Current Projects
- Support for International Association of Yoga Therpists (IAYT), a former division of YREC/YREF
IAYT was founded in 1989 by Larry Payne, PhD, and Richard Miller, PhD as a membership organization to champion the cause of Yoga as a healing art.
In 1999, IAYT became a program of our predecessor organization, the Yoga Research and Education Center (YREC) under the leadership of founder and president Georg Feuerstein, PhD, internationally respected Yoga scholar and author. Larry Payne continued as program director, with administrative and managing editor responsibilities assumed by Trisha Lamb.
In 2004, with the support of YREC and the original founders and leadership of IAYT, the association again became an independent nonprofit organization. Since then, IAYT has grown its membership, expanded its focus on scientific research, moved its Journal toward full peer-review status, and hosted two successful conferences in Los Angeles – Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research (SYTAR) – promising to become an important annual event. IAYT has emerged as the focus of many activities directed to making the health benefits of Yoga practice available to all.
- Support for The Berzin Archives, a Tibetan Buddhist project under the direction of Dr. Alexander Berzin
Under the direction of Tibetan Buddhist scholar Alexander Berzin, PhD, the web-based Berzin Archives has become a leading resource for authoritative information on the extraordinary range of Yogas preserved in the Tibetan tradition. The Berzin Archives consists of translations and practical teachings by Dr. Berzin on the areas of sutra, tantra, Kalachakra, dzogchen, and mahamudra. The Archives presents material from the five major Tibetan traditions: Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, Gelug, and Bon, as well as comparisons with Theravada Buddhism and Islam. YREF support has been monetary, web infrastructure, computers, programming, hosting, and expertise coordinated by our Board Member Wolfgang Saumweber.
- Scholarship for PhD research project on MBSR in Pregnancy, Amy Beddoe RN, UCSF School of Nursing
Our first scholarship has been in support of the PhD research by Amy Beddoe, RN, at the UCSF School of Nursing. Her dissertation, “Mindfulness-Based Yoga during Pregnancy: A Pilot Study Examining Relationships Between Stress, Anxiety, Sleep, and Pain” “demonstrated important clinical improvements in sleep and pain for women who began mindful-yoga in their second trimester.” (link to dissertation tba soon). Dr. Beddoe is currently on the nursing faculty at San Jose State University (http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty_and_staff/faculty_detail.jsp?id=1100).
- Support for Tamil Translation & Publication Project through Babaji's Kriya Yoga
We support the ongoing effort to collect, preserve, translate, and publicize the wealth of Yoga wisdom preserved in the Tamil Siddha tradition by the Yoga Siddha Research Project based in Chennai, India (http://www.babaji.ca/english/research.htm). Through the good offices of Canadian-based Babaji’s Kriya Yoga Order of Acharyas, founder director M. Govindan has worked tirelessly with this ambitious and important project. Thus far, a series of five volumes have been produced that opens to English-speaking scholars for the first time a window upon this vast and important tradition of Yoga.
- Support for publication of book by Snow Lion: Yantra Yoga by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
We support the manuscript preparation that is currently underway at Snow Lion of an important text by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche on the physical Yoga system of ancient Tibet known as “Yantra Yoga.” This tradition appears to predate the development of the better known Hatha Yoga system of postures and breathing . This volume will make an important contribution to our growing understanding of the treasure house of Yoga.
- Science of Yoga Research
Via anonymous donation, we have supported a leading research effort in the science of Yoga (details withheld by request of the grantee.)
- Support for Yoga Science Forum
Currently under construction, this project aims to provide a web-based forum for discussion of an important development in the rapidly evolving dialog between Yoga and Science – the emergence of an “unexpected hybrid” that might coordinate the full range of subjective experience of Yogis and contemplatives throughout history with the full range of objective findings across the modern sciences.
