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SPRING 2007
NAMASTE,
"I want to be a yoga teacher."
As the yoga boom matures and becomes increasingly entrenched in mainstream consciousness, more and more people are deciding that teaching yoga can offer a viable way to make a living. Teacher training courses abound. But more than a few people are putting the cart before the horse. We’ve had calls from folks who haven’t even taken a class yet, and they ask about becoming a teacher! It seems to me that to even think about becoming a yoga teacher, one should first be a yoga student – and a pretty good one at that.
So what does it mean to be a good yoga student and how do you do it?
A few thoughts:
Go to class.
This is the first order of business. It’s true that you can learn a lot about yoga without going to a yoga class. Quite frankly, I learned solely from books for the first three years of my yoga practice. Partly because of that and partly from being a student myself for the past thirty-seven years, I know that attending class with an experienced, skillful teacher can accelerate your learning process, help you avoid dead-end detours in your practice, and guide you in dealing with problems and questions you will inevitably encounter. We all seem to lead very busy lives with great demands on our time. Family, jobs, work and vacation travel, and illness can cramp our ability to get to class, but regular class attendance has tremendous benefits worth the effort it takes to get there. Perhaps most important is that in class, you are being taught the knowledge and skills necessary to develop and improve your own practice.
An important benefit from going to class is contact with a teacher. The teacher can be a powerful resource, especially if you want to see what yoga can bring to one’s entire life physically, mentally, and spiritually. How the teacher presents material, demonstrates poses and actions, deals with questions, helps people with problems, and exemplifies the teachings in his or her words and actions is an invaluable guide to you as you make your way along the path of yoga.
Be respectful.
Just showing up for class is not enough, however. What you actually do in class is what is important, and by this I don’t mean whether or not you do whiz-bang poses. More essential than physical skill is the attitude with which you come to class. Arriving at class on time, following the instructions of the teacher, being considerate of the other students, taking care of your and the studio’s equipment, observing the rules of the center, honoring the teachings as best you can: all these elements grow out of a respectful attitude, which is at the heart of being a good student.
The benefit of maintaining a respectful attitude is that it fosters the quality of receptivity, a necessity if one is to absorb what the teacher and teachings have to offer.
Give it your all.
Showing up with good intentions, important as that is, is insufficient. To be a good student you must put your full effort into it. Yoga is in complete accord with the laws of the universe, and one of those laws is that you get out what you put in. By effort I don’t necessarily mean physical strain and force. Learning how to direct your attention, sensitivity, and energy is more important than just working hard physically – and more difficult. The key to being able to give yoga your all is to love it. Then there is little resistance to learning. You will soak up the teaching and the experience like a sponge. But as Bonnie Raitt says, "You can’t make your heart feel something it won’t." It may not come right away, it may not come at all, but if there is not a spark of passion for yoga, giving it your all will be hard. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t feel like bounding out of bed each morning to get to your yoga mat, though. Even if you don’t start out with passion and love for yoga (Who does? How could you start out that way, anyway?), if you practice, whatever desires and needs brought you to yoga in the first place can provide the impetus to stay with it long enough to discover the rewards that can stir an inner passion and ignite the fever of joyful commitment to your practice.
Practice.
Being a good yoga student, just as in being good at anything, is a very demanding task. Even if you love yoga, you come to class regularly, and you are open, respectful and receptive, that is still not enough. To be a good student, you must practice.
By now, I know all this may be becoming a bit demoralizing, although it isn’t meant to be, and the following may be the final straw, but more than anything else, the issue of practice separates the ordinary student from the good student. For many students, establishing a practice is the most difficult part of yoga. How much you practice; what you practice; how you practice – all these things will determine whether you progress and if you do make progress, how rapidly. A good student is one who wants to make progress, does make progress, grows in her practice, brings enthusiasm to the exploration of himself through yoga, and finds delight and illumination in the process. Practice and with it, surrender, are the cornerstones of yoga.
These are some important things that go into being a good student.
Of course, the entire discussion introduces the complex issue of good and bad. Many are uncomfortable with the whole notion of something being bad, although they’re just fine with something being good. Part of the complexity results from that fact that on one level, there is no good or bad anything – teacher, student, person, event, whatever. We are all performing our steps in the dance of Being, and dancing our own unique dance perfectly. On another level, however, we do use those terms – good, bad - in our lives: good drivers, bad shots, good taste, bad time, etc. On that level, some students are better than others, just as some teachers are better than others. Some care, some don’t. It is important to bear in mind, however, that whether or not someone is a good student isn’t something that can be measured on a clear cut, objective scale. It is a complicated question and must take into consideration what a student brings to the process and what the student wants from yoga. Nonetheless, seeking excellence, no matter the motivation, is an overarching characteristic of the good student.
Given such a demanding list of requirements, one might be tempted to throw in the towel, or at least lower one’s sights. I think it is worth bearing in mind, however, that although your reasons for continuing your practice will surely evolve and change and your resolve will wax and wane, the best reason for being a good student is that in so doing, you will taste more deeply the sweetness of the fruit of yoga.
P.S. We’ll talk about practice and it’s role in being a student at our discussion group on May 20th. I hope to see you there so that we can delve in greater depth into the issues raised here.
Join us for our free Discussion Group on "Yoga and The Challenge of Change" on Sunday, March 4, in Bethesda. (See workshops page.)
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