When Jeff Kamen set out to chronicle the Civil Rights Movement, he found himself tracing the invisible threads that connect the marches of Montgomery to the teachings of ancient yogis. In his moving account for Integral Yoga Magazine, Kamen details how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision for justice was deeply rooted in the yogic principle of ahimsa—nonviolence as both a tactic and a way of life. The tradition of ahimsa stretches far beyond any single leader or struggle. Like a sutra woven through time, it threads Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance in India to Dr. King’s call for justice in America, and to the spiritual activism of figures like Swami Satchidananda. Each drew from this wellspring of inner discipline and outer compassion, showing that the heart…

Philosophy, at its core, encourages us to seek truth and challenge our assumptions, much like the ancient yogic inquiry into the nature of the self. The recent decision at Texas A&M University to restrict a professor from teaching Plato—arguably the father of Western philosophy—raises deep questions about truth, knowledge, and the values that shape our education and society. When academic freedom is curtailed under the pressure of ideological directives, we find ourselves at a crossroads reminiscent of the dilemmas explored in both the Bhagavad Gita and yogic philosophy. In yoga, the concept of Satya—truthfulness—serves as a guiding principle. It encourages us not only to speak the truth, but also to create environments where truth can be sought without fear. The news from Texas A&M, where…

The Ashtanga yoga community stands at a crossroads. After decades of looking the other way—of senior teachers feigning ignorance about misconduct they knew full well was happening—we face a choice: continue the patterns that enabled harm, or build something genuinely different. This isn’t comfortable territory. But if the yamas teach us anything, it’s that satya—truthfulness—isn’t optional when the truth is inconvenient. It’s precisely when truth is hardest to speak that speaking it matters most. ⚖️ Tradition Without Ethics Is Empty The eight limbs of yoga didn’t start with asana. They started with ethical foundation—ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha. The physical practice we love exists within this container. When we strip the container away, we’re left with something that might look like yoga but has lost…

We’ve explored what samadhi is—seeded and seedless—and the four stages within distinguished absorption. But how do we get there? Sutras 1.19 through 1.22 address the causes and conditions. 🌱 Prior Preparation (Sutra 1.19) Some practitioners, Patanjali says, arrive at deep states relatively easily. Why? Because of bhava-pratyaya—readiness arising from their condition or being. The traditional interpretation: accumulated practice from previous lives creates inner conditions that make certain states accessible. The samskaras from past effort don’t disappear—they mature across lifetimes. Whether or not you hold a literal view of rebirth, the principle holds within a single life: the student who practiced intensely for years before finding formal instruction often progresses quickly. Something was prepared before the formal teaching began. 🔥 Ardent Longing (Sutra 1.21) For those…

He’d been nursing the shoulder injury for two years. It started as minor irritation after an adjustment that went slightly wrong—the kind of thing that happens in long-term practice. He modified. He rested. He did physical therapy. He saw specialists. The tendon would improve, then flare. He couldn’t get back to his full practice. In Mysore culture, there’s a particular valorization of working through limitations. Tapas—discipline, austerity, the burning off of impurities—gets invoked to justify years of modified practice, of “listening to the body” while the body slowly degrades. The practitioner who pushes through injury is sometimes celebrated; the practitioner who “gives up” is subtly diminished. A friend mentioned BPC-157. He researched it, found the gray-market sources, started injecting. Within weeks, something shifted. Within months,…

Karma Yoga is the Yoga of Action How often have you heard me say that? It’s an aphorism I like to trot out whenever I notice a certain amount of abherance in stated desired outcomes of change and the measure of perceived effort on my end as a teacher. All talkie-talkie, no walkie-walkie. Big talk when it’s yalls. Quite another when it’s mine. The thing about noticing someone else’s patterns is that it’s easier than spotting our own. It’s that whole puruṣa and prakṛti thing again. But, I digress. I’ve been helping to support my parents, as most of you know, and so it’s a lot of Halls under one roof these days. I’ve been a little overstimulated — which feels like an understatement, but I still feel good and…