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.

Second BatGap interview with Mirabai.

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

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