Students and Their Teachers

We wanted to offer a three-part series on the importance of teachers and students in yoga.

Part I of III

When we first started talking about yoga, I tried to tell Joey about the sacred relationship between teacher and student. The guru tradition differentiates yoga from fitness. Personal training, athletic coaching, these are not the same.

We learn yoga almost completely verbally (and by sight and by touch). We do study texts. The principle of self-study (svadhyaya) is one of the niyamas (ethical principles). However the central yogic texts, historically-speaking, say little about the poses (asanas). We study yoga practically, by doing.

For those resiliently self-taught, yoga is a contrasting space where we rely on teachers to pass on what they have learned from their own teachers and from their teachers’ teachers.

This teacher-student relationship is privileged. Your teachers not only guide you through the physical poses (asanas), but act as mentors. Their shared wisdom includes how to live yoga off of your mat. The student entrusts the teacher to push them, but not beyond their capability. There is an aspect of the relationship that is philosophical, if not also spiritual, and the relationship is one of confidence.

At Yoga Moderne, each teacher shares a “What to Expect” on our website, where the teacher names their gurus: the people to whom they attribute their upbringing in yoga and to whom they honor their devotion to practice. That same resource tells you what you may experience in a class with one teacher compared to another (for example, chanting mantra).

We also encourage you to try a lot of different teachers. You will gain something from each and every one of them. But you may also find your guru.

My gurus are Nelda Hill (1931-1995), Janet Hamburg (1951-2010), Sasha Slocombe, Katie Brown, Tammy Horn, and Emily Darling.