magazine
Awakening the Inner Teacher: A Leap into Faith
Sun Monthly – December 2007
Yoga is becoming more popular in our modern, busy world. Why? What is it about the practice that draws us to the mat time and time again? Who do we learn from? Where will we find our teachers? What is our source of spiritual insight?
Yoga today presents us with several organized systems, a few of which are well known. Other systems have gained popularity as well, and new combinations of yoga and other spiritual practices are on the rise. It seems that yoga is about as diversified as the human race. It is interesting that much of what we know about yoga on the mat stems from the work of a single teacher by the name of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. Three of his most well–known students were B. K. S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois and Krishnamacharya’s son, T. K. V. Desikachar. And from these three teachers we have the Iyengar, Ashtanga and Viniyoga systems respectively. What is more interesting is how different these systems are. Seen from the outside, they are so different that one might never guess they began with a single teacher. The reasons for this diversity are wide and make for many debates and long–winded discussions.
It has been the ancient insight of the sage Patanjali, however, that has been the heart and soul of yoga. In his Yoga Sutras (second century BC), he defines and elegantly presents us with a simple method that is a path inward toward freedom. The sutras are aphorisms, or simply written statements describing the essentials of living life as a human being on planet Earth. Instead of spelling out for us in detail the meaning of his profound work, he delivers it in such a way as to force us to read between the lines and figure it out for ourselves. We must truly understand the essence of the work to practice it well. Patanjali’s message is one of dedicated hard work, study and faith.
Over the ages, many teachers of this tradition have refined and developed what has become the modern practice of yoga, and the practice continues to evolve today. Classically, it is said that teachers present themselves when a student is ready, and it is perhaps most crucial that we study under gifted teachers during the first years of practice. This is especially true with asana practice, the third of eight limbs outlined by Patanjali, which involves moving through physical postures in order to unite soul and body. Since there are so many ways to run adrift amidst the mysterious and endless subtleties of the human vessels we call our bodies, having proper guidance is key until we learn to trust our intuition and discover for ourselves the power of inner wisdom. Equally important is spiritual guidance, and our teachers must be able to carefully orchestrate the steps toward a student’s self–realization with humility, compassion and skill. In reality, this just simply means that good teachers must be good companions on our journey.
But teachers come and go, and life is an ever–changing and glorious journey through impermanence. What can we truly rely on when everything is destined to fade? Patanjali’s message, like the teachings of the Buddha or Jesus, is ultimately simple. Suddenly from an ocean of verse and dogma a few basic, yet profound lessons emerge. Patanjali hints at the essence of a spiritual practice in his second limb, where he describes the five niyamas, or inner moral practices. The last three of these – tapas, svadhyaya and ishvara pranidhana – are known as kriya yoga, or the yoga of action. Tapas is the discipline or motivation to embark upon and maintain a personal practice, and not just what is practiced on the yoga mat. Svadhyaya is traditionally the practice of one’s personal mantras, but it can also be interpreted as studying one’s self and the yogic texts such as the sutras. Ishvara pranidhana is alignment of one’s self with something greater, or the personal experience of the Divine. It is faith, surrender and profound love.
A good yoga practice, or any grounded spiritual practice, leads to two basic essential events: the dissolving of ego and the establishment of faith in, or perfect alignment with, the God within (Ishvara). Our best teachers are those who journey with us to the point when our inner guru is awakened, where the barriers that stood in the way of our connection with that voice have been dissolved. External, cerebral knowledge connects with inner wisdom, and insight is born. We realize that all the while we have been listening to the countless voices of the Universal Teacher speaking through peers, our children, pets, nature; anything and everything contains the voice of the Teacher. The realization of this is a crossover point in our lives and in our practice. We have learned to really listen.
How is this reflected in our daily practice? There must eventually be a leap of faith from our attachments to systems over to intuition and inherent wisdom (prajna). Classical yoga systems, no matter how effective, are ultimately bound by the simple fact that they are systems. Like in meditation, we must eventually let go of the mantra as a delivery system to stillness. Guided by our awakened inner Teacher, our asana practice opens up to accept all techniques that support simple inner truth while discriminating against all that does not support us. All voices of the Teacher can lead us to the door, but in the end, we must walk through it. Stillness cannot be bound by words or systems. We must transcend systems and form to experience truth, freedom and formlessness.