2.5
June 23, 2011

Can my Yoga Teacher hear My Thoughts in the Classroom? ~ Samantha King

Photo: Lululemon Athletica

Can the teacher hear my thoughts in yoga class?

Short answer: yes.

Most likely, the teacher can’t hear your specific thoughts, per say, but rest assured they can pick up when you are thinking versus when you are completely absorbed in your breath and body awareness.

Can the teacher tell when you are having impure thoughts?

Yes.

Seriously?

Yes.

But how? Do yoga teachers have special super powers?

Uh, no. Or, at least not this one. It is simple really. In a good yoga class, the attention is inwards. The energy of the room shifts from let’s call it, the normal mental and visual level to a more inward and intuitive energy.

Photo: Lululemon Athletica

A good teacher knows inside and out the feeling of deep, one-pointed, non-judgmental, conscious awareness. Or more simply put, pure consciousness. While teaching, the teacher has feelers out and is receptive to what is going on in their classroom.

The teacher can feel when students are emitting that pure conscious energy. They can tell who is in their zone and who is not.

Whenever a student is not reaching this potential a different sort of energy, a tainted or impure energy is emitted. Aggression and ego have a certain energy. Lust and envy have another energy. Distracted thoughts of past or future emit a sort of lower static or scattered-type of energy.

The other day, I had a couple of new students in my class who were in the front row, barely two feet away from my mat.

Try as I might to lead them to a quieter place within themselves, I could not over-ride their loud thoughts hurdling at me like poison darts as we moved through a variation of sun salutes.

“What the hell is this? What the hell is that? Not this again! Why are we going so damn slow…” the thoughts kept hurdling.

After a while, the fresh prana starts to kick in. Their thoughts start to slow. My energetic shield lowers.

I find that any impure thought in a yoga class environment is amplified, even if the student is just thinking a mild, “what the hell”? The thought still has a direction (at the teacher, at themselves, or a fellow student) and is still received as a poison dart. I bring this up to illustrate how powerful and harmful our thoughts are to our selves and others.

Photo: Steven Depolo

Impure thoughts are like poison darts. Poison darts, people!

So remember this while practicing yoga: Stop hurting others and yourself by launching poison dart thoughts. Become aware when you are out of your zone and take a deep breath. Refocus.

Even better: Remember your thoughts are powerful on and off the mat. Before you start launching your darts, take a breath. Find your heart center, think: Cupid.

There is nothing sweeter than students emanating Cupid bliss arrows. They are not hurting anyone. They are melting the impurities and knots within, planting new seeds of pure-loving kindness in their bodies.

They move from the heart and their light seems to fill up the room. They may even be helping to purify the energy of the classroom to help you back in your zone.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Samantha King, known in the blog world as The Domestic Yogi (http://thedomesticyogi.blogspot.com), is a chanting, vibrating, vinyasa-practicing, yogi-Buddhist-mom. She has happily (in an unattached way) found herself sitting in zazen with the Zen Buddhists, enduring 10-day long silent vipassana meditation retreats, powering through some crazy pretzel asanas avec bandhas and breath. Under the guidance of her lama, she has dove full force into the tantric practices of vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhism. But that was all before kids. Now she supports her husband at the Lakota Sundance and their other ceremonies, wipes up spit and tries to teach her two kids to value peace, the earth and respect for all things living. Samantha teaches ashtanga-vinyasa yoga, and has found a new love in teaching children and teens yoga.
Read 14 Comments and Reply
X

Read 14 comments and reply

Reply to Ali cancel

Top Contributors Latest

Elephant journal  |  Contribution: 1,375,490