Open Dharma is an educational nonprofit dedicated to making transformative teachings accessible to people of many backgrounds, ages, and any or no religion. With two distinct branches, Gemma leads the organization in Catalonia, Spain, and Jaya leads Open Dharma in the US.

 

Open Dharma's unique approach integrates profound teachings and traditional meditation practices with deep rest, lying down meditation, ecology, Jin Shin Jyutsu, within a culture of radical generosity. Teachings regularly include options for meditative movement, singing, and other modes of creativity and embodiment. To create retreats and other Dharma events, Jaya and Gemma collaborate with volunteer organizers and guest teachers from more than a dozen countries.

In 1998, Christopher Titmuss authorized Jaya to teach Dharma, with an encouragement to embrace all her lineages, serving what he called a community or sangha “without walls.” Jaya taught her first retreats in 1999 and Gemma joined Open Dharma in 2001. Since then, Open Dharma teachings and meditations have come together in North and South America, Europe and the Middle East, India, and Australia.

 

Open Dharma was also early to offer teachings online, beginning in 2010 with Jaya’s year-long “Movement Lab,” exploring Body Mind Centering, Jin Shin Jyutsu and meditation. Both Jaya and Gemma have continued to teach and offer support online since their first online deep rest meditation retreat in 2013.

Both teachers now live in Catalonia and have taught hundreds of retreats worldwide, welcoming thousands of people to discover and walk their unique paths of awakening to what is.