Latest Breaking News On - Norman fischer - Page 7 : vimarsana.com
SpokaneFāVS
Tracy's house on the South Hill
Loss is part of change, but so is renewal
Just a few days ago I sold my little blue house on Spokane’s South Hill.
For over a year, I haven’t lived there full-time and have been renting it out to some friends. Still, the sale was bittersweet.
I bought the house in 2013 at my grandma’s prompting.
“You need to invest in something,” she said. “Otherwise, all you have is a box of receipts.”
But that house was more than an investment.
It was the only address I’ve kept in my adult life for more than a year or two. It was where I laughed and learned and cried and felt safe.
Norman-fischerTracy-simmonsEvs-centerWashington-state-universityநார்மன்-பிஷ்ஷர்சுவடு-சிம்மன்ஸ்எதிராக-மையம்வாஷிங்டன்-நிலை-பல்கலைக்கழகம் its founders interests in religion, community development and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designed and customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're yourretirementcompany.com. welcome. i'm bob abernethy, it's good to have you with us. as president obama chose general david petraeus to be the new commander in afghanistan, he insisted that the new counter insurgency policy would stand. however both continued about how to fight terrorism on the ground and how to do that without weakening constitutional rights here at home. on monday the supreme court upheld a 1996 anti-terrorism law that bans what's called material support of any kind to a group that's been designated a terrorist organization. the law applies not just to giving money, but to giving advice as well. civil rights organizations and humanitarian aid groups say the law infringes on free speech and could hinder peacemaking. we spoke with george lopez, a notre dame professor and a visiting fellow at the u.s. institute of peace. >> we had always thought that you could talk with groups that were serious about wanting training in peacekeeping, wanted training in how to come to the bargaining table and who wanted to explore solutions that were nonviolent. but the court's ruling is very, very clear that this constitutes material support. it makes it almost impossible to call together groups to help them turn over weapons, to engage in dialogue with the government. that's a serious constraint, not only on the peace process, but on the groups themselves obviously. >> in the court case, two jewish organizations, the anti-deaf make league and jewish institute for noshl security affairs, filed briefs in support of the government's position. muslim organizations are calling for more clarification of the country's anti-terrorism laws which they say have targeted american muslim donors and legitimate muslim charities. in pakistan, five american muslims were convicted on terrorism charges for plotting attacks in that country and for waging wars against pack dan's allies, mainly afghanistan and the united states. the five were sentenced to ten years in prison, they were from the washington, d.c. area and worshipped at a mosque in northern virginia. and in new york city, a guilty plea this week from the man arrested for the attempted times square bombing in may. during a court appearance, faisal shahzad, referred to himself as a muslim soldier. he said he was trying to retaliate for u.s. attacks on muslims. faith-based groups say despair is rising along the coast as residents cope with the devastated oil spill. churches and other religious groups are providing emotional and spiritual counseling to those who have lost their livelihoods. counselors fear a new wave of alcohol and drug abuse and suicide. meanwhile, four gulf coast governors declared sunday a day of prayer for an end to the crisis. religious conservatives are protesting a decision by the labor department that allows all gay and lesbian parents to take leaf for the birth, adoption or care of a child. mean while, president obama met this week at the white house with prominent gay rights activists. he spoke of his commitment to equality and reiterated his desire to repeal the defense of marriage acts, which defines marriage under federal law as between a man and a woman. this weekend, president obama joins leaders of the world's richest nations in canada. for a global economic summit and religious groups are urging that help for the poor be high on the agenda. the jubilee usa network of 75 religious groups said the international leaders have made, quote, shockingly little progress in addressing global poverty since their last meeting nine months ago. the network urged the summit to forgive more debts of poor nations and to fulfill previous promises of financial help. we have a story today about the samples of blood and tissue that medical researchers collect. they can help scientists find cures for diseases, but they also raise ethics questions and provoke bitter lawsuits. should the donors set limits on how their specimens can be used in what about their and their families' privacy? and if the search proves profitable, should the donors share in the awards? lucky severson presents two cases. >> reporter: a bittersweet moment for members of the tribe relieving blood samples it gave to arizona state university 20 years ago. >> we felt very strongly that blood samples are sacred to all native americans, a major part of our spiritual, cultural and religious identities. we are going to take them back down to the canyon where they can finally rest in peace. >> the village is actually at the bottom of the grand canyon where about 600 indians continue to weave baskets and farm and struggle against the diabetes that has afflicted so many of their tribe. >> i have begun to see the sickness come to my elders. some of my elders didn't have no legs, they were helpless. >> reporter: the tribe approached the university who took samples of about 200 tribal members. >> there's about 100 people who passed on since this whole thing began, and it hurts, hurts a lot to me. >> reporter: scientists at asu could not find the link to congenital diabetes, but they didn't stop there. >> those samples were later used without the tribe's knowledge for research into skits schizophrenia, alcoholism and intermarriages and a lot of the stuff that they found to be stig matti ma advertising. >> reporter: there are hundreds of millions of biosamples such as blood and tissue stored in biobanks in this country, but the answer to the tough religious and ethical questions about informed consent and compensation haven't kept one the science. a bioethicist says even the skin fiction writers underestimated the state of the art as it is today. >> our science fiction writers didn't anticipate that ourselves ourselves would be the victims of experiments. >> they are the most prolific cells, nobody knows exactly why they have some characteristics that have been identified. but they don't seem to age with every passage. so far as we know, those cells really are immortal. >> those ce. >> reporter: rebecca wrote the book called the "immortal life of henrietta sax." the cells would wrap around the earth 30 times and weigh more than 58 million metric tons, but most amazing is the contribution to medical science. >> they have saved millions of lives and pretty much everyone has benefitted in some way from research on her cells. they went up on the first space mission, her cells were the first ever cloned. >> reporter: henrietta's cells also made many scientists and entrepreneurs rich. >> her family to this day lives in poverty, they don't have health insurance. and the scientists would come to get samples from the family and her sons would say, if our mother was so important to medicine, why can't we go to the doctor? >> reporter: the courts almost never side with individuals whose biosamples become commercially profitable. >> in general, when courts have looked at somebody who gave a tissue sample and the pharmaceutical company later did find a commercial application for it, the courts ruled that the individual who gave the sample didn't have any intellectual property rights or any claim to profit shares. >> rebecca spent ten years writing and researching her book. researchers asked the family for samples 25 years after hen lrel henrietta. >> the scientists would come and take samples and she would say can my brother rest in peace if you're sending her up to the moon? does she then get sick in the after life? >> reporter: she became so distract, her cousin gary offered to perform some kind of exsorry sichl. >> he put her hands bhov her head eand said, lord, you've got to take the burden of the cells from this woman, she can't take it anymore. it was a tremendous relief for her. >> reporter: laws apply only to research that is federally funded and there aren't clear laws regarding stores tissues. maggie little says if someone's cells are used for specific research and end up being profitable,i@ then the donor should be compensated. >> sometimes individuals have biologies that are specially interesting. and their version of a cancer cell or their version of a liver cell is of enormous commercial value. and it does seem to me that fairness indicates a little bit of profit sharing. >> reporter: and jonathan moreno feel that privacy and confidentiality are absolutely essential to protect those who do give. >> if you do some of my tissues and do genetic analysis, you're not only learning about me, but in some measure, you're learning about my relatives. so we have to be very careful of stigmatization. >> what drives the scientists is unexpected and that's what you can't capture in informed con sent. probably the better model is really if my cells are being taken as part of my therapy, and they might be useful in science, i should really gift them, i should give them away to the scientific community so they can be used productively. >> deborah might have argued that the family should have received some remuneration for henrietta's cells, but she finally came to terms with her mom's legacy. >> she finally came to believe that her mother was chosen to live on in his cells and take care of people. and if you look in the bible, it says believers will be granted immortal life and you never know what form they'll come back in. >> the tribe has taken their samples down to the canyon, where the tribe says they can rest in peace. in other news, in rome this week, vatican officials announced the discovery of the oldest known images of st. andrew and st. john. two of jesus's 12 dissipe approximatelies. -- disciples. art experts used a laser technique to remove layers of white calcium that had covered the images. fourth century depictions of the apostles peter and paul were also part of the fresco. we have a profile today of the highly respected teacher of zen buddism, norman fischer in california. he's a former abbott of the san francisco zen center and he spends much of his time teaching medication practice to people of all religious traditions and none. fischer insists there is no conflict between buddhist techniques and religious beliefs, indeed as kate olsen reports, fischer says learning to be attentive every moment can help everyone. >> reporter: early morning along the pacific coast, norman fischer, a buddhist priest who's been teaching medication for over three decades, opens a meditation for practitioners of zen buddhism. >> thank you for all coming, i hope everybody has a good day, a peaceful day, whatever needs to arise in your heart will do so. >> reporter: other days fischer is at google in silicon valley, offering the same meditation practice to employees participating in a class called "search inside yourself." >> lengthen the spine, open the chest and let your body hold itself up. >> reporter: or he may be at a jewish retreat practicing with jews seeking to practice their own faith more deeply. >> the practice we're doing is fundamentally the practice of just feeling. our life. >> reporter: the various hats that fischer wears are part of his effort to help enrich everyday life experience by sharing the spirit and practice of zen with the world. >> if you really do the meditation practice and you continue that over time, your life really changes, you really have a sense of purpose, you really have a much greater sense of connection to other people and loving kindness and interest in others and wanting to help others, nothing makes us feel better about our own life than that. >> reporter: at google, fischer is helping employees increase their so-called emotional intelligence on the job. since the class began just over two years ago, close employees have taken it with the full blessing of management. >> at google, it's very explicit, our brief is let's get smarter about our feelings and emotions. let's go deeper than we usually go. for the purpose of getting closer to ourselves and being able to be more iempathetic and more understanding of others. there is no deeper practice of something that's going into and working through and really understanding hour hearts and the hearts of others in meditation practice. >> understanding the heart calls for the other way. >> reporter: if this doesn't work, it doesn't disregard thought and will, but thought and will are not the engine that make this is go, the enginea makes this go is taking a step back and trusting the body, trusting the breath, trusting the heart. we're living our lives madly trying to hold on to everything, and it looks like it might work for a while, but in the end it always fails. and it never was working and the way to be happy, the way to be loving, the way to be free is to really be willing to let go of everything on every occasion, or at least to make that effort. so the practice really works with sitting down, returning awareness to the body. returning awareness to the breath. usually it involves sitting up straight and opening up the body and lifting the body, so that the breath can be unrestrained and returning the mind to the present moment of being alive which is anchored in the breath in the body. then, of course, other things happen. you have thoughts, you have feelings, you have pain, you have an ache, visions, memories, reflections, all these things arise. but instead of applying yourself to them and getting entangled in them, you just bear witness to it, let it go, and come back to breathing in the body. and what happens is you release a whole lot of stuff in yourself, a whole new process comes into being that would not have been there if you were always fixing and choosing and doing and making, this way you're allowing something to take place within your heart. >> reporter: fischer says the meditation practice which includes meditative walking is not an escape from difficult or painful emotions and negative thoughts but a way to be present and not attached to whatever arises. this opens a whole new way of seeing one's self and others. >> i begin to notice others are rather like me, and i'm rather like them. not so much different, if i'm scared, maybe they are too. if i have longings, maybe they do too. but a felt sense of actual kinship. >> reporter: and this has implications that beyond working more effectively for a company. >> you end up coming to a place where it becomes more and more difficult to be harmful to others. it becomes more and more difficult not to be kind, more and more difficult to push for a result and not notice the consequences. ♪ >> reporter: at the jewish retreat, fischer teaches meditation to help jews experience their own faith more deeply. he draws on traditional jewish language and imagery in his teachings such as jacob's ladder. >> the ladder is rooted in the earth and stretching up towards heaven, that's the human body, that's the spine is that ladder. >> reporter: fischer who's a practicing jew feels much of the teaching about judaism today doesn't do enough to support a personal relationship with god, meditation not only deepens this relationship, but helping you to see god in everything, with the torah teaches. >> when we recognize the crucial divine importance of absolutely everything that arises, every thought, every feeling, every breath, every unspeakable, unnameable impulse, but also we recognize the ultimate importance of the others. of the sky, of all the sounds inside and outside the room. as the mind becomes a little more quiet, the sacredness of everything within and without becomes clear to us. >> reporter: so how can a practice from zen buddhism, a tradition that does not speak of god help practitioners from a tradition where god is central? >> buddhism in general is not committed to god or no god. it's committed to awakening. so taking this practice from buddhism and applying it to judaism, it's a way to go deeper into our heart, our mind, our consciousness. and in a jewish context, when you do that, i think at the bottom, you find the divine, you find god. and there's nothing in this practice, nor is there anything in buddhist or zen thought that would deny this possibility. >> reporter: fischer who has served as abbott of the san francisco zen center says it's important on the spiritual journey not to ignore the emotional realm which is sometimes overlooked in religious practice. >> when we think we're going to go from, you know, everyday life straight through to the divine, leading out may be all the many needs and feelings and human foibles and frailties that are actually there. they need to be processed and dealt with. the thing about this practice that is to me, anyway, so sweet is that we're doing it together, we're walking the big, long line all together, like one person walking. >> reporter: wherever fischer teaches, he says the practice is an ongoing contemplation that leads beyond the self to a deep connection and compassion for others and all life. >> and if you stay with this practice long enough, you basically will work through a kp you go below, below, below all of that to the place that's what's really important to you and what matters to you is that you are alive, and you are alive in a world with others. you really feel like my life is a life of complete connection and it's a life of joyful connection and concerned connection and then you have to act on it. >> reporter: fischer says the practice he teaches doesn't conflict with other faith traditions but can be helpful to anyone on the spiritual journey, a journey he calls to the bottom of the heart, for "religion & ethics weekly," this is kate olson in san francisco. on our calendar, zoroastrians mark their ghambar festival celebrating their creation of water and the sewing of summer crops. this week is summer solstice. at stonehenge, druids, wiccans and others gathered for sun rise revelries. and in new york's central park, thousands of owing with go practitioners kicked off the first day of summer in what they called the world's largest registered yoga class. finally there's a puzzling new poll out from the pugh research center, the questions were about what people expected to happen over the next 40 years. 58% said another world war was definite or probable. 53% said the same thing about a major terrorist attack on the u.s. with nuclear weapons. and 72% expected a major energy crisis. on the other hand, 64% said they're very or somewhat optimistic about life for themselves and their families. world war and optimism? as they say, go figure. that's our program for now, i'm bob abernethy, there's much more on our website, including more of kate olson's interview with norman fischer about meditation, you can comment on all of our stories and share them.wt audio and video podcasts are also available. and you can always follow us on our facebook page, join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, scenes from the washington national cathedral where j. magnus was consecrated last weekend as episcopal bishop for federal ministries, overseeing among others the denominations military chaplains.
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