Fantastic Fungi’s visionary director, Louie Schwartzberg, joins Jack to explore the profound connection between psychedelics and mindfulness.
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“You can’t separate psychedelics from life.” – Jack Kornfield
In this fresh conversation, Jack and Louie spelunk the depths of:
- The connection between psychedelics and spirituality
- Psychedelics as a gateway to wonder, curiosity, and the sacred
- How tripping on psychedelics informed Louie’s filmmaking
- Albert Einstein and psychedelics as the intersection between art and science
- The universe and life as a constant transformation of light energy
- Buddha’s “Flower Sermon” and Zen Master Suzuki Roshi’s “Beginner’s Mind”
- Jack “exchanging maps” with famous LSD researcher, Stanislav Grof
- Studies showing the combination of psilocybin mushrooms and Louie’s time-lapse nature imagery as a powerful therapeutic tool for helping addiction and PTSD
- The importance of “set and setting,” community, and integration
- How psychedelics actually fit into the Buddhist precepts
- Honoring biology and the feminine aspects of nature
- The gifts of sacred attention and loving awareness
- Finding beauty wherever you are, and how Louie’s films heal by sharing patterns of nature for the soul to connect with
This conversation was originally recorded on 3/29/24 by Banyan Together – an online mindfulness community started by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. To join the community and learn more, visit BanyanTogether.com
“A lot of the work I do is to make the invisible visible. And that’s the perfect description of what a psychedelic journey is like, making the invisible visible.” – Louie Schwartzberg
“We live in a culture that’s almost defined by the absence of the sacred. And so we feel this yearning, this intuitive wish to connect—whether it’s going high in the mountains, or making love, or taking psychedelics, or meditating.” – Jack Kornfield
About Louie Schwartzberg:
Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director and producer who is most widely known for his film, Fantastic Fungi, which explores the world of mushrooms and mycelium, illustrating how this fascinating organism can provide sustainable solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems, treating cancer, Alzheimer’s and PTSD, saving the bees, cleaning the atmosphere, and shifting consciousness. For more info on Louie visit, MovingArt.com
About Jack Kornfield:
Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma, studying as. a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies.
Dive into Jack’s ongoing dharma offerings and transformational online courses on the new JackKornfield.com
Listen to more from Jack:
Tune into Ep. 109 of Heart Wisdom: This Too Shall Pass
Learn about Living with a Peaceful Heart in Ep. 91 of Heart Wisdom
Check out Ep. 90 of Heart Wisdom to learn about Healing Through Loving Awareness
Listen to more Stories That Open the Mind, Mend the Heart and Lead to Joy with Jack Kornfield in Ep.92 of Heart Wisdom
Tune into Ep. 102 of Heart Wisdom: The Wisdom of the One Who Knows
Check out Ep. 1 of Heart Wisdom to gain wisdom on Impermanence
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