Backwards by Design

I have been a musician since my last life, playing dholak while my father sang Bhajans as early as anyone can remember. I continued playing drum set in my high school punk band “Broccoli Shoeshine”, UCSD Big Band led by the late Jimmy Cheatham, and then as a jazz club owner/drummer, in the avant-garde free jazz “Christopher Adler Trio” and the Afro-beat ensemble “Forward Funk”.

My mother taught me meditation, yoga and Sanskrit well before the age of 10. She introduced me to Vedic philosophy while I was in High School and I began questioning the concept of God. I further developed my yoga practice with the late Cathy Lee in my early 20’s and again with Rev. David Carmos in my mid to late 20’s. I initially sat with the respected late Thich Nhat Hanh at the inaugural “People of Color” retreat in 2004 and then many times afterwards. I am grateful for learning Mindfulness from a true living master. I began a formal training in energy medicine and the Medicine Wheel with Rosalyn Bruere in 2005. I completed my first 10-day Vipassana retreat in 2016 and then many times afterwards. During the first 10-day sit, I experienced the dissolution of gross reality into a jungle of colliding particles with a stable quality of love holding me together. I found clear and tangible evidence of being guided by the spirit of the late respected S.N. Goenka from the moment I arrived. Afterwards, I heard him tell me I would find a way to bridge traditional Vipassana in a way that would have a wider reach. (I am also grateful to my wife, Dr. Shamini Jain, who introduced me to all of these practices.)

In 2018, as Director of Mindfulness of a 4k-12 school, I began to develop a framework to guide Mindfulness for all students and staff. I used the Four Directions of the Medicine Wheel to organize the principles, curriculum and lessons of Vipassana-based Mindfulness. In 2020, I conducted a solo 10-day sit (during Covid-19) on 300 acres at La Grace Retreat Center (while the center was closed and empty) beginning on the day of Holi (Hindu tradition). This sit inspired me to integrate the elements of nature to connect the essential qualities of Vipassana and realized “Third Eye Praxis” as a guiding cosmology well beyond my initial application.

Rewind to 1999, I presented my master’s thesis “Spirituality and Critical Pedagogy” at the Harvard International conference. This was a school design that integrated Mindfulness, community consciousness and experiential learning to align the mind, body, heart and spirit. Soon after graduating, I became chef/owner of a fine dining vegan fusion Indian restaurant gallery jazz bar. Worn out by 14 hour days, I returned to education and worked as a counselor, teacher and administrator throughout grades 4k through community college for the next 20 years. I landed in Human Resources before I finally decided to launch “Coherence by Design” as a full-time effort. At the moment of each transition, my life seemed like one unrelated distraction after another, but looking back, I have been walking my destined path throughout vastly different contexts to build, refine and master my life’s work.

I do feel I lose myself each time I attempt to bring my authentic self into the world. However, Mark Mincolla advised me, “When you lose one part, you gain another.” So I place before you all that I am and all that I have – again. I hope when I breathe my second to last breath, I can say that I was all that I intended to be. Peace, Shanti, Amen. Om Tat Sat.