When Alan Watts takes the stage to speak of Buddhism and Zen, he gently unravels the idea of waking up from our ordinary ways of seeing. In his lecture Understanding Buddhism and Zen, Watts invites us to question everything—even our sense of self, our most cherished beliefs, and our cravings for certainty. He doesn’t ask us to adopt new dogmas; instead, he suggests the path is about letting go, softening our grip, and discovering the freedom that comes when we stop clinging to fixed forms. Here, the wisdom of Zen meets the heart of yoga practice. 🌙 Awakening as Remembering Watts reminds us that Buddha means “one who is awake.” Yet most of us, he says, live in a trance—a narrow focus that separates us…

Joseph Campbell’s voice has long been a guide for those who sense there is more to myth than ancient symbols. In a recent interview with psychologist Jeffrey Mishlove for New Thinking Allowed, Campbell explores the living function of mythology—how it bridges body, mind, and the soul’s longing for meaning. Campbell’s vision is deeply yogic: myth as teacher, myth as mirror. As he describes, the gods and heroes aren’t just old stories, but blueprints for our own potential. Isn’t this what yogic self-study, or svadhyaya, invites—turning inward, seeing ourselves reflected in the great archetypal tales? 🌍 Myth as the Harmonizer Campbell notes that our bodies and minds are full of conflicting impulses—desire, fear, compassion, and hope. Mythology, he says, evolved to help us harmonize these energies,…

Compassion is easy in theory, but the moment someone cuts us off in traffic or says something sharp, the feeling can vanish like mist. Why is it so difficult to remain open-hearted when the world pinches or provokes us? The Buddhist Review, Tricycle, dives into the knotty roots of compassion’s challenges—and what it means to keep returning to this practice, again and again. Yoga, like Buddhism, recognizes that non-harming—ahimsa—isn’t always simple or automatic. It’s a discipline, a choice we meet anew each day, sometimes each breath. Compassion calls us to witness not only others’ suffering, but our own reactivity, judgment, and deeply grooved habits. 🪷 When Compassion Meets Our Edges Why do we recoil from compassion, especially toward people we find difficult? Often it’s old…

What does it mean to be a true polymath, to live so fully that every skill becomes a form of yoga? In a recent presentation by Nrithya Jagannathan, Director of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, we meet Tirumalai Krishnamacharya—the father of modern yoga—as a Sarva-Tantra-Svatantra, a master of all systems who made his life a living laboratory of discipline, adaptability, and empowerment. From tracing his lineage to the 9th-century yogi Nathamuni, to teaching legendary students and championing inclusivity, Krishnamacharya’s story is not just one of tradition, but of radical innovation within the heart of yoga itself. 🌱 Tradition and Innovation Intertwined Krishnamacharya held tradition close—not as a relic, but as a dynamic, living current. He was initiated into Vedic studies at age five, mastered the six…

Prana, often described as the vital life force, moves through the body along channels known as nadis, primarily residing in the Pranamaya Kosha—the sheath of energy that links body and mind (Yoga Breeze Bali; Online Yoga School). Our experience of breath, sensation, and aliveness is shaped by this underlying current (Yoga International). The ancient yogic tradition recognizes five primary expressions of prana in the body—called the prana vayus. Each vayu represents a distinct current or function: intake (prana), elimination (apana), assimilation (samana), expression (udana), and circulation (vyana) (Yoga International; Online Yoga School). This map gives us language for subtle experiences and helps attune our self-awareness on and off the mat (Clara Roberts-Oss). 🗺️ Snapshot: The Five Vayus Prana Vayu: Centered in the chest and heart,…

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,…