Week of August 13 (Ventura County Star)

By Lisa McKinnon
Staff writer

Published Friday August 13, 1999

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Zubin Levy cools off with help from one of the spring-water misters along the trail.

A large mirror hangs in the trees, reflecting leaves as they turn gold and fall to the thickening forest carpet below. It is an incongruous sight, a man-made thing in the middle of nature. Adding to the unexpectedness is a small sign that dangles from the gilded frame. It reads:

Shahastra and Zubin Levy pause at the mouth of The Walk, the interactive trail they have built near their home in the Ojai foothills.

The rectangle of silvered glass hangs in the trees because artists Zubin and Shahastra Levy put it there, in hopes that its reflective qualities -- paired with the words of poet Kahlil Gibran -- might inspire visitors to these woods in the foothills of Ojai to look within themselves for the answers to life's questions.

That is, after all, the point of The Walk, a winding trail with clearings for artworks and contemplative activities that the couple has built on a section of their 18-acre spread bordering the National Forest.

The Walk is the prototype for what Zubin Levy sees as a new form of entertainment, a blend of nature, art and spirit that he calls "innertainment."

"Where most entertainment today is based on outward experiences, this is based on inward experiences," he explains. "(The Walk) is an immersive journey into yourself that leaves you peaceful and refreshed."

He may be on to something. Labyrinths, twisting passageways that figure prominently in the myth of the Minotaur, are the latest addition to the trendiest of New Age gardens. Meanwhile, the Amazing Maize Maze, carved into a four-acre cornfield, has drawn thousands of people to its California mission-shaped convolutions since it opened last month in Camarillo.

"The labyrinth was the precursor to the maze," says Shahastra. "You went all the way in and came out the same way. The maze, with its myriad possibilities, is more of an intellectual challenge."

The Walk, she adds, is not a labyrinth. It is not a maze. Nor is it a hike. "We like to say it's a contemplative walk. It's not like you're climbing over boulders."

The Walk, which takes about an hour to complete, is open to the public by appointment, and admission is by donation -- usually $10 to $15 per person, although those not able to pay are equally welcome, Zubin says. The money is stuffed into a birdhouse at the mouth of the trail to help pay for upkeep and changes to the ever-evolving pathway.

The Levys say that hundreds of people -- including children and at least two women in their 80s -- have taken The Walk since it opened this spring. A pile of rocks left by visitors lends credence to their ballpark figuring.

It also gets plenty of foot traffic during fund-raisers for the Inspirit Foundation, a non-profit organization started by the Levys to help promote the idea of innertainment through public performances. The events are held at the Levy's home and workplace, known collectively as the Studio of the Hills, and usually begin with a vegetarian potluck, followed by music, dancing and perhaps some late-night storytelling by the light of the moon.

Early arrivals often duck into The Walk out of curiosity or for a dose of introspection, but taking The Walk with other people is not to be compared to taking it alone, say the Levys. The real gift of The Walk, they insist, is the gift of silence.

On a summer afternoon, the silence does indeed press in from all sides, so unaccustomed is it. The smell of sun-warmed sage fills the air. A lizard rustles among the leaves.

Crude green arrows, soon to be replaced by elegant wood hands carved in Bali, point the way as The Walk winds through the scrubby chaparral and stands of sycamores. Where the path bends back on itself, Shahastra has pinned her portrait of a woman -- throbbing in shades of orange, purple and royal blue -- inside the trunk of a dead tree.

At different points along The Walk, visitors pass through a curtain of sparkling crystals, kneel on a platform to tap ringing tones from a series of Tibetan bowls, and close their eyes before dipping hands into a velvet bag filled with runestones, pebbles etched with ancient symbols.

As for the mirror: "It's nice to look at yourself in the middle of the woods," Shahastra says. "It's a good way to see yourself without other people projecting things onto you."

WALK THIS WAY

Zubin, a former dancer and designer of wearable art, and Shahastra, a jeweler, ceramicist, painter and author-illustrator of the "Magical Rainbow Man" series of children's books, moved to Ojai 18 years ago, encouraged by the area's connection to the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. They have lived at Studio of the Hills for about a decade, in a house built in the 1920s from piles of river rocks.

On the grounds is the small gallery that showcases Shahastra's works, as well as numerous examples of the wrought iron sculptures the Levys design for private gardens and upscale hotels such as the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. Also there, glinting hot and bright like a giant diamond in the sun, is the Infinite Crystal, a mirrored geometric sculpture built by Zubin in the 1980s. The interior is also mirrored, so that a person can crawl inside, shut the door and see him or herself projected into infinity.

The Levys are accustomed to skeptics.

"Oh, we love them," Shahastra says, laughing as she launches into the story of a woman who, before taking The Walk, let it be known that she was there only because a friend had dragged her along.

"By the time she came out, she was grinning from ear to ear," adds Zubin. "In fact, we couldn't get her to leave."

Comments scrawled in the guest book found on a table at the end of The Walk attest to the fun, if not the transformation, experienced by other visitors.

Wrote one: "I enjoyed doing some things that I haven't done since I was a child."

Another was more effusive: "I am an endless daydreamer in search of a perfect shell in a world of broken pieces," she wrote. "Yet today I found some of the pieces and could see where they fit. Thank you for the walk within."

-Published August 13, 1999