Sunaj

Baruch College, NEW YORK CITY – For two days (October 7th & 8th) we were pleased to have a special people on our campus. Few people from The Baruch College-Rubin Museum of Art Project and their guests has presented a “Mandala: The Art of Mindfulness”. That was an event where we could see some great performances prepared by Rubin Museum such as: a traditional Cham dance, that  “is a lively masked and costumed dance associated with some sects of Buddhism, and is part of Buddhist festivals. The dance is accompanied by music played by monks using traditional Tibetan instruments. The dances often offer moral instruction relating to compassion for sentient beings and are held to bring merit to all who perceive them.” We could hear stories from Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso Rinpoche about his life and his experience of being at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan studies at Sarnath. During “The Art of Mindfulness” those who wanted to participate in a discussion about Tibetan culture could go to the Engelmann Recital Hall. However, those who wanted to see how Tibetan monks were making Mandalas could stay at the room 1-107. Mandala is a symbol representing a Universe. Also, a process of making it and destroying immediately after is done shows how everything in the world (even what is beautiful) does not matter, because nothing lasts forever. At the end we could see once again a wonderful Chan dance and participate in a walk to the East River in order to disseminate the sand that has been used to make a mandala.

At the talks in Geneva the United States and Russia in a common agreement decide to force Syria to the destruction of chemical weapons by middle of 2014. This is one of the largest arrangements related to arms control in the history.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/world/middleeast/syria-talks.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

In the article, “U.N. Investigates More Alleged Chemical Attacks in Syria,” by Allan Cowell, According to a statement in Damascus on Friday, Reuters said, the experts who are already in Syria plan to conclude their examinations of the sites of seven purported chemical weapons attacks by Monday. Earlier United Nations inspections within days of the attack on Aug. 21 discovered the use of sarin, a deadly nerve gas. The United States and its allies blamed the Syrian authorities for the attack, which killed hundreds of civilians, but President Bashar AL-Assad has accused the rebels fighting to overthrow him of deploying chemical weapons.

President Obama laid down blueprint for America’s role in the Middle East. He declared that the United States would use all of its levers of power, including military force, to defend its interests, even accepted the limits of their abilities to influence the events in Syria, Iran and other countries. In the article, “Obama defends U.S. Engagement in the Middle East” by Mark Landler, Mr. Obama insisted that the United States still played an “Exceptional” role on the world stage. The U.S. will use its economic, political and if necessary, its military power in the Middle East.

The United States and its partners are planning a series of steps of dismantling Syria’s chemical weapons program according to the New York Times article,”Plan for Riddling Syria of Chemical Arms Includes Brute Force and Chemistry” by Michael R. Gordon. The basic plan for eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons program was outlined last month in a framework agreement between American and Russian officials and has been refined in consultation with experts at the Organization Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an international watchdog group. The system to deal with the chemicals  which the Pentagon says can be operated within 10 days of being shipped to a new location, would be used to neutralize the large quantities of “precursor” chemicals that could be used by the Syrian government to make sarin and other forms of poison gas.

Chemical weapons experts, in Damascus on Thursday, are tasked with destroying stockpiles