Beloved Friends & Family,

“The new Buddha,” says the great contemporary Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh, “will be the Sangha.”  Allow me to translate: We are the ones we’ve been waiting for (Hopi Prophesy).

Now that a small lull is about to commence in Wild Mercy world, I’d love to take a moment to fill you in on what some of my soul companions are up to because I feel they fit beautifully with the fierce and tender community we are all building together here.

My friend and dharma brother, Sensei Sean Murphy, with whom I co-founded the Sage Institute for Creativity and Consciousness here in Taos over a decade ago, has created a meditation teacher’s training program that I am thrilled to share with you:

Experienced mindfulness and meditation practitioners are encouraged to apply for a new low-residency/distance learning version of the Sage Institute of Taos, New Mexico’s established Mindfulness and Meditation Leader Training Program, which begins in early August with a one-week residency in Taos. Sage Institute has adapted its successful certification training to give participants the opportunity to complete most of the program online. This 200-hour training is a comprehensive certification program designed similarly to established yoga teacher trainings — to teach experienced mindfulness and meditation practitioners to share basic skills with others. This secular program is open to participants of any background or belief system and is particularly well-suited for physical and mental health professionals, school teachers, sports professionals, yoga teachers, or any experienced meditators who wish to teach meditation and mindfulness to others as a tool for stress reduction, life management, and well-being. Sage Institute was founded by Mirabai Starr and Sean Murphy. The training program is directed by Sean Murphy, an authorized Zen teacher, award-winning author and National Endowment of the Arts Fellow with 30 years of Zen meditation training and extensive experience in teaching secular meditation to college students at the University of New Mexico-Taos and many other venues. His One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories won a 2014 International Book Award. For more information, see the attached flyer and visit the Sage Institute website at https://www.sagetaos.com/200-hour-meditation-leadership-training-program/

It gives me great joy to turn you on to a devotional music collaboration whose birth I happened to bear witness to during a Ram Dass Legacy Immersion retreat where I was teaching in Ojai last fall: Kripa.  The three young men who comprise this scared circle are gifted musicians and deep devotees of love itself.   Here’s what they have to say about their offering: Kripa is a new kirtan group born out of the love of Ram Dass, Neem Karoli Baba, and Hanuman. Named for the divine grace of the Guru and comprised of former caregivers to Ram Dass, Kripa is currently on a tour of yoga studios, mental wellness centers and maximum-security prisons along the West Coast. Please join us in gathering to share love, stories and devotional music! This practice is open and available to all those seeking deep love, truth and understanding. Learn more at https://kripa.guru/

Next, I am captivated by a new book by a young wisdom keeper named Brianna Saussy called Making Magic: Weaving Together the Everyday and the Extraordinary.  Here’s what I said in my endorsement: “This book is a zephyr―a playful breeze that rustles the veil separating the ordinary from the magical, revealing a landscape wherein every particle of being shimmers with the sacred. This holy ground, as it turns out, is where we already live. We need only pay attention, and claim it, and praise it.”  Clearly I’m not the only one who loves this book. 

Nahum Ward-Lev is a Jewish dharma brother who has written an extraordinary new book about Liberation Theology from a Torah perspective.  The Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets shows that exodus, the ongoing journey out of oppression and toward human flourishing, is the true heart of the Biblical story. The book then develops Biblical liberation themes through the writings of contemporary prophets and writers including Martin Luther King, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Buber, Paulo Freire, Gustavo Guttiérez, Beverly Harrison, James Cone, James, and Grace Lee Boggs and bell hooks.  Nahum's book empowers readers of all faiths and backgrounds to understand current challenges through a prophetic lens and to take their own prophetic action.  To learn more about Nahum and his book, check out his website: RabbiNahum.com

And now I must share with you a heart-melting message I received from a couple of fierce and tender Sufi men, Wakil David and Aziz Gary, that illumines the way Wild Mercy is speaking to people of all genders:

In the crowded hall of Bellingham's Village books, I listened with growing enthusiasm and emotions as my friend Mirabai Starr introduced us to her latest book, 'Wild Mercy.' I knew at that moment that a deep yearning I had felt for a long time was being addressed. And as a white cis-gendered male perched uncomfortably on the pinnacle of privilege, I also knew this was another important call to action. 

My friend Aziz Gary Guest and I were working on the facilitation of a men's group for our spiritual community's gathering over Memorial Day and this was obviously the subject that we needed to address. As men in this patriarchal society, it is often hard to recognize the ocean of privilege we swim in and the consequent woundedness that we have suffered along with our marginalized siblings. With the Shekina prayer as our compass (we read it over many times during our time together) - the men found the beginnings of guidance toward a different way to envision the culture, the planet, our siblings, and the world we walk through each day. We were inspired to find new ways to be in that world and to pray Hineni (Hebrew: "Here I am") each morning for the Divine One to guide us toward the "purpose Thy Wisdom (Shekina!) chooseth."  (from a prayer by Hazrat Inayat Khan a Sufi master who brought Sufism to the West in the early 20th Century). 

This is work that not only begins to heal our own wounds but has the potential to lift us all into the birth of the new humans we can and must become if there is to be a future at all. Aziz and I, Wakil, hold deep gratitude to our dear sister Mirabai and to the many feminine icons and teachers to whom she has pointed us for guidance in 'Wild Mercy.' May we walk this path together, hand in hand, heart to heart, in love, harmony, beauty, compassion, empathy, and remembrance. Amen.

For a deep dip into the heart of feminine wisdom and why it matters, I invite you to have a listen to my New Dimensions interview with Justine Willis Toms.  I have been interviewed by Justine and her late husband, the legendary Michael Toms, for almost every one of my books and I cherish the continuity of our connection.

And Oprah Magazine asked me a few questions for an online story called “Signs You Might be a Mystic.”  LOL.  Of course, you are.

May your summer be rich and fruitful.

Love,

Mirabai