January 11, 2012 Dear Concerned Citizen, I want to respond to the statements that have been circulating about

the Art of Living Foundation. As the President of the Foundation in the United States, I have been very troubled by these statements, and in particular, accusations that some of our actions interfered with others freedom of speech or resulted in any type of retaliation. As you may know, the Art of Living Foundation is a non-profit organization that offers instruction on breathing techniques, meditation, and low-impact yoga to achieve stress relief and general wellness. The Foundation is also committed to humanitarian aid and community service. The Foundation and thousands of its volunteers have reached out to millions of people in over 150 countries through various programs. The Foundation was accredited as a United Nations non-governmental organization in 1996, and it continues to serve as one of the United Nation's largest volunteerbased NGOs. In the last thirty years, the organization has incessantly rendered services regarding a plethora of social development issues, including environmental conservation, child protection, youth leadership, prisoner rehabilitation, women empowerment, trauma relief, and assisting HIV/AIDS patients. The Art of Livings courses promote personal empowerment and transformation. We encourage all people to pursue their personal goals and express themselves in an open and honest way. We understand that, like other organizations, ours is not exempt from criticism. We recognize that our message and our mode of operations may sometimes create different points of view. Yet, an essential aspect of our organization is to continuously improve our efforts based on the feedback we receive from around the world. We are not a litigious or a retaliatory organization. In the last 30 years, we have never been involved in any activities of retaliation against any individual who has disagreed with our teachings or practices. In 2010, we discovered two Internet blogs that were publishing false and defamatory statements about us, of the most egregious nature. These blogs falsely accused us of having committed criminal activity and other very inappropriate behavior. These statements were totally false. It appeared that the bloggers were publishing these statements with the intent of damaging the reputation of our organization, and in some cases, motivated by personal financial gain. These blogs also published several of the Foundations texts, without our knowledge or consent, in violation of our intellectual property rights. Only after patiently waiting for many months and then engaging in a thoughtful debate about how to address these blogs, did we for the first time decide that we had to file a lawsuit. We made this decision because the false statements were starting to show a lopsided perception of our humanitarian efforts to create a violent-free and stress-free society. During this lawsuit, we have never sought to expose anybody who was not involved in the misconduct and we have never sought to shut down honest debate and criticism about us and our work. This lawsuit is still active, and we stand by our position that the defendants engaged in unlawful and dishonest conduct, and should be found liable. I hope that you will keep this letter in mind when you write about the Art of Living Foundation. I also hope that you will contact me if you have any questions or concerns Best Regards,

Michael Fischman President of the Art of Living Foundation USA

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ P.O. BOX 50003, SANTA BARBARA, CA 93150 . PRESIDENT@US.ARTOFLIVING.ORG . WWW.ARTOFLIVING.ORG