Entheon, meaning “a place to discover the spirit within,” is an effort to promote sustainable cultural re-evolution that heals relationships between the people of the earth and our planet. The mission of Entheon is to demonstrate a future in which sustainability, ecological responsibility, environmental stewardship, and meditative and mystical consciousness are a welcomed and integrated part of society, and where art, spirituality and creativity is central to that vision. 

[The] Entheon [camp at Burning Man 2007] will be a grounded gathering place offering an intellectual, therapeutic, artistic and creative cornucopia of interactive opportunities. Lectures, workshops, renewable energy demonstrations, visionary art, zen meditation in a zendo, holotropic breathwork sessions, and performance come together in the spirit of celebration to co-create our shared vision of global healing and a broader awareness of ecological responsibility. ...   more »

This informative list of annotated links compiled by Resurgence Magazine includes interesting initiatives in the areas of Activism, Agricultural Development, Ecology, Economics, Education & Community, the Internet, Political & Corporate, Publishing, and Scientific Principles. The few I’ve had a chance to check out so far look like they’re indeed doing important work; e.g., ISEC (the International society for Ecology & Culture), which I’ll post more info about in my next article. — Recommended.   more »

This remarkable site is worth viewing. Fast web connection recommended ...

Your dream forest may lie within.
The forest you have entered in your dreams.
An irreplaceable treasure,
our children's inheritance. ...   more »

Here are the latest emails from my friend Mark Turcotte, reporting on his travels in Southeast Asia:

Chong Fa Falls, Thailand
Along the path to Chong Fa Falls there are many so-called "sensitive" plants. (You see them for sale sometimes in stores.) One touch causes them to fold up their leaves; another causes them to droop their whole branch. ...   more »

Here are a few more of the email updates I've been receiving from a friend who's now traveling in SouthEast Asia. His writing is so vividly "on the spot" that I thought to share it here on SCIY.

Nearby (4 km. north) is the larger walled city of Angkor Thom. Within its 10 sq. km. area lies Bayon, a three tiered temple best know for its collection of 54 gothic towers decorated with 216 coldly smiling enormous faces of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. Below on the first level are 16 intricate bas-relief panels relaying among other things naval battles, linga (phallic symbol) worship, every-day life and more. Amazing. ...   more »

Click on the 'more >' link to see these beautiful new photos of the Matrimandir at Auroville, courtesy of Bhavana & friends:

Matrimandir is emerging from the soil of Auroville,

Inspiring the sky to also aspire

For That which is beyond the sky, beyond the soil,
beyond Auroville. ...   more »

I received this email a couple of days ago, from a friend who's now traveling in SouthEast Asia. His writing is so vividly "on the spot" that I thought to share it here on SCIY. ~ ron

Here in Siem Riep (Angkor Wat) Cambodia, there is no shortage of entrepreneurial capitalism….just like in Thailand. Because of all the foreign dollars, euros and yen flowing into here because of Angkor´s famous temples, there´s a plethora of people catering to the foreigner´s needs. ...   more »

Coral Castle was built in the early 20th century by an eccentric Latvian recluse named Edward Leedskalnin who allegedly left Latvia when he was rejected by his 16 year old fiance. He would never marry and would spend 30 years of his life building a Coral Castle and its surrounding buildings, for his alleged 'Sweet Sixteen'. Leaving for America, he came down with terminal tuberculosis. He allegedly spontaneously healed, stating that magnets had some effect on his healing.
Leedskalnin was a 100 pound 5-foot tall man who wound up in Homestead, Florida on a ten-acre tract of land just south of Miami, Florida. Somehow he allegedly managed to single-handedly lift and maneuver blocks of megalithic stones, mostly coral, weighing up to 30 tons each, to create not only a castle but other things.
How Leedskalnin worked has never been discovered, though he labored for 30 years. The veracity of his doing this alone is impossible to prove because he worked at night, hidden from the eyes of observers. He seemed to know when he was being watched. On those occasions he wouldn't lifted the stones and stopped working. ...    more »

Dharmasphere is an interesting blog. You can get a sense of it by checking out this article on Auroville, which I think is a good, though short, summary of AV, with some great photos. ...   more »

I'm slowly working my way through Shantaram, the remarkable book by Gregory David Roberts I referred to in a previous post. Here's another sample of Robert's evocative writing. The setting is a discussion group of men, all of whom are leaders of the Bombay "mafia." These weekly discussions are organized and led by Khaderbhai, the charismatic "Godfather" of Bombay's officially tolerated organized crime scene.

Khaderbhai has invited a new guest to this week's session. He is known as Linbaba, a cover identity being used by the book's namesake, "Shantaram," when he arrived in Bombay after escaping from prison in his native Australia.

As is the custom in the group, Khaderbhai calls on the new guest to suggest the topic of discussion ...   more »

Another interesting article re Auroville from Life Positive magazine:

The year is 1347 BC. General Horemheb, a dictator, has sent thousands of troops from his newly revived capital of Thebes to destroy Amarna, a modern city founded by the beautiful queen of Egypt, Nefertiti, and her husband, Pharaoh Amenophis IV, now known as Akhnaton. Akhnaton is a daring reformist. He has opted for a monotheist cult and worships only LIGHT, pure and free. This new city of Amarna is situated midway between Memphis (Cairo) and Thebes (Luxor), on the eastern bank of the Nile. At the center of the city, Akhnaton and Nefertiti have built a temple to the Light. Inside, there is no picture of any god, nor any image of traditional worship.

In this new city, everyone is equal: Egyptians and foreigners (many of whom are attached here), king and common people, men and women. Artists and craftsmen receive support and encouragement to express their skills fully. Money is not the sovereign ruler. ...   more »

Archaeologists have uncovered an elegantly painted 30-foot-long mural in a ceremonial chamber beneath a Guatemalan jungle pyramid, providing new evidence that Mayan civilization was in full flower more than 2,000 years ago. Archaeologist William Saturno of the University of New Hampshire and Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology said yesterday that the San Bartolo site, in Guatemala's Peten wilderness, is "the find of a lifetime," depicting the Mayan creation myth and the crowning of a king in vivid color on a plaster wall as though "parts of it . . . were painted yesterday." ...   more »

For the second Sunday of February, we went for a walk to the Escondido Canyon in the Santa Monica mountains. The walk was led by Komal Rao. The other participants were Seetarama, Debashish, Sangi and Lalita. Sangi took the photos.   more »

Spain is not an easy reality to grasp: firstly because in spite of its relatively small size it is unbelievably diverse; secondly, because what it has shown to the world over the last five hundred years is not its soul but its shadow. Nevertheless, even in this asuric shadow that gave birth to the Inquisition, there has always been a nobility which not even its enemies could deny, as well as an obsessive sincerity in its service to the divine ideal it had assumed. Spain is a country of kshatriyas, which inherited its ideal of the Holy War from the East, through Islam. It is this, taken in its essentiality, that constitutes its profound attraction. ...   more »

Per Debashish's request, here's the link to Lori Pond's India trip photos.

Lori Pond's India trip photos

On Sunday, June 12, 2004, members of EWCC-LA went for the second Sunday of the month walk to the Solstice Canyon national recreation area in the Santa Monica mountains. The participants were Komal, Mahesh, Dorian, Melinda, Connie, Ara (a poet friend of Komal's), Larry Buckler, Keka and Debashish. The walk was facilitated by Komal   more »