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Our Yoga: A Spiritual Teacher
Yoga is an initiatory tradition, which means it revolves around the communication of esoteric or spiritual knowledge from a qualified teacher to an initiatory disciple. The knowledge that is being transmitted is not merely an intellectual variety, but has the special quality of liberating or illuminating wisdom (prajna).
Through initiation the seeker is transformed into a disciple. A major function of the teacher is to serve as a vehicle for this process. As initiator, the teacher voluntarily assumes the tremendous responsibility of assisting the disciples birth into the spiritual dimension. Hence Sanskrit texts compare the spiritual teacher to a mother or father. Like one’s parents, the initiatory teacher makes a deep spiritual connection with the initiate, which is thought to endure beyond the present lifetime.
Initiations occur at various levels. Great adepts can initiate by a mere touch or glance or by visualizing the disciple. The teacher not only instructs or communicates information, he transmits wisdom and by his nature reveals to whatever degree the Spiritual Reality. Fully enlightened transmission is spontaneous and continuous. He or she constantly transmits the liberating ‘energy’ of the transcendental Being. In Yoga, with adepts who are not yet fully liberated, transmission is largely but not exclusively based on the teachers will and effort.
The Guide
The teacher not only triggers and reinvigorates the spiritual process in a disciple, the teacher also serves as a guide along the path. This occurs through verbal instructions and by being a living example on the spiritual path. The path to liberation has formidable hurdles, a disciple is in need of guidance. The written teachings are a beacon along the way. They require explanations, or oral commentary to yield their deeper meaning. By virtue of oral transmission received from a teacher, and in light of his/hers own experience and realization, the teacher brings alive the written teachings. This is a precious gift.
The Unconventional Nature of The Spiritual Teacher
Spiritual teachers swim against the stream of conventional values and pursuits. They are not interested in acquiring material wealth or in competing in the marketplace, or in pleasing egos, nor morality. Their message is of a radical nature, asking us to live consciously, inspect motives, transcend egoic passions, intellectual blindness, live peacefully and realize the deepest core of human nature, the Spirit. For those wishing to devote time and energy to conventional pursuits, this message is revolutionary, subversive, and profoundly disturbing.
Discipleship
The spiritual teacher breaks through the Ego. He draws the disciple out of himself and into the supra-individual and universal Self. He is governed by wisdom and compassion which are supra-individual capacities oriented towards Spirit rather than finite human personality.
The Inner Teacher
Since Yoga recognizes the ego-self is the cause of un-enlightenment, the guidance of the ego cannot lead to the highest realization. The ego leads the disciple into deeper ignorance, confusion, and ultimately despair. So until maturity is ready for the disciple to discover and respond to the teacher within, the student should practise in regard to an external teacher.
