The Wisdom of Weed
Meet John: Grower, Breeder, Buddhist
If they're growing without intention, motivated by corporate greed, it's garbage. Just buy Frosted Flakes with the fucking tiger on it. Garbage.
I first met John during a seed excursion.
It's hard to hide from yourself if you're high. Cannabis is awareness.
He makes me think of the place beyond high. The more elevated state.
John has been an endless source of cannabis teachings and leaves me with Buddhist wisdom to boot. A man of incredible kindness and great depth, John is not afraid to speak exactly what’s on his mind. I can learn with the luxury of not having to read between the politically correct lines.
Here are some excerpts from our conversation.
Enjoy. 🖤Nina
Above: Green Bodhi strain Silver Surfer
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF INTENTION
John Bayes: If things are grown with the intention to profit and make money solely, then of course it's going to be subpar. This is reality. It's just like having food from your grandmother versus McDonald’s.
It’s easy to boil intention down to human not machine, handmade not mass produced, but there’s more to it than that. There’s soul in something that has true intention. For the recipient there’s a connection back to the maker.
If I can offer the best of what I can do, meaning my best intention, then when someone consumes my cannabis, they experience the blessing and there’s the revolution and continuum of awareness — because look at the world, it's a dark scene out there.
We are offering a little taste of happiness, peace of mind. The mind that clings to this or that, is illusory because it all starts with ‘I think.’ A mind that starts with ‘I think’ is generally unhappy because it’s a self-centered view.
ON CANNABIS LESSONS
JB: Every cannabis trichome head is a wax covered blessing pill of medicine. Hence, it’s the gateway drug to awareness, where your body and brain can access different levels of continuums.
Cannabis helped me be aware of all those self-centered perspectives that actually hindered me in my life. I've been able to dissect my ignorances and see where I'm just full of my own self, feeling like a superhero. It's a good tool to deal with your self-centered bullshit.
It's hard to hide from yourself if you're high. When you observe all of yourself, it's easier to be honest about who you are, instead of whoever you want to pretend you think you are.
With cannabis, you have the opportunity to observe those things and do something about it.
ON CONNECTION
JB: It's like the human condition's kind of fucked right now and people don't know how to deal with it. Everyone's in desire, survival mode, wanting to try to abuse people and use people. It's harsh. It's greed based, right?
But the old-school people, it was heart based. We didn't want it to be a system.
To be able to be aware with an aware counterpart, it's pretty powerful, as well as rare. Two people that are evolved to the level to drive things home versus to the level to get what they want until they aren't getting what they want.
If you're doing compassion for the sake to be known or to get something out of it, it's not compassion. You're doing it for yourself. If you annihilate The Self, then you can actually act intentionally and purely.
ON GROWING
JB: You have to get Your Self out of the way for magic to happen. We can overthink ourselves out of a good thing almost every time. That means we are unenlightened.
To grow cannabis is to recognize its subtlety. Meaning controlling a situation to death with the Selfish Self. There was this little cartoon girl that just had to have everything. She wanted to love her doll so much she strangled the fuck out of it by mothering it to death. That's not love. That's attachment and ignorance.
You must respect what nature offers us. Too often, corporate greed takes the living essence out of nature. That’s happening with cannabis.
ON DRYING AND CURING CANNABIS
JB: I like cannabis after it's dried five to seven days. From that point for the next two weeks its consumption is at its best. Cured weed sounds like old weed to me. I'm not going to the farmer's market and saying, ‘got any cured strawberries that are two months old?’
ON GREEN BODHI AND BODHI SEED LIMITED EDITION COLLABORATION
JB: I thought this philanthropic collaboration would be a good opportunity for both us to share with the cannabis community something special that matches both of our intentional aspects of reality. Bodhi Seeds aka @plantmoreseeds is someone that’s created many popular and amazing strains, not to mention someone whose character and heart is rarely found these days in cannabis, or any other community.
We thought it would be a good way to give back to His Holiness Monastery for all that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has done for the human condition. Everyone that buys, sells, or consumes the medicines derived from this collaboration is then in turn entangled into that karmic field of merits.
ON FEMALE VS FEMINIZED SEEDS
JB: We don't do feminized because it's not natural. You have to spray chemicals on the plant and make it change and start shooting pollen. We offer 21 seeds per vial so you're going to have plenty of opportunities to find female seeds.
Female seed is natural, feminized seed is not natural. It's definitely not organic.
ON HYBRIDS VS LANDRACES
JB: Landrace core root genetics to work with is crucial. I take them and create amazing hybrids. I blend a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Just like cooking, you can have 20 ingredients but salt is always the core.
Unfortunately, hybridization has been over-hybridized. You need people that are going to know how to breed correctly so that when they bring something to the table, it's unique.
FAVORITE STRAIN
JB: A sativa based hybrid that has a little bit of kushy aspects to it. I like earthy, anise, licorice-y, afghani kind of style base.
OUTDOOR, GREENHOUSE OR INDOOR?
JB: Mixed-light greenhouse would be the best.
HOME GROW FOR REGULAR FOLKS
JB: My seeds, soil and nutrients are as organic as it gets if you're not growing straight in a native soil.
DOES CANNABIS CURE
JB: They've shown THC attacks cancer cells. They don't understand why, but they've shown it does. There's evidence out there. My experience is if all the conditions are right, anything can happen.
PSYCHEDELICS
JB: Our brain has inputted all these conditioned memories and thoughts that keeps you from your potential. You basically delete your files and all the things that are holding you back. You will come to a lot of realization. You have to have a lot of deaths.
THE BIGGEST HEALER THC OR CBD
JB: THC
CANNABIS IS…
JB: A wisdom plant.
Greenbodhi.org @greenbodhi @oregoneliteseeds.com. For Dynamic Blends Soil and Limited Edition Green Bodhi X Bodhi Seeds contact info@greenbodhi.org. Green Bodhi cannabis and hash coming to Oregon early this year. Stay tuned…
Green Bodhi Tenzin Kush #4
Climbed up from the ground floor
There’s the sunrise and a new pen waiting for me
I write quietly, sitting next to God
I can think and everything is slow
I feel love
-Highly Epiphanies, post psilocybin life
Send in your epiphanies to goodgood@thehighly.co. All will remain anonymous.