I don’t consider
myself one who wanks about all that’s wrong with yoga today, smattering my post
with Sanskrit, but here I go. I’m
worked up.
What’s with yoga
teachers sharing information they haven’t allowed to live in themselves through
practice? Each one of my teachers,
western and Indian, as well the ancient texts, have cautioned against sharing
the practices and the knowledge without having vigilantly allowed this to
incubate.
The yoga Sutras tell
us that correct knowledge arises from
direct experience. It would
seem the western academic model of regurgitated information applied to Yoga is
antithetical to the growth of classical yoga.
The Teacher Training
prevalence has created a world where one can aspire to make a living as a “yoga
teacher.” In this, the focus is on
the teaching before the practice has even begun to find a seat. I remember 10 years or so ago, Robert
Moses giving me the raised eyebrow, “You know,” he said, “the possibility of
fame and fortune through yoga is a totally new thing. There was absolutely no chance of this ever before in the
yoga.” He would speak of visiting
the websites of well-known teachers where the site was all about Them. He found this preposterous.
I am reminded of
Pattabhi Jois’s tales of his wife owning one saree during his first teaching
tenure in Mysore. His daughter
Saraswati tells me now she herself owns around 500. Times change.
Pramana, correct
knowledge (which requires deep understanding) results from practice and
observance (which requires patience).
There is nothing about the wisdom traditions
of India that suggests a quick fix, a next-best-thing, or a marketing gimmick.
I’m not stating anything you don’t already know, even with some small amount
of knowledge of these traditions.
The touting out of American style sound bites, from individuals who feel
their several years of experience of one tradition or another merits the next
workshop, is cheap.
Small amounts of
information and experience are just the beginning. Offering practices up to the public before they live inside
us does a great disservice to the art of yoga, and even more so, to the
self.
As the Prana
required to experience and integrate our own yogas goes outward to the act of
teaching, we miss the chance, the greatest chance of this lifetime to practice
deeply and truly Svadhyaya; self-study.
We miss the chance to percolate through the filter of experience down to
the field of Pramana. We miss the
opportunity to follow the yoga along the journey it leads us on when the mind
is going outwards to teach new information and practice. It takes years, it takes patience, it
takes above all a commitment to the path of self to Self.
Meaningful teaching
arises naturally from those who have embodied some Truth.
Addressing a group
of teachers a few years ago, Sharath assured us:
“You have the
honey. Don’t worry, bees will
come. You don’t see some flowers
making posts in the newspaper about their nectar.”
"The yoga Sutras tell us that correct knowledge arises from direct experience."
ReplyDeleteThis is only partly true. The sutras say that correct knowledge arises from three sources, direct perception (not "experience", which is an issue at the higher levels, since "experience" would tends to be mixed up with prakrti while perception is a purusa-based phenomenon), inference, and testimony. This is, of course, an ordered list, the first being the most important and also being the basis of the others.
But as the basis, it does not need to be *your* direct perception.
BRAVO!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this posting!
Thanks Isaac! Thanks for clarifying the complications of words like "experience." Your mention of the third mode of acquiring correct knowledge warrants a new posting on how to wade through the many degrees of testimony available to the curious yoga practitioner these days. If you want to write, it, I will cross post.
ReplyDeleteOM
I really appreciate this post, Kate. I feel that what you're talking about in your post is the reason why it is very difficult to find a teacher/studio that feels spiritual and not just about being trendy or wiser-than-thou type stuff. This is what has kept me following your practice, teaching, and presence over the years, because I feel that you embody the teachings and are experienced by experience. Much gratitude to you.
ReplyDelete"Offering practices up to the public before they live inside us does a great disservice to the art of yoga, and even more so, to the self. "
ReplyDeleteBravo and hear, hear, Kate! Many thanks for this post.
The amazing John Kenneth Galbraith wrote a wonderful treatise on this subject in his book The Affluent Society and coined the term "Conventional Wisdom." The West has a way of making everything conventional and in the box. Thanks for the great post.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts. I come from a difference tradition of Satyananda but I also enjoy the insights from the Ashtanga tradition. In a Satsang with Swami Niranjanananda, he's share a similar view and explained that it takes a long time to become a 'yoga teacher'. You can be an Asana Teacher, You can be a Pranayama teacherm You can be a Meditation Teacher, You can be a Yoga Nidra Teacher etc. And you can be so good at doing all these in each of their single entities. But to integrate these with internalization of the knowledge, then true wisdom descends.
ReplyDeleteBut there is no problem with people teaching at all in this moment and it is part of the evolution. Addressing what we teach is the small issue. Yoga in terms of its exponential growth is still in its infancy and people are just starting to understand what it is about. Fortunately you have had many more years ahead of others on this path to turn refine your teachings. =)
Wait till the global consciousness grows to a point where 'Asana' becomes a buzzword then you will notice another new paradigm in the way we teach and receive yoga in our daily lives. Om.