Iyengar Yoga
by Sara Azarius Eichmiller

According to the Iyengar National Association of the United States, (IYNAUS), last year, the Iyengar trademark was finalized. Yoga teachers who have not completed the extensive Iyengar certification process, are no longer permitted by law to use the name Iyengar, in any form, to describe what they do. The trademark prohibits the use of language like “Iyengar-inspired,” “Iyengar-informed,” “Iyengar-based,” etcetera. It is acceptable, of course, to cite study with an Iyengar teacher if that is the case. All Iyengar teachers are listed on IYNAUS’s webstite.

At the time of this article there are just over 600 Iyengar certified yoga teachers in the United States. There are only 16 in Pennsylvania and only 2 in all of Western Pennsylvania. Those two teachers teach at Pittsburgh’s only Iyengar yoga studio. I am one of those teachers.

Becoming an Iyengar Yoga Teacher

Once called the "Michelangelo of yoga" and named by Time Magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, B. K. S. Iyengar is often acknowledged as the world's foremost yoga teacher. He is my teachers’ teacher. He is my teacher. And I am an Iyengar Yoga Teacher. The process to becoming such was, and continues to be, an arduous, and most-worthwhile, challenge - like yoga practice itself. Iyengar is a master, a genius in his chosen study. And we, his students, call what we practice and teach the Iyengar method.

Let me be clear that B.K.S. Iyengar, at 90 years of age, still defines what he does as ‘Patanjali yoga.’ Patanjali is the master who codified the teachings into the “yoga sutras” a couple of thousand years ago. The sutras are the primary yogic text that guides all yoga practitioners.

In Estes Park, Colorado, three years ago I heard Mr. Iyengar say, “I do yoga.” Then he pointed to the audience of Iyengar yoga teachers and said, “They call it ‘Iyengar yoga’.” As Iyengar yoga teachers we walk this thin line consciously. We must have a teacher to expand us beyond our own limited inclinations and understandings, but we must also be careful not to limit our scope as we name what we do. No one can create then lend their name to a style of yoga that includes only certain practices done in certain ways. Often people discover one aspect of yoga, then they call it their own and make a career out of it. By doing this, a teacher may limit their understanding and ultimately their own progress.

After about six years of teaching yoga I became suspicious that I was not being held accountable to yoga, that I was limiting my students to my own experience. It is too easy to go into a room full of students, teach as you like and sell it as yoga. There is a gift in sharing yourself, but yoga, after all, has clearly defined practices and a clearly defined goal. I began to wonder if I was doing my students a disservice.

I had always studied in the Iyengar method because I found the teachers most knowledgeable and methodical. I had been a ballet dancer in my youth and was still recovering from old injuries. The Iyengar teachers were the only teachers that could, without fail, tell me in each asana how to get rid of any ache or pain I could describe. They didn’t just tell me to go slowly and it would work itself out. They understood how the body worked, how it fit together to support itself. I was attracted to that and to the underlying philosophy that informed it. However, I resisted becoming a certified Iyengar teacher for years. My ego feared the process. I would be tested. I might discover that I can’t cut it as a yoga teacher. Maybe I have been fooling myself.

It takes the typical Iyengar teacher at least six years of continuous study to become a certified teacher. First, one studies with one or two primary teachers for two years. In my case, since there were no Iyengar teachers in Pittsburgh, this meant much travel to Illinois, State College and many other destinations across the U.S.. As the process continues, two recommending teachers observe the candidate’s practice and teaching of the 32 postures on the initial syllabus. (Iyengar has listed all of the postures in a series of syllabi for teaching and practice purposes to ensure that the body is opened up methodically and intelligently and that no part of the body goes unattended to.) Then, when your teachers both agree that you are ready, you may apply for assessment.

Candidates go in the Fall of each year to an assigned city for a weekend of testing.

At any given assessment there are 12 candidates observed by three senior teacher assessors. Candidates must pass a written exam covering anatomy, sequencing, philosophy, and asana knowledge. Then they are tested on their understanding of the asanas during a performance of the postures. And finally, each candidate teaches a 40-minute mini-class of six postures assigned the night before. If the candidate passes, they are then called a “teacher in training” and must, within two years, repeat the entire process and pass testing on the next level syllabus of over 42 postures. When they pass the second round of testing, they are called a “Certified Iyengar Teacher.” Not everyone passes. Sometimes students have to re-test the following year. And there are 13 levels of assessment.

Iyengar yoga teachers have a code of ethics and certain commitments they make to the teaching of yoga. It is a lifetime of practice and learning. And central to its theme is the steady growth of the practitioner. Teachers must first and foremost be students, forever. I am suspicious of anyone who says they are self-taught or who says they don’t have a teacher. We are all self-taught in one respect, that is a given. But yoga is not what we decide it is.

Yoga is often described merely in terms of fitness, but it is a self-actualization process by way of specific techniques that include physical exercises called asanas. These are to be done with deep, inward focus to develop conscious control of all of the body including control of organ functions and what we often call ’involuntary’ processes. Yoga students also practice breathing techniques called pranayama. These are to ready the nervous system to tolerate and distribute greater levels of life force, or God-consciousness, through the body. We also practice concentration exercises, sometimes called meditation, to learn to be one-pointed. Yoga is a path to God. This is clear in all yogic texts. Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. In this state we properly identify ourselves. There are other paths to God. Yoga is just one system.

Iyengar Yoga Method

Trying to describe yoga, or a yoga style, to someone who has not done it, is impossible. It is an intensely personal experience, and two people will usually describe a shared experience differently. I describe practicing Iyengar yoga like practicing your piano scales. Virtuosity is borne of practice. Scales are not always fun, but they make everything else you do better, and easier.

Yoga is training for the mind. We use the body as a vehicle for that; and radiant, good health is a side effect of practice. The body is no longer an obstacle, but health is not the goal. Yoga is a path to the realization of one’s true nature. The body is a manifestation of consciousness, so anything related to the body cannot be an end in itself.

There is of course nothing at all wrong with using the yoga postures as fitness practice. However, you cannot convert yoga from a path to God-consciousness to a fitness program and still have the right to call it yoga. Yoga is a pre-existing system; it is pre-defined.

I ultimately decided to hold myself accountable to Patanjali’s yoga, to myself, to my students and to the Iyengar method which had given me so much. Ultimately, the greater desire to give back outgrew my fear and reservations about working within an established system. If the purpose of yoga is the undoing of the ego, which is the separation-oriented mind, then the Iyengar certification process has been an efficient yoga practice. Teaching in front of my teachers and peers has broken down more barriers and removed more ego than I thought possible in one lifetime. I liken the Iyengar assessment process to being pushed through a sieve or a funnel. It is grueling, daunting, very uncomfortable, and so much unnecessary baggage is left behind. The process continues to humble me daily. For that I am most grateful - as are many who know me. I continue to learn as I am held accountable by, and am ever grateful to, B.K.S. Iyengar for sharing what he has learned with the world.

©2010 Yoga On Centre