Decide for Yourself

I've been lucky enough to have a wide spectrum of experiences in regards to my training. One of my trainings taught a method and a structure while encouraging students to express the work in their own way while another of my trainings stressed maintaining the integrity of the work and in doing so snuffed out individual interpretation. While one of these trainings sounds positive and the other negative, I look at both as valuable experiences.

Your Mileage May Vary

I can appreciate both for very different reasons. When I was in the first training I mentioned, I found myself wanting to be taught hard and fast rules. I found it a bit intimidating that the teachers encouraged us to add our own personality and vision to the work. Yes, we were taught certain things but the rest was left up to us.

This makes sense, of course. Think about all of the yoga teachers you've learned from -- are any two the same? Two people could take the exact same yoga training program, yet each would teach a class differently. It reminds me of the Yoga Sutras -- one text but many translations. I suppose that's true of yoga and life.

Facts are facts but interpretation varies.

Is There a "Right" Yoga?

When I was studying yoga in the tradition of Sri Krishnamacharya, I was surprised to learn that both B.K.S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois were students of his. I've explored both Iyengar Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga, and the differences between those teachings and the ones I was learning from the Krishnamacharya tradition sometimes seemed enormous. There were similarities, yes, but then there are also differences. Both Iyengar and Jois are seen as yoga luminaries, yet both diverged from the teachings they received.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing. What I am wondering, however, is what happens when teachings get diluted by interpretation. I think we have a healthy example of that today -- people are going out and making up their own forms of yoga. They are taking what they learned (often times from different teachers) and adding their own spin on things. They are creating hybrids, if you will. Or maybe it's just like dog breeders -- they mix breeds together to make an entirely new breed of dog to appeal to society's needs/desires (Puggle, anyone?).

Tradition No More?

Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Heck, I'd be lying if I didn't say that my teachings are informed by my studies -- all of them. This means that sometimes my teachings include a little something from one tradition with a dash of something else from an entirely different tradition. Would this make great yoga masters turn in their grave or would those masters applaud me for teaching from our own perspective and drawing on my multitude of experiences?

Devil's Advocate

A few weeks back, I had a "nutrition expert" come down hard on me for following a vegetarian diet. She cited the book, The Vegetarian Myth, as proof as to why eating vegetarian isn't good for me. In fact, she claims, it will make me sick. Perhaps this person is right -- maybe abstaining from meat isn't good for my body. I'll say this though -- for every Vegetarian Myth, there's The China Study. Now I could have just given this person the I-don't-eat-no-meat rap and sent her on her way. Buuuuut...trying to not judge and look at both sides of this argument, I thought about Iyengar and Jois -- what would have happened if people who experienced their teachings dismissed them simply because they weren't teaching the same way others were?

Uh, if that had happened, I'm thinking that there wouldn't be so many styles of yoga in the world. Or religions, for that matter. One is neither right nor wrong or better or best -- just different. And this is why I didn't launch into some impassioned diatribe on why I am currently a vegetarian and tell the "nutrition expert" to take a long walk off of a short yoga mat.

See here's the thing -- it's quite possible that if a vegetarian incorporated meat back into his diet and kept a record of how he felt after eating the meat, it's quite possible that he would discover that he did, indeed, feel healthier (stronger, more emotionally stable) when he ate meat.

The Guru Is in You

Rather than immediately discount a teaching or an opinion, I like to consider the source and test it out myself. How do I test it, you ask? I run it through my rigorous self-test. I ask myself what's my experience? I consider what my intuitive hits about the topic are. That's the place from where I make my decision. Let's face it, others tell us how to be/what we should do all of the time, whether it's subliminally in the media to outright dogma.

This is why I keep coming back to my meditation practice time and time again -- because it gives me the space to discern what's true for me. It also stops me from rambling on about what should be true for others. I've had teachers, yes, but at the end of the day, I navigate my life based on my own little internal guru.

How do you navigate through life? Something to think about...

Namaste!

PLEDGE FOR BETTER HEALTH GIFT CARD WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

I'd like to congratulate Maryam Webster -- not only did she win the $20 Whole Foods gift card for making a Pledge for Better Health but she also made better health her reality. That's right -- Maryam's pledge to engage in daily walks with weighted resistance has resulted in a happier, healthier Maryam. Woo hoo -- you GO Maryam! Keep it up! You're gift card is on its way.

Comments

[steff (steffsays)]

In re: the vegetarianism issue... I think it is something to be decided on a very individual basis. I was a vegan for 6 years & after a while it DID start to make me sick. After incorporating fish & chicken back into my diet I began to feel much healthier. But I also know a great many people who have lived healthy vegetarian lives for decades. We are all unique, with unique bodies that thrive under different conditions.

[chris]

good article and great you have here

[Safia]

I am reading the Yoga Sutra currently, and Patanjali, in this great translation, reminds me of the value of not registering likes or dislikes. I aspire to not clinging to the belief that I am right and the other guy must be wrong, and I want to stop beating myself up for things that are really like illusions, that arise and vanish quickly and lack solidity.