e-Conversation on Group Class Levels and The Appropriateness of Spiritual Disertations

Lauren Cahn, yoga teacher of downtownuptown yoga fame had a few questions for me. If you want to get to know who she is, check out lauren's bio.

Here is the e-dialogue we just recently had. Enjoy:

Lauren Cahn’s first question: I apologize if this is covered in your blog already, but I was wondering if you could provide some insight into how to go about teaching a mixed level group class?

Carl’s answer: Sure I can go over this. The first thing that I would state is that when you refer to a mixed level class what I think you are actually referring to is an intermediate level class where there is a group of students who are not all at the same level of practice.

Lauren’s clarification: I meant an ALL levels class - one where beginners with little athletic ability or fitness practice alongside athletically inclined, advanced practitioners (or people who think they are advanced because they practice advanced-level poses, even if their "yoga" is not advanced).

Carl’s answer: Sounds like what I described above. I usually start with more basic variations of the postures letting the more advanced students know they are allowed to do the more advanced variations. If it is a practice where people feel they are going for a “workout” I can make the more advanced students work really hard at things that do not require the student to be advanced so that the less advanced students can work hard also if that is how they choose to work. Variations for softening the work are always possible as well.

Lauren’s next question: What if some of the students want very much to move quickly from pose to pose and to vinyasa up and down a lot between poses, while some students are unable or not interested in doing so?

Carl’s answer: To some extent in a group class you are leading a balanced practice and you are trying to make the practice appropriate for the majority of the people in the class. If you try to cater to the extremes at either end of the spectrum problems can occur.

If students sense that you are catering to one student more than others you will have a problem. If students ask you for specific things and other students ask for the exact opposite you run the risk of losing control over the practice and one of your jobs when you are leading a group class is to provide a safe place for the students to practice. So the way in which you handle this kind of issue can create problems if you are trying to placate students at the extremes of the spectrum; or if this issue is handled thoughtfully everyone could end up being happy without you necessarily catering to any one person or group of people.

When I teach what gets called a “Vinyasa” practice in this country, a practice with A and B series sun salutations and the movement sequence—Chaturanga (push-up)-UpDog (backbend)-DownDog (upside down v)—repeated over and over, I always start by showing the students what some of the alternatives to that sequence are. I never require anyone to do that movement sequence or any other in my classes. My opinion is that in a group class my role is that of a facilitator. I guide and suggest. The people practicing have the right to make their own decisions. If they want to work more strongly than I am suggesting I let them know that is okay provided they are not doing something inappropriate for themselves where they are at risk of injury. When students want to back off, go more slowly, do less challenging movement sequences, I will help them adapt the practice to their own needs if they want help; or if they know how to adapt the practice for themselves I will allow them to do that and let them know it is okay. I also am very comfortable letting people know that if my call of the breath through those sequences—which is based on the average in the class, I don’t speed up to keep in line with the fastest and I don’t slow down to keep in line with the slowest—if my call of the breath is not in line with the practitioner’s pace, I let them know it is okay for them to go at their own pace and that those sequences always finish in downward facing dog pose so everyone catches up there.

I personally have come to understand that practitioners know themselves better than we may realize and often better than they have even given themselves credit for. The key is giving people intelligent choices and letting them make decisions for themselves while giving them the information that will help guide them in making those decisions in a way that is thoughtful and beneficial to their own needs. Do you need to put your foot behind your head today? What will you get from it? What are the possible risks?

Lauren’s question: What if some of the students are looking for a spiritually-oriented class, while others are just looking for a good workout?

Carl’s answer: I think this is actually a trick question. To answer this question as it is posed I would have to assume that there is a conflict between spiritual and workout and I don’t think this is the case.

Sometimes in group classes, without necessarily realizing it, teachers present what is actually dogma from a different culture’s religious tradition as spirituality. Now if there are people who like that stuff I feel that is fine. I also think there is a lot of benefit to that sort of thing. But to think chanting OM is more spiritual than bringing your awareness to yourself while you are simply making a humming sound may be to miss the point of the practice. Reciting a chant, that is actually a prayer in honor of the god Ganesh, before or after practicing, has its benefits and its drawbacks. Some people will enjoy the process. Some people will be turned off by it. If I start telling people things I believe about the way the universe works as though they have to believe as I do, the people who already agree with me may enjoy hearing my perspective and have no problems with the process but the people who disagree with me will probably be pushed away by my lack of sensitivity to where they are coming from and my lack of understanding of their own personal views.

And I am not so sure that spirituality has anything to do with what one says. If you are bringing your awareness towards yourself, which can happen just as powerfully while you are doing a physical posture as anywhere else, if the process is about being with yourself and perhaps about working on yourself, making yourself more of who you want to be, whether that means stronger physically or stronger emotionally, if the process is about self awareness and self understanding, which all yoga is about in some sense, then there is really no way to do a practice that is un-spiritual.

The spiritual aspects do not have to be overtly emphasized for them to be present. If the spiritual aspects are left to the students, so that they happen as a natural result of thoughtful practice with awareness to how the things they are doing are affecting them and how they feel differently after this work than they did before their practice, then the “spiritual” benefits are far greater because they are the result of that practitioner’s own personal realization rather than a spiritual or philosophical standpoint being imposed on the student from an external source (the teacher).

This is how I would break this down. There is a physical aspect of our being. Our bodies are made of substances that have some relationship to all physical matter. You can touch them feel them there is a semblance of solidity. This is the physical. Then there is something that causes this physical substance that is our body to be a little different than the physical substance of, say, a rock. Now I am not going to argue whether the rock is alive or not. Some cultures may hold that perspective and others might not. But there is a qualitative difference in the aliveness that animates the flesh and bones of my body, and that aliveness is something other than physical. No matter what you do, in every act you will perform in your entire life, your physical self cannot be separated from this aliveness which transcends the physical.

So to really do justice to this question I would have to ask:

What exactly do YOU mean by spiritual? And can you accept that there might be as many different answers to the question of what is spiritual as there are living organisms on this planet?
Lauren’s response to my question and one more question: As to the "spiritual" question - I mean the OVERT appearance of things. Some students are completely turned off by chanting. Others come to class HOPING there will be chanting. I do not mean to make a distinction between a workout and spirituality - I used to find spirituality in figure skating! And I found plenty of personal spirituality within a Bikram yoga class when I first began practicing. What I am asking is really - how do you mediate between those students who wish for the class to include dharma-discussions and chanting and those students who want to move physically without overt reference to dharma or chanting.
Carl’s answer: So there are a lot of ways you can go here. If you are a person who is doing chanting consistently in a class at a particular time slot at a particular center, the students who don’t want it won’t continue coming and the students who do want that will gravitate towards it. I know of teachers who bring their harmonium and chant for 45 minutes before they start the asana practice and they get a nice following. If that is what you want, make sure the venue where you are doing it lends itself towards that. I know certain centers where if you did that you would end up with nobody in your class and other centers where you would end up very popular as long as your chanting was ready for prime time.
Because I like to reach the largest number of students possible I don’t do too much chanting. Also, I am leery of this kind of stuff because I have been a scholar of religions for over 20 years and know that most yoga teachers don’t really know what they are saying and most yoga students would not be quite as happy about chanting if they got straight up literal translations of a lot of those chants they have been reciting.
So the way I handle this is that if I am going to use sound I either ask the class if it is okay for me to use chants in a foreign language from a different culture’s RELIGIOUS tradition. I give translations of the Sanskrit and explanations of how I am using the sounds because usually what the chants mean does not really matter so much to me but I want people to know what they are saying.
There is one more option; sometimes I have people use sound where they are basically using vowel sounds and nonsense syllables. The sounds in this case don’t have any meaning except the meaning attached to them by the students making the sounds. Usually this is received fairly well. But there are still times when using sound and having students create sound is not well received so if a student does not want to make sound I am fine with them not participating. They don’t have to use their vocal chords if they don’t want to.
As far as “Dharma Talks” I have a strong perspective on this. In a group class which is a regular part of a yoga studio’s schedule most of the time I feel these types of things are out of place.
I have been studying the philosophy behind religions from all over the world since 1984. I know a lot of people who have said to me, “I cannot bear to hear some twenty something year old person with very little life experience trying to give me life altering philosophy when it is obvious that the person has no idea what they are actually saying and that they are actually simply parroting something they heard someone else say.” I would have to agree.
I know some yoga teachers who have been teaching for two to three decades. When they talk about philosophical principles to live by, it is a very different thing than someone who did a teacher training 8 years ago and has been teaching for only 8 years. Please note that I feel 8 years of teaching is not a short time but still not a very long time. And if one of these teachers who has been at it for almost a decade is not ready to give talks about how other people should live, then anyone with less experience should really be hesitant as well.
I don’t see much place for someone who does not actually know from experience trying to lecture others who might know as much or more about life. Somewhere towards the end of the second decade of solid teaching experience (please note I am referring to someone who has been teaching steadily for 17 years or more) a talk about life might begin being appropriate in a regular group class on a schedule at a yoga center.
Now if someone is truly gifted their might be minor exceptions. Or if a teacher is teaching a workshop or seminar where the class is a special class and the students are really coming for what that teacher has to offer, so that might be a different story.

But most of the time, people who are really on a spiritual path know what the direction of their inquiry should be and otherwise, a group class is not the best forum in the first place to give someone something as deeply personal and uniquely individual as true spiritual guidance should be.

Lauren: Thanks for a great site and your wonderful insights!

Carl: I am glad you are enjoying it and thanks for the questions.

Peace.
blog@yogascope.com
http://www.yogascope.com