About CSJY

Center for the Study of Jain Yoga

(L) Rishabhanatha seated in Two Stages of Meditation Five Auspicious Events in the Life of the First Jina, Panchakalyanaka (ca. 1680), Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, The San Diego Museum of Art (R) Śvetāmbara nun meditates. Image by Claude Renault ©️ CC BY 2.0
The Center for the Study of Jain Yoga (CSJY) at Arihanta Institute is a pioneering online hub for advanced research and academic exploration of Jain yoga. CSJY offers both public and graduate-level education on Jain yoga and allied fields of academic inquiry.

Founded after the successful global conference Yoga in Jainism in April 2024, which convened leading Jain yoga scholars worldwide, CSJY seeks to illuminate Jain yoga’s understudied and unique contributions to the broader field of Yoga Studies.

At CSJY, researchers use interdisciplinary methods to explore Jain yoga texts, the historical development of Jain yoga and meditation (dhyāna), and the evolving cultural interpretations and practices of yoga and meditation within contemporary Jain communities. Our goal is to deepen scholarly understanding of Jain yoga's dynamic relationship with the broader yoga tradition, exploring how Jain yoga both influences and is influenced by surrounding social contexts, historically and in the present.

CSJY’s online programs include graduate seminars, live and self-study public courses that cover the philosophical, historical, philological, and anthropological aspects of Jain yoga. With guidance from expert scholars, students engage deeply with Jain texts and cultural contexts, gaining tools to appreciate Jain yoga’s complexities and ongoing narratives within the global yoga landscape.

Explore the depth of Jain yoga at the Center for the Study of Jain Yoga, where tradition and scholarly inquiry come together to enrich understanding of this vital spiritual heritage.

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Graduate Seminars

CSJY offers graduate-level courses with a concentration in “Yoga Studies” through our collaboration with Claremont School of Theology. Currently, the following graduate seminars are available for students enrolled in the online Engaged Jain Studies Master's Degree track:
Graduate Course
Graduate Course
Graduate Course
MA - Engaged Jain Studies

Latest News & Info

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Featured Events

Upcoming Event
Arihanta Event Webinar
Preksha Meditation: Acharya Shri Mahapragya
March 4, 2025
An insightful Center for the Study of Jain Yoga webinar featuring Acharya Shri Mahapragya, the great master of Preksha Meditation.
Past Event
Arihanta Event Partner Event
Arihanta Institute at the 2024 Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion
November 23-26, 2024
Please be sure to come say "Jai Jinendra!" to Arihanta Institute’s faculty at the AAR’s 2024 events!
Past Event
Arihanta Event Partner Event
"We Should Know Better"
September 26-29, 2024
Dr. Miller at University of Victoria workshop where scholars examined tensions between Asian spiritual practices & Western social dynamics.
Past Event
Arihanta Event Conference
Yoga in Jainism Conference
April 20, 2024
2nd Annual Engaged Jain Studies Conference: Yoga in Jainism. Join us online on April 20, 2024.
Past Event
Arihanta Event Conference
American Academy of Religion 2023 Annual Meeting
November 18-21, 2023
The 2023 Annual Meetings in San Antonio, Texas, November 18–21, hosted by the AAR, DANAM, and SBL.
Past Event
Arihanta Event Partner Event
"Embodying Transnational Yoga" Virtual Book Launch
November 13, 2023
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies hosts this online event with author Dr. Christopher Jain Miller in discussion with Dr. Laura von Ostrowski.
View All Events

Research Publications

 

 

Miller, Christopher Jain. Forthcoming. “’Puruṣa bound from within / without looking on’: Gurani Anjali's Sāṃkhya-Yoga Music on Long Island, New York.” In Yogic Traditions and Sacred Sound Practices in the United States, edited by Brita Renée Heimark. Albany: SUNY Press.

 


 

Miller, Christopher Jain. Forthcoming. "Engaged Jain Yoga: Seven Cakras, the Buddha, and Mahāvīra on the Berlin Wall." In Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement, edited by Christopher Jain Miller and Cogen Bohanec. Albany: SUNY Press.

 


 

Miller, Christopher Jain. Forthcoming. “From Practitioner to Practitioner-Scholar, From Yogin to Engaged Jain Yoga.” In We Should Know Better, edited by Paul Bramadat (Proposal in Progress).

 


 

Miller, Christopher Jain. 2024. Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation. London: Routledge.

 


 

Bohanec, Cogen. 2023. “Comparative Contemplative Praxis in the Jain Yogaśāstra and the Hindu Yoga Sūtra.” In Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration, edited by Rita Sherma, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria. New York: Routledge. 38-50.

 


 

Jain, Parveen. 2023. “Jain Yoga and Dhyāna: From Contemplative Introspection to Blissful Meditation.” In Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration, edited by Rita Sherma, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria. New York: Routledge. 22-37.

 


 

Miller, Christopher Jain. 2023. "Contemplating Jīvas: The Ecological Implications of Jainism's Elemental Meditations." In Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration, edited by Rita Sherma, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria. New York: Routledge. 61-69.

 


 

Sherma, Rita, Cogen Bohanec, and Purushottama Bilimoria (eds.). 2023. Contemplative Studies and Jainism: Meditation, Prayer, and Veneration. New York: Routledge.

 


 

Miller, Christopher Patrick. 2021. "Christian and Hindu Responses to Christian Yoga Practice in North America." In Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations, edited by Chad Bauman and Michelle Voss Roberts. New York: Routledge. 280-293.

 


 

Miller, Christopher Patrick. 2019. "Jainism, Yoga, and Ecology: A Course in Contemplative Practice for a World in Pain." In "New Directions in Jaina Studies." Special issue edited by Anne Vallely. Religions. Vol. 10, no. 4: 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10040232 

 


 

Miller, Christopher Patrick. 2018. "Yoga Bodies and Bodies of Water: Solutions for Climate Change in India?" In That All May Flourish: Comparative Religious Environmental Ethics, edited by Laura Hartmann. New York: Oxford University Press. 126-155.