I'm trying to find an excellent, meditation-oriented yoga place in Santa Clara or San Jose (or Los Gatos).

February 17, 2006 10:19 PM

I'm trying to find an excellent, meditation-oriented yoga place in Santa Clara or San Jose (or Los Gatos).

I know next-to-nothing about yoga, but from what I've read it sounds like I would like:

Integral Yoga,
Ananda Yoga,
Swaroopa Yoga,
Kripalu Yoga,
or Sivananda Yoga.

But it seems like all the places I find nearby are "Power Yoga" or "Bikram Yoga," which seem more fitness / workout oriented than meditation / subtle energy oriented.

I also saw a place in SJ called "Siddha Yoga," which sounded good but ended up having a creepy history of inappropriate student-teacher relationships.

Help! All suggestions greatly appreciated!

posted by blahtsk to health & fitness (4 comments total)

Try Yoga Bharati or Han Yoga. Should be more along those lines.
posted by kcm at 11:54 PM on February 17, 2006

It's not Yoga, but I've heard great things about Vipassana as far as meditation goes. There seems to be a group near San Jose.
posted by dsword at 12:52 AM on February 18, 2006

Great suggestions, thanks. :)
posted by blahtsk at 7:39 AM on February 18, 2006

Yoga Journal's directory lists these places for Santa Clara. Not a lot of info, but I'm guessing "Raja Meditation Yoga" might be a good place to call!

The Los Gatos listings also have a place called "Yoga, Breath & Meditation."

Another way to expand your search might be to include Anusara yoga, which is what I do (and I've become highly evangelical about it!). The alignment and poses are based on Iyengar, so it's very grounded in proper alignment, but it also incorporates Tantric philosophies (which more or less translate to "We're all divine and full of light, just need to work through the obstacles that are holding back the expression of that") to make it more spiritual than Iyengar. Also, because it's a fairly new form and an American form, most of the teachers I've worked with have been extensively trained by the founder, John Friend, and they're some of the best yoga teachers I've ever had (in terms of communicating, correcting, and just, well, being very cool people). It's probably a little more muscular than Kripalu, but I think they're pretty similar effort-wise.
posted by occhiblu at 8:11 AM on February 18, 2006