I am a...VERB

MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE The three of us shared a common spiritual bond.  We shared a common vision of creating a more compassionate, sane, and intelligent world...a world of beauty.  And we felt a personal responsibility in doing so. We were focused on leading well-rounded, integrated, and healthy lives, and by doing so, creating a better world.  That was what our ashram was about. Our shared experience with Krishnamurti and his insight certainly was an impetus for this bond. Alain...being older, more mature, and more experienced...focused on sharing with others, through teaching, writing, and giving talks, the knowledge, skills, and wisdom he had gained.  Jon and I were young and callow...studying, learning, and developing...searching for the knowledge and skills we would need to make a difference, and finding our place in life. Alain was a mentor and an example... ALAIN Alain had a clipped British accent...more accurately, a South Af

BACK TO THE OJAI VALLEY Thankfully, the Scripps Clinic accepted my resignation, albeit reluctantly.  I packed up and headed to Ojai to join Alain and Jon at the old Dieges house in the adjacent hamlet of Meiners Oaks.  I was soon back in that magic, incredibly beautiful valley (appropriately, it was filmed as Shangri-La in Frank Capra's 1937 classic, Lost Horizon)... Being in the west end of the valley was a new experience for me...within easy walking distance to a lot of places I loved to visit, very unlike my schoolhouse location in the remote Upper Valley. A short distance away, an easy walk, was the Krotona Institute of Theosophy...with a library, bookstore, and beautiful gardens for study and contemplation.  While I wasn't interested in the Theosophical pursuit of the occult and the 'masters,' I was inspired by the atmosphere of the place.  It had been established in the 1920s for the raising of human consciousness, and the buildings and garden