A growing new spiritual practice combines the breathing techniques of yoga with laughter. Practitioners say it helps them achieve joy and spiritual well-being. At a laughter yoga session at Washington National Cathedral, we talk with instructor Diane Cohen, who says laughter yoga releases “that inner essence that we don’t always let out.” More →

August 26, 2016

“Yoga’s techniques and goals move in and through and outside of religion in very interesting and complex ways,” says Debra Diamond, associate curator of south and southeastern Asian art for the Smithsonian Institution’s Freer and Sackler galleries. Following its Washington debut, “Yoga: The Art of Transformation,” an exhibition on yoga in Indian art history, was at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum, and it will soon travel to the Cleveland Museum of Art for the summer. More →

May 16, 2014

What effect will the fast-growing number of American adults who say they have no religious affiliation have on traditional organized religion? More →

March 15, 2013

Maha Kumba Mela or Big Pitcher festival commemorates a story that describes the god Vishnu’s fight with demons to gain possession of a golden pitcher containing the nectar of immortality. During the battle, some drops fell to the earth on the pilgrimage sites. More →

January 18, 2013

At the central jail in Bhopal, India, the prison superintendent says a yoga program calms the jail’s atmosphere and speeds the release of inmates. More →

April 29, 2011

One of the numerous ways that people in this country try to get fit these days is through the practice of yoga. There are many different forms of this discipline, but the most commonly taught is called Iyengar. It’s named for the Indian guru B.K.S. Iyengar, who teaches that yoga has a deeply spiritual component uniting the body, mind and soul. More →

January 6, 2006

The yoga tradition goes back thousands of years, to ancient Indian philosophy and the Hindu religion. In this country, many Americans find the beginning exercises of yoga good ways to reduce stress. But lifelong practitioners also find it very much a spiritual discipline, using the most severe postures to help quiet the mind and achieve a sense of union with the transcendent. More →

October 15, 2004