I lived for two years as a member of the Tibetan Buddhist community Gampo Abbey, the monastery associated with Ani Pema Chodron in Cape Breton.  

I am also an active member of the of the communities of Dorje Denma Ling, the Shambhala Buddhist retreat center in lovely Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia and the Halifax Shambhala Centre. 

I trained at École Pratique des Hautes Études, of the Sorbonne in Paris.  On the first Sunday of every month, one can enter all Paris museums for free and see places like the Louvre, the Picasso Museum or the Monet collection in the Orangerie.   The patron saint of Paris is St. Genevieve.

I visited Roslyn Chapel while in Edinburgh to present a paper at the XIII World Sanskrit Conference.

While attending the XI World Sanskrit conference in Italy, I saw the shroud of Turin.

I am a member of the Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia and the Photographic Society of America.

One of my favourite Nova Scotian painters is Charles Couper.

I also very much like the work of Nova Scotia potter Don Rice who is concerned about care of the environment.

Both of these artists live in Bear River, Nova Scotia.

I have been privileged to have the Antigonish-based painter Vicki MacLean audit one of my classes; she created a lotus flower etching inspired by my work.