For Yoga Teachers

You’ve probably had students ask you which translation of the Yoga Sutras or the Bhagavad Gita you think they should read. It’s great when our students want to explore yoga’s philosophical foundations. But it’s disheartening if we hear later that they stopped reading because they couldn’t get past the first chapter without feeling lost.

Reading translations of ancient Sanskrit texts requires some guidance, determination, and persistence, especially when the translations are accompanied by lengthy commentaries, as is the case in so many authoritative editions.

Here are seven helpful reading strategies you can share with your students that will help to make the texts accessible and fuel their enthusiasm for yoga philosophy:

1. Just read the translations first, then go back and read the commentary

Assuming a student has an edition that includes the Sanskrit and elaborate commentaries, suggest that they start by ignoring the Sanskrit and the commentaries and just read the translation from start to finish. This will allow them to get a general sense of the complete text. Then they can go back and dive into the details of each verse by reading the commentary. It’s easy to feel lost and overwhelmed by reading all of the commentaries along with each text on the first pass, and that can be very discouraging.

2. Try to understand the message of the author.

This may sound obvious but actually it’s very tempting to interpret a yoga wisdom text in ways that validate our own ‘personal truths’. We assume that there’s no such thing as an objective or ‘Absolute’ truth, so we privilege our own perspective.

But communication requires both the articulation of the message by the sender and the comprehension of the message by the recipient. Anytime you try to communicate with another person you have an intention; you want to be understood by the person you’re communicating with.

The authors of traditional yoga wisdom texts want their message to be understood. If we interpret the text with the intention of validating our own opinions or lifestyle, then our egos will sabotage the reception of the message. So encourage students to read with a receptive attitude. That will increase their chances of understanding the message of the author. Then they can decide if the message resonates with them or not.

3. Keep it in context

Taking verses out of context is another way that we can miss the message of the author. Sutras and verses are generally grouped together around a particular topic. For example, early in the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita we read that one should not lament for the living nor for the dead. Taken in isolation we could entertain numerous speculations about what this means and why it may or may not be true.

But if we read the subsequent verses we find the reasoning for the proposition; grieving for someone in any condition, living or dead, means that one has mistaken the temporary body for the eternal self. If we interpret a verse in isolation we may never understand its connection to previous or subsequent verses and miss the point that the text is trying to make about that topic.

4. Defer to the authority of the author

Sometimes we come across passages that fly in the face of our modern sensibilities. It’s tempting to accept the parts of the text that we like and reject the parts we don’t by dismissing them as cultural anachronisms or by turning them into metaphors or by inventing a more favorable interpretation.

The problem with cherry picking the verses we like and casting the ones we dislike aside is that, by doing so, we elevate our own attachments and aversions – the very things yoga wisdom texts encourage us to transcend – above the authority of the author and, in the process, we make ourselves the ultimate authority on yoga. Students who do this effectively disconnect themselves from the lineage of teachers, from the line of transmission through which we receive yoga wisdom.

A better strategy is to encourage students to use their power of critical thinking to try to understand how a disconcerting passage or concept may be true rather than dismissing it, allegorizing it, or re-interpreting it according to their own prejudices.

5. Contemplative reading

The goal of contemplative reading is to allow the text to affect us rather than to absorb information. It’s about associating with the author, listening carefully to the author’s message, and letting the author’s words penetrate deeply into the core of our consciousness.

Encourage students to take their time and and hang out with what their reading. Taking a moment to set an intention of reading with an attitude of humility and gratitude is a great way to slow the process down right from the start. Then they can read through the verses and commentaries with rapt attention until a word, a phrase, or an idea captures their attention. Repeating the significant phrase to themselves a few times will also help them assimilate an idea. Ask them to stay with that point until it releases them, and then continue to read until another point captures their attention.

6. Act on what you read

Yoga philosophy is not armchair philosophy. A unique attribute of yoga wisdom texts is that they give the reader the means by which to re-create the revelatory experience of the author. Realization is applied knowledge: the knowledge contained in the texts comes alive for us when we actively apply the principles that such texts describe. This is the difference between book knowledge and realized knowledge. And the realizations that come from applied knowledge inspire us to dive even deeper into the texts that stimulate such transformative experiences.

So follow up with your students; ask them not just about what they’ve read or what they understood from their reading, but also about how they’re applying their realizations in their life, both on and off the mat.

7. Re-visit the text 6 months later

Once your students have read it, assimilated it, and lived it for a while, encourage them to go back and read it again and repeat the process. This phenomenon never ceases to amaze me: I can read something that I’ve read a dozen times before and each time I find something that feels like I’m seeing it for the first time. Or something will jump out of the text and inspire a thought that hadn’t occurred to me before. I also come up with new questions that had never before occurred to me.

The joy of teaching

In all cases, the value of a qualified teacher to help students understand a text on a deeper level than they might get to on their own can’t be overstated. A good teacher can also help students to apply the teachings to in their own lives. Of course, it’s hard for a novice to identify the credentials of a qualified teacher. If you feel that you have a handle on the teachings of a text that one of your students is interested in and you have the bandwidth to extend yourself, offer to talk with your students about what they read and share your personal realizations with them. Odds are your own depth of understanding will increase simply by having to articulate your understanding. That’s always been the case for me: deepening my own understanding of yoga wisdom texts is one of the reasons why I teach in the first place.

—— —— ——
What are your favorite reading strategies?

How do you approach reading yoga wisdom texts? How do you encourage your students to read for realization rather than just information? Please contribute to the conversation by leaving a comment or suggestion about your favorite reading and realization strategy.

More and more practitioners are looking to yoga as much for sparks of inspiration, knowledge, or wisdom, as they are for a workout. And more and more yoga teachers are feeling inspired to share their personal realizations as they expand their knowledge of yoga philosophy.

One way you can share the wisdom of yoga is through a short ‘Dharma Talk’ at the top of your class. I come from a bhakti-yoga tradition where daily talks on yoga philosophy can last for an hour or more so one of the first things I had to learn about teaching in modern yoga studios was how to give a talk that conveyed an essential teaching in a very short amount of time.

The first studio I taught at had a clock up on the wall above the seat of the teacher. I could always tell when taking to long to make my point because I would see students sneaking a peak at the clock above my head – a clear indication that they were wondering if I would ever stop talking. After a few weeks I realized that I had just 5 minutes to complete my talk before people would start to get antsy.

Meeting the challenges to delivering a short and compelling Dharma Talk

Like me, you may also find it challenging to start your class with a Dharma Talk. My big challenge is that I get so inspired by yoga philosophy that I can talk until the end of the class. I know other teachers who tell me they feel their yoga very deeply but have trouble organizing your thoughts into a tight, coherent message. New teachers often feel as if they don’t know enough about yoga philosophy to speak knowledgably about it.

We can always read a passage from the Yoga-sutras or another book of yoga wisdom but what does the passage mean to you or your students? Maybe the challenge is in connecting a wisdom text to doing “Life-asana”.

After a lot of thinking and a little research, I found that using a simple, five-part structure helped me to make a personal connection with my class, defer to a higher source of wisdom than my own speculation, and bring ancient teachings into a meaningful context that students could practically apply in their practice both on and off the mat.

Here’s a look at the structure I try to use when I speak before an asana class:

1. Share a little piece of your life.

Yoga is about relationships; making connections. Your students want to connect with you, get to know you. So tell a quick story about something you did or something that happened to you. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary or deeply personal. In fact, it’s better to share something that could happen to anyone: a common challenge, a simple joy, or one of life’s familiar annoyances. Take just a couple of minutes to share the experience and tell your students how it made you feel, what you thought about it, and how you responded to it.

2. Invite empathy.

Odds are that your experience is not entirely unique. So take a minute to ask your students if your story sounds familiar. You’ll probably see nods of recognition, of ‘been there, done that, know how you feel’. We share the same kinds of triumphs and tragedies, big and small. How we respond to life’s roller coaster is what matters. And one definition of ‘dharma’ is ‘the best way to respond to one’s destiny’. That brings us to the question of ‘how do we know the best way to any given experience?’

3. Invoke transcendental knowledge.

Find a passage from a book of yoga wisdom that speaks to your story. What advice do the sages of antiquity have for us? How do self-realized yogis respond to such situations? The amazing thing about traditional yoga wisdom texts is that, if we spend a little time with them and try to live their teachings, they have a way of telling us just what we need to hear when we need to hear it. Take a minute to read or recite the text and add some relevant commentary that illuminates the text.

4. Share the effect.

Tell your students how seeing the key elements in your story through the eyes of yoga’s wisdom tradition transformed your experience. You can bolster your student’s faith in the transformative power of yoga by telling them how you have been transformed! Realization is simply applied knowledge so you don’t have to be a philosophy scholar to teach yoga philosophy; all you have to do is try to live whatever little bit of yoga philosophy you’re studying and share your realizations along the way.

5. See the future.

Ask a rhetorical question about what the world would be like if we all took our cues from the masters of yogic wisdom. After all, we don’t just do yoga to change ourselves; we do yoga to change the world by changing ourselves. So encourage your students to join you on the journey, starting right now: link the experience of yoga wisdom in the world to the experience of doing yoga on one’s mat. The key to helping students take their practice off the mat and into their lives is to share your experience of living a life of yoga with them.

Keys to using this structure

To make this work really well, practice giving about 1 minute to each step so that you can finish the whole talk in just 5 minutes. Then when you give your talk, start it casually, in a conversational tone, before you chant ‘Om’ or do whatever you do to get your class centered. That will make your talk feel less like a formal lecture and more like sharing. Then you can ask everyone to set a personal intention that’s based on the essential message of your talk, follow with your centering ritual, and then take your class into the physical practice.

Offering a few reflective thoughts at the beginning of a class about how yoga philosophy makes an impact on your life is a great way to make a personal connection with students and inspire your students to integrate the principles and values of yoga into their own lives. The trick is to keep it personal, focused, and short.

How do you compose your Dharma Talks?

Yoga Teachers: What works for you? How do you organize your Dharma Talks? Leave your tips in the comments below.