Yogi Bhajan
In the spring of 2020, a book by Yogi Bhajan’s first secretary (Premka), White Bird in a Golden Cage, has been published that cracked open the silence. Waves of horrible abuse stories have been coming forward, and the organizational leadership has committed to hire some kind of independent investigator to bring forth the truth:
https://epsweb.org/an-olive-branch-report/
Overwhelmingly to our surprise, he was a monstrous predator while seeming to be a great teacher. How these two things could coexist in one person is beyond my understanding. Massive waves of pain are flowing through the community. How to heal, process, grow, learn, this is just beginning.
And then, the community engaged this organization to help with processing: https://www.compassionatereconciliation.com/
I remember wondering early on whether he could handle the absolute power he wielded. Unfortunately, it seems that he could not and that, perhaps it is true that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It has been quite a struggle to separate the beautiful and important teachings he brought to the world re the practice of Kundalini Yoga, from his failure to live to the code of ethics he prescribed. And then along the way to separate the wisdom from the chaff, the corruption that came from greed, arrogance, a need to dominate everyone, lust, and ignorance.
I have been in the practice he laid out for fifty years and was for most of those years a leader in the community, mostly just locally in the Bay Area and on the west coast, but also, off and on, internationally. I must now concede that I was culted and conned.
There is a powerful life changing yoga practice, which is riddled here and there with erroneous teachings that flowed from Yogi Bhajan’s misogyny, and that suffers throughout from his hyperbole – in the various meditations, chants and yoga kriyas, he would teach while telling us that they would heal this or that, bring prosperity or whatever. Even back when I was an eager believer, I would think of him as teaching “hyperbole yoga”.
I had been planning to stop offering Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training courses this year, so as to focus on the work of my book, both re getting it published, and do the work that flows from it. Including leading what I call “Whole Being Training” [create link]. I am moving on. But I still practice much of the practice, and will continue to share some aspects of it.
https://epsweb.org/an-olive-branch-report/
Overwhelmingly to our surprise, he was a monstrous predator while seeming to be a great teacher. How these two things could coexist in one person is beyond my understanding. Massive waves of pain are flowing through the community. How to heal, process, grow, learn, this is just beginning.
And then, the community engaged this organization to help with processing: https://www.compassionatereconciliation.com/
I remember wondering early on whether he could handle the absolute power he wielded. Unfortunately, it seems that he could not and that, perhaps it is true that “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It has been quite a struggle to separate the beautiful and important teachings he brought to the world re the practice of Kundalini Yoga, from his failure to live to the code of ethics he prescribed. And then along the way to separate the wisdom from the chaff, the corruption that came from greed, arrogance, a need to dominate everyone, lust, and ignorance.
I have been in the practice he laid out for fifty years and was for most of those years a leader in the community, mostly just locally in the Bay Area and on the west coast, but also, off and on, internationally. I must now concede that I was culted and conned.
There is a powerful life changing yoga practice, which is riddled here and there with erroneous teachings that flowed from Yogi Bhajan’s misogyny, and that suffers throughout from his hyperbole – in the various meditations, chants and yoga kriyas, he would teach while telling us that they would heal this or that, bring prosperity or whatever. Even back when I was an eager believer, I would think of him as teaching “hyperbole yoga”.
I had been planning to stop offering Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training courses this year, so as to focus on the work of my book, both re getting it published, and do the work that flows from it. Including leading what I call “Whole Being Training” [create link]. I am moving on. But I still practice much of the practice, and will continue to share some aspects of it.
