Reflections on Assessment, from both sides now

Some Reflections on our Process of Assessment and Growth as a Democratic, Educational Nonprofit Organization

This year, for the first time in my ten years of serving as an assessor in the US and Mexico, I will be part of two assessment teams and chair of one. That makes three, and it is probably the first and last time I will be able to do so much.

It is certainly true that those who come to BE assessed have travelled a long road of practice, and eventually, teaching. It is absolutely true that B.K.S. Iyengar himself, and now his family, daughter and son Geeta and Prashant and granddaughter Abhijata, have given their lives to the practice and teaching of the 8 limbed yoga of Patanjali. The system we have developed over our 25 years of existence as a democratic, nonprofit, educational organization asks those of us who have been fortunate enough to visit Pune several times and put enough years into practice and teaching to serve as assessors.

Each time we do this we leave our home community, our beloved personal practice space, our dear families and students, and for three intense days observe the practice and teaching of a group of dedicated people who have come for the event because they have become committed to Iyengar Yoga. Before we are permitted to serve as bona fide assessors, we have to serve twice as assessors-in-training. Both groups, then, assessors (and assessors-in-training) and candidates make substantial sacrifices to participate

So the process involves years of preparation, countless miles of airplane (or at least automobile) trave, a considerable financial investment and eventually what can only be called sacrifice or selfless service. Why on earth would intelligent people go through such a process, indeed eagerly submit to it, even clamor to serve as assessors? Searching for an answer to this question, I can only surmise that we do it because we have, firsthand and at a profound level, witnessed both in ourselves and in our students, the strengthening transformation that the practice of Iyengar Yoga brings.  What are the distinguishing features of this approach to yoga?

Attention to the mind in the practice of yogasana, attention to alignment of the embodiment, study of the yoga literature, and study of anatomy, physiology and pedagogical techniques.

After all these years on the path, I can honestly say that I have witnessed dramatic improvement in the quality of the teachers who come for assessment, AND in the thoughtfulness, compassion, and good judgment of the assessors. It is clear that our process is working, because people come from large AND small communities of yoga practitioners. Even though, as my colleague Theresa Rowland has observed, when we began to assess, there was really no national agreement on what excellence in the teaching of Iyengar yoga meant. We did not have an agreed-upon pedagogy! Despite this slightly unmoored beginning, with all the concomitant difficulties it produced, we have made giant steps.

The reasons for the difficulties surely was that senior teachers who had been with B.K.S. Iyengar for years had been with him often together, but sometimes at different occasions. There are many who knew Guruji infinitely better than I did. His genius, in my opinion, was largely based in his ability to teach to the people in front of him. He was passionate about bringing an understanding of how the physical body can be used as a vehicle to an experience of profound peace, balance, and eventually, spiritual enlightenment. Focussed yoga practice, he maintained, is a way to deepen your understanding of the sanctity of life no matter what god or no god you may believe in. Of course he taught differently to different people at different times. And of course, this would lead to some confusion in the attempt to construct rules or even guidelines for practitioners and new teachers.

This fall, two thirds of the way through my commitments in this process, I can say with joy that our system is bearing fruit. From both sides, the candidates' side and the assessors' side, we have made tangible, visible, durable progress. There is, of course, still work to be done, refinements to be made, improvements to ponder, yet in a democratically run organization, which listens to feedback from all sides, the way forward becomes clearer. With Geetaji's guidance at meetings in Pune later this fall, I'm sure we will be on very solid footing! Deep bows of thanks to all who are assessing and who are candidates for assessment!