Tuesday, May 26, 2009

IYEA Statement of Principles

I am an independent yoga educator.

I teach about the value of personal freedom on all levels of human experience.

I embrace my own standards for my education, and the training of my students, and am willing to be held accountable for living up to those standards.

I value my freedom to conduct my relationships without coercive interference by third parties.

I will resist to the best of my ability any entity that assumes the authority to license or regulate me as a yoga educator or to enforce its standards upon me.

5 comments:

  1. Right on, LK.
    everybody talks about "freedom" (Moksha)....I wonder if we give it enough respect .Master P wrote "Alone-ness" (Kaivalya, as we remember....

    Sorry I Can't be on IYEY....
    Maybe we start something like that here in Israel.
    (and the little cynic said: really? not enough problems in Israel as is? And a voice came from above: Not quite yet!)
    gilli harouvi
    www.ashtanga-yoga-israel.com

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  2. Dear Leslie,
    I am very grateful for your clear voice of resistence and reason in all of this. Thank you for taking such a bold and brave stand in this frightening moment. You inspire courage in us all.
    Sincerely,
    Lisa Bondy
    Om Sweet Om Yoga
    Port Washington, NY

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  3. Thank you! It's a welcome addition to the world of yoga. I dropped my YA membership a long time ago, and am very happy to be validated in my opinions about this issue.

    Martha Chabinsky
    New Moon Yoga
    Amherst, NH

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  4. Leslie,

    I just realized last night that I have your photo on my fridge for a yoga anatomy workshop! Wow! What a trip.

    I have been practicing yoga independently ever since I was about 10. I started going to yoga studios in several states (CO, MA, CA) at age 23. I have had the hardest time getting the $2,000 that it seems I need to get the yoga teacher training that I am being told that I need.
    I was offered a position to teach anyway in a center here in Portland. Once they got the insurance information, they immediately dropped me, however due to a lack of "official" paperwork. What do I really need? It saddens me that everything that becomes widely accepted also must be forced into capitol-based legal constraints. Why should it be that if a consenting party is signing a liability waver, it is still deemed as "not enough"? I see Yoga as a birthright, not as an institution.

    Katherine Russ
    Portland, OR

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  5. Namaste' Beloved Leslie,
    I am happy to call my Yoga School a part of this movement. The Peaceful Yogi Way Yoga School. Thank you so much for seeing directly the true freedom and liberation of the space we call Yoga...

    Unmaniji

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