Ori Yoga

Written by Danny Angelo Fluker Jr

One of the biggest take aways I reflected on during my time in Thailand is that Yoga as a Science has uncountable permutations.

Yes there are lineages and styles of Yoga.

Also there are individuals who are so transformed by it that it touches and moves through them back into the world into something entirely new, or if not new, uniquely expressed through the individual it transformed.

An example of this is Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, revered as the “Father of Modern Yoga,” who revitalized Hatha traditions while integrating postural elements inspired by the fitness culture and physical training methods of his time. He emphasized breath-linked movement, therapeutic application, and disciplined practice, and his students, Pattabhi Jois, B.K.S. Iyengar, Indra Devi, and his son T.K.V. Desikachar, carried these innovations into distinct schools that shaped global yoga culture.

Another example is Nevine Michaan, a woman who created Katonah Yoga, a syncretic practice rooted in Taoist theory, sacred geometry, and metaphor to reorganize the body for greater function and joy. It blends traditional yogic postures with precise mapping, measured angles, and archetypal imagery to help practitioners see themselves more clearly and inhabit their lives with greater agency.

There are so many examples, there’s Face Yoga, Thai Yoga, Chinese Yoga, Christian Yoga and so many other permutations.

One of my own teachers, Brandon Copeland, owner of Khepera Yoga married his love of Ashtanga Yoga with Trap music while a student at Howard University and created Trap Yoga.

Recently I’ve been allowing myself to navigate and document the history of Black Boys OM in a series of posts, I have written it in three parts, you can read the first here and the second part here, there’s at least one more part I have yet to write, maybe two. 

When I decided to turn Black Boys OM into a School of Yoga I had to ensure that a specific yoga lineage and a specific philosophy were articulated in the curriculum. The Krama Lineage of Yoga was chosen and the philosophy of Non Dual Kashmir Shivaism was chosen.

The Krama lineage offers a progressive and intentional approach to practice that honors steady unfolding, integration, and the refinement of awareness over time. Non Dual Kashmir Shivaism teaches that the divine is fully present within each of us and that liberation comes from recognizing our inherent wholeness rather than striving for it outside ourselves.

The Krama lineage arose in medieval Kashmir as a tantric school focused on the step by step expansion of awareness through stages of practice. Kashmir Shaivism developed alongside it as a non dual tradition shaped by teachers like Abhinavagupta who taught that all of life is the expression of one living consciousness.

I started to think though, twenty years from now, if someone stumbled across Black Boys OM website would they say Black Boys OM was a type of Yoga?

I don’t know. There’s no way to know.

But it got me thinking, if Black Boys OM was a type of Yoga what type of Yoga would it be?

On the official Black Boys OM School of Yoga webpage it states:

To Remember Wholeness

To Awaken through Yoga

To Prioritize Black Healing

Finish this post on Substack 

Visit the Ori  Yoga Webpage : https://blackboysom.org/ori-yoga