Kripalu's Mission
About Kripalu Yoga—
(Taken with permission from www.kripalu.org)
To teach the art and
science of yoga to produce thriving and health in individuals and society.
Kripalu was formed in 1966
to promote yoga and uplift the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of
individuals. For more than 40 years, Kripalu has remained a place where people
come together to deeply inquire into the core issues of life, explore new and
healthier ways of being, and put inspiration into practice.
Kripalu’s vision is to
build a new kind of educational institution, one dedicated to the inquiry of
what creates a fulfilled human life. From our point of view, human fulfillment
is the critical challenge of our time and the answer to many of our societal
problems. The only way we can address the complexity of our personal lives and
society as a whole is for more of us to explore, understand, and experience what
it means to live an integrated life in which we feel fully alive, connected to
others, and committed to fostering the welfare of the whole. We call this
exploring the yoga of life.
Kripalu’s mission remains
teaching the art and science of yoga, an approach consistently proven to uplift
individuals and benefit society. The techniques of yoga integrate body, mind,
and spirit, helping both individuals and groups flourish and perform at peak
levels. The only way in which this new kind of institution can be built is for
its leaders, members, and patrons to embody the discipline of yoga by acting
skillfully, being authentic, and confronting our biases and fears as we work
together in pursuit of truth.
While grounded in yoga, it
is important to understand that Kripalu does not espouse a narrow or sectarian
mindset. According to the Kripalu tradition, yoga is an honest and unfettered
inquiry into all practices, philosophies, techniques, and approaches that
produce thriving for individuals, families, communities, societies, and the
planet. This "nondenominational yoga" includes perennial wisdom
gleaned from all the world’s religions and spiritual traditions, together with
the amazing knowledge gained from science, psychology, and contemporary
researchers. It also includes healing techniques drawn from traditional,
allopathic, and complementary/alternative medicine that help individuals heal
and return to high levels of functioning.
As an institution, Kripalu
is dedicated to yoga as a rigorous, nondogmatic, and nonsectarian inquiry into
the core issues of life. This kind of truth-based inquiry inevitably frees us
from fears, fantasies, and distortions and produces positive ways of being that
generate beneficial results. To support rigorous inquiry and dialogue, Kripalu
operates in accord with a set of core values that includes: a commitment to
authenticity, radical self-trust, the courage to fully express one’s self, and
unconditional positive regard for others. Embracing these and other values is a
proven way to move toward the state of integrated functioning where what you
think, feel, say, and do are aligned.