John Hofileña Yoga

21/06/2025

It was in June 2015 when yoga first found this “vantage point of the divine” (me) in the guise of exercise. In the first 5 years, it was mostly Modern Postural Yoga (MPY), asana, and calisthenics. The last 5 years was definitely Tantrik - awareness cultivation and embodiment practices, mantras, kirtans, cacao ceremonies and ecstatic dances. With gratitude to the experience and evolution of this practice, happy International Day of Yoga! On to the next decade!

How has your yoga practice evolved and how has it changed your life?

21/06/2025

In Non-dual Shaiva (Shiva-Shakti) Ta**ra, Ganesha is the remover of obstacles and Lord of auspicious beginnings. It is our own power, energy or shakti to remove obstacles in our lives and start something new in this moment.

Today is International Day of Yoga and Summer Solstice, an auspicious time for new beginnings and intentions. What’s your plan?

📷 Ganesha at Alchemy Yoga and Meditation Center

21/04/2024

Join us for this wellness retreat in Guimaras island! I will be teaching Yin Yoga and Tantrik Yoga practices by the beach. And you will learn and experience a lot more from my co-teachers!

https://retreats.stillnessinmotion.online/

19/02/2023

May you experience spacious silent stillness (or spacious still silence or still silent spaciousness). Blessed Mahā-Shivarātri!

ॐ नमः शिवाय
Oṁ namaḥ śivāya!

02/11/2022

Grateful to be with our beloved teacher, , in Bali on Saraswati Day (Oct 22, 2022). After 2 years of online learning and practice, it’s such a blessing to meet him in the flesh.

Christopher Wallis, also known as Hareesh, is a scholar-practitioner with fourteen years of university education and thirty years of experience, having been initiated into the practice of yogic meditation at sixteen. His degrees include a B.A. in Religion and Classics from the University of Rochester, an M.A. in Sanskrit from U.C. Berkeley, an M.Phil. in Classical Indian Religions from Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from U.C. Berkeley. His doctoral dissertation focused on the role of spiritual experience in the tradition of Ta***ic Shaivism. Additionally, he received traditional education at āshrams in upstate New York and India, training in meditation, mantra-science, kīrtan, karma-yoga, pedagogy, and more. He currently teaches meditation, yoga darśana (practical philosophy), Tantrik philosophy, Sanskrit, and mantra-science. Hareesh is the Founder and Head Faculty of Ta**ra Illuminated, and the creator behind Tantrik Yoga NOW: a global Facebook group with over 10,000 members, both dedicated to the study and practice of classical Tantrik Yoga and Philosophy. His teachers, mentors, and gurus, in chronological order, include: Gurumayī Chidvilāsānandā (dīkṣā-guru and mūla-guru), Paul Muller-Ortega (Śaiva Ta**ra and Classical Yoga); Somadeva Vasudeva (Śaiva Ta**ra and Sanskrit); Marshall Rosenberg (Nonviolent Communication); and Adyashanti (Meditation). Hareesh is the author of Ta**ra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition and The Recognition Sutras: Illuminating a 1,000-year-old Spiritual Masterpiece.

If you also want to learn from Hareesh, check out his online learning portal tantrailluminated(dot)org, blog hareesh(dot)org, books and free offerings in YouTube.
If you want to be part of our local community in the Philippines, DM me.

30/06/2021

Neuroscience & Psychology in alignment with the teachings of the Yoga tradition. Worth your reading time! 🙏

If you've been feeling blah recently, you're not alone. The good news is you can retrain your brain to feel happier. Here's how to shift your mood and restore your well-being.

22/06/2020

I’ve always wanted to read this book since it discusses 2 topics close to my heart. I’m glad it was released last month in Audible & Kindle and I finally finished it today. It’s easily one of my favorites right now. Here’s a snippet which encapsulates one of my key learnings.

Q: How can I be an effective speaker and use my words to move people to be more compassionate toward animals and stop eating them?
A: Be a joyful vegan yourself. View everyone as providing you with opportunities to be kind and to articulate empathy and compassion for another being. See whomever you speak to as a holy being. Do not see anyone as mean, stupid, or compassionless or as a person who needs you to enlighten him or her. If you can’t see people you speak to as compassionate, how can you ever expect them to see themselves that way? Before you speak to someone, ask yourself, How do I want this person to feel about himself or herself? Do you have the largeness of heart to see that person’s highest potential? For that to occur, you must be willing to give up any negative thoughts about him or her in order to provide a space for the person to turn around in. Keep in mind that when you are speaking to others, they can always feel your underlying contempt or respect for them, and that will determine whether they are able to hear your message. What is your goal in speaking to them? Is it to vent your anger, to assert your superiority, to berate them, or to make them feel guilty? Or do you really want to empower them to change for the better and to become the kind of people who don’t cause animals to suffer? If you really want them to stop eating meat, you must see in them the potential to do that, and you must speak to that potential.

27/03/2020

Join online yoga classes for a cause. 🙏

22/09/2019

Eka Pada Bakasana face-off with professional MMA fighter . Thank you for the new learnings, Joey! Namaste. 🙏

Playshops with Joey Diehl. Sep 21-22, 2019. An amazing weekend of playful and fun approaches to arm balancing, inversions, mobility (Kinstretch) and BJJ floor movement drills. 🤸‍♂️ @ Yoga+

30/08/2019

“Lurch into the fray, weapon out and belly in.” - Invincible by Tool

This is my favorite Animal Flow move! So, I chose it for my Certification photo.

Want to learn Animal Flow? 🐾

23/08/2019

Yay! I passed! 🤣

Congrats also to my flow partner !

Animal Flow is a ground-based movement program that’s designed to improve the function and communication of the ‘Human Animal’. - Mike Fitch, Creator