Lama Surya Das leads meditation courses and workshops all over the world. He is the most highly trained American-born lama in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition — the one branch of Buddhism to offer a complete yoga practice. The emphasis here is to work with and manipulate inner body energy via the chakras and nadis. Tibetan yoga, according to Lama Surya Das, harmonizes the masculine and the feminine, the solar and lunar energies within us all.

The setting for this 40-minute video is the mountains outside Boulder, Colorado. Lama Surya Das presents eight exercises based on the breath and meditation techniques of Tibetan energy yoga. All of these are done sitting in a cross-legged position. In his demonstrations Lama Surya Das reveals the immense infusion of vitality and pleasure he derives from these exercises for mind, body, and spirit. I especially liked the closing practice of offering yourself and all that has gone before to the universe. This effectively counters the criticism that many yoga practitioners are too absorbed in self.