Monk on Salary

I often describe myself as a monk on salary — not in jest, but in truth. My work is my calling, and my livelihood is a reflection of a deeper life’s purpose: to serve. Over the past two decades, I’ve woven together a life of study, practice, and service across education, counseling, conflict mediation, business, and contemplative traditions. Each thread has contributed to a larger tapestry — one that continues to evolve as Coherence by Design.

I created Coherence by Design as a living system of frameworks that help people and groups realign with what matters most. It’s more than a methodology — it’s a way of seeing, sensing, and shaping a coherent life and culture.

But this didn’t begin as a business.

Backwards by Design

“At the moment of each transition, my life seemed like one unrelated distraction after another. But looking back, I’ve been walking a destined path — moving through vastly different contexts to build, refine, and ultimately embody my life’s work.”

My earliest memories are rooted in rhythm and devotion. I played dholak while my father sang Bhajans — I remember barely being able to reach both sides of the drum. The sanctity of rhythm stayed with me. In high school, I played drums in a punk band called Broccoli Shoeshine. At UCSD, I performed in the Big Band led by the late Jimmy Cheatham and was honored as the 1997 Jazz Scholarship Recipient. A few years later, as a jazz club owner, I continued performing — exploring avant-garde free jazz with the Christopher Adler Trio and Afrobeat with Forward Funk.

My mother introduced me to meditation, yoga, and Sanskrit well before adolescence. She later guided me into Vedic philosophy, just as I began to question the concept of God in high school. In my early 20s, I deepened my yoga practice with masters like the late Cathy Lee and late Rev. David Carmos.

In 1999, I presented my master’s thesis, “Spirituality and Critical Pedagogy,” at the Harvard International Conference. It was a blueprint for a school that integrated mindfulness, experiential learning, and community consciousness — a design to realign the mind, body, heart, and spirit. Shortly after, I opened a fine dining vegan fusion Indian restaurant, art gallery, and jazz bar. When 14-hour days took their toll, I returned to education and spent the next two decades working as a counselor, teacher, and administrator from pre-K through community college.

Through my wife, Dr. Shamini Jain, I was introduced to several of my most influential teachers — among them Thich Nhat Hanh, S. N. Goenka, and Rev. Rosalyn Bruere.

I first sat with Thich Nhat Hanh at the inaugural “People of Color” retreat in 2004 and continued learning from him in the years that followed. I am deeply grateful to have witnessed authentic mindfulness from a living master.

Since 2005, I’ve been training in energy medicine and the Medicine Wheel with Rev. Rosalyn Bruere. Rev. Bruere — along with Brother Bear — has blessed my path with the living presence of the Four Directions, which now form a core part of my cosmology.

By 2006, I was implementing “sitting in silence” practices in public high school classrooms, alongside The Project of Change — a program that integrated nonviolent social change, the arts, technology, and expanded consciousness.

My first 10-day Vipassana retreat in the Goenka tradition, in 2016, was a deeply transformative experience. From the moment I arrived, I felt unmistakably guided by the spirit of Goenka ji. On the seventh day, I experienced the dissolution of gross reality into a jungle of colliding particles — all held by a quiet, stable quality of love. I continue to practice daily and commit to at least one 10-day retreat each year.

In 2018, as Director of Mindfulness at a K–12 school, I developed a framework to bring mindfulness into classrooms. I used the Four Directions of the Medicine Wheel to structure principles and lessons of Vipassana-based mindfulness for both students and staff. In 2020, I completed a 10-day sit — about 100 hours of meditation — in solitude on 300 acres during Covid-19, beginning on the day of Holi. That sit led me to integrate nature’s elements with the essence of mindfulness, and gave rise to Third Eye Praxis — a guiding cosmology that stretched well beyond its original application.

At one point, Human Resources viewed my role as a conflict of interest — I was seen as prioritizing staff, while they prioritized the organization.

So I asked, “What if I help you retain top talent?”
“Then we’re on the same side,” they replied.

From that moment forward, I formally integrated my work within HR as the Employee Relations Manager, focusing on recruitment and retention, conflict mediation, and social-emotional wellness. I came to understand the power of embedding this work into the cultural bloodstream of an organization — not as a side project, but as a core strategy for growth, trust, and retention.

As demand for my work beyond the school community grew, I realized my impact was limited within a single institution. I founded PRXS to expand this work across families, communities, organizations, and industries — creating space for coherence and transformation at every level of life.

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This Work is Who I Am

This work is the synthesis of a life — not just lived, but deeply examined, integrated, and offered in service.

This is not just coaching. It is cosmology in action — a way of making sense, making space, and making change.
I hold space for people to reconnect with their inner wisdom, shared humanity, and greater purpose.
I bring orientation to disorientation, understanding to misunderstanding, and coherence to incoherence.

At its core, Coherence by Design is about transformation — not through force, but through remembering.
Remembering what matters. Remembering what connects us. Remembering how to live and lead from wholeness.

Even now, I sometimes feel like I lose a part of myself when I try to bring my full self into the world.
But as Mark Mincolla told me,

“When you lose one part, you gain another.”

So I offer it all again — all that I am, and all that I have.

When I breathe my second-to-last breath, I hope to say:
I became all that I intended to be.

Peace. Shanti. Amen. Om Tat Sat.