Yoga for Meditation
The Yoga Well Institute's Yoga Philosophy Discussion Courses allow students to discover the depth and breadth of Yoga’s most sacred texts. In the Patanjali’s Yogasūtra Discussion course you will discuss and discover the many meanings and impacts of each individual sūtra while contextualizing how the sūtras inform and shed light on the practice of Yoga. This course is driven by scholarly discussion, over time, so that the concepts and ideas covered have time to integrate into your life and practice.
However, quieting the mind, focusing the attention and continuing to remain open to the present is challenging without proper preparation. The role of Yoga is to properly prepare the mind and body for meditation. Physical postures (āsana), conscious breathing (prāṇāyāma) and other tools like chanting are meant to be practiced before meditating because they change our state, preparing the body to sit and the mind to be consistently, openly, focused. Moreover, different techniques influence the mind in different ways.
Class Details
When: Live class every Wednesday morning at 7am PT for 30 minutes; Video library of past 12 month’s classes available on-demand.
Duration: Ongoing (subscription)
What’s Included:
Weekly Class and Discussion
Class Recordings
Handouts
Location: Student Portal.
Expert Guidance
Learn directly from Chase Bossart, a seasoned yoga philosophy teacher, with 30 years of experience.
Deep Understanding
Gain profound insights into Patanjali’s Yogasūtra, beyond surface-level knowledge.
Transformative Learning
Experience personal growth and transformation through the wisdom of yoga philosophy.
What You Will Learn:
Practiced appropriately, meditation helps us develop a calm, deep and stable focus that results in uncommon insight and a returning back into our most authentic selves. These are core elements of developing and maintaining balance and a positive state of wellbeing as well as incredibly rewarding and interesting experiences.
Through regular participation in this class, you will learn:
How to meditate, what preparations and Yoga tools best support you and your practice. Experientially how to recognize meditation experiences, including what is and is not helpful for you. How meditation works.How meditation influences you and your life. How different preparations and tools support and shape the experience you have in meditation.
"I am thankful for feeling peaceful.
We did a meditation using 4 phases of the moon…The movement & prāṇāyama really quieted my mind & allowed a new acceptance of a current life circumstance for me… I am thankful for feeling peaceful, allowing solutions to arise without forcing them."
What Happens in the Class
Join us each Wednesday morning for a live, 30-minute, guided meditation. Our Executive Director, Chase Bossart, begins with a few simple preparations. Usually this is 2 or 3 of a wide variety of Yoga tools including: āsana, prāṇāyāma and/or mantra. After the preparation, there is a directed focus meditation.
Each month, there is a new focus and a new set of techniques preparing for the meditation. Over the course of the month the techniques and focus evolve which facilitates a really interesting exploration of both that set of Yoga techniques as well as the meditations that resulted afterward.
Focuses range from objects (ex. oak trees or pure streams), to sounds and sensations (ex. a mantra or a bodily sensation), to concepts and reflections, and beyond.
Over time, with regular participation, you will learn a lot about meditation and discover even more about yourself.
Faculty: Chase Bossart
Executive Director of the Yoga Well Institute, Chase has been studying Yoga, Sanskrit, eastern philosophy, and religion for nearly 30 years.
In 1991, as part of a study abroad program in Chennai, India, Chase took a semester-long course on Yoga Theory with Mr. TKV Desikachar that essentially set the direction for the rest of his life. He became a private student of Mr. Desikachar, who was his mentor and teacher for 20+ years. During that time, he spent a total of four and a half years in Chennai studying with him, his family, and his senior teachers. He also had the opportunity to serve as a teacher at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. From 2006-2012, he was the Director of Therapy and Education at the non-profit Healing Yoga Foundation in San Francisco.
His depth of knowledge on yoga and meditation is shared through practical, humorous anecdotes that translate to everyday life.
