Keep the Method, Lose the Throne
Ashtanga’s method is a gift; the guru-centric machinery is optional. I didn’t just say so — I built the self-owned platform that unbolts one from the other.
Ashtanga’s method is a gift; the guru-centric machinery is optional. I didn’t just say so — I built the self-owned platform that unbolts one from the other.
It’s about telling the truth about your mood without turning it into a lifelong identity—or a daily beatdown.
I ran a values audit on myself and didn’t like how cheap talk is. So instead of posting that practitioners should be able to practice alone, I built the tool that makes it possible — every pose, both sides, counted breath by breath, on a platform I own.
It’s about why yoga practice makes some people weirdly calm when life throws them—sometimes literally—off the horse.
This episode is on the topic of subjectivity in Ashtanga Yoga.
A companion to The Digital Caste People talk about yoga economics as if the central question is price. Class rates. Membership tiers. What a teacher should earn. Price matters — but it isn’t the variable that governs everything else. Overhead is. Overhead determines what prices are even possible. And once prices are fixed, the culture of a space starts to bend around them. I learned this slowly. Like most teachers, I spent years looking for the price that felt fair — one that worked for the student waking up at 5am on a teacher’s salary and also for the one who’d just come from the office. Same discipline. Different bank accounts. Eventually it became clear: this wasn’t a pricing problem at all. In many yoga…
When you’re practicing far from the “real” yoga scene, yama and niyama are the parts that still work anywhere—and they tell you what’s healthy.
It’s about how to learn from imperfect teachers without swallowing their whole worldview along with the useful stuff.
Michael Joel Hall offers a different approach to Ashtanga Yoga grounded in humanist values, personal agency, and inclusivity, rather than dogma or hierarchy.
I started teaching yoga because a friend of mine caught dengue fever.
Ashtanga Tech — the podcast. Keep the practice, lose the guru. Michael Joel Hall on Ashtanga yoga without the authoritarianism.
🎧 Listen to the podcast: https://pub-477a42ee397942aa87e96485ef790f2c.r2.dev/podcast/ashtanga-tech/feed.rss
If a stuck practice or a bad room is on your mind — text CULT to 202-816-5612.