Explores the role of meditation on the five elements in the practice of Yoga.

In Living Landscapes, Christopher Key Chapple looks at the world of ritual as enacted in three faiths of India. He begins with an exploration of the relationship between the body and the world as found in the cosmological cartography of Sāṃkhya philosophy, which highlights the interplay between consciousness (puruṣa) and activity (prakṛti), a process that gives rise to earth, water, fire, air, and space. He then turns

 Living Landscapes

Engaged Emancipation: Mind, Morals, and Make-Believe in the Moksopaya (Yogavasistha)

A fresh look at Yoga  philosophy.In Yoga  and the Luminous, a book that emerges from more than thirty years of  practice, study, and reflection, Christopher Key Chapple addresses the need for  an accessible explanation of Yoga’s difficult philosophy and its applications  in daily life. Yoga practice takes an individual on an inward journey, and  through Yoga, one enters a rarefied state of consciousness, a transparency and  luminosity described by its great philosopher Patañjali as being “like a clear jewel.” Exploring Yoga through the  prism of practice, Chapple begins with a historical overview of the many Yogic  traditions in Indian religions. He continues with Yoga practice and the  philosophy of Sāṃkhya, and then, in step-by-step fashion,  he brings the reader to an understanding of the ethics of Yoga, the role of  movement and breath, and the processes of concentration and meditation.  Finally, building on the root metaphor of luminosity and light, Chapple  explains the applications of Yoga in daily life.Yoga and  the Luminous also includes a word-by-word translation of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra, the foundational text of  Yoga philosophy and a system of ethical practice and bodily purification. The  translation is accompanied by an analysis that traces key ideas through the  text, such as the reversal of mental and sensory outflows and the theme of  spiritual discernment. Chapple also gives special attention to the feminine in  the description of Yoga practices.“…the overall tone of Yoga  and the Luminous clearly oscillates between the formally academic and the  rhetorical warmth of the Yoga studio … this blending of two distinctive modes  of discourse make for a work that is both engaging and accessible … the heart  of the text is Chapple’s translation of Patañjali’s Yoga  Sūtra … Most readers … will be delighted to find such  readability, precision, and utility in a translation of this crucial work.” — International Journal of Hindu Studies“A valuable group of Chapple’s essays (old and new) about  Yoga … Chapple is both a scholar and practitioner of Yoga, and one can see  elements of both trainings in this book.” — Religious  Studies Review“In Yoga and the  Luminous, we get an historical summary about yoga schools of the three  classic religions of India,  with Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali as the  theme of the monograph. This marvelous monograph also weighs in years of  personal practice, understanding and diligence of the author … Students and  teachers … alike would find Yoga and the  Luminous a good reading.” — Jinamañjari“…Chapple’s insights—the result of 30 years of reflection  and writing on yoga—are potent, and he is a gifted writer. The book is a  pleasure to read, surveying important themes in the theory and practice of  yoga.” — CHOICE“Anyone with an interest in Yoga  must consider Yoga and the Luminous as  a starter guide.” — Midwest Book Review“Yoga and the Luminous is a welcome  addition to the growing literature on Yoga. This excellent book will be of  great value to scholars, practitioners of Yoga, and those interested in how  Yoga can be applied to some of the important issues of our time.” — Gerald  James Larson, Tagore Professor Emeritus, Indiana University at Bloomington, and  Professor Emeritus, University of California at Santa Barbara

Yoga and the Luminous: Patañjali's Spiritual Path to Freedom

Jaina Studies is a relatively new and rapidly expanding field of inquiry for scholars of Indian religion and philosophy. In Jainism, "yoga" carries many meanings, and this book explores the definitions, nuances, and applications of the term in relation to Jainism from early times to the present.  Yoga in Jainism begins by discussing how the use of the term yoga in the earliest Jaina texts described the mechanics of mundane action or karma. From the time of the later Upanisads, the word Yoga became associated in all Indian religions with spiritual practices of ethical restraint, prayer, and meditation. In the medieval period, Jaina authors such as Haribhadra, Subhacandra, and Hemacandra used the term Yoga in reference to Jaina spiritual practice. In the modern period, a Jaina form of Yoga emerged, known as Preksa Dhyana. This practice includes the physical postures and breathing exercises well known through the globalization of Yoga.  By exploring how Yoga is understood and practiced within Jainism, this book makes an important contribution to the fields of Yoga Studies, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and South Asian Studies.

Yoga in Jainism (Routledge Advances in Jaina Studies)

Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions (SUNY Series in Religious Studies) (Suny Series, Religious Studies)

 The twenty-five-hundred-year-old tradition of Jainism, which emphasizes nonviolence as the only true path leading to liberation, offers a worldview seemingly compatible with the goals of environmental activism.    But can Jainism adopt a sociocentric environmentalism without compromising its own ascetic principles and spiritual tradition? How does traditional Jain cosmology view the natural world? How might a Jain ethical system respond to decisions regarding the development of dams, the proliferation of automobiles, overcrowding due to overpopulation, or the protection of individual animal species? Can there be a Jain environmental activism that addresses both the traditional concern for individual self-purification and the contemporary dilemma of ecosystem degradation? The voices in this volume reflect the dynamic nature of the Jain faith and its willingness to engage in discussion on a modern social issue. 

Jainism and Ecology: Nonviolence in the Web of Life (Religions of the World and Ecology)

An interlinear edition of the spiritual classic that provides devanagari, transliterated Sanskrit, and English versions of the Gita. 

The Bhagavad Gita (Suny Series in Cultural Perspectives)

Sacred Thread: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

Loyola Marymount University is a top-ranked national university by U.S. News and World Report, which places LMU among the top six Jesuit universities in the country and in the top six private universities in California. Founded in 1911, LMU is a Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount university with more than 7,100 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate and law students. LMU offers 56 undergraduate majors and 56 minor programs, along with 46 master’s degree programs, three doctorate programs and 12 credential/authorization programs. LMU’s intercollegiate athletics teams compete in the West Coast Conference with 14 Division I varsity sports.

LMU news and events are found at: www.lmu.edu/news.

Loyola Marymount University

Elementary Sanskrit

Indic Traditions: Vedanta and Yoga (Graduate Level)

Comparative Mysticism (Graduate Level)

Comparative Religious Ethics

Religion and Ecology

Manitou, Mormons, Masala

Hindu and Jaina Theology

Buddhism

Religions of the Far East

Religions of India

Religions of the World

Christopher Key Chapple is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology and founding Director of the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. A specialist in the religions of India, he has published more than twenty books, including the recent Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas (SUNY Press). He serves as advisor to multiple organizations including the Forum on Religion and Ecology (Yale), the Ahimsa Center (Pomona), the Dharma Academy of North America (Berkeley), the Jain Studies Centre (SOAS, London), the South Asian Studies Association, and International School for Jain Studies (New Delhi). He teaches online through the Center for Religion and Spirituality (LMU) and YogaGlo. 

Recent book: http://www.sunypress.edu/p-6860-living-landscapes.aspx
YogaGlo Classes: https://www.glo.com/preview/teachers/dr-chris-chapple 
Master of Arts in Yoga Studies: https://bellarmine.lmu.edu/yoga/

Sanskrit Literature

Samkhya Philosophy 

Yoga

Jainism

LMU Yoga Studies program

Navin & Pratima Doshi Distinguished Professor of Indic & Comparative Theology and Director, Master of Arts in Yoga Studies

Christopher Chapple (Department of Theological Studies, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles)
Animals in early India: stories from the Upaniṣads, the Jātakas, the Pañcatantra, and Jaina Narratives

Part of the Centre of Jaina Studies symposium "Biodiversity Conservation and Animal Rights: Religious and Philosophical Perspectives" which was held at SOAS, University of London on 22 March 2012.

Further details and abstracts can be found at http://www.soas.ac.uk/biodiversity/

Christopher Chapple: Animals in early India

Jesuit Education & Ignatian Spirituality - Christopher Key Chapple

Dr. Christopher Chapple, Doshi Professor of Indic & Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University

The Sevenfold Yoga of Yogavasistha

Yogavasistha was compiled in longer and shorter versions over the course of several centuries, most likely from the end of the Gupta period (ca. 500 C.E.) until it reached its expanded form in Kashmir by the eleventh century.  Its philosophy combines aspects of Mahayana Buddhism with Advaita Vedanta and served as the foundation for the later school known as Emergence-through-Thought.  It was a favorite of important figures in the development of modern day Hinduism, including Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Sivananda. In chapter 62 of the Nirvana Prakarana, the final section of the 29,000 verse work, the Vedic sage Vasistha teaches the sevenfold Yoga to Sri Rama.  In this workshop we will examine these seven aspects of Yoga: disenchantment with the world; deep thinking that results in concentration, meditation, ethical behavior; non-attachment, experiencing the world as if it were no more than a dream, a state of deep peace, liberated while in the body and the final phase of dissolution and return to universal consciousness.

Christopher Key Chapple

Loyola Marymount University

Media

Biography

Education

State University of New York

Fordham University