About
About Derek Dodds: In my youth, I felt a strong pull to the East and traveled to Asia to find myself (still looking). I studied Buddhism, Yoga, and Vedanta In India. I was drawn to the majestic peaks of the Himalayas and 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, and 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. I was invited to be a Trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America by Mary Zimbalist (Krishnamurti’s righthand woman) and served the organization as publisher and rights manager of Krishnamurti’s writing and media for 16 years.
![About Derek Dodds Mary Zimbalist & Krishnamurti](https://i0.wp.com/derekdodds.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-02-13_09-12-49.png?resize=974%2C960&ssl=1)
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 eventually got into therapy and, for the first time in my life, started to understand my childhood traumas and the web of pain that had entangled my heart.
In 2009, I drank ayahuasca for the first time in a small village near Machu Pichu. However, I wasn’t ready to start my relationship with the ayahuasca plant just yet, and it would take me eleven years to prepare myself psychologically and spiritually for her magic. I had been working with Planet Medicine on and off since my first trip to Bali in the 1990s, but it was very haphazard and sporadic.
![About Derek Dodds](https://i0.wp.com/derekdodds.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/10.png?resize=1024%2C1024&ssl=1)
Trip to the Amazon Rainforest with Noke Koi
This time around, the spirit of ayahuasca took me under her wing, and now I have a very close relationship with her. I wrote a book (2023) to help others overcome their fear of sitting with ayahuasca based on my more profound understanding of how she can help humanity. I also published a book on Hape Sacred Tabocco in (2024), another sacred 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, which help catalyzed my two books.
I have a Master’s in Public Policy and Administration, specializing in Behavioral Development. Though I never really used it professionally. I also served as 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. I am still looking for nobody self in this somebody world.
I live in Ojai, California, with my partner Mar and an adorable cat named Millie.
~ Derek
Ojai, California | 2/2024