Riyaz taught his last retreat in early January of 2025. I had the honor and privilege of teaching alongside him. After that winter retreat, as I watched him let of teaching, I asked him what felt most alive in his journey going forward without it. He didn’t hesitate with his answer and said simply, “time in nature, moving my body, and spending time with family and close friends.” These three were to become his resource and his daily practice going forward. So I signed on for Thursdays, which were often the days that included treatment. We’d go to the appointments and then come back to Fairfax to spend the afternoon in a kind of shared inquiry – spiritual friends, hanging out, following the aliveness, and reflecting on the journey. Karen often joined us for stretches of time. And Riyaz would often drop into sharing impromptu dharma talks. He was still teaching. The insights from his lived experience and the careful attunement to his moment-to-moment unfolding continued to flow through him as sacred and precious wisdom.

So many times, we would find ourselves in the middle of or at the end of a conversation where one of us would realize, “we should have recorded that!” Just once, I had the foresight to do it, to hit record as Riyaz began to transmit. It was late January, we’d returned from chemo, and he was less tired than usual. He mostly talked, I mostly listened. And then – I forgot about it. Until the day after his memorial service when I discovered the recording again, by chance, as I was looking for something else. I stopped to listen, and I was blown away. God, it was so good to hear his voice and feel his presence again! And the synchronicity of finding this particular dharma talk when I did is not lost on me. Riyaz teaching about letting go – exactly what I needed to hear now, as I move through my grief around letting him go, at least in form. Some part of me imagines that he knew then that we’d need this now.

It’s quintessential Riyaz – raw, funny, poignant, heartbreaking, true. Over the last two years, he gave a master class on letting go. And this recording is the summation of what he’d learned and what was alive on that afternoon. So I offer it to all of you. May it ease and inform your journey as it has mine.

With love and gratitude for my Spiritual Best Friend. (And I know he is that for so many!) And for all of us who carry his light and his teaching within us. The ripple effects of that make me smile.

– Myosei