Introduction
by Kathleen Hunt
We are happy to feature this interview that Stephanie Gailing conducted with Sharon Gannon and David Life of Jivamukti Yoga Center in NYC. Sharon and David are very gracious to come and share their teachings with us nearly every year despite their intense schedule.
It is always a pleasure to have our dear, long time friends visit us. Sharon and I first met in Ballet class in Seattle about 25 years ago and thereafter began collaborating as dance performance partners exploring together the transmission of yogic teachings on stage through multi media performance events. This collaboration continued when we both lived in NYC and Sharon had connected with David in his life as poet/painter/musician and owner of the Life Cafe. The three of us produced and performed numerous dance theater collaborations in various East Village venues and around that time began to delve more enthusiastically into Hatha yoga studies. Tripura Sundari (Sharon) and Deva Das (David) have contributed so much to the way yoga is being transmitted today in the West and we offer them a deep bow for their efforts in making more mainstream the integration of spiritual teachings into yogic practice.
The tenets of Jivamukti are like a string of pearls. Can you discuss how these tenets – Sanskrit, bhakti, ahimsa, music and meditation – are strung together in the Jivamukti style of yoga?
David: I think that our idea is to incorporate all of these elements within the asana practice. They are not new ideas but oftentimes they are segregated and presented as a distinct path, separate from asana practice. And we feel that all of these aspects, including asana practice, have suffered from that separation. Really, it is a matter of reintegrating or creating a real integrated form that reincorporates them within asana practice. I think that these elements – the Sanskrit; the devotion; ahimsa, the principles of non-violence; the principles of nada yoga or music; and meditation – are what give asana practice its true substance. And without those the asana practice becomes all that is left, which is not a whole lot without these other elements in there.
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