I have received a message from a yoga student who is already teaching yoga classes but is now looking forward to be a certified yoga teacher. She asked for my advice. We wanted to meet up at some stage but it didn’t happen. This is what I wrote to her.
Hello there,
I received your mail. I thought of talking to you face to face when we meet up, but never mind, I can still talk to you here.
First, you need to know why are you teaching yoga. If it’s just teaching for livinghood as a career to make money, then go ahead, sign up a course anywhere that will “provide” some “recognized certificates”. There’s nothing wrong with teaching yoga for the money.
But, if you want to share yoga with many others out of compassion because you have been benefited from yoga, then that piece of paper means nothing at all.
If you really know yoga, then there is no need to have a piece of paper to prove that you are a “yoga teacher” and are “qualified to teach yoga”.
If you still need a piece of paper to give you the confidence to teach yoga, then very obvious that you still haven’t really get the true meanings and true confidence that come from knowing yoga personally…
If you want to teach exercise class with yoga poses in those places that provide “yoga classes” for fitness, then you should have a “certificate” to go for the “interview” as a “yoga teacher/instructor”.
Real yoga doesn’t have “certification”.
Giving the knowledge of yoga or giving the teachings of yoga to other beings is not a “job” or a “business”. It is not about “teaching” other people to do yoga exercises. It is about sharing the wisdom of knowing what is true happiness and how to transcend suffering with anyone that has the need of listening to yoga philosophy and who has the need to know what is yoga and how yoga can help them to be free from unhappiness. It is purely sharing the joy, wisdom and compassion that come from the heart when our own heart has realized yoga, has realized the love, peace, compassion and wisdom within ourselves.
The money that comes from giving yoga classes are intentionless and without any expectation. The money is just to enable us to survive, for ourselves to evolve further and to share yoga with more other beings. The money from giving yoga classes is a blessing, not a reward or earning.
There is nothing wrong to teach yoga for money.
There is nothing wrong about teaching yoga as a fitness exercise that can help many people to relaxed and feel good about themselves. But the real teachings of yoga can help us to be free from generating tension and negativity into our system. Teaching people to relaxed is not as effective as teaching people how to not generate tension and negativity at the first place. If there is no tension, there is no need of relaxation. What is the point, when people keep generating tension and go for relaxation to relieve tension, and continue to generate more tension into the system?
Here are a few articles I wrote about being a yoga teacher.
http://mengfoonglai.wordpress.com/2010/04/03/about-ashrams/
http://mengfoonglai.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/about-yoga-teachers/
http://mengfoonglai.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/encouragement-for-sharing-yoga-with-all-2/
http://mengfoonglai.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/yoga-teacher-and-certification-2/
Follow whatever your heart wants to do.
Be happy in whatever you want to do.
No need to be afraid if you really want to share yoga with others, the path is there for you already.
Meng Foong
