The Company of Truth — Community
I have been practicing yoga for some time now. And for most of that time, I have practiced largely alone.
Not by accident — sadhana, by its nature, is a private conversation. The early morning mat, the breath, asana, kriyas - testing and moving me past my comfort zone. There is something in that solitude that can't be touched. But that's not what we are speaking to today.
The Vedic and yogic traditions know the power of sangha.
Sangha — company, association. And satsang, from the Sanskrit sat, meaning truth — the company of truth. Every lineage I have studied carries this at its heart. Kia Miller weaves it into the very architecture of Radiant Body Yoga. The Sattva tradition, the teachings of Swami Kaleshwar, the Himalayan tradition I have studied within — all understand its importance.
It was when my Reiki teacher shared a flyer about a homa in the Kaleshwar tradition that I was introduced to this concept of sangha. I had no idea what I was walking into. I didn't know a single person there. And I am not, by nature, someone who shows up alone to something unfamiliar — normally I'd drag a friend along, at least for the first time. But something overrode that instinct entirely. I wasn't invited so much as pulled.
I sat with the group and heard the Gayatri mantra, the Maha Kali mantra, the Jesus mantra — for the first time. And my soul just... knew. What followed was three years of non-stop immersion in the teachings of Swami Kaleshwar. Years of satsang that still continue. This is where I was meant to be.
This Community.
They say when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And so Kia Miller arrived — as teacher, as guide. In late 2020 I joined a 40-day offering. Zoom screens, shared breath, kriyas held in living rooms across a dozen time zones. The physical practices of asana, pranayama, kriya, mantra and meditation took my existing Japa practice somewhere deeper than I had expected. To feel community in that — even through a screen — was a genuine lifeline.
What I didn't know then was that a 40-day sadhana was quietly setting me on an entire yogic path. When I enrolled in my first 60-hour teaching module — on prana and pranayama — I wasn't planning to become a yoga teacher. I simply wanted to go deeper into the breath. To digest three years of profound spiritual teachings. To find the channels through which all of it could process and settle.
Somewhere in that first module, a text thread started between five or six of us. Nothing formal. Just people who were called to each other. All but one of us are still connected today but the algorithm still sends her across my path from time to time. I haven't been part of an in-person community that has created that kind of bond since. That tells me about the power of connection.
And Community.
All of my training through 2021 had been online. It wasn't until the autumn of 2022 that I was finally able to meet, in person, some of the people who had become such an important part of my world. Including, for the first time, Kia.
The Nuture Your Inner Light retreat in Zion was an adventure in every sense. Practicing together — actually sitting in practice with the people I had come to know only through a screen. Pam, Allie, Cassie, Aynsley — the original soul group, the ones the text thread had grown from — were suddenly there, in three dimensions, laughing and crying and holding the practice together. The community expanded too — Caitlin, Melissa, Rob, Laura, Jess, Alan. New faces that immediately felt familiar.
And then there was Yvonne — who at some point simply leapt up and across the room, a tiny tambourine in hand, and just exploded from within. Pure joy.
Pure Community.
Pam, Cassie, Allie and I — along with Pam's husband Tim — found our way to India together in early 2023 — Jaipur first, then the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh, which had been on my list for years before I ever understood why. Thousands of practitioners from across the world, gathered in the place where the Ganges comes down from the Himalayas. Our first dips in the Ganga and then Kia held her Kundalini Sadhana Immersion at Sattva — sixty of us, deep in practice together.
It was there that Pam, Allie, Cassie and I received our 500-hour shawls. Women I had started the training with, in those early pandemic Zoom rooms. We completed together. That word — together — held a weight in that moment I hadn't anticipated.
I sat by the river behind Sattva one afternoon, called by nature out of the practice. A woman emerged from the forest with a great load of branches on her head, walking slowly down to the water's edge. Like Mother Nature herself. The five elements were fully alive and fully in conversation with each other — earth, water, fire, air, ether. I had no more questions. Not because I had answers. Because something had settled that didn't need answering. I was changed. And I witnessed the change in others.
Living Community.
Many of us returned to Zion again later that year. As Rob said — we had started something, we had to go back. 😊
We went deep into kriya. There was an impromptu group hug. And a free afternoon heading to the narrows to hike the river and rounding a corner on our ebikes in Zion National Park — and suddenly recognizing the Divine in everything. Tat tvam asi. That thou art. It illuminated everywhere and everything and everyone.
We ended the retreat — which had expanded from four days to six — with a beautiful meditation, Ananda Das and Jaya Lakshmi playing I Bow to You as we each walked around the room, bowing, honouring each other on this journey. True alignment. True connection.
True Community.
In early 2024, Kia introduced us to the Sri Sukta — a living mantra practice rooted in the Himalayan Institute tradition. And again we went all in. Again the community grew. It was here that we met the Himalayan Institute sangha — Jeannine, Joelle, Amy, Shyama, Celeste, Mel — and it was here that I met a woman who would change the course of things for me back home in Aotearoa.
Deidre was the spark. She introduced me to Jo and the world of Family Constellation work. And it was Jo who offered me the first opportunity to lead practice here in New Zealand — asking if I would like to guide a session at one of her trainings. A door opened. A small group began gathering with me for weekly practice. Workshops followed. Some in-person community practices. The opportunity to guide practices for the ANZCI Immersions and we expand — Zulmara, Gillian, Fernanda. Seeds being planted.
And the Coromandel Yoga Festival. Over a hundred people gathered to practice together — to breathe, to move, to learn. And yes, there was kriya. The real thing, in a room full of people who understood exactly what they were doing. Something in me that had been quietly waiting exhaled.
It has inspired me in ways I am still discovering.
Finding Community.
And still the sangha grows.
Last summer, back in the States — coffee with Allie, time with Alan, staying with Pam. The easy, unhurried quality of people who know each other at the level that matters. And then India again — more on that coming soon — but back to Khajuraho, back into the extended family of the Himalayan Institute, back into Kia's community with Jenni and Erin. Back to the ashram in Penukonda, where two of the women from my very first trip to India were also returning. My heart just burst open.
And then the unexpected moments that remind you the universe is always conspiring. Running into Maiken — from Sattva 2023 — in Coimbatore. Kelly from the Himalayan Institute Kumbha Mela trip. Meeting Aynsley in Delhi for her first trip to India. Back to Sattva and Virginie and Johanna from 2024. Faces that belong to the deepest chapters of this path, appearing around corners, across continents. Chantal, Crystal, Judes, Mandy. The path widens. The heart opens further than you thought it could.
This is what matters. Not the teachings alone. Not the practices alone. The people we find along the way, who find us right back. The ones who hold the thread when we lose it. The ones who were there at the beginning and keep showing up. And the ones who passed through briefly — who we may not see again — but who we carry in our hearts.
And for so many others — Alx, Mata, Ellen, Susie, Alma, Andrea, Imke, Kate, Rasata, Janette, Alana, Bella, Jean, Kath, Patty, Kathy... too many to name. I am so grateful for the knowledge shared, the time given, the paths that crossed.
Every one of them part of the weave. This story is a work in progress.
Community - the heart of practice.
This is what we are building here.
In Aotearoa. Now. A space for those who know that the path is richer walked together. We are gathering for full and new moon homas. We are building healing circles — held, intentional spaces for deep transformative work. And every Sunday morning, wherever I am in the world, the mat goes down and the Zoom opens and we practice together.
If any of this is calling to you — come.
Community holds us all.