Rainforest Mind with Kaspa Thompson Kaspa Thompson

Why are gifts so important? Is everything a gift? What’s the difference between a gift economy and a transaction economy? Why is it hard to stay grateful? Today’s episode was partly inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. I also mention this talk by Ven. Shenyn: The Life of a Wondering Monk You can view...

I’m standing with my eyes closed in the middle of a busy street and listening. Why? And what can I learn from that experience? I talk about the false opposites of being and doing, and why I prefer lovable to perfect. I mention the Bang And Olafson podcast Sound of the Cities, and an early...

A few weeks ago we got a puppy! Wow – what a whirlwind the last month has been. Moments of sheer joy, and moments of fraught overwhelm. As one book Satya was reading put it, there is the honeymoon period, the WTF have I done period, and the I couldn’t live without her period…. Today...

What a great conversation. James and I spoke about the Unitarian Universalist movement, form and emptiness in Zen, boundlessness, spiritual fluidity and more. James is a Zen Buddhist teacher and part of the Empty Moon Network, he leads a group in Southern California. James’ most recent book is called Introduction to Zen Koans: Learning the...

I’m talking to my Buddhist teacher Dharmavidya David Brazier. We talk about Buddhist Psychology: what does it mean, and how does Buddhist therapy work? We talk about how encountering ‘awakened’ people can be transformative, and about enduring great suffering. We talk about what supports grounding yourself in the big picture, and how faith helps us...

How can we support healing in people, and in the planet? To help answer that question I’m talking about the importance of going outside, and what different kind of outside spaces can teach us. I talk about what wildness means and I talk about the practice of finding a spot to sit in, and sitting...