Jessa's dilemma, part 1

[Guest guest]

I can sympathize with you, Jessa. This teacher is

WAY out of bounds for a variety of reasons. First of

all, the only person allowed to "certify" Ashtanga

teachers is SPJ. You can see partial list of certified

teachers on www.Ashtanga.com under "classes". They became

certified due to their long commitment and discipline to

the Ashtanga system and SPJ. People like your teacher

or Larry Schultz have no business offering "Ashtanga

teacher training certification." <br><br>The whole issue

of Ashtanga certification is a fairly recent

phenomenon. My understanding is that Lino Miele lobbied SPJ

to "Certify" teachers in order to maintain quality

control. SPJ printed up some certificates and started

offering them to the advanced students in the mid 80's.

The people who studied with SPJ in the late 70's

early 80's may not technically be "certified", though

they have obviously paid their dues. It just wasn't an

issue back then.<br><br>Other people like Eddie Stern -

certainly one of the best teachers and probably one of the

closest people to SPJ - considers "certification" (i.e. a

piece of paper) meaningless. His mandate to teach comes

from SPJ and from the many advanced and knowledgeable

people who seek him out to learn. Consistent with this

traditional approach, Eddie refuses to advertise his NY Yoga

Shala ( SPJ is opposed to advertising - "when the

student is ready the guru appears" the saying goes. )

Eddie also removed his name from the www.ashtanga.com

site's list of Ashtanga teachers when the site ceased

being a public service and started to sell yoga

ephemera.<br><br>Yoga has gone through some changes in its journey from

India to the West. In the past, a guru would not charge

his students, but they would have to be prepared at

any moment to do whatever he asked - sweep the

shalla, give a demonstration, and offer a level of

respect and deference that would make a westerner

uncomfortable (bowing before the teacher, touching his feet,

etc...). In this context, yoga was not considered a

workout or a weight-loss program, but a spiritual process

that would be debased if you put a price on

it.<br><br> (End of part 1)

[Guest guest]

<< Eddie also removed his name from the

www.ashtanga.com site's list of Ashtanga teachers when the site

ceased being a public service and started to sell yoga

ephemera.>><br><br>I am sure Eddie Stern is a very fine teacher as

well as a fierce guardian of the Astanga tradition. I

would like to point out though that Eddie has been, in

my understanding, the *only one* so far to remove

his name from the ashtanga.com site. Others did not

follow his example. Am I to believe that teachers such

as Lino Miele, John Scott, Kimberly Flynn, Noah

Williams and Richard Freeman, to name some, are less in

sync with the Astanga tradition than Eddie Stern, just

because they seemingly don't object to see their names

put among the sale of "yoga ephemera"?

[Guest guest]

good point.