Esak Garcia has been practicing hot yoga for 25 years. He is the creator of the Jedi Fight Club and the e84 yoga training programs. He studied political philosophy at Yale University and for the past 12 years has been a student of Egyptian spiritual teaching with the Institute of Ancient Mysteries. Esak was a founding board member of USA Yoga and the IYSF yoga sports leagues, and since 1994, his family has owned and operated a hot yoga studio in Boulder, Colorado, where he resides.

In this episode, you’ll hear from Esak on:

• How personal experience with Egyptian spiritual teachings, Ivy-league political studies, and Brazilian capoeira have each informed his approach to the path of yoga
• A pragmatic approach to spiritual work that includes a set curriculum, and how you can borrow it for yourself
• The painful process of being “ex-communicated” from the Bikram yoga community by Bikram himself, and why Esak is grateful in hindsight
• How and why Esak is demystifying a yoga asana sequence once deliberate hidden from public eye and considered taboo

Announcements:

• Sign up for the 30-hour Yoga Immersion over Labor Day weekend at Lighthouse Yoga School with Jared McCann, Aviad Sasi, and Henry Winslow. Get 10% OFF your tuition with code HENRYWINS: henrywins.com/events
• Join me this fall for workshops at Yoga & Fitness Herald Square (NYC), the Yoga Dojo (Richmond, VA), and Bikram Yoga Richmond (VA): henrywins.com/events

Links from this episode:

• Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
• A Course in Miracles, a channeled text by Dr. Helen Schucman
• Paramahansa Yogananda’s SRF Lessons for Home Study — the correspondence course Esak references in our conversation
• The Keys to the Kingdom: A New Paradigm for Humanity by Carolyne Fuqua — Esak’s recommended book

Get in touch with Esak!

• EsakGarcia.com — follow Esak’s whereabouts and get info on upcoming e84 trainings and Jedi Fight Club events
• Esak on Instagram
• e84 Yoga on Instagram