It’s been six years since RBI’s new home went quiet. In that time, the world has moved into something like a polycrisis — more division, more apathy, less agreement, less cooperation, less reciprocity. If you’ve felt numb watching how fast, and how far, things have fallen, you’re not alone.

And yet, something else is quietly growing too. All over, communities are gathering again — around breathwork, vision questing, sacred ceremony. People are turning back to elders and indigenous teachers to relearn practices that are older than any of us. We’re learning to sit with discomfort instead of running from it, to do the deep, quiet work of purification, and to feel — really feel — how connected we all are. Even with so much pain in the world, even as the earth itself seems to be crying out, something in us is waking up. Kindness is spreading. Cooperation is returning. People and communities are healing. We are recognizing the need to come together in person, and find each other in new and old ways.

Maybe the earth is offering us this as medicine — a wake-up call that’s also an invitation, a chance to come home to our roots, our wisdom, and our ability to care for one another.

Sacred practice can soften us from “me” toward “we.” But learning to really cooperate, to really reciprocate, asks more of us. It asks us to build community where vulnerability, honesty, and being truly seen are welcome. It asks us to gently face the shame and the habits that keep us apart, to look at our shadows with compassion, and to practice showing up for each other. We’re being asked to wake up together — and that starts with something small: finding our own way in.

For the past two years, I’ve been walking this alongside collaborators, dreaming into what RBI’s next chapter could hold. Some beautiful ideas for RBI trainings are taking shape. I look forward to share more with you next month.

And now, that entry point has a door — RBI is opening on October 1st!  It has been quite a journey and I am heartened to see this vision come alive. And for that, we need your help.

I invite you to our inaugural offerings, listed below. RBI staff is excited to welcome you as we build community, both new and old.

We’re also actively inviting workshop leaders and trainers of somatic practices to connect with us, so we can dream side by side for what future offerings could look like. There is much good work to be done, and we have gathered enough wisdom and experience to make something good of it all. May it be so.

Warmly,

Joko and the RBI Team

Now that the former Rudramandir building in Berkeley, CA is poised to reopen its doors soon, the pressures of my silence about why I came to steward this building are mounting for me. I am sharing this history in hopes that it will unburden and create more safety for me and others who were impacted. I trust in the timing of sharing this, as I feel the tides turning for us as a culture, and our individual and collective ability to transmute our own troubling karmas, is becoming a real possibility. Finally, I’m writing to clean the slate — to create a clear and grounded foundation from which RBI and VWC can truly thrive. I’m sharing this openly in hopes that we create a healing culture that’s based on transparency, integrity, and alignment. 

Here is what happened and how it impacted me. Between early 2021 and through February of 2022, I was the primary donor of Center for Consciousness Medicine (CCM), gifting large sums of money for the development of its nascent school. On top of this, I provided a large sum to purchase the former legendary Rudramandir building in Berkeley, CA. The building was special to me and to a large community because it had housed healing programs and trainings for decades. So when the building came up for sale during Covid and CCM reached out to me, it appealed to me to save this healing and training hub for the next generation of somatic and expanded states practitioners. I believed in CCM’s team, its mission and its vision to be a “leading organization in guiding expanded states of consciousness for human healing and growth through integrated holistic approaches to training, treatment, and research”. I was excited to be part of a vibrant learning community, but still I followed the advice of my lawyers to include some mechanism to enforce the terms and purpose of the gifts and funding, should CCM fail to meaningfully advance its mission, and should conflict arise. 

In 2021, what we hoped would never happen, happened!  CCM entered a crisis period and a painful unwinding ensued. By spring of 2022 CCM was forced to shut down its school. At this time, I had CCM’s initial cooperation and understanding to transfer the building into my stewardship. But by summer 2022 these discussions broke down. CCM maintained its original non profit entity and proceeded to do business under a new name, “Gather Well Psychedelics” (GWP). A few months later, a further turn of events sealed the rupture in my trust – by November 2022, GWP listed this special building for sale. The building remained for sale until, after sustained negotiation, GWP transferred ownership of it to another charity chosen by me in September of 2023. While the situation was complex, and subject to multiple perspectives, the process of regaining stewardship was quite painful for me. 

Not being sure that I could steward this building myself, I engaged with a leading Bay Area education institution to explore a potential partnership. While the conversations didn’t lead to a partnership, I learned a lot from the engagement and I feel incredibly grateful to the education experts that gave their time and energy. I expressed my appreciation by making a significant donation to the institution.

In fall of 2023, I founded Vision Walkers Collective, a 501c3 non profit, with newfound courage to steward the former Rudramandir building, and to bring a vision of transformative education and collective healing to life. With the help of a team, the non profit has enabled the building to undergo a full renovation and it is now to be rebirthed as the Root and Bloom Institute (RBI).  This historic landmark is now poised to once again become a beacon for personal growth and collective transformation, reflecting both the history of the building and the need for community spaces that center feminine values.  RBI will open its doors in April 2026, and will be stewarded by a growing team that seeks to lead by example – with vulnerability, transparency, and authenticity.  

For me, this initiatory process has been both humbling and immensely generative, creating myriad opportunities for learning and growth.  I have become a more transparent donor, a collaborative board president and, more recently, a collaborator in designing programming.  As a team we developed a set of ten agreements that guide us through inevitable challenges and into harmonious ways of relating. Day by day, as a circle of stewards we are learning how to evolve Root and Bloom Institute into a living, breathing community.  As I heal, and as we all heal, we are poised to serve our local communities with greater integrity and love, and fully step into the global change-making that is emerging to serve us all. 

As I post my first blog, I feel the possibility of doors opening that have been firmly shut for a time – there is a crack and tender light is coming through. The purification of past histories for me is nearing completion, and the ground is fertile for new creations. Meaningful connections are being made between visionaries, collaborators, and trainers, to serve a next generation of students and explorers of consciousness. Steps are being taken to bring back well-loved trainings and workshops, as well as showcasing newer expanded states offerings. I invite you to bring your creativity and your passion, and to help us expand the ways in which we make a difference as a community. I hope you’ll sign up for our newsletter so we keep weaving this frontier of evolution and possibility together — you’ll be first to know our special announcements and programming updates, and see what I write about next. 

With love – Jo

Communication
We practice communication with transparency, vulnerability, respect, and authenticity, as individuals and as a collective.  We continue to build our skills in listening, reflecting, and responding from a state of mindful presence.

Mindful Presence
We understand “Mindful Presence” as the ability to hold awareness of our internal state of being in real time.  We believe that practices (such as meditation) that support mindful presence are gateways to our growing wisdom, both as individuals and as a collective, and allow us to be more fully receptive when listening to others.   We invite and share qualities of mindful presence of our bodies, hearts, and minds as a regular practice as we work together.

Mutual Care and Respect
We practice mutual care for each other in accomplishing our work, celebrating our individual and collective successes.  We strive to skillfully use the power we hold to avoid any harm.   We cultivate respect for the process of each individual and group we work with, leading with curiosity and refraining from judgment. 

Self-Reflection
We are committed to the ongoing use of tools and practices that support our own self-reflection and insight.  Understanding our own patterns and blind spots is a never-ending process, and we may share relevant insights to those who have been impacted by them.

Evolving Leadership
We strive for leadership that promotes originality, creativity, and individual gifts to emerge.  We allow decision making to be held in accordance to skills, work flow, responsibility, and investment.  As we evolve our leadership model – which is currently a hybrid of shared and hierarchical power –  decision makers solicit input from those who are directly impacted by the choices they make.  

Community, Collaboration & Play
We build partnerships of care and support so that we may all rise together.  Community allows us to grow stronger, celebrate together, be playful and to hold each other accountable to shared values.  

Feedback
As in all living systems, feedback is a requirement for continued evolution, as individuals and as an organization.  We receive feedback with respect and receptivity. We give feedback with the intention of bringing us closer together where otherwise we may have felt separated.

Conflict as Emergence
We trust that respectful exploration of our differences allows for the emergence of more wisdom, personally and collectively.  We are committed to using our shared communication practices towards discovery and reconciliation, refraining from making assumptions, striving not to take a conflict personally, and trusting that everyone is doing their best.   If conflict cannot be reconciled between individuals, an agreed upon mediator will be invited in to support the process. 

Earth/Spirit/Unity
A relationship with something bigger than our human form connects us to a greater wisdom and the unity and interconnectedness of all things. We respect and support each person’s unique spiritual path.

Right Action
We continually strive to match our actions with our values so they may take hold in our bodies and become part of the work we do in the world. 

While many of these values are shared among cultures across the world, we are grateful for the teachings of the Hakomi Institute, Liberatory Leadership, Inward Bound, and the work of Mukara Meredith on Groups as Living Systems in the development of our VWC agreements.