Mark Whitwell
Mark teaches students how to practice easily, actually and naturally.
He is interested in revealing authentic Yoga as each person’s direct embrace of Nurturing Source. Having studied since 1973 with Krishnamacharya, “the teacher of our teachers” and with TKV Desikachar, Mark puts back what has curiously been left out of western yoga education, in a remarrying of Yoga to its non-dual Tantric origins.
Mark created the Heart of Yoga Foundation Peace Project which brings the practical, healing wisdom of yoga to people living in active conflict zones and other troubled areas of the world, providing direct support to teachers.
Testimonials from Mark’s students worldwide:
| “I decided to start doing yoga about five weeks ago. My body was so full of aches and pains that just getting out of bed in the morning was a challenge.I could not imagine how bad things would be in ten years’ time – I’m only 46! Almost as soon as I had made the decision to start, I came across Yoga of Heart. Talk about the right teacher at the right time! Learning to do yoga this way was, for me, like coming home, like opening the door to a house I knew well – it was, of course, my own body!
My daily practice is a joy, and I love the way the breath and movements meld together into a deeply graceful dance. It feels wonderful. Thank you, Mark. Even now I can get up in the morning with vigour, and I look forward to each day with calm anticipation and inner strength.” - Fiona van Dokkum |
“Mark’s workshops, and more generally the philosophy he shares, have been a huge inspiration and help not only in my yoga practice but also my life off the yoga mat.Being new to yoga, and a man, I often find yoga workshops a little intimidating or abstract – but I found Mark’s direct, simple and honest approach easy to understand, examine, discuss and apply.
Of course, the fact that Mark is a very cool guy, and clearly loves what he does, makes it very easy to relate to him and enjoy yourself! The chance to share time with Mark and learn from him is a very valuable one.” - Andrew Crook, lawyer – New Zealand
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| “Mark: I have never taken a Yoga course till I took your weekend seminar at Esalen in December.In that class, you spoke of what you also say in your website: through practicing Yoga you will know that-”you are fully loved, you are fully able, you are perfectly capable the way you are”. This made little sense to me till the end of the weekend. This is what you were able open my eyes and see:
Yoga starts by focusing us on our heart. Then we focus on our breathing and our movements. Our heart helps deliver our source of life throughout our body by pumping our blood. Simply being alive makes us able. For me and most people, love is shared and expressed through hugs. The heart’s pumping motion of squeezing is a hugging motion around our life source (our blood). It is an expression of love, keeping us alive and able. Stepping out from the heart, our lung expand with the air we breathe in, also giving us life and making us able. The breathing motion of our lungs expanding then contracting as we exhale is again a hugging motion. Stepping out from our lungs, our arm motion swing out, each in large semi-circles, is also reminiscent to a hug. As we live our lives with others we share the love we are made aware of through Yoga: we hug others. We learn to embrace the world around us through our understanding and connection with it. Continuing this progression outward, starting with our blood cells and traveling to our heart, lungs, arms, contact with others and our world we can reach for the ends of the universe. If we practice Yoga then we are alive, we can feel loved and should be aware of our connection to everything in the universe. - Ethan Auslander |
“I finally was able to find the right page to share my positive experiences from meeting you in October at KirpaluI continue to do my practice with an open heart and feelings of peace, freedom and connection to the devine.
I pray that others can and will join your teachings wherever you go- You have made such a positive impact on my life and have given me what I needed so badly after losing my husband almost 6 months ago. I feel connected not lost, I feel whole and nurtured everything your teachings promised. I love my practice and I am thrilled to have you with me always as I purchased your dvd Real Yoga for Real People a MUST buy for anyone who has the same positive experience from any of your workshops. Bless you for your kindness and words of wisdom and introducing me to Yoga at 62 years of age.” - Arlene Newman
“Getting to know Mark and studying with him was a such a relief: He put into words everything I’d learnt about Yoga over the years through my own experience and practice, but what I’d never heard anyone say out loud before. Mark teaches everything you need to know about Yoga so simply, in such a true and freeing way that transforms people’s lives in an instant! It is about finding your own Yoga as a natural part of your Life, instead of obsessively struggling to practice more, do better, try harder forever towards some unattainable abstract goal…. Thank You, Mark. ” - Liisa Halme, Yoga teacher – Finland |
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| “I attended several of your wonderful classes at the Sydney Yoga Conference.I just loved what you had to say. It really resolved a lot of your confusion for me. I loved your refutation of the Buddhist idea of the witness in preference to a daily practice which can deliver us intimacy with our body, breath and life itself. I was fascinated by your views of the institutionalized denial of the feminine principle and motherhood over the last two and a half millennia. I loved how you connected our daily practice as the celebration of the everyday, mothers, fathers, families and of course, sex.
Your words made so many things fall into place for me. It was really an epiphany – and I never thought I’d get to have one of them! I bought your book and last night I read the first chapter in which you talked about these things in the context of your mother’s passing. It was very beautiful and powerful. Am I practicing every day? Yes – but I was previously (more or less!) But I am doing it now with clarity, purpose and with complete “sraddha”! Your words have made all the difference. I sincerely hope we see you back in Australia soon. Us Aussie blokes need ya, Mark!” -Rob – Sydney, Australia |
“Thank you for everything, and for giving so freely of your time. I wanted to wait a little while and see whether the feeling faded, before telling you I get it.I get it. It’s the breathing. Your book gave me permission to start questioning, but until I met and practicd with you, I didn’t quite get it. Culture barrier? Slightly thick? Don’t know.
Now, I do understand. I feel so much more spacious; my practice is the same, but entirely different, and yes, it has completely changed the intimacy with my husband. It has made an improvement in my marriage. I looked around at the faces in Flinders Street Station the other day and felt…love. Connection. That’s been happening a lot, and I feel that to breathe IN the way you taught us is like Love. I’ve been passing on your teachings, and people just unfold into themselves. It’s incredible – their bodies find comfortable, natural alignmet, their inhales improve, and they can be in themselves at the end of practice. Yay! Quite a few have told me the breathing feels…right, natural. And they want to do it again and again. I have booked for your retreat in Fiji, so I look forward to seeing you then for a little refresher.” -Nadine |
Mark says:
“To enter into a personal yoga practice is like making love to life itself, it is as exquisite as that. And not only will this have a profound affect on your own life, but also on your relationship with everyone around you, including and especially your intimate partner. That is what living in all about, this intimate connection between yourself and the world. Keep it simple. Make a date with yourself and begin your practice.”
“Whether you refer to the divine as Jesus, Allah, Shiva, Shakti, Divine Mother, Holy Father, give it no name or have no point of reference, this practice of breath and movement is appropriate for you. All of us need a means to break down the barriers that prevent us from creating connection and intimacy with ourselves and with each other, whether self-created or imposed. This is the most basic human need that cannot be denied or intellectualized. Our ancestors from ancient times acknowledged this long before any form of organized teaching or doctrine had even begun to manifest. Furthermore, they freely shared the knowledge that allowed this truth to blossom inside of everyday people, such as you and I. This basic knowledge- the knowledge that we as people are intimately connected to each other, to the earth and to the source of life- is a knowledge that is planted deep within our DNA. The seed that holds it will begin to bloom and take form from the moment that you begin your practice.”
” To recognise and move through life as a person of peace and power is not something that we have to fight or struggle for; it is simply what we are. Life is not a game of right or wrong, or better or worse. A tangible awareness of our natural state is our birthright, and something that can neither be denied nor awarded.”
“Intimacy with our own body and breath is the first place of intimacy with life. The celebration starts here. As we begin to engage the body in unison with the breath, we develop an inner sensitivity and receptivity that in turn allows us to receive others in intimate relationship. It is the process of body, breath and relationship, in that order. The resulting paradox is that we then begin to feel our own connectedness with everything around us, including the deep and absolute intimacy provided by life that forms the basis of everything”
“…that true happiness is not in anything. It is not in money. It is not in food. It is not in sex. It is not in career. And it is not in enlightenment. True happiness arises when we allow ourselves to relax into the reality of our own natural condition, as the real and tangible manifestations of the source of life that is already given and can never be absent. When we are brave enough to release the imagined separations that have become an everyday part of our life and circumstance, the mind’s unrest and fear of separation is eased. From here, we are open and free enough to deal with whatever presents itself to us, supported by the knowledge that this intimate connection with our source is all that is required for us to feel safe and at peace.
In order for this realization to manifest and blossom, we must initiate our practice, the process of moving and breathing for seven minutes a day in order to support the energetic flow of life through the system. As we do so, the veil that causes us to feel a sense of separateness and isolation will be lifted, revealing the naked wonder of our own natural state. When we let go of our preconceptions of a higher or better reality than that which has already been given to us, we are free to participate fully in our own lives; what results then is an adventure with life, as opposed to a journey to transcend life.”