Christopher Wallis, known globally as Hareesh, is a world-renowned scholar-practitioner with over thirty years experience. Initiated into the practice of yogic meditation at sixteen his studies have earned him a B.A. in Religion and Classics from the University of Rochester, an M.A. in Sanskrit from U.C. Berkeley, an M.Phil. in Classical Indian Religions from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from U.C. Berkeley.

Additionally, he received traditional education at yoga āshrams in India upstate New York training in meditation, mantra-science, kīrtan, karma-yoga, and pedagogy.

He is the author of, Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition and The Recognition Sutras: Illuminating a 1,000-year-old Spiritual Masterpiece.”

“I first discovered the Pratyabhijña-hrdayam, or the heart of the teaching of recognition, over three decades ago. I was seventeen years old, standing beside the front desk of the Siddha Yoga Meditation Center in Seattle and intruigued by this book with its ridiculously long Sanskrit title.

I received my first coherant explanation of the text from Swamini Chidvilasananda who gave me a sense of the works profundity and importance. Subsquently I heard talks from Sally Kempton (then Swarmini Durganada), as well as Paul Muller-Ortega, my first mentor and best model for being a scholar practitioner.

For my scholarly understanding of the text I am deeply indebted to the most acomplished living scholar of Shivism, Alexis Sanderson, Professor emeritus of All Souls College at Oxford University. It is not an exaguration to say that much of whatever merit exists in my translation of Ksemaraja’s words is due to Sanderson’s patient tutorage, while its faults are mine alone.

Humble acknowledgements to the great Kula Masters who revealed the Recognition Sutras; Mahamahopadhyaya Rajanaka Ksemaraja, the King of Contentment, holder of the Trika and Krama lineages, and to his guru, Mahamahopadhyaya Rajanaka Abhinava Gupta, and to all the other masters of those lineages, who were both fully awake and embodied. May we follow their light filled footsteps.”

“Hareesh (has) planted a seed of hope that the world is a loving place and showed me how to tap into this loving energy. Silence, stillness, and deep breathing are now a vital part of my everyday life. I thank Hareesh for this.”

“Only at the feet of a few High Lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition have I ever felt something similar to what happens when I watch and hear Christopher Wallis, (Hareesh) speak.”

“Christopher Wallis is a gifted scholar. This course skillfully unpacks one of the key texts of yogic wisdom, and does so with thoroughness, insight and depth.”

~ Current Students

“With this new work, Wallis is offering Oxford-quality Sanskrit education in sutra-sized chunks made for walking.

His ear for poetry and paradox means that he doesn't sacrifice accuracy for inspiration. Somehow he renders the bitter ascetic verses precisely, but sweetened with the Tantric mood of his personal path.

~ Matthew Remski, Author Threads of Yoga