1. Yuja Samādhau—a state of complete clarity; one perceives something as it is
2. Sannahanam—to prepare/protect
3. Śānti—to feel any emotion fully without leaving any residue, to be located in a space of clarity and act from a space of no rāga (attachment) or dveśa (aversion)
4. Citta Vrtti Nirodha—directing the mind in one direction and sustaining without distraction (Desikachar)
5. Samatvam Yoga Uchyate—Bhagavad Gita 2.48—equanimity (not swayed by extremities)
If you practice yoga, you change the world by starting with you. If you teach, you influence a community.
Therefore, as leaders in the yoga world, we are responsible for bringing Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, and Upeksa into the world—loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
A good teacher is continually learning, open, and inclusive. As teachers, we have a responsibility to create safe spaces. And as a woman who works extensively with people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and trauma, and has taught Ashtanga Yoga for 12 years, I feel it is my/our obligation as teachers to protect students and the community from negativity, human glorification, and delusion.
I write with love in a nonconfrontational way, but more as a reminder that our actions create reactions. And if those actions hurt people, then what are we teaching?
