It’s not easy to walk fast on the beach. Sand yields so willingly to the pressure of a footstep. With each sinking step you must first unearth your foot in order to take another. Solid ground requires only momentary contact; sand invites us to linger. Perhaps this is why people who live in […]

  In 1989 I went to India for a three-week intensive with B.K.S. Iyengar and his daughter, Geeta, at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune.  Mr. Iyengar had just turned 70, and Geeta was officially handling the majority of teaching duties, but until the last week of the intensive, B.K.S. appeared every day […]

  Not long ago the American yoga world was upended. Yoga, the ancient practice that Americans have adopted in increasing numbers over the past 10 years, had its dark side exposed by an extensive article in The New York Times. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Broad, the article first appeared on the web with […]

    I stand, feet three feet apart, arms outstretched, ribs and spine extended laterally, on the unforgiving concrete floor. Triangle pose. A confusing chorus of the sharp, insistent voices of two teachers and two assistants bounce about the room. Instructions are being yelled out so quickly that I feel I can’t possibly perform them […]