Ian’s Yoga Story

I was first introduced to Yoga in the early seventies by a follower of Yogananda. I loved it from the start and sought out all the teachers and classes I could. I soon discovered Mr Iyengar and I started working in his style. The precision and strength suited me very well. In 1977, I studied with Mr Iyengar in Pune, India and when I returned, I started to teach as an Iyengar teacher.

In 1979, I met Angela Farmer and very much enjoyed the lightness and freedom she brought to the practice. I worked with her for the next few years. In the spring of 1981, I taught as her assistant on the Greek Island of Lesbos.

Over the next few years I stopped practicing Yoga and pursued Aikido seriously. After I received my black belt, I taught Aikido for a while, but in the summer of 1988, I decided that it was really Yoga I wanted to pursue. During this time I also got to know several Buddhists and became interested in the teachings of Achaan Chah and the Theravadin movement. I attended many retreats to learn their techniques and studied Buddhist philosophy. I also co-taught many residential Yoga and Meditation workshops with a Buddhist teacher. I believe Buddhist meditation and Hatha Yoga to be a very beneficial combination. This lead me to read Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras with renewed interest and to study Sanskrit at Edinburgh University.

In 1994, Aadil Palkhivala invited me to come to Washington, USA and teach at his center in Bellevue, Washington. Later, I moved to Boston where I taught at Patricia Walden’s center and co-taught the teacher training program. This was a two-year program which dealt with the basics of teaching in the Iyengar method as well as a comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of Yoga.

My current interest is more in practice than in teaching. I only teach very small personalized classes at the moment in a beautiful studio in Seattle. For further information please email me

Some other Yoga links :

Sri Iyengar
Sri Iyengar's Teacher
My listing