communityspotlight


The Lotus Café & Juice Bar


their hearts’ desire: living as simple yogis and deepening their practice of kriya yoga, which follows the teach- ings of Paramahansa Yogananda. The couple relocated from Ashland, Oregon to Encinitas so they could be near the Self-Realization Fellowship, the worldwide nonprofit spiritual organization founded by Yogananda, author of Autobiogra- phy of a Yogi. “The Divine obviously had a different plan for us,” say the


I


Wrights, who came to realize that, rather than a life primarily of prayer and meditation, they were needed to serve their new community by opening a natural foods café, which they did in 2009. A history of owning successful natural foods restau- rants in Santa Barbara and Ashland (the Natural Cafe), as well as the Ashland Yoga Center, had more than prepared them for the task of building and designing a restaurant where a furni-


16 San Diego Edition


n 2007, Carl and Johanna Wright, owners of the Lotus Café & Juice Bar, agreed that they wanted to follow


Service to the Community


by Susan Aimes


Offering a Life of


ture store once stood, in the heart of Old Downtown Encinitas. During the renovation of the


building, a name for the restaurant initially eluded the couple. Guid- ance came one morning to Carl after an hour-long meditation in the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple, which is within walking distance of the restaurant. “As we were walking


away from the temple, I turned to Johanna and said, ‘I got the name for the café in my meditation,’” he recalls. “It was perfect, because it


felt right to both of us.” The lotus flower, a spiritual symbol for the Wrights, is


a metaphor for an individual’s soul and spiritual potential. It inspires and reaffirms the awareness that we are more than our physical bodies, and that we can spiritually transcend this world of illusion. Says Johanna, “Carl and I had the descrip- tion that I wrote about the lotus printed on the menu: ‘Rooted in the mud, but blossoming above the water, completely


www.na-sd.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48