Where yoga is headed these days? Experts discuss its evolution and future

One of the problems that yoga continues to face is the Westernization-commercialization issue, which is not new, but seems to be increasingly prevalent in some circles. There's no doubt that the practice today, in its myriad forms, is significantly shifted from the one practiced by men in India in past millennia. Present-day yoga has branched practically exponentially from the handful of original schools, as has the trade-marking of these derivatives.


Sandwiched between an earthquake and a hurricane, there was no better place to seek refuge than Omega Institute's annual Being Yoga conference in Rhinebeck, NY, the last weekend of August. The faculty invited to lead classes over the two-day event was a virtual Who's Who of yoga teachers, and the varieties of practice ran the gamut from Anusara™ to Kundalini to Yin to Jivamukti Yoga®, and many more. Given its many roles and the difficulties that yoga faces these days, the natural question was, "Where is yoga going today?" Several of conference's teachers offered insight into the issue.


One of the problems that yoga continues to face is the Westernization-commercialization issue, which is not new, but seems to be increasingly prevalent in some circles. There's no doubt that the practice today, in its myriad forms, is significantly shifted from the one practiced by men in India in past millennia. Present-day yoga has branched practically exponentially from the handful of original schools, as has the trade-marking of these derivatives. That yoga has lost some of its oomph as it becomes more a business and less a practice is no secret. But whether this change is a good or bad thing is up for debate.


Seane Corn, a lifelong activist and accomplished yoga teacher, says that there's nothing wrong with the shift in yoga: in fact, its changing perception may actually benefit potential practitioners since it creates a draw. "Sometimes," she says, "the spiritual message is diluted, but this can draw people to the practice in the first place. It's offered in churches and synagogues and schools. That's incredible." In other words, the dilution of its spirituality may be its hook. Once they're in, says Corn, people then begin to see what the practice is all about, and can move around within it. "People come to yoga for one reason and realize that they're there for another reason. They begin asking very big questions of themselves. What is truth, love, God?" Anything to lessen the initial hump of resistance is probably a good thing.


Rodney Yee takes a slightly less forgiving view of yoga's meandering path. While he acknowledges that the natural evolution of yoga adds to its vitality, he says in most ways we're getting a little too far away from its core. He reminds us that yogis were asking the hard-hitting questions 2,000 years ago, ruminating on the meaning of life, one's personal purpose, what it even means to be human. While in many ways yoga does "surf the wave" of how these questions apply in the modern day, he is concerned for the overall thinning of the philosophy. He says that he and his wife and fellow teacher Colleen Saidman are routinely amazed at the fact that "people are continually trading the more valuable things for the more superficial things. That's astonishing. Why are we trading most valuable aspects of ourselves for most transient, which keep us constantly craving?" Distilling it even further, Yee sums it up well: "It's great to get a nice yoga butt, but peace and stability in one's personal life are important too."


Gary Kraftsow takes a still harder approach. Having spent time in India learning yoga from the masters, as well as studying it academically, Kraftsow stresses that yoga was originally a received practice, transmitted from masters of prophet status to their students. The practice, he says, whose real origins were lost in antiquity, was an oral tradition, with the exception of a few texts here and there. These days, the many forms of the practice are morphing into other animals completely.


"In the West," says Kraftsow, "there are streams where this authentic transmission from living masters to students still exists. But there's a lot of yoga that's made up, modern stuff, with no understanding of depth and meaning of text. There's a real bifurcation happening." And what about the newer forms? "Some of it is ok and pretty good. But it's yoga popularize," he says. "It's about music, partying, outdoor sports, and yoga being hip and cool. This is moving away from authenticity of tradition. It's taken on another flavor. I mean naked yoga? Yoga and wine?" Yoga's newer offspring are, if nothing else, imaginative.


What about the idea that the main streaming is what draws people in? "I don't buy it," says Kraftsow. "It's like 'groupthink' of the yoga world. It could work for some, but I know people in it for 25 years who aren't going deeper than the physical. It's cliché."


So how do we swing the pendulum back in the right direction? By demanding more from our teachers, is a good way to start, agree the experts. "Yoga should be consumer-driven, from ground up," says Yee. "As students, demand that your teacher is actually studied. Do the homework yourself. Say, this is what we're thirsty for. You don't have to compromise on authenticity because this is what sells. That's ass-backwards. It dumbs down the whole art form. We need to be asking the right questions."


Saidman continues the idea, in slightly different tenor. "We have to become a lot more curious and humble. We need to get to feet of the teachers that have been teaching for 30, 40 years. Study, study, study. We should follow, wait, beg for the teachers who have been in it for decades."


The relative ease with which one can become a teacher is not doing the practice any favors, says Yee, who adds that we wouldn't take piano lessons from someone who'd only been studying for 200 hours, so why would we take class with a yoga teacher whose training only required that amount? Saidman adds that "quality control" of teachers today is sorely lacking. Overhauling the education of yoga teachers may just be the place to begin. Some forms of yoga already require a decade long commitment for teacher certification, which is probably in the right ballpark. Yee recommends that while some "genius" types can becomes skilled in less time, 10 years is about the minimum that he'd recommend for a teacher to become relatively capable, both physically and philosophically.


Kraftsow, who is extraordinarily active in envisioning new applications for yoga, largely in healthcare, agrees that teacher training poses a problem, but also suggests that people involved in the practice work harder to push it to new places. "I'm doing research with Aetna, I'm talking to corporate leaders, helping create evidence-based research at universities." Yoga has a lot of promising applications and possibilities, but it takes smart, involved, and practiced people to get things rolling.


So where is the future of yoga? Corn says that the practice isn't going anywhere. It has been "a significant trend in last 17 years. It hasn't become a one that's become a mockery, like some other forms of exercise. This is a practice that's going to stay." Corn urges people to begin the practice for whatever reason draws them to it, and let it take them where it will. "Yoga opens your heart and lets you experience life in a completely different way. Yoga gets you to release control and get in touch with your vulnerabilities." And, according to Corn, this is where its power lies. "It gets you out of head and into heart. That doesn't mean that life is going to be all strawberries and unicorns and rainbows. Yoga makes you aware and opens you up to love in a way you never knew was possible. Yoga meets you where you're at."


Kraftsow contemplates yoga's future realistically, but hopefully. He says he sees a continuing division between the old and the new, but he stresses that the philosophical side of yoga has enormous potential, both socially and politically. It's just a matter of the people, who practice it continuing to deepen their practice and get back in touch with yoga's roots. "There's this whole other dimension - yoga offers a nonsectarian spirituality that can be powerfully useful in cross-culture communication. This hasn't quite come to fruition. It's still waiting to happen. But it will."
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