The Moon Reminded Me

In her luminous poems, Ellen Grace O’Brian manages to braid contemporary moments of everyday life with ancient spiritual teachings—the sight of a hummingbird’s red throat, bread on the table, a couple’s quarrel, a mother’s advice—become doorways into the divine mystical heart. The Moon Reminded Me, subtly laced with Sanskrit, gives us an insight into a poet who bridges two worlds eloquently enough to take us along with her. Sandhya, the numinous time for stepping into the temple, suddenly becomes this moment, now.

Ellen Grace O'Brian

Yogacharya Rev. Ellen Grace O’Brian, M.A., is a teacher, writer, and spiritual director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment (CSE) with headquarters in San Jose, California, USA. CSE is a Kriya Yoga Meditation Center serving people from all faith backgrounds who are seeking Self- and God-realization. She was ordained to teach in 1982 by Roy Eugene Davis, a direct disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda who brought Kriya Yoga from India to the West.

Yogacharya O’Brian has taught yoga philosophy and meditation practices for spiritually conscious living at retreats, spiritual centers, and conferences throughout the US and internationally for over three decades. She is the author of several books on spiritual practice published by CSE Press, including Living the Eternal Way: Spiritual Meaning and Practice in Daily Life; A Single Blade of Grass: Finding the Sacred in Everyday Life; and Living for the Sake of the Soul, as well as three volumes of poetry, One Heart Opening: Poems for the Journey of AwakeningThe Sanctuary of Belonging; and The Moon Reminded Me published by Homebound Publications. She writes regularly for Truth Journal magazine, is the editor of Enlightenment Journal, a quarterly yoga magazine, and host of The Yoga Hour, a weekly radio program and podcast with Unity Online Radio.

She is the founder and president of Meru Institute, offering certification programs, leadership training, and education in Yoga, Ayurveda, and Community Ministry since 1996 and leads Carry the Vision, a community education nonprofit organization teaching principles and practices of ahimsa to all sectors of society. Yogacharya O’Brian served as the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions and is a recipient of several community service awards including the prestigious 2015 Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism by the Hindu American Foundation. She lives in Santa Cruz, California with her husband Michael. They have three fabulous grown children and two precocious grandchildren.

Marketing & Publicity
  • Yogacharya Ellen Grace O’Brian is a spiritual teacher, poet, writer, and spiritual director of Center for Spiritual Enlightenment—a Kriya Yoga Meditation Center in San Jose, California.
  • She is editor of Enlightenment Journal and host of The Yoga Hour, a weekly podcast.
  • Publicist: Lisa Trank lisa@lisatrank.com
  • Workshops offered monthly through Center for Spiritual Enlightenment—a Kriya Yoga Meditation Center in San Jose, California.
  • Events throughout CA, OR, WA
  • Gave a reading and talk with Khaled Hosseini at Kepler’s in Palo Alto. https://ellengraceobrian.com/literacy-of-the-heart-mystical-poetry/