Mark Whitwell

My TEachers

Mark Whitwell has enjoyed a life long relationship with the teachings of Professor T. Krishnamacharya “the teacher of the teachers,” notably BKS Iyengar, K Pattabhi Jois, A G Mohan, Srivatsa Ramaswami, Indra Devi and TKV Desikachar. Having studied since 1973 in the home of Krishnamacharya with his son Desikachar, Mark is committed to communicating the timeless yoga principals with compassion and clarity.

Yoga is the means by which ordinary people may absorb the nurturing and healing force of Life. This is yoga from the heart for the heart. It is made clear in TKV Desikachar’s book The Heart of Yoga, Developing a Personal Practice to which Mark contributed and edited. He also contributed to Desikachar’s Health Healing and Beyond. Mark’s own book is Yoga of Heart, The Healing Power of Intimate Connection, Lantern Books.

Mark lives in the USA and New Zealand. He travels throughout Europe, America, Asia and the South Pacific. In 1996 Mark established The Heart of Yoga Association a non-profit foundation that provides yoga education around the world. Having studied with many known and unknown yoga masters, Mark is most interested in revealing actual yoga and how each person effectively practices.

Mark's Hridaya Yoga Sutra

Describes the spirit of yoga of heart: the Healing Power of Intimate Connection

Yoga is your direct participation absorption in the given wonderthe extreme intelligence of life that is of course in every person, every creature, you can do this, it’s not a search, it’s not to use the mind, it’s not to use the body to try to get somewhere, as if you are not “Somewhere”, as if you are not the full blown wonder of life, dependent on a vast process, for your own existence, so there is a right yoga for you you, learn to do that yoga, and then you too can enjoy this direct absorption, participation in the nurturing force that is life already given to you, you are completely loved, completely loved, you are completely cared for, everybody is completely loved, completely cared for, even if the social conditions are suggesting otherwise, even if your mind doesn’t recognize it, by doing your yoga practice on a daily basis, actually and naturally, not obsessively, you too can enjoy this direct absorption, in the wonder that is this life, in all conditions of life including the unseen source, which is responsible for all this appearance here, please enjoy your yoga – YOU ARE HERE NOW.

This is a simple argument. It is easier than easy. So simple, we seldom speak of it and do not grasp it. But once seen, it is obvious and we feel the stark reality of our life, unmediated by the mind of doubt.

The idea of human imperfection that is deeply ingrained in the social mind, in old scientific and religious thinking blinds us to the perfection that is already in us, as us, as Life itself, as Nature “her”self.

We are not separate; we cannot be separate from Nature, which sustains us in a vast interdependence with everything.

The universe comes perfectly and is awesome in its integration and infinite existence. It is our natural state.

Our mission and passion is to provide the spiritual and healing powers of yoga to all who recognize the ancient wisdom and the wisdom of your own body and mind.

More Infos about Mark Whitwell: www.heartofyoga.com