I’ve been teaching Yoga for what feels like a long, long time. And practicing for even longer, since the days when we all seemed to have the same paper-thin pale blue rubber mat and were likely to rock up to the rare Yoga class in our area (if we could even find one!) in leotard and leg warmers. Ha ha. Maybe you remember those days too?

The Yoga world today is obviously much changed and there are times when I feel like a stranger in it, not belonging to its mass trends, even left behind. I imagine this is the way many of the generation before me feel regarding technological advances and the digitalisation of just about everything, right?  A sense of not belonging anymore.

I hold integrity with myself, however, regardless and I keep doing my thing despite current trends.

I cannot move with these trends because I am clear and at home on my path, not because there is anything fundamentally wrong with the way things are evolving. I trust that there is a larger wisdom at work and if more people are practicing Yoga then this has to be a good thing.

 However, this old, traditional approach that I have come to love and that I immerse in each day, aligns with who I am in nature. It holds me steadfast in tough times, is transforming, and supports my health and my spiritual evolution. Why would, and how could, any of us want to move away from such a path? Much that I have learned and now benefit from every day, has been shown to me by exceptional Yoga masters who have taught me importance of teaching what we ourselves practice. Only this way “it will have a shakti (power) in it.” And I know the way this path works, it’s effects, it’s benefits and the challenges of following it. And it informs me of a familiar way to teach classes that are impactful and transforming.

However, none of this means that I don’t experience regular confidence crises and surges of self-doubting, accompanied by a rush of self-negating stories.  I had been experiencing such a downturn in self-belief as a teacher over the past months. Until I came across a review the other day, written long ago that I had somehow missed.

 I came across it as I was writing a heartfelt review for my favourite little café in Stratford Upon Avon. I rarely make it into town, and when I do (on Mondays, my day off) the café is closed. I even more rarely drink coffee, but on the occasions that I do it has to be good coffee, right? And so when I am in town, and Café Vinneria is open, I head there and know I will be served a great cup of Italy. I love Italy and all things Italian, and this café is a little piece of Italy in the heart of Stratford town centre.

In tough economic times, I wanted to support this Café. Its owner deserves good business and we love the independent businesses and want them to stay open, right? There are few left in the town. As I completed a glowing review of the café, a perhaps at least equally glowing review that someone had written for me flashed up on my screen. It was written in 2019 and I had missed it! And it touched a chord. I was surprised that this person seemed to know and see me so well beyond (I thought) what I shared in class.

I took it as a gift from Existence, with some kind of Divine timing to it. The review was like a mirror, mirroring the good bits that I’d been failing to see. 😊  It reminded me to stand strong in this Yoga path, and to thereby honour the lineage I have been blessed to be initiated into and taught by. I remembered the unique good fortune of having met and had the good karma to learn from exceptional masters of Yoga and Ayurveda. Their wisdom needs to be past on, intact and with reverence.

This “Divine timing” and “gift from Existence” thing, caused me to recall teachings on seeds, karma, and manifestation I was exposed to whilst in the Sivananda ashram in Bahamas. These teachings were given by a visiting Tibetan Buddhist teacher and were new to many of us staff.

The crux of the teachings is that our actions are like seeds which will bear fruit at some point in our lives. The brief explanation is that if you are doing good for someone, you are planting the “seed” or impression of goodness in your mind, and so you will see goodness flourishing in your life. If you are networking people and helping them to find friends and loving connections, you are planting seeds for the same to arise in your life. You will not be able to avoid it: loving, supportive connections will come to you because these are the imprints you have placed on your mind and consciousness.

We cannot tell when or how quickly the seeds will bear fruit, it depends on what other seeds are waiting to flourish, but this is the law of karma. It is nothing to do with any judgemental or punitive force, rewarding or punishing us for our good and bad deeds. It is about the fact that what we think or do or say is preparing the ground for us to experience the same. What we see and experience within ourselves, is what our consciousness knows and so is ready to see and experience again.

And so, if you want to get something, give it away or help someone else to get the same. If you want to have peace and quiet, extend the same to your neighbours. A lady from the UN involved in helping communities in need across the world took these teachings with her. Rather than building houses for communities, she would arrange that they be given the means to build homes for others. The empowering and potentially fruitful outcome of her approach is obvious, isn’t it? And it is obvious because, in truth, we already know this law of cause and effect: we know that on some level that this is the way things work. For an effect to take place, there must be a cause. For a flower or a tree to grow, there must have been a seed.

Watch it the next time you hold back from tipping someone, or don’t pay for your parking, for example. Observe if you don’t lose some money in any case 😉 If someone is cheating you in any way, or deceiving you, blaming you or letting you down, enquire – “where have I done the same?”. It may be in different ways but you are likely to find some cheating, deceiving, blaming etc.

And when you notice how generous people are being towards you, buying gifts, bringing you food, paying for you in the restaurant, then look back over your years. You will likely find that you have been generous hearted with others in the near or distant past.

It’s really enlightening, and fun to look into situation that you experience with this new kind of enquiry.

An additional part of this teaching is that the seeds we plant do not come back to us in equal measure. Think about a sunflower seed falling from the bird feeder in your garden, to the soil and ultimately becoming a sunflower. The flower is the result of that one seed and yet will create a flower with thousands more seeds, right?  And so, the return given from the seeds we have planted is multiplied many times, and for better or for worse depending on what we have been “watering” or nurturing in our hearts and minds, through our thoughts, words and deeds.

And the understanding about seeds is not intended to encourage us to do something just to get a return for ourselves. The good and kind heart has to be the motivating force, rather than selfish investment. Otherwise, “selfish” is what we will come to experience from others. Get it?

It reminds me of one specific time when I was in the Bahamas. A lady came to me with an arm full of clothes and asked if I wanted them. “Why?” I asked. “Oh” she said “I stole them from the laundry room and now I understand about seeds and karma I don’t want to keep them”. “Then I definitely don’t want them” I said,” just put them back and all will be OK.”

Yes, ashrams are not all “love and light”.  In fact. they are life in all it’s colours under the microscope, life in technicolour! People love and help others, and are kind, absolutely. AND people steal and deceive and hurt each other, just like in any other situation in which human beings gather together. The difference in an ashram is that we are standing in a fire. People are there with the intent to heal and transform and grow. And so, the personal learning is quicker and more intense in such an energy field, and the lessons come to us quickly and with full force.

All this to explain why I felt that, in writing a positive review for someone, good seeds instantly bore fruit. I saw and read just what I needed to see and read to ease a great big, lingering dose of self-doubt. I welcomed this happening with great gratitude and light-heartedly played with the notion of  instant karmic seeds sprouting! Ha ha.

It is in fact said that the more we clear ourselves and commit to the path of inner growth, the more quickly seeds bear their karmic fruit– for better or for worse! And so truly, we need to be cautious about what we think and say and do. It becomes like walking a razor’s edge of awareness.

I don’t know, in truth, if this was instant manifestation, some old seeds bearing fruit or simple, pure coincidence.  I do know, however, that the review I saw as I wrote a review for someone else was a good reminder to stand firm in and true to who I am. That we should all stand firm and true in who we are. And that good, kind deeds always bear fruit, for the receiver and the giver.

If you’d like to learn more about the philosophical teachings on the Yoga path, why not join me in a Saturday morning or online class? Or a workshop, or retreat? We always cover something of the deeper, subtler teachings of Yoga, and always in the most accessible, relatable and relevant way, with a lot of fun and light heartedness thrown in for good measure.

Please check my Calendar of Events for the current programme or contact me and let’s have a chat about what you are thirsty to learn more about.

THE TESTIMONIAL:

My son and I have been attending weekly class for several months now and could not have been more impressed with Shama’s abilities as a yoga teacher. Her own mastery of the ‘art’ is extremely impressive, not only that her deeper understanding of the philosophy etc behind it and the part it plays in her life are very noticeable. At the same time, she is astonishingly humble about her own yoga abilities and her students are very clearly the most important thing in the room during a session. She spends time with each one of us, giving advice and alternatives to allow everyone to access it at their own level. As a complete beginner with no innate talent whatsoever (if I’m honest I was beginning to seize up, hence my initial interest!) I have never once felt self-conscious in the class, but on a number of occasions I have been completely amazed by what my body can physically do, both during lessons and in day to day life as a result. The holistic design of the sessions means that as well as a physical side with warm up, stretching, use of many different muscles etc you also finish with a terrific sense of relaxation and sleep really well as result. Shama is the ‘real deal’ and it would not occur to us to go anywhere else.

J Eltringham Google Review 2019