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SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 (UPI) -- San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is attempting to find a way to close a major stretch of roadway to allow residents to do yoga in a wide open space. Newsom said by closing a 3 1/2-mile stretch of road, residents would be able to indulge their yoga, bicycling or dancing hobbies in the Bay Bridge's shadow, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday. "Instead of bringing people to open space," Newsom said, "we bring open space to people."

Hindu religious leaders have strongly criticized a Catholic spiritual teacher for encouraging her pupils to find God through yoga. Tue, Apr. 01, 2008 Posted: 09:32:22 AM EST Hindu religious leaders have strongly criticized a Catholic spiritual teacher for encouraging her pupils to find God through yoga. Winnie Young, 96, meanwhile, questions why people misunderstand yoga to be a religion. Young who studied yoga under one of the world's leading yoga practitioners, Yogacharya BKS Iyengar, claims to have spent most of her life teaching yoga. She says the national yoga institute that she founded in 1975 practices Hatha yoga, which advocates...

Jackie Chan is in, Jack Bauer is out — at least as far as joint counterterrorism training between India and China is concerned. The world’s two largest armies, China and India, exchanged training in kung fu and yoga last week in their first joint counterterrorism exercise, codenamed "Hand in Hand 2007." The exercise, a major step in military cooperation between the two neighbors after 45 years of tension along the Himalayan frontier, was conducted in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, where both armies displayed their cutting-edge training. Chinese soldiers from the People's Liberation Army presented a "Hard Qigong," a form of...

The surgeon general really needs to slap a health warning on the New York Times. My blood pressure increases a few points every time I read it. This week, the newspaper of record pimped the Next Great American Education Fad: In-school yoga classes. According to the piece, "Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress," the head of Needham High School in the Boston suburbs is pushing "stress reduction" through better stretching and breathing. Principal Paul Richards, who last earned nationwide mockery when he ditched publishing the honor roll, is part-Oprah, part-Deepak Chopra, part-Richard Simmons and all edu-babble....

The surgeon general really needs to slap a health warning on The New York Times. My blood pressure increases a few points every time I read it. This week, the newspaper of record pimped the Next Great American Education Fad: In-school yoga classes. According to the piece, "Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress," the head of Needham High School in the Boston suburbs is pushing "stress reduction" through better stretching and breathing. Principal Paul Richards, who last earned nationwide mockery when he ditched publishing the honor roll, is part-Oprah, part-Deepak Chopra, part-Richard Simmons and all edu-babble....

The surgeon general really needs to slap a health warning on the New York Times. My blood pressure increases a few points every time I read it. This week, the newspaper of record pimped the Next Great American Education Fad: In-school yoga classes. According to the piece, “Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress,” the head of Needham High School in the Boston suburbs is pushing “stress reduction” through better stretching and breathing. Principal Paul Richards, who last earned nationwide mockery when he ditched publishing the honor roll, is part-Oprah, part-Deepak Chopra, part-Richard Simmons, and all edu-babble....

DUTCH magician Ramana has been doing his best to freak out American people by levitating in Times Square and in front of the White House. The illusionist, real name Wouter Bijdendijk, hovered several feet above the pavement with apparent ease. His only "prop" was a stick that he held with his left hand.

Catholic priest Father John Ferreira, principal of St. Peter's College in Agra, one of India's oldest educational institutions, says Christian priests in Britain are completely ignorant about yoga. 'They know nothing about yoga. They should first study and experience the benefits of India's ancient science before commenting,' Ferreira, 57, told IANS in an interview. He was commenting on the uproar in Britain after some British priests called for a ban on yoga classes for children, terming it 'unchristian activity'. Not sex but yoga education is the need of the hour, Ferreira said, speaking after a half-hour yoga class at an...

Sadhus, or Hindu holy men perform Yoga after taking a dip in Sangam, the confluence of three rivers, the Ganges, the Yamuna and the Saraswati, in the northern Indian city of Allahabad July 21, 2007. REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash (INDIA)

Part I – An Inspirational Story As a Catholic contributor, I never write for human respect. If that were my purpose, I would have already curtailed writing. Because my intent is to speak the truth, I never expect a pat on the back. But I maintain it pleases me to learn that my work does not always fall on deaf ears. Like most Christian writers I have encountered admirers and detractors. The positive feedback has been rewarding, but one specific incident is prominent amid the others. One morning while checking my message machine, I heard a female voice announce, “I’m searching for...

Bishop's yoga ban is a stretch, parishioners say, Complaints end classes at south Fort Myers parish

The Lighthouse Trails and Research Project, a religious watchdog organization founded in 2000 by David and Deborah Dombrowski, call eastern spiritual practices “New Age Spirituality” and list it as “a sweeping phenomenon.” The Lighthouse Trials and Research Project goes on to further say, “Christian leaders are embracing practices and a new spirituality that borrows from Eastern mysticism and New Age philosophy… and involve many of the most popular evangelical leaders including Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, Richard Foster, Tony Campolo, and Eugene Peterson.” In Warren's Purpose-Driven Life, he does encourages people to practice "breath prayers" by repeating words and phrases over...

Humane Society holds doggie yoga class By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 42 minutes ago By the end of their doggie yoga class, most of the wandering and sniffing participants are passed out on their mats, in a position their instructor calls the "upward facing belly pose." Beans, a majestic 2-year-old Vizsla, however, is ready to play. The overgrown puppy has tried to relax with his owner, Chantale Anderson, but once Magnet the black lab heads off to explore the room, Beans is ready to go. Mostly, however, both the dogs and the humans on a recent...

At Central Valley Lumber in Napa you'll find plywood, planks, pipes, and poses. "Put your hands on the floor...and let the top of the head descend," you hear among the orders for nails and two-by-fours. Here, contractors and clerks limber up, before they lumber up. It's a program called Yoga for the Construction Industry. Allan Nett is a contractor and a yoga teacher. You might not think the two professions should find such harmony. He'll tell you they do. "Am I standing squarely while I'm drilling a hole, rather than drilling it over to the side?", he asks, as he...

Blue mats covered the floor, shoes lined the wall and 21 bodies in stocking feet followed instructor Kim Rich through poses with names like mountain, warrior and cobra. It could have been a scene from any neighborhood gym, but these yoga students were in the third grade. The studio was a classroom at Davie Elementary School. Yoga isn't just for stressed-out grown-ups anymore. Schools in South Florida and across the country are incorporating elements of the ancient exercise into the school day to help students focus, relax and get fit. Companies offering a yoga curriculum and teacher training have cropped...

APTara Gruber and staff demonstrating a schoolteachers' instruction session. Teachers claim yoga helps students with attention-deficit disorder and may help lower childhood obesity. SAN FRANCISCO -- In Tara Guber's ideal world, American children would meditate in the lotus position and chant in Sanskrit before taking stressful standardized tests.  But when she asked a public elementary school in Aspen, Colo., to teach yoga in 2002, Christian fundamentalists and even some secular parents lobbied the school board. They argued that yoga's Hindu roots conflicted with Christian teachings and that using it in school might violate the separation of church and state....

At the Pinitos Learning Center in Boca Raton, disaster workers dressed as "Windy Biggie" and "Sunny" teach 30 preschoolers a song about how the wind is good, even during a hurricane. "Windy Biggie is our friend. "Windy Biggie is strong wind. "She turns, turns, turns, turns around. "She's knocking things to the ground." This is FEMA tax money at work. It's also paying for Hurricane Bingo, puppet shows, "salsa for seniors," and yoga on the beach. Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded Florida $22.6 million for "crisis counseling" for victims of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina. Florida's program, called...

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have received a $2.4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the effects of Tibetan yoga in women with breast cancer who are undergoing chemotherapy. The award is the largest ever made to study Tibetan yoga in cancer patients, say the researchers, who published a 2004 study in Cancer that found the practice led to significant sleep improvements in patients with lymphoma. Another small study of Tibetan yoga also found improvements in cancer-related symptoms and intrusive thoughts in women with breast cancer. With this grant support, the...

In grainy half-light just after 6 a.m., a few dozen men and women gather in a small park, greeting one another beneath a canopy of flowering trees. Ranging in age from 40 to 80, they clap, form a circle -- and unleash a gale of uproarious laughter. "Ho ho. Ha ha ha. Ho ho," they guffaw, sides heaving and heads thrown back to the sky. "Ho ho. Ha ha ha. Ho ho." A passing jogger doesn't give them a second glance. They're the regulars from the Mini Forest Laughter Club, commencing their daily ritual of smiles, giggles, chortles and belly...

DELHI – India's centuries-old traditional knowledge, preserved and orally passed down through generations of households, is now going digital. Over the coming months, India will unveil a first-of-its-kind encyclopedia of 30 million pages, containing thousands of herbal remedies and eventually everything from indigenous construction techniques to yoga exercises. The project represents a 21st-century approach to safeguarding intellectual property of the ancient variety. The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) aims to prevent foreign entrepreneurs from claiming Indian lore as novel, and thus patenting it. "We do not want anyone selling our own knowledge to us," says Ajay Dua, a top bureaucrat...

San Francisco, Dec 09: For millions of Americans, the ancient practice of yoga is a daily ritual. While some prefer to practice traditional styles such as Hatha or Lyengar yoga, others seek out edgier and different practices such as Bikram, Sivananda or Kripalu yoga. In San Francisco, a handful of practitioners are breaking with tradition and adding a whole "nude" twist to the spiritual experience with Naked Yoga. The birthplace of Coed Naked Yoga is the One Taste Urban Retreat Center, where the motto is "Making your body a pleasurable place to be." Founder and co-owner Nicole Deadone says the...

Does Yoga Conflict with Christianity? In the cover article for the March/April 2001 Yoga Journal, contributing editor Alan Reder argues that yoga can be practiced by Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and Muslims - and by implication, just about anyone else - without any conflict with their religion. Yet the two major articles that precede Reder's piece illustrate in unmistakable terms that yoga, in the usual sense employed in the magazine itself, is incorrigibly religious. Thurman: Yoga is for Reality, Man In his article "Reality Check," Robert Thurman explains rather clearly the Eastern religious roots of yoga. Oddly, he claims that he...

Palace plan jars community leaders' peace of mind Harmony and joy may be coming to St. Paul and other areas in the form of a Peace Palace. Curt Brown, Star Tribune Last update: October 26, 2005 at 11:49 PM They promise inner happiness and fulfillment through transcendental meditation. And they've got their eye on a vacant lot on St. Paul's East Side for the first of 10 Maharishi Peace Palaces in the Twin Cities area. Neighbors and community leaders, trying to keep an open mind about opening minds, are a bit skeptical and concerned about "hidden agendas." But the group's...

A Legend Comes to New York At 86, his walk is amazingly light. A day full of engagements did not appear to tire him and what he was looking forward was making the New York audience chant Om. Yogacharya B K S Iyengar -- who is often called the father of modern yoga -- was in New York City on Friday, October 14, as part of his tour to mark the 50th year of his first visit to America to promote yoga. People from places far away from New York had come to pay tribute to the man who has...

Spirit Daily ___________________________________________Chancellor Defends 'Nude' Statue and Meditations With Potential Occult LinksThe chancellor of a major American diocese has defended the use of both yoga and a form of esoteric therapy called "reiki" as ways of enhancing prayer and healing in a Catholic setting -- a view that appears to be in contradiction of the Vatican.The chancellor, Father Ralph E. Wiatrowski, of Cleveland, says that the diocese does not officially propagate the practices but sees nothing wrong with elements of them. His views first came to light in a letter to a local woman who had complained about  use...

Yoga in the spirit of faith TFC PHOTOS BY LINDA REEVESCarol Mastropietro leads a faith-based yoga class. The yoga teacher is interested in showing others the joys and benefits of yoga, something she says saved her life. By Linda Reeves, Boynton BeachCarol Mastropietro lights a candle, turns the stereo on low and then begins to lull her students with a soft calming voice and some wisdom."Clear your mind. Let go of the outside world. Take a deep breath and feel the Holy Spirit come inside," said Mastropietro. "Tonight we are going to talk about people who suddenly leave our lives....

Hindu yoga practitioners oppose nonspiritual use of such symbolic gestures as the mahamudra, a commonplace in many nonreligious hatha yoga classes. (Photo by Jane Therese) Is Yoga Debased by Secular Practice? BY DRU SEFTON  Millions of Americans are practicing yoga to improve flexibility, strengthen muscles and relieve stress. But they also are co-opting an ancient spiritual philosophy, many yoga experts contend. A sacred practice, they complain, is increasingly being debased and commercialized. Yoga is a lucrative and growing business. About 16.5 million Americans now spend nearly $3 billion annually on classes and products, a February poll by Harris Interactive...

Eastern Mysticism and Christianity are Incompatible Commentary on the NewsThursday, June 02, 2005Jan MarkellWhat do you say when a good friend who loves God, reads her Bible, and talks and walks her faith becomes a devotee of “Christian yoga”? You might brace yourself and prepare yourself, because “Christian yoga” is coming to a church near you. And to those who understand yoga’s Hindu roots and to all former New Agers, it will never be compatible with Evangelical Christianity. A popular video called, “Outstretched in Worship” has fueled the yoga popularity among Christians, be they Mainline Protestants, Evangelicals, or Catholics. Just...

We parents still don't get it. We still don't understand that our children live in a reality steeped in violence, sex and the occult, and that they move and breathe and have their being in a culture we would not have recognized even fifteen years ago, one that has caused them untold harm. We also don't get the fact that the series of Harry Potter books, lauded by educators and parents, and bemusedly encouraged by religious commentators (except fundamentalists), not only propagates occultism, but offers advanced indoctrination into it. That said, if we step back from the controversy and ...

Some fitness fads require sporty gear and equipment, but the practice of yoga requires only the bare essentials: loose clothes, a mat and time to do the exercises. The latest trend in yoga requires even less. We're not talking about aqua yoga, done in a pool, or disco yoga, set to dance tunes, or "boga," boxing yoga, done with gloves. No, a San Francisco community center is offering naked yoga, where bare essentials means just that: Men and women are completely nude during the 90- minute class. This is not the invention of "naked yoga guy" George Monty Davis, who...

Yoga. It’s everywhere. In ads for everything from I.T. to ice cream, meditative supermodels sit cross-legged in the Hindu Lotus position, contemplating “nirvana.” There are yoga videos for pregnant mothers, senior citizens, toddlers and babies – even yoga for you and your dog! You can work out with yoga straps, blocks, bolsters and balls. The well-dressed yoga practitioner can wear her loose-fitting yoga togs, carry her yoga mat in her matching yoga tote and dress her daughter in Sesame Street yoga pants (featuring Elmo!). Since yoga is everywhere, it must be okay. Or is it? Those who think yoga is...

The spirit and the law How many lawyers does it take to find enlightenment? There's no punch line; one of the lawyers in the Terri Schiavo case has spent his life seeking the way to "litigate without becoming a combatant.'' By SHARON TUBBS © St. Petersburg Times, published May 25, 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Times photos: Scott Keeler] Lawyer George Felos practices yoga at his Dunedin home to help him cope with the stresses of cases such as that of Terri Schiavo. Felos represents her husband, Michael Schiavo, in his efforts to have her feeding tube removed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DUNEDIN -- A cluster...

Pain Sufferers Find Yoga and Diet Can Comfort ImmuneSupport.com 02-14-2005 By Carrie White, Tribune Scottsdale, Arizona rheumatologist Paul Howard doesn’t believe pharmaceuticals, by themselves, are the best way for people with arthritis to get better. Rather, Howard sees treatment for the disease — joint inflammation affecting nearly 70 million Americans — as involving a combination of exercise, supplementation, diet and, if needed, weight loss. His patients bear out his approach. Peggy McKee, 76, of Scottsdale first visited Howard’s office three years ago with an arthritis flare-up shortly after the death of her husband and a daughter. McKee, who suffers from...

The three wise men who came to worship the Christ child hailed from India and named him Isa, or "Lord" in Sanskrit - a name that became Jesus in the Bible. Later, Jesus travelled to India, where he practiced yoga meditation with the great sages some time during his "lost years" from age 13 to 30, a time of his life scarcely mentioned in the Bible. As Christians immerse themselves in the Advent season to prepare for Christmas, such assertions might sound like blasphemy or pure fantasy. But they come from a renowned Indian guru, the late Paramahansa Yogananda, in...

...Now, another yoga hybrid -- "laughter yoga" -- is gaining enthusiasts in the U.S. Mixing the breathing techniques of traditional yoga with mild stretching and fake laughing exercises, laughter yoga is meant to precipitate real giggles. Proponents say it can help reduce stress and produce other health benefits, such as alleviating asthma. Research surrounding laughter and health is in its infancy, but there are suggestions that laughter appears to boost components of the immune system, increase pain tolerance and reduce detrimental stress hormones, which may help lessen the risk of heart attacks. Instructors say laughter yoga provides all of those...

Prosecuting a nuisance -- even a naked one -- is turning out to be more than just a nuisance for the San Francisco district attorney. It's proving to be nearly impossible. First, there was the failed attempt to silence the infamous Bushman, whose "Ugga-bugga!'' still scares the daylights out of Fisherman's Wharf tourists. Now comes the Naked Yoga Guy (a.k.a. George Monty Davis), whose in-the- buff appearances have landed him in court today on charges of dropping his pants in public along the wharf. From the looks of things, he'll walk, too. Prosecutors, we've been told, plan to drop the...

A religious edict saps the energy out of yoga enthusiasts in Egypt, where clerics say the 5,000-year-old practice violates Islamic law. Answering a religious question put forward, Egypt's highest theological authority called yoga an "ascetic Hindu practice that should not be used in any manner of exercise or worship." The undated but recent edict was signed by the mufti, Ali Gomoa. The edict, published in the pan-Arab daily newspaper Al-Hayat and obtained Sunday by the Associated Press, called the practice of yoga "an aberration" and said mimicking it is "forbidden religiously." Yoga is a collection of spiritual techniques and practices,...

Pop superstar Madonna's Re-Invention tour has been slammed by American critics - for overloading the show with "naive" political statements. The "American Life" singer, 45, kicked off the US leg of her tour in California on Monday but failed to impress critics with her attempts to "wipe the slate clean" by ditching her trademark raunchy routines. The Los Angeles Times sniped, "This promised to be Madonna's tour de force, a reappraisal that put her work in new and revealing contexts. But time and again she fell short of the challenge." Many critics were unimpressed by the images of the Iraq...

Over 100, Woman Says Yoga Helps Keep Her Active, Healthy By Liz Doup/Associated Press The Associated Press May 30, 2004 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Physically active all her life, Reta Lasky hasn't let age interfere with keeping fit. She prepared to celebrate her 103rd birthday last week by starting the day as she has for 30 years: with an hour of yoga. But that isn't the only way she stays active. The twice-widowed great-grandmother of three still lives independently in a retirement community and enjoys attending theater performances and lifelong learning classes at Florida Atlantic University. Though long retired...

First there was house arrest. Now there's yoga. A judge ordered a man convicted today of slapping his wife to take a yoga class as part of his one-year probation. "It's part of anger management," County Criminal Court at Law Judge Larry Standley said of the ancient Hindu philosophy of exercise and well-being. "For people who are into it, it really calms them down." " I've thought about taking it myself, but I've got a pretty bad back," Standley said. Standley, a former prosecutor, has sometimes imposed year-long jail sentences for similar misdemeanor domestic assaults. But he said the case...

<p>So reasons Gerry Olin Greengrass, whose two Labradors have given her a new leash on exercise.</p> <p>Their stretches, leaps and rolls - and their doggedly high spirits in the face of old age and arthritis - inspired the 65-year-old Manhattan artist to hit the mat.</p>

TORA! TORA! TORA! The Bizarre Motivation behind Michael Schiavo's Right-to-Die Lawyer George "Killer" Felos   Thrilled to Death: Euthanasia proponent George Felos is Michael Schiavo's lawyer CLEARWATER, October 23, 2003  - The motivation behind Michael Schiavo's dire quest to end the life of his severely disabled wife is not certain. He has a child and another on the way with another woman but a divorce would suffice in that case. However, there is the suggestion that he has life insurance money pending on her death - a suggestion which he has refused to comment on. Moreover Terri's parents suspect...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City dog owners who worry that their furry friends need some stress management have a new option: yoga for dogs. "Ruff Yoga" -- a so-called doga class aimed at relaxing the canine denizens of this often un-Zen city -- is being offered once a month in a downtown city park. Half an hour on the yoga mat makes Isaac, her cocker spaniel, a calmer dog, said doga devotee Sarah Klein.

US gyms offer yoga for dogs A chain of gyms in the US has started offering yoga classes for dogs. Crunch is offering "Ruff Yoga" at its New York branch and is considering offering it in other locations. During a recent session in Madison Square Park, the class attracted nearly 20 people and their pets. "We do the traditional poses. The dogs just get incorporated," Crunch's yoga director Suzi Teitelman told Fox News. Yoga guru Bruce Van Horn says the relaxed state people achieve through yoga rubs off on their animals if they're nearby during the exercises. "It actually reduces...

<p>ITHACA -- Women are bombarded daily with messages from the media and people around them that they are not smart enough, worthy enough or beautiful enough to achieve the things they want in life.</p> <p>That's one of the reasons why Sandy Wold, 39, began teaching yoga classes for the empowerment of women, especially teenagers.</p>

Tue Jul 23,11:22 AM ET

For $1 Billion, Maharishi Yogi will train 40,000 expert meditators "who would generate enough good vibes to save the world." http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=14938390