Raghubir Khalsa Kintisch

I am a Kundalini yoga teacher/trainer and a multi-disciplinary artist; and therefore have always been interested in exploring how spiritual and artistic practices intersect. I am primarily what is called these days, "a maker" or more specifically, I paint, but I also perform, make videos and arrange for social engagements to occur as a social practice artist. I consider both teaching yoga and teaching art to be part of my creative practice.

As you may (or may not) know, I am also an art teacher; in the Foundation Dept. at Otis College of Art and Design and a teaching artist at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as well as at Notre Dame High School. Because of all this teaching, you could say that I have vast experience working with young people at the brink of their artistic trajectories; often assisting in their transition from either middle school to high school or high school to college.

These rites of passage are very powerful times in the lives of young artists and I've learned quite a bit from them in terms of the challenges they face as young "creatives." Daily life presents many pressures and obstacles, for young people (especially in the arts); in fact the very same pressures and obstacles show their ugly selves to older, more experienced artists. i wanted to create user-friendly yoga-centric books for artists in all age groups including teachers, students, professionals and dabblers alike.

I have been blown away in my research for my first book, The Eleven Yogic Arts of Creative Living by the sheer number of artists and spiritual masters and practitioners who are saying and have said the very same thing about the transcendent nature of being present for creativity to occur. Many of the same principles, like deep listening, self-discipline, concentrated awareness, connecting to the "source", removing the ego, the power of community, and being of service (or mentoring) appear time and time again in both practices.

What is most interesting to me is that both creativity and spiritual practice light up the same parts of the brain, open the heart in the same fashion, and offer an expanded and infinite world view.

I am a compulsive treasure hunter when it comes to digging for information and I get a big kick out of discovering connections and finding unexpected overlaps and intersections when comparing subjects; in this case, spiritual and creative practices, that I am particularly interested in. When I am working on a creative project, it usually begins with the same sort of rigorous research and investigation resulting in a wall full of images and clippings. My studio looks like a bit like a police detectives' office when they are trying to solve a crime; at least the ones I have seen on t.v.

I go deep into the cave of a particular project and don't emerge until I'm done and ready to see the light of day. This is a very essential part of me and I think most working artists. Without that drive to see the underbelly of a subject, I don't think any artist, dancer, scientist, writer, or whatever can bring a project to fruition. And without the obsessive drive, most projects will either fall short or fizzle out.

So, as I am intending to give you a taste of who I am, I am not a fizzle-out or fall-short kind of gal; I am grateful for my electric kettle and one good cup of coffee in the morning and that's it for the java; My physical body is not particularly good at staying still, unless I am meditating or working on a project which requires deep concentration; and my brain seems to work pretty much the same way. I love teaching and quite frankly, never knew that I was destined to become one. In the pursuit of becoming the best teacher, art or yoga, I can be, I am always in pursuit of becoming the best student.