Ramesh Bjonnes | elephant journal

About: Ramesh Bjonnes

Website: http://www.pramainstitute.org
Profile: Ramesh Bjonnes was born in Norway and lived for nearly three years in India and Nepal learning directly from the masters of tantric yoga. Before he became a yogi, he studied agronomy and co-founded an organic farm with other yogis in Finland. Bjonnes is co-founder of the Prama Institute (www.pramainstitute.org), a holistic retreat center outside Asheville, NC. He has written extensively on tantra, yoga, culture and sustainability, and his articles have appeared in books and numerous magazines and newspapers in Europe and the US. His forthcoming book on Tantra will be published by Hay House India soon. He is currently contributing editor of New Renaissance and a columnist for Fredrikstad Blad, a Norwegian newspaper. He lives in an eco-village in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
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Posts by Ramesh Bjonnes:

Sex, Bliss, Tantra & the Anusara Revolution.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Feb 8, 2012

How true is Anusara’s philosophy to the philosophy of Tantra? Does the following paragraph from John Friend’s Shiva Shakti Tantra philosophy reflect the inner essence of Tantra?

3,165 views
282068Comments 1102012-02-08+12%3A00%3A08Ramesh+Bjonnes

Religion, Dharma, Yoga, Science, Spirituality. What’s the difference?

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Jan 18, 2012

Objective science can never fully explain subjective truth. That’s why even scientists resort to poetry, to myth, to explain certain objective truths.

1,278 views
270514Comments 742012-01-18+18%3A14%3A20Ramesh+Bjonnes

NY Times: “Yoga Can Wreck Your Health.” (Here Are 7 Ways To Avoid It)

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Jan 16, 2012

“Today many schools of yoga are just about pushing people,” Black said. “You can’t believe what’s going on — teachers jumping on people, pushing and pulling and saying, ‘You should be able to do this by now.’ It has to do with their egos.”

5,849 views
268893Comments 232012-01-16+20%3A28%3A31Ramesh+Bjonnes

Yoga as Meditation: The Power Of Sitting Now.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Nov 28, 2011

As an angry and very articulate Zen monk perceptively wrote in an article in Buddhadharma magazine: Spiritual practice is “transformative, and this kind of transformation can get messy. The Sanskrit term for this is clusterf*ck.”

1,504 views
248259Comments 472011-11-29+04%3A56%3A14Ramesh+Bjonnes

Yoga & Activism: Are You Ready to Occupy the World from Within?

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Nov 22, 2011

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758 views
245600Comments 172011-11-22+14%3A27%3A42Ramesh+Bjonnes

Tantra & Kundalini: Uncoiling the Sacred Snake of Sex & Liberation.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Oct 19, 2011

Are we humans hardwired for sex, sadness and liberation? According to Tantric yoga, yes we are!

1,641 views
231805Comments 272011-10-19+06%3A23%3A46Ramesh+Bjonnes

Tantric Love: Why is the Male Blue & the Female Golden?

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Oct 6, 2011

Without dancing, moving, expressing in the form of a human body; we cannot experience the ethereal and Divine. Thus the body too is Divine.

2,025 views
226128Comments 162011-10-06+09%3A09%3A13Ramesh+Bjonnes

Can We Be Spiritual Without Inner Transformation? A Tantric Perspective.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Oct 3, 2011

But also according to Tantra, there is a changeless Self, which never changes, to which the changing self wakes up, discovers, embraces, and is absorbed into through transformative expansion. Thus there is both transformation and no-transformation. Change and no-change.

1,972 views
224820Comments 292011-10-04+01%3A16%3A09Ramesh+Bjonnes

Tantra Practice: 3 Steps to Meaningful Mindfulness Meditation.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Sep 5, 2011

The effort itself, even the process of forgetting and then returning, is part of the practice, is Meaningful, is Divine. Always.

2,431 views
211681Comments 242011-09-05+12%3A05%3A10Ramesh+Bjonnes

The Secrets of Tantra in 86 Words.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Aug 28, 2011

tantra is not the yoga of sex

2,773 views
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3 Ways to View the Ancient History of Yoga.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Aug 20, 2011

Recent research into this important period of history has revealed that India was, in so many ways, also the cradle of human civilization, not just geographically and culturally, but also spiritually.

2,316 views
205119Comments 302011-08-21+03%3A48%3A14Ramesh+Bjonnes

Were the poet Rumi and Shams gay lovers? (or was it simply Bhakti love?)

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Aug 8, 2011

Personally, I think the idea of Rumi and Shams being gay is one big contemporary projection. Not, of course, that being gay itself is a problem, but in this case I think it is unlikely. In the West, we don’t really have a tradition of the guru/disciple relationship we see in Sufism, Tantra and other ecstatic traditions of the East. Hence we tend to be overly skeptical, distrustful.

1,088 views
199975Comments 252011-08-08+10%3A05%3A07Ramesh+Bjonnes

3 ways to practice Yoga: for the body, the soul, or both?

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Aug 5, 2011

Do you practice yoga to get a flexible body, a bendable brain, an enlightened spirit, or to achieve a little bit of everything? Either way, you are not the first. Yoga has experimented with all these paths and expressions for centuries.

1,481 views
199112Comments 292011-08-05+08%3A35%3A37Ramesh+Bjonnes

From Norway With Love (and Roses).

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Jul 25, 2011

His views are, however, shared by a growing number of conservative extremists across Europe. They are alarmed by Eurabia—the idea that Europe is being taken over by Muslims, a fact which, they claim, is supported by national and international politicians. Hence, Breivik’s need to kill the Prime Minister and his young followers, all those who are polluting the purity of European culture.

1,074 views
195337Comments 21From+Norway+With+Love+%28and+Roses%29.2011-07-25+21%3A27%3A37Ramesh+Bjonnes

The Secret about Tantra and Sex.

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Jul 24, 2011

In actuality, the spirit of Tantra implies that ordinary activities and enjoyments such as eating, playing, writing, and sex are seen as relative expressions of the Absolute. They are thus imbued with sacredness and spirituality.

3,137 views
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You Are Already Enlightened! True or False?

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Jun 14, 2011

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1,244 views
178604Comments 352011-06-14+12%3A18%3A59Ramesh+Bjonnes

My Love-affair With Tantra (And It’s not Just About Sex)

by Ramesh Bjonnes on Jun 7, 2011

I love Tantra because when you practice your asana in harmony with your breath, you are the whole universe moving in one Tantric flow. I love Tantra because it's about walking your spiritual talk.

1,819 views
175990Comments 112011-06-07+20%3A29%3A59Ramesh+Bjonnes