All things related and happening in and around Los Angeles.
In 2001, the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers (IABYT) helped me take a quantum leap forward in consciousness. When I attended their Annual Summit & Retreat. I had recently resigned my position as the head of a high-profile entertainment company, and was in dire need of a new understanding of my identity: Who [...]
Countdown to L.A. Spay/Neuter Ordinance It’s the Law: October 1. In the ongoing effort to create a humane Los Angeles and to help make the City a No-Kill zone for dogs and cats, the L.A. City Council and the Mayor approved a law requiring all cats and dogs in the City older than four months of [...]
Vitamin Angels spreads their wings over India and beyond Beneath the smog-choked skies of Mumbai – where India’s 21st century rise to prosperity is evident in the shine of skyscrapers, the glitz of mega-malls, and the bustle of the Bollywood film industry – fast-moving streams of raw sewage dissect Mawlenagar Malad. This smelly, [...]
Twenty Years of Sangha “Don’t underestimate the importance of a group like this,” Dr. Alan Feren pulled me aside and gazed at me pointedly. “It’s the one place you absolutely feel safe.” Dr Feren is one member of a group who gathers every Monday night in the kitchen and conference room of the [...]
At the International Yoga Festival, the sun had yet to rise over Rishikesh, as more than 300 yogis from around the world unrolled their mats along the banks of the Ganges River. Ma Ganga whispered an eternal ohm as she rushed over the rocks, reminding us that she flows from the feet of Shiva and [...]
Gentle Jewish Yoga Five years ago, Avivah Winocur Erlick was married, held a job as a newspaper editor at the California Real Estate Journal and was attending the same Jewish services and having the same experiences since her childhood, where she grew up practicing Reform Judaism in a secular household. Yet she was simultaneously and [...]
For five decades, the Tibetan people have suffered greatly under China's brutal rule. The Chinese government has done everything in its power to destroy Tibetan culture, religion and institutions. In March, 2008, thousands of monks, nuns, and lay Tibetans put their lives on the line by protesting against Chinese rule in Tibet. Hundreds [...]
Social Activism Through Ancient Ritual You’re sitting cross-legged in a circle of unfamiliar fire-lit faces; all attention is on one woman holding a stone. You listen as she speaks your thoughts, your prayers in her own prayers for self, family, the world, then lights a candle and passes it to a woman on [...]
May 2008: Volume 7 / No. 5 Reflects On Thirty Years Traveling with Tibet’s Exiled Leader Well-traveled writer Pico Iyer’s newest book, The Open Road, shares an intimate glimpse of the Dalai Lama at a time when the global monk is in a bright spotlight on the world stage. For the past thirty years, [...]
Axe and the Struggles of Small Business There is something joyful, convivial and community-oriented about dining (or breakfasting, brunching or lunching) outdoors in a garden. Particularly if the food served therein is organic, from local farmers, prepared with love and enjoyed with friends. With this in mind, it’s hard to believe that the process of [...]