few days ago i highlighted some differences between for e.g. what is a yoga teacher (role) and a yoga instructor… so i’ll expand a bit into the topic even if some ideas i communicated already before:

starting with few points on what is Yoga:

• yoga is a tool
  • to experience
  • to control
  • to manifest
• yoga is an educational system
  • science
    • health
  • culture
  • beauty
• yoga is fitness
  • of the mind
  • of the body
  • of the soul

if in the past, all the famous writers (on yoga) wanted to remain if not as anonymous as possible, discreet or modest.. starting always with the fact that they are not saying anything new but repeating or re-clarifying the same things.. NOW, in this small speck of time that we remember, many (attempt to) copyright their teachings.

It seems that somehow these new teachers (that didn’t reach or culminate any higher state, realization or enlightenment) have succeeded in inventing *new* yoga, finding new yoga secrets, by themselves and by so want to monetize this information 🙂 – for them i have few questions:

• was the information divine or constructed by you?
  • who is that you? is your ego?
    • isn’t yoga about dissolving that ego?
  • if the source is divine – how can you ask money or copyright it?
  • if the source is a personal study – do you have generations that test it and prove its authenticity? benefits?
• do you know what is the price of a single rice bean?
  • behind all the costs (transportation, storage, cultivation, etc)?
    • what’s the price that you pay Earth and Sun for growing it?
• is any of your yoga books suggesting, promoting such a proprietary idea?
• any yogic source older then 100 years shared yoga on your business principles?
• …

Yoga is knowledge – knowledge means sharing

one really important concept:

I don’t teach Yoga, I share Yoga

many of the teachers have or still wear on their respective wrist a red-yellow-white thread, this was also a reminder that the teachers who presented them yoga had no retention of information and by so you as new teachers should answer – accordingly, caring and in best abilities – to what is required or asked to share from yoga..

A yoga teacher can only guide their students as far as she/he has gone herself in her personal journey. While teaching yoga, we may never know the impact we have on our students. That is why it is so important to come from a place of truth, compassion, honesty and humility.

 The role of a teacher

especially a yoga teacher, has not only a role, but a duty, to share yoga..

“the teacher is there to help, to facilitate the student’s deepening relationship with yoga”

yoga should be in the hands of everybody

one should not only react when the opportunity arises to share freely to the community, or to the ones who desire to know.. but should seek, display and create opportunities so this can happen

it should not be in the hands of the guru or empowering any organization, yoga is a personal practice

Pattabhi Jois one day in Mysore said that the: “practice is much more important than the teacher.”

yoga has to be in the human hands

one who knows yoga, one who teaches yoga, understands yoga.. will find it necessarily that every human should have this tool in their hands..

as one has the tooth brush for the teeth.. yoga should be also there as part of their holistic hygiene

that should be the commitment of a yoga teacher – everybody should have access to it – this is the reason that I am happy when I see more yoga teachers growing in the city, in the country at least with a primary desire to share yoga..

Well, being a good teacher is very different from being a good practitioner, so one must really want to be of service to others. Teachers should have a solid relationship with their own practice, so that they understand why they are teaching yoga and what they have to offer.

And there is always more to learn, so one should be humble in one’s knowledge, and always keep learning , studying with other teachers.

yoga international day

put yourself in the service of yoga, share yoga to your community, share freely, share from all your heart, share with passion, share as your all teachers shared…

how you are within youself is your spirituality