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近年在世界各地兴起和大热的瑜伽，并非只是一套流行或时髦的健身运动这么简单。瑜伽是一种非常古老的能量知识修炼方法，集哲学、科学和艺术于一身。瑜伽的基础建筑在古印度哲学上，数千年来，心理、生理和精神上的戒律已经成为印度文化中的一个重要组成部分。古代的瑜伽信徒发展了瑜伽体系，因为他们深信通过运动身体和调控呼吸，可以完全控制心智和情感，以及保持永远健康的身体。现代生活刮起又一次“瑜伽风”，我们一起做瑜伽吧！
On one of her regular visits to New York from Virginia, Christine Breighner told Rebecca Damon, a longtime friend, that she didn't want to visit the tourist sites she'd seen before. She wanted to extend her horizons beyond the latest Broadway show or exhibit at the Met. Not too long before, Damon had received a brochure advertising a call-and-response chanting session called kirtan after a yoga class. Now she passed it along
"I read the brochure and said, 'Oh, that might challenge my comfort zone, so we should do it,' " said Breighner.
Recently, Breighner and Damon attended a Friday night kirtan at the Integral Yoga Institute. The two friends, along with about 60 participants, sat on cushions facing a group of musicians who wore traditional Indian kurtas — collarless cotton tunics — and played a variety of instruments, including bongos, a wooden flute and harmonium, an accordion-like organ.
For about two hours, the musicians played and chanted in Sanskrit while the audience responded when moved. Some clapped and swayed as they repeated the words; others simply listened with closed eyes and beatific smiles. The mood became more festive as the evening wore on, with many participants jumping up to dance: springing straight up and down, making chorus-line kicks and even walking on their hands.
It was a definite scene — a mix of a religious revival meeting, a Grateful Dead concert, and summer camp. And it could certainly challenge many comfort zones. But if you can adjust your comfort level to include white people in dreadlocks and saris, if you can roll with belting out several rounds of "Hare Krishna" and "Om Nama Shivaya," then you might just enjoy yourself.
And with the average kirtan in New York requesting a donation of $10 to $15, it's a relatively inexpensive route to bliss in difficult times.
As with meditation, the intent of chanting is to calm and focus the mind, relieving it from its usual chatter — grocery lists, money worries, petty arguments. "Chanting works well because it engages the mind and because it's musical," said Mitra Somerville, 49, who leads Integral's community kirtan. "The melody and the vibration of the words are very soothing and uplifting so people can really connect with it."
And an increasing number of Americans seem to be connecting with kirtan. At the Omega Center in Rhinebeck, New York, attendance to its Ecstatic Chant festival has doubled over the last five years. The numbers are also up at Integral. Jo Sgammato, 57, the center's general manager, said the Friday-night kirtan would have about 25 participants 10 years ago; now the center will sometimes host 400 in a single weekend when kirtan stars like Krishna Das, Jai Uttal and Wah! perform. At the Jivamukti Yoga School in Manhattan, 700 people came last September to see Krishna Das, setting a record for kirtan at the center.
If you've ever taken a yoga class where a rich, sonorous voice chanted on CD, chances are it was Krishna Das, who has become so popular over the last five years that he now performs at mainstream venues like the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles, the Berklee Performance Center in Boston and last month at Town Hall in Manhattan.
