Werner Erhard Foundation Video

Video from 1982 which describes the many projects created by The Werner Erhard Foundation.

Werner Erhard Foundation

The Werner Erhard Foundation was established in 1973 to provide opportunities for individuals to express their commitment to altering what is possible for human beings in life. The Foundation's mission was to foster and support projects that would provide breakthroughs in fields related to personal and social development. The Foundation brought people together from all over the world to contribute to and participate in ground-breaking work in the area of human achievement and transformation.

In the nearly 20 years of its existence, the Werner Erhard Foundation provided funds for research, scholarly endeavors, and voluntary action. They supported more than 300 diverse individuals and organizations from a variety of disciplines. Working in many different fields and surroundings, these people made a profound contribution to human thinking, growth, and achievement.

Contributions from the Werner Erhard Foundation helped avert a catastrophic famine in Ethiopia, rebuild an elementary school in Mexico City following a devastating earthquake, and also made the work of Buckminster Fuller more widely known. The work of transformation and personal responsibility was brought to the former Soviet Union and the Werner Erhard Foundation launched projects such as The Hunger Project, The Mastery Foundation, and the Youth at Risk Program, which continue to be vital and active today.

Werner Erhard Foundation Website

"What we create together is a relationship in which we work on making a difference in people’s lives. I welcome the unprecedented opportunity for us to work globally on that which concerns us all as human beings." Werner Erhard

The Werner Erhard Foundation was committed to bettering the human condition through non-profit, voluntary action. Many of the projects founded by the Werner Erhard Foundation have evolved into independent self-sustaining organizations that continue their work in bringing about a transformation in the quality of life on our planet.

Read more at the new Werner Erhard Foundation Website

Presentation of His Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa

As head of the Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism, which is the medium of transmission of the meditative teachings known as the mahamudra, His Holiness performed the ancient ceremony of the Vajra Crown during five presentations in four U.S. cities to more than 10,000 people in 1977. The sixteenth in an unbroken succession of Karmapas dating back to the 12th century, His Holiness heeded the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and embodied, represented and guideed its accumulated spiritual energy.

Werner Erhard made a special trip to Sikkim, a small Himalayan province, to visit with the Karmapa. He was greeted with unreserved enthusiasm, inspired by His Holiness' boundless joy and

enlightenment and the wayswhich these qualities manifested in the people he serves. Werner invited him to be with est graduates and their friends during his upcoming visit to America. The Karmapa accepted with delight.

Werner Erhard introduced the Karmapa on four evenings sponsored by the Werner Erhard Foundation. As a special acknowledgement for est graduates, the Karmapa performed the 14th century Black Crown ceremony, in which few westerners have participated and that only he is empowered to perform. Tibetan tradition holds that a glimpse of the Black Crown ensures getting off "the wheel of life and death" in this lifetime.

The Werner Erhard Foundation in support of the world's rich spiritual and cultural heritage of transformation, presented His Holiness the XVI Gyalwa Karmapa in San Francisco on Feb 22, 1977, Los Angeles on February 26, 1977, New York on April 27, 1977, and in Boston on May 1, 1977.