What it means to be a certified Iyegnar Yoga Teacher

I just got the Iyengar Certification Manual in the mail. "The first step to deciding whether or not to go up for assessment," my teacher told us, "is to read the manual." This is what I learned... To become a certified Iyengar yoga teacher you have to pass your Introductory I and II assessments. Only then can you call your self an Iyengar teacher. The process takes about two years of preparation (or more) after you have already graduated from a certified two year teacher training program and requires a commitment that is not unlike one you might make to complete a Master's degree. Until I become certified, I consider myself an "apprentice" teacher in the Iyengar system although this is my made up term and not something you will find in the manual! During the two years preparing for assessment, I will study weekly with my mentoring teacher, Peentz Dubble, and also assist in her level I classes. I will also attend a monthly workshop, led by Peentz, on "Assisting and Adjusting in the Iyengar Method." I will be part of a study group with other "apprentice" teachers getting together monthly to discuss yoga philosophy and primary actions for the over seventy asanas (poses) we will be responsible for knowing. (70!!) In addition to these asanas, which we must be able to teach and perform correctly and systematically, we are asked to know their Sanskrit and English names, be grounded in yoga philosophy and have a basic understanding of the major muscles, systems, and bones of the body. (There are about eleven books on the syllabus which we are responsible for reading in part or on the whole.) After going through teacher training, it became clear to me that 1. I wanted to teach yoga and 2. that I wanted to prepare myself for Iyengar certification two things I wasn't sure of until near the mid-point of the training. The reason I want to prepare for assessment is because I want to be the best teacher I can for my students and I cannot keep learning what is a massive and profound subject without the mentoring of a senior teacher a community of practitioners. Why I want to prepare for assessment then is to deepen my own understanding and devotion to yoga for myself and those I teach. My own practice would not be as strong without the commitments to practice I need to make for my students and in obligation to my teacher. These commitments come from a deep devotion I have for yoga in its entirety.

Coming into Aliveness

Why do we practice? It is a question to consider when you bring yourself to the mat each day (or not as the case may be!) The answer, for me, has changed over the years. At first, I continued to practice because it felt good. I persisted because I wanted to get better at it, take on more advanced poses, build my stamina and strength. I wanted to look like my yoga teachers, elegant, long limbed, slim. During pregnancy and then the mothering of a young child, when any time to myself was rare and precious, I practiced when I could just to maintain what I had established and still because it felt good. And I was making new friends in my yoga classes. Recently the reason I practice has changed again as I have been able to devote more and more of myself to practice. Now my practice comes from the longing to turn inward, to still the fluctuations of my wandering mind, to find a still point in the swirl of life. I practice now to find what is unchanging within me (in us all), to strengthen and deepen that most intimate of connections with myself and through this to be connected more clearly and deeply with others. It is in that place of stillness I become open to and aware of my aliveness..through my practice I come into aliveness.

Spiritual Impulse

Rereading Donna Farhi's book "Bringing Yoga to Life" where she writes, "Whether we are hooked on food, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, work, or fame, the impulse to lose ourselves in these things can be seen as a spiritual impulse...We only have to read the works of people recovering from additions to see that behind the trappings of disease lies a mystical yearning that is as authentic and urgent as that of any pilgrim. Somewhere underneath bingeing, starving, exercising, drinking, hallucinating, climaxing, and purchasing, we are desperately seeking a way home to our self." Seen in this way, our harmful habits, compulsions, and addictions come from a deep desire to know home, a still sheltered place in the storm, where we experience belonging, loving kindness, unwavering acceptance and attention. These things we long for do not exist in the material world but because we live in a culture that tells us otherwise, we can get laywaid on our journey home by the siren's call to purchase love and affection in a bottle, through an exercise program, a promotion at work, or the internet. But like the siren's call, our attempts to fill our spiritual urgings through these materials means can only lead to dissatisfaction and depletion because spiritual hunger is fed through an inward journey. For at its most profound and basic, the spiritual impulse is to experience the most intimate of relationships possible in this life which is with the inner self. As my yoga practice invites me to draw inward (pratyahara), what I find is not always easy to bear. Being truly (satya) intimate with myself, I am learning, does not come if I only practice this intimacy when I am feeling my most composed. On the contrary, deep self-intimacy comes when I can bring compassion, kindness, and openness to the very feelings I feel most disdain and shame for. Then the experience of my inner self become rich and full. When I can bear what feels "groundless" in Pema Chodron's words, when I can enter that place of not knowing, confusion, despair, or pain with gentleness (also what Peman Chodron asks us to practice) then I find a quality of self-presence that is welcoming, still in the storm, loving, attentive, and accepting. I find my way home.