Showing posts with label vegans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegans. Show all posts

Friday, July 25, 2025

HELP: Ekaterina Sky's Altadena Mural

Contact (ekaterina-sky.com) || Contact | (ekaterina-sky.art)
Help wanted: We need your participation to create a better world, save the planet, and heal!

Altadena Mural Project is planned for Thursday, July 24, 5:00 pm through Saturday, July 26, 9:00 pm, on Lake Ave. in Altadena, LA County. RSVP to see full location details.
Full Project Overview
I paint by inspiration, downloading visions.
YOU are invited: Be part of the Prayer for the Earth Mural Project in Altadena. This is a community art offering for healing, hope, and reconnection.

Through the invitation of John Hopkins and Sev Dhar of Oh Happy Day Vegan CafΓ© and Grocery in Altadena, we welcome you to join the creation of Prayer for the Earth — a mural that honors grief, inspires renewal, and reminds us of our deep connection to nature and one another.

This project is a space for community healing, artistic expression, and collective visioning.
✨ How You Can Participate
(Final schedule to be confirmed — all events will take place during the weekend of July 25–27)

Prayer for the Earth Mural Weekend: July 24–27, 2025
Final schedule to be confirmed
FULL PROJECT OVERVIEW
πŸ”¨ Wall Building and Assembly - Thursday, July 24th (4:00-9:00 pm): Help construct the mural wall (building and assembly of portable wall) — the physical and symbolic foundation of this prayer for the planet.

🎨 Background Painting Days - Friday, July 25th (3:00 pm base painting begins: Join in painting the mural’s first layers. No experience needed — just bring your heart and hands.

πŸ•Š Intention and Prayer Writing - Saturday, July 26th (all day, taping and painting the background): Gather with us to write personal and collective prayers for the Earth and Altadena — adding soul to the mural’s core.

🌿 Final Reveal and Community Celebration - Sunday, July 27 (3:00 pm intentions, prayer writing; 5:00-9:00 pm, sealing prayers and community celebration): Join us for a closing ceremony with sound healing, community talks, spoken word poetry, and music as we unveil the finished mural together.

Next Zoom meeting: Wednesday, July 23
🌍 Supported by:
We welcome more partners, volunteers, and local community members to help bring this vision to life. If YOU care about Altadena post Eaton Fire, the Earth, or the power of collective healing — this is your invitation. Whether you build, paint, pray, or simply witness, your presence will leave a mark.

With care and gratitude,

Ekaterina Sky (ekaterina-sky.com)
Visual Artist and Creator of Prayer for the Earth
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Saturday, July 12, 2025

Vegan Pool Party Book Release, LA

This is a pool, not the beach, so please consider donning a sarong when not in the water (IV).
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WHAT HAPPENED?
Plant-based hemp swimwear, (Natasha Tonic)
Guests gathered surrounded by greenery in the hills of Los Angeles near Mulholland Drive, ordering dinner plates for Chef Rawsheed's vegan creations. The DJs arrived to set up, but first Vanessa led us in a yoga class as most people looked on and socialized, eating fresh fruits spread all around and sipping cold drinks.

Hemp bikinis (Natasha Tonic)
The shocking announcement was made after introductions by Paige for Samantha about the goals and aims of Plant Based Treaty. Justine covered the Campaign for Banning the Retail Sale of Animals in L.A. The shock was that Vanessa is moving to the south of France to start a vegan commune (intentional community) around a chateau, where she will then run for mayor and create a vegan city. First she writes a book on fairies, loses her health clinic (ElloraWellness.com) in the Eaton Fire, and decides to uproot and resettle in Europe. But she will travel between here and there and is still leading a tour to the ancient Mayan archeological sites in Mexico in 2025 (after a successful trip to Egypt). Post party we made plans to eat Thai vegan food at THE VEGAN JOINT, 980 S. San Pedro St., DTLA



Invitation design by illustrator and vegan chef Annie Vitality (A. Vandenheuvel)
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Vanessa Marsot (Ellora Wellness)
Vanessa Marsot and Annie Vitality launch their new book, Dreams of a Dragonfly, and sign copies of this vegan fantasy story on Saturday, July 12th, poolside in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California. Enjoy mindfulness meditation, Native American land acknowledgement, yoga, vegan food, swimming and splashing, socializing, fun and games, a literary launch, and a summer night under the full moon.

Chef Rawsheed is preparing a special vegan meal, including fresh juice, appetizers, salad, raw and cooked pizzas and desserts (menu subject to change).

🎟️ TICKETS include:
Free to attend
Sign: "Do not be deceived. You are headed for Hell! [for wearing skimpy swimwear, heathens]"

What is there to eat on this green planet?
No ticket purchase is necessary to attend! However, for magical dinner, individual tickets are only $20. Please note in your RSVP "No Ticket" if planning to opt out of dinner. That way we have an accurate count for supplies.

Time to play in the pool under the Cali sun
FOOD ABUNDANCE: Guests are welcome to bring fruit and vegan snacks and drinks to share. Guests are encouraged to bring a swimsuit, towel, lawn chairs, and outdoor or pool games. Prepare to dance, sing karaoke, swim and play.

Dreams of a Dragonfly
O, Buddha, do dragonflies dream and, if they do, what about?
Dreams of a Dragonfly
SYNOPSIS: What happens when a girl dreams of becoming a fairy so hard that she gets her wish and enters the magical world of animals and learns some of their secrets?

Join her on this fantastical adventure and you, too, could learn their secrets and how to advocate for them. More

CO-HOSTS
Vanessa Marsot, Annie Vitality, Justine Block, Kim Delgado, Paige Parsons Roache in coordination with:
What should I wear? Seven hot sexy but unnatural vegan bikini pics (collegepill.com)
  • Illustrator vegan chef Annie Vitality
    VEGAN POOL PARTY BOOK RELEASE
  • Saturday, July 12, 2025, 3:00-11:00 pm
  • Dinner served 5:00-8:00 pm
  • (For guests arriving after 8:00 pm, we are unable to guarantee dinner availability)
10 Spots for Vegan and Gluten-Free Food in Los Angeles 2025 (Veggies Abroad)
What is the "California" lifestyle? - Well, The Graduate comes close.
What time will the monks arrive for the ceremony?
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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

To save Los Angeles' elephants (sutra)

Elephants are especially social and wise animals

L.A. Zoo elephants' whereabouts a mystery amid relocation battle
(ABC7) May 21, 2025: Where are LA's elephants Billy and Tina? The Los Angeles Zoo's two remaining manacled/shackled Asian elephants appear to have been transferred in the dark while demonstrators let their guard down. abc7.com/post/activists...
  • UPDATE: The elephants have been secreted away overnight (May 21, 2025) and shipped via truck to the Tulsa Zoo rather than the animal sanctuary anti-animal-cruelty demonstrators were demanding.
  • Animals in Buddhism
  • To herald the coming birth of the Future Buddha, pregnant Queen Maya dreamed that she conceived of Prince Siddhartha when a white double tusker royal elephant entered her side: Queen Maya's Dream
  • In Buddhism, elephants get names like Parileyya and Girimekhala, usually after the woods in which they reside.
'Not another zoo': Critics want LA Zoo elephants moved to sanctuary
(TODAY) May 13, 2025: Elephants Billy and Tina, the last two Asian elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo, were set to be relocated to another animal prison at the Tulsa Zoo, but there is pushback from animal-loving demonstrators and critics online alleging, “They will suffer in an inhumane environment.” NBC’s Morgan Chesky reports for TODAY. #elephant #animals #zoo
Conscious elephants in Buddhism: The Full Moon Honey Offering Festival

Animal karma (deeds) also bear karmic results
The Honey-Offering Festival is a Buddhist religious ceremony that commemorates the service and sustenance provided by animals to the Buddha.

It was during the Buddha's tenth Rains Retreat (Vas or Vassa) in Parileyya Forest.

According to legend, during his retreat to solitude, a wild monkey brought an offering of a honeycomb to give to the Buddha to eat, as an elephant named Parileyya brought fruit and protected the Buddha from fierce animals in the forest.

The 31 Planes of Existence
When the Buddha accepted the gift of the honeycomb, the monkey became so overjoyed that he began to leap from tree to tree, and in his exuberance fell to his death due to his reckless jubilation. However, because of his generous gift, that monkey was immediately reborn on a celestial plane called the World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa), the second of the six heavens in the Sensual Sphere (below many other heavens of the Fine Material Sphere and Immaterial Sphere).

Since these events are believed to have taken place on the day of the full moon, the occasion has come to be commemorated as Madhu Purnima, or “Honey Full Moon.” The festival is observed on the full moon of the tenth lunar month in Theravada Buddhist countries in South and Southeast Asia. More

Conscious elephant karma
The “Four Harmonious Friends,” Bhutan
The Commentaries (e.g., DhA.i.48ff.; iv.26 ff. UdA.250f.; see Thomas, op. cit., 117 n) say that the elephant's name was Pārileyya (also Pārileyyaka) and describe in vivid detail the manner in which the elephant looked after the Buddha, omitting nothing, even to the extent of finding hot water for his bath.

Later, when the Buddha's attendant Ananda came with many others to invite the Buddha to return to Sāvatthi, the elephant Pārileyyaka provided all of them with alms food. The Buddha agreed and returned.

But such was the attachment the elephant had formed toward the Buddha that he died of a broken heart when the Buddha left the forest.

However, as a result of all his good deeds (wholesome karma) toward these enlightened beings, he was immediately reborn as a deva (angel, offspring of the gods) in Tāvatimsa in a golden palace (vimana, mansion) said to be 30 leagues high, where he is now known as Pārileyyaka devaputta.

This elephant is also identified with the elephant in the Bhisa Jātaka (J.iv.314). Source
  • Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Scariest thing about Los Angeles Fire

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Saturday, January 27, 2024

A Chocolate Meditation before Valentine's

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Jen B., Crystal Q., Wisdom Quarterly

WHAT HAPPENED?
What's an urban shaman to say to Americans?
We all gathered in the Valley (1/27/24) in a spacious home with wood floors. Cacao was brewing on the stove as vegan dishes were brought in and spread all across a large table. Lisa opened the event with a circle of introductions by each person, city traveled from, and the nature of the dish brought for the potluck. Then we ate, socialized, got cozy and, finishing up, prepared for a meditative experience. This was no lecture but a sensual, in-the-body experience of profound relaxation, staying with the present moment, and trying not to anticipate the wonderful chocolate (xocolatl, Theobroma cacao) about to be served. Using deep breathing and complete letting go, staying awake and alert of all that was going on right here right now, we opened up, became vulnerable, felt our feelings, experienced our sensations with what the Buddha taught was mindfulness: dispassionate awareness of all that was going on. It is not enough to be aware. It is awareness, watching the experience. Seeing sights, hearing sounds, feeling tactile sensations, perceiving scents and tastes and mind object and letting them be. Radical acceptance of what is without fixing it, altering it, distorting it, or resisting it. In that moment, everything was okay. Everything was acceptable. Everything was impersonal and passing away, repeating or not as alluring as it previously seemed to be. Smiles sprouted on faces all around.


This is the plant helper Theobroma cacao
Everyone sat in a circle, on soft sofas, chairs, the wooden floor, with Stephanie on a yoga mat as the demonstration, Seven led us through letting go and consciousness-expansion. Then came the creamy vegan chocolate and an intention setting exercise, as we placed our intentions into the drink by some shamanic alchemical Dr. Emoto alteration of water by consciousness, as Indian genius Jagadish Chandra Bose (who discovered The Secret Life of Plants) taught was happening all the time as we interact with our environment.

Then we mindfully drank, experiencing the cacao with all six of our senses. Then solid pieces of chocolate were distributed, rich in the alkaloid theobromine, and savored in a way that brought out all its richness -- aware of craving, desire, or grasping arising for flavor and comfort -- so as to make it both delicious, opening to our lives (because this is not a rehearsal for some future time when we'll be alive) and a lesson that mindfulness is possible every waking moment. Meditation is one thing, sitting in a stillness approaching samadhi, and mindfulness is possible once an attitude adjustment makes us aware what we are doing, what we have been doing, and what is possible to do. Rather than abandoning ourselves and the present moment, we can be fully in the moment like a peak experience. We can enjoy all that human life has to offer and not mindlessly cling to it, making ourselves susceptible to misery when it alters, as it certainly will. We can see things as incapable of fulfilling and satisfying us and behave accordingly. We may even glimpse how impersonal it all is. Then we met ourselves with a partner, standing face to face, practicing being present for our experience and being present for another person. Everyone met, embraced, shook hands, introduced themselves to one another. There was a memorial for great vegan Buddhist Alan, who recently passed away, as his caretaker Christina was present. Then more socializing and storytelling took place, having gone up a few levels, as everyone was suddenly on very intimate terms and open with everyone else. It was a meditative, mindful, and gastronomical success.

Event details

It's a New Year [approaching Chinese lunisolar New Year after the full Wolf Moon] and we want to become
  • enlightened,
  • mindful,
  • blissful,
  • happy,
  • healthy,
  • abundant,
  • energetic,
  • coupled
  • or contented (Valentine's Day)
Theobroma cacao is the "Food of the Gods"
and enjoy ALL of the potential benefits of meditation. But HOW?!

We start this year with a Cacao Ceremony (xocolatl, FREE CHOCOLATE) and Intention Setting.

It includes Ecstatic Breathwork, Bodywork (to melt into the mat), and understanding what "Mindfulness" really means.


Could we be mindful of eating delicious things?
Is greed good? How about craving for chocolate (Theobroma cacao, the "Food of the Gods")? We'll find out.

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