Respect isn’t agreement. It’s how you disagree.

Most yoga arguments aren’t about the practice. They’re about who gets to say what the practice is.

That’s the subtext under almost every debate about body diversity in Ashtanga. One side says the form is fixed, the other says bodies aren’t. Both are right. Both are also protecting territory. I’ve always been a plus size yogi, so I have a lot of interest in accesibilty. 

If something is self-evident, it will make itself evident. I think of how my two teachers were quite collegial and respectful to one another. Ashtanga yoga has a variety of grooves it greases over time, and they will arise. Rolf’s interest in a tighter count wasn’t a shade on David’s interest in other things. David’s interest in dynamic alignment through internal study and external feedback was no shade on Rolf’s.

But there’s money to be made in pooling your power. Whisper campaigns and smearing other ways goes on inside high-pressure groups. If you’ve been practicing yoga a long time, your teacher should be able to speak frankly and have opinions on the things that are inevitably made evident by Ashtanga yoga. They should also have a lot of respect for the amount of space in between. If they suggest that you don’t practice with another teacher, it should be for good reason– not because “you’ll get confused.” 

Which brings us to what it looks like when two senior teachers disagree without performing for an audience. Not consensus. Not even resolution. Just two people who’ve been at this long enough to know that respect and agreement are different animals. At some point what we’re disagreeing about matters.