I have been watching my students over the past few months. Each time we host a new workshops teachers I ask them to give me feedback on their experience and how I can improve the process. It is so interesting and demonstrates what the yoga sutras tell us- that basically yoga is a system of cleaning the mind (and body) so that we can see the world more clearly. It has happened over and over again with these workshops. One student loves the workshop and thinks it is the key to their progress toward enlightenment, they are inspired, they feel the material was taught in a perfect way. Another student attends the exact same workshop. They feel as if they received nothing from the workshop, thought the teacher was too cold, felt angry from the first moments of the workshop and could not wait to leave. How can we explain these two perceptions of the same workshop? I am not sure what the answer is, but I know that it has to do with expectations, personality (habitual patterns of the mind), level of development in the area of study and unconscious feelings that we all have deep inside of us.

I have been encouraging my students to look at their reactions to the workshops. I tell them that someone else had a very different perception and it is usually very interesting to them to hear this. I ask them to think about another time in their life (maybe something from childhood) that they had similar feelings and to explore what is deep inside of them that this experience has kindly brought to the surface for them. I tell them that these difficult moments are when spiritual growth is occurring and to be thankful for the opportunity to clean the mind of samskaras. If our buttons are pushed, there is something inside of us to take a look at.

Now the hard part is listening to my own advice!!!!! Please remind me next time my buttons are pushed:-)