4/4/13 - Living with Ease in a Crazy World: How to Cultivate Compassion and Resilience
Zoketsu Norman Fischer  

Poet and Zen Buddhist priest, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, joins Yogacharya O’Brian for a practical and inspiring conversation on practices for training the mind--drawn from the Tibetan Buddhist teachings of Lojong, then viewed through the lenses of Zen and Yoga!  Pithy and sage instruction such as, “this time, get it right!” can provide an opening for greater awareness and joy in the moment.

Zoketsu Norman Fischer is a poet and Zen Buddhist priest. For many years he has taught at the San Francisco Zen Center, the oldest and largest of the new Buddhist organizations in the West, where he served as Co-abbot from 1995-2000. He is presently a Senior Dharma Teacher there as well as the founder and spiritual director of the Everyday Zen Foundation, an organization dedicated to adapting Zen Buddhist teachings to Western culture.

4/11/13 - The Way of Divine Love 
Prem Prakash 

Yogacharya O’Brian welcomes Prem Prakash, Co-Director of the Green Mountain School of Yoga in Vermont and author of The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion, for an engaging and important conversation about the role of devotion on the spiritual path.  Be prepared to learn some surprising things about love as a path and a practice by exploring the wisdom found in the Bhakti Sutras of Narada.

American-born Prem Prakash has been practicing yoga since 1979. In 1990, his yoga guru, Baba Hari Dass, gave him permission to teach others. Prem Prakash and his wife, Ambika, have studied formally with teachers from several different lineages, and together they serve as Co-Directors of the Green Mountain School of Yoga in Middlebury, Vt. Prem Prakash is the author of several books on yoga, including The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion: A Modern Translation of the Narada Bhakti Sutras.  

4/18/13 - The Yoga of Fulfilled Living: Spirituality, Purpose, Delight and Prosperity
Rod Stryker  

Rod Stryker, author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom, joins Yogacharya O’Brian to explore how yoga can be about living the supreme life. For those who are willing to take yoga’s promise to heart, open to their own divine potential, chart their course, and engage fully in the practice, life in this world is simply auspicious.

The founder of ParaYoga, Rod Stryker is a yoga and meditation teacher who has taught for more than thirty years-- training teachers, leading corporate seminars, yoga retreats, and workshops throughout the world. Rod is the author of The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom. He is on the advisory boards of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living, the Give Back Yoga Foundation and Yoga International magazine. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Himalayan Institute. 

4/25/13 - Three Timeless Practices for the Highest Happiness
Swami Atmavidyananda Giri

What is it we all really want? The sages who have explored this question offer the same answer: we want eternal happiness. Is it even possible? Swami Atmavidyananda Giri, Vice President of the Kriya Yoga Institute, joins Yogacharya O’Brian for a look at the three universal practices of Kriya Yoga that can provide a pathway to the highest happiness. 

Swami Atmavidyananda Giri, a senior monk in the lineage of Paramahamsa Hariharananda and Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, is currently Vice President of the Kriya Yoga Institute. He met Paramahamsa Hariharananda and was initiated into Kriya Yoga in 1994.  In 2002 he dedicated his life fulltime to the cause of spiritual practice and joined the Hariharananda Gurukulam under the auspices of Paramahamsa Prajnanananda. Under the directions Paramahamsa Prajnanananda, he travelled outside India in 2006 to teach Kriya Yoga in the west. Since then he has travelled extensively around the world to guide seekers on the path of Kriya Yoga.

5/02/13 - Complete Well-Being: Holistic Understanding and Practice of Yoga 
Yogashree N.V. Raghuram

Yogashree N.V. Raghuram, Spiritual Founder and Chairman of Yoga Bharati, brings his wealth of experience and knowledge to this conversation with Yogacharya O’Brian about the dynamic meeting of yoga’s ancient wisdom with modern research for health, healing and total well-being.

Yogashree N.V. Raghuram is the Spiritual Founder and Chairman of Yoga Bharati. He is currently "Professor of Yogic Sciences" with Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYASA) Bangalore INDIA. He teaches Yogasanas, Pranayama, Dhyana, cure for various ailments, along with a complete Theoretical Yogic and Scientific background through lectures. Sri Raghuram has trained under some of the most renowned exponents of Yoga in India and has been practicing Yoga for more than 30 years.  

5/09/13 - To Make Big Changes, Start with Just One Thing 
Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., neuropsychologist and author of Buddha’s Brain, joins Yogacharya O’Brian for an uplifting and inspiring look at how the small steps we can take with a daily practice can change the brain, reduce stress, and bring greater resilience and happiness. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist, author of Buddha's Brain and of Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time. Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, Dr. Hanson has been an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard universities, and has taught in meditation centers worldwide. 

5/16/13 - Nectar of Immortality: Soma, the Eternal Universal Energy of Peace, Bliss and Delight
Pandit Vamadeva Shastri

Pandit Vamadeva Shastri(David Frawley) brings his depth of knowledge in the fields of Ayurveda, Yoga, and the Vedas to this conversation with Yogacharya O’Brian about Soma—the power of rejuvenation and immortality. The secret of Soma holds profound implications for the body, mind, and spirit and our ability to transform our lives through spiritual awakening and rejuvenation.  

Vedacharya David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri) is a western born teacher in the Vedic tradition. In India, Vamadeva is recognized as a Vedacharya (Vedic teacher), and includes in his scope of studies Ayurveda, Yoga, Vedanta, and Vedic astrology, as well as the ancient Vedic texts.   He is the author of several definitive texts in these fields over the past 25 years. He is the founder and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies. 

5/23/13 - Retreat into the Heart of Stillness
Ven. Jian Hu
Encore from  3/17/11

A meditation retreat can deepen our meditation experience and open us to profound insight. Rev. O’Brian will be joined by the Ven. Jian Hu, Abbot of the Chung Tai Zen Center of Sunnyvale, for this inspiring conversation about why retreats are so important for truth seekers and how we can prepare ourselves for what a retreat can offer us.

Ven. Jian Hu's life encompasses both Eastern and Western cultures. He came to the US as a teenager and went on to graduate from California Institute of Technology and UCSD with a doctorate in Computer Science. In pursuit of a more meaningful existence, he renounced all worldly attachments to study under the auspices of the Great Master Wei Chueh at the Chung Tai Monastery in Taiwan. There, for many years, he immersed himself deeply in the study and practice of Buddhism and made great advances on the Dharma path of wisdom and compassion.