Mindrolling – Raghu Markus – Ep. 272 – Hippie Trail Part Deux with Michael “Jadu” Daner

hippie Mindrolling - Raghu Markus - Ep. 272 - Hippie Trail Part Deux with Michael “Jadu” Daner

Michael “Jadu” Daner returns to the Mindrolling Podcast to share more stories of the seekers and smugglers who traveled The Hippie Trail.

Michael “Jadu” Daner is the co-founder of the Conscious Living: Conscious Working Program. In Goa, India in 1970 Michael was inspired to begin practicing yoga and meditation. He explored Bhakti Yoga as a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba, studied Dzogchen Buddhism with Namkhai Norbu, and returned to the West to teach mindfulness practices in NYC for 14 years at NY Insight. Learn more at michaeldaner.com.

Podcast Show Notes

What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding? (Opening)

Firstly, Jadu and Raghu talk about the poor reputation that the word hippie has developed. They explore what being a hippie really stands for. And look at how some of the hippies of the 1960s turned towards spiritual practices. To cultivate the peace love and understanding they sought from the inside out.

“There was sort of a division in San Francisco, where the hippie movement really started. The people who were there before The Summer of Love, before 67′, like Ken Kesey and The Merry Pranksters, Wavey Gravey and The Diggers – they were the real hippies. Then it sort of went mainstream and it got to the media, then you had tens of thousands of people descending upon San Francisco and it became kind of a fashion statement.” – Michael “Jadu” Daner

Explore what happened in 1967 and what we can learn from the successes and failures of the original hippie movement with Danny Goldberg and Raghu on Ep. 194 of the Mindrolling Podcast 
Seekers & Smugglers (29:50)

In addition, Jadu shares his experiences along The Hippie Trail from Amsterdam to Nepal. This route was traveled by countless hippies. Raghu shares his own stories as a seeker on The Hippie Trail. He shares a passage from The Spiritual Odyssey of Freda Bedi. This offers a poetic example of the transformational experiences that Raghu and so many other Westerners found along The Hippie Trail.

“After 67′ there was so much media coverage that Haight-Ashbury deteriorated. In a way and people hit the road. They went to live in communes, they rode hippy busses around America. And a certain percentage decided to go to India after they got turned on by psychedelics. And wanted to know who knew more about this. Soon it was not just hippies from America going, but there were hundreds of thousands of people who went to India.” – Michael “Jadu” Daner

Check out more stories on The Hippie Trail from Jadu on Ep.134 of the Mindrolling Podcast 
Inner Odyssey (58:30)

In conclusion, Jadu and Rahu close with a conversation around the practices and teaching brought back to the West that allows for each of us to undertake a spiritual odyssey of our own.

     

Images via Michael Daner