Larry's Statement of Teaching Philosophy

For this last lesson, I felt it would be appropriate to share with you something that I have developed over the last sixteen years and which I continue to revise, my statement of teaching philosophy. While it may take you some time to explore and define for yourself the kinds of beliefs and insights you wish to impart as you teach ashtanga yoga, you and your students will benefit greatly if you begin that journey as soon as possible. Remember, teaching yoga is not just about teaching physical movements, it is also about knowing how to guide people through their internal self-exploration.

Ashtanga yoga, as you know, depends on consistency of practice, of focus, of breath control. It also depends on consistency of teaching. If you create for yourself a clear understanding of who you are as a teacher, you will be able to deliver this consistency to your students. A student of mine once remarked that she can always depend on four basic elements to come through in my teaching ? humor, generosity, discipline and kindness. Though these elements may not be there in the same order or at the same level of intensity, they are always there. And this consistency allows your students to go further in their practice because it reminds them to keep those elements in their physical and internal movements, in their breathing and ultimately in their lives. As an ashtanga yoga teacher, I seek to lead people into the vinyasa flow of life and to keep them connected to its rhythm; a rhythm which is about moving, breathing, having fun, enjoying, and being consistent with one's purpose.

My own ashtanga practice has a direct effect on the way I teach and lead my life in general. Ashtanga yoga is sometimes called power yoga because it is physically challenging. But actually, the real power of ashtanga is in the fact that the physical extensions it calls for can become extensions of a greater, deeper kind: they can become the extension of one's horizons at the level of the body, the mind and the emotions. This is why I encourage those who practice with me to cultivate awareness of their bodies. It is through the body, I remind them, that they can gain intelligence about their internal landscapes I ask them to watch how they feel going into and out of poses and watch what kind of language they put on those movements. A big challenge for people is to know how to read their bodies; they are sometimes the last to know about what is happening in their bodies (as is the case in some illness) and they often misinterpret the messages they give them. Most of the time, people read the body from a Western perspective which sees bodily discomforts, frustration, anger, fear, pain as essentially bad and undesirable. These are the feelings and sensations with which people want to away and yet these are the very feelings which are part of change, evolution, transformation, growth. People often want to change but they do not want experience pain and so they keep themselves curled up, in their bodies, in their minds, and in their emotions. As I lead them through their ashtanga yoga practice, people learn to listen to their bodies and to interpret its messages with a wider, more open perspective. Most importantly, they learn to let themselves unfold, extend, move and grow.

This is where the four elements of my teaching come in. As people let go of the fears and let themselves extend fully, they need to keep their sense of humor, of kindness towards themselves, of generosity as they see their limitations and, at the same time, they need to be disciplined enough to keep their practices constant, focused and as strong as possible. But while I am there to remind people to keep these elements alive and active in their practice, I always emphasize the teacher within each student. Just as people misread their bodies, they can often misread the source of power in ashtanga. They can sometimes confuse the practice's intense transformative powers with the teacher directing the class, with the teacher outside of them. What I seek, is to connect people to their interior teacher, their higher Self which directs one's movements and growth in a way that no other teacher can.

I encourage people to recognize that their physical yoga practice, when directed with awareness and through the breath, can take them through the path of self awareness and transformation. Through the seventeen years of my teaching, I have found that people really want to change and grow but they do not know how to bring forth transformation and are afraid of what it can bring. Change is desirable but frightening and unpredictable. Positive change is out there somewhere in the realm of appearances ? in the right job, the right mate, the right house ? and it must be brought forth in a controlled and measured way. The yoga I teach directly challenges those assumptions. I encourage people to experience transformation from within, through their bodies and their breath. I guide them in discovering that it is through the breath that we can link with our higher Self and thus realize our inner most potential. When change comes from this Self, it unfolds intuitively, naturally, effortlessly.

But we must keep our practice constant and focused if we are to stay connected with our Self and grow, extend and flourish. This is why I encourage a daily practice for everyone. The more we practice, the more we loose insecurities about who we are in our physical being and the more we begin to pay attention to our intuition. Then, we start to listen to the body and its messages; we begin to know when not to overextend ourselves, how to have fun, how to allow ourselves to be confused or frustrated; ultimately, we begin to let ourselves dwell in the unknown. When this physical awareness extends into our daily living, then the power of ashtanga really shines. Instead of wanting to control change, we learn to control our breaths and so allow transformation to reveal itself to us. When I practiced ashtanga with Pattabhi Jois, he used to say frequently, "all is coming, all is coming," in the same breath that he would say, "keep your practice constant."

So how can we, as teachers of ashtanga, guide people through these insights? When I teach, I make sure to give people the support, nurture and care they need to become aware of their bodies, their limitations and possibilities and to challenge themselves into new states of being.

Larry Schultz