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whereas Ashtanga Yoga‟s is through the lineage of Pattabhi Jois, while Moksha Yoga
doesn‟t seem to feel the need to represent itself as springing from an old tradition.
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Chapter 2 Yoga Teachers
The second chapter will explore the teachers‟ responses with relation to their
attitudes toward yoga. The teachers from the respective studios will be discussed
together. First, the teachers‟ personal background and yoga experience is presented (A).
This is followed by the teachers‟ beliefs about the benefits of practicing yoga (B) and
finally their relationship to the tradition of yoga (C).
Moksha Yoga Teachers
(A) Moksha Yoga teachers’ backgrounds and experience
The experiences of the three Moksha teachers vary but they do offer some points
in common. MT1, who is the manager and co-owner of the Montreal studio, has been
with Moksha since it began five years ago. She has been practicing for the past twelve
years and teaching for the past eight. Her story is similar to that of her friend, the co-
founder of Moksha yoga and co-owner of the Montreal studio, Ted Grand. She was a
Bikram yoga teacher but found it too rigid for teachers and students. MT1 was
immediately attracted to Moksha due to the greater freedom given to teachers of the
Moksha sequence, which allowed her flexibility with respect to the script and posture
modifications. She has an active lifestyle and claims that yoga‟s relaxing effect hooked
her from the start.
MT2 and MT3 are both newer teachers. MT2 has only been teaching two months
and MT3 eight months. MT2 has a contemporary dance background and it was that
milieu that introduced him to yoga. As a dancer, yoga helped develop flexibility and
soothe his sore knees. He has practiced yoga regularly for the past three years. MT3 has
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been practicing for thirteen years and used yoga to help recover from a spinal injury
suffered in a car accident when she was young. Her background is in music and urban
planning. MT2 and MT3 began with Ashtanga yoga. Both found Ashtanga frustrating and
too challenging in terms of flexibility and strength.
All three teachers highlighted Moksha yoga‟s philosophy as the principal reasons
they were attracted to Moksha. MT3 described it best as a threefold mandate: 1)
environmental or green, 2) social and 3) continuing education. The environmental
mandate refers to Moksha yoga‟s commitment to sustainability by waste and energy
reduction. The social mandate refers to the karma classes and Moksha‟s support of both
local charities and the New Leaf foundation, their in-house charity that supports yoga
programs in youth correctional facilities. The third mandate refers to Moksha‟s
encouragement of its teachers to take classes at other studios and to continue studying
yoga in one form or another. All three teachers also enjoy the heat and talk about it in
terms of detoxification and “opening the body”. MT3 did not enjoy the heat when she
started and still practices often in a non-heated room.
The Moksha yoga teacher training is a month-long residential program. MT2 and
MT3, who had done their training quite recently, described their experience to me. MT1,
having been an original staff member, teaches at the teacher training program. The course
was held at an ayurvedic resort in Kerala, India. The daily schedule began with a silent
walk and meditation followed by the practice yoga class. The afternoon classes covered a
range of topics, including anatomy, the philosophy of Moksha yoga, the Hindu religious
text the Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali‟s Yogasutras, and Buddhist meditation. The second
yoga class of the day was theory, about how to teach and adjust in a yoga class. All meals
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served were vegetarian. On Fridays, other styles of yoga were taught. Although both
MT2 and MT3 claimed to have covered the
Bhagavad Gita and the
Yogasutras in the
course content, neither one could tell me anything about either one of these texts nor why
it was relevant to their training. When speaking of the training the element that both
teachers claimed made the strongest impression was the meditation teacher. He taught
them Buddhist meditation techniques and imbued the course with a touch of North
American style Buddhism. That is to say, the content of the Buddhist teachings were
about “awareness” and “loving kindness”. The Buddhist flavour present in the training
was significant for teachers. I asked MT3 about the connection of yoga and Buddhism
and she responded that she felt strongly that a connection existed although she could not
describe what it was. She felt that the relationship between the two was interesting and
worth exploring. MT3 seems to have been most influenced by the Buddhist flavour of her
training. She used the Buddhist term “sangha” at numerous times to describe the Moksha
yoga community of teachers. She feels very much a part of a living community of
teachers that mutually support each other, at least through the internet.
(B) Moksha Yoga teachers’ belief about yoga practice and its benefits
All three teachers started practicing yoga because they enjoyed or required some
physical benefit. MT1 kept with it because of the complete physical relaxation that comes
after her practice. She also points to the effect of yoga on improving digestion. MT2
began by using yoga to increase his strength and flexibility for contemporary dance; also
to help soothe his aching joints from rigorous dance practices. He mentions that the focus
on controlling the breath has a calming effect on the nervous system. MT3 used it for
regaining mobility after a car accident. She highlights that yoga, and Moksha yoga in