ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this episode Ritual's founder Rose Lamont talks with Mark Whitwell, a world renowned teacher, author and direct student of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), a man revered around the world as the ‘teacher of the teachers’ and ‘the father of modern Yoga.’
Mark shares his profound and embodied wisdom on how we can stop seeking for answers outside of ourselves and how we can all begin to participate more deeply in our own yoga and existence. And as Mark so eloquently and compassionately sates:
"life is not a dedication to working on oneself toward some future ideal" .. "you are the power the cosmos".
Key Conversation Points:
- Mark's journey to India in the 70's and his experience meeting his teachers.
- Yoga - 'a social dynamic of disempowerment' ?
- 'A teacher is no more or no less than a friend'
- Yoga - 'a struggle towards a future attainment' a creation of male orthodoxy
- The sickness of spiritual seeking and the cure to constant seeking.
- The origins, current state and trajectory of modern yoga in the west.
- What it means to have an authentic yoga practice.
- Marks connection with U.G Krishnamurti, T.K.V Desikachar and T. Krishnamacharya
- Mark's relationship with T.K.V Desikachar and the origins of his book - The Heart of Yoga
- The lineage and principles of T. Krishnamacharya
- How to stop seeking and start participating in your yoga and life.
- The seamless process of asana, pranayama and meditation
- Mark's illuminating conversation one of his teachers and subsequent student - the spiritual teacher Ram Dass
About Mark:
Mark Whitwell has taught yoga for over four decades throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, Australia, Fiji, and Aotearoa-New Zealand, and is the editor and contributor to TKV Desikachar's book The Heart of Yoga.
First ‘dropping out’ of New Zealand society and travelling to India in his teens, this was the beginning of a lifelong love affair that took him into the orbits of many of the great masters of our time, known and unknown, including falling in love with Swami Muktananda in the early seventies and accompanying him around Australia. But it wasn’t until Mark met Krishnamacharya and Desikachar in Chennai (then Madras) in 1973 that he discovered a practice that could make his inspirational experiences stable and comprehensible: Yoga. Desikachar and his father were living as ordinary humble people, sharing their meals on the floor of their home, not posturing as superior beings or powertripping. Mark fell in love with this and with the Yoga he received.
