Beryl Bender is a philosopher, an animal and environmental activist, and the author of four books on yoga, including Power Yoga and Beyond Power Yoga. She has been practicing and teaching classical yoga and Jain and Buddhist meditation for more than 50 years. After graduating from Syracuse University with a degree in English and philosophy, she traveled to India with her spiritual teacher Munishree Chitrabhanu, a Jain monk, to study the sacred texts and spiritual paths of the Eastern wisdom traditions.  

Beryl teaches online courses in Yoga Sutra Study and Insight (Vipassana) Meditation in the Theravada tradition, and leads meditation/yoga retreats in Europe, North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. She is director of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute, and cofounder and board director emeritus of Give Back Yoga Foundation. Beryl has been on faculty teaching at Omega Institute every summer since l984. Her direct teachers over the years have included Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, and Sam Harris.

What People are Saying About Beryl Bender

"Beryl is my kind of woman, a pragmatic practitioner of yoga...someone who takes you on a spiritual and physical journey with the proper mix of realism, compassion, joy, and laughter. She is the perfect guide to help us all appreciate the rewards of yoga."
—Katie Couric