| Recently, I’ve taken a business trip to L.A. It started as a very stressful experience due to an  artist that has signed a management contract with me, and then defaulted on her fulfillment of our business contract. It could have been a totally stressful experience, but because of my friend Linda meeting me later in the week, it turned out to be an amazing (soul found) experience.
I also discovered that Linda was much more an old soul and an advanced spiritual person. She invited me to join her on a journey to the San Bernardino Mountains, to an area called Angel Crest, which was 5,000 feet above sea level.
Up in the mountains, the views were breath taking and nature’s power was felt. The silence and the sounds of nature are the only thing you noticed. In the midst of this amazing place, I felt small and all my earthly cares faded away. I was one with the mountains and I felt myself soar with the birds flying high over its peaks and valleys. As my eyes saw this beauty and all that surrounded me... I was then and now, still feeling part of it all. I was the mountains, the sky, the rivers, and the birds, totally absorbed by the spirit of it all.
To my happy amazement, I noticed that my friend and I needed not to talk. Nature was doing all the expressing. We both were silent and yet as one with nature. I felt her spirit and she felt mine. We were the mountains. It came to me, the words of the great poet (Rumi).. “When I die, I shall sour with the angels and when I die to the angels, what I’ll become, you can not imagine.”  The next day, she invited me to a hiking trail out in Topanga Canyon. She told me that all she wanted to experience was to go to the highest place and find a place that was clear, so that she could lay down facing the sky and feel as free as a bird.
So we began hiking up the mountain and through the river bed. I wanted to make sure that she would be in front of me, not to lose sight of her, due to the dangers of getting lost and of the mountain lions and wild life. As we walked the trail, I notice that she did not walk like anyone I had ever seen. It was amazing.  She walked like a wild puma with her hands to the side. She was communicating with all nature. She was not even touching the ground... she was in her environment, stopping from time to time to pick up a leaf from the trees or a pebble from the riverbed.I had to jog from time to time just to keep up, but I never said a word. I too was at home here. We finally reached the top. To my amazement, a perfect boulder was right at the very top. She got a towel and just laid there facing the sky. It seemed like only moments, but I noticed that we were there for an hour or more.
Then, she told me that she wanted to visit a friend monk that she met a year ago on a visit to California. The place that her friend resides is a Lake Shine in 17190 Sunset Boulevard, Pacific Palisades, founded by his holliest Paramashansy Yogananda in 1950. You must see it at : www.lakeshrine.org
It is a sanctuary where monks are roaming around on a peaceful, almost impossible to describe, environment. A beautiful shrine with gold cathedral rides above the lake, up on the hill top. Beautiful white swans glide freely on the waters where beautiful multi color fish swim. All around are various altars and meditation areas. Birds and butterflies pose from time to time on the flowers of all kinds and colors. This is heaven on earth. I felt so free and noticed Linda totally absorbed by the beauty of every element on this heaven on earth place.
We were home. If you ever go to southern California, please make this place a priority to visit. I want to thank you Linda, my best friend and my angel for guiding me on this adventure.
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