How do you find a good Yoga teacher? I know from my martial arts journey that there are many well intentioned but poor quality teachers. Without the experience to make an informed decision, I had to learn by trial and error about who could best assist me with my pursuit. I now know, in a martial arts context, a quality and skilled teacher from a well meaning but otherwise lacking teacher. It took me years of apprenticeship under false masters before I discovered what I was looking for. I?m no longer a young man and don?t want to make the same types of mistakes on my Yoga journey. What kinds of things should I be looking for in choosing a quality Yoga instructor?
Hello (again) Michael.
I’ve answered just this sort of question on my own forum. Would you kindly go there and read that and if you’ve got more questions then I’d be glad to expound.
Sorry for my delay Michael. I had to re-formulate the nature of my initial reply to conform with parameters of the board. Here is my answer to your question addressing 6 basic areas to examine:
There are several things to consider when selecting a teacher. And I want to be clear, you may not consider or think of these things at all. You may be perfectly served going to the teacher you want, using a cultivated and authentic inner teacher to find the right fit for you.
Perhaps we call this a “connection”. And you may just be looking for this first element and the rest may emenate from that. That having been said, here are the things I think are pertinent:
CONNECTION - finding a teacher you trust and feel like you are or can develop a rapport with will allow you to deepen your practice and shift your mind out of a potentially snug belief system.
STYLE - different yoga flavors may lend themselves to different teaching styles. Some teachers modulate their voice and change their approach while others may sound monotone, or have a llilt in their delivery. Some teacher may be stuck in speech habits saying things like “good” or “nice” for seemingly random reasons. In addition, some teachers are hands on and give adjustment when needed while others do not have any tactile contact with their class whatsoever.
INSTRUCTION - this is closely related to style. Instruction though is more about the actualization of an instruction method in the classroom. What is the teaching method? Does the teacher break down the instruction into segments for the student to digest? Is there demonstration? Is there enough instruction or too much instruction? How does the teacher correct if at all? Does the teacher instruct in themes and are the sequences fitting together properly for YOU…I’m asking if when you are in class you are “getting it”?
WISDOM - it is just as much saying to students “I don’t know” as it is actually knowing. Every teacher, regardless of the subject, must possess a well of knowledge (hopefully an expanding one) from which to draw the waters. The most basic definitions of “teacher” all include “knowledge” as a foundational component. This well can vary greatly. What I find important when I’m evaluating a teacher is that they are only teaching what they know. I find teachers who teach what they do not know but perhaps were told as transparent, inauthentic, and potentially dangerous. The application of this knowledge is wisdom. Without application it is merely useless data.
LINEAGE - this one is a little tricky as it can swing into pretention when not watched carefully. Who is your teacher and who is your teacher’s teacher? It’s prudent to know something about the person in whom you are placing your trust. Some teacher may not have formal training and the one’s that do, well their lineage may not mean anything to you. And they may still be very excellent teachers. What I have found, from taking classes with over 40 teachers in both Orlando and Seattle is that the teacher of the teacher does matter but it matters in degrees from one teacher to the next.
LIFE - there’s an axiom here; “evaluate your teacher by how they live their life not how they do their poses”. Would you like to live the way your teacher lives? Would you like to behave how your teacher behaves? Yoga, with the capital Y is a way to move through this world, a way to live, a way to freedom through the discipline of the practice.
Inner Athlete as always has some EXCELLENT points.However I disagree with the ‘Life’ bit. It’s good to agree to disagree! Why should we be concerned with the life of the teacher? I wouldn’t even like to be like the great Patanjali (mainly because he passed away many years ago). I feel we should not follow in the footsteps of anyone especially not teachers and be ourselves.
Also I would suggest to find a teacher who does not ‘correct’ their students. To correct is an incorrect way of doing things because you do not allow for experience to teach the nervous system. You are not allowing the feedback to help you. In the same way you cannot correct a baby in his/her learning to walk. We are organized to be able to adapt. This is more important than to self correct. The force to adapt is better than to be able to try & correct and be symmetrical.
Also remember that improvement is better through concentration rather than action. So find a class that is not overly physical as over exerting oneself numbs the feedback processes of the nervous system.
say a prayer and take action
more than thoughts
Neil
[QUOTE=vibes;12816] I disagree with the ‘Life’ bit. It’s good to agree to disagree! Why should we be concerned with the life of the teacher? [/QUOTE]
A difference in philosophy is always welcome. So of course, hold whatever it is that works for you.
But since you asked…
It is actually quite important to evaluate the integrity of the teacher. And that integrity is weighed by placing what is taught on one side of the scales and what is lived on the other.
I am not suggesting you BE your teacher. Nor am I suggesting you live as Patanjali - though it would likely be better than living as Nikolai Chauchescu. Of course you must find and be yourself. The evaluation is not to be that person but to see how yogic behavior is modeled by your prospective teacher.
A teacher who asserts concepts they themselves do not live is inauthentic. Inauthentic teachers lack integrity and therefore so too lack inner harmony. The proof in the teachings are in the living.
Would you study Brahmacharya from a teacher cheating on his wife? Would you embrace the teachings of ethics from a teacher sleeping with students? Would you delve into satya offered by a teacher who cannot offer honesty to others?
Point being, if you’re going to find a YOGA teacher (rather than an asana teacher) it may be prudent to find one who’s living what they are teaching. Otherwise it begs the question “from where ARE they teaching?”.
Indeed, I agree with IA’s points about Life. The two yoga teachers that I have really learnt a great deal from are the two who live their lives in a way that is inspiring to me. I do not want to BE them, or even be like them, but their lifestyles and the way they interact with others instill a confidence and optimism in me that is itself a great teacher.
As for the issue of teachers who correct or not - I much prefer those that are tactile and correct me in asanas. I am very flexible and have injured myself from incorrect alignment. My body is obviously not as able to adapt as Vibes’s! 
What kinds of things should I be looking for in choosing a quality Yoga instructor?
Are you asking for something more than the six parameters I’ve outlined above?
I do not fully understand your question. What skills should a teacher have?
IA, if I had to guess I would say lakshmi might be pulling your leg, but I have been wrong once or twice before in my life, ok maybe a couple more times than that but that is it.
The famous Sivananda was a money worshipper. However , he has bought joy to thousands of Yoga people with his teachings and is highly regarded. However like you guys I prefer to mix with good company whether it’s a teacher or freinds. So point taken. JenW - You can learn to adapt and become more flexible. This is very beneficial, as corrections you think are doing you good now may be doing long-term harm. It is of more benefit to teach people how to learn to learn what asanas are doing to you and why. By being corrected, we restrict our sensitivity. I also know people who have been injured by being ‘corrected’. Also the other extreme - people who do not listen may hurt themselves. So perhaps good instruction in the first place is good.
LOVE
Also, the teachings are what is important. Teachers,ashrams, yoga studios will come and go
[quote=vibes;12816]Inner Athlete as always has some EXCELLENT points.However I disagree with the ‘Life’ bit. It’s good to agree to disagree! Why should we be concerned with the life of the teacher? I wouldn’t even like to be like the great Patanjali (mainly because he passed away many years ago). I feel we should not follow in the footsteps of anyone especially not teachers and be ourselves.
[/quote]
Checking the integrity and asessing the wisdom of the teacher does not mean imitating the teachers actions. I’d say a good teacher of anything is one who we can look up to.
Also I would suggest to find a teacher who does not ‘correct’ their students. To correct is an incorrect way of doing things because you do not allow for experience to teach the nervous system. You are not allowing the feedback to help you. In the same way you cannot correct a baby in his/her learning to walk.
There is great difference betwenn babies and grownups. Children up to the age of seven learn solely by imitation. It might not be obvious but this is the case. You are right that during these years they should not be taught. All the parents can do is to behave and act normally, talk normally, and the child will imitate it. Forced teaching, tasking the memory or not yet existent logical, analytical capacity of the child makes the very forces what build his/her vital and physical body to be used up, thus hindering normal evolution. In this timeframe the main job of the soul is to grow into this world, to build up and learn to utilize the physical body.
But the situation changes after the age of seven (changing of teeth) when the main task is to build and learn to use not the vital (pranic) body, but the desire body (astral, or manas), when the child becomes able to detach from the emotional background of the parents, and develops personal likes and dislikes, desires, aspirations. This period ends around the age of fourteen, and during this stage, the foundations of the future grown up’s emotional temperament and aspirations are set. Teaching should be motivational, setting noble and elevating examples and attitudes towards life. Dry analytical and logical thinking should wait or approached through inspirational examples. During these years arts should be the main focus, history (again, not dry data, but through insprational biographies, examples), human matters. Only after the age of fourteen, up to the age of twenty one, should the development of logical, analytical thinking encouraged, when the bases of a sound physical, vital and desire body has been set. The birth of individuality of a human being is completed at the age of 21 … but there is still a lot more to learn. Evolution goes on in seven years cycles. I’d say, allowing some exceptional cases, a yoga teacher should be at least 35-42 years old … but the older, the better. For most of us, life itself is the greatest school, and wisdom is simply impossible to have without a rich life experience.
To be closer to your approach of the subject, physical and physiological aspects of asana practice - allowing that yoga and teaching is a much larger area - you rose the question if there should be corrections, adjustments. My teacher said: any teaching should be self teaching. Following this thought, the teachers role is to help this process. The reason for the teacher being there is to accelerate this process. Yoga is only possible through personal experience, true, but the teacher has been there done that, and also, it has the advantage of having an unbiased view on the learning process. The presence of the teacher helps the disciple to discern between the really important and the less important parts of the practice. Simply, the teacher shows the right way. Without that, we wouldbe left to the method learning through trial and error, a much slower one, and one less safe.
PS. Though: with so many yoga practitioners, and having the eight limbs of yoga, one would think that there are many who already mastered asana, the second limb and went on to higher practices.
Hi Hubert. Thanks for your insight. However, we will have to agree to disagree.
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A teacher who wants to be looked up to must have an ego problem. The most inspiring yogis I met in India were down to earth and made me feel on the same level as them. The Yogis (or dodgies) I met who had the vibe that they want to be looked up to, were generally greedy or wanted some power.
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This seven year thing is simply not true. We learn more in the first years of our life through motor sensory learning - feeling and sensing and the brain improving it’s communication with the body and vice versa and allowing this communication to develop and improve so we can feel or way to standing, crawling,rolling etc. Many of us when we reach our teenage years feel thats as far as we can improve or develop. However this has been proved wrong many times. Just find out from great scientists and movement masters such as Feldenkrais. Even eledrely people can improve in many ways physically and mentaly. Just pick up a good book on neuro science and you can learn more. Learning how to learn to improve is key improving. Babies are experts on this. We can go back to our roots and improve. Onwards forwards let us all improve! LOVE!
Just to add my view … I agree a teacher who WANTS to be looked up to cannot be by default. I think we all have the same view on that. Vibes, you say that the most inspiring yogis were the ones who
were down to earth and made me feel on the same level as them.
I believe that’s exactly what was meant in the earlier posts that talked about checking the lifestyle and integrity of a teacher - and it is certainly what I meant. I think the teachers that inspire us are exactly the down to earth and compassionate people without ‘ego problems’ you describe
As for the seven year thing - I can’t comment. BUT do get the sense that again you and Hubert may be closer to agreeing than disagreeing
[QUOTE=Hubert;12856]PS. Though: with so many yoga practitioners, and having the eight limbs of yoga, one would think that there are many who already mastered asana, the second limb and went on to higher practices.[/QUOTE]
how can one master asanas without the other limbs? Ideally one would be breahing, concentrated, hopefully sensory perception would be limited, maybe meditating, and if they are lucky in bliss. SOme people beleive yoga is a series of 8 steps, some people believe starting meditation first and that will help to enhance the other limbs, others view the limbs as branches on a tree, and if you stay on one branch too long it may sag or break. In non duality no one limb would be higher then the other?
as far as this
"There is great difference betwenn babies and grownups. Children up to the age of seven learn solely by imitation"
one of the first things a child does is cry, who are they immatating? then they learn that crying brings attention to wants and needs. They breast feed not by imatation, unless some parents are doing things in front of their children, now you did not do that in front of your children did you hubert 
Then children stick things in there mouths to feel texture, taste, smell, etc…
I believe children learn by exploring and imatation and instincts, but that is just my beliefs, not gospel.
words and thoughts and more
my best to you brother
I am peace, I am love, I am joy
I am neil
I try to check reviews from his students 
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As I have already mentioned, I really try to check all the reviews before using services of a certain teacher or instructor. For example, I found eteacher hebrew exactly thanks to students' reviews.