Yoga offers us a way to meet the complexities of our times with greater clarity, compassion, steadiness, and courage. Its invitation is not to withdraw from the world, but to recognize the sacred within ourselves, within others, and within the whole of life—and then to live in ways that reflect that recognition.

The theme of this year's conference, Love in Action: Yoga for Healing Ourselves and the World, asks how the deeper teachings of yoga can help us remain engaged in our lives and in the world, even when circumstances are difficult or uncertain. The traditions remind us that inner transformation and outer transformation are not separate. The way we practice, the way we relate, the way we respond to difficulty, and the choices we make all create ripples that extend far beyond ourselves.

Renowned scholar Carlos Pomeda will guide participants through three complementary bodies of yogic wisdom: the Bhakti Sūtras, the Śiva Sūtras, and the Bhagavad Gītā. Each session offers a different doorway into the same essential inquiry: How do we recognize what is sacred, awaken to our deepest nature, and allow that recognition to shape the way we live and participate in the world?

Friday Morning | 8:30–10:00 AM - The Yoga of Love: Recognizing the Sacred

We begin with the transformative power of bhakti—the yoga of love and devotion. Drawing from the Bhakti Sūtras, Carlos will explore teachings that invite us to recognize the sacred not as something distant or separate from our lives, but as a reality that can be encountered through relationship, devotion, presence, and love.

In a world that can easily pull us toward fear, division, distraction, and disconnection, bhakti offers another possibility. It asks us to cultivate the capacity to see more deeply, to listen more fully, and to recognize the value and sacredness of life.

Through selected verses and teachings from the Bhakti Sūtras, we will explore love not simply as an emotion, but as a transformative way of perceiving and relating. When our hearts become more open and our attention becomes less contracted around the concerns of the individual self, our relationship to other people and to the world begins to change.

This session invites us to consider how recognizing the sacred can become the foundation for compassion and meaningful engagement. What might change when we begin to see our relationships, our communities, the natural world, and even the challenges we face as opportunities to practice love, presence, and awareness?

Saturday Morning | 8:30–10:00 AM - Awakening to Our True Nature

Building upon the opening exploration of love and devotion, the second session turns toward the profound teachings of the Śiva Sūtras and the Tantric recognition of consciousness as our deepest nature.

The Śiva Sūtras offer a radical invitation: rather than assuming that our ordinary limitations define who we are, we can recognize the expansive awareness that is already present within us. The practices of yoga become ways of remembering and revealing this deeper dimension of ourselves.

Carlos will explore selected sūtras and teachings that illuminate the nature of awareness, perception, freedom, and recognition. We will consider how our habitual ways of seeing can narrow our experience and how yogic practice can help us become less identified with these patterns. This recognition is not an escape from embodied life. It is an invitation to become more fully present within it.

In complex times, this teaching becomes especially relevant. We cannot always control the circumstances around us, but we can cultivate the capacity to meet them with greater awareness. As our sense of inner freedom and wholeness deepens, we may discover new possibilities for responding rather than reacting, for remaining grounded without becoming closed, and for engaging difficulty without losing our connection to what matters most.

The session asks an essential Tantric question: If our deepest nature is awareness and wholeness, how might that recognition change the way we live?

Sunday Morning | 8:30–10:00 AM - Love in Action: Yoga for a Complex World

The final session brings the teachings directly into the field of action and the challenges of contemporary life through the Bhagavad Gītā.

The Gītā begins in a moment of profound uncertainty. Arjuna is overwhelmed by the complexity of his circumstances and unsure how to move forward. His dilemma is deeply human: How do we act wisely when there are no simple answers? How do we remain engaged when the world feels difficult? How do we act without being consumed by fear, attachment, or the need to control outcomes?

Through selected verses and teachings from the Gītā, Carlos will explore yoga as a path of wise, compassionate, and wholehearted engagement. The invitation is not to retreat from life, nor to become indifferent to its difficulties, but to discover a steadiness from which we can participate more skillfully.

The Gītā teaches us to bring our practice into action—to act with integrity, to offer the fruits of our actions, to cultivate discernment, and to remain connected to something larger than our individual concerns. In this sense, love becomes action. The inner work of yoga finds its expression in how we speak, how we listen, how we treat others, how we respond to conflict, how we care for the world, and how we participate in our communities. Our practice may appear to happen on an individual level, but its effects do not stop there. Every moment of greater awareness, every compassionate response, every choice made from clarity rather than reactivity has a ripple effect.

The session concludes the three-part journey with a central question:

How can our inner practice become a force for healing—not only within ourselves, but in our relationships, our communities, and the world we share?

Together, Carlos's three sessions create a progression through three essential dimensions of yoga.

·       The Bhakti Sūtras invite us to recognize the sacred through love.

·       The Śiva Sūtras invite us to recognize our deepest nature as awareness and wholeness.

·       The Bhagavad Gītā invites us to bring that recognition into action.

This progression reflects the heart of Love in Action. We begin by opening our capacity to recognize and love; we deepen our understanding of who we are beneath our habitual patterns; and we discover how that inner recognition can guide the way we live and act.

The teachings of yoga do not ask us to wait for a perfect world before we participate in it. They invite us to become more awake within the world as it is. In times of uncertainty and complexity, our practice can help us remain present rather than withdraw, discerning rather than reactive, compassionate rather than divided, and engaged rather than overwhelmed.

The deeper invitation of yoga is to recognize the sacred, remember our true essence, and allow that recognition to shape our lives. When we transform how we meet ourselves, we transform how we meet others. When we change how we respond to the world, we contribute to changing the world. Our inner practice creates a ripple—through our relationships, our communities, and the choices we make each day. Yoga becomes love in action when our inner awakening is expressed through the way we live.

As part of your Full Conference Ticket you can attend the daily classes with Carlos

Or if you choose to you, you can attend these sessions with Carlos - in person or online.

Cost - $75 May 14-16 8:30am-10:00 am PDT (In-person or Online)