In this episode, recorded Thursday August 1st 2024, I spoke with Amrutham Babu, where we discussed the "Journey to India" from SDI, a 14-day and 15-night experience taking place from January 10 to 24, 2025. This trip is specifically designed for spiritual directors and companions, offering an in-depth look at India's spiritual heritage.

The journey includes:

- **Internal Airfare:** Travel between locations within India.

- **Airport Shuttle:** Pick-up and drop-off from the airport.

- **Accommodation:** Single and twin/double rooms available.

- **Meals:** Daily breakfast at the hotel.

- **Arrival/Departure Assistance:** Transportation in an air-conditioned vehicle.

- **Sightseeing Transportation:** Private, air-conditioned coach.

- **Guides:** A local English-speaking guide, an experienced spiritual companion, and an SDI staff member.

- **Entrance Fees:** Access to all monuments.

- **Toll Taxes and 5% GST.**

- **Activities:** Rickshaw ride in Delhi, village tour in Amritsar, battery van ride in Agra, daily yoga sessions in Rishikesh, and a boat ride on the Ganges River in Varanasi.

This journey is an opportunity for spiritual growth and connection through experiencing India's spiritual heritage. Amrutham and I explore the details of this transformative trip and how you can be part of it.

Come join us. Learn more and register here: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/india-journey-january-2025/

We're experimenting with a video version of our podcast on spiritual direction and companionship! In this first video conversation, we chat with Larry J Morris III about the broader themes of our upcoming webinar series, Beyond Binaries: Spiritual Companionship Through Queer Lenses.

To watch the video of this conversation, head over to YouTube: https://youtu.be/vfoR4UXW5wU

To learn more about our series, and sign up to join us, click here: https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/beyond-binaries-spiritual-companionship-through-queer-lenses/

In this series we will experience stories of spiritual companionship, presented by a diverse group of queer Mystics, who approach their work as spiritual companions through diverse and open-hearted containers. All spiritual directors, companions, and wayfarers are encouraged to participate, walking any straight, queer, or otherwise crooked path to Wholeness.

This engaging new SDI series, open to all people and all identities, invites us to explore our lives, our work as spiritual companions, and our very souls, through the prism of queer perspectives. Indeed we can understand Queerness as a wisdom path – one which, along with our other spiritual traditions and orientations, offers deep wisdom, profound insight, and spiritual liberation. And in true openness and interspiritual dialogue, all of us, queer or straight, can glean insight from the spiritual jewels of the mystical path of queerness.

If that statement invites excitement and possibility, this webinar is for you. If it invites discomfort, this webinar is also for you.

Learn more and register – everyone is welcome – at sdicompanions.org. https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/beyond-binaries-spiritual-companionship-through-queer-lenses/

In this week’s episode, SDI’s Creative Director Matt Whitney speaks with Sean Murphy on his upcoming webinar series on Meditation and Mindfulness. To learn more and register, please visit https://www.sdicompanions.org/product/zen-meditation-and-mindfulness-for-spiritual-directors-and-companions/

Sean Tetsudo Murphy, Sensei, is a fully authorized Zen teacher in the American White Plum lineage, as well an award-winning author and recipient of a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing. He served six years as a member of the SDI board, and has taught on a number of occasions for SDI programs. He is highly experienced in sharing traditional meditative techniques in interfaith and secular settings for practitioners of all backgrounds. The author of One Bird, One Stone:108 Contemporary Zen Stories as well as three novels with Bantam Dell books, he is founder and director of The Sage Institute of Taos, NM, which hosts an innovative ecumenical Meditation and Mindfulness Leader Training Program. He also teaches meditation, creative writing, and literature for the University of New Mexico-Taos and many other venues. His websites are www.sagetaos.org and www.murphyzen.com