Philosophy classes in LA
13 studios offer philosophy across Los Angeles, choose by feel, not by spreadsheet.
13 studios found
13 Philosophy studios in Los Angeles
Traditional Shiva Yoga
A philosophy-forward studio rooted in the traditional practice of yoga, with no mirrors or music and a strong YTT program.
Ashtanga Ashtanga Yoga Long Beach
A traditional Mysore-style programme in the Krishnamacharya lineage, taught by Aimee Echo. You arrive any time in the morning window and work your own practice with the teacher moving between students. Guided Active Series runs Monday and Wednesday, guided Primary on Sundays with a Yoga Study session after it, and the shala rests on the new and full moons. Its website now carries the name Community Yoga Club, which it calls the home of Ashtanga Yoga Long Beach.
Iyengar BKS Iyengar Yoga Institute of Los Angeles
The non-profit Iyengar institute for Los Angeles, on Washington Boulevard, with a daily schedule split between studio, online and hybrid classes. Every class is taught by a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, so the instruction is hands-on and the props do a lot of the work. Alongside the timetable it runs workshops, teacher training and the local Iyengar association. Enter through the parking lot at the back.
Meditation Diamond Way Buddhist Center Los Angeles North
A lay Buddhist centre in the Karma Kagyu tradition, run by volunteers out of a house on Valley Vista. The public meditation programme is the way in for newcomers, with talks and special events alongside. A meditation centre rather than a yoga room, and no asana on the schedule.
Flow practiceALTADENA
A room-temperature studio on Lake Avenue whose sessions are named rather than graded, flow, rest, a half-and-half flow-then-rest, an alignment workshop class, a philosophy-and-drills class called yoke, and a seated pranayama and meditation sit. All are open to every level and mats and props are free to borrow. Pricing is a two-tier sliding scale, Phoenix or Patron, that the studio asks you to choose by financial capacity after the fire, with a lower supported rate on marked sessions and community rates for students, teachers, essential workers and veterans on request. The studio publishes its post-fire remediation in detail: full attic and HVAC remediation, walls sanded and resealed, donated replacement mats and props, a continuously running air-quality monitor, and classes cancelled if readings are unsafe. Contact is by email; there is no phone line.
Meditation Self-Realization Fellowship Glendale Temple
The Fellowship's Glendale temple, a striking mid-century building on Chevy Chase Drive with a roof that sweeps up like a sail. Sunday and meditation services, Sunday school, and teen and young-adult programmes, more of a congregation than a drop-in room, and welcoming to first-timers.
Meditation Self-Realization Fellowship Hollywood Temple
One of Paramahansa Yogananda's own temples, on Sunset near Vermont and running since the 1940s. The practice here is Kriya-lineage meditation rather than asana. Sunday services, meditation services, and a bookroom selling the Fellowship's texts. Open to anyone; no experience assumed and nothing to sign up for before you arrive.
Meditation Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine
Ten acres of spring-fed lake and gardens off Sunset, with a windmill chapel, a houseboat and a temple up the hill. The most-visited of the Fellowship's LA sites and as much a garden as a centre. Meditation services and Sunday services run in the temple; the grounds are the reason most people come. Visits are by reservation, so book before you drive out.
Traditional Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center Los Angeles
Classical Sivananda practice, seven days a week, from a Broadway suite sixteen blocks from the beach. The all-levels class is a full 90 minutes (breathing exercises, sun salutations, the twelve basic postures and a long final relaxation), with a shorter gentle class for anyone who wants more warm-up and shorter holds. Daily satsang of meditation and chanting is free and open to everyone, and the centre also runs teacher training, meditation and positive-thinking courses, yoga therapy and Ayurveda. Classes are offered in person and online; pre-registration is expected and there is a dress code.
Restorative Studio Om
A volunteer-run 501(c)(3) lounge studio in University Park, built around four evening sessions a week instead of a daily timetable: After-Work Reset on Tuesday, Deep Sleep Reset with a sound bath on Wednesday, Social Reset with a community dinner on Thursday, and Slow Reset with restorative practice and kirtan on Sunday. The yoga is gentle and beginner-friendly, sessions are $20, and booking ahead is required because groups are capped at about 10 to 12.
Meditation Vedic Yoga and Meditation
Not a drop-in studio in the usual sense: this is the Swadharma Ashram, an ashram, Ayurveda clinic and college on Kenwood Street that dates its founding to 1901, with a Vedic Yoga studio inside it. The yoga taught is Swadharma Kriya Yoga alongside Sanskrit, Vedic philosophy and Jyotisha, and the same address offers Ayurvedic therapies and consultations. Sound baths, a women's circle and teacher trainings are on the public calendar. Come for the tradition and the study, not for a vinyasa class.
Kundalini Veritas Yoga
A Kundalini-led studio in the Malibu Country Mart, where the kriyas come with breathwork, mantra and a gong rather than a mirror. The schedule also carries sound healing, yin, a dharma class, morning sadhana and a power class, plus surf yoga when the ocean cooperates, and there is an online studio for practising away from Malibu.
Flow Yoga108
A downtown Long Beach studio built around Bhakti principles, with a free kirtan on the first and third Thursdays of the month. Infrared heat, vinyasa and fitness classes fill the timetable, with workshops, trainings and retreats on top.