Firstly I’d like to address the dynamic tension between my love of teaching [yoga] with my equal and opposite desire not to be stereotyped as a [yoga] teacher because I feel like I’ve reached a moment of clarity, and it’s been a few years coming.
There was something quite profound an old friend told me a long time ago, and it was nothing to do with Yoga. In fact it was in relation to an idea. The question was whether the idea was a “good idea” or a “bad idea”. It seems that the idea came under fire because the author of the idea was discovered to be a flawed human being and this fact alone brought the validity of his idea into question.
But here’s the thing. If someone said to you that one plus one equals two, would this statement be more or less true depending on who told it to you?
You may be thinking this has nothing to do with my original stated intent, but actually I think it has a whole lot to do with it.
One of the undeniable aspects of humanity is our capacity to judge. If the math equation was a little more complex, for example the mathematical proof that black holes exist, you’d probably be more inclined to believe it’s veracity if it was delivered to you by Stephen Hawking rather than by a high school dropout.
But let’s say the equation presented was the same equation in both cases, our ability to accept it as truth is heavily influenced by our perception of the individual delivering the information.
It gets more complex than that though. The way we make a judgement call is necessarily a reflection of our own experience and therefore bias. Let’s say that we have two people but only one of those people knows the High school dropout is a genius at mathematics. The point here is that more often than not, “we don’t know what we don’t know”. In this case knowing this person was a High school dropout we believed we had sufficient knowledge upon which to make an informed decision but in fact, the knowledge we possessed worked against us, because it was incomplete and therefore misleading. We would have been better off not knowing anything at all in spite of the fact that what we knew was true and factual information.
So let’s take a look at Yoga Teachers. To be honest I have a bit of a hard time understanding them. That’s going to be a bit of problem right there because apparently I am a Yoga teacher, or at least I teach Yoga classes, so by default that is what I am. Furthermore, I’ve never lasted more than a few months on any specific style of Yoga before I just got too pissed off at the doctrine and just needed to go my own way: Back into the wilderness of improvised Yoga I go.
But I’m talking about stuff that happened quite a long time ago, and as a practitioner of Yoga (for the sake of putting a label on it) I made peace with the fact that I didn’t need to find nor be part of a prescribed yoga system in order to “do yoga”. In fact in order for it to become of genuine benefit in my life I had to go my own way because that was the only way I was able to “feel happy” doing it.
I came across so many different perspectives, which in some cases, were almost diametrically opposed to each other. Most Yoga systems that have gained wide acceptance in the west have a strong bias towards Asana, but even within that specific classification there are massive variations on how Yoga should be practiced, both in terms of their physical execution and on the underlying energy; spiritual or even moral/philosophical principles that underpin them.
But you know what? Even with all this noise and confusion, and with all the other people making their own judgements about what was a good system and what was a bad system, I realised the only valid system was the system that actually worked for me, and it was none of the ones currently available in a nicely packaged class/studio and teacher.
I came to find my Yoga was a physical Yoga strongly connected towards inwards listening not directed at the Yoga postures, but at how I felt emotionally while I did them. This inwards listening to my emotional/mental state revealed stuff about me as a person. I was goal oriented, and I found that with the greater emphasis on self-awareness that this aspect of my personality could make me happy or make me miserable. This is where things got tricky. Frankly the vast majority of Yoga classes that I went to that had a sufficiently strong focus on physicality also had an equally strong orientation towards achievement (which I needed like a bullet in the head) -even if well disguised in the alignment principles that were evading my physical limits or my cognitive capacity to understand exactly what the hell it was the teacher was asking of me.
So is there any system that does not inherently involve judgement?!? Having teachers getting stuck into me, even with the best of intent was just not working. I wanted to do my Yoga so why weren’t they letting me do it? Well apparently it’s not Yoga unless I do the pose this way, except if you go to another Yoga school and then you have to do it that way. I’m being unfair of course but I’m trying to make a point. It’s not that what they were doing was wrong, and I do teach alignment in my own classes, if for the simple reasons of creating structure; awareness; and ensuring safety, but when it gets right down to it I would go to a gymnastics club if all I really wanted the best possible advice on how to do a handstand. I’m coming to a Yoga class because I’m looking for something else. This does not mean you should not teach Handstands in a Yoga class (and conversely you should not feel bad if you don’t) it just means that maybe the objective is not so much about teaching the perfect handstand as it is the cultivation of the spirit while you are practicing them.
As I became more accomplished with Yoga asana I also started to realise how massive the undertaking was and what the limits were of this type of physical practice. I started to see and experience that the isometric nature of Yoga Asana had genuine limits in terms of mastering your mind/body connection. I was a Martial Artist for quite a long time before I wrecked all my flexibility with endless years of endurance sports. This is not an attack on the value of asana or the practical merits of doing it, but rather a reality check that if we were to treat it purely as a system of physical training it lacks the dynamic movement necessary to develop power (speed + strength = power).
Further to this there is that other little thing called Dance. Again, from a purely physical analysis (which puts Yoga at an unfair disadvantage) A flexible dancer and a flexible Yogi are not the same thing. The functional movement and the sense of rhythm are not skills that can be learnt via isometric yoga postures alone.
I want to emphasise that I am only making these points because yoga, even as a purely physically executed practice is not really about the physical. So the shortcomings I may have argued in relationship to yoga asana should be taken in the context that I think Yoga is much bigger than that so it’s arguing a triviality. My view is Yoga teachers, especially western Yoga teachers make far too much of a big deal about Yoga asana thus transforming it into a means to it's own end when in fact it was only meant to be a subtle tool towards something much bigger.
Bottom line is that judged only on the physical merits I believe isometric asana is simply too one dimensional to be regarded as the single most effective form of physical training. Ok, I know we have breathing techniques, I know there are new age Yoga derivatives that teach Yoga to music and are almost starting to cross the boundaries into dance. I also know we have Kirtan, where the joyful act of singing and mantra and rhythm become the tool to access our bliss. But really, don’t these (and other) derivatives of yoga just strengthen the case that yoga is a lot more then just asana poses? Does this mean we can maybe stop fixating on the tool in order to enjoy the ride a bit more? Maybe it’s possible, even valid to treat asana as a continuation of the intuitive journey we started when we were born and somehow knew to take our first breath.
So coming back to the original point of this article, I’ve been thinking more and more lately about my future as a teacher, or do I even have one? The more I think about it the more I feel I have something important to offer and the only way I can do that is to at least try and make people understand that when I say I have mathematical proof that black holes exist you won’t immediately conclude that I’m full of shit just because I don’t have a well known brand name to attach to my style of Yoga nor do I particularly fit the stereotype. I am serious, I’ve been doing this for a long time and I feel a certainty that when the time comes teaching Yoga will become a very big part of my life.
I’ve had enough affirmation as a teacher to know that I am very good at what I do, and that my method is valid and has a place. Most importantly that there are plenty of people who see what I see and are more than willing to join me when I decide to set sail. I’m looking forward to the adventures ahead.
In real terms, my current plans are to attend another teacher training with a guy known as Dharma Mittra, either in 2013 or 2014, and then open my own studio. I did a class with Dharma when I was in New York
