HTLA- Episode 57: Finding Some Peace And Quiet In This Wild City

Thich Nhat Hanh  00:00

[audio clip] So each step you make must make you happy, [birds chirping] peaceful, and serene. [music in] And each step brings you back to the present moment, which is the only moment in which you can be alive. And you do it, uh, as if you are the most- the happiest person in the world. Happily, serenely. And if you can do that you succeed in walking meditation. [people laugh]

Brian De Los Santos  00:50

[inhales and exhales] Deep breath, y'all. This is How To LA and I'm Brian De Los Santos. So we're at the start of a brand new year, and it's already giving not so great vibes, and we're still just in January. I don't know about y'all, but 2022 was a year for me. It seems like everything moved so fast, and I could never keep up. Now, it seems like 2023 won't be much different. This year though, I'm tryin' to prioritize a lot more calm in my life and find new ways to better deal with all this stress. New Year, new me, right? [laughs] We love LA so much, but it's kind of weird, right? It seems like there's always a yoga class going on, or some sort of meditation center around. Folks are obsessed with bettering themselves in some way, but with the traffic, the cost of living, the go, go, go, go, go hustle culture, we're still one of the most stressed out cities in the world. Now, I'm not an expert in mental health, and neither are my colleagues. We're not trying to give some sort of medical advice in this episode. What we hope to offer today is some accessible wellness. Ideas for places to go and things to do that can help all of us calm the F down. Luckily, we live in a city where there's a whole bunch of natural beauty and places to find peace among the chaos. And today, we're talking specifically- finding this through walking. [music out]

Thich Nhat Hanh  02:28

[audio clip] Practicing walking meditation is to practice meditation while you walk.

Brian De Los Santos  02:38

That was a famous Tibetan Buddhist master, Thich Nhat Hanh, talking about walking meditation to a group of practitioners in 1985.

Thich Nhat Hanh  02:47

[audio clip] So you must be able to make steps in which no trace of sorrow and anxiety can be found- [outdoor ambi- children playing] only peace and joy.

Brian De Los Santos  03:00

Now, walking meditation isn't exactly just walking. It's walking in an intentional, concentrated way. And there are a ton of benefits to it.

Diana Winston  03:09

You don't have to do mindfulness sitting down. You can do mindfulness in a number of activities. And walking meditation is a wonderful way to practice mindfulness, especially for people who don't like to sit still.

Brian De Los Santos  03:21

That's Diana Winston. She's the director of mindfulness education at UCLA's MARC Center.

Diana Winston  03:27

What we're typically doing with the walking meditation is there's some instruction on how to be present. In a breathing meditation, we would notice our breath and our attention would wander, and then we come, and we bring it back to the sensation of breath in let's say, in our abdomen, chest, or nose. In a walking meditation, we're paying attention to something that's very obvious, like the sensations of our feet and legs. So you might notice the feeling of lifting, and moving, and placing, and all the different sensations, the heaviness, the lightness, the pressure, the shifting, and if you really put your attention on that, you're developing this quality of mindfulness- being in the present moment. And then when your attention wanders away, you can then come right back to the sensations in your feet and legs. So that's one way to do it. There's other variations. Like some people walk and as they walk they take a breath, and so their breath is kind of timed with their steps. So that's another way. And then the third way, particularly when you're in a really beautiful place, is to do a more open, mindful walking so that you're really taking in the sights and the sounds, and your body moving through space, and it's really a lovely way to feel connected to nature, to people around you, just to include that. But then if your mind goes off and you start worrying about things- What am I gonna do tomorrow? I have to remember this or that. You just come back to this present moment. [outdoor ambi- birds chirping] There's a bunch of research looking at how nature has a beneficial effect on our nervous systems- calming, creating more ease, a connection to more happiness. There was a study done in Japan. They've done a lot of studies in Scandinavia looking at what happens when you spend an hour a month outdoors in nature. And they show all these beneficial effects for stress. You know, we are human animals. [laughs] So we need to have connection to nature. People often access states of mindfulness without any background in mindfulness, just by going out into some beautiful nature or even a park. Like something happens that calms, quiets our minds and help us feel more connected.

Brian De Los Santos  05:42

[music in] So today, we're bringing you to a few special places in the city that are accessible to all. Places where you can find a little bit of peace, maybe practice walking meditation, or just chill. First up, we're headed to the Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens in West Adams.

Visitor  06:06

[outdoor ambi] Is this pool always full?

Brian De Los Santos  06:09

It's on the grounds of this [outdoor ambi- people talking] beautiful Italian Renaissance villa built between 1910 and 1914 by an Italian winemaker.

Visitor  06:18

Oh, this is gorgeous!

Brian De Los Santos  06:20

Here's a little bit of Hollywood trivia. Hollywood director and choreographer, Busby Berkeley, bought it in 1937. And now, it's the headquarters of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, or MSIA. It's a non-denominational church that was founded in 1971.

David Jaramillo  06:37

We basically restored the house, and we created all the gardens.

Brian De Los Santos  06:41

That's David Jaramillo. He's the customer care director here.

David Jaramillo  06:45

So you can go there and see them meditate.

Brian De Los Santos  06:49

It's truly an oasis in the city.

David Jaramillo  06:51

...call meditation, more like eh- spiritual exercises because it's like an exercise. You get better at that when you keep like, doing it- practicing and practicing.

Brian De Los Santos  07:05

In the backyard, there's this giant stone labyrinth that uses the same design as the Chartres Labyrinth in France.

David Jaramillo  07:12

[laughing] Here's the labyrinth.

Brian De Los Santos  07:14

I butchered that, but you know what I mean. [laughs]

David Jaramillo  07:16

And this is how, eh- you access the- the labyrinth, and you just have to follow the white, eh- path. Like sometimes when people walk in the labyrinth, they set an intention and then they walk the labyrinth, and then they get like clarity supposedly, in the middle or just throughout the whole, eh- walk.

Brian De Los Santos  07:45

[outdoor ambi- people talking] Then you walk out to this Asian themed meditation garden with waterfalls, [water flowing] a koi pond, and seating areas to sit, breathe, meditate, and just reflect. [David talking in background] You need to make reservations ahead of time, but it's only six bucks, and you can stay basically until they close at 5:00 pm.

David Jaramillo  08:03

People when they come here, they're like, Wow, I didn't know this exist! Here in the middle of like LA, with all the traffic and, you know, how hectic the city gets, the energy, and it becomes like a little- like you can breathe. You can like, have this- [Visitor says: Exhale.] Yeah, exactly. [Visitor: Gorgeous. Wow! Kind of like Chinese...]

Brian De Los Santos  08:27

[music in] I think the next time I'm having a rough day, I might grab a journal, head over to the villa, walk the labyrinth, and write it all out next to the koi pond. [water flowing]

Brian De Los Santos  08:41

Now we just pulled up to a place called the Self-Realization Lake Shrine. It's in the middle of the Palisades, [music out] [outdoor ambi] off the highway, and it has a little nook. It's pretty cute. We're in the parking lot. We're ready to check it out and we'll see what's up. We'll see if we get a little clearer in our head. [laughs]

Brian De Los Santos  08:59

[footsteps] It's basically a huge meditation garden with a path around the lake. We're walking on this soil path that's just surrounded by greens, and trees, and plants, and a lake. And there are a few temples where you can go and meditate inside on certain days. And it's giving peaceful, White Lotus [laughs] energy just because it's so green here. It's so pretty.

Brian De Los Santos  09:32

So this place is a global spiritual organization that was founded in the 20s by Paramahansa Yogananda, a Hindu monk. Yogananda, as he's typically referred to, is known as the Father of Yoga in the West.

Brian De Los Santos  09:46

What's soothing here at least for me, is a cascading sound of a waterfall around here. It's really pretty.

Brian De Los Santos  09:53

It's completely non-denominational. Around the lake, you'll see emblems from all sorts of traditions- a Jewish star, a Buddhist lotus, a Christian cross, an Islamic crescent, Hindu symbols. The Lake Shrine here in the Palisades was founded in 1950 just before Yogananda died. Yogananda said he envisioned a spiritual environment where people from all over the world could come and, "Experience peace of the heart and mind." [audio clip of Brian in background: ...There's like a little place for you to just...] You have to make a parking reservation, but it's all free, and there's even a free meditation class in one of those temples on Sundays for those of you who are ready to maybe start your New Year's resolution?

Brian De Los Santos  10:32

[outdoor ambi- Diana speaks in background and Brian laughs] Alrighty, folks. That's all we've got for you today, and I'm gonna keep enjoying [music in] this pocket of sun, and walking around these beautiful gardens. And to help you experience some meditative Zen, Diana Winston is leading us all through a walking meditation practice that you can do anywhere, like at any of these beautiful places in LA we just explored. [music out]

Diana Winston  10:57

So once you've arrived, just find a place to stand. [music in] Close your eyes for a second and just feel your body standing here in space. Just notice your feet on the ground, take a breath. And now let's open our eyes, and take in the sights in front of you. Just notice what's here, the visual- See if you can receive it without getting into analysis. So there's that and there's that, just receiving the sights in front of you and enjoying. [music plays] So now let's start the walking meditation. You can begin to walk a few steps, and as you walk these steps, walk slower than your normal pace and really notice all of the sensations- the lifting of the foot, moving, the placing, the pressure, the shifting of the weight- and then take another step. And now you can choose the rate you want to go at. You can go faster or slower. If you go really slow you're gonna notice a lot of sensations. And walk about 10 steps with awareness of what's happening in your feet and legs. When you get to the end of the 10 steps, just pause, look around, take in the beauty again, notice it. What do you see here- feel? And now you can keep going if you want to. You can continue on in a path, staying connected to your body, connected to your feet, connected to the experience of the nature in front of you whenever you wish. [music swells]

Brian De Los Santos  13:09

[exhales] Does everyone feel better? Alright, that was Diana Winston from UCLA. Now, maybe you're not ready to start your meditation practice just yet, but I hope we've all been reminded that we live in a beautiful place. And amongst all the hard times we're having as a city, as a society, a culture, as a world, there are pockets of peace, and it's up to us to find them. We've got some resources on our website with some more details on these places and more, so you can plan your visit. Go to LAist.com/HowToLA. Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live. [music out]