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)...
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