Kashmir Yoga: A Path of Listening, Breath, and Stillness

During my 500-hour yoga teacher training at the Yoga Academy Netherlands in Amsterdam, I was trained in teaching Hatha yoga. I also had the privilege of learning from Koos Zondervan, the well-known Kashmir yoga teacher in the Netherlands and beyond.

It was through Koos that I discovered the Kashmir yoga tradition, rooted in the teachings of Jean Klein. I fell in love with this subtle and profound approach to yoga. Long before Yin yoga became mainstream, the Kashmir tradition was already encouraging practitioners to hold poses longer—not to stretch more deeply or push harder, but to soften, to listen, and to meet the body as energy.

Many of us live in our heads and have become disconnected from the quiet intelligence of the body. As Billy Doyle writes, “The subtle energy of the body is paralysed in neuro-muscular tensions. Only in listening without anticipation or choice can this original energy feeling begin to manifest.”

This is exactly what Kashmir yoga invites: to slow down enough to feel again. By listening to the body without judgment or goal, we begin to uncover what lies beneath habitual patterns of tension. Over time, we stop reacting impulsively to sensations and instead allow them to unfold. We begin to sense the body not as fragmented parts, but as a unified field—a global sensation that brings us closer to wholeness.

As old layers of resistance soften, the body begins to feel lighter, more spacious. There’s a sense of dissolving into the environment, as though the boundary between body and space is no longer so solid. It brings with it a quiet openness. Often, our bodies protect the ego, but when we awaken the energy body, we become capable of letting that protective shell go.

Each pose becomes a practice in presence. We hold the shape gently, not to achieve anything, but to feel—truly feel—what is happening inside. We stay a little longer, leaning into the edge of what’s possible, then backing off, then returning. And in that subtle movement between stillness and sensation, something softens on its own.

Meditation and the Breath

Breath and meditation are inseparable elements of Kashmir yoga. The breath becomes a bridge between body and awareness—a gentle guide into presence. But unlike many traditions that control or shape the breath, in Kashmir yoga, we simply observe. We let the breath reveal itself. No effort, no manipulation. Just awareness.

Often, I begin by simply resting, allowing the breath to move through me without interference. It’s in this quiet witnessing that the breath begins to change—not because I am changing it, but because something deeper is relaxing. Eventually, it doesn’t even feel like I am breathing anymore. It’s as if I am being breathed by life itself.

Meditation, in this approach, is not a doing. It is a non-doing. A falling away. When we listen without seeking, without trying to attain a state, meditation arises naturally. It is the direct experience of presence, of being.

This meditative state doesn’t begin and end on the mat. It weaves through the entire practice. Each posture becomes a doorway into stillness. Each breath, an invitation to let go. And in this letting go, we don’t lose ourselves—we rediscover something deeper that has always been there beneath the surface of striving and control.

A Soft Return to Self

Kashmir yoga is not about achievement. It is a soft, spacious return to self. A way of coming home through the body, through the breath, through presence. It asks nothing of us but our willingness to feel, to listen, and to be.

In a world that constantly pulls us outward, this practice is a quiet revolution. A gentle unfolding back into the ground of being. And in that stillness, we may begin to recognize who we truly are—beyond the body, beyond the breath, beyond the mind.

About the Author

I am a certified yoga teacher with a deep love for the Kashmir yoga tradition. Trained in Hatha and Kashmir yoga through the Yoga Academy Netherlands, I continue to explore the subtle path of body awareness, breath, and meditation. My intention is to guide others toward a more spacious, grounded connection with themselves—both on and off the mat.