Yoga Philosophy
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The Pursuit of Happiness
Yoga is now known and practiced all over the world. This is because it’s not only for people who believe in religion, spirituality, or a particular philosophy. The yogic teachings comprise the very same foundation that is found in all faiths and religions. And, even...
The Inner Guru
In this short video "The Inner Guru" from 1998 during Guru Poornima, Swami Satchidananda speaks about the true meaning of "Guru" and also about attuning oneself to the inner Guru. Using examples from his own Guru (Sri Swami Sivananda), the Bhagavad Gita and South...
The Five Koshas
One question I often like to start my meditation workshops with is: Are you your thoughts? It’s quite controversial for some people and can provoke interesting responses. Sure, most of the time we feel like we are stuck in our heads. But aside from our minds, how else...
The Power of Recognition
In this discussion between Dr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Christopher Wallis, they discuss the nature of Consciousness and how we know anything that we know. And, as Swami Satchidananda always taught, enlightenment is nothing you need to "get" from outside or "achieve."...
What We Can Learn from a Flower
We can find lessons in everything we do. One of the lessons that I learned as a mechanic, many years ago, is very useful in being able to control the mind. The newer vehicles probably don’t require this anymore, but way back then, a car had to be periodically...
What is Consciousness?
Dr. Deepak Chopra and Dr. Hareesh Wallis discuss the nature of Consciousness as explained in the ancient text The Recognition Sutras. As Dr. Wallis explains, "Consciousness engages in this divine act of creation, preservation, dissolution, concealment, revelation....
Spiritual Alchemy
What does it mean when a scripture or spiritual teacher tells us to “mentally keep quiet?” It means to raise above your mind. When I did that, in that moment, I didn’t see all the differences, all the separateness. I saw only the unity in all of the diversity—the...
Understanding Yourself and God
The real goal of Yoga is to understand oneself by making the mind clean and calm. Yoga is not just a set of physical postures, meditation, and breathing techniques. Yoga helps us to develop mental purity and serenity, which are both necessary to understand oneself....
Revelation and Awakening
In this video, Deepak Chopra, MD talks with Yoga scholar/practitioner Christopher Hareesh Wallis about the 1,000 year-old tradition of Nondual Saiva Tantra. Dr. Wallis is asked to explain the essence of mantra and yantra, considered "pre-modern technologies," which...
Recognizing Oneness
To maintain our peace of mind we must raise ourselves above the duality to experience the nonduality. But what does that mean? It doesn’t mean we need to leave our homes and go somewhere else. And we don’t need to just sit and be quiet doing nothing. If that were the...