The Heart of Yoga Mark Whitwell

This episode is a recording of a talk Mark Whitwell gave at the Omega Institute in New York in 2008. He speaks of Reality itself as an intelligent nurturing force, like a mother. Yoga is our direct participation in this nurturing reality, not an effort to achieve some future spiritual goal. 
 
This episode is a dharmic reset-reminder of yoga as participation in union, merging strength and receptivity just as we came into being ourselves through the union of our parents. Mark encourages listeners to see that any pain or difficult circumstance in life is ultimately healing and rebalancing when embraced fully. The practice of yoga reconnects us to the fact that we are cared for, no matter what arises.
 
Quotes:
 
- "Looking for God implies God is absent."
- "The more charming or logical a teacher is, the more they'll delude you into thinking you are less and have to get somewhere." 
- "Spiritual language implies you're not already there and have to attain something."
- "Relate to the life in people rather than labeling something as evil."
- "Mother is here. You are utterly cared for."
- "This pain is healing. My pain is nurturing."
- "On the mat is my complete intimacy with reality. I can now go off the mat and do it."



Timestamps:
 
4:00 - Discussing reality as nurturing force
8:00 - Pain as healing 
15:00 - Promising a daily yoga practice 
27:00 - Relating to pain and healing
38:00 - Reality appearing as you 
58:00 - Closing discussion

Welcome back to “God and Sex” book club part 3.
Mark and Rosalind argue about themes of the book around relationship, love and intimacy. 
 
Mark goes to the root of things as usual, connecting up the separate self to how relationship chaos plays out, and how yoga intervenes.
 
We discuss the longing for a “soulmate” and whether this idea is useful, reflect on the China teacher training, and a few more controversial subjects relating to intimacy. 
 
Be aware some of these subjects may be connected with painful emotions in ourselves & feel free to reach out any time if you need to. 
 
Key Topics Covered
 
- The presumption of being a separate self as the root of human suffering
- How religions tend to devalue the body and sexuality  
- Ramanuja's teaching that we need yoga to actualise oneness
- Participating in the union of opposites through yoga 
- Merging with your experience to understand yourself and life  
- Letting go of ideas like "soulmate" that create impossible expectations
- How vulgarity and abuse can also be expressions of denying sex
- Sharing yoga as a way to increase intimacy and improve relationships
 
Key quotes:
 
- "The hostility and disturbance in the world arises because people are not loving their life."
- "If the man could learn to love bodily, sexually, then there would be peace." 
- "Consciousness perceiving an object is a single movement — there is no separation."
- "Once you've tasted actual intimacy, the common patterns of sex finish."
- "There must be yoga, and there must be the polarity of opposites within and without."
- "The presumption of being a separate self with problems is an illusion."
- "You can't use anybody to make you happy."  
 
Resources
- God and Sex: Now We Get Both by Mark Whitwell  
- Yoga of Heart by Mark Whitwell
 
 Timestamps
 
[00:00:00] Introduction  
[00:01:00] The problem of separation as the root of suffering  
[00:06:00] Ramanuja's teaching about needing yoga   
[00:11:00] How religion devalues the body and sex
[00:16:00] Krishnamacharya's example of yoga and family life  
[00:21:00] How modern society still denies sex 
[00:26:00] Merging with your experience through yoga
[00:31:00] Letting go of the myth of "soulmates"   
[00:36:00] The misery caused by unrealistic expectations  
[00:41:00] The problem with techniques and sacred sexuality 
[00:46:00] The motivation to share these teachings  
[00:51:00] Being cautious about rushing into relationships
 

This episode explores rekindling our innate connection to nature through yoga and sensing practices. Rosalind has an insightful conversation with her friend Henriette Geber, a yogini with a deep love of the mountains, plants and animals.
 
They discuss how yoga helps us become more sensitive, intuit nature's aliveness, and dissolve harmful ways of relating that assume separation. Henriette shares how yoga empowers her natural affinities, from studying art history to living with the German Alps.
 
We discuss removing overlays of ideology to intuitively relate directly with the living world.
 
Key Topics 
 
- How yoga cultivates sensitivity to ourselves as nature 
- Dissolving the illusion of separateness from nature ingrained by society   
- Honoring the aliveness and subjectivity of all creatures and systems
- Henriette’s countercultural move from the mountains to the city and back again
- Following our natural talents and relationships that emerge through yoga
 
Insights
 
- Assumptions of nature as passive or dead prevent us from sensing its aliveness
- Rituals trying to "connect" can reinforce separation if that belief is still there    
- Our bodies intuitively know which plants are healing if we relax our seeking mind
 
Quotes
 
"Yoga has given me this, that I trust what comes out of me. I think I was very outward oriented, like, how do you do certain things? How am I perceived? Always thinking like, oh, my perception might be really wrong or not even feeling how do I relate from the inside to this and giving me the sensitivity to actually feel how is my relationship to this, how is my sensing of this and then the strength to also act upon it and not be afraid."
 
"If you cannot feel your body, you cannot feel the natural world because ultimately it's the same thing. It's totally the same thing." 
 
“It’s always there. It's there. You just need to listen.”
 
Resources
 
- Franz von Stuck's painting "Sin" that Henriette wrote her thesis on
- The Correction by Amy Mindell, a book referenced
 
Timestamps
 
[00:00:00] Introduction  
[00:01:00] Henriette's background in the mountains and move to Berlin
[00:05:00] How yoga enabled tuning into her needs
[00:10:00] Studies in art history and disconnect from life   
[00:15:00] Henriette's return to the mountains from the city
[00:20:00] Painting of a woman and snake Henrietta was drawn to 
[00:25:00] Positive symbolism of the snake across cultures
[00:30:00] Henriette's relationship with animals and plants
[00:35:00] Accessing intuitive knowledge about medicinal plants
[00:40:00] Story illustrating the ever-present relationship between humans and nature  
[00:45:00] Rituals reinforcing separation versus assuming connection   
[00:50:00] Being in relationship versus demanding feelings from nature
[00:55:00] Living creatures acknowledging Henriette 
[01:00:00] Moving to farm not being the happily ever after
[01:03:00] Closing

In this week's episode of the Heart of Yoga Podcast, Mark and Andy Raba explore the world of psychics, seers, shamans and sages.

As director of the Yoga Education in Schools Charitable Trust in New Zealand, Andy leads initiatives to bring yoga-based health programs to young people in NZ and abroad.With a Master's degree and over a decade of experience fostering literacy in NZ schools, Andrew has extensively published on yoga and meditation and is dedicated to bringing yoga's benefits to students' wellbeing.
They discuss how to discern truth from charlatanry, the ethics around predicting the future, and why embodiment through yoga is key.
Mark emphasizes the importance of maintaining autonomy through daily yoga practice rather than seeking escape or solutions from spiritual leaders. He shares perspective on how psychics and seers should serve the community without claiming special powers.
Mark and Andy also talk about relating to the subtle realm, trauma healing, and keeping ourselves safe from disempowerment on the spiritual path. Tune in for an insightful discussion about navigating the mystical with open eyes and an empowered heart.


Key Points: 
 
There are genuine psychics and seers who have special abilities to perceive realms beyond normal perception. However, there are many more charlatans who falsely claim such abilities.


To discern truth from falsehood, it's important to have your own direct participation and intimacy with reality through yoga practice. This gives you autonomy and empowerment.


Making predictions about the future is unethical. It implies you don't have access now to deeper knowledge about your life.


Psychics and seers should be ordinary, humble people, not claiming to be special or different. Their abilities should be used to serve the community, not for ego or profit.


For people with trauma, the subtle realm can seem an escape. But yoga brings embodiment and healing, not escape. Wake down into the body, don't go up into the subtle.


The gross tangible world and the subtle intangible world are one, not separate. Through embodiment and intimacy with the tangible, we access the intangible.


Keep yourself safe from disempowerment by spiritual leaders. With yoga practice for autonomy, you can discern who to learn from without losing yourself.


Connect with Any Raba :
Instagram: @_andyraba_
www.yogainschools.org.nz
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In this episode, Mark interviews Eva about her journey discovering Yoga and music. Eva shares how she was classically trained in cello as a child but hated the competitive pressure. She dropped music for 18 years until finding Yoga, which helped her rediscover enjoyment and presence. A few years into Yoga, Eva spontaneously picked up guitar and started playing purely for pleasure, posting videos online.
 
Mark and Eva explore how yoga catalyzed Eva's musical reawakening. Yoga helped Eva let go of striving for perfection and future attainment, and instead play music for the joy of each moment. Eva discusses how Yoga taught her to receive support and gave her courage to be vulnerable sharing imperfect musical videos. She also describes realizing Yoga isn't about achieving a thoughtless state, but being fully immersed in each experience.
 
Eva offers an inspirational example of how Yoga provided the foundation to rediscover her musical self by cultivating presence, receptivity and relationship.
Keypoints: 
[00:03:00] Discovering yoga helped Eva find enjoyment and presence [00:05:00] Yoga was the catalyst that allowed Eva's musical talent to emerge

[00:08:00] Eva learned to receive support and be vulnerable through Yoga

[00:12:00] Eva rejected the competitive classical music system as a teen

[00:18:00] Finding a Yoga teacher who respected Eva as an individual was pivotal

[00:20:00] Yoga felt like the opposite of Eva's prior athletic yoga experience

[00:25:00] Eva played music purely for enjoyment rather than future goals

[00:30:00] Eva had to unlearn criticism and perfectionism around mistakes

[00:40:00] Simple Yoga helped a depressed musician rediscover her artistry

[00:50:00] Eva realized Yoga wasn't about achieving a thoughtless state Memorable Quotes 
"Yoga as a system should adapt to the individual, not the other way around."
"It's not to get to the end, to the grand crescendo of the great symphony. It's every note along the way in harmony with every other note."
"There's no state like that, that I should be striving towards. What I have right now and what I'm doing right now is it."
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In this episode of the Heart of Yoga podcast, Mark has an insightful conversation with his student Irina Esposito about her journey with Yoga. 
The cosmos and everything in the cosmos is obviously a pure intelligence, energy and an intrinsic harmony. In religious language of ancient India it is Shiva Shakti… or all that is, and there are no problems. This was Irina’s sudden realization. It hit her “like a done of bricks”. This is the realization of an ordinary life of anybody when the Hatha Yoga Tantras are practiced daily, actually, naturally and non obsessively.
Life is unity, an indivisible condition of no separation, no difference, unique individuation in the context of utter singularity. Thank you Irina for your Yôga realization and sharing this, your self with the world Here. 

Irina shares how the simple daily yoga practice Mark taught her is transformative.
She began to feel more connected to herself and worry less. The conversation explores pivotal moments of recognition Irina experienced through her practice, as well as how yoga shifted her perspective on body image and food.

An illuminating part of the talk is when old family patterns came up after a vacation with a parent, showing there are still habitual conditionings even after deep insights. Overall, the episode offers a beautiful glimpse into the power of dedicated yoga practice.  
Timestamps:
3:55 - They discuss Irina's experience in yoga teacher training with Mark and how she started a daily practice. 
12:55 - Irina talks about how yoga helped her feel more connected to herself and her body. 
28:35 - Irina describes a moment of recognition where she deeply felt that the whole universe is female and male energy. 
38:50 - Irina shares how yoga changed her relationship to food and body image.
55:15 - Irina talks about going on vacation with her mother after her recognition and how old patterns came up again.
Quotes:
"You gave us the simple practice and I just tried to do it every day. And this is so different to the practice I did before."
"I don't overthink that much. The crown is open and receiving."
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