Mark Whitwell

Here is the problem: when mankind invented the written word, he simultaneously invented doctrine. Suddenly, yogic experiences of freedom were turned into ideas and abstractions written in text. The idea of enlightenment, for example; or the idea of God-realization. Presented with the sublime poetry of religious text the public was seduced into the pursuit of exalted, abstract states of being. For thousands of years, the ‘ordinary’ life has been denied in the name of a future possibility. Our lives today remain haunted by spiritual abstractions. We all are trying to become like the Buddha; or we are trying to approximate God-realization as expressed in text; or we read about meditation and inner peace and so we try and meditate and attain what has been described. We are miserable within the idea that we are not measuring up to an imagined standard. Humanity is caught in a desperate struggle within their belief systems. In Yoga, the understanding is that these sublime human possibilities...

For many years I met with my teacher Desikachar at his home in Chennai. At each meeting, he would instruct me on how to practice asana as participation in breath. He would emphasize that the breath is not a supplement to the asana , but the very purpose of the physical movement itself. The body movement is for the breath movement. Every time I lost contact with my inhale or exhale, he would gently bring me back. Enveloped by breath, my mind settled into its source: the power and stillness of the whole body. My teacher showed me how Yoga has taken the principle of breath and turned it into a profoundly useful and healing activity. Many decades on, it is becoming common to find yogic breathing practices in our healthcare institutions and schools. Science has long since confirmed what yogis have known for millennia: that connecting breath movement with slow, rhythmic body movements has a deeply healing effect on our mental and physical health. “When we are doing the practice,” Dr. Rosali...

Yoga is intimacy with Life in every way and one of the aspects of Life is the relationship we have with somebody who is able to share with us their Yoga experience and their understanding of how to participate fully in our existence. It is a natural phenomenon. The teacher is the function of nurturing in local community and we need our teachers. The true teachers of this world are ordinary people who do not have a pathology about needing to be a teacher. Teachers are usually very questionable people. Many people become comfortable in themselves in this way, even powerful and rich. It is the game of orthodoxy. By contrast, the hallmark of a genuine teacher is that they are utterly ordinary — they have ‘attained ordinariness’ and have no identity or need to be a teacher. Theirs is a natural sharing function that arises spontaneously. If a relationship of ordinary friendship and mutual affection is not there with a teacher, then there is no teaching happening. What is taking place is the ...

When we experience trust in our relationships then that trust naturally extends outwards into all areas of life. In the Yoga tradition, the word is sraddha and it means faith. It is a siddhi (gift) that cannot be forced. When you first meet a teacher it is best to wait to see if sraddha is there. If sraddha arises then it is golden and the whole point of Yoga. As a consequence of finding trust in our teacher we discover that Life itself is something we can have faith in; that the breath is something we can have faith in. There was a time when the function of teacher was taken very sincerely. For thousands of years of the Upanishadic ages in a time before hierarchy was invented, we loved our Gurus with faith and real knowledge of what they were giving. We knew that our relationship with such women and men was our relationship to reality, God, the “all pervading” absolute condition of reality — a real relationship that suddenly or gradually draws us through the ego-bind to moksha. In th...

  One of the inherent harmonies of the cosmos is the perfect union of all opposites. Life is a union of invincible strength that is ascending and unspeakable receptivity that is descending: from the vast solar patterns of the sun, moon and stars, to the structures of the plant and animal kingdoms, right down to your own beautiful embodiment, life is at once soft and strong, giving and receiving. The union of opposites: strength and receptivity, ascent and descent, above to below, masculine and feminine, is a principle of reality that you can depend upon. So what are the implications of this fact for spiritual life? Spiritual practice, or the science of human flourishing, is about participation in reality as it actually is; that is, participation in the union of opposites. Hatha Yoga is the anciently given means by which any person can easily do this. We practice to link our mind to life at its most fundamental level. The special ingredient of hatha yoga is the breath. The strength ...