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For Teachers Bringing Philosoph ophy into a Yoga Class Benjamin Finnerty YOGA IS A PHENOMENA OF MODERN CULTURE. WITH its roots in prehistoric India, and millions of practitioners in cities across the world, there is no sign the modern yoga movement is slowing down. With countless styles of yoga in gyms, health clubs, culture centers, meditation centers, office buildings, and of course yoga studios, how can it all be yoga? Sometimes it seems there are enormous irreconcilable differences that make one kind of yoga different than others, but still it is always called yoga. Most people have their favorite style, with many students powerful advocates, trying to convince others of why their teacher or their style is the best. The truth is, all yoga styles have a common thread. Even as far back as the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras, there is an underlying sense of moving toward greater freedom that crosses cultures, body types, and gender, that has for centuries brought people to this practice. Krishna taught Arjuna that Yoga is: evenness, skill in action, and separation from contact with pain. Patanjali wrote that Yoga is the cessation of the movements of the mind. Kashmir Shaivism teaches that each of us are the play of Shiva and Shakti, the light of being, and the awareness of being. Anusara Yoga teaches that we are Cidananda, the supreme consciousness that is always and forever absolute auspiciousness, combined with the highest creative power that is always in a state of dynamic and unbound freedom called svatantriya. Bikram Yoga teaches to sweat ourselves to a cleaner body and mind that will feel, look, and move with greater ease and freedom in our lives. If all this is yoga, then how can we bring different ideas to our teaching, to our students, and into our lives? How do we introduce a stronger philosophical foundation to give deeper meaning and greater freedom in our lives? Of course if we can bring philosophy into our yoga classes, it gives a sense to the students that this is something more than a group exercise class. I find many students a little uncomfortable with some presentations of Yoga philosophy they feel somewhat mystical. But if we break down the deeper philosophical concepts into something we can actually relate to, then our students will find greater meaning in our teachings, and we may also find a deeper sense of accomplishment as teachers of yoga. The greatest part about this accomplishment in yoga, is that what it brings about cannot be described in words, but certainly it can be called freedom. STEP 1: STUDY If we want to bring a deeper sense of philosophical teaching into our yoga classes, we must first have a deeper understanding of philosophy in our lives. The greatest part about modern yoga is with all the variation, philosophically infusing our yoga classes has no limitations by dogma, rules, or styles (unless you teach under a specific style that allows certain philosophies, but not others in classes). To study philosophy means simply to look into the journey we are on, and find common denominator’s amongst our differences that give us themes for our classes. This can be from a traditional text of Tibetan Buddhism, Judaism, or yoga. Underlying all religions, is a philosophical foundation is based on finding deeper freedom in our lives. Our themes do not necessarily need to come from traditional texts. One of my friends teaches at in Hong Kong. I attended one of her classes when the theme was based on a concert she had attended previously, and how inspired she was from the artist’s performance regardless of the low Steve attendance. Merkley When we find philosophy in our everyday lives, this is usually easy for people to relate to. if we bring philosophy into our yoga classes, it gives a sense this is more than a group exercise class STEP 2: INTEGRATE First and foremost students are coming to most yoga classes for the workout. If we are going to bring philosophy into our classes we need to understand that many of our students may not be open to religious ideas. So we can first look at our student body, and see what our demographic is. If we are teaching yoga to a strongly Muslim population, we may consider not trying to teach ideals that are very Hindu in orientation. Sometimes the best way to connect to peoples’ hearts is a great poem or story. The Ramayana, Rumi, and Caroline Myss all have inspiring stories to teach us. There are countless self-help books with ideas most of our students could benefit from understanding. Whatever kind of philosophy we use, it must bring together the group creating depth and unity so we are doing yoga with the words we use. STEP 3: GET POETIC This can be very difficult for many of us, especially if we have very logical and straight line kind of minds. Rodney Yee is one of my favorite teachers for his use of poetry. His classes are always so full of beautiful words that give a great depth of understanding of the body, and feel beautiful to think about. We can talk about the breath as expansion and contraction, or we can find allusions to the ocean’s slow rise and fall like every wave of our breath comes in, and slowly moves back into the ocean of prana. We can talk about softening our groins, or we can talk about the deep open space where our legs meet our torso and finding the intelligent receptivity here. John Friend often tells me to lovingly hug the muscles to the bone. In every way that we are using our voices in our yoga classes, we can probably find ways to be more poetic with our words. 21