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BACK TO SCHOOL
Expanding the Space of Our Being & Knowing
Shanti Yoga School has always honored the uniqueness of each of us.
Since our beginning in 2001, our approach to yoga education has been rooted in a simple understanding: there is no single body, single path, or single way that yoga is supposed to look.
Recently I came across Robin Caton’s essay, “No Borders, No Boundaries.” She invites us to look more closely at the boundaries created by our ideas and assumptions—and suggests that in doing so, we may “expand the space of our being and knowing.”
That stopped me.
Because isn’t that what education—at its best—is meant to do?
Not simply give us more information, but expand what we can see.
Where Does the Pose End?
Where do YOU end?
The black line in this photograph seems to say: Here is the pose.
Looking at it, I’m reminded of a paper doll—a person contained within an outline, expected to fit a predetermined shape.
But people aren’t cutouts. And neither is yoga.
What happens when we look beyond the line?
What is the pose doing? What is its function? What happens when this particular person—with their particular history, abilities, needs and possibilities—meets the pose?
Asana becomes a question, not a fixed answer. No single answer that fits every BODY.
And perhaps the boundaries aren’t always where we think they are.
This morning in Costa Rica, I can hear the howler monkeys long before I can find them in the trees. Look more closely and suddenly there they are, moving through the canopy.
And the hummingbirds? Sometimes it’s almost impossible to see where the bird ends and the plant begins. You need to look closely and not assume.
Yoga invites us to look more closely, too.
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