Wanderlust 108 eschews swimming and cycling and consists of a 5K run/walk, yoga with a DJ and guided meditation.

His coughing distracted everybody during meditation, so he was sent back to the infirmarian.

Far more cool, calm, and collected is Tejas Muthusamy of Glen Allen, Virginia, who hit upon meditation as a way to stay relaxed in the midst of the scrum of the Bee.

However, as with cancer screenings, yearly physicals and corporate wellness programs, Ehrenreich writes that large studies have shown that meditation is no more effective for stress than muscle relaxation, medication or psychotherapy.

Takemitsus musical meditation received the most sympathetic interpretation of the concert.

In the four-minute clip, Gambino goes from dance meditations to murder in the blink of an eye -- and that's the point.

In the four-minute clip, Gambino goes from dance meditations to murder in the blink of an eye -- and that's the point.

Students wear all white, and the focus of the class is a release of energy said to be coiled at the base of the spine through breath, chanting, and meditation.

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Meditation | Definition of Meditation by Merriam-Webster

Three Dimensions of IntelligenceDefinition of Spiritual Intelligence

Spiritual intelligence is a higher dimension of intelligence that activates thequalities and capabilities of the authentic self (or the soul), in the form of wisdom, compassion, integrity, joy, love, creativity, and peace. Spiritual intelligence results in a sense of deeper meaning and purpose, combined with improvements in a wide range of important life skills and work skills [ref].

where P = presence

As an analysis of spiritual intelligence, the above equation means that SQ equals IQ and EQ magnified by the power of presence. Thus spiritual intelligence results when intellectual and emotional intelligence are exercised in the state of presence. But what is presence? Although the experience of presence is unmistakable, nevertheless the nature of presence isoften misunderstood.

Presence is more than simply being awareof your immediate surroundings with greater clarity than usual. Thats only one ofthe results of presence. Presence is the shift from the object-pole of attention to thesubject-poleof attention, which results in the corresponding shift from ego to soul.When you shift to the subject-pole of attention, by identifying with feeling-awarenesss itself instead of identifying with your body and mind, there is greater clarity about everything at the object-pole of attention, including your immediate surroundings. However, theessential nature ofpresence is the shift from ego to soul, and greaterclarity ofmind is one of the results.

Spiritual intelligence equals IQ and EQ exercised with presence.

Therefore theequation SQ = P(IQ+EQ) means that SQequals IQ and EQ when governed by your soul. When your soul governs IQ and EQ, as it does inmoments ofpresence, your egois removed from command.Consequently, in those moments,your ego is notincharge of your thoughts, emotions, purposes, values, and actions. SQ is therefore your most valuable personal resource, because it puts your soul in command. The souldoes a much better job than the ego, since the soul is the source of wisdom,compassion, integrity, joy, love, creativity, and peace [ref]. Therefore SQ realises your full potential,by living from your soul, and thus transforms the life destinythat would otherwise be created by the ego.

Thediagram below illustratesa contemporarymethod of access to spiritual intelligence, called theSQ Portal. Transit through the SQ Portal is accomplished in three steps. These three simple steps shift identification from the object-pole to the subject-pole of attention, which creates a corresponding shift from ego to soul. This video shows how to use the SQ Portal to activate your spiritual intelligence.

As a powerful combination of three principal dimensions of intelligence, 3Q represents IQ and EQ in association with SQ. Studies in neuroscience confirm that spiritual intelligence is correlated with hemispheric synchronisation and whole brain activation [ref]. Consequently, coaching in 3Q trains the whole brain. The resulting whole-brain coherence optimises brain function, and results in greater fulfilment, increased creativity, sharpened intuition, more empathy and compassion, and improved performance on a wide variety of work skills and life skills.

When you activate a higher dimension of intelligence, you gain access to the qualities and capabilities of your higher self. You can use the method taught in this course to shift from ego to soul, and activate your spiritual intelligence. This releases your intuition and creativity, and results in a deeper sense of meaning and purpose, which ultimately transforms your entire personality. For more information about the 3Q Essentials online course click here

The SQ paradigm is based on a synthesis of findings from related fields of scientific research, including cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis, transpersonal psychology, and neuroscience. These findings represent the scientific foundations of spiritual intelligence, as summarised in the following article: The Psychology of Spiritual Intelligence.

Spiritual intelligence is easy to experience. We all experience SQ spontaneously at times. But spontaneous moments of SQ are rare and unpredictable. Therefore its important to know how to experience SQ intentionally. When you can engage your spiritual intelligence voluntarily, at any time of your own choosing, SQ becomes your most powerful personal resource.Thisvideoprovides step-by-step instructions on how to activate SQ intentionally. Watch the video here

2011 2018, Richard Griffiths.

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The Definition of Spiritual Intelligence

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The Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason;[1] in French: le Sicle des Lumires, lit.'"the Century of Lights"' in German: Aufklrung, "Enlightenment" and in Italian: LIlluminismo, Enlightenment)[2] was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, "The Century of Philosophy".[3]

The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centred on reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy and came to advance ideals like liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government and separation of church and state.[4][5] In France, the central doctrines of the Enlightenment philosophers were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the fixed dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. The Enlightenment was marked by an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxyan attitude captured by the phrase Sapere aude, "Dare to know".[6]

French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715 (the year that Louis XIV died) and 1789 (the beginning of the French Revolution). Some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes (Frenchfor "the philosophers") of the period widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses and in printed books and pamphlets. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church and paved the way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. A variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment.[7]

The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution.[8] Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and Spinoza.[9] The major figures of the Enlightenment included Beccaria, Diderot, Hume, Kant, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Voltaire. Some European rulers, including Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria and Frederick II of Prussia, tried to apply Enlightenment thought on religious and political tolerance, which became known as enlightened absolutism.[10] Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence (1776). One of his peers, James Madison, incorporated these ideals into the United States Constitution during its framing in 1787.[11]

The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopdie (Encyclopaedia). Published between 1751 and 1772 in thirty-five volumes, it was compiled by Diderot, d'Alembert (until 1759) and a team of 150 scientists and philosophers. It helped spread the ideas of the Enlightenment across Europe and beyond.[12] Other landmark publications were Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary; 1764) and Letters on the English (1733); Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality (1754) and The Social Contract (1762); Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776); and Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748). The ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by the intellectual movement known as Romanticism.

Ren Descartes' rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking. His attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His scepticism was refined by John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) and David Hume's writings in the 1740s. His dualism was challenged by Spinoza's uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus (1670) and Ethics (1677).

These laid down two distinct lines of Enlightenment thought: first, the moderate variety, following Descartes, Locke and Christian Wolff, which sought accommodation between reform and the traditional systems of power and faith, and second, the radical enlightenment, inspired by the philosophy of Spinoza, advocating democracy, individual liberty, freedom of expression and eradication of religious authority. The moderate variety tended to be deistic, whereas the radical tendency separated the basis of morality entirely from theology. Both lines of thought were eventually opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment, which sought a return to faith.

In the mid-18th century, Paris became the centre of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas. The philosophic movement was led by Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. The political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. While the Philosophes of the French Enlightenment were not revolutionaries and many were members of the nobility, their ideas played an important part in undermining the legitimacy of the Old Regime and shaping the French Revolution.

Francis Hutcheson, a moral philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers". Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method (the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protgs David Hume and Adam Smith.[17] Hume became a major figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy.

Immanuel Kant (17241804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the public sphere through private and public reason.[18] Kant's work continued to shape German thought and indeed all of European philosophy, well into the 20th century.[19] Mary Wollstonecraft was one of England's earliest feminist philosophers.[20] She argued for a society based on reason and that women as well as men should be treated as rational beings. She is best known for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1791).[21]

Science played an important role in Enlightenment discourse and thought. Many Enlightenment writers and thinkers had backgrounds in the sciences and associated scientific advancement with the overthrow of religion and traditional authority in favour of the development of free speech and thought. Scientific progress during the Enlightenment included the discovery of carbon dioxide (fixed air) by the chemist Joseph Black, the argument for deep time by the geologist James Hutton and the invention of the steam engine by James Watt.[22] The experiments of Lavoisier were used to create the first modern chemical plants in Paris and the experiments of the Montgolfier Brothers enabled them to launch the first manned flight in a hot-air balloon on 21 November 1783 from the Chteau de la Muette, near the Bois de Boulogne.[23]

Broadly speaking, Enlightenment science greatly valued empiricism and rational thought and was embedded with the Enlightenment ideal of advancement and progress. The study of science, under the heading of natural philosophy, was divided into physics and a conglomerate grouping of chemistry and natural history, which included anatomy, biology, geology, mineralogy and zoology.[24] As with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science were not seen universally: Rousseau criticized the sciences for distancing man from nature and not operating to make people happier.[25] Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies and academies, which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific research and development. Societies and academies were also the backbone of the maturation of the scientific profession. Another important development was the popularization of science among an increasingly literate population. Philosophes introduced the public to many scientific theories, most notably through the Encyclopdie and the popularization of Newtonianism by Voltaire and milie du Chtelet. Some historians have marked the 18th century as a drab period in the history of science.[26] However, the century saw significant advancements in the practice of medicine, mathematics and physics; the development of biological taxonomy; a new understanding of magnetism and electricity; and the maturation of chemistry as a discipline, which established the foundations of modern chemistry.

Scientific academies and societies grew out of the Scientific Revolution as the creators of scientific knowledge in contrast to the scholasticism of the university.[27] During the Enlightenment, some societies created or retained links to universities, but contemporary sources distinguished universities from scientific societies by claiming that the university's utility was in the transmission of knowledge while societies functioned to create knowledge.[28] As the role of universities in institutionalized science began to diminish, learned societies became the cornerstone of organized science. Official scientific societies were chartered by the state in order to provide technical expertise.[29] Most societies were granted permission to oversee their own publications, control the election of new members and the administration of the society.[30] After 1700, a tremendous number of official academies and societies were founded in Europe and by 1789 there were over seventy official scientific societies. In reference to this growth, Bernard de Fontenelle coined the term "the Age of Academies" to describe the 18th century.[31]

The influence of science also began appearing more commonly in poetry and literature during the Enlightenment. Some poetry became infused with scientific metaphor and imagery, while other poems were written directly about scientific topics. Sir Richard Blackmore committed the Newtonian system to verse in Creation, a Philosophical Poem in Seven Books (1712). After Newton's death in 1727, poems were composed in his honour for decades.[32] James Thomson (17001748) penned his "Poem to the Memory of Newton", which mourned the loss of Newton, but also praised his science and legacy.[33]

Hume and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed a "science of man",[34] which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson, John Millar and William Robertson, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behaved in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity. Modern sociology largely originated from this movement[35] and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison (and thus the U.S. Constitution) and as popularised by Dugald Stewart, would be the basis of classical liberalism.[36]

In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, often considered the first work on modern economics as it had an immediate impact on British economic policy that continues into the 21st century.[37] It was immediately preceded and influenced by Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune drafts of Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth (Paris, 1766). Smith acknowledged indebtedness and possibly was the original English translator.[38]

Cesare Beccaria, a jurist, criminologist, philosopher and politician and one of the great Enlightenment writers, became famous for his masterpiece Of Crimes and Punishments (1764), later translated into 22 languages,[39] which condemned torture and the death penalty and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical School of criminology by promoting criminal justice. Another prominent intellectual was Francesco Mario Pagano, who wrote important studies such as Saggi Politici (Political Essays, 1783), one of the major works of the Enlightenment in Naples; and Considerazioni sul processo criminale (Considerations on the criminal trial, 1787), which established him as an international authority on criminal law.[40]

The Enlightenment has long been hailed as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture.[41] The Enlightenment brought political modernization to the West, in terms of introducing democratic values and institutions and the creation of modern, liberal democracies. This thesis has been widely accepted by Anglophone scholars and has been reinforced by the large-scale studies by Robert Darnton, Roy Porter and most recently by Jonathan Israel.[42][43]

John Locke, one of the most influential Enlightenment thinkers,[44] based his governance philosophy in social contract theory, a subject that permeated Enlightenment political thought. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes ushered in this new debate with his work Leviathan in 1651. Hobbes also developed some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought: the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political order (which led to the later distinction between civil society and the state); the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid.[45]

Both Locke and Rousseau developed social contract theories in Two Treatises of Government and Discourse on Inequality, respectively. While quite different works, Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau agreed that a social contract, in which the government's authority lies in the consent of the governed,[47] is necessary for man to live in civil society. Locke defines the state of nature as a condition in which humans are rational and follow natural law, in which all men are born equal and with the right to life, liberty and property. However, when one citizen breaks the Law of Nature both the transgressor and the victim enter into a state of war, from which it is virtually impossible to break free. Therefore, Locke said that individuals enter into civil society to protect their natural rights via an "unbiased judge" or common authority, such as courts, to appeal to. Contrastingly, Rousseau's conception relies on the supposition that "civil man" is corrupted, while "natural man" has no want he cannot fulfill himself. Natural man is only taken out of the state of nature when the inequality associated with private property is established.[48] Rousseau said that people join into civil society via the social contract to achieve unity while preserving individual freedom. This is embodied in the sovereignty of the general will, the moral and collective legislative body constituted by citizens.

Locke is known for his statement that individuals have a right to "Life, Liberty and Property" and his belief that the natural right to property is derived from labor. Tutored by Locke, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury wrote in 1706: "There is a mighty Light which spreads its self over the world especially in those two free Nations of England and Holland; on whom the Affairs of Europe now turn".[49] Locke's theory of natural rights has influenced many political documents, including the United States Declaration of Independence and the French National Constituent Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

The philosophes argued that the establishment of a contractual basis of rights would lead to the market mechanism and capitalism, the scientific method, religious tolerance and the organization of states into self-governing republics through democratic means. In this view, the tendency of the philosophes in particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered the essential change.[50]

Though much of Enlightenment political thought was dominated by social contract theorists, both David Hume and Adam Ferguson criticized this camp. Hume's essay Of the Original Contract argues that governments derived from consent are rarely seen and civil government is grounded in a ruler's habitual authority and force. It is precisely because of the ruler's authority over-and-against the subject, that the subject tacitly consents and Hume says that the subjects would "never imagine that their consent made him sovereign", rather the authority did so.[51] Similarly, Ferguson did not believe citizens built the state, rather polities grew out of social development. In his 1767 An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Ferguson uses the four stages of progress, a theory that was very popular in Scotland at the time, to explain how humans advance from a hunting and gathering society to a commercial and civil society without "signing" a social contract.

Both Rousseau and Locke's social contract theories rest on the presupposition of natural rights, which are not a result of law or custom, but are things that all men have in pre-political societies and are therefore universal and inalienable. The most famous natural right formulation comes from John Locke in his Second Treatise, when he introduces the state of nature. For Locke, the law of nature is grounded on mutual security or the idea that one cannot infringe on another's natural rights, as every man is equal and has the same inalienable rights. These natural rights include perfect equality and freedom, as well as the right to preserve life and property. Locke also argued against slavery on the basis that enslaving yourself goes against the law of nature because you cannot surrender your own rights, your freedom is absolute and no one can take it from you. Additionally, Locke argues that one person cannot enslave another because it is morally reprehensible, although he introduces a caveat by saying that enslavement of a lawful captive in time of war would not go against one's natural rights.

As a spillover of the Enlightenment, nonsecular beliefs expressed first by Quakers and then by Protestant evangelicals in Britain and the United States emerged. To these groups, slavery became "repugnant to our religion" and a "crime in the sight of God."[52] These ideas added to those expressed by Enlightenment thinkers, leading many in Britain to believe that slavery was "not only morally wrong and economically inefficient, but also politically unwise."[53] As these notions gained more adherents, Britain was forced to end its participation in the slave trade.

The leaders of the Enlightenment were not especially democratic, as they more often look to absolute monarchs as the key to imposing reforms designed by the intellectuals. Voltaire despised democracy and said the absolute monarch must be enlightened and must act as dictated by reason and justice in other words, be a "philosopher-king".[54]

In several nations, rulers welcomed leaders of the Enlightenment at court and asked them to help design laws and programs to reform the system, typically to build stronger states. These rulers are called "enlightened despots" by historians.[55] They included Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great of Russia, Leopold II of Tuscany and Joseph II of Austria. Joseph was over-enthusiastic, announcing many reforms that had little support so that revolts broke out and his regime became a comedy of errors and nearly all his programs were reversed.[56] Senior ministers Pombal in Portugal and Johann Friedrich Struensee in Denmark also governed according to Enlightenment ideals. In Poland, the model constitution of 1791 expressed Enlightenment ideals, but was in effect for only one year before the nation was partitioned among its neighbors. More enduring were the cultural achievements, which created a nationalist spirit in Poland.[57]

Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, saw himself as a leader of the Enlightenment and patronized philosophers and scientists at his court in Berlin. Voltaire, who had been imprisoned and maltreated by the French government, was eager to accept Frederick's invitation to live at his palace. Frederick explained: "My principal occupation is to combat ignorance and prejudice... to enlighten minds, cultivate morality, and to make people as happy as it suits human nature, and as the means at my disposal permit".[58]

The Enlightenment has been frequently linked to the French Revolution of 1789. One view of the political changes that occurred during the Enlightenment is that the "consent of the governed" philosophy as delineated by Locke in Two Treatises of Government (1689) represented a paradigm shift from the old governance paradigm under feudalism known as the "divine right of kings". In this view, the revolutions of the late 1700s and early 1800s were caused by the fact that this governance paradigm shift often could not be resolved peacefully and therefore violent revolution was the result. Clearly a governance philosophy where the king was never wrong was in direct conflict with one whereby citizens by natural law had to consent to the acts and rulings of their government.

Alexis de Tocqueville described the French Revolution as the inevitable result of the radical opposition created in the 18th century between the monarchy and the men of letters of the Enlightenment. These men of letters constituted a sort of "substitute aristocracy that was both all-powerful and without real power". This illusory power came from the rise of "public opinion", born when absolutist centralization removed the nobility and the bourgeoisie from the political sphere. The "literary politics" that resulted promoted a discourse of equality and was hence in fundamental opposition to the monarchical regime.[59] De Tocqueville "clearly designates ... the cultural effects of transformation in the forms of the exercise of power".[60]

Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years' War.[61] Theologians of the Enlightenment wanted to reform their faith to its generally non-confrontational roots and to limit the capacity for religious controversy to spill over into politics and warfare while still maintaining a true faith in God. For moderate Christians, this meant a return to simple Scripture. John Locke abandoned the corpus of theological commentary in favor of an "unprejudiced examination" of the Word of God alone. He determined the essence of Christianity to be a belief in Christ the redeemer and recommended avoiding more detailed debate.[62] In the Jefferson Bible, Thomas Jefferson went further and dropped any passages dealing with miracles, visitations of angels and the resurrection of Jesus after his death, as he tried to extract the practical Christian moral code of the New Testament.[63]

Enlightenment scholars sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war.[64] Spinoza determined to remove politics from contemporary and historical theology (e.g., disregarding Judaic law).[65] Moses Mendelssohn advised affording no political weight to any organized religion, but instead recommended that each person follow what they found most convincing.[66] A good religion based in instinctive morals and a belief in God should not theoretically need force to maintain order in its believers and both Mendelssohn and Spinoza judged religion on its moral fruits, not the logic of its theology.[67]

A number of novel ideas about religion developed with the Enlightenment, including deism and talk of atheism. According to Thomas Paine, deism is the simple belief in God the Creator, with no reference to the Bible or any other miraculous source. Instead, the deist relies solely on personal reason to guide his creed,[68] which was eminently agreeable to many thinkers of the time.[69] Atheism was much discussed, but there were few proponents. Wilson and Reill note: "In fact, very few enlightened intellectuals, even when they were vocal critics of Christianity, were true atheists. Rather, they were critics of orthodox belief, wedded rather to skepticism, deism, vitalism, or perhaps pantheism".[70] Some followed Pierre Bayle and argued that atheists could indeed be moral men.[71] Many others like Voltaire held that without belief in a God who punishes evil, the moral order of society was undermined. That is, since atheists gave themselves to no Supreme Authority and no law and had no fear of eternal consequences, they were far more likely to disrupt society.[72] Bayle (16471706) observed that, in his day, "prudent persons will always maintain an appearance of [religion]," and he believed that even atheists could hold concepts of honour and go beyond their own self-interest to create and interact in society.[73] Locke said that if there were no God and no divine law, the result would be moral anarchy: every individual "could have no law but his own will, no end but himself. He would be a god to himself, and the satisfaction of his own will the sole measure and end of all his actions."[74]

The "Radical Enlightenment" promoted the concept of separating church and state, an idea that is often credited to English philosopher John Locke (16321704).[78] According to his principle of the social contract, Locke said that the government lacked authority in the realm of individual conscience, as this was something rational people could not cede to the government for it or others to control. For Locke, this created a natural right in the liberty of conscience, which he said must therefore remain protected from any government authority.

These views on religious tolerance and the importance of individual conscience, along with the social contract, became particularly influential in the American colonies and the drafting of the United States Constitution.[79] Thomas Jefferson called for a "wall of separation between church and state" at the federal level. He previously had supported successful efforts to disestablish the Church of England in Virginia[80] and authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.[81] Jefferson's political ideals were greatly influenced by the writings of John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Isaac Newton,[82] whom he considered the three greatest men that ever lived.[83]

The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries, often with a specific local emphasis. For example, in France it became associated with anti-government and anti-Church radicalism, while in Germany it reached deep into the middle classes, where it expressed a spiritualistic and nationalistic tone without threatening governments or established churches.[84] Government responses varied widely. In France, the government was hostile, and the philosophes fought against its censorship, sometimes being imprisoned or hounded into exile. The British government, for the most part, ignored the Enlightenment's leaders in England and Scotland, although it did give Isaac Newton a knighthood and a very lucrative government office.

The very existence of an English Enlightenment has been hotly debated by scholars. The majority of textbooks on British history make little or no mention of an English Enlightenment. Some surveys of the entire Enlightenment include England and others ignore it, although they do include coverage of such major intellectuals as Joseph Addison, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope, Joshua Reynolds and Jonathan Swift.[85] Roy Porter argues that the reasons for this neglect were the assumptions that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and that it stood in outspoken defiance to the established order.[86] Porter admits that, after the 1720s, England could claim few thinkers to equal Diderot, Voltaire or Rousseau. Indeed, its leading intellectuals such as Edward Gibbon,[87] Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson were all quite conservative and supportive of the standing order. Porter says the reason was that Enlightenment had come early to England and had succeeded so that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism, and religious toleration of the sort that intellectuals on the continent had to fight for against powerful odds. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment.[88]

In the Scottish Enlightenment, Scotland's major cities created an intellectual infrastructure of mutually supporting institutions such as universities, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums and masonic lodges. The Scottish network was "predominantly liberal Calvinist, Newtonian, and 'design' oriented in character which played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment".[90] In France, Voltaire said that "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization".[91] The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of William Cullen, physician and chemist; James Anderson, an agronomist; Joseph Black, physicist and chemist; and James Hutton, the first modern geologist.[17][92]

Several Americans, especially Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, played a major role in bringing Enlightenment ideas to the New World and in influencing British and French thinkers.[93] Franklin was influential for his political activism and for his advances in physics.[94][95] The cultural exchange during the Age of Enlightenment ran in both directions across the Atlantic. Thinkers such as Paine, Locke and Rousseau all take Native American cultural practices as examples of natural freedom.[96] The Americans closely followed English and Scottish political ideas, as well as some French thinkers such as Montesquieu.[97] As deists, they were influenced by ideas of John Toland (16701722) and Matthew Tindal (16561733). During the Enlightenment there was a great emphasis upon liberty, republicanism and religious tolerance. There was no respect for monarchy or inherited political power. Deists reconciled science and religion by rejecting prophecies, miracles and Biblical theology. Leading deists included Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason and by Thomas Jefferson in his short Jefferson Bible from which all supernatural aspects were removed.[98]

Prussia took the lead among the German states in sponsoring the political reforms that Enlightenment thinkers urged absolute rulers to adopt. There were important movements as well in the smaller states of Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover and the Palatinate. In each case, Enlightenment values became accepted and led to significant political and administrative reforms that laid the groundwork for the creation of modern states.[99] The princes of Saxony, for example, carried out an impressive series of fundamental fiscal, administrative, judicial, educational, cultural and general economic reforms. The reforms were aided by the country's strong urban structure and influential commercial groups and modernized pre-1789 Saxony along the lines of classic Enlightenment principles.[100]

Before 1750, the German upper classes looked to France for intellectual, cultural and architectural leadership, as French was the language of high society. By the mid-18th century, the Aufklrung (The Enlightenment) had transformed German high culture in music, philosophy, science and literature. Christian Wolff (16791754) was the pioneer as a writer who expounded the Enlightenment to German readers and legitimized German as a philosophic language.[101]

Johann Gottfried von Herder (17441803) broke new ground in philosophy and poetry, as a leader of the Sturm und Drang movement of proto-Romanticism. Weimar Classicism (Weimarer Klassik) was a cultural and literary movement based in Weimar that sought to establish a new humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical and Enlightenment ideas. The movement (from 1772 until 1805) involved Herder as well as polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832) and Friedrich Schiller (17591805), a poet and historian. Herder argued that every folk had its own particular identity, which was expressed in its language and culture. This legitimized the promotion of German language and culture and helped shape the development of German nationalism. Schiller's plays expressed the restless spirit of his generation, depicting the hero's struggle against social pressures and the force of destiny.[102]

German music, sponsored by the upper classes, came of age under composers Johann Sebastian Bach (16851750), Joseph Haydn (17321809) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (17561791).[103]

In remote Knigsberg, philosopher Immanuel Kant (17241804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority. Kant's work contained basic tensions that would continue to shape German thought and indeed all of European philosophy well into the 20th century.[104]

The German Enlightenment won the support of princes, aristocrats and the middle classes and it permanently reshaped the culture.[105] However, there was a conservatism among the elites that warned against going too far.[106]

In the 1780s, Lutheran ministers Johann Heinrich Schulz and Karl Wilhelm Brumbey got in trouble with their preaching as they were attacked and ridiculed by Immanuel Kant, Wilhelm Abraham Teller and others. In 1788, Prussia issued an "Edict on Religion" that forbade preaching any sermon that undermined popular belief in the Holy Trinity and the Bible. The goal was to avoid skepticism, deism and theological disputes that might impinge on domestic tranquility. Men who doubted the value of Enlightenment favoured the measure, but so too did many supporters. German universities had created a closed elite that could debate controversial issues among themselves, but spreading them to the public was seen as too risky. This intellectual elite was favoured by the state, but that might be reversed if the process of the Enlightenment proved politically or socially destabilizing.[107]

The Enlightenment played a distinctive, if small, role in the history of Italy.[108][109] Although most of Italy was controlled by conservative Habsburgs or the pope, Tuscany had some opportunities for reform. Leopold II of Tuscany abolished the death penalty in Tuscany and reduced censorship. From Naples, Antonio Genovesi (171369) influenced a generation of southern Italian intellectuals and university students. His textbook "Diceosina, o Sia della Filosofia del Giusto e dell'Onesto" (1766) was a controversial attempt to mediate between the history of moral philosophy on the one hand and the specific problems encountered by 18th-century commercial society on the other. It contained the greater part of Genovesi's political, philosophical and economic thought guidebook for Neapolitan economic and social development.[110] Science flourished as Alessandro Volta and Luigi Galvani made break-through discoveries in electricity. Pietro Verri was a leading economist in Lombardy. Historian Joseph Schumpeter states he was "the most important pre-Smithian authority on Cheapness-and-Plenty".[111] The most influential scholar on the Italian Enlightenment has been Franco Venturi.[112][113]

In Russia, the government began to actively encourage the proliferation of arts and sciences in the mid-18th century. This era produced the first Russian university, library, theatre, public museum and independent press. Like other enlightened despots, Catherine the Great played a key role in fostering the arts, sciences and education. She used her own interpretation of Enlightenment ideals, assisted by notable international experts such as Voltaire (by correspondence) and in residence world class scientists such as Leonhard Euler and Peter Simon Pallas. The national Enlightenment differed from its Western European counterpart in that it promoted further modernization of all aspects of Russian life and was concerned with attacking the institution of serfdom in Russia. The Russian enlightenment centred on the individual instead of societal enlightenment and encouraged the living of an enlightened life.[114] A powerful element was prosveshchenie which combined religious piety, erudition and commitment to the spread of learning. However, it lacked the skeptical and critical spirit of the European Enlightenment.[116]

Enlightenment ideas (owiecenie) emerged late in Poland, as the Polish middle class was weaker and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Golden Liberty) were in deep crisis. The political system was built on republicanism, but was unable to defend itself against powerful neighbors Russia, Prussia and Austria as they repeatedly sliced off regions until nothing was left of independent Poland. The period of Polish Enlightenment began in the 1730s1740s and especially in theatre and the arts peaked in the reign of King Stanisaw August Poniatowski (second half of the 18th century). Warsaw was a main centre after 1750, with an expansion of schools and educational institutions and the arts patronage held at the Royal Castle.[117] Leaders promoted tolerance and more education. They included King Stanislaw II Poniatowski and reformers Piotr Switkowski, Antoni Poplawski, Josef Niemcewicz and Jsef Pawlinkowski, as well as Baudouin de Cortenay, a Polonized dramatist. Opponents included Florian Jaroszewicz, Gracjan Piotrowski, Karol Wyrwicz and Wojciech Skarszewski.[118]

The movement went into decline with the Third Partition of Poland (1795) a national tragedy inspiring a short period of sentimental writing and ended in 1822, replaced by Romanticism.[119]

The Enlightenment has always been contested territory. According to Keith Thomas, its supporters "hail it as the source of everything that is progressive about the modern world. For them, it stands for freedom of thought, rational inquiry, critical thinking, religious tolerance, political liberty, scientific achievement, the pursuit of happiness, and hope for the future."[120] Thomas adds that its detractors accuse it of shallow rationalism, nave optimism, unrealistic universalism and moral darkness. From the start, conservative and clerical defenders of traditional religion attacked materialism and skepticism as evil forces that encouraged immorality. By 1794, they pointed to the Terror during the French Revolution as confirmation of their predictions. As the Enlightenment was ending, Romantic philosophers argued that excessive dependence on reason was a mistake perpetuated by the Enlightenment because it disregarded the bonds of history, myth, faith, and tradition that were necessary to hold society together.[121]

The term "Enlightenment" emerged in English in the later part of the 19th century,[122] with particular reference to French philosophy, as the equivalent of the French term Lumires (used first by Dubos in 1733 and already well established by 1751). From Immanuel Kant's 1784 essay "Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklrung?" ("Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?"), the German term became Aufklrung (aufklren = to illuminate; sich aufklren = to clear up). However, scholars have never agreed on a definition of the Enlightenment, or on its chronological or geographical extent. Terms like les Lumires (French), illuminismo (Italian), ilustracin (Spanish) and Aufklrung (German) referred to partly overlapping movements. Not until the late nineteenth century did English scholars agree they were talking about "the Enlightenment".[121][123]

Enlightenment historiography began in the period itself, from what Enlightenment figures said about their work. A dominant element was the intellectual angle they took. D'Alembert's Preliminary Discourse of l'Encyclopdie provides a history of the Enlightenment which comprises a chronological list of developments in the realm of knowledge of which the Encyclopdie forms the pinnacle.[124] In 1783, Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn referred to Enlightenment as a process by which man was educated in the use of reason.[125] Immanuel Kant called Enlightenment "man's release from his self-incurred tutelage", tutelage being "man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another".[126] "For Kant, Enlightenment was mankind's final coming of age, the emancipation of the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance".[127] The German scholar Ernst Cassirer called the Enlightenment "a part and a special phase of that whole intellectual development through which modern philosophic thought gained its characteristic self-confidence and self-consciousness".[128] According to historian Roy Porter, the liberation of the human mind from a dogmatic state of ignorance is the epitome of what the Age of Enlightenment was trying to capture.[129]

Bertrand Russell saw the Enlightenment as a phase in a progressive development which began in antiquity and that reason and challenges to the established order were constant ideals throughout that time.[130] Russell said that the Enlightenment was ultimately born out of the Protestant reaction against the Catholic counter-reformation and that philosophical views such as affinity for democracy against monarchy originated among 16th-century Protestants to justify their desire to break away from the Catholic Church. Though many of these philosophical ideals were picked up by Catholics, Russell argues that by the 18th century the Enlightenment was the principal manifestation of the schism that began with Martin Luther.[130]

Jonathan Israel rejects the attempts of postmodern and Marxian historians to understand the revolutionary ideas of the period purely as by-products of social and economic transformations. He instead focuses on the history of ideas in the period from 1650 to the end of the 18th century and claims that it was the ideas themselves that caused the change that eventually led to the revolutions of the latter half of the 18th century and the early 19th century. Israel argues that until the 1650s Western civilization "was based on a largely shared core of faith, tradition and authority".

There is little consensus on the precise beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, though the beginning of the 18th century (1701) or the middle of the 17th century (1650) are often used as epochs. French historians usually place the period, called the Sicle des Lumires ("Century of Enlightenments"), between 1715 and 1789, from the beginning of the reign of Louis XV until the French Revolution. If taken back to the mid-17th century, the Enlightenment would trace its origins to Descartes' Discourse on the Method, published in 1637. In France, many cited the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica in 1687.[134] It is argued by several historians and philosophers that the beginning of the Enlightenment is when Descartes shifted the epistemological basis from external authority to internal certainty by his cogito ergo sum published in 1637.[135][136][137] As to its end, most scholars use the last years of the century, often choosing the French Revolution of 1789 or the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (18041815) as a convenient point in time with which to date the end of the Enlightenment.[138]

In the 1944 book Dialectic of Enlightenment, Frankfurt School philosophers Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno argued:

Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth radiates under the sign of disaster triumphant.[139]

In the 1970s, study of the Enlightenment expanded to include the ways Enlightenment ideas spread to European colonies and how they interacted with indigenous cultures and how the Enlightenment took place in formerly unstudied areas such as Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Poland, Hungary and Russia.[140]

Intellectuals such as Robert Darnton and Jrgen Habermas have focused on the social conditions of the Enlightenment. Habermas described the creation of the "bourgeois public sphere" in 18th-century Europe, containing the new venues and modes of communication allowing for rational exchange. Habermas said that the public sphere was bourgeois, egalitarian, rational and independent from the state, making it the ideal venue for intellectuals to critically examine contemporary politics and society, away from the interference of established authority. While the public sphere is generally an integral component of the social study of the Enlightenment, other historians have questioned whether the public sphere had these characteristics.[141]

In contrast to the intellectual historiographical approach of the Enlightenment, which examines the various currents or discourses of intellectual thought within the European context during the 17th and 18th centuries, the cultural (or social) approach examines the changes that occurred in European society and culture. This approach studies the process of changing sociabilities and cultural practices during the Enlightenment.

One of the primary elements of the culture of the Enlightenment was the rise of the public sphere, a "realm of communication marked by new arenas of debate, more open and accessible forms of urban public space and sociability, and an explosion of print culture", in the late 17th century and 18th century.[142] Elements of the public sphere included that it was egalitarian, that it discussed the domain of "common concern," and that argument was founded on reason.[143] Habermas uses the term "common concern" to describe those areas of political/social knowledge and discussion that were previously the exclusive territory of the state and religious authorities, now open to critical examination by the public sphere. The values of this bourgeois public sphere included holding reason to be supreme, considering everything to be open to criticism (the public sphere is critical), and the opposition of secrecy of all sorts.[144]

The creation of the public sphere has been associated with two long-term historical trends: the rise of the modern nation state and the rise of capitalism. The modern nation state, in its consolidation of public power, created by counterpoint a private realm of society independent of the state, which allowed for the public sphere. Capitalism also increased society's autonomy and self-awareness, as well as an increasing need for the exchange of information. As the nascent public sphere expanded, it embraced a large variety of institutions and the most commonly cited were coffee houses and cafs, salons and the literary public sphere, figuratively localized in the Republic of Letters.[146] In France, the creation of the public sphere was helped by the aristocracy's move from the King's palace at Versailles to Paris in about 1720, since their rich spending stimulated the trade in luxuries and artistic creations, especially fine paintings.[147]

The context for the rise of the public sphere was the economic and social change commonly associated with the Industrial Revolution: "Economic expansion, increasing urbanization, rising population and improving communications in comparison to the stagnation of the previous century".[148] Rising efficiency in production techniques and communication lowered the prices of consumer goods and increased the amount and variety of goods available to consumers (including the literature essential to the public sphere). Meanwhile, the colonial experience (most European states had colonial empires in the 18th century) began to expose European society to extremely heterogeneous cultures, leading to the breaking down of "barriers between cultural systems, religious divides, gender differences and geographical areas".[149]

The word "public" implies the highest level of inclusivity the public sphere by definition should be open to all. However, this sphere was only public to relative degrees. Enlightenment thinkers frequently contrasted their conception of the "public" with that of the people: Condorcet contrasted "opinion" with populace, Marmontel "the opinion of men of letters" with "the opinion of the multitude" and d'Alembert the "truly enlightened public" with "the blind and noisy multitude".[150] Additionally, most institutions of the public sphere excluded both women and the lower classes.[151] Cross-class influences occurred through noble and lower class participation in areas such as the coffeehouses and the Masonic lodges.

Because of the focus on reason over superstition, the Enlightenment cultivated the arts.[152] Emphasis on learning, art and music became more widespread, especially with the growing middle class. Areas of study such as literature, philosophy, science, and the fine arts increasingly explored subject matter to which the general public, in addition to the previously more segregated professionals and patrons, could relate.[153]

As musicians depended more and more on public support, public concerts became increasingly popular and helped supplement performers' and composers' incomes. The concerts also helped them to reach a wider audience. Handel, for example, epitomized this with his highly public musical activities in London. He gained considerable fame there with performances of his operas and oratorios. The music of Haydn and Mozart, with their Viennese Classical styles, are usually regarded as being the most in line with the Enlightenment ideals.[154]

The desire to explore, record and systematize knowledge had a meaningful impact on music publications. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique (published 1767 in Geneva and 1768 in Paris) was a leading text in the late 18th century.[154] This widely available dictionary gave short definitions of words like genius and taste and was clearly influenced by the Enlightenment movement. Another text influenced by Enlightenment values was Charles Burney's A General History of Music: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1776), which was a historical survey and an attempt to rationalize elements in music systematically over time.[155] Recently, musicologists have shown renewed interest in the ideas and consequences of the Enlightenment. For example, Rose Rosengard Subotnik's Deconstructive Variations (subtitled Music and Reason in Western Society) compares Mozart's Die Zauberflte (1791) using the Enlightenment and Romantic perspectives and concludes that the work is "an ideal musical representation of the Enlightenment".[155]

As the economy and the middle class expanded, there was an increasing number of amateur musicians. One manifestation of this involved women, who became more involved with music on a social level. Women were already engaged in professional roles as singers and increased their presence in the amateur performers' scene, especially with keyboard music.[156] Music publishers begin to print music that amateurs could understand and play. The majority of the works that were published were for keyboard, voice and keyboard and chamber ensemble.[156] After these initial genres were popularized, from the mid-century on, amateur groups sang choral music, which then became a new trend for publishers to capitalize on. The increasing study of the fine arts, as well as access to amateur-friendly published works, led to more people becoming interested in reading and discussing music. Music magazines, reviews and critical works which suited amateurs as well as connoisseurs began to surface.[156]

The philosophes spent a great deal of energy disseminating their ideas among educated men and women in cosmopolitan cities. They used many venues, some of them quite new.

The term "Republic of Letters" was coined in 1664 by Pierre Bayle in his journal Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres. Towards the end of the 18th century, the editor of Histoire de la Rpublique des Lettres en France, a literary survey, described the Republic of Letters as being:

In the midst of all the governments that decide the fate of men; in the bosom of so many states, the majority of them despotic... there exists a certain realm which holds sway only over the mind... that we honour with the name Republic, because it preserves a measure of independence, and because it is almost its essence to be free. It is the realm of talent and of thought.[157]

The Republic of Letters was the sum of a number of Enlightenment ideals: an egalitarian realm governed by knowledge that could act across political boundaries and rival state power.[157] It was a forum that supported "free public examination of questions regarding religion or legislation".[158] Immanuel Kant considered written communication essential to his conception of the public sphere; once everyone was a part of the "reading public", then society could be said to be enlightened.[159] The people who participated in the Republic of Letters, such as Diderot and Voltaire, are frequently known today as important Enlightenment figures. Indeed, the men who wrote Diderot's Encyclopdie arguably formed a microcosm of the larger "republic".[160]

Many women played an essential part in the French Enlightenment, due to the role they played as salonnires in Parisian salons, as the contrast to the male philosophes. The salon was the principal social institution of the republic[161] and "became the civil working spaces of the project of Enlightenment". Women, as salonnires, were "the legitimate governors of [the] potentially unruly discourse" that took place within.[162] While women were marginalized in the public culture of the Old Regime, the French Revolution destroyed the old cultural and economic restraints of patronage and corporatism (guilds), opening French society to female participation, particularly in the literary sphere.[163]

In France, the established men of letters (gens de lettres) had fused with the elites (les grands) of French society by the mid-18th century. This led to the creation of an oppositional literary sphere, Grub Street, the domain of a "multitude of versifiers and would-be authors".[164] These men came to London to become authors, only to discover that the literary market simply could not support large numbers of writers, who in any case were very poorly remunerated by the publishing-bookselling guilds.[165]

The writers of Grub Street, the Grub Street Hacks, were left feeling bitter about the relative success of the men of letters[166] and found an outlet for their literature which was typified by the libelle. Written mostly in the form of pamphlets, the libelles "slandered the court, the Church, the aristocracy, the academies, the salons, everything elevated and respectable, including the monarchy itself".[167] Le Gazetier cuirass by Charles Thveneau de Morande was a prototype of the genre. It was Grub Street literature that was most read by the public during the Enlightenment.[168] According to Darnton, more importantly the Grub Street hacks inherited the "revolutionary spirit" once displayed by the philosophes and paved the way for the French Revolution by desacralizing figures of political, moral and religious authority in France.[169]

The increased consumption of reading materials of all sorts was one of the key features of the "social" Enlightenment. Developments in the Industrial Revolution allowed consumer goods to be produced in greater quantities at lower prices, encouraging the spread of books, pamphlets, newspapers and journals "media of the transmission of ideas and attitudes". Commercial development likewise increased the demand for information, along with rising populations and increased urbanisation.[170] However, demand for reading material extended outside of the realm of the commercial and outside the realm of the upper and middle classes, as evidenced by the Bibliothque Bleue. Literacy rates are difficult to gauge, but in France the rates doubled over the course of the 18th century.[171] Reflecting the decreasing influence of religion, the number of books about science and art published in Paris doubled from 1720 to 1780, while the number of books about religion dropped to just one-tenth of the total.

Reading underwent serious changes in the 18th century. In particular, Rolf Engelsing has argued for the existence of a Reading Revolution. Until 1750, reading was done intensively: people tended to own a small number of books and read them repeatedly, often to small audience. After 1750, people began to read "extensively", finding as many books as they could, increasingly reading them alone.[172] This is supported by increasing literacy rates, particularly among women.[173]

The vast majority of the reading public could not afford to own a private library and while most of the state-run "universal libraries" set up in the 17th and 18th centuries were open to the public, they were not the only sources of reading material. On one end of the spectrum was the Bibliothque Bleue, a collection of cheaply produced books published in Troyes, France. Intended for a largely rural and semi-literate audience these books included almanacs, retellings of medieval romances and condensed versions of popular novels, among other things. While some historians have argued against the Enlightenment's penetration into the lower classes, the Bibliothque Bleue represents at least a desire to participate in Enlightenment sociability.[174] Moving up the classes, a variety of institutions offered readers access to material without needing to buy anything. Libraries that lent out their material for a small price started to appear and occasionally bookstores would offer a small lending library to their patrons. Coffee houses commonly offered books, journals and sometimes even popular novels to their customers. The Tatler and The Spectator, two influential periodicals sold from 1709 to 1714, were closely associated with coffee house culture in London, being both read and produced in various establishments in the city.[175] This is an example of the triple or even quadruple function of the coffee house: reading material was often obtained, read, discussed and even produced on the premises.[176]

It is extremely difficult to determine what people actually read during the Enlightenment. For example, examining the catalogs of private libraries gives an image skewed in favor of the classes wealthy enough to afford libraries and also ignores censured works unlikely to be publicly acknowledged. For this reason, a study of publishing would be much more fruitful for discerning reading habits.[177]

Across continental Europe, but in France especially, booksellers and publishers had to negotiate censorship laws of varying strictness. For example, the Encyclopdie narrowly escaped seizure and had to be saved by Malesherbes, the man in charge of the French censure. Indeed, many publishing companies were conveniently located outside France so as to avoid overzealous French censors. They would smuggle their merchandise across the border, where it would then be transported to clandestine booksellers or small-time peddlers.[178] The records of clandestine booksellers may give a better representation of what literate Frenchmen might have truly read, since their clandestine nature provided a less restrictive product choice.[179] In one case, political books were the most popular category, primarily libels and pamphlets. Readers were more interested in sensationalist stories about criminals and political corruption than they were in political theory itself. The second most popular category, "general works" (those books "that did not have a dominant motif and that contained something to offend almost everyone in authority") demonstrated a high demand for generally low-brow subversive literature. However, these works never became part of literary canon and are largely forgotten today as a result.[179]

A healthy, and legal, publishing industry existed throughout Europe, although established publishers and book sellers occasionally ran afoul of the law. For example, the Encyclopdie condemned not only by the King, but also by Clement XII, nevertheless found its way into print with the help of the aforementioned Malesherbes and creative use of French censorship law.[180] However, many works were sold without running into any legal trouble at all. Borrowing records from libraries in England, Germany and North America indicate that more than 70percent of books borrowed were novels. Less than 1percent of the books were of a religious nature, indicating the general trend of declining religiosity.[157]

A genre that greatly rose in importance was that of scientific literature. Natural history in particular became increasingly popular among the upper classes. Works of natural history include Ren-Antoine Ferchault de Raumur's Histoire naturelle des insectes and Jacques Gautier d'Agoty's La Myologie complte, ou description de tous les muscles du corps humain (1746). Outside ancien rgime France, natural history was an important part of medicine and industry, encompassing the fields of botany, zoology, meteorology, hydrology and mineralogy. Students in Enlightenment universities and academies were taught these subjects to prepare them for careers as diverse as medicine and theology. As shown by Matthew Daniel Eddy, natural history in this context was a very middle class pursuit and operated as a fertile trading zone for the interdisciplinary exchange of diverse scientific ideas.[181]

The target audience of natural history was French polite society, evidenced more by the specific discourse of the genre than by the generally high prices of its works. Naturalists catered to polite society's desire for erudition many texts had an explicit instructive purpose. However, natural history was often a political affair. As Emma Spary writes, the classifications used by naturalists "slipped between the natural world and the social... to establish not only the expertise of the naturalists over the natural, but also the dominance of the natural over the social".[182] The idea of taste (le got) was a social indicator: to truly be able to categorize nature, one had to have the proper taste, an ability of discretion shared by all members of polite society. In this way natural history spread many of the scientific developments of the time, but also provided a new source of legitimacy for the dominant class.[183] From this basis, naturalists could then develop their own social ideals based on their scientific works.[184]

The first scientific and literary journals were established during the Enlightenment. The first journal, the Parisian Journal des Savans, appeared in 1665. However, it was not until 1682 that periodicals began to be more widely produced. French and Latin were the dominant languages of publication, but there was also a steady demand for material in German and Dutch. There was generally low demand for English publications on the Continent, which was echoed by England's similar lack of desire for French works. Languages commanding less of an international marketsuch as Danish, Spanish and Portuguesefound journal success more difficult and more often than not a more international language was used instead. French slowly took over Latin's status as the lingua franca of learned circles. This in turn gave precedence to the publishing industry in Holland, where the vast majority of these French language periodicals were produced.

Jonathan Israel called the journals the most influential cultural innovation of European intellectual culture. They shifted the attention of the "cultivated public" away from established authorities to novelty and innovation and instead promoted the "enlightened" ideals of toleration and intellectual objectivity. Being a source of knowledge derived from science and reason, they were an implicit critique of existing notions of universal truth monopolized by monarchies, parliaments and religious authorities. They also advanced Christian enlightenment that upheld "the legitimacy of God-ordained authority"the Biblein which there had to be agreement between the biblical and natural theories.

Although the existence of dictionaries and encyclopedias spanned into ancient times, the texts changed from simply defining words in a long running list to far more detailed discussions of those words in 18th-century encyclopedic dictionaries.[188] The works were part of an Enlightenment movement to systematize knowledge and provide education to a wider audience than the elite. As the 18th century progressed, the content of encyclopedias also changed according to readers' tastes. Volumes tended to focus more strongly on secular affairs, particularly science and technology, rather than matters of theology.

Along with secular matters, readers also favoured an alphabetical ordering scheme over cumbersome works arranged along thematic lines.[189] Commenting on alphabetization, the historian Charles Porset has said that "as the zero degree of taxonomy, alphabetical order authorizes all reading strategies; in this respect it could be considered an emblem of the Enlightenment". For Porset, the avoidance of thematic and hierarchical systems thus allows free interpretation of the works and becomes an example of egalitarianism.[190] Encyclopedias and dictionaries also became more popular during the Age of Enlightenment as the number of educated consumers who could afford such texts began to multiply.[188] In the later half of the 18th century, the number of dictionaries and encyclopedias published by decade increased from 63 between 1760 and 1769 to approximately 148 in the decade proceeding the French Revolution (17801789).[191] Along with growth in numbers, dictionaries and encyclopedias also grew in length, often having multiple print runs that sometimes included in supplemented editions.[189]

The first technical dictionary was drafted by John Harris and entitled Lexicon Technicum: Or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. Harris' book avoided theological and biographical entries and instead it concentrated on science and technology. Published in 1704, the Lexicon technicum was the first book to be written in English that took a methodical approach to describing mathematics and commercial arithmetic along with the physical sciences and navigation. Other technical dictionaries followed Harris' model, including Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia (1728), which included five editions and was a substantially larger work than Harris'. The folio edition of the work even included foldout engravings. The Cyclopaedia emphasized Newtonian theories, Lockean philosophy and contained thorough examinations of technologies, such as engraving, brewing and dyeing.

In Germany, practical reference works intended for the uneducated majority became popular in the 18th century. The Marperger Curieuses Natur-, Kunst-, Berg-, Gewerkund Handlungs-Lexicon (1712) explained terms that usefully described the trades and scientific and commercial education. Jablonksi Allgemeines Lexicon (1721) was better known than the Handlungs-Lexicon and underscored technical subjects rather than scientific theory. For example, over five columns of text were dedicated to wine while geometry and logic were allocated only twenty-two and seventeen lines, respectively. The first edition of the Encyclopdia Britannica (1771) was modelled along the same lines as the German lexicons.[192]

However, the prime example of reference works that systematized scientific knowledge in the age of Enlightenment were universal encyclopedias rather than technical dictionaries. It was the goal of universal encyclopedias to record all human knowledge in a comprehensive reference work.[193] The most well-known of these works is Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert's Encyclopdie, ou dictionnaire raisonn des sciences, des arts et des mtiers. The work, which began publication in 1751, was composed of thirty-five volumes and over 71 000 separate entries. A great number of the entries were dedicated to describing the sciences and crafts in detail and provided intellectuals across Europe with a high-quality survey of human knowledge. In d'Alembert's Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot, the work's goal to record the extent of human knowledge in the arts and sciences is outlined:

As an Encyclopdie, it is to set forth as well as possible the order and connection of the parts of human knowledge. As a Reasoned Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Trades, it is to contain the general principles that form the basis of each science and each art, liberal or mechanical, and the most essential facts that make up the body and substance of each.[194]

The massive work was arranged according to a "tree of knowledge". The tree reflected the marked division between the arts and sciences, which was largely a result of the rise of empiricism. Both areas of knowledge were united by philosophy, or the trunk of the tree of knowledge. The Enlightenment's desacrilization of religion was pronounced in the tree's design, particularly where theology accounted for a peripheral branch, with black magic as a close neighbour.[195] As the Encyclopdie gained popularity, it was published in quarto and octavo editions after 1777. The quarto and octavo editions were much less expensive than previous editions, making the Encyclopdie more accessible to the non-elite. Robert Darnton estimates that there were approximately 25 000 copies of the Encyclopdie in circulation throughout France and Europe before the French Revolution.[196] The extensive, yet affordable encyclopedia came to represent the transmission of Enlightenment and scientific education to an expanding audience.[197]

One of the most important developments that the Enlightenment era brought to the discipline of science was its popularization. An increasingly literate population seeking knowledge and education in both the arts and the sciences drove the expansion of print culture and the dissemination of scientific learning. The new literate population was due to a high rise in the availability of food. This enabled many people to rise out of poverty, and instead of paying more for food, they had money for education.[198] Popularization was generally part of an overarching Enlightenment ideal that endeavoured "to make information available to the greatest number of people".[199] As public interest in natural philosophy grew during the 18th century, public lecture courses and the publication of popular texts opened up new roads to money and fame for amateurs and scientists who remained on the periphery of universities and academies.[200] More formal works included explanations of scientific theories for individuals lacking the educational background to comprehend the original scientific text. Sir Isaac Newton's celebrated Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica was published in Latin and remained inaccessible to readers without education in the classics until Enlightenment writers began to translate and analyze the text in the vernacular.

The first significant work that expressed scientific theory and knowledge expressly for the laity, in the vernacular and with the entertainment of readers in mind, was Bernard de Fontenelle's Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (1686). The book was produced specifically for women with an interest in scientific writing and inspired a variety of similar works.[201] These popular works were written in a discursive style, which was laid out much more clearly for the reader than the complicated articles, treatises and books published by the academies and scientists. Charles Leadbetter's Astronomy (1727) was advertised as "a Work entirely New" that would include "short and easie [sic] Rules and Astronomical Tables".[202] The first French introduction to Newtonianism and the Principia was Elments de la philosophie de Newton, published by Voltaire in 1738.[203] milie du Chtelet's translation of the Principia, published after her death in 1756, also helped to spread Newton's theories beyond scientific academies and the university.[204] Writing for a growing female audience, Francesco Algarotti published Il Newtonianism per le dame, which was a tremendously popular work and was translated from Italian into English by Elizabeth Carter. A similar introduction to Newtonianism for women was produced by Henry Pemberton. His A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy was published by subscription. Extant records of subscribers show that women from a wide range of social standings purchased the book, indicating the growing number of scientifically inclined female readers among the middling class.[205] During the Enlightenment, women also began producing popular scientific works themselves. Sarah Trimmer wrote a successful natural history textbook for children titled The Easy Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature (1782), which was published for many years after in eleven editions.[206]

Most work on the Enlightenment emphasizes the ideals discussed by intellectuals, rather than the actual state of education at the time. Leading educational theorists like England's John Locke and Switzerland's Jean Jacques Rousseau both emphasized the importance of shaping young minds early. By the late Enlightenment, there was a rising demand for a more universal approach to education, particularly after the American and French Revolutions.

The predominant educational psychology from the 1750s onward, especially in northern European countries was associationism, the notion that the mind associates or dissociates ideas through repeated routines. In addition to being conducive to Enlightenment ideologies of liberty, self-determination and personal responsibility, it offered a practical theory of the mind that allowed teachers to transform longstanding forms of print and manuscript culture into effective graphic tools of learning for the lower and middle orders of society.[207] Children were taught to memorize facts through oral and graphic methods that originated during the Renaissance.[208]

Many of the leading universities associated with Enlightenment progressive principles were located in northern Europe, with the most renowned being the universities of Leiden, Gttingen, Halle, Montpellier, Uppsala and Edinburgh. These universities, especially Edinburgh, produced professors whose ideas had a significant impact on Britain's North American colonies and later the American Republic. Within the natural sciences, Edinburgh's medical school also led the way in chemistry, anatomy and pharmacology.[209] In other parts of Europe, the universities and schools of France and most of Europe were bastions of traditionalism and were not hospitable to the Enlightenment. In France, the major exception was the medical university at Montpellier.[210]

The history of Academies in France during the Enlightenment begins with the Academy of Science, founded in 1635 in Paris. It was closely tied to the French state, acting as an extension of a government seriously lacking in scientists. It helped promote and organize new disciplines and it trained new scientists. It also contributed to the enhancement of scientists' social status, considering them to be the "most useful of all citizens". Academies demonstrate the rising interest in science along with its increasing secularization, as evidenced by the small number of clerics who were members (13 percent).[212] The presence of the French academies in the public sphere cannot be attributed to their membership, as although the majority of their members were bourgeois, the exclusive institution was only open to elite Parisian scholars. They perceived themselves as "interpreters of the sciences for the people". For example, it was with this in mind that academicians took it upon themselves to disprove the popular pseudo-science of mesmerism.[213]

The strongest contribution of the French Academies to the public sphere comes from the concours acadmiques (roughly translated as "academic contests") they sponsored throughout France. These academic contests were perhaps the most public of any institution during the Enlightenment.[214] The practice of contests dated back to the Middle Ages and was revived in the mid-17th century. The subject matter had previously been generally religious and/or monarchical, featuring essays, poetry and painting. However, by roughly 1725 this subject matter had radically expanded and diversified, including "royal propaganda, philosophical battles, and critical ruminations on the social and political institutions of the Old Regime". Topics of public controversy were also discussed such as the theories of Newton and Descartes, the slave trade, women's education and justice in France.[215]

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Age of Enlightenment - Wikipedia

Restorative Yoga Workshop with Patti

Saturday, February 25th ~ 11:00am - 1:00pmFREE to students holding an active class pass or monthly unlimited membership! Otherwise, just $10/person

Reiki Sessions with Annie Larson

Reiki is the universal life force energy that is channeled to bring your mind, body and spirit back into balance. Reiki session appointments available every Tuesday at The YogaShak!

Flight Club

Take flight with Glenn for an afternoon of AcroYoga fun at The YogaShak's Flight Club! Happening the 1st & 3rd Sunday of each Month from 1:00pm ~ 2:30pm FREE for everyone ~ No Experience or partner needed!

Friday Happy Hour

Join us the 1st Friday of each month from 5:30pm to 6:30pm for a non-heated "Happy Hour" yoga class. Experience something different each month...and best of all, it's FREE!

Get answers to all your questions and helpful hints. Or contact us now if you want to talk!

Our teaching staff has over 50 years of combined teaching experience and yoga training.

OurYoga Teacher Training programs are run by a Registered Yoga School.

The YogaShak is located in the University Commerce Center north of Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) across from One Loudoun just down the road from DC Prime and Chick-Fil-A.

The YogaShak is a yoga studio located in Ashburn, Virginia. We offer both heated and non-heated vinyasa yoga, yin yoga and innovative therapeutic yoga classes, personalized instruction, and yoga teacher education from experienced, certified yoga instructors in a positive and supportive environment.

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The YogaShak | The YogaShak Yoga Studio, Ashburn, Virginia

Expectancy Theory of Motivation

The expectancy theory of motivation suggests that when we are thinking about the future, we formulate different expectations about what we think will happen. When we predict that there will most likely be a positive outcome, we believe that we are able to make that possible future a reality. This leads people to feel more motivated to pursue those likely outcomes.

The theory proposes that motivations consistof three key elements: valence, instrumentality, and expectancy. Valence refers to the value peopleplace on the potential outcome. Things that seem unlikely to produce personal benefit have a low valence, while those that offer immediate personal rewards have a higher valence.

Instrumentality refers to whether people believe that they have a role to play in the predicted outcome. If the event seems random or outside of the individual's control, people will feel less motivated to pursue that course of action. If the individual plays a major role in the success of the endeavor, however, people will feel more instrumental in the process.

Expectancy is the belief that one has the capabilities to produce the outcome. If people feel like they lack the skills or knowledge to achieve the desired outcome, they will be less motivated to try. People who feel capable, on the other hand, will be more likely to try to reach that goal.

While no single theory can adequately explain all human motivation, looking at the individual theories can offer a greater understanding of the forces that cause us to take action. In reality, there are likely many different forces that interact to motivate behavior.

See more here:
6 Key Ideas Behind Theories of Motivation - Verywell Mind

Please remember to drink enough water before, during (small sips), and after class. Hydration is very important. You can bring your own bottle or purchase cold bottled water from the front desk. Coconut water is also a great post-workout option by the way.

Make sure youve had a meal a few hours before class. If youre hungry just before class, stick to a light snack like fruit or crackers.

Form-fitting clothing that wont interfere with movement or hang down with sweat is the best. Think: T-shirts, singlets, shorts and yoga leggings, preferably made from moisture-wicking fabric (pure cotton traps sweat). We also recommend that women wear sports bras.

We provide the mats, a sweat towel for a hot class, keyed lockers for anything you want to keep safe, water for sale (1), showers with luxury hair and body products (towel rental is 2.50). You can arrive in your clothing and be completely ready for class!

Please make sure you arrive at least 15 minutes before your class starts. Its never a good idea to arrive feeling rushed or stressed before doing yoga. We do not admit clients into a class once it has begun.

Check-in for your class with the receptionist. But be sure to do this no later than 5 minutes before the start of your class. After that, we hand out any available mats to those on the waiting list.

We encourage first-time visitors to introduce themselves to the teacher and place their mat on either the second or third row from the mirror.

Firstly congratulations! Yoga is an excellent form of wellness to enhance your pregnancy. We would always recommend our dedicated pregnancy classes. On attending our other classes, whilst yoga can be excellent, it can also be dangerous if its not adapted to pregnancy. As such, we generally do not allow attendance to our non-pregnancy classes. For more information on practicing whilst pregnant and our policy, please click here.

Some classes have last minute availability, so if youre feeling lucky do drop in. Be sure to be 15 minutes early to register your interest, sign up and pay. We accept debit/credit cards and cash at all of our studios.

Whilst we completely understand its slightly nerve-wracking to try anything new, there is really no need to worry. If you want to come into our studios before signing up or trying, please do and well talk through with you everything you need to know. Yoga is not for skinny, flexible, contortionistic, wealthy people. It is for absolutely everybody! Everybody would gain from one of the different types of yoga or fitness classes we offer. If you want to talk to us in more detail or have any other questions, please pop-in or email us on studio@tribe.yoga.

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Tribe Yoga Edinburgh Yoga, Pilates, Barre & Cycle

Venue: Karagahar, Rohtas,Bihar Contact: 8210715901, 8809610882, 8987249381

Venue: Ramlila Ground, Indira Colony, Near Balaji Temple, Rudrapur, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand Contact: 7065547533, 8009364501, 7905368752

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Venue: Rajyotsav Ground, Naya Raipur, Raipur, Chhattisgarh Contact: 8109366193, 8085273922, 8889431766, 1800 3070 2100 (toll-free)

Venue: Maharshi Sadafaldeo Ashram, Katar, Dehri-on-Sone, Rohtas (Bihar) Contact: 1800 3070 2100 (Toll-free), 98018 04948, 9431483263

Venue: Swarved Mahamandir Dham, Umaraha, Varanasi Contact: 1800 3070 2100

Venue: Siri Fort Auditorium Contact: 95607 16666, 93114 48880, 98910 60000

Venue: Mahesh Prasad Singh Science College, NH28, Gobarsahi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar Contact: 9430681522, 9122040818, 9934222111

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Venue: Himalaya Shoonya Shikhar Ashram, Idamalla, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand Contact: 1800 3070 2100

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Venue: Maharshi Sadafaldeo Ashram, Katar Vadiha, Dehri-On-Sone, Rohtas, Bihar Contact: 98018004348, 9431483263

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Venue: SDN 1 , Gerokgak- Buleleng. BP. Lanang Dalem HP. Contact: 081236705026

Venue: Stage Barong Di Pura Puseh Batubula JI.- Gianyar/ Adi Subawa HP. Contact: 0816577833

Venue: Lapangan Kapten Japa JI. By Pass IB. Mantra Kesiman Denpasar/ I Wayan Edi. Contact: 08123643426

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Venue: Kompas TV Dewata, Wayan Widana HP. Contact: 081388663548

Venue: Shri Lakhsminarayan Temple, No. 26, Jalan Kasipillay, Jalan Ipoh, Wilayah Persekutuan, 51200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Contact: +65 9687 2958, +60 1135 120253, +60 1463 69579, +60 1265 70695

Venue: Shri Lakshminarayan Temple, 5 Chader Road, Singapore 219528 Contact: +6597392900, +6591463384, +6591772183, +6592775007, +6593366964

Venue: Shri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple, 19 Ceylon Road, Singapore-429613 Contact: +6597392900, +6591463384, +6591772183, +6592775007, +6593366964

Venue: Sindhu Society, 795 Mountbatten Road, Singapore-437795 Contact: +6597392900, +6591463384, +6591772183, +6592775007, +6593366964

Venue: Goshamahal Police Ground,hyderabad Contact: 9391872323,9849916085

Venue: Swarved Mahamandir Dham Varanasi-Ghazipur Highway, Umaraha Sarnath, Varanasi, U.P. - 221007 Contact: 0542 2616565, 09336772687,09936443180

Venue: Dumka Road, Yaj Maidan, Jamtara, Jharkhand. Contact: 8809588497, 94312221178

Venue: Harmu Khel Maidan, Harmu Chaowk, Harmu Housing Colony, Ranchi, Jharkhand Contact: 9955721071, 9431100076

Venue: Mazdoor Maidan, City Centre, Sector-4, Bokaro Ispat Nagar, Jharkhand Contact: 06542269636, 9431735691

Venue: High School Sijhuwa,Ichak Hazaribagh, Jharkhand Contact: 9199433178, 9431504021

Venue: Dimapur, Nagaland Contact: 9436003673, 9436004493

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Venue: Block Ground, Jhumri telaiya, Kodarma, jharkhand Contact: 8409250056, 8797448328

Venue: Chirka Gaurinath Dham(Aam Bagan), Near Sindri Chaas More, Purulia, West Bengal Contact: 9006508975, 9932836831

Venue: Mayur Stadium River side, Bhurkunda Ramgarh, Jharkhand Contact: 9431502701, 9905752135

Venue: Maharshi Sadafaldeo Ashram, Agarsanda, Middha, ballia Contact: 9506070320, 9415658526

Venue: Rajkiya Polytechnic Begusarai, Near Petrol Pump, Bihar Contact: 9801804348, 9572000453.

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Venue: Dimanlok Maidan, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand Contact: 9279436306, 9431340670

Venue: Swarved Mahamandir Dham, Umaraha, Varanasi, UP - 221112 Contact: 7617014506, 9532107972, (0542)-2616565

Venue: Maharshi Sadafaldeo Ashram, Mahadev Ghat, Raipur, Chhattisgarh Contact: 9754860331, 8827414031,9826129300

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Venue: Saryu Prasad Agrawal Stadium, Ganjpara, Balod, Chhattisgarh Contact: 9691073281, 9406319761,9907154010

Venue: Vivekanand Sabhagrih, Jail Road, Durg, Chhattisgarh Contact: 9691073281, 8889431766, 9907585549

Venue: SUYOJIT Vridian Vallies, Near Bridge,Sawarkar Nagar Extension, Gangapur Road, Nashik Contact: 09823392068, 09822624942, 09421504646

Venue: Yogi SabhagrihaOpposite Railway Station, Dadar ( East), Mumbai 400014 Contact: 09987424037, 09833028409, 09920389299

Venue: Shersah mahavidyalya lalganj, Sasaram, Rohtas, Bihar Contact: 8651121212, 9470417149, 7352222333, 7654414444.

Venue: Open theater ground, Ghanta ghar, Korba, Chhattisgarh Contact: 9425532162,9424141330, 9425534036

Venue: Rajkiya Primary Vidyalaya Sector-3, Faridabad, Hariyana Contact: 9911520257, 9873176075, 8882690221

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Venue: Dashara maidan, Ashoka garden, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Contact: 7566688655, 9826413157,9826309419

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Venue: Near Gohad bandha bridge,Gohad road, Bhind, M.P. Contact: 8878165808, 8435072004, 9977157261

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Venue: Princess Shrine (Princess Academy) Palace Grounds, Opp Nikki Hero, Mekri Circle-Belly Road. Bangalore 80 Gage No. 9 Contact: 9901065075, 9845004085, 9341305297

Venue: Maharishi Sadafaldeo Ashram,Vasya Talab,District Balsad, Gujarat Contact: 2630222530,9825128183,8000044477

Venue: Maharshi Sadafaldeo Ashram-Meditation Centre-Gandhi Nagar, Barhan chandauli, UP Contact: 9616552051, 7860611903, 9005418118

Venue: Sadafaldeo Ashram, Rohidawadi, Sirsa, Hariyana Contact: 9355077321,9812777381

Venue: Sadsa- Pahra, Dumuhan rishiyap, Maharajganj Road, Aurangabad, Bihar Contact: 9801804348, 945079115, 9097420427, 9955975180

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Venue: Punjabi Bag Stadium, Ring Road, Delhi Contact: 93114448880,9810939293, 9560716666, 9868078886

Venue: Punjabi Bag Stadium, Punjabi Bag, Ring Road, Delhi Contact: 9311448880,9810939293,9560716666, 9868078886

Venue: Sector-3, IB Mart, Behind Big Bazzar, Salt Lake, Kolkata Contact: 9830711683,9830033110,9836995111,9831015397

Venue: Swarved Mahamandir DhamTime- 10:00 A.M. to 01:00 P.M. Contact: 9454066666, 9235597780, 9235597781, 9235597790

Venue: Nayali International Beach Hotel, Mombasa Contact: +254789399685(Nairobi) +917307720066(India)

Venue: Nairobi - Kenya Contact: +254789399685(Nairobi) +917307720066(India)

Venue: Nairobi - Kenya Contact: +254789399685(Nairobi) +917307720066(India)

Venue: 153-30, 89th Ave, Jamaica, New York, 11432 Contact: Subhash Chandra (9178624201)Vijay Kumar (6147870693)

Venue: Swarved Mahamandir Dham Varanasi-Ghazipur Highway, Umaraha Sarnath, Varanasi, U.P. India - 221007 Contact: 0542 2616465,0542 2616565, 09532107972,09936443180,094540 66666

Venue: Nairobi, Kenya Contact: +254 789 399 685

Venue: Bharatiya Temple1612 County Line Rd,Chalfont, PA 18914 Contact: Anchal Verma (+14846863883)Vijay Kumar (+16147870693)

Venue: Rajdhani Temple4525 Pleasant Valley Rd,Chantilly, VA 20151 Contact: Vijay Davuluri (6104573106)Vijay Kumar (6147870693)

Venue: Afgan Hindu Temple Billstrasse 77,D-20359 Hamburg,Germany Contact: +49 1521 8335 159, +49 1763 4971 408

Venue: Satyam Goethe Str. 5, 10623, Berlin Contact: +49 1521 8335 159, +49 3322 203 218

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Venue: Hindu Temple3350 N German Church Rd,Indianapolis, IN 46235 Contact: Nitin Patil (+1 3178 492 263)Vijay Kumar (+1 6147 870 693)

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Vihangam Yoga - Unwinding Spirituality

Meditating is easy. Raja Yoga even has the name Easy Raja Yoga'. But sometimes getting started needs a little explanation. Here is a simple five-step process to follow. Soon you'll arrive at the quiet still place with just a single stride - a single thought - and you won't even need to take five steps.

Relaxation is about letting go of tension and stress and bringing the mind and body into a state of calm and peace ...

Concentration allows me to use my time productively, once I have relaxed: I focus on the thoughts I choose to have ...

Contemplation is reflecting deeply on myself, my inner world and my values

Realisation is when my understanding and feelings combine and I experience a more profound, more meaningful reality within

Meditation is focusing on a thought and remembering my eternal identity, and re-awakening a wonderful state of well-being

Learn more about Raja Yoga meditation - what it is, why, how, where and when to do it, and the kind of people who are using it in their lives here

For more meditation experiences here on this site, step across into Experience

Ever thought about going on a Meditation Retreat?

Do you feel you don't time to meditate?

Meditating for just one minute can make a difference. Find out how: just-a-minute

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Brahma Kumaris - How to Meditate

A former high school athlete, Joe always figured that if he just kept exercising (hes been jogging five miles almost every morning for the past 35 years), hed keep the weight off despite his less-than-stellar food choices.

So were all those sweaty miles at sunrise for naught? If youre comparing diet vs exercise, is exercise the loser? Not at all. Reams of research affirm the multitudinous benefits of regular exercise. Physical activity (and this is just the short list):

For starters, both fitness and food choices are vital for long-term weight control. The National Weight Control Registry, established in 1994 by scientists at the University of Colorado and Brown Medical School, is following more than 10,000 Americans who have lost weight and kept it off for years. Just 1% kept the pounds off with exercise alone, 10% did it with diet alone, and 89% used both.

Secondly, research is learning that to keep the pounds from piling up, the food choices we make may be more important than the amount of exercise were doing. (Yes, Joe may have been better off cutting out the fast food than pounding the pavement.)

Dont get us wrong. Dont make it an either/or choice, points out Dr. Jay Kenney, Nutrition Research Specialist at the Pritikin Longevity Center. For staying slim and overall good health, both food and fitness are important. But science is now discovering that Americans are getting fatter largely because of what they choose to eat and drink.

In an eye-opening studypublished a few years ago, for example, researchers from the World Health Organization determined how many calories, on average, both children and adults needed in order to maintain a stable weight.

They also calculated how many calories Americans were actually eating in the 1970s and in the early 2000s, using national food supply data. As you no doubt guessed, were chowing down more in the 21st century. Compared to the 70s, adults in the early 2000s ate about 500 more calories a day. Children took in about 350 calories more daily.

The scientists then used their findings to predict how much weight they would expect American kids and adults to have gained from the 1970s to the early 2000s if calorie intake were the only influence.

Consider what forms of weight loss are most effective in order to find a solution that's right for you. Science of Weight Loss

If the actual weight increase was the same as what we predicted, that meant that food intake was virtually entirely responsible. If it wasnt, that meant changes in physical activity also played a role, explained lead author Boyd Swinburn, PhD., director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in Australia.

For the kids, it turned out that the predicted and actual weight gain matched exactly. The increases in calorie intake alone over the three decades explained the childrens weight gain.

For the adults, the average weight gain the researchers had predicted was nearly 24 pounds. The weight gain the American adults actually experienced was nearly 19 pounds.

The fact that the adults were five pounds shy of the 24-pound predicted weight gain means that excess food intake still explains the weight gain, but that there may have been increases in physical activity over the 30 years that have blunted what would otherwise have been a higher weight gain, Dr. Swinburn stated. (Yes, Joe and other fitness buffs like him did not gain as much weight as they might have.)

To slim back down to our average weight of the 1970s, a time when America was not struggling with an obesity epidemic, we would need to reverse the increased food intake of about 350 calories a day for children [about one can of soda and a small bag of French fries] and 500 calories a day for adults [about one cheeseburger], stated Dr. Swinburn.

Alternatively, we could achieve similar results by increasing physical activity by about 150 minutes a day of extra walking for children and 110 minutes for adults, but realistically, although a combination of both is needed, the focus would have to be on reducing calorie intake.

Dr. Swinburn and colleagues concluded that physical activity should not be ignored in the battle against obesity and should certainly be promoted because of its many other health benefits, but expectations regarding exercise need to be tempered, and more emphasis needs to be placed on encouraging people to make better food choices.

For Joe and the rest of us, it all boils down to this: Lets keep exercising, but even more importantly, lets change what were eating.

Our focus should not be on counting calories, a tactic many Americans try and fail at. And why wouldnt they? If youre counting calories and eating your regular diet (yes, the chips, fries, cheeseburgers, and sodas), the only way you can cut calories is to cut food. Half of a burger. Half a bag of fries. Six potato chips. A sip of Coke. But think about it. By paring our food down to small portions like this, most of us are pulling back from the table still hungry. How long can this type of eating really last?

Trying to eat fewer calories from calorie-dense, low-fiber foods and calorie-dense beverages wont likely work in the long term because hungry people rarely continue to eat less as hunger rachets up. This is why it is important to change what we eat, and not just count calories, emphasizes Dr. Kenney.

The really good news, as thousands of people at the Pritikin Longevity Center have discovered over the last four decades, is that we can eat plentifully nice big portions and lose weight. This scientifically documented approach is all about choosing foods that give us the most satiety per calorie, foods such as:

Smart eating, sums up Dr. Kenney, is not about setting for less. Its about puttingmore good food on our plate.

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