#035: Sarah Powers | Lit From Within

Stillpoints: A Podcast with Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson talks to Sarah Powers, a long term teacher of yoga and Buddha Dharma, about her life of contemplative practice and its culmination in her new book 'Lit From Within'.

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Sarah Powers is an author, therapist and co-founder of Insight Yoga Institute. Her work is led by a desire for healing, and over the past 35 years Sarah has explored a number of healing modalities. Her yoga practise began with Ashtanga in the company of Chuck Miller, Maty Ezraty, Tim Miller, and Richard Freeman. There she found a daily ritual, an invitation to explore what changes on the inside, when on the surface things might look the same.

In this rich and generous conversation, Sarah shares how a profound experience she had while on retreat with Jack Kornfield deeply impacted her life. She’d been a yoga practitioner for over a decade at that point, but this was the time that it first truly made sense to her. Her previous practise served as a preparation for the Buddhist teachings she encountered. She studied both Theravada and Dzogchen, and saw comparisons with her previous studies in Advaita Vedanta. Sarah believes that underlying the multiplicity of teachers and traditions, they would all agree on the fundamental nature of freedom.

Over time, Sarah moved away from teaching Ashtanga yoga and towards a more Yin based approach, but the essence of inquiry that she first found in Ashtanga remains. Now, she combines yoga with mindfulness meditation in her classes, integrating yoga and Buddha Dharma with the intention of introducing beginners to meditation.

She is the author of Insight Yoga and her most recent book Lit from Within takes a holistic approach to healing our five experiential centres: the physical, energetic, mental, emotional, and interpersonal realms.

You can find out more about Sarah’s work here.

"This conversation with Sarah is so, so rich. I had wanted to speak to Sarah for a while, for her to expand on her beautiful view and experience on how the Buddha Dharma and yoga traditions blend together. I got so much and more. Sarah's wonderful and insightful way of seeing these practices and then sharing them is visceral and compelling. This conversation will leave you feeling like you've stepped right into the middle of Sarah's world. Full, inviting and so, so rich..."

Scott Johnson - January 2022

If you enjoyed this podcast then you might also enjoy Scott’s conversations with Kia Naddermier, Martin Aylward and Ann Weston