<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2139d9d4-60fc-46ac-813e-c6de96f1ed3b/DD3C52CF-AF41-46C7-A39C-4D48A6646CE9/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em" href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em" style="font-size: 11px;">travel.nytimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em"><H1> <NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0"> The Simple Life </NYT_HEADLINE> </H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/travel.nytimes.com/img/3AA5812B-931E-4151-AB1C-7FD6D9D57664" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em"><P class="caption"><STRONG>CONCENTRATION</STRONG> Meditation in front of the Shri Krishna Temple at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch in Woodbourne, one of several ashrams and monasteries in upstate New York.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em"><P>IT began at 4:30 on a Saturday morning. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em">The three dozen participants started out with two half-hour Buddhist <A title="More articles about meditation." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/meditation/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier">meditation</A> sessions before dawn. They then spent the next two hours doing what’s called work practice, which consisted of scrubbing toilets and raking leaves, all in silence. An afternoon of instruction on the essentials of Buddhism led to more meditation, cleaning the dinner dishes, and sleeping in dorm-style accommodations. Sunday was an abbreviated version of the day before. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/travel.nytimes.com/img/0431F276-F8CD-4930-B2FA-58423EDE3D31" alt="Spiritual Retreats in Upstate New York" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/travel.nytimes.com/img/7CC95B82-C07C-4C7D-BE0C-F844BEED4E3F" alt="Upstate New York" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em">Perhaps what was the most unusual aspect of this austere weekend at Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, N.Y., was that many of the attendees were not adherents of Eastern religious practices, but were part of an increasing number of nonbelievers who are seeking stress-free,</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em">spiritual and often inexpensive weekend </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/12/travel/escapes/12ashrams.html?em">breaks </blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/DD3C52CF-AF41-46C7-A39C-4D48A6646CE9/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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