Thank you for your heartfelt comments, Westcoast Yoga is blessed to have students like yourself with so much passion for yoga. Quite often the 'Guru' is the practitioner and the teacher is the pupil.

The most important characteristic of a teacher is their 'intention' to help others. A teacher’s skills and abilities will differ from class to class but their 'intention' must be steadfast with an ambition to help their student’s progress. This intention is the sounding board for all yoga teachers and present in all at Westcoast Yoga.

There was a story of a girl who received a delicious dish from her mother of pudding and fresh fruit. The girl cried out, “I do not want to eat it!” When her mother asked why she did not want to eat the desert. She replied, “Because it was not served in my favorite bowl.” Her mother being very loving and compassionate put desert in her child’s favorite bowl and gave it back to her daughter to enjoy. The girl cried out again, “I do not want to eat it!” When the mother asked why she would not eat the tasty, delicious and healthy treat. The daughter replied, “Because there are no raisins in the pudding.” The mother having the best intentions for her daughter added raisins to the already perfect dish. The daughter then tossed the dish on the floor and cried out, “I do not want it anymore!” When her mother asked why she would not eat the pudding, the daughter said, “Because it has specks of dirt in it”. Her mother patiently explained that is not dirt, it is cardamom, which is tasty and good for you. Her mother being caring and compassionate prepared a new delicious dish for her daughter, in her favorite bowl with raisons and no cardamom.

The moral of the story is one should not to discard the entire teachings because it is not presented in a format (favorite bowl) that they are accustomed, or if it includes something (cardamom) they do not like, or if it is missing something (raisins) that they do like. Enjoy what is shared with the best of intentions, do not through out the whole dish because a portion is not exactly as one is accustomed.

Like a loving, patient, caring and compassionate mother, Westcoast Yoga will do its best to present yogic teachings in the tradition that you are accustomed, including the Sanskrit terms that resonate through all of our beings. But please do not discard the teachings entirely because it is not presented in a manner that you are familiar.

Our teachers, like the mother in the story serve with the very best of intentions.

Namaste,
Eddison

During my most recent yoga class I had a startling realization. I was 4 postures into a 26 posture series and the instructor had not verbalized one sanskrit name. I become unbalanced and unable to focus, I lost all equanimity. My mind hung on every word.....Will the instructor say the next one? To my disbelief not one posture was honored by its name, by its vibration, by its sacred path and unity. Was I in a Yoga class? or was I just in a hot room with a bunch of sweaty people doing exercises? (yuck!). The names became my focus. Buddha knows I know the names. I could murmur them to myself to appease my mind. It didn't work. I was amiss and missing the dicipline of teachers past. I finally came back to the room, back to the now and just in time to hear: "Savasana everyone". The instructor said Sa, Sa, Sa, Savasana!!! Did I hear it or didn't I? Was my mind playing tricks on me. It brought me back in time - not long ago in another Yoga class - where a crazy lady lay with pillows and blankets propped and wiggled beneath and over her body, like she was queen shiva. She had created a massive throne of comfort. She maintained savasana for the whole class and she was mortified at the end when a young man rushed off before the said pose - Savasana, "don't you know the most important part of yoga is savasana." He replied, "I thought Yoga was the most important part of Yoga." It made me think. What is the most important part of Yoga? Aren't the sacred names of our postrures just as important as the postures themselves? Not just the blissful asana - savasana, but all of them. We yogis need to hear them, not in the recesses of our mind, but in the spoken vibration that Guru's have so masterfully voiced. I put it out to the universe - may they be spoken: Pranayama, Ardha-chandrasana with Pada-Hastasana, Utkatasana, Garurasana, Dandayamana-Janushirasana, Dandayamana-Dhanurasana, Tuladandasana, Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Janushirasana, Tadasana, Padangustasana, SAVASANA, Pavanamuktasana,Bhujangasana, Salabhasana, Poorna-Salabhasana, Dhanurasana, Supta-Vajrasana, Ardha- Kurmasana, Ustrasana, Sasangasana, Janushirasana, with Paschimotthanasana, Ardha-Matsyendrasana, Kapalbhati in Vajrasana!!