In this profound episode of the Pachamama School Podcast: Sacred Wisdom to Birth the New Earth, host Xóchitl Kusikuy Ashé reunites with longtime friend and Buddhist teacher Deborah Eden Tull in an intimate conversation about resilience, awakening, and authentic leadership. Just six months after losing their home and all belongings in the devastating North Carolina floods, Eden shares how this profound loss became a gateway to deeper understanding of impermanence, community, and our interconnection with the more-than-human world.
Together, they explore the sacred nature of crisis as a teacher, the dissolution of separation that happens in times of collective challenge, and how climate events serve as allies for human consciousness. Eden offers wisdom from over 30 years of meditation practice and seven years as a Buddhist monk, discussing how to find sacred ground in groundless times, the importance of embracing our shadows, and what authentic leadership looks like in an age of unprecedented change.
This conversation weaves together themes of displacement and belonging, the medicine of darkness, building resilient communities, and how to show up with grace during humanity's great transformation.
Connect with Eden:
Website: https://www.deborahedentull.com/
Books: "Relational Mindfulness", "Luminous Darkness: An Engaged Buddhist Approach to Embracing the Unknown" and “The Natural Kitchen”
Connect with Xóchitl:
Website: xochitlashe.com
Instagram & Facebook: @xochitlashe
Sign up to Xochitl's newsletter
DOWNLOAD OUR FREE MICRODOSING EBOOK: Bridging Worlds: Indigenous Wisdom for Microdosing Mushrooms. In this FREE ebook, learn how to integrate indigenous wisdom into your microdosing practice. With this guide, you'll rediscover ancestral knowledge that will turn your microdosing practice into one that is just as magical as it is transformative. Click here to download!
About Eden: Deborah Eden Tull is the founder of Mindful Living Revolution and teaches the integration of compassionate awareness into every aspect of our lives, bridging personal and collective awakening in an age of global change. She is an engaged Buddhist teacher, spiritual activist, author, eco-Dharma educator, and facilitator of The Work That Reconnects. Eden teaches Dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more-than-human world. She has practiced meditation for over 30 years and trained for seven and a half years as a Buddhist monk at the Zen Monastery Peace Center. She has been teaching for over 25 years and has written three books in compassionate response to the ecological, social, and spiritual crisis of our time.
Show Notes:
Chapters
(01:21) Opening Sacred Space and Introductions
(03:54) Reunion of Old Friends in Changing Times (09:51) The North Carolina Flood Experience
(16:37) Finding Gratitude in Crisis and Practice
(20:17) Community Response and Human Goodness
(24:11) Climate Events as Allies for Consciousness
(27:19) The Spiritual Path and Impermanence
(32:23) Living in Intentional Community in LA
(39:48) The Art of Being in Community
(43:06) Principles for Community and Leadership
(48:08) The Triangle of Authentic Leadership
(52:22) Dismantling Old Leadership Models
(56:15) Qualities of New World Leaders
(1:00:48) Reclaiming the Authority of the Heart
(1:03:56) Finding Sacred Ground in Groundless Times