Hybrid Thursday Satsang In-Person and Via Zoom: “Spanda and Levels of Initiation (Anava, Shakta, Shambhava)” Pandit Stephen “Stoma” Parker, Psy.D., E-RYT-500 – July 21, 2022
July 21, 2022
Hybrid Thursday Satsang In-Person and Via Zoom – July 21, 2022
“Spanda and Levels of Initiation (Anava, Shakta, Shambhava)” by Pandit Stephen “Stoma” Parker, Psy.D., E-RYT-500
Stoma’s guided meditation at 7:00 p.m.will be in person only at TMC.
The presentation will be both in person and via Zoom.
7:00 p.m. – 9:10 p.m. CDT
| Note changes below to TMC’s Thursday Evening’s regular schedule. 6:00-7:00 p.m.: No Hatha Yoga on Thursday, July 21st 7:00-7:30 p.m.: Only In Person at TMC, No Zoom Access Guided Meditation by Stephen “Stoma” Parker, Psy.D., E-RYT 500 7:30-9:00 p.m.: Presentation by Stephen “Stoma” Parker, Psy.D., E-RYT 500 9:00- 9:10 p.m.: Evening Prayers |
| In this session, Stoma will describe layers of practice in our tradition from the perspective of Kashmir Shaivism. The three levels of practice, the upayas,roughly parallel the three prescriptions of practice in “Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutras.” Each of these levels has its own experiential component of initiation. Most students of the Himalayan Tradition are familiar with the term shakti-pata, which is usually described as a feature of the shakta-upaya. There are aspects of initiation, the direct induction of a higher experience, in the other upayas as well. |
| Dr. 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. During that time he also studied Sanskrit with Swami Veda and South Asian languages and culture for his B.A. at the University of Minnesota. Stoma is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500-hour level of the Yoga Alliance (E-RYT 500). A member of the International Association of Y.T., he serves on the faculties of the Meditation Center in Minneapolis and the Sadhaka Grama ashram in Rishikesh, India. He is also a senior faculty member of the Himalayan Yoga Tradition Teachers’ Training Program. He has lectured on yoga, meditation, yoga psychology, and spiritual practice in the U.S. and Canada as well as in Caribbean countries, Holland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, 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 preliminary vows of renunciation from Swami Veda and the Shankaracharya of Karvirapitha. Stoma has been a licensed psychologist in private practice in St. Paul, MN since 1985. He also serves as Adjunct Assistant School Professor of Counseling and Psychological Services at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, MN. He teaches on the faculty of the Introductory Workshops of the Minnesota Society of Clinical Hypnosis. In addition to authoring journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Parker edited volume two of Swami Veda’s definitive scholarly work on the “Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali” and he has been a peer review editor for the “Journal of Men’s Studies,” the “American Journal of Orthopsychiatry,” the I”nternational Journal of Yoga T. and Yoga Mimamsa.” He is also the author of “Clearing the Path, The Yoga Way to a Clear and Pleasant Mind: Yoga, Neuroscience and Emotion” (2017) published by AHYMSA publishers. |