washingtonpost.com Nonprofit Group Teaches D.C. How to Take a Breather also has some great photos of the open-air event in downtown Washington.

"Take a Breath DC" ran from Wednesday to Saturday and culminated in a group meditation for about 600 in Lafayette Park. The course was organized by the Art of Living Foundation, a nonprofit group that has its national headquarters on 15th Street NW. The cornerstone of Art of Living is a rhythmic breathing technique called Sudarshan Kriya. About 30 years ago, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (not the sitarist who knew the Beatles; different guy) discovered that this type of breathing, combined with yoga and meditation, can bring inner peace; he and his followers have taught the art of better breathing to millions since then.

I learned the AOL routines back in early 2004 and have continued them to this day, though I don't do them everyday because it's hard to fit all my practices into a single day. If I do yoga, I usually won't do a kriya unless I'm really dead tired and need to revive my energy. I haven't been to a Art of Living weekly session for several years and need to go back just to refresh my memory of the whole process.