The White Lotus Foundation, founded in 1968, is proud to be celebrating our 50th year of dedication to the development of total human being. This year marks our enduring love and commitment to the fullness that is Yoga. We would like to acknowledge all those who have been a part of the Foundation's evolution and history. To the staff, the teachers, the board members, the students and friends, and all those who have shared their wisdom and council over the years, we are most grateful.

We also express our appreciation to our founder and co-director, Ganga White, for his dedication to conscious exploration, meditation, inquiry, and spirituality. A man whose passion for well being has provided tools and inspiration for others, Ganga's insights have changed the face of Yoga over the past fifty years. His teachings and innovations, and his commitment to sharing continue to shape Yoga for new generations.

In memoriam, we would also like to recognize one of our founding board members, the late Tom DeSilva, who was a co-founder of Erewhon Natural Foods, still one of most beloved health food stores anywhere. Tom, like Ganga, was an early innovator in inspiring consciousness and well being. And to all those luminaries who have served, and given their generous time to our board and our advisory board, the Foundation gratefully acknowledges you.

In 1967 Ganga began the Center for Yoga in Los Angeles which set the model of what a Yoga center can be--- gathering place, community center, spiritual center. Our Santa Barbara Yoga retreat, which Ganga and Tracey began in 1983, is a place of sanctuary, learning, communion, and meditation. We have been blessed.

Ganga's creation of Flow Yoga in the 70's, a practice that integrates mindfulness, breathing, the beauty of fluid movement, and awareness of alignment has greatly influenced the modern wave of Yoga. Making Yoga accessible has been a hallmark of the White Lotus Foundation. The arc of Yoga practices created here are now a part of the worldwide yoga culture. From partner yoga and the accompanying text, Double Yoga, published in 1978, to our Total Yoga Series, one of the first Vinyasa practices on tape created in the 80's, we have strived to keep Yoga meaningful, real, interesting, joyful and available. Published in 2007, Ganga's book Yoga Beyond Belief, a beautiful classic work, is an influential text used all over the world.

White Lotus has been holding the light of Yoga as a tool of love, compassion, awareness, and awakening for half a century. We are proud of our place in the Yoga community and in yogic history. We are grateful to have had this longstanding relationship to evolving, nurturing, and sharing Yoga locally and globally, and through the thousands of yogis who have graced our portals and gone forward in their own right carrying the torch of Yoga. We are honored and we feel truly blessed.

Thank you for the opportunity to have touched your lives.

Om Shanti