Dear All, 

 

2020, right? 

 

It’s hard to believe that we are almost a year into the pandemic. At this time last year, Jocelyne was preparing to leave for a three-week meditation retreat in Burma. By the time her retreat was completed, reports of a deadly virus were appearing in the news. When she left the monastery, almost everyone she saw in Burma was in mask. 

 

For most of the world, it was still business as usual. Without knowing any better, I went to teach in Stockholm, Mexico and Austin before the end of February, and then to India for a conference the first week of March. By the end of my ten-day trip, the world realized things were getting serious. Mumbai completely shut down, which was a surreal sight to see. I was on the last Delta flight out after three days of cancelled flights. By then, it was already close to impossible to buy hand sanitizer in Mumbai. Lili came home from London a day before I got home. 

 

After that, well, we all know what happened. Lockdowns. Quarantines. Loss of jobs, life, and control. Fear, panic, stress, and anxiety. Breonna Taylor and George Floyd killed by police officers in the States. Anti-maskers. A presidential election of historic importance. A Black-Asian woman elected to the second highest office in our country. More deaths, more ineptitude from our government. There’s been enough twists and turns to this year to fill a novel by Stephen King.

 

And what to speak of the worldwide yoga community? All yoga schools shut down along with everything else. 

 

For the year previous to the pandemic, I was losing touch with the sense that I had for so many years that being a yoga teacher was my purpose in life. I was saddened by what I saw happening with the falling and fallen Gurus, and the pedestals that we kept trying to put them up on. I was tired of the obsession with bodies and postures, and wondered if all the spirituality that people were espousing on Instagram was really just lip service. Was I finding joy in twisting people into the same poses day in and out? I wasn’t convinced that the current way I saw Mysore practice being employed was effective in helping anyone “progress” in anything beyond postures. And even for that, was I just helping to create a dependency getting things done for students that they couldn’t quite get done on their own, but probably could if given the space to? Or teach poses that may not be entirely useful for them simply because that’s what the “method” called for? Perhaps I had reached the limit of what I felt I could do in the form I had been engaging in, and it was time to move on to a new medium, or a new modality.

 

It's good to doubt and be critical of your methods and traditions, because without a healthy dose of self-critiquing, we don't grow. That's part of what svadhyaya is, as self-examination. Without questioning and doubt, there's little forward progress and new revelations. I was engaging in plenty of questioning, and unsure which direction to move in. 

 

But then, with the pandemic and move to an online universe, a shift occurred inside of me.

 

When COVID-19 hit full force in Europe and America and we were all stuck at home, I made a foray into teaching on Zoom like many, and started daily chanting on Instagram. I had no idea if it would work, and after I saw that it did actually work quite well, how much I would love it. The switch online renewed my love for teaching. Teaching yoga became a necessity again for a world that was in chaos, and not a luxury or an add-on to a "wellness lifestyle." To be able to connect with people all over the world everyday and provide a steadiness in difficult circumstances woke up in me again the importance of daily practice as a grounding mechanism in a painful world; and that as a yoga teacher what I should be doing is be present and create a format that supports practice, dedication, and the quest for being established in the presence of our awareness. 

 

As this year of distress comes to end, and I review it, I can say with certainty that this year reconnected me again to purpose and meaning in my life. It’s something that I speak about a lot in lectures—that one of the purposes of yoga is to connect to meaning in your life—but that meaning was fading in me a little. Teaching on Zoom has allowed me a freedom of teaching that I am really enjoying; I can honestly say that it has renewed my love for teaching Yoga. The pandemic also allowed me to switch to a donation-based model for classes, which though not without challenges, allows so many more people to practice in the live classes; those who have either lost income or live in countries with currencies that make paying American yoga prices impossible.

 

So, at the end of 2020, I would like to extend a very big thank you to all of you who have attended and supported the classes over the past nine months. It is because of you, and your dedication, enthusiasm, and willingness to participate in this great experiment that I have remembered again what I am meant to be doing, and that is teaching yoga; to teach in the best ways that I can manage, and to teach things that are meaningful to me. I truly look forward to seeing you all in the new year. 

 

As we move into 2021, our online program will continue. Along with the launch of Yoga365, and the upcoming Sadhana Intensives with Robert Moses, there will be new additions to the class schedule: intro classes with Sonal and Sandeep Sharma from Pune; I’ll co-teach a yoga philosophy series with Harshvardhan Jhaveri from Mumbai on the Sadhana Pada of Yoga Sutras; as well as my regular, daily class schedule. I look forward to seeing you online, and let’s see what the New Year brings. No doubt it will have its challenges and hardships, but hopefully we can all continue to develop and build the inner resources we need to face the year with courage, kindness, and also the knowledge that challenges are good: they make us stronger, wiser, less judgmental, and more forgiving!  

 

Here's my song for the last day of the year - put it on loud, dance around your kitchen, hug your husband, your wife, your kids, your cat, your dog, your partner, your favorite book, and let's sing our way into 2021 with voices loud and heads held high. 

 

Here’s to a better year! 

 

May all beings be happy

May all beings be free from disease

May all see good

May none suffer from sorrow

Om Peace Peace Peace 

 

With love,

Eddie and Jocelyne