Hrdaya Yoga International is an expresion of yoga as taught and practiced by Jonathan Evatt.
Jonathan was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand. His earlist recollection of entering into the Field of Yoga his present body goes back to around 7. Yogic awareness arose spontaneously in his youth and it moved him to begin exploring it in different ways at different times. From as early as he can recall, he was aware of the subtle underlying realities within his life and the world around him, and he was prone to questioning anything that did not make sense according to the Wisdom of the Heart. In his experience this meant questioning, and later investigating, most of the social, religious, medical, and political structures of the world in which he was raised.
Jonathan spontaneously started his first yoga practice when he was 7. He has maintained this particular practice to this day.
At 14 or 15 Jonathan took up the practice of yoga asana from an old yoga book he found on the bookshelf in his mother’s home. The book was from the 1960s and it provided a simple outline of yoga principles, asana, and pranayama. After reading Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, at that same time Jonathan started actively practicing sitting meditation. At age 15 or 16 Jonathan learnt about various Taoist practices of cultivating sexual energy, purifying the emotions and astral body, bone marrow breathing, Chi Kung, and other Taoist yogic practices.
What he learnt from Taoist yoga made perfect sense to him and he took up the practice of working with his chi and sexual energy on an almost daily basis before and after school. A few years later he was initiated into what is referred to as spontaneous Qi Gong (Zi Ran Gong or Zi Fa Gong), where the practitioner enters into conscious relationship with the movement of prana (or Kundalini) inside and around the body, allowing the body to spontaneously enter into its own form of what might be likened to Tai Chi. He has also studied a number of martial arts including Karate, Thai Kickboxing, and Shaolin Kempo (a traditional style of Kung-fu), which is his preferred style.
At 18 Jonathan met two advanced Yogis whom he immediately recognized from past incarnations. Shortly thereafter he moved to the South Island of New Zealand to live and study with them. They introduced him to Kundalini yoga, kriya yoga, Eternal Yoga, and various practices intended to activate the subtle structures of the body-of-light; to initiate and realise the process of Ascension; and to develop conscious awareness in the energy centers above the head and in the Earth. He remained in close contact with them over for 7 years, and to a lesser degree until the present day. At 20 Jonathan left New Zealand to follow the call to connect with certain locations on the Earth, with the land, and with certain people; and to meet teachers he was guided to spend time with.
In the past 16 years Jonathan has spent considerable time in the company and tutelage of numerous living masters around the world. This has included a self-realized Buddhist Master in the Swiss Alps, two Hawaiian Kahuna (Shamans/Priests) in America, Amazonian shamans in Peru, a number of self-realized yogis, an advanced Yogi and Kundalini Master from Switzerland, numerous tallented healers, a plant-medicine man in the Caribbean, a number of master Ayurveda practitioners, and numerous teachers he has made contact with on the Inner Planes. During this period of exploration Jonathan remembered and integrated a wide range of universal spiritual wisdom that has been available to Man throughout time.
He now actively travels the world sharing this knowledge through a wide range of topics taught in workshops and retreats. This website arose out of the Hrdaya Yoga Retreats Jonathan has been leading internationally. His intention for this site is to provide those who are interested with an easy and accessible taste of the essence of Yoga.
Visit www.jonathanevatt.com for more information on Jonathan and his work internationally.
To read my commentary on this biography, click here.