“Clearing the Path: Using the Outer Limbs of Yoga to Prepare for Samadhi” Workshop Led by Stephen Parker, PsyD, LP, ERYT500, YACEP
“Clearing the Path: Using the Outer Limbs of Yoga to Prepare for Samadhi”
by Stephen Parker, PsyD, LP, ERYT500, YACEP
This day long workshop will focus on cultivating mindful awareness in practicing the outer limbs of yoga (Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara) to prepare the mindfield to remain clear, still and stable in the process of samyama in the inner meditative limbs leading to samadhi. It will follow both Patañjali’s theory of mind as well as contemporary neuroscience by way of explaining the path of citta-prasaadana, making the mind clear and pleasant. The presenter’s recent book, “Clearing the Path, The Yoga Way to a Clear and Pleasant Mind: Patañjali, Neuoscience and Emotion” will be available for sale in the Center bookstore.
Stephen Parker was initiated in the Himalayan Yoga tradition by Swami Veda Bharati and was given the initiate name Stoma in 1971. Among the first teachers certified by the Himalayan International Teachers’ Association, H.I.T.A., he began teaching hatha-yoga in 1974. Stoma is a Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500 hour level of the Yoga Alliance (E-RYT 500). A member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, he serves on the faculties of the Meditation Center in Minneapolis and the Sadhana Mandir and Sadhaka Gram ashrams in 
Rishikesh, India. He is also a senior faculty member of the Himalayan Yoga Tradition Teachers’ Training Program. He has lectured on yoga, meditation, and spiritual practice in the U.S. and Canada as well as in Caribbean countries, Holland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, South Africa, Korea, Hong Kong, and India. In 2004 he helped originate and teach the first course on yoga in an American medical school at the University of Minnesota Academic Medical Center. In 2007 he received took preliminary vows of renunciation from Swami Veda and the Shankaracharya of Karvirapitha. Stoma is author of “Clearing the Path, The Yoga Way to a Clear and Pleasant Mind: Patañjali, Neuoscience and Emotion.”