I studied Sanskrit for many years, and I've got all the coursework for my Ph.D. And a lot of what's going on in American Yoga is just made-up stuff. Smart people, even good people, Western therapists, Yoga therapists and other things, Western healthcare practitioners who love Asana and say, "Let's make up yoga therapy."

Why I wake up in the morning is that I'm still alive, and I want to figure out whatever I can before it's over.

There must be something here for me to get or to share or to do. So I have the duty that I do, the dharma that I do - which I love - with my teaching, with my family, my son, my students, my girlfriend.

There's the kind of people like me, who spent years in India, have learned Sanskrit, have done this work deeply - they probably say for lifetimes - now interfacing [with the mainstream].

We all have a dark side, and we have to confront our dark side. That's pop American psychology.

It's going to be over fairly soon; it goes by quick. Even if I live till I'm one hundred, it's quick.

Yoga teaching is that you're not your dark side or your woo-woo, you're pure awareness. Our job is to begin to gain that discrimination and insight so we can separate from our identification.