When self-inquiry becomes the product you resent

The polite version says abundance mindset. The honest version is that the math doesn’t work for most people teaching yoga. Not because they lack dedication. Not because they’re doing it wrong. Because the industry runs on a model that treats financial precarity as a spiritual virtue.

This matters more than it sounds. When survival becomes the background hum, practice changes. The thing that was supposed to be a vehicle for self-inquiry becomes the product you’re selling, then the thing you resent, then the thing you perform. Awareness gets expensive. Transformation gets scheduled between privates.

Practice can survive commerce– lets not kid ourselves. Selling an insight practice that works for spiritual wellness is just plain fraught. Yoga teachers have to stop pretending it doesn’t cost anything to exist in the world, so that folks can help make sure they are valued. But that also means that we understand that real practice means we examine the systems of suffering, and that includes commerce. 

Practice doesn’t survice commerce, I guess. Its up to practitioners to square themselves with  the systems of oppression that are baked into commerce. Real practie here is not flunching, not looking away. Recognizing our levels of participation and complictness– gross.