Does the View Matter in Sadhana? An Interview With Mark Whitwell

New York City NY

22 January, 2021

6:42 AM

Description

Mark Whitwell | Heart of Yoga Interviewer: Rosalind Atkinson About Mark Whitwell: Teaching since the 1970s, Mark Whitwell is known worldwide for his unique blend of caring about individuals, humor, wisdom, and truth-speaking. After discovering from his teachers, T. Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar, that yoga was the missing link in spiritual practice, Mark Whitwell dedicated his life to sharing the principles of tantric Hatha yoga that he had received. Traveling to the United States in the 1990s to find a publisher for his teacher’s book, which he had put together, he was completely shocked to discover what was being practiced there, and how little resemblance it had to what he had been studying. Since then he has traveled the world sharing the principles that he learned with students around the world who have become fed up or injured within the yoga industrial complex. Mark Whitwell is unapologetic about sharing yoga as a spiritual practice that is nonetheless available for people of all religions or none. His training introduces people to yoga that is neither gymnastics nor knowledge-acquisition, but participation in reality. He lives with his partner Rosalind in Fiji, where this interview took place. Mark Whitwell | Heart of Yoga Rosalind Atkinson: If you do your yoga with the mindset of trying to get somewhere, will it still be yoga? Mark Whitwell: No. Yoga is your direct participation in the beauty, intelligence and harmony that is already established as life itself. There is no getting to that. You can’t practice separation and then suddenly get rewarded with unity after decades of slog. There is no process. Either you participate, or you deny. We are trained to see practice as something unpleasant that you do for a future reward, rather than the thing itself. Sorry to bear the bad news, but no reward is coming. Read the full article here: Mark Whitwell