Outspoken and sometimes controversial yoga teacher and blogger J. Brown has sparked broad discussions in the yoga community via his award winning blog, known for thoughtful criticism of established ideas and heartfelt insight.
Many of you have been privy to the evolution of these posts over the last year. My inspiration has been largely fueled by your responses. That anyone even reads this much less takes a moment to send me a note of appreciation feels like some small triumph of the soul, awash in this sea of zeros and ones we call the internet. In particular, two recent correspondences have got me thinking.
Read MoreMy daughter is the best yoga teacher ever. Observing her as she comes into the wonderment of her own body for the first time is the ultimate example. Since my previous note post about the adage: no steps need to be taken, I happened into some deep philosophical debate on this topic with several prominent yoga teachers of another bent than myself. The sticking point is ...
Read MoreThe non-dual interpretation of Yoga that I espouse is often signified by the adage: no steps need to be taken. I have grappled with this adage. Mostly, I wrote it off as a cliche of sorts like "Carpe Diem." I am intellectually sympathetic to the idea that life is best lived in the present but have found this of little consolation when the strains of life begin to bear down.
Read MoreOn more then one occasion, I have been at a social gathering where, upon learning that I am a yoga teacher, someone says, "Oh, I do yoga. Have you ever heard of P90X?" An appropriate response always seems to elude me. For anyone who has never been up late channel surfing and come across the infomercial, P90X is a series of home fitness DVD's.
Read MoreA couple weeks back, I ran into someone who attended my class regularly in the past but discontinued coming after moving to a new apartment. She told me how much she missed the practice we were doing, that she still goes to yoga classes but felt compelled to admit to me that there is often injurious things happening. She quickly added, ".....but I really like the challenge."
Read MoreIn 1998, I had the rare pleasure of spending some time in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. One of the days I was there, we took a day trek to Amayangri Stupa (Amayangri means "the top,") an ancient site dedicated to contemplation and reflection, marked by a modest configuration of stones and tattered prayer flags. This was the highest elevation possible given that ...
Read MoreThose who frequent my class have probably never heard me mention energy or chakras. The reason being that these concepts have been so superficially disseminated into our pop culture as to render them almost entirely cliche. Yogic teachings establish that we have both a physical body and an energy body; however, the correlation between is not as linear as is generally made out to be.
Read MoreSometimes I question the merits of Yoga Journal Magazine. There are good ideas and inspirational sentiments to be found in this publication but it's difficult to separate from the not always so subtle inclination of effective advertising to exploit low self-esteem. Magazines depicting idealized notions of beauty that make us feel worse about ourselves is nothing new but ...
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Pursuing a quiet yoga revolution, based in healing, J. Brown seeks to change the dialog, and direction, of yoga practice in the west.
