If you've been out walking barefoot, do you put shoes on when you enter an ashram?

. 

Question posed when cultures clashed at the yoga ashram above Barham Boulevard in Burbank California in 1969. 

Since we were nascent hippies as well as yoga teachers in training, a lot of Integral Yoga residents would spend time outside walking around barefoot. 

We donned East Indian cultural exteriors.  We wore “whites,” ate vegetarian, and at the entryway of this one-time movie star mansion was an area for people to take their shoes off as they entered. 

Those who had been barefoot outside would just walk right in past the shoes at the door. 

So I posed the question, if you're running around barefoot, then shouldn't you actually put on shoes when you enter this sanctuary? 

It made everyone become silent.  A few people started to mock me with a titter of laughter but then Moorti, one of the wiser of the New Yorkers who’d come to plant this yoga center in L.A. said:

“She’s right.  I never thought about it, but she’s right.”

I jumped back in then: “They're bringing dirt in from the outside on their feet.  The whole idea behind taking your shoes off at the door is don't bring dirt in from the outside.”

I said, “So if you've been walking around barefoot, you should put on some kind of slipper when you enter the ashram.”

But of course they did not change the rules, and I moved on.  

.
(read more)

Starry Eyed for Krishna, In Pursuit of the Priest

.
After starting City of Angels Blog, I learned that “prolonged PTSD with re-traumatization" is not unusual in stories of pedophile priests and their victims. This is my story.

From Behind a Nearby Tree Emerged Krishna...

...