In the dharma world, Jay is authorized to teach in the Theravadan Buddhist lineage of Ayya Khema, and was a teacher and editor at Ten Percent Happier for five years. He has held leadership roles at the New York Insight Meditation Center and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and has sat many long retreats in the US and Nepal.
Outside the dharma world, Jay is a journalist, a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School, a field scholar at the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality, a nondenominational rabbi, and the author of ten books. He worked as an LGBTQ activist for ten years.