T E A C H E R S P R O F I L E
YOGItimes magazine for the modern yogi
Raye
by Matt Crowder
How does Saul help students most? “When I go into a yoga room to teach, more than anything else, it’s just to create a space where people can literally come home to themselves, to feel their natural breath, to feel at ease with their bodies and hopefully, when they leave, they’ll feel more in touch and connected to themselves.”
“I say in class, every day is our path, not just the good days. We tend to want to get the hell away from things that make us suffer and gravitate toward things that make us happy. Generally, I think that’s natural. The tantric school of yoga philosophy, the teaching that I subscribe to, is that life is a duality and that you don’t deny either one.”
Saul is relaxed as he insists, “The truth is that these techniques work. They’ve been working for millennia. So when you use the teachings in a way that they can express themselves, they work.”
Intention is everything. “I don’t know how people will receive what I have to give. I can’t really worry about that. Before I teach, I say a little prayer and I ask to be a force of good. Everybody gives to that energy. When people are open and generous and they can feel that they’re a part of the energy, then they give to it and everybody goes up. Yoga students know this is true in a class, but retreats give more time for the energy to spiral upward for the whole group.”
Saul says he’s not a purist about yoga, “There are three main yogas – Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Jnana Yoga – and they’re all valid. Some beings will experience yoga more through the intellect, the mind, or be inclined to experience yoga through karma, action and selflessness in work. For other beings, it will be through the heart. If I were explaining it to a close friend, I would say I’m a Bhakti yogi, really, in my approach and my natural inclination towards yoga. It’s a practice of the heart, so, from the standpoint of my own experience, I try to make it about that.”
He explains where Bhakti fits into yoga practice, “I think in the West in general, yoga has basically become asana, which is a very important step in yoga, but in and of itself, it’s not entirely useful unless it has the bigger yoga put into it. In the end, we’re all just trying to be happy, trying to get along and bring really good things into our lives so we can have a good life.”
Retreats can help us maintain balance between our daily lives and our practices. For Saul, his family is his yoga. “Family life has been the place where I’ve needed the most presence, the most patience, and it’s been the deepest experience of my own heart. Having a child, raising two little beings, having a partner – that’s always where I’m most tested, in a sense.”
Adjustments from Saul in hatha yoga class or on retreat can bring new insights. “Touch is a very powerful expression of energy. Being as clear and clean in touch is one of the most important things. The intention of adjustments, and I like that better than corrections, is to help somebody understand the pose better or to understand something about the process.”
He continues, “When somebody gets the right adjustment, it can deepen their experience of the pose, of yoga, and of the whole process in a way that a word or instructions can’t. It’s an integral part of helping people.”
Can healing happen on a yoga retreat? Saul hopes so. “I try to incorporate my understanding of physical alignment to help others heal a part of their body. I use my eyes, but my understanding of physical alignment is that it’s not just physical, it’s connected into the emotional and spiritual parts.”
Each person’s experience varies, but universally, yoga can help us all. “Every person has within them an intuitive ability to feel the truth and to feel what the nature of something is, whether something is inherently good or if it’s not working for the good. Yoga itself is a means to get there. It’s through the techniques, the asana, the pranayama, the chanting – whatever we do – that we start to have a deeper experience of life itself.”
Students come to yoga, looking for that connection with life. “Why do you go again and again somewhere? Like a retreat center or a yoga class? Do you go because it fits into your schedule? Do you go for convenience? Most people go because there’s a certain energy they need to be around that helps them. They have a sense that, ‘this helps me in my life, so I want to go here.’ That’s right on.”
Saul speaks of yoga’s versatility and power to unite. “It’s part of the human condition that we tend to judge things and try to make them fit in boxes so we can understand them. Yoga is bigger than any one style. The great saints say, ‘There’s only one yoga.’ I believe that whatever technique we do, if we’re doing Thai Yoga, Power Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, if the essence of the teachings can come through, then whatever person is taking these retreats or classes can leave more connected to the spirit of yoga.”
Saul describes his feelings about yoga and his joy of teaching, “At the end of the day, I love what I do. I feel like whatever it is that allows me to be in the position I’m in just to share something that I love, I feel very grateful to be where I am.”
Upcoming retreats:
Springtime Yoga & Healing Retreat May 27-30 at the eco-sanctuary in Ojai, CA
Thai Yoga Therapy Practitioner Program July 15-25 at Sacred Movement
Big Island Yoga Rejuvenation Retreat August 6-13, 2004 w/ special guests Dave Stringer & Girish
Thai Yoga Therapy Practitioner Program 9-day residential at the White Lotus Foundation
New Year's Maha Shanti Retreat at the eco-sanctuary in Ojai, CA December 29 - January 1st