“Bhakti Yoga is about the most important thing in the universe: the joy of your own soul” — Shyamdas
It turns out that my beloved Shyamdas was a saint who came and went quickly to give his gifts to humanity. …
Hello everyOne, I’ve posted here a few moments from a conversation last month. We discuss why meditation is dangerous, the role of meditation within a Yogic life, and how to fall out of the seduction of enlightenment. Thank you for looking in to these matters.
Q. I’ve often heard you…
For millennia, human cultures have known that intimate connection to one’s breath is the very means of being intimate with Life at its most fundamental level. Across world languages, we find that the words for breath and spirit are often the same, illustrating its sacred power. In Hebrew and Arabic…
We see beauty all around us: a bird in flight, a bee on a flower, the sunlight on the water, the moon in the night sky. And then the mind tries to capture it, savour it, and repeat it.
Have you ever noticed that when the mind tries to capture…
One of the silver linings of the corona virus pandemic is that the world has become more attuned to how we breathe. …
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya’s life represents a bridge between ancient past and modern present. Born in 1888 and dying only recently in 1989, he was the vehicle by which the physical wisdom practices of Yoga entered modern India and then the world.
After spending seven and a half years at Mount Kailash…
TKV Desikachar on T. Krishnamacharya
In 1995, when Desikachar’s book The Heart of Yoga was published, we did a series of interviews in New Zealand in which Desikachar spoke at length about his father’s life and approach to teaching.
Desikachar described his father, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), as an extraordinary person…
On what are the Yogas of Participation, the difference between temple religion and Yoga, how to practice without seeking, and the historic roots and dangers of motivated celibacy.
“Eternity is in love with the productions of Time.” — William Blake
Real Yoga is each person’s searchless and direct embrace of…
We may not have asked for this gig, but it is what we have been given: the deepening climate crisis, a global pandemic, and the epidemics of fear, racism, anxiety and mental illness that divide our communities. …
The term parampara is a beautiful word that refers to the passing of wisdom-knowledge from one teacher to the next through history. The word implies a continuous, unbroken transmission of learning; an uninterrupted sequence or thread. The gifts of indigenous wisdom cultures move along these precious lines.
In Yoga, parampara…
Mark Whitwell
Mark Whitwell has worked as a Yoga teacher around the world for the last 45 years, and is the author of four books on Yoga. https://www.heartofyoga.com/blog/
