A Handy List of Helpful Resources

Taoism, mindfulness, & zen

Alan Watts

Alan Watts is one of my personal heroes.  He was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

I first stumbled across Watts' work years ago, and fell in love with it.  He's witty, funny, and sharp, and makes eastern ideas easily understood and compelling  He wrote some amazing books, including You're It!: On Hiding, Seeking, and Being Found.

I particularly love three musical pieces created by the artist Dreaming In The Void, based on his lectures.  I made a handy little playlist on soundcloud where you can hear them.

Here's a wonderful video of Watts telling one of my favorite zen stories, The Story of the Chinese Farmer.


Pema Chödrön

Another of my personal heroes, Pema Chödrön is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, acharya and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Chodron has written several books and is the director of the Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada.  (Again, thanks Wikipedia!)

I first read Pema's book When Things Fall Apart about five years ago, and found it life changing.  The book describes how we typically related to pain and suffering in the west, and offers another way, a more mindful, facile way which can help ease us through it.  I've since gone on to read more of her stuff, including the audio lecture Getting Unstuck, which is about the buddhist concept of attachment, or "shenpa", and how it gets in the way of mindfulness.


Dan Millman

Dan Millman wrote the life-changing book Way of the Peaceful Warrior.  I read this book about a decade ago, and fell in love with it.  It's a semi-autobiographical story about how Dan, a college gymnast with a charmed life, knew something was very wrong in his life, and found a mysterious spiritual teacher... in a gas station.  It was also made into a movie I love, called Peaceful Warrior.


Meet the Robinsons

Meet the Robinsons is a 2007 Disney animated film about an orphan named Lewis, who desperately wants a family of his own.  He's an aspiring inventor who, through a series of madcap adventures somehow winds up visiting the future.  It's a goofy, crazy film about robots, singing frogs, missing dentures and... mindfulness.  I love it.  I think it very elegantly teaches an important lesson.


Ageplay, kink, and fetishes

Fetlife

FetLife is the Social Network for the BDSM, Fetish & Kinky Community.
Like Facebook, but run by kinksters.  Fetlife is amazing.  The Big Little Podcast has a group there, and I have many, many friends on there.  It's a source of meaningful discussions about alternative things.  And yes, it's entirely Not Safe For Work, filled with nudity, and sexuality, so be a smart cookie and don't look at it at work.  Here's a link to my profile there.

Hosting/Attending a kinky zoom event?

Check out this handy guide to how to do so and be mindful of privacy issues.


The Big Little Podcast

The Big Little Podcast is a podcast by, about, and for age players of all kinds.  I'm pretty familiar with it, seeing as how I'm one of its creators and hosts!  Spacey, Mae and I have been doing the podcast since February, 2011.  It's listened to by lovely folks all over the world.