Meditation is the practice of watching your mind think. Why would you want to watch your mind think? Well, when you can watch something, you will come to know that you are not that something. You cannot watch and be what you are watching at the same ti …
A friend once told us that there’s really not much difference between the hero and the coward: they both feel the same fears and anxieties. The hero acts in spite of these fears and anxieties, however, whereas the coward turns away from action. The cul …
Our guru Swami Nirmalananda taught us a powerful mantra: Lokah Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu. “May all beings, everywhere, be happy and free. And may the thoughts and actions of my own life contribute, in some way, to that happiness and to that freedom for …
The Sanskrit term yoga is found in the Vedas, the most ancient scripture known, prehistoric in origin. An Indian philosopher named Patanjali did not invent yoga, but he did write its manual, the Yoga Sutras, several thousand years ago. Some western pro …
Jivamukti Yoga incorporates traditional yoga practices into a modern lifestyle without losing sight of the ancient, universal goal of liberation. We believe that liberation is possible even while living a modern urban lifestyle anywhere in the world. W …
Bhakti means “devotion to God”. In Bhakti Yoga the practitioner cultivates desire for God. Without devotion, asana is meaningless exercise and Yoga cannot be attained. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali repeatedly says that devotion to God is the most direc …
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika declares that samadhi is achieved when the anahata nadam, the unstruck sound, can be heard. The aim of Hatha Yoga is to hear this soundless sound, which is Om, the dissolution of all sound, and the music of the spheres. To do t …
Meditation is the practice of watching your mind think. Why would you want to watch your mind think? Well, when you can watch something, you will come to know that you are not that something. You cannot watch and be what you are watching at the same ti …
In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali began his chapter on practice with a simple three-step plan for the attainment of enlightenment called Kriya Yoga: Discipline, Study, and Devotion. Like the word karma, kriya is derived from the Sanksrit root kr, which mean …
Learning only static postures does not reveal the incredible potential of asana. When individual asanas are linked together correctly in a sequence, the result is a physiological mantram, a fleshy vortex of intersecting rivers of everything. The word v …
Sit down! Just sit down and hold still! Sounds simple, but it’s not so easy when you have a mind filled with thoughts moving this way and that. The Sanskrit word asana is most commonly known as the name for the yogic practice of assuming various physic …
The purpose of any sadhana or conscious spiritual practice is the awakening of cosmic consciousness. Kundalini is consciousness, sleeping like a coiled snake at the base of the spine, where the opening to sushumna nadi, the central energy channel, is l …