Taro’s Travels

“Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope. Barack Obama never talks about how people see him: I’m not the one making history, he said every chance he got. You are. Yet as he looked out Tuesday night through the bulletproof glass, in a park named for a Civil War general, he had to see the truth on people’s faces. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, he liked to say, but people were waiting for him, waiting for someone to finish what a King began.” TIME Nov. 5, 2008

Enjoy will.i.am’s new music video, It’s A New Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHWByjoQrR8

Since my post “Oprah and Obama” just over one year ago, I have been dedicated to helping Senator Barack Obama win the Presidency. So far so good. Instead of detailing the many reasons why I am proud to support Barack, I believe it should be crystal clear to anyone paying attention to his campaign (and that of his opponent) why I voted for him.

Yes, I am happy to say I already voted for Barack! Where I live, the polling booths open in mid-October. There I was on day #1 of early voting, lined up with a packed room of other citizens to cast my vote for real change, hope and security for our nation and our world. Now I eagerly await seeing the Obama family as our first family.

I and many friends and members of my immediate and extended family have also volunteered our time to support the Obama campaign. It has been both fun and exhilarating. I encourage you in these final days of the campaign, the most important days, to get involved now. The time is now! Visit this link to Barack’s website to help out and volunteer even a few hours of your time. You’ll be glad you did: http://action.barackobama.com/page/s/newvolunteer

As I’m always wearing an Obama/Biden shirt or cap these days, I seem to get a constant stream of compliments. Sometimes there are folks who tell me they are not sure about supporting Barack Obama and Joe Biden. After a few minutes of conversation, they usually say they’re happy they could ask questions of me, since I’ve had the privilege of meeting Barack and Michelle as well as Joe Biden. All three of them are even more impressive in person, and I’ve come to know a lot about each of them, their histories, their character, their judgment, and their hopes. I wish everyone had a chance to meet with them personally, as I’ve been fortunate to do.

If you are like one of the good folks I’ve met along my journeys undecided in their support for the Obama/Biden ticket, please feel free to send me a question about the campaign. I would be happy to hear from you.

This week I am so happy to return to my hometown of Del Mar for my family’s annual reunion, which takes place every 4th of July. Even before we celebrate our nation’s Independence Day, I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the concept of “independence.” Although it is obvious we are all interconnected in direct or subtle ways, underneath it all, it seems people tend to interpret “independence” as a solitary gateway to their own happiness, freedom, rights, liberty, and peace, often in ways that simply preserve self interests while encroaching on others.

The truth is, all facets of the natural order — the physical natural world and the human world — are completely connected and interrelated, and cannot be separated even the slightest bit. Disorder and aberration in one sector will affect other sectors. If we want to live in happiness and peace, we must learn how to live in balance and harmony with all spheres of our natural environment: the internal and the external, the individual and the social, the physical and the spiritual.

To create true happiness, we must reflect on the interrelationship of all things, see ourselves clearly as one part of the causal relationships within the natural order. To do this we become aware first of the internal mental/spiritual factors we create, then we see how those factors attract to us and manifest various effects in our life experiences, in society, and ultimately in the world around us. Once this system of causal relationship, of interdependence, is understood on the spiritual level, we grow to see the connections between our inner factors and their causal relationships in our lives and every aspect of our environment. What is unseen inside us, we will attract, and it will be seen outside us. This simple ray of understanding can lead us to true independence, an independence that honors our connection to all others and all that exists in the universe while cherishing ourselves and looking to no one but ourselves to solve our own problems from the inside out. This is also known as the law of attraction.

Speaking of attraction, I just can’t seem to stay away from my favorite spot in Punta Mita, Mexico this year. It pulls me back all the time. Above is a view down the coast toward the residents beach club near my home. And the one below that is a view of the famous Malecon boardwalk down the coast in downtown Puerto Vallarta. My family and I have decided to open up our homes in Mexico to guests for vacation rentals, and my web designers are now creating a separate, beautiful site just for the vacation properties, so stay tuned for that. I hope you can visit my little piece of paradise sometime soon! For now, you can see more about the beach properties via the links on my Yoga and Contact pages here on this site.

In other news, I have teamed up with my buddy Oded, who is a genius Israeli jewelry designer living in Tokyo, to create the first pieces of the Taro Gold jewelry line. Oded owns and operates one of the coolest jewelry stores in Tokyo, on Harajuku Street, called Oz Abstract. The first piece we’ve created is a pendant of the Taro Gold logo, a diamond inside a lotus flower. My logo signifies the diamond of wisdom and joy we all possess in our hearts, and the flower of strength and beauty that blossoms from our lives as we overcome each challenge, down, and hardship (the lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud). Here’s a preview of the lotus pendant for you:

As we move into summer, I wish you all the very best of health and happiness. Thank you to everyone who sent well-wishes for my grandmother earlier this year. To all the doctors’ amazement (and ours), grandma is still hanging in there, making us smile each step of the way. This independence day as my family and I salute her strong character, one example of a truly independent spirit, I vow to live with as much vigor, courage and laughter. May you always know such joy as well!

Greetings and welcome to the newly renovated TaroGold.com. We opened this new site on the first day of Spring this year, and since then I’ve been giving a lot of thought to changes, particularly beginnings and endings.

Thankful to say hello to Spring last month, I thought I could soon say goodbye to the string of cold weather in Tokyo. Not to be – it was so cold last weekend if it had rained I felt like it would snow! The seasonal cycle of hello goodbye stretched out a bit longer.

Around the same time that Spring officially began, my grandmother fell ill, and another kind of hello goodbye began for me. When grandma was first admitted to the hospital, her doctors said she would live only a few days. Family members rushed to say goodbye. That was almost two months ago now. Although goodbye will come, no one knows exactly when. Today, grandma is still smiling, still laughing, telling us she doesn’t know either. One thing we do know, we have to make the most of our time between each hello and goodbye. Isn’t that the most rewarding knowledge of all?

Beginnings and endings – punctuation marks, dotting the paragraphs that make up the story of our lives. Let the punctuation marks do their job, but focus on creating the best life in between. A script filled with happiness, sadness, ups, downs, lots of questions, not so many answers… all leading to growth, openness, hope. Everything worth remembering from yesterday, doing today, and dreaming for tomorrow.

The eternal cycle of hello goodbye reminds me to create my own lines, weaving colorful words through whatever punctuation points comes along in life. Joy is not found in the stops and starts of hello goodbye. Joy is in the middle, the flow, the now. That is the sweet and simple secret every hello goodbye hides inside.

Sunset at Moonlight State Beach

Sitting by the wide blue ocean near my grandma’s home at Moonlight Beach, the sun said goodbye again today. Then the moon said hello. How can I be sad that the radiant sun has said goodbye when the shining moon says hello? So goes the flow of hello goodbye, forever perfect in glorious detail.

By the time you read this, I’ll be watching the sun and moon over Brazil, where the Portuguese-language edition of my book Open Your Mind, Open Your Life (Abra Sua Mente, Abra Sua Vida) is now available at bookstore chains in the grand cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia. If you enjoy the good fortune to have a Brazilian friend, then you know how Brazilian people savor each moment of life, celebrating every hello and goodbye as if it was their first and their last, cherishing every moment in between. Viva Brasil!

Cover image, Brazilian edition of Open Your Mind, Open Your Life

Many friends around the world have encouraged me to spend more time in Brazil for that very reason, and I am looking forward to doing so. After Brazil, it’s on to Mexico, then back to beloved Tokyo and collaborating with great minds for the upcoming special-editions of my books in Japanese. Until my next post here, my next online hello goodbye, may you live always in the sublime light and power of your unique now. Ciao!

Since my last post I’ve enjoyed a magical three weeks in Mexico rejuvenating with 18 members of my extended family, then to Tokyo, then the Sundance film festival, Tokyo again, and probably by the time you read this Israel as well, then back to Tokyo as usual! I must have brought the snow with me from Sundance to Tokyo because it rarely snows here but has snowed 4 times already this year. Speaking of snow, this photo I took at Sundance gives the feeling – it was the coldest weather I’ve ever experienced (low one night was -25C) but also spectacularly beautiful, as always. I was delighted to attend this year, and had the honor to do so as a Patron Circle member for the first time.

I’ve noticed that the more I travel and the more my work progresses around the globe, the more I feel that a joyful life is a true state of being beyond thinking and feeling, beyond possessions and wants. Joy is the undercurrent of life, the universal identity we all share beneath superficial differences. I believe this is why some of the folks I have met in materially impoverished neighborhoods around the world are some of the most spiritually wealthy people I’ve ever met. Not to say that possessions and worldy success necessarily hinder spiritual growth. As Deepak Chopra says, he’s not only a prophet, he’s also a profit. Funny!

As I celebrate the latest expansion of my work with my friends in Israel (this is the cover of my book “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life” in its new Hebrew edition) I also feel a sense of urgency to help increase the common awareness of humanity that you and I and everyone are noble students of joy in this cosmic boarding school called Life. Some of us like to study harder than others, true! Still I feel we are all in this together for some greater purpose, and I hope we all make the most of our lives each day with a smile. Give, breath, calm the mind, awake… open up and let the still space between thoughts whisper hints of our true mission, essential purpose. Compassion, joy.

I received a great gift, a reminder of the glorious wonder of Being, while playing on the beach in Mexico with my dog. Last month was the season of baby sea turtles hatching, struggling to find their way out to the wide ocean to begin their long lives. As I ran past a little dark patch in the sand, at first glimpse a rock, I saw it moving! There on its little back mightily fighting to right itself was a beautiful baby sea turtle. I called my friends to see, carefully scooping this tiny treasure of nature into my hands to help find the way down to the waiting blue waves. If you look closely, seems my friend was smiling at me, what do you think? I am told sea turtles live to be 100 years old, so perhaps long after I’m gone from this existence my little sea turtle friend will return to that beach one day and recall the joy of our meeting that fine sunny morning.

Soon after attending the celebration at Oprah’s home, I returned to Tokyo to enjoy meetings with top creative leaders at media companies regarding my music. Everything progressed well through the month of October. Then, as we all know, some of the worst fires in California history swept through San Diego County and Malibu. My hometown of Del Mar, which is by the ocean and has never before been threatened by fires, was also evacuated. My mother, who was also babysitting my beloved dog at the time, had to flee from her home. I was on the phone with her from Tokyo as she literally drove through flames on her way to safety in Nevada. I returned immediately from Tokyo to help out.

It was surreal enough to watch from afar on the news, let alone to be there or to lose something to the fires. Fortunately, all of my friends and family members escaped harm, and all of our properties in San Diego County were safe from damage. A friend in Malibu, however, awoke to the sound of sirens one night and within minutes had to escape her home with her husband and animals in tow. Their entire property was lost in the same fire that destroyed the famous castle and church in Malibu. When I saw her in LA a bit later, she was most appreciative to be safe… as for everything else: “Everything else, just stuff,” she said with a sincere smile. I will remember the strength and wisdom of that moment forever.

When I visited San Diego after the fires had calmed, I took this photo. I felt the beautiful mix of color from the sunset and swirling clouds of the night sky were healing the ground below.

In November I returned to Tokyo and happily resumed my talks with music company folks regarding plans for 2008. My team working with Taro Gold Music, Inc. have already opened a “backstage area” that will progressively grow along with the project. You can see it now at www.myspace.com/tarogoldmusic and you can hear several of my new songs there. We will also have www.tarogold.jp up and running soon as well as a refreshed and renovated new tarogold.com in the new year.

On a different but mysteriously related note, when I was at my dentist’s office for a check up, my hygienist asked if I knew Angela Aki, another part-Japanese part-Western singer songwriter who is popular in Japan. I know of her, but had never met her. “I went to high school with Angela in Hawaii” my dental pro commented, “and I have a feeling you are going to meet her soon.” One week later, I was at Sony Music Studios in Tokyo to finish recording details on a few of my songs, and the screen below is what greeted me in the studio that day.

The bottom of the screen shows my session as Taro G, and the one above shows who is in the room next to me, in Japanese writing it reads “Angela Aki.” So there we were. How fun is that?

Speaking of fun, I hope you and yours enjoy a happy, healthy and joyous end of this year. As we celebrate the holidays and look forward to the coming new year, I wish for each of our lives to be filled with blessings and appreciation. If something not-so-fun happens to come along, may we all have the grace to focus on what is most truly important in our lives and remember that everything else… “everything else, just stuff.”

I feel blessed to have been invited to Oprah Winfrey’s home this month for the party she hosted in honor of Barack Obama. The day was filled with light and peace, a mystical experience that at once felt simple yet profound. The causal atmosphere that Oprah and her team created was the best. It felt like a relaxing family funciton or happy neighborhood picnic.

By some happy streak of good fortune, Oprah came out with Barack and Michelle Obama to stand directly in front of me and speak to the crowd as they kicked off the “official” activities of the day. As they stood several feet from me and took turns speaking for about an hour, the experience gave me an even deeper sense of their personalities. The intangible quality you can sense when you look directly into a person’s eyes as they speak with you. It was quite a moving experience for me.

To sum up my impression of Barack, he’s the one for me. I pray that he and his lovely wife will be in the White House in the near future. As for Oprah, as far as I’m concerned she’s an enlightened little angel of a lady. I couldn’t believe how tiny she is! After Barack and Oprah finished their respective kick-off chats, Stevie Wonder performed for us, followed by a most moving and inspirational ballad by BeBe Winans titled “Born for This.”

As I watched BeBe singing his heartfelt song for Barack and I looked out over the beautiful gathering of humanity that had come from far and wide to celebrate, I couldn’t help but cry tears of joy at the sight of everyone. Although the evening ended well after sundown and the sky was dark, there was great light surrounding the collection of humanity that had come together to unite behind a noble cause that day. For the sake of humanity I pray everyone across the globe can experience in their lives that kind of light, the light of hope and progress and freedom, now and forever.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re very busy you can get much more done than when you have free time? Just when I think I’m as busy as I can be, my schedule become fuller… and yet mysteriously I accomplish more. It’s awesome. I’ve realized that if I focus on the now, whatever’s right in front of me, I can glide through loads of tasks and my creativity and energy grow.

A key to reaping the greatest benefit from each moment has been to play with my sense of time, actually to pay little attention to time – create a feeling that I have all the time in the world, appreciate the time I’m spending on something right now, and still look to finish whatever I’m doing as soon as possible.

Taro on a clifftop photo shoot, Kauai

When time dictates your day, your life, it can mess with your sense of accomplishment and joy. I find when I practice “timelessness” and give myself all the time I could ever need (at least in my heart and mind), then somehow that translates into reality, and I can accomplish even more than I would expect to achieve in a minute, an hour, a day.

Especially since I travel so much, freeing myself from limitations of time awareness has been greatly helpful. Since my last post I enjoyed two busy trips through Japan (finished 14 songs for my album and am mastering them in NYC now), I visited Mexico, more photo shoots in Hawaii, and flew across the US from LA to Miami to NYC and back again. No wonder I started believing in “timelessness” – I can barely remember what time zone I’m in anymore!

Stayed next to Grand Central Station, NYC

Enjoyed a beautiful summer day in Central Park

More than ever, something I wrote in my first book Open Your Mind, Open Your Life rings true to me: “Enjoy the here and now, for there is only here and now.” May you always enjoy your here and now, savor a sense of timelessness, and appreciate yourself and the path that life unfolds before you.

Taro at a Spanish Harlem tunnel, by Central Park