A Message To A Student Who Wants To Be Certified As Yoga Teacher

I have received a message from a yoga student who is already teaching yoga classes but is now looking forward to be a certified yoga teacher. She asked for my advice. We wanted to meet up at some stage but it didn’t happen. This is what I wrote to her.


Hello there,

I received your mail. I thought of talking to you face to face when we meet up, but never mind, I can still talk to you here.

First, you need to know why are you teaching yoga. If it’s just teaching for living-hood as a career to make money, then go ahead, sign up a course anywhere that will “provide” some “recognized certificates”. There’s nothing wrong with teaching yoga for the money.

But, if you want to share yoga with many others out of compassion because you have been benefited from yoga, then that piece of paper means nothing at all.

If you really know yoga, then there is no need to have a piece of paper to prove that you are a “yoga teacher” and are “qualified to teach yoga”.

If you still need a piece of paper to give you the confidence to teach yoga, then very obvious that you still haven’t really get the true meanings and true confidence that come from knowing yoga personally…

If you want to teach exercise class with yoga poses in those places that provide “yoga classes” for fitness, then you should have a “certificate” to go for the “interview” as a “yoga teacher/instructor”.

Real yoga doesn’t have “certification”.

Giving the knowledge of yoga or giving the teachings of yoga to other beings is not a “job” or a “business”. It is not about “teaching” other people to do yoga exercises. It is about sharing the wisdom of knowing what is true happiness and how to transcend suffering with anyone that has the need of listening to yoga philosophy and who has the need to know what is yoga and how yoga can help them to be free from unhappiness. It is purely sharing the joy, wisdom and compassion that come from the heart when our own heart has realized yoga, has realized the love, peace, compassion and wisdom within ourselves.

The money that comes from giving yoga classes are intentionless and without any expectation. The money is just to enable us to survive, for ourselves to evolve further and to share yoga with more other beings. The money from giving yoga classes is a blessing, not a reward or earning.

There is nothing wrong to teach yoga for money or to make a living.

There is nothing wrong about teaching yoga as a fitness exercise that can help many people to relax and feel good about themselves. But the real teachings of yoga can help us to be free from generating tension and negativity into our system. Teaching people to relax is not as effective as teaching people how to not generate tension and negativity at the first place. If there is no tension, there is no need of relaxation. What is the point, when people keep generating tension and go for relaxation to relieve tension, and continue to generate more tension into the system?

Real yoga practice and realization of the Truth allow us to be fearless and worry-less towards the law of nature - changes, old age, sickness, weakness, separation from our loved ones, not getting the things that we like, losing the things that we like, contact with the things that we don't like, and death... There is nothing wrong with all these natural life transformations or experiences. There is no need to resist all these natural transformations of life or changes of the physical body, but we are not identifying nor associating with all these experiences through the body and mind... It is just the body and mind experiencing all these impermanent changes of the qualities of names and forms... We allow each transformation of life or changes of this physical body to happen, in peace... It allows us to be peaceful and compassionate being in any challenging difficult conditions or situations... It allows us to be able to make any decisions without doubt or fear or regret... It allows us to be firmed in all our decisions made and in all pursues. We don't need answers or guidance from the outside, but within ourselves is the source of everything that we need to know.

Here are a few articles I wrote about being a yoga teacher.

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2010/04/about-ashrams.html

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2009/11/about-yoga-teachers.html

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2009/05/yoga-and-certification.html

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-noticed-that-many-yoga-students-are.html

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.fr/2011/05/how-to-become-confident-yoga-teacher.html 

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.in/2011/10/advice-to-yoga-teacher.html 

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.ie/2012/06/about-yoga-teachers-and-teaching-yoga.html 

http://mengfoonglai.blogspot.in/2011/11/yoga-is-unconditioned-and-unlimited-by.html 

Follow whatever your heart wants to do.

Be happy in whatever you want to do.

No need to be afraid if you really want to share yoga with others, the path is there for you already.

Meng Foong