School for Good Living: Dharma and Deep Human Connection Podcast
Stephen Cope’s training, career, and beliefs have gone through a vast array of changes: he was a psychotherapist, pianist, and professional dancer. He was at different times a Protestant, a Presbyterian, a Quaker, and a Buddhist. When he took what he had planned to be a three-month sabbatical from his psychotherapy practice to immerse himself in yoga, he discovered that he wanted to stay. Less than a year later, he [...]
Art of Manliness Podcast: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling
From the Art of Manliness description: One of the most burning questions in life is what it is you're called to do with it. What is your life's purpose? What great work are you meant to do? Guidance on this question can come from many sources, and my guest today says that one of the best is the Bhagavad Gita, a text of Hindu scripture thousands of years old. He's [...]
‘Science Meets Yoga’ from The Amherst College Alumni Magazine
Stephen Cope ’71 can hardly get down the hallway without someone homing in for a bear hug. Granted, colleagues see him less now that he’s emeritus: for 30 years, Cope was the scholar-in-residence here at Kripalu, the renowned yoga retreat in Stockbridge, Mass. As the hugs keep coming, so many people—yoga instructors, cooks, landscapers, administrators—freely tell me that they love Steve, that he is special, that he is the soul [...]
SOUL FRIENDS has now become DEEP HUMAN CONNECTION
Dear friends and readers, Guess what? SOUL FRIENDS has now become DEEP HUMAN CONNECTION. You may notice that the paperback edition of Soul Friends is being published on March 26, 2019, as Deep Human Connection. Why? Well, after Soul Friends had been in the marketplace for a couple of years, I decided to do a fairly significant edit of the book in order to streamline some of its more technical [...]
Stephen Cope: Soul Friends (Kripalu Video)
Kripalu Scholar-in-Residence Stephen Cope explains how our deepest friendships help create who we are.
Quotes by Stephen Cope
Published by GoodReads ~ “Quoting from Thomas Merton Dialogues With Silence The true contemplative is not one who prepares his mind for a particular message that he wants or expects to hear, but is one who remains empty because he knows that he can never expect to anticipate the words that will transform his darkness into light. He does not even anticipate a special kind of transformation. He does not [...]
Stephen Cope: The Path of Action (Kripalu Video)
Kripalu Scholar-in-Residence Stephen Cope offers an understanding of Karma Yoga, the Path of Action, as described in the Bhagavad Gita. The Path of Action offers a road map for living a spiritual life in the world.
Soul Friends with Stephen Cope
Presented by LiveHappy.com ~ Stephen Cope is a Senior Scholar-in-Residence and a Kripalu Ambassador. He is a Western-trained psychotherapist who writes and teaches about the relationship between Western psychological paradigms and the Eastern contemplative traditions. In its 25th anniversary edition, Yoga Journal named him one of the most important innovators in the developing field of American yoga. Listen at LiveHappy.com
Page Turners: Holistic Book Reviews – The Wisdom Of Yoga By Stephen Cope
By Amanda Penn - Published in Basmati ~ Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov If you practice yoga, you’ve likely heard of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, a foundational text of classical yoga philosophy. Maybe you’ve even read it. If you have, you’ve encountered a collection of densely packed aphorisms that appears deceptively simple. However, the Sutras’ brevity also adds to its occasional impenetrability. Patanjali wrote the text for his peers, advanced yogis who didn’t need the practice of every yama and niyama spelled out for them. Today, [...]
6 Friends You Need in Your Life (Including the ones you try to avoid)
By Carolee Belkin Walker - Published by Thrive Global ~ I invited a friend of a friend to join me for a panel at the Washington Post on innovations shaping our food system. She's a food blogger, I'd remembered, and we follow each other on Instagram. "This looks really interesting!" she responded quickly. "Thanks for thinking of me!" We met up a few blocks from the Post's headquarters so we'd have time to [...]
Kripalu’s Stephen Cope on Yoga, Friendship and Conscious Community
By Nancy Fernandez Mills - Presented by Berkshire Wellness Radio ~ Yogi Stephen Cope, MSW, is a rock star at at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. During his almost 30-year tenure he’s been a leader in its transformation from a large ashram led by a popular guru into a lifelong learning center for adults seeking wellness and wisdom. Cope is a Senior Scholar-in-Residence and Kripalu Ambassador, an inspiring [...]
6 Kinds of Relationships We All Need
By Stephen Cope ~ In the aftermath of World War II, a brilliant student of Sigmund Freud made significant advances in the understanding of human development—advances which at the time appeared so radical that they would finally cause him to split with Freud, the master. Dr. Heinz Kohut (1913 – 1981) was an Austrian-born psychoanalyst who rose to prominence as the head of the prestigious Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis. Kohut [...]
Soul Friends
By Stephen Cope - Published by Kripalu ~ Here’s a challenge for you: Could you easily name the dozen people with whom you have most deeply connected in this lifetime? Most likely you could. If asked, I think that most of us could quickly come up with a fairly accurate list of the ten or twelve or fifteen people who have who have touched us most deeply, and whom we [...]
Reading Stephen Cope
By Anne Heffron ~ Photo by Alice Hampson Everything happens for a reason. I believe this statement because I like my life better when I do. I have taught in prisons and I have a sense of what my life might be like if I lived in one, and I am pretty sure I would go Reservoir Dogs on the world if all the stuff I’ve dealt with in my [...]
Film: A Small Good Thing (2015)
"So, what does it take to live a good life?" A Small Good Thing is a feature film directed by Pamela Tanner Boll that explores what it takes to live a good life at the beginning of this new century. The film follows six people—one of which is Stephen Cope—who, despite economic concerns and high levels of stress, have found more meaning in their lives, a closer bond with their families [...]
Review: The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling by Stephen Cope
By Amy Weintraub - Published by LifeForce Yoga “You cannot steer your dharma with the vehicle of self-will—the will of the small “s” self.” – Stephen Cope, The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling Do not read The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope, if you are not prepared to re-examine your life. I reviewed this book in the LifeForce Yoga Research and [...]
Stephen Cope: Yoga and Psychological Health
By Tami Simon - Presented by Sounds True ~ Tami Simon speaks with Stephen Cope, a psychotherapist who studies the relationship between Western psychology and Eastern contemplative traditions. Stephen is the founder and director of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living, the largest yoga research institute in the West. With Sounds True, he has created the audio program Yoga for Emotional Flow: Free Your Emotions through Yoga Breathing, Body Awareness, and Energetic [...]
The Gift: Living a Life of Purpose and Meaning
By Stephen Cope ~ Psychotherapist and yoga teacher Stephen Cope’s new book The Great Work of Your Life challenges us to find our true purpose in life, which he believes all of us can achieve. Here, he gives a taste of the struggle and payoff that comes with seeking to find and cultivate our unique gift. Here is a question I’d like you to ponder: Do you have a clear sense of [...]
Stephen Cope Changed My Life. He Might Change Yours, Too.
By Bob Weisenberg - Published in Elephant Journal ~ Put away your yellow highlighter when you read a Stephen Cope book. You’ll find yourself marking almost every sentence. The whole book will be yellow. Seven years ago I was happily retired, largely unacquainted with yoga, when I happened upon a book by Stephen Cope called Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. I knew right away that my life would never [...]
The Great Work of Your Life: A Guide for the Journey of Your True Calling
By Stephen Cope - Published by Kripalu ~ I see my own concerns about fulfillment played out nearly every day of my professional life. I work at one of the biggest holistic retreat centers in America—Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. We see more than 35,000 people a year here in our sprawling, former-Jesuit monastery perched high up in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts. Our guests come for various [...]
How To Live an Extraordinary Life. ~ Kripalu’s Stephen Cope
by Bob Weisenberg - Published by Elephant Journal I don’t believe in gurus. But if I did, my guru would be Stephen Cope. When I read Stephen’s startlingly good Yoga and the Quest for the True Self about six years ago, I knew right away that it would change my life forever. I have been deeply immersed in thinking, writing and breathing Yoga philosophy ever since. Stephen Cope, MSW, psychotherapist and senior [...]
Yoga Journal Interviews Stephen Cope: A Life Less Ordinary
By Diane Anderson - Published in Yoga Journal ~ Yoga Journal interviews Stephen Cope, founder and director of Kripalu's Institute for Extraordinary Living. Stephen Cope trained to be an Episcopalian priest and practiced for many years as a psychotherapist. He now teaches yoga and yoga philosophy at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. He is also the director of its 13-person Institute for Extraordinary Living, which researches [...]
The Wisdom of Yoga: The Spirit of the Strivers
By Stephen Cope - Published by Kripalu ~ In his book, The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Wisdom, Stephen Cope investigates the wisdom tradition of yoga from the point of view of six contemporary characters—modern yogis struggling with issues of love, work, addictions, careers, and unfulfilled longings of many varieties. Weaving together narrative story and expository teachings, the book brings alive the rich, and very relevant, applications of yoga’s [...]
Stephen Cope in Boomers Show (Episode 107)
Stephen Cope recalls the story of how he changed his life, arrived at Kripalu and found his calling.
Waking Up Is Hard to Do
By Stephen Cope - Published by Kripalu ~ The following excerpt is taken from Stephen Cope’s well-known book, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. In it, he guides the contemporary reader through the philosophies and practices of yoga in a thoughtful way that demystifies them and brings us to a greater understanding of ourselves. You see, I want a lot. Perhaps I want everything the darkness that comes with every infinite fall [...]
