Turiya Yoga Foundation

The word Turiya is a term from the Sanskrit language. It refers to the "fourth" state of human consciousness, one beyond our normal states of waking, sleeping and dreaming. This state represents our highest potential, the potential to enrich and enlighten our lives.

Turiya yoga is built upon the very special yoga teaching of its late Principal, Maaida Palmer, who developed a unique system, blending Indian Raja yoga practice with practices developed by the lama Tarthang Tulku, from the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.

Within a few months of her marriage, Maaida Palmer found herself widowed by World War II. This opened a pathway through which she explored the enigma of living. Her initial study focused on literature, art, musical appreciation and applied psychology. For a number of years she then worked closely with thinkers within the Catholic Church, before moving in the early 1960’s to yoga, which became her life’s work for the remaining thirty-five years of her life.

Maaida initially studied and taught with the Yoga Education Centre in Melbourne. After qualifying as a teacher with the Yoga Institute in Mumbai, under the strict supervision of Shri Yogendra and Sita Devi, she returned there to study a number of times. She also continued to search for further ways to deepen the experience of Western students, not schooled in the strict disciplines of traditional Indian approaches. In the late 1970s Maaida discovered the teachings of Tarthang Tulku, a lama of the Nyingma Buddhist tradition, who is based at Berkeley and at Odiyan in California. Here her research and physical practice continued, resulting in Kum Nye relaxation, a science from ancient Tibet, being woven into the teaching of the Turiya system. Thus two ancient methodologies combine into a synthesis which today characterises the Turiya system of yoga. Through such synthesis, students are able to experience a deepening appreciation of oneness with an ever expanding awareness.

In 1983, grateful students formed the Turiya Yoga Foundation, a not-for-profit company, as an entity to promote and continue the development of this special method of yoga. Turiya Schools established wherever Maaida had taught, and now operate in Victoria, Queensland and NSW.

Maaida Palmer passed away in October 1999, but, through the Turiya Yoga Foundation, its accredited teachers, and its teaching schools, her vision for the adoption of yogic philosophy in the West continues. A book of Maaida’s writing has now been published and is available for purchase.

The wealth of Turiya teaching lies in the study and observation of ourselves. Physical asana practise loosens and relaxes our bodies. Breath practice brings us closer to the life force. Mental practice opens up complex regions of the psyche. Students begin to understand the patterning which is at work in their lives. Through inner stillness students can discover mental and emotional freedom.  The Turiya form of yoga includes the physical, pranayama and meditative practices of the classical yoga path. Blended with these are the deeply relaxing movement and breath awareness practices of Kum Nye. Through a combination of these, release and relaxation can occur at a deep mental and emotional level. Turiya places particular emphasis on sadhana practice, incorporating attention and concentration, merging into the meditative state. Meditative practices form an important part of Turiya teaching. Turiya challenges the student to develop an openness of mind, and an ever increasing awareness of the world around and within.

In the tradition of Jnana yoga, Turiya teaching requires its senior students to push the bounds of understanding. External teachers have been used to challenge students at Intensive Days and Weekends and at biennial five day Symposiums. From India have come teachers of classical yoga and of Zen Buddhist practices, as well as a teacher from Father Bede Griffith’s Christian Ashram; from the USA teachers of Kum Nye relaxation and of Tarthang Tulku’s "Time, Space and Knowledge" philosophy. Transcendental psychologists, physiotherapists and music specialists have also contributed over the years to the development of a spirit of inquiry and inner growth for Turiya students.

In answer to the question "What is Yoga?" the Turiya reply is: "Yoga is an art by which it is possible to have mastery of patterns of awareness; an art by which one can become a spectator of emotions, attitudes and situations, thus relieving psychological pressures; a process by which latent potential in the sub-conscious and unconscious is brought into awareness, into the field of knowing."

Through its teaching and practice, Turiya Yoga places special emphasis on feeling and awareness. On the level of ordinary consciousness, such as in physical form and mental activities, feeling can be identified, experienced and studied, thus enabling one to become more aware. Greater awareness can then recognise subtler areas of feeling, and from here move into the calm openness which lies beneath.  Just as a stone, dropped into the quiet waters of a lake, causes ripples which move outward in ever-widening circles, so from simple body experience, awareness grows and continues to expand, increasing knowledge of the Self. This understanding increases through deep meditative stillness, and through the challenges presented by Turiya studies of both Eastern and Western forms of psychology.