Why I Want To Teach Yoga, by Ben Lehman

This post is from Ben Lehman, a participant in Balanced Rock’s 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training.


An adult black bear ambles among the waving grasses of a meadow, followed closely by two little brown cubs. All three are covered in thick fur that glows golden in the sunlight bathing the meadow. The mother bear approaches a fallen snag near a shallow pond with hungry interest. The log, devoid of bark and whitish from years of sun and snow, hides insects and other life– nourishment for a mother and her little ones. Moments later her huge paws are clawing into the brittle dead wood, shoveling aside decomposing bits, her wet nose sniffing into new passages, locating the treats she came for. The cubs observe, play, and tumble about their mother, content in the moment with all they need. They sniff, nibble, claw, sniff, nibble, and eventually move on. They are one with their environment, free from interpretation or discontent.

The vignette above is a scene I witnessed earlier this year and it’s one that brought me great peace and joy, for it represents a balance and a harmony that I feel the majority of people living in the world have difficulty relating to. In the scene, all is in its proper place. The sun shines down warm from above while water wets the roots and gives life to the grasses and for a time, the tree. The energy of the plants -both living and dead- moves up into the bodies of the insects, worms, rodents, etc. This energy in turn becomes the bodies of the bears and other complex creatures, man included. All is encompassed by a continuous motion of changing forms and properties of temperature, texture, color, and direction. To view the world this way is to view ourselves more clearly for what we are: Not separate entities subject to success and failure, happiness and sorrow at the whims of our external circumstances – but temporary manifestations of a much larger, grander phenomenon in which each specific part is most certainly “hitched to everything else in the universe,” as John Muir famously wrote. Yoga’s ultimate goal, as I have learned to understand it, is nothing less than self-realization i.e. the realization and recognition of our true nature. That is to say the practice of yoga can bring us closer to knowing ourselves as conscious facets of the whole entire cosmos. With this enlightened understanding the weight of everyday troubles seems trifling and we abide in the peace of our glorious existence. Though discomfort is an unavoidable part of our physical existence, we need not always suffer as a result, and yoga aids greatly in developing the equanimity to deal with setbacks and challenges physical and otherwise. The individual mind’s quest for control and answers to its questions is quieted and we can simply BE…like the bears in the story.

I desire to teach yoga because the practice yields so many benefits often lacking in the modern way of life: Peace of mind, fitness and flexibility of the physical body, discipline and control of thought processes and attention, and self-knowledge. To help guide others down a path to such noble world-improving qualities is a privilege I hope to share.