for an enduring level-up next year to join us. 🙏🏻 Beyond sculptures and symphonies, beyond great works and masterpieces, is the greater, finer art of creating a conscious life. Genius appears everywhere, but never so magnificently as a life well lived. — Karla McLaren ## This is the first appearance in the book “The Language of Emotions” by Karla McLaren… It was recommended to me by a friend and shaman recently. I’ve been working to address, resolve, and heal underlying anger, and this recommendation came to help get to the root of anger and put the vital life force which anger unlocks into proper use—establishing and enforcing boundaries—rather than childish outbursts of frustration. Today, however, we’re not here to talk about the book. We’re here to riff linguistic jazz on this quote. It lit up my heart like an angel’s song, harkening to a cardinal truth that’s been out of awareness, but never forgotten. It’s something I say over and over again, in person, [in my writing](https://www.zenmedicine.co/a-new-chapter-welcome-to-serious/), and in my head: **Your life is your masterpiece.** Your life is a living symphony, a majestic improvisation playing out over decades. Any great work that you do, any amazing moments of success, are but singular notes played in the melody of your existence. Every act is a brush stroke on the canvas of consciousness. The person you are now, held in dynamic but harmonious tension with the person you are becoming, creates the taut strings of a violin – the tension between being and becoming lays the necessary foundation for genius to emerge, for concertos to be written, and for the Art of Living to unfold. Music is played for its own sake. Just as games are played for their own sake. They are a whole and complete undertaking, done for no reason other than themselves. You’re not trying to ‘get anywhere’ or ‘accomplish anything’ with music. Music is the point of music. This is true of all Art. **Life, like Art, is done for no other reason than itself.** This opens an invitation and a possibility: *how can you make your life your masterpiece?* How can you make this a conscious, participatory process? Stepping fully into your role as conductor, director, and savant. This inquiry beckons for comprehensive self-awareness and invites the opportunity for unfiltered self-expression. Everything about you becomes part of your organic excellence. The tonality of your voice. Your posture. The clothes you wear. The company you keep. The way you walk on the Earth. How you spend your time. Your internal dialogue. Your material possessions. **Every aspect of your life takes its seat in the orchestra of your existence, contributing its singular but essential sound to the ongoing musicality of your experience.** Reading this quote sparked a deeper level of insight regarding the mild but persistent resistance I feel when listening or interacting with the *‘hyper-optimized, efficiency-over-everything’* archetype. The resistance is: what do you mean by *optimizing* art? What is the value of *efficiency* in a masterpiece? Like Alan Watts used to astutely point out… if you made a symphony more efficient, it would be reduced down to one great **BANG**. I succumbed to this myself for a long time. For several years I wore solely black clothing. Not necessarily *(though not completely!)* due solely to a neo-Gothic aesthetic inspiration, but rather an inspiration of efficiency. Black always *works*. It’s clean, it’s clear, it can be dressed up or dressed down. It was efficient. But it was bland. Like a song with only one long drawn-out tone. It lacked variation, arpeggiation, creativity, variety, spice, style, pizazz, or whatever you want to call it. It lacked Soul. **Beware the psychological disposition that views you as a machine to be optimized rather than a work of art to be expressed and experienced. The macabre levels of neuroses, depression, and psychopathy present in modern culture are symptomatic indicators of the dangers lurking within the worldview of “human as machine”.** Conversely, the worldview of Life as Art is healing. First and foremost: you can’t do Art wrong. There are no mistakes in Art. Too many people are burdened with the psychological elephant of feeling like they are somehow living their lives incorrectly. As if there is an operating system for Being Human they didn’t receive. *Notice our friend the ‘human-as-machine’ worldview here again!* There are no mistakes in Art. Art is the expression of the Artist. It is done for its own sake, to create and express Genius. This single starting point, that you cannot live your life incorrectly, is a fount of psycho-spiritual healing awaiting anyone willing to drink from its waters and invite a new ontological framing of reality to wash over them. The second gift of the Life as Art worldview is that while it is true you cannot make a mistake in Art, you *can* become a *better artist.* You can cultivate skills that assist you in creating and expressing the artistic and creative genius inside of you. Taken literally, you can become more proficient at an instrument. You can develop shading and blending and technical skills with painting. You can unlock new and more challenging postures and movements in dance. The masterpiece of your Life is no different. You can develop a greater *skill* of *being truly you*. This is Self-Mastery. The refinement of the technique of expressing your authentic existence. This is becoming your own authority, removing blockages and psychological obstacles that cause you to bite your tongue or hesitate. **You are an organic, immaculate Masterpiece in the making. You are the Artist and the Art. The marble and sculptor. The composer and the song.** You are a living, breathing miracle. You are a Genius, a Savant – and your birthright, and dare I say your responsibility within this lifetime, is to sing the song that only you are capable of singing. There is a masterpiece being written through you, by you, as you – and you are the only person who will ever exist in human history who can allow it to flourish, to be seen, and to be expressed. While this may instill a feeling of pressure, I assure you there is none. Because you will be at your best when you are most fully and completely relaxed within yourself. When you are totally at home in yourself, unencumbered by recursive self-criticality and chronic analysis, fully present in the moment — your song flows effortlessly from you. It emanates from your Being. This is Flow. **The greatest opportunity we have as human beings is to join this unconscious process as conscious, co-creative participants in the miracle and masterpiece of our existence.** You are a Genius. You are an Artist. You are a Work of Art. You are Serious Play. **You are the Masterpiece.** --- If you are ready to ascend to your throne as a conscious, participatory co-creator of the masterpiece of your existence — [join us in the ](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)[**HERO100**](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co). 6 daily disciplines. 100 days. Develop the skills, attitudes, experience, and wisdom needed to allow the miracle of your existence to flow freely through you. [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### 6 Immaculate Insights After 100 Days of Warrior Initiation ⚡️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/6-immaculate-insights-after-100-days/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:31.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** Buenos Aires, Argentina. 🇦🇷 **🎧 Music Pairing:** [Horizon – End of Time](https://open.spotify.com/track/16pITOpmKWcz8my0k47B7L?si=68d0f75ce8d8436c&ref=zenmedicine.co). **📖 Reading Time:** \~8 minutes. **🧉 Housekeeping**: **A grand welcome to all who have joined this journey recently!* Thank you for being here. I will do my best to honour your inbox. My writing revolves around my core interests: Zen, Self-Mastery, Bitcoin, Psychedelics, Cultural Architecture, and Serious Play. I have been quiet for a few weeks, landing in Argentina after two weeks of Apotheosis Retreats and closing out the WARRIOR100, our 100-day initiation for modern warriors.* --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a240b07a-600d-4457-b810-4f6e9b551d99_1024x1024.png) “The One remains, the many change and pass Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass Stains the white radiance of Eternity.” – Percy Shelley ## ⛩️ We made it… **The WARRIOR100 has come to a close.** 100 days—over 3 months—of 2 hours/day Warrior training. It was remarkable. Surpassing any expectations I had. It’s always a good sign when you can impress yourself with your own experiences. 45 minutes of physical training. 45 minutes of concentration meditation. 30 minutes of studying a hand-crafted warrior curriculum. A daily integrity audit. Every day. For 100 days. I had \~80 complete days, with a smattering of partially complete days, while taking \~3 weeks toward the end to intentionally pause and direct my attention on facilitating 2 plant medicine retreats. ## 🤸🏻 Physical Training. **The physical training was the most profound, challenging, and beautiful discipline for me.** I have tended toward the conceptual, cerebral, and psychological domains for most of my life, often neglecting my physicality as a result. This discipline changed everything. My body is considerably stronger, and my body composition looks and feels better. My flexibility has greatly improved. But more importantly, I *feel better* in my body. I feel more *embodied*. Without a shadow of a doubt, I trust my physical strength, mobility, stamina, and resiliency more. Beyond this, I rekindled a deep passion in pursuing the discipline of yoga, and am excited to dive into this more earnestly next year. Daily physical training is now a non-negotiable part of my day, and I am sincerely grateful that happened. ## 🧘🏻 Concentration Meditation. **We created a custom meditative progression for the group based on the teachings in The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa John Yates.** The end goal is access concentration: the ability to hold your attention on the object of meditation without deviation. It is incredible to feel progress in mental training develop. Sometimes you leap overnight, other times it feels like you’re starting again from square one. My consciousness is clear, my attention span has increased dramatically, and my awareness is in my control. When I began on Day 1, even 45 seconds without succumbing to distraction > forgetting > mind-wandering was a challenge. Now, 45 minutes pass with relative ease. All within 100 days. I’m hungry to keep going, and looking forward to moving into Stages 4-6 of this framework. ## 📝 Warrior Curriculum. **Our curriculum covered the virtues and values of the Warrior archetype in its fullness.** Everything from discipline, service, mastery, integrity, honour, purpose, tribes, resilience, and more were covered. Learning from ancient warrior cultures and the shining examples of the Warrior spirit feels like a cheat code. Centuries of wisdom are compressed into weeks of learning. The length of the experience—100 days—provided the perfect opportunity to discover a growth edge, and immediately begin to embody these values at a deeper level. This crescendoed into the opportunity to put it into practice when I facilitated 2 weeks of intensive plant medicine retreats, bringing these values into deep service for the group and the individuals’ healing journeys. I switched my reading to a collection of Warrior-themed books, which felt like an extra boost of psycho-spiritual rocket fuel. Books I read during this experience included: - **The Mind Illuminated** by Culadasa John Yates. - **Man’s Search for Meaning** by Viktor Frankl. - **The Art of War** by Sun Tzu. - **Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior** by Chogyam Trungpa. - **The Way of the Samurai** by Inazo Nitobe. - **Warrior of the Light** by Paulo Coelho. - **Musashi** by Eiji Yoshikawa. - **The Dokkodo** by Miyamoto Musashi. - **The War of Art** by Steven Pressfield. ## 🕵🏻‍♂️ Daily Integrity Audit. **While the physical training provided profound transformation, the integrity audit was my ultimate discipline.** Reviewing the day’s events, highlighting areas where I wasn’t showing up as I wanted to, where I said something I didn’t mean or held back from saying something that arose was acutely painful at times. Seeing all the ways I’m still full of shit, still holding back, still playing it small; painful reflections from a non-judgemental mirror. There were some glorious moments in it too. Noting where I had risen to the occasion, stood my ground, or made a difficult decision to follow what was most true and aligned. Day after day, breath after breath, working to take corrective action, to bring my life into deeper alignment with my values, was transformational. It is a slow cooker, an identity-level death and rebirth process. Going through the integrity audit, paired with an ongoing commitment to doing better the next day, helped me arrive more deeply in myself, cultivate a richer relationship with myself, and build a foundation of unconditional self-worth and positive regard that I can already see manifesting itself in my life. Integrity is bitter medicine, but it works wonders. --- ## 🔥 The Warrior Initiation. **More important than the 4 disciplines that comprise this challenge, is the person you become by making the commitment and following through with it.** A 100-day initiation is no laughing matter. It’s a comprehensive psycho-spiritual overhaul. A few things stood out to me as kind of meta-truths or principles that emerge when undergoing an initiation like this: 1. **Perfection is Childish:** Aiming for perfection, or leaning on the excuse of *“I can’t do it yet because I’m a perfectionist,”* is a hallmark of immaturity. The mature Warrior shows up and does it anyway. Perfection is unreachable, aim for excellence instead. However imperfect—however messy—you can *always* do your best. Perfection is the excuse of an idealist who has not yet entered the arena of life fully. It is a safety mechanism and an egoic cop-out from truly humbling yourself and putting in the work. 2. **Suffer with Dignity:** It is always possible to suffer with grace and dignity. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl outlines 3 ways one derives meaning in life: through work/deeds, through relationships/experiences, and by enduring unavoidable suffering with dignity. No matter how tired, how beaten down, or how energetically drained you are — it is *always* possible to stand up straight, pull your shoulders back, take a deep breath, and move forward proudly, to the best of your ability, with neither complaint nor regret in your head or on your tongue. After months of daily physical training, it’s easy to complain, to make excuses, to sigh and moan, to wait for someone to come and save you. This experience helped me unlock a new level of Self-Mastery, to suffer silently, with all of the grace and humility that is our birthright as human beings. Suffering is an unavoidable part of the human experience, but it is always possible to bear this with decency and composure. 3. **Comprehensive Transformation Requires Time:** This work will not be done in a 2-week sprint or a 30-day challenge. It needs time to knead you like bread. To get into every psychological nook and cranny and work it’s medicine. Even now, after 100 days, I feel like I am just beginning. I can recognize the depth and profundity of the evolution that has transpired, I feel it in my breath, my bones, and my thoughts. Give yourself patience and grace, but do not stop. 4. **Momentum Changes Everything:** While this was not new to me, it reached a deeper level of embodiment. Waves of momentum carry you far beyond willpower. Building momentum takes time *(see previous point)*, serving as an upswell of favourable winds, filling your sails and making it easier to press into deeper and more challenging material. 5. **Intention *is* Action:** Intention is an action. The spiritual force unlocked by stating *“I intend to practice meditation diligently until the timer goes off,”* cannot be overstated. The difference is night and day. Setting an intention for deeper integrity the next day, to stay focused on the training session, to embody the lessons, to return attention to the breath focuses the gravity of your Being behind it. Intention is a lighthouse guiding you through the rough waters of experience and the constant demands on your attention. 6. **Discipline is True Self-Love:** This was a tough lesson to learn, but I’m glad it happened. Discipline—when approached in a non-judgemental way—is an act of genuine self-love. It is loving yourself enough to see the vast potential inside of you, waiting to be unlocked should you but attempt to refine it. Discipline has Grandfather energy: firm, but loving. It is the driving force that takes your life from possible, to probable, to actual. Discipline is one of the greatest and most loving gifts you can give to yourself. --- A final note on the linchpin that enabled all of this: **community** and **camaraderie**. Knowing I was not alone in this was paramount. Trusting that my brother and sister Warriors were also in the mud with me, going through this same process, imbued me with an invigorating lifeforce each day. I would not have had the same experience had I tried to do this by myself. How do I know this? Because I’ve tried and failed at this for years. The tribe dynamic is crucial. **Thank you.** Thank you so much to everyone who trusted us with this experience, and who gave their energy to creating this sacred container. Thank you, I love you, well done. 🔥 There are more lessons, insights, experiences, and wisdom to share about the WARRIOR100 and our 100-day containers. Those will come in the essays that follow. For now, thank you, I love you, be well. 💛 EB. *If this resonates with you, if you’re hungry to find the freedom within discipline, to earnestly pursue the path of Self-Mastery — our flagship experience,* [*the HERO100*](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*, begins anew in \~1 month, on January 14\. It’s going to be our most potent container yet. I hope you’ll join us.* [HERO100](https://www.hero100.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) > “There are only two mistakes along the path of Self-Mastery: not starting, and not going all the way.” *— Shi Heng Yi, 35th Grandmaster of Shaolin Temple Europe.* ### Overcoming the Tyranny of the Dull Mind URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/overcoming-the-tyranny-of-the-dull/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:32.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** Parker, Colorado. **📖 Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. **🧉 Vibecheck:** *Day 26 of the Warrior100\. We’ve kicked out the first few who were KIA and went MIA (unresponsive and removed from the program). This work is not for everyone, and we’re setting serious standards this round. That excites me. A society built on standards is worthwhile. I’m a little in the mud right now, deep emotional turmoil is surfacing, and fatigue setting in. The process is kneading into me. Onward.* --- > “The enemy of the black is not the white. The enemy of capitalist is not communist, the enemy of homosexual is not heterosexual, the enemy of Jew is not Arab, the enemy of youth is not the old, the enemy of hip is not redneck, the enemy of Chicano is not gringo and the enemy of women is not men. We all have the same enemy. **The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind.** The enemy is every expert who practices technocratic manipulation, the enemy is every proponent of standardization and the enemy is every victim who is so dull and lazy and weak as to allow himself to be manipulated and standardized.” *— Tom Robbins* ## A powerful reminder was thrust upon me last week… After 3 weeks of Warrior training, a sacred fire burned inside of me. I posted an article “[The Most Disturbing Thing…](https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-most-disturbing-thing/)” channelling some of this. **Honestly—unfortunately—I hesitated when publishing it.** Thoughts of editing it, pulling it back, and watering it down torrented through my mind. *What will people think? Will they be offended? Is this too uncontrolled?* It disappoints me that these thoughts occurred. Identity narratives rattled around the caverns of consciousness. *I should be better than this. I teach people how to overcome self-doubt. I’m more evolved than this.* I was still hesitant when I hit publish. This publication isn’t huge, just over 400 people. But when you imagine 400 people in an auditorium in front of you, as you spout off about the decay and dishonour flowing through modern society… your heart rate increases a bit. **And yet it was one of the most engaging pieces I’ve had recently.** It was a powerful reminder to TAKE A STAND. PICK A SIDE. Don’t water it down. Don’t hold back. Don’t stop. Don’t fall victim to keeping everything safe and in line. Sometimes the boat needs to be rocked before it pulls a Titanic and sinks itself. When someone is sleepwalking towards Armageddon, sometimes they need to be thrust awake. It inspired me and gave me a metaphorical pat on the back to keep going. To speak the Truth, my Truth, and call it exactly like I see it. **And the way I see it is that the real battle we’re up against these days is the *tyranny of the dull mind*.** An entire global population is hell-bent on numbing themselves because they’re too overstimulated to handle anything of serious importance. This is so pervasive it’s contributed to the rise of lo-fi and chill music — generations of humans so overexerted and underinspired that they can’t handle emotionally provocative music anymore. It’s all Pokemon trading cards, animated Pixar movies, and faster delivery techniques for trash food. **People are dying to be *anywhere* other than RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.** They defibrillate themselves into action with a coffee addiction, take the edge off with Xanax, wind down with alcohol, distract themselves with social media, and establish chronic busyness as a core identity — all to avoid the reality of their lives and their world as it’s happening in front of them. I’m not claiming anything conspiratorial, but it’s a fact that sleepwalkers don’t resist as their freedoms are stripped away from under them. It didn’t take many straws to break the proverbial camel’s back with mandatory vaccinations – just threaten to take away access to pubs and bars and you’re in the clear. *“No, not my alcohol!”* That’s my crutch to help me tolerate the morass of my waking existence. A part of me wishes there really was a global cabal of satanic elites dedicated to vulgar displays of power and manipulating the world population. I don’t believe that to be true, but to me, it’s better than the alternative. **The alternative is simply that no one cares.** The alternative is that people are actually OKAY with the direction society is going. That this is something they desire. If you’ve ever been in a relationship, having someone angry at you is nearly always better than having someone completely ignore your existence. There is something existentially offensive about being completely ignored. And yet, this is the norm. Massive, relentless indifference. Dullness a la carte. Apathy and cynicism as the dominant emotional bass notes of modern culture. Nothing boils my blood more deeply than giving up hope. Checking out. Not caring writ large. Perhaps it’s because I suffered through this growing up. Waves of deep depression, pharmaceutical numbness, zombie-like apathy. Maybe I’m just rejecting a shadow of my own. This could be true. You were born at the best, and most critical time in human history. Your ancestors suffered and survived for countless millennia just so that you could check out and watch cake-baking shows on Netflix to decompress from the job that you hate sitting in a small box in the sky at the height of human luxury. Your forefathers instigated revolutions over 3% tax rates on tea, while you serve your duty as a keyboard warrior supporting the nanny state when they throttle global movement freedoms entirely. **How far we have come, and how far we have fallen.** But the tyranny of the dull mind is not something OUT THERE in the world. Some unknown foreign enemy lurking in the shadows of faraway shores. The tyranny of the dull mind is a battle IN HERE. It is in your heart, in every waking moment of your life. It’s an orientation to your own life. Presence is cultivated. Caring is a muscle that you train. You were born in a living, organic Wonderland and you are being summoned to rise up at the most crucial moment in humanity’s history to protect it. The future and beauty of existence depend on your ability to overcome the tyranny of the dull mind. To overcome the dull mind, a Warrior trains. They train their strength, their presence, their conviction, their skills. Every moment is lived in its entirety. Each breath is taken with the imminent reality of Death present. This knowing is what gives the Warrior the presence of mind and dedication of spirit they need. No moment is guaranteed. The beautiful future is not guaranteed. Freedoms require sacrifice. Rights require responsibility. Presence requires purpose. *How can you bored at a time like this!?* > “The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens — but our lives are not as limited as we think they are, all things are possible, laughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it’s love and love alone that really matters.” *— Tom Robbins* In love and presence, EB. ⛩️ ### Reflections on the Recent Convergence of Interdimensional Hyperspace Entities 👾 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/reflections-on-the-recent-convergence/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:34.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Fika Coffeehouse, Parker CO. 📖 **Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. 🧉 **Vibes:** *Day 20 of the Warrior100\. Meditation is getting considerably better. Sat straight, still, and focused for the full 45-minute session today. Still early but the progress is palpable. We’re starting to put together branding for the next Hero100 launch at New Years. It is going to be phenomenal! I’ll give you three words: neon psychic jungle.* 🦁🌀🌿 Note: the photos in this post are not mine. Thank you internet! --- ## I had the pleasure of taking a visit to our local intergalactic interdimensional convergence station this past weekend… …otherwise known as a visit to [Meow Wolf](https://meowwolf.com/visit/denver?ref=zenmedicine.co) in Denver, CO. For many years I had heard whispers of this living myth. Las Vegas. New Mexico. Now Denver. An immersive art exhibit equal parts psychedelic and alien. It’s like Willy Wonka meets Alice in Wonderland rolling with Rick Sanchez. Yeah, *seriously.* A gargantuan exhibit, the size of a conference center, 4 floors and 4 different universes. One universal golden story thread runs through them. From [Meow Wolf](https://meowwolf.com/blob/4-converged-worlds-of-meow-wolf-denver?ref=zenmedicine.co): > *“Nearly three decades ago, a freak cosmic event known as the Convergence tore away pieces of four different worlds in the blink of an eye. Ripped from their loved ones and native planets, scores of displaced citizens were thrust into this new Convergence of Worlds, with only memories of the lives they had before.* > > *Memory itself became so vital that an entire memory sharing economy developed and soon flourished. This new memory economy was all the more important because in the wake of being smashed together, these worlds were wracked by relentless “Memory Storms”: psychic aftershocks of the Convergence that would scatter citizens’ memories whenever they struck.”* From the moment you walk into the elevator and your Guide tells you, *“The elevators only deliver you, they won’t take you down, you need to find your way back to the exit,”* you are smacked with the most familiar psychedelic feeling of *“there’s no going back now.”* Forward. Only forward. Onward we went, into Numina, a Pandora/Avator-esque world. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/bb9757fd-04dc-43d9-8f5e-7a667bdfa2ed_2000x1333-jpeg.jpg) Then we crossed the threshold into an entirely mechanical junk world where drums, pianos, and chimes play themselves in autonomic mechanistic rhythms. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4aafa667-a3bb-4506-ab7b-75183be7e39a_800x533-jpeg.jpg) Crawl through the hole in the door and be thrust into a museum of a highly advanced alien civilization, with living replicas of organic architecture floating in the crystalline display cases, beckoning for your anthropological observation. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ecc41352-f5e3-4b18-ab02-06a8419db833_2048x1365-jpeg.jpg) **It was truly a masterpiece.** What a joy to spend the hours of the afternoon walking through this paradise. Deep gratitude to the team and artists who worked for what must have been months if not years to bring this together fully. It is game-changing. It thrusts you into a dimension of presence, novelty, and multi-sensory stimulation that breaks you out of any habitual loops you were stuck in. For a brief moment in time, you become a child-like astronaut, an intrepid explorer or foreign space-times. Several things about Meow Wolf stuck out to me: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/926011bc-c130-4791-87fa-9215edaf38b5_1200x627-jpeg.jpg) ## 1\. The Level of Detail is Miraculous. Meow Wolf warns you that you’ll never be able to see all of it. They are correct. One room has small pipes protruding out of the walls. Probably two dozen of them blended in near-seamlessly with the rocky cave texture of the walls themselves. A design detail. You could walk by it and never know they were there. And yet every single one of those pipes has an audio story, some alien-friend personal story, playing continuously through it. You could stand at one of them for 10 minutes and not hear the end of it. And there were *dozens*. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/81f8afb0-a44b-494e-97ff-83a5775f1568_800x457-jpeg.jpg) The Book of Whales. Or, head into a side room that was originally a janitor’s closet, and stumble across the Book of Whales. A comprehensive digest that would take you easily 30 minutes to read cover-to-cover, detailing the history of the evolution of the Crystal Palace and how they settled this land. **Everywhere, the details are immaculate.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ab6c7b10-2bd8-48f9-b3dd-a8a75fe6c6f6_800x1067-jpeg.jpg) A random kiosk on C-Street, one of dozens, complete with custom products in alien languages. Everything was intentionally crafted and created with love. **And believe me when I say there are *hundreds and hundreds* of these individual installations.** Working computer installations that have secret documents loaded up on them. Hundreds of pieces. An entire multiverse storyline. The history of Convergence playing on newscast TV stations they filmed. It’s incredible. It is a living masterpiece. The detail shows that it was made with love, it was made for immersion, and it was made to allow people to surrender to a completely new reality, however momentarily. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/35fe8715-be0b-4688-8645-ca5b4af1d766_800x871-jpeg.jpg) Entrance to the Womb Room. ## 2\. The Opportunity for Reverse Culture Shock I’m not sure how much this was planned, but it’s certainly my favourite part of the Meow Wolf experience. Walking through each room, you are both overwhelmed by and invited to pay attention to every detail. You better look up because there might be something important on the ceiling! But don’t forget to look at the flower in the corner, there’s a never-before-seen species taking a nap on it. Follow the river of light, because it’s actually water falling from a cosmic nature woman at the top of the mountain. You become an adventurer turned anthropologist. Studying the language, the nature, the symbols, the worlds of these new strange lands. It shows you how much beauty, presence, joy, and fun can be found in the mundane. And it prepares you, consciously or unconsciously, for the return to your old world. To the ‘real world’ once you’re done. How do you feel walking out of Meow Wolf, a place of deep intentionality, art, and beauty, onto the streets of the outskirts of downtown Denver, the building surrounded by 3 intersecting highways? Meow Wolf invites you to find the strange, alien beauty all around you. Notice the intricate details of the scratches on the car bumpers. The strange symbols of the Latin alphabet. It makes you consider how the world is being built, and be shocked (in a good or bad way!) by the state of your own culture here on Earth. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/173c2fb9-9105-4389-9d0d-0127a14c4a57_1024x683-jpeg.jpg) ## 3\. Unlocking and Inviting Awe & Wonder **Rapturous awe is likely the most consistent emotion people feel walking through Meow Wolf.** I bet that you can bring into your mind the faces and emotions of the children when they first walked into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. You can picture it, can’t you? The reaction is the same here. And something about knowing that made my heart happy. It feels like there are so few things designed to bring joy, playfulness, and wonder back into people’s lives. Even movies rarely do it these days. But the level of alien, the degree of expectation surpassing excellence that Meow Wolf exhibits, is able to crack through the barriers of jadedness protecting most people. And for a moment, however brief, they are invited into a sense of serious play. A sense of wonder and awe at the strange foreign lands, the immaculate rendering of every minute detail, and the opportunity to truly discover something new for the first time again. And hopefully, hopefully, a little bit of that magic comes back home with them, back into Earth, and back into our oh-so-human homes. **After you exit through the gift shop, of course.** ### The Most Disturbing Thing... URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-most-disturbing-thing/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:35.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Denver, CO. 📖 **Reading Time:** \~5 minutes. ⛩️ **Notes:** *Day 15 of the Warrior100\. My body is growing stronger, I can see it visibly now. Waking at 6.30, naturally, without alarms, feeling lit up. The circadian rhythm adjustment is complete. And beneath it all, a very primal, archaic force is waking up. I feel the fire, the ferocity. A sacred Warrior energy that has been long dormant rises. 3 months remain.* --- ## The most disturbing thing is that no one is disturbed… I had the good fortune of coming across [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M48MLCVNd8c&ref=zenmedicine.co) from Charles Eisenstein. Who—as he normally does—articulates a fatally obvious point with such devastating clarity that I can’t stop thinking about it until I sit down and write about it. … well, here we are. His aphoristic video, no longer than 3 minutes, begins with *“the most disturbing thing about it, is that no one seems disturbed.”* *Gut punch.* A shiver runs up and down my spine like a millipede tap-dancing. He goes on to recount the story of the Emperor with No Clothes. You know it. Dude’s naked, everyone acts like he has clothes on, until the innocent child breaks the illusion and calls him out. But with that one line, Eisenstein tossed a bullseye on the consciousness of our collective. - It’s disturbing that no one cares how horrendously ugly cities and suburbs are. - It’s disturbing that we call the greatest suicide epidemic of human history ‘progress’. - It’s disturbing watching adults advocate for the freewheeling genital mutilation of children when we don’t even let them drive yet. - It’s disturbing to watch my peers give lip service to the meta-crisis and yet orient their waking lives to consumption and business as usual. - It’s disturbing that at around age 29 the gravity of conversation shifts to home renovations, paint colour schemes, empty hobbies, and continues this way for the next 50 years. - It’s disturbing that we allow the most unhinged monetary experiment in history to run rampant, and devalue the savings and life force of all people, everywhere. - It’s disturbing the total lack of empathy, compassion, wisdom, and basic decency that exists in modern culture. - It’s disturbing that we allow the infection of advertising to pollute our minds, attention, and cities with garbage under the guise of GDP growth. - It goes on, and on, and on. But this is not the point. **The point is that on nearly every metric of meaningfulness, modern society is a cesspool eroding the values, virtues, and beauty of humanity.** People are not happier. Not healthier. Not wiser. Not more compassionate. Not more individually capable. Not more honourable, ethical, virtuous, patient, composed, awakened, peaceful, integrated. It is a death spiral to the lowest common denominator. The most convenient, the most efficient, the easiest, the ugliest, the least ethical, the shortcut. **And seemingly, this bothers no one.** *That is truly disturbing.* --- **However, this is where I disagree with Charles…** Actually, I think *everyone* is disturbed by it. At the very least, everyone is *disturbed*. But they don’t have the courage and the heart to say or do anything about it. Maybe they haven’t been able to put their finger on precisely what it is that is so disturbing. ***But they feel it.*** The body doesn’t lie. They feel it in the knawing sense of emptiness inside of them. They feel it in their sub-6-second attention spans. They feel it in that pang of guilt they have as they attempt to turn off their empathy walking passed a homeless person. They see it written across the pharmaceutical cocktails they take each morning just to cope with being alive in a slow-motion train wreck of a civilization. They see it in the fact that the news is just a horror-devastation broadcast machine. They see it when the people who rise to positions of power are overwhelmingly narcissistic, psychopathic, or Machiavellian – the Dark Triad personality traits. *Everyone is disturbed.* - No healthy, balanced psyche is *addicted to everything like our modern culture is.* - No balanced psyche *kills itself off at the rate that we do.* - No healthy psyche *needs to be chronically medicated like we are*. - **No balanced psyche *stays willfully silent when it is disturbed.*** Do you see this? The act of collective silence is demonstrative of how disturbed we are. The signs are everywhere. Modern culture is disturbed. The people are out of whack. But it goes deeper than this — modern culture has *grown out of the energy of disturbance*. This is not a culture born of wholeness. How do you know? Because wholeness is the outcome of wholeness. When was the last time you met a whole person? Precisely. Not a perfect person, just someone *satisfied with existence*. So then, what are we to do? - **Call out the Emperor.** It begins with awareness, a groundswell of reason. You must raise your voice. You must share your open, honest, gut-wrenching Truth. - **Return to Sanity.** Initiate yourself back into wholeness. Reclaim your Mind. Reconnect with your Heart. Cultivate a moral compass. Have an ethical standard in your life. Respect others. Care about something more than yourself. - **Find the Others.** They are out there. Immerse yourself in community. Recognize you are not alone in this. Get support, give support, come together. This work can only be done together. - **Build the New.** The devastating reality is that most people accept this, stay silent, and don’t rock the boat because they believe this is the only option. Give them the gift of realizing that it’s not. That’s what [Phoenix Culture](https://phoenixculture.earth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) exists to help steward. Building a new social operating system. A culture of wholeness, of natural symbiosis, of meaning. If you feel the call, join in, you are welcome. If you feel like something is wrong, but don’t feel safe to say it publicly, just know that I see you. I feel your pain. I know what it feels like to have difficulty explaining it to your parents, friends, family, colleagues, peers, and teachers. It’s isolating in a very alien and difficult way. You are not alone. You are seeing clearly. Message me if you need a safe place to speak. We have our work cut out for us. This is no small task. I am not immune from this, not separately from it. I have my own work to do. And this is why I train. This is what the Warrior spirit is for. To fight the only fight that must be fought: against my own shadows, my own spinelessness, my own doubt, fears, and lack of courage. One day at a time. Today is Day 15. Thank you, I love you. EB. 💛 ### Standing on the Edge of Initiation 🌀 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/standing-on-the-edge-of-initiation/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:35.000Z **📍 Coordinates:** Denver, CO. 🇺🇸 📖 **Reading Time:** 🧉 **Vibecheck:** Day 12 of the Warrior100\. I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time. The experience is running smoothly, and I return now to one of my favourite vistas: the blank page. Deeply grateful to have you here with me. Enjoy 💛 “Verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in the funeral.” — Khalil Gibran, The Prophet ## The moments before major initiations are quiet... Bathed in a mysterious silence that is equal parts mystical and terrifying. The calm before the storm. The quiet spills over the battlefield. The anxious movements on your mat before the ceremony. Initiation is a test of faith. There is only one thing guaranteed to you on the other side: **you will not be the same.** But what kind of person you become, what experiences you will have before getting there, all of this is unknown. With true initiations, you face the reality that you may not even make it out alive. This is literal and metaphysical. Literally, initiation takes you to the edge of your physical limits, gripping your shirt collar as it dangles you over the cliff edge of physicality — forcing you to stare down the void of death and viscerally confront your mortality. Metaphysically, death is assured. By design this is what an initiation provides, the death of the current self, and the rebirth of a new self. *Who knows what you will gain? What realms of splendour await you on the other side? What dimensions of consciousness become available to you?* But… *Who knows what you will lose? What safety mechanisms, what excuses, what personality quirks, what dreams, desires, and opportunities will be sacrificed at the altar of initiation?* Herein lies your dillemma. Herein lies your opportunity. It is a test of faith. To lose control, fully and completely. To surrender yourself to the forces of the ancient future and allow them to work through you, to work with you, to become you. The person who comes out on the other side is never the same as the one who entered. It’s not possible. A mind expanded to new dimensions after an experience can never return to the state it was previously. There is no going back once the decision is made. There is only forward, only change, only rebirth. Oddly, and beautifully, when confronted with the gravity of these decisions, potentialities, and opportunities – the psyche begins to restructure itself far before the initiation begins. Suddenly, addictions and challenges that were once insurmountable are let go with ease. Problems and disturbances that used to boil blood are now effortlessly moved past. The psyche has no time for such trivialities. It must overcome its test of faith. To relinquish control, to trust the flow of existence, to commit fully and completely — for this is no one’s decision to make but your own. No one can force you into true initiation. As I have written before, [true spirituality is sacred suicide](https://www.zenmedicine.co/true-spirituality/). It is a continual initiation, the death of the locus of identity, and rebirth into greater and greater ones. This is metaphysical hara-kiri, ritual suicide of the samurai. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ec97ff73-aa96-4594-9abb-995135339bc4_850x478-jpeg.jpg) And make no mistake. The conscious decision to die to oneself is not made easily. But if it were easy, everyone would do it. **We must heed Jung and his aphorism, *“beware of unearned wisdom.”*** To give the responsibility, psychic forces, and gravity of wisdom to the uninitiated would crush them. You must demonstrate your faith, perseverance, strength, and commitment. You demonstrate this through initiation. This is where modern spirituality loses the plot. We are plagued by free-flowing, crystal-throwing washouts. We live in an epidemic of spiritual materialism: the furthest someone will walk the path is just looking the part. Saying the ‘right words.’ Dressing in the ‘right clothes’. Doing the ‘right activities’. It’s an act. A psychological mating call in a desperate attempt to find a sense of belonging in a world empty of meaning and character. My heart aches for them. It is a Way of Being born of Pain. **Little do they realize that the problem they are trying to solve is the very persona that believes they have the problem.** You cannot base your identity on the empty shell of a persona. For only at the death of the small self, the initiation into existence, will you come to be reborn into precisely who and what you are: **the endless flow of life itself.** This is a Warriors path. Much will be asked of you. Much will be taken. But in return, the world will be given back to you, as you. **This is why I train.** This is the Way. The Warrior100 has been incredible so far. I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time. My energy is clean. My attention sharp. My body is getting stronger, I feel it and see it each day. My consciousness is unclouded, unhindered, free. My life is becoming a reflection of my values more and more. Like a sculptor carving a block of marble, the masterpiece is being refined. Chip by chip, movement by movement. And this is just the beginning. Many months remain ahead of us. I have 2 weeks of serious plant medicine ceremonies in the middle of this as well. I’m not ready for this initiation. **If you’re ready for it, it’s too small for you.** The current self should never be able to handle the demands of the greater self. This is why the initiation process must happen, a moulting of identity, to make room for the greater self. I am not yet ready. But I am willing. I am training. I am growing. I will be there. My faith is firm. This is the Way. With love, EB. ⛩️ ### Creative Evolution & the Death of Aspiration 🌱 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/creative-evolution-and-the-death/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:35.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Toronto, Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~4 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** The doors to the [**Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) are closing in 2 days. This Friday. Now is the time my brothers. Join us, on an initiation not soon forgotten. [WARRIOR100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## **There’s no shortage of crisis or tragedy we are up against right now...** You know this. I won’t name them. Every media outlet is already happy enough to shove these down your throat every chance they get. *But there’s something more pernicious underway…* A true global tragedy is occurring: **the death of ASPIRATION and INSPIRATION.** We have lost the sacred fire in our hearts. The belief that a more beautiful world is possible is dwindling. The willingness to be a force for change is eroding before our eyes. You might feel the same… - When did I let go of the desire to be as strong and aesthetic as the Greek Gods? - When did I stop dreaming about being as disciplined as the Shaolin Monks? - When did I sacrifice the ideal of the Renaissance Man on the altar of practicality? - When did I stop pursuing the immaculate virtues of the Religious Avatars? - When did I drift away from pursuing the awakenings of the Buddhist Masters? - When did I accept that being immersed in brotherhood and sisterhood just wasn't for me? - When did I lose the belief that I could make a lasting difference in the world, or in my own life? - When did I stop believing that these were possible for ME? - *… when did I let my dreams die?* It happens slowly, over time. The entropy of ideals. **But NO LONGER.** I will not be a victim of this plague. This is where I make my stand. I will die for this. **This is a battle for the playful imagination of humanity – the true engine of evolution.** It is a war of consciousness. The battlefield is our everyday lives. Every moment I make my move. The victories are won against my inner critic, the closing of my heart, the dampening of my spirit, and the loss of my purpose and passion. **NO LONGER.** But it’s hard. Believe me, I know. I am my own worst enemy. My shadows are my most skilled opponents. For as powerful as I am, I have the equal force to hold myself back. To bite my tongue, to go against my values, to be a force of destruction instead of creation, to accept the lowest common denominator as my baseline. The only true battle is in the hearts and minds of every individual. In YOU. I know this is a challenge from Life. A sacred opportunity. My deepest wisdom gives me the obstacles I need to become great. **I will become a living, breathing example of the beauty, strength, heart, and imagination of humanity.** My life is my message. In the transformative fires of self-initiation, I forge my character. This is the WARRIOR SPIRIT. **The vitalizing, activating life force of peoples, cultures, and ideas. It brings purpose, focus, integrity, and vitality to your life.** Nearly two years ago I published [this article](https://www.zenmedicine.co/creative-evolution/), The Creative Evolution Manifesto. I want to share it again with you now. --- ### "There’s a way to do it differently…" It’s not primitive. It’s progressive. It’s artful. Thoughtful. Playful. Mindful. It’s possible. So, what does it look like? *All of it.* Financial systems. Materials Economy. Culture. Governance. Civilization. Top down control is unnatural. Emergence is not chaos. It’s creative evolution. The answer isn’t a sound bite. It’s not a binary option. It can’t be bottled up. It's a living thesis, a disciplined pursuit. It’s a Way of Being; your life is your answer. You can’t rush genius. True mastery is cultivated. Only friction creates sparks. So please, sit, have some tea. *Any answer worth hearing is not over quickly.* But I’m listening. I want your best response. Show me your School of Thought. Embody your Answer. Bring your best, because you know I’ve been training. Welcome to the Dojo, partner. ⛩ --- **And here it is, in living reality, manifested and materialized from the echoes of inspiration bouncing through the caverns of the collective unconscious…** [**The WARRIOR100.**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) **If you feel as I feel, if you seek as I seek, join us.** ​[**The Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) will initiate you into this greatness. This is my promise to you. It will rekindle your purpose. Stoke the fires of your heart. Ignite the inferno of your greatness once again. Reclaim your ASPIRATION. Pursue your INSPIRATION. Become a living LEGEND. [**Doors are closing TOMORROW — FRIDAY, AUGUST 25.**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) Use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ and we’ll jump into an accountability group together and do this experience side-by-side, united as one. HOOAH. 🔥 EB. ### What an Obscure Zen Program Teaches You About Freedom ⛩️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/what-an-obscure-zen-program-teaches/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:35.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Mississauga, Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~4 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *The doors to the* [***Warrior100***](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) *are closing this week. They close permanently at the end of Friday, August 25th. The time for decisive action is fast approaching.* [Join Us](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## Nearly two years ago to this exact date… …after spending several months living in Mexico, I had just finished walking across the American border back into Canada. You couldn’t fly in, so walking into the country was the only possibility. Lockdowns and the Covid pandemonium were in full force. I went to my (unoccupied) grandparents’ home to live out my 2 weeks of mandatory quarantine. It was a potent two weeks, a forced retreat in isolation. In the middle of the city, yet isolated from everyone. I spent much time doing yoga, meditating, recording videos, and building. **During that time, I** [**released a video**](https://www.instagram.com/p/CSuX%5F40HSke/https://www.instagram.com/p/CSuX%5F40HSke/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **introducing the ‘ango’ and sacred structure.** Ango—literally translated—means “dwelling in peace” or “peaceful dwelling.” ### ANGO > An ***ango*** is a Japanese term for a three-month period of intense training for students of Zen Buddhism, lasting anywhere from 90 to 100 days. The practice during ango consists of meditation (zazen), study, and work (samu). **This sounds \~oh so very zen\~ until you realize that ango refers to the *daily schedule* of an *intense 3-month training program.*** If you know anything about Zen, you know their retreats are hardcore. Here’s a sample schedule of an ango: ### DAILY SCHEDULE - 4:30 am — Sutras - 5-7 am — Meditation - 7-7:30 am — Breakfast - 7:30-11:30 am — Work - 11:30-noon — Lunch and Rest - 1:30-4 pm — Work and/or Study - 4-5 pm — Dinner + Bath - 6-8:30 pm — Meditation Few breaks. Early mornings. Hours of training, study, and work. Each day, every day, for *months*. **So *why exactly* do students and masters of Zen call this period “dwelling in peace”?** Because the sacred structure that the ango provides gives you ***freedom***. *And from freedom, peace emerges naturally, effortlessly.* Gone are the days of wasting time planning your meals, wondering what you’re going to do next, and ruminating on the past because you’re occupied with the present. This period creates a degree of *spaciousness* in the mind and body of the individual. It is singularly focused, you make progress in your training rapidly, and your efforts are pointed in a clear direction. The ango creates mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual ***freedom***. In the words of Jocko, an ango is an example where ***discipline equals freedom.*** --- ### The realization hit me a few days ago as I was looking back through my IG and found this video, that after years of study, refinement, and focused effort… it finally happened… **… we made a modern-day ango.** One that doesn’t require you to drop out of society. An ango that is accessible, secular, and geared towards the ailments of modern living and unlocking the true power of the individual. This is the [**WARRIOR100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** 100 days. 4 daily disciplines. 2 hours per day. Including the work (physical training), meditation (zazen), and study (warrior curriculum) that are hallmarks of the ango. **The** [**Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) **is a gateway into FREEDOM.** - **Physical freedom** by cultivating strength, stamina, mobility, and comfort in your body. - **Mental freedom** by cultivating concentration, focus, and meditative skill in your consciousness. - **Emotional freedom** by cultivating integrity, honesty, and honor in your character. - **Spiritual freedom** by cultivating courage, discipline, virtues, and values in your life. 100 days is intense. 2 hours per day is intense. But what so many people miss is that you *settle into* this process. You let the container *mould you*. It’s not hard forever. After some time, once you’ve made the changes in your schedule, once you’re daily routine allows you to smoothly complete the challenges, a newfound spaciousness arrives. Dormant energy is unlocked and rises up within you. The mental freedom that meditation provides makes it feel like you have *more time*, not less. You end up with a potent self-imposed structure that facilitates your own freedom: - 7 am: Wake & Physical Training - 8 am: Meditation Practice - 9-12: Breakfast & Deep Work - 12-1 pm: Break & Lunch - 1-4.30 pm: Work - 4.30-5 pm: Curriculum Study Session - 5-10 pm: Free Block - 10 pm: Daily Review + Integrity Audit - 11 pm: Sleep ***Who would you become on the other side of 100 days of this schedule?*** This is 2 hours of training per day. Broken up, accessible, while getting an insane amount of high-quality work done, and having ample time to live the rest of your life. With the new levels of concentration, energy, and spaciousness our practices provide, you’d probably get the best work of your life done here, as the cherry on top. **The** [**Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) **is this sacred structure.** The bedrock foundation to building a life of freedom. The container for potent, concentrated change. To step through the doorway into freedom, you *must have* the doorway. The structure. The *discipline*. The container carves order out of chaos and gives you the entrance to your own personal freedom. These are bold claims. I know. **But the cost of true freedom is a great level of discipline.** Many will not make it. But on the other side of this initiation is a new level of existence. One of honor, virtue, strength, clarity, passion, and purpose. **But the *doorway* into the** [**Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) **is not open forever.** In fact, it closes THIS WEEK. On August 25th, the doors will close so that we can prepare to begin on September 1st. **This is your moment.** You don’t have to be ready. You don’t need to have the time. You just need the WILLINGNESS. The CONVICTION. The rest will take care of itself. That’s what this container will help you with. You will create the time. Find the energy. Get the support of our community. But the time to decide is fast approaching. **Doors are closing August 25th. We begin September 1st.** [**Join us**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co), and let us pursue the freedom only available to the disciplined. And of course, use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ when signing up to do this with this group of infinite gamers. You’ll get $20 off too, because I love you. 💛 I hope to see you there. EB. ### My Biggest Blindspot of the Past Decade 🎯 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/my-biggest-blindspot-of-the-past/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:36.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** A backyard in Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~5 minutes 🧉 **Housekeeping:** Had some fun with [AI video edits](https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvsnHTcsPCs/?ref=zenmedicine.co)! And 2 important pieces of info for you: (1) Doors to the Warrior100 are closing in just over ***2 weeks***, on Aug 25\. (2) We are capping participants at ***300*** total, in homage to the Spartans. If you’re on the fence, if you’re ready to take the leap — you’re time for ***action*** is approaching. Join us. [Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- > **UBUNTU** — I am, because we are. I’ve had a major blindspot for the better part of a decade, if not my entire life: **A compulsive need to do everything myself.** In 2021, I co-lead The Ascent with HighExistence, an 8-week transformational bootcamp. In a session run by my collaborator , he asked us to close our eyes and picture what our ‘superhero self’ was. The version of us we dreamed up as kids to keep us strong and give us something to aspire to. I didn’t have a specific individual, but I had a clear image of the multi-armed Hindu gods. “Cosmic centipedes” as Alan Watts used to say. Those who could do all things effortlessly. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e7b41cdf-47f1-4e2f-96a8-3d2b78dcac36_1920x1080-jpeg.jpg) This was my desktop background for who-knows-how-long. **That was my North Star of what it meant to be a true awakened individual: not relying on or needing other people, anytime, for anything.** Being “truly sovereign”, a Jack-of-All-Trades. In practice, this childish aspiration translated to an inability to ask for help, a narrative that there was no support/resources available, taking on too much work, and a merciless inner critic when I couldn’t do everything, effortlessly, alone, in isolation. There are many positive aspects to this trait, it’s not entirely detrimental. I developed a unique skill set, became highly resilient, and cultivated a lot of personal sovereignty. But blindspots are blindspots for a reason: you can’t see them. **In fact, this neurosis of hyper-individualism is a blindspot of Western culture.** It’s the fallacy of the ‘self-made man’ in full force. No man is an island unto himself. You don’t grow your food, make your clothes, drive your Uber, build your car, design the phone you use, operate the internet. You stand on the shoulders of humanity at all times. **The smallest meaningful unit of humanity isn’t the individual — it’s a community, a family, a tribe.** You can’t do anything without it. You could not survive without it. > It took me a long time, and a lot of fumbling around, to come to the realization that the thing I was lacking wasn’t a fault in myself, it was being deeply embedded in a community. One of the byproducts of a hyper-individualistic culture is the belief that if something feels off, that’s a problem *with you*. So we take medication, do shadow work, get therapy, you name it. And yet, maybe the thing you’re lacking doesn’t have anything to do with a personal shortcoming. Maybe your highly-sensitive organic vehicle known as your body senses a deep lack of something just as fundamental to its evolution as air or water: *community*. As I grew and developed and found communities of shared interest — this immersion in shared interest groups radically transformed my progress. It’s like rocket fuel. - **I got clear, compassionate, direct feedback:** my shadows and blindspots were quickly highlighted, paired with recommendations on how to correct them. I became more outspoken, more confident, took more leadership. - **I received loving accountability:** being pushed and motivated to be better and increase my capcity, not from a place of pain or inadequacy, but from being held to high standards by brothers and sisters who could see the best in me. I did the best writing of my life, created brilliant experiences, and executed at a high level. - **My gifts were celebrated:** others could see the best in me, and reflect that back to me. They saw me and held me in a way that made me feel whole, complete, and capable of anything. I saw clearly the best parts of me, gaining confidence and clarity in my own identity. - **My energy shifted substancially in these containers.** Even the feeling of “I’m going to do my best so I don’t let the group down” pushed me do far better than I would have otherwise. It’s like going to the gym with a buddy. You always push out that final rep, yeah? You always laugh a little louder watching something with friends, right? **The collective experience is critical.** It is the missing link, it’s not something fundamentally broken in you. **If you feel this in your heart: the longing to come back to community, to immerse yourself in a group of individuals seriously dedicated to waking up, cleaning up, growing up, and showing up — I invite you to** [**join the Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** I chose the Warrior archetype for our second experience *specifically* for this. The difference between the Warrior and the Hero, the adult vs. the child, is that a Warrior *knows their limits.* Warriors know *they are limited*. And so they train. They train together, with their crew, so that they can push past their limits. The vision of doing everything yourself, of saving the world as a single individual, is childish. While it’s necessary to unlock the part of you that wants to show up, it’s the mature part of you that recognizes your limitations and takes the appropriate actions. **That is why we designed the Warrior100 to be a collective experience.** We are going through this initiation together, united as one. It’s not a failure to need help. It’s not a personal fault that you can’t do this alone. But be honest with yourself. Recognize where you could use some help and act accordingly. Bring your own gifts, and your own flavour to this community. I know I need this. I need the support and feedback of others. I need the energy and motivation and accountability from the group. **A final note: in order to honour our community and create the intimacy we want — we will only be bringing on 300 people for the Warrior100.** We are calling in the 300 spartans to do this together. You’ll be in an intimate group of 20 for the experience, and have the full force of the 300 strong with you in the community and our lives calls. **Will you be one of the 300? We’re waiting for you.** *If you want to be in a group with me and this readership, use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ when you lock in.* 👊🏻 HOOA. Eric Brown. *ps: In the spirit of not doing anything alone, if you can think of one person who could use this challenge, please send them the link:* [https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co). ### What Bowling Teaches You About Skillful Meditation 🎳 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/what-bowling-teaches-you-about-skillful/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:36.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Mississauga, Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~5 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *We are a few weeks out from* [***the Warrior100***](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co)*. Many have already taken the leap, and we will have a hard cap of 300 warriors. Will you be one of the 300 bold enough to go through this initiation? Join us.* [WARRIOR100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e9dd8274-e2ac-4844-8f90-db1163327195_1286x690.png) ### Two weeks ago, my aunt and my 12-year-old cousin who live across the country were visiting my family and I in Toronto… For a rainy day activity, we went bowling. 5-pin bowling, to be exact. If you didn’t know that exists, it’s a Canadian thing apparently! About halfway through the game, due to frustration from more than one of us, we popped up the bumpers on the sides of the lane. **Bumpers serve one purpose: they correct for deviations in the bowling ball.** When the bowling ball *deviates* from its objective *(to go straight down the lane and hit the pins)*, the bumpers are there to get it back on track. They course correct. **One of my favourite ways to describe meditation is that meditation is the process of correcting deviations in *attention*.** You have a desired objective *(to hold your attention on the object of meditation)*, and you correct it whenever deviations happen. When your mind *deviates* from your objective, you notice this, and like conscious bumpers, bring your attention back on course. You do this over, and over, and over again. Eventually, just like bowling, you become skillful enough that you can hit your objective without the need for bumpers. Your attention goes straight down the lane, without deviation, and hits the object of meditation directly. **The process of eliminating deviations in attention benefits every area of your life.** It makes movies more enriching. It makes your conversations deeper. It makes your mind less scattered. It gives your loved ones a greater presence from you. **Now, what if your objective was different? What if the objective you were aiming for was *integrity*?** To have your thoughts, words, and actions in alignment. *Can you correct for deviations in honesty, truthfulness, and personal integrity? How would you do this?* **Most of us, myself included, deviate from honesty and our own lived truth, far more than we would like to admit. And certainly, far more than we’re consciously aware of.** Just like meditation, once you start to do it, you learn quickly that it’s easy to be lost in thought for minutes at a time before you realize you have deviated from your objective. Deviation from honesty is corrosive to the health of a society, to the health of relationships, and to the health of humanity’s heart and soul. If we cannot be honest with others, if we cannot act on our own truth, truly, what else do we have? We’re living in a complex labyrinth of lies. **Fortunately, it is possible to correct deviations in integrity, and the process is exactly the same.** 1. Set a clear, conscious intention: to speak honestly, and to live in alignment with our truth at all times. 2. Bring the light of awareness to moments when you deviate from this objective. An “integrity audit” if you will. Every day before sleep, review the day and notice when you weren’t honest, where you thought a “little white lie” was more appropriate than the truth, or those moments where you wanted to do something, but chose a different action instead. 3. Take action to resolve the previous deviations, and renew your commitment to your intention moving forward. **This is the same process as meditation, and the results are the same.** Over time, you notice deviations faster, develop the skillfulness to correct more efficiently, and they become fewer in number and further spaced out in time. You also gain more sensitivity and notice subtle deviations that were previously unconscious. What you are left with is *deep* *integrity*. And that, if anything, is something worth aiming for. **Finally, what if your objective was increasing your performance, consistency, and discipline?** You guessed it, the same process: 1. Set your conscious intention to do X regularly. 2. Notice when you don’t do it, note what got in the way. 3. Take corrective action to resolve the deviation, and renew your commitment. By following this process, instead of your action being the exception to your current behaviour, it becomes the norm. It is the default course. Now, all you need to do is correct for *deviations*, and continue on. **This process – correcting for deviations with compassion and clarity of awareness – is precisely what we are doing in** [**the Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** - Training concentration meditation to create undeviating focus and attention. - Training integrity through daily audits and resolute commitments to create undeviating integrity and honesty. - Training action and commitment to create undeviating consistency and discipline. **Every aspect of this program has been carefully curated and tested to help you achieve this.** - Weekly intimate group discussion to help you discover why deviations occur. - Motivation and compassionate accountability incentives push you to stay on course. - A host of software tools, gamification incentives, live community, and curated curriculums make this process clear, straightforward, and dare I say actually *enjoyable*. **These may seem small, but I invite you to consider that this is the very foundation of your life and your relationships with others and yourself.** *Are you trustworthy? Do you tell the truth? If you say you are going to do something, will you do it? Can you maintain your focus? Can you pursue a goal over time?* Correcting for deviations is the bedrock of a meaningful life, and of a life well lived. [**The Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) is an impeccable container to help you train the skills needed to correct for and completely resolve deviations of integrity, attention, and discipline. **We begin on September 1.** If this resonates with you, if you understand how important this training is for your own life and for the health of our culture, I invite you to join us. [No More Deviations](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) Use ‘**SERIOUSPLAY**’ when you sign up and I’ll put all of us in the same group so that we can do this course-correcting of our character together. I hope to see you there. With love, EB. 💛 ### 100 Soul-Igniting Reasons You Need the Warrior100 🔥 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/100-soul-igniting-reasons-you-need/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:37.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Cabin in the Woods, Kincardine, Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~10 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** The Warrior100 begins next month, September 1st. It’s going to be phenomenal. From a recent participant, it’s *“dollar for dollar, is one of the most impactful forms of self-improvement I have ever undertaken.”* And we’re taking it to a whole new level this time around. You can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ for 10% off and to do this experience with our community here. 👇🏻 [WARRIOR100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- > “You’re perfect just the way you are… and you could use a little work.” — *Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki* In the spirit of the WARRIOR100 and our 100 Day challenges, I’ve pulled together 100 direct, clear pointers as to how and why the Warrior100 is right for you, right now. Not next year, not for your new years’ resolution, not ‘someday’. HERE. NOW. The present is only place that life-changing decisions are made. The present is the only place you live, and its where the work is done. The timing will never be perfect, the excuses are always plentiful. Allow that to be present, and make the decision with full uncompromising awareness anyways. Onward. 👊🏻 # ⚔️ You Need the [Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) Because… 1. You need the Warrior100 because… you **average 1.5+ hours** of **DAILY phone use**, possibly just social media apps alone. 2. You need the Warrior100 because… you **tell white lies** so liberally you’ve **NORMALIZED bullsh\*tting everyone** in your life. 3. You need the Warrior100 because… you’ve **started** **a MEDITATION practice** at least **27 times**. Still trying to make it work! 4. You need the Warrior100 because… you often **walk into a room** and **IMMEDIATELY forget** why you went in there. 5. You need the Warrior100 because… you **MINDLESSLY scroll Facebook** for a few minutes, close the app, stare blankly at the wall for a few seconds, and then **find yourself on Facebook again**. 6. You need the Warrior100 because… you can **name 4 ways right now** your life would **significantly improve** if you had the **COURAGE to speak your mind**. 7. You need the Warrior100 because… you know **you’d be unstoppable** if you could only **be CONSISTENT with something** for more than 2 weeks. 8. You need the Warrior100 because… you’ve done **tons of psychedelics**, can name 4+ **obscure therapeutic modalities**, and **travelled extensively**— yet your **LIFE is still a mess**. 9. You need the Warrior100 because… you have **zero BOUNDARIES** and have **never truly disagreed with anyone** in your life. 10. You need the Warrior100 because… your **tongue** has **permanent bite marks** from all the times you’ve **held back saying something** you felt. 11. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **20 pounds heavier** (or lighter) than you **know** **you want to be**. 12. You need the Warrior100 because… you **can’t sit** with your legs crossed, touch your toes, or **walk up stairs without panting**. 13. You need the Warrior100 because… you can identify all the ways **society is sick** and broken but still have **grossly UNRESOLVED areas** in your own life. 14. You need the Warrior100 because… the **most disciplined commitment** you have in your life is your **ADDICTION to your morning coffee**. 15. You need the Warrior100 because… the **‘Mr. Nice Guy’ shtick isn’t working out** for you—and honestly, it never has. 16. You need the Warrior100 because… when something goes wrong, you **secretly hope that someone else will step up** and handle it. 17. You need the Warrior100 because… you use **“I’m basically ADD” as an EXCUSE** to justify **not doing anything** with your life instead of **fixing your attention**. 18. You need the Warrior100 because… you know the **pain of regret** **feels** **worse** than the **pain of DISCIPLINE**. 19. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **ready to** **embrace** a new **level of RESPONSIBILITY**. 20. You need the Warrior100 because… you **can’t do this by yourself**. 21. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re ready to **join a MATURE community** of practice. 22. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **done accepting** the **lowest common denominator** as your **STANDARD for excellence**. 23. You need the Warrior100 because… you **peaked in FITNESS a decade ago**, and it’s kind of lame now. 24. You need the Warrior100 because… you know doing **serious work in ISOLATION** is **bullsh\*t**. 25. You need the Warrior100 because… **chronic DABBLING** is **childish**. 26. You need the Warrior100 because… true **depth and MASTERY** are calling you. 27. You need the Warrior100 because… your **ATTENTION span is shorter** than your **dog’s**. 28. You need the Warrior100 because… you know **ACCOUNTABILITY** and **community** are **essential components** of **lasting change**. 29. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **STUCK in ‘analysis paralysis’**, on the **sidelines watching life pass by**. 30. You need the Warrior100 because… you still **naively HOPE someone** will **come and save you**. 31. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **suffocating** in a **toxic culture** that **doesn’t align with your VALUES**. 32. You need the Warrior100 because… chronic **people-pleasing** is **pathetic**. 33. You need the Warrior100 because… **how you do anything** is **how you do everything**: and you’re ready for **excellence in all things**. 34. You need the Warrior100 because… you **use your physical STRENGTH** to **hide your emotional insecurity**. 35. You need the Warrior100 because… when you **look in the mirror** you feel something other than **rooted CONFIDENCE** and **grounded self-respect**. 36. You need the Warrior100 because… you are **not here on this planet**, at this time, **to settle for less** than **EXCELLENCE**. 37. You need the Warrior100 because… your **salary reflects** your own **lack of SELF-RESPECT** and you’re **ready for a change**. 38. You need the Warrior100 because… you know **you need rigorous ACCOUNTABILITY** to **be your best** and are **willing to act** on that. 39. You need the Warrior100 because… you know it’s **more important** to **EMBODY your philosophy** than to **explain it**. 40. You need the Warrior100 because… **life is becoming** the same **mundane nonsense** every. single. day. and you’re **secretly** **desperate for CHANGE**. 41. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **still reading this** and **need to honour** that **CURIOUS part of you**. 😉 42. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re so close to a **major personal EVOLUTION** you can taste it, and you **need to ground down** for the final stage. 43. You need the Warrior100 because… you’ve **never identified** as a leader and are **HUNGRY** to step into deeper realms of **responsibility and leadership**. 44. You need the Warrior100 because… you want a **community of DEPTH** that **talks about something other** than sports, politics, drinking, and the Current Thing™. 45. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re ready to make **spiritual practice** and **personal awakening a PRIORITY** in your life. 46. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **sick of lying to yourself** that you want to focus on money, sex, or fame as your **NORTH STAR**. 47. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **destined for GREATNESS** and are **fired up** to enter into the **‘training montage’ arc** of your life. 48. You need the Warrior100 because… **you’re disgusted** by the **direction society** is going and are **WILLING to become** a **living example** **of another way**. 49. You need the Warrior100 because… your **bank account exposes** your **lack of SELF-CONTROL** to you daily. 50. You need the Warrior100 because… **addictions to porn**, vaping, social media, substances, TV, or outrage are **destroying your PEACE** and **equanimity**. 51. You need the Warrior100 because… you **can’t honestly recall** the last time you felt a **lasting sense of calmness**, peace, or equanimity — maybe even joy!? 52. You need the Warrior100 because… your **SOUL is yearning** to **commit to something greater** than yourself. 53. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **f\*cking tired** of **accepting less than your best effort**, of **BELIEVING** that you **don’t deserve it**. 54. You need the Warrior100 because… you still have an **immature and undeveloped** **PERCEPTION** of the warrior as a soulless killing machine. 55. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re scared to **fully own your POWER** because **you haven’t trained enough** to hold it. 56. You need the Warrior100 because… more of your **DREAMS are dying** of **indecision** than **making the wrong decision**. 57. You need the Warrior100 because… **your justifications** aren’t an **EXCUSE**. Get over it. 58. You need the Warrior100 because… you **can’t WAIT** for **someone else** to do it. **You must** do it. 59. You need the Warrior100 because… you were **never meant** to do this work **ALONE**. 60. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **ready to be INITIATED** into a **deeper realm of purpose** and capability. 61. You need the Warrior100 because… your **DEVELOPMENT** looks like a 3-legged chair: **completely f\*cking lopsided**. 62. You need the Warrior100 because… **INTEGRITY** has become a word almost **without meaning** for you. This needs to change. 63. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **allowed to STRIVE** for greatness and **become impeccable**. 64. You need the Warrior100 because… you **back off** at the first **sign of RESISTANCE** and **need to learn** to **stand your ground**. 65. You need the Warrior100 because… **hell** is when the **person you could have been** meets the **person that you are**. 66. You need the Warrior100 because… **you don’t need** another **fancy modality**, technique, or concept – you **need to get to WORK**. 67. You need the Warrior100 because… **“going with the FLOW”** has you looking like a **dead fish floating** down a river. 68. You need the Warrior100 because… **MOMENTUM is everything** and it’s **time to become unstoppable**. 69. You need the Warrior100 because… **ACTIONS speak louder than words** and **you ain’t doing sh\*t** right now. 70. You need the Warrior100 because… the **TIMING is never perfect** to **make the decision** that changes your life completely. 71. You need the Warrior100 because… **SERIOUS PLAY** is the **way to live** your life and this is how you do it. 72. You need the Warrior100 because… **becoming a warrior** to **steward a new culture** sounds like your version of **ENLIGHTENED DISNEYLAND**. 73. You need the Warrior100 because… you **need to know** whether or not **you can do it**. Prove it to yourself. 74. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re on a **serious AWAKENING path** and need a **sacred structure** to **support your process**. 75. You need the Warrior100 because… you are **ready to SERVE** at a **greater level** than **you’ve ever done** before. 76. You need the Warrior100 because… your **FAMILY needs** **someone strong**, calm, capable, clear, **and present**. 77. You need the Warrior100 because… you **know HONOUR** is **everything**, and it **could use some work**. 78. You need the Warrior100 because… your **INTEGRITY matters more** to you than your follower count. 79. You need the Warrior100 because… your **wildest dreams** are **waiting for you** on the other side of **COURAGEOUS action**. 80. You need the Warrior100 because… **SOCIETY** needs **exemplary individuals** to **raise the standard** of being human. 81. You need the Warrior100 because… **you’re transitioning** into a **new level** of **heart-aligned LEADERSHIP** and **need grounded support**. 82. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **surrounded by grown-up children** and **want to develop** your **deep MATURITY** further. 83. You need the Warrior100 because… you know **meaning in life** is related to **how much RESPONSIBILITY** you’re **willing to take on**. 84. You need the Warrior100 because… **your life** has been **too self-centered** for **too long** and it’s time to **commit to service** and **ACTION for others**. 85. You need the Warrior100 because… you know there are **two mistakes** on the **path of SELF-MASTERY**: (1) **not starting**, and (2) **not going all the way**. 86. You need the Warrior100 because… **full immersion** in a **loving COMMUNITY** will **accelerate your progress exponentially**. 87. You need the Warrior100 because… **your TRIBE is here**, **waiting for you** to **show up**. 88. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re **struggling** to **keep your HEART open** and pure in times of **increasing stress and complexity**. 89. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re already **committed to service** and are **becoming FIT for greater levels**. 90. You need the Warrior100 because… you want to be **SURROUNDED by partners** who **bring out the best in you**. 91. You need the Warrior100 because… **deeply rooted CONSISTENCY** will **take you farther** than **sporadic, uncontrolled sprints**. 92. You need the Warrior100 because… an **OPPORTUNITY** for **modern contemplative training** is **too good to pass up**. 93. You need the Warrior100 because… true **FREEDOM** comes only to the **disciplined mind, body, and spirit**. 94. You need the Warrior100 because… you must **honour the CALLING** that is **compelling you to show up** for the world. 95. You need the Warrior100 because… you’re looking for a **CHALLENGE** that will **push you** into a **next level**. 96. You need the Warrior100 because… you **feel most ALIVE** up against your **growth edge** and **going beyond** it. 97. You need the Warrior100 because… the **best time** for **major transformation** is **HERE, NOW**. 98. You need the Warrior100 because… you **won’t let PERFECT** be the **enemy of progress**. 99. You need the Warrior100 because… it’s **going to be** one of the **GREATEST EXPERIENCES** of your life **–** and **I want to do this with you.** 100. You need the Warrior100 because… **if not YOU**, then **who?** **If not NOW**, then **when?** --- **You need this because you have courage, integrity, strength, consistency, greatness, resilience, heart, stamina, honesty, honor, freedom, discipline, opportunity, community, compassion, fire, hunger, family, service, awakening, growth, fitness, mobility, insight, awareness and more inside of you — and you need an experience that honours your greatness, that helps you develop further, and that helps take you to the next level of your personal mission.** You’re ready for this. We’re ready for you. We begin September 1st. [**The WARRIOR100.**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### Your Attention *is* Your Life. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/your-attention-is-your-life/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:37.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Toronto, Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~5 minutes. 🧉 **Vibecheck:** (1) Celebrated my 31st birthday on Sunday. 🥳 (2) Feeling rooted, ready, and raring to go for one of the greatest initiations I’ve ever cooked up: [**the Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co). We begin September 1st. Make the time, dig deep and find your courage, this is going to be incredible. If you could, please share it with someone who may be interested. ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ will get you a discount and in a private group with me. ⚡️ [Join the Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) “Our minds are all we have. They are all we have ever had. And they are all we can offer others. This might not be obvious, especially when there are aspects of your life that seem in need of improvement—when your goals are unrealized, or you are struggling to find a career, or you have relationships that need repairing. But it’s the truth. Every experience you have ever had has been shaped by your mind. Every relationship is as good or as bad as it is because of the minds involved. If you are perpetually angry, depressed, confused, and unloving, or your attention is elsewhere, it won’t matter how successful you become or who is in your life—you won’t enjoy any of it.” ― Sam Harris ## Your entire life exists within your conscious experience… The fluid dance between your attention (concentration) and your awareness (mindfulness) is the canvas nature uses to compose the masterpiece of your waking existence. **The quality of your attention *is* the quality of your life.** Despite this… we rarely give our attention any of our attention. We brush our teeth. We go to the gym. We practice our craft. We maintain our relationships. We eat well. We strive for health and growth in so many parts of our lives, *except* for the one aspect that is universal to all of them – *attention*. **If you want to radically transform your life: transform your attention.** Contrary to popular belief, there are precise, methodical, and repeatable systems to help you develop your powers of attention, mindfulness, and concentration. You *are* your conscious experience. Your life *is* your attention and what you concentrate on. If your attention is scattered, your life is scattered. If you’re always distracted, you’re never present. “From the contemplative point of view, being lost in thoughts of any kind, pleasant or unpleasant, is analogous to being asleep and dreaming. It’s a mode of not knowing what is actually happening in the present moment. It is essentially a form of psychosis.” ― Sam Harris **For something that influences the quality of every moment of our lives, it’s remarkable how little we focus on it.** *You must reprioritize your attention.* It doesn’t matter if you *agree* that it should be your top priority, because it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. Your attention preceeds any experience you have. It is *how* you experience your life. It comes first at the level of your life. The choice is whether or not you want to recognize that and act accordingly. Cultivating your powers of concentration and focused attention radically transform: - The level of presence and intimacy you bring to your relationships. - Your ability for complex thinking and rapid learning. - How productive you can be in terms of both quantity and quality of your output. - The felt sense of meaning in every moment of your life. - The calmness, composure, and clarity of your thoughts and feelings. - The richness and vibrancy of your external world. - The impressions other people make about you, how much you care, and how much you engage with them. **It is not hyperbole to say that developing your concentration positively transforms your entire life — because your entire life is made up of what you concenrate on, and how well you hold that concentration.** *Do you get that?* Concentration is one of the 3 Trainings required to reach the later stages of awakening in Buddhism, alongside Morality and Insight. Concentration is *fundamental.* **That is why concentration meditation is one of the core pillars of the Warrior100.** Unwavering, razor-sharp focus is a hallmark of true Warriors. And boy oh boy do we have our work cut out for us . Most of us have lower attention spans than goldfish. Social media and FOMO have obliterated our ability to concentrate. **The time has come to reverse the flow of attentional entropy, reclaim your ability to concentrate, and redirect your attention towards the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.** We will be rigorously following one of the most accessible blueprints for concentration available — the framework presented in The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa John Yates, PhD. If you show up and apply yourself in good faith, you will achieve something that no human can achieve without proper training. Something you cannot buy your way into. **Stable Attention.** This is the ability to hold your attention on a desired object (breath, work, screen, person, etc.) and not have it deviate unless you decide to redirect your focus. You literally become *un-distractable*. Imagine the possibilities that this opens for you: - Give your intimate partner the gift of the one thing they truly desire from you: total loving presence and fullness of attention. - Pursue the challenging but meaningful projects you have on your bucket list: writing your book, creating the masterpiece, or learning that new skill. - Increase the quality of your daily existence by slowing down the experience of time, increasing the richness of your external world, and creating a more balanced, calm, and composed mind. **Everything in your life is downstream of your attention.** On September 1st we begin Day 1 of the [Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co). 100 days straight of 4 daily disciplines. Concentration meditation is one of them. We have created a 30+ page meditation manual to guide you through this process, and with weekly intimate group calls and a general community space to ask questions and receive guidance – you can achieve stable attention and reclaim the quality of your moment-to-moment existence. This is a true act of self-love. This is what deep self-care looks like. I invite you to join us. We will do this together. It will fundamentally change your life, and I am willing to stand behind that claim with everything I am. Reclaim your attention. Refine your mind. Reinvent yourself. [**The Warrior100 begins September 1st.**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) You can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ to get 10% off, and be in a group with me as we do this together. I hope you’ll join us. Thank you, EB. 💛 “In the broadest sense, however, meditation is simply the ability to stop suffering in many of the usual ways, if only for a few moments at a time. How could that not be a skill worth cultivating?” ― Sam Harris ### The Unexpected Traits of True Warriors 💀 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-unexpected-traits-of-true-warriors/ Last updated: 2023-07-21T19:56:56.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Mississauga, Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~7 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *We’re dropping the Warrior100 September 1st: a 100-day initiation into serious warrior training. It’s going to be f\*cking amazing. You can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ to get that secret handshake discount and be in a group with me for the entire experience. See you there.* ⚡️ [Join Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- > “To be a spiritual warrior means to develop a special kind of courage, one that is innately intelligent, gentle, and fearless. Spiritual warriors can still be frightened, but even so, they are courageous enough to taste suffering, to relate clearly to their fundamental fear, and to draw out without evasion the lessons from difficulties.” — *Sogyal Rinpoche* My entire adult life I’ve been inspired by a kind of Warrior that is extinct in modern life… I call them **the holistic warrior**. - Warrior-Philosophers like Socrates. - Warrior-Kings like Marcus Aurelius. - Warrior-Monks like the Shaolin. Being a Warrior is about so much more than just being a skilled soldier or pawn of the military. **The Warrior Archetype is a vitalizing, driving, activating force.** It emphasizes the holistic development of an individual across body, mind, heart, and spirit. In a paradoxical twist of fate, despite the atrocities that shadow warriors have committed throughout the centuries of human history, the periods where warrior cultures have ruled also had the greatest emphasis on virtues, values, character, and nobility. Chivalry for the Knights. The Bushido of the Samurai. > “To seek the perfection of the warrior’s spirit is the only task worthy of our temporariness, our manhood.” *– Carlos Castaneda* Warriors set incredibly high standards for themselves and train every day to reach them. They chart their own path, making no exceptions or excuses. There are many things about the holistic warrior I admire, but these stand out to me the most: ### 1\. Total Commitment to a Transpersonal Cause: > “The warrior is always first a servant… The warrior does not serve because they cannot lead; they know that a person cannot lead if they do not serve.” – *Erwin Raphael McManus* I used to think *discipline* was the hallmark of a Warrior. This is not true. Discipline is only a tool. **The true defining characteristic of a Warrior is their total devotion to a cause greater than themselves.** True Warriors are always in service of something.That might be an ideal (Truth, Honor), or it might be a people (the Kingdom, the King, the Country, or the City). Warriors are defined by their total commitment to a transpersonal cause. They commit and submit their lives in the service of something greater than themselves. ### 2\. Cultivation of Virtues & Values > “Let us be, then, warriors of the heart, and enlist in our inner cause the virtues we have acquired through blood and sweat in the sphere of conflict—courage, patience, selflessness, loyalty, fidelity, self-command, respect for elders, love of our comrades (and of the enemy), perseverance, cheerfulness in adversity and a sense of humor, however terse or dark.” *― Steven Pressfield, The Warrior Ethos* **Once a Warrior has committed themselves to their transpersonal cause – they train.** They train so that they can honour their commitment. So that they can be the last wall of defence for the True, the Good, and the Beautiful from the forces of entropy and evil. > “The true warrior fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him” *— G.K. Chesterton* In service of their commitment, the Warrior becomes the best they can be. **They train and cultivate virtues and values like courage, honour, integrity, discipline, nobility, service, mastery, presence, and focus.** More than mere skill with a sword or fighting techniques, the Warrior becomes fit for service by cultivating themselves. In today’s day and age, I hear very few people, if anyone, discuss the virtues they are trying to cultivate. Indeed, concepts like honour and integrity are nearly extinct. It is the Warriors’ ferocity that cultivates these. ### 3\. Emphasis on Holistic Development of the Individual: > “It is only after a person surrenders achieving “The American Dream,” and annihilates any personal thought of living exclusively for material gain that a person commences a journey worthy of a spiritual warrior, a glorious destiny of self-realization in lieu of pursing the opulence of a gilded life.” *― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls* It was the Shaolin Warrior-Monks who first domesticated the *camellia* *sinensis* plant – what we now know as tea. Shaolin Monks cultivated the practice of tea for two reasons: 1. So that they could remain calm yet alert (Zen) during periods of meditation. 2. So that they remain open-hearted, cultured, and connected to nature. **Particularly evident in the Warrior cultures of the East, there is a strong emphasis on the holistic development of the individual.** Any undeveloped parts of an individual are susceptible to corruption and ossification. You are only as strong as your weakest character link. Nowadays, I see so many people so disciplined at the gym, who are strong physically – but who will never sit in meditation for even 5 minutes, for fear of what their mind will do to them. Indeed, many of us wouldn’t even be able to sit in meditation for 5 minutes, our concentration and self-control having diminished so greatly. **The true, embodied, integrated Warrior must develop themselves across Mind, Body, Spirit, and Heart.** Each area helps support and correct the others. And yet this kind of training – one where you train the body just as hard as you train the mind. Where you study philosophy and ethics just as much as you spar in martial arts. This kind of holistic development is gone! Where does one find it outside of the monastery now? **This imbalanced and underdeveloped training of the individual is at the root of so many of our individual and collective problems today.** - Strong body but weak morals. - Strong philosophy but weak body. - Deep concentration but no virtues. Our society is degenerating, whoring itself out to the highest bidders. We are weak, fat, lazy, and lethargic. The most technologically developed culture of all time, and approaching the most morally bankrupt culture of all time. **We must return to the holistic development of the individual.** ### 4\. Recognition of the Immanency of Death: > “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” *— Kahlil Gibran* **And there is truly one driving force that animates all of these previous characteristics: the living recognition of the immanency of death.** Death is the vitalizing force of the Warrior. Not one of fear, but one of passion. Warriors are HERE, NOW. They are ready, they have already sacrificed themselves to their transpersonal cause, and they live with the reality of death at all times. This is the vitalizing force — the animating fire that allows them to cultivate their virtues, surrender to their commitments, and press forward in their journey of self-mastery. Warriors do not run away from reality, nor do they avoid the fact of Death. Warriors embrace this and use it to vitalize every moment of their being. ## The True Warrior Initiation: [the Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co). > “Warriors don’t rise to the level of expectations, they fall to the level of their training.” *– Archilochus* **In searching for a way to cultivate the holistic warrior in myself, I’ve created it.** I have obligations in my life currently, I can’t drop out at this time and join a monastery. I needed a middle way, some balance. Modern monastic training. A modern Warrior initiation. Now, it exists: [**the Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** It addresses each aspect of the holistic warrior: mind, body, spirit, and heart. By completing 4 daily disciplines, for 100 days straight – we will train the virtues, values, characteristics, and commitments of true Warriors. 1. **Body:** 45 minutes of physical training. 2. **Mind:** 45 minutes of concentration meditation. 3. **Spirit:** 30 minutes of study/reflection on virtues/values. 4. **Heart:** Ongoing commitment to tell the truth and act in integrity with your values. **2 hours a day. Every day. For 100 days.** It is going to be intense. It is going to demand a lot from you. **It is also going to give you things that you cannot get elsewhere. It will train skills in your that you cannot buy your way into. It will give structure, purpose, and order to your existence.** Your body will become fit, strong, mobile, and capable. Your mind will become clear, sharp, focused, and calm. Your spirit will be refined, purified, aligned, and integrated. And your heart will open, becoming more courageous by living in harmony with the truth. [**We begin September 1st.**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) I invite you to join us. We are doing this together. It will be glorious. I hope to see you there, partner. ### Reflections on 100 Days of Heroic Discipline ⚡️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/reflections-on-100-days-of-heroic/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:37.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Toronto, Canada. 🇨🇦 📖 **Reading Time:** \~8 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** Hello! I’ve missed you. I’m still alive, and we’ll have more writing coming in hot the next few weeks. (1) Dropped a [**podcast**](https://www.buzzsprout.com/1882875/13236359?ref=zenmedicine.co) of this article with my brother , will share the video once it’s live! (2) Announcing the [**Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co), a 100-day holistic warrior training program beginning **September 1st**. Get 10% off with code ‘SERIOUSPLAY’. [Learn More: Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/423dd053-4224-45a5-b7a6-2f3be7631c98_1000x1000.png) > *“No mud, no lotus.” — Thich Naht Han* **Whew.** It’s wonderful—and long overdue—to be behind the page again. There’s a certain energy I get sitting in front of a blank page. Like a sparring session has begun… …I’m returning to writing after completing my [**Hero100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) last week. 100 days straight of 6 daily disciplines. **It was phenomenal.** One of the most electric experiences I’ve had in a while. On the surface, my challenge recap looks like: - **94/100** days fully complete *(doing all 6 challenges)* **.** - **100 fasting sessions** for over 1503 hours. - **99 cold showers**. - **98 meditation sessions** for over 57 hours. - **100 journalling sessions**. - **96 sunrise movement sessions**. - **150+ items** donated/eliminated. It was a comprehensive evolution. I’m a lot more mature, rooted, and focused now. It sorted out a lot of bullshit and made space for real accomplishments. It was everything I wanted it to be and much more than I imagined. The hit list coming out the other side is wild, and I’m proud of it: - **Founded my company** (Phoenix Culture LLC.) - Made the decision to **close another company** - **Took Spanish seriously** by taking 1:1 private classes - **Uncovered a nasty martyr archetype** in my personality and did hard emotional work on that - Made **major financial moves**: paying off outstanding debts, new bitcoin investments, and closing legacy accounts - Set up and took my lightning and **bitcoin node online and operational** - Designed and **released 4 educational programs for ketamine therapy** to hundreds of thousands of people with the Mindbloom crew - **Laid plans for moving** and establishing a home in Uvita, Costa Rica next year - Announced and **filled 2 weeks of plant medicine retreats** - **Rebranded my newsletter** (this publication!) - Designed and **announced the** [**Warrior100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) (our upcoming transformational container). **HOOAH. Fuck yeah!** 🔥 > *It was the structure of the challenge—the grounded energy it gave me each day—that helped me get over myself and start doing the things I cared about—big or small.* No more procrastination, no more f\*cking around, no more dragging feet. If it’s important, I did it. There were several major but less tangible things I got out of the Hero100: 1. An identity of discipline 2. Deep emotional excavation 3. Powerful personal value alignment 4. Daily keystone habit & structure --- ## ⚡️ The Identity of Discipline **Identity is made up of character traits that you can evidence.** Remember all those moments you acted out of shyness? *You’re shy.* All the times you did something courageous? *You’re brave.* I’ve never really identified with being disciplined. I vilified it at times. I am *consistent*. I’m good at *going deep quickly*, but not at seeing something through to completion or mastery. It’s a shadow side of the ‘jack-of-all-trades’ ethos. I have shadows that resist that kind of hardcore, f\*ck-your-feelings disciplinarian attitude. But now I can own it. I did 94/100 days. 564 unique activities. Longest streak of 45 days straight without missing a beat. That’s a victory to me. Without beating myself into submission, without the army bootcamp vibes – I built an identity of discipline for myself. I have the evidence now. That’s empowering. It feels like a potent weapon was added to my character loadout. ## 🚜 Deep Emotional Excavation **For the first few weeks, journalling was looking at basics like frustrations, outstanding tasks, hope/dreams/desires.** But after weeks of looking at yourself and your psyche daily… it gets harder. I was forced to look at deeper personality patterns, addictions, distractions, and relationships. It was rough and tough for many weeks. **I unrooted an all-pervasive martyr archetype dominating my life: always sacrificing myself for others.** It sounds virtuous on the surface, but in reality, it deeply neglects the individual. It was tough and painful to chew through that and admit it has shadows and shortcomings. **There’s never a perfect time to sit down and look at these parts of yourself.** It’s uncomfortable, confronting, sad, or aggravating. So most of the time we avoid it. With the support of this container—the energy of the cold showers, the grounding of the meditation, the spaciousness of item eliminations, and the willpower of fasting—going towards the hurt places was easier. ## 🌟 Powerful Value Alignment **Part of my martyr archetype is that I got really good at waking up and giving away all of my time to other people.** Immediately jumping into work, doing extra calls for free with people. Day in and day out giving my time to others – sometimes for things I wasn’t even passionate about. **One subtle realization I had during this was how much I liked my new morning routine: sunrise, movement, cold shower, meditation, journal, and coffee.** It felt like I was putting myself first. Because for the first time, I actually was. My mornings were for me, I started my days giving something to myself. ## 🌅 Daily Keystone Habit & Structure **I’m no stranger to the concept of a *keystone habit*, the one activity that anchors your day and everything else grows around and out of it.** But I’ve never truly done it… My personal ritual was a sunrise movement session. The requirement of getting up for the sunrise catalyzed an insane amount of beneficial change that wasn’t directly planned for. For example: - Getting up with the sun means you need a better sleep schedule. So a firm bedtime also happened. - To go to sleep earlier than normal, you need a wind-down routine, so one was made. - I still had energy during the wind-down, so excuses against flossing went away. Started flossing regularly. - Wanted to have enough energy to fuel my day, so movement/exercise came first thing. New movement ritual unlocked. - With new energy from movement and cold showers, I took this into my meditation sessions. Made real progress in concentration meditation. - With a calm, clear, awake mental state, I started getting the first most important thing done, each and every day consistently. This created so many of the victories, big and small, that I shared earlier. **All of this blossomed out of the sunrise keystone habit.** The only requirement I had was getting up with the sunrise, but in order to make that happen for 100 days straight—and as a result of doing it—dozens of other behaviours, habits, and routines formed. It was one of the most productive periods of my life, despite investing \~1.5h each day into these disciplines. --- And of course, I had the pleasure of facilitating this experience for others and seeing how their process unfolded, what was coming up, and any shared commonalities. A few points stood out: ## ⏳ True Transformation Takes Time **Deep, enduring transformation doesn’t happen in a weekend. It’s not a 3-week vacation or a 30-day challenge.** Catalytic insights may happen, but the timeline for them to integrate and become a part of your instincts, intuitions, reflexes, and identity takes more time. It’s like excavating a fossil. Gently, carefully, over time you dig up a bone at a time. And piece by piece, the full skeleton is made. The 100-day length of time, with nowhere to run away to provides this timeline. I watched many go through their own journeys, as did I, sometimes with many weeks spent in the mud. But as one participant reminded me, *“no mud, no lotus.”* ## 😩 Profound Change Isn’t Always Glamorous **True transformation isn’t fancy. It’s destabilizing. It’s a death and rebirth process in a very literal manner.** The way you think, the way you act, your default assumptions and perspectives on the world must change. It’s like fixing a bone that never grew correctly, it must be broken and reset before it can heal properly. **There is something frighteningly beautiful about those who willingly set themselves on fire, in faith and trust that the phoenix that emerges from their ashes is worth the pain of self-immolation.** It is sacred work. It is evolution in action. It’s not always glamorous, but it is glorious. ## 📦 Containers & Intention Are Essential **It’s not hyperbole to say that I wouldn’t have achieved this had it not been for the structured container and clear intention of the challenge.** Many days I woke up tired and unmotivated — but knowing that I was in this process, knowing that I wasn’t going to let the group down was enough to keep me going. It’s not easy to set up this psychological scaffolding by yourself. Doing it together is empowering, motivating, and deeply supportive. I am so thankful for this. I am deeply grateful to everyone who took the leap and joined us. I am thankful for those who did exceptionally well—some even hitting 100% completion—and equally for those who dropped out along the way. It was all part of the experience, and it was beautiful. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a79a7fef-b11f-4e86-9c2c-225d75ac7bc6_2050x1155.png) ## The Next Evolution: [Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co). **If you’d like to join us on these incredible initiations — we begin the Warrior100 on September 1st.** This is the next evolution of our work. Taking all of the lessons, mistakes, and insights from the Hero100 and putting them into a holistic warrior training program. - **Body:** 45 minutes physical training session. - **Mind:** 45 minutes concentration meditation. - **Spirit:** 30 minutes studying warrior cultures, virtues, and values. - **Heart:** 24/7 commitment to telling the truth and acting in integrity. It’s going to be tough, but the results will be profound. You can learn all the details [on the site](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co). **And for reading this far, you can use ‘SERIOUSPLAY’ to get $20 off the ticket price.** I’ll put everyone who registers with this code in the same group together so that we can do this challenge together! Let’s do it. With love and power, EB. 💛 [Warrior100](https://phoenixculture.earth/warrior100?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### A New Chapter: Welcome to Serious Play. ⚡️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/a-new-chapter-welcome-to-serious/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:38.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Nest 🪺, Argentina. 📖 **Reading Time:** \~4 minutes. 🍵 **Vibecheck:** *You’re receiving this because you have been previously subscribed to The Edge of Being newsletter. This is still that publication, just with an update. Enjoy! I’m excited.* ⚡️ --- ## My friends, a new chapter is upon us: **Welcome to Serious Play.** This is the next chapter of my work. The refinement of my teaching. The essence of my attitude. The evolution of my intention. This space will continue to have the content and pieces you’ve come to know and love, but under a new identity. A new, more refined ethos. The Edge of Being was fun, and an important starting point. But it misses the mark in many ways. Too much ego in it as some ‘far-off explorer of consciousness’. To be clear, consciousness study will continue to be a significant theme, but the Edge of Being didn’t capture the essence of my message well enough. Serious Play moves considerably closer. If you want to hear me riff on this, check out this clip I did with Carlos of The Truth podcast a few months ago. The prompt was: > *“Do you have an idea for a new grand narrative that could possibly bring us together?”* It’s about 6 minutes, from 1:36:00–1:42:00\. The link should start at that time. ### **Serious Play is my answer—my living thesis—to nearly any and every major question in life.** - **What is reality?** Serious Play. - **How should I live?** Serious Play. - **What is culture?** Serious Play. - **What is civilization?** Serious Play. - **How do you heal trauma?** Serious Play. - **What is psychedelic therapy?** Serious Play. - **How should you engage with the Infinite Game?** Serious Play. - **What is religion?** Serious Play. - **Why do you need religion?** Serious Play. - **What is language?** Serious Play. - **How do I find and embody meaning?** Serious Play. - **What is the point of art?** Serious Play. - **How do I enter flow state?** Serious Play. - **When do I feel most alive?** Serious Play. - **What is the essence of Zen?** Serious Play. - **What attitude makes people most charismatic?** Serious Play. - **What are relationships? Sex?** Serious Play. - **What is evolution doing?** Serious Play. - **How can I be more creative?** Serious Play. - **How do you solve the mental health crisis?** Serious Play. - **What value should society orient around?** Serious Play. - **How do you transform your identity?** Serious Play. - **How do you embody your philosophy?** Serious Play. From the transformation of the individual, to the evolution of civilization, and beyond to the great metaphysical mythologies of Reality — the answer always comes back to Serious Play. So many of our major obstacles and opportunities, individual and collective, are largely due to being imbalanced towards too serious or too playful. It is finding the middle way that is the challenge and the solution. Future pieces will explore what I mean by seriousness, playfulness, and the combination thereof. *“There is only one Infinite Game.”* — James Carse, ending line of [Finite & Infinite Games](https://www.zenmedicine.co/finite-infinite-games/). Life is *the* Infinite Game. It is a game. But it is not trivial. Games are a vehicle for Mastery. They are unique in that they are played for their own sake. Not for an outcome, but for the act of play itself. Life is the archetypal Infinite Game. It is an activity done for no purpose other than itself. Playful in its essence. Enthralling in its existence. It is an act so complete it is done for its own sake. The act of playing is the reward. The game is the desired outcome. To win, to succeed, is to play the game. You are a Player within the Ultimate Arena. You are the Performer on the Ultimate Stage. **Your life is your masterpiece.** The artistic expression of your Being. Just like there is an artistry to mastery, there is a mastery of artistry. Like the ballerina about to go on stage for the final performance, like the painter preparing their magnum opus, like the athlete walking on for the gold medal match — the performance here is not trivial. But unlike most modern sports, nothing is at stake here. There is no medal to win because the game never ends. It is an Infinite Game. What is the ideal Way of Being, the most appropriate existential orientation given this? Serious Play. **Serious Play is how you dance with the One Infinite Game.** Life is inherently playful. But you must not forget that it is beautiful to take games seriously. To invest in them, to suspend your disbelief, to challenge and push your limits, to see just exactly how good you are, and to cultivate yourself. Most individuals fall onto one side of the spectrum, I’ve fallen on both. Some people focus on play, and never end up pushing themselves to the edges of their capabilities. They go their entire lives without composing their masterpiece. Others get lost in the seriousness. They forget that they are voluntarily playing the most beautiful game in existence. It’s a weird experience when someone is far too serious in Monopoly, as if they’ve forgotten it’s just a game. We must find the balance. Master the art of being seriously playful. --- I’m excited to dig in. Expect more essays, videos, maybe a few podcasts(!), and a lot more coming through under this vision. For now, thank you so much for being with me on this weird, wild, and wonderful ride together. Let’s continue onward now, in the spirit of Serious Play. 💛🦁 EB. Free forever. Posts periodically. 🌹 ### Live by Choice, Not by Chance. 🌹 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/live-by-choice-not-by-chance/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:38.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Nest 🪺, Argentina. 📖 **Reading Time:** \~3 minutes. 🎧 **Vibe:** [Foreglow – Degihuegi](https://open.spotify.com/album/53wdm4iXL1TritPosqUOvQ?si=0gTo9oqaQjuUhCZ7ApTA1Q&ref=zenmedicine.co). ❣️ **Heartbeat:** *We’re 32 days into the* [*Hero100*](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co)*. It’s been incredible, and challenging. I’m excited to see what the next 30 days bring. This is a journal entry I wrote this morning, reflecting on a classic quote from legendary samurai swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. If you appreciate this, consider sharing it. Thank you, enjoy.* 🪶 “I choose to live by choice, not by chance.” — Miyamoto Musashi ## The [wisdom of Musashi](https://www.highexistence.com/miyamoto-musashi-dokkodo/?utm%5Fsource=substack&utm%5Fmedium=email) is settling in deeply… The things I want to exist in the world, the time for what I want to do, will not exist unless I make them happen. Unless I bring intentionality to when, where, and how they find their way into the world. It’s an alternative interpretation of *“if you’re not first, you’re last.”* Not competition, but *priority*. If you don’t prioritize these first – they come last. Second place can always be dethroned by a new, more salient, urgent, shiny first place. Minute by minute. Day by day. Lifetime by lifetime. The world will happily absorb all your time, energy, attention, and resources. It’s a hydra. There will *always* be work tasks piling up. *Always* pseudo-relevant social posts to see. *Always* a feeling of more to be done. *Always* another book to read. *Always* another message to attend to. But *my* meditation session, the book *I* want to write, that walk *I* want to take — these are never guaranteed. They are not an inevitability. **They must be chosen.** They must be a priority. The required space, time, energy, attention, and resources must be given. They are not always occurring in the background. In fact, being intentionally chosen is the *only* way they will ever occur. Your life, expression, and creation are the only things you are not guaranteed. You must choose your own life and guard it fiercely. **It will not happen by chance.** ‘Someday’ never arrives. ‘Tomorrow’ is a deadline that can be extended indefinitely. If not now, *when*? Be specific. Get intentional. Make a choice. Honour your commitment. **Your life must be your priority.** This is not narcissistic self-aggrandizement. This is recognizing that you are here, now. That your life is happening and it will not happen without your choosing. It will be stolen—or worse—freely given away by you to the black holes of attention drain and other people’s agendas. You belong here. **You are allowed to take up space.** Exactly as much as you need. Precisely as much as you choose. If your life is not aligned with your values, it is because you are not choosing them. You are leaving it up to chance. This may sound trite, but its wisdom is profound. Reclaim your attention and direct it towards the wanted. Align your actions, resources, time, and energy with that focus. There is no other way. No shortcut is available. **You must choose to live by choice, not by chance.** And defend this to the death – else you will die without ever having truly lived your own precious life. Aho. Amen. 🦁 EB. Free forever. Posts periodically. 🌹 ### How I Became My Own Bank 🏦 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/how-i-became-my-own-bank/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:38.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Nest 🪺, Argentina. 📖 **Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** (1) We’re \~3 weeks into the [Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co). It’s been an incredible challenge so far, and the group is doing amazing. I think we’re onto something here. Stay tuned, the Warrior100 will be out in \~September. ⚔️ (2) Rooted down in Argentina after several weeks of travel. Fall weather is upon us, the days are stunning, and the maté is warm. 🧉 (3) The full [Edge of Being archive](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/archive) is now in Substack! You can go all the way back to the first piece. (4) A new identity is coming to this publication, I hope to get it out this month. 😏 --- > *“What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”* — Morpheus ### The past few weeks, months, and years of global macroeconomic and financial tomfoolery have left a bad taste in the mouths of many… There’s something… terribly wrong, isn’t there? An unnamable, invisible virus floating around the planet. Permeating the minds of the masses. Something so ever-present—like water to fish—you may never come to notice it. The thing that is so fundamentally wrong, so irrevocably broken, is *money*. **For the past 5 decades, we have been running the most unhinged, coke’d-out financial experiment in all of human history – fiat currency.** Money created from thin air, materialized by a dark magician’s incantation. Backed only by the overwhelming threat of violence from global hegemonic powers. We will explore this black magic in future posts. For now, this is the exit. This is Plan B. **This is how you become your own bank.** *This post focuses on Bitcoin and the Bitcoin network only. Do not get distracted by alternatives. You can jump to the end of this post for the step-by-step playbook.* Whether to protect yourself from the threat of ongoing currency debasement, avoid bank runs as we witnessed with the spectacular [collapse of SVB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse%5Fof%5FSilicon%5FValley%5FBank?ref=zenmedicine.co), or truly align your actions in the world with your values — the time has come to take total control of your most important asset. *“We’re talking about a change in how humanity organizes itself.” — Andreas Antonopoulos* ### **🏦 First: What Do Banks Do?** The banking system is an emergent technology that necessarily forms to manage the Achilles heel, the fundamental technological limitation, of gold: *lack of portability*. Read about the 5 essential properties of money in my previous post: [*Why Bitcoin is the Juggernaut of Currency*](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/bitcoin-currency). Gold is difficult to transport over space, so it tends to naturally centralize in institutions called banks. The banks issue *bank notes*, which are “as good as gold” because they can be redeemed for gold. [This stopped in 1971](https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Bank notes are no longer redeemable for anything. For 5 decades, money hasn’t been backed *(read: anchored in physical reality)* by anything. *This* is the unhinged experiment. A bank performs two fundamental services (+ one bonus): 1. **Custody of Funds:** banks store (and as a requirement, protect) your assets. 2. **Payment Confirmation & Settlement:** because banks control your asset balance, they also help you transact. They facilitate payments *out* (buying coffee with your credit card) and they facilitate payments *in* (receiving salary from your company). If anything goes wrong along the way, they help settle disputes. 3. (Optional) **Provide Financial Services:** Sometimes they provide other services like investment vehicles, retirement funds, multiple accounts, etc. Banks don’t just custody funds anymore. With fractional reserve banking, they are only required to hold 10% (sometimes less!) of your *actual* balance. The rest is fair game for gambling. > It is the very existence of fractional reserve banking that makes bank runs like SVB possible. If banks custodied your funds 1:1, no bank runs are possible. And because they settle your payments, they can also *decline* to do so. If they don’t like what you’re doing, they can freeze your account or reject a transaction. ### **🧐 So, Why Become Your Own Bank?** #### **(1) True Self-Sovereignty.** If you do not control your money, you *cannot* be fully sovereign. Becoming your own bank gives you total control of the most powerful meta-resource in your life. Your money is *literally* a reflection of your time, it’s a token of your previous life force. **Controlling your money is controlling your life.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/8a130774-b4c6-4c35-b5bb-9d8888724226_434x261.webp) Giving people the ability to gamble with your money is like Liar’s Dice from Pirates of the Caribbean, where the bets are years of servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman. Except *you* don’t get to place the wager! > *They are gambling with the symbolic representation of your past life.* As Davy Jones might say: *do you feel that?* Give no one the ability to corrupt, steal, or devalue your life force. #### **(2) True Value Alignment.** This is paramount. Most of you envision a more beautiful world. One that doesn’t include planetary devastation. Or economic slavery. Or political foolishness. You might use paper straws, go to the odd protest, or even offset your flights with carbon credits. > You must understand: there is **NOTHING** you can do to *‘go green’* or *‘save the planet’* that is as powerful as taking your money out of the traditional banking system. Name *anything* you view as the demonic evil of climate catastrophe. [The Keystone XL pipeline](https://www.ran.org/the-understory/whos-banking-the-keystone-xl-pipeline/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Factory farming. Rainforest devastation. The World Economic Forum. *Where \*exactly\* do you think these companies get their funding from?* Dig into any project you despise and you will find major national and international banking conglomerates bankrolling every one of them. If you’re a Canadian (like me), and you opposed the pipeline, you did so only in words, because *your bank was funding it*. Every single major bank in Canada was in on it. You see? And here’s the kicker: > With fractional reserve banking, they **LEVERAGE** your money on the magnitude of 10:1\. For every dollar you give, they leverage it 10x and invest that in the companies and projects you claim you oppose! If you have any level of seriousness about aligning your actions in the world with the values you have, you must exit the traditional financial system as completely as you can. #### **(3) General Banking Trade-Offs** Beyond these critical blows, there are the smaller, day-to-day shenanigans you must deal with. The loss of privacy due to KYC (Know Your Customer) regulations, data breaches, and general over-the-top invasiveness. This *normalizes* the rampant loss of privacy in society, which is a *fundamental right* in a free population. There are the general costs, administrative baggage, and insane fees on every possible transaction and action, from saving money, to sending it, to spending it. We have been hoodwinked into accepting this as normal. It is an abomination and an affront to human dignity. **So, let’s do something about it.** [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) “Money and language are communication tools to enable deeper collaboration and trust, but it's all built on the cornerstone of authenticity and honesty.” ## **💸 Great, So How Do I Become My Own Bank?** We are going to have to replace the 2 services that banks perform: custody of funds, and payment confirmation and settlement. In the absence of a trusted third party *(the bank)*, how can we guarantee secure storage, and how can we validate the truth for ourselves *(that I do in fact have that amount of money in my account, that the transaction was valid, and that my payment was sent successfully?)* We’ll go one by one. #### **(1) The ability for self-custody of assets**. The brilliance of Bitcoin is that so long as you are the only one with access to 12 secret words (or 24, depending on your setup), your assets *cannot* be touched. Your 12 words are your private key. Your private key \*is\* your Bitcoin. No real coins exist, just entries in a ledger. What gives you the ability to update your part of the ledger? Your private key. **Your private key \*is\* your Bitcoin.** As long as you protect those 12 words, you have complete and total self-custody of your assets. No one can move them. No one can inflate them. No one can steal them. There is a timeless mantra in Bitcoin: *Not your keys, not your coins.* You could just memorize these words in your head and have no physical trace of their existence in the material world! But if you plan on keeping any level of wealth in Bitcoin, you probably don’t want to leave it to memory. **1️⃣ Get a hardware wallet.** Hardware wallets are dedicated devices that store your private keys and sign transactions for you. 1. Buy a hardware wallet. 2. Back up your private key on a [steel plate](https://store.coinkite.com/store/seedplate?ref=zenmedicine.co) (or two), and store it securely. 3. **(Advanced)**: Create a multi-signature setup with multiple devices. Only necessary when you have significant parts of your net worth in Bitcoin. **Step 1—secure custody of funds—complete.** #### **(2) Ability to validate truth, confirm transactions, and settle payments.** This one is more abstract. You have your hardware wallet, storing the keys to your ledger entry that says you have 1BTC. Great! *How do you know that the ledger, the history you are looking at, is true?* *How do you know that the notification that someone just sent you $500 is real?* With banks, we trust the third party to verify the authenticity of our balances and the validity of new transactions. If you remove the trusted third party how can you confirm the truth for yourself? **2️⃣ Run a full node.** A full node is a device that has the entire history of the blockchain on it. It downloads and enforces the specific rule set that determines whether individual transactions are valid or not. **With your full node running and validating the entire history, you now have a trustless payments network running in your bedroom.** Another classic mantra: *Not your node, not your rules.* You can validate the Truth at any moment. No third party is required to send/receive any amount of money, anywhere, anytime, for any reason. This is financial freedom. **Step 2—self-validating payments network—complete.** The final verse in this grand financial symphony is to link your hardware wallet to your full node. 3️⃣ **Link your self-custody to your payments network.** *Once this is complete, you’re done!* You have untouchable, unbreakable custody of your assets, and every 10 minutes, you personally validate the entire past/present history of a global financial network. You can store, save, send, and receive value without relying on any third party. You can be sure that none of your money is funding anything that doesn’t align with your values – because no one can touch your money! How do you know that? Because you validate it, every 10 minutes, with the next Bitcoin block through your node. It’s beautiful. A living masterpiece. *“Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age.”* – Eric Hughes ## **Trade-Offs of Self-Custody Solutions** There are several trade-offs to this setup you must be aware of. 1. It’s a lot of responsibility. 2. It’s technical. 3. It’s an investment of time, energy, and resources. 4. There are no takebacks. For example: I’ve had this article ready for months! But I got stuck. It took so long to publish because I had to learn how to create an anonymized bridge between my hardware wallet, desktop software, and full node. Difficult, but doable. I did it, became my own bank, and now this article can be released. **This is the cost of freedom. This is the price of admission to true self-sovereignty.** *“Bitcoin is a seed of hope in a society which lost vision years ago and perspective just recently.”* — *Kim Neunert* ## 📍 The Step-By-Step Process. 1. **Acquire & Setup Hardware Wallet:** [Coldcard MK4](https://store.coinkite.com/store?ref=zenmedicine.co). *Hell yeah for Canada making world-class BTC hardware.* 2. **Download Sparrow Desktop Wallet:** [Sparrow](https://www.sparrowwallet.com/download?ref=zenmedicine.co). Link it to your Coldcard. [*Comprehensive video guide*](https://youtu.be/qJ%5FSpQX%5FYKw?ref=zenmedicine.co)*.* 3. **Acquire & Setup Full Node:** I use a [Raspiblitz](https://shop.fulmo.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co), but recommend [Umbrel](https://umbrel.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). [*Raspiblitz guide*](https://youtu.be/DTHlSPMz3ns?ref=zenmedicine.co). [*Umbrel guide.*](https://youtu.be/Fa9AvF4jk1o?ref=zenmedicine.co) 4. **Link Sparrow to Your Node:** About halfway down this guide “Connecting Coldcard to Sparrow Wallet” – [*Coldcard guide*](https://coldcard.com/docs/paranoid?ref=zenmedicine.co). 5. **Transfer BTC to Sparrow:** Basic BTC transaction. *See the video guide in Step 2.* 6. **Congratulations, you have now become your own bank.** Your private keys are stored in your hardware wallet, backed up on solid steel. You can engage with your wallet using Sparrow. Your full node is validating Truth every 10 minutes. Sparrow is using *your node* as the source of Truth. - No one has access to your funds except for you. - You validate the entire blockchain and give all permissions for asset movement. - Everything is facilitated by software/hardware you have sole access to. This is one of the most profound evolutions of individual sovereignty in human history. The wet dream of freedom fighters throughout history. Incorruptible, private property. It is worth learning how to do this. You can always message me here if you want any help. I’ll be releasing more comprehensive guides to this in the future. With love, EB. 💛 Share it if you care for it. 🌹 ### Comfort is a Skill Developed Over Time URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/comfort-is-a-skill/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:39.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Casa Nautika Retreat Center, Costa Rica. 🌴 🧉 **Vibecheck:** *(1) Hello from the jungles of Costa Rica! Feeling rooted, centred, and excited after a few weeks immersed in nature, preparing for the Hero100\. (2) Had an* [*exceptional conversation*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Z8W0%5Fx1WE&ref=zenmedicine.co) *recently with my friend Carlos Farias of ‘The Truth’ podcast. Tune in for musings on psychedelic therapy, plant medicine, awakening traditions, and serious play. (3) We are in the final week before the Hero100 begins. Doors close on March 28, we begin April 1\. Let’s do this. ⚡️* [Join the Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- > *"Where something becomes extremely difficult and unbearable, there we also stand already quite near its transformation."* — Rainer Maria Rilke ## **External situations have next to no impact on your internal state…** While this impact is not zero, it’s far less than you assume. It’s certainly far less than the impact you let them have currently. They serve as *initial triggers*, setting in motion an internal process that results in your felt state of comfort or discomfort. Comfort, you see, is an *attitude*. It is an active choice about how to relate to life. And control of your attitude is one of your core freedoms as a human being. It is a skill that you develop, not something granted to you by some unseen power beyond yourself. *“But it’s cold and snowy outside, and when I go outside, I get uncomfortable.”* Ah, herein lies the problem! The cold is a trigger, which sets off your *(now automatic)* process of being uncomfortable with it. At some point in your life, you associated cold with discomfort, and now this process is automatic. **It does not need to be this way.** What if you *chose* to be comfortable in the cold? That doesn’t mean it’s easy. It doesn’t mean that this is a state you would choose to spend the rest of your life in. It doesn’t mean you can snap your fingers and have this wish granted to you overnight. This is why comfort is a skill *developed over time.* By continually *choosing* comfort as your attitude to situations, you *reorient* your relationship to it and increase your comfort in all situations. Experience *is*. The arbitrary label you put after it determines your level of comfort or discomfort. It is most fundamentally your *resistance to the experience* that creates suffering and discomfort. Dissolve the resistance, dissolve the discomfort. Cold exposure is a very powerful example, but there are innumerable others. - Discomfort in social situations. - Discomfort when speaking your truth. - Discomfort sitting down in silence. - Discomfort looking at your reflection in the mirror. **Resistance is the byproduct of an attitude.** An attitude that is hostile to your experience, an attitude that welcomes only a small slice of possible sensations. When this resistance is dissolved, you enter into a welcoming, curious, open attitude to the immediate sensations of experience, and *everything* changes. Notice the difference between these statements: > *“Cold water is terrible, it’s like torture, why would anyone do that to themselves?”* vs. *“Cold water is invigorating, vitalizing, it reminds me that I am alive.”* The external circumstance *(exposure to cold water)* is exactly the same in both situations and yet the outcome, the attitude, and the *relationship to the experience* are night and day different. This is what Rilke meant in the quote above. Right when you are at your *limit of comfort*, you are also at the razor’s edge of transformation. The bubble can be popped. *“Why am I uncomfortable with this? It is in my power to choose my attitude towards this. What would happen if I chose comfort?”* Again, and again, and again. You have increased your capacity to be comfortable with a wider range of experiences. > You can, through time, completely obliterate the idea of a ‘comfort zone’, with some experiences inside and others outside, by expanding your range of comfort to include the totality of possible experience. **It is important to understand how valuable this is.** All growth, all evolution, and all transformation require pushing beyond your existing comfort zone and capacities into new, uncharted territory. Developing the *skill* of being *comfortable* in challenging, previously uncomfortable situations, is one of the ultimate skills to have with you. Like the development of all internal skills, you need a container, an object, to cultivate this with. *“The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct. They regard a difficult task as a privilege; it is to them a recreation to play with burdens that would crush all others.”* — Nietzsche **This is the Way of Self-Mastery.** Of transmuting the uncomfortable and foreign into the comfortable and welcomed. Running with open arms to the limits of your capacity, and transmuting with attitude, effort, and choice over time your relationship to it. I have been talking for several weeks now about the [Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co). This is what we are doing. We are training an increased level of comfort, first deep comfort with *yourself*, and second deep comfort with *external circumstances.* The end result is a personal transformation that equips you with the ultimate meta-skill, that of *comfort on demand*, with whatever life throws at you. This reduces your hesitation so that you can act at your full power, exactly when it is necessary. This is the opportunity for heroes. This is where warriors are made. This is cultivating deep comfort… - … with challenging experience after spending 5+ hours submerged in the frigid waters of cold showers. - … with physical sensations on the other side of 1200+ hours fasting without food. - … with external circumstances after intentionally removing 100+ physical possessions from your life. - … with your own thoughts and beliefs after 30+ hours in deep meditation. - … with your full range of emotions after 30+ hours of stream-of-consciousness journaling. - … with discipline and self-love by taking 100+ attempts at a meaningful ritual of your own choosing. **These are the vehicles we have chosen to cultivate what I would call *deep okayness* in all situations.** After 100 days straight of increasing your threshold of discomfort, you will be fundamentally prepared for whatever the future holds. Not because you know exactly how to handle it. Not because it’s something you desire. But because you have **gnosis – an embodied knowledge**, that you can handle it. That you can not only survive it but thrive because of it. **This is the fundamental and foundational transformation in** [**the Hero100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** We are closing the doors to this experience soon for our first cohort. Doors close on March 28, and we begin this journey on April 1st. [I'm Ready](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) I hope to see you there. With love, EB. ### How to Dance With Resistance URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/how-to-dance-with-resistance/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:39.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Uvita, Costa Rica. ☀️ 📖 **Reading Time:** \~4 minutes. 🧉 **Vibecheck:** button --- ## Resistance is overrated… I was speaking with my friend and collaborator the other day, talking about how the only thing that separates you from effortless flow in your life is *yourself*. You, your narratives, your beliefs, your blocks, are the very friction that interrupts the effortless flow, easy output, and creative genius you innately possess. Procrastination and paralysis stem from resistance to experiencing one of two outcomes: 1. Realizing you’re not as good as you thought 2. Opening yourself to criticism from other people. This is the creators’ dilemma. The entrepreneurs’ obstacle. This is *resistance*. Your story *is* the friction getting in your way. If you weren’t so absorbed in hypothetical stories of possible future outcomes, you could simply sit down and write the thing. Or get up and go to the gym. When resistance is removed, everything flows. You can begin to bend the energy of the universe, to move and flow with it, effortlessly and easily. Without the friction of hyper-self-conscious resistance, your genius, your power, your boldness flow effortlessly from idea into aligned action. **Your resistance impedes your reality.** What Ethan pointed out is that this is largely the essence of Steven Pressfields great book “The War of Art.” He *literally* terms it “The Resistance”. Everyone, *everyone*, runs up against The Resistance when they embark on a great journey. It could be doubt, it could be fear, it could be losing your job, it could be obstacles in the world. Something is always in the way. Many of us (myself included), rest in this deluded belief that great creators and artists are somehow free of this resistance. That they have reached the Holy Land of effortless creation. This is not the case. Everyone faces this resistance. But Pressfield makes an important point, an absolutely crucial point, about what celebrates professionals from amateurs when they run up against The Resistance. > **The only thing that separates professionals from amateurs is that they don’t give a fuck about the resistance.** They just note the resistance, and press on anyways. It’s really not that fancy at the end of the day. **Amateurs are consumed by The Resistance.** **Pros just sit the fuck down and do it anyway.** This is a muscle, this is a skill that you can cultivate in yourself. You can get better at not giving the Resistance the stature of some impossible object that needs to be circumvented through spiritual manifestation, chakra unblocking, biohacks, or second-brain productivity hacks. You can just note it, and move on anyways. This skill of overcoming Resistance, of showing up in spite of it, not giving it the power it wants to take from you, is something you can train. **And it is *exactly* what we are going to be training in the** [**Hero100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** The [Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) is *specifically designed* to run you right up against The Resistance in all of its flavours. The length of time. The frigid waters. The meditations. Writing about misaligned character traits. Life events getting in the way. Something happening at work and taking a lot of your time. **This experience is a container to *literally unlock your ability to go Pro*. At whatever it is you want to go pro in.** Mastery of overcoming resistance. Skillfulness in acting anyways. Showing the fuck up, and doing it anyway. And we’ve pulled out every serious mechanism to help you do this. Direct accountability, community support, behavioural incentive mechanisms, intentionally powerful and transformative discipline, 100-day time span, 1 hour a day… The list goes on. > **Everything in the** [**Hero100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) **is set up to help you go Pro.** The only question is… - Are you willing to overcome the resistance? - Are you prepared to drop your excuses? - Are you ready to show up for your own greatness? - **Are you ready to go ALL-IN on YOU?** We’re ready for you. And on April 1st, we begin. See you there. [I'm Ready](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### The Twin Peaks of the Human Experience URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-twin-peaks-of-the-human-experience/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:39.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Envision Festival, Costa Rica. 🌴 📖 **Reading Time:** \~5 minutes. 🧉 **Vibecheck:** *(1) Back on the grounds of the great Envision Festival in Costa Rica, incredible to be back here. (2)* [*The Hero100*](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) *is waiting for you. Take the leap, overcome the resistance, and move towards your own boldness. An absolutely wild adventure is waiting for you, waiting on that one fateful decision…* [Take the Leap](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## There are two things I view as the twin peaks of the human experience… Retreats, and festivals. Deep inner work and ecstatic celebration. The yin and yang of the human heartbeat. Something about these two beautifully epitomize the quintessence of how to be a living, breathing human. **Confront Reality, then Play with It.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5733bf88-6d6f-4738-9973-779534d24b63_1000x666-jpeg.jpg) ## Retreat. The word says it all. The human spirit needs time to retreat. To pull back from the incessant flow of life. To take stock. To recenter and reconnect. To orient, observe, decide and act. If we miss this, we run the risk of being dragged along unconsciously by life, swept wherever the winds of culture take us. Retreats in all forms. Meditation retreats, authentic relating retreats, plant medicine retreats, yoga retreats, darkness retreats, isolation retreats. Ritualistic, structured, sacred containers for individuals to come together and work through the reality of being human. The agony and ecstasy of being finite. The direct confrontation of the reality of death. Healing the pain of trauma. Staring down the barrel of deep fears and core beliefs. I have had the pleasure of attending many retreats in my life, and the distinct honour of leading many individuals on these experiences. > **I am hard-pressed to identify more meaningful and sacred moments in my life than bearing witness to someone in a deep healing process.** They have made the deliberate and conscious decision to spend their time, life force, and hard-earned money to come to this sacred space. To sit with themselves, wholly and completely. Their body shakes, shedding years of accumulated trauma in convulsive spurts. Their sobs give voice to the primal sadness of the human condition, releasing the weight of existence they have carried with them for so long. Raw animalistic cries channel their rage against the injustices of the world. The delicate softness of their voice when they begin to share their experience. And the inevitable smile and sacred sigh that follow, the final punctuation that arrives only upon the deep realization that everything is okay. *They* are okay. Retreats are a long and difficult process. Time dilates to an incredible extent, hours stretching on for days, days melding into weeks, and weeks seem like a lifetime of work. Retreats are a rite of passage. A death and rebirth process. The person who enters is not the same as the one who exits. It is a bold, brave, and beautiful decision. It is a line in the sand, a declaration that you are done running. You stand strong, ground down, and face Reality in all of its rapturous force. No longer avoiding that which is uncomfortable. No place to hide. Standing naked in front of Existence, the fires of Transformation burning away all that does not serve you. To recognize, definitely and clearly that t*his is it.* Your life is happening. It will not happen again. There is a sublime beauty in this process that is hard to articulate. Those who have walked through fire are never the same afterward. It is an opportunity to become deeply intimate with yourself. With all of you. To witness yourself in your strength, power, grace, and beauty. Retreats reconcile everything in life. All the pain is shown to be the cost of admission into realms of wisdom and splendour. And when you have gone through this initiatory process, when you have embraced the reality of death and the fragility of life, when you realize that *everyone who has ever existed* shares these same fears, wounds, dreams, and desires, and when you recognize that the time you have left is a sacred gift, there is truly only one thing to do: **Celebrate.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5f32266e-0041-4c66-9344-ba6035cd4b5b_2048x1366-jpeg.jpg) ## Festival. > **“Hard times require furious dancing.” — Alice Walker** Ram Dass said it best when he said, *“We are all just walking each other home.”* The reality of that statement must sink in. We are all lost. Momentary flickerings in the cosmic night. But for now, we are here. We are together. The human family. The living biosphere. We share our pain, and we will share our joy. Festivals are the second of the twin peaks of human existence. Where we devote our time, energy, and attention to creating a celebration. Life is a gift. We honour it through celebration. When life gets tough and we lose sight of this gift, that is *exactly* the time when we must celebrate most. Hard times require furious dancing. We create a sacred container of celebration. We feast, we laugh, we dance. An alchemical mixture of light, sound, bodies, music, art, community, the elements, and celebration. Festivals channel the most archaic and primal techniques of ecstasy and transcendence. Booming sound. Dancing bodies. Howling humans. The night sky in all it’s glory. Shared experiences, community, comraderie. The experience becomes a living breathing organism itself. It is a container to lose yourself, to go beyond yourself, and to come into holy union with the fabric of reality and the gift of life. If you’ve ever attended a retreat or a festival, I wonder if you feel the same way. There are innumerable beautiful moments to life, but for me, personally, these are the twin peaks of the human experience. The pendulating extremes that make life worth living. Deep realization, and deep celebration. I am currently summiting one peak, the festival. When we return, we will soon begin our ascent of the second peak, retreat. [The Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) is an undertaking into yourself. A heroic quest to discover who you are, what you want, and take real massive action towards grounding that in reality. We begin on April 1st. Overcome the resistance, lean into your excellence, and join us on this adventure together, united as one living being. [Take the Leap](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### The Dual Definition(s) of Discipline URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/the-dual-definitions-of-discipline/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:40.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Nest, Argentina. 🪺 ✌🏻 **Vibecheck:** (1) I’m going to be evolving this platform in the next month, bringing it into deeper alignment with what I view as the core of my work. Stay tuned. (2) The [Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) enrolment remains open until [April 1st](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co). Join us on a fierce and fluid adventure of personal discovery. (3) Know someone who needs to read this? Share it with them. --- ## Let’s talk about discipline… It likely conjures a clear picture in your mind. Get up at 5am. Push your limits. Force a behaviour. F\*ck your feelings. Jocko. Goggins. Good. Various flavours of masochism. But if you look up the definition of discipline, Google spits back: ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f4355392-7487-467c-9a98-acdbd7600689_1398x740.png) So we’ve got two definitions of discipline: 1. Obedience to a code of behaviour, under threat of punishment. 2. An area of study. I want to focus on the second one, and the role *surrender* plays. Yep, surrender and discipline. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/98697f4d-dcbd-4268-8ffd-c1062914b950_1024x1024.png) ## Metaphysical Cookie Cutters When we talk about *a discipline*, we’re talking about an established area of knowledge and study. Biology, martial arts, tea, yoga, philosophy. These are all *disciplines*. > **Disciplines are metaphysical cookie cutters.** If you pursue a discipline earnestly, you are moulded by it. Your Mind, Body, and Spirit are shaped by the discipline. It burns off parts of you that aren’t in alignment. It shapes what remains. You become a *living testament*, an *embodied example* of the discipline. *If* you show up for it. Disciplines are ancient masters. Living ideas that you can learn from. The more you adhere to the discipline, the more you are shaped by it. It is an act of faith to submit yourself to the lineage, the tradition, the discipline. But with that leap of faith – greatness awaits. This runs against most people’s core need for a sense of control. And so, most of us stay at the surface level of transformational disciplines, failing to surrender completely, and thus limiting our access to the realms of knowledge and experience that the discipline has to offer us. Surrendering to a discipline is scary, it can also be beautifully transformational. Trust, let go, and be open to the possibility that the discipline itself is benevolent. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/d0007b9c-416b-4b0f-8337-f549a735d974_850x400-jpeg.jpg) Alan Watts knew… ## Involuntary Discipline I’m currently obsessed with the idea of *involuntary* discipline… Breathing is a voluntary and an involuntary process. You can *choose* to breathe, or you can let your breath *happen to you.* **Can discipline be the same way?** We’re all familiar with *voluntary* discipline. Making the choice, regardless of circumstance, to do something. But what of *involuntary* discipline? **Is there a way that discipline happens naturally, an emergent outcome of another process?** *Absolutely*. This is where surrender comes in. If you *submit yourself*, if you *surrender* to a higher purpose—a calling greater than yourself—*discipline* is one of the outcomes that emerges naturally. **Involuntary discipline emerges out of total surrender to *a discipline.*** Yoga is a perfect example. Full surrender to the discipline of yoga will transform every aspect of your life. How you eat, talk, practice, and engage in the world. Your morals, your muscles, your mind. Yoga asana, the physical posture practice, is a *daily* action in the discipline of yoga. The decision to practice, to show up on the mat, is no longer up for debate. It is not a choice. You have surrendered voluntary will to the discipline. Made the singular commitment to enter into relationship with the discipline itself. The act of showing up each day on the mat is no longer an act of voluntary discipline, driven by willpower – it is an involuntary byproduct of total submission to the discipline. ***Do you see the subtle difference?*** This is important. With full surrender to *a* discipline, individual *discipline* is a natural byproduct of this commitment. It’s no longer a question. It no longer requires motivation. Or let’s look at an alternative framing. Do you need discipline to play video games? Did you use your willpower to force going out for a fun night with your friends? Although the surface action (showing up consistently) is the same, playfulness and enjoyment require no *personal discipline* from you. **And it is this balance: the serious discipline and the playful spirit, the ethos of serious play, that we are leaning into here. It is possible, through deep connection to purpose, passion, and play, that involuntary discipline is possible, a naturally occurring outcome of surrender into the game, into the discipline, and into life itself.** This dance of discipline and devotion, the balance between surrender and stamina, is at the absolute heart and soul of [the Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co). We are embarking on a journey of the heartmind, one that is started with discipline and only completed through devotion. We are entering into relationship with some of the most almighty, all-transformative spiritual disciplines to exist, and surrendering to them. Allowing ourselves to be moulded by them, vitalized through them, and our destinies shaped by them. [**We begin April 1st.**](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) Let’s go get it. [Sign Me Up](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) ### Your Personal Invitation for Greatness URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/hero100/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:41.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Atlantis Room, The Nest 🪺 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *TL;DR: I’ve been talking for a few weeks about a ‘100 day devotional discipline challenge’. Here it is. Today, I’m introducing the* [*Hero100*](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co)*, a 100-day heroic incubator. 6 daily disciplines, for 100 days straight. We begin April 1st. 1:1 accountability, live community, gamified financial incentives.* [*Learn more here*](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co)*.* [Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ## Most of my life feels like the picture above… I won’t make any metaphysical claim as to what the image is trying to represent, but I bet you have a personal idea. Maybe it’s meeting God. Maybe it’s talking to your Higher Self. Maybe it’s interacting with the Archetypal King energy pattern. Maybe it’s just a personification of Life, Intuition, or the Great Mystery. *That is for you to decide.* When I was younger, it felt like the purpose of my life was to accumulate trophies, accolades, reputation, and possessions in order to “prove myself” to this energy. I had to present my worthiness to it, and justify my life to it. My energy was frantic and desperate. *“Please, oh please, I hope this is good enough! I hope that I am good enough. Look at all these amazing things I’ve done!”* It felt like I was on trial – being judged constantly. As I progressed down my path, my relationship with it matured into one of inspiration. *“Look at how great you are, look at all the things I can continue to get better at. How are you so wise, so compassionate, so powerful, so beautiful? Here’s my 15-step plan to become just like you!”* It shifted the energy from judgment to aspiration. It unlocked a lot of vital life force and channelled it in a more positive direction. **But both of these shared a common problem: *they were entirely self-centred*.** Whenever I would be granted an audience with this Great Being—whether in deep meditation, yoga, or medicine ceremonies—I would show up, and I wouldn’t shut the fuck up! I would talk and talk and talk and talk. It was always about me, me, me. I would go, give my presentation, and get back to work. All of this self-absorbed rambling kept hidden from me one all-powerful Reality: *this Being could speak!* If I could only be silent and *really listen*, it had things to say! **This changed everything…** Nowadays, I show up, humble myself as best I can, get very still, and listen closely. A few weeks ago, halfway through my [at-home retreat](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/retreat-review), I had another meeting with this Great Energy – and it had a single, direct commandment for me: > ***“You must ground your devotion in daily discipline.”*** Oof. Gut punch. I felt that. Despite decades of study and practice and self-improvement, I still continue to find myself restarting my meditation practice from Day 1\. Always on this oscillating hamster wheel of progress: sometimes flawless, sometimes non-existent. Always starting, but never finishing. Dabbling, but never mastering. I listened. I decided to figure out how to change this. **And thus, the** [**Hero100**](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) **was born.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c74d2d85-6bf9-4d45-a620-83141a8a014c_25x25.webp) ## [The Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) The [Hero100](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) is named in homage to some of the greatest ultramarathons that exist, like the MOAB240 or the HURT100\. There’s something about the *unyielding persistence* in the ultramarathon community I find deeply inspiring. Very few people go to those races to *win*. They go to *finish*. To test themselves, to know their limits. Few people run the entire way. It is about *staying power*, something my dabbling disposition is not yet good at. And so we have here a spiritual ultramarathon… ***100 Days. 6 daily disciplines.*** I’m packing together some of the most timeless and time-tested spiritual austerities and physical disciplines the world has ever known and doing them for 100 days straight. Cold immersion, fasting, meditation, journaling, minimalism, and your own personal ritual. ***And I’d like to do it with you.*** I thrive in community, in connection and relationship. We all do. To have an army of warriors beside me gives me energy. **It’s simple: $200 to register, and for each day you complete, we’ll credit you $1 back. If you do all 100 days flawlessly, at the end of it the final cost will only be $100, and you’ll be sent back $100.** *I’m really excited about this.* **I’m excited personally, for how it will change me, but also because this offering feels pure.** It is simple, but not easy. It is individual, but done collectively. There’s no tricky ‘teacher-student’ dynamic. It asks you to bet on yourself, and be rewarded for your performance. And we packed in a bunch of amazing components: - Direct, daily, 1:1 accountability to stay on track. - Private online community with several live progress calls. - A transformational personal ritual of your own choosing. - Gamified financial incentives. [**If you’re really interested, just check out the page.**](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) It has more information on every aspect of the experience. This is a group of heroes-in-training, doing the work together, to normalize a greater level of physical and spiritual fitness that lets us show up for ourselves, others, and the world more fully. **My articles normally get around 300-500 views. If even a minority of you joined us on this, we would be planting the seeds of something that could become a movement, in a world that could desperately use more heroic consciousness.** I’ll share some more information over the next few weeks. **We begin April 1st.** I hope to see you there. With love, EB. 💛 [Learn More](https://phoenixculture.earth/hero100?ref=zenmedicine.co) --- ### 8 Thoughts & Techniques for Dancing with Death URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/death/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:41.000Z --- ## ***“Hey Eric, call us when you get this…”*** I awoke Sunday morning 2 weeks ago to this message from my mom. You know it’s about to get intense fast when you receive a message like this. She ***never*** calls me by my name. 4 days prior, my Grandfather had a stroke and was in the hospital. His recovery wasn’t guaranteed, and the quality of life, if he did, was unclear. He didn’t recover. And there, half a world away, over the uncanny valley of FaceTime, I learned that my grandfather had passed. My Grandfather lived to be 93, outliving his friends, family, coworkers, and college mates. He passed peacefully and had a full life. 15 months before this, in September, my family experienced our first death with the passing of my maternal grandfather. 3 months after that, my paternal grandmother passed away. Fast forward to two weeks ago, and my paternal grandfather is now gone. It’s a very strange experience to contact funeral homes and have them remember you because you met with them at this time the previous year. I have been blessed with the gift of all of my grandparents throughout my childhood and adult years. [Death](https://www.highexistence.com/dying-gracefully/?ref=zenmedicine.co), despite being the one universal commonality shared by all of humanity throughout time, remains one of our most unspoken and taboo topics. This contributes to untold amounts of needless suffering and emotional blocks. I wanted to share today a few of the things I have done during these periods that have helped me immensely, and also enabled me to show up for my family and loved ones as an asset and an ally. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c2918971-4e61-4f77-8ee6-0cc6762c66e6_25x25.webp) I hope these are useful to you when you need them most. 1. **🌊 Ride the Emotional Wave.** The news of someone passing feels like a gut punch. A large emotional contraction. I try as quickly as possible afterwards to find a silent, still space and give my emotions permission to come through. Sometimes that looks like sitting there in a dazed stupor for several minutes. Sometimes it’s pacing around the room, angry at the apparent injustice. More often than not, it looks like crying. Be with yourself and with your emotions, while they are fresh, alive, and energized. Catharsis is healing. 2. **✍🏻 Write it Out.** Writing is a gift, one of my most consistent and sacred practices. It’s like meditation. After the emotional wave, I’ll sit down and open a journal, and begin to write a letter to the deceased. It’s not focused on any particular topic, it’s just writing out whatever wants to come out at that time. It usually ends up being a combination of expressing gratitude, saying anything I feel is left unspoken, and giving love and thanks for their role in my life, and in the life of the world. You can find the letter I wrote for my Grandfather this time at the end of this piece. If you need help starting, the Hawaiian Ho’opono’ono mantra *(Thank you, I love you, I’m sorry, Forgive me)* is an excellent place to start. See if you can expand on each of those 4 as you write: *thank you for… I’m sorry about….* 3. **🫂 Presence Over Everything.** Though it was short-lived, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t consider staying in Argentina for this process and managing it myself. I’m good at managing my own emotions, I was confident I could handle it. But I’m glad I didn’t. It’s not a small decision, several thousand dollars and dozens of hours of travel to get back to Toronto from here. But fortunately, as I said, it was short-lived, and I got a very clear knowing that I needed to be back home with my family, in physical presence, for this experience. There are very few of these moments in life, and it was clear to me that I wasn’t going to be halfway across the planet for this. I was on the next available flight back to Toronto the next day, surprising my parents when I walked through the door a day and a half after I heard the news. This was a gift to myself, and also a gift to my family. There’s no amount of written text messages, or Zoom calls, that even come close to the value and power of being there, in the mud, pain, and tears, with those also grieving. You don’t have to say anything fancy, you don’t have to have all the answers, your presence does wonders, and speaks for itself. In a beautiful synchronicity, I arrived home just 2 hours before the final viewing of my grandfathers body, the last possible chance to see him in person, and it feels fulfilling to be rewarded like that for the decision to head back. 4. **📿 Gifting Totems.** For each of my grandparents, whether at the gravesite or at the final viewing, I leave a small totem with each of them. I have stickers of the image I created for Phoenix Culture, a Phoenix encircling a generative void. The first time I left this it was unplanned, just something I had in my wallet and felt right. Death is truly a Phoenix mythology. A change in form, a return to the great mystery, reunification with the generative void from which all things emerge and to which all things return to. I recommend this. Take anything of personal significance to you, however small, and give it as a parting gift to the deceased. 5. **❌ Establish Boundaries.** The death process is a kairos moment, an experience removed from chronological time. It is sacred space, and a sacred time. As best you can, establish boundaries. Boundaries from external forces, like work commitments, but also internal boundaries, like the ceaseless voice of “you should be working, this is taking too long, what about all those messages you have.” This is difficult for me, but I recognize the importance and power of doing this. Establish boundaries so that you can rest, fully and completely, in the sacred space of kairos that death brings about. 6. **💭 Direct Contact.** This is the most *woo* suggestion I have, but worth a shot if you think it would be helpful. It is possible, if you cultivate a profound stillness inside of you, to make direct contact with the deceased. For me, it takes the form of a personal tea ceremony a day or two after their passing. In tea ceremony, particularly in individual ceremonies, sometimes individuals will pour two cups: one for themselves, and one for Buddha. I tend to remix this, and pour one for me and one for the deceased. Taking a few minutes to ground down, turn inwards, and rest in a space of still silence, you can begin, either audibly or simply internally, to reach out and speak to the deceased. What may surprise you is that you’ll begin to receive replies. They will answer. Now, make of this what you will, I’m making no metaphysical claims here. All I’m saying is that if a final conversation or two would be helpful, you can dialogue with them again. 7. **👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Collective Pain.** Death is a collective process. Felt by the human body, the family body, and the individual body. If you can, and if those around you are willing. Making some space for collective pain helps a lot. Share stories of the deceased, ask others to share their experience, how they are doing, what they are feeling. Death is not a burden that must be borne by yourself, in isolation. The process becomes much easier when shared with others, when you are in it together, united as one. 8. **🙏🏻 Selfless Service.** I save this final step for last because you should only do it if you truly have the capacity. But if you do, you can try to be of service to others. Small gestures like taking care of pets, cooking meals, cleaning the house go a long way in times like this. But this runs the risk of being a coping mechanism: burying yourself in busy work to deny or repress your own feelings and emotional process. Discernment is necessary here. For me, it’s been a gift to be able to help my family, and deeply meaningful to me, whether helping with chores, leading meditations, or simply being available for conversation about whatever it is they wish to speak about. Death is never easy. It reminds you of how deeply you can love, of the finitude of your own existence, and of the reality of pain. This piece isn’t meant to be an 8-step process that you move through like a checklist, but hopefully, an ally if you ever have your own confrontation with death moving forward. I am back in Argentina now. Rooting down and getting ready to get back into the mix. I’ll see you again later this week as we pick things back up. With love, EB. 💛 --- **Dear Grandpa…** Thank you. I love you. I’m sorry. Forgive me. Thank you for your presence, for all of your gifts, and for your contributions to the world. You taught me how to be proud, how to be social, compassionate, and true to yourself. You showed me how to do things for yourself – and to take pride in family, country, work, and food. I love your attention. Your passion for work and knowledge. For your friends and for your family. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you in person. I’m sorry I didn’t ask you more about yourself. I’m sorry for the times a ‘goodbye’ wasn’t followed with an ‘I love you’. Forgive me. I work hard each da to honour the gifts you’ve given me and afforded for my life. Each breath, thought, and deed is a prayer for you now. I know you are with me still, in blood and bone and breath. Thank you for going peacefully, on your own terms and with your own dignity. Even in death you protect us from pain. You were an honest, composed, proud, and dignified man, with a rich history and an even richer life. I am proud to be your grandson and to carry on your lineage. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be free from harm. May you be at peace. Forevermore. I am so fortunate to have you in my life, to walk in your footsteps, and to strive to honour your memory. It brings me solemn peace to know you will be with grandma now, in poetic beauty a year later and in the same manner of passing as your own father. Fate has a beautiful way of shining through in moments like this, giving me assurance the pattern of life in unfolding as it needs to. I kiss you now, bow at your feet, smile upon you, and release you back to the great mystery. I will see you in the wind, the sunrises, and the beating of my heart. I love you, in all ways, always. Thank you. Eric Brown. ### What Native Warriors Can Teach the Internet Generation 💻 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/dog-rope/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:42.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Atlantis Room, The Nest. 🪺 📖 **Reading Time:** \~5 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** --- > *"We Indians have an expression 'today is a good day to die'. It means that we should be ready to die on any given day. We should always be prepared to die, and have no regrets. That's why it's important to begin each day fresh, and not let past problems or present distractions cloud how God wants us to live.”* ## From the moment I caught whispers of it, to the day I discovered it, several months had passed… For too long had I overheard dusty tales of Native Warriors who would stake themselves into the battlefield—the archaic equivalent of burning the boats—and with no way out, look into the eyes of their brothers beside them and exclaim, *“Today is a good day to die!”* The level of conviction, courage, and raw soul force required to do that was *inconceivable*. Deep within, part of me dampened with sadness recognizing that I didn’t have that level of conviction about *anything*. After many moons of Google sleuthing, I found it: **the dog rope**. It was *real*. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/733cf82a-6ddc-49e3-8913-8e03f3389ccf_25x25.webp) ## 🪢 The Dog Rope Known most to the *Hotamétaneo’o*—the [Dog Soldiers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog%5FSoldiers?ref=zenmedicine.co) of the Cheyenne Nation—the [dog rope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog%5Frope?ref=zenmedicine.co) was reserved for the bravest warriors. *“The dog rope consisted of eight to twelve feet of rawhide around four inches wide. One end of the rope was tied to a picket pin by a string. The rope was usually carried wound over the right shoulder and under the left arm. It could also be hung from the belt by a string.”* If a warrior carried a dog rope, they were expected to use it if required. The dog rope is the origin of the phrase ‘driving a stake into the ground’: > *“I have often used the phrase ‘drive a stake into the ground’ and had no idea of its origin. Some say it was for homesteaders who drove a stake in the ground to identify the land they were claiming. It turns out that is also seems to have been a battle strategy used by Native Americans who would tie a rope around their warriors' ankles, tie that rope to a stake, and then drive the stake in the ground. That meant the warriors fought in place and could not retreat; they were totally committed to the battle.”* This passage seems to imply that the tribe *tied it around a Warrior*. Make no mistake, this was a voluntary action by a bold individual. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7b07e7a0-44eb-45ef-abda-69e12d13f0dd_330x511.webp) Rawhide rope staked into the ground of a Cheyenne Dog Soldier. A warrior *could not* remove his own dog rope from the ground. This meant one of two things: he died there on that spot that day, or a fellow warrior could unpin him later and symbolically chase him off the battlefield (showing they would *never* voluntarily retreat). **This is absolute conviction.** This is standing up and dying for what you believe in. Voting with your life for the world you want to exist. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/3a02816d-a716-4e7b-896f-3a626d948818_25x25.webp) ## 👹 Lost Warriors We live in paradoxical times. It seems like each day a new *Warrior Brotherhood, Spartan Deathrace,* or *American Ninja Warrior* is born, and yet as a collective we’ve never been more lacking in true warrior spirit. No less because we have a deeply misguided understanding of what the Warrior symbolizes. Despite all the talks of discipline, of courage, of training, and of battle – there is one virtue of the Archetypal Warrior that far surpasses any of them: *complete service to something greater than themselves.* **Whether that is the King, the Kingdom, the Family, Truth, Goodness, or Honor itself – the true Warrior is known by his selfless service to higher ideals.** This is ubiquitous in every single Warrior and every single Warrior culture. The true Warrior is willing to sacrifice his own life in service of greater aims. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/49547041-5980-4a32-95e8-e70a38afed33_600x737-jpeg.jpg) A better angle of the coloured rawhide rope strung around the waist. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e2020ca5-1e7b-416a-bf0a-52c4c910f88c_25x25.webp) ## 🙏🏻 Peaceful, Non-Violent, Non-Compliance **Allow me to speak soberly for a second.** There is a real, distinct possibility that global human culture is heading towards either post-apocalyptic wasteland, or technocratic totalitarian dystopia. These are not the *only* possibilities, but they *are* possibilities. Sometimes there are watershed events where this drift of culture into chaos is overt, as was the case with the forced lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and medical tyranny of Covid-19. But more often than not, it happens in slow, barely-perceptible increments, like water droplets eroding boulders. Some loss of privacy here. Leniency for bank fraud there. Overmilitarization. Sweeping governmental overreach. Abdicating responsibility. Advertising to children. ***Drip. Drip. Drip.*** The soul of humanity erodes before your eyes. Beautiful futures dithering in possibility. What are *you* going to do? *“Stand for something or you’ll fall for anything,”* the saying goes. There will be several key moments in the coming decades where you will have to make a choice: to put your head down and follow ethically dubious and morally repugnant commands, or stake yourself in the ground and say: > *“You shall not pass. This is where I make my stand. If you want to go beyond me, you will have to go through me.”* And it is deeper than this. For every moment, every breath, every action, every decision is a vote for the world you want to exist, to support, and to help flourish. It is a battle for the heart and soul and dignity of humanity. Every movement of your being you are planting a stake in the ground for a kind of world you want to support – do you like what you’re supporting? Do you have the conviction to stand up for the world you believe in? Will you fight to honour your brothers and sisters, and the rights and dignities of your parents and ancestors? **That time is coming.** Will you stand with us, alongside us, our hearts and feet in lockstep with one another, singing the sacred songs of worlds not yet born, and taking our stand united as one in service of the All. I hope you’re carrying rope, amigo. **Today is a good day to die.** With love, EB. 💛 --- A share goes a long way for a writer. Thank you. ☀️ ### On Reclaiming Healthy Ambition URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/healthy-ambition/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:42.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Sparrow Café – Argentina. 📖 **Reading Time:** \~7 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *(1) My friend Charlie dropped a podcast we did together over the holidays. We riff on my backstory, plant medicine, personal awakening, redesigning culture, cryptocurrency, and more.* [*Part 1*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGA0C6EgQbs&list=WL&index=10&ab%5Fchannel=PharosPodcast&ref=zenmedicine.co) *and* [*Part 2*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POqA76kZF2M&list=WL&index=11&ab%5Fchannel=PharosPodcast&ref=zenmedicine.co) *on YouTube.* *(2) If you know someone who should be on this literary adventure with us,* [*share it with them*](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/)*. ⚡️* --- ## For years I’ve long scorned New Year’s Resolutions… Publicly, they seemed illogical and fruitless. My inner monologue went something like: > *“Most people fail. Most people don’t have the systems in place required to uphold whatever their resolution is for longer than 2 weeks. Most people don’t have any meaningful ‘why’ for doing these other than participation in social tradition and won’t survive the first sign of resistance. Why do something that’s doomed to fail?”* Privately, I have been working on my relationship to goals and outcome-oriented ways of being. I have largely fallen into the ‘Taoist aimlessness’ or ‘systems-based’ camps for many years: > *“Systems over goals. Life isn’t about an outcome and silly trophies. Can I design a perfect day I would be happy to repeat each and every day? This requires no new resolutions. What is the purpose of arbitrary milestones anyways in the grand scheme of existence?”* **These years of my life have been a challenging—sometimes painful—and beautiful initiation into myself.** I have burned away decades of falsehood, people-pleasing, weakness, and shadow elements. I have accessed realms of consciousness I never dreamed possible. I have been blessed with relationships, experiences, and wisdom that have fundamentally transformed who I am. **But throughout my initiatory process—and in the lives of many whom I know and respect—a critical and meaningful character trait was sacrificed at the altar of personal evolution: ambition.** Many people, *particularly* those in the spiritual community, have a troubled and difficult relationship with ambition. I am no exception. When growing up, through the varied forces of cultural expectations, societal dogma, personal trauma, and more, most people inherit and latch onto the perceived importance of ***external ambition***. > *“I must study hard to get this, I must work hard to acquire this, I must live hard to achieve this. Once I have done this an infinite number of times, I am finally worthy of my life, and worthy of all the blessings society has bestowed upon me.”* **Ambition becomes the tool that people use to achieve specific external accomplishments, which are used to provide a sense of personal self-worth.** Serious spiritual practice is exceptional at demolishing this kind of validation-seeking, subsequently snuffing out large swaths of external ambition. > *“Reclaim your power. You are the authority of your own life. Shun material accolades and focus on spiritual development. Your value is not in question. Follow the path. Trust the process.”* All of this is real, true, good, and beautiful. I support it. This approach leads to a 180º flip into ***internal ambition***. They focus on developing their character, values, virtues, wisdom, and progressing along the ‘spiritual path’. Then, at some point, this inner exploration leads them into the deeper waters of the wisdom traditions, and they begin to confront the ‘demolishing concepts.’ **Zen and Taoism, in particular, are just conceptual wrecking crews in disguise.** > **“*There is no path. All progress is illusory. Everything is Maya. Do not cling. Practice Wu-Wei, the act of non-doing. In the world but not of the world. Emptiness. Break the cycle of Samsara. Do not give into the passions. All desire leads to suffering. Cultivate no-Mind. Realize no-Self.”* Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, the techniques that were originally helping them just feel a little less *shit-all-the-time* are suddenly ripping out the very ground from under their feet. For earnest practitioners who make it beyond this series of dark nights of the soul, this usually marks the death of **internal ambition**. Who is there to be ambitious if there is no Self? Ambition is just a constellation of sensations, to be witnessed and released. Desire is evil and misguides you. **I’ve been here for several years now.** *But then, suddenly, the bubble pops.* When you integrate the realization that there is no independent Self, that you are the entirety of Existence moving in a generative dynamic fashion, you realize that the Tao itself is generating desire and ambition. Ambition is part of the fabric of existence, just like trees and atoms and language are. Your desire is the desire of all existence. I am beginning to embrace ambition. To welcome it back into my awareness. It feels different, more deeply rooted. Less focused on proving myself to gain validation and more on pushing my limits as a form of *serious play*. **I want to share what I’ve landed on and would love to hear from you what your hopes, dreams, desires, and ambitions are for this year.** 🙂 ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/9f8e7149-9c57-4bda-8cf3-6ae778585012_25x25.webp) [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ## ☀️ Daily Commitments Daily commitments are the most important to me. If you’ve read [my recent post](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/retreat-review), these grew out of my adventures there. They are simple, and with a little bit of tweaking, 3 S’s: 1. **Sunrise** (awake & active by the time the sun rises each day) 2. **Sweat** (self-activated sweat response, activity independent) 3. **Stillness** (seated meditation practice, ideally using [MCTB exercises](https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Core-Teachings-Buddha-Unusually/dp/1911597108?ref=zenmedicine.co)) **Each day I resolve to see the sunrise, sweat, and find time for stillness.** That’s it. ## 🗿 Yearly Milestones My systems and routines focus on: health, work, learning. My yearly goals come out of that. The bold phrase is the **system/process**, and the part in parentheses is the measurement. 1. **Endurance Running** (Barefoot Half Marathon (21km/13m) official completed race). *Scheduled for June 3!* 2. **Strength Training** (1x BW bench (135lb/61kg), 1.5x BW squat (205lb/93kg), 2x BW deadlift (270lb/123kg)). *Already close to this one. :)* 3. **Jazz** (Complete Saxophone Essentials workbook). *Progress videos soon.* 4. **Spanish** (Conversational proficiency in Spanish). *Necesito mas practica!* 5. **Writing** (1000+ Edge of Being readers total). *Currently \~400\. :)* My health goals are endurance and strength. I currently live in Argentina, an absolutely stunning cultural scene, so my learning goals are diving deeper into jazz, and becoming more proficient in Spanish. Writing is fundamental to my existence, and I hope to continue to grow and invest my energy into this publication. ## 🔄 Trimester Projects **The final category is a few things I want to commit to and build.** I’m calling them trimester projects *(because we really don’t have a word for a ⅓ chunk of the year, did you know that?)*. That means I am going to build and release 1 of these every 4 months, ideally in this order. They are: 1. **100 Days Experience** (design, build, first group test) 2. **Archetypes Initiation Course** (design, build, release) 3. **Taoist Awakening Midjourney Book** (design, build, print) These are things I want to exist in the world. They inspire me and I believe I am perfectly equipped to be the one to create them. I’m most intimidated to post these publicly because now they’re out there! I hope that come April, August, and December, I’m able to give all of you one of these. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/0cfa8a03-c7df-4ebc-a667-fe29ad0ef42a_1470x1048.png) I have a ‘life dashboard’ in Notion I use. I loaded these up (largely focused on 3-4 months at a time). You can see what it looks like. Reminders of what I’m working on, and a way to track my dailies. This is using the [Life of Discipline app](https://lifeofdiscipline.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *(shoutout to my mate Mike Slavin for sharing this in his* [*Down the Rabbit Hole*](https://rabbith0le.substack.com/) *newsletter)*, and they have live embeds right into Notion. There you have it. A new relationship to goals, life, myself, and my work. I’d love to hear what you’re working on, and what thoughts you have about goals/systems. Chime off in the comments below or send me an update if that’s easier. 🙂 --- *The first creative project coming out is the Hundred Days, or the Heroic 100 (still working on a name) experience. A 100-day initiation of devotional discipline. If you’re interested in this, respond to this email, leave a comment, or somehow make yourself known to me and I’ll send you more information once it’s available.* --- With love, EB. 💛 ### A Summoning into Devotional Discipline 📿 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/retreat-review/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:43.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Sparrow Café, Argentina. 📖 **Reading Time:** \~13 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *I’m putting together an intense devotional 100-day initiation for myself and others this year. More information can be found at the bottom of this if that sounds like your jam.* --- ## A blood-curdling, primal shriek echoed off the walls and ricocheted down the hallways... *"There it is! Keep going."* 2 more gut-wrenching, goosebump-giving bellows boomed out like cannon fire. But there was no war here. This was a battle of the heart. After 3 hours of intense breathwork, stretched out over two days, my partner found the release valve on her vocal expression. Decades of pain, purpose, confusion, passion, and raw soul force stampeded through our school space. We sipped some water, lit a stick of palo santo, and went on to the next exercise. Not bad for 2 in the afternoon on a Wednesday. This was one of the dozens of experiences on our [DIY self-guided retreat](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/diy-retreat) we conducted in the week leading up to the holidays. --- This isn't going to be a complete play-by-play of the full 7 days, but let's take a look at some of the notable experiences, surprises, mistakes, learnings, and next steps from this weird, winding, and wonderful experience. ## ☀️ Overall Impressions I have several months cumulatively of retreats under my belt. None of them at home. This was a new flavour, and I was deeply anticipatory (nervous & excited) going into it. **I think it was an astounding success.** It did what it was intended to do, and then some. It provided sacred space for detoxing, disconnection, and doing some serious work to move forward into the new year. My partner and I both had several intense moments, accompanied by a medley of embodiment, contemplation, nourishment, and self-discovery. 1. **Doing it *at-home* was incredible and challenging.** Doing it at home forfeits the excitement of travelling to a remote location, nestled in the jungle or beautiful retreat center, surrounded by the smiling faces of soon-to-be friends. With that absent, it became solely about *the work.* No fancy externalities, no social distractions, no running away. Just you, with yourself, day in and day out. With no external enforcement, sticking to the schedule, giving it your all, and honouring the commitments were more challenging for me. It's easier to get into breathwork releases surrounded by 20+ friends all doing the same, less so when it’s just you and your partner in a room together. But those awkward challenges *became* the material, and I'm grateful for that. 2. **The need for unstructured down time.** While we never felt rushed, our daily schedules were busy. Flowing from one activity to the next. If we ever needed buffer room, the *"unstructured solo time"* was the first thing cut. This was a mistake. Unstructured isolated time should have been protected as firmly as anything else. **The act of truly *being with yourself*, with no phone, no commitments, no distractions, and no outcome, is deeply transformative.** It's where latent unprocessed material surfaces, and where sparks of insight and inspiration arise from. 3. **The discipline/surrender divide.** This was a prominent theme throughout the week for me, and become the subject of [my previous article](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/discipline-of-surrender). You're 5 days in, several ceremonies deep, tired, hungry, on edge, and staring down the barrel of a deeply challenging IFS session – what do you do? I found that the surrendered *"okay, this is where I'm at, I trust the structure and the process, onward"* versus the disciplined *"get it together, you're not done yet, push with all you've got"* was far more effective, allowed for more grace, and enabled a smoother flow throughout the week, particularly as the days began to take their toll. 4. **Retreats have innate wisdom.** Retreats seem to have their own intelligence. A combination of the medicines, your unconscious, and what the world needs. Each day built upon the work of the previous naturally, and it followed a smooth peak from beginning to climax to integration effortlessly. Everyone gets what they need, but not always what they want. I would love to take credit for some sort of immaculate design that enabled this, but I know it was far beyond me and my doing. A beautiful, graceful reminder. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7549e764-f656-414f-8618-fbe34639189a_25x25.webp) ## ⛩️ Core Session Commentary We had a 'core pillar' experience planned for each day of the retreat. Here's how they went down: 1. **🐸 Kambo Day 1**: *2 major dots, left forearm*. I think [kambo](https://thethirdwave.co/psychedelics/kambo/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is underrated in the plant medicine space. It is potent, of course for its physical detox/purging elements, but also because it is a powerful mirror for how you react to extreme discomfort. It's hardcore meditation: sit on a mat, as composed as possible, while your body responds to the acute shock of poisoning. It shows how you shut down, get angry, misalign expectations, push through, and overcome. I love kambo and it was a great way to begin, providing a comprehensive nervous system reset to settle us down into the rest of the week. 2. **🐸 Kambo Day 2:** *3 major dots, left forearm.* A strongly physical experience, with deep bile purges. It felt like the abuse of smoking, caffeine, and unclean food was being ripped out of my cells. I feel a strong resonance with kambo and have integrated its lessons and teachings fairly well over the past years of working with and learning to facilitate it. The only mistake I think we made is not planning a third session *(3 sessions within 28 days, or 1 lunar cycle, is known as inoculation and I should have heeded this wisdom)*. I think we both felt like our engagement with the spirit of kambo was incomplete after only two sessions. 3. **🪑 Structures:** *30 minutes a person, exploring the conversation that unfolded with my family the night after a serious car accident I had when I was 18.*Structure work, otherwise known as ‘[PBSP psychomotor therapy](https://pbsp.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ lets you not only revisit, but play an active participant in reframing and rewriting core memories and experiences from your past. It can do general relationship-level work as well. Accessible with only a facilitator and some household objects. I want to do considerably more exploration around this and how you can best work with it. **It really showed me how much resentment I have towards other people for not being perfect – for not acting the way I want, for not knowing the things I know, and essentially, for not being how I want them to be.** This was an uncomfortable but important emotional wave to sit with and work through. 4. **🍄 Mushrooms:** *\~3.5g dose.* Ah, mushrooms. Beautiful as always! Mushrooms are highly advanced biotechnological organisms, and you can feel them moving through your energy body. This session helped me redefine my own definition of success, my own version of what's possible for me, and the path it takes to get there. Of living and breathing my values, my purpose, and my passions. It got me so inspired I bought a saxophone to enter the discipline of Jazz music last week, largely inspired by listening to [this song](https://open.spotify.com/track/2LZTT2Iznlu6xKXhMc9jIA?si=9b404a6276ce4c50&ref=zenmedicine.co). This ceremony helped me root down two core identities: a spiritual warrior, and a man of culture. I want to make art, play music, speak languages, see the world, read great literature, and have deep conversations. 5. **👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Internal Family Systems:** *30 minutes per person, exploring the 'angry part' that has been present with me.* My partner and I have a tag-team IFS routine. Taking time to explore and facilitate interactions with a part or two that are present. Anger and its associated emotions have been fairly present with me lately. Honstly, I was too triggered to make a lot of progress in this session. The angry part literally blocked us from moving far beyond the introduction. This was unfortunate, but also important as I realize how much potent work there is to be done here. 6. **🌀 LSD:** *350ug dose, 2 tabs.* LSD is the psychedelic I am most experienced with and have a deep affinity for. I've spent *thousands* of hours in the LSD headspace at this point. This session was *powerful*. Several of my experiences here will be written about in the future. This was nothing less than a complete and total bio-psycho-spiritual upgrade, preparing and focusing me to devote all of myself to my training and teaching. Here's a sample of my journal entry: *"... it activated a clear channel to receive what could only be called a calling, or gnosis. It rippled through my being: I am to surrender to the discipline of becoming. Of awakening. To become a warrior-sage and honour the integrity of the ancient wisdom traditions. A clear and loud summoning to submit my life in the true service of humanity's future and in homage to the miracle of existence itself. \[...\] My life is now in full service of the All."* 7. **💛 Integration:** *A day of journalling, discussion and planning.* Time dilates under emotional intensity and the retreat felt like many weeks long. What became clear to me is that I must continue my own inner work with renewed power and ferocity, but also begin to work more with community and host experiences to allow others to do this: retreats, ceremonies, summits, the works. There is a group of warriors out there who want to do the work of the heart. I will steward these spaces, put out the bat signal, and submit completely to this work. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/adff3fc7-61e4-4299-82d5-7d93378a3083_25x25.webp) ## ⚡️ Personal Take-Aways 1. **I have a long and challenging road ahead, and I'm excited-nervous about it.** The material I was presented with was intimidating, to say the least. It will require deep surrender, deep humility, and massive ongoing action. I submit myself as tribute to the power of medicine and of this kind of work. 2. **Putting ‘devotional discipline’ *(serious spiritual practice)* first.** This retreat solidified the fact that *nothing* in my life is more important than my path and my practice, and I need/want to embody it. It feels like beforehand there was *still* a level of subdued internal debate *("oh what about work? where do my relationships fit in? what will people think? isn't this just a part of life, not the point of it?").* **No more.** This is primary, and I'm willing to make the difficult decisions, trade-offs, and boundaries that are required to honour that. 3. **The spiritual warrior calling is getting louder**. An off-shoot of Point 1\. To make myself a living dynamic embodied example of why this work is important. Beyond that, to cultivate a true devotion to my values and purpose, to be willing to plant my stake in the ground and say you shall not pass. The call is deepening. **A spiritual warrior isn't how many ceremonies you’ve done, it's whether you’re willing to stand up, and die for, the more beautiful world and future that is possible.** 4. **Identity Fluidity.** I’m in a new liminal space between identities. First, having designed and executed and facilitated much of this retreat, by myself and for myself, was incredible. In previous retreats I've run there was always a team. This really solidified in me a core confidence that I can do this, and seeing the results of my study/practice *(yoga, plant medicine, facilitation, psycho-somatic work, etc.)* weaved together in a single experience was beautiful. I also had an interesting experience about my relationship to athleticism, which was unexpected. I was super athletic growing up *(board sports, golf, hockey, climbing, running, etc.)* and realized that at some point in my life I 'put that identity down'. I feel ready to flow into that more as well. And finally, really trying to come to terms with spiritual warriorship, earnest devotion, and what this looks like in my life. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/fcc74fd4-3a0e-453b-b76e-7c22771ad988_25x25.webp) ## ⁉️ Rapid-Fire Q&A. 1. **What was the hidden gem?** Structure Work, by far. We picked up the practice in [The Body Keeps the Score](https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748?ref=zenmedicine.co) by Bessel van der Kolk, and it is powerful! You pick a 'scene' from your past that you want to work through, and begin to re-create it in front of you by selecting a variety of objects or people. We were alone, so I chose two yoga chairs to represent my parents. You then unpack the scene, saying anything you wish you had said, viewing it differently. It feels *ridiculous* to have emotional conversations with plants, couches, and chairs, but I was amazed at how easy it was to "get into it" and the emotional outcome of working through that. It is a very real example of 'serious play' and easily had the greatest gap between expectation and outcome. 2. **Most powerful experience?** I had an absolutely insane trauma-release/body-reawakening/kundalini activation in the first 2 hours of the 350ug LSD experience. I will be releasing a dedicated piece about that here soon. 3. **Hardest part?** Fully disconnecting from technology. I literally failed at this. Still checking my phone throughout the day and not honouring my boundaries strongly enough by getting on a few work calls during our free time blocks Monday/Tuesday. It’s embarrassing to admit this. Beyond anything else *(kambo sessions, reduced caloric intake, hard breathwork exercises, psychedelic ceremonies*), disconnecting from tech was the hardest (so difficult I failed at it). Caffeine withdrawals were a close second. 4. **Easiest part?** The psychedelic ceremonies. I say 'easy' because I think they are challenging to most people, but they are largely fun, powerful, beautiful experiences for me. I have trust in the medicines and experience, lots of familiarity in those waters, and I got a lot out of them. 5. **Scariest part?** My partner passed out during her first kambo session. This is not uncommon if you have strong medicine. I'm a trained facilitator, but I haven't sat with *(let alone facilitated)* in a while. Dealing with that was scary, but also natural. Noticing how well I effortlessly responded to that was deeply motivating and helped with an important identity shift later in the week. 6. **Would you do it again?** In a heartbeat. That end-of-year timing will undoubtedly become an annual ritual, and I'm thinking about how this can be modified for a quarterly 3-day or a 6-month disconnect. 7. **What would you do more of?** Medicine x Psychology Sessions. Something like low-dose LSD IFS work. MDMA structure work. Museum-dose mushrooms extended yoga flows. 8. **What would you do less of?** Food prep. It's one of those things that retreat centers do for you! We had to prep/cook all meals every day. While there was good dharma work in basic tasks like this, there were times it was frustrating after a long day to then have to make a meal. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/84086079-f306-4341-b126-e9fb7557cae5_25x25.webp) ## ⏭️ What Comes Next? Exploring Integration. There were a few core experiences and next steps that emerged for me. I believe over the years my sensitivity to deciphering messages from my intuition/Self has increased, and the messages themselves have gotten louder. 1. **☀️ My day must begin with the sun.** This came blaring through like a code-red emergency alarm in my LSD ceremony. A very clear, unwavering command that in order to continue walking my path, my day must start when the sun rises. I rise as the sun rises. Despite never having done this in my life and that I've never been a ‘morning person’, my days now begin with yoga during the sunrise. It's been fantastic. 2. **💪 Greater spiritual insight requires stronger physical capability.** Frank Yang summarizes this well in his video ‘[Athletics of Consciousness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBOwCw2U1WI&ab%5Fchannel=FrankYang&ref=zenmedicine.co)’. I experienced—very clearly—the fundamental and inseparable connection between the physical and the immaterial. **A clear message was received that physical capability *(strength, stamina, flexibility)* limits & affords the level of spiritual insight you can access.** Particularly in the realms of kundalini and psychosomatic upgrades, you need to be able to *physically endure* the process. It became clear that the next levels for me require increased physical capability. Yoga, endurance running, and strength training are now non-negotiable parts of my life. 3. **🧎🏻‍♂️ Surrendered devotion *is* discipline.** The link between devotion, surrender, and discipline is extremely present. Discipline *(and the warrior generally)* has been my weakest archetype. **But a new frame was offered: devotion, not discipline.** Submit yourself, fully and completely, to the path, to the practice, to the purpose. Discipline is not needed when there is no resistance. --- There was one final insight that arose for me during the ceremonies – a way to practice surrender, devotion, discipline, and transformation: **The Hundred Day Challenge.** I'm going to ground this experience in a 100-day devotional discipline challenge. If you've read this far, first of all you're a G, and second of all you're clearly the kind of person I'd like to do this with. If you're interested in joining a hundred-day devotional discipline group experience, comment on this article or [shoot me an email](mailto:itsericbrown@gmail.com). **I'll share more details in February.** With love, EB. 💛 ### Exploring the Discipline of Surrender 🧎🏻‍♂️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/discipline-of-surrender/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:44.000Z *With the New Year in seasonal bloom, so too are the personal discipline movements.* *The 30 day challenges. The 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' tribe. The suffer-fests.* *I would like to offer an alternative mode as this year begins. That of deep surrender. Below is a journal entry I wrote during a* [*week-long DIY retreat*](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/diy-retreat) *a few weeks ago, of which I will discuss in my next article.* *Welcome to all who have joined us here the past few weeks, I’m honoured and excited to have you here! Things are going to get spicy this year, mark my words.* *Now, let’s begin! Happy New Years, I love you.* 💛 --- ## **Surrender is not the passive failure it’s commonly portrayed as...** … indeed, quite the opposite! Surrender requires great strength, courage, and commitment. **It is an arduous and challenging process because unlike nearly any other course of action, surrender is a direct path to *relinquishing control*.** And it is control—or at least the *illusion* of it—that is the final battle of the heart. A battle that many never win, nor begin. Whether it is anger, optimism, grit, humour, discipline, or otherwise, all other modes of relating to experience maintain this illusion of control. But when your foot is strapped to the proverbial ox-cart bounding through city streets, you can either get in, or be dragged. > *“When a dog is tied to a cart, if it wants to follow, it is pulled and follows, making its spontaneous act coincide with necessity. But if the dog does not follow, it will be compelled in any case. So it is with men too: even if they don't want to, they will be compelled to follow what is destined.”* ―Zeno of Citium Control is an illusion, and the most direct path to "getting in" is through surrendering to reality. Releasing into the flow of Life. The process of 'getting onboard' with life requires Trust. Trust is paramount, and inextricably weaved into the process of surrender. Trust and desire for control are inversely correlated. The *less* trust you have in a person, outcome, or experience — the *more* you seek to control it. But just as you cannot calm rough water by patting it down, you cannot influence life nor its future through greater degrees of control. Instead of control, you must work on trust. By increasing trust in yourself, others, and reality, you accomplish two things: 1. You reclaim massive amounts of vital life force that was previously pissed away on futile efforts to control and micro-manage reality. 2. You begin to see—increasingly clearly—that in spite of your lack of intervention, everything magically works out. Seeing clearly that you are not required to be the grand architect of the future increases trust further. This lets you surrender more deeply. Which increases your trust over time. Which lets you surrender even more deeply. *Ad infinitum…* **Trust is a virtuous cycle, while control is a vicious circle, doomed from the beginning.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/487da312-140a-4a27-a599-9d0b0de74f49_25x25.png) When you finally admit your ignorance about something—say dentistry, for example—you willingly relinquish your control and trust in an expert: a dentist. This is true of all domains. You relinquish control, due to lack of expertise, to experts. **Now tell me: where did you acquire your expertise in the orchestration of entire ecosystems? In the management of planetary forces? At what school did you study the flawless operation of the innumerable bodily processes that govern your moment-to-moment existence? Which job taught you to wield the gravitational forces influencing the atomic processes underneath all material things?** **Do you even know, truly and honestly, how it is you go about opening and closing your hand? How to shine the sun? How do you possibly know for certain what is best for your own life and your own future if you can't even tell me what will happen 5 minutes from now?** *When confronted with overwhelming ignorance in the domain of life, willingly relinquish control to the expert: Life!* Like I said at the beginning: this is no passive failure. This is a step that requires great confidence, trust, strength, and ongoing commitment. Most never make this step and spend their lives thrashing about like dogs, dragged along by the cart, doing more and more to accomplish less and less. All because they think they know best. The next move requires deference, trust, and surrender to the infinite intelligence of nature. Nature *is* the archetypal genius. **Life, Nature, Reality, God, whatever word you prefer – is in fact the very expert who not only *can* manage all of these things, but *has been doing so, successfully, since before Time existed.*** This natural force, the Great River of Being, has stewarded humanity alongside countless other complex species and ecosystems for longer than it is feasibly possible for you to imagine. Surrender into this. But when attempting to do so, you're likely to run into a problem... **Surrendering is a skill, you see. It's more like a muscle you train than a light switch you flick on.** And most of us have *never* trained this muscle. The act of surrender does not *require* discipline like a fuel source, the act of surrender *is* a discipline, like a martial art. It is a path, a process, and a practice. It is a Way of Being. You can live a miraculous, beautiful, powerful existence simply by following the question *“what is most difficult for me to surrender to right now?”* and acting immediately on the answer. Sometimes the answer will be hard work. Sometimes rest. Sometimes laughter. Sometimes art. Sometimes sadness. Surrender nonetheless. Surrendering into life is taking a courageous step to trust in the ancient wisdom of Existence. To make an unshakeable commitment to act on the guidance you receive in the form of emotion and intuition, the language of nature. It requires belief in the fundamental benevolence of Life. It requires courage, strength, love, trust, and wisdom. **This is the Discipline of Surrender.** [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) With love, EB. 💛 ### A DIY Blueprint for an At-Home Psychedelic Retreat 🧘‍♂️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/diy-retreat/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:44.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Temple Room, The Nest 🪺 – Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [How Long – Geometrae](https://open.spotify.com/track/4YPLHlMW5T28PAKJDlnBYP?si=f5102f63e2b342c1&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~4 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *(1)* **A huge bear hug to all who have joined recently!* Welcome. Shoutouts to* [*Kyle from Sloww*](https://www.sloww.co/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*,* [*Jordan Bates*](https://jordanbates.substack.com/)*, &* [*Jon Brooks*](https://stoicism.substack.com/) *for the legendary referrals. I’m excited to have you here. If you want to explore more of this digital dojo, I invite you to check out the* [*Archives*](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/archive)*. (2) My next piece will explore the Cultural House we’re building, so you have more context into what I mean by my ‘Coordinates’. (3) Hot off the press! My good friend Ethan Nelson just dropped a podcast we did together.* [*Listen here*](https://becomeconscious.substack.com/p/50-transformation-requires-death#details) *for a yarn on redesigning culture, personal transformation, and everything in between.* Know someone that needs to read this? Share it with them. --- ## As the holidays approach… ... and with the New Year beckoning, almost all but the most addicted among us will be taking some time off of work. Maybe to travel, perhaps to spend time with family, and possibly to spend some spare moments reflecting on the past year. While ambiguous, this demarcation of a solar revolution we call the New Year is a powerful time to turn inward. To check in with yourself, re-assess your life and your values, and lay the foundation for the rest of your life. **Most people spend their lives avoiding themselves.** And society is all too ready to provide ample distractions in the form of decadence. But there are those who want to use this time for reflection, contemplation, and cultivation. A brief opportunity, enabled by the collective work disconnection, to *retreat*. To return to yourself. **I’m excited to be attempting something new this year: a stay-at-home, do-it-yourself retreat.** Below you’ll find a few thoughts and my protocol for a multi-day DIY retreat. I’ll share a review of it once complete. --- I have written about [Experience Design](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/experience-design) before, the important considerations when attempting to DIY transformational alchemy for yourself or others. My partner and I will be embarking on a 7-day retreat, at home, during the week leading up to Christmas. **Keep in mind that *everything* here can be altered.** If you don’t have a full week, you can do 3 days. If you don’t have a weekend, you can do a single day. Want to focus more on physical health? Great, gear your schedule towards that. Want it to be more social? You can design that in as well. This is but one example from an infinite set. ### Intentions & Ground Rules **We’re designing around a few core intentions: disconnection, detox, and forward clarity/power.** We’ve laid a few ground rules to follow each day: - 🚭 No smoking (cannabis, nicotine) - 🚱 No alcohol - 🚫 No caffeine (coffee, maté, tea) - 🍵 Meat & fruit & tea/water only - 📴 30min screen check-ins morning/evening - 📵 Offline screen use is allowed exclusively for reading/writing in designated blocks. The rest of the world, family, and colleagues may not be fully offline by the time this starts, so we’re building in 30m phone check-ins. We have some reading/reflection activity blocks in the schedule, so screens aren’t entirely forbidden, just offline. ### Daily Schedule A sample day—with minimal variation for the week—looks like: - ☀️ Wake/Screen Time - 🤸 Yoga - 🧘‍♂️ Meditate - 🍄 Medicine Ceremony - 🍎 Food - 📝 Journal/Reflection - 🗣️ Collective Shares/Discussion - 📚 Reading / Study time - 🚶‍♂️ Walk - 🥩 Food - 📲 Screen Check-In - 🤸 Yoga - 🧘‍♂️ Meditate - 😴 Sleep This setup uses core practices (yoga & meditation) as a scaffolding for deeper internal, psychological, and ceremonial work to unfold during the day. This consistency and structure allows your body to adjust, relax into the experience, and surrender to the deeper work that is unfolding. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### The Daily Pillars Each day is centred around a ‘pillar experience’. In practice, this looks like: - Day 1: 🐸 Kambo Ceremony - Day 2: 🐸 Kambo Ceremony - Day 3: 🏛️ Breathwork & Structures - Day 4: 🍄 Psilocybin Ceremony - Day 5: 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Breathwork & Internal Family Systems - Day 6: 🌀 LSD Ceremony - Day 7: 💛 Breathwork & Integration **Revisiting the original intentions (disconnection, detox, and forward clarity) you can see how the schedule and ground rules grow out of these intentions.** Disconnection from tech is a ground rule, detoxes from the ground rules and kambo sessions, and forward clarity through the psycho-somatic sessions and psychedelic ceremonies. On the days in-between medicine ceremonies, we opt for a longer breathwork session and some form of psycho-somatic work. ‘Structures’ and ‘[Internal Family Systems](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X45Y74blSg&ref=zenmedicine.co)’ are the choice this round, given our experience, interest, and proficiency with the modalities. For better or for worse, we can’t feasibly incorporate fasting protocols into this, as you shouldn’t fast for \~3 days before *or after* kambo sessions. I’ll likely do some extended fasts in the week after Christmas. There you have it! A DIY Blueprint for an at-home, self-led transformational retreat for yourself or with others. I’ll send a follow-up review of the protocol once we’ve finished! **If you’re interested in setting one up for yourself and have any questions at all, from dosing, integration, meditation tracks, breathwork links, etc., just reply to this and we’ll sort you out.** With love, EB. 💛 Know someone who could use their own DIY retreat? Share this with them. ### Limit Your Options to Maximize Your Freedom ⚡️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/brightlines/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:45.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Nest 🪺, Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Triptap – Symbolico](https://open.spotify.com/track/6qCF4lOQkOjyHSulfHKs23?si=2b1c85c47173438e&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. Sharing is caring. 😍 --- > *"A bright-line rule refers to a clearly defined rule or standard. It is a rule with clear interpretation and very little wiggle room. It establishes a bright line for what the rule is saying and what it is not saying."* — [James Clear](https://jamesclear.com/bright-lines?ref=zenmedicine.co) **The thing I've struggled with the most in my life is my own bullshit…** - *"Oh, I'll do this tomorrow."* - *"Ah, one more couldn't hurt."* - *"Just this once."* - *“Another project? Absolutely!”* It leads to a slow and steady erosion of my values, my principles, and my commitment to myself and our future. I've seen this in countless others as well. **The counteracting force is psychological scaffolding. Mental steel beams that support my life and my actions.** I explored this concept [in a video](https://www.instagram.com/tv/CSuX%5F40HSke/?ref=zenmedicine.co) I put out last year on the '*ango*' – a Zen term that means 'peaceful dwelling'. Counterintuitively, the peaceful dwelling of the ango refers to the rigid and strict schedule that monks follow on retreat. Every moment is accounted for, unyielding, unchanging, for months on end. How is that peaceful? With this rigid structure in place, you drastically reduce the cognitive load of thinking about when to eat, when to sleep, what to do next, and where to go. When you deeply examine your moment-to-moment experience, you'll notice that the majority of your time and energy is spent entertaining nonsense like this. If you want to increase your cognitive freedom, reduce your emotional load, clarify your identity, and create a life more deeply in line with your values – brightline rules help with this. **If you want to *maximize your freedom*, you need to *limit your choices.*** Saying no is asymmetrically more powerful than saying yes. A brightline rule takes a nebulous goal *"I want to be more active"* and turns it into a clarified aim, *"I go on a walk every morning."* **Where I have tripped up on this in the past is feeling like these rules "limit my freedom."** The modern translation of the ango and brightline rules is found in Jocko Willinck: *discipline equals freedom*. Setting non-negotiable life operating principles provide the *true freedom* to focus time energy and attention on things that are of deep importance to me. Who cares about the freedom to decide what to eat? I'm not going to be on my deathbed congratulating myself for consuming a great variety of trash for years of my life. ![](https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8aa1a5c3-0406-4dcd-885e-2ced5bd7e011) A cheeky brightline rule 😉 [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4ac91157-0898-4715-b57f-b05ed435a124_25x25.png) Here are some brightline rules I currently have, and I'd love to hear in the comments any of yours: #### **"There is no hot water knob in the shower."** My rule for cold showers. It's no longer a choice. No longer a stupid negotiation of *"Oh okay I'll start hot and then maybe a few minutes later I'll do cold. We’ll see!"* The rule has simply become: I can only turn the cold water knob. Easy. #### **"Bitcoin-Only."** When focusing on my investments, savings, and engagement in the crypto space, my brightline rule has become "bitcoin only." It's simple. I have a cheeky reminder of this sitting on my keyboard each and every moment. #### **"Wine-Only."** Alcohol is poison, but I'll be damned if red wine isn't an absolute vibe. So I've established a rule with myself, that if I'm going to drink alcohol, it's going to be wine. #### **"The first thing in my body is water."** A brightline to start the day. You always wake up dehydrated. You need water. Most humans don't drink enough water. Therefore, I have a gate I need to walk through each morning. Before food, before coffee, before anything – water. #### “Own no TV, no Netflix, no Games, & no reading the news.” This brightline came as a byproduct of being semi-nomadic & highly minimalistic, but it’s been retained for the lifestyle it affords me. I said *own* no TV, not *never watch*. If I’m with friends and we want to watch something or play Smash Bros, great, I will. But in my house, in my day-to-day life, there is no TV, no Netflix subscription, no video game console, and no news outlets. Ever. #### **"One thing in, one thing out."** This is a minimalist brightline rule, created years ago. It’s simple: if I want to buy something physical, something of equivalent significance must be given away. New shirt? Donate an old one. New tech? The old model better be on its way out the door. #### **"Never late, never early."** > *“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrivesprecisely when he means to.” —* Gandalf the Grey. This is for honouring commitments. **If we agree on a time, I will be there.** Personally, I like to have time to prepare before calls/meetings/events, so I honour that in others by not arriving early. It cultivates integrity. *Never* late, *never* early. #### **"*Something* is written, and it is written *first*."** My entire living is made primarily (though not exclusively) through writing. I write constantly. Blogs, content, programs, scripts, newsletters, ghost articles, guidance. Every day, something is written. This is one I'm actively working on – to make writing the first task I do each day. It is still a work in progress. #### **"80% of my nutrition is animal-based."** This one drastically simplifies food. 80% of my nutrition on any given day, and over the course of the week, must hit >= 80% animal-based: organs, meat, honey, dairy, and fruit. The extra 20%? Tea, coffee, wine, dark chocolate. #### **"Drop any brightline that is not value-adding."** This is a meta-brightline. These rules exist in my life to make my life *increasingly better over time*. If something no longer serves me, I have a failsafe brightline to drop them. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/03765cbf-492e-42d1-b654-59ee38ce4eb0_25x25.png) Make no mistake, I don't always hit these. No one is perfect, and you shouldn't demand this of yourself. There are other areas of life I’ve struggled with establishing bright lines: social media use, alcohol & substances, struggles with overworking, and financial savings. There are many I hope to tackle but haven’t yet. **However, what I like about bright lines is that they *normalize to the rule over time*.** If you have the brightline in place, you'll know clearly when you deviate from it, when you stray from your values, and over time, they will bring you into alignment with the rule. For example: after several months of animal-based diet, whenever someone comes to our school with doughnuts and I eat one, I get the viscerally upsetting reminder of how bad they are. My stomach, digestion, and energy levels go whack. Another vote for animal-based. Eventually, I stop fooling myself that it will be a good choice. It normalizes to the brightline. What do you think about bright lines? I'd love to hear any of your own or your experience with bright lines. Feel free to sound off in the comments. :) With love, and a little bit of sacred structure, EB. 💛 --- Thank you for reading The Edge of Being. This post is public so feel free to share it. ### The Nearly Lost Secret of the 3rd Fundamental Day in Human Existence... 🤫 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/third-day/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:45.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Cosmic Jungle (living room), the Nest 🪺 – Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Set in Stone – Amb](https://open.spotify.com/track/2ra3sxZcbpFq1ezk8elVfJ?si=aadd03090dc54286&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *(1) For all new members, welcome! I’m transitioning to Substack, hence the change in theme. (2) I’m importing my archives from the Ghost publication! You can go to* [*the Archive*](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/archive) *to see earlier pieces. I’ll create a list of all of them once they’re in. (3) Happy belated Thanksgiving to all American readers who celebrate. (4) If you could share this with one person who needs to see it, I’ll owe you one hug.* 😊 "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." — Mark Twain ## Sage wisdom from Twain, to be sure. Meditating on this quote will take you far, however… …there is a third day of extreme importance in your life. **One often overlooked, and one nearly lost to the shadows of history.** I have reason to doubt, given the life and context of Mark Twain, that he unlocked this third gate of human existence. No matter, he will have more opportunities to try again. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a6da0175-8841-4a19-a714-97d988c48379_25x25.png) ## The First Most Important Day... **... is the day you *incarnate* on Earth.** The day your individual experience begins. I have written about the unbelievable significance of *your experience* recently ([here](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/fundamental-realization) and [here](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/treasuring-the-unrepeatable-nature)). I won't rehash much. **This is the most fundamental realization.** You are here and *this is it*. But this realization is just the *beginning* of your journey. It is the starting point, the necessary foundation from which you progress. > "The fact that you *have an individual experience* is more significant, wildly fascinating, horrifically terrifying, mercilessly painful, and ecstatically blissful than any *single individual experience*." – Eric Brown, [The Most Fundamental Realization](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/fundamental-realization). Upon this foundation, steeped in the divine tragi-comedy of your human experience – you begin to write your story and enact it in the world. This leads us to... ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c2090acd-6790-4083-bedc-4930039eb8be_25x25.png) ## The Second Most Important Day... **...is the day you find out *why* you were born.** Some recoil at hearing this. Many of us were raised in the stage-orange, scientific-materialist, pseudo-nihilistic view that life is meaningless and random. I invite you to consider the possibility that this is not the case. **Consider instead that the infinite intelligence of Nature and Existence itself has brought you here, now, as you are, to play an integral role in the evolution of Being itself.** The challenge, game, and opportunity is now: *what is it about me that makes me fundamentally necessary to the world?* Answering this question combines two factors: the Truth of yourself (your personality, desires, strengths, weaknesses – self-realization writ large), and clearly perceiving the state of the world and what is most needed. **The unification of these two forces (matching your jigsaw piece into the board of the world) is how you find out what you are called to do in this life.** This process of weaving together your unique strengths into the tapestry of the world is known as *right living* — your *dharma*. We can separate your Dharma into your *inner* and *outer*. Hinduism and Buddhism both converge on a similar answer for your inner dharma, just expressed differently. Your inner dharma is to seek and discover the Truth of who you are and bring yourself into alignment with this Truth. This Truth is that your small self *is* the All Self. The Ground of Being. The existence-tissue of life. You are something the entire cosmos is doing. Your outer dharma is the path, work, and commitments you enact in the world to assist you in realizing and grounding your inner dharma. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/01755d73-fd41-4efe-aec0-8512c845e9ba_1084x518.png) > *"It is far better to perform one’s natural prescribed duty, though tinged with faults, than to perform another’s prescribed duty, though perfectly. In fact, it is preferable to die in the discharge of one’s duty, than to follow the path of another, which is fraught with danger." – Bhagavad Gita* Every moment, obstacle, and event in your life is an opportunity to cultivate your inner dharma, to awaken to the Truth of who you are. **This is why any wisdom tradition worth its salt takes *self-realization* and *worldly service* as axiomatic pillars.** Self-realization and contemplative practice are required to discover the Truth of Who You Are, and worldly service/action is how you Enact and Embody that Truth. These lead to Moksha (Nirvana) – liberation from the cycles of birth and death (Samsara). This leads us to... [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/29d59802-6ce8-452c-ae77-1179daa355e3_25x25.png) ## **The Third Most Important Day...** **... is the day you *die before you die*.** At the top of St. Paul’s Monastery in Attica, Greece, there is an inscription that says: > *“If you die before you die, you won’t die when you die*.” Many don't realize the mystical psychedelic origins of early proto-Christianity. The best overview is in [The Immortality Key by Brian Muraresku](https://www.amazon.com/Immortality-Key-Brian-C-Muraresku/dp/1250281504?ref=zenmedicine.co). **This quote means *exactly* what it says.** If *you* (the small separate Ego-Self) have a *death process* (Ego Death) before your *physical body passes*, then *you* (True-Self) won't pass when *your body* passes away. As with all mystical and wisdom traditions, you must remember that this is pointing to a *direct experience*, not merely writing poetry. In Greek, the Catholic Eucharist is sometimes called the *pharmakon athanasius*, meaning the “drug of immortality.” **But it is not *(as many psychedelic psychonauts mistake)* the psychedelic compound itself that unlocks the gift of immortality — it is the death experience they reliably induce.** Ancient Greece is the bedrock of modern civilization. Democracy, philosophy, mathematics, sewage, nation-states. You name it, the Greeks played some part in inventing it. And yet—*without fail*—from the likes of Marcus Aurelius to Plato to Cicero – they are on record claiming that the Eleusinian Mysteries was their culture’s most important contribution to humanity. The Eleusinian Mysteries were the ritualistic rite of passage that facilitated this death process. This quote comes from Marcus Cicero (106-43 BC), a legendary Roman statesmen, philosopher, lawyer, known as one of the greatest orators and prose stylists of Greek culture. He has this to say about the fundamental importance of the Mysteries and the initiations therein to Greek culture: > *“For among the many excellent and indeed divine institutions which your Athens has brought forth and contributed to human life, none, in my opinion, is better than those mysteries. For by their means we have been brought out of our barbarous and savage mode of life and educated and refined to a state of civilization; and as the rites are called ‘initiations,’ so in very truth we have learned from them the beginnings of life, and have gained the power not only to live happily, but also to die with a better hope.”* —Cicero ***The*** ***founders of modern democracy reliably state that the* Mysteries*, more than anything else, were the shining accomplishment of their culture.*** The immense importance of this must sink in. To spend but a moment in the infinity of eternity is enough. To experience existence beyond the confines of the separate Self will put you in touch with the True Nature of who you are—the infinite, endless, Ground of Being. **Like a phoenix, reborn from the ashes, this process is the third most important day in your life.** In a way, like all things in nature, it is cyclical, taking us back to where we began: re-*incarnating*. Re-*membering*. These are the most important days of your life. I hope that you experience all of them. Many humans only get as far as the first one. With love, EB. 💛 --- Thank you for reading The Edge of Being. This post is public so feel free to share it. The Edge of Being is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. ### The Most Fundamental Realization of Your Life ✨ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/fundamental-realization/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:46.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Temple Room, The Nest 🪺 – Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Oppression – The Human Experience](https://open.spotify.com/track/0cCYkGYSndtiSYnBUkJ2iU?si=f5481a50d70b4668&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~4 minutes. --- In 2005, David Foster Wallace addressed the graduating class at Kenyon College [with a speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vET9cvlGJQw&ref=zenmedicine.co) that is now one of his most-read pieces. In it, he argues against “unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.” He begins with a parable: > *There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/17141c7d-b04f-4768-b024-cbfcf433c4de_1200x1200.webp) Many of us shrug this off. Yeah, stupid fish. How could they not notice a reality that they are immersed in each and every moment of their existence? **The trouble is that you, too, are immersed in this kind of water.** A realization that once recognized, will change the nature of each moment of your existence. In a largely positive way, I hope. When I think of something I wish all people would realize more deeply, there is one answer I always return to: > *The fact that you experience anything at all is infinitely more significant than any specific experience you have.* Sit with this for a moment. Read it again. Say it out loud, in the first person: *"The fact that I experience *anything at all* is infinitely more significant than *any specific experience* I have."* **This is water.** The fact that you *have an individual experience* is more significant, wildly fascinating, horrifically terrifying, mercilessly painful, and ecstatically blissful than any *single individual experience*. And this—like [ichigo ichie](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/treasuring-the-unrepeatable-nature) (one chance, one encounter)—opens the door to the possibility of a radical, total, and fundamental reframing. **You might rewrite it as: *the reality that you experience anything at all makes every single moment infinitely meaningful.*** One of the small ways this permeates into my life is through cold showers. Once numbing and painful, have become enjoyable and life-affirming. They remind me of the rich texture of experience, of the inescapable fact of the reality of my beingness. They demonstrate without a shadow of a doubt that my existence is happening. A sobering, powerful, and beautiful reminder. Because sometimes we forget this, yeah? Many of us fall into a kind of trance. A low-wave oscillation between mild contentment, bland comfort, and frequent agitation. Lost are the days of spontaneous joy, deep grief, ecstatic rapture, or volcanic anger. Life becomes greyscale. Mundane. *Expected*. It reminds me of a Michael Pollan quote: > *"The good news is that I'm rarely surprised. The bad news is that I'm rarely surprised."* [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) If that experience sounds familiar at all, if not entirely too close to home – that's because of one simple thing: **You've forgotten the water.** **You've let go of the most fundamental realization.** *The fact that you can experience anything at all, is infinitely more significant than any individual experience you have.* Imagine the best, most wonderfully joyous surprise you've ever had in your life. Maybe a birthday party, or a gift from a loved one. When this realization is fully integrated, you respond to your entire waking existence like this. Whether that's the news of a loved one passing, your child's graduation ceremony, the birth of your child, or breaking your arm snowboarding. Whatever it is. **Your existence becomes a wonderland of self-unfolding miracles.** And all of it is *welcome*. - *“Oh, grief? Wonderful! Look at this rich, luscious texture of experience.”* - *“Wow, lust!? Incredible, what a masterpiece of existence.”* - *“Agh, sharp pain! What a remarkable phenomenological flavour.”* - *“Ooh, my friend accomplished something great!? Miraculous, what a stimulating sensation.”* You are swimming, always, in all ways, in this ocean of existence. Deeply, totally, fundamentally immersed in the waters of experience. You cannot be separate from it—this miraculous, spontaneous, organic, emergent *happening*. This fundamental realization brings you face-to-face with the *suchness* of Reality, as the Buddhists would say. **And my God—all of it, and all of you—is absolutely beautiful.** I love you, EB. 💛 --- Know someone who needs this fundamental realization? Share it with them. ✨ ### 5 Key Techniques to Hulk Smash Through Psychedelic Plateaus 😵‍💫 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/psychedelic-plateaus/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:47.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Dojo Room, The Nest – Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Merging Elements – Equanimous](https://open.spotify.com/track/6ASSNEcyOm9Kc0dvoOzmAe?si=4b6f60456fb94cd2&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~7 minutes. ⚡️ **Share the Love:** *Know someone that would benefit from reading this? Share it with them.* --- > *"Take it easy dude. But take it!"* — Terence McKenna --- **I've been forming the foundational pillars of what will become the future of my work-play. If you've been following, you see the themes emerging.** I call them the 3 B's: [**Beef**](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/plant-based-animal-based/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *(animal-based/ancestral living),* **Bufo** *(entheogens & psychedelic therapy)*, & [**Bitcoin**](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/sound-money-bitcoin/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *(sound money & bulletproof monetary standards)*. The last pillar—unfortunately not a ‘B’—is [**Zen/Ch'an**](https://edgeofbeing.substack.com/p/zen). **Psychedelics are an incredible force for awakening, personal development, and ongoing individual evolution.** I have spent thousands of hours swimming the psychedelic waters. Tens of thousands of people have gone through psychedelic therapy programs I created – from shamanic plant medicine retreats to clinical ketamine treatment protocols. All to say, I've deeply experienced this space myself, and have seen the vast spectrum of healing and growth in others when it comes to working with psychedelics intentionally. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/6ac4fc2b-4848-42f6-b8ed-a1fcaeedd2cd_25x25.png) ## A Walk Through the Forest... I was on a hike in the forests of North Carolina with a friend and colleague, talking about psychedelic therapy, ketamine treatment protocols, and the healing journey. He felt like he had 'plateaued' in his experiences. Not much novel information was surfacing, the experiences were becoming mild and expected. Fast forward a few months, and yesterday I sit down for a conversation with my friend Charlie of the [Pharos Podcast](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRApyCbOjA0sZfqzuE%5FgmyQ?ref=zenmedicine.co), and this theme of how to make continued progress in the psychedelic space resurfaces! **It seems a lot of people—myself included—have had experiences of 'plateauing' in their psychedelic adventures.** I am working on a more comprehensive 'Psychedelic Kung-Fu (Mastery)' article to release soon. For now, here are the key levers you can pull to help you break through psychedelic plateaus. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5dfa4462-9a81-4833-8eaa-2830fbfe8d41_25x25.png) ### 1\. Refined Intentions **Your experience always maps onto the intention you set.** Psychedelics and plant medicines are *on your side*, they are *trying to* *help you*. If you set a clear intention, they give you what you need to work on that. It might not be obvious or easily understood, but this is the case. **If you want to break through a plateau *(accessing information/experiences of greater strength, complexity, and intensity)* change the nature of your intentions.** Many people in psychedelic therapy are actively struggling. The intentions tend to revolve around managing mental health and well-being. *"Help me experience joy again." "I want to grieve the passing of my father." "Allow me to experience peace and true rest."* These are beautiful. But keeping your intentions in this domain gives you these experiences again and again. Notice the difference if we change the intention to "*Help me overcome the fear of death." "Show me exactly what I don't want to see." "Show me the True Nature of Reality."* These intentions are different in complexity and intensity. Feeling joy and overcoming the fear of death are both valid intentions, but the experience will be very different. **The first way you can break through psychedelic plateaus is to increase the purpose and intensity of your intention.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e58c5219-a53b-4ef8-88d5-b7073bb5fa57_25x25.png) ### 2\. Increased Dose / New Route of Administration (RoA) **The second way to break through a plateau is to tinker with the dosages that you're working with, and how it is administered.** Changing dosage is straightforward. If your experiences are with 150ug of LSD, or 2g of mushrooms, you will inevitably have a different experience if you take 300ug or 5g. Similarly Ketamine, 5-MeO-DMT, NN-DMT, and all others. **At some point, strength decouples from the dose. Until you reach that threshold, increasing your dose can do the trick.** You may notice that as you sit and think about the possibility of moving into more heroic doses, a level of fear or resistance arises. This is the point. That shows you that you are moving beyond your comfort zone into a growth zone, going towards your limits safely, and you will have a different experience. **Route of Administration also changes things.** You have a different experience with the same compound depending on how it's delivered. Psilocybin tea, lemon-tekking, intravenous psilocybin injection, or eating straight mushrooms will all provide a different experience, timing, and felt intensity. Similarly, snorting powdered ketamine vs. intra-muscular injection vs. rapid dissolve tablets will fundamentally alter the nature of the experience. **The second way to break through a plateau is to alter the dose, the RoA, or both.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e6c9a2f2-aa16-4b4b-a54c-3294dae53d7b_25x25.png) ### 3\. Different Compounds **If you want to change the experience, change the compound you’re working with.** The following list is a gross oversimplification, everyone responds differently to different compounds. An example of a psychedelic progression path might look like: - Smoking marijuana. - Holotropic breathwork. - Ketamine treatment. - Standard-Heroic (2-5g+) mushroom dose. - Standard-Heroic (100-350ug+) LSD dose. - Ayahuasca ceremony. - Iboga ceremony. - Smoking NN-DMT. - Smoking Bufo (5-MeO-DMT). This is just an illustration. It demonstrates that the nature and intensity of your experience can change drastically by changing the compound you work with. Always work with trained practitioners, and pure medicines, in safe contexts. **The third way to break through a plateau is to change the compound you are working with.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/0150679d-0fa2-4ff8-b6db-2a3c7762c7b0_25x25.png) ### 4\. Modality Stacking **‘Stacking’ refers to incorporating multiple consciousness-altering modalities together throughout your experience.** This increases the depth/heights you can reach, and the richness/complexity of available information. *If you are not working with trained professionals or have plenty of experience with each modality you're working with, I do not recommend this.* You can stack things like breathing rhythm & breathwork, music selection, and embodiment/movement. I am not implying that you *mix compounds together*, I am suggesting that you combine various tools to complement the psychedelic experience. If you're trying to do shadow work, curating a playlist with darker or more dissonant tones drastically amplifies the experience. Breathwork combined with ketamine nasal spray is unbelievably powerful. **The fourth way to break through a plateau is to stack various modalities together.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a9f09db0-bf82-4ee1-8cfe-81fab9770ebc_25x25.png) ### 5\. Deeper Engagement / Integration **The final technique to break through a plateau is to increase your engagement in the experience and to take the integration period more seriously.** In traditional psychedelic therapy protocols, you are in a highly receptive, albeit highly passive stance. Eye mask on, lying down in bed, soft music. You can break through plateaus by becoming an *active participant* in the experience. Try seated meditation on LSD. Stand naked in front of a mirror and eye gaze with yourself on mushrooms. You notice the difference between those two suggestions and lying peacefully on your bed. **Deeper engagement with the experience surfaces novel information and facilitates richer experiences.** The second component is integration. **Take your integration process far more seriously.** Without integration, because you *haven't acted on the lesson*, medicine will never give you new material. Why would it? If you're not going to take the first step, it won't give you the second one. If you’d like to explore psychedelic integration, I released a 45-minutes solocast on the HighExistence podcast exploring this: For example: if you realize you want to be more creative in your life, create 100 pieces of art before your next dosing session. If you want to write more, write 56 blog posts before your next session. This is enough *active embodiment* to help you integrate and become a new person, with a new identity. At that point, this *new person* is ready to receive *new information/experiences* in the psychedelic space, and your progress continues. **The fifth way to break through a plateau is to be more engaged in the experience and seriously integrate each session.** --- *This is not medical advice. Psychedelics are powerful agents of consciousness. Do your own research. Take everything at your own risk.* If you would like to explore this further, leave a comment or message me and we can arrange a call/coaching/integration session together. With love, EB. 💛 [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### What Steve Jobs, Whiplash, and Psychedelics Teach You About Greatness 🌱 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/greatness/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:48.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** The Dojo Room, The Nest – Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [You Can See Forever – Desert Dwellers](https://open.spotify.com/track/3VELOjzyhZPS9XkTnKU42E?si=3bf6647a0491426b&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~7 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** *(1) I’d love to talk about this! Add a comment to any of my pieces. (2) Grab the* [*Substack app*](https://substack.com/app?ref=zenmedicine.co) *and head over to our group chat, I’m opening it for this piece. (3) Know someone who would like this? Share it with them.* --- > *“Beyond your experience, but within your ability.”* --- ## I had two teachers in high school who changed my life… High school wasn’t difficult, but it wasn’t exciting either. **Like many in the gifted-burnout archetype, this led to chronic coasting.** A deep complacency driven by boredom. *“Expend the least effort possible to get by.”* On the surface, I was a strange amalgamation of emo rocker, rainbow-coloured scene kid, with a dash of skater/jock/gamer/nerd all rolled together. And yet, I could go through calculus, english, philosophy, and biology with relative ease. Grading is a uniform process, so as long I did what was expected, we were good, yeah? **Not with these two.** Many students feared or hated them because they graded *the person*. They had an exceptional ability *(being highly skilled teachers)* of judging what the *individual* was capable of, and would grade you against *your capability*. Not what the rubric said or the state-mandated definition of an ‘A’. If you did shit work compared to your capability, you got a shit grade. They saw past my bored facade, honoured the intelligence I had in me, and *forced it to flourish*. They were my English and Anthropology/Philosophy teachers, and looking back, it all makes sense. **This was the first time in my educational existence I felt truly challenged.** I continually had to deliver *better than my current best*. I had the blessing/curse of having them several times throughout my 4 years, and we developed a deep relationship. I tried to arrange all my classes with them. Like an extended, drawn-out game of chess against a master, they were always a move ahead, and I was scrambling-growing to keep up. It was exhilarating. Addicting. Inspiring. **They awoke me from my complacent slumber and sat me down in front of a worthy opponent for the first time: my own untapped potential.** From that point on, my life has been an inward game. The only comparison that matters is whether I can keep pace with my potential. **I had this resistant-at-first, angry-at-worst, admiration-in-the-end relationship with all of my greatest teachers.** It felt like they were highlighting every single fault and shortcoming of mine, while simultaneously showing me exactly how to move beyond them. For those who feel the call of greatness, you cannot accept complacency. You must be thrust out—often forcefully—of your existing paradigms and limitations. You must be evicted from your comfort zone and thrust into your own *zone of proximal development*, as psychologists might say. > *“The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is defined as the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.”* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/d745afab-4d74-4ee9-9784-0cca6daed11b_960x500-jpeg.jpg) **By definition, the ZPD requires *assistance*.** It requires guides, teachers, mentors, or highly capable peers. You cannot see your own blindspots. You need to be held accountable to your greatness. **Greatness—like a marble sculpture—is *carved* *out of you*.** It is painful. Growth often is. But for those willing to pay the price of admission, legend awaits. There are 3 exceptional illustrations of this. Steve Jobs, the movie Whiplash, and the psychedelic experience. They all push you to your breaking point. Beyond the scope of exhaustion. Into collapse. Into surrender. Into evolution. **They make you break*down* so that you can break*through.*** The question is—like a seed beginning to grow—how willing are you to be broken? You must break open to let the flower of greatness bloom. You must break out of your comfortable shell—or be broken out of it. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/d16f3be0-6762-4885-87ba-15904768a747_792x530-jpeg.jpg) ## Steve Jobs Steve Jobs is a legend; one of my greatest inspirations. Rest in peace. His business was to bring the best people together and force them into their zone of proximal development. He did this with his *reality distortion field*. The RDF is a term first used by Bud Tribble at Apple Computers in 1981, to describe Steve’s charisma and its effects on the developers working on the Macintosh project: > *“The RDF was said by Andy Hertzfeld to be Steve Jobs' ability to convince himself, and others around him, to believe almost anything with a mix of charm, charisma, bravado, hyperbole, marketing, appeasement and persistence. It was said to distort his co-workers' sense of proportion and scales of difficulties and to make them believe that whatever impossible task he had at hand was possible.”* This is a favourable take. Let’s not forget that Steve could be *absolutely ruthless*. **If you couldn’t play, if you didn’t like the flavour, you could leave. Those that stayed, however, changed themselves and changed the world.** Here’s [one example](https://www.quora.com/How-did-Steve-Jobs-react-when-people-told-him-his-ideas-were-bad/answer/Nick-Thompson-13?ch=17&oid=392890183&share=54ff8f94&srid=z0ms&target%5Ftype=answer&ref=zenmedicine.co) from a sound engineer working on original Macintosh desktops: > *“It sounded crappy, sound comb filtering off the hard surface of a lab bench. Pretty nasty. He winced. Made a coment about the sound. Demo in the bag - I though we were doing the great sounding forward firing speakers. Some one asked “which model Steve?” “the last one” Wait. What!??!? I blurted out “but you said they sound like crap”. “They do - your job is to make them sound good enough so customers don’t bring the product back” Then he did the SJ pure gold move. “The thing is that anyone who cares about music, will plug in external speakers. And then they will be looking at the product wondering why there is a grille on the front. I want the design to be clean” We shipped the downward firing speakers. Steve had a wholistic vision for the entire product. *If something was harder to do, but it made the product better, do the hard thing. He did this thousands of times.* *He helped people do better work by challenging assumptions and explaining what he wanted.”** Steve pushed people to their breaking point, to the limits of their capacity, and helped them break through into new levels of development and execution. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/ba900c2d-01e2-4a0a-8582-7ac826cd8e53_970x546-jpeg.jpg) ## Whiplash Whiplash is a fantastic movie about the relationship between jazz music teacher Terence Fletcher and newcomer drummer Andrew Neiman. **Fletcher accepts nothing less than absolute greatness.** He yells, hits, distracts, exhausts, frightens, and belittles the students. His classes are militant, drilling parts for hours, starting exactly on the hour, and accepting no mistakes. What struck me the most in this movie is that our main character Neiman evolves from an initial position of confused resistance and anger with Fletcher to a *full buy-in.* He recognizes that genius and madness are blood relatives. **He sees—perhaps for the first time—his own untapped greatness.** Neiman recognizes how difficult it will be, the cost of admission required, to truly cultivate this greatness inside himself. Finally *(as is required to reach the zone of proximal development)*, he recognizes and deeply embodies the fact that *he cannot get there by himself.* In a perverse way, he recognizes what his teacher is trying to do. Mercilessly hammering out technical inconsistencies and emotional immaturity. **The movie concludes with him delivering perhaps the greatest jazz drum solo performance you will ever hear. *He did it.*** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/77081a22-85fc-4595-a088-f8a3023e99f2_1706x748-jpeg.webp) ## The Psychedelic Experience The psychedelic experience, when approached from an intentional, internal framework, is undeniably effective at ripping you out beyond your comfort zone. **High-dose psychedelic experiences teach you that you can handle far more than you once thought.** That you are indestructible, untouchable, and have nearly unlimited capacity. Just when you think you’re at your breaking point—*deep breath*—and continue. **You realize that even as you say to yourself *“this is too much, I can’t handle it”* you are at that moment *literally handling it*.** If you can do it for that moment, you can do it for the next one too. **Psychedelics are frame-breaking, capacity-increasing tools of consciousness.** Unlike a music teacher, a fellow Apple co-worker, or your high-school Anthropology teacher, psychedelics put you in the zone of proximal development of your own consciousness. **It’s like a meta-ZPD.** The zone of development for all possible zones of development. With new perspectives, heightened awareness, and increased mental flexibility, it becomes easier to go to your ZPD in all areas of your life. Whether that’s skill acquisition, emotional intelligence, concentration, spiritual connection, or relationships. --- I’ll be the first to admit I’m more of a carrot vs. stick man myself, but I cannot deny the necessity of strict mentorship if you are seriously pursuing greatness in any domain. **It is exactly the inconsistency, immaturity, lack of discipline, that must be hammered out like a sword is hammered from steel.** **You must first break the ceiling that limits your expansion.** You must breakdown so that you can breakthrough. The true you is indestructible, anything that can be broken must be, for these are the chains that hold you back. **Surrender into creative self-destruction. It is the first step of eternal self-evolution.** With love, EB. 💛 [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ### Why Bitcoin is the Juggernaut of Currency ✊ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/bitcoin-currency/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:49.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Black Ristretto Café, Palermo – Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Tarlabasi Remix – Be Svendsen](https://open.spotify.com/track/41JWvOS6vhn2uANnUsKVEG?si=cd0f32ffb8d74242&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. *The Edge of Being is completely free. Instead of paying, can you share this with someone?* --- ## We’re going to explore Bitcoin *a lot* here… … but hear me out. This has *nothing* to do with price, investing, or *“making mad gains bro”*. **It has everything to do with separating the money from the state.** This is about the freedom and sovereignty of the individual. About creating the conditions for radically re-architecting global culture. As we’ll see, Bitcoin is one of several key factors in making this happen. **For the past year, I’ve gone deep down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.** I’ve sold all other crypto, loaded up on hardware wallets, started running my own node, began gifting it to friends and family, and inhaled everything I can about sound money and the core operating principles of Bitcoin. In order to fully explore Bitcoin, we need to start from first principles. **We need to get a grip on what money is, why it’s used, and what the desirable properties of money are. That’s what this piece is.** We’re going to explore the 5 *fundamental* *properties* of money and why Bitcoin is the best contender, by far, in all of humanity’s history. [Subscribe now](#/portal/signup) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4489420d-47c1-46b4-bcd9-729ca70a54ea_15x20.png) ## The 5 Essential Properties of Money I’ve heard many people *(myself included!)* babble out *“money is just a construct man, anything can be money, it’s just paper… like, I could use this mango as money.”* No. We’ll save the eradication of the abomination that is fiat currency *(traditional, state-backed & issued money)* for another post. Instead, let’s look at the most recent money humanity chose naturally to be its global currency: gold. **When the global population was left to its own devices to choose what it preferred to transact and save with, it chose gold.** Gold has a 5000-year history as the dominant global currency. For good reason! Gold satisfied—better than *any other* material—the 5 fundamental properties of money: 1. **Divisibility**: it can be *subdivided* into units of various sizes. 2. **Durability**: it can *endure/stay functional* over extended periods of time. This is the *material* as well as its *value*. 3. **Portability**: it can be *easily transported* so that you can transact with or store it safely. 4. **Recognizability**: wherever you go, it is *recognized* as money and *accepted* as currency. 5. **Scarcity**: it is *extremely* *difficult* to quickly increase the supply. Returning to the mango: they have horrific durability. They rot after a week or two! Not good for your life savings. Its recognizability is debatable, would an Inuit in the arctic recognize and accept this as money? This is just to illustrate that **not everything** *“can just be money bro.”* At least at the scale we are discussing. **You can see why the precious monetary metals won as the free market choice for the global monetary base currencies.** And of these, gold excelled far beyond bronze or silver. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c51ef697-11d1-4d69-8870-a04f96d0adaa_15x20.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/763a2878-97ef-4bf7-82bc-acff15b1f884_1500x500-jpeg.jpg) ## Enter Bitcoin **Bitcoin is pure information.** It is nothing more—and nothing less—than digital information. **Bitcoin is pure information to such an extent that there is *no such thing* as a real ‘bitcoin’.** All that exists is a shared ledger—a complete copy of which is stored on every single node in the network—that denominates some addresses as having some amount of *satoshis*, the singular units of Bitcoin. **Every \~10 minutes, without fail, for 13 years, Bitcoin does one thing: establish the Truth of the collective ledger by publishing new transactions and updating existing balances.** For convenience, when one address has 100,000,000 satoshis, we say that they have one Bitcoin. But in reality, there are no bitcoin. They do not exist anywhere. There are no ‘wallets’ where ‘Bitcoin’ are stored. There is only a globally-distributed, fraud-resistant shared ledger, updated every \~10 minutes. **What is important here is that *pure information*—which Bitcoin is—is the category winner by *orders of magnitude* across 4 of the core properties of money: divisibility, portability, durability, and recognizability.** Information is infinitely divisible. It is infinitely portable. It is infinitely durable, and it is extremely recognizable. Do you have any difficulty recognizing the words in this sentence? Do you know what this symbol ‘$’ is? That’s information. **Far superior to any of the precious metals—gold included—pure information is vastly superior across every core principle of money.** The only thing that was missing, until Bitcoin, was scarcity. Information is infinitely copyable by nature. > *“As bitcoin approaches infinite stock to flow ratio it will be the soundest money in existence. Infinite soundness is hard to beat.”* ― Gigi, 21 Lessons **Bitcoin *literally invented* absolute digital scarcity.** Other than time itself, Bitcoin is the *only thing in existence* that is *absolutely* scarce. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/fc2a9522-2757-4fe6-adaa-cb6cbae33924_15x20.png) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/07111057-aae6-4607-b24d-9670baee9ef4_1500x500-jpeg.jpg) ## Bitcoin Dominates the 5 Properties of Money For over 5000 years—without exception—humanity has freely chosen the hardest, soundest money available to it. For millennia these were precious metals. At the top, gold became the world's reserve currency. **Even governments recognize the fundamental inferiority of their own fiat currencies and continue to store and acquire gold and precious metals.** This went on for thousands of years… until government intervention. ‘Fiat’ literally means ‘by decree’. Traditional national currencies only have value and are only recognized as money because the government **FORCES** it upon you. > *“\[…\] a money that is easy to produce is no money at all, and easy money does not make a society richer; on the contrary, it makes it poorer by placing all its hard-earned wealth for sale in exchange for something easy to produce.”* ― Saifedean Ammous, The Bitcoin Standard Given free market opportunity, humanity for thousands of years selected gold as the best money. Now, a better contender in *every aspect* has arrived. 1. **Divisibility**: Bitcoin is near-infinitely subdividable, down to a single satoshi *(1 hundred millionth of a bitcoin).* Gold has physical limitations and pragmatic constraints to how subdivided it can be and still be accepted as money. No one wants minuscule gold nuggets as payment. 2. **Durability**: Gold won over other monetary metals because it doesn’t corrode over time, like bronze or silver. Bitcoin is pure information. Every 10 minutes this information is renewed and broadcast throughout the world. Bitcoin is protected by the largest forcefield of source energy and computing power in *existence*. It is infinitely more durable than physical material. 3. **Portability**: Gold—due to size and weight—is inconvenient at best to transport. Try carrying your net worth around in gold, you’ll see. Bitcoin is infinitely portable; it can be sent at the *speed of light* via the Lightning network, and you can carry *billions of dollars* with only 12 words memorized in your head. 4. **Recognizability**: Gold, while recognized as money globally, can be faked. Bitcoin is increasingly recognized globally as valid money while being fundamentally impossible to fake *(being scammed is *not* the same as faking a Bitcoin)*. 5. **Scarcity**: While gold is the most scarce precious metal, if we turned the entire global workforce into gold miners, we would drastically and rapidly increase the total supply of gold, devaluing the worth of all existing supplies. Bitcoin is absolutely scarce. No matter how hard you try, you cannot increase the available supply. You cannot increase how quickly they are released due to the difficulty adjustment in the proof-of-work mechanism, nor can you increase the total supply of the 21 million Bitcoin that will exist. **When global market actors are left to their own devices *(without coercion from the government)*, humanity selects the hardest, soundest money available that best fulfills all 5 of the fundamental properties of money.** Money over time converges on a winner-take-all outcome. Bitcoin fundamentally surpasses gold in every single property of money. **This is the absolute dominance of Bitcoin.** With love, EB. 💛 ### Treasuring the Unrepeatable Nature of a Moment. 🎋 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/treasuring-the-unrepeatable-nature/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:49.000Z 📍 **Coordinates:** Temple Room, The Nest – Argentina. 🪺 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Ancient Sands – Peace Sine](https://open.spotify.com/track/1jn3Fp9nqetpf0tPEkRJaK?si=18982e7c21e54420&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~3 minutes. 🧉 **Housekeeping:** (1) *Welcome to all the new members! Thank you for trusting me with your inbox, I’ll do my best, I promise. (2) You can comment on all my articles, please do! (3) Substack is bringing out a fun thread/chat feature, but you* [*need the app*](https://substack.com/app?ref=zenmedicine.co) *to use it. Check it out and I’ll turn it on for my next post this week. (4) I love you, breathe.* --- ## Missing Out On My Own Life… I had the pleasure of meeting a new friend over Zoom yesterday. An introductory “get-to-know-each-other” call before we jump in on a podcast together. We jumped right in. Riffing on medicine work, psychedelics, integration, and more. **Inevitably, we got on the topic of the fear of death.** My response was something like *“Of course I still have a resistance to pain, I’m not looking to leave this life. But my experiences have led me to believe that the other side of physical death is extremely beautiful – I don’t have the same core fear/resistance to it that I once did. I don’t seek it out, but I don’t run from it either. In reality, what I fear most now—if you can call it a fear—is missing out on the life that is happening here and now, right in front of me.”* Sitting with this, it’s reminding me of one of my favourite Zen idioms: **ichi-go, ichi-e — one chance, one encounter.** > *“\[…\] a cultural concept of treasuring the unrepeatable nature of a moment.”* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/524a40b2-0f76-4170-94b1-d1b3e848f9d6_450x112.png) ## One chance, One encounter. **Just over a year ago, I released a video on Instagram speaking about this:** [The Fear of Death x Ichigo Ichie](https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQwlS-ghOCL/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Reviewing it again 70 weeks later, I’m glad to say it’s standing the test of time. The term can be traced back to the 16th century to an expression by tea master Sen no Rikyū: "one chance in a lifetime" (一期に一度, ichigo ni ichido). **His statement was a direct pointing—a persistent reminder—of a very basic Truth: *no moment in your life will happen again.*** While you may do something many days in a row, you will *never* do it again on *that day*, in *that state*, during *that moment*. > *“The term reminds people to cherish any gathering that they may take part in, citing the fact that any moment in life cannot be repeated; even when the same group of people get together in the same place again, a particular gathering will never be replicated, and thus each moment is always a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”* Ichigo ichie is pointing to the transience of experience, but it’s also a doorway… **Walking through the wisdom of ichigo ichie leads you to a miraculous wonderland of Presence.** I think many in the nomadic world, in the “collect experiences, not money” camps fall prey to this. The idea isn’t to collect as *many* experiences as possible, it’s to be as fully present in *every* experience as possible. You’re not missing out because you’re not experiencing *everything*, you’re missing out because *you’re not fully experiencing anything*. **It is the *lack of* *attentive presence* that you feel.** Ichigo ichie reminds us that each moment is a sacred gift. A glimmering jewel of meaning in motion. Whether that flavour of experience is enthralling, disheartening, heartbroken, ecstatic, boring, monotonous, disgusting, overwhelming, awe-inspiring. All experience is one chance, one encounter. **Get intimate with your existence.** It reminds us that the overwhelming beauty of life isn’t in some transcendental realm far away, it is *profoundly immanent*. It is this breath, this view, this emotion, this article, this thought, this conversation, this walk, this word. Your entire life is ichigo ichie. Your existence is one chance, one encounter. Don’t let it pass you by chasing fairytales of something better somewhere else. With love, EB. 💛 --- *If you’ve read this far, *thank you*! Could you take a second to vote for your preference below? What kind of content do you want to see more of from me?* --- Until our next chance, next encounter together. Stay up to date here. 🎋 ### 16 Characters That Will Change Your Life ⛩️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/zen/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:50.000Z Need more zany Zen antics in your life? You know what to do. 👇 📍 **Coordinates:** The Nest 🪺, Argentina. 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Japan – Plastician](https://open.spotify.com/track/7b4n7QwjEo69szisxNK4By?si=6fb98b4420f74938&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~5 minutes. --- ## I’ve read hundreds of books at this point… Untold millions of words. Exploring mountains of information, absorbing boatloads of knowledge, and picking up a few crumbs of wisdom on these literary adventures. **But nothing in the written world has humbled me as much as these 16 characters.** These 16 kanji—and the infinite depths they reveal—have been so important in my life, so earth-shattering, paradigm-shifting, and mind-bending, I feel *compelled* to share them. **These 16 characters—a 4-line poem—are the 4 foundational pillars of Zen.** As we travel together on our own linguistic escapades in these writings, we’ll return to several central pillars in my life. Zen is one of them. **These days I’m immersed in secular spirituality, redesigning religion, cultural architecture, and individual awakening.** A few asymmetrically powerful outlets have risen the ranks: entheogens & psychedelic therapy, rites of passage, Bitcoin, and Zen are among the highest. Zen is nearly unmatched in: 1. A deep history of *reliably* producing highly awakened individuals. 2. A comprehensive map of *empirical, organic, secular* spirituality. 3. An *antidote to the problems* that plague organized religions. 4. A menagerie of *direct experiences* to cultivate the Zen mind. **And it does this—*all of this*—in 16 characters.** Masterful. Even here Zen demonstrates its unbelievable prowess at demolishing flourished verbosity, cutting directly to the essence of things. ## The 4 Pillars of Zen ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/97563587-3c9a-46bb-94f6-4e31c12cf29c_2426x1604.png) From [China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, & Original Zen](https://www.amazon.com/China-Root-Taoism-Chan-Original/dp/1611807131?ref=zenmedicine.co) by David Hinton In Zen & Ch’an (the Chinese-Taoist roots that grew into Zen), poetry is seen as one of the highest forms of art practiced by the artist-intellectuals. Many foundational principles were conveyed through poetry. **These four lines, a poem by the First Patriarch of Ch’an, Bodhidharma, are the four foundational pillars at the heart of Zen.** From the maddeningly-brilliant interpretive openness of each kanji character, a number of translations and readings are possible. I have included a few to help provide a better sense of the essence being conveyed. > “A separate transmission outside all teaching and not founded in fine words of scripture, it's simple: pointing directly at mind. There, seeing original-nature, you become Buddha.” – [China Root](https://www.amazon.com/China-Root-Taoism-Chan-Original/dp/1611807131?ref=zenmedicine.co) by David Hinton > “A special transmission outside the \[scriptural\] teachings, Does not set up (or depend upon) words and letters, Points directly at the human mind, Buddhahood attained by seeing one's own nature.” – Unknown > “A special transmission outside the orthodox teaching of the scriptures. No dependence on sacred writings. Direct pointing to the heartmind. Seeing into one's original nature, and realization of Buddhahood.” – Reddit > “Direct, non-verbal transmission from teacher to student. No scripture, no dogma, no doctrine. It must address the heart of each individual. It must approach reality directly as it is.” – A quote from [my article on Cha Dao](https://www.highexistence.com/cha-dao/?ref=zenmedicine.co), inspired by [Wu De](https://teaepicure.com/global-tea-hut/?ref=zenmedicine.co). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/563c4f7d-8191-4dc3-a476-82f8c1f79b03_1218x1624.png) This poem became one of the first pieces of art I’ve made in my adult life. ## Exploring the Four Pillars ### **Direct Transmission Outside All Teachings.** This has implications far beyond Zen. Let this first line permeate your Being and sink into your Soul. **Your life—your existence—is not an idea.** It is not a concept. It has *nothing to do* with language whatsoever. **Your life is a direct, living, breathing, bleeding experience.** Zen is a **Way of Being**. It is not a religion, it is not a philosophy. Zen is a **State**. It is an active, dynamic mode. This cannot be taught, at best it can be *transmitted*. But true understanding only comes from direct experience. ### No Scripture. No Doctrine. No Dogma. This is my preferred interpretation of the second line. How can you possibly find, let alone learn or embody, a Way of Being by reading ink blots on paper? Words take you *further away* from Zen. Zen—and particularly Ch’an—serves as a demolition crew for concepts and language. A fierce and merciless wrecking ball against the machinations of mind. They go as far as to decimate and dismantle Zen itself with brilliant lines like, > *“The only Zen you’ll find on the mountaintop is the Zen you take with you.”* This is why Zen cannot be a religion. It dismantles religion. Not even in favour of itself. At a certain point, you must release Zen too. ### Direct Pointing to the Heartmind. Early Ch’an and Taoist masters drew no distinction between heart and mind. **They are the same because there is no separation.** Direct pointing is perhaps the more important term here. **Any teachings must point directly to original nature: consciousness and cosmos weaved together in fundamental union.** This is done through meditation and koan practice. Both require a new state to be embodied (a direct experience achieved) before progressing. ### See Original Nature, Become Buddha. Buddha awakened to the reality—to the direct experience—of consciousness and cosmos weaved together in one glorious Absolute existence-tissue, ever dynamic, generative, and transformative. Original nature is recognizing yourself not as the small center of identity behind your eyes that you claim to be, but recognizing and embodying the fact that you are the *entirety of existence itself*. This is Buddhahood. --- I understand that this is a lot of words for something explicitly anti-linguistic. **But you must recognize that these characters are *directly pointing* at something.** Explore this. **Surrender to Zen and let it permeate your life**. While you may lose your self, you will surely arrive back home within your Self. Your original nature – the wild, generative, dynamic cosmos simply and exhaustively itself. The best way to explore Zen, as you might imagine, is to participate in one of the experiences that grew from it: - Tea ceremony - Martial arts - Meditation - Flower arrangement - Archery - Poetry - Calligraphy - Bonsai I will be writing more about Zen, Ch’an, & Taoism, but for the hungry ones — I invite you to read “[China Root: Taoism, Ch’an, & Original Zen](https://www.amazon.com/China-Root-Taoism-Chan-Original/dp/1611807131?ref=zenmedicine.co)” by David Hinton. **It accelerated my practice and ‘understanding’ of Zen *exponentially* and I cannot recommend it highly enough.** Sending love right to your heartmind, EB. 💛 Need more zany Zen antics in your life? You know what to do. 👇 ### Truth is Medicine to Heal Diseases of Bullshit 💊 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/truth-medicine/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:50.000Z More truth bolts are coming – join the ride below. ⚡️ - 📍 **Coordinates:** My new home—the Nest 🪺—Colegiales, Argentina. - **🎧 Music Pairing:** [Sentimental – Cloudchord](https://open.spotify.com/track/5b7HoZMpjjdgahIOtcbgjb?si=b2280794b6824833&ref=zenmedicine.co). - **📖 Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. --- > *“Hard times arouse a distinct desire for authenticity.”* – Coco Chanel > *“Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.”* – Emily Dickinson --- ### **I moved homes the past week…** I awoke today living in a 5-bedroom, 2-bathroom, enclosed patio w/ terrace wonderland where my partner and I are building a Cultural House & School of Life. Living in a communal space that I build and steward has been a dream of mine for years. Now I’m here. It’s surreal and wonderful and dripping with potential. Just my kind of vibe. **But this nearly never happened.** It came only after getting painfully honest enough to admit—and courageous enough to voice—my unhappiness with our previous space. That comment, surfaced in our weekly Sunday check-in, set off a chain reaction of events that led us here, to our home, to our cultural center, to our school of life. **It happened because of brutal honesty, and the courage to act on it.** The raw honesty blossomed from a series of Circles we’ve been creating. Find out more at the end of this piece. Today, we’re going to look at the outrageously transformative powers of aligning yourself with Truth and letting it animate you. --- > *“The object of the superior man is Truth.”* – Confucius > *“Peace if possible, Truth at all costs.”* – Martin Luther --- ## You Can’t Lie to Yourself *“Stop lying to yourself.”* Whether in poorly scripted movies or from someone in your life, you’ve heard this before. **There’s one fatal flaw: you *cannot* lie to yourself.** A lie is the opposite of the Truth. In order to lie to yourself, you must at the same time know what the truth is. > *“It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.”* ― Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit There is a more pernicious force that requires no performative contradictions – **bullshitting**. I came across this through John Vervaeke’s brilliant [Awakening From the Meaning Crisis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhl51bZQlM8&ref=zenmedicine.co) series, who cited it in the small but mighty tome aptly titled “[On Bullshit](https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Harry-G-Frankfurt/dp/0691122946?ref=zenmedicine.co)” by Harry Frankfurt. **You *can* bullshit yourself.** Bullshitting is a blatant disregard for the Truth. It makes no difference what the facts are, the bullshitter will act as they please. > *“When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”* ― Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit **This is why so many people love/hate Trump.** Trump is a master bullshitter, with a total disregard for Truth. He expressed a shadow element rooted deeply in all humans, and seeing their shadow laid bare in front of them offended nearly everybody. **He struck a raw nerve, confronting people with the fact that they are bullshitting themselves and those around them.** --- > *“Step into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not.”* ― Mooji --- ## Truth Incinerates Bullshit I’ve had a tenuous relationship with the Truth, Integrity (your ability to align your actions with your Truth), and Bullshit throughout my life. I’ve had periods of life where my entire persona was bullshit. **My Truth didn’t matter whatsoever.** I did what I was told, what I thought people would like, what everyone else was doing, and whatever was popular in my echo chamber. **To take a literal metaphor, I was living in a mountain of bullshit.** And I got sick. My psyche began to ossify and corrode. Mental illness, major depression, OCD tendencies to ‘keep up the act’ developed. My psyche was splitting, rotting under the mountain of bullshit my life had become. It took a series of cataclysmic feedback loops—mostly in the form of high-dose psyche-shattering psychedelic experiences, stream-of-consciousness journalling, and hundreds of hours of insight meditation—for me to discover (& more importantly **care** about) the Truth again and align myself with it. **The fires of Truth incinerate bullshit.** Truth burns off layers of karmic residue, traumatic patterns, cognitive fallacies, and egoic tendencies. This is a difficult and painful process when that which is being burned away is *your persona*. The very armour you have created to protect yourself from the world. But in order to be touched, to be moved by existence, you must obliterate your armour. **As Mooji says: the fires of self-discovery will not burn *you*, they will only burn what *you are not*.** You are not your job, your people-pleasing tendencies, your funny act at parties, your life story, your material possessions, your brand associations, your “world-traveller-with-cool-stories” shtick, your crypto balance, your nationality, your knowledge of exotic wines. **You are the timeless essence beneath and beyond all of these.** Nothing that you can give up is truly you. **In committing to two things: discovering the Truth, and having the Courage to act on it – you begin a process of identity-level transformation that will take you on the weirdest, wildest, and most wonderful journey imaginable.** Be warned: you may not like what the Truth burns away. It is not easy to find, articulate, or act on the Truth. It’s like a muscle, you strengthen your abilities by practicing them. **You need a Dojo to train your Truth Muscles (Integrity, Courage, Truth-at-All-Costs).** --- > *“Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson* > *“In a time of universal deceit, telling the Truth is a revolutionary act.” – Unknown* --- ## Truth Sessions At some point, you must look at yourself in the mirror and ask, *“Am I willing to die having only lived in my own cocoon of bullshit and world of illusion?”* **This is a practice of letting go and surrendering rather than searching and acting.** If you cultivate a deep sense of Safety, Truth emerges through you, speaking for you. You might surprise yourself with what you say. **We all need practice.** We need to be held and supported while the Truth works its Medicine. Mending broken integrity, healing the neglected soul, and weaving core confidence back together. > “Wisdom is keeping your truth machinery and your relevance machinery tightly coupled together so you don’t bullshit yourself.” — John Vervaeke For several weeks, a group of us have been prototyping a space to develop this muscle. It is a direct confrontation with the Truth of what it’s like to be you. Beyond contrived trivialities, past the cop-out answers of work and media, a group of us gather around the virtual campfire and practice allowing the Truth of ourselves to speak *through us*, and *for us*. If you would like to join us or learn more about this, I invite you to take a look below. We’re calling them Soul Circles, and these Circles are potent. [Learn More](https://www.notion.so/phoenixculture/Phoenix-Culture-Soul-Circles-04182bc6a2ee45d18f8c01e230241a9b?ref=zenmedicine.co) **We are opening these to the public, on a gift-based donation model. If you are interested, I welcome you.** As Coco Chanel said – hard times arouse a distinct desire for authenticity. It’s abundantly clear that hard times are here – let’s work on the authenticity part, together. With love, EB. 💛 More truth bolts are coming – join the ride below. ⚡️ ### What Gandalf Teaches You About Moral Victory 🧙‍♂️ URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/gandalf/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:51.000Z Want more of the weird and wonderful? Join the adventure. 🐉 --- 📍 **Coordinates:** El Obelisco, Argentina. 🇦🇷 🎧 **Music Pairing:** [Purple Tapestry VIP – Pushloop](https://open.spotify.com/track/4tVCHFkh6WFWs0VBkle1mJ?si=15be6db7032040c0&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~8 minutes. "'You cannot pass,' he said. The orcs stood still and a silence fell. '**I am a servant of the Secret Fire**, wielder of the Flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun. Go back to the Shadow. You cannot pass!'" Let’s go on an adventure. Deep into the lore and mythology of Tolkien’s magnum opus – the Lord of the Rings. **We’re going to explore the implications of one of the most badass scenes of the series: Gandalf’s confrontation with the Balrog, deep within the dilapidated Mines of Moria.** *Note:* I am no expert on the vast world that Tolkien built. If you’d like to explore it, read [The Silmarillion](https://www.amazon.com/Silmarillion-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0345325818?ref=zenmedicine.co), which covers the metaphysics and history of the world. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/026ce493-df83-431b-9976-5ed1ded3bcb2_25x25.png) ## Understanding the Secret Fire > "*Therefore Ilúvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it amid the Void, and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World; and it was called Eä.*" ― *Valaquenta* Eru Ilúvatar is the singular God of the LOTR world. The Secret Fire, also known as the Flame Imperishable, is the creative force of Ilúvatar. It is equally the individual spark, the animating life force within each individual. **Only a being animated with the Secret Fire can have its own true life and free will.** Without it, creatures lack sentience and independent thought. It provides two fundamentals: self-awareness, and free will. By identifying himself as a servant of the Secret Fire, Gandalf is identifying himself as a Maia, an embodied angelic servant of the Valar protecting the light of Creation that Eru Ilúvatar (or God) has set to burn at the centre of Arda (Earth). Clyde S. Kilby mentions a discussion he had with Tolkien: > *"Professor Tolkien talked to me at some length about the use of the word 'holy' in The Silmarillion. Very specifically he told me that the 'Secret Fire sent to burn at the heart of the World' in the beginning was the Holy Spirit."* Gandalf is a servant of the Secret Fire. A servant of the Holy Spirit in each individual. A servant of the divine spark of consciousness. A servant of the generative, playful brilliance in each individual. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c2194fbe-b0e5-4860-b8e4-a5da6cee8b44_25x25.png) ## Stewardship & Sacred Duty **This service is Gandalf’s *raison d’être*.** Gandalf exists to protect the divine spark within all of Creation. Let’s examine how he does this, and the implications: ### **Stewardship** Gandalf stewards the fellowship. He is a spiritual guide. **But he never makes a decision, nor takes the completion of it upon himself.** He tells Pippin to light the beacon fires. Gives council to King Theoden. He could have taken the ring himself but didn’t. Part of protecting the Secret Fire is not only protecting it from evil, but allowing for its full expression. One mistake we make when ‘helping’ others is to try to find answers. Or worse, just fixing it. It snuffs out the Secret Fire of the other. It’s suffocating, you’re never really heard. Your agency, your choice, and your existence are stolen. You’ve felt this at some point in your life. People want their Spark acknowledged, their experience witnessed, not solved like a math problem**. Learn to be with people, not to solve their problems, nor simply do it yourself.** ### **Holding Space** Gandalf has incredible power, yet notice something important: he only uses it against other higher beings seeking to interfere with the creatures of Middle Earth. He shines his light against the Nazguls to protect the riders returning to Minas Tirith. He takes on the Balrog. He battles with Saruman. He releases Theoden from his spell. He intervenes only against other higher beings and dark magic. **Gandalf creates a safe container for the flourishing of the Secret Fire.** This is a metaphor for holding space: to hold the world at bay so the individual can go through their process, on their time, and be fully in their experience. Learn this, and you will learn the art of skillful space-holding. He makes sure the fight is fair. Gandalf knows the real battle is within the heart of each individual. Whether they choose to honour their spark of consciousness, to follow their own free will. This is the battle everyone is facing. **Gandalf doesn’t seek *heroic* victory, he seeks *moral* victory*.*** ### Moral Victory The gift of the Secret Fire is the divine spark of consciousness. This individuality provides the freedom necessary for *choice*. **Moral victory requires choice**. You cannot be *compelled* to do good. You must choose it. Moral victory is spiritual victory. It is more noble to win in matters of the soul than matters of the sword. **This is what Gandalf serves.** Gandalf protects choice. He protects the sovereignty of the individual and their right to self-determination. Matthew Dickerson, in his work “[Following Gandalf](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587430851/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=likestoriesof-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1587430851&linkId=994a44c125c93e2ca6996806c7989ec2&ref=zenmedicine.co)” writes: > *“It is this freedom that enables them to participate in Ilúvatars Music and to themselves assist in sub-creating new beauty.”* To do good is their choice. It is not guaranteed. **Gandalf teaches us that facilitating and protecting freedom and choice are fundamental prerequisites to serving the Secret Fire.** Indeed, the entire series is premised on the fact that the greatest Evil that exists is that which seeks to remove freedom. Sauron and the One Ring exist for the explicit purpose of power and total domination. > *“One ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.”* ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/d146c186-4098-4885-a725-2ef295949ab4_25x25.png) ## A Most Insidious Trap **What Gandalf teaches us is that if you wish to serve the Secret Fire, you must protect this freedom *of* choice with your life.** But here we are confronted with a most insidious trap: *how often do you even give yourself this freedom?* How often do you squander your own choice and freedom by preemptively ruling out options because it’s not reasonable, not feasible, that you don’t deserve it, that it’s only binary? How can you achieve moral victory simply by doing what you’re told? **Only when you give yourself the freedom to be exactly as you are, to make your own choices, can you begin to offer this freedom, and the possibility of moral victory, to others.** Our society is exceptional at producing material wealth, military victory, but is plummeting in its ability to produce and enable moral victories, at individual and collective levels. How troubled our modern times are—hellbent, through explicit legislation, or perverse social norms—seeking to vastly limit this freedom of choice. We seek to extinguish the Secret Fire. The freedom of individual experience, the divine spark of consciousness, the Flame Imperishable. If you agree that it is a sacred duty to protect the Secret Fire, the opportunity of individuation, choice, freedom, and responsibility – I leave you with some topics to consider. We will come back to these in future pieces. - *What are we to make of vaccine mandates and forced lockdowns?* - *On what basis can you make psychedelic plants illegal to possess or consume?* - *Who are you to legislate what a woman can or cannot do with her body?* - *How can you be a good person by simply doing what you’re told?* - *Is moral victory, or heroic victory, more important for the future of humanity?* **You cannot be compelled to do good.** Moral victory must come from the freedom of choice granted by the Secret Fire that burns within each individual. I, through Gandalf, have learned to be a servant of the Secret Fire. **I will die fighting for your freedom.** As the Flame Imperishable burns deep within me, I make this choice—this commitment—to you. Protecting this individual freedom is more important than ever. A war is being fought for the heart of Earth. We need not military victories, but moral ones – spiritual ones. To stand, live, and die for that which is most worth protecting. **I am a servant of the Secret Fire.** 🔥 With love, EB. 💛 *“All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given to us.” – Gandalf* Want more of the weird and wonderful? Join the adventure. 🐉 ### Why I've Been Going to... Church!? 💒 URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/sacred-space/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:52.000Z 🚨 **READER NOTE:** Hey! This is EB. You’re receiving this because you’ve been subscribed to [The Edge of Being](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co). I’m going to transition the publication over to Substack to allow for more personal and frequent writing. I have some wicked pieces queued up. Please excuse any hiccups or changes that happen along the way. 🫶 If you’re new here, subscribe below to join the adventure together. ⛩ --- **📍 Coordinates:** Café Negro, downtown Buenos Aires. 🇦🇷 **🎧 Song Pairing:** [Moon – Little People](https://open.spotify.com/track/6QLp8WLQlkqSd9l5fEt36R?si=21541f615d8e45b5&ref=zenmedicine.co). 📖 **Reading Time:** \~6 minutes. --- ![church basilica buenos aires](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/dd4c359f-95fa-466f-a908-ea948f89ad27_1024x686-jpeg.jpg) Basílica Nuestra Señora de la Piedad, Argentina. **I’ve been going to this church for several weeks.** **This piece isn’t an exposé on conversion to Christianity, I’m not doing that. Nor do I join any official church sessions. This is by myself, for myself. Here we’ll explore how this came to be, and how you can reclaim vital meaning in your life, or perhaps, experience it for the first time.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a48c3418-2f6b-4b85-9758-c3eac351c1a9_1023x686-jpeg.jpg) The roof of the Basilica. ## Spirituality is an Action A few times a week, I walk in off the city streets, past the surrounding statues and murals, taking a seat (or kneeling) among the congregation, absorbing the ancient history, power, and grace soaked into the hallowed halls of this sacred space. **Soon after, my eyes close, my head bows, my hands unite, and I begin my return.** A return to my heart, to my life, to my love, and in a way, to my Creator. Within the confines of this Church, I reconnect to the infinite intelligence that enabled the creation of my individual consciousness. Churches have a patina of transcendence. An evocative phenomenological flavour that emerges after decades and centuries of devout use. **The past month has been challenging.** Feelings of anger, despair, self-righteousness, and at times merciless self-deprecation have been paired with a general malaise of apathy, confusion, frustration, and disconnection. On a mastermind call with other psychedelic entrepreneurs last month I professed it felt like I was going through a “spiritual meat grinder.” Being ground down, kneaded, ‘depressed’ in a literal sense. **At the root of this experience was a feeling of soul-level disconnection.** I felt disconnected from this world, *my* world*,* from others, from myself and the practices and beliefs that once imbued my life with luscious meaning. While exploring this in IFS-infused meditation sessions, I realized that my sacred practices (meditation, yoga, gratitude, and connection with the divine) were absent. **Spirituality is an action.** It’s dynamic. It’s a living, breathing process. The Taoists got it right by calling it a Way. A verb. The generative, ever-changing, Great River of Being. It’s not a label. Not something you slap on your ego and use to claim some kind of mystical untouchable authority. It’s like Stoicism – not something you *are*, but something you *do*. I sought to reinvigorate my process by finding the right *context* to vitalize the *content* of my practice. **Which leads us to the crux of the matter – where does one go to find sacred space?** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/b6ae24b6-45f7-432e-ba94-5b99999c43b3_25x25.png) ## **On Sacred Space** **Sacred space is like the legal definition of porn.** In his [concurring opinion](https://cbldf.org/about-us/case-files/obscenity-case-files/obscenity-case-files-jacobellis-v-ohio-i-know-it-when-i-see-it/?ref=zenmedicine.co) in the 1964 *Jacobellis v. Ohio* case, Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart delivered what has become the most well-known line related to the detection of “hard-core” pornography: the infamous “I know it when I see it.” statement. **Sacred space is like that – “I know it when I *feel* it.”** It wasn’t always this way. I grew up in a non-religious family. I never once attended church outside of visiting as a tourist or had any level of spiritual events throughout the year. It was only a few years ago, deep in the jungle, in the sacred space of the Maloca, stewarded by the ritual elder Shaman, that the word ‘sacred’ began to mean anything to me. After shepherding hundreds of individuals through these experiences, I know I am not alone in this experience. In his book “[The Archetype of Initiation](https://www.amazon.com/Archetype-Initiation-Robert-L-Moore/dp/073884764X?ref=zenmedicine.co)” Robert Moore (co-author of [King, Warrior, Magician, Lover](https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=8ZTXW2EYK6MP&keywords=king+warrior+magician+lover&qid=1666274482&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjQyIiwicXNhIjoiMC44OCIsInFzcCI6IjAuOTEifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=king+warrior+%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C277&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co)) highlights the distinction between sacred and profane space: *“Profane space differs from sacred space in that it has no fixed point or center from which to gain orientation. Profane space has no axis mundi. No cosmic tree or pillar leading to the heavens. This is the experience of modernity. People unable to locate a center.” – Robert Moore* That’s a rather apt summary of today’s age, no? **People unable to locate a center.** Tyler Durden said it best in Fight Club: > *“We're the middle children of the history, no purpose or place, we have no Great war, no Great depression, our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives.”* Legendary shamanistic anthropologist Mircea Eliade, in one of his seminal works “[The Sacred & the Profane](https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Profane-Nature-Religion/dp/015679201X/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?crid=23R6KP1DMDF11&keywords=the+sacred+and+the+profane&qid=1666274546&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjE4IiwicXNhIjoiMC40MyIsInFzcCI6IjAuNTAifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=the+sacred+and+the+pro%2Cstripbooks%2C249&sr=1-1&ref=zenmedicine.co)” – argues that modern society is built solely on top of profane space. **Society no longer acknowledges the sacred as an ontologically unique space.** These are spaces imbued with vital life force, separated from mundane trivialities, where initiations and embodiments of greater wisdom and compassion become possible. There are several modern examples of the demarcation of sacred space: - ⛩ **Japanese Torii Gates**. A Shinto tradition used to signify the transition from a mundane space into a sacred shrine. - 🛖 **Indigenous Malocas**. Where ceremonies and rituals are held. - **🕋 Temples, Monasteries, Shrines**. More familiar iconography. Sacred space is necessary for the comprehensive transformation of an individual because it scaffolds and stewards consciousness through a death/rebirth process. > *“If you cannot submit, you cannot die. And if you cannot die, you cannot be reborn.” – Robert Moore* Sacred space provides the content and the context for courageous submission. To surrender to Life. To allow the same generative force that creates volcanoes to move through and change *you*. If you know anything about me or my work, the comprehensive bio-psycho-spiritual evolution of the individual (including myself!) is a core tenant. **Immersion in sacred space is a non-negotiable requirement.** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e0b565b6-48c5-4502-8923-2f567d65418f_25x25.png) ## **All Roads Lead Back Home** I know that true spiritual practice transcends and includes all forms of organized religion. Similar to the great [Perennial Philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial%5Fphilosophy?ref=zenmedicine.co) – the world’s spiritual/religious traditions are different ways of pointing to and languaging the same fundamental Truth. **Practically: this makes all sacred space fair game.** All sacred space is an opportunity to commune directly with the Ground of Being — to reconnect with Self, Other, and World. Lacking any semblance of secular sacred space (outside of immersion in Nature) I find myself attending church. **It’s a humbling, beautiful, and cathartically powerful practice.** If you open your mind to the recognition that all roads will lead you back home, churches are a beautiful space to kindle your divinity. The massive columns reach up like direct lifelines to God. Raised, ornate ceilings provide a near-infinite expanse within the finite enclosure. The care of its creation, and the intentionality of the individuals. **Sacred space, in all of its manifestations, create fertile soil to sew the seeds of spirituality.** You can make the more Tantric argument that “all space is sacred". You don’t need delineated space to do this work. I agree and disagree. Most who make this argument aren’t awakened masters. Having sacred contexts to deepen your practice is useful, if not necessary, for the serious seeker of wisdom. **Church, as much as any other sacred space, is now an outlet for reconnection and revitalizing the spark of spirituality within me.** I hope you too can find sacred space for yourself and your Self. With love, EB. 💛 If you’re new here, subscribe below to join the adventure, together. ⛩ ### 17 Honest Thoughts, Ideas, & Current Beliefs URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/a-collection-of-current-observations/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:53.000Z I haven't written in a long time. I am back in beautiful Buenos Aires, Argentina after 2 months visiting friends and family in Canada/USA. The weather is clear and crisp. The people warm and inviting. A lot has happened this year. Good and bad. The world and my world have been going through massive undulations. It's been challenging to stay positive, strong, and composed. I've made some mistakes, had a few failed initiatives, and been in an emotional funk at times. I've also made some incredible life changes, done work I'm proud of, and made real progress. Yin and yang, over and over and over. Even the contemplations of what to write here first to return to this forum have been challenging. To overcome that, I'm sharing 17 observations, thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that are present with me now, and releasing this immediately. Many will become future posts. Comments are enabled for members, I would love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. Let us begin. ⛩ 1. ***Everyone is struggling.*** The majority of people I know are facing financial, emotional, traumatic, or existential concerns in a major way. Those who aren't seem largely in denial, or distracting themselves with trivial nonsense. If you are struggling, you are not alone. I am as well. We all are. I see you and I love you. 2. ***Social media is unbelievably overpowering.*** I've been off of social media this entire year. Every social feed is blocked on my computer. When I put it on my phone, it's sickening how immediately I am hooked. Everyone I know is addicted. It's extremely dangerous, and yet I yearn for a lifeline to my friends and family. It's hard to balance this. For now, it is too powerful, while simultaneously being filled with trash. Empty posts, audience capture, self-prostitution for the eyeballs of the masses. I will keep my social media fast going. 3. ***It's time to be bolder***. I feel a deep calling to become bolder. To root down and plant my flag. To be a leader for a new world, a new culture. My language must become more decisive. My actions sharp and sure. My attention focused. My heart open. There are fundamental societal and cultural changes that need to happen. We are sleepwalking towards armageddon. This is a commitment to myself, my family, and our future. 4. ***Animal-based diets are remarkable.*** My partner and I have been eating a strict animal-based diet for a month now, and it is better than imagined. We eat organs, meat (95% beef), fruit, honey, & dairy, with dark chocolate. I feel satiated but never bloated, have clean energy levels, smooth digestion, and soft skin. I never have to think about what to eat or prepare. We attended a party last weekend with cakes, bread, and alcohol and the difference was noticeable, immediate, and negative. Bloatedness, lethargy, discomfort, & indigestion. 5. ***The format of this blog is limiting me.*** I started this publication to express myself, my process, and share information. But now it feels like I have to put out impersonal, highly polished pieces. I recognize this is just a story I have, but it affects my willingness to publish. I may move this publication elsewhere, or change something fundamental. My soul years to write, and I need to enable that above all else. 6. **The Left is going insane.* "Be careful those who fight monsters, lest ye become a monster in the process."* This paraphrasing of Nietzsche rings more true than ever. The Left, imbued with holier-than-thou righteousness are becoming monstrous. They are becoming the *exact* intolerant, bigoted, authoritarian mob they supposedly resist so much. Insanely hostile to disagreements, cancelling anyone and everyone while advocating for free speech, enabling the mutilation and sexual perversion of children under the guise of self-expression, committing acts of violence, and complicity supporting perhaps the greatest authoritarian atrocity of our age *(forced vaccinations & lockdowns)*. This leads to... 7. **We cannot let them sweep Covid under the rug.** The handling of Covid was an abomination, executed almost entirely out of *fear*. Nearly every policy has been walked back because they didn't work. More people than *ever* are dropping dead from heart complications. There are myocarditis ads for *children* now*.* Youth are developing speech pathologies and emotional retardation from mask mandates. Children are further behind in school than ever. Untold poverty, psychosis, and drug problems run rampant. Under the guise of saving potential deaths and managing hospital load, *real death and damage was forcibly inflicted*. If you said *any* of this during lockdowns, you were called a heretic and conspiracy theorist. Families were broken, relationships ruined. And yet, week after week these points are being proven correct. We cannot let them sweep these gross failures of misconduct under the rug. The media narrative is already back to inane bullshit like the Queen or the latest celebrity scandal. The *hypothetical* benefit has **not** been worth the *real* cost. I will write a complete piece about this. 8. **Beef, Bufo, Bitcoin, Ch'an.** The majority of my energy will go here. They pack the greatest punch, bar none; they are far and away the heaviest hitters, packing the greatest energetic densities in their domains. You'll know that psychedelics, tech, health, and awakening – the '*individual sovereignty starter pack'* – are my areas of focus. These 4 are a strong combination of highly effective, extremely simple, and unbelievably powerful. Animal-based diets are adaptive, healing, and the most nutrient dense. Bufo (5-MeO-DMT) is the *strongest* psychedelic known to man, about a 15 minute experience, and provides the most direct experience of God/the Ground of Being possible. Bitcoin is *literally* the hardest, soundest money ever created by humanity so far. And Ch'an (proto-Zen Buddhism) is the most secular, sharp, and direct path to rock-solid enduring awakening. 9. **Serious Play.** No problem of anger and fear is solved with more anger and fear. If I want a playful, beautiful future – I must live that play and beauty *here, now.* But the stakes are high, the joy of existence and the future of humanity are at stake. It's like the final period of Game 7 of the Game of Life – get serious, play hard. I may even rename this publication to this. Or Awakened Cosmos. We'll see. 10. ***I'm not thinking long-term enough.*** I find myself distracted by what I want to build and release in two months, instead of what crafts I want to master in the next 2 decades. What I want the world to look like in 2 centuries. Think long term, act immediately. 11. **A technological revolution will not save us.** We need psycho-spiritual *evolution,* not technological revolution. If greed, self-centeredness, nihilism, and childish populations continue to make decisions, we are doomed. Deep emotional and psycho-spiritual work is more needed than ever, and it begins with *actually convincing* people that the problem is not *out there,* it is *in here,* it is *in you.* 12. ***I need help*.** I'm calling it in. I have big plans. Serious dreams. I can't do it myself. I need help. I need to be called out. I need boots on the ground with me. If you're ready to seriously play the game of comprehensive cultural architecture – message me, let's reconnect. 13. ***IFS is a monumental breakthrough.*** Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) created by family therapist Richard Schwartz is insanely good. My partner and I have been exploring this more deeply and the depth and pace of progress you can make with fundamental emotional challenges is incredible. It is a monumental breakthrough, and I expect it to become standardized shortly. It was already used in MAPS MDMA-Assisted Therapy clinical trials, and part of me now wonders whether it was the MDMA or the IFS that really catalyzed change. 14. **Bitcoin is in a league of its own.** After hundreds of hours of further research, Bitcoin is in a league of its own. I still appreciate other crypto, but if we return to the original goal of *a global sound money monetary system*, it's all Bitcoin all the way. More to come on this. 15. **It is not going to get easier.** You know this, right? You can tell. You are living through the slow-motion *(but accelerating)* collapse of a complex global society. It will not go quietly, nor will this be easy. Rampant inflation. Major catastrophes. Energy crises. Increasing government totalitarianism. Destruction of freedom and resources. Increased isolation and suicide. Buckle the fuck up. Build your resiliency. Cultivate community and culture. Train hard – the call to act is coming. Be ready. 16. **Art is increasingly empty.** Art is meant to *move you*. To strike you like an emotional lightning bolt. To facilitate communion with the transcendent and the glorious. Who is making the truly miraculous art? Where are the *heartists*? 17. **I love you.** Above all else, I love you. Even if we don't know each other well. I love you. You are doing a great job, and you could be doing better. I see your beauty and your power. Your grace and your wisdom. I see your darkness, your fear, your confusion, your hurt – and I love that too. I love all of you, and all of you is welcome here. Until next time, EB. 💛 ### From Plant-Based to Animal-Based: Changing My Mind on Food URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/plant-based-animal-based/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:54.000Z **Changing your mind is hard.** This struck me the other night as I was wrestling with my own stubbornness around rarely sharing personal details of my life. As I got thinking about it, I realize I don't have many examples in my life of people who have *seriously* changed their minds about anything. Most of the time, the 'open-minded' individuals I know just further their existing beliefs, adding nuanced arguments to support them. Very rarely have I seen someone fully pivot their opinion on politics, religion, food, relationships — anything of substance. As I flipped this back on myself – I realized I am in the middle of one of the most pronounced changes of mind in my life, a complete 180º turnaround – that of food and diet. **I spent over a decade eating plant-based, and I am currently shifting toward an entirely animal-based diet.** This piece explores the path that led me here and shares insights into how I landed on the decision to pursue an animal-based diet. This may trigger some individuals. I hope this helps you if you are considering this as well. ## Going Plant-Based ### Letting go of animal foods. ## 🌱 Why I Started Eating Plant-Based **I began my journey into pescetarianism (includes fish), vegetarianism, and veganism when I was 16.** Functionally I was a vegetarian—I rarely ate fish—but I could never give up sushi. Throughout school when I was cooking it skewed heavily vegan — I had no real interest in *(and was partially disgusted by)* eating eggs or dairy. This plant-based dance lasted over 10 years. 14 years later, answers to how and why it all started aren't as obvious. I know a few reasons why I kept it up so long, and they line up with the major talking points from the plant-based community: ### ⭐️ 1\. Ethics & Morality I was the kid in high school who went home, printed out the "Fish are friends, not food!" image from PETA, iron-transferred it onto a blank white t-shirt, and wore it around school with the air of moral superiority that only the "anti-barbarian" enlightened vegetarian position can provide. ![From Plant-Based to Animal-Based: Changing My Mind on Food](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/726d4412-4530-496a-ab7c-9dbfa5f72b1c_540x540-jpeg.jpg) Ah, classic. There is an obvious and immediate ethical and moral argument available to the plant-based community. Humans have choice, and if you are a benevolent, morally-good being – you should choose to do as little harm as possible. Killing animals for food is harmful, therefore we should not kill animals for food. ### 🌍 2\. Global Warming & Climate Change Similar to the ethical argument, but zoomed out from individual choice up to the future-of-humanity level. If you believe that anthropogenic climate change is true, it's impossible to ignore the abomination of the global meat industry. From factory farms to transportation and distribution networks, meat is a major contributor to man-made climate change. Therefore, do your part. Eat less meat! In Grade 10, we had to do a public 'motivational speech' project for a class. 10 minutes to make a meaningful and motivational case on any topic you care about. I stood up there and advocated for why everyone should try Meatless Mondays – reducing individual and familial meat intake. *I was all in.* ### 💪 3\. Health, Vitality, & Longevity The last and most enduring reason for going plant-based was the health benefits. Eating red meat is bad for your heart, you'll die earlier, it'll clog your arteries, bad cholesterol – the works. You've heard it all before. The same claims are paraded around today, glorified in the wash of plant-based documentaries populating Netflix and MindBodyGreen articles. *"No self-respecting person trying to take care of their health could seriously consider a diet high in meat intake. Ethical and planetary considerations aside, if you don't want to die from a heart attack – you shouldn't eat meat."* I kept this up, deeply entrenched in my beliefs, gaining pride and purpose from my morally superior position, eating different meals from my friends and family, sending food back at restaurants, and advocating my lifestyle on Facebook, for over 10 years. But, slowly at first — then suddenly all at once... things changed. ## 🛑 Reasons I Stopped Eating Plant-Based The majority of this section is taken from a long-form personal entry I wrote in 2019 while working with ayahuasca on a master plant diet in Peru, entitled '[Why I Started Eating Meat Again](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1on%5FQggTmlP4sjMMQlgAHq9Fpz7YeVrfrNj23d-EoY7A/edit?ref=zenmedicine.co)'. Additional commentary has been added. ### 🥗 1\. Satiety Plant-based diets never lead to proper satiety. You're never full! I could eat an endless amount of food, including "nutrient-dense" options like kale, seitan, quinoa, sweet potato, and never be truly satiated. Given my size, I could eat an unbelievable amount of food. I see this trend continue in my friends who have adopted the diet. Meat consumption appears to remedy this. I now understand this to be a combination of two factors: **hormonal rebalancing** (sorting out leptin & ghrelin levels) and **eating *truly* nutrient-dense foods** (more on this later). ### 🤒 2\. Chronic Subclinical Pathology Despite being the poster child of healthy diets, all the plant-based folks I know (and myself when I was plant-based) always have an endless series of ailments: poor skin, low energy levels, chronic anxiety, issues with digestion, non-existent sex drive, rashes, slow to heal cuts, constipation, mental fog, and low-level depression. And the gas. My god, the gas. It’s always something. And it’s never fully resolved! There's very rarely a single extended period of time of "everything is fine with my body" on a plant-based diet. This does not imply causation, it’s just a *very common* trend. **It is axiomatically incorrect to believe that an optimal human diet would leave you with constant, chronic subclinical pathology.** ### 🧠 3\. The Sentience Argument **This is a big one.** Plant-based advocates say that sentient creatures shouldn’t be food. You've seen the photo. The jail-cell lineup of cats, dogs, pigs, and cows – all posing the question: *"Where do you draw the line!?"* ![From Plant-Based to Animal-Based: Changing My Mind on Food](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7950af40-35bb-493b-9b64-71cb6cb0bd20_543x271.webp) Good memories. If you wouldn’t eat your household cat or dog, what makes pigs or cows different? The line is drawn "too early". What plant-based advocates don’t recognize (or won't admit) is that they also draw the line too early. They draw it right between "sentient beings *with* a face" and "sentient beings *without* a face". If we define sentience as actively pursuing life and avoiding harm (which animals do) then we also must group plants, fungi, and even germs/bacteria in this. The plant kingdom is highly sentient and plants actively pursue life. Sunflowers turn towards the sun. Tree canopies make room for all branches so that everyone receives adequate sunlight. Elder trees exchange nutrients and information with younger trees via mycelial networks. All of nature is sentient. You must recognize this. **It’s not adequate to draw the line at "beings with a face" — it's anthropomorphizing and cherry-picking.** This was one of the fatal flaws. The very act of living and eating kills sentient creatures, to deny this is wrong and is done as an ego-game for virtue signalling. **Humans cannot escape the circle of life.** You have millions of deaths to your name at this very moment. Not eating 12 chickens a year is a rounding error in that reality. Thousands upon thousands of plant and fungal brethren have died for your life to continue. I think the plant-based community needs to undergo considerable shadow work. To come to terms with the visceral reality that their lives *require* the death and transmutation of other lives. **I firmly believe that the plant-based community (because I did this!) espouses their position of moral superiority so heavily specifically because they cannot or will not integrate the fact that their life requires death. And so if they can point the finger at others to make them feel better about themselves, they will.** ### 💀 Avoidable Deaths / Minimizing Death Count The rebuttal is that if killing is truly unavoidable in the circle of life, we should at least seek to *minimize* the deaths we cause. I completely agree. However, I don't agree that plant-based lifestyles are the best way to accomplish this. It's basic math. All plants are living beings. Harvesting carrots is killing life. Baby deer are regularly slaughtered as they rest in grain fields, where they blend in, only to be mauled by the harvesting machines they use to make cereals. Consider the scenario of hunting an elderly elk: you consciously take the life of one creature, which has already passed on its genes, this feeds an individual for 6-12 months. I am not talking about factory-farmed meat or the modern meat industry. If we are talking about the lowest death rate possible, a carnivorous, locally hunted elk/bison diet wins at \~2 deaths per year per person. A single vegan salad has at least 5 different plants (living beings!) in it, and to draw a distinction between plant and animal deaths is arbitrary and self-serving. **All sentient life matters, no life is above any other one.** The ‘least suffering’ argument, one of the foundational pillars of plant-based living, when taken to its logical conclusion – leads one directly to a locally-hunted carnivorous diet. ### 🌎 Global Warming It is true *en masse* that the modern meat industry is an atrocious abomination — but to imply that this is the only way to consume meat is lazy and lacks due diligence. There are ethical and local systems to acquire meat. In Canada, all popular fruits/vegetables are imported from distant countries, at huge transportation and emissions costs. Local, flexible, seasonal meat/dairy products do not have this burden. It’s true, for busy urbanites who won’t put the time into sourcing ethical meat, plant-based diets are likely better in the context of global warming— but to parade it as *the best choice* is incorrect. It's only correct if someone is lazy. And there are people who are not lazy. Surprise! Your avocado toast is imported from California. Bananas from Mexico. Coffee from Costa Rica. Instead of the local pumpkin and bison from the farm outside of the city. Modern vegan diets require a *vast* supply chain, far exceeding the emissions from local, flexitarian or animal-based diets. ### 🌭 Natural Foods If done purely, plant-based diets can be very natural, but not many people do this because they get bored of the simple choices, and it requires ongoing effort to source natural, healthy, plant-based foods. The meat and dairy replacement foods are indescribably toxic and unbelievably processed. Packed full of preservatives, dyes, seed oils, thickening agents, and binding materials – you name it. The Beyond Meat, Soylent, Impossible Burger, Oatly food-*ish* products are the best examples. They are bombs of toxic trash not fit for human consumption. Given the long-term choice between natural clean meat or highly processed plant-based foods — I'll place my bet on *natural foods*, every single time. ## Going Animal-Based ### From carrots to cows. ## 🥩 Defining Animal-Based Before we get into the reasoning, let's be clear on what we mean by animal-based. **Animal-based means eating foods that come only from animals/animal derivatives. These foods include organs, meat, dairy, eggs, and honey.** This is animal*\-based*, just like plant-*based* doesn't mean exclusively plants. Fruits *(the least toxic plant foods)* are often included in animal-based diets. This is a less restrictive form of a carnivore diet, which is meat/organs-only. ## 🍖 Reasons for Going Animal-Based This is an active process. I am currently reading several books and listening to several folks talk this through. The Carnivore Code, Paul Saladino, Liver King, Shawn Baker, Mark Sisson, and others are on this list. Benefits thus far have been: cleaner, consistent energy levels, better satiety, body composition improvements, extremely smooth digestive process *(I shit a single, soft brown banana once a day, at regular times, as all humans should!)*, and simplified food preparation and cooking times. ### 🔥 1\. Ancestral Eating Patterns **Most ancient cultures, and the tribes that continue to exist today – prize animal-based foods above everything else.** The Hadza of Africa, the Inuit of the Arctic, the Native Americans – all animal-based cultures. There are times when 60% of the Hadza's caloric intake comes from honey alone! Ancestral lineages treat plants as two things: famine food, and medicine. Very few indigenous cultures take plant foods seriously as their primary food source. Several cultures prefer to fast until the next hunt instead of eating plant food that is immediately available. We evolved throughout deep history from these ancestral lineages. Your body is made for these eating patterns. Aligning with them is in your interest. ### 🌿 2\. Plant Defences **Plants do not want to be eaten.** This sounds trivial, but it's important. Plants cannot move, nor use claws/teeth to defend themselves, so they use highly sophisticated defence chemicals *(toxins/poisons)* to protect themselves. *They have had the entire history of humanity to perfect these defences.* You can't brush this off. For millions of years, plants have been refining sophisticated Molotov cocktails of defence chemicals. The idea that you can simply ingest them, in copious quantities, regularly, without issue, is strongly misguided. ![From Plant-Based to Animal-Based: Changing My Mind on Food](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/8f81378d-f538-4e10-8931-d02294db7864_932x1657.png) Absolute TKO. + Pesticides and anti-nutrients. ### 🥑 3\. Nutrient Density **"Nutrient density" was a pivotal realization for me.** For decades, I would eat dark leafy greens (DLGs), quinoa, avocado, sweet potato, and all of the 'superfoods' so regularly discussed in plant-based communities for their epic nutritional density. **Yes, those are the most nutrient-dense plant-based foods — but plant-based foods are not the most nutrient-dense category of foods there is!** This slapped me across the face. Hard. Sure, have all the nutrient-dense plant foods you want, but the *greatest* plant food still comes in second place in the nutrient-density Olympics. **Organ meat is the most nutrient-dense food you can find.** Liver. Heart. Testicles. Brain. Muscle. Meat and organs are the most nutrient-dense foods available for human consumption. ### 🫁 Human Physiology/Anatomy Ah, the classic debate of whether humans are anatomically evolved to be carnivorous, herbivorous, or omnivorous. Short/long intestines, flat teeth, single, acidic stomach – so many arguments from all sides as to what humans have evolved to eat. Humans are omnivorous. That should be apparent. **But just because we *can* eat plant foods, doesn't mean we're *evolved to eat* mostly plant foods.** Anatomically we're more similar to dogs, with shorter intestinal tracts designed for meat consumption. Have you ever watched a dog eat household plant leaves? They throw it up. Plant material is literally toxic to dogs. Chocolate can kill them! Just because you're not dead doesn't mean your body is happy about eating these things. ![From Plant-Based to Animal-Based: Changing My Mind on Food](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7cc93d8b-d352-480f-94a2-61785bb863f7_1080x715.webp) Big-bellied beauty. 🦍 Gorillas are herbivores, but have you seen the pot-bellies on those bad boys? They have *massive* stomachs to accommodate the wild levels of gas and fermentation from their plant diet. Cows necessarily have 3 stomachs to help process and digest the plant material they consume. Our anatomy, the difference between brain and gut size, is similar to meat-based animals, and we have not evolved the sophisticated digestive systems that other plant-based animals have to detoxify plant material. **Primarily, though humans are capable of consuming plant material without dying, we appear to have evolved primarily for a meat/animal-intensive diet.** ### 📑 Epidemiology vs. Interventional Studies **Most of the way nutritional science is done is flawed, biased, and incorrect.** Most nutritional studies are epidemiological: looking at a group and making inferences from the observations. *"This group lives like this, eats like this, and lives this long – therefore it's X that causes that."* Almost all nutritional science is done like this. CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION. You cannot pull out a single variable (diet or part of their diet) and give it deterministic power over the entire dataset. Interventional studies, where you take a group and *specifically introduce* a new variable and measure direct outcomes – show that red meat intake, carnivorous diets, and animal-based eating do not lead to any of the heart attack, short life, high-cholesterol problems that are currently used to attack individuals. **When interventional studies are done, animal-based diets do not appear to cause any of the problems commonly stated. Similarly, when interventional studies are done on plant-based eating, the picture isn't as rosy as everyone thinks.** --- ## ☀️ Moving Forward This summarizes the last 15 years of eating patterns for me. Moving along a spectrum from Plant-Based > Plant-Only > Omnivorous > Animal-Based. Perhaps I'll test Animal-Only, but for now, it's a winding adventure from plant-based to animal-based and the reasons for each transition. We'll see where we go from here. I still consume plant foods, though I intentionally pursue animal-based foods as the main source of calories in my diet now. Results have been positive so far, and I'll continue to write more about this. Changing your mind is not easy. Taking real-world action based on that is even harder. "Following the science" isn't as obvious as you'd like it to be. I hope some of my thoughts on this can help at least start a reasonable discussion about an area so fundamental to human flourishing, but with so little established knowledge. I'd love to hear what you think about this. You can [hit me up on Twitter](https://twitter.com/itsericbrown/?ref=zenmedicine.co) to talk more about this. 💛 ### Bitcoin, Sound Money, & the Global Renaissance URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/sound-money-bitcoin/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:54.000Z > "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." — Archimedes --- ![Bitcoin, Sound Money, & the Global Renaissance](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7fa227a0-a575-4c79-9796-a8415981f1f6_2000x1125-jpeg.jpg) **When dropped in a particular way, real gold is known to make a specific sound.** Thus, the origins of the term 'sound money'. When the world was on the gold standard, it was a technique to verify the authenticity of your money. I have been on a monetary bender the past few months. Diving much deeper into the world of Bitcoin fundamentals, monetary policy, history of money, soundness, scalability, and [whatever happened in 1971](https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co). In my apartment and throughout the innumerable coffee shops of Buenos Aires, Argentina, a country experiencing \~48% annual inflation and devaluation of their currency, I find myself *inhaling* [The Bitcoin Standard](https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-Decentralized-Alternative-Central/dp/1119473861?ref=zenmedicine.co), a book by Austrian Economics professor Saifedean Ammous about Bitcoin, money, and the fundamental importance of the gold standard in our collective history. It is impossible to overstate the magnitude of the impact this book has had on me. It has dropped a nuclear bomb on my framings of the problems we are up against and laid waste to preconceived and idealist notions of what the world needs. I have written previously about humanity's existential need for a [Regenerative Renaissance](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/regenerative-renaissance/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and that two of the substantial levers we have in this endeavour are [Cultural Architecture](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and [CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/cryptopsychedelic-sovereignty/?ref=zenmedicine.co). As I have come to discover, there is something more fundamental the world needs. Indeed, it may be the *only* thing the world needs to get its collective sh\*t together. ***Sound money.*** Sound money is imperative for the functioning and flourishing of civilization. This is because sound money profoundly alters *time preference* — the degree to which someone values and orients towards the present over the future. A *high* time preference means you value the immediate present, lean towards impulsiveness, and do not invest much for the future. A *low* time preference means you value the future, tend towards saving, planning, and deferring gratification for a future date. **A global monetary system rooted in sound money fundamentally *lowers* collective time preference — allowing for deep, comprehensive, and sustained investment into individuals, projects, societies, and civilizations.** To get a sense of just how profound human development and flourishing is on a sound money standard, look at what was built in only a century, the last time the world used sound money via the gold standard: > “The majority of the technology we use in our modern life was invented in the nineteenth century, under the gold standard, financed with the ever-growing stock of capital accumulated by savers storing their wealth in a sound money and store of value which did not depreciate quickly. A summary of some of the most important innovations of the period is provided here: > > Hot and cold running water, indoor toilets, plumbing, central heating: These inventions, taken for granted today by anyone living in a civilized society, are the difference between life and death for most of us. They have been the main factor in the elimination of most infectious diseases across the globe, and allowed for the growth of urban areas without the ever-present scourge of diseases. > > Electricity, internal combustion engine, mass production: Our modern industrial society was built around the growth in utilization of hydrocarbon energy, without which none of the trappings of modern civilization would be possible. These foundational technologies of energy and industry were invented in the nineteenth century. > > Automobile, airplane, city subway, electric elevator: We have la belle époque to thank for our cities' streets not being littered with horse manure, and for our ability to travel around the world. The automobile was invented by Karl Benz in 1885, the airplane by the Wright brothers in 1906, the subway by Charles Pearson in 1843, and the electric elevator by Elisha Otis in 1852. > > Heart surgery; organ transplant; appendectomy; baby incubator; radiation therapy; anesthetics, aspirin, blood types and blood transfusions, vitamins, electrocardiograph, stethoscope: Surgery and modern medicine owe their most significant advances to la belle époque as well. The introduction of modern sanitation and reliable hydrocarbon energy allowed doctors to transform the way they cared for their patients after centuries of largely counterproductive measures. > > Petroleum-derived chemicals, stainless steel, nitrogen-based fertilizers: The industrial substances and materials which make our modern life possible all derive from the transformative innovations of la belle époque, which allowed for mass industrialization, as well as mass agriculture. Plastics, and everything that comes from them, are a product of the utilization of petroleum-derived chemicals. > > Telephone, wireless telegraphy, voice recording, color photography, movies:While we like to think of our modern era as being the era of mass telecommunication, in reality, most of what we have achieved in the twentieth century was to improve on the innovations of the nineteenth. The first computer was the Babbage computer, designed in 1833 by Charles Babbage, but completed by his son Henry in 1888\. It might be an exaggeration to say that the Internet and all it contains are bells and whistles added onto the invention of the telegraph in 1843, but it does contain a kernel of truth. It was the telegraph which fundamentally transformed human society by allowing for communication without the need for the physical transport of letters or messengers. That was telecommunication's zero-to-one moment, and everything that followed, for all." — Saifedean Ammous, [The Bitcoin Standard](https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-Decentralized-Alternative-Central/dp/1119473861?ref=zenmedicine.co) **Unbelievable.** From medicine to telecommunications, global logistics and transportation to agriculture, electricity, and sanitation. **The fundamental building blocks of modern culture are rooted in and originated within a global sound money standard.** *Anyone* who is talking about *'changing the world'* without an emphasis on the reintroduction of global sound money is missing the mark. Sound money is the common denominator of every cultural innovation worth its salt in the last two centuries. The world went off of the gold standard in the 20th century *(yes, this is* [*wtf happened in 1971*](https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*!)*. **The movement away from sound money to inflationary fiat economic policy has fundamentally altered the time preference of the world's population, leading to an erosion of health, beauty, savings, attention spans, product quality, business ethics.** This is what I mean when I say it is hard to overstate this. Everything — down to the garbage that passes as food, to the get-rich-quick sleazy salesman online, to the attention-whoring TikTok generation, to the hyperinflation and collapse of money like Zimbabwe and Venezuela, to the inane fuckery like one-click check-out that passes for innovation in Silicon Valley, to the cheap plastic trash from China — ALL of it can be rooted down to sound money or lack thereof. True innovations, true Zero-to-One *inventions*, happened in the 19th century on a sound money standard. That's not all. It's easy to chalk up scientific and economic progress to sound money. But life isn't all about commerce and trade. What about the passions, what about the arts? **As it turns out, sound money is essential for true Art as well.** ## Artistic Influence ### *Sound Money Makes Masterpieces* We begin with the follow-up from [The Bitcoin Standard](https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-Decentralized-Alternative-Central/dp/1119473861?ref=zenmedicine.co): > “The contributions of sound money to human flourishing are not restricted to scientific and technological advance; they can also be vividly seen in the art world. It is no coincidence that Florentine and Venetian artists were the leaders of the Renaissance, as these were the two cities which led Europe in the adoption of sound money. The Baroque, Neoclassical, Romantic, Realistic, and post-Impressionistic schools were all financed by wealthy patrons holding sound money, with a very low time preference and the patience to wait for years, or even decades, for the completion of masterpieces meant to survive for centuries. The astonishing domes of Europe's churches, built and decorated over decades of inspired meticulous work by incomparable architects and artists like Filippo Brunelleschi and Michelangelo, were all financed with sound money by patrons with very low time preference. The only way to impress these patrons was to build artwork that would last long enough to immortalize their names as the owners of great collections and patrons of great artists. This is why Florence's Medicis are perhaps better remembered for their patronage of the arts than for their innovations in banking and finance, though the latter may be far more consequential. > > Similarly, the musical works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and the composers of the Renaissance, Classical, and Romantic eras put to shame today's animalistic noises recorded in batches of a few minutes, churned out by the ton by studios profiting from selling to man the titillation of his basest instincts. Whereas the music of the golden era spoke to man's soul and awakened him to think of higher callings than the mundane grind of daily life, today's musical noises speak to man's most base animalistic instincts, distracting him from the realities of life by inviting him to indulge in immediate sensory pleasures with no concern for long-term consequences or anything more profound. It was hard money that financed Bach's Brandenburg Concertos while easy money financed Miley Cyrus's twerks." — Saifedean Ammous, [The Bitcoin Standard](https://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-Decentralized-Alternative-Central/dp/1119473861?ref=zenmedicine.co) **What you really need to sit with is the recognition that on a sound money standard, when individuals can deeply trust the fact that their wealth and money will continue to be worth the same years and decades into the future, they are able to buckle down, cultivate their skills, and invest deeply into the future.** Without this foundation of trust in the future, societies and their constituents develop a higher time preference, choosing to spend their money immediately on quick gratification and cheap tricks, as their money isn't going to be worth as much tomorrow. Sound money ripples into art and architecture, to symphonies and stadiums. It's no coincidence we've moved from cathedrals to glass boxes. *It was inevitable given unsound money and higher time preference.* ![Bitcoin, Sound Money, & the Global Renaissance](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c1821bfd-e252-4417-8d22-612ef468f70b_743x461.gif) ## 🌱 Global Renaissance Renaissance is a French word for 'rebirth'. Humanity desperately needs a [regenerative renaissance](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/regenerative-renaissance/?ref=zenmedicine.co). A collective rebirth and fundamental phase shift into a more eco-harmonious, soul-enriching way of being with ourselves, with others, and with the entire biosphere that envelops us. Humans have always gravitated to the hardest, most sound money that was available. Despite what the spiritual Instagram gurus fresh off an ayahuasca sharing circle will tell you — it's *not true* that "anything is money." While it's true that anything could *become* money, very, very few things stand the test of time as a money media and fade into obscurity quickly. Like Saifedean also says, *"You can believe a banana is a spaceship, but it's not going to take you to the moon."* We have explored the necessity for humanity to return to a hard & sound money standard. The best example from history, and indeed the origin of the entirety of modern civilization, was when humanity was on the gold standard. Whatever it is you think the future needs most: spiritual awakening and cultural enlightenment, massive investment in regenerative energy infrastructure, political upheaval and the dissolution of governments, rediscovering the arts and the beauty of existence — **all of these begin with sound money.** Sound money is the Archemedic lever that shifts the planet, shifts the culture, and shifts the future of humanity. Gold is the best monetary metal we've found. It is exceptional for several reasons that we will cover in future posts. However — in the century that has passed since our parting from the gold standard, one true innovation has happened: the invention of *absolute, digital scarcity.* Humanity has created the hardest, soundest money in our entire history. **Bitcoin.** Bitcoin may be the sound money standard that humanity needs to get its shit together and create a world of beauty, symbiosis, and regenerative flourishing for all. This period may indeed come to be known as The Bitcoin Standard. And if we do this right, and we do it quickly, it may very well become one of the greatest periods of the history of humanity. --- > “I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop.” – F.A. Hayek, 1984 --- ### Exploring the Bible of Modern Yoga: the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/yoga-sutras-patanjali/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:54.000Z > For those who have > > an intense urge for Spirit > > and wisdom, > > it sits near them, > > waiting. > > – Patanjali, Yoga Sutras, Book 1:21. ![Exploring the Bible of Modern Yoga: the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/0d483f6a-5461-4f4f-82b7-8032706fe4b3_728x410-jpeg.jpg) I'm a connoisseur of cultures. A sommelier of sacred texts. A disciple of direct experience. I love learning how different groups answer life's most fundamental question: *"What is going on here?"* This fascination has led me to several major schools of thought and practice throughout the past decade of story-hunting. Zen. Gnosticism. Shamanism. Buddhism. Christianity. Taoism. Hinduism. Islam. Atheism. Scientism. Stoicism. Yoga. **Surprisingly, Yoga is among the most impressive Way of Being and School of Thought I have come across in these metaphysical adventures.** The depth and comprehensiveness of its theoretical foundations and the accessibility of its practical techniques are unrivalled across the world and throughout history. **Yoga has a remarkable ability to root everything back in direct experience and provide a tailored pedagogical progression for committed practitioners.** Today, I want to share with you the 'Bible' of Modern Yoga. I want to introduce you to the deep philosophical underpinnings of yoga practice. The fact that so few of us, even relatively dedicated yoga practitioners, know about this seminal text astounds me. To practice yoga asana *(posture/poses)* without firmly establishing yourself in the worldview that the practice grew out of seems incomplete. [The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali](https://www.amazon.ca/Yoga-Sutras-Patanjali-Great-Respect/dp/1578632013/ref=sr%5F1%5F12?crid=14AYEJYADP0RB&keywords=yoga+sutras+of+patanjali&qid=1643909855&s=books&sprefix=yoga+sutras+of+patanja%2Cstripbooks%2C858&sr=1-12&ref=zenmedicine.co) is this text. This was the seed that the entire forest of modern yoga grew out of. When I come across something like that, I pay attention. In the future, I will also cover ‘[Inside the Yoga Sutras](https://www.amazon.ca/Inside-Yoga-Sutras-Comprehensive-Sourcebook-ebook/dp/B008E52GGE?ref=zenmedicine.co)’ – a technical exploration of the terminology, definitions, meanings, and interpretations of the pithy aphorisms of the Yoga Sutras. But before the technical, we explore the original and organic teachings. ## **Defining Yoga** Ask 100 people how to define yoga, and you’ll either get 100 completely different answers or the same singular answer. Something like *“watered-down exercise that bougie white women and weird Indian mystics do.”* This definition is, of course, disingenuous and completely off the mark. Starting with etymology, a direct translation of yoga is ‘union’. A joining, yoking, merging. What exactly are you unifying through yoga practice? Nothing less than the small self and the God Self. Consciousness and Cosmos. Atman and Brahman. Mind, Body, & Spirit. To achieve this grand unification, yoga employs a comprehensive bio-psycho-spiritual Way of Being. Yoga is not a religion. It is an orientation towards life. A complete set of practices designed to enable a developmental ladder within the individual towards these ultimate states of Self-Realization. **Yoga is an** [**embodied awakening stack**](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **that will take you all the way to abiding identification with exactly who and what you are.** Yoga may also be considered the process of evolving identity. In the Upanishads, one of the most ancient sacred texts of Hindu philosophy, 3 fundamentals truth claims are made: 1. There is a changeless, universal reality behind the entire world of changes. 2. This reality is also present inside of us. 3. The purpose of life is to find this reality inside and outside of yourself, and establish your identity firmly in this center. The Yoga Sutras are considered a unique *‘darshan’* — an entire worldview. This text has become 1 of the 6 recognized darshans in the Indian philosophical system. They present both a worldview, and also a set of landmarks, of milestones, that the individual may progress through as they move into deeper and deeper self-realization and re-identification. Personally, my favourite definition of Yoga is a “journey of the self, to the Self, through the self.” Far more than a set of physical postures, yoga is one of the most ancient and advanced schools of embodied awakening that exists. While not relying solely on theoretical or religious stipulations, it nevertheless has one of the most comprehensive maps and definitional repertoire of the awakening process I have come across. And all these seeds of modern yoga were planted by one man: Patanjali. ### Introduction to Patanjali Patanjali rightly deserves his title of the Father of Modern Yoga, insofar that the vast majority of yoga practice, techniques, and teachings today are built off of *ashtanga* yoga, or the 8 Limbs of Yoga *(ash = 8, tanga = limbs)*. The 8 Limbs were *his* creation. **Patanjali is to Yoga what the Buddha is to Buddhism.** This is not a text to take lightly. Written in a highly aphoristic and poetic style, sutra translates as *‘thread of wisdom’*. The yoga sutras become the threads of wisdom on yoga philosophy, meant for you to pull on and explore in your own practice and your direct experience. While comprehensive in its theory, these are not ideas, they are lived experiences available to the committed student. ## **Inside the Yoga Sutras** Each individual book of the Yoga Sutras has \~50 individual sutras. I have curated a selection from each chapter that I feel best provides a comprehensive overview of yogic philosophy without getting into too many details or nuances. This entire book can be read in a single sitting. If a single sutra resonates with you, I would urge you to sit down with this entire text and absorb it, and then take it into your individual *sadhana*, or personal practice. This specific translation from Mukunda Stiles is one of only dozens of translations. They have chosen to keep the translation light and poetic, and to honour this I have formatted the quotes exactly as they are presented in the book. Below each sutra I have added any commentary I think is necessary/helpful for context or additional elaboration. ### BOOK 1: ON BEING ABSORBED IN SPIRIT > 1.2 > > Yoga > > is experienced > > in that mind > > which has > > ceased > > to identify itself > > with its > > vacillating waves of perception. The definition of Yoga as stated by Patanjali. Yoga translates as union, so we read this as *"union/self-realization is experienced in the mind which no longer identifies as the ephemeral changes of thoughts and sense perceptions."* > 1.3 > > When this happens, > > then the Seer is revealed, > > resting in its own essential nature, > > and one realizes > > the True > > Self. The True Self, the Seer, the Atman, is like the sun. It is the light of awareness, that which illuminates the entirety of existence, always radiating its light. When you have, through practice and devotional surrender, quieted the mind and removed the clouds of false identification, the True Self is revealed — as it was there all along, just like the sun is always shining behind the clouds. > 1.4 > > At all other times, > > the Self > > appears > > to assume the form > > of thought’s > > vacillations > > and the True Self > > is lost. The essence of misidentification. You make an incorrect association of your True Identity as the ephemeral, changing waves of thoughts, beliefs, opinions, emotions, and sensory experiences. When this incorrect identification sets in, proper identification with your True Self is lost. > 1.20 > > For others > > who are not born > > with this thorough knowledge, > > being absorbed in Spirit > > is preceded by faith, > > indomitable vigor, > > and a mindfulness > > that is always concerned > > with the wisdom > > of Oneness. The pathway to Self-Realization. There are many stories throughout global history of spontaneous awakenings or natural giftedness, this is what Patanjali means by *"others who are not born with this thorough knowledge."* > 1.21 > > For those who have > > an intense urge for Spirit > > and wisdom, > > it sits near them, > > waiting. Awakening is available to all earnest seekers. It sits closer to you than your own skin. > 1.30 > > These nine obstacles > > to self-knowledge > > disrupt and scatter the mind — > > they are disease, > > dullness, > > doubt, > > negligence, > > laziness, > > dissipation due to excess craving, > > delusion, > > lack of the concentration > > necessary to achieve > > higher consciousness, > > and instability. Much of the *ashtanga*, the first 5 of the 8 Limbs of Yoga *(the 'external' limbs)*, are meant to help an individual root themselves firmly in their practice by addressing and avoiding these central obstacles to Self-Knowledge. > 1.41 > > One > > whose vacillations > > are steadily diminishing > > experiences the mind, > > as transparent, > > just as a high-quality gemstone > > reveals the form of objects > > placed near it. > > They attain > > a state of absorbtion > > wherein the knower, > > the experience of knowing, > > and the object of knowledge > > fuse > > into one > > indistinguishable > > subject-object. As more metaphysical truth claims arise, you must always remember: **everything in this book is a *direct experience of absolute Truth***. The merging of the perceiver, the perceived, and the act of perception is a very real and direct experience. This is an example of the milestones along the way, and you will know it without question when it happens to you. ### BOOK 2: ON PRACTICES FOR BEING IMMERSED IN SPIRIT > 2.1 > > The practical means > > for attaining higher consciousness > > consist of three components: > > self-discipline and purification, > > self-study, > > and devotion > > to the Lord. True to the title of this second book, we enter the realm of techniques and practices. Straightforward, one progresses in Self-Realization through commitment, awareness, and surrendered devotion. > 2.3 > > There are five > > primal causes of suffering: > > ignorance > > of your True Self > > and the value of spirituality; > > ego > > and its self-centredness; > > attachment to pleasure; > > aversion to pain; > > and clinging to life > > out of fear of death. Similar to its neighbouring cousin Buddhism, Yoga lays out the path for the cessation of *dukkha*, suffering or unsatisfactoriness. For Patanjali, these 5 perennial problems of being human are the roots of suffering. > 2.18 > > The seen has the qualities of > > luminosity, activity, and stability. > > It is embodied through the elements > > and the sense organs. > > It exists > > for the dual purpose of > > sensory enjoyment > > and liberation > > of the Self. The nature of the manifest/visible world. > 2.20 > > The Seer is > > pure consciousness only. > > Even though > > it appears to see > > by directing thoughts and concepts, > > it remains unchanged > > by the mind’s operations. The nature of the Self/Seer. > 2.21 > > For the sake > > of that Self alone > > does the seen world exist. **The devastatingly direct connection between Consciousness and Cosmos**. The manifest world of form and change exists solely for the Self and its playful liberation and ongoing evolution. > 2.29 > > Yoga’s eight component parts > > are self-control > > for social harmony, > > precepts > > for personal discipline, > > yoga pose, > > regulation of prana, > > withdrawal of the senses from their objects, > > contemplation of our true nature, > > meditation on the True Self, > > and being absorbed in Spirit. These are the 8 Limbs of Yoga. These few lines now inform millions of practitioners' lives. Loosely translated in order, they are the: *yamas* (don'ts), *niyamas* (do's), *asana* (postures), *pranayama* (breath), *pratyahara* (sense withdrawal), *dharana* (concentration), *dhyana* (meditation), & *samadhi* (oneness). The first 5 are the 'external' limbs of yoga, while the final 3 are the 'internal' limbs. The 8 limbs, practiced with devotion, comprise an entire path of Self-Realization. > 2.46 > > Yoga pose > > is a steady > > comfortable position. The definition of *asana*. This is the practice that has come to dominate the modern world of yoga. You'll notice this is only 1 of the 8 limbs of Yoga. Originally, yoga had far more meditation involved in it. Most of the original yoga 'asanas' were seated meditative postures. There is only one definition of what a true asana is: a steady, comfortable position. No fancy balances, no contorted twists are required. And in fact, too heavy of a focus on advanced physical postures can distract you from continuing down the path of Self-Realization. > 2.47 > > Yoga pose is mastered > > by relaxation of effort, > > lessening the tendency > > for restless breathing, > > and promoting an identification > > of oneself as living > > within > > the infinite breath of life. The technique for perfecting asana posture. Non-forcing, conscious breathing, and active re-identification. > 2.48 > > From that > > perfection of yoga posture, > > duality, > > such as reacting to praise and criticism, > > ceases > > to be a disturbance. With the mastering of *asana* and *pranayama* (posture and breath), an individual has completed the external 5 limbs of yoga and is prepared now to turn inward for contemplation on and realization of the True Self. ### BOOK 3: ON SUPERNATURAL ABILITIES AND GIFTS > 3.1 > > Contemplation > > is > > the confining > > of thought > > to one point. Also defined as 'concentration'. This is the essential starting point for meditative absorption. > 3.2 > > Meditation > > depends upon this > > foundation for directing thoughts > > into a continuous flow > > of awareness. Meditation is sustained direct concentration on a singular object, thought, or form. > 3.3 > > Being absorbed in Spirit > > is that consciousness, > > whose object is > > void of form or goal > > and only the > > essence of the object > > remains > > shining forth. Through direct meditation on the formless space between thoughts, one arrives at meditative absorption with essences. > 3.4 > > Samyama > > occurs when these three processes > > flow together harmoniously, > > integrating the full spectrum > > of the mind’s potential. *Samyama* is the combination of the three previous techniques and becomes the foundation for *samadhi* (awakening/insight) experiences. Samyama is the combination of turning the senses inward, focused concentration, and sustained meditation as a singular process. > 3.21 > > By the practice of samyama > > on the form of your body, > > you disappear, > > as you suspend > > the receptive power of light > > from being received > > by others’ eyes. Several demonstrations of *siddhi's* (superpowers) are given. These are the byproducts of samyama practice on specific ideas, objectives, or thoughts. It is important to remember that these are not only ideas or fancy flourishes. These are real experiences. If you'd like to explore stories like these in more detail, I recommend '[Autobiography of a Yogi](https://www.amazon.ca/Autobiography-Yogi-Paramahansa-Yogananda/dp/0876120796/?ref=zenmedicine.co)' by Paramahansa Yogananda. > 3.24 > > By the practice of samyama > > on friendliness and other virtues, > > one gains their full power. The only true way to Know something is to Be the thing. The practice of samyama on an object leads to the merging of subject-object experience as discussed earlier, so the absolute essence of the thing is Known. > 3.25 > > By the practice of samyama > > on the strength of an elephant > > and the virtues of > > other animals, > > one gains corresponding strengths > > and other virtues. True to its focus on the unification of Consciousness and Cosmos – Yoga frequently weaves in examples from the natural world. You see this in things like Eagle Pose, Lizard Pose, Mountain Pose, Tree Pose, and other asanas. > 3.30 > > By the practice of samyama > > on the navel’s psychic center, > > knowledge > > of the organization and functions > > of the body > > arises. Both discriminative knowledge and 'superpowers' are the byproducts of samyama practice. > 3.31 > > By the practice of samyama > > on the cavity > > of the throat, > > hunger and thirst cease. Dedicated samyama practice begins to cultivate mastery of the physical world. This is still discussing the siddhi's, or superpowers, and they are well documented throughout yogic history. > 3.36 > > The lucid mind and > > the Transcendental Self > > are absolutely distinct. > > The mind directs awareness > > for the sake of > > sensual experiences. > > The Self exists for its own sake > > and remains separate. > > Without distinguishing this difference, > > worldly experience happens. > > By the practice of samyama > > on this distinction, > > knowledge of the Self > > is gained. When samyama is applied to the nature of experience, true knowledge of Self arises. > 3.38 > > These gifts > > are impediments > > to being absorbed in Spirit, > > but they are seen > > as the attainment of perfection > > to the > > worldly minded. **This is a fundamentally important point.** It applies to any spiritual practitioner of any faith or practice. It is very easy to get caught up in ego games with the development of insight, superpowers, or advanced mastery of specific domains. However, these 'achievements' become distractions from the true goal of Yoga and spirituality, which is union with the True Self. > 3.46 > > From this arises > > attainments, > > like becoming minute, > > creating a sense of wealth > > from the perfection > > of one’s attributes. > > Then the body is > > not an obstruction > > on the journey > > to self-realization. Samyama is done to assist with the process of Self-Realization. Nothing more, nothing less. It is a necessary part of the process, and the siddhis are the outcomes of this practice. One must not lose sight of the end goal. > 3.47 > > The wealth of perfections > > thus acquired include > > beauty, gracefulness, > > strength, and the > > extraordinary durability > > of a diamond. Outcomes of deep samyama practices and the siddhis. > 3.52 > > Even when the highest celestial beings > > admire you, > > you should once again avoid > > attachment > > and the resulting pride, > > because of the potential for the > > revival of the > > undesirable. Avoiding the trap of the spiritual ego. > 3.53 > > By the practice of samyama > > on the moments of time > > and its orderly succession > > one gains knowledge > > born of discrimination. Discriminative knowledge is a foundation of yoga practice. It is only through refined discriminatory capacities can one being to separate the Self from the self and find the suitable location for re-identification. > 3.55 > > Thus, > > knowledge > > born of discrimination > > is the liberator > > unto absolute freedom; > > it recognizes all objects > > in all conditions as the Self, > > regardless of their > > sequential appearance. When a practice, deeply rooted, helps an individual develop steady-state discriminative capacities, the complete liberation and unification of the self with the Self becomes possible. ### BOOK 4: ON ABSOLUTE FREEDOM > 4.1 > > Supernatural powers > > can result from > > an exalted birth, > > magical herbs, > > mantras, > > intense spiritual practice, > > or absorption into Spirit. You can't ignore the fact that the Bible of Yoga points to the use of magical herbs to develop supernatural powers and insights. > 4.4 > > Solely from the > > sense of individuality > > are mental fabrications produced. **This is one of the most important sutras.** This is the fundamental origins of the ego and the small linear, narrative self. From the illusory seed of separation, mental fabrications and narrative structures arise. > 4.5 > > There is a multiplicity > > of activities of the mind, > > yet one thought > > is the originator > > of the diversity > > of thoughts. Instead of trimming the branches of thought and narrative, you address the root directly – the story of the separate and isolated individual self. > 4.19 > > Thought is an object > > and therefore > > cannot > > illuminate itself. All thought is an object within awareness. The entire story of the narrative self and separated individual are objects and therefore cannot be base reality. There is something more fundamental to identity, that which is aware of the thought – the True Self – pure consciousness. > 4.22 > > An evolved consciousness > > experiences one’s own Self > > by the reflection of the > > changeless Self > > arising as the > > field of consciousness. > > In that form, > > the Self > > is known. This returns us to the 3 fundamental Truths of the Upanishads: 1. There is a changeless reality behind the world of changes. 2. This reality is present in you. 3. The goal is to root your identity within that recognition. > 4.29 > > One who is free of self-interest, > > even from the attainment of > > the highest realizations, > > and who possesses > > constant discrimination > > is showered with virtues > > from being > > absorbed in Spirit. Spirit generates all abundance, all potentiality, all experience, all virtue, All That Is. Of course, total immersion within Spirit leads inevitably to these. > 4.30 > > From this > > comes a > > cessation of obstacles > > and > > karmic patterns. Absorption in Spirit attains what is known as *"actions without seed"* in the yogic philosophical schools. Actions without seed are free of karmic inheritance, and allow you to break the cycle of *samsara* (death/rebirth). > 4.34 > > Absolute freedom results > > when the primal natural forces, > > having no further purpose to serve, > > become re-absorbed > > to the source of all, > > or > > when the power of pure consciousness > > becomes established in its > > own essential nature. This is the final sutra of the Yoga Sutras. A beautiful, poetic ending showing the result of the 8 Limbs. Establishing Consciousness within its own nature, the origin moment-place of Absolute Freedom. --- ### True Spirituality is Sacred Suicide URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/true-spirituality/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:55.000Z > "Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretense. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true." ― Adyashanti ![True Spirituality is Sacred Suicide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/36bdf5d9-f9d6-46c7-81eb-cbf55dd2915b_1555x651-jpeg.jpg) **The Absolute Truth of Reality illuminates existence like the sun radiates light.** It is not kept hidden from anyone. It is not selective. There is no owner or regulator or secret keeper of Truth. No single entity or organization has exclusive access to Enlightenment. It is as accessible to you as it is accessible to all beings. The only thing blocking you from basking in the glorious radiance of Absolute Truth are the obstacles in your way — the clouds in the sky. The spiritual path then, the journey of self-realization, has absolutely nothing to do with adding or gaining anything. The direct path to true awakening is removing any obstacles that prevent you from standing naked in the loving warmth of the Reality of Existence. True spirituality is the path and process of removing the obstacles, real or imagined, that prevent the Light of Illumination from being revealed to you. **The single and most fundamental obstacle that prevents you from realizing this already-existent reality is the illusion of the separate self.** From this one single seed, this core idea of separation, spawns the innumerable series of delusions, distractions, and obstacles that prevent Self-Realization as the Essence of All That Is. **The small self, the illusory idea of the ego, cannot survive the mature spiritual process.** The death of the ego is the only real death that is possible. Because you identify so fully and completely with the narrative structure of the ego, the spiritual path is experienced as a death process. The earnest spiritual seeker is in a death pact with themselves. They are on a suicidal mission. It is sacred seppuku, the ritual suicides known to Japanese samurai. > "Meditation is not the growth of ego, it is the death of ego." — Rajneesh Nirvana, a term commonly used for enlightenment, the liberation from samsara (the endless cycle of birth/death), is translated as the 'blown out' state. You permanently extinguish the candle of the separate self. This final death is total and complete. It includes the death of: personal identity, beliefs, knowledge, history, time, relationships, subject/object separation. These are the core pillars of the ego/separate self. **A common way to spot a charlatan masquerading as awakened is whether they claim ownership, or personal completion, of this awakening process.** There is no individual who becomes enlightened. Reality awakens to Reality. Consciousness becomes aware of Itself as the Totality and Bedrock of Being. In Hindu mythology, the veils of maya (illusion) are what, through *avidya* (spiritual ignorance) prevent this realization of the True Self. There are said to be tens of thousands of veils that one must burn through. This is why the awakening journey is often viewed as a path or process. It can take earnest seekers many lifetimes to remove the veils that cloud the clear seeing of Self as All. Given this, it is best to take the most direct path possible. **The direct path of awakening is to fundamentally eradicate all obstacles that prevent the realization of the True Self as the Essence of All That Is.** > “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” — Pema Chodron Most individuals when confronted with difficult challenges (and the permanent death of the small self is a great challenge) find coping mechanisms to soothe and comfort themselves — the spiritual community is no different. The slow death process of awakening is uncomfortable, to say the least. When the momentary pain of the path becomes overwhelming to the individual, they comfort themselves in myriad ways. Despite claiming that these are essential to their process, they are in fact nothing more than distractions or games. Many coping/distraction mechanisms exist: - **Accumulation of Anchors.** As the death process is inherently destabilizing, individuals will seek 'solid ground' by accumulating anchors that help comfort them. These anchors may take the form of the number of ceremonies they've done, crystals, trinkets, & clothing, fancy awakening stories, a multiplicity of spiritual techniques or methods, and much more. The act of accumulation is a distraction from the process, which is only concerned with removing obstacles. - **Comparison to Others.** To comfort themselves, they may begin to compare themselves to those who are 'less awakened'. It doesn't matter where anyone else is in their process. Either you have realized the Truth of What You Are or you haven't. Comparison moves you no closer to Self-Realization. - **Distraction with Superfluousness.** Individuals may distract themselves (spiritual procrastination) out of fear of safety. Distraction may take the form of pursuing peak experiences, altered states of consciousness, conscious communities, and more. It's important to note that these individual experiences may be truly beneficial in removing further obstacles, and it is up to the individual themselves to determine whether this is rooted in distraction or because it is the next aligned action on their journey of awakening. - **Self-deception/bullshitting/bypassing.** There are many ways individuals can deceive themselves, creating elaborate narrative fabrications to avoid looking deeply at the next difficult step in their path. These mental fabrications may sound like, "I'm already done," "The path doesn't actually end," "I feel good enough,". All of these are self-deceptions and hinder further progress. - **Shutting down.** Due to the immense psycho-spiritual pressure that comes along with the slow death march of the ego, periods of 'shutting down' may occur, sidelining progress because the mind-body-spirit complex lacks the present capacity or willingness to continue forward. These pauses are temporary but can cause many individuals to give up and stop seeking altogether. Shutting down may take the form of emotional numbness, lethargy, depression, persistent mental fog, or manifesting physical illness. > "Know yourself as nothing; feel yourself as everything." – Rupert Spira There is a critically important piece missing from much of the general conversation around spiritual work and the awakening process. It is easy to paint the blown-out, egoless state as dull, void, dark, disgusting, morbid, fatal, empty, and undesirable. Straw man depictions of impotent, celibate crazy people are thrown around willingly. **The missing piece of this conversation is that the Enlightened state, the blowing out of the illusion of the individual self, is glorious.** As Alan Watts said, "Reality is gorgeous. It is the plenum of total joy." This state is full, vibrant, generative, vital, enriching, safe, and immensely powerful. The awakening of consciousness to itself enables the full strength, beauty, power, and grace of existence to become available. Reality itself is unlocked and allowed to rush through in all its glory, now that it is no longer being systematically filtered, judged, and commentated on by the artificial arbiter of experience. The Sum Total of Being itself is not empty. It is pregnant with the infinite potential of the Unmanifested Love of God. It is the wellspring, the very source of all power, beauty, energy, and grace. And when the time comes, where through willingness, commitment, and dedication, you come to the abiding realization of your True Self as nothing less than the Fabric and Nature of Existence Itself — you will know without a shadow of a doubt that there is no mistake you can make, no way you can fail; there is nothing you need for nothing can harm you, death is an illusion, and that everything that is made of Light is made of You. This is your True Nature. This is Self-Realization. This is your Birthright. Your original face. It is available to you. Right here. Right now. It always has been. For it is the exact context that the content of your life unfolds within. All it takes for you to bask in the vast glory of the miracle of existence is to pull back the curtains. Blow out the candle of the small self, and bask in the Infinite, Immediate, Unmanifested Totality of your true God Self. Any spiritual work you do outside of this realization is a distraction. True Spirituality is Sacred Suicide. --- ![True Spirituality is Sacred Suicide](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5f8ee408-593b-4e4a-b25a-17a015817a5c_2000x314.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Ceremony is the New Punk URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/punk/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:55.000Z Ceremony is the new punk. Self-sovereignty is the new counterculture. Personal responsibility is the new alternative. In a system predicated on total control, attempting to automate and regulate every aspect of your existence — cultivating self-sovereignty and personal autonomy becomes the most rebellious act. In a culture normalizing nanny-states, fostering masses of individuals completely incapable and unwilling to do anything themselves and accept no responsibility – cultivating your own strength goes against the grain. **When all of society is checking out, only the misfit checks back in.** When everyone has sacrificed their dreams at the altar of conformity, the dreamers and believers become the non-conformists. They recognize that the obstacle is the way, and these revolutionaries of the future are going to do something about it. > “It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti When society is sick, the healed and whole become the outcasts. They exude an energetic field so strong it burns away the collective shadow. Most are unwilling to walk through the fires of purification. Instead, they ostracize those who are lit up. They try to cancel the truly activated. Unwilling to look at how small their own cage has become, they cast off the beacons of light as outcasts, misfits, and domestic terrorists. The punk countercultural movement was the visible face of alternative social commentary. A brash mirror held up against society to have a hard look at, and demonstrate a different way of being. The angry activist archetype is flawed in many ways — leaving a void between what they don’t want and the world they want to live in. It never provides a solution to the problem, it only points out other wrong answers to the question. Ceremony and self-sovereignty are different. **Warriors of the heart take a different approach — they show up and create the solution.** They live the solution. Their lives are their answer. They deeply embody the reality and the energetic frequency of the future-present they know is possible. They live the world and reality they want to be in right now. They’re not waiting. They make it happen. This is magic at work. The drum is beating. The death spiral of society is well underway. A mass psychosis, sleepwalking towards Armageddon. Ceremony is one of the purest embodiments of this alternative way of being. Revitalizing the sacred in a world of the mundane. Bringing intention back to action. Mindfulness over mindlessness. Symbiosis with the natural world instead of domination. Taking personal responsibility, instead of deflecting blame onto others. **You can hear the call, can’t you?** The slow and steady call to arms. The Warriors of the Heart are gathering. To demonstrate a new collective way of being so bright, bold, and beautiful it shakes society out of its drunken, medicated stupor. But the process of self-realization is not easy. The fires of purification burn hot. The lessons in the School of Life required to unlearn decades of programming are daunting. The path is not easy, but nothing easy is ever worthwhile. **This is a path only fit for the punks. The rebels. The revolutionaries. The warriors.** Live, embody, and integrate the wisdom that ceremony provides. Re-enchant existence with your very Way of Being. Live in alignment with the generative potential that animates all of existence. This is your sacred duty. This is the calling nested in the drum beat, the great unifying heartbeat. > "The Warrior's heart beats as one heart." — Don Howard When the masses and the antagonists are all still playing different versions of the same game – the real revolutionaries transcend the existing system — they are neither for nor against it — they simply move beyond, without an acknowledgement or concern. They are living the world that their hearts know is possible. **The new punks are the ones who affirm life. Who choose every moment. Who lean into the challenge. Who see the sacred in all things. Who decides to be the change. Who surrender to the process. Those who allow Life to animate and activate them.** In a society that profits from your pain — self-love and self-responsibility are truly revolutionary acts. To take responsibility for your life and your actions — this is how true Progress is made. Treating life, humanity, and nature as sacred in a world of the profane and the mundane — these are the moves that make a difference. This is how new worlds are born. This game is the opportunity of a lifetime — act accordingly. The sovereign become the rebels. The pirates of society will be the ones to save it. And in a society that has lost its mind, its heart, its soul, and its way, I'm happy to be an outcast. A rebel. A revolutionary. A warrior. Ceremony is the new punk. Welcome to the party, brother. --- ![Ceremony is the New Punk](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/dc058648-e711-46d3-a436-71d2aaf39a6b_2000x314.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. *I will be honouring the 1 tree planted per member until 12/31\. If you'd like to plant a tree for free, all you need to do is sign up. :)* [Join the Adventure](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co#/portal/signup/free) --- ### How to Cultivate True Genius URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/genius/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:56.000Z **Genius is your true nature.** Life is the archetypal genius. That which does all things, without effort, on time, without fail. You are a part of Nature. Indeed you are Nature. You are the archetypal genius. It is sewn into your bones. Maturity is the process of bringing your unconscious essence, your innate genius, into conscious awareness and giving that to the world. It is not losing the creative brilliance of childhood, it is learning to wield it effectively. To master genius itself. This is true Self-Realization. Recognizing the innate genius in all things, including yourself. One of the ways genius is expressed is through ideas. Many want to steward our brilliance through gifts we create in the world. But there’s a catch. A hidden secret that has been blocking your brilliance. **The secret is: only that which arises naturally and spontaneously through your Being is your true Genius.** Your genius is not the actions you take as response to conditioning, not the ‘socially acceptable’ way of acting, not the norms and standards of your culture and society. There is a 3 step process to birthing true Genius. It begins on the Mountaintop, moves into the Monastery, and ends in the Marketplace. Most skip the first two steps, or don’t even know that they exist. This is why we lose Genius. True Genius must arise and emerge from you like a seed grows out of the ground. ![How to Cultivate True Genius](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/045e921f-5a05-415c-bc19-e42cb9d23f29_728x455-jpeg.jpg) ## **🏔 The Mountaintop** **You begin on the mountaintop.** You must remove yourself from external influence. Find seclusion on the mountaintop, invite deep silence and stillness, and seek that which arises naturally. This is your Genius speaking. Genius arises from the core of Being. It calls to you. To find your Genius, you must remove the chains of identity that restrict your natural essence. You must leave society. Drop your labels and identities of Son, Husband, Father, Citizen, Colleague, Person, Human. You must drop your Person-ality. This process is only done in isolation. This is why all true Genius begins on the mountaintop, deep in the jungle, the cabin in the woods, or similar circumstances. Remove external stimuli and influence from your life as thoroughly as possible. You must be in a receptive state. You cannot receive when you are busy acting, busy “making something of yourself”, busy “becoming somebody”. You must become nobody. Rest as the silent witness of the emergent Genius. From this still silence, from the depths of your Being, from the natural evolution of emergence — Genius is born. It comes without fail, just as the sun rises each day anew. Genius surfaces within you, waiting for you to notice it. Once the Spark of Genius is born, the Sage descends from the Mountaintop and enters the Monastery. ![How to Cultivate True Genius](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4c710411-7a7c-4557-a760-cea6a24c120a_2000x1003-jpeg.jpg) ## **⛩ The Monastery** **It is only through sacred stewardship that this Spark becomes a brilliant inferno. The Monastery is the space for this.** Our Sage, having experienced the Spark of Genius, filled with the vital life force that animates all Life, enters the Monastery to cultivate this spark. The individual nurtures this idea. Refining it over and over again, cultivating the most pure, authentic expression of the idea. Absorbing it fully into their Being, understanding its Essence, and Mastering the very idea itself. The structured pursuit of a Way of Being, the disciplined cultivation of this School of Thought, is how true genius matures. It is a Dojo of Development. Together with a small community of practitioners, all the imperfections, all of the impurities in the Genius idea are hammered out. It is sharpened like a katana. It is refined over months and years to become the true Force of Nature that it is. It is examined from every perspective, every aspect of it trialled and tested. Moving through stages of Mastery, the idea is refined through the trials of Life and moves up the ranks. The idea matures from the spark of potential into an entire School of Thought, a complete Way of Being. At this time, the Genius is ready for introduction to the world, it is prepared to enter the Marketplace. ![How to Cultivate True Genius](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/4164bb34-a21e-460f-8e3b-1decae252678_1200x604-jpeg.jpg) ## **🏺 The Marketplace** **The Genius then enters the Marketplace, introducing this idea to the public, to the masses.** Having withstood the true Test of Time, having passed through the Dojo of Development, the spark of Genius has been cultivated into the Brilliant Diamond of a Gift. Refined by time, given value through exceptional Effort, the Marketplace is where the idea is released back into the world. Given as a gift from life to Life. At this point the Steward has completed their duty. They have cultivated the Spark of Genius into a Gift for Humanity. The Marketplace is the final step for true Genius. Never the starting point. Any idea that begins in the marketplace is already outdated. It is weak and incomplete, for it did not emerge naturally from Genius. It was not tested and refined through the Monastery – it is outdated the moment it is born. Any community that depends on Ideas of the Marketplace is destined to decay. For they are endless copies of outdated genius. True potential is when the Genius activates something new in an individual. A flash of Insight, an Inner Vision, a Deep Knowing awakens in an individual, and something new is sensed. It’s not clear what that vision is yet. But something has come to Life. Upon this experience, the individual embarks on a journey. Leaving the marketplace, leaving society, the Inspired Individual climbs to the Mountain top. They begin cultivating their own Genius. This is the emergence of Genius over generations. This is Life. --- *If you'd like to create a Culture of Genius, join us:* ### Overcoming Addiction: Physiological, Psycho-Somatic, & Ontological Patterns URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/addiction/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:57.000Z I have flirted with several addictive patterns in my life. Validation, marijuana, nicotine, video games, pornography, cocaine, psychedelics, and work. Though I'm happy to say now that there is no substance, distraction, or activity that binds me in the throws of addiction. A solution for depression, an antidote to working culture, or chasing transcendent experiences — I’m no stranger to the chains of addictive tendencies. No one is. **We are a culture of addicts. Alcohol. Caffeine. Pills. Clothes. Posts. Endlessly searching for external remedies to fill internal voids.** I also work with people to treat addictive patterns, helping individuals cultivate wholeness, find themselves, and reclaim their sovereignty. I have clinical, mystical, energetic, and experiential history navigating addiction in myself and in others. **Addiction in any form is problematic.** Its deeper origins point to a symptom of perhaps the most fundamental problem we face — separation from self, and as a result, separation from the world. This lack of wholeness drives nearly every corrosive way of being you can find in the current meta-crisis. This essay explores the nature of addiction, the forms of addictive patterns, and provides specific tools and techniques to eradicate addiction and addictive patterns permanently. ![Overcoming Addiction: Physiological, Psycho-Somatic, & Ontological Patterns](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/89ad7e5e-3551-4de0-895a-2782704a89d9_800x600.gif) ## 💊 Defining Addiction > "Addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences." — ASAM, the [American Society of Addiction Medicine](https://www.asam.org/Quality-Science/definition-of-addiction?ref=zenmedicine.co). Addiction, as we will see, is far more than a medical disease that operates solely at the level of biochemistry and environmental contexts. It is psychological, and indeed metaphysical at its core. I have deep respect for the work of [Dr. Gabor Maté](https://drgabormate.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), who brings together these two worlds, as an addiction and trauma expert. Dr. Maté shares this definition: > “An addiction is any behaviour that a person finds relief in the short term, but craves and suffers negative consequences, and cannot give it up.” – Dr. Gabor Maté Dr. Maté states that in the life of any addicted person, you find trauma. Trauma is fundamentally a separation from yourself. This separation becomes necessary because it is too painful to be yourself. Dr. Maté's work digs deeper into root causes. The question is not why the addiction, but why the pain? How have we created a culture that reliably breaks people and is incapable of healing them? According to Dr. Maté, there are two fundamental addiction myths we have: 1. Addiction is a choice, and therefore the individuals responsibility. Addicts are/should be punished for being addicted. 2. It’s an inherited disease, a biological disorder of the brain. These are myths. Addiction isn't a problem, it's a solution. A remedy for great pain. The problem is the culture that so systematically and completely creates pain in individuals. ### 💉 Examples of Addiction There are classic scapegoats of addiction, that most individuals use as a way to defer the responsibility or severity of their own addictions. **'Classic addictions' include meth, opioids, cigarettes, cocaine — “the hard drugs” writ large.** These are scapegoated and used as examples because of the immediacy and obviousness of the vicious cycle. Addiction is one of the best examples of [negative strange loops](http://edgeofbeing.org/introduction/?ref=zenmedicine.co), something we've covered in detail in this publication. Overdoses, homelessness, psychosis — the effects of addiction in the hard drugs are obvious and apparent. But according to the definitions of addiction, there’s nothing that restricts addiction to substance-use disorders. Any corrosive or habituated pattern of behaviour can become an addiction. **Examples of modern addictions include: validation, procrastination, video games, social media, pornography, fast food, gambling, the internet, having sex, self-abuse, wealth accumulation, exercise, work, marijuana, shopping, technology, caffeine.** > Western culture itself is an addiction machine. Anything that is extremely popular and accepted by the mainstream has addictive mechanisms at the core of it. Status in society, making money, consumerist lifestyles, influencer culture, the dominance of social media — all of these have skyrocketed to widespread acceptance because of the addictive mechanisms built into how they operate in the world. Because the culture has scapegoated hard drugs, individuals defer the responsibility and admission of their own deeply ingrained addictions. These are often overlooked because the vicious downward spiral of addiction with other experiences are more subtle, easily overlooked, and passed off on the chain of responsibility. One of the reasons we overlook these addictions is because they can often fall outside the scope of how individuals normally define addiction — namely physical dependency on a substance. Let’s expand this definition, and take a look at 3 types of addiction. ![Overcoming Addiction: Physiological, Psycho-Somatic, & Ontological Patterns](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/be095e66-0c6a-4bf8-a7b8-b497487b37c7_800x600.gif) ## 🔬 3 Types of Addiction These are not explicit and mutually-exclusive categories: many addictive experiences can fall into multiple types. The more types they cover, the harder the addiction is to break. ### 🩸 Physical Dependency The normally harmonious functioning of the physiology is disrupted by the introduction of foreign substances, altering homeostatic equilibria where the body becomes dependent on an external substance to function correctly, while also increasing tolerance, requiring greater doses to maintain pseudo-equilibrium. When the external substance is no longer present, the body has a reactive process known as withdrawal. Depending on the specific compound, whether it’s cocaine or caffeine, the withdrawals can take many forms, with varying levels of intensity: from mild discomfort, to insomnia, to death. Physical dependency is what most individuals define as addiction. ### 🧠 Psycho-Somatic **Psycho-somatic addiction is a mental/emotional/physiological dependency on an action or habit.** This is the next great wave we will need to contend with. Marijuana falls directly into this category, among many other subtle addictions like shopping and video games. Though marijuana has no physical dependency *(one of the reasons it was legalized in several countries)* it certainly has psycho-somatic addictive properties. Psycho-somatic addiction looks like “once I do X, then I’ll be ready.” Or “just one more, and then I’ll feel fine.” *"Just let me smoke a joint and I’ll start my day. I can’t go to bed until I’ve played my game. If I buy that bag then I’ll feel better. Porn is the only way I can truly relax my body to fall asleep."* The signs of psycho-somatic addiction are rampant in society if you’re looking for them. Psycho-somatic addiction is a dependency on routine, on the muscle memory of certain actions, and the outcomes of those actions. Video games provide dopamine, just like social media, and easily lure young children into addictive tendencies immediately and without mercy. Psycho-somatic addictions create a way of being where the individual doesn't feel normal, complete, or prepared unless they have completed it. ### 🌀 Ontological Ontological addiction is the most nuanced and difficult to overcome. Ontology is the study of the nature of Being. How someone relates to all of Reality. Ontological addiction is present in the psychedelic, religious, and philosophical spaces. **Ontological addiction is a dependency on “the more beautiful reality”, whether traversing inner landscapes of mind in philosophy, the safety and seclusion of immaterial ideas/knowledge, or through the transcendent ecstasy of the psychedelic experience.** After piercing the veil, exiting the matrix, or seeing the true face of God, it's very hard for individuals to return to “the normal world” and remain content. They often chase the next ceremony, the next trip, the next glimpse of God. The same applies to the festival/retreat circuits as well, where individuals view these as “the peak human experience” and orient their entire lives around getting the next dose of digitally or physically mediated self-transcendence. Burnt-out, washed-up zombies return to the wishing well, time and time again, like moths to the flame. Reality and Life itself become mundane, greyscale, untrue illusions. > "The Mirror of Erised is an ancient, ornate mirror. It has clawed feet and a gold frame inscribed with the phrase 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.' The mirror shows the most desperate desire of a person's heart, a vision that has been known to drive men mad." — Dumbledore In Harry Potter, Dumbledore warns Harry of this mirror — men have lost themselves in front of this mirror, fading away, never leaving as they are fully and wholly absorbed in the beautiful illusion of desire. This is the nature of Ontological Addiction — and it is a tough one to crack. Fortunately, addiction is not a death sentence. ![Overcoming Addiction: Physiological, Psycho-Somatic, & Ontological Patterns](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7e0b2a50-ee04-463b-bd3e-796edec66c26_400x300.gif) ## ⚔️ Addiction x Sovereignty **Addiction fundamentally erodes sovereignty.** It removes your power and places it in firmly in the grasp of external situations, places, people, substances, or things. This is paradoxical, because many of the most “successful” people in modern culture have become successful by catering deeply to their addictions. Their addiction to work, to success, to exercise, to suffering. The examples are everywhere if you look. Most people don’t view this as a problem. “Well working a lot isn’t *that* bad.” It doesn’t qualify as an addiction, it’s not a real problem. **This isn't true. We have made the case in** [**Cultural Architecture**](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **that we need a holistic and highly agentic population to steward humanity forward into a future it can survive and thrive within.** All addiction originates from lack. An existential neediness. A state of scarcity, of wounding, of trauma, of emptiness. Any actions coming from that are plagued by those intentions. > For a holistic, healthy population and culture to emerge, it *must* and indeed *can only* emerge from healthy, holistic individuals. **Addictive patterns are antithetical to the culture we are being called to create.** Any addiction, every addiction, must be healed. Not for the addiction itself, but because addiction is a response to pain, to emptiness, to incompleteness. It is this emptiness that we must heal. If we heal the emptiness, we will heal the addictions. ![Overcoming Addiction: Physiological, Psycho-Somatic, & Ontological Patterns](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/496b1fb1-c858-4f84-add6-e8cacb18c83f_800x600.gif) ## 🌱 Overcoming Addiction It’s entirely possible to overcome addiction. You can overcome every single form of addiction we have explored thus far. From physical dependency through the sacred wishing wells of ontological addiction — healing the addiction, the patterns of behaviour, and the fundamental emptiness that gives rise to them. There are several primary principles to healing emptiness and addiction: - **💛 Cultivating Wholeness:** Returning to wholeness is the only thing you must achieve. This is a complete bio-psycho-spiritual process of addressing outstanding areas and addressing them with love and systematic rigour. Health, finances, relationships, trauma, meaningful work, growth — everything must be considered. A healthy, healed, and whole person can partake of any of the experiences or substances that cause addiction and not become addicted, for there is nowhere for these activities to sink their hooks into, no emptiness for them to remedy. - **🌲 Environment & Context:** Identity-level transformation is a difficult process at the best of times. Put someone in a space filled with wholeness, good relationships, healthy food, engaging activities, and they will naturally return to their natural state. Humans are homeostatic virtuosos, unless acted on from an external force, the human always returns to wholeness. However, modern society is about the furthest context from this as possible. This is the infamous [Rat Park experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat%5FPark?ref=zenmedicine.co). If you put a rat in a dingy cage, with a bottle of water and a bottle of cocaine, the rat will ingest cocaine until it dies. However, if you put a rat in a wonderland for rodents, complete with games and friends and healthy food, even with cocaine present, the rat will never become addicted, and oftentimes won’t even use it. This is the true power of contextual shifts for overcoming addiction. - **🔁 Substitutions:** While radical change is always possible, in the forms of major environmental shifts, substitutions are the incremental compliment. Slowly, at near sub-perceptual levels, substitute undesirable behaviours for more aligned ones. No TV on Friday evenings. Fruit salad instead of ice cream. Done slowly enough, the human adapts and over a period of weeks or months, everything has shifted. Finding small substitutions for behaviours, substances, and activities is the slow and sustainable way to overcome addiction. - **🌟 Willpower:** Every single addiction can be broken through force of will alone. The hardest to break with willpower are physical dependencies, as the withdrawals can be extremely debilitating. However, 'cold turkey' stories exist for every substance available. At any moment, you can gather your strength, your honour, and the force of your will and declare that you are done. The declaration is necessary, but the true test comes in the following weeks when the cravings and addictive patterns of behaviour reemerge. - **🐸 Cleanses:** Deep cleanses to initiate the process of breaking addictions are helpful and available for any type of addiction. If you’re addicted to shopping, get rid of all credit cards and donate 90% of your possessions. If you’re addicted to heroin, seek iboga treatments which cleanse the nervous system and get rid of withdrawals after single dosing sessions. If you’re addicted to video games, sell all of your consoles. Whether physical, psycho-somatic, or ontological, deep cleanses to begin the process are major catalysts. Tools like minimalism, kambo, iboga, and meditation retreats are all effective cleanses to begin the process. **When you combine these mechanisms to overcome addiction, you will be unstoppable. You will be able to overcome any addiction.** If you'd like assistance with this, refer to the [Hedonic Engineering protocols](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co), as these can be tailored for addiction. [Death practices](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/death-practices/?ref=zenmedicine.co) are helpful in removing the attachment to the addict identity, to the necessity for crutches, and to the narrative of incompleteness and emptiness that dominates the addict persona. A declaration and commitment of your will, a major cleanse to initiate the process, finding and addressing all areas out of alignment, making small and consistent substitutions, and finding pro-social environmental shifts will eradicate the addiction itself, dampen or remove the pattern of behaviour, and push the individual in the direction of more aligned ways of being. ## 🐲 Your Turn Like any other significant work, identity-level transformation is challenging. Particularly when it's working on deeply ingrained bio-psycho-spiritual systems like addiction does. But if you wish to begin playing the [Infinite Game](http://edgeofbeing.org/finite-infinite-games/?ref=zenmedicine.co), to take your seat at the table of the evolution of humanity, you must address your addictions and reclaim your sovereignty. It is possible to overcome every addiction. **The first step is admitting it. Admit to yourself what you are addicted to. Find the void that it feeds, and create a tailored growth stack to address this. It is necessary work. This is the maturation process in action.** You can do this. I believe in you. I love you. 💛 ### Thank You, Covid. URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/thank-you-covid/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:58.000Z > "I'd invite you to explore this piece with an open mind. To listen from the heart for the energetic imprint being conveyed here beyond the words themselves. Written with love. 💛" ## 🙏🏻 Thank you, Covid. ![Thank You, Covid.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e70f24fd-f302-483b-b606-cb18803ffa92_1200x575-jpeg.jpg) Thank you for illuminating our widespread complacency. Thank you for bringing to light the inadequacy of our institutions. Thank you for highlighting the incompetency of our leadership and governments. Thank you for surfacing the limitations of modern science. Thank you for making us confront the reality of mortality. Thank you for showing us the meaninglessness of most work. Thank you for reminding us of what is truly important. Thank you for bringing about an apocalypse, literally the ‘great revealing’ — so that we might truly understand that the armageddon, the ‘end of days’, is at our doorstep. We have been sleepwalking towards armageddon for some time now. A thorough and complete reawakening is needed. Thank you for taking on that responsibility. Thank you for shaking us out of the collective trance we have been in. Thank you for helping us see how powerful the individual is, and how much dedicated groups are capable of. Thank you for demonstrating the true power of nature. Thank you for teaching us how to live, how to love, and how to act. Thank you for allowing us to sharpen our skills of sense-making, crisis management, and collective action – vital skills as the human collective moves forward. Thank you for being a mirror. Showing us just how sick we already were, and have been for quite some time now. Thank you for pushing us to adapt and evolve. Your message has been heard. Your wisdom received gratefully. We will come back stronger. We will move gracefully but deliberately towards a new future. A united future. A healthy future. A happy future. Thank you, Covid. You have taken time, comfort, and lives from the human collective, but in return have given us strength, awareness, and a chance at a more beautiful future. Thank you, Covid. 🙏🏻 --- ![Thank You, Covid.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/0aa7b5a8-da6e-4200-bb94-c59b9c5cde62_1160x773-jpeg.jpg) ### 🧐 Exploring this Essay 🙏🏻 **Thank you, Covid. |** If you cannot be grateful for all of your experience, you cannot be grateful for any of your experience. This is an essential point. Hard to put into practice, but fortunately the world has provided the perfect opportunity for this training. **Thank you for illuminating our widespread complacency. |** If anything, Covid has illuminated how much of our lives we have outsourced. How much power we have surrendered. How complacent the masses have become. An absolute inability, rooted in complacency and lack of self-responsibility, meant no community support groups were made, fingers pointed endlessly outward, blaming everyone and anyone available, except ourselves. **Thank you for bringing to light the inadequacy of our institutions. |** Broad institutional decay has been underway for decades, but Covid brought to light how serious of a problem this is. Healthcare, government, supply chains, communities, religions. All of the institutions were unable, unwilling, or unaware of what to do and how to help. Recognizing the problem is the first step to solving it. **Thank you for highlighting the incompetency of our leadership and governments. |** Politicians are good at one thing: politics. They have little real-world experience, have done little of meaningful significance, and certainly have little expertise in any consequential domain that governments operate within. Those tasked with orienting nations are incapable and incompetent and impotent to do this. Covid surfaced this with crystal clarity, and it will be an important obstacle for us to overcome moving forward. **Thank you for surfacing the limitations of modern science. |** The short half-life of [scientific truth](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/09/03/wittgensteins-revenge/?ref=zenmedicine.co)/facts. The absolute double-take on the lab leak hypothesis. The fallacy of surface-born transmission. Single, double, triple masking. Covid brought to light the true attitude of science, that of an ongoing exploration, a discussion. This is a significant moment for the evolution of the consciousness of humanity. **Thank you for making us confront the reality of mortality. |** Modern society has a terrible, troubled relationship to death. I've [written about this](https://highexistence.com/dying-gracefully/?ref=zenmedicine.co) before. Finally, we might begin to have a more holistic, mature conversation about the reality of mortality and how to relate to death. **Thank you for showing us the meaninglessness of most work. |** This speaks for itself. The insufferable tedium of work culture, the rigidity and stupor of managerial culture. Many potent gems surfaced for culture as it relates to work. **Thank you for reminding us of what is truly important. |** Fundamental freedoms, family, community, expression, playfulness, peace. All internal states, internal modes of Being, were highlighted as the most essential, and the most in needed of sacred advocation. **Thank you for bringing about an apocalypse, literally the ‘great revealing’ — so that we might truly understand that the armageddon, the ‘end of days’, is at our doorstep. We have been sleepwalking towards armageddon for some time now. A thorough and complete reawakening is needed. Thank you for taking on that responsibility. |** The apocalypse is not a devastation. It is a mirror, a revealing of the truth of reality. As we've just explored, Covid has done this on several fronts. As far as apocalypses go, Covid did a beautiful job. It highlights that the real end of days, the Armageddon, is upon us, through civilizational collapse and climate change. It may have come right on time, to provide the alarm that was needed. **Thank you for shaking us out of the collective trance we have been in. |** Sleepwalking towards armageddon, stupefied by the trance of infinite economic growth, is the state of humanity right now. Covid has shaken most of this up, though not quite. Many still await the 'return to normal' which cannot happen. Far more radical, far more sustained change is required, as normal *was and is the problem.* **Thank you for helping us see how powerful the individual is, and how much dedicated groups are capable of. |** For those who tracked these developments, who created safe spaces and who rose to the call of steward, shepherd, and space holders through this – we are reminded of the power of the individual, and the truly unstoppable force of dedicated groups of these individuals. **Thank you for demonstrating the true power of nature. |** Humanity's ego is a massive bubble, some of this has been popped. Nature is the almighty, the truly archetypal force of creation and destruction. Humanity's hubris has been partially reconciled, and humility is also a necessary precursor to radical identity-level change. **Thank you for teaching us how to live, how to love, and how to act. |** A return to the Being-mode, to heart-centered action, and the return to community has occurred. This is an opportunity to practice, to re-learn the Ways of Being that have been lost. It is the early stage, but for the willing students, class is in session. **Thank you for allowing us to sharpen our skills of sense-making, crisis management, and collective action – vital skills as the human collective moves forward. |** Despite being unpracticed and largely unskillful, we have started to take corrective action – to learn and implement the core skills the human collective will need to address and mitigate the end of days upon us. **Thank you for being a mirror. Showing us just how sick we already were, and have been for quite some time now. |** Humanity was sick before Covid. The unhealthiest population globally that has ever existed. More suicides than at any other point in history. Hatred, vitriol, and division are normal and accepted ways of acting. Covid has served as nothing more than a sacred mirror, highlighting the true psycho-spiritual illnesses that need healing. **Thank you for pushing us to adapt and evolve. |** Most of us don't change until we're forced to. The mid-life heart attack, the unexpected divorce, the examples are endless. Covid was the collective forcing function required to spark collective action to manifest a world truly worth thriving within. **Your message has been heard. |** Some of us have our ears to the ground, we're listening, we're watching, and we're ready to act. We have heard the messages, thank you for raising the signal to a level we could collectively hear ringing through the noosphere. **Your wisdom received gratefully. |** Wisdom is available in any moment, from any experience, and we have received this. We can see the problem landscape more clearly, we have glimpsed the actions and ways of being that will resolve this, and will work to [embody this awakening](http://edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co) as we move forward. **We will come back stronger. We will move gracefully but deliberately towards a new future. A united future. A healthy future. A happy future. |** All evolution requires friction. We have been humbled, but a spark has been lit. An anti-thesis arose to the original thesis of modern civilization, and we are prepared to move forward and rise into a higher-order synthesis. Thank you for holding the energetic balance of a strong anti-thesis for us. **Thank you, Covid. You have taken time, comfort, and lives from the human collective, but in return have given us strength, awareness, and a chance at a more beautiful future. |** Humanity is a long-game, an [infinite game](http://edgeofbeing.org/finite-infinite-games/?ref=zenmedicine.co), though we have been shaken, this will catalyze a radical transformation in the collective that will lead us towards far more beautiful and holistic futures. **Thank you, Covid. |** If you can't be grateful for all of your experience, you can't be grateful for any of your experience. If you pay attention, if you inquire deeply, you can always find the seeds of gratitude and wisdom planted in all of existence. --- ### Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/finite-infinite-games/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:56:59.000Z > "There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play..." ![Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/01eed841-b3ad-4355-a9ea-93f055bb939f_1600x900-jpeg.jpg) This single proposition, the opening line of '[Finite & Infinite Games](https://www.amazon.ca/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713?ref=zenmedicine.co)' by James Carse, has had a prolific and monumental influence on my life. The simple, subtle, and omnipotent distinction between finite and infinite games – and understanding when and where you are a finite or an infinite player – has radically transformed the way I view myself, life, and Reality at large. Few books are able to facilitate complete paradigm shifts in individuals, only religious and spiritual texts come close. It is a rare and momentus occassion when you come across a story with the potential to oblierate existing mental models and outdated social conceptions in you, once and for all. **Fortunately, this is one of those books.** It has been weaved into my very Way of Being, becoming bedrock foundation for the majority of my current work, and has brought levels of levity and play that was missing from my life. With all of my book reviews/explorations, the only books I will cover are books that were so strong, so compelling, that I read them twice or more. Finite & Infinite Games passes that test of being a book so nice I read it twice. If you are ready for a wandering journey through the forests of game theory and [cultural architecture](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co) — let's begin. ## 📖 Defining Finite & Infinite Games The most valuable contribution Carse makes is by explicating the distinctions and definitions of Finite Games & Infinite Games. These definitions alone have propelled this book to the infamy and reputation it currently has. ### 🏆 Finite Games: - **Are played to win.** The game ends when someone has won. - **Have temporal boundaries.** The game has a defined start and finish. - **Have a clear arena, and specific players.** You play in an arena, and every player and their role is known. - **Each role has expectations.** Your role comes with expected behaviours, positions, movements, and more. - **The rules of play determine behaviour.** The rules of the game dictate how you act and what you can do. - **The rules *cannot* change during play.** There is no negotiating the rules while the game is underway. - **Compete for highest ranking.** Your aim is to become the best. - **Prizes are viewed as indispensable treasures.** Sacred covenants that are strived for by all players and teams. - **Must self-veil freedom to get investment.** You must forget you are free to act otherwise or leave the game in order to take the game seriously. - **All limitations are *self*\-limitations.** You voluntarily agree to the limitations, they are adopted by you to participate in the game. - **Are theatrical: roles, scripts, audiences, outcomes.** Finite games are a performance. - **Are contradictory.** The game is played in order to end the game. - **The past is greater than the future.** The outcome, the end goal, the result is what you are playing for and care about. - **Win a public title, visibility important.** Others must recognize your success and achievement. - **Fundamentally comparative in nature.** The games are about climbing an agreed-upon and established hierarchy. You compare your rank to others. - **Give life in death. Immortality via titles/trophies.** True life for finite players only begin in death, attaining immortality via the reputation, the history, the accolades, the record of their performance. Organized sports are a clear example of a finite game. A soccer match. A chess tournament. Professional wrestling. All of these are finite games, where the aforementioned stipulations and definitions apply. ### 🔁 Infinite Games: - **Are played to keep playing.** The aim of the game is to continue the game. - **Have no temporal/numerical boundaries.** The game is not bounded by time, by score, or by specific arenas. - **Are defined internally, by the players themselves.** The players decide what game they are playing, and how they want to play. - **Are designed to correct threats to play.** Roles and rules are used to address anything that could end the game. - **Have rules that *must* change during play.** Rules are used to help ensure play continues, and as such, the rules are required to change during play. - **Use roles and self-veiling, but without seriousness of finite games.** Infinite games use roles and rules, and the self-veiling of freedom to get internal commitment and investment, but it doesn't come with the serious forcefulness of finite games as all players understand the aim of the game is for the act of play itself. - **Are dramatic: no scripts, no outcomes.** There are no goals, or expected outcomes. It is a grand drama unfolding over time. - **Surprise is welcomed: the future > past.** Previous achievements are irrelevant, the focus is on the future, on what will unfold and how the game will progress. - **Redefine being 'educated' as prepared for surprise.** To be an educated and competent infinite player is to be prepared for suprises, to look forward to novel developments within the game. - **Play in openness: vulnerability of the changing and dynamic self.** Players are open, vulnerable, & excited by the dynamic changes that unfold through the act of play. - **Have death in life: not pursuing titles.** Contrary to finite games, the infinite player dies during the game. The self is surrendered in service of the game itself. Infinite players pursue no titles, no accomplishments, they exist for the act of play itself. > "There is only one infinite game." This is the final line of the book. Of course, Life is the archetypal infinite game. It seeks no outcomes, strives for no accomplishments. Life exists solely for the purpose of life, and continuing the game of life. Other examples of infinite games include language and culture. These exist for themselves, for the act of participation. ### 🎲 Games & Participation From these initial definitions, Carse continues to explicate important facets of games, and the important relationship between the player and the game. - **You cannot be forced to play, you *must* play freely.** Play is voluntary, forced participation is not playful. If you are to play, you must opt-in freely. - **There are finite games within infinite ones, but no infinite games inside of finite ones.** You can play soccer inside of Life, but you are not playing Life inside of soccer. This is a critical point. - **Finite play *within* boundaries / Infinite play *with* boundaries.** Finite and Infinite games use boundaries and definitions differently. Finite games play within defined boundaries. Infinite games use boundaries to facilitate the continuation of play. - **Self-veiling is necessary for roles, but do we ever admit the fallacy to ourselves?** Self-veiling, the act of hiding the Truth from yourself, is necessary for investment and to 'take the game seriously' – but rarely do players admit to themselves that this is all a game, something they enter by voluntary choice and can leave any time. - **Seriousness is always related to roles.** Any 'seriousness' in games come from the roles you play and the expectations related to those roles. A police officer is only taken seriously when they are 'in uniform', when they are acting out their role. - **Being playful is *not* trivial/frivolous.** Playfulness is not a trivial pursuit, it is not frivolous nonsense. To allow for any possibility, to welcome surprise and change and respond to it is a significant undertaking that requires effort and investment. ![Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/de0668fd-7061-4fe7-a9be-453436bf65c3_600x600.gif) ## ⚡️ Finite & Infinite Games Implications We have covered the landscape of Finite & Infinite Games – exploring definitions, requirements, key differences, and specific components of these games, and the relationships between the players and the arenas. What makes Finite & Infinite Games a true masterpiece is what Carse does next. He takes this understanding and applies it to several components of life: good & evil, culture & society, wealth & warfare, and genius & sexuality. **This moves towards abstraction, but the implications are vast and significant.** It is also confrontational to look deeply at where you perpetuate evil, where you smother the genius of others, and looking at the morality of society. ![Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/10c0b25c-f651-451a-9d31-00371b6b230d_576x324.gif) ### 😈 Redefining Evil Carse comes forward boldly with a radical redefinition of evil. Given that life is the infinite game, we use the lens of infinite games to surmise the definition of evil. > "The purpose of an infinite game is for the continuation of play and the game itself: evil is the termination of infinite play, in unheard silence." **Evil is the forced expression of power over areas of play.** This is confronting because society itself can fall under this definition of evil. The entirety of the Western world is built on top of stolen land, where Indigenous cultures must adapt, speak the language, and recognize this power. **The Western world has terminated infinite play through force, and is therefore evil.** Another reflection is that of civilization. Civilization has initiated, through force and power, a trophic cascade of ecological and sociological failures that if continued, may lead to the termination of human culture. This too is a willing use of power that threatens the infinite play of all future generations. **Under this framing, modern civilization in its current iteration is also evil.** The final point Carse surfaces is that *the attempt to eliminate evil is also evil*. You cannot respond with force and coercion to correct force and coercion. You must focus on self-recognition, on playing your own infinite game with your own infinite players. You must relentlessly pursue the more beautiful world. We do not play *against* reality, but *according to* it. You cannot lose to a flood, you simply respond to it. ![Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e8299474-2dc6-4053-91ba-b33529c1e88d_636x400.gif) ## ⛩ Culture & Society Perhaps the most audacious and powerful segment of Finite & Infinite Games begins when Carse draws parallels between society as a large finite game, in relation to culture as an emergent infinite game. Culture cannot be contained within a society. A culture can exist and prosper within societal domains, but it can never be fully contained by it. ### 🏭 Society > "Society is a species of culture that persist in contradicting itself.” Like any finite game, we begin with self-veiling. Creating the illusions of separation and seriousness in the forms of borders, flags, currencies, customs, etc. **The role of society is to create and maintain the temporal, spacial, and numerical boundaries that necessitate the finite playing field. Society is a system of record keeping.** Society is a large, complicated finite game with many smaller finite games nested within in. A holonic finite game, if you will. Society has social ranks, and the aim, as it always is, is competing for the highest titles, positions, and levels of influence. Power *in* the society is maintained by the power *of* that society. Society must self-perpetuate in order to maintain the illusion of seriousness. By encouraging internal competition *(winning the finite game)*, it creates the necessary buy-in from the players to help guarantee external protection. If someone wants to climb the social hierarchy, that society must continue to exist. This creates fanatacism, funds armies, and justify taxation. **The biggest struggle of Society is with the very Culture that it comes from.** Why is this? By definition, society *must be serious*. Society cannot handle a lack of seriousness. Culture as an infinite game is not serious, it is playful and generative in nature. Society must aims to restrict and cultivate its own cultural origins. This is where true Art begins to emerge. Art is future facing, it cannot be possessed, and as such it is inherently *socially deviant*. This is why art is on one hand rejected by society as useless and frivolous, but at the same time is one of the highest rewarded areas in the social hierarchy. To play a game one must play freely. You cannot be forced to play. With artists not accepting social standards or norms, artists exile themselves, and this experiential distance from the society enables them to comment and critique the very society that they come from. ### 🌱 Culture **Culture has no boundaries. Like any infinite game, anyone is free to join, and it exists for its own sake.** Boundaries are loose and malleable, and participants look towards future emergence with excitement and hope. Society enforces adherence to scripts with sanctions or punishments. Inevitably, culture creators become deviants, they are outside of the normal operating procedures. Society attempts to surpress this, but it cannot, for you cannot surpress nature, you cannot limit emergence. You cannot stop a flood, you merely react to it. **Culture builds upon on the past, whereas society repeats it.** The infinite game of culture utilizes rules and boundaries in the form of *tradition*. If the tradition enables the continuation of play, the players uphold it. If new rules or traditions are necessary for the continuation of play, the culture evolves. Culture *is* tradition. Here Carse invokes the metaphor of culture as a family. When you were born, your family history existed before you and you were born into it; but at the moment of your birth, a new family is made. This is cultural emergence as it develops over time. ![Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/23a51ede-fafa-418c-9312-5694a9fac8ce_320x320.gif) ## 💰 Wealth & Warfare > Politics as “the art of the possible.” — Bismark. Carse returns to arguing society as finite game because it requires buy-in from the audience to maintain its power and legitimacy. This too applies to the law. It is only powerful because people believe in it. This is applied to the acquisition of property and the performance of wealth. Property itself can be taken, but ownership cannot. Countries can take the land, but will never own the earth. Nations can dominate countries, but will never own the land it was stolen from. > Property requires visibility and maintenance from an external audience to give it power. **Carse argues that this is one of the main functions of society. It's entire reason for being. Society exists to recognize and validate the ownership of property. Property of all forms, housing, possessions, etc.** *But this must be a willing acknowledgement from all society members.* You cannot use force to give assent. One wins to be powerful, not with power. Property has two requirements: 1. Given as compensation for winning. 2. Actively consumed by individual. The burden of proof lies on the property owners to display their property, ownership, and wealth. This is why you get a weird feeling in your stomach when you hear that Bill Gates owns an island house in Maui that he has never once visited. It goes against the performance, and wealth must be actively performed. > “It is apparent to infinite players that wealth is not so much as possessed as it is performed.” Wealth is an active process: it is displayed, embossed, continued, consumed. This demonstrates why the transition into a highly materialistic and consumerist society was inevitable given the finite game nature of society. This process only furthers to increase the importance of the deviant artists and cultural architects: to demonstrate viscerally that this is all theatrical. It's all a drama, a show that is put on, a fancy charade. Artists as infinite players don’t care about playing within, but rather showing how *arbitrary* boundaries are. Politics *follows* humanity, not lead it. As with society, it will always be downstream of culture, never preceding it. This then brings us to the fundamental *necessity* of warfare in society. Societies require *spatial boundaries,* and all boundaries require opposition – meeting resistance, a point at which they end. **Carse comes with perhaps his sharpest critique and most divisive line at this point: patriotism is evil.** Patriotism, the supporters of a society, require boundaries and enemies. They need to display themselves, and some 'other' to resist against and get buy-in from the collective, to help perpetuate the society. The aim of patriotism, the will of the patriots, is to have all horizons fall under a single boundary — their society. It is the wish to have everyone and everything do what they do. This is the essence of Manifest Destiny. **As we've seen in the definition of evil: impinging on others abilities to steward their own infinite game is evil.** The aim and existence of patriotism and society is fundamentally and inherently evil. The wish and stated goals for worldwide adoption and adherance to a single doctrine is fundamentally evil. These were the most compelling arguments in the book for me: modern civilization and the source code of society and fundamentally evil in nature. This is not a value judgement, this is a statement. > *“War to end all war only breeds universal warfare.”* With this notion, war is not self-protection. It is self-identification. **Due to the necessity of enemies, boundaries, and ideology to define the substance of a society, warfare is an existential necessity for the existence of a society.** Fortunately there is a way out of this. To undo the boundaries, to remove the limitations here — you must change your limited *vision*, not the limited field. It's not about changing the borders, it's about changing perceptions and intentions. ![Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/41a0017e-687f-47ab-85a5-9a5baf503721_636x400.gif) ## 💡 Genius & Sexuality > "I speak authentically as a genius, you receive originally as a genius. But when I repeat or copy others, I lose my genius, and treat you as an audience." Moving forward, Carse begins to explore perhaps the most abstract yet compelling definitions — that of genius and sexuality. **To speak from your own emergent being is to embrace your own genius. This necessarily abandons the boundaries of the self, as you must include the possible response in your statement.** *To speak is to invite further speech.* To return to your genius is not to see things within the limitations and roles you embody, but to witness the limitations themselves and address them. Giving birth to a human is to birth genius itself, an arbitrarily delineated moment in an unbroken causal relationship since the origin of the universe. **Preparing for surprise is the first step to genius.** To open yourself to emergence, to use boundaries and roles to facilitate this birthing process. > “To look *at* is to look *for.*” Carse invokes a strong reminder here — that finite players must have an audience to prove a winner to. There must be a witness to validate the victory. With this comes several important factors: - The more negative your self-assessment, the more removed from your genius you are, the stronger your desire to win. - It is never enough, winners must always prove themselves again and again. - This is a self-veiling contradiction: the finite player must forget the previous audience of past and prove themselves again to a present audience. And like a great crescendo in a symphony, Carse ties this all together in the reclaimation of the sacredness of sexuality. **In finite sexuality, the prize and victory itself *is* the defeated opponent.** You see this in our language now in 'kill counts' or 'body counts'. You go 'hunting for a mate', you pursue a victory. Finite sexuality is theatrical, it is a performance, a display of status and wealth. But it lacks genius. No one is moved by the interaction, no one is witnessed in their fullness, in their genius. No one is touched or seen in their humanity. In this context, porn turns into mandatory hostility — it is only powerful insofar as it shows us something otherwise unseeable or inappropriate. This is why the emergence of the 'step family' genre is massively on the rise in Western culture. Only the most taboo will suffice. You can win empire, fortune, fame — but if you lose in love you lose everything. Finite sexuality is self-terminating — living in memories and recollections. It is performed to be finished. The act itself is lost. **At this point Carse delivers among the most potent proposition of the entire book:** > "The true revolutionary act is the restoration of genius to sexuality." To arrive fully in your genius, to enter into an infinite dynamic of emergence with another genius, on equal terms. To play with boundaries and roles to facilitate the emergence of a pair-culture. The smallest unit of culture possible, as culture and infinite games must be shared with another. ![Exploring Finite & Infinite Games: Book Summary](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/cecda62e-3041-4a2f-a327-0ad713629884_500x375.gif) ## 🙏🏻 Conclusion I have attempted here, to the best of my own authentic genius, to create a compelling overview of Finite & Infinite Games. This is inevitably incomplete. Significant context is missing, but the fundamental themes have been addressed. **If nothing else, I hope this invokes in you an interest and willingness to** [**explore the book yourself**](https://www.amazon.ca/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** Carse systematically deconstructs and reinterprets foundational definitions across culture & society, warfare & wealth, genius & sexuality, and of course, of finite & infinite games. The evolution into an infinite player requires a deconstruction of your most fundamental motivations, of noticing where you still play finite games. These are fun, there is a role for finite games in life, but not at the expense of playing infinite games with infinite players. To contribute in your genius to the ongoing evolution of human culture. Let's start playing the infinite game. See you there. ♥️ --- ### Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/interoception/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:57:00.000Z *"You're really activated right now mate, what's up?"* *"What does that even mean, and why does hearing that annoy me so much?"* This is a paraphrased conversation a good friend and I had at about hour 4 of a shared acid trip we had together in nature last year. A topic about his life had sparked a strong response verbally and physically, and I was curious as to why. Of course, 'activated' isn't an emotion, but it points to something that elicits a strong response. These physiological, body-based responses to the world, and our awareness of them, is what we're covering today. This is the basis of *interoception*. ![Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f592a5a2-6d3f-4919-9d26-bef1511cd5b7_800x450-jpeg.jpg) ## 🔍 Defining Interoception > “The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” ― Michel de Montaigne **Interoception is your ability to sense the internal state of your body.** Interoception is a sense, like seeing or hearing. A level of perception that you have, and a skill you can cultivate. This is done at a conscious and unconscious level. On one hand, it's your mind/body's unconscious ability to turn the sum total of sensations and activity within your body into a coherent experience. On the other hand, it's your conscious ability to understand that the pain you feel is coming from your stomach rather than your spine. On the unconscious level, this is an essential process for your body to be able to regulate itself and maintain homeostasis. On the conscious level, this is an essential process for cultivating self-awareness at it's most direct and fundamental level. **Like any cultivated skill, this is a sense you can become more deeply attuned to your inner world as a result.** As we've covered before, across everything from [Hedonic Engineering](http://edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co), to the [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co), with [Embodied Awakening](http://edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and even in [Death Practices](http://edgeofbeing.org/death-practices/?ref=zenmedicine.co) — being deeply attuned to the reality of what it's like to be you at this moment is an essential skill. Self-awareness is the foundation that the rest of your evolutionary process is built upon. This makes interoception, the ability to sense yourself across your mind/body/spirit complex — a fundamental prerequisite. In modern physiology, interoception often refers to physial systems and signals, but in this essay we'll explore this and create a link to how this relates to your pain-body, your emotions, and your freedom. ![Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5d12312f-f404-4db8-9ecb-cc31151a075f_480x270.gif) ## 🕵️‍♂️ Facets of Interoception > “At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” ― Lao Tzu There are several 'facets of interoception', core components that help make up this sense and help you more finely attune it. These move in a linear progression, so if you want to build your self-awareness and your ability to tune into yourself, start at the top and work your way down. - **Attention:** Your ability to observe internal bodily sensations. Do you put focus on sensing your internal state of Being, and are you able to maintain your attention internally for extended periods of time. Meditation is an invaluable technique for cultivating this inward concentration and attention. - **Detection:** Once you can direct your attention, detection is the conscious report of sensations within your body. Can you detect specific aspects of your phenomenological field. Think of things like feeling your heartbeat, or a rumbling stomach. - **Magnitude:** Magnitude is the felt intensity of a sensation. Is it intense or subtle? Active or passive? Strong or weak? Warm or cold? Once you can detect differences in your field of experience, the next step is to key into the magnitude of the sensation. - **Discrimination:** With detection and magnitude, you begin to increase your sensitivity to sensations, and begin to localize this more to specific phenomena or areas of your body. Can you feel the difference between your kidneys and your liver? Are you hungry or dehydrated? How do you know? - **Accuracy:** Detection and more advanced discrimination leads to accuracy, how correct you are in reporting these sensations? This involves how precisely and how correctly you can monitor a specific process unfolding in your body, and over what period of time you can do so for. - **Self-Report:** Through refining your interoception, your conscious self-reporting, the meaning-making and interpreting function of interoception, becomes essential. What does this sensation mean? Is it indicating that something is working well, or not functioning correctly? If you've noticed something, what's the correct course of action to deal with it? > Cultivating these capacities increases your overall sense of *interoceptive awareness*. You are cultivating a more precise ability to sense and make sense of what is happening in your body, at a physiological level, on a moment-to-moment basis. ![Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/3a5b2bd0-3baa-430a-bda8-6e6b5cae9fd4_2000x1123.png) ## 💛 Emotional Interoception > “When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” ― Ralph Ellison Your body is a signalling mechanism. An ancient technology steeped in millenia of evolutionary intelligence. If your unconscious, the pre-verbal, archaic part of your psyche wanted to send 'you', the conscious partipant of experience, a message, how would it do that? It would send you signals in your body. This is why anxiety and depression are signals, they are symptomatic indicators of larger imbalances, rather than isolated conditions to be treated directly. > The physiological signals and responses of your body form the base layer, the input data, that through self-reporting, become your emotions. This is where we unlock the true power of interoception. There is a simple yet highly effective way to graph the signals that come from your body. It's spread out over 2 axes, pictured above. One axis is the *arousal* axis — whether a signal is active (intensifying) or passive (dulling). The second axis is the *valence* axis — the hedonic tone of the signal as either positive or negative. **Every single emotion you have ever experienced can be graphed on this chart.** *For example: happiness is active-positive, depression is passive-negative, rage is active-negative, peace is passive-positive.* If you really want to make massive evolutionary progress, it's better to stay at the level of the interoceptive graph, rather than making the jump to labelling these sensations as various emotions. ![Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/2f04101b-d0b3-4e62-9c8e-08fa8aa27bc8_720x480-jpeg.jpg) ## 😡 Problems with Labelling Emotions > “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ― C.G. Jung There are several problems that arise the moment you begin to label physiological sensations as emotions. Primarily, this has to do with the limitations of language itself, and the associated collective meaning-making and cultural baggage that comes with those emotional labels. 1. **Cognitive Distance:** Labelling sensations is a mental activity. The more you rely on emotional labels, the further disconnected from your body you become. Sure, you're 'happy' — but what does that *feel* like in your body? Your body doesn't communicate in emotion/language, it communicates through sensation. Speaking the same language as your body allows for better communication, understanding, and meaning-making. 2. **Personal/Cultural Baggage:** Are there certain emotions you 'should' feel, and others you 'shouldn't'? Why? Who told you that? Who told you that some parts of your human experience weren't beautiful, and why did you believe them? Emotional labels immediately divide the totality of your experience into things you want or don't want. This creates an internal division, and nothing good comes from being divided within yourself. There's a lot of cultural and personal baggage associated with certain emotions, and you can drop all of this, allowing for higher-quality, unfiltered signal, by staying at the level of sensation and direct phenomenological experience. 3. **Incorrect Meaning-Making:** If you're in a relationship that doesn't serve you, you might feel 'bad' or 'sad'. To correct that, you might do things to make you happier. But if you flip the script, and start asking *"every time I interact with this person, I feel passive (less energy) and negative (poor valence) — why is that, and what do I want to do about it?"* This line of questioning comes from meeting your body at a physiological level, and will take you much further, much faster, than merely passing over it with emotional labels. **Labelling emotions hits you on several levels: it removes you from your own experience, it erodes personal agency by allowing cultural paradigms to influence and filter your lived reality, and it distorts the meaning-making process.** Fortunately, the solution is quite simple: stay on the level of sensation, use your sense of interoceptive awareness, and work with decisions on that level. ![Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/220fefc6-e4ca-4fd5-ae62-8f280a43d98a_500x500.gif) ## 🌀 Interoception as Strange Loop > “But you can't get away from yourself. You can't decide not to see yourself anymore. You can't decide to turn off the noise in your head.” ― Jay Asher Like any good strange loop mirroring the nature of reality, you'll begin to notice over time that your self-reporting will influence and affect systems in your body, starting the process over again by providing new stimuli and phenomena that you can direct your attention towards. This is why meditation, inner work, and exploring the Self can be an endlessly fascinating and thrilling process. You have an entire world inside of you, inherently generative and dynamic, filled with signal if you sit down and tune in. *Trying to make a decision about what to do next? Find the stimuli that create active-positive sensations in your body. Want to understand how you're feeling? Pull back to the base layer, and check in with your body's level of arousal and valence.* The best part about strange loops, [as we've covered before](http://edgeofbeing.org/introduction/?ref=zenmedicine.co), is that they create the possibility for upward spirals. > If the growth you want is internal, cultivating deeper levels of Self-Awareness through interoceptive awareness is the starting point. ![Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/65c1ff48-0d05-409a-acc5-66aba832ec14_1600x1600-jpeg.jpg) ## ☯️ Steady-State Mindfulness & Breaking Karmic Loops > “The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." ― Carl R. Rogers **By making mindfulness *(attention on external and internal shifts simultaneously)* a sustained waking state, you begin to see with absolute clarity what external events trigger internal shifts, and also what internal states lead to more positive external events.** Noticing with absolute clarity what events generate passive-negative physiological states will help you cultivate the most activating, exciting life for yourself. Move relentlessly towards that which lights you up. We can take this a step further, and make the case that interoception is a central force in breaking karmic loops and freeing yourself from the samsaric nature of karma. Karma is the cosmic chain of cause and effect. Without awareness and intention behind what you're doing, you are a slave to what happens, to how you're 'supposed' to respond. You're life is reactive. You are stuck in a loop, bound to fate, controlled by the world. With interoception and mindfulness, you become liberated from this chain, as you can notice on a moment-to-moment basis what's occurring and *decide* where you'd like to go. You become self-sovereign, no longer bound to the chains of karmic load. The chain of cause-effect breaks because you decide fully the cause and action in each moment. This is internal freedom, true freedom. You are able to explore far deeper into yourself, into others, and into the world. You are able to notice the flow of life inside and outside of you, and respond accordingly. This is the ethos of the Edge of Being. Seeing how far in, and how far out, you can get. You become a full, active participant in Life as it unfolds. You are no longer a mere passive agent, but a fully conscious participant. This is the promise and potential of cultivating Self-Awareness. This is the true power of interoception. --- ![Emotional Interoception: Cultivating Self-Awareness & Breaking Karmic Loops](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a2e2a663-e506-49a6-9bb2-d9c3d35f43cf_2000x314.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/death-practices/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:57:02.000Z > *"Waking up is an endless losing what you think you know, like a wave of destruction that leaves nothing but what is true." – Unmani* ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/bb425b36-11f5-402c-80ab-f9f836579372_1280x720-jpeg.jpg) "*If you die before you die, you won't die when you die."* This is one of the most powerful sentences you will ever come across. It was the tagline of the Eleusinian mysteries, engraved onto sacred proto-Christian worship halls, and formed the bedrock of both Greek and Christian culture for centuries. This is the [key to immortality](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC6DDvzM6Nc&ref=zenmedicine.co). The fundamental recognition of your True Nature. It's not something that can be understood conceptually. It must be experienced directly. It is a lived reality — a deep Gnosis. Given the centrality of this experience in the entirety of your life, it's not wise to leave this up to chance. Maybe you'll have a near-death experience, or a sudden and complete awakening. But it's unlikely. Fortunately, many wisdom traditions and mystery schools have cultivated and refined various death practices — deliberate experiences that invoke this death/rebirth experience. This essay is an exploration of a pedagogical progression *(difficulty increases as your strength does)* of death practices. It is the technical how-to complement to the [Ritualized Rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) article. I hope this will meet you where you are, realize your True Nature, and to die before you die. 💀 ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/95de725c-84ad-49a0-bb3e-172cb94da8aa_1234x1876-jpeg.jpg) ## ☠️ Exploring Death Practices Death practices are systematic rituals or activities one undergoes to facilitate varying levels of ego death. Ego death is a "complete loss of subjective self-identity". It's been co-opted nowadays by the spiritual community as a badge of honour or triviality, but it is a very real, and very accessible experience. It was touted as the single-most important experience for the Greek aristocracy, and was arguably the fundamental driver in the development of Christianity and the act of 'becoming God'. It can be a challenging, harrowing, and also extremely beautiful and blissful experience to go through. It is the foundation of [Ritualized Rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and a necessary part of the process of maturation in the individual psyche. The foundational arguments for *why* someone would want to do this and what they stand to gain from it are laid out in Ritualized Rebirth, though it bears repeating. This is arguably the most fundamental practice you can undergo as an individual. This is the great death. The death of the individual, localized Self. Transcendence of both Self (internal) and Game (external). Facing your own death dissolves all other fears, as [all fear is fear of death](https://www.instagram.com/p/CQwlS-ghOCL/?ref=zenmedicine.co). It dissolves all necessities, and provides untold levels of freedom and access for the spirit and soul after it is completed. ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/8bb13eec-3f93-4b28-a9ab-55d739e5a5b4_550x396-jpeg.jpg) ## ⛑ Contraindications & Considerations As with any powerful psychotechnology, there are serious considerations and contraindications you should consider before embarking on these practices individually or with the support of a facilitator. > Take absolute responsibility for your experience, seek out support if necessary. Be smart, be safe, explore. ### ❌ Contraindications This is a list of neurobiological and psychological conditions that indicate that you should *not* perform these practices, or most certainly under the direct supervision of an experienced and trained facilitator: - **Personal History of Mental Disorder:** this includes direct diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, mania, multiple personality disorder, epilepsy, seizures, depersonalization/derealization. - **Family History of Mental Disorder:** direct diagnoses of family members with any of the above symptoms/disorders. - **Physical Health Concerns:** high blood pressure, high resting heart rate, heart attacks. ### 🤔 Considerations There are a number of considerations one should make to be safe and supported throughout this process. They should all get serious consideration from you before embarking on this series of events. - Death practices can instigate or accentuate latent or developing mental health conditions as a necessary part of the healing/integration process. Personal destabilization may occur. - You may develop periods of being 'unable to be in the world/society' due to the intensity of these experiences. - If you don't know what you're doing, you should seek the support of a sitter, guide, or facilitator to assist with these practices. ### 🎚 Levels of Intensity A pedagogical progression is a learning sequence that gets more challenging the stronger you get. It is done to help maintain the flow state – meeting competency with the appropriate level of challenge. ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/b1e81da2-687b-4e38-858b-f1d99f2ba136_2000x1414.png) As the challenge of these experiences increase, so too does the felt intensity. This may include: - **Physical Discomfort:** you may temporarily experience shallow breathing, tingling sensations, warm/cold flashes, or other forms of physical discomfort. - **Inability to Vocalize:** you may temporarily lose your ability (via loss of motor control or cognitive capacity) to vocalize and use language. - **Lack of Motor Control:** you may temporarily lose your motor control, both gross (limbs) and minor (appendages). - **Loss of Self:** you may temporarily lose your sense of Self. - **Loss of Humanity:** you may temporarily lose your sense of Humanity, of being Human, of having ever been human (memory). - **Complete Dissolution:** you may temporarily lose your awareness of existence entirely, a complete dissolution of self-consciousness into total consciousness. You may also be met with increasingly challenging experience 'material' or content: - **Personal material:** revisiting pain, problems, challenges, trauma. - **Interpersonal material:** exploring relationship challenges, your humanity, the magnitude of human suffering, the suffering of the planet. - **Transpersonal material:** you may experience the act of trauma itself, the nature of pain, the suffering of being, the reality of existence. - **Experiential material:** you may experience hallucinations (visual, auditory, somatic), loss of sense of linear time, multiple dimensions of reality, shadow material, archetypes, entities. To be clear: though the intensity increases, it is not always [negatively valenced](https://www.qualiaresearchinstitute.org/glossary?ref=zenmedicine.co) (feels bad). Just as an orgasm is intense, it is positively intense. As you become more sensitive and the experience becomes more intense, you may experience more intense positive emotion/experience, and more intense negative emotion/experience. This is all to give a lay of the land, a sense of the experiential stack we are working with here. This is serious work, information and awareness is important. The search and adventure towards the [Edge of Being](http://edgeofbeing.org/introduction/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is a beautiful one, but beautiful because it is filled with challenges. ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/aef98985-7d6a-4a1f-ba61-4e2fd7c4c59a_733x507-jpeg.jpg) ## 📚 Pedagogical Progression Stack ### 🧘 Micro: Daily (<90min) The following is a list of daily death practices one can work into their own [Hedonic Engineering](http://edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co) growth stack, or for use in your own [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Do not be fooled, these daily practices can facilitate just as intense experiences as the more complete ones, though they often don't. These experiences are excellent for a few specific purposes: 1. Building your own capacity to continue moving up the levels of intensity. 2. As integration practices for the larger experiences. 3. A way to maintain the experience for a longer-tail exploration. These are listed as micro/daily practices because they are either less intense in general, or they require less time commitment, or a combination of the two. - **Yoga Flows:** Intense yoga flows, namely ashtanga or vinyasa sequences, where you really build up heart rate, inner fire, and sweat. The timing, in my experience, seems to be important: aim for 60+ minutes of action, with \~10min of shavasana (corpse pose) at the end. It's called corpse pose for a reason, yoga itself is a death practice. Maintain focus on the breath/awareness throughout, and utilize [bandhas (energy locks)](https://www.the-elbowroom.com/yoga-meditation/energy-locks-in-yoga-bandhas-for-beginners/?ref=zenmedicine.co) if you are trained with them. - **Meditation Techniques:** The true purpose of meditation is the dissolution of the subject/object distinction. This is synonymous with ego death. There are two powerful techniques here: [candle](https://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/meditation/how-to-do-candle-meditation/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (concentration/merging) meditation, as well as [self-recursive meditations](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN-%5FzzHpcdM&ref=zenmedicine.co) (look for your head). With concentration meditation, focus on a focal point in front of you, concentrate deeply on it, and begin to merge awareness with object. This induces [various levels of samadhi](https://www.britannica.com/topic/samadhi-Indian-philosophy?ref=zenmedicine.co) with practice. With self-recursive meditations, focus on an object across from you, concentrate deeply on it, and then *from that vantage point*, turn awareness back on itself and look for your head. - **Sexuality/Orgasm Work:** Taoist sages had a practice of [sexual kung fu](https://www.amazon.ca/Multi-Orgasmic-Man-Sexual-Secrets-Should/dp/0062513362?ref=zenmedicine.co), as the post-orgasmic state facilitates a unitive experience similar to death practices. For males, edging, multiple rounds of semen retention, and million-dollar points are practices to start here to increase intensity of orgasm/post-orgasmic state. - **Wim Hof Breathwork:** The [Wim Hof method](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ&ref=zenmedicine.co) is included here because although it rarely provides ego death experiences, it does facilitate physical death experiences that can be helpful when cultivating your capacity. It provides strange and strong physical sensations, and due to the lack of carbon dioxide in your system via hyperventilation, your body lacks the signalling mechanisms normally available and it feels like it's dying. 4 full rounds of Wim Hof will get you started . - **Spiritual Autolysis:** Spiritual Autolysis is a practice coined by Jed McKenna in his book '[Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damndest Thing](https://www.amazon.ca/Spiritual-Enlightenment-Damnedest-Thing-Trilogy/dp/0980184843?ref=zenmedicine.co)'. It is a mental/cognitive process, but can facilitate more enduring states of ego death/dissolution. The process is outlined below, and is enough to get you started on your own. You can view [my own results](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1on%5FQggTmlP4sjMMQlgAHq9Fpz7YeVrfrNj23d-EoY7A/edit?ref=zenmedicine.co#heading=h.h52yihmlujzr). ### Spiritual Autolysis – Jed McKenna 1. Write something that you hold as absolutely true. 2. Examine that statement, are you absolutely 100% sure this is true? If so, what makes you say this is true, what are the basic assumptions on which that true statement is based. 3. Go back to step 1 using the basic assumptions discovered in step 2 as new material. Discard any idea or concept that is not absolutely true. 4. Continue this process until you come to something that is true beyond a doubt. This can take months or years. According to Jed this process is unpleasant at best. In his books he talks about the effect it has on students and they go trough emotional hell. In Jed’s book, there is an example of how the process starts: *There are three hundred and sixty degrees in a circle," says Arthur.* *"Sure," I agree. "Start with something as seemingly indisputable as that, and then start examining the foundation upon which that statement is built and just keep following it down until you've reached bedrock, something solid - true."* *"There aren't three hundred and sixty degrees in a circle?" he asks.* *"The question presupposes that there's a circle."* *"There's not a circle?"* *"Maybe. I don't know. Is there?"* *"Well, if I draw a circle..."* *I? When did you confirm the existence of an "I"? Draw? Have you already raced past the part where you confirmed that you are a separate physical being in a physical universe with the ability to perceive, to draw? Have you already confirmed duality as truth?"* If you're just exploring these practices, start here. Spiritual autolysis, sexuality work, and deep meditative states are serious endeavours, and can deliver serious results. Don't overestimate yourself. Start low, go slow, build capacity over time. ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5c3b0552-051a-40ff-9231-b326e3478a51_1280x636-jpeg.jpg) ### 🗓 Meso (Quarterly, Seasonally, 90min-3h) There are a number of practices that take longer, provide deeper intensity, and are powerful enough that an integration period of a few days, weeks, or months is typically advised. Thus, the standard timing for these experiences is often monthly, quarterly, or seasonally. These experiences are exceptional in a few core ways: 1. Facilitating deep nervous-system level resets. 2. Resolving latent trauma or behavioural patterns. 3. Returning to the pulse and pace of life. These are an often overlooked branch of death experiences, and arguably where the most continued and sustained developments are made. These regular, cyclical system resets keep your energy balanced, your sights focused, and your development continual. - **Holotropic Breathwork:** [Holotropic breathwork](http://www.holotropic.com/holotropic-breathwork/about-holotropic-breathwork/?ref=zenmedicine.co) was created by Stanislov Grof as a replacement for psychedelic compounds when they were outlawed in the 60's and 70's. It is a multi-hour breathwork journey filled with intense material and experiences. It is often reported to bring individuals through a birth process, helping resolve birth trauma through an exploration of the [perinatal matrices](https://www.institute4learning.com/2012/08/21/the-four-stages-of-birth-their-agonies-and-ecstasies/?ref=zenmedicine.co) as developed by Grof. They typically run 3-4 hours, and are best when working with a facilitator. You can find these events or facilitators online. - **Death Meditations:** Beyond concentration/samadhi and the self-recursive meditations, there are specific death meditations where one is invited to meditate deeply on their own death and physical decay. [Maranasati](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara%E1%B9%87asati?ref=zenmedicine.co) is a Buddhist practice of death meditation, and I would recommend the Satipatthansa Sutra meditation in [this link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara%E1%B9%87asati?ref=zenmedicine.co). - **Psychedelic Ceremonies:** Psychedelic ceremonies are well-regarded for their ability to reliable induce ego death and self-transcendence experiences. There are a number of levers you can work with for psychedelic death practices. I would recommend 3: substance (type of psychedelic, typically psilocybin or LSD to begin), dosage (increasing), intention (decision to specifically focus on death practice for the ceremony). I would start in that order. If you'd tried MDMA, try LSD. LSD, try psilocybin. Mushrooms, try ketamine. When comfortable with the nature of each, you can increase dosage from standard to heroic (LSD = 125mics - 300+, Psilocybin = 3g - 5g+). - **Kambo:** The Amazonian frog poison Kambo is a powerful death practice, as it is an extremely physical confrontation with death, due to elevated heart rate, blood pressure, disorientation, purging, and more. It also has psycho-spiritual elements to the experience which facilitate surrender and coming to peace with the discomfort of death. - **Shamanic Journeying:** Shamans pioneered death practices, using journeying to travel between realms to converse with the dead, visit ancestors, or with the spirit world. Sitting down with an intention, and using a [shamanic drumming track](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqrBfyCQ0lQ&ref=zenmedicine.co) is a way to start. - **Ecstatic Dance/Trance States:** Ecstatic dance is listed here because it can induce trance states. Trance states facilitate the merging of subject and object awareness, precursors to the ego death experience. The physical exersion also presents neurobiological benefits such as dampening of the default-mode network (DMN), responsible for the orientation of the individual sense of self. This is firmly in the territory of working with an experienced practitioner unless you yourself are an experienced practitioner. An easy way to say that is unless you're trained and comfortable stewarding one of these experiences for someone else, exercise caution before embarking on them solo. ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/f13f6dc7-1dcd-4822-b53e-b44c6fad23e4_2000x1125-jpeg.jpg) ### 🌋 Macro (Annually, 6+h) At the macro experiences, these often provide thorough and complete ego dissolution or ego death experiences, and require a comprehensive integration process afterwards. They tend to be full day or mutli-day activities as well, and will need to be scheduled into your hedonic engineering protocol to give adequate space to. Major death practices/experience present nearly self-evident benefits: 1. Complete death experience and ego death process. 2. Dealing with material leading up to death, upon death, and return from death. 3. Psycho-spiritual reset & rebirth for individuals. Like any powerful experience, treat these like loaded guns. Very powerful, very dangerous. The edge has cliffs, but it also has the best views. - **Macrodose Psychedelics:** At this level, psychedelics are again incredibly powerful tools. In addition to the levels of dosage and intention, at this point you can escalate the compounds to provide more intense experiences. This would include higher-dose mushrooms, N,N-DMT experiences, ayahuasca, iboga, vilca, and peyote ceremonies. - **Plant Medicine Dieta:** Dietas, or longer-term diet work with particular medicinal Amazonian plants – offers a glimpse at an extended-state ego dissolution. From 2 weeks to 2 years, dietas help train the understanding of what an abiding state of ego loss can feel like. - **Combination Stacks:** If you are trained and working with others, you may also consider combining techniques to amplify their abilities. For example, death meditations while on psychedelics can be extremely powerful. Combining has potential, it is also dangerous as mixing elements presents opportunities for emergence that may not exist in the individual practices. This is an advanced technique, but I'd be remiss if it wasn't included here. Given the nature of these experiences, the subtlety and nuances of the material that you're likely to be working with, it's very helpful to work with trained facilitators at these stages. Even if you are skilled, at this point you can actually unlock more by working with others, allowing for more complete and total release/surrender to the experiences. ![Death Practices: A Pedagogical Progression](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/6d58b3cf-bdd0-4308-9014-280758d0dea8_720x274-jpeg.jpg) ### 🐸 Bufo Alvarius (5-MeO-DMT) A final nod to what I have come to experience as the most thorough, the most complete death practice yet: [Bufo Alvarius](https://entheonation.com/blog/beginners-guide-bufo-alvarius-5-meo-dmt/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and the [5-MeO-DMT](https://qualiacomputing.com/2020/07/01/5-meo-dmt-vs-nn-dmt-the-9-lenses/?ref=zenmedicine.co) containing venom of the Sonoran Desert Toad. Bufo seems to most reliably, and most accessibly (the experience is often 15-45min in total) induce complete and total ego death, bringing individuals to states of Being beyond awareness, beyond language, and beyond identification. Bufo has been essential in my own process, and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone willing to seriously explore this space further. I will not recommend dosages here. Find a trained practitioner, prepare for the experience, and walk boldly towards the most beautiful experience of your life. ## 👨🏻‍🚀 Conclusion **A comprehensive, pedagogical progression of death practices designed to assist you along your way of personal evolution.** You have daily activities to get you started or to help integrate more profound experiences, and as your own capacity and strength increases, you can match this with equally challenging and rewarding experiences. I consider most of life like Kung Fu – a cultivated skill over time. I'll have another premium post out in the future on Psychedelic Kung Fu. With these techniques, trainings, and a dojo to practice, you can elevate yourself and your craft. Death experiences are incredibly powerful: they facilitate humility, enable identity/narrative shifts, cultivate presence, steward personal gratitude, allow for continued integration of personal material — and all move you closer to overcoming the fear of death — the last and final boss before unlimited freedom. Death practice shows you, conceptually and [embodied](http://edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co), that the true you is indestructible. The return to form is inevitable from emptiness, for they are the same. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. You have always been safe, you have always been enough — and if you die before you die, you won't die when you die. ### Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/minimalism/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:57:04.000Z > "Minimalism is beyond time. It is the stillness of perfection." — Massimo Vignelli ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/34074743-a00b-4163-893d-d72cf16c674e_2000x1502-jpeg.jpg) **It was the third class I had skipped that week. My room wasn't organized, the carpet wasn't cleaned. How could I be expected to focus in class if my room at home wasn't clean?** Going through university was a beautiful and challenging experience. I had intense anxiety, depression, and developing OCD. It got to the point where I was stuck in my room. Organizing stuff, making sure everything was 'just as it needed to be.' I was functional, but internally it was crippling. It got to a point, in a fit of anxious rage, I declared that if I was going to spend all my time organizing stuff, I would just get rid of it. The best way to organize your stuff is to get rid of most of it. This was the first significant step I took on my nearly decade-long adventure now into Minimalism. ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/fa7a9ca2-288a-4fc7-a78f-3a5932b6b846_1920x1080-jpeg.jpg) ## 🗺 A Minimalist Adventure > "Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest." – Leo Babauta I went to school 3 hours away from home, so I spent a lot of time packing up everything I owned and sheparding it back and forth. This made it easy for a [*packing party*](https://www.theminimalists.com/packing/?ref=zenmedicine.co). With everything in boxes, I only took out the things I needed to use. After 30 days, I donated anything that was still in the boxes, regardless of what it was. After doing this 2-3 times a year for 2 years, I cut down nearly 80% of everything I owned. It felt amazing. I was no longer neurotically focused on my stuff, and this newfound physical space created mental space. The mental space was beautiful and terrifying: beautiful because it gave me room to explore myself, and terrifying because it gave me room to explore myself. **This is one reason why our society is highly consumerist: stuff distracts you from yourself.** This is something people *want*, because their opinion of *who they are* isn't something they want to hear. In the years since then, I've cut my possessions down significantly, with the majority of what I own fitting in my backpack and a duffel bag. The physical items aren't the goal, they shouldn't be, but a natural outcome of this Way of Being. Minimalism was the first thing that showed me a different way of life than the cultural norm was not only *possible*, it was also *beautiful and better.* This realization — that massive lifestyle change could significantly impact and improve my lived experience — sent me on the adventure I am on now, exploring Ways of Being, lifestyle design, spirituality, personal evolution, ceremony, and much more. It's hard for me to talk about minimalism. It's a label that people give me, but it's not something I use to describe myself. It's like being a [fish in water](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhhC%5FN6Bm%5Fs&ref=zenmedicine.co), or a human surrounded by air — it's so commonplace in my Way of Being that I don't recognize it as something I once had to welcome into my life. > Minimalism is far more than a physical aesthetic. It stretches far beyond material possessions. It is these steps beyond the material, when you take minimalism into philosophy, into emotions, into commitments, that you unlock the truly life-changing power of minimalism. ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/79efa5ba-c32c-4a4d-8fb9-8d39f3baa8cc_1600x1067-jpeg.jpg) ## ⛩ Defining Minimalism > "When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you." – Lao Tzu In Western culture, minimalism has become many things. An aesthetic, a virtue signal, an artistic style, a rejection of consumerism. > Minimalism is a philosophical orientation to prune the excess in order to cultivate and discover the essential. Minimalism didn't originate in Western culture. We find its roots in early Eastern religions. Whether from the renunciate monks of Buddhism, or the earthy [wabi-sabi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi?ref=zenmedicine.co) lifestyle of Zen — the origins of minimalist philosophy are scattered throughout Asia. In a highly consumerist culture, this process often starts *(+ unforunately ends)* with material possessions. Reducing excess possessions is a powerful first step, but it is truly only the first step in the cultivation of essence and intentionality. For me, minimalism has become far more than a material leaning or Instagram aesthetic. It is a Way of Being, a philosophy of Life. A path of discovering truly what I need, what I desire, and what I am chained to. As an overarching philosophical orientation, minimalism applys to all of your life: - **🧸 Possessions:** Physical goods are coping mechanisms, meant to boslter your identity, provide feelings of security, or fill the void created by lack of love, connection, and community. Beginning here is powerful because it provides quick momentum, helps you discover what is truly valuable, and creates a healthier, happier home for your continued evolution. - **👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Relationships:** There's no amount of followers that make up for friendship. Stop thinking of relationships in terms of quantity, think in terms of quality of connection, of depth. You experience far greater love cultivating true, deep, and intimate connections, than pursuing surface level acquiantances with strangers. - **🥙 Health:** Your body has a homeostatic baseline it automatically returns to if you don't get in the way. The body's normal state is healthy. Minimalist health routines and diets are exceptional. They take less time, maintain your health, and don't overcomplicate. Make your dinner 3 items: base, greens, protein. Make your workouts basic: squats, pushups, pullups. Go back to the essentials, master the foundations before moving on, and if you master the foundations, you'll come to realize you don't need anything beyond them. - **🗓 Commitments:** Full calendars are hectic and overwhelming. We often use them to seem busy and therefore important. Cultivate essential projects for yourself, say no to anything that [doesn't serve you](https://sive.rs/n?ref=zenmedicine.co). - **📜 Philosophies:** Metaphysics and philsophy are less discussed areas that minimalism can thrive, but arguably the most important. It's no wonder that Buddhism and Taoism emerged from the East, steeped in the principles of simplicty, directness, and principled essence. For many spiritual seekers today, getting rid of the excess theories, speculations, ego-games, and other fluff that accompany lifestyle philosophies and metaphysical orientations would help a lot of people relax, return to presence, and embrace life further. Very few, if any, 'public minimalists' these days talk about anything beyond material possessions. It's a shame. Minimalist health, time, philosophy, and relationships have all been far more powerful for me than paring down possessions. It shows how trapped in the physical we are as a culture. I urge the public minimalist influencers to expand beyond possessions, and create information around cultivating minimalist lifestyles rather than merely living spaces. ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/237219c3-2cd6-44c8-980a-55ce0e6d8e70_640x360.gif) ## 🧮 Minimalism & Materialism > "I make myself rich, by making my wants few." – Thoreau **Without a doubt, minimalism made me *more materialistic*.** If you define materialism as deriving value from the accumulation of material possessions, obviously not. However, if you define materialism as taking deep enjoyment and interest in the quality and production of material goods, then absolutely. The fewer possessions I have, the more I care about them. The higher the quality I look for when buying something. The deeper I respect and cherish craftsmanship, materials, heart, and integrity in the production process. Minimalism has made me care more about the things I have, not less. **Everything I own is my favourite thing.** It's special to me. I know where it come from, I know what it's made of, I know why I have it, and I know why I keep it. For a culture so obsessed with consuming, it's backwards that no one seems to care about the quality of goods, merely just the quantity. Buying garbage from Chinese slaves that deteriorates in months isn't a materialist orientation, it's just blindness, poor taste. Minimalism raises my standards. It raises my standards for friendships, for possessions, for time commitments. It helps me see what is truly valuable, what is deeply in alignment for me, and draw a firm distinction between what I truly need, and what I only want. ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/a152bc86-7da0-4118-8b16-75d7678b3595_1024x576-jpeg.jpg) ## 👻 Consumerism & the Hungry Ghosts > "We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties." – Anna Brackett I have spoken several times previously about the [Hungry Ghosts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry%5Fghost?ref=zenmedicine.co) of Buddhism. The principle that an infinite amount of the wrong thing will never satisfy the need for the right thing. From the entry... *"These ghosts have bellies as vast as mountain valleys. Their mouth are like the hole of a needle. Even if they find food or drink, they cannot consume it. Thus they suffer from hunger and thirst."* The hungry ghosts are slaves to desire. Constantly seeking fulfillment but fundamentally unable to realize it. All of Western culture, most particularly evident in consumerism, is inflicted by the hungry ghosts. - There is no amount of money that will make you feel valuable. - There is no amount of stuff that will make you feel successful. - There is no amount of followers that will make you feel loved. - There is no amount of drugs that will fill the void inside of you. You are forever on the hamster wheel, running in circles, chasing the next purchase, the next like, the next hit — telling yourself "*this will be the one.*" **You are a hungry ghost: endlessly chasing desire, but never arriving satisfied.** > Western culture systematically strips away all that is sacred and fundamental to humans: nature, community, agency — and sells back these hopeless, poisonous perversions like drugs, media, gimmicks and useless stuff that never fulfills the original needs. Minimalism is powerful because it gives you the opportunity to stop. To slow down, to get off of the hamster wheel, realize that it will never work, and begin reorienting your life in the direction of meaning, value, engagement, and expression. **Minimalism, the Way of Being that pursues essence over excess, quality over quantity, substance over presentation — is the starting point on the journey to rediscover the beauty and meaning intrinsic to life.** ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/31d05303-c7ac-42c2-9447-c48dac329cfe_480x266.gif) ## 🎭 Minimalism & Identity > "You are the sky, everything else is just the weather." — Pema Chodron When an individual isn't confident in themselves, their ideas, their future, or their identity — they use the act of accumulation to counterbalance this lack of confidence. They acquire status, influence, prestige, possessions, labels, identities. All in a pursuit of solidifying their identity, their self-image, their core confidence. - The individual who feels powerless acquires positions of dominance and influence, they command attention – pursuing a dream of one day feeling powerful. - The individual who feels ugly acquires fashion trends, body modifications, social followings – pursuing a dream of one day feeling beautiful. - The individual who feels poor will acquire high-ticket status symbols like famous brands, fancy cars, large houses – all pursuing a dream of one day feeling rich. **This is the plight of the hungry ghost. The pursuit is doomed to fail. There is no amount of vapid, empty accumulation that can fill the gaping void left by lack of agency, purpose, love, and community.** The less you associate your identity with transient materiality or identity-labels, the less you need to bolster it through accumulation. The more you identify with the unchanging essence of all that is, the less you need to support yourself. > Minimalism is a natural by-product of shifting the locus of identity from the physical to the spiritual. It is also strange then, that there are so many 'minimalist influencers' these days using minimalism as another status symbol, yet another accumulation for their ego and identity. On two opposing ends of the minimalist spectrum, we see how quickly the ego co-opts things. On one end, if you feel secure, you won't need to flaunt it, you won't need to cling to the physical and the material. On the other end, equally insecure in themselves are those who use minimalism as yet another accumulation for the ego. Identity work is challenging, and can easily go awry if not tracked carefully. ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/1196e660-8a44-464d-aa42-7a782bd2116e_800x600.gif) ## 👨🏻‍🔬 Tools for Exploring Minimalism > "In the end only 3 things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you." — Buddha If you would like to explore Minimalism further, this is an individual path you must tread yourself. There are many 'public minimalists' but I would not recommend any. The focus of Minimalism is not on things, it's a Way of Being. If you want to go further, here are a few tools you can use to get started: - **🪒 Occam's Razor:** *"The simplest explanation is usually the best one."* Use this with beliefs, relationships, philosophies, and choosing what to buy/use. - **❌ Abstinence:** If you think you can't live without something, prove it. I guarantee you're wrong. Try not using whatever it is for 30+ days. If you still need it after, go right ahead. Minimalism isn't a punishment, if you need it, use it. But be prepared, you'll be shocked by how little survives the abstinence period. - **⛓ Voluntary Limitations:** Set arbitrary self-rules, like don't drink soda, or wait 2 weeks before buying something. Voluntary limitations create better decisions about what to commit to and bring into your life. - **⚗️ Experiments:** Run continual lifestyle experiements. Don't buy new clothes for a year. Buy all tech second-hand. Monthly groceries for less than $200\. Develop a capsule wardrobe. Experiments show you just how far you can push it, and how little surface material changes affect your state of being. Having everything fit into a backpack/duffel has been an experiment of mine, for example. - **🌬 Re-identification with Immaterial:** The things that matter most to you are immaterial: love, connection, community, purpose, play. Cultivate a spiritual practice that helps you identity with the immaterial, and minimalism is a natural by-product of this identity shift. Possessions, identities, accumulations keep you rooted down. They keep you secure. They keep you chained. In a world of fear and insecurity, this is valuable. But it's the *problem,* not the *solution*. All these accumulations restrict the freedom of your Soul. They keep you in bondage, chained to the past, chained to old identities, locked up in a self-imposed prison. > If you want to experience the freedom that is your birthright, systematically remove all that is not you. And I'll tell you now — *nothing physical is you.* Minimalism is a Way of Being that honours this fundamental Truth. --- ![Existential Minimalism: Hungry Ghosts, Wabi-Sabi, & False Security](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/5937c788-fafc-454c-b870-e401fd745b27_2000x314.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/cryptopsychedelic-sovereignty/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:57:06.000Z > This essay has been been percolating in the caverns of consciousness for nearly 5 years. It starts with a story. In the early months of 2018, fresh off the winter wonderland that became known as the 2017 Crypto Winter – a conference was held on the picturesque beaches of Tulum, Mexico... ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/b0e73fc9-b144-48e8-9720-31c6f95dbae3_1678x700-jpeg.jpg) [The CryptoPsychedelic Conference.](https://cryptopsychedelic.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) I was working as Communications Director for a [software wallet](https://www.exodus.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and exploring the emerging world of psychedelic medicine. It was a wild time, and this was a match made in heaven. I was deeply excited. ## 🧧 The CryptoPsychedelic Conference The conference brought together young and bright faces across the psychedelic and cryptocurrency worlds, putting them together for a few days of drinks on the beach, speaker panels, and open stages. Expectations were high. To me, the parallels between the psychedelic experience and the potential of cryptocurrency and blockchain protocols were numerous and obvious. The fractal nature of software design, transparency as a mechanism for Truth, emergence as generative pattern, technology as embodied states of Being — I eagerly awaited the panels. But nothing of the sort arose. The closest overlap presented was using cryptocurrency as a funding mechanism for psychedelic therapy studies. Relatively basic, to put it nicely. Most panels were individuals talking about themselves. I was profoundly disappointed. But this idea — the overlap between blockchain, crypto, and psychedelics — has not left me. The idea guides me like a lighthouse in a storm. **These two worlds share a deeply fundamental property — the cultivation of sovereignty.** > This is what we will explore today — crypto and psychedelics as tools for the cultivation of individual and collective sovereignty. ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/3eb09f6b-8e75-4010-a32d-90f56b81a5d8_500x281.gif) ## 👀 Grokking Sovereignty Models Sovereignty is arguably *the* fundamental concept throughout Nature — fractalling upwards in the holonic architecture that is Life itself. The sovereign atom, molecule, cell, organism, species, ecosystem, bioregion, planet, Being, Life. Sovereignty is fractal, self-similar at any level of scope or magnification. **Personally, I define sovereignty as your capacity and ability to be a complete, conscious agent in the world.** I, and many others I know, have been deeply impressed by Jordan Hall's [triadic model of sovereignty](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkJEthfBa5Y&ref=zenmedicine.co). Hall puts forward sovereignty as a self-recursive feedback loop, *an* [*agentic strange loop*](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/introduction/?ref=zenmedicine.co), where one's sovereign capacity is measured spherically, with the x,y,z-axes being Perception, Sense-Making, and Agency. - **👁 Perception:** Are you able to see Reality as-it-is. This includes access to information, avoiding confirmation bias, steel-manning opposing sides, and taking meta-perspectives. - **🤔 Sense-Making:** With clear perception of the available information, can you make sense of it? What can you infer from the data? What is it indicating, what steps are next, where do you go? Just having the information isn't enough, you have to be able to understand it and decide what to do next. - **🏃🏻‍♂️ Agency:** If you have made a decision, can you act on it? Do you have the individual capacity to make your decisions real in the world? Are you able to effect change? - **🌀 Strange-Loop:** After taking action, you have impacted Reality. You have affected the world. This means new information is available to be perceived, and the process begins again, looping back in on itself in a self-recursive fashion. **Hall's spherical agency model is exceptional because it invites two obvious moves to make in the cultivation of sovereignty: first, *become* *well-rounded*. Second, *expand holistically.*** > "Consider, for example, that a major challenge to sovereignty is an imbalance of these capacities. If you have much more ability to perceive the world than you have ability to act in the world, you might feel powerless and non-responsive. If you have much more ability to act than you have the ability to make sense, you might find yourself doing more harm than good." — Jordan Hall, [On Sovereignty](https://medium.com/deep-code/on-jordan-peterson-and-the-future-51402a370d79?ref=zenmedicine.co) Increase your ability to perceive, to understand, and to act. Increase the rate at which you complete these cycles. And just like our vicious vs. virtuous cycles, this can either collapse in on itself, or work synergistically and be a catalyst for major growth. Hall continues: > "As you develop, if you are lucky, you learn something. You increase your ability to relate to the world and to make sense of it. And, ultimately to make good choices. This is a virtuous cycle. The more good choices you make, the better positioned you are to make good choices in the future." — Jordan Hall ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/c3f24a60-767f-4c54-8f0c-8eca9eb35403_400x400.gif) ### 🌐 Node <> Network Holonic Architecture In [Ritualized Rebirth](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and [Cultural Architecture](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co), I made the argument that there is something greater than the mere fulfillment of the individual. The beauty of joining the great Web of Life is not self-eradicating, it is self-transcending, rising into more expansive levels of Being. The paradox is that to join this network, you must be a fully capable node. The individual node must be sovereign, because it's [a holon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holon%5F%28philosophy%29?ref=zenmedicine.co). Holonic architecture is simply that an entity is both a *whole*, and a *part*, simultaneously. Your heart is both a complete organ itself, and a single organ of your body. You are both a complete individual, and a part of humanity. Counterintuitively, in order to transcend the self, you have to cultivate the self. Single points of failure and [trophic cascades](https://www.britannica.com/science/trophic-cascade?ref=zenmedicine.co) are problematic. Failure of a holon affects the input of the supra-holon/system, and affects the output of the sub-holon/grouping. These set off chain reactions. You must be a whole individual. You must be sovereign. **The opposite is also true, you can have single acts that ripple positively throughout the higher-order whole — this is why** [**wolves change the rivers**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/86c832a9-a03d-4dbc-ba8c-eafad13eb98a_765x469.gif) From '[Evolutionary Progress in Nature](https://www.stevemcintosh.com/books/evolutions-purpose/chapter-six-evolutionary-progress-in-nature/?ref=zenmedicine.co)' Because sovereignty is fractal in nature, the same foundational principles apply. We have individual perception, sense-making, and agency, just as we have collective perception, sense-making, and agency. The challenges we are up against are far beyond the scope of an individual to handle, perceive, or understand. Collective sovereignty is the way forward. > The fundamental building block of collective sovereignty is individual sovereignty. Only with sovereign individuals coming together can we paint a Gestalt of the wicked problems complete and compelling enough to address them. ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/490547ad-38a5-47d7-9086-83d6b8e4b4da_900x526.gif) ## 🔮 Psychedelics and Individual Sovereignty Psychedelics have been used in ritual and ceremonial contexts for millennia, largely due to their ability to invite in the sacred, and in the cultivation of individual sovereignty. In [Ritualized Rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co), we covered this process of formal death/rebirth practices as essential in the self-actualization and self-transcendence process. The psychedelic experience thrusts you to look at the two fundamental components: yourself as an individual, sovereign node, and yourself as part of a vast, interconnected network: the Web of Being. It confronts you directly with your almighty power, with the importance of every act and thought you have, and the profound power of exercising your will over linear time. They smack you with sovereignty. ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/7b154ffc-7487-43eb-93b3-c9ea710dacae_1021x332-jpeg.jpg) Psychedelics are among the single most powerful experiential psychotechnologies for sovereignty and transcendence I have ever come across. Several factors make them powerful catalysts in the cultivation of individual sovereignty: - **⛑ Resolving Trauma:** if you are viewing the world through a lense of historical trauma, you are severely limiting your Perception. Most traumatized people wear trauma like glasses, viewing the world solely through it. They're never seeing reality as it is. - **🕶 Lenses of Perception:** Several distorting lenses of perception exist. Psychedelics help to slowly or completely remove these filters from your perception. Fear, cognitive biases, logical fallacies, spiritual ego, tribal identities/affiliations. Psychedelics are remarkably consistent at oblierating lenses that distort reality, this by itself makes psychedelics an indispensible tool. - **🏔 Meta-Perspectives:** The psychedelic experience is uniquely skilled at forcing people into meta-perspectives, rising above the content of experience to witness the structure and unfolding of experience itself. This is essential for systems thinking, holistic and ontological design, and accelerates the individual evolutionary process. - **⚡️ Insight Cascades:** John Vervaeke introduces flowstates as [cascades of insight](https://markmulvey.medium.com/awakening-from-the-meaning-crisis-by-john-vervaeke-ep-2-summary-notes-f1f646c61a9f?ref=zenmedicine.co), this is why they are so intrinsically rewarding – a constant barrage of 'aha!' moments with full-bodied engagement. Psychedelics produce an extended flowstate, both subjectively and neurobiologically. When the subject of the insight is the interrelation and right relationship of Self, Other, and World, that is an extremely potent place to be. - **💡 Creative Problem-Solving:** One of the most classic [psychedelic science studies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelics%5Fin%5Fproblem-solving%5Fexperiment?ref=zenmedicine.co#:~:text=Psychedelic%20agents%20in%20creative%20problem,performance%20in%20solving%20professional%20problems.) of all time was around creative problem solving. \~30 domain experts were brought in, all of whom had a 'problem' they could not solve. The majority found creative or innovative solutions to their challenges. In regards to perception and sense-making, psychedelics are incredibly powerful tools. - **😵‍💫 Nuance/Complexity:** Due to this increase in creativity, insight, schema theory, and information management, psychedelics allow for the processing and assimilation of greater amounts of nuance and complexity than normal. Suddenly, like the disparate dots above, everything fits into a holistic picture, while retaining individual uniqueness. We need individuals who can hold and process more nuance and complexity, and psychedelics with appropriate integration can facilitate this. - **💪 Personal Power/Responsibility:** You cannot exercise your agency if *you are consciously or unconsciously throttling yourself*. This is what most people do — hold themselves back. From fears of failure, to self-doubt, to comfort, to perceived smallness, people throttle their own agency frequency. Psychedelics, through mechanisms like embodied awakening, self-transcendence, death/rebirth, God-experiences, fear extinguishing – help individuals reclaimg their power, take deep responsibility, and increase their agency as a result. - **🔋 Energetic Re-Alignment:** Psychedelics experiences excel at energetic realignment, giving the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual *(*[*PEMS energy systems*](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*)* a hard reset. This is basic, but foundational. You make worse decisions when hungry, perform at a lower quality when tired. It all adds up and contributes to your sovereignty. > In the [yoga of becoming](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co), psychedelics are an indispensable tool for internal awakening and sovereignty. Though they are not the only tool available, ritual psychedelic use has withstood the test of time for good reason. ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/caa82732-9b40-4fab-9fe5-f18b298f66c8_1920x1080.gif) ## 🪙 Crypto, Blockchain, & Collective Sovereignty Cryptocurrencies and blockchain protocols are the latest (& perhaps first) emerging technological innovations that have the flexibility, strength, and potential to assist humanity's phase shift through a [regenerative renaissance](http://edgeofbeing.org/regenerative-renaissance/?ref=zenmedicine.co). No other existing economic, financial, or political systems have been capable of stewarding this. How do we know? Because nothing is happening. From misaligned incentive structures, perverse power dynamics, optimizing for dark triad personality traits — there are several reasons why the existing systems are either incapable, unwilling, or both, to help enact the level of change required. This is where cryptocurrency and blockchain are taking center stage. They are systems-level components of cultural architecture that are up to the task of stewarding this level of collective transition. Of course, they are still nascent and being developed, but the initial results and capabilities are extremely promising. **Putting the power back in the hands of the people is synonymous with developing collective sovereignty.** It's outside the scope of this essay to provide detailed explorations of what cryptocurrency and blockchain are, but we'll explore a few key characteristics that make these technologies so essential in contributing to individual and collective sovereignty. - **🧾 Immutable Record:** The immutable ledger that forms the foundation of blockchains is one of the most significant developments we have seen in the last few decades. Clear perception of reality is the starting point for sovereignty, and you *cannot* make sovereign collective decisions about governance, economics, or finances when small groups of people like governments, banks, or financial institutions can black box information, lose trillions of dollars, or engage in unethical behaviour. - **💻 Information Visibility:** The collective has no insight or ability to perceive what is happening within the highest levels of monetary policy, governmental decision-making, or banking institutions. Given the centrality of money in today's socio-economic systems, this is an absolute atrocity. Having all records collected, stored, and available to the public is absolutely essential to the sovereignty of the collective. This is why existing systems are both incapable (don't have transparency mechanisms) and unwilling (information is actively surpressed) at assisting the development of collective sovereignty. - **⚖️ Governance Mechanisms:** Blockchain invites the opportunity for decentralized governance mechanisms, liquid democracy protocols, and opportunities for more robust collective sensing and collective intelligence to take place. If we're being truly honest, most politicians are only good at being politicians. They have no real skill in the world — why are they making decisions on things like healthcare, economic policy, planetary regeneration? - **✅ Collective Agency:** We have lost the ideal of liberal democracy and have succumbed to oligopalist plutocracy, rule by wealthy elite. The existing political and economic elite can debase and destablize currency without your knowledge, acceptance, approval, or permission. - **👊 Individual Control:** You have no input on how your money works, your system of governance, or any other meta-systematic decisions from which all else arises. The two-party system is a pathetic polarizing manipulation of the masses. We have allowed this to happen, and we can begin to change it. Most major banks have massive investment in the fossil fuel industry – regardless of your views, if you're using major banks, you're funding planetary devastation. It's time to reclaim this. **Decentralized systems were one of the design requirements in** [**Cultural Architecture**](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co)**, for this very reason.** > Crypto and blockchain enact and enable collective sovereignty, to once again enmesh humanity as a whole unto itself, and also as a symbiotic part of the great holonic holograph known as Life. ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/b77a8019-8087-4437-9aee-78833dc644f9_800x600.gif) ## 🎯 Future Possibilities Across several pieces we have explored the fundamental recognition that the external world is formed and shaped from your internal state of being. The world looks the way it does because of the cultural frequency that created it. Your life looks the way it does because of the internal state of being you embody. The true potential of psychedelics and blockchain is the virtuous cycle it creates, the collective [yoga of becoming](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co) it enables. Psychedelics facilitate radical internal evolution, facilitating novel insights, creativity, systems thinking, and more. Crypto and blockchain provide the tools and technologies to manifest this new way of Being in the world. They are the integration process of humanity's [embodied awakening](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co). They are how we materialize these changes in the world. Decentralized governance, fractal holonic architecture, biomimetic programming. Crypto and blockchain allow us to build, innovate, and iterate at the speed of evolution, at the speed of insight, at the speed of Life. Nothing has enabled us to do that, individually or collectively, thus far, to this degree. Looking forward, this opens up radical new possibilities: - **🏴 Digital Nations/Stewardship:** Largely put forward already by the late Toni Lane Casserly with her pioneering work at [Cultu.re](http://cultu.re/?ref=zenmedicine.co), we can phase shift from outdated forms of governance and democracy and step boldly towards a more united, holistic dynamic. Digital nations, collective governance, and communal stewardship move us in the connected collective visions that so often arise in the psychedelic experience, and are enabled by the emergent technologies within crypto and blockchain. - **👥 Self-Organizing Collective Intelligences (SOCI's):** The Collective Sovereignty feedback loop has to be iterated quickly, seamlessly moving from perception into sense-making into action as quickly as possible. Self-Organizing Collectives, with the ability to manage resources and make decisions rapidly, will be essential. - **👩🏼‍⚖️ Governance Mechanisms:** The collective embodied awakening aspect of this sovereignty work will be putting it into practice. Fortunately, alongside these initiatives, novel ways of relating and governing are opening up. [Liquid Democracy](https://medium.com/organizer-sandbox/liquid-democracy-true-democracy-for-the-21st-century-7c66f5e53b6f?ref=zenmedicine.co), [Quadratic](https://medium.com/giveth/conviction-voting-a-novel-continuous-decision-making-alternative-to-governance-aa746cfb9475?ref=zenmedicine.co) & [Conviction Voting](https://medium.com/giveth/conviction-voting-a-novel-continuous-decision-making-alternative-to-governance-aa746cfb9475?ref=zenmedicine.co), [Holonic Architecture](https://www.hylo.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and many others are presenting opportunities for experimentation and creative evolution of the very building blocks of civilization as we know it. - **💵 Paid to Participate:** With radical reorganization of individual and collective mechanisms, entirely new ways of architecting come about. Imagine if the dollar paid you for being a user of it? Imagine if video games paid you for playing? Imagine if countries competed for your citizenship? All of this is *already happening* in the crypto and blockchain worlds. It's there, just not evenly distributed yet. ### 💃🏻 A Dance of Emergence **There you have it. Sovereignty as the gravitational force uniting the psychedelic experience and the crypto/blockchain worlds.** This world is just emerging. A dance between individual evolution and the tools capable of holding it. Our systems are incumbent, old, outdated, and crumbling. Humanity needs to start embodying its own awakening, and embracing the tools and technologies that are capable of honouring the divine experiences and insights that the inner landscapes of mind present. > **It's time to once again embrace the emergent, dynamic, holonic nature of reality and embrace our own cryptopsychedelic sovereignty as a species.** --- ![CryptoPsychedelic Sovereignty: Reclaiming Human Agency](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/45f5e373-6956-4bfc-8193-b4da5b27fc45_2000x314.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/experience-design/ Last updated: 2025-02-09T15:57:08.000Z > Experience Design is an externally-facing tool in the [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co), [Cultural Architecture](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and [Embodied Awakening](http://edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co). See those essays to explore why external engagement is central to any work you want to do. ## 👁 The Significance of Experience ![Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/3fa0f44d-6ace-483a-9465-6c2ab7260bcd_1600x900-jpeg.jpg) **Experience is at the core of your existence. You could say experience is primary. It is the primary qualia. The core feeling of "I Am"-ness is *the* experience. If you want to radically evolve yourself, radically evolve your experiences.** This is the domain of Experience Design. Applying Design Thinking and Somatic Techniques to experiential arcs. Given the multiplicity of experiences that are possible, you have an infinite canvas to play with. An opportunity to create experiential masterpieces. **This essay is an overview of the colours, brushes, and artistic techniques you have access to when creating your experiential masterpieces.** You'll also notice how interconnected experience design is to everything we've covered thus far. [Cultural Architecture](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co) involves experience design on a grand, collective scale. [Hedonic Engineering](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is the domain of individual evolutionary experience design. The process of [Embodied Awakening](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is going through experiences that move intellectual knowledge into embodied wisdom. And of course, experience design is a fundamental component of the external aspect of your [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Your relationship with your city, your country, your favourite brands — all of these relationships and your opinions of them are formed through the total experiences you have had with them. Through exceptional experiences, you have the capacity to deliver wonderland on demand. For yourself, for your loved ones, and for the world at large. > The significance of experience can't be understand. If you're ready to seriously play the human game, you need to seriously design the human experience. ![Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/e67c8cb1-2e87-4561-8fb9-19981c30570d_2000x1130.png) ## 🎨 Core Components of Experience Design There are several core components. You may not need to involve each one at the same level of intensity, but I will say that the truly best experiences have given deep consideration to all of these. Do with that information what you will. - **👅 Sensory Immersion:** Sensation is the body's portal to the world. Consider and involve as many senses in the experience as you can. What do they see when they enter? What is the visual identity? What does it smell like? Are they touching or holding anything? Is there music? If so, what kind, what BPM? There are other, less obvious senses you can involve. A sense of opportunity, a sense of justice, of possibility, of safety. The more sensory immersion in the experience, the richer the information, the more salient lessons become — the more powerful your experience. - **🛠 Hedonic Engineering Levers:** You have your core [Hedonic Engineering](https://www.edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co) levers available. The most potent individual mechanisms at your disposal: breathing, sexuality, embodiment, music, and substances. Given the nature and potency of experiences, some of these are more sensitive to work with. Start small, build up your competence and skill before introducing things like sexuality work or substances into your experiences. But when you're ready, the amplify everything. - **📜 Narrative Arcs:** Narrative arcs are one of the most overlooked but most powerful, components here. Why are they here? What are they doing? Where are they going? The image above *(from the* [*Flow Genome Lab*](https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co)*)* depicts the most potent narrative arc we see in modern stories: the 'Cinderella' arc. Start off rough, come into a good place, tragically lose everything, and then at the stroke of midnight, win it all back and rise to glory. Humans love this. There are other archetypal stories, the most obvious being the [Hero's Journey](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co). You see this in the Matrix, Harry Potter, nearly everything. It is the canonical meta-narrative. At [Apotheosis](http://apotheosisretreat.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), the plant medicine retreat series I help run, we base each day off a different phase of the Hero's Journey – this is how it comes to life. There are many story arcs. The exponential curve, of starting low and building into something magnificent, is used by a lot of the AI-techno-utopians right now. *"Soon, very soon, we will reach new levels of glory never thought possible."* Weave narrative arcs into the very fabric of your experiences. - **⛳️ Desired Outcomes:** What is the outcome you want for individuals to have in your experience? Is it cathartic releases and emotional healing? Feelings of community and connection? Challenge and resilience? Creative possibility? Depending on the desired outcome, the specifics of your experience will change. You can use the narrative arc that fits best, tailor the hedonic engineering activities that are best suited for that outcome, and weave in sensory immersion most helpful for that outcome. *For example: if community and connection is a desired outcome, orient around vulnerable sharing, of overcoming shared challenges, group flow states, etc.* - **📍 Pre-/Peri-/Post- Experience:** Your experience is not just the momentary fraction of time participants are in it. The experience is the anticipation and planning they have leading up, the moods and experiences they have within it, and the memories and reflections they have of it afterwards. Your experience *(and all experiences)* exist as this hyper-object: in the past, present, and future at once. Have you thought of how you can build anticipation, or feelings of safety before the experience starts? What about how they can remember it afterwards *(giving participants a physical item/totem they can take home, for example)*? The more these factors are considered, the more your experience becomes a pivotal moment in their lives instead of simply another nice story. - **🤩 Desired Emotional State:** On the way to your desired outcome, along the arc of your narrative storyline, there may be many different emotional states or significant experiences that can help them. The opportunity to be courageous, the experience of being loved unconditionally, cathartic emotional release, ecstatic presence, tribal affiliation, belonging, planning their future, excitement, reflecting on their good fortune, unfiltered joy. What emotional states, what significant insights are most helpful throughout the pre/peri/post stages of the experience? With that answer, find the specific practices that best enable that experience. **To ground this, you can simply work backwards.** Start with desired outcome: what do you want people to get out this? From there, what narrative arc would best facilitate that? Along that journey, what significant feelings/experience should they have? What will you do before, during, and after the experience to make those happen? And in those actions, how can you get them as deeply involved *(sensory immersion)* and engaged *(hedonic engineering levers)* to make the experience as potent and powerful as possible? > Top-down experience design brings everything into alignment. Outcomes inform narrative. Narrative informs activities. Activities inform emotions and immersions. ![Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/558c6ba5-d4d2-4ec9-aee3-c8a6d724743c_500x216.gif) ## 🎩 Dark Side of Experience Design Like any powerful technology, this can be used for benevolent or malevolent ends. You can unlock individuals in ecstatic rapture, or manipulate them into acting for your own benefit. There are many potential dark sides to experience design. - **📈 Corporate Manipulation:** One of the first books I ever had to read in my Commerce degree was '[Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy](https://www.amazon.com/Buyology-Truth-Lies-About-Why/dp/0385523890?ref=zenmedicine.co)'. It was the first splinter that truly made me question the ethics and morality of business/marketing as a whole. Some examples of how experience design can manipulate you into consumerism: When Coke sponsored America's Got Talent, not only did they have the bottles displayed on the judges table ([mere exposure effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure%5Feffect?ref=zenmedicine.co)), they actually made the judges chairs red and curvy, just like the bottles themselves. The reason bars and clubs are always dark and have loud music is that the loud, rhythmic music makes you drink faster and buy more. Stores like American Eagle and Subway know that the olfactory system *(smell)* is unbelievably powerful, and have specific scent combinations that they douse everything in to trigger buying behaviour. All food producers use the '[Bliss Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss%5Fpoint%5F%28food%29?ref=zenmedicine.co)', a perfect combination of salt, sugars, and fats to addict you to their foods without tiring of consuming it. The reason every social media network has a blue logo is the colour psychology meant to build trust and connection. Make no mistake, there are teams, agencies, and industries solely focused on using experience design to addict you, to extract value from you, and to keep you coming back for more. - **👃🏻 Olfactory System & Memories:** Your sense of smell is unbelievably powerful, it has a direct path to your brain. Smells can trigger long-forgotten memories more powerfully than any other sense. The smell of packaged foods, that first pop of the lid, is so unbelievably manufactured that companies, organizations, and corporations try very specifically to associate themselves with sacred childhood memories from your past. This is nothing other than corporate manipulation of the population to hit bottom line goals. It's extremely manipulative, and hard to fight against, even if you know it's happening. - **🛐 Cults & Transcendence:** After significant experiences you are highly open and suggestible. Cults and religions love this fact. If you're in that open, vulnerable state — you're easy prey. So organizations will facilitate these experiences, they will create the vehicles for ecstasy and transcendence, so that you more readily buy into their systems, their beliefs, their power structures. The same levers that make Experience Design so powerful: connection, insight, ecstasy, community, are the same things that can be used against you. - **🌿 Pseudoshamans & Power Dynamics:** Facilitators, shamans, guides, organizing teams that host these events inevitably run into a perceived power dynamic. Malevolent actors all too easily abuse this. The pseudoshaman who sexually exploits participants in sensitive and open states. The retreat centers who upsell you in the middle of your transformational retreat *(I'm looking at you, Rythmia)*. Being forced or coerced into participation in activities due to group social pressure, threat of consequence, or otherwise can be exploited. - **⚡️ Information Saliency:** A combination of these dark forces is what is used in brainwashing. In suggestible states, susceptible to power dynamics – you can be told what to do, what to think, how to feel, if you're right or wrong, where to go. It's easy to say that you won't fall victim to this, it's another thing entirely to be blown open after a breathwork journey, fresh off of healing trauma, and have someone in a position of trust and authority recommend things to you, or impart their metaphysics onto you. Information that is rich, clear, direct, and can be weaponized in Experience Design for the uninitiated. > Knowledge of the dark side allows you to avoid falling victim yourself, from perpetuating these cycles in your own experiences, and help others through their experiences if they have fallen victim. ![Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/8f735b6a-c166-4e53-a4a1-9c78e35edb71_444x250.gif) ## 😇 Light Side of Experience Design For all the same reasons, with all the same mechanisms, Experience Design can be extremely significant, benevolent, and positive for groups/individuals. - **⛑ Trauma Healing:** Powerful experiences have the potential to be fundamentally life-changing. Healing corrosive behavioural patterns or addressing trauma is one of these areas. - **🤗 Trust & Safety:** Giving individuals the opportunity to be vulnerable, to open, to feel safe, to trust in Life/Others is something not facilitated by most of modern culture. Designing experiences that enable this is a sacred gift you can give. - **✨ Insight & Growth:** Not only do experiences give individuals the opportunity to heal and move back into wholeness, they're inherently expansive. You push growth edges safely and powerfully, and make significant strides in your evolutionary journey. They accelerate and amplify everything else in a virtuous cycle. - **🧘 Embodied Awakening:** Experiences are an incredibly powerful way to ground the insights/lessons you learn in reality. Well thought-out experiences are among the most potent tools in the [Embodied Awakening](http://edgeofbeing.org/embodied-awakening/?ref=zenmedicine.co) toolkit. - **🫂 Community & Connection:** Society has fundamentally lost true community and connection. Group experiences are a vital necessity at this point. Take the lead, curate group experiences, build communities of practice, and rebuild what has been so fundamentally lost in the past few centuries. Community is the glue that holds culture together. - **😊 Joy & Engagement:** Not everything in life needs to be work-focused. It doesn't all have to be hard work all the time. Sometimes you just need to play, to experience, to enjoy. Designing peak experiences is a beautiful gift to give individuals. Ecstatic dance, immersive theatre/art, ceremony, and sport are all wonderful examples of this. You can re-enchant existence for people, give them a reason to live, this by itself is reason enough to do this. > Through deliberate design, careful consideration, and good intentions, Experience Design is at the core of making any significant individual/collective change. ![Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/15571374-3fb6-4886-a88a-24df0fd5c993_600x600.gif) ## 🌀 Fractal Experience Design This has focused largely on group-level experience design, and for good reason. But there's a fractal, self-similar aspect to Experience Design. These principles ripple up and down the social stack. - **👤 Individual:** If you're deeply within your own [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co), you can design experiences using these principles for your own process. This is [Hedonic Engineering](http://edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co) in practice – individual awakening experience design. How to get the most bang for your buck. Blow yourself to Kingdom Come, and get back to work on Monday. These design principles allow you iterate, add depth and saliency, and weave your practices into a coherent narrative. - **👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 Group:** Humans are social creatures. Group work is innately generative to the individual. It's also a safe first step into external engagement, into acting in the world. The principles we've discussed here apply directly to designing group experiences. They can be digital workshops, conversations, masterminds, or physical events, retreats, festivals, or spaces. - **🌐 Collective:** Civilization is a massive collective experience. This is why governments do things like set up spikes on the ground to deter homeless people. Homeless people are unsightly *(visual)*, and so they are trying to design an experience for the masses that avoids that reality. Collective experience design invites entirely new and wonderful design possibilities, like architectural principles, [biophilic design](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophilic%5Fdesign?ref=zenmedicine.co), city/urban planning. All of this is experience design at its core. You'll notice we've moved away from human experience as a core consideration in collective experience design. Skyscrapers, grey concrete jungles, straight-line, right-angled architecture is repulsive. If you want to affect many, start designing collective experiences, or building the alternatives, through [cultural architecture](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co). > These are the mechanisms of experience design. Use them to unleash yourself, to steward group dynamics, and refine the experience of everyone, everywhere, everywhen. ![Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/2ffacc2e-5979-4e76-8b93-c1219928591e_480x270.gif) ## 🤝 Facilitating Transformational Experiences Experience design is highly sensitive work. We've seen how it can be manipulated to work in favour of dark forces. If you're doing trauma work without adequate preparation and considerations, you can re-traumatize individuals. While it does have the capacity to change people's lives — *it has the potential to change people's lives.* Be careful when playing with fire. A few core guidelines that are helpful to work with when facilitating and designing these transformational experiences. - **❤️ Holding Space:** Learn the art and science of [holding space](https://connorbeaton.com/wtf-holding-space-mans-guide/?ref=zenmedicine.co) for individuals and their process. Not directing it, but allowing individuals to explore themselves in a safe container. It goes against many knee-jerk, caretaker archetypes. You're not supplying the answers or experiences, you're allowing individuals to find it themselves. - **🌲 Emotionally Grounded:** In highly sensitive individual practices, being deeply rooted is essential. There are projections, uncertainty, fear, anger, and other volatile emotions that surface. You have to hold the frequency clearly and directly. This requires a level of emotional maturity that challenges most individuals. Root yourself deeply, so you can be like a lighthouse in the emotional storms, guiding individuals through their experiences and back home safely. - **❓ Socratic Questioning:** You do no one any favours by giving them the answer. In fact, it doesn't work. An answer and experience is exponentially more impactful when an individual arrives at it by themselves. Instead, try [Socratic Questioning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic%5Fquestioning?ref=zenmedicine.co) — ask questions for the individuals to explore that *lead* them to the answer. - **🎮 Inputs Over Outcomes:** Outcomes are extremely important. You should ensure *(through feedback and paying attention)* that your experiences are achieving the desired outcomes. However, you cannot *guarantee* these outcomes. So focus on the inputs. Focus on what you can control — focus on how you can design this experience. Read this again, look at all the variables you can tweak, and use them in your experiential masterpieces. > Experience is the core of everyone's life. It can be malevolent or benevolent. Whether it's for your own individual process, or engaging deeply in the world, you have a canvas of consciousness and a palette of experiential mechanisms to work with. I can't wait to see the masterpieces you create. --- ![Experience Design: Wonderland on Demand](https://storage.ghost.io/c/62/aa/62aad04f-2df1-446d-b0c9-1b5eb6878fdc/content/images/2025/02/fef879c2-fe80-43de-b06f-f49fffa4d648_2000x314.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Regenerative Renaissance: Cultural Enlightenment for Thriving Futures URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/regenerative-renaissance/ Last updated: 2021-07-11T19:44:00.000Z --- > In [Cultural Architecture](www.edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/) we outlined the Blueprints and Design Requirements that must be developed if humanity is to phase-shift into a more holistic and symbiotic existence. This post explores one of these Blueprints, that of the Regenerative Renaissance, in more depth. **This post is also inspired by my recent completion of the** [**Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance**](https://medium.com/tools-for-the-regenerative-renaissance/tools-for-the-regenerative-renaissance-de8784a168ca?ref=zenmedicine.co) **course.** A better-than-free *(they pay you for studying)* course highlighting the tools and technologies available to help individuals steward the regenerative renaissance. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/giphy.gif) ## 🏎 A Brick Wall at Mach 5 In evolutionary terms, modern civilization has existed for as long as it takes for you to snap your fingers. If the history of the world was a single 24-hour day, modern civilization started 4 seconds ago. **Humanity has snapped its fingers and created the modern world.** Despite the God-like power portrayed here, a more fitting metaphor might be that of Thanos from the Marvel comic universe. In the snap of our fingers, we have driven innumerable species into extinction, collapsed bioregions, exceeded over half of Earths planetary boundaries, while *increasing our capacity* to continue delivering this devastation — and calling all of this 'progress'. The continued developments of exponential technology and increasingly rivalrous game dynamics are adding more infinity stones to the Thanos glove of destruction. As I wrote before, it's beyond the scope of this publication and my own interest to lay out everything that proves this point. If you don't yet believe that we are heading towards a brick wall *(planetary collapse)* at Mach 5 *(exponential pace)*, this might not be the post for you. **The combinations of ecosystem loss, growing inequality, collapse of financial systems, breakdown of civil discourse, erosion of individual sovereignty, development of collective fragility, create a 'meta-crisis' — a crisis of simultaneous crises.** The answer here is not sustainability. It's not carbon credits for corporations. It's not vapid and empty UN climate accords with several-decade long initiatives that aren't adhered to. **What we need is something far greater.** We need a Renaissance. [A rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co). A cultural enlightenment. A coming-out of the dark ages of our own ignorance and separation. **We need a Regenerative Renaissance.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/ezgif.com-gif-maker.gif) ## 🌿 Exploring the Regenerative Renaissance If we're going to play the linguistic game, we need to be speaking the same language. We need to define shared terms. Let's explore both of these in more detail. ### 🌱 The Need for Regeneration Sustainability is another way to say *maintainability*. Can you sustain or maintain what you're already doing? Humanity is barreling down a path towards a cliff, or a brick wall, in our vehicle of Spaceship Earth. The end is not pretty. Hitting this wall will be fatal. *Merely sustaining or maintaining the rate we are already going is wholly inadequate*. **This has to sink in deeply.** Multiple complex systems failures are already in motion, the time for sustainability *(the ability to maintain this state when the Earth is already balanced)* has come and gone. Slowing down our speed from Mach 5 to Mach 1 makes no difference. When you're barreling towards your death at breakneck speeds, hitting the brakes isn't enough, you need to start *going backwards*. You have to reverse your direction. Sustainability has nothing to do with reversing direction. It's only about being able to go at the same speed in perpetuity. Regeneration, in a planetary context, is what we need. **We must collectively focus on reversing the changes that are already in motion, to subdue the collapse momentum that exists, and return the planet to homeostatic equilibrium.** ### ⭐️ The Need for Renaissance Here's the kicker: humanity has no basis for how to do regeneration and symbiosis at this scale. There are no blueprints, no frameworks, no protocols for how to take massive regenerative action *(& then normalize that new Way of Being)*. It has never been done before. This requires more than mere technological innovation, this is an entirely new way of Thinking, Living, and Being. It requires a renaissance — a rebirth, a new of way of being in the world. Yes, there are some existing case studies to learn from. Things like the indigenous way of life, who have stewarded land in symbiosis and sustainability with nature for far longer than civilization has even existed. There are also many brilliant thinkers who have renegerative principles sorted out. > We need to come out of the dark ages of separation, and just like the last great Renaissance period, we must create our own [Quadrivium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrivium?ref=zenmedicine.co) (Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy) centered around Regenerative Culture and new Collective Ways of Being. **The scale of change we must shephard is more akin to the cultural transition from Religion to Science, than it is to no-plastic-straws-in-restaurants virtue signaling.** It is an entirely new way to think about Life, Nature, Humanity, and the interrelatedness and interdependence of all of them. It is the *Regenaissance*, the greatest endeavour humanity has ever undertaken. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/globe-earth-planetary-boundaries-graph-1488x808.png) ## 🪴 Frameworks for Stewarding the Regenaissance We have many useful frameworks that can get us started. If we are to begin aiming at anything *(and you need to aim at something before you start acting)*, we have several frameworks that can help us. 1. 🌎 **Planetary Boundaries:** The [planetary boundaries framework](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary%5Fboundaries?ref=zenmedicine.co) *(pictured above)*, is a place to start. Exceeding *any* plantary boundary sets off [trophic cascades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic%5Fcascade?ref=zenmedicine.co) that ripples up and down ecosystems. We have exceed 3/9 already *(and the pace of overshoot continues to increase)*. We are pressing the limits of 2 others, and we don't yet have precise data for 3 other boundaries. I would argue at least 1 is already exceeded, 1 is close, and the final is okay. Over half of the planetary boundaries are at risk or have already been blown through, and our speed of exceeding these is only increasing. The simplicity of this framework is that is points clearly to our next steps: bring everything back within planetary operating boundaries. 2. 🍩 **Donut Economics:** [Donut economics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut%5F%28economic%5Fmodel%29?ref=zenmedicine.co) are a way to enact the change required to rebalance planetary boundaries. Find the sweet spot, and build entire economic systems incentivized to maintain the sweet spot between meeting social needs *(the floor)*, and staying within ecological limits *(the ceiling)*. Though this seems simple, you'll notice it requires initiatives like building in de-growth phases into the economy *(the economy cannot grow infinitely outside of ecological boundaries)*. So already, doing this is completely radical, but fundamentally necessary. 3. ♻️ **Circular Materials Economy:** A [circular materials economy](https://www.government.nl/topics/circular-economy/from-a-linear-to-a-circular-economy?ref=zenmedicine.co) is simple: the waste becomes the input. Instead, we currently have a linear materials economy, where resources are taken, converted into stuff, and stuff becomes toxic garbage, largely unable to become the initial resource for new material again. This is a central point. We are far away from this, and in the setup of current financial and socio-economic systems, companies are *incentivized* to use a linear materials economy. It's completely backwards. 4. 👨🏻‍🌾 **Regenerative Agriculture:** As much as we like to praise the wonders of science and technological innovation, we get so caught up in this that we forget that it's all pointless if we don't have arable land, drinkable water, nutrient-rich food, and healthy soil. These are non-negotiable! This seems easy, but will take an entirely new Way of Being to truly enact. Individuals and communities must take ownership of their food again to get away from mass, degenerative farming practices. This is the bottom-up starting place for the Regenerative Renaissance, this is Ground Zero. Food, water, soil. 5. 🦋 **Bio-Mimicry:** [Nature is the archetypal genius](http://edgeofbeing.org/creative-evolution/?ref=zenmedicine.co). Nature has figured all of this out already. It's Humanity who has forgotten it. [Bio-Mimicry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimetics?ref=zenmedicine.co), the design principle of copying principles found in nature, is a great place to start. Principles for effective use of energy, circular materials, and collective organizing can all be found flawlessly within the natural world. We should stop viewing ourselves as the peak of evolution, humble ourselves, and start taking notes from species and organisms that aren't driving themselves off a cliff. 6. 🏕 **Re-Wilding:** [Re-wilding](https://rewildu.com/what-is-rewilding/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is a movement focused on the individual level. We as individuals need to become more wild. As I wrote in the [Creative Evolution Manifesto](http://edgeofbeing.org/creative-evolution/?ref=zenmedicine.co), there's a way to do this that isn't primitive, it's progressive. A recognition that if the 'civilization' thing isn't working, stop doing it. It's not working. We must once again become part of Nature, not separate from it, and this begins on an individual, embodied level. 7. 🌐 **Collective Commons/Stewardship:** As part of the regenaissance, we will need to rethink the very fundamental building blocks of our cultures and societies. This includes how we relate to ownership and public goods. We need reinvigorate the [Commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commons?ref=zenmedicine.co) — domains managed by the collective instead of governments or corporations. Part of this will be a large-scale transition from private ownership towards [collective stewardship](https://www.blockislandtimes.com/affiliate-post/ownership-vs-stewardship/29286?ref=zenmedicine.co). You do not own the land, projects, or products, you steward their health and engagement. Make no mistake, this takes deep individual reprogramming as well, absolving yourself of the need to own and control is no laughing matter. > Some of these frameworks may be more useful than others, but they all serve a fundamental purpose: getting conversation and action started. If you're ready for the external engagement in the world as part of your [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co), pick a framework, gather your tools, find your community, and start building. It's time to rethink and reinvent everything. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/SIyK.gif) ## ⚡️ Tools for the Regenerative Renaissance If you're trying to seriously play the game of cultural architecture, your zone of genius may very well be in bringing about this regenaissance. Fortunately, you have tools and technologies available to help you. This is not an exhaustive list, but it will certainly point you in the right direction. 1. 🌾 **Regenerative Agriculture:** The field of [regenerative agricultural](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEZvF68sytc&ref=zenmedicine.co) is already underway. [Soil microbiome](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfRvuPIN4kk&ref=zenmedicine.co) replenishment, [biodynamic farming](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FBiggest%5FLittle%5FFarm?ref=zenmedicine.co), electrical [microgridding](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMAEqstRcvntRjh5CAM10Zl3U5bN547Us&ref=zenmedicine.co), [eco-village initiatives](https://www.braveearth.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and many others are emerging. Find these outlets, and get involved. Grow your own food, make your own energy. Participate, vote with your time, attention, and energy, for these new systems. 2. 💡 **Collective Intelligence:** This regenaissance will be a collective work. We need tools to quickly surface, sense-make, and enact various initiatives. Collective intelligence tools around information sharing, knowledge management, and decision-making are essential. Tools like [Polis](https://pol.is/home?ref=zenmedicine.co), [Hylo](https://www.hylo.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and others are building in this space. 3. 🗳 **Decentralized Governance:** Let's be clear: the world governments and organizations have been wholly incompetent, or entirely uninterested in making this happen. This must be driven by the people. New mechanisms of coordination are required. [DAO's](https://aragon.org/dao?ref=zenmedicine.co), [DHO's](https://dho.hypha.earth/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and [decentralized governance](https://kronosapiens.github.io/blog/2019/06/16/aragon-daostack-colony-moloch.html?ref=zenmedicine.co) mechanisms are being built. You can test them, contribute to them, or build your own. [Phoenix Culture](http://phoenixculture.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is currently building in this area as well. 4. 💵 **New Economic Systems/Currencies:** What if we had entire economic and financial systems oriented around regeneration? What if our currencies embraced individual autonomy and capacity? These already exist. [SEEDS](http://joinseeds.earth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is building a regenerative economic model, [Circles](https://joincircles.net/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is pioneering local UBI initiatives. They need your help, you can get started here. 5. 📊 **Organizational Models:** Like we said, this is a renaissance. We need to rethink and reimagine the very systems that enable this, because none of the current models do, or they actively incentivize the opposite. Organizational models like [holocracy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUHfVoQUj54&ref=zenmedicine.co), [sociocracy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6r3-s2p7eI&ref=zenmedicine.co), [flat organizations](https://medium.com/percolab-droplets/whats-all-the-fuss-about-roles-in-horizontal-teams-and-organizations-1ab240d7305?ref=zenmedicine.co), and others are foundational starting points for radical experimentation in collective organization and execution. > The regenerative renaissance will require not only all of these tools working at their best, but a comprehensive and holistic system that unites and synergizes all of their strengths and capacities. We are at the point where we still need to develop these tools, so let's start there, and build a holistic system as new wisdom emerges. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/infinte-consciousness-01.gif) ## 🐉 The Inner Work of Renaissance Making Recalling our exploration of the [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co), participating in the Regenerative Renaissance is firmly in the **external** domain of this process. As you engage more deeply in this work, it will inevitably spark friction, or highlight areas of internal work that need to be done to evolve past deep-seated beliefs around scarcity, competition, ego, ownership, collaboration, and more. A few key areas *(though by no means exclusive)* for continued inner work I have noticed that will be necessary include: 1. 🏆 **Omni-Win Considerations:** Are you able to make decisions and take actions that benefit more than just yourself? Can you identify steps that are net-benefits to all stakeholders, from the community, to the collective, to the biosphere? 2. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 **Community Building:** Can you build and participate in communities? This change cannot and will not be enacted by an individual. You must be able to build and participate in community, which brings up communication skills, compassion, trauma, and trust in others. 3. ⛩ **Individual Maturity/Capacity:** Are you easily upset when receiving feedback? Do you have the strength and skills to contribute to this work? As always, individual actualization [comes before](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) collective actualization. 4. ⚡️ **Wisdom Practices:** Can you turn data into knowledge? Can you turn knowledge into wisdom? Can you share and embody that wisdom in your actions? Being able to notice and surface wisdom will be fundamental to the success of the regenaissance. 5. 💧 **Fluid/Surrendered Leadership:** [Fluid leadership](https://www.tleadership.com/2018/06/20/fluid-leadership/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is a core component of collective organization, re-commoning efforts, and decentralized systems. Can you step into a role of leadership when it's called for? And can you embrace a follower role when required? Both of these skillsets are unique, but equally essential. 6. ⚙️ **Systems Thinking:** Looking at [the structure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym9W2afVyqI&ref=zenmedicine.co) instead of merely the content is imperative. Moving your lense of perception from direct to meta is important. Becoming more of a systems thinker *(as the regenerative renaissance is working within complex systems)* is essential. 7. ⭐️ **B-Values:** You'll notice that the inner work required is fundamentally about further embodying the [B-Values from Maslow](www.edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/). This is why continued inner development is a necessary and ongoing component of showing up to help enact the regenerative renaissance. > There is no separation between the inner and outer landscapes. Until holism is developed in yourself, it won't be developed in the world. We must address both, and create a virtuous cycle that shepards both to regenerative symbiosis. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/infinte-consciousness-02-1.gif) ## Where to Go Now There you have it. Alongside [Cultural Architecture](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co), the Regenerative Renaissance work is an area of external engagement, another facet of the Infinite Game, that you can begin to play within. - You know *why* this needs to happen. - You have *frameworks* to model this work around. - You have a *toolkit* to use. - You have complimentary *inner work* to complete. So let's get started. Let go of the old systems, let go of the old models of Self, let go of old ways of Being. Let the old, dysfunctional systems wither, and from the ashes of an outdated civilization, a Regenerative Renaissance rises. We are here with you. There are those already playing this game. Find your communities, cultivate your skillsets, and let's usher in a new era for humanity: a regenerative, holistic, symbiotic existence that honours all of Life. --- ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Embodied Awakening: Facilitating Identity-Level Transformations URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/embodied-awakening/ Last updated: 2021-07-04T19:55:50.000Z --- > We've laid out the core components for what becomes an autopoetic, dynamic awakening system. The external engagement of [Cultural Architecture](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and becoming an Infinite Player; the internal components of [Hedonic Engineering](http://edgeofbeing.org/hedonic-engineering/?ref=zenmedicine.co), facilitated by [Ritualized Rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) practices for rapid transformation. These come together as a cycle in the [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co) — and the thread, the through line that unites and weaves each of these components together into a holistic system is Embodied Awakening. **Embodied Awakening is exactly what it sounds like — deeply embodying and enacting the insights, growth, and experiences you have throughout your personal evolution process.** This is what I mean when I discuss 'identity-level transformations'. Your identity is automatic, your behaviours arise effortlessly without thought. The process of embodied awakening is done to facilitate identity-level transformation — where the embodiment and enactment of deeper and deeper insight and Truth arises naturally, without effort for you. > "Knowledge is just a rumour until it lives in the muscle." – Papua New Guinea Proverb This proverb demonstrates the case perfectly. Another way to say this is: the 'profound insights' and 'wisdom quotes' you have don't mean anything at all until they come forward *naturally* in your actions. Until they are embodied in your DNA. **The TL;DR of this entire piece is: talk is cheap. Aim for embodiment.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/8ae29648f32948efa32d662aebe89b12.gif) ## 🧘 Taking Awakening Seriously Here's a place to start: if you are on any sort of personal evolution path or awakening process — are you even confident in saying that to other people? If someone asks you what you do or who you are, can you respond with calm, bold confidence that you're seriously playing the game of awakening? Very few people I have met do this, myself included. *If you can't, why not? Why is your own awakening process so far down your personal priority list that it doesn't even come up in your description of yourself? If you view individual awakening work as necessary or even foundational to a healthy society — why so much trepidation when talking about it?* **This is one of the stakes that modern culture drives into the coffin of spirituality: that those who are on the awakening path can't explain what they're trying to do, and if they can, they're not confident or proud of it!** As always, and I'm going to spell this out in an entire future post, this is in the spirit of *serious play*. It's not something you need to drag yourself through. I would argue that awakening work done correctly is intrinsically motivating, just like games, it becomes to enticing, so enriching that you are compelled to continue exploring it as seriously and as playfully as you can. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/LiquidVictoriousBasenji-size_restricted.gif) ## 🧬 The 4 Lost Ways of Knowing John Vervaeke has put forward the [brilliant framework](https://medium.com/rebel-wisdom/lost-ways-of-knowing-2180a80987d8?ref=zenmedicine.co) of the 4 Lost Ways of Knowing, and they move along the spectrum of conceptual to embodied. From abstract to tangible. From thought to lived. From statement to experience. **This is generally the process that individuals move through in Embodied Awakening.** 1. **Propositional:** *I know it because I can state it.* A factual statement, like the sky is blue. 2. **Procedural:** *I know it because I understand the steps.* An outline, like how to tie your shoes. 3. **Perspectival:** *I know it because I've seen the examples.* A viewpoint, like Western culture tends to be more individualistic. 4. **Participatory:** *I know it because it's my lived experience.* An embodied state, like I am part of humanity. Western Culture exists almost exclusively in Propositional knowing. This is the domain of Science, so it makes sense that the natural resting state for societal Knowing is at this level as well. And you'll notice — nearly everyone in the awakening process is somewhere between the first to third levels. Some people can only state what they think awakening is, or that all things are connected. Others can list you the steps towards enlightenment, or how to induce a satori experience. Others have had glimpses of it themselves, or have met highly awakened individuals and know that it is possible. However, the few who experience these Truths, who abide at the Participatory level, are very few in number. > Until these Truths live in you as a direct, participatory experience, you will feel forever unsatisfied. Like a process is incomplete. ### ⬆️ Moving Up the Stack **A very important point here is that there is no set-in-stone directionality for the 4 Ways of Knowing.** It's just that due to the dominance of the Western Scientific Materialist paradigm that most of us grew up in, you will likely start at the conceptual (propositional) and your task is to move down the stack towards the embodied (participatory). This does not mean it's the only way to go. You can move *up* the stack. This is why getting hung up on conceptual understanding can be severely limiting. **You do not need to understand your awakening process/progress in order to reach deeper levels of insight and embodiment.** You can have valid, embodied awakening experiences but be unable to articulate them (propositional), unable to explain how you go there (procedural), or point to other groups also embodying it (perspectival). That is okay, that does not invalidate the experience you have had. It's the same with trauma, I recorded a [full video](https://www.instagram.com/tv/CP%5F19GPBUVE/?ref=zenmedicine.co) you can watch about this. You do not need to have a conceptual understanding of your trauma in order to heal it. You simply need to complete the unresolved energetic cycle (participatory) in the body. **Trauma healing is embodied, so is Awakening.** It is a beautiful game to play, to move back up the stack and attempt to put your realizations, your Way of Being into words *(this is largely the scope of this publication for me!)*, but don't trick yourself into thinking it's required. For example: early Chan, Taoist, & Zen cultures were highly participatory, in fact the entire pursuit of these Ways were to bring an individual into a deep participatory relationship with the universe. To unite cosmos and consciousness at an immediate, embodied level. Very little was written down, very few formal teachings occured. It was largely entirely perspectival and participatory, and Zen in particular is arguably one of the most effective schools at producing awakened individuals. > Conceptual knowing can be helpful, it can be an asset. It can also be a hindrance, and it is not a requirement for continued progress. Be discerning. ### 👁 From Third to First Person Another way to frame this embodied awakening process is through the transition from third (informal) to second (formal) to first (experienced) person perspectives. This is the state of Organized Religion, where most individuals experience of the transcendent is Third Person: talking *about* God. They have never experienced the *presence* of God, and most certainly have not had the experience of *being* God. This is the same theme with individual awakening. You can have third person discussion (talking about awakening), second person (talking to higher self), or first person (awakening experiences). The aim should be to take all of your spiritual Truths, all of your Awakening glimpses, and drop them down the stack from talking about them, to talking to them, to living within them. - Stop talking about Compassion. Start *being* compassionate. - Stop talking about Awakening. Start *being* awake. - Stop talking about Unity. Start *being* connected to everything. And as always, and this is the fundamental point: none of this is in the domain of Knowing/cognitive understanding. None of this is in the domain of the Doing-Mode. This work lives precisely within the direct, lived experience of the Being-Mode. It is an abiding, embodied experience. Unless you have *felt* it, you're not there yet. Once you have felt it, live within it. Make it last. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/tenor.gif) ## 🧠 The Trap of Cognitive Understanding There is one fatal flaw to an over-reliance on conceptual/cognitive understand: **it lulls you into a false sense of accomplishment.** Too often I see examples of individuals who get to a conceptual understanding where they can articluate a deep truth or spiritual insight, but there's been no embodiment, no identity/behavioural change, around it whatsoever. And they act like the process is complete, when it's only just beginning. > Being able to recite quotes from spiritual masters has no correlation to your own level of awakening. Memorizing the Buddhist Eightfold path does not move you further along it. Overreliance on cognitive understanding can be a major setback in the awakening process. Convincing yourself that because you can speak it, you are it. Nothing could be further from the truth. As we saw with the Lost Ways of Knowing, you've only made it to the very first step! This also engenders something I've started calling the **Inner World Problem.** Organized religion is plagued by the Inner World Problem. The Inner World problem is the fact that you will never have access to someone else's inner world. You can never verify their experience yourself. As a result, practices tend to shift towards highly superficial acting and demonstrations, only consisting of things you can confirm and verify — the look, the words, the rituals, the dances. In organized religion, this looks like placebo sacraments, flourishes and decorations, and fancy words that lack the depth of wisdom and direct experience of the transcendent. It's a show with no substance. In individual awakening, the Inner World Problem brings about things like insight porn, surface-level explorations, costumes and 'looking the part', and a lack of rigour in explanations. **Talk is cheap. How you behave matters more.** Conceptual understanding also invites the possibility for the entire awakening endeavour to be co-opted by the ego. The 'spiritual ego' is an abomination, but so unbelievably tempting that almost everyone falls into its black hole at some point. - If you think that other people are 'sheep' and therefore inferior, you are victim to spiritual ego. - If you think your value as an individual has increased in any way since your awakening process, you are victim to spiritual ego. - If you've found the 'objectively right way' to do things, you are victim to a spiritual ego. **Cognitive understanding is a tool, it can help you orient, to have a sense of what you're moving towards. However, you must be discerning, as it can quickly become an end in itself, instead of a tool to use along the way.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/buddha.gif) ## ✌🏻 Examples of Embodied Awakening It's always helpful to ground these in examples, but I often have trepidation doing so because you must remember: **your path is fundamentally unique, and though you may find your way to similar markers as others, comparing your path and process will lead you astray.** What does embodiment of awakening work really look like? There are innumerable ways, but here are a few examples I can point to: 1. **Concept:** You cannot die. **Embodied:** Some monks have drastically [reduced their startle response](https://www.lionsroar.com/stifling-the-startle-reflex-almost/?ref=zenmedicine.co) *(an involuntary flinch driven by fear, ultimately fear of death)*. They have re-programmed their bodies to be less afraid of death, and overcome a previously autonomic aspect of the human animal in the process. If there is fear of death present in you, you have not fully embodied this truth. The desire to live is not equivalent to the fear of death. 2. **Concept:** All are equal. **Embodied:** Do you treat your enemies just as you treat your loved ones? Do you still categorize groups of people into good/bad, right/wrong, worthy/unworthy? As always, it's not what you *say*, it's what you actually *do*. If you treat or think of others in terms of a values hierarchy, you have not fully embodied this truth. 3. **Concept:** You are exactly where you need to be. **Embodied:** Does jealousy of others still arise in you? Do you constantly compare yourself to others? Do you wish the past had been different? Do you think that you should be 'further along' than you currently are? If any of these happen, this truth has not been fully embodied. 4. **Concept:** We are all One. **Embodied:** Do you treat the world like your own body, like your own Self? Does separation still arise in you? Is there a distinction between subject/object? Do you identify as a separate Self? If so, this truth has not been fully embodied. These are but a few examples of what I mean. And you'll notice, there are very few individuals you've likely met that have actually embodied these Truths. For many, the ability to spout spiritual platitudes is enough to placate their ego, to feel superior, and they don't go any further. But if you're really playing the awakening game, you'll know that conceptual knowing and cognitive statements are but the first step in the embodiment process. Go further. Cultivate them until they live in your bones and come out effortlessly in your actions. Persist until they make up the foundation of your Way of Being. This is identity-level transformation. This is embodied awakening. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/585923251buddha-meditation-wisdom-quote-animated-gif-6.gif) ## 🤸🏻‍♂️ Embodied Awakening Practices Just like you do not need to have a cognitive understanding of your process for it to continue, you do not have to use cognitive techniques to continue making progress along your path. These are identity-level, nervous system changes. These are deeply patterned behavioural evolutions. Your Mind and Ego are such small parts of the sum total of your Self that they do not need to be involved in the process at all. Some embodied awakening practices include: Yoga / Meditation / Tai Chi / Cha Dao / Artistry / Creativity / Conscious Relating / Trauma Healing / Plant Medicine / Being-Mode. Stop gratifying the ego with fancy-sounding elaborations and explorations. Sit on the cushion, get on the mat, and show up for a complete evolution. Move your insights down the stack, to every level of your Being. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/1-CimWjfxuAGxSdD6MplKk5Q.gif) ## ♾ The Potential & the Paradox of Embodied Awakening We quickly run into a viscious, self-reflective circle in this work — "how do I know when I've fully embodied the insights, experiences, and awakening glimpses I've had?" A simple first place to start is to simply ask yourself that question for anything you've been working on. If the answer that surfaces inside of you is no, you have your answer. The frame I will offer here is the competency progression. When you first begin something, you tend to go through a multi-stage process of competency: 1. **Unconscious Incompetence:** Having never tried this, you have no real idea of just how bad you are at it. 2. **Conscious Incompetence:** Having started working on it, you are able to discern just how much more progress you can make. 3. **Conscious Competence:** You have skill and ability in the field, but are working on developing it further. It is an active and aware process. 4. **Unconscious Competence:** Effortlessness arrives. You no longer need to think of the action to perform it completely. The paradox of embodied awakening is that once it lives in you, you don't need to talk about it. You don't need to plan it. You don't need to *force* it. You don't need to understand it. You just need to experience it. You just need to *be* it. > “Those who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know." — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching Now after writing 2800+ words about embodied awakening, it can be hypocritical of me to say that those who talk don't know. But I never said I was fully embodied. This very project is part of my process. Perhaps there will come a time when I view all information sharing as unnecessary, but that time has not yet come. Right now, the strong feeling of putting out nuanced, detailed explorations arises in me, and I am simply trying to honour that as something that Life is doing through me. We are all moving along the path. You are doing great. Keep going. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/07/ddi7k94-75b13dcb-b167-413e-9b17-664c53cb1300.gif) ### A Note on the Ending of Awakening > ‘Ordinary mind is Tao.’ — Nansen This quote is part of a larger koan, a Zen riddle. It is one of the most profound statements I've been focusing on lately. **Your life, your existence, the exact unfolding of your thoughts and actions — it is the Great River of Being flowing. Your life, your ordinary existence, is the perfection of All-That-Is blossoming into Presence in each moment.** That statement is your conceptual, propositional statement. I would argue that Embodied Awakening is really just the process of letting that sink down into your bones. Let it settle into your Soul. Let it wash over you and cleanse you of your anxieties, worries, self-doubts, judgments, moralizing, all of it. Let it all go. Embodied Awakening is simply coming to terms with the fact that the life you have is perfection itself. It is Perfection in a state of Perfecting itself. Moving through unique manifestations of Perfection for Eternity. This is also what I believe is meant by the classic "Gateless Gate" koan. So many of us embark on this epic quest, a soul-searching journey, only to arrive back deeply within our direct experience. **You return to yourself, as you are in this moment, realizing that the Enlightenment you were looking for was the very thing that was looking for Enlightenment.** > Embodied Awakening is letting the Truth of exactly what you are settle in to your bones. It is not conceptual. It cannot be contained within the limitations of language. It is a direct, lived experience of the Sat-Cit-Ananda (Truth, Consciousness, Bliss in Sanskrit) that is the reality of your experience. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Hedonic Engineering: Building a Psycho-Spiritual Growth Stack URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/hedonic-engineering/ Last updated: 2021-06-27T17:27:00.000Z --- > This post double-clicks on a key component of the [Yoga of Becoming](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co), that of Hedonic Engineering. If you haven't yet read the essay, it's helpful to start there before exploring further. **The Yoga of Becoming is a dynamic dance between inner world development and outer world engagement, unifying them in a virtuous cycle for sustained personal evolution.** If your external engagement with the outer world surfaces latent blocks/traumas/obstacles that need to be addressed — how do you go about doing that? What does the 'inner work' aspect of the Yoga of Becoming look like? It looks like Hedonic Engineering — creating a bio-psycho-spiritual growth stack to address and compliment the specific areas of focus you identify. For a great introduction, I'd invite you to [watch this talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnMZjAheONI&ref=zenmedicine.co) by Jamie Wheal, where he lays out many fundamental principles we'll address here in more detail. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/RTvg.gif) ## 🧠 The Fallacy of Mind-Body Dualism Modern culture is currently plagued by the epidemic of Mind-Body dualism, the idea that the mind and the body are somehow entirely distinct and separate entities, influencing each other but remaining largely islands of their own. **This is entirely false.** You are a holistic, dynamic, complete organism. There is no separation between mind and body. Fortunately, this is a gift, an opportunity. It means your surface area for development has dramatically increased. You have the entirety of your Being available to enact and implement solutions to any identified problems. ### 🧬 Re-Enchanting the Human Organism A quick note on the ancient wisdom of the human organism. The human body has been largely villified by modern culture as the rational mind and scientific materialism have risen to power. On one hand, we still carry latent beliefs inhereted from Christianity that the body is essentially the vehicle of Sin — full of primal drives that lead to anarchy. On the other hand, we've also inherited the Scientific Materialist paradigm that what you truly are is a Mind riding around in a largely useless meatsack prone to deterioration and primitive modes of being. Both of these stances are revolting. **Let's set the record straight: your body is the most ancient and advanced biological technology in existence. It has been refined through millions of years of successfully adapting and evolving to be best suited for Reality-At-Large. It has millions of years of iterative progress ahead of the absolutely infantile pre-frontal cortex you hold so dearly and that we as a society now value above all else.** Instead of rejecting the body as dumb and archaic, I'd invite you to worship it as fiercely intelligent and highly advanced. Do otherwise at the expense of your own suffering. > As you progress on the path of individual awakening and personal evolution, psycho-somatic body-based solutions should be your ***first choice***, not your **last option**. You do not need to have a cognitive understanding of what you are healing for it to work, you do not need to mentally grasp the concept in order for it to become a part of you. Though this can assist the process, it is not necessary. This will be the entire focus of next weeks article on Embodied Awakening. We've established the importance of body-based solutions for inner work, we've re-echanted the human organism as a source of profound ancient wisdom and capacity. Now let's dig in to the mechanisms, drivers, and levers we can work with to create our psycho-spiritual growth stack. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/baf6c36251929d495545119d29b68847.gif) ## 🔋 PEMS Energy Systems When we say "personal evolution" or "developing the inner world," — what does this actually mean? One frame I quite enjoy is the PEMS Energy System. Personal evolution involves both balancing and increasing holistically the 4 pillars of personal energy: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. Most of us are extremely imbalanced in one or more of these key areas. The imbalance is the problem. Why? Because when one of them is off balance, your body will tell you. Your body is a work of homeostatic excellence — balance is the name of game. Equillibrium is the aim. You should aim for balancing, and then expanding, your capacity across the board. - **💪 Physical:** Physical energy is apparent to most of us. Do you have clean, smooth energy throughout the day? Are you strong? Flexible? Alert? Focused? These are all signals of physical energy. - **💛 Emotional:** Emotional energy is a very pronounced experience. What's your baseline mood? Are you numb? Do you fly off the handle a lot? Are you easily triggered? Consistently anxious? Deeply depressed? Ecstatically manic? All of these are signals of emotional energy imbalance. - **🧐 Mental:** Mental energy is perhaps less intuitive to some of us. Are you engaged? Can you handle complexity? Can you explain your thinking? Can you act on your intentions? How is your willpower? - **🙏🏻 Spiritual:** Spiritual energy is the most amorphous, but arguably the most important. Are you fulfilled? Is your life meaningful? Do you feel like part of the great Web of Being? Are you removed from the Circle of Life? Do you wish you didn't exist? Is sleep a reprieve from the suffering of life? Most people focus on one area, thinking they can somehow overpower the other areas that are lacking. This is not entirely true. It *is* true that emotional joy can increase your physical energy. That deep meaning can clarify your focus. However, the aim should be balance, to become well-rounded across the board, not merely compensating for imbalances. **When designing a hedonic engineering protocol — identify the areas here that are currently imbalanced, or an area you would like to develop further, and ensure that the following protocols serve this area.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/FFOE-e1501989645123-1956x2000.jpg) ## 🚦 The 4 Pillars of Hedonic Engineering You have four main pillars you can work with when coming up with practices that are best suited to unlock and unblock yourself. Though these can stand alone, it is best to find practices that can work with 2 of more of these pillars simultaneously — the more thoroughly you can bring your entire Being into the process, the deeper the results, and the more profound the outcomes will be. 1. **🧠 Psychology:** Mind-Body dualism is not true. You can trigger and resolve internal conflicts by resolving things psychologically. There are many reported cases of 'spontaneous healing' where individuals fixed paralysis, blindness, chronic illness, and more, simply by resolving trauma or making breakthroughs on the psychological level. 2. **💊 Pharmacology:** Exogenous *(outside of body)* compounds can have profound effects up and down the mind<>body spectrum. Intentional, safe use of pharmacological triggers can invite profound healing and deep states of Being to help you along your personal evolution process. 3. **⌚️ Technology:** Floatation tanks, magnetic stimulation, resonance machines, and more offer initial glimpses to how technological intervention can be a powerful mechanism for inner development. Though be warned, outsourcing your healing sovereignty by becoming dependent on external tools is dangerous. You should master the basics first, then invite in external tools. 4. **🤸🏻‍♂️ Neurobiology:** And of course, body-based practices are a powerful mechanism you can use here. Breathwork, movement, trance states, and more are extremely significant tools available to you in this process. > First Lesson: any hedonic engineering protocol you develop, and any of the practices you invite into this protocol, should address ideally 2 or more of these pillars at once. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/Hedonic-Yoga-of-Becoming.png) ## 🧐 The 5 Foundational Levers As we mentioned, body-based work here is the name of the game. It's important to note that your human organism has developed over millennia, far before the introduction of modern technology. The levers you have available are ancient, and within you at all times. This is empowering — you need very little, if any, modern equipment to make the most of many of these practices. The specific practices should anchor themselves in one of these 5 signifcant levers: 1. 🌬 **Breathing:** Breathing is one of the few bodily processes that is both automatic and conscious. You can breathe intentionally, or you can let your breath happen naturally. You can't actively run your kidneys. Breath-focused techniques help move you into a parasympathetic state, or into a sympathetic state. It can give energy, it can calm your heart rate, it can bring you into altered states entirely. It is an extremely powerful lever, and should be included in all practices and protocols. 2. 🍆 **Sexuality:** The most fundamental of the human drivers, and one of the most powerful psycho-spiritual triggers humans have. Wondering where you're still traumatized? Try asking for what you want during sex. The Daoist sages practiced Sexual Kung Fu, as the post-orgasmic state *(la petit mort – the little death in French)* can bring you into states of unity and oneness with life. An inconvenient truth for most dudes is that the majority of the male pleasure centers *(million dollar point, vagal nerve stimulation, mixing power dynamics between partners, etc.)* only begin below the ballsack, a territory most men avoid religiously. Working with your sexuality can trigger an immense number of pleasure centers, induce altered states, and surface hidden traumas you didn't even know about. Sexuality work is more advanced, and arguably not the place to start, but if you're ready, it can massively accelerate your process. 3. 🧘 **Embodiment:** Movement, dancing, somatic trauma release, and shamanic trance states all have deep embodiment as a core driver. You can switch brainwave patterns, surface historical trauma, even the simple act of becoming more flexible in the body will lead to greater mental/spiritual flexibility. Again, there is no separation between the mind and body. Embodied practices *(as opposed to simply mental/philosophical work)* should work their way in to any complete psycho-spiritual practice. 4. 💃🏻 **Music:** Music pre-dates language, it is an absolutely ancient technique for psycho-spiritual work. It is not to be passed over. Shamanic drumming soundtracks can induce out-of-body experiences, chanting is practiced in nearly every indigenous tradition, binaural beats shift brainwave patterns to unlock insight, calmness, and healing. If you want to change your energetic state, change your music. If you want to amplify or stack the benefits/salience of your other practices, weave in rhythmic music patterns at different frequencies and varying BPM's. 5. 👅 **Substances:** Psychedelic or entheogenic compounds are an obvious choice here, but food/water *(or lack of food/water)* are also relevant in this category. Nootropics, psychedelics, macrodosing vitamin stacks can all bring about exceptional states. Do your research here, be smart, but don't doubt the profound power of adding intentional substance use to your protocols. Don't become dependent, but don't overlook entirely. > Second Lesson: If you want to increase the depth of the experience, the richness and saliency of the information you access, and the durability of the post-experience shift — stacking as many of these core levers together as possible is the way to go. **An example of stacking them all together is ketamine breathwork.** *You're regulating breathing, becoming deeply embodied, pairing it with rhythmic music, taking intra-nasal sprays of liquid ketamine every few rounds, and can even throw in some sexual stimulation if you're feeling spicy. You've checked every box, and you will be floored by the intensity of the experience.* Of course, there are other practices like this, all at varying degrees of intensity and number of levers stacked together. Experiment to find the practices that work best for you given your current circumstances. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/1-0n-qrl8OMhv1kdzj_fReqQ.gif) ## 🗺 Creating a Hedonic Engineering Protocol Thus far we've laid out the groundwork for developing your hedonic engineering programs and protocols. All of the fundamental building blocks are there. But what does a protocol actually look like? How do you go about developing, refining, improving, and enacting these programs? - **🔋 Energy System:** I would recommend two core areas of focus here: a set of practices to *maintain* all of the energy systems, no sense in making backwards progress. Regular, ritual activities that help maintain, and then identifying 1 or 2 systems to focus on *expanding*. How do you identify which ones you expand or work on? Investigate your current blocks/traumas/imbalances, and work on that category. - **⚙️ Available Practices:** It's helpful to find individual practices that address multiple energy systems. Yoga is an example of a practice that hits every energy system at once. Meditation is another that hits several areas. Tea ceremony hits a few. Journalling. Talk therapy. Breathwork. There are many examples that either directly hit, or can be tailored to address, mutliple energy systems. This is helpful because if you only use very narrow, focused techniques, you'll end up with 15 things on your daily to-do list just to manage your energy. Stack benefits, find practices that hit multiple systems, and increase the intensity slowly to get more output for less input. - **🔬 Micro, Meso, & Macroscopic Levels:** This is one of the most imporant areas of focus when developing your protocol. Think at the micro, meso, and macroscopic levels. Microscopic is the daily practices. The 15 minute meditation, the 30 minute yoga flow. These become the bedrock, the things that *maintain the gains* you've made thus far. Mesoscopic is the least addressed area in modern culture. What are the monthly or seasonal activities that can help perform broad nervous system resets, or help make significant *expansions* of your systems? Longer breathwork experiences, intensive meditation, fasting, psychedelic ceremonies, weekend retreats, shamanic trance journeys, specific trainings, these are all things that can be weaved into the mesoscopic. Macroscopic is more apparent to many. The plant medicine retreat, the meditation week, multi-day fasting, transformational festivals, significant psychedelic experiences all fit into the macroscopic. These can provide a *step-function increase* in one or more energy systems. The challenge then becomes integration, which you perform by diving back into complimentary micro and mesoscopic practices back at home. - **🗓 Calendaring:** You know the energy systems you want to focus on, you've got a list of practices and progressions that can address that, and you've broken them down into the daily, monthly, and annual experiences. Now it's time to put them on the calendar. **This is your personal evolution we're talking about here, if you can schedule your work meetings, you can schedule your evolutionary initiatives.** Daily, microscopic practices can go into morning and evening routines. Mesoscopic practices might fit with the changing of a season, a new lunar cycle, or the beginning/end of a month. Macroscopic practices need to be scheduled in advanced, planned for, schedule cleared, etc. Layout the picture of your evolution on your calendar. - **⚡️ Benefit Stacking:** Now of course, you can increase information richness and experience intensity by stacking benefits from complimentary practices. Doing breathwork before a cold shower creates a synergy stronger than either individually. Meditation after yoga is much better than meditation before yoga. Matching intense psychedelic sessions with a renewed journalling practice afterwards is extremely beneficial. As you start tinkering with the building blocks of hedonic engineering, start playing with the sequencing and stacking of each individual practice, find the ones that fit best for you. > Third Lesson: If you came to this article expecting me to lay out a hedonic engineering protocol for you, I can't do that. You are fundamentally unique, and the exact mix of practices you will need are unique to you. I have laid out all the core components you need here. **I would suggest setting some time aside to go through each of these sections for yourself. What energy system do you want to develop? What are the practices available to you that can help with that? What do the micro, meso, and macroscopic levels of that protocol look like? Schedule it. Start it. Refine as you go.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/1ZhoonLPsSVQ.gif) ## 🧬 My Current Hedonic Engineering Growth Stack Here's a look at some of the practices and protocols that have become staples in my growth stack. Of course, this is always shifting and evolving, as the specific things I'm working on are always changing. - **🔋 PEMS:** Current focus on Physical and Spiritual. I have largely neglected my body my entire life through some pseudo-spiritual belief that negating the body was necessary. This is a major focus. The Spiritual is also a major focus, embodying new levels of awakening *(this will be expanded on next week),* and connecting deeper and deeper with my identity as All-That-Is. - **🏛 Pillars:** Current focus Neurobiology & Pharmacology. Exploring and refining somatic, body-based techniques has been central for me, and the intentional use of exogenous compounds for significant meso-/macro- experiences. - **⚖️ Levers:** As many as possible in each experience. - **🔬 Microscopic (daily):** cold showers with breathing work, [rapé](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ab9316f4cde7aac86ef2c74/t/5f187c588e060e0fcf235c6d/1595440268601/The-Modern-Shamanic-Snuff-Guide.pdf?ref=zenmedicine.co) (Amazonian snuff powder) with meditation, matcha tea ceremony, [Komuso](http://komusodesign.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co) breathing tool, meditation, yoga with music and pranayama, journalling. - **☀️ Mesoscopic (\~monthly/seasonally):** [Kambo](https://thethirdwave.co/psychedelics/kambo/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (Amazonian frog poison) dosing session, individual psychedelic ceremonies, 1-hour+ breathwork sessions, circling sessions, technology fasts, intermittent fasting (16h or 1/3-day), various meditations. - **🔭 Macroscopic (\~annually):** Plant Diet (Amazonian intensive retreat), Plant Medicine 1-week retreats, festivals, ecstatic dance, floatation tanks, sexuality work, deep dive into new potential practice. Of course, I don't hit these all the time. But on any given day, I use 80% of the daily practices. Every 1-3 months, I do 80% of the monthly practices. Every year, I hit 100% of the macroscopic practices. If a new practices emerges *(or I identify as being extremely relevant for my process)*, I'll often drop a few and make that a much more central part. Some times my meditation is 10 mins a day, sometimes it's an hour. > Fourth Lesson: To tie this all back together into the Yoga of Becoming, you can refine your ability to identify which set of practices is most relevant by deeply engaging in the world and staying mindful of triggers or internal shifts. Your triggers show you where you are not free. **For example: if through working in a group, you recognize that your communication skills need some work, you can develop a hedonic engineering protocol which includes: circling sessions for interpersonal relating, breathwork for nervous system resets, and cold showers and switching to matcha tea for cleaner, less jittery energy throughout the day.** In your engagement with the world, identify what (Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual) is currently blocking you, come back to this Hedonic Engineering framework, and use all the tools/levers/mechanisms as possible to custom-tailor an evolutionary process to address that. If this virtuous feedback cycle becomes a regular part of your life, you can skyrocket in your progress and personal evolution. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/AngryPeriodicHarrierhawk-size_restricted.gif) ## ⛑ Contraindications & Considerations **This work is no joke.** A strong ketamine breathwork session can leave you questioning the nature of reality. Deeply vulnerable sexuality work can surface latent traumas or patterns of behaviour you never knew existed. Kambo and traditional plant medicines are highly intense experiences and should be treated with reverence, respect, and caution. A few key areas of consideration as you embark on your hedonic engineering journey: - **❌ Contraindications:** Everything from ice baths to breathwork to meditation have contraindications *(signs that you should NOT do this practice)*. Make sure you research contraindications for practices and be aware of the risks before beginning. If needed, consult trained practitioners or get your own trainings before doing these to yourself, by yourself. - **🚨 Legality:** Like it or not, several of the practices I listed here are illegal in the majority of the world. Make sure you're aware of the legal landscape and accept these risks before moving forward. *But another note: the law always lags behind the reality.* - **✅ Efficacy:** What works for others may not work for you, and vice versa. Take caution recommending things to new practitioners. Test and experiment with practices yourself to guage what works best, highest leverage for minimal effort. - **🤝 Support:** You can seek additional support from friends, family, trained practitioners, clinicians, shamans, and more. Though this is a personal process, it's not something you need to do alone. - **📚 Preparation:** Get your shit together. Be prepared for the experiences. Don't rush in, don't take it lightly. The more you prepare, the deeper the experience, the higher the payoff for energy exerted. - **🌀 Integration:** Integrate the lessons. If this doesn't assist your evolutionary path, stop doing it. It's not an ego game. These experiences aren't trophies to collect. No one is forcing you here. > Final Lesson: don't end up dead, in jail, a hospital, a court, or a psych ward. Be safe, come back stronger, and have a hell of a lot of fun unlocking and unleashing yourself. --- ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. ### The Creative Evolution Manifesto URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/creative-evolution/ Last updated: 2021-06-20T16:34:42.000Z --- > A slight change of plans this week to accommodate new emergence. The Hedonic Engineering post will be released next week. Recently, in a 4-hour creative flowstate, a declaration was born. It speaks to how I currently think and feel, and it's an important signal for others who feel the same. The declaration is shared in full below, and then I elaborate on each point in more detail in the second half. Enjoy. 💛 --- ## ⚡️ "There’s a way to do it differently…" It’s not primitive. It’s progressive. It’s artful. Thoughtful. Playful. Mindful. It’s possible. So, what does it look like? All of it. Financial systems. Materials Economy. Culture. Governance. Civilization. Top down control is unnatural. Emergence is not chaos. It’s creative evolution. 🧬 The answer isn’t a sound bite. It’s not a binary option. It can’t be bottled up. It's a living thesis, a disciplined pursuit. It’s a Way of Being; your life is your answer. You can’t rush genius. True mastery is cultivated. Only friction creates sparks. So please, sit, have some tea. 🍵 Any answer worth hearing is not over quickly. But I’m listening. I want your best response. Show me your School of Thought. Embody your Answer. Bring your best, because you know I’ve been training: [www.edgeofbeing.org](https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edgeofbeing.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0BHUUgAL-jHcUHE6OwAIRdVWr5tBIYugoEE3Q1WXuqFUfGaBaNOFQLWyY&h=AT0pFhMcu1JLwJsnTADx%5FhiHWyOCPVAn8Sq7NdcYMFdXntwLkTkiq5rQf6M8ORSKzNSnNEnEapt6hks-Wk1kg%5FeE%5Fe0Z7qjmVIgnFKz5gFFMSgkpCh9iAk0cptljBBJlwaCUgGuUWG8plFtEMTyMkGk&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=-UK-R&c[0]=AT0PmbOk-UgpHczkuJQCaDDDatER54mm9OFbB2tui%5FijaymNn10wEqnStdqitxMlKyPAdkLKxrTsIixpcASG7UZ9QOZ3OyGIibvkENccNMcIN4JvWPZvXZPw%5FTI15gUFxFoFMVmbGLugnMrJs4czc3rd26o&ref=zenmedicine.co) / Welcome to the Dojo, partner. ⛩ --- ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/school-of-athens2.jpg) ## 🧐 Exploring the Manifesto **"There’s a way to do it differently…" |** This is the creative spark. The origin point of every major shift humanity has ever experienced. Music, language, democracy, clean energy, communities, cultures, countries. This is the ethos of the creative urge. A deep Knowing that a different way is possible. This is the '[Think Different](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sMBhDv4sik&ref=zenmedicine.co)' campaign personified. Everything begins with the acknowledgement of this possibility, this feeling, this knowing. Just because it is the status quo does not make it the best answer we have. Embrace the possibility of the new. **It’s not primitive. It’s progressive. |** It's not a step backwards, it's a bold movement forward. Though it may look on the surface to be a rejection of the old, it's truly an embrace of the new. A welcome invitaiton to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. Minimalism is not dumb simplicty, it's refinement. Eco-friendly is not hippie nonsense, it's deep symbiosis with nature. These movements will often be seen as archaic and primitive, but in truth they are bold steps forward. **It’s artful. Thoughtful. Playful. Mindful. |** Who told you that life was meant to be arduous and ugly? Anything worth pursuing is beautiful, thoughtful, steeped in the wisdom of the past and the love of the future. It's playful, open, and bold. Any evolution worth embracing contains all of these characteristics and more. **It’s possible. |** Possibility is the starting point of any change. You must first believe that it can happen. That doesn't mean you know exactly what it looks like, but it requires a deep Trust that it can happen. If you don't believe it's possible, you'll never try. A felt sense of possibility is where all change begins. **So, what does it look like? |** Possibility is only the starting point. Theories and ideas only carry you so far. You must ground the possibility and potential in the world. To generate real proposals and take massive courageous action to make it real. What are the specifics? What are the techniques? Expand on your vision, ground it in reality, begin to build from your inner knowing. **All of it. |** All change is identity-level change. Any change, no matter how small, fundamentally changes the entirety of existence. If your consideration doesn't address all of it, it will fail. This is also an invitation to think as big as possible. What does a new culture, a new *everything*, really look like? You know it's possible, now show us what it looks like. **Financial systems. Materials Economy. Culture. Governance. Civilization. |** These are the main drivers of the world-as-we-know-it. If you are to usher in the more beautiful world, all of these must be addressed. What does the next evolution of these core drivers look like? This is the origin of democracy, the origins of the Western and Eastern worlds. Share what they look like, outline what they are striving towards, and demonstrate what they look like in practice. **Top down control is unnatural. |** Anything that requires force and coercion to enforce and maintain is unnatural. Nature and Reality need no top down control to reach and maintain equillibrium. Any response that requires this is doomed to fail. It leads to oppression, and crushes the Soul of the Individual and the Collective. Rigid hierarchy is outdated. This cannot be part of the design criteria. **Emergence is not chaos. It’s creative evolution. 🧬 |** Maintaining outdated systems merely leads to stagnation. New ideas and changes are not mere chaos, designed to ruin everything you know and love. This is how evolution itself works. New ideas are presented, integrated, and a new iteration is born as a result. This is how your body, your culture, your country, your Earth has progressed since the day it was born. Though humanity has been trapped in a "business-as-usual" frame for far too long. We must embrace the emergent, the new ways of Being that wish to arise through us. Emergence is evolution, it must be embraced and facilitated. **The answer isn’t a sound bite. It’s not a binary option. It can’t be bottled up. Its a living thesis, a disciplined pursuit. |** Too often people look for the 1 minute explanation. The 'yes' or 'no', black or white response. The emergent culture can't be bottled up nicely and sold back to those willing to pay for it — it's an open-ended question. It's a Martial Art. A practice that is cultivated, ideas that are tested and refined throughout the course of training and creating. You must be able to hold complexity and respond to thoughtful criticism. The world today loves the easy, the immediate, the convenient. The level of shift required now is none of these. You can't ask for the diluted, dumbed-down version of this. Rise to the occasion, enter the sparring match of ideas, and like the steel that is beaten into a sword, help create the strongest ideas possible. **It’s a Way of Being; your life is your answer. |** A new way of living and organizing is exactly that, a new Way of Being. It is the very fabric of your existence and experience. The way you live, the things you value, the relationships you cultivate, the ideas you support — these are your answers to the world you want to live in. It's an ongoing movement, a pursuit of the highest and most beautiful ideas you can muster. Your answer is your action. Do the best you can until you know better, and once you know better, do better. **You can’t rush genius. |** Mozart's symposiums weren't made overnight. True genius doesn't arrive on a deadline. It is refined, edited, stylized, and perfected over time. We need genius responses, and you can't rush genius. It must have time to breathe, to refine itself, to emerge naturally. Nature is the archetypal genius, and it moves exactly as fast as it moves. No faster, and no slower. **True mastery is cultivated. Only friction creates sparks. |** Mastery is a skill. You can hone your Way of Being into greater and deeper alignment with your Vision and Possibilites. Friction is required to generate the best response, to create the highest level of skill. You must enter the sparring match of ideas. Bring your best, and hammer it out. Find what works, discard the rest, add what is uniquely your own. Mastery is not an easy process, but it is exactly what is required. **So please, sit, have some tea. 🍵 |** Sitting for tea is the ultimate metaphor. Coffee leads to jitters, focused on simply maximizing output-per-hour. Implementing ideas before they were refined and edited is exactly what has gotten us into this mess. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. Tea is slow. It is intentional, graceful, welcoming, open. Differences in opinions and ideas can be confronting — the metaphor of sitting down for tea is an invitation for a conversation, to tease out the truly best. To have good-faith conversations. To welcome your opponent as your brother. This is a collective effort, and comraderie is essential. Invite your intellectual sparring opponents for tea, welcome them into your School of Thought, and train together to see which answers survive the evolutionary process. **Any answer worth hearing is not over quickly. |** Anyone who provides a quick answer has not thought it through. Simple answers lack depth and rigour. I'm not interested in the ideological sound-bites of your chosen Identity Tribe, these are superfluous and weak. Any response that has been given the time to evolve, to hone its strength, to explore its depths is filled with critiques, explorations, contingencies, tangents, and dependents. Any answer worth hearing, any answer that has been given the depth of thought required, is one that is not bottled up into a convenient sound bite. These points require nuance. **But I’m listening. I want your best response. Show me your School of Thought. Embody your Answer. |** Not everyone wants to hear what you have to say, though there are some who are also on this path of Creative Mastery. And I am listening. Tell me your ideas for the future, give me the explanations of how to redesign everything. Show me your proposals. And because this is a Way of Being — you must embody your answer. Ideas without action is insufficient. Show me, through your very existence, the kind of world that you wish to live in. **Bring your best, because you know I’ve been training:** [**www.edgeofbeing.org**](https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.edgeofbeing.org%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0BHUUgAL-jHcUHE6OwAIRdVWr5tBIYugoEE3Q1WXuqFUfGaBaNOFQLWyY&h=AT0pFhMcu1JLwJsnTADx%5FhiHWyOCPVAn8Sq7NdcYMFdXntwLkTkiq5rQf6M8ORSKzNSnNEnEapt6hks-Wk1kg%5FeE%5Fe0Z7qjmVIgnFKz5gFFMSgkpCh9iAk0cptljBBJlwaCUgGuUWG8plFtEMTyMkGk&%5F%5Ftn%5F%5F=-UK-R&c[0]=AT0PmbOk-UgpHczkuJQCaDDDatER54mm9OFbB2tui%5FijaymNn10wEqnStdqitxMlKyPAdkLKxrTsIixpcASG7UZ9QOZ3OyGIibvkENccNMcIN4JvWPZvXZPw%5FTI15gUFxFoFMVmbGLugnMrJs4czc3rd26o&ref=zenmedicine.co) **/** **. |** You do no one any favours by holding back your punches. You lift each other to new heights by bringing your level-best. Don't pity your sparring partner, truly serve them and yourself by bringing your best. Just because you have an idea doesn't mean everyone needs to accept it. All members become better by testing and hammering out their ideas. This is akin to Martial Arts training. Practice your School, your Way, individually, and then enter the ring to test your answer against others from different Schools, different Ways. See how your response holds up against Reality, and refine it as you engage deeply in the world. These are good-faith competitions. Small, finite games nested within the One Infinite game. I believe in you, I will not hold back. If you are ready, we are ready for you. **Welcome to the Dojo, partner. ⛩ |** Humanity is a team game. Though we may sparring opponents in one instance, we are partners for each other. I am here to elevate your thinking, to hone your skills, and you do the same for me. We are partners, finding the best Schools of Thought and Ways of Being, to move humanity towards the more beautiful world that is possible. It is only together that we can achieve this. So thank you partner, for being here, for honouring me, yourself, and all of humanity in pursuing this creative evolution. --- > If you hear the call, if you want to enter the ring and steward a new culture and civilization, join me and the Phoenix Family. All are welcome. You can find more information [here](www.phoenixculture.org), and join the Dojo [here](https://discord.gg/xtqMTxsPUz?ref=zenmedicine.co). ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### The Yoga of Becoming: The Art & Science of Personal Evolution URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/yoga-of-becoming/ Last updated: 2021-06-14T02:16:01.000Z --- If we are to do any justice introducing and exploring the yoga of becoming, it's important to get our definitions sorted out. We begin with yoga — a deeply misunderstood, misinterpreted, and watered-down practice. ## 🧘 Exploring Yoga > “Self-realization is the knowing in all parts of body, mind, and soul that you are now in possession of the kingdom of God; that you do not have to pray that it come to you; that God’s omnipresence is your omnipresence; and that all that you need to do is improve your knowing.” ― Paramahansa Yogananda **Yoga is the Science of Self-Realization.** It's as simple as that. It is a comprehensive bio-psycho-spiritual process of personal evolution, where following the techniques and teachings (Scientific Method) inevitably lead you to the conclusions (Self-Realization). Though this is a specific kind of Self-Realization. This is the realization of your True Self, your All Self. In yogic terms, yoga is the process of union, of joining together your small Self (Atman) with your all Self (Brahman). Yoga is a collection of practices and individual Ways of Being that lead you to the realization that You Are It. You are Everything. You are the All Self — that which does all things. **Tat Tvam Asi : Thou Art That.** I will have an entire piece exploring the art and science of yoga as a path for Self-Realization in the future. For the purposes of this essay, we will establish yoga as: 1. A comprehensive set of bio-psycho-spiritual practices. 2. Aimed at the union of the internal (Atman) and external (Brahman) worlds. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/Tree.jpeg) ## 🌱 Exploring Becoming > "Being influences doing. Doing in turn is conditioning us. Doing affects how we are changing and becoming. Becoming is in turn changing the integrated state of who we are – being. Being, doing, and becoming are equally fundamental, inseparable, and inter affecting, in a ring. The cycle can be vicious or virtuous. Everything that is meaningful is one of these three. Engaging in all three consciously as a virtuous cycle leads to a maximally meaningful life. *All three are ultimately inspired by love." —* [*Daniel Schmachtenberger*](https://civilizationemerging.com/how-to-live-a-meaningful-life/?ref=zenmedicine.co) If we are to take a very simple equation for the process of Becoming, it would be: **Becoming = Capacity for Being x Capacity for Doing.** *The more you increase your capacity in the Being-mode, and the more you increase your capacity in the Doing-mode, the more you have increased your capacity for Becoming.* ### 🍵 Being-Mode **Your capacity for the Being-mode is inherently an internal, psycho-spiritual process.** The realm of the Being mode is internal to you and is not affected by external circumstances or variables. It is entirely intangible, outside the domain of physical matter, and largely revolves around your perceptions, your intentions, and your presence with Reality As-It-Is. We have spoken about Maslow's Hierarchy in [previous essays](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) and raised some disagreements, though in examining peak states Maslow also created what he coined '[B-Values](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham%5FMaslow?ref=zenmedicine.co#B-values)' or Being-Values that I deeply appreciate, these include: - Truth, Goodness, Beauty, Wholeness, Aliveness, Uniqueness, Perfection, Completion, Justice, Simplicity, Richness, Effortlessness Playfulness, Self-sufficiency. **Increasing your capacity for the Being-mode involves increasing your capacities in these B-Values.** These do not require external involvement, and will influence all of your actions in the world. The Being-Mode is the seed that actions in the world grow from. These are the sources of actions in the world, and you should strive to have your actions deeply embody and enact these values. ### 🛠 Doing-Mode **Your capacity for the doing-mode is inherently an external, physical process in nature.** The realm of the Doing-Mode is external to you, it revolves around how you show up in the world, the actions you take, the effects you are able to have, and your overall agency and capacity to make things happen in the world. Embodiments of the Doing-Mode are ways that you add to the world, whereas the Being-Mode is how you appreciate or exist within the world as it is. Doing-Mode embodiments can look like: - Parenting, Teaching, Communicating, Creating, Building, Listening, Writing, Moving, Playing, Loving, Supporting, and Maintaining. There are many more. Now you'll notice that these are verbs — they are active actions. Action is the domain of the Doing-Mode. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/giphy-5595.gif) ## ⚡️ The Yoga of Becoming > “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” ― E. B. White 1. Yoga is a comprehensive science of bio-psycho-spiritual practices aimed at merging and unifying the internal and external world. 2. Becoming is the product of one's abilities and capacities in the Being-Mode (internal) and the Doing-Mode (external). > The yoga of becoming is the art and science of identifying, enacting, and embodying the set of bio-psycho-spiritual practices needed to unify and evolve one's internal world and external world. It's the seamless movement between internal embodiment and external expression. An ability, a sacred practice, of identifying the next steps, taking them, testing them, and normalizing them. This sequence of identification and action creates a fluid, DNA double-helix like dance between the inner and outer worlds. Using the engagement in each one as a capacity-building mechanism for the other. To best understand this, it's helpful to look at some examples: 1. **The Incapable Activist:** There are many activists, dreamers, believers, and spiritual practitioners today rooted in strong and beautiful B-Values, but have little to no capacity whatsoever to effect the world. They are unrefined in the Doing-Mode. 2. **The Empty Entrepreneur:** There are equally as many highly capable performers in the world right now who embody next to no significant B-Values, and their actions are based solely on selfish ends, extraction, fear, or separation. They are unrefined in the Being-Mode. 3. **Everywhere Inbetween:** This is a spectrum, there are individuals at every inch. Some individuals are more refined in Being-Values, while others are generally more refined in Doing-Activities. **The yoga of becoming is this process of personal evolution, of identifying unrefined areas within yourself, and perfectly mapping them to the appropriate bio-psycho-spiritual practices to steward and evolve them.** When we refer to bio-psycho-spiritual practices, this means *biological (physical)* practices, *psychological (mental)* practices, or *spiritual* practices. The reason we use yoga (a sacred, individual, devotional practice) as a framework here is because it a comprehensive science, mapping various techniques to the evolution of an individual. For example, there is of course the asana (posture) practice, largely physical in nature. For an individual adept in this area, they might then move on to the yamas and niyamas (ethics and adherences) as a psychological practices. Beyond that, an individual might then practice ishvarapranidhana – the surrender and trust of one's life to the world/God, as a form of spiritual practice. **Yoga as a framework for becoming provides a pedagogical (grows with you) progression for personal evolution.** The practice is in learning to identify unrefined areas, find the appropriate techniques to address them, commit to the practice, and exemplify it in the world. The unifying ideal of yoga here is also an important point: > You only truly identify what inner work is needed by engaging deeply in the external world. Your engagement with the external world will surface latent blocks/traumas/unrefined aspects of your Being. *Like the Daoist yin-yang, the opposites inform each other. They co-create each other.* They are the best way to quickly identify what has worked and what needs more work. Many spiritual practitioners meditate for ages, only to realize that they still get into fights with their family during the holidays. Alternatively, many business-people put their work achievements above all else, only realizing too late that they were running in circles trying to justify their worth all along. Let's explore some additional examples: 1. **The Psychedelic Panacea:** Individuals who think all they need to do is more LSD, and everything will sort itself out. It's likely that they would be better served spending more time in the Doing-Mode, really embodying the B-Values and experiences they have in the psychedelic experience. Finding more aligned income, making creative works, or deeper engagement with the external world is likely called for — though they are imbalanced and only focusing on the inner world and mystical experiences. 2. **The Narcisstic Bodybuilder:** Individuals who are deeply engaged with the external world as an escape from their inner world. Instead of building a beautiful body, hoping that it will help them feel better about themselves, they should be engaging in self-love practices, gratitude journalling, deeper communication and connection with loved ones. > Another way to say this is that you will never solve an inner-world imbalance through the external world. You will never compensate for an external-world imbalance by refining the inner-world values. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/Android-Jones.jpg) ## 🔮 Identifying With Becoming > "Do I contradict myself? Very well then. I am large, I contain multitudes." — Walt Whitman An important point is that this process is in no way straightforward, though you may begin to see how powerful this practice can become. You can find yourself in a virtuous cycle, evolving at incredibly rapid rates. You can also see how this can become a viscious cycle, rapidly obliterating your engagement in the world and your internal wellbeing. As with any of these practices, this puts you on the path of **identity-level transformation.** For the body-builder example, beginning this work would actually require that they admit that they don't currently like themselves as much as they would wish. For the psychedelic escape artists, it would be admitting that they don't like the world they live in, the experience they have, and they want to escape from it. These are not easy to admit, and it becomes infinitely harder if you are persistent and stubborn in clinging to old identites because you will resist and fight the process of evolution. This is why people stagnate, particulary when afflicted by mental illness. *"I'm the person suffering from anxiety."* *"I've always been able to lift the most in my friend group."* These rigid identities keep you stuck, imprisoned to outdated models of self that eventually become harmful rather than helpful. **This is why it's best to rest your center of identity as that which is constantly becoming.** Not clinging to any particular identity or label. Allowing them when they arise (acceptance of Being), but not clinging to them if their time has passed (accepting of Doing/Change). Revisting [Death/Rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) practices is important here, as the ritual revisitations and practice of death/rebirth experiences help keep you free to rapidly embody new identities, as old identities are continually dying and being burnt off. In becoming comfortable with the discomfort of no longer having the comfort and safety of labels and identities (something you learn through yoga asana practice) you are free to move as quickly, as intensely as you want, no longer burdened by outdated models of self. In the future post, we will go into specific practices to help cultivate core Being-Values and Doing-Capacities. However, what's important here is that you are able to steward your own experience — take some time now to identify which area (inner or outer) you are more refined in, and identify practices that would help you cultivate the other . Test this in the world after you have built the skill, and happy evolving. Next week we will be exploring a critical sub-component of the Yoga of Becoming: **Hedonic Engineering. 🧬** --- ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. ### Phoenix Culture: The New Generative Frequency URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/phoenix-culture-2/ Last updated: 2021-06-06T17:30:00.000Z --- ## ⛩ Rise of the Phoenix **👀 TL;DR — Today marks the rise of** [**Phoenix Culture**](www.phoenixculture.org) **— an evolutionary culture stewarding human sovereignty.** Phoenix Culture is fundamentally two things: 1. My masterpiece, my ongoing magnum opus, my gift to the world, my dharma for personal evolution. 2. My attempt to holistically address and provide responses to the problems we have been exploring thus far. Phoenix Culture is my gift to all of my Self: the individual, the collective, & the world. --- > This essay builds significantly on the foundations laid in the previous essays, [Ritualized Rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) & [Cultural Architecture](www.edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/). It is strongly recommended to read these before continuing. ## 🌋 Civilization Collapse is the Rule. **Every civilization that has ever existed has ended.** Civilization-level collapse is the rule, not the exception. It's just hubris to imagine that we are magically exempt from this. We live, for the first time in history, in a truly global civilization. No single culture or country has the means to produce everything they currently use within their own borders. We have no theoretical or experiential basis for what the collapse of a global culture looks like. We have exceeded planetary resource limits, public discourse is in shambles, individual sovereignty and responsibility are eroding rapidly. The ongoing flourishing and evolution of humanity needs a large-scale reinvention: **A collective rebirth.** To burn away the systems and drivers of these developments, and birth a new, holistic culture and global civilization capable of effectively and harmoniously stewarding the oasis we have been given. We need radical experimentation in new ways of Collective Interbeing. **Phoenix Culture is one of these experiments. Addressing the fundamental driver of the meta-crisis — Culture.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/Music.jpeg) ## 🔮 Stealing the Culture vs. Creating the Culture > “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." ― Buckminster Fuller There are many in the sense-making space, from [John Vervaeke](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvjsF5wL0o4&ref=zenmedicine.co), to [Jordan Hall](https://medium.com/@jordangreenhall?ref=zenmedicine.co), to the [Stoa family](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9AZZI6PPRQ&ref=zenmedicine.co) who have cultivated a shared meme — "stealing the culture". Akira the Don has an amazing song with Johnny V about this — [check it out](https://open.spotify.com/track/0kxSYR6tbacIu7XBCw3yuN?si=5b6047f38f304f87&ref=zenmedicine.co). It posits that if we are to collectively phase-shift into a more holistic way of being, we must steal the culture away from the current cultural elites who seem intent on stripping the world and running it into the ground. Business as usual, culture as usual, cannot continue on its current trajectory. I love the sentiment, and my punk-rebel disposition deeply appreciates it — but this runs squarely into the problem I've come to term the 'Angry Activist Problem'. ### 🤬 The Angry Activist Problem **The angry activist problem is this: activists only define themselves by a negative, what they are not, or what they don't approve of.** *"You're doing this wrong!" "This sucks, stop it!" "You're the problem!"* However, they rarely, if ever, offer up a compelling or feasible alternative. Greta Thunberg is an easy example of this — what alternative solutions have been offered? What vision of the future is offered up in place of the angry outbursts? It's mostly whining. **When you define yourself solely by what you're not, if you get your way, you end up in a void space, absent of any particular solution.** This is not compelling enough. It will not steward the level of transition that we need. We must have a compelling vision of the future. **It's not about stealing the culture, it's about creating the culture.** Tesla is my favourite current example of creating the culture. Instead of getting angry and complaining about the rampant use of fossil fuels for energy and transportation, instead of pointing fingers and yelling — they create products, philosophies, and cultures that are so compelling, so beautiful, so accessible, that people naturally gravitate toward them out of their own intrinsic desire. This 'gravitational pull' is what's most important. They offer a compelling alternative to the existing way of being, and as a result, created their own pull, their own gravity, shifting the culture towards more holistic and sustainable means of energy and transportation. > Our task is to create an entirely new culture, a new collective way of being, that is so compelling, so accessible, that people of their own accord and volition willingly begin to join and contribute to this new culture. As Bucky Fuller so eloquently said, we must create a new cultural model that simply makes the old one obsolete. We must focus on building the new way, rather than dismantling the old. All things in culture persist because we give them time, energy, and attention. If we as a collective simply oriented our time, energy, and attention elsewhere, the old culture will fade and wither, and from the ashes, a new culture, like a great Phoenix, will rise. **Phoenix Culture is one attempt to begin modelling and enacting this new Culture. An intentional, evolutionary culture pioneering and demonstrating new ways of living, loving, playing, and architecting.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/giphy.gif) ## 📍 Architects of Culture Throughout the [previous](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) [essays](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co), we have explored several pressing needs that must be addressed if humanity is to collectively phase-shift into its next evolution: 1. Create Self-Sovereign individuals ready to become Cultural Architects. 2. Provide aspiring architects with the tools, technologies, training, culture, contexts, and support they need to continue their evolution and growth towards becoming Architects of Culture. 3. Begin building culture(s), contexts, and contents that can create and steward a regenerative renaissance for all of humanity. 4. Use all of the tools available: religion, movements, decentralized systems, psychotechnologies, ecologies of practices, + the yet undiscovered. **It is these fundamental needs that Phoenix Culture exists to address.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/giphy-2.gif) ## 👁 Identity-Level Transformation In [Ritualized Rebirth](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co), we explored the deep necessity for sacred and ritualized Death/Rebirth experiences, of letting go of old models of Self and personality to make room for more expansive levels of Self to shine forth. **This is identity-level transformation. It is not an easy process.** It is this process of Self-Transformation that allows the individual to step into more expansive states, to become an Infinite Player, and rise to the occasion of playing the Infinite Game of Cultural Architecture. It's important to note that this is a highly sensitive process. It requires conducive containers, contexts, and provisions to navigate it smoothly. There is nothing straightforward about digesting your shadows, dismantling your metaphysics, and rebuilding your perceptual frameworks. Nor is this a one-time process. It is ongoing, perpetual, infinite. Continually deconstructing and reconstructing yourself, over and over again, to best allow the Fullness of Life to flow through you in service of the collective. This is the core mythos driving Phoenix Culture. A culture committed to ongoing evolution. Of burning away the false, the stagnant, the old identities no longer in deep alignment. **We are being called to do this at global and civilizational levels.** To burn away the old, creating a fertile ground for the new. To burn away the stories of separation that keep us isolated. To burn away the disharmonious ways of Being that threaten the continued evolution of humanity, and make space for a new culture, a new collective way of Being. While this mythology of transformation is central to our understanding of the Phoenix, it is not the only trait associated with the Phoenix. **During its lifetime, the Phoenix is also a symbol of archetypal Beauty, Grace, Power, and Presence.** This is just as important as the willingness to burn off the old— the Full Sacred Embrace of the New. To stand firmly in the almighty power of your Being, to enact beauty and goodness in the world with your very existence. > These are the two complimentary halves of the Phoenix: a voluntary commitment to continual evolution, and a full embrace of each new evolutionary instance. This is why Phoenix Culture takes inspiration from the Ensō, the imperfect and incomplete *(and as a result perfect and complete)* circle of Zen Buddhism symbolizing perfection, enlightenment, and continuing process. The process of Individual and Collective evolution is ongoing, and it is in this continued process we find the beauty, grace, power, presence, and Perfection of All That Is. **The mythology of the Phoenix, the symbolism of the Ensō — these two epic forces combine to create the thematic drivers of Phoenix Culture.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-02-at-10.44.24.png) ## 🔊 Phoenix Culture as Generative Frequency We've covered the idea of [cymatics](http://edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/?ref=zenmedicine.co) — the visible study of sound and frequency. Without fail, different frequencies generate different and unique physical patterns. If we are to collectively redesign our systems and socities, we must first reinvent the generative frequency — the culture — that gives rise to them. This must be done intentionally, with full awareness, remembering our ontological design principle: the culture we create will create the world around us as well as the people in that culture. No longer can we keep our heads in the ground, blindly building and hoping things will work out in our favour. We must be intentional with our evolution. We must design and create a Culture that best serves the good of all Individuals, Collectives, and Life itself. Phoenix Culture is one of these generative frequencies. A new cymatic cultural frequency. The generative source of a more holistic, sacred, and united culture. **This is the Phoenix Frequency.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/Screen-Shot-2021-06-02-at-10.44.39.png) ## 🌀 Manifestations of Phoenix Culture If Phoenix Culture is the generative frequency, the cymatic patterning force of a new collective way of Being — what are the physical manifestations? What patterns emerge from this frequency? There are several emerging and developing patterns within Phoenix Culture: 1. [**The Academy**](https://phoenixculture.org/academy?ref=zenmedicine.co)**:** The Phoenix Academy is a mystery school for the Architects of Culture. It provides the community, tools, training, containers, and the support for serious Self-Transformation, systematically creating new Infinite Players & Cultural Architects. 2. [**The Experience**](https://phoenixculture.org/experience?ref=zenmedicine.co)**:** The Phoenix Experience is a direct, embodied opportunity for participating in deeply transformational Death/Rebirth practices. A sacred container with the safety and support needed for intense Self-Deconstruction and Reconstruction to occur. 3. [**The Fellowship**](https://phoenixculture.org/fellowship?ref=zenmedicine.co)**:** The Phoenix Fellowship is a safe space to begin experimenting, playing, and practicing the art of cultural architecture. A year-long intensive to help individuals hone their skills, discover the gifts, and to help them venture out into the world and begin contributing to and building cultural movements and containers. 4. [**The Institute**](https://phoenixculture.org/institute?ref=zenmedicine.co)**:** The Phoenix Institute helps to create, steward, and promote the ecologies of practices, the decentralized systems, and the psychotechnologies for cultural architecture. It is also responsible for open-sourcing all aspects of Phoenix Culture, stewarding the PhoenixDHO *(more on this later)*, and collaborating with other communities of practice. 5. [**The Center**](https://phoenixculture.org/center?ref=zenmedicine.co)**:** The Phoenix Center was the original seed of Phoenix Culture, and remains its largest ambition. The Phoenix Center is a home, a dojo, and a safe container and context for the aspiring and practicing architects of culture to come and do this work, in community, in serious play. 6. **The Emergent:** Emergence and adaptability are foundational principles of Phoenix Culture, and it remains to be seen what other patterns will emerge according to the needs of the collective. As far as I can see, these will be built out more or less in this order, but I'm willing to see how life wants these to come together. You can find more information on each specific pattern by clicking on their respective links. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/giphy-3.gif) ## 🖖🏻 The Future of Phoenix Culture If I had to give this announcement a version number, it would be v0.1. There is still a lot of work to be done, and a lot of refinement underway. The [Magnum Opus](http://bit.ly/phoenixwhitepaper?ref=zenmedicine.co) continues to go through significant additions and edits, there are emerging patterns still being discovered, and as I continue to unlock and unblock myself, bolder and bigger visions unfold as a result for this. **Though I can no longer wait for the 'perfect time' to bring this into the world. It must be created by the community and the Culture. It must be built in public.** I am not the Founder of Phoenix Culture, I am its Steward. This is something that Life has created through me, I make no claim to ownership. This is a collective effort, and all are welcome to participate. Here is a look at the longer-term future once the initial patterns have bloomed: - **PhoenixDHO:** Phoenix Culture will be governed by the collective. This requires setting up a [DAO](https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-daos-explained?ref=zenmedicine.co) (Decentralized Autonomous Organization); though I have been deeply inspired by the work of [SEEDS](https://joinseeds.earth/?ref=zenmedicine.co)/[Hypha](https://hypha.earth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) with their instanciation of a [DHO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pvzFI3UYlI&ref=zenmedicine.co) (Decentralized Human/Holonic Organization). This is a major ongoing focus for me. - **Culture Blueprints:** Starting to open-source the techniques, the financials, and the process behind everything Phoenix Culture does. - **Center Blueprints:** Starting to build and open-source the systems and plans for building physical spaces for regenerative communities of practice. - **Summits:** Bringing the family together online and in-person for multi-day experiences, communal bonding, and idea sharing. And as always, any input or feedback from the community is welcomed, and can be voted on by the community as future or immediate steps to be taken. This is a collective effort, as nothing less will suffice. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/06/572f13e91ce915a722f9387fe7d52e31.gif) ## 🫂 How to Join the Phoenix Family If you feel this in your heart — that a new culture, complete with the gravitational pull of compelling visions and massive courageous action for the future of humanity is deeply needed at this time, and you would like to get involved, there are a number of immediate ways to do so: - **Share this!** Spread the word that a Phoenix rises. - **Give feedback/commentary on the** [**Magnum Opus**](http://bit.ly/phoenixwhitepaper?ref=zenmedicine.co)**.** There are significant overhauls coming to this in the following weeks, though it serves as a deeper dive for now. - [**Join the Discord**](https://discord.gg/jVTDMDYadF?ref=zenmedicine.co) for ongoing communication and early participation. - **Follow on the socials** ([FB](https://www.facebook.com/PhoenixCultureOrg), [IG](https://www.instagram.com/phoenix.culture/?ref=zenmedicine.co), [TW](https://twitter.com/CulturePhoenix?ref=zenmedicine.co)) - **Join the email lists for updates:** [Academy](https://phoenixculture.org/academy?ref=zenmedicine.co), [Experience](https://phoenixculture.org/experience?ref=zenmedicine.co), [Fellowships](https://phoenixculture.org/fellowship?ref=zenmedicine.co). - **Make connections:** I need to speak with DAO designers, token engineers, cultural architects, experience alchemists, communities of practice, etc. Any intro's are appreciated! - [**Send me a message**](www.twitter.com/itsericbrown)**.** :) --- ### 💌 A Final Note A final note on this that is small, but deeply important. Although I believe that [Phoenix Culture](https://phoenixculture.org/?ref=zenmedicine.co) is the exact creation the world needs most right now — an equally important driver for this initiative is that it's a vehicle for my own self-expression and evolution. The more I open up, the deeper I surrender to life, the bigger this vision becomes. Part of taking on the task of building a culture is that I will grow into the person who can do it. It's the biggest masterpiece that I can think to create in Life. **This is something that the Academy, Experiences, and Fellowships will help imbue in all who come — how to think on a scale as big as possible, for the good of as many as possible.** Next week we will take a deeper look at how fuse the internal death/rebirth individual process with the external collective process of cultural architecture and create the DNA double helix known as the[**Yoga of Becoming**](http://edgeofbeing.org/yoga-of-becoming/?ref=zenmedicine.co). ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Cultural Architecture: Infinite Games, Ontological Design, & Sacred Duty URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/cultural-architecture/ Last updated: 2021-05-30T18:00:00.000Z --- Our [most recent essay](http://edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/?ref=zenmedicine.co) covered the necessity of/for the Rite of Passage to complete and transcend the Self-Actualization process. The purpose of these systematic, ritualized initiatives is to create Self-Sovereign Individuals. Humans ready, willing, and genuinely excited to take their seat at the table of humanity and give what is uniquely theirs to give. To begin playing the biggest game possible. What game is that? **Cultural Architecture.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/hereojourney.gif) ## 👑 The Forgotten End of the Hero's Journey You're likely familiar with the concept and mythology of the [Hero's Journey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s%5Fjourney?ref=zenmedicine.co), originally formulated by Joseph Campbell. The epic quest of an aspirational child, thrust out of the normal world, put through challenging ordeals, only to return to the place they started, newly transformed and evolved. This narrative arc is echoed in most of our cultural stories today: indigenous story lines, the Lord of the Rings, the Matrix, Harry Potter, and countless other modern myths. The Hero's Journey is the process an individual takes to mature, to grow within themselves, face their shadows, rise to the occasion, and become fit for service. **To** [**strange-loop**](http://edgeofbeing.org/introduction/?ref=zenmedicine.co) **this back together,** **the now-forgotten Rite of Passage *was* the tool Cultures used to initiate someone into their Hero's Journey.** The journey itself is not the important part. It's the transformation of the individual. They return home, transformed by their adventure, ready to act for the good of the collective This is the stage of the Hero's Journey that is always overlooked: the Return home with the Elixir. The final stage of the Hero's Journey. The individual, now with experience, wisdom, and new-found capacities, is meant to return home and use their transformation in service of the collective. As for the mythic 'elixir' they return with? I'd arge that it is the embodied knowledge of Unicity *(we are all one)* and the understanding of the Sacredness of Life that now animates and informs all of their actions. Why is this so fundamentally necessary? Because the Infinite Game the individual is about to enter, that of Cultural Architecture, is demanding. This game requires deep commitment, strong personal integrity, aligned actions, individual capacity, moral strength, emotional resiliency, and more. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/hierarchy-1024x576-1.jpg) How many individuals do you know that have cultivated all of these traits? If you recall the Blackfoot cultural model we explored: Actualized Individuals are the starting point. They are finally ready to become a Player. Ready to join the community and work towards Community Actualization — at this point they have now gathered with more Infinite Players to play the ultimate Infinite Game — cultivating and enacting Cultural Perpetuity *(allowing the game to continue for as long as possible, and include as many people as possible)*. For those familiar with [Finite & Infinite Games](https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713?ref=zenmedicine.co) by James Carse, Self-Actualization is the process of becoming an Infinite Player yourself; Community Actualization is starting to play the game with other Infinite Players *(humanity is a team game after all)*, and together, you begin playing the Infinite Game (Cultural Perpetuity). ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/8b3891c7113f60b0e2f1d870e4ad8a99-1.gif) ## 🌎 Culture Creates the World A few years ago, I published an essay called "[The Ridiculously Obvious Meaning of Life](https://highexistence.com/obvious-purpose-life/?ref=zenmedicine.co)" and at the end, recalled how truly powerful Culture is: > "The world is exactly the way it is because we have willed it to be that way. Whatever the human collective thinks of, through time and attention, and wielding the great weapon of Culture, we create and manifest our dreams this in the world. Cities pop up before our eyes. \[...\] We literally shape and move worlds. We create and destroy life. We are mirrors of the Gods from whence we came." The world you see around you only changes when the culture changes. If we as a collective demanded it, it would change. This is the basis for every evolution and revolution that has ever taken place throughout history. In fact, you don't even need a majority of the culture to believe in something strongly enough to enact change throughout the entire system *(look at what's happening in the social justice world — small vocal minorities bringing institutions, corporations, and societies to their knees)*. If we accept the argument that culture has the ability, and is truly the only thing that changes the world, we must also believe that the world needs to change. There are no shortage of reasons available as to why 'business-and-culture-as-usual' need rapid and complete overhauls. Detailed exploration of the specific reasons is largely outside the scope of this article, but the easiest way to say it is this: > If business and culture as usual continue, humanity will collapse and cease entirely under the crushing weight of multiple, simultaneous crises. I invite you to pause for a moment, to open up your heart and your soul to the immense gravity of that statement. Don't bypass it, don't run away from it, sit with it, long and hard, let this truth sink deep into your bones. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/5ad287c6f12f49804cb02cd81d5691a9.gif) ## 🔊 Culture as Generative Frequency [Cymatics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics?ref=zenmedicine.co) is the visible study of sound. By running different tones/frequencies through a base plate covered with either sand or water, you can see the pattern and geometry of that specific frequency. **Without fail, different sound frequencies create different and unique physical patterns.** The same principle applies to culture. Culture is the generative frequency that gives rise to the physical pattern of Society. The design of buildings, the values and ethics, the strength or weakness of the communities, the happiness of the people — all of these physical signals and structures stem from the cultural frequency that gave rise to them. **If you want to change the society, if you want to change the world, change the culture.** Throughout history, the fundamental problem we run into is in the transition and transformation of Culture into Society. Society is the codified rules, regulations, and rituals that are meant to enact and enable the cultural values. But life is dynamic. Anything codified becomes stagnant, unable to keep up with the pace of change, inching closer and closer towards dogma in the relentless march towards complete obsolescence. This is where we are today: modern and global societies that are entirely inequipped and unwilling to do anything about the challenges we're up against. So we need a way to create cultures that are just as adaptable, fluid, and generative as the Nature of Reality itself. **We need architectural blueprints for evolutionary cultures.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/winders.gif) ## 🧠 Ontological Design & the Cultural Categorical Imperative > “Good architects are “form-givers” that can tap into the livingness of the materials, geometry, and order to give architectural life to a building.” — Louis Kahn We are always in communication with Life. It's a conversation, an evolving dialogue between Cosmos and Consciousness. As we begin to consider how to architect a global culture up for the challenging of mid-wifing and stewarding a new collective Way of Being — we run firmly into the realm of [Ontological Design](https://drive.google.com/file/d/15o8iVagH7SnQCD9JjhdZcK0jFZsF9mz4/view?usp=sharing&ref=zenmedicine.co). **Ontological Design stipulates that we design our spaces/systems/tools, and those tools/systems/spaces design us in return.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Da3DdrpXkAAG7lH.jpg) If you don't think that our tools and systems don't change us: I'd invite you to go check out your posture in the mirror. That 'text-neck' you have is a byproduct of your cellphone. *Your phone has influenced the shape of your entire body, the depth of your breathing, and your attention span.* As we design, we have to stay considerate of the fact that anything and everything we put into the world will influence and shape the culture and people that created it. And these designs have many visible and invisible consequences and externalities associated with them. Riffing on Kant's [Categorical Imperative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical%5Fimperative?ref=zenmedicine.co) *("act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law")* — we must design cultural systems that we want to design us back. **Holding our vision of creating and contributing to the Infinite Game, paired with the moderation and humility of Ontological Design, let's take a look at the tools we can use as Architects of Culture.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/ezgif.com-optimize__4_.gif) ## 🛠 Cultural Blueprints & Design Requirements Future posts will explore these individual building blocks in more detail. This essay is meant to serve as an overview and introduction to cultural architecture, providing a lay of the land and glimpses at the knobs, tools, and levers we can use to truly build new cultures. Culture is intangible, something that resides within hearts and souls rather than streets and malls, it follows that the truly powerful building blocks will also be intangible. **What must culture do? What is the duty of culture?** There are two things: steward the individual and the collective towards and through the infinite game, and foster a deep sense of *religio*. Religio was brought to light for me [via John Vervaeke](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0JxL-acvuM&ref=zenmedicine.co) and his [Meaning Crisis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8%5FewcOlY&ref=zenmedicine.co) series — it's arguably the etymological root of religion, and conveys a sense of deep connection. Deep connection to Self, to Other, and to World. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Value-of-Religion.png) To facilitate this religio, Jamie Wheal highlights in his book [Recapture the Rapture](https://www.recapturetherapture.com/?ref=zenmedicine.co), and also earlier in his succinct but potent talk at the [Spirit Plant Medicine Conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSzVXKbqilc&ref=zenmedicine.co), the trifecta for reestablishing religio: ecstastic, catharsis, & communitas. 1. **Ecstasis:** the culture must provide/facilitate transcendent experiences, engendering hope, inspiration, awe, wonder, and wellbeing. 2. **Catharsis:** the culture must provide/facilitate deep healing, trauma release, individual support, space holding, bodywork. 3. **Communitas:** the culture must provide/facilitate true connection at all levels. From individuals, pairs, groups, communities, networks, countries, and beyond. This is a big task. But we're talking about Culture. Culture moulds the physical world, it decides what lives and dies, Culture has the power to handle this. It can enact and enable these experiences through a few key areas of focus: ### 💒 New Religions Throughout history, religion has been the single biggest driver in creating major cultural shifts and transitions at global scales. However, all organized religions today are unable to handle this demand of reinventing themselves in service of global Cultural Perpetuity. One of the core tasks of the Infinite Players will be to unearth a new religion for those interested to join, and also begin open-sourcing the mechanics of religions themselves. Given that religions are largely groups of spiritual practitioners coming together in community, you can create religions with a focus on a few core elements: - **Metaphysics:** A unifying narrative around the nature of reality that enables choice and freedom in the individual rather than restricting it. - **Ethics:** Culture and its subcomponents must be flexible and adaptable. Moral codes and unchangable Commandments no longer work. Ethical guidelines to inform individual and communal behaviour are better iterations. - **Sacraments:** Real, non-placebo sacraments that can be used to provide direct experience of the transcendent realms are needed. This is an essential component for both Ecstasis and the individual Rite of Passage. - **Dieties:** Everybody worships, but what exactly will we worship? All-Powerful Gods haven't worked out, but not having virtuous examples to strive towards won't work either. Archetypes-as-Dieties have potential here. - **Scriptures:** How do you tell your stories? What myths best serve us right now? What does the [Story of Interbeing](https://www.dailygood.org/story/2217/the-new-and-ancient-story-of-interbeing/?ref=zenmedicine.co) (a la Charles Eisenstein) look like? Many more dials and levers for redesigning religion will surely emerge. But if you want to get started — these are good places to start. A full piece about this with much more detail will be released in a few weeks. ### 💠 Decentralized Systems The incumbent systems we have inherited are entirely unequipped to manage the level of transition that is being called forth. They move too slowly, funnel power and authority to too few, have perverse incentive structures, and are not agile or self-recursive enough to manage exponential change. What can work, what has worked, what must work — are small decentralized systems of stewardship and sense-making. This is what we must revitalize. - **Governance:** Existing forms of governance are failing across the board. A move to decentralized governance for collectives is necessary. The technology and the techniques need experimentation, support, and adoption. - **Finance:** The financial system and promise of liberal democracy has failed the world. Decentralized financial systems are are being built, support them. - **Economics:** Economic models and assumptions *(ie: Homo Economicus)* are backwards, incorrect, and destructive. New economic models must be made and adopted. - **Sense- & Choice-Making:** The ability to rapidly cohere and decohere around the evolving information ecology and make and enact effective choices is extremely pressing. Participation and novel proposals are needed. - **Education:** The modern education system is a tragedy, an absolute blight on humanity *(this will be covered in a future essay)*. New ways of educating youth and provide opportunity to all who want to participate are required. ### 🍃 Ecologies of Practices Ecologies of practices, or dynamic, self-creating groups of complimentary and adversarial practices for individuals, groups, and collectives — are one of the most needed developments right now. To discover, highlight, iterate, and improve on the resources and practices individuals have available to tune deeply into what they need, find where healing is necessary, access peak states, embrace uncertainty, and discover insight. Ecologies of practice at minimum should address: mindfulness, reflection, contemplation, deconstruction, insight, wisdom, healing, flow, + others. Some time-tested examples exist, but no group has yet put these in a systematic, adaptable framework for individuals to adopt and use on an as-needed basis. ### 🧠 Psychotechnologies Graph paper was invented. So was numeracy. As was money. Things that seem like they are embedded in the very fabric of reality are actually mental tools — *psychotechnologies* — that humanity has created to assist its own evolution. We need new psychotechnologies, up for the task of redesigning and rebuilding a global, holistic culture. These are not easy to create and steward, and so relating practices, insight practices, group dialogue and sense-making, will be essential so that we can identify deep unmet needs, and craft and create the tools to address them as quickly as possible. ### 🌱 Regenerative Renaissance A note on sustainability and revolution. The biosphere is in a death spiral. Numerous planetary resource boundaries have been crossed, and if left to its own momentum, Earth will become uninhabitable for humans. Sustainability (ability to maintain) means that even if we get to a point of no further harm/pollution done, we still need an equally opposing force to counterbalance the death spiral currently under way. Sustainability is not enough. We must be regenerative, actively doing no harm, while also improving at a rate beyond 0 (sustaining) to return our home to equillibrium. This is a bigger task than we imagine. Most major corporations think they can get away with the idea of 'carbon neutral programs' where they off-set the amount of carbon they create. They're still creating the exact same amount of carbon, further contributing to the death spirals momentum. This is is no way suitable, and absolutely massive action must be taken. As for revolution — this is another way we approach the problem entirely backwards. Time and time again throughout history, we see a transition *(literally a 'revolving')* of power from one group to the other, and the new group merely breaks things in a slightly different way. *If you believe that the only change required is simply 'your group' getting to power, you've missed the mark entirely.* We need to completely evolve the mechanisms and pursuits of power and authority itself (this is where decentralized systems come in). A revolution itself is inadequate. What we need is a renaissance, a rebirth into entirely new paradigms of organization, authority, and action. The last design requirement of this new infinite culture, is that it must be pursuing a regenerative renaissance, anything less than this is inadequate. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/c154da6fabdf43d38e71cebe7f66e07e.gif) ## ⛩ Your Sacred Duty There you have it: - Create Self-Sovereign individuals ready to become Cultural Architects. - Begin building a culture and its contents that can create and steward a regenerative renaissance. - Use all the tools available: religion, movements, decentralized systems, psychotechnologies, ecologies of practices, + the yet undiscovered. - Smile while doing this, it is the human game after all. 😉 What we are attempting to do here is extremely necessary, and has never been done before. At least not at this scale. It is no small feat. The world needs you, at the table, ready to play, ready to become an Architect of Culture. This is your sacred duty. If you're up for the challenge, here's where to go next: - **Move from NPC > Player.** If you still need a deep rite of passage, an embodied experience of the Truth of Who You Are, seek them out. Design your own. Do the 80/20 of Healing and Self-Discovery, and take your seat at the table of humanity. - **Learn to Play.** If you're ready to play — seek out, support, and join existing initiatives. The game is afoot, you just need to find it. Start giving more than you take. Practice the principles, discover your unique zone of genius, join and help steward communities. Mix and mingle with the building blocks of culture. - **Move from Player > Architect.** Once you've got your bearings, learned to ride the cultural bike, become an Architect. Start building your own experiments, communities, and psychotecnologies. Share the results, open-source the systems, and continue building and contributing. It doesn't matter where you're at. Start where you are. Do the best you can. Become the Infinite Player you were born to be. Your fellow teammates are out there, waiting for you to arrive, sit down, and begin playing. 🎲 ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### Ritualized Rebirth: Maslow’s Misinterpretation & Sacred Death Practice URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/rebirth/ Last updated: 2021-05-23T19:30:00.000Z --- > If you aren't feeling great emotionally today, it's best to wait until you're more grounded and open to read this. I'm holding no punches, and we're kicking things off with some bold statements. ## 💛 The Most Honest Idea If you recall from the [first letter](www.edgeofbeing.org/introduction/) in this series, a guiding question for every post here is *"What is the most truthful thing I can write right now?"* That thing is this: **I hope you die soon.** Not physically, of course. A psycho-spiritual death. I hope your sense of smallness, your feelings of being an isolated individual, your doubts, fears, hopes, dreams, desires, your sense of identity as a small bio-electric process in your head, and your relentless focus on yourself all die soon. **Your self-centered focus, the relentless interpretation of how all of Reality can best serve you and you alone — is the single greatest barrier to uninhibited bliss, power, and meaning in your life.** Your ego is your obstacle*.* It is the Final Boss. Hidden in plain sight all along. It is the ultimate self-recursive loop. It exists solely as a narrative cycle in your mind, and generates every single one of your problems, neuroses, anxieties, depression, confusion, and heartache. It disconnects you from humanity, it allows you to contribute to systems that destroy the planet, and it steals away the vast expanses of wellbeing, peace, and power available to you at all times, in all places. > The great trick of life is this: the death of the ego is not the death of the Self. That which feels most fatal, is actually the most freeing. The death of the mental strange loop you refer to as "I" is the single most important thing you can do for yourself and for the world. The death of the small self unlocks a level of Being that can only be held, perceived, and appreciated by all of existence. And until you can identify your True Self as the Totality of All That Is — you will be forever blocked from this. Or better said, forever distracted from it. It's always available to you in each moment, but you spend your time trying to fulfill the needs of an illusion — your ego. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/MaslowPyrL.gif) ## ⛔️ Maslow's Fatal Misinterpretation If modern culture has taken any single psychological model and based the entirety of its sociological structure and values around it, it's Maslow's Hierarchy. The quintessential model of the evolution of a conscious individual. The blueprint for the flourishing of the '[Self-Made Man](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i91CfRXF-I&ref=zenmedicine.co)'. Simply ascend the levels of Maslow's Great Pyramid, and Master Life. At this point you have Won the Game. You have reached Self-Actualization, the peak of human progress. **All of this, every single line of it, is bullshit. It's backwards, and it's keeping you running in circles of empty self-satisfaction.** Here's why. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Maslows-Hierarchy-of-Needs.jpg) ### 📚 The model that every textbook has adopted is *wrong*. They systematically exclude the final level, Self-Transcendence. Of rising above and beyond the individual self, and like the Tibetan Monks and their [epic Sand Mandalas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRGS%5FsRCpbo&ref=zenmedicine.co) — the moment the picture is perfect, it is destroyed, forgotten, seen through as impermanent and imperfect. Now we can cut them some slack, as Maslow died before this final level worked its way into his public theories. But it's a fatal error. To act as though your process is the most important thing in your life is fundamentally flawed. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/500px-Hon.png) ### ❌ It was never designed as a linear hierarchy. Maslow *never* presented his work in the form of a pyramid or hierarchy. The above image, that of progressive waves of needs intensity, is the depiction he created. This may seem trite, but it's an essential point for a number of reasons: - Needs never fully disappear, you can never fully resolve a need. They simply increase or decrease in intensity based on your context. - There are no clear-cut delinitations. You're never at the "I'm working on the Love/Belonging needs now" stage in your life. They intermingle and co-arise. - The depiction as a pyramid is fundamentally flawed. Celebrity suicides *(and the phenomenon of suicide itself)* is the obvious example here. Suicide never comes from a lack of food. Some of the most 'actualized' individuals take their lives regularly, and the pace is increasing. ### 👤 It glorifies the individual above everything. The standard presentation of Maslow's Hierarchy as a pyramid with the actualized individual at the top creates an embodied value structure that once an individual has achieved *what they consider* to be self-actualization, they are done. They have the completed the worldly task that they have come here to do. This, over and above anything else, has created the phenomenon of all Western Elders simply moving to Florida, riding on pensions, and contributing nothing to the culture that supported and enabled their entire journey. This glaring deficit of Elder Wisdom in modern culture *(to say nothing of the fact that merely ascending Maslow's Hierarchy as depicted does not guarantee Wisdom at all)*, is contributing deeply to the problems we face as a collective. Adult children running around. This 'Self-Actualization as Goal' mentality also systematically engenders one of the 3 '[Dark Triad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark%5Ftriad?ref=zenmedicine.co)' psychological traits: **machiavellianism**, or *"by whatever means necessary"*. **Reality exists solely for the actualization of Me.** This behaviour allows an individual to justify the bankrolling of their lives off the backs of planetary resource boundaries and the exploitation of multiple countries, cultures, and peoples. The ends *always* justify the means. And the results of this is apparent: collapsing biosphere, exceeding planetary boundaries, rampant suicide/nihilism, collapse in civil discourse, subjugation and exploitation of peoples and cultures. ### 🗺 It orients this quest as the 'journey of a lifetime'. Finally, the structure of Maslow's Hierarchy instill in all who agree to it a deep sense that this is the 'process of a lifetime', rather than something that can and should happen quite rapidly through the maturation process of adolescence into adulthood. The future of humanity, the flourishing of future generations, even the bliss and beauty of existence that is your birthright, don't have the time to wait for the *potential* possibility of somewhere down the road you figuring this out. We have lost the ecology of practices, primarily the Rite of Passage into adulthood, facilitated via a ritualized sacred death/rebirth practice that enable the rapid self-actualization required while creating the cultural conditions required for them to transcend that process and arrive back home as a Fully-Integrated member of society. Fortunately, cultures have figured this out. This isn't something we need to create for ourselves, it's just something we need to remember and integrate once again. ## 🧬 Genesis in Blackfoot Culture ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/hierarchy-1024x576.jpg) The kicker that gets left out of the discussion is that Maslow was [heavily influenced ](https://lincolnmichel.wordpress.com/2014/04/19/maslows-hierarchy-connected-to-blackfoot-beliefs/?ref=zenmedicine.co)by the Blackfoot culture of Alberta, Canada in the development of his model. You can see in the image above that the Blackfoot culture has Self-Actualization at the *bottom* of the pryamid *(though they did present it as a triangle, it was a tipi, symbolizing the connection between heaven and earth)*. **The Self-Actualized individual is the foundation of culture. It is literally the starting point.** Yes, self sovereign, capable, composed individuals are necessary, any sound system needs its component parts to be functional. I'm not overlooking the importance of Self-Actualization — I'm merely pointing to the fact that it is the foundation, the starting point. > We need a systematic way to facilitate the Actualization of Everyone – so that we can finally get to work architecting a regenerative and sustainable global culture and collective way of being. The Actualized individual isn't a trophy to display on a wall. It's not the mission of a lifetime. It's Basecamp. It's where you begin the journey from. The actualized individual is now capable of showing up to the group, taking a seat at the table, and contributing to the collective. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Labyrinth.jpg) ## 💀 Death/Rebirth Rituals & Rites of Passage Here's another fun fact: *adolesence was manufactured.* The liminal space between being a child and an adult was created as a system of oppression to create a docile populus. *(I'll cover this in a future piece).* Throughout history in indigenous cultures, the transition from child to adult was clear, delineated, and powerful. It was facilitated via the Rite of Passage — a sacred and often intense physical and psycho-spiritual process that served two purposes: 1. **It facilitated the maturation and actualization process in the *individual*.** Rites of passage bring individuals to their knees in the agony and ecstacy of life, they show participants that they are fundamentally connected to the Great Web of Life and cannot ever be separate. Many of them included death/rebirth practices (more on this in a minute). 2. **If the individual was successful, the culture and adult population viewed and treated this individual as an *adult*.** This reciprocal mirroring from the adult population is also essential and often overlooked. The individual is now given a seat at the table, with adult responsibilities. **This two part process created the necessary inner<>outer dynamic requires for a complete identity-level transformation: the individual felt this shift internally, and this internal shift was then mirrored back and honoured by the collective.** This clear deliniation between childhood and adulthood has been entirely lost in modern culture, and it shows. Adult children abound. Obsessed with themselves, unsatisfied with everything, and entirely unwilling and often also incapable of helping with anything beyond their immediate circumstances. **No actualized culture, no system, can perpetuate itself when its substrate and consitituent elements are unable to bear the weight and responsibility of maintaining the system.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Web-of-Being-1.jpg) ## ⚡️ The Bliss of Being > “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again. ” ― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart **All fear is fundamentally the fear of death.** Either you are afraid of physical harm/illness which would lead to physical death — or you have a social fear (like public speaking) because being ostracized/exiled from the group in ancient times led nearly inevitably to physical death. This is where the sacred power of death/rebirth practices comes in. It is only through continual self-obliteration, ripping apart the ego, that you come to the realization that you, the Real You, is fundamentally indestructable. **You cannot die. You cannot fail. There is no mistake that you can make. You lack nothing. You require nothing. You are the entirety of existence manifested in a locus of awareness.** In forgetting your small self, in willingly surrending yourself to Life, only then can you return to your True Identity — the Entirety of Existence. You are not a small helpless monkey. You are the Great Web of Being. That Which Does All Things. And it is in this realization that you are imbued with the Power, Grace, and Purpose of All That Is. To die to the small self is to be born anew as the All Self. This is the great myth of the phoenix. The sacred rebirth. The first birth into the world, and the second birth into your dharma. Into your calling. To realize and enact your True Nature – as a God on Earth. As a part of the Great River of Being. No longer swayed by the petty opinion, needs, or desires of the mind, ego, and small self. These are all illusions. **This is what I wish for you.** I want you to be reborn. To claim your birthright as a Twice Born human, and step into the role of an Infinite Player playing an Infinite Game. To recognize the beauty of stewarding *all* of yourself, not just the small locus of awareness. To feel the almighty power and wisdom sewn into your bones. If this is something you're ready for, I will cover specific techniques/resources for Death/Rebirth practices in a future letter. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/WelltodoMessyBee-size_restricted.gif) ## 🌀 The Strangest of Loops And here's where it all becomes truly hilarious. Truly ecstatic. Truly beautiful. Like we spoke about in our [first article](www.edgeofbeing.org/introduction/), reality is a strange loop. The edge becomes the center, over and over and over again. **This Ego Death Process is in fact the path to true Self-Actualization.** This is how you fulfill all the needs of every hierarchy. 1. **You can *never* self-actualize the small self.** The small self is in fact the only obstacle to your complete Self-Actualization. Like the [Hungry Ghosts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungry%5Fghost?ref=zenmedicine.co), the ego will take in absolutely everything and never be satisfied. There is never enough for the ego. In rooting firmly down in your true identity as the entirety of existence, your needs are always fulfilled. Life provides everything. You have no individual need, while simultaneously living in a Reality that provides everything in every moment. 2. **Levels of self-actualization no longer become 'nice-to-haves', they become 'non-negotiables'.** Immediately upon dying to yourself and arriving in service to the whole — your health, wealth, relationships, and contributions are cultivated and refined. You do the things your soul yearns for because that is how you deliver exponentially more value to the collective, by following what lights you up the most and giving it freely. You become a vessel of service to the collective, to all of your Self. No longer focusing on one small corner, you now submit in gracious service to everything. Looking for the area that you are most fit to serve. Only in dying to your own needs, submitting to the service and the collective of the whole, do you ever arrive deeply full. This is the law of Life. Empty yourself, and you will be full. You are already whole, and the death of the individual, separate, lacking self is the only obstacle. > There's no such thing as personal development, there is no person to develop. There is only the Great River of Being flowing through all things, and the recognition or lack of recognition of this fundamental truth. Trust Life. Surrender completely into it. Take the ultimate leap of faith. It is when you have died to your need to control, to satisfy your selfish desires, surrendered yourself to the grace and flow of life, that you are free and able to truly act in the greatest service, to the best of your capacities, for the greatest good of all. It is only these twice-born humans who are truly able to be of deep service to the whole. Who are even willing to be of true service. To let life flow through them for the collective. **The world needs you.** **Your Soul needs you.** Die to yourself. The other side is beautiful. Life will hold you. You are safe. Drop your personality. Leave it behind you. Attach to nothing, there is no external label or possession that can contain the immensity of your existence. In dying to the small Self, in removing the obstacles to the deep realization of your absolute immensity in the present — you open the gates for your True Self to arrive, to deeply enact with purpose and presence excactly what is needed. > And once you are ready to show up, as a Fully Realized Being, and begin seriously playing the Game of Life — we will meet you there, and architect a culture the world has never seen. **🛠 This is what we will cover next week:** [**Cultural Architecture**](www.edgeofbeing.org/cultural-architecture/)**.** ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. --- ### A Journey to the Edge... URL: https://www.zenmedicine.co/introduction/ Last updated: 2021-05-16T14:00:00.000Z --- What exactly is the 'Edge of Being'? This is largely facetious. Playful jest. There's no hard edge, no end of existence to walk off of. But the idea is captivating. What better or more challenging game is there to play than to search for the edge of being? To find the outer limits of inner space. To see just how far out you can get. > What's become increasingly clear to me is that the horizon of what is possible is at the centre of what is happening. To venture deep into the far caverns of consciousness, you have to start immediately in your present experience. You have to take the first steps. This is what we mean when we say everyone dies but not everyone truly lives. We spend so much time running away from life, trying to escape our immediate experience, but the true adventure is to 180 and run towards life, rooted deeply in the present moment, embracing raw reality exactly as it is. > Reality is a strange loop. It's more like a Torus than anything else. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/1--kEQ_sfIkHQPHBZ60x0JUg.gif) An energy vortex — with energy moving through the middle, spilling over the top, down outer edges, and looping back into the middle. Cyclically, the edge becomes the centre, looping back in on itself. It's a self-recursive pattern. An ouroboros. An autopoetic system. ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/1-clg50LHmF3FYrMXQXtnZww.gif) > “In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.” ― Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop This is mirrored in personal and collective evolution. You explore, expand, learn, grow — and return, contract, synthesize, and integrate, endlessly. It's as easy, as complex, and as ancient as breathing. But this implies one extremely important point: **your output becomes your input. Your input becomes your output.** What you put out into the world comes back to you. What you invite into yourself influences what can you put out into the world. Any organism at war with itself is doomed. This is how downward spirals form. It's also how upward spirals are created. > It's the blueprint for the individual and collective evolution of humanity. That's what we're exploring together here. The conceptual framings, the embodied activities, and the pedagogical progressions to see how fully we can expand, how far out we can go, how centred we can stay, and how quickly we can cycle the feedback loop of intentional evolution. **This is not beginner material.** This is not for the comfortable. This is the adventure of a lifetime. A lot will be asked of you, and a lot will be given in return. I will honour your skill, your capacity, your power, and your true nature. --- That's not the only domain of this publication. I'll also be sharing as fully as I can my own failures, fuckups, wins, ideas, and opinions. Life has been calling me to share more, to open myself, and I want to honour that. > "What's the most truthful thing I can write right now?" is the guiding question here. Nothing is off the table. We'll cover everything from cultural architecture to sacred sexuality. Original Zen and the shadow side of spirituality. Framings of reality and how to cultivate a meditative tea practice. It's all fair game here. See you soon for our [first adventure together](www.edgeofbeing.org/rebirth/). 🚀 ![](www.edgeofbeing.org/content/images/2021/05/Screen-Shot-2021-05-15-at-15.46.20.png) For all paid memberships, we donate a % of the cost and plant 1 tree/year for each member. ---