“Instead of more detachment,
humanity needs better forms of attachment.” 
Diana

“Tradition is important just as history is important –
not as a vice to squeeze the present into, but rather as a stepping stone to grow from.” 
Joel in “A New Look at Yoga”

jd_yoga70s

 
     Joel Kramer is considered a founder of modern American yoga for his seminal contributions to re-visioning yoga in the West. A pioneering innovator of physical and mental yoga, his evolutionary vision of yoga is foundational for many of today’s teachers. His  book The Passionate Mind: A Manual for Living Creatively with One’s Self  (1974) is based on talks guiding people in inner inquiry. His early Yoga Journal articles, the influential “Yoga as Self-Transformation” (1980) and “A New Look at Yoga” (1977), present his original mind/body approach. Many of its principles – being guided from within, playing the edge, yoga as self-exploration, lines of energy – have become an integral part of modern yoga.
     Joel was on the resident faculty at Esalen Institute from 1968-70. His yoga seminars deal with the basic concerns of living and the evolution of awareness. He taught throughout North America, in Europe and Asia with Diana Alstad until 1986. They began teaching again in 2005 to address the spiritual and global challenges humanity faces.

Diana Alstad taught seminars on yoga of body, mind and relationships with Joel from 1974-86. Through Diana’s vision, they developed a Yoga of Relationship. Her Yoga Journal article “Exploring Relationships: Interpersonal Yoga” (1979) extends Joel’s yogic approach to the social arena. They have taught relationship seminars at Esalen, Omega and other centers, and continue to develop and teach it.

Joel & Diana speak on spirituality, yoga, relationships, and many issues. Their talks on “An Evolutionary Approach to Yoga & Spirituality” offer new perspectives on the current human condition and a different view of spirituality. They are co-authors of The Passionate Mind Revisited: Expanding Personal & Social Awareness (2009; e-book 2013) concerning individual and social evolution and The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power (1993; e-book 2012) exposing hidden mental, cultural and spiritual authoritarianism.




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