Classroom

You can teach and old dog new tricks; or, I guess, more accurately, you can teach an old dog old tricks, but only, I think, if you create an amazing learning environment where students are deeply dedicated to the task at hand so that the old dog can look around at his classmates and be inspired to push himself harder—(which, of course, in paradoxical India also means easier)—than he ever has before so he can achieve results he never imagined possible, or more accurately has long imagined as impossible.

Yesterday, in the Yoga Sutra class, our teacher Laksmeesh commented upon the 14th Sutra, which, in one version, is translated “Practice becomes firmly grounded when it has been cultivated for a long time, uninterruptedly, with earnest devotion.” I understood him as adding a fourth consideration, too, that a learner also be of good character. It occurred to me, at that point, that my struggles to improve my own yoga practice have typically foundered on a couple of those four points.

I have been practicing for a reasonably long time, not in the grand scheme of things, but pretty much for the whole lifetime of my child, who’s now a teenager.

And for the most part, I’ve done so uninterruptedly, although there have been weeks at a time when I barely make it through half of the primary series.

Earnest devotion has definitely been an issue, though; I’ve often just sort of “gone through the motions” (literally) with an eye towards finishing my practice rather than really experiencing it.

And character has probably been a stumbling block, especially when it comes embracing the liberatory aspect of yoga, as opposed to its just being a way to feel better about one’s body.

Here in Mysore, though, imbued with the spirit of the place and surrounded at the shala by dozens of practitioners practicing for a long time, uninterruptedly, with earnest devotion and good character, it’s easy to commit to the whole package, and in doing so, go forward in one’s practice (which again, paradoxically, for an old guy like me, means going backwards to poses once gained but later lost).

As a teacher, I aspire with all my professional heart to create a classroom environment like this one I’m privileged to experience here on a daily basis.

I just wonder how I can do that short of bringing all my students to India.