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SERVING SOCIETY BY STRENGTHENING THE INDIVIDUAL

East Valley Life
Indian guru offers yoga technique to find balance
By Lawn Griffiths, Phoenix Tribune
October 2, 2004

Each Sunday morning, as many as 35 people meet at the Arizona State University Memorial Union to breathe new life
into their beings. For some, the breathing and meditation are all about relieving stress. For others, it’s a veritable
spiritual experience. Participants follow a prescribed cycle of breathing exercises, called "sudarshan kriya," which
adherents say "cleanses the whole system in minutes, infuses the body with energy and brings the mind into the
present moment."

Discovering the "power of the breath" is at the core of the Art of Living course developed by His Ho liness Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar, an Indianborn guru, who has ga ined a wide following in a quartercentury of endless travel and speaking on a
mantra of "ancient wisdom and practical skills."

Shankar, 47, not to be confused with famed Indian instrumentalist and recording artist Ravi Shankar, calls on
practitioners to follow their chosen religious and spiritual paths, but also embrace his message of love, practical
wisdom and compassion. In 1982, Shankar introduced the breathing technique and established the Art of Living
Foundation to promote selfdevelopment and health-related educational programs. A large part of Shankar’s work is
overseeing humanitarian projects he has fostered around the world.

"Sri Sri says that once you have gotten rid of some of the stress and you are feeling happy and more fulfilled, you want to
go out and do service to others," said Jim Larsen of Tucson, Art of Living coordinator for Arizona. Larsen, 49, recently
returned from a seven-week world tour with Shankar, which began in California, included 10 cities in India, then Germany
and New York.

Because of potential risks for an American, Larsen did not accompany Shankar to Pakistan on the tour. Visits by an
Indian spiritual leader to neighboring Pakistan are rare, Larsen said, given the tensions between the two countries.

Larsen began meditation and yoga in the 1970s at Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa, founded by Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi, developer of Transcendental Meditation. Larsen taught yoga for years, "and I felt that that was all that I needed," he
said. But in 1990, he was invited to an Art of Living course including sudarshan kriya breathing.

"I began to notice a change on an emotional level, a kind of connection with the heart, which is somewhat of a spiritual
experience, too," he said. "The meditation was giving me a lot of peace of mind, but the meditation was also opening up
the heart."

Patricia Schneider, 37, of Phoenix had taken many yoga and meditation courses and is a yoga instructor. "I have
meditated and tried to meditate for years, and I just always felt there was a piece missing, a quality missing," she said.
Schneider got into Art of Living a bit by accident. Last spring, a man showed her a line of Indian skin care products.

"I noticed it was from a nonprofit organization, and I started asking him a lot of questions about it being nonprofit and
what they did with their money," she said. Schneider learned that an Art of Living course was being offered in April in
Sedona, where Shankar would speak as part of a "Love Moves the World" tour. She enrolled.

"Within 24 hours, I realized this was something very special and very unique," she said. "They are very simple. They are
not like a lot of other breathing techniques, which can be very difficult and also bring up a lot of unsettledness and unrest
in the body."

The breathing "really calms the body down," she said. "I really feel like I have just done an hour-and-a-half yoga class
after having done 20 minutes of this breathing."

Eric Neufer took the basic course and went to retreats for advanced training.

"I do it now virtually every day in the morning when I wake up," he said. He does 20 minutes of yoga and breathing,
followed by 20 minutes of meditation when he has time.

"It has really stabilized my emotional life," Neufer said. "I am an up-and-down creative person, so I can have these big
spurts of creativity, followed by these empty spaces where I am dragging. These have been virtually eliminated. . . . I still
have times of low energy, but the bottom doesn’t fall out."

Gone are the times he lacked motivation, he said. "Being a morning person, I have more energy in the evenings (after
doing the breathing exercises), more alertness," Neufer said.

"Right now, it is my spiritual experience," said the 46-year-old teacher, who has published articles on philosophy and
was a driver transporting Shankar to Sedona in April. He said he has been "impressed by the intentions" of the
foundation "because it really is, to me, the next step in getting beyond the compartmentalized view of religion. It is
basically action in the world."

Larsen points to research by neuroscientist Candance Pert, author of "Molecules of Emotion," who asserts that
emotional experiences are manifested in a release of molecules and that proper diet and exercise serve to balance
emotions naturally.

"When you don’t fully express an emotion, then the molecules of those emotions are stuck there," he said. Over the
course of a lifetime, they block "network pathways," leading to poorer health and greater anxiety and depression. Larsen
said the breathing practices of Art of Living reverse this. Some people resist the programs and raise the are-you-acult?
question, Schneider said. There seems to be a "certain fear," and people have said, ‘‘ ‘No, I don’t want to come to yoga
because you chant, ‘Ohm’ at the end and you put your hands in a prayer position and I don’t want to worship.’ "

Schneider urges people to "take this as an experience, and if you go and say afterwards, ‘It’s not for me,’ then that is fine,
but people are fearful of things that they don’t know," Schneider said. "Usually if I don’t know something, I will investigate
it and then decide, but I think, in Western culture, everything is categorized, but I think the beauty of the Art of Living is that
we are all the same, and our religions break down to the same things."

Take a deep breath Live healthy:Art of Living is offering two free lectures next weekend. "Breath and Health: Reducing
Stress, Anxiety, Depression and Anger" will be 2 p.m. Oct. 9 at Vision Quest Metaphysical Bookstore, 2225 N. Scottsdale
Road, Scottsdale, and 2 p.m. Oct. 10 in Room 222 of the Arizona State University Memorial Union, Tempe; 1 p.m. Oct. 16,
Four Points Sheraton — Metro Center, 10220 N. Metro Parkway East, Phoenix. Full courses begin Oct. 28. $250, or $125
for students and seniors. For more information, call (480) 332-2297 or (800) 420-2193 or www.artoflivingAZ.org.

Contact Lawn Griffiths by email, or phone (480) 898-6522

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