{"id":112328,"date":"2025-05-14T17:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T00:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=112328"},"modified":"2025-05-15T14:12:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T21:12:29","slug":"msia-presidency-update-may-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/112328-msia-presidency-update-may-2025","title":{"rendered":"MSIA Presidency Update \u2013 May 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The MSIA 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/events\/ev\/category\/conference-of-the-inner-master\/list\">Conference of the Inner Master<\/a>\u00a0is coming up in just over a month.\u00a0 We are super excited to host it again at Prana starting with the first event, the PTS Commencement Ceremony, on Wednesday, June 25.<\/p>\n<p>Our new chefs and kitchen team are looking forward to serving delicious meals for those of you attending in person.\u00a0\u00a0We are also including two other special organizations that John-Roger founded, Insight and USM, who will be making their presentations on Thursday, June 26.\u00a0\u00a0 In this year\u2019s Conference Workshop, The Inner Master Calls \u2013 A Two-Day Immersive Experience, we will get to explore and experience the spiritual qualities that form the path of mastership. Please be sure to sign up soon. We look forward to seeing you online or in-person.<\/p>\n<p>At the April Global Ministers Meeting, Paul Kaye spoke about a John-Roger excerpt that he would play at IHOP that he found so dense and layered that he always felt it could be broken down to make the several principles that J-R was expressing, more accessible and experiential. In PTS\u2019s Harmonic Self course, they have been studying the great Sufi master, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Inayat_Khan\">Hazrat Inayat Khan<\/a>, who wrote a book\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Mysticism-Sound-Music-Teaching-Shambhala\/dp\/1611809967\"><strong><em>The Mysticism of Sound and Music<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 In the book, he describes the HU in very similar ways to John-Roger. Inayat Khan also talks about the Saut-e-Sarmad (what we call the Sound Current of God).\u00a0This led Paul to revisit the J-R excerpt with NOW Productions\u2019 fabulous editor, Angela Parkes, to review its pacing, and to ask Angela to make it shine with beauty and create a visual and auditory mini-meditation.<\/p>\n<p>The wonderful result is: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/media\/videos\/show\/6372772624112-Saut-e-Sarmad\">Saut-e-Sarmad<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t<!-- Start of Brightcove Player -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div style=\"display: block; position: relative; min-width: 0px; max-width: 640px;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div style=\"padding-top: 56%; \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<video-js\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tid=\"6372772624112\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-video-id=\"6372772624112\" data-account=\"6057277728001\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-player=\"HWP2atHHW\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-usage=\"cms:WordPress:6.9.1:2.8.4:javascript\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-embed=\"default\" class=\"video-js\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdata-application-id=\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcontrols   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstyle=\"width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/video-js>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<script src=\"https:\/\/players.brightcove.net\/6057277728001\/HWP2atHHW_default\/index.min.js\"><\/script> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- End of Brightcove Player -->\n\t\t\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In March 2021, when MSIA sold the USM Building in Santa Monica, we used some of the proceeds to upgrade and reinvest in our properties.\u00a0\u00a0 The next couple of years saw extensive repair and restoration work on the Windermere houses. We also added an ADA lift at Prana for access to the labyrinth terrace level.\u00a0 The lift was finally installed last year after a couple of years of design and permitting challenges.<\/p>\n<p>A project we have been looking at and planning for several years, was a Tea House for the meditation garden at Prana.\u00a0Actually, we have envisioned a Tea House in the garden for over twenty years.\u00a0\u00a0 The rustic, thatched roof garden shed was our placeholder \u2013 we liked its location in the garden \u2013 but it was always in the back of our mind to someday have a formal space for serving tea as a meditation and another doorway into peace.<\/p>\n<p>After the sale of the 2101 Wilshire property, we started to lean into the idea of finally making the tea house dream come true.\u00a0\u00a0 After considering multiple solutions, we decided to consult with retired architect (and MSIA minister), Charles Berstein, who designed the beautiful dining room at Prana, as well as the stunning lobby and conference rooms at the USM Building. \u00a0\u00a0After visiting the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitpasadena.com\/directory\/storrier-stearns-japanese-garden\/\">Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden<\/a> in Pasadena for inspiration, and connecting with Steve Beimel for his input, our meetings with Charles to discuss our vision led him to create some beautifully crafted designs for a contemporary Japanese garden tea house.<\/p>\n<p>Little did we know we were embarking on a four-year epic saga before we could even break ground.\u00a0 \u00a0After delays to engineer the plans, we hit a two-year period of back and forth permitting through the LA Department of Building and Safety that showed the depths of patience one can achieve when navigating the intricate process of trying to build a unique structure in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>We have been preparing for the tea house in our own way for the past couple of years.\u00a0\u00a0 Last year, Kikuno Hyodo from Kyoto, Japan did a residency at Prana to share her love of the Japanese tea ceremony.\u00a0 A Shinto priest and a practitioner of the tea ceremony for 17 years, Kikuno performed the \u201cChabako (tea box) Journey,\u201d an initiative to connect people through tea for the many visitors to Prana. Her small tea sessions with people were an outstanding success. Our own Peace Awareness: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacelabyrinth.org\/events\/gtpp2tc9xbnprc7-jbm4d-zj4ka-3b8cz-ypzrn-7ljl5-ahpyz-wk2nb\">A Way of Tea events<\/a> have been well received and shared on social media.\u00a0\u00a0 The new Tea House will be an intimate space for tea, meditation, attunement to nature, and an immersion in the Spirit that embraces it all.<\/p>\n<p>We will be sharing more about this project in the coming months.\u00a0\u00a0 It will become a key feature at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacelabyrinth.org\/\">Peace Awareness Labyrinth, Gardens &amp; Tea House<\/a> which has already been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, lifestyle shows, and social media.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you to all of you for all that you give in so many ways. As J-R would constantly remind us, \u201cIt is the loving that makes all this work.\u201d The times are calling us all to stay in the loving!\u00a0 We love and appreciate you.<\/p>\n<p>God bless you,<\/p>\n<p>Mark, Paul, Vincent, Sherie, David, and Jeffrey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The MSIA 2025 Conference of the Inner Master\u00a0is coming up in just over a month.\u00a0 We are super excited to host it again at Prana starting with the first event, the PTS Commencement Ceremony, on Wednesday, June 25. Our new chefs and kitchen team are looking forward to serving delicious meals for those of you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,6771],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-msia-presidency-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}