Meet the Innovators: Erich Schiffmann

This popular teacher believes it is his job to help students "move into stillness" so that they might find their inner teacher.

By Holly Hammond

Erich Schiffmann is an accomplished and popular teacher, widely known through his best-selling book, Yoga: the Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness (Pocket, 1996); his award-winning video, Yoga, Mind and Body; and his workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings. He sees his job as helping students "move into stillness" in order to find their inner teacher.

Schiffmann began practicing yoga as a teenager. At age eighteen he became a student at J. Krishnamurti's high school, Brockwood Park, in England. After studying with T.K.V. Desikachar and B.K.S. Iyengar in India, he returned to Brockwood Park, where he taught for five years. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches at Yoga Works.

Schiffmann believes, "Americans are doing a good job of making yoga practical. We're discovering that it makes sense to meditate regularly, to sink into the feeling of peace, to ask for and learn to access inner guidance, and then to flow with our deepest feelings about what to do."

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