About Cynthia

Cynthia facilitates retreats and meditative programs that explore the silent awareness that arises when the mind is very quiet. In this deeper dimension of awareness, when the thinking mind has receded, we are capable of seeing what is true. Her work is influenced by J. Krishnamurti and Ramana Maharshi, and by many years of her own study and inquiry. Her book Silent Awareness: The Revelation That Changes Everything is a guide into a dimension of awareness that can bring about equilibrium, self-understanding and a more meaningful life without constant stress and conflict. 

Her own inner journey took on a much deeper significance when she was a photojournalist during the Balkan War and witnessed firsthand the shattering impact that war has on children. She worked with United Nations humanitarian organizations, such as Save the Children and Terre de hommes in front line hospitals and traveled to refugee camps to help document the impact of war on children and women.  She also traveled with Human Rights Watch.

It was difficult and heart-wrenching work, but it helped her face the truth of our individual and collective crisis; a crisis of consciousness that cries out for a radical change in how we treat each other and the planet. A very positive outcome of her years covering a war was that with the help of some wonderful people, Cynthia was able to bring a war-wounded child to the United States for surgery that saved his leg from amputation. 

Throughout the world today, children are suffering tremendous trauma in war, and in the denial of food, clean air and water, education and basic needs, including the need for compassion. The most important lesson Cynthia learned about  war is that if our species is ever to go beyond violence and exploitation, it's urgent that we fully understand the structure of our own conditioned mind and why it divides us against each other, causing repeating patterns of violence and war.   

Understanding the conditioned mind is crucial to building a truly peaceful and compassionate world together, a world where children everywhere, no matter where they live, are safe and loved.