Letters

Monday, Aug. 18, 2003
    • The Science of Meditation

    Thank you for the cover story on meditation [HEALTH, Aug. 4]. As a 28-year-old practitioner of both yoga and meditation, I was reassured to learn that other Americans have incorporated traditional Eastern philosophical methods into their lives as a way of coping with everyday rigors. The rat race needs to slow down for a soul-cleansing pit stop.
    MOLLY WRIGHT
    Chicago


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    We hear so much about violence and war that it was refreshing to be reminded that people have the power to bring themselves peace. Perhaps, years from now, our children will be able to control their anger, and our leaders will learn to promote peace through mindfulness.
    SOHEILA VOJOUDI
    Westmount, Que.

    I fear that by bringing attention to meditation, your story might be taken by hard-driving overachievers as a more spiritually correct way to acquire fame, fortune and real estate — or just another fad to talk about over cocktails.
    HARVEY B. USSACH
    New Bedford, Mass.

    In our fast-lane urban life, people pay too little attention to such conditions as stress and depression. Spending a few minutes a day meditating can really improve our body dynamics. I hope more people realize its power so they can experience more tranquillity.
    SIVA PRASAD
    Hyderabad, India

    Stress reduction, life extension and transitory states of bliss are worthy pursuits but not the true, historical purpose of meditation. In Zen Buddhist parlance, it is a way to resolve the "great matter" of birth and death, by allowing the practitioner to bear witness to the indestructible, birthless, deathless self-nature that lies at the heart of all existence and then to live in accordance with this insight.
    HOAG HOLMGREN
    Nederland, Colo.

    With proof of its healing powers increasing, meditation in its different forms is catching the attention of people around the world. But there is at least one form of meditation whose benefits, though undocumented, are hard to beat. It is the stroll in the neighborhood park on a sunny afternoon, with toddler in tow. Indeed, there are few things more effective in focusing the mind on the eternal present, to the exclusion of everything else. The only downside is that kids grow up and move out one day.
    M. VENKATA KRISHNAN
    Chennai, India

    Many readers felt that writer Joel Stein's antic skepticism was ill suited to the subject of meditation. "He would not have used such a flip, disrespectful tone in an article on Christian or Jewish ritual," wrote a religion professor from Georgia. Asked a minister from Maine: "Why the sarcasm? What was Stein afraid of?" And a New Yorker offered a brief, blunt primer on meditation: "The goal is to calm the mind enough that you don't need to make really lame jokes."

    Smarter Intelligence

    Michael Duffy's story on the congressional inquiry into the causes of 9/11 was insightful, but I take issue with his dismissal of FBI-CIA turf battles as "silly bureaucratic rivalries" [NATION, Aug. 4]. Interagency rivalries and failure of cooperation generally stem from the same source: funding. The CIA and FBI must prove to Congress that they have been effective and deserve the budgets they have requested. The agency that openly shares information risks enabling another organization to crack the case. Until Congress establishes a method of budgeting that promotes cooperation over rivalry, we will continue to see linkage failures of the type that led to 9/11.
    CURTIS SPINDLER
    New York City

    Your report said little about how inefficient the government is in authenticating intelligence from abroad. When terrorism assumes a global character, intelligence agencies around the world need to share information to avert horrifying incidents like 9/11. Who in the government is accountable for verifying information from overseas, a major factor for the coalition-led war on Iraq?
    UJJWAL BHATTACHARJEE
    Lowell, Mass.

    No Success Without Support

    In his Essay against sending U.N. peacekeepers to Iraq, Michael Elliott wrote, "You don't bring peace to a violent land just by sending a multinational force wearing blue helmets" [GLOBAL AGENDA, Aug. 4]. But it was the lack of U.S. and other major-power support for understaffed U.N. forces that was at the root of the failures that Elliott cited. U.S. pressure in the Security Council to withdraw rather than enlarge the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Rwanda contributed to the severity of the massacre. The Dutch peacekeepers who failed to act in Bosnia did not have adequate support or a mandate from the five permanent members of the Security Council — and the U.S. did not push for additional resources. And it is difficult to blame the U.N. for the failed mission in Somalia, which was composed mainly of American forces led by Americans, when non-American "blue helmets" became involved only in the process of withdrawal.
    WILLIAM LUERS, PRESIDENT
    UNITED NATIONS ASSOCIATION
    New York City

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