The Heart of Yoga

Producer, creator, model, Yoga and Qi Gong teacher, and advocate for empowered aging and beauty at all ages, Karen Williams joins Mark from New York City to talk yoga, healing, transforming attitudes to aging, embracing difference and emotionally surviving the US elections. Karen Williams is equally at home in front of or behind the camera. She is on a mission to revitalise global attitudes toward aging and embodiment, sharing the obvious truth that each one of us is already the beauty of life. A resident of New York City, Karen is leading the way to a society of love and compassion. Her most recent major project was the ‘I AM’ series, a digital project to celebrate and empower women over 40, have a look HERE. How Karen and Mark met at J Krishnamurti's home in Ojai, California Each person as participant in their own healing and what we need to tap into our own healing powers How our subtle energy and intuitive abilities communicate without words The yogic shift from embracing beauty to knowing you ARE the beauty The power of the breath to come home into your body and emotions - no matter who you are, no matter where you are at physically. Her experiences sharing yoga in the traditional one-to-one way as part of holistic caring, not as a career. The process of accepting yourself and the "feast" of your own life Can we bring wisdom culture to spaces like the beauty industry? Reflections from either side of the camera. The impact of phrases like “anti-aging” on our psyche – dealing with the world’s corrupted age ideals and taking leadership on ageism. The return to love as an urgent world matter, the need to treat each person with respect The US elections and how to go forward Meeting Bob Marley A visualization to release ancestral trauma Connect with Karen @ksewilliams on Instagram. Subscribe to this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

From dark times in Europe through to personal victory. Croatian yoga teacher Domagoj Orlić joins Mark and Rosalind to speak about his twenty-year friendship with Mark, his evolution from a gymnast to a yogi, the influence of J Krishnamurti, and the confluence of Sri Vidya and yoga in his life. What a precious conversation with a dear friend and holder of yoga. “Powerful peace and peaceful power of a life lived straight from the Heart, for the Heart.” - Domagoj Orlić Domagoj Orlić first met Mark Whitwell in about 2000, following an interest in yoga since his teenage years. He is a yoga teacher in the traditional mode of “no more than a friend, no less than a friend,” the author of multiple books on yoga and philosophy in Croatian and English, the translator into Croatian of ‘Yoga of Heart’, and ‘The Promise’, an artist of yantra, and an accomplished martial artist. Teaching yoga as experienced by yourself and adapting it to individual needs of students How Domagoj came to discover the book, The Heart of Yoga, and how it completely changed his yoga experiments The development of a beautiful friendship across the world in the early days of Internet Why Desikachar was upset when "The Heart of Yoga" book was published What does it mean for a student to be "inexpensive" to a teacher Can teaching really be without hierarchy, just as friendship? How the intervention of yoga into Domagoj's life lifted off the karmas of Europe and hardships in his life Discovering J Krishnamurti and re-discovering freedom Why he gave up the idea of pursuing his spiritual life in isolation Cleansing the doors of perception... The process of yoga really entering into the body and how patience is required His release from the fixation on the form and softening of his yoga practice The realization of how life supports yoga and vice versa and the role of breath in this How Domagoj taught his Catholic mother to embrace and practice yoga Why being a yoga teacher is the highest - and possibly the hardest - occupation in the world You can learn more about Domagoj on his Facebook. Subscribe to this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

This week we are so very glad to welcome Richard Schechner, who is a director, pioneer and founder in the field of performance studies, author of innumerable books, Professor Emeritus at New York University, editor of The Drama Review, and… a dedicated practitioner of the yoga he learned from his teacher, T. Krishnamacharya, in Chennai (then Madras) in 1971-72. What a blessing to talk life and India with this great thinker, who also happens to be a holder of the torch of yoga. In this episode, Mark, Rosalind and Richard discuss: How Richard came to study Krishnamacharya in the 1970s Why he doesn't belong to any one tradition, religion or tribe but rather sincerely combines their principles The power of ritual and why being precedes meaning The importance and paradox of "not-that-ness" and opening of infinite possibilities Richard's meticulous notebooks, including Krishnamacharya’s direct words during lessons, recorded word-for-word Krishnamacharya's impact on Richard's entire life, and the surprise of being asked to teach The relationship between performance studies and yoga, and how they serve one another The neverending student status in our lives and how we know teaching goes well Person-to-person transmission of knowledge vs. knowledge gathered from books Can you solve a material problem with immaterial means? Reframing the process of declining and getting old Is there hope for humanity? How can yoga help? Subscribe to this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

In this episode, Rosalind takes the position of the everywoman yoga teacher, interviewing Mark on a lot of the questions and concerns people have as yoga teachers in our modern yoga scene. Rosalind and Mark discuss: The initial habit to put teachers on a pedestal and how we undermine it. What is “the Mick Jagger effect”? Dealing with embarrassment of being associated with the ‘yoga industrial complex’ and fear of not being able to give people what they have been led to believe yoga is. Do people really want their breath? Do they want intimacy? Or just stimulation? Toxic positivity and "yoga speak" in the yoga industry What is the “yoga teaching voice”? What does it mean for a yoga teacher to be ‘vulnerable’? Is charging for your yoga classes bad? Should you leave your day job to become a full-time yoga teacher? Nerves and feeling like a fraud as a teacher and how to deal with such feelings. Adjustments: What is going on in adjustment culture and where to go from here. Do I have to know all the asanas and amass "expert" knowledge in order to teach yoga? Subscribe to this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

In this episode of The Heart of Yoga podcast, Mark and Andrew discuss: The relationship between Yoga and autonomy: empowerment, ideologies, and power structures Becoming your true Self and the role of culture in that process The acknowledgement of the teacher intervention in Yoga The teacher in Yoga: not a social, nor personal identity, but rather the force of Mother Nature's nurturing and local community The indoctrinated need for authority and how we can get free of it Yoga as a tool for lifting preconditioned patterns How Yoga empowers social activism The role of patience in yoga student-teacher relationship Deprogramming yourself into your true Self and into being One The colonial vulgar denial of the feminine in Yoga Subscribe to this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

God and Sex: Perhaps the two most powerful and loaded words in the English language. This book is a serious, yet not humourless, stake in the ground for bringing the two words together in their intrinsic harmony as the creative force of life. Why a few publishers were frightened by the title “God and Sex” How sex has been vulgarized by religious culture and the burden of pornography How, by separating the concepts of God and Sex, humanity has made both of them useless, and created the whole Sex taboo in the first place Post-religious shock syndrome and how the idea of God has been used as a power mechanism The union of opposites and how they empower each other, whether in opposite or same-sex intimacy How the yogas of participation in reality have been stripped away from humanity and replaced with control and self-destructive male strength Reality Realisers in different cultures throughout human history and their relationship with Yoga What's the problem of thinking about spirituality like a very sexless thing? Why positive sexuality is one of the “lost wonders of the world” Why tantra and yoga weren’t used as words in this book The role of a book in spiritual practice and the trap of intellectualizing yoga practice Positive cultural criticism and its role in the unlearning process Why J Krishnamurti denounced yoga publicly, but kept the practice privately Transcending genre expectations: relationships and philosophy as one Do you have to give up your religion to practice yoga and embrace your sexual nature? Why sexuality is the heart's and God's activity You can find this book on Amazon here. Subscribe to this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

In today’s episode, Mark interviews Litiana Lagibalavu, a yoga teacher, entrepreneur, lawyer in training, Indigenous Fijian, and a fierce activist philosopher building essential bridges between the ancient traditions of yoga and modern people of all kinds. She shares her story, her observations on teaching yoga in Fiji, and her journey into Yoga: Why she got interested in yoga in the first place and how it helped her find herself again The limitations of her own individual yoga training at the time and why she came to the Heart of yoga teacher (un)training on Taveuni If I’m raised Christian, can I do yoga? How can I teach devout Christians? Her "mystical" trip to Israel, and how it changed her relationship with the church Yoga as the practical means of actualizing the ideals of faith How practicing yoga transforms personal relationships Escaping religious fundamentalism and the banality of modern lifestyles and re-patterning herself to directly experience the beauty of life Experience of teaching yoga to people of a vast variety of backgrounds and lifestyles Building bridges of tolerance, understanding and authenticity in Fiji Connect with Litiana @yoganesian on Instagram or Facebook, or practice with her and Mark inside our “Yoga for Activists” online course. Subscribe to this podcast for new episodes here: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS/XML If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Breath is our direct participation in the power of the cosmos that you are. It is the central feature and even the purpose of asana, and yet is all but lost in much modern yoga. Breath is given lip service rather than careful engagement. Yet public attention is now turning to the power and healing potential of that overlooked miracle, our own breath. “If you can breathe, you can do Yoga!” Breath is the link between body and mind. Our body loves its breath and the inhale loves the exhale and vice versa. In this episode, Rosalind and Mark explore the power of the breath in yoga: How and why to make breath become the whole point of āsana practice Our breath as the means to participate in Reality, feel alive, and become intimate with life as it actually is Yoga breath and movement: why the body movement IS the breath movement Reflections on first arriving in the US yoga scene in the 90s and what was going on Breath as the mirror of our emotional states All about the ujjayi breath and why the inhale is so compromised all around the world Your yoga sadhana as a response to inspiration The chasm in modern yoga: practice vs. ideals Discussion on ‘breathwork’ and why pranayama needs asana first Breath as the guru to the asana and the reliable gauge of our safety If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

T.K.V. Desikachar left us a vast wealth of practical knowledge about life and yoga by passing the precious jewels of wisdom from his father, Krishnamacharya. We continue to receive the gifts of Desikachar’s dedication to his father Krishnamacharya’s teachings and their friendships with Jiddu and UG Krishnamurti. Mark Whitwell first met Desikachar and his father in 1973, following extensive travels in India. He had met many gurus and yogis, but was struck by the fact that Desikachar and his family had no pomp and ceremony, no business agenda, and no need for name or fame around their scholarship. Desikachar became Mark’s yoga teacher, a friend, a true pioneer — a caring human being who attained ordinariness. Mark reflects on Desikachar as a very human friend and his relationships with the Krishnamurti in India, Saanen, and New Zealand. In this episode, Rosalind interviews Mark on T.K.V. Desikachar and his influential friendships: Desikachar's relationship with Krishnamacharya and why Desikachar was at first a reluctant student of yoga How J Krishnamurti escaped the path of a “chosen world leader” and how he became Desikachar’s most famous student, and why he stopped studying with Iyengar The importance in Desikachar's life of both Krishnamurtis and how these friendships clarified Yoga for Mark Attaining ordinariness — why ordinary is actually extraordinary Remembering Desikachar's attitude of respect, humility, and learning attitude to life Memories of Mark organising Desikachar’s visit to Aotearoa New Zealand and hosting a workshop on a marae on the North Shore Desikachar’s deep love for UG Krishnamurti, and how human affection, love, and friendship are primary ingredients to any Yoga learning relationship The importance of Saanen, Switzerland as a hub for Yoga to enter the West UG Krishnamurti’s Yoga studies with Krishnamacharya What is "the nostril-holding arrogance of the yogis”? If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

Mark Whitwell has been teaching yoga around the world ever since he first met his yoga teachers, T.K.V. Desikachar and his father T. Krishnamacharya, in Chennai in 1973. He realised straight away that our body loves its breath, the inhale loves the exhale and vice versa, and that yoga is an immensely practical and useful tool for everyone to respond to inspiration and grace. The Heart of Yoga is the result of these precious meetings. In this opening podcast episode, Rosalind Atkinson interviews Mark about the origins and purpose of the heart of yoga: What is the heart and the philosophy behind the Heart of Yoga? What is Yoga all about? What is the purpose and background of yoga? Why Yoga is all about relationship, a practice of intimacy and love Mark’s relationship with his teachers and the story of Desikachar’s book, ‘The Heart of Yoga.’ What went wrong in the translation of yoga to the west The benefits of Yoga practice and the risks of becoming a "bliss junkie" Krishnamacharya and what makes Yoga practice ‘Tantric’ How Yoga helped one nun "stop arguing with the Pope" The Yoga teacher-student relationship as an intimate friendship, act of grace, and gift of life If you feel moved to submit a question for a future episode, you can do so here: https://www.heartofyoga.com/podcast You can find more from Mark and the Heart of Yoga on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.