Leonard Perlmutter: Today's March of Cultural Violence can be Halted Only when People Learn Meditation Skills to Transform their Own Character, Conduct and Consciousness
AVERILL PARK, NY (PRWEB) September 28, 2016 -- In light of recent tragedies in Oklahoma, North Carolina and Washington that gave rise to police protests in their own communities, Leonard Perlmutter, philosopher, author and founder of The American Meditation Institute (AMI), continued his call to halt the march of cultural violence by incorporating meditation and its allied disciplines into every level of education––from grade school to graduate school.
Perlmutter said, “The violence in city streets is not the real cause of the problem facing Americans today. The violence in the streets is only a reflection of the violent emotional battles already raging in individual minds. In order to change individual character, conduct and consciousness, tactics are needed that work systematically–– from the inside out. Meditation is an engineering science. Meditation can transform the violent power of angry, fearful and self-indulgent thoughts and emotions into potent, positive and creative energy that can heal the nation’s social, racial, political and economic divisions.
“Daily meditation can provide the blueprint, resources and inspiration to explore beyond the boundaries of habitual thinking, feeling and unexamined reasoning. All the answers to the questions, ‘What is to be done and what is not to be done,’ are waiting for all humanity in the profound silence of meditation. Unless people can consciously know and examine the silent space between thoughts, there will never be sufficient clarity of vision to resolve the nation’s most pressing problems.
“Today’s educational system does an admirable job training skilled workers,” Perlmutter noted, “yet it isn’t training the concerned philosophers and sages who once helped guide humanity. Those intuitive leaders have too often been replaced by well-intentioned, but parochially-minded individuals whose limited perspectives only assure that the blind of one generation will continue to lead the blind of the next generation.”
Then he concluded, “Meditation for every woman, man and child––regardless of their religious beliefs––is not simply a good idea, it’s a dire necessity. To begin meaningful change, the nation’s local and state boards of education as well as the boards of directors at every American college and university must begin to incorporate mandatory classes in meditation. When this occurs, all levels of educational institutions will not simply train people how to make a living, but how to live lives that reflect the wisdom, creativity, fairness, compassion and inclusive sense of community that can redefine what it means to be a human being.”
Leonard Perlmutter is the author of the award-winning book, “The Heart and Science of Yoga” and the mind/body medicine journal, “Transformation.” Leonard has served on the faculties of the New England Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine, the Himalayan Yoga Teachers Association and the College of Saint Rose. He has presented courses at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Albany Medical College, the United States Military Academy at West Point and The New York Times Yoga Forum with Dean Ornish MD. From October 25-29, 2016, Leonard Perlmutter will head a faculty of ten scholars at The American Meditation Institute’s 8th annual mind/body medicine CME conference at the Cranwell Resort and Spa in Lenox, Massachusetts. Entitled The Heart and Science of Yoga this comprehensive mind/body medicine training to relieve physician burnout is accredited through the Albany Medical College Office of Continuing Medical Education.
Robert Washington, American Meditation Institute, http://www.americanmeditation.org, +1 (518) 674-8714, [email protected]
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