Tao Porchon-Lynch: The Best Day of My Life
The best day of our life? It happens when we live like it’s the only day of our life. Tao Porchon-Lynch, the world’s oldest yoga teacher lives the best day of her life – every day.
When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing that you do?
Smile and say this is going to be the best day of my life.
In which year did you march with Mahatma Gandhi? How did you feel and what did you learn from the experience?
1930. I felt the disgust of watching people on a peace march being injured.
You began yoga at eight — very young indeed. Does one have to maintain the routine in order to stay as supple as you are at this age?
I didn’t know it was yoga. I thought it was boys playing a new game.
When did you decide you wanted to teach yoga?
Indra Devi talked me into it in Hollywood when I was at MGM.
How do we live our lives to the fullest and accomplish what we want?
Look at all nature around you and think the beauty of nature is the lord of creation within you and all the flowers around you. It opens the door to your heart.
What is your most memorable adventure?
Seeing my uncle making a railway in Africa when I was 12 years old. The Watusis people showed me how to roll my head around quickly.
What have you learned about the people you have met through teaching yoga around the world?
Finding the oneness around the world and realising that with yoga you open the door to life with everyone. Every day I am learning from all of my students as much as I have learned from the masters.
Photographer Robert Sturman has noted that you grow more youthful each time he meets you. Are you somehow defying the concept of age?
I never think about age. I look at the trees and discover they are thousands of years old and have decided not to die on me.
What are some of the things that your latest book Dancing Light: The Spiritual Side of Being Through the Eyes of a Modern Yoga Master cover?
The story of the beauty of my life and the lessons I have learned from it.
Where is your favourite place in the world to teach yoga? Why?
From deserts to mountains and across the oceans. In all countries I learned some more about the beauty of life.
Tao on TEDx: There is nothing you cannot do
