The fundamental problem for humanity isn’t any of the things we commonly fight over. The problem, if we’re courageous enough to look at it, is that every last one of us suffers from a broken heart.
I don’t care how fortunate your situation in life appears to be or how much...
Most asana classes conclude with savasana, aka “corpse pose.” In it, we lie on our backs with eyes closed, muscles absolutely relaxed, breath quieting nearly to the point of cessation.
Easy, right? Not always … when I gaze out over the class during final savasana,...
In my previous post, I alluded to my teacher’s statement that receiving the answers to life’s “big questions” is bound to disappoint. Not long after I shared that post, I came across a reel of the contemporary teacher Adyashanti talking about essentially the same...
Once, in a satsang, I asked one of my teachers, “Will we ever get the answers to the ‘big questions?’”
His answer: “Yes, but they will disappoint you.”
As someone who had long equated “enlightenment” with bliss, paranormal experiences and...
Kundalini looms large in the imagination of the casual yogi, as though it’s some kind of mystical beast that one can either ride successfully or be incinerated by. (We Westerners do love a hero story, especially when the hero is us.) Kundalini Shakti usually is conceptualized as the...
The ego doesn’t actually exist. That is, it’s not anything you can point to as a discrete “thing.” Nonetheless, we treat it like one; that’s because the human brain evolved to operate in the physical world, so its most basic processing requires it to refer to...
Another day … another avalanche of beautiful “yoga” bodies and “you are special” memes in my Instagram feed. Apologies if I sound like a bit of a crank, but I’m beginning to wonder if part of my mission here isn’t to temper some of the...
One of the core tenets of Yoga Ignition is that in order to get the most out of yoga, you need a personal practice that takes precedence over whatever classes you take in the studio. Studio classes are valuable, of course, but they are often limited only to asana.
Your personal practice, on...
One of my teachers asked me, “What do you want?” At first I thought it was a trick question. “In what context?” I demanded. “I need some parameters.” But he just repeated the question. After thinking a bit, and hoping to comes across as a Very Serious Yogi, I...
It’s a good bet that ad man Dan Wieden wasn’t thinking of Patanjali when, in 1988, he coined one of the most famous slogans of all time for a shoe company in Oregon: three short words that we now automatically associate with world class athletic performance.
Just do it.
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Typically when somebody says “I do yoga,” they mean that they attend asana classes in a studio or perhaps take them privately or online. They also may sit for meditation and practice pranayama at home — even better. But I’ve met few who maintain a dedicated, comprehensive,...
The other day on social media, I came across a beautiful photo of a man in a difficult version of ustrasana1. He was curved all the way over, with the crown of his head nearly touching his toes behind him; his arms were intertwined, reaching skyward. Over the photo someone had superimposed the...
