March 12, 2021

The Influence of UG Krishnamurti on Yoga

March 12, 2021/ Mark Whitwell

There was no denying UG Krishnamurti was an ususual and extremely attractive person, in the way that a cat is attractive. He was a natural man.

Because I was a student of Desikachar and Krishnamacharya, a student of yoga, I had to relate what UG Krishnamamurit was saying to yoga.

He made it easy, he spoke about it a lot and he sat on the ground with myself and with Melissa Forbes and showed us what natural movement looked like without any struggle, without any seeking.

It became clear that should any yoga arise, it is completely natural. It is what the body does naturally when it has been traumatised.

November 11, 2019

What Kind of Yogi Am I? Jnana, Bhakti, Hatha, Karma and Kriya Explained

November 11, 2019/ Mark Whitwell

Jnana, Bhakti, Hatha, Karma, Kriya, Sidhha Yoga are one. Our teacher Krishnamacharya described all the different yoga categories as belonging together as an integrated holistic approach to be adapted to the needs of each individual. He insisted that it was a wrong approach of Western thinking to split them apart as if they could be isolated from each other...

December 05, 2017

You Live Your Life Like a Candle in the Wind

December 05, 2017/ Mark Whitwell

Many women have told me that Marilyn’s experience is essentially their own. Born fresh and free, wild and sexual, they became inappropriately sexualized objectified, abused, manipulated, feared, threatened...

September 20, 2017

A Soft Message for a Hard Time

September 20, 2017/ Mark Whitwell

I recently saw a YouTube video in which the actor Jim Carrey gets really excited about having discovered Eckhart Tolle. It seems that in reading and listening to Tolle, Carrey also had a sudden “wake-up” moment, as Tolle had. He realized that he is consciousness itself, the one who is aware of every “thing,” even of his worries in all their profound insignificance...

August 09, 2017

Emotional Conversion to Reality

August 09, 2017/ Mark Whitwell

The process of healing and realization is in relationship with actual others. It is in the mutual intimacy between two actual people who freely choose each other. Practice of intimate relationship, including sex, is the process of all psychological adjustment, self discovery and understanding.

June 19, 2017

When things seem to fall apart

June 19, 2017/ Mark Whitwell

Here is a teaching from the Dalai Lama: “Be careful not to mistake emptiness to be nothing ness.” He gives this to aspirants at the stage of their spiritual evolution when all partial identifications diminish and end. It is a dangerous stage in all people’s practice and just happens in life anyway...

May 31, 2017

Marilyn Monroe and Man’s Primordial Religious Practice: Surrender to the Wild Feminine

May 31, 2017/ Mark Whitwell

Dear Yogini Marilyn, power and vulnerability of the wild feminine that man had no idea what to do with. It finally destroyed her bodily existence. I visited her grave to pay respects...

April 25, 2017

Why Yoga Is neither Physical nor Spiritual Gymnastics

April 25, 2017/ Mark Whitwell

My teacher Mark Whitwell is fond of saying that "Yoga is neither physical nor spiritual gymnastics", and is very passionate about explaining the reasons why this is so. Focusing especially on the popular American brands of (Hatha) Yoga, Mark expounds the principles of practice and methodology of teaching that make Yoga what it really is: A devotional personalized practice and spiritual discipline of pleasure. (...)

Blog