neworleans_article

SERVING SOCIETY BY STRENGTHENING THE INDIVIDUAL

The Times-Picayune
New Orleans
World peace one breath at a time
Monday, April 02, 2007
Lolis Eric Elie

The art of living is found in breathing, an activity so automatic and ethereal as to be beneath or beyond description.

And when you talk to students of the Art of Living, a course offered by the International Association for Human Values,
they find it difficult to describe the nature of the course or the techniques they've learned.

Yet students I talked to are united in their conviction that the Art of Living course reduced the stress in their lives and even
improved their physical health.

"They taught me different breathing exercises and techniques," said Puja Cuddapah, a 19-year-old Loyola student. "It
has to do with stress relief, because of the trauma that everybody faced after Hurricane Katrina. When people ask me
what's involved in the course, all I can say is they should go try it because it is beyond words," Cuddapah said. "After you
practice what they teach you on a daily basis, you start seeing the effects. You are just more relieved. You are not as
stressed out as you were before."

Market for compassion

The Art of Living Foundation was created in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a spiritual leader from southern India.

His is an expansive vision. At the micro level, he seeks to teach individuals techniques to reduce stress and maximize
their potential. On a macro level, he seeks to bring about a violence-free, stress-free society.

"It is not enough to globalize potato chips, Pepsi and Coke," Shankar has said. "We need to globalize the values of
compassion and love."

Since shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Shankar's organization has been working with New Orleanians traumatized by
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Stopping the violence

Stress reduction and trauma relief are difficult to measure. But in New Orleans, the Art of Living Foundation has sought to
apply its techniques in pragmatic ways.

Angela Herbert, the director of programs and volunteers for New Orleans Outreach, initially took the course for personal
benefit. Since then, she has sought to introduce it to schools her organization works with as a means of reducing the
potential for violence.

"With schools, the big thing that I keep hearing is the need for prevention now so we don't have to get to the point of
breaking up fights and doing the conflict resolution," Herbert said.

"I see this is doing something on the front end, so we don't have to do much after-the-fact conflict resolution," she said.
"It's not going to solve it completely, but hopefully we can give some kids tools other than violence."

. . . . . . .

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will speak Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at McAllister Auditorium, on the Tulane University campus. For
information, call (504) 994-4990, or visit http://events.artofliving.org.

Lolis Eric Elie can be reached at lelie@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3330.

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