#29 - Keen on Yoga Podcast with Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor

Richard Freeman has been a student of yoga since 1968, beginning with one simple sitting posture in the Zen tradition. He spent nine years in Asia studying yoga asana, Sufism, Sanskrit language, and Indian philosophical texts. In 1974 he began working with B.K.S. Iyengar, later stumbling upon the late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois of Mysore, India when he taught a week’s intensive at the Feathered Pipe ranch in Colorado. Richard is well known for being one of the most advanced practitioners of the system to date - having completed The 5th Series with Pattabhi Jois as well as the pranayamas and Sanskrit study. Richard is equally well known for his metaphorical, often humorous, teaching style.  He was the co-founder, with his Mary, of the Yoga Workshop in Boulder, Colorado, as well as having produced many well regarded practice recordings More recently, he turned his hand to writing has co-authored with Mary, The Mirror of Yoga, The Art of Vinyasa, and Most recently When Love Comes to Light - a fantastic discourse on the Bhagavad Gita. Mary Taylor began studying yoga in 1971, soon after returning from France with a grande diplôme from Julia Child’s cooking school, L’Ecole des Trois Gourmandes. She found yoga whilst at university, but in 1988 found her primary teacher, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. She continues to study and practice yoga and Buddhist teachings as well as being passionate about food and diet. Mary travels and teaches with Richard and also within the caregiver and hospital setting as part of the core faculty of the Being with Dying program (Upaya Zen Center) and the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Trainings.  She has authored three cookbooks and is the co-author of What Are You Hungry For?  Women Food and Spirituality as well as working with Richard on the yoga publications.