Study with exceptional faculty who draw from more than 30 years of experience creating extraordinary learning environments
Why do your massage training at Kripalu?
The Kripalu approach takes the technical skills and strokes and transforms them into a sacred experience of intuitive healing touch. Kripalu therapists attune to the essential within themselves and their clients to offer an experience infused with life force. The tools of the Kripalu approach include intention, intuitive awareness, attentiveness to energy, and yogic stances and breathing and can be used with any bodywork modality.
Through this comprehensive residential massage training, you will learn the principles and practices of massage therapy, develop an authentic healing presence, and experience bodywork as a vehicle for personal and spiritual transformation for both you and your clients.
The massage training program at the Kripalu School of Massage offers the following two levels of certification:
* Essentials of Kripalu Massage (170 hours)
Learn to provide compassionate, intuitive touch with technical expertise in our 170-hour foundational massage training.
* 500-Hour Kripalu Bodywork and Massage Training (340 hours)
Increase your repertoire of bodywork techniques and deepen the skills and experience acquired in Essentials of Kripalu Massage. This course provides an additional 340 hours of bodywork and massage training and together with Essentials of Kripalu Massage gives you the 500 hours of coursework necessary to apply for licensing as a massage therapist in most states in the United States and abroad.
The Kripalu School of Massage is licensed as a private occupational school by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Education.
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health is approved by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB) as a continuing education provider.
Article taken here.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training 200- and 500-Hour Certification Programs
Kripalu offers the most comprehensive, inspired, and transformational yoga teacher training in the country. In our training, you will gain the knowledge, skills, and confidence you need to become an exceptional—and successful—teacher, able to work in any environment you choose.
200-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training
500-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training
The integrated curriculum we offer is not based on theories or prescribed methods but derived from rigorous practice and experimentation, and is led by expert teachers with decades of experience. Students report that the Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training faculty deeply impact their development as yoga teachers because they embody what they teach.
Come live, learn, and transform here, while immersing yourself in a residential, yogic lifestyle that encourages inquiry and knowledge. We construct the Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training in ways that cultivates your ability to thrive in your personal and professional life and graduate with a well-developed connection to a deep source of inspiration—and the ability to guide others into theirs.
Scholarships and educational financing available.
The Kripalu School of Yoga is licensed as a Private Occupational School by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Proprietary Schools.
Visit them here.
200-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training
500-Hour Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training
The integrated curriculum we offer is not based on theories or prescribed methods but derived from rigorous practice and experimentation, and is led by expert teachers with decades of experience. Students report that the Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training faculty deeply impact their development as yoga teachers because they embody what they teach.
Come live, learn, and transform here, while immersing yourself in a residential, yogic lifestyle that encourages inquiry and knowledge. We construct the Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training in ways that cultivates your ability to thrive in your personal and professional life and graduate with a well-developed connection to a deep source of inspiration—and the ability to guide others into theirs.
Scholarships and educational financing available.
The Kripalu School of Yoga is licensed as a Private Occupational School by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Proprietary Schools.
Visit them here.
What is YOGA and how does it relate to Kripalu?
Yoga is the keystone term of a profound worldview and grasping its meaning is essential to understanding Kripalu’s mission and activities as a cohesive whole. Because it is such an important term, yoga has several meanings, each of which adds a critical element to a comprehensive understanding.
Basic Definitions of Yoga
In a historical sense, yoga refers to the enormous body of spiritual teachings and techniques developed by the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent over the last five thousand years. While Westerners often assume that yoga is a homogeneous tradition, there are hundreds if not thousands of sects and schools of yoga, each with its distinctive doctrines and practices. This fact has led noted yoga scholar Georg Feuerstein to begin his classic work The Yoga Tradition with the words: “Yoga is a spectacularly multifaceted phenomenon and as such it is very difficult to define.”
From the perspective of a beginning practitioner, the term yoga describes the goal sought through practice, as well as the means to realize it. Yoga means union, a reference to the state of body–mind–spirit harmony sought through various disciplines, which are also called yoga. Under this definition, one practices postures and meditation—two common disciplines of yoga—to harmonize his or her body and mind and access a state of unity—the goal of yoga.
Seen in this light, yoga is described as a spiritual path, often broken down into the following eight stages as delineated by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra:
1. Yama/Restraint: Actions best avoided
2. Niyama/Observance: Positive actions to cultivate
3. Asana/Posture: Releasing gross tensions from the body
4. Pranayama/Breath Regulation: Harmonizing body, mind, and breath
5. Pratyahara/Introversion: Withdrawing attention from external distractions
6. Dharana/Concentration: Focusing the mind on a single point
7. Dhyana/Meditation: Accessing a state of flow
8. Samadhi/Oneness: Effortless, integrated being
Neither impractical nor otherworldly, the path of yoga results in a capacity for integrated functioning and powerful action that is evident in anyone whose thoughts, feelings, statements and actions line up. The inner coherence gained from practice inevitably shows up externally in enhanced creativity and peak performance.
Delving Deeper
From the perspective of an adept practitioner, viewing yoga as a spiritual path is less than accurate. The analogy of a path implies a means/end relationship that does not hold up under the strict scrutiny of practice. Instead of a linear path of becoming, yoga is better described as a way of being accessible in each and every moment. In this light, the disciplines of yoga are techniques that clear obstacles that prevent us from being who and what we naturally are. As the fruit is already present in the seed, yoga is not the result of any action to attain a goal. It is simply a return to our natural state.
Out of this understanding, Kripalu uses four definitions of yoga that describe the qualities of a person acting from a state of yoga. Each is drawn from an ancient and authoritative yoga text:
1. Yoga is skillfulness in action, a reference to a yogi’s capacity to act dynamically in ways that reliably produce positive results across all dimensions of life. (Bhagavad Gita)
2. Yoga is equanimity and equilibrium, a reference to a yogi’s capacity to sustain evenness of mind while confronting inner limitations and outer challenges, i.e., the capacity to tolerate the consequences of being one’s self. (Bhagavad Gita)
3. Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind, a reference to a yogi’s capacity to see life and reality as it is without the filters of fears, fantasies, or other distortions. (Yoga Sutra)
4. Yoga is freedom, a reference to the bliss of wellbeing experienced whenever one steps into one’s natural rhythm of being, one’s appropriate purpose in life, and one’s natural place in the universe. (Yoga Bhashya)
The Multidimensional Self of Yoga
At this point in your reading, the above definitions of yoga may seem abstract or esoteric. One way to understand their relevance is to look deeply at what it means to be human through the lens of what yoga calls the multidimensional self.
Yoga teaches that there are six layers to our being and that each giving rise to a specific sense of self and play an essential role in our lives. The first and most obvious is the physical body, beneath which lies the second and less apparent energetic circuitry of the nervous system. Together these constitute what is sometimes called the sensorimotor self. One layer deeper is the thinking mind and protective emotions, which comprise the egocentric self needed to function well in a competitive world. Beneath that is the intuitive mind and expressive emotions that make up the authentic, creative, and artistic self. Beyond even that is a layer of subtle energy called prana that flows unceasingly from the deepest layer, the pure spiritual presence that yoga calls the Self. (The less complete but more common phrase used to describe these levels of being is body, mind, emotions, and spirit.)
Yoga views health and wellness as the harmonious resonance of all six layers of the self. The yogic process of regaining and enhancing this whole person health is a profound journey in which each layer of self is accessed, revitalized, and reclaimed to full awareness. Often referred to as the transformative process in Kripalu Yoga terminology, it includes many aspects of what would be commonly considered healing and health enhancement, therapeutic and growth psychology, and spirituality.
So Much More Than Postures
Most people have a limited view of yoga, seeing it as synonymous with yoga postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. While popular and powerful, these disciplines are only a few of the tools employed to heal, harmonize, and awaken the whole person. Outlining the major branches of yoga will give you a feel for the breadth and depth of the ancient tradition.
* Karma Yoga: the yoga of dynamic action and service to humanity
* Jnana Yoga: the yoga of discriminative wisdom
* Bhakti Yoga: the yoga of devotion
* Hatha Yoga: the yoga of postures and breathing exercises
* Raja Yoga: the yoga of concentration and meditation
* Tantra Yoga: the yoga of integrating the polarities
Kripalu Yoga, like many other contemporary schools, integrates tools and techniques from all of the above classical schools, promoting yoga as an integrated lifestyle versus any stand-alone practice.
All Kripalu’s Activities Reflect Some Facet of Yoga
Kripalu Center offers an immersion experience of a yoga lifestyle. What do early morning posture and meditation practice, wholesome eating, study and learning in the program room, volunteer service, and deep tissue massage have in common? In the context of the Kripalu lifestyle, each is a facet of “yoga.” Each is a means adopted to exert a salutary impact on one or more levels of the multidimensional self, returning us to the vibrancy that is our birthright. As a person becomes steeped in the practices and lifestyle, their innate skillfulness, equanimity, clarity, and joy naturally come forth. This should come as no surprise, as they are just exhibiting the qualities of a yogi.
Nondogmatic and Nondenominational
Swami Kripalu was a kundalini yoga master renowned in India for the intensity of his spiritual practice and the depth of his compassion. In 1977, he came to the United States and spent four years in residence at the original Kripalu Center prior to his death in 1981. Maintaining his schedule of ten hours of yoga and meditation per day, Swami Kripalu also taught a small number of close disciples and made weekly public appearances that catalyzed the growth of the Kripalu community. In these ways, Swami Kripalu played an essential role in the transmission of a spiritually potent yoga tradition to a large community of Western practitioners. His teachings on yoga practice and holistic lifestyle continue to inspire Kripalu Center’s work in the world.
The Kripalu tradition is founded on what Swami Kripalu called Sanatana Dharma and in the West is called the Perennial Wisdom. This is the recognition that yoga and all the world’s wisdom traditions stem from a single universal truth that human beings can experience directly through a variety of disciplines, techniques, and practices. The following quotes from Swami Kripalu will give you a feel for this:
The spiritual path that I teach is called Sanatana Dharma, which means the way of eternal truth. Sanatana Dharma is not a sectarian creed or point of view. It is the performance of skillful actions that lead one to the direct realization of truth. Truth cannot belong to any one race, sect or nation. It does not recognize such narrow distinctions and makes itself available to the whole world.
It is worth remembering there is only one yoga. True, aspirants are of different natures and resort to various doctrines and practices to progress along the path. But one who completes the process of yoga understands its different paths and sees that the systematic practice of various disciplines leads to the same place. In the end, all yogas lead to one great Yoga.
While based in yoga, the Kripalu tradition is decidedly not a fundamentalist mindset. It is a nondogmatic and nonsectarian approach to life that celebrates diversity and recognizes that all approaches are valuable and venerable, all practitioners worthy of respect, and that truth is freely available to members of every nationality, race, and religion.
As an institution, Kripalu is dedicated to an honest and unfettered inquiry into all practices, philosophies, techniques, and approaches that produce thriving in the individual, family, community, society, and the planet. In accordance with the Kripalu tradition, this non-denominational “yoga” includes the teachings of all the world’s religions and spiritual traditions, together with the amazing knowledge gained from science, psychology, and other endeavors.
That’s why the Kripalu catalog includes such a phenomenal breadth of programming. Any reputable and reliable technique of healing and growth, drawn from any of the world’s great religious or spiritual traditions, or any methods resulting from the work of contemporary researchers and students, are part and parcel of this nondenominational yoga to the extent that they produce positive results.
Article taken here.
Basic Definitions of Yoga
In a historical sense, yoga refers to the enormous body of spiritual teachings and techniques developed by the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent over the last five thousand years. While Westerners often assume that yoga is a homogeneous tradition, there are hundreds if not thousands of sects and schools of yoga, each with its distinctive doctrines and practices. This fact has led noted yoga scholar Georg Feuerstein to begin his classic work The Yoga Tradition with the words: “Yoga is a spectacularly multifaceted phenomenon and as such it is very difficult to define.”
From the perspective of a beginning practitioner, the term yoga describes the goal sought through practice, as well as the means to realize it. Yoga means union, a reference to the state of body–mind–spirit harmony sought through various disciplines, which are also called yoga. Under this definition, one practices postures and meditation—two common disciplines of yoga—to harmonize his or her body and mind and access a state of unity—the goal of yoga.
Seen in this light, yoga is described as a spiritual path, often broken down into the following eight stages as delineated by the sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra:
1. Yama/Restraint: Actions best avoided
2. Niyama/Observance: Positive actions to cultivate
3. Asana/Posture: Releasing gross tensions from the body
4. Pranayama/Breath Regulation: Harmonizing body, mind, and breath
5. Pratyahara/Introversion: Withdrawing attention from external distractions
6. Dharana/Concentration: Focusing the mind on a single point
7. Dhyana/Meditation: Accessing a state of flow
8. Samadhi/Oneness: Effortless, integrated being
Neither impractical nor otherworldly, the path of yoga results in a capacity for integrated functioning and powerful action that is evident in anyone whose thoughts, feelings, statements and actions line up. The inner coherence gained from practice inevitably shows up externally in enhanced creativity and peak performance.
Delving Deeper
From the perspective of an adept practitioner, viewing yoga as a spiritual path is less than accurate. The analogy of a path implies a means/end relationship that does not hold up under the strict scrutiny of practice. Instead of a linear path of becoming, yoga is better described as a way of being accessible in each and every moment. In this light, the disciplines of yoga are techniques that clear obstacles that prevent us from being who and what we naturally are. As the fruit is already present in the seed, yoga is not the result of any action to attain a goal. It is simply a return to our natural state.
Out of this understanding, Kripalu uses four definitions of yoga that describe the qualities of a person acting from a state of yoga. Each is drawn from an ancient and authoritative yoga text:
1. Yoga is skillfulness in action, a reference to a yogi’s capacity to act dynamically in ways that reliably produce positive results across all dimensions of life. (Bhagavad Gita)
2. Yoga is equanimity and equilibrium, a reference to a yogi’s capacity to sustain evenness of mind while confronting inner limitations and outer challenges, i.e., the capacity to tolerate the consequences of being one’s self. (Bhagavad Gita)
3. Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind, a reference to a yogi’s capacity to see life and reality as it is without the filters of fears, fantasies, or other distortions. (Yoga Sutra)
4. Yoga is freedom, a reference to the bliss of wellbeing experienced whenever one steps into one’s natural rhythm of being, one’s appropriate purpose in life, and one’s natural place in the universe. (Yoga Bhashya)
The Multidimensional Self of Yoga
At this point in your reading, the above definitions of yoga may seem abstract or esoteric. One way to understand their relevance is to look deeply at what it means to be human through the lens of what yoga calls the multidimensional self.
Yoga teaches that there are six layers to our being and that each giving rise to a specific sense of self and play an essential role in our lives. The first and most obvious is the physical body, beneath which lies the second and less apparent energetic circuitry of the nervous system. Together these constitute what is sometimes called the sensorimotor self. One layer deeper is the thinking mind and protective emotions, which comprise the egocentric self needed to function well in a competitive world. Beneath that is the intuitive mind and expressive emotions that make up the authentic, creative, and artistic self. Beyond even that is a layer of subtle energy called prana that flows unceasingly from the deepest layer, the pure spiritual presence that yoga calls the Self. (The less complete but more common phrase used to describe these levels of being is body, mind, emotions, and spirit.)
Yoga views health and wellness as the harmonious resonance of all six layers of the self. The yogic process of regaining and enhancing this whole person health is a profound journey in which each layer of self is accessed, revitalized, and reclaimed to full awareness. Often referred to as the transformative process in Kripalu Yoga terminology, it includes many aspects of what would be commonly considered healing and health enhancement, therapeutic and growth psychology, and spirituality.
So Much More Than Postures
Most people have a limited view of yoga, seeing it as synonymous with yoga postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. While popular and powerful, these disciplines are only a few of the tools employed to heal, harmonize, and awaken the whole person. Outlining the major branches of yoga will give you a feel for the breadth and depth of the ancient tradition.
* Karma Yoga: the yoga of dynamic action and service to humanity
* Jnana Yoga: the yoga of discriminative wisdom
* Bhakti Yoga: the yoga of devotion
* Hatha Yoga: the yoga of postures and breathing exercises
* Raja Yoga: the yoga of concentration and meditation
* Tantra Yoga: the yoga of integrating the polarities
Kripalu Yoga, like many other contemporary schools, integrates tools and techniques from all of the above classical schools, promoting yoga as an integrated lifestyle versus any stand-alone practice.
All Kripalu’s Activities Reflect Some Facet of Yoga
Kripalu Center offers an immersion experience of a yoga lifestyle. What do early morning posture and meditation practice, wholesome eating, study and learning in the program room, volunteer service, and deep tissue massage have in common? In the context of the Kripalu lifestyle, each is a facet of “yoga.” Each is a means adopted to exert a salutary impact on one or more levels of the multidimensional self, returning us to the vibrancy that is our birthright. As a person becomes steeped in the practices and lifestyle, their innate skillfulness, equanimity, clarity, and joy naturally come forth. This should come as no surprise, as they are just exhibiting the qualities of a yogi.
Nondogmatic and Nondenominational
Swami Kripalu was a kundalini yoga master renowned in India for the intensity of his spiritual practice and the depth of his compassion. In 1977, he came to the United States and spent four years in residence at the original Kripalu Center prior to his death in 1981. Maintaining his schedule of ten hours of yoga and meditation per day, Swami Kripalu also taught a small number of close disciples and made weekly public appearances that catalyzed the growth of the Kripalu community. In these ways, Swami Kripalu played an essential role in the transmission of a spiritually potent yoga tradition to a large community of Western practitioners. His teachings on yoga practice and holistic lifestyle continue to inspire Kripalu Center’s work in the world.
The Kripalu tradition is founded on what Swami Kripalu called Sanatana Dharma and in the West is called the Perennial Wisdom. This is the recognition that yoga and all the world’s wisdom traditions stem from a single universal truth that human beings can experience directly through a variety of disciplines, techniques, and practices. The following quotes from Swami Kripalu will give you a feel for this:
The spiritual path that I teach is called Sanatana Dharma, which means the way of eternal truth. Sanatana Dharma is not a sectarian creed or point of view. It is the performance of skillful actions that lead one to the direct realization of truth. Truth cannot belong to any one race, sect or nation. It does not recognize such narrow distinctions and makes itself available to the whole world.
It is worth remembering there is only one yoga. True, aspirants are of different natures and resort to various doctrines and practices to progress along the path. But one who completes the process of yoga understands its different paths and sees that the systematic practice of various disciplines leads to the same place. In the end, all yogas lead to one great Yoga.
While based in yoga, the Kripalu tradition is decidedly not a fundamentalist mindset. It is a nondogmatic and nonsectarian approach to life that celebrates diversity and recognizes that all approaches are valuable and venerable, all practitioners worthy of respect, and that truth is freely available to members of every nationality, race, and religion.
As an institution, Kripalu is dedicated to an honest and unfettered inquiry into all practices, philosophies, techniques, and approaches that produce thriving in the individual, family, community, society, and the planet. In accordance with the Kripalu tradition, this non-denominational “yoga” includes the teachings of all the world’s religions and spiritual traditions, together with the amazing knowledge gained from science, psychology, and other endeavors.
That’s why the Kripalu catalog includes such a phenomenal breadth of programming. Any reputable and reliable technique of healing and growth, drawn from any of the world’s great religious or spiritual traditions, or any methods resulting from the work of contemporary researchers and students, are part and parcel of this nondenominational yoga to the extent that they produce positive results.
Article taken here.
Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health Vision and Core Values
Vision and Core Values
Here is the statement of vision and core values approved by Kripalu’s Board of Trustees in May 2005.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
—William Butler Yeats
vision
As trustees of the Kripalu Institution, we find ourselves with a unique opportunity to make a lasting and important contribution to our world. It’s obvious to us all that the rate of societal change and unpredictability are on the rise, and that existing institutions are unable to provide a center that can hold when things seem like they are falling apart. In times of such insecurity, the mass of humanity cleaves to certainties and fundamental absolutes as a way of keeping touch with themselves and each other, often losing sight of actions that can truly resolve conflicts and uplift society. Polarization increases and connection and healing decrease.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
—Albert Einstein
Most institutions aimed at doing good work are focused on solving symptomatic problems such as saving the environment, feeding the poor, and bringing justice where injustice prevails. Just as medicine’s focus on presenting symptoms misses the root cause of disease, few institutions are focused on the root cause of society’s problems; the consciousness with which we live our lives. The fragmentation we see around us is a reflection of the inner disconnects that live within each of us. While there is no doubt that traditional medicine, along with educational and charitable institutions, are pillars of a healthy society, the trustees of Kripalu have a unique opportunity to help remedy the root cause of society’s ills. Kripalu has as its heritage and core competency the oldest and most comprehensive system of personal integration known to man: The art and science of yoga.
The challenge for us as trustees is to take this legacy as a foundation and use it to build not just a new institution, but an entirely new kind of institution: one that aims at solving problems, as Einstein points out, with a new consciousness. For example, how do we help awaken the best of the human spirit: the ability to love, to connect, to integrate, to heal, and to bring forth new life in all dimensions of human activity? How do we foster a center that can hold during tumultuous times? How do we actually make a difference in people’s consciousness? And once touched, how do we inspire them to actively make a difference in the world?
Meta: from the Greek meaning “beyond, more comprehensive, more highly developed.”
Kripalu has spent the last thirty years creating a foundation for a new kind of institution, the meta-university: A meta-university takes the existing concept of the academic university and moves it beyond to another more comprehensive, more highly developed aim: raising the consciousness of those involved with it. The original aim of universities could be characterized as a place where you go to find your place in the universe. Over time this aim has been diminished to the point where universities are a place where you go to find your place in the job market. Our aim is to go farther, be bolder, and make a fundamental difference in the way humans live.
Thriving: to grow vigorous or flourish, to prosper, to progress toward a goal despite or because of circumstances.
The Kripalu meta-university’s aim will be helping the world community experience the aim of yoga: a state of integration, vitality, wholeness and fulfillment. We will steer our collective efforts by what produces thriving in individuals, the family, the community, society, the planet—all at the same time—and also by the opportunities, threats, and management realities we face day by day. We will devote our energy to fostering this change of consciousness for those people and populations that become interested in such an opportunity by offering developmental programming to the young, the mature, the aging, the healthy, and the sick. We will promulgate ancient wisdom and traditional practices, as well as modern approaches and new scientific inquiry.
core principles
The spiritual path I teach is not a sectarian creed or point of view. It is the performance of skillful actions that lead one to the direct realization of truth. Truth cannot belong to any one race, sect or nation. It does not recognize such narrow distinctions and makes itself available to the whole world. True, aspirants are of different natures and resort to various doctrines and practices to progress along the path. But one who completes the process of yoga sees that the systematic practice of various disciplines leads to the same place. In the end, all yogas lead to one great yoga.
—Swami Kripalu
Institutions are guarantors of values and often assume a sectarian and dogmatic stance that undermines their intention to create greater harmony within society. This can be seen most clearly in organized religions that espouse the highest values of unity and togetherness but act to divide the world into hostile factions.
Currently there is no non-sectarian yoga institution whose stated purpose is the promotion of all approaches that make us more alive, powerful, and fulfilled as humans. We understand yoga to be inherently non-sectarian in that it recognizes any philosophy or practices that reliably produce vitality, power, and fulfillment for self and other. Rather than being guided by belief or dogma, yoga is scientific and empirical, validating each approach based on its actual results.
While scientific, yoga also recognizes the profound role that individual differences play in life, and that anyone’s search for truth must be a highly personal inquiry. External results can only be assessed in the context of an individual’s life and may change as they grow and mature. Thus the path to self-mastery may look different from person to person and evolve over the various stages of a person’s life. It is only in the context of a non-sectarian approach that we can further a Kripalu approach to yoga, avoid the pitfalls of grandiosity and insularity, and produce the integration of self and society that we seek. History shows that narrow sects never make a significant inroad in society without broadening out to include the whole.
A whole person is someone who has both walked with God and wrestled with the devil.
—Carl Jung
One of the key insights of yoga is that consciousness cannot be changed without corresponding changes in the entire gestalt of who we are: body, mind, emotions and spirit. In yoga this developmental process is referred to as “embodiment”, i.e. change that is wholly integrated on all levels. Our meta-university aims at this whole-person development; mining both our divinity and our demons to fuel the alchemy of energetic growth and success in life.
As trustees we cannot bring this meta-university into reality without practicing its core values in our lives and especially in our dialogue with one another. As top leaders of the organization, our example sets the tone. Our relationships must be authentic and our dialogue rigorous so that our work together creates the same experience for us that we hope to offer our students, customers, and staff. This commitment is what makes our undertaking both radical and exciting. In yoga, it is a truism that the end goal must be present in the beginning, as the fruit is present in the seed.
Yoga’s three foundational descriptions can help inform not only our vision but also our practice. In the ancient texts, yoga is defined as
1. Skillfulness in action: the ability to act dynamically in ways that reliably produce more life force or thriving
2. Equilibrium: the capacity to sustain mental focus, confront unconscious habits, and tolerate the consequences of being ourselves
3. The cessation of the modifications of the mind, which allows us to see life as it is without fear, fantasy, or distortion.
Our bedrock principle—the idea upon which the meta-university can be built—is that we embody the discipline of yoga by acting skillfully, being our authentic selves, and confronting our biases and fears as we work together in pursuit of truth. All of these practices combine to generate more life for all concerned: trustees, patrons, staff, students, volunteers, vendors, the local community and the environment. Swami Kripalu called this Sanatana Dharma, the perennial wisdom. This is the noble experiment we are heirs to, and the great opportunity we have to make a difference with the lives we have been given.
mission
Don’t worry about what the world wants from you, worry about what makes you come more alive. Because what the world really needs are people who are more alive. Your real job is to increase the color and zest of your life.
—Lawrence Leshan
The primary goal of this meta-university is to promote yoga as a basis for a revitalized society. We do that by enabling people to experience and practice the integrated functioning of their whole being. When this happens, people access greater power, skillfulness, and leadership in their individual lives and thus society and all its members are enriched.
We must pay particular attention to developing core structures, personnel, work norms, and relationships that facilitate and produce thriving and integrated functioning now and into the future.
strategies
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours…If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
—Henry David Thoreau
The easiest empirical marker by which to steer our unfolding mission is to assess thriving in the lives we live and the lives we touch. We can steer our actions to produce thriving, but even if successful not all things will appear to thrive all the time. Sometimes in order to produce more vitality in a tree, the gardener prunes some of its branches as well as feeding its roots. As we bring the meta-university into being, our challenge will be to build on the strong foundations of our roots, while at the same time taking decisive and courageous action where change is called for and new opportunities present themselves.
There are three primary strategies for realizing the mission and vision:
* Strengthen the core
* Build the institution
* Make a difference in the world.
These strategies are, in one sense, sequential (or at least hierarchical). However they are more appropriately viewed as developmental or organic capacities. Organic development proceeds with sudden jumps and plateaus; we’re often surprised when a child suddenly develops new skills or shoots up seemingly overnight. Organizations grow in the same way. While the strategies as laid imply predictable direction and growth, the reality is that our journey will be filled with surprises and serendipity.
tactical implications
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.
—Carlyle
strengthen the core
1. Develop enlivened leadership in both staff and board capable of producing extraordinary results in life.
2. Develop a sustainable business model.
3. Develop a board and staff culture that is inherently developmental. This implies fierce and unyielding dedication to authentic relationships and rigorous dialogue. Revamping the hiring and recruitment processes is a key dimension of this effort.
4. Develop a Kripalu approach to hatha yoga (traditional postures and breathing) that integrates its past, honors its future, and thrives in the marketplace.
5. Invest in and develop the KYTA network, YTT graduates, and overall professional training curriculum.
6. Re-design all information systems so that the right information is collected, disseminated, and acted upon.
7. Re-design the Kripalu volunteer program so the results produced match up with our bedrock principles, vision, and mission. Continuously invent new ways for master teachers of yoga to thrive in connection with the institution.
8. Create a future vision and master plan for the main building and property that reflects our bedrock principles, vision, and mission, and allows us to deal skillfully with the current short-term facility challenges.
build the institution
1. Develop a broader, deeper program of philanthropy to realize our vision of a new institution, a vision that cannot be met by operating income alone.
2. Develop a wellness center with a therapeutic component to promote the healing power of yoga and integrative medicine.
3. Create college-level immersion programs in service of developing the integrated leaders of tomorrow and ensuring that the wisdom of our elders is successfully passed on to the next generation.
4. Be continuously on the lookout for new ways for people outside the institution to do their work in the world in a virtuous cycle with the institution.
5. Aim our programmatic initiatives to increase national profile and enhance institutional prestige.
6. Fulfill the vision for the main facility outlined in the master plan.
7. Increase the secular profile and decrease the sectarian profile of the institution in order to create greater access to the institution for more people.
8. Develop a network of relationships with other institutions and individuals (universities, hospitals, political leaders, entrepreneurs, etc.) that can enhance the institutional profile in mainstream culture.
make a difference in the world
1. Develop programs, meetings, and symposia aimed at changing paradigms with large application in the worlds of yoga, medicine, mental health, the arts, and society at large.
2. Develop programs that reach underserved populations (e.g., the Teaching for Diversity program).
3. Aim our programming at long-term developmental engagements with people so that our impact is lasting and deep (e.g., develop a thousand-hour yoga teachers’ curriculum and a long-term advanced Ayurveda practitioner certificate).
4. Find ways to support our professional graduates so they thrive in the world.
5. Design our web relationships with our customers, our graduates, the yoga world, and society at large to leverage technology as a means of manifesting our mission in the world.
6. Create a product development and publishing effort that skillfully advances our bedrock principles and mission to a mass audience.
7. Carry out research activities that validate the effects of yoga and expand the applications of yoga to all of the aims of life.
Each of these tactical efforts also contains numerous sub-tactics that further break down into discreet departmental objectives and cross-departmental projects.
conclusion
We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
—Mohandas K.Gandhi
Because we strive to demonstrate and transmit yoga, the future we are pursuing is not a goal but a process whose outcome remains, in a fundamental way, invisible. On one hand, we are very definitely steering by principles and vision and like any conventional organization we have clear and explicit tactical thinking about how to realize this shared vision. But, on the other hand, we are attempting to embody yoga and the discipline we employ is based on allowing life to interact with us to create new futures as yet hidden.
We are therefore more focused on getting the DNA of the organization right, than working to manifest a particular future. In other words who we are is more important than what we accomplish. The true measure of our success is not the size of our endowment, or the square footage of our buildings, but the effect we have on those who work with us, and ultimately our impact on society.
As trustees, the task before us is more complex and demanding than those faced by our peers at other institutions. The radical nature of this perspective makes a narrow conventional interaction around the institution’s future problematic. If we follow such a conventional model we will miss the central point: our endeavor is itself yoga. The only way for all parties to truly participate in the institution’s future is to embody the discipline of yoga together, authentically bringing all that God has given us— meaning our full authentic selves—into a rigorous, intentional, creative, intimate, and developmental effort to bring the gift of yoga to more people.
Most important, the only way to bring yoga to more people is to bring more yoga to ourselves.
To be a warrior is to learn how to be genuine in every moment of our life.
—Chogyam Trungpa
Here is the statement of vision and core values approved by Kripalu’s Board of Trustees in May 2005.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
—William Butler Yeats
vision
As trustees of the Kripalu Institution, we find ourselves with a unique opportunity to make a lasting and important contribution to our world. It’s obvious to us all that the rate of societal change and unpredictability are on the rise, and that existing institutions are unable to provide a center that can hold when things seem like they are falling apart. In times of such insecurity, the mass of humanity cleaves to certainties and fundamental absolutes as a way of keeping touch with themselves and each other, often losing sight of actions that can truly resolve conflicts and uplift society. Polarization increases and connection and healing decrease.
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
—Albert Einstein
Most institutions aimed at doing good work are focused on solving symptomatic problems such as saving the environment, feeding the poor, and bringing justice where injustice prevails. Just as medicine’s focus on presenting symptoms misses the root cause of disease, few institutions are focused on the root cause of society’s problems; the consciousness with which we live our lives. The fragmentation we see around us is a reflection of the inner disconnects that live within each of us. While there is no doubt that traditional medicine, along with educational and charitable institutions, are pillars of a healthy society, the trustees of Kripalu have a unique opportunity to help remedy the root cause of society’s ills. Kripalu has as its heritage and core competency the oldest and most comprehensive system of personal integration known to man: The art and science of yoga.
The challenge for us as trustees is to take this legacy as a foundation and use it to build not just a new institution, but an entirely new kind of institution: one that aims at solving problems, as Einstein points out, with a new consciousness. For example, how do we help awaken the best of the human spirit: the ability to love, to connect, to integrate, to heal, and to bring forth new life in all dimensions of human activity? How do we foster a center that can hold during tumultuous times? How do we actually make a difference in people’s consciousness? And once touched, how do we inspire them to actively make a difference in the world?
Meta: from the Greek meaning “beyond, more comprehensive, more highly developed.”
Kripalu has spent the last thirty years creating a foundation for a new kind of institution, the meta-university: A meta-university takes the existing concept of the academic university and moves it beyond to another more comprehensive, more highly developed aim: raising the consciousness of those involved with it. The original aim of universities could be characterized as a place where you go to find your place in the universe. Over time this aim has been diminished to the point where universities are a place where you go to find your place in the job market. Our aim is to go farther, be bolder, and make a fundamental difference in the way humans live.
Thriving: to grow vigorous or flourish, to prosper, to progress toward a goal despite or because of circumstances.
The Kripalu meta-university’s aim will be helping the world community experience the aim of yoga: a state of integration, vitality, wholeness and fulfillment. We will steer our collective efforts by what produces thriving in individuals, the family, the community, society, the planet—all at the same time—and also by the opportunities, threats, and management realities we face day by day. We will devote our energy to fostering this change of consciousness for those people and populations that become interested in such an opportunity by offering developmental programming to the young, the mature, the aging, the healthy, and the sick. We will promulgate ancient wisdom and traditional practices, as well as modern approaches and new scientific inquiry.
core principles
The spiritual path I teach is not a sectarian creed or point of view. It is the performance of skillful actions that lead one to the direct realization of truth. Truth cannot belong to any one race, sect or nation. It does not recognize such narrow distinctions and makes itself available to the whole world. True, aspirants are of different natures and resort to various doctrines and practices to progress along the path. But one who completes the process of yoga sees that the systematic practice of various disciplines leads to the same place. In the end, all yogas lead to one great yoga.
—Swami Kripalu
Institutions are guarantors of values and often assume a sectarian and dogmatic stance that undermines their intention to create greater harmony within society. This can be seen most clearly in organized religions that espouse the highest values of unity and togetherness but act to divide the world into hostile factions.
Currently there is no non-sectarian yoga institution whose stated purpose is the promotion of all approaches that make us more alive, powerful, and fulfilled as humans. We understand yoga to be inherently non-sectarian in that it recognizes any philosophy or practices that reliably produce vitality, power, and fulfillment for self and other. Rather than being guided by belief or dogma, yoga is scientific and empirical, validating each approach based on its actual results.
While scientific, yoga also recognizes the profound role that individual differences play in life, and that anyone’s search for truth must be a highly personal inquiry. External results can only be assessed in the context of an individual’s life and may change as they grow and mature. Thus the path to self-mastery may look different from person to person and evolve over the various stages of a person’s life. It is only in the context of a non-sectarian approach that we can further a Kripalu approach to yoga, avoid the pitfalls of grandiosity and insularity, and produce the integration of self and society that we seek. History shows that narrow sects never make a significant inroad in society without broadening out to include the whole.
A whole person is someone who has both walked with God and wrestled with the devil.
—Carl Jung
One of the key insights of yoga is that consciousness cannot be changed without corresponding changes in the entire gestalt of who we are: body, mind, emotions and spirit. In yoga this developmental process is referred to as “embodiment”, i.e. change that is wholly integrated on all levels. Our meta-university aims at this whole-person development; mining both our divinity and our demons to fuel the alchemy of energetic growth and success in life.
As trustees we cannot bring this meta-university into reality without practicing its core values in our lives and especially in our dialogue with one another. As top leaders of the organization, our example sets the tone. Our relationships must be authentic and our dialogue rigorous so that our work together creates the same experience for us that we hope to offer our students, customers, and staff. This commitment is what makes our undertaking both radical and exciting. In yoga, it is a truism that the end goal must be present in the beginning, as the fruit is present in the seed.
Yoga’s three foundational descriptions can help inform not only our vision but also our practice. In the ancient texts, yoga is defined as
1. Skillfulness in action: the ability to act dynamically in ways that reliably produce more life force or thriving
2. Equilibrium: the capacity to sustain mental focus, confront unconscious habits, and tolerate the consequences of being ourselves
3. The cessation of the modifications of the mind, which allows us to see life as it is without fear, fantasy, or distortion.
Our bedrock principle—the idea upon which the meta-university can be built—is that we embody the discipline of yoga by acting skillfully, being our authentic selves, and confronting our biases and fears as we work together in pursuit of truth. All of these practices combine to generate more life for all concerned: trustees, patrons, staff, students, volunteers, vendors, the local community and the environment. Swami Kripalu called this Sanatana Dharma, the perennial wisdom. This is the noble experiment we are heirs to, and the great opportunity we have to make a difference with the lives we have been given.
mission
Don’t worry about what the world wants from you, worry about what makes you come more alive. Because what the world really needs are people who are more alive. Your real job is to increase the color and zest of your life.
—Lawrence Leshan
The primary goal of this meta-university is to promote yoga as a basis for a revitalized society. We do that by enabling people to experience and practice the integrated functioning of their whole being. When this happens, people access greater power, skillfulness, and leadership in their individual lives and thus society and all its members are enriched.
We must pay particular attention to developing core structures, personnel, work norms, and relationships that facilitate and produce thriving and integrated functioning now and into the future.
strategies
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours…If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.
—Henry David Thoreau
The easiest empirical marker by which to steer our unfolding mission is to assess thriving in the lives we live and the lives we touch. We can steer our actions to produce thriving, but even if successful not all things will appear to thrive all the time. Sometimes in order to produce more vitality in a tree, the gardener prunes some of its branches as well as feeding its roots. As we bring the meta-university into being, our challenge will be to build on the strong foundations of our roots, while at the same time taking decisive and courageous action where change is called for and new opportunities present themselves.
There are three primary strategies for realizing the mission and vision:
* Strengthen the core
* Build the institution
* Make a difference in the world.
These strategies are, in one sense, sequential (or at least hierarchical). However they are more appropriately viewed as developmental or organic capacities. Organic development proceeds with sudden jumps and plateaus; we’re often surprised when a child suddenly develops new skills or shoots up seemingly overnight. Organizations grow in the same way. While the strategies as laid imply predictable direction and growth, the reality is that our journey will be filled with surprises and serendipity.
tactical implications
Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance but to do what lies clearly at hand.
—Carlyle
strengthen the core
1. Develop enlivened leadership in both staff and board capable of producing extraordinary results in life.
2. Develop a sustainable business model.
3. Develop a board and staff culture that is inherently developmental. This implies fierce and unyielding dedication to authentic relationships and rigorous dialogue. Revamping the hiring and recruitment processes is a key dimension of this effort.
4. Develop a Kripalu approach to hatha yoga (traditional postures and breathing) that integrates its past, honors its future, and thrives in the marketplace.
5. Invest in and develop the KYTA network, YTT graduates, and overall professional training curriculum.
6. Re-design all information systems so that the right information is collected, disseminated, and acted upon.
7. Re-design the Kripalu volunteer program so the results produced match up with our bedrock principles, vision, and mission. Continuously invent new ways for master teachers of yoga to thrive in connection with the institution.
8. Create a future vision and master plan for the main building and property that reflects our bedrock principles, vision, and mission, and allows us to deal skillfully with the current short-term facility challenges.
build the institution
1. Develop a broader, deeper program of philanthropy to realize our vision of a new institution, a vision that cannot be met by operating income alone.
2. Develop a wellness center with a therapeutic component to promote the healing power of yoga and integrative medicine.
3. Create college-level immersion programs in service of developing the integrated leaders of tomorrow and ensuring that the wisdom of our elders is successfully passed on to the next generation.
4. Be continuously on the lookout for new ways for people outside the institution to do their work in the world in a virtuous cycle with the institution.
5. Aim our programmatic initiatives to increase national profile and enhance institutional prestige.
6. Fulfill the vision for the main facility outlined in the master plan.
7. Increase the secular profile and decrease the sectarian profile of the institution in order to create greater access to the institution for more people.
8. Develop a network of relationships with other institutions and individuals (universities, hospitals, political leaders, entrepreneurs, etc.) that can enhance the institutional profile in mainstream culture.
make a difference in the world
1. Develop programs, meetings, and symposia aimed at changing paradigms with large application in the worlds of yoga, medicine, mental health, the arts, and society at large.
2. Develop programs that reach underserved populations (e.g., the Teaching for Diversity program).
3. Aim our programming at long-term developmental engagements with people so that our impact is lasting and deep (e.g., develop a thousand-hour yoga teachers’ curriculum and a long-term advanced Ayurveda practitioner certificate).
4. Find ways to support our professional graduates so they thrive in the world.
5. Design our web relationships with our customers, our graduates, the yoga world, and society at large to leverage technology as a means of manifesting our mission in the world.
6. Create a product development and publishing effort that skillfully advances our bedrock principles and mission to a mass audience.
7. Carry out research activities that validate the effects of yoga and expand the applications of yoga to all of the aims of life.
Each of these tactical efforts also contains numerous sub-tactics that further break down into discreet departmental objectives and cross-departmental projects.
conclusion
We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
—Mohandas K.Gandhi
Because we strive to demonstrate and transmit yoga, the future we are pursuing is not a goal but a process whose outcome remains, in a fundamental way, invisible. On one hand, we are very definitely steering by principles and vision and like any conventional organization we have clear and explicit tactical thinking about how to realize this shared vision. But, on the other hand, we are attempting to embody yoga and the discipline we employ is based on allowing life to interact with us to create new futures as yet hidden.
We are therefore more focused on getting the DNA of the organization right, than working to manifest a particular future. In other words who we are is more important than what we accomplish. The true measure of our success is not the size of our endowment, or the square footage of our buildings, but the effect we have on those who work with us, and ultimately our impact on society.
As trustees, the task before us is more complex and demanding than those faced by our peers at other institutions. The radical nature of this perspective makes a narrow conventional interaction around the institution’s future problematic. If we follow such a conventional model we will miss the central point: our endeavor is itself yoga. The only way for all parties to truly participate in the institution’s future is to embody the discipline of yoga together, authentically bringing all that God has given us— meaning our full authentic selves—into a rigorous, intentional, creative, intimate, and developmental effort to bring the gift of yoga to more people.
Most important, the only way to bring yoga to more people is to bring more yoga to ourselves.
To be a warrior is to learn how to be genuine in every moment of our life.
—Chogyam Trungpa
Kripalu's Mission: To teach the art and science of yoga to produce thriving and health in individuals and society.
Kripalu was formed in 1966 to promote yoga and uplift the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of individuals. For more than 40 years, Kripalu has remained a place where people come together to deeply inquire into the core issues of life, explore new and healthier ways of being, and put inspiration into practice.
Kripalu’s vision is to build a new kind of educational institution, one dedicated to the inquiry of what creates a fulfilled human life. From our point of view, human fulfillment is the critical challenge of our time and the answer to many of our societal problems. The only way we can address the complexity of our personal lives and society as a whole is for more of us to explore, understand, and experience what it means to live an integrated life in which we feel fully alive, connected to others, and committed to fostering the welfare of the whole. We call this exploring the yoga of life.
Kripalu’s mission remains teaching the art and science of yoga, an approach consistently proven to uplift individuals and benefit society. The techniques of yoga integrate body, mind, and spirit, helping both individuals and groups flourish and perform at peak levels. The only way in which this new kind of institution can be built is for its leaders, members, and patrons to embody the discipline of yoga by acting skillfully, being authentic, and confronting our biases and fears as we work together in pursuit of truth.
While grounded in yoga, it is important to understand that Kripalu does not espouse a narrow or sectarian mindset. According to the Kripalu tradition, yoga is an honest and unfettered inquiry into all practices, philosophies, techniques, and approaches that produce thriving for individuals, families, communities, societies, and the planet. This "nondenominational yoga" includes perennial wisdom gleaned from all the world’s religions and spiritual traditions, together with the amazing knowledge gained from science, psychology, and contemporary researchers. It also includes healing techniques drawn from traditional, allopathic, and complementary/alternative medicine that help individuals heal and return to high levels of functioning.
As an institution, Kripalu is dedicated to yoga as a rigorous, nondogmatic, and nonsectarian inquiry into the core issues of life. This kind of truth-based inquiry inevitably frees us from fears, fantasies, and distortions and produces positive ways of being that generate beneficial results. To support rigorous inquiry and dialogue, Kripalu operates in accord with a set of core values that includes: a commitment to authenticity, radical self-trust, the courage to fully express one’s self, and unconditional positive regard for others. Embracing these and other values is a proven way to move toward the state of integrated functioning where what you think, feel, say, and do are aligned.
All nonprofit organizations have an official purpose clause, most often stated in its Articles of Incorporation or corporate bylaws. To read Kripalu’s, click here.
Kripalu’s Mission in Action
Kripalu’s mission is expressed in action through many long-established activities and several exciting new initiatives. Here is an overview of Kripalu’s current focus:
Programs and Retreats
Kripalu offers a curriculum of more than 750 educational programs and spiritual retreats attended by over 25,000 individuals each year. Kripalu’s faculty includes world-renowned experiential teachers along with prominent visionaries, authors, artists, and inspirational speakers. All programs are carefully designed or selected to serve the needs of a broad spectrum of people, ranging from those likely to appeal to people just beginning their transformative journey, along with those likely to serve the needs of longtime practitioners. Some programs draw from the world’s great wisdom traditions while others are based on the pioneering work of contemporary teachers. A program offering that has tremendous breadth and depth naturally flows from our guiding view, which embraces all systems and techniques that help harmonize body, mind, and spirit, create balance and thriving, and return individuals to the vibrancy that is their birthright. In the face of such diversity, one thing can be guaranteed: every Kripalu program will bring you into the presence of a leading figure in his or her field and invite you to explore and celebrate the wonder and mystery of life.
View upcoming programs calendar
Kripalu Professional Schools
Many who find deep value in practicing natural ways to manage stress and enhance the quality of life discover a passion to share what they have learned with others. For 30 years, Kripalu has been helping people become sensitive and potent teachers through offering a curriculum of residential certification programs. Returning to their home communities, graduates of Kripalu training programs are ready to offer their skills to the world and at the same time create a career that they love.
Kripalu’s professional schools offer an immersion experience in a holistic environment dedicated to health and well-being. The curriculum for each training blends experiential learning and lifestyle skills with abundant opportunities to put what you are learning into practice. Each program is staffed with skilled faculty who are experts in creating extraordinary learning environments. These programs are enhanced by Kripalu’s rich setting that includes daily yoga and movement classes, evening programs, natural foods, beautiful surroundings, and a community of fellow practitioners. After graduation, students draw sustenance from a supportive network of long-lasting friendships.
Find out more about Kripalu Professional Trainings in yoga, Ayurveda, and Massage.
Scholarships and Volunteer Programs
Kripalu is committed to making its services accessible to people of all backgrounds. Within the limits of its resources, Kripalu provides scholarships and assistance to individuals who, because of their financial status, would not otherwise be able to participate.
Find out about Kripalu’s scholarship opportunities.
Since its inception, Kripalu has provided a variety of volunteer programs that allow individuals to contribute their time and energy in service to Kripalu’s mission. Along with learning the essentials of what the Kripalu tradition calls karma yoga and seva, the volunteer programs provide a unique opportunity to be immersed in a holistic, community-oriented lifestyle that integrates body, mind, and spirit.
Find out more about Kripalu’s volunteer opportunities.
Kripalu Yoga Teacher’s Association (KYTA)
Kripalu has been training yoga teachers for 40 years. Founded in 1991, the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association is a global association supporting certified yoga teachers from all traditions. Sporting a membership of more than 2,200 members, KYTA is one of the world’s largest and leading yoga associations. Members receive a wide-range of continuing education benefits, including inspirational newsletters and audio recordings, access to teaching grants and liability insurance, business and marketing tools, online support, and an annual conference held at Kripalu Center.
Find out more about KYTA.
Institute for Integrated Leadership’s (IIL) Semester Intensive Program
Kripalu’s Institute for Integrated Leadership is focused on serving the needs of college-age individuals through its Semester Intensive program. The Semester Intensive is a four-month residential immersion program that addresses core life issues not covered in a traditional college curriculum. Participants are engaged in a deep inquiry into what it means to clarify their life purpose. They learn to better live in integrity with their values, create and sustain a daily practice for healthy living, deepen their personal sense of spirituality, strengthen communication and relationship skills, understand and improve their relationship with money, and develop skills to create beneficial societal change. College credit is available through an affiliation with Lesley University.
Find out more about the Semester Intensive.
Institute for Extraordinary Living (IEL)
Led by scholar and author Stephen Cope, the Institute for Extraordinary Living is continuing Kripalu’s established position as a pioneer in the interface of Eastern contemplative and Western psychological approaches to creativity and peak performance. The institute is actively exploring questions like: What does it look like when a human being is functioning on all cylinders-mental, physical, and spiritual? What lifestyles and practices promote this kind of optimal living? How can we most effectively cultivate the fully alive human being?
In its first official program, the Institute for Extraordinary Living is collaborating with the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center to teach yogic techniques for optimal living and functioning to a select group of gifted young musicians. The program includes a research component in which results are being scientifically assessed and published.
Find out more about the IEL.
Institute for Integrated Healing (IIH)
Since its inception, Kripalu has been at the forefront of the movement to integrate traditional, allopathic, and alternative medicine into a holistic approach that emphasizes the power of diet, lifestyle, and noninvasive healing modalities to regain and maintain good health. During the 1980s and 90s, Kripalu had two physicians on staff actively pioneering the benefits of a treatment model that combined clinical care with yoga-based education and hands-on healing methods like massage and polarity. The Institute for Integrated Healing is taking this work to the next level, adding a leading-edge medical dimension to Kripalu’s long-established approach. The focal point of the IIH will be on treating complex chronic conditions that often show up as unexplained symptoms and multiple illnesses. Such conditions often involve systemic imbalances in the body, such as hormonal imbalances, chronic inflammation, anxiety, and digestive dysfunctions. In order to create a broad societal impact, the IIH will serve as a demonstration clinic with a research component, and also offer dialogues and training programs for professional health-care practitioners and students entering health careers. The long-term aim of the IIH is to change the way doctors think about health and thus the way medicine is practiced.
The first phase of the institute’s programming was launched in 2006 with Kripalu’s Healthy Living Programs, designed to help people make fundamental lifestyle changes to promote health and well-being.
Find out more about Kripalu’s Healthy Living Programs.
Healing Arts
Back in 1975, Kripalu began offering hands-on healing treatments to help individuals jump-start their journey to physical health, psychological growth, and spiritual awakening. Thirty years later, Kripalu is still offering a broad range of healing modalities for one simple reason: they work! As time passes, medical research is increasingly validating the efficacy of a range of techniques drawn from traditional healing systems and pioneers in health science that are often referred to as complimentary and alternative medicine. As Kripalu’s Institute for Integrated Healing grows, so will the interface with the Healing Arts department, with the result being a close coordination of lifestyle education, clinical treatment, and Kripalu’s Healing Arts services.
Healing Arts services are a powerful addition to any Kripalu program, providing a palpable experience of the same integrated functioning of body, mind, and spirit sought through disciplines like yoga and meditation. Many people find the hands-on help and personal guidance of a Healing Arts therapist essential to discovering how to consciously access deep levels of relaxation and self-attunement.
Find out more about Kripalu Healing Arts.
Kripalu Shop
How can I take this home with me? is the perennial question of Kripalu program participants. The Kripalu Shop provides an answer by carrying a carefully-chosen line of books, music, videos, healing tools, yoga props and fitness accessories, body care items, clothing, and other products selected to help you sustain and deepen your Kripalu experience. Our experience shows that such products can play a significant role in maintaining the inspiration, study, healthy diet, and spiritual practices learned at Kripalu. Many of our books and audio resources are authored or recommended by program or workshop leaders. Others are selected by our buyers, who screen hundreds of items to assure their fit with the Kripalu lifestyle. Most program guests are aware of the Shop’s physical location on the ground floor of Kripalu Center, but many are unaware that the Shop is also online to support them between visits.
Visit the Kripalu Shop online.
Dining at Kripalu
In many monastic traditions, the cooks are among the most advanced practitioners. There is good reason for this, as eating well is one of the most important things you can do to support your health and spiritual growth. Seen in this light, providing a healthy and educational dining experience is an important part of Kripalu’s mission.
In addition to programs focusing on diet and nutrition, the Kripalu Kitchen provides an array of natural, organic, and local foods, including vegetables, proteins, and nutritious grains. Meals are served buffet-style and are primarily vegetarian; fish and poultry options are often available for lunch and dinner. You’ll also find freshly baked breads and fresh fruits. Being at Kripalu is an opportunity to try new foods and experiment with eating slowly and consciously while actively listening to your body. Program registration includes all meals beginning with dinner on the first day and ending with lunch on the last day.
Find out more about dining at Kripalu.
Program and Retreat Housing
An important aspect of the Kripalu experience is that it offers time away from your daily routines, activities, and surroundings. This frees you to focus on getting the most from your retreat or program experience. Our facility was formerly a Jesuit seminary, and therefore accommodations are simple. Many program participants describe Kripalu as a place where everything you need is conveniently provided without modern-day distractions such as televisions.
All of Kripalu’s activities take place within the context of a retreat center offering in-depth immersion programs, wholesome meals, saunas, whirlpools and other supportive amenities. There is no need to commute to activities, as everything is under one-roof or an easy walk away. At Kripalu, a healthy lifestyle supportive of learning and positive change can be simpler than you think.
While offering a range of housing options to enable a wide variety of people and families to participate in our programs, all accommodations support the focus and immersion that is core to the Kripalu experience.
For more information, check here.
Kripalu’s vision is to build a new kind of educational institution, one dedicated to the inquiry of what creates a fulfilled human life. From our point of view, human fulfillment is the critical challenge of our time and the answer to many of our societal problems. The only way we can address the complexity of our personal lives and society as a whole is for more of us to explore, understand, and experience what it means to live an integrated life in which we feel fully alive, connected to others, and committed to fostering the welfare of the whole. We call this exploring the yoga of life.
Kripalu’s mission remains teaching the art and science of yoga, an approach consistently proven to uplift individuals and benefit society. The techniques of yoga integrate body, mind, and spirit, helping both individuals and groups flourish and perform at peak levels. The only way in which this new kind of institution can be built is for its leaders, members, and patrons to embody the discipline of yoga by acting skillfully, being authentic, and confronting our biases and fears as we work together in pursuit of truth.
While grounded in yoga, it is important to understand that Kripalu does not espouse a narrow or sectarian mindset. According to the Kripalu tradition, yoga is an honest and unfettered inquiry into all practices, philosophies, techniques, and approaches that produce thriving for individuals, families, communities, societies, and the planet. This "nondenominational yoga" includes perennial wisdom gleaned from all the world’s religions and spiritual traditions, together with the amazing knowledge gained from science, psychology, and contemporary researchers. It also includes healing techniques drawn from traditional, allopathic, and complementary/alternative medicine that help individuals heal and return to high levels of functioning.
As an institution, Kripalu is dedicated to yoga as a rigorous, nondogmatic, and nonsectarian inquiry into the core issues of life. This kind of truth-based inquiry inevitably frees us from fears, fantasies, and distortions and produces positive ways of being that generate beneficial results. To support rigorous inquiry and dialogue, Kripalu operates in accord with a set of core values that includes: a commitment to authenticity, radical self-trust, the courage to fully express one’s self, and unconditional positive regard for others. Embracing these and other values is a proven way to move toward the state of integrated functioning where what you think, feel, say, and do are aligned.
All nonprofit organizations have an official purpose clause, most often stated in its Articles of Incorporation or corporate bylaws. To read Kripalu’s, click here.
Kripalu’s Mission in Action
Kripalu’s mission is expressed in action through many long-established activities and several exciting new initiatives. Here is an overview of Kripalu’s current focus:
Programs and Retreats
Kripalu offers a curriculum of more than 750 educational programs and spiritual retreats attended by over 25,000 individuals each year. Kripalu’s faculty includes world-renowned experiential teachers along with prominent visionaries, authors, artists, and inspirational speakers. All programs are carefully designed or selected to serve the needs of a broad spectrum of people, ranging from those likely to appeal to people just beginning their transformative journey, along with those likely to serve the needs of longtime practitioners. Some programs draw from the world’s great wisdom traditions while others are based on the pioneering work of contemporary teachers. A program offering that has tremendous breadth and depth naturally flows from our guiding view, which embraces all systems and techniques that help harmonize body, mind, and spirit, create balance and thriving, and return individuals to the vibrancy that is their birthright. In the face of such diversity, one thing can be guaranteed: every Kripalu program will bring you into the presence of a leading figure in his or her field and invite you to explore and celebrate the wonder and mystery of life.
View upcoming programs calendar
Kripalu Professional Schools
Many who find deep value in practicing natural ways to manage stress and enhance the quality of life discover a passion to share what they have learned with others. For 30 years, Kripalu has been helping people become sensitive and potent teachers through offering a curriculum of residential certification programs. Returning to their home communities, graduates of Kripalu training programs are ready to offer their skills to the world and at the same time create a career that they love.
Kripalu’s professional schools offer an immersion experience in a holistic environment dedicated to health and well-being. The curriculum for each training blends experiential learning and lifestyle skills with abundant opportunities to put what you are learning into practice. Each program is staffed with skilled faculty who are experts in creating extraordinary learning environments. These programs are enhanced by Kripalu’s rich setting that includes daily yoga and movement classes, evening programs, natural foods, beautiful surroundings, and a community of fellow practitioners. After graduation, students draw sustenance from a supportive network of long-lasting friendships.
Find out more about Kripalu Professional Trainings in yoga, Ayurveda, and Massage.
Scholarships and Volunteer Programs
Kripalu is committed to making its services accessible to people of all backgrounds. Within the limits of its resources, Kripalu provides scholarships and assistance to individuals who, because of their financial status, would not otherwise be able to participate.
Find out about Kripalu’s scholarship opportunities.
Since its inception, Kripalu has provided a variety of volunteer programs that allow individuals to contribute their time and energy in service to Kripalu’s mission. Along with learning the essentials of what the Kripalu tradition calls karma yoga and seva, the volunteer programs provide a unique opportunity to be immersed in a holistic, community-oriented lifestyle that integrates body, mind, and spirit.
Find out more about Kripalu’s volunteer opportunities.
Kripalu Yoga Teacher’s Association (KYTA)
Kripalu has been training yoga teachers for 40 years. Founded in 1991, the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association is a global association supporting certified yoga teachers from all traditions. Sporting a membership of more than 2,200 members, KYTA is one of the world’s largest and leading yoga associations. Members receive a wide-range of continuing education benefits, including inspirational newsletters and audio recordings, access to teaching grants and liability insurance, business and marketing tools, online support, and an annual conference held at Kripalu Center.
Find out more about KYTA.
Institute for Integrated Leadership’s (IIL) Semester Intensive Program
Kripalu’s Institute for Integrated Leadership is focused on serving the needs of college-age individuals through its Semester Intensive program. The Semester Intensive is a four-month residential immersion program that addresses core life issues not covered in a traditional college curriculum. Participants are engaged in a deep inquiry into what it means to clarify their life purpose. They learn to better live in integrity with their values, create and sustain a daily practice for healthy living, deepen their personal sense of spirituality, strengthen communication and relationship skills, understand and improve their relationship with money, and develop skills to create beneficial societal change. College credit is available through an affiliation with Lesley University.
Find out more about the Semester Intensive.
Institute for Extraordinary Living (IEL)
Led by scholar and author Stephen Cope, the Institute for Extraordinary Living is continuing Kripalu’s established position as a pioneer in the interface of Eastern contemplative and Western psychological approaches to creativity and peak performance. The institute is actively exploring questions like: What does it look like when a human being is functioning on all cylinders-mental, physical, and spiritual? What lifestyles and practices promote this kind of optimal living? How can we most effectively cultivate the fully alive human being?
In its first official program, the Institute for Extraordinary Living is collaborating with the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center to teach yogic techniques for optimal living and functioning to a select group of gifted young musicians. The program includes a research component in which results are being scientifically assessed and published.
Find out more about the IEL.
Institute for Integrated Healing (IIH)
Since its inception, Kripalu has been at the forefront of the movement to integrate traditional, allopathic, and alternative medicine into a holistic approach that emphasizes the power of diet, lifestyle, and noninvasive healing modalities to regain and maintain good health. During the 1980s and 90s, Kripalu had two physicians on staff actively pioneering the benefits of a treatment model that combined clinical care with yoga-based education and hands-on healing methods like massage and polarity. The Institute for Integrated Healing is taking this work to the next level, adding a leading-edge medical dimension to Kripalu’s long-established approach. The focal point of the IIH will be on treating complex chronic conditions that often show up as unexplained symptoms and multiple illnesses. Such conditions often involve systemic imbalances in the body, such as hormonal imbalances, chronic inflammation, anxiety, and digestive dysfunctions. In order to create a broad societal impact, the IIH will serve as a demonstration clinic with a research component, and also offer dialogues and training programs for professional health-care practitioners and students entering health careers. The long-term aim of the IIH is to change the way doctors think about health and thus the way medicine is practiced.
The first phase of the institute’s programming was launched in 2006 with Kripalu’s Healthy Living Programs, designed to help people make fundamental lifestyle changes to promote health and well-being.
Find out more about Kripalu’s Healthy Living Programs.
Healing Arts
Back in 1975, Kripalu began offering hands-on healing treatments to help individuals jump-start their journey to physical health, psychological growth, and spiritual awakening. Thirty years later, Kripalu is still offering a broad range of healing modalities for one simple reason: they work! As time passes, medical research is increasingly validating the efficacy of a range of techniques drawn from traditional healing systems and pioneers in health science that are often referred to as complimentary and alternative medicine. As Kripalu’s Institute for Integrated Healing grows, so will the interface with the Healing Arts department, with the result being a close coordination of lifestyle education, clinical treatment, and Kripalu’s Healing Arts services.
Healing Arts services are a powerful addition to any Kripalu program, providing a palpable experience of the same integrated functioning of body, mind, and spirit sought through disciplines like yoga and meditation. Many people find the hands-on help and personal guidance of a Healing Arts therapist essential to discovering how to consciously access deep levels of relaxation and self-attunement.
Find out more about Kripalu Healing Arts.
Kripalu Shop
How can I take this home with me? is the perennial question of Kripalu program participants. The Kripalu Shop provides an answer by carrying a carefully-chosen line of books, music, videos, healing tools, yoga props and fitness accessories, body care items, clothing, and other products selected to help you sustain and deepen your Kripalu experience. Our experience shows that such products can play a significant role in maintaining the inspiration, study, healthy diet, and spiritual practices learned at Kripalu. Many of our books and audio resources are authored or recommended by program or workshop leaders. Others are selected by our buyers, who screen hundreds of items to assure their fit with the Kripalu lifestyle. Most program guests are aware of the Shop’s physical location on the ground floor of Kripalu Center, but many are unaware that the Shop is also online to support them between visits.
Visit the Kripalu Shop online.
Dining at Kripalu
In many monastic traditions, the cooks are among the most advanced practitioners. There is good reason for this, as eating well is one of the most important things you can do to support your health and spiritual growth. Seen in this light, providing a healthy and educational dining experience is an important part of Kripalu’s mission.
In addition to programs focusing on diet and nutrition, the Kripalu Kitchen provides an array of natural, organic, and local foods, including vegetables, proteins, and nutritious grains. Meals are served buffet-style and are primarily vegetarian; fish and poultry options are often available for lunch and dinner. You’ll also find freshly baked breads and fresh fruits. Being at Kripalu is an opportunity to try new foods and experiment with eating slowly and consciously while actively listening to your body. Program registration includes all meals beginning with dinner on the first day and ending with lunch on the last day.
Find out more about dining at Kripalu.
Program and Retreat Housing
An important aspect of the Kripalu experience is that it offers time away from your daily routines, activities, and surroundings. This frees you to focus on getting the most from your retreat or program experience. Our facility was formerly a Jesuit seminary, and therefore accommodations are simple. Many program participants describe Kripalu as a place where everything you need is conveniently provided without modern-day distractions such as televisions.
All of Kripalu’s activities take place within the context of a retreat center offering in-depth immersion programs, wholesome meals, saunas, whirlpools and other supportive amenities. There is no need to commute to activities, as everything is under one-roof or an easy walk away. At Kripalu, a healthy lifestyle supportive of learning and positive change can be simpler than you think.
While offering a range of housing options to enable a wide variety of people and families to participate in our programs, all accommodations support the focus and immersion that is core to the Kripalu experience.
For more information, check here.
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