Thank you everyone - I got a lot of great responses to my last Blog - “Is Yoga just another Commodity”. Some of that feedback related to the power abuses that have happened in the Guru world and also the apparent materialisation of Spiritual India – Asetics in India being seen to ditch their Orange robes for western clothes and espousing teachings that are perhaps a little less traditional, perhaps a little substandard and that maybe allowing students to keep perspectives that are too confronting to be challenged. :) You can have your cake and eat it too, kind of thing. These things contribute to the undermining of the perceived value of yoga.

 

Anyway I'd like to follow up with this Blog, “What makes a Yoga Teacher great”. So lets consider what does a healthy relationship with a yoga teacher or therapist look like.

 

When we are suffering because of lack of clarity in our mind, others can sometimes see where we are stuck more clearly than we do. One of my favourite metaphor's from Acceptance & Commitment therapy is “From where I am on my mountain I have a clearer view of the path you are on, on your mountain”. A friend may see this, and may or may not have skills or patience (with the boundaries of friendship) to deliver the message. A skilled therapist within an established, consensual and safe therapeutic relationship might challenge us in a way that reveals areas of our behaviours and thinking that are resulting in our suffering. In the same way, a yoga teacher may guide us in using yoga techniques to explore our inner world.

 

So, what do we look for or avoid in a Yoga Teacher?

 

1. Insight beyond their own personal Experience

Is the teacher clear? Have they done the 'work' on themselves or are they assessing through their own filters? We all see the world through the filters of our own experience and it's only after probably decades of meditation or psychotherapy that we may be able to separate this influence on our assessment (note I don't say be free of it). Many teachers still may share based on what they are exploring personally but they will offer it to the students to test out against their own experience.

 

2. Self aware – aware of their own Agenda

Related to the above, does the teacher have a personal Agenda? My last Blog examined the transactional world that yoga now sits in. There is an energy exchange that I think is fair, (and I charge for most of my sessions) but it's important that the students' well-being is considered above the teachers' personal agenda. For years I've offered what I share on my retreats for Dana (donation) at the retreat end. It's not an undervaluing of what I offer. I hold to this, despite the stress of the commodification of yoga. The main reason for this is that removal of the transactional agenda allows me to share more authentically and selflessly in this environment – as “such teachings are priceless and the birthright of all”!

 

3. Abuse of power

Sadly another agenda to be aware of in teachers/therapists is the desire to have power over you or to feel good about themselves by holding the upper hand in the dynamic. Besides the exposed outright sexual abuse, this may look like:

• Dependence on them - they lead you to feel like you need them and you can't do it without them, creating emotional and financial binds. The most skilful teachers/ therapists I've seen, push their students away as much as they can, while keeping mind of their safety.

• If you come away from them feeling inferior and thinking that they are the expert.... your engagement with them remains intellectual, where they tell you what they see is wrong in you, but share no skills for transformation.

• Any idea that you are broken, inadequate, evil, incapable of 'change', need fixing... turn away ..the right teacher will facilitate a seeing of the exact opposite.

 

4. Sthana

One of the most important skills that a teacher or therapist should have is the ability to identify where the student is at. However accurate and insightful the teacher might be, their message will only be helpful when the student is consenting and ready to hear the message.

 

Successful outcome in a healing therapeutic or spiritual relationship looks like an empowered person finding their own psychological and spiritual inner truth.

 

Questions

When I feel vulnerable, I know I need support, and I know I have issues with trust that hold me back....

 

You will feel very safe with the right teacher or therapist, though it may take a bit of time to test out and trust the relationship. First trust your gut feeling and perhaps ask around for a recommendation. Your time with the right person will help you to connect with your own clear truth beyond your mind (and theirs). In the beginning when you are struggling this may be just a glance, a tiny light (perhaps just a glance when things are tough) Working with yoga techniques this might be a moment of stillness, clarity, contentment or peace. You own this, it is not given to you.

 

I feel like I know more than my teachers, that I don't really need a teacher anymore...

 

Very few people that are seeking psychological or spiritual insight don't benefit from a teacher.

 

Sometimes life is our teacher for a bit – she kicks our butt and if we have some mediation practice that takes us out of our mind, realisation and insight may come.

 

Be suspicious though if you are suffering and righteously feel it is because of others, you probably would benefit by maintaining a connection with a teacher for guidance in your practice. This may be a gentle relationship that has developed over many years. The right teacher will be respectful of and acknowledge the work you have done but will still offer you their perspective to test out.

 

And sometimes when we feel we are looking for a teacher and not finding a worthy one, then the teacher is right in front of us.. they just may not look like 'a teacher'.. maybe just a wise friend. As the media has shown Guru's clad in monastic robes or those with large followings aren't always the wisest ones.