An interview with Sadhana
Co-founder of Shantarasa Yoga Darshana
Q: Why is there so much interest in Yoga Teacher Training Courses in the present time?
A: Such a good question to ask.
Each time we sit with a new group of trainees, either in person or online, no matter in which country or culture, no matter the age or gender, and we ask the question “what brings them to a Yoga Teacher Training course” the answers predominantly describe how much the person has been assisted by the practice of the yoga postures through an exceedingly difficult time in their lives. They then express a desire to understand why yoga is so powerfully healing and realigning, they express a desire to better know themselves, and they would love to eventually share the practice with others.
The desire to teach in most is secondary and provisional on how they feel at the end of the training. We find this heartening as first and foremost yoga practice is to assist in reconnecting a person with what is at the essence of life and ultimately healing and nourishing at every level.
There are always a few in the group who express an immediate desire to teach and even then, it is really an expression of wanting a change of direction in life. Teaching, they come to realise, requires a commitment to their own practice and unfoldment.
Often participants do not have a great deal of experience in anything other than the yoga postures and even that experience may be partial. But that is not an obstacle, beginning at the beginning is a good place to start.
Q: So, if the interest is more personal, and the experience partial how do you meet that from a yoga teacher training perspective?
A: First of all, it is great to meet a person where they are, with absolutely no judgment. We feel any interest is good interest and will ultimately open that individual to the path and pace that is perfect for them. Beginners mind is an open mind.
We also love it when individuals have not had too much training in many of the more contemporary forms of practice. This gives us a chance to start with basics and give good foundations to a more traditional form of practice and context for practice.
When students have practiced contemporary forms, we find we have to gently facilitate an unlearning first and then develop an appreciation for the difference between a contemporary, largely physical and external oriented, approach toward a more internal, energetic and conscious approach and re-orientation. Intense identification with the physical nature, body, ego takes some work to become aware of and to then release.
Q: What do you mean by ‘traditional yoga’
A: Traditional yoga is ultimately rooted within the long-standing tradition of yoga in its fullness as an exceptional means for the transformation of all the conditional influences embedded in our psyches. We are profoundly programmed toward a limited expression of being and possibility. We are often paralyzed by sets of fears and memories that prevent us from truly finding joy in life day by day, breath by breath, moment by moment. In fact, traditional ways of practicing instruct such a complete shift in identity and sense of what is real, we find ourselves sitting between the moments, thoughts and breaths. In this in between space we meet eternal nature and all its power to transform very directly our experience.
So traditional practice is a marriage of physical, subtle, and deeper dimensions of being. Postures become asanas (seats of pranic flow and stillness) that awaken pranayama (the extension of breath into its source), pratyahara (a withdrawal of exhausted senses from objects toward what is at the root of all that exists). Postures become transformational, healing at first, and then awakening.
Traditional practice is never separated from the essential wholeness of the totality of the path of yoga (sadhana) and its gift of liberation from all that creates bondage and fear.
Q: What do you mean by “the path of yoga,” and why do you call it sadhana?
A: The meaningful and focused pursuit path of yoga, is called sadhana which is a dedication toward absolute consciousness in living
People today are goal oriented. They place one or several goals in sight and step toward those goals. Goals are often of a material nature or about some form of self-development or improvement.
From the perspective of ‘yoga’ coming to know ourselves at the level of persona, mind, body is like trying to know a stranger. It is all foreign to essential nature. It has all been borrowed, and appropriated from our environment of people, culture, place and times. First we need to know ourselves at an essential level. This is no small task. So much has been layered upon this essence, and much forgetfulness, like an amnesia covers it. The practices and teachings of the yogic path help to peel away all the concepts, beliefs and impressions that cause our egoic nature to rule our life. When the ego is transformed (not destroyed) it will become friendly and supportive in our quest to know what is Real and Essential to life and at the same time awaken a compassionate feeling for others to also find healing and freedom.
So the path of yoga is one of the most complete vehicles for transformation of conditioned mind and being. The path of yoga requires something of us: discernment (a strong capacity to know the Real from the unreal, particularly in reference to teachers and teachings; it requires of us dedication and consistency, and it requires the discovery of joy and compassion in the process.
The path of yoga, sadhana, will be different for each of us, our way inward and our return is unique to each of us. The practices and teachings will be appropriate to the way in which our soul has evolved. There is no higher or lower just the most perfect way for each of us. This sometimes requires some trial and error as we develop the constancy and depth, we each need to better know our way. And it often requires skillful mentorship.
Q: So, ideally a Yoga Teacher Training educates more than postures, yoga anatomy and the business of yoga?
A: To be true to the use of the word ‘Yoga” yes it would need to be a much more complete context that expresses a full body of teaching and knowledge and a full range of practices to realise firsthand the truth and power of the teachings.
Let me give an analogy. If we take a drop of water from the ocean and introduce it to the world as the ocean will people receive the full experience of the ocean from the drop? Most likely not. It would require a high degree of perception and subtlety to experience the memory of ocean in the drop. The drop becomes ocean again by retuning to its oceanic nature in the fullness of the ocean.
Yoga is like that.
Q: What would you say to someone thinking of taking a Yoga Teacher Training
A: I would encourage them to do their research. I would encourage them to seek something that has genuine roots. To seek teachers who live the path and have a lot of experience to draw from. I would encourage the person to reflect deeply on what it is they are seeking and then to give themselves the best opportunity to realise that. I would encourage honesty. I would encourage a desire to become a student of yoga in a very real and deep way. The study of yoga is a lifelong studentship. Teaching is giving of that which is meaningful and true.
Q: You have been training teachers for many decades, what keeps you going in the work when you said prior to this interview it is getting harder.
A: We had and have wonderful teachers. Out of gratitude and respect for them, and their teachers we share what they gave so fully, generously, and deeply. A lineage is like a river it must flow on. It is in many ways harder now because the drop has been away from the ocean for some time. But also the need and thirst is greater so it is essential to keep sharing. People who really want the taste of yoga fully are a joy.
