Here are some links and information that we hope you’ll find helpful.
See Research to support how meditation enhances our lives: http://earthweareone.com/4-scientific-studies-on-how-meditation-can-affect-your-heart-brain-and-creativity/
http://yogainternational.com/article/view/your-brain-on-meditation#.U7rsZkrYMec.twitter
Bhagavadgita, A New Translation by Stephen Mitchell (Three Rivers Press, New York, 1988)
William K. Mahony, PhD, www.wkmahony.com: is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Religion and Chair of the Religion Department at Davidson College, where he teaches courses on the religions of India. He is particularly interested in contemplative and devotional sensibilities and practices associated with those traditions.
Bill’s most recent book, Exquisite Love: Heart-Centered Reflections on the Narada Bhakti Sutra, published by Anusara Press, 2010 and based on a 10th-11th century Sanskrit text, is on the experience, cultivation and refinement of increasingly higher levels of spiritual love in our contemporary lives. His other publications include The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination, published by the State University of New York Press, which is on visionary and contemplative intuitions into the sacred in some of India’s foundational religious sensibilities.
Douglas Brooks, PhD, www.rajanaka.com: is a scholar of Hinduism, south Asian languages, and the comparative study of religions. He lived in India with his teacher, Dr. Gopala Aiyar Sundaramoorthy, for many years studying and practicing Srividya, Auspicious Wisdom, and the modern traditions of goddess-centered Tantra. Currently Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester, he holds both Masters and his doctoral degrees from Harvard University.
Sally Kempton, www.sallykempton.com (Swami Durgananda), is a globally recognized meditation teacher of applied spiritual wisdom, known for her capacity to kindle meditative states in others, and to help students work with meditative experience as a framework for practical life-change. She teaches teleclasses, retreats, and workshops, appearing at conference centers such as Esalen and Kripalu. Sally is the author of “Meditation for the Love of It“, which Spirituality and Health magazine called “the meditation book your heart wants you to read.”She writes a regular column, “Wisdom” for Yoga Journal, as well as a column called “Meditation for Life” on the Internet religious site Patheos.com. A former swami in a Vedic tradition, Sally’s teachings combine deep knowledge of the texts of yoga and tantra with practical wisdom from contemporary psychology and integral thought. The Heart of Meditation, pathways to a deeper experience, (A Siddha Yoga Publication, Syda Foundation, NY 2002), Meditation for the Love of It (Sounds True, 2011), Awakening Shakti, The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga, (Sounds True, 2013).
Sharon Salzberg: www.sharonsalzberg.com, is a world-renowned meditation teacher and author. She is the cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, and has played a crucial role in bringing Asian meditation practices to the West. The ancient Buddhist practices of vipassana (mindfulness) and metta (lovingkindness) are the foundations of her work. She started her meditation practice in 1971 and her teaching in 1974. “I knew from the first moment that meditation was important, and have never stopped. It forms the basis of integrity, connection and compassion in my life.” Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation (Workman Publishing, New York 2011), LovingKindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness (Shambhala Publications, 1995), and several other books-see her website.
Doug Keller, PhD, www.doyoga.com: is an internationally recognized yoga teacher for teachers with a renowned expertise in yoga therapeutics. “In addition to teaching the postural practice of hatha yoga as well as pranayama and meditation, I have chosen as my focus the realm of Yoga as Therapy, which is an evolving field that promises to be a vital part of the future of yoga. The expansion of yoga beyond the practices taught in more ancient times is, to me, an expression of the freedom at the heart of yoga and of consciousness itself. This freedom was described in tantric philosophy as not simply ‘liberation’ or ‘moksha,’ but ‘Swatantrya’ — the freedom of Consciousness to expand and create through its own inspiration. Yoga as an expression of this is not bound to antiquity, but inherently contains the inspiration to evolve for the sake of the good. I found the essence of this inspiration to be expressed by Swami Muktananda, who first initiated my journey into yoga: ‘God dwells within you, as you, for you. See God in yourself and in each other.’ All knowledge and experience is illuminated by that presence and source of inspiration. I choose the word ‘Swatantrya,’ the yoga of one’s own inner expansion and awakening, not to establish yet another ‘style’ of yoga, but to express the essence and character of what yoga promises to be. Yoga concerns our own relationship to the Self from whom we came. It is deeply personal, experiential, and ultimately unmediated by any system of conceptual thought. The teachings of yoga simply provide us with the introduction to our own Self. Philosophy provides the contemplation and focus that help us to aim more deeply into the experience. In the end, the ‘breakthrough’ we experience is what the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart described as the breakthrough into our own heart, where the Divine most fully dwells. This is the teaching I want to share, along with the practices and means offered by yoga to support that inward journey” by Doug Keller, wwwdoyoga.com
Doug Keller: Refining the Breath, The Yogic Practice of Pranayama (2003)
Doug Keller: The Heart of the Yogi, The Philosophical World of Hatha Yoga, (Doug Keller 2002)
Christopher D. Wallis: Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition by (Anusara Press 2012)