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Spring 1993

NAMASTE,

With this newsletter I come to the final part of the series of discussions concerning the teacher/student relationship. Those of you who have been following the series will recall that I have described this relationship as having four primary aspects: trust, respect, personality, and power. Our final topic is, therefore, power.

Power is, I think, the trickiest element in the student/teacher relationship. Regarding trust and respect, we’re clearly describing a mutual process of give and take between teacher and student that grows as the relationship is honored and nurtured over time. The more trust and respect both student and teacher feel toward one another, the more fruitful the relationship.

Personality, as we’ve said, is either a distraction or a little spice in the relationship, depending on what one does with it. The only task involved is seeing it for what it is and putting it in its proper place.

With respect to power, from the outset the student has some and the teacher has some. For the relationship to be productive the correct balance must be sought. As with any dynamic relationship that balance is in constant flux and undergoes continual adjustment.

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In the field of yoga, the student classically yields all power to the teacher. The teacher, who is skilled and knowledgeable in the subject as a result of years of learning from her/his teacher, practicing relentlessly, and attaining certain insights, sees what is appropriate for the student and instructs the student in the correct actions. The student, who has developed complete trust in and has surrendered wholly to the teacher, does as instructed without hesitation or question. This classical model for the guru/disciple relationship is often predicated on the teacher and student having lived together in an ashram setting for a substantial period of time. The student is usually seeking from the guru directions toward realizing fundamental spiritual truths and how to manifest them in his life.

Of course most yoga classes in the U.S. of A. don’t work this way.

People come to yoga classes for all sorts of reasons. And while spiritual awareness and the balance between will and surrender tend to become more and more important to students the longer they practice, for most these attributes are not often high on the list of desired results in the beginning. Thus to expect beginning students to turn over much of their personal power, to follow the instructions of the teacher without hesitation, question, or resistance, or to surrender wholly to the teacher is generally unrealistic.

When people begin taking yoga classes, they usually have some sense of their own personal power, i.e. a sense of what they want or don’t want, what they can or cannot do, what they are willing to do and not do, their ability to decide for themselves what is appropriate or not. Of course this sense of personal power can vary markedly from person to person, but it is nearly always there to some degree.

It is important to our discussion, however, to note that in order to learn from someone else, one has to set aside to some extent preconceptions about what one can or cannot do and what is right or wrong action. A certain amount of openness, a certain amount of surrender is necessary. In that opening, in that surrender, power to decide, at least within the context of the class, what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. If this transfer of power does not take place, then the student is considerably limited in what s/he can learn. Because the primary function of the teacher is to guide the student to new places, to expand the student’s boundaries, to help the student to grow, if the student is not willing to submit to the teacher, then the teacher’s ability to serve that function is significantly restricted.

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Unfortunately one of the cold, hard facts of life is that all teachers do not always have the best interests of the student foremost in mind. Therefore, in order not to be led astray, taken advantage of, or abused, the student must make the final decision about what is appropriate at any given moment, even if that decision is to surrender decision-making to the teacher.

This is where the whole issue gets tricky. If one holds back in surrendering to the teacher, one can only go so far in receiving what the teacher has to offer. Indeed, it may be argued that the very act of surrendering to the teacher is, in itself, an important part of the process of spiritual growth.

On the other hand, to give up one’s personal power to make decisions concerning one’s own well-being and one’s actions to someone else leaves one open to the possibility of all manner of mischief. One doesn’t have to search too hard to find many instances of abuse, fraud, and scandal perpetrated by teachers upon students.

So what is the answer?

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First it seems to me that responsibility must be borne by both the teacher and the student – the student in deciding how much power to give to the teacher, the teacher in acting always in the best interests of the student. The weight of that responsibility shifts more and more onto the teacher’s shoulders as the bond between student and teacher deepens, as trust grows, and as the student will always bear the responsibility of having chosen the teacher in the first place, but ultimately, as the relationship progresses and power is transferred more and more to the teacher, the teacher bears the huge bulk of the responsibility for the progress and well-being of the student.

Power and responsibility go together.

Because trust and mutual respect, or its absence, provide the framework in which the student and teacher work out the shifting balance of power between them, the student must keep her/his eyes and ears open and find within her/himself the strength to investigate any questions which arise regarding the progress of the relationship. This is often not so easy to do, but it is an important responsibility of the student in selecting a teacher and progressively turning power over to her/him.

The teacher, in order to fulfill his/her function, accepts the power and responsibility conferred upon her/him by the student. This is risky for the teacher as well as for the student, because upon so doing the teacher incurs a tremendous obligation to act for the benefit of the student, an obligation which is fraught with the possibility of error and failure. Further, the temptations of power are well documented from Lord Acton to Lord Patanjali. The teacher must be constantly observant regarding the motivations behind any actions taken regarding the student.

So, as with any great venture involving the possibility of great rewards, the risks, the effort and the responsibilities for both the student and the teacher in beginning and refining the student/teacher relationship are great. With respect to power in particular, the teacher must, to the limits of his/her own ability, take the temporal power conferred upon him/her by the student and use it in such a way as to guide the student toward a realization that Ultimate Power (!) is not really ours to be granted or taken in the first place, but resides within each of us, awaiting discovery.

       

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