Whole Life Yoga Articles
Lessons from India – Insight at the Coconut Stand
This is one of the things I love in India, the beauty of the people, the authenticity with which people do their work. For example, one time in my early years in Mysore I needed a button sewing on a shirt. I had no needle or thread but I knew there was a tailor around the corner. I took my shirt to him. He looked at me like I was some brutish fool and indicated that I should go up the street. He was a tailor of women’s clothing, and he was not about to desecrate his self-respect by robbing custom from a gents’ tailor.
Whole Life Yoga Immersion: Review
You can recognize a good yoga workshop by the fact that its effect gradually matures in you. That's why I’ve waited until now to give my review of YOGA IMMERSION.If I had to choose one word that...
On Truth and Trauma – with reference to the Yoga Sūtra
Atha yogānuśāsanam - and now ensues yoga. So begins the Yoga Sūtra. What does yoga ensue from? From the knowing that we do not know, from the acknowledging that we are partially (and significantly)...
Yoga Immersion Q&A
Q. What brought you into yoga? A. There are many ways that I could answer this and I could write or speak at length, but to get to the heart of it: pain and desire. I was in pain, I’m a wounded...
Put Down The iPhone, Get Off The Bandwagon! Eight Yoga ‘Tips’
I was recently asked, ‘What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone just starting their yoga journey?’ I didn’t limit it to one thing, but offered thoughts along these lines. Forget about...
Practical Patañjali – March 2022
Usually when I write about the Yoga Sūtra, it is with commentary and fairly extensive illustration. When I speak about the Yoga Sūtra, I often describe the sūtra-s as being like lighthouses that...
Yoga is a Four Letter Word – a Few More Introductory Thoughts
‘Satyam eva jayate’ - truth alone prevails - so it is stated in the Mahābhārata epic. Truth and truthfulness are at the heart of the Indian tradition, and are the life pulse of yoga, the practical...
On The Longing For Village and Conversation
I am finding the lack of village more and more painful to bear, the isolation, the lack of engaged, supportive community of shared ethos. I want to live amidst people willing to witness, support,...
Life, Yoga and Contact Improvisation AND I Want to Live in a World Where People Dance on Train Station Platforms
My friend Paul, with whom I have co-taught a few times in different places, is a long-time Contact Improvisation practitioner. We have usually taught in relation to yama-niyama, the foundational...
Yoga and Sport (Part Two)
Recreation, sport, competition and competence Competition, as it is often understood these days, could be seen to go against yoga. By definition, yoga is all inclusive. It leaves nothing out. Yoga...
On The History of Yoga Āsana
A few years ago was published a book advancing a very narrow and very particular thesis on the ‘origins’ of physical yoga practice and modern āsana. In this book, the author suggests that the...
Yoga and Sport (Part One)
Haṭha yoga and sport It is important to remember that haṭha yoga is not merely a sport. However, as we shall see, it can perhaps be very helpful to consider yoga as a sport, and sport can help us...