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 [...]

Excerpted from Parabola Spring 2012: The Burning World, by David Ulrich and Laura Dunn Recently, we collaborated on a series of classes in creativity and yoga. “Why?” — is the question we are asked frequently. Why creativity and yoga? Why would a yoga teacher and practitioner (Laura) collaborate in a series of classes with an [...]

“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 [...]

“Books are to be called for and supplied on the assumption that the process of reading is not a half-sleep; but in the highest sense an exercise, a gymnastic struggle; that the reader is to do something for himself.” —Walt Whitman A list compiled from our own thought and experience. This is not meant to be [...]

Ashtanga Books Yoga Mala, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga, Lino Miele Ashtanga Yoga: Practice & Philosophy, Gregor Maehle Ashtanga Yoga: As it Is, Matthew Sweeney Ashtanga Yoga: The Definitive Step-by-Step Guide to Dynamic Yoga, John Scott Guruji: A Portrait of Pattabhi Jois Through the Eyes of His Students, Guy Donahue & Eddie Stern Classic [...]