This episode's guest is Vinay Gupta (@leashless). Vinay is the founder of Mattereum, the creator of the hexayurt, and part of the team that launched the Ethereum project. Vinay is also a deep spiritual practitioner, and in this two part episode we explore the intersection of awakening, social collapse, and the possibility of human extinction. We talk about  Vinay’s esoteric spiritual path and subsequent awakening to the planetary crisis, why we ought to abandon all causes except the avoidance of total human extinction, why our situation is not just a repackaged mythical eschatology, why the victors of global capitalism are becoming the new losers, why we live in a ‘monster factory’, the reality that poverty IS collapse, why love is not enough, why a UBI might be the best thing we can do to escape the worst impacts of collapse, Vinay’s critique of the idea of ‘consciousness revolution’ as a real solution to the problems of a world, the problem with the mindfulness and yoga movements in the West, why anything that’s not leading towards enlightenment is not spiritual practice, why Salvador Dali is a Buddha, what expression of awakening can serve in a planetary crisis, why grace is a form of ‘not giving a fuck’, how to get in touch with the hellish aspect of the world, and why we need to 'saw off' the 60s. This is part one of a two part conversation. Outro music by Danny J.