Integral Being

What is Tai Chi actually training? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark V. Wiley speaks with fourth-generation lineage holder Alex Dong about what real Tai Chi is—and what most modern practice misses. Beyond choreography, performance, or relaxation, traditional Tai Chi is a precise method of internal development. It trains structure, alignment, connection, and the integration of body, breath,...

In this deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation, Swami Kripananda reflects on addiction, recovery, yoga, Kundalini, mystical experience, and the search for direct spiritual realization. Drawing from decades of study with figures such as B. K. S. Iyengar , Vipassana teachers, Catholic priests, and Indian swamis, he shares stories of transformation through suffering, discipline, prayer, and pr...

What are we actually searching for—and why does the search so often fail to resolve it? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark V. Wiley speaks with Sufi philosopher and teacher Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri on the nature of presence, the role of the ego, and the deeper realities that lie beyond both. Across traditions, human beings pursue meaning through knowledge, identity, achievement—even spirituali...

In this Integral Being conversation, Acarya Vimalananda Avadhuta introduces Ananda Marga, the "Path of Bliss," as a disciplined system of spiritual development rooted in meditation, tantra, mantra, neo-humanism, and the expansion of consciousness. Rather than treating bliss as pleasure or emotional intensity, this conversation explores bliss as a stable state of expansion cultivated through practi...

What if martial arts were never just about fighting? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark Wiley sits down with Guru Yogi Shivan to explore Kalaripayattu , one of India's oldest and most complete systems of training. This conversation moves beyond combat to reveal how Kalari practice develops the body, breath, nervous system, and perception as a unified field . Rooted in Siddha lineage and trad...

What if transformation doesn't begin in the mind—but in the body? In this episode of Integral Being , Mark V. Wiley sits down with Dr. Baffour Jan to explore a direct, experiential model of human transformation grounded in balance. Rather than focusing on thoughts, beliefs, or self-improvement strategies, this conversation reveals a different orientation: real change emerges when the body, breath,...

Daoism is often misunderstood as philosophy or belief. But in practice, it is something else entirely. In this conversation, Dr. Livia Kohn presents Daoism as a lived process—one that reorganizes how experience unfolds. Rather than striving toward outcomes, Daoist practice cultivates the conditions for experience to arise naturally. Through breath, stillness, and the release of cognitive fixation,...

You don't see reality—you see your interpretation of it. In this conversation, Mike Faff explores how perception, belief, and memory construct the world we experience. In this Integral Being conversation, Mike Faff explores a simple but destabilizing insight: perception is not direct contact with reality, but interpretation shaped by belief, memory, and conditioning. What we take to be the world i...

What if human consciousness is not the final stage of development? In this Integral Being conversation, Santosh Krinsky explores the life, awakening, and evolutionary vision of Sri Aurobindo. In this episode, Santosh Krinsky traces the turning point in Sri Aurobindo's life—from political revolutionary to a figure of profound inner transformation following a decisive awakening during imprisonment....