Sounds of SAND

Simon Wickhamsmith is a Buddhist monk turned scholar, computer musician, and one of the only translators of Mongolian literature into English. He teaches in the Writing Program at Rutgers University and has been traveling back and forth to Mongolia since 2006. In this conversation he traces his spiritual path from Catholicism through Tibetan Buddhism and back to medieval Christian mysticism, introduces the Mongolian poet Mend-Ooyo, and takes us deep into the life and poetry of the 19th century Buddhist polymath Danzanravjaa — a figure Simon considers his primary teacher — including a live reading of the poem Twos, a stunning meditation on nonduality from the Mongolian steppe.

Topics

00:00 — Introduction


00:02 — Simon's spiritual path: Catholicism, Opus Dei, the Desert Fathers, and Zen


00:04 — Discovering Tibetan Buddhism, Samye Ling monastery in Scotland, and ordaining as a monk


00:06 — The three-year retreat, his mother's illness, and returning to the world


00:07 — Returning to medieval Christian mysticism: Julian of Norwich, Meister Eckhart, The Cloud of Unknowing


00:10 — How SAND connected with Mend-Ooyo in Mongolia — and how Simon met him


00:12 — Teaching himself Mongolian by translating Danzanravjaa's complete works


00:13 — Introducing Mend-Ooyo: born 1952 into a nomadic herding family, poet and cultural guardian of Mongolia


00:16 — The underground literary group GAL (Fire) and Mend-Ooyo's role in Mongolian literary culture


00:18 — Mend-Ooyo's mission: reconnecting Mongolia to its nomadic heritage after Soviet collapse


00:19 — Mend-Ooyo's new novel The Solitary Tree: Robin Hood, shamanism, Buddhism, and falcons


00:23 — Who was Danzanravjaa? Born in the Gobi Desert, recognized as the fifth reincarnation of the Noyon Hutagt


00:26 — Danzanravjaa's approach: spontaneous, impromptu poetry as dharma teaching


00:28 — Mongolia's first traveling theater troupe and the poems as dictated teachings


00:31 — Live reading and analysis of Perfect Qualities — a love poem, a guru poem, and a poem of nonduality simultaneously


00:33 — The three levels of meaning in Danzanravjaa's poetry: outer, inner, and secret


00:38 — Bhakti yoga, Ram Dass, Maharaji, and the connection to direct transmission beyond doctrine


00:41 — Danzanravjaa and the land: the Shambhala vortex at Hamriin Hiid


00:44 — Horses, landscape, and the spiritual path in his poetry


00:45 — Simon's personal experience of the Shambhala site and animist relationship to land


00:49 — If Danzanravjaa were alive today: his anti-Manchu politics and primary focus on deepening practice


00:50 — Live reading of the poem Twos — nonduality in full


00:54 — On translation: humor, layers of meaning, and the paradox of the poem itself






Resources & Links



Simon Wickhamsmith



Rutgers University faculty page


Suncranes and Other Stories: Modern Mongolian Short Fiction — Columbia University Press, 2021


Politics and Literature in Mongolia (1921–1948) — Amsterdam University Press, 2020


The Hidden Life of the Sixth Dalai Lama — Lexington Books, 2011



Mend-Ooyo Gombojav



Official website: mend-ooyo.mn


Altan Ovoo (Golden Hill) — translated by Simon Wickhamsmith


Gegeenten (The Holy One) — novel about Danzanravjaa


The Solitary Tree — Mend-Ooyo's most recent novel, published 2025, translated by Simon Wickhamsmith


Wikipedia: Mend-Ooyo Gombojav


SAND Event — Nature of Mind and Mind of Nature: A Local Event with Mongolian Poet Mend-Ooyo Gombojav (2026)



Danzanravjaa (referenced poems)



Perfect Qualities (also known as The Five Senses / Five Offerings)


Twos — read in full during the episode


Mend-Ooyo's essay on Danzanravjaa: mend-ooyo.mn/content/86.html



Referenced spiritual figures & texts



The Cloud of Unknowing — anonymous 14th century medieval Christian mysticism text


Julian of Norwich and Meister Eckhart — medieval mystics Simon returned to after Buddhism


Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, Scotland — where Simon did his retreat


Ram Dass and Maharaji — referenced in discussion of bhakti yoga and direct transmission


John Cage — Simon's original entry point into Zen Buddhism



Connect with more talks and films from the SAND film Series The Eternal Song



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Recorded live at a SAND Community Gathering (April 2026)

Hard times are here, we hunger for voices that can see beyond the fear, beyond the noise, beyond the technologies consuming our attention. We need poets and visionaries. People who remember freedom.

Dr. Jaiya John (Mshkiki Odeh Inini, Medicine Heart Man), medicine poet, freedom worker, is one of those voices. He has spent his life gathering words that heal. In this conversation, we enter the beauty, the grief, and the medicine together. We sit with the devastation tearing our world, the sorrows cracking us open, the ancestors still holding us—and the radical insistence that collective freedom is not something we chase. It is something already alive in and between us, waiting to be birthed.

Dr. Jaiya John (Mshkiki Odeh Inini, Medicine Heart Man) was orphan-born on ancient Indigenous Anasazi and Pueblo lands in the high desert of New Mexico. He is an ancestral Baba, freedom worker, medicine poet, and the founder of Soul Water Rising—a global mission to eradicate oppression through re-humanization, book donations, and grants to displaced youth. He is the author of numerous books including Freedom: Medicine Words for your Brave Revolution and Fragrance After Rain, and the creator of the podcast I Will Read for You. A former professor of social psychology at Howard University, he holds a doctorate from UC Santa Cruz and has spoken to over a million people worldwide. His Indigenous soul dreams of frybread, sweetgrass, bamboo in the breeze, and turtle lakes whose poetry is peace.



Watch the full video version of this conversation.



Topics



00:00 Welcome and Land Acknowledgment

02:31 Guest Bio and Introduction

03:51 Opening Blessing and Heart Question

05:10 Reclaiming Anger as Medicine

08:08 Libation Prayer for the World

15:57 Anger Rage and Lifted Veils

20:19 Rethinking War and Remembering Water

25:18 Gather Your People Reading

33:04 Grief Poetry and Inner Wars

36:13 War Wants Us Small

40:30 Soul Conditions That Grow War

42:14 Oxygen of War

44:12 Harvesting Clear Vision

47:05 Ferocious Grief Revival

49:38 How Grief Behaves

51:59 Poetry Against Silence

55:08 From Muteness to Voice

58:33 Artistry as Resurrection

01:03:42 Womanhood as Creativity

01:07:23 History as Sacred Hoop

01:12:45 Composting Harm into Healing

01:16:33 Intentional Living Practice

01:19:22 All These Rivers Choose Love

01:23:01 Blessings and Farewell



Dr. Jaiya John — Guest

Website: jaiyajohn.com

Soul Water Rising — global mission

Podcast: I Will Read for You: The Voice and Writings of Jaiya John

Freedom Medicine: Words for Your Brave Revolution — book

Wildflowers Praying at Midnight — book

We Birth Freedom at Dawn — book

All These Rivers and You Chose Love — book

Fragrance After Rain — book

Dr. Jaiya John's YouTube channel — where his poem for the Martyred Poets of Gaza and Palestine is available

Substack: jaiyajohn.substack.com

Dr. Jennifer Mullan — Referenced

Website: decolonizingtherapy.com — Dr. Mullan's "rage doctor" ministry and upcoming work

Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice — book

Therapy is Not Neutral: Dr. Jennifer Mullan & Iya Affo (SAND Podcast episode)

The Gaza Monologues — Referenced

The Gaza Monologues — ASHTAR Theatre — the global project of 33 young people from Gaza, which Dr. Jaiya John contributed a poem to

Support ASHTAR Theatre / Gaza Monologues writers — GlobalGiving

Nikki Giovanni — Referenced

Nikki Giovanni — Poetry Foundation — the poet whose performance broke Dr. Jaiya John open as a young man and birthed him as a poet

nikki-giovanni.com

Ancestors Referenced

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) — quoted: "Out of all our studies, history is most qualified to reward our research"

Geronimo — Dr. Jaiya John's ancestral grandfather spirit, whose question "What is in your heart?" opens the gathering

John Lewis — referenced for "good trouble" and getting in the way of harm

Hopi Nation / Turtle Island

The concept of Sipapu (the Hopi place of emergence/womb place) is discussed at length as a framework for understanding history as circular, not linear



Connect with more talks and films from the SAND film Series The Eternal Song

Support the mission of SAND and the production of this podcast by becoming a SAND Member

Researcher, author, and PhD candidate Chiara Baldini has spent two decades tracing the roots of ecstatic culture in Europe — from the rituals of Dionysus all the way back to Bronze Age Crete and the ancient Minoans, a civilization that thrived for over a thousand years before classical Greece. In this conversation, Chiara makes a compelling case that the Minoans may have been the only advanced civilization of their era not built on domination — their palaces functioning as community spaces rather than elite residencies, their frescoes showing priestesses, dolphins, and bull-jumping athletes rather than kings and conquest. She explores what their art, architecture, and animist relationship to nature might offer us now — not as a culture to imitate, but as proof that patriarchy is not inevitable, and that a radically different set of values has thrived before.

Chiara Baldini is a scholar, author, speaker and freelance curator from Florence (Italy). She investigates the evolution of the ecstatic cult in the West, particularly in Minoan Crete, ancient Greece, and Rome, contributing to anthologies, psychedelic conferences, and festivals. She was a member of the Boom Festival team since 2010 and the curator of Boom’s cultural area Liminal Village from 2014 to 2023. She has co-curated the anthology “Psychedelic Mysteries of the Feminine.” She is currently a PhD candidate at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She lives in Portugal and she expresses her deep love for music by playing as DJ Clandestina.

Topics

00:00 Welcome

02:02 Reconnecting with Chiara and Recent Life Changes

03:31 Dionysus and Ecstatic Traditions

06:38 Going Back to the Minoans

10:07 Bronze Age Patriarchy and War

18:02 Minoan Palaces and Community Life

21:18 Frescoes Dolphins and Priestesses

26:34 Seal Rings and Undeciphered Script

32:18 Bull Jumping and Gender Fluidity

37:20 Why Minoans Matter Today

44:31 Modern Crete LARPing and Animism

49:30 Courses, Books and Closing

Resources & Links

Chiara Baldini

Website & contact

Instagram: @iamalwayschiara

Academia

Facebook

Soundcloud

Psychedelic Mysteries of the Feminine (co-edited with Maria Papaspyrou and David Luke) — available via Inner Traditions

Dionysus: Rave, Ritual and Revolution — online course (advaya)

Minoan Crete course — online course (advaya)

Power Without Patriarchy: Minoan Crete — online course (Morbid Anatomy)

Dionysus course — Morbid Anatomy

Psychedelic Mysteries of the Feminine (co-edited with Maria Papaspyrou and David Luke) — available via Inner Traditions

Chiara's earlier SAND talk (2019)

Books mentioned

The Chalice and the Blade — Riane Eisler — the foundational text on dominator vs. partnership societies, essential context for this conversation

Key figures discussed

Arthur Evans — Wikipedia — British archaeologist who excavated Knossos beginning in 1900, named the Minoan civilization, and controversially reconstructed the palace

The Prince of the Lilies fresco — the contested Knossos fresco Chiara discusses as an example of Evans projecting masculine elite identity onto ambiguous fragments

Knossos Palace, Crete — the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete, centerpiece of Minoan culture

Institutions mentioned

CIIS — California Institute of Integral Studies — where Chiara is completing her PhD in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness

Boom Festival — transformational arts festival where Chiara curated the Liminal Village cultural area for over a decade

Connect with more talks and films from the SAND film Series The Eternal Song

Support the mission of SAND and the production of this podcast by becoming a SAND Member

Recorded live at a SAND Community Gathering (March 2026).

Something is cracking open in the spiritual and wellness world; and it has been for a while. Have wisdom traditions containing genuine gifts been composted into a product that only serves the very forces those traditions were born to resist?

It is no news that some powerful spiritual leaders with devoted followers have, for a long time, abused that power for dominance and, in many cases, for sexual exploitation. The Epstein files are not an interruption to the pattern; they are the pattern, made suddenly impossible to scroll past.

We want to reflect on the conditions—not just the men, not just the crimes, but the architecture of silence that held it all in place. What kind of spiritual culture produces that silence? What kind of spiritual culture makes it possible to look at harm and call it a lesson in perception? What has gone awry with our approach to spirituality when the latter can be used as a cover for abuse? How come much of the therapeutic and spiritual communities remain silent in the face of crimes witnessed by the entire world?

To explore these and related issues, this discussion brought together mytho-poetic spiritual teacher Bayo Akomolafe Ph.D., writer & podcaster Matthew Remsiki, author & playwright V, spiritual teacher & psychologist Tara Brach and author & physician Gabor Maté in a wide-ranging discussion that will also invite audience participation.

The intention is to leave participants encouraged to find the spiritual inner strength needed to pursue truth without losing discrimination in the process, without giving away their power; to discuss compassionately, without judgment but with clarity, what the Epstein revelations can tell us about who we are, about our culture, and about the nature of how we construct reality; to move beyond a so-called equanimity and “non-attachment” that is indistinguishable from numbness and passivity in the face of harm, in the face of evil.

Topics:



00:00 Welcome and Intentions

01:30 Opening Prayer and Invocation

08:38 Ashe and Grace in the Fire

12:26 Guided Breath and Heart Presence

16:14 Moderator Sets the Context

18:44 Pat on Accountability and Betrayal

23:00 Bayo on Rage and Virtue

28:52 Tara on Cult Silence and Bystanders

35:46 V on Sacrifice and Reporting Systems

44:53 Matthew on Critique and Accountability Research

50:40 Key Question Abusive Teachers

52:50 Residential School Aftermath

54:51 Prep School Indoctrination

56:25 Deep Truth From Flaws

58:12 Tourettes And Moral Switch

01:01:01 Charisma And Inner Circles

01:04:34 Privilege Patriarchy Power

01:08:03 Architecture Of Silence

01:13:12 Anger Grief And Courage

01:18:08 Indigenous Survival And Trickster

01:22:56 Speaking Out And Fugitivity

01:27:09 Spirituality’s Inward Turn

01:32:52 Accountability And Healing

01:35:53 Closing

Links:

Gabor Maté – https://drgabormate.com/

Bayo Akomolafe – https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/

Pat McCabe – https://www.patmccabe.net/

Tara Brach – https://www.tarabrach.com

V (formerly Eve Ensler) – https://www.eveensler.org

Matthew Remski – https://matthewremski.com/

Watch the full video of this conversation – https://scienceandnonduality.com/event/the-architecture-of-silence-in-spiritual-culture/

Support the work of SAND and the production of this podcast by becoming a SAND Member

Recorded live at SAND's Wisdom of the Ancestors event for the launch of the film series The Eternal Song, four powerful voices converge to address colonization, extractivism, and ecological injustice — and what it takes to move toward healing. Moderated by Rae Abileah, social change strategist, Jewish faith leader, and co-creator of the global Climate Ribbon art ritual.

Abby Reyes, author of Truth Demands and Director of Community Resilience at UC Irvine, shares her harrowing personal story of the 1999 murders of her partner and colleagues near U'wa territory in Colombia, and a landmark recent Inter-American Court victory for Indigenous collective rights. Osprey Orielle Lake, founder of WECAN International and author of The Story Is in Our Bones, brings a worldview-shifting lens to the climate crisis as a justice and relational emergency. And Casey Camp-Horinek, elder, actress, and Hereditary Drumkeeper of the Ponca Nation, grounds the conversation in Indigenous sovereignty and the Rights of Nature. Together they call for community-rooted action, mutual aid, and what they name "post-traumatic growth."

Topics:

00:00 Host Welcome and Land Acknowledgment

03:12 Session Theme and Intentions

04:48 Meet the Panelists

08:10 Why We Are Here

18:59 Indigenous Rights and Knowledge

25:14 Casey on Nature and Purification

34:29 Abby Story and Legal Victory

43:56 Meaningful Action and Getting Started

50:32 Community Practice and Post Traumatic Growth

57:58 Closing Reflections and Thanks

Resources

Rae Abileah

CreateWell — Website

Beautiful Trouble Bio

Abby Reyes

Website

Truth Demands — Penguin Random House

UC Irvine Community Resilience

Osprey Orielle Lake

WECAN International

The Story Is in Our Bones — New Society Publishers

Casey Camp-Horinek

Movement Rights Bio

SAND Feature

Connect with more talks from The Wisdom of the Ancestors in the SAND film Series The Eternal Song

Support the mission of SAND and the production of this podcast by becoming a SAND Member