Known in yoga communities across the continents for his warm, lively and compassionate teaching that is accessible to contemporary yoga students at all levels as well as to those interested in deepening their spiritual lives in other ways.
In his workshops, seminars and retreats, Bill integrates his deep knowledge of yoga philosophy with insights refined over more than four decades of his own yogic practice. He shares with participants the expansive and transforming wisdom he finds in the splendid texts he studies, and he guides participants in ways they can fruitfully apply these perspectives in their own lives.
Bill’s teaching style is oriented toward sustained group discussion and includes periods of meditation. He enjoys integrating his discussions of philosophy with asana practice led by local yoga teachers, if they wish to do so.
Bill often bases his teaching on important Sanskrit texts that can inspire contemporary yogis in their larger lives. With his guidance, participants in spiritual retreats, workshops and seminars reflect together on teachings presented by such works as the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gītā, the Yoga Sūtra, the Pratyabhijñā Hridaya, the Vijñāna Bhairava, Shiva Sūtra, Srīmad Bhagavatam, the Bhakti Sūtra and many others.
Other times, he organizes his seminars, workshops and retreats around particular themes and issues in the yogic life: the history of yoga, yoga and dharma, contemplative spirituality, the refinement of the emotions in the yogic life, yoga and the cultivation of compassion, yoga and devotional sentiments, the importance of attitude, yoga and return to wonder and gratitude, the Sanskrit language, and so on.
Bill’s most recent book, Exquisite Love: Reflections on the Spiritual Life based on Nārada’s Bhakti Sūtra consists of Bill’s extended commentaries on a 10th century Sanskrit text on spiritual love. In an intellectually clear and emotionally engaging way he reflects at length on the experience, cultivation and refinement of increasingly higher levels of devotional sentiments in our own contemporary yogic lives. Bill is often asked to lead retreats, workshops and seminars based on the understandings he presents in this book. The second edition is published by Sarvabhāva Press. For more information, visit the books page or order the second edition on Amazon.
His other books include The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination, which is on the Vedas and Upanishads and thus on foundational aspects of India’s philosophies and religious sensibilities, including those of yoga. For more information, visit the books page or order the book on Amazon.
Bill earned academic degrees from Williams College, Yale University and the University of Chicago and is a professor of Religion at Davidson College in the United States. As a professor, he teaches courses on contemplative and devotional sensibilities of religions originating in India, with an emphasis on the philosophies of yoga. The recipient of a number of prestigious teaching awards and research fellowships, he travels to India frequently and has lived in contemplative settings for extended periods of time.
Whether you are new to the contemplative study of yoga philosophy or have pursued this interest and undertaken this practice for some time, Bill warmly invites you to join him and others in these seminar, workshop and retreat settings, when all participants together explore and immerse themselves in ways of a life-affirming yogic life.
