Edward Reib began his Yogic journey at a very young age. His dad, John Dan Reib, taught him a Tibetan Buddhist form of Meditation involving Chanting and Pranayama. Later, after working for 10 years in the Entertainment Industry sitting at a desk, Edward began to realize he was not satisfied with the direction of his life. He wanted to pursue his Spiritual Path full time. To help facilitate this, it became clear to him that he wanted to change career tracks entirely, and to become a Yoga Teacher. Edward received his 200-hour Yoga Teacher training in April of 2014 through the Mukti School. Mukti is a Sanskrit word meaning "Inner Liberation". Mukti Yoga is a style developed and refined by Julie Rader. It carries notes of the Vinyasa Flow style popular in the West, but, in homage to Julie's rich training with Swami Janakananda and Swami Satyananda, goes well beyond the "Power Vinyasa Yoga" style. During the summer of 2014, Edward taught the Morning Flow at KLG Spa & Sports in Korea-Town, Los Angeles. As many of his students did not speak English very well, he relied heavily on demoing and adjustment as well as verbal instruction. It was a lot of fun. From October of 2014 until October of 2017 Edward taught the Friday evening Power Yoga on Sunset Strip, Hollywood, at Crunch Fitness. As there was a regular gym just outside the yoga room loudly playing R&B and other Top 40 hits, Edward did his best to create a kind of yogic environment by loudly playing Tibetan Bells, Sanskrit Chants, Meditation Music, and more upbeat World Fusion arranged so as to accompany each portion of his Yoga sequences. During this time, Edward also became a certified teacher of Broga® Yoga (and, yes, that is Yoga for "bros") which he taught at Crunch twice a week for 6 months, in addition to his usual Friday night class. In August of 2015, Edward began producing and hosting a Podcast called To Be A Yogi for the purpose of bringing the Worldwide Yoga Community together. It includes interviews with Yogis, Yoga Teachers, Authors, and Studio Owners all around the world. Of this Podcast one such Yoga Teacher, based in Southern India, wrote: "Our beloved Edward is contributing such high efforts in getting together the widespread high HRD amongst a limited honourable and respected yogis to a single platform who felt the vital need of bringing all these to a single book, an international book, stands worthwhile towards human welfare for all the times, in all the countries. Personally I feel him, our Edward, who is just like Brahmarshi Ved Vyas who, once upon a time thousands and thousands of years back collected thousands of different Veda literature from book and corner of the world, compiled and arranged them (thousands and thousands of verses) by categorizing, hence we have Vedas with us!" For a few months in the summer of 2017 Edward taught the Heated Morning Flow and Meditation, and subbed some of the more active Bikram-style "Hot Yoga" Vinyasa classes at Stadium Fitness Yoga in Pasadena, California. Edward enjoyed arriving early, opening the Studio, and even conducting one Weekend Workshop there. However, in the end, he determined from the experience and from speaking to other teachers that "Hot Yoga" was not something he wanted to continue to teach, or to practice. In November of 2017, Edward gave away and sold most of his belongings, stored a few things in a friend's garage, and began traveling the world. First, he visited some friends in South Africa who he had previously interviewed on one of his Podcasts. There, in Limpopo, near the border with Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mozambique, he led a free workshop which included Traditional Indian Yoga, Meditation, as well as some Greco-Egyptian practices which he had learned earlier in life. He felt it appropriate to in a sense "give back" some of the teachings and practices which had been taken from Africa so many centuries before. He also learned a great deal of Traditional African Spirituality while he was there, at The Gnostic Church of the Black Sun. After this, Edward came to Lumbini, Nepal, to visit the birthplace of Lord Buddha. While in Nepal, Edward hiked the Annapurna Base Camp trek, spent some time in Pokhara, and visited several small rural villages. From December of 2017 till March of 2018, Edward taught daily classes in Thamel, Kathmandu, at Charak Yoga. Charak Yoga was established by Kanchan Thagunna, for the purpose of making Yoga accessible to travelers visiting Nepal, as well as to Nepalese. There, Edward taught Hatha and Vinyasa yoga to travelers from Australia, Indonesia, China, Japan, South Korea, Austria, India, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, and many other places, as well as locals from Kathmandu, Nepal. His experience at KLG came in handy, as some of his students there didn't speak English. He also learned a great deal from Kanchan, the owner of the studio, who came from a Yogic family. Then, in April of 2018, Edward came to India intending to continue his Buddhist Pilgrimage, and to receive further Yoga Teacher training, but instead he unexpectedly met and fell in love with his now wife Priyal. After taking almost two years break from teaching Yoga, in October of 2019 Priyal and Edward received 200-hour Yoga Teacher training from Yogadarshanam in Mysore, India. The name "Yogadarshanam"refers to "Pathanjali Ashtanga Yogadarshanam" which literally means "Pathanjali's Eight-Limbed Beholding of Yoga" and is one of the Six Orthodox Philosophies of India. Yogadarshanam was established by Master Santosh Kumar, and is dedicated to Teaching Classical Indian Yogic Science without modification. In January of 2020, Priyal and Edward became certified Thai Yoga Bodywork Practitioners, through IMOSHA, or "Inner Mountain Of Sacred Healing Arts", also in Mysore, Karnataka, India. Just as the Yogic practice of Asana is intended to prepare the Yogi for deep and prolonged meditation, so too is the art of Thai Yoga Bodywork. It is said that Lord Buddha's physician, Jivaka Kumar Bhacha, developed the system for the monks of the original Sangha, back when The Buddha still walked the earth. IMOSHA was established by Raghu Chandrashekar, and it blends the best of the ancient sciences of Yoga and Acupressure into one immensely powerful healing system. |