What is yoga?

From my perspective we live in an on-demand age. In some ways and for some people, gratification - of all kinds - is more accessible now than at any other time in human history. Yet this does not seem to have saved us from depression, addiction, and feelings of purposelessness and isolation. How could this be? Here is one answer: many of us are coming to recognize that gratification of the senses and fulfillment of the spirit are two very different things. We may even be discovering that gratification itself is highly addictive. And like many other dependencies, the need for gratification eventually begins to consume other things that really matter - things that take time and focus and tenacity, like soulful relationships, storied careers, and ultimately meaningful existences. To me, yoga is the practice of breaking the cycle and stepping away from the gratification addiction. It's returning repeatedly to intentional choice over how we live our lives. How do we do this? I have found some success by striving to continuously access what many yogis call "the Seer," or that sense of perspective from which we can recognize our biased thoughts, beliefs, and actions, and then perhaps do something different.

What inspires your teaching?

I'm inspired by endlessly discovering the world and myself. Totally cliche, right?! I suppose I mean this: no matter what I say, something is left unsaid. No matter how much I focus, many things are imperceptible to me. I am a fundamentally limited being in time and in my body. I will never have it all figured out. And I love this, because it means that every day has some new flavor or texture. Plus, what a weight off my shoulders! If I'm not going to figure it all out, I don't have to be ashamed of who I was yesterday or who I am today. I get to enjoy living as a process of learning, not so that I eventually arrive somewhere as some sort of finished enlightened being, but so that I'm fully participating in the life that I have.

What teachers have impacted you the most?

The yoga asana teachers that have impacted me the most are undoubtedly Christina Sell, Darren Rhodes, Amy Ippoliti, and Livia Cohen-Shapiro. In a lived sense, perhaps the most influential teachers in my life are my wife, my dog, and my close friend and colleague Ellen Kaye. And in the world of ideas, the teachers that have impacted me the most have been James Carse, a modern philosopher who wrote a book called "Finite and Infinite Games;" Greg McKeown, the author of "Essentialism;" the Roman philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius; and many teachers of yoga and Buddhism stretching back centuries including Patanjali, Ksemaraja, and Shantideva.

Any advice for aspiring yogis?

I do not know how useful my advice could be, but that's not really for me to decide. I just keep saying stuff, and some people seem to get a kick out of it! There is an old Zen koan attributed to Linji: "If you meet the Buddha, kill him." In other words, there may be times when you think you have everything all figured out, and that you have grasped the true nature of things. I believe that is what is meant by meeting the Buddha. But Linji believed that humans are wizards of self-sabotage, and the idea that we've "got it" is probably an illusion we have cast upon ourselves. Killing the Buddha is therefore coming back to the recognition that no matter who we are, as long as there is life in our bodies we have a lot of practicing left to do!

Practicing with Jack is about illumination – explore his library of classes now!