I know it sounds hard, but we must remember that when we go through, or see, suffering it is not the Immortal Self that suffers. Who is the sufferer then? It is the mind that goes through all the changes—the little ego, guided by vasanas, wrong thinking, and...
A new initiative from Integral Yoga Teachers Association is the Integral Yoga Live Calendar. Continually updated and with more and more centers listing their programs, you can subscribe to this calendar that shows various in-person, online and hybrid programs from our...
The Chinese sage, Chuang-Tzu, once had a dream in which he was a butterfly. When he woke up, he didn’t know for sure if before, he had been a man dreaming he was a butterfly, or if now, he was a butterfly dreaming he was a man. Likewise, we are all caught in a dream...
Let us know that in Truth you are the Divine Image, the image of God. Somehow the veil of the ego prevents you from realizing this. Just remove that veil. It is that veil that is the basis for all these mental dramas. It creates all kinds of problems, troubles,...
The essential teaching and goal of Yoga is to make the mind calm. “Yoga chitta vritti nirodha,” says the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. That means that Yoga is the calming of the waves created in the chitta, the mind by keeping the mind balanced under all conditions. In...
Live in the golden present, then you won’t have any anxiety or any fear of losing anything. Look at the sparrows, they just fly around. If they are hungry they just go and pick up a grain from anywhere. They are not constantly worried about what will happen tomorrow,...
In North America, the Spring season will soon be behind us giving way to the Summer Solstice in June. Spring has long been a time of transition, when the dark and barren days of winter give way to light, warmth and new growth. Before summer is upon us, this month’s...
The word pranayama is not a single word but rather a combination of two Sanskrit words: prana and ayama. Prana could be translated as vital energy or the cosmic energy that causes any kind of movement. Even the movement of the electrons around the nucleus within an...
Yoga blesses you with a more intimate understanding of your body and how it works in conjunction with your mind to create this experience called life. However, life is much more than your individual experience. Through practice, you can remind yourself of your...
Over ten years ago, a yogi friend went hiking up a steep mountain. She was wearing good shoes and enjoying the challenge, as well as the stunning view upon reaching the peak. Soon after she began her descent, she slipped and badly twisted her ankle. Immediately, she...
I don't know about you, but I grew up in the 1960s—first concert (Dave Clark Five), listening to "Cousin Brucie" (the legendary "disk jockey" on the radio), first date (nothing to write home about), first hippie yearnings... And, of course, the celebrated band: The...
My discovery of Yoga and meditation when I was 18 and a college freshman began to change me from an angry and troubled teenager who hated Phys Ed. to a balanced adult comfortable in my body. It took years, of course, for the practices to take hold. But I stayed with...
The first thing I love about Yoga is that it’s something you can do when everything else out there is falling apart. I know this has brought many people to Yoga. It’s a way to assert your own power and control over your life, even when you seem powerless to change...
One year ago I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a disorder that affects the way my brain/nervous system processes pain. It all started in 2020, while I was finishing my Intermediate Integral Yoga Teacher Training online. Over the course of several months, the pain...
Many years ago, I took other types of Yoga but also just regular Integral Yoga Hatha classes. And I noticed whenever I left an Integral Yoga class, I just felt so incredible. Everything was moving in slow motion, I was floating and everything was totally clear. I was...
Someone asked me the question: “I feel selfish and troubled all the time. Why is it so hard to feel peaceful all the time if it’s my true nature?” Well, that question cannot be answered with words but can be realized. How? By knowing the Knower, being the Be-er. Now,...