Dear CIHS Community Members,

The Thanksgiving season is right around the corner, and we just wanted to express our deepest gratitude to you all. Without your continued support CIHS would not exist

In this newsletter, we have two articles. First article is from our adjunct faculty, Dr. P.V. Krishna Rao. He is teaching the Hinduism course as well as Indian Philosophy courses at CIHS, and he is very active in this professional area. I hope you find the article interesting and informative. The second article is from Dr. Hope Umansky, regarding recent and future activities at CIHS. In her article, there are several announcements including our new and exciting course offering in next quarter by Dr. Lana Bettencourt and our annual New Year's gathering on Friday, January 20.

We are now preparing to announce Winter 2012 course schedule, and we are excited to announce it in the December issue. You do not need to be a CIHS student to take a course. You can experience the course as an audit. If you are interested in our courses or programs, please visit our website (www.cihs.edu) or directly contact Dr. Hope Umansky (hope_umansky@cihs.edu) for any assistance.

Thank you for your continued support in this time of growth for CIHS.

Sincerely,

Hideki Baba, Ph.D. 

 Yoga: A Psychological Perspective

 Yoga is a vast and complex topic. It is a pervasive concept in classical Indian thought and also a living tradition. Yoga in one form or the other is found embedded in many belief systems, religions and philosophies. It cannot be understood adequately without reference to the concepts of samsara, karma, reincarnation and moksha.

In ancient India a prevalent belief system was that life is full of suffering and people go through a cycle of births and deaths. The actions of a person during a lifetime, whether they are good or bad determine the life form in which one is born again. Virtuous deeds result in rebirth in higher forms of life, as living organisms or in higher class or caste as humans in the hierarchical Hindu society. Life is full of suffering because of diseases of the body and tendencies of the mind, environmental factors such as natural calamities and dangerous animals and supernatural forces and inevitable death. Thus, the ultimate aim of life, the philosophical and religious pursuits ought to be overcoming samsara, the cycle of births and deaths. Such a state is believed to be free of birth and death and suffering. The liberated state which known as moksha or nirvana or mukti. Kivalya is another word for it. The liberated state is either free of suffering and/or blissful.

Yoga is a corpus of means to attain moksha, which is the ultimate goal of life. A number of means of attaining moksha have been outlined in classical Indian philosophical and religious literature. Also, the liberated state has been described as a state in which the person is aware of the truth of the Existence, the self and the universe, which is veiled from the individual due to congenital ignorance or avidya. The liberated state is one of sat-chit-ananda (existence-awareness-bliss) or pure consciousness, depending on the philosophical position.

click here to view his full article  

Dear CIHS Community,  

It is November already. The Holidays are just around the corner, and we are beginning to plan for Winter quarter. We are also wrapping up a very exciting year of change and growth for CIHS. We are planning our annual holiday party on Friday, January 20, 2012. Everyone is welcome to join us: faculty, alumni, workshop participants, prospective students, and friends.

If you are a 2009 through 2011 alumnus, please send your Survey to me as soon as possible, if you have not already done so.

For the first time ever, CIHS has ads on various websites. We are planning to increase our visibility as much as possible. If you have a Facebook page or site and you would be willing to list us with a link and/or a small ad, please let me know. The more we grow, the more exiting things we can do academically and through workshops. We are also updating the CIHS website and bringing it into the 21st century. So, stay tuned to these exciting changes.

Additionally, I am happy to announce the addition of Dr. Lana Bettencourt to our faculty. She is a motivational speaker, counselor, and spiritual healer. She is going to teach Integral Spiritual Coaching next quarter. This can count as a core Comparative Religion and Philosophy course for spiritual education or an elective for CRP and Integral Health students. Our psychology students who are interested in life coaching will be able to take the course as an elective, Topic of Special Interest: Life Coaching. Like Dr. Swanson's course, we will be opening this class up to the larger holistic community. If you have any like-minded friends who would be interested in auditing the course, please send them my way.

We are very excited to welcome Dr. Bettencourt. She is renown for her gifts and intelligence. We also have a radio ad running on Dr. Bettencourt's radio show that we are really excited about at CIHS. You can learn more about her at www.lanabettencourt.com

Welcome Dr. Bettencourt!

Registration for Winter quarter begins December 13-17. The Winter quarter begins January 3. We will be announcing the Winter course offerings the first week of December. If you would like to schedule a time with me in person or by phone to discuss your program, I am happy to do that. Please do not hesitate to email me with any questions.

As always, we are looking for like-minded individuals to join our learning community as graduate students or in workshops. If you have any questions about our programs, please email me at Hope_Umansky@cihs.edu

Happy November!

Sincerely,
Hope Umansky, PhD

Dean of Academic Affairs & Administration

Hope_Umansky@cihs.edu