Ahimsa

Who We Are

AHIMSA is a San Francisco Bay Area non-profit, nonsectarian foundation. Drawing on both Eastern and Western faith traditions, AHIMSA was founded in 1993 to mark the Centennial of the Chicago Parliament of Religions.

Ahimsa is also the Sanskrit word meaning nonviolence, which is so essential for the promotion of love, compassion and harmony in society. The philosophy of ahimsa, universal love, is the living practice of nonviolence -- perceiving and acting truthfully at the deepest levels of spiritual unity.  Our founding dedication is to expanding the role of spiritual awareness in everyday life. To this end, a central goal has been to encourage dialogues on issues which bridge spirituality and various science and social issues --areas of rapidly changing world knowledge and impact.  Our offerings include forums, which are free to the public. In them, we seek to focus on the universal aspects of topic areas and to bring to them critical perspectives including those of religious and spiritual philosophies.  We believe that the unifying nature and true depth of philosophical experience are to be realized in the cross reflections of multiple perspectives.

In supporting critical dialogues, we seek to encourage every individual in strengthening the grounds of her/his own perception of underlying universal wholeness. We believe that today's common-place view of "science" versus "spirituality" will increasingly be replaced by a new sense of integration, of knowledge and spirit, nurturing the perennial human longing for something beyond bodily comfort, sensual pleasure, and technological knowledge.

The acronym AHIMSA stands for "Agency for Human Interconnectedness through Manifestation of Spiritual Awareness". We are a 501 (c)(3) foundation.

Please see our » Ahimsa Offerings  for more details.

Boards

Advisory Board
Geoffrey Chew, Professor Emeritus, Physics, UC Berkeley
Marian Diamond, Professor, Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley
Michael Nagler, Professor Emeritus, Classics, UC Berkeley
Swami Prabuddhananda, Head, Vedanta Society of Northern California
Ruth Richards, Saybrook University and Harvard Medical School
Huston Smith, Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, MIT
Rev. Heng Sure, Director, Berkeley Buddhist Monastery
Nik Warren, Co-founder of AHIMSA
Nipun Mehta, Service Space

Executive Board
Gerry Caprio, President
Mark Denni, Vice President and Secretary
Henry Baer, Treasurer and Co-founder
Kumar Mehta, Co-founder
Shireen Burns
Tom Mahon
Lalita Paranatantiri