Dear Beginner Teacher---Please

[Guest guest]

reconsider your desire to teach. YOu are totally

unqualified with only one year of practice. Your interest

seems sincere and if this is your desire, why don't you

go to Mysore for 3 or 4 months or 6 or 8--whatever.

It will be an extremely humbling experience, among

other things. First you will learn how totally

unprepared you are to share the fruit of the Astanga method

with so little experience yourself. But with the

intense daily practice and the attendance at Guruji's

conferences you will learn the nuances that you will need to

know to think about teaching the "correct

method".<br><br>More importantly, if you are lucky, you will

experience the Guru's divine light--and it is this energy,

not just the important details of the practice that

is most important to transmit to your

students.<br><br>I really must urge you not to teach without some

serious time with the guru. I spent some time in San

Francisco last month and stopped by Larry Shultz's studio

and it was really sad to see the poor quality of the

student's practice a result of having such a low level

teacher. Sadly many students were sincere and dedicated

yet, they were barely scratching the surface of what

Astanga has to offer since they had no teacher per

se.<br><br>Remember, Astanga is part of a sacred lineage most recently

transmitted by Krisnamacharya to Pattabi Jois. While there

are many fine teachers in this country, you owe it to

yourself, your future students and the practice to get as

close to that lineage as possible; so get on a plane

and learn before you teach. You and your students

will be better off in the long run.<br><br>It might be

amusing to denegrade those who wish to maintain the

purity of the practice by dismissing us as "Yogi

Police". We are not fascists but dedicated students and

teachers who only want to see the practice preserved in

its purest and most potent form. Unless you spend

some serious time with the Guru and bask in his

energy, you will not understand this.<br><br>Good

luck,<br><br>Officer Senor Pinche Wey

[Guest guest]

Ropescourseguy, consider beginning an Ashtanga

practice group instead of a class. <br><br>Call me crazy,

but I mostly agree with wacko purist Wey on this one.

I have been asked to teach and I know that I would

be better than many "teachers" I have taken classes

from. Yet, I know I am still in Kindergarten. I've been

practicing regularly for almost a year (off and on for 12

years before that). And I too have taught other

subjects (healing modalities). After taking classes with

Tim Miller and Gary Kraftsow, it is easy to know that

I am not qualified. True yoga teachers have a

palpable energy - and they Know Yoga. (And I don't have

any idea what it would be like to study with one of

the three yoga Guru's)