Rod Stryker

Rod Stryker is one of the West's most respected teachers of yoga, meditation, and tantra — a master teacher whose journey began not in a studio, but alone in a Los Angeles apartment in 1979, with nothing but a yoga book and an unmistakable inner recognition that this practice would guide the rest of his life. Born in 1957 and raised in L.A., he spent his early adulthood as a working television actor before yoga claimed him fully. He apprenticed for two decades under the renowned master Kavi Yogiraj Mani Finger and his son Alan Finger, and in 1999 was initiated into the ancient tantric tradition of Sri Vidya by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute — making him one of only a handful of Americans authorised to teach within an unbroken, living lineage passed from teacher to student for thousands of years. From that depth of training he founded ParaYoga — renamed Tantra Yoga Alchemy in 2024 — a school linking modern students to the authentic power and spirit of the tradition, anchored by one of the most rigorous master-training programs in the yoga world. His bestselling book The Four Desires: Creating a Life of Purpose, Happiness, Prosperity, and Freedom distils tantric teachings on dharma into a practical path for designing a life of meaning, while his app, Sanctuary, brings meditation and yoga nidra — "enlightened sleep" — to practitioners of every level, with free access offered to public school teachers, survivors of trafficking, former inmates, and other communities in need. What distinguishes Stryker is his gift for making esoteric wisdom genuinely usable: he has keynoted the Aspen Ideas Festival, designed the "Find Your Mission" program for Virgin Galactic, and mentored hundreds of teachers and thousands of students worldwide — yet after nearly fifty years of practice, he still calls himself, first and foremost, a student. From his home base in Carbondale, Colorado, he continues to teach trainings and retreats around the world, offering the tantric proposition at the heart of all his work: that your life has a purpose uniquely your own, and that the ancient practices exist to help you find it and live it fully.