Plant Cunning Podcast interview with herbalist Tammi Sweet

This is a fun interview where we talk with one of AC's teachers, herbalist Tammi Sweet. She is a consummate educator who knows all of the up to date scientific data as well has having a grounded spiritual practice and plenty of experience learning directly from the plants. In this episode we specifically talk about working with Cannabis, about the endocannabanoid system (which is very ancient and important to our well being), how to make good Cannabis medicine, and how to have a respectful relationship with Cannabis. Personally, I no longer work with Cannabis, partly because of what Cannabis herself has communicated to me, but I know that plenty of people do, and find great value of working with this truly masterful plant teacher. I hope you enjoy!

https://anchor.fm/plantcunning/episodes/Ep23-Considering-Cannabis-with-Tammi-Sweet-es4mmi

What is Spiritual Seeking?

This is a topic that I will probably come back to again and again in different ways. Today though, I come to it from the desire to know the Truth. It seems to me that we live in a world of conflicting opinions, worldviews, and hence realities. It is very difficult to sift through all of these viewpoints, especially when we are all born and raised with beliefs that are largely unconscious. Beliefs of what the world is, what other beings are, what we are.

This I think is what drives the Search for a lot of people. What am I? But also, what is the Right View? In Buddhism, it is a given that there is one right view, in fact "Right View" is the first spoke of the eight fold path. For me, it seems to be more of a koan than a given. Maybe there is no "Right View", but what if there is? Can a human even comprehend "Right View?" There are so many moving parts, and the act of observing changes the observed... Can there be a Transcendant view outside of time and space that observes the Whole of Creation? Maybe not. But maybe. How would you know for sure that there isn't?

This brings me to a saying of my teachers' teacher, Richard Rose. Oftentimes when he'd meet a new person for the first time, as part of his greeting he'd say "Well, what do you know for sure?" He said their answer would tell a whole lot about them, much more than he'd get if he asked them how they were doing. This is a koan too, for me at least. How does anybody know anything for sure? The only thing that I can say that I know for sure is that I am. Something is aware. It may not be a "thing", but it is more core to what I am than these fingers typing, these thoughts going through my head, these feelings moving through me like tides, like the Moon through the Signs.

So, what is spiritual seeking? For me, it's trying, assaying, working diligently towards getting a wider, deeper, more comprehensive view of what I am... or in the opposite way, as Rose says "backing away from untruth." That is, allowing the cracks in the view to appear, seeing how beliefs are false, seeing what beliefs have been unconscious, seeing what I am not.