{"id":838,"date":"2009-10-01T14:54:38","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T14:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/10\/meditate-alan-grayson-kanye-west-joe-wilson.html"},"modified":"2009-10-01T14:54:38","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T14:54:38","slug":"meditate-alan-grayson-kanye-west-joe-wilson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/meditate-alan-grayson-kanye-west-joe-wilson.html","title":{"rendered":"Why We Meditate: Because Alan Grayson, Kanye West, and Joe Wilson Don’t (Yet?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"meditation_buddhism_meditate.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>by Ethan Nichtern<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

On November 6 & 7<\/strong>, the Buddhist<\/a>-inspired Interdependence Project<\/a> (which creates this blog for your education and\/or amusement) will be hosting our largest
\nfundraiser and event to date in the form of a 24- hour Meditation<\/a> Marathon in the
\nwindow displays of ABC Carpet & Home<\/a>, a wonderful and sustainable<\/a> store in New York City.
\nWe are aiming to raise funds for our non-profit organization to develop as a true
\ncommunity center, develop a radio show, and develop our activism
\nprojects in the coming year. We also need additional support to continue providing great
\nclasses, events and projects for the upcoming year, and expand the
\nscope of our transformative community.<\/p>\n

So
\nfar, about 90 people have signed up to participate. Three of us, myself
\nincluded, are meditating for 24 hours straight! So why do we practice meditation?
\nThat’s a great question to ask yourself before you do it around the clock on one of the busiest streets in the world. Every week for the next six weeks leading up to
\nthe event, we will share with you five answers to that questions from
\nmarathon participants. If you like an answer, please consider making a donation in support of the meditator who wrote it<\/a> (many thanks to the
\nAny amount is appreciated, and it helps our little nonprofit with a big
\nheart tremendously. The donation is deductible to the full extent of
\nthe law. <\/p>\n

Here are this week’s top five reasons we sit:
<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n


\n1. “I meditate because Alan Grayson<\/a>, Kanye West<\/a>, and Joe Wilson<\/a> don’t (yet?)”
\n     -participant Ethan Nichtern<\/b> <\/p>\n

2. “I sit because I want to be that cool meditation dude who everyone admires. Mr.     
     meditation. That’s me.”
    -participant Jon Rubinstein<\/b><\/p>\n

3. “I sit because it doesn’t
\ncost me anything, and I can stay in my PJs.<\/span><\/span>
     -participant Judi Hark<\/b><\/p>\n

4. “<\/span>I sit because the alternative is worse – a very insidious and special kind of insanity”
     -participant Paul Bennett<\/b><\/p>\n

5. “<\/span><\/font><\/span>I sit because Church, punk rock, Hare Krsna, Reiki, sex, whiskey, rock ‘n roll,
\nromance, 12-step, and buying stuff just didn’t work out.<\/span><\/span>“
    -participant Ralph De La Rosa<\/p>\n

Please Do Donate on behalf of one of the above participants at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And tell us, why do you<\/i> meditate? Or why don’t you? Sit Down, Rise Up, Ladies and Gentlemen
<\/b><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ethan Nichtern On November 6 & 7, the Buddhist-inspired Interdependence Project (which creates this blog for your education and\/or amusement) will be hosting our largest fundraiser and event to date in the form of a 24- hour Meditation Marathon in the window displays of ABC Carpet & Home, a wonderful and sustainable store in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media","category-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy We Meditate: Because Alan Grayson, Kanye West, and Joe Wilson Don't (Yet?) - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/10\/meditate-alan-grayson-kanye-west-joe-wilson.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why We Meditate: Because Alan Grayson, Kanye West, and Joe Wilson Don't (Yet?) - 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His writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications. He is the founding director of the Interdependence Project and the host of the I.D. Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popular weekly podcast (available on iTunes). He is currently on the part-time faculty of Eugene Lang College at New School University in NYC, where he teaches Buddhism. Ethan lectures regularly at universities and venues around the country on Buddhism, meditation, contemporary culture, and activism.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/enichtern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}