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Fall 1992

NAMASTE,

In this newsletter I’ll continue with what is now an ongoing discussion of the student/teacher relationship. Just to catch you up, in the last newsletter I wrote that “in thinking about the relationship between the teacher and the student four primary issues come to mind: trust, respect, personality and power.”

Thus far we have considered trust and respect. Respect was defined, based on Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary (1984), as “v1. to feel or show deferential regard for; esteem. 2. To avoid violation of or interference with …-n….3. Willingness to show consideration or appreciation.” I then talked about the respect the student acquires and shows toward the teacher. In this newsletter I’d like to examine the ways in which the teacher experiences and manifests respect toward the student.

The third definition is very important in examining the teacher’s attitude toward the student regarding respect. Some teachers act as if students were complete idiots totally unworthy of consideration or appreciation. These teachers seem to present themselves as the holders of all knowledge who may, in their infinite wisdom, cast a pearl or two before the swine if the mood strikes them. Actually that’s a rather extreme portrayal, and fortunately those sorts of people are by far the exception rather than the rule, but they do exist.

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I think it is valuable for teachers (and everybody else, for that matter) to remember that we are all, in fact, sparks of the Divine, and as such, within our varying exteriors, we are, at our core, the same, i.e. Divine. When the teachers here at Unity Woods end their classes by placing palms together and saying, “Namaste”, they are verbally and mentally showing respect for that essential nature we all share. Certainly the teacher should appreciate the student on that level.

Also by his/her very presence in class the student has displayed a willingness to begin the exploration of S/self which is what yoga is about and so deserves respect on that score. Besides, people are estimable in their own right just because they’re people.

My experience is that the vast majority of yoga teachers feel this way about their students and are indeed respectful toward them.

The questions of violation and interference mentioned in the second definition are very loaded and complex issues and in some ways are related to one another.

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Teaching yoga is by its very nature a process of interference, at least occasionally. The student does a pose or some other practice and the teacher makes changes in the student’s practice, either manually, verbally or by demonstration. In a sense these changes are interfering with the course of action presented by the student, with the intention of channeling it in a more effective direction.

Usually when we speak of interfering with something or someone, however, we think of impeding or intruding in some fashion. This is a little tricky. Clearly the teacher directs the student by some method, but I think it is important to understand that the student needs time and space to discover for her/himself what yoga is. Actually all of the essentials of yoga reside inherently in the student, and in a very real sense the teacher’s role is to unimpede the student, i.e., to help remove the obstacles that lie in the way of the student’s process of S/self-discovery. For a variety of reasons many teachers are inclined to insert themselves into this process without allowing it to unfold in its own natural way. It takes tremendous wisdom and experience on the teacher’s part and appreciation of the student’s unique manifestation of the process to know when to interfere and when to defer.

There is, of course, never an appropriate time to violate the student. I don’t think there are many teachers who would disagree with that. Some question may arise, however, as to what is a violation and what isn’t. Causing physical injury is certainly a violation of the student, but at what level does physical discomfort become a violation? Clearly uninvited sexual activity is a violation, but what about sexual activity between two mutually consenting mature adults? When is confronting a student forcefully a violation psychologically and when is it a catalyst for growth?

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These are not easy questions, and different teachers will, I suspect, give different answers with different shadings. These sorts of questions are, in fact, already the subject of much discussion among teachers. What occurs to me regarding this issue are the yamas (restraints) that Patanjali, who is often referred to as the father of Yoga, presents in the Yoga Sutra. These are the ethical precepts which are the starting point of the discipline of yoga, and the first of these is ahimsa, or not-harming. It seems to me that, just as in the Hippocratic oath a physician takes, the top priority for the yoga teacher is to do no harm. This is one of the more difficult parts of being a teacher and goes back to the relationship between interference and violation. The teacher must know when to intervene in a way that is effectively challenging to the student without doing the student any harm. The teacher’s own sadhana (practice) should aid in developing the sensitivity and perception to act in a way which avoids harm and brings blessings to both teacher and student. Although as with any serious and complex endeavor, mistakes are inevitable, if the teacher keeps in mind and in heart the Divinity and humanity of the student and the sanctity of the trust between her/himself and the student, then that will provide the necessary guidance toward being with the student in a way that is truly and deeply respectful.

In the next newsletter we’ll take a look at the role personality plays in the student/teacher relationship. In the meantime I hope you’ll come to our annual holiday party at the end of the session on December 20 and that your holiday season is one of peace and love.

       

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