Sacred Wisdom

Nomadic Devotion has led Jake to deeply engage with the contemplative and mystical dimensions of various religions and spiritual systems, which includes experiential practice at Buddhist and Christian monasteries as well as profound relationships with Vedanta and Sufi teachers. Jake has spent extended periods of time living in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Within these locations, he has delved deeply into Hindu Mythology, Advaita Vedanta, Integral Vedanta, Buddhist Mythology, and Mahayana Buddhism. This involves the disciplined study and contemplation of several sacred texts, including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Avadhuta Gita, the Lotus Sutra, and the Ādittapariyāya Sutta or “Fire Sermon” of the Buddha.

Jake offers these deep spiritual teachings to sincere seekers in a direct, playful, and clear way. This allows people to open up to a new understanding, which they will hopefully integrate into their lives through contemplative discipline, self-emptying, loving devotion, and selfless service. Ultimately, Jake shares that the Absolute Oneness of Ultimate Reality (referred to as Brahman in Vedanta and the Godhead in Christianity) transcends all man-made religions and spiritual systems. He also understands that these corporate beliefs/paths can provide seekers with tangible rituals and community. However, once these groups/practices become too institutionalized, hierarchical, dogmatic, cultist, misogynistic or materialistic, they become corrupted and lose touch with their original essence.

When Jake works with people at retreats, one of the most important values that he tries to instill in them is that a retreat should not be an escape or vacation from our “real life”, but an all-embracing inquiry that either introduces us to or deepens our journey into our True Self.  Jake has often overheard participants at various retreat centers exclaim somberly when their time at that place was over, “I guess it’s back to the daily routine now.”  However, on the spiritual path there is no daily routine, only the vital contemplative work of awakening that beckons us to engage with it every moment.  This calls for single-pointed discipline and dedication which will lead us to relinquishing worldly pursuits and interests that no longer serve our True Self and its transcendental desire for the Eternal One.

In order to prepare for entry onto any authentic spiritual path, we need to clearly see our familial, social, cultural, political, and religious conditioning and become aware of our delusional egocentric leanings toward competition, greed, pride, nationalism, hatred, prejudice, desire, and materialism. Once we are cognizant of our loud and unconscious hypnosis by the socially constructed world, and our own egos, we can become silently vigilant to our innate wholeness within the Oneness of Ultimate Reality.  It is our willingness to work beyond our comfort zones that allows us to stretch towards new altitudes of insight and perception.

For when we meet our True Self, we will no longer see “others” or “strangers” anywhere, only Mirrors of Infinite Consciousness waiting to be reflected in the irrefutable depth and clarity of the Loving Spirit of Oneness.

Please Contact Jake about leading a retreat, teaching a class, or giving a lecture with regards to Sacred Wisdom.

*Any payments from colleges and universities or retreat centers for Jake’s Sacred Wisdom lectures/classes/retreats go towards attending and accompanying our homeless brothers and sisters through his charitable organization, “Feed The Way”.