American Buddhist Net

A few years ago, freshly moved to Los Angeles, I started practicing yoga. I was feeling anxious and worried, and if I were still a New Yorker, I’d have gone on anti-depressants. But I’m a big believer in doing what the Romans do, and as it turned out, yoga helped a lot.

Now, in class, as I take my first bow—a stretch upward, followed by an open-armed dive to my toes—I am no longer thinking about survival. Instead, with room to breathe and think, I instead wonder about the implications of bowing, of doing yoga in the first place.

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In the past week we've received several emails about an article on Chabad.Org that basically says, "yoga is basically ok when it's just exercises". While we respect Chabad.Org and the author of the article, in this case we respectfully say DO A LITTLE RESEARCH...

- The physical aspects of almost any system are parve (okay if they are healthy) but in yoga their names and traditional associations are poison. Even religious Jews who study yoga, now have picked up such concepts as chakras, kundalini, prana yama (G-d help, as these are worse than poison - even for the non-Jew!).

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Violence doesn't have to be a physical act. It is a state of mind and can be emotional, Reema Datta said.

Founder of Usha Yoga Foundation, Datta has taught yoga since 2003 in Africa, South America, Asia, Europe and throughout North America.

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By Andrew Newburg | Yawn.

Go ahead: Laugh if you want (though you’ll benefit your brain more if you smile), but in my professional opinion, yawning is one of the best-kept secrets in neuroscience. Even my colleagues who are researching meditation, relaxation, and stress reduction at other universities have overlooked this powerful neural-enhancing tool. However, yawning has been used for many decades in voice therapy as an effective means for reducing performance anxiety and hypertension in the throat.

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STOCKHOLM — A Hindu spirit is stalking the streets of Stockholm, armed with this Nordic capital’s latest fad: the nail bed.

It is not the wood and iron nail variety used by Hindu fakirs, but instead a modern Swedish variation that usually consists of a light foam rubber pad, covered in cotton sacking and embedded with small, hard plastic disks with sharp little spikes. Modernized or not, it hurts. And the fewer the spikes, the more they hurt.

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Higher altitude, mountain views and fresh air all evoke the perfect place for meditation and contemplation. This is exactly what we have in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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Some Toronto yoga instructors go to the mats with as little as two days training. That's left students bent out of shape, Anna Sharratt finds

A self-confessed A-type, Darlene Buan-Basit went to a major yoga studio in Toronto to find inner peace. Instead, she dislocated her shoulder.

"I had done this yoga instructor's class once or twice and perhaps he thought I could go further," says the 37-year-old chiropractor at Balance Fitness in Toronto. Ms. Buan-Basit was doing a bind, a pose in which one arm wraps around the body to grasp the other arm. "He gave me an adjustment and out went my shoulder."

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MUMBAI: Amy Pearce blushed through her pallu as Rohini Kumar, parikarmi (master of ceremonies), uttered a mantra in all seriousness and then translated the meaning: ‘‘This means you will have to take good care of all your cows.’’ He then added helpfully: ‘‘Hope you have many cows in your backyard.’’

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A timetable of crossings for as many as 800 pilgrims to Wee Cumbrae has been scheduled for the inauguration of 'Peace Island'.

Last week, the 'News' exclusively revealed how renowned Indian Yoga teacher Swami Ramdev Ji would be re-naming the island and joining its new owners, Sam and Sunita Poddar, for a special open day ceremony on Sunday 27th.

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Bikram Choudhury's sweaty techniques are a hit with yoga studios. Now he wants his cut.

What's a yogi's ride of choice? If you're Bikram Choudhury--the short, chiseled and youthfully radiant 62-year-old inventor of "Bikram Yoga"--it could be one of his several dozen Rolls-Royces or Bentleys, fine complements to his 8,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills. His taste in food is more modest: Choudhury says he subsists on one small high-protein meal after midnight and less than three hours of sleep, though he does have an appetite for diamond-encrusted Rolex watches.

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THE ORIGINS OF YOGA AND TANTRA: Geoffrey Samuel; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge House, 4381/4, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 995.

The book discusses, in a historical perspective, the techniques of mental and physical cultivation known as Yoga, Tantra and Dhyana which are integral to the religious traditions of early India. In the main, it deals with the development of the Vedic, the Buddhist, the Jain, and the Brahmanical traditions down to the early medieval period, the 12th century.

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Swami Veda Bharati is a world renowned yoga leader, whose history includes teaching his practice to people of 17 different languages, as well as teaching to students at the University of Minnesota [Minneapolis/St. Paul].

The University Center for Spirituality and Healing invited Bharati back to the University to host a free class called, “Meditation: The Deeper Dimension of Yoga.” The event will run from 4:40 to 6:40 p.m. Wednesday in the Mayo Memorial auditorium.

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In September 2006 Amy Shipley was a bubbly junior at the University of Illinois at Chicago, majoring in education. A homecoming court princess in high school, Shipley worked evenings as a cocktail waitress to pay for college. Two years later Shipley says she was a "glassy-eyed train wreck" who had difficulty reading and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. She graduated with $32,000 in loans--none of which went for tuition. What happened? She signed up for yoga at an outfit called Dahn Yoga & Health Centers, a Mesa, Ariz. national chain of 139 yoga centers.

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SHORTLY after Steven Odnoha lost his job at Intel, he drove three days from Rio Rancho, N.M., to the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pa. For months, Mr. Odnoha had been wondering how he could get the time off to join a yearlong meditation program at the nonprofit yoga retreat. His pink slip, in September 2007, provided the answer.

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Jois taught Ashtanga, an extremely demanding form of yoga, for 75 years. Beginning in 1975, he taught widely in the U.S., where his classes become wildly popular.

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After four combat tours — two in Iraq and two in Afghanistan — normal life seemed impossible for one Seattle Army veteran.

His heart raced when driving under an overpass, and he had trouble breathing when stuck in snarled traffic. As a soldier in combat, he wouldn't dare slow down for fear of being bombed or shot.

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Since Western yoga studios often feature Buddha statues and pictures, many modern practitioners are not aware that most of the yoga taught in the West is descended from Indian-based hatha yoga, which has its roots in ancient Hindu, rather than Buddhist, scriptures. One exception to this is Yantra Yoga, or trul khor, which is a form of yoga taught within the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.

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Tue, May 05, 2009 from 7:00-9:00 PM @ Yoga Sutra, Philadelphia 1401 Walnut Street, 2nd Floor. Donation Only. Contact: Floss Barber, fjb@flossbarber.com; See www.lamamarut.com

Millions of Westerners say they are regularly practicing yoga, but how many know how it really works and its true purpose? On May 5th, 2009, world renowned American Buddhist monk Venerable Sumati Marut delivers the radical missing teachings of Yoga to Philadelphia.

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Lawyers often take a front-row seat to the dark side of society. They see divorces, crime, families divided over estates. It can make for a taxing life that leads to stress, substance abuse and cynicism.

And with almost 5,600 lawyers belonging to the Rhode Island Bar Association, that can make for a lot of misery.

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Today’s Western societies are into all kinds of Eastern recreational and spiritual pursuits. There are also scores of Israelis from multiple generations returning home from backpacking jaunts to India and elsewhere in the East on an ongoing basis. Combine the two phenomena, and the booming popularity of yoga in Israel seems like an obvious eventuality.

For Israelis who are interested in spirituality avenues that are new to them, regardless of potential conflict with their Jewish roots, yoga is hardly a problem. But for the increasing numbers of Israeli Orthodox Jews who are experimenting with flavors from other faiths and integrating them into their own traditional frameworks, yoga isn’t always a straightforward pursuit.

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Council for Responsible Genetics: DNA Patents Create Monopolies on Living Organisms

First patent claimed on man-made life form, and challenged

...Like Gibbs, many older adults are finding yoga almost immediately makes them feel more relaxed, less stressed and less rushed in their everyday lives. Regular practice results in additional benefits, including better flexibility, balance and strength and a host of other health improvements.

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The 7-year-old kneels on the floor, presses his hands together and closes his eyes. He inhales and exhales, and then repeats. Suddenly, his first-grade gym class vanishes.

Anthony is a candle. “When I’m all wild, sometimes I do yoga and it relaxes me,” he said after class.

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...On Saturdays, Helen attends meditation practice at the Broken Ridge Korean Buddhist Temple, deep in Palolo Valley. "When I received my cancer diagnosis, I read everything I could about death. If I was going to die, I wanted to die without fear. My meditation teacher, Dr. Gregory Pai, teaches about nonattachment and letting go of expectations. I have a long way to go, but I'm working on it," she said.

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DENPASAR, Indonesia: One month after the top Muslim clerical body in Indonesia issued a fatwa condemning yoga, the island of Bali is holding an international festival celebrating the ancient practice.

It is the second time in recent months that the predominantly Hindu island in this Muslim-majority country has staged such open opposition to rulings by the Ulema Council, a quasi-governmental body that issues legally nonbinding - but still influential - religious edicts.

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Many of this year's celebrity "Dancing with the Stars" contestants have youth on their side, but the Go Go's Belinda Carlisle tells us she has her own secret weapons. "I chant every day and do a ton of yoga. Besides keeping you flexible, it really does change you emotionally and keep you calm," says Carlisle, who is a dedicated Buddhist. "I've been practicing heavily for four years, and I just know from experience it makes a big difference in everything. I think if I didn't have that, I'd be a lot more crazed."

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World renowned Buddhist monk Venerable Sumati Marut returns to the Mahasukha Center in Los Angeles to teach "The Three Yogas of the Bhagavad Gita: Lord Krishna's Advice on How to Live the Good Life."

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JAKARTA - AN EIGHT-DAY international yoga festival opened on Tuesday on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali despite a fatwa against the exercise from the country's top Muslim body.

Organisers said seminars and workshops would help introduce yoga to a wider audience and rejected the clerics' concerns that some forms of the popular exercise were a threat to Islam.

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Yoga classes. Beginner's Gentle Yoga offered every Saturday at 9:15 a.m. Tibetan Heart Yoga offered every Thursday at 7 p.m., and every Sunday at 9 a.m. All welcome. Classes held at the Vajramudra Center, 154 Granite St., Rockport. Led by registered yoga teacher Dr. Pattie O'Brien. Mats available. Donations appreciated. 978-281-3365. www.theyogaclinic.com.

Meditate in a group setting with other practitioners every Tuesday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Vajramudra Dharma Center, 154 Granite St., Rockport. Guided meditations in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are followed by silent meditation and discussion. To find out more, to register or to get on the ACI-Cape Ann e-mail list, e-mail sangha@aci-capeann.org.

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JAKARTA: Indonesian yoga teachers disputed yesterday that the practice was damaging for Muslims after the country’s top Islamic body issued a fatwa banning followers from yoga that includes chanting, mantras or mediation.

The weekend meeting of Indonesia’s Ulema Council, known as MUI, had discussed whether Muslims should avoid yoga because of a view it uses Hindu prayers that could erode Muslims’ faith.

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