A brilliant story from my teacher, Leslie Kaminoff, on the unsurprising fall of John Friend and the example of Leslie’s teacher, T.K.V. Desikachar.

 

It is a lovely story of a man that has helped so many, taught so many, without necessarily telling anyone what to do or how to do it. Like Desikachar, Leslie refuses to answer my bigger questions about the essence of yoga and my own personal growth, but, rather infuriatingly, continues to ask “What do you think?.”

“I have never felt anything other than absolutely, completely naked in front of this man. Naked, in that, he sees everything. All the things I worked so hard to keep other people from seeing… And yet… he always based all of his interactions with me on the absolute certainty… that I could come up with the answers I needed for myself.”

~ Leslie Kaminoff, Yoga Educator at The Breathing Project and Yoga Anatomy.

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Editor: Kate Bartolotta

Corti Cooper is a yogini and a designer. She is a traveler of the world and a determined seeker of learning. Through art and yoga, Corti explores the planes of reality, deconstructs the rhetoric of cultures and looks for the essence of happiness. When home, Corti runs a small design studio and teaches vinyasa flow yoga in the well-manicured and always mannerly, Connecticut USA. Her personal practice consists of breath work and a daily walking meditation with her sweet pup, Amarella.