When the pull towards truth takes root within you, it often feels as though one enters a type of spiritual warfare, where the call to harmony is met with an equal pull of chaos. As the light grows, so does the shadow. The key is to have unshakeable faith in the presence of love.

Your calling is what you are called to do, not just in life but in any given moment—and that is what life is, isn't it? A given moment.

Our mind becomes so full of rubbish, day in and day out, accumulating all sorts of nonsense. In your house, you don’t just take the garbage out once; no, it’s a regular occurrence. So it is with our inner landscape. It needs some landscaping; it needs some cleaning.

Action by itself is not enough unless it is consecrated on the altar of being. If we desire a world rooted in love, wisdom, and compassion, then we must embody these qualities ourselves. To receive life as a gift is to realise the gift of life, and the gift of giving is to give it away.

When you reach the top of the mountain, you keep going. The path keeps unfolding—it is the path that never began, the path that has no end. Enlightenment—so what? The world still turns.

Power is just a force. It is a neutral force—latent with potentiality—and its trajectory depends on the intention, the action, the way it is pushed. True power is in the serenity of humility… it is the still presence that moves all things, the timeless silence that sings all songs.

For those of us whose first language is English, there's probably going to be a part that feels cheesy with that, and more exotic and mysterious with a different language. The other side of the reality is that our own dialect hits home. It hits the heartstrings in a different way. It resonates and registers with a different part of our brain.

Music, as a spiritual practice, involves crafting the mind and body through the skill of an instrument. This, in turn, leads to the realisation that one's own body and mind are instruments—either to play or be played.

Be wary of those who tell you to kill the ego. Is it really worth a war? Do you really want that blood on your hands?

Some come to the medicine with a list of demands, hoping to gain or improve—but what if there is no separate self to perfect? The path of realisation is not self-enhancement, but seeing through the illusion of self altogether. It begins by relaxing the tightness of identification and listening deeply to what presence reveals.

To be fearless does not mean an absence of fear, to be fearless means simply that you feel fear less. Feeling fear less means that you do feel more. It means more feeling, more allowing, more embracing, more understanding. It means to know that fear is there, that it has a place and in doing so we can count on it to become a wise friend, ally and teacher on the path, which in turn is more welcoming.

The first lesson in both spiritist and shamanic schools is discernment. Discernment is the sentinel that guards the door—it is the art of discrimination that allows us to distinguish this from that, truth from falsity, and light from darkness. Without it, one may be overcome by forces they do not yet understand.

Don’t just seek knowledge; look to know the unknown. Become intimate with the ineffable, make love to the mystery. This is where the teaching comes from—and when the student is ready, the teacher will appear everywhere and in everything.

I appreciate all of the pathways that wind around the forest. I've been exposed to many different leaders, great ayahuasqueros, curanderos, onanyas, kurakas, pajés, madrinhas, padrinhos, and I want to be something of a translator. Sometimes, my role is to be a bridge between this world and that world, this world and the other.

We are each a thread in a vast ancestral tapestry, carrying both beauty and burden. True healing doesn’t come from unraveling the past, but from meeting the present with deep, humble presence. When we rest there, the knots begin to loosen on their own.

To know oneself is to recognise the dynamic web of existence, where everything is in relationship. We are never truly separate; connection permeates all things in varying degrees. In this network of interbeing, everyone and everything is, in some way, a relative of yours.

Ayahuasca is a mystery. It opens the doors to the mysteries. Ask anyone who has been drinking for many years, and they will tell you that when you think you have it figured out, that is when you better watch out. Ayahuasca reveals itself to us like a mirror. If you let go of the internal stances you hold, you too become like a mirror. When two mirrors meet, there is no one there.

If we start our approach with respect, reverence, sincerity, and humility, we set off on the right foot and lay a stable foundation for a meaningful meeting with the medicine. When we come with a sincere and devotional attitude, it is wise to consider how this offsets any hyper-individual notions that it is somehow all about us and the symbols we find. Instead, it opens us to a relational, dynamic, and musical world where the boundaries between inside and outside coalesce and invite us to cherish the beautiful wonder of feeling ever-so-small in the presence of it all.

It has been said that the vine is the book where all of the wisdom is contained, and the leaf is the lamp light by which to read the book. Another way of phrasing this is that the leaf is the remote control for the television, while the vine contains the movie, the story, and the meaning.

Ayahuasca, like many plants, can peel back layers and reveal a sense of belonging—to ourselves, to our environment, and to something greater. But it is not the path itself. As they say in Zen, it is the finger pointing at the moon. Seeing it is not enough; drinking medicine is not enough. It opens the door, but one must learn to step through it on their own.