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by Ethan Nichtern

This is the last installment of “Why We Meditate” before the 24 Hour Meditation Marathon.

On Friday and Saturday, the Buddhist-inspired Interdependence Project (which creates this blog for your education and/or amusement) will be hosting our largest 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 New York City.
We are raising for our non-profit organization to develop as a true
community center, develop a radio show, and develop our activism
projects (environmental and prison work) in the coming year. We also need additional support to continue providing great
classes, events and projects for the upcoming year, and expand the
scope of our transformative community.

About 90 people have signed up to participate. Three of us, myself
included, are meditating for 24 hours straight! So why do we practice
meditation
?
That’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
the event, we will share with you five answers to that questions from
marathon participants. If you like an answer, please consider making a donation in support of the meditator who wrote it (many thanks to the 600 or so sponsors so far!) Any amount is appreciated, and it helps our little nonprofit with a big
heart tremendously. The donation is deductible to the full extent of
the law.

Here are this week’s top five reasons we sit:


1.“Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun, I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ come,
Watching the thoughts roll in, And I watch ’em roll away again, yeah
(apologies to Otis Redding)”
    -participant Raquel Cion”

2. “I sit to turn up my Heartlight. (Like E.T.)”
    -participant Shelley Dague

3. “I sit because I’m going to die.  Before I do I want to live consciously and fully.”
    -participant Hal Lanse

4. “I meditate becasue the alternative is not pretty.”
    -participant Ellen Scordato

5.  “I sit because sanity can’t be bought or sold.”
     -participant Ethan Nichtern

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