Raghu is back fresh from an India trip to talk with OG Mindroller, David Silver, about life, death, Pema Chödrön, and the way you live.
How We Live is How We Die // LSD, Death, & Groundlessness
Diving in with David Silver around a book that blasted him on his India travels, Raghu plucks exceptional themes and quotes for the Mindrolling Duo to pontificate on, handpicked from Pema Chödrön’s new book How We Live is How We Die. To begin, David shares his early experiences facing death and groundlessness through the psychedelic experience of LSD.
“I took my first acid trip and experienced groundlessness as if I was dead. I was terrified. Working through that—as everybody does who does psychedelic transformative substances in the right way—I realized there was groundlessness in my life as if I were dead. I was shocked. Going through that, I began to notice this was worth massive focus.” – David Silver
Pema Chödrön discusses Fear as the Vanguard of Courage
Bardo & Surrender // Metta Mitigates Fear (10:08)
How do we relate to the most fundamental of all fears: the fear of death? Raghu and David explore, with a playful curiosity, this issue of fear of death and denial of death which runs rampant in Western culture. From here, they explain the idea of Tibetan bardo (in-between states), in relation to the spiritual concept of surrender. Through this lens, Raghu explores metta (loving kindness) in relation to death and bardo.
“In the moment of going through the bardo, if you have any consciousness at all of thinking of others, loving kindness in that moment—’Oh, there’s other people going through this experience, I hope they all are well,’—mitigates fear and separation in a gigantic way.” – Raghu Markus
Raghu & David explore useful wisdom for extreme times, on Ep. 450 of Mindrolling
Child Luminosity, Mother Luminosity // Tim Leary’s Grand Adventure (33:33)
What are you gonna do when you’re in hospice? What are you gonna do when your relationship breaks up? When you lose your job? Facing these heavy questions of reality which we normally shy away from, Raghu and David offer levity and wisdom in the face of the unknown. From here, they explore death as the merging of child and mother luminosity. Next, David shares Timothy Leary’s view of death as a grand adventure. To close they talk Tibet and Tonglen practice.
“What you learned from Maharaj-ji so much, so intensely, is that love is a miracle.” – David Silver