The Rise and Fall of Yoga Teachers...

So one of the 'gurus' of one of the more 'popular' contemporary yoga styles in North America has been caught with his pants down - literally. I'd say good for him, good for them and good for everyone that has any righteous indignation around it. There's nothing better for the spiritual work than people who because of their own needs, desires that manifest in strong and utterly personal projections fall with the said 'guru'. When he fails, we fail - they project, and they don't like to fail. It is the Shakti at work. It happens all the time! This is the ebb and flow of the universe balancing and frankly we are but mere players...what's that Shakespear quote? Although it's not to be interpreted as Shakespear has been, as a cynical and fatalistic view-point. It's really enjoy the ride and learn - about your deep selves. About the Self that is the driver of yoga. So don't be so naive as to think that this is the first time - or the last time - this sort of thing will happen in the world, let alone in the yoga community. What is revealing to me and cosmically comical really, is the fact that people are surprised that their 'guru', the one they love, the one they love to hate, look toward, project all their aspirations of being a special yogi/yogini, would do such things that are contrary to what they believe to be true of yoga. Where's the light?, they ask. Where's the goodness and niceness in it all?

The Spiritual practice is a difficult one. And no matter how much we claim and squirm that yoga is NOT a spiritual practice (if I don't want it to be, they say. Ha, there's the rub) but just a great way to stay healthy and happy. "Somehow it works to make me happy because the teacher makes me feel that way when I'm doing my poses" - you say. "I don't go to teachers who make me feel bad about myself..." "A workout that makes me feel all oogly inside." That's why he and his practice were so popular, because that's what the practice that he 'developed' was for - to make you feel better about yourself. And he placed himself right at the helm. Responsible for how good or bad you feel. So when he did something that didn't make any sense to his 'followers', didn't give them that oogly feeling, their whole world-view fell apart.

No one in yoga whether student or teacher has super human powers and doing yoga can not give you them. You are not invincible to the mores of society and the spiritual practice is there to take you down as well as lift you up. There is always that yin and yang. You can not escape that.

Again, the Spiritual practice is a difficult one. It works on us constantly in this material life whether you are aware of it or not; Whether you are a teacher, or otherwise. If you're a strong individual or a weak one, the universe will conspire to show you a way through to balance one way or the other. Sometimes the path is varied and unseen. Every decision we 'make', every 'mistake', every 'success' is the universe directing you through your life. The path is revealed to you constantly and all the various styles and traditions, and forms of yoga, whether it is meditation or asana is to open your eyes to it by allowing you to shed the dross which hides it from your view. You have no say in it. Otherwise the ego would protect us all from ourselves! 

It is time to wake up to this notion that: you do NOT do yoga, yoga does you! All teachers, authority figures, celebrities (he turned into one) etc., get the strong mass projections of love, devotion, hatred, envy, betrayal, competitiveness, etc.. The love projection is huge, and I have experienced it myself - from both men and women. Of course, I have experienced the opposite of that. We all do at some point or another. But here's the real work - as a teacher you are the instrument of the Divine and the Shakti works through you in these ways. It is all for the learning of both the student and the teacher. For the student, it is to feel the strong emotion and the desire to have the ability to express it. For the teacher, it is to recognize that this love is not for you - personally! The job of the teacher is to stand firm in an open and compassionate stance. To recognize projection and to allow it to a certain degree until it becomes disruptive (in his case it became very destructive). The work is to dissolve the ego to the point that you can get out of the way of the learning that needs to happen for the student and for you. It is the big 'Self' that leads us into places of real learning. The misfortune of it is not getting caught, nor is it the behavior. The real sorrow is the failure to see the learning. It falls flat because of the ego's self-preservation expressed by back-stroking, denial, and projecting it back into the society. The sad part of it is the loss of the real experience of the work of the Shakti; to be able to receive and give love wholly and completely without cause or recompense. To sit in the joy of Divine love where all possessive and conditional qualities all fall away and you are left giddy with the feeling of release and lightness that comes with this profound work. That is where freedom that is Yoga really is. Be the instrument, the container which is to unite yourself so fully with the Divine that there is no question of to and from where the Love flows.