Ownner started business with $1,500 and a few boxes of books

By Cheryl Rossi, Staff writer Vancouver Courier December 7, 2010 Forty years ago, books on yoga, spirituality and meditation were hard to find in Vancouver. Four decades on, Banyen Books and Sound classifies books in 300 subject sections in its nearly 5,000-square-foot store on West Fourth Avenue at Dunbar. The bright space with its arched entrances to different sections, wide aisles, subtle scent of incense and strains of classical music buzzed with shoppers Friday afternoon. The bookshop that Kolin Lymworth started at age 21 with $1,500 and about 10 boxes of books is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a fundraiser, Dec. 9. Lymworth, who grew up in Kerrisdale, gravitated to Kitsilano in 1966, like the other young hippies and “seekers” of that time. Ground zero was Fourth and Burrard, he said, the site of two grassy lots where they did “a lot of hanging out.” Lymworth initially stocked a corner of the Golden Lotus Restaurant and Natural Food Store at Fourth and Bayswater with books about natural foods back in 1969. He travelled to India for six months, asked everyone to recommend their favourite books and visited a co-operatively owned wholesaler of books in Berkeley, Calif. to buy his first stock. He remembers ordering 150 copies of Be Here Now, a book about spirituality, yoga and meditation by Western spirituality teacher and yogi Ram Dass. “It launched the whole generation of spiritual seeking and discovery and practicing meditation, being interested in healing arts. The entire little tiny store was all in blue because it had a bright blue cover,” Lymworth said. “And that was just the beginning.” Hippies of the day flocked to the store, but it’s not just aging baby boomers buying Banyen’s books these days, he said. “The many different aspects of personal growth and healing potential have really just become normal, like this is our life, rather than some special, esoteric or weird thing,” Lymworth said. Lymworth concedes sales have decreased over the last three years. But the Vancouver institution has owned its own building since 2003, its fifth location after various stops on Fourth and West Broadway, and Lymworth hopes Banyen will serve as an oasis and resource for decades to come. “We’re always suffering from just anxiety to the anguish of the heart in so many ways,” he said. “The need for clarity and loving kindness, it’s a perennial need.” To celebrate 40 years, Banyen is holding an anniversary party and fundraiser for Seva Canada at The Ridge. Ram Dass will participate via Skype while Rameshwar Das, the co-author of Dass’s latest book, Be Love Now, will discuss and sign the book. The Ridge will also screen Saint Misbehavin,’ an award-winning documentary about Wavy Gravy, the poet, psychedelic explorer and activist clown who’s famous for offering 400,000 people breakfast in bed at Woodstock. Dass and Gravy both helped found Seva. Lymworth recalls designing a poster in the early 1980s for the Canadian iteration of the organization that helps restore sight and prevent blindness in the developing world. “For $15 you could help a person see,” Lymworth said. “To me it’s a good charity.” The party starts at 7 p.m. For more information, see festivalcinemas.ca. crossi@vancourier.com © Copyright (c) Vancouver Courier