The “Haṭha Yoga and Jain Yoga” course carefully considers the development of the haṭha yoga tradition, the medieval forms of yoga that emerged after India’s classical period, and which are the predecessors of today’s forms of physical yoga. Students are offered the opportunity to undertake the postural, breathing, and meditation techniques found in medieval haṭha yoga texts as well as to see how these texts influenced, or were perhaps influenced by, the Jain yoga tradition in particular.
Learning Area

Yoga, Self-care and Spirituality
Instructor

Christopher Miller, PhD
Christopher Jain Miller, the co-founder and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Arihanta Institute, completed his PhD in the Study of Religion at the University of California, Davis. He is Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute, Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich's Asien-Orient-Institut, and Visiting Professor at Claremont School of Theology. Christopher's primary fields of research interest are Yoga Studies and Engaged Jain Studies, and he currently serves as the co-chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit at the American Academy of Religion as well as on the steering committees for the Dharma Academy of North America (DANAM) and the Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana conference. Christopher is the author of Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation (Routledge 2024) and the co-editor of Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement (SUNY 2025) as well as Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age (Lexington 2020).