Diplomas

Chakra Raja Kan is the academic director and manager of Ishka Center, which he founded in 2004. He is the creator of the IKY System, Kankueb Dance and IKYnesis, as well as of the international yoga trainings and the International Registry for Yoga Teachers (RIPEY).

Yoga Teacher
Feldenkrais Method® Teacher
Mayan Spiritual Guide certification from the government of Guatemala
Power Yoga Instructor
Postgraduate certification in Yoga for Children
Prenatal Yoga Teacher
Pranic Healing Certification
Reiki Master
Tai Chi and Chi Kung Instructor
Yoga Nidra Certification

Yoga Training

Hatha yoga practice, the early years

C.R. Kan began learning yoga in October 1993, during his final year of law studies at Universidad Externado de Colombia, while doing his legal-clinic practice for the Office of the President before the Constitutional Court in Bogotá.

The demands of academic and professional life required him to take up a physical practice that would also bring relaxation and rest, and he chose hatha yoga. He found the discipline difficult and aggressive, compounded by its unfamiliar, religiously-tinged language and symbolism — traits at odds with the skeptical, critical, atheist and secular temperament he had always carried, shaped during his school years at the Liceo Francés in his hometown of Cali.

Even so, he kept attending hatha yoga classes sporadically, mainly with teacher Asdrúal Lozano, until the year 2000, when — serving as a police inspector in the municipality of La Calera, northeast of Bogotá — he met the Wiwa mamo don Ramón Gil, who inspired him to begin a spiritual path.

He returned to hatha yoga practice with teacher Beatriz Rodríguez of the Gran Fraternidad Universal, who introduced him to deeper techniques and pointed him toward the Satyananda Yoga school, whose founder would later become his guru. He also studied for several months between 2000 and 2001 with teacher Goranga Lila at the Hare Krishna temple in Bogotá.

During 2004, also in Bogotá, he trained in tantra kriya yoga under kaula teacher Tutare Devi Dasi, who initiated him as a hatha yoga teacher that same July.

Starting in 2005 he began practicing Satyananda Yoga through workshops taught in Cali by Swami Darmadeva.

C.R. Kan iniciándose en meditación Ishaia

Initiation into Ishaia meditation, 2006

In 2006 he was initiated into Ishaia meditation by teachers Bhairavinanda Ishaia and Balaram Ishaia in his hometown.

In February 2007 he was certified as an integral yoga instructor with Yogui Maurya and as a power yoga instructor with Marcela Larrosa at the Yogakai School in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In February 2009 he was certified at the same school as a classical yoga teacher, with postgraduate studies in yoga for children and prenatal yoga. At the same time, he was certified as a tai chi and chi kung instructor by teacher Aníbal Bonelli at the Naturaleza Tai school in Argentina.

On May 21, 2012, in Bogotá, he received diksha patra from guru Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of Yoga in India.

In December 2019 he completed the one-year Yogic Studies 1 course from the Bihar School of Yoga of India, through its representative in Colombia, the Satyananda Yoga Academy of Bogotá. In 2020 he continued at the same school, completing Yogic Studies 2 in December, and in January 2024 he began the teacher-training level with the same institution — after 20 years of consistent, ongoing work as a yoga teacher.

Over more than 30 years of yoga study and practice, he has taken numerous classes, retreats, workshops and courses with different teachers from a variety of yoga schools, both in Colombia and abroad.

Mayan Path

On February 20, 2001, he met Mayan spiritual guide don Carlos Barrios, with whom he began his Sac Be (Mayan spiritual path) a few months later. On July 10, 2002, he built his first altar with don Gerardo Barrios, from whom he received the teachings of kankueb, and with whom he carried out the first 13 sacred fire altars over the course of 4 years.

On December 20, 2006, he received zute and was ordained as Aj Pom (Mayan fire keeper) in a fire ceremony held at the sacred altar of Kaminal Juyú, Guatemala City, by don Gerardo Barrios. It was don Gerardo who, from 2003 onward, instructed him in the discipline of Kankueb — the Mayan technology for spiritual development based on the work of energy and mind.

On January 15, 2007, he was ordained a Mayan Aj Qij by order of Kamal Be zutujil don Juan Manuel Mendoza, in a sacred fire ceremony held in Santiago de Atitlán. The following January 31, he received his official recognition as Aj Qij (Mayan spiritual guide) from the government of the Republic of Guatemala, sponsored by don Carlos Barrios.

On December 21, 2012, C.R. Kan performed two Mayan sacred fire ceremonies on the Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca, Bolivia — the first for the arrival of the Job Baktún, or Fifth Sun, and the second for the activation of the Kaokán, in accordance with the prophecies of that tradition. He carried out these fires in fulfillment of instructions given to him by don Gerardo Barrios, some time before his death on March 8, 2011, in the Pance neighborhood of Cali.

Honoring the legacy of his Mayan teachers, since 2006 he has been developing, systematizing and teaching the discipline of Kankueb to the many students who pass through his school.

Feldenkrais Method® of Awareness Through Movement Training

C.R. Kan en su formación del Método Feldenkrais®

Feldenkrais Method® training, Cali

In 2011 he began his mastery training in the Feldenkrais Method® of Awareness Through Movement with teachers Stephen Rosenholtz and Marilupe Campero, at the school of medicine of the Universidad de Colima, Mexico.

In 2012 he restarted the process with teachers Alan Questel and Lea Kaufman in the city of Cali, and after 4 years of training earned the title of Feldenkrais teacher in February 2016.

C.R. Kan practicando el Método Feldenkrais®

Functional Integration session

Thanks to his training in the Feldenkrais Method®, C.R. Kan is a specialist in biomechanics and human movement — and as such, deeply versed in the dynamics of the musculoskeletal system and its relationship with the nervous system, which has allowed him to apply his knowledge of motor function to yoga and Kankueb.

From this, he has developed a sophisticated methodology — safe and highly effective — for working with the most complex and advanced bodily and mental practices of yoga and Kankueb: the IKY SYSTEM – ISHKA KANKUEB YOGA®.

By infusing yoga with the science of movement and biomechanics, and enriching it with the techniques of Mayan kankueb, C.R. Kan is transforming the practice of yoga around the world.

Experience

Experience as a Teacher

C.R. Kan began his work as a yoga teacher in March 2004 in Bogotá, where a year earlier he had already founded ISHKA CENTER. Based in Cali since 2005 — where he moved ISHKA CENTER to its current location in Pance — he began directing his first annual yoga teacher training in 2009.

In 2017 he began directing the first international instructor training in integral yoga and classical and modern meditation, which he continues to lead to this day. Since then he has trained more than 350 yoga instructors and teachers, several to an advanced level, using the IKY SYSTEM – ISHKA KANKUEB YOGA® methodology he authored.

C.R. Kan has become an influential teacher in yoga worldwide, proposing through the IKY System a revolutionary, advanced methodology.

His contribution to the development and evolution of yoga is rooted in the inclusion of biomechanics and movement science in asana practice — particularly in the application of sophisticated Drishtis (meditative attention techniques) during postural practice, vinyasas, kriyas, pranayamas, mudras and bandhas. Along the same lines, he has implemented an easier, more efficient meditation system. All of this has been enriched and deepened through the techniques of Mayan kankueb, learned from his Mayan teachers, brothers don Carlos Barrios and don Gerardo Kanek Barrios.

On the instructions of Aj Qij (Mayan spiritual guide) don Carlos Barrios, he has developed a complementary spiritual path bridging the tantra kundalini yoga of his guru Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of Yoga in India, and the Sac Be received from his Mayan teachers don Carlos and don Gerardo Kanek Barrios. The latter entrusted him with developing and teaching the techniques of kankueb: a technology of spiritual work based on energetic and mental exercise rooted in Mayan cosmovision.

Driving New Initiatives

In 2009, C.R. Kan co-founded JOVITA'S HOSTEL, the first hostel in Cali to offer free yoga and salsa classes to its guests — supporting, from the private sector, the government's project to promote Cali-style salsa among foreign visitors.

In 2013 he launched free yoga and Feldenkrais classes at a Cali shopping center, Unicentro; other shopping centers later replicated the offering, democratizing and promoting access to these practices.

In mid-2014 he led the creation of the COLOMBIAN ASSOCIATION OF FELDENKRAIS METHOD TEACHERS, drafting its bylaws and other internal regulations, and serving as its president for its first term.

In December 2014 he organized the first yoga festival in Cali, ISHKA FEST, attended by more than 1,100 people — later replicated by other yoga schools and organizations.

In January 2017 he created, for the first time in Colombia, the 21-day yoga instructor training model, designing an exclusive, efficient methodology whose successful application continues to this day. This project has the best and most numerous reviews online of anything he has created.

In 2019 he created the program for foreigners: YES – YOGA, SPANISH AND SALSA, which he still directs today.

In 2021 he created SHAMANIKY, a day of experiences based on Mayan cosmovision and kankueb.

In addition to systematizing the techniques of Mayan Kankueb, he created KANKUEB DANCE, an exclusive, original methodology of danced bodily movement based mainly on kankueb's own visualizations.

He has also created, under the name IKYNESIS, a development of the Feldenkrais Method® based on the visualizations of tantric yoga and kankueb, as a way to deepen human movement.

Finally, his greatest creation, the IKY SYSTEM – ISHKA KANKUEB YOGA®, is the first yoga style native to Colombia and one of the very few created and developed in Latin America — while also being one of the most revolutionary and modern in the world.

Life Today

C.R. KAN currently directs the biannual teacher trainings and the 21-day international instructor trainings at ISHKA CENTER in Cali, Colombia.

He teaches ongoing classes in ISHKA KANKUEB YOGA®, IKYNESIS and the FELDENKRAIS METHOD; he also leads deep-dive courses, retreats and workshops on specific yoga and movement topics, the YES – YOGA SPANISH AND SALSA program, and SHAMANIKY.

He also gives individual FI – Functional Integration sessions of the Feldenkrais Method®, and is the current holder of one of the branches of the ancient Kukulkán lineage.

Continuing his initiative to democratize access to yoga knowledge, he has created a series of free podcasts and yoga classes across several platforms, such as YouTube and Instagram

C.R. Kan: Founding Teacher of IKY Yoga Teacher & Instructor Training