In 1985, Tias began practicing yoga in the Iyengar method. In 1989, he went to Mysore South India to study Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga for six months with K. Pattabhi Jois. He returned to Mysore in 1995 completing primary, intermediate and half of the advanced series of Ashtanga Yoga. Since 1992, Tias has been a long time student of Buddhist practice studying Vipassana meditation and Zen (Upaya Zen Center and Roshi Joan Halifax). He began studying Dzogchen and Mahamudra within Tibetan Buddhism in 2003 under the guidance of Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Tias currently is a student of koan study in the Rinzai school of Zen practice studying with Roshi Joan Sutherland. In 2000, Tias and his wife, Surya, founded and directed the Yoga Source studio in Santa Fe. They sold the studio in 2006, and currently they both continue to offer public classes there. Tias is author of two books: The Thread of Breath and Meditations on a Dewdrop.