Merry Christmas!

Pope Makes Appeal on the Environment

 

 

ROME — Pope Benedict XVI reinforced the Vatican's growing concern with protecting the environment in the traditional midnight Christmas Mass on Tuesday, bemoaning an "ill-treated world" in a homily given to thousands of pilgrims here in the seat of the world's billion Roman Catholics.

On the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ some 2,000 years ago, Benedict referred to one early father of the church, Gregory of Nyssa, a bishop in what is now Turkey. "What would he say if he could see the state of the world today, through the abuse of energy and its selfish and reckless exploitation?" the pope asked, according to the Vatican's English translation.

 

He expanded on the theme briefly by saying that an 11th-century theologian, Anselm of Canterbury, had spoken "in an almost prophetic way" as he "described a vision of what we witness today as a polluted world whose future is at risk."

In recent months, Benedict has spoken out increasingly about environmental concerns, and the Vatican has even purchased "carbon offsets," credits on the global market to compensate for carbon dioxide emissions, for the energy consumed in the world's smallest state, Vatican City.

 Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/25/world/europe/25pope.html?hp

Aerobic exercise = boost your brain memory!

Jogging your memory
By Anne Underwood | NEWSWEEK

Dec 10, 2007 Issue

excerpt:
"With a reasonable amount of effort, you can improve your memory 30 to 40 percent," says Dr. Barry Gordon, founder of the memory clinic at Johns Hopkins. In the past year, research has shed new light in particular on the benefits of both mental and physical activity. It's been known for a while that aerobic exercise increases levels of a brain chemical called BDNF, which encourages neurons to form new synapses and strengthen existing ones. "I call BDNF brain fertilizer," says Carl Cotman, director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at UC Irvine. But in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this year, Small at Columbia showed that exercise in 11 volunteers did even more. Aerobic exercise—an hour a day, four days a week for three months—led to changes on brain scans that seemed to indicate the birth of new neurons in the hippocampus. "My lab members are dusting off their sneakers," he says.

Check out GreenDimes

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GreenDimes is the trusted leader in stopping junk mail and unwanted catalogs.  In the US alone, over 100 million trees and 28 billion gallons of water will be lost this year to create junk mail.  GreenDimes has stopped over 2 million pounds of junk mail, and planted over 350,000 trees, all in just over a year.

GreenDimes cuts up to 90% of your home's junk mail and plants 10 trees through our non-profit tree-planting partners, all for a one-time fee of $15.  Included is our easy-to-use Catalog Screener where you only opt out the catalogs that you want stopped.   We have over 3,000 different catalogs in our opt-out database.

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Also, read our fun and informative green blog at http://blog.greendimes.com

GreenDimes makes a great inexpensive holiday gift!
http://www.greendimes.com

Cut your junk mail up to 90%
and we plant 10 trees!

Just click to help!

Just click on a link at The Hunger Site and a donation goes to charitable groups that work on issues like child health, breast cancer or animal welfare. It costs you nothing. Just look at the ads.

The Hunger Site

This, the original click-to-donate site, is the perfect gift for those of us with literally no holiday shopping budget at all. If you can't buy a holiday heifer on behalf of your best friend, you can send a New Year's note to everyone on your email list telling them about this site, which receives sponsorship from advertisers in return for delivering users who will see their ads.

It's almost too simple to be true, but trust us — it is: All one does is click a button on the Hunger Site once per day, and that click results in a donation equivalent to 1.1 cups of food to needy families in impoverished countries. Most recently, the charities that have delivered the food are America's Second Harvest and Mercy Corps, which this year distributed the equivalent of more than 500 million cups of staple food as a result of the daily clicks from concerned citizens worldwide.

Visit the Hunger Site at www.thehungersite.com; then — even if you never give Christmas or Chanukah gifts — forward the link to everyone you know, with a "Happy Holiday!" greeting that will keep on giving.

OTHER IDEAS FOR HOLIDAY GIFTS: http://www.fineliving.com/fine/favorite_things/article/0,1663,FINE_1425_5732445,00.html

Clorox buys Burt's Bees

I don't know if any of you use Burt's Bees products, but please be aware that they were bought out by Clorox, who, notoriously uses animal testing on it's products.  Please take the time to encourage Clorox to maintain the integrity of Burt's Bees original policy not to test any of it's products on animals,AND, if possible to discontinue animal testing all together.  Whole Foods informed me today that Burt's Bees did NOT sign a contract to maintain the integrity of this product, so if you begin to see Burt's Bees products in your local grocery isle, in a big display, as I did tonight in Safeway, know that they are now part of the Clorox Bleach clan.

 

Jiva Focus for December: Presence

 

The Jivamukti Focus of the Month for December is "Presence" and the mantra is taken from the Buddhist "Heart Sutra." It goes as follows:

 

"Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha."

Gate means gone. Gone from suffering to the liberation of suffering. Gone from forgetfulness to mindfulness. Gone from duality into non-duality. Gate gate means gone, gone. Paragate means gone all the way to the other shore. So this mantra is said in a very strong way. Gone, gone, gone all the way over. In Parasamgate sammeans everyone, the sangha, the entire community of beings. Everyone gone over to the other shore. Bodhi is the light inside, enlightenment, or awakening. You see it and the vision of reality liberates you. And svaha is a cry of joy or excitement, like "Welcome!" or "Hallelujah!" "Gone, gone, gone all the way over, everyone gone to the other shore, enlightenment, svaha !"

 

This is one of the most sacred sutras in the Buddhist cannon, and many meanings can be explored. One of my favorite commentaries comes from the venerable Thichh Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk commonly referred to as a living Buddha. He explores how this mantra teaches us about emptiness and how this translates to the  He says, 

 

"The Heart Sutra gives us solid ground for making peace with ourselves, for transcending the fear of birth and death, the duality of this and that. In the light of emptiness, everything is everything else, we inter-are, everyone is responsible for everything that happens in life. When you produce peace and happiness in yourself, you begin to realize peace for the whole world."

"If we observe things mindfully and profoundly," he explained, "we find out that self is made up only of non-self elements. If we look deeply into a flower, what do we see? We also see sunshine, a cloud, the earth, minerals, the gardener, the complete cosmos. Why? Because the flower is composed of these non-flower elements: that's what we find out. And, like this flower, our body too is made up of everything else—except for one element: a separate self or existence. This is the teaching of 'non-self' in Buddhism.

"In order to just be ourself, we must also take care of the non-self elements. We all know this, that we cannot be without other people, other species, but very often we forget that being is really inter-being; that living beings are made only of non-living elements.

"This is why we have to practice meditation—to keep alive this vision. The shamatha practice in my tradition is to nourish and keep alive this kind of insight twenty-four hours a day with the whole of our being." 

 

 

About Thich Nhat Hanh - commonly called a Living Buddha
His students call him "Thay," Vietnamese for "Teacher." Born in l926, Thich Nhat Hanh (pronounced Tick-Not-Hawn) has been a monk for fifty-three years, dedicating himself to the practice and transmission of "Engaged Buddhism," a root insight tradition melding meditation, awareness of the moment, and compassionate action as a means of taking care of our lives and society. In l967, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King for his peace work in Vietnam.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning everyone! Happy Turkey Day!!!!

I must admit, I used to use this phrase freely, without thought, for much of my life. And when I became vegetarian and learned more about the treatment of the turkeys, I abhorred the usage, somewhat sadistic, of the phrase "Happy Turkey Day". How twisted, considering the atrocities that occur to these beautiful creatures. However, I have recently learned more about the wonderful things being done by animal rights activists to rescue turkeys, and have come to see how this phrase could become a rallying cry.......on this day of thanks, let's not forget to save the turkeys! Make it a happy day for them as well as you! Give them a holiday!!!!!

In Some Households, Everyday is Turkey Day

 

 

Karen Oeh and her husband, Mike Balistreri, with two new members of the family. "I am like a new parent," Ms. Oeh said.

It is one thing for the president of the United States to pardon a pair of turkeys every year and then send them off to live out their days in Florida. It's quite another to save a turkey from the Thanksgiving table by inviting it to live with you.  Two weeks ago, Karen Oeh and her husband, Mike Balistreri, who live not far from Santa Cruz, Calif., adopted two turkeys that had been rescued after an airline shipping misfortune in Las Vegas. "I am like a new parent," said Ms. Oeh, 39. "I instantly, totally fell in love, and now I just want to stay home with them."

[...]   (But the sad reality of our factory farms means even those turkeys that are saved, often don't live very long......)

Whether the turkeys come from a shelter or the White House, they don't live very long. Most adopted turkeys are commercially bred broad-breasted whites, genetically disposed to grow to a marketable size in about four months. Even on a diet of only a couple of cups of turkey feed a day, they become obese. They usually develop leg problems, congestive heart failure and arthritis. "One just couldn't get up, so I had to have her euthanized," Ms. Lane said. "Another one just dropped dead one evening."

Read on: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/dining/22turkey.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Friends......becoming family among new generation

For some Gen-Yers, holidays back home are passe

It's becoming increasingly popular for young people to host Thanksgiving for their friends.

By Jenna Fisher | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

It had all the premeal buzz of a typical family Thanksgiving, except that the 20 or so guests were not related. The 20-somethings who gathered in Washington, D.C., last Saturday were friends, holding their third annual Thanksgiving together.

Increasingly, America's young adults appear to be spending traditional family holidays with friends rather than – or in addition to – their relatives. Chalk it up to the high cost of travel or the increasing time young people spend on their own between the end of college and marriage. For whatever reason, people in their 20s appear to be blurring the distinction between family bonding and friendship.

As more and more young people organize holiday rituals with their friends, it may lead them to redefine holidays as less family-based and defined more by friendship and community.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1121/p01s03-usgn.html?page=1

Pretty piglet given another chance to live

photograph of a piglet nicknamed Andrex who is recovering after being found in the back of a lorry full of toilet paper at a supermarket.......

Stowaway piglet survives loo roll ordeal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071120/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_piglet

President Lincoln creating the Thanksgiving holiday

The first religious day of thanksgiving at Plymouth may actually have been in 1623—and not in autumn, but in late summer—when the colonists offered up their thanks to God after a six-week drought. Occasional days of thanksgiving were declared throughout the colonial era and into the years of the early republic. But it wasn't until Abraham Lincoln called for late-November Thanksgivings in 1863 and 1864—and used explicitly religious language to do so—that the day became an annual, permanent fixture.

The first observance of the national holiday came one week after the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg. The language of the proclamation by President Lincoln is beautiful and marked by a rare felicity of expression:  (excerpts)

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.  [...]

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. [...]

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.  [...]

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION, OCTOBER 3, 1863.

Rethinking how to end hunger in the US

Th co-founders of Jivamukti Yoga, David and Sharon, always talk about yogis being "radical" - radical in the sense of getting to the root (which is the origin of the word radical) causes of issues. Not just blindly swallowing the prevailing notions of society but really analyzing the driving factors behind everything. For this Thanksgiving season, an important issue to consider is the ongoing food poverty in the US. The way we have been handling it for years has been through food banks.......but this provocative article below challenges that notion. Read it and decide for yourself!

When Handouts Keep Coming, the Food Line Never Ends

By Mark Winne

Sunday, November 18, 2007; Page B01

excerpts:
My experience of 25 years in food banking has led me to conclude that co-dependency within the system is multifaceted and frankly troubling. As a system that depends on donated goods, it must curry favor with the nation's food industry, which often regards food banks as a waste-management tool. As an operation that must sort through billions of pounds of damaged and partially salvageable food, it requires an army of volunteers who themselves are dependent on the carefully nurtured belief that they are "doing good" by "feeding the hungry."  C
[...]
While none of this is inherently wrong, it does distract the public and policymakers from the task of harnessing the political will needed to end hunger in the United States. The risk is that the multibillion-dollar system of food banking has become such a pervasive force in the anti-hunger world, and so tied to its donors and its volunteers, that it cannot step back and ask if this is the best way to end hunger, food insecurity and their root cause, poverty. During my tenure in Hartford, I often wondered what would happen if the collective energy that went into soliciting and distributing food were put into ending hunger and poverty instead.

Mark Winne is the former director of Connecticut's Hartford Food System and the author of the forthcoming "Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty."

Svaha

I finally did it - I got a tattoo. And I happened to find an amazing tattoo artist in DC to work on me..........totally random, no less. Although - nothing is really EVER random..........

I had the Sanskrit word "svaha" tattooed onto my forearm. Originating in ancient times, the word "Svaha" was originally said when making sacrifices into the sacred fire ("Agni"). Another interpretation is to think of "Svaha" as the personification of an "oblation" or sacrifice. In this way, Svaha is regarded as the female goddess, consort to the Fire God, Agni.

Over the years, and certainly in Jivamukti tradition (thanks to Manorama!), "Svaha" has come to mean making of oneself a sacrifice into the sacred fire, or for God. In other words, it means a total and complete self-offering to God.

My tattoo artist, Tony was awesome and the tattoo place (Jinx Proof) is featured all over in magazines and whatnot. If you feel inspired, go here for your tattoo!

  Jinx Proof was mentioned in the June 2007 issue of Alternative Press (#227) as a place to visit while in Washington D.C.

"Started in 1996 by Tim Corun and Karl Hedgepath, Jinx Proof is the place to get tattooed in D.C. It was the first tattoo shop to open in Georgetown, which proved to be a good idea. With an internationally recognized team of artists, you are sure to get exactly what you want, whether it's the Chinese symbol for t-shirt or a full backpiece of your favorite member of Fall Out Boy."

Quite the endorsement indeed.

Brad and Angelina buy island to showcase green issues

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have bought a man-made island in the shape of Ethiopia that is part of an ambitious luxury development off the coast of Dubai, a newspaper reported Wednesday. The Hollywood couple intend to use the reclaimed piece of land to showcase environmental issues and encourage people to live a greener life, the Emirates Today newspaper said. The couple's purchase is part of cluster of 300 islands, shaped like a world map, that is gradually surfacing in waters off the booming Gulf emirate.

ADOPT-A-TURKEY PROGRAM

Cartoon used with
ADOPT-A-TURKEY PROGRAM

ONLY $20! NOW UNTIL THANKSGIVING
adoptaturkey.com
ADOPT 'EM! DON'T EAT 'EM!

 For only $20, you provide a safe haven for a turkey that was once slated for a certain death on a Thanksgiving dinner table. In our age we are more likely to refer to Thanksgiving as "Turkey Day" forgetting the true sentiment behind this gracious holiday. Every year countless numbers of birds are slaughtered in conditions you would not wish on your worse enemy. Turkeys were once considered to be our National Bird and also were not even a part of the menu on our Founding Fathers' Thanksgiving tables!

So, educate yourself and make a compassionate choice... this year put your neck out for a good cause and help shed the incredible ignorance surrounding these majestic birds... please read more

Getting closer to ending the death penalty

During my one-year Americorps service, I worked at the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP). I continue to be haunted by how sadistic our death penalty protocol remains. Simply unacceptable...........especially for a country claiming to be the moral example for the rest of the world. And yet - it was sooo hard getting people to acknowledge this because simply nobody wants to know the big, bad, ugly truth. However, things are changing, and finally the issue is making headway.......

Die Hardest
Why the states are standing by their outdated, messy lethal-injection protocols.

It's unofficial: The country is in the throes of a de facto moratorium on the death penalty. In the wake of a Supreme Court decision in September to take a case testing the constitutionality of Kentucky's lethal-injection protocol, and after a series of stays granted by state courts and the Supreme Court, prosecutors in Texas and elsewhere announced they will stop seeking execution dates. This past October was the first month in three years in which nobody was executed in the United States.
[....]
The prevalent three-drug protocol consists of an anesthetic rendering the victim unconscious, a paralytic that stops his breathing, and a drug that stops his heart. Mounting evidence suggests some prisoners may be suffering horribly. As Justice John Paul Stevens tartly pointed out at oral argument on a related question, the lethal-injection procedure we use "would be prohibited if applied to dogs and cats." (The American Veterinary Medical Association issued guidelines in 2002 saying the mix of drugs is unacceptable for putting animals to sleep.)
[...]
If academics, doctors, and prisoners—as well as death-penalty supporters and the guy who invented the protocol—have been criticizing the three-drug protocol for years, why haven't the states switched methods? [...] The reason the states haven't acted is one part strategic and one part inertia. As the appellants' brief in Baze  points out, most of the states have persistently stood by their protocols with the argument that everyone else is doing it. Kentucky adopted Chapman's cocktail without "any independent or scientific studies" because "other states were doing it … on a regular basis."
[...]
The reason our death-penalty methods are old and rickety is that they were cobbled together on the fly and broadly adopted without care. They are being defended for political and strategic reasons, as opposed to pragmatic ones. And the whole argument is a bad proxy for a larger fight about capital punishment. If carelessness, raw politics, and inertia should be driving policy, the current lethal-injection system is a penalogical grand slam. One shouldn't have to be opposed to the death penalty, be soft on criminals, or be a liberal crybaby to insist that procedures that are hopelessly outdated and medically suspect should be fixed.

Read full article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2176196/

Clean out those catalogs!

The mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. We aim to accomplish this by freely providing the Catalog Choice services to both consumers and businesses. Consumers can indicate which catalogs they no longer wish to receive, and businesses can receive a list of consumers no longer wanting to receive their catalogs.

http://www.catalogchoice.org/

stunning pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.philborges.com/index.html

"Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. Then, for the second time, man will have discovered fire." -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

another reason for inversions - brain boosting

Exercise on the Brain

One form of training has been shown to maintain and improve brain health — physical exercise. In humans, exercise improves what scientists call "executive function," the set of abilities that allows you to select behavior that's appropriate to the situation, inhibit inappropriate behavior and focus on the job at hand in spite of distractions. Executive function includes basic functions like processing speed, response speed and working memory, the type used to remember a house number while walking from the car to a party.
[...]
How might exercise help the brain? In people, fitness training slows the age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex, which is important for executive function. In rodents, exercise increases the number of capillaries in the brain, which should improve blood flow, and therefore the availability of energy, to neurons. Exercise may also help the brain by improving cardiovascular health, preventing heart attacks and strokes that can cause brain damage. Finally, exercise causes the release of growth factors, proteins that increase the number of connections between neurons, and the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory. Any of these effects might improve cognitive performance, though it's not known which ones are most important.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/opinion/08aamodt.html?ex=1195275600&en=50a8406c0b37f16a&ei=5070

At a Slaughterhouse......

At a Slaughterhouse, Some Things Never Die

Who Kills, Who Cuts, Who Bosses Can Depend on Race

 

TAR HEEL, N.C. -- It must have been 1 o'clock. That's when the white man usually comes out of his glass office and stands on the scaffolding above the factory floor. He stood with his palms on the rails, his elbows out. He looked like a tower guard up there or a border patrol agent. He stood with his head cocked.

[......]

Who Gets the Dirty Jobs

At shift change the black man walked away, hosed himself down and turned in his knives. Then he let go. He threatened to murder the boss. He promised to quit. He said he was losing his mind, which made for good comedy since he was standing near a conveyor chain of severed hogs' heads, their mouths yoked open.

[......]

Blood and Burnout

Slaughtering swine is repetitive, brutish work, so grueling that three weeks on the factory floor leave no doubt in your mind about why the turnover is 100 percent. Five thousand quit and five thousand are hired every year. You hear people say, They don't kill pigs in the plant, they kill people. So desperate is the company for workers, its recruiters comb the streets of New York's immigrant communities, personnel staff members say, and word of mouth has reached Mexico and beyond.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/race/061600leduff-meat.html

 

  

Sermon on the Mount

Mount of Beatitudes - where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount...actually it was delivered from the bottom of the mountain...where the bananna fields are now.

 

 

In honor of the Jivamukti Focus of the Month being Ahimsa, and given that one of my good friends recently returned from a trip to Israel where he saw the place where one of the greatest teachings on Ahimsa was given, here is the beautiful message of Christ on nonviolence:

 

Matthew 5-7:27 (New International Version)

 

 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying: 
 Blessed are the poor in spirit,
      for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
 Blessed are those who mourn,
      for they will be comforted. 
 Blessed are the meek,
      for they will inherit the earth. 
 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
      for they will be filled. 
 Blessed are the merciful,
      for they will be shown mercy. 
 Blessed are the pure in heart,
      for they will see God. 
 Blessed are the peacemakers,
      for they will be called sons of God. 
 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
      for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

An Eye for an Eye

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for Enemies

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

FLOW is famous!

Check it out - FLOW yoga studio was featured in the news!

http://video.nbc4.com/player/?id=179435

NOVEMBER Jivamukti Focus of the Month - Ahimsa

Ahimsa, Nonviolence, अहिंसा
 

This month's Jivamukti Focus is Ahimsa. Read Sharonji's message here:
Ahimsa: The Foundation of the Yoga Practice

And since we are living in DC, here is a more "political" approach to ahimsa, or nonviolence, as it has been used and can be used to affect change on a tactical level: 

 

How Nonviolence Works
Nonviolence rejects the use of physical violence in efforts to attain social, economic or political change. It rejects both passive acceptance of oppression and armed struggle against it, instead offering a number of other tactics for popular struggle such as:

• education
• persuasion
• civil disobedience (it could be said that it is compassion in the form of respectful disagreement)
• noncooperation with political, economic or social authorities
• nonviolent direct action (NVDA) - "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored." --Martin Luther King Jr.

Central to any understanding of nonviolent strategic theory is the idea that the power of rulers depends upon the consent of the populace. Without a bureaucracy, an army or a police force to carry out his or her wishes and the compliance of key sectors of the population, the ruler is powerless. Power, therefore, depends largely on the co-operation of others. Nonviolence seeks to undermine the power of rulers through the deliberate withdrawal of this consent and co-operation.

Also of primary significance is the notion that just means are the most likely to lead to just ends. Gandhi said that "the means may be likened to the seed, the end to a tree." Proponents of nonviolence reason that the actions taken in the present inevitably re-shape the social order in like form. They would argue, for instance, that it is fundamentally irrational to use violence to achieve a peaceful society.

 

Nonviolent action generally comprises three categories.

1. The first, Acts of Protest and Persuasion , which include protest marches, vigils, public meetings and tools such as banners, placards, candles, flowers and the like;
2. secondly, Noncooperation, the deliberate and strategic refusal to co-operate with an injustice;
3. and thirdly, Nonviolent Intervention, the deliberate and often physical intervention into a perceived unjust event, such as blockades, occupations, sit-ins, tree sitting, truck cavalcades to name a few.

A useful source of inspiration, for those seeking the best nonviolent tactics to deploy, is Gene Sharp's list of 198 methods of nonviolent action, which includes symbolic, political, economic and physical actions.
 

Great nonviolence leaders and theorists who have thought deeply about the spiritual and practical aspects of nonviolence: Leo Tolstoy, Lech Wałęsa, Petra Kelly, Thich Nhat Hanh, Dorothy Day, Ammon Hennacy, Albert Einstein, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, David McReynolds , Johan Galtung, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Ida Ford, Daniel Berrigan,Bacha Khan, Mario Rodriguez Cobos and César Chávez.
 

UN environment report: Humanity is putting Earth, and itself, at risk

The human population is living far beyond its means and inflicting damage to the environment that could pass points of no return, according to a major report being issued on Thursday by the United Nations.

Population growth and unsustainable consumption have resulted in an increasingly stressed planet where natural disasters and environmental degradation endanger millions of humans as well as plant and animal species, the report said.

The report, which is prepared by 388 experts and scientists, as the broadest and deepest of those the UN has issued on the environment, and called it "the final wake-up call to the international community."

Read on.

lesson in volunteerism

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Dust off every disaster plan from Washington to San Diego, scrutinize them to your heart's content, and it's still unlikely you'll find mention of the emergency services provided by Shary Shores. Shores, a volunteer registrar at San Diego's evacuee shelter, has appointed herself the shelter's "hugger." Every person she signs in gets a warm, heartfelt hug.

Having lost her own home to foreclosure in March, Shores says she has empathy for the suddenly homeless. Her embraces may not be government-sanctioned, but they are appreciated.

"I can't tell you how many people say 'Thank you. ... I needed that,'" Shores said.

ANA FORREST: Tapping into Energy that Brightens You Inside

Ana comes to DC's Down Dog Yoga in December for a series of workshops. In anticipation of her arrival, the renown yogini spoke to us about obtaining contentment and exhilaration in a challenging yoga practice, finding and losing (and finding) your center, and more..........

Most people can depress themselves quickly with their internal dialog. But they don't know how to work the other end of the spectrum. "Can you get turned on? Can you get ecstatic? Can you get excited?

What I'm working to bring to people's attention is the habitual thinking that keeps them stuck in their pain; in their suffering; in their blindness; in their injuries and diseases; and in their lousy relationships to themselves and to others.  A lot of it is going on at a subterranean level.  There is so much energy that is used up by that stuff! Tuning inward and starting to get skillful at stopping it - it's kind of like plugging a leak.

Part of getting to the ecstatic realm is learning to work in an energy efficient way, not struggling. And it is 1,000 percent breath-related. I work with a really intense, deep breath. Staying connected to the feeling of the breathing is a big piece in shifting out of the old paradigm and into a newer one. We have to pour ourselves out of the ruts in our yoga practice in order to play on the ecstatic realm and on the breakthrough realm.

Accomplishing the poses - yeah, that's cool. But there's something else available entirely - using the pose to generate the energy necessary to heal an area. That's a total reframing. Or using the pose because it puts you on an uncomfortable edge and on that edge is some treasure that you can learn about yourself. But every pose also generates its own - I call them "pose nutrients" - exquisite and unique energies.

Read the full interview here!

Dalai Lama Recognizes Work of the Washington Humane Society

Photo By: Zaid Hamid

Dalai Lama on Stage at our Event

Friday was a remarkable day in the life of the Washington Humane Society (WHS). His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who was visiting Washington, DC to accept the Congressional Gold Medal, made a visit to N Street Village for a special event held in conjunction with the Washington Humane Society.

The Washington Humane Society and N Street Village, a nonprofit social service agency for homeless women, have partnered to create a unique volunteer program which benefits both homeless women and homeless animals. The women from N Street volunteer weekly in the Washington Humane Society shelter in an internship program with specific goals in mind—helping to care for, rehabilitate, socialize and train the animals, while gaining valuable experience.

All of us from WHS were honored and humbled to have this tremendous opportunity to meet with the Dalai Lama and hear his heartfelt remarks on the importance of compassion to animals and to one another. The Dalai Lama is emblematic of unity and compassion, and it meant a great deal to us that His Holiness chose to recognize our programs as well as the precious animals in our care.

The Dalai Lama spoke for twenty minutes on the potential expressions of compassion in our daily lives, and offered advice and teachings which served as an inspiration for all who attended. If you would like to hear the Dalai Lama's remarks for yourself, Fox WTTG has posted his remarks online, click here to listen.

The Washington Post gave a fantastic recount of the event, click here to read the article, as did Washingtonian Magazine, click here for that article. Pamela Sorensen of Pamela's Punch gave a wonderful personal recap as well; click here to read her touching remarks.

Stories from the frontlines

I recently came across a great blog written by a soldier and his experiences on the front lines in Iraq. His first-hand perspective is compelling and the story needs to be told. Check it out at: http://armyofdude.blogspot.com/

Some excerpts:

President Eisenhower warned of the growing military industrial complex in his farewell address. Since Dick Cheney can now afford solid gold oil derricks, it's safe to say we failed Ike miserably. After losing two friends and over a dozen comrades, I have this to say: Do not wage war unless it is absolutely, positively the last ditch effort for survival.

I was a struggling senior in high school when the invasion took place, and I supported it. I was mesmerized by the way we raced across the desert and took Baghdad in less than a month. War was a sleek, glossy commercial on TV, and we always won at the end. It's easy to be for a war when you have absolutely no connection with it. Patriotism lead me to believe what we were doing was right and noble. What a difference a deployment can make.

The public can do something about this. It doesn't have to be a hopeless cause forever. Write your Congressmen, go to a rally, read as much as you can about Iraq to see it for what it is: a place men go to lose their minds and their lives. And most importantly, love your children. Teach them that war is not honorable, it's no plaything cast with an indifferent hand. It's the most terrible thing man ever brought to the world. My generation didn't learn from Vietnam, but the next one can learn from us. The memories and spirit of Chevy and Jesse compel you, America. Do not forget your fallen sons.

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For everyone else, the nature of this war prevents the public from a full grasp of understanding. In airports and in living rooms, you can see for yourself the effect in the eyes of a soldier at war for fifteen months at a time, hidden behind a smile that conceals a secret: you'll never quite understand what we did there.Like Atlas, we carry the immense burden of the country on our shoulders, waiting for the day seemingly long into the future when the American people say, that will do.

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This was taken on a rooftop during a firefight on March 24 in Baqubah. One guy lost a leg up to his knee and another lost a foot in an IED blast that day. Talk about sacrifices! Out of seven Americans on that rooftop, one is going to reenlist!


http://armyofdude.blogspot.com/

cats bringing heart to iraq

Nine Lives:  What Cats Know About War
By JOHN F. BURNS
A reporter adopts cats to reconnect with life amid unremitting death.

 

Joao Silva for The New York Times

NOBILITY Iraq's strays inherit land said to have given rise to all domestic cats.

 

Check out the author's website!   http://thecatfromhue.com/

Dalai Lama Returning to DC!

Dalai Lama to Visit DC Next Week
Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Washington Post

Thousands of Buddhists from around the world are expected in Washington next week, including some of the most senior teachers in Tibetan Buddhism as well as devotees arriving on all-night buses, to see the Dalai Lama receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the United States' highest civilian honor.

Advocates close to the exiled Tibetan spiritual and political leader say the award, which will be presented next Wednesday in the Capitol Rotunda, is the most significant tribute to the Dalai Lama since he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. President Bush will attend the ceremony, the first time a sitting U.S. president has met in public with the Dalai Lama, whom Chinese officials consider a secessionist agitator for his work to give Tibetans more autonomy.
Read on

Metropolitan Memorial Church 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20016 An evening of chanting, meditation and music with Krishna Das and Sharon Salzberg.	Monday October 15, 2007 7:30 pm Concert - More info
Washington National Cathedral 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW Washington, DC 20016-5098 Participating in the Pray for Peace Benefit Concert Namgyal Monks will be chanting in the Prelude Prayer Ceremony	Tuesday, October 16, 2007 6:00pm Prelude Prayer Ceremony 7:30pm Concert - more info

FLOW Studio featured in Yoga Magazine!

My yoga studio is featured in Yoga & Joyful Living!

How Green is Your Studio?

Natalya Podgorny

As the Green Yoga movement spreads across the country, let us all pay proper attention.

Flow Yoga Center, Washington, DC

Offering classes in a range of styles from Vinyasa to Jivamukti, Flow has extended its existing eco-friendly elements such as bamboo and Marmoleum floors, low-flush toilets, and recycled doors into a new expansion just completed with the help of both a green architect and a LEED contractor. Every time you buy a 20-class pass, they plant trees with Trees for the Future, and 6 percent of their earned income goes to other charitable causes. 202.462.FLOW

Prestigious prize awarded for cruelty

A British scientist whose pioneering research led to the creation of legions of "knockout" mice that are genetically modified to develop human diseases was awarded a Nobel prize yesterday. By knocking out specific genes, researchers have designed mice that develop a range of medical conditions including cancer, cystic fibrosis and atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. The first "knockout" mice were created in 1989. They have become a standard research tool in labs. Read the full story here.

With this award, our society is further reinforcing the paradigm of exploitation. We continue to believe that humans are the most important species and thus are justified to  use and abuse all other species for our own benefit. The argument for this testing on mice is that it gives researches "unprecedented insight into how some of the most debilitating human diseases progress in different tissues and organs over a lifetime, and have proved invaluable in testing new drug therapies." But at what cost? This short-sighted thinking has led us to our current disastrous state of humanity. We know that every action has a consequence.....and the consequences of exploiting other creatures for our own selfish gains WILL come back to us. Karma is a reality and we cannot escape from the negative impact of subjugating and torturing less powerful creatures. We may find new drug therapies that heal certain diseases in the short-term, but in the long-term we are damaging our spirits and souls. That is certainly not a price I am willing to pay.

Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones

The Pentagon may be getting smarter...........it has set up the first ever "Human Terrain Team" which is an experimental program that assigns anthropologists and other social scientists to American combat units in Afghanistan and Iraq. So far, the team's ability to understand subtle points of tribal relations has won the praise of officers who say they are seeing concrete results. Read on.

An Afghan boy at a medical clinic set up by American Army medics and an anthropologist in the Shabak Valley in Afghanistan.

Manorama on YouTube

Watch clips of our beloved Sanskrit guru, Manorama, here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qtH4cjJamQ

 

Interview with BKS Iyengar

Yoga master BKS Iyengar, or Guru ji

Guru ji started practicing yoga to cure his own illness, tuberculosis. But a fortuitous meeting with violinist Yehudi Menuhin in 1952 opened his doors to the West. He simplified complex yoga asanas, or poses, and performed thousands of demonstrations for the benefit of his new audience, transforming a mystical secret practice into a science, therapy and art accessible to everyone. The focus is on precision and proper alignment of the body.

Now 88 years old, Guru ji presides from his institute in Pune, India where he still supervises classes. Students come from all over the world to learn what has been branded "Iyengar yoga," a term he himself does not like to use, but a trademark with a huge following. Yoga and the commercial world surrounding it is now a multibillion-dollar industry, courses come in various styles and names, but the pioneer of it all, Guru Iyengar, prefers to keep it simple. We meet at his prestigious institute in Pune.

Read the interview or watch it here!

Meditation for peace and democracy in Burma today.... 5pm

If you've been saddened and angered by the images and stories coming out of Burma in recent days--of monks, nuns and laypeople peacefully marching for freedom and being shot down, arrested, tortured and disappeared by the military regime--please join us for a Meditation for Peace and Democracy in Burma today, Thursday, October 4, at 5 pm the Burmese Embassy (2300 S Street, NW, near Dupont Circle).

There will also be a large rally this Saturday at the Burmese Embassy, beginning at noon, and marching to the Chinese and Indian embassies. Please join us and spread the word.

Letter writing campaign

Groups that have organized letter writing campaigns include freeburmacoalition.org,   burmaproject.org,   and earthrights.org.  Visit their websites and type your own letters to:  The President of the United States, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and the Government of Myanmar.
 

President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 Fax: 202-456-2461

Gen. Colin Powell Secretary of State U.S. Department of State Washington, D.C. 20520 Switchboard: (202)647-4000 Fax: 202-261-8577 E.mail: Secretary@state.gov

Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General United Nations Headquarters, Room S-3800 New York, NY 10017, USA Tel: 212-963-5012 Fax: 212-963-4879

• List of all U.S. Senators and links to their websites

• Search for any U.S. Representative's contact information

• U.S. Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov

U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Supreme Court Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20543
(202) 479-3000

Advice to Letter Writers

• Amnesty International has a guide to letter writing.
• Amnesty International has a campaign manual on the web.
• Letters to Congress (from about.com)
• Tips on Writing a Letter to the Editor (from the ACLU)
• Tips on Writing to Your Elected Officials (from the ACLU)
• Tips on Meeting with Your Elected Officials (from the ACLU)
• Legislative Action Center (from adc.org)

More from Burma

Security forces in Burma increased their crackdown on anti-government protests and fired at demonstrators. Dozens of monks were reportedly beaten and arrested and up to eight people were killed. Despite the crackdown, the protests continue......... early this morning, security forces raided two Buddhist monasteries and arrested as many as 200 monks.

Burma Cracks Down Violently
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 27, 2007; Page A14

With the Burmese government restricting visas to foreign journalists, and all internal media controlled by the state, the internet provides one of the few routes left for getting eyewitness reports from inside Burma to the outside world. Despite rumours that the junta intends to close down internet access, a few brave bloggers continue to report their experiences.
.... Government military Car was crossing to the protest line and randomly shot all of them ... don't they have Family? don't they have Brain? ... I
............Despite peaceful demonstrators have been beaten to break up the crowd, the demonstrators are still together reciting "metta sutta" (A discourse on loving-kindness, about disseminating love to those who are aggressive)...
ko-htike.blogspot.com
weblog.xanga.com/dawn_1o9
seinkhalote.blogspot.com
koniknayman.blogspot.com
seinkhalote.blogspot.com
ko-htike.blogspot.com

Krishnamacharya's legacy

Whether you practice the dynamic series of Pattabhi Jois, the refined alignments of B.K.S. Iyengar, the classical postures of Indra Devi, or the customized vinyasa of Viniyoga, your practice stems from one source: a five-foot, two-inch Brahmin born more than one hundred years ago in a small South Indian village.

He never crossed an ocean, but Krishnamacharya's yoga has spread through Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Today it's difficult to find an asana tradition he hasn't influenced.

Read about him here

Death Penalty: Cruel and unusual?

USA Today and Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsbox lead with the Supreme Court's announcement that it will hear a case that challenges the constitutionality of lethal injections. The justices announced they will consider whether the method of execution violates the Constitution's provision against cruel and unusual punishment.

To learn more or act agout against the death penalty, visit the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty which is also where I once worked.

Ralph S. Baze speaks during an interview, Sept. 10, 2007, at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville, Ky. The Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections in a Kentucky case that could affect the way inmates are executed around the country. The high court will hear a challenge from two inmates on death row in Kentucky _ Ralph S. Baze and Thomas Clyde Bowling Jr. _ who sued Kentucky in 2004, claiming lethal injection amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. 

Jivamukti in the Washington Post!

Today's section in the Washington Post EXPRESS included a great article on Jivamukti's co-founders David and Sharon! check it out:

Fit: Boost Brain and Brawn

SHARON GANNON AND DAVID LIFE are best-known as the duo who launched the yoga boom at their New York studio back in the 1980s. But they're not your run-of-the-mill mat dwellers.

Besides being well-regarded artists and musicians, Life founded the Lower East Side's Life Cafe (of "Rent' fame) to nurture the creative community; Gannon is a staunch supporter of animal rights (she's the author of " Cats and Dogs Are People Too"). Their passions are an integral part of Jivamukti, the yoga style they developed. The word means "liberation while living" in Sanskrit. In practice, it means a sweaty workout combined with music, studies of yogic philosophy and an emphasis on political awareness. Confused? Beginners can get a taste with their new DVD, "Transform Yourself With Jivamukti Yoga" ($20, Acacialifestyle.com).

Read the entire article here

The sages of our modern times ---> FREEGANS (free + vegan)

Check it out.............new like-minded brothers & sisters called FREEGANS who understand the philosophy of those like St. Francis of Assisi and Jivamukti Yogis. We are NOT alone! Read all about them in this week's Newsweek article:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20920377/site/newsweek/

Some excerpts:

Sounds like Lord Shiva, the very first yogi:
"The freegans' real antecedents are Utopian and religious communities like the Shakers and Amish, and the hermits, mendicants and holy fools who have been rejecting the corrupting influence of civilization since it was invented."

And St. Francis was a perfect fit:
"Saint Francis of Assisi might have made a passable freegan.  We do know, according to Katherine Ashenburg's forthcoming history of cleanliness, "The Dirt on Clean," that like many early Christian saints he "revered dirt" and regarded bathing as a decadent pagan luxury."

Freegans
For those new to the term (free + vegan), a freegan is a person who has decided to boycott capitalist society by severely curtailing consumption of resources through reusing, recycling and Dumpster diving. Taking the expression "Waste not, want not" to its extreme conclusion, freegans try not to purchase anything up to and including food. Instead, they rely on bartering and what the rest of us leave for the garbageman. At a time when the environmental movement is gaining mainstream acceptance, the freegans are actually living the most hard-core beliefs about consumption and sustainability.