Online Courses

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.

Jain Yoga considers Jain yoga from ancient sources to the present. We will study secondary scholarship analyzing Jain yoga from critical perspectives, while reading translations from Sanskrit and Prakrit primary sources describing Jain yoga. Students will also practice and reflect on their experience of various forms of Jain yoga and meditation, experimenting with what it means to embody Jain yoga principles and techniques in their everyday lives in contemporary society. No prior experience is necessary.

Foundations of Jain Yoga Studies provides students with the historical and philosophical foundations for engaging in the study of Jain yoga. Students will learn about the history of yoga broadly, while also learning core methodologies used to study yoga in the field of Yoga Studies. With this new knowledge and skillset, students will learn how to study Jain yoga and see how it emerged in engagement with other yoga traditions since ancient times and into the present. 

This course is a study of Jain philosophy grounded in the practical and moral imperatives of non-violence and compassion. Students will learn how non-violence and compassion emerge from the intricate system of Jain ontology, metaphysics, cosmography, epistemology, ethics, and soteriology. Historical context for the development of Jain philosophy in relation to other South Asian philosophical systems is included, while students will also integrate their learning into their personal, social, and/or professional lives today. samyag-darśana-jñāna-caritrā-mokṣa-mārgaḥ“Correct worldview, correct knowledge, and correct conductcomprise the path to liberation.”– Tattvārtha-Sūtra 1.1 Upon successful completion of this class, students will be able to:Articulate Jain ontology, metaphysics, cosmology, epistemology, ethics, and soteriology.Understand the historical development of Jain philosophy in relation to other South Asian philosophical systems.Demonstrate integration of Jain philosophy into their personal, social, and/or professional lives. 

Social Justice and Modern Yoga surveys the history and contemporary practice of modern yoga and its intersection with issues of social justice. Students will encounter both the major names and lineages in the history of transnational modern yoga as well as some of the lesser-known figures who have contributed to the development of transnational yoga into the present. The course is structured both historically and thematically, presenting topics including, but not limited to, yoga’s intersections with warrior asceticism, colonization, non-violent social justice movements, nationalism, Orientalism, the carceral system, racism, White supremacy, appropriation, gender, foodways, speciesism, pollution, necropolitics, biopolitics, neoliberal capitalism, and abuse. Students will be trained in the basic methods of writing yoga ethnography and social history and will complete an ethnographic research project on a topic of their choice related to the academic field of Modern Yoga Studies.

This course offers an introduction to Jain Studies. Begin with an exploration of key Jain teachings and practices, focusing on the principles of non-harming (ahiṃsā) and non-possession (aparigraha), both central to the tradition. Delve, then, into the Three Jewels of Jainism—right worldview, right knowledge, and right conduct—and examine how these principles shape the foundation of the Jain tradition. Next, investigate the profound connection between Jainism and animal advocacy, exploring the teachings of Mahavira on animals as well as contemporary Jain practices of animal care. Afterwards, explore the Jain perspective on the human body, including the importance of health, the role of karmas in shaping one’s embodiment, and the fine line between bodily renunciation and the need to have good health. Finally, observe how Jainism’s commitment to compassion and social justice is expressed through transformative social initiatives, focusing on the work of Acharya Chandanaji and the global reach of her charitable organization, Veerayatan.  This is designed as a one-week course that will take approximately 3 hours to complete, and includes a series of 14 lectures with accompanying readings and a final quiz to guide you through essential foundations in Jain Studies. Learning Objectives:Understand the core principles of Jainism, including the practices of non-harming (ahiṃsā) and non-possession (aparigraha)Analyze the Three Jewels of Jainism (right worldview, right knowledge, and right conduct)Evaluate the relationship between Jainism and animal advocacyLearn the Jain perspective on the human body and its role in spiritual practiceAssess the role of compassion and social justice in Jainism

What do Jain teachings have to do with my life today?  Learn how to answer this question with Jain philosophical texts that provide perennial guidance that applies to your most common everyday life situations. 

According to Jain dharma, we live in an interconnected web of life in which no creature, human or non-human, wants to be harmed. For this reason, the Jain tradition has taught ahiṃsā, or non-violence, to all forms of life for thousands of years. Learn why the Jain tradition places particular emphasis on non-violence toward non-human animals, and how these Jain perspectives can be brought into conversation with contemporary animal advocacy concerns. Leave the course inspired to advocate for the well-being of all forms of life.

Arihanta Institute is offering this course in collaboration with Museum Rietberg, coinciding with their Exhibition “Being Jain: Art and Culture of an Indian Religion” in Zurich, Switzerland.Climate change is arguably the biggest collective challenge human society has ever encountered. But there is hope. Among many of the innovative solutions that have and continue to be proposed, the Jain tradition encourages an environmentally sustainable lifestyle, which, if incorporated into our daily lives worldwide, could have a significant impact in reducing the worst of the climate disaster that is yet to come. Learn the Jain way of life in conversation with some of climate change’s most pressing issues. Leave transformed and empowered to reduce your climate footprint.Class 1Jainism and Ecology: Recognizing the Interconnected Web of LifeLearn how the Jain tradition views the world as an interconnected web of life in which nothing wants to experience pain. Understand how the Jain principle of ahiṃsā, or non-violence, arises from this worldview and some of the fundamental ways you can reduce your carbon footprint by following the Jain way of life and in accordance with climate science.Class 2Jain Approaches to Food: Climate Change & Animal AgricultureThe IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) recently advised that in light of the effects of animal agriculture on the climate, the entire planet must be “veganised.” Learn, in light of climate science, why animal agriculture is one of the most significant contributors to climate change and environmental degradation. Also study Jain approaches to an ethical and environmentally friendly diet that call into question our unnecessary reliance on animals for food.Class 3Jain Views on Consumption and Waste: A Changing Climate requires Changing HabitsHumans consume food, electronics, fuel and other commodities at rates far beyond what our planet can sustain in the long run and which amount to significant amounts of environmental degradation. Discover what the acceptable limits of consumption are, and also consider Jain ethical approaches to the human behavior of consumption. Be inspired to reconsider your own consumptive habits.Class 4Jain Professional Ethics: Making a Climate-Friendly LivingWe all need to make a living, but what would it mean to make a “climate-friendly” living? Learn Jain ethical approaches to career and professional life, and understand the important connections between the work that you do and its potential effects on the climate. Be inspired to make a righteous living that is good for both you and our climate future.

Committed to nonviolence (ahiṃsā) since its ancient beginnings, the Jain tradition has admonished the mistreatment, slaughter, sacrifice, and consumption of animals for thousands of years. In light of these commitments, Jains have traditionally lived a lacto-vegetarian lifestyle, advocated for the legal protection of animals, and have created sanctuaries for animals for centuries. In ancient and medieval scriptural sources, we even find restrictions on the consumption of dairy itself, suggesting potential pre-modern Jain commitments to what would now be referred to as a vegan lifestyle. And today, many Jains have been advocating for veganism in light of the devastating and irreparable harms involved in the production of dairy in contemporary society.  This course carefully considers the philosophical and historical underpinnings of Jain Veganism, presenting an opportunity for non-Jain vegans to discover a rich philosophical system aligned with their values, as well as an opportunity for Jains to appreciate the philosophical resources within their own tradition which naturally lead to living an ethical vegan lifestyle. 

Explore the history, philosophies, and many meanings of the popular Jain concept known as “anekāntavāda”. Begin by exploring anekāntavāda’s rich history and understand why this term means much more than just “intellectual ahiṃsā”. Next, appreciate the philosophical complexity of anekāntavāda and its variant applications through nayavāda, syādvāda, saptabhaṅgī, and nikṣepa.Finally, with this philosophy and history in mind, bring your fresh and deeper understanding of anekāntavāda into the present and apply it to one of many important questions of contemporary society.

Master the philosophy, goals, & practices of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra & identify its Jain, Buddhist, & Vedic influences. Understand the history that allowed this text to become a text in the modern yoga canon. Learning Objectives• Learn the classical yoga of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra and Vyāsa’s Bhāṣya• Take time to reflect on and incorporate Patañjali’s principles into daily life• Learn the text's Sanskrit vocabulary in depth to penetrate its deeper meaning• Understand the Yoga Sūtra’s ancient as well as modern colonial history 

One of the primary questions students of modern yoga seek to answer is precisely how the forms of contemporary yoga practiced today are connected to pre-modern forms of yoga developed in India. To begin to answer this question and to formulate new questions, this course will trace some of the historical continuities and discontinuities between pre-modern and modern yoga practices, demonstrating that modern yoga is a complicated, transnational cultural product. We will explore the legacy of the first yoga teachers who brought yoga to America and Europe as well as yoga’s development from a historical, social, and political perspective.Students will thus take into account current scholarly debates regarding the relationship of transnational yoga to categories such as capitalism, neoliberalism, orientalism, racism, speciesism, gender, cultural appropriation, biopolitics, nationalism, and colonization. Doing so will encourage yoga practitioners to adopt new methodologies concerning the critical study of modern yoga, and will also give them an opportunity to confront and unravel saṃskāras, or acquired mental impressions and social conditionings, related to their inherited beliefs regarding the origins, history, and contemporary practice of yoga. The course is thus simultaneously intellectual as well as, from a yogic perspective, transformational.

"Yoga is more than āsana" is a phrase we commonly hear in the contemporary yoga world. But what does this actually mean in practice? In this course we will explore the ways yoga practitioners engage in the practice of eating, singing, and breathing. We will learn about these three transformative, yet understudied embodied yoga practices: yogic diet, music, and breathing techniques. While embracing philosophical, philological, and historical approaches to the study of these practices, this course also presents novel cultural approaches for understanding each following the methodology in Professor Miller’s book, Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation.   Students will move through three contemporary sites of yogic practice where they will learn about the social-historical and cultural forces that both shape and enable particular ways of yogic eating, singing, and breathing therein. By combining the field of yoga studies with Indian Ocean Studies, Food Studies, Ethnomusicology, and Pollution Studies, they will learn that when they embody their own yoga traditions’ transformative practices, they are also simultaneously embodying other unseen cultural and social-historical influences. Students will therefore also learn how to perform research in their own yoga tradition or community to better understand and communicate to others the often unrecognized and complex histories, social contexts, and philosophies comprising their embodied yoga practices.   Professor Miller will take students through a systematic approach for performing yoga research to help each participant identify their own key research questions concerning their yoga tradition’s embodied practices and techniques. They will also be inspired to develop their own research methods that will help them to answer these critical questions, thereby becoming a scholar of their own yoga tradition. The only prerequisite for this course is a sincere curiosity to learn about the historical sources and cultural influences shaping contemporary yoga practices whether they are eating, singing, breathing, or another transformative yogic technique of special interest.  This course is offered in collaboration with Yogic Studies

This course provides an in-depth exploration of yoga and meditation as understood within ancient and classical Jain scriptures. In Part 1: Ancient Jain Yoga, students will be introduced to foundational concepts such as āsana, or physical postures, as a tool for purification and meditation. Drawing from early Jain texts, including the Uttarādhyayanasūtra and the Daśavaikālikasūtra, students will learn how restraint of the body, mind, and speech formed early Jain definitions of yoga.  Part 2: Yoga and Meditation in Classical Jain Philosophy, transitions into an examination of the Tattvārthsūtra and its commentaries, where yoga is described as the inflow (āsrava) of karma—representing an obstacle to spiritual liberation. Students will explore the key to liberation through correct worldview, knowledge, and conduct, as well as the role of dhyāna (meditation) as both an austerity (tapas) and a means of wearing away (nirjarā) karma. Through a discussion of virtuous (dharma) and pure (śukla) meditation, the course will highlight how advanced meditation practices lead to spiritual purification and the elimination of karma, providing a comprehensive understanding of Jain yoga's ultimate aim of mokṣa, or liberation. This is designed as a two-week course that will take approximately 4 hours to complete, and includes readings and a series of 10 lectures to guide you through the intricacies of ancient and classical Jain definitions of Yoga. Learning Objectives:Learn the role of āsana (physical postures) in ancient Jain yoga as a tool for purification and meditation.Discover how restraint of body, mind, and speech formed early Jain definitions of yoga, with guidance from key ancient texts.Explore the classical Jain philosophical view of yoga as the inflow (āsrava) of karma, and see how this concept is discussed in the Tattvārthsūtra and its commentaries.Understand how meditation (dhyāna) serves as an austerity (tapas) to wear away karma (nirjarā) and how virtuous (dharma) and pure (śukla) meditation practices lead to spiritual purification and liberation (mokṣa).

This course offers a close exploration of the teachings and historical contexts of two significant teachers of early Śvetāmbara Jain yoga: Haribhadra Virahāṇka and Haribhadra Yākinīputra.Beginning with an introduction to Haribhadra Virahāṇka’s (ca. 6 th c. CE) hagiography, we will examine how his legendary name reflects the Jain path to liberation (mokṣa), setting the stage for a study of his yoga texts aimed for the same goal: the Yogabindu and Yogaśataka. In addition to looking at the limited historical evidence regarding Haribhadra Virahāṇka’s tentative 6 th c. CE dating, the course will analyze Haribhadra’s categorization of yoga practitioners into three levels, with a focus on the cāritrin (pathgoer), who embodies the path of comprehensive Jain yoga practice. Through a detailed examination of the five types of yoga in the Yogabindu, students will understand how these practices facilitate liberation according to Jain karma theory. Students will also appreciate how the Yogabindu represents Jainism’s first-known exposition of “yoga” as a spiritual path, rather than something that causes the inflow of karma as understood in the preceding classical period.Transitioning to Haribhadra Yākinīputra (ca. 8 th c. CE), the course will delve into his hagiography as well as his distinct contributions to Jain yoga, the Yogadṛṣṭisamuccaya and Yogaviṁśikā. We will investigate how Haribhadra Yākinīputra is historically (and tentatively) dated to the 8 th c. CE, while also appreciating how he both integrates but also simultanesouly critiques various traditions such as tantra, Buddhism, and Brahmanism within his Jain framework. Finally, students will understand how Haribhadra maps his yoga philosophy onto not only Patañjali’s 8-limbed yoga but also Jain concepts including the 14 guṇasthānas.  Students will appreciate how the two Haribhadras put their respective Jain teachings into dialogue with other religious and philosophical traditions, while maintaining a commitment to their own Jain tradition.This is designed as a two-week course that will take approximately 4 hours to complete, and includes readings and a series of 10 lectures to guide you through the intricacies of the yogas of Haribhadra Virahāṇka and Haribhadra Yākinīputra.  It is recommended, though not required, that students complete course 3007 “Ancient and Classical Jain Yoga” before taking this course if they wish to have further background on Jain yoga.  Learning Objectives:1. Learn the histories and hagiographies of Haribhadra Virahāṇka and Haribhadra Yākinīputra to understand how their legendary names were created.2. Understand Haribhadra Virahāṇka’s categorization of yoga practitioners, focusing on the cāritrin and the five types of yoga practices in the Yogabindu, to grasp their role in facilitating liberation through Jain karma theory.3. Learn the contributions of Haribhadra Yākinīputra to Jain yoga, especially hisYogadṛṣṭisamuccaya, and how he critiques and integrates various traditions such as tantra, Buddhism, and Brahmanism within his yoga framework.