Yogic Mystery School ™

I am inviting you to begin a daily engagement of prayer, puja, and practicing peace. Each of these pieces represents an aspect of the spiritual life. Practicing peace is part of our self-development process. It is founded upon meditation, which is part of our self-care and cultivates our capacity for self-control. For some of us, meditation is the only spiritual discipline we engage in daily. Prayer and puja (sacred ritual) involve different sensitivities.

In our Yogic Mystery School, we are, for the first time, consciously exploring the role of prayer in our mystic, gnostic, and meditation approaches, particularly in what we call Absorption, which for us is the most profound experience of Tantra, Yoga, and the Vedas, aka samadhi, moksha. Prayer is a respectful communion with the dimension of Ultimate Reality.

Puja is powerful because it is profoundly healing. The knowledgeable use of sacred gestures (mudras) with mantras (sacred sounds) and contact with natural elements (fire,...

Peace is always within our reach, depending not on what is going on in our lives or the world but on our fundamental, prevailing attitude. Regardless of the concerns that arise in the mind and cloud our hearts with anxiety, all it takes (sometimes) is a turning within, a shift in perception, to realize that peace is intrinsic to our deepest nature. 

Buddhist meditation teacher Susan Piver shares this story about the loss of a love relationship. She is taking out the garbage barefooted on a hot Texas morning; her heart is caught in a circle of tumultuous emotion. Recurring phrases such as "he fears commitment" and "he is too selfish to care about anyone else" continually barrage her mind. Suddenly, she realizes nothing is happening except that she is standing barefoot on a Texas street on trash day, with some birds flying overhead. At that moment, she realizes that all of her emotional pain is entirely the result of her thought patterns. It had nothing to do with anything...

A famous Hindu chant is often chanted in yoga studios and training worldwide. The words are “lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhinaḥ bhavantu.” While the word "sukha" is usually translated as happiness, giving the mantra the meaning of "may the world be happy," there is a more meaningful etymology to this word that is particularly significant at this time.

"Sukha" does mean joy and delight, but there is equally, or perhaps more strongly, the sense that it refers to ease, comfort, and coziness. Consider regions around the world where people are struggling with the necessities of life under the daily threat of war, oppression, or violence. One way of holding them in our prayers is to ask that their lives ease up into a more comfortable existence.

In this guided meditation, taken from our Yoga of Sound Immersion, you will engage in a simple yet powerful prayer that embodies the spirit of the Vedas. It is designed to be accessible to everyone, even those without knowledge of Sanskrit,...