About Kirk
Welcome. I'm Kirk and I'm slowly experiencing what I can only describe as a spiritual awakening.
If I try to trace its origins, I might begin around 2012 or 2013 when I meditated for the first time. For a few years I meditated infrequently -- maybe a couple times a week or maybe never for a few months. I never sat for more than 20 minutes.
When I spent six weeks hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2014, I became aware of my monkey mind. Being alone and walking day after day introduced me to the scattered, repetitive, and largely unhelpful river of thoughts flowing through my mind.
In an effort to better understand my self and my mind, I attended a 10-day vipassana silent meditation retreat while traveling in Argentina. There I felt my own chi, or life energy, for the first time.
Just a couple weeks later I attended a week-long ayahuasca retreat in the Amazon jungle outside of Iquitos, Peru. It was my first psychedelic experience and opened further the doors of perception.
I continue to explore. These are some of my thoughts.
Thoughts
Here’s What Happened
Here’s what happened:
Apes were cool.
Monkeys were fine.
Bonobos were happy (and doing a ton of fucking).
And then cro-magnon man happened.
And neanderthals.
And homo erectus (ha-ha).
Our ancestors bred like fucking was fun.
And then it got crowded.
Too many neighbors at the watering hole.
Too many homos fetching fruit and killing critters.
Some moved out of the tropics.
My kinfolk moved north and somehow ended up in
Norway.
There’s no fetching fruit year ’round in Norway.
A kinfolk gotta learn to can.
But cans are difficult to make.
I’m just a gatherer, after all.
What’s that, you say?
Your kin can make cans?
And jars?
Your great-grandmama is the
Queen of cans and jars?
Well get thefuckouttahere!
Let’s say I trade you some of my berries
for some of your jars.
Now we can both eat in winter,
support our families,
so that more baby homos
can fill the land.
But wait a minute…
What just happened here?
Commerce, muthafucka!
And with commerce comes competition:
My berries are bigger.
My berries are fruitier.
And so here we are.
Those equatorial peoples ain’t so competitive in our competitive global economy, are they?
Huh.
Funny, that.
Tough shit for them.
Here’s some guns and bombs.
Cuz we want your copper and silver and coffee and uranium and whateverthefuck it takes to keep our insecure machine running.
It just needs a little more.
And so here we are.
Nation states and corporations
fighting for power and money
all because
fucking is fun.
Teachers
Ram Dass is the legendary former Harvard professor Richard Alpert who was among the first westerners to use psychedelics and travel to India to learn from a true guru.
This podcast is a collection of many of the hundreds of dharma talks he's given since 1969 when he returned from his first trip to India.
On Rick Archer's podcast, Buddha at the Gas Pump, he has interviewed hundreds of normal people who have experienced a profound spiritual awakening, shifting to a greater state of consciousness. They may be the person next to you at the gas pump with a smile on their face.
Jack has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. The Jack Kornfield Heart Wisdom hour celebrates Jack’s ability to mash up his long established Buddhist practices with many other mystical traditions, revealing the poignancy of life’s predicaments and the path to finding freedom from self-interest, self-judgment and unhappiness.
Krista Tippett thoughtfully delves into the mysteries of human existence. Or at least that's what it says on the National Humanities Medal she received at the White House. She interviews spiritual experts and explorers from all walks of faith.
Duncan Trussell is a stand-up comedian and also a visionary explorer of humanity, love and the divine. He'll expand your ideas of the potential of everything with his deep understanding and comic questioning.
Chris Ryan is a wise world-traveler and author of the book Sex at Dawn. His podcast interviews are fascinating and get a little tangential, but always in an enlightening way. Filled with fantastic stories and thoughtful advice.
Euvie and Mike discuss diverse aspects around the future of humanity. These smart, loving and thoughtful discussions will open your mind to the vastness of human potential.
Stephen & Theresa have left the mainstream and are creating their ownstream. Inspirational discussions with people who are forging their own path.
Each week host Ken Jordan talks with guests who share insightful stories about their own awakening experiences, and how they bring that awareness into what they do in the world.
"We must be the change we wish to see in the world."
- Mahatma Gandhi
