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Bhavana Community
a 501c3 non-profit
Practitioners of Mindfulness and Yoga
Cultivating Skills to Live in Harmony for the Benefit of All Beings
We Cultivate Mindfulness First
Mindfulness in Yoga and Meditation
We offer a variety of programs designed to support you on your yoga and meditation path. From introductory courses to advanced workshops, our programs are designed to help you deepen your practice.
Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Our community of experienced mindfulness practitioners and facilitators are committed to helping you learn to respond more skillfully and creatively to life's daily challenges. Mindfulness allows you to embrace and learn from life's challenges.
Bhavana Means Cultivation
Yoga Sutras II.33
vitarka-bâdhane pratipakæa-bhâvanam
I first met the word bhavana in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, way before I could have imagined becoming a yoga teacher, much less someone who would be sharing dharma. A client gave me Satchidananda’s translation when she moved away. I was surprised when I got to Book II, verse 33, and Patanjali says “When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite [positive] ones should be thought of. This is "pratipaksha bhavana.” Here, in a collection of teachings from 2000 years ago, is what amounts to the basic principle of cognitive behavior therapy. Where have we been all these years?
So I went to find out where we got lost.
Glenn Wallis, author of a translation and compilation of sutras called Basic Teachings of the Buddha, emphasizes the word’s agrarian heritage. "One of the Buddha’s favorite metaphors for the practice that we refer to as “meditation” is bhavana, “cultivation.” He certainly had in mind the ubiquitous farms and fields of his native India when employing this image. Thus, unlike “meditation” or “contemplation,” the Buddha’s term is musty, rich, verdant. It smells of the earth. The commonness of his chosen term – it would have resonated with a farmer – suggested naturalness, everydayness, ordinariness. The term also suggested hope: no matter how fallow it has become or damaged it may be, a field can always be cultivated – endlessly enhanced, enriched, developed – to produce a favorable and nourishing harvest." Wallis (2007) (Pg. 150)
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The Bhavana Community, Inc. is a Nonprofit corporation exempt under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3).