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Kripalu Center
The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health is a nonprofit organization that operates a health and yoga retreat in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Its facility is a former Jesuit novitiate and juniorate seminary built in 1957. History Founder Amrit Desai came from India in 1960 as a student at the Philadelphia College of Art and taught yoga in Philadelphia. In 1966, he co-founded the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania. In 1972, Desai set up a residential yoga center in Sumneytown, Pennsylvania. In 1974, the organization's name was changed to "Kripalu Yoga Fellowship". It taught Swami Kripalvananda's teachings, held retreats and other programs, and trained yoga teachers. In 1975, Kripalu bought Summit Station, Pennsylvania, including a health center that became a key element of its mission. In 1977, Swami Kripalu moved to the United States, inspiring many people to take up yoga. He returned to India in 1981. The current Stockbridge, Massachusetts location, a former Jesuit seminary on a pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Retreat (spiritual)
The meaning of a spiritual retreat can be different for different religious communities. Spiritual retreats are an integral part of many Buddhist, Christian and Sufi communities. There are many different types of spiritual retreats such as wellness retreats, mindfulness retreats, spa retreats, adventure retreats, detox retreats, yoga retreats, and religious retreats. In Buddhism, meditative retreats are seen by some as an intimate way of deepening powers of concentration and insight. Retreats are also popular in Christian churches, and were established in today's form by St. Ignatius of Loyola (14911556), in his ''Spiritual Exercises''. Ignatius was later to be made patron saint of spiritual retreats by Pope Pius XI in 1922. Many Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians partake in and organize spiritual retreats each year. Meditative retreats are an important practice in Sufism, the mystical path of Islam. The Sufi teacher Ibn Arabi's book ''Journey to the Lord of Power ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Cope
Stephen Cope is a psychotherapist, Kripalu Yoga teacher, and author of several books on yoga and meditation. He is the founder of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living. Early life Stephen Cope was brought up in Wooster, Ohio in the 1950s and 1960s; he learnt to play the piano from an early age. His father was an academic historian and dean of Wooster College. He was educated at Amherst College, where he became a Presbyterian (of his childhood he is reported to have been reared as a Protestant) and subsequently a Quaker. His working life began as a professional dancer with Minnesota Dance Theatre. He then became a pianist at the Boston Conservatory of Music, playing as an accompanist for its dance teaching. He trained as a priest at Episcopal Divinity School, Boston, in 1974, but was not ordained as he was openly homosexual. He took a master's degree in social work, and a graduate course in psychotherapy at Boston University, and had a career as a psychotherapist in Boston ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shadow Brook Farm Historic District
Shadow Brook Farm Historic District is a historic district in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, United States. It includes six repurposed farm buildings related to the former Shadow Brook mansion, which was destroyed by fire in 1956. Designed by architect H. Neill Wilson with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted, the mansion and farm buildings were built for Anson Phelps Stokes in 1893. Andrew Carnegie acquired Shadowbrook in 1917 and died there in 1919. It served as a Jesuit novitiate from 1922 until 1970. Following the fire, a non-equivalent structure of the same name took its place and currently is home to the Kripalu Center. Today the historic district primarily encompasses Berkshire Country Day School, which acquired its campus from the Stokes family in 1963. The historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. History Nathaniel Hawthorne originated the name "Shadow Brook" in reference to a small stream that lies to the west and south of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilded Age
In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mark Twain's 1873 novel ''The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today''. Historians saw late 19th-century economic expansion as a time of materialistic excesses marked by widespread political corruption. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern United States, Northern and Western United States, Western United States. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, and Industrialisation, industrialization demanded an increasingly skilled labor force, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. The rapid expansion of industrialization led to Real wages, real wage growth of 40% from 1860 to 1890 and spread across the increasing labor force. The average annual wage per indust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forest Legacy Program
The Forest Legacy Program was established in the 1990 United States farm bill to protect environmentally important forest lands that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses. It provides federal funding for conservation easements and fee simple purchases. Program purpose To ascertain and protect environmentally important forest areas that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses Development of the nation's forested areas poses an increasing threat to maintaining the integrity of our country's valuable forest lands. Intact forest lands supply timber products, wildlife habitat, soil and watershed protection, aesthetics, and recreational opportunities. However, as these areas are fragmented and disappear, so do the benefits they provide. While local governments commonly guide development away from the most sensitive areas through traditional land use controls (like zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservation Easement
In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental (municipal, county, state or federal) entity to constrain, as to a specified land area, the exercise of rights otherwise held by a landowner so as to achieve certain conservation purposes. It is an interest in real property established by agreement between a landowner and land trust or unit of government. The conservation easement "runs with the land", meaning it is applicable to both present and future owners of the land. The grant of conservation easement, as with any real property interest, is part of the chain of title for the property and is normally recorded in local land records. The conservation easement's purposes will vary depending on the character of the particular property, the goals of the land trust or government unit, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stockbridge Bowl
Stockbridge Bowl, also known as Lake Mahkeenac, is a artificially impounded body of water that is north of the village of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Above the lake's north side with sweeping views to the south is Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Geography The Bowl is situated among sloping hills of the Taconic Range to the west and north and the Berkshire Hills to the east. From the north there is an impressive view over the lake and Housatonic River plain to Monument Mountain seven miles to the south. The portion of the Taconic Range bordering the lake is known as Yokun Ridge. The lake is 1 miles long, about miles wide, and its shoreline totals approximately . The primary inflow into the Bowl is from the northeast through Lily Brook. The drainage is from the southwest by Larrywaug Brook, which is a tributary to the Housatonic River. At its deepest, the lake is deep. The lake is artificially impounded by a dam at the end of a natural ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prana
In yoga, Ayurveda, and Indian martial arts, prana (, ; the Sanskrit word for breath, " life force", or "vital principle") permeates reality on all levels including inanimate objects. In Hindu literature, prāṇa is sometimes described as originating from the Sun and connecting the elements. Five types of prāṇa, collectively known as the five '' vāyus'' ("winds"), are described in Hindu texts. Ayurveda, tantra and Tibetan medicine all describe ''prāṇa vāyu'' as the basic vāyu from which the other vāyus arise. Prana is divided into ten main functions: The five Pranas – Prana, Apana, Udana, Vyana and Samana – and the five Upa-Pranas – Naga, Kurma, Devadatta, Krikala and Dhananjaya. Pranayama, one of the eight limbs of yoga, is intended to expand conscious awareness of prana. Etymology V.S. Apte provides fourteen different meanings for the Sanskrit word ' () including breath or respiration; the breath of life, vital air, principle of life (usually plural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditation process itself. Techniques are broadly classified into focused (or concentrative) and open monitoring methods. Focused methods involve attention to specific objects like breath or mantras, while open monitoring includes mindfulness and awareness of mental events. Meditation is practiced in numerous religious traditions, though it is also practised independently from any religious or spiritual influences for its health benefits. The earliest records of meditation ('' dhyana'') are found in the Upanishads, and meditation plays a salient role in the contemplative repertoire of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Meditation-like techniques are also known in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, in the context of remembrance of and prayer and dev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pranayama
Pranayama (Sanskrit: प्राणायाम, "Prāṇāyāma") is the yogic practice of focusing on breath. In classical yoga, the breath is associated with '' prana'', thus, pranayama is a means to elevate the ''prana-shakti'', or life energies. Pranayama is described in Hindu texts such as the ''Bhagavad Gita'' and the ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali''. Later, in Hatha yoga texts, it meant the complete suspension of breathing. The pranayama practices in modern yoga as exercise differ from those of the Hatha yoga tradition, often using the breath in synchrony with movements. Etymology ''Prāṇāyāma'' (Devanagari: ') is a Sanskrit compound. It is defined variously by different authors. Macdonell gives the etymology as prana ('), breath, + ''āyāma'' and defines it as the suspension of breath. Monier-Williams defines the compound ' as "of the three 'breath-exercises' performed during (''See'' ', ', '". Monier-Williams, p706, left column./ref> This technical defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asana
An āsana (Sanskrit: आसन) is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'' define "asana" as " position thatis steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Patanjali '' Yoga sutras'', Book II:29, 46 Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English. The 10th or 11th century '' Goraksha Sataka'' and the 15th century '' Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' identify 84 asanas; the 17th century '' Hatha Ratnavali'' provides a different list of 84 asanas, describing some of them. In the 20th century, Indian nationalism favoured physical culture in response t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
