The mission of The Ojai Foundation is to strengthen individuals, families, schools, and communities by teaching ways to listen and speak from the heart, to honor life’s passages, and to deepen our connection with nature—supporting the emergence of a compassionate, sustainable, and peaceful world.

For nearly 30 years, The Ojai Foundation’s educational center has been a living laboratory of sustainable living, powered by the sun and featuring buildings of straw bale, earth block, recycled materials, and other green techniques. Our beautiful, rustic “heartquarters” occupies 40 acres along a ridge of semi-wilderness at the foot of the Los Padres Mountains in Southern California, between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Meditation gardens, native habitats, permaculture principles, and the Beauty Way are demonstrated throughout the Land, along with rustic yurts and domes, and close kindredship with the natural world.

We honor and celebrate all spiritual ways, drawing most strongly on the earth-honoring traditions of Buddhism and indigenous cultures. Our common practices include daily morning meditation, council circles, mindful work, the Beauty Way, and community potlucks as we serve the Foundation’s mission and steward the Land. We welcome people of all faiths or none.

Our public and private programs, both in Ojai and at other locations, offer individuals and groups of all ages an opportunity to explore community, live close to nature, find renewal, and mark significant rites of passage through ceremony, quiet reflection, and shared service. We administer worldwide programs, offer council trainings and council-based retreats, and sometimes rent our facility to other groups with similar missions.

At its heart, The Ojai Foundation is a service organization. We couldn’t steward the Land without the help of our volunteers. To this end, we offer an opportunity to join our community and explore the role of service in one’s life through our Path of Service Program. The emphasis is on teamwork, voluntary simplicity, and hands-on service; the context is creating safe and nurturing support for The Ojai Foundation’s programs and guests. In exchange for 20 hours of work per week, volunteers receive a tent site and are offered the use of facilities. A two-week work retreat with in-depth practices such as council and ceremony as well as natural building workshops is also offered twice a year.

To view a complete listing of our programs, or apply for a Path of Service position, please visit our website.