Jamie Clarke has been practising and teaching yoga and meditation for 18 years. His teaching journey began in 2002 and he is the director and co-founder of The Yoga People Yoga School initiated in 2009. He is most recognised for technical and energetic expertise of the practices as well as inward focus for personal transcendence and change. He believes ‘skill’ comes from experience, and effectiveness comes from having curious fun while letting go to the process. He has completed over 900 hours of Applied Anatomy with mentor Paul Grilley, which provides his progressive approach of functional and experiential teaching. He is teaching two workshops on yin yoga’s functional approach to teaching and practising Vinyasa Flow yoga at triyoga on the 22nd and 24th June. We found out a bit more about him ahead of his visit…
If you could be remembered for one thing what would it be?
Well I suppose that I knew how to practise and teach yoga well, that would be enough for me. At least that I was able to see yoga as the beautiful and profound science that it truly is and that I was able to present the essence of the practice in a way that really made a difference to people lives.
What top three things are on your bucket list?
I’m not ready to have a bucket list! But If I was going to keel over any minute and I had to quickly write a top three, then it would be…
1. To be to swim in a warm Caribbean sea one more time
2. To sky dive over the Alps (imagine the view)
3. To go to Burning Man festival one more time
What’s your favourite quote?
I have many, but if I had to pick one it would be one from Rumi – ‘your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself, that you have built against it.’
To me that is profoundly beautiful.
What do you attribute the biggest successes in your life to?
My most difficulties, traumas and set backs. Bruce Lee said, ‘do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.’ I relate to this deeply because for me it has been the challenges that life has presented me that have been my biggest teachers and have given me the wisdom and impetus to fuel any successes.
What do you think your future self will remember about you now?
How small my keyhole of a view to life was back then and also to realise how far I had walked on my journey
What one book would you recommend reading?
Well a good start to recommend to most people would be, The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama, I read it 20 years ago and I remember feeling, ‘mmm maybe there IS a way out.’
Who would you most want to be on a desert island with?
So many to choose; a spirit who is alive would be the Dalai Lama, who better to while away the sunny days talking about the most profound of things.
What is the secret to a happy and fulfilled life?
Being yourself and feeling the freedom, space and confidence to feel the way you are is perfect, especially to your biggest critic, yourself.
Where is your happy place?
On my meditation cushion, actually it’s a small stack of towels but who’s counting…or on my towels at the end of day 9 of Vipassana…
If you could teach everyone in the world one concept, what concept would have the biggest impact on humanity?
To feel the love and joy that is inherently within them, and then to serve from this place.
Is intelligence or wisdom more useful?
Wisdom of course, as it includes the highest forms of intelligence.
What life-altering things should every human ideally get to experience at least once in their lives?
To authentically and uncontrollably fall in love, to be completely abandoned by someone who you desperately love, and to feel for just one profound, glimpsing moment that we are all connected and that our supposed separation is an illusion.
What two questions would you ask to get the most information about who a person truly is?
When you feel truly alone and vulnerable, what do you fear and how do you feel?
When was the happiest moment or phase in your life up to now?
If I could have cheeky third question I would ask if they could see any links between the two?
What is the biggest waste of human potential?
Gossip, insincerity and small mindedness…
How do you define consciousness?
To be aware of oneself in context to the world around us and also in context with all the personas that we incorporate within our-self to deal with life. Consciousness is a presence, an awareness of what’s within the view of our windscreen as we drive through life but also what is buried within the depths of our-self, that influence us each moment of every day.
What causes the most harm in the world, but is completely avoidable?
For me, on a macro level the biggest waste of human potential is the blatant disregard and disrespect for nature and the resources of the earth. This is my number one. In close second is the dis-respect for human life, which plays out in terms of world poverty and hunger.
Has social media been a net positive or a net negative for our society? Why?
Well it’s a close run thing. Social media has meant a total desensitisation of society, human relations and intimacy and yet from different aspects we are more superficially connected, have more surveillance insight and can see the world in a more transparent way.
To what extent do you shape your own destiny and how much is down to fate?
For me, I believe we have every bit to do with shaping our own destiny – why wouldn’t we as our reality is a inner projection, we just have to open our eyes to see the symbols. Furthermore there are many roads one can take in life, and of course we can let go and just let life happen to us. Yet I do trust destiny, recognising one’s own dharma, and I trust synchronicity to guide me to where I need to go. This reminds me of another favourite quote by Rumi: “out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
Join Jamie Clarke at triyoga Shoreditch on Friday 22nd June and triyoga Chelsea on Sunday 24th June. To find out more and book, please click here.
