Yoga Learning and Teaching

Though the Yogi gives great care and attention to the physical body, he goes beyond this point and brings the body under the control of the mind, both of which he finally uses for his final higher spiritual pursuits.
-Swami Vishnu-devananda


I am not sure what to write about today.  The learning that lay on the proverbial desk in front of me  is heavy and full.  It is like one of those big nursing text books I had to lug around in the day...one that seemed impossible to carry...let alone  read or understand enough to be tested on.

 I have the knowledge and the learning gained from so many sources and teachers (including my own self inquiry).  It just has not completely sunk in yet to make it something I practice in every moment. I want this learning to become so much a part of me, I exhale it with every breath.  Realistic?  I don't know.

I am encouraged by Swami Vishnu-devananda's words in The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (which happens to be a must-read in most  yoga teacher training.) : Yoga philosophy and its teachers...ask the student to be patient and many things that appear vague at first will become clear as he progresses. (page 6) It will sink in eventually. :)

Hmm!  I am a patient learner and I hope I prove to be an even more patient teacher.  I try to teach what I learn but just as I am not completely ready to absorb it all, I must recognize that most of my students in my up and coming yoga classes will not be ready to absorb what I am teaching.  Nor do I expect them to. 

Nor do I expect that I will even attempt to teach much beyond the Hatha component.  That's enough.  It is a wonderful start. Purity of the mind is not possible without purity of the body in which it functions, and by which it is affected.  So preference is given in Yoga philosophy to the mobilization of the body and the control of the vital breath. (page 13).  This is what Hatha yoga is all about.

I am hoping my body will allow me to do this.  I really do.  But if I can learn to control the body with a mind free of mental modifications.  anything is possible for me and for my students. Yoga, after all, aims to remove the root-cause of all diseases. (page 18)

It is all good.

Swami Vishnu-devananda (1988) The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga. New York: Three Rivers Press