Ian Gray – Yoga Biography
I was introduced to Yoga in 1971 by a follower of Yogananda and loved it from the start. I soon discovered Mr Iyengar and studied with teachers he had trained. In 1977, I went to Pune, India to study directly with Mr Iyengar. I loved his precision and strength.
In 1979, I attended a workshop with Angela Farmer in Munich, Germany and enjoyed the lightness and freedom she brought to the practice. I worked with her for several years and in 1981 was her assistant teacher at the annual workshop on the Greek Island of Lesbos.
In 1982, I stopped practicing Yoga to study Aikido. I received my black belt from Mr. Foster of the British Institute of Aikido in 1988.
Subsequently, I decided that Yoga is my primary focus. At that time, I lived in Edinburgh, Scotland and taught many residential Yoga and Meditation retreats with local Buddhist teachers. Buddhist meditation and Haṭha Yoga are complementary. My involvement with Buddhist teachers led me to read Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras with renewed interest and to study Sanskrit at Edinburgh University.
In 1994, Aadil Palkhivala invited me to come to Washington, USA to teach at his center near Seattle. After 2 years at his studio, I moved to Boston where I taught at Patricia Walden’s studio and co-taught her teacher training program focusing on Āsana, Prāṇāyāma and the philosophy of Yoga.
I moved back to Seattle in 1999 and taught part time at local studios until 2009. I had always made my livelihood from computer software and focused on that until I retired in January 2020.