260. Mirabai Starr

Author of crit­i­cally acclaimed new trans­la­tions of the mys­tics, and reflec­tions on the uni­fy­ing teach­ings at the heart of all spir­i­tual paths. Mirabai Starr uses fresh, lyri­cal lan­guage to help make time­less wis­dom acces­si­ble to a con­tem­po­rary cir­cle of seekers.

Daugh­ter of the counter-culture, Mirabai was born in New York in 1961 to sec­u­lar Jew­ish par­ents who rejected the patri­archy of insti­tu­tion­al­ized reli­gion. Intel­lec­tual artists and social jus­tice activists, they were active in the anti-war protest move­ment of the Viet­nam era.

In 1972, Mirabai’s mother, father, and her younger brother and sis­ter uprooted from their sub­ur­ban life and embarked on an extended road trip that led them through the jun­gles of Mexico’s Yucatan Penin­sula, where they lived for many months on an iso­lated Caribbean beach, and ended in the moun­tains of Taos, New Mex­ico. There, the fam­ily embraced an alter­na­tive, “back-to-the-land” lifestyle, in a com­mu­nal effort to live sim­ply and sus­tain­ably, val­ues that remain impor­tant to Mirabai to this day.

As a teenager, Mirabai lived at the Lama Foun­da­tion, an inten­tional spir­i­tual com­mu­nity that has hon­ored all the world’s faith tra­di­tions since its incep­tion in 1967. This ecu­meni­cal expe­ri­ence.

Mirabai has been an adjunct pro­fes­sor of Phi­los­o­phy and World Reli­gions at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico-Taos since 1993. Her empha­sis is on mak­ing con­nec­tions between the peren­nial teach­ings found at the heart of all the world’s spir­i­tual paths, in an effort to pro­mote peace and justice.

Mirabai speaks and teaches nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally on the teach­ings of the mys­tics and con­tem­pla­tive prac­tice, and is a cer­ti­fied bereave­ment coun­selor. She is avail­able for inter­views, speak­ing engage­ments, work­shops, and con­tem­pla­tive retreats.

She lives in the moun­tains of North­ern New Mex­ico with her hus­band, Jeff Lit­tle (Ganga Das). Between them, Mirabai and Jeff have four grown daugh­ters and six grand­chil­dren. Mirabai’s youngest daugh­ter, Jenny, was killed in a car acci­dent in 2001 at the age of four­teen. On that same day, Mirabai’s first book, a trans­la­tion of Dark Night of the Soul, was released. She con­sid­ers this expe­ri­ence, and the con­nec­tion between pro­found loss and long­ing for God, the ground of her own spir­i­tual life.

Books:

• Saint Francis of Assisi – Brother of Creation
• Saint Teresa of Avila – Passionate Mystic
• Teresa of Avila: The Book of My Life
• Saint John of the Cross – Devotions, Prayers, & Living Wisdom
• Hildegard of Bingen – Devotions, Prayers, & Living Wisdom
• Saint Michael the Archangel – Devotions, Prayers, and Living Wisdom
• Our Lady of Guadalupe – Devotions, Prayers, & Living Wisdom
• God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
• The Showings of Julian of Norwich: A New Translation

Website: mirabaistarr.com

Interview recorded 10/25/014 at the Science and Nonduality Conference.

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Second BatGap interview with Mirabai.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

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