Channeling Laguna’s Wealth to Quake Victims

Channeling Laguna’s Wealth to Quake Victims

By Ted Reckas

Resident Carl Brown, in shorts, who leads a free yoga class in Heisler Park and supports a school in Tibet, is collecting donations for victims of the most recent major earthquake in China.
When last week’s earthquake hit the Tibetan plateau in northwestern China, and Thrangu Tashi Choling Monastery was destroyed, 23 monks were killed, and over 100 were injured, Carl Brown decided to dedicate his yoga classes to the rebuilding effort.

Donations can be made to the monastery emergency fund here:http://www.thranguemergency.org/, and the schools here:http://www.rinpoche.com/hcf.html

Brown, a retired executive, has been teaching free yoga classes at Laguna Beach’s Moulton Meadows and Heisler parks five days a week, for four years.

Up until now, he has only accepted donations for instruction at his Saturday class, which in recent years has added up to $10,000 over the course of a year. In 2008, he donated that amount to Friendship Shelter and a similar amount last year to Thrangu Tara Abbey, a monastery dedicated to educating nuns and young women in Swayambhunath, Nepal.

This week, for the first time in six years of teaching, Brown turned to his weekday students and asked for assistance. “I have asked my people to help out last Saturday and this week. Normally I refuse donations during the week because I like to keep it a community service,” he said. “This particular thing comes close to us,” he said, referring to his wife and himself, both Tibetan Buddhists who have for several years supported educating children in Nepal.

Through this Saturday, all money collected will go to the relief efforts at Thrangu Tashi Choling Monastery, and as of Wednesday he had collected $1000.

After this, Brown, also a certified massage therapist, will donate his earnings back to his usual cause: sending Tibetan girls to Shree Mongal Dvip Boarding School, which is completely supported by donations, according to its website, and run by Thrangu Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist Lama, or high priest. Brown became involved with Thrangu Rinpoche through a Newport Beach meditation group his wife Linda attends.

Brown’s efforts last year paid for four girls’ schooling through the 2011: Diki Lhamo, Wangdu Choden, Ngima Palkey, and Tara Palmo. This year, Brown’s loyal yoga-lovers are on track to chip in another $10,000, which he hopes will expand his student list to 10. Annual tuition costs $330 for day students and $815 for students who live at the school, which has about 500 pupils.

“We teach Dharma as the children’s lives unfold moment by moment, trying to lead their understanding into their conduct,” the school’s website says, “so they will act like little Buddhas until they become Buddhas.”

Debra Ann Robinson, director of Himalayan Children’s Fund, which also supports the school, said it was able to operate at a lower cost until a few years ago, when civil unrest escalated. “With all the fighting and the not allowing food and fuel into Nepal, the situation is very unstable, so the prices have gone up,” she said, adding, “We don’t have a lot of people that do what Carl does…He’s not the biggest, but is among our large donors, certainly.”

Nepal is a poor nation: unemployment is 46 percent and a third of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the CIA World Factbook.

The Nepali school teaches math, science, English, language, social studies and computers, and claims its students have a 100 percent pass rate on national proficiency tests, compared to a national average below 50 percent. Classes are taught in English and Tibetan, and students have prayer and meditation, or Chenrezig, each day.

Previously, Brown ran the commercial satellite division of Hughes Aircraft and helped manage Direct TV before retiring six years ago after its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch. After a self-proclaimed “20-year love-affair with running,” including three Boston Marathon finishes, he began practicing yoga because he was too stiff to touch his toes. Brown took his first yoga class at Laguna Beach’s Yogaworks in 2002, and has taught for six years.

“Normally you come to yoga first for the physical aspects of it. After a while you start opening up to the broader aspects of yoga, the philosophical and spiritual sides of it. That’s what happened to me,” Brown said.

Brown offers what he calls, “a Vinyasa flow style class that leans toward power yoga.” His classes typically have 15 to 30 attendees, though he would welcome up to 100 people.

Eileen Young who has taken classes at Yoga Works in Laguna, has been a student of Brown’s since he started teaching. “When I found out about his classes, it was local and free and outside, and it was worth looking into. I love doing yoga outside, especially at Heisler Park. It’s such a great place to be. You can hear the ocean,” she said, adding, “It’s not like he just does this because he has nothing better to do. He really seems to love the craft and wants to share it with people. He is a very generous person.”

Aimee Wright, a massage therapist at Athena Day Spa, and student of Brown’s agrees: “It’s way better (than an indoor class). I can’t handle being inside for that amount of time. Being outside, being near the ocean is awesome.”