We are nestled in a secluded nook in the foothills of the beautiful Santa Monica mountains, only a few short miles from Malibus sandy beaches, yet seemingly a million miles from the hustle and bustle of metropolitan Los Angeles.

As our driver takes you up through a small, winding glen dotted with clusters of coastal oak and solitary ranch homes, if you listen very carefully you will hear a gentle streams soft serenade coming from below.

And as you arrive at the main building and pause at the front door, a wonderfully comforting presence invites you to enter and stay a while.

You have arrived. Your weeklong retreat dedicated to health, fitness and renewal has begun. Get ready for the time of your life. Welcome to The Ashram!

"Only in L.A., the spiritual home to something called 'life enhancement' and 'wellness', would they invent a boot camp for the movie stars. Ashram alumni include Oprah Winfrey, Dan Aykroyd, Shirley MacLaine, Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, Ashley Judd, and Amber Valleta."Vogue

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The Ashram | Spa Retreat Resort | Calabasas California ...

Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York, is a Yoga retreat and spiritual-educational center just over one hour from New York City, founded in 1964 by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati (then Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D.) as the country center of the Yoga Society of New York, Inc.

Located in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, the Ashram provides a serene, natural environment with woods and meadows surrounding a lake. Accommodations are simple and meals are vegetarian.

We offer daily meditation programs with Yoga-Vedanta studies, chanting and readings and daily Hatha Yoga and Sanskrit classes, plus classical Indian dance and music instruction and a variety of weekend workshops and special events. The Ashram is open year-round and welcomes guests from all origins, faiths and cultural backgrounds.

Ananda Ashram is also the location of the International Schools of East-West Unity (Gurukula), Inc., established by the Founder in 1992. The workshops and courses offered throughout the year cover the various aspects of Yoga, the creative arts and natural health, and East-West cultural performances highlight summer weekends and special celebrations. Guest teachers and artists from a variety of traditions are regular contributors. The Ashram philosophy is nonsectarian with an emphasis placed on Self-awareness and meditation.

Guest and student accommodations provide dorm and semiprivate rooms with around fifty beds. Facilities include classrooms, meditation room, program halls, temples, memorial shrine, gift shop, seasonal swimming pool and publication center. The inspirational Ashram environment is well suited for a meditative retreat, holistic studies and exploration of the deeper aspects of life.

Ananda Ashram is easily accessible by car, bus or train.

Historical Perspective

Ashrams have existed in the East from the earliest period of civilization as places of meditation, spiritual practice and research, higher learning and culture, where teachers and students lived and worked in togetherness. Ananda Ashram was dedicated as a universal center following that same tradition, for the exploration and application of the principles of Yoga and Vedanta through East-West philosophical and cultural exchange. Since its beginning, the Ashram has introduced and hosted many outstanding teachers, guest lecturers and artists from various disciplines. A preferred platform is given to those who focus on the underlying unity of all. In its core program, Ananda Ashram strives to maintain a distinguished, nonsectarian spiritual and educational standard throughout.

Universal Teachings

Yoga is understood here to be the essential harmony and union of individual existence with cosmic existence, as well as the physical, mental and spiritual practices leading to its realization. Nondualistic Vedanta philosophy declares the oneness of all beings in the Supreme Spirit and the ultimate freedom of the Self as Pure Consciousness, referred to by Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati as the "I-Am" beyond the body and mind. These and related teachings are studied at Ananda Ashram both through English sources and through the original Sanskrit texts, with emphasis on the Upanishads, Yoga Stras, Bhagavad Gt, and Shankaracharya's writings.

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Welcome to Ananda Ashram! | Ananda Ashram

Where poverty is widespread, people believe more in religions. They are uneducated but they have hopes and dreams, based on God. Some gurus take advantage of their dreams and suck the little money that they have out of them. Lets spread education so that they can really live their dreams.

Does a soul get more comfort by expensive rituals after death?

Sects go to extremes - Either lots of sex or no sex at all!

Video games taught children that violence and rioting is fun! They learned how it should look like when you break into a store and when they see that it works, they get greedy and steal mobile phones, game consoles, electronics and more. I think violent video games have encouraged teenagers to see this all as fun!

Isnt it crazy how religion is often only a way to manipulate people? Just tell people often enough that something is Gods wish and they will believe it!

Dont be shy to show a little gesture if you think it will make someone happy.

Sharing has a double effect: it decreases sadness and increases happiness!

Why do we need to pretend to be who we are not?

Every child is same and when you have this wish to give love to children, you should share your love with every child, no matter if it is yours or the child of someone else.

The only good reason for the wish to have a child is because you have love in your heart and you want to share it with a child. You want to give a child the happiness that you feel when you are loved and when you can love someone.

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Ashram in India | Spiritual Retreat Center | India Ashram ...

SHILLONG: The sixth Durga Puja will be celebrated by Bharat Sevashram Sangha (BSS), a charitable non-governmental organization, at its city based Ashram at Jail Road.

What makes this puja different from others is its worship of goddess Durga as per innate tradition and culture of Hindu Almanac.

The BSS has also taken the initiative to ensure that the joy of the celebrations also reach the needy. It identified 350 beneficiaries which include the children of Anath Ashram, Hindu Mission, Mawprem, among others and offered them new clothing.

It may be mentioned wearing new clothes is a tradition that is attached to the Durga Puja celebrations.

Meanwhile, this year two monks from BSS Gaya Ashram and Arunachal Pradesh Ashram will participate in the Durga Puja celebrations here.

A 75-minute duration Hindi CD, dedicated to the life and works of BSS founder Swami Pranabananda Maharaj besides complete details on what BSS stands for, what it does and why was it established will be distributed among devotees on the day of Dashami.

The annual magazine of BSS, Seva, will be released prior to the start of Durga Puja.

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BSS donates to the needy ahead of Puja celebrations

Religions of the world Menu

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

Buddhism currently has about 376 million followers and is generally listed as the world's fourth largest religion after Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. It was founded in Northern India by Siddhartha Gautama (circa 563 to 460 BCE) and has spread into much of the far East. It is making major inroads into North America

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The religion of Buddhism - Religious Tolerance

Founded in India 2,500 years ago, Buddhism remains the dominant world religion in the East and is becoming increasingly popular in the West. Over its long history, Buddhism has grown into a variety of forms, ranging from an emphasis on religious rituals and the worship of deities, to a complete rejection of both rituals and deities in favor of pure meditation. Yet all forms of Buddhism share respect for the teachings of the Buddha.

When it comes to Buddhism, many people have questions like: What does Buddhism teach about people and the universe? Do Buddhists believe in God? Are they atheists? What of a spiritual realm and an afterlife? What are Buddhism's values, traditions, and ethics? Who are its leaders and what are its followers like? What is Buddhism's history? And what are the symbols of Buddhism and what do they mean?

The table of contents below will direct you to various topics on the Buddhist religion, from beliefs to practices to important literature to symbols. (Note: Category headings go to the home page for that subject.)

New and Featured Articles: The Buddhist View on Homosexuality, The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Lotus Flower in Buddhism

Zen Buddhism

Comparison Chart: Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism

Is Buddhism really atheistic?

What do Buddhists believe about the afterlife?

Also see this Comparison chart of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism

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Buddhism - ReligionFacts - Religion, World Religions ...

In the US, capitalists seem to be looting Buddhism, making off with its meditation mindfulness techniques and ignoring spiritual teachings such loving kindness. But how is mindfulness unfolding in South Africa?

Upmarket lifestyle shops sell statues of Buddha by the thousand while some of Wall Streets most successful traders claim that meditation helps them to focus thus enabling them to make more money.

The Buddhist concept of mindfulness is also growing in popularity in Western medicine, as more studies show the benefits of meditation and yoga on reducing anxiety and depression.

Earlier this year, Time magazine devoted a cover story to the mindful revolution, while Bloomberg featured a story headlined To make a killing on Wall Street, start meditating.

Mindfulness, simply put, encourages people to be aware of what is happening in the present moment without judgment, often through meditation based on breathing.

Scientific studies now prove what Buddhist monks have long felt: that the effects of meditation can be measured in the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex that regulates emotions.

But it is hard not to be cynical about what looks like capitalist looting of an ancient Eastern spirituality, taking meditation and applying it for material benefit while ignoring the Buddhist values of compassion, tolerance and the pursuit of wisdom.

Neuroscientist Dr Cliff Saron, from the University of California at Davis, has been studying mindfulness since the 1970s.

Disturbed by the recent popularity of mindfulness with hedge-fund traders, Saron says sardonically that the way it has gained traction might be a retraction.

But his painstaking efforts have added to growing scientific proof of the positive effects of meditation.

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Not simply adapting Buddha for suburbia

Buddhism,religion and philosophy that developed from the teachings of the Buddha (Sanskrit: awakened one), a teacher who lived in northern India between the mid-6th and the mid-4th centuries bce (before the Common Era or Christian era). Spreading from India to Central and Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and Japan, Buddhism has played a central role in the spiritual, cultural, and social life of Asia, and during the 20th century it spread to the West.

Ancient Buddhist scripture and doctrine developed in several closely related literary languages of ancient India, especially in Pali and Sanskrit. In this article Pali and Sanskrit words that have gained currency in English are treated as English words and are rendered in the form in which they appear in English-language dictionaries. Exceptions occur in special circumstancesas, for example, in the case of the Sanskrit term dharma (Pali: dhamma), which has meanings that are not usually associated with the English dharma. Pali forms are given in the sections on the core teachings of early Buddhism that are reconstructed primarily from Pali texts and in sections that deal with Buddhist traditions in which the primary sacred language is Pali. Sanskrit forms are given ... (200 of 42,944 words)

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Buddhism (religion) -- Encyclopedia Britannica