Mirabai Starr was born in New York in 1961 to secular Jewish parents who rejected the patriarchy of institutionalized religion. Intellectual, artistic and socially conscious, they were active in the anti-war protest movement of the Vietnam era.
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, and where she holds lifelong membership. It was at Lama that Mirabai encountered many of the leading teachers and timeless wisdom of diverse spiritual paths: Hindu; Buddhist; Sufi; Jewish; Christian, and Native American. She was especially influenced by Ram Dass, Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and the teachings of Murshid Samuel Lewis. This ecumenical experience became formative in the universal quality that has infused Mirabai’s work ever since.
Since 1993 Mirabai has been an adjunct professor of Philosophy and World Religions at the University of New Mexico-Taos. 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 balance action with contemplation and engage in a life of conscious service. Mirabai also speaks and teaches nationally and internationally on the teachings of the mystics and contemplative practice.
Mirabai 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 many 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 to be the ground of her own spiritual life. Now a certified bereavement counselor, Mirabai helps other mourners harness the transformational power of loss.
Read for:
- Deepening your contemplative practice
- Forging interfaith connections
- Finding comfort in a time of loss
