In the Spring of 1970, I made the decision to find a teacher, and enter into a spiritual practice. I felt that if I were going to play a role in helping people to shift to a better state of planetary consciousness, I had better develop a higher state of consciousness myself. I had come to the firm conclusion that I had nothing more to learn from psychedelics; that I had to learn to impact my consciousness from within, rather than from externally applied substances.

I attended an event in May of 1970, called "the Holy Man Jam at the Family Dog at the Great Highway." A transitional event at the close of the Hippie era, with many spiritual leaders including Yogi Bhajan, Swami Satchidananda, Pir Vilayat, Schlomo Carlebach, Stephen Gaskin, and others. Prior to attending the event, I had formulated the belief that in order to do the work before me, I needed to find a way in which to allow a great deal of energy to flow though me without the energy being wrongly directed by flaws in my ego or personality. When Yogi Bhajan spoke, I felt the immensity of the energy flowing through him, and how easily it flowed through him without being distorted by his ego. I found that I was greatly attracted to him, and I decided to attend his Summer Solstice celebration in New Mexico.

When the student is ready for a teacher, the teacher appears. I began to follow Yogi Bhajan, at first, literally, as I followed him back and forth across the country that summer, which ended with the first 3HO Kundalini Yoga Teachers Training Course. I returned to the San Francisco Bay Area as a Kundalini Yoga teacher.

I had wanted to find a practice, which would help me to be a better activist and to be more able to serve my fellow human beings. I did not want to become a renunciate, to withdraw from the world. Rather, I wished to follow the difficult path, of being in the world, but with the same lofty consciousness as a monk meditating in a cave. This, I have discovered, is not that easy, and I am still working at it.

But that is what 3HO is about. As Yogi Bhajan put it, first, through practicing Kundalini Yoga, you become healthy, then happy, and when you have achieved both of those, you have set the stage for becoming holy. Which is how he came up with the name 3HO (Healthy, Happy, Holy, Organization).

Yogi Bhajan is a Sikh and a Yogi. To Sikhs, the ideal person is a householder, fulfilling one’s worldly and family responsibilities, while pursuing one’s spiritual path. This perspective informs the 3HO philosophy.

Yoga has become very popular in the Western world these days, but most of what is being taught as Yoga is just one portion of the traditional Eight Steps of Yoga. That is, people are being taught postures and yoga-like calisthenics in the name of Yoga, but Yoga is not just a form of calisthenics. Postures, breath control, chanting and meditation are an integral part of yoga, but not the totality. They are tools to aid you in harnessing your physical structure and your mind to serve your higher consciousness. This is what Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan is about, to combine all the aspects of yoga, lifestyle & diet towards serving your higher consciousness.

Community: Over the years, a substantial worldwide 3HO community has developed. It has three aspects:

(1) Kundalini Yoga students and teachers;
(2) Kundalini Yoga students and teachers who are Sikhs;
(3) Sikhs who relate to the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan’s Sikh title) as a guide and/or have become a part of the 3HO community.

In different parts of the world different elements predominate, and the three differentiations form a continuum. One can be anywhere along the continuum, feel a part of the community, and not feel any pressure to move to any other part of the continuum.

But we are definitely an extended community. One can travel anywhere in the world, stay with another member, and be completely at home. Here in the Bay Area, I remember a number of us sitting together some years ago, when someone said, "you know, we will probably all know each other until we die." Afterwards, there was silence, as we all looked around the circle at each other, taking each other in, in a new way, as the truth and power of that statement sank in.

Our Bay Area community is in flux these days. There are many new people coming into it. Most of the old timers are Sikhs & Yogis. There are many new Yoga teachers, who have recently taken a Teachers Training Course who are mostly not Sikhs. There are many people who study and practice Sat Nam Rasayan, a new 3HO healing modality. There is also a second and third generation which is reaching adulthood.