Why you should join the Yoga Register

Yoga in the west has reached a watershed. No longer the exclusive domain of dedicated devotees, it has become, for some, a lucrative business. More and more of those who are profiting from yoga are neither lovers, nor practitioners of yoga. They are perhaps clothes or accessory manufacturers, health clubs, magazine owners etc. Despite their disinterest in yoga, except as a cash cow, they wield more and more power.

One of the most direct ways that this is happening concerns the issue of yoga teacher training. The huge demand for yoga classes in health clubs and fitness centres has alerted “The Fitness Industry”  to its profit potential. In order to draw as much of this profit to itself as possible it is attempting to control yoga teacher training. The Register of Exercise Professionals, which controls the training of, and is controlled by various organisations that extract profits from, fitness instructors of every kind, is attempting, so far successfully, to extend its empire to yoga. To do so it has established its own standards for the training of yoga teachers, which is in the most part the quivalent of what they call a Level 3 training. While this may, curently, be the highest level of fitness instructor training, it has little to do with the depths and subtleties of yoga. At the same time they are using their considerable corporate and governmental resources to lobby fitness and health clubs to not accept yoga teachers who are not on their register. This of course not only includes myself, Donna Holleman, Richard Freeman, Clive Sheridan, Eric Schiffman, Beryl Benedr Birch, John Scott etc, but BKS Iyengar, Desikachar, Swami Satyananda and Pattabhi Jois too.

Yet despite its inappropriateness this project will have an enormous impact on the development of yoga. For it will be used to decide who teaches yoga in The Fitness Industry. The Fitness Industry is currently catering to more and more of the increased demand for yoga. There are now far more yoga classes every week in health and fitness clubs than there are in dedicated yoga centres. Yoga then is being taught more and more as if a specialist sport or sophisticated cross training than a spiritual practice. This can only further debase and devalue yoga, as it becomes yet another commodity and advertising hook to sink into the fears and neuroses of contemporary consumers.

Standing as we all are at this watershed, we need to ask, and answer, a very simple question. Do we want to allow The Fitness Industry to exploit and dominate yoga at the expense of genuine yoga teachers and students. If the answer to this question is “no”, then the next question is “what can we do?”. While there is no need to fight directly against the corporate power of The Fitness Industry, we do not have stand helpless or turn a blind eye. The Fitness Industry is not going to go away, nor is the popularity of yoga.

The Independent Yoga Network has been established by a group of seasoned yoga teachers who have recognised the threat that this Fitness Industry momentum poses to their Teacher Training Courses, and the standard of yoga available to the public. Many lovers of yoga who wish to become yoga teachers have been cowed by the momentum of The Fitness Industry into not selecting a teacher training course that is not accredited by REPS, and therefore can not open the doors of The Fitness Industry that REPS manages to close. Among the initiatives of the Independent Yoga Network is The Yoga Register.

The Yoga Register is designed to provide an alternative verification of the competence of yoga teachers, whether they seek to teach in The Fitness Industry, Yoga Centers, Adult education, or anywhere. A verification based on the the values and standards of yoga itself. Standards established by a broad church of yoga teachers on the basis of a deep and genuine love for yoga. Unlike REPS, The Yoga Register is designed to protect the true values of yoga, while simultaneously protecting the livelihood of genuine teachers from all traditions, and at the same time ensuring that the public continues to enjoy access to good and genuine yoga teachers.

If you are a yoga teacher you can help to maintain the integrity of yoga at large by registering with The Yoga Register. There are four options for doing so, at least one of which will be open to you. If you are considering becoming a yoga teacher you will benefit from visiting www.independentyoganetwork.org. There you will find out not only why you do not need to believe that you can only establish a career as a yoga teacher by complying to the false authority of The Fitness Industry, but why doing so threatens the value and meaning of such a career.

Even if yoga is something you appreciate and enjoy as a student only, you can contribute to the continuing availability of genuine yoga by encouraging your teacher(s) to take a stand on your behalf by joining The Yoga Register and thereby preventing REPS from establishing a monopoly in The Fitness Industry.

MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE HAPPILY IN PEACE AND HARMONY

Godfri

http://www.windfireyoga.com/windfire_new.htm