About
About Derek Dodds: In my youth, I felt a strong pull to the East and traveled to Asia to find myself (I’m still looking). I studied Buddhism, Yoga, and Vedanta in India and Nepal. I was drawn to the majestic peaks of the Himalayas. I spent time as a part-time monk at the Kopan Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in Kathmandu before venturing into the mountains for a solo journey through the Anapurnas.
At Kopan Monastery, I picked up a book called The Awakening of Intelligence by Jiddu Krishnamurti that changed the direction of my life. Krishnamurt’s writing is so clear and precious. His teachings were exactly what I needed then. I would eventually spend sixteen years of my life dedicated to his work.
Love is anonymous. I may love my wife and my children, but the quality of that love is anonymous. Like the sunset, love is neither yours nor mine.
~ J. Krishnmaurti
I spent six years living outside the USA, dipping in and out of India and Nepal while working in Spain. I eventually returned to California to help promote Krishnamurti’s teachings in 1999. Mary Zimbalist (Krishnamurti’s righthand woman) invited me to be a trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America, where I served with great humility.
I served the organization as publisher and rights manager of Krishnamurti’s writing and media for sixteen years. My close relationship with K’s work was an important stepping stone in my spiritual journey. This was a beautiful chapter of my life, and I am deeply grateful for the experience.
Mary Zimbalist & Krishnamurti (© MaryZimbalist.net)
My mother died in 2015, and my entire world fell apart. I left the Krishnamurti Foundation the same week she died and spun recklessly toward an uncertain future and path. I started therapy—for the first time—and began the journey of healing my childhood traumas and understanding the web of pain that had entangled my heart.
I have been working with Planet Medicine on and off since my first trip to Bali in the 1990s, but it was very haphazard, sporadic, and rarely ceremonial. The medicines always found me, usually while traveling through some exotic location. I seldom searched for them, and my relationship with them was shallow.
In 2009, I drank ayahuasca for the first time in a small village near Machu Pichu while on a surf trip to Peru. However, I wasn’t ready to continue my relationship with ayahuasca at that time. It took me twelve years to return to her side—preparing myself psychologically and spiritually for her magic.
Trip to the Amazon Rainforest with Noke Koi: 2023
This time around, the spirit of ayahuasca took me under her wing, and now I have a close relationship with her. I wrote a book introducing ayahuasca to beginners to help people find their way to her magic. I also published a book on Hape Sacred Tabocco, another sacred plant medicine from the Amazon.
I was fortunate enough to go to the Amazon in 2023 and deepen my connection to these medicines as part of my journey. Being in the Amazon, among the plants and animals, was medicinal. Studying and living alongside the Noke Koi deepened my love for Indigenous teachings and helped me discover parts of myself that had been dormant for years—what better place to grow new spiritual roots than in the Amazon Rainforest?
My professional journey has been a random path from the very beginning. I have a Master’s in Public Policy and Administration, specializing in Behavioral Development, that I never used professionally. During my nomadic years, I was an adjunct professor at the European School of Management in Spain and Universidad del Noreste in Mexico.
After my sixteen-year tour at the Krishnamurti Foundation of America, I co-founded a literary rights agency with my lovely partner. A few years later, I decided I wanted to dabble in product and brand development and have been doing that ever since. However, I feel a change is coming soon. I am still looking for the nobody self in this somebody world. Can you help me find it?
I live in Ojai, California, with my partner Mar and an adorable cat named Millie.
~ Derek
Ojai, California | 9/2024
