My new book is:

Enlightenment for Rebels: Celebrating Our Wild and Sacred Earthly Selves
in Jubilant Defiance of Disembodied Spirituality

In this reverently rowdy text, I propose versions of enlightenment that don’t require an escape from our world’s gorgeous pandemonium, but thrive on a wildly disciplined engagement with it.

Through an unpredictable weave of unruly stories and genre-fluid texts, I cross-pollinate exuberant activist passions with drug-free explorations of altered states.

I invite readers to have maximum fun as they experiment and improvise with imaginative spiritual practices. How can we cultivate wisdom that’s both grounded and ecstatic?

The book is available at all online stores, and you can get a 25% discount here: tinyurl.com/SacredEarthySelves

It’s also available here:

Bookshop: tinyurl.com/RebelEnlightenment

Barnes & Noble: tinyurl.com/JubilantDefiance

Amazon: tinyurl.com/EcstaticHealing

★

My family, allies, and I are allergic to spiritual teachers and teachings that coax people to disparage the core features that make us human. We're not sure why their sprawling quagmire seems so tempting to multitides of souls.

They claim that the body is a distraction and desire is an affliction? We say NOOOOOOO! They insist outfeelings are traps, the ego is a dire hindrance, and our personal stories are obstructions to illumination? We say NEVER!!!!!

Sorrowful dismay wells up as we watch legions of tender aspirants guzzle this fake news as if it were sacrosanct wisdom.

Our love of life protests as our fellow wanderers try to extinguish their mortal magic in the name of escapist transcendence.

We are rattled as they neglect their own precious soul savvy and demean their majestic flesh. It’s tragic and heart-breaking!

Our alternatives are celebratory rhythms and rhymes that immerse us in the glories of flesh wisdom and creature consciousness.

Resolved: We crave and deserve spiritual approaches that honor all the magnificent human features named below.

• Feelings and physical sensations are sources of vigorous wisdom. They’re not erratic, banal burdens we must ignore and expunge to be free.
• Desires are holy fuel for our liberation and intelligence. They’re not toxic obstacles we need to abnegate and suppress.
• The ego is a crucial ally in our zeal to be vividly alive. It’s not an enemy to be demeaned and disowned, but a tool to be tuned and aligned with righteous purpose.
• Many (not all) of our stories and identities are essential to who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. They’re not merely illusions to vanquish and shed, but evocative texts to honor and integrate.
• Our bodies are sacred vessels and sources of sublime savvy. They’re not distracting burdens but miraculous masterpieces.
• Our relationships are potentially at the evocative heart of our spiritual practice, not intrusive diversions.
• Earth is our beloved home, not a limbo or prison where we suffer and grieve in temporary exile from some supposedly better place.
• Our incarnation on this planet is an exalted gift, not a punishment or ordeal.
• Movement and sound are equally valid paths to illumination as stillness and silence.
• Our everyday lives are sources of rich opportunities for delight and discovery. They’re not burdensome trials rife with irrelevant, boring, and oppressive hindrances.
• Connection is just as key to spiritual deepening as solitude; community is as important as self-sufficiency; cooperation and empathy are crucial for growing our glistening sagacity.
• Play, humor, and creative expression are divine gifts that belong at the heart of our spiritual practice. They’re not irrelevancies or optional extras.
• Sexuality can be a pathway to divinely inspired transmutation. It shouldn’t be compulsively dismissed as an inconvenient bedevilment or vulgar need.
• Work may be an aid to spiritual practice rather than an obstructive vexation that interferes with our focus on our highest and noblest aims.
• Grief, rage, envy, and the difficult emotions are worthy teachers rather than sheerly problematic digressions and detours to be overcome.
• The endless changes that life brings us can be sources of interesting challenges, not doleful emblems of constant loss.
• Nightly dreams may be treasured wellsprings of guidance, not indecipherable tangents.
• Our ancestors and lineages, both biological and chosen, are sources of power and wisdom worth consulting and honoring. They’re not to be confined to sentimental and nostalgic musings.
• Some experiences may be so marvelously intense, unique, and potent that they become permanently inscribed in eternity—imprinted on the undying record of all that has ever been felt, witnessed, and loved. They’re not necessarily subject to utter dissolution and disappearance, but are kept alive in the deep memory of existence.