I came to teach hatha yoga by way of the yoga of meditation and years of academic study of philosophy, both eastern and western. In my studies of philosophy at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown and in my graduate work at Fordham University, I gravitated toward the senior Jesuit scholars whose excellence, openminded intellectual zeal, spiritual fervor and personal integrity inspired me to dig deeply into my own studies, particularly of the classical philosophers and Christian mystics, and treat them as a personal journey of discovery.

As I completed my coursework for my PhD and taught at several colleges, I was increasingly aware that I was looking for more than philosophical ideas and systems -- I was looking for the experience itself that the mystics were talking about.

At the time I was finishing my coursework, I met the meditation master Swami Muktananda during his last tour of the west, and he gave me the connection, the practice, the awakening and the understanding I was seeking. With that, it was up to me to step through the door he had opened, not through concepts and theories, but through yoga.

I halted my academic career just short of writing my thesis, and went to India in 1986 to practice yoga at his ashram and to offer my service. I spent a total of 7 years in the Ganeshpuri ashram, Gurudev Siddha Peeth, and 14 years of service overall in Siddha Yoga ashrams in the US and abroad, studying and practicing yoga, working in the kitchen and gardens, and teaching hatha yoga.

It was during my time in Ganeshpuri that I met John Friend while he was yet an Iyengar teacher who had come to study in Pune. We struck up a friendship and I was able to practice with him when I came back to the states, study further with him, and assist in his classes, workshops and trainings for the next few years. He shared with me the evolution of his thinking, which eventually manifested as the Anusara style of yoga he founded in 1997, largely through the inspiration of his own experience of the ashram. I was also able to study with unique and talented teachers such as Aadil Palkhivala, John Schumacher, Kevin Gardiner, Erich Schiffman, Rodney Yee, Rod Stryker and others, all of whom played a role in my formation.

I was one of the first teachers certified as an Anusara teacher by John Friend, and taught in the Anusara style for over 7 years, while continuing to inquire deeply into all facets of yoga as a healing and spiritual art.

Over the last few years my writing and teaching have led me into explorations of aspects of yoga that are not commonly emphasized or included in the methodology or system of Anusara Yoga, and so I have relinquished my status as a certified Anusara teacher. This is without prejudice against the basic principles of the Anusara system: it is a decision I made for the purpose of exploring, studying and sharing aspects of yoga that do not fit within the parameters of the style in which a certified Anusara teacher is required to teach.

In addition to teaching the postural practice of hatha yoga, and the practices of pranayama and meditation, I have chosen as my focus the realm of Yoga as Therapy, as well as the philosophical teachings and practices of yoga in the tantric tradition.

Philosophically, I have always resonated with the tantric philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism. Kashmir Shaivism is a huge and daunting subject, within which I choose to focus on the sages and texts who emphasize three fundamental aspects of the teachings contained within this school.

• First, the freedom or 'swatantrya' of the Divine as its uppermost quality;
  
• Second, the understanding of 'realization' as being the 'recognition' of one's own true and divine Self; and
• Third, the power of 'spanda,' the throb of feeling and inspiration in our everyday lives that gives us glimmerings of that recognition.

This 'Spanda' manifests especially as the power of Grace in the form of the Kundalini, who brings about the steady unfolding of true self-recognition. With that unfolding, the meaning of spiritual realization or enlightenment becomes clear: it is to live in the experience that Swami Muktananda first encapsulated in his teaching, 'God dwells within you, as you, for you. See God in yourself and in each other.'

And so I focus on the yoga of 'Swatantrya,' the yoga of one's own inner expansion and awakening. Yoga concerns our own relationship to the Self from whom we came. It is deeply personal, experiential, and ultimately unmediated by any system of conceptual thought. The teachings of yoga simply provide us with the introduction to our own Self. Our philosophies provide the contemplation and focus that help us to aim more deeply into the experience.

In the end, the 'breakthrough' we experience is what the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart described as the breakthrough into our own heart, where the Divine most fully dwells. This is the teaching I want to share, along with the practices and means offered by yoga to support that inward journey.

I travel nationally and internationally offering workshops and teacher trainings. I've traveled from one end of the United States to the other, and my international travels have included teacher trainings and workshops in Switzerland, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and India.

My home base is at the Health Advantage Yoga Center in Herndon, Virginia, near Dulles outside of Washington D.C. There I teach upper level classes and co-teach in the year-long Teacher Training program at the Health Advantage Yoga Center with Susan Van Nuys, its director.