LA yogis bat for Kerry

As if President Bush didn't have enough trouble, the yoga community of Los Angeles launched its campaign of chakra and awe against him on Sunday, says the Los Angeles Times.

In an article titled 'Going to the mat for Kerry,' it said about 250 people participated in "Yoga for Kerry, an all-day fund- and consciousness-raiser aimed at regime change in the United States. For donations starting at $50, attendees could take classes with respected teachers, listen to kirtan music and political speakers, and take part in group meditations."

Organisers of the event at Focus Fish, a Hollywood yoga studio, 'hoped the event would draw about 300 people, which it nearly did, and raise as much as $20,000, which it didn't (early estimates were about $3,600),' said the report.

"Voting is one of the ways society gives us to express our values," it quoted keynote speaker Robert Rabbin--a writer who has practiced meditation for 35 years--as saying.

"If we don't vote, it's a betrayal of the very yoga and meditation we pursue. There's no such thing as being apolitical. I hope to get out the vote for the mystic crowd. Twenty million U.S. adults practice yoga and meditate regularly - that's one hell of a swing bloc."

"There isn't a lot of policy difference between Bush and Kerry on some issues. But there's a world of difference between their levels of consciousness. I'm voting for Kerry and Edwards

because in my mind they and the people they will bring in are at least human beings. In my mind, George Bush et al are a group of psychopaths - it's a clinical term, the primary element of which is an absolute lack of empathy," the Times quoted him as saying.

'At Sunday's event, yogis and yoginis were free to follow their bliss,' said the article. 'In one room, some indulged in "healing sessions." Outside, some bought beads, tea and Indian food.'

On the roof, musicians played to an appreciative multiethnic crowd wearing gym clothes, traditional Indian garb and a few political T-shirts. Most of them reportedly said they were drawn by the mix of yoga and politics – 'and a chance to say neti-neti to President Bush,' the Times said.

'Mostly, organizers hoped to unleash the kundalini of the spiritual voting bloc, which sounds naughty but isn't. Kundalini is "the cosmic energy in the body that is often compared to a snake lying coiled, waiting to be awakened," according to www.yogamovement.com,' the Times article said. It's also the style of yoga taught by Jenn Joos, a local teacher who helped produce the event.'

"I would give [Bush] an exercise that would open his heart," Joos told the Times. This was the "camel pose," which involves kneeling and arching one's back. "It opens up your heart chakra, which embodies your compassion. You can see the other person as yourself."