Dr. Ronald Steiner
What is your life motto?
Yoga chitta-vrtti nirodhah - as is probably the case for most yogis.
Which person would you like to meet, irrespective of whether they are still alive or already dead?
I would like to meet Rama Mohan Brahmachari in person to ask him about the Yoga Korunta.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, which three books would you bring with you?
I would take the Yoga Korunta, along with a pen and paper. Then, I would take my time and write a translation.
On a personal level: what does yoga mean to you?
Yoga is life. Life is yoga.
What is the deepest experience you have ever had during a yoga class?
Being free from any "experiences" in the sense of external perception. This is the deepest form of yoga.
Which is your personal favorite asana and why?
I like to re-discover different asanas again and again. Each position which gives me the feeling of being able to fly is wonderful.
Which asana don't you like at all and why?
That depends on my mental attitude. Whenever I have difficulties with an asana, I try to find out what it stands for on a psychological level and why I have those reservations towards it.
What really vexes you in the spiritual scene?
In general, I'm a person who doesn't try to change other people and likes to let them live their own life, therefore no human aspect is strange to me and I allow everybody their idiosyncracies.
Why are you here in the world?
To pass on what was given to me.
What or whom can't you resist?
My wife.
Who is your personal role model?
Everybody who is friendly, upright and even-tempered.
What is it that the yoga scene needs in your opinion?
There cannot be enough joint projects which support the idea of unity and spread yoga further into the world. I wish for openness and flexibility in thought as well as eagerness to experiment. Yoga has the potential to change lives and it would be wonderful if yoga developed from a (mostly still) niche activity to a normality.