But of course! It was meditation all along that will bring peace to the Middle East, not war! Alas, a kooky possibility? Yes we said it. But it’s only because of this article from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about the Sola Yoga Project, started by Amandine Roche, a French aid worker who was briefly detained by the Taliban after 9/11, and who was so moved by the lack of viable solutions that she turned to yoga to find answers.
Ms. Roch recruited Mr. Alborzian, or Yogi Cameron, as he’s most familiarly known, to join the cause, heading out to Afghanistan to meet with army generals, prison guards, inmates and Afghan ministers. Famous for his supermodel status, being the pants melty star of Madonna’s “Express Yourself” video, and Ellen’s live-in guru (or yours for $30,000 a week), Iranian-born Yogi Cameron is optimistic that the project could do some good, and perhaps even end the insurgency.
“The achievement would be: American soldiers meditate, Taliban meditate and, in jails, they meditate together,” Mr. Alborzian said. “One is on one side of the bar, the other is on the other side of the bar. You are both in jail—and you can find the peace in it together.”
Reception is iffy, but hey, at this this point almost everyone is open to trying any solution that could maybe, possibly (please?) work and not cause more death, doom and destruction.
“It sounds a bit crazy…but who can’t be supportive of someone that wants to teach the principles of nonviolence?” said Norine MacDonald, working in Afghanistan as president of the International Council on Security and Development, a nonprofit research group.
We think it’s a valiant effort and wish the best to the Sola Yoga Project on their mission of peace, whether it’s accepted or not. Kali knows they’ve been doing a bang up job over there so far, and a bit of consciousness couldn’t do any worse. Chin up.
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Earlier…
Awesome. Every step forward has the potential to change consciousness everywhere. Thanks for this!
To borrow a quote from Wayward Son by Kansas :
” There’ll be (World)Peace when the Semitic Religions are done. ”
In the 1500 years that it has been in existence, Islum has brought NOTHING BUT torment, despair, pain and suffering to Mankind. This is not surprising, since this Cult worships as a Prophet a Pedophile, who went on to become the World’s First Terrorist. The Koran exhorts the believers to slay the unbelievers, “wherever ye might find them.”
Can such a “religion” then offer any solutions for Mankind ?
Christendom, meanwhile, has on its hands the blood of Millions of Innocents.
The Catholic Portuguese Conquistadors inflicted the brutal, savage Goa Inquisition, for 500 long years, upon the peaceful, gentle civilized Hindu natives of Goa, India, just so as to get the gentle Hindus to buy into the Vatican-sponsored Pyramid-Scheme of Christianity.
The unspeakable atrocities and Crimes against Humanity committed by the Portuguese against the Hindus of Goa make Hitler look like an amateur school-boy !
The Spanish Catholic Conquistadors inflicted upon the natives of South America horrifying atrocities, to get the natives to abandon their native religions, and buy into the Vatican’s Pyramid-Scheme.
The Mass Pedophilia in the Catholic Church, that is being uncovered daily, appears to be just the tip of the iceberg of the Vatican’s long rap-sheet of Crimes against Humanity.
Each of the three primitive Semitic religions prescribes, and has carried out, death by stoning for women convicted of “adultery”.
From here on out, Man needs to look Eastwards, towards the ancient religions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The Eastern Religions do not prescribe the stoning to death of women charged with “adultery”.
In the 5000 years of its existence, there has never been a Hindu or Buddhist Terrorist or a Hindu or Buddhist Conquistador.
The Eastern Religions must know something we don’t.
@Chris
While there is too little space (and time) for me to discuss all the transgressions of each and every world religion ( I have degrees in theology and religious studies as well as teach) I suggest you to a quick Google search for “Hindu terrorist groups” and “Buddhist terrorist groups” and you will find significant, confirmed examples. There are NO religions on this earth that have not had their share of corruption, terrorism, and fundamentalism. All religions are created by human beings.
Google Babri Mosque or Anti-Sikh riots, among thousands of other examples.
1) Babri Mosque :
In 1527, the Mughal Islamic barbarian-invader Babur destroyed the Hindu temple that had been built at the birthplace of Lord Rama in Ayodhya, and built a Mosque at the very location of the destroyed Hindu temple (All mosques built by the Mughals in India were built by razing to the ground a Hindu temple, and then deliberately using the idols of the Hindu temples as the stepping-stones at the entrance to the Mosque, in a deliberate effort to humiliate the Hindus.)
In 1992, some right-thinking Hindus in India decided that enough was enough, and led a march to the disputed mosque, and demolished it, in an effort to restore the centuries-old Hindu temple that had long existed there.
Nobody was killed in this valiant action.
All right-thinking people the world over should rejoice over this laudable action, as it represents one small victory for the Forces of Good over the Forces of Evil, in the tireless battle that the Hindus of India have been waging single-handedly for 1500 years against the Arabic Plague of Islum.
2) Anti-Sikh Riots :
Yes, indeed, in the aftermath of the assassination of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her own Sikh bodyguards, there was a violent backlash against the Sikh community in India. The pogrom against the Sikhs was orchestrated by the Congress-Party, the very political-Party that is in power in India today.
The anti-Sikh violence is entirely condemnable, and all right thinking people have long been calling on the Congress Party to resign, and to punish the persons guilty of these crimes.
Sam,
There have not been any Hindu terrorists or Hindu Conquistadors.
In the face of grave provocations, for 1500 years from the Arabic Plague of Islum, and for 700 years from the Vatican Evange-thugs, the Hindus of India have maintained their dignity, even as they have continued to tirelessly and single-handedly resist these evil forces.
Meanwhile, my own Ph.D. is in Aerospace Engineering.
Chris,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/jan/19/india-hindu-terrorism-threat
There are several Hindus in India today, who consider it fashionable to run down other Hindus. These self-loathing vermin are part of a larger pseudo-secular movement in India – a movement that claims to be secular (i.e. free from any religious inclinations), but is actually, markedly anti-Hindu and pro-Islum and pro-Christianity.
One has to have spent several years in India to be able to understand this pseudo-secular menace.
The article that you reference is written by one such pseudo-secular. For a few dollars, the pseudo-seculars will sell their own mothers. One can dig up thousands of such “scholarly articles”, written by such pseudo-seculars.
Chris,
You are too much of a Hindu Nationalist sympathizer to continue this discussion.
Sam,
A view from the other side — the side that is diametrically opposite to that of the pseudo-seculars :
http://www.francoisgautier.com/en-art/
Yoga would bring peace to the Afghanis.
But, if you really want the Afghanis to zone-out, and forget all the miseries in their lives, you need to introduce Cricket and Bollywood into Afghanistan.
These are the two potent opiums of the masses in India.
By getting the masses in India hooked to these two potent Opiums, the corrupt Congress Party-led Government of India is emboldened to embezzle Trillions (yes, trillions) of Dollars worth of Indian-tax-payer-money, and stash it in the private Swiss bank accounts of the Congress Party, before the very eyes of the India masses, as the Indian masses are too stoned on their two opiums, to even take notice of the Congress-Party’s nefarious activities.
The war in Afghanistan is not the Afghan’s fault. For centuries the Afghans were fighting the European invaders, the British (3 wars), the Russian communists, red army (10 years of war) and before these people, Alexander, not-so-great.
Why this Irani yogi does not teach in Iran? The Iranians have so much problem in Iran. They need yoga badly. Now these, opening a NGO in Afghanistan is a great business. It generates great revenue. So many NGOs in the name of Afghan people and the poor children are still on the streets of Kabul, selling chewing gum and cigarette lighters. I’m also teaching yoga to women and young girls in Afghanistan without any organization or NGO, free of charge. Most women and girls are not allowed to go out of the house and they need yoga and breathing techniques badly.
The war in Afghanistan is not the Afghans fault. For centuries the Afghans were fighting the European invaders, the British (3 wars), the Russian communists, red army (10 years of war) and before these people, Alexander, not-so-great.
Why this Irani yogi does not teach in Iran? The Iranians have so much problem in Iran. They need yoga badly. Now these, opening a NGO in Afghanistan is a great business. It generates great revenue. So many NGOs in the name of Afghan people and the poor children are still on the streets of Kabul, selling chewing gum and cigarette lighters. I’m also teaching yoga to women and young girls in Afghanistan without any organization or NGO, free of charge. Most women and girls are not allowed to go out of the house and they need yoga and breathing techniques badly.
Sara,
Congratulations to you for teaching Yoga to the women of Afghanistan. Good luck with your peoject.
Before the Arabic Plague of Islam swept Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan were Hindu, Buddhist, and to some extent, Zoroastrian.
Now, the Afghan people need to reject the Arabic Plague of Islam, and to reclaim their ancient Hindu, Buddhist and Zoroastrian heritage of their own forefathers, in order for the Afghan people to have any decent chance of attaining peace and happiness.