Members of The Guibord Center Advisory Council, representing many of the different faiths throughout Los Angeles, provided fellowship and meals to the eleven Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery. These wonderful leaders and their communities didn’t just feed the monks and their followers. They laughed with our guests, prayed with them, shared stories and rituals, and became friends.

We thank these faith leaders and communities
for their wonderful graciousness and generosity:

Venerable ManKuang and colleagues
Fo Guang Shan Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple
Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels
Temple Beth Shir Shalom
Rini Ghosh and family members
Vedanta Society of Hollywood
Sura Das and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Sister Gita Patel and members
Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization
Jacquie Singh Kaur and Khalsa Peace Corps

Thank you also to the staff of St. John’s Cathedral

The planning of meals from a distance is a challenge. We had been informed – much to our surprise – that these Tibetan monks do eat meat as it’s often all that’s available high in the mountains of their homeland. Our host community, though vegan themselves, dutifully prepared a meal with chicken and turkey. The monks entered the dining room. Chanted a blessing. Stepped forward. And then almost instantaneously stepped back. The head monk smiled, reached for a plate, took the food, and deftly picked his way around the poultry. Only then did we discover that while yes, they do indeed eat meat sometimes, they never do so during the sacred act of creating a Mandala.

Eleven hungry men gingerly negotiated their steaming meals, grinning graciously all the while. We wondered where in the world we’d get something else to feed them. Suddenly a Cathedral staff member walked in. Clearly befuddled, he asked what he was supposed to do with “THE DELIVERY”! What delivery?..  All the fresh fruit, cut and ready to eat, sent over by Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Temple Beth Shir Shalom! – food that was supposed to have arrived the day before at a completely different location. Somehow it arrived at just the right place at the right time.