What do Oprah, LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ariana Huffington, Hugh Jackman and Phil Jackson have in common? They are all famous and rich? Sure, but a core component of their journey to success is their regular practice of mindfulness. What makes a life successful? What are its component parts? There is birth, school, college, drugs, alcohol, money, vacations, sex, children, aging, grandchildren, death, and yet there is no recipe for combining all

Hollywood producer Lawrence Kasanoff makes movies like Mortal Kombat. But his interest in mindfulness and its link to happiness has inspired a documentary called Mindfulness: Be Happy Now In an interview, he talked about the difference between mindfulness and meditation and what Navy Seals and Buddhist monks have in common. What’s the difference between mindfulness and meditation? Meditation, in my opinion, is one of the ways you get to mindfulness. There are lots of ways to

A few years ago I was approached by producer and director Larry Kasanoff who asked me if I would agree to be in his documentary: "Mindfulness: Be Happy Now" together with the famed Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, author and mindfulness advocate Deepak Chopra, actress Sharon Stone,and the "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan. From his IMDB profile Larry seemed like an unlikely mindfulness documentary producer. His resume was full of high action movies like "Mortal Kombat" and "Terminat

The budget for Mindfulness: Be Happy Now might be less than what Disney spent simply on the catering for the latest Avengers film, but this documentary might be the most Hollywood film released in 2015. The documentary, directed by Lawrence Kasanoff – a producer with credits on True Lies and Strange Days as well as a host of B-movie action films produced in the 1990s starring the likes of Christopher Lambert – is a look into the Buddhist concept of mindfulness and how people

When we think about happiness and success, many of us turn our attention to some distant horizon where our hopes and aspirations lie. But according to Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, true happiness begins with mindfulness and mindfulness begins in the present moment. A new documentary featuring Hanh, called "Mindfulness: Be Happy Now," shares what producer and director Larry Kasanoff describes as a "non-denominational message" for people interested in learning more about the l

Lawrence Kasanoff was, at one time, a classic Hollywood producer - a guy with big projects and a bad temper. He was and is the guy behind the "Mortal Kombat" movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger's "True Lies," Ralph Fiennes' "Strange Days." Then, several years ago, he read a book by the Buddhist monk Thích Nhat Hanh. He decided to go to meet the famous practitioner of mindfulness not because he sought enlightenment, but because he thought the monk might inspire a new "Mortal Kombat"