Integral Yoga teacher Zac Parker leads a short guided meditation utilizing the mantra Om. This mantra is considered to be the primordial sound of the universe, representing the essence of existence and the ultimate Reality. When meditating on Om, practitioners feel...
Reflections on Prayer
It takes a long time to learn how to pray just for the sake of praying and not for anything else, not for our own selfish desires. The reason that we obtain little satisfaction from our prayers is that they are not really sincere attempts to touch God. When we begin...
Living the Yoga of Sound
In 1971, Michael Grosso had an extraordinary experience in Greenwich Village, New York, that led him to realize he needed to balance his overly intellectual life with music. Michael had just spent the last several years obtaining a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia...
We Are All Parts of a Whole
In the last ten years my work has been made much easier by the progress made in the fields of Neuroscience and Epigenetics. Following a great deal of scientific experimentation, significant evidence has materialized to show how the brain works and how meditation...
Hatha Yoga: The Art of Change
Change is the act of becoming different, a natural occurrence that makes life possible. So why does it cause so much stress? Change comes into our awareness at the end of comfort. When life is good, there is no need to change. Only when things are uneasy do we begin...
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Video Series
Join Integral Yoga Master Teacher Nalanie Chellaram as she teaches the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The series begins with an overview of the text and why it is such an inspiration to so many. Utilizing the commentaries by Swami Satchidananda, along with insights from...
Seeing Through the Illusion of “Normal”
Do we still believe that the sun travels across the sky while we stand stationary on a flat piece of earth? No, these once held beliefs were dispelled long ago. But how many other things do we accept as true simply because our limited senses tell us so, or that is...
How to Make Your Formal Meditation Practice More Effective
Meditation is something we should learn to practice, not just in formal meditation, but all the time. But, for our formal, sitting meditation practice, preparation is most important. Is there not a saying, “Well begun is half done?” We often don’t begin well. We don’t...
The True Spiritual Experience
People sometimes ask me, “What has been accomplished by my practice of Yoga all these years? I haven’t realized God. I haven’t had any noticeable spiritual experience.” I don’t know what experience they want. They haven’t levitated up from the floor at least a few...
Elmo Tries Yoga Nidra!
With over 18 million views, this video features Mr. Andy from Headspace teaching Sesame Street's Elmo a simple guided relaxation. Elmo is having a tough time settling down for bedtime but this clever video demonstrates how Yoga help even Elmo! Perfect to share with...
OM: The Universal Vibration of Spiritual Harmony
OM is a letter and a word. It is also a sound or resonance. There are three sounds in OM, known as “matra” (vowel diacritics): ‘a,’ ‘u,’ and ‘m.’ When ‘a’ and ‘u’ merge, they form ‘o,’ and when ‘m’ is placed alongside ‘o,’ it forms OM. Thus, all sounds of all...
Yoga Nidra: A Gateway to Samadhi
Yoga Nidra is yogic sleep. But, it’s a sort of sleepless sleep. You are awake and at the same time you are sleeping. The scriptures call it “jagrat sushupti,” awakened sleep. You sleep, but you don’t sleep. During regular sleep, you sleep but you don’t know that...
Forgiveness: Freeing the Heart from the Past
The month of September contains two of the most important holy days in the Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah begins a 10 day period of introspection and repentance that culminates in Yom Kippur, known as the Day of Atonement. These holy...
Carrying Inner Peace Out into the World
It is a tradition in Integral Yoga that after daily meditation we repeat Shanti mantras, or peace prayers. These prayers are a beautiful way to end one’s formal meditation sitting and are a spiritual support in that they are affirmations of peace. The Yoga tradition...
The Practice of Trataka Meditation
There are so many methods of meditation and Trataka meditation is among them. Even though you might have an image in your mind of what meditation is, there are actually so many ways to meditate. You can try out all the different types to see what works best for you....
Working with Self-Judgment
In this episode, host Avi Gordon (director of the Integral Yoga Teachers Association) and his guest, Swami Asokananda, talk about how each works with self-judgment, resistances to daily sadhana (spiritual practice), pratipaksha bhavana, and other topics regarding...