TODAY’S YOGA Nowadays, Yoga comes in so many different styles, shapes, definitions and focal themes, that I thought it would be important to briefly mention how I study this deep and ancient philosophy.
TEACHER – STUDENT Traditionally, Yoga has been taught teacher to student, one-on-one. As Yoga was transported to the West, this changed, for the most part. Most of the millions of Yoga practitioners in the West attend group classes, anywhere from 2 – 200 people in a room. Once again, I consider myself to be super blessed in finding a teacher who belongs to a long lineage of students who study one-on-one. That means that even when a student becomes a teacher, they still have a teacher, therefore every teacher is also a student. I have found that through this teacher – student relationship, much growth and healing has occurred.
YOGA’S BIGGEST PARADOX The need for a teacher is emphasized in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali because even though we all have the potential to inner peace and the answer to all of our questions, we have something called the MIND, which for most of us is blurred, and prevents us from understanding that this potential even exists. The image below hopefully clarifies this concept: Sun = inner peace, Cloud = confused mind. We therefore need a person we trust to offer tools so that we can slowly remove the clouds and see the sun’s rays, feel the warmth of our inner light.
weeklysutra 
When I married Jim 32 years ago (tomorrow), I remember thinking about how I was making a commitment to this awesome man. What I never realized or thought about was how much endurance, perseverance, confidence in myself, devotion and love it would take to have a deep and healthy relationship.
Jim is a highly driven, competitive, organized, routine oriented, positive loving man. I am a more laid back, less organized, deep thinking, faithful woman. In other words, when we take a hike together, Jim is all about the fastest and most challenging way to reach the end of the trail and for me it is all about meandering through nature and taking in the beauty along the trail! Learning to accept and understand our differences has been challenging, yet we always found a way to endure because of our love for one another. I believe we both are now starting to celebrate our commitment and differences and the joy we find in spending time together……it has been a long journey but one that has been worth every step!!!
“endurance, perseverance, confidence in myself, devotion and love”. Thanks! You just summarized the sutras for me 🙂
delighted by this site please place me in your weekly postings thank you ps received my yoga teacher training with frans moors
Hi Lina,
Thank you for your words and happy to hear about Frans Moors being your teacher!