“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.” 

These words, from the great multi-disciplinary scientist Gregory Bateson, capture the essence of the challenges we all face right now—personally, interpersonally, and globally. Most so-called “out of the box” thinking amounts to more of the same. 

We could put the basic problem in our own life like this: In order to be the fullest and best version of yourself, you will have to be able to think a thought that, right now, you cannot think. 

That’s it. If you could think this genuinely new thought, you wouldn’t be stuck wherever you are stuck in your life, you wouldn’t suffer the way you do; you wouldn’t feel the lack of peace in the places that feel tight, sharp, anxious, or agitated; you wouldn’t feel unwell in the parts of you that feel unwell. 

How can we think the way nature works? 

We incorrectly relate to nature as if nature doesn’t think. But nature thought wild horses into being, and humans have only thought wild horses to the brink of non-existence, just as we have thought whole species into extinction.

Humans so often treat horses as if they are less intelligent than humans, and it’s true that we may see horses do things that to us appear “stupid”. However, each of us does things that, to an objective observer, appear quite ignorant, even astonishingly so (imagine what horses would say to us about the ignorance they have noticed in us). And, in general, everything we see horses do happens in the general context of human ignorance. How can we judge horses as “stupid” or even “less intelligent” what we are, when we force them to behave in the general context of our own stupidity? 

But we can begin to shift. We can begin to think the way nature works. In this course, you will learn about the meaning of the “ecology of mind,” a term coined by Bateson but fully present, in spirit, in the wisdom traditions. You will learn basic practices for liberating yourself into larger ecologies of mind that will empower you to make better decisions, come to important insights, and relate to yourself, others, and to nature more skillfully. For horse lovers, these practices will help you gain profound intimacy with horses, as you enter and share a common ecology of mind with them—a healthy and vitalizing one.

All of this relates to what we could refer to as horse problems, human problems, and global problems. To speak of “problems” does not mean entering a “problem” state of mind. Rather, it has to do with being honest about where our sore spots are, where our ignorance creates real suffering in the world for ourselves, for our horses and other beings we love, and for strangers and the whole community of life. Resolving these problems means entering a state of no-problem. That may sound abstract, but it’s very concrete, and horses give us direct feedback about it.

To get a sense of what all this means, we can consider the example of Tom Dorrance. Whatever training method we think best, most people agree that Tom Dorrance was something of a magician with horses. He supposedly said quite often, “People think they have a horse problem but the horse has a people problem. I’ll be the horse’s lawyer and I’ll prove to you the horse is right.” We can hear a lot of people talking like this today. 

The trouble we find in the horse world is that too few people take this suggestion seriously enough to stop trying to work on their horse and to get down to the business of working on themselves. We may get new tricks and techniques, so that, from the outside, things can appear to improve. We seem to have more control over our horse. But, at a deeper level, we have forsaken the deeper potentials of our relationship with horses. 

Another way of putting this is that, from a young age, people have told us to, “Pay attention!” and to “Use your head!” But our education does not teach us what awareness itself is, what the nature of our mind is, and how we can most skillfully use our mind and our awareness.  

William James famously wrote that: 

the faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. No one is compos sui if he have it not. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence. But it is easier to define this ideal than to give practical directions for bringing it about. 

When a horse evaluates our character, they in part evaluate nothing more than our awareness. And James was right that our education system doesn’t teach us how to train it. But our horses deserve our fullest awareness, the fullest capacity of our mind and heart. 

Isn’t it time to give yourself and your horse the gift of an awakening mind? This mind turns out to be both spiritual and ecological. Indeed, we can discover how “spiritual” and “ecological” mean the same thing—not in some “new-agey” or “plastic pagan” way, but in a way deeply in accord with and respectful of all venerable spiritual, philosophical, and religious traditions.

Though conventional education fails to teach us how to gift this mind of ecology and spirituality to ourselves, our horses, and all those we love, the wisdom traditions have long emphasized such education. Socrates, Buddha, Christ, Confucius, and countless other world teachers showed their students how to train their minds. 

When we engage in this training, one of the most wondrous things becomes apparent to us: Though the horse mind may differ in some ways from the human mind, the nature of the horse’s mind is exactly the same as the nature of the human mind. Once we begin to verify and gain intimacy with the nature of our own mind, we can enter into a genuinely miraculous space with our horse, in which we share something profound with them that no other approach can offer. It is the space of freedom, the space of wisdom, love, and beauty that is the nature of the mind we have in common with them. Standing together in that common space, impossible things become possible. 

Over the course of 8 weekly zoom sessions, each 1.5-2 hours long, you will out the essence of holistic healing and how you can bring your healing together with the healing of all horses, the society and culture at large, and the world we share.  

We recommend you enjoy this experience in a group. If you have interest in this program, let us know, and we can either place you in a group when available, or we can discuss the possibility of one-on-one sessions.