About Lotus Compass
Lotus Compass is a guide for travelers on a journey of self-discovery. We believe transformation happens when we tend to both the inner and outer journey.
We offer small group pilgrimages, eco-chaplaincy sessions, nature connection practices, and online courses, all designed to deepen your connection to yourself, your community, and the natural world.
Our global journeys guide travelers across sacred pilgrimages worldwide, from the Camino de Santiago in Spain to the Kumano Kodo in Japan. Closer to home on California’s Central Coast, our eco-chaplaincy offerings provide one-on-one and small group sessions. These sessions offer compassionate presence, spiritual care, and space for meaning-making. Alongside that, local nature connection sessions invite you to slow down, listen deeply, and rediscover your connection with the natural world.
Pilgrimage is a sacred journey back to yourself.
No mud, no lotus
This simple yet profound phrase was often recited by the renowned Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Just as the beautiful lotus flower emerges from thick, dark mud, so too do understanding, wisdom, and compassion grow from life’s most difficult challenges.
At Lotus Compass, we believe that every pilgrimage, whether across physical landscapes or within oneself, can bring with it challenges both big and small. These challenges are golden opportunities and an essential part of the journey. It is by navigating them that we truly discover who we are and experience deep personal transformation. Through struggle comes growth, and from adversity, new perspectives arise. This is at the heart of pilgrimage. Every step forward brings us closer to profound insights.
The name Lotus Compass draws from this truth: the mud represents the trials and hardships we face while pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones, and the lotus symbolizes the wisdom that blooms through perseverance and openness to growth. Together, they create a compass, guiding us through unfamiliar paths and expanding our horizons in ways we never imagined.
Meet the Founder
Jamie Shimizu-Jones discovered her love of travel as a young girl, flipping through her grandparents many travel photo albums. This love of exploring different cultures expanded when, after moving due to Hurricane Katrina, she lived down the street from a Colombian family and their full-sized soccer field. Week after week, she played soccer and learned Spanish, quickly becoming their adopted prima.
After graduating from university, she moved to the magical island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean where she learned about Buddhism and joyfully rode her Vespa around the island. In 2016, she walked the Camino de Santiago, a monthlong pilgrimage in Spain where she aspired to practice mindfulness each step of the way. Little did she know, that trip would be the first of many pilgrimages.
She founded Lotus Compass to help others reconnect with themselves and cultivate a life of deeper meaning, presence, and beauty—whether through mindful travel, immersive retreats, or rooted experiences close to home.
Jamie is a Buddhist eco-chaplain under the training of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies and holds a certificate in Permaculture Design from Santa Cruz Permaculture. She is continually exploring what it means to be a person of place while being a traveler at heart.