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While we usually have guests on, for this podcast we decided just to have a team discussion on the 2025 year. We discussed what challenged us, what we learned from, what we hope to see in 2026. We talked about grief, recovery, dogs, family, changes, the changing landscape of our nation and our world.

We hope you enjoy this different take on our podcast!

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From journalist and internationally recognized author Lee Carlson comes a life-changing memoir about our journey to seek meaning and the personal relationships we build along the way.

A Single Excellent Night weaves together awakening experiences and pivotal realizations from the first four years of a 15-year apprenticeship Lee Carlson spent with Peter Matthiessen. The relationship between these two men, Zen teacher/student, writer mentor/mentee, trusted confidants and friends, unfolds in beautiful stories as Carlson goes on a quest to the furthest limits of human understanding and mindfulness, culminating with a single magical event on a winter beach.

Layered with profound insights on identity, belonging, and suffering, A Single Excellent Night is more than a book about Zen, spiritual awakening, and the enlightenment found in presence. It is a book about meaningful relationships, healing, love, and community. Unpacking the wisdom and teachings of towering literary figures like Peter Matthiessen and spiritual teachers like Joanna Macy, Carlson invites readers to experience the rare fusion of lived memory and meditative inquiry—a search for insight shaped by Zen practice, poetic prose, and the lasting imprint of a literary legacy. (see more here)

Gary Sanders and Dana Gornall talk with Lee Carlson, traumatic brain injury survivor, journalist, former magazine editor and Zen practitioner. Lee's previous memoir, Passage to Nirvana goes into his journey of near death to recovering from an accident that caused a Traumatic Brain Injury. We discuss some of his background and story along with his latest work, A Single Excellent Night.

Lee's website here: https://leecarlson.life/

Purchase A Single Excellent Night here: https://leecarlson.life/a-single-excellent-night

Amazon

Passage to Nirvana here: https://leecarlson.life/passage-to-nirvana

Podcast edited by Brad Parsons at Train Sound Studio, www.trainsoundstudio.com

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! Interested in being a guest on our podcast? Contact us at editor@thetattooedbuddha.com.

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*trigger warning: Suicide

Jaqui was a young, 22 year old free-spirited young woman who loved to plant trees and was a part of a tree-planting community.

She was an artist, a tattoo artist and an adventurer. Her dad had no longer needed a contractor van so she renovated it into a traveling van and went exploring.

Jaqui loved meditating and had been trying to get into a 10 day Goenka meditation retreat for awhile and when her name came up on the list to be able to go, she was very excited.

A few days into the retreat, Jaqui's mom received a phone call from a volunteer saying that Jaqui had left in the night and they just wanted to make sure she had gotten home safely. In fact, Jaqui had not gotten home, and this led to a call to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in order to file a missing person's report. While the police were able to locate her van about 30 miles from the retreat center, they did not find Jaqui.

Jaqui was found to have taken her own life.

This is not the first time someone has commit suicide after a Goenka retreat. We sit down and talk to Nathalie St-Maurice, Jaqui's mom, about this story, about Jaqui, and what she and other families would like to see change with these type of Vipassana retreats.

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These retreats were a part of an investigative podcast on The Financial Times. You can listen to those here.

Check out Cheetah House here, a website and community organization that helps support those who have experienced distress during/after meditation. Cheetah House will also have an online event on June 3 called Behind the Scenes at Retreat.

Here is the foundation Jaqui's family started to celebrates and supports education in arts called Nice Day Shining. Their purpose is to advance education by providing scholarships to study arts at post-secondary educational institutions, and o raise awareness and provide support for mental health through disbursement to charitable organizations.

If you need help, or need someone to talk with please reach out by call 9-8-8.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram! Interested in being a guest on our podcast? Contact us at editor@thetattooedbuddha.com.