Just inland from the Pacific Coast Highway and easy to miss when you’re rushing to catch the sunset, the mystical, mysterious Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine is run by a non-denominational order that welcomes visitors but doesn’t proselytise to them. Set on a 10-acre site that was used as a film set during the silent era, the lovely gardens evoke old Hollywood: Look out for the Dutch windmill chapel, the Mississippi houseboat and a number of gliding swans. The East, meanwhile, is represented by a gilded lotus gate enclosing a shrine that contains some of Gandhi’s ashes.
Though the recent Palisades Fire surrounded the meditation gardens, thankfully all of the legacy structures and the gardens remained intact, and the temple and retreat buildings are undamaged. (However, some accommodations for the resident monks, as well as a small visitor restroom and a storage shed, were destroyed.) After closing for 7 1/2 months, the meditation gardens are finally welcoming visitors again, with the buildings reopening at a later date.