“Mysticism is an essential part of all religion which is fully and deeply alive; it is the light which the mystics cast on the normal spiritual life, their disclosure of the landscape in which we really live, not their occasional excursions into an abnormal spiritual life, which gives them their great importance. ”
Beginning at the age of twenty, Jake’s life was transformed by a series of mystical experiences bestowed upon him by the grace of The Beloved. These profound and humbling spiritual occurrences led him to the experiential study of the mystical and contemplative dimensions of world religions: a calling that has taken Jake to 30 countries and 48 states.
His formal studies include a B.A. in Journalism, a M.A. in Writing and Consciousness Studies, and post-graduate work in Pastoral Psychology. However, Jake’s most evolutionary education came during his twelve-year nomadic journey while in his twenties and thirties. During this time he lived and worked all over the world, including many contemplative periods at Christian, Buddhist, and Zen monasteries. He served as a spiritual retreat facilitator, artist-in-residence, organic gardener, and chef at many spiritual and multi-faith centers. No matter what outer form his work takes, it is always informed by Jake’s love for and connection to the conscious Earth community and The Beloved.
Jake’s path has also brought him into intimate contact with homeless and marginalized peoples in various locations. These fringe experiences helped to open his heart in order to realize that there are no others——just sons and daughters of The Beloved——some of whom have no food or shelter. This has helped Jake to see those people who are usually unseen by mainstream society. Many of Jake’s published poems, stories, essays, and books relate these formative interactions through literary means.
There is no one school or organization or religion that could have provided Jake with the transformational milieu which he has encountered during his decades of Nomadic Devotion. He is truly thankful for the unique path that The Beloved has ushered him onto and the authentic work that it offers. Jake tries to live the teaching of Chapter 18 Verse 9 of The Bhagavad Gita, which states: “That person who does holy work because it should be done, and surrenders all selfishness and thought of reward, their work is pure, and is peace.”
Click the cover below to purchase Blue Collar Nomad, published under the pen name, Jake Kaida.
First Edition - $17
This jazzy collection of travel essays explores the environmental, cultural, and spiritual topography of North America through the rhythmic lens of a nomadic soul. Each of these essays present meaningful dialogues between the author and a cast of unique and marginalized local characters exploring what it means to be in-place, to feel out-of-place, and the idea/reality of home in a postmodern, materialistic world.
~Published by Nomadic Devotion Books and printed in the U.S.A. on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with plant-based inks.