New: The Four Friends Practice Companion — deeper stories, practices, and a 30-Day Return Path. Explore it →
Use the Whole Buffalo
This book's for people whose minds make hard days heavier than they need to be. It's about learning to work with the mind you already have, so you can waste less suffering and leave better tracks.
- ·A clear way to recognize Trickster Mind and Buffalo Mind
- ·Practical teaching for fear, shame, grief, anger, conflict, and burnout
- ·Small practices that belong in ordinary life, not only quiet rooms
- ·A language of storms, herd, tracks, and ground
- ·A book readers can move through in order or open where the weather matches their day
- ·Not a demand to turn every wound into a gift
- ·Not a replacement for therapy, medical care, or community support
- ·Not a traditional lojong manual
- ·Not an attempt to flatten Buddhist and Indigenous teachings into one thing
A lived adaptation, not a claim.
This work draws from Tibetan Buddhist lojong, the mind-training slogans. I was fortunate to sit with Thrangu Rinpoche, Bardor Tulku Rinpoche, and Dungse Pema Rinpoche, and with the monks of Thrangu Monastery, to ask questions and receive their wisdom and insights. They gently pointed me in the right direction, and I was shaped by their generosity and example.
It's shaped through Matthew's Indigenous lens and language, Métis, Cree, and Stoney Nakoda, and offered as a lived adaptation, not a comprehensive cultural teaching or a claim to speak for all communities.
The book doesn't flatten these lineages into one thing. It carries them as best as one person can, and takes responsibility for what it gets wrong.
Walk beside the book.
Practise with the Friends
Use the Whole Buffalo is a field guide for meeting hard weather without wasting more life than pain has already taken.
If you want a deeper, more interactive way to practise with Frog, Tree, Eagle, and Buffalo, The Four Friends Practice Companion offers Tales from the Trail, guided practices, reflection tools, and a 30-Day Return Path.
The book is forthcoming. If you'd like first word when it's ready, you can join the early community.
Stay with the herd
Use the Whole Buffalo is still taking shape as a book, but the practices are already here for ordinary hard weather. If this language is useful to you, you can join a small early community and receive occasional field notes: new practices, sample material, and first word when the book's ready. No pressure. No performance. Just something steady to return to when the mind starts making the weather worse.
Receive occasional Field Notes, free practices, book updates, and news from the Four Friends practice companion.