I assisted the 40 hrs. plus 40 hrs. of teacher training Judith Lasater conducts every year in San Francisco for last 2-3 times. But this year, spending summer in Japan, I was sad to have missed assisting the July training … Then she says that I can assist any of the upcoming training … Yeay! No matter how many photos I review (as I was the photographer for the last few local TTs) or books you read, nothing compares to being in the presence of a teacher you respect and admire.
When I was struggling, I was so comforted by a company of ladies a bit older – if fact, they might have been my mother’s jolly friends – being with them made all the difference. There was laughter, there was kindness. It’s always healing, inspiring and rejuvenating to be with older women, someone who can be your auntie, an older sister, a mother, even grandmother … a guide, who have walked the walk, done the do’s, struggled and suffered and paid the dues and … stands before you to “humbly” teach you something about life, without bitterness or haughtiness or snobbery or … too much ego – in fact, no ego would be lovely. I am all about learning and if I can learn from you, I am there – it’s not just the asanas – admittedly that’s a gateway but no amount of anatomy talk or movement lessons can compare to something more energetic and cerebral. While I am not saying I cannot learn from the young – it’s just that I’ve been there and I am more the person to give that advice, give that example, give the energy, I am the one to pass on – I am the one expected to guide – I am the offering. But then, when I am seeking an older sage, I am receiving, I am carrying on, I am enlightened and inspired. I am grateful for the widom they impart from their vantage point. There’s just too much fear out there about aging and withering and declining …or getting fat:) some take up yoga out of that fear…because of chronic stress borne out of anxieties over all things fleeting. Why not live your life fully before worrying about such things.
So went this week in a flow, I “assisted” yoga for cancer class my cohort from my yoga therapy TT now holds through Stanford Medical Foundation. So sweet to see him develop into this unpretentious teacher and so inspiring to see someone like him, much older, doing something to make a difference. He could have just sat back in his white-privileged world of utter comfort joined other mostly white guys his age, relaxing at some version of Mar-a-Lago, but no, he’s teaching yoga for cancer.(okay, I know that’s just a stereotype and there are many who are engaged in social justice and service to make a change). He’s making this world a little kinder, a little more compassionate. Less violent.
I was happy to be with this Karma Yogi and so were the students who showed up seeking some relief from pain that day.
They were helped because of him. And because of yoga. Thank you for the beautiful practice Jido:)