Quick Facts
Apply for Fall 2022

Courses You Could Take
in Yoga Studies
Naropa University offers an educational and contemplative immersion that will make your master's degree in yoga studies truly unique. The curriculum offers a detailed training in the history, practice, and views of major lineages of yoga. This includes a critical study of yoga across diverse Indian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sufism. The curriculum also charts the emergence of the ‘non-sectarian’ practice of “haṭha yoga” and the twentieth-century flourishing of modern yoga, both postural and meditative.
In addition to this comprehensive yoga studies curriculum, Sanskrit training, and contemplative approach, two areas of specialization further distinguish the program. The first is the study of Buddhist traditions. The earliest practices and teachings of Buddhism deeply informed classical yoga. Naropa's yoga studies master's program includes an exploration of this understudied area of yoga research, and subsequent traditions of Buddhist yoga practiced in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. A second area of specialization is a comprehensive study of the yoga of tantric traditions, which is also a largely uncharted domain in the history of yoga, upon which the curriculum shines significant light.
Courses in the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies include:
The Naropa Difference
The Yoga Studies program integrates the practice of meditation drawn directly from the yogic systems of the Yogasūtra, Śaiva tantra, Haṭha yoga, and Vedānta. Inspired by Naropa’s pioneering vision for contemplative education, the practice of yogic forms of meditation is a cornerstone of this curriculum. From its inception, Naropa University has championed a holistic study of Indo-Tibetan religious traditions. This involves joining critical historical scholarship with a participatory approach that remains open to the enduring value of these teachings and spiritual disciplines.