Blog Archives

Shipibo Ayahuasca Maps • New ZOOMDOUT Tees!

11/21/2012

This new Tetris-looking design is found all along the Ucayali River in Peru. From Pucalpa in the mid-east of Peru (the Shipibo peoples' main hive), to the epic jungle city of Iquitos, and even spilling into the mighty Amazon River down into Leticia in the south of Colombia. These trans-dimensional images are envisioned by Shipibo Shamans during traditional plant-medicine ceremony. These 'maps', as they refer to them, may consist of geographic, biographic or even future information...

During my last ceremony with the master Shipibo shaman, Ricardo Amaringo, I began to see these gently, swerving figures rising and rippling through space and time. With two of the shamans' Icaros lulling these musical, swerving serpents into my field of mind, these figures began to take the form of peculiar, hieroglyphic musical notes.

When I asked the shaman what these figures were all about, he responded that they were types of maps. These maps can represent something as simple as geographic information, or something as complicated as the life of an individual. For example, one of the shamans told me he was able to see his own death embedded in one of these "breath-taking" Shipibo Ayahuasca maps.

These ZOOMDOUT tees are, as always, freshly screen-printed in Brooklyn, NY. And just in case you're just now tuning into the Trip, the luxurious-feeling drape you see is due to the fact that our t-shirts are made of ecologically-sustainable Bamboo and Organic (Non-GMO) cotton!

Check out the ZOOMDOUT Smart Shop and welcome the 2012 Ayahuasca-consciousness into your life...

Exactly one month left for the new Aeon/ Epoch (12.21.12). So make sure you rock into it ZOOMDOUT.

0_0

0 Comments

Chuang-Tzu: The Dream of the Carpenter and the Oak Tree

11/13/2012

2 Comments

In this dreamy parable, the ancient Chinese sage, Chuang-Tzu, conveys to the reader the meteorite-like impact dreams can have on our lives. The wandering carpenter in this parable is rudely awakened by a giant, "useless" oak tree in a life-changing, perspective-shifting dream.

A wandering carpenter, called Stone, saw on his travels a gigantic old oak tree standing in a field near an earth-altar. The carpenter said to his apprentice, who was admiring the oak: "This is a useless tree. If you wanted to make a ship, it would soon rot; if you wanted to make tools, they would break. You can't do anything useful with this tree, and that's why it has become so old."

But in an inn, that same evening, when the carpenter went to sleep, the old oak tree appeared to him in his dream and said: "Why do you compare me to your cultivated trees such as white-thorn, pear, orange, and apple trees, and all the others that bear fruit? Even before they can ripen their fruit, people attack and violate them. Their branches are broken, their twigs are torn. Their own gifts bring harm to them, and they cannot live out their natural span. That is what happens everywhere, and that is why I have long since tried to become completely useless. You poor mortal! Imagine if I had been useful in any way, would I have reached this size? Furthermore, you and I are both creatures, and how can one creature set himself so high as to judge another creature? You useless mortal man, what do you know about useless trees?"

The carpenter woke up and meditated upon his dream, and later, when his apprentice asked him why just this one tree served to protect the earth-altar, he answered: "Keep your mouth shut! Let's hear no more about it! The tree grew here on purpose because anywhere else people would have ill-treated it. If it were not the tree of the earth-altar, it might have been chopped down."

2 Comments

The Universal Breathing Room: Celebrating Oneness on 1 Day

11/11/2012

0 Comments

I first heard of doasone.com about two years ago. It was while taking a Wisdom University telecourse taught by Stan and Christina Grof. Every Tuesday before listening to the Grof's Holotropic words of wisdom it was suggested we go into this online breathing room in order for us to enter into a more receptive and synchronized group-frequency. I found the idea of this Universal Breathing Room (UBR) to be absolutely mind-expanding. An online "room" that people from anywhere in the world can enter in order to just sit and breathe together for a minute or ten. Upon entering the room, you're briefly greeted by a slow, welcoming, meditative voice:

         Welcome to the Universal Breathing Room, where you can log in daily and breathe with people from all around the world, synchronously.
         I invite you to check in that your posture is excellent, your spine is straight, that all your muscles are relaxed, your shoulders are down,
        and with your mouth closed, tongue touching the roof of your mouth, prepare to exhale the air from your lungs...

The breathing pace is set to five breathing cycles per minute. Six seconds worth of inhale, six seconds worth of exhale... A much slower, conscious breathing pace than your average rush-hour traffic, over-crowded subway-riding, sporadic breathing rhythm. Breathing at this healing pace for a sustained period of time slowly begins to open doors into the deeper, transcendental states of meditation. When I've entered into these Holotropic states, whether plant-induced or not, I am reminded of the sacred relationship we have with our breathing. In those Holotropic states of consciousness, I've come to realize that the breath is like a thin thread connecting us in the material world to the realm of the divine. It's, perhaps, the most apparent connection we have with the divine.

Back to the Breathing Room. There's also a Google map pin-pointing all of the active UBR Breathers from all over the globe. There's usually in average of about twenty Breathers spread across the globe all breathing synchronously. The people at Do As One have started a new global holiday on 11/11 celebrating oneness. Their goal might sound just a little ambitious, but imagine if it were possible. They're trying to get not one thousand, one hundred thousand, or one million people to enter the breathing room and all breathe together synchronously. They're trying to get not 10 million, or 100 million... But one BILLION people to all breathe together for eleven minutes. I'm sure their servers would crash if they manage to get 10,000 people on board to go on that crazy trip. But who cares? They've planted a global seed of breathing consciousness. And that's all that matters.

Check out the three simple steps of how to celebrate one day. Breathing starts at 5 PM east coast (NYC) time.

Happy 11/11.

And happy breathing.

0 Comments

Shipibo Ayahuasca Maps • New ZOOMDOUT Tees!

Chuang-Tzu: The Dream of the Carpenter and the Oak Tree

The Universal Breathing Room: Celebrating Oneness on 1 Day

CategoriesTrip ReportsVisonary Poetry

Archives

Categories
Trip Reports
Visonary Poetry