According to leading environmental thinkers at the SOS Climate Change International Conference (produced by the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association), a huge element in our daily lives has flown under the radar in revolutionizing behavior to reduce our environmental impact. The SOS presentations focused on the tremendous potential of a vegetarian – better yet [...]
Pack for Burning Man to Eat a Peach on Day Five on the Playa Whether you’re packing for a week in the counterculture fest of Burning Man (where for one week, Nevada’s third largest and most ephemeral city is created in the Black Rock Desert) or a family-based backcountry adventure, planning ahead and [...]
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 [...]
We may think we know what it means to be healthy and we may see health as the absence of disease. But in many traditional systems of medicine, including Ayurveda, health is so much more. Truly being healthy also includes our outlook on life, our relationships with others and with the Earth, and the ability [...]
Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy by Mukunda Stiles, Lotus Press, 2008 At first glance, I have to admit, this modest looking book, devoid of color photographs, looked b-o-r-i-n-g! But, out of respect for the author, who I first met in the 1970s when we were both taking our teacher training at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in [...]
Hope is in the air. It could mean student success and systemic change for a failing education system, and it is coming from an unusual source: the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program introduced to the world more than 40 years ago by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, rebranded and artfully packaged as Stress-Free Schools. The TM [...]
finding the buddha, the dharma and the sangha on the road and bringing them home Last year I packed my bags for three months and moved from Los Angeles to Iowa. My greatest fear was not the bone-chilling winters, ruthless tornadoes or the sparser selection of vegetarian menu selections. My greatest fear was [...]
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 [...]
Interview: Robert Thurman Robert Thurman was named by Time as one of the 25 most influential Americans. A 45-year colleague of the Dalai Lama, Thurman was the first American ordained as a Buddhist monk. He cofounded the Tibet House with Richard Gere and is professor at Columbia University. Professor Thurman is an articulate writer and [...]
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, [...]