I just discovered your blog in the course of Googling ayahuasca. I very much appreciated what you wrote about traditional shamanism and how shamans regard the tea as a spiritual X ray machine. (Having once studied anthropology which at that time tended to equate religion with the extension of kinship lines to the universe!) I was also very intrigued by your background in Tibetan Buddhism. I was a Buddhist monk myself a long time ago for about five years, and have only started to drink tea since last August. I find that it really seems to get down to the parts that nothing else ever has done – especially shame.

The last time I drank it felt like falling back inside my heart, and realizing with a shock that there was no one there just the light that had always been ‘doing’ the seeing and hearing. Much of the time I drink in the Santo Dame and although the songs are often talking about “holding the light in your heart’ I often feel they lack a precise orientation such as Buddhism to help them realize the value of ‘taking the backwards step, of just dropping out of all that the ego ever took itself to be.

Do you have any reflections on the crossover between ayahuasca and Buddhism that you might be prepared to share? So many people – I think – get stick on the road to Nirvana entangled in old hopes and fears – in my work as a psychotherapist my supervisor happens to have been trained as a nyingma lama – I once asked him what cessations means – and he said ‘no longer believing in father xmas’ Exactly what happened to me on tea!

Your sin the dharma – and tea

Bruce Stevenson

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– Steve

I’ve been trying to find some contact info for you as I’d like to ask you a question if I may… the only email address I’ve found bounced though.

-Josh