photo Wendelin Scott

Don Ricardo Syllabus

This website is a gift for and from our elder Rick. We value his conversations, youthful excitement, wisdom, kindness, cowboy songs, sense of magic, trove of stories, history, and anecdotes.

Rick is well-read and often recommends books. Lots of books. But where to start? The question was asked: OK Don Ricardo, say you're the professor: What would make up your bare bones syllabus?

And so over the course of a week in Lama in July 2015, Rick distilled a lifetime of favorites down into the following list. The criteria being that these are books to blow your mind. Books to shake you. Books to change how you relate with the world. And they are quite the university. Hope you enjoy!

~to Rick with ♥, from your family in "exotic" Los Angeles

Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm

Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth

by Stephen Harrod Buhner

Rick's Note:

Communicating with plants and expanding consciousness inside and out.

The Secret Teachings of Plants

The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature

by Stephen Harrod Buhner

Rick's Note:

Communicating with plants and expanding consciousness inside and out.

Practice of the Wild

by Gary Snyder

Rick's Note:

Poet, philosopher - Bodhidharma meets coyote.

The Old Ways

by Gary Snyder

Rick's Note:

Becoming indigenous by our American elder.

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar

Memoirs from the Living Heart of a Mayan Village

by Martín Prechtel

Rick's Note:

Indigenous culture in Guatemala. A true vision and history of ancient indigneous culture and its destruction. Heartbreaking and beautiful.

Long Life, Honey in the Heart

A Story of Initiation and Eloquence from the Shores of a Mayan Lake

by Martín Prechtel

Rick's Note:

Indigenous culture in Guatemala. A true vision and history of ancient indigneous culture and its destruction. Heartbreaking and beautiful.

Not in His Image

Gnostic Vision, Sacred Ecology, and the Future of Belief

by John Lamb Lash

Rick's Note:

Ancient European Gaian wisdom. What went wrong.

Going Native

by Tom Harmer

(The two books by Harmer go together)

Rick's Note:

Sweat lodge, vision quest, spirit helpers. There's nothing else quite like this.

What I've Always Known

Living in Full Awareness of the Earth

by Tom Harmer

(The two books by Harmer go together)

Rick's Note:

Sweat lodge, vision quest, spirit helpers. There's nothing else quite like this.

Genesis

Memory of Fire: Volume 1

by Eduardo Galeano

(Volume 1 of 3)

Rick's Note:

A poet writes the History of Western Hemisphere. Read this before your next trip to South America for dieta. It will let you see what's around you in more depth.

Faces & Masks

Memory of Fire: Volume 2

by Eduardo Galeano

(Volume 2 of 3)

Rick's Note:

A poet writes the History of Western Hemisphere. Read this before your next trip to South America for dieta. It will let you see what's around you in more depth.

Century of the Wind

Memory of Fire: Volume 3

by Eduardo Galeano

(Volume 3 of 3)

Rick's Note:

A poet writes the History of Western Hemisphere. Read this before your next trip to South America for dieta. It will let you see what's around you in more depth.

Shambhala

The Sacred Path of the Warrior

by Chogyam Trungpa

Rick's Note:

Creating a sacred society. Buddhist sanity.

Sundancing

A Spiritual Journey on the Red Road

by Michael Hull

Rick's Note:

How we got here.

Wizard of the Upper Amazon

by F. Bruce Lamb

Rick's Note:

Amazonian wisdom.

The Tender Carnivore & the Sacred Game

by Paul Shepard

Rick's Note:

Heart spirituality of early hunters. Interface between humans and nature. Human development and adolescent initiation. Not easy to read but well worth the effort.