I started practicing yoga asana at the age of 13, and ever since then I knew that I wanted to teach it someday. Fast forward 19 years and I was at my first yoga teacher training in tropical Costa Rica. After having a strong desire to teach yoga for almost 20 years, yoga teacher training left me seriously doubting if teaching yoga was for me. The two teachers of the program had the “my way or the highway” attitude about yoga. They strongly encouraged us to “forget all you’ve ever learned about yoga (no matter who you learned from), because we will teach you what “real” yoga is”. Our own opinions, thoughts, and ideas were highly criticized, and we were cut off every time we tried to show/tell them what we had learned or felt about a philosophy, or an asana because we were “wrong”. I was even criticized and told I was wrong in front of the whole class for saying that you should always trust your intuition because it will never steer you wrong. The teacher said that your intuition could in fact steer you in the wrong direction because sometimes the “voice in the back of your head” can tell you wrong things. After two weeks of training I felt drained and had no desire at all to teach yoga. I was terrified to lead people through postures because I didn’t want to be criticized in front of everyone (the teacher made me so upset I actually started crying a few times). Normally I love getting up in front of people and speaking, but every time I had to teach, my voice would shake, my hands would tremble, and I would almost tear up. It has been three years since my training, and I am becoming interested in teaching again. My experience with teacher training left me with thinking “What is “real” Yoga”?
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a spiritual path which originated from India and it means “to join” or “union”. The ultimate goal of yoga is for the mind to be free of clutter so it can reconnect to the source, or god, or the universal consciousness which everything stems from (whichever label you put on it is absolutely OK. They are all the same, and are all equal. I am going to use the term “universe” because that’s what I’m comfortable with). Traditionally, there is a set prescription to achieve this. There are 8 limbs of yoga which range from working on how you interact with people, how you interact with yourself, steps to discipline your body and your breath, and finally steps to discipline your mind in order for you to connect with the universe.
These traditions have been refined over thousands of years, and without a doubt they work. No question about it. But does that mean they are set in stone and should never change? Or does that mean it is the only way for someone to train their body and mind in order to achieve oneness? I personally don’t think so. Even though these traditions should be greatly respected for their immense spiritual power, their long tradition, and their ability to change people’s lives, I feel like these traditions should also be seen as ever evolving. Just because the universe/divine beings gave humans yoga thousands of years ago, does not mean that the universe cannot inspire humans again. When one steps onto their mat and closes their eyes and starts to move using their own breath and intuition, they are being directly inspired by the universe, and if practiced regularly, they will achieve oneness with the universe.
I have been contemplating this for a few years now, and this is the message that I received from the universe during meditation one day:
“We are all equally created humans who are all on different paths that will eventually lead to the same place. Some people choose yoga as their way to connect to the divine. Yoga means union-union to yourself and the divine/universe/god/goddess, etc…whatever deity you connect with. Union with all living things. Going beyond and dropping the ego and connecting to that universal consciousness where we all come from. No one has the right to tell you how to get there. There are as many ways of connecting to the universe and achieving “yoga” as there are people on the earth. No one has the right to tell you that you are not “doing it right”, or what you are doing “isn’t *real* yoga”. The universe is dynamic- it is constantly evolving and so are we. The universe (and us) are expressions of creative life force energy. How can one be creative if one keeps doing the same patterns and the same routines over and over again? How can one be connected to all of that creative life force energy and also be in a place of telling others that they aren’t doing “real yoga”? They can’t. As the universe evolves, so does our ways of connecting to it. The movements/postures/meditations that worked hundreds and thousands of years ago are constantly being added to- use these as a basis for your creative energy- not as a strict set of instructions that should never change. That’s when we “get stuck”. We feel uninspired, stuck, bored. Then we settle into patterns of being uninspired, uncreative and we start to lose our passion/luster for life. Even a practice/tradition that is thousands of years old had to start somewhere. It had to be new at some point. Even people who are today commonly accepted as traditional were once viewed as new and radical. They were judged and told they “weren’t doing it right”. But they did what they were inspired to do anyway. Never let anyone tell you that you aren’t “doing it right” just because you aren’t doing it their way or because you do it differently than the way its been done for two thousand years. Evolution of the mind and spirit is what keeps this world and universe going. Namaste”. ॐ
