MY LIFE IN PHOTOS - ASHRAM YEARS
Me and Joshua at the Ashram in Bloomington, Indiana. Josh is two here. We left the Ashram when he was eight years old to move to Illinois but Bloomington was the foundation of his life. Leaving my job as a curator at the Whitney Museum to pursue a spiritual journey after Rudi
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Me and Josh and lots of love.
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Blanche and Josh in our lovely room. Josh had his own private space. The living room and dining room were all communal. The many ashram kids (about ten to fifteen) had their own gathering space downstairs and dinner together every night.
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Josh and me outside the Rudi ashram on 10th Street which housed about 70 members of the ashram. Other houses housed more. After Rudi’s death many ashrams formed all over the country to continue his teaching. This was truly home for us.
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Josh’s blanket was a constant part of his early life. Remnants still exist.
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We had two small rooms in this building. The window behind us on the left was ours.
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Blanche, Joshua and me in our tiny but very comfortable ashram apartment.
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Another moment.
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Father and son.
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Me in the prime of my life, I suspect.
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Paradise.
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This photo is from 12th and Greenwich Street in NY just before we moved to the ashram in Indiana.
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Joshua about a year after we arrived in Bloomington.
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Mother and son.
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Blanche and Joshua in my parent’s home in Detroit. We would often drive there from Bloomington.
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Josh in day care in Harmony School in Bloomington. The school was led by Jordan Shifriss, a true knower of children and great source of inspiration for them. He and his wife Lynne remain friends to this day.
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Two deep thinkers—practicing.
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Me working as a dishwasher at the Tao Restaurant, one of the eating establishments we formed along with Rudi’s Bakery in Bloomington. In the end the Tao spawned many restaurants in many cities. The ashram had lots of businesses, art galleries, construction, food shops in the mall. I was not good at any of them, including dishwashing, and did not last long.
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This is me as the President of the Ashram Foundation, a not-for-profit organization I created that helped to give focus to my daily life. We did many community projects including sponsoring CETA work programs for the Carter administration and establishing the Hospice of Bloomington which is still operating all these decades later. One of the strange coincidences is that the Dalai Lama’s brother, Norbu, was on my board of directors.
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Josh and Blanche both growing up and thriving in ashram life.
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Blanche with Josh days after arriving at the Bloomington Ashram in 1974. Josh was just two.
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Dinner in the ashram. We sat on benches at low tables. It could squeeze a lot of us into the dining space. Later we would watch movies together. We were a wonderful group. Many of these people in this photo remain our friends to this day.
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More of us. More lifelong friends.
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The ashram crew for an aborted film shoot of my movie THE GEORGE DUNLAP TAPE. The helmets actually morphed into something much more sophisticated in the film that finally got made from my script. It was called BRAINSTORM, directed by Doug Trumbull and starred Natalie Wood and Christopher Walken. It opened the door for me to Hollywood.
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Happy Bruce in Bloomington. It was around this time that I became a teacher of Rudi’s work. I have been teaching his meditation practice for 50 years. It has centered my life.
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Happy Joshua driving his first truck—or pretending to.
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Joshua with a smile that continues to illuminate his life.
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Father and son when Josh is about 6.
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Joshua and me. I’m embarrassed to say that I still have that shirt. And others. Luckily, they still fit.
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Josh and Blanche at Disney World when he was 4.
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Bruce mediating, eyes open, as taught by Rudi. “Working,” as Rudi called meditation, with eyes open and connecting with a gifted teacher, is shockingly powerful. The first time Rudi looked into my eyes during a class I fell over backwards and out of my chair. I learned to sit cross legged on the floor. Falling over, which continued for all the years i knew him, was easier that way.
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Bruce with a check for $65,000 for the sale of BRAINSTORM. It changed our lives.
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The photo that defines me in my Bloomington years. I know myself, I remember myself, when I see it.
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