I didn’t start practicing yoga in India, nor did I begin my studies under the tutelage of any great renunciate. I initiated my practice in much the same way most modern people do—I went to my neighborhood yoga studio and began practicing with a genuine teacher who had dedicated the last several years to intense [...]

Ever since puberty, I can’t remember a time when my appearance wasn’t on my mind. Being a teenager was all about feeling too fat, too pale, too short, or just plain not pretty enough. By the time I was 16 I realized that if I simply didn’t eat much, I’d stay thin enough to feel [...]

In the early morning hour, just before dawn, lover and beloved awake and take a drink of water.   She asks, Do you love me or yourself more? Really, tell me the absolute truth. He says, There is nothing left of me. I am like a ruby held up to the sunrise. Is it still [...]

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance. ~Confucius The postmodern yoga world is rife with controversy and conflict. At this point in time it’s common knowledge that there is discord between styles of yoga, and that even within a single tradition people harbor resentments towards other people. Bikram Choudhury is known for [...]

“Meditation does not involve discontinuing one’s relationship with oneself and looking for a better person or searching for possibilities of reforming oneself and becoming a better person. The practice of meditation is a way of continuing one’s confusion, chaos, aggression, and passion—but working with it, seeing it from the enlightened point of view. That is [...]

“And when He sees me in all and sees all in me, Then I never leave Him and He never leaves me. And He, who in this Oneness of Love Loves me in whatever he sees, Wherever He may live, In truth, He lives in me.” -The Bhagavad Gita In a recent dialogue with a [...]

© Nicholas Hlobeczy Poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes: “Try to love the questions themselves. … Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” To question is life itself. I wrote this ten years ago. And understand it more clearly [...]

Let’s start within the framework of evolutionary biology. The more hardship a species endures, the more primed for survival it is. The same can be said for our own spiritual evolution. Those of us who can endure hardship are more primed for spiritual expansion, not just survival. That’s what these practices are all about. They [...]

I’ll admit it. I’ve found myself completely appalled and disgusted by the yoga industry’s recent forays into mass marketing, branding, and rock music (hence the term “industry”). The tension of trying to stay authentic while trying to make a living is becoming more noticeably uncomfortable. My initial reaction to yoga advertising and consumerism is to [...]