[Fwd: \NY-News/ FW: Yoga article]

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Namaskar, Perhaps you might be interested in this article on Yoga and

Tsunami relief, that appeared today in the Raleigh News and Observer. I have

attached it also.

 

 

Best wishes,

Namaskar,

Pashupati

 

http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/story/2059613p-8443768c.html

 

If you can't get in, you can register for entry via the home page at

www.newsobserver.com

 

Published: Jan 27, 2005

Modified: Jan 27, 2005 6:54 AM

Yoga for a cause

Devotees say spiritual energy is as important as money for tsunami relief

 

Jeana Myers, left, supports her husband, Will Hooker, during a Partner Yoga

Workshop at Arts Together in Raleigh.

Staff Photos by Juli Leonard

 

By VICKI CHENG, Staff Writer

 

Amid the charity concerts, lemonade stands and car washes to raise money for

tsunami relief comes another way for people to help: the yogathon.

At least two Triangle studios are planning to send money raised through yog

aclasses to help tsunami victims. In Charlotte, 10 yoga studios joined forces

Saturday for 12 hours of classes, lectures and meditation. The event raised

about $8,000, said Rachael Crawford, one of the organizers. Seaside Yoga in

Wilmington also dedicated a fund-raising class to the tsunami.

Organizers, many of whom feel a special connection to India, the birthplace

of yoga, say they are sending more than money. They're sending positive

energy through meditation, one of yoga's main components.

" The idea here is to think globally -- for everyone to think about all of us

being one, " said Tracy Bogart of Triangle Yoga in Chapel Hill, which is

hosting a fund-raising class Sunday and a Sun Salutations and Meditation

Marathon on Feb. 12.

" If everyone sent out positive energy, there would be positive energy in the

world. ... It's terrible that it takes a tragedy like this to get everyone's

attention. People needed help before this. "

Most Americans now think of yoga as a form of physical exercise, but the

ancient tradition has always been an intense spiritual practice.

William K. Mahony, professor of religion at Davidson College, said that yoga

itself is " an affirmation of life, the celebration of the physical body, the

celebration of the value of a clear mind and that sort of thing. When there

is a celebration of life and well-being, there is the natural experience of

gratitude. When there is a natural experience of gratitude for life, then

there's a release of what I call an impulse toward benevolence. "

Fear, doubt, envy and resentment are some of the obstacles to benevolence,

which is why spiritual discipline is important, said Mahony, who specializes

in religions originating in India. When people practice yoga, they often

experience grace, or " the sense that life is so mysterious and valuable and

delicate and fragile and important that ... there is the natural and

necessary need to return it in some way, to give back. " Ideally, the

practice frees you to do good works in the world.

Pashupati Steven Landau of Garner is president of the U.S. branch of AMURT,

or the Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team, an international group of yoga

devotees that has helped provide relief efforts in India since 1965.

Meditation gives you " the calmness of mind to deal with crisis more easily

than the average person would otherwise, " he said. Some also believe that

meditation and chanting have the power to change " vibrations " in the areas o

that people are calmer, happier, and less likely to attract natural

disasters. AMURT has also sent $50,000 from the United States for relief in

India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.

" Yogis are connected to everybody, by definition of the path, " Landau said.

" Whenever a brother or sister is hurting, it diminishes me. "

Glenda Mackie, who teaches yoga at Arts Together, a nonprofit organization

in Raleigh, said she was especially struck by news accounts of families

separated by the tsunami. " That's what hit me hardest as a mom: imagining my

child dying and me not, or vice versa, " she said.

That's how she got the idea for a partner yoga fund-raising class, which

took place Sunday. Participants arrived with a spouse, family member or

close friend and helped each other through various poses.

" We can pay attention to the people we love through touch and yoga, " Mackie

said. " Being together -- appreciating that person -- is a way of being aware

of the fact that we have the blessings that we have. ... Each posture

becomes a meditation. " Continuous prayer

 

Crawford, of Sangati Healing Arts in Charlotte, said the recent yoga

marathon brought the Charlotte yoga community together for the first time.

" If you believe in the power of prayer, then we generated a lot of that for

12 hours straight, " she said.

There are no firm plans yet, but the studios may gather again next year to

continue to raise money and to meditate for tsunami victims. " This is a

process, " Crawford said. " It's so very yogic. It just felt so right. "

 

Staff writer Vicki Cheng can be reached at 829-4816 or

vcheng.

 

A9 Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company,

a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company