💭 "After the ecstasy, the laundry" - Zen proverb
Welcome to The Laundry and thanks for joining us here.
We’re Lodro (on the left) and Adreanna (on the right). If you’re not familiar with us yet, we’re married - to each other, which Lodro’s mom said was very brave when we told her that we were engaged. Marriage is brave, in a way. Marriage, like any major commitment, takes the bravery to stay and dig in when the going gets tough.
On that same note of commitment (and digging in) we’re new parents to a spectacular 1 year old named Ruby. She’s really into bananas and the color orange these days.
We’re ALSO both Tibetan Buddhist practitioners and meditation teachers that have written a number of books on the subject. And, we write this weekly Substack, called The Laundry.
Throw this all in a blender, and you’ll find the place that our writing lives —at the intersection of Buddhism, meditation, and everyday life in a way that is explicitly accessible and useful for being a human being circa 2024.
Because really, what good are spiritual (or philosophical) teachings if they just stay up on a shelf without meeting the details of our daily lives?
📿 ABOUT US:
Lodro has taught and written extensively about Buddhism and meditation in everyday life - over the past two decades and in all 7 of his books.
*This includes Adreanna’s personal fave, Love Hurts, and the best-selling The Buddha Walks Into A Bar… You can find out all about Lodro and his work HERE.
Adreanna has also taught and written on the topic over the past decade and most notably in her first book, Tea And Cake With Demons: A Buddhist Guide To Feeing Worthy.
You can find out more about Adreanna and her work HERE.
📿 ABOUT THE LAUNDRY
The Laundry is largely about the way that the two of us as husband and wife are personally grappling with the present moment as Buddhist practitioners, partners, parents…and people. People first and foremost. People who are trying to do their best, in a complex world, which means “our best” is sometimes clumsy and off-key.
This is not a problem. If meditation practice encourages anything, it’s that everything is material for our spiritual path. Nothing is excluded. Every aspect of our experience get scooped up as part of the practice. The stuff that we like. The stuff that we don’t like. All of the bits of life in between. Everything is material for our practice.
(And now, material for this Substack.)
This includes relationships and work. Big questions and small concerns. The basic and the existential, and the 10,000 moments that are easy to miss that stitch together the shape of a day.
Which of course, is where the title of this space came from. As the Zen proverb goes, after the ecstasy of a ✨ transcendent! enlightening! ✨ experience, we still have to do our laundry. We still have to tend to our lives, in all of their mundane glory.
But again, this isn’t a problem. This might be the whole of the path, in fact - tending to the proverbial laundry. And maybe what we consider mundane and what we consider sacred aren’t that different, at all.
📿 WHY SUBSCRIBE?
The Laundry is for folks who are Buddhist-curious and meditation-inclined. Or maybe you just like to hear stories about other people’s lives (I know I do.)
What makes The Laundry different from all of our other work (books and courses included) is that it is more…personal. Less of a “How To” and more like an ongoing journal entry, albeit with Buddhist wisdom snuck in. It’s the rough cuts. Our practice in process. Grappling with the application of these teachings in everyday life.
Each entry will be posted to this space (and to your inbox when you subscribe) every week, alternating between writing from Lodro and Adreanna. When you subscribe you’ll have access to the archive of all of our entries, plus commenting capabilities and the ability to connect with other readers. Founding members also have a choice: you can do a half hour Zoom session with one of us to talk about your meditation practice OR get a signed copy of one of each of our books.
And when it comes to comments - please don’t be shy about sharing your experiences! We look forward to your questions, reflections — and reciprocal sharing in the exploration of practice through writing. This is a community space for us all to reflect on how best to bring meditation off the cushion and into everyday life.
May this space be useful to your practice and your life, and perhaps help to soften the line between the two.
And when it comes to “the laundry” May your basket always be full.
📸All Photos taken by CHRISTINA DITTMAR PHOTO
