Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricardo Gonzalez-Jurado.
Hi Ricardo, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to this beautiful property in the Hill Country of San Marcos, TX in 2004 with my partner at the time. Pressure by two mortgages, one in Houston and one here, I started renting the property on weekends. The money was good, but the energy that people brought was often not pleasant. That’s what made me decide to open a yoga retreat. I had thought I’d like to build a pyramid as a home 25 years ago because I read the pyramid is the strongest structure architected by humans. Later on, I learned that it was actually architected by nature since there are crystals in the shape of pyramids. At that time, I had to drop the pyramid project as a home for many reasons, but now that I had decided to build a yoga retreat and was in need of a studio, I began building the pyramid in 2012. Then with the practical idea that I might need to cover for a teacher whenever they can’t make it, I decided to become a yoga teacher myself, through Yoga Yoga in Austin, TX. To my surprise, I didn’t only become more flexible, but the teachings of Patanjali transformed my life and the way I perceive everything. The intention shifted from business to nature preserve/school and to teaching awareness and happiness in the here and now.
I found three philosophies that drive me to what I am doing. The first one is a philosophy from Central Africa; Ubuntu, which translates to, “I Am Because We Are”. The second one is from Dr. Maya Angelou. “When you get, give. When you learn, teach”. And the third one from Confucious. “If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees. If your plan is for 100 years, educate children”. The three philosophies have in common the same human drive of compassion and passing information to future generations. Now the 30 acres of Samadhi Yoga Retreat Wildlife Preserve are dedicated to silence and children, including the ones that live inside each one of us.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Besides the struggles that every human has to go through, from finding a direction to coping with the uncertainties of life, the creation of Samadhi Yoga Retreat brought its own set of struggles. Some of the problems included being sued for one million dollars, falling down from the top of the pyramid and breaking my foot, not being able to pay for help and working alone for months due to the abundance of financial hardships and the immense cost of building a meditation temple with aromatic cedar, running waters, fountains and fishponds, versus just a yoga studio.
I found out that the more you push to create a positive influence, you will encounter a reaction proportional to the push. So the more you push to create positivity, you can expect challenges and negativity along the way. You shouldn’t let that discourage you.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I started Ricardo’s Second Hand Store with $200 capital in 1988 converted to Ricardo’s Tire Shop Inc., in 1992. Ricardo’s Tire Shop is still in the same location in central Houston. I designed my own tire racks, welded them myself, and they are still in use after 30 years. After 16 years, I wanted to move out of Houston, so I gave my shop to my employees and told them to pay me a percentage of what they made. I moved to what is now Samadhi Yoga Retreat in the Hill Country.
I am most proud of the fact that I trusted my employees at the tire shop to take over completely when I decided to move, paying me a percentage of the income but operating the shop entirely themselves. It felt amazing to delegate that responsibility and have it return to me with the shop doing better than I could have ever imagined.
I am also very proud of the fact that I was able to design and build a good part of Samadhi Yoga Retreat with my own hands.
The dream is to create a place where people can find themselves and be grateful for what we have in the here and now. I see Samadhi existing as a community of like-minded people that live off the grid, providing our own food, energy and water, including inventive ways to stop sending our own refuse back into our planet’s ecosystem.
Current work includes presenting one of my ideas to The University of Texas Engineering Department to potentially work with them on a project that will help to prevent further contamination of the planet by encapsulating our everyday compacted plastics into cement coated lego type bricks that can be used for perimeters, fences and general building purposes.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
What I love about this area of Texas is the rolling hills, the beautiful lakes and rivers, the multi-cultural friendly people, and the magical feeling of the land.
Contact Info:
- Email: samadhiyogapyramid@gmail.com
- Website: samadhiyogaretreat.com
- Instagram: @samadhiyogaretreat
- Facebook: @samadhiyogaretreat
