Wild Mercy with Mirabai Starr
Episode 330: Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature. She taught Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos for 20 years and now teaches and speaks internationally on contemplative practice and inter-spiritual dialog. A certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps mourners harness the transformational power of loss. Her latest book is WILD MERCY: Living the Fierce & Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics. Mirabai is on the 2020 Watkins List of the “100 Most Spiritually Influential Living People of the World.” She lives with her extended family in the mountains of northern New Mexico.Madelyn's conversation with Mirabai Starr covers longing, feminine mysticism, religion, white privilege, spiritual heritage, and vast mysteries vs. specificity in spiritual practice.
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Show Notes:
Reading Mirabai's book Wild Mercy is "like drinking a very tall glass of water after being in the desert for a very long time."
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Mirabai doesn't "avoid others' voices" when writing or creating.
There's only one of each and every one of us and yet we're all connected, so there's nothing to protect, in a way.
Some of Mirabai's favorite books:
Eve Ensler - In the Body of the World - https://amzn.to/2YhwXg1
Anne Lamott - Traveling Mercies - https://amzn.to/3iJ4HfG
Anne Lamott - Bird by Bird - https://amzn.to/3pkX7dx
Mirabai is writing a new book about her mother and has been recording (social-distanced) conversations with her.
Regardless of what happens with the book, she'll always have these moments now documented.
Mirabai is focused lately on considering privilege, white or otherwise, and its interface with spiritual study and navigating it in such a way without appropriation.
As we reach different stages of our lives, we're temperamentally varied and crave different things in our spiritual yearnings and practice.
"Individual liberation is a meaningless concept to the feminine" - the specificity isn't always as desirable because of the vast mystery in spiritual traditions.
Mirabai was given her name by Ram Dass, after the 16th century Hindu ecstatic poet and devotee of Lord Krishna.
Her relationship with the divine has "taken the pressure off" of her grounded earthly relationship with her husband.
Longing has been vilified in a way, and Mirabai's mantra lately has been, "Let's reclaim longing." Longing is also holy.
Teresa of Avila is the patron saint of the book Wild Mercy.
Mirabai translated St. Teresa's The Interior Castle - https://amzn.to/3cc605x - and St. John of the Cross's Dark Night of the Soul - https://amzn.to/36cSjQ9
Audiobook of Wild Mercy just released, narrated by Mirabai herself. To receive Mirabai's book Wild Mercy as an audiobook, sign up for Audible using our affiliate link and get your first book free: https://audibletrial.com/mindbodymusings
Connect with Mirabai:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mirabaistarr/
Website: https://www.mirabaistarr.com/