Sebastopol's spiritual bookstore searches for its next incarnation
Sebastopol's spiritual bookstore searches for its next incarnation
Sell the store? Become a nonprofit? The owners of Many Rivers Books & Tea are exploring all the options.
Many Rivers Books & Tea, which sells books and tools for a broad range of spiritual practices, is a living embodiment of Sebastopol’s spiritual eclecticism.
I have at various points over the years bought books here on Buddhism, Wicca, Catholicism, the Enneagram, as well as sandalwood meditation beads, a tarot deck, a pocket-sized Virgin of Guadalupe icon, incense—and, oh yeah, tea.
Which is to say, I’ve barely scratched the surface of what they have to offer at this magical little store on the corner of South Main Street and Barnett.
The store is turning 21 this year, and longtime owner Rob Schmidt, who’s 70-years old, is looking at retiring, but he doesn’t want to close the store.
At first he and his husband Stuart Goodnick thought of just selling it outright—and there is still a small for-sale notice on the front door and front window.
“Frankly, I didn't think there'd be a lot of interest although it's actually been surprising how many people have expressed interest and even gone so far as to have some detailed conversations. But the truth is, there's a certain special sauce that the intention and attention that I and other practitioners have put into the store for 21 years.”
In other words, he doesn’t want to sell to just anyone, and, truth be told, he’d rather not sell at all. So he and Goodnick began exploring the idea of turning Many Rivers into a non-profit educational institution.
Schmidt and Goodnick practice Tayu Meditation, a form of meditation developed in Sebastopol by their teacher Robert Daniel Ennis, who died in 1998. This spiritual practice informed how the store developed, not merely in its eclecticism (viewing different spiritual paths as many rivers flowing to the same sea), but also in its tone.
“We conceived of the store as a community project and a community offering,” Goodnick explained.
“One of the key aspects of our practice is what we call co- meditation, which is two-person meditation, which means being fully present in a meditative state with another person,” Goodnick said. “You can practice that in retail. So you can bring a kind of quality of attention to interactions with people that make them feel like something's different. That contributes to the energy of the store. We think of it as a sacred space because it’s a space of intention—a space where most everything in it points upward, as it were.”
The Tayu Meditation Center is already a nonprofit, but Goodnick said they want the store to have an identity separate from Tayu, as a way of honoring its commitment to “many paths.” He said he felt like it shouldn’t be owned by any particular tradition.
If they form a nonprofit, they hope to raise enough money every year to pay someone to take over the day-to-day work of running the store.
Schmidt said he’d still like to work there, he just doesn’t want to shoulder the whole task of keeping the place running on his own.
“A lot of people want to help,” Schmidt said, “and we're just trying to come up with the most feasible ways for that to happen.”
If you would like to help Many Rivers Books and Tea in their nonprofit efforts or just send them encouraging words of support, contact Rob at info@manyriversbooks.com.